text stringlengths 213 24.6k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1 value | url stringlengths 14 499 | file_path stringlengths 138 138 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.9 1 | token_count int64 51 4.1k | score float64 1.5 5.06 | int_score int64 2 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
....horizontal and vertical surfaces is
avoided by this arrangement. Conventional elevators and rudders
are provided for pitch and yaw control, respectively.
Main-landing-gear units retract into fairings below the wing, and
the single nose-wheel gear is offset to facilitate optimum
location of the offensive cannon. The single pilot's cockpit is
near the nose of the fuselage and is equipped with a zero-zero
ejection seat. (A successful escape can be made at zero altitude
and speed.) Protection of the cockpit area is provided by an
armored "bathtub" constructed of titanium said to be able to
withstand the impact of projectiles of up to 23 mm in size.
Primary armament of the A-10 is a large
30-mm seven-barrel rotary cannon. This impressive weapon can fire
at a rate of either 2100 or 4200 rounds per minute. Equipped with
1950 rounds of ammunition, the gun weighs 4041 pounds; its empty
weight is 1975 pounds. The gun is positioned in the nose so that
the firing barrel is always located on the centerline of the
aircraft. Muzzle of the cannon may be seen protruding from the
nose in figures 12.28 and 12.29. In addition to the formidable
30-mm cannon, four store-mounting stations are provided under
each wing and three are located beneath the fuselage. A wide
assortment of different stores can be carried on the aircraft.
With full internal fuel tanks, the maximum external load is a
remarkable 14 341 pounds.
The data in table VI show a maximum gross weight of 40 269 pounds for
the Thunderbolt II. With a payload of 9540 pounds, mission radius
is 288 miles, including a 2-hour loiter period on station. Ferry
range with no payload and maximum external fuel is 3510 miles. At
a cruising speed of 329 miles per hour, time required for the
single pilot to fly this distance is a little over 10 hours.
Certainly a fatiguing flight, but not a remarkably long one for a
single pilot. Maximum speeds for the A-10A given in table VI are comparable to those achievable by the fastest
propeller-driven fighters of World War II.
Certainly the Thunderbolt II (sometimes
irreverently referred to by crew members as the Warthog) will
never reap any honors for ascetic appeal. Yet, given its unique
mission requirements, a more practical design is difficult to
envision. Its ultimate usefulness in a combat situation, however,
has yet to be proven. | <urn:uuid:fc99c55c-66a0-4e26-920f-3700e02de4ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-468/ch12-8.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901838 | 549 | 2.609375 | 3 |
There are two types of accommodation: host family or shared apartment with other students.
Staying with a host familiy gives you even more opportunities to practice your Spanish and see how the Spanish live. Most people choose an individual room with half board. So the family will provide your breakfast and midday meal. In the evenings you will probably go out for tapas or have snacks with the other students in the many terrace bars and restaurants.
Shared student accommodation is the other option. You either have your own room or share it with another person. There is a a shared kitchen and normally a lounge. The photo on the left shows a typical bedrrom in a shared student apartment. As you can see, it is not 5 star luxury and you might have to put up with horrible green curtains but the apartments are clean and pleasant. There is normally a study table in each room.
A lot of the family accommodation in Almuñecar is very good becuase many of the families live in urbanisaciones and some of them have swimming pools. All accommodation is within 20 minutes walking from the school. It is never necessary to drive or get a bus.
The photo on the left is a lounge in a shared student apartment. We send a cleaner in once a week to clean the shared spaces. As in any shared accommodation you have to respect the other people. ie, do your own washing up, be reasonably tidy and not have wild all night parties. | <urn:uuid:6d11e47e-bdff-47b0-9fd6-5a05bb66584c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://colegio-hispanico.com/almunaccom.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958108 | 300 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Many forms of artistic
expression flourished during the long and rich history of Dubrovnik.
The Dubrovnik literature experienced its renaissance "rebirth"
in the 15th and 16th century, when many immortal works of literature
were created. Emerging from life in Dubrovnik and created to amuse,
provoke, cry and laugh, Dubrovnik literature developed from the
people. The Dubrovnik Rectors, regarded as the best-educated citizens
of Dubrovnik of that time (Dinko Ranjina, Dominiko Zlatarić, Ivan
Gundulić and others), created immortal poems about their beloved
city of Dubrovnik.
Ivan Gundulić, the greatest Croatian 17th century
writer, predicted the downfall of the great Turkish Empire in his
great poem Osman. As freedom was regarded as the greatest value
to Dubrovnik, he wrote these immortal verses that are performed
till today on every opening of the world famous Dubrovnik Summer
Festival: " O you beautiful, o you dear,
o you sweet freedom… all the silver, all the gold, all human lives,
can not pay for your pure beauty…".
Many other poets and writers, among them Marin Držić
and Ivo Vojnović created numerous works about the glory and everyday
life of Dubrovnik. Their literature still lives and is very relevant
even today. Don't miss to experience the plays; many of them are
performed during the Dubrovnik Summer Festival.
Other famous citizens of Dubrovnik include the
painter Vlaho Bukovac, the mathematician and astronomer Marin Getaldić
, the composer and author of the Croatian first symphony Luka Sorkočević
and the scientist Ruđer Bošković.
Through centuries Dubrovnik was the cradle of many
famous painters. Little of the riches, created in both the famous
and unknown paint shops, beginning with the frescos in the pre-romanic
churches in the 11th and 12th century, to the greatest pieces of
art by Ivan Ugrinović, Blaž Jurijev, Lovro and Vicko Dobričević,
Nikola Božidarević and Mihailo Hamzić in the 15th and 16th century,
is preserved. Many great works of art disappeared or were plundered
during the centuries in fires, earthquakes and other disasters.
From the remaining works it is obvious that Dubrovnik had great
painters, artists with immense talent and skill that rightfully
established them in the painting history of Europe under the name
of The Dubrovnik Painting School.
The most recognized representatives of the Dubrovnik
Painting School were Lovro Dobričević and his son Vicko Dobričević
(Vicko Lovrin), Nikola Božidarević (the son of the painter Božidar
Vlatković) and Mihajlo Hamzić.
From Lovro Dobričević,
15th century, three works are preserved: the Poliptih in the Dominican
Monastery, Poliptih in the St. Mary church on Danče and parts of
the Poliptih (St. Blaise portrait) in the Franciscan monastery,
all in Dubrovnik.
From Blaž Jurjev Trogiranin,
15th century, there is the painting of Madonna in the St. Durđa
church on Boninovo and a painted crucifixion in the Franciscan monastery
From Ivan Ugrinović,
15th century, only the Poliptih in St. Antun church on island Koločep
From Vicko Dobričević,
16th century, only the Poliptih in the Franciscan monastery in Cavtat
From Mihajlo Hamzić,
16th century, who was educated by Andrea Mantegne in Italy, only
two pieces of art are preserved; The baptism of Christ in Rectors
Palace and the Triptih Lukarević
in the Dominican monastery in Dubrovnik.
From Nikola Božidarević,
regarded by many as the greatest talent among these painters, only
four pieces of art are preserved; the Triptih Bundić, the paintings
Navještenje and Sacra conversacione ( all three located in the Dominican
monastery), and the Poliptih in St. Mary church on Danče, his last
and, by many, most beautiful work. (Danče is the name for a small
part of Dubrovnik located just outside the city walls where the
church is located)
The sudden death of these painters, that happened
from 1517 till 1520 marks the drastic end of a great era of the
Dubrovnik painting school, an era that enriched the cultural heritage
of the world.
Dubrovnik, as one the centers of art on the Mediterranean,
had already in the 14th century many foreign masters working in
it, mainly from Italy. They were all invited by the government of
Dubrovnik to paint on the churches and other monuments in Dubrovnik.
More paintings and other pieces of art can be seen under monuments.
The history of Dubrovnik is directly connected with
the history of its navy. The Dubrovnik Republic and its government
managed to use its closeness to the Sea in the best possible way,
ensuring growth and freedom during centuries. Without its naval
power, Dubrovnik would probably have never become one of the most
important cultural and merchant centers on the Mediterranean, especially
from the 16th to 18th century.
beginning of the Dubrovnik navy can be traced back to the 9th century
and it reached its highlights between 1580 and 1600. In that time
Dubrovnik merchant navy had more than 200 ships that sailed all
the seas. Numerous documents testify about the merchant industry
in Dubrovnik, since the laws of the Dubrovnik Republic required
that every ship had to have a writer. That way, all information's
were archived, showing ownership contracts, names of the captains,
information's about the ports etc. The diplomacy skills of the Dubrovnik
Republic are unique in the naval world history. Business was conducted
under very favorable conditions with numerous countries along the
Mediterranean, turning even enemies into trading partners.
greatest rival in those times was Venice, as Dubrovnik stood in
its way for the complete domination on the Mediterranean. From open
conflicts to the recognition of the sovereignty of Venice over Dubrovnik
that lasted for 150 years (13th - 14th century), Venice remained
a threat for the prosperity and freedom of the Dubrovnik Republic.
All efforts were directed towards using all available means to protect
and defend the Republic from Venice. Even during its complete financial
breakdown due to the Great earthquake in 1667, ruined and devastated,
the diplomacy skill of the Dubrovnik Republic managed to prevent
Venice from conquering Dubrovnik.
The Venetian fleet approached Dubrovnik under the excuse that they
only wanted to help, but in reality just waiting for a chance to
enter and conquer Dubrovnik.
Records say that the Dubrovnik citizen Nikolica
Bunić managed to prevent the Venetian, sending their ships back
with help of only diplomacy. The tale tells that, when the Venetian
fleet arrived outside Dubrovnik at the 17th April 1667, a Dubrovnik
ship crossed their way, stopping them. On that ship there was the
representative of the Republic Niolica Bunić, the only survived
senator after the big earthquake. Bunić stepped on deck of the Venetian
commander’s vessel and gave him the following greeting:” In the
name of the Rector and the Dubrovnik Republic Senate”, even if in
that moment Dubrovnik did not have either a Rector or a Senate.
Assured of an easy conquer, the Venetian commander Cornaro cordially
accepted the representative of Dubrovnik. But his surprise was great
when, while expecting words of surrender, he was meet by :” Welcome
to the water of the Republic”. The astonished commander Cornaro
could not do much but to continue in the same style :
" the Duke has
send me to offer help and assistance against the Turkish army and
Bunić thanked the commander with the remark:” the
government of Dubrovnik has enough power to prevent any attempt
of foreign intrusion and, regarding the help connected with the
earthquake, the republic has already taken all necessary measures,
but many thanks to the Duke of Venice for his concern...”
less determined and skilled was Marojica Kaboga under the negotiations
with the Turkish Pasha who also approached Dubrovnik to, as he sad
:" conquer Dubrovnik before the
Venetian". The hard negotiations and suggestive
persuasions, under whom this young man showed his great talent,
took long time before the Turks finally withdrew their forces.
With this the danger for Dubrovnik’s well-being was not over.
Soon after, threatening to conquer Dubrovnik, a ransom of 150 000
ducats was demanded by the Turkish Pasha. A delegation team, led
by the experienced Nikolica Bunić, was send to the negotiations.
According to a protocol that is preserved in the archive of Dubrovnik
he was, prior of departing, instructed the following:
" Promise nothing.
You can not give anythin". You must stay against everything.
Your Republic looks to you. Maybe you will die, but it will be a
honourfull death, and your country will remain free".
The fact is that Bunić, after several months of
negotiations, indeed did die in the Turkish prison. Dubrovnik paid
nothing and remained free.
Around 1800 the Dubrovnik Republic had a highly organized
network of consulates and consular offices in more than eighty cities
and ports around the world. In 1880 Dubrovnik acquired its first
steam ship and from that time a new era of Dubrovnik shipping begun.
has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the content of this site
but the publisher cannot be held responsible for the consequences of any
Copyright Dubrovnik Online, All rights reserved
No part of this site may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system. | <urn:uuid:59d1b6fc-3b67-4031-897e-a741fc6917a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dubrovnik-online.com/english/culture.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943136 | 2,267 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Tatarstan National Library
Erick van Egeraat
Resembling an open book, the library's two main towers
give a face to the previously undefined space.
The Tatarstan National Library, situated on a hill adjacent to a large square, is not merely the home to Tatarstan's most comprehensive collection of books but, unlike traditional state libraries, the building stands out through its openness to the public.
Situated between the actual library and the city, the entrance
hall is a universe on its own, a place where the collective and
cultural qualities of downtown spaces are combined. The entrance
space can be gallery, living room, park, boulevard, meeting point,
education room or garden at the same time.
The atrium is also a metaphorical bridge between the outside and
the inside, the city and the library, the lively public domain and
the calm retreat of knowledge.
Behind the towers and the entrance hall, two rows of building volumes continue the slope of the landscape. In between the rows, a park-like path is slowly ascending on the roof of the building.
Besides offering all traditional facilities of a state library the building, with its flexible set-up, will provide a home for all modern ways of accessing information and working with knowledge.
Facts about Tatarstan National Library
Gross floor area:
Last updated: December 07, 2012 | <urn:uuid:0ff9fe98-5096-4f63-88a7-52990bb01c4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.arcspace.com/21785 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917364 | 290 | 2.015625 | 2 |
A plague upon them! wherefore should I curse them?
Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan,
I would invent as bitter-searching terms,
As curst, as harsh and horrible to hear,
Deliver'd strongly through my fixed teeth,
With full as many signs of deadly hate,
As lean-faced Envy in her loathsome cave:
My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words;
Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint;
Mine hair be fixed on end, as one distract;
Ay, every joint should seem to curse and ban:
And even now my burthen'd heart would break,
Should I not curse them. Poison be their drink!
Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest that they taste!
Their sweetest shade a grove of cypress trees!
Their chiefest prospect murdering basilisks!
Their softest touch as smart as lizards' sting!
Their music frightful as the serpent's hiss,
And boding screech-owls make the concert full!
All the foul terrors in dark-seated hell--
If you think we’ve posted this in error, please contact us at email@example.com so we can make an appropriate correction. | <urn:uuid:779ef497-01eb-479a-bd9d-34e8d1f06028> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.auditionart.com/Monologues/tabid/165/entryid/3762/-by.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932199 | 276 | 1.8125 | 2 |
This week, The Simple Dollar takes a look at Generation Debt, a book that proposes to show why today is a terrible time to be young, from a financial perspective, at least. Is there enough meat on this idea to make an interesting argument, or is this book just blowing in the wind? Let’s find out.
With a title like this, it’s difficult to really guess what the book will actually be about. When I first picked up Generation Debt, I was expecting a lengthy missive about the specific financial problems of Americans under the age of 30, who are facing a set of financial conditions much different than previous generations faced during their early adulthood.
Although that topic was covered, I felt that the book really wasn’t about that at all. Instead, I felt that the book was much more about generation gap issues, particularly focusing on the upper middle class children of the youngest of the baby boomers (a group of which I am a member), those that ride the line between Generation X and Generation Y.
Rather than strictly talking about dollars and cents, this book is mostly about the varieties of experience that these two generations have in their early adult lives, mostly focusing on the younger set because their situations aren’t documented nearly as well. In that regard, the book succeeds brilliantly.
Thus, the people that really need to read this book are teenagers, twentysomethings, and their parents. In fact, I’ve gone so far as to consider giving a copy of this book to my parents and to my mother- and father-in-law to read because it captures in great detail the differences between our experiences.
If this generational gap is not an issue for you, then this book is probably not worth your time. Although culturally interesting, most of the power of this book is reserved for adult children on the cusp of independence and baby boomers who wear rose colored glasses.
Generation Debt is the fourteenth of fifty-two books in The Simple Dollar’s series 52 Personal Finance Books in 52 Weeks. | <urn:uuid:4c0cc8a9-0e85-4660-9f33-ec31fde72a3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/02/09/generation-debt-buy-or-dont-buy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970998 | 424 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Mirena IUD Problems
Birth control is a fertile ground for lawsuits, these days. Yaz/Yasmin, Beyaz, and NuvaRing are just some of the birth control medications and devices that are causing injuries to women everywhere.
The newest addition to the dangerous birth control family is the Mirena IUD. Mirena is manufactured by Bayer (which makes Yaz and Beyaz). It is a flexible intrauterine device that is placed into the uterus through the vagina by a healthcare provider. Mirena releases a continuous dose of hormones (levonorgestrel) to prevent pregnancy for up to five years. Bayer’s marketing materials also note that it is effective to treat heavy periods in women who choose intrauterine contraception.
IUDs have been around for a long time. The popular first-generation IUD Dalkon Shield was notorious for its defects, which caused infection, sepsis, miscarriage and even death. There was a groundswell of over 300,000 IUD lawsuits over the Dalkon Shield, which led to millions of dollars in damages against the manufacturer.
So what’s the problem with Mirena? Our investigation into the device shows that it may move and puncture the uterus or become firmly embedded in the uterus. This can cause bleeding and other serious complications. Additionally, the device may cause infertility—a possibility that is bolstered by Bayer’s warning that the device should only be used by patients who already have at least one child.
If you believe you may have suffered an injury to your uterus or have become infertile from Bayer's Mirena, call 800-553-8082 or get a free on-line consultation here. | <urn:uuid:a5bddf6b-72ad-48c6-a8df-f9a07a0b8d3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accidentinjurylawyerblog.com/2012/06/mirena_iud_problems.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954328 | 356 | 1.71875 | 2 |
For those who are trying to lose weight, it’s a well known fact that half the war is waged within the mind. There are reasons why you’re overweight in the first place. Neuroses, battle scars, trauma, self doubt, and because you never learnt to deal with these issues in a healthy way, they’ve manifested in unhealthy lifestyle behaviours. The psychology is well known but the solution isn’t as easy when applying it to real life. It’s all very well and good to say to someone who is overweight, ‘Your unresolved mental issues are causing you to overeat. Get over it and get on the treadmill!’ But when that person doesn’t have the psychological tools to deal with those issues, then more often than not, they will lapse into old habits.
There is such a strong culture of fat-shaming in Australia and it walks hand in hand with the taboo that still lingers over mental illness. Take a person who has struggled with self-image issues since puberty. Society labels this as a weakness and something to be hidden because it is shameful to admit that fault. That person never learns the proper tools to deal with the emotions that comes with that shame and those repressed problems come out in self-destructive behaviour such as overeating, which society also condemns, strengthening poor self-image beliefs. Rinse and repeat. It’s a dirty, vicious cycle and it’s one that I am personally still trying to break. I’ve known the science behind this for many years, but it’s only recently that I’ve applied it to my own situation and now that I am aware, I have grabbed the nearest sledgehammer and have been smashing that cycle with all the force I can muster. It must be made of friggen titanium though, because at this point all I’ve managed is a few dents here and there.
I can tell you without a second’s hesitation that my unresolved mental issues are ones that stemmed from schoolyard bullying. I was a delightfully roly poly child (and to be completely honest, was just a bit odd), but that doesn’t play well with young kids and I got hammered pretty hard. There was the full barrage of name-calling, sticks and stones thrown and on one memorable occasion I had a chunk of my head replaced with a chunk of concrete. Things of course got better, I made good friends, the bullies grew up a bit, and I learnt social strategies, but I never built a solid foundation of self worth. I’ve never gathered the tools to deal with the feelings of worthlessness, I’ve only scavenged replacements and oddly, I’ve equated my self worth with making my loved ones feel worthy. Which is not a bad thing, but only as an addition to an already healthy core of self worth.
The way my cycle works is that I push my emotions down with food, and the empty space I then fill with the problems of my friends and family that I use my pent up emotions to fix or support.
I drew a picture of my insides of this process.
It’s only recently have I addressed this. I’ve started by admitting that this is the case and become aware of what triggers me to eat emotionally. I take time out everyday when I’m in danger and ask myself ‘What’s the emotion behind this? What memory is causing this to happen?’ and if I can, I look at it; acknowledge it, and leave it behind me. In my minds eye I have an empty block of land. It’s beautiful and ready for prime real estate. Right now I’m laying a slab-it’s a strong steady slab of self worth and I’m picking out the imperfections in the cement. When I’m ready to build the house it’s going to stand, impenetrable and proud.
It’s a process of course, and there are still small flaws in the concrete that will probably stay there. I still have triggers that I don’t catch in time and I’ll ‘wake up’ after I’ve just eaten half a block of chocolate. But I think that for me, and I imagine a lot of our Curves members, being aware that you have these issues and that you want to change your situation-and actively trying to make changes is a big chunk of the battle won. Wouldn’t it be a desperate state if you had no idea that you had these problems and had no drive to ever change?
It’s truth that our members are driven to change, this week had me spending more time at Curves as an employee and stories of our members amazing achievements come thick and fast and it is just so inspiring that I almost want to cry (happy tears!).
- On Tuesday the lovely Lyn did a 100% workout! That means that her CurvesSmart registered green on all her muscle groups, as well as burning her highest ever amount of calories-a whopping 480!
- On Wednesday Marg finally cracked the 500 calories burnt mark. She’s been working really hard at around 470-495 for the last month and tipped over on Wednesday at 529!
- Shannon, an ex member rejoined last month. She had her weigh in on Wednesday, lost four and a half kg and 14cm in her first month back! Welcome back Shannon and amazing work!
- One of our new members Ailsa has had great success in under a month-she reported to us that she had bought some new work pants and that they no longer fit! Far too big. What a great start Ailsa!
- Another of our ladies, Merle had a win this week of cracking her highest calories burnt-402!
- Shannon burnt her highest cals this week also 530! A personal best!
Like I said, the cycle must be made of titanium or something ridiculous. I’m hammering away at it with my sledgehammer, making dents and weakening it-but I think we could obliterate it if we all picked up heavy objects and as a big, beautiful chaotic group just WENT AT IT together.
(Just imagine your face photoshopped over Mel’s there and you’ve got our basic battle plan down already!)
As many avenues exist that shame weight loss and mental illness there are just as many groups that support it. If you’re struggling with unresolved issues in your head-talk to someone. Whether it be a counsellor, friend, family member or even one of the staff from Curves just have it out with someone. If you’re struggling with weight loss come in and talk with one of our staff, we have some great resources at the club, or talk with a doctor or nutritionist. Don’t let shame or embarrassment hold you back and strengthen that destructive cycle. | <urn:uuid:9ba20485-9cab-4f26-a2b1-d581973f6700> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://curvesnundahblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/weight-loss-as-a-mental-challenge/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96755 | 1,454 | 1.539063 | 2 |
It's the first widespread freeze of the season as a result of an arctic cold front, and the state climatologist says getting cold late in the year isn’t that abnormal.
Shorts and T-shirts were the attire this weekend, then it was rain boots, and now jackets and scarves. The whirlwind weather we saw and felt happened within 48 hours.
"Yep this is weird,” said Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, a professor at Texas A&M University and the state climatologist.
He explained the reason behind the weather.
"In the winter time, our source of air is cold from the north or warm from the south. You never get an extended period of normal weather. It is either going to be warmer than normal or colder than normal,” said Dr. Nielsen-Gammon.
Much like the recent weather, there are different takes on the cold.
"Hot is too hot. This is comfortable,” said Rob Wytaske, a College Station resident from Minnesota.
"Cold is good for a while but I'm done,” said another resident.
"We complain when it is not cold enough, and then when it does get cold again, it only takes a few days until we start wishing it was warm again,” said Dr. Nielsen-Gammon. "It's going to be both cold and warm. But probably the tendency would be slightly warmer than normal on average."
We had to ask if Manziel Mania had the power to affect the current conditions.
Dr. Nielsen-Gammon said,” No he's just been hot." | <urn:uuid:6385fb33-469e-47f0-9a90-f7e5f549d874> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/State-Climatologist-Explains-Whirlwind-Weather--182914931.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964711 | 340 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Your spirituality will serve either to help free you from your mistaken self-concepts or it will subtly reinforce them by deepening the notion that you must ‘become’ perfect through endless prayers, meditations and practices. The intention you give your spirituality will determine where it takes you. Direct your spirituality not to becoming something different, but to unwinding what you have assimilated that is false.
You do not need to work to create the perfect self. It exists already as the Boundless Love within you. You cannot top that. Focus instead on letting go of everything else. Look to your defences. If you were to let go of the strategies you think you need to keep safe, what do you fear would be exposed? In letting your fears of who you are come up for air, you will realize that in truth they are nothing.
In the second year of Interfaith Seminary training, we guide participants through a powerful exercise in pairs to recover a truer sense of identity. Sitting opposite one another, one person asks the other the question, ‘Who are you?’ over and over again for 30 minutes. The questioner says nothing else. Initially, participants grapple with their self-concepts, trying to answer the question logically. Eventually, they let go of their own answers and come to a place of not knowing. The attempt to even to speak falls away. Still being asked ‘Who are you?’, they drop into a deeper knowing of the truth of their being, often accompanied by gentle laughter and tender tears of release.
Recover a truer sense of identity: a meditation
I suggest you do this meditation either with a friend you trust, by looking at your own reflecting in the mirror or by simply reflecting in silence. Decide on how long you will meditate (at lease 10 minutes) and commit to this length of time.
- Firstly, set your intention. Sit with the prayer, ‘Take me into a truer experience of my Self’, until you feel sincere in your request.
- When ready, begin asking yourself gently, ‘Who am I?’ (If working with a friend, have them begin gently asking, ‘Who are you?’
- Keep asking the question, or having it asked of you. Let it take you beyond your self-concepts into something truer. Let the question take you into a place of pure being. | <urn:uuid:212731f9-42e8-4959-ae81-0e61f39a0643> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://touchstonesofthesacred.com/excavate-your-inherent-perfection/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968874 | 499 | 1.898438 | 2 |
|"Are you a wizard or not?"
The title of this article is conjectural. Although it is based on canonical information, the actual name is conjecture and may be supplanted at any time by additional information released from canonical sources. If this occurs, please move this page to the appropriate title.
Cuthbert Binns (son)†
Mr. Binns (fl. 16th or 17th century) was Cuthbert Binns's father and a member of the Binns family. He used to say something to his son, but exactly what he used to say is unknown as Cuthbert fell asleep while telling Harry Potter about it.
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (First mentioned)
Notes and referencesEdit
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) - GBC version | <urn:uuid:ac485e15-e66a-4fcc-9e01-deada27203fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Cuthbert_Binns's_father?oldid=497185 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920263 | 178 | 1.867188 | 2 |
- Questions About Smoking, Tobacco, and Health
- Is smoking tobacco really addictive?
- Why do people start smoking?
- How many people use tobacco?
- What in tobacco smoke is harmful?
- Is secondhand (environmental) tobacco smoke dangerous?
- How does tobacco use affect the economy?
- What’s being done to protect people from the hazards of smoking?
- Are spit tobacco and snuff safe alternatives to smoking?
- What are the health risks of smoking pipes or cigars?
- What about electronic cigarettes? Aren’t they safe?
- Is dissolvable tobacco safe?
- What about more exotic forms of smoking tobacco, such as clove cigarettes, bidis, and hookahs?
- What can I do to help with any damage that may have been caused by smoking?
- Can quitting really help a lifelong smoker?
- How do people quit tobacco?
- To learn more
What in tobacco smoke is harmful?
Cigarettes, cigars, and pipe tobacco are made from dried tobacco leaves, as well as ingredients added for flavor and to make smoking more pleasant. The smoke from these products is a complex mixture of chemicals produced by the burning of tobacco and its additives. The smoke is made up of more than 7,000 chemicals, including over 60 known to cause cancer (carcinogens). Some of these substances cause heart and lung diseases too, and all of them can be deadly. You might be surprised to know some of the chemicals found in tobacco smoke include:
- Methanol (wood alcohol)
- Acetylene (the fuel used in welding torches)
Tobacco smoke also contains tar and the poison gases carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide. The ingredient that produces the effect people are looking for is nicotine, an addictive drug and one of the harshest chemicals in tobacco smoke.
The tobacco leaves used in making cigarettes and cigars contain radioactive materials; the amount depends on the soil the plants were grown in and fertilizers used. But this means that the smoke contains small amounts of radioactive material too, which smokers take into their lungs as they inhale. These radioactive particles build up in the lungs, and over time can mean a big dose of radiation. This may be another key factor in smokers getting lung cancer.
Does smoking cause cancer?
Yes. Smoking accounts for at least 30% of all cancer deaths in the United States and 87% of lung cancer deaths. Smoking also causes cancers of the nasopharynx (upper throat), nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses, lip, larynx (voice box), mouth, pharynx (throat), esophagus (swallowing tube), and bladder. It also has been linked to the development of cancers of the pancreas, cervix, ovary, colorectum, kidney, stomach, and some types of leukemia. Cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and spit and other types of smokeless tobacco all cause cancer. There is no safe way to use tobacco.
How does tobacco smoke affect the lungs?
Damage to the lungs begins early in smokers, and cigarette smokers have a lower level of lung function than non-smokers of the same age. Lung function continues to worsen as long as the person smokes, but it may take years for the problem to become noticeable enough for lung disease to be diagnosed. Smoking causes many lung diseases that can be nearly as bad as lung cancer.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a name for long-term lung disease which includes both chronic bronchitis and emphysema (discussed below). Here are some facts about COPD:
- More than 12 million people in the United States suffer from COPD. Another 12 million may have the disease and not even know it.
- COPD is the third leading cause of death in the United States.
- More women die from COPD than men.
- Smoking is the main risk factor for COPD—8 to 9 out of 10 cases are caused by cigarette smoking.
- More than 90% of COPD deaths are caused by smoking.
- The longer and heavier a person smokes, the higher their COPD risk.
- There is no cure for COPD.
COPD most often starts unnoticed in young smokers, and usually gets far worse before it’s diagnosed. Noises in the chest (such as wheezing, rattling, or whistling), shortness of breath during activity, and coughing up mucus (phlegm) are some of the earlier signs of COPD.
Over time, COPD can make it hard to breathe even at rest. It limits activities and causes serious health problems. The late stage of chronic lung disease is one of the most miserable of all illnesses. It makes people gasp for breath and feel as if they are drowning.
Chronic bronchitis is a disease where the airways make too much mucus, forcing the person to cough it out. It’s a common problem for smokers. The airways become inflamed (swollen) and the cough becomes chronic (long-lasting). The symptoms can get better at times, but the cough keeps coming back. Airways get blocked by scars and mucus, which can lead to bad lung infections (pneumonia).
There’s no cure for chronic bronchitis, but quitting smoking can help keep symptoms under control. Quitting smoking also helps keep the damage from getting worse.
Smoking is also the major cause of emphysema, a disease that slowly destroys a person’s ability to breathe. Oxygen gets into the blood by moving across a large surface area in the lungs. Normally, thousands of tiny sacs make up this surface. In emphysema, the walls between the sacs break down and create larger but fewer sacs. This decreases the lung surface area, which lowers the amount of oxygen reaching the blood. Over time, the lung surface area can become so small that a person with emphysema must work very hard to get enough air, even when at rest.
Signs of late emphysema may include a cough that doesn’t go away (which is often dismissed as “smoker’s cough”), shortness of breath even when lying down, feeling tired, and weight loss. People with emphysema are at risk for many other problems linked to weak lung function, including pneumonia. In later stages of the disease, patients can only breathe comfortably with the help of an oxygen tube under the nose.
Emphysema cannot be cured or reversed, but it can be slowed down, especially if the person stops smoking.
Why do smokers have “smoker’s cough?”
Tobacco smoke has many chemicals and particles that irritate the airways and lungs. When a smoker inhales these substances, the body tries to clear them by making mucus and coughing.
The early morning smoker’s cough happens for many reasons. Normally, tiny hair-like formations (called cilia) beat outward and sweep harmful material out of the lungs. But tobacco smoke slows the sweeping action, so some of the particles in the smoke stay in the lungs and mucus stays in the airways. While a smoker sleeps, some cilia recover and begin working again. After waking up, the smoker coughs because the lungs are trying to clear away the irritants and mucus that built up from the day before.
The cilia will completely stop working after they have been exposed to smoke for a long time. Then the smoker’s lungs are even more exposed and prone to infection and irritation.
If you smoke but don’t inhale, is there any danger?
Yes. Wherever smoke touches living cells, it does harm. Even smokers who don’t inhale are breathing secondhand smoke. They are at risk for lung cancer and other diseases caused by secondhand smoke.
Pipe and cigar smokers, who often don’t inhale, are at an increased risk for lip, mouth, tongue, and some other cancers, too.
Does smoking tobacco affect your heart?
Yes. Smoking tobacco increases the risk of heart disease, which is the number one cause of death in the United States. Smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, physical inactivity, obesity, and diabetes are all risk factors for heart disease. But the biggest risk factor for sudden death from a heart attack is cigarette smoking.
A smoker who has a heart attack is more likely to die within an hour of the heart attack than a non-smoker. Tobacco smoke can harm the heart at very low levels, even when the amount is too low to cause lung disease.
How does smoking affect pregnant women and their babies?
Pregnant women who smoke risk the health and lives of their unborn babies. Smoking during pregnancy is linked with a greater chance of miscarriage, premature delivery, stillbirth, infant death, low birth-weight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Up to 5% of infant deaths could be prevented if pregnant women did not smoke. Many women know about some of these hazards, and most try to stop smoking when they find out they’re pregnant.
When a pregnant woman smokes, she’s smoking for 2. The nicotine, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals enter her bloodstream, go into the baby’s body, and keep it from getting vital nutrients and oxygen it needs for growth.
Breast-feeding is the best way to feed a new baby, but if the mother smokes the baby is exposed to nicotine and other substances from the smoke through breast milk. Nicotine can cause unwanted symptoms in the baby, such as restlessness, a rapid heartbeat, vomiting, shorter sleep times, and diarrhea. It’s better not to smoke while breast feeding. But breast feeding is thought to be healthier for the baby than the bottle, even when the mother smokes. Women who can’t quit right away can
- Make their homes smoke-free to keep the child away from second hand smoke
- Smoke just after breast-feeding to give the body more time to clear nicotine from breast milk
- Cut back on their smoking as much as possible
Some research has also suggested that children whose mothers smoked while pregnant or who have been exposed to secondhand smoke, even in small amounts, may be slower learners in school. They may be shorter and smaller than children of non-smokers. They are also more likely to smoke when they get older.
What are some of the short- and long-term effects of smoking tobacco?
Smoking causes many types of cancer. But cancers account for only about half of the deaths linked to smoking. Long-term, smoking is also a major cause of heart disease, aneurysms, bronchitis, emphysema, and stroke. It also makes pneumonia and asthma worse. Smoking is linked to about half of the gum disease in the United States, which means more tooth loss and mouth surgery. Wounds take longer to heal and the immune system may not work as well in people who smoke.
Smoking also damages the arteries. This is why many vascular surgeons refuse to operate on patients with peripheral artery disease (poor blood circulation in the arms and legs) unless they stop smoking. And male smokers have a higher risk of sexual impotence (erectile dysfunction) the longer they smoke.
Smoking also causes many short-term effects, such as poor lung function. This is why smokers often suffer shortness of breath and nagging coughs. They often tire quickly during physical activity. Some other common short-term effects include less ability to smell and taste, premature aging of the skin, bad breath, and stained teeth.
