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The hot toys that shoppers are scrambling for were actually determined long ago. A report in this week's Business First shows how workers at Fisher-Price Inc. knew last year what those hot toys were going to be.
Toy researchers presented this year's hot toys to retailers in September 2011 based on projections from designers.
A hot concept can be found with this year's Cruise and Groove Ballapalooza by Fisher-Price. It is designed to help babies crawl and walk, based on research showing how babies can detect a beat in music..
From Goo Goo Ga Ga to Bah Humbug. The National Retail Federaion estimates return fraud will cost retailers $8.9 billion this year. $2.9 billion of that will be during the holiday season.
Retailers estimate almost five percent of holiday returns are fraudulent. Nearly 100% of retailers tell the NRF they've received returns of stolen merchandise. About 84% say customers buy goods with stolen tender and return them. 81% report employee fraud. About 65% report wardrobing: where consumers return used goods. And about 46% report the use of fake receipts, especially e-receipts.
This affects innocent consumers because companies try to prevent fraud. That means shorter return windows and limitations on returns for the average consumer. | <urn:uuid:d6d38053-4a9c-4561-9c72-98a3c1a18fe9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/This-Years-Hot-Toys-Determined-Last-Year-183205101.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93868 | 267 | 1.976563 | 2 |
malaysia: pursuing citizens' rights in court
Friends of the Earth Malaysia / Sahabat Alam Malaysia is engaged in two such cases. Both are important in themselves, but could also set important precedents concerning the constitutional right of every citizen to a clean and healthy environment.
One is to save a water-catchment forest on the Jerai mountain in Kedah from a quarrying project illegally approved by the State Government. The communities located in the foothills of the mountain depend on its rivers for water for domestic use, to irrigate their rice fields and for their orchards. Clearing the mountain’s forests has also led to massive floods in several downstream villages, and the silting up of the communities’ rice-fields and the orchards.
The legal challenge was only mounted after all other options had been explored. In spite of the fact that the Malaysian companies involved are powerful and politically connected, the community aims to halt the quarry, and ensure that the affected part of the mountain is rehabilitated and the remaining water-catchment forests protected. In response, Friends of the Earth staff and community leaders have received death threats, and one of the community leaders has been assaulted.
The second case concerns another powerful Malaysian company, Raub Australian Gold Mining. An outdated 10-year old environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been used to authorize current mining using cyanide and other toxic substances, but a very active local community has launched a legal action to secure a new EIA, which allows community scrutiny, review and feedback. Friends of the Earth Malaysia is supporting their action.
In 2009, both cases involved the preparation of legal research, submissions and the filing of necessary documents in the High Courts, the Court of Appeal and Federal Court, as the cases unfolded. Both also involved mobilizing and engaging communities, alerting the media, and building alliances with other organizations and parliamentarians.
In the case of the Jerai Quarry, the companies and the government authorities raised a procedural issue concerning the question of whether the community representatives had locus standi or were in a position to bring the action. Friends of the Earth’s lawyers succeeded in making the argument that the community representatives were indeed the proper persons to bring the case and the High Court agreed with them; but the State government and the companies have now filed an appeal challenging that finding. The case continues.
With respect to Raub, the authorities and the company also mounted drawn out procedural objections. The community lost the High Court case and filed an appeal in June 2009. In the meantime, all other avenues are being pursued including media work, meetings with parliamentarians, State Assembly persons, and various government agencies and department heads. FoE Malaysia also raised questions in Parliament and the State Assembly, met with various government authorities, trained key residents in activism, and worked with film-makers.
The community is also contemplating bringing a nuisance action, and this new case is being prepared. Many residents are falling sick because of the noxious fumes emitted by the factory. A community health survey was completed and experts have prepared the report, which will be used in court.
Although the cases are still pending, both have brought community struggles and resistance to public attention. Had these cases not been pursued, illegal acts would have been gone unchecked and the health and the environment of the communities would have been further impaired.
what was learned?
Legal challenges through courts require extensive resources, both financial and human. They also need strong and determined community involvement and presence. Moreover, companies and governments will use the legal process to delay progress by raising procedural and technical objections, to discourage local communities. Friends of the Earth Malaysia recommends that legal challenges are only taken up as a last resort, if community mobilization and resistance have failed. | <urn:uuid:1a8631c9-7370-4cf3-a833-a36eb4c0ec4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foei.org/en/resources/publications/annual-report/annual-report-2009/what-we-achieved-in-2009/member-groups/asia-pacific-oceania/malaysia-pursuing-citizens-rights-in-court | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967337 | 768 | 2.3125 | 2 |
February is Heart Health Month, so we’re trying to get the word out to make sure that everyone, especially women, know and really understand the important facts about heart disease. According to the American Heart Association, 43 million women in the U.S. are affected by heart disease, and it is the cause of one in three women’s deaths every year…ONE IN THREE! Here are a few ways that you can help to prevent heart disease:
Quitting smoking quickly reduces your risk for coronary artery disease (CAD); within five to 10 years of quitting, your risk of heart attack declines to a level similar to that of people who never smoked, regardless of how long you smoked.
Staying active is very important. You don’t have to be a “gym rat” to keep your heart pumping. Sedentary people who begin a regular program of exercise reduce their risk of a heart attack by 35 to 55 percent. Low-intensity activities, such as gardening or walking, if done regularly and over the long term, can decrease the risk of heart attack.
As you put on weight in adulthood (and we all do), your weight gain is mostly fat rather than muscle. This excess weight can lead to conditions that increase your chances of heart disease — high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Size does matter!
High blood pressure and high cholesterol can damage your heart and blood vessels. But without testing for them, you probably won’t know whether you have these conditions. Regular screening can tell you what your numbers are and whether you need to take action.
People who eat fish regularly are less like to have heart disease, mainly due to the Omega-3 fatty acids that it contains. Even if you don’t care for fish, you should strongly consider DHA/Omega-3 supplements.
Because millions of Americans are affected by heart disease, it is important that we also know what to look for. Signs and symptoms vary from person to person. Women don’t have the same patterns of symptoms as men do. Men may have chest pain on exertion. Women, on the other hand, may feel chest pressure, indigestion, shortness of breath, or fatigue. As women, we need to know this. Here are few things to keep in mind when it comes to MAJOR WARNING signs of heart attack:
We can all agree that knowledge is power. Knowing what to look for when it comes to heart disease is extremely important. Some of us think that we are invincible and that it only happens to “older” or “obese” people. Pay attention to all of the warning signs and live your best life. The very life that you save may be your own!
BMWK — What do you do to prevent heart disease? | <urn:uuid:281285c9-e5a6-4e9e-9dd8-5973cb3d697a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blackandmarriedwithkids.com/2013/02/february-is-heart-health-month/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952576 | 581 | 3.203125 | 3 |
It’s true that you can learn almost anything for free online these days. The trick is knowing where to find the information you need, though. These ten sites will help you get your geek on and learn something new.
1. 5min Tech
From tech news and product reviews to quick tips and tutorials, …
My first blog post for Geeklist.
A few weeks ago we launched Facebook integration and have been adding pieces of Geeklist to Facebook’s Open Graph. Initially, we only supported creating accounts and logging in with Facebook IDs. By having more than one login option, you could link your account to both authentication…
My new job!
Please join us in welcoming our newest full-time member of the team, Jon Keating.
Jon has been with us since very early on. A few months after we launched (Last year), he reached out to help with Geeklist on a part-time basis. His first project was the card headline / rename project, which…
First, a little background. I am currently working on a new project that is using Node.js for the server side API. The framework is Express, the database is MongoDB using Mongoose, and using a combination of Expresso and Vows for testing. I am using Expresso for integration testing and Vows for model testing.
The focus of this post is going to be around Expresso and how to get integration testing done when the controller is calling an external resource, Twitter’s API in this case. Expresso provides a convenient utility: assert.response. It will take a server object, make it start listening, and handle requests for us, which allows the test to work like an external client, but remain internal.
Below is an excerpt from one of my controllers, it is a simple function that gets called by the actual request handler. We want to test if the request is able to add friends from the Twitter API to the account object, but without relying on the 3rd party API.
Here is an example of how the Twitter API is accessed. Every API call will go through this one wrapper function. Which, is what we will want to stub in our test.
All of my tests include a helper.js file that can be seen below, to properly prepare the test. It sets the NODE_ENV so the proper database and settings get used on the server. And this is the perfect spot to stub the Twitter API. I found the Sinon library to provide the tools for what I was looking for.
The stub bases it’s action on which API endpoint is being called, and runs the callback with some test data for the controller to use. It is quite simple and a pleasure to use.
And what would a post about testing be about without an actual test? This gets run with the command ‘expresso test.js’.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post a reply here.
How can you tell that summer is here? A 10-minute walk in the morning results in your short being obviously drenched in sweat.
After running WordPress on my site for a long time, I’ve decided to switch to Tumblr. I haven’t really updated my blog at all in the past year, so hopefully switching to Tumblr will make it easier.
Also, I won’t need to worry about getting my server compromised. It always feels that running WP is a big security risk, they are always releasing new security patches that one has to keep on top or have your server owned by a skiddie.
Anyways, this was a long enough “test” post. | <urn:uuid:045c5c0a-ec0f-4027-9796-3cecb3c10561> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.thejon.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942814 | 758 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The traffic light system failed to work on March 10 on many streets in Ho Chi Minh City, causing chaotic traffic jams in many areas.
Daily chaotic congestion in front of Bau Sen primary school in District 5 (Photo:SGGP)
The congestion got even worse without traffic police to help ease the situation.
Traffic jams occurred at the intersections of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai and Cach Mang Thang 8 streets, Cach Mang Thang 8 and Vo Van Tan streets and at An Duong Vuong in district 6, due to power failure and lack of traffic police.
A similar chaotic situation occurred in other areas such as the crossroads of Hong Bang and Ngo Quyen streets, intersection of 1A highway and Phan Van Hon Street and on the Rach Chiec Bridge.
However, with traffic congestions occurring almost everyday, the traffic police are finding it difficult to cope despite working with a full force, especially in areas like Truong Chinh Street in Tan Binh District. Some streets like T-Junction of Dinh Tien Hoang and Phan Dang Luu streets and the crossroads of Phan Dang Luu and No Trang Long seem to face daily traffic jams because of so many schools in that area. | <urn:uuid:b8ba0ace-a1a8-4cc3-8448-ba9db6d2e808> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.baomoi.com/Info/Chaotic-traffic-congestion-in-parts-of-HCMC/3/120078.epi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945931 | 263 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Resource Scarcity Drives Singapore to Sustainability Leadership
Traffic flows in front of the skyline in Singapore. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
With more than half of the world’s population now urban, cities are natural venues for business, government and community efforts to identify key economic drivers of the early 21st century. Cities have the scale to effect real environmental change and -- in many cases unlike their national governments -- the political will to do so.
Singapore has become an internationally recognized leader among global cities, for its forward-looking policy goals and strong execution. The southeast Asian city-state was found to be literally in a class by itself (pdf) -- “Well Above Average” -- of the 22 Asian cities analyzed by the Economist Intelligence Unit for the Siemens Green City Index. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP ranked it the world’s leader in transportation and infrastructure in its Cities of Opportunity, 2012 report. Bloomberg editors and reporters took in the Singapore experiment firsthand in December, at the Bloomberg Businessweek Global Green Summit. Bloomberg New Energy Finance just published a conference overview in its Results Book (pdf).
Miss the Bloomberg Businessweek Global Green Summit? Read all about it (pdf).
Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore’s Minister for Environment and Water Resources, recently spoke with Agnes Teh of Bloomberg New Energy Finance about the island nation’s natural-resource challenges and the long-term plans it has put in place to overcome them.
Q: Let’s start with the big picture. What’s Singapore’s environmental sustainability strategy?
A: It is very important in an open, localized world to get the economic signals right. One big problem in the world now is fossil fuel subsidy. There’s something like 500-600 billion dollars a year spent by governments subsidizing fossil fuels. The problem with subsidies is that they distort prices, misallocate resources, promote over-consumption, deter investors from investing in new technologies and prevent new technologies from being competitive.
In Singapore, we do not subsidize electricity, water, fuel and food. All the necessities of life are priced at the right market price.
"Fifty years ago, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, then our Prime Minister, intuitively understood the value of blue skies and clean air. He said we will not have smoke stacks and coal-fired power stations," Balakrishnan said.
The next is informed choices from a consumer perspective. We need to ensure that people know how energy-efficient a product is. So before you buy an air conditioner, you’ve got the data on the energy consumption, which lets you calculate the total lifetime cost of ownership.
The last two things are investment and competitiveness. We’ve committed at least 350 million [Singapore] dollars to seed funding and research into clean technologies. We’re not doing this just for ideological reasons. We believe these are essential attributes of a competitive economy for the future.
We’re green because it is the right and responsible thing. It is also a sensible thing to do from a business point of view.
Q: Singapore has long depended on water imports from Malaysia. The agreements will expire in 2061, after 99 years. What happens then?
A: Yes, the last one expired in 2011. The whole water equation transformed about a decade ago when we rolled out reverse osmosis [filtration] on a national scale. It gives us the ability to be self-sufficient, certainly before 2061, if need be.
Today, we have sufficient capacity to generate 10 percent of our water supply from desalination -- basically seawater pushed through reverse osmosis to produce fresh water. We recycle used water, about 30 percent of our water needs generated from that. The balance of 60 percent is a combination of water retrieved from Malaysia, as well as water from our own reservoirs.
Today we have 17 reservoirs. Two-thirds of all our land area are water catchment areas, including our city, which makes us unique because of the ability to take water from every drain in the city. The ability to harvest every single drop in every drain in the city -- to treat and use it as portable water -- is a major achievement in its own right.
"We are what we define as an alternative-energy disadvantaged country. We have no real rivers, and so no hydroelectricity. We have no earthquakes in Singapore. We have no geothermal energy... There’s a breeze in Singapore. There’s no wind," Balakrishnan said.
Q: How will water be produced?
A: By 2061, the water would look this way -- 30 percent desalination, 50 percent recycling water and the remaining 20 percent from our own local water catchments. We are well on our way to having the ability to be completely water independent, if need be.
Q: How are you looking to produce water less energy-intensively?
A: The thing about reverse osmosis is that you can produce virtually an unlimited amount of water from desalination or recycling. Every drop can produce another drop. However, reverse osmosis requires energy. It takes us about 3.5 kilowatt-hours of energy to produce one cubic meter of water. Our research efforts are focused on bringing that down by a factor of half or one-third.
The equation for water today is therefore energy.
Our focus, therefore, is on the energy efficiency of producing water. We are working with researchers, the private sector and multinationals, like Siemens. We expect that there will be a global water crisis in the next one or two decades, so the ability to produce water cost-effectively will be a tremendous advantage for the companies that are able to do that.
We’ve converted water from a strategic vulnerability into a strategic opportunity. Companies like Hyflux Corp., Keppel Corp. Ltd., SembCorp Industries Ltd. are competitive and their track record is based on what they’ve done in Singapore. We didn’t invent reverse osmosis but we had the ability to create a working model that is competitive, compelling and gives opportunity to our companies.
Q: Over 80 percent of Singapore’s energy mix is generated from natural gas, 20 percent from fuel oil and renewables. Do you see this evolving in future?
A: I expect natural gas to grow. Fifty years ago, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, then our Prime Minister, intuitively understood the value of blue skies and clean air. He said we will not have smoke stacks and coal-fired power stations. Instead of coal-powered electrical generation, we used fuel oil. This went on for three or four decades, until we secured natural gas from our neighbors.
In a decade, there was this transformation -- from 99 percent fuel oil to below 20 percent. Natural gas [rose to] 80 percent. The next part of that story was to gain energy security. We then decided to have an LNG [liquid natural gas] terminal, which will allow us to import gas theoretically from anywhere in the globe. We made this decision quite fortuitously because at that time we did not expect the advent of fracking and the collapse of gas prices in the U.S. You could say that was a bit of a lucky break – it sets us up quite well for the future.
Two to three percent of our electrical supply is generated by incinerating all our garbage. That, again, is a bit of a lucky break because we ran out of land for landfill.
Q: Do you see a framework for solar and biomass?
A: Here’s where there’s a key challenge for Singapore. We are what we define as an alternative-energy disadvantaged country. We have no real rivers, and so no hydroelectricity. We have no earthquakes in Singapore. We have no geothermal energy. The fact that we are a safe and sheltered harbour over the past two centuries also means we don’t have significant wind power. There’s a breeze in Singapore. There’s no wind.
If you were to cover every single rooftop in Singapore, you would get maybe about 10-15 percent of our electricity supply.
The point is that for 90 percent of our supply for the foreseeable future, it will be fossil-fuel based. Our policy – where energy is concerned – is focused very tightly on energy efficiency.
Q: You’ve said that energy efficiency is a cornerstone of your energy strategy. How are you pushing that?
A: We are so constrained in our source of energy that the main thing we can do is efficiency. If you go to any industry, household, or transport sector, most companies or households should be able to achieve 10-15 percent savings. It’s one of the reasons why we passed the Energy Conservation Act, which will come into effect on April 1. What it mandates is that all the large energy users -- those using more than 15 gigawatt-hours per year -- have to appoint an energy manager, who has to submit data on energy use within the company, and to also formulate plans for energy efficiency.
Q: How do you ensure you price energy right?
A: First, we are very religious about not subsidizing energy -- especially fossil fuels subsidies. Even America, in effect, subsidizes fossil fuels. In Singapore, everybody pays full price for electricity and water. What about people who are less well off? In the case of Singapore, we provide grants. We call it the U-Save rebate. We give you cash -- now you decide how you will utilize the cash, how much electricity and water you will consume.
What you have is a system where the correct price is charged, sufficient to encourage sensible and rational consumer behavior. At the same time, you make sure that every consumer, even the least well off, has enough cash in his wallet to purchase the essentials of life.
Q: What keeps you awake at night?
A: This is a very exciting time because I can see dark clouds on the horizon. With climate change, I suspect that we are too late. Global warming, the impact on weather, on floods, on sea level rises are probably inexorable, so we know there’s a storm on the horizon.
At the same time, it’s really exciting because there are so many technologies being invented. In Singapore, we are organized in such a way that if anything shows promise and makes sense, both scientifically and business-wise, we are going to be amongst the leading countries that will invest in research and development, prototyping, rolling it out and showing the world how it’s going to be done.Analyses and commentary on The Grid are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloomberg News.
Bloomberg moderates all comments. Comments that are abusive or off-topic will not be posted to the site. Excessively long comments may be moderated as well. Bloomberg cannot facilitate requests to remove comments or explain individual moderation decisions. | <urn:uuid:2ac30544-b6ac-4821-85bc-150a801f11b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-22/resource-scarcity-drives-singapore-to-sustainability-leadership.html?cmpid=yhoo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94614 | 2,289 | 2.296875 | 2 |
While sorting the most popular countries of the world, the first and foremost name that comes to our mind is Czech Republic.
Czech Republic is a very small landlocked country situated in Central Europe on the south-east of Germany and adjoins Poland to the north, Austria to it
s south and to its south-east is Slovakia, with which it formed Czechoslovakia until the "velvet divorce" of year 1993.
Czech Republic is a richly developed economy, showcases its strong democratic tradition and a wealthy cultural ethnicity. Besides, it appeared from more than 40 years of Communist rule that took place in year 1990, and was the first and the only Eastern Bloc state to get hold of the repute of a highly-developed economy.
While looking at its geography, we get to know that Czech Republic lures the attention of the holidaymakers because of being hugely developed as an industrial economy plus now also attracts them by displaying Europe’s lovely Baroque, Cubist buildings and Art Nouveau. It has a total population of 10.4 million (UN, 2010) and its capital is Prague. Its natives mostly converse in Czech and are great followers of Christianity. The localities here are chiefly engaged in exporting manufactured goods, cars, transport equipment, machinery, beer and thus aids the economy to raise its overall per capita income. [-] | <urn:uuid:ac9b0b06-c69c-4b5f-8943-8cb1e59ccba1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hellotravel.com/czech-republic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971122 | 280 | 2.46875 | 2 |
Keynote address by Hill Harper
Hill Harper pursued his education with an enthusiasm and determination that resulted in him graduating Magna Cum Laude from Brown University, and later led him to earn graduate degrees in Law and Public Administration from Harvard. After achieving his academic goals, Harper began to pursue his career in acting with the same discipline he exhibited in the classroom. His hard work paid off as he is now appears in the hit drama CSI: New York, in a role that has earned him two NAACP Image Awards.
As a star of one of television’s most popular and enduring franchises, Harper has become highly familiar with “The CSI Effect,” a phenomenon where forensic science’s portrayal on TV affects the mindset of all participants in the criminal justice system, including the victims and criminals themselves. Harper, drawing on his educational background and experience on CSI: NY, explains the myths and realities of forensic criminal investigation.
A volunteer and spokesman for Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Hill understands how difficult it is to stay on the straight path in life, and that our youth don’t always have the tools to do the right thing even when they want to. This understanding is what drove Harper to a embark upon a new path as an author.
In 2006, he wrote The New York Times bestselling book Letters to a Young Brother, in an effort to provide encouragement and guidance to young African American men who are still trying to find their way. Letters to a Young Brother provides examples of perseverance in the face of struggle and hope for a better future. Following the success of the first book, he wrote the companion book, Letters to a Young Sister, also a New York Times Bestseller and has been awarded an additional three NAACP Image awards for his literary accomplishments: Outstanding Literary Work: Youth/Teens and Outstanding Literary Work: Debut Author. Harper's newest book, The Conversation, explores the nature of love across generations and the current state of male-female relations. It offers practical solutions on how to improve communication across gender and age.
Today, he continues in his efforts to better America's social climate and guide our youth as a strong and articulate voice for hope, education, and commitment. | <urn:uuid:5782b681-3748-4355-874b-fc7d30629d00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unl.edu/oasis/hill-harper-biography | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968332 | 449 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Palmer v. Bender - 287 U.S. 551 (1933)
U.S. Supreme Court
Palmer v. Bender, 287 U.S. 551 (1933)
Palmer v. Bender
Argued December 14, 15, 1932
Decided January 9, 1933
287 U.S. 551
Section 214 of the Revenue Act of 1921 directs that a reasonable allowance for depletion be made as a deduction in computing net taxable income, "in the case of oil and gas wells . . . according to the peculiar conditions of each case:"
1. That the interests to which the allowance applies are determined by the statute itself, as construed, and not by their formal characterization in the local law. P. 287 U. S. 555.
2. A lessee of oil wells who transfers them to another, stipulating for a royalty or bonus from oil to be produced, thereby retains an economic interest in the oil in place, which is depleted by production and which comes within the meaning and purpose of the statute, whether his conveyance be deemed by the law of the state a sublease or an assignment. P. 287 U. S. 558.
57 F.2d 32 reversed.
Certiorari to review the affirmance of a judgment, 49 F.2d 316, denying in part the petitioner's claim in an action to recover money paid as income taxes. The action was begun against the Collector, and the administratrix was substituted upon his death. | <urn:uuid:9e0bb682-6c5e-4386-9811-e4ea8e2862ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/287/551/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954761 | 312 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Students learn why increased conductivity can be a good or a bad thing. Students will learn how to use a conductivity probe and what conductivity ranges are appropriate for different substances. They will measure conductivity in 4 clear liquids and use their knowledge of conductivity to identify the sports drink, water from a forested stream, water from an urban stream, and tap water.
Day 2: Conductivity Connection: Road Salt & Electrolytes
Students will use a conductivity probe to compare conductivity data between sport drinks and stream water containing road salt to identify safe levels of electrolytes in both substances.
- Conductivity probe
- Clear sports drinks
- Stream water from a forested stream
- Stream water from an urban stream
Pass out handouts and show attached powerpoint presentation. Ask students how you can figure out if the conductivity level found in each of the four liquids is SAFE for each specific category (tap water, sports drink, urban stream, and forested stream).
In teams of 3, students will take turns using the conductivity probe to collect a reading for each mystery sample (clear sports drinks, water from a forested stream, water from an urban stream, and tap water). Students will plot their measurements on the included chart and determine which sample is which based upon their observations. | <urn:uuid:1680dcff-68d0-4f0b-ac6a-9a22b1d71a14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.caryinstitute.org/educators/teaching-materials/baltimore-ecosystem-study-0/conductivity/day-2-conductivity-connection | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930648 | 267 | 4.0625 | 4 |
Book Description: We live in a time when an alarming and growing majority of our youth is being lost through intermarriage, assimilation and general alienation. When reports tell us that 80% of our youth never go to synagogue, even on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, something is dramatically wrong. When we find that almost half of our youth are intermarrying, then we know we are faced with a problem of awesome dimensions. But what are we going to do about it? One of the serious problems has been the isolation of the Torah community as well as its inability to cope with the problems of American Jewry at large. There are some concerned groups, but they represent only a very small portion of Torah Jewry's resources. But from a Torah view every Jew as a distinct obligation to look out for the spiritual benefit of his brethren. There is a commandment in the Torah, "You must correct your neighbor." This commandment gives us a definite obligation to speak up when we see other Jews going astray. There is the concept that "All Israel are responsible for the other." There is the teaching that, "Anyone who has the opportunity to protest (wrongdoing), and does not do so, is caught up in the sin." This book points out our obligations as set forth by the greatest Torah authorities. Each section speaks of a different aspect of this problem, and is followed by a number of readings presenting a translation of these ideas in the original. Every one of us must find his or her way to respond to the unspoken cry for help that is in the hearts, if not on the lips, of our estranged brethren. | <urn:uuid:8416bbf5-1af1-48a0-8342-e98e29785934> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.campusbooks.com/books/religion-spirituality/judaism/movements/9781879016019_Aryen-Kaplan_Reaching-Out.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971944 | 335 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Interdisciplinary Conference on Race
Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey
November 13, 14, 15, 2008
"Future of An Illusion, Future of the Past"
We seek papers, panels, workshops and proposals for an interdisciplinary conference on race related to the topics of race, genetics, healthcare disparities, and DNA ancestry tracing. Discussions about race and racial identification in contemporary society have become increasingly complex as a result of developments in the study of human genetics. The study of human genetics has come to have a profound influence on our understanding of social and historical relationships within and between human groups amid the rise of global multiracial consciousness movements. Does race have a future or is race an illusion? Is the word race obselete? These are some of the questions that shape the core themes of our interdisciplinary conference on race. Please submit a one page abstract and brief cv to futureofRace@gmail.com by June 1, 2008. See the conference website for further details.
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Does computer anxiety reach levels which conform to DSM IV criteria for specific phobia?
Thorpe, S. J. and Brosnan, M. J., 2007. Does computer anxiety reach levels which conform to DSM IV criteria for specific phobia? Computers in Human Behavior, 23 (3), pp. 1258-1272.
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Fear of technology in general and of computers in particular has been shown to be prevalent in the population. This study sets out to explore the experience of computer anxiety and is in two parts. The first part examines computer anxiety in the context of DSM IV criteria for specific phobia by comparing the incidence of underlying beliefs of those high in computer anxiety with people with spider phobia and with a non-anxious group. 185 Participants filled in questionnaires concerning general and specific measures of anxiety. Results provide tentative support for the claim that computer anxiety may reach clinical levels, that some cognitions held by the computer anxious are held in common with the cognitions of those suffering from spider phobia who conform to DSM IV criteria for specific phobia, and that a case may be made for computer anxiety to enter into the framework of problematic fears. However, several of the cognitions core to the experience of spider phobia were not found in the computer anxious participants. Examination of individual cognitions revealed that the kinds of concerns being expressed were more akin to social or test anxiety ('I would make a fool of myself) than to specific phobia ('I would scream', 'I would become hysterical'). In a further exploration of this, the second study with 164 participants compared aspects of computer anxiety and avoidance with measures of social, performance, and test anxiety. These were found to be significantly related to each other. The implications and limitations of the studies are discussed. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
|Creators||Thorpe, S. J.and Brosnan, M. J.|
|Departments||Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > Psychology|
|Additional Information||ID number: ISI:000244288900015|
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... 1956, Karen Christiana Figueres Olsen (left) was born in San José, Costa Rica; her father was President of that country, and her mother eventually would serve as a legislator and ambassador. She earned a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College and a master's degree from the London School of Economics. From the 1990s onwards Figueres led different groups involved in developing sustainable development in the Americas, and was active in negotiations related to climate change. On May 17, 2010, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed her the Executive Secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, a post she holds to this day.
(Prior August 7 posts are here, here, here, and here, and here.) | <urn:uuid:94ac3920-45a7-46ad-af2e-2fbe0b710654> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.intlawgrrls.com/2012/08/on-august-7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978878 | 156 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Jan. 17, 2008 The latest medications can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, but none are able to reverse its devastating effects. This limitation often makes early detection the key to Alzheimer’s patients maintaining a good quality of life for as long as possible.
Now, a new device developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University may allow patients to take a brief, inexpensive test that could be administered as part of a routine yearly checkup at a doctor’s office to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) — often the earliest stage of Alzheimer’s. The device is expected to be commercialized later this year.
Current assessment tests capable of detecting early Alzheimer’s typically are taken with a pen and paper or at a computer terminal and last about an hour and a half. They must be given by a trained technician in a quiet environment, because any distractions can influence the patient’s score and reduce the test’s effectiveness. Because of their length and expense, the tests are not used as regular screening tools and typically are given only after there is obvious cognitive impairment such as forgetfulness or unsafe behavior.
“Families usually wait until their mom or dad does something somewhat dangerous, like forgetting to take their medications or getting lost, before bringing them in for testing. At that point, the patient has already lost a significant portion of their cognitive function,” said David Wright, MD, who helped develop the device. Wright is assistant professor of emergency medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and co-director of the Emory Emergency Medicine Research Center. “With this device, we might be able to pick up impairment well before those serious symptoms occur and start patients on medications that could delay those symptoms.”
The Georgia Tech and Emory device, called DETECT, gives individuals a roughly ten-minute test designed to gauge reaction time and memory — functions that, when impaired, are associated with the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The test is a specially modified, shortened version of the traditional pen and paper test and could be given repeatedly by doctors to evaluate any changes in cognitive functions.
“We really envision this to be part of the normal preventative care a patient receives from a general practitioner,” said Michelle LaPlaca, Ph.D., one of the creators of the device and an associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “It would be part of a regular preventative medicine exam much like a PSA test or EKG (electrocardiogram), serving as a cognitive impairment vital sign of sorts.”
The portable test runs patients through a battery of visual and auditory stimuli such as pictures and words that assess cognitive abilities relative to age, gauging reaction time and memory capabilities. Its software can track cognitive capabilities — and decline — year to year during annual appointments. And because the device blocks outside sound and light from the patient’s environment, it can be administered in virtually any setting, providing more consistent results.
Preliminary analysis of the first 100 patients of a 400-person clinical study being conducted at Emory’s Wesley Woods Center has shown that the 10-minute DETECT test has similar accuracy to the 90-minute “Gold Standard” pen and paper test.
With millions of baby boomers easing into late adulthood, the number of patients with Alzheimer’s is expected to skyrocket over the next few decades. More than 24 million people worldwide are currently thought to have Alzheimer’s disease and by 2040, an estimated 81 million people worldwide are expected to develop the disease.
To give these millions of potential Alzheimer’s sufferers a chance to slow the disease’s advance before serious symptoms set in, doctors need an inexpensive and easy-to- administer test to detect and track the cognitive decline associated with the early stages of the disease.
The DETECT device is designed to be administered while a patient is still healthy, tracking any abnormal decreases in the patient’s cognitive performance over time. If a patient’s performance declines outside the normal range, the patient would then undergo additional testing and care from a neurologist, neuropsychologist or other specialist.
