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April 23, 2013 (as excerpted from Windows Phone Blog)
In February, we celebrated the Kid’s Corner feature on Windows Phone by asking you to submit your children’s drawings in response to the following questions: “What do you wish your Windows Phone could do? How do you imagine yourself, your family, and others using your phone?” We received tons of amazing artwork from children all around the world, each one a whimsical creation that showed how Windows Phone can help unlock a child’s imagination.
Over the course of the past month, artist Dave DeVries has taken the winning drawings and painted them as realistically as possible. The results and their accompanying stories are below, and I think you will agree that they are a mix of striking, dramatic, cute, and remarkable. You can find more of Dave’s artwork at The Monster Engine, and you can learn more about Kid’s Corner at the Windows Phone website. (Click through the images to view them full-size!)
Audrey, age 7, and Jared, age 9 (as told by their mom): “One sketch shows an alien attacking a town, and a Windows Phone with lasers coming out of it that is attacking the alien. The other kid drew a superhero (‘Micro man’, or as she wrote, ‘mick row man’, short for ‘Microsoft man’) holding a Windows Phone, triumphant after winning against the alien.”
Noah, age 5 (as told by his father): “The attached picture shows my son Noah using our Windows Phone to remote control our bulldog who is called Dougie. He has been turned into ‘Robo-Dougie' and Noah is taking him for a walk whilst [controlling] his movement via the Windows Phone on a sunny day.”
Jessica, age 4: “My Windows Phone can make kitty monsters happy with music! The kitty monster gets real real happy and dances around flowers.”
Akriti, age 6: “I wish could call up the sun on the Windows Phone, to dry up all the rain and helps the flowers grow.”
Louie, age 5: Louie's mom says that Louie's design is the story of a lonely monster that wants to play. In the story, the lonely monster takes his Windows Phone and opens one of his favorite games. Then, the game’s characters come to life and jump out in front of the lonely monster to scare him, but the Windows Phone gives the lonely monster powers to become the hero! | <urn:uuid:f9682b82-a124-4188-9a07-b2f09487dd52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.themonsterengine.com/?Itemid=184 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962999 | 539 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The virtual heart has, in many ways, come alive over the last dozen years. But it still has a long way to go. “We can model a heartbeat over a period of 10 minutes,” says McCulloch. “But we can’t yet model the natural progression of disease-how a cardiac cell gradually proceeds from normal to injured to failed.” One barrier: although hundreds of researchers around the world are exhaustively deciphering the workings of the heart, most biologists haven’t been trained to gather and present data in a rigorous, quantitative way that can feed into the mathematical formulas used to build computer models. “When you talk to them about describing their results as formulas, some of them get very turned off,” says Paul Herrling, head of corporate research for pharmaceutical maker Novartis.
Yet the cardiome is already making contributions to medicine, and one of its biggest may be as a tool to help researchers discover better heart drugs. Novartis, for one, is already using cardiome models to develop drugs by programming in the changes that a compound has been observed to make in a cardiac cell, and then letting the model project how those changes will affect heart rhythm and blood flow. “We’ve been able to make predictions of which ion channels in heart cells to tweak with drugs to reduce arrhythmias,” such as those found in patients who have suffered heart attacks, says Herrling. He emphasizes that the cardiome needs a great deal of additional development before it’s capable of providing detailed, complete, accurate predictions of how the heart would respond to a wide range of potential drugs. “But we’ve had a sufficient number of elements come together to allow getting a good start,” he says. “That tells me it’s worthwhile pursuing the models, even if they’re not perfect yet.”
The virtual hearts are also advancing surgical therapies. For example, about five million Americans suffer from congestive heart failure, and one relatively new treatment that is gaining popularity involves implanting two pacemakers in patients to counter the abnormal heart rhythms typical of the disease. But doctors can have trouble determining the sequence of electrical stimulation that best ensures a stronger heartbeat. So McCulloch has adapted one of his models to simulate a diseased heart with two pacemakers, allowing him to experiment on a computer to find the right placement and timing for the two jolts. “There’s intense interest in the work from pacemaker companies,” he says.
As exciting as these early applications are, the modelers have far greater ambitions. Eventually, biologists and physicians hope, modeling research will give life to an entire virtual patient, with a full complement of simulated organs. That would enable, for example, studying how an experimental heart drug affects the kidneys, or identifying the long-term effects of a high-fat diet within weeks, rather than following human volunteers for years. Taking one small step toward this lofty goal, Hunter is helping to oversee the development of an open-standard programming language called CellML, based on XML, the Web page development language. Over the next two or three decades, CellML and other such standardized tools will give modelers the world over a common language and enable the integration of the cardiome work with computational models of other organs. “We’re all asking ourselves what sort of infrastructure we need to make sure our work is expandable and extensible to other applications at other levels,” says Johnson. “We don’t want the cardiome to be a one-off.”
The flurry of modeling is leading to a promising trade-off: the better we get at creating virtual heart disease, the less we stand to see of the real variety.
Virtual Hearts in Operation
|Artesian Therapeutics (Gaithersburg, MD)||Cardiac models to support drug development|
|Immersion Medical (Gaithersburg, MD)||Whole-heart models for training surgeons|
|Insilicomed (La Jolla, CA)||Whole-heart models for medical-device design|
|Predix Pharmaceuticals (Woburn, MA)||Cardiac cell and tissue models for drug discovery| | <urn:uuid:69d2c7ee-ba50-46c6-973e-af09fde0b2e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/402529/the-virtual-heart/page/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927416 | 889 | 3.1875 | 3 |
UESPWiki:News/User-Generated Content in Skyrim
User-Generated Content in Skyrim — April 21, 2011
Bethesda's Todd Howard has confirmed that the studio is trying to find a way to let 360 and PS3 gamers install user-generated content with TESV: Skyrim. The only problem is finding a way to allow users to download the content. "It works on all the consoles," he said. "As far as the 360 and PS3, right now there's not an avenue for us to make that available, but we’d very much like to find a way. We have talked to Microsoft and Sony, and so there's a chance it might happen one day, [but] I don't see it happening for release."
Third-party mods have been a huge part of the Elder Scrolls series since Morrowind and have allowed PC players to add almost anything to their games. The leading TES mod site, TES Nexus currently features over 24,000 files, and there is every indication that Skyrim will continue the high level of input from the modding community. | <urn:uuid:76dd9936-d454-4713-a6d4-ae987da46ddb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uesp.net/wiki/UESPWiki:News/User-Generated_Content_in_Skyrim | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968036 | 226 | 1.703125 | 2 |
English >> Travel
Sitting on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Zhenjiang is a prefecture-level city of east China's Jiangsu Province.
Zhenjiang is a famous historical and cultural city, that is a top tourist destination in the Yangtze River delta region. Zhenjiang is known for offering a combination of "urban forests" and "grand river scenery" due to the surrounding mountains dotted with marvelous temples and pagodas, mighty rivers and bridges, and natural beauty. Zhenjiang has a very rich culture and history due to its strategic location.
Zhenjiang is also a great place for you to "taste Jiangsu." It's known throughout China and the world for its famous vinegar, and as the true home of "sweet and sour." Zhenjiang has a rich and diverse cuisine, and you will enjoy every delicious bite in the place where the British established a consulate. | <urn:uuid:ed828140-134b-4702-b8ac-b4d292233c79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://english.people.com.cn/205040/7983742.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946772 | 190 | 2.125 | 2 |
While the drought conditions have had a visible and dramatic impact on grain and soybean yields, there can be a less visible impact in that the adverse conditions also make the crops more susceptible to mold growth. While molds themselves don’t affect livestock, the mycotoxins which molds produce can have a very negative impact on livestock production.
There are many mycotoxins produced by molds, but the ones we worry about the most in the upper Midwest are vomitoxin (DON), zearalenone, penicillium, fumonisin, and aflatoxin. Symptoms range from reduced feed intake and performance/production to organ failure and death. Animals most at risk for toxicosis include recently weaned and breeding animals.
Once the feedstuff becomes contaminated with mycotoxins, there is nothing that can be done to remove or destroy the mycotoxins. However, there are strategies producers can use to minimize or alleviate the effects of these mycotoxins on their livestock. Some of those include add grain preservatives at harvest to prevent any more mold growth, test incoming grains to know which mycotoxins and levels you are dealing with, screen the grain, blending contaminated grain with “clean” grain to acceptable mycotoxin concentrations, and remove the fines, and reduce overall stress on the animals. For producers with good quality “carry-over” corn, they should strategically feed that to their breeding herd and newly weaned animals, and use the poorer quality grains for older, market animals.
While molds and mycotoxins pose a serious threat for livestock producers, there are management techniques that can control or overcome most of the risks. The best time to determine the right strategy for your operation is well before the crops are harvested, which is right now. For more information, read the Extension Extra Dealing with Mycotoxin-contaminated Feeds at Feeding Time or contact your Field or State Extension Specialist.
Source: Robert Thaler | <urn:uuid:b569226f-d6c5-4624-92a9-029221b8a9ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.porknetwork.com/pork-resources/nutrition/Weather-stressed-crops-susceptible-to-mycotoxin-production--165431936.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937779 | 410 | 2.96875 | 3 |
See our next MAC Events here.
MAC MEPS SEND OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Members of the MEPs Against Cancer group in the European Parliament have expressed their concerns about the potential delay to the tobacco Products Directive following the recent departure of Mr John Dalli. The MEPs have stated that:
"We believe that it is imperative that the Commission proposal for the Tobacco Products Directive is still made public this year implemented in its original time frame with in April 2013."
The letter is signed by Alojz Peterle (EPP), former President of Slovenia and President of the MAC Group, Nessa Childers and Pavel Poc (both S&D)
The MEPs Against Cancer (MAC) group is an informal group of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) at the European Parliament committed to actions against cancer, and is a re-launch of the previous MAC group which was active until end 2008.
MAC is an all-party informal group of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) committed to promoting action on cancer as an EU priority and harnessing European health policy to that end.
As the most cost-effective long-term strategy for the control of cancer, MAC will focus on prevention. MAC will of course also be involved in other cancer areas including research, information and healthcare when relevant opportunities arise.
Through quarterly roundtable discussions between MEPs, other policy makers and invited guests, the group aims to generate the political will needed to fight cancer in Europe.
The MAC Secretariat is provided by ECL.
The Facts Speak for Themselves
Cancer is not one disease but over 200 different types of disease, ranging from the well-known big cancer killers to rarer conditions such as multiple myeloma and chronic myeloid leukaemia. One in three Europeans is diagnosed with cancer, and the disease kills one in four people.
Every family in Europe is touched in some way by this devastating disease. In 2008, Europe saw 3.4 million new cases, an increase of 7.4% in new cancer cases from two years before.
In 2008, there were 1,867,683 deaths, of which 55.9% were in men and 44.1% in women. The biggest killers of the 1.8 million deaths in 2006 were lung, colorectal, breast, and stomach cancers. Beside the big killers, other forms of cancer are responsible for 50% of cancer deaths.
There are wide variations in cancer rates across Europe, with lung cancer remaining the biggest killer. Bowel (colorectal) cancer is equally common (13%), but claimed a smaller proportion of deaths (11.9%). In men, lung cancer is the most common form of cancer, followed by prostate cancer. Breast cancer is by far the most common form of the disease among women, accounting for 27.4% of all cases and 17.4% of cancer deaths in women within the 27 member states of the European Union.
There are also wide variations in outcomes and significant inequalities depending on geographic location, access to best quality care or access to information within the 27 member states of the European Union . Cancer survival is significantly lower in eastern European countries, including the new Member States.
MEPs and national politicians can join to help us end unnecessary death and suffering from cancer!
“We politicians are privileged in being able to support EU citizens and patients, in particular in their fight against cancer. But it needs political will. We MEPs can help build that political will. Please join us in our fight against cancer.” - MEP Alojz Peterle, MAC President
“By working together as politicians we can help to bring tangible improvements to people's lives. 1 in 3 people are destined to get cancer at today's rates. By focusing on prevention we can work together to decrease this number for ourselves, and for future generations." - MEP Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, MAC Vice-President
''Today all of us fear cancer will affect ourselves, or one of our family members. We know one in three Europeans are diagnosed with a form of cancer. Yet many cancers can be prevented. Much depends on how well we are informed about prevention measures and if we are willing to change our lifestyle. MEPs have a special responsibility to raise awareness and fight for cancer prevention measures.'' - MEP Nessa Childers, MAC Vice-President
"Prevention is the most cost-effective long term strategy. it is essential that we roll out the European Code Against Cancer across all member states and work together to encourage and support people to adhere to it. We MEPs can set an example and provide leadership in our own”. - MEP Liz Lynne, Former MEP MAC Vice-President
JOIN US and be among the MEPs making a difference in cancer control!
Are you an MEP and would like to be the ambassador for a specific theme or would like to host a cancer-related relate with our support, or would like further information about the MEPs Against Cancer group? We are also looking to build MP groups at the national level! Please contact us at the below:
Next MAC Events
Past MAC Events
13 September 2012: Equality for Patients with Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases in Europe.
27 March 2012: Cancer and the Contribution of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
24 January 2012: Cancer and Ageing
29 November 2011: European Partnership for Action Against Cancer (EPAAC): next steps
7 December 2010: Alcohol and Cancer: Research Evidence and Policy Implications
(Selected photos from meetings are on our MAC Facebook page.)
The text of this webpage is available for modification and reuse under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License and the GNU Free Documentation License (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts).
Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 November 2012 12:05 | <urn:uuid:8107170d-d469-4870-bac7-e6150b9afbe3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.europeancancerleagues.org/mac.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949874 | 1,229 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Propensity to export and effects on cluster development: a comparative study of the Cyprus and Greek solar thermal clusters
AbstractAccess to sophisticated demand is critical for cluster upgrading in developing countries. Despite this, the role of exports in cluster development has not been adequately researched. This study tries to answer two questions; what are the factors that increase the propensity of a cluster to successfully engage in exports and how exports affect cluster upgrading. In order to isolate the effect of exports, two clusters are studied, the Cyprus and the Greek solar thermal clusters. Despite the fact that these two clusters emerged in similar environments, today they present some distinct differences which could be explained by the different levels of success in exporting. Our findings suggest that the export vision shared among cluster participants, and the collaboration to achieve the vision are of critical importance in penetrating sophisticated export markets. This study highlights the positive influence of exports on cluster development and provides managers and policy makers with an indication of which factors contribute to successful exporting.
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Bibliographic InfoArticle provided by Inderscience Enterprises Ltd in its journal World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development.
Volume (Year): 4 (2008)
Issue (Month): 1 (January)
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Web page: http://inderscience.metapress.com/link.asp?target=journal&id=119806
diamond model; cluster upgrading; exports; Cyprus; Greece; solar thermal systems; developing countries; clusters; cluster development; solar energy;
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Results 1 to 3 of 3
Thread: Java program...
- 04-05-2010, 06:31 PM #1Member
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- Apr 2010
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Hey... I have massive problem.... I need to write a java progam, but I have no knowledge because I have never used it before... Could some body help me with this? This program is suppose to be written in BlueJ....:eek: If anybody can help me I will be really grateful...
In light of recent footballer transfer excesses, the committee which runs the Alba 5-a-side Football League wishes to have a program written which can monitor the values and ratings of players and teams within the league. They have commissioned you to write a program which will allow them to be able to:
1. Display information about a particular player.
o On one line including the name and their value
2. Display information about a manager.
o On one line including their name and their age.
3. Display all the information about a particular team.
o This should include the team name, the managers details and then a list of the players and their details. You should also output a summary of the combined and average value of the team.
4. Display all the information about all teams in the league (using 3. above).
o Use whitespace to make reading easier
5. Add a new team to the league.
6. Add a new player to a particular team (if possible).
o Remember that there is a limit on team size
7. Remove a player from a team given their name
o You may need to search through the team to check that the player exists before attempting a removal.
o If you return the player removed as a Player object then you can use the object in a transfer (see below)
8. Use the functions in 6 and 7 to transfer a player between two teams (if possible) given their name as a String.
9. Display a league table of teams and their total value in descending order.
o This involves sorting the teams the method for doing this depends on which type of collection you have used.
The information you require about the league is that:
The league consists of at least 6 teams (details in the fiule)
Each team has a name
Each team has a manager
Each team can consist of up to 7 registered players
Each player has a name and a value (in pounds).
Each manager has a name and an age.
The league has information about the teams and the current players stored in a text file which they have supplied to you. The data in the file is in the form of the team name and the number of players in the team on a single line followed by the team manager and then each player and their value on separate lines. The delimiter in the data file is a comma.
Using the data in the file you should get a league table as follows:
Ellon Backs - Total Value is £13.40
Banchory Giants - Total Value is £10.30
Ferryhill Academicals - Total Value is £9.70
Cove Bay Packers - Total Value is £7.10
AFC Clatt - Total Value is £5.30
Dunecht Dynamo - Total Value is £0.10
You should design your classes and the collections used within them on the basis of the information that needs to be stored (inspect the data file before commencing this step). You are recommended to start with the simplest class and design and test it fully before moving on to more complicated classes.
Once a player, manager or a team has a name you should not be able to change it but other attributes should have appropriate setters and getters.
Test each method as you add it to a class!
You MUST provide evidence that the functionality in your classes have been tested (this is best done as a separate test class)
The numbered functions (1-9) on the first page are ordered by difficulty you DO NOT have to achieve all the functionality in order to pass the coursework.
You have an open remit as to the functionality of your program, however credit will be given for solutions which show inventiveness.
You should design you solution so that you make best use of any object oriented techniques that you have developed during the course, i.e. your code should use appropriate classes for objects and collections of objects.
Credit will be given for code which includes validation of any data input.
Your application should be user-friendly
As you have an open remit, comments and correct indentation will be especially important as an aid to readability.
The code you submit should work if you have added functionality which does not work comment it out and add comments to identify which parts of the code fail and how you tried to fix it. You should also include this information in your statement of compliance (see below). If you dont do this then you will be penalised.
- 04-05-2010, 06:44 PM #2
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- 04-05-2010, 07:40 PM #3
- By l jsym l in forum New To JavaReplies: 2Last Post: 11-04-2009, 09:22 AM
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- By JavaBean in forum Java TipReplies: 0Last Post: 10-04-2007, 09:33 PM | <urn:uuid:eae2f5f6-d033-465b-8f3d-e0f54312b503> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.java-forums.org/new-java/27438-java-program.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933778 | 1,228 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Key Westers bemoan change. You should’ve seen it twenty years ago. You should have seen it last week. But look far enough, and you’ll see we’ve made a habit of proclaiming ruin. Still, it’s better here than not, and gems do turn up in what looks like faceless change. Today, it’s condominiums. Yesterday, it was the Navy. Here’s Elizabeth Bishop, in 1942:
Marjorie and I are leaving for Mexico on the fifteenth. We’re flying to Mérida, where we’ll stay awhile. Then we’re going up to Mexico City and then find a cool place—on a lake—to stay for the summer—in fact maybe for “the duration,” I don’t know. It is impossible to live here any longer. The Navy takes over and tears down and eats up one or two blocks of beautiful little houses for dinner every day. Probably the house on White Street will go, too.
The local build-up for the war was an unprecedented disruption, with thousands of young servicemen and the bustle of war preparations altering the pace of daily life. Though only a part-time resident, Bishop owned a home and had begun to feel at home here. These new transients shook her claim on the place. Who were these crass military men who displaced Miss Bishop?
One of them was 19-year-old James Schuyler, future Pulitzer-prize winning poet, “simply the best we have,” according to John Ashbery, and member of the so-called New York School of poets, along with Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, and Kenneth Koch. That’s Schuyler in the image above, enrolled in sonar school in Key West during the summer of ’43, a year after Bishop’s complaint. By delighful coincidence, Schuyler and Bishop worked on the base together as fellow patriots that summer. Neither was aware of the other, but Bishop wrote to Marianne Moore of her adventure in the Navy:
Well, I got the “job” in the Optical Shop and went to work as a “helper-trainee,” taking binoculars apart and putting them together again. … I only lasted five days, I’m sorry to say. The eyestrain made me seasick and the acids used for cleaning started to bring back eczema, so I had to give it up—and I must admit I was only too glad because the work was so finicky and tedious that it was getting to be a torture to me and I was doing it all night long in my sleep, and getting up cranky. But I’m glad I tried it. It was the only way of ever finding out what is going on in Key West now, seeing the inside of the Navy Yard and all the ships, and learning lots of things I had no idea about before. … The men I worked with were all sailors. They worked in their undershirts and were all, every single one, heavily tatooed. … There was a store and the sailors brewed very strong Navy coffee all day long, and passed it around, and they took turns “treating” everybody to ice cream or Coca-Cola in the afternoon.
Bishop returned to Key West again and again over the years. According to a letter to Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, she first encountered Schuyler’s work (“… and nice love poems, which are very rare”) in 1971, on the recommendation of James Merrill. Schuyler opted for cooler coastal climes, spending long stretches of time with Fairfield and Anne Porter in their homes on Southampton and on Spruce Head Island, Maine, where he distilled moments like this one:
… I remember I’m
unalone, you are with me,
salty sneezes off Atlantic
Ocean, there, where you are
here, in my heart and head… | <urn:uuid:cb89c002-5218-4a61-9f38-0cc0371fa8d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kwls.org/littoral/james_schuyler_is_the_villain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972973 | 857 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Patrick Henry College. All photos for this article were taken by Levi Hendrickson.
Eight years ago, lawyer Michael Farris, the man who was to become Patrick Henry College's founder and first president wrote, "Patrick Henry College has a different vision-so different that it has attracted what seems to be more media attention than any other start-up college in recent history. The idea of home-schooled students going to college to prepare for political leadership in an atmosphere that encourages private virtue is so different that many journalists seem utterly fascinated."
Seven years ago when Patrick Henry College (PHC) opened its doors, its first freshmen and transfer juniors lived with host families because the college did not yet have dorms. "I don't know how they're going to make it," said David W. Breneman, dean of the University of Virginia's education school, quoted in an October, 2000, Washington Post article. "The situation facing a potential start-up is very severe."
On April 18th of this year, Dr. Michael Farris, now PHC's Chancellor, read this same article to a chapel full of more than three hundred beaming students. At that quote, chuckles spread across the room. Other faces grew solemn and thankful.
Just the night before, Dr. Farris and Dr. Graham Walker, the college president, had announced PHC's accreditation by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS). This important step marked the end of an arduous, four-year process. Previous graduates have found places in the law schools and graduate schools of their choice, including Harvard University, but now applying for post-graduate education will become just that much easier.
With the achievement of this important goal, it is a good time to sit back and take stock of affairs at Patrick Henry. Much has changed in the last several years, both for good and for bad, yet most of the important factors have remained constant. The tiny student body still unites around the college's mission to "prepare Christian men and women who will lead our nation and shape our culture with timeless biblical values and fidelity to the spirit of the American founding."
Few Christian colleges would openly disagree with this goal. So what renders the experience at PHC so unique that hundreds of dedicated Christian students have been willing to gamble a significant chunk of their education?
Dozens of reporters have tried to pin down the elusive element. One cynical article from last year in the Washington Post called PHC a group of "people who believe they can directly translate the tenets of their faith into political action."
Perhaps politics is a fraction of it-but only a fraction. While several years ago students often divided along the lines of government majors versus classical liberal arts, now students can choose from journalism, history, literature, and classical liberal arts as well. Even under the government major, they have a choice of five separate tracks: American politics and policy, international relations, strategic intelligence, political theory, and government in general.
Matt Lukowiak, Class of 2009, says "We share a common vision, and everyone is very driven and talented in their own way to achieve it." Classmate Nathan Martin adds: "At every college some people are there just for the diploma. At PHC, you find a lot more people here for an education. We may debate about what that means, but even the debate is a sign that people are thinking."
PHC also emphasizes the importance of unifying all elements of life, including the rational faculty. Every semester, classes stop for a day as a member of the faculty presents a scholarly lecture on the unification of faith and reason. Students and faculty then spend the rest of the day debating key points, often quoting Augustine or Aquinas. At the end of their senior years, all students write their own faith and reason essay, tailored to their majors, to summarize what they have learned in their time at PHC.
Students and faculty at PHC do their best to combine their academic achievements with a spirit of humility in Christ. This combination of effort and grace has already carried PHC farther than most expected. God willing, it will take "the college for homeschoolers" further than anyone imagines in the years to come.
Patrick Henry College Highlights
- September 30, 2000 Patrick Henry College (PHC), a classical Christian liberal arts college dedicated to training men and women who will lead our nation and shape our culture with timeless biblical values and fidelity to the spirit of the American founding, officially opens for classes. The first building, Founders Hall, is completed at this time. Ninety-two students enroll. Major newspapers run stories about this new college, and the high caliber of its first class, many of whom were accepted to big-name universities but chose instead to attend PHC.
- January, 2001 Four dorms open for occupancy: Mount Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier, and Oak Hill. In all, they can accommodate 224 students. Town Hall, a large assembly space on the lower level of Mount Vernon dorm, is set aside for daily chapels and musical and dramatic performances.
- January 2003 Red Hill dormitory is completed. It can house up to 88 men.
- April 9, 2003 TRACS (Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools) votes to unanimously grant candidacy status to Patrick Henry College in its bid for formal accreditation by a federal accrediting organization.
- May 2003 The first wave of PHC interns is given positions in the Bush White House. Over next three years, proportionally more PHC students land White House, Congressional, and Capitol Hill internships than those from colleges several times PHC's size.
- Fall 2003 PHC launches its distance-learning program, enrolling 94 students. This low-cost program allows students to take a large number of PHC courses wherever they live. In addition, on-campus students now number 290.
- Fall 2004 Counting the 142 distance-learning students, PHC now has 422 students enrolled and is operating close to capacity. Sports facilities now include an exercise room, a softball field, baseball court, and tennis court, in addition to a patio, a gazebo, and "Lake Bob." A soccer field will be added in 2005.
- December 6, 2004 PHC's legal debate team wins first of back-to-back moot court victories against Oxford University's Balliol College, one of the 39 colleges that make up Oxford University. This win receives international attention, setting in motion the College's reputation as an incubator of national-caliber orators and debaters.
- March 26, 2005 The moot court team from Patrick Henry College wins its second straight tournament against Balliol College of Oxford University.
- May 2005 For the first of two consecutive years PHC is named one of the top ten conservative schools in the country by the Young America's Foundation. The Foundation applauds PHC for its rigorous academics, biblical worldview, classical liberal arts core curriculum, and apprenticeship methodologies designed to produce graduates who are uniquely qualified to serve God and mankind.
- January 26, 2005 PHC's moot court team wins the first of what will become back-to-back national moot court championships.
- January 24, 2006 PHC's moot court team wins its second consecutive national moot court championship by sweeping the ACMA (American Collegiate Moot Court Association's National Moot Court Tournament) with first, second and third place wins - a feat unprecedented in ACMA history.
- April 3, 2006 The College's Board of Trustees, by unanimous vote, names Dr. Graham Walker to become the second President of Patrick Henry College, replacing Michael P. Farris, J.D., who founded the College in 2000. Dr. Farris now takes up the position of Chancellor.
- May 10, 2006 The PHC Board of Trustees names prolific author, cultural commentator, and longtime educator, Dr. Gene Edward Veith, the new Academic Dean. (Dr. Veith later becomes the College Provost.)
- January 24, 2007 PHC qualifies more moot court teams and captures more trophies than any other team in national (ACMA) moot court championships for the fifth straight year, as well as winning every top individual speaker and "brief-writing" award.
- April 17, 2007 The Accreditation Commission of the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) awards Patrick Henry College formal accreditation status at its April 17 commission meeting at Founder's Inn and Conference Center in Virginia Beach, VA.
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If you think a Chihuahua doesn't have much in common with a Rottweiler, you might be on to something.
An ancient dog skull, preserved in a cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia for 33,000 years, presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication and, together with equally ancient dog remains from a cave in Belgium, indicates that domestication of dogs may have occurred repeatedly in different geographic locations rather than with a single domestication event.
In other words, man's best friends may have originated from more than one ancient ancestor, contrary to what some DNA evidence previously has indicated.
"Both the Belgian find and the Siberian find are domesticated species based on morphological characteristics," said Greg Hodgins, a researcher at the University of Arizona's Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory and co-author of the study that reports the find.
"Essentially, wolves have long thin snouts and their teeth are not crowded, and domestication results in this shortening of the snout and widening of the jaws and crowding of the teeth."
The Altai Mountain skull is extraordinarily well preserved, said Hodgins, enabling scientists to make multiple measurements of the skull, teeth and mandibles that might not be possible on less well-preserved remains. "The argument that it is domesticated is pretty solid," said Hodgins. "What's interesting is that it doesn't appear to be an ancestor of modern dogs."
The UA's Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory used radiocarbon dating to determine the age of the Siberian skull.
Radioactive carbon, or carbon-14, is one of three carbon isotopes. Along with naturally occurring carbon dioxide, carbon-14 reaches the surface of the Earth by atmospheric circulation, where plants absorb it into their tissues through photosynthesis.
Animals and humans take in carbon-14 by ingesting plants or other animals that have eaten plants. "Carbon-14 makes it into all organic molecules," said Hodgins. "It's in all living things."
"We believe that carbon-14 production is essentially constant over time," said Hodgins. "So the amount of carbon-14 present in living organisms in the past was similar to the levels in living organisms today. When an animal or plant dies, the amount of carbon-14 in its remains drops at a predictable rate, called the radioactive half-life. The half-life of radiocarbon is 5,730 years."
"People from all over the world send our laboratory samples of organic material that they have dug out of the ground and we measure how much carbon-14 is left in them. Based on that measurement, and knowing the radiocarbon half-life, we calculate how much time must have passed since the samples had the same amount of carbon-14 as plants and animals living today."
The researchers use a machine called an accelerator mass spectrometer to measure the amount of radioactive carbon remaining in a sample. The machine works in a manner analogous to what happens when a beam of white light passes through a prism: White light separates into the colors of the rainbow.
The accelerator mass spectrometer generates a beam of carbon from the sample and passes it through a powerful magnet, which functions like a prism. "What emerges from it are three beams, one each of the three carbon isotopes," said Hodgins. "The lightest carbon beam, carbon-12, bends the most, and then carbon-13 bends slightly less and carbon-14 bends slightly less than that."
The relative intensities of the three beams represent the sample's carbon mass spectrum. Researchers compare the mass spectrum of an unknown sample to the mass spectra of known-age controls and from this comparison, calculate the sample's radiocarbon age.
At 33,000 years old, the Siberian skull predates a period known as the Last Glacial Maximum, or LGM, which occurred between about 26,000 and 19,000 years ago when the ice sheets of Earth's last ice age reached their greatest extent and severely disrupted the living patterns of humans and animals alive during that time. Neither the Belgian nor the Siberian domesticated lineages appear to have survived the LGM.
However, the two skulls indicate that the domestication of dogs by humans occurred repeatedly throughout early human history at different geographical locations, which could mean that modern dogs have multiple ancestors rather than a single common ancestor.
"In terms of human history, before the last glacial maximum people were living with wolves or canid species in widely separated geographical areas of Euro-Asia, and had been living with them long enough that they were actually changing evolutionarily," said Hodgins. "And then climate change happened, human habitation patterns changed and those relationships with those particular lineages of animals apparently didn't survive."
"The interesting thing is that typically we think of domestication as being cows, sheep and goats, things that produce food through meat or secondary agricultural products such as milk, cheese and wool and things like that," said Hodgins.
"Those are different relationships than humans may have with dogs. The dogs are not necessarily providing products or meat. They are probably providing protection, companionship and perhaps helping on the hunt. And it's really interesting that this appears to have happened first out of all human relationships with animals."
A 33,000-Year-Old Incipient Dog from the Altai Mountains of Siberia: Evidence of the Earliest Domestication Disrupted by the Last Glacial Maximum, PLoS One
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One of the most accurate depictions of a panic attack that I’ve ever seen.
Thank you. Just thank you. Far too many people don’t seem to grasp the concept of what a panic attack actually is. Getting upset is not a panic attack. This is.
this is actually really accurate, especially the feelings of not really being there. i cannot concentrate when i’m having an anxiety attack, i can only concentrate on the anxiety itself. I had an panic attack yesterday and i can’t remember anything of what anybody was actually saying to me during that time, its like being in a tunnel and everyone else is shouting at you from the other end.
The perfect illustration that displays a panic attack. I hate when students joke that they’re experiencing a panic attack when they’re only normally stressed about the situation. They don’t feel like a boulder is crushing your chest nor do they feel like they’re about to die any second.
Same same same same same same same same
Simple Unpretentious Moss
Soft, green, peaceful. Never underestimate the beauty of the small. Botanically, mosses are tiny plants that absorb water and nutrients mainly through their leaves and harvest sunlight to create food. They differ from vascular plants in lacking water-bearing vessels. Mosses reproduce using spores, not seeds and have no flowers. And they also look stunning on rocks and rotting wood. | <urn:uuid:114aafa9-4d1d-44ba-a52c-20c240b99570> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://unrequitedrage.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955691 | 295 | 2.046875 | 2 |
US Army Garrison Humphreys
Camp Humphreys is located approximately 40 kilometers south of Osan. Camp Humphreys is a short distance from the city of Pyongtaek, and adjacent to the town of Anjung-ri. The airfield was originally constructed by the Japanese and was known as the Pyongtaek Airfield during the Korean War. It was called K-6 when the US Air Force repaired and built a new runway to accommodate a Marine Air Group and the 614th Tactical Control Group.
Camp Humphreys is located about 35 miles south of Seoul, just to the southeast of Asan Bay. There is a small mountain range about 7 miles south of Camp Humphreys with tops to 958 feet. Larger mountains are located to the norheast, east, and southwest, all within 20 miles with tops to 2293 feet directly south and tops above 1000 feet mainly southeast. The Ansong River flows from the east to west toward the West Sea and passes 3 miles northwest of the airfield. About 12 miles west of Camp Humphreys the river widens and empties into the Asan Bay, near Koon-ni Range. The immediate area around Camp Humpreys is mostly agricultural and consists mainly of rice fields. There are some rolling hills in the vicinity, but for the most part the elevations are less than 150 feet. Urban areas are situated mostly to the northeast of the airfield. Pyongtaek is 4 miles northeast and Seojeong-ja is 1 mile northeast. Although Dujeong-ri is next to Cp Humphreys, to the south, most of the haze and smoke that affects the airfield comes from Pyongtaek and Seojeong-ja.
The numerous areas of water around Camp Humphreys has a significant effect on the local weather. The abundant moisture is responsible for most of the fog and stratus which occurs in the area. This is especially true from the spring through fall. Generally flat terrain from the south through west allows advection of fog and stratus from the river, bay, or West Sea. Even when no fog or stratus is over the Asan Bay/West Sea, the extra moisture advected with a light westerly wind at night can cause problems when combined with radiational cooling. The Ansong River to the northwest can also contribute to the fog problem. The river is very close to the airfield and fog is advected in during periods of light northwesterly flow. When an easterly wind occurs during the night or early morning fog will normally not form, or will dissipate rapidly. Since the mountains the east help to produce a downslope wind this results in a drying and adiabatically warming effect in the low levels.
Another good moisture source for fog are the irrigated rice fields which contain standing water during the growing season (May-September). There are various seasonal effects from the local bodies of water. The West Sea provides moisture for snowshowers during the winter as cold air is advected over the relativel warmer West Sea. Although Camp Humphreys is somewhat protected, if the winds are from 260-300° then snowshowers will be advected over the airfield. During the spring and summer land/sea breezes can set up during periods of weak pressure gradients. The Asan Bay can channel winds when the prevailing direction is 270-310°, this is especially common during the winter after a frontal passage. Thunderstorms occur mainly during spring through fall with most of the convective activity associated with the polar and monsoonal front. Airmass thunderstorms usually occur further inland over the mountains.
In 1961 the airfield was re-named Camp Humphreys, in honor of CWO Benjamin K. Humphreys, of the 4th Transportation Company, who died in a helicopter accident near the Camp. The Humphreys District Command was activated in 1964 as a separate installation command of the Eighth US Army. Later it was designated as the 23rd Direct Support Group which provided all direct support. supply and maintenance, storage of all conventional ammunition in Korea, AG publications and training aides, and operated the Eighth Army Milk Plant. In 1974, with the activation of the 19th Support Brigade, this was designated as US Army Garrison, Camp Humphreys. In 1985 it was restructured to support wartime missions and was designated the 23rd Support Group. In 1996 a separate US Army Support Activity for Area III was activated to provide base operations and community support. In 2006 with the activation of the US Army's Installation Management Command (IMCOM), US Army Garrison Humphreys was placed under the authority of IMCOM Korea (IMCOM-K).
