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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yesterday I was chatting to a really experienced high school teacher. I asked for his opinion on what makes an excellent student or learner. This is what he said:
"It's not really about what students do inside the classroom. The best students are always the ones that do the most outside the classroom: for example, the ones that go online after a lesson to search for more information, or to look for different ways to understand a topic or solve a problem."
The good news is that if you're reading this blog post, you're already one of these students. You're on the right track! | <urn:uuid:f3c741dd-ad61-4881-b671-c20c994c8dd6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2012/06/ielts-advice-what-do-the-best-students-do.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976086 | 123 | 1.53125 | 2 |
In September, I attended a panel about “Women and Democratic Transition in the Middle East” organized by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Women’s Learning Partnership. Female activists and leaders representing Iran, Bahrain, Turkey, Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco shared their experiences and views regarding women’s role and futures in constructing a more democratic society in the region as part of the “Arab Spring.” Overall, speakers expressed hope that the protests that have continued across the Middle East and North Africa since January 2011 have opened up possibilities for progress in women’s rights in their countries, while acknowledging that obstacles remain.
With respect to Morocco in particular, Rabéa Naciri from the Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc, one of the largest Moroccan NGOs focused on the rights of women points out that activism and policies addressing women’s roles and rights were present long before the Arab Spring, Nevertheless, the revolutions in the region have given renewed vigor to Moroccan feminist activism.
Moroccans were caught up in the fervor of protests against existing disparities and inequalities that began in Tunisia last January so that, on February 20, crowds gathered across the nation. Morocco’s king responded quickly, and within two weeks constitutional reforms were discussed.
The constitutional reforms in Morocco were approved in a referendum on July 1, 2011, by 98.5 percent of voters. A new section called “Liberties and Fundamental Rights” includes Articles 32 and 34 with statements concerning the rights of women, children and the disabled, Article 21 that prohibits sexism, Article 59 that safeguards these rights and liberties during states of emergency and, most importantly, Article 175 that says these rights cannot be retracted in future constitutional revisions.
IWPR and its partner on research about the status of women in Lebanon, Yemen and Morocco, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, will present a workshop in Marrakesh, Morocco in December with women‘s NGOS from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The workshop will discuss “lessons learned” from the IWPR-IFES project as well as some of the many events that are taking place affecting women’s lives in Morocco, and across the MENA region. Previous research on Morocco has covered women’s political participation, social attitudes towards women, family law and gender quotas, and women’s freedom of movement.
Amanda Lo is a Communications Intern with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. | <urn:uuid:89cc4dd8-5057-4ffa-b22f-140b225961e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iwpr.org/blog/2011/11/01/women%E2%80%99s-rights-and-the-arab-spring-for-morocco/?like=1&_wpnonce=d19428bcb3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962454 | 517 | 2.296875 | 2 |
The wastewater treatment plant in Medford, Ore., removes organic solids, oils and other pollutants from sewer and storm runoff before dumping the water into the Rogue River. Even though the process cleans the water, it's still polluted with heat. Warm waters hold less oxygen and can provide a dangerous advantage to invasive species. The state allows each heat-pollution source in a watershed to contribute a maximum number of kilocalories per day so river temperatures won't rise above 13 degrees Celsius, the ideal temperature for salmon to spawn. Required by law to cool its wastewater, Medford considered traditional solutions, but refrigeration units or cooling towers are expensive and rely on power generated by river-blocking dams or coal. Instead, the city opted for an innovative new approach -- restoring trees and shrubs on riverbanks left bare by logging and agriculture. The resulting shade keeps the water cool naturally, at a cost
In the Northwest, innovative projects use trees to cool streams
Want to read the rest of this article?
High Country News makes some content on HCN.org available only to our subscribers. If you are a print subscriber but don't have online access to restricted content, you can easily activate your online access by activating your online access.
If you've already activated your online access, you need only login using the form below. If you don't have a subscription to High Country News or HCN.org, you can get access to restricted content by subscribing.
Have a subscription?Activate your Digital Subscription
- OR -
Not a subscriber?
Enjoy award-winning content in both print and digital formats | <urn:uuid:54e592d3-b347-42da-9516-ac985fcb8fb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hcn.org/issues/45.2/in-the-northwest-innovative-projects-use-trees-to-cool-streams?src=feat | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905688 | 326 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Not to long ago there was an editorial cartoon making the rounds with Hillary Clinton sitting at a desk and the world’s ‘bad people’ all yelling at her with her crying that they were all being ‘mean’ to her.
As anyone who can count to eleven, and keep their shoes and socks on to do so, can tell you that the cartoon, in so many ways, demonstrated an instance of misogyny. It was an example on how to put a woman candidate in an absolutely impossible situation.
Hillary Clinton is and has been a lightening rod for so many people for so long a period of time. She has many people who love her and many people who loathe her. She was a very outspoken First Lady for eight years and has been building a career in the United States Senate. One of the oft stated criticisms of her is that she’s cold and something of an ice princess. She just doesn’t show her emotion very much.
Then, of course, there was the famous exchange where she teared up. The question asked of her was quite personal in its town and the answer brought a tear to Hillary’s eye. This, of course, made her an overly emotional woman who wouldn’t be able to stand up to the ‘bad people’ in the world because they’d all make her cry.
But then, of course, a new statement. Hillary really is an ice princess and a very calculating actress who staged her tears.
Misogyny is alive and well in American culture and it raises its ugly head in far too many instances. Women who have a cooler demeanor, if you will, are ice princesses and not to be trusted. Women who tend to be more emotional are irrational and not to be trusted. Women who are complex and demonstrate coolness and emotion are, well, erratic. Instead of allowing women to be the complex human beings they are, attempts to dismiss them come from a wide variety of angles. So many of the questions posed to her, like the cartoon, are subtle and sometimes not so subtle attempts to diminish her because of her gender.
The fear, of course, for many isn’t that a woman could make a good President. They often don’t worry that she will do a poor job. Their bigger worry is that they would do a good job and demonstrate themselves to be very capable of doing the job. Imagine the number of female candidates there would be.
This is not to say that all people who are opposed to Hillary Clinton are doing so because of her gender. Many on the right loathe her because they have loathed the Clintons for a very long time. Many people on the left do not like Hillary Clinton because she tends to be a political moderate. Barack Obama plays to the left far better than Hillary while Hillary plays better to the center.
I believe that there have been trend to diminish women in recent years.
In church circles the world has changed. Some years ago the Southern Baptist Convention ordained women as clergy. They have since ceased and many of the women who were ordained are no longer considered to be so. For many of these women, fortunately, their congregations still embraced them or they found homes in other denominations.
Churches are also quick to quote St. Paul’s 14th Chapter in 1st Corinthians as proof that women are supposed to remain silent in church or that Jesus chose 12, all male, apostles. The city of 1st Corinthians is galling. Paul was addressing a particular issue in a particular church but also referencing something wider. Women were not, under Jewish Law and Custom, to receive any education about God, the Bible, or their faith. They were told by their husbands how to live their lives as Jews and that was it. In their religious life, the men had the knowledge and the women followed the rules.
As St. Paul wrote this letter, this was the world he was writing to. The problem with the women speaking in church had little to do with their gender and a lot to do with them not having much knowledge. Different era, different set of circumstances, Paul says something very differently.
As for the 12 apostles, they exist. The problem is that the Gospels do not all agree on who they were. And there was always Mary Magdalene who was a constant presence and of unknown status. But, the thing about the apostles is that theologically, Christianity begins with the profession that Jesus was raised from the dead. It is the resurrection that moves Jesus to the Christ, and changes the whole understanding of who and what he was. And the messengers of the first truly Christian message into the world were women. It’s funny how this gets left out of the dialogue about female clergy.
Hillary Clinton may or may not get the nomination. She may or may not be elected. She may or may not be an effective President. If she fails it will have little to do with her gender and more to do with her abilities. People have said that if she got elected and failed, it would mark the end of women in politics. A poor female leader is a poor leader who happens to be female. The rest of the gender ought not to be judged by one woman. After all, we have suffered through many bad Presidencies in our history, all white men. No one seems to say that white men ought not be elected. People are individuals and ought to be viewed as such, men and women alike. To diminish people because or gender is dreadful behavior and I hope that people get beyond it. | <urn:uuid:13280bc7-2d55-4bf6-8750-c3765cb45d92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jemanzo.blogspot.com/2008/01/misogyny-raises-its-head.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986112 | 1,144 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Provided by: Ramona Kane
Note: The letter's author, Katie Reynolds Taylor, was a great granddaughter of Polly Blakey Pedigo.
Letter from Katie Reynolds Taylor to her cousin Leona Arnett Murray, 1904
August 19th 1904
Mrs Leona Arnett Murray,
My dear Cousin Leona:
I will show you a photo of the old Coat of Arms. If possible I will look up a letter from a Jewish Rabbi amd let you read what he says concerning your Grandsire Elkins family history. It will amaze you - he goes back to Adam!
Grandsire Ned's family goes back to three hundred years before Christ. It is also interesting to me and so very thrilling - that I never tire of it.
Forgive me for saying that I was amused at your writing Dr Taylor that you think it was God's plan to keep family records.
Your know Dr. Taylor could have quoted back at you what St Paul says about vain genealogists and Christ's word bidding the Jews not to speak of their earthly farther but to say their Heavenly Father!
And so your husband thinks that it is a waste of time does he? Well, Dr. Taylor doesn't for he did all he could to help me in my quest. I have as little use for mere pedigree as anyone - and I loath the idea of sailing on the merits of dead and gone ancesters. I like people first for their principles and honor and then for their brains and after that pedigree does very well.
But when you realize that Grandsire Elkin came down in authentically traced line from Joseph who was sold into Egypt - and that he and all his descendants, are heirs under the Lord's will to Abraham, it turns the Bible into your own family history and puts you in tourch with God as nothing else could.
As we come of Huguenot stock, we are French in that line, of course. Fortunately for us, Talleyrand's family kept the history in France, and there is yet a province of France named for the family. The province of Perigord, the French form of the name that was called Perigoy or Peregoy when Grandsire Ned's sons came to Kentucky.
Talleyrand and we had the same ancestor about 1640 when flourished the father of Henry Peregoy who settled in Maryland not far from Annapolis, (I think about 1670). He was the father of Uncle Robin and Grandsire Ned.
Just stop for a moment and think of this; Grandsire Ned knew his own father born about 1640 and Uncle Elijah Pedigo knew Grandsire Ned. From 1640 to 1898 was covered by the lives of but three of our family and I, the fourth person, knew Uncle Lige. So but four persons reach over from 1640 to 1904. (and I expect to see 63 yet). That's a long time and bespeaks a long-lived family.
You know that Grandsire Ned fought in the war of the Revolution, side by side, with his son and grandsons. Grandsire Levi fought with him.
I was mightily tempted to swipe Grandsire Ned's Bible from Cousin Blake, and Grandsire Ned's spectacles from Cousin Amelia. The only thing that I have that belonged to him is a portion of the whethstone he carried at Braddock's defeat at Ft Duquesne, now Pittsburg. I had it cut and have a slab of it.
Grandsire Ned was born in 1706, and was quite old when the Revolution brok out in 1776. Seventy years after he was born. Braddock's defeat occured about 1755 and he was not a boy then, was old enough to have grown children.
I never have felt that I had traced the pedigree as far as it could be traced - for I think it could easily be traced back to one of the sons of Noah. The Gentiles were great people for keeping records of the old families, hence their name Gentile comes from Gentiles which comes from the Latin Gens - family. The Petrie Cordie were entirely too prominent not to have been "some punkins" long before they got their fighting name from the Greeks, at the time when Greece was leading the world in Art and Sculptare and Civilization. When people are part of history they are very easily traced, amd I always intended to do it.
The family "Motto" seems to fit the family of today, for they certainly are people who cling to God, who practice "none than God". So I suppose you and I come honestly by our religious bent. As this family history is closely interwoven with that of France and the Crusades it is easy to trace. Henry Peregoy, Grandsire Ned's father was a Huguenot and fled to America to escape Catholic persecution. You remember the "massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve", when the "Revocation of the Edict of Nantes" caused the murder of so many thousand Huguenots; otherwise, Ed and I would not be here today.
Grandsire Ned married a Miss Elkin - no Elins -, the daughter of Grandsire Elkin who was the son of a Jewish Rabbi, or the grandson. My head is roaring and my memory slips here. But I think Grandsire Elkin was the son of a Rabbi Elkin who was the son of the famous Rabbi Elkin who led the Jews on the Great Dispersion and built the Portuguese Synagogue in London, England, when the Jews were expelled from Spain. Our Rabbi Elkin was the son of this great Rabbi. Our Rabbi was Rabbi Benjamin Elkin and his brother Rabbi Hassephardis Elkin went to Poland from Spain, while ours went to Jamica, in the West Indies.
The great Rabbi, the father of these two sons, is descended in direct line from Elkanan, the father of Samuel in the Bible, who was the half-tribe of Epheaim, the son of Joseph, "who was sold in Egypt by his brethren".
The Rabbi Elkin who wrote me the letter is descended from the other son of the great Rabbi Elkin, is descended from the one who went to Poland. [Read Rabbi Elkin's letter.]
It was very gratifiying to me to learn that he, of another old branch of the family, knew the truth of the record of my branch of the family. You remember the same thing occured with a descendant of Grandsire Ned's brother, Uncle Robin, the one who had the photograph made for me.
The bible says that Reuben, being the oldest son of Israel (Jacob) had the birthright, - but because of sin, he lost it and therefore, it went to Joseph, the ruler came out of Juda with the birthright - Joseph's. That's why Joseph is coupled with Judah in the promises as to the Restoration of "the throne of David". 1 chron. 5, 1-2.
I do not know whether you did some praying about it, but something I had not thought of for a long time came back to me and that is about your descent from David, King of Israel, too. And strange to say that your line runs with the same line my Reynolds line goes to, which is another case of descendants of the common ancestor - but on widely seperated lines - come together again with family history. This makes me descended from David on two sides of my house - a thing I have known for many years and yet it never empressed me till I got this far in this letter.
Through Grandsire Elkin, you are descended from the Bruce family of Scotland. Tradition in our family says we are descended from Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, but history says Robert Bruce left no descendants. I'll stand by the family word, but as I can't prove it I just let it go, beleiving that some day our thruthful old ancestor's word will be proven. Grandsire Elkin was descended from the Bruce family of Scotland, of which King Robert Bruce was a member. Read this carefully; don't get a sketchy idea of it, and go around saying you are descended from Robert Bruce of Scotland until you can prove it. But you are descended from the Bruce blood, his own family from which he himself got his own Bruce blood.
An odd thing is that the Bruce family title is Earl of Elgin, and you see how close Elgin is to Elkin. Whether there is anything in this, I am not now prepared to say, but I could tell you a very interesting story, which, however must wait.
The Bruce family goes back to Norse blood, to Scandinavia, where the name in its early form was spelt Bruse, instead of Bruce. The Bruses descend from Wodin, King of Scandinavia. My Reynold's blood runs into the old Bruse blood of the Norse Kings. -Wodin, King of Scandinavia is descended in direct line from David, King of Israel. By the way, Wodin was the "whole show" in his day, and was considered to be almost divine and was, by the common people, called a god and takes his place in Norse mythology and gives his name to a day of the week, Wodin'sday - our Wednesday!
Take care of the photograph. By the way, don't try to trace it in English Heraldy, for it is French, you know.
Keep on growing in race and let me hear from you soon. As you wrote at the "first opportunity", I did the same, even if mine did come much sooner after the receipt of the letter than yours did.
Katie Reynolds Taylor
P.S. They sent me wrong copy of paper but then you believe in healing anyway, so I just send the paper.
Return to: Assorted Documents for Pedigo & Allied Lines
| Pedigo Homepage | Edward "Ned" Pedigo | Descendants Wm. Craig Pedigo |
| Ned'sAncestors | Marriages | Cemeteries | Obituaries | Biographies | Wills |
| Deeds | Bible & Family Records | Family Histories | Photo Album | Assorted |
© 1997-1999 WebSite, Pages & Files by Patricia SummersSmith,
Shorewoodplace Footprints & Odysseys, Seattle, WA. All rights reserved.
© Blue Skies background by Tazem Design Web Sites and Graphics
© Photographs and some data by individual contributors.
2nd Edition - 15 July 1999 | <urn:uuid:7067ac03-6934-4239-82d4-b11f2c255275> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~odyssey/pedigo/assorted/ltr-taylor-katie-1904.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977846 | 2,211 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Before you use a cooler bin for sous-vide, make sure you're aware of a few necessary precautions.
For thin cuts of tender steaks (1" or less NY Strip or Filet Mignon) or other tender meats (i.e. fish) that will safely cook in under two hours, the cooler bin can be a safe and inexpensive alternative.
But b sure to seal the cuts individually and allow enough room for water to circulate around each cut, or else risk dangerous temperature variations in the bath since there is no active heater or circulator.
Thicker cuts of meat require long term cooking. Famous sous-vide expert Douglas Baldwin notes that if you double the thickness of a cut, you should quadruple the time to ensure cooking safety. Since cooler bins lose 1-2°F temperature per hour, they may not hold the desired temperature long enough to properly cook a really thick cut of meat.
Cooler bin limitations affect other areas of sous vide cooking. You can not do long-term tenderization of meat at a specific temperature such as required for 72 hour sous vide short ribs.
Finally, food that is not sealed in food grade plastic may not be safe depending on the container you use. For example, cooking "cooler Corn" in cheap plastic beer coolers can leach toxic chemicals into your food. The websites out there promoting the awesomeness of "cooler Corn" neglect to mention that you can only make this technique safe if you have a large "food grade" styrofoam container (i.e. the same stuff that is manufactured to hold boiling water for tea or very hot coffee).
I'd advise against using a cheap plastic cooler without sealing your food "sous-vide" or you will risk contaimination. | <urn:uuid:f4e1a937-6aa2-444d-a5e6-21d5d229acd5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/2827/is-there-any-way-to-sous-vide-without-a-machine/24105 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901638 | 371 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Posted: 6:04 AM The Senate is debating cuts to the federal crop insurance program as it considers a massive farm bill this week. The Obama administration said Monday it wants to see more cuts to agriculture subsidies and crop insurance in the legislation, which would cost almost $100 billion a year over five years and would set policy for farm programs and food aid.
Posted: 2:50 PM Michael Kelsey has announced he will be stepping down as the Executive Vice President of Nebraska Cattlemen, Inc. effective the end of June.
Posted: 6:47 AM Nebraska landowners have only a couple of weeks left to enroll in a program that pays them up to $10 an acre for keeping their wheat and mile stubble 14 inches or taller during this year's harvest.
Updated: 7:48 PM The Federal Reserve says farm income growth slowed across the Plains and western states in the first quarter as costs increased and the drought lingered.
Updated: 7:27 AM Nebraska farmers are working hard to plant their corn crop, but this spring's wet weather has slowed their work. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says about 43 percent of Nebraska's corn crop has been planted. That's about 10 days behind the average of 77 percent planted at this point. Nebraska's wheat crop continues to be in bad shape. About 48 percent of the wheat crop is in poor or very poor condition.
Posted: 11:47 AM Those wanting to evaluate and plan a farming business can get training and support this month from a University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension program.
Posted: 10:35 AM Some University of Missouri students preparing to return to the family farm are analyzing their own family finances for firsthand lessons in the economics of modern agriculture.
Posted: 12:53 PM The wet start to the corn planting season may reduce the amount each acre produces this year, but farmers are planting so much corn they're still likely to bring in a record crop.
Posted: 6:55 AM A new grain-loading facility will be built near Superior to help Nebraska farmers get their crops to market quickly.
Posted: 8:35 PM Nebraska officials have agreed to stop releasing water into Kansas, now that the states have reached a tentative agreement on Kansas' future access to water from the Republican River.
Updated: 1:00 PM A wet spring continues to soak soil across much of the Midwest, causing the prolonged drought to retreat ever so slowly westward.
Posted: 4:49 AM Despite wet weather in April, the amount of water flowing into the Missouri River remains below normal because of slow runoff and the ongoing drought. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday that the cold weather reduced the amount of runoff from snowmelt in the past month.
Posted: 10:27 PM The Wyoming State Engineer's Office expects more calls on water rights in the North Platte River drainage in the months ahead despite recent heavy snowfall in the river headwaters. Hydrologists continue to forecast less water storage than the amount needed for irrigation.
Posted: 12:36 PM On behalf of U.S. Livestock Genetics Export (USLGE), the Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) is reminding Nebraskans of the availability of cost-share funds to promote U.S. livestock exports.
Posted: 3:53 PM Farmers in the nation's breadbasket who only recently were praying for an end to a withering drought are now pining for enough sunshine and heat to dry their muddy fields in time to plant their corn and other crops.
Posted: 12:50 PM This spring's cold, wet weather has delayed planting in Nebraska because many fields are soggy after last week's snow and rain.
Posted: 8:06 AM A University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension webinar is aimed at helping farmers understand their options under the farm bill. | <urn:uuid:a509f5b2-ef9e-4fcd-a310-417f33d03435> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.1011now.com/news/ag/headlines?site=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955568 | 785 | 1.6875 | 2 |
People behave socially and 'well' even without rules: studyJanuary 16th, 2012 in Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Fundamentally people behave in a social and rather compassionate and "good" way rather than aggressively, even without specified rules. That is the result of a study from the Institute for Science of Complex Systems at the MedUni Vienna under the leadership of Stefan Thurner and Michael Szell. They analysed the behaviour of more than 400,000 participants of the Virtual Life game Pardus on the Internet. The findings are that only two percent of all actions are aggressive, even though the game would make it easy for war-like attacks with spaceships, for example.
Millions of human interactions were assessed during the study which included actions such as communication, founding and ending friendships, trading goods, sleeping, moving, however also starting hostilities, attacks and punishment. The game does not suggest any rules and everyone can live with their avatar (i.e. with their game character in the virtual world) as they choose. And the result of this is not anarchy, says Thurner. The participants organise themselves as a social group with good intents. Almost all the actions are positive.
The interactions were fed into an alphabet by the researchers, similar to how the genetic code of DNA was decoded 15 years ago, says Thurner. From this we get a pattern which reflects how people tick. However, there is quite a high potential for aggression: so, for example, if a negative action is inflicted, the probability that the player will subsequently also act aggressively shoots up more than tenfold, even to about 30 percent.
Thurner and his team were also able to present by means of the pattern that the whole game is a reflection of reality. For example, we could adopt measured values one for one for communication networks. A further measurement is that almost no one has more than 150 friends, the so-called Dunbars number, regardless of whether in the real or the virtual world. The study has now been published in the specialist journal PLoS One.
The long-term aim is to detect phase transitions in societies early on using these measurements and the behavioural patterns researched in the virtual world in order to be able to forecast group dynamic social processes and to be able to react in the event of these cases in good time. It is possible, for example, that through certain conditions the aggression level, that has increased tenfold, remains extensively in place and therefore systemically for a longer time, which bears comparison with a drastic radicalisation in societies. Consequently, we could react to it in good time. A current example for such a phase transition in society has been the relatively surprising Arab Spring with its many protests, uprisings and revolutions, which, as is well known, were targeted against the ruling totalitarian regimes in many countries.
More information: Emergence of good conduct, scaling and Zipf laws in human behavioral sequences in an online world. Stefan Thurner, Michael Szell, Roberta Sinatra. PLoS ONE 7(1): e29796. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029796
Provided by Medical University of Vienna
"People behave socially and 'well' even without rules: study." January 16th, 2012. http://phys.org/news/2012-01-people-socially.html | <urn:uuid:4a1d8317-8e7e-43f8-8b57-58f2b5131e83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/print245953675.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962742 | 689 | 3.296875 | 3 |
THE Christmas lectures from the Royal Institution have been popular since their inauguration by Michael Faraday 165 years ago in London. This year Susan Greenfield (left) takes her listeners on a journey to the centres of the brain. Her lectures will be broadcast from Wednesday, 28 December on BBC2 for five days.
Originally a classics student, Greenfield studied pyschology before taking a doctorate in neurochemistry. She now researches Parkinson's Disease at the University of Oxford. The first woman to present the Christmas lectures, she will begin with "The Electric Ape", an examination of the brain's structure, before considering how to study the brain, whether the brain is a computer or a chemical factory, and how the brain develops from the 25th day after conception into adult life. Her final lecture discusses what makes us human: is memory the key to consciousness and personality?
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content. | <urn:uuid:f5253f6d-c460-4f93-9026-4fe23ed6647c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14419575.600-all-around-our-brains.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92719 | 204 | 2.609375 | 3 |
CAIRO - Addressing the newly empowered senate, Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi appealed to Egyptians on Saturday, December 29, to work together to rebuild the country, insisted that a new constitution that fuelled protests guaranteed equality.
"I say to all, both at home and abroad, the state of financial institutions is not what some are trying to picture," Mursi said, adding that foreign reserves increased by $1.1 billion from July to $15.5 billion in November, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
"We cannot even consider this satisfactory. In June 2010 it was $35 billion. But in July 2012 it was $14.4 billion.
"But with Egypt now approaching stability, and with a sense of responsibility, we will do our utmost to double it (reserves) in future," he said.
In his address to the senate (shura council), which the constitution invests with legislative powers until a new parliament is elected in two months, Mursi insisted there had been gains as well as losses in the battered economy.
"Unfortunately, if it were not for events in which some people violated the peacefulness of politics, this noticeable rise (in tourism) would have continued," he said of protests over the past month.
Mursi said the country would not go bankrupt and said the economy had grown in the most recent quarter.
He added that the number of tourists over the past four months had doubled compared with a six-month period last year.
He also said the Suez Canal recorded two billion dollars in revenue between July and October 2012 -- "the largest percentage in a long time."
"By virtue of the constitution the transitional period has now ended," the Egyptian President added.
Two years of political turmoil has hammered Egypt's economy.
Many creditors, investors and tourists have abandoned Egypt because of the volatility that has prevailed since Mubarak's fall.
The International Monetary Fund this month put on hold a $4.8 billion loan Cairo needs to prevent a looming currency collapse.
The rating agency Standard and Poor's has downgraded Egypt's long-term credit rating one notch to 'B-' because the "elevated" political tensions show no sign of abating.
Yet, in the year to end-June, gross domestic product grew by 2.2 percent, up from 1.8 percent in the 2010/11 financial year, according to statistics published by the Finance Ministry.
The Egyptian President noted that his country supported the Syrian revolution and that President Bashar al-Asasd's administration had no place in Syria's future.
"All of that while preserving the unity of Syria," Mursi said, Reuters reported.
"There is no place for the current regime in the future of Syria."
Assad has been losing ground to rebels waging a 21-month-old uprising.
More than 38,000 people have been killed and many tens of thousands more displaced in a 19-month uprising against Assad's regime.
The revolt against Assad began as peaceful protests calling for democracy and greater rights, but gradually turned to an armed struggle, pitting the Sunni majority against the president and his minority Alawite sect.
"The revolution of the Syrian people, which we support, will go forward, God willing, to realize its goals of freedom, dignity and social justice," Mursi added.
Reproduced with permission from OnIslam.net | <urn:uuid:e24de9b1-7527-42eb-aa07-f94e2f8fd3e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.islamonline.com/news/articles/2/Egypts-Mursi-Promises-Economic-Recovery.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977346 | 699 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Mountain Home is the largest city and county seat of Elmore County, Idaho. The population was 11,143 at the 2000 census . The mayor of the city is Tom Rist. Mountain Home Air Force Base, an ACC installation, is located 12 miles (19 km) southwest of the city. Opened in 1943, MHAFB was originally a bomber training base during World War II. Later an operational SAC bomber base, it switched to TAC and fighters in 1966. Mountain Home is the principal city of the Mountain Home, ID Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Elmore County. "Mountain Home" was originally a post office at Rattlesnake Station, a stagecoach stop on the Overland Stage Line, about seven miles (11 km) east of the city, on present-day US-20. With the addition of the Oregon Short Line railroad in 1883, the post office was moved to the city's present site. | <urn:uuid:8ccb1bcc-806a-47d6-934b-a6bed895ec8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://openjurist.org/law/helicopter-crash-law/idaho/mountain-home | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970274 | 195 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Trumpeter Swans Heading to Southwest Iowa
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will release trumpeter swans at two locations in southwest Iowa on May 10. Each release will be preceded by a 20 minute program with an opportunity to view the swans up close.
The first swan release will be at Rapp Park, north of Shenandoah, at 9:30 a.m. The second site is the Riverton Wildlife Area Jensen Tract with a program at Riverton City Park Pavilion, preceding the release, at 2 p.m.
Four swans will be released at each site.
Trumpeter swans are the largest waterfowl in North America, weighing up to 32 pounds and with a wing span of up to eight feet. The swans being released are part of the Iowa DNR’s statewide trumpeter swan restoration effort to restore wild, free-flying swans to Iowa. | <urn:uuid:70ca7c5c-9540-420e-85f6-33a78bb24f4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iowadnr.gov/recreation/ctl/detail/mid/2814/itemid/779 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935139 | 187 | 2.09375 | 2 |
So tie that together with our devotion to helping others, and you can see how we may have posed a problem for Them. This is something I'm sure they could have identified easily and early on. All they needed to do was find the kids that were compassionate, social and intelligent. Quoting: Gthree777
Pretty much. We were unknown variables.
As far as the grassy meadow. No I don't think your mentioned it? I know I did in my previous posts. It was the main theme of all of our sessions. Our teacher would turn the lights down, we'd close our eyes and she'd have us relax, then float out of our bodies, up through the celing, over the school, up into the clouds and come down in a grassy meadow under a big tree... I don't really remember what we did after that.. All I remember is floating back up and coming back into my body, counting down and opening my eyes. I did this so many times I couldn't tell you how many times. Quoting: Gthree777
My memory loss was really quite bad and I still have a lot of black holes surrounding the program. It's just everything else that is filling in for me. The grassy meadow caught my attention because it puzzled me why I also used that one and the beach but only the beach came up here. Solves a mystery--probably the same source.
Anyway, I was in it untill 7th grade. That would have been about 1977-1985 roughly.
We were in the program around the same time period then though I was a couple years older. That would explain why we have the same inductions most likely. If I recall correctly, the program directors were specially trained for it. We would have been subject to whatever was the popular flavor of the month for experimentation.
My big concern is that I do know some of the other kids I was in this with we're kids that I eventually went to Jr High and high school with. Yet I can't remember a single one of them or their names, or even their faces. But I do remember a bunch of kids from all of my regular classes. It's as if they intentionally made us forget each other. I have a bunch of school friends as Facebook friends now. I've thought about just posting there and asking if any of them were in Project Potential? But for some reason, I just can't do it.. Quoting: Gthree777
I experienced a huge amount of trepidation about the same issue and making an open query. My curiosity finally won over and I just asked who was in the program. It was interesting. The people that were in it responded with a simple statement of being in it whereas other former classmates who were not in it talked at greater lengths about our "super genius classes". None of the former gifted students expanded on anything or responded to any part of the conversation. Just a simple "I was in it" and that's it. I was the only former gifted that was doing any talking. The most surprising thing was WHO they were. They were all people that I was relatively close to or very close to all the way through high school.
Here's the twist: I remember who was in my 7th grade English, French, Health, PE, and Science classes. Even if I can't recall the names, I remember their faces, the classrooms, the teachers. I could find those exact same classrooms even now, almost 30 years later and point out where I sat. Yet, I couldn't remember the people that I was actually somewhat close to, had known since grade school, etc etc in that same year being in this program. I remembered them--just not that they were in it with me. Ours lasted to 8th grade, I believe.
I wouldn't doubt it if your results would be the same. I find that it is interesting to now know who those few were. They don't know about this because that is too scary to bring up. I don't know why, lol, but my gut shrivels at the thought, lol. Reminds me of that movie "Fight Club"--what's the first rule of gifted programs? Don't talk about gifted programs. :)
Ok all for now. Still trying to loosen back up to this thread. :) Quoting: Gthree777
I know what you mean. It's a hell of a thing, isn't it? | <urn:uuid:5a66c494-49cf-4d5b-bf82-dd186efc854b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message963263/reply29583868/abusive | 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 | 0.991917 | 914 | 1.5 | 2 |
A scriptorium is commonly a large room set apart in a monastery for the use of the scribes or copyists of the community. When no special room was devoted to this purpose, separate little cells or studies called "carrels" were usually made in the cloister, each scribe having a window and desk to himself. Of this arrangement the cloister of St. Peter's, Gloucester, now Gloucester Cathedral, supplies the most perfect example (see CLOISTER). The scriptorium was under the care of the precentor or else of one of his assistants called the armarius, whose duty it was to provide all the requisites needed by the scribes, such as desks, ink, parchment, pens, pen-knives, pumice-stone for smoothing down the surface of the parchment, awls to make the guiding marks for ruling lines, reading-frames for the books to be copied, etc. Most of these were manufactured on the premises: thus at Westminster the ink was made by the precentor himself, and he had to do it in the tailor's shop. The rules of the scriptorium varied in different monasteries, but artificial light was forbidden for fear of injury to the manuscripts, and silence was always enforced. As a general rule those of the monks who possessed skill as writers made this their chief, if not their sole active work. An anonymous writer of the ninth or tenth century speaks of six hours a day as the usual task of a scribe, which would absorb almost all the time available for active work in the day of a medieval monk. Very often the scriptorium of a monastery developed some peculiarities of writing which were perpetuated for considerable periods, and are of great value in ascertaining the source from which a manuscript comes. Thus at St. Albans the scribes for a long time affected a peculiar thirteenth-century style of hand with the long strokes of certain letters bent back or broken, while certain special variations from the common form of spelling, such as imfra for infra, are also peculiar to their work.
Various names were in use to distinguish the different classes of writers. In monasteries the term antiquarii was sometimes used for those monks who copied books, the common writers who despatched the ordinary business of the house being called librarii, or simply scriptores. If a scribe excelled in painting miniatures or initial letters he usually confined himself to such work, and was called illuminator, while one who worked chiefly on legal documents was a notarius. The price of books varied a good deal at different dates, but was always what we should now call low, considering the time and labour involved. Thus in 1380 John Prust, a Canon of Windsor, received seventy-five shillings and eight pence for an Evangelium, or book of the liturgical Gospels; and in 1467 the Paston "letters" show that a writer and illuminator of Bury St. Edmunds received one hundred shillings and two pence for a Psalter with musical notes, illuminations, and binding. In 1469 William Ebesham wrote out certain legal documents at two-pence a leaf, and a book at "a peny a leaf, which is right wele worth". It is to be observed that on the invention of printing with movable types, although the new art met with strong opposition from the professional scribes, the monks commonly welcomed it, as it shown by the establishment of Caxton's press within the precincts of Westminster, and of very early presses at Subiaco and other monasteries.
MADAN, Books in Manuscript (London, 1893); THOMPSON, Handbook of Greek and Latin Paloeography (London, 1894); IDEM, Customary of the monasteries. . .of Canterbury and Westminster (London, 1902); MAITLAND, The Dark Ages (London, 1845); FEASEY, Monasticism (London, 1898); GASQUET, English Monastic Life (London, 1904).
APA citation. (1912). Scriptorium. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13635a.htm
MLA citation. "Scriptorium." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13635a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Robert B. Olson. Offered to Almighty God for all those who labor to spread the Truth on earth.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.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:2ecb4a39-15a1-484d-8ab9-6b0228524a64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13635a.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949856 | 1,086 | 3.546875 | 4 |
The morning and afternoon Latchkey program is designed to provide children with a safe, well-supervised environment when an adult is unable to be at home. The activities will include art, quiet study and reading areas, physical fitness, games, outdoor and indoor play. Our program is play-based and encourages a relaxed environment for the child who is in school all day. A monthly newsletter will be available the first Friday of every month to keep communication ongoing and update you on program activities. An afternoon snack is also provided daily. | <urn:uuid:547720f0-142c-48dc-a215-1a70c247d84e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bloomfield.org/parents-students/latchkey/index.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964122 | 106 | 1.507813 | 2 |
It would be great to have an evangelical in the White House, but let's remember: He works in the Oval Office, not the cruciform office.
We live in a country built on a Christian political and cultural foundation, but the United States is not a Christian country. The Constitution has a Bible-based emphasis on a humble central government and a separation of powers within it. Many of the American founders were Christians and some were not, but-from biblical teaching, experience of London's depravity, or both-they clearly had a sense of sinful man and the arrogance of power.
WORLD favors supporters of the Constitution as drafted and amended, rather than those who make it conform to current political and judicial desires. We also support those who display the character to be faithful to the nation-and one leading indicator of that is being faithful to one's spouse. Faithfulness of one kind doesn't always lead to faithfulness of another, but failure in the home is often a leading indicator of failure in national leadership. We've seen this historically-I've written a book about this-and recently among Democrats such as John Edwards and Republicans such as Mark Sanford.
