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Staff Profile: Jacqueline Y. Miller
Curator & Adjunct Professor
Jacqueline Y. Miller received her Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Florida in 1986. She served as a curator of the Allyn Museum of Entomology in Sarasota, and together with her late husband Lee Miller created one of the best world Lepidoptera collections, now part of the McGuire Center's collection. While in Sarasota, Miller also served as an adjunct faculty member at New College and holds affiliate professor positions in the UF departments of biology and entomology.
Miller's interests broadly range across systematics, taxonomy, biogeography, and life history of Lepidoptera, especially in the Castniidae, Hesperioidea, and Nymphalidae. Her past and current research efforts have focused primarily on revisionary studies of Neotropical taxa in these groups, emphasizing unique diagnostic morphological features and integrating ecological and behavioral observations when applicable. Her research studies have also concentrated on phylogenetic analysis and vicariance biogeography of Lepidoptera, especially of endemic genera in the West Indies and Caribbean Basin. These investigations have led to a better understanding of the higher taxonomic categories and evolutionary history of Lepidoptera.
Depending on the project and time available, Miller spends two or three weeks in the field each year. Some years involved longer periods (up to seven weeks), as was the case when she was working on the book, Butterflies of the West Indies and South Florida. During that time, she visited and worked on most of the major islands in the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. She also has conducted field work in Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, South Africa and Venezuela. Most recently, she has conducted field work in the Bahamas and Honduras. The focus of her field work has generally been on the biodiversity of Lepidoptera (especially butterflies) within a particular locality, noting major plants, nectar resources, GPS coordinates and elevation, and also ecological niche modeling. Since a number of the Lesser Antilles had never been surveyed, Miller and her colleagues focused on species richness and turnover on these islands. In many cases, there are microhabitats in which some species in the Greater Antilles had not been collected in more than 30 or 40 years.
Miller has completed and published papers on biodiversity surveys in different areas of Mexico and elsewhere in the Neotropics, which have served as timelines for current comparative surveys. In 2004 she began a collaboration with Carmen Pozo, Jorge Llorente and other colleagues at various institutions in Mexico to develop a database of Mexican Lepidoptera. This database of specimens in the McGuire Center collections has been expanded to include type specimens, moths from Paynes Prairie surveys, vouchers for molecular studies and other groups and areas of interest.
Currently, Miller is working on a biodiversity survey of Honduras Lepidoptera. She has co-authored two papers on the subject and currently has a provisional checklist. Voucher specimens from this project account for about 3,000 species to date. Along with several colleagues at the McGuire Center and the U. S. National Museum, she is collaborating with Oliver Schlein (Honduras), Daniel H. Janzen (Costa Rica), Jean-Michel Maes (Nicaragua) and other lepidopterists in Belize, El Salvador and Guatemala. She has become particularly interested in the micro-Lepidoptera, as these small moths offer more opportunity for the discovery of new species. Based on the species richness in surrounding countries, the project should ultimately include at least 6,000 species of Lepidoptera in Honduras. Although Janzen, DeVries, and others in Mexico have made major inroads on the biodiversity of Lepidoptera in Mesoamerica, Honduras is of major interest, as no comprehensive studies have been published on the area's Lepidoptera. Miller wants to document these species and review them in light of the historical geology and biogeography of the region. Surveys like the one she is conducting in Honduras are useful because Lepidoptera are excellent bioindicators of habitat quality and floral biodiversity.