On 24 May 2000 there was a ground breaking ceremony for a 3-phase family housing project at Camp Humphreys. Phase I was the first of 3 buildings, which would each have 60 field and company grade officer, warrant officer and senior noncommissioned officer multi-story apartment family units. The 5-story buildings will include 3 (1400/1350 sq. ft.), 4 (1450 sq. ft.) and 5-bedroom (1550 sq. ft.) apartment. This first phase, a nearly $12 million project, would also provide central hot water, heating and air conditioning, kitchen range, refrigerator, washer, dryer, garbage disposal, dishwasher and telephone/TV systems. Other support facilities would include utilities, water wells, grading, parking, walks, area lighting, children's play areas, multi-purpose courts, landscaping, drainage, and a perimeter wall around the complex. At least 5 percent of the units would be accessible and easily modifiable for the handicapped. The first phase was scheduled for completion in March 2002.
The decision to relocate all of US Forces Korea south of Seoul resulted in a rapidly changing Camp Humphreys. By 2012 Camp Humphreys was to become the new home to United States Forces Korea. The expected 2012 population would grow to 17,000 Soldiers and 13,000 Family Members. The garrison would also see a substantial increase in the number of Department of the Army Civilians, Korean National employees and contractors.
To handle the influx state of the art family housing and support facilities for Soldiers, Civilians and Family Members were to be constructed. The new facilities would allow the Humphreys Garrison to burnish its reputation as a community of excellence, staffed with committed professionals, who provide for the diverse needs of Soldiers, Civilians and Family members.
Humphreys was also to grow in physical size, some 1,200 acres in October 2007, and planned to be 3,500 by 2012. However, the total land area, even with the new land transferred by the Korean government, would not support a massive sprawl of buildings like a CONUS-based post. Consequently, the philosophy was to "build up instead of out." Family Housing units as well as Soldier barracks would be multi-story buildings as would many of the other new facilities on post. Gone would be the Quonset Huts, corrugated metal buildings that became an unofficial signature of the Army in Korea have been replaced by gleaming new high-rise buildings to house Families and Soldiers in comfort. Three new gymnasiums were to open within 2007, as would a new multi-story troop billets and dining facilities.
Future plans also called for construction of an 18-hole golf course that included jogging, biking and walking trails in the design, a new Commissary, PX shopping complex and a food, beverage and entertainment center. One facility that was open for business by October 2007 was the brand new water park dubbed "Splish & Splash," the first, and to this day the only, of its kind open to Soldiers, Civilians and Family members throughout the Korean peninsula. The water park was one of new facilities geared toward making life more enjoyable at USAG Humphreys.
USAG Humphreys at the time had a medium-sized PX and Commissary, a PX food court with Taco Bell, Anthony's Pizza, Popeye's Chicken, Baskin Robbins and Subway, a Burger King with drive-thru window and a Krispy Kreme Donut Shoppe located near the PX.
There were 3 PX Shoppettes located on Humphreys, as well as a Charlie's Grilled Sandwich Shop, AAFES New Car Sales, movie theater with free movies nightly and FedEx. The PX mini-mall featured a Starbuck's Coffee Shop, a beauty salon, barbershop, gift shop, optical shop, Diamond Water, flower shop, dry cleaning and many Korean vendors.
The Humphreys Community Activity Center, recognized as the best in Korea, was home to function rooms, pool rooms, indoor swimming pool, sound-proofed music rooms, a pottery shop and a ballroom for unit or large functions and more.
Finally a 303 child capacity Child Development Center, located close to the family housing towers, opened in late 2007 and provided a bright, modern, safe and fun place for young kids to stay while their parents work.
The FASTBACK system that was replaced in Korea is reflective of the typical legacy mw systems used by the US Army to support worldwide long haul communication requirements. The FASTBACK system (seven individual links) provided a secure reliable means of transmitting bulk data collected along the Demilitarized Zone to command groups located in the southern part of the country. The equipment (i.e., radios and multiplexers) supporting the FASTBACK system had been in operation for over fifteen years, utilizing technology that was over twenty years old. The FASTBACK system consisted of an AN/FRC-162 radio and AN/FCC-97 multiplexer. In the late 1990s it was replaced by a high speed (155 Mbps) SONET digital microwave radio that utilize the digital data multiplexer (DDM)-2000 OC3 multiplexer. The Digital Microwave Upgrade DMU Phase I is a good example of what occurs when the link bandwidth is increased (8 DS1s to 84 DS1s (three 45 Mbps DS3)) with high speed SONET digital microwave and interface requirements to existing older, low speed mw technology. The Yongsan to Madison, Osan to Madison, and Camp Humphreys to Madison FASTBACK links were replaced during Phase I with the Harris MegaStar 2000 SONET radio. The remaining FASTBACK mw links between Madison and Kamaksan, Kangwhado, and Songnam, and Kamaksan and Yawolsan, were replaced during DMU Phase III. In conjunction with the DMU, the digital patch and access systems (DPAS) at Yongsan, Osan, and Camp Humphreys were upgraded to support up to three DS3s each.
|Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list| | <urn:uuid:f8fc3c9c-91ff-4e71-a99c-701bd925b64d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/camp-humphreys.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967635 | 2,228 | 2.5625 | 3 |
World Accumulation, 1492-1789
by Andre Gunder Frank
Monthly Review Press, 303 pp., $16.50
The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century
edited by Geoffrey Parker, edited by Lesley M. Smith
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 283 pp., $20.00
Kings or People: Power and the Mandate to Rule
by Reinhard Bendix
University of California Press, 692 pp., $20.00
In the first volume of Capital, Marx declares that “the modern history of capital dates from the creation in the sixteenth century of a world-embracing commerce and a world-embracing market.” This suggestion has recently been followed up by Immanuel Wallerstein, who achieved a considerable vogue in 1974 with his book The Modern World-System, an analysis of “the origins of the European world-economy in the sixteenth century.” The same argument has now been carried a stage further by Professor Andre Gunder Frank in World Accumulation, a survey of the whole period from the voyage of Columbus in 1492 to the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. The history of these three centuries, according to Frank, is a history of Europe’s successful “superexploitation” of the rest of the world, in the course of which the Western European “metropolis” expropriated the world’s wealth, established a global economy, and forced the “periphery” into a state of dependence from which it has only recently begun to unshackle itself.
The starting point of this grim saga is said to have been “the European quest for money” in the early sixteenth century. The Spanish began by pillaging the Mexican and Peruvian empires, seizing their bullion and carrying it home in vast quantities. As a result the cost of silver declined in relation to other commodities, thereby causing a severe price-inflation throughout Western Europe. This in turn brought a “sharp rise” in profits and an equally sharp “increase in exploitation” as real wages declined. By the end of the century the entrepreneurs of Western Europe were already reaping the dividends: the volume of trade and the accumulation of capital both began to increase at an unprecedented rate.
After the “sixteenth-century expansion” Frank sees a slowing-up in the “world process of capital accumulation” in the “general crisis” and depression of the seventeenth century. Spain declined, and the leadership of the metropolis eventually passed to England and France. The first half of the eighteenth century then witnessed a new wave of exploitation and accumulation as these two countries recovered and expanded at a ruthless pace. At first they vied with each other to extract the wealth of North America and the Caribbean. But as soon as the latter area began to decline in value as a source of capital, the English proved themselves to be the more resourceful imperialists. They immediately switched their attention to India, conquered and despoiled Bengal, exported its wealth to England, and so began their industrial revolution in advance of any of their rivals.
This analysis is governed throughout by an inflexible theory of economic determinism. Frank treats it as axiomatic that the only possible motive for European expansion was exploitation. For example, the English are said to have “dispatched” the Mayflower in 1620 as part of their strategy “to establish a monopoly position” in the markets of the New World. Similarly, he regards it as obvious that Europe’s political and cultural “superstructures” can only be explained as “determined parts” of the … | <urn:uuid:4ce4857c-044f-45a5-8cd7-60b41a9da1be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1979/mar/22/taking-off/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941209 | 776 | 2.8125 | 3 |
It certainly shows up in fiction. While it seems that the flu is the most popular purveyors of pandemic in the current rash of realistic apocalypse-in-progress novels, that old standby, the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) still makes its occasional appearance. It was the causal agent in Terry Nation’s novelization of the hit British TV series Survivors, and also more recently (likely via the meme vector of Connie Willis’ Dooms Day Book) Katherine Amt Hanna’s Breakdown. Rats are associated with the spread of the plague, yet neither novel uses this vector. As it turns out, they are correct. Your various rats (or rat fleas to be more exact) are not required vectors.
In addition, the plague is known to infect an amazing variety of both mammals and birds which makes it an outlier in that category, and opens up all sorts of possible alternative vectors.
Having read Ms. Hanna’s (book- it was good, review later), and working on Terry Nations (good so far –review later), I decided to look at more info on the modern versions of the black death. One item to be wary of, is that (oddly) many researchers leave out many of the occurences. You get constant references to Medieval Europe, but they ignore the much earlier Justinian Plague (which we touched on earlier), and the fact that the last wave of the black death was in Marseille in 1720- hardly the Middle Ages.
So I was happy to find a lengthy piece that went into a much broader cross comparison. I have only quoted the very short concluding remarks.
Lars Walløe, CCBI.NIM.ORG, 2008; (27): 59–73
Most (or all) late medieval and early modern “plague” epidemics were caused by [the bacteria] Yersinia pestis (as were the Justinian plagues (ad 542–767) and possibly the plague epidemic in about 1100 bc described in 1 Samuel).
Most (or all) of the historical European plague epidemics did not involve rats as intermediate hosts. The mode of transmission was from human to human via an insect vector.
Pulex irritans [,the human flea,] may have been the most important arthropod vector in Europe prior to the late nineteenth century, but other ectoparasites (other fleas, lice, etc.) could also have been involved.
In China before 1894 and in Hong Kong, in many (but not all) areas of India, and in cities like Bombay, Colombo, Alexandria and Sydney, the most important arthropod vector was Xenopsylla cheopis, [, Oriental Rat Flea,] and the mode of transmission was from Rattus rattus [the Black Rat] (or Rattus norvegicus [Brown or Norwegian Rat]) to man.
Note that the evidence for the Black Death becoming less virulent over time is rather limited. The primary difference may just be that there is effective treatment that limits both the fatalities, and that modern conditions will often limit the insect vectors. As he notes, “the bubonic and septicaemic forms of plague need a vector organism (most likely an insect) to transmit the infection from one mammal to another.” Modern hygiene is helpful.
Note that it can still be very deadly if contracted. This piece takes the more traditional approach (rat fleas spread it) but gives a little more background information
Saylor.Org, June 2011
The modern bubonic plague has a mortality rate of thirty to seventy-five percent and symptoms including fever of 38–41 °C (101–105 °F), headaches, painful aching joints, nausea and vomiting, and a general feeling of malaise. If untreated, of those that contract the bubonic plague, 80% die within eight days.] Pneumonic plague has mortality rate of ninety to ninety-five percent. Symptoms include fever, cough, and blood-tinged sputum. As the disease progresses, sputum becomes free flowing and bright red. Septicemic plague is the least common of the three forms, with a mortality rate close to one hundred percent.
Ouch. Obviously a disease that you don’t want to become resistant to treatment, or find a new nifty vector. I don’t think Flu’s and Bacteria can easily combine their genetic coding, so fortunately (I hope) you wouldn’t expect a Black Death- Flu. | <urn:uuid:ed0fd692-ef6f-4baa-9dfb-01b64f31c9cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reflexionesfinales.blogspot.jp/2012/02/where-is-black-death.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951147 | 941 | 2.75 | 3 |
Now that three different people have sent me today's New York Times oped on "A Quantum Theory of Mitt Romney", I suppose I ought to respond.
As a politically engaged physicist, I certainly found it an entertaining read, and appreciate seeing Feynman diagrams in the Times. But on further reflection, I'm not sure I agree with the premise that Mitt Romney is a "quantum politician"; I think he's still classical (though not a point particle).
Parts of the quantum model presented in the article are appropriate. Complementarity is very fitting, especially if we get beyond the imprecise popular formulation that "light is both a particle and a wave". When we get down to it, what do we really mean by "is"? Both "particle" and "wave" are models that make predictions about the behavior of a system. Under some circumstances, light will behave in the way predicted by the wave model, and under other circumstances it will behave in the way predicted by the particle model. But what light "is" is something different from what those models (on their own) describe.
Similarly, it's not just that "Mitt Romney is both a moderate and a conservative". Under some circumstances, Romney will behave as a moderate would, and under other circumstances, Romney will behave as a conservative would. But the reality is neither of these: around most issues, Romney has no principles, and therefore modeling him as either a moderate or a conservative misses the full picture.
However, the concept of complementarity is not exclusive to quantum mechanics; it can be generalized into a statement about any scientific modeling, like the story of the blind men and the elephant. (Also, Figure 1 is a mixed metaphor. Schrödinger's cat is about superposition of states, not about wave-particle duality.)
The discussion of probability and uncertainty is where the "quantum theory of Mitt Romney" starts to break down. It is not true that "Mitt Romney’s political viewpoints can be expressed only in terms of likelihood, not certainty." In fact, Romney's (professed) viewpoints are highly predictable and deterministic. They can be best modeled not by the randomness of quantum mechanics, but by a hidden variable theory, where the "hidden" variable is whether he is campaigning for governor of Massachusetts or for the Republican presidential nomination in Alabama. It is easy to predict that after he wins the nomination, he will attempt to shift his positions in the direction of the median voter, but will be impeded by other forces which are themselves deterministic and Newtonian.
So if Romney is classical (because measurements of his position are deterministic) but is not a point particle (because measurements of his position depend on the measurement apparatus), what is the best classical model to describe him? Perhaps a polarized wave? What do you think? | <urn:uuid:e21ccef1-fb1b-4b77-88d5-7e2b1e9645ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mahrabu.blogspot.com/2012/04/mitt-does-not-play-dice.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95143 | 582 | 1.6875 | 2 |
I keep coming across this word often 「自己PR」when looking at applications. I'm not sure what the "PR" part means in Japanese, but in English it usually means "public relations". What does this word mean, and what does the "PR" stand for?
The PR does indeed stand for public relations. In English it is almost exclusively a business term used to represent a companies goals to persuade the public, employees, and other stakeholders to maintain a certain point of view about it, its leadership, products, etc.
In Japanese it has the same meaning, only it can be applied to areas other than business. In this case, 自己 (yourself). So in a sense, the phrase basically means your own personal PR.
Having written several CV's in Japanese I can tell you that it is basically the part of the CV where you get a chance to talk about yourself, your skills & abilities, etc in an attempt to persuade your employer about how awesome you are, and why they should hire you. | <urn:uuid:5c6c3089-ff73-4291-be5f-b287a84b48cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/6480/what-does-%E8%87%AA%E5%B7%B1pr-mean%EF%BC%9F | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973769 | 216 | 1.695313 | 2 |
“It’s the not the kings and generals who make history, but the masses, the people.” – Nelson Mandela
Are you a king? A general? No?
Good news! You and I can work together and make a little history.
Here’s what we’re talking about. Remember that year in school you were studying American history? You read about the slave trade, and how millions of people were brought here against their will, but set into motion a chain of events, some sorry and despicable, some noble, that helped make our country what it is today. You came across the California gold rush of 1849. You read about how word spread of the gold find out by Sutter’s Mill, and how for the next few years afterward, great numbers would gather in or about St. Joseph Missouri every spring. Each family would buy a Conestoga wagon and a team of oxen or horses. They’d load up the kids and all their worldly possessions. Then they’d head west as soon as the spring rains had dried up enough to keep the wagon from being mired in mud. That growing population out west triggered in turn the influx of Irish and Chinese laborers who built the first transcontinental railroad. Subsequent massive migrations from Europe fueled the Industrial Revolution, launched the growth of today’s major cities, produced the soldiers who fought in two world wars. Today’s global labor force is driving an IT revolution that is reshaping the possibilities for the human race.
How many of these folks do we know by name? Maybe one in a million – someone famous, perhaps, but more than likely, a family ancestor. To everyone else, our ancestors were just faces in the crowd. The next year, when you studied world history, it was the same thing. The Babylonian empire. The Roman Empire. Genghis Khan. The Black death. The Arab conquest of lands from Spain to Indonesia. The great sweep of history, everywhere, at all times, has been accomplished by the many, the multitude. Nelson Mandela had it right.
So far, so good. You and I are anonymous – we’re eligible to do something historic! But where’s the great arena today? How is our generation making history? What will people remember us for? Well, they’ll remember the IT revolution for sure. They’ll remember what’s happening in the life sciences and biotechnology. Maybe – just maybe – they’ll remember an entertainer or two of all those figures who dominate our television screens and those magazines in the grocery checkout lanes.
But here’s a forecast. All these issues are destined to be second or third tier, at least for the 21st century. They’ll be harnessed to achieve a larger end, at least by our generation. Those who follow will remember us more as the generation who found the keys to sustainability, and shaped forever, or at least for a very long time, the kind of future our descendants will be able to enjoy on this planet.
In that future – is life good? Will our offspring’s offspring find that the resources they need to sustain a high quality of life are plentiful, abundant, and renewable? Will the natural world still be a landscape of unspoiled beauty, populated by an incredible diversity of species? Will natural extremes – cycles of floods and drought, storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions – be events of interest but not cause for dismay? If so, our descendants will credit us for this.
Or, conversely, in that future – do our children’s children find themselves in straitened circumstances? Are resources dwindling? Is the once-beautiful natural world a distant memory, captured in a few videos, which are themselves facing extinction as decaying technologies break down? Is the fabric of society starting to come apart, frayed by growing poverty and want, ripped by catastrophes of widening scope and impact?
[Ironically, in this latter scenario, we also have few worries. How could that be? Because we’re told that history is written by the winning side…and in the Mad Max scenario, there will be no winners. History itself will become a casualty in this future. So future generations should, but won’t, blame us. Instead, they will be experiencing a collective amnesia. They’ll know things are grim but lack an understanding of why.]
Now one of the challenges or burdens we shoulder today is that we all see the odds of the good scenario and the strained one as being about equal, or maybe the odds of the strained and constrained future as being quite a bit higher. We scorn those who think the future is bright, don’t we? We admire pessimism and pessimists. But hark back to all those historic trends described at the beginning of this post. All those folks felt the same burden. And they were wrong – almost universally so. They totally underestimated their capabilities and prospects.
Here’s a small story to illustrate the point, from my uncle. Over dinner this evening he was telling me that in 1943 he was about thirteen years old, and living in Greensboro, North Carolina, one of the largest wartime concentrations of soldiers anywhere in the country. He was in a movie theater, mostly filled with soldiers, where they were showing a film entitled, “For the duration,” referring to the duration of the war. The film had a subtitle: 1941-194? He said, when the subtitle appeared, the soldiers actually jeered. No one in the theater thought the war could possibly end before the end of the 1940’s. He felt a frisson, realizing that in such an extended war he’d be drawn into the combat himself.
But within two years, the war was over, and soldiers were coming home.
Another case in point. Many of us remember the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the collapse of the former Soviet Union some two years later. In hindsight, these events seem pre-ordained. But in the mid-1980’s, you could have gone up to anyone on the streets of any major city worldwide, and had a conversation like this:
“Do you think communism is a good idea? “No.” “Do you know anyone who does?” “No.” Do you think communism will fall any time soon?” “No, it’s here to stay.”
These examples abound.
So this is not a forecast, but at least the surfacing of a possibility: it may be that this combined challenge of coping with the world as resource, victim, and threat can be resolved within our lifetimes.
So are you up for it? Game to make a little history? Or would you rather just be surprised by those who do?
A cautionary note…remember that sustainability is an oxymoron. | <urn:uuid:ab6daab2-7b40-41f9-b37e-596b11f5921d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.livingontherealworld.org/?p=189 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959253 | 1,444 | 2.375 | 2 |
"There is a homophobia in the discourse," noted Robert Wright. "But often love and acceptance in the relationships."
Wright was speaking on a panel exploring sexual orientation, gender identity, and race. Dozens of people crowded into a room at Dalhousie University on November 30 to take part in the discussion, and a question had been posed about homophobia in black communities in Nova Scotia.
"The homophobic ethic that we think pervades the black community seems to be rooted first in the black church," said Wright, a social worker and self-described "church man" who grew up in the black Baptist tradition.
"The church has not been a friendly place for gay folk," said Wright. "At the same time, I think that black folk have a real history of being loving and accepting of everyone in the community."
Catherine Meade, a lawyer in Halifax and moderator of the discussion said she had a similar experience. Growing up, Meade's father was a Baptist minister, and she still attends church regularly.
"I sit in church..and really wonder what people are thinking to my left and right," said Meade. On the other hand, she continued, she has never doubted the love of her parents or other family members.
Meade described an occasion where she and her partner were worrying about whether or not they should tell Meade's 81 year old aunt that they were getting married. They needn't have worried: "Well praise the lord," her aunt replied happily.
Chris Cochrane is a transgender woman who goes by the stage name Elle Noir as a performer in Halifax. Cochrane found that her mother was accepting of her for who she was, first when she came out as a gay man and later with her desire to no longer be a man.
"I didn't have any problems as a gay individual being accepted in a small community," said Cochrane, who believes that the accepting attitude is partly rooted in the fact that women are often considered the head of the family in the black community, rather than men.
"The black gay often finds the love of their mother is not overly confused," said Wright.
Nevertheless, he added, "The discourse is homophobic. It makes being in the black community and having those kinds of relationships a little crazy making."
"It is awfully hard to sit in the pew in a community where you know people love you on one level, but they're still trying to chase the demons with you on the other hand," said Wright.
"Amen," agreed Meade.
For a full audio recording of the event, go here. | <urn:uuid:14e13272-0788-45a1-8814-1b283e85b3e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/fr/story/being-black-and-out/5306 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988487 | 535 | 2 | 2 |
The Israeli prime minister and Ehud Barak, the defence minister, issued an order raising the military alert level to "P-Plus" – a rare command signalling imminent war, a documentary shown on Israel's Channel 2 reported.
The alert order was opposed by Lt Gen Gabi Ashkenazi, the then chief of staff. "This is not something you do unless you're certain you want to see it through," Lt Gen Ashkenazi is said to have warned.
Meir Dagan, then head of the Mossad, Israel's external intelligence agency, said the order was "illegal" and insisted that it be put to a vote in cabinet.
He said Mr Netanyahu and Mr Barak "simply tried to steal a decision to go to war", according to Channel 2. The documentary describes Mr Barak's furious response to the reactions of military chiefs.
He is reported to have said that "with such general staff we would not have won the Six Day War", referring to Israel's decisive victory in 1967.
Mr Barak, who is still defence minister, has disputed this version. In his interview for the documentary, he claimed the strike on Iran was called off not because of military opposition, but because Israel's armed forces – and Lt Gen Ashkenazi in particular – had failed to prepare.
"A chief of staff must create the operational capacity. He must provide his professional recommendation on whether or not to enact a given order, and we must even take this opinion into account. But we can also proceed in opposition to his recommendation," said Mr Barak.
His comments will inevitably call into question Israel's current military readiness for a conflict with Iran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency in February 2010 voicing concern over the "possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile". | <urn:uuid:8b4b066b-9644-4d5e-8004-fc3c0111c17d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/9657167/Benjamin-Netanyahu-ordered-Israels-armed-forces-to-prepare-Iran-strike-in-2010.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976396 | 378 | 1.726563 | 2 |
C6n SEA practice and biodiversity
Jo Treweek, SES, UK
Helen Byron, Imperial College London, UK
Dave le Maitre, CSIR Environmentek, South Africa
Key issues to be addressed
Biodiversity supports many livelihoods and provides essential goods and services to millions of people. However, its values are often under-emphasised in development planning. The first World Summit on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (1992) emphasised the importance of biodiversity as the basis of our very existence, to be used wisely and sustainably and conserved for current and future generations. The main threats to biodiversity globally are associated with human activities causing habitat loss or damage. These threats need to be carefully managed if significant, irreversible losses of biodiversity are to be avoided.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) requires Parties to integrate as far as possible and as appropriate the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity into relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans and programmes. The CBD also, along with the Ramsar Convention and the Convention on Migratory Species, recognises SEA as an important mechanism for building biodiversity into development planning to promote its conservation and sustainable use. SEA can help to:
• Build biodiversity objectives into plans
• Identify biodiversity-friendly alternatives
• Identify and manage cumulative threats
• Plan effective mitigation strategies to ensure no net loss of biodiversity
• Put in place monitoring programmes to provide necessary biodiversity data
• Strengthen biodiversity partnerships and information networks
This session will draw on experience and examples of SEA practice from different countries to review the extent to which biodiversity issues are addressed. The session will explore important biodiversity considerations and principles that should be adopted to ensure good practice in SEA. Emerging international guidance on SEA and biodiversity will be discussed and experiences presented at the conference will contribute to its further development. | <urn:uuid:ac76738c-2f98-4049-a90e-40a3cdf096b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iaia.org/conferences/special-meetings/prague/sea-practice-biodiversity.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900471 | 375 | 3.125 | 3 |
June 18th, 2007, 07:27 PM
There seem to be quite a number of green thumbs around here so I have a really basic question.
How long do trees live? Hundreds of years? Thousands?
June 18th, 2007, 08:04 PM
Lucky for you Marko, I'm a forest technician!
How old a tree will get depends on the species of the tree. A tree such as an oak, which is a very slow growing tree will live much longer (by hundreds of years) than a tree like a poplar, which is very fast growing and might reach 100 years if it's lucky. Out west there are spruce and cedar that are hovering around 1000 years old. So it all depends on species really.
June 18th, 2007, 09:08 PM
I am no forestry engineer but my dad was a CEO in the pulp and paper industry before he retired so I tend to know more about trees than I really ever wanted to (Kidding - I just sort of grew up with it, lol - and now, despite my "whine" , I can recite the poem "there is nothing so lovely as a tree" - or something like that, rofl and of course, I own a large woodlot. (with my own road - I kind of wish I lived out west sometimes with the majestic Redwoods and Sequia (sp?) who live so much longer but I live in the east and love our trees just as much!! Since I am in the maritimes, I am used to species like oak, spruce and pine and maple of course (Bird's Eye Maple is very valuable and some unemployed people steal them which is why I have someone watching my property which is over 600 acres!) - So I know that pine trees can be between 60 to 80 years where as an oak or can be a thousand years and upwards. Even evergreens - of which we have a lot (tho I look at Google Earth sometimes and cringe at what the forest industry has done - with all due respect to the good life it has provided for so many Maritimers and my own family) - and cringe!!! - can live for thousands of yrs. Some Pines can live for 4,000 yrs (I have pines but they are not in that range). But not all conifers live that long.
My sister who wrote a PhD biology thesis on silviculture - tho now works in another field entirely -(She actually did another PhD in business, a field she is welcome to, lol) would add that how long a tree lives depends not simply on the species but on many factors like climate conditions (water, temperature, sunlight, etc.), fire dangers,diseases like Dutch Elm Disease, and the condition of the soil.
So, it's an interesting question and a fascinating subject. I guess I still am interested in forestry, lol I am determined never to cut down unnecessary trees. There was much wind this winter and I lost quite a few trees because branches or pieces of a tree broke off completely (It was amazing - I've never seen anything like that before!!) and of course one has to maintain a woodlot by silviculture and caring for it, sort of gardening for trees.
June 18th, 2007, 09:24 PM
and I thought of doing a simple google search before asking here. :)
Thanks for those great answers!!!
I sort of knew that it depended on the species and WAS sort of wondering about the Man not cutting issue. Trees to me are truly fascinating on many many levels...so just one more question..
For those trees that DO live thousands of years, if Man left them to die naturally, how do they die? Do they succumb to tree diseases? Do they just die of seriously old age and if so, do they just stop growing and their leaves fall off, and their branches wither and the whole thing rots?
It's amazing and somewhat embarrassing to admit how little I (and many city folk) know about general nature topics.
Thanks again :thumbs up
June 18th, 2007, 09:56 PM
I suppose what would eventually cause their death would depend on what natural elements they finally sucumb too. Lack of sunlight or root development due to surrounding trees, insect infestations that go unchecked by natural predators, lightening strikes, fires. Could be a number of individual factors or a number of them all at once that finally ends their life.
June 19th, 2007, 07:27 AM
You have some of the neatest and oldest trees listed here in this blog. The oldest man planted tree comes from my counrty btw ;)
June 19th, 2007, 08:46 AM
Thanks for that great link - Trees are amazing! :highfive:
June 19th, 2007, 08:46 AM
I know of an oak. A very special oak. It grows in the middle of a French village, in Normandy. It's right next to the village church. It has wires helping to support it, but is alive and kicking! Inside, there are two chapels. The downstairs one (ground level) has room for 2-3 people, upstairs you only fit one person.
During the crusades, there was a hermit monk living in the upper room! That says something about the age of that oak. It has seem William the Conqueror ride by.
I have visited it several times, and wouldn't go to Normandy without at least passing by. They even made a comedy movie around the oak, the entire village rallying to save it when the central planning commission wnated to cut it down to make room for a larger road!
June 19th, 2007, 06:22 PM
If a tree is left alone and never has any disease or insect infestations(completely impossible, but hypothetically speaking of course) a tree would naturally go into decline and die very slowly over the course of many years.
June 19th, 2007, 08:41 PM
My own experience is that trees left to their own devices so to speak - can die as the result of a variety of things - weather (ie think of hurricane Juan in Halifax and the storm in Vancouver- both devastated the tree propulation in those cities!), disease - some trees rot from the inside and need to be pruned. Anyone who does not do proper silviculture on their woodlot or tress (if they rae say a corporation) is just asking for trouble. There are ways to determine the age of trees which you likely learned in school (the rings et al) and there are also ways to determine how healthy a tree is.
But it is hard to think of just one tree because it really is part of a group (unless it is a lone tree planted on a lawn or something). I love having a woodlot where I can go and care for the trees. I even own a chain saw, lol (and a portable saw mill - I have actually cut down trees- with mega help granted), used the portable mill to create lumber from my trees and have used that wood - usually pine or oak and eeb Bird's Eye maple - to build a deck as well as other woodworking projects. My dad is usually the wood working person though - I just help (as in here is the drill, lol) - I feel like instead of asking a nurse to hand me something in surgery, I am the nurse helping him - drill please, nail please, lol
But I take great joy at seeing something created from a tree. Since I grew up in a family intimately familiar with the pulp and paper process, I also love to watch how that works - taking trees, and creating pulpwood into a watery substance that is treated and becomes paper (it is rather like when you made pottery in school out of paper and water and is sort of like paste only there is LOT more of it, lol) - and then seeing it end up on the paper machines and coming out as in some cases newsprint (Most of the mills in my dads company make newsprint but some are diversified- and that seems to be the buzzword of the day).
The forest industry is in somewhat of a crisis because some companies did not begin reforestation early enough!!! (This is especially true of companies who do not reside in Canada so hence just took the resource and did not put anything back!). That is a whole other topic tho, lol
Here is a web site that has some useful info about forestry management in New Brunswick.
I have an entire box of materials that go with the web site if you want even more materials.
June 20th, 2007, 09:45 PM
Stacer - you perfecly answered the exact question I had in my mind. :thumbs up
Thanks so much everyone - great tree info. Love it!:highfive:
June 21st, 2007, 07:31 PM
So I didn't spend all that money on my education for nothing then!!:laughing:
June 28th, 2007, 04:39 AM
I just saw this on the BBC website. they have a lot of very old trees in Britain. A 5000 year old yew in Scotland that is as old as Stonehenge and was already 3000 years old and venerated by the locals when the Romans invaded Britain. Check it out.
July 3rd, 2007, 03:51 PM
Trees are wonderful,if they only could talk,what stories they could tell..
When we bought our house,the whole street was lined with Chestnut-trees,part of the reason we bought this old house.
Then came the treekillers,they widened the street and most of the huge majestic trees were chopped down,I actually sobbed when they cut the one down in front of my house:sad:
July 6th, 2007, 07:00 AM
oh, chico, that's awful... i love the old parts of town with the huge trees... the posher subdivision on the other side of the main road here has TONS of trees, way more than we do. I would be heartbroken too. One of the reasons I am glad to live on a side street off of a side street, I doubt they would widen it... But I heard there used to be more trees before, previous occupants and a somewhat opiniated neighbour got rid of them. I want to plant more but fear I won't see them in their full splendour. Unless I can $$$ to get mature trees transplanted which is very unlikely to happen.
July 6th, 2007, 07:11 AM
Well,here in Oakville,you now have to have a permit from the town,to cut a tree down from your own property.
We have 2 huge trees and 2 smaller ones in our backyard,I would not dream of cutting them down,it's a haven for all the birds and gives us privacy and shade:thumbs up
The new subdivisions,popping up like mushrooms look like ugly concrete jungles,no trees,no nothing....:sad: | <urn:uuid:debcfde5-bc53-45ae-9db3-e8f1c8ac82f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pets.ca/forum/archive/index.php/t-41660.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967577 | 2,287 | 1.953125 | 2 |
*All overseas teaching websites can be found on the Websites for Educators page
Formerly Careers Without Borders, this is an e-recruitment tool designed entirely by an NGO for NGO's.
Comprehensive website offering information and opportunities for living and working abroad.
Website that offers search for international jobs and internships.
International Career Employment Weekly
Weekly newspaper that has 500+ job vacancies. Jobs are listed by function - international development and assistance; international understanding, education, communication, exchange; etc. Includes some jobs in U.S. and a lot overseas. You can check out some ads for free on the website, but, to see all, you must subscribe.
International Student Volunteers
SV offers a unique combination of volunteer projects and action-packed adventure travel in a fun, safe, educational and well-organized environment. ISV participants make a significant difference in the world by annually contributing over 250,000 hours of volunteer work abroad in the fields of conservation and community development.
Popular job posting site from a variety of companies and international placement firms.
Offers a variety of job types such as, short-term jobs, volunteer work, and summer work abroad
US Department of State
Learn about the US Department of State, what their mission is, and where their embassies and consulates are located. Addresses principles that are important to the culture of the U.S. Department of State — and their commitment to diversity and to meeting the needs of their employees. Make sure to click on Career Options at the top of the page. | <urn:uuid:1a6a41ab-6c3a-4854-973e-4f195bc1954d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hofstra.edu/StudentAffairs/StudentServices/career/Students/career_students_internationalopportunities.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930649 | 320 | 1.507813 | 2 |
passing this along from HCP Tips, for your entertainment, only:
Natural Bug Bite Remedies
Probably the safest way to keep bugs away from your home is to prevent your yard from inviting bugs. You can plant little repellent gardens all over your yard, front porch, or back patio to ward off unwanted bugs. Using nature-friendly plants like lemongrass (also known as Citronella, popular in mosquito-repelling candles), lemon thyme, catnip, and citrus-smelling geraniums which contain up to 60 percent of the power of popular spray DEET along with other commercial products, you can reduce your family’s bite ratio and reduce the amount of toxins they are subject to.
Another option is lotions and sprays found at natural health food stores or herbalists thar contain essential oils and herbs that are used to keep these pests away (like eucalyptus, bay laurel, thyme, or lavender). One of these natural oils, gaining in popularity, is neem oil. Made from the neem tree, this extract is used in Indian Ayurvedic cures; the oil is bitter and repels bugs while still being able to keep your friends close by.
Although many of these lotions and essential oil-based solutions should not be used on infants, children under 2, or pregnant or nursing mothers, you can always spray their clothes or the area around them for protection. A safe-for-children remedy is to coat a stroller or toddler’s chair with pure vanilla bean extract or add a few drops to their regular skin lotion for use on their sensitive skin—or yours. If you have already been stung or bitten, treating those bites can be a chore.
Anti-inflammatory remedies like peppermint oil dropped onto the bite uses menthol to increase circulation and move the chemicals around that the bug left behind to physically reduce the sore. You can also use regular oatmeal on bites to pull any remaining toxins out of the body. Let a tablespoon of oatmeal marinate in water until a paste forms. Spread onto the bite until a crust hardens and rinse off. An easier way to pull toxins out of your body is to apply a slice of freshly cut eggplant on the wound, while a fresh cut cucumber slice also works to reduce swelling. After the itch and pain are gone, unsightly bumps can still appear on the skin. Cover with easy at-home tricks like calendula and aloe vera to prevent against infection, which can be found over the counter in sprays and gels. Redness associated with a bug bite can be irritating in itself and again Ayurvedic medicine comes to the rescue. Alum, found in the spice aisle, is in powder form and can be dissolved in water takes away the unwanted physical aspects of the bite and even helps with any lingering itch you may have.