Constitution, character-and looking at personality is also crucial. The most successful politicians at high levels are triple-E's: Extra-smart Extroverted Elephants. Smart people tend to be either abstract generalists or wonkish detail devils: The extra-smart politician needs to grasp both the big and the little. To avoid being worn out by demands to meet and greet, hour after hour and day after day, high-level politicians need to be extroverts. The "elephant" part of my equation does not refer just to Republicans: To avoid being lost in the crowd, successful leaders have a presence that allows them to fill up a room.
Having all three E's is rare. Bill Clinton to many was the perfect 3E candidate, but he won a fourth E as well: Egomaniac. Just about every politician is an egotist to some extent-he certainly has to talk about himself-but we need to watch for egomania. It's typical among multiple adulterers, and among others who ignore the message from a plaque that reportedly sat on Ronald Reagan's desk: "There's no limit to what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit." | <urn:uuid:b491e6b3-2cb4-49c4-8496-aecdafc20a09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldmag.com/2012/01/wanted_extra_smart_extroverted_elephants | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975457 | 483 | 1.5 | 2 |
Note to future self
Imagine your Future Self, going about your disease-free, chemically-enhanced life in 2015. Yes, you have a jetpack and yes, you own a robot, but the key question is how much bandwidth will you need to watch your IPTV, browse your favorite Web 4.0 sites, download your (legal) P2P content, and video conference with your robotophobic mother-in-law? And will it be available?
A new report (PDF) out from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) suggests that your Future Self will need a 50Mbps download link in the next decade, and it surveys the worldwide race to get there that's raging between fiber to the home, VDSL, and DOCSIS 3.0 cable systems. In one important sense, though, fiber has already won.
Despite all the hype about wireless technologies such as LTE and WiMAX, Rudolf van der Berg of the Netherlands' Ministry of Economic Affairs argues that none will be sufficient to provide widespread access to 50Mbps connections in the period between 2010 and 2020. Wired connections will continue to pummel their nerdier wireless siblings when it comes to sustained data transfer, which means that "wireless will be used to bridge the first meter, but not the first mile."
That means that the race to 50Mbps connections will largely be won by fiber-based networks; the only question is how close to the home those fiber lines run, and what sort of connection they use to get the signal the rest of the way. While fiber, DSL, and cable are generally considered separate technologies, most modern networks already incorporate fiber.
Cable plant in the US is generally a hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) system that runs fiber out to local nodes, where signals are converted to electricity and run to neighborhood homes over coax connections. DSL is moving the same way, as we can see in AT&T's current U-Verse deployment in the US; fiber is pulled to the local node, which is especially crucial for a distance-limited technology like DSL. And fiber run all the way to the home, like Verizon's FiOS and similar deployments in Japan, Korea, and France, is (obviously) all about the fiber.
All three of these approaches can hit the 50Mbps threshold... with some work. Cable requires an upgrade to DOCSIS 3.0, a system that uses channel bonding (sending the download signal over more than one empty TV frequency slot on the coax cable in order to boost capacity) to deliver speeds that could top out at 160Mbps in future. Comcast is deploying DOCSIS 3.0 this year, and has already turned it on in Minneapolis, where users can now get 50Mbps Internet connections for the low, low price of $150 a month.
The truly excellent news for cable is that coax can carry plenty of data, far more than traditional phone copper wiring. When (or if) cable companies eventually make the move to a fully IP-based network and adopt IPTV to deliver video, all of the bandwidth currently used to deliver analog and digital video to subscribers can be re-allocated to Internet use. Using even current technology, a cable line could carry up to 5Gbps under such a scenario.
Current (ADSL2+) DSL rollouts generally top out around 25Mbps, but a newer version called VDSL can reach up to 50Mbps and could keep DSL technology competitive for quite a while. This is especially important to companies like AT&T with huge existing investments in DSL infrastructure; while the company may well be forced to extend its fiber pulls all the way to the home in the next decade or two, Verizon's own examples show that the costs of doing so can be astronomical ($18 billion-$20 billion allocated so far). VDSL's problem, though, is that these high speeds tail off quickly with distance. At only 1km from the central switching office, the maximum speed has already declined to 30Mbps.
Few homes are located that close to the DSLAMs in the central office; van der Berg puts the number at less than 10 percent of the population in most countries. To deliver the full 50Mbps experience, VDSL connections should be less than 450 meters long, which means that a hybrid fiber system is absolutely essential to see these kinds of speeds.
To get a sense of just how expensive even such a limited fiber rollout can be, consider than telecom provider KPN in the Netherlands will expand from 1,350 local exchanges to around 28,000 in order to launch VDSL service. That's a lot of trench digging and cable laying to bring the fiber further into the neighborhood, making this a nontrivial upgrade. | <urn:uuid:8e7baa9d-57c7-4333-aebc-581ba30a654f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arstechnica.com/features/2008/04/fiber-broadband-future/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941333 | 969 | 2.15625 | 2 |
(dole-CHEH-toh) Piedmont's "other" grape
Thoughts of Piedmont
usually bring images of big tannic Barolos and Barbarescos, but an oft-forgotten everyday variety of the region is Dolcetto. Roughly translated, Dolcetto means "little sweet one." While not exactly "sweet," wine made from Dolcetto exudes light and fruity characteristics.
Dolcetto is an early-ripening grape, grown in the northwest area of Piedmont. It produces wines that are soft and fruity and ready-to-drink when released. The Italians like this wine for everyday drinking because of its soft tannins, ripe fruit, and ability to match with a variety of foods. No cellaring required here and prices are usually quite affordable.
Summing it up
Successful Sites: Piedmont, Other Italy
Common Descriptors: fruity, cherry, plum | <urn:uuid:cb82731c-3cd0-47d1-962c-e3a486e6b44a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wine.com/v6/Dolcetto/wine/list.aspx?N=7155+124+183&Ns=p_Savings%7C1&Nao=200 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927016 | 206 | 2.046875 | 2 |
The likelihood of extreme drops in power generation from total or partial plant shutdowns will triple in the next 50 years
RICHMOND, Va. — The upper James River watershed and the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and the Appalachian mountains in West Virginia and Virginia are among the regions that would be resilient to drought, rising temperatures and other threats associated with climate change, according to a study released Monday by The Nature Conservancy.
Raymond Learsy: Well. I think people will be, in 2020, will be saying aren't we fortunate to be the Saudi Arabia of natural gas and that we have been able to develop this natural resource, this American resource, safely, responsibly and it has enhanced the lives of almost every American. Natural gas is a feedstock for much of our chemical production. Natural gas has been an absolute shot in the arm to our steel industry; the piping and the new drilling equipment that is being used and produced. It has created, in places like North Dakota where you also have shale oil as well as shale gas, a boom.
There is massive employment, not unemployment, but employment to the point they can't fill jobs in North Dakota and they can't find a place to live, they can't find apartments and they can't find a place to stay. I mean, the boom there is staggering and that boom is going to spread around the United States, if it's permitted to do so, if we have a coherent, intelligent and sensible discussion on this issue. And I think that the potential is so enormous that by 2020 the whole idea of energy independence will have been dissipated because of our resources in natural gas.
THE Federal Opposition has jumped on a report from the Department of Agriculture showing the cost of transport for the food industry may rise as a result of the impending carbon tax.
The majority of Australians oppose putting a price on carbon and support Coalition plans to scrap the carbon tax.
The majority of Australians oppose government plans to price carbon, new polling reveals.
Sixty-three per cent say they're against the introduction of a fixed price on carbon, leading to an emissions trading scheme.
And 57 per cent say they're in favour of coalition plans to scrap carbon pricing. | <urn:uuid:3e32ac9f-556a-4fd2-80ff-24a610b1cb77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2012/06/climate-change-causes-nuclear-coal.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963203 | 450 | 2.28125 | 2 |
How to Avoid Going to Jail under 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 for Lying to Government Agents
Solomon L. Wisenberg is a partner and co-chair of the white collar criminal defense practice group of Barnes & Thornburg LLP .
What do Martha Stewart and enemy combatant Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri have in common? They were both indicted, under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001, for lying to federal government agents. Ms. Stewart now stands convicted of intentionally misleading SEC and FBI officials who questioned her about insider trading. Mr. Al-Marri was one of several hundred immigrants who voluntarily submitted to FBI interviews in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was later charged with lying, during his interview, about the timing of a previous trip to the United States. Here are two criminal defendants from widely divergent backgrounds. Yet both were ensnared by Section 1001, a perennial favorite of federal prosecutors.
Did you know that it is a crime to tell a lie to the federal government? Even if your lie is oral and not under oath? Even if you have received no warnings of any kind? Even if you are not trying to cheat the government out of money? Even if the government is not actually misled by your falsehood? Well it is.
Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001 makes it a crime to: 1) knowingly and willfully; 2) make any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation; 3) in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative or judicial branch of the United States. Your lie does not even have to be made directly to an employee of the national government as long as it is "within the jurisdiction" of the ever expanding federal bureaucracy. Though the falsehood must be "material" this requirement is met if the statement has the "natural tendency to influence or [is] capable of influencing, the decision of the decisionmaking body to which it is addressed." United States v. Gaudin , 515 U.S. 506, 510 (1995). (In other words, it is not necessary to show that your particular lie ever really influenced anyone.) Although you must know that your statement is false at the time you make it in order to be guilty of this crime, you do not have to know that lying to the government is a crime or even that the matter you are lying about is "within the jurisdiction" of a government agency. United States v. Yermian , 468 U.S. 63, 69 (1984). For example, if you lie to your employer on your time and attendance records and, unbeknownst to you, he submits your records, along with those of other employees, to the federal government pursuant to some regulatory duty, you could be criminally liable.
Even in our age of ever expanding federal power, the breadth of this statute (and the discretion it lodges in prosecutors) is awesome. Congress has regulated so many areas of our lives and federalized so many functions that the reach of Section 1001 is virtually boundless. This is what caused many federal courts to create an "exculpatory no" doctrine, holding that falsely answering "no" to an inquiry from a federal agent was, standing alone, not a crime under Section 1001. In 1998, however, the United States Supreme Court rejected this doctrine (as being inconsistent with legislative intent) in Brogan v. United States , 522 U.S. 398, 805 (1998). Thus, the only avenue for reform with respect to Section 1001 is in Congress, where politicians seldom get brownie points for narrowing the reach of federal criminal statutes.
But why, you may ask, should law-abiding citizens be alarmed about this statute? Don't the feds only pick on big-league liars? Don't we trust the federal government and its law enforcement officers and assume that they are responsibly trying to ferret out crime? Besides, if we meet an FBI agent that we do not trust, can't we always decline to speak to him?
It may be true that most federal agents and prosecutors are decent people who would not intentionally abuse Section 1001. Moreover, it is very important from a law enforcement perspective for federal agents to be able to informally question witnesses during the initial stages of an investigation. And certainly citizens are under no obligation to speak to a law enforcement agent in the first place, although, as shown below, it is essential to learn how to decline to speak to government officers. But power corrupts, and the potential for abuse of this statute is great, especially during periods of public outcry over corporate and other white-collar crimes. When we reflect upon how many petty rules and regulations get broken and how many white lies are told during the course of an average American business day, it is apparent that Section 1001 can easily be applied and misapplied to normally upstanding folk.
Consider, for example, the following hypothetical. Assume you are the former employee of a corrupt home health care agency. You hated the place, left as soon as you could and did your best while there not to join in the fraud you saw being committed all around you. Nevertheless, you looked the other way and on occasion minimally aided the owner's criminal behavior. Maybe you transported false vouchers to the mailbox or handed miscoded bills to a visiting auditor. (It is very easy under federal criminal law to passively aid another in his or her crime and thereby subject yourself to criminal exposure. All you need is to know of another's crime and perform any act, even a minor act, that intentionally and knowingly facilitates the crime.) Assume further that you are a registered nurse and that your licensing state will revoke your license if they find that you were involved in fraud. One afternoon, two years after you quit, your neighborhood FBI agent comes calling. He needs damaging information about your former employer and you certainly know enough to help out. But revealing what you know could also expose you to revocation of your license. What do you do in that situation and what are the potential pitfalls?
Your first instinct may very well be to feign lack of knowledge concerning the details of the former employer's behavior, particularly if, as is often the case, the agent's visit is unexpected. People often panic in these encounters and blurt out falsehoods to cover up past misdeeds, even very small misdeeds. Once you make that fateful choice the FBI agent and the Assistant United States Attorney ("AUSA") who he works with may have you over a barrel. If they possess enough evidence to prove that you are lying they can bring or threaten to bring charges against you under Section 1001. In fact some AUSAs specifically send agents out to conduct interviews knowing that a witness will either tell the truth and help build a case against someone else or lie and subject himself to a Section 1001 charge . In such situations, the federal agent is typically well-informed about the facts of the case, but plays dumb in order to instill a false sense of confidence in the interview subject. And, unlike you, the agent has had time to examine all relevant documents. (It also bears noting that the FBI will usually not tape record the interview and that the only official interview report will be an FBI 302, which is the agent's own dictated version of the conversation. Agents usually work in pairs as well, so in any later dispute over what was said in the interview, guess whose version is likely to prevail? Yours, or the two FBI agents who dictated the 302?) Even if the prosecutor does not really want to indict a little fish like you, by lying in the interview you may force him to do so. If he ultimately convinces you to tell the truth and indicts your former employer, he must still reveal your falsehood to the employer's attorney, under Brady v. Maryland , 373 U.S. 83 (1963) and Giglio v. United States , 405 U.S. 150 (1972). This information will be used by the attorney to publicly and vigorously cross-examine you at trial. Since you are now going to be a tainted witness, because of your original falsehood, the prosecutor may feel obliged to indict you in order to show a jury (or other potential witnesses) that you have paid a price for lying to the FBI.
Hence we see that even a decent person who tries to stay out of trouble can face criminal exposure under Section 1001 through a fleeting conversation with government agents. What else can be done (in our hypothetical interview) to avoid being placed in such a dilemma? Of course, you can simply tell the whole truth the first time, like your mommy taught you to do. Wouldn't that be the easy thing to do, even if your nursing license ends up being revoked? Perhaps. But by telling the truth, and avoiding prosecution under Section 1001, you expose yourself to a potential indictment for aiding and abetting your former employer's health care fraud. You don't think it could happen? Trust me. It happens all the time, almost every week, all across this country.
What if you are absolutely convinced that you didn't do anything to help your former employer and that you are entirely innocent of wrongdoing? Since you have nothing to hide, is it safe to talk? There can still be real danger in speaking to a government agent in these circumstances. To begin with, you are not qualified to know whether you are innocent of wrongdoing under federal criminal law . I have already noted the minimal nature of the act needed to connect you to another's crime if you have knowledge of that crime. But the danger goes beyond this. Not all federal crimes (particularly regulatory crimes) even require criminal intent. Moreover, you and your employer may have engaged in some widespread industry practice, acceptable at the time, which is now under stricter scrutiny. One offhand remark to the federal agent could turn into a damaging admission.
Even assuming your absolute innocence of the wrongdoing being investigated, however, the agent has had the luxury of minutely studying all of the relevant paperwork surrounding that investigation. You, on the other hand, may not have thought about the subject matter, much less the underlying details, of his inquiry for years. You will probably not be shown any of the pertinent documents before the interview begins. You could easily make factual mistakes during your interview . What happens then? Maybe nothing, if you are dealing with an experienced agent who surmises that you are trying to tell the truth. But if the agent is inexperienced and unsure of your culpability or if you are not confirming his version of events, your mistakes can easily be interpreted as intentional falsehoods under Section 1001.
Is there an intelligent alternative to lying or telling the truth that we have not yet examined? Yes. In our hypothetical interview, you can politely decline to be interviewed by the FBI agent. Tell the agent that you have an attorney and that "my attorney will be in contact with you." If the agent persists, say that you will not discuss anything without first consulting counsel. Ask for the agent's card, to give to your attorney. If you have not yet hired a lawyer, tell the agent that "I want to consult a lawyer first" or that "an attorney will be in touch with you." The absolutely essential thing to keep in mind is to say nothing of substance about the matter under investigation. It is preferable to do this by politely declining to be interviewed in the absence of counsel. If the agent asks "why do you need an attorney?" or "what do you have to hide?" do not take his bait and directly respond to such questions. (Do not even say that you have nothing to hide.) Simply state that you will not discuss the matter at all without first consulting counsel and that counsel will be in touch with him. If the agent asks for a commitment from you to speak with him after you have consulted or retained counsel, do not oblige him. Just respond that you will consult with your attorney (or "an" attorney) and that the attorney will be in touch. And by all means do not get bullied or panicked into making up a phony reason for refusing to talk. You are not obliged to explain your decision to anyone.
What if the FBI agent threatens to have you subpoenaed to the grand jury if you don't talk? Simply repeat your mantra that you will not discuss the matter with him in the absence of counsel. (If you are already represented tell the agent that you authorize your attorney to accept service of the subpoena. That way you will not have to be embarrassed at work by the FBI's service of a grand jury subpoena in broad daylight.) What if the agent already has a subpoena and serves you with it? Thank him and tell him that your attorney will be in touch.
It is crucial to note that affirmatively declining to discuss the investigation in the absence of counsel is not the same thing as remaining completely silent . If you are not in custody, your total silence, especially in the face of an accusation, can very possibly be used against you as an adoptive admission under the Federal Rules of Evidence.
Your invocation of counsel, however, cannot be used against you at trial. United States v. McDonald , 620 F.2d 559, 561-64 (5th Cir. 1980). Your refusal to talk substance in the absence of counsel will force the prosecutor to decide whether your information is important enough to justify a grand jury subpoena for your testimony.
If the prosecutor responds to your declination by serving you with a grand jury subpoena, this will present you with an interesting range of options such as: 1) testifying; 2) refusing to testify, by invoking the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, which broadly applies to anyone , innocent or guilty, facing criminal exposure; 3) testifying (or talking to the government) only after receiving a grant of immunity; or 4) proffering to the government226128147that is, giving them a sneak preview of what you will tell them if they agree to grant you immunity. The important thing to remember is that declining to speak to the agent in the first place buys you time in which to weigh these alternative strategies with your white-collar criminal defense attorney .
I am not suggesting that you should obstruct the FBI or invariably decline to answer an agent's questions. If you are certain that you have committed no crime, and if the agent promises you that nothing will happen to you if you tell the truth, and if it is crystal clear that you are nothing but a peripheral witness, it may be appropriate to voluntarily interview with federal law enforcement officials. But don't speak to them unless: you have discussed the matter thoroughly with your attorney; your attorney has called the prosecutor to determine your status as a witness, subject or target; and, your attorney is present during the interview.
Neither am I suggesting that it is generally acceptable to be interviewed by federal agents as long as your attorney is present . In fact, it is usually unacceptable and is often quite risky. (Just ask Martha Stewart, who had counsel by her side when interviewed by the FBI and SEC.) Indeed, barring special circumstances, I never let a client with the slightest degree of criminal exposure submit to an interview by government agents .
There are some instances in which you may effectively be forced to interview with law enforcement agents. If you are an employee of the government and you are assured that an inquiry is administrative only and that your interview will not result in any criminal action against you, you will usually be required , in order to keep your job, to submit to the interview. Furthermore, a private employer can require you to cooperate with a law enforcement or regulatory investigation as a condition of continued employment. If you are an officer or director of a company that operates in a regulated industry or does business with the federal government, your failure to submit to questioning by regulatory officials may result in significant economic sanctions against you or your company by the United States. But even in the above situations, you should avoid substantive conversations when law enforcement agents make surprise visits. If you have to submit to an interview, it is far better to do so after careful consultation with your attorney.
If all of this sounds complicated, it is. Whether you speak, what you say and how and when you say it can have a profound effect on your future when you find yourself involved in a white-collar criminal investigation . The time to realize this, hire an experienced white-collar criminal defense attorney and develop a strategic plan is before the feds come knocking at your door. | <urn:uuid:b6a8c982-1a55-4906-b6c4-1cca2acc9a43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://corporate.findlaw.com/litigation-disputes/how-to-avoid-going-to-jail-under-18-u-s-c-section-1001-for-lying.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965609 | 3,372 | 2.140625 | 2 |
I stumled across a Henry Rollins essay about lifting a few years ago, and I like to revisit it from time to time because I find a lot of truth in it and it just makes sense. It floats around on the various muscle boards, and I thought I'd introduce it here for those who may never have seen it as I was just reminded of it in another thread.
IRON, from Details Magazine
By Henry Rollins
I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself.
When I was young I had no sense of myself. All I was, was a product of all the fear and humiliation I suffered. Fear of my parents. The humiliation of teachers calling me "garbage can" and telling me I'd be mowing lawns for a living. And the very real terror of my fellow students. I was threatened and beaten up for the color of my skin and my size. I was skinny and clumsy, and when others would tease me I didn't run home crying, wondering why. I knew all too well. I was there to be antagonized. In sports I was laughed at. A spaz. I was pretty good at boxing but only because the rage that filled my every waking moment made me wild and unpredictable. I fought with some strange fury. The other boys thought I was crazy.
I hated myself all the time. As stupid at it seems now, I wanted to talk like them, dress like them, carry myself with the ease of knowing that I wasn't going to get pounded in the hallway between classes. Years passed and I learned to keep it all inside. I only talked to a few boys in my grade. Other losers. Some of them are to this day the greatest people I have ever known. Hang out with a guy who has had his head flushed down a toilet a few times, treat him with respect, and you'll find a faithful friend forever. But even with friends, school sucked. Teachers gave me hard time. I didn't think much of them either.
Then came Mr. Pepperman, my advisor. He was a powerfully built Vietnam veteran, and he was scary. No one ever talked out of turn in his class.Once one kid did and Mr. P. lifted him off the ground and pinned him to the blackboard. Mr. P. could see that I was in bad shape, and one Friday in October he asked me if I had ever worked out with weights. I told him no. He told me that I was going to take some of the money that I had saved and buy a hundred-pound set of weights at Sears. As I left his office, I started to think of things I would say to him on Monday when he asked about the weights that I was not going to buy. Still, it made me feel special. My father never really got that close to caring. On Saturday I bought the weights, but I couldn't even drag them to my mom's car. An attendant laughed at me as he put them on a dolly.
Monday came and I was called into Mr. P.'s office after school. He said that he was going to show me how to work out. He was going to put me on a program and start hitting me in the solar plexus in the hallway when I wasn't looking. When I could take the punch we would
know that we were getting somewhere. At no time was I to look at myself in the mirror or tell anyone at school what I was doing.
In the gym he showed me ten basic exercises. I paid more attention than I ever did in any of my classes. I didn't want to blow it. I went home that night and started right in.
Weeks passed, and every once in a while Mr. P. would give me a shot and drop me in the hallway, sending my books flying. The other students didn't know what to think. More weeks passed, and I was steadily adding new weights to the bar. I could sense the power inside my body growing. I could feel it.
Right before Christmas break I was walking to class, and from out of nowhere Mr. Pepperman appeared and gave me a shot in the chest. I laughed and kept going. He said I could look at myself now. I got home and ran to the bathroom and pulled off my shirt. I saw a body, not just the shell that housed my stomach and my heart. My biceps bulged. My chest had definition. I felt strong. It was the first time I can remember having a sense of myself. I had done something and no one could ever take it away. You couldn't say **** to me.
It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have
learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was
When the Iron doesn't want to come off the mat, it's the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn't teach you anything. That's the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you.
It wasn't until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without work and a certain amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it can't be as bad as that workout.
I used to fight the pain, but recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn't ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you're not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.
I have never met a truly strong person who didn't have self-respect. I think a lot of inwardly and outwardly directed contempt passes itself off as self-respect: the idea of raising yourself by stepping on someone's shoulders instead of doing it yourself. When I see guys working out for cosmetic reasons, I see vanity exposing them in the worst way, as cartoon characters, billboards for imbalance and insecurity. Strength reveals itself through character. It is the difference between bouncers who get off strong-arming people and Mr.Pepperman.
Muscle mass does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart.
Yukio Mishima said that he could not entertain the idea of romance if he was not strong. Romance is such a strong and overwhelming passion, a weakened body cannot sustain it for long. I have some of my most romantic thoughts when I am with the Iron. Once I was in love with a woman. I thought about her the most when the pain from a workout was racing through my body.
Everything in me wanted her. So much so that sex was only a fraction of my total desire. It was the single most intense love I have ever felt, but she lived far away and I didn't see her very often. Working out was a healthy way of dealing with the loneliness. To this day, when I work out I usually listen to ballads.
I prefer to work out alone. It enables me to concentrate on the lessons that the Iron has for me. Learning about what you're made of is always time well spent, and I have found no better teacher. The Iron had taught me how to live. Life is capable of driving you out of your mind. The way it all comes down these days, it's some kind of miracle if you're not insane. People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole.
I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron Mind.
Through the years, I have combined meditation, action, and the Iron into a single strength. I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts. Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind.
The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it's impossible to turn back.
The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you're a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds. | <urn:uuid:fbaf3255-2ba8-4bd7-809f-b5b3e3fbd42b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/281955-The-Iron?p=3944607 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989385 | 1,968 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Education for Civic Societies and Sustainable Communities was started to establish a North American curriculum that will foster a regional civic mindedness among students in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
A portable curriculum developed in conjunction with several community-based organizations, businesses, and government agencies strengthens students' understanding of the North American civic society and how people can and should actively participate in planning their local and regional futures.
Through this project, students probe how local and North American issues intersect to shape a regionally focused civic society and sustainable community.
Students work in numerous interdisciplinary-based settings, including, but not limited to, immigration; environmental organizations; community-building programs and organizations; local, state, or national governments; and resource use and preservation organizations and agencies.
Students develop skills to pursue careers that focus on public policy, community-building, resource preservation, community legal issues and access (immigration and emmigration.)
Click here to link to CSSC on-line learning
That’s the best way to really get a feel for what Daemen is all about! Daemen is located in suburban Amherst, New York just minutes away from the city of Buffalo. To schedule a weekday individual interview and tour the campus, email us firstname.lastname@example.org or call 800.462.7652. | <urn:uuid:1c15082a-e479-4391-8026-450492c422f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.daemen.edu/ACADEMICS/CENTERSINITIATIVES/CNAS/Pages/Curriculum.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920115 | 268 | 2.15625 | 2 |
On September 27, 2011, the Department of Energy (DOE) approved revisions to its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, and on September 28th, submitted the revisions to the Federal Register. The final regulations, which become effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, are the culmination of a 2-year process to review and update DOE’s NEPA implementing procedures. This process involved internal evaluation, public participation, and Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) review. The revisions are designed to focus Departmental resources on projects with the potential for significant environmental impact, to better align the Department’s regulations with its current activities and recent experiences, and to update the provisions with respect to current technologies and regulatory requirements. In undertaking this review and revision, DOE also fulfills CEQ’s direction that federal agencies periodically review their NEPA regulations. The revisions focus primarily on the Department’s categorical exclusion provisions. “Updating our NEPA rule allows us to accomplish our environmental reviews more efficiently, reduces costs to taxpayers as well as applicants for DOE permits and financial support, and focuses resources on evaluating proposals that have the potential for significant environmental impacts,” said Acting General Counsel Sean A. Lev.
In the revised rule, DOE has established 20 new categorical exclusions, most of which include criteria (e.g., acreage, location, and height limitations) that limit the covered actions. These categorical exclusions address actions such as stormwater runoff control, alternative fuel vehicle fueling stations and electric vehicle charging stations, and small-scale renewable energy projects.
Additional information, including the final rule submitted to the Federal Register, is available on the NEPA Rulemaking page of the Department’s NEPA Website, http://energy.gov/nepa. Additional information also is available on the Federal eRulemaking Portal (regulations.gov, Docket DOE-HQ-2010-0002). | <urn:uuid:975aad47-d19c-4943-a235-fab23cf805ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://energy.gov/gc/articles/doe-revises-its-nepa-regulations-including-categorical-exclusions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919999 | 396 | 2.125 | 2 |
- Explore The Island
- Plan Your Visit
- What’s On
- Venue Hire
- What We Do
The Isle of Man is rich in wildlife habitats due to the underlying rocks, mild climate and traditional land management.
The north of the Island is an agricultural plain formed from sediment left behind at the end of the last ice age. The coast is dominated by low sandy cliffs and dunes including The Ayres National Nature Reserve, a wildlife hot-spot. Inland, the marshy grassland and willow scrub of the Ballaugh Curragh is an internationally recognised wetland.
Further south, much of the farmland is pasture and still has a patchwork of small fields with dry stone walls and earth banks providing shelter from the wind and crevices for small animals. The coast is rocky with a few sandy beaches and many opportunities to explore rock pools. The diversity of sea life around the Isle of Man is appreciated supported by local people enabling the designation of a Marine Nature Reserve in Ramsey Bay.
Some types of habitat, such as saltmarsh, are rare in the Isle of Man and are confined to a handful of small areas, such as the Langness peninsula. Here, wildfowl take refuge in the winter at one of the Island’s premier bird watching sites.
As it has long been geographically separated from Britain and Ireland, the Island has fewer species of animals and plants, but is not short of spectacular wildlife. From basking sharks to seabird colonies, choughs and hen harriers to orchid meadows, there is always something to satisfy the nature watcher in the Isle of Man.
The rocks and landscapes of the Isle of Man tell a fascinating story – one that began in the distant geological past, hundreds of millions of years ago. | <urn:uuid:18e25da1-f1cb-4ffc-9ab5-7271c7dd06fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.manxnationalheritage.im/explore-the-island/nature/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928404 | 369 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Local Nature Reserves
Many local authorities in Wales - in urban as
well as rural areas - have set up Local Nature Reserves (LNRs).
There are a total of 62 throughout the country, all with natural
features that are of special interest to their local area.
What are Local Nature Reserves?
These sites can include abandoned quarries, redundant canals or
disused railway sidings as well as woodlands, wetlands, heath lands
and coasts. They can offer fine opportunities for conservation and
education, quiet enjoyment and public appreciation of nature.
They help protect habitats and species and help forge
partnerships between the local authority, nature conservation
organisations and the community. They also make people more aware
of local wildlife and offer an ideal place for children to learn
What are the criteria?
- By law, only a local authority can set up a Local Nature
- The site must lie within that local authority area.
- The authority must either have a legal interest in the land or
have reached an agreement with the owner for the land to be managed
as a reserve. | <urn:uuid:65d78720-92f0-4ba0-aa8e-941555a4420c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ccgc.gov.uk/landscape--wildlife/protecting-our-landscape/special-landscapes--sites/protected-landscape/local-nature-reserves.aspx?StyleType=bp&StyleClass=Colours | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933337 | 232 | 3.4375 | 3 |
This chart describes the variation of swells directed at Trolley's over a normal August. It is based on 1736 NWW3 model predictions since 2006 (values every 3 hours). The wave model does not forecast wind and surf right at the coast so we have chosen the optimum grid node based on what we know about Trolley's. In this particular case the best grid node is 22 km away (14 miles).
The rose diagram illustrates the distribution of swell directions and swell sizes, while the graph at the bottom shows the same thing but without direction information. Five colours show increasing wave sizes. The smallest swells, less than 0.5m (1.5 feet), high are coloured blue. These were forecast only 49% of the time. Green and yellow illustrate increasing swell sizes and red represents the highest swells, greater than >3m (>10ft). In each graph, the area of any colour is proportional to how often that size swell occurs.
The diagram indicates that the most common swell direction, shown by the biggest spokes, was E, whereas the the dominant wind blows from the NW. Because the wave model grid is away from the coast, sometimes a strong offshore wind blows largest waves away from Trolley's and out to sea. We lump these in with the no surf category of the bar chart. To avoid confusion we don't show these in the rose plot. Because wind determines whether or not waves are good for surfing at Trolley's, you can select a similar diagram that shows only the swells that were forecast to coincide with glassy or offshore wind conditions. During a typical August, swells large enough to cause clean enough to surf waves at Trolley's run for about 51% of the time.
IMPORTANT: Beta version feature! Swell heights are open water values from NWW3. There is no attempt to model near-shore effects. Coastal wave heights will generally be less, especially if the break does not have unobstructed exposure to the open ocean. | <urn:uuid:0725eca0-6403-4093-a100-35295109fd81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.surf-forecast.com/charts/Trolley-s/surf/statistics/august | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930156 | 406 | 2.171875 | 2 |
A First: Delegation From Latin America
There had been enthusiastic talk on the Society of Environmental Journalists conference’s online “welcome” page about turquoise surf and the need for attendees to bring sunglasses and flip-flops for their stay in Miami. “We’ll be saturated in the Florida sunshine,” it gushed.
So it was perhaps surprising to some, but somehow perfectly fitting, that an event billed by its co-chairman, Jeff Burnside, as one of the planet’s largest gatherings of environmental journalists, should actually be held against a backdrop of extreme downpours and a 130 mph tornado that demolished homes a few miles north.
“Welcome to the Sunshine State,” Michael Grunwald, senior correspondent for Time magazine, said as he introduced keynote dinner speaker Ken Salazar, secretary of the Interior, before adding wryly: “Sorta. …”
South Florida’s weather woes paled, however, as the hundreds of members of the Society of Environmental Journalists who have descended on Miami from across America and around the globe – including from the Middle East, Uganda, the Philippines, Denmark, Poland and Costa Rica – were connected live via Skype with a shivering, windswept scientist at the Palmer Research Station in Antarctica.
“Hello!” exclaimed Dr. Kim Bernard, appearing on a large projection screen clad in a fur-lined parka jacket, with snow falling in the background and the wind rattling the camera relaying her image live to the Grand Ballroom of the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami. “It’s 8:30 p.m. here, it’s just about freezing, and the wind is blowing at 30 mph,” she grimaced, before waving
into the camera.
Conference guests paused briefly between mouthfuls of hot chicken and sips of fine wine to wave back sympathetically.
The link-up was organized by conference co-chair Angela Posada Swalford, a Miami-based science writer for Spain’s Muy Interesante magazine who has visited the Palmer Research Station. What no one in the ballroom would have known, she told The Miami Planet before the event, was that the logistics of beaming Dr. Bernard live into the conference were rather more complicated than they looked.
“It’s plain old Skype, but the other scientists at the station have been told to get off their computers and go fishing, or whatever, because I’m going to be sucking up a lot of the station’s band-width. We’re shutting down half the station,” she admitted, adding hastily: “But only for a
Among the audience was the SEJ’s first-ever delegation from Latin America, including Henrique Kugler, a writer for Ciência Hoje, a Brazilian science magazine. The sight of hundreds of like-minded journalists all thrown together in one room to focus on the environment, he said, was “a dream.”
“I’m so excited just to hear all these guys talking and just to learn, to take back with me some great experience that I can pass on,” he said, bemoaning the Brazilian news media’s general lack of environmental curiosity despite its ecological and geographical richness.
“It’s true. We don’t have a strong environmental network and yet look where we are situated. We need to be strengthening our message, reaching more people with the important issues. I think I will learn more about that here,” he said.
At the book stall outside the hotel ballroom, conference participants lingered over tomes ranging in topic from urban agriculture and energy independence to hurricanes and shark conservation. Particularly popular on bookstore shelves, said the lady manning the stall, was The Lionfish Cookbook, a publication compiled by Reef, a Florida Keys-based organization
working to protect marine life – except the lionfish, an invasive species now rampant in the western Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
Selling well Wednesday night were novels by Carl Hiaasen, the journalist, Miami Herald columnist and novelist who has put South Florida’s political scandals and environmental quirks before millions of readers. His appearance at the dinner as a guest speaker had guests rocking with laughter as he regaled them with his trademark sardonic wit, dry observations and fantastical tales about the sexual prowess of a dolphin called Dickie.
With the preservation of the Everglades a political talking point in South Florida, journalists should expect presidential candidates to descend on the region dressed in khakis and pose for photo opportunities, he warned. “They’ll be conservationists for one freakin’ day and that’s it,” he said to snorts from journalists who may yet find themselves having to cover just such an event.
But then came the Cousteaus, five of them on stage together in a rare show of family unity, to expound the legacy of their environmentalist father, the legendary Jacques-Yves Cousteau. The mood in the ballroom swung from one of mirth to one of solemnity as, one by one, his descendants took the microphone with their “save the planet” theme.
“This is a first in years that we have been all together … in front of such a group of esteemed storytellers of the world. Like Hermes, you are the carriers and messengers of vital news reflecting the pulse of our planetary life support system,” Philippe Cousteau Jnr, the late explorer’s grandson, told guests.
Weather permitting, journalists will spend Thursday on field trips ranging from shark-tagging off the Florida Keys to “swamp-slogging” in the Everglades and diving on a coral reef.
Kasey Cantwell, a marine biologist at the University of Miami, might be hoping that the coral reef dive group includes the unnamed conference guest who asked her a surprising question outside the ballroom Wednesday night, where she had put up a display board explaining her research on the effects of ocean temperatures on the health of reefs.