What are the chances that smoking will kill you?
About half of the people who keep smoking will die because of it. In the United States, tobacco causes nearly 1 in 5 deaths; or about 443,000 premature deaths each year. Smoking is the single most preventable cause of death in our society.
Last Medical Review: 11/08/2012
Last Revised: 01/17/2013 | <urn:uuid:d181577c-cb1d-465e-beda-5f2117ed198a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/questionsaboutsmokingtobaccoandhealth/questions-about-smoking-tobacco-and-health-cancer-and-health | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95352 | 2,523 | 3.375 | 3 |
MERGE WITH PODCASTING AND STREAMING AUDIO
A podcast is a way to automatically download audio files to your computer, from a specific podcast show as new episodes or files are released. LibriVox podcast files are available Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with a poem on Sunday. There is more information on the podcast page of the main LibriVox site.
What you need to get a podcast:
- A podcast receiver (sometimes called a podcatcher) which is just software that will find and collect the files you want (examples: iTunes, Juice). You could also try a web-based service such as odeo.
- The Firefox browser features a built-in Feed Reader to handle subscribing to a podcast, which it refers to as creating a "Live Bookmark".
- The "feed URL" of the podcasts you want (sometimes referred to as an "RSS feed"), and then you can enter the feed into the podcast receiver (called subscribing).
The link to a podcast (which has the extension ".xml") is known as an "RSS feed" (for "Really Simple Syndication"). This same mechanism, which is used for getting updates of podcast shows, can also be used to acquire any specific audio book, including story and poetry collections, in the LibriVox catalog. Every page in the catalog has a short set of links just below the description. Three of them are related to podcasting and RSS feeds, labeled, "RSS feed", "Subscribe in iTunes", and "Chapter-a-day".
There are instructions for using iTunes to get LibriVox audio books (ie, "subscribing").
New Releases Podcasts
(The following instructions were copied from another part of the site, and are awaiting integration into this page.)
- Get some podcast receiver software such as juice, or iTunes
- To subscribe using ipodder: right click/control click and copy this link: !LibriVox Podcast Feed. In ipodder, choose "tools" then "add a feed" and paste the link into the "url" field. You will be able to download past podcasts and automatically receive future podcasts.
- To subscribe using iTunes, you may copy the LibriVox Podcast Feed link in the same way, then in iTunes choose "advanced" then "subscribe to podcast" and paste the link into the "url" field.
- Or you can simply click here: One-Click iTunes Subscription. If you get a pop-up, choose "launch application". iTunes will launch on your computer, and the !LibriVox podcast page will appear. Click the "subscribe" button, and you will be able to download past podcasts and automatically receive future podcasts. | <urn:uuid:0f69ff7d-228c-478e-a743-0c69edb6c34e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=Podcast&oldid=1818 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914575 | 572 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Children as young as 9 years old have been able to learn to apply CPR effectively. More >
Winning Warm-up: Soccer Injuries Nearly Halved
The plus sign in FIFA's 11+ warm-up program might well signify plus-sized results.
The exercise regimen developed by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, soccer's international governing body, (known as FIFA), can reduce overall injuries by one-third and severe injuries by nearly one-half, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal.
In a cluster-randomized controlled trial of 1890 Norwegian female youth soccer players, investigators from FIFA's Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC) and from the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre found significantly lower rates of injury in athletes who regularly performed the 20-minute program during an eight-month season.
"The 11+ program should be implemented as a key element of [soccer] training," said Jiri Dvorak, MD, chairman of F-MARC and co-author of the study. "In fact, every coach and team physician needs to be aware of its positive effects and results."
The overall injury rate in the 52 teams randomized to the intervention group was 32% lower than in the 41 control teams that warmed up as usual throughout the season. Athletes in the intervention group also had a 24% lower risk of acute injury, a 53% lower risk of overuse injury, a 46% lower risk of a serious injury (time loss of more than 28 days), a 30% lower risk of any lower extremity injury, and a 45% lower risk of knee injury.
The findings are particularly impressive given that the teams in the intervention group did not actually implement the regimen prior to every training session as they had been instructed to do by the study authors. Compliance with the 11+ program was estimated at 77%.
However, that rate of compliance was a significant improvement over the previous incarnation of the F-MARC warm-up program, which was dubbed "The 11" because it included 10 exercises plus an 11th component of fair play. A cluster-randomized study of "The 11" published in the January 2008 issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports found no significant effect of that warm-up program, likely because the compliance rate was a poor 52%.
In particular, some coaches felt that "The 11" was not active enough to be an effective warm-up. To address that issue, the 11+ incorporates eight minutes of running at the start of the program and two minutes at the end, a design similar to that used in the Prevent injury and Enhance Performance (PEP) program developed by Santa Monica researchers to prevent anterior cruciate ligament injuries. You can download a poster of the FIFA program from their website: http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/developing/releases/newsid=974799.html.
January 2, 2009
No comments have been made | <urn:uuid:e50a2de1-b271-431d-90f4-c2ae124fcca2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedoctorwillseeyounow.com/content/sports_medicine/art2446.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971215 | 615 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Genesis 38:12 WYC
Forsooth when many years were passed, the daughter of Shuah, Judah's wife, died; and when comfort was taken after mourning, Judah went up to the shearers of his sheep (After many years had passed, Judah's wife, the daughter of Shuah, died; and after mourning her, when comfort was taken, Judah went up to his sheep-shearers); (yea,) he and Hirah of Adullam, that was [the] keeper of the flock, went up into Timnath.
Read Genesis 38 WYC
Read Genesis 38:12 WYC in parallel
The profligate conduct of Judah and his family.
- This chapter gives an account of Judah and his family, and such an account it is, that it seems a wonder that of all Jacob's sons, our Lord should spring out of Judah, ( Hebrews 7:14 ) . But God will show that his choice is of grace and not of merit, and that Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief. Also, that the worthiness of Christ is of himself, and not from his ancestors. How little reason had the Jews, who were so called from this Judah, to boast as they did, ( John 8:41 ) . What awful examples the Lord proclaims in his punishments, of his utter displeasure at sin! Let us seek grace from God to avoid every appearance of sin. And let that state of humbleness to which Jesus submitted, when he came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, in appointing such characters as those here recorded, to be his ancestors, endear the Redeemer to our hearts.
Genesis 38:1-30 . JUDAH AND FAMILY.
1. at that time--a formula frequently used by the sacred writers, not to describe any precise period, but an interval near about it.
2. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite--Like Esau [ Genesis 26:34 ], this son of Jacob, casting off the restraints of religion, married into a Canaanite family; and it is not surprising that the family which sprang from such an unsuitable connection should be infamous for bold and unblushing wickedness.
8. Judah said unto Onan . . . marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother--The first instance of a custom, which was afterwards incorporated among the laws of Moses, that when a husband died leaving a widow, his brother next of age was to marry her, and the issue, if any, was to be served heir to the deceased (compare Deuteronomy 25:5 ).
12. Judah . . . went up unto his sheep-shearers--This season, which occurs in Palestine towards the end of March, was spent in more than usual hilarity, and the wealthiest masters invited their friends, as well as treated their servants, to sumptuous entertainments. Accordingly, it is said, Judah was accompanied by his friend Hirah.
Timnath--in the mountains of Judah.
18. signet, &c.--Bracelets, including armlets, were worn by men as well as women among the Hebrews. But the Hebrew word here rendered "bracelets," is everywhere else translated "lace" or "ribbon"; so that as the signet alone was probably more than an equivalent for the kid, it is not easy to conjecture why the other things were given in addition, except by supposing the perforated seal was attached by a ribbon to the staff.
24. Bring her forth, and let her be burnt--In patriarchal times fathers seem to have possessed the power of life and death over the members of their families. The crime of adultery was anciently punished in many places by burning ( Leviticus 21:9 , Judges 15:6 , Jeremiah 29:22 ). This chapter contains details, which probably would never have obtained a place in the inspired record, had it not been to exhibit the full links of the chain that connects the genealogy of the Saviour with Abraham; and in the disreputable character of the ancestry who figure in this passage, we have a remarkable proof that "He made himself of no reputation" [ Philippians 2:7 ]. | <urn:uuid:6a05d33e-d086-484e-b96c-1a5bad71c61d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biblestudytools.com/genesis/38-12-compare.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98705 | 884 | 1.78125 | 2 |
British health tech startups seek US foothold
- Published: 13/01/2011 at 05:30 AM
- Online news:
British entrepreneurs touting new technologies for concerns such as keeping tabs on addled elderly or trouble getting pregnant were courting Silicon Valley connections on Wednesday.
A midwife examines a pregnant woman at a maternity ward. British entrepreneurs touting new technologies for concerns such as keeping tabs on addled elderly or trouble getting pregnant were courting Silicon Valley connections on Wednesday.
Nineteen promising startups were here to connect with investors, technology titans, and potential partners as part of a Future Health Mission backed by the British Technology Strategy Board.
"We brought the best and the brightest companies that we think are on the bottom of the growth hockey stick to the San Francisco Bay Area," said the board's Zahid Latif.
"Where else would you bring them but one of the most innovative areas on the planet?"
The contingent's week-long stay was timed to coincide with an annual JP Morgan health conference and includes meetings with chip maker Qualcomm, computer giant Hewlett-Packard, and networking powerhouse Cisco.
"It's been fantastic," said Shamus Husheer, whose startup Cambridge Temperature Concepts is part of the group. "Getting these introductions at a very high level to the right people is amazing."
Husheer's DuoFertility invention that uses body temperature feedback to predict prime times for a woman to get pregnant has proven itself in Europe and his company is heading for the US market.
A woman wears a patch about the size of a US 25-cent piece under one arm, and information from sensors is analyzed to determine when she is most fertile. Results are routed wirelessly to a handset.
The information can also be sent over the Internet to doctors so they can try to pinpoint conditions that may be preventing people from conceiving.
DuoFertility pays back the 495-pound price of the kit if a woman doesn't get pregnant as promised within a year.
"My parents had one hell of a time bringing myself and my brother into the world," the scientist said of his inspiration for the invention.
"I came up with the concept while working on my PHD and immediately knew which application to put it to."
He founded the company while working on a graduate degree in chemistry at Cambridge University.
DuoFertility is seeking approval from US regulators and hoped to be in the United States by the end of the year. The company is already having trouble keeping up with demand in Europe.
"We are actually having problems maintaining stock," Husheer said. "Which is wonderful, but still a business problem."
About 80 health-oriented startups vied to take part in the outing to San Francisco, with 19 of the "best and brightest" being selected, according to Latif.
Startups included the maker of a "buddi" device smaller than a deck of cards that uses global satellite positioning technology to "discreetly" track children or elderly people with dementia.
Buddi gadgets could send alerts to friends or family members when people fall and can't get back up or if they strayed into areas designated as off limits, according to the company.
Neotherix touted technology that speeds the healing of wounds while reducing scarring.
"From what we are seeing of the buzz around these companies, from our perspective it is mission accomplished," Latif said of the mission, which ends on Friday.
About the author
- Writer: AFP
Position: News agency | <urn:uuid:d39413b5-d2fb-44d0-84a2-a97e16e2439c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bangkokpost.com/print/216157/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962343 | 724 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more
Diabetic women more likely to die after heart attack
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women younger than age 65 with diabetes tend to have worse cardiovascular risk profiles than diabetic men of the same age, leading to higher death rates following a heart attack, research shows.
"The female advantage with fewer cardiovascular events than in men at younger ages is attenuated once a woman has the diagnosis of diabetes," Dr. Anna Norhammar and associates report.
They sought to identify gender-related differences in prognosis, risk factors, or treatment among 25,555 patients younger than age of 65 treated for heart attack between 1995 and 2002. In this cohort, 23 percent were women and 21 percent of women and 16 percent of men were previously diagnosed with diabetes.
During an average follow-up of 4.4 years, diabetic women had a 34 percent increased risk of dying, compared with diabetic men.
Compared with the male patients, female patients had higher rates of high blood pressure and heart failure and were more likely to smoke.
Fewer women than men had had procedures to open clogged arteries prior to their first heart attack, and women were less likely to be treated with blood pressure drugs called beta-blockers or ACE inhibitors.
Nevertheless, Norhammar, at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, and her team attribute the higher death rate in diabetic women younger than 65, relative to diabetic men of the same age, to risk factors rather than treatment differences.
"The present observation makes further study of the impact of improved risk factor management in this particular group of relatively young, easily identifiable, high-risk patients important," the researchers conclude, "together with attempts to initiate treatment and cardiac investigations before their first (heart attack) or the onset of heart failure."
SOURCE: Heart, November 2008.
- Tweet this
- Share this
- Digg this | <urn:uuid:a2f777fc-62b1-4247-b35d-094e18333273> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/11/25/us-diabetic-women-idUSTRE4AO5YX20081125?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961483 | 411 | 2.15625 | 2 |
January 21, 2011
Friday, January 21: Painting Techniques of Henry Ossawa Tanner
Museum conservators Amber Kerr-Allison and Brian Baade present findings of their recent study and analysis of six of Tanner’s works in the permanent collection, including the newly conserved Flight into Egypt. Learn how Tanner’s documented painting recipe, preserved in the Archives of American Art, contributed to their understanding and analysis of this artist’s technique that produced some of the most vibrant paintings at the turn of the 20th century. Free. American Art Museum, 4:00 PM.
Saturday, January 22: Washington’s Dance Party
Narrated by Martha Reeves—known for hits like “Dancing in the Street” and “Heatwave“—this documentary takes a look at Washington DC’s 1960s television show “The Teenarama Dance Party.” The program allowed black teens to dance and socialize together and provided a place to relax while the fight for civil rights raged around them. After the screening, stick around for a discussion with the film’s producer, as well as people who were involved with the original Teenarama show. Free. For reservations and information, call 202-633-4844. Anacostia Museum, 1:00-3:00 PM.
Sunday, January 23: Artist Talk with Mark Sfirri
Wood artist Mark Sfirri, the 2009 James Renwick Alliance distinguished educator, whose work is on view in A Revolution in Wood, explains his passion for wood turning and the artistic process. Join Sfirri as he discusses his body of work and current projects. Free. Renwick Gallery, 2:00 PM
For updates on all exhibitions and events, visit our companion site goSmithsonian.com
Sign up for our free email newsletter and receive the best stories from Smithsonian.com each week.
No Comments »
No comments yet. | <urn:uuid:d881d38a-f6a2-4039-a00d-fc35f990262b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2011/01/weekend-events-painting-woodworking-and-a-dance-party/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948621 | 403 | 1.929688 | 2 |
|Korean Talmud (Photo courtesy of the Embassy of South Korea to Israel)|
In their quest for success, South Korea has eschewed all the other self-help books on the market and have decided learning Talmud is the key:
In South Korea there are close to 49 million residents, and they all learn Gemara in school (www.ynet.co.il). “We tried to understand why the Jews are such geniuses and we concluded that (it is because) they study Talmud,” explained South Korea’s ambassador to Israel.In an interview on Israeli TV, Mr. Young-Sam-Ma, pointed to the values that the Jewish people and Koreans share in common: family, respect for elders, education and culture. He was also impressed that even the smallest kibbutz has a cultural center with cultural activities. Then there are the other similarities: both countries were established in 1948, both are surrounded by enemies, both are poor in natural resources--and both are known for their bad driving habits (“I feel right at home driving in Israel”).
...“We were curious how come the Jews are so successful academically and have a much higher percentage of Nobel Prize winners in all fields… what is their secret?… one of your secrets is studying Talmud,” continued ambassador Young-Sam-Ma.
The blog Menachem Mendel in a post, Sura, Pumbedita, and now Seoul, has found a number of interesting links on this:
The Korean interest in the Talmud has been going on for a number of years. In a 2004 post, The Cunning Linguist found out about this and found an article in The Korea Times:
Interestingly, there are at least two different books currently sitting on Korean best-seller shelves that purport to explain the Jewish Talmud. The popularity of these books initially came as a surprise. But Koreans aren't converting to Judaism. They read those books because Jews have gained a reputation for hard work and success, two things Koreans relate to well. They don't look up to Jews for their culture or religion. They admire the Jews's diligence and persistence at striking out on their own and obtaining wealth.According to Hashkafa.com--it is not only the Koreans who have an interest in the Talmud; the Japanese are studying Talmud as well.
In that sense, Koreans and Jews--at least as they're perceived by Koreans--have something in common. But locally that diligence and hardworking attitude is being questioned these days, something that might explain why Koreans are looking to Jews for inspiration.
Though the may not study the Talmud (yet), the Chinese government did send an official to both England and Israel in order to earn a Ph.D. in Jewish studies, so that he could come back and teach the future professors of Jewish studies from major universities of China.
This is all part of the Chinese fascination with Jews and their apparent success in the world:
According to Song Lihong, deputy director of the Glazer Institute of Jewish Studies at Nanjing University, a glance at the shelves of Jewish-interest books in Chinese bookstores provides a clue as to why Judaism fascinates. Popular titles include “The Talmudic Wisdom in Conducting Business,” “Talmud: The Greatest Jewish Bible for Making Money” and “Unveiling the Secrets of Jewish Success in World Economy: What’s Behind Jewish Excellence?”An article entitled New Era in the UN, about Ban Ki-Moon's appointment as Secretary General of the UN notes the implications of South Korea adopting the method of studying Talmud, and not just its content:
While Song acknowledges that the nature of this interest may seem “ominous” to Westerners, he insists that there is nothing sinister about it. Divorced from the Christian context that bred conspiracy theories about Jews in finance and the Muslim context that perpetuated them, it is simply driven by a natural curiosity about a group that appears to play a significant role in world affairs.
Eighth grade Korean students study a one-year course introducing the Talmud and adopting its methods. Commentators have labeled this trend a rejection of rigid Confucian education, which rejects discussion, and an adoption of the Jewish model of education, which greatly emphasizes discussion and creative thinking.Of all the ways that Jews and Israel might have an impact on the world, who would have thought that the Talmud would be the source of Jewish influence in Asia?
Hat tip: Israel At Level Ground
Technorati Tag: Talmud and Korea and Gemarah. | <urn:uuid:f3ce6f69-becc-4a20-ae7a-4318220a20c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://daledamos.blogspot.com/2011/03/korean-study-of-talmud-and-asian.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961016 | 953 | 2.421875 | 2 |
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ immigrant population, among the fastest-growing in the nation, has a positive impact on the state’s economy, according to results of a study released Tuesday.
The report, “A Profile of Immigrants in Arkansas 2013” commissioned by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, also found that more than 4 in 10 immigrants in the state are undocumented.
The immigrant population here grew by 82 percent between 2000 and 2010, according to the report, a rate behind only Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Steve Appold, an assistant professor in the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina and a researcher on the study, said the net economic impact of immigrants in Arkansas in 2010 equaled about $3.4 billion. He estimated their presence cost the state about $555 million, mostly for public education and health care.
Immigrants fill many low-wage manufacturing jobs in Arkansas, particularly in the poultry industry, according to Appold, and many other businesses depend on immigrant labor, added Randy Zook, president of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce-Associated Industries of Arkansas.
“We need them,” Zook said during a news conference at the state Capitol announcing the report. “Immigrants provide a critical level of labor resource that is absolutely vital to the state. Without the immigrant population in Arkansas … a number of sectors in the state would be greatly challenged to function, much less to prosper.”
Sherece West-Scantlebury, president and CEO of the Rockefeller foundation, said the purpose of the report was “to educate and inform and to provide data to communities, business leaders, policy makers … (so) when we talk about immigrants and immigration in Arkansas that it is a conversation that is driven and informed by relevant, important data.”
The report did not address the politics of immigration, noting that is a federal issue.
However, Joel Anderson, chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, urged the Legislature to pass legislation to make the children of undocumented immigrants eligible for in-state college tuition rates.
“It’s certainly an issue on which the state ought to make progress,” Anderson said during the news conference. “In my judgment it’s one of those issues that everybody … ought to be able to pull that out and see that as a noncontroversial, nonpolitical issue. Can’t we say it really makes sense not only for their sake but for our sake because of all the benefits from having a more educated population?”
The report found that immigrants total about 146,000 in Arkansas, about 5 percent of the state’s 1.9 million residents. Nationally, immigrants make up 13 percent of the population.
The report said a majority of immigrants in the state, 51 percent, are from Mexico, 7 percent are from El Salvador, 4 percent from India, 3 percent each from Vietnam, Laos, Germany and the Philippines, and 2 percent from Guatemala, Korea, Canada and China.
The report said that 42 percent of immigrants in the state are undocumented, compared to 29 percent nationally.
On the Net: www.wrfoundation.org/ | <urn:uuid:6ed4b6e2-a01f-430b-9409-2d7a3c9ea70c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pbcommercial.com/sections/news/state/report-immigrants-contribute-state%E2%80%99s-economy.html-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947528 | 660 | 2.15625 | 2 |
When we talk about writing style we're talking about the way the author uses grammar, punctuation, literary devices (like flashbacks and symbols for example), and even spelling to create effects. Style includes the length, structure, and arrangement of sentences and paragraphs. It can include word choice. Here we'll focus on some of the broad elements of style in "The Scarlet Ibis."
"The Scarlet Ibis" contains a frame story, or a story within a story. The main story of Brother and Doodle's time together is framed as a memory. Most stories told in the past tense are implied memories. The narrator has to be remembering them to tell them. But here Brother explicitly states that the story he's telling is a memory. The idea of memory is the frame for his point of view, but the ibis itself functions as the story's literal frame.
The title, the first sentence, and the last sentence all refer to the ibis. Does this strike you as a tad too neat and tidy? Brother's memory seems more like a carefully composed painting than an accurate description of a series of events. The best example of what we mean is probably this line:
Finally I went back and found him huddled beneath a red nightshade bush beside the road. (4.48)
Remember, the ibis is found in "the bleeding tree." A bleeding tree is any tree that is giving off sap, either of its own accord, or because a person has tapped it. The sap might be reddish, but it's not likely that it's red like blood. Still, it gives us an image of red, and of blood. It's almost annoying Doodle would die underneath a red bush in addition to physically resembling the ibis in death. We don't want to feel like we're being beaten over the head with symbols when we read. But, there are some positive ways of looking at this aspect of Hurst's style here in the "Ibis."
Brother could be suggesting that memory is a creative act, an art form. To deal with the pain of his experience, to maintain some control over his intense emotions (guilt, love, etc.) Brother needs to arrange the memory artfully. He can't change what happened but he can, to some extent, control how it looks in his mind. If he has to look at it every day, he might as well add some beauty to the horror.
Or maybe he can't control it. Maybe he isn't doing it deliberately. Maybe the key to all this red lies in the final paragraph of the story:
I began to weep, and the tear blurred vision in red before me looked very familiar. (4.54)
From the moment Brother begins to weep, when he realizes Doodle is dead, and that he'd "been bleeding from the mouth" he will remember those events with "tear blurred vision in red" (4.49). This could mean that everything he's told us up to that point has been remembered with, we can't help repeating, "tear blurred vision in red." It doesn't really matter if the bush was 'really' red or not.
If you've spent anytime looking at the natural world, you know that it, like Brother's descriptions, seems almost too perfect, too beautiful, too artfully constructed. In addition to expressing his guilt and grief, Brother is expressing his vision of people, nature, and animals as intimately connected in mysterious ways.
It's also a way for him to at least try to put Doodle's death into perspective, at least try not to think of himself as a murderer. While he knows Doodle's death was avoidable (or he wouldn't be feeling so guilty) he can still take cold comfort in the fact that the forces of nature kill on a much grander scale every day.
Before we let you out of this section, we should say a few words on foreshadowing. As you know, foreshadowing is technique writers use to prepare the reader for important events that will happen in the story. Foreshadowings are hints or clues about what is to come. Many readers note that "The Scarlet Letter Ibis" foreshadows Doodle's death in quite a few ways.
Most obviously, the death of the ibis foreshadows Doodle's death. The interesting thing is that, according to Brother, Doodle's death isn't just being foreshadowed in his telling of the story, but in real life. According to him, nature, from the smell of "graveyard flowers" in the first paragraph, to the dying of the ibis, was foreshadowing Doodle's death on that fateful afternoon. What do you think of this? Does nature foreshadow what will happen to us as if life is just one big novel? Or is does it only look like foreshadowing in hindsight? | <urn:uuid:ac976a3d-35fd-4ce1-bf79-239d4441bf1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shmoop.com/scarlet-ibis/writing-style.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978249 | 993 | 3.46875 | 3 |
- Featured Stories
- Douglas County
- City of Ava
- General Interest
COLUMBIA, MO – Missouri’s organic farmers and those transitioning to organic production have until May 20 to apply for the next round of financial assistance available through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, State Conservationist J.R. Flores said.
Flores said about $1.3 million is available through NRCS’ Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). That is Missouri’s share of a $50 million nationwide initiative. Eligible producers include those certified through USDA’s National Organic Program, those transitioning to certified organic production, and those who meet organic standards but are exempt from certification because their gross annual organic sales are less than $5,000.
EQIP promotes agricultural production and environmental quality. Through EQIP, farmers and ranchers receive financial and technical assistance to help install structural conservation practices and to implement management systems that promote conservation.
Flores said conservation practices could include planting cover crops, establishing integrated pest management plans, constructing seasonal high tunnels, or implementing nutrient management systems consistent with organic certification standards.
Under EQIP Organic Initiative contracts, NRCS provides financial payments and technical assistance to help producers implement conservation measures in keeping with organic production. Beginning, limited resource, and socially disadvantaged producers may obtain additional assistance. The 2008 Farm Bill limits EQIP payments for organic operations to $20,000 per year per person or legal entity, with a maximum total of $80,000 over six years.
To apply for EQIP or to get more information about EQIP and other NRCS programs, contact the NRCS office serving your county. Look in the phone book under “U.S. Government, Department of Agriculture,” or access this website: http://offices.usda.gov.
You can also get information about NRCS programs online at http://www.mo.nrcs.usda.gov/programs. | <urn:uuid:8ed9d85d-c251-40ff-adff-3e02d69ec959> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://douglascountyherald.com/2011/04/22/nrcs-assistance-supports-organic-growers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908282 | 409 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Scriba, NY -- A planning board meeting at the Scriba municipal building will address the environmental danger brought with the construction of a coal-to-gas plant.
The 7 p.m. hearing will allow town officials to hear a presentation from Kestas Bendinskas, associate professor of chemistry at the State University College of Oswego. Bendinskas is expected to cite the threats of global warming and carbon dioxide in his 45-minute presentation.
TransGas Development Corp. announced its intention to move forward with the plant in June.
For more, see today's story in The Post-Standard. | <urn:uuid:1d490900-7159-485e-9751-f66ca97fca9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/01/professors_presentation_will_o.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911638 | 126 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Over 100 new solutions to the popular Vietnamese puzzle game Evereto – but now more often referred to by the name of the game's creator, Tri Uan, – have been published in time for the millennial anniversary of Ha Noi, according to Uan's son, Nguyen Tri Hung.
HA NOI –
The game helps sharpen powers of observation through the discovery of resemblances between geometric and natural forms, such as a face, a lotus, a horse, a bird and a heart.
Hung told Viet Nam News that the new answer book guides players to form various figures from seven basic wooden pieces to resemble famous Ha Noi sites such as the Tortoise Tower and the One-Pillar Pagoda.
The game has been popular since Uan created it in 1940.
According to Uan's daughter, Nguyen Bach Ngoc, her father had taken part in revolutionary activities since he was very young. He was arrested by French troops in May 1940 when he was 24 and exiled in the northern province of Phu Tho. With help from his comrades, he fled to nearby Ha Noi and took part in the revolutionary underground.
Uan hid himself in a lumber room at a house at 42 Hue Street in Ha Noi. His only source of entertainment was to cut cartons into pieces and make them into shapes.
"My father told me that he was an excellent student of math at Buoi High School, so he wanted to make something out of what he had learned," said Ngoc. "After several days, he had cut seven pieces from an 8x10cm rectangle. From these pieces, he could shape thousands of natural forms. At that time, my father named the game Evereto."
Ngoc says that the game's name was changed to Tri Uan by President Ho Chi Minh, who said that the game contained tri (intelligence) and uan (mystery), making the creator's name well-suited to the game.
After the restoration of peace in Viet Nam in 1954, President Ho and Party and Government leaders chose Tri Uan game sets as gifts for their international friends.
The palm-sized wooden game set can be still be found at educational bookstores in Ha Noi for VND55,000 (US$2.80) or from the creator's family at 129 Phung Hung Street in Ha Noi, by telephone at 0904277423 or by email to firstname.lastname@example.org.– VNS | <urn:uuid:01018b79-fbbf-480a-8086-c93fde6fb2cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.baomoi.com/Info/New-guide-to-historic-game-hits-bookstores/4/56224.epi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982994 | 520 | 2.046875 | 2 |
What Our Future Holds
Posted by John Hitchcock on 2012/11/07
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.
From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
- From bondage to spiritual faith;
- from spiritual faith to great courage;
- from courage to liberty;
- from liberty to abundance;
- from abundance to selfishness;
- from selfishness to apathy;
- from apathy to dependence;
- from dependency back again into bondage.
–Dr Alexander Tytler, Scotsman, history professor at the University of Edinborough on The Fall of The Athenian Republic around the time of the birth of the US
Having reelected a Socialist who has vowed vengeance on us and to bypass Congress and maintained a Leftist Senate which has refused to obey the US Constitution and Federal Law by refusing to write a Budget since April 2009, here are a few things I see in our future:
1. Energy inflation and food inflation (two items left off the “official” inflation rate) will continue to far outstrip the inflation rate, as the Obama administration bankrupts electricity producers and rolling black-outs become commonplace in this land of plentiful natural resources we will not be permitted to use. The inflation rate itself will necessarily heat up heavily.
2. Businesses will continue to downsize due to the undue burdens of catastrophic regulations and taxes, reducing the number of employees and turning many full-time positions into part-time positions, causing the official unemployment numbers to climb and the real unemployment numbers to skyrocket.
3. The poverty rate and dependency rate will climb higher, as fewer people work and more people hold their hands out for “ObamaMoney”, causing even greater harm to those who are the producers. The US will further cannibalize itself.
4. The National Debt will continue to skyrocket and deficit spending will once again increase year-over-year instead of decreasing, causing two more reductions in US credit ratings. The Fed, which has caused the absolutely inevitable skyrocketing inflation rate, will no longer be able to keep interest rates artificially low. The interest rates will jump 7 to 15 points in the next 4 years, causing the US debt service portion of the (unwritten) Budget to explode.
5. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare expenses will reach half the (unwritten) Federal Budget, and beyond, as each work to bankrupt themselves and the US.
6. Religious Liberty will be curtailed as Government forces Christians to either fund that which is immoral or dissolve their outreach programs. Churches will learn they cannot preach on certain subjects without fear of criminal sanctions.
7. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom to peaceably protest the Government will be restricted. Our Second Amendment rights will be severely cut. Our rights against illegal searches and seizures will be infringed upon. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments, largely ignored now, will be blatantly curtailed.
In short, the “shining beacon on the hill” that was the Freedom and Liberty the US provided the world will have its 50,000 watt light removed and replaced with a half-watt red decorative light. The US has spent the last 30 years slipping from apathy into dependence. We are now sinking from dependence back into bondage. And it will take great men and women of steely resolve and moral strength to wrest this once great nation out of the entropic hands of the Socialists and the Dependent Class. And that means fighting both the Democrat leadership and the Ruling Class Republican leadership. Tooth and nail.
Are there enough of them left?
This entry was posted on 2012/11/07 at 13:34 and is filed under Character, Conservative, Constitution, Constitution Shredded, economics, Elections, Law, Liberal, Obama, Over-regulation, Personal Responsibility, Philosophy, politically correct, Politically Incorrect, politics, Religion, Socialists, society, Tax, TEA Party, war. Tagged: Alexander Tytler, Class Warfare, deficit spending, Dependent Class, Fifth Amendment, First Amendment, national debt, Ninth Amendment, protesting government, Religious freedom, Second Amendment, Tenth Amendment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time. | <urn:uuid:9871b9eb-d39d-4c35-b182-8f33f3266ecc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://truthbeforedishonor.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/what-our-future-holds/?like=1&_wpnonce=aaa135d5d2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931691 | 968 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Imagine the possibilities for 24 GHz transceiver, made completely out of silicon and smaller than a penny that included inputs for a phased array antenna. Those possibilities -- small low cost high speed data links, affordable anti-collision radar for automobiles, and sensors for robots (including robotic vacuum cleaners) to name a few -- could become reality now that the High Speed Integrated Circuits group at the California Institute of Technology has designed just such a device.
The Caltech press release, Caltech Engineers Design a Revolutionary Radar Chip
focuses primarily on the applications of the device. Ali Hajimiri, associate professor of electrical engineering and leader of the group, explains, "The key is that we can integrate the whole system into one chip that can contain the entire high-frequency analog and high-speed signal processing at a low cost. It's less powerful than the conventional radar used for aviation, but, since we've put it on a single, inexpensive chip, we can have a large number of them, so they can be ubiquitous."
RF Report readers may be more interested in the paper, A Fully Integrated 24-GHz 8-Path Phased-Array Receiver in Silicon
by Hossein Hashemi (University of Southern California), Xiang Guan (Caltech) and Ali Hajimiri presented at the International Solid State Circuit Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco in mid-February. The paper explains why 24-GHz is better for short range communications links than the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz unlicensed bands in many applications - reduced antenna size, more isolation between floors in an office environment, and "less than proportionate increase of power consumption in a narrowband integrated radio implementation." The paper also explains the improvements possible with a phased array antenna. Diagrams and formulas explain how local oscillator phase shifting can be used to compensate for propagation delay and improve the signal-to-noise ratio.
The paper includes detailed block diagrams and, in some cases, even circuits for components in the chip. Various directional patterns are plotted for the phased array in both 2-path and 4-path configurations. There are also microphotographs of the 3.5 mm by 3.3 mm die showing the layout of the system components on the chip.
The Caltech press release describes one of the applications for the device as, "A chip the size of a thumbnail could be placed on the roof of your house, replacing the bulky satellite dish or the cable connections for your DSL. Your picture could be sharper, and your downloads lightning fast." After reading the paper, this doesn't seem likely, at least for satellite reception, as the antenna is not on the chip and the input noise figure for the device is only 5 dB. Details on a 24 GHz phased array antenna designed by the RF and Microwave Group
at Caltech is described on their Phased Arrays for Networks
The 8-path phased-array receiver chip appears to be a very powerful building block for a wide range of 24-GHz applications. It will be interesting to see how quickly the design becomes available in a commercial product! | <urn:uuid:37bbf6d5-6def-4a76-8d9f-e774fe0fed05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0110/ghz-radar-on-a-chip-designed-at-caltech/190670 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923497 | 628 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The agro-ecology of bird flu
The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 viruse caused unprecedented epidemics in poultry and wildlife throughout the world, in terms of number of animals affected, socio-economic impact and geographical range. Beyond its veterinary dimensions, understanding the full dimension of the epizootic involved a wide range of disciplines such as wildlife ecology, agricultural sciences, virology, sociology and economy.