Don’t hesitate to call 911 if you suspect there is an emergency. Allergic reactions to bug bites can happen, either from bees, spiders, or other unknown insects that you may not realize you are allergic to. People can go into anaphylactic shock from certain bites or stings and they should be watched if any of their symptoms get worse. Even though run-ins with bugs can be annoying, they can also be dangerous, so don’t ignore the warning signs: pain at the site for longer than a few hours, nausea, vomiting, fever, unstoppable itching, muscle pain, difficulty breathing, extreme swelling, or causes confusion in the victim. | <urn:uuid:4ef4fe09-ae36-4c30-93b2-eb829beac5b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abqhomeschool.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1247161645/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935073 | 736 | 2.09375 | 2 |
The Consortium On-line is a product of The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc. To contact CIJ, click here.
Major national news outlets have gone silent in the face of evidence that they published misleading stories about the Florida presidential recount.
The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, the Washington Post and other leading news organizations relied on a dubious hypothesis to craft stories last month portraying George W. Bush as the recount winner, when the recount actually showed that Al Gore won if all legally cast votes were counted.
The news outlets assumed, incorrectly as it turned out, that so-called “overvotes,” which heavily favored Gore, would have been ignored if the Florida court-ordered recount had been allowed to proceed and that therefore Bush would have won even without the intervention of five conservative allies on the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Study of Disputed Florida Ballots Finds Justices Did Not Cast the Deciding Vote,” the New York Times front-page headline read. “Florida Recounts Would Have Favored Bush,” declared the Washington Post.
After those stories were published on Nov. 12, however, new evidence emerged showing that this pro-Bush hypothesis was wrong. It turned out that the judge in charge of the recount was moving to include the “overvotes” when Bush got the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
But rather than run corrections, the major news organizations chose to duck the fact that they had messed up one of the biggest political stories in U.S. history.
After learning of this foul-up via the Internet, some citizens complained in letters and e-mails, but the news outlets have responded by turning their backs on the complaints. There has been virtually no debate or commentary in the major news media about the mistaken assumption at the heart of those front-page stories.
The silence has sent another message: that the news media believes that something as fundamental to democracy as making sure the person with the most votes wins is a kind of trivial pursuit interesting only to Gore “partisans.” In this time of crisis, the news media seems to be saying, it isn't important that the occupant of the White House got there in an anti-democratic fashion -- and if that happens to be the case, it's best not to talk about it.
In their Nov. 12 recount articles, all the leading news organizations downplayed the key fact of the unofficial recount: that a full counting of all legally cast ballots in Florida showed that Al Gore won the state, regardless of what standards were used in judging the chads, whether dimpled, hanging or fully punched through. Gore also won the national popular vote by about 537,000 votes, a number that exceeded the victory margins of John Kennedy in 1960 and Richard Nixon in 1968.
Still, the major news outlets that paid for the recount led their articles with the claim that Bush would have won the election even if five conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court had not intervened on Dec. 9, 2000, to stop the statewide hand recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court.
To construct that lead, the newspapers deleted legally cast votes for Gore and instead used a hypothesis that presumed that the statewide recount would not have counted so-called “overvotes” that broke heavily for Gore. By subtracting the “overvotes” from the total and including only “undervotes,” the big media got a number that showed Bush still clinging to a tiny lead.
“Undervotes” were ballots kicked out of voting machines that recognized no vote for president. “Overvotes” were ballots that the machines rejected as having more than one vote for president. However, under Florida law, hand recounts must include those ballots if the intent of the voter is clear.
For instance, if a voter marked a ballot for Gore and then wrote in Gore’s name, that should count as a legal vote in Florida, as well as many other states. If an “undervote” revealed a partially pushed through chad, that too could be counted as a legal vote. By counting all the ballots where the intent of the voter was clear, Gore pushed ahead of Bush by margins ranging from 60 to 171 votes depending on the standards used to judge the “undervotes,” according to the media recounts.
Besides those legal votes that should have been counted under Florida law, the media recounts estimated that Gore lost tens of thousands of other unrecoverable ballots. Those were lost because of confusing ballot designs, actions by Gov. Jeb Bush’s administration purging hundreds of predominantly African-American voters by falsely labeling them felons, and the Bush campaign’s success in counting illegally cast absentee ballots in Republican counties while excluding them in Democratic counties.
No adjustments were made for those lost votes in the media recounts, though they help explain why Election Day exit polls showed Gore winning Florida, since he was the choice of a clear plurality of Florida voters.
A Media Miscalculation
But what made the journalistic slant of last month’s “Bush Wins Recount” stories indefensible was the erroneous assumption that the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court would have excluded “overvotes.”
Unlike the major national newspapers, the Orlando Sentinel of Florida checked with the judge who was in charge of the recount to see what he might have done with the "overvotes." Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis said he had not fully made up his mind about counting the "overvotes," but he added: "I'd be open to that."
The Sentinel stated, "If that had happened, it would have amounted to a statewide hand recount. And it could have given the election to Gore." [Orlando Sentinel, Nov. 12, 2001]
Then, Newsweek uncovered a contemporaneous document demonstrating that Lewis was moving toward counting the "overvotes" on Dec. 9, just hours before Bush got five Republicans on the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Florida recount. In a memo, Lewis said he was instructing canvassing boards to isolate "overvotes" that showed a clear intent of the voters.
“If you would segregate ‘overvotes’ as you describe and indicate in your final report how many where you determined the clear intent of the voter,” wrote Lewis, “I will rule on the issue for all counties.”
In effect, Lewis's instructions foreshadowed a decision to count the “overvotes” because once the votes – that were legal under Florida law – had been identified there would be no legal or logical reason to throw them out, especially since some counties had already included “overvotes” in their counts.
By assuming that the “overvotes” would be cast aside, the major news outlets had failed to take into account the judge in charge of the recount.
Normally when serious journalistic errors are made on high-profile stories, a media firestorm ensues. Even when stories are just hyped – not dead wrong – editorialists and media critics rush to rap the knuckles of the offending reporters.
Remember the furor over a CNN report quoting former U.S. military officials seeming to confirm that poison gas was used on defectors and other sensitive targets during the Vietnam War. Press critics demanded a retraction, CNN admitted flaws in the reporting, and two producers lost their jobs amid public humiliation.
Remember, too, Gary Webb’s stories about the CIA tolerating cocaine trafficking by Nicaraguan contra forces, leading to the introduction of crack cocaine in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities. Though the CIA inspector general eventually confirmed that the CIA and the Reagan-Bush administration had protected contra-cocaine trafficking, major newspapers concentrated their wrath on Webb for supposedly exaggerating CIA malfeasance. He, too, lost his job, at the San Jose Mercury News. [For details, see Robert Parry’s Lost History.]
In the Florida recount screw-up, however, the major news organizations simply turned a deaf ear to the fact that their core assumption was wrong. No one apparently will pay any price.
More significantly, the vast majority of Americans probably have no idea that they were misled by those stories. Millions of Internet readers may know the truth and some Americans may have heard the news by word of mouth, but the big media’s refusal to revisit an embarrassing mistake has guaranteed that most voters will remain uninformed.
Part of the reason for this self-protective behavior is that prominent media critics, such as Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, embraced the inaccurate reporting.
“The conspiracy theorists have been out in force, convinced that the media were covering up the Florida election results to protect President Bush,” Kurtz wrote on the day the recount results were reported.. “That gets put to rest today.”
Kurtz scoffed, too, at the notion that anyone still cared about whether Bush had stolen the presidential election. “Now the question is: How many people still care about the election deadlock that last fall felt like the story of the century – and now faintly echoes like some distant Civil War battle?” he wrote. [Washington Post, Nov. 12, 2001]
Fearing the 'Liberal' Label
Why, many Americans wonder, is the national press corps acting in a way that seems so disrespectful of the democratic process? The answer is, partly at least, fear and self-interest.
While conservatives continue to charge that the national news media has a “liberal” bias, the reality for at least the past two decades has been that working journalists who got labeled “liberal” or who offended the powerful conservative establishment in Washington could expect their careers to be damaged, if not terminated, as occurred in the CNN and Webb cases.
As self-protection, journalists therefore have learned to bend over backwards to avoid offending conservatives. Journalists have no similar fear of liberal press critics.
This reality was on display throughout the 1990s as the Washington press corps sought to prove it wasn’t liberal by playing up petty scandals that kept the Clinton administration on the defensive. Starting with overwrought coverage of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Whitewater real estate deal and the furor over the firings at the White House Travel Office, mainstream and conservative news outlets alike kept up the barrage right through Clinton’s impeachment over fibbing about having sex with Monica Lewinsky.
This phenomenon of national reporters proving they aren’t liberals spilled over to the coverage of Campaign 2000, where Vice President Gore was hectored for minor or imaginary examples of supposed exaggerations. The news media – from the establishment New York Times and Washington Post to the conservative New York Post and Washington Times – joined in portraying Gore as a serial exaggerator whose behavior bordered on the delusional.
To create this caricature of Gore – who is, by any reasonable measure, a hard-working and well-intentioned public servant – the news media literally made up quotes for Gore and misrepresented a variety of other statements.
Some of the misrepresented statements became political urban legends, such as Gore’s never-spoken claim that he “invented” the Internet and his supposedly false claim that author Eric Segal had used him as a model for a character in the novel, Love Story. Though Segal later confirmed this fact, the media continued to insist that Gore had made it up.
In another case, the media accused Gore of suffering from delusional tendencies for allegedly commenting about the Love Canal toxic-waste investigation that “I was the one that started it all,” a quote used in critical stories in both the New York Times and the Washington Post.
In reality, Gore had been referring to another toxic-waste case in Toone, Tennessee, and had said “that was the one that started it all.” The major newspapers had simply gotten the quote wrong and then dragged their heels on issuing a correction, while the mistake spread to dozens of other news organizations around the country. [For a fuller account of this case, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Al Gore v. the Media.”]
A Bush-Cheney Tilt
Rolling Stone magazine has published a new study of this anti-Gore media bias and quotes reporters on the campaign trail acknowledging the press hostility toward the then-vice president.
“The coverage seemed to be much more aggressive and adversarial than I’d ever seen before,” said Scott Shepard, a veteran newsman who covered the campaign for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A network television correspondent was quoted as saying, “There just developed among a certain group of people covering Gore, particularly the print people, a real disdain for him. Everything was negative. They had a grudge against [Gore]. I don’t know how else to put it.”
The Rolling Stone article by Eric Boehlert quoted Ceci Connolly, the Washington Post reporter who misquoted Gore about Love Canal. She continued to insist that her misquote “did not change the context” of Gore’s original comment, though any fair reading of Gore’s remarks would indicate that he was not claiming to have been the first one to discover the toxic-waste problem at Love Canal. [Rolling Stone, Dec. 6-13, 2001.]
Katharine Seeyle, the New York Times reporter who joined Connolly in making the Love Canal misquote, also has stood by the general accuracy of her account. Both reporters continue to hold down high-profile jobs as correspondents at these two leading newspapers.
Neither they nor any of the other reporters who demonstrated unprofessional hostility toward Gore have suffered the fates of the CNN producers on the poison-gas story or Gary Webb on the contra-crack stories. [For the most detailed coverage of the Gore exaggeration topic, see the archives at Bob Somerby’s Daily Howler Web site.]
To make this caricature of Gore as a pathological liar stand out in even starker contrast, the campaign press corps chose to ignore or play down exaggerations and even outright lies told by Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney.
For instance, during the vice presidential debate, Cheney depicted himself as a self-made multi-millionaire from his years as chairman of Halliburton Co. As for his success in the private sector, Cheney declared that "the government had absolutely nothing to do with it."
The reality was quite different, however, since Cheney had personally lobbied for government subsidies that benefited Halliburton, including federal loan guarantees from the U.S.-funded Export-Import Bank. During Cheney's tenure, Halliburton also emerged as a leading defense contractor with $1.8 billion in contracts from 1996-99.
Immediately after the debate, Cheney went on the road and denounced Gore for having an apparent "compulsion to embellish his arguments or ... his resumé.” Yet, the major news media made no note of Cheney's own resumé polishing, though that information was all on the public record. [For details, Consortiumnews.com's "Protecting Bush-Cheney."]
The Recount Battle
The anti-Gore bias carried into the post-election battle for a full-and-fair count of the Florida votes. From the start, commentators leaned heavily on Gore to concede, though his lead in the popular vote was swelling to over a half million votes and he was only a few votes shy of a majority in the Electoral College even without Florida.
Mike Barnicle of the New York Daily News argued that Gore should do the right thing and give up. “This could be Al Gore’s moment,” Barnicle said on MSNBC on Nov. 8, 2000. “It could be the moment where he finally gets the chance to live up to his great father’s ideals and have the courage to step aside.”
NBC’s Tim Russert declared that Gore “can’t extend it to too long, nor can he become a whiner about Florida.” As for Gore’s advisers, Russert said, “If they continue then to file lawsuits and begin to contest various areas of the state, then people will begin to suggest, ‘uh-oh, this is not magnanimous. This is being a sore loser.’”
Conservative commentators made similar arguments with a nastier tone.
On Nov. 12, columnist George Will wrote that “all that remains to complete the squalor of Gore’s attempted coup d’etat is some improvisation by Janet Reno, whose last Florida intervention involved a lawless SWAT team seizing a 6-year-old. She says there is no federal role, but watch for a ‘civil rights’ claim on behalf of some protected minority or some other conjured pretext.”
Gore’s decision to fight for Florida “made the poisonous political atmosphere in Washington even more toxic,” said Fox News’ Tony Snow on Nov. 12, 2000. “Gore has established a precedent for turning elections into legal circuses and giving the final word not to voters but to squadrons of lawyers.” [For a fuller compilation of post-election comments, see FAIR’s “Media Vs. Democracy” http://www.fair.org/articles/media-vs-democracy.html]
The irony of Snow’s words would become apparent only a month later when Bush sent a squadron of lawyers to convince five Republican justices on the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent any more counting of votes and to deny the voters of Florida the final word.
In the year that has followed, the media trends have continued down the same course, with Bush still getting the kid-glove treatment and Gore still coping with press misquotes.
In late November, Gore came in for a new round of ridicule for a supposed claim that he had opened a family restaurant in Tennessee. Quoting a Gore speech in Lagos, Nigeria, Reuters reported that Gore had said, "We have started a family restaurant in Tennessee and we are running it ourselves."
To some journalists, this sounded like another case of Lyin' Al claiming some accomplishment that didn't really exist. Comedian Jay Leno included a joke about Gore's restaurant in his monologue on NBC's "Tonight" show.
When Gore returned to the United States, however, a transcript was made from a tape of his speech. According to the tape transcript, Gore had actually said, "We stopped at a little family restaurant in Tennessee. We were eating there by ourselves." Reuters then retracted the story. [Washington Post, Dec. 1, 2001]
But the most fitting final comment on Election 2000 may be the silence of major news outlets in the face of evidence that they misreported the results of their own recount – and in doing so, awarded legitimacy to George W. Bush, the man who lost the election but won the White House.
In the 1980s, writing for the Associated Press and Newsweek, Robert Parry broke many of the stories now known as the Iran-Contra Affair. His latest book is Lost History, a study of how propaganda has altered Americans' understanding of their recent history. | <urn:uuid:8cf1b4c0-cecd-44e7-815c-709f759a1f2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://consortiumnews.com/2001/120601a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966781 | 4,016 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Council approves new alarm ordinance
HASTINGS, Minn.—An April 20 story from The Hastings Star-Gazette reports there's a new law requiring alarm system users to register their alarms with the city. The law was approved April 18.
The ordinance requires anyone in control of an alarm system that is intended to summon police or fire personnel to complete a free registration process with the city. Police may issue citations if they respond to an alarm that is not registered. It also deems a public nuisance any alarm system that sounds for longer than 20 minutes, emits an audible or visual signal more than twice within an hour or sounds a false alarm.
Under the new law, alarm system users are allowed two false alarms a year. If their alarm sounds more than that, they would be required to pay a fine. The fee schedule was to be determined at a May 2 council meeting. | <urn:uuid:ffdf2867-cc6c-483d-a9f5-6cc8e2577ecc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/council-approves-new-alarm-ordinance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956012 | 178 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Fitness Friday – Weight Training For Injury Prevention
Well hello there and welcome to another Fitness Friday! This week I’m talking about weight training for injury prevention. I suspect this may turn into yet another series of posts, as there are so many common injuries and even more ways to prevent them!
Today’s specific focus will be on running related injuries and what exercises you need to be doing on your cross-training days to make sure your running isn’t sidelined.
I would say the take-home point of my personal training course was that everything in the body is connected. Muscles, joints and tendons rely on one another to move in perfect unison. If there are any imbalances, then repetitive motion (or lack of motion) will heighten it and lead to injury.
Common running injuries such as Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, shin splints, “runner’s knee,” IT band syndrome and hip flexor issues can sometimes be prevented by making sure those areas are all properly supported by strong muscles.
Now, if you are already suffering from any of these ailments, I have to stress that you get the okay from a doc before lifting weights in the gym. Self-diagnosing is bad enough, but self-treating is even worse!
The following is just a snippet of the moves that should be added to your strength training roster on your off-running days (because you are strength training – right?? *glare*). I’ll let you know how to do them, what area it works, what it can prevent, and at the end I’ll let you know how to put it all together. Sooo… let’s get to it!
How To Do it: Sit in a chair with your toes tucked under a desk, shelf or couch. Lift your toes as if you’re lifting the piece of furniture with them, hold for 10 seconds, then relax. Repeat.
Works: Your anterior tibialis, aka the small muscle in your shin. Dorsiflexion of the foot, what we usually think of as flexing our foot and toes upward, is the only motion that will work that muscle. What common exercise can you think of that incorporates this foot motion with resistance on your toes? Nothing? Exactly. This is something you can do while trying not to fall asleep at your desk and it could help those nagging running pains immensely.
Prevents: Shin splints, Achilles tendonitis, pulled calf
How To Do It: Stand on a step (with the option of holding dumbbells) with just your toes on the surface and heels hanging off. Push up onto your toes, then let your weight sink into your heels past the step. Repeat! This is really difficult if you have bad balance, so the standing or seated calf machines at the gym will do just fine.
Works: The gastrocnemius (upper calf) muscle and soleus (lower calf).
Prevents: Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, pulled calf
Inner Thigh Lift
How To Do It: Lay on your side, bend your top leg and bring that foot in front of you. Hold on to that foot with your top hand to keep it stable, then flex your outstretched leg, lifting and lowering it to the ground.
Works: Adductor muscles (aka your inner thigh)
Prevents: Runner’s knee
Side note: You can also work your outer thigh from this position. Keep your top leg outstretched, hold a dumbbell in place on your outer thigh to add extra weight, then lift and lower it. This will also hit your IT band and help with IT band sydrome.
How To Do It: Take on a wiiiide stance with your toes pointed slightly outward. Grab a weight, keeping your shoulders back and chest forward, stick your butt back and squat down, then push back up.
Works: Inner thighs, glutes, quadriceps.
Prevents: Hip injury, runner’s knee, IT band syndrome
Side note: I highly recommend waiting until the weight area is empty before doing this one. It’s a little friendly! :P
Bulgarian Split Squat
How To Do It: Place the top of your foot on a bench or high step, take a biiiig step out (like, an extra few inches out from where you’re comfortable). Bend your forward leg, squatting down until your back knee almost hits the floor, then push through your heel back up.
Works: Quadriceps, glutes.
Prevents: Hip injury, runner’s knee, IT band syndrome.
Prone Leg Raise on Ball
How To Do It: Lie face down (“prone”) on an exercise ball and roll forward until your pelvis (a classier way of saying “crotch”) is on the top of the ball. Place your palms on the floor, and with your feet slightly separated, raise your legs into the air, then lower.
Works: Lower back, hips, glutes, hamstrings.
Prevents: Hip injury, IT band syndrome.
Stiff Leg Deadlift
How To Do It: Grab a barbell or dumbbells (start light), with a very slight bend to the knees, tip forward at the hips, keeping your back straight and shoulders back. Bring the weight down until you feel a stretch in the back of your legs, then engage your hamstrings to pull the weight back up.
Works: Hamstrings, glutes, hips, lower back.
Prevents: Hip injury, IT band syndrome, pulled calf.
Single Leg Deadlift
How To Do It: Same deal as the stiff leg deadlift, except when you come down, bring one of your legs straight back. When you come back up, only tap the floor with that moving foot, before you immediately bring it back again. That prevents any rest from happening during the set and ensures your muscles will stay engaged.
Works: Hips, lower back, hamstrings, glutes.
Prevents: Hip injury, IT band syndrome.
Hamstring Curl on Ball
How To Do It: Lay on your back with your heels resting on the top of an exercise ball. With your arms at your sides, pop your hips up so your body is in a straight line. Roll the ball towards you so your knees come in and the bottom of your feet roll onto the ball. Roll back, keep your hips up and repeat.
Works: Hamstrings, calves, hips.
Prevents: Hip injury, Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, pulled calf.
Again, this is just a snippet of the moves that are out there. I specifically chose several weight bearing exercises as I’m a true believe that you need a heavy load to build muscle strength. But because of this, that’s why they’re best for preventing injuries and not treating existing injuries unless you get an okay from your sports doc!
Now, I’m not going to give you a program to follow or anything. Instead I’m going to give you a checklist. Here are the muscles I want you working in every resistance workout:
- lower back
Go back and check which muscles are being worked in all these exercises. Once you have a list where each of the above muscles are worked at least once, you’re good to go! I always recommend to do strength training 2-3 times a week, but I cut a little slack for people who are training for something longer than a 10k. Once a week at the very least!
Question of the Day: Have you ever suffered from an exercise related injury? I injured my hip last spring training for my first 5k. Classic overuse injury compounded by the fact that I was running in old sneakers. Couldn’t run for the two months leading up to my triathlon and had to take two straight weeks off all activity. A year later and I’ve finally got my hips strong enough that they don’t give me any trouble anymore when I run :) | <urn:uuid:062c91b4-580c-47bb-bf9f-733ecc22e171> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thegreatbalancingact.com/2010/08/27/fitness-friday-weight-training-for-injury-prevention/?like=1&_wpnonce=027e8cf74a | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928693 | 1,707 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Shelves of Glass
An Interview with Bookseller Morris Venables
For almost a quarter of a century one of the highlights of the stained glass
calendar has been the annual publication of Morris Venables’ sales list: Books on Stained Glass. Often including over six hundred items, each list has been a treasure house of antiquarian rarities, hard-to-find titles, offprints from obscure journals and new publications from around the world. Inevitably, however all good things come to an end and earlier this year Morris and his wife Juliet, announced that the 2010/2011 list would be their last. As a tribute to their contribution to stained glass studies, Roger Rosewell, Vidimus News Editor, visited Morris in his Bristol home.
Morris Venables is warm, funny and knowledgeable. He works from a converted stable with shelves bumping the ceilings and precariously balanced stacks of books reaching almost as high. But despite what to my eye seems like disorder bordering on chaos, he knows exactly where to look for any book he wants [Fig.1].
“I started cataloguing books about stained glass in 1988. In the early ’90s my brother-in-law, George Wigley, the well-known collector and dealer in medieval glass, gave my name to the late William Cole (1909–1997), an expert on sixteenth-century Netherlandish roundels and the author of an important volume about them for the British CVMA. William’s surplus books provided me with the first large quantity of stained glass books to come my way. Fortunately other collections followed.
I published my first dedicated list about stained glass in 1988. It had 159 items for sale. Since then I’ve produced a list every year with the exception of 2007. My latest list has nearly 700 entries. Since 1989 the cover design has featured King Ezechias from the fifteenth-century Tree of Jesse window at the parish church of St Dyfnog at Llanrhaeadr, (Denbighshire) [Fig. 2].
As the business grew I became increasingly interested in the subject. I used to take a selection of my books to the annual conferences of the British Society of Master Glass Painters and sometimes to those of Stained Glass Museum. I also set my stall up at the Corpus Vitrearum Conference when the International Colloquium was held in Bristol in 2000. I listened to lectures, joined trips to churches and met an ever-widening circle of artists, historians, conservators and collectors.
What I didn’t know, I was forced to learn as customers asked me for books I had never heard of. Many used me as a resource on the phone – ringing to ask if I knew if there were books or articles about particular aspects of stained glass. At times I felt like one of the family. I cannot say that I am an expert on stained glass, but after twenty-five years in the business I think I know a fair amount about books on stained glass! Discovering new fields of interest are part of the joys of being a professional bookseller.
I was born in north London. At the beginning of the war our family was on holiday in north Wales and my parents, apprehensive of the probable dangers of living in the capital, decided that my mother, sister and I should stay in Wales while my father returned to his job in Southgate. After a year of this arrangement the whole family returned to Enfield. The following morning I woke up under the dining room table. It was the first raid of the blitz. In May 1941 we moved to Evesham.
I fell in love with books in my late teens after finding a second-hand shop in the town tucked away down a dark passage. The woman who owned the shop was, in those days, a strange creature. She wore layer after layer of dresses, jumpers and cloaks and smoked so much I was convinced her hair was stained with nicotine. But I didn’t care about her appearance or the smell. I remember sitting on the floor of her shop for the afternoon fascinated by one book in particular, John Earle’s Miscrocosmographie, issued by Cambridge University Press. It was the first book I’d seen that was wonderfully attractive not only in its content but also in its presentation.
After leaving school I spent eighteen months national service in the navy before going up to Oxford University to read English at Pembroke College. Thereafter most of my working life was spent as a specialist English tutor in teacher training colleges. I was a principal lecturer in English and Academic Registrar at Redland College in Bristol, before it was merged with Bristol Polytechnic, which is now the University of the West of England.
I started selling books in 1969. At this stage, and for a further 13 years, it was a hobby and an agreeably convenient of raising a little extra cash, but I was still teaching full-time. I dealt largely in English literature, especially poetry. I produced my first list of books for sale in 1970, and from 1973 onwards exhibited at Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association fairs during vacations and at occasional weekends. The contacts made in this way, and through further lists, proved very useful when I started to specialise in selling books on stained glass. Other dealers would ring me up if they bought interesting titles and sometimes people tipped me off when they saw rare books for sale.
Bookselling is a patient profession. Sometimes sales can be slack; on other occasions it can take days to fulfil a large order, ensuring that the books are packed properly and unlikely to be damaged in transit. I have duplicates of many items – one can never tell what demand will be like. Some years I might not sell a single copy of a particular book, the next year I have received half a dozen orders for it in the same number of weeks. On one occasion I bought a large number of copies of a splendid book about the early sixteenth-century windows of a particular church. This helped to ensure its publication after a previous commitment to purchase had collapsed and put the whole project in jeopardy. It seemed risky, but I’m glad I did it. The book was a success and I sold all of the copies I had bought. Encouraged by such experience, I started to think about publishing my own reprints of some important out-of-print titles.
My first venture, in 1999, was a reprint of Christopher Whall’s much sought after 1924 book Stained Glass Work. The idea came from Peter Cormack, the art historian and expert on Arts & Crafts glass. He wanted to produce a new edition to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Whall’s birth. He contributed a superb introductory essay about Whall and I added fourteen colour plates to update its appeal [Fig. 3].
Then, in 2000, I produced a single volume reprint of two works: Dr A. M. Gessert’s Rudimentary Treatise on the Art of Painting on Glass or Glass Staining and Emanuel Fromberg’s essay on the Art of Painting on Glass. In 2001, came Marta Galicki’s commendable booklet on Victorian and Edwardian Stained Glass: the work of five London studios 1855 – 1910, which had originally been published by English Heritage to complement an exhibition of the same title at the RIBA Heinz gallery in 1987.
Our most ambitious project followed in 2002. A title I always hoped to find was Nathaniel Westlake’s four volume masterpiece A History of Design in Painted Glass originally published by James Parker & Co between 1881 and 1894. But whenever I found a copy I was nearly always disappointed. The bindings were often in poor condition. Now, with the help of a grant from the Glaziers Trust, the charitable arm of the Glaziers Company, I was able to reprint a limited edition of 150 copies of these books in a smaller two volume format, properly bound and at an affordable price. 2003 saw the production of Stained Glass Windows and Master Glass Painters, all nine issues of the directories issued by the B.S.M.G.P in one volume. Finally, in 2004, we published two books by Tom Honey, Stained Glass Windows of Gordon Webster, and Sadie McLellan, Artist in Glass.
Although I enjoy handling early books like J.G. Joyce’s elephant size folio monograph on the Fairford windows (1872), William Warrington’s History of Stained Glass (1848), Haudiquer de Blancourt’s The Art of Glass (1699) and Henry Holiday’s Reminiscences of my Life, I do not have a favourite title. I am always astounded by the hard work, dedication and scholarship which informs the British CVMA volumes. Other books I remember fondly because I knew and liked the authors: the late Hilary Wayment (1912 -2005) instantly springs to mind, a man whose smile could light up any room. Sadly many otherwise excellent older books suffer from what can best be called gloopy pictures, indistinct black and white plates which are pretty much next to useless. This was not the fault of the photographers. Over the years I have seen many excellent monochrome images of stained glass where every brushstroke is discernible. But reproducing those images at affordable prices seems to have been beyond most printers. The contrast between some of these old books and the best of the new publications is staggering. I have recently sold my last set of the five volumes of the stained glass in the canton of Aaugau produced by the Swiss CVMA: Glasmalerei im Kanton Aargau (2002). The colour plates were wonderful. It was a pleasure to turn the pages.
What now? Juliet and I are slowing down. I stumbled into stained glass through my wife and my brother-in-law. It has been a lovely and memorable experience. But although we will no longer produce annual lists we are still open for business!
Morris Venables can be contacted at: beechlane [at] waitrose [dot] com
Name That Roundel Solution
This month’s puzzle shows a story from the early life of Joseph (Old Testament, Book of Genesis, Chapter 37).
Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob and Rachael. He was also his father’s favourite. After his father gave him a ‘coat of many colours’, his brother’s became resentful as this preferential treatment. Their envy grew when he told them about his dreams: in the first, the brothers were binding sheaves of wheat in a field when his stood upright and the other sheaves bowed and made obeisance to him; in the second, the sun and moon and eleven stars also bowed down and made obeisance to him. When he told his family about his dreams, his father rebuked him for suggesting that they bow down to him.
After his brothers left to tend their father’s flock in Shechem, Joseph was sent to join them. A ‘a certain man’ found him wandering in a field and told him how to find them. When Joseph’s brothers saw him approaching they initially decided to kill him until Reuben suggested that they cast him into a pit alive. When he reached his brothers, they seized him, stripped him of his precious coat and lowered him into a pit without water.
As they sat around afterwards, they saw a party of Ishmaelite merchants carrying spices to Egypt. One of the brothers suggested selling Joseph to them. The others agreed and Joseph was sold into slavery for twenty pieces of silver. Thereafter the brothers retrieved his coat, dipped it in the blood of a young goat and carried it back to their distraught father who assumed that his son had been devoured by an evil beast.
The roundel shows Joseph asleep with his dreams depicted in the roundels above ( the sheaves are particularly visible); Joseph telling his father about the dreams while his brothers listen; the man telling Joseph where to find his brothers; and his brothers lowering Joseph into the pit and staining his coat with blood.
Joseph’s story was seen as a metaphor for the just and the unjust, the story of a righteous man protected by God. The subject was often shown in roundels of this period. The design of this month’s roundel seems to be based on an earlier design by the Flemish artist, Hugo van der Goes.
T. Husband, The Luminous Image; Painted Glass Roundels in the Lowlands, 1480 – 1560, New York 1995. | <urn:uuid:7a623b7c-0503-4467-8d10-c895f10b4832> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vidimus.org/issues/issue-51/books/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971563 | 2,622 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Field descriptions :
- Short name : this is the name of the process which appears in Windows Task Manager.
- Full name : this is the full name of the process as defined by its designer.
- File path : indicates the location where the process program is located. You should be aware that this information may be different if you have changed the default installation location of a program.
- Description : this will present information about the origins of the processes, its use and additional information.
- Designer : provides the name of the process designer, with this generally being a hardware or software maker.
- Associated Service(s) : indicates the services associated to the process in question.
- System Processes : these correspond only to the processes which are owned by Windows, ensuring the operating system functions correctly.
- Applicative Processes : concerns all non-system processes, which means those that correspond to programs.
- Priority : concerns the default priority of a process, with there being 6 options: Real time, high, above normal, normal, below normal and low. The higher the priority is set, the more often the process will be executed over the other processes. You should be aware that changing this setting can lead to abnormal functioning of the PC.
- Background Processes : concerns the "invisibles" processes which correspond to those which are running in the systems background and which are not used by the user. These can be, for example, a service.
- Network Processes : concerns the processes which are directly linked to network management.
- Hardware Processes : concerns the processes which are directly linked to hardware management.
- Spyware : indicates whether the process in question is linked to a spyware program.
- Trojan Horse : indicates whether the process in question is linked to the presence of a Trojan horse.
- Virus : indicates whether the process in question is linked to the presence of a virus which has contaminated your system.
- How to stop it : there are three ways to stop a process: close the program or stop the service which is behind the process, or stop it brutally through Windows Task Manager.
- How to delete it : essentially concerns applicative processes. Deleting a process often requires that you uninstall the software being the process. | <urn:uuid:54422548-2692-4d8d-9560-725c954358d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://us.generation-nt.com/gapi32-dll-process-30817.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902474 | 464 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Day of Champions
Jeff Gould knew his 6-year-old sons were pretty good hitters so he challenged them: Hit the ball over the backyard fence and you get one toy on your wish list.
With double enthusiasm, twins Jack and Joe took him on.
With Dad pitching and Joe catching, Jack went first. On the fourth hit, the ball sailed over the fence.
“Homerun!” the twins yelled.
Joe’s up next. After 10 pitches, he sent the ball over.
And Jeff? He’s out two new toys.
“Unless we get a bigger yard, that’s the end of giving toys for homeruns,” he says laughing.
Years ago, an even more amazing “homerun” happened at Sanford Children’s Hospital. Introducing our 2012 North Dakota Children’s Miracle Network champions!
Pregnancy takes an unexpected turn
For months Sarah Gould’s pregnancy went well. But at 23 weeks, she knew something was wrong.
An ultrasound revealed Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome -- a rare disorder in which identical twins share connected blood vessels, resulting in dangerously uneven blood flow. Years ago, TTTS led to fetal death.
Thanks to advances in technology, Sarah was able to undergo a laser procedure to disconnect the problematic vessels. Although successful, the procedure increased the risk of premature delivery.
Despite five weeks' strict bed rest at home, Sarah’s water broke at 27 weeks. Efforts to delay birth continued at Sanford Family Birth Center. That’s when Sarah and Jeff learned about the highly specialized care at Sanford Children’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
A team like no other
Sarah was unable to tour the NICU in advance, so the NICU doctors came to her -- in her hospital room.
“They were wonderful,” she says. “They described all the different scenarios so we knew what to expect. We had confidence our boys would get the best of care.”
Born Jan. 11, 2006, Jack weighed 2 pounds, 1 ounce; Joe weighed 2 pounds, 11 ounces. Each had his own NICU team readily available at delivery. Joe wasn’t breathing and needed resuscitation. Jack had life-threatening problems in the days that followed including a blood infection, kidney failure and a heart defect.
The NICU had exactly what these tiny warriors needed, including two key pieces of equipment purchased with Children’s Miracle Network donations:
- Oscillators -- high-frequency ventilators that help premature babies with underdeveloped lungs.
- Giraffe beds -- specially designed warming isolettes that allow preemies to stay in one comfortable environment for most of their care.
But it wasn’t just equipment that made the difference.
“The NICU staff was incredible. They were like our extended family, with each nurse becoming like a second mom,” says Sarah.
On Feb. 4, Jack’s condition took a grave turn. Because of severe kidney failure, he was expected to die within hours. Jeff had one request: hold the babies -- together.
“It took half the NICU staff, but they made it work -- tubes and all,” says Jeff. “Jack and Joe hadn’t been together since birth.”
That’s when something happened that still makes Jeff wonder…
“Jack was so very sick. I remember I was about to give him back to his nurse, when Joey reached over and touched his head,” recalls Jeff. “At the time I didn’t give it much thought -- now it’s surreal.”
To the surprise of many, Jack bounced back. Two days later he was strong enough to undergo surgery to repair his heart defect. Today he’s followed by pediatric cardiologist Dr. Matthew Trefz.
After 90 days, both boys went home from the NICU. Joe was later diagnosed with hemiplegia -- a condition similar to mild cerebral palsy. Under the direction of physical medicine and rehab specialist Dr. William Klava, Joe received outpatient physical and occupational therapy through Sanford Children’s Therapy.
Children’s Miracle Network dollars helped purchase much of the equipment that made therapy fun for Joe.
“Jack and Joe’s Day”
An expansive, low-to-the-ground wood table fills the dining room at the Gould home in Fargo. It’s a special place where kindergartners Jack and Joe create art projects and do homework.