“I was talking away about coral and they said: ‘What? Coral’s not a rock?’” she said.
“I kept a straight face, but really. …” | <urn:uuid:7a70abb6-8332-4f0d-9224-b494e11ebe75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.themiamiplanet.org/2011/10/19/rain-washes-out-talk-of-sun-sunglasses/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953703 | 1,341 | 1.75 | 2 |
Doncaster marks Holocaust Memorial Day
RESIDENTS gathered to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day at Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery.
The event was led by the town’s Mayor, Peter Davies and gave residents the chance to remember the millions of people who were persecuted by the Nazis, as well as subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
The service included a blessing, various readings and a two minute silence, followed by the laying of a wreath.
People across the borough are being urged to respect different communities as part of this year’s memorial day theme of Communities Together: Build a Bridge.
Mayor Mr Davies, said: “We are lucky we live in a place where we can freely go about our business without fear of intimidation or persecution.
“Our town is a welcoming one and is home to many from around the world who have escaped persecution.
“On Holocaust Memorial Day we give thanks for the freedom we have and think about how we can make Doncaster an even better place for us to live and others to visit.”
Across the country some 1,500 events took place.
Search for a job
Search for a car
Search for a house
Weather for Thorne
Saturday 25 May 2013
Temperature: 5 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North
Temperature: 6 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: West | <urn:uuid:d16f4d55-1d51-4792-89b7-38e8c62ff1f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thornegazette.co.uk/news/local-news/doncaster-marks-holocaust-memorial-day-1-5367416 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943623 | 298 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Understanding Rein Aidsby Faith Meredith
Director, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre
Beginning riders often 'mythunderstand' rein aids. They initially view them very simplistically in the same purely functional way they view the steering wheel and brakes on their cars. And, to be fair, that is all many new riders can manage in the very beginning. However, as they move up the riding tree and finally gain the holy grail of an independent seat, they learn how to apply rein aids properly as far more than simple indicators of direction and speed. When they can use their seat and leg aids to shape the horse in the direction of travel, to indicate the gait, to set the rhythm, and to regulate the horse's speed and impulsion, they can use their rein aids to manage the subtle coordination of all of these performance parts. Until they have that degree of control over their own bodies, they can work on the 'parts' of applying rein aids correctly until the two come together.
For starters, the rider's hands must be in the correct position. Hands should be close together on either side of the horse's withers. As the rider looks down, the thumbs should be the highest point and the pinkies should be closer together than the thumbs. When the hands are in this position, there will be a straight line from the knuckles through the wrists to the elbows. The line of the wrist should neither break toward nor away from the rider's body nor down or up relative to the forearm. The hands should slightly in front of the saddle. Their height above the horse's withers will vary depending on the horse's conformation and frame but the line from the bit to the elbow should never break. The elbows should rest relaxed at the rider's sides. Keeping elbow joints relaxed allows elastic rein contact.
Secondly, a steady grip on the reins is essential for steady bit contact. For that reason, I require all my riders wear gloves, especially in hot weather when hands can get sweaty. While the decision to wear or not wear gloves may be an individual one, riders must achieve 'grip' without 'gripping.' If they tense their hand or forearm muscles in order to keep the reins from slipping through their fingers, they cannot achieve the soft, elastic contact that is the ultimate goal. Riders can experiment, if necessary, with reins of different widths or different materials to find a set that allows them to grip the reins comfortably without the kind of gripping that tires muscles and interferes with an elastic feel of the bit.
Finally, when horse and rider are in motion, riders must hold their hands steady. This means the hands move neither up nor down, nor side to side, relative to the horse's withers. The steadier the rider's hands, the steadier the horse will move. If a rider's hands wander around chasing contact with the bit as the horse moves its head, the horse will never learn to seek that steady, elastic contact that allows clear communication between horse and rider. Again, the hands should be slightly in front of the saddle and raised above the withers at a height that maintains a straight, unbroken line from the bit to the elbow.
Riders cannot achieve truly steady hands until they first achieve an independent seat. That means they are relaxed, balanced over the horse's center of gravity, and can follow the horse's motion at every gait. As they work on that independent seat, however, beginning riders can make a habit of checking their hand position from time to time, especially when making up and down transitions, until they are sure they can 'feel' when it is correct. They should glance down with their eyes rather than tipping their head down which changes their body position and balance. Arena mirrors are useful here. And, as always, feedback about hand position and steadiness from an instructor or friend on the ground is invaluable.
With the correct hand position and an independent seat, riders can modify their steady, elastic connection with the bit in four ways: keeping, taking, resisting or giving. A keeping rein aid is a steady connection that allows whatever the horse is doing to continue. The degree of connection (sometimes referred to as 'weight in the reins' or 'pounds of pressure') is highly variable depending on the horse's conformation and the horse's frame. In a stretching frame the horse stretches the neck forward and down to the rider's hand. In a working frame the horse stretches the neck forward and out to the rider's hand and in a collected frame the horse stretches the neck forward and up to the rider's hand.
The amount of 'weight' in the rider's hands when keeping contact not only varies from horse to horse due to conformation but also varies from frame to frame. The 'weight' feels heaviest in a stretching frame, becomes lighter in a working frame and becomes even lighter yet in a collected frame as the horse now 'carries' himself (self carriage). The lighter feel of contact in a collected frame occurs because the horse's impulsion is more 'up' than 'forward.'
The rider must learn to accept the contact from the horse as he moves into the hand. Riders sometimes 'give' the rein as soon as they feel the horse coming to their hand. If they do this consistently, the horse will never be able to step to the contact. I tell my students to feel for the horse stepping to their hand. Then they must be sure to keep a steady hand that 'accepts' the contact and closes the circle of aids. If riders give away the connection at the same time they are asking the horse carry more weight on his hindquarters and come under himself, the effect is like squeezing a toothpaste tube with the top open. All of the horse's added energy runs out the front and the horse never achieves the rounded frame the rider wants.
A taking rein aid interrupts what the horse is doing. Ideally, riders move only a little finger (or both little fingers) closer to their body. If this is not enough to influence the horse, however, then the 'take' occurs by moving the elbow back. The wrist should never change when taking with a rein. Breaking at the wrist is a common mistake.
The degree of pressure on a taking rein will be relative to the response of the horse. The rider will always try to use the least amount of pressure but if the horse does not respond then the pressure will increase. A resisting rein aid follows a taking rein aid and simply means that the rider does not immediately follow the taking rein aid with a giving rein aid.
A giving rein aid removes the resistance applied by a taking rein aid. The little finger that moved back in a taking aid now moves away from the rider's body and back into a keeping aid position (or the elbow moves forward again). The amount of giving will be in direct relation to the amount of taking. The taking and giving usually last just a stride until the horse moves forward and back to the keeping rein.
Using steady, elastic rein contact to communicate with the horse is far removed from the concept of reins as a steering mechanism. But it takes many, many rides to develop the necessary feel and timing to apply rein aids properly. Pay attention to the successful tries until they become more and more habitual and just keep riding. | <urn:uuid:e7125c40-4ae6-4298-8b44-be30cc360012> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.meredithmanor.edu/features/articles/faith/rein_aids.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951143 | 1,491 | 2.9375 | 3 |
We’ve given public sculpture some stick over the years but so much of it panders to local councils or just plain gets in the way that it’s hard to hold back. So here, to redress the balance, and on what looks like becoming Richard Serra day, is a great description on what public sculpture can achieve from Serra himself.
“I don’t think public sculpture is going to change the world, but I do think it might be a catalyst for thought. To see is to think and to think is to see. If you can change someone’s way of seeing, you might change their way of thinking. That will be impossible if works don’t exist in public spaces. Work does not have to be unanimously accepted and liked and it doesn’t necessarily have to be great. Even with failures the fact of their existence creates a chance for changing thought and attitudes.”
Richard Serra in conversation with Kynaston McShine | <urn:uuid:bda33d1c-d579-4200-904d-3902c2b0800f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://overthenet.blogspot.com/2008/12/going-public.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955381 | 204 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Now that incubating and hatching of the three eggs is complete, the next chore for the adults is to keep three hungry eaglets fed. The hatchlings will grow quickly and keeping them fed will be a full time job for both parents. While duties are shared, the male will do most of the foraging for food, and for the first couple weeks the female will spend most of her time on the nest caring for her chicks. Photos from web cam this morning (1 & 2), and at 4:10 this afternoon (3 & 4).
Posted by: rlukei | 2010/03/15 | <urn:uuid:def88b7a-45b6-46a7-b07f-0ffe56dedbeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eaglenest.blogs.wm.edu/2010/03/15/feeding-three-hungry-eaglets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960485 | 126 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Under this provocative title J-J Mourad and colleagues (July 6, p 89)1
attack the view that antihypertensive drugs can have benefits other than reduction of blood pressure. We agree with some, but not all, of their statements.
Of course an important consideration is to lower blood pressure in patients at high cardiovascular risk, especially in frankly hypertensive individuals, but also in those with normal blood pressure. What is even more important is to lower the individual's risk of a major vascular event. We have repeatedly stated that for many patients this aim will require multiple drugs. We have never claimed that the non-blood-pressure benefits are peculiar to ramipril, but instead are those due to inhibitors of angiotensin-converting enzyme.
We have emphasised that the HOPE study was designed because of a substantial and unexpected reduction in myocardial infarction in normotensive heart-failure patients in SOLVD and SAVE (with enalapril and captopril, respectively).2
We do not believe that these non-blood-pressure effects are confined to angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibition—eg, β-adrenoceptor-blocking agents act in patients with coronary disease mainly to reduce sudden (arrhythmic) death and recurrent myocardial infarction.3
Mourad and colleagues contrast the Swedish ambulatory blood-pressure study in just 38 patients, all with peripheral vascular disease (PVD), with the smaller blood-pressure reductions in the main HOPE study (9297 patients, mostly with known coronary disease). There are several major differences between these two studies. First, the baseline systolic blood pressure in the PVD patients was 12 mm Hg higher than the normal value of 139/79 mm Hg in the HOPE main study. Second, there was roughly half the use of β-blockers and calcium-channel blockers in the PVD study. The greater falls in blood pressure in the substudy than in the main HOPE study are, therefore, hardly surprising. Hypertensive patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure (except those with diabetes) were excluded from HOPE, hence the large use of other baseline drugs to treat hypertension.
Mourad and colleagues quote other trials in which large blood-pressure reductions benefit patients with raised baseline blood pressure. They do not quote the LIFE trial (losartan vs
or that by Lewis and co-workers (irbesartan vs
in which two different classes of drugs are compared at equal and substantial blood-pressure reduction, but with significantly better outcomes for the drugs acting on the renin-angiotensin system.
Finally, it is a pity that Mourad and colleagues resort to comments on commercial considerations, marketing, and being fervent advocates of certain drugs. Hoechst-Marion-Roussell and Aventis were part sponsors of the HOPE studies (along with the Canadian Medical Research Council, Ontario Heart and Stroke Foundation, Astra-Zeneca, and others). It is naive to believe that sponsors will not wish to market the results; that is their business, not ours. The trial was designed, done, analysed, and reported independently of the funding bodies.
Scientific reality demands a proper debate on these issues. Lowering of blood pressure is very important, but we believe that the choice of the specific drugs used to lower blood pressure also matters. | <urn:uuid:7a18d415-d8c3-489c-8f13-115aca1a4341> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(02)09974-9/fulltext | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945084 | 706 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Network infrastructure for researchers
The University of Louisville’s campuses are served by an 8-gigabit campus backbone network comprised of over 77 miles of fiber in a dual ring configuration. The network can provide 10Mbps, 100Mbps, and 1Gbps Ethernet service for faculty and staff communications needs. The campus wireless network utilizes 54Mbps (802.11g) technology and is widely available across the campuses, with access in scheduled classrooms and in public areas of most buildings.
In addition the University of Louisville is connected to an Internet2 node via dedicated fiber and currently has access to 10 Gbps of bandwidth. The Internet2 connection gives the University of Louisville direct access to the national research and education networks, and enables participation in national networking initiatives such as caGRID/caBIG and the XSEDE.
The University of Louisville is also a member of the Kentucky Regional Optical Network (KyRON). This regional optical network is managed and operated through a consortium including the University of Louisville, the University of Kentucky and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. Participating universities are interconnected using 10Gbps optical links. KyRON will extend the capabilities of the Louisville Internet2
node to the other participating universities throughout the state, and provide new opportunities for collaboration with the other universities in the state.
Contact us at email@example.com with any questions or for additional information.
Research Computing. It’s happening here. | <urn:uuid:74f28f05-a47b-4ab6-9aca-6b46825bb3ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://louisville.edu/it/research/for-hpc-users/hpc-classes-and-seminars/cyberinfrastructure/networks/network-infrastructure-for-researchers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90719 | 297 | 1.914063 | 2 |
For Sexual Assault Survivors and their Family and Friends
How to Get Help
The City of Seattle supports programs and activities that enhance the services available to victims of sexual assault. Adult and child victims of sexual assault require and deserve speedy access to comprehensive, highly competent and sensitive services.
These programs include:
- In-person supportive services, information, referral and crisis intervention services, especially for individuals in harder to reach communities
- A regional 24-hour crisis line for victims, parents/guardians and/or significant others, offering confidential crisis intervention, information and referrals, medical advocacy and ongoing support to victims of sexual assault, free of charge
- A partnership with the National Domestic Violence TTY Hotline which makes crisis response available to deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind survivors of sexual assault and abuse
- Legal advocacy for victims who are witnesses in sexual assault prosecutions
City of Seattle General Funds are used to contract with nonprofit, community-based organizations. Contracting is determined through a competitive process that is conducted by the Seattle Human Services Department at least once every four years. Funding depends upon program performance and funding availability. The current four-year cycle ends in 2012. The 2012 allocation for victim services is $507,394.
2012 Funded Agencies and Programs
- Abused Deaf Women Advocacy Services provides information and referral and crisis intervention services 24 hours a day, seven days a week to deaf, hard-of-hearing and deaf/blind victims of sexual assault, non-offending parents of deaf children, deaf child victims and deaf significant others.
- Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress serves children, teens, adults and adult victims of child sexual abuse/assault through a 24-hour response system including information/consultation, referral, medical and forensic care, crisis response, and medical, legal and general advocacy.
- King County Sexual Assault Resource Center maintains a regional 24-hour sexual assault resource and crisis phone line providing accurate and specific information about sexual assault, its consequences, the systems involved in sexual assault, crisis response, and access to appropriate services and consultation; and a legal advocacy program for children, teen and adult victims of sexual assault, rape, attempted rape and child sexual abuse who have the potential to be involved with the criminal justice system.
For more information, call the Seattle Human Services Departmentís Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention program at 206-233-2774.
For more information about our partners and other programs and services, visit: | <urn:uuid:15bee145-838b-4bf3-b6c6-cfc1cc0c7f4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seattle.gov/humanservices/domesticviolence/sexualassault/gethelp.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908011 | 508 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Lynn Clark, Botany, (515) 294-8218
Arianna McKinney, News Service, (515) 294-6881
Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917
ISU PROFESSOR'S BOOK EXPLORES AMERICAN BAMBOOS
AMES, Iowa -- For Lynn Clark bamboo is more than a food staple for the panda bear in China. In fact, Clark, an Iowa State associate professor of botany, said there are more than 500 American bamboo species (mostly in Latin America), ranging from tall, woody stemmed ones to smaller fern-like bamboos.
"Bamboo diversity [in the Americas] is almost as great, if not greater, than what you find in Asia," Clark noted.
To increase awareness of bamboos, Clark recently co-wrote "American Bamboos," a book that explores bamboo biodiversity in the Western Hemisphere. The book covers characteristics and varieties of bamboo, bamboo ecology, uses of bamboo and cultivation of bamboo.
Clark's co-authors are Emmet Judziewicz, an assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; Ximena Londono, a research associate at the Instituto Vallecaucano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Cali, Colombia; and Margaret Stern, a research assistant at the Institute of Economic Botany at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, N.Y.
In order to describe different bamboos and how groups of bamboos are related to each other, Clark dissects the plants and examines them under a microscope. She also examines molecular data, such as bamboo DNA, and develops bamboo "family trees."
What separates bamboo from other plants is a special type of cell in the internal structure of the leaf. Clark said this cell likely is an adaptation to utilize photosynthesis in the shaded forest habitat of bamboos.
Most bamboo species in the Western Hemisphere are native to Central and South America. However, one type of bamboo is native to the southeastern United States, Arundinaria gigantea. There are two surviving varieties of this bamboo, a larger one commonly known as giant cane and a smaller one known as switch cane.
One American bamboo, Guadua, has been used in the construction of buildings as structural supports. In fact, buildings using bamboo in Colombia withstood the Jan. 25 earthquake, centered in Valle del Cauca, better than those made only of concrete because of bamboo's flexibility. Also, since it is lighter, the structures that did collapse posed less threat of injury to the people inside.
Clark's work primarily focuses on Chusquea, an extremely diverse genus of bamboo common in the mountains from Mexico down to Chile. Chusquea includes about 200 species and constitutes about 40 percent of American bamboos.
Clark has done extensive bamboo field work in Latin America, concentrating on Colombia and Brazil. As a result of her work, Clark has named about 60 new species of bamboo. She knows of 70 more species that are not yet named and described.
"We know they're there," Clark said. "We've got material on them. I just haven't had time to sit down and give them names."
"American Bamboos" is published by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Iowa State homepage
University Relations, firstname.lastname@example.org
Copyright © 1999, Iowa State University, all rights reserved | <urn:uuid:7139b1aa-c565-4376-a31a-a46b5fdbbf8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.public.iastate.edu/~nscentral/news/99/apr/bamboo.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932524 | 717 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Two international students will attend the University of South Dakota thanks to the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship program, an academic training program funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.
Andrey Khomutovskiy of Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan and Nadezhda Tsoy of Almaty, Kazakhstan have been awarded the prestigious fellowship through USD. This program brings emerging leaders in key professional fields from Eurasia to the United States for one to two years of graduate study at institutions in the United States. Khomutovskiy, who received his bachelor's degree in education at North Kazakhstan State, will be in the Master of Arts in Educational Administration program at USD while Tsoy, who graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Accounting from the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research, will be in the Master of Business Administration program.
USD has partnered with the International Research & Exchanges Board to give Muskie fellows access to enriching graduate classrooms with new international perspectives and valuable professional experience on the ground. Eligible fields of study for fellows in the program include business administration, economics, education, environmental management, international affairs, journalism and mass communication, law, library and information science, public administration, public health, and public policy. The Muskie Graduate Fellowship program was established by Congress in 1992 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union to allow emerging leaders from the region to gain skills and knowledge in fields they often cannot study in their home countries, including public health, environmental policies and human rights law – allowing them to make valuable contributions in key professional sectors after returning home.
This is the first time the USD Graduate School has hosted Muskie Fellows. According to Dr. Laurie Becvar, Graduate Dean, Muskie Fellows assist the University in incorporating diversity into the intellectual and social lives of graduate students.
"Their participation will foster global awareness and enrich the graduate experience at the University of South Dakota," added Becvar. "We welcome them with open arms and we are proud to be associated with the prestigious Muskie program."
For more about the Fellowship, visit www.irex.org/project/edmund-s-muskie-graduate-fellowship-program <http://www.irex.org/project/edmund-s-muskie-graduate-fellowship-program> . Additional information about USD Graduate School is available at www.usd.edu/grad <http://www.usd.edu/grad> . | <urn:uuid:f35e2452-1d54-4e7f-8827-21f38f476c3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plaintalk.net/2012/08/usd-graduate-school-awards-muskie-fellowships-to-two-students/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935241 | 517 | 1.554688 | 2 |
hello, sorry to bother you again, ive heard sth about Unicode standard thats been being implemented in C++ standard !
so ive seen console applications that uses other languages other than English for representing data !
how is it possible ? is there any kind of class or header file that eases the use of such works in console projects ? or i should myself do sth about it !
if i am the one who has to do sth , what are those thing i should do to be able to use custom language in an app ! | <urn:uuid:b89359db-0236-4335-9992-f00a91d958d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cboard.cprogramming.com/cplusplus-programming/107908-how-possible-write-read-language-other-than-english-console-app.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934585 | 111 | 2.28125 | 2 |
The lines that appear between your brows (glabellar lines) actually result from muscle movement and the passage of time. If you become angry or annoyed, you knit your brows together. Underneath your skin, your facial muscles contract, cause a pleating of the overlying skin, and then, as anyone can see, you're frowning.
After years of crinkling and wrinkling, those glabellar lines start to linger longer and can become more pronounced. For women, whose faces tend to be more animated than men's, and whose skin is typically more delicate, these lines may appear exaggerated and more permanent.
The cosmetic form of botulinum toxin, often referred to by its product name Botox®, is a popular non-surgical injection that temporarily reduces or eliminates frown lines, forehead creases, and crows feet near the eyes. The toxin blocks the nerve impulses, temporarily paralyzing the muscles that cause wrinkles while giving the skin a smoother, more refreshed appearance. Studies have also suggested that Botox is effective in relieving migraine headaches, excessive sweating and muscle spasms in the neck and eyes.
Botox injection is the number one cosmetic procedure in the United States, with 3.8 million treatments performed in 2005. Botox was introduced in the late 1980s by ophthalmologists for treating optic muscle disorders. It was approved by the FDA for cosmetic use in 2002, helping millions of patients get rid of nagging facial lines and wrinkles.
Today, the variety of Botox uses includes ocular muscle spasms, problems with eye coordination, severe armpit perspiration, and as an anti-wrinkle treatment for crow's feet, frown lines, and to eliminate furrows in the forehead.
Botox injection is performed in the office, usually without anesthesia. However, some patients opt for a prescription for a numbing cream that can be applied to the treatment area before their appointment. Generally, patients return home shortly after the treatment is complete. You can expect to be in and out of the physician’s office without downtime, and can resume normal activities immediately.
You may see a marked improvement in the moderate to severe frown lines within days. Improvement may continue for as long as a month, and could last up to 4 months. | <urn:uuid:3c8206fa-8859-4a35-a1d9-3b454a7b0394> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.concannon.info/face/botox-info.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 | 0.95621 | 465 | 1.851563 | 2 |
A special reception in honor of the 4th of July, the day the US marks its independence, was held at the residence of US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro
on Tuesday. President Shimon Peres
attended the event and congratulated the US on its 236th anniversary.
Peres opened his speech by thanking US President Barack Obama for the Medal of Freedom.
"Beyond my own personal gratefulness for the decision of President Obama to award me this medal I felt a profound sense of national pride. It was in my eyes a moving gesture of a great leader and a great friend of Israel."
Addressing the Iranian issue, Peres said that the leadership in Tehran was the "greatest threat to world peace." He added, "I am convinced that President Obama will stand on this issue strong as a lion.
"President Obama has assembled a coalition to lead the international campaign of sanctions and diplomatic understanding to call upon the Iranian regime to change its course. He prefers to achieve an end to the issue peacefully but he has made it clear that all options remain on the table."
|Netanyahu's video message|
Unable to attend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
sent a video message in which he apologized for his absence explaining that he had hurt his leg playing soccer. He thanked Ambassador Shapiro for the "wonderful job" he is doing in Israel and also expressed his appreciation of President Obama.
"As the leader of one of the world's most vibrant democracies, I appreciate all the great sacrifices that America has made in order to advance liberty and democracy throughout the world."
|Reception at ambassador's residence|
Netanyahu also addressed the Arab Spring. "The Middle East is undergoing a profound transformation. To be a real democracy it's not enough to have a government that represents the majority of the people.
"It's not about holding popular elections, but about what happens between elections. It means ensuring that no one is above the law. It means upholding the rights of women, minorities, gays, children, everybody. Will this happen? There is ample reasons for skepticism."
Speaking earlier, Ambassador Shapiro wished Netanyahu a quick recovery and sent his condolences to the family of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Shapiro noted that there is no other nation the US feels closer to than Israel and said the US will not stop until it achieves its goal of preventing Iran from becoming nuclear. | <urn:uuid:810c21d7-5c9f-4fab-bc09-bfab032da2cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4250907,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971122 | 487 | 1.546875 | 2 |
DUBUQUE SOCIALER TURNVEREIN
The European founder of the Society was Frederick Ludwig Jahn. Beginning in 1810 Jahn advocated bringing youth together for gymnastic practice and patriotic indoctrination. His motto was, Mens sana in Corpore sano, meaning "a sound mind in a sound body." Prussian government officials liked his plan and established a Turnverein school at Berlin in 1811. Prussian military units adopted his calisthenics. Each regiment had its equipment. In its effort to expand the intellect, the Turnverein became champions of public education that they supported to the point of enforcing attendance by penalty. The Society came to New York in 1848.
The Dubuque Turnverin, or "Dubuque Social Society", first met in the upper story of a brick building at the southwest corner of Sixth and Iowa STREETS. The Society experienced great growth in 1865 and 1866 when the membership reached seventy. Such membership growth led, in 1873, to the Society purchasing a site at the southeast corner of Ninth and Iowa Streets. A building once occupied by a carriage factory was remodeled and equipped with a dance hall, stage, and gymnasium. This became the well-known Turner Hall in which many fine German theatrical companies and stock companies performed and popular musicals and social activities were held.
Joseph A. RHOMBERG presented the Society with a fine library in 1867 and was made an honorary member. A Dubuque resident given honorary membership for his efforts in promoting the welfare of the Society was Christian WULLWEBER, once the United States minister to Quito, Ecuador.
Membership in the Society sank to twenty between 1880 and 1883. The enrollment of many young members in the fall of 1884 ensured the continuation of the organization.
In 1889, with only five hundred dollars to pay on the $13,000 used for remodeling, the Society realized their frame building was no longer adequate. A fair and bazaar, from which a ladies auxiliary formed with the name of "Harmonie Damen Verein," raised money to payoff the remaining debt and begin construction of a brick structure. The building committee was headed by Arbst F. FRUDDEN. The cornerstone of the new building was laid on August 17, 1890, before a crowd estimated at 1,500.
On Apri1 22, 1897, Turner Hall witnessed a banquet and ball celebrating the reorganization of the Society. With Arbst F. Frudden as president; Charles Sass, vice-president; P. Sahm, secretary; and John Pier, treasurer, the organization was renamed the Germania Society. | <urn:uuid:d7652e71-488b-4ce0-a9af-f23842470c50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.encyclopediadubuque.org/index.php?title=DUBUQUE_SOCIALER_TURNVEREIN | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963186 | 550 | 2.34375 | 2 |
The FAA published two airworthiness directives this week that affect the Piper general aviation fleet. A final rule published on Monday affects 3,100 Piper Comanches (models PA-24, PA-24-250, and PA-24-260), requiring inspections of the stabilator horn assembly, at a cost of about $1,000 per airplane. If the assembly needs to be replaced, it would cost another $1,600. Failure of the stabilator horn could lead to a loss of pitch control in flight, the FAA said. A proposed rule published on Tuesday affects about 1,000 Piper twins, models PA-31, PA-31-325, and PA-31-350. The rule would supersede an existing AD that requires repetitive inspections of the exhaust system.
"Since we issued that AD, forced landings of aircraft have occurred due to exhaust system failures upstream of aircraft turbochargers and between recurring detailed inspections," the FAA said. "This proposed AD would require both visual and detailed repetitive inspections, expanding the inspection scope to include the entirety of each airplane exhaust system. We are proposing this AD to prevent the possibility of an inflight powerplant fire due to an exhaust system failure." Inspections would cost up to about $400, and the FAA says it can't predict what it might cost to repair or replace the exhaust system, if needed. The proposed rule is open for comments until Nov. 2. | <urn:uuid:1481682a-c6aa-4c28-a1cb-d5074ce3fb28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/FAADirectivesAffectPiperFleet_207363-1.html?type=pf | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950267 | 288 | 1.601563 | 2 |
This article can also be found in the Premium Editorial Download "Storage magazine: Low-cost storage pieces fall into place."
Download it now to read this article plus other related content.
It's dÉjÀ vu all over again--but this time the cooperative union is with security. In the next few years, security requirements will be coming down the proverbial IT tracks and the storage team needs to jump on the train--quickly.
What's driving this new partnership between the storage and security groups? Read the news any day: Internet connectivity, broadband in the home, e-business applications, Web services, wireless connectivity, global terrorism--you name the technology or geopolitical trend and there's a security risk with it. These vulnerabilities are getting an increasing amount of attention in the boardroom and IT budget. According to IDC, Framingham, MA, corporate security spending will explode from $17 billion in 2001 to a whopping $45 billion in 2006.
Here's an overlap between storage and security. Security professionals often use the acronym CIA (confidentiality, integrity and availability)
Furthermore, storage and security professionals have leading roles in the planning of disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) and this relationship is likely to strengthen in the future. Why? CSOs tend to own DR and BC planning, but according to leading IT placement service provider, Robert Half, only 15% to 20% of enterprise companies have CSOs today. As more large firms hire CSOs, the storage staff will be integrated into security.
Finally, storage and security have intertwined due to the notorious insecurity of today's SAN technologies. Based on just a cursory look, any security expert will point out that SANs weren't developed with security in mind. Zoning, LUN masking and world-wide names provide a few rudimentary protection mechanisms, but today's SANs offer little in the way of authentication and data encryption. SAN management tools lack basic SSL/SSH protection, strong password management or secure versions of SNMP. New tools from Decru, Kasten Chase, Neoscale and Vormetric are available to fill these security voids while the industry consortium, the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA), is working on a secure version of FC, called FC-SP. At the very least, storage professionals must pay attention to these storage security vulnerabilities and trends.
As security gets more executive attention and dollars, the storage team must be part of the solution, not the problem. Storage executives should police all functional storage activities immediately. Begin this exercise with a security audit, encompassing storage equipment, physical security, policies and procedures and staff skills.
Auditing storage equipment
IT equipment is often implemented with a minimal security concern, resulting in security holes you could drive a truck through. While it's beyond the scope of this article to outline all of the necessary remediation steps, some common things to look for include:
- Misconfigured switches: Mistakes with switch configuration and ACLs give hackers access to the entire SAN fabric. As you're searching for these types of errors, you may also discover LUNs and zones you weren't even aware of. Correct this vulnerability with vendor-approved configurations that meet your requirements. All configuration changes must be documented through a formal change management process. This helps reduce the risk of unknown LUNs and zones in the future.
- Default server configurations: In their haste to get systems up and running, system admins often keep default configurations intact, leaving the system open to anyone with basic Unix or Windows skills. If these systems are connected to the network, hackers can access them through Telnet or by perusing FTP directory structures. Visit every backup and storage management server to see if your IT shop has this problem.
- Software patches: When your focus is on storage infrastructure and operations, it's easy to forget about patching servers. It's important to scan systems on a periodic basis to get a full picture of vulnerabilities. Many security service providers will gladly lend you a hand. Be sure to add security requirements to vendors and equipment evaluation criteria moving forward.
This was first published in October 2003 | <urn:uuid:114fdf18-5538-4cd9-b8a9-f62fea8dc382> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/magazineContent/Storage-and-security-groups-working-together | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934787 | 844 | 1.578125 | 2 |
John Robison to Appear on ‘Ingenius Minds’
Ingenious Minds enters the lives of savants: individuals who possess an extraordinary ability in areas such as art, music and mathematics, while also suffering from intellectual and developmental disabilities.
John Robison never had a high school degree, but he worked as a highly skilled mechanical engineer designing sound equipment, special effects, cutting-edge toys, nuclear test apparatus, and medical lasers.
John is a savant with Asperger’s Syndrome, which has given him a preternatural understanding of mechanics, but has made his social and work life exceptionally challenging. For more information about this episode, visit here. | <urn:uuid:1c3b825b-4299-4f4f-bb55-7f014d055c24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2011/02/18/john-robison-ingenius-minds/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=671450efa2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968794 | 142 | 1.679688 | 2 |
A few states have implemented standards and laws that allow for the installation and use on residential on-site greywater systems. The definition of greywater may differ from state to state, but greywater is usually defined as "untreated used household water that does not contain human wastes".
Source: Graywater - An Option For Household Water Reuse
Examples of greywater include: wash or rinse water from a sink, shower, bathtub, or other household fixture, excluding a toilet. Some definitions of greywater exclude wastewater from sinks, dishwashers, or clothes washers because this water may have come into contact with human wastes such as a soiled diaper.
In areas where greywater systems are permitted, water that does not contain human wastes or pose a health hazard may be reused for toilet flushing and outdoor irrigation of non-food plants.
Greywater and dual plumbing systems, where permitted, are an option for reducing water use. Check the local regulations in your area before designing a greywater reuse system. Also be aware that as efficiency improves in indoor fixtures and appliances there will be less water available for greywater reuse. Greywater systems can be cost effective in homes with large indoor water demands, but may be of little benefit for most single-family homeowners.
Greywater systems generally consist of a three-way diverter valve, a treatment assembly such as a sand filter, a holding tank, a bilge pump, and an irrigation or leaching system. The holding tank cools the water and temporarily holds it back from the drain hose. Systems can either be custom designed and built, or purchased as a package. Techniques include recessed or raised planter soil boxes, water injection without erosion, gravity or pressure leach chamber, and irrigated greenhouses. Some system components can retrofit existing irrigation systems.
One of the toughest challenges in designing the greywater system is laying out the irrigation system and determining the size of the area to be irrigated. The homeowner or designer must decide which plants can be irrigated with greywater. The soil type, the volume of greywater produced, and the summer water requirements of the plants determine the irrigated area.
If greywater systems are permitted in your region, contact a professional plumber or manufacturer for information on installation. Because conventional wastewater plumbing lines combine black and graywater, separating the two generally involves a parallel wastewater system. Space must be available for larger components such as a holding tank or some filters, which can be located in a basement, shed, or possibly outside.
Important considerations for greywater
- Your residence must lie outside of the active flood plain.
- The greywater must originate from your residence.
- Depending upon local regulations, your greywater may only be used for landscape irrigation at your residence.
- Your greywater must never be allowed to leave your property.
- Your greywater system needs to have a way to discharge to the septic or sewer system in the event of plugging or any other problem with your graywater quality or the system itself.
- Piping should be PVC or ABS.
- Make sure your greywater storage has a secure cover for safety and mosquito control.
- If above ground, be sure your greywater storage is childproof.
Sources: Vickers, Amy. 2001. Handbook of Water Use and Conservation. Water Plow Press, Amherst, Massachusetts. | <urn:uuid:d44fd0d6-96b8-4c15-8dba-957fca377448> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.h2ouse.org/tour/details/element_action_contents.cfm?elementID=1B58D8BA-8AED-46AC-B9B5D9681A846D1F&actionID=8A8D594B-878E-4CDE-9EFD37E624BE0EE6&roomID=6EE015A7-8307-437E-A5EA9516E115392E | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911314 | 691 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Online News – An excellent Method to obtain Current News
Details has become a requirement for present everyday dwelling. We have accustomed to getting information from different quantity of resources like tv, radio, web and much more. But, among the very best techniques to obtain regarding the present components on the topics, which can be occurring throughout the world is on-line. Using the development such an amazing engineering, we’re capable to get full particulars within a really quick time. Now, through on the internet information the audiences can update on their own in regards to the latest occurrences around the world.
Nearly all of the very best information channels their very own websites that facilitate the individuals to obtain related with them at any time without difficulties. This web primarily based web sites offer details of every single day occurrences which are occurring around the globe. It’s easy to entry these web sites with just a 1 mouse simply click. Several from the last web sites offers 24 hrs support to people. Customers could get informed concerning the numerous topics like enterprise, politics, entertainment and far more.
Among the principal benefits of this type of advanced facility would be that the individuals can find on their own anytime and anyplace. It’s also the good support for those people, who do not have a lot of time and energy to look at television or tuning in to the radio. Nonetheless, regular clients in the world wide web can make it simpler as they possibly can access the net sites any time within their home, workplace or elsewhere. You will discover large amounts of news web sites are created easily obtainable for that customers they will see through on-line.
Based on the choices and interests, audiences can certainly view their most preferred sections. On the internet news is broadcast following each and every few of minutes or hours. Viewing this information via online won’t conserve them in the folks but in addition existing them in regards to the most recent occasions.
Finance occurs to become an extremely hectic and lucrative sector which controls the economic climate around the planet. The finance sector has even though been pretty rewarding business however it not everyone’s bag. If a person has appropriate comprehending or advice then only one is able of achievement but with no correct knowing monetary sector is very difficult. 1 must adhere to economic information religiously to possess a look at obtainable around the industry issue. It’s best to assemble just like a lot depth concerning the marketplace situation to ensure that it is feasible to think about buying and selling money within the appropriate time and also the correct location. Economic information is exactly what assists a great deal such circumstances. Monetary information plays a really important function in creating traders comprehend the market.