Since 2005, we have been involved in research trying to understand the geography of HPAI H5N1 virus, and more especifically to characterise the environmental and socio-economic conditions that relate to the spread and persistence of the disease at various spatial and temporal scales.
This web site presents the epidemiological context and background of the disease: why did this disease emerge, and why now. We then detail what have been the main outcomes of our research over the last few years: what did we find, and how has it contirbuted to the understanding of the disease. We then detail the main directions of our future researches on the subject. Finally, we also provide links to data sets that have arisen from our research and to external data sources related to the topic. | <urn:uuid:5805998a-a802-4661-abfa-28452221cbd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lubies.ulb.ac.be/HPAI_index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927212 | 253 | 2.859375 | 3 |
(Full text; for background information see historical
We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of
heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord
Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all
worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us
men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy
Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under
Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according
to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of
the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the
dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son*, who with
the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the
prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge
one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the
dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
*The phrase "and the
Son," which was inserted here by leaders of the Western churches centered
in Rome, was the presenting issue that divided Roman Catholics from Eastern Orthodox
Christians. For more on this dispute, and the history behind it see: Historical
You are invited to join our Forum
and discuss any issues
pertaining to faith or the search for it.
Your comments are published here instantly.
(To see the current list of
topics your browser must allow Active Content)
Please take a moment to let us know you
Just send us an email to subscribe to our free newsletter.
If you want to talk with someone in person, please feel free to call 212-864-5436
The Rev. Charles P. Henderson is a Presbyterian minister and
Executive Director of CrossCurrents.
He is the author of God and Science (John Knox Press, 1986).
A revised and expanded version of the book is appearing here. God and Science (Hypertext Edition,
He is also editor of a new book, featuring articles by world class scientists and theologians, and illustrating the leading views on the relationship between science and religion: Faith, Science and the Future (CrossCurrents Press, 2007).
Charles also tracks the boundry between the virtual and the real at his blog: Next World Design, focusing on the mediation of art, science and spirituality in the metaverse. | <urn:uuid:99361082-70a3-4c03-99cc-1abe9f61ff59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.godweb.org/Nicene.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932391 | 596 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Carlevaro Technique: Page 1/8
Maestro Renato Bellucci
In the following pictures, you can take a look at several great performers and their playing positions. I admire each and every one of them for their great talent . It is known though, that the amount of energy lost for playing in these positions is immense not to mention the amazing health risks and unbearable string squeaks.. (Make sure you read the special techniques page after you are done with this page). Most of the energy goes into compensating for the anatomical wrong postures. When examining these players, Carlevaro used to say:- "They would play much better and for longer with better, more natural postures"-
I would not dare to go that far, but he talked as one of the few who had taken the time to study the physics and anatomy involved in playing. Carlevaro's technique is among the few that has gone that far, and, he passed his knowledge to his students.
Segovia played well into his nineties, but it is true that the amount of strings squeaking was unbearable as his age increased and energies died out. The amount of strength needed to play with little left hand noise twisting the torso and an anchoring the left elbow against the waist is enormous ( In some of Parkening recordings you can actually hear the moans of pain here and there). Today's standards require more perfection and "recording strings" should be called handicapped performer strings. A good set of worn-out strings is better. Trying to play like the "dinosaurs", is prone to make us frustrated .
Talent can make up for a lot of defects, but I have known quite a few guitarists who had to abandon their careers due to serious injuries that originated in a faulty sitting position. And all for what? To try to play like a handicapped! For most of the XX century, the guitar was to be played like Segovia did. Nobody asked too much back then, because a word of admiration from the maestro opened many doors, a word of dislike ended or handicapped a whole musical career. Dictatorship years are finally over. Be brave and always ask your teacher "why?". "You will understand later" is a bad answer. It is true that Segovia contributed enormously to the growth of the guitar repertoire and took it to high levels of admiration, but it is also true that guitar technique got stalled for decades because of his stubbornness. He would bring hell on Earth if you changed the fingering to his "precious transcriptions". Players like Yepes, Barrios or Carlevaro who tried to introduce new ideas both in instrument design and technique, were dismissed a priori.
Perfection being the ultimate, unattainable goal, makes it understandable that concessions have to be made. But a whole generation of players was stuck on the same variation: To play with the outer part of the nails and twist the body around the guitar like a snake.-- Some of these players have changed somewhat throughout the years. They sold us the illusion and lie that speed was all that mattered and have burned this idea in everybody. When their years were coming to an end, they would start sounding wise and philosophical: "You are the general of your fingers and not vice versa" -Andres Segovia to Marcelo Kayath in his last masterclass at USC, LA 1986-. Competitions are the Cathedrals to this horror and you will always find one dinosaur or two behind the organization...there are a zillion better ways to build a career, so avoid most competitions, plus, a competition won, guarantees nothing. The few bucks evaporate fast and the concert tour is over even before it starts. It is believed that at least 400 "major guitar competitions" winners are still out there. How many do you know? How many visited your hometown? How many are still playing?.....
I do not think Carlevaro was the greatest anything, actually, if it were not for the dinosaurs, I would probably not have a CD or LP collection. So, it is not as personal as it seems. One thing is sure though, Carlevaro knew exactly what he was doing and that is what he wanted his students to learn: To know exactly what they were doing, --especially if that "something" may have caused health or career problems in the short, medium or long run.-- Music is for life, it is a calling, it is not like saying "well, if I can't make it, I can always do something else." It is healthy to do more than one thing in a world as rich and changing as the one we live in, but we will always need our music to feel that good and there is only one way to do music: well.
Fortunately, the silent work of several geniuses, has opened new doors for an instrument that has entered the "classical" status just over 100 years ago. Abel Carlevaro's technique has been discussed over and over and most times, I realize that it is totally misunderstood. In his book he introduces his technique as "...a testimony of an experience lived over the years". He describes himself perfectly when he says "Going through life as my own apprentice and teacher". Apprentice and teacher. I think that in these two words he is describing the master that he was. He concludes saying " I learned with my students and, faithful to the pupil and teacher in me, I shall go on learning".
In his book (picture to the left), Carlevaro describes this position as wrong.... In his book, Parkening (picture to the right) says its right. What do you say? Check the almost 90 degrees angle of the right wrist...it hurts by just looking long enough!
In all the images above, and the images following, the line that seems to indicate a fallen shoulder, is pointing out the twisting backwards of the lumbar area.
Same here...plus, everything from the elbow up is a "mistake of nature" . I can still recall one of my dinosaur-teachers saying --"Pretend you are holding a book between your elbow and your waist". -- I almost became a librarian thanks to that advice !(not that I have anything against librarians, I just did not dream with the life...)
Most of these players need a back-stool and a footstool. They all twist their lumbar area. Extreme tension!
Carlevaro masterclass in Switzerland,
Most of the master's concepts are universal. Of course, intelligence is universal. The degree or type of intelligence may differ but we all know what it is. When School of guitar was first published in Argentina in 1979, it presented Carlevaro's way of playing and why. When I worked with Carlevaro in the late 80s, he would often "edit" these concepts to make them applicable to me. What he achieved though, was a lot more. He planted the seed of search and curiosity in me which would set me on the right path. The one path that would lead me to my best playing. Therefore the following chapters can be classified as "Carlevaro's way of thinking revised by Bellucci".
Being close to him, I realized that some of the concepts that seem to be very rigid when taken from his books, are actually much more flexible and it is very important that the guitar player keeps in mind that every single rule has to be filtered by each individual's unique built and musical taste. This is exactly what I will do teaching masterclasses learning real pieces with you and solving the technical challenges using my brain, just like the master taught me.
Getting to know Montevideo and the Uruguayan musical scene is very important when one tries to understand how and why a musician of Carlevaro's stature approached guitar playing in such a scientific and universal way. At the beginning of the 20th Century Uruguay was often referred to as the South American Switzerland. A strong imperial English hand, left its marks in many of Uruguay's customs. Top European immigrants at the turn of the 19th Century gave Montevideo and Uruguay in general, a character that is simply non existent in neighboring Argentina or Brazil. The illiteracy levels in Uruguay are almost 0. That says a lot especially when in many countries there exists a generalized idea that all South America is the same...therefore third world classifiable.
...to be continued
The first objective to be achieved is: to hold the guitar perfectly still allowing for full freedom of movement for the player.
As opposed to the traditional school, Carlevaro states: "The guitar must adapt to the body, not the body to the guitar. "Each player must take into account his or her unique characteristics and the guitar must adapt to these.
Back pain is one of the most frequent complains of guitarists all over. Carlevaro centered the problem on "placing both feet forward", this unstable position requires the back to make an enormous effort to maintain the balance". By setting the feet properly, one in front and the other behind, the player will be able to move his whole body by simply pushing on one foot or another. Not applying pressure on either foot will mean stillness.
In order to be able to sit with the two feet as shown in the figure to the left, you will have to sit towards the front-right side of the chair (4 legged chair) in order for the right foot to be free to go behind.
In downtown Asuncion, they have this chair (image below) on sale which I and a few of my students have bought. It deals with the 4 leg issue of standard chairs, plus it is anatomically comfortable, light and is made of sturdy leather and wood. It can be folded really easily and carried everywhere. It allows to play with no footstool or with very low setting on the footstool (only 17 inches from the floor to the butt). Click on the button to the right if you would like me to purchase and airmail 1 to you.
Remember that when you are discovering your sitting position you must consider all the possibilities with great flexibility. A faulty sitting position is at the root of a faulty technique and poor musical expression. "The left arm must be totally free to move in order to help the hand and the fingers in every way." Carlevaro will never refer to fingers literally. To him fingers' movements will always include arm-wrist-hand movements and in a more indirect way the muscles of the upper torso and legs.
In order to attack the strings at the correct angle (the angle where the best sound is produced) "the wrist must be kept as straight as possible; raise or lower the guitar, rotate it between the legs, adjust it until the fingers can produce the most efficient stroke as naturally as possible."
When you are
playing, 5 points of contact are established between the player and the
Out of these
five, the left leg is the most important and the most stable. All the other
points will adjust according to the left leg. "Only
3 points of contact are necessary to keep the guitar stable".
the members area. | <urn:uuid:17531ff6-4aaa-4bf8-abba-b673ec7df844> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mangore.com/carlevaro.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977338 | 2,289 | 2.1875 | 2 |
A U.K. judge has rejected an appeal and granted bail to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who will be freed from a British jail.
High Court justice Duncan Ouseley rejected prosecutors' argument that Assange should stay in prison and granted him conditional bail.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was back in a British court for a third time, waiting Thursday to hear whether U.K. authorities will overturn their earlier decision to grant him bail.
Scores of reporters filled the wood-paneled courtroom and public gallery of London's High Court, along with teams of lawyers, Assange supporters and his mother, Christine Assange.
His lawyer, Mark Stephens, was swarmed by photographers as he walked into the neo-Gothic building.
"We are hopeful but of course it is a matter entirely for the judge," Stephens said.
Assange stood in a dark gray suit in the courtroom dock as judge Duncan Ouseley began hearing an appeal by British prosecutors acting on behalf of Sweden.
The WikiLeaks leader has been in a U.K. prison since Dec. 7, following his surrender to British police over a Swedish sex-crimes warrant. He denies wrongdoing but is refusing to surrender to Sweden's request to extradite him for questioning.
Assange was granted a conditional release on 200,000 pounds ($316,000) bail Tuesday, but prosecutors are trying to keep him behind bars until his extradition hearing in January.
The Guardian newspaper reported that British prosecutors had decided to appeal the bail decision without consulting their Swedish counterparts. Karin Rosander of Sweden's prosecutors office told The Guardian that "Swedish prosecutors are not entitled to make decisions within Britain. It is entirely up to the British authorities to handle it."
Lawyers acting for Sweden say Assange is accused of rape, molestation and unlawful coercion by two women for separate incidents in August in Sweden. He has not been charged.
Assange's lawyers say the allegations stem from a dispute over "consensual but unprotected sex" and argue that he has offered to make himself available for questioning via video link or in person in Britain.
Last month WikiLeaks deeply angered U.S. officials by beginning to publish its trove of 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables, after earlier publishing thousands of secret U.S. military documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange's supporters suspect the claims against him are politically motivated - a charge Sweden has denied.
On Tuesday, District Judge Howard Riddle granted bail on condition that Assange wear an electronic tag, stay at a specific address in eastern England, report to police every evening and observe two four-hour curfews each day in addition to putting up the bond.
His lawyers have raced to assemble the 200,000 pounds bail, which the court wants to see up front. Stephens said Thursday he was confident the amount would be raised.
"We currently have pledges from all the people who stood behind him on other occasions," Stephens said.
Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:105874d7-df86-4a7b-92cc-72b7fe26a0aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/16/judge-grants-bail-to-wikileaks-julian-assange/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971381 | 638 | 1.5 | 2 |
There’s no ukulele on the album version of Rilo Kiley’s Ripchord but, judging by the clips on YouTube, it’s become a ukulele mainstay in their live show with their guitarist Blake Sennett taking on uke and vocal duties. It seems that guitarists playing the uke move up and down the neck much more often than born ukulele players. You can see it songs like this and Panic at the Disco’s Friends in Holy Spaces.
A couple of things to look out for in the chord chart. First, There’s a chord I’ve labeled A5. It’s not strictly an A5 chord but an A chord. I’ve called it this to distinguish it from the other A chord in the song.
The second, and the trickiest part of the song, is the A6 chord in the intro. It’s a big stretch and he fluffs it a little himself. It’s such a big stretch I couldn’t fit in all on the chord diagram. The diagram shows the note on the eight fret of the A string. It actually needs to be on the ninth.
This would be a simpler way of playing it. | <urn:uuid:a56a7dc9-60c5-4de1-a333-a370db20b190> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ukulelehunt.com/2008/07/17/rilo-kiley-ripchord/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940655 | 266 | 1.648438 | 2 |
A Comprehensive Vietnamese Affairs Program
The Mansfield Center of The University of Montana is developing a comprehensive Vietnamese Affairs Program. The Program involves student and faculty exchanges with Vietnam; degree and non-degree training to Vietnamese faculty; professional exchange programs in such fields as education and civil society; programming on Vietnam and U.S.-Vietnamese relations ranging from trade and health care to contemporary strategic issues, the environment, human rights and legal reform; and the creation of a new curriculum devoted to contemporary Vietnamese affairs.
The University has been designated as one of the lead institutions in the U.S. Department of State's current educational training initiative in Vietnam, and has developed close relationships with Vietnam National University in Hanoi and Can Tho University in the Mekong Delta. This year, the 26th annual Mansfield Conference will be devoted to Vietnam, including that nation's recent economic reform and new role in Asia. The University is committed to assisting in Vietnam's educational and economic development, while at the same time strengthening its growing commercial and strategic engagement with the U.S. Key Programs include:
UM Study Abroad Program in Climate Change at Can Tho University
Click here to see the UM Vietnam Study Abroad Student Monica Lomahukluh featured in the 2011 President’s Report on Education for the Global Century.
The University has received State Department support to create a study abroad program (open to all U.S. students) on global climate change at Can Tho. UM is at the forefront of research issues dealing with natural resources, climate change, sustainable agriculture, and rural development. The University's Climate Change Studies Program offers one of the nation's first undergraduate degree programs devoted exclusively to the challenges created by global climate change. UM is currently developing the program, with the second group of students expected to travel in Wintersession 2010-2011. Tentative dates for this six-credit program are December 27-January 19. Please contact Deena Mansour at email@example.com for additional details.
Asia Rule of Law Legal Reform Initiative
The Mansfield Center is working with an NGO partner in Geneva to facilitate legal training and curriculum reform and hopes to expand its Legal Reform Initiative to Vietnam after having worked with groups in China, Korea, and Japan. The Initiative facilitates cross-cultural learning about lay participation in the criminal justice systems of Asia and examines the role of the jury as a democratizing influence. We encourage dialogue on these issues by acting as a clearinghouse of information for legal professionals involved in jury reform throughout Asia and the United States; conducting multi-national classroom sessions through technology; encouraging the exchange of academics, legal professionals, and lay people involved in criminal justice; sponsoring conferences on related criminal justice issues; and developing relevant scholarship.
The Mansfield Center
Level 4, Mansfield Library
University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812
(406) 243-2181 fax
E-mail us your comments | <urn:uuid:a6cca99b-0609-4384-8e12-e6b95fec7fbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.umt.edu/mansfield/Vietnamese%20Affairs%20Program.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935039 | 604 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Fun Facts and How Green Toys are Madeposted by jus on December 5th, 2009
Here are some fun facts about Green Toys:
- Made in California – Keeps the jobs locally in our country in a time when most manufacturing are outsourced overseas.
- Great Packaging – Simple packaging with recyclable materials that doesn’t require mom and dad to drag out their tool box to open
- Eco-Friendly materials – We think it’s incredibly cool that they are made of recycled milk jugs + we are extremely impressed with how durable the toys are!
Recently, a film crew from CBS went out to the Green Toys factory in California and shot a feature. You’ll hear from the founders Robert von Goeben and Laurie Hyman about how their toys are made.
It’s a really cool insight about how Green Toys are made! | <urn:uuid:42350038-28e6-4e74-a174-7e0d0204bcaa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.kangarooboo.com/2009/12/05/fun-facts-and-how-green-toys-are-made/ | 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 | 0.953403 | 184 | 2.09375 | 2 |
You have to take risks in this sport and failure is a part of it.
Seth Godin says ‘take appropriate risks, and by appropriate I mean risks that keep you in the game even if you fail.
We are in a sport where we take appropriate risks. We run a race not quite up to par and what do we have?
We have two opportunities that come from this. Two avenues of approach.
1) We have found out one way of racing which does not work and 2) you have a choice to train differently to get a better result the next time.
There are numerous examples of failures. Abraham Lincoln, Michael Jordan, Thomas Edison are some of the biggest names that we all know of.
They failed countless times but what was the difference?
There was something in their minds that simply refused to accept failure.
I don’t think people who excel in any field have the knowledge in their DNA of what quitting even is.
They somehow have found a way to enjoy what others hate doing and they do it longer.
I don’t feel there is a science behind distance running success. It is an unquenchable desire to find out how far we can take our bodies and the desire to continue in the face of defeat.
Is part of it genes?
Yes, but people who rely on their talent, who aren’ in it for the long haul are going to get caught by the guy or gal, who may be lacking in the ‘talent’ department but has something even more powerful, heart and drive.
One of my readers said it best,
I am a competitive person and running has taught me to worry less about everyone else and more just about me. Constantly wanting to beat my times is what is motivating me to work harder.
How many people among you and I, have failed over and over again and created a masterpiece from failure?
The list is endless and anytime you read about a successful entrepreneur, athlete, corporation, you can best bet there has been endless struggles along their path.
They simply didn’t let up when others would.
Joe Newton, one of the greatest distance running coaches, brought up a point as it pertains to failure.
You have three choices in life, be good, be average, be great. There are some who will be here in the morning to train because they want to be great. The choice is yours, the teacher didn’t make it, the preacher didn’t make it, you made it. If you choose to be average, that is all you are ever going to be in life.
I will tell you that there were many times I wanted to quit the sport of running. I lost the joy of running altogether in 2010. I nearly let it get the best of me.
I was so caught up in trying to earn a 2012 Olympic Trials qualifying standard time (2.19.00) that I lost focus and was filtering my mental and physical energies in the wrong direction.
People had expectations of me and can you guess where that attention was going?
The focus was on them as I had to perform up to standard or I would be released from a world class unit. If you don’t break 2.19.00 you are getting the boot.
Guess what. I failed and miserably. I trained my ass off and missed the mark. I went back to a full-time job, had no pressure to perform or meet a standard (other then my own) and broke 2.20.00.
I don’t have any pressure on me now either, outside of a very hectic military work week, and am training to break 2.18.00.
You can either let go of your goals or you can keep fighting. It is simple as that and I am not ready to hang up my shoes just yet.
What is stopping you from earning your goal? Can you take some stress off your plate that may be doing you more harm then good?
If running becomes a be-all, end-all, where all of your joy is revolved around measuring up to others expectations of you or the standards you set for yourself, then you need to change your approach.
Train hard, give it your best shot and let it be, whether win or fail. You have no regrets. You didn’t sit back on the side lines like so many do and wondered. You took a crack at it.
The power of delayed gratification
There are people who don’t understand that in this sport, results do not come overnight. There has been a loss of long-term development in elite sport organizations.
They put ever increasing demands on athletes to perform and if they are not setting world records, winning medals or running fast enough, they are released.
Steve Prefontaine, who at one time held every American record from 2000 to 10,000 meters, was offered $200,000 to join the professional ranks of running back in the 70s.
He chose to turn it down despite being on food stamps. The reason he stated was,
I run best, when I run free
I had the luxury of training full-time as a Soldier-athlete in the Army World Class Athlete Program and how ironic is it that I ran my best marathon to date while I was working as a staff member after my athlete status was up.
Don’t let failure break your joy.
You can always do more. How long are you willing to endure? | <urn:uuid:0051da77-777f-4ed0-ab3e-51f4f77e82af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rundreamachieve.com/failure/ | 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 | 0.976969 | 1,147 | 1.75 | 2 |
The Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) was one of four states awarded a Bureau of Justice Assistance grant in 1987 to provide substance abuse treatment in correctional institutions. The total funds available for that project were $525,000. Experiencing a rapid increase in the number of drug admissions to prison and community supervision, the department did not have a system of substance abuse programming implemented to handle, effectively, over 33,000 drug admissions to community supervision. This figure did not include the large number of inmates and offenders whose primary offense was other than drugs, but who were chronic and severe substance abusers whose criminal activity supported their drug addiction. The department has worked in a consistent and comprehensive manner to develop the most widely recognized statewide correctional response to combating substance abuse and the corresponding anti-social and criminal behavior associated with it. The combined department programming is cost effective, strategically planned, and closely monitored.
The front-line intervention is the program services abuse effort. It is estimated that 70 percent of the offenders on community supervision in Florida are substance abusers. Many have an underlying mental health problem, and or a significant educational, vocational, and employment deficiency. Affordable treatment programs for offenders that address these problems are scarce and or not available in local communities. In response to this problem, the Florida Department of Corrections has developed several treatment programs for offenders. All programs clearly articulate to each offender that they are accountable and responsible for their crime and they must make a commitment to end their addiction and end their criminality.
These programs consist of the largest state probation and parole drug testing program in the country and a myriad of outpatient and residential programs. This effort was designed to screen offenders on community supervision for substance abuse and specialized needs, to include screening for mental health services, educational, and employment assistance. A comprehensive referral system places them in the appropriate treatment modality, if treatment is indicated. This provides the court and the offender punishment oriented alternatives to incarceration that afford offenders an opportunity to overcome their substance abuse addiction or other problems, and prevent further penetration into the criminal justice system. The intent of this effort by the department is to remove the barriers to treatment programs for offenders making treatment available, accessible, and affordable to all offenders. The FDC has contracted with local community treatment agencies to provide services at the local probation offices or conveniently in the community.
The judiciary, state attorney, public defender, local law enforcement, and county government are partners with the department in providing a comprehensive continuum of community-based sanctions and programs. Many of the judicial circuits have developed efficient and effective "drug courts" that concentrate resources from the criminal justice system and treatment providers in a united effort to successfully deal with the criminal justice population. These efforts have helped contribute to a reduction in prison admissions for non-violent drug offenders.
These treatment programs are based on the "continuum of care" concept, where offenders can move from least restrictive programs to gradually more structured programs if clinically indicated. The following is a brief description of the various services provided as part of each treatment program. | <urn:uuid:3c81bf5b-0694-4832-bb70-6eafdf0d3a97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/pqannual/1999/historical.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956643 | 605 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Chinese Painting is world famous. Textual and archaeological sources show that painting has been practiced in China since the Neolithic Age almost 6000 years ago. In the early period of China's history, wall paintings were produced in great numbers, unfortunately as so little early Chinese architecture remains intact; few of the paintings from this era have survived to the modern day. Surviving paintings from earlier times are of especial interest to archaeologists and historians due to the insight they can give into Chinese culture and life in the periods they were created.
Furthermore, because such Chinese paintings have long been considered as one of the highest cultural achievements in Chinese history, they provide invaluable insights into the development of the aesthetic values and tastes of later artists and of Chinese culture in general. The Chinese painter requires great skill; they must wield their soft paintbrush with strength and dexterity to create a wide variety of different lines-thick, thin, dense, light, long, short, dry, wet.
The sap that is extracted from the varnish tree can go through several stages to produce different types of lacquer. After the impurities of the sap have been removed, it is known as 'crude lacquer'. Crude lacquer is most commonly used as a primer for most lacquer works. This substance alters when it is heated before treatment, with a getle humid heat of between 35-45 degrees Celsius increasing its quality. This lacquer is known as Kurome lacquer. Lacquare Ware is an important part in Traditional furniture.
Copyright 2008, All rights reserved.. itourbeijing.com ,china culture, china introduction
TEL: 86-10-85711972 (Universal) 1-888-288-9328 (North America) E-mail: email@example.com | <urn:uuid:32b5c538-d571-43e3-bff1-43e929c7a077> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itourbeijing.com/china-culture/chinese-painting.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957621 | 369 | 3.046875 | 3 |
In propaganda video, N. Korea "bombs" the U.S.
When Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie penned "We Are The World" in 1985, they probably never envisioned the Africa charity song as a soundtrack to a North Korea propaganda video.
But an instrumental version of the iconic song is the musical centerpiece of a new video that depicts a North Korean bombing of America.
The video, interspersed with an animated space shuttle and patriotic flag waving, culminates with an all-out aerial assault on an unspecified U.S. metropolis, followed by a massive explosion.
Then we see (presumably) real footage of a Pyongyang rocket launch, punctuated by the image of a dreaming North Korean man.
The translation of the text at one point reads: "I see some black smoke somewhere in America. Perhaps the devil's dungeon dictating to everyone is burning by the fire I created."
How long will China back a defiant N. Korea?
The video comes as Pyongyang threatened "stronger" measures in response to "hostile" U.N. sanctions following its December rocket launch.
"The DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, or North Korea) has drawn a final conclusion that it will have to take a measure stronger than a nuclear test to cope with the hostile forces nuclear war moves that have become ever more undisguised," the North's KCNA state news agency said, according to Reuters.
South Korean and U.S. troops began naval drills Monday in a show of force partly directed at North Korea amid signs that Pyongyang will soon carry out a threat to conduct its third atomic test.
South Korea's U.N. ambassador said Monday a North Korean nuclear test "seems to be imminent."
Ambassador Kim Sook said there are "very busy activities" taking place at North Korea's nuclear test site "and everybody's watching."
Kim said that in the event of a nuclear test, he expects the U.N. Security Council to respond with "firm and strong measures."
North Korea announced last month that it would conduct a nuclear test to protest Security Council sanctions toughened after a satellite launch in December that the U.S. and others say was a disguised test of banned missile technology. The council ordered North Korea in the sanctions resolution to refrain from a nuclear test or face "significant action."
Editor's note: The original version of this story had an embedded version of the video originally posted to YouTube. However, as the BBC reports, some of the scenes in the North Korean-produced propaganda video were lifted from the popular 2011 video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3." As a result, the video game's maker, Activision, requested the video be taken off Youtube, and it was as of Tuesday afternoon. The current version of the North Korea propaganda video referenced in this article that is embedded above comes courtesy of LiveLeak.com.
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Photos of the week 22 Photos
- Graphic video: Man dead in "truly shocking" London attack Play Video
- Toronto mayor: I don't smoke crack cocaine
- Deadly car bombing at aid group's house in Kabul
- Bangladesh slum life 13 Photos
- NKorean envoy delivers letter to China's president
- Tokyo's rockabilly scene 16 Photos
- Muslim hard-liners ID suspect in London attack | <urn:uuid:265ba3f1-5453-4c25-a556-7141c1f48b2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57567675/in-propaganda-video-n-korea-bombs-the-u.s/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92982 | 690 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Right of Everyone to an Adequate Standard of Living
United Nations World Conference Documents
ICPD para 3.16 – to raise the quality of life for all people through appropriate population and development policies and programmes aimed at achieving poverty eradication, sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development and sustainable patterns of consumption and production, human resource development and the guarantee of all human rights, including the right to development as a universal and inalienable right and an integral part of fundamental human rights.
ICPD+5 para 15 – Governments should (a) Intensify efforts to equip planners and decision makers with a better understanding of the relationships among population, poverty, gender inequity and inequality, health, education . . . ; para. 21 – Governments should (a) continue to examine the economic and social implications of demographic change and how they relate to development planning concerns and the needs of individuals; (c)Governments should: Support research and develop comprehensive strategies at the national, regional and local levels to meet, where appropriate, the challenges of population ageing. Invest more resources in gender-sensitive research as well as in training and capacity-building in social policies and health care of older persons, especially the elderly poor, paying special attention to the economic and social security of older persons, in particular older women; affordable, accessible and appropriate health care services; the human rights and dignity of older persons and the productive and useful roles that they can play in society; support systems to enhance the ability of families and communities to care for older family members; the ability of the elderly to care for family members and community victims of HIV/AIDS; and generational solidarity with the goal of maintaining and improving social cohesion.
ICPD para. 6.25 – Governments and other important institutions in society should recognize the distinct perspective of indigenous people on aspects of populations and development…. should address their specific needs, including needs for primary health care and reproductive health services.
Beijing para. 58 c. – Pursue and implement sound and stable macroeconomic and sectoral policies that are designed and monitored with the full and equal participation of women, encourage broad-based sustained economic growth, address the structural causes of poverty and are geared towards eradicating poverty and reducing gender-based inequality within the overall framework of achieving people-centred sustainable development; para. 60 a. – Mobilize all parties involved in the development process, including academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and grass-roots and women's groups, to improve the effectiveness of anti-poverty programmes directed towards the poorest and most disadvantaged groups of women, such as rural and indigenous women, female heads of household, young women and older women, refugees and migrant women and women with disabilities, recognizing that social development is primarily the responsibility of Governments.
WSSD(1) II 6 (f) – Deliver basic health services for all and reduce environmental health threats, taking into account the special needs of children and the linkages between poverty, health and environment, with provision of financial resources, technical assistance and knowledge transfer to developing countries and countries with economies in transition; para 47. – Strengthen the capacity of health-care systems to deliver basic health services to all, in an efficient, accessible and affordable manner aimed at preventing, controlling and treating diseases, and to reduce environmental health threats, in conformity with human rights and fundamental freedoms and consistent with national laws and cultural and religious values, taking into account the reports of relevant United Nations conferences and summits and of special sessions of the General Assembly. This would include actions at all levels to: (a) Integrate the health concerns, including those of the most vulnerable populations, into strategies, policies and programmes for poverty eradication and sustainable development;
WCAR(2) POA para. 33 – Recommends that host countries of migrants consider the provision of adequate social services, in particular in the areas of health, education and adequate housing, as a matter of priority, in cooperation with the United Nations agencies, the regional organizations and international financial bodies; also requests that these agencies provide an adequate response to requests for such services.
CEDAW(3) article 3 – States Parties shall take in all fields . . . all appropriate measures, including legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men;
CESCR(4) article 3 – States Parties to ensure the the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights set forth in the present Covenant; article 6 (2) . . . technical and vocational guidance and training programmes, policies and techniques to achieve steady economic, social and cultural development . . .; article 7 – the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favorable conditions of work . . . article 9 – States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the to social security, including social insurance; article 11 (1) – States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. . . ; article 12 … the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; article 13 – the right of everyone to education
CCPR(5) article 3 – The States parties to the present Covenant undertake to ensure the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all civil and political rights set forth in the present Covenant.
CRC(6) article 6 (1) – States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life; (2) States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child; article 27 – States recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.......................................................................................................................... | <urn:uuid:04e53180-8db9-4bb2-97d0-b2436487ff81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unfpa.org/rights/language/right1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925105 | 1,205 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Circumcision The Surgical Procedure (cont.)
David Perlstein, MD, MBA, FAAP
Dr. Perlstein received his Medical Degree from the University of Cincinnati and then completed his internship and residency in pediatrics at The New York Hospital, Cornell medical Center in New York City. After serving an additional year as Chief Pediatric Resident, he worked as a private practitioner and then was appointed Director of Ambulatory Pediatrics at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx.
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.
In this Article
- What is a circumcision?
- Is a circumcision safe?
- How is a circumcision done?
- What should one expect after a circumcision?
- Is a circumcision painful for a baby?
- How can the pain be reduced?
- What are the contraindications to circumcision (the reasons against doing it)?
- What is the chance of a complication from a circumcision?
- Circumcision, the Surgical Procedure At A Glance
What is the chance of a complication from a circumcision?
Large-scale studies indicate that the rate of complications is low, ranging from one in 200 to one in 500. The most common complications are local infection and bleeding. Complications due to local anesthesia consist mainly of hematomas (bruises) and local skin necrosis (damage and loss).
Deaths attributable to newborn circumcision are rare. No deaths occurred, for example, in an analysis of 500,000 circumcisions in New York City or 175,000 circumcisions in U.S. Army hospitals.
Circumcision—The Surgical Procedure At A Glance
- Newborn circumcision is a generally safe procedure if it is done under proper circumstances.
- Circumcision should be done by a trained, experienced practitioner.
- Circumcision should not be done if an infant is sick or in unstable health.
- A premature infant should not have circumcision until the baby meets the criteria to be discharged from the hospital.
- Infants with genital anomalies (including hypospadias) should not be circumcised.
- Babies with a family history of bleeding should not be circumcised until tests are done to make sure the child does not have a bleeding problem.
- Local analgesia should be given to reduce the pain associated with the procedure.
- Care of the infant after circumcision is simple and generally well tolerated.
Last Editorial Review: 10/12/2007
Find out what women really need. | <urn:uuid:141bfad5-2f75-4e91-a904-838cf2bdf413> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rxlist.com/circumcision_the_surgical_procedure/page3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913023 | 609 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Established in 1987, the Barrow County Water and Sewerage Authority was created to serve the northwest portion of Barrow County with water supplied by Gwinnett. The authority today maintains three service areas supplied from the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority project at Bear Creek in Jackson County. More than 13,000 residents are served by the water department's retail water system. The water authority board is made up of six members, each representing a district and one at-large member. The water authority plans to move into a new facility, but a timetable has not been confirmed. | <urn:uuid:2912bd3e-f5d1-4a4d-9efa-6b936f626146> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://barrow.patch.com/listings/barrow-county-water-authority | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967992 | 117 | 2.015625 | 2 |
The 28,000 dorm residents at Michigan State University may have to wait longer for fire department services if the legislature does not restore some $900,000 the City of East Lansing.
Fifty-eight communities around have state facilities, including universities, have received state money to pay for fire department services for those buildings. But the governor vetoed that money and East Lansing Fire Chief Randy Tallifaro says he may have to close the fire station on the MSU campus if the funds are not restored. He says this is not a scare tactic.