The twins have a special day, too.
“Feb. 4 is ‘Jack and Joe’s Day’ and we celebrate it every year,” says Jeff.
With Jeff in charge, the boys take the day off from school, eat any food they want, play whiffle ball ’til they’re sick of it and watch movies. And it all starts with early morning Mass.
“If someone had told me six years ago that this is what I’d get, I’d have said you’re crazy -- there’s not a chance,” says Jeff, watching the boys play. “We’re unbelievably fortunate to have Sanford Children’s in our community. Without that place, we wouldn’t have our boys.”
Congratulations to best friends Jack and Joe -- champions on their day … and every day!
Posted Date: April 2012 | <urn:uuid:ccb455ce-bdef-4dac-b6ec-7a81de336af0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sanfordhealth.org/About/Foundation/Stories/View/a13b5b72-f5ca-4bad-ade6-5b425c34fd62 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956511 | 1,163 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Terminology in AOP can be confusing and sometimes clouds what I believe is a relatively simple concept to use. With that in mind, I'm going to blog about some of the terms that are bandied about in AOP conversations. My hope is that once you see how simple the concepts are, that the intimidating terms will no longer prevent you from giving it a whirl. (Note: I didn't invent any of these terms, so if you think I'm incorrect or explaining it wrong, please chime in--I always welcome good criticism and correction).
Today's term: join point.
A join point is a place in your program's execution.
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Imagine a low-level, detailed flowchart that describes a program. A join point is like one of the lines between two boxes.
Examples of typical join points that are relevant to aspect-oriented programming: a method execution, an exception being thrown, a property or field getting/setting, an MVC controller action being executed. For instance, if you want to write to a log file when there's an exception in the "Index" method, then the join point that you are interested in is "Index throwing an exception". | <urn:uuid:1f5a0c5f-3487-4c8b-862c-8f6ef14b0c22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crosscuttingconcerns.com/tag/terminology/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951527 | 250 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Teacher Change: A Dynamic Interactive Approach
Bringing about teacher change in the classroom is complex. Planners need to be aware of the range of theories and concepts that provide insight into how to manage this in an effective and informative manner. This review emphasises the need to develop a more integrated dynamic approach to teacher professional practice informed by sociological, psychological and educational theory. Early approaches to teacher professional development utilised the transmission model of instruction and this influence pervaded for many years over-looking the complexity of factors related to teacher characteristics and implementation of new ideas. In recent times, a constructivist emphasis acknowledged the importance of teacher learning and the value of engagement to facilitate change. There has also been a resurgence of interest in transfer of learning and it is proposed that this process provides an opportunity for developing a dynamic interactive approach explaining how best to understand change in teacher practice. This approach emphasises the importance of transfer of learning to facilitate change by addressing issues such as teacher motivation, teacher change, professional development, adult learning and development of professional competence.
Keywords: teacher change, Transfer of Learning, Teacher Motivation, Teacher Change, Professional Development, Adult Learning, Professional Competence
Dr. Lex McDonald
Head of School (Educational Psychology and Pedagogy), School of Educational Psychology and Pedagogy, Victoria, University of Wellington | <urn:uuid:d069aef8-52b5-4974-8581-9a5d24a89466> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://l09.cgpublisher.com/proposals/1538/index_html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929386 | 268 | 2.34375 | 2 |
If corporations do not take the pledge, we should boycott them. (Occupiers—are you listening?)
By **Robert Reich**
By arrangement with RobertReich.org.
Photograph via Wikimedia Commons by David Shankbone.
Despite what the Supreme Court and Mitt Romney say, corporations aren’t people. (I’ll believe they are when Georgia and Texas start executing them.)
The Court thinks corporations have First Amendment rights to spend as much as they want on politics, and Romney (and most of his fellow Regressives) think they need lower taxes and fewer regulations in order to be competitive.
These positions are absurd on their face. By flooding our democracy with their shareholders’ money, big corporations are violating their shareholders’ First Amendment rights because shareholders aren’t consulted. They’re simultaneously suppressing the First Amendment rights of the rest of us because, given how much money they’re throwing around, we don’t have enough money to be heard.
And they’re indirectly giving non-Americans (that is, all their foreign owners, investors, and executives) a say in how Americans are governed. Pardon me for being old-fashioned but I didn’t think foreign money was supposed to be funneled into American elections.
Romney’s belief big corporations need more money and lower costs in order to create jobs is equally baffling. Big corporations are now sitting on $2 trillion of cash and enjoying near-record profits. The ratio of profits to wages is higher than it’s been since before the Great Depression. And a larger and larger portion of those profits are going to top executives. (CEO pay was 40 times the typical worker in the 1980s; it’s now upwards of 300 times.)
But, hey, if the Supreme Court and regressive Republicans insist big corporations are people and want to treat them as American citizens, then why not demand big corporations take a pledge of allegiance to the United States?
And if they don’t take the pledge, we should boycott them. (OccupiersᾹare you listening?)
Here’s what a Corporate Pledge of Allegiance might look like:
**The Corporate Pledge of Allegiance to the United States**
The [fill in blank] company pledges allegiance to the United States of America. To that end:
We pledge to create more jobs in the United States than we create outside the United States, either directly or in our foreign subsidiaries and subcontractors.
If we have to lay off American workers, we will give them severance payments equal to their weekly wage times the number of weeks they’ve work for us.
We further pledge that no more than 20 percent of our total labor costs will be outsourced abroad.
We pledge to keep a lid on executive pay so no executive is paid more than 50 times the median pay of American workers. We define “pay” to include salary, bonuses, health benefits, pension benefits, deferred salary, stock options, and every other form of compensation.
We pledge to pay at least 30 percent of money earned in the United States in taxes to the United States. We won’t shift our money to offshore tax havens and won’t use accounting gimmicks to fake how much we earn.
We pledge not to use our money to influence elections.
Companies that make the pledge are free to use it in their ads over the Christmas shopping season.
This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.
Robert B. Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written eleven books (including his most recent, Supercapitalism, which is now out in paperback). Mr. Reich is co-founding editor of The American Prospect magazine. | <urn:uuid:6b0e2c09-7bbf-4524-95e8-4028b93aab8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guernicamag.com/daily/robert_reich_a_corporate_pledg/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950057 | 807 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Everyone values the skill of reading and attainment is high at Kings. A wide range of books is available in each classroom. The children bring their books home three times a week and the families read together offering a chance for further experience and sharing the pleasure of this wonderful skill as it develops.
Not many subjects permeate the curriculum in quite the same way as English does. To read and comprehend, to write effectively, to listen accurately, to articulate thoughts with clarity are skills required in all subjects. The foundation is laid in the pre-prep.
Grammar and punctuation are taught. It is simple of course and exercises to reinforce the full stop, the capital letter and simple use of speech marks are used. The real test is the accurate use of grammar and punctuation when writing stories and poetry and many achieve good understanding of these.
Listening skills are developed with particular emphasis on peer/peer listening and the fulfilment of tasks and instructions which have encouraged careful listening.
Ingenious ideas encourage the children to want to wrote stories, reports and poetry. The range is vast and often forms part of cross curricular work. Illustration enhances their efforts and a wide variety of written work is displayed for all to celebrate.
Spelling is taught in use and through the understanding of letter sounds and letter string patterns. Children are encouraged to try their own spellings, to use word books and dictionaries. Weekly spelling tests are given from the end of Year 1.
Handwriting is taught regularly as we believe that a fluent hand frees the mind for greater things! A joined script is taught from reception with each letter starting from the line. A high standard of lovely, fluent writing is achieved by all. | <urn:uuid:2f9ad8ce-e79b-4632-9df0-0b0d48cd01be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcs.cambs.sch.uk/Groups/14414/Kings_College_School/School_Life/Pre_Prep_Department/Curriculum/English/English.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95907 | 346 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Friday, 15 August 1862
USS Galena, Port Royal, and Satellite were ordered to cover the withdrawal of McClelland’s left wing from Harrison’s Landing over the Chickahominy River.
The Confederate steamer A. Bee ran aground in the Nueces River Estuary, and was burned to prevent capture.
Out at Lone Jack, Jackson County, MO, Federal Major Emory J. Foster led an attack on a Confederate camp at about 2100 scattering the men in camp. Confederate Colonel J. T. Coffee was quick to reform his man and attacked the following morning. After five hours of fighting and the loss of Foster the Confederate force reappeared causing Federal Captain M. H. Brawer (Foster’s successor) to order retreat. The encounter was a clear Confederate victory. | <urn:uuid:168843ab-6b21-4f48-af74-c65356c5763f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://starsandbarsblog.org/sesquicentennial-news-friday-14-august-1862/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955529 | 170 | 2.671875 | 3 |
A 9th century palace, an enormous 3,000-year-old Neolithic earthworks and the origins of Scottish kingship: Gordon Noble and colleagues from the University of Glasgow investigate.
Few visitors notice the plaque in the village of Forteviot, Perthshire, Scotland, that records the death of Kenneth Mac Alpin, a 9th century king of Scotland. It refers to a passage in one of the few surviving early manuscripts from Scotland, The Chronicles of the Kings of Alba, that states in AD 858 Kenneth Mac Alpin ‘died finally of a tumour, on the Tuesday before the Ides of February [the 13th], in the palacium [palace] of Forteviot’. This makes Forteviot the earliest identified royal centre in Scotland.
The 9th century was a period of major social and political change in Scotland, with the unification of the eastern kingships of Pictland and the western kingships of the Scots into the new kingdom of Alba (the Gaelic name for Scotland) by AD 900. Forteviot is therefore a crucial location for understanding the complex processes that gave birth to one of the nations of Early Medieval Europe.
Forteviot also preserves a much deeper, and hidden, history. The fields around the modern village contain one of the largest concentrations of prehistoric ritual monuments hitherto identified in Britain. Almost nothing of these monuments, built of earth and timber, is visible on the surface, but aerial reconnaissance since the 1970s has recorded the tell-tale crop-marks. The most spectacular is a huge circular palisaded enclosure more than 250m in diameter just to the south of the modern village. Around and within this enclosure are a number of smaller henge monuments.
These structures predate the Early Medieval palace by some millennia, for they were constructed in the Later Neolithic period, some time around 3000-2200 BC. But, as we now know from excavation, in Kenneth Mac Alpin’s time, many of them were probably still visible. Did the palace of a 9th century king draw power from the 3,000-year-old earthwork remains of Neolithic henge monuments?
From prehistoric enclosure to 9th century palace
Our project, the Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot Project (SERF), aims to identify features associated with the royal palace, to investigate its nature and wider context, and to look at the long-term evolution of the landscape. Why did an Early Medieval power-base develop here?
To answer that question, we need to locate the remains of the palace and associated structures, but also to explore the Neolithic monument complex. We want to find out to what degree, if at all, the prehistoric site influenced the siting of the palace. Looking further afield, we are interested in the evolution of settlement patterns and human use of the landscapes of the Strathearn river valley in which Forteviot sits.
In particular, what is the relationship between the defended hilltop enclosures of the earliest part of the Early Medieval period and lowland sites like Forteviot that were in use by the 9th century? There are around a dozen hillforts in our study area, and we have begun an ambitious project to characterise and date each of them.
Another arm of our research is the study of early Christianity in Strathearn. Nick Aitchison, author of a recent book on the site, has suggested that Early Medieval Forteviot may have been a monastery as well as a political centre. In the National Museum of Scotland there is a carved arch, probably of 9th century date, which may be a chancel arch from an early church at Forteviot.
There are also two spectacular 9th century carved crosses known from the vicinity. One remains intact: the Dupplin Cross, which formerly stood on the Gask Ridge overlooking Forteviot to the north, but now stands in a Dunning church nearby for conservation reasons. The other was the Invermay Cross, sadly destroyed in the 18th century, which stood to the south of Forteviot on the Dronachy Ridge, again overlooking Forteviot. These crosses are likely to have been boundary markers of the monastery and to have stood on routeways into the valley. Fragments of the Invermay Cross and additional sculptural fragments survive in Forteviot church.
For the full article see CA 231 | <urn:uuid:ff5f26a9-a314-430c-9e59-522cf1c49cbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/forteviot.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957133 | 904 | 3.703125 | 4 |
Alcazar is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site in the heart of Seville.
Visit the iconic Alcazar of Seville while on adventure travel tours of the back-roads of Andalucia.
One of the beautiful city's many great sites, this royal palace was originally a Moorish fort and taps into the rich North African heritage that was once so famous in the south of Spain.
Along with the world-famous Seville Cathedral and the Archivo General de Indias ancient merchants' exchange, it makes up part of a UNESCO World Heritage site in the heart of the city.
The Alcazar dates from as early as the 10th century, but was continually built and rebuilt from the Reconquest of 1248 to the 16th century and subsequently incorporates elements of the Almohad Caliphate along with Christian Andalusia.
Once a palace for Muslim governors, it is still used as a residence for the Spanish royal family when they visit Seville.
As well as the palatial buildings, the Alcazar is also revered for its exquisite royal gardens, which cover its extensive grounds.
The mixture of styles and cultures that visitors will encounter at the palace is a good representation of Andalucia more broadly, which served as the main gateway between Europe and Africa for so many centuries. | <urn:uuid:7257f7c6-613c-4ca9-bb83-0a760346bf4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.exploreworldwide.com.au/features/12751-find-a-mixture-of-cultures-at-sevilles-alcazar?cc=AU&nr=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956884 | 266 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Nebraska has been hard hit by snowstorms this winter season, but climatologists say all that white stuff could amount to some good eventually.
Recent storms have dumped more than two feet of snow in some areas of the state.
But climatologists say more snow means more water once it melts and that could help ease the state's drought concerns.
Mark Svoboda with the National Drought Mitigation Center says that's good news for the tourism and agriculture industries.
Svoboda says in past years, water sources ran dry which resulted
in higher irrigation costs and decreased crop production.
The state lost nearly $1 billion in the worst years. | <urn:uuid:d76999c8-5b62-49a7-8f97-76a0fa160d6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/81137272.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961626 | 136 | 2.40625 | 2 |
If you go here, you will learn the Pledge of Alegiance and its meaning as well as the do’s, don’ts and etiquette of the U.S. flag. You need to know this for a reason and I will relay to you why thru my Memorial Day experience.
Thousands of WWII veterans are dying each month. A generation with first hand experiences is about to be lost forever, fading into history books, to be taught to others as people deem fit. Korean War vets are close behind. Then it will be the Vietnam era. I, like many others, look forward to the 3 day weekend for cookouts, gatherings, even shopping and this is all okay. We are a society that gets to enjoy our days as we deem fit…….as long as a tribute is paid for the occasion of the holiday-Memorial Day.
I took my ride in Rolling Thunder as I have for 23 years now (although I did take a break twice to watch live the CocaCola 600 NASCAR race in Charlotte). I have been noticing as of late that the purposes to many just seems to be a “group” ride to the city. Once there, people sit in the shade away from the ride to drink, talk and relax. Many make new friends or meet up with old buddies they served with. I watch the bikes for awhile (the procession takes about 6 hours these days) and although it was cruelly humid, the drenching was part of the price. I happened to have my oldest daughter ride with me this year as well as my nephew. It was a first for the both of them. We walked the Wall, saw the nurses memorial and then went to the WWII memorial. I noticed many foreigners that were marveling on their vacation the sights of the memorials. Some with disrespect such as sticking their feet in the WWII memorial fountain or the loud talking and running past people at the Wall. They showed no regard to the vets crying over their buddies or the families remembering Dad with gifts, memorabilia, pictures and poems. This hit me hard. Do people not have respect for our fallen heroes?
Depending on which side of Costitution Ave. you are on, if you haven’t returned to the side you need to before the parade starts at noon, you will be stuck for at least 4 hours. We returned to our side, watched some of the parade and then left to visit my parents at the Lee estate. We rode into the cemetary and parked at the curb next to the row where my parents headstone is placed. I saw many people walking the paths going to “those special attractions” and even tourist trams for those that want the riding tour. I marveled at this. How do you get to understand the enormity and the individuals in Arlington Cemetary if you DON’T get off the path? Every headstone has a name and every headstone has a story. The story, albeit brief, gives a name, rank, war served, birth, death and, sometimes, award. These are but a smattering of the heroes buried in this nation that served our country so that I could write and talk about this. My daughter had noticed something and it got my attention in a very upsetting way. It appears that all too many gravestones had numerous scratches and chips in them due to the people mowing the grass. The headstones are always trimmed by other means so that this doesn’t happen. This, in my mind, is another sign of disrespect and contempt. And, as usual, every headstone and market had an American flag in front of it to show honoring. This is a timely endeavor but is part of the price paid. Do tourist really understand what it is about?
As with Sunday, I noticed as I went out Memorial Day to visit my wife’s Dad in Leesburg that there were no flags about. I will be generous and say that for evryone 40 residences there was ONE flag. It was no different in Leesburg either, although, on a couple of streets, they had hung flags on the light poles. This is a day to give honor; a day to remember those who fought and died protecting our freedoms yet I guess everyone was too busy with their own needs. A flag doesn’t cost much yet where were they? I know I will see more during the 4th of July than I saw this weekend.
Everyone should own a flag for display outside. They are very affordable and it is our patriotic duty to fly said flags during special times. I have many American flags of different materials, sizes and patterns. They range from $10 to $100 and I USE them. I do not own an American flag made anywhere but in America. It just doesn’t seem honorable to fly my countries’ flag that was made in communist China. I have given you flag etiquette…..read it. Some people just put a flag out and leave it out. Okay. Some put there flag out on special days. Okay. Believe it or not, flying the American flag can be a chore at times because you must keep track of all conditions and how to do it. Flying the symbol of my country will NEVER be a chore because it is my duty to not only do it but to know how to do it respectfully. I like to fly my parents flag because that is what they flew on their house when they were living. Regardless which American flag I fly I will always have pride and give honor to the people of my country.
Where is all this going? Let me tell you how I feel and why I needed to write this before I just broke down and cried. I have felt a rage and deep loathing for those politicos, teachers, parents and all others whose job it is as Americans to instill knowledge and duty into every citizen about our heritage, the sacrifices of our citizens for this country and what is so important about its symbol. I feel pity for those Americans that are ignorant of the value of our flag. Those that pursued that knowledge on their own and kept it I have great admiration. I have disdain for those who come to this country, having no “skin in the game”, that give no honor or respect of their perspective new home or that use us with no regard to those who gave sacrifice of which they reap reward. I am saddened and, at times, cry for those fallen or living that have a deep respect and understanding of duty, honor and valor, yet feel betrayed, lost or remorseful for their contributions. We are losing America and I feel betrayed.
I would like to leave you with the folding of the flag and TAPS story. Read the story and read the words. My eyes do well-up by the understanding. At this point I feel that I have done my duty to inform you. I believe it is up to us all to inform others and keep our nations symbol in honor. And although you might come across those people that feel their right to burn or mutilate that symbol; my knowledge and understanding of that symbol gives me the right to go to jail for pummeling said individuals. That is another price that needs to be paid. Freedom is not free and will always carry a price that every citizen must pay.
I wish to thank my Dad, my Mom and all those service men and women as well as civilians who have made my liberty possible. GOD bless you all! | <urn:uuid:e0767cf4-0880-43ec-a781-8bc686aa7e0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://novatownhall.com/2010/05/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980055 | 1,524 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Reckless driving refers to driving with a willful or wanton disregard for safety. It is the operation of an automobile under such circumstances and in such a manner as to show a wilful or reckless disregard of consequences. In such cases the driver displays a wanton disregard for the rules of the road; often misjudges common driving procedures and causes accidents and other damages. It is usually a more serious offense than careless driving, improper driving, or driving without due care and attention and is often punishable by fines, imprisonment, and/or driver's license suspension or revocation. As a general rule something more than mere negligence in the operation of an automobile is necessary to constitute the offense.
Texas traffic laws dictate that certain acts automatically qualify as "reckless driving", including:
- Driving 25 miles per hour (or more) over the posted speed limit
- Racing another vehicle
- Trying to elude a police officer
- On a two-lane highway, passing another vehicle when visibility of oncoming traffic is limited.
Dallas Reckless Driving Defense: The Charles Johnson Law Firm
Reckless driving is actually a very serious charge. If you are convicted, you may lose your driver's license and pay steep fines. If there was an accident involved, the penalty is increased. If there was an injury, once again you face a higher penalty. If a fatality occurred and it is determined that your reckless driving caused the accident, you can face a long sentence in state prison. If you have been arrested and charged with this offense, it is important to fight by enlisting the assistance of a Dallas reckless driving defense lawyer. At the Charles Johnson Law Firm, a criminal defense lawyer who is extremely familiar with defending such charges will immediately review your case and advise you of the best options for your defense. | <urn:uuid:cfa99100-0483-420d-baaf-8ea5b00e4164> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dallaslawyer.com/recklessdriving.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948598 | 364 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Agriculturalism, also known as the School of Agrarianism, the School of Agronomists, the School of Tillers, and in Chinese as the Nongjia (農家/农家), was an early agrarian Chinese philosophy that advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism. The Agriculturalists believed that Chinese society should be modeled around that of the early sage king Shennong, a folk hero who was portrayed in Chinese literature as "working in the fields, along with everyone else, and consulting with everyone else when any decision had to be reached." They encouraged farming and agriculture and taught farming and cultivation techniques, as they believed that agricultural development was the key to a stable and prosperous society.
Agriculturalism was suppressed during the Qin Dynasty and most original texts are now lost. However, concepts originally associated with Agriculturalism have had an impact on Confucianism, Legalism, and Chinese philosophy as a whole. Agriculturalism has significantly influenced Chinese thought, and has been viewed as an essence of the Chinese identity.
Agriculturalism dates back to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States era, during a period known as the "Hundred Schools of Thought" which flourished from 770 to 221 BC. Throughout this period, competing states, seeking to war with one another and unite China as a single country, patronized philosophers, scholars, and teachers. The competition by scholars for the attention of rulers led to the development of different schools of thought, and the emphasis on recording teachings into books encouraged their spread. The result was an era characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developments. The major philosophies of China, Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, and Taoism, all originated from this period.
Chinese tradition attributes the origin of Agriculturalism to the Chinese minister Hou Ji, a figure known for his innovations in agriculture. The Agriculturalists also emphasized the role of Shennong, the divine farmer, a semi-mythical ruler of early China credited by the Chinese as the inventor of agriculture. Shennong was seen as a proto-Agriculturalist, whose governance and focus on agriculture served as a model of the ideal Agriculturalist government.
Xu Xing, a philosopher who defended Agriculturalism, settled with a group of followers in the state of Teng in about 315 BC. A disciple of his visited the Confucian philosopher Mencius, and a short report of their conversation discussing Xu Xing's philosophy survives.
The rise of the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC saw the purge of the Hundred Schools of Thought, including Agriculturalism. The Legalist Qin dynasty was intolerant of other schools of thought, seeking to burn any text that did not adhere to the Legalist philosophy. Because of this, few Agriculturalist texts exist, and most of what is known of Agriculturalism comes from critical assessments by other philosophical schools.
Agriculturalism is primarily a social, economic, and political philosophy. The philosophy is founded on the notion that human society originates with the development of agriculture, and societies are based upon "people's natural prospensity to farm." The Agriculturalists described the ancient political system, seen as ideal, as one where "the means by which the early sage kings led their people was to put agriculture before all other affairs.. the reason why Hou Ji undertook agriculture was because he considered it to be the root of instructing the masses."
To the Agriculturalists, the ideal society, modeled after that of Shennong's, is communal, agrarian, and egalitarian. The Agriculturalist believed that the ideal government is led by a benevolent king, one who works alongside the people in tilling the fields. The Agriculturalist king is not paid by the government through its treasuries; his livelihood is derived from the profits he earns working in the fields and cooking his own meals, not his leadership. Said Xu Xing, a prominent Agriculturalist:
The ruler of Teng is an upright and worthy ruler. However, he has yet to hear the Way. A wise ruler tills the land together with his people to make his living. He governs while cooking his own meals. Now, that Teng has granaries and treasuries means that [the ruler] inflicts hardship on the people to fatten himself. How can he be a worthy ruler?—Xu Xing
Unlike the Confucians, the Agriculturalists did not believe in the division of labour, arguing instead that the economic policies of a country need to be based upon an egalitarian self sufficiency. The Agriculturalists supported the fixing of prices, in which all similar goods, regardless of differences in quality and demand, are set at exactly the same, unchanging price. They suggested that people should be paid the same amount for the same services, a policy criticized by the Confucians as encouraging products of low quality, which "destroys the earnest standards of craftmanship."
Agriculturalism was criticized extensively by rival philosophical schools, including the Mohist Mo Zi, the Confucian Mencius, and Yang Zhu. Mencius criticized its chief proponent Xu Xing for advocating that rulers should work in the fields with their subjects, arguing that the Agriculturalist egalitarianism ignored the division of labour central to society. He points out that other early Chinese rulers did not work in fields, yet were equally as successful and revered as Shennong. Mencius dismisses Xu Xing as a "Southern barbarian with a twittering tongue."
The Legalist Qin Dynasty purged rival philosophical schools, including Agriculturalism, burning many Agriculturalist texts. However, Agriculturalism in its heyday heavily influenced the agrarian policies of Confucianism, Legalism, and other philosophical schools, so many concepts originally associated with the Agriculturalists continued to exist in Chinese philosophy. The transmission and translation of Chinese philosophical texts in Europe during the 18th century had a heavy influence on the development of Agrarianism in Europe. The French agrarianist philosophy, a predecessor to modern Agrarianism, of François Quesnay and the Physiocrats, are said to have been modeled after the agrarian policies of Chinese philosophy.
- Deutsch, Eliot; Ronald Bontekoei (1999). A companion to world philosophies. Wiley Blackwell. p. 183.
- Sellmann, James Daryl (2010). Timing and rulership in Master Lü's Spring and Autumn annals. SUNY Press. p. 76.
- Gladney, Dru (2004). Dislocating China. University of Chicago Press. p. 300.
- Ebrey, Patricia (2010). The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge University Press. p. 42.
- A. C. Graham (1979). "The "Nung-chia" 農 家 'School of the Tillers' and the Origins of Peasant Utopianism in China". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 42 (1): 66–100. JSTOR 614828.
- Ong, Siew Chey (2005). China condensed: 5000 years of history & culture. Marshall Cavendish. p. 16.
- Denecke, Wiebke (2011). The Dynamics of Masters Literature: Early Chinese Thought from Confucius to Han Feizi. Harvard University Press. p. 38.
- Maverick, Lewis A. (1938). "Chinese Influences Upon the Physiocrats". Economic History 3. | <urn:uuid:a543cffa-3969-409c-bb7d-e69f4cdc26df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculturalism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953866 | 1,536 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Where you can't get away with anything
'Strict' cops make Caledon, Ont., Canada's safest place--for now
KATE LUNAU | March 12, 2008 |
In a local community centre on a weekday afternoon, roughly 30 elderly residents of Caledon, Ont. — a town of 58,000 people just 40 km northwest of Toronto — gather to play euchre. Marjorie Slack leads the group in the national anthem and Lord's Prayer, then says: "I guess we'll play cards," and a happy din fills the room. Like many others, 79-year-old Slack has deep roots in this town: she moved here over 50 years ago after marrying a local dairy farmer.
Of the 100 biggest cities or regions in Canada, Caledon is the safest. In 2006, the most recent year for which there's annual data, it ranked the lowest — 107 per cent below the national average — for a score combining six crimes (murder, sexual assault, breaking and entering, vehicle theft, aggravated assault, and robbery). Caledon's overall crime score has improved: in 2001, it was 74 per cent below the national average. And in 1996, it was 55 per cent below (in both those years, it was the fifth safest of the 100 communities surveyed). The Caledon detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police is responsible for about 70,600 people, according to Statistics Canada. Incredibly, with just 94 police officers per 100,000 people — far below the national average of 195 — over 90 per cent of all violent crimes here are solved.
How to explain it? Mayor Marolyn Morrison credits the Caledon OPP and residents in equal measure. Local police "recognize that a safe community has to bring everybody together," Morrisson says. Several times a year, the mayor goes door-to-door with detachment commander Inspector Andy Karski. Despite their small numbers, police officers are extremely visible here, putting in 6,000 hours of foot patrol in 2007 (up from 600 in 2006). Local police have 100,000 interactions with the public per year. "Last year," Inspector Karski says, "we had 12 public complaints."
In Caledon, restorative justice (which brings suspect and victim together with a mediator instead of a court judge) has been used extensively since 2006 to resolve non-violent incidents, from neighbour disputes to vandalism. "It gives the victim a voice," Karski says. And "the suspect has to sit there, and listen to it." Of all the cases in which restorative justice has been used, he says, the Caledon OPP has never had a negative follow-up interaction with the suspect again.
Just a stone's throw from Toronto, Caledon is still home to many functioning farms. But rows of stately houses speak to the town's wealth — and encroaching subdivisions tell of its growth. Canadian icons Farley Mowat, Robertson Davies and Norman Jewison have all called Caledon home. Adult residents have a median income of about $32,900, compared with $24,800 across Ontario. The population is overwhelmingly white and English-speaking (almost half of all residents are third-generation Canadians or more).
But boredom can breed its own set of problems. Across town from where the seniors' group plays cards, teenagers gather at the local Tim Hortons. When asked why Caledon is so safe, 17-year-old Will Krisman smirks. "It's because the cops are so strict," he says. The town lacks a public transportation system, leaving many teens effectively stranded. "Unless you have a driver's licence," says Kayla Nesbitt, 17, "there's nowhere to go." Despite several programs aimed at youth, petty crimes (from vandalism to drugs) remain a concern.
But Caledon won't be a sleepy hollow forever. The population is expected to jump 48 per cent by 2021, and the town already has growing pains. Nesbitt speaks of "racial fights" erupting at her high school between locals and teens from nearby Brampton (where 60 per cent of residents are first-generation Canadians), who are bused in to attend class. Affordable housing is already scarce: the average detached home costs $463,700, and the town lacks a shelter. Despite a range of services (including ESL classes, pay-for-use transportation and a food bank) offered by local not-for-profit Caledon Community Services, it remains "very hard to be poor in Caledon," CCS executive director Monty Laskin says.
Karski shares some thoughts on why nine of the top 10 most dangerous communities surveyed by Maclean's are in the West. "When a city goes through a lot of growth," he says, "it often outgrows its support mechanisms." While robberies are rare in Caledon, Brampton has seen a spike. So the Caledon OPP is offering a robbery prevention seminar for local retailers, free of charge. As Caledon continues to grow, Karski emphasizes, "I don't want to keep up. I want to be ahead." | <urn:uuid:c874a6cb-7896-4d5f-a3a9-d6f76542c0e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20080312_53738_53738 | 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 | 0.963632 | 1,073 | 1.5 | 2 |
This is a Nokia 6300 screen. It’s a 320×240 display that has about 2″ of diagonal viewing area and boasts 24-bit QVGA TFT technology. It’s going to look fantastic in your next project and it won’t be hard to get up and running thanks to the hardware and software guide which [Andy Brown] put together. He chose this display because of its features, but also because it’s really easy to source and can be had for $5-7 delivered. The guide is aimed at working with the Arduino MEGA, but we’re sure you can port it for just about any microcontroller you’d like.
Much like the FPGA PSP display we just looked at, [Andy] chose to design his own PCB to host the LCD. This makes it a snap to attach the LCD — literally, since he managed to source the correct snap-in connector. The board also hosts a constant-current LED driver which takes care of the backlight, and allowed him to build in a level converter (since the screen communicates at 3.3V but Arduino uses 5V logic).
The software tutorial is lengthy but impressive. We’re surprised at the performance he gets out of the AVR chip. See the screen cycle through a set of demos after the break. | <urn:uuid:59cf1fc7-959f-4e85-bf54-006b041638f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/driving-a-nokia-qvga-screen-with-arduino-or-any-uc/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=57db9114c5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955604 | 278 | 1.625 | 2 |
Soil science and agri-systems approaches
Food security in the context of this priority covers the sustainable production of sufficient, safe, nutritious and affordable food to supply the world's growing population. The overall BBSRC food security priority aims to encourage research that will enhance UK and/or global food security, by providing knowledge and evidence that will enable food producers and processors, retailers, consumers and governments to respond to and manage the challenges facing the UK food system, and related global issues including those confronting the developing world.
Tackling the food security challenge will require multifaceted and cross-disciplinary approaches. Multidisciplinary approaches are strongly encouraged under this priority, including those that draw on expertise from across the biosciences and, where appropriate (and provided the majority of the work falls within BBSRC's remit), proposals at the interfaces with other Research Councils. These might include collaborations between biologists and physical, environmental, medical or social scientists. Integration of the latest bioscience and modelling techniques is encouraged at all scales from molecules and cells to agricultural systems and landscapes.
This priority covers research to maintain the essential functions of soils for agriculture, underpinning the efficiency and sustainability of food production from crops and animals. In particular, we encourage multidisciplinary research to minimise inputs such as energy, fertilisers and water; control undesirable outputs such as N2O, CO2 and run-off; improve soil fertility and structure, including water retention; and explore the potential for enhancing carbon capture and storage in soils.
Understanding of agricultural systems can be improved through the development of research-based management systems at a range of scales (farm, catchment, regional) to optimise food production in ways that are reconciled with maintaining biodiversity and the delivery of other critical ecosystem services. This includes:
- whole systems and agri-ecosystems approaches to land management practices that enhance biodiversity conservation in agricultural and associated ecosystems
- maintenance of on- or near-farm natural resources (e.g. structure and fertility of soils)
- competition for farm land (e.g. with non-food / bioenergy crops)
- maintenance of ecosystem services (e.g. carbon sequestration or the health of beneficial invertebrates for pollination or pest control)
- biological based management of agricultural waste
Soil science and ecosystems research not primarily focused on agriculture is excluded from this priority.
Applications in this area may also overlap with the remit of the LWEC priority.
Tackling the food security challenge will require cross-disciplinary approaches which may span a number of the challenges under the broader food security priority. BBSRC would particularly welcome applications that address the food security priority in a broader context and would recommend applicants to read all five strategic priorities in the food security area before applying.
Outputs and impacts
The translation of research outputs into practical use and application by consumers, the agriculture and food industries, policy makers and non-governmental organisations will be critically important in meeting the future challenges. Impacts on training and the UK skills base should be considered. Ultimately the key output from this priority will be research underpinning a secure global supply of safe and healthy food. | <urn:uuid:36677b14-f58d-4f3f-870d-faf0f600f7a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/priorities/fs-soil-agri.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909039 | 647 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Conceived during a sensitive period in the former colony’s history, the brief for the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters was a statement of confidence: to create ‘the best bank building in the world’. Through a process of questioning and challenging − including the involvement of a feng shui geomancer − the project addressed the nature of banking in Hong Kong and how it should be expressed in built form. In doing so it virtually reinvented the office tower.
The requirement to build in excess of one million square feet in a short timescale suggested a high degree of prefabrication, including factory-finished modules, while the need to build downwards and upwards simultaneously led to the adoption of a suspension structure, with pairs of steel masts arranged in three bays. As a result, the building form is articulated in a stepped profile of three individual towers, respectively twenty-nine, thirty-six and forty-four storeys high, which create floors of varying width and depth and allow for garden terraces. The mast structure allowed another radical move, pushing the service cores to the perimeter so as to create deep-plan floors around a ten-storey atrium. A mirrored ‘sunscoop’ reflects sunlight down through the atrium to the floor of a public plaza below – a sheltered space that at weekends has become a lively picnic spot. From the plaza, escalators rise up to the main banking hall, which with its glass underbelly was conceived as a ‘shop window for banking’.
The ‘bridges’ that span between the masts define double-height reception areas that break down the scale of the building both visually and socially. A unique system of movement through the building combines high-speed lifts to the reception spaces with escalators beyond, reflecting village-like clusters of office floors. From the outset, the Bank placed a high priority on flexibility. Interestingly, over the years, it has been able to reconfigure office layouts with ease, even incorporating a large dealers’ room into one floor − a move that could not have been anticipated when the building was designed.
Description by Foster + Partners | <urn:uuid:80762041-5ebb-40ac-8d06-9697a08b00d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://openbuildings.com/buildings/hongkong-and-shanghai-bank-headquarters-profile-39357 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950382 | 442 | 1.617188 | 2 |
(L - R) Shreveport MIC Armando Garza, Police Chief Eric Plummer, University President Dr. David Ranking and Shreveport Warning Coordination Meteorologist Keith Stellman (Photo: WFO Shreveport)
(Aug. 17, 2011) - Home to more than 3,300 students and faculty, Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia has become the State's first StormReady University.
"Thanks to the work of University Police Chief and Emergency Manager Eric Plummer, Southern Arkansas University can tout a weather readiness program that is second to none," said Armando Garza, meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service forecast office in Shreveport, La.