Economic news is helpful tips for helping traders to raise their returns generating success. Getting and offering market isn’t often easy. It is feasible to produce a good earnings by getting and selling. People have misplaced countless funds also. This occurs when you will find a minimal understanding concerning the getting and offering industry and incorrect conjecture relating to stock price actions. The difficulty with monetary getting and promoting market is that traders must be appropriate above 70% of times to earn cash constantly that is really a struggle. Even though you are going to find attempted and examined the formula for that marketplace but could in can catastrophe you.
Don’t forget to check out for finance today itself. | <urn:uuid:1ba26e61-5c2e-4300-b832-70fa6f4625e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bishoprosary.org/?p=245701 | 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 | 0.961466 | 679 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Children, especially teens, love to use chat rooms. They can be great places to meet other kids from across the country and around the world. However, chat rooms can also be dangerous places.
Your children need to be aware that people in chat rooms are strangers, and may not be honest or always share their true identities. Children can also be targeted in chat rooms by bullies and become victims of hate speech. Another serious concern is that kids can innocently reveal private information about family and friends that could lead to fraud or other crimes.
What Are the Risks?
The anonymity of the Internet makes it hazardous for unsupervised kids. A lonely child can be seduced by a sympathetic stranger who is willing to listen to them and their problems, and wants to develop a friendship. Someone could strike up a chat with the child by pretending to be another kid who shares the same interests. This stranger could really be a pedophile luring the child into a meeting that can lead to sexual assault.
Even sharing small, seemingly harmless bits of personal information online can lead to devastating results. The predator could track down the child, for example, based simply on first name, gender, and school sports team.
Many online games allow for voice as well as text chatting between sessions. Kids should exercise the same precautions when using gaming chats, and should be cautious of overly eager new “friends” who pressure them for their mobile phone number, their address, or a face-to-face meeting.
Children should also protect the privacy of their friends and other family members, and should cut off chats with people fishing for information. Fortunately, you can implement responsible safeguards to help ensure that your children will have safe, educational, and entertaining online experiences.
Top 10 Tips for Keeping Children Safe in Cyberspace
These ten tips will help you and your kids make the right decisions.
- Position the computer in your main living space and make sure the monitor faces outward into the room so there is no secrecy. Be suspicious if your child quickly changes the screen when you pass by, or is hiding files or disks—someone may have sent them pornography or questionable content.
- Work as a team to set boundaries. Discuss with your child exactly what is OK and what is not OK regarding what kind of web sites are appropriate for them, which chat rooms to visit, and what kinds of things they can talk about there. Only let your kids use monitored chat rooms. Avoid “.alt” chat rooms—they focus on alternative topics that may be inappropriate for kids. Get to know your child’s online friends as you do their school and neighborhood friends. Learn to surf the web and chat online yourself so you understand what it is that your child is doing.
- Stress to your child that they need to tell you if they receive any odd or upsetting messages while chatting, and that you will not be angry with them or ban the Internet as a result. Make it clear to the child that you understand that they cannot control what other people say to them and that they are not to blame if this happens.
- Set strict time limits for Internet use and enforce them. Software is available that enforces these limits. Ban late-night use. Do not permit your child to be left alone in cyberspace for long periods of time—this is when they are most vulnerable.
- Make it clear to your child that people in chat rooms are always strangers, no matter how often they chat with them, and no matter how well they think they know them. They should be told that people can lie about who they are, and their new friend may be a 40-year-old man instead of a 13-year-old girl.
- Make sure your child understands that they are never to reveal personally-identifiable information such as their real name, gender, age, school, phone number, or where they live. Have them use a chat pseudonym that is non-provocative and doesn’t hint at who they really are. They must also guard other people’s personal information, such as friends’ names and phone numbers.
- Don’t let your kids open attachments to email messages from friends or file-sharing services without you being there to approve and scan the content for viruses. Predators can send pornography or other questionable material.
- Install up-to-date security software on your PC. The McAfee® Internet Security offers trusted eight-in-one protection from identity thieves, spammers, and predators, ensuring a worry-free experience for you and your kids. It filters offensive content and pictures that a predator may send, and blocks inappropriate web sites. The integrated Parental Controls also restricts sending of personal information without your knowledge so that you can keep your children safe. Also, check out online child safety monitoring software like IMSafer. For the most complete way to keep your children safe online, use McAfee Family Protection. It keeps children of all ages safe from exposure to inappropriate content, social networking risks, strangers, and other online threats. With McAfee, kids are free to safely explore, learn, and enjoy their online interests.
- Make sure your child knows how important it is that they not meet online friends face to face without your knowledge. Determine the person’s true identity before permitting any meeting. Make sure any such meeting happens in a public place, and accompany them.
- Learn how to save chat session logs, how to block users, and how to report problems. You can save sessions by copying and pasting the message text into a word processing program. Most chat programs allow you to block a user by right-clicking on their name in your contact list and choosing the “Block” or “Ignore” feature. If your child has a problem with another chatter, send the copied log to the chat room moderator or administrator. You can find the contact information in the help or reporting section of the program. | <urn:uuid:5d710f23-46bf-404a-9f15-cd6ddbe2ef13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://home.mcafee.com/advicecenter/?id=ad_fis_htkcsiocr | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942011 | 1,219 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Geology professor drills into earth-shaking questions
Jan. 30, 2008
Two months aboard an ocean-going ship might sound like a luxurious vacation.
The Japanese drilling vessel Chikyu is equipped with advanced drilling technology capable of drilling boreholes into the ocean floor several miles deep. UW–Madison geologist Harold Tobin co-led an expedition to study deep oceanic earthquake faults and the geophysical processes that cause earthquakes and tsunamis off the coast of Japan.
Photo: courtesy JAMSTEC/IODP
With 16-hour workdays amid the clamorous hubbub of an industrial drilling rig, however, Harold Tobin’s recent voyage was far from relaxing. Tobin, an associate professor in the geology department, sailed last fall into the western Pacific in a quest to peer into the heart of one of the most active earthquake zones on the planet.
As co-chief scientist of an ambitious multiyear project in the Nankai Trough, an earthquake zone off the southern Japanese coast with a history of powerful temblors, he is working to unearth the geophysics of the deep-sea subduction zone faults responsible for some of the world’s most devastating earthquakes and tsunamis.
“The fundamental goal is to sample and monitor this major earthquake-generating zone in order to understand the basic mechanics of faulting,” Tobin says.
Accessing these faults to study them, however, is not a simple proposition. Subduction zone faults extend miles below the seafloor and the active earthquake-producing regions — the seismogenic zones — are buried deep in the Earth’s crust.
Sections of drill pipes are stacked on board the Chikyu in preparation for drilling deep boreholes into an active earthquake fault zone off the coast of Japan.
Despite intense interest in understanding how these faults work and what conditions may lead to quakes, their remoteness and inaccessibility have made direct scientific study virtually impossible, Tobin says.
He now has the opportunity to reach into the faults at last with the new Japanese drilling vessel Chikyu and the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE), an international collaboration overseen by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program.
The Chikyu — “Earth” in Japanese — is equipped with the cutting-edge technology used to drill offshore oil and gas and is capable of drilling holes up to five miles into the seafloor.
“No one’s been able to make observations inside an active fault like this,” Tobin says. “The drilling is unique because it allows us access to where the earthquakes actually happen.”
Ultimately this project could yield an early warning system for earthquakes, but Tobin says they must first consider a more basic question: whether these earthquakes are even inherently predictable. Right now, “we don’t even understand the physics well enough to know the answer to that question,” he says.
Recipe for an earthquake
The strongest quakes on Earth — known as megathrust earthquakes — originate in subduction zones, areas where two of the massive plates that make up the Earth’s surface meet and slide across one another.
Subduction zone faults angle downward into the Earth as the lighter of the two plates rides upward and the heavier dives deep into the Earth’s mantle, where it will melt and cycle back to the surface as magma.
The two plates that meet in the Nankai Trough zip along in geological terms, advancing a few inches each year on average, Tobin says — about the rate your fingernails grow. At the boundary, however, tremendous friction between the plates locks them together. Pressure from the plate movements mounts until the system reaches a breaking point.
“Ultimately the strain builds up too much, and boom! It pops and slips forward,” Tobin explains. That accumulated energy can drive the upper plate forward 20, 40 or even 70 feet, he says, creating powerful seismic waves that make the crust shake and can produce a tsunami.
But many questions remain unanswered. What determines where the stress builds and where it dissipates harmlessly? What triggers a catastrophic release? Are there telltale signs of an impending slip?
“We’re collecting data in a very remote location,” Tobin says. “The ocean is harder to explore than space, in some ways … Even the basic topography of the sea bed is less well known than the surface of Mars.”
Out to sea
The NanTroSEIZE team embarked on the inaugural eight-week expedition with high hopes but many questions.
“Since we were the first operation on the ship, we went to sea not really knowing how it was all going to work,” says Tobin. “Of course there was an elaborate plan, but like all plans that you make before you’ve actually done something, they weren’t always germane to the situation at hand.”
For the first two weeks, the on-board scientists watched the drilling process with bated breath. “Were we going to have any success at all? Were we going to go home with our tails between our legs?” Tobin remembers wondering. “When we had actually drilled the first site … got some data out of it and things worked, we could all exhale.”
Drilling engineers work with a section of the powerful drill that is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and is capable of drilling boreholes into the ocean floor several miles deep.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, as the technical demands of the project presented many challenges for the ship’s operators. The third week at sea brought problems with the ship’s dynamic positioning system, a GPS-based tool that can keep the nearly 700-foot-long ship locked within six feet of the same spot for days at a time — a critical ability when the ship is tenuously connected to the sea floor, several thousand feet below, by only the drill pipe.
Later, the team suffered a setback when the drill bit got stuck. The crew tried to retrieve it as the days ticked by with no progress. Amid their attempts to free it, the hole began to collapse and trapped the lower sections of pipe — including a section full of valuable data-logging instruments.
The loss of the instruments, though substantial, was not felt as keenly as the lost days slipping away. On a ship that costs roughly $200,000 each day to operate, Tobin says, “every minute of rig time counts.”
Tensions ran high as the scientists waited to find out if the expedition would continue. “We’re doing science that’s dependent on all this high-tech and heavy machinery working,” Tobin says. “When it doesn’t and it’s out of your hands, it’s frustrating.”
At last the problems were resolved and the crew ultimately successfully drilled four boreholes into the ocean floor near the fault zone, each thousands of feet deep.
“By the time we reached the end of the expedition and we really felt like we had accomplished something, it was fantastic,” he smiles.
Working in a bubble
The scientists did not have to wait until expedition’s end to take a crack at the first data, however.
With monitoring instruments embedded within the drill pipe, the team collected geophysical information about the rock layers while drilling through them, a process called logging-while-drilling.
The first data arrive at the ship nearly real-time, transmitted from the sea floor via “a totally cool technology called a ‘mud pulser’ which sends data bits up as little pressure waves in the column of water and mud that’s in the drill pipe,” Tobin explains. “There’s no way to run a wire up. It’s basically a modem that runs on mud.”
Other data are retrieved once the borehole is completed and the scientific team can begin initial analyses right on board.
The 19 scientists hailed from seven different countries, lending the work a multicultural flavor, while the focused work and close quarters created intense working conditions. Add the remote location and it’s a bit like working in a bubble, Tobin says. “The rest of the world starts to recede from your mind after awhile.”
As one of two chief scientists of the NanTroSEIZE project, Tobin was responsible for overseeing all the scientific teams on board and coordinating with the ship and drill crews.
The scientists make up a minority of the Chikyu’s 150-person capacity, while nearly 90 percent are dedicated to operating the ship, cooking, cleaning and running the drill round the clock. “A ship like this is just about as busy at 3 a.m. as it is at 3 p.m.,” Tobin says.
Typhoons and helicopters
Amid the trappings of a relatively normal lifestyle — work, eat, sleep, repeat — occasional events reminded the sea-faring party that they were not working in any ordinary research facility.
The weather and environment required constant supervision and adjustments. Drilling could not proceed in high winds or ocean swells, and the approach of a typhoon necessitated a quick rerouting. Meanwhile, the location of the drill sites below the strong Kuroshio current — a Pacific equivalent of the Gulf Stream — taxed the ship’s dynamic positioning system.
Weekly lifeboat drills became part of the routine. With mainland Japan a 40-minute commute by helicopter, the entire crew was required to pass Helicopter Underwater Escape Training.
“They actually put you in a simulator and strap you in and turn you upside down in the water … There’s bubbles everywhere and you’re inhaling water up your nose,” Tobin describes. Though he successfully escaped from the contraption five times, “that was enough to convince me that if I was in a helicopter and it crashed in the ocean, I’d probably die,” he laughs.
Since Tobin returned to shore in mid-November, two more teams of scientists have headed to the Chikyu, still stationed over the Nankai Trough. UW–Madison geophysics graduate student Matt Knuth is aboard the third expedition, now in its final days, collecting rock cores to correlate with the drilling data from Tobin’s group.
Future NanTroSEIZE expeditions will collect more cores and extend the boreholes into the heart of the active fault zone, some more than three miles deep. Ultimately sensors will be installed in the boreholes to monitor physical stresses, movement, temperature and pressure.
From these instruments, rock samples and drilling data, the scientists hope to gain a full picture of the geophysical forces and changes leading up to fault movements and earthquakes.
“There may come a day … where we are measuring things that lead up to an earthquake and are able to issue an advance warning,” Tobin says. “But we’re a long way from that point.” | <urn:uuid:f1b94d85-8a68-47db-b596-a1df82dc077e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.wisc.edu/14670 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947496 | 2,340 | 3.125 | 3 |
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Votes for Women
The Alabama Equal Suffrage Association (AESA), consisting of members of Selma and Birmingham suffrage organizations, joined
the National American Woman Suffrage Association to lead the fight for white women's right to vote in Alabama. The state legislature
would not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, but in 1920 suffrage was achieved and the AESA was dissolved. | <urn:uuid:36ad5b4f-8edc-4169-a7ee-78f6be282278> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Multimedia.jsp?id=m-2502 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920933 | 84 | 3.5 | 4 |
Statistics for occurrence #1 of “General Berrien” in chapter 1.38, section c.1.38.140, page 329 of Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 25.:
...rough the heart.
General Bartow was one of the bravest and most promising spirits in the South.
He had led the Georgia regiment, which had fought with the 4th Alabama like tigers in the strife.
General Berrien , a brother-in-law of Dr. Semmes; Mr. and Mrs. Semmes, the doctor, General Sam Jones and Staff, all went out to Manassas early in the morning to see the shaft erected.
For some reason or other it wa...
† This entity has been selected by the automated classifier as the most likely match in this context. It may or may not be the correct match. | <urn:uuid:fa5355a9-6abb-4fd1-bc0d-0938ca31735f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/entityvote?doc=Perseus:text:2001.05.0283:chapter=1.38:section=c.1.38.140:page=329&auth=berrien&n=1&type=person | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922623 | 176 | 1.679688 | 2 |
06-18-2007, 11:41 AM
Does anyone know what the status is on the Mt. Cabot trail? We're looking to go up in the fall to knock off Waumbek and Cabot and right now we're planning our routes. Is it still closed or did the landowner back off any?
06-18-2007, 01:55 PM
The latest posting I can see concerning the trail closure is dated January '06 stating "due to landowner dispute the trail is closed". That said, I see trip reports from January this year and October last year at VFTT that say they had no problem using the trail. It is a tricky trail to find in the first place, and there is no signage along the trail until you reach the Bunnell Notch Trail, so it may be difficult to follow if you're not careful. I have climbed it from Bunnell Notch. There is not much to see until the cabin, then making a loop across the The Bulge and The Horn and returning by Unknown Pond Trail. I have also climbed it from Mill Road, crossing The Horn and The Bulge first before hitting Mount Cabot.
The views from Mount Cabot are nice. They are from below the summit at the Forest Service cabin and are mostly to the south and east. There are filtered views from The Bulge but the real gem on this trip is The Horn, where there are fantastic 360 degree views of the Plinys, Crescents, Mahoosucs, Carters, Presidentials and more. The Bulge and The Horn are also on the New Hampshire 100 highest list if you need more reason to go. So, try the Cabot Trail if you want, people are using it, legally or not I'm not sure, but the other trails are well worth the trip.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.0 Copyright © 2013 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:dd4863c0-0882-4754-bdaf-94a31d763d88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mountwashington.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-1211.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958208 | 406 | 1.625 | 2 |
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Counting sheep: Numbers not what they appear
Q. "I see you've got 3 fine sheep in the field there," you say to the farmer. "Actually," he replies, "there might be 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5 or 4, depending." Depending on what? What's this wiseacre thinking? –B. Peep
A. Maybe wise thoughts, as he explains that 1 of the 3 is a lamb, say Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot in The Tiger that Isn't: Seeing Through a World of Numbers. So does a lamb still count as a full sheep, or is it half a sheep? Also, one is a pregnant ewe in advanced labor, he continues. Would that one be 1, 1.5, or 2? (Assuming no multiple sheep births.)
"Therefore, depending on how the units are defined, the sheep total could be any of the numbers I gave initially," says the farmer. Thus, suggest the authors, the farmer did successfully parlay "the laughably simple example of 3 sheep into 5 answers, which is quite a spread, one of them twice the size of another, and counting to 4 just became ridiculous."
Moral: You can count on many things in life to be not quite what they first seem.
Q. It's a central event of every football game, lasting barely 8 milliseconds (.008 second), or a lot less than an eyeblink while involving a ton of force– literally. What is getting bent out of shape here? –A. Vinatieri
A. That's roughly the duration of the collision between the kicker's foot and the ball on a kickoff,
averaging about 450 pounds of force but spiking up for an instant to maybe 2,000 pounds, says Timothy Gay in Football Physics: The Science of the Game. Here, the football– under high-speed stroboscopic photography– can be seen to deform dramatically, squashing in very briefly by several inches. "No wonder a ball so pictured looks a little like it's made of foam rubber!" says Gay.
Q. Can you envision the next space food frontier? –D. McNair
A. The Space Agriculture Task Force is looking toward the day when long-term space travelers "grow" their own food, though not vegetables or grains since these don't supply the needed fats and amino acids, says Wynne Parry in Discover Magazine. Even a small on-board farm would be sufficient to produce a steady stream of edible bugs that rapidly reproduce and efficiently convert materials inedible to humans– mulberry leaves, wood, waste, etc.– into their own body mass.
"So bugs like silkworms, termites, drugstore beetles could help fill in the astronauts' nutritional gaps. Japanese researchers have already made cookies from a commonly domesticated silkworm species," says Parry. Out-of-this-world entomophagy up on the farm.
Q. It's hard to swallow, but a circus performer helped bring about modern medical esophagoscopy? How so? –L. Lovelace
A. Here a viewing device of optical fibers is extended down the patient's throat and into the stomach, says Jearl Walker in The Flying Circus of Physics. The curved tube follows the path from mouth to esophagus, with light projected down and then back to a video camera. The doctor looks for signs of cancer or an ulcer or maybe even illicit packages of smuggled drugs (called "body packing").
As for the circus performer, originally the procedure was performed with a crude straight tube, but this proved too short to reach the stomach. So a pioneering doctor experimented with using a longer one: he called in a sword swallower who was able to tilt his head back, relax certain muscles along the esophagus, and make a fairly straight passage from pharynx to stomach. "When the doctor illuminated the free end of the inserted tube, he saw the stomach's interior, and modern esophagoscopy began."
Q. Never seen a UFO? Are you in the mood for seeing one tonight? –D. Kucinich
A. Try this: In a dark room, stare at the glowing tip of a cigarette in an ashtray a distance from you. Within seconds, it will begin moving around– or seem to– as your eye muscles grow tired from fixating too long on one spot.
"It will appear to wander around erratically, swooping in different directions or oscillating back and forth," says Ronald K. Siegel in Fire in the Brain: Clinical Tales of Hallucination. "With proper suggestions, the light can appear to move several feet. Despite such movements, the light always comes back to its original position."
Now go outdoors and stare a while at a solitary star and watch it begin to move around (the "wandering star illusion"). Or pick out an unidentified colored light far off near the dark horizon. In a suitably suggestible mood, you may soon witness your own UFO "visitation."
Send Strange questions to brothers Bill and Rich at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:b28ae512-9e4a-4458-b155-b0d926316610> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.readthehook.com/81773/strange-true-counting-sheep-numbers-not-what-they-appear?quicktabs_1=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946107 | 1,062 | 2.421875 | 2 |
About Thomasine Younger
The cellar at the southern corner of the locality [of Dogtown], on the brow of a steep rise of ground near Alewife brook, known as Foxhill, was covered by the residence of Lucy George, and later of her niece, Tammy Younger, "the queen of the witches." The latter was probably best known and most feared of her cotemporaries. A writer says that no one ever refused to do anything that she requested. (Gloucester's Deserted Village, Essex Antiquarian, Page 43-44).
From Tammy Younger, the Witch of Dogtown by Heather Rojo, 2010
Thomasine Younger was born in 1753 in Gloucester, Massachusetts to William Younger and Lucy Foster. Gloucester was a major fishing seaport in New England, famous for the Gorton’s frozen fish packing plant and the statue of the fisherman’s memorial. The majority of men in town were sailors or fishermen, the lucky few were ship builders, merchants and sea captains, and the paupers of Gloucester lived in Dogtown.
For some reason, unknown to anyone, Tammy Younger became a resident of Dogtown. Gloucester today is built up around the harbor. However, in the earliest days of its settlement the colonists hid inland and up on a hill, away from pirates and the native tribes. When the conditions became safer, especially after the war of 1812, the townspeople took advantage of moving to the water front and built their town at one of the best deep water harbors in Massachusetts. The abandoned town became home to sailor’s widows, vagabonds and free blacks, who were either too poor or not accepted in town society. When the last of these people died, only abandoned dogs were left, and the area became known as Dogtown.
Some of these last old women in Dogtown were known as witches. They probably didn’t deserve the epithet; they were poor, old and had no family or husband to defend them. Tammy lived on Fox Hill in Dogtown, and she was so poor that she would lie in wait for passing wagons, and “place a curse” on the oxen until the driver gave her food.
- Gloucester's Deserted Village
- “History of Gloucester” by John James Babson and Samuel Chandler, published by the Proctor Brothers, 1860 (a book of “Notes and Additions” was written by Babson in 1876.)
- “In the Heart of Cape Ann; or The Story of Dogtown” by Charles E. Mann, 1896 - This book described the inhabitants of Dogtown, with maps showing the cellar holes
- "The Last Witch of Dogtown" by Francis Blessington, The Curious Traveller Press, 2001.
- “The Last Days of Dogtown” by Anita Diamant, published by Scribner, New York, 2005. A novel based on the history of Dogtown, and the characters are based on the inhabitants named in Mann’s book, including Luce George and Tammy Younger.
- “Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town” by Elyssa East, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2009. | <urn:uuid:fce0b38c-d83e-4181-9e30-511571eccd48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geni.com/people/Tammy-Younger-the-Witch-of-Dogtown/6000000014282981844 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981631 | 679 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Chopper, Scar, and Celtic (all new bloods) landed in Antarctica to prove worthy by completing a Rite of Passage. He, along with Scar and, Celtic killing the human miners, and then proceeded into the Pyramid. They discovered the human exploration team had found and stole the plasma casters that were lost there for centuries in the Pyramid. Seeing this, they planned to ambush the group, unaware that some of the humans had already been harvested. Using their cloaking devices to their advantage, Scar caught a human with an invisible noose and killed another with a combi-stick.
Celtic captured and killed a human, pushing two to the ground in the process. Chopper assaulted Alexa Woods, kicking her across the room as she reached for a weapon to attack Celtic, who was choking Sebastian De Rosa. Before he could deliver a fatal blow to the woman, the Alien nicknamed Grid impales him from behind with its tail. Grid raised chopper to the ledge were he was hiding and they breifly growled at each other. Chopper is killed by Grid with a bite from the alien's powerful inner jaw, and his corpse thrown across the chamber.
- Bio Mask
- Cloaking Device
- Plate Armor
- Ceremonial Dagger
- Wrist Gauntlet
- Net Launcher
- Wrist Blades
- Arm Blades
- Vision Modes
Behind the Scenes
- Chopper's name refers to his side-mounted Arm Blades, which are longer than the wrist blades of his brothers.
- A mask identical to Chopper's was on the wall of Wolf's base in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.
- Chopper was second-in-command in the Pyramid, but the first Predator to die.
- Chopper's Arm Blades are also called Maul(s).
- Chopper has unusual rusty-brown colored armor, whereas almost all Yautja have grayish armor.
- Chopper is the second oldest predator in the pyramid, younger than Celtic and older than Scar.
- Chopper is so far the only Predator to use a pair of mounted Arm Blades.
- He is the first Predator to die in the Hunt.
- Chopper is also referred to as Gill due to the gill-like styles on his mask.
- Chopper is the first Predator to be killed by a Xenomorph on film.
- Even though he wasn't seen that much, its possible he may be respectful like other Predators.
- He seemed to be the only one who took skulls becuase he had to skulls on poles on his back.
- Alien vs. Predator (First Appearance) | <urn:uuid:d3132a7f-66bc-41cf-9987-fdd751957aab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Chopper?oldid=53306 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969366 | 541 | 1.90625 | 2 |
KOLKATA: SSKM Hospital could lose its first MRI machine which is now in the process of installation. After a long wait, the machine had been commissioned three months ago following chief minister Mamata Banerjee's intervention.
But the most expensive diagnostic equipment to be installed at the hospital so far could remain non-functional, courtesy a bureaucratic glitch. While parts of the Rs 9.5-crore instrument have already been set up, there is yet no power connection to run the MRI.
Shockingly, no arrangement has either been made to refrigerate the helium which is needed to run the machine. It will arrive in Kolkata on September 26 and could be spoilt unless stored at a temperature of 1 Kelvin or - 273 degrees centigrade.
The MRI, being installed by GE Healthcare, was commissioned soon after chief minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to the Bangur Institute of Neurology (BIN) last May. Irked at the fact that the lone MRI at BIN was shared by SSKM, Mamata had sought an explanation from the then director S P Gorai. Gorai was suspended later that evening.
At least three weeks is needed to arrange for the electricity, according to PWD which has been entrusted with the job. So far as storing the helium is concerned, none had any idea how it was going to be done in less than five days.
The typical volume of liquid helium in an MRI magnet is 1,700 litres. It helps to keep the magnet cool and retain its pull. In early magnet designs, it would be surrounded by liquid nitrogen (77.4K) which acted as a thermal buffer between the room temperature and the liquid helium.
In later magnet designs, the liquid nitrogen region was replaced by a chamber cooled by a cryocooler or refrigerator. The latest MRI machines have a refrigerator outside the magnet with cooling lines going to a coldhead in the liquid helium. This design eliminates the need to add liquid nitrogen to the magnet, and increases the liquid helium hold time to 3 to 4 years. The one being installed at SSKM is a 3 Tesla MRI, the latest version.
"Without the refrigeration facility, you can neither operate the MRI nor keep it functional. In fact, the helium would warm up, solidify and get spoilt the moment it is exposed to heat. That would mean spending at least Rs 20-25 lakh just to get it repaired," said a senior SSKM doctor.
Soon after the machine was commissioned, senior health officials including the director of the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, head of radiology, SSKM and representatives of PWD and GE Healthcare met at the health department on August 30. It was decided that the cost of the power connection for the MRI - Rs 8.14 lakh - would be borne by the health department. An application was sent by the PWD to the health department for cables to be laid from a sub-station. The file never moved.
The hospital authorities panicked when the GE officials visited SSKM on September 15 and asked for an electricity connection by September 19. Work to install the primary components of the machine had already commenced. When they approached superintendent Provash Chakraborty, the latter informed them that the file had been placed at the health department's Technical Advisory Committee meeting. "It is up to the department and the PWD now. We have done our bit," Chakraborty said.
Even as the PWD had sought three weeks to lay the cables, work to construct a chamber for the MRI is nearing completion. "We expect electricity to be available by the time the helium arrives. The decks have been cleared and we are keeping fingers crossed," said Pradeep K Saha, member of the SSKM governing body.
Senior doctors, however, pointed out that the chamber doesn't have space for a computer that will be required to operate the machine or even enough room for a doctor to occupy a chair. "Also, we need security arrangements for the machine. You can't allow just about anybody to walk into an MRI chamber. It could be risky for patients and visitors," said a doctor. | <urn:uuid:363148da-79ff-4659-8679-48e96c1a5465> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-21/kolkata/30183685_1_mri-machine-tesla-mri-helium | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973912 | 856 | 1.867188 | 2 |
You’re on a
What would you do?
On Monday afternoon, at a subway stop in Midtown Manhattan, an agitated man shoved a 58-year-old stranger onto the track of an oncoming train. At least one person reacted, lifting his camera to take a picture of the victim, Ki-Suck Han. The photo, which appeared in horrifying tastelessness on the cover of the next day’s New York Post, shows Han trying to climb out moments before the train killed him.
Also striking: There’s not another person in sight.
What would you do?
We don’t know. At least I don’t. I imagine myself wanting to help Ki-Suck Han, and I imagine being afraid to. I imagine wishing for the calm certainty of the right thing, but seeing the train’s urgency and ...
Others seem less unsure. Monday’ death was followed by a quick and inevitable wave of outrage. Some of it was the usual piety of anonymous online commenters, and a lot of it was directed at the photographer and the newspaper editors who published his photo. But in a headline the next day, the New York Times wondered of everyone else: “Were there no heroes?” A USA Today editorial decried: “A dearth of heroes.” Anderson Cooper blamed a society engaged more with its electronic devices than each other.
It’s easy to judge — and it seems we do so more than ever, prodded by entertainment and media that provide us a bottomless supply of both villains and victims to scorn. We’re oh-so-willing to contribute, gleefully feeding the worst in each other by hitting “send” on thoughts that never used to reach our lips, let alone escape out the front doors of our homes.
Smugness, of course, is not a new phenomenon, and media have long been adept at making others’ misery a product for consumption. But it feels as if our flaws are on such constant parade now that we haven’t the inclination to do anything but shake our heads and move on.
So let’s pause on this one. Did you know the subway photographer was actually a freelance journalist on his way to an assignment? R. Umar Assabi said he did the instinctive thing when he saw Han on the tracks — he reached for his camera gear. He also says he couldn’t reach Han in the half-minute or so before he was killed, so he ran toward the train clicking his camera so its flash might alert the driver. Would you be less skeptical of that story if you learned Assabi approached police detectives afterward, offered to share his photos, and went with them to the Post to look at what his camera produced? Those don’t seem to be the actions of a man shamed by his inaction.
As for the rest of the people on the platform? I asked Leonard Terry about them.
Two years ago, on a cold Tuesday in January, Terry had just come back from the gym when he looked out his Ballantyne area apartment window in Charlotte and saw a 9-year-old girl walking on ice toward the middle of the apartment complex pond. The ice had formed from days of freezing temperatures, but it was thin.
Terry opened the door to his balcony. He didn’t see any parents. “I sat down in panic,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t swim.” The girl fell in. He thought about closing his blinds. He thought about dying. Then he thought this: “I’m going to have to live with not doing anything.”
He reached the girl about 30 feet from shore, but as he leaned down and grabbed her, the ice broke and he fell in. He bobbed under the surface three times with the girl on his back before another man, Mark McCullagh, crawled along the ice and pulled them out. Terry and McCullagh were honored in September for their heroism by the Carnegie Foundation.
This week, Terry thought about the subway death and the people who watched it. “I’m not sure,” he says. The train was approaching. There was little time to sort through the chaos in your head. “Everybody gets paralyzed,” he says. “I was paralyzed, too.”
What would you do?
“I don’t know,” he says. Most of us don’t. Maybe the best we can do is celebrate the ones who somehow find the right answer.
Peter St. Onge is a columnist for the Charlotte Obserer. | <urn:uuid:cb96eb07-9f21-4253-a640-a816848b6e86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetimesnews.com/opinion/opinion-columns/what-would-anyone-do-1.62522 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977114 | 980 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Community Learning and Skills Development delivers a wide range of learning opportunities that can help you to develop new skills, gain confidence, adapt to changes in your life and, in many cases, achieve a recognised qualification.
Free and impartial advice and learning opportunities are offered by various providers in subjects such as Skills for Life (English, Maths and IT), Preparation for Work, Health and Wellbeing, , English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Family Learning and Community Engagement.
Suffolk County Council’s strategic partner for learning, careers advice and skills development is Realise Futures. They can support and advise people wishing to gain or return to work or training, particularly those with a disability or disadvantage, through the provision of skills development, advice, information, learning, guidance and employment in social businesses.
To find out about their wide range of daytime and evening courses see the Community Learning and Skills Development website or call 0845 6037 197.
If you are considering returning to work, updating your skills, improving your work prospects or changing career direction, the National Careers Service can help. They provide free and impartial information, advice and guidance to adults aged 19 years and above (18 if a Jobcentre Plus customer) about a wide range of learning and employment opportunities.
To book an appointment, please call 0845 6031059
If you would like to discuss you options, please contact a Careers Adviser (PDF, 124Kb)
Suffolk County Council's Community Learning and National Careers Service programmes are supported by ESF funding.
Leap provides access to free and impartial, high quality information, advice and guidance through a network of Leap Centres and Leap Points based in Libraries, Children’s Centres and other locations across Suffolk. Leap also works with businesses wanting to improve the skills of their workforce.
Leap services include providing courses, help with CV writing, job searches and applying, interview and presentation skills
To find out more visit the Leap website
Further information on local courses
To find out about the wide range of academic, vocational and leisure courses on offer through the university, colleges, schools and other venues in Suffolk see also the learning page on MyLife | <urn:uuid:75707dc4-c20b-4015-99bf-c3ba88d50dca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/education-and-careers/adult-education-and-careers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924713 | 453 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Youth Culture Window
Christmas is coming. Do you give kids what they want or what they need? While they “want” Call of Duty: Black Ops, they might “need” new socks.
But the thing kids need the most can’t be wrapped and put under a tree.
Failure to Connect
What kids need most are meaningful relationships…and those kinds of relationships come in a (very) limited quantity.
According to a study released by The Search Institute, 81% of 15-year-olds lack “meaningful relationships” with adults outside their family (like teachers, coaches, mentors, etc). If that’s not bad enough, the disconnect kids feel is interfering with their social, emotional, and even professional development.
The study focused on three interesting points of teens’ lives: “spark” (passions/interests), “voice” (confidence/skills), and “relationships” (access to high-quality resources). The bottom line for all three revealed a gap between “support needed” by teens and “support received” by teens.
The survey of 1,850 15-year-olds was actually sponsored by Best Buy, the electronics retail giant. It appears as though all the gadgets on sale at Best Buy this Christmas season promising “better communication” can’t do the trick.
Kids need real relationships with adults; the occasional phone call or text message just doesn’t do the trick. Jonathan McKee speaks to this in his book, Connect, Real Relationships in a World of Isolation. "Even though teens might be more comfortable with us connecting with them through cell phones and computers, I see these digital mediums only as stepping-stones for youth workers to engage in face-to-face communication. In relational ministry, technology should be used as a tool, not a crutch."
That’s a lesson parents need to learn…quickly.
Many parents – some purposefully, and some unintentionally – are changing their communication style with their kids; instead of a personal, face-to-face connection, tech-based tools are being used more often.
For instance, the average teenager sends and receives a whopping 3,339 text messages each month. (Boys send/receive 2,539 texts each month, while girls up the average with their 4,050 text messages sent/received.)
You might be thinking, “Wait a second! Kids and parents don’t text each other.”
According to a study by cellular provider AT&T, 73% of parents think teens are more responsive to text messages than any other form of communication, and 56% of parents say texting makes their children easier to reach. In fact, 66% of teens say their parents send them text messages when they’re in class at school!
But that’s just texting. What about other forms of communication? Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have permanently altered parent/teen communication…but some of those alterations aren’t healthy.
According to research released by Truste, an internet security firm, 85% of parents monitor their child’s profile at least once a week. That’s a good practice which provides parents with plenty of conversation starters.
40% of the same parents say they “regularly log” into their kids’ accounts – with their kids’ permission. Again, this is a good habit because it lets teenagers know they’re being governed.
But 10% of parents log into their teens’ Facebook accounts secretly.
Teenagers already have very few “meaningful relationships” with adults. There’s no need for parents to take away what few “trustworthy relationships” kids have, as well.
Kinect or Connect?
This Christmas season will provide parents with another opportunity to “farm out” their responsibilities to the likes of video games, toys, 52” HD TVs, cell phones, and all the other gifts most-sought after this year.
But the greatest gift parents can give is not an XBox Kinect; it’s a connection with you.
A report by MTV and the AP that came out three years ago surprised (and excited) many parents: spending time with family makes kids the happiest. Kids’ desire for parents’ time is still strong today, and even echoed in The Search Institute’s latest findings (above).
This year, you don’t have to choose between giving kids what they want or what they need. You can do both by simply giving yourself. I’m not saying put a bow on your head and crawl under the Christmas tree…though that would definitely make for an unforgettable moment Christmas morning. Just make a concerted effort to spend loads of quality time with your kids this holiday season.