Local leaders and lawmakers staged a media event at the MSU fire hall to underscore the need for those dollars. Tallifaro agreed that without the money the lives of students would be at greater risk if a campus fire broke out. | <urn:uuid:473f85b1-e006-4fc6-bbc3-01f69e86e5c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wilx.com/news/headlines/102486.html?site=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97029 | 156 | 1.75 | 2 |
Building a great team is the ultimate competitive advantage. Steve Jobs famously thought that his greatest creation wasn't a great device, but rather was a company filled with people capable of making great devices.
If you want to create an entity that is valuable and makes an impact, there's no better competitive advantage than understanding how to build a fantastic team and how to evaluate and motivate them once they are there.
One concept, more so than any other, can help you build a great team:
Learn how to identify skill in a candidate by using past performance and development to predict future success. Then, learn how to ignore prejudice when recruiting based on that skill and past performance.
This concept works in every industry. Here's the best lesson you can learn: Hire very skilled people even if others are prejudiced against them.
In other words, start playing Moneyball.
In 2002, the Oakland A's created a revolution in baseball. Turning traditional wisdom on it's head, they drafted players that were not widely thought to be good pros, but who displayed above average statistical performance. In doing so, they created a championship-caliber team with one of the lowest budgets.
Put in management terms, they found a competitive advantage.
The A's trusted a player's past performance and didn't allow any prejudices to influence their hiring decisions. In doing so, they built a great team out of solid players that other teams overlooked.
Don't Miss Jeremy Lin.
There's another fantastic example of this playing out in sports right now. Jeremy Lin was overlooked in the pro draft, signed by the Golden State Warriors and then let go after one season, and relegated to the third string by the Knicks in his second season. In his first two seasons he was sent down to the Development League (NBA's version of the minors) 4 separate times.
Now, everyone is heralding Lin as one of the next great point guards after a shocking winning streak where he's put up dominating performances that statistically compare to some of the game's greats.
It's a story that has shocked almost everyone, but there are a few people who saw the potential in Lin early on. Here's a draft analysis from Lin's draft year that highlights his potential.
I am writing about these two stories because it should inspire you -- you can learn from these examples to understand how to win the talent war in your industry.
Hire very skilled people even if others are prejudiced against them.
Report after report about Jeremy Lin say that people missed his talent because "he didn't look like a great point-guard." You can pretty safely read that as "he was a skinny kid of Asian decent."
So, look around in your industry and find the subgroups of people that companies are scared to hire because of irrational beliefs -- then scout for talent in that group.
Want the simplest place to start for most companies? Moms.
There are some exceedingly talented women who left the workforce for a few years to raise their children and are now re-entering. Their history includes roles in senior management, degrees from top schools, and often 10+ years of experience in creating success.
Companies are indicating that their hiring managers worry that the life event of having children alters a woman's ability to perform. The theory is that time away has kept the mother out of the loop with recent industry developments and that the presence of children might remove some of their output by introducing a competing priority for their time.
One talented friend had several companies tell her they were skittish about giving her the job because she had kids - despite her running a profitable business while she was raising the children.
Another friend (and HBS grad) had to consult for mostly deferred payment for several companies looking to raise more money before landing a full-time role.
If you are hiring, this shameful story should be music to your ears. You don't have to live in the world of fear, uncertainty, and doubt -- you can devise a recruiting process that tests for competence and start recruiting well-educated senior managers who have lots of experience faster and for less money* than your competitors.
Best of all, you'll be improving society while dominating your competition.
*Less money doesn't mean no money. It doesn't mean little money either. Don't be a jerk about this, pay people fair wages.
Postscript: I often disagree with Dave McClure, but I respect him a lot. His take on this issue is one of the reasons. Here's a video interview that's very much in the spirit of this post. He often talks about 500 Startups practicing "Moneyball for Startups," which influenced the allusion to Moneyball I made above.
McClure's approach to this is one reason I'm proud to be a 500 Startups Mentor. | <urn:uuid:2018f339-a941-4612-a32c-95d3ce1ce3b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bigthink.com/cue-the-future/hire-moms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977859 | 983 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Identifying and Monitoring Change in Wetland Inundation and Vegetation Patterns, Alligator Rivers Region, Northern Territory
A.K. Milne, D. Williamson, G. Horn, M. Finlayson and B. Bayliss
Land and Water Resources, Research and Development Corporation
Environment Australia, 2000
- Identifying and Monitoring Change in Wetland Inundation and Vegetation Patterns, Alligator Rivers Region, Northern Territory (PDF - 4,800 KB)
About the report
The wetland areas of the Alligator Rivers Region (ARR) in the Northern Territory are of national and international significance. They form part of Kakadu National Park, a listed world heritage area which is recognised as the most important natural, cultural, recreational and tourist resource in the area. In addition, these wetlands are recognised under the Ramsar Convention for Internationally Important Wetlands, which defines wetlands as areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, excluding areas of marine water, the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters.
Most of the rivers in the northern Australian region drain from broad uplands and low plateaus towards the coast. Stream flow is seasonal but can be prolonged well into the dry season in many river systems, particularly in the near tidal reaches, by the reverse flow of water from lakes and waterholes with water stored from the wet season. Collectively systems which retain and then release water or which are permanently flooded after the wet season are referred to as freshwater wetlands as opposed to the salt water and tidal wetlands of the coastal littoral zone. The work in this project covers both freshwater and saline wetlands.
Current status of project
This project commenced in late 1997. Progress reports were submitted on 30 September 1997 and 26 October 1998. This work depended on the acquisition of Radarsat data and its timely delivery from Canada through the ADRO Program. The satellite data required for monitoring seasonal changes in water level were not received until late 1998 and consequently the processing and analysis of annual seasonal change has been delayed. Considerable work has been completed on each objective. Details of further analysis are provided in the following sections. | <urn:uuid:eaad1b0b-ca4a-4e99-bcdd-c942c1ad1061> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://environment.gov.au/water/publications/environmental/wetlands/rd-alligator.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948433 | 462 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Seattle has been occupied. Tacoma has been occupied. Good heavens, even Puyallup has been occupied.
If nothing else, Occupy Wall Street is a triumph of branding. Any collection of individuals with gripes about the status quo can call itself an “Occupy,” lay claim to some public space and instantly be anointed part of the international phenomenon begun by a group of enterprising protesters in Manhattan.
A mass protest of some kind was inevitable in the current pit of economic distress and widespread joblessness. There are legions of exceedingly unhappy people out there. To its credit, Occupy Wall Street has emphasized nonviolence; eruptions of public rage in years past have often degenerated into arson and angry mobs.
But as many have pointed out, this is a movement that isn’t moving in any clear direction. That’s the downside of letting everyone and every grievance on board.
The common denominator of “Occupy Wall Street” is populist anger about economic predators, the Gordon Gekkos of the financial world who enrich themselves in good times and bad – while the have-nots suffer. But resentment is not a policy.
Occupy Wall Street has a hard time getting more specific than that. No one has the authority to speak for the organization because there is no organization.
Factions within Occupy are opposed – to varying degrees – to investment banks, currency manipulators, obscenely overpaid CEOs, corrupt politicians, corporations in general, pollution, global warming, student debt, war, war-profiteering, the Electoral College, inequality, poverty and who knows what else.
Factions are in favor of banning private campaign contributions, capping carbon emissions, pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, legalizing drugs, reversing the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision (not a bad idea, actually), and on and on.
In general, if you can’t sum up a movement’s goals in a few precise words – e.g., “shrink government,” “ban abortion, “all power to the Soviets,” “remember the Alamo” – it will sputter out for lack of cohesion.
Being against fat cats and for underdogs doesn’t make it unless everyone signs on to something concrete. As John Lennon once sang, “You say you got a real solution, well you know, we’d all love to see the plan.”
As a primal scream, though, Occupy Wall Street has succeeded. Some screaming is healthy in a misery like this. The world is out of joint. Millions are out of work while the masters of the universe flourish. Change is needed. Ninety-nine percent of the country may not want the status quo shaken up, but close enough. | <urn:uuid:e41928fc-354e-418c-86c2-3f4f8239e35f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/11/03/1890629/occupy-wall-street-a-scream-but.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93391 | 583 | 1.632813 | 2 |
A living rosary
Un Priape en forme de Terme is the informal title given to an engraving by Félicien Rops, first published in one of the volumes of Le Parnasse satyrique du XIXe siècle.
We see a giant armless Priapus contemplating, with a satisfied smile, a crowd of little women maddened by the monstrous charms of which they can not take advantage. Yet they rise boldly to storm the terrible and beautiful monument erected in their honor. Clinging to the slightest projections, hanging together, they form, from top to bottom, a living rosary around the column. At the bottom a plump mother, still embarrassed by her crinoline and her hat, seeks desperately to pass a competing assailant, midway, another has stopped in the shade of a thickly carpeted grove, and the sight of her alone provides some sweetness.
At the top, a more agile woman, is sitting on the crown of the building, we witness her fierce enjoyment.
The above text is an adaptation of Ramiro’s Catalogue of Rops’ Engraved Work (Paris, Conquet, 1887) | <urn:uuid:4ee342d1-2c40-4296-934d-830b341544f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://basementkook.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 | 0.900888 | 248 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Washington, D.C. - The U. S. Department of Agriculture reports Castleberry's Food Company in Georgia has voluntarily epxanded its July 19 recall of canned meat products that may contain botulism, a potentially fatal form of food poisoning bacteria.
The USDA says the recall is being expanded after the FDA found out "processing malfunctions at the company have existed longer than initially estimated." Subsequently, the company has agreed to recall a greater number of products that may still be in supermarket's and grocery store inventories. The "best buy" date stamped on the bottom of the cans may be inaccurate.
The USDA list of possibly contamined foods includes 75 canned meat product items including gravy, beef stew, chilli, hash and hot dog sauce products with the Castleberry, Kroger, Meijer and Goldstar labels - among others - on the cans.
Consumers with questions or concerns can call the company's Consumer Hotline at 888-203-8446. Consumers can also access news releases and other information including a full list of the suspected at the link below.
Enter your number for a chance to win great prizes!
Message and data rates may apply | <urn:uuid:6b385e2f-ebdf-4333-84a8-9b2465d712e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/8649891.html | 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 | 0.931721 | 241 | 1.679688 | 2 |
A federal judge has struck down a Federal Election Commission ruling that allowed groups to pay for advertising in the run-up to elections while keeping their donors anonymous.
The decision could force groups that air “electioneering communications” – ads broadcast close to an election that don’t expressly advocate for a federal candidate but often stop just short – to now disclose their donors.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman said on Friday that the FEC overstepped and “cannot unilaterally decide to take on a quintessentially legislative function” in ruling that corporations and others do not have to reveal who financed such ads.
The case was brought by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who sued the FEC, arguing that the nation’s 2002 campaign-finance law required full disclosure of those who contribute at least $1,000 for “electioneering communications” – ads broadcast within 30 days of a federal-office primary, or within 60 days of the general election.
After the legal victory, one of the attorneys on the case, Fred Wertheimer, president of the watchdog group Democracy 21, signaled that the legal team would seek to press the issues of disclosure further in the courts. Wertheimer said in a statement that he will consult with Van Hollen about filing a second lawsuit to take on lax disclosure requirements for independent expenditure groups, better known as super PACs. | <urn:uuid:e9ab68e4-3668-4700-84d1-442d1db2c689> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationaljournal.com/judge-reveal-donors-behind-electioneering-ads-20120402 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95502 | 289 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Simply begin typing or use the editing tools above to add to this article.
Once you are finished and click submit, your modifications will be sent to our editors for review.
comparison with Mochalov
The preponderance of Mochalov’s career was spent at Moscow’s Maly Theatre, and he was invariably compared to his St. Petersburg rival, Vasily Karatygin (1802–53). Where Mochalov enacted emotional tirades and temperamental passions, Karatygin reflected studied subtleties and calculated effects; where Mochalov was intuitive, active, and resounding, Karatygin was technical, poised, and...
What made you want to look up "Vasily Karatygin"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:bd325b07-6902-4b8b-bb31-39975922b7d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/312194/Vasily-Karatygin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933263 | 165 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Software Testing & QA Online Community > Detail: Agile Documentation
|A StickyMinds.com Original|
By Lisa Crispin
Summary: After encountering teams that claimed to have disposed of all documentation when they adopted agile practices, Lisa Crispin has decided to set the record straight on what the Agile Manifesto’s recommendation to value working software over documentation really means.
I often get questions about documentation in agile projects. Some people tell me their team “threw all the documentation out the window” when they started their “agile” transition. It puzzles me that some teams seize on agile as an excuse to not do documentation. Valuing working software over documentation, as stated in the Agile Manifesto, doesn't mean “throw out the documentation.” We still value documentation. The aim of agile development is to produce “just enough” documentation and keep it up to date and useful at all times. It has to work for the technical team and the business experts.
We Need What We Need
Testers used to traditional phased-and-gated projects are nervous about losing detailed requirements documents and test plans. These things don’t go away, they just take different forms. Rather than Word documents that get out of date, we use wikis and other tools that facilitate collaboration and automated tests that are always up to date.
You need the documentation that you need. It's situation-dependent. I've worked on Extreme Programming teams where our clients wanted a full complement of documentation—requirements docs, test plans, user manuals, design documents. We had tech writers on our teams to assist with these (which I highly recommend!). We kept things simple and made them work for us. For example, our requirements docs consisted of the user story, high-level test cases, and mock-ups as applicable, and the clients were fine with that. For the test plan, we created a document that had information our team could use, such as release plans, names and contact information for everyone involved in the project, and what tests would be automated. Agile Testing, the book I cowrote with Janet Gregory, includes a test plan template to help teams create test plans that actually get used and provide value for their team.
Documenting Early and Often
On my current team (which I've been on since 2003), documentation usually starts with mind maps, examples, and flow diagrams drawn on the whiteboard when we first discuss a new feature or theme. We take photos of these and post them on our wiki—not only for the benefit of remote team members but also to remind ourselves why we made certain decisions. For complex themes, we often create a wiki page on which team members brainstorm design ideas, raise issues, and ask questions. Wikis are a great collaboration tool, particularly if you have remote team members, as we do. A record of our discussions is also helpful later when we want to know how we arrived at a particular design.
Once we’ve broken a theme down into small, incremental user stories and have begun to work on them, documentation continues with our product owner’s (PO’s) conditions of satisfaction and mockups. Our PO has a “story checklist” template to help him think through what areas of the application and the business might be affected by the story. For example, will any reports be affected? He often includes some high-level test cases.
Collaborating Through Examples
We ask the customers for a lot of concrete examples of desired and undesired behavior. Since ours is a financial services application, it works well for the PO to give us examples in spreadsheet form. Those are easy to turn into executable tests. Examples on whiteboards work well, too, since discussing a story around a whiteboard is a great way to collaborate.
Our team holds a one-hour “pre-planning” session a day or two before the start of the iteration. The PO goes through each story, and we ask questions. As a team, including all programmers and testers, we write requirements and high-level test cases on a whiteboard during sprint preplanning and planning. That helps us share a common understanding of each story. Questions that the PO can’t answer right away are written on the board in a different color marker, so we can make sure to get the answers later. We take photos of this whiteboard, even though we also put the information in narrative form on the wiki.
When the iteration starts, we testers flesh out these examples and requirements on the team wiki, adding more information and examples, more detailed test cases, screenshots, mockups, and photos of whiteboard design drawings. For complex stories, we often mind map test cases and scenarios, which helps make sure we don’t miss anything important. We go over these test cases one more time with the PO—and sometimes with other stakeholders—to make sure we’ve understood all aspects of the story.
Building Living Documentation Along with Code
When coding starts, we write a happy-path executable test. We use FitNesse for testing at the API level behind the GUI, but there are many tools that let you do this. (Focus on creating tests as documentation, not the tool.) FitNesse allows us to include narrative along with the test cases. This first test gives the programmer a good picture of how the code needs to work. Once the programmer has checked in fixtures to automate the tests, and the happy-path test passes, we add more test cases—boundary conditions, negative tests, edge cases, and whatever we think is necessary to prove the functionality works as desired. Testing and coding are done concurrently, more tests driving more coding, until the customers are happy with the user story. The tests illustrate how the code operates in different scenarios.
By the end of coding and testing, we have wiki pages with examples, requirements, and test cases, along with “living documentation” in the form of automated tests. These tests are added to our regression suites, which run many times per day in our continuous build process. If we make changes to the code or database, the test will fail, so we have to modify them and keep them up to date.
We regularly invest time refactoring our automated tests to keep them easy to maintain and quick enough for timely feedback. Are you thinking, “There’s no chance we’ll be allowed to take time for something like that”? Gojko Adzic suggests asking the business for time to update the documentation. Businesses understand the value of documentation, and well-designed automated tests are the best form of documentation.
We also refactor our wiki so we can always find the information we need. It's easy for a wiki to get out of control. We cross-reference it several ways: table of contents by business area; a page for each sprint listing all the user stories worked on, linking to the wiki pages for each story; and a wiki hierarchy by functional area. It’s a good idea to have a technical writer help you organize your wiki. It’s such a valuable knowledge base, you need the right skills to optimize it.
Occasionally, someone from the customer support or operations side of our business comes over to ask me about something that happened in production. For example, she might show me a loan payment that was processed and say she thinks the amount of interest applied is incorrect. I can plug the same inputs into one of our automated tests, run it, and show her the results. We know exactly how the production code works, without having a lot of debate about it. Now, perhaps she would like to change the functionality, but at least we’re sure about how the system behaves.
Reflect, Experiment, and Adapt
How do you know how much documentation is enough? Every retrospective, take a look at your documentation and decide if it’s too much, too little, or just right. Does the documentation take the form that works best for your team? Experiment with different tools and approaches. In my experience, documentation is something that has to evolve over time. You have to balance the needs of customers, developers, teams doing production support, and whoever may need to know how a particular feature or piece of functionality works, how it was tested, and what automated tests support it.
About the Author
Lisa Crispin has co-authored Testing Extreme
Programming with Tip House and Agile Testing with Janet Gregory. Lisa has enjoyed working as a tester on agile teams since 2000. Her pre-agile experience included programming, testing, and technical support. She's currently part of an agile team at ePlan Services Inc. in Denver, developing web-based financial applications using XP and Scrum. For more about Lisa's work, visit www.lisacrispin.com.
Back to Top | <urn:uuid:363b7689-d5c2-4c41-8df6-a1e0403194b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?Function=edetail&ObjectType=COL&ObjectId=16698&tth=DYN&tt=siteemail&iDyn=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941008 | 1,834 | 1.570313 | 2 |
President Bush on Wednesday put his weight behind a move underfoot in Congress to lift a 27-year-old ban on oil exploration off U.S. shores as gasoline prices reach ever higher, and he cast blame on Democrats for Americans' pain at the pump in an election year that is focusing more heavily on economic issues.
Democrats contend that oil interest-tied Republicans are only seeking to expand oil companies' territory, and are ignoring land already available for oil exploration.
"For many Americans, there is no more pressing concern than the price of gasoline. Truckers and farmers, small-business owners have been hit especially hard. Every American who drives to work, purchases food or ships a product has felt the effect, and families across the country are looking to Washington for a response," Bush said, speaking from the White House Rose Garden. He took no questions.
Mentioning $4-per gallon gasoline more than once, Bush said, "My administration has repeatedly called on Congress to expand domestic oil production. Unfortunately, Democrats on Capitol Hill have rejected virtually every proposal, and now Americans are paying the price at the pump for this obstruction.
"Congress must face a hard reality: Unless members are willing to accept gas prices at today's painful levels or even higher, our nation must produce more oil and we must start now."
Bush said gasoline prices could eventually be eased with a four-point plan, the main plank of which is to open up the Outer Continental Shelf to oil exploration.
When Republicans held the majority, the House twice voted to lift the ban, only to have the legislation die in the Senate. The Senate last month by a 56-42 vote rejected a GOP energy plan that would have allowed states to avoid the federal ban if they wanted energy development off their coast.
Congress imposed the drilling moratorium in 1981 and has extended it each year since, by prohibiting the Interior Department from spending money on offshore oil or gas leases in virtually all coastal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico and in some areas off Alaska.
President George H.W. Bush issued a parallel executive drilling ban in 1990, which was extended by President Clinton and then by the current president until 2012.
On Wednesday, pointing to GOP legislation to allow offshore drilling, called for "good legislation as soon as possible. This legislation should give the states the option of opening up OCS resources off their shores, provide a way for the federal government and states to share new leasing revenues, and ensure that our environment is protected."
But Democrats are pointing to 68 million acres of federal land, to which they say oil companies hold leases allowing them to explore but are going unused.
"This should not be an attempt to get the goods through customs ... scaring people into offering more leases, more drilling opportunities, when they own 68 million acres, 14 years worth of supply, and are not drilling today," Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., said Wednesday. It is a sentiment Democrats have voiced repeatedly in recent days.
Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., said he believed the United States should buy oil refineries.
"Our Republican friends also talk about the need to set up ways in which the material can be refined, refineries. Well, do we own refineries? No. The oil companies own refineries. Should the people of the United States own refineries? Maybe so," Hinchey said.
"Frankly, I think that's a good idea. Then we could control the amount of refined product much more capably that gets out on the market," Hinchey added.
Bush also laid out three other options: He renewed his call to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration; he also said the the country must be committed to development of oil shale — a type of rock that can yield petroleum if heated, for instance — in the western United States; and he said there must be more refinery capacity.
Bush admitted his proposals "will take years to have their full impact" but he said that rather than it being an excuse for delay, "it's a reason to move swiftly" and called on Congress to change the lift the moratorium by the July 4 recess.
The offshore drilling moratoria have been in effect since 1981 in more than 80 percent of the country's Outer Continental Shelf. It was instituted to protect tourism and lessen the chance of oil spills reaching popular beaches.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino told FOX News on Wednesday that while the country moves to energy alternatives, like battery-operated cars, fuel supply has to be increased somehow.
"The president is saying, 'Let's not rely on regimes outside of our own destinies, let's try to use more of our own oil that we have right here at home.' And if we can get the revenue from it, and if we can have the benefit (we can) put back into or plow that investment back into research and development for alternatives and renewables that we're going to use in the future," she said.
Bush might benefit from increasing public support. As gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon recently, consumers have been urging the federal government to come up with a means to slow the sudden rise, including by reducing dependence on foreign producers.
Congressional Democrats, joined by some GOP lawmakers from coastal states, have opposed lifting the prohibition that has barred energy companies from waters along both the East and West coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Other lawmakers are coming up with their own plan: Legislation that would continue the ban into late 2009 had been scheduled to be considered Wednesday by the House Appropriations Committee.
However, the panel postponed all markups of spending bills early Wednesday, saying lawmakers were working on the supplemental Iraq war spending bill.
Pat Creighton, a spokesman for Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., who introduced the amendment to lift the ban that failed in a subcommittee on Monday but was to be re-introduced on Wednesday, suggested the decision to delay was for another reason.
"I think it's because our message is resonating," Creighton told FOX News. Democrats denied the assertion.
On Monday, GOP presidential candidate John McCain made lifting the federal ban on offshore oil and gas development a key part of his energy plan. McCain said states should be allowed to pursue energy exploration in waters near their coasts and get some of the royalty revenue.
He repeated the call Tuesday, with his campaign launching an ad faulting Bush for not getting behind domestic production sooner.
"In effect, our petrodollars are underwriting tyranny, anti-Semitism, the brutal repression of women in the Middle East, and dictators and criminal syndicates in our own hemisphere," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said.
Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for president, opposes lifting the ban on offshore drilling and says that allowing exploration now wouldn't affect gasoline prices for at least five years.
He said his opponent had switched positions from when he first ran for president in 2000. "I think he continues to find himself being pushed further and further to the right in ways that in my mind don't show a lot of leadership," he said.
Obama also said there is "no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now. At best you are looking at five years or more down the road."
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, energy secretary during the Clinton administration, called it "another bad idea."
"It's going to take 10 years to fully get that oil out of the ocean. It's a fragile ecosystem," he said on CBS's "The Early Show."
"You know this president, all he wants to do is drill, drill, drill. There is very little on conservation, on fuel efficiency for vehicles. Just last week the Congress failed to pass a solar tax credit — give more incentives to renewable energy, solar and wind. A one track mind — drill drill drill — that's not going to work," Richardson said.
The 574 million acres of federal coastal water that are off-limits are believed to hold nearly 18 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the Interior Department. The country each year uses about 7.6 billion barrels of oil and 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:e7e9b8b7-c10e-4272-9b33-0d00c183b7e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368221,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971173 | 1,702 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Privacy, Regulation and the Net
A major face-off is brewing between American and European approaches to our so-called Information Society. European data-protection authorities are seeking to restrict the right of Google and other search engines to disseminate certain sensitive data on “private” citizens. Suzanne Daley writes in The New York Times (August 10, A1) of a middle-aged Spanish woman who “thought it unfair that a few computer key strokes could unearth an account of her arrest during her college days”. In such cases, Daley notes, the European Union is contemplating a “right to be forgotten” on the world wide web.
The battle shaping up is more than just a rehearsal of familiar conflicts between American market supremacy and European penchants for regulation. Everyone can sympathize with the all-but-universal human desire to withhold hurtful, embarrassing, outdated or out-of-context personal data from public access–particularly when the information is no legitimate business of anyone else. But what principle should decide what personal information should be so designated, and what government agency should be trusted to apply such judgments?
Competing with privacy concerns here are values underlying a vibrant public sphere–a citizenry empowered to pursue both individual well-being and the public good through discriminating information use. Both these pursuits may sometimes require aggressive uses of personal information that place pressure on someone’s privacy. In making and maintaining friendships, neighborly relations or business ties, we often feel we need to know more about people than they willingly disclose. Or in public affairs, imagine a case where community leaders arise to oppose construction of a mosque, on the stated grounds that such an addition would alter the neighborhood’s residential character. Shouldn’t there be means for checking the response of those same leaders when construction of a church or a synagogue was proposed?
Some privacy advocates have proposed applying the equivalent of an expiration date to personal data held in record-systems, as for grocery items. Thus embarrassing postings on social media sites, for example, would simply disappear after a fixed interval. But any attempt to apply such a principle would require resolution of many intractable questions. How widely should the principle apply? To all social media postings–even where harvested and recorded in other record-systems? To all criminal record information? Or only to records of “serious” crimes”? What about crimes against particularly vulnerable parties, like children? Should public records of tax payments (and delinquencies), marriages and divorces, and verdicts in civil suits also have fixed lives? Should such “sunset laws” apply to past sexual, financial or familial peccadilloes of public office-holders? To potential office-seekers? To current or aspiring members of the clergy, the judiciary or the teaching professions? For the best of reasons, many supporters of democratic institutions will not want to entrust powers of making such decisions to any government agency.
A quite different legal innovation would provide a better protection–shoring up privacy interests without fostering overbearing government power to decide what personal information should held private. We could create a property right over commercial exploitation of data on one’s self. With the establishment of such a right, sale or trade of personal information for commercial gain would be illegal without consent from the person concerned. Ordinary people would thus enjoy protection now accorded only to celebrities–freedom from unauthorized commercialization of their names.
Such a right would have to be carefully circumscribed. It should never be understood to block sale of personal data for journalistic purposes, for example, or for use in political campaigns or other public forums. Nor should it ever be possible to sign away one’s own data rights in perpetuity. But creating a property right over commercialization of everyone’s personal data would severely curtail widespread practices of harvesting and retailing personal information for profit–practices common in credit reporting, mass marketing and insurance industries. These profit-seeking activities have furnished data for many web-based privacy-eroding disclosures.
But neither a right like this nor any other single legal or policy measure can resolve all the intricate ethical and policy questions posed by the flow of personal data over the Web. Ultimately these dilemmas require agonizing decisions about what information people should be able to keep to themselves, under what circumstances–decisions that can only be public and political. Goverments cannot avoid taking a stand, for example, on when results of criminal and civil court proceedings should be posted electronically by the courts themselves. And governments must be prepared to propose binding, privacy-friendly decisions on how much personal data members of the public should be required to provide in dealing with both public and private institutions. These are not matters where the logic of the market can answer all the subtle questions that confront us.
James B. Rule of the Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California, Berkeley can be reached at: email@example.com | <urn:uuid:29a7d028-f8b2-4315-98b0-a1a27c02c53d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/08/26/privacy-regulation-and-the-net/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931233 | 1,019 | 2.25 | 2 |
Retailers prepare to round prices up or down as penny disappears.
Local businesses in Regina were free to start rounding their prices up or down to the nearest nickel starting Monday, after the Royal Canadian Mint officially stopped distributing the copper coins.
Pat Bohn, who owns a Brandee's convenience store, started taking the guess work out of rounding up; changing prices of items at the store weeks ago, so that with taxes, they end with a zero or five. But not everything can round perfectly-- for example Brandees needs to take the hit on the one-cent tax when they sell a few five cent candies. She says the business will lose a bit on small items like that but most customers are happy to get rid of the penny.
She says re-pricing is a hefty task that will be a gradual change.
Brett Jameson, who works at Sunshine and Ski, says they're ahead of the game.
"The past little while the till has been short of pennies. I can't remember the last time we went and picked up a roll so we've been rounding up or rounding down for the past couple of weeks here. We found more often than not we say 'sorry man, we don't have any pennies in the till' and I can't remember the last time someone had a problem with getting their pennies."
Meanwhile, Bohn stocked up on 50 penny rolls on her last trip to the bank. She is worried she'll run out, and plans to keep giving exact change until that happens.
But so far there has been no shortage of pennies. Earlier on Sunday the cashier had received a handful of penny rolls to pay for a purchase.
She replied "oh yeah, we'll accept pennies" when asked if they will continue to take them. | <urn:uuid:31261244-98db-4b60-ae6f-d26835cdb5e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.canadiancontent.net/hot-topics/114178-good-bye-penny.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97494 | 371 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Thesis or dissertation
Date of this Version
Historically known as “the Workshop of the World”, Philadelphia was home to numerous industries that served as financial anchors for the neighborhoods surrounding them. However, due to a loss of industry these anchors have become dangerous, attractors of unsavory activity, and impediments to growth and safety. In order to reconnect the frayed social and economic fabrics that exist surrounding these buildings, a balance must be created between the building’s historic significance and the contemporary needs and potentials of the surrounding area. Although, many of these vacant buildings are old enough to be considered historic most are not historically designated. While there are numerous incentives available to ‘preserve’ buildings that are historically designated, it is the non-designated buildings that often offer more contemporary design flexibility. In order to bring these buildings back to life, the quantitative requirements of the 10% Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for the rehabilitation of existing structures will be used as the spring board for the design. In addition, strategies that emphasize rapid, cost effective and flexible retrofit will be emphasized and techniques of prefabrication and rapid deployment will be explored. This thesis project explores how the implementation of a prefabricated, mass customizable, construction system into the rehabilitation of an existing building can help address issues of vacancy within the city. Can the creation of a prefabricated frame and panel system capable of being deployed within a structurally sound existing building begin to restitch the building to the neighborhood and the neighborhood to the city?
Historic Preservation; Tax Credit
Date Posted: 10 August 2010 | <urn:uuid:437f7b7d-897f-4ece-8356-53ab4377aa58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/143/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951866 | 330 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Scotland and the Commonwealth: 1651-1660
Military Occupation and Early Attempts of Unification
During 1651 much of Scotland was occupied by the English armed forces under Oliver Cromwell. The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England began debating how to incorporate Scotland - initially with bills for pure and simple annexation. Before any resolution was passed, the Parliament appointed Oliver St. John, Sir Henry Vane, Richard Salwey, George Fenwick, John Lambert, Richard Deane, Robert Tichborne, and George Monck (23 Oct/2 Nov 1651) to serve as Commissioners of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, for ordering and managing affairs in Scotland. On 28 Oct/7 Nov 1651 the Parliament enacted a "Declaration of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, concerning the Settlement of Scotland"; this Declaration was ordered on 24 Dec 1651/3 Jan 1652 to be printed and published in Scotland.
The Commissioners arrived at Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland, on 15/25 Jan 1652 and later moved to Edinburgh, where they issued a declaration (21/31 Jan 1652) proclaiming their resolution to provide for the administration of justice and to resist any authority not derived from the Commonwealth of England. The Declaration of 28 Oct/7 Nov 1651 known as the "Tender of Union" was proclaimed "under authority of the Commonwealth of England" at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh on 4/14 Feb 1652, and invited representatives of the shires and royal burghs of Scotland to subscribe an oath that "Scotland be incorporated and made one Commonwealth with England". For this purpose, the Tender was read to assembled representatives of the shires and burghs at Dalkeith on 13/23 Feb 1652. In anticipation of final settlement of the Scottish affairs, the Council of State of the Commonwealth of England appointed (8/18 Apr 1652) four English and three Scottish judges to form a provisional Court of Judicature for Scotland, which was established in Edinburgh on 18/28 May 1652.
By 30 Apr/10 May 1652 all the responses (of the shires and burghs responding at all) were in the hands of the Commissioners. Before that date, on 25 Mar/4 Apr 1652, a "Declaration of the Parliament of England, in order to the Uniting of Scotland into one Commonwealth with England" was enacted, and was proclaimed at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh on 21 Apr/1 May 1652. On 13/23 Apr 1652 a bill for an "Act for incorporating Scotland into one Commonwealth with England" was given a first and a second reading in the Commons and was referred to a committee (where it remained until the dissolution of the 'Rump' Parliament on 20/30 Apr 1653). A similar bill was introduced and read in the 'Barebones' Parliament of 1653, and again failed enactment by the time of the dissolution.
The Ordinance of Union
The Instrument of Government of 16/26 Dec 1653 styled the polity "Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland", but the de iure situation of Scotland was only clarified by the "Ordinance for uniting Scotland into one Commonwealth with England" ("Ordinance of Union") issued by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell on 12/24 Apr 1654:
His Highness the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, &c., taking into consideration how much it might conduce to the glory of God and the peace and welfare of the people in this whole island, that after all those late unhappy wars and differences, the people of Scotland should be united with the people of England into one Commonwealth and under one Government, and finding that in December, 1651, the Parliament then sitting did send Commissioners into Scotland to invite the people of that nation unto such a happy Union, who proceeded so far therein that the shires and boroughs of Scotland, by their Deputies convened at Dalkeith, and again at Edinburgh, did accept of the said Union, and assent thereunto; for the completing and perfecting of which Union, be it ordained, and it is so ordained by his Highness the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, by and with the advice and consent of his Council, that all the people of Scotland, and of the Isles of Orkney and Shetland, and of all the dominions and territories belonging unto Scotland, are and shall be, and are hereby incorporated into, constituted, established, declared and confirmed one Commonwealth with England; and in every Parliament to be held successively for the said Commonwealth, thirty persons shall be called from and serve for Scotland.
The Ordinance of Union was proclaimed by Lieutenant General George Monck (later 1st Duke of Albemarle, Earl of Torrington, Baron Monck of Potheridge, Beauchamp And Teyes) on 4/14 May 1654, as part of a series of grand ceremonies marking his entry into Edinburgh. The Ordinance was given statutory confirmation by the assent of the Protector (at the same ceremony at which the "Humble Petition and Advice" was assented to) on 26 Jun/6 Jul 1657, to "An Act and Declaration, touching several Acts and Ordinances made since the Twentieth of April 1653, and before the Third of September 1654; and others."