Garza presented university officials with a recognition letter and special StormReady signs during a ceremony on campus June 29.
The University relies on a multitude of methods to communicate with its faculty and students ranging from older technologies to the latest social media. On the 200 foot bell tower in the middle of campus sits the only known voice activated tornado siren in the area. It has the ability to transmit weather warnings or be overridden by a customized voice with specific instructions. Earlier this year a train carrying hazardous material derailed and the siren was used to instruct students and faculty to evacuate to an athletic center.
The university also invested in campus-wide text messaging capabilities and a software package that allows the campus police to display an emergency message on every computer in the campus network. They also have the ability to communicate directly with the National Weather Service via the state owned and operated 800 MHz radio system. One of the newer technologies is a Twitter feed which allows all students with Twitter accounts to access updated weather information.
In addition to its communication capabilities, the university designated a safe area for each building on campus as part of its Emergency Operating Plan. And each building has a captain who is responsible for the safety of its students and faculty.
"StormReady encourages communities to take a proactive approach to improving local hazardous weather operations and public awareness in partnership with their local National Weather Service office," said Garza. "On two separate occasions this past spring, the university went into lock down for tornado warnings and utilized all of its new capabilities without any problems."
The nationwide community preparedness program uses a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle local severe weather and flooding threats. The program is voluntary and provides communities with clear-cut advice from the local National Weather Service forecast office and state and local emergency managers. The program began in 1999 with seven communities in the Tulsa, Okla. area. Today, there are more nearly 1,800 StormReady communities.
The StormReady program is part of NOAA National Weather Service's working partnership with the International Association of Emergency Managers and the National emergency Management Association. The StormReady recognition will expire in three years, after which the university will go through a renewal process. | <urn:uuid:c76cb39b-39f2-40b2-ba9b-1e3e6960ca11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.srh.weather.gov/srh/srnews/stories/2011/sau.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933499 | 584 | 1.5625 | 2 |
This is the first 1,000 characters of 635 words (2.54 pages) in the essay titled 150 Nazi
1. Hitler demanded that the nation produce a "violently active, dominating,
intrepid, brutal youth." What part did the schools play in carrying out that
The schools taught the students to live a military lifestyle. Everything was
very structured. Everything they did, they did mechanically. The games they
played as children were war type games. They exercised and marched and
drilled and saluted.
2. Write a working definition of the word indoctrinate. How does it differ from
the word educate? How did Hitler indoctrinate young Germans? Why did
he focus his efforts on them rather than on their parents?
To indoctrinate is to "teach to accept a system of thought uncritically". To
educate is to "provide information, to inform". Indoctrinate differs from
educate because when you indoctrinate, you donít allow room for debate or
questioning, whereas when you educate you allo...
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You can view download the complete version of this essay for only $12.00. This is the final price of the essay - there is no extra hidden or fees and no price per page charges. Your purchase is 100% secure. Click on the Paypal icon below and you will have the essay instantaneously. | <urn:uuid:13dfd88a-8156-4088-a519-3c30f40cc8a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eduessays.com/Essays-w00143.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948154 | 295 | 2.9375 | 3 |
It all began with an Atari. Jessica Bayliss’ family had always played board games; in search of a new means of entertainment, the video game console seemed a natural extension to them. After her family brought it home, Bayliss picked up the controller and hasn’t put it down since. Decades later, Dr. Bayliss is an assistant professor in RIT’s Game Design and Development program and considers herself to be an avid gamer.
And she’s not alone; Dr. Bayliss is among a steadily rising minority in the video game world. Realizing an untapped potential, game developers began designing and marketing games for women. With the new market, the number of female gamers has increased substantially in the past 15 years.
PLAYING THE GAME
Althought the video game market is predominately male, the tides are turning — and fast. According to the 2006 Nielsen “Active Gamer Benchmark” study, while only 30 percent of overall gamers are female, women currently make up about two-thirds of the online gamer community.
Eloise Oyzon, a Fine Arts and Animation professor involved in the Game Design and Development program, got her start with text based games. After a period of disinterest, a slew of bizarre and innovative releases caught her eye.
“I got invigorated in the last four years by other things like DDR, Pikmin — of all things — and Katamari,” says Oyzon. For her, the attraction to gaming deals with the interactivity it provides. “What I do like about gaming that I do not get from television is a sense of causality, that I’m making stuff happen.”
WOMEN AT WORK
Bayliss, an ardent gamer, had never considered a career in gaming. Entering college as a Music major, she switched to engineering before finally deciding on computer science. As a professor in RIT’s Computer Science department, she began to incorporate gaming into the program’s first year curriculum as part of the Reality and Programming Together (RAPT) pilot program. Eventually, the project garnered the attention of Microsoft, receiving a grant. When the project succeeeded, Bayliss went to aid RIT’s fledgling newly-formed game design program.
But if there is a shortage of women gamers, there’s even more of a shortage of women developers. According to the International Game Developers Association, only 11.5 percent of game developers are female. Many speculate that this deficit is the reason games often do not cater to women’s interests.
Among the programs created to address this gender imbalance is Sony Online Entertainment’s “The Gamers in Real Life” (G.I.R.L.), a scholarship program that aims to convince girl gamers to enter the world of professional game development. The program is only in its third year, but it’s hoped that students become more interested as it continues to grow.
Seeking to eliminate the social stigma that has been attached to gaming, video game companies have begun to explore new ways of marketing games to audiences that aren’t already playing.
Nintendo’s Wii was among these, with its unorthodox, remote-shaped controller and unique library of games. In 2007, Nintendo started a “Wii Ambassadors” program, aimed at promoting the Wii to middle aged women. In the program, “ambassadors” host parties focused around the Wii.
With the increasing the number of female gamers, game companies have encountered several pronounced challenges. There’s a stigma attached to gaming, and girl gamers are no exception.
“I used to play [World of Warcraft], and I was definitely embarrassed to tell people that,” said Christine Stone, a fifth year Electrical Engineering major. She notes that many girls who play may be singled out for it.
Male gamers tend to view their female counterparts with a sense of curiosity, and perhaps even admiration. “I was playing ‘Left 4 Dead’ the other night, and I went into an online game — a quick match — and I was only voice activated in a second round and people were like, ‘Wait, are you a girl? You don’t really see that in here,’” said Lauren Stockli, a second year International Relations major.
But for her and Stone, this has never led to any particular problems. “I never was really bothered by being the only girl,” said Stone, “I just wanted everyone else to treat me as | <urn:uuid:c66782c9-9d79-4ef9-9bb6-32920bcdbf33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reportermag.com/article/04-09-2010/the-rise-of-the-woman-gamer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961879 | 957 | 2.421875 | 2 |
This idea was documented in an email on May 30, 2003. It had been an idea that I had advocated from years before but it seemed like a good time to document it with the hopes that it would get better chances. The basic idea was to sell a single user version of our main product for use on consumer computers. During the early 2000s, there was a strong push to have more products with the hopes of raising more market share and more business in general.
Here is the idea:
This idea for a single user ICA server has been around for quite some time but I wanted to formalize why it is important.
1. Gets us into the consumer market so that people can use it at home and on their workstations
2. Potentially gives us a product that is extremely popular with consumers that give us better name recognition
3. Allows for sharing applications between users using the machines they are working on
4. Avoid issues that multi-user situations brings to applications (all apps should work given enough bandwidth)
5. We can charge money for this and improve our income
6. Could be sold in retail markets
7. Would encourage people to further invest in Citrix technology in the MetaFrame suite
8. Allows for the allocation of one machine per user which would guarantee performance and usuability.
9. Lower cost entry point to using Citrix technology
10. Single user server could integrate into Citrix farms for the intent of publishing one app to one user
11. It solves the problem of getting the user to their desktop to run their desktop apps if they are remote
The first problem with getting to be a $1 billion dollar company is to get people to know who you are. The easiest way to do this is sell them products that they can use. We currently do not sell to users. We sell to companies and IT managers. Some users do not even know they are using Citrix technology. Having a consumer product is a big step forward to having people know what you do.
That is why people will pick big software companies first since those companies usually have a strong consumer presence (like Microsoft).
Technically, I do not think it is difficult to do this product. The base is already with Windows XP and a prototype has already been done with Jardine.
If we do decide to go ahead with this project, we have the potential to greatly expand our business.
This idea was not rejected but marked for revisit in 2004. As far as I know, it was not revisited.
XenDesktop with PortICA was first to address the single user solution. Jardine got bogged down with Microsoft since it used Terminal Services API.
It is unknown if this would have really made a difference to Citrix. At this point most people that use remote connections in the consumer market would use Microsoft RDP. It helps to be built in. In most cases the consumers aren’t even aware of what is going on. Microsoft has done a great job of blending it in.
Even now there is an opportunity to make PortICA a standalone solution. If it was enabled this way, it would essentially allow for this idea to exist fully. Many customers have asked for a standalone version in the last few months. There is a sense that some don’t want a full VDI implementation and just want an integrated Citrix experience. | <urn:uuid:2658c034-d4ff-4319-b9db-33df4f93ff23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://citrixblogger.org/category/portica/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972058 | 693 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Staring at a pair of monitors for 10+ hours a day can get rather taxing. That's why I pepper in small breaks throughout the day, like most people. When I need five minutes to untangle my brain I reach for my pile of art pens and the closest post it note (the back of a print out will also suffice).
Compared to the things I used to do on breaks, like surfing the web or secretly playing a iOS game, sketching has a defined end point. Once you put the pen down, nothing jumps up on my monitor or flashes on my desk to tempt me to resume. By doing something nontechnical, it's very unlikely the break will stretch on for too long because once I'm done doodling, I'm not thinking about it at all. The inverse is also true, once I'm doodling my mind couldn't be farther from my daily work, which is more therapeutic than getting caught up in any digital distraction.
You don't have to be Picasso either. By no means am I an artist, nor do I do much doodling in my spare time. I just grab a pen let my mind wander for a few minutes a day to clear my head. I don't plan on framing these half-hearted gems or having a self-indulgent showing at some gallery because that's just ludicrous. Point is, doodling only works if you don't take it too seriously.
Above are some examples of how I don't let my artistic ineptitude hinder my hobby.
I implore you give it a shot sometime!
Sketch Breaks | Glen Elkins
Glen Elkin's is a web designer & front end developer for the ecommerce and web publishing company Juggle.com and writer for the music blog PlaybackSTL.com. When he is not scribbling wireframes, tweaking CSS, or slingin' words, he doodles, plays guitar, and kills zombies. | <urn:uuid:f6ee5897-d8d3-43f1-8ec0-74621d745575> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifehacker.com/5854926/why-i-take-sketch-breaks-instead-of-internet-surfing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94546 | 403 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Smarter, not Harder
How one runner revamped his training and revived his racing
Looking to Lydiard
Given my personal bout with overtraining, I knew firsthand that these revelations were accurate. They led me to expand my research in order to discover alternate training methods which would allow me to reach much higher performance levels, while at the same time avoiding injury/overtraining. First, I internalized Daniels' Running Formula; I then turned to some of the greats mentioned in Noakes' Lore of Running and in Michael Sandrock's Running with the Greats.
Throughout this research, one name continued to appear over and over again: Arthur Lydiard. Noakes, Daniels, and especially Bowerman praised him; his name and philosophies seeped into the writings of some of the most successful runners the world has known. After reading Running with Lydiard and digesting his ideas (as well as personally implementing them), I believe that this superlative praise is warranted.
Lydiard scoffed at the Western world's overindulgence in interval training. To Lydiard, the idea of training to peak three times a year was at best suboptimal and at worst legitimately dangerous and counterproductive. He recognized that interval training could only be approached within the context of reaching an overarching peak phase; in emphasizing anaerobic fitness at the expense of aerobic capacity, runners not only maximized their chances of sustaining injury and overtraining, but also ensured that their peaks would be dramatically shorter and smaller.
Lydiard's insight was to fix training around an extensive base-building period that lasted far longer than any other training program, as well as to stress the importance of the distance run within one's training schedule. The Lydiard system calls for a base-building phase lasting an absolute minimum of five months and which is anchored by three long runs a week. Once a powerful and intensive aerobic foundation has been established, and only then, will the runner embark on an anaerobic training program. Lydiard's anaerobic phase is designed to last a maximum of 12 weeks, followed by a short, "peak" racing period.
These ideas appear alien to the American running community. Quite simply, we're interval junkies. In general, we are taught from middle school through college to peak three times a year, once each season--cross country, indoor, and outdoor track. Further, very little emphasis is placed upon developing a firm aerobic base; rather, we are taught to take the shortcut of almost immediate interval training to mimic the benefits that can only be wrought from long hours on the road. By its very nature, interval training is far more taxing than plain vanilla distance running.
By fixing our training programs almost exclusively on anaerobic development, we are openly courting overtraining and thus limiting our ultimate potential. Even Jack Daniels' training system -- by my estimation the most conservative mainstream American program -- sets aside only six weeks for base building and 18 weeks for interval training/racing! | <urn:uuid:d4584f1e-02c4-46e7-bcc6-50e0288d3f07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/smarter-not-harder?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961881 | 615 | 1.851563 | 2 |
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Consultation reignites calls for a change in drink-drive law
A CONSULTATION has been launched by the Scottish government on plans to reduce the drink-driving limit.
The current UK limit of 80mgs of alcohol per 100mls of blood has remained unchanged since 1966 and is the highest in the world.
Now, the Scottish Government is proposing lowering the level to 50mgs. The move would bring the country in line with most of Europe.
For years, road safety campaigners have called on the British Government to follow suit, but still it refuses to budge.
David Lee said it must prevaricate no longer. His daughter, Sarah, was 24 when her life was ended in 2009 by drink-driver Matthew Anderson.
Anderson, 24, who also died in the crash, had been driving at between 60mph and 80mph when his white Audi crossed Manningtree Road, Stutton, near Brantham, and hit Sarah’s car.
Tests later found he had at least 200mgs of alcohol in his blood, more than twice the legal limit.
Sarah had been returning home to Bergholt Road, Colchester, from her job at the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, when the crash happened.
Her father said: “Never a day goes by when we do not think of Sarah. The idea of tolerating any amount of alcohol turns my blood cold.
“The current levels suggest to people they can have up to two drinks and then drive. Anything which would remove the acceptance of this behaviour has to be a good thing.
“It is not realistic to have zero tolerance. There can be a residual amount of alcohol in the blood stream, but anything which suggests it is acceptable to drink and then drive is too much. The Government needs to act immediately.
“At the moment, it is giving the signal it doesn’t matter. That is wrong."
Essex Police ’s 2012 summer anti drink-drive campaign found more than 100 drivers over the limit. The campaign was timed to coincide with the European Football Championships in June.
Of 2,250 drivers stopped and breathalysed, a total of 110 were found to be driving over the legal alcohol limit or refused or failed to provide a sample.
Of this group, 83 were men and 27 were women. A total of 15 were aged under 25, while 95 were aged 25 and over.
Adam Pipe, casualty reduction manager for Essex Police , said: “Every year I am disappointed to see some people continue to drink and drive. We won’t tolerate those who drink and drive.”
Mr Lee felt drink drivers are not just restricted to a “criminal underclass”. He added: “There is an awful lot of so-called great and good who regularly drink and drive.
“There are people who think this doesn’t matter. We have come a long way since the breathalyser was first introduced, but the Government needs to reduce the limit right away.” | <urn:uuid:91e97198-9719-4d8c-857a-17cd7cf43841> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/9920291.Consultation_reignites_calls_for_a_change_in_drink_drive_law/?ref=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980634 | 656 | 1.75 | 2 |
For the past two years, there has been a white-hot debate about making health care available to all in the United States. President Barack Obama's signature piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act, was passed, signed into law and upheld by the Supreme Court. The libertarian Republican Party has repudiated it. Several Republican governors have even rejected the expansion of Medicaid that is substantially paid for under the act by federal funds. Major components of the law have yet to be implemented.
Meanwhile, for more than 100 years, one organization has quietly but effectively exported the provision of U.S. health care to the poorest of the poor living in the farthest reaches in the world.
New York City-based Catholic Medical Mission Board dates its inception to 1912. Dr. Paluel Joseph Flagg, an anesthesiologist at now closed St. Vincent's Hospital, ministered to lepers in Haiti. He sent a doctor and her family to China in 1914. He expanded the medical mission of the New York archdiocese. Later the Catholic Medical Mission Board affiliated with the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Then-Fr. (later Archbishop) Fulton Sheen, the popular radio and television preacher, joined the board in 1949 and served for 26 years.
Today, under the governance of a largely lay board of directors, the organization places medical volunteers, distributes millions of dollars in donated medicines, and implements critically important programs that make health care available to thousands of people.
In addition to New York City, it has offices in Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Peru, South Africa, South Sudan, Uganda and Zambia.
The Catholic Medical Mission Board is one of the largest not-for-profits based in New York City. In 2011, its revenues were more than $315 million and 97 percent went directly to services. Support for the organization comes from more than 37,000 individuals, 47 foundations, 54 corporations, 38 trusts and estates, 190 health- and faith-affiliated organizations, and two federal grants.
"In 2012, we distributed a record $1 billion of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to communities in the developing world," said Bruce Wilkinson, the new president and CEO (see sidebar below).
In fiscal year 2012, the Catholic Medical Mission Board served more than 120,000 clients in 120 countries.
From its inception, Haiti has been a primary area of service for the organization, which has 62 staff there, including doctors, finance and human resources personnel, and those working in the field nationwide.
"We work with different partners like hospitals, clinics, schools," said Dr. Dianne Jean-Francois, country director in Haiti. "We are focused on child health [and] HIV/AIDs care, treatment and prevention.
"We are looking at life-skill training, with helping the minister of health with the health system by providing training to the university, to the Ministry of Health staff and also work at the level of the community," she said.
The Catholic Medical Mission Board has a good reputation in Haiti, Jean-Francois said. "When CMMB says it is going to do something, we achieve what we say we are going to do," she said.
One success is the Born to Live program. Forty percent of infants born to mothers with HIV will be infected. Intervention is critical. This program includes voluntary counseling and the administration of antiretroviral drug therapies during pregnancy and after birth in order to prevent mother-to-child-transmission of HIV.
Another successful program was created in response to the 2010 earthquake. The Catholic Medical Mission Board has provided 1,000 Haitian amputees with prostheses and physical therapy.
"We need to work together on sustainability so people of Haiti can take care of themselves in the future," Jean-Francois said.
A key element of the organization's success is its partnerships, such as the one with a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and its foundation, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.
In 1999, Bristol-Myers Squibb and its foundation committed $150 million for a program called Secure the Future to develop and replicate innovative and sustainable solutions for people affected by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Catholic Medical Mission Board and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation joined forces on the Secure the Future program. It has been a real success.
The partnership "was not just about more funds but it captured all key components of partnerships -- engagement, transparency and open communication, said Phangisile Mtshali, director of corporate philanthropy at Bristol-Myers Squibb. "It was a true partnership where there was alignment of needs and vision."
"Both organizations wanted to serve the hardest to reach communities and truly indigenous community-based interventions," Mtshali said. "We planned jointly, we reviewed potential grantees jointly and we co-funded regardless of who had solicited the proposal. The common theme was to support the communities truly in need and those involved in home-based care and care of orphans and vulnerable children."
Another collaboration with the foundation involved the Choose to Care initiative, supporting 100 projects in five African countries. The initiative provided palliative care, orphan care and support and HIV education and hospice care. The Catholic Medical Mission Board also collaborated with the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference on this program.
"It harnessed the faith-based community, especially the Catholic community, infrastructure and sentiment," Mtshali said. "Most importantly it moved away from 'charity' to capacity-building, accountability and sought for measurable effects in the benefiting communities while strengthening the institutions."
Wilkinson said the Catholic Medical Mission Board has three priorities going forward:
- Developing local sustainable health care systems. "We are getting a lot of breakthroughs in some of the more stubborn diseases like HIV/AIDs and malaria and especially in maternal and child health, especially in neonatal health," he said. "So what we do is come around these systems such as a mission hospital system, it could be ministry of health system, and we come in and build a lot of capacity."
- Expanding the number and kinds of partnerships. "We need partnerships with a broader group of companies from technology groups to health system groups because there is such a wealth of management expertise in the health care systems in the United States that could so easily applied overseas," Wilkinson said.
- Supply chain logistics. "Because we distributed [in 2012] $1 billion of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, we want to make sure that the quality is there and that these goods are arriving at the end-user with proper supervision that they need," he said.
"We are collecting data downstream in places such as Honduras, Haiti, Zambia, South Africa, as part of our assurance that we are using these pharmaceuticals in the right way and at the same time they are creating impact at the end-user level and not creating any harm," he said.
To mark its centennial anniversary, the Catholic Medical Mission Board celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York Dec. 16. At a gala dinner the next evening the group presented James M. Cornelius, chairman of Bristol-Myers Squibb, with its Global Health Care Leadership Award, and gave Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York its International Founders' Award.
[Tom Gallagher writes NCR's regular Mission Management column. He recently joined NCR's board of directors. His email address is email@example.com.]
New leader brings decades of Africa experience
Bruce Wilkinson, appointed president and CEO of the Catholic Medical Mission Board on June 1, 2012, has spent his entire career dedicated to alleviating poverty in the developing world.
"I've seen CMMB's work through various lenses," Wilkinson said. "I ran into their work in East Africa and West Africa, seeing their pharmaceuticals and medical supplies being distributed in hospitals and clinics. While living in Zambia, I got to know CMMB's country director, Dr. Moses Sinkala."
Wilkinson brings to his new role deep experience in the primary areas of focus for the organization, namely, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, malaria, behavioral change and communications, volunteer deployment, and the provision of medicines and medical supplies.
In the late 1970s, Wilkinson joined the Peace Corps right out of college, serving in Ghana. Later he served with World Vision International as its West Africa regional director (in Senegal), senior vice president of international programs (in Washington, D.C.) and regional vice president for Southern Africa (in Zambia).
According to his official biography, Wilkinson also served as chief of party of RAPIDS, a USAID comprehensive HIV/AIDS program in Zambia. His leadership resulted in RAPIDS being integrated in the national HIV/AIDS development plan of Zambia, leveraging a U.S. government investment of $59 million into a public-private partnership of cash and in-kind resources totaling $250 million over five years.
Wilkinson is a graduate of Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., and has a Master of Buiness Administration from the Judge Institute of Management Studies, the University of Cambridge, England. He and his wife, Linda, have five children.
-- Tom Gallagher | <urn:uuid:7fb27a05-67e5-44da-acea-2ecf24187f25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/news/global/exporting-us-health-care-serve-poor-around-world | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964786 | 1,907 | 2.15625 | 2 |
The Government has said that the costs of introducing same-sex marriage in England and Wales will cost between £3.3m and £4.7m.
The assessment, promised by the Government during the consultation process, is not as large a figure as some opponents of equal marriage had claimed introducing equality would cost.
The vast majority of the costs relate to changing IT systems in order to accommodate a married couple having two husbands, two wives, or one husband and one wife. Other costs relate to the retraining of civil registrars who will be officiating at the bulk of the marriages and an increase in trans people seeking gender recognition once the law does not require them to divorce a marriage if they are already in one.
The £3.3-4.7m breaks down as follows:-
- £2m: Updates to the General Register Office IT system to accommodate same-sex couples
- £0.19-0.67m: Familiarisation costs for registrars to perform same-sex marriages
- £0.08m: Updates to the IT systems at the Department for Work and Pensions
- £0.4m: IT and project management costs in relation to pensions
- £0.2-0.45m: Updates to the IT system at HM Revenue and Customs
- £0.2-0.45m: Updates to the IT courts systems by the Ministry of Justice
- £0.1-0.3m: Operational changes required for the Gender Recognition Panel database
- £0.2-0.7m (over five years): Additional demand for Gender Recognition Certificates after the Marriage (Same-sex couples) Bill comes into law
- £0.15-0.2m: IT system updates for the Office of National Statistics
Out4Marriage said: “Even if it costs £4.7m to introduce the IT and other changes needed, it seems like a small price to pay for England and Wales becoming a more equal society.”
The costs only cover the direct costs to the tax payer. It is conceivable that the Unitarians, Metropolitan Churches, Reform and Liberal Judaism as well as another faith groups that decide to opt-in to same-sex marriages may have some administrative costs to introduce same-sex marriages too.
The Government’s Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill for England and Wales was officially been published yesterday in the name of the Culture Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality Maria Miller and in the names of Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Chancellor George Osborne, Home Secretary Theresa May, Education Secretary Michael Gove, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, Minister for Sport Hugh Robertson, International Development Minister Lynne Featherstone, and the junior equalities ministers Helen Grant and Jo Swinson. The legislation will be taken through the House of Commons primarily by Conservative ministers Hugh Robertson and Helen Grant.
Its official remit is to “Make provision for the marriage of same-sex couples in England and Wales, about gender change by married persons and civil partners, about consular functions in relation to marriage, for the marriage of armed forces personnel overseas, and for connected purposes.”
The bill contains specific measures to deal with the unique legal position of the Church of England and the Church in Wales. Unlike any other religious body in this country, their clergy have a specific legal duty to marry parishioners.
Should the Church in Wales decide to allow same-sex marriages, the bill sets out a procedure for its governing body to ask the Lord Chancellor to make secondary legislation enabling it to do so.
The bill also ensures that Anglican Canon law, which says that marriage is the union of one man with one woman, does not conflict with civil law. This will remain the case until such time that the churches wish to conduct same-sex marriages.
Enjoyed this article? Add Pink News to your Facebook news feed | <urn:uuid:697ee43c-d82e-430e-8f65-6715bc59eeec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/01/26/introducing-equal-marriage-in-england-and-wales-to-cost-the-tax-payer-up-to-4-7m/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946482 | 813 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Government announces improvement in daylight hours
Gordon Brown has announced that government measures taken during the current economic gloom has led to an increase in the length of the day.
Many commentators and members of the public have recently been remarking on the unexpected increase in daylight hours, which has resulted in some people not even having to switch the light on to get dressed. The change has been so noticeable that the government had to bring forward an announcement on the matter. In a press conference outside Number 10 this morning, the Prime Minister said the changes were a direct result of new government initiatives.
‘Measures I have put in place will secure a reduction in nocturnal darkness,’ said Mr Brown, ‘not only for this country but for the entire northern hemisphere, day by day, week on week, month on month for the foreseeable future. Thanks to our husbandry, daylight hours are expected to continue to increase at least until late June, and there is no reason why they should not then stay at those levels or even increase further.’
Mr Brown continued: ‘This will mean lower heating bills for hard working families and struggling pensioners, and less Seasonal Affective Disorder. People will get the long sunny days they deserve, and I am pleased to announce a new ice-cream allowance, details of which will be released later today. This is positive news of a brighter future. Under Labour there will be no more gloom and dusk.’
In response to a question about the effect on the southern hemisphere, the Prime Minister said that the consensus was that countries such as Australia and Brazil had been overheated for too long, and that a correction was well overdue. Furthermore, it would bring welcome relief to the penguins in Antarctica.
George Osborne warned that the measures had not been properly thought through and would scorch the green shoots of recovery and lead to people having more wrinkles around their eyes.
Des CustardClick to send this story to a friend
Posted: Jan 31st, 2009 by Des Custard
Click for more stories about: Politics | <urn:uuid:e94739e2-5e43-4229-8c4d-302ec94af762> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2009/01/31/government-announces-improvement-in-daylight-hours-462/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976355 | 420 | 1.757813 | 2 |
A manger to wild birds had embedded very joy in the landscape. But then this annoying small squirrels. This brings me to the question of squirrel proof bird feeder. I am not wrong, I like to see them, they are my Golden Retriever 18 months old. Now that the busy squirrels, Jersey happy with them, he spent his time come to the window and sees with frenetic enthusiasm.
When I opened the door to my dog, he was very intelligent and is slowly and do not see it and then, it is! The only thing I don't understand is that they are in the trees. He just kind of look
But for the diversion. I have nothing with squirrels, however, a small bird seed. In other words, I know that they must eat. But which feed on land and not feeder birds, frighten birds.
Such a feeder of the birds that are presented as evidence of squirrel is a pipe or a cylinder with a cage of wire around it. Probably, poultry for seeds can be, but not squirrels can be found. It has been argued that the openings of the cage is too small for the squirrel in access of seeds. However, this is not entirely squirrel test. What is baby squirrels?
It is still a bird feeder squirrel proof of how it really works. It is a cage with relatively small openings around the tube, but major gaps still exist in the pipeline and cages for birds, for access to seeds. The power supply has a ring at the bottom. If move the squirrels in the ring, they forced their weight in "the cage" to move. The cage of the larger openings movement of seeds, so you can squirrel not through small openings of the cage. It is a source of various foods, which is also very active concept and is also excellent. Other species have a ring is switched on. You can also buy a box of resonance. If its feeding of birds in a chain hanging from a tree, places the coverage, which is a large plastic dome in the sheet feeder. If a squirrel on the import of the tree, jumping pictures. I have this in a tube feeder in years and it works well.
You have a bird feeder, flap pole must be connected to the Terminal in the bloodletting. Baffle must be at least 17 inches in diameter. This prevents the squirrels in the stack. When it comes to baffle, which you must go. Some squirrels can calculate things, but I have also the fate of this type. | <urn:uuid:20a16180-37df-4078-8bd2-09becbd2fe90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whatdoraccoonseat.com/what-do-baby-squirrels-eat.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9784 | 523 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Bush Foundation Initiative
USD School of Education and Bush Foundation Initiative
The University of South Dakota School of Education has been selected by the Bush Foundation to participate in a partnership focused on transforming teacher-preparation programs in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Collectively, the institutions will produce at least 25,000 new, effective teachers in the next 10 years. This number represents virtually all of the new teachers that will be needed in the three states in the next decade.
In addition, the institutions are guaranteeing the effectiveness of teachers who graduate from their redesigned programs. To accomplish this goal, the institutions will transform how they recruit, prepare, place and support new teachers and how they work with their K-12 partners. The Foundation plans to invest more than $40 million over the next decade support their success.
- December 3, 2009 Press Release
- Bush Foundation - Teacher Effectiveness Initiative
- USD School of Education Proposal Summary
- Proposal Presentation (November 2009) | <urn:uuid:b924d3dc-2b83-46e1-bfd1-5bc488c6bc63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usd.edu/education/bush-foundation-initiative.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943508 | 199 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Persian Peace Apostle Predicts War in Europe
Peace Apostle Who Predicts Bloodshed
‘Abdu’l-Bahá Urges Local Bahá’ís to Do All in Their Power to Avert Terrible Bloodshed Which He Says Is Pending in East.
Warning against a great European war and pleading that the people of this country do what they can to avert terrible bloodshsed, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Persian peace apostle, addressed the local body of Bahá’ís at the Iroquois hotel last evening. Of the seventy persons in attendance about sixty were women.
The Persian prophet and his three secretaries, Dr. Fareed, M. Ahmad and M. Mohinrood were escorted to the reeption parlor by J. Harrison Mills at whose home, No. 494 Elmwood avenue, the local followers hold regular meetings. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wore a black robe with a white turban, one of the secretaries wore all black and the other two wore plum colored robes with black turbans. One acted as interpreter and each of the others took a seat to right and left of their leader and took down in Arabic shorthand his words. He said:
“The very cause of life is due to the Supreme One’s love, for by His grace we move, we see, we hear, we feel, and all phenomena is based on His love. The prophets are sent to bear a mesage of holy love and the philosophers and all the wise men of by-gone ages have sung with sweet melody the theme of love. But, alas, the shadow obscuring the sun of affection Alas, that on earth should [unreadable text] read a contrary spirit in the hearts of men. Alas, that hatred and enmity should spring forth to make a hell of war and bloodshed.
“Even now in the orient are widows weeping, children lamenting and athers bereaved for the bloodshed of their dear ones. The continent of Europe is one vast arsenal, which only requires one spark at its foundations and the whole of Europe will become a wasted wilderness.
“And what flimsy, what impudent pretexts they use. Patriotism, say they; glory, say they; the upbuilding of the continent, say they. What a travesty on God’s truth.”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá will speak again this evening at 8 o’clock at the Church of the Messiah, Mariner and North streets.
[picture caption: ‘ABDU’L-BAHA] | <urn:uuid:91659b95-026c-45ea-8a8d-1144de76384d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://centenary.bahai.us/news/persian-peace-apostle-predicts-war-europe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933291 | 548 | 1.921875 | 2 |
The Melburnian hip-hop artist announced on Facebook that he suffers from keratoconus, an inherited condition that causes degeneration of the eye's cornea.
The disease has already left 360 without vision in his right eye but now his left eye is deteriorating too.
"If you didn't know, I have a disease in my eyes called keratoconus … I am half blind," 360 (real name Matt Colwell) wrote on his Facebook page.
"I had a cornea transplant about six years ago … so I've been living with one good eye for ages and I'm totally cool with it, well I was … but now the disease has started to kick into my left eye … my vision gets worse by the day.
"My left eye is deteriorating rapidly … I need surgery ASAP or I will go blind."
The rapper also posted a picture of his eye after the cornea transplant.
But 360, who habitually wears a pair of dark-lensed sunglasses, hasn't lost his sense of humour during the ordeal.
"The positive is I don't need no excuse to wear sunnies indoors no more haha," he wrote, adding, "I could be the first Ray Charles of rap."
The 26-year-old took out Channel [V]'s Oz Artist of the Year in 2011, but is probably better known for dissing fellow Aussie hip hop artists Hilltop Hoods.
"The [song] nose bleed section made me want to break their nose," he once rapped in a freestyle contest.
Unfortunately, 360 is no stranger to health issues. In 2010 he had a go-karting accident which left him with a torn artery, lacerated pancreas and "ripped open" scrotum. | <urn:uuid:0e801267-0589-4443-b0c6-fe173816594c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://music.ninemsn.com.au/blog.aspx?blogentryid=1029115&showcomments=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982695 | 367 | 1.59375 | 2 |
By Ellie Seta
Just walking down the hallway the sheer amount of name brand items students display is overwhelming, most of which include iconic images of various animals. But while to some students the brand means everything, sophomore Allison Scott said she could care less. She said she has no desire to pay the steep price for these “high-end” items.
“The main factor for me to not buy name brand clothes is price,” Scott said. “But to me their clothes are cute so it really does not matter to me.”
Although high school students are infamous for their obsession with name brands, students here are finding that although generic brands do not always have the best quality, the price is just too good to pass up, especially in this economic. On the other hand, many still argue the importance of purchasing items for quality rather than buying a greater quantity of less expensive items.
Scott, who regularly shops at discount stores such as Target and Forever 21, said she believes the clothes she buys at these stores are similar to the clothes in higher end stores.
“I think they look just as cute,” Scott said. “You don’t need a label to show that you have cute clothes.”
However, in contrast to Scott, sophomore Laura Rummel said she prefers to buy name brand clothes due to the fact that they usually have better quality.
“In general, I think that name brand clothes are a lot cuter,” Rummel said. “Even though they are more expensive you can usually find some really great sales.” Rummel said in the end she believes in the saying “you get what you pay for,” “and that if you buy cheaper clothes then you should be prepared for the clothes to not last as long as name brand clothes would.
“I would rather buy more expensive clothes and not get as much (clothing) than buy a lot of cheap clothes that are falling apart,” Rummel said. “In the end, you would probably end up spending the same amount because the cheaper clothes will probably not last as long.”
Fashion merchandising teacher, Sharon Robinson said the main reason behind the lower pricing of generic brand clothing has to do with the less expensive fabric and fewer embellishments. Also Robinson said name brand clothing also is usually made in Europe, while generic products are mass produced in Asia which allows the products to be sold at a less expensive price.
“With higher end clothing you are paying more for the original design,” Robinson said. “But with lower end (clothing) you do not have to pay for the original thought.”
Scott said a big reason as to why she often purchases her clothing from cheaper stores is because she is required to pay for her clothes with her own money, which she said greatly limits her clothing budget. However, she said her mom does buy her some necessary clothing items at the beginning of the school year, but after that she is left to pay for most of her clothes with her own money. But Scott admits that even if her mom did offer to buy all of her clothes for her she still probably would shop at the same stores.
“I would feel really bad if my mom spent all of her money that she worked for on my clothes when she could spend it on more important stuff,” Scott said.
Robinson said although to some people dressing in high-end designer clothing is important to them, she cautioned to only spend the amount of money that is financially appropriate for your budget.
“Only spend what is within your means,” Robinson said. “You should not try to be someone you aren’t.”
Although Rummel and Scott do not agree on the type of clothing that they purchase, they both share a common love for Target, a store known for its low prices.
“I especially like Target when they have high-end designers design clothes (for Target),” Rummel said. “I really like H&M also.”