You know, I can’t tell you what I got for Christmas when I was 5 or what I got when I was 25. Heck I can’t even remember what I got for Christmas last year! But I do recall that every single Christmas – without exception – was spent with family. And that means the most to me today.
The brand new iPhone 4 will eventually break, and the 3-D TV will be outdated by something even cooler (by next Christmas). But you can be irreplaceable…if you choose to be.
This Christmas, we have the opportunity to make the season about the giver, not just a gift.
David R. Smith
is a 15-year youth ministry veteran who helps youth
workers and parents through his writing, training, and speaking. David specializes in sharing the
gospel, and equipping others do the same. He co-authored his first book this year,
Ministry By Teenagers
. David provides free
resources to anyone who works with teenagers on his website, DavidRSmith.org
David resides with his wife and son in Tampa, Florida.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE
CLICK HERE FOR MORE | <urn:uuid:f1d8e2d9-b8b5-427f-a449-4b05f73e3cef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thesource4parents.com/YouthCultureWindow/article.aspx?ID=165 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954025 | 1,267 | 2.109375 | 2 |
When people are addicted, they have a compulsive need to seek out and use a substance, even when they understand the harm it can cause. Tobacco products—cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and smokeless tobacco—can all be addictive. Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, and most people that do it want to quit. In fact, nearly 35 million people make a serious attempt to quit each year. Unfortunately, most who try to quit on their own relapse—often within a week.
Yes. It is actually the nicotine in tobacco that is addictive. Each cigarette contains about 10 milligrams of nicotine. Because the smoker inhales only some of the smoke from a cigarette, and not all of each puff is absorbed in the lungs, a smoker gets about 1 to 2 milligrams of the drug from each cigarette. Although that may not seem like much, it is enough to make someone addicted.
No. Nicotine is only one of more than 7,000 chemicals, many of which are poisonous, found in the smoke from tobacco products. Smokeless tobacco products also contain many toxins, as well as high levels of nicotine. Many of these other ingredients are things we would never consider putting in our bodies, like tar, carbon monoxide, acetaldehyde, and nitrosamines. Tar causes lung cancer, emphysema, and bronchial diseases. Carbon monoxide causes heart problems, which is one reason why smokers are at high risk for heart disease.
Tobacco can be smoked in cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. It can be chewed or, if powdered, sniffed. “Bidis” are an alternative cigarette. They originally came from India and were hand-rolled. In the United States, bidis were popular with teens because they come in colorful packages with flavor choices. Some teens think that bidis are less harmful than regular cigarettes, but in fact they have more nicotine, which may make people smoke more, giving bidis the potential to be even more harmful than cigarettes. Hookah—or water pipe smoking—practiced for centuries in other countries, has recently become popular among teens in the United States as well. Hookah tobacco comes in many flavors, and the pipe is typically passed around in groups. Although many hookah smokers think it is less harmful than smoking cigarettes, water pipe smoking still delivers the addictive drug nicotine and is at least as toxic as cigarette smoking.
You might hear cigarettes referred to as “smokes,” “cigs,” or “butts.” Smokeless tobacco is often called “chew,” “dip,” “spit tobacco,” “snus,” or “snuff.” People may refer to hookah smoking as “narghile,” “argileh,” “shisha,” “hubble-bubble,” or “goza.”
The good news is that smoking is at historically low levels among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, according to NIDA’s Monitoring the Future study. In 2012, rates for smoking in the past month were reported as 17.1 percent for 12th graders, 10.8 percent for 10th graders, and 4.9 percent for 8th graders.
Use of smokeless tobacco had been showing a decline over the past decade—until 2009, when use began to rise. Since then, it has remained steady. In 2012, current use of smokeless tobacco was reported by 2.8 percent of 8th graders, 6.4 percent of 10th graders, and 7.9 percent of 12th graders. Other ways of smoking tobacco remain at high levels, including smoking tobacco using a hookah and smoking small cigars, which is done by 18.3 percent and 19.9 percent of 12th graders, respectively.
With each puff of a cigarette, a smoker pulls nicotine and other harmful substances into the lungs, where it is absorbed into the blood. It takes just 8 seconds for nicotine to hit the brain. Nicotine is shaped like the natural brain chemical acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is one of many chemicals called neurotransmitters that carry messages between brain cells. Neurons (brain cells) have specialized proteins called receptors, into which specific neurotransmitters can fit, like a key fitting into a lock. Nicotine locks into acetylcholine receptors, rapidly causing changes in the brain and body. For instance, nicotine increases blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration (breathing).
Nicotine also attaches to acetylcholine receptors on neurons that release a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Dopamine is released normally when you experience something pleasurable like good food, your favorite activity, or the company of people you love. But smoking cigarettes causes neurons to release excess dopamine, which is responsible for the feelings of pleasure. However, this effect wears off rapidly, causing people who smoke to get the urge to light up again for another dose of the drug.
Nicotine may be the primary addictive component in tobacco, but it’s not the only one. Using advanced neuroimaging technology, scientists have found that people who smoke have a significant reduction in the levels of an enzyme called monoamine oxidase (MAO) in the brain and throughout the body. This enzyme is responsible for the breakdown of dopamine, other neurotransmitters involved in mood regulation, and in a variety of bodily functions. Having lower amounts of MAO in the brain may lead to higher dopamine levels and be another reason that people who smoke continue to do so—to sustain the pleasurable feelings that high dopamine levels create.
Also, researchers have recently shown in animals that acetaldehyde, another chemical constituent of tobacco smoke, dramatically increases the rewarding properties of nicotine—particularly in adolescent animals—which may be one reason why teens are more vulnerable to becoming addicted to tobacco than adults.
Long-term use of nicotine frequently leads to addiction. Research is just beginning to document all of the changes in the brain that accompany nicotine addiction. The behavioral consequences of these changes are well documented, however.
The way that nicotine is absorbed and metabolized by the body enhances its addictive potential. Each inhalation brings a rapid distribution of nicotine to the brain—peaking within 10 seconds and then disappearing quickly, along with the associated pleasurable feelings. Over the course of the day, tolerance develops—meaning that higher (or more frequent) doses are required to produce the same initial effects. Some of this tolerance is lost overnight, and people who smoke often report that the first cigarette of the day is the strongest or the “best.”
When a person quits smoking, they usually experience withdrawal symptoms, which often drive them back to tobacco use. Nicotine withdrawal symptoms include irritability, problems with thinking and attention deficits, sleep disturbances, increased appetite, and craving. Craving—an intense urge for nicotine that can persist for 6 months or longer—can be a major stumbling block to quitting.
Withdrawal symptoms usually peak within the first few days and may subside within a few weeks. Withdrawal is related to how nicotine acts in the brain and body, but many behavioral factors also affect the severity and persistence of withdrawal symptoms. For example, the cues associated with smoking—the end of a meal, the sight or smell of a cigarette, the ritual of obtaining, handling, lighting, and smoking the cigarette, the people you hung out with when you smoked, and alcohol use—all can be powerful triggers of craving that can last or re-emerge months or even years after smoking has ceased. While nicotine gum and patches may stop the physical aspects of withdrawal, cravings often persist.
Tobacco use harms every organ in the body. It has been conclusively linked to leukemia, cataracts, and pneumonia, and accounts for about one-third of all cancer deaths. The overall rates of death from cancer are twice as high among people who smoke as those who don’t, with people who smoke heavily having rates that are four times greater than those of people who don’t smoke. And, you guessed it—foremost among the cancers caused by tobacco use is lung cancer. In fact, cigarette smoking has been linked to about 90 percent of all lung cancer cases, the number-one cancer killer of both men and women. Tobacco abuse is also associated with cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, cervix, kidney, ureter, and bladder.
People who smoke also lose some of their sense of smell and taste, don’t have the same stamina for exercise and sports they once did, and may smell of smoke. After smoking for a long time, people find that their skin ages faster and their teeth discolor or turn brown.
Smoking doesn’t just affect the person who smokes. People who do not smoke are exposed to “secondhand smoke,” which comes from both the exhaled smoke and from the smoke floating from the end of a cigarette, cigar, or pipe. Inhaling secondhand smoke increases a person’s risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent. In fact, secondhand smoke is estimated to contribute to as many as 46,000 deaths related to heart disease and about 3,400 lung cancer deaths per year among people who do not smoke. Secondhand smoke also causes respiratory problems in people who do not smoke, like coughing, phlegm, and reduced lung function.
Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, ear problems, and more severe asthma. And, believe it or not, dropped cigarettes are the leading cause of residential fire fatalities, leading to more than 700 deaths each year.
Each year, almost half a million Americans die from tobacco use. One of every five deaths, or about 440,000 deaths, in the United States is a result of tobacco use, making tobacco more lethal than all other addictive drugs combined.
In the United States, 20.7 percent of pregnant teens age 15 to 17 reported smoking cigarettes in the past month (based on combined data from 2008-2009). Carbon monoxide and nicotine from tobacco smoke may interfere with fetal oxygen supply—and because nicotine readily crosses the placenta, it can reach concentrations in the fetus that are much higher than maternal levels. Nicotine concentrates in fetal blood, amniotic fluid, and breast milk, exposing both fetuses and infants to toxic effects. These factors can have severe consequences for the fetuses and infants of mothers who smoke, including increased risk for stillbirth, infant mortality, sudden infant death syndrome, preterm birth, and respiratory problems. In addition, smoking more than a pack a day during pregnancy nearly doubles the risk that the affected child will become addicted to tobacco if that child starts smoking.
The good news is that treatments for tobacco addiction do work. Although some people who smoke can quit without help, many people need help. Behavioral treatment programs help people learn about and change their behaviors using self-help materials, counselor-staffed telephone “quitlines,” and individual therapy. Over-the-counter medications, such as the nicotine patch, gum, inhalers, and lozenges, replace nicotine and relieve the symptoms of withdrawal. It is important to know that nicotine replacement medicines can be safely used as a medication when taken properly. They have lower overall nicotine levels than tobacco and they have little abuse potential since they do not produce the pleasurable effects of tobacco products. They also don’t contain the carcinogens and gases found in tobacco smoke, making them a good treatment approach for quitting.
There are also prescription medications now available for smoking cessation, such as bupropion (Zyban) and varenicline tartrate (Chantix), that have been shown to help people quit. But research shows that the most effective way to quit smoking is to use both medications and behavioral treatment programs.
The bottom line: People who quit smoking can have immediate health benefits. Believe it or not, within 24 hours of quitting, a person’s blood pressure decreases and they have less of a chance of having a heart attack. Over the long haul, quitting means less chance of stroke, lung and other cancers, and coronary heart disease, and more chance for a long and healthy life.
If someone you know is smoking or using tobacco in another way, encourage him or her to talk to a parent, school guidance counselor, or other trusted adult. A national toll-free number, 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669), can help people get the information they need to quit smoking. Callers to the number are routed to their state’s smoking cessation quitline or, in states that have not established quitlines, to one maintained by the National Cancer Institute. In addition, a Web site—www.smokefree.gov—from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers online advice and downloadable information to make stopping easier. | <urn:uuid:f0f616dc-e1b8-4463-93fc-7ac970ae4a30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://teens.drugabuse.gov/drug-facts/tobacco | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955322 | 2,713 | 3.15625 | 3 |
According to Philip Parker, the relationship between physics-based physiology and macroeconomics may come to dominate explanations of economic growth. His argument focuses on the so-called equatorial paradox—the phenomenon that a country's latitude explains up to 70 percent of cross-country variances in per capita income. After introducing concepts from physics and physiology as the building blocks of homeostatic utility, he explains the role of homeostatic utility in economic growth. Specifically, he shows that a country's performance is gauged not by its absolute level of income or consumption, but by how far it is from a homeostatic steady state governed by what he calls physioeconomics. Countries closer to their homeostatic steady state grow more slowly than those farther away.
Parker shows how factors such as income, aggregate savings, investment, technology, entrepreneurship, production, and outputs per worker are influenced by the more fundamental principles of physics and physiology. He focuses particularly on the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that drives motivation, monitors homeostasis, and ultimately keeps us alive via neural, autonomic, and hormonal adjustments. He presents evidence that long-run growth can be attributed to variances in hypothalmic activity.
A physioeconomic approach to growth can lead to better economic policies, measures of performance, and predictions of progress. To take just one example, policymakers would be quicker to realize that food aid to warmer regions can destroy local farming economies that supply adequate caloric needs at a lower steady state. | <urn:uuid:640daa8c-b2de-4ec2-aee6-edc7bf34c028> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/physioeconomics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942722 | 303 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Hey, I know what this is >>Find Curry RestaurantsIf you say curry in Japan, what comes to mind? Curry is the king of home cooking popular among both children and adults. From elementary school lunches to dinner made by mom and dad, when it's curry night, you're guaranteed to have a meal that makes kids so happy they can practically fly. Curry is also a standard meal for camping-trips in the mountains. Anyone can easily make a lot of delicious curry, so, from the cook's point of view, this ‘convenience' is one of curry's main draws.
Another delicious and distinctly ‘Japanese' way to experience curry is to try ‘curry-pan' or curry bread (found in bakeries and most convenience stores), curry wrapped in dough and then deep-fried.
Japanese style curry is made by boiling cut-up potatoes, carrots, onions and meat (usually beef or pork, but chicken is also common) in a pot; to this stew, curry flavor (usually in the form of a rue purchasable at nearly ever grocery store) is added. Then the curry sauce is served over piping hot white rice. This dish is called, simply, ‘curry rice.'
There are many varieties of curry, from Indian curry and European-style curries to Thai curry and Chinese curry*, so how, exactly, did the prototypical Japanese-style curry come into existence?
What's in Japanese Curry?The standard Japanese curry contains potatoes, onions, carrots and meat. Beef, pork and chicken are the popular meat used in curry. Sometimes, grated apples, honey, and spices are used to add extra flavors to curry. People who are not satisfied eat Katsu-curry which adds Tonkatsu for topping.
Also, two kinds of pickles are available. One is “Fukujinzuke”, a combination of chopped daikon, eggplant, lotus root and cucumber.
The other is “Rakkyo, a Chinese pickle, which is a bit sour so that it can mitigate the spicy of your curry.
You can adjust or ask the level of spicy at some restaurants. So, don't hesitate to ask a waiter.
IMAGE coming soon
Restaurants need props too >>Find Curry Restaurants"First-rate flavor for little to no effort"
While curry is a quick and easy dish to make for oneself, visiting a curry restaurant is a convenient and tasty alternative to cooking which also satisfies all your curry cravings.
It is said that leaving curry sauce to set overnight improves the flavor. While this saying is very well-known in Japan, does any kind of change actually occur? The fact of the matter is that curry left overnight does taste better than curry served right away, though there are different theories as to why, exactly, this is the case.
One theory has to do with the concept that letting the stew sit allows for a more thorough permeation of the curry's flavor to the other ingredients in the stew. In freshly-made curry, the flavor is only in the sauce coating the surface of the ingredients, so the flavor only goes surface-deep. Leaving the curry stew to sit overnight, however allows more time for the flavor to soak deep into the potatoes, making them more flavorful.
Another theory (moving in the opposite direction) involves the idea that flavors from the ingredients permeate the sauce and improve the flavor of the curry itself. This theory says that the heating and reheating process extracts and then dissolves amino acids from the meat and natural sugars from the carrots into the stew, lending the curry sauce more body and flavor.
Whichever theory you prefer, the end result is the same: if the curry is left overnight, the various flavors of the meat and vegetables in the stew and the spices in the curry have more time to mix together, giving the flavors and fragrances in the dish time to come together in deliciously perfect harmony. And curry restaurants know it.
Every region of the world has its own curry, (India, Europe, Thailand, etc) all of which developed independently in conjunction with that region's unique culture. Regional curries differ in terms of appearance and flavor, and the diversity in types of curry can be seen in the diversity of different kinds of curry restaurants in Tokyo today. Even a single region can have several different kinds of curry. For example, there are several types of Southeast Asian curries from the islands of Java and Thailand. These curries are made primarily from a base made of cayenne peppers and coconut milk. However, depending on the type of pepper used, one can make several different kinds of curry, such as red curry, green curry and yellow curry. While these varieties of curry are all a far cry from the ‘typical' Japanese style curry, they're all delicious.
Most local restaurants in Tokyo, especially those serving Japanese-style curry, have devised their own special curry recipes in order to deal with the fierce competition between restaurants in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. As a result, there are a plethora of wonderful restaurants which serve elaborate and deliciously unique curry. So, why don't we start our journey through the curries of Tokyo? What kind of curry do you like?
A History in Curry, Japanese style"The influence of Indian and European curries on Japanese cuisine"
In India there is a five thousand year old medicinal practice called Ayurveda. In Ayurveda, the use of spices in cooking was thought to have medicinal value and to preserve health. It is in this medical tradition where the roots of curry lie. Nearly every household in India had its own set of spices and seasonings which were mixed to taste for cooking. These mixtures of spices are the origins of Indian style curry.
At the beginning of the 19th century, these mixed spices were transported from the then British colony of India back to the British Isles. There, a special blend they called “curry powder” was created along more English tastes. The English company C&B started marketing the newly created ‘curry powder' to the world. Curry powder circulated throughout Europe until it was a normal spice that could be found in the average European household. These are the roots of so-called European curry.
After Commodore Perry arrived with his fleet in 1853 and effectively ended Japan's period of national isolation, a lot of Westerners began to live in the area just outside the city of Yokohama. Naturally, Japan's newest residents brought their favorite foods with them, and so curry powder came to Japan.
To this European-style curry base, the Japanese added onions, and large slices of potatoes and carrots, creating their own distinct style of ‘curry.' 1970 saw the launch of ‘bon-curry,' a pre-packaged instant curry, which became an instant hit. The rest, as they say, is history.
* Here, “Chinese curry” refers to a traditional Chinese practice in which some foods, usually prepared as part of a soup, were believed to have medicinal value.
>>Find Curry Restaurants
>>Tokyo Restaurants Top Page | <urn:uuid:1bce5c78-1fd6-4fc1-8d98-83b8ea3f93d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunnypages.jp/article/non_japanese_restaurants/curry | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960033 | 1,478 | 2.296875 | 2 |
On October 7, 2002, in Cincinnati, Ohio, George W. Bush delivered the defining speech of his Presidency. In the face of “clear evidence of peril” from a regime harboring terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, he declared, “we cannot wait for the final proof—the smoking gun—that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”
Five days earlier, a forty-one-year-old Illinois state legislator had given a momentous speech of his own, although few recognized it as such at the time. “I don’t oppose all wars,” Barack Obama told a few hundred Chicago protesters, adding:
I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Bush discovered a big idea for his Presidency. He would bring down a tyrant, crush terrorism, and impose democracy and peace on what his regent, Vice-President Dick Cheney, called “freedom-loving peoples of the region.” As the world now knows, that idea was based on faulty intelligence reports and executed with a fatal disregard of political reality in the Middle East and at home. By the time of the 2008 Presidential campaign, Bush’s approval rating had shrunk from sixty-seven per cent to thirty-seven per cent, the Republican Party was coming apart, and Obama’s 2002 speech had proved a precondition for an astounding climb to victory this month as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for President.
Other political news of note
Obama challenges Naval Academy graduates to help restore trust in institutions
In a speech to the graduating class of 2013 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., President Barack Obama challenged the 1,047 graduates to “live with integrity” and help restore trust in a military that has been stained by recent charges of sexual assault.
- Republicans' 'Mad Lib' IRS controversy
- Obama reframes rules of engagement on terrorism
- IRS official Lerner placed on leave
- Heckler repeatedly interrupts Obama speech
- Obama challenges Naval Academy graduates to help restore trust in institutions
Still, sixteen months after announcing his candidacy, and after twenty-six Presidential debates and thousands of public-speaking engagements, Obama remains a puzzle to many voters. Almost as dedicated a policy wonk as Hillary Clinton and arguably more centrist in his economic beliefs, he offers plenty of specifics about what needs to be done. But his captivating eloquence and his slogan—“Change We Can Believe In”—have seemed to lift him dangerously high above the concrete. He has proved his steadiness of purpose without clearly defining his priorities. What, above all, does he intend to accomplish if he is elected President?
Obama is said to have been dissatisfied with the slogan. If so, he has a point. The “change” he advocates can be understood as a pragmatic correction to the radical policies and the ineptitude of the Bush brigade. His political departure is a kind of return. He has written two unusually revealing books—one describing how he came to be who he is, the other delineating how he proposes to reclaim the qualities that once made America so admired. He argues that the United States must relearn the fundamental lessons of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and its own long journey toward a more perfect union, and then apply them to the global upheavals of the twenty-first century.
In his books, Obama emerges not as the personification of cool projected onto him by his young adherents—or as the disdainful élitist suggested by his offhand remark about a “bitter” working class—but as something of a square: someone who doesn’t have to strain to talk about “values,” God, and family. His eerily objective self-analysis is matched by his lawyerly ability to see things from the perspective of those on the other side. In January, after Obama uttered a few words of praise for Ronald Reagan in an interview with newspaper editors, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards rushed to condemn his apostasy. But he meant what he said. In 2006, in “The Audacity of Hope,” he had written, “Reagan spoke to America’s longing for order, our need to believe that we are not simply subject to blind, impersonal forces but that we can shape our individual and collective destinies, so long as we rediscover the traditional virtues of hard work, patriotism, personal responsibility, optimism, and faith.”
The general consistency of Obama’s policy views—with an occasional bald deviation, as on the public funding of his campaign—is a contrast to John McCain’s erratic shape-shifting. McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts as skewed toward the rich, and unsustainable; now he wants to extend them forever. He co-sponsored a relatively humane immigration bill; now he disowns it. He deplored the torture of detainees at Guantánamo; now he attacks the Supreme Court’s decision granting them the constitutional right to challenge in federal court their continued detention as “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”
Over the years, Obama has carefully calibrated his political message, and he has won a grudging respect among some conservatives. In The New Republic, Bruce Bartlett, a Treasury official in the Reagan and Bush père Administrations, writes that “Obamacons”—libertarians, disillusioned neoconservatives, even a few supply-siders—have been pushed “into Obama’s arms.” In The American Conservative, Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor of international relations and history at Boston University, complains, “To believe that President John McCain will reduce the scope and intrusiveness of federal authority, cut the imperial presidency down to size, and put the government on a pay-as-you-go basis is to succumb to a great delusion.”
Obama promises to tell voters what they need to know and not what they want to know. It’s a risky strategy, and one he doesn’t always follow, but when he put it into effect in April, by attacking McCain’s proposed summer gasoline-tax holiday, he helped his campaign more than he hurt it. Last week, he denounced McCain’s latest reversal, on offshore drilling. But he needs to go further. A year ago, he likened “the tyranny of oil” to that of Fascism and Communism, saying, “The very resource that has fueled our way of life over the last hundred years now threatens to destroy it if our generation does not act now and act boldly.” This is the kind of unequivocal message that Obama needs to develop. By telling just such inconvenient truths, Al Gore has inspired a worldwide movement to arrest climate change. The next President could be its most powerful leader. Obama will not rouse voters by getting lost in a tussle with McCain over the virtues of cellulosic ethanol. He can, however, make voters part of the solution by helping them understand that the greedy oil companies, the failing auto industry, and the craven Congress will not redeem themselves until consumers demand that they do so by making some inconvenient changes of their own. A little more audacity will yield a lot more hope. | <urn:uuid:77cfb34b-6f32-4347-81d7-585ec1d9294b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcnews.com/id/25328351/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965261 | 1,605 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Help, Guides, and News on making the Switch To Apple Macintosh Computers
Apple has issued a support article titled 'Mac OS: Antivirus utilities' in which they recommend the use of antivirus software on Mac OS. Here's what Apple states:
"Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult."The note then goes on to mention three antivirus programs including Intego VirusBarrier X5, Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11 for Macintosh, and McAfee VirusScan for Mac.
In April, we posted an article titled 'Apple endorses anitvirus and security software on Macs' after we noticed that Apple posted their recommendation on their 'Get a Mac' site. Apple then removed that information from the site but you can view it at the Internet Archive.
Why the Recommendation?
In Apple's successful 'Get a Mac' advertising campaign, the firm has made the point that Macs don't suffer from the widespread virus and malware issues that plague the Windows operating system. One must now question why Apple is encouraging the use of 'Antivirus utilities'. Perhaps it's an acknowledgment that no platform is 100% safe and that computer users must take action to protect their systems, including Macs. What's your take?
You can read the Apple Support Article: HT2550 here.
Update - Apple's Virus Utility Stance
In 2008 Apple encouraged Mac users to install virus and security software on Macs. The page on which the recommendation was made no longer exists on Apple's web site but the page can be viewed at the Internet archive as indicated above. Scroll down and look for the following statement at the very bottom of the page:
"A Mac running with factory settings will protect you from viruses much better than a PC, but it's never a bad idea to run extra virus and security software."Apple used to have an Apple Support Article referenced above and it was most recently updated on November 21, 2008 but that too has been removed. You can view a copy of the document here. | <urn:uuid:91880d64-8909-4509-b203-7047b767d24a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://switchtoamac.com/site/apple-officially-recommends-antivirus-software.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937362 | 438 | 2.3125 | 2 |
My goal while making this was to do it for as little money as possible, so I will try to lead you on how to do that too. This one was under $20 in total parts, and half of it was stuff I already happened to have around the house.
Step 1: Parts And Tools.
Keep in mind before you start, the more gallons the pump is rated for, the more suction it would have. This is a $11 pump rated for 60 gallons at most. The Whisper goes up to 100 gallons and would give you slightly more suction, but that pump is around $20. They also make pumps for ponds and larger tanks for around $40 and up, but I have no idea what kind of pumps they use in those at this point in time and if you can flip a gasket as easily. At this time I also don't know if hooking multiple smaller pumps would get you better suction or not.
I'd say the Aqua Culture is good for smaller things like beading and small electronics like resistors. But if you want to pick up larger items, I'd look at the Whisper 100 and some suction cups to go with it, which are discussed near the end.
1 Aqua Culture duel air pump.
1 Standard airline tubing. At least 3 feet or longer.
1 Airline T-Valve
1 Air Flow Control Valve
1 Alligator Clip
1 Inflation Needle
2 Small Screws
1 Pen with rubber grip.
1 Pen that fits comfortably in your hand.
Tools and Supplies:
Philips Screw Driver
Drill and Saw or a Dremel Tool
Toothpicks (for applying the epoxy) | <urn:uuid:b4111033-48c9-469a-a5ee-dad5697d0d35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Vacuum-Pen-From-Aquarium-Air-Pump/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965602 | 353 | 1.554688 | 2 |
One aspect of the ACA litigation that has not received due attention is the effect of the Court’s ruling on the scope Foreign Commerce Clause. An expansive, limitless definition of the scope of “Commerce” would presumably apply to Foreign Commerce as well. If there is no limiting principle for the former, it would be hard to have a limiting principle for the latter.
Under the logic of the government’s approach, Congress could regulate or mandate transactions purely between foreigners with no direct U.S. nexus. This is because these foreigners could have – should have! – engaged in transactions with the U.S instead. Purely foreign transactions affect the price of things in the U.S. If insurance would be cheaper if more people bought it, the same could be said about American cars. It makes no difference if the recalcitrant non-purchaser is foreign or domestic. Can the Japanese be required to buy U.S. cars? Certainly such a law would be closely related a major economic sector, as defenders of the ACA like to put it. (I am of course holding aside issues of enforceability to focus on the Commerce power.)
Or consider a rationale closer to the ACA case. If the mandate falls within Interstate Commerce, why not Foreign Commerce as well? Just as health people may get sick while uninsured, foreigners might come to the U.S. uninsured. At the time they come, no doubt Congress could require purchasing insurance as part of its Immigration powers. But by then it could be too late, they could be sick not insurable. So could Congress require foreigners to buy insurance or broccoli prior to coming to America on the theory that they might at some point come to America? Foreigners from countries where a sizable percentage visit the U.S.? Foreigners who have visited the U.S. in the past?
It is ironic that the liberal interpretation of the Commerce power would allow American exceptionalism and give Congress regulatory powers in excess of what would be allowed by international law. On the other hand, it is hard to doctrinally cabin disrespect for the domestic division of sovereignty from disrespect for the international division of sovereignty.
In Kiobel, the ATS case I have been blogging about, the Supreme Court has shown some skepticism about broad extraterritorial assertions of U.S. law (based proximately on statutory, not constitutional concerns, though in my forthcoming paper, I argue the Offenses Clause of the constitution and foreign commerce clause underpins the statutory issue. The justices might want to consider that a ruling for the government in the ACA case would open a whole world of extraterritorial legislation.
In Schecter Poultry, Justice Cardozo famously wrote:
Here is a view of causation that would obliterate the distinction between what is national and what is local in the activities of commerce. Motion at the outer rim is communicated perceptibly, though minutely, to recording instruments at the center.
The point here is the “periphery” is not just internal; the periphery is also the world. That which obliterates the distinction between the local and national also tends to obliterate the distinction between global and national. | <urn:uuid:aa1b4176-ad33-4e71-b777-97525581107b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.volokh.com/2012/04/04/can-congress-mandate-the-japanese-to-buy-detroit-cars-the-commerce-clause-and-foreign-commerce/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955896 | 644 | 1.78125 | 2 |
30 april, 2012
Luxembourg IP Day addresses legislation, video games and clean technologies
The 5th Luxembourg Intellectual Property Day was celebrated at the Philharmonie in Luxembourg-Kirchberg on Thursday with a conference entitled “Intellectual Property: an economic challenge for Luxembourg”. Organised by the Intellectual Property Office in collaboration with Luxinnovation, the Centre de Veille Technologique (CRP Henri Tudor) and Luxembourg for Business, the event attracted an international gathering of experts in the field of Intellectual Property and speakers like Sylvie STROBEL from the European Patent Office, Michel Gyory, lawyer and lecturer at the universities of Liège and Vienna, Roberto d’Erme of the European IPR Helpdesk and Benoit Lory of DG Trade at the European Commission.
Luxembourg’s Minister of the Economy and Foreign Trade, Mr Etienne Schneider, opened the various exhibition and information stands and addressed the conference by outlining the economic and political framework in which intellectual property operates in Luxembourg, including the opportunities in this domain in the near future.
Business environment makes Luxembourg IP attractive
In January 2008, Luxembourg introduced a new law, article 50bis ITL, according to which “80% of the net positive income received as consideration for the use of, or the right to use, software copyright, patent, trademark, design or model, is tax exempt.” In order to promote research and development, the law stipulates that companies using their own patents can deduct from their profits the equivalent of 80% of the income they would have had if they had granted a license instead of exploiting their patent themselves. This tax exemption must however be integrated in the taxable income of the company in case the patent application is refused. This new legislation thus enables the reduction of taxation of income generated by intellectual property, by reducing the normal tax rate of circa 30% to circa 6% for such income.
Many international companies have chosen Luxembourg as their European headquarters, including information and technology companies such as RTL, SES, Amazon, eBay, iTunes, PayPal and Skype. These examples show that Luxembourg is a place to create platforms for distribution and collecting rights societies. E-commerce, electronic archiving and any other field could complete this list.
Luxembourg ranks highly
In the Global Innovation Policy Index from March 2012, Luxembourg is placed among the “Upper Tier” countries regarding IPR protection; the World Economic Forum even rates Luxembourg 4th. In IP enforcement, Luxembourg is placed 5th ; in Legal System Integrity Luxembourg is placed best.
For more information on IP in Luxembourg, please visit: www.eco.public.lu/attributions/dg3/d propriete-intellectuelle/index.html
Photo credit: Geoff THOMPSON | <urn:uuid:ae47ee8a-f8fd-4c82-afb0-06615918560d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.luxembourgforbusiness.lu/category/blog-category/ip | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922568 | 581 | 1.570313 | 2 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
I am pleased to congratulate the people of South Sudan on their very first Independence Day. I was honored to lead President Obama's delegation last year to bear witness to your joyful celebration of independence in Juba. After a bitter half century of conflict, your emergence as a sovereign state has inspired countless Americans and reminded the world, in the words of President Obama, “that after the darkness of war, a new day is possible.”
Independence represents both great hope and a great responsibility to fulfill the promise of a brighter future. Pursuit of an open, pluralistic society of lasting peace, prosperity and justice that ensures the dignity and security of all South Sudan's citizens should remain your calling. This is a critical period for South Sudan, which will define its future for decades to come. The people of South Sudan will continue to have a partner in the United States as you meet the challenges facing your new nation, from addressing the crucial unresolved issues with Sudan to combating corruption and confronting ethnic tensions and economic hardship.
As we congratulate South Sudan on the promise of independence, we also applaud the work of the UN Mission in South Sudan and pledge the continued support of the United States for its vital efforts.
This site is managed by U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York City and the Bureau of Public Affairs in Washington, DC. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein. | <urn:uuid:a84acfad-71d9-494f-b4ad-52b90be5b31c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/194708.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945997 | 301 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Jesus teaches us that we should look to God each day for the bread - the help and sustenance - we require. The Lord’s invitation to seek daily bread from our Heavenly Father speaks of a loving God, aware of even the small, daily needs of His children and eager to assist them, one by one.
All the Holy Writings are God-given and are made alive by Him. Man is helped when he is taught God’s Word. It shows what is wrong. It changes the way of a man’s life. It shows him how to be right with God. It gives the man who belongs to God everything he needs to work well for Him. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
If you do not have wisdom, ask God for it. He is always ready to give it to you and will never say you are wrong for asking. James 1:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, | <urn:uuid:a42f534e-66a6-438d-ad81-2cec098b91f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eatingedenblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/bit-of-laughter-and-word-to-brighten.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968884 | 208 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Building a Modern Economy: How the 'Dubai CEO's' Big Bet Is Paying Off, for NowPublished: March 21, 2007 in Knowledge@Wharton
The announcement that Halliburton, the Houston, Tex.-based oil services company, was moving its headquarters to Dubai may have surprised many Americans. But for people in Dubai, it simply ratified decades of hard work.
With scant oil reserves, Dubai's ruling family, the Maktoums, long ago realized that their state's future lay in serving as the commercial hub of the Arab Middle East, not pulling petroleum from the desert sands. "They have had to live on their wits," says Bulent Gultekin, a Wharton finance professor. "So they've tried to build Dubai into the business platform for the region."
To that end, the Maktoums, led by the billionaire known today as "Dubai's CEO," Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, have invested heavily in the infrastructure of a modern economy. They have built a first-class port, airport and airline; created lightly regulated enterprise zones to foster the development of new industries and attract foreign firms; and spent lavishly on amenities ranging from the white, sail-shaped Burj al Arab, the world's tallest hotel, to an indoor ski slope chilled to about 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
"Sheikh Mohammed has been a real visionary," says Todd Millay, executive director of the Wharton Global Family Alliance. "The biggest decision he has made is to create a very free economy. It's true laissez faire without many of the regulations we have in the U.S." Indeed, in some sectors, the country might benefit from a few more rules, Millay notes. "You see construction workers working outside in the summer when it's 120 degrees."
Sheikh Mohammed's let-it-be attitude extends to the social norms that have caused so much angst in places like Saudi Arabia and Iran. Though Dubai's native population is overwhelmingly Muslim, expatriates and visitors can buy alcoholic beverages in restaurants and bars, and western women don't have to wear headscarves or veils. Sheikh Mo, as he's known, is an avid breeder and racer of horses and knocks around in jeans and a T-shirt when he visits his thoroughbred farm in Kentucky.
The mix of infrastructure, economic freedom and tolerance is paying off as multinationals, including General Electric and AT&T, are increasingly selecting Dubai, which is about the size of Rhode Island, as their Middle Eastern base. Others, including Microsoft and Intel, have located sizeable offices there. The emirate also has been boosted by high oil prices, which are pumping tens of billions of dollars into the Persian Gulf area, and from political tensions and safety concerns in some nearby nations. Long peaceful, Dubai welcomes foreigners, and expatriates comprise about 80% of its population of 1.3 million.
"Everybody in the region has an interest in Dubai being a business hub," says Mauro Guillen, Wharton management professor and newly appointed director of the Lauder Institute for Management and International Studies. "You need a safe place where you can do business. The elites in all of these countries want a haven where they can put their money and meet." Adds Millay: "There's no other natural 'capital' in the area like a New York, a Tokyo or a London."
Dubai, which is one of the seven United Arab Emirates, has served as a commercial crossroads in the Middle East for centuries. Originally, local pearl divers and date farmers traded there with merchant seamen from farther east, who came bearing silk and spices. "It's long had commercial links with India and Iran," says David Butter, Middle East business editor for the Economist Intelligence Unit, an affiliate of the Economist magazine. It was a British protectorate during much of the 20th century, gaining its independence in 1971.