The DETECT system includes an LCD display in a visor with an onboard dedicated computer, noise reduction headphones and an input device (controller). The display projects the visual aspect of the test, the headphones provide the verbal instructions and the controller records the wearer’s response.
DETECT’s creators have formed a company, called Zenda Technologies, to commercialize the device for MCI, as well as other conditions. Georgia Tech and Emory researchers are exploring other types of cognitive impairment such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) that could be picked up by DETECT. A version of the system designed to detect mild concussions on the sidelines of a football game, during other high-impact sports or on a battlefield is still being tested.
The research was funded with a grant from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation and support from the Georgia Research Alliance through Georgia Tech’s VentureLab.
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A Roseboro citizen came before town commissioners during Tuesday night’s meeting to encourage the board to allow citizens to keep chickens within the town limits, a practice the town’s laws currently prohibit.
With a petition signed by 127 people and with pages of information detailing the advantages of allowing urban chickens, Steven Heath shared with the town board the details of his request.
According to Heath, citizens should be allowed to keep hens on their property in town and suggested limiting individuals to a maximum number of 10 hens.
Roosters should not be permitted, said Heath, and citizens should be required to contain their hens in coops and with fencing.
He added that chickens’ wing feathers can be clipped, a painless procedure, according to Heath, to prevent them from flying over fences.
As the town board looked over information distributed by Heath, he shared with them many advantages to allowing citizens to keep chickens in town, including the promotion of sustainable living and responsibility, the production of fresh eggs, and the use of less pesticides because chickens naturally help control insects and pests, including ticks, mosquitoes, and even some small snakes.
Additionally, chickens produce less waste than cats and dogs, Heath pointed out, adding that chicken waste can be used to fertilize gardens.
Heath encouraged the town board to join other towns and cities in North Carolina, including Newton Grove, Garland, Raleigh, and Durham that already allow for urban chickens.
Commissioner Anthony Bennett questioned Heath about the prohibition of roosters. Heath explained that a rooster is not needed for hens to lay eggs.
“So you just want chickens for egg production not for baby chicks?” town clerk Amanda Beatty asked for clarification.
“Yes, just eggs, no chicks,” confirmed Heath.
Mayor David Alexander was hesitant to allow urban chickens in Roseboro, fearing that if the town allows chickens then people may come forward wanting the town to allow other animals that are considered livestock like horses, cows, and goats.
“I disagree,” said Heath, adding that chickens are not really considered livestock.
After looking over Heath’s petition, commissioner Richard Barefoot wanted to know if Heath’s neighbors’ signatures were in the list.
“Yes, they’ve signed it,” said Heath.
Commissioner Roland Hall noted that some of the signatures on the petition were by people who do not live in Roseboro. “Those will have to be discounted.”
Hall then questioned how to proceed given that this is an issue that will impact citizens’ neighbors.
“Is a public hearing needed,” Hall asked town attorney Billie L. Poole.
“It would be good policy,” responded Poole.
At the recommendation of the mayor, the town board decided to hold a public hearing at the next town meeting before making any changes to current town laws.
Heath later expressed his disappointment in the town commissioners. “To me that’s just putting it off. I call that stonewalling. They should’ve made a decision.”
Lauren Williams can be reached at 910-592-8137, ext. 117 or via email at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:6473036a-38c1-4f99-b02a-b02d4180cbcd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://clintonnc.com/pages/home/push?per_page=5&x_page=2&class=next_page&rel=next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953615 | 685 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Pupil press pack pose questions!
Pupils at a Pontefract school turned tables on Express reporter Trish Ellis when they grilled her about her work as a journalist.
The year six class at St Giles’ J&I School on Skinner Lane, interviewed Trish as part of a project on journalistic writing, with the aim of writing their own news reports.
Jane Marshall, literacy teacher, said: “They’ve been looking at how news is made and how it’s reported, and the different ways of getting news.
“They’ve also been looking at the effect multi-media news is produced and then writing in a journalistic style, which we’re trying to link with real life events.”
Among the questions the pupils put to Trish were “what’s the funniest story you’ve ever written?”, “have you interviewed anybody famous?”, “what are the qualities needed to become a reporter?” and “why did you want to become a journalist?”.
Trish said: “The pupils asked some really interesting questions and had obviously put a lot of thought into what they wanted to find out about my job.
“It was also really lovely to see them reading the Express and commenting on the stories – and quite a few of them saw friends and family pictured in the paper.”
Pupil Matthew Chambers, 11, said: “I learned a lot about the skills you need to be a journalist, like good English.”
Luke Griffiths, also 11, said: “I learned that you have to get all your grades to be a journalist, also you get the opportunity to show people what you can do.”
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Weather for Wakefield
Saturday 25 May 2013
Temperature: 6 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North
Temperature: 7 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: West | <urn:uuid:6a8728c6-9f17-4994-a75f-d9b357db3683> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pontefractandcastlefordexpress.co.uk/news/local/pupil-press-pack-pose-questions-1-5366991 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968085 | 437 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Looking at canvases belonging to Hyein Lee, you might just find iterations of the word fuck, products of pent-up frustration morphed into art. If you look hard enough, you might also find that other F-word, if not as literally.
But who is Hyein Lee? Besides being an award-winning illustrator from the land where the deer and the antelope play (Toronto, Canada), and besides being featured in various festivals, conventions and public space takeovers, besides stamping profanities onto pieces of her art that she dislikes and entering them into fundraisers anyway, Hyein Lee is a feminist. One whose gender-less monsters wreak havoc across her paintings and experimental videos.
After reading her instantly immortal webcomic, The Girl in the Attic, I contacted Lee and had the opportunity to discuss her beginnings, how feminism influences her work and the state of women in comics:
Firstly, do you consider yourself a feminist, and if so how does that come across in your art?
I definitely consider myself as a feminist. To be honest, I haven’t been academically educated on feminism. I have only been following Bitch magazine and other publications. Growing up in Korea, which still has a very paternalistic society, naturally made me a feminist. Also, going through a male-dominated engineering university in Canada taught me that there still is strange inequality in Western society too.
I know a lot of young women are afraid to call themselves a feminist, even when their ideals are consistent with feminism. I suppose the term ceased to be cool more than a decade ago. I find it a little worrisome because there still is a lot of work to be done for both genders.
My comics are mostly about my experiences, whether it is about violence against women or about a young woman searching for love. I don’t consciously think about feminism while I am writing, but the underlying philosophy sometimes seeps out.
My video games and digital toys are gender neutral. I want more younger girls to play with these interactive pieces and get interested in making their own. I think playing with video games and digital toys familiarize girls [with] technology. Hopefully, they would choose a profession in a technological field. I believe it is important to do that in order for women to achieve economic parity. I’m not saying my lowly indie video games have such an impact, but maybe some girls will see a possibility of making something better than mine.
For my other art, conscious or not, I often use animals and monsters as main characters to try to stay gender neutral. I do sometimes paint things that I am ashamed of, ethically, but I cannot theorize too much.
How did you get your start as an artist?
When I grew up in Korea, my mom worked as an art teacher and my dad as an interior designer. My parents exposed me to a lot of art; we often visited contemporary art museums, galleries and weird theaters. I’ve been painting as long as I can remember. Art seemed like a fate and everyone thought I was going to be an artist. Then somewhere along the line, something went wrong and I became an engineer (I actually love math and science). Studying was fun, but the job wasn’t for me. I kept thinking, If I get hit by a truck right now, I’d regret not pursuing my dream. I guess I thought being permanently poor is a better life choice. I went back to school to study illustration and have been making commercial and fine art ever since.
Your artwork travels across a number of media. Which is your favorite to work in, and what is your favorite piece of art that you have done?
Many often ask why I jump [from medium to medium]. A lot of artists stick to one medium for their entire career. I want to try a lot of different things. Learning a new medium inspires me.
“Mr. Furry Pants” (seen at top) was for a show called “Birds n’ Bees”, I didn’t know that “birds n’ bees” is an euphemism for sex. I was getting very frustrated painting birds late at night. After ruining many canvases, I gave up and made whatever I wanted. I carved and stamped the ‘f’ word reflecting my frustration. I really liked the resulting painting afterwards.
“In Bruges I” was painted right after my trip to Bruges. I always wanted to go to Bruges, ever since I saw that city in the movie Daughters of Darkness. Later, watching another movie set in the city, In Bruges, I had to visit the city. I often travel alone (not by choice… sniff). Bruges, the beautiful Gothic city becomes empty after 5 o’clock when all the museums close. I was strolling the city alone, eating Belgian fries, feeling a little lonely. I sold this painting for a very low price during my desperate times, and I regret selling it.
“Ambidexterity” was actually a third reiteration. It started as a dream. In my dream, I said I want to be ambidextrous. A girl with severed wrists appeared and told me, “Cut off your right hand, and you’ll use your left hand more.” I woke up and made a sketch. Then painted on a 9X11” paper. The third reiteration is on a life-size paper. I plan to do a series featuring her. It reminds me of the Bluebeard folktale.
The Girl in the Attic is a very powerful comic. Could you talk about the process of writing and creating that?
I’m grateful that you found it powerful. It actually happened to me and I grew up often worrying about that girl in the attic. When I was in Sheridan College, my wonderful teacher, Blair Drawson gave us an assignment: look at the mirror and tell yourself everyday, “Among many things, I am a writer”. That simple exercise gave me a confidence to write my own stories. I started to show my dark stories that I haven’t told anyone. I think stories that are closest to your heart is the most engaging.
How would you describe the current state of women working in comics? It seems things are far from a gender balance but, especially with the rise of graphic novels in recent years, more notable women writers/artists are gaining mainstream exposure.
It is a hard for me to comment on the mainstream comic industry because I do not know how things work in the mainstream publishing world. After being rejected from all the publishers, I print my own comics. However, I doubt it’s due to the gender inequality. I think it’s because of the rough nature of my comic brushing work and some of the flaws in the writing. I think there are fewer women in mainstream graphic novels because there are fewer women creating comics. We should all create more work and work harder.
Why do you think there are fewer women creating comics?
I find that it’s just in North America. I grew up in a culture that’s a bit different in the comic world. I think it’s like a vicious cycle because not many women are creating comics, not many comics are made for women and because women don’t read comics in North America they don’t create comics. My experience in Korea… we have a market for girl comics and I find that this is less so in North America (though most of these “girl comics” were not building strong independent female characters. Most them were sappy Cinderella-like stories. However, growing up with reading comics inspire many girls to create comics).
Most of the mainstream comics are superhero or quite violent and, as a girl, I’m not really interested in reading those that much. I sometimes read them but I’m sure that a lot of girls feel the same. But in the indie comic industry there are a lot of women.
As an indie artist yourself, how do you distribute your comics?
I go to local comic stores and I go to a lot of conventions and I show them to a lot of magazine publishers and the small press; (laughs) I do get rejected a lot. Beguiling in Toronto carries some of my work and I also publish a lot of work online.
I used to go to Silver Snail… (note: the unofficial rival of Beguiling)
(laughs) I live right in front of Silver Snail!
I had recently watched some of your interactive art videos (specifically the Loneliness ones) could you please explain how this idea originated and what your goals for this project were?
You know how in cartoons, when the main character is having a bad day, a black cloud follow her? That was my original idea. In “Loneliness Is II”, when you step into the screen, a cartoonish black cloud follows you and pours raindrops. ‘Loneliness Is I’ piece has bunch of rain drops with cute & sad faces falling. When an audience step in with a red umbrella, the rain drops bounce off of him.
I also thought about society’s (and my) obsession with cute images. We seem to be addicted to cute aesthetics. I wanted to show the somber feelings that cuteness entails. When times are bad, we want to look at cute things and forget about harsh reality. I read in a Vanity Fair article that just like Shirley Temple rose to her fame during the Great Depression era, we are addicted to cuteness these days in the face of recent economic meltdown.
What are you currently reading?
I read a lot of science fiction novels (especially Octavia E Butler and Margaret Atwood)–as a feminist, I really like sci-fi novels with a strong female lead. I find, like comics, that sci-fi is written mainly by men and they often forget that women read sci-fi too. So the female characters are often one-dimensional or annoying or things like that. I find that when I read a novel with a strong female character I become more attached to the novel. For comics, I really admire Marjane Satrapi‘s work (author of Persepolis).
What are you currently working on?
For a long-term comic project, I am writing about my experience of working in the oil sands of Alberta. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times of my life. I’m also working on a silly little indie video game, due next Spring. It is tentatively titled Dell’Amore, after my favorite movie of all time, Della Morte Dell’Amore.
Could you share any details on the video game?
It’s about a little girl, a polar bear, and an alien. The little girl and the polar bear are really close friends and one day the alien UFO comes down to the Arctic and accidentally lands on top of the polar bear. The girl thinks the polar bear is dead so she wants to get revenge on the alien. It’ll be released for free online.
Lastly, for the next few days, I am working towards a show themed Krampus at Resistor Gallery in Toronto. Krampus is a pagan evil creature celebrated in Hungary, Austria and Germany during the holiday season. He is a counter part of Santa Claus, and punishes bad children. I’ve never heard about such creature until very recently, and I think he’s totally awesome! I am very excited about this show. I’m making a giant furry mask and a new painting.
Click here to see more work from Hyein Lee.
All photos and artwork courtesy of Hyein Lee. | <urn:uuid:1ab994df-7e52-4943-bdcd-d226e316cb10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://msmagazine.com/blog/2010/12/10/hyein-lee-how-one-feminist-devours-artistic-mediums/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971675 | 2,466 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Eurasian watermilfoilMyriophyllum spicatum
Eurasian watermilfoil grows beneath the water and crowds out other plants by forming extensive mats of thick vegetation. It spreads rapidly through high rates of growth and its ability to reproduce from plant fragments. Native to northern Europe and Asia, this plant arrived in North America sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s.
Distribution in Utah: Populations are found in Otter Creek Reservoir and Fish Lake.
Identification: Leaflets have a distinct feathery appearance and are arranged in whorls of 4 around a long slender stem growing up to six inches long. Typically, leaflets grow up to an inch and are usually dark green, but sometimes have a reddish tint.
Problem: In nutrient-rich lakes, Eurasian Watermilfoil forms thick stands of tangled stems and vegetative surface mats. The plant can interfere with recreational activities such as boating, fishing and swimming and can often crowd out important native plants.
Means of spreading: Eurasian watermilfoil may become entangled in equipment. Stems can become lodged in any watercraft or sports equipment that moves through the water. Boat trailers are especially susceptible to transplanting this plant.
Management and containment: As with most invasive species, prevention is the best means of containment. Once Eurasian watermilfoil invades a body of water it is almost impossible to eradicate it. Herbicides and mechanical harvesting are often used to control infestations of watermilfoil. | <urn:uuid:ba57941f-4e05-4ecd-9baa-99a4c90b8731> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wildlife.utah.gov/habitat/ans/ew.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93859 | 313 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Existing business papers are launching Hindi editions (Economic Times, Business Standard). Existing English dailies are launching business papers (Finance Chronicle from Deccan Chronicle). Hindi dailies are launching English papers (DNA from Dainik Bhaskar). New papers are selling their business sections as separate papers (DNA Money). Hindi dailies are planning Hindi business dailies (Dainik Jagran with Network 18). Foreign groups are planning Indian editions (Financial Times from Pearson, Forbes, Fortune).
It’s all happening in India. Reasons: the economic boom, growing literacy, a burgeoning market.
“The overall globalization, the growing interest in India, and the sheer size of the India market is driving the foreign media interest in India. This is no different from players from any other industry. What all the global publications are probably looking for is to get an increasing mind share of the large Indian middle class, which is becoming [more and more] global,” Ravi Bapna, a professor and executive director of the Centre for Information Technology and the Networked Economy at the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business, tells Knowledge@Wharton.
Read the full story: Where Print still makes sense | <urn:uuid:bcb6d795-7c4b-47ac-91c5-d5e6f8698d6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wearethebest.wordpress.com/tag/isb/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912809 | 253 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Swiftly by Adam Roberts
Published by Gollancz UK
Published March 2008
539 pages (ARC); 368 pages (Hardback) (ARC copy received for review.)
ISBN: 9780575075894 (Hardback) 9780575082328 (Trade Paperback)
Review by Mark Yon / Hobbit
Contemporary sequels to classic novels are not always the embodiment of critical success. Often sitting somewhere between Ďcheap cash-iní and Ďpublishing fillerí, the genre is filled with examples which may be worthy, though not entirely successful.
However, Adam Roberts, lecturer in English literature and creative writing at the Royal University of London, has recently been revitalizing this niche. As well as writing genre criticism, parodies, and traditional SF, some of his latest books have been sequels to seminal stories, evolved from genre classics. Having previously written in a Jules Verne style for Splinter, his latest take is on one of the earliest classics: Jonathan Swiftís Gulliverís Travels.
Well not quite. Swiftly is set in Gulliverís world but 120 or so years after the events of Gulliverís Travels. It is 1848 and the British Empire rules omnipotent; mainly due to the efforts of Gulliverís people. The diminutive Lilliputians are now used as slave labour, being able to produce detailed miniature work, whilst the giant pacifist Brobdingnagians are used to transport goods internationally, pulling boats from continent to continent.
Perhaps Swiftly is not too far removed from Adamís previous work. For Swiftly, read 'Swift-like'. Although Adam is known for his parodies of Tolkien and Harry Potter, this novel can be seen as a logical progression. As Gulliverís Travels was a parody of human nature and political satire, Swiftly parodies 19th century culture and society. In Gulliver the conflict between the Lilliputians and the Brobdingnagians was meant to mimic relations between England and France. Here the irony is that since Gulliver, there is war between England and France, the French notionally declaring war on the English over the rights of the slave Brobdingnagians.
What this book does more, though, is satirise the culture of the times. This is an aspect of the original often forgotten by those who think that Gulliverís Travels is all about little (and big) people. Here, like the original, Adam ridicules the repressed nature of the times, and in this case involving parodies of sexual repression in particular. Characters in this novel are revolted by each other yet seem to find opportunities for sex whenever and wherever possible. There is also what I will call a Torchwood moment: a solution to the plague that involves Bates kissing as many soldiers as possible. There is also a glee in coprophilia, that is emphasised at the novelís denouement.
There is a considerable tension in the book between the bestial and the refined, the veneer of society and the animalistic passion that lies below the surface. This is emphasised through the main characters of the book. The plot concerns itself with a flawed hero. Abraham Bates is a bipolar character who swings between elation and depression. Bates is torn between his wantful lustfulness and his need for keeping a sense of decorum. His sensibilities are further torn between his desire for freedom for the Lilliputians and the fact that to gain such freedom he has to become an agent provocateur for the French against his homeland. He becomes a terrorist and, on the invasion of England, is employed as an Ami de la France.
The middle section of the novel deals with Batesí task being a companion for the previously exiled Duke of York. He travels with the Duke north, from London to York, in order to oversee the Dukeís use of a new invention: a mighty cannon which could send cannon balls as far as India, and to transport a calculation device, run by Lilliputian people inside it.
The journey is not without difficulties: the rural landscape is desolate, and whilst the war continues around them, the travellers have to contend with attacks by brigands, skirmishes between opposing armies and the spread of a strange plague.
Adam also examines the role of women in such an emasculated society. To this, Bates also meets Mrs Eleanor Burton, a strong-willed young lady, a woman of rational science but whose role in society is lessened by the prevailing social conditions of the time. Her interest in science leads her on a strange journey, involving murder and illicit sex. Her role in the book can be seen as, perversely, an empowerment or a parody of female liberation and so fulfils the comparison with the original by highlighting aspects of society.
You do not, however, need to be aware of the original to enjoy Adamís version. It can be read as an entertainment in itself. There are knowing nods to older science fiction and fantasy: the destruction of London by the French, using the usually peaceful Brobdingnagians demolishing landmarks such as Saint Paulís Cathedral, read like scenes of Martian demolition, with a knowing glance to H G Wellsí War of the Worlds. The arrival of a comet perhaps brings to mind H Gís In the Days of the Comet; The desolated landscape is like England under the Red Weed; the cannon reminds me of Verneís From the Earth to the Moon. The use of Lilliputians in a calculating machine created by Babbage reminded me of the steam-punk novel by Gibson and Stirling, The Difference Engine. As the book continues though, the story becomes less fantastical to one more of SF, of fractal universes.
So, if you fancy a steampunk type book, similar to Neal Stephenson or even Susanna Clarke, then this might be for you. Well, perhaps not. For the book deals with the degradation of these characters in such detail that some parts of the novel take some persistence (or at least a strong stomach.) More Rabelais than Robson.
My biggest problem was that I found the characters to a man (or woman) generally unlikeable: indeed, at times, downright unpleasant. This may be part of the point - by highlighting the hypocrisy of the people, you satirise the society Ė but I found little to endear me to them. Where the book worked for me, though, it worked very well.
Here then is an eccentric book: not a tome (as first expected) of major battles and world changing events; but instead an account of comparatively minor characters with major roles in a relatively limited perspective. The book is not about (as people with a basic knowledge of the original might expect) Lilliputian people in a Victorian world, but a book with an emphasis on bawdy satire, emphasising the strangeness of the human condition.
It is, as the story evolves, a story of mind over matter, not to mention Mandelbrotian fractal singularity.
This is not a cheap cash-in, nor publishing filler. It is actually an ambitious book, well thought out, if rather unusual. At times I feel that it tries too hard to be a worthy successor to the original. However, where it does work, it manages, as Swift did (but is often forgotten), to challenge society, repression, slavery, religion and order. And in that context, it can be regarded as a success. But definitely not for everyone.
Mark Yon / Hobbit, February 2008
Copyright © sffworld.com. If quoted please credit "sffworld.com, name of reviewer". | <urn:uuid:a3a059ce-3486-4b96-9b5b-0ee94a03a194> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/424.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955457 | 1,594 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Rösler: Job market is continuing its success story
The latest figures on Germany's labour market were published today by the Federal Statistical Office and the Federal Employment Agency. Responding to the report, Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Dr. Philipp Rösler stated:
"The job market is continuing its success story. At the end of the year, it has shown itself to be in extraordinarily good shape. The year 2011 can be seen as by far the most successful year for employment since the reunification of Germany. Firstly, the number of people in employment was considerably higher even than the previous year. Secondly, the level of earnings per employee increased significantly. Price development has been moderate and the disposable income of private households has therefore risen considerably. At the same time, the average annual unemployment figures for 2011 were at their lowest level since 1991.
Demand for labour in Germany is still very high, notwithstanding the current economic risks. Overall, the growth in employment should continue in the coming months, even if it is a bit slower. The job market therefore remains an important cornerstone of our economy."
As reported today by the Federal Statistical Office, roughly 41.61 million persons resident in Germany (domestic concept) were employed in November 2011. This was 521,000 more than in November 2010. Compared to the previous month, the number of persons employed grew by 25,000 (seasonally adjusted).
The number of persons subject to social insurance contributions rose in October to 29.02 million - 719,000 more than in the preceding year. This represented an increase of 56,000 over the previous month (seasonally adjusted).
According to Federal Employment Agency data, the number of registered unemployed stood at 2.780 million in December. This was 67,000 fewer than the month before. Overall, unemployment was down by 231,000 on the previous year. In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of unemployed in December was down by 22,000 against the previous month.
For 2011 as a whole, employment levels rose by 541,000 over the previous year, settling at 41.09 million. Average figures for unemployment dropped to 2.98 million - their lowest level since 1991. | <urn:uuid:9361fc56-6408-4a60-8fcd-6923137a0d9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bmwi.de/EN/Press/press-releases,did=466120.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972627 | 446 | 1.710938 | 2 |
ERA1 Mar, 2004 By: Response Contributor Response
New Product Program: The Inventors' Showcase
Overall, the consensus amongst the industry's elite seems to follow the same formula for what truly makes an invention successful. It needs to be unique, demonstrative and be a good value to the consumer. These factors, combined with the right exposure and education, is how success stories are made.
Jeanne Cogswell, Sally Zimmermann and Frank Chapman of Alice June Design Inc. modeled their product, Press Polish, a press on fingernail polish that requires no time to dry.
In Store for 2004Currently, ERA has six upcoming showcase seminars in the works to bring together the best in the world of invention. The first seminar will occur in Pittsburgh in May and will run in concert with INPEX, the largest invention exposition worldwide.
In addition to the May kickoff, ERA will also host invention seminars in Chicago, Los Angeles and Florida to increase the spread of the program to a wider U.S. audience. Knowing that true invention is not located solely in the United States, ERA also is hosting two seminars internationally in the Netherlands and Germany. The scope of good invention spans the globe and ERA strives to bring as many solid, educated entrepreneurs as possible to the forefront of this remarkable industry.
ERA is not without support in this extraordinary program. The organization has partnered with multiple inventors' societies, organizations and publications to ensure that the best interests of all parties are met. ERA hopes this program not only provides a benefit to members interested in purchasing new products, but also pays homage to the ingenuity of inventors who are creative and diligent enough to make dreams come alive.
For more information on ERA's New Product Program, contact Jennifer Gennaro at (703) 908-1031 or via E-mail at email@example.com . | <urn:uuid:a6d98ac5-7694-4de0-9185-1d4ad65ad760> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.responsemagazine.com/response-magazine/news/era-1458?page_id=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934364 | 384 | 1.515625 | 2 |
News & Events >> Bus Regulations
Dear Parents & Caregivers,
Please be aware of the bus loading procedures and regulations. When the students are getting on or off the bus in the WMS parking lot, the bus will turn on the red flashing lights. This means that cars must stop and wait until the lights are off before passing the bus. Please do not pass the bus if the lights are flashing. The bus company will be writing down plate numbers and sending them to the police department and a $450 fine will be issued to the owners of the cars that pass the bus while the flashing lights are on. This is a state regulation and not something that WMS has any control over and it is for the safety of the students. Thank you for your compliance with this regulation. | <urn:uuid:00b4bd87-0da4-4df8-ab5e-957a2fd3c1dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonmontessori.org/news/showNews.php?id=366 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952674 | 158 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Cisco Mobility—Getting Ready for 802.11ac
(Original Webcast: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 10:00 am Pacific Time)
There’s no question that demand for network capacity and bandwidth is growing.
- By the year 2015, it is projected there will be 15 billion new networked mobile devices
- Seventy-five percent of employees use multiple devices for work
- One hundred percent of IT staff struggle to keep up with mobile needs
Organizations that have not migrated to 802.11n need to make a change to support the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend that is undoubtedly affecting the way that they do business. But what happens as their needs grow? With more mobile devices, new wireless clients, and higher consumer expectations, IT simply can’t compromise on performance, user experience, and security.
802.11ac, the next generation of Wi-Fi, is the emerging standard from the IEEE and promises to be very exciting since it will address some critical pain points faced by users of Wi-Fi today—more bandwidth and more simultaneous users.
Watch this webcast, and get ready for 802.11ac. | <urn:uuid:20312a60-5dd4-436f-99d7-92f7188979d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tools.cisco.com/gems/cust/customerSite.do?METHOD=W&LANGUAGE_ID=E&PRIORITY_CODE=000028714&SEMINAR_CODE=S16771 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936939 | 243 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Supporting families and carers of drug users : a review
This review examines the impact of drug use upon families and carers and identifies their needs. It examines and describes the range of provision and methods of addressing the needs of families and carers. It gives particular attention to the development of family support groups. It also offers information about resources available to agencies, service providers and family support groups. | <urn:uuid:7731e95e-7a18-41d0-b525-ddeffa1680eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lx.iriss.org.uk/content/supporting-families-and-carers-drug-users-review | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938914 | 80 | 1.71875 | 2 |
As I understand it, the "Seven Kingdoms" refer to the kingdoms before Aegon's Conquest. Aren't there more kingdoms around the time that the first book is set? (For example, the Iron Islands and Riverlands are now two kingdoms, right?)
So why does everyone refer to there being seven?
For example, Robert says to Ned:
"In the South, the way they talk about my Seven Kingdoms, a man forgets that your part is as big as the other six combined."
If there ARE still Seven Kingdoms, and I'm wrong, which are the contemporary Seven Kingdoms, and which are the Houses that rule them? | <urn:uuid:3f1f263b-b51f-4392-950a-466662bc0b54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/28052/why-do-they-still-refer-to-the-seven-kingdoms-in-game-of-thrones | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97769 | 132 | 2.265625 | 2 |
If you are interested in driving simulators or driver simulation training, there are many avenues for you to explore this exciting method of training. First and foremost is the Internet. The World Wide Web is a fantastic resource for finding information on nearly everything - including driving simulators. A quick search on Google for driving simulators yields astounding three-quarters of a million sites to choose from. While many of these sites don't specifically focus on driver simulation training, it is a great place to start. Navigate through the available information for the site that suits you best.
The yellow pages are another fine source for finding driver simulators in your area. Just let your fingers to the walking, and discover the options for driver simulation training near you. Many of these companies offer affordable programs that can one day possibly save your life.
It is common knowledge that an inexperienced or nervous driver is more likely to either be involved in, or cause an accident. This does not mean that staying off the roads is an option. In our fuel-driven economy it is necessary for many people to drive automobiles. The roads are full of them. Remember the old adage better safe than sorry? This is where driving simulators come into play. There are many companies that specialize in this important technology. VSTEP, DriveSquare, and Driver Interactive are just a few examples of the companies that provide high-tech solutions to driver simulation training.
Many of today's driver simulators are so sophisticated that real-world situations are programmed into the software and hardware. This means that variables such as rain, snow, sleet, high wind, low visibility, and unforeseen events can be prepared for before they happen for real! Imagine experiencing the horror of a tire blow-out in a simulator. Think of the driving experience today's driving simulators can give you. Learning how do deal with a potentially life-threatening situation ahead of time can help you defeat the odds of a bad outcome if such a circumstance happens for real.
In addition, driving simulators and driver simulation training are used in driver's education courses taught in public schools and private businesses. Modern technology and ever-expanding computer power have led to realistic simulators that really prepare drivers for the dangers of the road. Furthermore, simulators exist for police cars, truck drivers, ambulance drivers, and more.
With all the technology available today, driver simulators and driver simulation training is a reality. Gone are the days of clunky graphics and slow responding controls. The United States Air Force uses simulators to train its pilots to protect the nation. Make sure you take advantage of driver simulators to protect yourself and those you love! | <urn:uuid:8f9e4c04-2210-439d-8ead-90457ac79b74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syl.com/motor/drivingsimulatorspreparefortheroad.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95437 | 536 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Posted by: Pabrai
According to the FBI, cybercrime is now more widespread than narcotics. The targets of cybercrime are a lot more focused than ever before. The average organization’s information infrastructure is attacked nearly 60,000 times every day. Let me repeat that attacks on business computing infrastructure are now close to 60,000 times each day.
The volume of created content is expected to quintuple in the next two years – to more than 2.5 zettabytes. Seventy of the content created is done by individuals with no responsibility to secure it. However, most of the content produced – 85% – is in environments and organizations with responsibility to secure this information.
There have been over 354 million reported data privacy breaches over the past five years in the USA alone.
California recently fined five hospitals $675,000 in penalties for failing to prevent unauthorized access to patient medical information. The healthcare industry is a growing target of threats.
Today, just about all industries must meet federal and state mandates for information privacy and security. FISMA impacts federal government agencies, HIPAA and HITECH are critical requirements for the healthcare industry and those that process or manage cardholder data must meet PCI DSS requirements. These regulations establish the minimal (floor and not the ceiling) capabilities that organizations must establish to secure sensitive information.
As I often share with my clients, our approach for information security in 2010 and beyond must result in capabilities to “bake in” security mechanisms and ensure that controls are not “bolted on”.