McGuire Center: Jacqueline Miller currently serves as the Allyn Curator for Lepidoptera and associate director of the McGuire Center. Her duties include curating the collection, preparing specimens derived from her field work and teaching as a guest lecturer for the biology of Lepidoptera and principles of systematics courses. She oversees the research collections and works closely with collections coordinator Andrei Sourakov and senior collections manager Andrew Warren in addition to other curators and staff. Last year, Miller and her colleagues received 44 collection donations, and this number reflects the McGuire Center's typical annual collections growth since its opening in 2004. Miller currently serves as chair of one committee and is a member of five other graduate student committees. She also serves on five Museum committees and two University committees, is editor of the Bulletin of the Allyn Museum and serves on the editorial board of the Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History, the McGuire Center News and in addition is a member of The Wedge Entomological Research Foundation. Miller also is a member of 13 professional organizations and is an elected fellow of the Entomological Society of America and an Honorary Life Member of the Lepidopterists' Society | <urn:uuid:cb7d191b-622c-4527-9d02-5915c417f729> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/mcguire/profiles/miller.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950095 | 1,112 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Welcome to the Animal Resource Program
The Animal Resource Program (ARP) provides Penn State with high quality animal care services and facilities to improve animal research and ensure the health, well-being and humane treatment of animals used in research and teaching at the University.
New information on rodent behavioral testing has been added to the ARP site.
Please follow this link for information on Mouse Biomethodology Seminars.
In addition to housing facilities and animal husbandry services for animals used in biomedical research, ARP provides veterinary clinical and diagnostic services, education and training of research personnel and collaborative expertise in laboratory animal, agricultural and wildlife technology and medicine. ARP veterinarians and technicians are available to provide investigators with research and procedural support in anesthesia, surgery, pathology, and other veterinary methodologies.The ARP is also responsible for University-wide veterinary oversight and animal care program support at outlying campuses that use animals and provides veterinary oversight of agricultural animal facilities and wildlife used in research and teaching at Penn State.
All laboratory animal facilities on the University Park campus are managed by the ARP. In addition, ARP personnel coordinate animal purchasing and shipping, provide routine and emergency veterinary care, veterinary review of experimental protocols and health surveillance and disease prevention services. Penn State animal facilities associated with the University Park campus are accredited with the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, International (AAALAC ).
This website does not contain information pertaining to the husbandry and management of livestock or wildlife species housed in facilities maintained by the College of Agriculture. Please refer to the Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals Used in Agricultural Research and Teaching (Federation of Animal Science Societies, 2010) or resources related to the Penn State College of Agriculture for information on animal species used in agricultural research. | <urn:uuid:274d6dd6-0aef-42ac-be51-03250110e1be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.research.psu.edu/arp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903554 | 362 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Another government venture
POSTED: Friday, September 16, 2011 - 11:27pm
UPDATED: Thursday, September 29, 2011 - 2:03pm
tyler — I read this joke from a Fox News report today.
A comedic definition of bureaucracy goes like this: You have two cows. The government takes them both. They kill one cow. They milk the other, then pour the milk down the drain.
This same thing has happened in the deep south.
I'll have to give you the condensed version.
Last spring there were killer tornadoes in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia.
Schools were knocked down. Portable trailers for class rooms has to be brought in. Officials worried about what if they had more tornadoes and the kids were in portable buildings.
So, to its credit, the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped in and paid 75 percent of the cost (using taxpayer dollars) of a hardened storm shelter on school property so students would have a safe place to go should a tornado take aim.
The school districts paid the rest.
The tornado shelters are considered "temporary." Federal law says when the schools are repaired, the storm shelters had to go. Or the schools can buy them.
Well, all of the schools are strapped for cash and can't afford to pay the rest of the money for the shelters.
They don't know how they could dismantle and move shelters that have been built as permanent structures tough enough to handle 250 mph winds.
So now, FEMA will tear down perfectly good storm shelters.
Don't believe me? Google FEMA tears down storm shelters.
That's my point of view, what's yours?
You can email me at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:ff06cf73-27e1-40e0-b609-81c218965833> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ketknbc.com/news/pov/another-government-venture | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966714 | 355 | 1.578125 | 2 |
PM's presence opens way for NZ business to expand into burgeoning market.
John Key had the hardest of acts to follow when he arrived in Burma yesterday. Just a few days previously, President Barack Obama had brought Rangoon, the country's biggest city, to a virtual standstill during his ground-breaking six-hour visit. The New Zealand Prime Minister created far less of a stir, but his presence conveyed the same message about the remarkable rehabilitation of what was until recently a pariah state.