In the 1970s, Sheikh Mohammed's father realized that, to continue to play a central role in the region's trade, his emirate needed a modern container port. He borrowed heavily to build it, and his bet paid off. Dubai's port ranks as the world's 9th busiest in container volume, and its manager, DP World, is considered a leading operator, overseeing facilities around the globe. Last year, DP World found itself mired in controversy when it bought a British company with operations at several U.S. ports, including New York and Philadelphia. Members of the U.S. Congress objected to Middle Eastern ownership, citing security concerns, and DP World, although it had the Bush Administration's support, decided to sell the U.S. operations.
Oil was discovered in Dubai a few years before independence from Great Britain, and it led to a wealth surge there, as it did throughout much of the region. But Dubai long ago weaned itself off a dependence on petroleum, Butter says. Today, only about 5% of the emirate's GDP comes from oil, and the reserves are expected to disappear by 2010. Even so, Dubai benefits handsomely from the economic activity that the rest of the region's oil riches generate. Many energy company employees operate out of Dubai -- often their families will remain there while they work elsewhere -- and wealthy people from other Persian Gulf countries spend and invest their money there.
Those investments have fostered the real boom in today's Dubai: real estate. "As you come from the airport, you see hundreds of high cranes and high rises," Gultekin says. "It's mind boggling. Twenty years ago, there were three or four high rises. Now it's like Manhattan."
Dubai has made the construction of superlatives a central part of its marketing strategy. At the moment, the world's tallest building, Burj Dubai, is rising beside the world's biggest mall. "They don't want to disclose how tall it will be," Guillen says. "I've heard that they have come up with a design that they can add to" if another building surpasses it. Another hotel, even larger than the Burj al Arab, is being planned as part of a new resort complex that will encompass 31 hotels with more than 29,000 rooms.
Just off Dubai's coast, the world's biggest manmade islands, shaped like giant palm trees, have been dredged out of the Persian Gulf sand. "Thousands of people are working there simultaneously to build houses," Gultekin says. "The entire city is like a giant construction site." Soon 300 more islands, shaped and arrayed like continents and islands on a map of the world, will join them.
According to the Yearbook of the United Arab Emirates, "Between 2000 and 2005, the number of residential buildings in Dubai increased by more than 42%, to 79,000 buildings, from 56,000. This compares with a modest growth in residential buildings of 6.7% in the previous five years."
Beware the Bubble
There is, of course, a method to the madness. Dubai isn't a place like San Francisco, Sydney or Vancouver, with a striking natural setting. And its beaches quickly give way to desert and the sort of climate that only camels find comfortable. Summertime highs routinely top 100 degrees Fahrenheit. "If the air conditioning broke down, it could quickly become an unpleasant place," says Butter. "But it's been fairly well planned. Everything is created to make life as comfortable as possible."
Behind the opulent buildings stands the country's equally important, if more mundane, bureaucratic infrastructure, including its ballyhooed free trade zones. The zones try to remove the usual barriers that discourage multinationals from setting up operations in a developing country like Dubai. Within the International Financial Centre, which includes a fledgling stock exchange, foreign firms can own 100% of their operations -- Dubai restricts ownership outside of the free zones -- and pay no tax on income or profits. Similarly relaxed rules apply in Dubai's Internet and media zones. A new "studio city" is targeting the film industry.
Dubai also has created a special judiciary to resolve disputes involving financial firms. "They brought in British common law," Gultekin says. "They even brought in a British judge to oversee it."
Growth on this scale brings a host of challenges and worries. Perhaps the foremost is the real estate boom, which has the makings of a bubble -- if it hasn't already become one. "There's a huge amount of new capacity coming online, and it's unclear what the implications of that will be," says Millay. "I was at a conference in Doha [in Qatar], and some American real estate guys were saying, 'Who's going to live in these new buildings?'"
Guillen agrees: "The biggest danger is that real estate is going wild. People are always surprised that it takes so long for a bubble to burst. But when it does burst, the fall is really big." Another challenge is traffic, which like the construction, has reached Manhattan-like proportions. "It's totally out of control," Guillen notes.
A big drop in oil prices also could hurt the country since it would curtail spending by citizens and companies from other Persian Gulf states as well as by western firms that do business with them. But Butter says that Dubai has diversified its economy enough that it should continue to thrive. "We've had such a long period of high oil prices that the economic development throughout the region really has its own momentum, which can keep going for some time," he notes. "Plus, a lot of the development is related to the fact that the Persian Gulf is where much of the remaining oil and gas reserves are located. These are the projects that are going to meet the incremental demand in the world oil market." | <urn:uuid:3af92bb2-dcd0-4baa-859b-263df029fcc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1685&source=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97373 | 2,013 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Today was interesting! I met two year 11 Chemistry classes and spent a little time opening up the options of choosing a Web 2.0 tool to produce part of their assessment task. These students have by and large been operating in a Web 1.0 world for school learning – but of course are operating in a Web 2.0 world of social networking with the usual MySpace, Facebook or Bebo.
The challenge for them was to think about creativity and the learning process, and if they dared, to step out of their usual comfort zone and into Web 2.0.
Why did we want to do this? Well the issue is this – that critical thinking skills cannot be learned in the abstract. They always pertain to concrete knowledge of subject matter. But by the same token, absorbing and ‘learning’ some concrete subject knowledge does not necessarily lead to critical thinking or creativity. Learning is a delicate pattern of interconnections!
If you sit boys in rows, if you always ask them to write an essay, produce a poster, deliver a talk, or make a powerpoint then without a doubt the capacity for independent learning or flexible collaborative learning that is deeply reflective just ‘ain’t gonna happen’ easily.
It’s true – we threw these boys in the deep end with a big challenge. Sorry boys!
…….. and I watched some of them run right back to safe shores, others forgot how to paddle or swim and splashed and floundered around (hiding their confusion behind boyish bravado), and others got right in and swam to the new shore across the bay. A few quiet ones spent a lot of time exploring the tools, checking the parameters and began to talk about the nature of learning this way.
We’ll be happy if we see a few wikis, maybe a blog or two, or maybe even a voicethread. This was just an experiment. No student will be advantaged or disadvantaged for either choosing or not choosing a Web 2.0 option. All we hoped for was that for some boys – the naturally curious and creative ones – the opportunity to use a Web 2.0 tool just might make the learning experience fundamentally creative, collaborative, and fun!
I’ve added a new TAB to the blog for the students called Student Tools – Let them fly!
So back to the beginning of the lesson.
What DOES this video prompt YOU to think about creativity and learning?
After all, an escalator can never break. It can only become stairs. Have we nullified the capacity of our students to be creative in the very ordinary yet essential daily processes of learning? That’s the message the video gives to me | <urn:uuid:ea683e3e-fb9b-4e1c-b8e3-e1f7a2cb0e8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://judyoconnell.com/2008/02/21/core-knowledge-and-creativity-for-learning-20/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939842 | 556 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Essay: The Way of Salvation
This essay is an original work by BertSchlossberg. Please comment only on the talk page.
The Way of Salvation
Few Christians would say that unless one believes in Christ, he cannot be saved. This is evident by the fact that there is not a resounding amen, or even a muted grunt in acquiesence, to the proposition that an infant or even a toddler, and certainly not an embryo that dies in the respective stages of its existance, all without explicit faith in Christ, would suffer the pains and pangs of eternal damnation. What Christians mean, that unless one believes in Christ, he cannot be saved, is, if one is capable, and exposed, and rejects the Christ coming to him, or quenches the very light that would lead him to Christ, he cannot be saved. This, then, is in accord, with teachings of Jesus that to him whom much is given will much be required, and is in accord with the moral sense given to man, and is in accord with much of the Biblical teaching, and all of the Biblical teaching dealing with the subject, though many Christians are paralyzed by a misuderstanding of that Biblical teaching and in strong conflict between what they sense is morally right and what they understand wrongly to be the Biblical Teaching.
The moral sense, fed and strengthened either directly or indirectly by Holy Scripture, wants "fairness" of God but the truth of their feelings that for God to consign the unbeliever to Hell, either making it happen or permitting it to happen, because he does not believe, that moral sense, must be disregarded, or treated as an attack of the Enemy, the Devil. All this because of the basic misunderstanding of what Scripture does say on the subject of salvation, the way of salvation, the role of faith, and the Atonement of Christ on the Cross itself.
One need not conclude that faith is absent in the Old Testament because it is not mentioned much, just as one need not conclude that to a fish water does not matter, since in it, there is no notice taken. As the fish lives in the water, so the Old Testament characters live in faith - without a mention, - until there is reason for it, as in the time of Abraham, the father of faith, and in that sense, the father of all Christians. It is faith that brought Abraham to acceptance with God, and that faith was expressed in obedience - obedence to leave Ur, obedience to sacrifice his son. His faith was considered his righteousness. How apt, then , that Abraham in his faith should be a pointer to Christians in their faith in Christ as their Savior, and thus their righteousness.
But, the content of faith for all of the characters and epochs of both Testaments was different, and as God revealed more of who He is and what He has done, faith itself was filled with new object and sometimes subtely and sometimes not so, changed, according to its object, and so their came "Christian Faith" changed to "fit" its object, Christ, and changed because of the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, was now penetrating and filling and vivifying faith in a way it could never be before. And so Noah, Abraham, Isaiah, Simeon, Paul, and Peter, all men of faith, and yet the requirement laid on them by the ongoing revelation of God, different for each one in each epoch as surely as the requirment of God upon the thief on the cross, Cornelius, Mary, the toddler running to his arms, and the baby in the womb aborted, we can be sure, all different one from the other.
What remains the same for all, for all times, is the one Atonement of Christ on the Cross, bearing the sins, fallibilities, sicknesses, incapabilites, incompletenesses of all, each in their own order, upon His sinless body and soul, bringing them, if they will, according to what is given them, into the loving arms of the Saviour and the Heavenly Father.
All this, so naturally and so divinely enacted by the many modulations of the Savior when here on earth, with all manners of men and women, each different, and each lovingly and accurately dealt with by the Saviour - the woman at the well, Zacheus, up the tree, the woman caght in adultery, Matthew at the tax table, leading them all to more and more of the light and toward Him, until they, too, could decide on the worth of Him and His Kingdom.
According to the Light - read the third chapter of the Gospel of John, if not in the Greek, then in the King James, which well expresses the change of the singular "thee", and "thou" to the plural "ye" and "you", expressing when Jesus stops speaking to the individual Nicodemus, and starts speaking through Nicodemus to all of the Jews of that century, and notice that it is no longer Jesus alone speaking but it is the "we" of the Church speaking. For the Light is expanding, and to him to whom enlightenment comes, from him will more be required, and to the one who is condemned, who has rejected the light, whether individual or people, it is because of the love of darkness, and that alone.
The way of Salvation as He walked it and talked it, is no different than the way of Salvation as Paul preached it and believed it.
- Inspiration of Holy Scripture: An Eastern Christian and Jewish Perspective
- Jesus Christ
- Essay: The superiority of the King James Bible: Looking through! | <urn:uuid:fc025cb6-f888-48cb-82ed-16e1211abf56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.conservapedia.com/Essay:_The_Way_of_Salvation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967809 | 1,168 | 2.078125 | 2 |
When a Carb's Not a Carb: The Net Carb Debate
Will counting net carbs help or hurt weight loss efforts?
Calories vs. Carbohydrates continued...
Earlier this year, the FDA's Obesity Working Group also
advocated a simple "calories count" approach to battling obesity and
helping people make healthy food choices.
"Our report concludes that there is no substitute for the
simple formula that 'calories in must equal calories out' in order to control
weight," says FDA Acting Commissioner Lester Crawford in a news release
announcing the report.
In addition, the report recommended that the FDA respond to
requests to define terms such as "low," "reduced," and
"free" carbohydrates as well as provide guidance on use of the term
"net carbs." Several industry and consumer groups as well as food
manufacturers have petitioned the FDA to set official "low carb" levels
as well as take action on "net carb" claims.
Until the agency takes action on the carbohydrate claim issue,
experts say carb counters are probably better off eating foods that are
naturally low in refined carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables, rather
than highly processed foods like snack bars, pastas, and sweets that have had
their natural carbohydrates stripped away.
"Whole foods, like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables,
should be the foundation of diet," says Karmally. "Because if you miss
out on these foods, then you end up missing out on a whole bunch of nutrients
and antioxidants that have a potential benefit on reducing the incidence of
chronic, degenerative diseases." | <urn:uuid:d032317e-39f1-40da-805a-c3bc0409ef18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://women.webmd.com/features/net-carb-debate?page=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933649 | 341 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Polio AIDS Cancer Activities Sources
Here is a dictionary of some words in our web page you may not have known. They are in alphabetical order.
AIDS- (acquired immune defiency syndrome) A disease that is caused by a virus that attacks cells of the immune system, leaving the infected person vulnerable to certain infections.
Benign- An abnormal growth that does not spread.
Cancer- The growth of abnormal cells in connective tissue. The growth incresases in time and may cause death.
Chemotherapy- Treatment of cancer that uses a chemical compound that affects the way the cells grow and reproduce.
HIV- The virus that causes AIDS.
Immune system- The body's natural system of defenses. Specialized cells and proteins in the body.
Immunity- The state of being protected against a disease.
Lymph glands- (lymph nodes) Small clusters of lymphocytes in the neck, underarm, groin, abdomen, and other parts of the body.
Lymphocytes- Small white blood cells that function in the immune system.
Malignant- An abnormal growth that continues to grow. Also: a cancer
Mastectomy- A surgical removal of a breast.
Microorganism- A life-form so small it can be seen only with a microscope
Tumor- A limp in the body that is caused by abnormal cell growth. It can be either benign or malignant.
Radiation- A treatment that consists of using X-rays to find cancer and help stop it.
Vaccine- A preparation that creates an immune response.
Virus- A tiny microorganism. | <urn:uuid:d52447d0-823a-4146-b356-e15e247132ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.thinkquest.org/6409/encyclop.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914632 | 339 | 3.125 | 3 |
Tubby tabby gets revolutionary new knee joint
Saturday, January 28, 2012
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Because Cyrano weighs more than 20 pounds, amputating his cancer-weakened leg was out of the question. So the tubby tabby’s owners turned to doctors and engineers at North Carolina State University to get him back into mice-catching trim.
On Thursday, the 10-year-old cat from Upperville, Va., received what doctors believe is the first feline total knee replacement in the U.S.
“This is the most complex implant that NC State has made and really, in all honesty, that anyone has built for any situation that I know of,” said surgeon Denis Marcellin-Little, a French-born veterinarian.
Cyrano — his full name is Mr. Cyrano L. Catte II — underwent treatment last year at Colorado State University for cancer in his left hind leg. The disease is in remission, but the treatment left the leg nearly useless and extremely painful.
Marcellin-Little and NCSU engineer Ola Harrysson are pioneers in osseointegration, a process that fuses a prosthetic limb with living bone. In 2005, Marcellin-Little performed the world’s first surgery to fuse leg implants with a cat’s bone tissue, so Cyrano’s owners turned to him for help.
Britain’s Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick was credited with the world’s first total knee replacement in 2009 on a cat named Missy, whose leg was crushed by a car. But Marcellin-Little said Cyrano’s plastic and cobalt chromium alloy implant is more like those used in humans.
“It has a form of articulation that is unique — that allows the implant to bend and rotate,” he said, demonstrating with a model during a news conference the day before the surgery. “The devil is in the details.”
Such implants have become commonplace in dogs. But a cat’s smaller anatomy has proved more difficult to work with, and Cyrano’s damaged bones posed an additional challenge, Marcellin-Little said.
Unlike other joints, which are machined, Cyrano’s knee — in cats, it’s actually called a “stifle” — was fabricated using a laser process that hardens metal powder to exactly replicate his bones. More than a dozen people worked on developing and testing the implant, each half of which is about 2 inches long.
Marcellin-Little practiced the procedure four times on plastic models before Thursday’s surgery.
The operation began around 10:30 a.m. Attendants did not wheel Cyrano to the intensive care unit until almost 5 p.m.
Marcellin-Little said the tabby’s girth and big bones were a plus. He said Cyrano should be up and around in about a week, though he won’t be climbing trees for a while yet.
“We would like him to take it easy for about three months after surgery,” the doctor said. “And then we will let him be himself.”
Because so much of the time and material were donated, university representatives could not give a total cost estimate.
“Part of this is a pure research project, in a way,” said Harrysson, an NCSU professor of industrial and systems engineering.
The bill to owners Sandra Lerner and Len Bosack will be around $20,000. Sitting in a waiting room after the surgery, a visibly exhausted Lerner — who helped found electronics giant Cisco Systems — said “Rat Boy” is worth every penny.
“He’s my child. And if it were your child, would you begrudge the money?” she said. “I have a personal philosophy that people are, at best, equal with the other inhabitants of the planet. And I’m very, very grateful that I have the money and (am) able to do it.” | <urn:uuid:be19eedd-3454-4b3f-a215-f25165d4a721> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newstribune.com/news/2012/jan/28/tubby-tabby-gets-revolutionary-new-knee-joint/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964463 | 864 | 2.140625 | 2 |
I just finished reading a new book called "The Prize: Tales from a Revolution-Vermont", by Lars Hedbor. This wonderful novel is set in Colonial Vermont during the Revolutionary War. The book tells the story of young Caleb Clark, whose father is serving with Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys. Caleb is entrusted with taking care of the Clark homestead while his father is away.
Caleb not only takes care of home and the animals, he also serves as an unofficial lookout and messenger around Lake Champlain. He knows of several good vantage points where he can spy on the British troops, and he passes on the information he learns to the men at nearby Fort Frederick, the old fort that served as a trading post for the area. He meets an old French captain and his daughter, and the story unfolds from there.
This novel explores Caleb's coming of age during the Revolutionary War, and the author captures and tells about Colonial Vermont history along the way. This book is a quick read, with only 169 pages. It would be great for any fan of American history, and can be enjoyed by young readers as well as adults.
Lars Hedbor, the author and Puddletown Group, the publishers, have generously offered to give five (5) ebook copies away to visitors of American History Fun Facts! The lucky winners will be sent a CD containing the book file so you can download it to your computer and transfer to any e-reader, such as Kindle, Nook or Apple iPad .
The giveaway is over. Thank you to everybody who entered!
Disclosure: I received the book that I am reviewing free of charge. However, I am posting an honest review of said product and have not been paid to endorse said products. | <urn:uuid:96cfa0f4-dd8c-45bc-8414-3fb44a6ce9d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.american-history-fun-facts.com/the-prize.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975246 | 356 | 1.773438 | 2 |
I recently spent a very enjoyable day at the British Museum, first delivering a paper at an OCR teachers’ conference, and then going to see the BM’s current major exhibition, Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, which it was designed to tie in with. Well over a hundred very engaged and enthusiastic teachers attended the conference, demonstrating the thriving current interest in Classical subjects at school level, and I’m pleased to say that they seemed to enjoy hearing my thoughts on the disparities in living standards at Pompeii and the tendency for elite houses to be surrounded like islands by smaller houses, shops and workshops. I certainly enjoyed sitting amongst them and hearing Alison Cooley showing the audience what stories the collections of writing tablets from Pompeii and Herculaneum can tell us about the lives and status of their inhabitants, Ray Laurence exploring the question of whether or not carts really made up much of the traffic in Pompeii, and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill sharing some of the important insights into life in Herculaneum which have come out of a project originally designed ‘just’ to conserve the standing remains.
I allowed over two hours in the Pompeii exhibition before I would need to leave to catch my train, but in fact there was so much to see that I rather wish I had allowed three. Though I had a fair idea of what the exhibition would contain before I stepped through the doors, and had seen most of it before in books and on websites, I had forgotten just how much more you can get out of looking at even familiar art and artefacts in real life. I spent a great deal of time peering closely at items such as this painting of bread handouts and the full set to which this painting of gamers belongs, noticing details which I had never spotted before; or walking around this sculpture of hunting dogs attacking a stag and the various items of charred wooden furniture to fully experience their effect in three dimensions. I especially enjoyed being able to read tiny painted or inscribed texts for myself, and realised for the first time that while the rest of the famous painting of Bacchus and Vesuvius (right) is in extremely good condition, the head of the snake is considerably worn – presumably because the inhabitants of the house where it was originally set up liked to touch it for luck as they went past. (Yes, snakes were considered lucky in the ancient world). It was also nice to see some recent finds, such as items from the sewer excavated by the Herculaneum Conservation Project.
But although I enjoyed looking at the individual items, I found myself far less convinced by the way they had been put together. The publicity for the exhibition claims that it takes visitors to ‘the heart of people’s lives’ in Pompeii and Herculaneum, by focusing on domestic life. The items are grouped according to the rooms which they might originally have been used or displayed in, and the exhibition space is laid out to resemble the design of a Pompeian house (at least as far as the circular space of the old Round Reading Room allows). This is certainly a nice change from museum exhibitions which focus exclusively on the high art of the political elite, and it is a format which allows plenty of room for relatable everyday items such as oil-lamps, hair-pins, cooking equipment and jars full of ivory tooth-picks.
The problem, though, is that the British Museum’s ‘house’ presents visitors with a kind of pastiche. It contains a medley of items which have actually been drawn from many different houses (and indeed public buildings, bars and streets) in both Pompeii and Herculaneum, which date from different periods and which come from different social contexts. Of course this is how exhibitions work. To really wow visitors, the organisers aim to collect together the most interesting, well-preserved and beautifully-made items from the culture or context which they are concerned with – and the contents of any one individual house from either Pompeii or Herculaneum could not hope to match what can be cherry-picked from multiple different houses on this front. But I felt that putting them together in way which mimicked the experience of moving through a single house implied that they genuinely all belonged together, and robbed visitors of the chance to fully appreciate the range of different living conditions which Pompeii and Herculaneum actually attest.
Meanwhile, the same urge towards the spectacular has meant that in practice the contents of the exhibition reflects above all the lives of the wealthy. Yes, we do encounter freedmen and women, slaves, and people of more ordinary means. One cabinet, for example, displays the fine gold jewellery of the wealthy elite next to the cheaper imitations which most people would have worn instead, so that visitors can see the difference directly for themselves. But the sheer preponderance of marble sculptures, fine wall-paintings, silver tableware and beautifully inlaid furniture, as well as the decision to organise the exhibition according to the layout of an elite house, creates the impression that a ‘typical’ Pompeian or Herculanean lived a life of luxury and splendour.
Having just given a talk earlier in the day about the very different living conditions of the rich and poor in Pompeii, I found this very frustrating, and wished that the exhibition organisers had been more careful about it. I found myself imagining a rather different exhibition, in which the the ‘elite house’ experience had been shrunk down to make space for two more separate exhibition areas fitted alongside it – one showing life in a modest house of only a few rooms, and one going right to the bottom of the social scale to show us life in the back room of a shop or perhaps a poky upstairs apartment. They could even be linked together by a short section of street frontage, with doorways to all three opening off it, since people of very different social status really did live right next door to each other in Roman cities. All of the same items as are in the actual exhibition could still have been included, but dividing them up into different households would make the reality of life in Pompeii and Herculaneum much clearer, and counter the belief that ‘the Romans’ were a single homogeneous group who all thought and lived alike – something which I see all too often in student essays.
For all that, though, the exhibition is clearly incredibly popular. It is already solidly booked out until the end of May, and is obviously attracting a really diverse range of interested visitors. While I was there I saw families, be-suited city workers, people speaking French, Italian, German and all sorts of other languages which I couldn’t identify, and all of them engrossed in the exhibits, pointing things out to one another and exclaiming over them with great interest. The audio guide and app are obviously both a great hit, and of course the exhibition has spurred a whole range of documentaries and events to run alongside it – included the conference I went down to contribute to.
So although I can see room for improvement, I can’t fault the British Museum for connecting with the public, and I take my hat off to them for an exhibition which can only help to boost public interest in the Roman world. If you haven’t caught up with it yourself yet, you’ve got until September 29th to do so – but I recommend you make sure you have booked your tickets by at least the end of August. | <urn:uuid:23b8cd40-f203-49f6-bae2-02b17ae6a61c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weavingsandunpickings.wordpress.com/category/roman-cities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975611 | 1,540 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Asylum seekers are not allowed to work while they wait for a decision on their claim. Nor are they allowed to work if they are not able to return home. PCS believes this is wrong and, along with a host of other organisations, supports the Refugee Council in calling on the government to let asylum seekers work.
If asylum seekers were able to work it would:
Since 2002 the government has refused permission for almost everyone claiming asylum to work. Refugees come to the UK seeking sanctuary from persecution. Some wait years for their claim to be finally resolved.
They want to take responsibility for looking after their families and escape from destitution when they cannot access government support. Yet long periods of unemployment during their asylum claim means that when allowed to stay, they often end up in jobs far beneath their qualifications and skills. And if they have their claim refused, they end up returning home with out of date skills and find it harder to get a job than before they left.
Our society is losing too. The UK taxpayer foots the bill for a policy which prevents people from contributing to our economy. The great injustice is that people seeking asylum find themselves scapegoated as scroungers, when they would welcome the opportunity to work while they are here.
We want the Government to allow asylum seekers to work if they have been waiting longer than six months for a full resolution on their asylum claim. Until 2002 asylum seekers could work if they’d been waiting longer than 6 months for an initial decision from the Home Office.
We want the Government to ensure that permission to work remains for people whose claim for asylum is refused, but they are unable to return home immediately through no fault of their own, and are complying with instructions to report to authorities.
We call on the government to allow people seeking asylum to work. | <urn:uuid:9c2602c6-a9c9-41b9-82d9-2e4bc4a5b867> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/campaigns_we_support/let-them-work.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972671 | 367 | 2.125 | 2 |
The Evolution Deceit
The theories of the British statistician Thomas Robert Malthus were influential in shaping Darwin's ideas that in nature, there is a deadly struggle for survival and that every living thing strives only for itself. Malthus suggested that food resources increased arithmetically and the human population geometrically-for which reason, he maintained, human beings were necessarily in a fight for survival. Darwin adapted this concept of the struggle for survival to nature as a whole.
In the 19th century, Malthus' ideas were adopted by a fairly wide audience. Upper-class European intellectuals in particular supported his ideas. An article titled "The Scientific Background to the Nazi Racial Improvement Program" describes the importance that 19th-century Europe attached to Malthus' theories:
In the opening half of the nineteenth century, throughout Europe, members of the ruling classes gathered to discuss the newly discovered "Population problem" and to devise ways of implementing the Malthusian mandate, to increase the mortality rate of the poor: "Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits. In our towns we should make the streets narrower, crowd more people into the houses, and court the return of the plague. In the country we should build our villages near stagnant pools, and particularly encourage settlements in all marshy and unwholesome situations," and so forth and so on.28
Under the "oppression of the poor" program implemented in Britain in the 19th century, the strong crushed the weak in the struggle for survival, and the rapidly rising population would thus be kept in balance. The struggle for survival that Malthus regarded as theoretically necessary led to millions of poor people in Britain living wretched lives.28. http://www.trufax.org/avoid/nazi.html. 2009-08-15 17:30:20 | <urn:uuid:55af449b-01de-45ab-87f7-063903a687ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.evolutiondeceit.com/en/Evolution-Dictionary/16461/Malthus-Thomas-Robert | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942076 | 383 | 3.1875 | 3 |
How can deaths from mass killings be reduced? The math of mass killing is simple: the number of people killed is the number of events multiplied by the number of deaths per event. Mental health monitoring may reduce the number of events but it will not make it zero. Number of deaths per event is a crucial variable.
The physics of firearms has three main components: a weapon’s muzzle velocity, the mass of its ammunition and the rate at which ammunition can be fired.
Semi-automatic rifles fire bullets (or rounds) between 5 and 7 mm in diameter. They have a muzzle velocity of 3200 feet per second (meaning they fire bullets at 2200 miles per hour, almost three times the speed of sound) and, in unmodified US civilian versions, the rate of fire is the same as the rate at which the trigger is pulled, up to a theoretical maximum of 800 rounds per minute, but more likely in practice to be 40 to 100 rounds per minute. Military tacticians call this high rate of fire rapid or intense. Aiming rapid fire is imprecise, even for a professional, because of the instability caused by kinetic energy imparted to the weapon by the rapid fire mechanism, and because there is no time to retarget between rounds. This is less of a problem with multiple targets grouped in a confined space – the rapid fire rate increases the probability that some proportion of rounds will hit and, at this muzzle velocity, bullets have long range and will typically penetrate beyond first targets and most solid cover.
Semi-automatic pistols come with a broad a range of physical characteristics. To choose one example: the Sig Sauer P228 (also called the M11 in the US) fires 9mm rounds at a muzzle velocity of 1500 feet per second (1000 miles per hour), takes a 15 round magazine and can be used for rapid fire in semi-automatic mode. This empties the magazine quickly, but as pistols are generally light, mobile weapons, reloading is faster than with a semi-automatic rifle, as is retargeting after reloading.
Shotguns fire small multiple projectiles (“shot“) that spread out in flight (sometimes single “slugs” that do not). They have a muzzle velocity of around 1600 feet per second (1100 miles per hour) and a low rate of fire relative to a semi-automatic weapon. The low fire rate is offset in part by the spreading shot hitting multiple grouped targets, but as these projectiles are much smaller than bullets they may wound, not kill, and may not penetrate beyond initial victims or solid cover, despite their initial velocity.
Weapons Physics Most Likely To Cause Death In Mass Killings
Because of these physical characteristics, the mosts deaths in a civilian mass killing are likely to be caused by a semi-automatic rifle set to maximum fire and fitted with a high capacity magazine. This will fire 40 or more rounds a minute with high penetration and long range. A semi-automatic pistol such as a Sig Sauer P226-variant (of which the P228 described above is an example) is a good sidearm: if the semi-automatic rifle jams or empties, the pistol can be brought to bear quickly with some loss of range but little reduction in rate of fire. A shotgun (or other weapon type, such as a revolver, or bolt action rifle) is less efficient than either the semi-automatic rifle or the semi-automatic pistol. It will kill fewer people per minute because of its lower muzzle velocity and lower rate of fire.
Weapons Used In Recorded Mass Killings
This conclusion is supported by real world data. All perpetrators in the the 30 US mass shootings since 1984 used semi-automatic pistols and / or semi-automatic rifles coupled with high capacity magazines – 15 to 20 rounds in the pistols, 40 or more in the rifles. (Summary data here.)
Effective Rate Of Fire
A weapon’s effective rate of fire is the product of its rate of fire multiplied by its magazine capacity, less reload time. How does effective rate of fire impact the number of deaths in mass killings?
Effective Rate Of Fire In Recorded Mass Killings
Two extreme rates of fire in the real world data set are the Virginia Tech mass killing by Seung-Hui Cho and the Tucson mass killing by Jared Loughner. Effective rate of fire is important because most rounds fired at rapid or intense rates miss their targets. Cho used semi-automatic pistols with 15- and 10-round magazines and fired 176 rounds in 11 minutes, an effective rate of fire of 16 rounds a minute . In Tucson, Loughner used a semi-automatic pistol with a 33 round magazine, more than double the capacity of Cho’s. Loughner fired 33 rounds in 15 seconds, an effective rate of fire of 132 rounds per minute, more than 8 times faster than Cho.
The Impact of Effective Rate Of Fire On Number Of Hits
Hit efficiency is the number of unique targets wounded or killed for each round fired. Many hits on the same target are counted as one hit; hitting many targets with a single round counts as many hits. At Virgina Tech, Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 for a hit efficiency of 28% per round discharged. In Tucson, Loughner killed 6 and wounded 13 for a hit efficiency of 58%. Loughner’s higher hit efficiency was almost certainly a result of closer range and less reaction time for his victims. Both gunmen had the same kill efficiency: the number of people they killed was 18% of the number of rounds they fired. This is typical: the average hit efficiency in mass killings is 40%; the average kill efficiency is 21%. The chart below, Shots → Hits → Kills, shows hit efficiency in the Tuscon and Virginia Tech mass killings, the average hit efficiency of all mass killings in the data set, the 5 mass killings with the highest kill efficiency and the 3 mass killings with the lowest kill efficiency.
The Impact of Effective Rate Of Fire On Number Of Deaths
This low hit efficiency is in part a result of the physics of rapid fire. (Other factors include range, how long the incident lasts and the skill and experience of the gunman.) Because such a large proportion of rounds fired miss all targets, firing more rounds per minute increases hits and kills, especially in the first minutes of an attack, when the gunman has the advantage of surprise. This is supported by the data from real incidents.
The mass killing in Tucson is an outlier which creates a stronger dependence between these variables than would exist otherwise. With the Tucson data excluded, there is a positive but less dependent relationship between rate of fire and rate of victims killed.
The Impact Of Reloading On Rate Of Fire
Because kill rates tend to be higher when more rounds are fired per minute the number of times a gunman has to reload per minute and the length of time spent on each reload is a crucial variable affecting kill rate. Time spent on each reload is relatively fixed and dependent on the gunman’s skill, experience and tactical situation. It is independent of the number of rounds in the magazine. The reload time for a skilled civilian using a semi-automatic weapon is probably between 4 to 6 seconds (measured from last bullet on target before reloading to first bullet on target after reloading), possibly longer under pressure. Two hypothetical shooters are modeled below (Magazine Capacity vs. Rounds Per Minute): a “more skilled” gunman who fires 100 rounds a minute and reloads in 5 seconds; and a “less skilled” gunman who fires 50 rounds a minute and reloads in 10 seconds. With a 10 round magazine, the more skilled gunman fires 54 rounds and spends 27 seconds reloading; the less skilled gunman fires 27 rounds and also spends 27 seconds reloading. With a 100 round magazine, the more skilled gunman fires 100 rounds and the less skilled gunman fires 50 rounds, with no time spent reloading.
The Impact Of Reloading On Victim Defense And Escape
Reloading also provides an opportunity for potential victims to escape or defend themselves. The US mass killing data set describes incidents caused by 32 shooters. 25 of these were not apprehended in the act: they either committed suicide, or surrendered or were captured after they finished killing. Two shooters were shot dead and one was wounded by police officers and one was shot dead by a military police officer. Three, including Loughner, were tackled by unarmed civilians during reloading. In summary, the same number of mass killers have been neutralized by unarmed civilians during reloading as have been shot by police. In other incidents, such as the 2008 mass killing at Northern Illinois University, potential victims escaped during reloading.
The Impact Of Carrying A Concealed Weapon (CCW) On Victim Defense And Escape
Data about the impact of legal concealed carry weapons on general crime rates has been used to show both that civilians carrying a concealed weapon, or CCW, reduces crime and that it has no impact at all. The number of homicides committed by people with concealed carry weapons, as well as the number of people whose concealed weapon has prevented a crime (know as defensive gun use, or DGU) is also a matter of debate. But, as described above, none of the incidents in the data set were ended by the use of firearms by an armed civilian. There are at least two cases where a civilian with a concealed weapon was involved in a mass killing or potential mass killing. In Tucson, CCW holder Joseph Zamudio arrived after the killing had stopped and Loughner had been disarmed and at least partially neutralized. Zamudio did not use his weapon. In another incident, not listed in the data set because it does not meet the FBI’s mass killing threshold of at least four fatalities, CCW holder Nick Meli was present during an attempted mass killing in Clackamas Town Center in Oregon. Meli says he drew his semi-automatic pistol when Jacob Tyler Roberts started firing an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Meli took aim but did not fire as he was concerned about the safety of people behind Roberts. Meli believes that Roberts saw him and that his presence was a factor in Roberts’ decision to flee the scene after shooting three victims, two fatally, and commit suicide. Two parts of Meli’s report are relevant here: first, reloading was significant – Meli drew his weapon and took aim while Roberts was fumbling a reload. Second, Meli was unable to fire due to the possibility that his rounds hit might other people, either because they missed the target or penetrated beyond Roberts. In Tucson, Loughner, like Roberts, fumbled his reload and created a window of opportunity for defensive intervention. 4 to 6 seconds, the fastest likely civilian reload, is a long time. A National Football League quarterback typically takes 3 seconds to pass the ball after receiving the snap.
While reloading provides the best opportunity for defensive action, it is very difficult to shoot a gunman firing at rapid to intense rates, even for professionals. Rapid fire is used by military tacticians to achieve fire superiority and is effective at doing so, even when the shooter is an amateur. This is partly because of the physics. An armed responder would almost certainly have to be in the line of sight without being in the line of fire and must be aware of the risks of rounds missing or penetrating beyond the first target, as Meli was in Clackamas. High velocity rounds also penetrate most forms of cover, so a good defensive position may be difficult to find. At the mass killing in Fort Hood, Nidal Malik Hasan discharged 214 rounds for 43 hits in 4 minutes from a twenty round pistol before being shot and wounded while he was distracted “stalking” a victim. Hasan reloaded ten times before being shot despite the presence of many armed professionals. During the mass killing at Columbine, Sheriff’s Deputy Neil Gardner exchanged fire with a gunman after 2 people had been killed and 10 wounded. Gardner fired 4 rounds with no hits. 11 more people were killed and 14 more were wounded after this exchange. During the 2012 mass killing in Wisconsin, armed police Lieutenant Brian Murphy was shot and wounded 15 times.
