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My son pulled a book from the bookstore shelf the other day that he thought might be good for my writing students: The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers.
It is written for screenwriters (which I’m not – at least not so far), so I’d never noticed it before. But I was immediately drawn to the hedge labyrinth on the cover for its symmetry and symbolism, recalling my days at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine and my early search for my writer’s voice. It all began with the exploration of myth.
I hadn’t thought of it in a while. I had long ago learned how to create a story without a distinct, preordained template, but as I paged through the book, I saw that it turned on the theme of some of my earliest writings: The Hero’s Journey.
I’m probably showing my age here, but I remember distinctly when the freedom and daring to write a long, plotted novel came to me. It was while watching Bill Moyers’ fantastic conversations with Joseph Campbell, “The Power of Myth”, on PBS.
In that series of insightful interviews, Campbell embellished on the classic structure of the heroic “monomyth“: the hero’s call to adventure that takes him out of the ordinary world; his descent into darkness, enduring terrible trials and ordeals; and his eventual return, usually older or almost certainly wiser.
It was such a strong and obvious journey – one I knew I could follow. And I did. My first novel was based on it; and in some ways perhaps all that has followed has fit some version of that mold.
It brought to mind a saying that there are only three basic plots, but infinite variations. I looked it up online and found infinite variations on the saying itself, and exponential granularity in the distinct central themes of those supposedly limited plots.
It made me think of a fractal, which is a geometrical structure that expresses itself with ever increasing complexity, creating endless and fascinating variations. They are everywhere in nature: in microscopic strands of DNA, in the unfurling of a fern, in the staggering structure of a giant redwood tree, in the jagged contours of the Himalayas.
Can it be that our play with words is part of that same unfolding magnificence? Are we simply following the natural path set out for us, but taking our own route? Each step and story leads us farther on our own writer’s journey, which can be heroic indeed.
I have no doubt that there’s much to be learned from Christopher Vogler’s “The Writers Journey”. Though I haven’t read it yet, it’s been added to my towering, ever more precarious pile. | <urn:uuid:d8c5c168-453e-4aa5-bd9a-fd3d19c3271f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://judithlindbergh.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/the-writers-journey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964271 | 586 | 1.664063 | 2 |
vb appoint, choose, decide upon, designate, determine, opt for, pick, pick out, prefer, select, settle on, vote
adj choice, chosen, elite, hand-picked, picked, preferred, select, selected
English Collins Dictionary - English synonyms & Thesaurus
elect ( elects 3rd person present) ( electing present participle) ( elected past tense & past participle )
1 verb When people elect someone, they choose that person to represent them, by voting for them.
The people of the Philippines have voted to elect a new president... V n
Manchester College elected him Principal in 1956... V n n
The country is about to take a radical departure by electing a woman as its new president. V n as n
elected adj ADJ n
...the country's democratically elected president.
2 verb If you electto do something, you choose to do it.
FORMAL Those electing to smoke will be seated at the rear. V to-inf
3 adj Elect is added after words such as `president' or `governor' to indicate that a person has been elected to the post but has not officially started to carry out the duties involved. FORMAL n ADJ ...the date when the president-elect takes office.
The president-elect is the person who has been elected as the president of an organization or country, but who has not yet taken office. n-sing
...one of the president-elect's best proposals during the campaign.
re-elect ( re-elects 3rd person present) ( re-electing present participle) ( re-elected past tense & past participle )
in AM, also use reelect When someone such as a politician or an official who has been elected is re-elected, they win another election and are therefore able to continue in their position as, for example, president, or an official in an organization. verb
The president will pursue lower taxes if he is re-elected... be V-ed
...Ramon Mendoza was re-elected president of Real for a third successive four-year term... be V-ed n
He was overwhelmingly re-elected as party leader. be V-ed as n
I would like to see him stand for re-election...
Translation English - Cobuild Collins Dictionary
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"Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners 4th edition published in 2003 © HarperCollins Publishers 1987, 1995, 2001, 2003 and Collins A-Z Thesaurus 1st edition first published in 1995 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995" | <urn:uuid:6b162fd5-2d1b-4c91-8f2b-06985f3c494e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-synonyms/elect | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963148 | 565 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Occasionally I find myself doing incredibly stupid things. I'm talking seriously stupid, death stupid.
A few weeks ago I found a 12-gauge shotgun shell in the garage. It had fallen from the ammo cabinet and was rolling around the floor. I wondered what would have happened of it had landed brass-down, right on the primer button. If I were a cartoon, a great big exclamation point would have appeared over my head. A few hours later I had fixed the shell to the end of a carbon-fiber arrow shaft, grabbed a compound bow and went up to the ranch. Explosive-tipped arrows... how incredibly cool.
The physics of the experiment never came to mind. All I could think of was the awesomeness of exploding arrows. I could be like a new superhero or something. Taking aim at a distant boulder, I loosed the first bolt. I can't recall much of the next few seconds except for the distinct whistling sounds near my head. The shell had ignited, but it had also directed its energy straight back at me, all three feet of splintered arrow. It penetrated the front fender of our Yamaha Mule and peppered the windscreen. Pops is going to kill me.
OK, exploding arrows ain't such a good idea. But they sure sound cool.
Electric cars sound cool as well, awesome even. Just plug it in, juice it up, and drive away. No mess, no smell, no noise. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? That's probably because it is.
Every eight years or so electric cars surface on the grid. From the last few auto shows , you'd think the internal combustion engine is in full cardiac arrest. Words like "sustainable" and "footprint" waft through the halls like new-age incense. It's just a matter of time until electric cars fill millions of driveways.
Not so fast, turbo.
The technical hurdles facing electric car technology are formidable at the least. Take batteries for instance. The lead-acid cells found in conventional cars are based on technology more than 100 years old. You'd think that after a century we'd be further along. Newer (10-year-old technology) lithium-based cells, though powerful, are expensive and extremely volatile. I know this from personal experience, having punctured a 2200 mah li-po battery (about the size of a candy bar) just to see what would happen. The results scorched a good chunk of my back yard. It also smoked out my neighbors. While gasoline is flammable as well, its energy output remains consistent, while battery cells have a finite number of charges. It's going to get ugly when all these power packs need replacement.
As an RC enthusiast (radio controlled planes), I keep a close eye on battery technology. Better batteries equal more power, longer flight times, and reduced weight. Lithium batteries have addressed those issues. As planes get larger, however, lithium batteries begin to lose their luster. Big planes require big motors and big, expensive batteries. Flight times are reduced to less than five minutes, with cell packs costing upwards of $500. At this scale, it makes more sense to use fuel. It's much cheaper and has much more range. It's the same issue for electric cars.
I get the distinct feeling the OEMs feel compelled to make some sort of electric tribute just to say they're "thinking green." Nevermind the fact that said vehicles are insanely expensive or not yet available at all. Take Audi's E-Tron. A production run of 100 will be available to a select group-a select, wealthy group. These cars will remain electric exotica. Joe Average need not apply. | <urn:uuid:b089c664-410c-4d5f-b68d-103c14b7b760> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.europeancarweb.com/editorial/epcp_1005_electric_car_technology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968898 | 775 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Last night, full of curiosity about violent video games, I decided to google them. Needless to say, I was outraged!!!
In one video game, there was a man with many different weapons at his disposal, including high power machine guns, hand guns, knives, you name it. He roamed through a public building, kicking in doors and massacring people. The games were very graphic and realistic.
The player in the game is a violent man who takes vengeance on people like targets, while spewing obscenities. I cannot help but wonder if this type of game desensitizes young people to the true nature of violence? As I sit and wonder about Newtown and the horrible tragedy, and how anyone could do such a thing, I cannot help but speculate the murder's mindset was like a video game.
That he literally became the violent figure in the games he played incessantly in dark room, day after day, after day. Along with gun control, we need to be discussing these games. It is a slippery slope, free speech and all, but those games are really awful! We as a society should seriously question why we would accept these games, and or buy them for young adults for that matter.
The common thread for school shooters are, upper middle class white males. This brings another question we should ask. What is the common thread here? Could it be these kids grow up in a world where they get everything they ask for? Be it violent games, guns, hours of free time to sit in a dark room doing nothing but re-enacting violence? Maybe we should require more of our children. Like getting up and out of the house and doing something productive in the world. Instead of throwing money and things at them, how about engaging them?
Engaging them with family responsibility, like chores, real chores that makes them break a sweat and appreciate people and things, appreciate life and family. It seems to me the common thread that the shooters have is a lack of respect for life in general. An apathy that goes deep... A darkness so vile that only a bright light from all of us can stop it from ever happening again. We need to get more old fashioned. By that I mean children need to learn how to be productive citizens, not mindless consumers with too much free time.
We need to require more from them and teach them to respect life. To teach this respect they must learn by doing. Instead of allowing kids to sit in front of tv screens, shopping or even carting them around to this or that, how about having them volunteer and contribute to their communities and families? Children have a lot of energy and a lot to give. We as adults owe it to them to teach them how. As a parents and adults, we are more than a means for them to get what they want.
We are the means they have to learn respect and how to grow up to be productive citizens. Even if a child has mental illness, or any non life threatening illness, they can give of themselves. This is where self-worth comes from, not from violent video games, mindless consumerism, too much idle time, but from good old fashioned hard work. This is good for all children.
Newtown is part of all of us, this is a tragedy that we as a community must address, and we as a community must honestly look and see where and how we can all change to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. | <urn:uuid:13fc59ee-eecd-47d2-8414-d7a58f810f25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://middletown-ct.patch.com/groups/jennifer-shafer-woods-blog/p/bp--newtown-is-part-of-all-of-us-this-is-a-tragedy-the809158d7c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979903 | 706 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Pope Benedict meets President Raul Castro in Havana
Pope Benedict has met Cuban President Raul Castro on the second day of his visit to the communist-run island.
Meanwhile, former President Fidel Castro has written that he is "happy" to meet the pope, in an article on the government's website.
After arriving in the capital, Havana, the pope told a crowd he prayed for a Cuba "advancing along the ways of renewal and hope".
Cuban officials have insisted that political reform is not on the agenda.
Marino Murillo, one of Castro's vice-presidents and the "economics czar" in charge of liberalisation, told journalists the government was updating the Cuban economic model to make socialism sustainable.
"There will be no political reform in Cuba," he said.
For most Cubans it is the affairs of man not God that occupies their daily routine, but how to get through the day and make ends meet - but there is excitement at Pope Benedict's visit and a hope that it will usher in further change”
The pope's visit marks the 400th anniversary of the discovery of a statue of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre - also known as the Mambisa Virgin - which was found floating in a bay by fishermen. It was revered by Cuba's independence heroes.
Pope Benedict XVI knelt for several minutes before the wooden statue, where he said he had prayed for those who "suffer" and are "deprived of freedom".
"I have entrusted to the Mother of God the future of your country, advancing along the ways of renewal and hope, for the greater good of all Cubans," the pope said.
Later, Pope Benedict held an hour-long closed-door meeting with the leader of the communist country.
No details were released, but brief video feeds showed Raul Castro greeting the pope at the Palace of the Revolution, and later seeing him off.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford says change and openness are emerging as the themes of the Papal visit to the one-party state, where Roman Catholics now account for 10% of the population.
Observers say relations between Church and state have warmed in Cuba in recent years.
Raul Castro has accepted the Church's mediation on issues such as political prisoners, recognising its position as the most influential organisation outside the communist government.
The Pope's visit is seen as an effort to further improve relations and increase the role of the church in Cuban society at a time of rapid change.
In a short opinion piece on the government's website, Fidel Castro announced he would be happy to meet Pope Benedict, after speculation of a possible meeting.
According to AP, Mr Castro said: "I will happily greet His Excellency Pope Benedict XVI as I did John Paul II, a man for whom contact with children and the humble generated feelings of affection."
The pope is scheduled to leave on Wednesday afternoon after a Mass in Havana's Revolution Plaza.
Our correspondent says that if the pope does meet Fidel Castro, it would be a good further opportunity to discuss the processes of change in Cuba. The pope has said the church is ready to help with those changes.
Church officials have said there is no time in his schedule to meet dissidents.
Opposition groups say dozens of dissidents were detained ahead of the visit, and others were prevented from attending the service in Santiago. | <urn:uuid:056df2a2-f393-49a6-96b9-2759d9bea2ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17528294 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973591 | 694 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The Minneapolis Post reported that House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) is viewed as a major obstacle to climate change legislation. Peterson said the draft of the climate change bill recently passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee is unacceptable and ignores...
Policy & Politics
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) says he is worried the Food Safety Enforcement Act would allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate farm activities and has threatened to oppose the bill, unless his concerns are met.
Ohio newspapers reported Sunday on the rising cost of the state's five pension plans and its effect on local governments and school districts.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says the climate change bill passed last month by the Energy and Commerce Committee will go through more changes before coming up for a vote in the full House and that agriculture will be very important. ďThe Energy and Commerce Committee was one step and...
The Organic Trade Association (OTA) and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) are appealing a federal district court ruling upholding Ohioís regulation on hormone-free claims on dairy product labels. The full story is available at cheesemarketnews.com. | <urn:uuid:ccf336b3-627c-49d5-9f10-9705dfd4fd4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ofbf.org/policy-and-politics/power-communications/public-policy-updates/?p=16&pp=5&sb=title&so=DESC | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942809 | 241 | 1.78125 | 2 |
© Larry Master
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Coragyps atratus
OTHER NAMES: buzzard, carrion crow,
DESCRIPTION: The black vulture is a relatively large bird with a length of 22 to 24 inches. The wingspan is approximately four-and-a-half feet. It is primarily black with a white patch near each wing tip. The head is bare and grayish in color. Compared to the turkey vulture, it has a short tail. When in flight, it flaps its shorter and rounder wings more often and more rapidly than the turkey vulture.
DISTRIBUTION: The black vulture is common throughout all of
HABITAT: Black vultures can be found in open country, but they breed in light woodlands and thickets.
FEEDING HABITS: Black vultures are scavengers, and feed primarily on carrion (rotting meat). They also take weak, sick, or unprotected young birds and mammals. They are smaller but more aggressive than the turkey vulture and will drive the latter from a carcass. Both species are often found perched in trees, on fence posts, and on the ground; or flying overhead, especially on windy days, taking advantage of thermals or updrafts. Unlike turkey vultures, black vultures lack well-developed olfactory senses and rely on their vision rather than smell to help them locate a carcass. Often they will follow turkey vultures from the roost and take over a carcass which the turkey vultures have located by smell.
Bull, J., J. Farrand Jr. 1994. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds. Chaticleer Press, Inc.,
Author: Chas Moore, Wildlife Biologist, June 2005 | <urn:uuid:35df41a9-b343-4743-bc0f-03ed35be2d1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://outdooralabama.com/watchable-wildlife/what/Birds/herons/bv.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937427 | 378 | 3.515625 | 4 |
China, India reject climate change restrictions
posted at 5:27 pm on July 8, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
The old adage advises people not to interfere when their opponents seem intent on driving themselves to failure. The leaders of China and India appear to understand that well. Seeing that the West will adopt senseless restrictions on energy production and economic output, they have declined to jump off the same cliff themselves, throwing the G-8 conference into a turmoil that will be unfortunately brief:
Hopes of a deal on climate change at the Group of Eight industrialised nations summit in Italy were today hanging by a thread.
As world leaders sat down for a working lunch at the start of a three day meeting of the G8, it emerged that negotiations had failed to reach agreement on halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Summit negotiators, who do the hard bargaining before the heads of state arrive to complete the agreements, failed to make progress on the issue in talks that continued late last night. China and India are understood to have blocked any mention of the target in the draft communiqué, insisting that the developed economies should promise to cut their own emissions sharply by 2020 before asking developing nations to commit to a long term target.
The breakdown in negotiations has undermined President Obama’s chances of producing a diplomatic coup when he chairs talks on climate change at a meeting of the 17-nation Major Economies Forum tomorrow.
That’s what will make the kerfuffle short-lived. China and India won’t really matter in this conference. Obama would like to get them on board in order to smooth passage of his agreement, but he’s going to get that agreement no matter what he does. He needs to show something more on this trip than a meaningless reduction in nuclear arms with Russia, and a damaging agreement to kill Western economies and lower the standard of living in America over the long haul is exactly what he wants. And he’ll say anything to get it, with or without India or China.
The better question will be what happens when he gets it. The Senate passed a non-binding resolution in the Clinton administration telling the President not to bother submitting Kyoto for ratification without China and India agreeing to its restrictions. That resolution passed unanimously. More than a decade later, some Senators might be willing to handicap America for the benefit of China, but that will be a tough sell for most of them. Any treaty requires 67 votes, and I’d be surprised if Obama could muster even half of that for Son of Kyoto.
Obama may plan to return home, waving a piece of paper over his head to the adoring masses of the White House press corps, claiming a victory for climate change in our time, but that’s as far as it will go without the two most populous nations on Earth exempting themselves from it. Obama will push for the limitations in other ways, though, through Congress and the EPA, while China retains its economic advantage over the US, and India builds one.
Breaking on Hot Air | <urn:uuid:7490c681-3948-452e-b9ea-c8dc365873bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/08/china-india-reject-climate-change-restrictions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953906 | 621 | 1.5 | 2 |
"Keep your nose to the grindstone", "Keep on digging", these are some
sayings that everyone is familiar with. Tae kwon do is not a sprint,
but a marathon; don't think you have to improve every time you step on
the mat to take class. Just approach each class with a positive
attitude, and push yourself to work hard from bow in to bow out and
only good things can happen.
The higher the rank, the longer the valleys get between the peaks. The
higher the rank, the more challenging the techniques become. The
higher the rank, the more intricate the forms are. From the start of
training, one must develop the habit of persistence so that when faced
with stiffer challenges, a student won't become overwhelmed. He or she
can just take it one class at a time.
These words are not made to discourage, but to encourage. No matter
how daunting the task may seem, someone else has done it before; this
person might not have been more flexible, or faster, or stronger. The
one quality this student had (which is actually more important than
the aforementioned physical skills) was persistence.
Written by Mr. Surage | <urn:uuid:e7b3c35a-842f-472c-a66c-c32b9beb1cf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yongstudios.com/focus/persistence.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948506 | 253 | 2.4375 | 2 |
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1990 - VOLUME 11 - NUMBERS 1 AND 2
T H E F R O N T
A battle is brewing over an important Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule designed to encourage diversity in television programming. A Fox Broadcasting Company request for an 18-month waiver of the Financial Interest and Syndication Rule (fin-syn) could lead the FCC to consider relaxing or eliminating the controversial rule. The fin-syn rule prohibits networks from acquiring a financial interest in independently produced programs and from competing in the syndication market. Implemented in 1970, fin-syn was designed to curb the programming monopoly then held by the three major television networks: ABC, NBC and CBS.
Before fin-syn, independent producers were practically unable to gain access to the airwaves without giving up some financial interest in their shows to the networks. For example, in 1969, before agreeing to air the "Mary Tyler Moore Show," CBS demanded all distribution and syndication rights to the show, according to the Coalition To Preserve the Financial Interest and Syndication Rule. The coalition also reports that before the ruling, the three networks had a financial interest in 93 percent of the programs they broadcast between 1959 and 1964.
Proponents of fin-syn argue it has led to a proliferation of independent producers. By preventing the networks from demanding syndication rights from independent producers, fin-syn makes independent production financially feasible.
"The adoption of [fin-syn and related rules] in 1970 and the subsequent growth of a new and vibrant independent television station sector literally created the market for first-run syndicated TV programming, and enabled countless new production companies to get started," says Andrew Schwartzman, director of the Media Access Project, a Washington-based media watchdog group working on broadcast issues. Fin-syn, he asserts, has allowed "Americans [to] get more programming on more stations from more different producers."
Fox, not presently defined as a network by the FCC's standards, has been able to grow to its present size precisely because it is not subject to fin-syn. It is able to profit from producing, syndicating and buying interests in programs.
The FCC defines a network as having 15 or more hours of original programming each week, a limit which Fox will soon pass. If Fox is granted the temporary waiver, it will be able to obtain network status without complying with the fin-syn restrictions which apply to the three larger networks. During the proposed 18-month waiver period Fox could presumably persuade the FCC to modify either the fin-syn rule or the definition of a network. Fox would like to see network status tied to some "objective economic standard" such as audience share or percentage of total network revenues.
But the three networks adamantly oppose any special treatment for Fox. Stephen Weiswasser, senior vice president and general counsel for Capital Cities/ABC told Broadcasting Magazine that granting such a waiver would be "bad public policy." Weiswasser said Fox does not need special protection since it "is not a fledgling network, [but is] owned by News Corp., which is the third largest media corporation in the world."
This is where the debate heats up. When the FCC reviewed fin-syn and related rules in the early 1980s, it generated one of the most heavily lobbied battles in the agency's history. The FCC, with the approval of the Justice Department, the Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission, recommended relaxation of the rules. But Congress and President Reagan pressured the FCC to hold off on a final vote and allowed the networks and proponents of fin-syn, notably the Motion Picture Association of America (many of whose members produce television shows as well as movies), to bargain over the issue. So although no action has been taken in more than six years, the issue is still open.
Fox maintains that the market, mostly as a result of cable television, has changed sufficiently to warrant relaxation of the ruling. It points to the fact that cable television now reaches 53 percent of homes in the United States.
The networks, while objecting to a fin-syn exemption for Fox, oppose the rule, as they have since its conception. Like Fox, they argue that the market changes make the rule outdated. NBC President and CEO Robert Wright, speaking at a recent National Association of Television Producing Executives (NATPE) conference, warned that fin-syn rules must be relaxed to allow networks to compete successfully with cable and other new market forces. Although he acknowledged the networks are healthy now, he claimed that their future survival is threatened. Said Wright, "We cannot continue to live behind television's equivalent of the Berlin Wall. Financial interest... would at least open up the potential of having more revenue streams."
But the Motion Picture Association of America along with a coalition of independent television stations, business, labor and consumer groups, argue that cable does not offer serious competition to the networks. Even the lowest-ranked network, for example, has 10 times as many viewers as the highest-ranked cable network. In addition, the networks possess exclusive licenses to the limited airwaves. Fin-syn restrictions make the airwaves more accessible to the motion picture industry and independent producers. As a result, its supporters argue, fin- syn provides more program diversity to consumers.
Not all consumer and labor groups support fin-syn, however. Some, including the National Council for Senior Citizens, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers of America and the National Education Association, have bought the networks' line that their future financial well-being is endangered. These groups worry that the rules will hamper the networks' ability to compete in the marketplace, giving cable and independent stations an unfair advantage. They fear that the networks might then stop providing "free" TV, an important source of information and entertainment for many in the United States, particularly the elderly.
The Coalition to Preserve the Financial Interest and Syndication Rule dismisses this concern, saying that because the networks are increasingly investing in cable television, they will benefit from, rather than be harmed by, cable's growth: "ABC owns the ESPN cable networks, General Electric (GE) owns NBC and CNBC, a cable channel. And ABC News and CBS News are considering cable news alliances. Through its financial subsidiary, GE Capital, GE also has loaned more than $1.6 billion to cable operators, giving it a substantial stake in the success of cable."
Another objection to the repeal of fin-syn comes from the Program Producers and Distributors Committee. They worry that relaxation of the rule may also lead to repeal of its companion, the prime time access rule (PTAR). This rule mandated that the networks provide a daily one-hour, prime-time slot for local stations, independent producers and syndicators to fill, and it allowed them to participate in a wide-open environment without being overwhelmed by network competition.
Consumer groups argue that the FCC must maintain fin-syn and PTAR to fulfil its responsibility of ensuring a diversity of programming. Schwartzman of the Media Access Project says, "[Fin-syn] rules, and the integrally related prime time access rule, have worked. They are a paradigm of pro-competitive structural rules which enhance democratic values. We're better off for them."
- Katherine Isaac
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Colorado Department of Health are investigating the safety of Coors beer and possible civil and criminal reporting violations concerning water contamination and hazardous waste discharges. For the first time ever, federal and state regulators took samples of Coors beer, the water used to make it, groundwater near the plant and a nearby creek to determine possible contamination with trichloroethane, a non- carcinogen, and tetrachloroethylene, a carcinogen. "We are looking at everything," said Dave Shelton of the Colorado Department of Health. "The most obvious violation, early on, seems to be their failure to notify [us] concerning the discharges into the river and the additional waters going into their treatment facility."
The company's knowledge of the contamination dates back to 1981, when the Adolph Coors Company first discovered "groundwater contamination under the container plant that ultimately had infiltrated a relatively few of the numerous springs used by the company as a source of its brewing water," according to a report prepared by Theodore Halaby, an attorney retained by Coors to investigate the matter. At the time, the report says, "the Board of Directors was advised by an employee (not presently employed) who was most experienced in such matters, that there was no necessity to report these circumstances to the authorities." Halaby writes that this assessment was based on the fact that "the groundwater contaminants were isolated and contained; and steps were being taken to resolve the problem; and no health or environmental risk existed."
Three years later, Coors discovered further evidence of contamination. In 1984, "some employees complained of off-taste in the drinking water in the can plant," Peter Coors, President of Adolph Coors Co., admitted in a prepared statement. In response, he said, the company "tested the drinking water fountains and discovered low levels of a noncarcinogenic cleaning solvent in the water." Still, Coors Co. did not notify the health department.
State and local environmental investigations will focus on potential violations of the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Resource Conservation Recovery Act and the Superfund. State health department official Shelton outlined the regulators' goals: "We are trying to put together all the pieces, verify and ... find out one, if there are any current health risks; two, if we can prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future; three, if there are any violations." He added, "Our eyes aren't closed to anything at this point. .. . We aren't ruling out criminal violations."
In June 1988, an anonymous informant called the Colorado Department of Health to report possible water contamination, but it was not until then that Coors prepared a series of reports on the contamination and submitted them to the state health department.
After a Denver area reporter began investigating the contamination of Coors beer, the company revealed that in ridding the water of contaminants it was discharging them into the creek from which it takes its water.
EPA is now investigating more seriously and "looking into all possibilities," according to agency official Rich Lathrop.
Coors is concerned that publicity surrounding the contamination could hurt its business, which has built its reputation on the claim that Coors beer is made from clean water. A Coors representative acknowledged the seriousness of the situation, saying, "we aren't interested in having this all over North America ... [it could] be very damaging to our business." Peter Coors, however, sought to defuse the situation in his prepared statement. "There's one thing you must know," Coors asserted. "These issues never posed a health or safety risk to our employees, our consumers, or the community. We have worked diligently to ensure that all Coors products meet the stringent standard of quality and purity that is the hallmark of this company. We diligently monitor our water to protect its purity, and our water is as clean and fresh as it was in 1873 when Adolph Coors founded this company."
- Russell Mokhiber | <urn:uuid:55815f7f-7b65-4d28-9271-b95abad434c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1990/01/front.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95977 | 2,322 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Gulp … true confession time. I have not driven a car over the San Francisco Bay Bridge since sometime in 1985. This may not be a very remarkable statement other than the fact that during these 27 years I have lived in the Bay Area, on and off, for about 17 of them. You see, I have a debilitating phobia of bridges. More on this below, but I point it out to simply establish my bona fides as an expert on the topic of fear.
I recently heard fear described as that which we seek to avoid/destroy, while its opposite, passion, is that which we seek to get embrace/protect. The two have a symbiotic, yin/yang, relationship with elements of both existing within the other to varying degrees. As we look at our beliefs, particularly those nominally informed by science, I’m struck by the remarkable role that fear/passion plays in shaping them.
As humans, we seek safety, security, the health and well being of ourselves, our families and future generations. Thus we seek to avoid, we fear, risks or uncertainties that threaten those values. In fact, our brains are wired to instinctively react to such threats in a rapid subconscious manner. Probably coming from ancient survival mechanisms, the aptly named “fight or flight” response is ingrained into our being, and a key element of how we function. There is even some chemistry and biology involved … relax, I won’t (OK , can’t) get too sciency here. But we’ve all experienced the physical reaction to the release of adrenaline into our bodies…the rapid heart rate, sweaty palms etc. This stuff is tangible and real. Just as real is how it affects our belief systems.
One of my favorite examples of this is our fear of…dun dun dun…nuclear radiation (did your palms just moisten?). So, what came to mind the instant you read the last sentence? Fukishima, Chernobyl, nuclear bombs, Iran, contaminated waste sites, and giant radioactive ants? …. Probably. Less likely was life saving medical testing and treatments, carbon free energy, safer food, and space engines. That’s OK, I get it. But we have to own up to something here. The scientific data does not support the level of fear that we have. Some factoids on just one aspect of the issue … average decrease in life expectancy for all exposed atomic-bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is estimated to be less than 4 months … fatalities due to the release of radiation of Fukishima, Three Mile Island and Browns Ferry combined, is 0….Chernobyl, around 60. OK, I know, it’s not that simple, but the point is that the risks posed by nuclear power, and there are indeed risks, need to be viewed in context. For example, about 500,000 people die annually in the US from diseases triggered by air pollution If we take only 1% of that (low, high? … who knows) and attribute it to coal fired power plants, you are looking at 5000 annual deaths, just in the US. Now compare that to the nuclear figures … you may get my point, but I’m guessing you will still hold onto any fears you have of the use of nuclear energy, and its use as an alternative to fossil fuels.
Which brings me back to my friend [sic], the Bay Bridge. As I’ve told folks of my phobia over the years, they often quiz me with questions like, what are you afraid of, what could happen, what is the real risk? These all miss the point, for they assume my fear is based on some rational analysis. In fact, the exact opposite is at play. My fear is completely irrational, deeply subconscious and seemingly impervious to all manners of objective analysis or treatment (several shrinks will attest to this). Now, this is not to suggest that irrational fears are OK, particularly when the consequences of such fears affect more than just the individual. It simply points us to the fact that we need to look much more deeply into the sources of our anxieties. What are we seeking to flee, what are we seeking to protect, and why? | <urn:uuid:02f3de64-7bbc-4735-a618-c8fcb64b6d7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.sfgate.com/azwissler/2012/03/15/science-well-sort-of-giant-radioactive-ants-fear-and-the-bay-bridge/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952992 | 868 | 1.539063 | 2 |
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Thu August 23, 2012
How did you celebrate National Radio Day?
Last Tuesday was National Radio Day! How do I know? I saw it on Facebook, of course, which is where everyone who is younger than me seems to get all their news.
But not me. I’m still a radio guy. So I celebrated National Radio Day by working in the news room at Michigan Radio, where we also spend lots of time on Facebook.
Like any good news person, I didn’t just trust what my Facebook friends posted as the truth. If that were the case I’d also believe our President was born in Kenya and that a vengeful Polish dentist pulled out all of her ex-boyfriends teeth after he dumped her.
So, I Googled it as well. According to the “Holiday Insights” website, August 20th was, in fact, Radio Day. I also discovered that Russia celebrates Radio Day on May 7th, Bangladesh celebrates it on February 7th, and Malaysia celebrates it on September 9th. We are among the only four nations on the planet to deem radio worthy of a national day of celebration.
The origin of National Radio Day in the USA is fuzzy. Unlike the Russians and Bangladeshis, there hasn’t been a Presidential proclamation or government decree on this. But “Holiday Insights” did find blogs and radio station websites as early as the 1990s referring to this national day. (Yes…that far back…really.)
Coincidentally (I hope), August 20th is also Pony Express Day, a day when we can sit back and reminisce about a once vital communications system for our country, that is now a quaint historical antiquity seen only in the movies and recreated at theme parks.
Lots of people today like to tell us that radio will soon go the way of the Pony Express. While every radio professional of a certain age seems to tell the cliché story of being a child and listening to their transistor radio under their covers at night, today’s kids are sneaking their mp3 players or cell phones under their covers at night, so they can listen to their itunes or text their friends.
Radio gets maligned in blogs, at conferences, and even in industry trades that tell us radio is dead, nobody is listening, and that nobody under 40 even owns or knows how to operate a radio.
But the death of radio has been predicted many times. So often, in fact, that just writing that sentence seems like another cliché.
But I think the future of radio is strong. It may not all be delivered as a traditional broadcast on the AM and FM dials, but public use of audio remains vital. Audio delivery of music and news and talk and entertainment remains affordable on numerous broadcast and digital devices, is accessible to everyone, and you can still drive safely while making use of it.
As NPR’s Vice President for Programming Eric Nuzum said during a speech to the Ohio Associated Press award winners earlier this year, “Audio isn’t going away, it’s everywhere.” He’s right.
Listeners can stream our radio stations on their computers as work, they can listen to the most recent local newscast on their phones, they can download topic-centered podcasts and listen to all of last week’s political news while they jog on Saturday morning.
Our audience can listen to our news specials and series on our websites at their convenience, and we can use Twitter to tell them about it and Facebook to engage them in conversations about the topics.
The need for news and information, and even for the human voice, is strong, and for those of us who can figure out how to be where the audience wants to hear us, the future of “radio news” will still be very strong, at both the national and local levels.
There may not be many people who celebrated National Radio Day, but I don’t think it will become the future equivalent of Pony Express Day. In retrospect, maybe there’s no foreboding at all that I learned about it on Facebook. | <urn:uuid:93a6d1fa-44e7-4192-ac35-a872227240ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.michiganradio.org/post/how-did-you-celebrate-national-radio-day | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971195 | 869 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Booth-Kelly Lumber Co. v. United States - 237 U.S. 481 (1915)
U.S. Supreme Court
Booth-Kelly Lumber Co. v. United States, 237 U.S. 481 (1915)
Booth-Kelly Lumber Company v. United States
Argued May 4, 5, 1915
Decided May 17, 1915
237 U.S. 481
APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
Judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeal cancelling patents for timber lands on the ground of fraud affirmed, the explanations of the grantee who claimed to be a bona fide purchaser without notice failing to escape the effect of incontrovertible facts which showed participation in the fraud.
203 F. 423 affirmed.
The facts, which involve the validity of patents to land alleged by the United States to have issued as the result of fraud in the entries, are stated in the opinion.
MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a bill in equity brought by the United States for the cancellation of five patents for timber lands issued to the four individual appellants and one Jordan, all of whom subsequently conveyed the lands to the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company. The ground of the bill is that the entries were made pursuant to an understanding with the company, for the purpose of conveying the title to it, in fraud of the law. The defendants, except Jordan, answered jointly, denying the fraud, and the company set up that it was a purchaser for value without notice. The answer was sworn to by the manager of the company. Afterwards it was amended by agreement so as to allege that the defendants Ethel and Lucy La Raut were still the equitable owners of the land patented to them, and that their warranty deeds to the company were in fact mortgages to secure repayment of advances made to them. The bill was taken for confessed against Jordan, and both courts found for the government as to the land conveyed by him. The circuit court of appeals, reversing the decree of the district court, found for the government as to
the other lands also, and ordered a decree for the United States. 203 F. 423.
The issue is purely one of fact upon matters with regard to which the circuit court seems to have been prevented from coming to the same conclusion as the circuit court of appeals rather by the presumption in favor of the patents than by its belief in the testimony for the defense. As both courts agreed about Jordan in accordance with his own statement on the stand, we shall reexamine only the cases of the La Rauts.
The La Rauts were poor, two of them being in the employment of the company, and they were connected by marriage with the manager of the company, Booth. As the result of an arrangement with Booth, the nature of which is the point in controversy, by Booth's direction, the man who was looking out for the company's timber purchases reported claims for the La Rauts in the neighborhood of the company's extensive tracts. Booth directed Dunbar, the bookkeeper of the company, to see to the furnishing of the money. The La Rauts were taken to inspect the land, so that they might make the necessary affidavits, but, beyond that, appear to have known nothing and to have made no inquiries at any time. The company paid their expenses, and, through their hands, the land office fees, the cost of publication, and the purchase price -- all the bills, in short. On May 7 and 8, 1902, they received their certificates of title, and in July executed deeds, Booth testifies, to him; certainly either to him or to the company. At or about the same time, each received $100, just as Jordan did, whose claim was one of the same group and filed at about the same time. These deeds were not recorded, and were destroyed; there is some indication in the evidence that the destruction was at the time of a government investigation into land frauds; but the proof is not clear. In 1904, the patents were issued, and were delivered to one Alley by the Land Office. Alley secured
them at the request of John F. Kelly, vice-president of the company. The company ever since has paid the taxes and exercised dominion over the land. In 1907, new warranty deeds were executed to the company by the La Rauts, Ethel and Lucy receiving $25, seemingly in connection with their conveyances, and later Stephen and his wife $50 each.
Booth and Ethel La Raut, now Mrs. Lewis, meet the inference naturally to be drawn from the facts thus far stated by testifying that it was agreed between them that Booth would get timber claims for her and the other three, carry them, and advance the money necessary until they were able to dispose of the property, which would seem to imply that they bought the land for speculation, contrary to their affidavits, but, of course, denies that they bought for the company. Both Ethel and Lucy La Raut were called by the government and both asserted that they bought for themselves, that they still owned the land, and that their deeds were executed only as security for the advances that the company had made, and there is some corroboration of Booth as to details, but the evidence for the defendants is overborne by the whole course of what was done. A part of it is discredited by the established falsity of similar testimony in the matter of Jordan. The claims of Stephen A. La Raut and Alice La Raut, his wife, are disposed of by Mrs. Applestone, daughter of Alice by a former husband, if she is believed. She says that, in 1902, her mother told her that she had taken up a claim for Mr. Booth and was to get $100, and that her stepfather took up his claim for the same reason, and that he said that he had received $100 also. The story is confirmed by the behavior of the parties concerned. For after Stephen La Raut and his wife had made their last deeds to the company, when, according to Booth, Stephen wanted to go to Canada and to dispose of his land, and applied to Booth, Booth turned him over to Kelly, gave him no information as to the value of the
claims, and let him sell them for $50 in addition to the hundred dollars that each had received in 1902, although they clearly were worth a great deal more. Booth's actual conduct is inconsistent with his having entertained a benevolent scheme, and the sum paid is hardly reconcilable with Stephen and his wife being owners of the land.
If the defendants' case fails as to these two claims, it hardly can succeed as to the others, for, according to them, all were taken under a single arrangement for all. And there is further evidence that Booth's account cannot be accepted. We will not encumber the reports with lengthy statement of details, but, apart from evidence of other fraudulent claims in the same group with these, the books of the company, which were under Booth's eye, tell a different story from his. The ledger showed no names, but the journal account under each name charges them with $400, the price of the land, and $100 which each received (with a small additional item for Stephen), and then on July 31, 1902, charges the whole $500 to stumpage, the general account of the company for the purchase of land. There the accounts end, and thereafter the lands were carried on the company's land account. The actual expenses other than the foregoing never were charged to them at all, but all, including the later payments of $25 and $50, went without specification into the stumpage account. There are attempts to explain all this by alleged oral statements that Booth held himself responsible, as there is a lame effort also to get rid of the original sworn answer, the inconsistencies of which, with the subsequent testimony, we have not stated at length. We think it enough to say that the explanations fail to escape the effect of the incontrovertible facts.
MR. JUSTICE McREYNOLDS took no part in the consideration and decision of this case. | <urn:uuid:796ded83-76f3-4f99-b758-1db3289cefac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/237/481/case.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988391 | 1,695 | 1.664063 | 2 |
About renal cell carcinoma (RCC)
Kidney, or renal cell cancer, develops in the lining of the kidney's tubes and grows into a tumor. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for 2% of all new cancer cases worldwide with occurrence rates rising steadily around the world. If left untreated, the tumor can spread to neighboring lymph nodes and eventually other organs.
Patients frequently have advanced RCC at the time of diagnosis, meaning that their tumors have spread outside of the kidneys. Standard initial drug treatment for these patients may include vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) targeted therapies.