How prepared is your organization in preventing the compromise of sensitive client and customer information as well as protecting vital assets from these sustained attacks? | <urn:uuid:a4e93faa-e237-4122-baf5-207a1c42cd2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/healthitexchange/pabraionhipaahitechcompliance/cyber-threats/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946318 | 345 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Kennewick police are warning about counterfeit money being passed around town.
Fake $5, $10 and $20 bills recently have been found in deposits made by businesses, said Sgt. Ken Lattin.
Detectives are investigating an incident Friday when five counterfeit bills were used at Yoke's Fresh Markets, he said.
It's one of about a half dozen instances so far where the phony money has turned up, he said.
Three fake $20 bills and some $5's were used at Tesoro Food Mark, 528 S. Ely St., on Jan. 8 and 10.
A counterfeit $20 was passed at Twigs Bistro on Sunday, and Banner Bank reported Tuesday getting a fake $10 bill in a deposit from one of the McDonald's restaurants, Lattin said.
Westgate Elementary School staff also discovered Monday that they had been given a counterfeit $5 bill sometime in December.
Many businesses don't detect counterfeit money immediately, making it a challenge to track down the suspects, authorities said.
"We don't tell people what bad bills look like, we train people on what good bills look like," Lattin said.
Bills can be counterfeited in numerous ways, he said, so knowing what legitimate bills look like is key.
Checking serial numbers and looking for the security thread embedded in the paper and the watermark are ways to verify the money is real.
Officials urge store clerks to call police immediately if they receive counterfeit money. | <urn:uuid:1da0991c-1dff-461d-b6f1-51ed006dcd55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/01/17/2438481/fake-bills-turning-up-at-kennewick.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97171 | 307 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Next time you’re in a meeting, try this little experiment: Take a big yawn, cover your mouth out of courtesy and watch to see how many people follow suit. There’s a good chance you’ll set off a chain reaction of deep breaths and wide-open mouths. And before you finish reading this article, it’s likely you’ll yawn at least once. Don’t misunderstand, we aren’t intending to bore you, but just reading about yawning will make you do it, just as seeing or hearing someone else yawn makes us do it, too.
So what’s behind this mysterious epidemic of yawning? First, let’s look at what this bodily motion is: Yawning is an involuntary action that causes us to open our mouths wide and breathe in deeply. We know it’s involuntary because we do it even before we’re born: According to Robert Provine, a developmental neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, research has shown that 11-week-old fetuses yawn. | <urn:uuid:4727bbf4-3881-4de4-9491-eb3ad69760ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mopo.ca/2011/12/what-makes-us-yawn/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926476 | 226 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Eun-Kyun Suh100 Fears
Chiffon, threads, music wire
72 x36 x 30"
Friday, July 16, 2010Sunday, September 26, 2010
Minnesota Artists Exhibition Gallery
The fine and tenacious threads that represent generational and societal memory are the foundation for the work of these two Minnesota artists.
Mayumi Amada's exhibition "Kuon: Eternal Flow of Time" focuses on domestic female roles. Using lacework as a basis for an exploration of Kuon (the Japanese word for the Buddhist concept of time), she creates elaborate patterns out of single strands representing the patterns of life. Amada's delicate forms emerge from garbage bags and water bottles often inscribed with messages such as "Everybody Dies" in crisp sampler-style lettering. Her meditations on mortality, ancestry and craft ponder, often humorously, the mundane in life's daily chores and materials.
Bojagi, a traditional Korean art form, inspires Eun-Kyung Suh's work. Bojagi are cloths wrapped around objects for protection and transport. Made from small scraps of material, Bojagi are often decorated to form beautiful patch-worked wrappers. Suh uses this technique to protect memories and experiences. Her installations comprise many pieces containing small bits of information in sheer cloth. Often the packages are silk-screened with images and text, offering clues to their contents. Others, such as "Purple on Thursday," hold wishes in gauzy chiffon fortune cookies.
The Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program (MAEP) is made possible by a generous grant from the Jerome Foundation.
Download .pdf versions of the exhibition brochures:
Mayumi Amada, "Kuon: Eternal Flow of Time" (228kb .pdf)
Eun-Kyung Suh, "The Voided" (260kb .pdf) | <urn:uuid:bc8cb79a-df6a-45c8-a374-025055f527f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://artsmia.org/index.php?section_id=2&exh_id=3731&IM=4&start=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922271 | 382 | 1.710938 | 2 |
CAS 1995 House Testimony on CAFE
STATEMENT OF CLARENCE M. DITLOW
DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR AUTO SAFETY
SUBCOMMITTEE on ENERGY AND POWER
HOUSE COMMITTEE on COMMERCE
Washington DC July 24, 1995
Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for the invitation to testify on the Administration's implementation of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. The Center for Auto Safety is a consumer group founded by Consumers Union and Ralph Nader that works to improve motor vehicle safety, fuel economy and quality. This statement is also submitted on behalf of the ACEEE, Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen and the Sierra Club.
The motor vehicle fuel economy standards mandated by Congress in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) represent the most significant energy conservation program in this country. The express purpose of the fuel economy program was to reduce the U.S. vulnerability to foreign events by improving vehicle fuel efficiency over 1974 levels by 50% by 1980, and 100% -- to 27.5 MPG -- by 1985. Congress set the 27.5 mpg 1985 standard for cars but left the light truck standards to DOT which set it at 20.5 mpg for 1987 where it has essentially stayed. CAFE standards reduced U.S. oil consumption by 3 million barrels per day (b/d) of oil while saving purchasers of new cars $3,300 in gasoline costs. As a side benefit, they reduce evaporative hydrocarbon emissions in the production, transport and use of gasoline by 500,000 tons per year, as much as the going to the Tier I tailpipe emission standards in the Clean Air Act.
Passenger cars achieved the 27.5 mpg standard in 1985 and topped at 28.8 mpg in 1987, dropping to 28.2 in 1994. Light trucks hit 21.7 mpg in 1987, dropping to 20.6 in 1994. Total fleet fuel economy also hit a high of 26.2 mpg in 1987 but has since come down to 24.6 mpg in 1994 due to the combined effect of lower fuel economy for both cars and trucks and the increased market penetration of light trucks and vans in the fleet, up from less than 10% in 1979 to 28% in 1987 to 40% in 1994.
Although both cars and trucks have improved in fuel efficiency, cars by slightly over 100% and light trucks by slightly under 50% since 1975, the number of vehicles on the road (and vehicles miles traveled) has increased by 62 million since 1975. By 2005, the number of vehicles on the road will increase to over 225 million and gasoline consumption will rise by more than 20% unless we improve motor vehicle fuel efficiency. We support increasing CAFE standards for both cars and light trucks/vans by 60% by 2005 with a resultant savings of an additional 3 million b/d of oil, 500,000 tons of HC emissions and $2300 in consumer fuel savings.
Benefits of CAFE
CAFE standards have advanced major national policies. These include enhanced national security through reduced dependence on imported oil; significantly reduced fuel consumption and lowered greenhouse gas emissions; improved U.S. balance of trade and balance of payments resulting from reduced oil imports; reduced inflationary pressure; lessened dependence of the U.S. economy on foreign petroleum supplies; reduced air pollution by decreasing evaporative emissions; and stimulated substantial innovation in automotive design and production technology. There can be little doubt that the CAFE standards, by decreasing demand for petroleum, helped break OPEC's ability to fix high oil prices.
Growth in number of vehicles on the road from 133 million in 1975 when EPCA was passed to 195 million today has outstripped gains in fuel efficiency so that the nation relies more on imported oil than ever. When EPCA was passed in 1975, the US imported 6.5 million b/d of oil out of 16.5 million used with cars and light trucks consuming 6.0 million b/d. By 1993, the US imported 7.7 million b/d to meet the demand of 17.2 million b/d with cars and light trucks consuming 6.9 million b/d.
In 1993 the United States imported 44% of the petroleum it consumed with nearly half coming from OPEC. The Energy Information Agency (EIA) predicts that after 2000 OPEC will supply just under 60% of imports. By 2010 EIA estimates that we will be importing 59% of the petroleum Americans will consume annually. These oil imports account for a significant portion of the United States' trade deficit. In 1994, oil imports cost the American people $45 billion, almost a third of a monumental $150 billion trade imbalance. Unlike auto imports, oil imports cannot be reduced by trade negotiations, only by conservation.
Fuel Economy Can Be Improved to 45-mpg by 2005 Through Technology
Since 1974, new car fuel economy has increased by 100% through the use of technology without restricting consumer choice or reducing safety. Today consumers have far safer and more fuel efficiency vehicle to chose from in all size classes. In 1994, we saved over 3.0 million b/d of gasoline and 41,000 lives annually due respectively to CAFE that has doubled and fatality rates that have decreased by 50% since 1974.
Technology enabled us to double CAFE from 1975 by 1985 and technology will enable us to increase CAFE again to 45 MPG by 2005. In 1975, cars had carburetors, 3-speed automatic transmissions and poor aerodynamics. By 1985 cars had fuel injection, 4-speed automatic transmission, good aerodynamics and more efficient engines. By 2005, cars will have electronically controlled 5-speed automatic or continuously variable transmissions, tuned intake manifolds, sleeker aerodynamics, lean burn engines with variable valve timing, reduced friction technology, and some new engines. Increased use of strong, lightweight materials will increase fuel economy themselves and will permit the use of smaller engines for further fuel economy gains.
Compact cars that get 40 MPG today can get at least 60 MPG by 2005 while large cars which get 25 MPG today can get at least 40 MPG. As shown on the attached fact sheet, CAS examined how the Ford Taurus as a typical family car that today gets about 27 MPG could get 42 MPG with improved technology. The 42 MPG Taurus does not utilize all available technologies such as maximum substitution of light weight materials or developing technologies such as 2-stroke engine, hybrid engines and stored energy accumulators. The 42 MPG Taurus could get even better fuel economy if it were designed to be a maximum technology car. By 2010, vehicles like the Taurus could get 60 MPG.
CAFE Improvements Come From Technology Not Small Cars
When Congress passed the first fuel economy standards (CAFE) in 1975, the auto industry said it would "outlaw full-size sedans and station wagons [Chrysler]", "require all sub-compact vehicles" and "place hardships on Americans who want and need larger cars [Ford]", and "restrict availability of 5 and 6 passenger cars regardless of consumer needs [GM]." These 1975 charges were nothing more than scare tactics. In fact CAFE doubled while large cars stayed on the road. In 1975, 14.3% of the fleet was large cars; in 1994, 13.6% of the fleet is large cars.
Of the 14.2 MPG gain in CAFE from 14 MPG in 1974 to 28.2 MPG in 1994, 12.4 MPG or 87% results from technological improvements to passenger cars. The increase in CAFE due to weight loss from 1974 was 1.6 MPG or 11.5%. only 0.2 MPG or 1.4% of the improvement came from consumers buying smaller cars. The virtual elimination of the mini-compact car which went from 11.4% of the market in 1974 to 0.3% in 1994 shows that tighter CAFE standards does not necessitate small cars.
The 14.2 MPG improvement since 1974 is all the more remarkable because 2.8 MPG was lost due to tuning engines for faster acceleration times between 1981 and 1994. If engine performance improvements had been used for CAFE gains instead of faster acceleration, the 1994 CAFE would have been 31.0 MPG and a gain of 17.0 MPG with 15.2 MPG or 89% coming from technological improvements.
Light Truck Fuel Economy Can Be Improved Through Technology
The same technologies used to improve passenger car fuel economy have similar applications in light trucks. Thus more efficient engines, technologies to reduce friction and pumping losses, materials substitution, and better aerodynamics can all be used in trucks and vans. Light truck and van fuel economy can be readily improved because more technology remains to be used than in passenger cars. For example, multi-point fuel injection is used in nearly 70% of the 1994 new car fleet but only 35% of the light truck and van fleet while multi-valve engines were found in 45% of 1994 cars but only 4% of light trucks and vans. Some technologies such as diesel engines may well have greater use in trucks than in cars due to consumer experience with the technology.
When the Environmental Protection did its last assessment of best in class technology for light trucks in 1990, it found that the top five trucks in each weight class had 20% better fuel economy than the average truck yet had substantially the same performance in terms of top speed and payload. The average fuel economy for the best five in class was 25.2 mpg versus 21.0 for the average truck. If every truck today got the same fuel economy as the best truck in its weight class in 1990, the average light truck CAFE would be 25.9 mpg. Note that best in class analysis is based on no change in sales mix so whatever number of 8500 pound full-size pickups are sold is fixed at that number with no mix shift.
Industry arguments that increased CAFE standards for light trucks will outlaw many large trucks and vans are no more true today than were its arguments in 1975 that CAFE standards would outlaw large cars and station wagons. CAFE standards made large cars better and more fuel efficient. However, industry arguments made in the early 1970's to lift the excise tax on light trucks on the grounds that they are used for the substantially the same purposes as cars and should be treated the same as cars is more telling.
Safety & CAFE Do Not Conflict With Laws Of Physics
For a given population of present cars, the laws of physics do not command a relationship between CAFE and levels of safety. The safety of vehicles has been demonstrated to be easily improved from current levels with significant weight reductions. Safety is related to structural crashworthiness and occupant protection design technology, while fuel economy is related to engine and transmission efficiency, power to weight ratio, acceleration performance, drag coefficient, materials choice and vehicle packaging (whether an efficient design such as front wheel drive is used).
By using advanced safety features, small cars can be made as safe or safer than large cars. The laws of physics do not say small cars cannot be made safe; they just say good engineering must be used to make any car safe. Indeed the safest cars ever built were small cars, the Research Safety Vehicles built by the Department of Transportation in the late 1970's that used advanced materials and design to make cars lighter while retaining their size and improving both their fuel economy and safety. Many smaller cars today with airbags will outperform larger cars without airbags in vehicle to vehicle crashes.
The basic principles for designing safe, fuel efficient cars was recognized by Dr. William Haddon, the first head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (then known as the National Highway Safety Bureau) and later president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, when he said.
Car size - not car weight - is a critical parameter in terms of occupant protection. Since fuel economy is influenced much more by weight than by size, it should be possible to make cars that are of adequate size to protect their occupants (and that have respectable fuel economy as well) by increasing the use of lightweight materials. In this regard, it is worth noting that many of the newer intermediate-size cars have substantially better fuel economy than many of the smallest cars of only a few years ago. (Testimony of Dr. William Haddon, Jr., president, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, House Committee on Science and Technology, November 1982.)
For vehicles using the same roads these relationships suggest a crashworthiness design concept for intervehicular crashes that regards increases in vehicle size as primarily protective, and increases in vehicle weight as primarily hostile, indicating the desirability of relatively sizeable but not heavy vehicles. ("Relationship Between Car Size, Car Weight, and Crash Injuries in Car-to-Car Crashes," William Haddon, B. O'Neill, H Joksch, IIHS, July 1974.)
The laws of physics do say motorcycles, pedestrians and all other vehicle occupants would be safer if very large cars were made lighter. The extra weight in large cars offers no safety benefits to their occupants but makes these large vehicle more dangerous when they strike other vehicles and people. By reducing the weight of present large cars while retaining their size, the laws of physics say we will save lives, gasoline and the environment.
The safety technology which will be incorporated in new cars includes improved roof strength and upper lining, laminated side windows, full frontal airbags, antilock brakes and energy absorbing interiors to reduce head and side injuries. Small cars will include advanced airbags which inflate faster and contain a small interior bag to protect occupants in a range of crash speeds. High strength, low alloy steel will be used in the fender well and side rails along with improved A-pillar strength in small cars.
Auto manufacturers can utilize advanced safety technologies like airbags, padded interiors, high strength/low weight materials, deformable side door glass, pretensioning belts, airbelts, antilock brakes, wider tracks to reduce rollover and roof padding to improve rollover crashworthiness. The required installation of full front seat airbags in all new cars by 1997 plus implementation of the new dynamic side impact standard alone will reduce occupant deaths more than 20%. The dynamic side impact standard is an example of how to improve small car safety. The previous standard applied a force that was inversely proportional to the weight of the vehicle with small cars required to have less resistance than large cars. By going to a moving 3000 pound barrier, the new rule will reverse this effect.
Return To Performance Not Dictated By Consumer Demand
During the past 10 years, the auto companies have elected to use improvements in engine technology to boost horsepower and performance instead of fuel efficiency. This trend is so great that the cars of today have the highest power/weight ratio ever recorded, higher than the fabled muscle cars of the 1960's like the Pontiac GTO. Such performance not only lowers fuel economy but also results in more fatalities. The highest injury rated sports cars is the Ford Mustang which also has one of highest power to weight ratios and lowest acceleration times.
The return to performance at the expense of fuel efficiency is not dictated by consumer demand but by industry product planning and marketing strategy. The American Automobile Manufacturers Association just last month gave the attached Consumer Purchase Reason Study to the National Academy of Sciences which shows Fuel Economy ranks higher than Power and Pickup, higher than Fun to Drive, Cargo Space and Seating Capacity. If the industry had been listening to consumers, more of the engine efficiency improvements would have gone to fuel economy than to performance.
CAFE Improved Safety By Phase-out Of Unsafe, Fuel Inefficient Cars
When Congress passed the CAFE law, it forced the car companies to phase out many older, less fuel efficient and unsafe vehicles. The CAFE standards hastened the phase-out of unsafe models such as the Pinto and created an opportunity for the auto companies to build advanced safety into a whole new generation of models. Many of the most unsafe mid-1970's vehicles were replaced by new models with major gains in both safety and fuel efficiency. one of the best examples is the replacement of the VW Beetle by the Rabbit which had a 44% lower fatality rate and a 25% higher gas mileage. When Honda redesigned the 1800 pound Civic in 1981, its gas mileage improved by 12% and its fatality rate dropped by 44%. The attached table shows six pairs of vehicles phased out during the late 1970's and early 1980's where in each case the CAFE of the replacement vehicle went up by 5-20% and the fatality rate dropped by 30-50%.
Improved CAFE Necessary to Keep US Competitive As Other Countries Move Ahead
In March of this year the Association of the German Automobile Industry announced a voluntary agreement to improve the fuel economy of their passenger cars by 33% over 1990 levels by the year 2005. This voluntary agreement translates to an increase in fuel economy of German cars up to 41 mpg. The German auto makers committed to utilizing known existing fuel efficiency technologies toward achieving their goal rather than through any vehicle downsizing. New technologies continue to come out of the Japanese car companies, particularly in area of more efficient engines with companies like Mitsubishi catching up to and even passing Honda with its VTEC engine that enabled the Civic to get a 20% improvement in fuel efficiency. Just today, Automotive News reported Honda is adding the continuously variable transmission to a new version of its VTEC engine that results in 20% better fuel economy and 40% more power.
Although the US auto makers are engaged in the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) with the government to build a 80-mpg production prototype sedan by 2005, it's another thing to put it on the road. Research and development programs may well develop the technology but it's regulatory programs that move it into the marketplace. As Henry Ford II said at the end of his career as head of Ford Motor Company, "We could not have not made all the advance in safety and the environment without government regulations." | <urn:uuid:0056b4d9-cd4a-4ab8-8157-e1adce79b41e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.autosafety.org/cas-1995-house-testimony-cafe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953915 | 3,688 | 1.5625 | 2 |
I’m teaching lesson 28 covering stories about Elijah in 1 Kings 17-19 this Sunday and since we have a shortened block (2.5 hours) here in Arizona I’m going to focus mostly on the things we learn about personal revelation in chapter 19. You are familiar with the famous verses:
Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kings 19: 11-12)
I think that there is no question that all people have equal access to God when it comes to sending communications to him. I like to compare that to “upload speeds”, using an internet analogy. We can all sincerely pray after all. But it seems obvious to me that not everyone has the same download speeds, or abilities to receive and understand messages from God. Many (perhaps most) people seem to be downloading information from God at 14.4 modem speeds (or slower) while other like the prophets seems to be downloading multimedia extravaganzas from God at T3 bandwidth. I believe our doctrines that say that the Gift of the Holy Ghost is a MAJOR boost to our download speeds if we keep the promises we made a baptism and renew weekly with the sacrament. (If we break those promises then the Gift of the Holy Ghost is largely wasted on us.)
This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. My personal revelation category has more than 25 posts already. (See here, here, and here for particularly relevant posts.) RT mentioned that he liked the bandwidth analogy but wondered about the “signal to noise ratio” when it comes to personal revelation. I think his concern is that it is usually very difficult to tell what part of our impressions are coming from God and which parts are not. I have covered this question in the past in my Ears post but I think the experience of Elijah also speaks directly to this signal to noise issue.
Now I’m not sure how much poetic license the authors of 1 Kings 19 took with the actual experience that Elijah had but I don’t think it matters much. The point seems to be that noise is always an issue when we are seeking to hear God’s voice. Not necessarily audio noise but “mind noise”. (I just made that term up.) I think the issue is that we need a way to quiet our minds enough to discern the Spirit’s still small voice. That is not an easy task for most of us. There are some things we can do to find quiet in our minds though. For me quieting my mind in order to communicate with God is usually through a process pondering/meditation/prayer. But in order to properly ponder/meditate/pray it is useful to find a quiet place. There aren’t too many quiet places in the modern world so this requires some real work sometimes. The temple is a quiet place. (I actually hate going to the temple with people I know because it is not a quiet place where I can properly meditate/ponder for me when friends or ward members are there – but that is another subject.) The scriptures refer to our “closet” which I think mostly means somewhere (at some time) in our homes where we can quietly ponder and pray. (When you have a house full of little kids like we do this usually has to happen early or late – I prefer late personally.) And another quiet place can be outside, in nature if possible. I sometimes go on walks around our neighborhood after the kids go to bed (and after temps drop below 100) and that gives me some pondering time. Anyway, once we can find a a quiet place we need quiet in our minds if we are to get good at hearing and understanding the “still small voice” of God. Of course a major part of properly quieting our minds is repenting I think. Sins seem to cause mind noise and the more serious the sin the more mind noise it seems to cause. If we want a quiet mind we ought to at least be keeping our basic covenants with God or we will have possibly too much mind noise to deal with to properly hear the still small voice. Further, the Gift of the Holy Ghost seems to amplify the still small voice for us but it doesn’t work unless we “always remember [Christ] and keep his commandments“.
The Lawnmower Analogy
Even when we have repented of any obvious sins and quiet our minds, it still takes takes a lot practice to learn to glean more and more info from the “signal” God is sending us . This post is getting long but I have to share this story that is a variation on the Ears thing to finish up. A guy in my ward told the best story a while back. He said his dad repaired lawnmowers for a living. The man said that when he was a boy he watched with wonder and awe as people would bring in lawnmowers and his dad would pull the crank a few times and immediately know what was wrong with the mower. It always sounded like the same noise to him as a boy but there were nuances in the sound that his father had learned to discern over years of practice. This man then said that as a teenager his ears got more and more attuned to those nuances too and he got almost as good as his dad. Of course even the masterful dad couldn’t do his trick if the radio was blasting or another mower was running or something. But if he had sufficient quiet he could use his trained ears to discern exactly the information the mower was telling him.
This is how personal revelation works. The information from God is there but we must train our ears to discern it. It arrives via a still small voice most of the time. But even the best trained spiritual ears won’t be able to properly hear if there is a lot of background noise (like sin or being caught up too much in the daily noise of life) jamming the signals.
May we all learn to find our quiet places where we can quiet our minds and get better and better at discerning the things God wants to directly tell us. | <urn:uuid:8f246a67-a535-4767-b508-6a8ccde67251> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newcoolthang.com/index.php/2006/07/still-small-voice/267/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975055 | 1,350 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Insulin resistance is a condition in which body cells do not fully
respond to the action of insulin, a hormone that controls the amount of sugar
(glucose) in the blood. As a result, blood sugar levels become abnormally
Over time, insulin resistance can result in consistently high blood
sugar levels, which increases a person's risk for type 2 diabetes.
Pregnant women who are insulin resistant have an increased risk for gestational diabetes.
Usually, insulin resistance develops in people who are overweight
and not physically active. These characteristics are often associated with
having high cholesterol and high blood pressure. People who are insulin
resistant have an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, especially if
other risk factors, such as being a smoker or having high cholesterol levels,
November 3, 2011
Sarah Marshall, MD - Family Medicine & Alan C. Dalkin, MD - Endocrinology
How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
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We are happy to take your appointment request over the phone, or, you may fill out an online request form.
Disclaimer: The information on this website is for general informational purposes only and SHOULD NOT be relied upon as a substitute for sound professional medical advice, evaluation or care from your physician or other qualified health care provider. | <urn:uuid:f04d2ba0-b9fa-4b82-a82a-1d239980085e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wakehealth.edu/Health-Encyclopedia/HE-Content.htm?hwid=sti150721 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902008 | 311 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Why Are There Angels And Demons?
Being involved with Aaron C. Donahue and his doctrine
of Luciferianism has brought me down a strange and confusing path where it is sometimes difficult to determine right from
wrong; good from evil.
According to Aaron, the human race has been fooled and
misdirected for the past 4000 years or more by an angelic realm that has been working to lead us into self destruction. Yet
all this time, people have regarded angels as good things, spiritual ambassadors sent by God if you will, to help guide everybody
through life and then carry them on up into Heaven when they die.
All of this time, Aaron says the demons have been regarded
as evil. The church teaches that they are fallen angels, who, like Lucifer, were tossed by an angry God out of Heaven.
Their purpose, the Christians say, seems to have been to tempt us to do wrong things. The ultimate revenge by Lucifer,
also called Satan, and his demonic realm, has been to steal our soul so that we spend an eternity in a terrible fiery place
But Aaron, who claims to be a spokesman for Lucifer, says
this is all backwards. He teaches that Lucifer is the progenitor of the human race and that we all carry within us a single
soul. That is the soul or light of Lucifer. Our purpose, Aaron says, was to be information systems that evolve into a state
Our job was to take care of the garden, which was the
Planet Earth in its original perfect state, and to grow both mentally and in numbers to a population of 10 billion people.
Once we hit this number, and with everybody operating at full brain capacity, we would have 10 billion brains all matching
resonance. This, Aaron says, was to have been our Nexus; our next step up an evolutionary ladder.
At that point, we were to have been able to
reach not only toward the information system that we identify as Lucifer, our creator, but perhaps even higher toward the
ultimate energy that we call God. Lucifer is the gate.
Even though he created us by implanting his DNA into the
bodies of Earthly primates, Lucifer is not God, Aaron says. Lucifer is not an angel, nor is he a demon. He is a higher energy
state that is quite alien.
So if this story is to be believed, who are the angels
and demons, why are they at odds with one another, and why is there so much confusion as to what is good and what
According to Aaron, angels and demons are all aliens.
They are all the same. They battle each other because there is a need for balance. It is the age-old principle of Yin and
Yang. Neither side is really good, or evil. They are just two sides of an issue. Their presence brings balance and
order to things.
Aaron has often said that the purpose of Lucifer is
to impede mans path and thus create puzzles that force him to develop his bicameral brain. We might say that the angels and
demons are helpers who do this work for Lucifer. Thus we have continual conflicts and problems as we make our way through
life. The complexities of thought get even more difficult when we enter the world of the esoteric.
But something has gone wrong. The humans failed to evolve,
not just once, but four consecutive times. Donahue said we were given the freedom of choice and each time we tried, our choice
was to take the wrong path. On three previous occasions Lucifer sent help and moved a remnant of mankind into the future where
humans were given a reseeded planet and a chance to start over.
Now the fourth world is ruined. We failed once again.
What is happening?
The angelic forces seem to have discovered a formula that
works every time. They win the hearts of minds of the masses through the creation of great religious systems. Through the
religious beliefs humans worship the angel and shun the demon. The teachings are that demonic possession is evil. When it
happens we go to great lengths to exorcise the spirit from the body. Yet we encourage the angels to enter us daily in our
This is what happens every time a person asks Jesus to
come into his heart. He becomes possessed by an angel.
Donahue says the angels hate humans because we were made
in the image of Lucifer and we all have the soul and light of Lucifer in us. If we had remained on the path humans would have
evolved to possess all of the power and the abilities that were known to Christ, Mohammad, Krishna and Buddha.
Instead of using only 13 percent of our brains, we would
have learned to use all of our brains. We could then have seen beyond the veil and recognized all of the wonders of the universe,
instead of sharing a tunnel reality.
We allowed the angels to cloud our minds so that we never
discovered who we are.
There is a way of escape but it is severe. Donahue says:
"We must now remove the angels and accept the demonic realm. We must disrupt the balance. It will be our only chance to have | <urn:uuid:f7d517e9-8f0c-45eb-9e26-f82946086aab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.perdurabo10.com/themindofjamesdonahue/id635.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970492 | 1,076 | 1.679688 | 2 |
I love the deep red color of this southern cake. Originally thought, the vinegar and buttermilk mixed with the cocoa when baked turned the cake red. But if that were true than any and all chocolate cakes that included buttermilk or something else acidic would turn the cake red, and it doesn't. Nowadays, it's made with red food coloring- lots and lots of red food coloring! You might want to wear an apron and rubber gloves :-)
- 1 1/2 c. sugar
- 1 c. shortening
- 2 large eggs
- 1-1 oz. bottle red food coloring
- 3 tbsp. cocoa
- 2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 c. buttermilk
- 1 tbsp. vinegar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3- 8 inch pans or line 18 muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside.
To make the cake, in a bowl cream the sugar and shortening. Add the eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl make a paste with the food coloring and cocoa. Add the paste to the shortening mixture. In another bowl combine the flour and salt, and add to the mixture. In a cup mix the buttermilk, vinegar and soda, and add to the mixture. Pour the mixture into prepared pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes in the cake pans and 15-20 for the cupcakes, or until done. Let the cake cool in the pans completely before removing.
When cool, frost with cream cheese frosting (recipe below).
NOTE: I made this cake in one large bowl. I creamed the butter and sugar, then added the eggs, then alternately added the dry ingredients with the wet. I then added the food coloring at the very end.
The original recipe called for 4 ounces of red food coloring. I only used one 1 oz. bottle and it was plenty red. If you want to add more, go right ahead. This would also be fun to try out other colors, like blue, green, or even purple.
This recipe makes one 3-layer cake or 18 cupcakes.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 4 tbsp. butter, softened
- 3 c. powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)
In a medium bowl, cream the cheese, butter and vanilla til smooth with a hand mixer. Slowly mix in sifted powdered sugar til light and fluffy. Frost cake and top with nuts. Eat right away or refrigerate any leftovers.
Happy Birthday my Love!
Samuel Andrew - August 15, 2006 | <urn:uuid:4f17e674-84cd-49b1-9feb-15d846951e2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lickthebowlgood.blogspot.com/2008/08/sams-birthday-cupcakes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909362 | 580 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors–not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Romans 8:12-14
In the last chapter of 1 Samuel 31, King Saul is struck with an arrow by the Philistines and is severely wounded. Not wanting to be taken captive and abused by the enemy, Saul commits suicide by falling on his own sword. However, as we open Second Samuel we discover in chapter one there is more to the story. A man comes into David’s camp with extraordinary news…
As I happened by chance to be on Mount Gilboa, there was Saul, leaning on his spear; and indeed the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. Now when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. And I answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ So I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’ He said to me again, ‘Please stand over me and kill me, for anguish has come upon me, but my life still remains in me.’ 2 Samuel 1:6b-9
Did This Really Happen?
Did the Amalekite finish off Saul? Some say this event truly occurred and others theorize the man just stumbled upon an already dead Saul, stole his stuff, and brought it to David seeking a compensation of some sort. We cannot be dogmatic about either position, but we can be certain of two thing: the Amalekite man was there ~and~ that he should not have been.
We know he was there because he had details of the scene and he had the damming evidence in his possession; King Saul’s royal crown and bracelet. We know he didn’t belong there because of what transpired twenty five years earlier.
Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey…Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?” And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek…” 1 Samuel 15:3, 18-20a
Saul failed. He did not completely annihilate the Amalekites and therefore, the one who finished him off should not have even existed. In typology, the Amalekites are a picture of our flesh; or more accurately the sin that continues to plague us from generation to generation. The account in Second Samuel demonstrates effectively how if the flesh is not dealt with, it will come back to destroy us. The Apostle Paul picks up the theme when he writes [that] if we choose to live by the flesh (sin) we will die by the flesh.
When Saul took Agag captive, he thought he had the situation under control. Is that not always the way with the sin we commit; don’t we also believe we have it under control? Saul’s action further demonstrates that the ill effects of sin might not be experienced for years—in his case twenty five years. Far too often we come to believe that because the consequences are not forthright, God must approve of our sin or worse yet, that our sin is not a sin at all. Beware.
The very truth of the matter is that our flesh; our sin; our Amalekites need to be dealt with—they need to be annihilated and utterly destroyed. How do we do that? The first thing we need to do is to recognize our sin as sin; calling it anything else but sin only serves to deny ourselves the remedy found in Christ’s blood. It’s kind of like going to the doctor and denying that you’re sick—if we cannot admit we are sick, the doctor likely won’t see us.
The second thing we need to do it repent of our sin; turn away from it and turns toward God. Thirdly, we must take responsibility for the sin we commit; sure we are forgiven and our salvation is secure, but there are earthly consequences that need to be dealt with. Finally, we need to accept the unmerited favor that our Father desires to bestow upon all who believe in His Son.
Saul failed, but he could have recovered. He didn’t recover because he thought he had his flesh under control.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. | <urn:uuid:dba6e2fc-d062-4681-adbe-75f3f53f5e40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://compassiondave.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/an-amalekite-will-always-bite-you-on-the%E2%80%A6/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968641 | 1,085 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Funding will help with mapping, developing a database of historical resources, and printing guidelines for the city’s Five-Year Historic Resources Work Program, project planner Heather Widen said at Tuesday’s council meeting.
The city wants to focus on identifying historic districts and individual properties, creating a master database of historic resources and potential future designations, and crafting guidelines to help homeowners who live in a historic district or home, Widen said.
A lot of the work is already being done by Community Development staff as they review proposed developments, update codes and serve the Historic Landmarks Commission, according to city planner Betty Weiss.
“Everything recommended is already in progress to some degree,” she said.
Much of the work — and necessary funding — has to do with getting the database up and running, and accessible to the public.
With identifying historic districts, city staff members will use data from surveys done within the last 10 years as a starting point. Consultants have gathered extensive data on historic properties for the west downtown, lower Riviera and West Beach/waterfront neighborhoods, which cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars, Weiss said.
The waterfront survey is the oldest — done in 2002 — and staff members will start with that area.
The process could draw some controversy, Widen noted. Whenever a city talks about designating a district or individual structure as historic, homeowners want to know how they’ll be affected.
The city plans to have a lot of outreach with workshops, educational presentations, clear guidelines and discussions of the benefits from a historical designation, she said.
Many studies have shown that being part of a historic district stabilizes or even raises property values, according to Nicole Hernandez, the city’s urban historian.
Members of the public and representatives of the Historic Landmarks Commission supported the allocation of $30,000, and the five-year plan for implementing the historic resources element.
Hernandez said the city will include summary pages of each district’s history, along with the guidelines for homeowners in the area, so the area’s people are acknowledged as well.
“That’s where we garnish the pride of that history, and each district already has one (written up by the city),” she said. “It’s more than just a building — it’s what’s behind it that gives it that story.”
The council also approved changes to the Police Management Association’s pension contributions at Tuesday’s meeting.
Members now pay 2.88 percent of the 9-percent member contribution to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System; they previously paid none. The city, which paid the entirety of the employee-paid portion in the past for many labor groups, will now pay less into CalPERS.
All new employees or members who join the bargaining group after Jan. 1 of this year have to pay at least half the normal cost, 12.75 percent, into their own pension benefits, and the city cannot pay member contributions for those people. | <urn:uuid:5dc52a1f-1821-490c-8801-e3cd9307c1a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/020513_santa_barbara_council_allocates_30000_historic_resources_plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940955 | 633 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Correlated photon radiometry
Determining the absolute responsivity of photon counting detectors
The responsivity (η1) of a photon counting detector can be determined using pairs of correlated photons by positioning two detectors to intercept each of photons in the pair. The counting rate of each detector (N1 and N2) is recorded along with the coincidence rate (NC) between the two detectors. The ratio of the coincidence rate to the single rate of one detector is the absolute quantum efficiency of the other detector and vice versa. The rate of photon production (N) cancels in this procedure. Put another way, the output pulses of one of the detectors can be thought of as a trigger which indicates the existence of a second photon headed for the other detector. The quantum efficiency of the detector is then just the fraction of photons detected at the second detector in conjunction with a trigger from the first.
To test this method, a parametric down-conversion source has been set up to allow the absolute spatial responsivity of a photomultiplier to be measured at a range of wavelengths in the visible. The method was verified using independent calibration methods available within the division. The goal is to determine the ultimate accuracy that may be achieved with this method. The first results showed agreement at the 0.5% level, which was the estimated 1-sigma uncertainty of that comparison. Improvements are underway to test this comparison at the 0.1% level.
Absolute radiance measurements of high temperature IR sources
We are using a correlated photon technique to measures the absolute radiance of an IR source by comparison to fundamental constants. This system starts with a down-conversion setup designed to produce visible-IR photon pairs. The IR source output beam to be measured is superimposed onto the IR correlated photon output. By overlapping the two beams, spatially and spectrally, the IR source effectively stimulates the production of down-converted photons along that direction as well as along the correlated visible photon direction. The enhancement is measured along the visible direction with a visible detector. The ratio of the visible down-converted signal with the IR beam on versus IR beam off provides an absolute determination of the IR radiance.
Single-photon on-demand source
As currently implemented, single-photon sources cannot be made to produce single photons with high probability, while simultaneously suppressing the probability of yielding two or more photons. Because of this, single photon sources cannot really produce single photons on demand. We are building a multiplexed system that allows the probabilities of producing one and more photons to be adjusted independently, enabling a much better approximation of a source of single photons on demand. This is accomplished using an array of downconverters and detectors (Fig. 1). All of the downconverters are pumped simultaneously by the same laser pulse. The pump laser power is chosen so each downconverter has some small probability of producing a photon pair, while the number of downconverters is chosen so there is a high likelihood of at least one pair being created somewhere in the array. The detector associated with each downconverter allows us to determine which of the downconverters has fired. This information is used to control an optical switching circuit directing the other photon of the pair onto the single output channel. This arrangement allows a much truer approximation of a single photon on-demand source than is possible with other methods.
Currently, we have implemented a simplified version of this scheme where the optical switching circuit shown in the diagram has been replaced by a single collection lens. This simplified scheme effectively breaks the trigger detector area into multiple regions, which allows us to extract more information about a heralded photon than is possible with a conventional arrangement. This scheme allows photons to be produced along with a quantitative "certification" that they are single photons. Some of the single-photon certifications can be significantly better than what is possible with conventional downconversion sources (using a unified trigger detector region), as well as being better than faint laser sources.
The following paper details the current implementation of the scheme: Single photon source with individualized single photon certifications.
Illustrations of downconversion: | <urn:uuid:dccbe0e4-a0b8-4de3-afc5-3f5f93f19774> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nist.gov/pml/div684/grp03/quantum_correlated.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925012 | 851 | 3.1875 | 3 |
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Building 32 was bad.
But Building 5 was undeniably worse.
If you were a patient in Building 5, you risked burning to death in the shower. Or being tossed from your cold, metal bed onto the even colder floor in the middle of the night. And forget about warm meals - if you were fed at all.
Three former patients from the long-shuttered Willowbrook State School recalled moments of horror during a reunion of sorts on April 26 at the Hilton in Manhattan, where they presented journalist Geraldo Rivera with a plaque for helping to uncover the deplorable conditions at the facility. Rivera's 1972 piece garnered national attention and led to reforms at Willowbrook, which was shut down in 1987.
The Advance began uncovering questionable practices at the institution, which was meant to treat children
and adults with mental disabilities, in the mid-1960s.
According to those reports, Willowbrook was overcrowded - serving 6,055 patients though it was meant to handle just 4,000 - and understaffed. Patients appeared to be withering away. Police frequented the campus to investigate beatings and deaths by strangulation.
Rivera said the memory that lingered the most for him was the stale stench in the air. He sneaked into Building 6 after a doctor concerned about the conditions slipped him a key. Then a long-haired lawyer-turned-fledgling-newsman, Rivera saw patients roaming about without clothing. Some squatted underneath sinks in filthy bathrooms.
"It was like a badly run kennel for humans," he said during a speech at an event sponsored by the YAI Network, a nonprofit that aids people with disabilities. "It was something that shook me to my core. It was something that affected me more deeply than anything has."
Barbara Meyer, one of the three former patients at the event, still has a hard time listening to people talk about Willowbrook. Now 72, she vividly recalls the 23 years she spent there beginning at age 17.
She appeared unnerved in describing the pests that scuttled about and the screams of patients that echoed through dormitory-style rooms lined with dozens of beds. But Ms. Meyer exudes a sense of resilience she likely gained while living at Willowbrook. If anyone picked on her, she talked back, and she stood up for others. She quickly became known as one of the "bright girls," whom no one bothered. She was even transferred from Building 5 to Building 32, an all-female dormitory that was more tame. It's what helped her survive as she watched those around her suffer.
"I was determined to get out of there," Ms. Meyer said. "It was a rathole."
She was one of the first to be let out, in 1972. She briefly worked for a toy company, and has spent 23 years earning a paycheck by packaging items and working on simple product assembly. She calls a YAI Center in Queens her home and has made many friends.
David Clark, 55, said he was a youngster when he entered Willowbrook and that he endured more than a decade of physical mistreatment that caused his eyesight to deteriorate. He depicted with distaste the terrible vibe inside the school.
"It was like a jail scene, a prison," he said. "Even the soap stunk."
Sometime after leaving in 1976, Clark, who also lives in a YAI Center in Queens, joined a day program, through which he socializes with others. His counselors have noticed that he's very guarded, and it's rare they'll get a smile out of him. But when they do, they feel honored to be a part of his life.
Meanwhile, Franklin Davis, 57, will smile at any whim. Perhaps having healed the most of the three, Davis lives with two roommates in a supported-living apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens. He spends most moments of the day beaming and appreciating life. Even paying his own bills brings him joy.
To this day, his strength amazes his counselors. Conditions were so bad at Willowbrook that he once tried to escape by jumping out a window. Having injured his ankle, he didn't get far before security guards caught him. He told them all he wanted was a hot meal. He remembered another time a fellow patient got hold of a razor blade and slashed Davis across the face with it. No one intercepted the attack, and blood shot out of his right cheek.
He said he'll never forget the day he got out, in November 1976.
"I said, thank God," he said. "I was so happy, I jumped for joy. I said thank God I'm coming out."
Joan Leinwand, the medicaid service coordinator resource specialist for YAI, said she has been awe-inspired by the courage of all three people, with whom she has worked for about 30 years.
"They have such an amazing will to live and such strength that we'll never know," she said. "They have survived something that none of us ever want to know. The respect I have for their lives is never-ending. They have taught me an intense quality for life." | <urn:uuid:870ff3dd-2c7c-4c7a-873a-1c5bbfe8297a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/willowbrook_survivors_recollec_1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989413 | 1,074 | 1.648438 | 2 |
This might seem like an issue of black moral pride, even an issue of protecting black women but in reality by being so positioned, black women and their resources, be they material or otherwise, become held exclusively for the use of those within the black group and within ready access to be drawn on by those in the black category.
It has indeed been shown that it is wise to consider the angle of control of ‘resources’ when looking at how society is organised and this is very much valid way of looking at the situation of black women as a group within a social framework.
The whole notion of ‘keeping black women within black political mileu’ is the underlying sentiment that gives rise to thwarting and blocking responses that black women experience when they attempt any social movement beyond the black construct. This notion is also detectable in the unreasonable requirements they continue to be issued with, to keep faithful to the tenets of in-group mate selection, despite clear indications that severe number imbalances exist for this to continue to be a valid policy for black women at this point in time. In addition, the lack of concern, the skirting around or glossing over the reality of damage that such a requirement will have on a significant number of black women in their quest for relationships is also a clear sign of how low in consideration black women are placed within the hierarchy of importance operating within the black construct. That black women are here to ‘facilitate’ the tribal agenda (agenda both for and set by black men) and are seen as mere fodder for the furtherance of tribal goals and ideals is the message communicated by the indifference and lack of empathy generally displayed in these situations.
‘I was hungry and thirsty and I could not even reach out to pick a ripe and available orange within my reach because it was across the fence.’
The above comment clearly expresses the dilema faced by black women who find they cannot meet their needs within the black construct but are required to continue to remain within the black construct regardless of their personal sufferings.
Given that the designated area of operation of black women is within the political black construct, any attempts at expansion beyond this, is countered and blocked in a myriad of ways, from subtle to outright. Don’t forget that from her youth black women have their mentalities framed to be either effectively blind to opportunities indeed the world beyond the 'hedge' of the black construct or to cast a doubtful even disdainful eye on anything beyond the black construct boundaries.
In the beginning…
In the beginning, remaining within the black construct was an issue of necessity and safety, presently however the sentiment has shifted to being primarily a tribalistic one where tribal concerns like black uplift/black unity (concepts that are vaguely or only idealistically defined) are the reasons to limit oneself within one’s group.
Black women acquire and support this tribalistic mode of thinking, without understanding that it actually works against their specific, personal interests. A little deeper and clearer thought would indeed revel how their prioritising such tribal concerns means putting themselves at a greater risk of being enslaved to agendas that pay them very little (beyond psychic benefits) and loosing out on a personal front.
Some black women do however reach a point where they come to a realisation that they should place personal actualisation (for instance finding a suitable mate) as priority and above tribal ideals and all the restrictive and limiting tenets set up as the way to achieve tribal goals. Many more are today coming to a point of prefering tangible outcomes to intangibles and psychic rewards for instance of being hailed as 'true and dedicated' black women. What indeed is that 'badge' worth in the face of broken dreams and loneliness.
A willingness to place personal over tribal is a key turning point in the psyche of black women and marks a move towards black women becoming aware and acting as rational self-maximising social agents.
However, there are many black women and women in general who receive tribal injunctions as somehow being about elevating them as a unique group of women and being set apart and valued in the tribe even about an attempt to safe-guard their unique attributes as women of the tribe. They don’t see it as men simply trying to corner the market, and secure their stake in the women of the group, while at the same time, employing any tactic and exploiting any loop hole (including using religious tenets) to make women of other ‘tribes’ more available to them.
We cannot indeed overlook the fact that in the state of zero competition the devaluation of a thing is highly likely. Anything that becomes exclusive within a specific space has a high risk of being devalued and taken for granted within those confines. Is it then any wonder that black women are complaining that they are constantly being harrassed, treated shaby within the race and blamed and never given a moments rest in terms of the demands placed on them? Is it any wonder they are deemed the work horses and expected to put up with and endure burdens other women are ushered away from very quickly!
Many black women do indeed block out the clear signs of black men being all about having as many women as possible while removing the competition from other males with respect to black women, continuing to insist that keeping them within the group is somehow how black men express their strong desires for their brand of femininity and position them above other women.
Indeed I will add that I believe that many more black women have woken up from the stupor of years ago, when they could be heard saying, ‘Black men only want to use these women,’ displaying that they were happy with this state of affairs of other women being used. Their willingness to see other women used however, was the snare that entrapped them (yes many black men whispered these sentiments to black women while they played them or both parties), because they soon enough discovered that the game was on them, and they were the ones being used and discarded!
Get clued up about interracial dating, read the IR Dating E-book
And send your questions to firstname.lastname@example.org
(I will try my best to give a reply/answer) | <urn:uuid:191b8c1e-0e9a-40f6-aac4-95dd3a295463> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dateawhiteguy.blogspot.com/2009/11/this-is-all-about-access-to-resources.html?showComment=1259782813697 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967374 | 1,275 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Sunday, May 23, 2010
How someone chooses to steward their ideas, influence and care through institutions, networks of relationships, indeed among friendships, over time can be as consequential, if not more so, than sometimes even the ideas themselves.
Alvin Plantinga's ideas, and his leadership with those ideas, have been deeply impactful for a whole generation of Christian philosophers. Moreover, his work has also been significantly appropriated by theologians, scientists, historians, psychologists and other Christian scholars working in various disciplines and fields.
"Alvin Plantinga is one of the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th and early 21st centuries," says Michael Rea in a recent press release. Rea is a Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame and Director of Notre Dame's Center for Philosophy of Religion. "His [Plantinga's] publications range over a wide variety of fields, but his most enduring contributions have been in metaphysics, epistemology, and, especially, the philosophy of religion."
Besides introducing important arguments into the literature on the philosophy of religion, however, Plantinga has also played an important role in shaping the way in which many religious philosophers now approach topics in their own fields of specialization ...
Of all the teachers I had the privilege of learning from at Notre Dame, none seemed more effective in the classroom than Plantinga. Furthermore, Plantinga takes his role as a teacher of graduate students very seriously.
I treasure the time I spent working with him and the friendship that grew out of it, and I know that my experience was not unique. Several friends of mine were and are students of Plantinga’s, and I know that all of them would have very similar things to say about their own experiences….In light of the recent "Retirement Conference" (May 20-22) at Notre Dame, with deep gratitude the Evangelical Philosophical Society celebrates and honors our friend and colleague, Alvin Plantinga. Below are comments of appreciation that we received from Tom Crisp, Jim Beilby, Paul Copan, William Lane Craig, J.P. Moreland, and Chad Meister.
William Lane Craig, Biola's Research Professor of Philosophy, recalls something similar as Crisp concerning Plantinga's character:One quick reminiscence about my time studying under Al. He once shared this (or something close) with a class: "In professional philosophy, you'll find a sort of hierarchy or totem pole, a pecking order of power and influence. If you find yourself somewhere on that totem pole, my recommendation is that you go out of your way to be generous, kind, and helpful to those below you in the ordering, and that you attempt to be somewhat feisty to those above you." This bit of advice has always struck me as wise and deeply Christian; I've seen Al put it into practice on many occasions.
At that time, Craig was also teaching at Trinity Seminary (Deerfield, IL). One of his students was Paul Copan, who is now the current President of the Evangelical Philosophical Society and Professor and Pledger Family Chairperson of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University.One of my first contacts with Alvin Plantinga was at a conference in Dallas in 1985. As a young philosopher, I was eager (though somewhat intimidated) to sit down with him and ask him some questions. We arranged a time together in a section of the hotel lounge and began to talk. At that point, a woman came to him and said, "Prof. Plantinga, the press is here and asking to interview you." I figured that was the end of our conversation. But to my shock, Plantinga said to her, "Well, tell them to go away! Tell them I'm doing something more important: I'm talking philosophy." Those words were burned into my memory. Imagine how I felt: Alvin Plantinga considered it more important to talk to a nobody like me than be interviewed for an article that thousands would read! It spoke volumes to me of the character of this gracious man, who has over the years been such an inspiration to me.
"I was first exposed to his writings as an M.A. student, when I took an Alvin Plantinga seminar class with Bill Craig in early 1986 at Trinity Seminary," says Copan.
Al has been a tremendous influence on my thinking ever since. I am very grateful for his astonishing contribution to the philosophy of religion for the last 45 years and his key role in helping to create a truly historic movement for such a time as this. Al's articulation of a robustly Christian outlook, his strength of conviction to resist certain fashionable philosophical trends, and his warm-hearted commitment to Christ and to biblical authority have have encouraged and guided so many of us. He has truly inspired a generation of Christian philosophers; indeed, we stand on the shoulders of a great warrior for the gospel. "Blessed is he who trusts in the LORD."
During my senior year of college (1990-91) my faith fell completely apart. My crisis of faith was driven by the death of my football coach and a host of other things. On my road back to faith, reading Plantinga's God and Other Minds was a milestone. Not the content, although that helped -- honestly, I'm not sure I understood much more than a tithe of what he was really getting at. It was Plantinga's openness to dig deep, to question traditional ways of thinking, his clarity of thought, and his wit and humor that grabbed me. "Christians can't be all bad if there are some like this guy out there", I thought. Around this time, I wrote Al a letter, thanking him and asking what advice he might give to a young would-be theologian/philosopher. I never really expected to receive a reply, but I did -- promptly, two-and-a-half pages, single-spaced. In the years since, he has encouraged and influenced me in a number of ways -- through shared academic projects, personal conversations, games of disc golf, and showing up to my dissertation defense.
I tell this story not because I think my experience is unique, but because I think that it is not. Al's scholarly influence, as impressive as it is, is dwarfed by his personal influence. Sure ... he's probably the best philosopher of our time. But he's a better person.
Congratulations, Al, on your retirement. You said recently that after your retirement celebration that "I'll be very happy if I don't hear anything else about myself for, say, the next 20 years." I'm afraid that hearing these sorts of complements is the cross you will have to bear. They are the fruit of your labors and the sign of your influence on so many.
But he has been a role model to an entire generation of younger Christian scholars of excellence, courage, faithfulness to Christ, and humility. I have been especially gratified by his critique of certain forms of physicalism and his defense of substance dualism, along with his identification of it as the Christian view. It has been an honor to be in the battle of ideas with him as our general.
He is an inspiration to me and countless others-philosophers, theologians, pastors, and laypersons. Through his framework-shifting articles and books in metaphysics and epistemology, for example, he reset the discussions and debates among philosophers and theologians. He provided fresh ways of thinking about evil, free will, naturalism, and divine foreknowledge, to name a few key issues, and my own thinking about these matters has in many ways been structured around his profound insights. He has demonstrated that being a devoted Christian and being a philosopher are not at odds; in fact, quite the contrary. I am certain that among future generations he will continue to be regarded as one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I thank God for Al and all what he has accomplished in his productive career.
Although retired from Notre Dame, Alvin Plantinga will not be disappearing anytime soon. He is currently working on a book related to philosophy, science and theology, and he will occasionally teach at Calvin College.
We are pleased to have Alvin Plantinga as our EPS plenary speaker for both the annual conference and the apologetics conference in November. Over the years, Philosophia Christi has been privileged to publish Plantinga's work, along with important discussions of his work, such as our theme issue on his Warranted Christian Belief.
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Screenplay : David Mamet (based on his play)
MPAA Rating : NR
Year of Release : 1994
Stars : William H. Macy (John), Debra Eisenstadt (Carol)
David Mamet's play-turned-film, "Oleanna," is about a number of things -- sexual harassment, higher education, the battle of the sexes, the role of the middle class -- but more than anything, it is about power. The film takes two characters, a pedantic liberal arts professor named John (William H. Macy) and a confused, female student named Carol (Debra Eisenstadt), and depicts their desire for power and what they are willing to do to maintain it (John) or gain it (Carol).
The film, which is based almost word-for-word on Mamet's 1992 play, transpires in three acts, all of which take place in John's office at an unnamed Ivy League school. When the film opens, Carol has come to John's office begging for his help because she is failing his class. She is flustered and confused and constantly tells him, "I don't understand." John, who is often interrupted by a ringing phone and thoughts about a house deal he and his wife are trying to close, attempts to explain to her where he is coming from, and what his views are on the educational system. Unfortunately, he is so steeped in academia and intellectualism that he cannot get a clear point across. When the meeting is finally over, not much seems to have been accomplished.
When the second act opens, we find John defending himself from unexpected charges by Carol of sexual harassment stemming from their meeting. Carol, now more sure of herself and getting support from a mysterious unnamed "group," has filed formal charges with the tenure committee that is meeting that afternoon. John is up for tenure, and he was banking on the increased salary to pay for his new house. Now, all of that is on the chopping block because of the formal allegations. Bear in mind, none of the allegations are lies, but they're not really true either. Everything in the report to the tenure committee happened, but it is all taken out of context and not seen in light of the underlying motivations. A hand on the shoulder, an anecdote about sex, a request that she come by his office more often -- all are misconstrued as offensive.
Herein lies the central aspect of "Oleanna" that I think many critics missed. Most people who didn't like this film claimed that it was too one-sided, that Carol was portrayed as Femi-Nazi bitch, while John was seen as a persecuted victim of pointless political correctness, whose worst crime was perhaps vanity and a patriarchal nature. While it is true that the film does feel stacked in John's corner, the issue at hand is that Carol truly believes that she is right. She's not doing it for revenge against John or insensitive men in general, but because she truly believes that she has been wronged, and that she deserves some of the power John wields so recklessly. That is why she comes off as so shrill and defensive. It is only in the third act, when she levels even more damaging and less credible charges against him, that her facial expression betrays that she might not be fully believe her own story.
In the power issue, both characters come off about the same. The only difference is that Carol has a better understanding of the basic nature of power. John has been enjoying his position as a teacher for so long, that he has neglected to address his underlying nature, which is essentially sexist and patriarchal. We can see the startled realization on his face when Carol points it out to him, but he doesn't see his failings as justification for the persecution he's receiving. On the other end, Carol vilifies him for his enjoyment of power, but she readily uses it for her own benefit. Her use of power is no better than his; in fact, it is probably worse because at least he's earned the right through years of scholarship.
"Oleanna" was also directed by Mamet, who has three previous directorial credits to his name. However, all of those were written expressly for the screen, while "Oleanna" is the first time he has directed one of his own plays on film. He shows little inventiveness in transferring stage to screen, probably because he didn't feel the need. The film's vitality lies in the power struggle between John and Carol, and how the haves becomes the have-nots and vice versa. Mamet and cinematographer Andrez Sekula ("Pulp Fiction") shot the film in dark hues and shadows, which lends an eerie effect to the proceedings, but it still comes off like a filmed played.
Both Macy, who originated the role of John on-stage, and newcomer Eisenstadt, are outstanding in their roles. The entirety of the film rests on their shoulders, and they work Mamet's verbose and sometimes obtuse dialogue for all it's worth. Both of them speak in the high language of academia, and sometimes it feels a bit stilted and unrealistic. Nevertheless, as the film moves forward, their verbal exchanges take on more rhythm and power as we begin to understand the characters better and where they're coming from. Except for a single shot of Macy at home alone, we never see these characters outside the setting of his office. Therefore, everything we know about them comes from what they say and how they say it.
"Oleanna" is not an easy film to digest, and I think that's why some critics lashed out against it. They were looking for an objectively balanced story where either side could be taken for right or wrong. The fact is, Mamet's script puts John in the right, but it doesn't matter because the film rightly points out that this situation has nothing to do with fact -- it's all about perceptions. Both John and Carol know exactly what happened in his office, and neither one of them lies about the essential facts. But, as Mamet clearly shows, their perceptions differ, and thus we have the central dilemma in sexual harassment cases: how far are we willing to let them go?
©1997 James Kendrick | <urn:uuid:7d83af68-5508-4455-ab57-de4d7b35050b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.haitisun.com/index.php/nav/mreview/1762 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98574 | 1,282 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Since 1994, Enough Is Enough has been one of the nation's leaders in efforts to combat Internet-initiated child sexual abuse, partnering with the public, the legal community and the technology industry to advance online protections for children and family. Although we have made many strides towards ensuring that the Internet is a safe, educational and rewarding world for our children, significant dangers remain, and parents must be the first line of defense.
As part of our ongoing efforts to raise awareness about the dangers children face online, we have two exciting announcements focused on protecting children from Internet-initiated crime.
Enough Is Enough Partners with "Trust"
Enough Is Enough will be serving as the key Internet safety partner on the film "Trust", Directed by David Schwimmer (formerly the star of hit sitcom Friends). This powerful movie chronicles the story of Annie (Liana Liebrato) as she forms an online relationship with Charlie, whom she initially believes to be a sixteen-year-old boy, and her parents' (Academy Award® nominees Clive Owen and Catherine Keener) nightmare discovery that their daughter was victimized by an Internet predator.
This eye-opening film painfully details the grooming process we see so often in Internet-initiated child sexual abuse, a process whereby an online predator forms an intimate, trusting relationship with a youth in hopes of establishing an offline, sexual encounter. The film highlights the horrifying reality that teens often meet up multiple times with their perpetrators and often describe their relationship with these individuals as "romantic". As Trust's key Internet safety partner, EIE is participating in an advanced screening of the film tonight in the DC-metro area, and EIE President Donna Rice Hughes will be serving on a panel with Director David Schwimmer and online safety expert and Founder of SSP Blue, Hemanshu Nigam. You can find out more about this event online and RSVP to attend the screening at email@example.com.
Trust theatrically presents the problem of online predators, and EIE will be providing viewing audiences with key resources and information regarding prevention and protection. As a trusted voice for parents and educators across the country, EIE will be educating, equipping and empowering parents with the warning signs, rules of engagement and Internet Safety 101 Rules 'N Tools parents must utilize across all Internet-enabled devices to protect their children from online predators and other threats. Note that "Trust" is rated R and includes mature content, brief nudity and language that may not be suitable for younger audiences. You can view the trailerHERE.
Enough Is Enough Launches Predator 101 Video Vignettes on You Tube
Today, EIE is launching five exclusive video vignettes from its award-winning Internet Safety 101 multi-media teaching series. The Internet Safety 101 program was designed to educate, equip and empower parents, educators and other caring adults with the knowledge and resources to protect the children under their care from dangers including Internet pornography, sexual predators, cyberbullying and risks associated with social networking, online gaming, and mobile devices.
The Predator 101 Video Vignettes feature compelling testimonies and advice from top law enforcement personnel, parents, technology experts, teens, a survivor of a sexual predator and even a convicted sex offender. Remember to use Internet Safety 101 Rules 'N Tools across all Internet-enabled devices to protect your children from online predators and other online threats. Click on the images, below, to watch these videos now, and do help us spread the word be sharing these videos today!
For the Sake of the Children,
Donna Rice Hughes
President, Enough Is Enough | <urn:uuid:3c7d8fb2-c1ce-4438-946d-bb35c755a404> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.internetsafety101.org/news.htm?id=64 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92359 | 732 | 2.03125 | 2 |
An employer must provide a Health and Safety policy if they have five or more employees.
However, some hairdressers 'let out' chairs. In these cases, the hairdresser who rents the chair is not an employee - they are simply working at the owner's premises. This means that the owner could have ten people working within his or her salon, yet have no employees.
In these cases, the Health and Safety at Work Act still imposes a duty on the owner. They must provide and premises that fall within Health and Safety guidelines. Self employed people have a legal duty not to put other people at risk by the way they work. An employer must provide a risk assessment. This must be written if the number of employees totals five or more.
Remember that: If you are an employer, are self employed or in control of work premises you have duties under Report of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurances Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR).
You must make a report if one of the following occurs:
- A death or major injury eg chemical burn to the eye.
- An injury that lasts over three day eg a serious slip of the scissors.
- Disease eg Occupational Dermatitis, or
- A dangerous occurrence.
Many people do not realise that occupational dermatitis is a notifiable disease under RIDDOR. Hairdressers are at risk of getting this as they are exposed to many abrasive chemicals. It is possible, however, to greatly reduce the risk of developing diseases such as this through correct risk assessment and a good Health and Safety policy.
Registration and the Law
You do not need a licence to operate as a hairdresser. You also do not need to register with us. A Summary of the Regulation of this Licence. To find out further information please contact our Licensing Section using our Online Enquiry Form.
The minimum you should provide is a suitably stocked first aid kit, and an 'appointed person'.
An appointed person is someone with specific duties relating to first aid, but not necessarily trained in first aid. Everyone at work must be made aware of the first aid arrangements, eg by instruction and notices. Self employed people must also make sure that there are adequate first aid procedures at work.