End of the Union
The Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and with it the union of Scotland with England, lapsed on 7/17 May 1659 with the return of the 'Rump' Parliament, which tacitly rescinded all ordinances promulgated during the Protectorate. Notably, an Act for the Great Seal of England, passed by the Parliament on 14/24 May 1659, omitted any reference to Scotland as a part of the Commonwealth. With the unfinished process for (re-)enacting the incorporation of Scotland into "one Commonwealth with England", the 'Rump' charged a committee composed of the members of the Council of State (18/28 May 1659) "to consider of the Union between Scotland and England upon the Grounds formerly declared by this Parliament". This process remained unfinished. General Monck, when orchestrating the process leading to Restoration, refused to admit Scottish representatives into the Convention Parliament of England that sat from 25 Apr/5 May 1660, leaving Scotland in another spell of limbo. In May 1660 the Council of State appointed Commissioners in the name of the Parliament to govern Scotland. These Commissioners, Sir Thomas Morgan, Philip Twistleton, William Daniel, and Molyneux Disney, took office on 11/21 May 1660 and, with the acquiescence of Charles II governed Scotland until 23 Aug/2 Sep 1660, on which date the Committee of Estates (or what remained of it from the invasion of 1651) re-convened. On 14/24 May 1660 Charles II was proclaimed King in Edinburgh.
|||"History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate", ed. by S.R. Gardiner, 4 vols (London, 1988 reprint).| | <urn:uuid:9e594286-4eb1-4238-9fc9-a345fa243cb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.archontology.org/nations/uk/scotland/01_laws.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953576 | 1,468 | 3.75 | 4 |
The following HTML text is provided to enhance online
readability. Many aspects of typography translate only awkwardly to HTML.
Please use the page image
as the authoritative form to ensure accuracy.
Biographical Memoirs: Volume 64
CARL SHIPP MARVEL
September 11, 1894-January 4, 1988
BY NELSON J. LEONARD
CARL S. MARVEL had a spectacular career of seventy-two years in organic chemistry. It was during the same period that the chemical industry in the United States experienced its greatest growth. The two careers were synergistic. From 1920 to 1961, Dr. Marvel was on the staff of the University of Illinois in Urbana, and from the date of his first retirement through 1987 he was a faculty member at the University of Arizona. He consulted for nearly sixty years for the DuPont Experimental Station. He was a dominant figure in American organic chemistry and has been recognized as the "father" of synthetic polymer chemistry. The impact of his teaching, research, and consultation was matched by his important contributions to government, foundations, and the professional community. It was at the personal level, however, that his influence was most pervasive, reaching beyond the 176 Ph.D. students and 150 postdoctoral students whom he trained to thousands of chemists, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances with whom he shared common interests or goals. His personality was so memorable that his influence will continue to affect and guide the lives of all those with whom he came in contact.
Carl Marvel was born on a farm three miles south of Waynesville, Illinois, during the forenoon of September 11, | <urn:uuid:cfa621c5-2ac2-48de-be9e-a7658833d270> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=4547&page=233 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982964 | 333 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Korean Air has obtained its first Boeing 747-8 and 777 Freighters to expand its cargo fleet making it the first airline in the world to operate both the 747-8 and 777 Freighters.
Korean Air chairman Yang Ho Cho said: "We are very proud to become the first airline in the world to have the combined strengths of these two freighters in its fleet."
"Our cargo fleet is being improved by these fuel-saving planes," Ho Cho said.
"They can help reduce carbon emissions by 17% and this supports our goal to be a responsible citizen of the world."
The 747-8 Freighter will be deployed on the freight carrier's long-haul routes allowing it to expand into new markets in Europe, including Vienna, Frankfurt and London.
The Boeing 747-8 Freighter has a range of 4,390nm with a maximum structural payload capacity of 148t and offers an additional 4,221ft² (120m³) and 16% more cargo volume.
The twin-engine, fuel-efficient Boeing 777 Freighter offers economic and environmental performance while offering a cargo capacity of 103t with a range of 9,038km (4,880nm).
Korean Air currently operates a fleet of 142 aircraft and flies 400 flights per day to 119 destinations in 40 countries.
The airline has ordered seven 747-8 freighters and five 777 cargo planes for delivery through 2018 and is expected to receive one more freighter this year.
In March 2011 Korean Air had ordered two more 747-8 freighters for $939m, adding to the five of its type that it had previously ordered.
The carrier is expected to receive its sixth Airbus SAS A380 passenger aircraft this year.
Korean Air has already ordered new CSeries jets from Bombardier as well as looking to add new narrow-body planes to its fleet.
Image: Korean Air has ordered seven 747-8 freighters for delivery through 2018. Photo: Boeing. | <urn:uuid:fed3d7b7-c821-440d-854b-0f5b8bc95bed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aerospace-technology.com/news/newskorean-air-receives-first-boeing-747-8-777-freighters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964401 | 405 | 1.664063 | 2 |
What kind of ape was Tarzan raised by?
Dear Straight Dope:
Who or what type of critter was Tarzan raised by? I recall from the books that he disliked gorillas and from the descriptions, chimps are too small. Did old Edgar just make up a whole class of apes?
First answer: yes, it's fiction, and Edgar Rice Burroughs made up the whole thing. He wasn't a naturalist, zoologist or anthropologist, and his jungle animals behaved as he wanted them to, to tell a good story. Reality definitely took a second place. Hell, about a 102nd place. Burroughs did distinguish his great apes from gorillas, but did not identify them further than that.
Now, second answer: The identification of the tribe of apes who raised Tarzan is a matter of serious debate (yes, serious debate) among Tarzan aficionados, much as discussions of the location of Watson's wound are among Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts. The game is the same: Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote accounts of a real person, Tarzan, just as John Watson wrote accounts about a real detective, Sherlock Holmes. The problem is that Burroughs (like Watson, or like his editor Arthur Conan Doyle) tried to conceal the true identities of many of the people and incidents; hence, the accounts are full of distortions and seeming inconsistencies. True aficionados try to pry behind the camouflage, to determine the true events, dates, people, places, etc., and to reconcile the inconsistencies.
(ASIDE: In fact, the Burroughs enthusiasts and the Holmes enthusiasts sometimes find points in common--after all, Tarzan's father John Clayton would have been around the same age as Sherlock Holmes, living contemporarily in London.)
OK, so that's the game: assume the stories are true, and try to explain the inconsistencies.
The first Tarzan book, Tarzan of the Apes, was published in 1912. The first chapters describe how, in 1888, John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, was commissioned to make a "peculiarly delicate investigation" of conditions in an unnamed British colony on the west coast of Africa. He was accompanied by his young wife, Lady Alice. (ASIDE: The exact peerage is somewhat confused, as his wife is sometimes called Lady Alice and sometimes Lady Greystoke. She wouldn't normally be addressed as both. Since Edgar Rice Burroughs says he heard this tale from someone else, it is likely that ERB, an American, was unfamiliar with British peerage and titles. However, this spurs on much debate in the Burroughs Bulletin and among fans, trying to identify who the Greystokes really were, etc.)
There was a mutiny on their ship, and they were abandoned somewhere on the West African coast; they built a hut, foraged for food, kept the dangerous beasts away with guns and fire . . . and then their son was born. One year later, Alice died in her sleep. The next night, the hut was attacked by apes who killed Clayton. One of the female apes, named Kala, had recently lost her child; she grabbed the infant in the crib, nursed him and adopted him to replace her dead baby. The child was raised by the apes and learned the ways of the jungle. The combination of jungle cunning and his superb British brain not only helped Tarzan survive, they made him leader of the ape tribe, self-styled King of the Apes.
He later discovered the hut, including children's books that the Claytons had brought with them. He learned his origin, that he was not a mutant born of Kala, but a son of the tarmangani (white folks.) He taught himself how to read English, and finally met English-speakers. He learned his true identity as the offspring of a British lord, and became the Tarzan we all know and love, whose exploits are told in 24 books by Burroughs, and in countless movies, radio programs, and TV series.
So, to your question: who or what were these "apes" that raised a human baby? Burroughs described them first as "great man-like figures," dimly seen through the foliage. Then one attacks Alice, and we have the description: "The ape was a great bull, weighing probably three hundred pounds. His nasty, close-set eyes gleamed hatred from beneath his shaggy brows, while his great canine fangs were bared in a horrid snarl as he paused a moment before his prey."
Clayton described it in his diary as an "anthropoid ape," but Clayton (like Burroughs) had not studied either anthropology or zoology. In fact, they are clearly not gorillas, as will be discussed in a moment.
The tribe of great apes call themselves mangani and they appear to be far more humanoid than gorilloid. They have a spoken language and social structure. They are often described in the first two Tarzan books as "gorilla-like apes." But Burroughs had, at that time, no information to the contrary. Once he had taken that approach, of course, he was stuck--even though he later learned more about the mangani, he could not contradict his earlier versions. Consequently, the erroneous description of the mangani as apes was in stone. But Burroughs didn't care; Philip Jose Farmer says, in Tarzan Alive, that Burroughs "was writing novels, and the facts did not always have to be adhered to. Indeed . . . he sometimes went out of his way to make sure that the reader thought that his Tarzan books were entirely fictional."
So, what are the clues?
In The Jungle Tales of Tarzan, Burroughs mentions "these great manlike apes which the natives of the Gobi speak of in whispers" who "unlike the chimpanzee and the gorilla . . . walk without the aid of their hands quite as readily as with." The ability to walk entirely upright for long periods of time requires that the pelvises and legs of the mangani must have been more human than ape.
We also know, from several stories, that the mangani were well-developed meat eaters. They also ate insects, birds, eggs, fruit, and nuts; this again suggests an evolution that is more human than gorilla (gorillas are vegetarians). Presumably, Tarzan's adopted mother pre-chewed his food for him; otherwise, his comparatively fragile teeth would not have proved adequate.
The mangani have a spoken language of some complexity. Again, this puts them closer to humans on the evolutionary scale than to any other creature.
And so, although they are called "great apes," the conclusion drawn by most people who study the Tarzan stories is that they are subhumans rather than super-apes, perhaps some rare hominid, such as language-using pithecanthropoids. Philip Farmer speculates that the mangani may be a smaller African variety of the Himalayan yeti or the giant sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest. He offers that they may have been a giant variety of Australopithecus robustus, a hominid supposed to be extinct. They may have been the agogwe of native African legend.
We also know that male mangani were subject to maniacal fits of rage. Farmer speculates that this may be a "nonsurvival trait that had tended to reduce the population of the genus, which had been very low for thousands of years. This instability may have helped them lose out in the race for the kingship of Earth in the dawn of sentience. The gorilla, their closest relative after man, had also lost the race. . . . The huge vegetarian gorillas, though not nearly as intelligent as the mangani, and not numerous, still outnumbered the mangani by a hundred to one. It is doubtful that there were over two hundred [mangani] left in equatorial Africa in 1889."
Presumably, they are extinct today.
As a final aside, there are only two passing reference in the entire 24 books to chimpanzees. "Cheetah" is an invention of the movie people, and thus not canonical.
Tarzan Alive, by Philip Jose Farmer, Popular Library, New York, 1972.
www.tarzan.com, the official website
And, of course, Tarzan of the Apes and The Return of Tarzan, the first two books of the series.
If you'd like more, don't overlook the Burroughs Bulletin, the official journal that has published the speculation, analysis, and praise of fans. | <urn:uuid:76fc87eb-3b93-486f-8ba4-21b30f3f4cc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1973/what-kind-of-ape-was-tarzan-raised-by | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982214 | 1,804 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Chapter 48: Creativity: Powering Integrated Marketing Communications Ideas
In the world of advertising, everyone searches for the big idea. Today, this is viewed as a unifying idea with integration behind it. The Pepsi Refresh Project is an example of a unique interactive marketing idea. The responsibility for idea generation is at all levels of an organization. A process is given to develop ideas. An integrated marketing idea brief is also explained. Examples of creative ideas are given such as Mastercard’s “Priceless” campaign, Dove’s “real beautify” insights, and Budweiser’s “Whassup!?” campaign.
Marty Kohr Biography | <urn:uuid:ef5cfb6f-cbdf-4cbc-89e0-dae5284a8ad8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.caywoodhandbook.com/chapter-49.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911964 | 144 | 1.90625 | 2 |
rare but widespread species in Belgium.
larva lives on Hypericum perforatum. Hibernates as larva and pupates underground.
adults fly in two, sometimes three generations a year: from April
till late September. They are active from dusk onwards and later come
Namur, Lavaux-Ste-Anne, 12 April 2003.
(Photo © Chris Steeman) | <urn:uuid:941b24f7-8810-4953-bdb1-17c02075705a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://webh01.ua.ac.be/vve/Checklists/Lepidoptera/Geometridae/Aplagiata.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908256 | 85 | 2.125 | 2 |
GUEST BLOG -- DUSTIN INTIHAR
Hire based on DNA, not resume
Blog entry: March 14, 2012, 4:30 am | Author: DUSTIN INTIHAR
How often does a candidate possess all of the right experience (resume) as well as the internal makeup (DNA) that makes one successful in your organization? My experience has indicated that this does not occur as often as most would like.
More often than not, it is a challenge to find a candidate who possesses both the ideal resume and DNA. Now, for some professions (i.e. healthcare professionals…) licenses, certifications and prior experience are absolutely necessary. However, for most job openings, when confronted with a decision between a candidate with extensive related experience and one who lacks direct industry experience, but has the abilities (DNA) to be successful at nearly anything he/she does, I suggest hiring the candidate with the right DNA.
A typical kickoff meeting with a hiring manager goes something like this: The hiring manager reveals a laundry list of 12-15 items a candidate should possess. From there, we narrow the list down to the four or five most crucial aspects of the job.
These items, otherwise referred to as the “minimum qualifications," usually are based on technical skills (i.e. programming languages), formal education (bachelor's degree or above) and years of related experience (i.e. three or more years of formal leadership experience).
Here lies this issue. If a candidate's resume does not indicate the aforementioned skills and experience, he/she often is disregarded (by the hiring manager) as if he/she is not capable of excelling in this role. In some instances, this is simply not true and organizations lose out by not hiring a candidate based on a resume. Therefore, during the recruitment process, I challenge you as a hiring manager to reevaluate your “minimum qualifications” and consider the tough-to-define attributes (DNA) that separate your best employees from the rest. (NOTE: these attributes may differ from organization to organization.)
Examples of what I call DNA include:
• Willing to sacrifice personal gain for the betterment of the team or organization
• Willing and able to learn and apply new concepts / skills quickly
• Ability to lead without having authority
• Ability to adapt within a rapidly changing environment
• Respectful of all others (regardless of where they are on the org chart)
• Passionate about their career and committed to an organization
Let's consider a candidate who possesses the six traits above, but who may not have a BS Degree or may not know a specific programming language.
In most cases, this candidate would have never even been interviewed because of the resume. However, if given the opportunity, this candidate could not only learn the required skills in a reasonable amount of time, but he/she has the potential to be a top performer in nearly any position within your company. If given the three to six months, or even a year to learn the required skills, this candidate will provide much more value in the years to come.
I am willing to sacrifice some of the technical skills and related experience for the right DNA. Are you? | <urn:uuid:551536b2-6b02-4a40-97ef-a6794c920baa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20120314/BLOGS05/303149999&template=printart | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956119 | 665 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Boise Armory: How to repurpose a 1930s structure
In a previous post I included a link to the Helms Bakery District in Culver City, CA. Constructed in 1931, the building used concrete techniques similar to Boise’s Armory. The structure is much larger, was privately constructed for industrial use and carried architectural themes inspired by the Olympics and the ‘Zigzag Moderne’ style. The developer and owner opted to clean and paint the concrete exterior, which in the case of the Helms Bakery structure helped accentuate architectural details and hide a few flaws.
Subcommittee member and local entrepreneur Dave Krick went out of his way last week to visit the Helms Bakery District and was given a tour of the site and businesses. According to a good friend who lives nearby, the renovation and repurposing has completely energized the surrounding neighborhoods and economy, stimulating additional investment.
Click on the photos below to see a few of the details of the Helms Bakery project (like solar panels on the roof and creating shade for parking), and imagine what we might highlight of the Boise Armory to bring modern relevance to Boise’s own historic structure. What would you emphasize? The National Guard presence, the project’s role in helping Boise transition to more prosperous times, or the fact that the building uses geothermal heat and connects multiple neighborhoods with the foothills?
What can we do to return this site and structure to a community asset? What businesses, nonprofits or community groups could use the location and space effectively? Stay tuned, and be ready with suggestions. | <urn:uuid:71352f54-49fd-463f-9776-5234f5590962> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reservestreetarmory.com/?tag=reserve-street | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949236 | 327 | 2.359375 | 2 |
(PDF 606 KB)
What’s the best way to treat acute corneal hydrops? Given that most cases of hydrops—corneal edema resulting from tears in the Descemet membrane—eventually resolve spontaneously, many ophthalmologists rely on conservative management for this relatively uncommon condition associated with keratoconus, keratoglobus, and pellucid marginal corneal degeneration (PMCD).
More recently, however, a growing number of cornea specialists havebeen turning to a treatment approach that promises quicker resolution of the edema but may carry additional risks.
A Shift in the Paradigm
Conventional treatment of hydrops includes topical antibiotics, cycloplegics, and hypertonic saline as well as patching and bandage soft contact lens. When treated conservatively, the edema tends to resolve over two to four months, with some patients achieving acceptable visual results and others requiring subsequent surgery.1
The rethinking of hydrops treatment grew out of an observation taken from cataract surgery: When the Descemet membrane is detached after surgery, ophthalmologists have been using intracameral injections of air to reattach the membrane to the corneal stroma. In hydrops, there is a break in the Descemet membrane that allows aqueous humor to enter the stroma. Could an injected air bubble act as a tamponade to prevent aqueous humor penetration into the stroma?
This possibility prompted researchers to try using intracameral air to treat hydrops.2 That approach was followed, in turn, by the use of intracameral injections of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas and perfluoropropane (C3F8) gas, which also act as mechanical barriers and prevent the entry of aqueous into the corneal stroma, but their resorption is much slower than that of air. These gases have long been used as a treatment for retinal detachment.
Intracameral air. In 2002, Miyata et al. published a retrospective study of intracameral air injections to treat hydrops secondary to keratoconus.2 Of 30 eyes with acute hydrops, 21 were treated with either no therapy or standard conservative management, while nine received 0.1-mL injections of filtered air.
The results: Corneal edema persisted for an average of 20 days in those who received the injections versus an average of 64.7 days in the control group. Similarly, patients who received the air injections were able to begin wearing hard contact lenses an average of 33.4 days after the onset of hydrops, while those in the control group had to wait an average of 128.9 days. BCVA after the hydrops subsided was similar between the two groups, and the injections induced no complications.
Intracameral SF6 gas. In 2007, Panda et al. reported results with the use of intracameral SF6 gas in nine eyes with acute hydrops secondary to keratoconus. Another nine eyes were treated conservatively.3
The results: Edema in the eyes that had received the injections resolved at four weeks versus 12 weeks in those treated conservatively. In addition, the mean BCVA at 12 weeks was slightly better in the eyes treated with SF6.
Intracameral C3F8 gas. Last year, a retrospective study of intracameral injections of C3F8 in eyes with hydrops secondary to keratoconus, PMCD, and keratoglobus was published in Ophthalmology. The study group consisted of 62 eyes of 57 patients; the control group included 90 eyes of 82 patients who were treated conservatively.4
The results: Edema resolved more quickly in eyes treated with C3F8 than in those managed conservatively. This effect was most evident in eyes with keratoconus; the time to resolution averaged 57.2 days in eyes treated with C3F8 versus an average of 104 days in the control group. Although edema also resolved more quickly in patients who had PMCD or keratoglobus and who had been treated with C3F8 than in the controls, the advantage was not as marked, possibly because of the position or size of the tear in the membrane, the researchers noted.
Final BCVA was roughly the same in the treatment and control groups, with a higher proportion of the C3F8-treated eyes with keratoconus achieving 20/40 vision or better.
|Keratoconus With Acute Hydrops
|(1) Three days after onset of symptoms. (2) One day after intracameral C3F8 injection, the gas bubble covers the break in the Descemet membrane. (3) One month after injection. (4) Seventy days after injection, edema has resolved, and visual acuity is 20/40 with contact lenses.
“At the moment, I am not a big fan of using air or the retinal gases; I tend to be a little more conservative in managing hydrops,” said Michael B. Raizman, MD, codirector of the cornea and cataract service at New England Eye Center in Boston. However, he knows cornea specialists who routinely perform such intracameral injections, “so it definitely has been accepted by some,” Dr. Raizman noted.
For clinicians who are considering following suit, two experts who perform the injections offer several points to consider.
Timing of intervention. If you choose to do intracameral injections, how soon should you proceed? “You want to jump in early,” said William B. Trattler, MD, a cornea specialist with the Center for Excellence in Eye Care in Miami. “The goal is to get the Descemet membrane back into position flush against the back surface of the cornea so that it can heal. The gas works to block fluid entry into the cornea, which results in reduced corneal swelling. The sooner you can initiate the treatment, the quicker the recovery.”
Choice of gas. Which option is best—air, SF6, or C3F8? “My recommendation is to use one of the retinal gases, as they last longer in the eye than air,” Dr. Trattler said. Pravin K. Vaddavalli, MD, a cornea specialist with the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India, agreed. “The thought process behind injecting an intracameral gas bubble is to have it present in the anterior chamber for a longer duration, leading to a sustained tamponade of the torn edges of the Descemet membrane. An air bubble wouldn’t suffice, as it would get absorbed too quickly. Both C3F8 and SF6 are good options.”
Choice of concentration. “C3F8 and SF6 should be used in isoexpansile concentrations to prevent further expansion of the bubble after surgery,” said Dr. Vaddavalli, a coauthor of the 2011 Ophthalmology study. “For C3F8, this would be a concentration of 14 percent; for SF6, it would be 18 percent.” Dr. Trattler proceeds on a case-by-case basis, using concentrations ranging from 16 to 18 percent.
Choice of setting. Dr. Vaddavalli recommended performing intracameral injections in the OR: “As the procedure involves a peripheral iridotomy and intracameral tamponade with frequent changes in the depth of the anterior chamber, peribulbar anesthesia in the OR would be ideal.” However, he added, “a topical procedure could be tried with intracameral anesthesia.” In contrast, Dr. Trattler performs the injections at the slit lamp.
Anterior chamber fill. “You want to do a 70 percent fill to avoid pupillary block,” Dr. Trattler said. As Dr. Vaddavalli noted, a complete anterior chamber fill followed by saline exchange, as is performed in Descemet stripping endothelial keratoplasty (DSEK), is not advisable. “The principle behind a gas bubble to tamponade the torn edges of the Descemet membrane is different from that in DSEK surgery, which requires only a short period of contact of the Descemet graft with the posterior stroma to adhere,” Dr. Vaddavalli said. “Following hydrops, it would be desirable to have a constant-sized bubble in the anterior chamber to tamponade the curled edges of the membrane. Moreover, an air-gas exchange or an air-fluid exchange could have the potential of changing the isoexpansile nature of the gas bubble, potentially reducing its efficacy.”
Question of risks. Potential risks associated with intracameral injections include the following:
• Cataracts. Dr. Raizman noted that his primary concern with intracameral injections is that the introduction of air or gas into the anterior chamber could cause cataracts. “Cataracts have been reported after air in the anterior chamber with DSEK in phakic patients. These tend to be young patients who otherwise would not need cataract surgery.” The air or gas is left in place even longer with hydrops.
Anterior subcapsular cataracts are a potential concern, Dr. Vaddavalli agreed, “as most of the patients are young.” He added, “The risk of developing an anterior subcapsular cataract was not evaluated in our paper but may be minimized by using miotics to constrict the pupil during surgery. However, reduced pupil size can increase the risk of a pupillary block, and this can be surmounted by performing an intraoperative peripheral iridectomy.”
• Endothelial cell loss. “This has been reported with both air and perfluoropropane in the anterior chamber in a rabbit model,” Dr. Vaddavalli said. “However, we believe the mechanical tamponade afforded by the gas bubble in the anterior chamber reduces the endothelial redistribution over the torn and detached Descemet membrane, eventually minimizing endothelial migration and resulting in lesser endothelial cell loss compared with eyes where no intervention is performed.” And Dr. Trattler noted that he has experienced no issues with endothelial cell loss.
• Pupillary block. There is an immediate postoperative risk of pupillary block, said Dr. Vaddavalli. “This can be avoided to a certain extent by titrating the amount of gas injected intracamerally and making sure the concentration of the gas-air mixture is in the right proportion to avoid postop expansion of the bubble.”
Question of compliance. Theoretically, patients should remain supine for two weeks after receiving intracameral gas injections. “It’s not necessarily for weeks; it’s more like a couple of days to a week,” said Dr. Trattler. “Still, patients aren’t always compliant, and you some- times have to make a point of urging them to keep their proper head position to maximize the effect of the gas.”
What are the odds that intracameral injections will become standard practice? “None of the measures used in standard medical management have any clear indication or benefit,” argued Dr. Vaddavalli. “A surgical intervention to hasten the resolution of hydrops seems the natural course of action, as it is the only proven technique to reduce the time taken for the hydrops to resolve.”
But to settle the issue and, especially, to define the extent of cataract development and other risks, Dr. Raizman noted, “We need a prospective clinical trial, and that will be hard to do for such a rare condition.” Indeed, Dr. Vaddavalli and his coauthors estimate that a prospective trial to validate the efficacy of C3F8 would require 63 patients in both the study and control groups for statistical power of 80 percent; for 90 percent power, the number of patients jumps to 85. In the meantime, Dr. Raizman said, “I still advocate conservative management. I realize that it’s frustrating for patients to have blurry vision for a couple of months, but that’s still the approach I use.”
But even before a clinical trial could be put together, it’s entirely possible that current corneal research could take the debate over treatment of hydrops in a completely different direction, Dr. Raizman said. “My hope is that, with collagen cross-linking and other techniques, we’ll be able to strengthen and reshape the cornea; and then hydrops could become a thing of the past.”
1 Grewal S et al. Trans Am Ophthalmol Soc. 1999;97:187-198.
2 Miyata K et al. Am J Ophthalmol. 2002;133(6):750-752.
3 Panda A et al. Cornea. 2007;26(9):1067-1069.
4 Basu S et al. Ophthalmology. 2011;118(5):934-939.
Drs. Raizman, Trattler, and Vaddavalli report no related financial interests.
Learn More in Chicago
Check out this year’s Cornea Subspecialty Day. Join your colleagues for presentations focusing on evidence-based treatments for ocular surface disorders and a variety of topics involving the expanding reach of the anterior segment surgeon.
For more information about this year’s Joint Meeting and the full Subspecialty Day program, visit www.aao.org/2012. | <urn:uuid:4c42aea2-c929-46c5-a7dd-f1acd411f6e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aao.org/publications/eyenet/201206/cornea.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930191 | 2,914 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Are you looking for a stock?
Try one of these
The Federal Reserve recently announced a number of new regulations that it says will tame risk-taking by major U.S. financial institutions. The regulations -- which are part of the Dodd-Frank legislation -- propose stiffer capital and liquidity rules and stress tests for banks with more than $50 billion in assets.
But Christopher Whalen, Senior Managing Director at Tangent Capital Partners, tells BNN these regulations will fail in their quest to tame the banking sector.
"We keep coming back with these layers and layers of regulation and compliance and risk management, but I'm not even sure that enterprise risk management is possible when you have banks this large and this complex," he says. "I'm not sure at the end of the day if we are making these banks safer and sounder. I think we would be better off breaking them up into smaller pieces -- that would be a step forward in terms of risk management."
Whalen says history has shown us that banks are excellent are finding ways around new regulations.
"What we've learned over the last ten to 50 years in this country is that banks always find a way around regulation," he says. "You give them five or ten years after the passage of Dodd-Frank and enough lawyers and they'll find a way around whatever regulatory systems the Fed puts in place." | <urn:uuid:e03d2b71-4def-4c9b-9147-4fb1257a2773> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bnn.ca/News/2011/12/23/US-banks-Too-big-to-regulate.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965635 | 281 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Make Plans for International Learn to Fly Day May 21
Last May, EAA members, chapters, and other aviation groups and enthusiasts introduced the wonder of flight to more than 40,000 people at 450 local events during the first International Learn to Fly Day. Mark your calendars and start making plans for the second annual event, set for Saturday, May 21.
The goal of this effort is to involve the entire aviation community and bring aviators together with those who have the dream of flight to show and encourage them to take that next step toward becoming a pilot. EAA and numerous other aviation organizations and businesses are again joining together to organize introductory flights, seminars, open houses at airports and flight schools, and other activities. (Read about last year’s inaugural event.)
EAA encourages chapters to organize an event and post it to the International Learn to Fly Day online information center.
Learn to Fly Day events do not need to be complicated or extensive. They can be as simple as taking someone for an introductory flight and then introducing them to a flight instructor. Plans might include an airport open house, a fly-in breakfast, or even a mall show. Use your imaginations and keep us posted as to what you plan to do so that we can share your ideas with other chapters.
We established a special e-mail address for Learn to Fly Day suggestions, plans, or questions. We will also be posting ideas and progress on the development of International Learn to Fly Day.
The following are some ideas to get you started. Remember, these are just suggestions, so use your imaginations:
- Airport open house
- Chapter hangar open house
- Introductory flight
- Presentation to other organizations
- Program swap with other organization (for example, model airplane club)
- Mall show
- Cooperative program with flight school
We’ll have much more to come as we approach May 21, so stay tuned! | <urn:uuid:10c12ea9-8cc5-4ba8-aa22-339d29378b18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eaa.org/chapters/resources/articles/110208_learntoflyday.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939876 | 393 | 1.875 | 2 |
Screening for congenital heart diseases by murmurs using telemedical phonocardiography
A large proportion of congenital heart diseases (CHD) remain undetected during pregnancy or even after birth. Many of them generate turbulent blood flow, resulting heart murmur. Doppler ultrasound cardiotocography (CTG) is suitable for the assessment of the fetal heart rate and some derived parameters, but it is inadequate for detecting heart murmurs. Although comprehensive examination can be carried out with echocardiography, it is expensive and requires expertise; therefore, it is not applicable for widespread screening. This paper presents a new possibility for screening for some CHDs using phonocardiography, which can be combined with Doppler ultrasound CTG as an extension of it. Furthermore it can be carried out at home allowing repeated measurements, which increases also the reliability of filtering out innocent murmurs. The diagnostic capability of this screening method is supported by a large number of evaluated fetal heart sound records. Moreover, according to experiences pregnant women prefer this reliable, easy to use method, which facilitates their examination. | <urn:uuid:1606b4f7-9fb8-405a-b3f6-a088e2e425ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.citeulike.org/user/sheleviv/article/11976142 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922558 | 221 | 2.25 | 2 |
The FBI has revealed that late Senator Edward Kennedy, the brother of President John F. Kennedy Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy, received numerous death threats after the assassination of both his brothers.
The files, which were released on Monday, also highlighted the efforts of the Kennedy family to challenge the rumors of his links with the Communists.
Ted Kennedy died in August 2009, at the age of 77, following a prolonged illness from brain cancer. The 2,200 pages of the archives on Kennedy revealed that he was on the brink of threats and extortion schemes.
Continuing the legacy of his brothers, Ted Kennedy, a Senator from Massachusetts, worked on the development of healthcare and civil rights.
Reports claim that from the threats received handful were from non-political parties, some from radical groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist White People's Party.
As per the FBI investigations, federal prisoner in Soledad, California, Sirhan Sirhan, who had killed Robert Kennedy, also attempted to hire the prisoner, once he was released, in order to kill Edward Kennedy.
As quoted in the document dated Nov 29, 1977, "He advised during this time (that) subject offered him one million dollars and a car in exchange for killing Senator Kennedy ... he advised he declined the contract".
Further, other documents were also unveiled, all of which highlighted the attempts of the family against the allegation that Ted had relations with the Communists.
- Inquest into Death of Dylan Crean, 3, Finds Communication Failings between Agencies
- Denise Welch Shares Her Experience during Fight against Depression
- Toy Car Helps 16-Year-Old Girl Recover of Paralysis
- Lack of Support Makes Carers in Scotland Fail in Relationships
- Vodafone pays no corporation tax in UK for second consecutive year, despite earning over £5bn | <urn:uuid:3fff7e5a-53fb-4301-8fac-15f821a3ec63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://topnews.co.uk/26641-ted-kennedy-got-several-death-threats-fbi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975276 | 376 | 1.859375 | 2 |
|Country||Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Hanover|
|Current head||Ernst August V, Prince of Hanover|
|Founding||1635 - George of Brunswick-Lüneburg|
1918 - Ernest Augustus of Brunswick forced to abdicate after German defeat in World War I
The House of Hanover (the Hanoverians pron.: //) is a German royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg (German: Braunschweig-Lüneburg), the Kingdom of Hanover, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It succeeded the House of Stuart as monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714 and held that office until the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. They are sometimes referred to as the House of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Hanover line. The House of Hanover is a younger branch of the House of Welf, which in turn is the senior branch of the House of Este.
Queen Victoria was the granddaughter of George III, and was an ancestor of most major European royal houses. She arranged marriages for her children and grandchildren across the continent, tying Europe together; this earned her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover; her son King Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father, Prince Albert. Under semi-Salic law, Victoria could not inherit the German kingdom and duchies unless the entire male line became extinct; those possessions passed to the next eligible male heir, her uncle Ernest Augustus I of Hanover, the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale—the fifth son of George III.
The current head of the House of Hanover is Ernst August V, Prince of Hanover.
George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, is considered the first member of the House of Hanover. When the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg was divided in 1635, George inherited the principalities of Calenberg and Göttingen, and in 1636 he moved his residence to Hanover. His son, Duke Ernest Augustus, was elevated to prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire in 1692. Ernest Augustus's wife, Sophia of the Palatinate, was declared heiress of the throne of Great Britain (then England and Scotland) by the Act of Settlement of 1701, which decreed Roman Catholics could not accede to the throne. Sophia was at that time the senior eligible Protestant descendant of James I of England.
George I, George II, and George III also served as electors and dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg, informally, Electors of Hanover (cf. personal union). From 1814, when Hanover became a kingdom, the British monarch was also King of Hanover.
In 1837, however, the personal union of the thrones of the United Kingdom and Hanover ended. Succession to the Hanoverian throne was regulated by semi-Salic law (agnatic-cognatic), which gave priority to all male lines before female lines, so that it passed not to Queen Victoria but to her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland.:13,14 In 1901, when Queen Victoria died, her son and heir Edward VII became the first British Monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Edward taking his family name from that of his father, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.:14
|House of Hanover|
After the death of William IV in 1837, the following kings of Hanover continued the dynasty:
The Kingdom of Hanover came to an end in 1866 when it was annexed by Prussia. The 1866 rift between the House of Hanover and the House of Hohenzollern was settled only by the 1913 marriage of Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia to Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick.