Treatment of RCC
Surgery—which may include removing part or all of the kidney as well as the bladder, lymph nodes, and other surrounding tissues—is the recommended treatment for patients diagnosed with RCC. Chemotherapy and hormone treatments may help some patients. Medical therapies for RCC that target VEGF include:
Patients with advanced kidney cancer have limited options once they experience tumor progression after VEGF-targeted therapy.
Novartis Oncology is exploring everolimus, different vascular endothelial growth factor targeted therapies, and mTOR and PI3K therapies for advanced RCC. | <urn:uuid:4183e8ea-245e-4d06-90d7-78bb387241cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.novartisoncology.com/for-patients-and-caregivers/renal-cell-carcinoma.jsp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916592 | 250 | 3.125 | 3 |
About Cockatoo Hill Retreat Daintree Rainforest
Cockatoo Hill Retreat's position is breathtaking. It is situated on a rainforest ridge with wrap around views extending from Hutchinson Hill towards Cape Tribulation and the Coral Sea to the east and to the dramatic heights of Thornton Peak in the west.
Matching the expansive views is the rich wildlife seen regularly at the retreat. A large variety of birds, including the reclusive rainforest cassowary, live in this forest habitat which also supports the beautiful Ulysses and Cairns Birdwing butterflies, the friendly green tree frog, shy goannas and water dragons.
Cockatoo Hill Retreat is in the very heart of the Daintree - Cape Tribulation World Heritage area known for its superb biodiversity. In and around Cooper Creek and Noah Creek is where new species of rainforest plants are still being discovered in refugial rainforests thought to be 135 million years old.
Carmen and Gilles' native French charm is overlaid with the best of Australian hospitality. Their love of Cockatoo Hill Retreat shows in every detail and their own extensive travelling experience makes them very special hosts.
Carmen and Gilles' intimate knowledge of the Daintree region and its environment ensures your stay at Cockatoo Hill will be a highly memorable one. | <urn:uuid:eeccc45c-469b-4655-b41d-c8cccfa3f59a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cockatoohillretreat.com.au/about.html | 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 | 0.939974 | 277 | 1.554688 | 2 |
First of all, I would like to thank you for making this incredible site, where we can ask or answer questions.
Right now, In a third world country far, far away, where the system sub-transmission works at 60 Hz 115 KV and distribution works level is 13.8 KV, I receive a entire uncompleted project of a "campus". Due to the project is going to be constructed by parts, for example one year a building then maybe 3 years later another and so on, I'm dealing whit which distribution design is better. A schematics goes like these:
The buildings have an area of 500x250 mts: Estimated Power-Demand: 1.2 MVA
I divided the building in 4 Zones and feed them with 4 pad-mounted transformers (see image, click for a larger version).
Δ: Pad-Mounted Transformers 400 KVA in ring-bus.
---: 13.8 KV from S/E feeders. (underground)
So my question is, in your experience is this a good distribution practice method?
Or I'm missing something? what would you believe is a critical issue here?
Or is better to put a switch-gear and then go with radial transformers? I did not mention vault transformers because the building foundations are already under construction.
Other criteria would be to use dry-type transformers inside the building. But I don't want to get inside the building with an industrial voltage, and going inside with 480/277 V does not make sense if all air conditioners units will work at 208V according to mechanical specifications.
I would like to thank you for taking your time to read my question. | <urn:uuid:73b60d20-f1b6-4dda-9644-f26237e6d239> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://myelectrical.com/questions/view/question/id/164 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9525 | 352 | 1.757813 | 2 |
How are you showing the value of volunteer time in your organization? Here are a few of the tried and true formulas, plus some new thoughts on the subject:
The Estimated Dollar Value of Volunteer Time
The formula used by many in the field is based on information from IndependentSector.org. The estimated dollar value of volunteer time in 2010 was $21.36 per hour as established by Independent Sector. The value is based on the average hourly earnings of all production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls (as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics). Independent Sector takes this figure and increases it by 12% to estimate for fringe benefits. This isn’t a bad way to show what you’d have to pay your volunteers were they paid staff. But be careful how you share this information– are any of your paid staff paid an hourly $21.36? Careful messaging and planning is needed when using this figure. For more information visit Independent Sector’s website at: http://www.independentsector.org/volunteer_time
The Federal (or your state) Minimum Wage
Another way to calculate the value of volunteer time is to use the Federal (or your state’s) minimum wage. The current Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour (Minnesota uses this figured.). Although 1/3 of the figure used by Independent Sector, this figure may be more palatable to your staff and a figure that many people can relate to. Some states have higher (and lower) minimum wages, so do some homework before using this figure. For more information on the Federal Minimum wage and labor laws in your state, visit: http://www.minimum-wage.us/
Full-time Employee (FTE) Equivalency
If you were to work 40 hours per week, 52 weeks a year, you would have worked 2080 hours. If you take the number of hours volunteers contributed throughout the year and divide that by 2080, you’ll have the number of employees it would have taken to complete those hours. An example: If volunteers contributed 12,000 hours to your organization in 2010, dividing that by 2080 would show it would have taken 5.77 full-time employees to complete that same work. Sometimes the number of paid bodies it would have taken to complete a project speaks louder than their cost!
Tell Your Stories!
If you were lucky enough to hear Linda Graff (http://www.lindagraff.ca/) at the 2011 MN State Conference on Volunteerism, your world may have been rocked when she asked “What would happen if volunteers didn’t work for your organization (or the world for that matter) for one day? How about a week? What would happen after a month?” Scary, isn’t it? If you can put a value on that, and help others to understand that value, you’ve made a very strong case for your program. Start collecting and sharing stories about how volunteers made a difference in your work. Get quotes from stake-holders and the volunteers themselves. Share your worth!
Program Coordinator, University of MN Extension Master Gardeners in Hennepin County at University of Minnesota Extension | <urn:uuid:1d9d57d9-92b7-40a1-a2eb-47b8375817b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mavanetwork.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/putting-a-dollar-value-on-volunteer-time/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952216 | 663 | 2.296875 | 2 |
The more I learn about linking, the more I learn that creating links and user interfaces for them may be fun, but the difficult work of creating a reliable addressing system comes first. Otherwise, how do you name the thing you want to link to? The reason I enjoy hearing about new addressing possibilities, like the trick for linking to specific pages of a PDF file, is because of the new opportunities it presents for linking—someone bothered to do some addressing work, so my links have more possibilities.
When Tim Berners-Lee invented the web, the a element with its href attribute was the easy part; the tough part was the creation of the addressing system. As URLs evolved to sometimes represent addresses, sometimes represent names, and sometimes represent both, it has gotten a bit messy. Dan Connolly, who has played a key role in the development of HTML, XML, and the web since shortly after Berners-Lee put together his first prototype server and browser, has written an excellent IBM developerWorks article that explains the history of URLs and their relationship to URIs, URNs, and IRIs. The article even covers the PURL and DOI addressing systems, which I’ve been meaning to research and write about here for a while. If you’re interested in gaining a solid understanding of the design issues affecting the naming and addressing of resources on a network, particularly the web, I strongly recommend Dan’s article. | <urn:uuid:6995b3d8-58d0-464e-931b-1e630782c34b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2005/06/understanding_urls_and_link_ad.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952347 | 290 | 2.6875 | 3 |
TRANSCRIPT OF REMARKS BY AGRICULTURE SECRETARY MIKE JOHANNS TO THE U.S. PARTNERSHIP FOR FOOD SAFETY EDUCATION
Washington D.C. - September 18, 2007
SEC. MIKE JOHANNS: Well, thank you very much, Bryan [Silberman], for that nice introduction. You know ladies and gentlemen, this partnership is really a great example of how the public and the private sectors can work together very effectively for the public good. With this "Be Food Safe" campaign, the Partnership has taken materials that were first developed at the USDA, wrapped them up in a new, outstanding graphics package that makes them simple and easy to remember, and enlisted food retailers to make sure that these safety messages get to consumers right on time. And that is when they are shopping for food and thinking how they might or what they might prepare for dinner, that is also when reminding them of what they can do at home to protect themselves can make the most difference.
Applying the simple rules of "clean, cook, separate and chill" provides a very, very effective layer of protection against pathogens, in addition to all the inspection efforts than government and industry undertake throughout the food supply chain.
The Partnership's own research has shown that while many people today are concerned about the threat of food borne illness, really not enough of them are following basic safety rules on food handling at home where a real difference can be made. It may just be that they need a little reminding until the principles become kind of a second nature in food preparation. And that is what the "Be Food Safe" campaign will deliver.
The battle against pathogens in our food supply is an ongoing battle, and I might add it's a complex battle. When we make progress on one front, it seems like a new pathogen often crops up elsewhere in the food chain. But whatever happens at ports of entry, in processing plants, retail stores, the final line of defense really is in our kitchens, it's at home, and that is where the Partnership is appropriately aiming its efforts.
It is just very encouraging that during the 10 years of the Partnership's existence the roster of its association members has expanded so dramatically and impressively. I think this reflects a broad recognition that everyone involved in this industry has a stake in making sure that our food supply remains abundant, it remains safe, and that American consumers enjoy the highest possible level of protection from food borne illness.
In this public health effort, prevention is clearly a great strategy. I've been giving a great deal of thought to our entire food chain over the last months as a result of my service on the President's Inter Agency Working Group in Import Safety. The President asked this group, as you know – and it's being chaired by a good friend--Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt – the President asked us to look at all of our current practices and regulations regarding import safety and report back to him as to what we thought and what could be done to improve it.
Now the job of keeping on top of import safety has gotten a lot bigger in recent years; it's a gigantic task. Some $2 trillion worth of goods will flow into this country this year, nearly double the volume of just four years ago, and we expect the value of that trade to triple in a few short years, by 2015. Food imports are a growing part of this flow. Consumers are seeking more variety in their diets, more options, are taking advantage of the availability and affordability of imported food products. They have been especially receptive to imported fruits, vegetables that are available outside the standard domestic growing season here in the United States.
When more imports are a part of the food supply, it becomes important to focus on their entire life cycle and not just the condition that they are in when they reach the port. We must make certain that we focus our inspection efforts on those points where risks of contamination are highest and that we use the most effective science available and technology. The Interagency Working Group will be delivering a report to the President later this year on what we believe should be done to ensure greater import safety. I'm confident that we'll be able to take a system that is already a great system, one of the best in the world, but most importantly we want to make it better.
But for everything regulators, manufacturers and retailers can do to make sure that food reaches consumers safe, handling it the right way at home can double or redouble that protection. That is why the most important message I can deliver today is my concluding message, and that is to say to the Partnership, thank you for your efforts. I congratulate you on all you've done not only in the past but all you will do in the future. I congratulate you on the new campaign, and I'll be looking forward to the "Be Food Safe" signs, flyers, and brochures competing for my attention the next time I get behind a grocery cart. And I promise you, I do that. | <urn:uuid:0953730b-2617-4daf-a9c4-39b5feadf024> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=2007/09/0251.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966718 | 1,030 | 2 | 2 |
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Making Batteries Last Longer with Fast, High-Precision SAR Analog-to-Digital Converters
Low power consumption is a key requirement for today’s battery-powered analog-to-digital converter applications, as portable handheld instruments for the medical, consumer, and industrial markets trend towards reduced size and weight, longer operating time per battery (or per battery charge), and lower cost, often accompanied by an increased feature set. The benefits of low power, even in non-battery-powered applications, should not be overlooked because low power systems can operate without heat sinks or fans, making them smaller, lower cost, more reliable—and “greener.” In addition, many designers are faced with the challenge of designing products with enhanced features or performance while reducing, or at least not exceeding, existing power budgets.
The huge selection of ADCs on the market today makes choosing the best part to meet specific system requirements ever more challenging. Besides evaluating common converter performance characteristics, such as speed and accuracy, even more specifications need to be considered if low power is a must. Understanding these specifications and how design decisions affect the power budget is essential for determining system power consumption and battery life calculations.
The average power consumption for an ADC is a function of the power used during conversion, the power used while not converting, and the amount of time spent in each mode. This can be expressed by Equation 1.
PAVG = average power dissipated.
PCONV = power dissipated during conversion.
PSTBY = power dissipated during standby or shutdown mode.
tCONV = time spent converting.
tSTBY = time spent in standby or power-down mode.
The power used during conversion is usually much greater than the standby power, so the average power can be greatly reduced if the time in standby mode is increased. Successive-approximation (SAR) converter types are particularly amenable to such modes of operation.
One of the biggest factors affecting system power usage is the choice of on-board power supplies. For portable applications, the system will often be powered directly by a 3-V lithium coin cell. This avoids the need for a low dropout voltage regulator, thus saving on power, space, and cost. Nonbattery applications also benefit from converters that have low VDD supply ranges, as power consumption scales with input voltage. Choosing the lowest acceptable VDD for the ADC will result in lower power consumption.
All ADCs that are targeted at low power applications have power-down or standby modes to conserve energy during periods of inactivity. The ADC can be powered down between single conversions, or a burst of conversions can be performed at a high throughput rate, with the ADC powered down between these bursts. For single-channel converters, control of the operating modes can be integrated into the communication interface or can occur automatically once a conversion is complete.
The advantage of integrating the mode control into the communication interface is a reduced pin count. This results in lower power consumption, as there are fewer inputs to drive and less leakage current. Smaller pin counts also lead to smaller package sizes and less I/O required by the MCU. Whatever the control method, careful use of these modes will provide considerable power savings.
Power is reduced in power-down modes, as the name suggests, by turning off parts of the ADC’s circuitry. The time required for the circuitry that was shut down to restart conversion determines the throughput rate at which such modes can be used effectively. For an ADC with an internal reference, the restart time will be determined by the time taken to recharge the reference capacitor. Analog-to-digital converters using an external reference require enough time to track the analog input correctly on restart.
For all ADCs on the market today, power scales with throughput. The power consumed is a combination of static and dynamic power. Static power is constant, while the dynamic power scales linearly with throughput. Power savings will, therefore, be made by choosing the lowest possible throughput rate to suit the application.
Figure 1 shows the typical power consumption for the AD7091R, the most recent ultralow power ADC from Analog Devices, as a function of throughput rate. It also shows a comparison of how utilizing the device’s power-down mode can provide additional power savings, especially with lower throughput rates. The throughput rate and utilization of the power-down mode of the AD7091R is determined by the device restart time and, as the AD7091R has an on-chip reference, the reference capacitor recharge time. The time it takes to recharge the reference capacitor depends on the capacitance and the level of charge remaining on the capacitor when the on-chip reference restarts.
Figure 1. Power vs. throughput for the AD7091R ADC.
The most common methods to initiate conversion requests in ADCs are a dedicated conversion input pin or control via the serial interface. With a dedicated input pin (CONVST), a conversion is initiated by a falling edge. The conversion is then controlled by an on-chip oscillator, and the result can be read back via the serial interface once the conversion is complete. Therefore, the conversion is always run at a constant optimum speed, allowing the device to enter low power mode the moment a conversion is complete, thus saving power.
With ADCs where the sampling instant is initiated by a falling edge on chip select (CS), the conversion is controlled by the internal sampling clock (SCLK) signal. The SCLK frequency will affect the conversion time and the achievable throughput rate—and, therefore, the power consumption. The faster the SCLK rate, the shorter the conversion time. With shorter conversion time, the proportion of time available for the device to be in low power mode increases compared to normal mode; therefore, significant power savings can be achieved. That is, if each conversion requires N cycles of the SCLK, then for S conversions per second, the total time the SCLK is switching is S × N/fSCLK, and the quiescent time per second is shown in Equation 2.
Thus, for a given number of samples per second, as fSCLK increases, the quiescent time per second also increases.
An important but frequently overlooked parameter when designing for low power is the capacitive load seen at the output pins, especially the communication interface pins, such as SCLK, CS, and SDO, as these I/O variables are constantly changing state during the conversion process. The capacitive load seen at an output is the pin capacitance of the driver IC itself, plus the pin capacitance of the input pin, plus the PCB trace capacitance. The trace capacitance can generally be kept small, in the femtofarad range, and is not significant. The power required to charge a capacitive load (PL) is a function of the load (CL), the drive voltage (VDRIVE), and the frequency of change (f), as defined by Equation 3.
The power for a complete system is, therefore, the sum of the products of the load capacitance (CLn) times the switching frequency (fn) multiplied by the square of the drive voltage.
As the ADC drives the SDO pin, and the host microcontroller drives the CS, CONVST, and SCLK pins, the lowest power consumption will be achieved by minimizing pin capacitance for all devices.
For the CS and CONVST pins, the switching frequency is determined solely by the throughput rate. The SCLK frequency, as already discussed, should be set to the maximum allowable frequency to reduce power. This is not a contradiction: the important point is that the SCLK is not free running—it should be active for only the minimum possible time to propagate the result on the SDO line for each bit trial and to control the conversion process. This is device- and resolution dependent but is typically one cycle per bit, plus some overhead, or about 16 SCLK cycles per sample for 12-bit converter SPI interfaces. The minimum frequency for the SCLK is, therefore, the number of cycles required multiplied by the throughput rate.
The frequency of the SDO line depends on both the throughput rate and the conversion result. While this is not controllable, designers should understand how it can affect power consumption for a conversion. The highest power consumption will occur when the result is a 101010… sequence; the lowest will occur when the result is all 1s or all 0s.
Besides lower throughput rate, decreased VDRIVE voltage will also reduce power consumption considerably. Analog-to-digital converters have either a single-supply pin or separate supplies for the analog circuitry and digital interface. A separate VDRIVE supply gives more design flexibility and avoids the need for level shifters, as the analog-to-digital interface voltage can be matched to that of the SPI master. Choosing the lowest voltage available for VDRIVE will correspond to the lowest system power consumption.
Figure 2 compares the typical power requirement of a standard SPI interface—with CS, SDO, and SCLK—as a function of total capacitive load for VDRIVE values of 3 V and 1.8 V, throughput rate of 100 kSPS, 16 SCLK cycles per conversion, and a worst case SDO output of 1010… for a 12-bit ADC.
Figure 2. Typical interface power consumption vs. capacitive load.
Other typical constituents of an ADC circuit design are a voltage reference and an operational amplifier. It goes without saying that these components should also be chosen carefully for low power. Some references are available with power-down modes to reduce consumption during periods of inactivity. The choice of amplifier is application dependent, so the system throughput rate should be considered to ensure that the chosen amplifier maximizes the ADC performance and minimizes power consumption.
The 12-bit AD7091R, specifically designed for low power applications, features an SPI interface, an on-chip precision 2.5-V voltage reference, and a 1-MSPS sampling rate. Conversions are initiated via a CONVST pin. An on-chip oscillator controls the conversion process, making it possible to optimize power consumption. The pin capacitance is a low 5 pF maximum. A wide input voltage range (2.7 V to 5.25 V) allows for integration into a wider range of applications than just battery-powered ones. A separate VDRIVE supply of 1.65 V to 5.25 V allows for reduced power and greater system integration capabilities.
When operating at 1 MSPS, the AD7091R draws 349 μA typical at 3-V VDD. Since its power scales with throughput, 55-μA quiescent current is achievable at 100 kSPS. Static current when not converting, but with the reference active, is 21.6 μA; in power-down mode, only 264 nA is drawn. The AD7091R is available in 10-lead MSOP or LFCSP packages.
Typical amplifiers to drive the AD7091R would include the AD8031—for fast throughput applications—and the AD8420 for lower bandwidth applications. The quiescent current consumption of the AD8031 is 750 μA typical with a 2.7-V supply; that of the AD8420 is 70 μA typical when used with a 5-V supply.
Figure 3 shows typical current consumption and calculated battery life for the AD7091R when supplied via a CR2032 lithium battery. It can be clearly seen that as throughput decreases, battery life can be greatly extended.
Figure 3. Battery life and current consumption vs. throughput for the AD7091R.
When the AD7091R is compared to most other ADCs, significant savings can be achieved in the power budget. For example, when matched against the nearest available competition, a part with no internal reference, for a 1-MSPS throughput rate, the AD7091R achieves better than a 3× reduction in power consumption (1 mW typical compared to 3.9 mW typical for a 3-V supply). This corresponds to extending the battery life of a CR2032 battery by 400 hours. When the other device’s need for an external voltage reference is taken into account, the savings are further increased.
This article has outlined several important considerations and advantages that the system designer should take into account regarding optimization of power consumption in their designs employing ADCs.
Copyright 1995- Analog Devices, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:fe1da07d-d87f-4e42-b541-021b1fc08254> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/46-09/sar_adcs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903803 | 2,615 | 2.59375 | 3 |
An Overview of Ramps
(To request alternative formats, call 703-324-5421, TTY 711, or send an e-mail.)
- Building Fixed Ramps
- Alternatives to Fixed Ramps
- Long-tread Low-riser Steps
- Building Ramps in Fairfax County
- What to Consider in Choosing a Building Contractor for a Ramp
- Funding Assistance Programs
- Tax Deductions for Home Modifications
A ramp allows a person with mobility impairments, particularly those who use wheelchairs, to go up or down safely. The Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design—based on the ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG)—lay out the requirements for ramps that allow safe access to public programs, places of employment for employees, and places of public accommodation such as restaurants and hotels. The Fair Housing Act contains the requirements for ramps in multi-unit and public housing. And finally state and local building codes contain the accessibility requirements for places of public accommodation and other public buildings. There are no accessibility requirements for private single family homes, but the information contained here can be useful in building usable ramps.
The following is a brief overview on how to build ramps in Fairfax County and liberally uses the material contained in the Minnesota Ramp Project (www.wheelchairramp.org) and an unpublished guide to ramp building developed by the Robert Pierre Johnson Housing Development Corporation (www.rpjhousing.org). This is not a definitive guide, and Fairfax County permit requirements must be consulted before building a ramp. Information on those requirements can be found in the section on construction permits, and the Permits Division of the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services can be reached at 703-222-0801, TTY 703-324-1877 for specific information concerning a building permit for a ramp.
Consumers should know that the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act transcends any limiting provisions that may be contained in legal housing documents such as homeowner association by-laws, condominium covenants, and apartment rental agreements. In many cases, homeowners and condominium associations and landlords must allow reasonable accommodations for residents with disabilities to enjoy their homes, even if the cost of modifications fall on the residents. Questions about possible unfair treatment in housing can be directed to the Fairfax County Human Rights Commission, www.fairfaxcounty.gov/hrc/index.htm, 703-324-2953, TTY 703-324-2900.
Generally speaking, the ADA Guidelines for Accessible Buildings define the best ramps as those with:
- a gentle slope (no more than a 1-inch rise for every 12 inches or 20 inches in length, but up to a 1-inch rise for every 8 inches is allowed); however a slope of 1:16 (a 1 inch rise in 16 inches in length) is preferable to ease wheeling up or to maintain walking balance
- little or no crosswise slope (no more than a ¼-inch rise for every 12 inches in width, i.e., practically level crosswise);
- landings at the top, bottom, and in the middle if there is a change of direction in the ramp, or a total rise greater than 30 inches;
- handrails; and
- a slip-resistant surface.
Each of these features is discussed below.
In addition, the site conditions for the ramp should be considered, keeping in mind safety first. Secondly, the needs of the person who will use the ramp most must be considered. Some questions to ask prior to building the ramp include the following:
- Will the ramp be inside or outside?
- If outside, how much of it will be protected from the elements?
- Will the ramp be added to new construction or an existing structure?
- Which entryway will be best for the ramp, considering an accessible route once inside?
- What are the local zoning requirements?
- What will be the cost of the ramp, and how will it be paid for?
- Does the primary user use a wheelchair, and is it a power or manual chair?
- Will the primary user’s mobility needs change over time or remain the same?
Safety should always be the main consideration in constructing a ramp. Several excellent references provide detailed step-by-step instructions on the construction and/or installation of a ramp, but the most comprehensive is the Minnesota Ramp Project’s The Ramp Manual, a complete step-by-step construction manual available online at www.wheelchairramp.org or for purchase by calling 651-603-2029, TTY 651-603-2001. A companion videotape is also available for purchase.
Slope is the term used to describe how steep a ramp is. By regulatory definition, a ramp is an accessible route with a slope equal to or greater than 1:20, that is the slope rises one inch for every twenty inches of flat surface distance covered. It is important to point out that the larger the run figure (the horizontal length) in a slope ratio, the gentler the angle of the inclined surface (the slope); for example, a slope of 1:20 is not as steep as a slope of 1:12. The bigger the number in a slope ratio, the gentler the slope will be.
A ramp’s slope may be expressed in different terms. For example, 1:12 or 1 to 12 which means a 1-inch vertical rise in a 12-inch horizontal run or length. This may be also be expressed as a 5? (degree) slope, or an 8% (percent) slope. It doesn’t change the slope if it’s expressed in equivalent ratios, degree, or percentage. Some guides present measurements in metric units, but for clarity, this guide will present all measurements in inches and feet.
A ramp’s slope is generally a project’s most critical consideration because of its impact on layout requirements, the cost, and the ramp’s ultimate usefulness. In general, the maximum ideal slope for an exterior ramp is 1:20 (1-inch rise for every 20 inches in length or run), to insure that ice, snow, wet leaves or other debris do not create a slipping hazard. Exterior ramps should be constructed to prevent the accumulation of water on the ramp surface. On wooden ramps, having spaces between the boards to help drainage can do this. The maximum ideal slope for an interior ramp is 1:12 (1-inch rise for every 12 inches in length or run). This is about the maximum incline that the average manual wheelchair user can manage without help. However, building code allows for up to a 1:8 slope.
The maximum rise for any run is 30 inches; a ramp that has a rise greater than 30 inches requires an intermediate landing. An intermediate landing should be at least 3 feet in length, ideally 5 ft. or more. The maximum cross slope—the extent to which the ramp is inclined from side to side—for a ramp is 1:48 (no more than a ¼-inch rise for every 1 foot in width), and can be used on ramps to facilitate drainage. Ideally, there should be no noticeable cross slope in a ramp.
All ramps should have a level landing at the top and the bottom, and an intermediate level if the ramp changes direction or has a vertical rise of 30 inches or more. A landing is also needed where a door opens on to a ramp. These landings allow the user to maintain balance while opening doors, resting, or changing direction when a ramp makes a turn.
All landings should be a minimum of 3 feet in length, ideally 5 feet (larger than most front stoops). If the intermediate landing is to accommodate a change of direction of the ramp, the landing should be 4 feet by 4 feet (ideally 5’ x 5’) to provide the space necessary for a wheelchair to turn around or change direction. All landings must be at least as wide as the widest ramp run approaching it. The top landing should be flush with the door threshold.
- provide a safety barrier;
- serve as an aid to balance; and
- provide a means of propulsion for a manual wheelchair user.
Handrails should be provided on both sides of any ramp with a slope equal to or greater than 1:12, and on any ramp or landing of sufficient height to pose a potential danger to the user. Handrails should be installed on both sides of a ramp parallel to the ramp surface and at a height to best suit the principal user (as a guide, between 34 inches and 38 inches high).
Handrails should be smooth and continuous. A handrail with a 1½ inch diameter normally provides the most satisfactory grip. The handrail must not rotate within its fittings. Handrails should be mounted to provide a 1½ inch clearance between the handrail and any adjoining wall. Wall surfaces behind handrails should not be rough or of a highly textured surface to avoid scraped knuckles.
Handrails must extend beyond the top and bottom of the ramp a minimum of 12 inches to enable a manual wheelchair user to pull ahead onto a level surface. The ends of the handrail should be rounded or returned smoothly to the wall or the floor of the ramp.
An additional safety feature on a ramp designed for wheelchair users is a curb for edge protection. Edge protection, sometimes referred to as a crutch stop or bump board, is provided to prevent people from traveling off the ramp. Edge protection on ramps should be a minimum of 4 inches high, and is mandatory for ramps that do not have handrails or other barrier protection.
Ramps should have an anti-slip running surface. Most residential ramps are constructed of pressure-treated lumber; 1 inch by 6 inches pressure-treated pine is typical. Commercial facility ramps are generally constructed of concrete or metal. The most important consideration here is the surface finish of the ramp; it should prevent slippage but not be so rough as to make wheelchair travel difficult.
A non-slip surface can be applied to a wooden ramp by means of a carborundum grit runner, strips of rolled roofing or shingling, or laying down coats of polyurethane into which sand is sprinkled). Paint mixed with sand (1 pound of silica sand to 1 gallon paint) can also be used. Some paint manufacturers make a non- skid deck paint that provides a suitable surface coating for a ramp.
Concrete ramps can be made non- slip with the addition of aggregate to the concrete mix, or by a broom finish that provides non-slip characteristic to the ramp.
Planning the Ramp
To determine how much space a ramp requires, start with the amount of rise the ramp has to cover. For example, the project involves building an exterior ramp that will go up two feet (24 inches). Assume that the ramp will have a 1:20 slope. Therefore, the following applies
The required length of the horizontal projection
can be determined as follows:
1/20 = 24/X
X = 480 inches (40 feet)
Alternatively, multiplying the amount of rise by 20, the slope ratio, also yields the length of the ramp.
- The ramp will have a 5-foot landing at the bottom and a 5-foot landing at the top.
- Since the rise is less than 30 inches, an intermediate landing is not required.
- Thus, the entire ramp length in this example is 50 feet (the horizontal projection of 40 feet, plus the 2 ramp landings of 5 feet each).
In laying out the ramp, consideration should be given to any possible zoning requirements and whether a setback variance would be needed. Information on the zoning processes can be found at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz/zoning/development or by calling the Planner of the Day at 703-324-1290, TTY 711.
Portable ramps can work as well as fixed ramps when there is a small change in level. The size and length of portable ramps depend on the total height and the number of steps. Portable ramps are available locally from several vendors of medical equipment and supplies; look in the phone book for possible vendors. They can be rented for a short-term need, or purchased. Since they do not have landings, consumers should be careful that there is adequate landing space at the top and bottom of where the ramps will be used.
Long-tread Low-riser Steps
When construction of a ramp is impractical, and/or the person who will use it uses mobility aids such as a walker or a cane, long-tread low-riser steps may be a good alternative for some. Long-tread low-riser steps have sufficient space for mobility aids and the gentle rise in the step make them easy to navigate. In addition, some users of manual wheelchairs can use long-tread low-riser steps safely with assistance. They are not a good alternative for people who use power chairs or other power mobility aids such as scooters. For more information on long-tread low-riser steps, visit the Minnesota Ramp Project Web site at www.wheelchairramp.org, or contact them at 651-646-8342, TTY 651-603-2001.
The construction of a ramp requires a building permit if the ramp is permanently attached to the structure, or if it is connected to a “primary means of egress,” which means a main entrance to the building.
In order to build a ramp, you need to submit the following during the permit application process:
- One completed building permit application.
- Two copies of the building location plan.
- Two sets of architectural plans.
- Evaluation report for approved deck and railing products composed of structural plastics, composite materials and foreign lumber.
Keep in mind that all ramp building plans must meet the current building code.
If you have any questions, please e-mail or call the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services at 703-222-0801, TTY 711. The permit, plan review and inspection status can also be accessed through the Fairfax Inspections Database Online.
Depending on the requirements for the person using the ramp, a contractor may not be needed. A handy do-it-yourself person can obtain a permit for an entry landing and ramp that follows the “Fairfax County Typical Deck Details,” which can be found at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/publications/decks/. Most landings and steps can be built to these specifications.
A good rule of thumb for getting the right contractor is getting three written quotes or estimates for the work to be done. A good source of information for ramp contractors is the Endependence Center of Northern Virginia (www.ecnv.org; 703-525-3268; TTY 703-525-3553).
Consumers should determine if the contractors they wish to hire are properly licensed to do business in Virginia. To determine if contractors are licensed in Virginia, an online search by the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation is available at www.dpor.virginia.gov/LicenseLookup/. The department can also be reached at 804-367-8500, TTY 711 or e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Consumers can also determine if there have been complaints against specific contractors with the Fairfax County Consumer Protection Division (703-222-8435,TTY 711) or the Better Business Bureau of the Metropolitan Washington area (202-393-8000, TTY 711 or on the Web at www.bbb.org). In addition to providing information about a specific contractor or business organization, both will also investigate consumer complaints.
Disability Services Planning and Development has a list of contractors that have indicated they have experience building ramps. To receive the list, ask for the Ramp document by calling 703-324-5421, TTY 703-324-1186, or send an e-mail.
There are several local funding agencies that a person can contact to help pay for home modifications for accessibility, including ramps, through grants and low-cost loans. These agencies usually have eligibility requirements and an intake process, which often include a determination of the applicant’s income and status as a person with a disability or a senior. Other funding possibilities include private insurance, and civic and fraternal organizations such as the Lion’s and Kiwanis Clubs.
1-866-835-5976, TTY 1-804-662-9000, email@example.com
Variety of loan programs for consumers for assistive technology, including home and vehicle modifications.
In addition, some banks and credit unions offer special rates and terms for loans to make homes accessible. Consumers should contact their banks and credit unions and ask if such services are available.
Livable Home Tax Credit (formally Home Accessibility Credit). The credit is administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). Starting in tax year 2010 (filed in 2011) individuals may be eligible for an income tax credit of $2000 for the purchase of a new accessible residence and 50% of the cost of retro-fitting activities not to exceed $2000. Any tax credit that exceeds the eligible individual’s tax liability may be carried forward for five years. If the total amount of tax credits issued under this program exceeds one million in a fiscal year, DHCD will pro rate the amount of credits among the eligible applicants. Applications are to be filed with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) by February 28 of the year following the year in which the purchase or retro-fitting was completed.The form is available online at www.tax.virginia.gov/site.cfm?alias=taxcredit, listed under “Home Accessibility Features for the Disabled Credit." Click on the link Forms: LHTC Application. For additional information please call 1-804-225-3129.
The cost of a permanent modification may be also be tax deductible on Federal income tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service provides detailed information on this deduction in Publication 502-Medical and Dental Expenses. The publication is available online at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf. or by calling 1-800 829-3676, TTY 1-800-829-4059.
Access Services of the Fairfax County Public Library, located at the Fairfax County Government Center in Fairfax, has a collection of publications related to disabilities. To arrange to view the documents, call 703-324-8380, TTY 703-324-8365, or send an e-mail.
George Mason University's Abledata has a fact sheet entitled “Ramps and Accessible Thresholds." To get the publication, visit the Abledata Web site at www.abledata.com - click on Library, the Publications, or call 1-800-227-0216 or 301-608-8998, TTY 301-608-8912.
The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University has a publication, “Wood Ramp Design: How to Add a Ramp that Looks Good and Works Too,” available on their Web site at www.ncsu.edu/ or by calling 1-800-647-6777, Voice and TTY 919-515-3082. | <urn:uuid:e3482232-59a8-48ef-a7e0-31d3a90b2465> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dfs/dspd/ramps.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905269 | 4,060 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Sheffield ATLAS Group
ATLAS is the world's largest physics experiment and operates at the 27km Large Hadron Collider (LHC) (the world's largest machine) located at CERN in Geneva. ATLAS is designed to study the fundamental constituents of the Universe with goals including understanding the origin of mass and the nature of dark matter. The ATLAS Collaboration comprises over 2500 members from 169 universities in 37 countries. The Sheffield ATLAS group has been active in all aspects of the experiment, from its design and construction through to the analysis of the final data. For more details of our research see here.
|Group Activities||Group Members (email)|
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Hounsfield Road, Sheffield S3 7RH, UK
Page maintained by Ian.Dawson@cern.ch. | <urn:uuid:d4d07b56-97c5-4e18-864e-0f10ffb27412> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hep.shef.ac.uk/research/atlas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92078 | 174 | 1.929688 | 2 |
The Chinese are hiding their military power and they do not want the
US to have fear of its potential. They are following the Sun Tze war
strategy, pretending to be less threatening for the next 20 years.
China had the opportunity to seize their claimed territories belong to
South Vietnam in South China Sea in 1975 after the fall of Saigon and
RVN Navy retreated from all islands, but it did not. It also had the
chance to copy the US and seize all islands in South China Sea in
2003 after the US declared it would "act alone" to invade Iraq without
UN approval. While US troops were tied up in Iraq, China could have
taken over all sea territories that it declared belong to China that
the US recognized its sovereignty through the Shanghai communique in
1972 (agreement between Nixon and Mao). To test this agreement, China
took over the Paracels and part of Spratlys and the US declared its
neutrality in the disputes between Vietnam and China.
In a memo sent to China in the 1970s, DRV (North Vietnam) premier
Pham van Dong agreed to all Chinese territory claims. While South
Vietnam protested China's territory claims, its government surrendered
to North Vietnam in 1975 and thus must comply with all DRV laws and
foreign policy, including recognition of China's territory in South
With the premier Dong's memo and the Shanghai communique which
recognized China's claim, China can legally take over islands that
belong to Vietnam in South China sea. And they are doing just that.
They did not take over islands that Taiwan, Japan, and the Phillipines
claimed in the Pacific. Because Vietnam somehow agreed to China's
territory claim in exchange for help from China during the war
against the US and South Vietnam, it must comply with its previous
agreements with China. No free lunch.
The US in its part must honor the 1972 Shanghai communique which
recognize China's claim over Taiwan and South China sea. Once the US
and Vietnam recognized China's territory claims, the genie is out of
the bottle and nothing can be changed. When South Vietnamese
surrendered to DRV in 1975, they also accepted all previous agreements
between DRV and China and nothing can be changed. The main challenge
for China for the next decades is how to take over the territories
that the US and Vietnam agreed they belong to China.
The next opportunity for China is when the US invaded Iran or Syria.
Then China could invade Conson and Phu Quoc islands as a quid pro quo
with the US in exchange for China's not to protest US invasion.
Vietnam made a big mistake when it sought help from its 1000 year
enemy China during the Vietnam war and it is paying big now.
On Jul 25, 9:53 am, john nguyen <johnnguyen...@gmail.com> wrote: | <urn:uuid:70e8ba89-e803-45eb-8af4-bc71a2998eda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.china/browse_thread/thread/6796303373815cc/feceb1b0a8a1cd39 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942456 | 614 | 2.515625 | 3 |
As Skip said at Carnegie Freedom day; “We have to vote those so and so’s out of office”. We live in a free society and it is more important than ever to exercise our right to vote. But which so and so’s do we need to vote out of office? This is why we need to educate ourselves about where particular candidates stand pertaining to issues that affect us. The Internet is an invaluable tool to find out about candidate voting records and which candidates are introducing legislation that diminish our riding opportunities. Beyond just doing basic Internet research there is help on the way. In Dirt Rider’s latest issue there is an article entitled “You Lose! Don’t Make Dirt Bikes Extinct” by Jimmy Lewis.
This article contains some really useful information about voting. Check out all three pages especially the section on how to obtain information about candidates and issues. According to this article there is a 2010 AMA member voter guide (you need to login). The AMA doesn’t tell you how to vote but tries to help AMA members understand where candidates stand on issues important to the future of motorcycling. Although most of the candidates did not return the AMA questionnaire, and this tool is limited, do take a look here if you are an AMA member.
Over the next couple of weeks we have to find out about the candidates and the issues. As Jimmy Lewis says: “Shortly, if things continue the way they are going, you will not have dirt bikes to ride or places to ride them.” Read the article and take action. It was never more important than it is today to exercise your right to vote. Know the candidates and the propositions before you enter the voting booth.
Getting ready for elections and making sure we understand the issues is very important. I have been voting since I was eighteen years old and take my duty as a citizen of this great country very seriously. Sometimes a particular issue is not as cut and dry as it initially seems.
I recently had a discussion about Proposition 23 with a friend. As I understood it, Proposition 23 would suspend AB-32 (a greenhouse gas reduction program) until California’s unemployment drops to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters (not very likely any time soon). I originally assumed that Proposition 23 was not a good thing.
After listening to his arguments I researched the issues and this is what I learned.