This turnaround offers a message of hope to all people suffering under repressive regimes. Just five years ago, the military junta that had run Myanmar since 1962 was bloodily repressing a popular uprising led by the country's venerated Buddhist monks. It seemed committed to clinging to power by whatever means rather than accede to demands for negotiations that would lead to the restoration of democracy. Within a few short years, however, it acknowledged its time was up. In late 2010, the pro-democracy champion, Aung San Suu Kyi, was released from years of house arrest. The following year, the generals stood aside, and a new President, Thein Sein, promised to take Myanmar down a path of reform.
Whether that change of heart about democracy and human rights has gone far enough to justify the seal of approval effectively bestowed by the visits of President Obama and Mr Key is a moot point.
While major steps have been taken towards easing repression, including free and fair byelections and the relaxation of media censorship, Burma's Government continues to hold hundreds of political prisoners. It also struggles to contain ethnic violence. There could yet be further stumbles on the road to democracy. But, as President Obama emphasised, that process deserves every encouragement.
Burma's abrupt change contains lessons for those wishing to benefit from its new openness. Economic sanctions imposed by the West in the early 1990s drove the country into the hands of the Chinese and, for a long time, the generals were content with that arrangement if only because it shielded them from any meaningful international repercussions. But China overplayed its hand. Its lack of respect for the people and customs of Burma bred widespread resentment and a belief the country's rich resources were being unfairly exploited by Chinese companies.
Finally, the junta reacted, beginning to open the country to the West. The policy fitted snugly with America's accelerating pivot towards Asia and its quest for allies and influence to counter China's growth. In that context, Burma, with its 2000km border with China, is a significant coup for the US and President Obama's more conciliatory foreign policy - and a considerable blow to Beijing.
New Zealand was among the first countries to react to the shift. Mr Key will build on ground prepared by Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully's earlier visit. Clearly, the opening of a country of 60 million people to the West creates a promising new market for New Zealand companies. There is plenty of room for growth. Burma is this country's 100th largest trading partner. Exports have increased steadily over the past few years, notably in milk powder and butter, but last year they earned just $21.3 million.
Not too much should be expected too soon. The half-century of military rule was as notable for economic mismanagement and corruption as for brutal repression. But the end of isolation and Burma's wealth of natural resources offer rapid and rewarding change. In a world where repressive regimes often have to be forced to give up power, this is an extremely welcome departure. | <urn:uuid:8fb9b12c-b8ae-428a-9020-7981b0cae594> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10849096 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97321 | 713 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Since the birth of our daughter my wife and I have noticed how nearly everything we have bought or has been given to us for her is made in China. Probably 95% of the stuff has a “Made in China” label, regardless of the price, product, quality or the type of shop it was bought in. Some of the gifts came from high-end boutiques, very nicely wrapped and presented which I suspect cost quite a bit.
Everything bought for us and everything we have purchased so far we are happy with so this whole thing got me thinking about what a great example this was of a saying I have about sales: It’s not what you are selling, it’s how you sell it. In other words no matter what the product is and where it came from, even if it’s similar to something available elsewhere; if you dress it up and package it well enough (especially if it comes with a “story”) then you can add a premium price to it. In fact it goes beyond sales and can be applied to a whole business model.
About two years ago I noticed in the upmarket towns and neighborhoods in UK that I visited these Cupcake shops were springing up. My eldest daughter Lily dragged me into one and I couldn’t believe the different types of cupcakes they had and very elaborately decorated. I was impressed until I saw the prices, I could buy several boxes of cupcakes in a bakery or supermarket for the same price as one cupcake in this shop. I was now really impressed, not by the cakes but by the business model. They had taken something basic and already available, dressed it up, put it in a swanky shop in a posh part of town, added a stupid price and they had a queue out the door, brilliant.
Around the same time a few years ago I heard the term Gentrification for the first time and this sums up part of what the cupcake shops had done. They took something basic and almost common and made it look more exclusive, premium and desirable. And by gentrifying it they could add a more gentrified price too.