How To Reduce Deaths In Mass Killings
Reducing magazine capacity and therefore effective rate of fire is unlikely to have an impact on more common gun homicides, with the important exception that it may reduce the risk armed criminals pose to the police and other law enforcement officials. It is, however, a practical way to begin to reduce the number of deaths from mass killings. While it is not possible to reduce the rate of fire of weapons that already exist, it is possible to restrict the manufacture and sales of high capacity magazines so they eventually become more difficult to obtain. This will not stop mass killing but, over time, it may reduce the average number of people hit and killed in each incident, both by reducing rounds fired per minute and increasing the opportunity for potential victims to escape or defend themselves during reloading. The conclusions that being able to fire more rounds into a crowd is likely to result in more deaths and that having to reload more often provides more opportunities for escape and defense and also reduces the time a gunman spends firing may seem obvious and trivial, but it has been strongly argued that reducing magazine capacity will have no impact on mass killing. (See, for example, LaPierre, December 23, 2012: “It’s not gonna work.” ) The data suggests that these two variables are correlated and that assertions to the contrary are incorrect. According to the math, physics and evidence from actual mass killings, reducing the capacity of the magazine reduces the capability of the killer.
Image: “Bullet Through Banana“, Harold Edgerton, 1964 | <urn:uuid:a63f99d4-30ff-4f7f-ab97-0beede8cdbb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kevinjashton.com/2013/01/24/the-physics-of-mass-killing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956334 | 2,802 | 3.5 | 4 |
IBF Discussion paper
IBF has published a discussion paper ‘The Living Wage approach in agriculture’.
This paper explores how the concept ‘Living Wage’ that is used in industry, can be applied in agriculture as well. Use of this concept may be useful to arrive at a calculation of ‘fair’ prices the agricultural producer should receive for his products.
Farmer with tool in India (Kerala)
Based on existing Living Wage definitions, an example is provided how the Living Wage has been calculated in India. Ideas are developed how to combine Living Wage and production costs in agriculture. The result is a combination of both an ethical approach and market prices that result from supply and demand. Use of the Living Wage concept in agriculture and rural development may result in a better understanding and more problem-oriented solutions at policy level.
The discussion paper can be found at http://www.share4dev.info/kb/documents/5142.pdf | <urn:uuid:eddbf74b-cae6-496e-b0e2-a3d40259ed4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infobridge.org/jml/index.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909484 | 199 | 2.6875 | 3 |
How Hackers Can Take Over Your Facebook Account
Imagine someone using your personal details to do criminal activities online, spread spam and malware to other people. That happens to hundreds of Facebook users everyday. Among those 850 million Facebook users, there are cyber criminals and hackers, who always hacks into Facebook profiles and uses the full name, location, and personal details of that users to do illegal activities. Think about it. This could happen to you.
Are you safe from hackers? Have you followed steps to secure your private information?
How do hackers get in your account?
There are several common ways that hackers use to hack into Facebook accounts. Mostly to steal private information, personal data and to scam other people on the network.
Stealing login information -: It’s by far the easiest way to access another Facebook profile because most people uses very weak and obvious passwords for their accounts and even share’s their passwords with friends.
Using the malware -: This is very popular, specially on Facebook because these hackers easily fool anyone to click and visit a website by scamming them with attractive pictures and false information.
Hacking into Email -: By hacking into someone’s email account, they can reset the Facebook password easily without any trouble.
Unknown apps -: There are thousands of apps on Facebook that easily access users profiles, and provides false information like “check to see how many people view your profile”. There is no possible way to see people who view your profile. Even Facebook security team says it’s impossible. Hackers and scammers use these methods to fool people into giving them what they want through these apps.
How to protect your Facebook account?
There are no special software’s to protect yourself from hackers. It’s all up to you. Follow these simple steps and you will be saving yourself some big trouble.
Enable Secure Browsing -: Go to security settings tab on Facebook -> click on Secure Browsing tab and do the check mark and save the settings. Now you will see your normal Facebook URL change into https:. This is a very important step to protect your profile.
Use a strong Password -: Never use something obvious like a name or your birthday for your password. A strong password needs to be longer than 8 letters. Mix it with numbers and letters. And try to use one capital letter in your password. This applies to all your email and social networking accounts.
Keep your private details to a minimum -: Most users likes to share everything they do on Facebook. That is not a very good idea. We all know that doesn’t end well. Even you know that most of the people on your profile are strangers that you never even talk to. So, always be careful when sharing your personal information.
Don’t click on strange links -: Scammers use very tricky ways to fool you into clicking on their links. Always think twice before clicking on links. Those links can even come from a profile of your closest friend, and they wouldn’t even know about it.
Manage apps -: Go to settings -> apps tab and get rid of all the useless apps on your Facebook profile. Then go to Privacy tab and pesonalize the settings on how those apps use your information and who can see your info.
Enable Login Notifications -: Go to settings -> security and enable login notifications. This will let you know whenever someone tries to access your account. It will sent you a text or an email if hacks into you account and then you can do necessary steps to protect your profile.
If your profile has already been hacked by someone. Visit Facebook help center and follow the instructions.
(All The Images, Trademarks, Logo’s Shown on this Post are the property of their respective owners) | <urn:uuid:428e140d-e2d2-4bae-bbd8-b60ab5d4e719> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freshinfos.com/2012/06/24/how-hackers-can-take-over-your-facebook-account/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917743 | 783 | 2.015625 | 2 |
According to The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, Hilda's coven was a group of six female vampires, founded by one named Hilda. The other members were Mary, Heidi, Anne, Victoria and newborn Noela.
This coven was destroyed between late 1560s and early 1570s when the Volturi accused them for drawing too much attention from mortals, with only two survivors: Heidi, who became their servant due to Chelsea's influence that bound her to the Volturi, and Victoria, who escaped their slaughter.
Hilda changed Heidi, Anne and Mary out of pity to their sad lives as humans. Five years after Anne was changed, she went back to London and changed her younger sister, Victoria. This coven lived happy lives, and they were joined by Noela two years later. All the others in her coven were abused as humans.
They were able to coexist with each other because none of them craved power or authority. The coven met its end when the Volturi, lead by Aro, visited them. Caius accused them of attracting too much attention with the large coven, and Hilda disagreed. Aro proclaimed them guilty despite Hilda's thoughts, and Hilda angrily accused him of lying, and was immediately killed by the guards. The rest of the coven were halted by Jane's gift. Heidi, under the influence of Chelsea's power, decided to join the Volturi. Sensing that the rest of them were going to die even if they surrendered, Victoria yelled for the rest of her coven mates to run. All four of them ran in different directions, but they were quickly caught and killed. Victoria was able to escape thanks to her gift of enhanced self-preservation, and was killed centuries later by Edward Cullen in 2006 as Victoria was trying avenging her mate, James, leaving Heidi as the only survivor.
- Hilda: The leader and founder of the coven. She created Heidi, Anne, Mary and Noela out of pity for their lives. When the Volturi came for them, she proved that her coven had not drawn much attention from humans and that they had presented the coven with one newborn at a time. However, despite her thoughts and testimony, Aro still declared her as a criminal and she was executed.
- Heidi: A member who has the power of physical attraction, who later became the Volturi's "fisher" when they came to destroy her coven and Aro used Chelsea's power to sway her from her coven to theirs. After Victoria's demise, she becomes the only former member that is still alive today.
- Mary: A member who was brought into the coven by Hilda sometime before Victoria. She was executed by the Volturi.
- Anne: Victoria's older sister. She was transformed into a vampire when Victoria was 12 years old. By the time her sister turned 18, she had learned to control her instincts enough to go back for her. After hearing how life had been for her sister, she decided to change her into a vampire. She was later executed by the Volturi.
- Victoria: Anne's younger sister who had the power of enhanced self-preservation. When her sister disappeared, she did her best to survive on her own and eventually landed a job before Anne found her and turned her into a vampire. 2 years after her transformation, the Volturi came and destroyed her coven. However, she escaped with her life in tact and mated with James. When he died at the hands of the Cullens, she built an army of newborn vampires in attempt to destroy them. She was eventually killed by Edward Cullen during the battle.
- Noela: A newborn vampire who was brought into the coven 2 years after Victoria joined them. She was the last member to join the coven, and was still a newborn when the Volturi executed her.
| Olympic • Volturi • Denali|
Amazon • Benito's • Egyptian • French • Hilda's • Irish • James's • Mexican • Romanian • Sancar's • Seattle | <urn:uuid:1c6124de-2910-4c78-be5b-bd7e9ea98225> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://twilightsaga.wikia.com/wiki/Hilda's_coven?diff=prev&oldid=560571 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991587 | 841 | 2.328125 | 2 |
We all love transparency, since it makes your desktop so beautiful and lovely—so today we’re going to show you how to apply transparency to the panels in your Ubuntu Gnome setup. It’s an easy process, and here’s how to do it.
This article is the first part of a multi-part series on how to customize the Ubuntu desktop, written by How-To Geek reader and ubergeek, Omar Hafiz.
Making the Gnome Panels Transparent
Of course we all love transparency, It makes your desktop so beautiful and lovely. So you go for enabling transparency in your panels , you right click on your panel, choose properties, go to the Background tab and make your panel transparent. Easy right? But instead of getting a lovely transparent panel, you often get a cluttered, ugly panel like this:
Fortunately it can be easily fixed, all we need to do is to edit the theme files. If your theme is one of those themes that came with Ubuntu like Ambiance then you’ll have to copy it from /usr/share/themes to your own .themes directory in your Home Folder. You can do so by typing the following command in the terminal
cp -R /usr/share/themes/theme_name ~/.themes
Note: don’t forget to substitute theme_name with the theme name you want to fix.
But if your theme is one you downloaded then it is already in your .themes folder. Now open your file manager and navigate to your home folder then do to .themes folder. If you can’t see it then you probably have disabled the “View hidden files” option. Press Ctrl+H to enable it.
Now in .themes you’ll find your previously copied theme folder there, enter it then go to gtk-2.0 folder. There you may find a file named “panel.rc”, which is a configuration file that tells your panel how it should look like. If you find it there then rename it to “panel.rc.bak”. If you don’t find don’t panic! There’s nothing wrong with your system, it’s just that your theme decided to put the panel configurations in the “gtkrc” file.
Open this file with your favorite text editor and at the end of the file there is line that looks like this “include “apps/gnome-panel.rc””. Comment out this line by putting a hash mark # in front of it. Now it should look like this “# include “apps/gnome-panel.rc””
Save and exit the text editor. Now change your theme to any other one then switch back to the one you edited. Now your panel should look like this:
Stay tuned for the second part in the series, where we’ll cover how to change the color and fonts on your panels.
Programmer by day, geek by night, The Geek, also known as Lowell Heddings, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 02/16/11 | <urn:uuid:2d7f02af-6a00-4629-9507-551d21f44a48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/43673/how-to-make-the-gnome-panels-in-ubuntu-totally-transparent/?showcomments=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917918 | 687 | 1.539063 | 2 |
A Japanese research group has developed a solid state lithium battery that appears to perform just as well as conventional liquid lithium ion batteries. The group has published their results in Nature Materials and claim to have found a solid electrolyte that performs on a par with current liquid technology, and does so over a much broader temperature range and because its solid should be more compact as well as less sensitive to physical damage and fire hazard.
Lithium ion batteries are currently used in a wide variety of consumer electronics (and electric vehicles) due to their energy density, re-chargeability and slow loss of power when not in use. The problem with them has been that they are rather fussy due to the liquid electrolyte that serve as the means of moving ions from negative to positive electrodes. Because of these problems, researchers have spent a considerable amount of time and money over the last few years trying to develop a solid type of lithium battery that would have all the good characterizes of the liquid batteries without the negatives. Until now, such efforts have been rather fruitless as most solid state lithium batteries have not been able to conduct as much ions, or were unstable or sensitive to temperature variations.
The new material discovered by the Japanese team still uses lithium to move the ions, but covers it with a crystal lattice that creates pores for the ions to pass through when pushed, but holds them still when theyre not. Made of sulfur, phosphorus and germanium, the outer structure creates the channels through which the ions are able to move.
In tests performed by the team, batteries with the new material demonstrated conductivity equal to existing lithium ion batteries, which they say is about double that of other solid state lithium batteries. In addition, they say the battery works in temperatures ranging from 100°C to -100°C.
The team also noted in the paper that the process of making the new material is relatively simple and inexpensive though exact details were not given.
If such new batteries can be mass produced and introduced into actual products, its likely to lead to a reduction in prices for consumer electronics, but especially so for electric vehicles as the battery alone in many make up nearly half its price.
The authors of the paper didnt specify how close they were to bringing their new technology to market.
Via Ars Technica
Explore further: Solar and lithium ion car race winners announced
More information: Nature Materials (2011) doi:10.1038/nmat3066 | <urn:uuid:f90bdcde-2ab2-4924-97a4-11a8c67bf358> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/news/2011-08-group-superior-solid-state-lithium.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969122 | 496 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Posts tagged government
Posts tagged government
Milton Friedman, Modern Macroeconomics: Its Origins, Development and Current State (2005)
Mises Daily: Tuesday, December 06, 2011 by Murray N. Rothbard
According to the single-tax theory, individuals have the natural right to own themselves and the property they create. Hence they have the right to own the capital and consumer goods they produce. Land, however (meaning all original gifts of nature), is a different matter, they say. Land is God-given. Being God-given, none can justly belong to any individual; all land properly belongs to society as a whole.
Single taxers do not deny that land is improved by man; forests are cleared, soil is tilled, houses and factories are built. But they would separate the economic value of the improvements from the basic, or “site,” value of the original land. The former would continue to be owned by private owners; the latter would accrue to “society” — that is, to society’s representative, the government. Rather than nationalize land outright, the single taxers would levy a 100 percent tax on the annual land rent — the annual income from the site — which amounts to the same thing as outright nationalization.
By Jeff Berwick, The Dollar Vigilante Posted Thursday, 27 October 2011
Slowly, as Americans are waking up to the fasco-communist police state that surrounds them and realize that the economy in the US will never recover until after the US dollar hyperinflates into worthlessness, we receive more and more emails with sad stories and desperate cries for help.
The stories are often truly sad and usually entail abuse by the police or the state or being wiped out by the corrupt educational system or medical system which are fascist systems now designed to indebt and take as much wealth from Americans as possible.
There is nothing we can do to change the past, obviously. Where we can help, however, is in the here and now.
* * *
. . . 99% of people have no idea what is going on and will be shocked when many of the things they were told to believe, such as the US being the freest and richest country on earth, turns out to be false. By being aware of what is going on politically and economically in the world today you are ahead of the game. As things begin to collapse you will see and know what is happening ahead of most people thereby enabling yourself to position yourself ahead of the crowds.
* * *
Thomas Jefferson once stated, “A government big enough to give you everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.”
After decades of the government “giving” many Americans everything they need through welfare and socialist wealth transfer schemes, the US is coming out on the other end where the government and the Federal Reserve have now destroyed the US economy to the point of ruin and they will soon go after everything you have to keep itself alive.
For those who have already been financially destroyed by the system, hang in there and follow some of the advice above. For those who have been lucky enough to keep your assets in tact to this point, move now to protect them from the prying claws of government as it strains to drag you down with it.
Click here to read entire article for specific suggestions on how to save yourself and your loved ones from the coming economic and political apocalypse.
How the price system works in a free market economy: Part 1 of 2
Uploaded by LearnLiberty on Jun 22, 2011
Why are prices important? Prof. Daniel J. Smith of Troy University describes the role that prices play in generating, gathering, and transmitting information throughout the economy. Information about the supply and demand of different goods are dispersed among different buyers and sellers in an economy. Nobody has to know all this dispersed information; individuals only need to know the relative prices. Based on the simple information contained in a price, people adjust their behavior to account for conditions in supply and demand, even if they are unaware of that information.
A question of scale.
TIP OF THE ICEBERG
Many economists believe the boom and bust effects of the business cycle can be largely smoothed over by government increasing or decreasing the money supply.
If this is true, the question we have to be asking ourselves is:
Q: How did we get into this predicament in the first place?
A: Our political masters have been printing our way to prosperity.
“Government intervention begets government controls and regulations. When you replace the automatic workings of the gold standard with a government controlled fiat standard, you must regulate and control things like money supply and financial leverage, since the discipline of the market has been replaced with the discipline of the government.” Paul Nathan, paulnathan.biz
All we need to know about politicians is 1. It isn’t their money and 2. Nothing is more important to them then getting reelected. Asking for fiscal discipline from them is akin to asking John Dillinger to guard Fort Knox. In regards to Dillinger, Congress and Ben Bernanke’s actions we know what’s going to happen – Dillinger would rob Ft. Knox and both Congress and the Federal Reserve are going to create, give away and spend money in unbelievable amounts to keep the system afloat. | <urn:uuid:56b6cda6-b2ab-44c9-a863-704b536b5916> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bankerpigs.tumblr.com/tagged/government | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95827 | 1,112 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Dangerous Missile Battle In Space Over Europe: Fifth Act In U.S. Missile Shield Drama
September 29, 2009
Dangerous Missile Battle In Space Over Europe:
Fifth Act In U.S. Missile Shield Drama
Wars have brought untold horrors upon Europe over the centuries, especially the two world wars of the last one. Until now, though, the continent has been spared the ultimate cataclysm of a missile war.
Though twenty years after the end of the Cold War recent news articles contain reports that would have been shocking even during the depths of the East-West conflict in Europe that followed World War II.
A dispatch quoting a Finnish defense official two days ago bore the title “US could launch missiles from the Baltic Sea” and a U.S. armed forces website yesterday spoke in reference to proposed missile shield plans of “a big, complex, dangerous battle in the space over Europe.”
On September 28 a feature called “BMD fleet plans Europe defense mission” appeared in the Navy Times which reported that “Ballistic-missile defense warships have become the keystone in a new national strategy….Rather than field sensors and missiles on the ground in Poland and the Czech Republic, the U.S. will first maintain a presence of at least two or three Aegis BMD ships in the waters around Europe, starting in 2011.”
This development is in keeping with U.S Pentagon chief Robert Gates’ presentation of September 17 in which, confirming President Obama’s announcement to replace and supplement his predecessor’s project of placing ten ground-based interceptor missiles in Poland and a complementary radar installation in the Czech Republic, he laid out a three-step strategy to enhance (his word) U.S. missile shield plans in Europe.
In a Defense Department briefing with Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James Cartwright, Gates explained the logic behind the shift.
“Over the last few years, we have made great strides with missile defense, particularly in our ability to counter short-and-medium-range missiles. We now have proven capabilities to intercept these ballistic missiles with land-and-sea-based interceptors supported by much-improved sensors.
“These capabilities offer a variety of options to detect, track and shoot down enemy missiles. This allows us to deploy a distributive sensor network rather than a single fixed site, like the kind slated for the Czech Republic, enabling greater survivability and adaptability.”
That is, as Russian officials have over the past two years openly stated that the stationary missile radar facility intended for the Czech Republic and silo-based missiles planned for Poland would be targeted by their own missiles if the U.S. went ahead with the deployments, mobile and rapidly deployable alternatives would have, in Gates’ terms, “greater survivability and adaptability.”
Land-based facilities are easy to monitor and, if the suspicion arose that they would be part of an imminent first strike attack, neutralize.
Sea-based, air-based and space-based surveillance and missile deployments would be harder – if not impossible – to track and to take out.
Referring to the hitherto exclusively ship-based Standard Missile-3 (SM-3), which nineteen months ago proved capable of shooting down a satellite in space, Gates offered further details:
“We have…improved the Standard Missile 3, the SM-3, which has had eight successful flight tests since 2007. These tests have amply demonstrated the SM-3′s capability and have given us greater confidence in the system and its future….In the initial stage, we will deploy Aegis ships equipped with SM-3 interceptors, which provide the flexibility to move interceptors from one region to another if needed.”
The second stage of the Pentagon’s updated European missile shield program will entail the basing of “upgraded, land-based SM-3s.”
“Consultations have begun with allies, starting with Poland and the Czech Republic, about hosting a land-based version of the SM-3 and other components of the system,” Gates revealed.
In language that progressively reflected what sounds like plans to withstand a first – or second strike – in Europe’s first missile war, Gates added, “Over time, this architecture is designed to continually incorporate new and more effective technologies, as well as more interceptors, expanding the range of coverage, improving our ability to knock down multiple targets and increasing the survivability of the overall system.
“This approach also provides us with greater flexibility to adapt to developing threats and evolving technologies….”
The threat repeatedly invoked by the Pentagon chief was, of course, Iran. The inverted logic of the earlier George W. Bush administration program, of which Gates himself was a major architect, ran something like this: Missiles in Poland and an X-band long-range radar installation in the Czech Republic would protect the continental United States from Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles, which the nation neither possesses nor, as both Gates and Obama themselves conceded on September 17, was likely to in the foreseeable future.
But once the U.S. went ahead with the deployments Iran could target both sites with medium-range missiles, the argument continued. So America pledged to station 96 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles in batteries manned by U.S. soldiers who would be based in Poland for the first time.
Thus Poland and the Czech Republic were transformed from sites for missile shield deployments to allegedly protect the U.S. to potential targets that needed to be protected by…the U.S.
The Patriot missiles in Poland, which are still slated to be sent and activated there, can no longer be presented as protecting American ground-based interceptor missiles in that nation, as that plan was officially scrapped twelve days ago. So why are they going to be deployed in spite of that?
The Patriot deployment was never intended to defend Poland against Iranian attacks, but to counter Russian plans to station mobile short-range missiles in its non-contiguous territory of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland, in response to what Russia necessarily viewed as a threat to its strategic missile forces. Bluntly put, U.S. ground-based missiles in Poland could be part of a system to destroy whatever long-range missiles Russia had left after a U.S. and NATO first strike.
As adviser to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Slawomir Nowak, was quoted on September 24 as admitting, “We were never really threatened by a long-range missile attack from Iran.”
Six days afterward Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski confirmed that 96 Patriot missiles will be deployed in his nation as scheduled and, moreover, will be armed.
As their deployment can no longer exploit the pretext of defending U.S. long-range missile sites from imaginary Iranian “preemptive” attacks, its purpose is demonstrated to be what missile shield opponents have always asserted it was: To “protect” Poland from Russia.
The Polish newspaper that first revealed the shift in U.S. missile designs in Europe weeks before the event, the Gazeta Wyborcza, reported on September 25 some details of the new system as it will affect Poland:
“The concept would include a stationary rocket battery and possibly a number of mobile interceptor launchers. This might be a supplement to the envisaged American system of SM-3 naval based anti-rockets. Polish military experts say that equally important would be US military presence in Poland, which would provide an additional security guarantee.”
What mobile missile launchers ready for practically overnight deployment to Russia’s neighbor might look like was indicated at last month’s annual Space and Missile Defense Conference held by the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency in Huntsville, Alabama where the prototype of a nearly 50,000-pound “two-stage interceptor designed to be globally deployable within 24 hours” to be stationed as needed at NATO bases throughout Europe was presented by the arms manufacturer eager to produce it, Chicago-based Boeing Company.
In his September 17th briefing at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Gates also announced plans to “deploy new sensors and interceptors, in northern and southern Europe.” He tactfully did not specify where in the north and south of the continent the “capabilities…to detect, track and shoot down enemy missiles” would be placed, but their likely destinations are not hard to determine.
The former head of the Russian Strategic Missile Force, General Viktor Yesin, commented last week on one probability:
“Now we only need to be sure that the U.S. plans with regard to strengthening the ABM capability will not create a situation where warships armed with such systems will be moved from the North and Mediterranean seas to the Black Sea, which would pose a threat to Russia’s strategic nuclear forces.”
An analyst from the same country, Sergei Roy, gave vent to similar apprehensions in a roundtable discussion in Russia Profile on September 25:
“If anything, that episode [projected U.S. radar in the Czech Republic to be aimed at Russia and not Iran], like so many others in recent history, should teach Russians to view any U.S. move in ABM defense (as in any other ‘defense’ area) with sober caution rather than credulous enthusiasm. My first idea on hearing of Obama opting for sea-based Standard-3 anti-missiles instead of those in Poland was: ‘hey, which sea?’ If it’s the Mediterranean and the North Sea, that’s OK, but what about the Black Sea or, God forbid, the Baltic? Those missiles will be much closer to Russia, while still in international waters or those of Ukraine or Georgia (why not Estonia’s, then?), and who will give a written guarantee that they are strictly anti-missile missiles? What about those early warning radar stations? Will they be based in Israel and Turkey – or in Georgia and/or Ukraine?”
The Gazeta Wyborcza last month broke the news that the Pentagon intended to shift major missile shield emphasis to the Balkans, Israel and Turkey. Subsequent reports have focused on the South Caucasus nations of Georgia and Azerbaijan as locations for the extension of missile interception networks closer to Iran and to Russia’s southern border.
The Navy Times report cited at the beginning of this piece discussed the transfer of missile shield hardware and priority to the Balkans, the Black Sea region and the Middle East and mentioned as an example the USS Stout, an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer. Last summer the ship had been deployed for naval maneuvers in the Eastern Mediterranean with Israel and Turkey [Operation Reliant Mermaid] and then moved into the Black Sea in its first deployment as part of the Pentagon’s Aegis sea-based interceptor missile system. The USS Stout visited NATO members Bulgaria and Romania and NATO candidate nation Georgia while on the Black Sea mission. While visiting the third country it participated in a joint military exercise with its host’s navy directly south of Abkhazia, which could be the site of a fresh Caucasus war at any moment.
At least as far back as February of 2008, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency director of the time, Lieutenant General Henry Obering, spoke of adding a third interceptor missile component to those intended for Poland and the Czech Republic, saying that “The powerful, ‘forward based’ radar system would go in southeastern Europe, possibly in Turkey, the Caucasus or the Caspian Sea region….”
So the expansion of the American and NATO missile interception system along a new trajectory that starts in the Balkans and progresses along Russia’s southern border and eastward towards China’s is nothing new.
The implementation of it currently being witnessed is new. And dangerous. Innovations in the interceptor missile system devised by the Pentagon will place greater emphasis on “ballistic-missile defense warships” to be deployed and moved around “in the waters around Europe.”
“Europe there will be a need for more, modernized cruisers capable of firing the SM-3 and more advanced missiles to come. This might have an effect on the ultimate Navy build program.”
As one American missile expert phrased it, the commanders of such vessels have been put “on a par with [ballistic-missile submarine] commanders.”
The Pentagon’s project of stationing as many as 100 SM-s, initially, on ships off the coasts of European nations and on their territory could lead to a situation in which “a BMD captain could be responsible for a big, complex, dangerous battle in the space over Europe, needing to fire dozens of missiles to try to destroy dozens of attackers.”
The immediate reference was to Iran, again, but with implications for Russia as missile killer ship deployments in the Baltic and Black Seas would not be limited to or even primarily directed at Iran.
In a September 27 news article from an Icelandic source called “US could launch missiles from the Baltic Sea” spokesperson for the Department of Strategic and Defence Studies at Finland’s National Defence University, Commander Juha-Antero Puistola, stated “If the idea is to create this type of mobile platform, then some of the ships can well be placed in the Baltic. The Aegis cruisers have always been moved wherever needed.”
On the following day Russian ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin stated that the U.S. “missile defense program is becoming less predictable with missile shield elements deployed in the Arctic as the worst-case scenario….”
An earlier article in this series – U.S. Missile Shield Plans: Retreat Or Advance? – pointed out that “The major drawback [for the U.S.] of ground-based missiles in Poland is that they would be fixed-site deployments. For several years now Russia has warned that it was prepared to base Iskander theater ballistic missiles in its Kaliningrad region, which borders Poland, should Washington deploy its missiles to that nation.”
Rogozin shared that perspective in acknowledging “We knew for sure that there would be ten interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in Czech Republic, and that we wpuld have our Iskander [missiles] in the Kaliningrad Region…now the U.S. missile elements are to be based on U.S. cruisers, and you can never tell where they will be tomorrow.”
Why he has been so tardy in realizing the threat of U.S. ship- and submarine-based missile and anti-missile plans in the Arctic Ocean is puzzling, as the National Security Presidential Directive of January 9, 2009 made no attempt to disguise the White House’s and the Pentagon’s intentions in that respect. Toward the beginning of the document it is stated:
“The United States has broad and fundamental national security interests in the Arctic region and is prepared to operate either independently or in conjunction with other states to safeguard these interests. These interests include such matters as missile defense and early warning; deployment of sea and air systems for strategic sealift, strategic deterrence, maritime presence, and maritime security operations; and ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight.”
NATO held its first-ever top-level meeting – attended by its secretary general, its two top military commanders and the chairman of its Military Committee – on the Arctic seventeen days after the U.S. National Security Directive was released and also broadcast in no equivocal terms interest in expanding its presence into what it called the High North.
A plan that was outlined yesterday by Rogozin as follows:
“The ice would retreat, it would melt, which means that NATO would definitely be present in the Arctic. They have been planning it for a long time, and under very bad circumstances the U.S. strategic missile defense would arrive there on board these ships.”
An insightful and penetrating commentary appeared in The Nation of Pakistan on September 26 which linked U.S. President Obama’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 23 with his statements on missile defense six days earlier.
The author, Shireen M. Mazari, wrote that “many of us have been living with these periodic highs at the declaratory level on the issue of nuclear arms control and disarmament – till we realize they are merely a rhetorical facade to hide away the growing nuclear arsenals of the nuclear weapon states.”
And if White House pledges to reduce or even eliminate nuclear weapons sound something less than sincere – Ronald Reagan’s 1983 Star Wars speech included a proclaimed commitment “to lower the level of all arms, and particularly nuclear arms” – than so do American pronouncements that the nation’s global missile interception system will eliminate or even diminish the threat of dangerous and perhaps catastrophic confrontations.
The Pakistani writer added:
“So there will be no BMD [Ballistic Missile Defense] placements in Poland and the Czech Republic but there will be BMD systems placed on highly mobile sea platforms to counter a largely imagined threat to Europe and the US from Iran.
“Of course, these ships can be moved easily from the Mediterranean to the Gulf or Indian Ocean so Pakistan would also come into this BMD target loop – again with India being helped in the development and acquisition of BMD as part of its strategic military alliance with the US.
“BMD has also undermined deterrence which was sustained through mutual vulnerabilities.
“Now BMD has focused attention on nuclear war fighting, thereby increasing the danger of nuclear weapons being used in war.
“Unfortunately, while Obama may call for nuclear disarmament, his policy on BMD betrays this rhetoric.”
The preceding paragraphs are as terse yet comprehensive a summation as can be found of the threat the U.S.’s new flexible, mobile and technologically advanced international missile shield strategy presents for raising rather than lowering world tensions, for dropping the threshold of a U.S. and allied missile war being launched because of the perceived invulnerability of the aggressor and, the ultimate worst-case scenario, for nuclear war whether intended or not. A nuclear war which would transform Europe and much of the rest of the world into a gigantic necropolis.
1) Navy Times, September 28, 2009
2) U.S. Department of Defense, September 17, 2009
3) Reuters, September 24, 2009
4) Polish Radio, September 25, 2009
5) Reuters, August 20, 2009
6) Izvestia, September 22, 2009
7) Russia Profile, September 25, 2009
8) Reuters, February 12, 2008
9) Navy Times, September 28, 2009
10) Defense Procurement News, September 18, 2009
11) Navy Times, September 28, 2009
12) Ice News, September 27, 2009
13) Russian Information Agency Novosti, September 28, 2009
14) Stop NATO, September 17, 2009
15) Russian Information Agency Novosti, September 28, 2009
17) Russian Information Agency Novosti, September 28, 2009
18) Shireen M. Mazari, The facade of nuclear disarmament
The Nation, September 26, 2009 | <urn:uuid:b586f310-b89f-4d51-ad6a-8ca4ed0d4dde> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/dangerous-missile-battle-in-space-over-europe-fifth-act-in-u-s-missile-shield-drama/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948998 | 4,053 | 1.882813 | 2 |
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- This morning at 11:30 a.m., several West Virginia reform groups are to rally at the Legislature to protest the corrupting influence of money in elections. West Virginians for Democracy, the state Citizen Action Group and others will assemble in the rotunda under the gold dome of the State Capitol.
They're trying to reverse harm done to America's political process by several notorious U.S. Supreme Court decisions, as follows:
In 1976, in the Buckley v. Valeo case, conservative justices ruled that cash equals "free speech," therefore laws can't limit sums that millionaires and billionaires donate to buy campaign ads. Most of their money goes to Republicans, much of it for smear "spots" on television. Thanks to the Buckley ruling, the rich have vastly more "free speech" than other Americans. With no limits on contributions, they can try to buy elections.
In 1978, in the Bellotti case, conservative justices ruled that corporations, as well as people, enjoy "free speech" and thus may give money for political ads.
In 2010, in the Citizens United case, conservative justices reiterated that corporations are "persons" who are entitled to the same free speech as other Americans. Therefore, huge firms can dump millions into elections, mostly to back conservative candidates. Often the donors hide their identities by giving through front committees.
During the 2012 election, some Democrats feared that the avalanche of cash from corporations and the wealthy would sweep President Obama from office. Amid the heat of the campaign, The Los Angeles Times warned:
"The rich are on track to own the 2012 federal elections. Most candidates without wealthy patrons will be out of the mix. Voters' choices will be limited to those candidates who are most beholden to a tiny group of the most influential donors."
Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson poured more than $100 million into Republican Mitt Romney's campaign. Other tycoons gave lesser fortunes. They failed -- but Adelson vows to spend even more in 2014 and 2016.
Maverick Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said this cash flow threatens to give America a government "of the rich, by the rich, for the rich."
The reformers who will rally this morning want the Legislature to join a national attempt to change the U.S. Constitution. "West Virginia could be the 12th state to call for an amendment to get big money out of politics," the groups say.
Revising the Constitution requires a difficult, lengthy struggle. We don't know whether there's any realistic chance of success. But we don't know any other way to curb the corrupting flood of cash that taints American elections. | <urn:uuid:c557c7ae-520f-4c4b-ab4b-2cbc2179319a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/Editorials/201302180069 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947953 | 548 | 1.671875 | 2 |
L.A. City Affordable Housing Policy
Mello Act Compliance: The Mello Act is a California State Law that requires all development within the coastal zone (1 mile from the coast) to include affordable housing. In 1998, POWER member group Venice Community Housing Corporation along with other neighborhood associations, sued the City of Los Angeles for not enforcing the Mello Act. In 2001, this group won a settlement forcing local developers to either set aside 20% of their units as low-income housing or 10% of their units as very low-income housing. The first real test of this agreement is a new 296 unit development in Venice proposed by the largest development corporation in the U.S.: Trammell Crow Residential. Yet, Trammell Crow refused to comply with the Mello Act and include affordable housing in this development.
POWER leaders fought for the past year on multiple levels of local government to ensure Trammell Crow’s compliance with the Mello Act. Hundreds of POWER leaders worked to make presentations at local area planning committee meetings, held briefings with every member of the Los Angeles City Council to win their support and launched a letter writing and phone campaign targeting our local City Council member Cindy Miscikowski. POWER also met with key figures of the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee and successfully exposed a conflict of interest with a Trammell Crow consultant.
L.A. County Affordable Housing Policy
The County’s Proposed Marina Housing Policy Dilutes the Requirement to Provide Housing for Low-Income and Working Class Families in the Marina, County Owned Land
We are at the height of a housing crisis. Because of a state law called the Mello Act, Marina del Rey, which is County owned, is perhaps the only area in the County where improving the community doesn’t have to mean getting rid of all of the low-income and working class people. But the County has proposed a housing policy for Marina del Rey that pulls the rug out from under the Mello Act and under the people who are most in need of housing. Instead of creating a strong affordable housing requirement, the County policy bends over backwards to create loopholes and exemptions to ensure that developers can maximize profit, even if it means affordable units area lost and never replaced, and even if it means thatwe get less new affordable housing that we desperately need.
The Mello Act requires that if it is feasible to provide housing for persons and families of low or moderate income at a new housing development in the coastal zone, that housing must be provided. But the County has found every possible way to help developers ignore or avoid this law that protects us. The County’ Policy:
- Requires that new developments contain only 5% Very Low or 10% Low income units, even though right next door in Venice, developers have been complying with the City’s standard of 10% Very Low or 20% Low income.
- Allows developers to subtract any number of units already on the site.
- Allows developers to subtract any number of density bonus units.
As a result, a 100 unit project that could feasibly provide 10 units of affordable housing may only have to provide 2.5 units under the County’s Policy (given a 5% inclusionary requirement, a 25% density bonus reduction and a 25% reduction based on 25 pre-existing units).