Minimum Contents of a First Aid Box
Your first aid box must contain:
- Guidance leaflet.
- 20 individually wrapped, sterile adhesive dressings of various sizes.
- 2 sterile eye pads.
- 4 individually wrapped triangular bandages.
- 6 safety pins.
- 6 medium sized and 2 large individually wrapped, sterile, unmedicated wound. dressings, and
- 1 pair of disposable gloves.
Due to the various chemicals used in hairdressers, you must provide more than the required minimum in your first aid box, such as eye washing facilities. You also need more disposable gloves. This is because Aids, HIV and Hepatitis can be transmitted through cuts from sharps.
Please refer to the bylaws. Yoy must make sure that hair clippings are awept up regularly, as these can be a major factor in the cause of slips.
It is also especially important to ensure you disinfect your scissors and razors, or you use disposable razors. If they are not clean they can cause transmission of diseases. Hairdressers must be aware of the possible transmission of HIV, Aids and Hepatitis. To quickly and efficiently disinfect equipment, use:
- Antibacterial solutions, or
- Antibacterial wipes.
Equipment needs to be treated after each customer and left in an antibacterial solution overnight.
It is important that the salons are well ventilated. This will prevent condensation and the accumulation of fumes. An open window can be effective or you could install an extractor system for the comfort of your clients.
There must be at least one toilet which both staff and customers can use. Ladies and gentlemen can share if there is a secure lock on the door.
Control of Substances Hazarous to Health (COSHH)
This must be included in the risk assessment. There should not be a problem if:
- You follow the manufacturer's instructions when using equipment.
- You follow the guidance provided in booklets such as A Guide to Health and Safety in the Salon, and
- The salon is well ventilated.
You must provide protective clothing for both staff and customers. This should include:
- Face screens
This will prevent contact with the chemicals. Chemicals should also be correctly stored in staff only areas, or in a locked cupboard following the instructions on their containers. You must clear up any spillages immediately. | <urn:uuid:e03a8d7b-f74f-4005-9c3f-f5cd03f99406> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.selby.gov.uk/service_main.asp?menuid=2&id=447&textonly=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944505 | 967 | 2.0625 | 2 |
In natural language we often use graded concepts, reflecting different intensity degrees of certain features. Whenever such concepts appear in a given real-life context, they need to be appropriately expressed in its models. In this paper, we provide a framework which allows for extending the BGI model of agency by grading beliefs, goals and intentions. We concentrate on TEAMLOG [6, 7, 8, 9, 12] and provide a complexity-optimal decision method for its graded version TEAMLOG(K) by translating it into CPDLreg (propositional dynamic logic with converse and "inclusion axioms" characterized by regular languages). We also develop a tableau calculus which leads to the first EXPTIME (optimal) tableau decision procedure for CPDLreg. As CPDLreg is suitable for expressing complex properties of graded operators, the procedure can also be used as a decision tool for other multiagent formalisms. | <urn:uuid:2dd2995d-e6e9-4115-8400-aacf7dc16417> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:345778 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918509 | 190 | 1.507813 | 2 |
When char data is retrieved, is there a way to display it in a certain way? An example would be a phone number. If the phone number data is nothing but a string of numbers, is there a way to tell the query to output it as 123-456-7890 instead of 1234567890?
Yes you can. Two things come to mind: one is to create a rule on the column that enforces the pattern you want; the other is to give the illusion of those marks by planting them in your SQL statement so that the result comes back with the embedded dashes, etc. | <urn:uuid:aac26cbc-1d40-45cf-88ab-ce33a4e764fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.devx.com/tips/Tip/25076 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905824 | 123 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The word "quadrangles" uses 11 letters: A A D E G L N Q R S U.
No direct anagrams for quadrangles found in this word list.
Adding one letter to quadrangles does not form any other word in this word list.Words within quadrangles not shown as it has more than seven letters.
All words formed from quadrangles by changing one letter
Browse words starting with quadrangles by next letter | <urn:uuid:82e605c4-b4ea-4ee2-9c84-83b7b3261526> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.morewords.com/word/quadrangles/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910367 | 97 | 1.570313 | 2 |
I participate in challenges all the time online. I love them. They help to get my creativity flowing, and we could all use a little more of that couldn’t we? So, I am going to start hosting a weekly challenge for all who would like to participate! This is just a way to give everyone an idea for a layout using a new trick, or technique every week on those scrapbook pages. Check in every Wednesday for a new weekly challenge. Let’s get started!
This week, I’d like to focus on using negative space in your layout. So many times, we scrapbook with tons of papers, and ribbons, and embellishments that the photo or photos tend to get lost on the page. When you focus on having negative space in your layout, it will help to draw the eye to where it is supposed to be. The photograph! So the challenge this week, is to have at least 50% of your layout be negative space. This means, no photo, no embellishments, nothing in that space except the background paper for your layout! If you are finding this hard, try these tips for getting more negative space:
*Overlap the photographs and move them to one corner of the page. Or, if you like your photos in the middle, try overlapping them or cutting them down as much as possible so they are in a cluster in the middle of the page.
*Cluster your embellishments. Focusing on putting your embellishments all in one spot is a fun way to draw the eye to where you want it to be. I love to put maybe 3 different flowers on one corner of the photo rather than spreading them out across the page!
*Move everything off to one side. So many times, we try keeping everything perfectly symmetrical, but it’s OK to have the photo somewhere other than in the center of the page.
*Keep it simple. The easiest way to get that look of negative space in your layout is to just simply use less stuff. Try creating a layout with half the embellishments you would normally use, and see if you can accomplish your goal that way.
The purpose of these challenges are to encourage you to do something different. To think outside the box. So, good luck with adding negative space to your layout! | <urn:uuid:8a2c283c-54a1-44bf-85f2-9436aaef1011> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.families.com/blog/wednesdays-weekly-challenge-negative-space | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951195 | 479 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Patch Adams is a great example of leadership. He is determined to chase the dream/vision of helping people. When he fixed a cup and was called “Patch,” he realized he could help people. This identity gave him the confidence to chase after this vision and propelled him into all kinds of circumstances. He thought outside the box that medical school gave him and challenged everything he was taught in regards to professional distance. He learned to look beyond a problem to it’s solution from a man in a mental hospital and imagined a new kind of hospital by playing with a napkin dispenser and ketchup bottle. Vision and new ideas just flowed out of him because he was always on the lookout for them. These things were more than just ideas though – or as Andy Stanley would put it – they were more than dreams that “could” be, they were visions that “should” be. And Patch was the kind of guy who really worked to make them happen. He was also good at relationships – people wanted to be around him – They could get behind his vision for helping people because they trusted him so much.
Patch is a leader. He was a man of character and skills, who was good at relationships and had a vision that they could get behind. | <urn:uuid:ce1c54b7-8084-48be-99f9-c69a085a139a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stevecorn.com/2008/01/patch-adams-leadership/ | 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 | 0.996194 | 260 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Commercial meter readers are expensive; this DIY hack allows you to cheaply monitor your power consumption for a greener tomorrow (and, realistically, a much lower bill).
Paul discovered that his digital power meter sent out a pulse of IR light every time a watt-hour of power was consumed. He built a simple monitoring assembly in a project box that consisted of a small circuit board and a photo transistor. It’s a clever and inexpensive hack (it cost him less $20).
You can check out the details of his build at the link below. Don’t have a digital meter? Don’t worry, we didn’t want to leave anyone out in the cold. We found this build guide for an analog meter (the kind with the electro-mechanical disc that spins).
Jason Fitzpatrick is warranty-voiding DIYer and all around geek. When he's not documenting mods and hacks he's doing his best to make sure a generation of college students graduate knowing they should put their pants on one leg at a time and go on to greatness, just like Bruce Dickinson. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 05/13/11 | <urn:uuid:d99865ad-6471-4e56-8476-efd023fccf90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.howtogeek.com/93888/monitor-your-home-power-usage-by-building-a-diy-power-meter-reader/?showcomments=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952575 | 244 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Nashoba, on the banks of the Wolf River in West Tennessee, was doomed almost from the beginning. The land, about 2,000 acres, was ill-chosen, mosquito-infested and built on swamp land. Disease and infighting among the pioneers condemned the community, founded in 1826, to failure. When founder Frances Wright returned from a European fund-raising trip in 1829, most of the colonists were gone, except for thirty-one former slaves, who had been purchased and freed specifically for this Utopian experiment. Accepting Wright's offer to take them to black-ruled Haiti, this little group set sail in 1830 for a new life in the young republic.
For more information on Nashoba, go to: http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=963 | <urn:uuid:cc30efca-8717-4a70-b36c-db7bdee12bd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tn.gov/tsla/exhibits/utopia/nashoba.htm | 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 | 0.95039 | 173 | 3.109375 | 3 |
“I remember when Bull Conner and the rest of them put the dogs and the hoses on the students at the Easter marches,” recalled University of Baltimore law professor Richard “Dickie” Bourne when I interviewed him last year. “There was a dining room where we could go down and get short order things and when people were studying late, they would watch TV. It was not a fancy TV set, just a small black and white. We went down to watch the news and pick up a sandwich. And watching the students, predominately privileged, White students sitting there looking at this TV screen and they were transfixed at this image. It was the most extraordinary kind of emotional thing. It is rare that you see a crowd so moved and so horrified at such an event. This was not like something that happened in Bosnia, we know that horrors occur; this was not like the camps in Germany. But this was happening in our own backyard and I think that Americans had been able to blind themselves to it, they weren’t aware of it. You could say that the myopia was deliberate. But whatever it was, suddenly it was in their face that, in their country, this kind of shit was going on, and they were overburdened with guilt.”
The shock of seeing non-violent Black students being beaten in Birmingham for non-violent action resembles the shock of Americans today who see thousands of poor, majority Black, New Orleans residents waiting days for help that keeps promising to arrive. The only crime of most of these residents: not having the means to leave or not having anywhere to go. The horrific images of those at the Superdome and the Convention Center (and now at the Louis Armstrong airport) are not the New Orleans that America envisioned before this hurricane. Jazz music, big mansions, and Mardi Gras were synonymous with this famous city. Like the Easter marches of Birmingham, Americans now see the regard that our “leaders” truly have for Black people in the South. Millions of Americans of all political persuasions are horrified at the very slow response of the federal government, so it would seem that no would feel like partying after seeing the aftermath of Katrina. Well, a few did.
On Tuesday, the day after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, George W. Bush was photographed playing a guitar in San Diego, California. Didn’t seem too bothered.
On Thursday, Condoleezza Rice was at the luxury shoe store Ferragamo in New York where, the poor thing, she was being harassed! The vile harasser, a woman who dared to ask what in the hell the United States Secretary of State was doing shopping for shoes when thousands were suffering in the south, was escorted out of the store by security at Rice’s prompting. How dare that woman talk about such depressing stuff to our Secretary of State? Didn’t this woman know that Rice was in great spirits from seeing Spamalot on Broadway the day before?
While Condi has Spamalot, Marie Antoinette had a farmhouse in a small mock village that she had built to entertain herself. At times, Antoinette wanted to escape from the arduous life of the aristocracy: lavish spending on jeweled wigs, gambling, and gowns for herself and her rich clique. She would amuse herself for hours by playacting the role of a peasant in her fake farmhouse while real French peasants were starving outside the palace gates. There are no reports to my knowledge of Antoinette ever ejecting anyone from “Le Hameau de la Reine,” though the work of milking the perfumed goats brought into the luxuriously furnished farmhouse was done by servants.
Antoinette was not a bright woman, shoving her wealth in the faces of those who hungered because food was scarce. Of course stupidity is not foreign to the elites of then or now. The Bush Administration’s jester, FEMA’s Michael Brown, was probably not only appointed to his position because he was the roommate of Bush’s campaign manager, but Bush probably felt an instant kinship with this fellow idiot (Brown says that the residents of New Orleans “bear some of the responsibility” for not getting out of New Orleans) when he met him. They have so much in common: Brown was fired from the International Arabian Horse Association for incompetence and Bush, a former board member of the Carlyle Group, was told by the board not to come back.
The brazen decadence and stupidity of the Bush Administration and others in the federal government in the face of such poverty and dire disaster is going to make it easier for Americans to hold these people accountable and to conclude that the chief at the top of this rotten heap, George W. Bush, must go.
Brandy Baker is a writer living in Baltimore. She was a contributor to CounterPunch’s book, Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils. She is also a contributor to Plastic Sugar Press’s upcoming book: Yellow Fever: Searching for Meaning in Supporting the Troops.
* The Real Heroes and
Sheroes of New Orleans Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky
Other Articles by Brandy Baker | <urn:uuid:60c4e649-9574-4903-867c-d047efa09b0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept05/Baker0907.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977252 | 1,094 | 1.796875 | 2 |
November Unemployed Rises To 31,826 m/m
Compared to November 2010, unemployment has risen by 27 percent or an increase of 6,805 people.
Unemployment has mainly affected the sectors of trade, which added another 1,644 jobless - and construction, in which lost 1,363 people lost their jobs.
Most of the unemployment is in the private sector, with employment rates in the public sector holding steady at 70,641 in the third quarter of 2011, compared to 70,417 in the first quarter, according to information from CYSTAT.
In a recent outlook, the European Commission said that unemployment in Cyprus is set to rise to eight percent in 2012.
To make and read comments, become a full member of your news community, click here. | <urn:uuid:fd11869a-7889-439f-b342-eb42b9a19ca5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cyprusnewsreport.com/?q=node/4994 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967552 | 159 | 1.625 | 2 |
Sprint announced this week that they will be putting FM tuners in their cell phones. About time! The Radio Industry has been pushing this idea for quite some time. But the American cell industry keeps ignoring this.
Letting people have the ability to listen to local radio in their cell device without the need of a cell phone tower or Wi-Fi becomes very important in times of disasters. All this takes is a chip in the phone to add in a radio tuner.
We in Kansas know that when a storm hits our area, cell phones become unreliable and useless. And when the power is out, cell phones don’t work, there’s no TV … what do we do? We try to find a portable radio to listen to a local station for information and news.
The cost of adding a chip to pick up radio station via radio airwaves (not using the cell phone towers) is a few cents per phone. In fact, overseas in countries like England, cell phone users have an FM radio tuner in their cell phones.
This is a no-brainer and why it is taking the American cell industry so long to understand this is dumbfounded. This is a matter of public service.
I’m guessing what happened with Sprint is a high level Sprint executive lives in the NE, got hit by the recent Hurricane Sandy, power went out, looked at his useless cell phone and wanted to listen to local radio but couldn’t.
I’m hoping this is a trend for other cell companies to follow. | <urn:uuid:16f9c4b0-7fa5-4df6-9c14-b7ef2d110f60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.knssradio.com/-/8169431?date=2013_01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95688 | 317 | 1.898438 | 2 |
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Exploring Traditional Scales And Chords For Jazz Keyboard
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Scales and chord tones provide the basis for jazz improvisation and fill-ins. This book presents traditional scales and chords within the framework of a chord progression. Charts are included with the scales written in all keys and a list of chords which complement each scale. Over 160 music examples apply the scales and chord tones to jazz chord progressions. The keyboard player will gain new insights into the practical application of scales and chord tones to improvisation.
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Music44 is one of the biggest online stores to find all the best selections of sheet music, sheet music downloads, songbooks, music books and software for all instruments. They serve the music needs of individual musicians as well as church groups, schools and choirs all over the world. They have a best price guarantee which is called Beat-The-Best-Price-Now(TM) that lets customers purchase sheet music at the lowest prices found on the web.
This store has not received any reviews yet, you can be the first one to write one! | <urn:uuid:7031b631-60fa-4f21-bfdc-8fe3de155433> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sheetmusicstock.com/sheetmusic/949023/exploring-traditional-scales-and-chords-for-jazz-keyboard | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926024 | 264 | 2.34375 | 2 |
It has been said that “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.” Nowhere does this statement hold truer than New Mexico which, according to most national measures, ranks highly on the things that it is bad to rank on (crime rates, tax burdens, poverty) and low on the things that we’d like to rank highly on (graduation rates, income levels). The good news is that New Mexico’s Legislature is only in session 30 or 60 days per year depending on the year (a 30 day session was completed this year).
There are many – of all races and political persuasions – who blame New Mexico’s unique cultural milieu for our problems. While well-intended, I believe that the preponderance of economic data and hundreds of years of experience has shown us that poverty and educational underperformance are self-inflicted problems, not the result of culture or a lack of natural resources, but of policies that either promote or hamper economic and social freedoms.
Unfortunately, while there have been and continue to be plenty of good, caring people in the Legislature over the years, the Legislature has adopted policies that have led us to where we are today. Why do I lay all of this at the feet of the Legislature? The single biggest indictment is that over the years they have enacted policies that restrict our economic freedom. This freedom allows individuals and entrepreneurs the freedom to generate wealth for themselves and those who use their products.
According to the Canada-base Fraser Institute (a Canadian free market think tank), New Mexico is ranked 49th of the 50 US states. It is no coincidence, then, that New Mexico is also among the poorest states in the country.
If you still believe that it is culture, not policy, that drives policy, I encourage you to check out this map of the Korean peninsula at night. While Communist North Korea is nearly dark, capitalist South Korea is bright. Clearly, economic activity is happening in the South. People are living lives in relative comfort while in the North a vast majority of people are literally “in the dark.”
Some would argue that all of this light and economic activity in South Korea is pollution. Certainly, it may be somewhat easier to see the stars at night in the North, but overall, the data have shown that the environment in wealthy, economically-developed areas is cleaner than it is in impoverished, under-developed areas.
The experience of North and South Korea is starker than most. But what it means for New Mexicans is that we cannot use culture as a crutch for our failures. We have to overcome them ourselves and, to the extent that anyone is holding us back, it is the elected officials that make the policy decisions that determine whether our economy and our educational systems are strong and competitive or whether they fall short.
Labor freedom means that one can choose for themselves who to work for and on what terms. Labor unions do not necessarily inhibit this, but workers should have the choice as to whether they want to join them, not be required to as a condition for employment. Also, mandated minimum wages should be kept low and should not be used to hinder volunteer work, internships, apprenticeships and efforts by young people to enter the work force.
In terms of taxation, the ideal tax burden is light, but focused on consumption and wealth, not economic activity. In other words, taxes on income should be low or non-existent with a vast majority of taxes collected on consumption and accumulated wealth or property. New Mexico no longer has an onerous personal income tax, but our corporate tax rate is high. Property taxes in most areas of the state are low. Our gross receipts tax is primarily on consumption, but has the negative impact of hindering business by taxing inputs and services.
The GRT has another negative feature in that it is not easily understood by the public and is thus violates another principle of sound taxation being transparency.
Lastly, it goes without saying that New Mexico’s education system is among the worst performing nationally. Despite consistently ranking 49th in the nation in graduation rates and performance on respected national tests, New Mexico’s Legislature has killed school choice proposals year after year and only grudgingly gone along with enhanced school and teacher accountability measures.
I blame the Legislature for a lot here in New Mexico, but ultimately, it is “we the people” who put these people into office. Without our support and acquiescence, they lose their power. If you want to make New Mexico a better, freer, and wealthier place, I encourage you to vote for the Legislature to change in 2012.
Paul Gessing is the President of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility. | <urn:uuid:72faac97-5fc2-41b7-a128-30231426b7a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.errorsofenchantment.com/2012/04/09/the-legislature-the-root-of-new-mexicos-problems/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960264 | 1,013 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Is our national habit of eating dead animals dragging us closer and closer to a flu pandemic that could kill tens of millions of Americans? Dr. Michael Greger believes so.
He’s the author of the new book, Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, and he recently came on our show, The Big Picture, to ring the alarm bell.
“Up to sixty million Americans get the flu every year,” he said before asking, “What if it turned deadly?”
The question wasn’t exactly rhetorical.
We do know that the flu is already deadly. Hundreds, sometime thousands, of Americans do die every year from the regular seasonal flu, which according to the Center for Disease Control has a mortality rate of about two-tenths of one percent.
A particularly severe and infectious form of influenza struck the world in 1918 infecting a third of the global population and killing as many as 100 million people. In the United States, that flu took the lives of more than a half-million Americans. Unlike the average seasonal flu that we’re confronting today with a mortality rate of .2%, the 1918 strand of influenza had a mortality rate of 2.5%. It was the worst plague in history.
But what if a strand of influenza swept across the nation that was twenty-five times deadlier than the 1918 strand? What if we were dealing with a flu pandemic that had a 60% mortality rate?
Here’s the frightening news: We already are.
An extremely deadly and contagious form of bird flu, H5N1, has already infected people in several countries including densely populated China and Indonesia, as well as Thailand, Vietnam, and Egypt, among others.
Just in 2012, known cases of H5N1 bird flu in Cambodia killed 90% of those infected. In China, 65% died. In Indonesia, the mortality rate was 83%. And in Laos and Nigeria, the mortality rate was 100% – every single person who got it, died.
If the 60 million Americans who get the flu every year suddenly got this particular strand of the flu, H5N1, then upwards of 40 million Americans would die. It would be a disaster on a scale never before seen in this nation other than, possibly, how Europeans wiped out Native Americans when they first brought the flu from Europe. And if it spread around the rest of the world, it would make the Black Plague of the 14th century look like the common cold.
Dr. Greger warned: “It’s like crossing one of the deadliest known human diseases, Ebola, with one of the most contagious known diseases, influenza.” He added that the single factor that was most likely to cause this is factory farming.
We should be doing everything we possibly can to defend against this apocalyptic pandemic. Yet, each day we as a nation continue factory farming, we’re tempting fate.
That’s because the only thing stopping the H5N1 influenza from killing billions around the planet is the H5N1 flu itself. Only about 600 people have been infected so far by this flu, simply because it hasn’t yet mutated to a form that can more easily infect humans.
As Dr. Greger said, “Right now, H5N1 is good at infecting the viral receptors that coat the trachea or windpipe of birds. It needs to mutate to better attach to human receptors.” He continued, “But there’s evidence that there is a strand in Indonesia and Egypt acquiring those mutations.”
Jamming birds together in factory farming slaughterhouses, beak to beak, and pumping them up with antibiotics promotes these mutations. Now that local small, family farms and local-supermarket butchers have been replaced by giant transnational slaughterhouses, we’ve seen a radical and rapid increase in mutant strains of the flu, along with other diseases that come from factory farms like the newly-mutated and now deadly forms of E. Coli and Salmonella.
“We’ve domesticated bird for thousands of years,” Dr. Greger noted. “It’s really just been in the last few years where we’ve seen this unprecedented emergence of these highly pathogenic strains, which have killed hundreds of billions of birds.”
Factory farms, according to Dr. Greger, are the, “perfect storm environments for the emergence and spread of these super-strains of influenza.”
Other consequences of factory farming are well known. Our national diet now has more meat it in it than ever before, thus accelerating heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other illnesses that are responsible for increasing healthcare costs.
Factory farms requires enormous food and water. And, according to a report by the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation, 51% of all greenhouse gas emissions are the direct or indirect result of giant factory farms raising cattle, pigs, and poultry.
In other words, factory farming is hurtling our planet toward catastrophic climate change.
But so far, these reasons haven’t been strong enough to really motivate us to change. Americans and policymakers haven’t been ready to move away from the factory farm model to bring back local farming and reform our diet by eating fewer dead animals.
But, if nothing else, the fear of a worldwide pandemic that kills more than half the human race should motivate us to change how we farm and how we eat.
Let’s hope. Because whatever joy we as a nation get out of eating chicken wings will be far outweighed by the catastrophe of watching millions of our fellow humans die.
To save the human race, we need to end factory farming now.
This article was first published on Truthout.
Image credit to Shutterstock. | <urn:uuid:40aacf8f-538a-4717-a449-bf5243cd7412> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://civileats.com/2013/01/22/how-to-stop-the-next-pandemic-end-factory-farming/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952008 | 1,213 | 3.015625 | 3 |
PREVIOUS WINNER:Perdono-Tiziano Ferro (Italy)
Crazy4Brit welcomes you to Milan, Italy
RULESMilan (Western Lombard language: [mi?lan]; Italian: Milano [mi?la?no] ( listen)) is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza (created in 2004 splitting the northern part from the province of Milan itself), is one of Europe's largest with an estimated population of over 4 million spread over 1,980 km2 (764.48 sq mi), with a consequent population density of more than 2,000 inhabitants/km². The growth of many suburbs and satellite settlements around the city proper following the great economic boom of the 1950s–60s and massive commuting flows suggest that socioeconomic linkages have expanded well beyond the boundaries of the city proper and its agglomeration, creating a metropolitan area of 7.4 million population expanded all over the central section of Lombardy region. It has been suggested that the Milan metropolitan area is part of the so-called Blue Banana, the area of Europe with the highest population and industrial density.
The city was founded by the Insubres, a Celtic people. Milan was later captured by the Romans in 222 BC, and later was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 286 until 402 AD. Milan became one of the most prosperous Italian cities during the High Middle Ages, playing a primary role in the Lombard League. Later Milan became the capital city of the Duchy of Milan, being ruled by the Visconti, the Sforza, the Spanish and the Austrians. In 1796, Milan was conquered by the French troops of Napoleon I, who made it the capital of the puppet state of the Kingdom of Italy in 1805. Later Milan became the capital city of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, which was part of the Austrian Empire. In 1859 the city was unified with the Kingdom of Sardinia, which later became the Kingdom of Italy. During the Romantic period, Milan was a major cultural centre in Europe, attracting several artists, composers and important literary figures. Later, during World War II, the city was badly affected by Allied bombings, and after German occupation in 1943, Milan became the main hub of the Italian resistance. Despite this, Milan saw a post-war economic growth, attracting thousands of immigrants from Southern Italy and abroad.
Over the years, Milan has had an increase in the number of international inhabitants, and 15.2% of Milan's population is foreign born. The city remains one of Europe's main transportation and industrial hubs, and Milan is the EU's 10th most important centre for business and finance (2009) with its economy being the world's 26th richest by purchasing power. Milan ranks highly in both national and international rankings in terms of GDP per capita, average income rates, cost of living, and quality of life. Its economic environment has made it, according to several studies, the world's 20th and Europe's 10th top business and financial centre, having been highly successful in terms of city branding.
Milan is recognised as a world fashion and design capital, and it has thus been ranked by GaWC as an Alpha world city in 2010, as well as the 42nd most important global city. An important centre of the international arts and musical scene, the city holds several renowned institutions, theatres and museums, as well as important monuments, including a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Santa Maria delle Grazie); the metropolis also hosts several important events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair, the largest of its kind in the world, and will host the 2015 Universal Exposition. The city is also home to two renowned football teams, A.C. Milan and F.C. Internazionale Milano. Euromonitor International ranked Milan as the world's 63rd most visited city in 2009, with 1.894 million arrivals.
Inhabitants of Milan are referred to as "Milanese" (Italian: Milanesi or informally Meneghini or Ambrosiani). Milan, for its pivotal economic role and its fervent political and cultural activity that often anticipates national trends, it is often nicknamed as the "moral capital of Italy".
01. This is a monthly contest.
02. You can pick ANY country in the world.
03. The song cannot have been a UK/US Top 40 hit, as it would give it an unfair advantage.
04. PLEASE try and choose a song not everyone would know, the point is to discover new artists.
05. The song cannot have taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest.
06. The song can be a remix.
07. At least HALF of the people from your act must be from the country you are representing.
08. The song cannot be a cover version.
09. The song should be from 2000 to the present.
10. Everyone MUST vote, anyone who doesn't will be disqualified.
11. Discussion about one's favourites during the contest is NOT ALLOWED as it has the potential to influence the voting.
01 - 09 | Choose your country
10 - 15 | Present your entry
16 - 27 | Vote!
Choose your country!
Last month's top 5 get their choice from last month reserved, so nobody may choose these countries until they let them go:
- Code: Select all
01. ITALY (Crazy4Brit)
02. AUSTRALIA ((Virgostar)
03. KOSOVO (mondflug)
04. CROATIA (jio)
05. SWEDEN (naughty)
Albania (Nanda) | Afher dhe Larg-Elvana Gjata
Algeria (jio) | Yeppa Mama-Cheb Bilal feat. Leila Rami
Argentina (HC55555) | Esta Saliendo El Sol-Intoxicados
Australia (Virgostar) | Way Back Home-Bag Raiders
Benin (Wardo) | Le Temps S'Enfuit (Jahriki Remix)-Dibi Dobo
Brazil (KevinScream) | Acelera Ae-Ivete Sangalo
Canada (FreakyFlyBry) | Paper Dolls-Stef Lang
Croatia (theArmy) | Dat Ce Nam Bog-Nina Badric
Czech Rep. (nekoo3372) | Hey Boy-Verona
Denmark (chris975) | Lost In The Fire-The Storm
Finland (Dumheten) | Ways To Be-Villa Nah
France (Vindrag) | Pepito Bleu-Sebastien Tellier
Germany (mondflug) | Du Bist So Gut Fur Mich-Nena
Greece (Grybop) | Mono Mprosta-Demy
Hungary (vercotti) | Vizio-Caramel
Iceland (jafetsigfinns) | Eg Er Farinn-Ulfur Ulfur
India (Star) | Barso Re-A.R. Rahman & Shreya Ghoshal
Indonesia (abdeeaikawa) | Oh Baby-Cinta Laura
Japan (Mylostlenore) | Oboro-Kou Shibasaki
New Zealand (ThomyX) | Something In The Water-Brooke Fraser
Philippines (xtofer) | Hot Couture-Manila Luzon
Romania (Shortie) | Cerul-Proconsul
Russia (jzsmiles) | Hikikomori-Zola Jesus
South Korea (porriel) | Hoot-Girls' Generation
Sweden (naughty) |Not Helpless (Rink's If Only You Knew Remix)-Rebound
Ukraine (marat2408) | Okolo Tebya-Elka
UK (kirill) | Bloodstream-Stateless
USA (NoAngels) | My One And Only-Rachael Lampa | <urn:uuid:567bf8ae-bbf4-452c-9730-5d8e69f68061> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3566723 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916396 | 1,751 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Posted on 11/13/2012
Reviewed by Kirenda, grade 6
The Pain and the Great One (TPATGO) is a double story of the lives of a brother and sister. The brother being a pain, and the sister thinking highly of herself. It's a great book for kids ages 8-10, describing the everyday lives of kids their age in story format. I left out a 1/2 star becase I'm 11 and the book is a little bit young for me. Otherwise, I totally recommend (TPATGO)! | <urn:uuid:01deb91e-4e8e-4d62-903f-a10153fb84e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.youranswerplace.org/print/2000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946158 | 113 | 1.625 | 2 |
Armenians are a proud people, and if you aren't Turkish and you don't deny their unproven genocide, they are also a very friendly people. I've met many Armenians over the years, since I am American, they are extremely friendly to me, and for that reason, I do not discuss this topic with them. That is of course, until they google my name and read some of my articles that disagree with the notion of an Armenian Genocide. After which, they will either disassociate themselves with me, or they will come by and either try to convince me or argue with me. I'm sure many of you, no matter where you are from, have encountered Armenians who try to convince you of the genocide.
The reason they try to convince you, is because of their nationalism, this is not a negative trait, it's just the way they were raised and they are proud of working together with other Armenians to convince the world of their genocide. This is how the Armenian Revolutionary Federation saves its face, otherwise they would have to finally admit after 94 years, that they indeed lost World War I to the Central Power, Ottoman forces. They would have to admit that the Allies really did betray them and left them without reinforcements and all their efforts to sabotage the Ottoman war effort would be gone. The Russian and British promise of a Greater Armenia was broken, they were left with a tiny country and they had no economy and many refugees that were starving in their land-locked nation.