Starbucks is another great example of this, it’s really good coffee but I know other independent coffee houses that have great coffee at a fraction of the price of Starbucks and let’s face it it’s just a cup of coffee. Why is it worth so much more? Because they dress it up and say it is. Simple. It’s odd and if you really analyse it, it’s a bit crazy but it obviously works so don’t knock it; use their example and dress up your business idea or product you are selling so you can put a higher price on it.
When following this approach there is one key thing to remember: You have to believe in it for it to work, if you don’t then nobody else will buy into it. You have to convince yourself as well as others that you have an ultra premium product and it’s definitely worth the inflated price. Other things to remember are: Make sure you have something that stands out, nobody will accept something substandard as premium, it must at least be on a par with other good products out there. You might need to spend more on advertising, packaging and presentation (including the website, the whole shop or showroom in some cases) to give the whole illusion of quality and “premium”. I don’t want to play it down but in reality it’s just “smoke and mirrors” and a bit of a show but that’s often what people want. They want a culture, a story that goes with the things they buy and they want to feel special or feel entertained in some way during the buying process, whether that’s online or in the shopping center.
Some of you might think that during a recession it might be tough to pull off a business idea like this but I would argue that people want to be cheered up and feel special (as explained above) more than ever. I would also say that unlike many other businesses with tight profit margins this business model has huge margins which enable easy (and still profitable) 50% off or 3 for the price of 2 promotions which go down really well in hard times.
So just remember whatever you are selling: It’s not what you are selling, it’s how you sell it!
If you want to know more about how I came from a teenage homeless hostel and changed my life so I could become a successful entrepreneur, plus more of my advice on success, freedom. selling, entrepreneurship and how to make your own luck, have a look at my book How To Be Lucky. | <urn:uuid:8671c93d-27be-44db-aafa-eb5ea13c902f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mattkinsella.com/2011/12/18/its-not-what-you-are-selling-its-how-you-sell-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976441 | 981 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Thanks to the efforts of nearly 30 Frewsburg area youth, the town of Carroll has one less eyesore.
McKenzie Cass, Jacob Caldwell and a bunch of their classmates at Frewsburg Central School have spent the past several months helping one of their Amish neighbors clean up their yard; a mess of plastic, tires and other debris. Other than four piles of tires, most of the mess is now gone - leaving usable space for the family living on the property.
Give credit to Cass and Caldwell for having a bigger vision than simply one property in Carroll.
"After doing this procedure and this process, we are challenging other schools and other towns and communities to follow this procedure," Cass told Chautauqua County legislators this week. "It's a chain effect. We can improve our communities one small town at a time."
Every town has a property that could use some tender loving care. Every town has high school students or clubs in need of a community service project. They just need a reason to participate and perhaps some money to help the project along. Cass and Caldwell think they have solved that problem, proposing a cleanup challenge and asking legislators for $10,000 to use as seed money. We would suggest asking local foundations who already help with such worthy projects to help provide the seed money.
That suggestion aside, Cass and Caldwell have proposed an idea that could benefit every town and village in the county. It should become a reality. | <urn:uuid:654ec135-ba6e-4e44-bade-1efa902d30a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://post-journal.com/page/content.detail/id/616555/Frewsburg-Youths-Up-To-Challenge.html?nav=5070 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977483 | 295 | 1.828125 | 2 |
How to Count Your Shots
-Anchor chain is measured in shots.
-Each shot is 90ft or 15 fathoms long.
-The linkages between shots are marked so that the exact number of shots let out can be ascertained at any time.
-The markings consist of a number of chain links painted in different colors, and a series of wires wrapped around
the "detachable link."
-At the One Shot mark, one link on either side of the detachable link is painted white, and one turn of wire is
wrapped around each stud. Traditionally, the detachable link at One Shot is painted red, though this practice is not always
-At the Two Shot mark, two links on either side of the detachable link are painted white, and two turns of wire
are wrapped around each stud. This detachable link is traditionally painted white as well. From there on, an additional link
is painted on either side of the detachable link for each additional shot.