In 1884, the senior branch of the House of Welf became extinct. By semi-Salic law, the House of Hanover would have acceded to the Duchy of Brunswick, but there had been strong Prussian pressure against having George V of Hanover or his son, the Duke of Cumberland, succeed to a member state of the German Empire, at least without strong conditions, including swearing to the German constitution. By a law of 1879, the Duchy of Brunswick established a temporary council of regency to take over at the Duke's death, and if necessary appoint a regent.
The Duke of Cumberland proclaimed himself Duke of Brunswick at the Duke's death, and lengthy negotiations ensued, but were never resolved. Prince Albert of Prussia was appointed regent; after his death in 1906, Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg succeeded him. The Duke of Cumberland's eldest son died in a car accident in 1912; the father renounced Brunswick in favor of his youngest son Ernest Augustus, who married the Kaiser's daughter, swore allegiance to the German Empire, and was allowed to ascend the throne of the Duchy in November 1913. He was a major-general during the First World War; but he was overthrown as Duke of Brunswick in 1918. His father was also deprived of his British titles in 1919, for "bearing arms against Great Britain".
The later heads of the House of Hanover have been:
The family has been resident in Austria since 1866; it has held courtesy titles since 1919.
Patrilineal descent, descent from father to son, is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations, which means that the historically accurate royal house of monarchs of the House of Hanover was the House of Lucca (or Obertenghi, or Este, or Welf).
This is the descent of the primary male heir. For the complete expanded family tree, see List of members of the House of Hanover. Descent before Oberto I is from fabpedigree.com and may be inaccurate.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: House of Hanover|
House of Hanover
Cadet branch of the House of Welf
||Ruling house of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg
|Duchy raised to Electorate
by Emperor Leopold I for aid
given in the Nine Years' War
Duchy raised to Electorate
|Ruling house of the Electorate of Hanover
Occupied by France in the Napoleonic Wars
House of Stuart
|Ruling house of the Kingdom of Great Britain
|Kingdoms merged by
Acts of Union 1800
|Ruling house of the Kingdom of Ireland
||Ruling house of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Electorate raised to Kingdom
at the Congress of Vienna
|Ruling house of the Kingdom of Hanover
Annexed by Prussia in the
Here you can share your comments or contribute with more information, content, resources or links about this topic. | <urn:uuid:853abb9b-fc5b-40cf-9e3d-adcd266752e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mashpedia.com/House_of_Hanover | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960159 | 1,509 | 3.0625 | 3 |
UK children are more expected to go online through a mobile or handheld device
About 28% of UK 9-10 year olds and 59% of 11-12 year olds operate a social networking profile, though social networking service (SNS) including Facebook have a minimum age of 13 years, according to a new study.
The 'National Perspectives' report from the EU Kids Online project based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) reveals that about 91% of UK children go online at school when compared to European average of 63%.
The report revealed that on an average, teen agers beteen nine and 16 years old spend 102 minutes on the internet when in European countries, the average time spent on internet is about 88 minutes.
EU Kids Online project at LSE senior researcher Dr Leslie Haddon said the report includes findings for 33 European countries, allowing direct comparisons in the experiences of children as they go online in different countries.
"These national differences mean that there is no one-size-fits-all-solution for children's internet safety," Haddon said.
The report also revealed that UK children are more expected to go online through a mobile or handheld device, placing them as precursors of new risks connected with personal internet access and making defensive supervision by their parents even more difficult.
LSE Professor Sonia Livingstone said EU Kids Online has categorised the UK as a 'high use, some risk' country, an improvement on previous findings of 'high use, high risk'.
"It seems that the considerable multi-stakeholder efforts are bearing fruit," Livingstone said.
"But this should not be grounds for complacency, for it reveals how much effort it takes to reduce risk exposure among children."
According to report, the country also tops the European rankings for deploying filters on the internet-enabled products that children use at home. | <urn:uuid:1be47a1a-7f7b-477a-a201-f3d5728a46f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://media.cbronline.com/news/28-of-nine-and-ten-year-olds-in-uk-use-social-networking-websites-study-171012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943999 | 385 | 2.75 | 3 |
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s (NMSS) mission is to end the devastating effects of MS. Through its home office and 50-state network of chapters, NMSS helps each person address the challenges of living with MS. The Society helps people affected by MS by funding cutting-edge research, driving change through advocacy, facilitating professional education, and providing programs and services that help people with MS and their families move their lives forward.
The NMSS publishes more than 20 booklets on MS-related topics as well as a wide variety of other educational materials for lay and professional use. Subjects include everything from the latest research directions, to symptom management to therapeutic claims and making your home accessible. The NMSS quarterly publication, "Inside MS" reaches some 500,000 readers.
You may search for other related entries in the database under the following topics. | <urn:uuid:3acdde86-0631-4cbe-bbc8-9fd264a65645> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://health.gov/nhic/NHICScripts/Entry.cfm?HRCode=HR0445 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94778 | 174 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Essays in Biochemistry
We are delighted to announce that in the recent Thomson Reuters 2011 Journal Citation Reports, Essays in Biochemistry received an increased Impact Factor of 3.714 confirming its status as an important educational resource.
The Essays in Biochemistry series provides undergraduates and first year postgraduates with a single source of information on the latest research in rapidly moving areas of biochemistry and molecular biology. Each chapter is written by an expert on the area of research and is a self-contained summary of the state-of-the-art of that topic.
Series Editor: Nigel Hooper (Leeds)
Edited by: Mark A. Lindsay and Sam Griffiths-Jones, Bath, UK
Less than 2% of the bases in the human genome code for proteins, therefore the remainder is classified as non-coding RNA. Initially thought of as transcriptional noise, it is now believed that a significant proportion of non-coding RNA may be involved in fundamental cellular processes. The most well known is the microRNA family, which regulates the stability and translation of protein-coding transcripts through the RNA interference pathway. This volume of Essays in Biochemistry looks at the rapidly emerging area of non-coding RNA, covering each of the major non-coding RNA families. Each chapter examines the mechanisms that regulate the transcription of these non-coding RNA, and discusses their biological function and possible links to the development of disease.
- Autophagy: Molecules and Mechanisms
- Edited by Jon Lane, Bristol, U.K.
- Amyloids in Health and Disease
- Edited by Sarah Perrett, Beijing, China
- Membrane nanodomains
- Edited by Ingela Parmryd
SUBSCRIBE TO ESSAYS IN BIOCHEMISTRY ONLINE
Paper only volumes...
Editorial Advisory Panel
If you have an idea for a volume of Essays in Biochemistry, please contact Nigel Hooper | <urn:uuid:3fb8b04e-1876-41de-82d1-8dab71eee70b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://essays.biochemistry.org/bsessays/default.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905097 | 406 | 1.992188 | 2 |
(From the Greek antiphonon, sounding against, responsive sound, singing opposite, alternate chant; Latin, antiphona; French, antienne.) As at present commonly understood, an antiphon consists of one or more psalm verses or sentences from Holy Scripture which are sung or simply recited before and after each psalm and the Magnificat during Matins and Vespers. The verse which serves as the antiphon text contains the fundamental thought of the psalm to which it is sung, and indicates the point of view from which it is to be understood. In other words, it gives the key to the liturgical and mystical meaning of the psalm with regard to the feast on which it occurs. In a wider sense the name antiphon was also applied to the Introit, Offertory and Communion of the Mass in the early Church. Antiphona ad Introitum, i.e. the antiphon sung by the schola cantorum while the celebrant prepared for the Holy Sacrifice and during his solemn entry into the sanctuary, has become our present Introit. It is said to have originated with Pope Celestine I (432) who ordained that the Psalms of David be sung antiphonally before the beginning of the Mass. The verse serving as the antiphon text would be repeated on an independent melody after every verse of the psalm, which was sung to the end in that manner unless the celebrant gave the signal to the prior chorae to intone the doxology, with which the psalm ended, and after which the litany or Kyrie followed. Later, as the preliminary ceremonies which this elaborate performance was intended to accompany became shorter, the antiphon would be repeated after every second, third, or fourth verse of the psalm, before and after the Gloria Patri and after the Sicut erat. Since the Council of Trent the antiphon has been sung in the manner which is customary today, that is, before and after the psalm. Of the psalm itself, originally sung complete, only one verse and the doxology have been retained for any Introit, so that instead of the psalm being the main feature, the antiphon is now of paramount importance. The present "Graduale Romanum" contains only a few examples of the early manner of singing the Introit. One of these is the mode in which the Nunc Dimittis is sung during the ceremony of distributing the blessed candles on the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The verse, Lumen ad revelationem gentium etc., is chosen as the antiphon text and repeated after every verse until the end is reached.
The melodies to which the antiphon texts are sung, especially those preceding the Vesper psalms, are generally of a simple character. Seldom has any word two or three notes. Many of the melodies are entirely syllabic. Their melodic importance consists in their preparing the mind for the following psalm tune, to which they form a sort of prelude and of whose character they partake. It has been ascertained that there are only fory-seven typical melodies, each one of which, with slight melodic modifications, serves for several different texts. A remnant of the custom of repeating the antiphon after every psalm verse is found in the different endings of the psalm tunes. Sometimes one and sometimes another of the forty-seven typical antiphon melodies precedes any given psalm tune, according to the feast and the season. The various endings of the psalm tunes were intended to facilitate the entry on the part of the singers on the initial note of the antiphon, after having sung a verse of the psalm. The so-called antiphons of the Blessed Virgin Mary, "Alma Redemptoris Mater", "Salve Regina", "Ave Regina Coelorum", and "Regina Coeli", although originally sung in connection with psalms, from which they derive their name, have been sung as detached chants since the year 1239, when Pope Gregory IX ordered that one of them, according to the season, be sung at the end of the office. In a St. Gall manuscript of the thirteenth century "Alma Redemptoris" and "Salve Regina" are part of the office for the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. A Paris manuscript of the twelfth century assigns "Alma Redemptoris" and "Ave Regina" to the office or the feast of the Assumption. In a twelfth century antiphonary in St. Peter's Basilica at Rome, "Regina Coeli" is assigned to the octave of Easter. The melodies to these texts are among the most beautiful in the whole Gregorian repertory. As they were intended to be sung by the congregation, they are of simple and graphic construction. They breathe a deeply religious spirit and are an efficacious means by which to reveal to the singer the mystical contents of the texts which they musically interpret. While the four antiphons in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and those occurring in the Mass have been prolific texts for figured settings both with the masters of classic polyphony and with modern writers, those preceding the Vesper psalms are almost universally sung to the Gregorian melodies.
WAGNER, Einfuhrung in die gregorianischen Melodien (Freiburg, 1901); Id., Neumenkunde(Freiburg, 1905); GEVAERT, Les origines du chant liturgique (Ghent, 1890); DUCHESNE, Christian Worship (2d Eng. Ed., London, 1904); KIENLE Choralschule (Freiburg, 1884).
APA citation. (1907). Antiphon. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01575b.htm
MLA citation. "Antiphon." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01575b.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Steve Gambino.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads. | <urn:uuid:03f6b077-aa8c-4318-a039-8b7bd109760d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://noreply@newadvent.org/cathen/01575b.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93806 | 1,435 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Physician panel prescribes the fees paid by Medicare
Three times a year, 29 doctors gather around a table in a hotel meeting room. Their job is an unusual one: divvying up billions of Medicare dollars.
The group, convened by the American Medical Association, has no official government standing. Members are mostly selected by medical-specialty trade groups. Anyone who attends its meetings must sign a confidentiality agreement.
Yet the influence of the secretive panel, known as the Relative Value Scale Update Committee, is enormous. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversee Medicare, typically follow at least 90% of its recommendations in figuring out how much to pay doctors for their work. Medicare spends over $60 billion a year on doctors and other practitioners. Many private insurers and Medicaid programs also use the federal system in creating their own fee schedules.
- Patient Harm Data to Remain on Medicare's Hospital Compare Site
- Quiet ORs Better for Patient Safety
- Tavenner Confirmed as CMS Administrator
- CMS Seeks to 'Rapidly Reduce' Medicare Spending with $1B in Grants
- Leapfrog Hospital Safety Scores 'Depressing'
- Building a Better Healthcare Board
- Hard-Nosed About Physician Teamwork
- Case Study: Advance Care Conversations
- Healthcare Leaders Sound Off on Organized Labor
- Esther Dyson's Population Health Dream | <urn:uuid:6c16949c-35d9-443a-846b-1fa4ba8c8dbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/view_comments.cfm?content_id=258287&topic=WS_HLM2_PHY | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93075 | 279 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Introduction Choi Hyong-Sook, a Korean unwed mother who once lost her child to adoption, but who fought to take him back and is now raising him as an unwed mother, is working to transform an unjust social order into one where we can all be more fully human. She delivered a paper titled “Counseling Services of Adoption Agencies Experienced by Unwed Mothers” on Feb. 24, 2010 at the 60th Women’s Policy Forum of the Korean Women’s Development Institute (KWDI) in Seoul. The paper described the experiences of five unwed mothers who participate in the group called Korea Unwed Mothers & Families Association, also fondly known to the Seoul adoptees as “Miss Mamma Mia.” Their organization, launched officially in June 2009, now claims over 250 unwed mothers as members nationwide, while the most active members of the group are a handful of mothers raising their children in Seoul, who have also made efforts to also reach out to birthmothers and overseas adoptees.
The following is an excerpt from Ms. Choi’s paper given at the International Conference Hall of the Press Center in Seoul in the forum titled “Reality of Unwed Mothers and Support for Self-Reliance,” hosted by KWDI and sponsored by the Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network. Due to strong interest from adoptees, KUMSN is now in the process now of translating Ms. Choi’s entire essay, as well as other papers presented on that day.
Opinion About Consultation Services of Adoption Agencies
So far, I’ve told you about five cases. I believe that some of you are already familiar with this subject and others of you might be startled to learn about this.
You’ve heard real experiences that unwed moms experienced when they visited or got consultations from adoption agencies during the years 2005-2009.
Just as five years ago – when I first got a consultation – or now, adoption agencies advise unwed mothers before they give birth to sign a written consent for adoption and relinquishment of parental authority. However, the consultation or education regarding a single mother’s child custody is barely undertaken, if at all.
The biggest problem is that it is very hard to get “proper” information about adoption or rearing children through adoption agencies. Recently, most unwed moms are using the internet to find information about pre-delivery or consultation, and when they search the web with the term “unwed mother,” they can see the list of unwed mothers’ facilities run by adoption organizations.
Furthermore, it is almost impossible to get information from adoption agencies or from consultations about how to raise your children, while it is not hard to get much information about adoption.
Even though Korea has been ranked 13th in the world economy, it is also ranked fourth in international adoption in 2007. The total number of Korean children adopted overseas since 1953 is over 160,000, and this number is overwhelmingly ranked first in the world.
In an attempt to remove the stigma of Korea being the country of child adoption, the government in 2006 set May 11 as the annual “Adoption Day,” and they suggest that for five months, all attempts should be made to place a child in domestic adoption before sending them for overseas adoption.
On the one hand, celebrities who have adopted children accentuate how noble and beautiful adoption is.
As a result of these efforts, the number of domestic adoptions (1,388) surpassed overseas adoptions (1,264) for the first time in 2008, but still, three children are sent overseas every day.
In the discussion about adoption, children and their birth parents are thoroughly excluded.
Adoption starts with the severing of the connection between the parent and the child.
While nobody cares about the experience of the birth mother that puts her child up for adoption, our society denounces unwed moms as irresponsible people who abandoned their children.
Adoption agencies often say that adoption is “giving birth to abandoned child through one’s heart.
What kind of mother can send her child easily? Our hearts are broken when we hear that.
In fact, insufficient time and information is given to unwed moms for deciding whether to send their children for adoption or rear their child.
Korean unwed moms are not abandoning their children, but giving up their babies under inevitable circumstances.
On the other side of adoption, there are birth parents who live their lives hiding from society due to their guilty conscience for abandoning their children.
Unwed mothers’ organization founded: Korea Unwed Mothers & Families Association
For unwed moms who are in a desperate situation, I think they need accurate information about raising their children.
There are many unwed moms who give up custody of their children not knowing about the services that they can get from the government.
To share the hardships that unwed moms have faced and to support those who need help, four unwed moms gathered June 29, 2009 and decided to organize a group, opened the internet community called Mamma Mia on June 29th, 2009 and opened the Web portal “Naver” to support unwed moms who need help and information.
As you saw in the cases above, adoption agencies do not provide proper services for unwed moms. So we think adoption agencies and unwed mothers’ facilities should be separated.
The information that desperate unwed mothers get when they search on the internet is mostly advertisements for unwed mothers’ facilities that are run by adoption agencies, and the consultation they get is mostly focused on adoption. Adoption should be the last solution after deep consideration and after trying to rear one’s children. Even after a consultation on raising one’s children one should have to go through several consultations before a mother decides on adoption.
Since most unwed moms get pregnant even before they are ready, they are usually emotionally unstable during their pregnancies, and go through physically and psychologically hard times.
As in the cases above, even though they hope to raise their own child, because of their realities, they keep switching back and forth between adoption and raising their child, and as a result they experience confusion. Therefore, before they decide to send their child for adoption, sufficient time should be given to them to consider their choice of adoption or raising their children.
As discussed in the public hearing for reforming the “Special Adoption Law on Adoption Promotion and Procedure” held Nov. 10, 2009 by Choi Young-Hee, a member of National Assembly, adoption agencies should notify unwed moms that a memorandum of abandoning parental authority is not enforceable by law. They should not mislead the unwed moms with documents that are not legal papers.
In my opinion, with sufficient consultation and time, the ratio of unwed mothers who decide on adoption will drastically decrease.
In the instance of one facility that provides support for unwed mothers’ counseling, for rearing and for raising, the portion of unwed moms who decide to raise their children is about 82 percent, while only 37 percent of unwed mothers that give birth in facilities run by adoption agencies decide to rear their children.
Agencies should be prohibited from charging the unwed parents who want to get their child back the money used while processing the adoption. Such expenses can be another reason for unwed parents who are in financial difficulty for abandoning their child.
In order to help the unwed parents’ families raise their children, social understanding should be improved and a social support system must be formed.
Korea has the lowest ratio of unwed mothers among the OECD nations, but almost 90 percent of adoptees are the children of unwed mothers.
The reason unwed mothers’ children are adopted is because the social support system for unwed mothers is not well established.
My child was born twice. The first time was when I gave birth to him, and the second time was when I got him back from the adoption agency. There is a mother with a hurting heart who buys clothes every year on her child’s birthday. Her child was sent for adoption. In addition, there are those mothers who when re-united with their children that were sent for adoption blame themselves regardless of whether their child had a good life or not.
If unwed mothers were provided with more information about rearing their children before they gave birth, single unwed would not need to live their lives blaming themselves.
Here, unwed moms who are the parties to those mentioned cases, sit together.
We eagerly hope that no mother or child ever experiences the pain we had.
We, the unwed mothers, are responsible for our behavior.
We hope that our children can grow cheerfully and healthy so that they can be promising people and receive much recognition from society.
We’ll raise our children in that way.
Choi Hyong-Sook is the PR Manager for Korea Unwed Mothers & Families Association. Choi also runs a beauty shop. She is 39 years old and has a six year old son. She’s been with her son for six years, and though it’s been difficult at times, it’s also been joyful, as he is the hope in her life. Choi continues to work hard for the benefit of her son’s future. Here is a photo of her beautiful boy.
Lee Seungho is majoring in electrical engineering at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul and worked for GE Healthcare as an intern. He is co-president of JES International and a member of TRACK (Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea).
More Information on This Issue:
For more writing (mostly in Korean) by Choi Hyong Sook and Rep. Choi Young-hee of the Democratic Party and the rationale of the proposed law revisions to Korea’s adoption law created by a coalition of unwed mothers, internationally adopted Koreans and Korean allies, please go here.
To check the publicly available federal tax returns of any U.S. non-profit organization, including adoption agencies, please check a site such as www.guidestar.org.
For a look at how babies are harvested for adoption, and a South Korean perspective on the program, take a look this 60-minute video by South Korea’s national broadcaster, KBS.
To support adult adoptee and birth mother rights, consider purchasing a Conducive Humanitarian & Human Rights tee. Proceeds from tees will support an adult adoptee and birth mother organization. All tees are sweat free and available in organic cotton. To see the selection of Adoptee and Birth Mother tees at Conducive’s Humanitarian & Human Rights Tee store, click here
See Jane Jeong Trenka’s Series on Korean Adoption
International Adoption Related Posts: | <urn:uuid:59bf9067-967a-43b9-961b-550db97b8baa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cchronicle.com/2010/03/counseling-services-of-adoption-agencies-experienced-by-unwed-mothers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958772 | 2,260 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Around this time of the year, it’s unavoidable to take a look at your belly, reminisce about the many big, delicious meals and think about how you are going to lose that Christmas weight.
The answer is of course cycling! However, take a look at the window and you’ll soon have those gloomy January feelings.
Fortunately – we know better weather conditions for cycling are to come! So here’s a great event to add to your cycling calendar.
The 2012 Breakthrough Breast Cancer London to Cambridge Bike Ride. The ride involves 5,000 cyclists sweating their way along the 96km route to Cambridge. It’s a gorgeous ride that quite a few of my friends have done in the past. You’ll cover beautiful Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire with rest stops on the way. Which are good for catching up with friends and meeting fellow cyclists.
The event takes place on Sunday the 22nd of July and sets off from Pickets Lock in North East London. Registration is only £19.50 per person or if you go as a team of 6 or more then £18.50 per person. This registration cost goes to cover the cost of the event, and so Breakthrough asks that each cyclist aims to raise £100 to support Breakthrough’s life-saving breast cancer work. Which shouldn’t have you pestering too many people at work!
Join 5,112 fellow cyclists who are subscribed to the London Cyclist newsletter
Sign up for our free newsletter to get...
- Advice on the best cycling gear
- A Friday roundup of all the latest London cycling news
- Exclusive content not available on the blog
Subscribe today, and get exclusive access forever! (It's free)
*No spam, ever!
As seen on The Guardian, BBC and The Independent. | <urn:uuid:8b023ae9-bf6d-44e8-9d96-cd1900784e16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/london-to-cambridge-2012-bike-ride/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93824 | 382 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Head-scratching sci-fi questions 0
More than The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man or Madea's Witness Protection, there's one movie this summer I've been completely stoked to see: Prometheus. Ridley Scott revisiting the universe he created with the original Alien? Cutting edge digital effects? Noomi Rapace? Sold.
But after the mixed reviews started coming in, I held off seeing it right away. And now that I've finally taken in Prometheus, my brain is bursting with questions.
But Prometheus comes from a long line of sci-fi flicks that left us with major head-scratching questions. Here are five we still haven't worked out to this day. (Warning: if you're behind on your Netflixing, there may be spoilers ahead.)
How come it's so hard to detect Replicants? (Blade Runner, 1982)
Speaking of Ridley Scott, there's something I've never been able to figure out about his Blade Runner: if Replicants are able to withstand boiling water and liquid nitrogen with no pain or damage, couldn't Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) just do a skin test to suss them out? Why did he have to go through this enormously complicated oral exam about tortoises and boiled dogs to figure out who wasn't human?
Why did the machines need humans for energy? (The Matrix, 1999)
Machines have become smart enough to imprison humanity in a hyper-real computer simulation, but they can't figure out nuclear fission? And if the machines can't use solar energy because the sun is blocked out, how are they creating food to keep their inefficient organic batteries alive? And why people, instead of animals that don't need a computer simulation to keep their brains entertained? Think too hard on this and you'll just go "whoa."
Why did they build the U.S.S. Enterprise on the ground? (Star Trek, 2009)
It doesn't get more nerdy than arguing details in a Star Trek movie, but even though I enjoyed J.J. Abrams' glossy re-interpretation of Trek, the scene where James Kirk (Chris Pine) stops his motorbike to look at the under-construction Enterprise makes no sense. Why would they build it on Earth instead of in a space dock? Can the Enterprise even lift off from a planet's surface? Most illogical, captain.
Was Eli blind? (The Book of Eli, 2010)
The enduring mystery of this movie is whether Eli (Denzel Washington) was blind all along. At no point in the film does he do anything that would unequivocally require sight. So was he blind from the start? And how come Mila Kunis's eyebrows are so perfectly plucked?
What's the deal with the space baby? (2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968)
Seriously, the last chunk of Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi opus is nigh-on indecipherable. Why is Dave so old all of a sudden? Why is there a massive fetus floating in space? I feel sorry for folks who saw the movie back in 1968 and couldn't immediately rush home, hop on Google and have people smarter than them explain it. (That's what I did, so I sort of get it now. Sort of.) | <urn:uuid:fc2d3131-515f-48c2-9806-7ed8c489ada7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/Entertainment/2012/06/24/19914961.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956277 | 680 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Behavior Vs Personality
Tue Oct 28 13:55:25 GMT 2008 by Howie Green
While the test was an interesting diversion, I tend to favor methods that weigh behavior over personality because behavior based profiling focuses on "what you do" and doesn't try to judge "what you are like".
For example, Facebook now offers a free application to its members, called OpenProfiler, that can (so it says) describe, predict and even help you change your behavior.
You can't change personality. So a test that tells you you're basically undfriendly, sour and heavan forbid unintelligent isn't very helpful! not that that was my score BTW ;-)
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support. | <urn:uuid:4ed2a29a-1110-4c4d-94ac-6611bbb42c0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newscientist.com/commenting/browse?id=dn15034&page=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962375 | 193 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Baltic states wrangling undermines plan for LNG port
TALLINN (Reuters) - Energy executives and officials cast doubt on Wednesday on plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal for the EU's former-Soviet Baltic republics, part of a push to make them less reliant on former master Russia.
All too familiar with Moscow's willingness to play power politics with its oil and gas riches, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are part of a raft of former communist states in eastern Europe working hard to find alternative sources of supply.
But officials say they lack the drive to cooperate fully with one another, undermining larger scale projects which require a bigger funding and consumer base than each of their small economies provides independently.
"The Baltic region lacks clarity of future development and this needs to change as we require coordination to safeguard supplies," Dins Merirands, Director at the Energy Department of Latvia's Ministry of Economics, told a conference in the Estonian capital Tallinn.
Just along the coast, Poland is launching construction of its own LNG terminal, expected to start importing gas from Qatar in 2014 after it secured the last required piece of funding last month. But the Poles have a consumer base of some 38 million, while the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have respective populations of 1.3, 2.2 and 3.2 million.
The three rely almost exclusively on Russian imports for the gas which covers around 50 percent of their power generation, according to Estonia's electricity grid operator Elering.
"If we only have one gas supplier there is no point in speaking of secure supply and there is no point in investing in gas-fired power generation," said Elering's CEO Taavi Veskimagi.
The Balts are waiting for a report from the European Commission on where best to place a 4 billion cubic meters (bcm) LNG terminal for the region. One possibility is that it would actually be in Finland, with a pipeline from the Nordic state to the Baltic countries.
But the EU will only help fund the project if there is agreement between the countries involved and the three governments still seem at odds on whether they need to broaden the project out to include Finland in a common infrastructure.
"The most important argument for cooperation is economics of scale to create a common gas infrastructure," said Ando Leppiman, Deputy Secretary General at Estonia's Economy Ministry.
Lithuania is still in the throes of post-election political wrangling to secure a new government and its officials voiced more concern regarding joint developments. Latvia has said the port in its capital Riga would be the best location.
"The upcoming government supports the LNG project as an alternative source of gas, said Birute Vesaite, a member of the Social Democratic Party who won the Lithuanian elections.
"But the project is not transparent in terms of funding. Additionally, the existing pipeline highway is too small to support the 4 bcm LNG terminal."
She also said that the gas purchase obligations currently being discussed with the LNG terminal developers were a matter of concern.
Like most European countries, the Baltics have a flat gas demand outlook, so they have to tackle the problem of having to diversify supplies without the need to receive more gas.
A Finnish government official said at the same conference that Finland supported the LNG terminal but that the country did not seek to increase the share of gas in its energy mix, which currently stands around 10 percent of primary energy demand, mostly used for power generation and by industrial companies.
"No one (in Finland) is considering to increase their share in gas because it is not competitive, but we also don't want to reduce our gas use, ... and although Russia has been a very reliable supplier, that is why we are interested in a Baltic LNG terminal," said Esa Harmala, Director General of the Energy Department at Finland's Economy Ministry.
Electricity generation from gas is less profitable than coal-fired power production because gas prices have remained higher when compared to coal.
(Editing by Patrick Graham)
- Tweet this
- Share this
- Digg this | <urn:uuid:e96683c4-d289-40b7-94a2-00a92236f813> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/14/us-lng-baltics-idUSBRE8AD0O020121114?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959504 | 844 | 1.953125 | 2 |
currents of ideas and thoughts are clearly perceptible in the many religious movements in
Bengal. The Adivasis of Bengal who are now mostly represented by the various Scheduled
Tribes and Castes and are generally taken to be inferior in the caste hierarchy have made
a very big contribution to the religious thoughts in Bengal. As a matter of fact, this is
probably a common factor in other regions in India as well. It is the so-called lower
castes and tribes of the ancient Rarh, Pundra, Banga and the other Janapadas of Bengal
that are still very well represented in different types of deities and their puja.
Apart from some of the
indigenous godheads those have been very eclectically taken into Hindu pantheon, there are
hundreds of achars and religious practice's that go to make up much of the daily life of a
caste Hindu. If one carefully analyses the various items celebrated in a Hindu marriage in
Bengal, it will be found that excepting the Sampradan, Yagna and Saptapadi along with the
recital of the particular Mantras accompanying these ceremonies. All the other items are
non - Brahmanic, non-Vaidic and are entirely based on the customs and practices of the
so-called lower castes. | <urn:uuid:d6228e21-144f-49df-ae4b-33ce7d008b29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hindubooks.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=142&page=3 | 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 | 0.952376 | 281 | 3 | 3 |
A theological engagement with the current global environmental crisis needs to do four things. It needs to show a thorough grasp of the scientific and historical context in which these questions are being discussed.
Christians who speak out for environmentalism can combat skepticism and end America’s addiction to carbon fuels, Al Gore told 2,000 Baptists who gathered to hear him during a three-day celebration of denominational unity.
Chris Goodall’s book How to Live a Low-Carbon Life (Earthscan, 2007) was described by New Scientist magazine as “the definitive guide to reducing your carbon footprint.” Goodall, a Brit who has an MBA from Harvard Business School, works for a software firm in England and is active in politics and environmental issues, especially in the Oxf
As this issue of the magazine was being prepared, the House Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform was holding a hearing on the way the Bush administration has treated the issue of climate change. The administration has not been very interested in the topic, and until recently didn’t allow the phrase to be uttered.
A decade ago most experts thought of global warming as the largest challenge civilization faced—but one that would happen relatively gradually. That cautious optimism has faded as one study after another has proved that the earth was more finely balanced than we’d understood. The climate crisis is bearing down on us much faster than most people realize. The temperature rise has started melting every frozen thing on earth. In the Arctic Ocean, white ice that reflected the sun’s rays is quickly turning into water that absorbs more of the sun’s heat. And, as the ice melts, there’s the very real chance of a catastrophic rise in sea levels.
In his State of the Union address, President Bush once again sounded the alarm about America’s dependence on foreign oil, and he called for a reduction in gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next 10 years. But Bush framed the issue largely as a national security concern: dependence on foreign oil leaves the U.S.
The Amish community, which inspired the world with acts of forgiveness after a Pennsylvania schoolhouse shooting, has been named the newsmaker of the year by the Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) and Beliefnet.
Half of U.S. evangelical Christians do not support government funding of faith-based organizations, a survey shows. Newly released data from the Baylor Religion Survey show that 50 percent of evangelicals and 65 percent of the total population think federal funding of religious organizations is inappropriate. | <urn:uuid:bfd02afd-b6c5-4708-8965-63d7f2812f55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christiancentury.org/category/keywords/climate-change?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960529 | 521 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Sports Theme Hobby Room
A storage room is turned into a fun hangout for two young boys.
E-mail This Page to Your Friendsx
A link to %this page% was e-mailed
Before: Old Storage Room
Connie and Karl have two energetic boys, Scott and Grant, who love shooting hoops and playing with their three dogs. They have an old storage room filled with games and books that they want to make functional and fun. After listening to what the boys have in mind, designer Kenneth Brown presents a design plan for a new hobby room involving a media center for video games and movies, a basketball hoop for indoor activity and a long cushy sofa bench where they can do homework and relax. The new room will be kid friendly, dog friendly and 'parent-approved.'
Kenneth's Design Tips:
- Use woven chenille in a room where durability is key. The upholstered cushions are covered in a green woven chenille that will stand up to years of use.
- Use a rug to change the look of a room. Since the boys are into sports, Kenneth incorporates a rug that looks like a basketball court.
- Use bright accessories to add excitement. Orange-colored furnishings add a colorful pop to the navy and green palette.
- When designing for children, keep it practical. At first, Kenneth proposes a pull-down TV screen in front of the French doors. Connie convinces Kenneth to change course with a plasma TV because she knows the boys will be in and out of the room often.
- Distressing wood can hide furniture damage. The boys help Kenneth distress the built-in benches with nuts and bolts to give the brand-new pieces a lived-in look.
Soothing blues add color while creating a calming effect in this living room.
A cluttered, generic-looking family room is remixed into a comfy country-style space.(7 photos)
An organizing pro turns an inhospitable room into a welcoming, functional space. | <urn:uuid:5a282e36-efc1-4077-9469-b3bbf0cd5ad9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/sports-theme-hobby-room/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901413 | 417 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Animals Being Threatened By Our Desire For Lumber And Coffee
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com
A new study found that one in three animal species in poor countries are being threatened by the world’s appetite for coffee and timber.
Researchers from the University of Sydney spent five years tracking the world economy by evaluating over five billion supply chains connecting consumers to over 15,000 commodities produced in 187 countries.
The team focused on the global trade of goods implicated in biodiversity like coffee, cocoa and lumber.
According to the study, international trade chains can accelerate degradation in locations far removed from where the product is bought.
“Until now these relationships have only been poorly understood,” lead author Manfred Lenzen, from the university’s Integrated Sustainability Analysis group, said in a press release. “Our extraordinary number crunching, which took years of data collection and thousands of hours on a supercomputer to process, lets us see these global supply chains in amazing detail for the first time.”
The researchers found that 50 to 60 percent of biodiversity loss in countries like Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Honduras was linked to exports.
They said as an example that spider monkeys were threatened by habitat loss because of strong demand for coffee and an increase in cocoa plantations in Mexico and Central America.
According to the study, 171 animal species in Papua New Guinea were threatened by export industries including mining and timber to a few large trending partners, such as Australia.
Sixty of the threatened species in Papua New Guinea were under threat from logging specifically for Japanese residential construction, according to the report.
“There is increasing awareness that developed countries’ consumption of imported products can cause a biodiversity footprint that is larger abroad than at home,” the study authors wrote in the journal Nature.
“The study shows how this is the case for many countries, including the US, Japan, and numerous European states.”