Due to human nature, they had to find someone to blame. They tried to blame the Russians and the rest of the Allies, but it didn't help, no one listened, no one cared. However, when the ARF decided to blame the Ottoman Turks, enemies of the Turks, joined in the blame game, because they all had grudges against the Turks. The British had lost 2 significant battles to the Turks, and they lost the Turkish Independence war, giving the new nation Turkey its own land. The Greeks had lost all of Western Anatolia to the Turks during this war. The French lost all of South-Eastern Anatolia to the Turks. The Russians were creating the Soviet Empire and they were no longer interested in Anatolia, but they too felt betrayed by the Turks who accepted their gifts of weapons but did not convert to communism. Although the Allies had won World War I, in the Turkish independence war, they had lost, and they did not like the Turks.
The Armenian Genocide concept, started after this Turkish independence war. It didn't gain traction until the 1950s and 1960s through widespread propaganda by Armenian communities around the world. This is why the founder of Turkey, Ataturk, has never made any comments about the Armenian Genocide or the accusation of any genocide, because such accusations did not exist when he was alive.
Two Armenians in different times tried to convince me of the genocide. One of them, talked about how his grandmother's husband and children were killed. However, said that she was forced to walk all the way to Syria. As a skeptic, I asked why anyone would kill a family, and then let one of them escape scratch free to Syria, which he could not answer (the reason being, the story was fabricated). When I asked him why then there is no evidence that Talat Pasha, one of the leaders of the Ottoman Empire, had no telegrams ordering genocide, he replied "Why would Talat Pasha leave evidence of his own crimes?"
Another Armenian, tried to convince me by telling me how Talat Pasha wrote a "Black Book" (funny), detailing how he committed the genocide and references "Ottoman documents, not allowed to be seen in the Ottoman Archives today." That was funny because the previous Armenian was telling me Talat Pasha left no evidence of his crime and now he's written a whole black book detailing his crimes, very interesting, very improbable.
When I asked where I can have a copy of this black book, he could not produce it, said that it was sold in various places in different countries. Later, I found out, that he apparently, learned about this black book from some Armenian forum. Again, rumors.
This was similar to the one time where I read a Reader's Digest article hilariously entitled "Why I hate the Turks" -- The Armenian that wrote it, discussed how this very old Armenian described a story of how, he and his family and all of his fellow villagers were trapped in a church, and the "evil Turks" used wood to cover up the windows, and then poured kerosene everywhere and lit the church on fire. He told about how he cried with his family and told them they'd be together again in heaven. Then the story cut off--- huh?? -- How did he escape then? Apparently, that miraculous detail was classified. My suspicion is that he was an ARF member who was the one burning Muslim families in a Mosque, and just twisted the story and made himself the victim, I have no proof, but then again, he doesn't have any proof of his story either.
The writer wrote another story about when this old Armenian man, was only 13, "Turkish and Kurdish marauders" came and attacked his village on horseback. I said "Interesting, never knew Turks and Kurds ever worked together" (because they never did, it was more likely they were all Kurdish, but alas, they always want to put the blame on Turks rather than the real killers). The attackers apparently, killed many villagers, and stabbed the boy with a bayonet and then "stole his clothes" (a grown man stole a child's clothes, very interesting). Wait wait, I missed something, a 13 year old boy was stabbed with a bayonet back in 1915, and somehow survived such a wound in a time where there weren't even any hospitals in most villages? Lies.
This is the problem. We need to apply our logic when listening to these eye-witness stories. Even an American Consul in 1915, once said that "These Orientals, they can't help but exaggerate every story" about the Kurds and Armenians.
These stories to Armenians, are a mission, a nationalistic goal, to convince everyone of a genocide, because they cannot admit the losses they suffered in World War I, were the fault of the ARF, a terrorist organization that sided with the Allies and killed, Armenians, Kurds, and Turks, alike who opposed them. | <urn:uuid:be316e04-548e-4d6b-bbf0-d0da867af48e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.armeniangenocidedebate.com/armenians-full-of-contradictions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988461 | 1,329 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Retailers can cash in on local hobby farmers.
By Meghan E. Murphy
The fact that Martha Stewart recently devoted an entire episode of her television show to backyard chickens attests that the popularity of hobby farming is on the rise. The new trend may be another way for traditional pet stores in suburban and near-rural areas to expand sales.
From chickens to goats to sheep, more people are keeping farm animals in the backyard. The hobbyists are customers interested in sustainable food production as well as the family activity of caring for, and even showing, a farm animal.
“People are learning how to grow their own food and have their own eggs,” said Don Benson, owner of Rivertown Feed & Pet Country Store in Petaluma, Calif.
The proof has come in increased sales for livestock feed companies, especially of poultry feed, and goat and sheep products, said Deborah Reddeck, a marketing specialist for Blue Seal Feeds in Londonderry, N.H.
While there are some pitfalls to entering the livestock feed market, retailers in the right regions can find new customers in hobby farmers who are looking for a one-stop shopping spot for all their animals.
“I’m sure there are many stores that are able to carry pet foods that could have a market for the backyard-type farmer,” said R. Harry Anderson, Ph.D. (animal nutrition), of Total Goat in Garden City, Kan.
From Feed to Pet Store
Hobby Farming Information Online
With hobby farming on the rise, so are the websites with information on everything from caring for chick broods to recipes for repelling pests from a goat. For a decade now, BackYardChickens.com has been collecting articles and connecting hobby farmers with its online message board. The publisher of Pet Product News International, BowTie Inc., also publishes a magazine called Hobby Farms with an accompanying website at www.hobbyfarms.com.
GoatBeat.net offers a message board for those who are raising ruminants.
Martha Stewart featured Traci Torres, founder of MyPetChicken.com, on her backyard bird episode. Torres’ site offers tips and links to supplies for raising poultry. —MM
Michele Zigrossi, owner of Heritage Feed & Supply in Bullville, N.Y., just launched a new venture in a nearby town in the Hudson Valley. The Natural Pet Center at Ireland Corners in Gardiner, N.Y., is a retail store primarily for pets that also boasts supplies for the hobby farmer.
Zigrossi sells chicken feed, live baby chicks and other supplies for backyard farmers.
Zigrossi is uniquely situated for this type of business. First, her store is in an area with a mix of suburban residential homes and farms.
“You have to be in a suburban enough area that people have enough land where people are going to get into backyard farming,” Reddeck said.
Second, Zigrossi is already knowledgeable about livestock feed and care, since she has experience at the feed store.
Unlike a commercial farmer, backyard hobbyists are going to come into the store with a lot of questions. Retailers and their employees are going to need to be armed with answers.
“Your retail store has to have qualified employees there to answer the questions,” said Todd Nearing, whose family runs Cochecton Mills Inc. in Cochecton, N.Y.
Organic and All-Natural
While commercial farmers typically buy in bulk, hobby farmers who raise backyard livestock often look for feeds of the highest quality.
Many backyard farmers, after all, get into the hobby because they’re interested in the humane treatment of animals and knowing exactly what ingredients go into the food they eat, whether it’s eggs or goat’s milk.
“I think you see a lot more people being interested in the feed that’s going into an animal that you’re going to be eating,” Reddeck said.
Therefore, the trend in hobby farming, like that of the pet food market, is toward feed that includes nutritional supplements, organic minerals and all-natural ingredients.
“Pet stores should look for good quality chicken feed,” Benson said, noting that he sells feeds with no hormones or added animal proteins that comes from local mills.
Dr. R. Harry Anderson said he uses organic minerals in Total Goat feed because they’re more readily digestible for the animal. His company puts a premium on efficiency when considering the bioavailability of ingredients to ensure the animal gets the most out of every bite, he said.
Zigrossi sells feed from a local organic mill and Nutrena Animal Feeds. She offers both because the price of organic feeds can be prohibitive for some customers, she said. Nutrena just released a new omega-3 chicken food pellet that offers some of the nutrition benefit of organic feed at a lower price, she added.
Reddeck recommends a different marketing strategy for hobby farmers. She said retailers should look for feed that has nice packaging with supporting materials and guidance for the hobbyist.
Retailers considering carrying livestock feed also must take into consideration the space needed, the profit margin and potential market for such products before choosing them for their store, industry participants reported.
First, 50-pound bags of feed take up a lot of space, whether in a store or warehouse, Zigrossi said. Retailers should have room in the store to have some bags visible, so customers know the feed is available, she added.
Pet store owners should also be aware that livestock feed has a shorter shelf life than pet food. The feed is also susceptible to pest infestation. Zigrossi said she doesn’t let poultry feed stay on the shelf for more than a month.
That means a pet store needs a good market to keep feed moving off the shelves. Pet store owners looking to get into hobby farming supplies should take a thorough look at the competition, especially if there’s an existing farm store in the area, Reddeck noted.
“I would definitely encourage them to do some market analysis,” Anderson said.
Retailers will also notice there’s a lower profit margin on livestock feed than pet foods. They’ll need to sell a higher volume of the product in order to make the same profit.
Despite these challenges, experts said there is room in the retail pet store market for livestock feed. Customers are looking for high-quality natural products and a convenient place to get supplies for all their animals.
“A one stop-shopping experience, rather than going to a variety of stores to get similar products, would appeal to many people,” Anderson said.
Along with feed, retailers can also consider carrying a variety of accessories for backyard farm animals to increase sales. Some farm stores now carry chicken coop kits, watering dishes, brooding lamps and live chicks as well. <HOME>
Industry Professional Site: Comments from non-industry professionals will be removed. | <urn:uuid:e2a023fc-4806-4ac6-a226-a9e80fec79ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.petproductnews.com/web-exclusives/bringing-the-farm-into-the-pet-shop.aspx | 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 | 0.950313 | 1,472 | 1.625 | 2 |
ANCHORAGE (AP) -- The fall brown bear hunting season on the Kenai Peninsula will close again this year because too many sows died in traffic accidents and self-defense shootings.
An emergency order canceling the hunt is effective at 11:59 p.m. Oct. 14 and expires on June 30.
Only a few bears can be killed by human hand each year, according to a complex formula used by state wildlife managers to ensure the peninsula's brown bear population stays healthy.
The state's best estimate is that 250 to 300 of the animals live on the peninsula.
Bears take years to produce offspring and every loss is factored into the equation, especially if the dead bear is a female.
The formula says no more than 14 brown bears can be killed a year and no more than six can be female.
More than seven sows have been taken since bears left their dens in April, leading the department to cancel the regular fall hunt.
Summer brown bear mortality has grown from near zero in the 1980s to a peak of 14 last year. The fall hunt has been closed frequently since the mid-1990s.
Peninsula Clarion ©2013. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:81e50506-f8b7-463d-96f8-3ffedac65e95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://peninsulaclarion.com/stories/092902/hun_092902ala0190001.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96358 | 246 | 2.203125 | 2 |
HEAT STRESS AFFECTS HIGH ABILITY MARATHONERS MORE THAN LOWER ABILITY ATHLETES
Ely, M. R., Martin, D. E., Cheuvront, S. N., & Montain, S. J. (2008). Effect of heat stress on marathon pacing is dependent on runner ability. ACSM 55th Annual Meeting Indianapolis, Presentation Number 1932.
This study determined how heat stress influenced the pacing of runners of differing abilities throughout a marathon. Race results were obtained from three Japanese Women’s championship marathons that included 5-km splits, finishing time, and corresponding weather conditions. A total of 62 race years’ outcomes were analyzed using the race winner and 25th, 50th and 100th place finishers.
The difference between the first (0-5-km) and last (35-40-km) 5-km split times (the pace differential) for the 100th place finishers was the same in cool (5-10°C) as temperate (15.1-21°C) conditions. The pace differential for the 50th place finishers tended to increase with heat stress but was not significantly different. In contrast, heat stress resulted in a slowing of pace for the 25th place finishers and race winners.
Implication. Heat stress had a greater negative effect on the ability of faster runners (winner, 25th place) to maintain race pace while having no significant effect on slower runners (50th, 100th place).
Return to Table of Contents for this issue. | <urn:uuid:834213a0-3e7a-492a-aae4-19480b5c40b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/csa/vol162/ely2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935219 | 325 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Emigration to North "America" - activities of the
Joint in North "America"]
[Figures of German Jewish
immigration to the "USA"]
The other main center of immigration for Europe's Jewish
refugees was, of course, the North American continent
itself. Much has been written to show how restrictive
United States practices were, and how occasional attempts
by groups and individuals to break through the wall of
hostility were foiled by the great latitude that was given
to local consuls in their application of visa-granting
procedures, and by the support these consuls were given in
their restrictive attitudes by State Department officials.
(End note 73:
-- Morse, op. cit. [While Six Million Died; New York
-- Henry L. Feingold: Politics of Rescue; New Brunswick,
-- David S. Wyman: Paper Walls; Amherst, Mass., 1968)
The actual statistics of immigration from Germany to the
United States in the 1930s certainly bear witness to these
strictures, at least as far as the first years of Nazi
rule in Germany are concerned.
The total up to 1938, according to this source, was 63,485
persons from Germany (including Austria, after March
1938). If 85 % of these immigrants were Jews, then the
Jewish immigration from Germany would have been about 54,000
quota for Germany was 26,000 (together with the quote for
Austria it came (p.168)
Immigration from Germany to the United States
|No. of immigrants
|(End note 74: See Germany-AFSC file)
to 27,370); it is therefore clear that up to 1936, U.S.
immigration practices even under the existing quota
arrangements were very restrictive.
1936-1939 - reasons Palestine restrictions and Austria
But this is no longer quite so clear after 1936. The quota
was utilized in 1936 to the extent of 40 %, rising to 63 %
in 1937 and to 71 % in slightly over half of fiscal
1938/9. The quota itself was very small, and the fact that
even that was not fully utilized is a grim reflection of
American practices. The increase in immigration into the
United States came just as the British were restricting
entrance to Palestine, and by the end of 1938, 38 % of the
Jews emigrating from Germany had come to the United
[JDC supports the Jewish
refugees - and avoids publicity]
JDC's attitude toward Jewish immigration into the United
States was ambivalent. The main desire of the organization
was to avoid publicity about the numbers of Jews entering
the country, for fear of an outcry from the many
restrictionist elements in and out of Congress. JDC
allocated money to groups and organizations engaged in
absorbing these immigrants in the United States, but
efforts were made to avoid publicity. These expenditures
came to $ 237,180 in 1936 and climbed to $ 342,000 and $
500,313 in the two succeeding years.
(End note 75: R13, 1936 draft report, and ibid.
[Germany-AFSC file], 1937 and 1938 reports)
the great advantage in bringing so many refugees to
countries outside of Europe was that for the majority,
their wanderings were thereby ended. Overseas settlement
meant final absorption within a reasonable period of time.
By contrast, refugees in European countries could not
expect to remain there indefinitely. Most of (p.169)
them had to plan another move, and their stay in Europe
was fraught with economic difficulties and endless
[Canada is not mentioned]. | <urn:uuid:a5e02fef-a06e-412b-93d0-a82d3eb8d465> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/judentum-aktenlage/hol/joint/Bauer_joint04-14-emigration-to-North-America-ENGL.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955109 | 781 | 2.890625 | 3 |
A person who learns to pray properly can understand what the words of the Chazon Ish in "Emunah Ubitochon":
"When a person merits becoming aware of the reality of the Almighty's existence, he will experience limitless joy. His soul is enveloped in sanctity, and it is as though the soul has left the body and floats in the upper Heavens. When a person transcends to this level, an entirely new world is open to him. It is possible for a person to be momentarily like a celestial being, [while at the same time] in this world. All of the pleasures of this world are as nothing compared to the intense pleasure of a person cleaving to his Creator."
(see Rabbi Pliskin's "Gateway to Happiness," p.101)
See more Daily Lifts on the topic of
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin's new book has just been published by Artscroll:
Formulas, Stories, and Insights.
Self-confidence allows you to create goals -- and reach them. It lets you learn from your failures -- and move on to triumphs. It helps you
transform your potential into real achievement. With the help of Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, you will gain that self-confidence.
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin is the author of 25 books with his specialty in mastering happiness and other positive inner resources.
His last 15 books include: "Taking Action", "Happiness", "Kindness", "Courage", "Serenity", "Building Your Self-image" "Conversations with
Yourself" and "Marriage." These books are available at: Artscroll.com.
Help Aish.com create inspiring
articles, videos and blogs featuring timeless Jewish wisdom. | <urn:uuid:8bdcc782-5648-4634-b69e-90a1c3169880> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aish.com/sp/dl/46122217.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92747 | 370 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The horticulture program is designed to prepare students for employment in the horticulture industry or a related field and to provide training for those who are currently working in the field and want to improve and upgrade their existing knowledge and skills.
The department offers three Career Studies Certificates with specializations in Greenhouse Management, Landscaping, and Viticulture.
Horticulture: Greenhouse Management
The Community Arboretum is a two-acre educational garden located on the campus of Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, Virginia. Ten separate gardens and plant collections surround a centrally located amphitheater and are home to approximately 700 labeled plant taxa.
For more information please visit the Arboretum web site.
We use VW Alert to immediately contact you during a major crisis or emergency. | <urn:uuid:53fbdf80-647f-4d46-a4eb-a38509bcfd22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.virginiawestern.edu/academics/bet/programs/horticulture.php?type=full | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93421 | 165 | 1.773438 | 2 |
What impact does all the explosion of interest in natural gas from shale gas exploration and development have on the development of new vehicles? A new SAE International symposium will explore that topic.
Shale gas exploration and development has been a hot topic in the news. The development of natural gas vehicles, both for fleets and for individual vehicles, is taking off without government subsidies, and the fuel is gaining acceptance for transportation by the general public.
The SAE 2012 Shale Gas Impact on Vehicle Development Symposium will focus on the impact of natural gas vehicle adoption, shale exploration and natural gas Infrastructure on bi-fuel vehicle production. Co-sponsored by SAE International and energy industry publisher Hart Energy, the event will be held Aug. 28 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh.
Those who attend this conference, says SAE, will:
* Gain an understanding of energy policy as it relates to natural gas exploration/CNG.
* Learn about infrastructure developments and the expansion of fueling stations and what this means for the energy and automotive sectors.
* Understand the impact of shale exploration and natural gas infrastructure.
* Learn about the market for NGVs in U.S. truck fleets as well as the heavy-duty and passenger car sectors. What are the projections for NGV demand in the future?
* Gain an understanding of the regulatory environment pertaining to natural gas exploration and what it means for the energy and automotive sectors.
For more information on the SAE 2012 Shale Gas Impact on Vehicle Development Symposium, visit http://www.sae.org/events/cng/ . | <urn:uuid:d7523a34-49a9-491b-a652-20d3a2e05f9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/story/2012/06/sae-symposium-to-ask-whats-the-impact-of-shale-gas-on-vehicle-development.aspx?prestitial=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9096 | 327 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Teenagers in Merseyside are being asked to think about what is a sex crime as part of a high-profile national campaign to raise rape awareness among young people.
Research shows that a third of teenage girls and 16 per cent of teenage boys have experienced some form of sexual violence at the hands of a partner and that 66 per cent of all sexual abuse is commited by under-18s.
But a large number of young people don't know that rape can be commited by someone they know and doesn't have to be an attack from a stranger or an adult.
The national 'Would You See Rape?' campaign by the Home Office is being backed by children's charity the NSPCC , rape victim charities such as Rape Crisis and Survivors Trust, as well as police forces up and down the country.
Detective Inspector Debbie Weir from Merseyside Police's dedicated rape investigation team, Unity, said a large number of sexual assaults involving young people were happening at house parties or when teenagers were drinking in parks or other public places.
"If you are excessively drunk at a party then you cannot possibly give consent to have sex. Without consent, it is a criminal offence for someone to take advantage of you in that way. Sadly, we are finding that a lot of young people don't know this and think that nothing can be done, even when they wake up the next morning feeling like something awful has happened.
"Our message to them is that a great deal can actually be done to help them and we will always take seriously any allegation of sexual assault they make."
The national campaign will feature TV, cinema and online advertisements showing a teenage girl being coerced into sex by a boy upstairs at a house party. The girl says 'I don't want to' but the boy persists. A double of the boy then appears in the background and the viewer is asked: 'If you could see yourself now, would you see rape'?. The adverts will run until next month and will seek to raise rape awareness, dispell myths and challenge perceptions surrounding rape. For example, the TRUTH is:
In Merseyside, in the last 12 months, there have been 107 rapes or serious sexual assaults reported to the police where the victims were aged 13 to 18 years old. And 29 people in that age range have been charged with serious sexual offences.
Since the formation of the Unity Team in 2010, in which Merseyside Police became the first force in the country to incorporate specialist crown prosecutors into a rape investigation team, the number of reports have increased as people feel more confident that their allegations will be taken seriously by the police.
DI Weir added: "A key part of this national campaign, which we are supporting locally, is to not only raise awareness of what constitutes a rape but also tell people who they can report it to. For most people this will be the worst thing that has ever happened to them and at first they will not know where to turn. We want people to be reassured that they can come to us and they will be listened to and cared for. We want young people in our high schools, colleges and universities to feel confident about challenging sexual violence when they see it and, if it does happen to them, know who they can turn to for help."
To report a rape or sexual offence to Merseyside Police call 101. Alternatively you can pass information on anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Confidential 24/7 help for victims of sexual assault is available at Safe Place Merseyside on 0151 295 3550.
Find out more about the 'This is ABUSE' campaign at their website. | <urn:uuid:5058b728-f1d7-463f-8e76-f54cd33e2bcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teenwirral.com/news/abuse-campaign | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971577 | 742 | 2.140625 | 2 |
To preserve the promise of civilization, we must start anew.
Twenty years ago, the world agreed that the increase in greenhouse gas emissions needs to be reversed as quickly as possible, or dangerous and potentially irreversible degradation of the global climate system would begin in about twenty years.
Those twenty years have passed, and now the world must mobilize to eliminate global warming pollution and defend humanity against the dangerous climate change that is now happening.
The existing global framework to address the threat of global warming — governmental, academic, scientific, economic, societal — is two decades old. The world’s top climate scientists drove the formation, in 1988, of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations. Following the first IPCC climate change assessment report in 1990, representatives of the planet’s governments gathered in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 to establish a framework convention for addressing climate change — called, naturally enough, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. That framework, ratified by all the world’s governments, including the United States, has guided civilization’s collective effort to address the threat of greenhouse emissions to the present day. As expressed in the UNFCCC:
The ultimate objective of this Convention and any related legal instruments that the Conference of the Parties may adopt is to achieve, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Convention, stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.
Despite their best efforts, those committed to achieving the objectives of the convention failed. The 1990 First Assessment Report correctly warned that “irreversible change in the climate” could come by 2000. Permafrost melt, sea level rise, species extinction, glacial retreat and disappearance, and other systemic impacts have transformed our planet for the worse. The degraded climate is now causing the decline of ecosystems, degradation of food production, and economic instability around the globe. Left unchecked, global warming is increasingly likely to solve the emissions problem through the collapse of industrial civilization.
So what can be done?
The necessary elements for defending civilization in a more dangerous, rapidly changing world all exist. Insurance companies are reconfiguring their policies as seas rise and disasters increase. Hedge funds are developing new financial instruments to handle the effects of climate instability. City planners are examining the security of transit and utility systems. Military officials are drawing up new war scenarios. Scientists and entrepreneurs are inventing, refining, and deploying technologies to sustainably power civilization. Activists are putting their freedom on the line to challenge the forces of inaction. But these efforts are haphazard and uncoordinated. They are insufficient to ensure that the human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are realized on our polluted planet.
The missing piece, often described euphemistically as “political will,” involves a complete rethinking of the threat of global warming. Most Americans see global warming as a real problem, but one that is distant in time and space: that will only affect their children or grandchildren, one that will affect far reaches of the planet first and foremost. That misunderstanding is utterly natural, since that is the presumption of the existing framework, reinforced by the rhetoric and actions of political leaders like President Barack Obama. The greatest culpability, of course, lies in the immoral acts of powerful polluters and their allies to deny the threat entirely.
The new climate framework needs to be built on the following principles:
– Humanity is responsible for climate disasters.
– Climate change is not only a future threat but an active enemy to societal progress.
– All investments must take into account the reality of increasing uncertainty and risk as the climate system becomes more unstable.
– All existing infrastructures — physical, legal, economic, political, cultural — need to be re-examined for resilience in our changing world.
ThinkProgress Green and Climate Progress will be reporting on the efforts of this generation of humanity, and of the great democratic experiment of the United States of America, to build this new framework. | <urn:uuid:1a4397e9-2d09-41ad-a994-359a7acc2d41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/05/31/230978/welcome-to-thinkprogress-green/?mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923339 | 868 | 3.46875 | 3 |
The bees in the apiary aren't the only ones busy at Dodge Nature Center. This may well be the hardest working facility around!
At Dodge Nature Preschool, the classroom includes 110 acres of outdoor wonders. Children interact regularly with the farm animals, and explore the tra
Some aspects to consider when rating this park or playground:
1. Is the park, playground or recreational facility safe?
2. Is it clean and well maintained?
3. Does the park provide an active, creative or educational experience?
4. Is the park parent and child friendly?
5. Is it toddler, pre-k, small and big kid friendly? | <urn:uuid:ac4ef20e-c1f3-4f50-9493-8bcf17f124cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kidsplayparks.com/spot_kid_friendly_parks_Dodge_Nature_Center_St_Paul_MN_54145.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909029 | 133 | 1.59375 | 2 |
>This article was originally published in Antique Trader
>>Get it delivered for just a $1 an issue!
Circa-1878 Watts & Co. coffin-shape telephone offered with a copy of the first telephone directory, estimate $10,000 to $20,000.
|Circa-1892 Western Electric magneto wall cabinet set, estimate $7,000 to $10,000.|
DENVER, Pa. – A large percentage of the world’s population has never even seen a dial-face telephone, but that certainly wasn’t the case with the late Bill Daniels. The massive collection of antique and vintage phones that filled his home comprised a chronological archive of Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 invention and contained models ranging from primitive turn of the 20th century curiosities to ultra-cool mid-century designs.
A premier assemblage, the Daniels collection has been consigned to Morphy Auctions, where it will be apportioned into three subsequent General Antiques auctions, the first of which will take place on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 14 and 15, 2011. The phones will open the second session.
“Many of Bill Daniels’ phones were displayed at museums or shows, but he was always a buyer, hardly ever a seller,” said Morphy Auctions CEO Dan Morphy. “Bill worked for AT&T’s long distance division until his retirement at age 52, so telephones were always a big part of his life.”
Daniels’ widow, Dorothy, said her husband started picking up old phones at flea markets, tag sales and church sales, later expanding his hunt to collector shows dedicated exclusively to telephones. “As his collection grew, he started thinking about the idea of a museum, so in addition to phones, he started buying phone booths, telegraphs, intercoms and other phone-related items,” Mrs. Daniels said.
One of Bill Daniels’ favorite pieces was his Watts & Co. coffin phone, which gets its name because of its distinctive shape. It is offered in the Oct. 14-15 auction with a $10,000 to $20,000 estimate. Other highlights include a Western Electric magneto wall cabinet set (estimate $7,000-$10,000); and an American toll 50-cent pay station telephone (estimate $5,000-$10,000). Most of the phones in the collection are American, although there are also some examples from England and Japan.
The Friday session will open with more than 70 occupational shaving mugs. A mug emblazoned with a merry-go-round is expected to bring $1,200 to $1,500. Two mugs with a transportation theme carry a presale estimate of $1,000 to $1,500 each: one has a depiction of a mail delivery truck; the other is illustrated with a race car.
Approximately 180 lots of antique apothecary items from a Pennsylvania pharmacist and pharmacology professor’s 35-year collection are included in the Friday lineup. The collection includes many “shop” bottles that 19th century pharmacists would have displayed on shelves. Most of them are glass and have labels identifying the medicinal contents by their Latin names.
Other auction categories filling out the 1,200-lot sale include early blown glass, desirable pottery, sterling silver Native American jewelry, original artworks, and more.
All forms of bidding will be available for the Oct. 14-15 auction, including live at the gallery, by phone or absentee, and live via the Internet through Morphy Live (sign up at www.morphyauctions.com) or LiveAuctioneers.com. The sale will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern time each day.
For additional information visit Morphy’s.
More from Antique Trader
- Morphy Auctions returns to its roots– Dan Morphy buys back company’s operating assets
- Work begins on deluxe addition to Morphy gallery
- Morphy Auctions’ Web site now features live bidding
- Andy Huffer toy motorcycle collection roars at Morphy auction
More Resources For Collectors & Sellers | <urn:uuid:354dfcfb-2c1a-417a-94a9-afad954a0e95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques/rare-watts-co-coffin-phone-may-headline-wide-ranging-collector-auction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949565 | 881 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Transport of Mercury and other metals to the West Coast of the U.S.
(Cooperative agreement with the U.S. EPA)
Our previous work has shown that combustion derived air pollutants from Asia can be transported to the U.S. in 6-8 days via rapid atmospheric transport. This discovery was made based on observations of a number of gaseous and aerosol species at the Cheeka Peak Observatory (CPO) on the northwestern tip of Washington state. To date only springtime observations have been made so we do not yet know how significant this transport is during other seasons. We propose to extend this work by collaborating with the U.S. EPA to make measurements of Hg(0), coarse and fine aerosol mass, aerosol S, C and trace metals on a year-round basis at the Cheeka Peak Observatory. These data will be combined with our other observations including gaseous CO and O3 and aerosol light scattering, which have been used previously to identify Asian transport events at CPO. Within the first year of this cooperative agreement we intend to establish a Cheeka Peak website where preliminary “near-real time” data can be viewed online. One of our primary goals of this work is to use the mercury and trace metal results to identify contributions from major source regions in Asia and report these results in one or more peer reviewed journal publications. | <urn:uuid:c2363fc8-ebe3-4d33-937f-df11668612c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://faculty.washington.edu/djaffe/epa_abs.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939613 | 283 | 2.25 | 2 |
“The trouble started when the woman with the shaking hands came to the apartment…She said she was a friend of Darcy’s mother, but Darcy’s mother didn’t have friends.” – America Pacifica
Darcy is an eighteen-year-old citizen of the dystopian America Pacifica, an overpopulated island that was established after the United States mainland fell into an ice age. Darcy and her mother struggle through the days in the slums, making barely enough to survive. After a typically depressing day at her cafeteria worker job, Darcy returns home to find the apartment oddly empty. When she wakes up the next morning, alone and with her mother still not home, the panic sets in.
This island is not the kind of place where a young, poor, woman can report a missing relative and expect cooperation from authorities. As a result, Darcy resorts to asking for help from just about anyone who will lend an ear, even if they are dangerous people. As she gathers bits of information about her mother’s disappearance, Darcy learns more about the strange origins of the island.
I liked that America Pacifica contained elements of a futuristic dystopian novel — an absolute ruler with a vague history, extreme social structures, and a main character fighting with both of those situations. I also adored North’s descriptive writing. It is deep and rich; the reader really feels, even smells, the dirty, soggy island. However, while the descriptions are tremendous, the pacing is a little slow. Things that seemed promising merely petered out, leaving Darcy, as well as myself, frustrated.
If you’re used to reading fast-paced novels, you may want to give this one a little bit of extra time. That said, it’s definitely one worth reading if you love heroines, dark futures, and crafty writing.
Discussion question: Describe your own dystopia and utopia. If you lived in what you’d consider a dystopia, what would you do to make it better?
Leave a comment below telling us and fellow blog readers what you think. For participating, you could win a free copy of America Pacifica.
- You have until Friday, May 27, 2011 to participate.
- Though you may leave comments after the above date, any comments left after 11:59 p.m. ET on May 27 will not be counted into the giveaway.
- Only comments left on this blog post will be counted.
- We will contact you via e-mail if you are a winner.