According to the literature AB-32 is a comprehensive greenhouse-gas-reduction program that includes increased renewable energy and cleaner fuel requirements, and mandatory emissions reporting and fee requirements for major emittors such as power plants and oil refineries.
It sounds like AB-32 will reduce green house gases. Isn’t that a good thing? Aren’t green house emissions responsible for global warming? We all have our own answers to this question. I believe they do. There are scientists who believe that they do and others who believe that they don’t. Beyond this question, other issues germane to this proposition are more complicated than I thought.
Some newspaper articles blame out-of-state oil companies for sponsoring and funding Proposition 23. Yet according to a site called Ballotpedia, Proposition 23 supporters include Dan Logue, US Congressman Tom McClintock (see my previous post about Tom McClintock), Steve Poizner, The California Republican Party, Jim Kellog, the California Manufacturers and Technology Association and Americans for the prosperity of California.
Then there is the issue of who will be responsible for implementing and making regulations pursuant to AB-32. According to the language of the statute, The California Air Resources Board (CARB), under the California Environmental Protection Agency, is to prepare plans to achieve the objectives stated in the Act.
We all know these groups. The day before yesterday there was a newspaper article about CARB, the state agency charged with researching and adopting air quality standards. CARB grossly miscalculated pollution levels for diesel-fueled off-road vehicles used in construction and other industries. Its scientific analysis was off by 340 percent.
“The setbacks in the air board’s research – and the proposed softening of a landmark regulation raise questions about the performance of the agency as it is in the midst of implementing the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, or AB-32 as it is commonly called, one of the state’s and the nation’s most ambitious environmental policies to date.”
So the question also becomes – do we really trust the California Air Resources Board to implement this law in an unbiased manner? Among other things, my friend said that the CARB used junk science with the OHV Red Sticker/Green sticker issue and based current emissions on tests from a mid 1970s 2- stroke.
According to a comment to the Chronicle article alluded to above there are also other questions pertaining to this agency which include among other things poisoning California wells by forcing refineries to add MTBE to gasoline and forcing independent truck drivers to sell their rigs when they issued draconian standards based on phony science. The author of the comment said that its director, Mary Nichols, has arrogantly joked, “I can do anything I want–I don’t have to stand for election”.
Need I say more? Voting is not easy and I cannot tell you how to vote. As Wooster says in P.G. Wodehouse’s popular novel, “there are circles within circles”. Nothing is easy or even cut and dried. I don’t want to tell you how I will vote. Everybody has different values and beliefs, but it has never been more important than it is today to exercise our right to vote and educate ourselves about the issues.
As I said before, the Dirt Rider article has some very good ideas. It is an invaluable resource to look at before you step into the voting booth. Also talk to friends and look at websites for organizations that represent our interests like Blue Ribbon Coalition, CORVA, AMA, District 36, and others to find out what the issues are and where the candidates stand. | <urn:uuid:4083d777-ee1c-448e-aa8b-2e142edecac5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://carnegieforever.org/category/updates/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957023 | 1,257 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Tuesday Nov. 5 1861
LEE LEADERSHIP LOOKING LACKLUSTER
A common misperception is that Gen. Robert E. Lee was the saintly
and beloved leader of the Army of Northern Virginia from the
beginning of the War until the surrender at Appomattox Court House.
In fact, while Lee commanded Western Virginia troops during the
first summer of the war, his record there was frankly unimpressive.
He was still highly regarded, though, and his talents were not about
to be allowed to go to waste. He was named today as the commander of
a new Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida.
Wednesday Nov. 5 1862
MAC MCCLELLAN MIGHTILY MIFFED
“Little Mac”, Gen. George McClellan, had been the commander of the
Army of the Potomac almost since the day it was formed. A talented
politician, he had engineered the resignation of General of the
Armies Halleck and taken his job. His true genius, though, had been
in the organization and training of a mob of green civilians into
the premier army of the Union at this stage. In return, the troops
idolized him as the only leader they had ever known. It was a
massive shock to commander and troops alike today when McClellan was
unceremoniously fired by Abraham Lincoln, and replaced by Gen.
Ambrose Burnside. McClellan, it was said, loved his troops so much
he did not want to risk getting any of them killed by starting a
battle. This was not Lincoln’s notion of how to restore the Union.
Thursday Nov. 5 1863
SUMTER SUFFERS SLOW SHELLING
For more than a week now Federal forces had been shelling Ft. Sumter
in Charleston Harbor. Scene of the first shots of the war, it was
enduring a bombardment now that was almost unprecedented in warfare.
On some days the incoming rounds had been hitting at the rate of two
per minute, hour after hour after hour. Although the Confederates
manning the installation were in little physical danger due to the
existence of bombproof shelters inside the walls of the fort, the
mental and psychological suffering was intense. Today the Atlantic
Blockading Squadron joined its guns into the project to give the men
of the shore batteries some rest. Admiral John Dahlgren, commanding,
was examining the place through his telescope. “The only original
feature left is the northeast face,” he wrote. “The rest is a pile
Saturday Nov. 5 1864
GREAT LAKES GUNBOAT GAMES GO ON
The Confederate Naval assault on the Great Lakes entered its second
phase today. The primary agent of this attack force was one John Y.
Beall, who held the rating of Master in the Confederate States Navy.
Beall had participated in a plot back in September to take over the
USS Michigan, the gunboat in charge of guarding the prisoner-of-war
camp on Lake Erie. That plot had fallen apart when some of the
conspirators were arrested, but Beall was back for another round.
This time he and a Southern sympathizer, Dr. James Bates, bought a
steamer in Canada and tried to devise ways to use it to take over
the “Michigan” again, with the intention of using the ship’s guns to
shell lakeside cities. Once again the Union sentries were alert, and
they never got close enough to the “Michigan” to set the plan in
motion. Eventually, out of money, they had to take their proposed
attack ship back to Canada and sell it to pay off their creditors.
Choose a different date | <urn:uuid:91492eb0-14ec-432f-87b4-218b865285fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://civilwarinteractive.com/This%20Day/thisday1105.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974014 | 801 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Special Effect Paint Sticks are super-concentrated encaustic paints, especially useful when creating encaustic monotypes.
Violet Bronzing is warm violet metallic shimmer.
On raw paper on a hot palette, the mass tone lands and around that a halo sometimes forms of the contrasting color, in this case a cool gray.
The reason these are separate from Metallics is that I don't think people should use them for brush painting on panels. If that gray can't flow onto the paper, it has the potential to rise to the surface over time and look rusty. It is actual metal, after all. The bleed on paper removes any chance of that rusty look on the surface.
-- H. Evans, paint maker | <urn:uuid:8da42bed-2dbc-4970-93a4-c005d92403c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://evansencaustics.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=310 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919101 | 153 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The Courtauld Book Library provides access to a significant art historical collection and is one of the major international research collections of art historical books, periodicals and exhibition catalogues in the country, currently numbering some 180,000 titles. It is a highly significant resource for the international scholarly community. The Library is housed in the vaulted basement of The Courtauld at Somerset House in a striking new architectural conversion, and the majority of books and journals are available to browse on open access shelves.
Since its foundation in 1932, the Library has been enriched with major gifts by art historical scholars who have been associated with The Courtauld Institute of Art, such as Anthony Blunt, Michael Kitson, Count Antoine Seilern, and Johannes Wilde. The Library is an indispensible and valued learning resource for The Courtauld’s 400 students as well as for students from other universities. It is also used widely by academic researchers including both Courtauld staff and external researchers, the art industry, art and media professionals, and the broad education sector.
How can you help?
£100k+ per annum: support the complete annual book budget – 2,000 new items each year.
£25K+ per annum: support and name a librarian or graduate trainee
£20k+ per annum: support the annual budget for repair and restoration of books
£10k+ per annum: support the Journals Fund
25k+: All the above can be endowed in your name in perpetuity.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Campaign Enquiries: +44 (0)20 7848 2056
Read More about areas requiring support | <urn:uuid:dee8e124-cc25-4661-aa35-5f7dccf27c33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/supporting/give/areas/booklibrary.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923786 | 336 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Welcome back, emo kid
MUSIC The term "emo" has become synonymous with whiny, tight-jeans-wearing 13-year-olds with asymmetrical haircuts. (Thanks, Hot Topic.) But stereotypical B.S. aside, in the beginning, emo — short for "emotional punk rock" — was a compelling music movement in the early 1990s and 2000s typified by melodic guitar, motley rhythms, and expressive, pour-your-heart-out lyrics.
"It went from being this really powerful, emotional movement into, like, the annoying little brother of music," says Kristopher Hannum who co-runs Diary, an emo, screamo, and pop punk music night held every third Saturday of the month at Pop's Bar. "But I feel like it's slowly coming back in a good way — not in a Hot Topic-y, YouTube bands they call emo [way]. There are good things happening and they are slowly bubbling up to the surface, like [San Francisco's] Clarissa Explains It All." He adds, "It's a band I point out to people that is kind of taking that [emo] scene and doing good things with it."
But ever since the term was coined in the mid-80s Washington, D.C. hardcore punk scene, initially to describe bands such as Rites Of Spring, emo has been considered a four-letter word.
"I have never met a band in what I would consider the emo genre that ever copped to calling themselves 'emo.' It's weird. Fans throw that around really easily but you'll never hear, for the most part, a band describe themselves as emo," explains Leslie Simon, co-author of Everybody Hurts: An Essential Guide To Emo Culture (Harpers, 2007) and former MTV.com editor.
Jim Adkins lead vocalist-guitarist of Jimmy Eat World, which is heralded as a seminal emo band, rejects the label. "I'm pretty much done trying to deflect or change that perception. I don't really consider us to be [emo]. It's a long conversation," Adkins says, curtly. "For me, it's just flattering that anyone pays attention to what we do. To explain what we do, [I say] guitar-based, melodic rock music."
Adkins' sentiment notwithstanding, Jimmy Eat World's 1999 release Clarity (Capitol) is often lauded as one of the most significant emo albums of the late '90s, heavily influencing the third wave of emo (2000 — present) which includes bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and All-American Rejects.
In 2001, as emo broke into mainstream media, Jimmy Eat World released its platinum-selling album, Bleed American (Dreamworks/Geffen). In its introductory title track, Adkins wails "I'm not alone 'cause the TV's on, yeah / I'm not crazy because I take the right pills everyday" — perfectly encapsulating the angst and disillusionment of Gen Y'ers. With its empowering lyrics ("Just do your best / do everything you can /And don't you worry what the bitter hearts are gonna say"), the anthemic "The Middle," another track off Bleed American, reached #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, galvanizing wallflowers everywhere to stay true to themselves. With its impeccably relatable themes, it is no wonder why the album was the band's biggest commercial success.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of its release, Jimmy Eat World will play Bleed American in its entirety at the Fillmore on Monday, Sept. 26 and Tuesday, Sept. 27.
"[Bleed American] is a special record for a lot of people. It's just been kind of a fan request that we do it, so we're doing it in areas where we've always had a good time playing," Adkins explains.
Coincidentally, Saves The Day released its first studio album in four years, Daybreak, last week. And the once-disbanded-now-reunited Get Up Kids — also wildly popular in the early-2000s — released There Are Rules earlier this year, making a stop on its tour in San Francisco, playing a show with Dashboard Confessional, another iconic emoter, most famous for its single, "Screaming Infidelities."
Heart it or hate it, in the past year second-wave emo bands seem to be making a comeback. So this begs the question: What is behind the resurgence of this style of music?
"Playing music is an awesome opportunity. Maybe all of these people that are coming back together kind of miss it. We were really lucky that we've been able to continually do it," Adkins says. "The more interesting question is why did they stop?"
"I really like to think that it wasn't about making money which, I'm sure, half of those bands are doing it just because there are ticket sales in it, you know?" Hannum says with a hint of disillusion in his voice. "[But] I like to think that they are in a position where they can still get back together and tour to give access to these kids that couldn't access it back then."
"It does come off sometimes like they're doing it for the paycheck. But, at the end of the day, who cares?" Simon replies, laughing. "I still love hearing Chris Conley (of Saves The Day) sing "Firefly" and I get a kick out of watching the Get Up Kids play "Don't Hate Me" because those were songs that meant something to me when I was younger. And I am 22 again. It is wonderful."
JIMMY EAT WORLD
Mon/26 and Tues/27, 8 p.m., $35
1805 Geary, SF | <urn:uuid:667bf9dc-3024-4f51-ac17-f141393f51c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfbg.com/print/2011/09/20/heart-it-or-hate-it | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969219 | 1,231 | 1.570313 | 2 |
An historian at the University of New England has finally uncovered evidence that dates the death of the “wife” of the New England bushranger Captain Thunderbolt.
Carol Baxter (pictured here), an Adjunct Lecturer in History at UNE, has spent the past few years tracing the life of the part-Aboriginal woman Mary Ann Bugg, who was born at Berrico outstation on the Gloucester River in 1834.
Mary Ann roamed for many years with the bushranger Frederick Ward – also known as Captain Thunderbolt – living in the bush with him, helping him to evade the police, and bearing him three or four children including a son, Frederick Jnr. Mary Ann, who has become a legendary historical figure in her own right, was long thought to have died in November 1867. However, Ms Baxter’s research has now determined that Mary Ann lived for another four decades. “A few researchers have suggested that the woman who died in 1867 might not have been Mary Ann,” Ms Baxter said. “But until now the actual date or location of her death has not been positively proven.”
In late 1867, reports in Parliament and the Press announced that Thunderbolt’s “half-caste” female companion had died near the Goulburn River. While the Press reports named the dead woman as Louisa Mason, the fact that she was referred to as Thunderbolt’s “half-caste woman” led most Thunderbolt biographers to declare that the dead woman was in fact Mary Ann Bugg and that “Louisa Mason” was one of her nicknames.
Records uncovered by Ms Baxter show that Louisa Mason, also known as “Yellow Long”, was definitely not Mary Ann Bugg. A few months before her death, Louisa, a Scone district resident, married a labourer named Robert Michael Mason, otherwise known as “Cranky Bob”. Soon afterwards she encountered Captain Thunderbolt. “Louisa was evidently smitten with the bushranger – and he with her,” Ms Baxter said. “She abandoned her husband late in 1867 and eloped with Fred into the bush – an unfortunate decision, as it turned out.”
Ms Baxter, who is a professional genealogist and an expert in colonial Australian history, spent months sifting through original records and birth, marriage and death certificates, finally confirming that Mary Ann died as Mary Ann Burrows at Mudgee in 1905. She had borne at least 15 children.
The discovery may go some way towards setting the record straight about the life and times of the notorious New England bushranger, who was fatally captured at Uralla in 1870. Ms Baxter is currently working with UNE’s Senior Lecturer in Australian History, Dr David Andrew Roberts, to investigate claims raised in the NSW Legislative Council in March 2010 alleging a government censorship of secret police records relating to Thunderbolt’s death.
Ms Baxter’s forthcoming book, Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady, to be published by Allen & Unwin in September 2011, will reveal startling new information about the lives of both Mary Ann and Frederick Ward. Some of it is bound to prove controversial.
THE PHOTOGRAPH of Carol Baxter displayed here was taken at Chilcott Swamp, Uralla, where the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt was shot and killed on the 25th of May 1870. | <urn:uuid:ba439b9e-ee59-4c39-91bf-d920e031ba20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.une.edu.au/news/2011/07/12/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97907 | 714 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Posted by stupot at 06:41 PM Tuesday 26 Apr
the lightbulb scenario
a common site in japan has to be the 'how many men does it take to......?'. there really are some unfortunate jobs as a result. this picture clearly demonstrates the waste of man-power. four local authority workers trying to solve a major issue. what do you think? a bomb alert? anti-social neighbours? of course not - this time it is rogue rubbish tipping. and the perpetrator will be found!
seriously though - I guess this shows what the crime levels are like here. controvening recycling laws is really a social no-no here. a bit like drink driving now in the UK. most japanese drink drive though.
I heard about a colleague who had 4 workers attend a broken tap/faucet ceremony. they had to go away and get a washer. serious.
car parks usually have a lingering of attendants sweeping their light sabers at you to direct the way.
efficient but expensive. surely.
Posted by stupot at 06:39 PM Tuesday 26 Apr
Posted by stupot at 04:04 PM Tuesday 26 Apr
unrefined but practical
Japanese trains are by and large clean, efficient, reasonably priced and accessable. the tragedy on the 25th of April was a real shocker for everyone here. but highly unusual.
there really isnt any superfluous decoration on trains in japan like there is in the UK. all those tightly packed seats you need to squeeze past in order to get thru the carriage. all those seats that are re-designed every 2 years with nice fabrics. ergonomic looking push buttons to open the doors. but the trains never work.
in Japan simplicity (not in the beautiful sense, but the functional) is all there is. big wipe down areas. no places to cram fast food wrappers into. seats lining the windows (but with blinds). and shed loads of advertising and handles for sleeping commuters to attach to for stability during a dose.
Posted by stupot at 04:02 PM Tuesday 26 Apr
Posted by stupot at 03:44 PM Tuesday 26 Apr
kanji is the hardest, but possibly most rewarding of japans three 'writing systems' - katakana and hiragana being the more modern and simplified 'syllable-alphabets'. kanji characters are the representation of ideas or words - originally drawings originating from China - and many still are beautiful visuals of nature or ideas.
take the example of the kanji shown for tree, wood and forest (ki, hayashi and mori respectively). these may be the most obvious examples of kanji for a foreigner to understand. simply repeating the form represents a larger amount of trees - thus; a wood or a forest. these are also common surnames, just as in the UK. stroke order is something a little unnatural though for a writer of english - stroke order is shown in red in the diagrams.
Posted by stupot at 03:44 PM Tuesday 26 Apr
Posted by stupot at 03:31 PM Tuesday 26 Apr
recently I tried to get a license in japan - basically to exchange my UK license for its japanese equivalent. Yuka also had her, allbeit, newer UK drivers license translated and ready for a long day of beaurocracy.......
we went to the local driving authority building for the south west of Osaka (Komyoike) and were advised to arrive at 1pm. as it was near to a commercial hub including a big european supermarket, we reckoned we could use any long waits to go shopping for some treats. anyway - to cut a long story short because we have UK licenses (the jappanese goverment recognises them) we didn't even need to sit a test! I guess the new test in Britain must be tough - when I took it I had to read a number plate, take a whizz round the block and then guess 3 questions. back in time for tea.
so anyway - the in betweens were very japanese - in order to pay for the license we had to go to a seperate window to exchange real money for driving authority stamps to be adhered to the form, then wait a while. Yuka also had to go to another level to make copies of all her used passport pages since she had obtained her license and then the teller had to add up all the dates. as yuka travelled regularly and her passport was not EU - she had stamps a-plenty - all with there half arsed relaxed european style (often without an exit stamp). as a result the very friendly staff was exceptionally confused at this tardiness and decided that yuka could have her license - but needs learner plates! ha!
the driving authority is an interesting place to spend a few hours though - you can watch tests being carried outside the window (in a mock highway situation) - I even spotted a taxi driver with 3 officials in full uniform, hats and clip boards in the back seat - what a riot. we had a lot of fun.
anyway - a fly eye test (where I got to try my poor japanese) and a mug shot later and bobs-your-uncle. we're road worthy!!
Posted by stupot at 03:27 PM Tuesday 26 Apr | <urn:uuid:9c76a3d7-5e9e-4fc0-9e6e-d8ad17bafac9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stupot.com/blog/2005/04/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970103 | 1,117 | 1.570313 | 2 |
L'Arc de Triomphe
Place Charles de Gaulle
Contributed by Project for Public Spaces
A monumental arch set in the midst of an enormous traffic circle.
This is one of the most disappointing destinations in Paris. The monument itself is spectacular, but the traffic circle around it, L'Etoile, is spectacularly bad: a vast asphalt expanse filled with speeding cars entering and exiting as quickly as possible. Getting across this expanse at street level is out of the question, and the idea of going underground simply to visit an island the size of a postage-stamp surrounded by hectic traffic is not much more appetizing.
Almost every boulevard that emanates from this location is dominated by vehicles, and excessive parking adds to the devastation caused by high-volume traffic. Only Avenue Victor Hugo and Avenue Foch have any interest as places to walk or stroll. As you get further away from the point of origin, each boulevard gradually improves.
The space for vehicles in the circle around L'Arc de Triomphe could be halved--it would actually reduce drivers' confusion. If this highly recognizable monument could be transformed into a space that belonged to pedestrians as much as cars, it would set a huge precedent for similar spaces in Paris and other cities. | <urn:uuid:b0b12711-25d6-40a0-bcdc-bb3b4feb6935> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one?public_place_id=717&type_id=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940474 | 262 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Protecting the landscape a never-ending battle
Thanks for your coverage of the Cross-County Connector (See “MDE denies permit to build road through Mattawoman watershed,” December 2011), and congratulations to the many voices supporting the protection of Mattawoman Creek, a VIT (very important tributary).
Let me remind you, however, that the Intercounty Connector (ICC) between Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties was also rejected by federal environmental agencies twice — under George H.W. Bush and under Bill Clinton. Gov. Parris Glendenning pulled the plug on the ICC during his second term
Nonetheless, ribbon cutting on the ICC took place last year. And a net forest loss of 179 acres that the ICC destroyed in the Anacostia Watershed has not yet been mitigated within the watershed.
Chevy Chase, MD
Comments are now closed for this article. Comments are accepted for 60 after publication. | <urn:uuid:8d91c1a9-007a-4478-8498-547d45ac3093> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bayjournal.com/article/protecting_the_landscape_a_never_ending_battle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955805 | 203 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Discussing Health Courts in Wyoming
Earlier this month, Common Good and the Wyoming Health Care Commission co-hosted a public event on legal options to improve patient safety and reduce medical errors. The presentations are available on the Wyoming Health Care Commission's site and the Wyoming Business Report also covered the event.
While the links above convey content, I'd like to add a few comments about context and observations.
- I think it's pretty cool that Wyoming is among the first states to engage in in this discussion on how medical liability reform can go beyond caps on damages to address larger issues, like system inefficiencies, patient safety, and inconsistencies in patient compensation (note: this sentence revised for clarification on 10/31/07). As it stands now, there are plenty of complexities from the patient, provider, and legal advisor's perspectives, but the intent is to make the system more transparent and safer. Kudos to the folks on the Health Care Commission and others who are willing to parse this out.
- The first thing that struck me about being at this event in Wyoming was the landscape of the state, literally. Whether you're flying or driving to Wyoming, you notice is that it's a rural place. There are lots of wide open spaces. Wide open. Many readers may know that New Jersey (where RWJF is) has the highest population density of any US state at 1,138 people per square mile. Wyoming has about 5 people per square mile. The only state with a lower population density is Alaska. I bring this up because the discussion about medical liability reform is often considered as a system-wide change, a system that can span across towns, a state, or even many states. In Wyoming, the system has components in very remote areas. Technology can erase some of the miles, but it can't make up all the resources, including specialty care, supportive care, or administrative staff. I like thinking about the components of implementation, but it makes my head spin to consider some of the logistical challenges of implementing health courts on the ground in Wyoming. As other states travel down the path of medical liability reform, I'm interested to see how geography and density factor in to implementation.
- A recurrent theme in medical liability reform is transparency. While you can make a system more transparent by making it simpler, the Tennenbaum Institute would argue that a system SHOULD be more complex. Wouldn't it be fun and informative to test out the proposed system changes (for more and less complexity) on the Health Advisor? | <urn:uuid:dac9387b-9f61-496e-a493-abbbdb709f21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rwjfblogs.typepad.com/pioneer/2007/10/last-week-commo.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950118 | 510 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Low prices and high efficiency make room air conditioners an inexpensive alternative to central air for cooling one or two rooms. Some 5,000- to 6,000-Btu units now cost less than $150. Our air-conditioner guide will help you choose what's right for you.
All the models we tested meet the 9.7 Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) now required for small and medium-sized models below 8,000 British thermal units (Btu) per hour, and the 9.8 EER required for larger, 8,000- to 13,999-Btu models. Most also meet or exceed the 10.7 EER needed to qualify for Energy Star. And all now have electrical plugs that help prevent fires by shutting down if the power cord is damaged.
Find out whether replacing your air conditioner makes sense by using the savings calculator on the room air conditioners page at www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=roomac.pr_properly_sized. (Every 0.1 increase in EER translates into about a 1 percent drop in electricity use.) Also keep the following in mind:
Size it correctly
An air conditioner that's too small won't do a good job cooling a room. One that's too big cools the area so quickly that it doesn't have time to remove enough moisture, so it leaves you with a cold, clammy room.
Note the noise
Models that scored excellent or very good in our noise tests are so quiet that the only sound you might hear is the fan running. But air conditioners that scored fair for noise could disturb light sleepers when set on low and are distracting on high.
Factor in the window location
Air conditioners generally do a better job blowing air in one direction than in the other. That can be a problem if your window isn't centered on the wall. To uniformly cool a room, you'll need to direct air to its center, so check whether your A/C needs to blow air to the right or to the left.
Copyright © 2006-2012 Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. No reproduction, in whole or in part, without written permission. | <urn:uuid:dc380c4e-7ca2-4f47-b3f2-5b1cd41337f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pricegrabber.com/guides/shopping-buying/ut=6b167f5ce7087f54/28969-38/Air+conditioners-Getting+started | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915571 | 454 | 2 | 2 |
Stefan DusanTsar Stefan Uroš IV Dušan Silni ('the mighty') (Цар Стефан Душан силни) (around 1308-December 12 1355) was a Serb king (September 8 1331-1346) and tsar (1346-December 5 1355).
Dušan was the only real tsar of Serbia; he created and was the only ruler of Serbian Empire. Under his rule Serbia reached it territorial peak and was one of the largest states in Europe. Apart from territorial gains, in 1349 and 1354 he made and enforced Dušan's code. He is the only ruler from the house of Nemanjić who is not canonised as a saint.
He was first born son of Stefan of Decane and Theodora, daughter of Bulgarian tzar Smilac. Early in his life he met Constantinople, in which, as child and youngster he spent around seven years (1314-1320); there he learned Greek, comprehended Greek life and culture and got clear view of inner value of Greek empire. He himself was more soldier then diplomat: as young he excelled in two battles, in 1329 he beat Bosnian ban Stefan II Kotromanić and in 1330 Bulgarian tzar Mihailo on Velbužd. It is not certain why did he conflicted with his father, whom he overthrown and then crowned himself as king on September 8 1331. In 1332 he married Jelena, sister of Bulgarian tzar Aleksandar, a woman of strong will, who had large influence on him and born him son Uroš and one daughter.
In first years of his ruling Dušan started to fight against Greeks (1334) and continued that with smaller and larger interruptions until his death in 1355. Twice he did have larger conflicts with Hungarians, but toward them he was mostly defensive. He lived peacefully with Bulgarians, who were even helping him twice or thrice. He used civil war in Greece between minor emperor John V Palaeologus and his regent John Cantacuzenus and since 1342 he started systematic offensive and conquered, except Pelopones, whole greek reign on Balkan to Kavala, except Thessaloniki, for conquering of which he had no fleet. After these successes in 1345 he proclaimed himself for tzar in Ser and solemnly crowned in Skopje on April 16 1346 as "tzar of Serbs and Greeks"; at the same time he rose the rank of Serb Orthodox Church from archiepiskopy to patriarchy. With those two acts he was cursed by Greek Orthodox Church. Faced with him, Greeks have searched allies in Turks whom they have brought in Europe for the first time. First conflict between Serbs and Turks on Balkanian soil, at Stefaniana in 1345 ended unfavourable for Serbs. In 1348 he conquered Thessaly and Epirus. Dušan saw danger that lies in them and searched for ways to push them back but he was interrupted by Hungarians with their attacks on Serbia. Because of them he fought with Hungarian protegee ban Stefan II in 1350, wishing to regain formerly lost Zahumlje.
Dušan had large intentions but they were all cut by premature death on December 5 1355. It is suspected that he was poisoned. He was burried in his foundation, Monastery of holy archangels near Prizren. Today his remains are in Church of Saint Mark in Belgrade. Dušan was the greatest Serb medieval ruler, under whom incredible impulse and strength of Serbs have expressed. His state was really a great force, but in that greatness there was a weakness: Serbia enlarged too quickly for gains to be joined to old Serb reign. Except that, Dušan conquered a lot of purely Greek lands, with nationally aware element which had higher culture then Serbs, and so was constantly hostile. By nature soldier and conqueror, Dušan didn't made to organically stabilise his work. That is why right after disappearance of his strong personality dissolution has started.
|House of Nemanjić||
Stefan Uroš V
Translated with small changes from small encyclopedia Sveznanje published by Narodno delo, Belgrade, in 1937, which is today in public domain.
This article is therefore written from the point of view of that place and time and may not reflect modern opinions or recent discoveries. | <urn:uuid:488a75af-a16d-4b35-85ce-85d6f19250fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.encyclopedia4u.com/s/stefan-dusan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983367 | 948 | 2.453125 | 2 |
African and African Diaspora Studies Program
at boston college
Welcome to the website for the African and African Diaspora Studies Program at Boston College. The program has an illustrious history and a promising future.
The African and African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) considers the history, culture, and politics of Africans on the subcontinent and African-descended peoples in the U.S., the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Covering a vast historical period and geographical expanse, African and African Diaspora Studies acquaints students with the multiplicity and diversity of the African diaspora and the world in which we all live. Using an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, the program draws on a broad range of methodologies in the Humanities and Social Sciences including those in English, History, Sociology, Philosophy, Theology, and Communications. These diverse methodologies help reveal the deep roots and diverse routes that have shaped African and African-descended peoples and continue to inform their lives today.
Three themes are central to the African and African Diaspora Studies Program: Globalization, Intersectionality, and Social Justice. Globalization is as old as the trade in African slaves. Consequently, patterns of travel, labor, trade, commerce and resource extraction have impacted the experiences of African-descended peoples and the peoples they have encountered. AADS courses explore the connections between various geographic regions, cultural traditions, and historical developments that have defined globalization.
An intersectional approach emphasizes the fact that race is defined by various identity categories and social locations. Gender, class, color, region, nation, age, sexuality, political ideals, and spiritual beliefs all determine how one experiences and understands racial identity. Intersectionality reminds us that race is not a monolithic or homogeneous category of human experiences; rather history, culture, and various social locations shape how we understand others and ourselves as racialized beings.
The history of African and African-descended peoples has, in large part, been defined by the struggle for social justice. the fight for racial equality and against discrimination, sexism, homophobia, and class exploitation has shaped the history of African diasporic peoples. In resisting enslavement, segregation, patriarchy, imperialism, and colonialism, by striving to overturn discrimination in housing, healthcare, employment, religious institutions and families, African and African diasporic peoples have undertaken drives for social emancipation that have challenged all people and all nations to realize their democratic ideals.
In addition to foregrounding these themes, the African and African Diaspora Studies Program is rigorously interdisciplinary. The use of numerous methodological approaches - literary, historical, sociological, economic and cultural - along with a knowledge of various linguistic, cultural and spiritual traditions is essential to the program's method. African and African Diaspora Studies courses draw from various Boston College departments including English, History, Communications, Theater and Sociology. Given its rich interdisciplinarity and expansive focus, the program not only offers all students courses that will enrich their overall educational experience, but it also provides more specialized knowledge for our minors.
Students interested in pursuing focused study and research in African and African Diaspora Studies may chose to Minor in African and African Diaspora Studies or pursue an Independent Major in African and African Diaspora Studies as part of their undergraduate programs. | <urn:uuid:62ba7fd6-3b55-43ba-971b-8a4842979641> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/aads/program.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92946 | 686 | 2.40625 | 2 |
WASHINGTON Utah ranks poorly, 43rd out of 50, in a list compiled by reproductive rights groups comparing state laws affecting abortions, gay rights and contraception availability.
Ipas, a reproductive rights advocacy group, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, unveiled the "Mapping Our Rights" Web site Wednesday, as a tool for people to look at the differences among the states when it comes to 25 different laws from abortion bans to outlawing gay marriages.
Utah earned slot 43 by its tally of "penalty" points assigned by the groups to laws they feel limit an individual's right to choose who to marry, when to have children or access to certain types of health care. The higher number of points the worse the ranking.
While the ranking was lamented by gay rights advocates, it was hailed by those opposed to gay rights and abortion.
Utah received points for state laws mandating counseling before abortion, a waiting period before an abortion and parental involvement in minors' abortions as well as a lack of hate-crime laws for gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people, a ban on gay marriages, and an abstinence-only education policy in school, among other items.
The Legislature this year passed a hate-crimes law that creates a sentencing consideration for crimes considered a danger to a community at large, regardless of the victim's sexual orientation, race or other factors.
The lower-ranked states provided the least amount of freedom, according to the groups.
"No American should have to shop around for rights in states," said Jason Cianciotto, research director at National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute.
But Gayle Ruzicka, president of the Eagle Forum, an anti-abortion group in Utah, said of the state's low ranking, "Good for us."
"I am certainly disappointed that we didn't make 50," she said.
Ruzicka said she thinks most Americans support protecting unborn children and would support Utah's laws.
She was not surprised to see a link drawn between reproductive rights and gay rights saying it is the "same liberal people" who "support gay rights that also support the killing of unborn children."
"It is interesting to see them admit it," Ruzicka said. "Those people are going to be in agreement."
The groups behind the rankings said reproductive and gay community rights are "intrinsically linked" because the state laws they studied "restrict individuals' control over their own bodies, including the ability to have same-sex intimate relationships or safeguard their sexual health."
Jane Marquardt, the board chair of Equality Utah, a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality group, said it is a "legitimate link" because all the laws deal with 'freedom of choice issues.
Marquardt said while Utah is viewed as a "very Republican state" things are changing for the better. She said as an openly gay person she has seen things change over the last 25 years in the state and believes as more gay people are willing to be open perceptions and myths will decline.
"Coming out of the closet remains to be a very important thing for people to do," she said.
She said two decades ago, talking about domestic-partner benefits would not even have been an option but now Salt Lake City passed a law allowing for city employees to enroll for such benefits. She said there are two gay members of the Legislature.
"I think the whole country will change," she said.The map can be found online at www.mappingourrights.org.
- Miss Utah USA gets second chance at question...
- Bear scare: 'Baden and Logan saved my life.'
- 7-year-old girl who met Justin Bieber passes...
- Doug Robinson: Utah man's new running shoe...
- Impeachment investigation 'highly likely,'...
- Man charged with attempted murder in Ogden...
- Miss Utah USA's bungled interview creates...
- Attorney General John Swallow tells House...
- Miss Utah USA's bungled interview... 38
- BYU poll: Majority favor impeachment,... 29
- Video: Miss Utah USA flubs answer at... 26
- Teen's family apologizes to family of... 21
- 2 others back up extortion claims... 21
- Attorneys for AG John Swallow say... 20
- Gunman caught after shooting... 20
- Doug Robinson: Utah man's new running... 19 | <urn:uuid:8da33156-ddaa-4af3-89c3-7770ef55fb68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deseretnews.com/article/635212033/Utah-ranks-poorly-on-a-list-of-reproductive-gay-right.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949115 | 916 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Used extensively for more than 40 years, smoke testing has
proven to be a vital ingredient of successful inflow and infiltration (I&I)
studies. It is as important now as it ever has been as growing municipalities
increase demands on aging, often deteriorating collection systems. In addition,
programs such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new Capacity,
Management, Operations and Maintenance (CMOM) program emphasize a focus on
proactive, preventive maintenance practices. Smoke testing can aid in
documenting sources of inflow and should be part of any CMOM program.
Just as a doctor would require the aid of several instruments
to evaluate the status of a person's health, various test methods should be
used in performing a complete sanitary sewer evaluation survey (SSES). In
addition to smoke testing, these could include dyed water testing, manhole
inspection, TV inspection and flow monitoring. Specializing in sanitary sewer
evaluation surveys, Wade & Associates of Lawrence Kansas reports a
reduction of 30 to 50 percent in peak flows can be expected as a result of
implementing these types of programs.
Smoke testing is a relatively simple process that consists
of blowing smoke mixed with large volumes of air into the sanitary sewer line
usually induced through the manhole. The smoke travels the path of least
resistance and quickly shows up at sites that allow surface water inflow. Smoke
will identify broken manholes, illegal connections including roof drains, sump
pumps and yard drains, uncapped lines and even will show cracked mains and
laterals, providing there is a passageway for the smoke to travel to the
surface. Although video inspection and other techniques certainly are important
components of an I&I survey, research has shown that approximately 65
percent of all extraneous stormwater inflow enters the system from somewhere
other than the main line (see private sector diagram). Smoke testing is a
method of inspecting both the main lines and laterals. Smoke travels throughout
the system, identifying problems in all connected lines—even sections of
line that were not known to exist or thought to be independent or unconnected.
Best results are obtained during dry weather, which allows smoke better
opportunity to travel to the surface.
engineering specifications for smoke testing identify the use of a blower,
which is able to provide 1,750 cubic feet of air per minute (cfm) However, in
today's world it seems to be the mindset that bigger is better. New smoke
blowers on the market can deliver more than 3,000 cfm. The question is: Is this
really needed? Once the manhole area is filled, the smoke only needs to travel
sections of 8- or 10-inch pipe. Moving the air very quickly is useless if the
blower does not have the static pressure to push that air/smoke through the
lines. If you have used high cfm blowers and found that smoke frequently backs
up to the surface, this may be the problem.
There are two types of blowers available for smoke testing
sewers: squirrel cage and direct drive propeller. In general, squirrel cage
blowers usually are larger in size but can provide more static pressure in relation
to cfm. The output of the squirrel cage type usually is adjustable by
alternating pulleys and belts to meet the demands of the job. Propeller-style
blowers usually are more compact and generally offer approximately 3,200 cfm.
Other than reducing the engine throttle, the output is not adjustable since the
fan blade is attached directly to the engine shaft. If purchasing a smoke
blower, you should ask the manufacturer if the cfm and static pressure output
it is quoting is the specification of the propeller itself (uninstalled/free
air) or if it is the actual performance when installed in the blower assembly.
These two numbers can vary significantly.
are two types of smoke currently offered for smoke testing sewers: classic
smoke candles and smoke fluids.
Smoke candles first were used for testing sewers when the
process began its popularity in 1961, and continue to be the most widely used.
They are used by simply placing a smoke candle on the fresh air intake side of
the blower. Once ignited, the exiting smoke is drawn in with the fresh air and
blown down into the manhole and throughout the system. Smoke candles are
available in various sizes that can be used singularly or in combination to
meet any need. This type of smoke is formed by a chemical reaction, creating a
smoke that contains a high content of atmospheric moisture. It is very visible
even at low concentrations and extremely effective at finding leaks.
Another available source of smoke is a smoke fluid system.
Although they just recently have been more aggressively marketed, smoke fluids
became available for sewer testing shortly after smoke candles, some 30 years
ago. They certainly can be used effectively, but it is important to understand
how they work. This system involves injecting a smoke fluid—usually a
petroleum-based product—into the hot exhaust stream of the engine where
it is heated within the muffler (or heating chamber) and exhausted into the air
intake side of the blower. One gallon of smoke fluid generally is less expensive
than 12 smoke candles. However, smoke fluids do not consistently provide the
same quality of smoke. When using smoke fluid, it is important to understand
that as fluid is injected into the heating chamber (or muffler) it immediately
begins to cool the unit. The heating chamber eventually will reach a point
where it is not hot enough to completely convert all the fluid to smoke, thus
creating thin/wet smoke. This actually can happen quickly depending on the rate
of fluid flow. If the smoke has become thin, it can be especially difficult to
see at greater distances. Blocking off sections of line usually is a good idea
with any type of smoke but becomes almost a necessity when using smoke fluid.
Some manufacturers have taken steps to address this issue and now offer better
flow control, fluid distribution and, most importantly, insulated heating
chambers to help maintain necessary temperatures.