“I think that girls today are too worried about their image,” Scott said. “They believe that wearing name brands will improve their image, but I don’t really care that much about buying name brand clothes. You really don’t need to waste you money.” | <urn:uuid:e354855c-c1c3-4fd9-8de3-ccbfb2388bba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hilite.org/archives/2832 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983937 | 919 | 1.859375 | 2 |
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The Leominster canal ran just over 18 miles from Mamble to Leominster through 16 locks and a number of tunnels, some of which suffered engineering problems even before the canal opened.
Originally the canal was part of a much more ambitious plan to run 46 miles from Stourport to Kington.
Following the opening of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal in 1772, which linked the industrial Midlands to the River Severn at Stourport, the engineer Robert Whitworth proposed a canal to link Stourport to Hereford, passing through Pensax and Leominster in 1777.
Meetings were held at Leominster and Tenbury in 1789, at which it was decided to survey possible routes from Leominster to Stourport. Thomas Dadford Jr carried out the survey, and presented a plan to a meeting in December 1789 for a 31-mile (50 km) canal, costing £83,000, with estimated receipts of £4,300 per year. Three tunnels would be required, at Putnal Field, Southnet and Pensax.
Despite the low returns, a meeting in January 1790 decided to proceed with Dadford's Canal. A further meeting was held in Kington in April, and there were calls to build a connecting canal to the town. The two schemes became one, and the total length of the canal would be 46 miles (74 km). From Kington, locks would raise the level of the canal by 48 feet (15 m), and then it would fall by 496 feet (151 m) to reach the River Severn.
The lack of major towns or industries did not seem to worry the proposers, and an Act of Parliament was obtained on 13 May 1791, which allowed the Proprietors to raise £150,000, with another £40,000 if necessary. Dadford was appointed as Engineer, a position which he held until 1795, although he only devoted one-quarter of his time to the Leominster Canal, as he performed the same role for the Monmouthshire Canal and was contracted to them for the remaining three-quarters of his time.
Work began soon afterward his appointment, and by October 1794, the section from Woofferton near Tenbury to Marlbrook near Mamble was open for traffic.
The following year saw most of the section from Leominster to Woofferton completed, while beyond Marlbrook the 1,254-yard (1,147 m) Southnet tunnel was finished and work started on an aqueduct over the River Lugg at Kingsland. Around £90,000 had been spent to reach this stage.
There were problems with the Southnet tunnel, part of which collapsed in 1795. The Proprietors sought the advice of John Rennie, who criticised Dadford's work. He estimated that £20,000 would be required to rectify the existing works from Southnet to Leominster, and that another £135,937 would be needed to complete the project.
Undaunted, the Proprietors applied for a second Act of Parliament, which they obtained on 26 April 1796, authorising them to raise or borrow a further £180,000. The 330-yard (300 m) tunnel at Putnall Fields, which had proved very difficult to construct, was completed in July 1796, completing the route to Leominster, and creating a working canal which was 18.5 miles (29.8 km) long.
On 1 June 1797, a ceremonial cut was made on the banks of the River Severn, where the canal was eventually planned to join it, but only £62,582 had been raised under the terms of the second Act, and with some £25,000 owing, all work ceased.
In 1803, the Proprietors sought the advice of John Hodgkinson, as to how the canal could be completed. As a railway engineer, Hodgkinson recommended that railways should be built at either end of the existing section of canal, to connect to Kingston and Stourport. Although another Act of Parliament was obtained, no construction work took place.
Nine years later, they again approached Hodgkinson, and this time he suggested that they should abandon the authorised route to Stourport and extend the canal on a new alignment to the River Severn at Worcester. Nothing came of this plan, either.
In January 1794 the canal opened from Marlbrook to Woofferton and seven boatloads of coal were transported from the Mamble collieries on the first day.
Engineering difficulties delayed the opening of Putnall Tunnel (south of Woofferton) until 1796.
By the end of that year an 18.5 miles (29.8 km) stretch of the canal was open between Marlbrook and Leominster and on the first day 14 boatloads of coal arrived in Leominster. Coal from the Mamble collieries was brought down the hill on tramways to Southnet wharf, where it was loaded onto barges and transported to Leominster.
For the next 60 years the canal carried coal to Leominster, enabling the Mamble collieries to prosper. However the traffic from Mamble Colliery was not sufficient to run the canal at a profit, so the owners were constantly seeking to extend it eastwards to meet the River Severn, although this never materialised.
The canal never paid a dividend. What little money was collected was mostly paid for tolls on the transport of coal.
In 1858, after sustained pressure by the Canal Company, the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway paid £12,000 for the canal, which valued each £100 share at £16, and drained it soon after to sell the land.
Part of the route was subsequently used for the railway that connected Woofferton to Bewdley via Tenbury Wells station, which was actually in Burford, not Tenbury Wells.
Although the canal has been closed for over 150 years, there are some remains left, including an aqueduct over the River Rea, and parts of a 3-arched aqueduct over the River Teme. The centre arch of the latter was destroyed as part of an explosives exercise during the Second World War. | <urn:uuid:7a8c2353-9c86-4e62-8a17-eae54c238b8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ukcanals.net/tunnels/29-waterways-of-the-uk/160-leominster-canal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980138 | 1,307 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Resume norms shift. Your resume needs to be up-to-date if you want to appear highly qualified. And one rule never changes: Don't include information that doesn't pertain to landing the job.
[See The Best Jobs of 2012.]
Here are 10 other things you should never include:
1. A title. Don't put the word "Resume" or "CV" at the top. Everyone knows what it is, and you can use that space to include keywords that connect your experience to the hiring manager's needs.
2. Personal information and a photo. If you're applying for a job in the United States, you don't need to include your age, social security number, marital or family status. (The employer does not need to know your children's names and ages.) Descriptions about your physical characteristics are irrelevant unless you are applying for a job that relies on your appearance (such as an actor, television anchor, or model).
3. Stock templates. Don't rely on the templates that accompany your word processing software to create your resume. It's unlikely a hiring manager or resume writer helped create the templates. If you use these stock designs, your resume will appear dated at best and out-of-touch at worst.
4. An objective. Job-seekers used to learn to include an objective describing what they wanted in a job. (For example, "Seeking growth opportunity with progressive company" or "Looking for a job with flexible organization where I can advance.") Today, employers don't care what you want—it's all about their needs. Use headlines including the job title you want and key phrases pulled from the job description.
5. Months of employment. Typically, if you worked at a job at least a year, it's not necessary to include the months you were employed. For example, "May 2001 – July 2006." For most positions, it would be perfectly acceptable to list your employment as "2001-2006." If you were employed for less than a year, you'll need to include specific months.
6. Irrelevant content. Avoid words, phrases, or jargon in your descriptions that don't specifically relate to the employer's needs. If you include information focused on another field or position, it may confuse the reader and make him think you would prefer a different job. If you want to convince your targeted employer that you're a perfect fit, delete language that the recruiter or employer might misinterpret.
7. Infographics. You're taking a risk if you apply for a job using an infographic resume. These visually stimulating documents are all the rage online. There are even businesses popping up to make it easy for people who have no graphic design experience to create a visually focused explanation of their careers. But unless you're applying for a job requiring graphic design skills and can create your own infographic resume without a template or tool, it is unlikely this visual depiction will help you land a job. In fact, most online application systems cannot digest or interpret a visual resume.
[In Pictures: 6 Creative Ways to Showcase Your Resume Online.]
8. Hobbies. These don't belong on your resume, unless you can make a direct connection between the activity and the job. For example, if you apply for a sales position at a running shoe company, and you're an avid runner—you'd obviously include the hobby. Another exception to the rule: If you want to head human resources at a yarn company and you love to knit.
9. Potentially polarizing political views. Unless you're applying for a job with a political campaign or with an organization you know shares your opinions, it's best to eliminate references to memberships in highly charged political groups.
10. "References upon request." This phrase is a throwback to a time when references were part of the resume. When people started leaving them off years ago, this phrase filled the gap. It's clear you will provide references (otherwise you wouldn't apply for the job). Saying so just wastes precious space at the bottom of the resume.
Focus on what makes you qualified for the job and fill your resume with those details. When you pay careful attention to every word you include and make sure you don't waste space with unnecessary content, you will have a better chance of landing an interview.
Miriam Salpeter is a job search and social media consultant, career coach, author, speaker, resume writer, and owner of Keppie Careers. She is author of Social Networking for Career Success. Miriam teaches job seekers and entrepreneurs how to incorporate social media tools along with traditional strategies to empower their success. | <urn:uuid:0d3d5e3d-8a58-4b24-975d-c547d4ee908c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2012/03/14/10-things-savvy-job-seekers-always-leave-off-their-resume | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953685 | 948 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Dr. Kahlenborn is the lead author of the Mayo Clinic Proceeding’s article cited below. Kahlenborn testified before the FDA in June of 2000 regarding the link between oral contraceptives and breast cancer.
I find it disturbing that after nearly 50 years, both the media and the medical establishment have failed to give a true airing to one of the pill’s most dangerous side effects; namely, that “dirty little secret.” What’s that? One need only check the Mayo Clinic Proceedings-the major medical publication of the Mayo Clinic-to find our little-known study, which showed that the pill increases the risk of premenopausal breast cancer substantially when taken at a young age (see Mayo Clinic Proceedings: October, 2006: available to the public on line). In October, 2006, we reviewed the medical literature and combined data in an analysis (referred to as a meta-analysis): we found that 21 out of 23 studies showed that using oral contraceptives prior to a woman’s first birth resulted in a 44% increased risk in premenopausal breast cancer. Our meta-analysis remains the most recent study in this area and updates the previously analysis (the Oxford-analysis published in 1996) which relied on older data with older women (two-thirds of whom were over age 45); unfortunately, the Oxford study continues to be quoted by ACOG, textbooks, the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and most researchers and obstetricians, claiming that oral contraceptives carry little breast cancer risk especially ten years after last use.
I continue to be amazed at the discordance between the medical literature and public/medical awareness. To my dismay, after our meta-analysis was published, the Mayo Clinic sent out a press release to all major media in the country. The response?: ( ). The blank space between the parentheses is purposeful. Although our meta-analysis received scant internet coverage, almost no major media covered this study, which is shocking, given the fact that about 40,000 women in the U.S. get premenopausal breast cancer annually, oral contraceptives are an elective risk factor and our study is the most recent meta-analysis to date on the oral contraceptive-breast cancer link.
In addition to our meta-analysis, it’s important to note that the World Health Organization classified oral contraceptives as a Class I carcinogen in 2005 (i.e., the most dangerous classification). Even more data has come forth recently in a paper by several researchers-one of whom is a major researcher of the National Cancer Institute-which not only cited our meta-analysis, but found that oral contraceptives increase the risk of triple-negative breast cancer in women under forty by 320 percent (triple-negative breast cancers are extremely aggressive) (Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention; April, 2009).
Few in the medical establishment or the public are aware of these data, or if they are, young women almost never hear about them. It’s been almost four years since the publication of our study in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings; I am beginning to think that our study has been effectively “buried.” Breast cancer and the pill-that dirty little secret? Some day perhaps someone in the media and/or medical establishment will dust a little dirt off those pink ribbons and let young women hear all the facts so they can finally make truly informed decisions.
* Chris Kahlenborn, MD
The Polycarp Research Institute
Enola, PA 17025
The Pill As A Contraceptive: Mainstream Media Misrepresents Its Danger: U.S. Journalists 'Celebrate' a Carcinogen's Birthday / British Scientists Shill for the Pill by Karen Malec posted June 1, 2010 http://rffm.typepad.com/republicans_for_fair_medi/2010/06/the-pill-as-a-contraceptive-the-mainstream-media-misrepresents-its-danger.html
NOTE: Comments to RFFM.org's blog which include ad hominems or personal attack will automatically be rejected. No hyperlinks allowed.
To make a secure online donation to support RFFM (Republicans For Fair Media), please go to: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5U5V8GAKCYTU8 | <urn:uuid:60608257-f121-4a9a-82c9-f11fa7b44c4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rffm.typepad.com/republicans_for_fair_medi/2010/05/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913209 | 919 | 1.734375 | 2 |
READ THE REPORT
We must raise the bar in education and rethink the design of school if we want excellent math and science learning for all students. The Opportunity Equation report provides a roadmap for this vision with recommendations for key stakeholders.
Youth Unlikely To Pursue Science, Technology, Engineering Jobs, Survey Finds
Though President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address stressed the need for a competitive workforce, especially in more technical fields such as energy, young Americans see massive barriers to entering such professions, according to survey results released Wednesday.
Sixty percent of respondents ages 16 to 25 to the Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, which seeks to gauge innovation aptitude among young adults, named at least one factor that prevented them from pursuing further education or work in science, technology, engineering and math fields (known as STEM). Thirty-four percent said they "don't know much about these fields," while a third said "these fields are too challenging." Twenty-eight percent said they weren't "well-prepared in school to seek out a career or further ... [their] education in these fields."
Meanwhile, 47 percent of respondents noted that a lack of innovation "would hurt the U.S. economy" and 80 percent said they'd be interested in courses that would help them "become more inventive and creative." While 26 percent noted they're motivated to choose careers for stability, 22 percent said they would be inspired by jobs that would give them a chance "to change the world."
"It's reassuring: youth are invested in helping others. They want to be altruistic. It gives us cause to be optimistic," said Joshua Schuler, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT Program, a Massachusetts Institution of Technology-based group that administered the survey for the 16th year. "At the same time, we found there's a real lack of knowledge in STEM education and the things that motivate young people to go into." | <urn:uuid:7739bf75-b74f-4e4b-bce4-62cfc9a112c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://opportunityequation.org/news-press/youth-unlikely-pursue-science | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958568 | 393 | 2.515625 | 3 |
If they go ahead with their plan, this will be the latest in a series of strategies adopted by governments in recent years aimed at controlling rapidly growing health-care costs. Although such plans may be motivated by laudable intentions, it is far from certain that a Canada-wide bulk purchasing strategy will lead to good results.
First and foremost, the provinces make the unwarranted assumption that such an initiative won't disrupt the drug supply chain in the country. This is very unlikely.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 240 drugs have been reported as being out of stock throughout the country, according to the Canadian drug shortages database. As a result, many surgeries had to be postponed and clinical treatments had to be suspended. A recent report from the Commons health committee identified the bulk purchasing strategy of hospitals as one of the primary reasons behind this growing problem.
As the report noted, this procurement strategy may produce savings in the short run, but at the risk of leading to shortages. Indeed, in a system that rewards the producer who comes up with the lowest bid, some manufacturers who are left aside will inevitably withdraw from the market.
At the international level, many countries have acknowledged the risks of purchasing drugs in bulk and sole-supply contracts. The practice has come under fire in New Zealand, which has seen more drug shortages since implementing the procurement strategy.
Australia opted for a more prudent strategy and now divides its procurement contracts for drugs and vaccines among several suppliers. In Belgium, the move to introduce a tendering system was quickly abandoned after the generic drug manufacturers all decided to stop participating in the competitive bidding process.
The premiers' declaration about bulk purchasing of generic drugs missed another crucial point. While they were quick to emphasize the cost aspect of drugs, they overlooked the fact that these drugs also provide tremendous benefits. According to a study released last week by the National Bureau of Economic Research - 16 of the past 31 American Nobel laureates in economics were associated with this organization - pharmaceutical innovations are responsible for as much as 75% of the increase in life expectancy at birth observed in 30 developed countries in the last decade.
Not only are new medicines beneficial in terms of providing better health outcomes, but they also tend to lower overall health spending, by reducing expenditures on other categories of medical care. Indeed, innovative pharmaceutical therapies have been, over the years, increasingly substituted for other more costly types of medical treatments and surgeries that require hospitalization.
Several major studies conducted in the U.S. during the past decade have shown that for every dollar spent on drugs, expenditures in the entire health system are reduced by between $2 and $2.65.
In short, a sound debate on this issue won't take place unless a careful assessment of both the costs and the benefits of pharmaceutical expenditures is done.
Michel Kelly-Gagnon is president of the Montreal Economic Institute (www.iedm.org). The views in this column are his own. | <urn:uuid:ca578db5-d45a-40de-a465-3d9960f801e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2012/08/20120803-162738.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968587 | 597 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Everyone has heard about high blood pressure. Most of us know someone who has suffered from hypertension. Yet, how much do you really know about high blood pressure? If you are like many people, you are scared to talk about it with your doctor.
Even if you do bring it up with your physician, he or she may be loath to talk to you too much. The truth is that many doctors don't trust their patients with medical information because they are worried they will not understand it.
But, to be honest, the facts about high blood pressure and hypertension are not that hard to understand. And, once you educate yourself you'll find it easier to protect yourself and live a happier and healthier life.
That's why we want to explain the basics of cardiovascular disease to you before we tell you more about the benefits of incorporating Levodyn into your healthy lifestyle.
What is high blood pressure?
Blood pressure is the measurement of the blood that presses against the arteries and blood vessels. High blood pressure occurs when the blood is pressing against the vessels at an unusually high rate.
How does high blood pressure affect my body?
When your blood pressure is unusually high your heart has to work harder in order to get blood to the parts of your body that need it. That puts an excess strain on your heart.
What causes high blood pressure?
High blood pressure is caused by several different factors and varies from person to person. In many cases it is caused by undue emotional or physical stress. It can also be caused by plaque clogging up your arteries - usually because of high cholesterol levels. The dangerous cases occur when high blood pressure is caused by a hardening of the arteries, which makes it difficult for your blood vessels to dilate.
How common is high blood pressure?
The Centers For Disease Control estimate that more than 90 percent of middle aged people will develop high blood pressure at some point in their lifetime.
Is it really possible to suffer from high blood pressure and not know it?
Yes. That's why it's commonly called "The Silent Killer." The Centers For Disease Control report that as much as one-third of the people who suffer from high blood pressure don't know it.
What do the numbers in my blood pressure reading mean?
Blood pressure is often written as two numbers. The top (systolic) number represents the pressure when the heart is beating. The bottom (diastolic) number represents the pressure when the heart is resting between beats.
What type of blood pressure reading should I be looking for?
Normal blood pressure is a systolic blood pressure of less than 120 mmHg and a diastolic blood pressure of less than 80 mmHg. High blood pressure for adults is defined as a systolic blood pressure of 140 mmHg or higher, or a diastolic blood pressure of 90 mmHg or higher. "Prehypertension" is defined as a systolic blood pressure of 120-139 mmHg or a diastolic blood pressure of 80-89 mmHg. Persons with prehypertension are at increased risk to progress to hypertension.
What is the difference between high blood pressure and hypertension?
The two terms are often used interchangeably, but do have a slightly different meaning. High blood pressure refers to a single incidence - such as, if your blood pressure went up for a brief period of time after a minor car accident. Hypertension refers to your blood pressure remaining elevated for an extended period of time.
What are the most common symptoms of high blood pressure or hypertension?
While high blood pressure often manifests itself symptom-free there are some common indicators of hypertension including nosebleeds, racing or irregular heartbeat, headaches and dizziness.
It's unfortunate, but many people who are at risk for suffering from high blood pressure don't know it. Being at risk for high blood pressure can come from a multitude of causes. That said, most experts agree that anyone who is in a high-risk group for hypertension should be taking measures to reduce their risk of heart attack, stroke or kidney problems.
Here are the common signs that you may be at risk for high blood pressure, hypertension or cardiovascular disease:
- If you have a family history of high blood pressure.
- If you are under a good deal of stress.
- If you have high cholesterol.
- If you eat a high fat diet.
- If you have a sedentary lifestyle.
- If you smoke.
- If you drink alcohol on a regular basis.
- If you use or have used recreational drugs that can increase your heart rate.
- If you are middle aged or older.
As you can see, the odds are stacked up against you. The fact is that most Brits find themselves at one time or another at risk for blood pressure problems. Whether it's because of your genetics, a love of fast food or simply that you don't have time to exercise, hypertension may be lurking around the next corner.
That's why we think it's so important that you take action and incorporate Levodyn into a healthy lifestyle - so you can kill the Silent Killer! | <urn:uuid:e23fd79d-0af1-45f7-b044-13ad6aacfcd1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.levodyn.com/blood.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952797 | 1,058 | 3.015625 | 3 |
ATLANTA - The 2008 Georgia General Assembly doesn't start until next week, but lobbyists already were at the Capitol Monday pushing both sides of a gun-rights bill that roiled the legislature last year.
The head of the National Rifle Association relaunched a campaign for legislation to prohibit businesses from forbidding employees to keep guns inside their cars parked in company-owned lots that are accessible to the public.
The NRA has made the bill a top priority in Georgia and other states since a mill in Oklahoma banned its employees from leaving guns in their cars while at work.
"This is a fundamental issue," Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, told reporters following meetings with lawmakers. "It is a blueprint for eviscerating and nullifying right-to-carry legislation in 38 states."
Four states, including Oklahoma, have enacted similar bills into law, and the legislation is pending in three others, including Georgia.
But the measure ran into stiff opposition in the General Assembly last year when the influential Georgia Chamber of Commerce fought it as a violation of business owners' property rights.
The NRA push for the bill also angered some longtime NRA members in Georgia, who complained that they hadn't been consulted by the national organization, while other Georgia gun-rights groups also joined the chorus against it.
On Monday, some of those opponents showed up at the Capitol to make sure their voices were heard.
While a couple of NRA members interrupted LaPierre's news conference, most quietly met with lawmakers and reporters.
"It is the American dream to own your own business," said Bob Thornton of Arnoldsville, who said he's been a member of the NRA since 1976. "Once I own property, I have a say in what goes on there, not somebody up in Washington."
But Chris Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist, said business owners' private property rights can be restricted once they open that property to the public.
"Corporations are claiming they can disregard everyone's personal rights in the guise of corporate property rights," he said. "(But) when property owners open up a place to business, they consent to limits on property rights."
One of the groups opposed to the NRA-backed bill, GeorgiaCarry.org, has endorsed alternative legislation introduced by Rep. Tim Bearden, R-Villa Rica. The bill would significantly expand the right to carry guns in Georgia but would still uphold the right of business owners to ban firearms from their parking lots.
"I've got a bill that does a tremendous amount to protect gun owners," Bearden said. "The NRA is pushing a solution to a problem that, from what I've seen, has not occurred in Georgia."
The chamber put out an alert on Monday urging its members to bombard Georgia senators with phone calls and e-mails urging them to oppose the NRA-backed measure.
After passing the House last year, the bill died before reaching the Senate floor.
Sen. Preston Smith, R-Rome, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said senators will consider the bill carefully before acting.
"It is a delicate balance as we look at the competing interests," said Smith, who appeared at the NRA news conference with several other senators. "(But) we ought to be able to find a way for Georgians to be able to carry weapons if they need to." | <urn:uuid:effe1263-4f61-4c4f-9cab-5df3b27a1ca9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newtoncitizen.com/news/2008/jan/08/lobbyists-pushing-both-sides-of-gun-rights-bill/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974506 | 686 | 1.523438 | 2 |
You know when your supply chain isn’t working. You can see it when your costs are getting out of control, when your inventory levels are not in line with demand and when your customers aren’t happy. But most supply chains are so complex that it’s difficult to pinpoint specifically what needs to be improved.
Effective procurement and supply chain management is critical to your success. As recent economic turmoil and natural disasters have shown, you need to think strategically about where your products are produced and about how they will be delivered. You need to fully understand all risks to your supply chain – and what you will do if a significant event disrupts your operations.
To make your supply chain more flexible and more resilient to risk, you need to evaluate your product from the ground up – from where it is produced to how it is delivered. Involve your business units, your suppliers and your customers. Understand what is most important to each of your stakeholders, and then modify your procurement and supply chain processes to meet these needs. Before you begin making changes, ask yourself:
How PwC can help
Our Procurement and Supply Chain Transformation team has experience across all aspects of the supply chain – from forecasting and planning to logistics and warehousing. We can help you:
Contact us today to find out how we can help transform your procurement and supply chain. | <urn:uuid:5919bc2e-7e3a-40a1-b663-4c8ce7ea8526> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pwc.com/ca/en/operations/procurement-supply-chain-transformation.jhtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950793 | 277 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Every winter since I have been diagnosed with type 1, my hands would get rough, the palms start to peel completly, and would occasionally get red splotchy raised welts on them that itch like crazy. No MDs that I have seen have given any insight. Am I the only one with this? Is it related to the diabetes?
I had quite a few years of diabetes without this but have noticed some dry spots recently that are hard to get rid of. I've been using Aquaphor, the stuff the tattoo guys recommended, and that seems to help.
I believe dry skin goes hand in hand ( so to speak ) with diabetes ...my heels need stuff too ; I use unscented cold cream with 20 % Urea . The product I purchase at the Pharmacy is made by Urist Cosmetics Inc , Richmond , BC, Canada ...( my province ) ...my skin does not get itchy ...so we may be speaking of something not similar ??
Did you check your blood about vitamins and magnesium ?
Diabetes is related to vitamin D deficiences, and i think it causes skin problems too.
Check , you could try anyway to simple get vitamin D integrators, it doesn't hurt.
Yep sounds familiar....nope your not alone...;-)
I have a world class collection of creams, and lotions that I have purchased in hopes of a cure for dry skin. Hands dry up in the winter, feet dry up in the summer.
I know it's OCD.. but some lotion and sleeping with some cotton gloves on hands and socks on feet will help. You can wash the gloves with your socks....
Those of use blessed with D also have much higher rates of Psoriasis which can flare up on your hands, just like you describe. It might be worth skipping the regular MD and seeing a dermatologist. That being said, normally, people have trouble with dry hands, peeling skin and other irritations in the winter as the air becomes drier. This can be particularly bad if you wash your hands many times during the day.
I agree with using socks and/or gloves at night after you apply the lotion.
Yep, I have this. Itches like crazy during the winter. I have some small red bumps popping up on my feet now, along with some peeling skin. Nothing on my hands yet, but my palms will get this in the really cold months.
I do what JohnG and others recommend - Aquaphor or some other unscented, heavy moisturizing lotion, along with socks at night. Haven't done gloves, but I may this year if it gets bad. I just lather the stuff on before going to bed and then put some cotton socks on. Best solution I've found. | <urn:uuid:bd3ff3f6-d4f9-4bbb-ba18-e4374fa6eb6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tudiabetes.org/forum/topics/itching-peeling-hands-and-diabetes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962586 | 573 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Models of development
Chongqing rolls on
A city’s deposed leader had tried to be different. But was he?
LIKE many local governments in China, Chongqing's has an exhibition hall devoted to its dreams. Its scale models show an urban core sprawling outwards with thickets of new apartment blocks: cheap housing for the masses built at vast government expense. Bo Xilai, who governed the region's 30m people, 5m of them in Chongqing city, made big spending on public works his hallmark. His purge was seen in some quarters as the result of a struggle between two competing models of governance: the “Guangdong model”, in which economic liberalism is matched with pragmatic decision-making, and the “Chongqing model”, emphasising the importance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and traditional socialist values. But the Chongqing model trumpeted by Mr Bo's supporters was by no means unique to Chongqing. Nor is it dead.
In closed-door meetings and in veiled attacks in the media, Communist Party officials have been heaping opprobrium on Mr Bo and members of his family. Their aim, it appears, is to make allegations stick that the Bos were corrupt and that his wife was complicit in the murder of a British businessman. A New York Times report claiming that Mr Bo wiretapped phonecalls between China's president Hu Jintao and senior officials visiting Chongqing reiterated the fact that Mr Bo is now politically finished. But many of his economic policies, though the subject of a bitter dispute between the two ideological camps, will probably prove resilient, for they are more in line with party doctrine, or at least common practice, than either camp admits.
Mr Bo and his officials avoided using the term “Chongqing model” to describe the south-western region's formula for securing such accolades as one of the fastest-growing provinces or provincial-level regions in the country (at 16.4% last year) and, more controversially, one of China's happiest places (in some state-media surveys). But even after Mr Bo's sacking on March 15th, government-owned bookshops in Chongqing continued to stock books that discuss the model and Mr Bo's role in implementing it.
Liberal scholars in China have delighted in picking apart Mr Bo's policies, which they characterise as a lurch back towards Maoism. Their harshest attacks have been on his attempts to revive “red culture” by encouraging the singing of revolutionary songs and on the brutal methods (if not the aims) of his crackdown on organised crime.
But state-controlled media have shown far more restraint. This might reflect differences among Chinese leaders over how to assess Mr Bo and his leadership of Chongqing. But it is also likely that even Mr Bo's enemies in Beijing worry about launching an assault on his policies, for fear that it might encourage criticism of the central leadership's own economic strategy. Much of Mr Bo's approach took root under the leadership of his predecessor, Wang Yang, who went on to become party chief of Guangdong province (and champion of the Guangdong model). Mr Wang is widely expected to join the Standing Committee of the Politburo later this year (a spot Mr Bo coveted). Mr Bo's chief economic strategist, Chongqing's mayor Huang Qifan, was a strategist in both administrations. He remains in office and seems still to be engaged in policymaking.
Mr Bo's strongest supporters are diehard Maoists and members of the so-called “new left” who believe that China has strayed too far towards Dickensian capitalism. But this group has projected onto Chongqing an image of communist rectitude that does not fit the reality of the region's development nor Mr Bo's own proclivities. As one foreign businessman put it, Mr Bo would “signal left but turn right”. Jiang Weiping, a Chinese journalist who was jailed for five years after writing articles critical of Mr Bo, and is now living in Canada, calls him an “opportunist”.
Take, for example, his much-touted admiration for SOEs. Mr Bo was quoted in 2010 by state media as saying that China should not import Western-style ways of doing business based on pure private ownership. “We need to have things that are state-owned,” he said. Mr Huang, the mayor, has boasted of a sixfold increase in the net value of state assets in Chongqing between 2003 and 2009. But the private sector has grown vigorously too. Its share of Chongqing's GDP rose from about half in 2005 to more than 60% five years later, roughly the same as the national level.
One of Mr Huang's strategies has been to lean on SOEs to boost the region's coffers. Chongqing officials say local state firms have given 15-20% of profits to the government in the past five years, and that this will increase to 30% by 2015. Mr Huang has described the rate of contribution of SOEs to government revenue in Chongqing as the highest anywhere in China. Officials say this has enabled Chongqing to keep its business tax at 15%, compared with 25% elsewhere, and spend more on “people's livelihood”. Though liberal economists in Beijing wince at Chongqing's embrace of SOEs, they too have been calling for much higher payouts from them as a way of boosting funds for welfare.
Some Chinese economists wonder how long Chongqing can continue spending as much as it does without piling up crippling debts. The planning exhibition showcases Chongqing's “ten big cultural facilities” (begun before the arrival of Mr Bo): lavish buildings of Pyongyang-style pomposity, including a “grand theatre” second only in size to Beijing's. These have cost Chongqing a total of more than $1.5 billion so far. That is small beer, though, compared with the $7.6 billion spent by Mr Bo on a “Green Chongqing” campaign that has included mass tree-planting, in which some trees have ended up dead, locals say, because of the unsuitable climate.
But Chongqing's spending is nothing unique. China is littered with wasteful “image projects” built by local chiefs. Central leaders may condemn some of Mr Bo's extravagance, but they will tread carefully when it comes to his most conspicuous outlay: $15 billion for 800,000 apartments to be rented out cheaply to the poor. Chongqing's rapid implementation of this colossal undertaking, beginning in 2010, led the central leadership to argue for similar projects nationwide. This was seen not just as a way of keeping the poor happy, but of shoring up China's economy during the global downturn.
The scheme's shortcomings are obvious in Chongqing, just as they are elsewhere. In one newly built cluster of apartment blocks a resident complains that a trip to the city centre takes two hours by bus. There are few shops, and many of the apartments are still empty, he says. At another new development, farmers nearby say they had to surrender their farmland to make way for construction and were not properly compensated.
Mr Bo may have talked like a leftist, but his tactics for getting work done fast and keeping the money rolling in would be familiar across much of China. He has bent over backward to court foreign investors. He offended his leftist allies by approving a multi-billion dollar chemical project involving BASF, a German firm. Much of Mr Bo's economic strategy has been explicitly encouraged by the central leadership. In the end, in a party that prides itself on consensual, colourless leadership, it was Mr Bo's highly visible efforts to boost his public image that hastened his undoing. Chongqing itself will carry on. | <urn:uuid:cbc4f174-6f79-463a-91e3-eb9bded90ce9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economist.com/node/21553495 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978475 | 1,633 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Friday, December 05, 2008
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
The Eerie Vision of Edgar Allen Poe
I love the magic of Edgar Allen Poe. He has had a great influence on my writing and thinking (alas)throughout my life... "The Tell-Tale Heart" is one of his best -- and "The Bells" drives me to the edge of the abyss.
Most people, when they think of Poe can only come up with "The Raven," and I doubt if they have read it in its entirety. For the past eight years, when I look at George Bush, I see "The Imp of the Perverse," and it would not surprise me at all to see him dashing madly through the crowd, screaming his guilt at the top of his lungs as he crosses that finish line.
But the one piece to which I turn again and again -- usually when I am alone; it is the witching hour, and the high-pitched barks and yelps of coyotes on the creek behind my house sound ominiously close -- is "The Fall of the House of Usher."
Buried within that masterpiece is the greatest poem ever written -- "The Haunted Palace." Anybody with any perception can read that poem and see that Poe is eerily describing what has happened to this once proud and beautiful nation as it has descended into corruption and madness...
We are now in the throes of Verse VI. Where do we go from here?
THE HAUNTED PALACE
By Edgar Allen Poe
In the greenest of our valleys,
By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace--
Radiant palace--reared its head.
In the monarch Thought's dominion--
It stood there!
Never seraph spread a pinion
Over fabric half so fair.
Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow;
(This--all this--was in the olden
Time long ago)
And every gentle air that dallied,
In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
A winged odour went away.
Wanderers in that happy valley
Through two luminous windows saw
Spirits moving musically
To a lute's well-tuned law,
Round about a throne, where sitting
In state his glory well befitting,
The ruler of the realm was seen.
And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing
And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch's high estate;
(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)
And, round about his home, the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.
And travellers now within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows, see
Vast forms that move fantastically
To a discordant melody;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,
Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,
And laugh--but smile no more.
You GO Bush!
The Village Idiot is sprinting to the finish line -- and for the first time in his sorry, murderous "presidency," the entire world is rooting for him... He says he is counting the days. Good for him. We are counting the minutes -- the seconds -- until we never have to see this psychopath again...
Thanks to Jim Hightower, here's the lowdown... | <urn:uuid:8c933636-31c1-4c8a-b39f-9e29abc7acb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sheilastuff.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944544 | 802 | 1.59375 | 2 |
By: Francis Githinji
Some people cannot put a finger on what their fetish is. Some know them but they think they are way too abnormal. What would you say a fetish is? It is word which means false charm, power or object. It is something you are obsessed with. It can be a body part or an object. Your sexual gratification is fixated on a particular thing. It becomes a fetish when you cannot sexually get satisfied unless you fantasize about it. It is so bad that even when you masturbate you must have it in mind and still when you are with a partner sexually it has to be present or somewhere in your imagination. For instance you might find brunettes attractive which is ok but if you cannot get sexually aroused without their presence, then you certainly have a serious fetish for brunettes.
A fetish transfers power from an original object or charm to a substitute. A person who has fetishes is known as fetishist whose operation is outside the circle of what is practically considered to be normal. The variety of fetishes depend on the object where the fetish is placed upon. The known inanimate fetishes are found in three varieties. The first one is a media fetish where the fixation is all about materials such as rubber, silk, latex and leather among others. The second variety is called a form fetish where the obsession is about the shape of the object. A good example of form fetishes are stilettos, knee-high boots and certain lingerie. When the object of obsession involves body parts, the type of fetish is categorized under animate fetishes. They can be breasts, hair, feet butts and any other body part.
People have the capacity of turning anything in to a fetish. There are mild and extreme fetishes. You can be able to assess the degree of your obsessive fixation according to whether it affects your relationships and your daily life. If it interferes with your activities you should seek professional help from a psychologist. Try as much as possible to tame your fetish because when if it goes wild it becomes a mental disorder. A fetish might be triggered by something. We were not born with these obsessions. We acquire them later in life as we develop. A guy admitted that he developed a fetish for tongue rings after being orally pleasured by a woman who had one. The cold abject rubbed against his manhood while her hot mouth was engulfing him. Such a guy is likely not to get sexual gratification by romancing an ordinary girl. He needs one with a tongue ring. Experiences make us develop a fetish.
It is amazing to learn that fetishes are our deep down turn on. We might never talk about them but in your gut you know it. Some men marry beautiful and humble wives while what turns them on is a “bad girl”. A girl with a crazy hairstyle and who can perform any act on them sexually. These idols are in movies and men close their eyes and fantasize about them. If you can watch a certain movie from Monday to Monday every day like there is no tomorrow, you probably have a fetish for that bad girl in the movie. A husband confessed that in order to orgasm, he had to fantasize that he was making love to this “bad girl” in his favorite movie.