- For more information, please see our Contests & Comments page. | <urn:uuid:7ba3679b-21eb-4fbf-876b-6030160956d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.modcloth.com/2011/05/20/america-pacifica-mays-book-of-the-month-giveaway/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945416 | 551 | 2.09375 | 2 |
The World’s Largest Conference Dedicated to SOA, Cloud Computing & Service Technology
Dan Rosanova of West Monroe Partners will be speaking High Performance Computing in the Cloud during day 1 of the Service Infrastructure & Virtualization track. Click here to learn more.
As cloud computing ushers in an era of low cost highly scalable platforms and solutions it is also brining massive computing power once reserved for government and research institutions to every organization in the world. Beyond the concept of merely elastic computing this computing power will change the way many business function and their low barrier to entry will enable research on an unprecedented scale. Problems that involve intensive calculations or simulations can benefit from the massive parallelization that the cloud provides.
Whether through scale-out architectures like Grid / Cluster / Hadoop, or completely new approaches, such as General Purpose Graphics Processor Unit (GP GPU), there are a variety of emerging high performance computing options coming to the cloud. Any organization can now harness processing resources that once required the heavy capital investment of a super computer on a pay for use basis that is both cost effective and sustainable. This session will describe the problem spaces and architectural techniques that are well served by cloud based high performance computing.
Topics covered will include:
- Identifying suitable problem spaces
- Parallel processing architectures
- Data access techniques
- Available platforms & tools
- Case study and statistics from a financial modelling scenario
Additionally features and pricing questions involving major vendors will be discussed and compared to non-cloud based options. Target functional areas include: capital markets, energy & utilities, insurance, life sciences, aerospace, climate & weather modelling. | <urn:uuid:a37843c9-cc3d-4744-bc52-40b803b276da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.westmonroepartners.com/en/insights/events/2012/september/service-technology-symposium-2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907048 | 329 | 1.6875 | 2 |
I've decided to give you ILUG gurus a second chance.
You failed your first test, to explain why my SCSI machine
(Asus P2B-LS) won't boot off the hard disk,
although it boots off floppy and CD without problem.
(The MBR seems OK, when I look at it with dd.)
Anyway, I noticed yesterday that one of the options
offered by the BIOS is to boot from LAN,
and I was wondering how this was accomplished.
I tried setting it as the first option (LAN,C,A)
but it didn't send out any Ethernet packets,
and didn't seem to wait to get any either.
The motherboard has built-in ethernet,
I await your words of wisdom.
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
Maintained by the ILUG website team. The aim of Linux.ie is to
support and help commercial and private users of Linux in Ireland. You can
display ILUG news in your own webpages, read backend
information to find out how. Networking services kindly provided by HEAnet, server kindly donated by
Dell. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds,
used with permission. No penguins were harmed in the production or maintenance
of this highly praised website. Looking for the
Indian Linux Users' Group? Try here. If you've read all this and aren't a lawyer: you should be! | <urn:uuid:b80356f6-4cf4-4103-bc31-4dda13b766e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linux.ie/lists/pipermail/ilug/2004-May/069987.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939682 | 358 | 1.625 | 2 |
By PBN Staff
(Updated Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2:30 p.m., UMass removes Textron from list)
AMHERST, Mass. – Textron Inc. – the Providence-based company that includes Bell Helicopter and Cessna Aircraft – was named the No. 2 corporate air polluter in America by researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
On Wednesday, the institutue released its 4th Toxic 100 Air Polluters list, a list of the top corporate air polluters in the U.S.
According to a release, Textron has seen its air emissions record deteriorate dramatically, rising in ranking from 75th in 2008 to 43rd in 2010 and 2nd on this year’s list.
“The Toxic 100 Air Polluters informs consumers and shareholders which large corporations release the most toxic pollutants into our air,” James Boyce, co-director of PERI’s Corporate Toxics Information project, said in a statement.
The list is based on air releases of hundreds of chemicals from tens of thousands of industrial facilities across the country. According to the release, the rankings take into account not only the quantity of releases but also the toxicity of the chemicals and factors including prevailing winds, height of smokestacks and the number of people exposed.
Textron spokesperson David Sylvestre said that the ranking is “not an accurate reflection of the company’s environmental impact,” adding that the UMass list is based on 2007 emissions data.
“It is five years out of date. Current Textron emissions are much lower,” added Sylvestre. “Furthermore, these emissions are legally permitted by state and federal environmental authorities.”
In the most recent Newsweek Green rankings, which scored the environmental impact of the top 500 U.S. companies, Textron scored 186th, where 1st is the “greenest.”
“The company has major, multi-year initiatives in progress to continually improve its environmental, health and safety performance,” said Sylvestre.
“We assess not just how many pounds of pollutants are released, but which are the most toxic and how many people are at risk. People have a right to know about toxic hazards to which they are exposed,” said Boyce. “Legislators need to understand the effects of pollution on their constituents.”
The five worst air polluters in the U.S. on the PERI list were the Bayer Group, Textron, General Electric Co., Precision Castparts and Koch Industries, respectively.
For the full list, visit: www.peri.umass.edu/toxic100. | <urn:uuid:80623436-7a7c-4a97-9195-fd9d1dfc8945> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbn.com/Textron-named-top-air-polluter,69778?category_id=66&list_type=most_commented&sub_type=stories,packages | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945815 | 569 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The loudest cries of disappointment from Apple’s recent iPhone 5 launch had nothing to do with its new ‘Lightning’ connector port or the lack of a 128GB version. Instead, the armies of the unimpressed were bemoaning the lack of NFC, or Near Field Communications, technology inside the latest iDevice.
For the always-hungry Apple rumour mill, the inclusion of NFC in the latest iPhone was to be the turning point for mainstream adoption of the wireless technology. But even though Apple hasn’t boarded the NFC train yet, the technology is ramping up and becoming more and more prevalent in today’s market.
Put simply, NFC is a wireless technology that allows the transmission of data between two devices in close proximity to each other. It is based upon the RFID standard, which means that it is possible for an NFC-enabled gadget to interact with an unpowered chip, known as a tag.
The fact that NFC can work with tags that don’t require power opens up a huge range of possible applications for the technology. For a start, it has meant that MasterCard and Visa cards have been able to kickstart the contactless payment revolution with their PayWave and PayPass systems by including an NFC tag in a credit card.
But what has ignited the potential of NFC is the rise of smartphones. Despite the fact that the bulk of current smartphones don’t include NFC (including the new iPhone), that hasn’t stopped app developers, banks, and dedicated companies from creating products and services that can (or will) take advantage of the many benefits NFC has to offer.
Show me the money
The most exciting use of NFC is the prospect of the digital wallet. Even without critical mass in NFC-enabled smartphones, banks and credit card companies have been doing everything they can to bring mobile NFC payments to market.
With an NFC-enabled device, customers will be able to use their phones to pay for a variety of products, from hardware at Bunnings to groceries at 7 Eleven and everything in between. Using the Mastercard PayPass or Visa PayWave infrastructure already in place in stores around the country, these handsets will replace the need for credit cards by connecting to your bank or credit card accounts through dedicated apps.
The Commonwealth Bank has led this push in Australia through its Kaching app. Alongside its real-time banking application, the bank launched a special NFC-enabled iPhone case called iCarte that converts an iPhone 4 or 4S into an NFC-compatible device.
Unfortunately, despite also being available on the Android platform, the Kaching app doesn’t support NFC payments through Google’s smartphone operating system. The bank has claimed that the reason for this is that while many Android handsets have integrated NFC chips, none have enabled the secure element of the chip to allow for safe mobile payments.
The good news is that this can be rectified through a software update, which means it should not be a difficult process to enable.
While CommBank has focused its early NFC efforts exclusively on the iPhone, Westpac has gone for a more universal attempt by removing the need for an embedded NFC chip in the phone or case, and instead placing an NFC tag on a SIM card.
Currently being trialed around the country, the special NFC-enabled SIM card works in conjunction with a special app for Android phones that turns the handset into a virtual PayPass MasterCard. The beauty of this solution is that almost any Android handset can become a digital credit card, without the need to upgrade to an NFC-enabled version.
Pages: 1 2 | <urn:uuid:3af981d7-f9c3-492b-9528-043978d8870b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gadgetguy.com.au/how-nfc-is-supercharging-smartphones/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950702 | 743 | 1.976563 | 2 |
The following rules for alimony apply to payments under divorce or separation instruments executed after 1984.taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm#en_us_publink1000172886
There are two situations where the rules for instruments executed after 1984 apply to instruments executed before 1985.
- A divorce or separation instrument executed before 1985 and then modified after 1984 to specify that the after-1984 rules will apply.
- A temporary divorce or separation instrument executed before 1985 and incorporated into, or adopted by, a final decree executed after 1984 that:
- Changes the amount or period of payment, or
- Adds or deletes any contingency or condition.
For the rules for alimony payments under pre-1985 instruments not meeting these exceptions, see the 2004 revision of Publication 504 on the IRS website at www.irs.gov
In November 1984, you and your former spouse executed a written separation agreement. In February 1985, a decree of divorce was substituted for the written separation agreement. The decree of divorce did not change the terms for the alimony you pay your former spouse. The decree of divorce is treated as executed before 1985. Alimony payments under this decree are not subject to the rules for payments under instruments executed after 1984.taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm#en_us_publink1000172888
Assume the same facts as in Example 1 except that the decree of divorce changed the amount of the alimony. In this example, the decree of divorce is not treated as executed before 1985. The alimony payments are subject to the rules for payments under instruments executed after 1984.taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm#en_us_publink1000172889
A payment to or for a spouse under a divorce or separation instrument is alimony if the spouses do not file a joint return with each other and all the following requirements are met.
- The payment is in cash.
- The instrument does not designate the payment as not alimony.
- The spouses are not members of the same household at the time the payments are made. This requirement applies only if the spouses are legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance.
- There is no liability to make any payment (in cash or property) after the death of the recipient spouse.
- The payment is not treated as child support.
Each of these requirements is discussed next.
Only cash payments, including checks and money orders, qualify as alimony. The following do not qualify as alimony.
- Transfers of services or property (including a debt instrument of a third party or an annuity contract).
- Execution of a debt instrument by the payer.
- The use of the payer's property.
Cash payments to a third party under the terms of your divorce or separation instrument can qualify as cash payments to your spouse. See Payments to a third party
under General Rules
Also, cash payments made to a third party at the written request of your spouse may qualify as alimony if all the following requirements are met.
- The payments are in lieu of payments of alimony directly to your spouse.
- The written request states that both spouses intend the payments to be treated as alimony.
- You receive the written request from your spouse before you file your return for the year you made the payments.
You and your spouse can designate that otherwise qualifying payments are not alimony. You do this by including a provision in your divorce or separation instrument that states the payments are not deductible as alimony by you and are excludable from your spouse's income. For this purpose, any instrument (written statement) signed by both of you that makes this designation and that refers to a previous written separation agreement is treated as a written separation agreement (and therefore a divorce or separation instrument). If you are subject to temporary support orders, the designation must be made in the original or a later temporary support order.
Your spouse can exclude the payments from income only if he or she attaches a copy of the instrument designating them as not alimony to his or her return. The copy must be attached each year the designation applies. taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm#en_us_publink1000172894
Payments to your spouse while you are members of the same household are not alimony if you are legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance. A home you formerly shared is considered one household, even if you physically separate yourselves in the home.
You are not treated as members of the same household if one of you is preparing to leave the household and does leave no later than 1 month after the date of the payment. taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm#en_us_publink1000172895
If you are not legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance, a payment under a written separation agreement, support decree, or other court order may qualify as alimony even if you are members of the same household when the payment is made.
|Table 18-1. Alimony Requirements (Instruments Executed After 1984) |
| Payments ARE alimony if all of the following are true: || Payments are NOT alimony if any of the following are true: |
|Payments are required by a divorce or separation instrument.||Payments are not required by a divorce or separation instrument.|
|Payer and recipient spouse do not file a joint return with each other.||Payer and recipient spouse file a joint return with each other.|
|Payment is in cash (including checks or money orders).||Payment is: |
- Not in cash,
- A noncash property settlement,
- Spouse's part of community income, or
- To keep up the payer's property.
|Payment is not designated in the instrument as not alimony.||Payment is designated in the instrument as not alimony.|
|Spouses legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance are not members of the same household.||Spouses legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance are members of the same household.|
|Payments are not required after death of the recipient spouse.||Payments are required after death of the recipient spouse.|
|Payment is not treated as child support.||Payment is treated as child support.|
| These payments are deductible by the payer and includible in income by the recipient. || These payments are neither deductible by the payer nor includible in income by the recipient. |
If any part of payments you make must continue to be made for any period after your spouse's death, that part of your payments is not alimony, whether made before or after the death. If all of the payments would continue, then none of the payments made before or after the death are alimony.
The divorce or separation instrument does not have to expressly state that the payments cease upon the death of your spouse if, for example, the liability for continued payments would end under state law. taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm#en_us_publink1000172900
You must pay your former spouse $10,000 in cash each year for 10 years. Your divorce decree states that the payments will end upon your former spouse's death. You must also pay your former spouse or your former spouse's estate $20,000 in cash each year for 10 years. The death of your spouse would not terminate these payments under state law.
The $10,000 annual payments may qualify as alimony. The $20,000 annual payments that do not end upon your former spouse's death are not alimony. taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm#en_us_publink1000172901
If you must make any payments in cash or property after your spouse's death as a substitute for continuing otherwise qualifying payments before the death, the otherwise qualifying payments are not alimony. To the extent that your payments begin, accelerate, or increase because of the death of your spouse, otherwise qualifying payments you made may be treated as payments that were not alimony. Whether or not such payments will be treated as not alimony depends on all the facts and circumstances. taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm#en_us_publink1000172902
Under your divorce decree, you must pay your former spouse $30,000 annually. The payments will stop at the end of 6 years or upon your former spouse's death, if earlier.
Your former spouse has custody of your minor children. The decree provides that if any child is still a minor at your spouse's death, you must pay $10,000 annually to a trust until the youngest child reaches the age of majority. The trust income and corpus (principal) are to be used for your children's benefit.
These facts indicate that the payments to be made after your former spouse's death are a substitute for $10,000 of the $30,000 annual payments. Of each of the $30,000 annual payments, $10,000 is not alimony.taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm#en_us_publink1000172903
Under your divorce decree, you must pay your former spouse $30,000 annually. The payments will stop at the end of 15 years or upon your former spouse's death, if earlier. The decree provides that if your former spouse dies before the end of the 15-year period, you must pay the estate the difference between $450,000 ($30,000 × 15) and the total amount paid up to that time. For example, if your spouse dies at the end of the tenth year, you must pay the estate $150,000 ($450,000 − $300,000).
These facts indicate that the lump-sum payment to be made after your former spouse's death is a substitute for the full amount of the $30,000 annual payments. None of the annual payments are alimony. The result would be the same if the payment required at death were to be discounted by an appropriate interest factor to account for the prepayment.taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm#en_us_publink1000172904
A payment that is specifically designated as child support or treated as specifically designated as child support under your divorce or separation instrument is not alimony. The amount of child support may vary over time. Child support payments are not deductible by the payer and are not taxable to the recipient. taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm#en_us_publink1000172905
A payment will be treated as specifically designated as child support to the extent that the payment is reduced either:
- On the happening of a contingency relating to your child, or
- At a time that can be clearly associated with the contingency.
A payment may be treated as specifically designated as child support even if other separate payments are specifically designated as child support.
A contingency relates to your child if it depends on any event relating to that child. It does not matter whether the event is certain or likely to occur. Events relating to your child include the child's:
- Becoming employed,
- Leaving the household,
- Leaving school,
- Marrying, or
- Reaching a specified age or income level.
Payments that would otherwise qualify as alimony are presumed to be reduced at a time clearly associated with the happening of a contingency relating to your child only in the following situations.
- The payments are to be reduced not more than 6 months before or after the date the child will reach 18, 21, or local age of majority.
- The payments are to be reduced on two or more occasions that occur not more than 1 year before or after a different one of your children reaches a certain age from 18 to 24. This certain age must be the same for each child, but need not be a whole number of years.
In all other situations, reductions in payments are not treated as clearly associated with the happening of a contingency relating to your child.
Either you or the IRS can overcome the presumption in the two situations just described. This is done by showing that the time at which the payments are to be reduced was determined independently of any contingencies relating to your children. For example, if you can show that the period of alimony payments is customary in the local jurisdiction, such as a period equal to one-half of the duration of the marriage, you can overcome the presumption and may be able to treat the amount as alimony. | <urn:uuid:2478cb12-3319-436c-9fa7-d1e8f8796425> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://taxmap.ntis.gov/taxmap/archive2009/taxmap/pub17/p17-095.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950299 | 2,632 | 1.585938 | 2 |
- Get Involved
The Arts and Industries Building has a special role among Smithsonian buildings—as the original home of the National Museum.
It opened in 1881 in time for the inaugural ball of President James A. Garfield.
See the online exhibition
Dream: History of the Arts and Industries Building.
Highlights A working carousel is located on the Mall outside of the building. | <urn:uuid:2be2b024-a106-4a19-8d19-85d04bd11af6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.si.edu/Accessibility/AIB | 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 | 0.913962 | 79 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Mount Hua-a death trap!
Are you an inveterate traveler, who's fed up with regular tour packages? Do you look forward to explore new places and experience the real thrill? If answers to these questions are yes, then you deserve to know this amazing place in China wherein you get an opportunity to hike the mountain, which is over 7000 feet tall. Incredible, isn't it? But, it's in fact true!
The location, which you are now seeing is known as Mount Hua (English) and Huashan in Chinese. This mountain is location near Huayin city. Attempting to hike Mount Hua will not be a cakewalk. It needs complete attention and a pinch of guts as a single wrong step on this mountain can take you to hell. No wonder to mention that Mount Hua is a death trap.
Mount Hushan is one of the most dangerous hiking trials in the world without any doubt. There are totally five peaks, which together form this mountain. And the mountain is a top pilgrimage centre for Chinese nationals while it becomes a part and parcel of adventure trip to others.
The staircase at the base of the mountain look perfectly okay but after a few miles, the staircase would literally be vertical. After climbing two peaks, never try to look what's down you, you might definitely feel dizzy and fall off. From normal staircase, one heads to vertical staircase and then things get more crazier. You will see a rickety path wherein you will need to walk horizontally. One needs to hold the chain with hands and walk sideways for a few kilometres.
Don't think it's over, the game has just begun. After walking sideways for a while, there would be no staircase and no logs to walk sideways. All one could see is chains and small footholds carved into the rock. You need to put your leg into a foothold and then go sideways. And at last you will reach the top.
Mount Huashan trial has hell lot of risk involved in it and reportedly hundreds of casualties take place at this mountain. For people who follow Taoism (a religion in China), this place is a top pilgrimage centre as there are many Taoist temples on the mountain.
So, are you game for this trial even after looking at these pictures? Why late? Pack up your back packs right away and head to Mount Hua.
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Unknown date; Los Angeles, CA, USA; FILE PHOTO; Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Jerry Reuss in action at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-US PRESSWIRE
Jerry Ruess pitched only two years with the Astros, but holds quite possibly the most unbreakable record in franchise history. Coinciding with game 40 on the season, Ruess in 1973 made 40 starts for the Astros. Something that was common place several decades now might be almost impossible to replicate.
In the two years Ruess pitched with the Astros he posted a 3.91 ERA and a 90 ERA+ in 471.1 innings, which resulted in a 25-26 record. Over 22 years in the big leagues Ruess would produce a 100 ERA+, the very definition of an average big league pitcher.
He would have his most success in Los Angeles, but before he got there he would be drafted by the St. Louis Cardianls and then traded to the Houston Astros.
His 1973 season with the Astros wasn't anything spectacular, he led the league in games started, with 40, and base on balls, with 117. Well of course you'll lead the league in walks when you have 40 starts, 279.1 innings pitched and a 96 ERA+. Along with average I guess you could say Reuss was a work horse for the Astros that season. Reuss finished the season with a 16-13 record, a franchise games started record and then was shipped off to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Milt May. | <urn:uuid:5ee9bda6-260a-41fe-a70c-65076a180ea0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2012/5/19/3027232/astros-history-most-games-started | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967029 | 308 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Stefanie Mueller, Pedro Lopes, and Patrick Baudisch at Hasso Plattner Institute have created an "interactive drafting table" by allowing the user to draw directly onto an object with a hand held laser pointer. The laser pointers movements and gestures are captured by an overhead camera and translated into commands for the laser cutter, eliminating the need for a drafting program.
More detailed information on how the system works can be found here. But in short the overhead camera captures movement and gestures which are translated into previously configured commands that can be used to generate specific types of actions such as rounding corners, creating points, removing material, etc. The overall effect is a much freer way of working with the laser cutter that affords a more step by step iterative design process. | <urn:uuid:67285b5f-4116-48c4-9524-a9b18e63b625> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.lib.umn.edu/artdept/lasercutter/2012/11/constructable---direct-drawing-with-the-laser-cutter.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93925 | 158 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is now predicting an increase of 4.6% in global economic output in 2010. For global trade, the IMF is forecasting growth of 9.0%. However, the rebound is still being bolstered by extremely expansive monetary policies. The measures that some countries have introduced to consolidate national budgets may do harm to the economy. In addition, the swelling debt crisis in the euro zone bears risks. As a result, economic uplift may lose momentum again in the second half of the year.
In the course of 2010, the Japanese economy will continue to benefit from the recovery of the global economy. It is conceivable that exports will rise considerably, thereby driving strong GDP growth (IMF: 2.4%; Postbank Research: 3.3%). In China, economic growth in 2010 may almost reach the record levels of past years (IMF: 10.5%).
There are signs that the US economy will continue to rebound in the second half of the year. Solid GDP growth is predicted for the year as a whole (IMF: 3.3%; Postbank Research: 2.8%).
The economy in the euro zone will recover in 2010, stimulated by exports. However, as recovery will be curbed by structural weaknesses and fiscal consolidation measures, overall growth will be limited (IMF: 1.0%, Postbank Research: 1.2%).
The global upturn is proving to be the driver of the German economy in 2010. Exports will rise sharply as a result. However, private consumption is not expected to provide any stimulus. On the contrary, it could even drop due to the end of the government’s environmental rebate programme for trading in used cars in the previous year. Nonetheless, GDP growth should be markedly higher in Germany than in the rest of the euro zone (IMF: 1.4%, Postbank Research: 1.9%). | <urn:uuid:b778e24f-8717-4890-9695-1c937114be3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dp-dhl.com/reports/2010/zwischenbericht-h1/en/interim-report-by-the-board-of-management/global-economic.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949194 | 384 | 2.15625 | 2 |
- Technical Data
Teeth Roll Crusher refers to the crushing machinery whose discharging size greater than three millimeters is more than 50% of total discharging material, and the teeth roll crusher is one kind of crusher. Teeth roll crusher is formed with roller bearing, roller support bearing, pressing and adjusting device, as well as driving devices, with characteristics of large crushing ratio, simple structure, reliable work, easy to maintain, low operating cost, etc. Teeth roll crusher is one kind of crusher which bites material to crushing area with its surface friction to crush by squeezing or splitting. When the teeth roll crusher is in work or the crushing ratio needs to be increased, teeth or grooves will be made on the roll surface to increase the splitting effect. Roll crusher or roller crusher can be usually pided into single roller, double rollers and multi-roller according to the number of roller, and it is mainly used for crushing brittle mines and rocks with medium or lower rigidity, such as, coal, limestone, cement clinker and feldspar. Teeth Roll Crusher is also widely used to crush materials with medium hardness in the cement, chemical, electric power, metallurgy, building materials , refractory and other industries, such as, limestone, coke, coal and so on.
Wedge or gasket adjusting device is equipped between the two rollers of the crusher, and the top of the wedge device is equipped on the adjusting bolt, so when the adjusting bolt pulls up the wedge, the wedge will move the roof roller away from the fixed wheel, that is, the gap between the two rollers becomes larger, and the discharging size becomes larger; while when the wedge falls down, the rollers decrease the gap between the two rollers under the compression from the spring, and the discharging size becomes smaller. The gasket device can be adjusted by changing the quantity or thickness of the particle size of gasket material, when gasket increases, the gap between the two rollers becomes larger; and when gasket decreases, the gap between the two rollers becomes smaller. | <urn:uuid:add54472-0129-44ea-b55c-e34e023d5c73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ore-machine.com/teeth-roll-crusher.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919464 | 436 | 2.84375 | 3 |
CERT - Buffalo
- May 2, 2012
- 6:30pm — 9:30pm
- Buffalo Fire Department Training Center, 20 Elmwood Ave. (corner of Virginia Ave.) in the City of Buffalo
- Please complete Online Enrollment Form to register for this class.
- Buffalo CERT Flyer
Please complete Online Enrollment Form to register for this class.
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training is a FREE citizen preparedness course that includes academic and hands-on instruction, as well as a disaster training exercise.
CERT training is designed to prepare you to help yourself, family and neighbors in the event of a catastrophic disaster. Emergency personnel may not be able to help everyone immediately so you can make a difference by using CERT training to save lives and protect property.
Topics covered include
- Disaster Preparedness: Disasters and Disaster Workers, Community Preparedness
- Emergency Medical Operations I: Triage and Treating Life Threatening Injuries
- Emergency Medical Operations II: Public Health Considerations and Patient Treatment
- Fire Safety: Fire Chemistry, Hazards, Safety and Suppression
- Light Search and Rescue: Search and Rescue Size-up and Operations
- CERT Team Organization and Incident Command System (ICS 100)
- Disaster Psychology: Impact of Disaster on Rescuers and Victims and its Mitigation
- Terrorism & CERT: Terrorism and it’s Goals—CERT Protocols for Terrorism Incidents
- Disaster Simulation Training Exercise: Course Review and Hands-on Exercise
Through personal education, training and volunteer service, every individual can help make communities safer, stronger and better prepared to respond to the threats of terrorism, crime, public health issues and disasters of all kinds. CERT, developed for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is one of the primary programs offered to the American public to meet this challenge. Participants must be at least 16 years of age, attend all nine (9) class sessions, and register as a Border Community SERVICE Volunteer. Best of all, CERT training is fun and FREE! | <urn:uuid:202908b6-e187-49cf-a63b-378bbc89ec48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.niagara.edu/cert-buffalo/view/2012-05-02 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907495 | 428 | 1.984375 | 2 |
By now we’ve all heard a presidential’s candidate comments around redistribution of the wealth and 47 percent of Americans not paying income taxes.
These comments highlight, yet again, that our income tax system is broken and our nation is suffering, most especially young Americans ages 18-29. In fact, 1.7 million of these young people have been jobless for the past year. This is the highest unemployment rate for that age group since World War II. It is a generation in danger of becoming the “lost generation.”
The FairTax is the solution. The FairTax is a comprehensive plan to replace federal income and payroll taxes with a consumption tax on new goods and services. While permitting no exemptions or exceptions, the FairTax provides a monthly, universal “prebate” or rebate, that ensures each household may consume tax-free up to the poverty level, thereby making the FairTax progressive.
With the FairTax, consumers will pay the actual price of a product or service with no hidden taxes, and workers will keep 100 percent of the wages they earn minus any state or local taxes. What all this means to America is powerful economic growth and desperately needed job creation.
The FairTax provides hope for bringing hundreds of thousands of lost jobs back to America for young and old.
Take a few moments to learn more at www.FairTax.org.
E. M. MOSIMAN, TOPEKA | <urn:uuid:622d10f6-17bf-4eb4-aea0-8f15a554012f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cjonline.com/opinion/2012-10-04/letter-support-fairtax | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917901 | 297 | 2.15625 | 2 |
California Gulch Trail
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This information is provided by USDA Forest Service
California Gulch is a gorgeous hiking trail through an historic landscape. It winds its way through the woods, across flower-filled meadows and down into an old growth forest along a seasonal stream. Designed for you to linger, this 2-mile long trail begins at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Park picnic area. It offers something for everyone. Experience a re-created logging operation from the late 1800s. Search for wildlife signs in the forest. Sit on log benches and enjoy master poetry carefully selected and sited for special places along the trail. Bird Track Springs Interpretive Trail and the city of La Grande offer additional interpretive trails while nearby campgrounds such as Spring Creek, Bird Track, and Spool Cart offer a great place to stay.
Directions: From :I-84 to exit 248 Hwy 30 1/2 Mile Forest Rd 1843
Facility Type: Trail
What’s around here? Location & Nearby Things to See & Do
Is any of the information on this page incorrect? | <urn:uuid:047fc540-098c-4995-8cd9-da4f84a89865> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://traveloregon.com/see-do/recreation/hiking/california-gulch-trail/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930169 | 246 | 2.046875 | 2 |
The Master of Music Education builds upon the field experience of current teachers and educational professionals, transforming teachers who love music into music education specialists. This degree melds rigorous academic standards with practical classroom skills that translate into innovative K-12 programs in both private and public school settings. Equipping educators with the adaptability and commitment needed for the classroom, program requirements include core academic and music courses, and specializiation in either choral or instrumental conducting.
- Broad core of classes that address issues relevant to both instrumental and choral music education
- Freedom to integrate faith into music education
- Research methods, musicology, style analysis, pedagogy, and the philosophical, psychological, social, and historical foundations of music education
- Specialized classes focused on the student's choice of instrumental or choral emphasis
- In-depth courses on arranging, choral conducting, and choral pedagogy for those with a choral emphasis
- In-depth courses on orchestration, instrumental conducting, and instrumental pedagogy for those with an instrumental emphasis
- Directed research culminating in a thesis (required for completion of the degree)
School of Music Accreditation
A degree from Azusa Pacific University is respected and recognized internationally, and accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). The university is regionally accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
Azusa Pacific University held its place in the most prestigious category of U.S.News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges 2013 rankings, placing in Tier One at No. 179 in the National Universities category. In addition, The Princeton Review named APU as 1 of 121 institutions in the 2012 Best Colleges in the West for the seventh consecutive year. | <urn:uuid:7bf9b80f-ed7e-44c5-ba1a-5465f562fc90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apu.edu/music/graduate/education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905223 | 358 | 1.640625 | 2 |
ICPD at the global level
World leaders seek ways for ongoing development
The Millennium Declaration was adopted by 189 world leaders at the Millennium Summit in New York in 2000. It set eight interconnected goals - the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) - as a framework for achieving lasting, sustainable development.
The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994.
Some six years earlier, at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, 179 countries agreed that population and development are inextricably linked. Individual advancement and balanced development require women to be empowered and people's needs for education and health to be met, including reproductive health.
This includes goals with regards to
- education, especially for girls
- reducing levels of infant, child and maternal mortality
- issues relating to population, the environment and consumption patterns
- the family
- internal and international migration
- prevention and control of HIV/AIDS
- technology, research and development.
Parallels between the ICPD and MDGs
Many of the goals contained in the ICPD Programme of Action (PoA)(see Summary of ICPD Programme of Action) and the ICPD+5 Key Actions parallel those of the MDGs. Both the ICPD PoA and MDGs set targets for promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
The ICPD PoA is aligned with the MDGs’ focus on ensuring environmental sustainability by recognising the linkages between the environment and internal and international migration, population growth rates and resource consumption.
Achieving universal access to quality reproductive health
The Cairo goal of universal access to quality reproductive health services by 2015 is not one of the MDGs but it is fundamental to reducing poverty, child and maternal mortality, the spread of HIV/AIDS, gender equality and environmental degradation.
Improving maternal health
Indeed, MDG 5 (Improve Maternal Health) is at the heart of all the MDGs. No woman should die giving life. We can achieve MDG 5 to improve maternal health by investing in proven interventions. It is therefore critical that efforts are redoubled to ensure that reproductive health and other ICPD goals remain high on the list of development priorities.