Safety--Maybe one of
the more talked about, yet least understood aspects of smoke testing is the use
and safety of these products. As manufacturers have become more competitive,
some marketing programs and advertisements have implied danger in the use of
competing types of smoke products. Laboratory reports, scientific studies and
even Material Safety Data Sheets can be quite confusing to most people who are
not trained nor qualified to make scientific judgements on this data. Having
this information delivered to the public in the form of advertising can be
dangerous, as most people tend to believe what they read. An author of an
associated industry publication once stated, “Do not use smoke bombs, as
they give off a toxic gas.” Although the author quotes no scientific
literature to support this statement, competitive propaganda has made such
implications. It is interesting to note that the same exact statement could be
made for smoke fluids. Smoke from fluid is created in the exhaust system of the
engine, which contains carbon monoxide.
Other statements that have been made include warnings to
wear a respirator while smoke testing. While certain manufacturers have issued
this warning about competitive products, they do not qualify the statement, nor
do they mention the fact that the same thing could be said of similar products.
The fact is that a respirator should be worn whenever a person would be exposed
to any substance in quantities that exceed OSHA limits. Would smoke-testing
personnel be exposed to enough smoke to exceed these limits? Not very likely.
The bottom line on safety is that it is important to use common sense. All
smokes, candles and fluids can be used safely and effectively when used as
When planning to smoke test, it is important to develop a
proactive public notice program. Ads in local papers, door hangers, mailers and
door-to-door inquiries are recommended. It is helpful to educate the public as
to why the test is being performed and the positive benefits to the community.
In addition, it should instruct residents on what to do and who to call if
smoke should enter their homes. It also is important to notify local police and
fire departments daily as to where and when smoke testing will be taking place.
Reducing stormwater inflow into collection systems means
reduced chances of overflows, less emergency maintenance and less money spent
on treatment. WWD
Smoke testing can be performed to determine the sources of excess inflow. | <urn:uuid:3bcdc56f-d889-4dca-8d39-b7bb0c1e0053> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wwdmag.com/print/17771 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94067 | 1,820 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Chelsea Clinton generates speculation of possible run for office
With the 2012 election behind us, a lot of political chatter has now been on who will run for 2016. There's a lot of speculation that includes New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton has been making a lot of appearances in the political scene. Grace Rauh has more.
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NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. -- Hillary Clinton is not the only member of the Clinton family who is generating a good deal of buzz these days. The former first daughter, Chelsea, has been increasingly talked about in New York political circles.
As Chelsea Clinton steps out more and more, speculation that she may be laying the groundwork for a possible run for office has ramped up.
"Chelsea's dedication to philanthropy and public service is unmatched," said Bill Rudin from the Association for a Better New York.
On Monday, Clinton mingled with city officials, including Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, at a breakfast sponsored by the Association for a Better New York. Clinton moderated a panel discussion with non-profit leaders.
"So often, our most vulnerable, our children, are not thought about in a coherent way," Clinton said. "Not only here in New York City, but in our national dialogue. And that was something I felt particularly, in full candor, over the summer, in our election season."
Clinton also reminisced about her first trip to New York. It was 25 years ago this month. She seemed to be announcing to New York's power brokers that she is here to stay.
"We went to Rockefeller Center and ice skated and saw the big tree," she said. "I moved here and now this is where my husband and I call home. And I cannot imagine living anywhere else."
Despite Clinton's growing role in the public eye, she still shies away from unscripted moments with the media. An aide to Clinton said she would not do any interviews after the event.
She does, however, seem to relish the role of moderator. Last week she played that role at New York University for a discussion about climate change and Hurricane Sandy.
Perhaps in the future she will be interested in doing something more. | <urn:uuid:529ccd2f-c84e-47c8-a74d-0313b7d588c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://capitalregion.ynn.com/content/top_stories/620684/chelsea-clinton-generates-speculation-of-possible-run-for-office/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968489 | 483 | 1.515625 | 2 |
FRIDAY, Oct. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Shootings in U.S. hospitals are so rare that you're less likely to be shot in a hospital than struck by lightning, according to a new study.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore reviewed data on more than 150 shootings that occurred in acute care hospitals between 2000 and 2011. The shootings resulted in 235 dead or injured victims.
Nearly 30 percent of the shootings occurred in emergency departments. About half of those incidents involved a police or security officer's gun that was either stolen to shoot victims or used by authorities to fire at an assailant.
Grudges or revenge, suicide and euthanizing an ill relative were common motives for shootings, according to lead author Dr. Gabe Kelen, director of the Johns Hopkins department of emergency medicine, and colleagues.
The researchers also found that shootings in hospitals are difficult to prevent because most involve a "determined shooter," and that most shooters have a personal association with victims, according to a Johns Hopkins news release.
The study authors concluded that specialized training for police and security officers, such as proper securing of guns, may prove a more effective deterrent to hospital shootings than expensive or intrusive technologies designed to detect weapons.
Such technologies can create a false sense of security, because weapons can enter hospitals through a variety of ways, and because more than 40 percent of the shootings in the study occurred on hospital property outside of buildings, the researchers said.
The study, published recently in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine, was prompted by a 2010 shooting at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, in which an assailant shot a doctor and then killed his ill mother and himself.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has statistics on violence in the workplace.
-- Robert Preidt
SOURCE: Johns Hopkins Medicine, news release, September 2012
Last Updated: Oct. 05, 2012
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
May 22: Surgery for Sleep Apnea?
Does removing the tonsils and adenoids help children with sleep apnea? | <urn:uuid:6345cbdf-de58-4a34-875c-83b1fce43d37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=668872 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960326 | 426 | 2.109375 | 2 |
The price of gasoline has slowly risen to almost $4 a gallon in Somerset County despite the decreasing price of oil.
The price of oil dropped to its lowest level in a week after reports of a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing.
Benchmark U.S. crude fell by $2.26 to $105.01 per barrel. It dipped as low as $104.50 earlier in the day, the lowest price since $103.78 on March 15.
In Somerset, the price for gas rose from $3.85 to $3.95 in less than a week.
"Strong Chinese growth is the main reason behind rising oil prices the last couple of years," said Gene McGillian, a broker and oil analyst at Tradition Energy. "As we see slower growth, the thought is that energy demand is going to take a hit."
Besides the weak Chinese manufacturing report, oil traders also noted that lower U.S. oil and gasoline demand is pushing down prices. And Saudi Arabia, the world's largest producer, earlier this week pledged to increase exports to help keep a lid on prices.
The national average is the highest ever for this time of year, and experts say it could hit $4.25 by late April. Gas is already $4 or more in 10 states and Washington D.C.
When you factor what is happening in the industry, there's no solid reason why consumers and businesses will be paying record prices.
The future growth of the economy pivots on the price of fuel to produce and deliver products as well as the ability of Americans to have extra income to purchase higher priced items.
The decrease in demand should be lowering the price for gasoline. | <urn:uuid:d591c237-e025-4614-a122-7e607862559f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyamerican.com/opinion/editorials/da-ot-doesnt-add-up-20120323,0,850879.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96508 | 342 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Tropical Storm Daniel Forms in East Pacific
The expected path Tropical Storm Daniel as of the morning of July 5, 2012.
A tropical depression in the East Pacific strengthened in the early hours of this morning (July 5) to become Tropical Storm Daniel, the fifth named storm of the season for that ocean basin.
Daniel has maximum wind speeds of 45 mph (75 kph) and lies about 600 miles (970 kilometers) south of the tip of Baja California, according to the latest update from the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It is currently not a threat to land.
The storm could strengthen over the next two days, but it is moving in a west-northwest direction, which should keep it far out of sea and away from land.
Daniel follows the first three named storms of the East Pacific hurricane season, Aletta, Bud and Carlotta, which became the first hurricane of the 2012 East Pacific season and dumped substantial rain along the west coast of Mexico.
The Atlantic basin is currently quiet. It has seen four named storms as well so far this season. Tropical storms Alberto and Beryl formed before the official June 1 start of the hurricane season. Chris became the first hurricane of the season, while Tropical Storm Debby deluged Florida.
The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season is forecasted to be a normal one, with 15 named storms (tropical storms and hurricanes), with between or to eight hurricanes.
This story was provided by OurAmazingPlanet, a sister site to LiveScience.
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By Emma Young
— In 1908, Linda Hazzard, an American with some training as a nurse, published "Fasting for the Cure of Disease," which claimed that minimal food was the route to recovery from a variety of illnesses, including cancer. Hazzard was jailed after one of her patients died of starvation. But what if she was, at least partly, right?
A new surge of interest in fasting suggests that it might indeed help people with cancer. It might also reduce the risk of developing cancer, guard against diabetes and heart disease, help control asthma and even stave off Parkinson's disease and dementia.
"We know from animal models," says Mark Mattson at the National Institute on Aging, "that if we start an intermittent fasting diet at what would be the equivalent of middle age in people, we can delay the onset of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's."
Until recently, most studies linking diet with health and longevity focused on calorie restriction. They have had some impressive results, with the life span of various lab animals lengthened by up to 50 percent after their caloric intake was cut in half. But these effects do not seem to extend to primates. A 23-year study of macaques found that although calorie restriction delayed the onset of age-related diseases, it had no impact on life span. So other factors, such as genetics, may be more important for human longevity.
That's bad news for anyone who has gone hungry for decades in the hope of living longer, but the finding has not deterred researchers who study fasting. They point out that although fasting obviously involves cutting calories — at least on specific days — it brings about biochemical and physiological changes that daily dieting does not. Besides, calorie restriction may leave people susceptible to infections and biological stress, whereas fasting, done properly, should not.
Some even argue that we are evolutionarily adapted to going without food intermittently. "The evidence is pretty strong that our ancestors did not eat three meals a day plus snacks," Mattson says. "Our genes are geared to being able to cope with periods of no food."
Trying out a fast
Fasting will leave you feeling crummy in the short term because it takes time for your body to break psychological and biological habits, researchers say. There isn't really agreement, though, on what fasting entails. To research this article, I am trying out the "5:2" diet, which allows me 600 calories in a single meal on each of two weekly "fast" days. (The normal recommended daily intake is about 2,000 calories for a woman and 2,500 for a man.) Proving that fasting is not necessarily about losing weight, I am allowed to eat whatever I want on the five non-fast days.
A more draconian regimen than the 5:2 plan has restricted-calorie fasts every other day. Then there's total fasting, in which participants go without food for one to five days. (Fasting for more than about a week is considered dangerous.) This might be a one-off experience, or repeated weekly or monthly.
Different regimens have different effects on the body. A fast is considered to start about 10 to 12 hours after a meal, when you have used up all the available glucose in your blood and start converting glycogen stored in liver and muscle cells into glucose to use for energy. If the fast continues, there is a gradual move toward breaking down stored body fat, and the liver produces "ketone bodies," short molecules that are byproducts of the breakdown of fatty acids. These can be used by the brain as fuel. This process is in full swing three to four days into a fast.
Various hormones are also affected. For example, production of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) drops early and reaches very low levels by Day 3 or 4. It is similar in structure to insulin, which also becomes scarcer with fasting, and high levels of both have been linked to cancer.
As for treating cancer, Valter Longo, director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, thinks that short-term complete fasts maximize the benefits. He has found that a 48-hour total fast slowed the growth of five of eight types of cancer in mice, the effect tending to be more pronounced the more fasts the animals undertook.
Fasting is harder on cancer cells than on normal cells, he says. That's because the mutations that cause cancer lead to rapid growth under the physiological conditions in which they arose, but they can be at a disadvantage when conditions changes. This could also explain why fasting combined with conventional cancer treatment provides a double whammy. Mice with gliomas — very aggressive forms of cancer and the most commonly diagnosed brain tumor in people — were more than twice as likely to survive a 28-day study if they underwent a 48-hour fast accompanied by radiation therapy as were those that did not fast.
Could fasting prevent cancers from developing in the first place? Evidence is scant.
Longo says there are "very good reasons" why it should. He points out that high levels of IGF-1 and glucose in the blood and being overweight are risk factors for cancer, and they can all be improved by fasting.
Another risk factor is insulin, says Michelle Harvie at Britain's University of Manchester. Studying a group of women whose family history put them at high risk of developing breast cancer, she put half of them on a diet that cut calories by about 25 percent and half on a 5:2 fast. After six months, both groups showed a reduction in blood insulin levels, but the reduction was greater in the fasting group. Harvie's team is now analyzing breast biopsies to see whether this translates to fewer of the genetic changes associated with increased cancer risk.
The effect on diabetes
High insulin is also associated with Type 2 diabetes, so perhaps it is no surprise that fasting shows promise there, too. At the Intermountain Heart Institute in Murray, Utah, Benjamin Horne has found that a 24-hour water-only fast, performed monthly, raises levels of human growth hormone. That hormone triggers the breakdown of fat for energy use, reducing insulin levels and other metabolic markers of glucose metabolism. As a result, people lost weight, and their risk of getting diabetes and coronary heart disease was reduced. Alternate-day fasting (with a 500-calorie lunch for women and a 600-calorie meal for men on fast days) has similar benefits, says Krista Varady of the University of Illinois. She has seen improvements in people's levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or "bad cholesterol," and blood pressure in volunteers eating either a low-fat or high-fat diet on "feeding" days.
For people who are overweight, any kind of intermittent fasting diet will probably help reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular problems, Mattson says. In 2007, he found another benefit, too. He put 10 overweight people with asthma on an alternate-day incomplete fast and found that their asthma symptoms improved after just a few weeks. Blood markers of inflammation, including C-reactive protein, also decreased, suggesting that the fast was helping to moderate their overactive immune system.
Whether fasting would benefit normal-weight people with asthma or other conditions associated with an overactive immune response remains to be seen. There is some evidence that alternate-day fasting can lower their levels of blood fat. However, Mattson suspects that with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, fasting may not be as beneficial for people of normal weight as it is for people who are overweight, simply because they are already likely to be in pretty good shape, metabolically speaking.
How the brain reacts
Mattson has, however, identified another effect of fasting that he believes can benefit everyone: It is good for the brain. "If you look at an animal that's gone without food for an entire day, it becomes more active," he says. "Fasting is a mild stressor that motivates the animal to increase activity in the brain." From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense, because if you are deprived of food, your brain needs to work harder to help you find something to eat.
His studies suggest that alternate-day fasting, with a single meal of about 600 calories on the fast day, can boost the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor by 50 to 400 percent, depending on the brain region. This protein is involved in the generation of new brain cells and plays a role in learning and memory. It can also protect brain cells from the changes associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. In mice engineered to develop Alzheimer's-like symptoms, alternate-day fasting begun in middle age delayed the onset of memory problems by about six months. "This is a large effect," Mattson says, perhaps equivalent to 20 years in humans.
So, what about the common advice to start the day with a good breakfast? Mattson believes it is flawed, pointing out that the studies supporting this idea were based on schoolchildren who usually ate breakfast; a decline in their academic performance might simply be due to the ill effects that occur when people begin fasting.
Mattson skips breakfast and lunch five days a week, then has dinner and normal weekend meals with his family. Varady has tried alternate-day fasting, but she likes to eat dinner with her 18-month-old child and husband, so she does all her eating within an eight-hour period each day.
Harvie sounds a cautious note for anyone thinking of giving fasting a go. "We still don't know exactly who should be fasting, how often or how many days a week," she says. Also, it may not be without risks. One study in rats, for example, found that an alternate-day fast for six months reduced the heart's ability to pump blood.
There is also the fact that fasting is difficult. Varady finds that 10 to 20 percent of people who enroll in her studies drop out, unable to stick to the regime. This may be less of a problem in the future, though. Some researchers are investigating the possibility that you can get some of the health benefits of fasting simply by reducing protein intake.
As I count down the minutes to the end of my fast, I can't help but wish them success.
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The Senate Finance Committee has been asking corporate executives questions about their ideas on “tax reform” in subchapter C. The committee of 12 senators and representatives that is to come up with spending cuts by Thanksgiving might consider “tax reform.” Politicians of all stripes are and have been calling for “tax reform.” The grand example of “tax reform” that is the Tax Reform Act of 1986 seems to have come unraveled. Will there be “tax reform”?
That is a political question that can’t be answered, at least not here. But the targets of “tax reform” are pretty well known.
The only remaining C corporations are (or should be) publicly traded business entities and foreign corporations. Everyone else has gotten out of the C corporation lobster pot (you can put property in easily, but pulling property out can be expensive). Despite the fact that C corporations and their shareholders are subject to the two-tier tax regime, C corporations are a likely target of “tax reform” for several reasons:
- they are some of the corporations that attract adverse public attention for other reasons;
- they tend to be highly leveraged, perhaps in part because of the deduction for interest paid;
- they tend to do business abroad, which can produce tax results that some question; and
- they tend to work hard to reduce their world-wide effective tax rates.
However, any effort to change the deduction for interest, make dividends deductible or otherwise produce parity between dividends and interest payments would amount to a much more intrusive corporate integration regime than the “integration lite” effected by the creation of the 15-percent rate for dividends received by individuals.
Numerous extensive integration proposals were produced in the 1990s, including “Taxing Business Income Once,” written by the Treasury. Those efforts morphed into “flat tax” proposals, mostly for individuals, in the later part of that decade. Both discussions have been relatively quiescent since.
It is likely that the simple solution will again be seen as the better solution to the problem of taxing business income twice: lower the tax rate for C corporations. That step, combined with the existing reduced rate for dividends received by individual shareholders, would go a long way toward taxing business income once.
The question has already arisen whether “tax reform” for business can be limited to the corporate tax. Likely, it cannot. Competitors of C corporations pay the single tax through S corporations, proprietorships and partnerships, and enjoy other advantages of those taxing regimes. The divergence between taxation of C corporations and other entities is striking, not only because of the two tier taxation issue, but also because of the extensive flexibility for adjusting the economics of a partnership investment afforded through subchapter K, as compared with subchapter C.
If Congress truly becomes concerned with complexity, it would attack those features of both subchapter C and subchapter K that produce the most complexity; for example, section 355 and section 704 allocations. But those subjects have accreted layers of compromise over decades, and there seems to be little appetite for peeling back those layers. VAT It is a commonplace observation that once one party realizes the VAT is a money machine and the other party realizes it is a consumption tax, it will be enacted. Those realizations have been a long time coming. But once again the VAT is in the news. In a sense, adopting a VAT would be returning to the 19th century methods of taxation. Prior to the income tax, federal excise taxes and import duties carried the federal budget. Import duties were “easy” taxes to vote for because frequently they served the purpose of protecting domestic industry and they were largely invisible to the ultimate payors, who were largely domestic consumers. If a political decision is made that is in effect a vote against the income tax, a pure consumption tax like a VAT is the natural replacement choice, or the choice to augment a reduced income tax.
Foreign Business Operations
Last but not least, “tax reform” likely would impact foreign business operations. This subject is tied to the two-tier tax problem and the corporate tax rate. If the C corporation tax rate is reduced, one of the quid pro quo could be some sort of increased current taxation of foreign business income.
But this would be a very heavy lift. It impacts different industries differently; it is too complex to explain in simple terms, unless they be territoriality versus world-wide taxation; it is unlikely that so fundamental a change as moving to territorial taxation would occur in the context of a revenue or expenditure-reduction driven compromise; the lobbying would be (and already has been) both tremendous and incomprehensible in terms of evaluating the competing claims.
But the issue will be on the table, and so some tinkering could occur.
Revenue neutral rate lowering for C corporations, some tightening of rules for partnerships and foreign income, and perhaps a “study” of a VAT might come out of “tax reform.” Or perhaps we could be surprised. | <urn:uuid:c3958f70-aa86-4dcd-8931-594be5ebd613> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=573be521-fcbc-4d1f-be99-a56540b59939 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967054 | 1,044 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Fifty years ago this past October, Vasily Grossman submitted for publication the greatest Russian novel of the 20th century. The KGB immediately destroyed all copies of what Grossman called Life and Fate (Zhizn' i sud'ba in Russian) except for two hidden by his friends, and he died in 1964 without ever seeing his work published. For more than a quarter-century, the book was unavailable in Russia. Finally, in 1988, it was embraced by the cultural revolutionaries of glasnost as they slashed and burned their way through the official narrative of Soviet history, encrusted with 70 years of lies. In their search for a usable past, something not to be rejected in disgust, not to shudder over, but to cherish and be inspired by, they were awed by the brave and nearly lost attempts of their fathers and mothers to imagine a just and moral political order.
This being Russia, literature was the first and the main resource of the glasnost warriors. They trafficked in great books, some that had waited decades to be read: Andrei Platonov's Chevengur and The Foundation Pit, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, Anna Akhmatova's Requiem. Yet even in such august company, Grossman's Life and Fate, serialized in the popular literary magazine Oktyabr, was instantly recognized for its brilliance.
The commentary included with the book's first complete Russian edition in 1989 was titled "The Spirit of Freedom" ("Dukh svobody"). This was a remarkable insight. For Life and Fate continues to overwhelm and wound through its characters' heroic insistence on their freedom to exercise moral choice, even in the hells of Stalingrad, Treblinka, and the Gulag, and among the daily perils and humiliations of life under Stalinism. Most of all, the book is matchless in the artistic power of its affirmation of freedom as the essence of our humanity -- freedom that today, in a Russia run by reincarnated KGB officers, seems far more elusive than when the book was first rediscovered.
Grossman lived the freedom of which he wrote. One is immediately struck by a complete absence of internal censorship in Life and Fate, written by an author in the Soviet Union in the 1950s, some of it when Joseph Stalin was still alive. What one Soviet critic called a "concentration of truth, fearlessness, and inner freedom" was likely without parallel in Soviet Russian literature at the time. In a still totalitarian Soviet Union barely thawed from the paralysis of Stalinist terror, Grossman's book, as another glasnost-era commentator put it, was "the novel of a free man."
Grossman, who had been one of Russia's most popular World War II front-line reporters, as well as the author of a fine war novel to which Life and Fate is a sequel, continued to behave like a free man even after a member of the magazine Znamya's editorial board told him that his "harmful," "hostile" work would not be published in less than 250 years. So terrified were Znamya's editors that they forwarded the manuscript, post-haste, to the authorities. The KGB searched Grossman's apartment and took all copies of the novel, along with every page of the drafts and every used sheet of carbon paper. None of the seized materials would ever be seen again. The 1988 magazine publication was based on the only two surviving texts: a final copy and a draft, each kept hidden by a different friend.
Grossman protested to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, and that letter, too, was unprecedented in its tone of address. "The current situation is senseless," Grossman wrote. "I am physically free, but the book to which I have dedicated my life is in jail -- but it is I who wrote it, and I have not repudiated and am not repudiating it.… I continue to believe that I have written the truth and that I wrote it loving, empathizing with, and believing in the people. I ask for freedom for my book."
In 1962 Grossman was granted an interview with the Soviet Union's final authority on such matters, chief party ideologist Mikhail Suslov. Suslov upheld Znamya's verdict. Grossman never recanted. He died in poverty and obscurity two years later, on Sept. 14, 1964. A few of his stories were published in newspapers and magazines over the following three years, but after 1967, when the last vestiges of Khrushchev's "thaw" were completely extinguished by the reigning Brezhnevism, even his name was forbidden from being mentioned in print, and it remained so for the next 20 years.
IN ONE OF THE FIRST REVIEWS that followed the 1988 Oktyabr publication, leading Soviet literary critic Vladimir Lakshin compared reading Life and Fate to standing in a dense crowd inside an immense, airy temple, listening to the echoes of hundreds of conversations. Twenty years later, Harvard University's Stephen Greenblatt would call the book a "stupendous twentieth-century heir" to War and Peace. Indeed, the novel is teeming with at least two dozen main characters and scores of secondary ones. Although centered on the Battle of Stalingrad between fall 1942 and winter 1943, which Grossman covered as a reporter for the main military newspaper, Red Star, the narrative spans almost the entire Eurasian continent, from the prisoner-of-war camps in Poland and Germany to the Gulag camps in eastern Siberia, from Moscow in the north to the ghettos and the ravines with the remains of the Ukrainian Jews in the south, from the soldiers in the trenches to Hitler's "field headquarters" somewhere "on the border of East Prussia and Lithuania" and Stalin in the Kremlin. (In the chilling Stalin pages, Grossman has the desperate "Supreme Commander" imagine that the Red Army's catastrophic defeats in 1941 and 1942 were retribution for all those he had killed or starved to death, and then exult in the Stalingrad triumph as his ultimate and eternal vindication.)
Consciously Tolstoy-like in its sweep, Life and Fate was also inspired by that great Russian observer of everyday life and "ordinary people," Anton Chekhov, who was Grossman's favorite writer. In a passionate soliloquy delivered by one of his characters, Grossman extols Chekhov as the "first democrat" among Russian writers for his "millions of characters" and his attention to each of them. They were unique human beings (lyudi) to Chekhov, Grossman continues, every one of them: lyudi first -- and only then "priests, Russians, shopkeepers, Tatars, workers." Chekhov was the "standard-bearer … of a real Russian democracy, Russian freedom, and Russian human dignity." To recover and maintain this Chekhovian freedom, "to be different, unique, to live, feel, and think in one's own, separate way," was the sole objective of and justification for "human associations," Grossman writes in Life and Fate. Sometimes, he continues, instead of a means for strengthening a human community, "race, party, and state" become the end. "Nyet, nyet, nyet! The sole, true, and eternal objective of the struggle for life is a human being, his humble particularity, his right to this particularity."
There was no doctrine, Grossman believed, to which this freedom and dignity could be sacrificed:
I saw the unflinching force of the idea of public good, born in my country. I saw it first in the universal collectivization. I saw it in [the Great Purge of] 1937. I saw how, in the name of an ideal as beautiful and humane as that of Christianity, people were annihilated. I have seen villages dying of starvation; I have seen peasant children dying in Siberian snow; I have seen trains carrying to Siberia hundreds and thousands of men and women from Moscow and Leningrad, from all the cities of Russia -- men and women declared enemies of the great and bright idea of public good. This idea was beautiful and great, and it has mercilessly killed some, disfigured the lives of others; it has torn wives from husbands and children from fathers.
It was in the ruthless casualness with which individual freedom was sacrificed to the state's ideology that Grossman found the key parallel between Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany, which he juxtaposes throughout the book. Even at the height of Khrushchev's thaw, a Russian commentator recalled a quarter-century later, this comparison was "beyond the pale," "mortally dangerous," and, to the censors, among the most terrifying of the novel's many heresies. (Grossman was also almost certainly the first Soviet writer to apply the adjective "totalitarian" to Stalin's Soviet Union -- in a manuscript submitted for publication in the Soviet Union!) For Grossman, the betrayal of the nascent Russian freedom in 1917 by the Bolshevik Revolution was Soviet Russia's original and inexpiable sin. Dying in a Gulag camp somewhere above the Arctic Circle, an Old Bolshevik confesses to a comrade and a fellow prisoner: "I don't want to say it; it is like a torture to say it.… But this is my last revolutionary duty, and I will do it.… We have made a mistake.… We did not understand liberty. We crushed it.… Without liberty, there is no proletarian revolution."
Yet to Grossman the spirit of freedom was inextinguishable. A Red Star correspondent from the first to the last day of the Stalingrad battle, Grossman witnessed the "miracle of Stalingrad" during which the Red Army, its regiments sometimes reduced to "dozens of soldiers," its positions incessantly bombed and shelled, beat back Nazi troops and tanks. "Stalingrad had a soul," Grossman concludes. "Its soul was freedom."
For many, perhaps most, Soviet soldiers, from whom Grossman drew his characters, the freedom for which they fought and died was not freedom only from Nazi slavery, but also from Stalinism. Major Yershov, whose entire family was exiled and died somewhere in the northern swamps, fights "for a free Russian life." For Yershov, Grossman wrote, the victory over Hitler would be also the "victory over those camps where his mother, sisters, and father perished."
Away from the battlefields, the spirit of freedom moved men and women to brave informers seemingly behind every wall and around every corner, to defy the executioners of SMERSH (the "Death to the Spies" counterintelligence service), to risk arrest and the torments of the Gulag for a word of truth, thrown in the face of the "fear that prevented humans from being human." Grossman writes, "What a horrible price people paid for a few brave words uttered without looking over one's shoulder." And yet, here's one of the book's characters, one Madyarov, dreaming recklessly in front of several friends:
Ah, dear comrades, can you imagine what this is, freedom of the press? When instead of the letters of laborers to the great Stalin, or the information about the workers of the United States entering a new year in an atmosphere of despondence and poverty -- when instead of all of this, you know what you find? Information! Can you imagine such a newspaper? A newspaper that brings information?
"Swept up in this crazily unusual talk," all in the room know what they risk by not denouncing their friend immediately, that very night. "Oh, what the hell," thinks the main character of Life and Fate, the brilliant nuclear physicist Viktor Shtrum, as he walks home. "At least we have spoken like human beings, without fear, without hypocrisy."
"It seems to me that life could be defined as freedom," Shtrum's mentor, Academician Chepyzhin, later says to the book's hero. "Freedom is the main principle of life. It is here that the borderline runs: between freedom and slavery, between dead matter and life. The entire evolution of live matter is the movement from a lower degree of freedom to a higher."
The "degree of freedom" diminishes catastrophically for Shtrum, a Jew, when he is denounced for preferring the "bourgeois" physics of Albert Einstein to the "national Soviet science." Although warned that refusing to recant is "akin to suicide," he does not attend the meeting at his institute at which he is expected to confess his "deviations" and beg forgiveness.
Shtrum's phone goes silent. His colleagues and friends cross the street to avoid greeting him. He expects, any second, the proverbial knock at the door heralding his arrest. Yet, along with fear, Shtrum is also filled with an unknown thrill: the freedom to resist. The terror that permeated the lives of every Soviet citizen, the awareness of his own "pitiful powerlessness" before the boundless and "lethal" power of the state and its "all-annihilating wrath," all seem to have receded. In his exhilarating liberation, Shtrum is no longer afraid to say what he thinks. Instead, he speaks to his wife and daughter about the "unbearable" mendacity of the newspapers and of the insult of seeing "ignoramuses with party membership cards" direct science and culture.
Then Stalin calls. Keenly "interested in the division of atoms' nuclei," the tyrant is enthusiastic about Shtrum's work in nuclear theory. The two-minute phone conversation vaults the ostracized physicist to the very top of the Soviet state's science conglomerate. His laboratory is returned to him; his every request for equipment or personnel is granted immediately. His "beloved science," that is, his life, is given back to him.
Yet after a few weeks of triumph, Shtrum starts to feel empty and, stranger still, nostalgic for the "lightness" that was his when the phone did not ring and colleagues and acquaintances pretended not to see him. Those days now seem so happy -- "his head brimming with thoughts of truth, freedom, God." There is a "piercing" sense of loss. Something "precious" is forever gone.
NAZISM AND SOVIET totalitarianism left Grossman little room for maneuver. For those wishing to affirm their freedom, Grossman offered stark choices -- narrow, sharp, and often lethal, like a dagger. Would he rethink them today, first and foremost for his own country, where, as in the aftermaths of all great modern revolutions, the moral fervor that Life and Fate so powerfully stoked two decades ago seems to have been replaced by ubiquitous cynicism?
In his classic study "Two Concepts of Liberty," Isaiah Berlin outlined two closely related and mutually reinforcing but distinct kinds of freedom: "Negative" freedom is the freedom not to be forced to do what one does not want to do; "positive" freedom is the ability to act as one pleases. Coming to Russia today, Grossman would have found immense progress in negative freedom, even under Putinism. The heroes of Life and Fate would have been delirious with joy not to mouth inane propaganda clichés, not to be forced to swear public allegiance, again and again, to the rulers they despised. Fulfilling Madyarov's dream, they would have read "real news" in newspapers and magazines, and the Shtrums of Russia (if they weren't at MIT or Berkeley) could have conducted their research without fear of ideological inquisition. One can travel abroad, even to the West. One can read (and watch) whatever one wants! One can even start one's own business!
But after a day or two, Grossman would have sensed that something was still very much amiss. The power of the state has receded, but it is still outside society's control. Abetted by corrupt or intimidated judges, bureaucrats blackmail and shake down entrepreneurs; traffic police terrorize and extort motorists. Having granted a great deal of negative freedom, the Kremlin still severely curtails the ability to act positively as one wishes in one's own affairs and, especially, in the affairs of one's country -- to lay pipelines, to sell one's oil company to whomever one wants, to give millions to opposition parties or charities of your own choosing and not the government's, to run for office.
It is not just the elite of Russia, the oil barons like Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the opposition leaders like Garry Kasparov, who cannot do as they wish. Perhaps most of all, Grossman would have been disheartened to see virtually everyone not in the government's employ forced to make compromises with their consciences. To pay bribes to tax police and fire inspectors; to kowtow to rapacious mayors and governors. Not to cross the line, if you are an investigative journalist or newspaper owner -- or be fined, bankrupted, maimed, or even killed. Not to start an opposition party, run for office, run for the Duma. Not to elect the governors of one's province and, increasingly, the mayors of one's own city. It is these positive freedoms, the freedom to do what you want in your life, your business, your town, and your country, that the new middle-class protesters have been demanding. Grossman would have understood and embraced that struggle.
Toward the end of Life and Fate, Shtrum pledges to the memory of his mother, killed by the Nazis in a Ukrainian town, like Grossman's own mother, who was shot with thousands of the Berdichev Jews on Sept. 15, 1941:
Everything in the world is nothing compared to the truth and purity of one little man -- not the empire, spread from the Pacific Ocean to the Black Sea, not science.… Every day, every hour, year after year, one must fight for one's right to be human, kind and pure.… And if black times bring an hour without hope, man should not be afraid of death if he wants to remain human.
So long as the world struggles daily to save its humanity by resisting the temptations of the absolving certitudes of sectarian or secular "isms," the "holy wars," the "verticals of power," or "national security," Life and Fate will continue to dazzle and inspire -- as unerring a moral guide today as it was 50 years ago. | <urn:uuid:6b2c61a0-4acc-4c8a-bc49-9d4d15b68627> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/10/11/the_russian_masterpiece_youve_never_heard_of?page=full | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974627 | 3,857 | 2.390625 | 2 |
RUSH: This is from Reuters: "British physicist Peter Higgs said on Monday it should soon be possible to prove the existence of a force which gives mass to the universe and makes life possible -- as he first argued 40 years ago. Higgs said he believes a particle named the 'Higgs boson', which originates from the force, will be found when a vast particle collider at the CERN research centre on the Franco-Swiss border begins operating fully early next year." By the way, it is this vast particle collider at the CERN research centre that they say could replace the Internet, with speeds so fast that you'll be able to download a high definition movie, a two-hour high definition movie in three seconds. They're going to use a particle accelerator and collider for it. "The likelihood is that the particle will show up pretty quickly … I'm more than 90 percent certain that it will," Higgs told journalists.
In other words, he's looking for a "God particle." He's looking for a particle to prove God. Dr. Higgs, please, just look out the window. You see that tree? You see the grass? Whatever is outside your window, all of it, it's God particles. Every aspect of it is God particles. "The 78-year-old's original efforts in the early 1960s to explain why the force, dubbed the Higgs field, must exist were dismissed at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Today, the existence of the invisible field is widely accepted by scientists, who believe it came into being milliseconds after the Big Bang created the universe--" there's no way that anybody could possibly know this. At any rate, "Scientists at the centre hope the process will produce clear signs of the boson, dubbed the 'God particle' by some, to the displeasure of Higgs, an atheist," naturally. Naturally it would be an atheist doing this research.
At any rate, what interests me about this -- (interruption) Well, now, wait. No, no, no, no, no, no. Mr. Snerdley just said to me there are a lot of physicists that believe in God. Be very careful. Ben Stein has a movie coming out that I have screened at my house, it's called Expelled, and it is about people, scientists who are being fired and shunned for their belief in intelligent design. These are Darwinists. Just for questioning Darwinism and just for being open to the possibility of intelligent design. These people fear God. These scientists, they fear God because God has the answers, God's smarter than they are. God's judgmental. That's one of the things that liberals and atheists hate about religion anyway is that it's judgmental. But regardless, I think you'll find some scientists, physicists particularly. I can't remember his name, there was one old coot who is close to death, and this goes back a year or two ago, but he'd been a lifelong opponent of the whole notion that anything here was created, that it was just random and miraculous but there was nothing intelligent behind any of this, and he's finally concluded, near his deathbed that an accident can't explain this. He wouldn't go so far as to say that there's a God. In fact, one of these guys in Ben Stein's movie, guy named Hawkins who's over at Oxford I think, Oxford or Cambridge, Ben Stein goes over and interviews him in this movie, Expelled. The movie hits April 12th or the 16th. And he said, "Can you explain the origins of life with Darwinism?" "No, we can't. Well, actually we can, but we don't."
Stein then asks him, "Where did all this come from? The guy actually says, "Perhaps an intelligent race from outer space landed on our planet gazillions of years ago and got all this rolling. But there's no way," says Hawkins, "it could be God, there's just no way. But it might be some people from outer space." And this guy is an elitist theorist and professor at Oxford and Cambridge. It's a fascinating movie. Eighty-two percent of the people in this country believe in God. Forty-one percent are Darwinists. Darwinists are more than just believing in evolution. Darwinists are now a very closed society, they do not allow anybody to disagree with what they think. They shun and fire anybody in their midst that is open to anything other than Darwinism. Darwinism is natural selection, survival of the fittest, actually eugenics. Darwinism seeks to get rid of people who are not up to par. Darwinists are not big tent people. They are not big tent people. | <urn:uuid:a840dfc9-3104-4df3-83c8-d1e232ae7d1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2008/04/08/the_god_particle_and_ben_stein | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976009 | 984 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Mar 29, 1973:
U.S. withdraws from Vietnam
Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops leave South Vietnam as Hanoi frees the remaining American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. America's direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end. In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam in conducting what looked to be a fierce and ongoing war with communist North Vietnam.
In 1961, after two decades of indirect military aid, U.S. President John F. Kennedy sent the first large force of U.S. military personnel to Vietnam to bolster the ineffectual autocratic regime of South Vietnam against the communist North. Three years later, with the South Vietnamese government crumbling, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered limited bombing raids on North Vietnam, and Congress authorized the use of U.S. troops. By 1965, North Vietnamese offensives left President Johnson with two choices: escalate U.S. involvement or withdraw. Johnson ordered the former, and troop levels soon jumped to more than 300,000 as U.S. air forces commenced the largest bombing campaign in history.
During the next few years, the extended length of the war, the high number of U.S. casualties, and the exposure of U.S. involvement in war crimes, such as the massacre at My Lai, helped turn many in the United States against the Vietnam War. The communists' Tet Offensive of 1968 crushed U.S. hopes of an imminent end to the conflict and galvanized U.S. opposition to the war. In response, Johnson announced in March 1968 that he would not seek reelection, citing what he perceived to be his responsibility in creating a perilous national division over Vietnam. He also authorized the beginning of peace talks.
In the spring of 1969, as protests against the war escalated in the United States, U.S. troop strength in the war-torn country reached its peak at nearly 550,000 men. Richard Nixon, the new U.S. president, began U.S. troop withdrawal and "Vietnamization" of the war effort that year, but he intensified bombing. Large U.S. troop withdrawals continued in the early 1970s as President Nixon expanded air and ground operations into Cambodia and Laos in attempts to block enemy supply routes along Vietnam's borders. This expansion of the war, which accomplished few positive results, led to new waves of protests in the United States and elsewhere.
Finally, in January 1973, representatives of the United States, North and South Vietnam, and the Vietcong signed a peace agreement in Paris, ending the direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. Its key provisions included a cease-fire throughout Vietnam, the withdrawal of U.S. forces, the release of prisoners of war, and the reunification of North and South Vietnam through peaceful means. The South Vietnamese government was to remain in place until new elections were held, and North Vietnamese forces in the South were not to advance further nor be reinforced.