Co-author Barney Foran said in a statement that he hopes the findings would help make labeling products on supermarket shelves with sustainability ratings a normal practice.
“We shouldn’t let retailers make sustainability labels a premium product,” he said. “We should ask that they always stock products that are made responsibly, from the bottom shelf to the top shelf.”
The study authors recommend companies be required to make foreign suppliers accountable to the same production standards they hold to themselves at home.
“In a perfect world affluent consumers in all countries could be important players in halting biodiversity decline if they adopt a ‘values’ rather than a ‘price’ filter for most of their purchasing decisions,” Foran wrote in an email to Reuters. | <urn:uuid:219ad58e-ef92-4d0d-8d21-ce21b83d7536> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112550644/animals-being-threatened-by-our-desire-for-lumber-and-coffee/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944443 | 563 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Research Engineer, Process Design and Modeling Division
ENSIC Nancy (Chemical Industry School) and ENS Lyon (Science School) graduate
Based at IFP-Lyon
I wanted to go into research and start working on a doctorate when I got my engineering degree. I joined IFP Energies nouvelles to do so in 1999. I knew about IFP Energies nouvelles's world-class research in a broad variety of areas, and was really keen on mathematical modeling of chemical phenomena in the oil and gas industry.
I wrote my dissertation on Molecular reconstruction of petroleum cuts and IFP Energies nouvelles offered me a permanent contract as a Process Research Engineer when I finished it, in 2002.
I am working in three areas, mainly:
- running experiments on kerosene and gas oil hydrotreatment pilot units (basically to curb fossil-fuel combustion pollution by reducing sulfur content),
- modeling hydrotreatment processes to fine-tune product-quality and efficiency forecasts,
- hydrotreating biomass-liquefiats (the liquid products derived from plant lignocellulosic matter pyrolysis can be used to develop new-generation biofuels).
I've never had a “normal” day! It all depends on what we're doing at the time, which includes monitoring experiments, writing up reports and scientific articles, developing computer models and so on.
I also coach young researchers writing their dissertations.
The variety. I'm involved in a huge variety of projects, and talking to people from every IFP Energies nouvelles research division, exchanging information and knowledge, all the time. I also enjoy working with doctoral researchers; it keeps me in touch with more fundamental research.
I also enjoy working with our industrial customers when we are developing processes.
A very inquisitive mind. You have to know what other divisions are doing, because that keeps you focused on the big picture and on the ultimate goals.
I really enjoy my job at IFP Energies nouvelles. Working on hot issues such as New Energy Technologies is fascinating. But I might decide to follow fellow researchers, who have moved to jobs in industry, later on. | <urn:uuid:8418e470-8fd5-4cba-a39a-9d76f756787d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ifpenergiesnouvelles.com/ifpen/nous-rejoindre/temoignages/temoignage-de-damien-hudebine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950493 | 469 | 1.554688 | 2 |
"It's too quiet tonight," Gillian Daniel said in Israel's rocket-battered city of Ashkelon. "It's too quiet tonight. It makes me nervous when it's so quiet. ... The rockets follow."
It was the kind of comment some would call a premonition; others could argue it came from experience.
Daniel watched as her granddaughter Karin Malca, 3, swung on the family patio with her dog Pitzi nudging her leg.
Inside their spacious house on a leafy street in the now-deserted town, three generations of Daniel's family -- all eight members -- went about their day.
Then came the screaming, the siren and the explosion -- the sounds of the Malca family's new routine.
The family bolted to their bomb shelter. As the sirens screeched, they huddled and rocked each other in their safe room. It was about the size of a jail cell.
Daniel told ABC News that the day had been a quiet one, with about six sirens heard so far.
"You try not to show [fear] to the kids," she said.
But even the 3-year-olds like Karin know the drill all too well.
"She got straight off her bike and ran down," said Sarah Malca, whose soldier-husband has left to fight.
"That's why you can't let the kids go upstairs and do something," Daniel said.
The family doesn't dare stray farther than a 30-second sprint from the house. The sirens are all the warning they get to find shelter. They sit at home and stack blocks and watch a lot of news.
Boredom and frustration, punctuated by adrenaline. | <urn:uuid:244ecb2e-84e9-4bda-a8ef-e4fd49672d43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/International/israel-palestinian-conflict-israeli-family-gaza-struggles-normalcy/story?id=17764535 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981917 | 356 | 1.5 | 2 |
Mar. 31, 2010 Changes are urgently needed to end the secrecy surrounding approval of new drugs in Europe, argue experts online in the British Medical Journal.
Questions about the benefits of the flu drug oseltamivir in otherwise healthy people have fuelled debate about the secrecy surrounding the documentation submitted by drug companies to obtain approval of new drugs, write Silvio Garattini and Vittorio Bertele' from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Italy.
They believe that greater transparency "would open drug dossiers to evaluation by the scientific community and help independent interested parties define the benefit-risk profile of new medicines before they are allowed on to the market."
And they suggest that the recent movement of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to the Health and Consumer Policy Directorate (DG Sanco) rather than the Enterprise and Industry Directorate "presents an opportunity to introduce more openness."
The industry considers it has the right to secrecy, in order to protect the substantial investments made to develop a new drug. But the authors argue that the public is an "essential partner" in new discoveries and therefore has "the right of access to all relevant information."
Secrecy about clinical data "implies undue exploitation of the rights of doctors and patients participating in the studies," they say.
Transparency of the regulatory system is also required "to overcome several dysfunctions in the drug industry's behaviour" and "cast light on deviations from trial protocols," they add.
The abolition of confidentiality would help make the system more transparent and enable clinicians and patients' representatives to obtain information on which to base constructive criticism, establishing public confidence and improving research in the industry itself, they explain.
Abolition of secrecy by EMA would also boost the regulatory authorities' credibility and show that patients' health has priority over industrial interests, they conclude.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
- Garattini et al. Europe's opportunity to open up drug regulation. BMJ, 2010; 340 (mar30 2): c1578 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.c1578
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:6ba74e8e-ae64-40c9-99b7-ea9dd901eb94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100330210951.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910323 | 467 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Author: Frank Beddor
Hardback: 364 pages
From the website:
The Looking Glass Wars unabashedly challenges the world’s Carrollian Wonderland assumptions of tea parties, dormice and a curious little blonde girl to reveal an epic, cross dimensional saga of love, murder, betrayal, revenge and the endless war for Imagination. Meet the heroic, passionate, monstrous, vengeful denizens of this parallel world as they battle each other with AD-52’s and orb generators, navigate the Crystal Continuum, bet on jabberwock fights and slip each other the poisonous pink mushroom. Finally, someone got it right. This ain’t no fairytale.
Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, was forced to flee through the Pool of Tears after a bloody palace coup staged by the murderous Redd shattered her world. Lost and alone in Victorian London, Alyss is befriended by an aspiring author to whom she tells the surreal, violent, heartbreaking story of her young life only to see it published as the nonsensical children’s sojourn Alice in Wonderland. Alyss had trusted Lewis Carroll to tell the truth so that someone, somewhere would find her and bring her home.
But Carroll had got it all wrong. He even misspelled her name! If not for the intrepid Hatter Madigan, a member of the Millinery (Wonderland’s security force) who after a 13 year search eventually tracked Alyss to London, she may have become just another society woman sipping tea in a too-tight bodice instead of returning to Wonderland to battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.
I found the concept of The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddorto be utterly fascinating. What if Alice Liddel as the Reverend Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) had been telling the truth: She was the rightful heir to the Wonderland throne, exiled to England while her black imagination-practicing aunt Redd ruled by ursurption. What if, in telling Dodgson, she had been hoping the book he’d write would prove her credible, but instead he’d took her for only being highly imaginative and had twisted her tale until it barely resembled the truth.
Unfortunately, either because I’m just not enough of a Wonderland fan, or I wasn’t in the right mood for the book, I found I couldn’t get into it. I can’t say what I found “wrong” with it, can’t say what I’d wish more for or less of. The writing is more than worthy, the concept imaginative, and it has sparked a bit of hatred from die-hard Carrollians, but it just didn’t grab me. It has everything I like, fantasy, adventure, maybe it could’ve used more humor. It is a mystery why it missed the target with me.
I would recommend it to anyone who likes both the Alice books and darker stories. There are also sequels to this book, as well as one of Hatter Madigan’s tale. I’m satisfied that my adventures in the Looking Glass Wars is ended, personally, but I will probably watch the movie when it comes out, which doesn’t seem to be planned at the moment, but I’m sure there will be one someday.
I give The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor 3 out of 5 stars. It just didn’t do anything for me, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it.
Here’s a trailer for the book:
Filed under: Book Reviews | Tagged: Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddel, Alyss Heart, assassin, Bibwit Harte, black imagination, Book review, Card Soldiers, Cheshire Cat, chessmen, coup, fantasy, fiction, Frank Beddor, General Doppelganger, Hatter Madigan, imagination, Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll, Redd, The Cat, white imagination | 7 Comments » | <urn:uuid:b6bacdaf-4afb-458c-afc7-e7b13d429887> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thekoolaidmom.wordpress.com/tag/frank-beddor/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936986 | 848 | 1.648438 | 2 |
For critic-spies trained in modern literature departments, "America" is an invitation to old or new formalisms. Lushly
allusive, semantically knotty, imagistically dense, hooked on conceptual tension, the sonnet's refusal to liquidate iambic
pentameter and other high modernist enemies nonetheless begs for high modernist interpretive protocols. The first seven lines, an unbalanced, nonconforming unit of quatrain and virtual tercet, reach from the Harlem Renaissance to the English Renaissance to revive the sonnet motif of the cruel-fair mistress. In McKay's game hands, this motif tropes international (and interracial?) intimacy as sadomasochistic vampirism, with the "tiger's tooth" of feminine America both sapping the breath and inflating the potency of an erect but ungendered lyric "I." Even the ostensibly anguished first line, feeding both gall and "bread" to the speaker, promises the final hydraulic equilibrium of the affair, its "vigor flow[ing] like tides" from America to her lover. McKay's imagery of troubled yet sustaining currents here dramatizes the traditional sonnet logic through which the cruel mistress fills out her victim, providing her lover with "effects...which, if distressing, are none the less manifestations of him" (Spiller 156; emphasis in original). The leading such effect in "America" is the speaker's astutely equivocal love for the hand that strangles and feeds him-or her. Anticipating Walter Benjamin's epigram on the proximity of civilization and barbarism, McKay's persona confesses affection for the nation's "cultured hell," where a body can learn that America's every document of grace, "vigor," and "bigness" is a document of thievery.
As Felipe Smith detects, the second seven-line unit in "America" expands the figure of the cruel national mistress into a
mistress-mother with a phallic womb, at once "exploiting and nourishing the entrapped immigrant 'stand[ing] within her walls with not a shred / of terror, malice, not a word of jeer'" (336). But this erotically charged standing also commends McKay's own discreet habitation within the walls of the sonnet form, its boxy fourteen lines often imaged, after John Donne, as a "pretty room[...]" (l. 32). The author as well as his persona accepts the theory of bottled resistance historically favored by sonneteers, the principle that the subject is essentially ensnared or confined, but lives to undertake careful struggle within barriers, whether those of America or "America" the sonnet (Spiller 9). However, in place of the sonneteer's recommended "paradigm / of straining forces harmonized sincerely" (Iain Smith ll. 13-14), McKay and his lyric "I" accommodate the strains of their confinement with avowed deceit. They move to treat their beloved enemies-America and the sonnet-to the polished insincerity of the courtly "rebel." The shift from queen's lover to king's traitor forecasts the concluding, vengeful dream of America-as-faded-empire: the final quatrain opens with the speaker's self-racializing Biblical pun ("Darkly I gaze," a play on 1 Corinthians 13:12), and closes with the prophecy that monuments of national strength will collapse under Time's punishment. Through broad allusions to Shelley's sonnet on the ruined colossus of Ozymandias, the poem ultimately projects America's descent from vital mistress to antiquated wreck, from invigorating "cultured hell" to deathly Egyptian knock-off, its "granite wonders" turned derivative memorials of mighty collapse. To The Waste Land's postwar string of morally sacked culture capitals-"Jerusalem Athens Alexandria / Vienna London" (ll. 378-379)-McKay's New Negro soothsayer would add Jazz Age Washington or New York City, or at least the granite-white stretch of Manhattan below 125th Street.
What is still lacking from this take on "America" is what is missing from most: adequate consideration of the crux at which the poem's drama breaks and pivots. The reference is to line eight, which through simile ties the way in which the speaker stands within America's walls to the style in which "a rebel fronts a king in state." The gravity of the line is secured by its place at the inner seam of the poem's irregular design: McKay sets a faithful English or Shakespearian sonnet rhyme scheme (a b a b c d c d e f e f g g ) against customized Italian or Petrarchan sonnet stanzas (4 + 3 + 3 + 4 lines, with the first group of three tightly bound through a common subject, if not a common sentence). While a four-part Shakespearian tune flows from the end rhymes, "America" thus solders one seven-line conceptual sequence onto another, each composed of an ingenious half-Petrarchan block (stanzas of 4 + 3 rather than 8 + 6 lines, perhaps inspired by Baudelaire's sonnets in "enclosed form," which McKay learned to read in the original French). Joined at their shorter, three-line ends, the sequences together form a verbal mirror, with the syntax of the first half inversely reflected in the second. The overall effect of the sonnet's self-divided form-rhymes against stanzas, first block against the mirroring second-is fittingly discordant. Great expectations are placed on the "Yet" that launches both line eight and the turn into the second conceptual unit, but the line's announcement of reversal is muffled by a final rhyming link to the "hate" that comes before it (in line six, to be exact). Still, in this case, McKay's ambivalence is relatively plainspoken. Line eight introduces an extended analogy between the persona's love for America and the ambivalent posture of the revolutionary secret agent.
In the inverting camera obscura of the poem's second half, McKay's speaker is reenvisioned as a covert renegade with unchallenged access to a head of government. Courtly political intrigue, rather than courtly love, has become the reigning enterprise. Like the knowing grandfather in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (1952), a kindred "spy in the enemy's country" made to "give up [the] gun back in the Reconstruction" (16), McKay's protagonist selects weapons of indirection, verbal cunning, and the silent collection of intelligence. Even so, through a mysterious channel of inside information, this secret agent knows of the violent future to be dealt by "Time's unerring hand"-through a whimper of fate, or perhaps a bang from a well-placed explosive, a humanly accessible motor of history much in the postwar news. Not far outside the walls of McKay's sonnet, thirty-eight U.S. politicians and industrialists were in fact sent mail bombs for May Day in 1919, and Attorney General Palmer's front porch was blown apart soon after, leading American intelligence to conclude that a violent takeover by Bolshevik agents was a legitimate threat (Kornweibel 5). The poem's thick layers of allusion and anachronism would appear to disallow the reference to these actual acts of sabotage, but McKay's revival of Elizabethan court discourse, at least, does not simply mask the possibility that his final lines exploit a vivid contemporary fear of underground Red violence. The Renaissance sonnets from which McKay draws were themselves products of a court culture of rebellious surveillance, in which aristocratic author-soldiers, Sir Philip Sidney among them, propelled early modern intelligence and the rise and fall of great powers (Archer 3). When the noble lover of "America"'s first seven lines gazes darkly into the mirror of the second seven, he or she thus glimpses an apocalyptic but majestic reflection, a secret agent of political revenge who threatens presently (Palmer's house, or the White House?) yet speaks with historical dignity (in the cadence of Elizabeth's courtly spy-writers, as well as Petrarch, Shakespeare, Shelley, and possibly Baudelaire).
Forthcoming in The Complete Poems of Claude McKay, edited and with an introduction by William J. Maxwell. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, Fall 2003)
Return to Claude McKay | <urn:uuid:c56c0440-233c-4048-8b62-0acad7ac9025> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/m_r/mckay/america.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922413 | 1,759 | 2.140625 | 2 |
What Democrats owe Latinos: Passing the Dream Act
Latinos are fed up with congressional delays over comprehensive immigration reform. The time has come for President Obama and the Democrats to man up in the lame-duck session and at least fight to pass the Dream Act.
Otherwise, the Democrats risk Latino withdrawal, rebellion - or both. This is a threat and a demand to be taken seriously from the Americans who best understand that the immigration system doesn't work, which is why so many people are here illegally.
Sure, there are other priorities, such as extending tax cuts and unemployment insurance. But there always are. Only squeaky wheels get the oil, and the squeak among Hispanics is getting loud and angry.
Obama is partly listening - saying after a meeting Tuesday with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that the current Congress should pass the Dream Act, which would allow children of illegal immigrants to become citizens after they complete college or serve in the armed forces. But he must act; words are no longer enough.
Since Obama was elected, Latinos have been waiting while hundreds of thousands of their brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers here without papers are being deported - tragically, in that these deportations violate a common sense of humanity and damage the American economy at the wrong moment.
The Latino vote saved the Senate and the West for the Democrats, with Hispanics turning out in record numbers to send Harry Reid of Nevada, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Barbara Boxer of California back to Washington. A feeling of being demonized in the immigration debate, if not persecuted in states such as Arizona, is what drove the turnout. Reid promised he would reintroduce the Dream Act in this session. Now he must produce.
The effort may fail, but the political initiative must be taken away from the small but loud minority of cultural conservatives and nativists who have taken over the Republican base and turned moderate Republicans, as well as conservative Democrats, into political cowards.
Only a frontal confrontation will change the dominant narrative today that focuses on immigrants as a cost and a threat. The political benefit for reform champions will come in 2012. The benefit to the country will come as soon as measures like the Dream Act are passed.
The perhaps 2 million eligible young immigrants who could benefit from the act's provisions would become contributors to a nation that is, in many cases, the only country they have known. For some, English is the only language they speak well.
Registered Latino voters favored the Dream Act 78 percent to 12 percent in a September poll. Immigrants and their descendants from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean support immigration reform with similar fervor. Indeed, Americans in general overwhelmingly support some sort of legalization for most unauthorized immigrants. This includes 56 percent of Republicans in a June poll by the Pew Research Center.
Many Republican leaders privately understand that while they may immediately have to satisfy their more vocal base, the example of Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina's losses in California after having run immigrant-bashing primary campaigns portends that the party is on a suicide march for the future. The power of the ethnic vote is growing.
This is one reason that retiring Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (Fla.) urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week to push Dream in the lame-duck session. "These deserving students are being punished for decisions not made by them," he wrote her.
His fellow Cuban American, Republican Sen.-elect Marco Rubio, dropped his earlier opposition to Arizona's immigration law after he got financial and political support from Republican Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Tea Party groups. If Rubio turns his back on Dream, he will hardly be in position to become the Great Republican Latino Hope.
The Dream Act is motherhood and apple pie. Tacos and salsa. Republicans helped draft the nine-year-old measure. So did the Pentagon, which is relying on it for recruits. We have already invested in educating these young people. Surely the political wizards know how to shame opponents into doing something so obviously good for the country. | <urn:uuid:7e6d214e-63e2-4e98-ae32-eb8548caae9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/18/AR2010111803068.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968562 | 818 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Fashion shoes are shoes designed based on trends and aesthetics, rather than performance characteristics.
Flexible refers to the capability to adjust or bend easily. In the case of shoes, flexible refers to a type of shoe that generally features soft uppers and lightweight, bendable outsoles. Flexible footwear is designed to provide exceptional comfort when worn.
Stride Rite Angler good, solid shoes
March 13, 2013
Reviewer: Jennifer from St. Louis, MO
My son is tough on his shoes and these worked great last summer. This year we just sized up and he'll wear them when the weather is warmer. Thanks Shoebuy!
Wears this shoe: school, church, weekends | <urn:uuid:edc0a13c-fce5-40f3-b697-b9fd80255ee7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shoebuy.com/flexible-boys-fashion-shoes.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948033 | 143 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Last week, the attention of the technology press turned — as it always does in January — to Las Vegas. As usual, the Consumer Electronics Show filled the town to the bursting point with new gizmos of all kinds. But the news with the greatest long-term potential to shake up tech as we know it emanated from Mountain View, California, and it didn’t have anything to do with gadgets. It was Google’s announcement that it’s begun to add a new social dimension to its eponymous, market-dominating search engine — a twist that it calls “Search, Plus Your World.”
For now, at least, what Google is doing with SPYW is stirring information from its Google+ social network into the gumbo of links that makes up its search results. For some searches, results will now be preceded by a link to updates and photos from your Google+ friends (assuming you have any) relating to your query; these items may also be woven into the results themselves. For some, a list on the right-hand side of the screen will recommend Google+ users who relate to the query you entered. And when you start to type into the search box, Google may suggest that you visit the profile of Google+ friends or high-profile users whose names match the characters you’ve entered.
The fact that these features have arrived isn’t the least bit startling. Melding Google+ with the world’s most popular search engine is Google’s most potent weapon in its ongoing battle for web supremacy with the world’s most popular social network, Facebook. And the very name “Google+” indicates that Google sees the service not as something distinct from Google search, but rather as its future.
I was, however, surprised by the intensity of the instant backlash against Google’s decision to turn its search engine into a billboard for Google+. One Google+ competitor, Twitter, is openly agitated about Google’s favoritism for its own social network. Google gurus Steven Levy and Danny Sullivan both appear to be wary of the change. (Levy says that a search engine, like Caesar’s wife, must appear to be above reproach, and that SPYW is an apparent conflict of interest that takes Google “into dangerous territory.”)
Many pundits have raised the most infamous example of a big tech company tying a fledgling product to a market-dominating one. That would be Microsoft’s decision in the mid-1990s to give away its Internet Explorer browser with Windows. The move brutalized browser pioneer Netscape, but it also led to the epic legal tussle known as The United States v. Microsoft. Google could face similar scrutiny: The FTC, which was already investigating the search giant on antitrust grounds, now says it’s looking into SPYW.
So what hath Google wrought?
If you ask the company, it’ll say it’s just trying to make search more personal. “Search is still limited to a universe of webpages created publicly, mostly by people you’ve never met,” says Google Fellow Amit Singhal in the blog post introducing SPYW. “Today, we’re changing that by bringing your world, rich with people and information, into search.”
article continues on next page… | <urn:uuid:bd366d8d-e45d-44c8-a12c-d8eecb4b9814> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techland.time.com/2012/01/19/search-plus-your-world-googles-risky-gambit/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940948 | 701 | 1.523438 | 2 |
A four-time sponsor of texting legislation says “some of my major stumbling blocks” have left the Legislature.
But the incoming speaker of the House, Will Weatherford (left), issued a statement this week that appears to support the “individual rights” of drivers to text message.
The Republican leader’s comments came as the first Florida Distracted Driving Summit brought to Tampa more than 270 government officials, safety advocates and law enforcement officers.
U.S. Transportation chief Ray LaHood, the Nov. 13 event’s keynote speaker, said it was “critical” that resistance to distracted driving laws be changed in the Sunshine State.
Gov. Rick Scott recently called for traffic safety officials to study texting & driving in Florida to determine if it was a legitimate public safety issue.
LaHood responded: “The troopers of the (Florida Highway Patrol) and the pediatric surgeons at Shriners Hospitals have seen the evidence firsthand.”
The Orlando Sentinel editorialized that Scott’s call for more data “is like studying whether smoking causes cancer.”
Florida is one of 11 states without a ban on text messaging by all drivers. In fact, it has no distracted driving laws.
The major resistance to distracted driving laws comes from the House, while the Senate recently approved a texting ban.
State Rep. Irv Slosberg, who has filed several unsuccessful pieces of distracted driving legislation, blames their failure on “powerful libertarians” among Florida’s lawmakers. Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, had hoped the next House speaker would be more open to a texting & driving ban, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Weatherford, a 32-year-old Republican from the Tampa Bay area, said:
“Elected officials have a responsibility to … ensure drivers are safe on the roadways. Equally as important as our safety are our individual rights, and in the case of texting while driving, there should be no exception.”
A reporter from the Ocala Star-Banner sought clarification of Weatherford’s reference to individual rights, without success. Weatherford did signal he would be open to discussing specific plans.
The previous House speaker opposed “one more layer of prohibitive behavior” from state government.
State Sen. Nancy Detert (left) plans to refile her plan for a ban on texting & driving. Her previous bills failed three times. Detert’s 2010 texting bill cleared the Senate, but failed to get a hearing in the House due to a panel chairwoman who found distracted driving legislation “intellectually dishonest.”
“Some of my main stumbling blocks are no longer in the Legislature,” Detert told WFTV.
Detert’s bill seeks only secondary enforcement. It also allows for texting at red lights. That makes her plan about as tame as distracted driving legislation gets.
Detert, R-Venice, said early this year: “I’d like to get this done before there’s a tragedy where someone takes out all the kids at a bus stop and then the public is screaming, ‘Why didn’t you do something about it.’ ”
In 2011, Gov. Scott, also a Republican, vetoed a bill that would have required the DMV to provide education on the dangers of electronic distracted driving.
The governor’s Oct. 23 call for a texting study came after a Department of Highway Safety report that Florida traffic fatalities are up 4 percent so far in 2012. The state does not track texting or cell phone use in accident reports.
The Florida Distracted Driving Summit heard from families who lost loved ones to distracted drivers.
“We must have a ban on texting while driving,” said Russell Hurd, whose daughter was killed by a texting driver near Orlando. “We have the power” to force legislators to ban the practice, he said.
A stretch of U.S. 41 is named in honor of Heather Hurd, the Heather in Heather’s Law.
The Florida Distracted Driving Summit was the first organized in part by the new Distraction Advocate Network, established by Jennifer Smith, who previously headed the victims and survivors group FocusDriven. Other hosts were USAA insurance, the Florida Department of Transportation and Shriners Hospitals for Children. | <urn:uuid:8bae6358-5e7a-4f53-b655-1d97391373cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://handsfreeinfo.com/florida-texting-2013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955924 | 919 | 1.632813 | 2 |
5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.
A mentor by definition is a trusted counselor. What's not inherently included in that definition is the form a mentor comes in.
As it were, a mentor can exist in many forms - from father to carpenter to chef.
Chef Jonathan Benno has worked in the kitchens of culinary notables like Thomas Keller and Tom Colicchio, and he willingly acknowledges the lessons he learned from them have been integral in his own success - from James Beard Awards to a "Best New Chef" title.
Benno is now an executive chef in his own right at his first solo project, Lincoln Restaurant, in New York City.
The student has now become the master.
Five Lessons Learned Through Cooking That I Now Pass Along: Jonathan Benno
One of the appealing things about “Top Chef” is the simplicity of the final challenge: cook the best meal of your life. “Masters” has taken a slight twist on that, challenging the last chefs standing to cook a meal that represents their culinary lives.
But like with so much else this season, the final challenge was changed, too. Luckily, it actually worked to the show’s and the chefs’ benefit.
Mary Sue, Traci and Floyd were tasked with cooking a three-course meal. The first course needed to represent their first food memory; the second course called back to the meal that inspired them to become chefs.
For the third course, the chefs were each assigned a critic, and challenged to cook a dish based on the meal that inspired James Oseland, Ruth Reichl and Gael Greene to become food critics.
Read - 'Top Chef' crowns a new Master (SPOILER ALERT!)
Sink your teeth into today's top stories from around the globe.
A diet high in olive oil may help protect older people against strokes, which are the third leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer. The findings are in a study published in the journal Neurology.
A stroke occurs when an artery within the brain, or leading to the brain, becomes blocked by a clot or bursts. The brain becomes deprived of blood and oxygen carried in the arteries and begins to die.
Strokes become more common as we age – stroke risk doubles for each decade of life after age 55, according to the American Heart Association.
One night at a party, many years back, talk turned - as it often does at the very best soirees - to incumbent governors of Massachusetts. I've always asserted that the friend with whom I was chatting that fateful evening could, if he so chose, pass for member of the Kennedy family. Fine head of hair on that kid to this very day, and so I just assume everything that comes from his mouth as pertains to Bay State politics to be indisputable fact.
"Mint Romney," he said, "Will run for president someday."
While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.
So sweet, so rich, it must be fudge - June 16 is National Fudge Day.
Heating a mixture of sugar, butter and milk with chocolate (or peanut butter, or insert-your-favorite-flavor-here) creates perfect chemistry. Considered to be a “Western” creation in the culinary world, fudge first made its name known in an 1888 letter.
A female college student at Vassar wrote that her schoolmate’s cousin made the confection and sold it in Baltimore. Ms. Battersby got her hands on the recipe and debuted “fudge” at the Vassar Senior Auction. Other women’s colleges jumped on the idea and soon, American fudge was born and appearing in candy kitchens and general stores everywhere.
Summertime is nigh, and for seafoodie Ben Sargent, that means one thing: bring on the lobster rolls.
Sargent first clawed his way onto the food scene in 2010 as his underground, lobster-dealing alter ego "Dr. Claw," also affectionately referred to as "Tha Lobstah Pushah."
At the height of his crustacean career, Massachusetts-born Sargent was shelling out 150 rolls a night from his snug Brooklyn apartment to the lobster-loving masses - well, that is until the Department of Health paid him a little visit and scrubbed his whole shellfish stint.
Luckily, Sargent has since re-emerged - thus far without any DOH violations - as the host of “Hook, Line & Dinner” on the Cooking Channel.
Even more lucky for us, he has relapsed into his old lobster-pushing ways to deliver a few pointers on building the perfect lobster roll.
Pssst! Got a sec to chat?
We are utterly thrilled when readers want to hang out and talk – whether it's amongst themselves or in response to pieces we've posted. We want Eatocracy to be a cozy, spirited online home for those who find their way here.
Consider the daily Coffee Klatsch post as your VIP lounge – the primary comments thread for readers who'd like to chat about topics not related to the articles we're running. That way, everyone knows where to find each other, and each post's comments section remains on topic. | <urn:uuid:fa94d783-1677-4bcc-860f-ac13103274ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/06/16/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974115 | 1,145 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Certificates of Deposit
You can buy Certificates of Deposit (CDs) at banks. They're called CDs because when you deposit your money, the bank gives you a certificate telling you –
Certificates of Deposit pay slightly higher interest rates than savings accounts. There are many kinds of CDs. They pay different rates, and they require different lengths of time you must keep your money in them. So if you decide to look into CDs, you have lots of choices.
Bank CDs are FDIC-insured. Just like a savings account, your money is protected. To learn about how safety and interest rates affect each other, look at the Risk/Reward Pyramid.
Money you invest in a CD is less liquid than the money you put in a savings account. With a CD, you are not free to take your money out whenever you want. You must invest your money for a specific time: 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years. The time all depends on the CD you choose. Yes, you can withdraw your money earlier, but then you must pay a penalty.
The longer the CD's deposit time, the higher the interest rate. Another word for interest rate is return.
Interest rates on bank CDs are fixed – the rate cannot change for as long as you own the CD. Typically, a CD rewards you with compound interest. That means the interest you've already earned also earns interest. Your money really multiplies. Check out the Compounding Calculator.
To invest in a CD, you have to invest a certain amount – the higher this amount, the more interest the CD will pay. | <urn:uuid:24eb1cd1-402b-47f4-aadf-68887277c682> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.themint.org/tweens/certificates-of-deposit.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953472 | 332 | 2.828125 | 3 |
June 6, 2013:
Domino Search was posted several years ago to help solve a
puzzle type I found in the book
Logical Puzzles, Chartwell Books. (BTW, Amazon currently has used
copies of the book starting at $4.00 shipped at this link.) In this
program, the viewer is given an array
of numbers representing dots on the 28 standard dominos, but without the domino
outlines. The player's job is to replace them. The program was only
partially successful because it could generate and solve random arrays it
generated, it also allowed users to enter data and supported user play, but it
didn't know how to solve those puzzles. The first step toward fixing this
is a separate program which accepts and solves user submitted arrays and
saves the array and solution in a file for input to Domino Search.
Domino Search Version 5, and Define Domino
Arrays Version 2 posted today are implementations of this strategy.
Perhaps one day I'll get around to rolling them back into one program, but not
May 25, 2013: It has been a busy month with 2 grandchildren graduating from college, spring clean up of extensive winter damage and the always stressful planning for a big family vacation in June.
I did find time to update the 15 Graphic Effects program to Version 2 in our Delphi Techniques section. The update improves the efficiency of the "Magnifier" effect and has better scaling for demo images loaded. The original program was written 10 years ago by bright 16 year old Ivan Sivak. I emailed him the other day asking for a status update but haven't heard back yet.
Table at left shows an original photo and 4 of
the 15 special effects: Brightness/Contrast, Gray Scale, Blend, and
May 11, 2013: The original version of our "Copy Folder" utility program performed operations like copying all files in folder "ProgramA" to a new folder "ProgrtamA_Test". A viewer pointed out it did not work well for his intended use: i.e. copy folders "ProgramA", then "ProgramB", and then "ProgramC" into a folder named "Backups". In other words, copy the selected folder name as well as the files in that folder. It seemed like a reasonable request to me, so CopyFolder Version 3.2 posted today adds a checkbox: "Include selected input folder record in output" to do just that.
May 7, 2013: Here is a program which solves a problem discussed by computer science pioneer Donald Knuth in 1977 in a magazine article "Are Toy Problems Useful?" in 1977. He was disputing the argument made by another mathematician that the answer was "No". I agree with Knuth, that, like story problems in math textbooks, any problem which improves problem solving skills is useful even if the answer will not directly advance one's professional career. This problem presented by Knuth met the "useful" criteria for me. "Given an exponent, N, find all numbers which are equal to the sum of the Nth powers of their digits." For example for N =4: 1634 = 14 + 64 + 34 + 44 (= 1 + 1296 + 81 + 256 = 1634). Knuth Toy Problem has the results of my investigation, three methods which, for N=10, find the unique solution in 30 minutes, or 2 hours, or 2 seconds. A rare personal Eureka moment! The explanation for the best result is behind a button in case any programmer wants to discover it on their own J.
April 23, 2013: An update to make Know, Don't Know Version 3.1 today added a second "Walk-through" page, this one interactive, taking any sum and product and stepping through the analysis from each professor's point of view. This was motivated by a viewer who doubted that the validity of the second solution for the 500 upper limit case. To eliminate the possibility that of a bug in the original solver code, I needed to step through as the Professors would have done. The size of the numbers makes this an order of magnitude harder than the first "Walk-through" and justified writing the additional code.
April 20, 2013: A viewer wrote last week regarding my "Know - Don't Know" program which analyzes a logic puzzle involving two people (usually professors), one given the sum of two numbers and the other given their product. By exchanging non-numeric messages about what they know or do not know, they both manage to find the numbers. It is often called the "Impossible Problem" because it seems that that should be the case. My original versions concentrated on finding the numbers without knowing either the sum or the product, but glossed over how the professors, particularly the one knowing only the sum, might have solved the problem. Know, Don't Know Version 3 posted today adds a "Walkthrough" page to the the program describing the thought processes of each professor at each exchange leading to them both finding the solution. It helped give me, and hopefully Charles and others, a deeper understanding of the problem and its solution.
April 14, 2013:
Brain Game calendar puzzle solver was posted today. If you are a puzzleist
and need help finding the solution to this or a similar puzzle, download the
executable version of Expressions
From Integers. If you are a programmer or interested in how a computer
program might solve this puzzle and others like it, you might enjoy browsing the
text on the web page and/or the downloaded source code.