-Also, at the Three Shot mark, the detachable link is painted blue, at Four it's red, at Five it's white,
and the pattern continues on, red-white-blue.
-The second to last shot is painted entirely yellow. Why? Because if you see that yellow chain coming
out of the spill pipe fast and the anchor still hasn't hit the bottom, you want to get the heck out of the way because the
chain likely won't stop running by braking alone.
-Likewise, the last shot is painted entirely red. If you see red, run or your dead.
-The location of the marking is also important to note when lowering or raising the anchor chain as a reference point
is needed in order to measure the length of chain in the water.
-The marking can be said to be "On Deck" when the marking is at the top of the hawsepipe, or "On
the Water" when the marking is just above the water. If asked how many shots are out, always give a reference point,
even if that reference point doesn't sound official. Saying "On the Windlass" when the mark is at the crest
of the windlass or "At the pipe" is usually perfectly acceptable. | <urn:uuid:2030c537-8e8d-4251-bb4a-11bbecec6a2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://deckskills.org/id84.html | 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 | 0.933598 | 471 | 2.34375 | 2 |
About Jerry Wayne Wickam
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Corporal Jerry Wayne Wickam (ASN: 54807388), United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Troop F, 2d Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, in action against enemy aggressor forces in the Republic of Vietnam, on 6 January 1968. Troop F was conducting a reconnaissance in force mission southwest of Loc Ninh when the lead element of the friendly force was subjected to a heavy barrage of rocket, automatic weapons, and small arms fire from a well concealed enemy bunker complex. Disregarding the intense fire, Corporal Wickam leaped from his armored vehicle and assaulted one of the enemy bunkers and threw a grenade into it, killing two enemy soldiers. He moved into the bunker, and with the aid of another soldier, began to remove the body of one Viet Cong when he detected the sound of an enemy grenade being charged. Corporal Wickam warned his comrade and physically pushed him away from the grenade thus protecting him from the force of the blast. When a second Viet Cong bunker was discovered, he ran through a hail of enemy fire to deliver deadly fire into the bunker, killing one enemy soldier. He also captured one Viet Cong who later provided valuable information on enemy activity in the Loc Ninh area. After the patrol withdrew and an air strike was conducted, Corporal Wickam led his men back to evaluate the success of the strike. They were immediately attacked again by enemy fire. Without hesitation, he charged the bunker from which the fire was being directed, enabling the remainder of his men to seek cover. He threw a grenade inside of the enemy's position killing two Viet Cong and destroying the bunker. Moments later he was mortally wounded by enemy fire. Corporal Wickam's extraordinary heroism at the cost of his life were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.
General Orders: Department of the Army, General Orders No. 78 (December 4, 1969)
Action Date: 6-Jan-68
Company: Troop F, 2d Squadron
Regiment: 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment | <urn:uuid:2422b507-8f20-40e5-8f38-c0ae49c1e0a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geni.com/people/Jerry-Wickam/6000000015433127189 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968286 | 481 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The Swiss Federal Government has been working for more than four years on a partial revision of the Swiss Copyright Act to bring it in compliance with the WIPO Copyright Treaties. Recently, the Federal Council requested the Federal Department of Justice and Police to carry out a consultation regarding the draft of the copyright law revision. The pre-draft of the amendments has been published in German, French and Italian, but – unfortunately – not in English. The draft, among other issues, suggests controversial provisions on the protection of technological measures such as copy and access control technologies, aimed at implementing Art. 11 WCT and Art. 18 WPPT.
In the context of an ongoing research project at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St. Gallen, I translated the relevant parts of the pre-draft on technological protection measures:
“Title 3a: Protection of technological measures and of rights-management information
Art. 39a (new) Protection of technological measures
1 Technological measures for the protection of works of literature and art in terms of Article 2 as well as the protection of subject-matter according to the Third Title may not be circumvented until the expiration of their respective copyright terms.