In reality, however, the agreement was little more than a face-saving gesture by the U.S. government. Even before the last American troops departed on March 29, the communists violated the cease-fire, and by early 1974 full-scale war had resumed. At the end of 1974, South Vietnamese authorities reported that 80,000 of their soldiers and civilians had been killed in fighting during the year, making it the most costly of the Vietnam War.
On April 30, 1975, the last few Americans still in South Vietnam were airlifted out of the country as Saigon fell to communist forces. North Vietnamese Colonel Bui Tin, accepting the surrender of South Vietnam later in the day, remarked, "You have nothing to fear; between Vietnamese there are no victors and no vanquished. Only the Americans have been defeated." The Vietnam War was the longest and most unpopular foreign war in U.S. history and cost 58,000 American lives. As many as two million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed. | <urn:uuid:5bac2991-a4de-4028-9ab7-57cfd3c21579> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.conservativeunderground.com/forum505/showthread.php?48276-3-29-2012-This-Day-In-History&p=494832&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968848 | 842 | 3.859375 | 4 |
The potential to use a combination therapy of traditional chemotherapeutics and/or radiation with BI2536 for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme and medulloblastoma looks promising. [Orlando Florin Rosu - Fotolia.com]
ASSAY & Drug Development Technologies offers a unique combination of original research and reports on the techniques and tools being used in cutting-edge drug development. The journal includes a "Literature Search and Review" column that identifies published papers of note and discusses their importance. GEN presents one article that was analyzed in the "Literature Search and Review" column, a paper published in Stem Cells titled "Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) inhibition kills glioblastoma multiforme brain tumour cells in part through loss of SOX2 and delays tumour progression in mice." Authors of the paper are Lee C, Fotovati A, Triscott J, Chen J, Venugopal C, Singhal A, Dunham C, Kerr JM, Verreault M, Yip S, Wakimoto H, Jones C, Jayanthan A, Narendran A, Singh SK, and Dunn SE.
Abstract from Stem Cells
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) ranks amongst the deadliest types of cancer and given this, new therapies are urgently needed. To identify molecular targets, we queried a microarray profiling 467 human GBMs and discovered that polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) was highly expressed in these tumours and that it clustered with the proliferative subtype. Patients with PLK1-high tumours were more likely to die from their disease suggesting that current therapies are inactive against such tumours. This prompted us to examine its expression in brain tumour initiating cells (BTICs) given their association with treatment failure. BTICs isolated from patients expressed 110–470 times more PLK1 than normal human astrocytes. Moreover, BTICs rely on PLK1 for survival because the PLK1 inhibitor BI2536 inhibited their growth in tumoursphere cultures. PLK1 inhibition suppressed growth, caused G2/M arrest, induced apoptosis and reduced the expression of SOX2, a marker of neural stem cells, in SF188 cells. Consistent with SOX2 inhibition, the loss of PLK1 activity caused the cells to differentiate based on elevated levels of GFAP and changes in cellular morphology.
We then knocked-down SOX2 with siRNA and showed that it too inhibited cell growth and induced cell death. Likewise, in U251 cells, PLK1 inhibition suppressed cell growth, down-regulated SOX2 and induced cell death. Furthermore, BI2536 delayed tumour growth of U251 cells in an orthotopic brain tumour model, demonstrating that the drug is active against GBM. In conclusion, PLK1 level is elevated in GBM and its inhibition restricts the growth of brain cancer cells.
The concept of cancer stem cells and the need to target these cells for an effective treatment of cancer has emerged over the past several years. Cancer stem cells are tumor-initiating cells that are in an undifferentiated state and are capable of self-renewal. The authors identify PLK1 (polo-like kinase 1) as a target for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme based on both siRNA and small molecule inhibition. Glioblastoma is a brain cancer that despite much research still carries a bad prognosis. This is particularly true for the proliferative subtype of the tumors.
Brain tumor initiating cells (BTICs) from patients had several hundred-fold more PLK1 as compared to the levels in normal astrocytes. The presence of PLK1 also correlated with disease severity. BTICs have been recalcitrant to chemotherapy and radiation due to their ability to limit apoptosis, repair DNA damage, and efflux drugs. Treatments that leave the BTICs behind may allow the tumor to relapse.
Interestingly, the ATP-competitive PLK1 inhibitor BI2536 led to the differentiation of pediatric SF188 cells (see Figures A–I). This was accompanied by a reduction in the expression of the neural stem cell marker SOX2, which is important for self-renewal of stem cells.
Cell growth was arrested at G2/M and apoptosis was induced. These phenomena were also observed in adult U251 cells and with PLK1 knockdown rather than BI2536 treatment. At low doses (5–10 nM), this drug also blocked the formation of three-dimensional tumorspheres. The ability to dose at low levels would be expected to favor the ability to obtain a therapeutic window. Mice injected intracranially with U251 cells were allowed to develop tumors and were subsequently treated with BI2536 once a week for 4 weeks. The conclusion of the study was that the drug was well tolerated at 50 mg/kg and that there was a significant delay in tumor progression with a corresponding increase in survival.
BI2536 is currently in phase I and II clinical trials for other solid tumors. BI2536 is very selective but not as selective as the exquisitely selective imatinib (S[300 nM] = 0.0337 and 0.0233, respectively) (Davis et al., Nat Biotechnol 2011;29:1046–1051). The ability of BI2536 to address some of the stemness characteristics of BTICs may render these cells more susceptible to chemotherapy and radiation. In a separate study, pretreatment with BI2536 was shown to sensitize the medulloblastoma cell line Daoy, which overexpresses PLK1, to ionizing radiation in addition to reducing colony formation and cell growth, inducing apoptosis and decreasing levels of SOX2 (Harris et al., BMC Cancer 2012;12:80).
The potential to use a combination therapy of traditional chemotherapeutics and/or radiation with BI2536 for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme and medulloblastoma looks promising. | <urn:uuid:caf7e049-5c70-408b-8aaf-63d6c026f36d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.genengnews.com/insight-and-intelligenceand153/will-less-sox2-lead-to-brain-cancer-getting-cold-feet/77899646/?kwrd=Stem%20Cells | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942079 | 1,273 | 2.25 | 2 |
“Never complain - always occupy yourself with solutions.”
This simple yet important maxim was brought home to me with stunning force years ago while working at a California resort. Here’s the story:
Marjorie was the friendly head cashier at the resort and reported to the controller, who, as can be expected from someone in that profession, was a stickler for detail and accuracy. Among Marjorie’s duties was the task of safeguarding the resort’s large cash reserve bank and making change for the many cashiers. Her small office located in the administration building was frequently crowded with employees seeking change. Quite naturally, it was also a scene of noise and confusion.
One day on my walkabouts I stopped in to chat with Marjorie and was surprised to find her crying at her desk. When asked what was wrong, she responded tearfully that she was in danger of losing her job. Unaware that this was so, I asked why. She then related to me that, on multiple occasions during the past month, the resort bank came up short. Each time she was counseled by the controller, but at the last counseling her exasperated superior warned her that further shortages could result in termination. She went on to say that no matter how careful she tried to be, her bank was once again short. Through her tears she said she was sure she’d be fired this time.
As I sat across the desk from the distraught woman, I tried to calm her, but nothing I said could reassure her. Finally, in a sharp voice I said, “Marjorie, are you stealing from us?” Shocked, she looked at me incredulously and said quietly, “No! I could never do that.” Having gotten her attention, I said, “OK, then, let’s try to find out where the problem is.” I then listened carefully as she described her daily routine for me.
Slowly, in response to my questions, she began to realize that counting errors were the natural consequence of the confusion of multiple employees engaging her in conversations while getting their change. Marjorie’s native friendliness and outgoing personality were making it difficult for her to concentrate. I suggested that rather than going meekly to the controller to report yet another shortage, she should confidently go with a carefully thought out analysis of what was wrong and what steps she would take to overcome the problem.
As the two of us sat there reviewing the current procedures, Marjorie drew up a short list of how she could avoid future shortages.
- Replace the door to her office with a Dutch door that would remain closed and locked, thereby keeping employees out of her office.
- Require employees seeking change to line up outside the door. This way she would deal with only one person and one transaction at a time.
- Keep the large safe closed and locked while maintaining a smaller “par” change fund in a locked drawer at her desk. This way only a smaller amount of money had to be monitored and counted with each transaction.
- Keep a log of all the change needs by each employee. Over time this record would allow her to establish the par fund at the appropriate level – neither too large nor too small.
- Establish a policy that change for the largest cashier banks would only be made by appointment. This would allow her to be prepared for and deal with the largest transactions in a methodical way.
- Establish set procedures for counting out change. Employees seeking change would use a change request form that itemized their needs. She also would establish a specific routine for multiple counts of tender and change while keeping tender separate from the par bank until all counts verified the transaction.
By the time I left her office, Marjorie had calmed down, galvanized by her plan to eliminate future problems. The next day she stopped me in the lobby to tell me that the controller was thrilled by her proposed “solutions” to an ongoing problem. He didn’t want to fire her; he just wanted the problem solved.
Buoyed by the sense that she was now in control and that her job was no longer in jeopardy, Marjorie confessed that her preoccupation with the potential consequences of the shortages blinded her to a solution. She said it was a hard lesson learned, but one she would never forget.
It also made a great impression on me – one that I too still remember.
Excerpted from Leadership on the Line: A Guide for Front Line Supervisors, Business Owners and Emerging Leaders, Ed Rehkopf, Clarity Publications, 2006
Thanks and have a great day!
This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers — those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world.
Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs! | <urn:uuid:878fbf9c-fc36-4967-9110-87ec71744253> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.clubresourcesinternational.com/category/club-operations/problem-solving/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980834 | 1,063 | 1.609375 | 2 |
In the last couple of weeks, I finally put a couple of pieces together . . . the tech industry is pushing hard, down two parallel tracks, toward much more resource-efficient computing architectures.
Track 1: Integrated systems. Computer suppliers are putting hardware components (including compute, network, and storage) together with middleware and application software in pre-integrated packages. The manufacturers will do assembly and testing of these systems in their factories, rather than on the customer's site. And they will tailor the system — to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the system — to the characteristics of the workload(s) it will be running.
The idea is to use general-purpose components (microprocessors, memory, network buses, and the like) to create special-purpose systems on a mass-customization basis. This trend has been evident for a while in the Oracle Exadata and Cisco UCS systems; IBM's Pure systems introductions push it even further into pre-configured applications and systems management.
Track 2. Modular data centers. Now, zoom out from individual computing systems to aggregations of those systems into data centers. And again, assemble as much of the componentry as possible in the factory rather than on-site. Vendors like Schneider, Emerson, and the systems shops like IBM and HP are creating a design approach and infrastructure systems that will allow data centers to be designed in modular fashion, with much of the equipment like air handling and power trucked to the customer's site, set up in the parking lot, and quickly turned on. | <urn:uuid:17abe031-f088-4a87-8f7b-2fb1b0dc992d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.forrester.com/archiver/201204/1237 | 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 | 0.93843 | 319 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Her little hands held the Bible like she needed every word to be true, like she’d seen enough pain and felt enough heartache in the ten years that she’d been alive to know that there must be more. Her fingers turned the Bible’s pages like they knew with certainty that this couldn’t be all there was, that as sure as they eventually found their place in the Gospel of Mark, she too, would find her place, her meaning, her purpose. As her big brown eyes darted around the room’s circle of people, ten American bloggers, members of World Vision staff in Bolivia, and a host of her own peers, she spoke with humble authority about Jesus’s words regarding the mustard seed. The words that came out of that little girl’s mouth weren’t merely preaching to us about what could happen if our faith in God was the size of the mustard seed, she spoke those words as if she expected Jesus to swoop in like a superhero and rescue her from the broken surroundings of the town that she and her friends called home, a town located an hour outside of Cochabamba, Bolivia.
As I listened to her talk, I couldn’t help but wonder which of Bolivia’s dark truths was her truth. Was it the one about child malnutrition? Had malnutrition put her name among the thousands of Cochabamba’s least of these (and youngest) as victims of stunting, a term that’s used when malnourishment is so bad that it begins to keep a child’s body from developing at a normal and healthy rate? Was this little girl a victim of abuse? Had she been emotionally abused? Physically abused? Sexually? It’s estimated that in some areas of Bolivia nine out of ten children suffer some kind of life-altering abuse. Or maybe she’s one of thousands of Bolivian children who have been abandoned by their fathers (in some cases, the child is abandoned by both parents.
That’s the story that broke my heart the most today—that chances were very good that every child I met lived with a personal truth, one that was bigger and deeper and more traumatic than their tattered houses, cold dirt floors, mud-stained clothes, and chronic coughs that many seemed to withstand. Behind their dust and snot covered faces, statistics suggested that another story existed, stories that rarely get shared during a first meeting, stories that aren’t remedied with food and water, stories that stain and scar souls, stories that time might heal but the symptoms won’t let you forget.
And then I met Philippe (pictured above) when I walked into his story late this afternoon. One of eight kids. Philippe’s the “man” of the house if you will. Not the oldest child. But the oldest brother. Before going inside Philippe’s house, a World Vision employee informed us that Philippe’s daddy left. We weren’t told when or why. The World Vision employee didn’t call the boy’s father a deadbeat or a good-for-nothing addict or give us his personal opinion on whether or not this mom and eight kids were better off without the daddy around. I’ve never once heard a World Vision staff member belittle or put down a man or woman whose sins or mistakes are the main reasons that World Vision must help. Besides, the answers to questions like when and why or the verbal judgment of Philippe’s daddy’s actions won’t help this family survive. Still, I wondered how much Philippe knew of his father. Does he remember ever being held by his daddy? Can he think back to a time when he and his father kicked a football around? Can he recall the scent of his daddy’s cologne or body odor? What would he feel, if anything, if the sound of his daddy’s voice echoed through the mud and wood framed walls of his home? Would he be excited? Scared? Would he even know his voice? Philippe was probably two or three years older than Elias, and when that occurred to me, for some reason Philippe’s truth hit me hard. Sometimes when you’re out doing these kinds of visits to foreign countries, the hard situations that people encounter and live become mere words that you hear but don’t feel. I can’t tell you how many times today I heard about a group of brothers and sisters being abandoned by a father or mother or both? And it wasn’t until I met Philippe that I heard and felt that truth. And I know that this is just me being emotional, but I couldn’t help but look at Philippe’s bright smile and lovable nature and not think about my son, Elias, and how he’s asked his Mommy “Daddy coming home today?” every day since I left. And then I wondered, if Philippe does know his daddy, how many has he run up to his Mommy and asked her when his daddy coming home. Of course, unlike Philippe’s Mommy, Jessica gets to tell Elias how many days still need to happen before his daddy comes home. Still, Philippe seemed really happy to see a bunch of white people from the United States of America walk into his backyard. His smile lit up my afternoon.
Right before she started her talk, the little girl holding the Bible handed a volunteer a small bag of mustard seeds. Each of us received a seed to hold in our hands. Slightly bigger than a grain of sand, I looked down at that seed and then back at the little girl holding the Bible. In Spanish, she said, “Even if your faith is this small, Jesus says we can still do great and wonderful things.” And while there have been many times in my life when I’ve questioned those words of Jesus, I didn’t today. Today, I believed them. Because the little girl holding her Bible believed them.
By the end of her talk, I was pretty sure that I was wrong to think that the little girl was anticipating Jesus to swoop in and save her. I think that she believed with all of her heart that he’d already been there.
Will you sponsor a child?
It’s $35 a month. For most of us, the faith it takes to scrounge up $35 a month is much smaller than a mustard seed. For some, it’s bigger than a mustard seed. You’ll change a kid’s life. You’ll help change a family’s life. And you’ll also play a role in helping bring resources to a community of needy people, resources that won’t enable them, ones that will give them the ability to become sustainable. And you’ll also help World Vision maintain the ability to continue helping children with special needs, offering professional counseling to children who are victims of abuse, and providing a safe place for children who are living in dangerous situations. It’s a small seed. But it will help World Vision do big things.
Sponsor a child in Bolivia through World Vision by clicking here.
Please share this post… | <urn:uuid:a00f23c4-6781-46ab-a2fc-84421e27c6db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesusneedsnewpr/2011/08/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974574 | 1,510 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Marchers cite historic context of this year's Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Published: Monday, January 21, 2013 at 2:15 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, January 21, 2013 at 2:15 p.m.
TUSCALOOSA | Many people. Many reasons to march.
More than 2,000 people marched on Monday from Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School to the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum.
Participation in Tuscaloosa's annual Unity Day March, which honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, more than doubled from last year.
“There's more historic context this year, but every year this march is important,” said Rob Kemp, a 42-year-old Tuscaloosa resident who has participated in the march honoring the slain civil right leader for the past five years.
The historic context Kemp spoke of includes this year's King holiday occurring on the same day as the inauguration of the country's first black president, Barack Obama, for his second term in office. This year also marks the 50th year since a key moment in the beginning of the civil rights movement occurred in Tuscaloosa: the “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.” Then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace on June 11, 1963, attempted to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from integrating the University of Alabama. Hood died Jan. 17 at the age of 70 in Gadsden.
“We're still not comfortable with the issues of race,” Kemp said. “The more we're willing to talk about it, communicate and show that there's more economic benefits and social benefits being unified than not, only then can we become a democracy.”
Stevetta Temple, a 45-year-old Tuscaloosa resident, said King's work and the civil rights movement blazed a path for blacks and other non-whites in the U.S. and that accomplishment should never be forgotten.
“He made a pathway for us and it's important that we continue in that direction,” she said. “This MLK day is also extra special because it's inauguration day and President Obama has been passed King's baton.”
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said that this year's march was an important time for the city to come together in the aftermath of several recent violent incidents in the area involving youth.
“Can we reason together to agree that we don't want any more 19-year-olds killed in their apartments?” Maddox said. “I challenge myself and the community to be an agent of change.”
The mayor said he's optimistic about the future of Tuscaloosa, but not because of anything that's taking place in City Hall. What fuels his optimism, he said, is the city's people.
The Rev. Tyshawn Gardner, pastor of Plum Grove Baptist Church, said this King holiday is a time of commemoration, but also of conviction.
“As we move forward, we must ask ourselves, ‘Have I done enough?' ” Gardner said.
Some of the march's participants said that not enough has been done in Alabama and other parts of the country to ensure that all people are treated equally.
Benjamin Itehua, a 25-year-old Tuscaloosa resident who is originally from Mexico said he participated in the march as an outcry against injustice.
“This march is necessary,” Itehua said in Spanish. “It's a very important day for all human beings. Martin Luther King's struggle was a difficult one, but it continues. It hasn't been finished yet in the United States.
“As Latinos, we're struggling, but we're united and we want peace for all human beings,” said Itehua, who is a member of Somos Tuscaloosa, which is Spanish for “We Are Tuscaloosa.”
“We want an end to all racial injustice. Together, we can be successful,” he said.
The Rev. Jerry Seay, pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church, was the march's keynote speaker. It's an honor he's had for the past 16 years.
“Fifty years ago, we had race segregation, but 50 years later we have political segregation,” Seay said. “Fifty years ago, we picked cotton, but 50 years later those same hands picked the president ... Fifty years ago, people of color couldn't attend UA, but 50 years later people of color can attend UA, AU and all other universities ... Fifty years ago, dogs were out of control in Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma, but 50 years later we have something worse than dogs out of control. We have guns out of control.
“Young boys and girls, you can win the race,” he said. “As the hymn says, ‘No one told me the race would be easy, but I've come to far from where I've started from.' Hold on children. Don't grow weary.”
The museum opened its doors to the march's participants after the speeches and music from local high school bands ended. A temporary civil rights exhibit displayed 32 photos of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery “Bloody Sunday” march, when state troopers beat civil rights demonstrators.
Shaina Strom, the transportation museum director, said the exhibit, which is on loan from the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum, will be on display until March 15.
Reach Jamon Smith at email@example.com or 205-722-0204.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:246d862a-f21e-4698-8434-c09bd820cf53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20130121/NEWS/130129979/1291/www.tuscaloosanews.com | 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 | 0.96645 | 1,232 | 2.796875 | 3 |
When we talk about Object Relational Mapping Frameworks or ORM frameworks we’re talking about mapping relational data to an object-oriented programming language.
The ORM framework will hold features such as support for JPA (Java Persistency API); database access control mechanisms such as JNDI, JTA, JDBC; distributed processes, 2 phase commit, etc.
So on the hand you need to be able to map your relational data to object relational data and on the other hand you need to have a clear view on your persistency layer.
How are you going to manage the different transactions in your application, how are you going to deal with distributed transactions, etc.
In Oracle Toplink 11g or the Oracle Toplink Grid you have the marriage of the ORM Framework and Coherence which offers you the power to control your transaction based application.
In other words you can hand over the persistency management to coherence instead of giving your architect and developers the burden of solving this puzzle themselves.
When using Toplink Grid you can choose to have Coherence manage the persisting of new and modified Entities. This integrated solution involves a layer between JPA and the data store where the grid can be leveraged to scaling beyond the database bound operations.
In other words you’re application doesn’t need to wait for your database transaction to return an answer before it can proceed. Using asynchronous processing in your application will be a huge improvement for the end users’ experience and will leave the responsability to the JPA layer were it needs to reside.
For more information regarding the Toplink Grid, read the following article.
This is a whole new way of thinking about persistency and data centric web applications which will have a great influence on as well the software architects as the end users’ experience.
Will we still have the so called ‘slow java web apps’ versus ‘data centric web apps’ which can lead to huge discussions amongst ‘client-server developers’ and ‘web developers’ ? | <urn:uuid:e199af3d-3da0-48f8-b092-3fdd8f58dca4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://iadviseblog.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/the-marriage-of-toplink-and-coherence/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=c589d5bcbb | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913977 | 426 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Paul Krugman identifies the single biggest, most consequential economic policy mistake of 2009
But yesterday's column does seem especially worth highlighting, because it manages to boil down more than a year and a half of debates into a clear, compact, forceful statement that is clearly right (in my opinion) about a question of great importance. Here's the bottom line:
When Mr. Obama first proposed $800 billion in fiscal stimulus, there were two groups of critics. Both argued that unemployment would stay high — but for very different reasons.We won't get it, of course. That looks politically impossible now. And it may be that, back in 2009, passing a stimulus bill that was big enough to adequately address the economic crisis would have been politically impossible, too. So perhaps this major blunder could not, realistically, have been avoided. That's a matter for argument.
One group — the group that got almost all the attention — declared that the stimulus was much too large, and would lead to disaster. [....] The other group, which included yours truly, warned that the plan was much too small given the economic forecasts then available. [....]
The actual lessons of 2009-2010, then, are that scare stories about stimulus are wrong, and that stimulus works when it is applied. But it wasn’t applied on a sufficient scale. And we need another round. [....]
But what does seem pretty clear is that the economic "stimulus" that actually got passed—technically, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—wasn't big enough. Contrary to propaganda from the Republicans and other right-wing sources, which unfortunately has been swallowed by too many voters, the ARRA definitely did a lot of good, preventing the economy from getting significantly worse and perhaps even going over the edge into a full-scale depression. Unemployment rates are still terribly high, but without the ARRA they would certainly have been even higher. But the scale of the ARRA was not big enough to fully do the job.
And the ones who will suffer politically in November will be Obama and the Democrats—whereas the Republicans, who fought tooth and nail to prevent constructive measures from getting passed at all, and to sabotage and whittle down any that did get passed, will almost certainly benefit politically from the consequences. Well, no one said life was fair.
Read the whole piece (below). More on these issues soon ...
New York Times
September 2, 2010
The Real Story
By Paul Krugman
Next week, President Obama is scheduled to propose new measures to boost the economy. I hope they’re bold and substantive, since the Republicans will oppose him regardless — if he came out for motherhood, the G.O.P. would declare motherhood un-American. So he should put them on the spot for standing in the way of real action.
But let’s put politics aside and talk about what we’ve actually learned about economic policy over the past 20 months.
When Mr. Obama first proposed $800 billion in fiscal stimulus, there were two groups of critics. Both argued that unemployment would stay high — but for very different reasons.
One group — the group that got almost all the attention — declared that the stimulus was much too large, and would lead to disaster. If you were, say, reading The Wall Street Journal’s opinion pages in early 2009, you would have been repeatedly informed that the Obama plan would lead to skyrocketing interest rates and soaring inflation.
The other group, which included yours truly, warned that the plan was much too small given the economic forecasts then available. As I pointed out in February 2009, the Congressional Budget Office was predicting a $2.9 trillion hole in the economy over the next two years; an $800 billion program, partly consisting of tax cuts that would have happened anyway, just wasn’t up to the task of filling that hole.
Critics in the second camp were particularly worried about what would happen this year, since the stimulus would have its maximum effect on growth in late 2009 then gradually fade out. Last year, many of us were already warning that the economy might stall in the second half of 2010.
So what actually happened? The administration’s optimistic forecast was wrong, but which group of pessimists was right about the reasons for that error?
Start with interest rates. Those who said the stimulus was too big predicted sharply rising rates. When rates rose in early 2009, The Wall Street Journal published an editorial titled “The Bond Vigilantes: The disciplinarians of U.S. policy makers return.” The editorial declared that it was all about fear of deficits, and concluded, “When in doubt, bet on the markets.”
But those who said the stimulus was too small argued that temporary deficits weren’t a problem as long as the economy remained depressed; we were awash in savings with nowhere to go. Interest rates, we said, would fluctuate with optimism or pessimism about future growth, not with government borrowing.
When in doubt, bet on the markets. The 10-year bond rate was over 3.7 percent when The Journal published that editorial; it’s under 2.7 percent now.
What about inflation? Amid the inflation hysteria of early 2009, the inadequate-stimulus critics pointed out that inflation always falls during sustained periods of high unemployment, and that this time should be no different. Sure enough, key measures of inflation have fallen from more than 2 percent before the economic crisis to 1 percent or less now, and Japanese-style deflation is looking like a real possibility.
Meanwhile, the timing of recent economic growth strongly supports the notion that stimulus does, indeed, boost the economy: growth accelerated last year, as the stimulus reached its predicted peak impact, but has fallen off — just as some of us feared — as the stimulus has faded.
Oh, and don’t tell me that Germany proves that austerity, not stimulus, is the way to go. Germany actually did quite a lot of stimulus — the austerity is all in the future. Also, it never had a housing bubble that burst. And with all that, German G.D.P. is still further below its precrisis peak than American G.D.P. True, Germany has done better in terms of employment — but that’s because strong unions and government policy have prevented American-style mass layoffs. [JW: On these US-German comparisons, see also here & here & and here.]
The actual lessons of 2009-2010, then, are that scare stories about stimulus are wrong, and that stimulus works when it is applied. But it wasn’t applied on a sufficient scale. And we need another round.
I know that getting that round is unlikely: Republicans and conservative Democrats won’t stand for it. And if, as expected, the G.O.P. wins big in November, this will be widely regarded as a vindication of the anti-stimulus position. Mr. Obama, we’ll be told, moved too far to the left, and his Keynesian economic doctrine was proved wrong.
But politics determines who has the power, not who has the truth. The economic theory behind the Obama stimulus has passed the test of recent events with flying colors; unfortunately, Mr. Obama, for whatever reason — yes, I’m aware that there were political constraints — initially offered a plan that was much too cautious given the scale of the economy’s problems.
So, as I said, here’s hoping that Mr. Obama goes big next week. If he does, he’ll have the facts on his side. | <urn:uuid:f9cc94fc-b218-4c1c-8b73-3b28bdf0ee61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jeffweintraub.blogspot.com/2010/09/paul-krugman-identifies-single-biggest.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9721 | 1,584 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Naming a product or a company is a difficult decision. Unlike most challenges you'll face, this one is in a field in which virtually everyone claims expertise. The first thing to remember when naming something is not to rely too heavily on another's advice. Names created by committee are usually losers.
Don't forget about the law. Your name can cause a Jurassic Park-size problem if you don't first conduct a legal name search. The last thing you want is to hit it big, then be forced to change your name because a tiny company has the same name and wants $100 million from you for the rights to it.
Start by sitting down and making a list of what you want your name to stand for in the mind of the consumer. Your name should reflect your name and your positioning. Haagen-Dazs is supposed to make you think of cold fjords and rich, creamy milk. It doesn't matter that there's no such person as Haagen or no such place as Dazs--the name serves its purpose.
You must decide what you want your name to imply. It's usually the first thing your prospects learn about you. Here are some of the things your name can tell your prospects about you:
- The best
- Highest quality
Once you've got your list of attributes, try it out on peers and focus groups. For example, if you're starting a dry cleaning service, ask them if the attributes you've chosen -- fast, reliable and inexpensive -- would meet their needs. If not, adjust your list and try again.
Now that you've got a list, you've got to make a decision. Do you want a name that's generic, descriptive or fanciful? Any lawyer will tell you that a fanciful name is the best sort of trademark. It's the easiest to protect from encroachment by competitors, and eventually it makes the strongest name. A fanciful name is one where no picture comes to mind. No one knows what a Nike or a Xerox looks like.
The problem with fanciful names is that it takes an awful lot of time and money to persuade the consumer that they stand for something. The name itself doesn't begin by positioning the product or the company. So for most guerrillas, a fanciful name is too expensive to develop into an asset.
The second alternative, which is more difficult to protect, is a descriptive name. These names help position your company or product, and they telegraph information about what you do. Some examples:
- Speedy Muffler
- Ultimate Auto Body
- College Pro Painters
Descriptive names are my favorites. They communicate enough about your product to help the sale, but they're unique and stick in the customer's mind and help stop the competition.
Lastly, you can use a generic name. These names are virtually unprotectable, but they have the ability to immediately telegraph what your business does.
Some generic names include:
- International Business Machines
- U.S. Steel
- Park Avenue Cleaners
- General Foods
As you can see, sometimes a generic name takes off and works, but in general, it's an uphill battle--you've positioned your company, but your company has no identity.
Examples of Good Names
- Faith Popcorn--a memorable name that reminds you that she doesn't take things too seriously.
- National Public Radio--a simple name that immediately connotes weight, seriousness, and the fact that everyone is involved.
- Staples--a simple word that brings together a ubiquitous office supply with another word for "essentials." Once learned, the user never forgets what it stands for.
- Head and Shoulders--the name lets you see the benefit of the product--no dandruff on your shoulders.
- Apple Computer--simple, friendly, basic, easy to remember.
This article is an adapted excerpt from The Best of Guerrilla Marketing -- Guerrilla Marketing Remix (Entrepreneur 2011) by Jay Conrad Levinson and Jeannie Levinson and contributing authors, including Seth Godin. | <urn:uuid:2882f97c-7b21-4ed8-8165-3c1ccc1f5149> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/printthis/222532.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938419 | 840 | 1.75 | 2 |
"We hope that parents will take a few minutes out of their day to find out how to best use this new resource," stated Jennifer Greer, host for the Lunch and Learn and the math facilitator for Floyd County Schools. "Parents have told us that they need resources to help their child with math and we feel that Math Tutor is an excellent way to address this need." FCS Math Tutor is now available to help parents work with their child at home. The resource can also be used by students to help them to be more successful in math. Math teachers are using the resource in their class to help familiarize students with what the online resource can offer them to master math skills outside of class. Teachers and schools are also promoting the resource in teacher newsletters, school newsletters and other communication with parents to make everyone aware of the math assistance that is now available.
Math Tutor is an online resource that includes math practice activities, video tutorials, and printable lessons. The resource is available by clicking on the FCS Math Tutor logo on the homepage of the Floyd County Schools website at www.floydboe.net. Math Tutor has lessons and tutorials broken down by grade level, subject and state standard. Teachers are also using Math Tutor to support class instruction so children should be able to assist parents in navigating the math resource. A video tutorial to help visitors use the site is also available by clicking on the FCS Math Tutor logo on the school system's website.
You are invited to learn more about FCS Math Tutor at the Lunch and Learn on Monday. For those not able to attend the session on Monday, another three additional workshops will be offered on Monday, January 14, 2013 at 11:30, 12:00 noon and 12:30 p.m.
Click here to read additional press releases on RN-T.com. | <urn:uuid:b342db57-5823-4d55-9f19-f8810d327899> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.romenews-tribune.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Lunch+workshops+to+introduce+online+math+tutor+to+parents%20&id=21133208&instance=secondary_stories_left_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960185 | 380 | 2.9375 | 3 |
From Salon.com's inimitable How the World Works blog:
The best reason yet not to be worried about global warming: A more pleasant climate in the Arctic will make it easier for oil and gas companies to extract resources in the formerly harsh north.
That is the most delightful nugget to be mined from a front-page article in Tuesday's New York Times by Jad Mouawad, "A Quest for Energy in the Globe's Remote Places." Here is a reporter for whom the glass is always half full, of fossil fuel.
That's the kind of insight that will have you whistling a happy tune all day long. But it's not the only factoid of interest in Mouawad's account of the mighty engineering obstacles that must be overcome as oil companies search for fossil fuels in remote areas.
Indeed, the world's fast-rising use of fossil fuels, by contributing to global warming, could eventually make the Arctic more accessible for oil and gas production.
"There are no easy barrels left," said J. Robinson West, chairman of PFC Energy, an industry consulting firm in Washington. "The only barrels are going to be the tough barrels."
Some context: In March, Mouawad sent a frisson of outrage through what, for better or worse, we can call the "peak oil community" when, in an article detailing how new technological advances would enable oil companies to extract more oil from fields previously deemed exhausted, he unloaded the following broadside....MORE | <urn:uuid:2276db89-9893-4610-aa7c-bd6dd09d6135> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://climateerinvest.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-global-warming-will-save-us-from.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936764 | 306 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Posted by Kevin Kastner in Historical Posts
on Jun 10th, 2010 | 9 comments
The remodel of the former H&H Mart on Washington Street for this redevelopment project
has unveiled a simple, but intriguing, historic detail. I almost couldn’t wait to get a good look at it for myself after I found out about it:
Here’s the McOuat building next door, also undergoing renovation:
With the sudden glimpse of detail that the city had been deprived of, one has to wonder what is hiding behind our other stone coverings at street level. We have 2 such claddings at Meridian and Washington (i.e. the exact center of the city):
There are 2 more of these one block to the east:
Fairly or not, Indianapolis is not well-known for its plethora of historic structures dating from the age where fine architectural detail was commonplace. It would be a good step to treat the ones that we do have with better care and let them show the world the facade that their builders had intended. | <urn:uuid:299b4945-9a35-4b67-aca8-19df97145306> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.urbanindy.com/2010/06/10/generic-facades-masking-our-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969363 | 218 | 2.515625 | 3 |
A gentleman named Jan Schildbach of Deutsche Bank (DB) has published a research report “Universal banks: Optimal for clients and financial stability; Why it would be wrong to split them up.” This report is remarkable for many reasons, but not because it makes a convincing investment case for mega banks. Rather, it proves that anybody can make a case for any proposition so long as one carefully avoids touching any inconvenient facts.
The TBTF banks are parasites that drain resources from society. This ridiculous, self-serving analysis by one of the most hideous examples of “too-big-to-fail” makes that point nicely. Indeed, as one reads the DB report, it is tempting to laugh – were the subject no so sad and so serious. Keep in mind that my firm, Institutional Risk Analytics, calculates Economic Capital and Risk Adjusted Return on Capital (RAROC) for all US banks. The RAROCs for the top US universal banks are usually ~ 0 or even negative, as shown in the table below.
Note that DB does not provide sufficient disclosure to the public to perform the RAROC calculations in the same way as for US banks. Note also that even Wells Fargo (WFC), which has no investment banking or OTC derivatives dealer operations, routinely delivers a RAROC that is barely in positive territory. And we are talking about Q2 2012 here; the numbers from before the crisis are even worse, reflecting the de-levering that has occurred since that time. What these numbers basically suggest is that all of the large, TBTF banks are consistent value destroyers using any rational measure.
Schildbach opens his discussion by saying that there are “key advantages of the universal banking model:”
1) Broad range of services for customers
2) Lower costs for customers and the real economy
3) Greater financial stability
The trouble is that none of these statements are true. More, if Schildbach bothered to look at the nominal and risk-adjusted equity returns of the large universal banks, he would conclude the opposite.
While the “too-big-too fail” banks such as DB, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup © do provide a wide range of services to clients, this is hardly a reason to support larger banks. The services provided by these behemoths are also provided by smaller firms, which tend to provide far better service. Large organizations tend to treat customers as statistics because, as we all know, there are no economies of scale in banking.
This point regarding the economic efficiency of larger banks is entirely missed by Schildbach, who states that:
“Universal banks are able to leverage revenue and cost synergies through economies of scale and scope. These benefits are passed on to universal banks’ customers and investors. Ultimately these benefits lower the costs of finance for society as a whole.”
But, again, this is completely wrong. Not only do large universal banks have lower nominal and risk-adjusted returns than smaller banks, but the periodic need to be bailed out by government renders the largest banks a nightmare for investors and the public. In the case of C and JPM, for example, these institutions require massive subsidies from the public that the DB analyst does not even mention in his report. Even in nominal terms, banks such as C and JPM have been consistent value destroyers. But when you start to reckon the risk-adjusted returns on capital for the TBTF banks, the net is negative.
Most of the earnings of the top four US banks, for example, are attributable to subsidized markets such as housing and derivatives. In the case of the former, the US government allows the big banks to earn supra-normal returns by originating mortgage loans that are several points below the market cost of credit. A 30-year fixed rate mortgage at 3% is about 3% below the actual cost of this loan because Uncle Sam takes first loss on the credit. The free market rate for a 30-year loan where a private investor takes the credit risk is about 6%, assuming a prime borrower and an 80/20 conventional mortgage. Far from providing a benefit to society, the TBTF bank is a net consumer of subsidies from the public in this case.
Or let’s look at the market for OTC derivatives, another market that is very important for DB, JPM and C. In this market, banks are allowed to continue trading even when a obligor defaults. In the US, the TBTF banks are exempt from the automatic stay in bankruptcy when it comes to OTC derivatives. This crucial exemption is worth tens of billions of dollars per year and represents a considerable subsidy from public and private investors to the big banks. Yet somehow the DB analyst misses this point entirely in his analysis. This is hardly a surprise since DB is one of the largest players in OTC derivatives in the world.
The next point made in this amazing document involves lower cost of funds. Mr. Schildbach states that TBTF banks are able to benefit their customers because of lower funding costs. And why do the universal banks have lower funding costs? Because these institutions are considered “too big to fail,” of course. When you grant a monopoly to a large bank like DB, for example, it is natural that the institution is going to have lower funding costs than smaller banks that are forced to fund independent of government subsidies. DB has a lower cost of funds than smaller banks because it is given preferential access to funding by the central banks and because it has a near-monopoly in its home market.
Just look at the bailouts coming from the EU nations to the bond holders of the largest banks and one thing becomes crystal clear: the more bankrupt the institution, the larger the subsidies for the bond holders. Bear in mind that I know the people who are handling bad asset sales for DB and the other German lenders, so let’s dispense with the pretense that these banks are even remotely solvent. In fact, the German government is orchestrating massive forbearance for all banks via the off-balance sheet liquidation of bad assets by DB and other domestic lenders.
This report is ridiculous on many levels, but the fact that it was published by DB, a profoundly insolvent large bank, speaks volumes about the true objective of the author. If you measure the tangible equity of the entire DB group vs. total assets, what is known as a leverage ratio, the bank has lower capital than any large US bank. Only the canard of capital to “risk weighted assets” brought to us via Basel III allows DB to keep operating.