April 6, 2013: One more fairly large conversion of Delphi to Lazarus posted today; the 6 individual word based programs (Crossword Helper, Decrypt, Scrambled Pie, Spellbound, Unscramble, and Word Ladder) plus the wrapper, Wordstuff 3, that links to any of them all wrapped up in a single zip file. I have added some notes to the Lazarus Revisited page. I've decided to post Lazarus notes there with the latest additions in red.
April 2, 2013: DFF Newsletter #67 was sent yesterday to subscribers. Newsletters are primarily a listing of the "What's New" items for the quarter. The motivation was to update those who find the site interesting but do not visit routinely.
The Index of Lazarus conversions is now available as a link from the Lazarus Revisited page. Also, I just added the file of adage candidates which was missing from the Adage Anagrams program download posted in January.
March 28, 2013: We're embarking on a grand experiment today - converting DFF Delphi programs to Lazarus/FPC. Lazarus is a frontend IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for FPC (Free Pascal Compiler). It knows about Delphi and, in it's current form, does a pretty fair job of converting Delphi source. For someone wanting to use DFF programs on a non-Windows platform or who wants to modify DFF code but does not have access to Delphi, it's a no-cost approach worth a shot. Lazarus Revisited introduces the process I used to convert most of the widely used DFF Library unit and a dozen or so programs using them.
March 14, 2013: A new Utility program, Bulk Find & Replace, was posted today.
Like most of the programs in the Utilities section of DFF, it was motivated by a specific problem that I had. While at it though, I made the program generalized with these options and features
Let me know if you find it useful (or especially if you find bugs!) .
March 3, 2013: It didn't take long to come up with Interesting 2013 Version 2.1 which takes advantage of the "prime numbers only" search to make searches 100 times faster than the previous version. Also my new candidate for the smallest number requiring six terms is 11. If we allow term sizes to be up to two times larger than the target number then the smallest number requiring six terms 2 (= 32 + 32 -22-22-22-22).
March 1, 2013: On January 4th I posted a program investigating two erroneous claims made about interesting features of the year 2013. A viewer recently pointed out a problem with my proof that 2013 was not, as claimed, the smallest number which required 6 terms to be expressed as the sum or difference of prime numbers squared. I forgot to select only prime numbers, but the claim is still untrue in the corrected version. 432 + 132 - 32 + 22 does the job with 4 terms. In fact, I believe that the 15 is the smallest number requiring 6 prime squared terms if individual term values are limited to the target number value. If you need help finding expression for 15, search button for Case 2B in Interesting 2013, Version 2 can help.
February 20, 2013: It took a while, but a user
finally found a bug with the 3-player option in our Four In a Row game.
Retracting (undoing) a move switches forward to the next rather than back to the
previous player. In the 2-player options it didn't matter of course but,
with 3-players, trying to undo a move advances to the next player and the "Reset"
button is the only way out. Four In A Row Version 2.3 posted today
fixes the problem.
February 17, 2013: If we break an integer, N, into smaller integer parts which add up to N, the sets of numbers are called Integer Partitions of N. They have been the subject of study for a few hundred years and are still studied today. A Google search will lead you down the path of discovery as far as you care to travel. My Integer Partition Test program, Version 2 was posted today. In addition counting and generating partitions for integers up to 375, it will generate partitions with a specific maximum value or a specific number of parts. Interestingly, for a given integer K, the number of partitions of each of the types is the same. Although it is generally not feasible to list all partitions of even a medium size integer (there are 190 million ways to partition the integer 100), the program can now calculate the partition for any position (rank) for any input number up to 375. So if you want to know the millionth, or billionth partition of 200, have at it!
February 7, 2013: PosExTest is a program in our Delphi techniques section that defines and tests a substitute for the Delphi substring search function, PosEx. PosEx was not available in versions before Delphi 7.
February 4, 2013: I received a note today from Dieter Stein, creator of the Paletto game I cloned last month. He liked the program but pointed out that the initial game board setup should not allow adjacent balls or tokens of the same color in the vertical or horizontal direction. I corrected my program and reposted Paletto Puzzle Version 2.1 today.
February 1, 2013: Another puzzle from our 2013
"Brain Game" page-a-day calendar. I worked on this one for about 10
minutes before deciding that a 10 minute program would be more fun and
more likely to guarantee a solution. It took more like 30 minutes
to write No_3_In_A_Row, but it does
find the two solutions in less than a second.
The What's New Archives
(Click to expand)
Copyright © 2000-2013, Gary Darby
All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:7665c8f3-1166-4392-b7d0-a477dba8b1e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://delphiforfun.org/default.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93562 | 2,382 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Showing I'd made an effort for my son's class Thanksgiving was a serious effort.
"Mom, what are those things on the stove?" asked my 5-year-old son.
"They're baked sweet potatoes."
"Oh. I thought they were dead mice."
I was starting to think that perhaps I should have volunteered to bring another item to the kindergarten Thanksgiving feast – say, paper plates. But it was my son's first year, and I wanted to make a good impression. Paper goods seem to say, "I can't be bothered." Homemade pies say, "I have too much time on my hands." But a sweet potato casserole says, "I made an effort, and a few vitamins never killed anyone."
Showing I'd made an effort took some serious effort. First, while hefting the grocery bags to my car, I discovered that 10 pounds of sweet potatoes is a of sweet potatoes. Then I had to clean, poke, and bake the ton of tubers. The recipe suggested microwaving them, but I wasn't going to stand there all day feeding three or four potatoes into the microwave at a time. I opted to bake them all together in the oven. It took ages. We ordered pizza for dinner.
I left the sweet potatoes on the stove to cool. To be fair, the oblong, grayish forms resemble rodents. Next, I scooped out the insides, mashed them, and mixed in eggs, brown sugar, and cinnamon. A few of the potatoes seemed a little, well, , but I figured the mixer would soften them up. Wrong. Orange chunks ricocheted around the kitchen while I choked on a cloud of cinnamon.
Discouraged but not defeated, I fished out the uncooked bits and microwaved them into submission. Unfortunately, I had already added the other ingredients. Anyone want a side of scrambled eggs with their sweet potatoes? Messy though it was, my method seemed to work. I reintroduced the softened bits into the bowl. Now the splatters from the mixer were scalding hot.
Struggling under the weight of the now-puréed 10 pounds of sweet potatoes, I emptied the bowl into a foil pan and spread them out with a spatula. Not bad. You could barely see the lumps. I was just sprinkling the chopped pecans on top when my son strolled in.
Picking up a wooden spoon and pulverizing the remaining pecans, he said casually, "Luke is allergic to nuts. So's Cameron." Then he swiped a finger into the mixing bowl and went on his way.
That does it. Next year, I'm bringing paper plates. I saw some cute ones at the party store with little mice on them dressed up as Pilgrims. | <urn:uuid:bb5b973b-005f-4603-9593-c774d673577e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/The-Home-Forum/2012/1107/Sweet-potato-hassle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980841 | 582 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The costs are adding up for California's mistake of posting Social Security numbers online.
KCRA 3 has learned the error will cost California taxpayers more than $41,000.
As KCRA 3 first reported on Monday, the California Department of Health Care Services inadvertently published nearly 14,000 Social Security numbers belonging to in-home care providers in 25 counties.
KCRA 3 learned Wednesday the state will pay $25,704 for a year of credit monitoring for providers who take care of disabled clients though the In-Home Supportive Services program.
The Department of Health Care Services notified those providers in writing of the security breach.
The letters and mailing cost $15,650. The state is also paying $526 for a phone center to handle calls from concerned providers.
The total cost to taxpayers: $41,880.
The cost to the public trust is even higher.
"I don't even give out my phone number," said Mia Petty, an in-home care provider from Penryn. "And now this has happened, so it's really unsettling."
Since KCRA's initial story on Monday, the union representing home care workers has been hearing loudly from its members. | <urn:uuid:6bc2edb1-a1a5-4a30-9386-6152f8a9c888> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcra.com/news/Taxpayers-to-shell-out-tens-of-thousands-of-dollars-for-state-s-mistake/-/11797728/17753660/-/6ldocv/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952667 | 242 | 1.695313 | 2 |
When you have ever had any health problems, you realize how crucial excellent health-care insurance coverage may be. It’s important for the economic safety to be positive which you are covered. This short article will aid to clarify what kinds of issues you need to appear out for when coping with North Carolina medigap plans.
Make sure to get pet health insurance coverage for the pet although he’s young. Accidents can occur to pets at any age, and just as with individuals, insurance coverage is much more pricey for older pets. In reality, cats and dogs which can be greater than ten years old might not be capable of get a brand new pet health insurance coverage policy. Furthermore, pets having a pre-existing situation might not be capable of get health insurance coverage.
You should not hide any info, even when you believe it may well result in you to become denied. Your insurance coverage business has access to a whole lot of details about your healthcare previous: following asking you queries, they are going to verify every thing. If they usually do not notice any inconsistencies initially, but then later they understand that you had been dishonest, your enrollment will likely be canceled.
Attractive a denied health insurance coverage claim is usually a lengthy, drawn-out procedure, as well as the intelligent patient by no means submits the identical appeal twice. When several appeals are needed, the patient must spend interest for the outcomes every appeal generates. An excellent appeal is usually tailored to address not just the initial claim denial but additionally any problems raised against prior appeals.
Cease smoking and put on your seat belt to save cash in your health insurance coverage. Several organizations provide discounts or monetary incentives to people who lead a wholesome life. Even company policies usually supply such incentives should you take part in a health plan. Verify along with your insurance coverage agent or Human Resource Division to determine should you qualify.
Producing great choices relating to your health-care coverage can preserve you out of lifelong debt, feasible bankruptcy as well as complex healthcare concerns within the future. Make use of the suggestions that had been offered right here to ensure that you will get the most effective coverage for oneself as well as your loved ones, and shield them in the uncertainties in life. | <urn:uuid:796ee8fd-0d75-4bee-b205-0850df355d36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.erbesbuch.info/category/insurance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970111 | 455 | 1.703125 | 2 |
One of the beautiful and fast-advancing provinces in the Visayas region, Leyte is famous for its various historic, vibrant, and highly entertaining festivals. Aside from their significance to the local residents of the area, these festivities also serve as serious attractions for local and foreign tourists alike. For years, many people continuously develop a great deal of interest to all these special occasions, which are characterized by colorful parades, eye-catching dance presentations, and other significant activities. Overall, these festivals are very important because they reflect the values, traditions, as well as diverse cultures of the different people living within the area.
Celebrated every last week of the month of June, Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival is a very popular Leyte festival that regularly draws lots of attention from foreign and local tourists alike. With Tacloban City as its focal point, this event aims to commemorate folk beliefs, epics, as well as the colorful traditions of the native people in the province. In general, dance-drama presentations are major highlights of this festival, which feature people who cover their bodies with colorful paints. Aside from the wonderful cultural presentations, this event also features many bazaars, where tourists can purchase native products, special delicacies, and other interesting items.
Held every 19th day of August, Buyogan Festival is another highly popular and attractive festival in the Philippines. Annually, the local government of Abuyog organizes this special event to celebrate the founding as well as the rich history of the town. To highlight the festivities, local residents participate in dances while wearing colorful costumes and make-ups that closely resemble the appearance of bees. In addition, the choreography of these outstanding and entertaining dance presentations also mimics the graceful movements and behaviors of honeybees.
Organized every June in Tacloban City, Sangyaw Festival is another fascinating festival that local and foreign tourists love to observe whenever they visit the beautiful province of Leyte. Like most of the other exciting festivals in the province, this one also features beautiful, colorful, and mesmerizing dance presentations. Additionally, the various participants of Sangyaw Festival wear make-ups that closely resemble the appearances of different flowers. Moreover, another major highlight of this special annual event is the very exciting street dancing competition as well as the colorful opening day parade.
Held annually within the municipality of Hilongos in the province of Leyte, Alikaraw Festival is also one of the most interesting and highly entertaining special events in the area. This colorful festival never fails to amaze tourists and guests, particularly because it commemorates the ancient ritual of a local tribe in Leyte. At the same time, this event is a celebration of the rich natural resources of the place, which boasts of pristine forests and beautiful orchids. During the celebrations, people can witness enjoyable dance presentations, as well as outstanding concerts that feature many talented homegrown singers.
Celebrated every month of August in the municipality of Tanauan, Pasaka Festival is one of the most inviting events in the province of Leyte. Above all, this occasion is very special to the local people because it commemorates their rich heritage, colorful tradition, as well as strong beliefs. Tanauan residents participate in different kinds of special activities including a dance-drama presentation, which is a major highlight of the festival. Besides sharing their culture to future generations, the local residents also organize a feast to celebrate the richness of their lives as well as their prosperity
Organized every 18th day of May in the municipality of Barugo, Sanggutan Festival is a certified major tourist attraction in the province of Leyte. More than anything else, local residents support this festival as it remembers the ancient methods of coconut wine processing in Barugo. To highlight this special occasion, residents choreograph an interpretative dance that portrays the winemaking process during the old times in Leyte.
Lubi Lubi Festival
Held every 15th day of August in the municipality of Calubian, Lubi Lubi Festival is a captivating and entertaining event in Leyte that features enjoyable cultural presentations. As major highlights of this special occasion, local residents hold dance presentations in an effort to portray the importance of coconut trees to the lives of the various people living within the area. | <urn:uuid:aa6140ec-2a7d-40bc-a9a2-b7bc87187e67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.leyteboard.com/leyte-festivals.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945788 | 881 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Posted by R. Emmet Sweeney on January 22, 2013
Marion Morrison had to work hard to become John Wayne. His earth-straddling lope and taffy-stretched line readings were not invented by John Ford or Howard Hawks, only finely exploited by them. The flood of Republic Pictures movies released on Blu-Ray by Olive Films illustrates this fact, filling in the blanks of the evolution of one of the screen’s most indelible personalities. Following the box-office failure of the Raoul Walsh masterpiece The Big Trail (1930), Wayne would have to wait nearly a decade before his delayed acceptance as part of Hollywood’s firmament in John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939). The period in between shows him sliding into obscurity, from Columbia and Warners down to the resourceful Poverty Row studios Mascot, Monogram and the slightly more reputable Republic. Olive has so far transferred sparkling editions of seven of the Republics, most of which finds him stepping in to play Stony Brooke, the leader of the long-running Western trio The Three Mesquiteers (he already played in a modern dress Three Musketeers for a 1933 Mascot serial – endless remakes are nothing new). Stony Brooke is lithe and quick where the classic John Wayne figures are slow-moving monuments, visible in Olive’s gorgeous 4K scan of The Quiet Man, out today on Blu-Ray, but his Mesquiteers voice exudes the chummy warmth and presence of Wayne-ness, not yet weighed down with history.
Posted by R. Emmet Sweeney on January 15, 2013
For the past decade Korea has produced the most innovative genre films in the world, with directors Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho and Kim Jee-woon reinvigorating revenge thrillers, police procedurals and westerns. This year Hollywood is playing catch-up, commissioning remakes of recent Korean hits and importing that influential trio to make their English language debuts. Spike Lee is shooting his version of Park’s seminal Oldboy, and Allen Hughes has signed on to redo Kim’s A Bittersweet Life (2005, and whose Tale of Two Sisters was Americanized in 2009 as The Uninvited). Bong is finishing up production on his dystopic sci-fi film Snowpiercer, starring Chris Evans, while Park’s psychological horror film Stoker, featuring Nicole Kidman, will be released on March 1st. The first out of the gate will be Kim’s action movie The Last Stand, opening this Friday, which marks the post-gubernatorial screen return of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kim is a restless genre tweaker, using traditional templates and then pushing them to extremes. His style varies from the antic energy of his “kimchi Western” The Good, The Bad, The Weird to the elegant control of his criminal revenge saga A Bittersweet Life, but his films insistently return to the theme of self-destructive violence that pulses just below the surface of the human psyche.
Posted by R. Emmet Sweeney on January 8, 2013
Aleksandr Sokurov’s Soviet Elegy (1989) begins with a tour of tombstones, the camera floating down rows of Communist phantoms. In the next sequence, Boris Yeltsin is shown stalking down a hallway, another kind of ghost, one aware of his coming obsolescence. Sokurov’s work is a series of elegies, in which ghosts of history mourn for themselves. Cinema Guild has illustrated this development in their three-disc box set of Sokurov: Early Masterworks. It contains the three features Save and Protect (1990, DVD), Stone (1992, DVD) and Whispering Pages (1994, Blu-Ray), plus three of his shorts, including Soviet Elegy. Each displays his increasingly idiosyncratic visual sense, in which he uses distorting lenses to produce stretched figures akin to El Greco saints, yearning for a God who doesn’t respond. Sokurov is often compared to Andrei Tarkovsky, the previous Russian spiritual guide/director. But while Tarkovsky often offers the possibility of transcendence, there is no such hope in Sokurov, just figures circling a void.
Posted by Susan Doll on January 7, 2013
Recently I read Making Movies, Sidney Lumet’s career autobiography about his work as a director. This insightful but unpretentious bio includes no salacious stories about wild parties and loose women, no vindictive recollections about past slights, and no sad stories of a woeful childhood. Instead, Lumet recalled the production of his movies in great detail, providing insight into the process of film production along the way. He described the aesthetic and technical decisions on his films and what he intended them to mean—even if they did not work out the way he wanted. Lumet’s enlightening explanations and interpretations are a welcome change from directors who insist they never intend any deep meaning or subtext when they select certain techniques or create specific imagery. He also explains each phase of film production, from scriptwriting to scouting locations to shooting to scoring to marketing. The book serves as a crash course in film studies, and I highly recommend it to movie lovers of all ages.
One film that Lumet repeatedly discussed took me by surprise. The director is renowned for his pointed social dramas in which society’s institutions brutalize, betray, or forsake the protagonists or other characters. Acclaimed films such as Twelve Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Serpico, and Prince of the City criticize society’s weaknesses, offering pessimistic portraits of our contemporary era. While Lumet did describe the production and meaning of these films in detail, he was equally forthcoming with a much lighter movie—Murder on the Orient Express.
Posted by R. Emmet Sweeney on January 1, 2013
The beginning of the New Year means it’s time to catch up with the old. For the second year running the “First Look” series at the Museum of the Moving Image (January 4 – 13) provides an invaluable showcase for undistributed international cinema. Programmers Rachael Rakes, Dennis Lim and David Schwartz pluck adventurous work from festivals around the world, tracking developments in documentary form, the Berlin School, Korean indies and the continuing vibrancy of Portuguese film culture. In a clue as to the series’ disregard of commercial impulses, the series’ opening night film is Hors Satan, the latest by the divisive arthouse provocateur Bruno Dumont. Operating as a relatively youthful version of the New York Film Festival, First Look is an attempt to clue its audiences in to the possible future of the medium.
Posted by Susan Doll on December 31, 2012
During the last phase of his career, Harry Carey, Jr., appeared in small but significant parts in some of the few westerns produced in Hollywood during the 1980s. In Walter Hill’s The Long Riders, he played a stagecoach passenger named George Arthur, who is robbed by members of the James-Younger Gang. When George reveals that he had fought for the South during the Civil War, Bob Younger shakes his hand. The unreconstructed rebel bonds with the outlaws as he helps them rob a cowardly passenger who lies about fighting for the Stars and Bars. As the gang rides away with guns blazing, George walks toward the camera, murmuring in amazement, “I’ll be god damned and go to hell”—a proper testimonial after an encounter with legends. The stage hold-up is one of my favorite scenes in the film because it is Harry Carey, Jr., who delivers this line. As a member of John Ford’s stock company, Carey had walked among a few western legends himself, albeit cinematic ones.
Carey died last week at the age of 91, and most obituaries identified him with Ford, John Wayne, Ward Bond, Ben Johnson, and the other actors associated with Ford’s troupe. Carey was proud of his close association with Ford and his westerns even when he didn’t fully agree with the great director’s attitude toward his actors. In his autobiography Company of Heroes: My Life As an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company, he declared, “. . . I’ve only had one teacher. That man was John Ford. He was my nemesis and my hero. There were times when I was not an admirer—but when the day’s work was done—I loved him.”
Posted by R. Emmet Sweeney on December 25, 2012
It’s A Wonderful Life has screened so often it has become cultural wallpaper, the background noise to tree decorating and on-line discount shopping. When it shifted into the public domain in 1974, television channels could air it without paying fees, and it became program filler for twenty years before subsequent copyright battles (it is now owned by Viacom/Paramount). Familiarity can breed, if not contempt, then at least apathy, and It’s A Wonderful Life is treated more like a nostalgia piece than a work of art. That was my ignorant attitude, at least, until I watched it again this past weekend, and for the first time fully appreciated its melancholic rendering of adulthood’s parade of dashed hopes and perpetually delayed dreams. It was Frank Capra’s first narrative feature after four years of making propaganda films for the Army during WWII, and it feels like he imbued it with a life’s worth of disappointments, tagged with a vision of transcending these failures in an ending only Hollywood could provide.
Posted by R. Emmet Sweeney on December 11, 2012
In an early Christmas present, the Museum of the Moving Image screened a 35mm print of John Ford’s unaccountably hard-to-see The Whole Town’s Talking (1935) this past Saturday. Unavailable on home video, aside from out-of-print VHS tapes going for $60 on Amazon, it deserves to be as well known as his Oscar winning drama from the same year, The Informer (his third film in ’35, Steamboat ‘Round the Bend, is no slouch either). A box office hit which revived the career of Edward G. Robinson, its descent into relative obscurity is puzzling, aside from the larger trend of studios choosing to ignore their own history. It has not even been released on Sony/Columbia’s DVD burn-on-demand service, which was made for titles like this. In any case, it is an elegantly constructed farce that showcases the astounding range of Robinson, who can play delicate meekness and gruff murderousness for equal laughs.
Posted by R. Emmet Sweeney on November 20, 2012
The 2012 holiday season is also Alfred Hitchcock season, as studios have been looking for various ways to earn your master of suspense dollar. Universal released a brick of new Blu-Rays, HBO aired The Girl, a drama about the Hitch-Tippi Hedren relationship, and Hitchcock, the dubious-looking fiction about the production of Psycho, opens in a limited theatrical release this Friday. The most exciting Hitch development won’t cost you a thing, however, as the three extant reels of The White Shadow (1924) are now free to stream on the National Film Preservation Foundation website. Part of the cache of rarities discovered in the New Zealand Film Archives in 2010, along with John Ford’s Upstream, The White Shadow is the earliest surviving film that Hitchcock worked on. He was assistant director, editor, scenarist and art director, the second of five films on which he was the jack of all trades for director Graham Cutts. The White Shadow was a critical and box office failure, even leading to the dissolution of its production company, but what remains is an essential document of Hitchcock’s artistic maturation, containing themes of doubling and mistaken identity that would re-emerge and deepen throughout his career. Along with The National Film Preservation Foundation, great thanks are also due to David Sterritt for his informative film notes and Marilyn Ferdinand, Farran Smith Nehme and Roderick Heath, whose For The Love Of Film Blogathon funded the recording of the fine score by Michael Mortilla.
Posted by R. Emmet Sweeney on November 13, 2012
From the multiplicity of locations to place a camera, the director and his collaborators have to settle on one. This decision, born of practical training and on-set instinct, can turn a routine shot into an extraordinary one. Three recent Blu-Ray releases display the talents of the canniest of decision makers: Otto Preminger’s Bonjour Tristesse (1958), John Carpenter’s They Live (1988) and Robert Aldrich’s Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977). Preminger and Carpenter are naturals in the CinemaScope sized frame, both alternating between B&W and color to emphasize their images’ deceptive surfaces. Aldrich uses the boxier 1.85 ratio, but chops it up into split-screens which convey a dizzying information overload that accompanies the creeping surveillance state of that film’s USA.
MovieMorlocks.com is the official blog for TCM. No topic is too obscure or niche to be excluded from our film discussions. And we welcome your comments on our blogs and bloggers.
Popular terms3-D Action Films Actors Actors' Endorsements Actresses animal stars Animation Anime Anthology Films Autobiography Avant-Garde Aviation Awards B-movies Beer in Film Behind the Scenes Best of the Year lists Biography Biopics Blu-Ray Books on Film Boxing films British Cinema Canadian Cinema Character Actors Chicago Film History Cinematography Classic Films College Life on Film Comedy Comic Book Movies Crime Czech Film Dance on Film Digital Cinema Directors Disaster Films Documentary Drama DVD Early Talkies Editing Educational Films European Influence on American Cinema Experimental Exploitation Fairy Tales on Film Faith or Christian-based Films Family Films Fan Edits Film Composers Film Criticism film festivals Film History in Florida Film Noir Film Scholars Film titles Filmmaking Techniques Films of the 1980s Food in Film Foreign Film French Film Gangster films Genre Genre spoofs Guest Programmers HD & Blu-Ray Holiday Movies Hollywood history Hollywood lifestyles Horror Horror Movies Icons independent film Italian Film Japanese Film Korean Film Leadership Literary Adaptations Martial Arts Melodramas Method Acting Mexican Cinema Moguls Monster Movies Movie Books Movie Costumes Movie locations Movie lovers Movie Magazines Movie Reviewers Movie settings Movie Stars Movies about movies Music in Film Musicals New Releases Outdoor Cinema Paranoid Thrillers Parenting on film Pirate movies Polish film industry political thrillers Politics in Film Pornography Pre-Code Producers Race in American Film Remakes Revenge Road Movies Romance Romantic Comedies Russian Film Industry Satire Scandals Science Fiction Screenwriters Semi-documentaries Serials Short Films Silent Film silent films Social Problem Film Spaghetti Westerns Sports Sports on Film Stereotypes Straight-to-DVD Studio Politics Stunts and stuntmen Suspense thriller Swashbucklers TCM Classic Film Festival Tearjerkers Television The British in Hollywood The Germans in Hollywood The Hungarians in Hollywood The Irish in Hollywood The Russians in Hollywood Theaters Thriller Trains in movies Underground Cinema VOD War film Westerns Women in the Film Industry Women's Weepies | <urn:uuid:b101202a-6df3-423d-a3cc-abf4e79e8460> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://moviemorlocks.com/category/directors/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936355 | 3,203 | 1.554688 | 2 |
I’m a sucker for a good puzzle game. After all, I grew up on games such as Tetris and Dr. Mario on the NES. However, those kinds of puzzle games typically had something in common: the goal was to match things up or, in the case of Tetris, complete a line of blocks. Dr. Mario had you matching capsules to same-colored viruses, Tetris 2 was about the same formula as Dr. Mario, and even Yoshi’s Cookie had you matching lines of cookies to clear them out (yeah, I’m going obscure here). I never had the chance to play the series of puzzle games called “The Incredible Machine”, where you have to create a series of Rube Goldberg devices to accomplish a simple task, such as getting a ball into a crate or turning on a fan. That is, until now. With that said, let’s take a look at I Heart Geeks on the DS…yes, the game is really called I Heart Geeks, only with a heart instead of the word heart, so it’s more like I <3 Geeks I guess.
There’s not much depth to the story, and that I like. It is a puzzle game after all, so an in depth story isn’t needed. What little there is though is a typical life of a geeky student that you read in books or see on TV. You’re a geek, bullies are chasing after you, you hide from them, meet a few more geeky friends, and plot contraptions to get back at them. This is slowly starting to sound like an after school special. Basically, there are over 100 puzzles to complete, each based on building a Rube Goldberg-type device to do something menial like put a ball into a crate or pop a balloon, and trust me, I can think of a lot of ways to pop a balloon that doesn’t involve a steam machine, a candle, a laser, and a pair of scissors…actually, strike that last one.
There are several sets of puzzles, with a set for each of your geek friends (Milton, Theodore, Gilbert, and Eugene). Each set of puzzles typically a couple tutorials to get you acquainted with an aspect of the game, like the steam machines in Theodore’s puzzles, followed by several other puzzles, which typically require getting a ball into a box or popping a balloon…okay, now I’m just repeating myself. To build these contraptions, you have to select the parts you wish to place on the bottom screen (the main “playfield” is on the top screen), hit a button to swap the two screens, then place the item where you want it. The items include steam machines, gears, ropes, cables, planks, candles, magnets…you know, the usual stuff you find lying around a school. Once you have all the items placed, hit the red button to re-swap the screens (so the “playfield” is on top again), and hit the START button to begin the contraption. If it works, you move onto the next puzzle. If not, you can move the parts around and try something else.
The fact that you’re doing this for over 100 puzzles seems redundant, but that’s really all there is to it, that is until the boss battles. Yes, a puzzle game based on Rube Goldberg contraptions has boss battles. Well, you are running from bullies and jocks after all. The boss battles are just building contraptions, but under a time limit, which puts a bit more emphasis on the speed at which you successfully complete the contraption. Yes, it’s the same thing you’ve been doing, and if this was a real life scenario you’d likely be pounded into a pulp before the contraption is completed, but it’s still interesting to say the least.
Being a game based around building Rube Goldberg machines, there’s not much to really review, but the game does have its flaws, and I can think of three right off the get go. The first of which should be obvious by reading this review: you’re pretty much doing the same thing over and over and over again. While each puzzle is just building contraptions, you do get different parts and pieces for different puzzles. For instance, the first set of puzzles (Milton’s) contains a lot of puzzles dealing with gears and conveyor belts, while the next set (Theodore’s) contain a lot of steam machines (I mean seriously, do schools just have these lying around now for students to use as they see fit?). Outside of that, you’re basically doing the same thing for over a hundred puzzles, and it can get repetitive fast. Not only that, for some reason, on each puzzle you can only “carry” five parts at a time. So what if your puzzle has more than five parts? Well, you select the ones you need at first, swap screens, place them where you want them (you place the parts in the same order you selected them), swap back, and select more pieces. I thought they were building these contraptions in the same area where the pieces are. Why can’t you select more than five parts at a time. It just seems like needless swapping back and forth.
The game also contains a help system, but this can be both helpful and a hindrance. There were several times where I’ve been stuck on a puzzle and using the help system actually did help me. To use it, select a single piece on the bottom screen and hit the help icon in the upper-right. The game will then show you where you should put it up top. Keep in mind though that using help in any way will result in you not getting a score for the puzzle. Yes, you get scored via time it takes to complete a puzzle, but I pretty much ignored that as I was too focused on just finishing the puzzles. Anyway, the help system has two major flaws. First off, when the game shows you on the top screen where you should put the piece you selected, that goes away as soon as you release the help icon, meaning the indicator isn’t there when you swap screens. The other flaw, which is even more problematic than the first, is that the help system isn’t always right. Let me reiterate that last sentence. The “help system” ISN’T ALWAYS RIGHT! Case and point, I’ve put in a combined hour and a half on one puzzle (part of that while waiting on a flight, so I didn’t have anything else to do), putting each part EXACTLY where the help system showed me to put it, and the contraption STILL doesn’t properly work. The fact that you can’t skip puzzles, and this puzzle is only a quarter of the way in, that’s not good, as I can see people getting frustrated and just downright giving up altogether. It really does take the fun out of the game.
Overall, I Heart Geeks isn’t a bad game, but it leaves a bit to be desired. I didn’t mention the multiplayer because from what I’ve read, all it is, is just two players racing to complete one of the puzzles in the main game, so if you’ve completed them all, you’ll have a good idea on how to complete whatever the game throws at you. Outside of that, the puzzles can be creative, and the boss fights are interesting, but with a flawed help system and a lot of the puzzles being similar to others in their respective sets of puzzles, it gets old and frustrating fast at times. For a $30 game, it leaves a lot to be desired. If the game included better multiplayer, a better help system (I still use that term loosely in this game), and maybe a puzzle creator, it might be more worth it, but for what it is, I wouldn’t put $30 into the game.
More On:I Heart Geeks
* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company for review.
I like the premise of the game, and the puzzles can be fun to solve. However, the lack of a good multiplayer mode, the lack of a puzzle creator/editor, a help system that isn't always helpful, and a $30 price tag leaves a lot to be desired with this game.
Page 1 of 1 | <urn:uuid:0351d846-a180-4331-94df-089b532adfcd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gamingnexus.com/Article/I-Heart-Geeks/Item3336.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962781 | 1,788 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The race to the cloud is heating up, and the last week has seen some pretty big cloud-related news from two of the largest technology companies in the world.
Like other major
names in the tech industry, Microsoft has moved to the cloud with SkyDrive, an
online storage service that is the meat of its cloud computing services (think: Amazon Web Services). Just yesterday, Microsoft rolled out some impressive
new apps for SkyDrive that may prove to be a breakthrough moment for the
company, at least in the cloud.
Perhaps the biggest revelation was desktop integration with Windows
and Mac (although only the OS X Lion version).
In a move that is highly reminiscent of Dropbox, users will
be able to access and save files in SkyDrive as if it were just any other
folder on their computers, and everything they put in there will be
automatically backed up in the cloud, safe and sound, as well as synced to
other computers with access to the account.
A new preview application will allow Windows users to
access, browse and stream files using a remote PC.
Microsoft also updated its mobile apps for iOS and Windows
Phones, as well as launching a SkyDrive iPad application.
One major downside to this update is that the company is
drastically reducing the amount of free storage it offers, from 25 GB to a
paltry 7 GB. But maybe it’s not that bad, as Microsoft claims that less than
0.1 percent of current SkyDrive users actually use more than 7 GB. Plus,
current customers who are using over 4 GB of storage will be upgraded to 25 GB
for free, and new users will obviously be able to buy more storage, with a starting
package that runs just $10 a year for 20 GB.
Google has also announced Google Drive, the company's first major attempt to bring its brand into the cloud.
After a long period of speculation, Google finally came clean with its announcement of Drive, which will work pretty much like SkyDrive, AWS and most other cloud services.
Users will be able to create, share, collaborate on and, of course, store all kinds of content in Drive, including photos, videos, documents, PDFs and more. This content will be available from basically anywhere, as Drive can be installed on both Macs and PCs, along with an app for Android mobile devices; the iOS version is in development.
Google has built Google Docs right into Drive to make it easy for users to create and work with others in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. All shared content will allow users to add and reply to comments on anything (including image or video files), and Drive will notify them when other users comment on shared items.
And, no surprise, Google built in some handy search features, allowing users to search for keywords and filter results by file type, owner and other considerations. The service will even be able to recognize text in scanned documents with Opitical Character Recognition technology.
Drive is another component of Google's attempts to create a seamless experience for users across all facets of the Web, and it integrates nicely into other Google properties like Google+ and Gmail. It will also work with third-party applications for faxing documents, editing videos and more. These apps can be installed in the Chrome Web Store, with more additions on the way.
To start, users will get 5 GB of free storage. From there, they can upgrade to 25 GB for $2.49 a month, 100 GB for $4.99 a month or 1 TB for $49.99 a month. Paid accounts will also automatically expand a user's Gmail storage to 25 GB. | <urn:uuid:aa5cf501-7429-49fc-b122-69928beac238> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/04/27/new-apps-make-skydrive-cool-again.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943175 | 760 | 1.773438 | 2 |