The Policy needs to ensure that what little affordable housing we have is replaced if it is destroyed. Instead, the Policy is full of developer friendly loopholes:
- The Policy says that a developer can replace a unit that was afforable to households with Extremely Low ($16,500/year), Very Low ($27,000/year) or Low ($44,000/year) incomes with a unit that is affordable to a Moderate income household ($66,000/year).
- The Policy says that a developer can put replacement units anywhere in the coastal zone.
- The Policy says that only bedrooms—as opposed to actual units—housing lower income people have to be replaced.
So the Policy easily allows a developer to destroy a very low income family’s home in the Marina and replace it with a housing unit in San Pedro with fewer bedrooms that’s affordable only to a Moderate income family. That is not replacement housing. And that is not what the Mello Act requires.
The Policy cuts down the number of units that have to be replaced through more loopholes that allows under-counting of units tht have to be replaced.
- The Policy says that developers don’t have to count:
- units occupied by resident managers
- units occupied by sub-lessees
- units occupied by students whose parents claim them as dependents, or whose parents guarantee the rent, even if the students are paying the rend themselves
- units that are vacant as early on in the process as commencement of term sheet negotiations
- The Policy requires roommates to be unrelated and financially independent of each other in order for their incomes to be counted separately.
The Policy allows off-site rehabilitated units to count as the developer’s affordable housing obligation. In other words, a developer could take an affordable unit off the market in the Marina and replace it with a rehabilitated unit outside of the Marina. Because rehabilitation is cheaper than new construction, developers have an incentive to build off-site.
STAND UP! SPEAK OUT! FIGHT BACK!
Contact us for more information: (310) 392-9700. | <urn:uuid:8cf94c41-1020-47c6-92d0-73a0c8ac183a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.power-la.org/campaigns/housing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937859 | 1,129 | 2 | 2 |
Seen at the signing of the Viet Nam Veterans’ proclamation, left to right are Larry Myers, Senior Vice-Commander of the Disabled American Veterans, Mayor David Webb, and Rick Carter, Legion Commander.
The Vietnam War began Aug. 7, 1964, continuing until March 29, 1973. It was an unpopular war, spurring protests and civil unrest. U.S. military casualties of that war numbered 47,434 killed in action, 10,786 died from non-combat related injuries, and 153,303 troops were wounded. Many of the troops suffered neurological and psychological trauma due to the brutality of the war. In addition, many Viet Nam Veterans were exposed to Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant which causes various diseases including cancers, and birth defects in their children.
Due to several factors, Viet Nam Veterans were ill-treated when they arrived home. There were no parades to welcome them after they served their country. Many faced job discrimination and personal indignities, even “being spat on”.
The City of Altus seeks to right a national wrong by celebrating “Viet Nam Veterans Welcome Home Day”. Altus City Mayor David Webb said in the proclamation for the day, “Our Viet Nam Veterans and Viet Nam Era Veterans are living history of a bygone war - popular or not - and should be given the honored recognition that any returning soldier receives.” Webb has proclaimed Saturday, April 14 as “Viet Nam Veterans Welcome Home Day” in Altus. Webb asked, “all citizens to encourage friends and family to welcome home our Viet Nam and Viet Nam Era Veterans as any returning soldier should be.” | <urn:uuid:4b71f1f3-177a-4eb8-ae9a-2ef4e4088106> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.altustimes.com/pages/home/push?x_page=85&class=&per_page=5&rel=prev | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960664 | 343 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Receive Relics of St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Theologian from Pope John Paul
Nov 22, 2004
New York, NY - Responding to the request of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of over 250 million Orthodox Christians around the world, and recognizing the importance of St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Theologian to Orthodox Christians around the world, Pope John Paul II has agreed to return the relics of these two great Fathers of the Church and Ecumenical Teachers to their original resting place in the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will travel to The Vatican to officially receive the relics from the Pope in a ceremony on November 27, 2004 and accompany them to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope John Paul have both emphasized reconciliation between the two churches, split since 1054. The return of the relics is a step towards such reconciliation.
His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America will be in Rome for the ceremonies of the handing over of the sacred relics of the two Saints and Fathers of the Church. Also present there will be His Eminence Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore whom Archbishop Demetrios invited in order for the two of them to represent the faithful of the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church in America in such an auspicious event for both Churches.
Accompanying His All Holiness when he returns the relics will be a delegation including His Eminence Walter Cardinal Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, and other Catholic hierarchs and officials. Because of his frail condition the Pope will not be able to attend. Upon their arrival, a Pan-Orthodox Ceremony will be held, and the relics will be enshrined in the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George.
The relics of St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Theologian were taken from Constantinople in 1204 by mercenary crusaders. They ended up in Rome where they have been kept in St. Peter's Basilica.
Both Saints were famed preachers, theologians and predecessors of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the throne of Constantinople, St. Gregory from 379 to 381 and St. John from 398 to 404. St. John Chrysostom, meaning Golden Mouth, is considered by theologians to be the foremost orator and preacher for the Orthodox Church. Orthodox Christians worldwide follow his words as they participate in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. St. Gregory, an intellectual, theologian and religious leader, is known as the most eloquent voice in the Second Ecumenical Synod (Constantinople, A.D.381), which completed the Nicene Creed as we know it today.
Contact: Nikki Stephanopoulos
Marissa P. Costidis
- Address of His Beatitude Ieronymos at the Graduation Ceremony of Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
- Primate of the Church of Greece Meets with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Visits Harvard University
- Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Opens Seminar on Religious Freedom Celebrating the 1700th Anniversary of the Edict of Milan
- Archbishop Ieronymos Makes Emotional Visit and Lays Wreath at the Site of the Boston Marathon Terrorist Attack | <urn:uuid:d3bde27f-7742-4a1d-979c-8b00773c0004> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goarch.org/news/goa.news1242 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920723 | 708 | 1.53125 | 2 |
New U.S. homes burn faster, but states resist sprinklers
NEW YORK, Aug. 10 |
NEW YORK, Aug. 10 (Reuters) - In Scottsdale, Arizona, any new home must come equipped with fire sprinklers, a decades-old rule lauded by fire safety advocates nationwide. But 12 miles away in Phoenix, city officials are not even allowed to discuss adopting a requirement like Scottsdale's, because of a state law passed last year.
The same is true in Texas, Alabama, Kansas and Hawaii, where in the past four years state governments have enacted bills forbidding cities and towns from requiring sprinklers in new homes. A dozen have forbidden statewide building code councils from including the requirement in their guidelines.
Advocates - including firefighters, fire safety groups and the sprinkler industry - say sprinklers are needed more than ever in new homes because of builders' heavy use of prefabricated construction materials. The materials burn faster, firefighters say, causing more destruction and making rescue attempts more difficult.
The state laws forbidding sprinkler requirements are unprecedented, public-safety advocates say, and underscore the political clout of the home-building and real estate industries. A Reuters review of lobbying records from five states that considered sprinkler legislation since 2009 shows the groups grossly outspent fire sprinkler advocates.
"This is the only code provision that I'm aware of in 30 years of being in this business, where we've seen a preemptive strike that says, 'You can't even consider it. It's not allowed,'" said Gary Keith, vice president of field operations for the National Fire Protection Association, a nonprofit advocacy organization. "That's unheard of with any other kind of provision."
Four years ago the landscape looked strikingly different. Coming off the housing market's peak years, scores of cities adopted fire sprinkler rules despite opposition from builders. And in 2009 sprinkler advocates cheered when the International Code Council, a nonprofit organization that develops national model building codes, voted that fire sprinklers should be required in all new one- and two-family homes.
Then came the worst housing market in U.S. history and a fragile economic recovery. Against that backdrop, lobbyists for the home-building industry, which opposes mandatory sprinklers, gained traction with lawmakers. Even as home building picks up after years of stagnation -- the U.S. Census Bureau projects more than 500,000 single-family housing starts this year -- many lawmakers remain wary of sprinkler regulations.
"When you start mandating a fire sprinkler system, you are going to price a lot of people out of these new homes," said Ned Munoz, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Texas Association of Home Builders, which lobbied heavily for anti-sprinkler legislation.
Although preemptive state laws have been imposed in other public-health policy areas, laws preempting building or fire safety regulations are unheard of, said Mark Pertschuk, an expert on preemptive laws with the Prevention Institute, a California nonprofit organization funded by private health foundations, government agencies and public health groups.
"They haven't just taken away local control," Pertschuk said. "They've stopped the community debate about public safety and health."
Most cities have required sprinklers in larger multifamily residences for decades. Fire safety advocates want to extend the requirement to all single-family homes, often citing the widespread use of lightweight construction, a building technique that relies on prefabricated and engineered wood products.
Designed to carry a greater load with less material, the prefabricated components are made from real or man-made wood fragments held together by glue or metal fasteners. The materials are commonly used to frame roofs and flooring. Assembled in factories and shipped to construction sites, these building components significantly cut down on construction time and cost. Builders also say the materials are better for the environment, because they use less wood, reducing deforestation.
But both real-life and test fires have shown that structures with lightweight construction burn much faster and collapse sooner than traditional solid-wood frame construction. That, firefighters say, makes fires harder to fight and shortens the time occupants have to escape a blaze.
"Not only is that second floor going to come down on your head in a very short period of time, the roof is going to collapse," said Danny Hunt, fire marshal in Nashville, Tennessee, where he said roughly 90 percent of new homes use lightweight construction.
Lightweight construction was introduced in the 1960s, and became popular in ensuing decades. Today, by their own accounts, the nation's largest builders use the materials extensively in new homes, as do many custom home builders. Firefighters say most homes built in at least the last 20 years contain the materials.
The numbers of fires, deaths and injuries related to lightweight construction are unknown, experts say, because most fire reports don't record the construction method.
Firefighters reported more than 1,300 incidents from 2006 to 2010 in which lightweight construction hurt their ability to suppress fires in single-family or multifamily homes, according to a Reuters analysis of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Fire Incident Reporting System, the nation's largest fire database. At least 90 percent of those homes did not have sprinklers installed. Twenty civilians were killed and at least 260 firefighters and civilians were injured in those fires.
An additional Reuters review of federal and local firefighter fatality investigations found at least nine firefighters killed since 2000 while battling residential lightweight construction fires.
In May a police captain, his wife and two teenage daughters were killed in a Carmel, New York, house fire started by his son's cigarette butt, tossed in mulch. The fire spread so quickly that the house collapsed within 10 minutes, which fire officials attributed to the home's lightweight construction.
"I was there the morning of the fire," said Eric Gross, a Carmel resident who serves as public information officer for the Putnam County Bureau of Emergency Services. "It was horrible. The firemen got there within a matter of minutes, but seconds later the whole roof collapsed. Once the thing came down, that was the end of it. There was nothing they could do."
Sprinkler systems would offset the danger created by lightweight construction, firefighters say. A 2008 survey by the Fire Protection Research Foundation found the systems add an average $1.61 per square foot, or $3,864, to the cost of a new 2,400-square-foot home. Some insurance companies offer policy discounts as high as 10 percent for homes with fire sprinklers.
California and Maryland are the only states that require sprinklers in all new homes.
In many states, builders have successfully argued that sprinklers are not only expensive but also unnecessary, thanks to a drop in fire fatalities related to the widespread installation of fire alarms in the past 30 years. Installing sprinklers, they say, should be a homeowner's choice.
"I'm for fire safety," said Texas State Representative John Otto, a Republican. "But you're taking the decision out of the hands of the homeowner, and you're mandating something that ought to be left to the homeowners."
Otto sponsored the Texas legislation, passed in 2009, forbidding local jurisdictions from requiring sprinklers in new one- and two-family homes. The law's greatest proponents, builder and Realtor trade groups, spent between $1.7 million and $3 million lobbying that year -- at least four times what sprinkler advocates spent.
In Florida, home builders enlisted the political muscle of a former political director for ex-Governor Jeb Bush to lobby state legislators against sprinkler requirements. In 2010 lawmakers voted to block the state code-making body from adopting any sprinkler mandates.
"There's nothing to stop somebody from having a fire sprinkler system installed in their house," said Jack Glenn, technical director for the Florida Home Builders Association. "But to mandate it for the entire population is a very expensive proposition." (Editing by Lee Aitken, Janet Roberts and Douglas Royalty)
- Tweet this
- Share this
- Digg this | <urn:uuid:0d232732-e7dc-448a-96b4-07b630558a4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/10/usa-home-building-fire-sprinklers-idINL2E8J99LR20120810 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950373 | 1,660 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Art Without Artists catalog.
September 27 marks the opening of the exhibition Art Without Artists
at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design at North Carolina State University. Co-curated by Accidental Mysteries creator John Foster and Gregg Museum Director Roger Manley the exhibit showcases over 100 objects from my John Foster's personal collection and scores more from private collections across the country.
The exhibit includes extraordinary objects never intended to be art, most of them made for utilitarian reasons. Foster and Manley selected objects for their ability to make a broad leap from their original function or purpose — to transform into something entirely different to our eyes today. Among the pieces on view: 19th-century firefighting respirator masks, handmade game boards, signage, scientific devices, anonymous snapshots, quilts, and natural objects such as minerals and rocks.
This ability to recontextualize objects today has been helped along by generations of artists, from Pablo Picasso and Jean Dubuffet to Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, John Chamberlain, and so many more. Art Without Artists
will be on exhibit through December 16, 2012, in Raleigh, N.C. Spread from the Art Without Artists catalog. Spread from the Art Without Artists catalog. | <urn:uuid:1c27d4f2-78ee-424f-b4d4-ca98e94b6367> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oblog.designobserver.com/post/art-without-artists/36188/ | 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 | 0.938555 | 247 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Detroit Historical Museum celebrates grand re-opening
New, larger, more up-to-date museum welcomes guests
Detroit's past has a brighter future with the grand re-opening of the Detroit Historical Museum.
A grand re-opening gala was held Saturday night at the museum, in Detroit's cultural center.
Guests toured expanded and new exhibits, ranging from an expanded presentation of Detroit's vital role in the underground railroad to the Kid Rock music gallery, celebrating generations of music linked to Detroit.
The long-time favorite exhibit of the streets of old Detroit remains and is enhanced with new items like the bright blue neon sign that stood atop the roof of old Tiger Stadium.
Many of the new exhibits are interactive.
Museum executive director Bob Bury expressed pride in the $12 million overhaul.
"This night is really the culmination of ten years of planning and fundraising and finding the best way to tell Detroit's history, linking it to the future," Bury said.
Despite the expense of the renovations, admission to the Detroit Historical Museum will be free.
The museum reopens to the public the day after Thanksgiving. | <urn:uuid:0f3bae47-f319-42e9-b633-1d4504b416a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/Detroit-Historical-Museum-celebrates-grand-re-opening/-/1719418/17461480/-/format/rss_2.0/view/print/-/b69j45z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927136 | 231 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Microsoft Project 2010 has a shiny new interface, but that's not all. Under the hood, it contains powerful new scheduling, task management, and view improvements that give you greater control over how you manage and present your projects.
And, if you get a little lost along the way, explore the Project Road Map for 2010. It will teach you project management principles as you use Microsoft Project.
The new version of Project Web Access also has a new look and many new features to help you collaborate with your team.
What's new in Project 2010
Project 2010 introduces several features to dramatically enhance how you see and work with your project.
Introducing the ribbon
When you first start Project 2010, you may be surprised by what you see. The menus and toolbars have been replaced with the ribbon, which helps you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task. Commands are organized in logical groups that are collected together under tabs.
For Project 2010, all tabs and groups on the ribbon are fully customizable. If your organization has features unique to its business, you can group them on their own ribbon tab.
Welcome to the Backstage
Click the File tab and you are in the Backstage, a one-stop graphical destination for managing your project files. The Backstage contains the same basic commands available on the File menu in earlier versions of Microsoft Project to open, save, and print project files. Project Professional 2010 users can also use the Backstage to manage their Project Server connections, and to check out and publish projects.
The Options command that was on the Tools menu has been moved into the Backstage. This command opens the Project Options dialog box, where you can enter, review, or change preferences controlling how Microsoft Project works and appears.
Find commands quickly
The most commonly used commands can now be found with one click — one right-click, that is. When you right-click any item in a view, such as bar, table cell, or chart, a mini-toolbar with a list of commonly used commands is displayed. When you're in a hurry, this is one way of using project that will pay you back in time saved.
Top of Page
New viewing options
New viewing features have also been added to help you understand with greater clarity how your team is performing and where they are overallocated. Project can also help you and others in your organization see the big picture (and potentially major resource problems) with the Timeline view.
The team planner
Project Professional 2010 users now have the team planner, a resource scheduling view that lets you interact with your schedule in a way that hasn't been possible before in earlier versions of Project. With the Team Planner view you can see at a glance what your team members are working on and move tasks from one person to another. You can also view and assign unassigned work, view overallocations, and see task names as well as resource names — all in one efficient view. Managing your task and resources has never been so easy. For example, if a resource is overallocated, all you need to do is drag a task from one resource to another, and the overallocation disappears.
Fig. 1 A task that is behind schedule. This task could be dragged to Tom or Cheryl, who aren't doing any work.
Fig. 2 A task that is on schedule.
Fig. 3 Tasks that are currently unassigned. These could be dragged to Tom or Cheryl, who aren't doing any work.
Project 2010 includes a timeline view that is automatically displayed above other views, showing a concise overview of the entire schedule. You can add tasks to the timeline and even print it for an attractive summary report of the entire project. Or you can paste it into an e-mail for an instant report with no fuss.
Top of Page
Easier view customization
Manipulating views has often been challenging in Project. No longer. Take a look at the new ways you can orchestrate how your project is presented and controlled.
Add new columns quickly
Adding new columns to Project is greatly simplified. Simply click the Add New Column heading at the right end of the sheet portion of a view, and type or select the name of a column. An existing column can also be quickly renamed by clicking on its title and typing a different column name. Customizing a column has never been so easy.
The zoom slider
Project 2010 lets you quickly zoom the timephased part of a view using a zoom slider in the status bar. Simply move the slider to the right to move zoom in (show shorter time intervals, such as days or hours) on your schedule and to the left to zoom out (show longer intervals, such as weeks or months). The zoom slider works in the Gantt Chart, network diagram, and calendar views, as well as in all graph views.
Top of Page
Project 2010 has several scheduling enhancements to improve your control over your schedule. You can also create initial task lists in Microsoft Excel or Word and paste them into Project without having to reformat them.
Project 2010 introduces a major shift in how projects are scheduled. Changes to factors such as task dependencies (task dependencies: A relationship between two linked tasks; linked by a dependency between their finish and start dates. There are four kinds of task dependencies: Finish-to-start [FS], Start-to-start [SS], Finish-to-finish [FF], and Start-to-finish [SF].) and the project calendar (calendar: The scheduling mechanism that determines working time for resources and tasks. Project uses four types of calendars: the base calendar, project calendar, resource calendar, and task calendar.) no longer automatically adjust task dates when a task is manually scheduled.
You can place a manually scheduled task placed anywhere in your schedule, and Project won't move it.
Project managers who are accustomed to automatic scheduling with past versions of Project can turn the new manually scheduling feature off for specific tasks or the entire project. Some projects, especially complicated ones, may require Project's powerful scheduling engine to take care of scheduling for you.
With Microsoft Project Professional 2010, you can make tasks inactive and still retain them in the project. Inactive tasks often have critical information (such as actuals and cost information) that can be valuable for archival purposes.
Top-down summary tasks
Project managers are no longer restricted to creating subtasks and then rolling them up into summary tasks. For Project 2010, you can create summary tasks first, and they can have dates that don't exactly match the roll-up dates of the subtasks.
At the beginning of the planning phase, project managers may only have some high-level information on key deliverables (deliverable: A tangible and measurable result, outcome, or item that must be produced to complete a project or part of a project. Typically, the project team and project stakeholders agree on project deliverables before the project begins.) and major milestones (milestone: A reference point marking a major event in a project and used to monitor the project's progress. Any task with zero duration is automatically displayed as a milestone; you can also mark any other task of any duration as a milestone.) of their projects. Using Project, you can divide projects into high-level phases (phase: A group of related tasks that completes a major step in a project.) based on the overall timeline and budget (budget: The estimated cost of a project that you establish in Project with your baseline plan.). This means that dates for individual work items do not necessarily need to line up exactly with dates for the high-level phases.
Project version comparison
The compare versions feature in Project 2010 now includes Gantt bars and graphical images to help you more clearly see how one version of a project differs from another version.
Top of Page
Projects don't exist well in isolation from other people in your organization. Project has improved ways in which you can share project information.
Improvements in collaboration through SharePoint list synchronization
Project Professional 2010 users can export project files to a SharePoint list, which provides a quick and simple way for a project manager to share status or create reports that can be viewed across the organization. You don't need Project Web App to sync with a SharePoint list.
Enhanced copy and paste
You wouldn't think that collaboration could increase through something as simple and ancient as copying and pasting Project information. With this new functionality, you can now copy and paste content to and from Office programs and Project 2010 and keep its formatting, outline levels, and column headers.
With two clicks of the mouse, you can generate an instant report and copy it to most Office programs.
Top of Page
Project 2010 is compatible with previous versions of Microsoft Project.
You can create files in Project 2007 or earlier and then open and edit them in Project 2010 in a reduced-functionality mode. In addition, you can create files in Project 2010 and then convert them to the Project 2007 or Project 2000-2003 file formats. Either way, you don't need a converter!
Note Features unique to Project 2010, such as manually-scheduled tasks and top-down summary tasks, may not appear as expected when viewed with earlier versions of Project.
Top of Page | <urn:uuid:88ea67be-47c2-44cd-a7dc-9c73086701d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/what-s-new-in-microsoft-project-2010-HA010354195.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927757 | 1,892 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Monday, June 4, 2012
Our world is surrounded by software. Every day teenagers spend more than 10 hours a day on line interfacing through a software layer - texting, facebook, tumblr, TV, movies - all are constructed in software and people use a software layer to interact. Even as a CEO, my day is dominated by software - Office apps, Twitter, Skype and even Words with Friends.
Software is changing our world in as profound a way as the book did starting in 1440. The book, following the invention of the printing press, democratized knowledge. Anyone who could read and write could share ideas and change the way other people thought. By 1500 there were 35,000 book titles in print and over 20MM books printed. 60 years after the invention of the computer the influence of software on our world is still growing exponentially.
And it touches everyone. Poor illiterate women in India running micro businesses through a cellphone. CEOs and bankers. Students at a Palo Alto High School. And so when I was invited to give a TEDx talk at Gunn High School two weeks ago I chose to talk about how being able to code - or at least understand enough structured logic to create software apps - is as important now as being able to read and write.
Technology is now where the jobs are, where the growth is, where the source of the major revolution of the next 100 years starts. It's an exciting place to be and it's a meritocracy. Everyone can learn it, just like everyone can learn to read and write.
Here's my talk:
And the most exciting thing for me giving this talk was that at the end I was surrounded by teenage girls thrilled to have their interest in software and technology endorsed and confirmed by my talk. | <urn:uuid:d8ef8b70-a3f6-456a-8171-5640fb83a9c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pennyherscher.blogspot.com/2012/06/coding-is-new-literacy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977171 | 357 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Getting to the root of what— and who—is relevant in our world today
Between the Lines
The only thing that we all know for sure, is that relevant is real. We talk about “keepin’ it real” but “real” is only important, if it is relevant to what we’re talking about or what we’re trying to resolve.
The Republican and Tea Party candidates for president took the stage this week and proceeded to hammer away at what was wrong with the Obama administration. Interesting enough, no matter what they said was wrong with the past three years, each of them said change is part of their platform, too.
It was like “My change is better than your change, even if your change has worked.”
Part of what they were talking about was relevant, but most of it wasn’t. They never got to the root of the matter, the false wars and the weak economy started by their own party (or residuals of it).
These debates are designed to confuse the public. I didn’t see a relevant player on the stage. No one who, if I was walking in front of the flat screen, I’d stop to pay attention to by saying, “That’s different.” I didn’t see that kind of change on the stage.
However, over the weekend, I had an epiphany while at the Playboy Jazz Festival that I think makes my point. The last four years, we’ve heard a lot of talk about change.
Change is not something that occurs very easily, nor does in happen very often. But when change happens, people notice.
People notice, when they see something they hadn’t seen before, or hear something they hadn’t quite heard before. When they see or hear it, they immediately embrace it and are willing to try it as something to take to heart. The truth about many of the problems in our society is the ability to get to the heart of a matter in a way people can embrace.
Whether it’s jobs, homes, schools or whatever, we hear a lot of noise about what people could do, what people should do, what government could or should do, but at the end of the day, the conversation becomes so convoluted that the change gets lost in irrelevance.
What made Obama such a political phenomenon was that he was markedly different; not just a Black guy. White folk had seen one of them before, if not a few of them. It just wasn’t the change message. We’d heard that before. It was that he packaged himself differently, and at the end of the day, his appeal was a combination of his look, his sound, and his message.
For instance, the 33rd Playboy Jazz Festival is one of the quintessential jazz festivals where what is going on in the audience is as much a part of the festival as what is going on up on stage. Hosted by Bill Cosby since 1979, the festival is a two-day, two nine-hour sets of entertainment that has a cult-like following of Jazz purists who are always looking for the next big sound. Whether it’s Jazz fused with Blues, Salsa, Pop or R&B, the Playboy Jazz Festival is to Jazz what the Apollo is to R&B.
Everybody wants to get on the Playboy Jazz ticket, but very few headliners want to close Playboy. It’s a difficult assignment.
Miles Davis would never close Playboy because of fear people wouldn’t understand one of the many genres of music he created and walk out. So, generally the headliner is the next to the last act, considered the primetime slot, and people start heading for their cars on the closing act. The closer usually plays to a half-full house.
But the early exit wasn’t the case this past Saturday, when the Rap/Funk/R&B fusion group, The Roots, closed.
From Questlove’s first beat, The Roots had the Hollywood Bowl on its feet … and not to head for the exits. They brought a look, sound and message that these Jazz-goers hadn’t seen before. And when I say errbody held their spot, I mean everybody. I saw very few people leaving, which I hadn’t seen in the 25 years I’ve been attending Playboy Jazz Festival. It was an evolution of the cutting-edge Jazz tradition Playboy had come to be known for. It was a look they hadn’t seen before. It was a sound they hadn’t heard before. And the message in the music just grabbed the audience.
It was very relevant at the right time. It was what we call “a moment” to watch these young brothas turn out L.A. Not everybody knew what they had just seen, but they knew it was righteous, raw and relevant to the music scene. They were relevant to what the people wanted to hear. When it’s relevant, it’s right. Many people have a problem getting ahead of the curve, understanding what and who is relevant at a given time.
Case in point, Newt Gingrich. The mass defection of his campaign staff last week is due to his being relic of the past. He was relevant in 1994, but not in 2012.
The American Negro tends to get bogged down by irrelevant views and irrelevant people.
Understanding a new sound, a new message has been a troublesome endeavor. Then came Obama and many didn’t see that one. But they see it now. He was as different in his time as King or Malcolm were in their time.
The Roots are relevant examples of what a unique sound and presentation can do. The people always know something markedly different when they see it. They know change when they hear it.
Anything that comes after the Roots with a similar theme will not get the same attention. That’s what the Republicans and the Tea Partiers are dealing with.
Their change message ain’t exactly resonating with the public. Despite their efforts, the people ain’t exactly feelin’ them right now. They’re irrelevant. They haven’t distanced themselves far enough to become relevant again. President Obama will have a more difficult time being relevant, coming behind himself. He did the impossible in 2008, made a cynical public stop, hold its spot, listen and act. Same thing The Roots did Saturday night. The advantage he has is that once you’ve done the impossible, difficult is easy. The Roots showed how easy, when you have the right sound, at the right time.
What is relevant and who is relevant is really what the world is about today. Irrelevancy doesn’t matter.
Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D., is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author of the upcoming book, “Real Eyez: Race, Reality and Politics in 21st Century Popular Culture.” He can be reached at www.AnthonySamad.com or on Twitter at @dranthonysamad.
DISCLAIMER: The beliefs and viewpoints expressed in opinion pieces, letters to the editor, by columnists and/or contributing writers are not necessarily those of OurWeekly.
The events of the day have caused us to confuse what is real and what is important. It seems some people frame what’s important to them and forget what’s important to us all. There are things going on in our community that are significant and the people that say they speak for us or represent us, don’t seem to think so ... or don’t seem to care.
Every decade or so, some unconscious Negro steps forward into the national spotlight to demonstrate how insane he can sound in trying to attract the support or affinity of White folk by making the most outrageous and outlandish statements. It’s usually when some conservative initiative is in play. This year, it’s the conservative movement’s blackface response to President Barack Obama.
The Republican Party, in all its iterations, held its breath this week in anticipation that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would enter the race for the 2012 presidential election. Christie, after taking conservatives to the brink of hope, has decided not to run. So, the search continues to try to find somebody, anybody, that can successfully disrupt the re-election of President Barack Obama.
After the August employment report came and it showed the economy flatlining (at least for a month) on new jobs, President Obama’s jobs plan is coming right on time. Lazy ass Congress is back at work, after a summer of political gamesmanship, and we will now see if all the “big talk” will turn to action. Or will it be more of the ideological bickering that led to gridlock the past year, and the whining of Democrats that the president is not fighting hard enough.
President Barack Obama’s re-election bid has posed some interesting dilemmas for those who helped push the “change we can believe in” agenda.
Since the election, the change agenda has evolved into a manipulation agenda, where everybody has a new demand for the president. The new demand is an extension of the old demands of classic “stakeholder” politics—what did the president promise versus what did the president deliver on, with a little “what have you done for me lately” added in. | <urn:uuid:87ff5d3a-435c-4226-b90f-740f2ed8513e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ourweekly.com/features/getting-root-what%E2%80%94-and-who%E2%80%94-relevant-our-world-today | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975249 | 1,991 | 1.875 | 2 |
Live Webcast: Henry Kissinger and the Dilemmas of American Power
To watch the live webcast, follow the links in the See Also box to the right of this screen.
Moynihan Boardroom (6th Floor)
Woodrow Wilson Center
1300 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Thomas A. Schwartz, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center and Professor of History, Vanderbilt University
This lecture will examine the diplomacy of Henry Kissinger, with an emphasis on the choices and dilemmas which faced Kissinger during a transitional period in Cold War history. Kissinger's ideas and personality were important to the influence he exercised on foreign policy, but equally significant were his capacity for improvisation, understanding of domestic politics, and awareness of the structural constraints within which America acted. Ultimately what echoes from Kissinger's experience is the paradox of the limits of American power in a complex world, and yet its continuing vital significance in working with allies and adversaries in "managing" and stabilizing an international system open to change and peaceful transformation.
Thomas A. Schwartz is the author of America's Germany: John J. McCloy and the Federal Republic of Germany, a study of U.S. policy toward Germany immediately after World War II, and Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam (2003), an examination of alliance politics during the Vietnam War. Dr Schwartz's research interests include the interaction between domestic politics and foreign policy, transnational coalitions and alliance politics, the role of the American presidency in alliance leadership, and the new international history of the Cold War. As a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, he is currently working on two book projects: one is a short history of the Cold War, tentatively entitled, The Long Twilight Struggle, and the other is a biography of the former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, tentatively entitled Henry Kissinger and the Dilemmas of American Power. | <urn:uuid:4251026d-ddfe-403a-9379-8a733bca9032> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/blive-webcastb-henry-kissinger-and-the-dilemmas-american-power | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926944 | 394 | 1.6875 | 2 |
DOH Service Telephone Directory
Select directory to view the telephones number of the various DOH services.
Infants, Children, Teens and School Health
The District of Columbia Department of Health (DOH) recognizes the importance of tracking, promoting and improving the health of its youngest residents. DOH operates a number of programs to ensure that infants, children and teens are equipped with the necessary tools and services to make them successful at home, in school, and in their communities. Please follow the program links below for more information on DOH’s programs serving DC’s infants, children and teens.
For general information, please call the Community Health Administration at 202-442-5925.
- Child, Adolescent and School Health
- Childhood Obesity
- Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs
- DC Healthy Start Community Consortium
- DC Healthy Start Project
- Early Childhood
- Free Cribs
- Free Pregnancy Test and Birth Control
- Dental Services
- Health Care Services
- Health Education
- In-Home Health Services
- Newborn Screening
- School-Based Health Centers
- School Nurses | <urn:uuid:0adc81d0-3635-4e52-bb2d-0c1de50eda77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://doh.dc.gov/service/infants-children-teens-and-school-health | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902857 | 238 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Promega opened a new facility in Shanghai for its China operations. The new site replaces an existing molecular biology reagent production site. It also provides additional research, development, and cGMP manufacturing capabilities for molecular diagnostics products for the Chinese market.
The new facility is called Shanghai Promega Life Science Center. The building was purchased in June and has since been equipped for the manufacture of molecular biology and molecular diagnostic reagents.
“China is an integral part of Promega’s manufacturing and business operations,” says Promega CEO Bill Linton. “In 1985, Promega and two Chinese partners established Sino-American Biotechnology Corporation (SABC), the first China-U.S. biotech joint venture in China. This recent investment in the new Shanghai cGMP manufacturing facility represents Promega’s continued commitment to life science in China.” Among its 15 global branches, Promega also has a sales and marketing branch in Beijing.
Including this new facility, Promega has five manufacturing sites worldwide. Together these facilities manufacture biological and chemical reagents and instruments used in both life science research and molecular diagnostics. | <urn:uuid:7619b23e-92b5-4c25-83ef-463983844a26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/promega-continues-expanding-in-china/81247639/?kwrd=China | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934018 | 235 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Bride Wars. Bridezillas. Bridalplasty. Shedding for the Wedding. Platinum Weddings. Say Yes to the Dress.
If you flip through the channels, it looks like all of America is altar-bound.
But in fact, the Pew Research Center found that American marriage rates are at an all-time low: Only 51% of Americans over age 18 are married. Marriage rates have declined by 5% between 2009 and 2010 and 21 percentage points since 1960, when 72% of adults were married.
And it’s not good news for our wallets.
Are We Aging Out of Marriage?
It’s no surprise that things are very different today from only a few short years ago—see cell phones, laptops, tablets and the Facebook timeline. The big things are changing, too.
Half of men getting married for the first time are 29 years or older and half of women marrying for the first time are 27 or older, which means that many Americans are tying the knot well past age 30. Of course, the big 3-0 is getting younger and younger, so the news isn’t revelatory, but for reference, remember that Marie Antoinette married at age 14. In more recent history, Elizabeth Taylor’s first marriage took place when she was only 18.
Interestingly, while about 40% of Americans think that marriage is becoming obsolete, 61% of those who have never married say that they would like to.
Marriage and Money
So, what does all this have to do with money? A lot, it turns out.
First, married people tend to accumulate money. As Pew researcher and senior writer D’Vera Cohn explains in The Huffington Post, “Some of that might have to do with who chooses to get married, that is, people who are educated have less of a decline in their marriage rates than people who are less educated. We also know that the kind of partnership marriage encourages is one in which you plan for the future, share your assets, build wealth together. There isn’t that evidence yet for people who live together.”
Second, beyond the married couple’s individual finances, their marriage affects the wider economy. Married people wait to make big purchases and investments until they’ve “settled down.” Those purchases include houses, children, property … the big things that keep our economy spinning in a way that rent checks and vodka sodas can’t manage.
We’re not saying that marriage will make you rich, or that opting out of the contract keeps you from being so. But research shows that marriage is good for our finances and good for the economy at large, so it follows that a decline in marriage rates isn’t exactly helping us climb out of the recession crater.
There goes the bride.
More From LearnVest
There’s a way to get $1,600 in free food, but it involves online dating and spreadsheets.
When it comes to getting what you want, are wish lists practical or tacky?
We know they’re wobbly, but how do high heels indicate economic instability? | <urn:uuid:6db19a31-e137-4602-b1f5-1d71d096b3b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.learnvest.com/2011/12/marriage-rates-at-record-low-bad-news-for-economy-291/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962094 | 657 | 1.75 | 2 |
Rocks (download PDF)
Students explore a few rocks and minerals of the area. They investigate how sandstone was formed and experiment with both wind and water to determine which is the most effective erosional process. Students explore cryptobiotic soil, and search for clues to discover how we use rocks differently than the people who lived here in ancient times.
Preparing for Winter (download PDF)
This in-class presentation uses story and visualization to explore how different types of animals survive the winter.
Changes in Plants and Animals (download PDF)
Students explore plant changes by performing a play depicting the life cycle of a wildflower through the seasons. They explore life cycles of frogs and toads, along the way discovering the difference between them. Students learn about insect metamorphosis, focusing on moths and butterflies, and discover the surprising world of insect galls.
Download entire 2nd Grade Curriculum
[2mb PDF file] | <urn:uuid:d5513b4b-e05a-4195-820d-1bb87d449e53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nps.gov/cany/forteachers/2ndgrade.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929679 | 193 | 3.953125 | 4 |