But if you start to assign real risk weights to the OTC derivatives business inside DB, the picture grows quite alarming. In these terms, DB and the other large, “universal” banks of the EU are all arguably insolvent looking only at domestic asset problems but especially if you start to haircut capital to reflect bank exposures to Greece, Spain, Portugal and France. And yet somehow Mr. Schildbach and his colleagues at DB are able to publish a report making the case that universal banks like DB are a net benefit to the public.
At one point in the report, Mr. Schildbach actually states that “universal banks are beneficial to financial stability (and thus taxpayers),” this because of the flow of credit to large enterprises. The author somehow ignores the fact that all of the major universal banks in the EU are net recipients of subsidies at present. Indeed, on Page 10 of the report, Mr. Schildbach talks about the top banks in the FX markets and the important services they provide to customers. The only trouble is that many of these institutions are insolvent and are, in some cases, being liquidated by their host governments. Let’s take a quick look at some of the top names on the list:
The first name on the list, DB, is a ward of the German state. Without a steady flow of subsidies and forbearance with respect to bad assets by German authorities, the bank would have failed during the latest crisis. Citigroup is a ward of the US government after receiving a massive public bailout. Barclays is not dead yet but has a profoundly troubled franchise and problematic management team (LIBOR??) and is selling assets to keep itself afloat. UBS is retreating entirely from the US market and is being liquidated by Swiss authorities after repeated fiascos in the private banking and investment banking sectors. HSBC is likewise on the rocks and is retreating from a complete disaster in the US banking sector (Household Finance??). JPMorgan is nominally profitable, but is downsizing after the London Whale trading scandal. RBS is a ward of the state in the UK and is being liquidated. Like UBS, Credit Suisse is reeling from a succession of bad investments and management missteps. Morgan Stanley is just barely keeping its nose above water having seen its revenue base cut in half since the start of the crisis.
Overall, this DB report seems to be a feeble effort at public relations, not a true analysis of the financial and economic performance of the largest banks. The notion that the TBTF banks are providing a net benefit to society is laughable, yet that is precisely the key point made Mr. Schildbach over and over in his report. The only explanation that seems to make sense is that DB intended to publish this analysis as a PR piece, but somehow the wires were crossed and the report was instead published under the guise of serious research. In either case, the analysis is entirely unconvincing.
Category: Think Tank
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous. | <urn:uuid:e73214d4-d4d7-4f84-8026-cddf66a3395a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/11/deutsche-bank-universal-banks-are-a-benefit-to-society-really/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957843 | 2,048 | 1.640625 | 2 |
This is about RSS, which is the best feature on the whole internet as far as I’m concerned. Better than email! Humour me for a minute as I try to explain it, including the part about how you can use RSS to subscribe to Gabriolan.ca.
(Already know all about RSS? Gabriolan RSS feed addresses are here.)
RSS stands for really simple syndication, or some such. But to me it stands for really splendid stuff. It’s a massive time-saver.
Let’s say you love 27 websites, and you want to keep up with all of them. But visiting all 27 websites every morning gets stale in a hurry, especially since some of those sites haven’t added anything new since your last visit. Wouldn’t it be cool if those sites would notify you when they publish new content? Imagine: the new content would come to you. You wouldn’t have to go looking for it.
This is what RSS does. You use a software program or a website to subscribe to a website’s new content, or RSS feed. Then – like magic! – you see all the updates, as they’re published.
Not all websites offer RSS feeds, but many do. Almost all blogs publish RSS feeds, and all news websites worth their salt offer RSS feeds, too. (Here’s how the BBC explains RSS feeds.)
Gabriolan.ca offers lots of RSS feeds.
- You can subscribe to the main feed, which gives you all the new blog articles.
- You can subscribe to the Gabriolan.ca comments feed, which will make sure you don’t miss comments other people have posted to the site.
- You can even subscribe to the comments for just one post, because maybe that’s the only post that interests you.
(Addresses of Gabriolan.ca RSS feeds are here.)
How to subscribe
If you’d like to try out this RSS stuff, you have a few options. You can either download special software for your computer, or you can use a website to manage your RSS feeds. First we’ll cover the software options:
- Windows users should try FeedDemon.
- Mac users might like to try NetNewsWire. It seems to be the most popular RSS reader for the Mac.
- Linux users might like to try LifeRea, which is what I use.
- People who use Thunderbird for email or Firefox for web browsing will find that those programs have RSS-reading capabilities.
There are lots of other software options as well.
Don’t want to install anything? There are websites that will gather your RSS feeds for you. Some people use their Google or Yahoo accounts to read RSS feeds, and there are other web-based RSS reading options, too.
Once you’ve chosen an RSS reader, you just tell it the addresses of the RSS feeds you want to subscribe to.
- The main RSS feed for Gabriolan.ca is
- The comments RSS feed for Gabriolan.ca is
- If the only post that interests you is the one at
and you want to follow all comments posted about that blog entry, just append /feed/ to the web address. So the RSS feed you’d subscribe to is | <urn:uuid:81533479-e8d2-40fe-8b6d-5bd33366174c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gabriolan.ca/subscribe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906961 | 697 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Update 1:40 p.m. Okay the big event appears to be over. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't click on the webcam and gawk...
SAN FRANCISCO - (Bay City News) Bay Area residents will soon know the sex of four peregrine falcon chicks that hatched on a ledge of the PG&E building in downtown San Francisco several weeks ago.
Glenn Stewart, director of the Predatory Bird Research Group at the University of California at Santa Cruz, is preparing to walk out onto a protected ledge on the 33rd floor of the building at 77 Beale St. and band the baby birds at 1 p.m. today.
Stewart explained that during the banding process, he examines the depth of the birds' heel bones to determine their sex.
He said he doesn't expect the chicks' parents to appreciate the visit.
"The adults complain bitterly while we're out there," Stewart said. "They fly back and forth -- and make a lot of noise."
However, he said, the banding only takes about 15 to 20 minutes and amounts to a minor inconvenience for the birds.
When the banding is over, Stewart said, "They feel like they won, like they drove us away."
PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said the young falcons will each get bands on both of their legs. One is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service band containing a phone number people can call if they find the bird; the other is an identification band that can be read from a distance by someone using binoculars. The bands allow researchers to track and learn more about peregrine falcons, which were once endangered.
Stewart pointed out that today's banding comes one day after Earth Day, which he identified as one of three major milestones in the decades-old effort to protect birds like the falcons. Along with Earth Day, which began in 1970, Stewart identified the two other milestones as the 1972 banning of DDT -- which he said had caused the thinning of birds' egg shells -- and the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. He said that in the early 1970s, peregrine falcons were on the verge of extinction, but that they have since made a great comeback, thanks in part to efforts by the UC Santa Cruz bird group and researchers at Cornell University.
Another group of baby falcons that hatched on a ledge at San Jose City Hall earlier this month is set to be banded on May 1. Stewart said he expects the San Francisco chicks to begin to fly sometime around mid-May, followed by the San Jose chicks. | <urn:uuid:561020b8-ac03-4075-bff9-c1178af4ac8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2012/04/23/live-now-peregrine-falcons-at-pge-getting-tagged/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961914 | 545 | 2.296875 | 2 |
By Stephen Daniells, Nutra Ingredients USA
Calcium supplements or dairy do not promote fat loss in overweight teens, suggests a new clinical trial, but a leading expert has challenged the interpretation of the data and says there is evidence to support the link.
According to findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, neither calcium supplements nor dairy were associated with any changes to energy or fat balance in a study with 42 overweight adolescents.
When the researchers disregarded the different sources of calcium pooled data from both sources, they did report an increase in fat excretion, a result that led leading dairy researcher Professor Arne Astrup from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark to comment that the data does show a potential for calcium to increase fat loss.
“When the authors pooled the results from the different calcium sources, the change in fecal calcium excretion from the control to the calcium-supplemented diets was positively associated with change in proportion of ingested fat being lost in the stools, which suggests that dietary calcium binds fat and can increase fecal excretion,” wrote Prof Astrup in his editorial in the same journal.
“There is clearly a need for larger, longer-term, controlled dietary calcium intervention studies and updated meta-analyses of these findings if we are to draw more robust conclusions on the effects of calcium on fecal fat excretion,” he added.
The potential role of dairy, and the calcium it contains, for weight management is a topic of ongoing debate. A relationship between dairy intake and weight reduction has been reported in numerous studies, including a recent review published in Nutrition Reviews : Scientists at the University of Exeter in the UK concluded that a daily dose of 1,000 milligrams of calcium was associated with a “small, significant reduction in body fat” of around 2 kg per year.
Prof Astrup co-authored a meta-analysis in 2009 that supported a causal relationship between calcium and fat loss.
One of the lead researchers in this area, Dr Michael Zemel from the University of Tennessee, has previously said that dairy can help reduce body fat and that calcium only accounts for about 40% of the effect.
The new clinical trial, led by Connie Weaver, PhD, from Purdue University, involved 25 adolescent girls with an average BMI of 33 kg/m2 and 17 adolescent boys with an average BMI of 28 kg/m2.
The randomized, crossover study assigned the teenagers to one of two groups: The first group consumed 756 milligrams of calcium per day as part of a normal diet for three weeks; while the second group received the same diet with an additional 650 milligrams of the mineral per day as dairy or calcium carbonate supplements for three weeks. After one intervention, the teens crossed over to the other group.
At the end of the study, Dr Weaver and her co-workers reported no effects of additional calcium, either as dairy or supplements, on energy or fat balance.
“No mechanisms measured in this study support previous observations that dietary calcium affects energy balance that would lead to changes in body weight if energy intake and physical activity were controlled,” wrote the researchers.
“Our data suggest that there may be a threshold for increasing fecal fat excretion with higher calcium intakes, but during periods of high calcium absorption the addition of a calcium supplement leads to decreases in fecal fat excretion.”
Despite such strong conclusions, Prof Astrup wrote in his editorial: “There is increasing evidence to suggest that insufficient dietary calcium intake produces a calcium-deficient state that is detected by the body, and one effect might be increased hunger.
“The potential for a role for calcium in the prevention of obesity and its complications is still promising,” he concluded.
Prof Astrup notes that he is a member of the scientific advisory board for The Global Dairy Platform, Kraft Foods, Danone and Jennie Craig. He has also received support from over 100 food companies. Dr Weaver in on the advisory board for Pharmavite, Nestlé, and Sara Lee.
Weight Management 2011
The topic of dairy and fat loss is one of several to be covered in the upcoming Weight Management 2011 virtual conference and expo. Hosted by NutraIngredients-USA, the event is free to attend. Click here for more information and to register .
Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Published online ahead of print, doi:10.3945/ajcn.110.010264
“Calcium, dairy products, and energy balance in overweight adolescents: a controlled trial”
Authors: C.M. Weaver, W.W. Campbell, D. Teegarden, et al
Editorial: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.3945/ajcn.111.024141
“Calcium for prevention of weight gain, cardiovascular disease, and cancer”
Author: A. Astrup | <urn:uuid:6b4998f3-4500-4575-9c10-6bccaa6408e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://anabolicminds.com/forum/content/does-calcium-help-586/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931373 | 1,020 | 2.4375 | 2 |
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Artist Jane Kaplowitz creates her post-modern art works from photographs of her heroes Jean Cocteau, Oliver Messel, Stephen Tennant and David Hockney, among others. She achieves works that are initially charming in their lightness and fluidity, but that leave a sense of pathos. Her subjects are notably all gay except for one. She plays with motifs from Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Josef Albers and others in an attempt to achieve visual wit. Instead, Kaplowitz achieves irony and a sense of frivolity.
Jane Kaplowitz would agree with Jean Cocteau that "style is the soul." She is a connoisseur of Pop, of camp, and of "appropriation." As if to establish her post-Modern credentials beyond a doubt, she has made an ironic play with motifs from Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Josef Albers, and others, but the irony of these earlier paintings can seem a little forced and, as a consequence, they fail to make the transition to the pure visual wit we can now see she was always aiming at. The new paintings are airy, evanescent, and lyrical in a strictly Firbankian manner. In them she celebrates the heroes of her personal camp pantheon--Cocteau in bed with a mask of Antigone, Oliver Messel painting a mural in the Dorchester Hotel, Stephen Tennant (the most outrageous English queen of the '20s and '30s) reclining on the bed he rarely left in his later years, while unfolding an enormous fan towards the seated figure of David Hockney.
All the paintings are based on photographs. All are painted lightly and fluidly, and two of them are painted on a large scale on the walls of the gallery, so that the result is an environment of delicate irony and artifice that at first charms you, then leaves you with an odd sense of pathos. Kaplowitz is not aiming at profundity, but it is tempting to look for a subtext. With the exception of Hockney, all the figures she has chosen to paint are to some degree marginal, and all but one are gay men: Messel was an interior decorator, Tennant an aristocratic dilettante and, thanks to his supposed frivolity and snobbishness, Cocteau's reputation has been under a cloud for some decades. One might also argue that Hockney is currently more interesting as a set-designer than as a painter, and is thus perilously close to being a "mere" decorator. This is not Kaplowitz's view, and in one of her murals she defiantly presents us with a gaggle of fashionable '40s interior decorators relaxing in a fussy rococo salon. Though not didactically so, Kaplowitz's stance is surely an implicit critique of the official canon of high seriousness, a canon that has had a particularly oppressive effect on the reputations of certain gay male and female artists.
The other mural in the show is called An Artist's Studio, 1992, and the artist in question is a woman. Evidently 19th-century, and doubtless forgotten by art history, she sits comfortably on a sofa in the corner of the room reading a small book; schematic portraits hang above her; spindly furniture lines the walls. The painting makes no attempt to reproduce the original photographic image with literal accuracy, emphasizing, instead, a kind of careless elegance. It is essentially an enormous wall-sketch, tinted with pastel blues, pinks and yellows. Given the centralized perspective, the large scale, and the plain yellow floorboards that fill the foreground, the work resembles the backdrop for some lost comedy of manners, or a ballet with music by Georges Auric or Germaine Tailleferre. Its charm is undeniable, its seriousness less immediately evident. But Kaplowitz is passionately committed to her material, and this show--which is her best--presents a persuasive argument in favor of the delight to be derived from artistic productions that would normally be classified as minor, even frivolous. The dullest person can be serious, but true frivolity demands inventiveness and the ability to take joy in life.
After logging in the following functions will be available:
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You can also use TerminArtors Social Connect to log in. | <urn:uuid:2940e597-e2d3-478c-af8c-fde8565d9cb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.terminartors.com/artistprofile/Kaplowitz_Jane | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952242 | 975 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Years ago a child was born in an obscure village to poor parents residing in a dwelling they did not own but one that was made available to them through the kindness of others. The child grew to be an extraordinary individual and though he died before his 40th birthday, he transformed the society and world in which he lived.
Dec. 23 will mark the 207th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith Jr., the prophet of the Restoration. Joseph entered the world on a cold Monday morning in Sharon, Vt., shortly before the close of 1805. He spent his life trying to follow the example set by his Savior, trying to accomplish the will of his Savior and gave all glory and honor to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who atoned for the sins of repentant mankind. Interestingly, Joseph’s circumstances share many parallels with that of the Savior and remind us that Joseph was also a remarkable being.
After several business ventures gone bad, Solomon Mack, Joseph’s grandfather, offered Joseph Smith Sr. and family the use of his cabin on Dairy Hill. They gratefully accepted his offer, settled in and there baby Joseph was born. Two days after his birth, the family celebrated Christmas, most likely in a simple way, long before the overblown commercialism of today’s world. The day was probably spent reflecting, remembering and recounting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Mother Lucy, most likely still confined to bed, certainly spent most of the day cuddling her sweet baby in her arms, blissfully unaware of the majestic being she lovingly cradled. As Joseph grew, he suffered more than his share of challenges and troubles. In his youth, he came close to losing his life if not his leg, watched a beloved brother die and learned the value of hard work, the family bereft of many of the finer material things in life.
With the announcement of his visitation by God the Father and his Son, Joseph fell prey to mockery, taunts and persecution by others. His marriage was not approved by his in-laws, and his first three children did not live to their first birthday. He was unable to provide a safe and secure living for his family because of intense persecution, and under false charges spent much time in jail. His life was often in danger and, ultimately, a cowardly mob charged up the steps of Carthage Jail and he and his brother Hyrum did not have the privilege of raising their family and growing old with their beloved companions.
Joseph willingly suffered and there is no secret as to why he did so. He endured persecution for the cause of Jesus Christ, his devotion to God and Christ of a nature rarely found among millions of others who have lived on earth.
Shortly after the martyrdom of the prophet, John Taylor, who survived the attack, and later became the third president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, penned this beautiful and accurate eulogy:
"Joseph Smith, the prophet and seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of 20 years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fullness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain.
"He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum .
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- Hundreds of teens in Southern... 12 | <urn:uuid:8041ecce-2744-4092-a3d2-e2f57d392722> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705395947/Two-December-births-to-celebrate-Jesus-Christ-and-Joseph-Smith.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980027 | 1,008 | 2.265625 | 2 |
“We librarians cannot stand by & do nothing while some publishers deepen the digital divide.”
Final drawing for Where the Wild Things Are. Pen and ink, watercolor.© Maurice Sendak, 1963, 1991, all rights reserved. Courtesy, Rosenbach Museum & Library
Maurice Sendak, illustrator and author of nearly 100 books and winner of ALA’s 1964 Caldecott Medal for Where The Wild Things Are, died May 8. He was 83. Creator of amazing nightmares, as the New York Times called Sendak, the artist’s works live on at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, where he contributed more than 10,000 of his illustrations and manuscripts since 1966, and was a trustee. He gained the title of honorary president in 2003.
From Pen to Publisher, an exhibit featuring three of his works, The Sign on Rosie’s Door (1960), Outside Over There (1981), and Brundibar (2003), currently on display at the museum, will be taken down in the near future for a legacy exhibt. The Sendak Gallery is free of charge today in his memory.
The Rosenbach Museum and Library, open to the public since 1954 and the former townhome of two Rosenbach brothers, houses works that reflect their life’s passions: rare books and fine art. A. S. W. Rosenbach gained fame as the developer of Harvard University’s Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library. He was hired to build the collection by the mother of Widener, a wealthy young bibliophile who sank with the Titanic in 1912.
GOOD Citizenship Task 7: Get a Library Card #30DaysofGOOD
Libraries in America are cornerstones of the communities they serve. Free access to the books, ideas, resources, and information in America’s libraries is imperative for education, employment, enjoyment, and self-government.
—The American Library Association.
Borrow, read, and repeat. (And of course, remember to pay any fines!)
In case you missed it, our Assoc. Director in the Office of Government Relations, Corey Williams created this helpful PIPA, SOPA and OPEN Act Quick Reference Guide (pdf). If you’re just looking for tl;dr - The ALA will continue to voice strong opposition to PIPA and SOPA, while further analysis of the OPEN Act is needed.
The Magazine of the American Library Association has been compiling information for prospective attendees to its Midwinter Meeting, hosted here in Dallas at the end of January. The most interesting tidbit the head librarians have offered on their blog? A dining list for librarians, by librarians. | <urn:uuid:36097803-a25b-4aef-95d2-456c71b56634> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ghardin.tumblr.com/tagged/ALA | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9338 | 566 | 2.171875 | 2 |
On the day of the closing, the builder and his subcontractors were frantically making last-minute adjustments on a new, million-dollar house. Frank Lesh, the buyer's home inspector, filled the whirlpool tub in the master bathroom and tried to turn on the jets. No juice. So he pulled the plug and went downstairs to tell the electrician. Behind Lesh came a cascade of bathtub water, which had made its way under the upstairs floor and onto the staircase.
The plumber had never connected the tub to the drain pipe.
"The sooner the buyer knows about them, the better," says Lesh, who is president of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) and of Home Sweet Home Inspection Co. in Indian Head Park.
Lesh says the number of inspections for new homes is rising.
"Especially in major metropolitan areas, where the builder builds many houses a year and you don't know him personally, it pays to have the new home inspected," says Lesh. "It is different in rural areas, where you know the small builder personally and you trust him."
Q. What is the most common defect you see in new homes?
A. Air leaks in the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system, where the ductwork is not connected at the joints or it is loose-fitting. If this isn't corrected, you will spend a lot of money heating and cooling your basement.
I've even seen houses that are not bolted down. The sill, which connects the house's frame to the foundation, should be secured with bolts and nuts. But often the person who puts in the bolts walks off and doesn't put the nuts on.
The only thing holding down the house is gravity. A good wind, like we had recently, would blow it right off of the foundation.
Q. Do builders object to buyers hiring home inspectors?
A. Some do. The smaller the builder, the less likely he will object.
Some big builders say they have their own inspectors. But they are representing the builder, not the buyer.
A lot can go wrong, especially now that most builders sub out the work instead of hiring their own subcontractors. By subbing out, they can lose quality control.
Q. When do you schedule the inspections?
A. Ideally, we are there at three points - before the foundation is poured, before the insulation and drywall go in and before the final walk-through. The buyer typically arranges these dates with the builder. They take six to 10 hours, total.
Many buyers who have 12-month warranties also schedule 11th-month inspections so they can find out about problems in time.
Q. Why not rely on municipal inspectors?
A. They just check to see if local codes are met. The codes focus on minimal safety issues. The codes don't begin to cover everything and they vary a lot from city to city and county to county.
A problem may not violate code but is poor workmanship and will cause problems for the buyer. A common one is the metal lintel, which is at the top of the window. It comes primed. The code doesn't say it should be painted, but if the builder doesn't do that, it will rust.
Also, the municipal inspector may not come at the right time. He may be able to recognize missing flashing around windows, for example, but may arrive after the windows are finished.
Q. Why not rely on Dad?
A. Dad may have built his own house years ago, but houses were a lot less complicated then. Dad's house didn't have a security system or even insulation in the attic.
Or, Dad may be a retired electrician but isn't trained to inspect the whole house.
And, younger dads don't necessarily have any construction know-how like their World War II dads did.
Often, Dad is helping the kids pay for the house, though, so he does want to make sure the house is OK. So, personally, I encourage him to come along on my inspection. Then he learns a lot and he can be the hero.
Readers are encouraged to submit questions about housing, purchasing, financing and other issues related to a new home. Feel free to suggest names of experts, as well as write to Ask an Expert, New Homes section, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill., 60611. Or email@example.com.
ASK AN EXPERT | <urn:uuid:b70b0bbe-4624-4f59-800e-475f74c5289e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunny1015.com/wnsn/lifestyle/realestate/chi-0710310459nov02,0,69025.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970295 | 937 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The Pros & Cons of Vertical Integration
Economic and industry-specific issues continue to weigh heavy on building materials companies, and many builders are asking for price reductions. To maintain prices and generate profits during a prolonged market slow-down, anxious suppliers, manufacturers and distributors are considering business integration.
Integration, as a business strategy, is nothing new. Many antitrust laws, designed at the turn of the 20th century, were created to combat business combinations that were perceived as anti-competitive. In current practice, the enforcement of these laws remains intact; however, we are seeing more horizontal transactions allowing former competitors to come together under one banner. Less stringent protocol is evidenced among vertical combinations that bring together a supplier and customer.
Whether it’s done organically or through acquisition, vertical integration is becoming a more important business strategy in the building products arena. There are, however, both pros and cons to be considered.
ADDING MORE SERVICES
PRO: As the housing market feels the squeeze, more and more builders are demanding price reductions. Instead of offering bulk price concessions, integrated building materials companies are offering more products backed by more attentive customer service.
For example, pro dealers have opened or acquired manufacturing facilities for pre-hung doors, trusses, wall panels and other prefabricated products. Further, some of these dealers are also providing installation services for windows, doors, framing, insulation and plumbing. As margins continue to come under pressure, providing a greater basket of services and products is becoming the first defense against a race to the bottom on price.
Larger builders prefer to conduct business with all-in-one suppliers that are not only price-competitive but also able to provide a broad, innovative product portfolio in addition to unique services, such as logistics management, just-in-time inventory, category and inventory management, national distribution capabilities, and superior customer service. As a possible consolidation among the country’s large national builders gathers steam, those suppliers with broad reach and service will be in the best position to serve these new mega builders.
By being able to offer these additional products and services, integrated companies are able to maintain their margins, offer more/better service to customers and potentially gain new market share.
CON: How do you successfully combine two different management teams, with seemingly different business models, into one entity? Keeping the top people from each management team may prove difficult; job inquiries sometimes follow news of business integration. To avoid key management jumping ship, the integrating companies need to establish a clear organizational structure for management of the new company and provide attractive (and intelligently structured) financial incentives.
PRO: In the window and door sector, the ability to extrude the components to assemble a product is becoming more critical to many. In general, a window manufacturer that must purchase vast quantities of raw materials is subject to fluctuations in commodity pricing. However, by combining a components producer with a fabricator, the combined company can absorb the costs (with a smaller hit to the bottom line).
The manufacturers’ extrusion capabilities were likely a factor of Andersen acquiring Silver Line Building Products and Fortune Brands acquiring Simonton Windows. By controlling the extrusion of components, integrated widow manufacturers are able to lower their raw material costs as well as better control their supply chains. In addition, integrated producers can better control quality by monitoring the process from raw materials to components to finished products.
CON: Companies can fall into the trap of expanding their repertoire without the necessary expertise. For windows, fabrication and extrusion are very different processes; success in window fabrication may not translate into success in extrusion. Whether by acquisition or facility expansion, experienced operators are required to ensure consistency and quality of lineals. Further, for an integrated manufacturer, the ability to shop for the lowest priced components is no longer an option unless extrusion and fabrication capacities are balanced to continue to allow for third party sourcing.
BETTER CONTROL OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN
PRO: Control of the supply chain is particularly desirable for integrating companies looking to expand into new markets, rationalize distribution channels and consolidate excess capacity. The financial community evaluates mergers and acquisitions, among other things on their ability to deliver cost synergies—with the supply chain offering the potential to deliver significant cost synergies.
Control of the supply chain allows for:
• Effective procurement of goods/services.
• Timeliness of converting raw materials or components into finished goods, delivering those goods into customers’ hands, and receiving payment.
• Protection of revenue during times of transition by ensuring customer orders are not interrupted and by enabling an organization to generate stronger top-line growth in new products, new markets and geographies.
Take, for example, Rinker Materials, a Florida-based supplier of building and construction materials, including aggregates, cement, ready-mix concrete, masonry products and building products. As an aggregates producer, the firm has vertically integrated downstream into the production of higher-value products. As a building materials company, the firm controls its supply of quality aggregates and its distribution network.
CON: Inadequate supply chain planning can have negative implications. Failed supply chain integrations result in:
- Lower synergies than planned.
- Delays in capturing value.
- Supply chain disruptions that hurt sales.
- A general increase in supply chain operating costs and efficiencies.
- An inventory buildup that increases the cost of goods sold.
- Less than optimal effects upon customers who could not get products.
- A drop in product quality.
- A significant increase in out-of-stock products.
To avoid these problems, a thorough analysis of the two companies’ supply chains should be outlined—keeping the supply chain managers active in the integration discussions. There are several questions to ponder. Are the substitute materials compatible? What is the proximity of the two companies’ physical plants? Will this delay lead-time/delivery? Do the two companies’ information technology systems, such as tracking and/or inventory, work together?
The benefits of integration extend across many areas of the building materials industry. Reduced costs, improved margins and better customer service are common facets to many of these efforts. Yet, integration should not be approached lightly. There are many pitfalls to overcome when combining two companies—an analysis of competitive issues, logistics problems, product manufacturing, and corporate cultures should be conducted.
Ultimately, the pros appear to far outweigh the cons of business integration. When executed properly, integration produces substantial value for the end customer and likely boosts margins for the combined company. As business conditions become more volatile, we expect more transactional activity based on the potential benefits and power of integration. | <urn:uuid:43d24587-1cbb-4e70-985f-7d8a18eb879c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.windowanddoor.com/article/the-pros-cons-vertical-integration | 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 | 0.945665 | 1,359 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Testing by Applidium notes that iPhone 4S uses standard HTTPS network requests to communicate with Apple's servers, but sends data using an "ACE" command rather than regular web GET requests.
Each Siri request an iPhone 4S makes also involves a unique host identifier that appears to be based on the hardware UUID, preventing unauthorized devices from sending requests to Apple's servers.
Applidium reports some success in copying an iPhone 4S host identifier into requests sent from other devices, including a test Mac environment. By examining how iPhone 4S packages speech recognition requests, the developer was able to send a similarly packaged request and obtain a correct response.
The testing proves that Siri sends raw audio captures of the user's voice, compressed with the Speex audio codec optimized for VoIP. Previously, it had been speculated that iPhone 4S was performing preprocessing of the audio and sending only the results to Apple's servers.
While Siri may perform other preprocessing tasks that use the additional horsepower of the iPhone 4S, Applidium's discovery indicates that any iPhone should be able to support at least Siri's basic voice recognition features, although Apple has indicated that it has no plans to release such capabilities for earlier iOS 5 models, including iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.
Both models can support third party speech-to-text services, but Apple offers no way in iOS to integrate such third party services into any app system wide, meaning that users have to dictate into one app and then copy and paste the results elsewhere. Both Android and Windows Phone 7 offer system wide, integrated voice recognition features.
Siri, however, goes far beyond simple voice recognition. Rather than just converting audio to text, Siri evaluates the meaning of requests and maintains a understanding of the user's relationships with specific contacts and a contextual session of the location and other details of a request.
So far, Applidium's investigation has revealed that Siri packages requests in compressed property lists, but further exploration of the protocol is hampered by a number of issues, including the complexity of requests, the fact that they are tied to a hardware key, and that they are subject to change.
Apple could at any time stop responding to a given hardware key were it to suspect that it was being used to exploit its servers; additionally, because the Siri service is proprietary to Apple, the company can change how it transmits data rather quickly by simply sending out a client update.
Applidium says "anyone could now write an Android app that uses the real Siri! Or use Siri on an iPad!" However, in order to access Siri at all, a user would have to sniff out the unique user key of an actual iPhone 4S, and then reuse that key until it expired or was blocked by Apple.
Apple has been perfecting its Siri service as a "beta" feature exclusive to the iPhone 4S, but has experience some downtime in ramping up services to accommodate the demands of millions of users who have rushed to buy the latest iPhone model. The new service also makes use of hardware unique to the iPhone 4S.
It is expected that Siri will eventually find its way to new models of the iPod touch, iPad and perhaps even Macs, with some speculating that it could eventually server as a living room interface employed by Apple TV, doing away with the need for a button or touch-based remote control for navigating television programing. | <urn:uuid:4192c1ee-aaef-4c4a-970c-f7a6ed8d96fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/135922/investigation-into-siri-reveals-how-the-iphone-4s-service-talks-to-apple | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956953 | 686 | 2.09375 | 2 |
For investors that are interested in technical analysis or practice it often understanding the difference between PPO and MACD is very useful.
Stock chart analysis is critical to investment success so take a look at the chart below to see visually both Percentage Price Oscillator (PPO) and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) in action.
Ignoring the actual chart, at first glance it seems as if the top box is the same as the bottom... and at a second glance you can notice in the top box it says very clearly "PPO" as the header in the top left corner but the bottom box header is "MACD"... so whats the deal?
A quick lesson in technical analysis, and it lies in PPO and MACD...
They are basically the same, the only difference is that Percentage Price Oscillator (PPO) expresses the difference in moving averages as a percentage, not as a value. | <urn:uuid:b469468d-662b-4f39-9314-bd8afee9c146> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stocktradingtogo.com/2007/06/07/stock-chart-magic-ppo-and-macd/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934698 | 190 | 1.703125 | 2 |
We agree with Dr Sarah Wollaston MP (The harm in helping, 18 August) on the importance of palliative care being delivered in people's homes, and on the need to make it straightforward for people to make decisions about their end-of-life treatment. However, we cannot agree with her that suffering at the end of life must be endured by some in order to protect others.
Firstly, other jurisdictions in Europe and the US have legalised and regulated some form of assistance to die. While their laws differ in criteria and safeguards, none have been visited by the dire predictions that Dr Wollaston makes. Trust has not broken down between doctors and patients; there is no duty to die; and assisted deaths remain a small proportion of overall deaths. Dr Wollaston fails to set out why Britain would be different.
Secondly, while convenient to polarise the debate between autonomy on the one hand and greater protection on the other, informed decision-making actually allows for both. At present the law attempts to protect people by examining, and nearly always forgiving, the motives of loved ones who have helped someone to die. People would be better protected if the law allowed healthcare professionals to thoroughly examine the motives and decision-making capacity of a person who wishes to die, when they are still alive, and so ensure they are aware of all their care and treatment options.
Patient choice and patient safety at the end of life are not mutually exclusive. To suggest that they are is to impose a duty to suffer on some dying adults.
Dignity in Dying
• Like Dr Wollaston, I have also cared for patients who are dying, over half a century in my case. As she rightly says, "doctors do not always get it right", and yet, having made a very thoughtful and compassionate case for not changing the law on assisted dying, she still seems to be deciding for other people, patients and doctors, what is right or wrong for them.
Keir Starmer's prosecution guidelines, while being "humane and sensible", are still heavily weighted against dying patients getting the advice and professional help they need to die with dignity.
It is not for us doctors to decide what is right or wrong for others but for the general public through parliamentary debate to lay down guidelines for us all to work with.
(Retired GP), London
• "Making assisted dying legal would alter the way society weighs the value of human life for ever," writes Sarah Wollaston. Might not assisted dying cause us to reassess the value of human life for the better? Are we to accept that going through depression, hopelessness, pain and exhaustion is a normal part of a human life, for ever? Once it becomes clearer how valuable a healthy human life is, perhaps more action might become possible against the various factors in our society which are detrimental to a healthy human life. At the moment, if a human being is breathing, it does not matter how little else works or how much suffering is present. It ought to matter.
(Retired GP), Walsall
• Polly Toynbee's column (Would you be happy to live like Tony Nicklinson?, 17 August) has persuaded me to seriously consider joining the Humanist Association. Our society has a long way to go when politicians and priests, because of their private religious beliefs, deny people such as Tony a merciful end to their lives. Those attempting to insulate themselves from the vicissitudes of a mortal existence by giving over their minds to a belief in the supernatural should leave the rest of us to get on with our lives – and deaths.
South Petherton, Somerset
• What a confused and curious country we live in. It is perfectly legal for us to fight wars all over the world, support a vast arms industry and resolve to maintain and replace a nuclear weapons system that could trigger Armageddon. Alongside this we deny people who desperately want to die with dignity the right to be helped to end their suffering.
• Tony Nicklinson has expressed his wish to die fully and with great dignity, and has been very strong to go through all the procedures and take himself to court. This was not attempted suicide but a rational decision made by a sane man who has weighed all his options. Yet once again, the legal system has proved that it values the body over the mind: quantity of physical existence overrules quality of living experience.
Arguing that a change in the law would put the vulnerable at risk isn't good enough. The vulnerable will always be at risk – that is what vulnerable means. There are many precautions that could be implemented to ensure that no one would be coerced into ending their lives.
• The Guardian's account of the high court ruling on Tony Nicklinson (Report, 17 August), together with a most moving and distressing image of Mr Nicklinson on the BBC News as he was advised of the failure of his petition, once again raises the question of why progress towards legally sanctioned euthanasia remains glacially slow in the UK. There is overwhelming public support for medically assisted termination of a life that is no longer desired, yet the periodic debates on the subject are all too often clouded by the pro-life groups whose views are invariably coloured by extreme religious conviction. Paul Tully, general secretary of one such organisation, may indeed "welcome" the court ruling, but might he be prepared to look Mr Nicklinson in the eye and explain to him the "value" of his existence? Mr Nicklinson, meanwhile, now faces years, or possibly decades, of further anguish and misery, unless he is prepared to starve himself to death. What defines "civilised" in this country? | <urn:uuid:da51ff06-2e17-492d-9a3b-836c655e99bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/21/safeguards-dignity-dying | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963164 | 1,158 | 2.03125 | 2 |
"CHANGE THE FUTURE - PROTECT OUR CHILDREN !" Please click the banner below and sign this petition to help the U.K. get a law similiar to Megan's law: Sarah’s Law would give parents the right to controlled information about the whereabouts of predatory child sex offenders living in their area. It would enable parents to safeguard their children by contacting police in order to obtain details of high risk paedophiles who are known to reside within their local community. PLEASE PUT AN END TO BRITISH HORSE SLAUGHTER Every Four Minutes of a working week a Horse, Foal or Mare is brutally and un-necessarily slaughtered in the UK. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/612169753
"Changing the world one gift at a time"
The worldwide Freecycle™ Network is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Freecycle groups match people who have things they want to get rid of with people who can use them. Our goal is to keep usable items out of landfills. By using what we already have on this earth, we reduce consumerism, manufacture fewer goods, and lessen the impact on the earth. Another benefit of using Freecycle is that it encourages us to get rid of junk that we no longer need and promote community involvement in the process. Free non-profit making organisation. | <urn:uuid:caa993a9-81f3-48dc-bdf2-b2ab971893f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.care2.com/c2c/people/profile.html?view=singles&pid=838315376 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944049 | 307 | 1.648438 | 2 |
1. Sun.29.JAN.2012 -- Verbs Without Direct Objects
Today in the Dushka Russian AI we begin to address a problem that occurs also in our English AI Mind. Sometimes a verb does not need an object, but the AI needlessly says "ОШИБКА" for "ERROR" after the verb. We need to make it possible for a verb to be used by itself, without either a direct object or a predicate nominative. One way to achieve this goal might be to use the jux flag in the Psi conceptual array to set a flag indicating that the particular instance of the verb needs no object.
We have previously used the "jux" flag mainly to indicate the negation of a verb. If we also use "jux" with a special number to indicate that no object is required, we may have a problem when we wish to indicate both that a verb is negated and that it does not need an object, as in English if we were to say, "He does not play."
One way to get double duty out of the "jux" flag might be to continue using it for negation by inserting the English or Russian concept-number for "NOT" as the value in the "jux" slot, but to make the same value negative to indicate that the verb shall both be negated and shall lack an object, as in, "He does not resemble...."
During user input, we could have a default "jux" setting of minus-one ("-1") that would almost always get an override as soon as a noun or pronoun comes in to be the direct object or the predicate nominative. If the user enters a sentence like "He swims daily" without a direct object, the "jux" flag would remain at minus-one and the idea would be archived as not needing a direct object.
2. Sun.29.JAN.2012 -- Using Parameters to Find Objects
While we work further on the problem of verbs without objects, we should implement the use of parameters in object-selection. First we have a problem where the AI assigns activation-levels to a three-word input in ascending order: 23 28 26. These levels cause the problem that the AI turns the direct object into a subject, typically with an erroneous sentence as a result.
In RuParser, let us see what happens when we comment out a line of code that pays attention to the "ordo" word-ordervariable. Hmm, we get an even more pronounced separation: 20 25 30.
Here we have a sudden idea: We may need to run incoming pronouns through the AudBuffer and the OutBuffer in order unequivocally to assign "dba" tags to them. When we were using separate "audpsi" concept-numbers to recognize different forms of the same pronoun, the software could pinpoint the case of a form. We no longer want different concept-numbers for the same pronoun, because we want parameters like "dba" and "snu" to be able to retrieve correct forms as needed. Using the OutBuffer might give us back the unmistakeable recognition of pronoun forms, but it might also slow down the AI program.
Before we got the idea about using OutBuffer for incoming pronouns, in the OldConcept module we were having some success in testing for "seqneed" and "pos" to set the "dba" at "4=acc" for incoming direct objects. Then we rather riskily tried setting a default "dba" of one for "1=nom" in the same place, so that other tests could change the "dba" as needed. However, we may obtain greater accuracy if we use the OutBuffer.