About the Author: | <urn:uuid:32828edb-68d8-4474-b93d-3917c61e239a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bondageradio.com/tag/presence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973968 | 676 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The Jataka, Vol. II, tr. by W.H.D. Rouse, , at sacred-texts.com
"Begging Brother, do you know," etc.--This story was told by the Master whilst he was staying in Tapoda Park near Rājagaha, about Elder Samiddhi, or Goodluck.
Once Father Goodluck had been wrestling in the spirit all night long. At sunrise he bathed; then he stood with his under garment on, holding the other in his hand, as he dried his body, all yellow as gold. Like a golden statue of exquisite workmanship he was, the perfection of beauty; and that is why he was called Goodluck.
A daughter of the gods, seeing the Elder's surpassing beauty, fell in love with him, and addressed him thus. "You are young, Brother, and fresh, a mere are with stripling, with black hair, bless you! you have youth, you are lovely and pleasant to the eyes. Why should a man like you turn religious without a little enjoyment? Take your pleasure first, and then you shall become religious and do what the hermits do!" He replied, "Nymph, at some time or other I must die, and the time of my death I know not; that time is hid from me. Therefore in the freshness of my youth I will follow the solitary life, and make an end of pain."
Finding she received no encouragement, the goddess at once vanished. The Elder went and told his Master about it. Then the Master said, "Not now alone, Goodluck, are you tempted by a nymph. In olden days, as now, nymphs tempted ascetics." And then at his request the Master told an old-world tale.
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king in Benares, the Bodhisatta became a brahmin's son in a village of Kāsi. Coming of years, he attained perfection in all his studies, and embraced the religious life; and he lived in Himalaya, hard by a natural lake, cultivating the Faculties and the Attainments.
All night long he had wrestled in the spirit; and at sunrise he bathed him, and with one bark garment on and the other in his hand, he stood, letting the water dry off his body. At the moment a daughter of the gods observed his perfect beauty, and fell in love with him. Tempting him, she repeated this first stanza:--
The Bodhisatta listened to the nymph's address, and then replied, declaring his set purpose, by repeating the second stanza:--
When the nymph heard the Bodhisatta's words, she vanished at once.
After this discourse the Master identified the Birth: "The nymph is the same in both stories, and the hermit at that time was I myself."
40:1 The commentator, in explaining this passage, adds another couplet: | <urn:uuid:30c6c9e4-7980-42d2-b45d-bea8a569330a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacred-texts.com/bud/j2/j2020.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976964 | 620 | 2.3125 | 2 |
|For many African-Americans, Obama's inauguration was an inspirational moment [AFP]
More than one million people had gathered in Washington DC on a bitterly cold day to reserve their seats for the inauguration.
But for the lucky few who had tickets within hearing distance of Barack Obama at the US Capitol building - where congress is housed - the weather would have been the last thing on their minds.
The entire US political elite had gathered to see the former Illinois senator become the nation's first African-American president.
There was applause for past presidents, the most enthusiastic reserved for Bill Clinton, whose wife Hillary will lead Obama's foreign policy team as secretary of state.
But there were boos for the now former president, George Bush, a sign of the divisions that remain over his legacy.
And later, there were loud cheers when he departed the ceremony by helicopter after formally relinquishing the presidency.
But alongside the poitical elite and celebrities such as Denzel Washington, the Hollywood actor, ordinary US citizens had gathered, many of them African-American.
In the background, the crowd stretched for more than a mile towards the White House, cameras flashing in the distance.
Former US president John F Kennedy's inauguration was remembered for his famous "ask not what your country can do for you ... but what you can do for your country".
The Bush inauguration in 2000 was marked by protests, with anger still fresh after the controversy over his election win over Al Gore.
Obama's speech did not elicit the massive outpouring of emotion witnessed during his victory address in Chicago on November 4.
However the themes of hope, unity and perseverance appeared to hit home for many.
"When he said at the end that we will not give up in the face of adversity - my heart was beating so fast," said Mary Warner, a trainee social worker from Washington DC.
Others were buoyed by his desire to mend the US's sometimes troubled relations with Muslims around the world.
"When he talked directly to the Muslim nation ... I thought that was a very interesting quote," said Henry McGhee, who had travelled from Obama's political hometown of Chicago.
But when asked about what Obama should do first when he settles down to work in the White House, most agreed on that one issue should take priority - the economy.
The US faces one its most serious economic crises since the Great Depression of the 1930's and Obama has said he will begin tackling the issue on day one of his presidency.
For African-Americans, the day held a special significance.
Obama's victory as the first African-American president has for many symbolised the hope that the US will be able to draw a line under its divided racial past.
|Phillip Lucas was emotional following the
Thousands joined the crowds flooding the streets of the US Capitol, a sign that the motivating power of Obama's presidential campaign, in which polls showed 95 per cent of African-Americans voted for the former Illinois senator.
"I've never been so proud to be an American, said Phillip Lucas, a student from Seattle.
'I feel like racism is not over ... but it's a brand new day for all of America."
The streets of the centre of Washington were crammed with people, many wearing merchandise bought from the dozens of unofficial merchandise outlets that had sprung up over the city.
Obama T-shirts, hats, scarves, mats, clocks, watches and even magnets were on display.
Business was brisk, with larges queues at many stalls, a sign of the strength of the Obama brand.
A nine dollar note, mimicking US currency, was also available featuring a picture of Obama and his slogan: "Change".
Obama inspired many in the US and the world with that message - now this crowd will be looking to him to deliver. | <urn:uuid:836473d8-a12f-47d0-b1bd-f0e2e684c9e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2009/01/2009120221550872145.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980227 | 780 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Updated: Wednesday, 12 Dec 2012, 12:25 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 12 Dec 2012, 12:25 PM EST
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — New England's electric grid operator says greater energy efficiency in the six-state region will help keep energy use flat in the next decade.
ISO-New England said Wednesday that the six states spent $1.2 billion from 2008 to 2011 to boost energy efficiency, particularly improved lighting. ISO defines energy efficiency savings as reduced electricity use or savings due to energy-efficiency.
The grid operator says spending on energy efficiency is expected to increase to $5.7 billion from 2015 to 2021.
ISO said energy efficiency also has more than doubled since 2008 in an annual auction to win commitments from generators and others for power available three years from now.
The result is that electricity use projected to rise by 0.9 percent between 2012 and 2021 will instead be flat. | <urn:uuid:71f23031-513a-4236-9190-20b9ca5f67d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/connecticut/efficiency-seen-cutting-new-england-power-use | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942854 | 192 | 1.84375 | 2 |
I just got my copy today and am only a few chapters in, but want to comment on Han Solo making the Kessel Run "in under 12 parsecs".
In one of the books, I think it was the first book of the Jedi Academy trilogy, they reveal some details of the Kessel run. I am going to do my best to remember what it is, but it has been a long time since I read it so there may be other readers here who correct/clarify the story.
There story goes that there is a black hole cluster that you must navigate to get to Kessel (okay, I am sure the stabilty of a planet in a black hole cluster where they are spaced close enough to make it difficult to navigate is a whole other story!) Han was running spice and dumped it as he was about to be boarded. He went back to pick it up and the imperials followed him. He cut it darn close to the black holes, the imperials fell in and he blasted free into hyperspace.
The idea is that if you keep a safe distance from the black holes, the distance you must navigate through the cluster is substantially longer than 12 parsecs. So making the Kessel run in 12 parsecs means you ran through there without getting sucked into a black hole, taking a shortcut.
I seem to remember Han knew he was pretty darn lucky even though he bragged about it.
So, that is the story. I saw Phil's page on it and agree that is sounds like a fix of a astronomy boo boo.
As for them using a unit based on Earth's orbit, any planet can use that mesaure...with Jupiter's larger orbit, a parsec as measured by someone near Jupiter, using the same def, would be the same as a parsec from Earth.
The real question is why are they also using seconds as a measure of angle?
Okay, I am rambling now so I will stop [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] | <urn:uuid:46997f74-848d-4383-9765-0dc53e84ba8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthread.php?765-The-Kessel-Run&p=9535 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973141 | 426 | 2.28125 | 2 |
|Tennessee’s unemployment rate for April fell to 7.8 percent, down from the March revised rate of 7.9 percent. The national unemployment rate for April 2012 was 8.1 percent, 0.1 percentage point lower than the March rate.
The state unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted while the county unemployment rates are not. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that eliminates the influences of weather, holidays, the opening and closing of schools, and other recurring seasonal events from economic time series.
Knox County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate of 5.8 percent, up from 5.6 percent in March. Davidson County was 6.5 percent, down from 6.6 percent in the previous month. Hamilton County was 7.0 percent, down from 7.3 percent, and Shelby County was 8.3 percent, down from the March unemployment rate of 9.1 percent. | <urn:uuid:a70df407-bf80-47d3-b91b-ac3066c77586> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.murfreesboropost.com/tennessee-unemployment-continues-downward-trend-cms-31337 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958701 | 187 | 2.125 | 2 |
Giving Thanks for Leading Health Technology Advances
There have been striking advances in healthcare, thanks to technology, that have nothing to do with the controversial "reform" efforts under way in Washington. Among the life-improving -- even potentially life-saving -- gifts of recent years: less costly genome sequencing; health-promoting iPhone applications; electronic health records; and crowdsourcing for better living.
While Congress debates an US$850 billion healthcare bill with questionable benefits, leaders in the technology industry are quietly creating products and services that will truly reform healthcare. This Thanksgiving, for example, Americans can be appreciative of the incredible price decline in genome sequencing, one of the most important health advances.
The genome is like the source code for humans, and cheap sequencing for individuals will kick-start a real revolution in personalized medicine. Advances in the biotech industry are moving faster than Moore's Law, making the price differentials for sequencing on a yearly basis almost unfathomable.
For instance, the first Human Genome Project cost roughly $2.7 billion. In 2007, it cost about $2 million to sequence James Watson's genome. As of this month, California-based Complete Genomics announced that it had sequenced three genomes for well under $10,000.
"This high-quality, cost-effective approach to genome sequencing will allow researchers to study complete genomes from hundreds of patients with a disease to advance the understanding of the genetic causes of that disease, with an end to preventing and treating common human ailments," said Cliff Reid, chairman, president and CEO of Complete Genomics.
Of course, Complete Genomics is not alone in this area, and competition will create enormous benefits for all human beings, including the ability to re-engineer parts of our bodies that aren't working well.
Another tech-driven area that helps to personalize medicine is the large selection of iPhone applications aimed at giving individuals better control over their health.
One example is Epocrates, which lets users view up-to-date clinical data and check for drug interactions -- an ability that can help save lives.
A similar mass consumer technology that has had a big impact is the Nike + iPod sensor system, which lets individuals keep track of their runs. By logging data such as hours and miles completed, the system helps motivate people to exercise more than they would otherwise do.
So far, more than 1.2 million runners have together tracked more than 130 million miles and expended more than 13 billion calories, reported Wired magazine. And even nonrunners can increasingly access electronic health records.
Both Microsoft and Google will attest that getting doctors and hospitals to agree to put patient data in electronic and sharable form has not been easy, since it requires a big culture change. Still, there has been progress.
Electronic Records May Save Lives
For instance, one of the leaders in electronic health records is Allscripts, which boasts a clientele of more than 160,000 physicians and 800 hospitals.
There are also scrappy startups like Practice Fusion, a company based on the SalesForce.com platform that offers free record systems for doctors and then uses that data to "instantly connect the patient to his or her actual medical record from the doctor's office." Such a service is not only convenient but can also save lives.
More than 7,000 people die each year from preventable medication errors, according to Allscripts. If a patient's complete medical data were available in an easy-to-access electronic format, then fewer errors due to such mistakes as prescribing an incorrect medication would likely occur.
Meanwhile, crowdsourced systems with a medical theme also promise to help people live better.
An interesting example is CureTogether, a Yelp-like service that allows users to share information about their health issues and rank remedies. For instance, the top-rated solution for fixing allergies is "avoiding allergens" followed closely by "Claritin." Such a community allows data collection that can highlight associations between conditions previously ignored, such as the link between infertility and asthma.
This is only a short list of new technologies in the field of healthcare, and many more new health technologies are advancing. It is thanks to a large number of innovative entrepreneurs that Americans will see technology radically transform medicine -- something to think about over the holidays and as Congress continues to discuss healthcare "reform."
Sonia Arrison, a TechNewsWorld columnist, is senior fellow in technology studies at the California-based Pacific Research Institute. Follow her on Twitter @soniaarrison | <urn:uuid:121a7f31-0a42-4fc3-a26d-8227b3ea0cd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.technewsworld.com/story/med-tech/68739.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944891 | 919 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Reagan did it as governor and as president. George H. W. Bush did it. Bill Clinton did it.
And each time it brought real benefit to the economy and to the nation's businesses, large and small.
They all raised taxes, created more revenue. All of them provided targeted tax breaks too, invested in education and infrastructure, cajoled and convinced the American business community that their policies were righting the ship during tough economic times.
This week President Obama is making the case to America's business community, large and small, that Republicans should not remain in their Grover Norquist handcuffs and Tea Party holiday straight jackets.
The absurd notion that signing a pledge never to raise taxes is the "Republican way" is a form of serious amnesia. Even the first President Bush regretted his hard and fast "read my lips" line that some Norquist-like gnome had put in his 1988 convention speech. Have Republicans not learned that this does not work?
America's business community surely likes lower taxes, who doesn't? But they understand that providing a balanced approach to dealing with the deficit is far preferable to economic meltdown. They want a plan. They want a road map. They want stability. What America's businesses do not want is more chaos, more bickering, more posturing.
If the business community wants a reasonable deal, that includes a bump in tax rates for the richest 2 percent, they should convey this to the Republicans, and fast. Obama is initiating cuts, $340 billion in Medicare and Medicaid, over $1.1 trillion in discretionary spending, serious reductions.
If we are going to come to agreement on $4 trillion in savings so that we can pursue a reasonable plan, business should whisper in the ears of Speaker Boehner and his recalcitrant colleagues and help solve the problem. They would have real influence when it really counts.
- Read Leslie Marshall: Sandra Fluke Belongs on Time's 'Person of the Year' List
- Read Ford O'Connell: Shelley Moore Capito Can Win in West Virginia
- Check out U.S. News Weekly, now available on iPad. | <urn:uuid:61677339-ad73-4a05-a24e-c3be5f6f6b80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/Peter-Fenn/2012/11/29/the-business-community-must-knock-sense-into-republicans?s_cid=related-links:TOP | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968728 | 437 | 1.671875 | 2 |
By Maximilian Popp
At first glance, it seems like a step down. Sebastian Müller, who was working as an engineer for the German carmaker Audi in 2010, had an apartment in Munich and an annual salary of 56,000 ($75,000), has moved back east, to the Oberlausitz region, where he now works for an automotive supplier. He earns less, he's far away from any professional football matches, and instead of going to plays at the Bavarian State Theater in Munich, he must now make do with puppet shows.
But Müller, 30, went east of his own accord. He packed his bags and moved back to the place he had fled as a student.
Müller found his current job, at Miunske GmbH in the town of Grosspostwitz, through an online ad for returnees posted on the website of the state of Saxony's Chamber of Industry and Commerce. "I'm more satisfied than I ever was in western Germany," he says.
'The Wrong Place for Me'
For a long time, migration in Germany primarily moved in one direction: from the former communist east to the more prosperous west. Former East Germany, referred to as the "new German states" since reunification, have lost almost 2 million people to the old states since 1990. But the trend, at least in some regions, is beginning to reverse itself. Eastern Germans are going back home. Last year, for the first time since 1997, more people moved to Saxony than away from the state. Berlin and Brandenburg are also reporting positive net-migration rates. And although Thuringia is still losing more residents than it gains, it reports that more people moved to the state in 2011 than at any time in the past 15 years.
It's no longer just students fleeing high tuitions who are moving east, or western German retirees investing their savings in eastern German real estate. Returnees form by far the largest group of migrants. According to calculations by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), they make up about half of the migrants moving from west to east. "We have noticed a strong tendency to return," says Alexander Kubis of the Nuremberg-based Institute for Employment Research (IAB).
The motives vary. In Sebastian Müller's case, it was homesickness. Throughout his entire education, his goal was to have a career in the west, and he was already applying for internships in Bavaria while studying at the Zwickau University of Applied Sciences. After graduating in the fall of 2007, he quickly found his dream job at Audi in Ingolstadt, near Munich.
But he soon realized that the west wasn't what he had imagined. His girlfriend had moved with him and had also found a job in Munich, but the rent for the apartment in the Bavarian capital ate up almost his entire salary. He had trouble making friends in the new city, and he also felt lost in the crowd at work. When Müller went home for family events, he was surprised to see how much had changed. There was new construction, and there were new jobs. "I suddenly had the feeling that Munich was the wrong place for me," he says.
The East's 'Small Economic Miracle'
Müller probably wouldn't have felt this way had it not been for economic progress in the east. Saxony and Thuringia saw the largest drops in unemployment among Germany's 16 states last year, and unemployment has also gone down in the northeastern states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Berlin and Brandenburg. Of course, these statistics are always relative, given that more than twice as many people are unemployed in the east as in the west. But, in Saxony, job density is already higher than in the western states of Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate.
Only a few years ago, the new states maintained agencies to promote emigration, fearing that having too many people would only lead to higher unemployment. At the time, the eastern states felt they could shrink their way to economic health. Today, specialists are in demand there, and companies are courting job applicants. "Nowadays, no one is forced to leave our state in search of a trainee position," says Brandenburg Governor Matthias Platzeck.
The so-called "dynamic ranking" of the New Social Market Economy Initiative, which tracks changes in key economic figures between 2006 and 2010, places all of the new states in its top slots. Structural crises -- such as the recent bankruptcy of the solar company Q-Cells -- have dealt setbacks to some towns and regions. But Ulrich Blum, an economics professor at the University of Halle, still expects positive developments to continue, and he estimates that, by 2020, the economic strength of eastern Germany will have reached 90 percent of the western level. German Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière, whose electoral district is in Meissen, Saxony, is already touting the east's "small economic miracle."
Improvements Back Home
Still, the economic recovery and improvements in the labor market alone cannot explain the trend of people moving back east. Joachim Ragnitz, the managing director of the Dresden branch of the Ifo economics institute, believes that disillusionment with the west is at least as important as the revival of the east. Although average incomes in the west are still up to 25 percent higher than in the east, the difference shrinks when one factors in rents and the cost of living. When eastern Germans go home, it's also the result of dashed hopes.
What's more, some of the cities they are returning to are beginning to hold their own against the west. In terms of economic development, eastern German cities like Jena and Dresden have already surged past some of their heavily debt-ridden western counterparts, such as Bremen and Duisburg. And the fact that so many historic centers in the east have been attractively restored has undoubtedly played a role in prompting various mayors in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia to launch a fresh debate over the Solidarity Pact, which has seen the west send tens of billions in transfer payments to the east since reunification to help build up the economy and infrastructure.
Kubis, the IAB economist, has calculated that two-thirds of those who migrated away from the eastern states are thinking about returning home. Many have always wanted the return home, adds Anke Matuschewski, a professor of economic geography at the University of Bayreuth, who interviewed returnees from Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as part of a research project. But, she finds, they only seriously consider moving back east once economic conditions there have improved.
Matuschewski has tried to detect patterns in the migration from west to east. According to her surveys, the typical returnee is a man between the ages of 30 and 35. He now lives in cities like Jena or Leipzig, which are benefiting from the influx while the rural population continues to shrink. The typical returnee has already completed his education and job training and embarked on a career, working as a specialist in a small or mid-sized company or doing research at a university.
Other studies also debunk the stereotype that the people moving back east are primarily those who have failed to make it in the west. In fact, an above-average number of university graduates are willing to return home to the east.
These include people like Jens Thiele, who is originally from Saxony and worked for the Pfizer pharmaceutical company in the southwestern city of Freiburg for eight years before moving to Dresden last summer. The 34-year-old process engineer says he was eager for new challenges, and that the east felt more dynamic to him than the west. Thiele got a job with GlaxoSmithKline, a Pfizer competitor.
Eastern German governors, such as Saxony's Stanislaw Tillich, view the trend reversal as the result of their successful policies. "We have created modern, sustainable economic structures in recent years," Tillich says, adding that Saxony appeals to people from all over Germany.
"People in the east are orienting themselves toward the future," says Jena-based software specialist Dirk Weckerlei, 31, who moved back to Thuringia in 2009 after spending two years in the northwestern city of Osnabrück, partly to be closer to his family.
Yet another characteristic of the typical returnee is that he aims for a profession that is compatible with his personal life, and he's willing to accept less income in return. There are also many young families among the west-to-east migrants. They value the wide range of opportunities for children in the east, where it's also easier to find day care slots.
'You're Needed at Home'
Returnees are valuable to eastern German companies. They alleviate the shortage of specialists, know the region and the mentality of the people there, and have also gathered work experience in the western states. Johannes Miunske, the owner of the automotive supplier that hired Müller, the former Audi engineer, had specified in his online ad that he was looking for engineers who were originally from eastern Germany. "As a mid-sized company in Saxony, we cannot fulfill the salary expectations of westerners," he says, and he knows that returnees have ties to the region and will not go off looking for a new job after just a few years.
Politicians have also recognized the potential in the lost sons and daughters of the east. All new states maintain or support returnee agencies, some of which have names like "Saxon Come Home" or "MV4YOU" in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In the coming years, these initiatives will be critical to the survival of the new states, says Hans-Liudger Dienel, the managing director of the Center for Technology and Society at the Technical University of Berlin. It's the only way they can hold their own in the nationwide competition for specialists.
Some of the recruitment efforts are admittedly a bit odd. For instance, the city of Magdeburg sent "home boxes" of local crisp bread to 1,000 people throughout Germany who had left the region. Last year, Sven Morlock, the economics minister of Saxony, handed out free cake to commuters at a highway rest stop.
Saxony-Anhalt Governor Reiner Haseloff recently embarked on a tour of western Germany. In mid-April, he hosted a get-together at a restaurant in Stuttgart, where he lavished flyers, key chains and coffee mugs on a dozen former residents of his state. Haseloff eagerly made the rounds, raving about the jobs being created in Saxony-Anhalt. "You're needed at home," he said. "We haven't forgotten you."
Haseloff felt that the evening was a success. He plans to travel to North Rhine-Westphalia next.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
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Reproduction only allowed with the permission of SPIEGELnet GmbH | <urn:uuid:8490d42b-cd49-4273-884e-42930555bc7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/trend-sees-increase-in-eastern-germans-returning-from-west-a-829537.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977503 | 2,353 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Athos Boncompagni is an Italian Renaissance man, a renowned artist who says, “Art is a full-time job. If you don’t love it, don’t do it!”
Athos is well-known as an illustrator whose work encompasses a diverse range of fields, from the paper products industry to school object collections, textbooks, map design and advertising visuals. He was a still-life photographer earlier in his career. In addition to illustration, his work today includes photo retouching, magazine layouts, web design and flash animations. On top of all that, Athos is a colorist, a digital art instructor and, of course, a Wacom evangelist.
So how does Athos approach his work and his clients? “It’s very important to understand the briefing, to lay out a clear path towards the technical realization of the project, and to mark the deadline in your calendar. You should know exactly how you expect to implement a project, and also have at least two or three alternatives in mind.”
No sooner said than done: It took Athos no time at all to present the concept and first draft for his self-portrait – a scream and an explosive “hair of ideas” to express the reverse concept of looking into the artist’s head – and he was even quicker to implement some minor changes we suggested.
“Do some research before you start drawing,” Athos advises. “That way, your exploration begins on a distant planet and not in your chair!” | <urn:uuid:dd738d82-4aec-4255-8bda-273cc1bfad44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wacom.com/en/creative/interests/featured-artists/athos-boncompagni | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967443 | 331 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Positive Atheism's Big List of
Let us therefore reject all superstition in order to become more human; but in speaking against fanaticism, let us not imitate the fanatics: they are sick men in delirium who want to chastise their doctors. Let us assuage their ills, and never embitter them, and let us pour drop by drop into their souls the divine balm of toleration, which they would reject with horror if it were offered to them all at once.
Common sense is not so common. (Le sens commun n'est pas si commun.)
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Whenever an important event, a revolution, or a calamity turns to the profit of the church, such is always signalised as the Finger of God.
Custom, law bent my first years to the religion of the happy Muslims. I see it too clearly: the care taken of our childhood forms our feelings, our habits, our belief. By the Ganges I would have been a slave of the false gods, a Christian in Paris, a Muslim here.
As you know, the Inquisition is an admirable and wholly Christian invention to make the pope and the monks more powerful and turn a whole kingdom into hypocrites.
Of all religions the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.
Christian: A good-natured,
simple fellow; a true lamb of the fold, who, in the innocence of
his heart, persuades himself that he firmly believes unbelievable
things that his priests have told him to believe, especially
those he cannot even imagine. Consequently, he is convinced that three x's
make fifteen, that God was made man, that he was hanged and rose
to life again, that priests cannot lie, and that all who do not believe
in priests will be damned without remission.
The son of God
is the same as the son of man; the son of man is the same as the
son of God. God, the father, is the same as Christ, the son; Christ,
the son, is the same as God, the father. This language may appear
confused to unbelievers, but Christians will readily understand it.
Before receiving your instruction, I must tell you what happened to me one day. I had just had a closet built at the end of my garden. I heard a mole arguing with a cockchafer; 'Here's a fine structure,' said the mole, 'it must have been a very powerful mole who did this work.' 'You're joking,' said the cockchafer; 'it's a cockchafer full of genius who is the architect of this building.' From that moment I resolved never to argue.
Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.
If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.
The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reasoning.
The most genuine and efficacious charity is that which greases the paws of the priests; such charity covers a multitude of sins.
Every sensible man, every honest man, must hold the Christian sect in horror.
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live.
The more he became truly wise, the more he distrusted everything he knew.
It has taken seas of blood to drown the idol of despotism, but the English do not think they bought their laws too dearly.
Which is more dangerous: fanaticism or atheism? Fanaticism is certainly a thousand times more deadly; for atheism inspires no bloody passion whereas fanaticism does; atheism is opposed to crime and fanaticism causes crimes to be committed.
What! Have you no monks to teach, to dispute, to govern, to intrigue and to burn people who do not agree with them?
I think the best way to fall on the infamous [l'infâme meant the Church for Voltaire] is to seem to have no wish to attack it; to disentangle a little chaos of antiquity; to try to make these things rather interesting: to make ancient history as agreeable as possible; to show how much we have been misled in all things; to demonstrate how much is modern in all things thought to be ancient, and how ridiculous are many things alleged to be respectable; to let the reader draw his own conclusions.
It is reported in the supplement of the council of Nicaea that the fathers, being very perplexed to know which were the cryphal or apocryphal books of the Old and New Testaments, put them all pell-mell on an altar, and the books to be rejected fell to the ground. It is a pity that this eloquent procedure has not survived.
If there are atheists, who is to be blamed if not the mercenary tyrants of souls who, in revolting us against their swindles, compel some feeble spirits to deny the God whom these monsters dishonour?
My dear sir, nature is very cruel. One would find it hard to imagine how the laws of movement cause such frightful disasters in the best of possible worlds. A hundred thousand ants, our fellows, crushed all at once in our ant-hill, and half of them perishing, no doubt in unspeakable agony, beneath the wreckage from which they cannot be drawn. Families ruined all over Europe, the fortune of a hundred businessmen, your compatriots, swallowed up in the ruins of Lisbon. What a wretched gamble is the game of human life! What will the preachers say, especially if the palace of the Inquisition is still standing? I flatter myself that at least the reverend father inquisitors have been crushed like others. That ought to teach men not to persecute each other, for while a few holy scoundrels burn a few fanatics, the earth swallows up one and all.
What concern to me are humanity, benevolence, modesty, temperance, gentleness, wisdom, piety, so long as half an ounce of lead shatters my body, and I die at twenty in torments unspeakable, surrounded by five or six thousand dead and dying while my eyes, opening for the last time, see the town I was born in delivered to fire and sword, and the last sounds that reach my ears are the shrieks of women and children expiring in the ruins -- and the whole for the pretended interest of men that we do not know?
What can I hope when all is right?
The Subtle Fulmination of the Encircled Sea
Please Feel Free
Grab some quotes to embellish your web site,
Use them to introduce the chapters of a book or
Poster your wall! Graffiti your (own) fence.
That's what this list is for!
In using this resource, however, keep in mind that
If you decide to build your own online
There's something to be said | <urn:uuid:df7ea30e-ac78-4f8a-b089-5fc4f57ebcc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/voltaire.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962459 | 1,519 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Teacher should preach beliefs on her own time
As a retired government employee, I find the actions of Cheektowaga science teacher Joelle Silver in bringing her personal religious beliefs into the classroom highly offensive. Yes, she is entitled to her own religious beliefs. However, the children of all of us – Christian, Muslim, Hindu, non-believers, etc. – are required to attend school and we all are required to pay the taxes that pay her salary. Her job is to teach the facts of science to students of all backgrounds, and on the job she should restrict herself to the requirements of the job. If she wants to preach, she should do it on her own time, as I did before I retired.
To force immature youth to have to deal with attacks on the personal/religious beliefs that they are developing, most likely through the traditions of their families, is a violation of the rights of her students and has no place in the schools. Many of us are concerned with government employees abusing their positions of authority. This case is a prime example.
The respect of all of us should go out to the student who had the courage to stand up to Silver despite the position of authority she had over this young person.
Gary R. Haaf | <urn:uuid:7d8d28aa-70d7-4388-b627-29e1c42913f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130120/OPINION/130129998/1046 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98253 | 257 | 1.65625 | 2 |
How to do a handstand push-up
Four steps to a handstand push-up
Bend down opposite a wall, placing your hands on the floor shoulder width apart.
Tip For the first few times start with a three-point stand, putting your head on the ground, too. Use of cushion allowed.
Kick yourself up against the wall and straighten your arms. Make sure your legs and body are also as straight as possible.
Tip If it helps, use a spotter the first few times you try this.
With the back of your head parallel to the wall (so you dont arch your back), bend your arms, bringing the top of your head close to the floor.
Tip Controlled movement intensifies the exercise and will stop you braining yourself.
Exhale, and push your arms straight again. Bragging rights are now yours.
Tip Once youve mastered the move ensure you dont lock out your elbows this only steals effort from your muscles.
Words: Lucy Fry
Get constantly evolving workout and nutrition plans personalised for your specific needs and training goals. Sign up to Men's Health's Personal Trainer tool now! | <urn:uuid:05c96d4a-5c88-410d-8553-1a0461f0d41d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.menshealth.co.uk/building-muscle/get-big/how-to-do-a-handstand-push-up | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907977 | 237 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Echinacea hybrid (Meadowbright series) 'Mango Meadowbright'
These are tough, colorful perennials from central and eastern North America. Daisylike flowers, usually with narrow, arching rays, have brownish orange, dome-shaped centers and are held on straight stems above clumps of bristly foliage. Flowers are often lightly fragrant. Generally bloom over a long period in summer (may start in spring in mildwinter climates). Flowering may continue until frost.
Use on the outskirts of gardens or in wide borders with other robust perennials. Also excellent in containers. Generally do not need staking. Perform well in summer heat (though not in the hottest desert areas, where they are mainly spring blooming). Good cut flowers.
Clumps spread slowly, become crowded after 3 or 4 years. Fleshy rootstocks can be difficult to separate; divide carefully, making sure each division has a shoot and roots. Plantings can also be increased by taking root cuttings, seeding, or transplanting self-sown seedlings.Echinacea hybrid (Meadowbright series) 'Mango Meadowbright'
Grows 2–3 ft. high and wide. Orange-yellow petals surround orange-brown centers.
Mediterranean native to 2 ft. tall, 1 1/2 ft.wide. First growth produces a clump of bright green, roun...
Known as orange mint (crushed leaves have slight orange flavor) or bergamot mint, this plant grows to ...
Mediterranean native provides sure, easy color from late fall through spring in mild-winter areas, fro... | <urn:uuid:0c064ced-bc42-4534-8b02-de00ab25cc46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plantfinder.sunset.com/plant-details.jsp?id=1020 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903713 | 337 | 1.960938 | 2 |
The Acoustic Search
In the field
ARU mounted on a tree (left) with its battery (right). Photo by Chris Tessaglia-Hymes
To search for acoustic evidence for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in Arkansas and other states within the historical range, we record ambient sounds using autonomous recording units (ARUs). ARUs are programmable, battery-operated digital audio recorders developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bioacoustics Research Program. Each ARU contains a microprocessor, 12-bit analog-to-digital converter, an omnidirectional microphone, preamplifier and signal conditioning circuitry, and a hard disk for storing audio data. These components are packaged in a cylindrical PVC housing, and attached to tree trunks two to three meters above the ground or water surface. ARUs are typically deployed for periods of two to four weeks.
ARU in Arkansas. Photo by Chris Tessaglia-Hymes
ARUs are programmed to record for two four-hour periods each day, the first beginning 30 to 45 minutes before sunrise, the second ending 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. The range at which an ARU could detect sounds of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker is unknown, because there are no data available on the volume of kent calls or double knocks. We estimate, however, that these signals would be detectable by ARUs up to distances of approximately 200 meters.
We select recording sites based on habitat quality, locations of previous Ivory-billed Woodpecker sighting reports, and presence of possible ivory-bill roost/nest cavities and feeding signs.
Reviewing and analyzing the sounds
Since the start of large-scale acoustic search efforts in 2004, our protocols for reviewing and evaluating ARU recordings have evolved in order to provide more consistent and informative evaluations of ivory-bill-like sounds. Our current protocol is summarized here.
To find sounds similar to those of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the ARU recordings, we use a multi-step process:
1. Automated screening by computer: The digital recordings are scanned by software that detects sounds similar to known vocalizations of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (from the 1935 Allen-Kellogg recording), and to double-knocks from other Campephilus woodpeckers.
2. Initial human screening: An acoustic analyst reviews all of the computer’s detections. Most of the sounds flagged by the computer are easily discarded at this stage as not being similar enough to ivory-bill sounds to warrant further attention. The computer flags many “false alarm” events because we adjust the software to be very sensitive, reducing the chance that a real ivory-bill call might be missed. Sounds that pass this stage are forwarded to the next stage of review.
3. Expert panel review: A panel of three or more experts (outside of the acoustic analysis team) reviews all of the sounds that pass stage two. The expert panel categorizes each sound as “implausible” or “plausible.” “Plausible” events are further categorized depending on whether a potential alternate source is identified, and if that alternate source is positively identified elsewhere on the deployment. Sounds categorized as “implausible” are either positively identified as an alternate source, or are deemed to be too different than an ivory-bill.
Plausible categories are:
- P1: Plausible Ivory-billed Woodpecker, no likely alternative known
- P2: Plausible Ivory-billed Woodpecker, alternate possibility identified but not present in recording
- P3: Plausible Ivory-billed Woodpecker, alternate possibility identified and present
- P4: Insufficient signal for full analysis
“Plausible” sounds are scored on various criteria, receiving a point for each positive response to one of several questions. A higher score indicates a greater likelihood that the sound originated from an Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
Scoring criteria for vocalizations:
1. Is the harmonic interval between 580 and 780 Hz?
2. Is harmonic emphasis appropriate?
3. Is the event part of a biologically appropriate series?
4. Is there a temporal context or co-occurrence with other events of interest on the same day?
5. Is there a clear temporal context or co-occurrence with other events of interest across days?
Scoring criteria for double-knocks:
1. Is the inter-knock interval between 60 and 120 milliseconds?
2. Is sound resonant and woody?
3. Is there an absence of confounding woodpeckers?
4. Is the event part of a biologically appropriate series?
5. Is there a clear temporal context or co-occurrence with other events of interest on the same day?
6. Is there a clear temporal context or co-occurrence with other events of interest across days?
At every stage of the review process, researchers compared suspect sounds not only with those of ivory-bills and other Campephilus woodpeckers, but also with a variety of similar sounds from other species, and carefully considered the surrounding context.
What have we discovered so far?
Here we present some examples of “plausible” sounds collected in the Big Woods of Arkansas. Note: this website is not intended to be a complete and final analysis of our acoustic monitoring and research. Rather, we aim to provide a sampling of sounds that we believe are suggestive of ivory-bill and a number of “sound-alikes” that we hope will help inform other searchers about what to listen for. We are presently working on peer reviewed publication that will explain our findings in detail. | <urn:uuid:77b0bbf8-c845-462a-bae9-2a7692b39098> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/multimedia/sounds/acousticsearch/document_view | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919206 | 1,193 | 3.21875 | 3 |
There are 2 fundamentally different types of shortbent (spoon)
gouges and they need to be sharpened somewhat differently.