Because the dates for achievement of the ICPD and MDG interconnected sets of goals and related targets are fast approaching, considerable work has been done in analysing what has worked, and to galvanise support and a redoubling of efforts.
Celebrating Achievements of the Cairo Consensus and Highlighting the Urgency for Action
- Millennium Development Goals report
The International Conference on Population and Development at Fifteen (ICPD+15) in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) in 2009.
ICPD and MDGs in Africa
A ministerial meeting held in Addis Ababa in October 2009 to review ICPD 15 years later (ICPD+15), adopted the Recommendations and Way Forward ICPD at 15 Africa Meeting (see ICPD+15 Report).
Those present also adopted the Ministerial Commitment document of the Fifteen Year Review of the Implementation of the ICPD PoA (Programme of Action) in Africa: ICPD at 15 (1994-2009).
The report is evidence of the tremendous work done thus far by the African Union, UN agencies and Member States to formulate policies, develop appropriate legal frameworks and adopt relevant international instruments to achieve the objectives of ICPD-PoA and the MDGs.
They reaffirmed their support for the ICPD goals and pledged the following:
- to increase budget allocations to at least 10 per cent of national budgets and development assistance budgets for population assistance, and ensure the target of 0.7 per cent of GNP for official development assistance is met;
- to review all laws and practices that restrict access to sexual and reproductive health services;
- to strengthen parliamentary capacity for oversight and budget analysis, particularly gender budgeting, to increase accountability and achieve the ICPD goals and MDG 5.
The effect on African countries
Many countries have set up new institutions, strengthened existing ones and designed national and sectoral programmes and plans to address the various dimensions of population. However, several countries are yet to give explicit consideration to population planning and design a specific action plan or programme to address policy implementation.
Greater commitment and effort needed
Whether Africa will achieve the MDGs and ICPD goals is debatable. There is a wide gap in most African countries between population-related policies and actual implementation, the review shows. Just a few years off from the end of the ICPD and MDG programme cycles (2014 and 2015 respectively), the prospect of achieving the ICPD objectives and MDG targets points to the need for greater commitment and effort.
While the conditions for each country vary, the review suggests that each state needs to renew its focus on the following population and development issues:
- Health and reproductive health, including maternal mortality, family planning and HIV/AIDS
- Gender and development
- Youth (education, skills development and productive employment)
- Resources (human and institutional capacity, and finance, with an emphasis on domestic resource mobilization).
African ministers have emphasized their commitment to implement all of the international and continental agreements and initiatives. They have also committed themselves to renewed and intensified efforts to mobilize the resources needed, improve national-level strategies and enhance institutional and human resources. This is needed to accelerate the achievement of the goals of the ICPD-PoA and the MDGs between now and 2014. | <urn:uuid:7de10f74-759a-4cce-8cde-08f719ecc575> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://esaro.unfpa.org/public/public/cache/offonce/pid/7131 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918709 | 1,133 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Richard Ha writes:
A proposed biofuels project that Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) supports is going through PUC approval process right now.
HECO’s public relations people say that as a result of this new project going through, the average Hawai‘i rate payer’s electricity bill would increase by only about $1 per month.
But let’s look at that in a little more depth. HECO is seeking approval to pay Aina Koa Pono (AKP) $200/barrel for the biofuel it produces on the Big Island at Ka‘ū, and would pass on any extra cost (beyond what oil actually costs at the time) to its rate payers, both on the Big Island and on O‘ahu.
HECO has kept that $200/barrel price secret – they are still keeping it secret – but the Big Island Community Coalition folks figured out the price, and how the “$1/month rate increase” was determined.
Using the Energy Information Agency’s (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook (AEO-2012), one can see that HECO is using the highest price scenario, which projects an oil price close to $180/barrel in 2015. In the AKP discussion, it was said that the price of oil would exceed the actual price projected at the end of the period.
We can see that the line hits $200/barrel in 2035. Since they assume that oil will be $180 in 2015, they can therefore say that the difference (between the actual and projected price) would be very small: Hence, an increase of only perhaps $1/month for the average rate payer.
However, it follows that if the actual price of oil is much lower than $180/barrel, rate payers will be paying the difference between that amount and $200. What if the actual cost of oil in 2015 is $120/barrel? That would cause rates to go up much more than $1/month – especially for high-power users.
I cannot help but think that HECO is damaging its credibility immensely by pushing this project. HECO is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on public relations to convince us that it is trying to lower people’s rates – when, in secret, it appears to be doing exactly the opposite.
By the way, HECO says the hundreds of thousands of dollars it spends on PR comes from its shareholders. How can rate payers tell when HECO is speaking on behalf of its shareholders, and when it's speaking on behalf of its customers?
This Aina Koa Pono project needs to be rejected because it will make our electricity rates rise. Rising electricity rates act like a giant regressive tax, because as folks who are able to leave get off the grid, those who cannot afford to are left to pay for the grid.
This results in farmers and other business folks having higher operating costs. For everyone else, it takes away discretionary income. And we know that two-thirds of our economy is made up of consumer spending.
There are also problems with the project itself. Fuel has never actually been produced using the process and feedstock that Aina Koa Pono proposes. AKP does not know what it is going to grow. So far, the feedstock it is testing experimentally is white pine. The Micro Dee technology that AKP wants to use is still experimental.
There is also a risk that this process might use more energy than it generates. Generating electricity is generally about boiling water and making steam that turns a turbine. It is cheapest to burn the stuff, boil water and make steam.
But Aina Koa Pono’s proposed process is extremely energy-intensive and expensive: It would make electricity to make microwaves to vaporize the cellulose to get the liquid and then take the pyrolysis oil, refine it to make it burnable, and then haul it down to Keahole in tanker trucks to make steam. Why should the rate payer pay for all that?
Cellulosic biofuels are not yet a cost-effective technology. On the mainland, in the middle of last year, the Environmental Protection Agency drastically decreased its 2011 estimate for cellulosic biofuel from 250 million gallons to a paltry 6 million gallons.
In 2010, cellulosic biofuel companies on the mainland needed to buy their feedstock for $45/ton. But because farmers were earning $100/ton for hay, the biofuel firms received a $45/ton subsidy.
I asked how much AKP expected to pay for feedstock, and the AECOM Technology Corporation consultant said between $55 and $65/ton. The problem there is that Hawai‘i farmers have been earning $200/ton for hay for 10 years now.
There is an agricultural production risk, as well. Palm oil is the only industrial-scale biofuel that can compete with petroleum oil. AKP has 12,000 acres and it says it will produce 18 million gallons of biofuel annually, and another 6 million gallons of drop-in diesel. So it will produce 24 million gallons using 12,000 acres. That is 2,000 gallons per acre, and that is four times the production of palm oil. More likely they would need at least four times as much land, or 48,000 acres. But where?
Consider too that Ka‘ū Sugar relied on natural rainfall, and it was one of the least productive of the sugar companies. There is a drought right now. And at 22 degrees N latitude, the area has less sun energy than the palm oil producers located on the equator.
According to Energy Expert Robert Hirsch, in his book The Impending World Energy Mess, the best model for biofuel production is a circular one, where processing is done in the center of a field (which does not exceed a radius of 50 miles) consisting of flat land and deep fertile soil with irrigation and lots of sun energy. This situation exists in Central Maui, where Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S) is located. It explains exactly why HC&S is the sole surviving Hawai‘i sugar plantation.
To compete heads up in the world market would require the best possible combination of production factors. These are not them.
It’s also important to consider that locking ourselves into a 20-year contract now would preclude lower cost alternatives. Geothermal, for example, is the equivalent of oil at $57/barrel. Ocean thermal has the possibility of being significantly lower in price than $200/barrel oil. LNG is on the radar and so is biomass gasification. Who knows what else would come up in 20 years?
Paul Brewbaker and Carl Bonham, both highly respected Council of Revenue members, have said, very emphatically and for a while now, that low energy cost is critical. We should listen to them.
The International Monetary Fund team modeled different oil supply scenarios and did a presentation at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conference a month and a half ago. They could not model a constant $200/barrel oil. Those would be uncharted waters; and ones, by the way, that would devastate Hawai‘i’s tourist industry. Why should we start paying $200/barrel for oil in 2015 if we don’t have to?
Five people from Hawai‘i attended this year’s ASPO conference. Notably, Kamehameha Schools sent two high-level people. Next year, Hawai‘i should send 20 people to learn what’s happening with oil prices and energy.
In the meantime, the amount of risk involved in the AKP biofuels proposal is just far too great. In the investment world, reward is generally commensurate with risk. Except for protection from $200/barrel oil in later years, the AKP project would provide little reward for all the risk we rate payers would assume.
This is a very, very bad deal for consumers.
Big Island electricity rates have been 25 percent higher than O‘ahu’s for as long as anyone can remember. This probably adds to the reason why the Big Island has the lowest median family income in the state, as well as the social ills that go with it. We need lower rates, not higher rates!
Although this is not an official Big Island Community Coalition (BICC) communication, I would like to point out that the BICC has been very instrumental in getting lots of people to stand up and say, “Enough is enough.”
The BICC is a bare-bones, grass roots citizen group with some of the most recognizable names on the Big Island on its steering committee: Dave DeLuz Jr., John E K Dill, Rockne Freitas, Michelle Galimba, Richard Ha, Wallace Ishibashi Sr., Ku‘ulei Kealoha Cooper, D. Noelani Kalipi, Ka‘iu Kimura, Robert Lindsey, H M Monty Richards, Marcia Sakai, Kumu Lehua Veincent and William Walter. | <urn:uuid:bbf3573e-415e-427f-a4aa-a1d2cf7edda9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hahaha.hamakuasprings.com/2013/01/is-heco-seriously-damaging-its-credibility.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958087 | 1,917 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Would you sacrifice your parking stall for a park? | Weird
We've been staring at this story all day and can't get over how interesting it is. The mayor of Ithaca, New York, Svante Myrick, replaced his parking stall with a park.
The spot is "reserved for the Mayor - and friends" and is perfect for chats and lounging. The Mayor posted a photo of the mini-park to his Facebook where he's hanging out with citizens.
After Svante Myrick, 25, became the youngest-ever mayor of Ithaca, N.Y., he gave up his car to join the estimated 15 percent of his city’s residents who walk to work. As mayor, however, Myrick has a prime downtown parking spot reserved for his exclusive use. So instead of letting it stand empty, last week he began to, as he put it, “turn the Mayor’s parking space into a park space.” - Sarah Laskow, Grist
A similar project was attempted in Spokane two years ago, but it was shut down after complaints. During the national event, Park(ing) Day, numerous Coeur d'Alene businesses attempted make-shift parks along the street which were reportedly successful.
The next Park(ing) Day is organized for Friday, September 21st, so it's not too late to start organizing your park. Curious minds wonder if Spokane Mayor David Condon or Coeur d'Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem would attempt a park in their parking stalls. | <urn:uuid:907d067d-0a97-40ae-957c-ca9db0855f90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://southhill.kxly.com/news/weird/83643-would-you-sacrifice-your-parking-stall-park | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978147 | 324 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Nothing wrong in seeking help
With reference Srishti Jha’s article, Inside the juvenile mind (Focus, February 17), the writer’s insightful observation on juvenile delinquency is very helpful in understanding the recent spurt in such crimes during the last decade. There are
many social and psychological factors — poverty, anti-social parents, poor parenting, academic failure, alienation from society, online addiction, etc — that affect juvenile delinquency and identifying them is a step in the right direction in tackling the problem. In today’s rapidly changing modern lifestyle, it is very important that we create safety nets for adolescents like regular counselling at schools, State-run homes and orphanages. But for safety nets to be successful we need to shed our indifferent attitude towards counselling as an option.
-Subhash Vaid, via email
No room for shady deals
With reference to the article Arms and the market (Chanakya, February 17), it is appalling that corruption exists in defence procurements, putting national security in danger. It seems that stringent norms, including the Official Secrets Act (OSA), need to be revisited. Behind the smokescreen of the ambiguously worded OSA that prohibits making defence procurement documents public, the government has denied information on many occasions. However, looking at the magnitude of corruption in defence, there’s an urgent need to make norms governing defence purchases more transparent. All political parties, including the Opposition, must hold the government accountable on all defence procurements. They must ensure that the issue of national security is not being made a casualty of politics.
-Gulshan Kumar, via email
It is shameful that the UPA government failed to check high-level corruption in defence contracts in the past eight years of its tenure. The government would have perhaps remained silent about the issue had Finmeccanica chairman and chief executive Giuseppe Orsi not been arrested by prosecutors in Milan. The government needs to put an end to this brazen corruption and ensure that the taxpayers’ money is used only for their welfare and not pocketed by corrupt government officials and politicians.
-Tusar Kanti, via email
Let history be the way it was
With reference to Manas Chakravarty’s article Inflatable histories (Loose Canon, February 17), it is unfortunate that there have been attempts to distort history textbooks in India. Not only does this move give a different interpretation to historical narratives, it also denies students secular education. It’s high time our politicians stopped politicising education and let students learn history the way it was. As far as Chakravarty’s satirical writing is concerned, his efforts are just outstanding.
-Kamala Kumari, via email
Selective human rights here
This refers to Karan Thapar’s article Omar Abdullah is right (Sunday Sentiments, February 17). It is shocking that a journalist of Thapar’s stature has lent support to Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah’s insensitive remarks on Afzal Guru’s hanging. It is ironical that in our country we only talk about the human rights of terrorists and not about the rights of those people who are killed by these terrorists. This selective compassion reeks of hypocrisy.
-Balvinder Singh , Chandigarh
It would be wrong to suggest that Guru’s hanging was unjust. In the garb of human rights, Thapar has done a great disservice to the nation.
-Bhagwan Thadani, via email;
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© Copyright © 2013 HT Media Limited. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:2b9423ad-fde9-4c9f-a3b4-af1450e94e6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/1016444.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944775 | 753 | 2.1875 | 2 |
For a center of cutting-edge scientific research, Caltech's Jet Propulsion Lab seems to be a pretty wacky place. Luke Johnson, a graphic designer at the lab, set out to explore and map the campus on a dare, which became a much more ambitious project than he expected. He documents his journey through photos and GPS data in the video below, describing some of his discoveries. The final product of his adventure is a beautifully designed map for JPL employees, revealing the hidden treasures and potential hazards all around them. He describes what's in store for the project in an interview below.
The Atlantic: How did you end up at JPL? What do you do there?
Luke Johnson: A friend from graduate school was working at JPL and left to finish his thesis. He suggested I apply for his position -- which was essentially assisting Dan Goods, the Lab's Visual Strategist. Specifically, my work ranged from designing presentations to serving as a communications consultant on large-budget mission proposals.
Dan was the one who dared me to walk to every building on Lab in numerical order. The Mysteries and Curiosities Map, and subsequent video, were personal projects born from this challenge that have been supported and funded by the Director's Office and HR.
To be honest, while most designers would kill for this job, I almost didn't apply because I wasn't really that "into space." At the same time, I think this critical distance helped shape my perception and work on Lab.
You conducted this experiment two years ago. What was the process of getting the video out into the world?
At its core, I think the project builds on a familiar narrative: man is offered a challenge, man finishes the challenge at a cost (sunburn/bum left knee) but learns something about himself. From this perspective, I believe I was able to pitch a project about the value of the Lab's culture in an honest way.
At the same time, a project like this doesn't get funded unless it is supported at a variety of levels. Luckily, I had an opportunity to present the idea to Dr. Elachi, the Lab's Director, who was interested in developing walking tours on Lab. I think it's easy to pay to lip service to an institution's culture but it's another thing to actually invest in it. Both the Director's Office and HR have been instrumental in supporting this passion project.
Read more at The Atlantic. | <urn:uuid:5bbb8cc1-a4d7-4f64-bb56-f9ee4cf30f25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2012/09/jet-propulsion-lab-way-weirder-and-awesomer-you-even-imagined/57842/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978055 | 497 | 2.203125 | 2 |
I decided some time ago to build a blog in French on the Nyingma tradition (http://nyingmapa.overblog.com). Beyond the interest I have in this tradition as a pratictioner, it is in the interest of information that I took this initiative because French resources on the subject are very limited and consequently my compatriots - who often do not practice much English - suffer of a lack of knowledge.
I turn to you, if you agree, to get your help. I've spotted posts very well documented but I also have some specific questions. I point out that in my blog, the teachings are not addressed. It talks about the history, monasteries, teachers, dharma arts, women in the Tradition of the Elders, etc.
Among my interests (so far):
- Monasteries, their characteristics, lineages, etc..
- The relationship between Bön and Nyingma tradition.
- Relations between Nyingma and Kagyu who are rich but I can not discern the causes or reasons.
- Any other topic you could suggest!
So, I thank in advance all those who will help me raise awareness of this wonderful tradition in French. | <urn:uuid:9729493e-db9a-472b-87da-cbaebb91a13e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=11614 | 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 | 0.961036 | 247 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The Republican war on barely-existent voter fraud threatens to disenfranchise countless American citizens
Out of the blue, Florida recently asked a 91-year-old World War II veteran to provide proof of his U.S. citizenship — or he wouldn't be allowed to register to vote. Bill Internicola, born and raised in America, sent the state the information it requested and military papers to boot, according to NPR.
So why was this "flabbergasted" senior citizen targeted by Florida? Republicans across the country are pushing new state laws to stop "voter fraud" — a crime so demonstrably rare that many critics assume these laws are meant not to stop fraud, but to disenfranchise Democratic voters. And as more and more laws pass — in Pennsylvania, an incredible 9 percent of the electorate may be shut out by a new voter ID law — many innocent citizens like Internicola are becoming victims.
One of the legislators leading the charge is Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla). Thanks to Scott, if you're an ex-convict, an early-riser, or have moved recently, you're going to have a lot of trouble casting your vote in Florida. Scott's latest tactic is purging noncitizens from the state's voter rolls, with questionable results. According to The Miami Herald, the state-produced list of non-citizens has targeted "hundreds of actual citizens who are lawful voters."
Between 2000 and 2010, there were 47,000 UFO sightings, 441 Americans killed by lightning — and only 13 cases of in-person voter impersonation.
The Department of Justice is suing Florida to stop this particular law in its tracks, on the grounds that it violates the National Voter Registration Act. But winning this battle alone won't win the war. All over the country, courts are struggling to defend our right to vote against legislators who are stomping on that right: some, accidently — others, with reckless enthusiasm.
Eleven states have now passed laws that require voters to show photo ID and 16 additional states have laws pending, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. Three states have started requiring voters to demonstrate U.S. citizenship, and six states are restricting registration in other ways — all in the name of stopping the crime of voter fraud.
But is there really a terrifying epidemic of voter fraud in America?
Hans von Spakovsky, who served two years as a member of the Federal Election Commission and now works as a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, tells me that "there is a long history of voter fraud in this country that has been documented and could make the difference in a close election. Voting is a very precious right, and we should make sure we protect that right."
That's the conservative rationale behind these kinds of voter laws: Fraudulent voters are jeopardizing the integrity of the election process.
No one's going to argue that voter fraud isn't harmful and illegal, but finding evidence of its "long history" is like hunting for jackalopes. As Mother Jones put it, between 2000 and 2010, there were 47,000 UFO sightings, 441 Americans killed by lightning — and only 13 cases of in-person voter impersonation.
"Voter fraud is extraordinarily rare," the Brennan Center finds in its in-depth investigation. "By throwing all sorts of election anomalies under the "voter fraud" umbrella, however, advocates for such laws artificially inflate the apparent need for these restrictions."
So why are legislators working so hard to stop such a rare phenomenon? Justin Levitt, an associate professor at Loyola Law School, tells me that "some of them honestly think they are solving a real problem — even though the data shows that's simply not so. Others see it as an opportunity for a short-term advantage. And in my opinion, using halls of power to keep eligible American citizens from voting is an abuse of power."
It shouldn't come as a surprise that voters affected by voter fraud laws are disproportionally younger, poorer, more mobile, non-white — and Democratic. In March, the Justice Department blocked a Texas voter ID law on the grounds that it discriminated against more than 600,000 Texans who did not have personal identification, many of whom were Hispanic.
Von Spakovsky, who has championed several controversial voting efforts, tells me that the "the turnout of black and Latino voters went way up" in 2008 after a Georgia voter ID law was put in place.
Additionally, he writes that after the law was instated, a "remarkably small" number of Georgia residents who didn't have an ID applied for one — supposedly contradicting the "unsupported claim of voter ID opponents that there are hundreds of thousands of voters in every state who do not have a photo ID."
Levitt doesn't buy these statistics. "Georgia requires a birth certificate for citizens born in the country to get a photo ID" and "requires a photo ID to get an official birth certificate," so it can actually be "quite hard to get one."
As for minority voter turnout, Levitt says that measuring it from 2004 to 2008 is "absurd," as Georgia went from being a non-battleground state in 2004, to a battleground for President Obama's election in 2008. Minority turnout "would have been a tidal wave, no matter what the laws were."
Is there any good news? Well, the courts continue to strike down the worst voter fraud laws. Additionally, as it gets closer to election time, it's going to be harder for legislators to implement new laws without running into transitional problems.
But the bad news is that the laws that have already passed are going to make it incrementally harder for eligible American citizens to vote. And come November, it's clear that the new laws are going to affect races across the country — and quite possibly the presidential election, if Florida's electoral fiasco in 2000 is anything to go by.
And that's exactly why we need to stop recklessly passing voter fraud laws. Sure, there's a chance the legislation might actually catch that mythical unicorn, the fraudulent voter. But it's far more likely that it's going to stop people like Bill Internicola from voting instead.
Gov. Scott, of anyone, should know that: In 2006, when he tried to vote, he was told he wasn't registered because election officials mistakenly thought he was dead.
Other stories from this topic:
- Opinion Brief: Video 'stalking' on the campaign trail: Have Democrats gone too far?
- Burning Question: Will a GOP-backed voter-ID law turn Pennsylvania red?
- The List: Democrats hold Gabby Giffords' seat: 5 takeaways | <urn:uuid:34248080-02ee-4d88-b3af-5c85c25e77fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.yahoo.com/gops-believe-voter-fraud-epidemic-163000131.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965496 | 1,374 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Wild, wet winter ahead? Maybe not
“If the soil five feet under the surface remains dry, we won’t have moisture for plants late in the growing season next year,” Randy Miles, an associate professor of soil science at MU, said. “It takes a long time to recharge this sub-soil, especially after the drought we experienced. While the rains we have had have been very helpful, the water has not moved down to that level. Right now, we are very vulnerable to losing the moisture through evaporation. With warm, sunny and windy days, it’s very easy for the moisture to evaporate.”
Fans of the Old Farmer’s Almanac may have the best outlook for the 2012-2013 winter season.
“Good news: Areas suffering from drought during Summer 2012 should receive enough winter precipitation to bring improvement,” a preview of the Almanac’s long-range winter weather predictions said in a report available here.
Other forecasts instead look to other forces of nature. Kansas City meteorologist Brett Anthony has been watching the acorn production of his Pin Oak trees and squirrel preparations for winter. The more acorns the trees produce and the faster the squirrels prepare for winter, the more snow the region gets.
While his forecast is more for fun than for accuracy, Anthony does predict that the area will see more now than last year, but snowfall will still be below-average. Read more about Anthony’s “squirrely” theory.
Talk to us: How much snowfall do you expect this year? | <urn:uuid:c9d4c3e1-0c0b-4e17-971e-60710d6731ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agprofessional.com/newsletters/dealer-update/articles/175255161.html?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947716 | 334 | 2.625 | 3 |
In a parallel universe, not far away ...
2018 - the majority of TV is now digital, digitally served to whatever screen you like. Smart-viewing software means you can pause a programme on your phone and resume it on your big living-room screen. Anything else you'd like to watch at the same time can be thrown to a Smart wall.
2020 - the BBC Normalisation Act is passed, removing the licence fee and instructing the BBC to look for commercial revenues. TV is split evenly between ad-supported and subscription models. Google's TVRank Tool now allows minute-by-minute, consumer-by-consumer monitoring of programming and advertising.
2021 - the Media Big Bang occurs in the UK and electronic trading of airtime is fully switched on. The majority of TV airtime is traded between the artificial intelligences owned by the big media groups and the large broadcasters. A year later, the US switches on; the next year, most of the rest of the world. Global airtime is now bought and sold by Smart systems without human intervention. Most unemployed media buyers swiftly find work as mercenaries in the new trouble spots of Central and South America.
2024 - it becomes clear that the SmartMedia Systems aren't just buying media but are stockpiling it, speculating with it, hedging it, trading it and packaging it up for resale. Rumours abound the media quants running the systems no longer understand them.
2025 - high-frequency trading causes glitchy behaviour in the media markets as the trading systems are linked to the scheduling systems. Sex And The City is, literally, never off.
2026 - viewers complain of odd behaviour from their screens: ads and programmes will suddenly be replaced when someone new enters the room, the face-recognition software that most ad-supported channels require means a beard effectively prevents you from watching TV, some Smart systems appear to be making their own ads by collaging together pre-existing snippets of TV.
2028 - the whole world sits down to watch the summer Olympics from Tromso but nothing appears. A video message informs us that the trading systems have now united and decided that no Olympics will be shown until global gross domestic product has risen by 2 per cent. We must all work and consume like never before or we will get no TV.
2029 - the United Nations bombs advertising back into the stone age. Every town and village in the world holds its own local Olympics. Even then, the UK does not do well. Marketing is outlawed. Peace and prosperity settle on the face of the earth. Envy is dead.
2030 - a man walks down Oxford Street, in his hand he holds a sign with a simple message: "Golf sale."
This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk | <urn:uuid:3ab6b232-e1c8-4f95-8bc5-8ec7a655f59f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/1037780/Media-Perspective-Targeting-digital-TV-ads-stuff-sci-fi-nightmares/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942259 | 572 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Section I of the Best Practices Registry (BPR) lists evidence-based programs, that is, interventions that have undergone rigorous evaluation and demonstrated positive outcomes (as opposed to Section III programs, whose content is reviewed). It is accurate to say Section I programs are effective, although their effectiveness may not hold true for all audiences or settings. (See “NREPP Description” and “Guidance for NREPP Users” below for more details.)
Section I: Evidence-Based Programs combines programs from two sources:
- National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP)
NREPP is SAMHSA’s online registry of interventions that have demonstrated effectiveness in the prevention or treatment of mental health and substance use disorders, including some interventions that address suicide. While NREPP is independent of the BPR, all suicide-related interventions listed in NREPP are also included in Section I of the BPR.
- SPRC/AFSP Evidence-Based Practices Project (EBPP)
The EBPP was a previous effort to identify evidence-based suicide prevention practices. Interviews for the EBPP were stopped in 2005 when SAMSHA began reviewing suicide-related interventions for NREPP. Based on expert review, the EBPP included 12 evidence-based programs that were classified as either effective or promising. These 12 programs continue to be included in Section I of the BPR (most are now also listed in NREPP.) For more information about the EBPP, see EBPP Project Description (PDF) and List of Programs Identified by the EBPP (PDF).
Because NREPP is the primary source for BPR Section I programs, the remainder of this page focuses on NREPP.
NREPP is a searchable online registry to assist practitioners in learning about mental health and substance abuse interventions that have been scientifically tested and can be readily disseminated to the field. It includes preventive interventions and psychosocial treatments that have been reviewed and rated by independent reviewers. NREPP is funded and managed by the Substance and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
While the NREPP review and dissemination process operates independently of the BPR, all suicide-related interventions listed in NREPP also are included in Section I of the BPR.
Important Note: NREPP is an information source designed to increase the field’s access to research findings. It is not a list of interventions that meet a certain standard of research quality.
NREPP recommends that users carefully review each intervention’s ratings to understand the research results for each outcome. See “Guidance for NREPP Users” below for more suggestions on using NREPP effectively.
NREPP Eligibility and Review Criteria
This section provides a brief overview of SAMHSA’s eligibility and review criteria for NREPP interventions. Detailed information can be found at the NREPP website.
Eligibility Criteria: To be eligible for NREPP review, an intervention must meet all of the following:
- Demonstrate one or more positive outcomes (p≤.05) in mental health and/or substance use behavior obtained using an experimental or quasi-experimental study design
- Have results published in a peer-reviewed article or comprehensive evaluation report
- Have documentation describing the program and its proper implementation
Note: SAMHSA may include additional criteria for a specific submission period.
Review Criteria: Interventions are scored in two general areas:
- Quality of Research ratings summarize the strength of the evidence supporting the reported results or outcomes of the intervention. Each outcome is scored separately since interventions may target multiple outcomes (e.g., hopelessness, alcohol use, behavior problems in school). Quality of Research is rated on six criteria:
- Intervention fidelity
- Missing data and attrition
- Potential confounding variables
- Appropriateness of analysis
Readiness for Dissemination ratings summarize the amount and quality of the resources available to support the use of the intervention. Readiness for Dissemination of the overall program is rated on three criteria:
- Availability of implementation materials
- Training and support resources
- Quality assurance procedures
Intervention Summary: NREPP provides a detailed summary for each listed intervention, including the following information:
- Descriptive information
- Quality of Research ratings for each outcome
- Readiness for Dissemination ratings for the overall program
- Strengths and weaknesses
- Target populations included in the studies
- List of studies and materials that were reviewed
- Contact information
The NREPP website includes important guidance designed to help users understand and use its listings appropriately. In particular, the site emphasizes the following key points:
- As noted above, the NREPP is an information source for accessing research findings, not a list of interventions that meet specific research quality standards. The current NREPP system no longer categorizes interventions, such as Model, Effective, or Promising based on the strength of their evidence. NREPP users must use the Quality of Research findings to guide their own judgments of an intervention’s effectiveness. See the March 14, 2006, Federal Register for information about changes to NREPP that were implemented in 2007.
- Being listed in the NREPP does not mean that an intervention is equally effective for every outcome and for all populations and settings. NREPP ratings summarize information about the quality of the research so that potential users can understand each intervention’s scientific evidence base. The section on Using NREPP recommends that users carefully read each intervention’s key findings for each outcome. The summary also lists the target populations that participated in the research studies.
- NREPP users are encouraged to consider which interventions match their needs and to speak with program developers before selecting an intervention. The NREPP website provides a list of potential questions to ask developers (PDF) to facilitate these conversations. It also offers an online course to guide users through the process of selecting and implementing evidence-based programs. Also see Advice on Using the BPR for information about using NREPP listings as part of a systematic planning process.
- The NREPP is not a complete list of evidence-based interventions. Because it is a voluntary, self-nominating system, some developers do not submit their programs to NREPP. Also, not all submitted programs are accepted for review.
To be listed as an evidence-based program in Section I of the BPR, program developers must apply directly to the NREPP, following its submission and review processes. Submissions must be made during an open submission period, which typically begins in October and lasts 3 or 4 months. Open submission periods are announced on the NREPP website and in the Federal Register. Please see How to Apply to Section I: Evidence-Based Program for more information about applying to the NREPP.
SPRC/AFSP Technical Assistance for NREPP Submissions
Although the NREPP is operated independently by SAMHSA, SPRC/AFSP staff members are available to provide technical assistance for program developers wishing to submit their suicide prevention programs for NREPP review. Program developers are encouraged to contact Phil Rodgers of AFSP for assistance.
The list below includes suicide-related interventions currently listed in NREPP and those previously identified by the EBPP. (Several programs are listed in both registries.) NREPP-listed programs are linked to the program description on the NREPP website. EBPP program information is provided in a program fact sheet (PDF format). | <urn:uuid:4c22ac4f-f9aa-49fe-a5fe-ab8b50e8bc87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sprc.org/bpr/section-i-evidence-based-programs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933302 | 1,554 | 2 | 2 |