3. Mon.30.JAN.2012 -- Removing Engram-Gaps From Verbs
Today we have sidetracked into correcting a problem in the VerbGen module. After input with a fictitious verb, VerbGen was generating a different form of the made-up verb in response, but calls to ReEntry were inserting blank aud-engrams between the verb-stem and the new inflection in the auditory channel. By using if (pho != "") ReEntry() to conditionalize the call to ReEntry for OutBuffer positions b14, b15 and b16, we made VerbGen stop inserting blank auditory engrams. However, there was still a problem, because the AI was making up a new form of the fictitious verb but not recognizing it or assigning a concept-number to it as part of the ReEntry process. | <urn:uuid:d8b863f9-f564-4a48-970d-918f55bf852f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.advogato.org/person/mentifex/diary.html?start=84 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937828 | 954 | 2.671875 | 3 |
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March 12, 2012
With students out on their March break, local OPP officers will be focusing on catching speeders and distracted drivers to help keep roads safe.
“Operation Safe Break” began on March 10 and will run until March 18. Officers will have zero tolerance for those who drive distracted, aggressively or speed during the break. The aim of the operation is to help reduce injuries and deaths on the roads, trails and waterways.
Quinte Region Traffic Coalition (QRTC) is a partnership of the Hastings & Prince Edward Counties Health Unit, Belleville Police Service, Stirling-Rawdon Police Service and the OPP detachments serving Central Hastings, Quinte West, Prince Edward County and Bancroft. With this coalition, officers will be out monitoring local roads and reducing the risk of dangerous drivers according to the QRTC.
Distracted driving has been a problem in Ontario for the last few years. Cellphones and GPS units have become one of the biggest distractions for drivers young and old.
The ban on handheld devices has been in effect since Oct. 26, 2009, making it illegal for drivers to talk, text, type, dial or e-mail using handheld communications, with the exception of emergency calls.
According to the Ministry of Transportation, studies have shown that a driver using a cellphone is four times more likely to be in a collision than a driver focused on the road.
Kaytee Townson, 25, of Trenton, was convicted of distracted driving late last year, when she was caught with her phone in hand while driving near her town home.
“I was looking for my phone because I dropped it in my car. I didn’t even see the officer parked over by a stop sign, and when I found my phone, it was in my hand and then the cop was pulling me over a minute later,” said Townson.
“I was distracted because I was bent over looking for my phone when I should have been watching the road. I will definitely pay more attention now after paying the $155 fine.”
Officers don’t need to be parked to catch people for distracted driving. Officers on duty will also catch people when they are stopped at a stoplight, or in parking lots.
“Distracted driving charges are solely based on observation. We have to see it happening. It can be tricky, but as trained police officers, keen observation is a skill of ours,” said Const. Dave Snider of Quinte West OPP.
Provincial Constable Dan Wilton has been a traffic management officer for Quinte West for 31 years, and says that with the new laser radar technology, catching people with distracted driving is becoming easier.
“With the new radars we’ve gotten, we can catch speeding motorists from over 300 metres away, and with the zoom on the scope, we can see into their vehicles and see people eating, or talking on cellphones,” said Wilton.
Cell phones and GPS units aren’t the only causes of distracted driving.
Women who apply makeup while driving, those who adjust the radio or play with CDs, eat or drink, even chat with passengers in their vehicle are distractions. Anything that takes your eyes off the road, or your hands off of the wheel, are distractions and can lead to being charged.
Wilton’s partner, Ray Lalonde, described some stories of his experience of pulling people over who were speeding and eating, applying makeup, and he even pulled over one man who was driving and doing about 115 km/h while reading a cookbook.
“It was probably one of the most bizarre scenarios I’ve ever seen. It was extremely dangerous for him to be driving at that speed and to not have his full attention on the road.” said Lalonde.
“A lot of the time, the people charged with distracted driving aren’t paying enough attention to even realize that the officer on duty is watching them commit the offence. It just proves how dangerous distracted driving can be, and how much of your attention is taken away from the road when you’re on your phone,” said Snider.
Published March 14th online at Qnetnews.ca and in print for the Pioneer Paper.
Article & Photo by Kelly Michelle Gagné
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The room is small, with a low ceiling and a yellow light hangs above a table cluttered with tools, fabrics, moccasins and dolls. The walls are all shelved, with piles of neatly folded and colourfully arranged patterned fabrics and other crafts supplies stored side by side. The room has a fuzzy feeling to it, with the scent of leather and cats.
Seated in her chair that she spends hours working in, is Narda Kathaleen Iulg. Her face is rounded with a beaming smile, and Gui Henri her “sucky-poo” of a cat, is rubbing up against her leg for affection. Iulg is a successful entrepreneur based out of her own home in Tyendinaga, where she has been making authentic native wear since 1993.
Lying on the table in front of Iulg, is her published book that she wrote called, Are you ready to mind your own Business? The book is Iulg’s guide to helping those interested in starting their own businesses, and though it was originally meant to help those interested in the aboriginal community, the book is full of information and tips that can work for anyone interested in starting an entrepreneurial business.
“Before the book was published, I actually used my ideas to teach workshops around the province for about three or four years, and then one day, one of the girls in my workshop said, ‘Narda, why don’t you turn this into a book? It’s really good.’ And I thought to myself, ‘You know, maybe I should.’ So, it took me a few months, and then I converted the workshop into what the book is now,” says Iulg.
Reaching across the table after giving Gui a nice scratch, Iulg begins to speak about her doll collections that she crafts and sells. The first collection is called “Standing Proud” a series of dolls, a grandmother and her six granddaughters, each with its own name and story, all dressed in their own unique, traditional Iroquois outfits. The second collection is called “Wrapped in Love” which has six individual dolls, each with a different name and story, all Indian baby dolls.
“It was actually a dear friend of mine, Jim, who nagged at me and nagged at me to get into doll making, until about four years ago when I actually tried to make one. I just copied a model of one that my mother had made, but instead dressed mine in traditional Mohawk clothing, and kept her face blank, like the dolls we had when I grew up, leaving it up to a child’s imagination for the faces,” says Iulg.
Setting down the “Seesfar” doll, Iulg gets up and walks over to the beautiful light brown patterned jacket hanging on the shelf, it’s the jacket she made herself years ago and it still looks as if it’s brand new.
“This is my jacket.” Iulg says with pride. “It’s gotten a lot of attention over the years, and it has definitely helped me get business just by having random people stop to ask me where I got it. They are always so surprised when I tell them I made it myself,” chuckles Iulg.
Iulg has been making jackets, ribbon shirts, casual men’s and women’s clothing and you name it, for years. Every piece of clothing that is requested online, Iulg likes to add the pieces own personal touch too, to add a one of a kind feel to it.
“I can never not add something different to a piece I craft. If someone says they want this or that from the websites pictures, I always craft exactly what they want, but add a little something extra to it, just to give it the one of a kind authenticity,” says Iulg.
Everything that Iulg crafts can be ordered and seen online on her website, www.nkjnativeoriginals.com. Iulg has had great success with the website, with customers ordering authentic native pieces from all across Europe, Canada, the States, and even a customer in Africa.
“Entrepreneurship for native people is almost an engrained skill, because we had too many years before where we sustained ourselves from the land. It almost seems to flow naturally into the fact, that if we have something that we can do, even in modern times we can turn it into some kind of a business. It’s when we have to learn how we’re going to go about offering and selling our business or services, that the stumbling blocks occur.” Says Iulg.
Gui Henri and Sir Giles Mudmore are weaving around her legs, both looking for attention as Iulg clears the table of the doll parts and clothing she has under way for a doll she is currently making. She sits up, and walks back over to the wall to hang up her favorite jacket smiling.
Article was published through www.Qnetnews.ca and The Pioneer in Print.
© Article and Photograph by: Kelly Michelle Gagné
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Two Loyalist College students say the campus’s new residence buildings should have units that are accessible to disabled students.
Loyalist College students Samantha Hobbs and Leah Bunnett, who both have cerebral palsy and need wheelchairs for mobility, said they wish they could have moved into “New Res” but can’t because it’s inaccessible. The new units designed as townhouse residences, opened last fall.
Hobbs, 25, has been taking classes at Loyalist College for thelast five years, and has lived in the older campus residence for four years inan accessible unit. She has also been a part of the Loyalist accessibility sub-committee for the last three years.
Bunnett, 21, is currently taking early childhood education at Loyalist and said she was disappointed that she could not live in the new residence.
“There was talk about the New Res buildings at the (accessibility) committee meetings and that they were going to be townhouses.They never mentioned they weren’t going to be accessible. We just assumed that they would be,” said Hobbs.
Both students said they feel they don’t have the same options as the other students.
“It’s because of all of this, why I decided to live off of campus this year. I don’t have the same rights as the other returning students,”said Hobbs.
Bill Walsh, vice-president of enrolment management and student services at Loyalist, said the college considered whether to make the new residence buildings accessible.
“We obviously had to take into consideration of whether to make the buildings accessible or not, but it would have completely changed the layout and design of these buildings, as they are just not designed to be accessible,” said Walsh.
“The college already had 20 residence rooms that were accessible and they were hardly ever all filled in a year,” he said. “We feel like we have provided a nice variety of living spaces for the students, and we do plan on refurbishing the older residences in the next few years to keep them up to date as well.”
The residence buildings are privately owned and rented out by Campus Living Centres. The college only helps the students apply to move into the buildings, and organizes living conditions for the students.
The new residence buildings are exempt from the Ontario Building Code because they are owned by a private company, not the college. According to the code, private residences are exempt from the barrier-free/accessibility requirements including all single-detached, semi-detached, duplex, triplex, row and townhouses up to three storeys in height.
Bunnett’s parents live in Belleville, but she is currently living in an older residence building on campus during the week because of the difficulty she has commuting by bus. Bunnett said she lives on campus so that she can attend classes and complete her placement on campus while living independently.
“I have friends that live in New Res and whenever we want to hang out, we either have to meet somewhere that is accessible, or they have to come over to my place,” said Bunnett.
Bunnett’s friend, Caitlin Mortorino, 19, lives in one of the new residence buildings on campus. Mortorino lived in the older residence last year as well, but was happy that in her returning year to Loyalist, she qualified to live in the new residence.
“I like New Res. It’s a good layout and it’s spacious. However,it’s really bugged me that ever since I’ve moved in, I haven’t been able to have my one friend over who is in a wheelchair. It takes a lot of planning to have her come back to my place, and unless we have people that are strong enough to lift her and her chair up the stairs, it’s impossible to get her inside,” said Mortorino.
Discloser: Leah Bunnett is a former roommate of Kelly Michelle Gagné.
Article & Photograph were published Thursday February 9, 2012 in print with the Pioneer paper and online, at Qnetnews.ca
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BELLEVILLE, ON. (11/01/12) “Max has been my baby boy and my best friend for 8 years, he has been with me through thick and thin and I never go anywhere without him. We protect each other, he’s my little man.” Says Jessica Hodder, 27, out on her walk with Max at Victoria Park. Photograph by Kelly Gagné
This was an assignment we got today where we needed to photograph a pet owner and their pet, for our Staff Class. Staff class is basically preparing me for what it will be like when I work for a Newspaper and have to deal with deadlines, editor assigns us something, we go and shoot what they want within a time limit. I did pretty good! Got this beauty of a shot within the time frame, a little bummed about the sun flares in the shots, but if I had a longer lens I wouldn’t have had the problem.
Still in love with this photo though! Jess and Max are absolutely adorable too, and it was a beautiful morning to accompany them on a walk! Their bond is absolutely amazing, makes me miss my baby girl Pico. The bonds between animals and ourselves stay with you forever, got to love being able to take these slice of life kind of photographs.
Now go hug your pet and appreciate the love you can have from them! Dogs are truly the one animal that will always love us more than themselves, so be good to them! | <urn:uuid:892552f8-3a78-4f23-8623-fc2a7c4cc633> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kellymichellegagnephotography.tumblr.com/tagged/belleville | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976249 | 3,219 | 2 | 2 |
Sunday, March 04, 2012
I've been re-reading Donna Haraway's 'Manifesto for Cyborgs' as background for a chapter I'm writing. I was struck by what she had to say about minituarization, and how in some ways it prefigures the widespread diffusioon of mobile technology. I quote: 'The silicon chip is a surface for writing; it is etched in molecular scales disturbed only by atomic noise, the ultimate interference for nuclear scores. Writing, power and technology are old partners in Western stories of the origin of civilization, but minituarization has changed our experience of mechanism. Minituarization has turned out to be about power; small is not so much beautiful as preeminently dangerous, as in cruise missiles. Contrast the TV sets of the 1950s or the news cameras of the 1970s with the TV wristbands or hand-sized video cameras now advertised.' (30)....mobile phones, ipods, tablets...AR. Drones....?
Comments: Post a Comment | <urn:uuid:819bb8f3-6f22-4726-a351-cea428933d94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://myvedana.blogspot.com/2012/03/struck.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944782 | 212 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Amidst the turmoil in Sudan, add the possibility of drought.
The Sahel, the semi-arid region between the Sahara Desert and southern grasslands, has received above-average rainfall in recent years. But precipitation trends suggest that a period of drought is in the near future, which aid workers warn could spell trouble for ongoing peace efforts inDarfur.
"This is three years they've been above the statistical average [for rainfall]," said Andrew Morton, manager of the United Nations Environment Programme's conflicts and disasters program. "If you believe in statistics, there is no evidence it will continue."
The expected drier seasons loom over attempts by the international community to revive peace negotiations between the Sudanese government and Darfur's rebel factions. Water and land disputes are at the core of negotiations, and improved resource management is necessary to avoid further violence, Morton said.
The competition for water and fertile land is considered a driving force behind the violence that has killed more than 300,000 people in Darfur since 2003, according to the United Nations.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center forecasted earlier this month that Darfur's upcoming rainy season - July through September - could bring asmuch as 20 millimeters (0.79 inches) less rainfall than the 47-year average from 1955 to 2002.
"There is a better chance for below average rainfall than above average rainfall," said Wassilla Thiaw, manager of the center's international bureau, which provided the forecast for its African Desk. [See precipitation records for 2005,2006,2007,and 2008.]
A drought would likely be disastrous in Darfur, where the United Nations is struggling to provide basic human services such as water, food, and health care for an estimated one million people in need. The aid organizations that had provided many of these services were ousted by President Omar Al-Bashir on March 4 in response to an InternationalCriminal Court order for his arrest.
The United Nations is already warning that its resources are limited, announcing last week that it is unlikely to have sufficient funding to fuel its water pumps for more than a month.
In Darfur, previous droughts have led farmers to fence off their land, forcing nomadic herdsmen to look elsewhere to feed their livestock. The drier conditions, coupled with overgrazing and deforestation, expanded desertification and contributed to fierce land competition between ethnic groups.
In the 1980s, desertification and poor land management were blamed for the poor water conditions. Today, climate change is recognized as a contributor to the conflict.
In Northern Darfur, 16 of the 20 driest years on record have occurred since 1972, according to UNEP. The loss of heavy rains throughout Sudanis due in part to natural temperature fluctuations, but climate models have recently found a correlation between the warming of the Indian Ocean and a drying of sub-Saharan Africa.
"Amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change," wroteU.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2007.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in its 2007assessment [PDF] that some areas of the Sahel are expected to become drier while others may receive additional precipitation. But a 2007UNEP report focused specifically on Sudans aid regions on the fringe of the Sahara, including parts of Darfur, are expected to rise in temperature between 0.5-1.5 degrees Celsius by 2060. As a result, rainfall levels may decline by 5 percent.
Thiaw, however, said that the Sahel recently received more rainfall than would be expected if climate change were affecting precipitation levels. "Most models point to suppressed rainfall over the Sahel with climate change, but that's not what we've been seeing over the past 10 years," he said. "But 10 years is still a very short period of time when you're talking about climate change. Climate change is something that happens over 20-50 years."
A separate UNEP report[PDF], released earlier this month, warned that the United Nations often carries out post-conflict operations "with little or no prior knowledge of what natural resources exist in the affected country, or of what role they may have played in fueling conflict."
Over the past 60 years, intrastate conflict resolutions have been twice as likely to deteriorate if the fighting was associated with a natural resources dispute, the report said.
In response to UNEP's warnings, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Sudanis investing$5 million to reduce water consumption 30 percent and implement other environmental improvements throughout its 25 bases.
"We will put green visors onto the blue helmets, making peacekeepers more environmentally sustainable," said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, during an event at the Washington, D.C.-based WoodrowWilson Center on Tuesday.
For information on how communities in the region are attempting to adapt to these challenges, read "Building Resistance to Drought and Climate Change in Sudan" from State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World.
photo credit: UNICEF
related posts: Desertification, Climate Change and the Developing World
Your title is fine and the gist of the article is fine. But the following quote from the article is either carelessly used or it suggests the author doesn't fully undertsand the range and depth of the Darfur atrocity:
"The competition for water and fertile land is considered a driving force behind the violence that has killed more than 300,000 people in Darfur since 2003, according to the United Nations."
Climate change issues are most astutely referred to as a "threat multiplier" in Darfur's conflict; but they are not ethnic-cleansing or genocidal initiators - people and policies are (in this case, by Sudan's government).
Darfur is a complex, multi-layered conflict. Yes, desertification is a factor, but the "driving force" is President Bashir and his cadre in Khartoum, with political dynamics going back even farther.
Great article, but I do think Rod's right: I'd place the resource competition among the "root causes," not just as a "threat multiplier," but the "driving force" of the conflict are the political dynamic that overlay the environmental concerns.
Rob and Michelle, I concur. Your two comments above have touched on an important paradigm for disasters. One of the newest and in my opinion rather successful models for looking at how a disaster unfolds (Drought and war are both disasters) is called PAR. This stands for pressure and release- pressure models being how you get to a disaster, release being how you could potentially fix them. To explain it basically, all the of the politics, violence, and poor infrastructure issues that increase the risk of famine through indirect and direct means INTERSECTS with a "natural" hazard like drought. | <urn:uuid:d0b13d20-c560-4d53-a57d-c59deb352b18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009676.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96426 | 1,430 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The EDISON BATTERY OIL bottles are cylindrical-shaped bottles made of clear glass that have the signature of "Thomas A. Edison" in cursive. They were used by railroads in battery operated crossing guards; after refilling the containers in the batteries, the workers would frequently just toss the bottles which is why most are found near railroad crossings.
In 1911 Edison changed the name from "Edison Manufacturing Company" to "Thomas A. Edison Inc."
Bottles newer than 1915 say Bloomfield NJ instead of Orange NJ. There was a fire in Orange and the operation moved to Bloomfield in 1915.
The above info will help you date an example you may have of one of these bottles.
The BLOOMFIELD NJ bottles are pretty common and usually sell in the $1-5 range.
Contact Ed Storey with any questions about Turlington bottles: email@example.com
Ed has also published a list of codes to identify battery oil bottles.
Here's an example of one of these bottles that was sold on eBay:
Here's some more info dug up by Ed Faulkner from Sept. 16, 1999 issue of OLD CARS in which 2 readers give all the details:
...Thomas A. Edison Primary Batteries were widely used on railroads to energize track and signal circuits. The battery consisted of a glass jar 6" in diameter and 10" high. Each cell produced 0.8 volt. The elements had to be renewed at various times due to train density and other factors. The new elements consisted of zinc and lead plates, a can of caustic soda, and a small glass of oil. The caustic soda was mixed with water, the elements were suspended in the solution, and the battery oil was added to the top of the solution to prevent evaporation....The earliest patent date is July 23, '08. These batteries were still in use in the mid-60's...O.M. Middleton, Oregon, OH
And Charles Turner of Redfield, Iowa described battery oil as " a pure nonconductive oil that is added to the potassium-based electrolyte in old Edison nickel-iron batteries to reduce water loss due to excessive gassing... These batteries were used with wind generator electric systems because they can be cycled at high rates without damage. Due to their high-charging characteristics, the Edison battery will boil the water out very quickly without a film of oil on the electrolytic fluid"...
|New User||For Sale||Auctions||Questions||Want to Buy||Email/Web||Clubs| | <urn:uuid:5027c7d8-1a6f-49f5-a742-dd659ce665b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.antiquebottles.com/edison/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957026 | 537 | 2.609375 | 3 |
For those of us with jobs that keep us seated for a good part of the day, this is news you might want to take sitting down.
According to a recent article in the New York Post which references the Institute of Medicine and Public Health’s recent poll, we spend an average of 56 hours a week sitting at our desks, in our cars, or lounging potato style on our couches. This has triggered a new medical study on inactivity physiology, which explores the effect of this sedentary lifestyle on our health.
We are designed to stand upright and move. When we sit for extended periods of time, our bodies start to shut down at the metabolic level. Circulation slows and fewer calories are burned. According to the study, for every 2 hours spent sitting the chance of contracting diabetes goes up by 7%. Risk for heart disease rises when enzymes that keep blood fats in check become inactive.
Remaining seated has also been found to cause tightening and weakening of the spine and other key muscles.
But that is not the scary part. Even if we work out daily, we are not immune to these effects! Apparently, 10 hours a day of being sedentary can out weigh the 30-60 minutes of exercise that is recommended for good health.
You mean I work out everyday and walk 1-2 hours a day for transportation purposes, and I am still considered sedentary? Wow, that’s harsh news!
So what do we do? Find ways to move. Get up every hour and stretch a little. Walk down the hall to your colleague instead of emailing or calling them. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Stand up when you talk on the phone. Take a short walk at lunchtime if you can. Simple movement will get the blood flowing and move the larger muscle groups and prevent tightness.
Nothing will replace a good vigorous workout for health benefits, weight management and mood enhancement, but random acts of fitness just might save our lives.
“Move it or lose it”!!
photo: Glasshouse Images | <urn:uuid:be1f4c0a-b666-45a0-82ce-d7fa47e6a42c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indigo-jones.com/2010/08/25/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926064 | 421 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Rainwater Basin Joint Venture
Sometimes known as the "hourglass", the RAINWATER BASIN covers 4,200 square miles within 17 counties of south-central Nebraska. The goal of this joint venture is to restore and permanently protect high-quality wetlands and associated uplands with adequate water and distribution to meet the habitat needs of waterfowl and other migratory birds.
Millions of ducks, geese, cranes and shorebirds funnel through this "hourglass" during the spring migration. This area provides critical migration habitat for the endangered whooping crane. Working with landowners in the Rainwater Basin, joint venture partners are restoring, enhancing and protecting wildlife habitat in a largely agricultural landscape. | <urn:uuid:2ff7d939-6114-4826-a81f-7eedeff7a7fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/nawm/rbjv.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932316 | 141 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Described as “the magistrate of history,” Lord Acton was one of the great personalities of the nineteenth century and is universally considered to be one of the most learned Englishmen of his time. He made the history of liberty his life's work; indeed, he considered political liberty the essential condition and guardian of religious liberty.
Selected Writings of Lord Acton by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton
Lord Acton was among the most illustrious historians of nineteenth-century England, a man of great learning with a deep devotion to individual liberty and a profound understanding of history. This is the most complete collection of Acton essays ever published.
The History of Freedom by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton
Lord Acton is popularly remembered for his pungent aphorisms – “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” – but of far deeper significance was his lifelong study of the history of freedom. It was a work never completed, for reasons Professor Holland discusses in his introduction. But Acton's brilliant insights, the fruit of his vast erudition, were forthcoming on rare occasion, and never more powerfully than in the two lectures published here. These writings are a precious heritage for the promise of civilization in our time and forevermore.
Professor Lord Acton by Owen Chadwick
This lecture was delivered at Cambridge University on March 16, 1995 by Professor Owen Chadwick in celebration of the 100 years since Lord Acton assumed the Regius Chair of Modern History. The author, a distinguished Acton scholar who himself served as Regius Professor, details the history of Acton's tenure at Cambridge, including the intrigue surrounding his appointment, his lectures, his work on the Cambridge Modern History, his philosophy of history, and the influence he had on the writing of history in Britain.
Lord Acton: A Study in Conscience and Politics by Gertrude Himmelfarb
Lord Acton by Roland Hill
Acton In America by S. W. Jackman, Editor
The Legacy of an Education by James C. Holland
There were highly distinctive elements in the education of Lord Acton. It is Professor Holland's contention that there was a direct relationship between those elements and Acton's life work, including his championing of an educated laity, free intellectual inquiry, historical study as a conserver of truth, and the duty of the informed historian to make moral judgments in history. In his energetic and often brilliant pursuit of these causes, Lord Acton relentlessly invoked the intellectual and moral canons acquired in his youth.
Lord Acton on Revolution by Russell Kirk
This writing examines Lord Acton's views on revolution. Although he did not exactly approve of revolution, he was able to tolerate it because he believed it increased freedom. This essay demonstrates that Acton's views on revolution changed over time.
Lord Acton on the Historian by Josef L. Altholz
In this essay, Dr. Altholz describes Acton's rigorous approach to the historian's vocation, especially focusing on his view of the historical project in relation to religion and liberty. Altholz examines Lord Acton's views on truth and truthfulness, as well as Acton's differing opinions and eventual departure from his mentor, Ignaz von Dollinger.
Purchase a subscription to the Journal of Markets & Morality to get access to the most recent issues.
Read our free quarterly publication that has interviews with important religious figures and articles bettering the free and virtuous society. Visit R&L today.
Phone: (616) 454-3080
Fax: (616) 454-9454 | <urn:uuid:072a80c7-729e-41fa-b038-f000a9d2dfbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.acton.org/zh-hans/research/lord-acton | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961529 | 748 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: The Abunimah & Co's declaration also sparked a big debate within the One Democratic State (ODS) movement. It seems as if prominent Palestinians and intellectuals grasp that the declaration is inherently undemocratic, based on empty accusations and divisive. Noel Ignatiev published some of the comments.
More on the Atzmon Controversy
My previous posting consisted of an exchange I had with Gilad Atzmon, plus a comment from longtime antizionist Jeff Blankfort.
There is a statement signed by Palestinian academics and activists denouncing Atzmon for racism and antisemitism. It is at http://uspcn.org/2012/03/13/granting-no-quarter-a-call-for-the-disavowal-of-the-racism-and-antisemitism-of-gilad-atzmon/
Dear all, NOT IN MY NAME PLEASE. I express my deep sadness at the petition in the Electronic Intifada, a petition which is composed and signed by people whom I love and with whom I have been struggling for a vision of equality and peace in Palestine for years now. Gilad’s book, bravely, and on many levels, points at; touches; brings into language the existential complexities that link the Jewish and the Zionist questions. It cries out for making this link into a field of inquiry. The complexities of these links reflect both the depth to which any grasping of and responding to what is now happening in Palestine must traverse. It is controversial but so what? It is causing offence to some uncritically accepted coordinates of debate but so what? It may not be palatable or expedient but so what? There is absolutely no racism or any hatred in the book. It is written from love, from passionate truth-seeking and beyond all out of deep care for people, care for the being of people, both those who perpetrate violence and those who suffer at its hands. Indeed the book meditates on the origin of violence in Palestine, origin to which Zionism may be but a symptom. The accusation of racist anti-Semitism is a cynical attempt to prevent a question from being asked – an act of violence against questioning, against opening the possibility of self-questioning. We need a debate not petitions like this. It is precisely the lack of debate which serves simplistic views and structures of power. This refusal to touch a painful points, points that are in existential sense earlier than memory, is itself question-worthy. Why does anybody fall into a line of feigning ‘expediency’ so strongly like that? Touching the relationship between Zionism and Jewish being and thinking might well be needed precisely if anti-Zionism is to have any existential bite. I sense the force that leads to this petition and am despairing at it. At no time does it call for an engaging with, to take on board, accept, contest, disagree and inflect Gilad’s insights and pointers. This petition is written out of fear and political expediency. It caricaturises and then criticises the caricature. It is certainly not written out of dwelling together in the seeking of truth and justice. Can justice ever be achieved if truth, not merely of actions but also that being that brings these actions about, is not sought and brought into language? Ironically it is the statement that shows the urgency to canvass the insights it evades. We are all together. Together. There is something very telling and deep in this violent silencing and oblivious to freedom of speech, this blind conditioning of respect for the political stake that ought to unite all the people who struggle for justice in Palestine. I call for adopting the seeking of truth and the overcoming of existential fetters, as the objective of this political struggle.
Therefore, if the statement about Gilad finds its way to our website than it is with the greatest sadness and regret that I have to withdraw my name from the declaration as well as from the website, as no attempt is made to disassociate the commitment to the statement from the commitment to the Palestinian statement about Gilad.
With peace and love, Oren Oren Ben-Dor, anti-Zionist former Israeli residing in the UK
Indeed I oppose the attacks on Gilad. Apart from considerations of the right of people to voice alternative views, and their right to be heard, I do not believe it is appropriate for Palestinians in particular to get involved in what is largely an intra-Jewish dispute.
Ghada Karmi prominent Palestinian writer/activist in the UK
I agree with Oren and Ghada and will not have my name added to a statement denouncing Gil'ad Atzmon. I believe it is not up to us to censor opinions with which we do not agree, particularly on the anti-Zionist side, and I am saying this as a Jew and an Israeli citizen, albeit living and working in Ireland.
The discussions about him have taken far too much time and space, and as Lubna says, are diverting our attention from what is really important. If the group decides to publish this statement on the website, I will regrettably have to ask you to remove my name from the website and the list.
In peace and solidarity,
I agree with Ronit, Lubna, Oren, Sami, Ghada and others. Khalas. Those who feel strongly to add their name to support Condemning Gilad Atzmon can and should do it in personal capacity. We will not/should not post this on any group website. Those who want to post things on their individual sites should do so. Also those who wish to go to Munich or not go to Munich should also do it. But let us end this discussion here. It has taken far too much energy.
I would like to make 3 points:
1. I am in total agreement with Oren and Mazin and will not repeat their splendid responses. However, I want to add the following: a few days ago I received a call from a dear friend of mine who happens to be a professor of history, an orthodox-Jew who read most of Gilad's work including his recent book. This person stated categorically that Gilad is not an anti-Semite nor is he a holocaust denier nor is he a self hating Jew. His conclusions are the same as mine after several discussions which I had personally with Gild. This person's name is available for anyone to contact or if you wish, I will invite him to contribute to this discussion.
2. Being obsession with identity politics or any other subject does not make the person an anti-Semite. If we look at ourselves, each one of us is obsessed with one subject or another that can be easily labeled by the Zionists and their supporters as anti-Semitic. What does that make us? I read the petition and I, frankly speaking, find it to be and a hatchet job, offensive and demeaning to Palestinian sense of fair play and justice!
3. Dr. Nur mentions that "one of the principal German co-organiser of the one-state Munich conference is closely associated with Atzmon.. someone who openly campaigns for Atzmon and against the "Jewish anti-Zionists"... using a typically anti-Semitic language...". Can you please be specific as to the name of the person you are talking about and to the incidents of anti-Semitic language used? This is a serious charge and no one benefits from making such a baseless accusation.
The Munich Conference is initiated by ODS. The ODS Declaration is the basis of the One State Document which we are proud of. You were invited to be co-initiator and to have an equal input in the event out of respect and a desire to work together. In fact, the whole idea behind the Munich Conference is to bring all activists together and equally participate in the creation of the movement for ODS. What is anti-Semitic about it? Once again, I appeal to all of you to come together and work for advancing the cause of ODS and allow clear and coherent debate on related ideas to take place and to renounce the ways of the Zionists. I personally, professionally, and business wise suffered greatly from it and I certainly do not want anyone to be subjected to it!
Please forgive me if I offended anyone. It is not my intent!
Dr Samir Abed Rabo | <urn:uuid:76518c4b-6e92-494d-ab62-1581f3ad4b85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/noel-ignatiev-more-on-the-atzmon-controversy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958817 | 1,736 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Since Norfolk Southern made a big splash with the announcement of heritage paint schemes, I thought it might be time for BNSF to do the same. Norfolk Southern joined the ranks of railroads like Union Pacific, Amtrak, Iowa Interstate, and others who are honoring their past by painting locomotives in either accurate representations, or splashy renditions of predecessor paint schemes. Does a locomotive with a fancy paint scheme move freight more efficiently? The answer is no, but what a wonderful way for the railroads to give a great big nod to their rich history.If you think about it, BNSF could easily paint two locomotives for each representative predecessor. Starting with CB&Q, you could have the Chinese Red scheme, as well as the black and silver. Great Northern representatives could be orange and green, as well as Big Sky Blue. Or how about Northern Pacific's two-tone green, and the later yellow-and-black freight scheme? Of course, Santa Fe's Warbonnet red and silver would be a given, but how about one of the blue-and-yellow schemes as well? Don't forget about the Burlington Northern. The original BN stripe scheme, as well as the "whiteface" or "tiger stripe" scheme, would be just fine. Not to mention the Spokane, Portland & Seattle.
Graphic Designer Drew Halverson and I came up with several schemes that would look awesome on new BNSF locomotives. We "applied" these paint schemes on our own photos in Adobe PhotoShop. A few examples are shown here. Others in the series can be seen on the Trains Facebook page here:
Be sure you "like" the album and individual photos on our Facebook page if you agree that it would be great if BNSF would pay homage to its colorful past. Come on BNSF! You know you want to!
Your Norfolk Southern Heritage Unit HeadquartersNews Wire stories are free to subscribers: www.TrainsMag.comCheck out our exclusive gallery: www.TrainsMag.com/NSHeritageShare your photos of NS heritage units: www.flickr.com/groups/1884885@N24/Get hot updates: www.facebook.com/TrainsMagazine and www.Twitter.com/TrainsMagazineSubscribe to our free e-newsletter: www.TrainsMag.com
Also see Editor Jim Wrinn's blog: Norfolk Southern's heritage units sure are gorgeous, but they need nicknames; also the story behind 8099's odd suffix
CSX needs to do the same. I'd love to see a modern day Clinchfield Gray unit...
Very nice work! I love the chinese red Q and SP&S renditions especially. I was never a fan of the tiger stripe BN scheme (I thought it a horrible graphics faux pas), but that's a nit, even that looks great. I did kind of like the short-lived Grinstein green and cream scheme with the red accents though, so if you're polling, that would be my vote over the tiger stripes...
The Big Sky Blue just BELONGS on a big unit! Spectacular!
My roommate, Mauser, thinks it is time for Chessie to ride again. Come on, CSX, get with the program.
How about CSXT?
Maybe they can put BNSF to shame.
I'm in total agreement with all that's said. BOTH BNSF & CSX should pay a little tribute to their heritage. I know it's something they need to do for both veteran and new employees (i.e. never forget!).
Slightly off the BNSF topic, but I think UP needs to paint a newer loco in the Desert Cammo scheme, or resurrect the SD40-2 and make it for the troops of both Gulf I & Gulf II. OIF, etc needs a shout out. What do ya say Railroad Moguls?????
BNSF is in the process of rehabilitating the office cars parked outside their corporate offices in Fort Worth. It wasn't by accident that the cars come from Frisco, Santa Fe, Great Northern and Northern Pacific backgrounds. This would be a great place for the railroad to start honoring their heritage--imagine those with business coming up to the entrance to the campus and seeing rail cars in gleaming NCL two-tone green, Frisco grey and red, Great Northern Empire builder green and yellow and whatever Santa Fe painted their smooth-side business cars in (faux fluting?)!! It would be nice to see this happen, of course, what probably will likely happen is there cars will be clad in some sort of fluted stainless steel that reduces maintenance but hides their true identity, much like the cars in their business car fleet. Which would be a shame. Matt Rose, surprise us!
I hear Warren Buffet is a train enthusiast. Send the photos to him and I'll bet your wish comes true!
BNSF SHOULD do this, but they should also get there locomotives out of ATSF and BN paint. Norfolk Southern made sure that there was no locos in conrail paint when they released there Conrail Heritage unit. Of course i am fine if BNSF does both at the same time.
I guess that Matt Rose is a bit overrated in this theme.Kudos to Wick Moorman.
Most of CSX's predecessors had at least two different color schemes. I really liked those of both the B&O and the C&O.
I also like the idea of all the mainline roads honoring their heritage.
Specifically, I think GN really needs to be the Empire Builder color scheme- Pullman Green and Omaha Orange. The Big Sky colors were very short lived.
Given that the larger corporate partner was BN, but the operating philosophy and managerial style were all-ATSF, this remains a delicate decision. Lots of anger over the move to Ft. Worth from ATSF HQ at Jackson and Michigan in Chicago. Ex-BN folks know BNSF is operationally more like ATSF. Everyone wants the warbonnet. Who is waiting for cascade green? NP, GN, and SPS would be a delight along with CB&Q and Frisco.
Back in 1979 (or so), when I was still in college, I wrote to BN to suggest they repaint some locomotives in what are now known as "heritage" schemes in anticipation of the new company's 10th anniversary. I received a rather bemused reply saying that they had just managed to get all their locomotives painted BN green and that for the time being they wanted to enjoy their all-green fleet. However, they said I could suggest the idea again for the (then far-off) 25th anniversary in 1995. Looks like we're still working on it. | <urn:uuid:f6ec2526-f78f-498e-acf6-90fc29a181c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/staff/archive/2012/04/17/bnsf-it-s-time-for-heritage-locomotives.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965163 | 1,417 | 1.523438 | 2 |
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Happy Blog the Change Day everyone! There are some great causes today and I love reading about what matters most to my fellow pet bloggers. While there are tons of global causes super worthy of support, I’d like to bring the focus of this post more local. And not just local, but to the smallest of the local rescue & animal welfare groups.
There are so many animal groups out there that it can be hard to decide who to support, either with volunteer hours, money or both. I tend to be very locally oriented with my personal support. Obviously we care about animal welfare worldwide, but I tend to donate to my local rescues more than I do the giant corporation-like organizations. They do amazing work but I feel that the money I can afford to donate will go a lot further with small rescues. Every penny counts with these groups – it’s used to get the simplest things: towels, pet beds, toys, bowls, food, litter. Every little bit matters.
Central Texas Feline Rescue
I’ve seen this firsthand in my work with Central Texas Feline Rescue. We are a tiny group with no budget whatsoever that manages to feed over 200 ferals a day and trap-neuter-return (TNR) roughly 300 cats per year. Almost everything comes from our pockets, most of all from the founder. We are lucky to make $1500 at a fundraiser that takes months to plan. When we make that much it’s gone almost immediately, helping to buy a literal ton of cat food which only lasts a couple months. It’s hard and anything we get is so appreciated. Compare that to another local group that has a budget of something around 1.5 million dollars per year. You read that right! And that’s nothing compared to the huge organizations. Donations to them are important, obviously, and with that larger budget comes the ability to impact a greater number of animals lives. I am not against the big groups here – far from it. But for those of us who can only spare a few dollars here and there, it would be a larger comparative impact for the small group rather than the large one.
Hardships of Small Groups
It’s hard to be a small group. No one even knows you’re there. When every single volunteer spends every free second feeding & trapping & fostering & transporting, there’s no time for PR. There’s no time to put together huge fundraisers. There’s no time to even find more volunteers so each one has a lighter load! Besides that, even when you do look for volunteers, people would rather volunteer for or donate to a group that has more “face-value”, if you will. They want people to know what group they’re talking about when they tell people that’s who they’re helping. When you have a small group, it’s impossible to compete in contests to win money or donations of other kinds because there aren’t enough people to vote for you. It’s a numbers game and it keeps the small groups small.
Obviously all groups had to start with an idea and likely a tiny base of people. Some beat the odds and manage to make it to a well-established, well-known group. Good for them! That truly is fantastic! But for each one of them there are dozens of small groups who, despite a smaller reach, are still making important impacts in the lives of animals.
The Starfish Effect
We stand firmly behind our philosophy of The Starfish Effect: that every single act matters. No matter how small the group is, if they are working to help animals, then they are making a positive impact in the world. And that is why we have chosen to blog about their importance for today’s Be the Change post.