On LONGBENT gouges, not shortbent, I have been putting an inner bevel which I find helps in the carving. However, this inner bevel is worked through the corners, i.e. is upon the entire inner surface of the tool and not stopped short of the corners as with a straight gouge. This is because the corner serves the same function as the center of the sweep in a longbent.
Very informative. Technique is definetly key to sharpening. It's good to be reminded of this and see it practiced.
I'd like to see a video explaining how to deal with new chisels. Do you change the bevel angle on a brand new Feil chisel? If so, how to do it, especially on widths greater than 24 mm?
William - That's a good suggestion and one we must address in the future. In the meantime, sharpen with a single bevel of 15-20 degrees on each side. You can sharpen them on benchstones - make sure they are flat - just like bench chisels.
Please login to post comments. | <urn:uuid:4b60d5a8-c574-480d-b1d8-4c266f41d8c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.woodcarvingworkshops.tv/videos/sharpening/sharpening-shortbents | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942464 | 259 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems by Gail Carson Levine, illustrated by Matthew Cordell
Based on William Carlos Williams’s “This Is Just to Say” poem, these poems borrow the form and the apology but build upon it with a wild array of situations. In each poem, an apology is offered, but all of them are done conditionally and many are completely insincere. There is an apology for eating all of the ice cream and replacing it with anchovies. There is an apology for turning a bully into a fly and having a swatter ready to go. Then there are many apologies based on fairy tales or songs that children will enjoy seeing from a new and inventive perspective. This is a book to pick up and read out of order, unless of course you stumble upon one of the apologies the author has included that might make you reconsider that approach!
I’m always on the look out for funny poems to share with children, since I’ve found that Prelutsky and Silverstein make a great ice breaker when talking with groups. Even the jaded upper elementary class can be caught off guard by a charmer of a poem, especially one that elicits guffaws and merriment. I can see these very short poems being shared in groupings as part of a class visit. Perhaps interspersed with information about the library and its offerings.
The entire work is very funny, though some of the poems work better than others. The illustrations hearken to Silverstein’s work with the ink drawings done without additional color. They have a wonderful frenetic energy to them and also a delight at the situations.
This will be a welcome addition in elementary classrooms that are working with poetry. It also makes for a great giggly bedtime read. Appropriate for ages 7-10.
Reviewed from library copy. | <urn:uuid:d51f4017-97e3-4053-9c24-f43bf7ea34b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wakingbraincells.com/tag/apologies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963735 | 391 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Comprehensive DescriptionRead full entry
Biology/Natural History: A. xanthogrammica is basically a solitary species and can occur in numbers up to 14 per square meter if conditions are favorable. They are vividly green if they are exposed to bright sunlight. The bright green can be attributed to green pigment in the anemone epidermis and to symbiotic algae that live in the tissues that line the gut. Inside there may be zoochorellae (green algae) or zooxanthellae, which are dinoflagellates. The symbiotic algae are reduced in numbers or even absent (aposymbiotic) when in shady areas. The anemones release sperm and eggs in late spring to summer. The larvae swim or float freely, dispersing. The adults do not split in half asexually, as is so characteristic of its congener A. elegantissima. They eat detached mussels, sea urchins, small fish, and crabs. I have also commonly seen them spitting out empty barnacle plates so I suspect they will eat barnacles as well. Mussels seem to be a primary item in the diet. Predators include the seastar Dermasterias imbricata. The sea spider Pycnogonum stearnsi is often found around the base in central California and the large amoeba Trichamoeba schaefferi may be found as well. In southern California the snail Opalia borealis, which feeds by inserting its proboscis into the column, may be on the base and the wentletrap snail Epitonium tinctum may also be found. Epitonium tinctum feeds on the anemone's tentacles at high tide.
Cnidae in this species include Spirocysts, atrichs, basitrichs, and microbasic p-mastigophores.
This is one of the largest species of anemone in the world. Some Antarctic species and tropical anemones on coral reefs grow larger. It does not survive well in areas with sewage or other pollution. | <urn:uuid:1c479fe7-0b4e-491c-95fe-e540e3c16b2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eol.org/pages/704306/overview/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91393 | 432 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Press Release: 14 October 2011
The Gift of Knowledge: Exhibition of material from the Sir Denis Mahon library and archive to go on display at the National Gallery of Ireland
A number of rare and antiquarian volumes together with a selection of unique archive material from the collection gifted to the National Gallery of Ireland by the scholar and collector, Sir Denis Mahon, will go on display in the Print Gallery from Monday, 17 October 2011, as part of a special exhibition, The Gift of Knowledge: Enriching the Library and Archive Collections.
In 2010, Sir Denis presented his entire personal library and archive to the National Gallery of Ireland. The collection comprises thousands of volumes reflecting the scholarly interests of the donor, documenting art in the Western European tradition from classical times onwards. Featuring in the exhibition will be a first edition of Giorgio Vasari’s Vite (Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects), the seminal source for information on Italian artists up to 1550; a number of prints after the seventeenth-century Italian artist, Guercino, as well as family memorabilia, letters and photographs. Also on display will be the cheque for Mahon’s first purchase in Paris in 1934, Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph by Guercino, now part of the Gallery’s collection, for which he paid £120.
Andrea Lydon, Head of Library and Archives in the National Gallery of Ireland, says: “Sir Denis Mahon’s remarkable gift of his personal library and archive will add significantly to the Gallery’s research facilities and is an important scholarly resource which will be built on and developed into the future. The material in this exhibition celebrates how donations such as these have transformed the NGI Library and Archives into a resource of international status.”
Sir Denis Mahon, who was of Irish descent, passed away in April of this year at the age of 100. He studied at Eton and Oxford before embarking on a life of collecting, writing and campaigning for the arts.
Raymond Keaveney, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland says: “The Gallery is delighted to have acquired such an important collection with such rich and varied holdings. Sir Denis was one of the most influential art historians and collectors of the twentieth century, as well as a close friend and generous benefactor of the Gallery. In presenting an exhibition of Sir Denis Mahon’s most recent gift alongside material from the Centre for the Study of Irish Art and Yeats Archive, the Gallery pays tribute to the generosity of individuals who have contributed to the development of our research collections and recognises the cultural and educational importance of libraries and archives in contributing to our knowledge of art and artists.”
The exhibition also brings together material and art works from the Gallery’s Centre for the Study of Irish Art (CSIA) and Yeats Archive.
The CSIA research facility opened in the Millennium Wing in 2002 to support and promote the study of Irish art. Since its inception, it has developed into a valuable and substantial resource through the generous donation of material from scholars, historians and the descendants of Irish artists. On display, as part of the exhibition, will be the recently acquired collection of papers relating to Aloysius O’Kelly, as well as archives relating to Frederic William Burton, Walter Osborne, Augustus Burke and the sculptor, Andrew O’Connor.
The Yeats Archive was established following a generous donation in 1996 by the late Anne Yeats (d.2001) which includes 205 sketchbooks, over 400 books and a significant amount of personal papers belonging to her uncle, Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957). The exhibition will showcase a number of pieces from this gift; stencil prints, watercolours and illustrated letters by Jack B. Yeats and his father, John B. Yeats; woodcuts and embroidery by Susan Mary (Lilly) Yeats and Elizabeth Corbet (Lolly) Yeats. It will also feature the Olympic medal awarded to Jack Yeats for his painting, The Liffey Swim (1923), now part of the Gallery’s collection.
The Gift of Knowledge: Enriching the Library and Archive Collections.
17 October to 15 December 2011. National Gallery of Ireland.
An accompanying brochure to the exhibition will be available from the Print Gallery. See www.nationalgallery.ie/Research/GiftOfKnowledge.
Related links to the exhibition will go live on the NGI website on Monday 17 October. | <urn:uuid:70a1a98f-222b-47b6-b716-aae4ba343b99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nationalgallery.ie/en/aboutus/pressroom/2011PressReleases/GiftofKnowledge.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939643 | 938 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his [or her] patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.
Chiropractic is a health care profession that focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system, and the effects of these disorders on general health. Chiropractic care is used most often to treat neuromusculoskeletal complaints, including but not limited to back pain, neck pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, and headaches.
Doctors of Chiropractic – often referred to as chiropractors or chiropractic physicians – practice a drug-free, hands-on approach to health care that includes patient examination, diagnosis and treatment. Chiropractors have broad diagnostic skills and are also trained to recommend therapeutic and rehabilitative exercises, as well as to provide nutritional, dietary and lifestyle counseling.
-American Chiropractic Association
Some of the conditions we treat include:
- Sports Injuries
- Back Aches
- Neck Pain
- Car Accident Injuries (such as Whiplash, muscle stiffness, etc.)
- Extremity Pain (Shoulders, Arm Pain, Leg Pain, Carpal Tunnel, Sciatica, etc.)
- Muscle Pain and Weakness
- Postural Syndromes
- Wellness and Preventative care to keep you active, painfree, and healthy!
…as well as many other problems and conditions. | <urn:uuid:668a4c7a-535c-47de-baa3-dc4d75da46e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uplandspine.com/chiro.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 | 0.939821 | 317 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Verizon Thinkfinity offers thousands of free K-12 educational resources across seven disciplines for use in and out of school.
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- Classroom Resources | Grades 7 – 12 | Calendar Activity | November 19
Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863.
Students practice the Pre-AP strategy called SOAPSTone, identifying important parts of the Gettysburg Address and comparing it with John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech.
- Classroom Resources | Grades 3 – 12 | Calendar Activity | January 11
Amelia Earhart completed her solo flight from Honolulu to Oakland in 1935.
Students explore the definition of a hero and use the interactive Venn diagram to identify the most common characteristics of a hero.
- Classroom Resources | Grades 3 – 12 | Calendar Activity | January 1
Annie Moore becomes the first immigrant to enter Ellis Island in 1892.
Students explore online resources about Ellis Island, interview an immigrant in the area, and publish their stories.
- Classroom Resources | Grades 9 – 12 | Calendar Activity | February 9
Author Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944.
After students read the novel The Color Purple, dialect is discussed and students write a short piece of fiction or poetry using the dialect of their peer group.
- Classroom Resources | Grades 9 – 12 | Calendar Activity | December 9
Author Joel Chandler Harris was born in 1848.
Students study how regional dialect is written phonetically by reading a segment of Harris' story, as well as two others, and compare them using the Interactive Venn Diagram.
- Classroom Resources | Grades 3 – 12 | Calendar Activity | April 28
Author Lois Duncan was born on this date in 1934.
Mysteries are shared with students for them to solve and brainstorm the attributes of a good mystery. Small groups then compose short mysteries using the Mystery Cube.
- Classroom Resources | Grades 3 – 12 | Calendar Activity | March 15
Beware the Ides of March!
Students discuss and categorize superstitions, define a superstition, and compare the similarities and difference between proverbs and superstitions.
- Classroom Resources | Grades 3 – 12 | Calendar Activity | March 30
Black Beauty author Anna Sewell was born in 1820.
Through Sewell's novel, students explore the cruelty to animals and extend the discussion to current events, eventually presenting the information.
- Classroom Resources | Grades 1 – 12 | Calendar Activity | October 17
Black Poetry Day is celebrated.
Books and webpages are gathered that focus on the work of African American poets and students explore the resources and find a poem to contribute to a poetry reading.
- Classroom Resources | Grades 5 – 12 | Calendar Activity | March 24
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof premiered in New York in 1955.
Students are introduced to the characteristics of drama, read a chapter from a novel the class has read, and create a script from the chapter that they will present to the class. | <urn:uuid:2baab680-2c09-4536-a6b1-708d16f4f228> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?resource_type=20&learning_objective=37 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916469 | 647 | 3.484375 | 3 |
Chapter XVI.—The Heretics Called the Flesh “The Vessel of the Soul,” In Order to Destroy the Responsibility of the Body. Their Cavil Turns Upon Themselves and Shows the Flesh to Be a Sharer in Human Actions.
When, however, we attribute to the soul authority, and to the flesh submission, we must see to it that (our opponents) do not turn our position by another argument, by insisting on so placing the flesh in the service of the soul, that it be not (considered as) its servant, lest they should be compelled, if it were so regarded, to admit its companionship (to the soul). For they would argue that servants and companions possess a discretion in discharging the functions of their respective p. 556 office, and a power over their will in both relations: in short, (they would claim to be) men themselves, and therefore (would expect) to share the credit with their principals, to whom they voluntarily yielded their assistance; whereas the flesh had no discretion, no sentiment in itself, but possessing no power of its own of willing or refusing, it, in fact, appears to stand to the soul in the stead of a vessel as an instrument rather than a servant. The soul alone, therefore, will have to be judged (at the last day) pre-eminently as to how it has employed the vessel of the flesh; the vessel itself, of course, not being amenable to a judicial award: for who condemns the cup if any man has mixed poison in it? or who sentences the sword to the beasts, if a man has perpetrated with it the atrocities of a brigand? Well, now, we will grant that the flesh is innocent, in so far as bad actions will not be charged upon it: what, then, is there to hinder its being saved on the score of its innocence? For although it is free from all imputation of good works, as it is of evil ones, yet it is more consistent with the divine goodness to deliver the innocent. A beneficent man, indeed, is bound to do so: it suits then the character of the Most Bountiful to bestow even gratuitously such a favour. And yet, as to the cup, I will not take the poisoned one, into which some certain death is injected, but one which has been infected with the breath of a lascivious woman, 7374 or of Cybeles priest, or of a gladiator, or of a hangman: then I want to know whether you would pass a milder condemnation on it than on the kisses of such persons? One indeed which is soiled with our own filth, or one which is not mingled to our own mind we are apt to dash to pieces, and then to increase our anger with our servant. As for the sword, which is drunk with the blood of the brigands victims, who would not banish it entirely from his house, much more from his bed-room, or from his pillow, from the presumption that he would be sure to dream of nothing but the apparitions of the souls which were pursuing and disquieting him for lying down with the blade which shed their own blood? Take, however, the cup which has no reproach on it, and which deserves the credit of a faithful ministration, it will be adorned by its drinking-master with chaplets, or be honoured with a handful of flowers. The sword also which has received honourable stains in war, and has been thus engaged in a better manslaughter, will secure its own praise by consecration. It is quite possible, then, to pass decisive sentences even on vessels and on instruments, that so they too may participate in the merits of their proprietors and employers. Thus much do I say from a desire to meet even this argument, although there is a failure in the example, owing to the diversity in the nature of the objects. For every vessel or every instrument becomes useful from without, consisting as it does of material perfectly extraneous to the substance of the human owner or employer; whereas the flesh, being conceived, formed, and generated along with the soul from its earliest existence in the womb, is mixed up with it likewise in all its operations. For although it is called “a vessel” by the apostle, such as he enjoins to be treated “with honour,” 7375 it is yet designated by the same apostle as “the outward man,” 7376 —that clay, of course, which at the first was inscribed with the title of a man, not of a cup or a sword, or any paltry vessel. Now it is called a “vessel” in consideration of its capacity, whereby it receives and contains the soul; but “man,” from its community of nature, which renders it in all operations a servant and not an instrument. Accordingly, in the judgment it will be held to be a servant (even though it may have no independent discretion of its own), on the ground of its being an integral portion of that which possesses such discretion, and is not a mere chattel. And although the apostle is well aware that the flesh does nothing of itself which is not also imputed to the soul, he yet deems the flesh to be “sinful;” 7377 lest it should be supposed to be free from all responsibility by the mere fact of its seeming to be impelled by the soul. So, again, when he is ascribing certain praiseworthy actions to the flesh, he says, “Therefore glorify and exalt God in your body,” 7378 —being certain that such efforts are actuated by the soul; but still he ascribes them to the flesh, because it is to it that he also promises the recompense. Besides, neither rebuke, (on the one hand), would have been suitable to it, if free from blame; nor, (on the other hand), would exhortation, if it were incapable of glory. Indeed, both rebuke and exhortation would be alike idle towards the flesh, if it were an improper object for that recompence which is certainly received in the resurrection.
“Frictricis” is Oehlers reading.556:7375
1 Thess. iv. 4.556:7376
2 Cor. iv. 16.556:7377
Rom. viii. 3.556:7378
1 Cor. vi. 20. | <urn:uuid:6a9eaa85-39a0-4429-8876-95700983639b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030598.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97946 | 1,338 | 1.992188 | 2 |
If you use a pay per click campaign as part of your online marketing efforts, you should be tracking and analysing all your data, and you’re all doing that, right? If you are, then you might have noticed that your PPC dashboard numbers don’t necessarily match your analytics dashboard data. In this article, we’ll suggest a couple of reasons why it might be happening.
Articles tagged Page Views
Page views refer to the number of times that a web server receives a request to load any given page of a website.
The number of page views (also known as impressions) that a site receives can give a measure of insight into how frequently it is visited and viewed. | <urn:uuid:ffbc27f1-7a17-4e2b-a938-6ba05231ac69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netage.co.za/articles/analytics/page-views | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950859 | 145 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Way back in July 2003, I wrote:
- "Greenpeace begins with the assumption that average people are powerless against invisible forces that secretly control society's agenda (it's where the political left always meets the right), without acknowledging that these "forces" cannot remain entrenched in the face of a society that rejects them. America is obese? Don't blame McDonald's. The Golden Arches can't survive without a public willing to march into their death chambers.
You want nanotechnology that doesn't make a mess of what's left of our planet? I think that's a great idea. Let's bring on the global discussions over how we're going to get there. But it's not a question of "good nano" or "bad nano." It's a question of how we're going to use nano. More here
- LUDDITES could do worse than lend an ear to one of radio’s great institutions, from this Wednesday. Over the next five weeks, pioneering nanotechnologist Lord Alec Broers takes the podium for Radio 4’s annual Reith Lectures (8pm, Wednesdays; repeated 10.15pm, Saturdays).
Currently president of the Royal Academy of Engineering and chairman of the House of Lords science and technology committee, Lord Broers’s pioneering of the scanning electron microscope ushered in the sometimes controversial science of nanotechnology.
He argues that what happens with nano - and any other technology - is entirely up to us, and it’s about time we sat up and took notice. "We cannot leave technology to the technologists," he argues. "We must all embrace it." The first of his five lectures bears the suitably no-holds-barred title Technology Will Determine the Future of the Human Race. More here
The Greenpeace Report, Part II: NanoWars
UK misses chance to defuse nanotox issue
Too late to stem the 'toxic bucky' tide | <urn:uuid:ca729db8-b0d3-427e-84f1-bd143fb95e71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nanobot.blogspot.jp/2005/04/weve-seen-nano-enemy-and-they-is-us.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945174 | 400 | 2.125 | 2 |
Researchers analyzing the genetic makeup of ovarian cancer tumors have found a gene mutation that is surprisingly frequent, suggesting it plays a key role in driving the cancer.
The finding, appearing in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, may eventually lead to tests for earlier diagnosis of the disease and to better treatment. Ovarian cancer kills nearly 14,000 women in the United States each year. It's usually not spotted until at an advanced stage.
The gene sequencing was carried out by The Cancer Genome Atlas, a federally funded network of medical centers that analyzed 316 ovarian tumors.
Scientists found that 96 percent of the tumors had mutated TP53 genes. The mutations were not present in normal tissue from the patients, showing they arose within the tumors. Normally, the gene directs the cell how to make a protein that acts as a tumor suppressor, keeping cells from growing and dividing uncontrollably.
Alterations in nine other genes also played a role in ovarian cancer, though to a much lesser extent, the researchers reported. Among them were the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
"In other cancers, there are usually several genes that are involved" on almost equal footing, said one of the study authors, Dr. David Wheeler of Baylor College of Medicine. "This is an unusual pattern."
The new work "is producing impressive insights into the biology" of ovarian cancer, Dr. Francis Collins, who heads the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement.
Among cancers, ovarian is the fifth leading cause of death among women. A regular pelvic exam is considered the best way to detect ovarian cancer early.
The Cancer Genome Atlas was launched in 2006 to unravel the genetic underpinning of cancer. The group mapped the genome of the most common form of brain cancer in 2008 and plans to do the same for 20 other types of cancers.
The Cancer Genome Atlas:
The Associated Press | <urn:uuid:fece9eb5-0c35-499b-8150-334037f285da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/jun/29/researchers-analyze-gene-changes-in-ovarian-cancer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9527 | 396 | 3.21875 | 3 |
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An Ohio man wonders if the souvenirs collected by his uncle while stationed on the U.S.S. Indianapolis during World War II could possibly be remnants of one of Japan’s famous kamikaze attacks.
While home on leave, the uncle shared a story with his family about a kamikaze attack on his cruiser. Sadly, when the uncle returned to duty, he was killed when the U.S.S. Indianapolis was torpedoed during the final weeks of World War II.
Inside a cedar chest, his family found some mementos he’d brought home when he was on leave. They included a Japanese metal sign, military patches and a piece of mangled metal.
History Detectives goes to Ohio to take a closer look at these souvenirs of war and see if they're related to a kamikaze pilot’s attack.
Along the way, they learn more about the fascinating and tragic history of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, the cruiser at the center of the worst sea disaster in U.S. Naval history.
- Also in Depression and WWII: 1929-1945 Empire State Building Plane Crash Piece Does this piece of metal belong to the plane that crashed into the Empire State Building?
- Also in Depression and WWII: 1929-1945 Wartime Baseball Is this baseball evidence of an unusual ballgame that took place during segregation?
- Also in Depression and WWII: 1929-1945 Superman Sketch Is this a WWII sketch from the early days of this comic icon?
- Also in Season 5 Short Snorter Was this British ten-shilling note witness to the forging of the alliance between America and Britain?
- Also in Season 5 Liberty Bell Pin Was one of America’s most iconic symbols melted down into a mere memento?
- Also in Season 5 Red Cloud Letter How was a leader of the Lakota people connected with the controversial sculptor of Mount Rushmore?
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- Submit your StoryDo you have a Depression or World War II object? Submit your story now.
- Latest CommentIt turns out that this collage was sold last fall: http://www.worthpoint.com/wort... I wonder if it would be possible to contact the buyer by way of the auction house about getting a print made. (2 weeks ago)
- Twitterremember this investigation with @TukufuZuberi @elyseluray Tonight they reunite! Let us know your thoughts! @PBS http://t.co/4KMnc27K (8 months ago)
- FacebookCongrats on your exhibit, TZ! Here's a Washington Post article about the exhibit, everyone, and the great story TZ and Elyse did on his "Our Colored Heroes" story. http://tinyurl.com/mzpuyo8 http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigation/our-colored-heroes/ (2 weeks ago) | <urn:uuid:0d674e70-becf-418d-ba7b-4c335e965b5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigation/uss-indianapolis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925706 | 731 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Park visitors watch as Andrew Councell rappels down the face of Chimney Rock, N.C.
Congress passed the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act in 1964 with vigorous bipartisan support, in part to “strengthen the health and vitality of the citizens” in parks where they could stay in shape by running, walking, bicycling and playing. This was long before the obesity epidemic that has gripped America in the last two decades.
The Act authorized the use of motorboat fuel taxes, proceeds from sales of surplus federal land and federally collected recreation fees to fund acquisition and improvement of local, state and federal parks. But in 1968, with a booming population and an according need for new parks, Congress tapped a major new revenue source. Offshore oil drilling was taking off, and it was happening on seafloor controlled by the federal government. Currently, up to $900 million per year of the drilling royalties are available for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Those royalties helped preserve some of America’s most special places – from California’s redwoods to North Carolina’s Chimney Rock – and provided opportunities in and around cities for outdoor recreation. The Fund provided money that would eventually be used for almost 42,000 grants to states and local governments. That funding, along with state matching money, purchased more than 2.6 million acres – an area bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. More than $3.9 billion-plus has gone to state and local parks.
At first, the park-buying program was popular and successful. Grants soared to an ambitious $370 million in 1980.
But total outlays dipped to zero when Reagan administration budget cuts hit in the early ‘80s, jumped back up to $110 million in 1983 and then began a long slide to just $16 million a year starting in 1988. For four years in the late 1990s, under President Bill Clinton, the program was again zeroed out: Oil companies continued to pay royalties for offshore drilling, but the money coming into the Land and Water Conservation Fund was not allocated to parkland for states and cities, as the law called for. And while campaigning in 2000, President George W. Bush promised to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund – which he did, only to divert funds to other Department of Interior programs while trying to slash outdoor recreation spending to zero in his second term.
“The program has been up and down for years in resources given to grants,” said Joel Lynch, chief of the Park Service’s State and Local Assistance Programs Division.
Over the decades, staffing went on the same roller-coaster ride as the budget. In the 1970s, the program operated as an independent agency, employing about 100 people. By the 1990s, it had shrunk to a backwater National Park Service bureau where, Anderson said, the number of personnel dropped from about 75 in 1995 to just 12 in 1997. Today the equivalent of 23.5 fulltime employees work there – about a quarter the number in the 1970s.
Yet the number of parks protected under the act has continued to grow year by year.
- Pledges forgotten, local governments repurpose federally funded parks
- Check the database of park grants in your state
Land values have appreciated significantly since many of the parks were first created. As a result, government and developers have been looking for ways to capitalize on that value. And as cities and counties have grown, sometimes infrastructure needs collide with recreation space.
'Equal fair market value'
Park Service officials say one of the most frequent reasons parkland is converted is to build or widen roads, although conversions for other uses, such as cellphone towers, have become more common in recent years.
Under federal regulations, a decision to convert a park to private use or anything other than public outdoor recreation has to be approved ahead of time by the Park Service – even though Park Service officials freely admit that large numbers of park conversions are a done deal by the time they get wind of them. By law, if parkland that has received Land and Water Conservation Fund money is converted, acreage of “at least equal fair market value and of reasonably equivalent usefulness and location” must be set aside for a new park.
The law also says such a decision has to be made under the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. That law requires that federal officials in any decision affecting the environment look at all alternatives and listen to the public. The Park Service leaves it to states to carry out this responsibility when it comes to park conversions.
However, Park Service officials acknowledge that when they find out a city or state already has allowed parkland to be converted to some other use, the consideration of other alternatives is effectively precluded, because one – keeping the parkland intact – may have already been foreclosed.
More on this story from InvestigateWest
Lynch, head of the Park Service program, acknowledges the shortcomings: “We know the states are struggling and we know there’s a lot of issues we need to address,” Lynch said.
And a lot of those problems trace back to one key chokepoint, he said: “We don’t have enough horses pulling the wagon.”
Jason Alcorn contributed to this report, which was edited by Carol Smith. InvestigateWest is a donor-supported investigative newsroom in Seattle. Support its original, independent journalism for $5 a month. | <urn:uuid:1597d360-63d8-4f61-9bc5-e21e44332f06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/06/08/12129798-budget-battered-federal-program-cant-police-park-conversions?lite | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958328 | 1,124 | 3.0625 | 3 |
You might be going about brainstorming the wrong way. To generate new ideas, give your brain a break. Try starting with a clear mind, and avoid being so direct in your thinking.
When Albert Einstein said, “Why is it I get my best ideas while shaving?” I think he was on to something with this observation.
It could be the steam, the isolation from everyday distractions, or the quality time spent with the subconscious mind. Or maybe it’s the white noise it generates, the ritualistic simplicity of it, or just a fresh start to the day.
Whatever the reasons, I get many of my best ideas in the shower.
According to the article “How to Produce Big Ideas On Demand” in Business Week Online, “There is a scientific theory that water hitting your head helps trigger the synapses and that’s why people get great ideas in the shower. But we think it’s simpler than that: The ideas occur because you are not making an effort to think. You aren’t worried about anything. You are not stressed. Hence some of your best thinking occurs.”
Perhaps we find a special sort of relaxation in those transitory moments of our days, which allow us to dig deeper into the incubation stations in our minds, seemingly without effort.
“Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.” Thomas Edison had a different approach to tapping into his subconscious meanderings to mine new ideas. Although he only slept for four to five hours each night, he regularly took catnaps. He would think of something he wanted to resolve before sitting in a chair, drifting off with a ball bearing in each hand. If he fell into too deep of a sleep, the ball bearings would come crashing to the ground—a sign that he’d gone too far into slumber. He would then quickly record the ideas that were brewing when he was jolted awake.
You would think that Edison would have invented and patented a device for recording creative ideas in this manner. But it wasn’t until 75 years after his death that such products were available, at least when it comes to recording creative ideas in the shower.
Although I haven’t personally tried any of these products, I’m amused and impressed with the selection of idea-recording devices for use in the shower! There’s Divemaster Slate, a waterproof whiteboard. AquaNotes makes a waterproof notepad (“No more great ideas down the drain!”). Rite in the Rain makes a handheld waterproof flip pad. Aquapac makes waterproof cases for digital recording electronics.
But if I were to hang up the waterproof notepad or eagerly clutch my waterproof voice recorder as I shampoo my hair, would that quiet my creative subconscious? Would the ideas become less accessible if I were to enter the shower with such lofty expectations?
When do you find yourself generating your best ideas, and how do you record them? | <urn:uuid:0d46354f-e420-41ca-afe1-7b45c2a07d85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.idealearninggroup.com/blog/the-power-of-shower-thinking | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960573 | 618 | 2.421875 | 2 |
U.S. Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership
U.S. Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership
United States-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership
Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
December 19, 2008
The United States of America and Ukraine:
1. Affirm the importance of our relationship as friends and strategic partners. We intend to deepen our partnership to the benefit of both nations and expand our cooperation across a broad spectrum of mutual priorities.
2. Emphasize that this cooperation between our two democracies is based on shared values and interests. These include expanding democracy and economic freedom, protecting security and territorial integrity, strengthening the rule of law, and supporting innovation and technological advances.
3. Stress our mutual desire to strengthen our relationship across the economic, political, diplomatic, cultural, and security fields.
4. Confirm the importance of the security assurances described in the Trilateral Statement by the Presidents of the U.S., Russian Federation and Ukraine of January 14, 1994, and the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of December 5, 1994.
5. Affirm the Priorities for U.S.-Ukraine Cooperation (Road Map) signed on March 31, 2008 and the commitments to a strategic partnership made by Presidents Bush and Yushchenko on April 4, 2005.
Section I: Principles of Cooperation
This Charter is based on core principles and beliefs shared by both sides:
1. Support for each other’s sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders constitutes the foundation of our bilateral relations.
2. Our friendship comes from mutual understanding and appreciation for the shared belief that democracy is the chief guarantor of security, prosperity and freedom.
3. Cooperation between democracies on defense and security is essential to respond effectively to threats to peace and security.
4. A strong, independent and democratic Ukraine, capable of responsible self-defense, contributes to the security and prosperity not only of all the people of Ukraine, but of a Europe whole, free and at peace.
Section II: Defense and Security Cooperation
The United States and Ukraine share a vital interest in a strong, independent, and democratic Ukraine. Deepening Ukraine’s integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions is a mutual priority. We plan to undertake a program of enhanced security cooperation intended to increase Ukrainian capabilities and to strengthen Ukraine’s candidacy for NATO membership.
1. Guided by the April 3, 2008 Bucharest Summit Declaration of the NATO North Atlantic Council and the April 4, 2008 Joint Statement of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, which affirmed that Ukraine will become a member of NATO.
2. Recognizing the persistence of threats to global peace and stability, the United States and Ukraine intend to expand the scope of their ongoing programs of cooperation and assistance on defense and security issues to defeat these threats and to promote peace and stability. A defense and security cooperation partnership between the United States and Ukraine is of benefit to both nations and the region.
3. Working within the framework of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, our goal is to gain agreement on a structured plan to increase interoperability and coordination of capabilities between NATO and Ukraine, including via enhanced training and equipment for Ukrainian armed forces.
4. Acknowledging the growing threat posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the United States and Ukraine pledge to combat such proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and dangerous technologies through adherence to international nonproliferation standards and effective enforcement and
strengthening of export controls.
Section III: Economic, Trade and Energy Cooperation
The United States and Ukraine intend to expand cooperation to enhance job creation and economic growth, support economic reform and liberalization, develop a business climate supportive of trade and investment and improve market access for goods and services. Recognizing that trade is essential for global economic growth, development, freedom and prosperity, the United States and Ukraine support the following initiatives:
1. Welcoming Ukraine’s accession to the World Trade Organization on May 16, 2008, the parties held the first U.S.-Ukraine Trade and Investment Council meeting on October 2, 2008 in Kyiv. As discussed at the meeting, the United States continues to support Ukraine’s efforts to implement its WTO commitments. Other areas in which we plan to accelerate our efforts include expanding market access, resolving outstanding disputes and promoting intellectual property rights.
Acknowledging the importance of increased investment to economic growth and development, the United States supports Ukraine’s efforts to enhance investor protections.
2. Recognizing the importance of a well functioning energy sector, the parties intend to work closely together on rehabilitating and modernizing the capacity of Ukraine’s gas transit infrastructure and diversify and secure Ukraine’s sources of nuclear fuel making Ukraine less dependent on foreign sources of nuclear fuel and nuclear fuel storage.
3. Following the Roadmap of Priorities for U.S.-Ukraine Cooperation, the United States and Ukraine intend to launch the work of the Bilateral Energy Security Working Group. Consistent with the U.S.-EU Summit Declaration of June 10, 2008, the United States and Ukraine intend to enhance a trilateral dialogue with the United States-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership Page 1 of 2 http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/or/113366.htm 1/8/2009 Published by the U.S. Department of State Website at http://www.state.gov maintained by the Bureau of Public Affairs. European Union on enhanced energy security.
4. Actively developing cooperation with Ukraine’s regions, including Crimea, the United States supports Ukraine’s plan to promote security, democracy and prosperity through expanded economic development, energy conservation, food security, and good governance initiatives. The United States and Ukraine also intend to cooperate in the area of public-private partnerships in regions of Ukraine aimed at supporting small and medium enterprises.
Section IV: Strengthening Democracy
Strengthening the rule of law, promoting reform of the legal system and of law enforcement structures and combating corruption are all of key
importance to the well being of Ukraine. We intend to work together to support reform, democracy, tolerance and respect for all communities.
1. The United States and Ukraine will enhance their cooperation on efforts to strengthen the judiciary, increasing professionalism, transparency and independence as well as improving legal education and improved access to justice for all Ukrainians.
2. Through enhanced law enforcement and judicial branch relationships, the United States and Ukraine plan to address common transnational criminal threats such as terrorism, organized crime, trafficking in persons and narcotics, money laundering, and cyber crime.
3. Recognizing the importance of combating corruption, the United States and Ukraine intend to increase cooperation that will expand media and public monitoring of anti-corruption efforts; enforce ethical standards by establishing internal investigation units; and streamline the government regulatory process.
4. The United States and Ukraine plan to work together to promote reform in Ukraine’s legislative processes through increased transparency, heightened accountability through citizen and media access, and expanded public information about the work of Ukraine’s parliament.
5. Recognizing the importance of harmonizing Ukraine’s criminal justice system with European and other international standards, we plan to work together more intensely on issues of key importance, including the adoption of a Criminal Procedure Code compliant with Council of Europe standards.
6. The United States plans to provide Ukraine with further technical assistance to support Ukraine’s efforts through government and judicial authorities to combat human trafficking, including strengthening witness protection.
7. The United States supports increased assistance to strengthen democracy building and good governance in order to build upon Ukraine’s political progress and commitment to democratic development.
Section V: Increasing People-to-People and Cultural Exchanges
The United States and Ukraine share a desire to increase our people-to-people contacts and enhance our cultural, educational and professional
exchange programs that promote democracy and democratic values and increase mutual understanding.
1. Recognizing the vital importance of increased contact between the people of the United States and Ukraine, both sides intend to promote further cultural and social exchanges and activities through initiatives such as the Fulbright program, Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX), Undergraduate Exchange (UGRAD), Legislative Education and Practice (LEAP), the International Visitor Leadership Program, the English Language Teaching and Learning Program and the Open World Program.
2. Stressing the necessity of innovation and dynamism to the future of our two countries, the United States and Ukraine intend to promote increased cooperation in higher education and scientific research. The United States will facilitate these exchanges consistent with U.S. laws and procedures so that qualified individuals in cultural, educational and scientific activities are given the opportunity to participate.
3. Our two countries will continue to cooperate closely to promote remembrance and increased public awareness of the 1932-33 Great Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine.
4. Ukraine welcomes the United States’ intention to establish an American diplomatic presence (American Presence Post) in Simferopol.
Signed at Washington, D.C. on December 19, 2008.
For the United States of America: Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State
For Ukraine: Volodymyr Ogryzko | <urn:uuid:1cb569ac-e3a9-4fad-95c1-550ee5eba520> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ukraine.usembassy.gov/strategic-partnership.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913316 | 1,897 | 2.015625 | 2 |