So what can you do? Go out and help! Find out what local groups in your area need the most help and whether it’s through a monetary donation or one of time, you can support them. Even the smallest rescue can make a big difference to one animal. | <urn:uuid:0053b75e-f93c-4c3a-ad45-5202151b4021> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://iloverescueanimals.org/2011/04/blog-the-change-help-your-small-local-rescues/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949081 | 854 | 1.53125 | 2 |
God Upholds the Humble of Heart, John Paul II Says
Comments on Psalm 146 at Wednesday's General Audience
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VATICAN CITY, JULY 23, 2003 (Zenit.org).- God lets himself be conquered by the humble, he rejects the arrogance of the proud, John Paul II said.
The Holy Father reflected on Psalm 146 with the 2,500 pilgrims gathered today for the general audience in the courtyard of the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, where he is spending his holidays.
The poetic composition of the Old Testament presents God "as a father who bends over the interior and physical wounds" of the human being.
"We are not abandoned to ourselves and to cosmic energies, but are always in the hands of the Lord, in keeping with his plan of salvation," the Pope said when contemplating this image of God.
The Holy Father then quoted a commentary of this Psalm delivered by St. Augustine in Carthage in 412: "The Lord heals him who has a broken heart. Whoever does not have a broken heart cannot be healed ... Who are those with a broken heart? The humble. And those who do not have broken hearts? The proud" (Expositions on the Psalms -- Esposizioni sui Salmi --, IV, Rome, 1977, pp. 772-779).
God, "who surrounds the poor with tenderness and care, appears as a severe judge when confronting the wicked. The Lord of history is not indifferent before the rage of the arrogant who think they are the only arbiters of human affairs: God brings down to the dust of the earth those who defy heaven with their pride," the Pope said.
The Psalm ends showing the Lord bending over the righteous and humble. In this way, it underlines again "the Lord's logic," which "ignores the pride and arrogance of the powerful."
God "places himself on the side of the one who is faithful" and who "hopes in his steadfast love,' that is, "who is abandoned to God's guidance in his acting and thinking, in his plans and in his daily life," the Holy Father continued.
The hope of the believer is based on God's grace, "certain of being enveloped in the mantle of divine love."
Thus John Paul II continued with the series of weekly meditations he has been offering since March 28, 2001. These may be read in the "Wednesday's Audience" section of ZENIT's web page (http://www.zenit.org/english/audience/). | <urn:uuid:a4c26014-110a-48fe-8bd9-1c1eec7ef444> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/god-upholds-the-humble-of-heart-john-paul-ii-says | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955827 | 538 | 1.617188 | 2 |
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|Description ||Barbrook II, Derbyshire (SK278758)
View south towards Big Moor. Arrow indicates alignment with stones on Big Moor that could be possibly in a circle -SK273757 (not on DEFRA but there again neither is Barbrook II.|
|Pam Cook |
|Interesting photo because Barbrook II has now been rebuilt by Archaeologists as they think it was using stone hole marks etc. It is worth taking this photo with you and contrasting it with it now. It is surrounded by many cairns, barrows, and barrows with cists. Also a magnet for 'pagans'.|
| Thanks for this Rich; could be up here tomorrow!|
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Megalithic Portal eGallery, images of megaliths and prehistoric sites worldwide, free to view. | <urn:uuid:12e0c0ea-7d72-41c7-94dd-dfb5da5e590f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=a312&file=index&do=showpic&gid=26&pid=3353&orderby=dateA | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910212 | 243 | 1.5 | 2 |
The Center seeks to accomplish its important mission through research, consultation, innovation, dissemination, and facilitation. Through research, the Center identifies and studies important emerging ethical leadership issues. Through consultation, it assists high-level leaders in tackling complex ethical leadership issues. Through innovation, the Center develops new ways to strengthen and accelerate ethical leadership development. The Center disseminates its learning and innovations via lectures, print publications, and multi-media, made available on the Web. Through facilitation, the Center connects people, programs, and experiences. Through these efforts, and our broad reach and impact, the Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership achieves its bold vision:
Midshipman programs are intended to help foster the seven attributes of a Naval Academy graduate that the academy has distilled as the concrete expression of the Navy values of honor courage and commitment:
- Selfless leaders who value diversity and create an ethical command climate through their example of personal integrity and moral courage.
- Mentally resilient and physically fit officers, who inspire their team to accomplish the most challenging missions, including leading in combat.
- Technically and academically proficient professionals with a commitment to continual learning.
- Critical thinkers and creative decision makers with a bias for action.
- Effective communicators.
- Adaptable individuals who understand and appreciate global and cross-cultural dynamics.
- Role models dedicated to the profession of arms, the traditions and values of the Naval Service and the constitutional foundation of the United States.
Among the midshipmen programs sponsored by the Stockdale Center are the Lawrence Ethics Essay Awards, the Annual Moral Courage lecture, the Stutt lecture series, an exchange program with the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) unit at the University of San Diego, Ethics Bowl competitions, publication of the book Ethical Leadership for the Junior Officer, the Service Academy Program of the Auschwitz Jewish Center of Poland/New York, and the Low Ropes leadership training program
Navy, Marine Corps and National Programs
The Stockdale Center supports ethical leadership programs in the Navy and Marine Corps and networks with civilian organizations and institutions that have strong commitments to such leadership programs. Representatives from the Stockdale Center regularly consult around the country, and around the world on matters of ethics and leadership. The Stockdale Center also offers innovative teaching tools which utilize research on ethical decision making that was carried out by staff, on this web site.
Faculty and Staff Programs
The Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership undertakes efforts to ensure that faculty and staff are integral partners in the development of the Brigade's leadership, character, and ethics. The Center annually selects a diverse group of faculty from within the Academy and outside as visiting Fellows. The Fellows are provided opportunity to do research in the fields of leadership, character development, and ethics, as well as the opportunity to teach in the Naval Academy's core leadership and/or ethics courses. | <urn:uuid:277f21a9-b8b3-4492-80bf-73b068b0566d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usna.edu/Ethics/programs/program_index.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92452 | 591 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Hospital embraces mobile technology to boost services [Business Daily (Kenya)]
(Business Daily (Kenya) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Many businesses, including start-ups, have embraced technology in their bid to gain an edge in a competitive market. One such organisation is Jacaranda Health, a maternity hospital off Thika Road.
The hospital was established about two years ago to provide antenatal care to pregnant women. However, use of technology has set it apart among its peers and established hospitals.
According to the hospital's operations associate Christine Osia, the hospital effectively uses mobile technology in its daily operations.
At the registration stage is the Commcare, a mobile application, which is used to obtain information about patients where details are keyed into a mobile phone and then uploaded into the hospital's record management system. The information is then transmitted to the back office where it is stored in a database.
"Most organisations use computers to record information about their clients but we chose the mobile phone because it is relatively cheaper and easier to use," says Ms Osia.
So instead of computers, which often require large desk space, patients will only find nurses with mobile phones at the registration desk ready to serve them.
Once a patient is registered, one is given a booklet which contains one's details including a unique identification number, which would be used to retrieve the details in case of a follow-up visit, explains Ms Osia. The database is, however, backed up by a manual register should the system fail.
Apart from the Commcare Technology, Jacaranda Health also has what is known to its patients as Mamakiba, a scheme which enables women to prepay for their delivery bill through a mobile phone.
"Clients who come for antenatal visits can use their unique identity numbers to deposit to Mamakiba through M-Pesa or Airtel money," says Ms Osia.
She adds that this technology helps pregnant mothers to save so as to reduce for them the burden of paying a huge bill at the time of delivery.
"Delivery costs Sh7,900 in this hospital, that means that a client can save as low as Sh27 per day through Mamakiba," says Ms Osia.
However, she says, the system is still new and it has not been widely accepted by many patients.
"It was introduced last year and we have only managed to get 20 patients to use it because most of them are sceptical about it," says Ms Osia. "But with thorough explanation and engagement with the patients, we have managed to demystify it."
Catherine Wangeci, one of the patients who recently used the service says it helps to plan ahead of delivery.
"I have visited several clinics but I have never seen such a service. It helped me a lot," said Ms Wangeci.
There is also a mobile clinic where the Commcare technology comes in handy. The clinic which was introduced immediately after the establishment of the health facility in July 2011, visits churches and schools to mobilise potential clients and get them to register with the hospital.
"Our mobile clinic locations are mainly in churches along Thika road including Githurai 44, Githurai 45, Mwiki, Kariobangi, Ruiru and Thika," says Ms Osia.
During the visits, clients register through the Comcare system on location.
"That is one of the benefits of Comcare technology, it can send data from a remote location without an Internet connection," she adds.
She says that the hospital uses touch screen Android mobile smartphones for faster service because they are easier to use than the normal ones.The prospective clients also receive SMSs on location of mobile clinic, tips on health, reminders of their next antenatal visits and promotions on offer.
"All they need to do is send a free SMS with the abbreviation JM followed by their names to 7288 and they will automatically be registered in our system as prospective clients and necessary information sent back to them," she says.
The mobile technology has not been widely used by public and private hospitals. Kenyatta National Hospital, the largest referral facility in country, for instance, has only digitised its records management system for one of its department.
Late last year, East, Central and South African Health Community in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health introduced the use of mobile phone in antenatal care in Bondo District Hospital on a pilot basis before rolling it out to other parts of Africa.
Health facilities are expected to use the mobile technology to remind pregnant mothers and their spouses of the dates they are supposed to visit a clinic so as to improve antenatal care.
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[ Back To Technology News's Homepage ] | <urn:uuid:2c9e92cd-d698-473f-939d-69d2903f9c67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://technews.tmcnet.com/news/2013/03/11/6983614.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965888 | 995 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The exhibition opening's guest speaker, Phillip "Pep" Parotti, a 1959 graduate of the State Teachers College High School, which was located on the campus on the same site where Centennial Hall was later built. Parotti's talk, titled "State Teachers College: Way Back When," will begin at 5 p.m. in the museum's classroom.
WNMU has not always been known by its current name. The period in which it was called State Teachers College, one of the university's four names through its 120-year history is the subject of the museum's newest exhibit, the second in a four part series on the history of the institution.
Memories of the State Teachers College 1923-1949 features photographs, yearbooks, diplomas, newspaper clippings and memorabilia, including a WWII WAVES uniform once worn by former WNMU professor emeritus Dr. Dorothy Blalock. Highlighted throughout the exhibition are memories and recollections from State Teachers College and State Teachers College High School alumni and professors such as Paul Hunter, Murray Ryan, Ray Brancheau, Jesse Bingaman, Tim Brancheau, Abramo Parotti, Inez Rhoades, Jimmy Stone, Dillon Stone, and Hazel Sechler. Showcased in the exhibition is the only Mustang jersey retired in the history of the institution, Ralph Craig's #10 football jersey. Normally
Parotti is son to the late Abramo Parotti, former WNMU band director for which Parotti Hall is named. Parotti will share his insights growing up visiting campus and recollecting stories of his father's tenure in the music program.
Memories of the State Teachers College 1923-1949 will run through July 14. The exhibition is funded in part by student fees from the Associated Students of WNMU. | <urn:uuid:1b93b4d9-84f0-402a-b168-94c0774e2883> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scsun-news.com/silver_city-community/ci_22836683?source=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972608 | 372 | 1.578125 | 2 |
|Product #: ETLC10352_TQ|
Washington Crossing the Delaware (Resource Book Only) eBookGrade 1|Grade 2|Grade 3|Grade 4
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Washington Crossing the Delaware - it's one of the most famous paintings of the Revolutionary War. But is it accurate? Do your students understand what was happening in the picture? Do they have any inkling of the pain and effort and courage involved in that event? Through a variety of creative activities, students will discover the truths behind the picture - not only what happened that night, but what led up to it and what happened as a result of it. Poetry, discussion, role play, games and other activities will bring the Revolutionary War into your classroom! Students will learn that war causes pain and hardship for everyone, even those at home. They'll put themselves in the place of the soldier - hungry, cold, lonely, underpaid and afraid and they'll discover the horrors of medical treatment in the 1700s.
Submit a review | <urn:uuid:54064f87-641e-46aa-90b9-a81f143c502a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.schoodoodle.com/page_93865_1492/washington-crossing-the-delaware | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952239 | 266 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Compartment syndrome is a serious condition that involves increased pressure in a muscle compartment. It can lead to muscle and nerve damage and problems with blood flow.
Thick layers of tissue, called fascia, separate groups of muscles in the arms and legs from each other. Inside each layer of fascia is a confined space, called a compartment. The compartment includes the muscle tissue, nerves, and blood vessels. Fascia surrounds these structures, similar to the way in which insulation covers wires.
Fascia do not expand. Any swelling in a compartment will lead to increased pressure in that area, which will press on the muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. If this pressure is high enough, blood flow to the compartment will be blocked. This can lead to permanent injury to the muscle and nerves. If the pressure lasts long enough, the muscles may die and the limb may need to be amputated.
Swelling that leads to compartment syndrome occurs from trauma such as a car accident or crush injury, or surgery. Swelling can also be caused by complex fractures or soft tissue injuries due to trauma.
Long-term (chronic) compartment syndrome can be caused by repetitive activities, such as running. The pressure in a compartment only increases during that activity.
Compartment syndrome is most common in the lower leg and forearm, although it can also occur in the hand, foot, thigh, and upper arm.
The hallmark symptom of compartment syndrome is severe pain that does not go away when you take pain medicine or raise the affected area. In more severe cases, symptoms may include:
- Decreased sensation
- Paleness of skin
- Severe pain that gets worse
Exams and Tests
A physical exam will reveal:
- Pain when the compartment is squeezed
- Severe pain when you move the affected area (for example, a person with compartment syndrome in the foot or lower leg will experience severe pain when moving the toes up and down)
- Swollen and shiny skin
To confirm the diagosis, the health care provider will directly measure the pressure in the compartment. This is done using a needle attached to a pressure meter into the compartment. The needle is inserted into the affected area. Specific pressure measurements will lead to a diagnosis of compartment syndrome.
When the health care provider suspects chronic compartment syndrome, this test must be performed during and after the activity that causes pain.
Surgery is needed. Long surgical cuts are made through the fascia to relieve the pressure. The wounds can be left open (covered with a sterile dressing) and closed during a second surgery, usually 48 - 72 hours later. Skin grafts may be needed to close the wound.
If a cast or bandage is causing the problem, the dressing should be loosened or cut down to relieve the pressure.
With prompt diagnosis and treatment, the outlook is excellent for recovery of the muscles and nerves inside the compartment. However, the overall prognosis will be determined by the injury leading to the syndrome.
Permanent nerve injury and loss of muscle function can result if the diagnosis is delayed. This is more common when the injured person is unconscious or heavily sedated and cannot complain of pain. Permanent nerve injury can occur after 12 - 24 hours of compression.
Complications include permanent injury to nerves and muscles that can dramatically impair function. (See: Volkmann's ischemia)
In more severe cases, amputation may be required.
When to Contact a Medical Professional
Call your health care provider if you have had an injury and have severe swelling or pain that does not improve with pain medications.
There is probably no way to prevent this condition; however, early diagnosis and treatment will help prevent many of the complications.
Persons with casts need to be made aware of the risk of swelling. They should see their health care provider or go to the emergency room if pain under the cast increases despite pain medicines and raising the area.
Twaddle BC, Amendola A. Compartment syndrome. In: Browner BD, Jupiter JB, Levine AM, Trafton PG, Krettek C, eds. Skeletal Trauma. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier;2008:chap 13.
Geiderman JM, Katz D. General principles of orthopedic injuries. In: Marx J, ed. Rosen’s Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 7th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby Elsevier; 2009:chap 46.
Jobe MT. Compartment syndromes and Volkmann contracture. In: Canale ST, Beaty JH, eds. Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics. 11th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby Elsevier;2007:chap 71.
Linda J. Vorvick, MD, Medical Director, MEDEX Northwest Division of Physician Assistant Studies, Unviersity of Washington School of Medicine; and C. Benjamin Ma, MD, Assistant Professor, Chief, Sports Medicine and Shoulder Service, UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. © 1997-
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The European Union (EU) has asked its citizens to brace for further economic misery. In a report on European economic prospects released on May 3, the European Commission said that further deterioration is expected to last at least until 2015. But, as every such report says, things will then get better.
For a long time it was a given that while Europe was based on defending a more just society, with social values and solidarity, the United States was based on the glory of individualism and competition, and anything public was considered “socialist”.
The flood of elegiac articles on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is in itself a good measure of how we have all become Thatcherites without realising it. Only those who are not graced by a young age can see how the world and politics have changed so deeply since her days that it is correct to call her a “great revolutionary”.
What is Hugo Chávez's legacy to Latin America? The best way to evaluate a head of state is to examine what is left behind after his or her death. In the case of Chávez, his image is obscured by a series of ideological and cultural prejudices that hide a clear perception of who he was.
For those who think that Occupy Wall Street, the Indignados in Spain, the World Social Forum and the numerous manifestations of protest worldwide are expressions without concrete outcomes, the result of the Swiss referendum on Mar. 3 on capping the salaries and bonuses of banks executives should make them think twice.
The victory of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the recent Japanese elections, with Shinzo Abe coming back as prime minister after five years, will probably mean an escalation of tensions with China. Both countries are embarking on a fresh burst of nationalism, but for different reasons.
In the 1980s, Japan was the dragon of the world. All cutting edge technology cars, gadgets, cameras, medical equipment and new management systems came from Japan. Then the country started to slow down, and it basically went to sleep.
From time to time, we read about the confrontation between Japan and China over some insignificant islands, called the Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China, which are also claimed by Taiwan. Japan also faces claims by South Korea over the Dodko islets, called Takeshima in Japan.
Hardly a week goes by without the disclosure of some new banking scandal. The most recent is the New York State Department of Financial Services' accusation of Britain's Standard Chartered of laundering 250 billion dollars in transactions considered potentially supportive of terrorist activities. Standard Chartered, until now believed to be one of the cleanest banks, agreed on August 14 to pay a gigantic fine of 340 million dollars to stop criminal prosecution.
Like passengers on a ship in a storm, European banks and governments are holding onto each other in a precarious embrace.
A recurrent prediction of western politicians says that China, with its economic development, will inevitably transform itself into a democracy. Nonetheless, after five weeks traveling around the country, I have no doubt that if there were elections today, the Communist Party (CCP) would win elections with a wide majority.
Xie Jing is 15 years old and belongs to the generation that in 2020, according to predictions, will see China transformed into the major world economic power. But Xie has no political or cultural interest. His generation is very different from previous ones. She lives in her own world, completely globalized, where the North American life style is the main reference point. She dresses herself as a North American teenager, listens to the same music, has the same idols and the same relation with the Internet and virtual world. The governmental newspaper, China Daily published two striking articles. On the 28th of October it revealed that electronic matrimony became very popular amongst youngsters. A game called cybermarriage registered one million participants in the first month. It is calculated that the electronic matrimonies have reached 30 million subscribers, and that 70% of the "married couples" are under 18.
There is not one day going by now without devastating news of the eternal tug-of-war between finance and states. Now we are informed that the Greek government, in order to continue receiving useless subsidies (since it won't solve its problems) will lay off another 30,000 employees. It is difficult to understand how a country that is suffering a critical contraction of its consumption will be able to exit a cruel downward spiral that will cause serious social deficits, without solving its fiscal deficit. However, the banks are not willing to eliminate any of their bad practices that have caused the current crisis.
Anyone who discusses international affairs with Americans quickly becomes aware of a fundamental change in syntax without which they find it impossible to converse. The subject of every sentence has to be the United States. If China, India, or Germany, for example, are the focus, the attention of the American interlocutor will waver -unless, perhaps the subject is Israel. The US is the only possible subject of discussion for Americans,with the obvious exception of the cultural elites and US citizens doing business around the world.
Before anything else what we need today is a paradigm to diagnose and address the many grave global problems that face us all but are experienced differently in the various regions of the world. Because in Europe the crisis is more evident and is causing the suffering of tens of millions of people, the young especially, we must take it as reality. | <urn:uuid:9bbada4b-1d68-4542-a132-ce953f01d1c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ipsnews.net/author/roberto-savio/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967052 | 1,111 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The Canary Islands, exquisite cuisine under the sun
The Spanish often refer to the Canary Islands as the "Islas Afortunadas" as the shine shines practically throughout the year, their only borders are the sky and the sea, and because their fauna, flora and culture, at time so different to that of mainland Spain, are real treasures. However, perhaps it would be more appropriate to call the visitor to these islands "fortunate"; not only because he can enjoy the sun, sea and environment but also because he has been presented with the opportunity to taste their culinary delights.
The typical person from the Canary Islands is noble, kind, with deep-routed traditions yet a great sense of humour, all of which are reflected in the cooking - the simple, nutritive and appetising dishes are the result of the Canary Island tradition. 查看更多
Tasty and simple
Simplicity is the key. The cooking is so simple that one of the main ingredients found in the majority of its dishes is the gofio. Gofio, roasted maize or wheat meal, can be served at breakfast, as an accompaniment to island stews and is even used to prepare a special variety of local nougat. Their "mojos" are equally straightforward - piquant sauces which are served with the majority of local dishes. The "mojo picón" (pepper, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, cumin, salt and paprika) and the "mojo verde" (made based on parsley and coriander, and with a milder taste), have become real culinary institutions in the Canary Islands. But there are many more variations of "mojos": they can be made using coriander ; garlic ; saffron , ideal with fish; the cheese ; the goat's cheese and tomato paste; and for special occasions, the unique "mojo palmero" which is from La Palma. The Canary Islands is on route to America and therefore in the past its cuisine became influenced by American products: the tomato and the potato or "papa". This tuber is the origin of which has undoubtedly become one of the most famous and typical dishes of the Canary Islands: the "papas arrugadas", small potatoes cooked in their skins in very salty water (if possible, seawater) and are served accompanied by a piquant sauce, usually "mojo verde" or "mojo rojo".
Fish and piquant sauces
Fish is a vital component of the dishes of all islands and here the Canary Islands are no exception. The fish is of very high quality: wreckfish, damselfish, dentex, sea bass, white sea bream, bogue, mackerel... and most importantly, parrot fish. There are three typical ways of preparing the fish - in a casing of salt, lightly fried and baked, or "jareado" (dried in the sun and seasoned). Dogfish is the main ingredient of "tollos", a typical local dish... The traditional "sancocho" is also made with fish (salted fish, soaked overnight and then boiled with partly-peeled "papas" and served with a piquant fish, normally "mojo picón" or "mojo verde"). As can be expected, apart from fish, shellfish is also abundant in an archipelago. The most typical type in the Canary Islands are the limpets during the summer months which are usually grilled. However, we must not forget the "burgado" - a type of marine snail - and the clam. All types of meat are served in the Canary Islands. The visitor must not leave without tasting rabbit cooked in "salmorejo" - a type of thick gazpacho. But of course there is also kid or beef. And to finish off the meal, the visitor can choose between "bienmesabes" - honey with ground almonds, yams and "truchas navideñas" - small pastries filled with sweet potato, almonds and raisons or pumpkin strands in syrup, "quesadillas" - small cheese-flavoured rolls from the island of Hierro, "torta vilana" - made from eggs, potatoes and sugar from La Gomera, marzipan and macaroons from Gran Canaria, "rapaduras" - a honey and almond sweet from La Palma, and many other exquisite desserts.
A fruit paradise
The climate in the Canary Islands, very different to the rest of Spain, is perfect for the cultivation of certain types of fruit which could be qualified as tropical. To only mention the banana, as it is the most representative product of the islands, is not sufficient. There are many other varieties of fruit. Papaya, melon pear, peach, mango, avocado and pineapple are some of the fruits that the traveller can find in the Canary Islands.
Wines and restaurants
These islands also house ten wine Denominations of Origin: Abona, El Hierro, Lanzarote, La Palma, Tacoronte-Acentejo, Valle de Güimar, Valle de la Orotava, Icoden-Daute-Isora, Monte Lentiscal and Gran Canaria. The islands also have their own local drinks which are worth tasting, such as banana liqueur, or its own rum concoction, honeyed rum. Other liqueurs made with fruits are currently being developed. The visitor to the Canary Island archipelago must not leave without paying a visit to the restaurant called Mesón el Drago, which has been awarded with two suns in the CAMPSA Guide and is located on Tenerife island; Anthurium in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which has been awarded one sun by the CAMPSA Guide and specialises in typical products of the Canary Islands, adapting them to modern recipes; and, with the same classification, El Cucharón in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; El Jable and El Coto de Antonio in Tenerife. In the neighbourhood of Vegueta, also in Las Palmas, is the excellent restaurant called Cho-Zacarías.
版权所有 Turespaña / Segittur © 2013
网站管理方： Sociedad Estatal para la Gestión de la Innovación y las Tecnologías Turísticas, S.A. (SEGITTUR) | <urn:uuid:f6da639e-be4a-418e-83d9-7248a262cad4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spain.info/zh/saborea/cocina-regional/canarias/canarias.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93494 | 1,364 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Ikea finds horse meat in Russian hot dogs
Ikea also withdraws almond cake in 23 countries after bacteria found
It's another case of horse meat being found in products that are not supposed to contain it.
Furniture giant Ikea said Thursday it pulled hot dogs from its stores in Russia after tests revealed they contained rogue horse meat.
Dozens of processed meat products have been pulled by European suppliers, retailers and food outlets in the past several weeks after the discovery of unauthorized horse meat in them.
Ikea said in a statement Thursday it had undertaken wide-scale testing of its meat products from different suppliers in all its markets.
"The vast majority of these tests show no indication of horse meat. However, there are also a few tests that do. In those cases we remove the product from sales," the company said.
"IKEA Group is committed to serving and selling high quality food that is safe, healthy and produced with care for the environment."
The test result from Russia concerns locally produced hot dogs and only affects the Russian market, Ikea said.
The alert over the hot dogs has added to what has been a difficult couple of weeks for Ikea.
Ten days ago, the company suspended sales of its Swedish meatballs after testing in the Czech Republic revealed traces of horse DNA.
Testing since has revealed the presence of horse meat in a few samples of Ikea meatballs from a supplier in Sweden, the firm said Thursday.
Ikea also said Tuesday it was withdrawing its almond cake with chocolate and butterscotch from sale in 23 countries after traces of coliform bacteria -- organisms found in the environment and in the feces of warm-blooded animals and humans -- were found in two batches.
The horse meat scandal has extended across Europe, with questions raised over slaughterhouses and food suppliers in a number of countries.
The UK Food Standards Agency released the results Friday of the latest round of testing ordered on products labeled beef across the UK food industry.
So far, more than 99 percent of tests continue to show no horse DNA at or above the level of 1 percent, it said.
Horse meat is not harmful in itself but authorities are concerned by its unauthorized presence in case it is tainted with a veterinary drug used to treat horses. Phenylbutazone, also known as bute, is not allowed to enter the food chain because it can pose a risk to humans.
The European Union said last month it intends to begin testing meat across all 27 member states.
Copyright 2013 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:28a5d2cc-c26f-4b65-804d-985ee16275c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcra.com/news/money/Ikea-finds-horse-meat-in-Russian-hot-dogs/-/11797182/19219682/-/view/print/-/133b10mz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971413 | 540 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Friday, September 11, 2009
Washington's Rosslyn Chapel
Many people are familiar legends surrounding Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin, Scotland, near Edinburgh. More properly called the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, it was built beginning in 1446 by Sir William St. Claire, Prince of Orkney as part of a larger cathedral that was never completed. Sir William, who died in 1484, was buried in the chapel. It is asserted by some that Sir William had secretly been a Knight Templar, and his chapel has long been the center of wild speculation, variously claimed to be connected to the Knights Templar, Freemasons, Holy Grail seekers and pop-culture pilgrims in search of Dan Brown’s “Sacred Feminine” mystery. From its incredibly detailed carvings to its possible connection with Templars who may have been hiding from the Pope’s wrath after their excommunication, Rosslyn is a true enigma.
Rosslyn is also the name of a neighborhood just across the Potomac on the southeast corner of Washington D.C. Is it named after the mysterious chapel in Scotland, and does it hold some clue to the mysteries of Washington D.C.?
According to researcher Ian Kendall, of the 1,974 communities and neighborhoods in the District of Columbia, 342 of them, or 17.3 percent, are named after Scotsmen, Scottish locations or Scottish words—one of the highest urban concentrations of Scottish place names in the United States. (Nearby Baltimore has a similar concentration.) Obviously, a lot of Scotsmen roamed the banks of the Potomac in the 18th century. So it’s entirely possible that some Midlothian Scot in the 1700s decided to name his patch of land after Rosslyn Chapel.
The mystery gets even stranger when Rosslyn, Virginia, is located on a map, just across the river from what was once known as Mason’s Island (named after George Mason, who wasn’t a Freemason), now called Theodore Roosevelt Island (named after a famous Freemason president), at the base of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. A bridge named after a Freemason passes over Mason’s Island, pointing at Rosslyn in a direct line from the White House!
It is a minor footnote in Washington’s history, but in 1866, there was a suggestion put forth in Congress to move the Presidential Mansion to a different location. The White House had not been expanded yet, and sewage from the city canal dumping into the nearby Potomac River, combined with the surrounding swampland, made the area less than pleasant on a hot, humid day. A commission was appointed to find a new place within the district that would provide room to build a larger mansion, nestled in more pleasant surroundings. The commission, led by Major Nathaniel Michler, chose what would become Rock Creek Park. The idea of moving the White House died out quickly, but the land Michler recommended was purchased and was turned into one of the largest city parks in America.
Now let’s engage in a little “sacred geometry” of our own. Draw a line north from the White House, up the 16th Street Meridian Line, clear up to Rock Creek Park where the presidential mansion would have been built. Draw another line straight west from the White House, across the river, creating a right angle. The third leg of this triangle crosses diagonally over the Potomac by way of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, connecting Rock Creek Park and Rosslyn. Could the “Key” of Solomon be the Key Bridge, pointing the way to a modern-day Rosslyn chapel?
There really is a temple dead center in Rosslyn, Virginia, and, as hoary legends and present-day potboilers suggest, it really does have a treasure buried in its underground vaults. The Arlington Temple United Methodist Church is at 1835 N. Nash Street in Rosslyn, and if you’re looking for symbolism, it rivals the original Rosslyn Chapel as one of the most peculiar churches ever constructed. The ground floor of this multi-story building is a Chevron gas station. When the church was built in the 1970s, the founders wanted it to have a reliable source of income, so the filling station was designed into the original plans.
With oil prices being what they are today, I can’t think of a bigger buried treasure than subterranean fuel tanks filled with $3.00 a gallon premium...
(Portions of this article appeared in Solomon's Builders: Freemasons, Founding Fathers and the Secrets of Washington DC) | <urn:uuid:a1930f32-bc12-4fa6-a548-8786e0bb40c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freemasonsfordummies.blogspot.com/2009/09/washingtons-rosslyn-chapel.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96777 | 951 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Soccer made its debut at the Paralympic Games in 1984. The U.S. team first competed in the 1992 Barcelona Games. The best U.S. finish was a fourth-place finish during the 1996 Atlanta Games. The U.S. team regularly competes in several additional international tournaments, including the Pan American Championships, the World Championships, the World Cup, and several "friendly" tournaments.
Paralympic soccer is played on a 75 x 55m field with a 5 x 2m goal. The sport follows the standard FIFA rules for seven-a-side soccer with the following exceptions: there is no off-side rule, an under-arm throw-in is permitted if a player is physically unable to execute a throw-in according to FIFA rules, opposing players are required to be seven meters from the ball on restarts, and the game is played during two 30-minute halves.
Paralympic soccer competition is open to male athletes with cerebral palsy/brain injury/stroke.
E-mail your questions about soccer. Find a local program in your community - visit the Paralympic Resource Network. | <urn:uuid:a69f67a8-dbd7-43be-9fe8-03b8a3194cce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teamusa.org/US-Paralympics/Sports/Soccer.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963622 | 233 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Question 623002: how to solve: -3(2x-3)^+6 all divided by 3 =0
I have an answer of 3+-square root of 2 all divided by 2 but am stuck at trying to simplify it further Answer by jsmallt9(3296) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Your solution is correct and you are correct in that it will not simplify further. So what you have should be acceptable as a solution to your equation.
All you could do, if anything, is...
Rewrite the two solutions separately:
Use your calculator to find decimal approximations for the solutions. | <urn:uuid:c140de16-f87e-42ba-a473-f7bc3b76c137> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/quadratic/Quadratic_Equations.faq.question.623002.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949352 | 139 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The Sierra Club and Earthjustice released a Notice of Intent to Sue the Homer City Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant, today on the grounds that the Homer City plant has violated the Clean Air Act. The Sierra Club also released new air pollution modeling which showed that the coal-fired power plant’s current permit allows it to release pollution in excess of the limits the Environmental Protection Agency sets to protect human health.
At a press conference today, local families affected by pollution from the Homer City Generating Station joined the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, Greenpeace, Interfaith Power and Light and the Coalition for a Healthy County (Indiana County) in calling for the plant’s closure. Local residents described the health effects local pollution has had on their communities, including increased asthma rates and respiratory illnesses. Data from the Clean Air Task Force estimates that pollution from the Homer City power plant contributes to 43 premature deaths, 72 heart attacks and 660 asthma attacks annually.
Today’s Notice of Intent alleges that Homer City has actually been emitting enough sulfur dioxide pollution to violate its air pollution permit under the Clean Air Act, in some places causing ambient concentrations of sulfur dioxide more than double the health-based limit set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We are bringing suit against the Homer City Generating Station to protect its neighbors’ health,” said Charles McPhedran, staff attorney for Earthjustice. “Sulfur dioxide is an extremely harmful pollutant, and this plant is among the worst polluters in the United States. It’s time for Homer City to clean up its act.”
In addition, the Sierra Club released a modeling report showing that—at emission levels currently permitted by the State—Homer City has the potential to violate the Environmental Protection Agency’s health-based limits for sulfur dioxide pollution across a vast area, and urging Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection to step in and tighten up Homer City’s permit to protect the public’s health.
The Homer City Generating Station’s primary owner is General Electric; it is operated by a subsidiary of Edison International. Edison’s subsidiary, EME Homer City Generation L.P., has proposed pollution controls commonly known as “scrubbers” for the plant, but today’s findings reveal that the limits Homer City is proposing will not remove enough pollution in the air to allow them to meet the EPA’s health-based safety limits.
In proposing to approve new pollution controls for the Homer City plant, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is requiring emissions from Homer City to comply with federal safeguards known as the National Ambient Air Quality Standard—the standard that today’s report indicates Homer City cannot meet.
“Our report’s dispersion modeling indicates a widespread problem: we are potentially exposed to sulfur dioxide far above safe levels, and the unsafe area is huge, extending well beyond the localized area surrounding Homer City. A more realistic goal for EME Homer City would be to create a long term commitment to bringing green jobs to Indiana County through renewable energy systems,” said Nancy F. Parks, Clean Air Chair for the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sierra Club.
The Homer City Generating Station released the most sulfur dioxide of any plant in the United States in 2010. Sulfur dioxide is a major air pollutant and is linked to respiratory illnesses, heart disease and asthma attacks. The station has also sued the EPA to block the implementation of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which would save lives and reduce healthcare costs by limiting the amount of pollution power plants are permitted to emit into downwind states. | <urn:uuid:4c0381fb-5fdc-4834-a400-340f5506b329> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2012/sierra-club-earthjustice-to-sue-homer-city-generating-station-for-air-pollution-in-violation-of-clean-air-act | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93005 | 749 | 2.734375 | 3 |
National Groundwater Committee
Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2004
About the publication
Sustainable groundwater yield is defined as:
"The groundwater extraction regime, measured over a specified planning timeframe, that allows acceptable levels of stress and protects dependent economic, social, and environmental values."
This definition is based on adopting the following approach to its implementation:
It is recognised that sustainable groundwater yield should be expressed in the form of an extraction regime, not just an extraction volume. The concept is that a regime is a set of management practices that are defined within a specified time (or planning period) and space. Extraction limits may be expressed in volumetric quantity terms and may further specify the extraction or withdrawal regime by way of accounting rules and/or rates of extraction over a given period and/or impact, water level or quality trigger rules. The limits may be probabilistic and/or conditional.
An often-used means of defining the extraction regime has been by way of a maximum volume that may be taken in any single year. In some cases, where draw beyond the rate of recharge may be acceptable, it may be only for a specified period, after which time the rate may be less than the rate of recharge to compensate. In some cases and under specific circumstances (for example, high or low rainfall years) the amount of water that may be taken may be greater or less than the longer-term value and the conditions for this can be specified. | <urn:uuid:1f490516-3b43-467b-9322-0ff945459a4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.environment.gov.au/water/publications/environmental/groundwater/annex-a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900107 | 296 | 3.15625 | 3 |
DHAKA: The ‘Safe Motherhood Day-2012’ is being observed in the country Monday with the slogan `Ensure safe motherhood, build healthy nation`.
Different government and non-government organizations have undertaken elaborate programmes to observe the day.
The inaugural ceremony of the programmes was held at Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 10:00am.
With secretary of the ministry M Humayun Kabir in the chair, the function was addressed, among others, by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. AFM Ruhal Haque, PM`s Advisor on Health and Family Welfare Dr Syed Modasser Ali, State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mujibur Rahman Fakir, director general of Department of Family Planning Amir Hossain and director general of Department of Health Khandakar Mohammad Shefayetullah.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged all to remain careful about safe delivery of every new born and take part actively in the government efforts to ensure health of mothers and their babies to build a healthy nation.
She also urged elderly members of families to give attention to nutrition of expected mothers, their proper rest and mental relaxation in pre and post pregnancy period.
She called upon the health service providers to discharge their services with outmost sincerity and devotion for development of healthcare services in the country particularly of mothers, new born and children.
Meanwhile, she thanked the non-government organizations including UNICEF, UNFPA, World Health Organization and JICA for their efforts for implementing different programmes on mother and child health.
On the occasion, 42 organizations in seven categories were given award for their contribution to reaching healthcare services to the common people.
The Safe Motherhood Day, decided to observe nationally every year by Awami League government in 1997.
BDST: 1540 HRS, MAY 28, 2012
Maria Salam, Asst Output Editor
All rights reserved. Sale, redistribution or reproduction of information/photos/illustrations/video/audio contents on this website in any form without prior permission from banglanews24.com are strictly prohibited and liable to legal action. | <urn:uuid:518904f4-d2d3-43ac-9e40-7e0a77720f7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.banglanews24.com/English/detailsnews.php?nssl=0ef2130d60a01d28334753fbd7c9df34&nttl=2012052943106 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94769 | 439 | 1.554688 | 2 |
5:30 - 6:30 pm
In 1974, eight Navajo singers filed a lawsuit, Badoni v. Higgenson, against the National Park Service and Bureau of Reclamation alleging that Lake Powell threatened Navajo religious sites and that tourists visiting the Lake often desecrated sacred spaces and impeded Navajo access to the Rainbow Bridge, thereby limiting Navajos’ freedom of religion in the process. This paper asserts that before we can fully understand the ramifications of the Badoni case we must examine the debates surrounding the cultural and economic development of the region, the diverse religious heritages of its inhabitants, and the varying strategies different groups used to control regional water resources. Starting with the premise that Termination and Reclamation were actually more than concurrent legislative proposals, this paper shows that that these policies were interconnected and pushed forward by Mormon politicians. To explore such connections, this paper explores the importance of Native Americans in Mormon theology and focuses attention on Navajo responses to Termination and Reclamation, exploring how Navajos attempted to navigate a complex web of religious, political, and environmental ideologies in an attempt to foster economic growth on the reservation.
AIS seminar papers are pre-circulated electronically two weeks prior to the seminar date. Email firstname.lastname@example.org to request a copy of the paper. Please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend. | <urn:uuid:75454855-4a4c-4024-b276-10743be4a62b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newberry.org/02242011-drowning-gods-and-developing-prayer-sites | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925051 | 276 | 2.03125 | 2 |