2 Protected against circumvention are technologies and devices such as access and copy controls, encryption, scrambling or other transformational mechanisms applied by the rightholder or the exclusive licensee, respectively, in order to prevent or restrict unauthorized acts in respect of works and other subject-matter.
3 Prohibited are the manufacture, import, offer, sale or other distribution, rental, extension of use to others, the advertisement for sale and the possession for commercial purposes of devices, products or components as well as the provision of services, which:
a. are the subject of sales promotion, advertisement or marketing for the purpose of circumvention of technological measures;
b. have only a limited commercial purpose or use other than the circumvention of technological measures; or
c. are primarily designed, produced, adapted or performed for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of technological measures.
4 The prohibition of circumvention cannot be enforced against persons who undertake the circumvention for the sole purpose of a statutorily permitted use.
Art. 39b (new) Obligations of Users of technological measures
1 Any person who protects works or other subject-matter by technological measures shall:
a. declare in a clearly visible manner the properties of the measure and the identity of his person;
b. make arrangements, upon the request of a person who has lawful access to the protected subject-matter, in order to enable that person to make use of the subject-matter as permitted by law.
2 Paragraph 1(b) does not apply to full or extensive copies of works available on the market.
3 Any person who breaches the obligations imposed by Article 1 has no entitlement to the protection afforded under Article 39a.
4 The Federal Council can enact further rules regarding the application of technological measures in the field of copyright protection if it is required by the public interest.
Art. 62 para. 1 introduction and 3 (new)
1 Any person whose copyright or related rights are infringed or jeopardized or whose rights in regard to the protection of his technological measures or rights-information management are violated or jeopardized, can demand from the court :
3 Any person who is not successful with a request according to Article 39b paragraph 1(b) can petition a court to oblige the user of technological measures to accede to the claim.
Art. 69a (new) Infringement of the protection of technological measures and rights-management information
1 Upon the request of the person harmed with respect to the protection of technological measures or rights-management information, any person shall be subject to imprisonment for up to one year or a fine who intentionally and unlawfully:
a. circumvents technological measures according to Article 39a paragraph 2 with the intention of making unauthorized use of the work or other subject-matter, or to enable its use by someone else;
b. manufactures, imports, offers, sells or otherwise distributes, rents, makes available for use or possesses for commercial purposes devices or products that primarily serve for the circumvention of technological measures according to Article 39a paragraph 2;
c. offers or provides services to circumvent technological measures according to Article 39a paragraph 2;
d. promotes means or services for the circumvention of technological measures according to Article 39a paragraph 2;
2 If the offender acts in a professional capacity, then he or she will be prosecuted ex offcio. The punishment shall be imprisonment of up to three years or a fine.
Once more, I owe thanks to my colleague and friend James Thurman for editorial advice. | <urn:uuid:ad21f864-25a2-4dcd-ad0f-c708e1de5165> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ugasser/2004/10/13/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918288 | 982 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The Importance of Practicality in Filmmaking27 March 2011 | In Entertainment | Southscope March 2011 issue
Deva Katta, writer-director, Prasthanam
Filmmaking is an arduous journey and everyone knows that making a film is much more difficult than we think. You need good leadership, analytical and articulate skills. Translating your vision to the best requires you to continuously explore yourself, explore technology and also bring people's minds towards one goal.
Continue Reading »
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|Newest Entertainment Articles| | <urn:uuid:46538a99-e8f2-4bad-92dc-2dac3dee21dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.magarena.com/The-Importance-of-Practicality-in-Filmmaking-9471/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937421 | 126 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Earl Howard's Paperlift
Tribune photo published January 29, 1949
AIDS IN 'OPERATION PAPERLIFT' - W.S. Rupe, publisher of the Ames Daily Tribune, played an active role in "operation paperlift" Friday afternoon when because of unfavorable conditions of many county roads, newspapers for subscribers in and around Gilbert, Kelley, Slater, Huxley and Cambridge were transported by and dropped from this Piper Cub belonging to the Howard Flying Service and piloted by Earl Howard, owner. Accompanying Mr. Howard was Pat MacIver, the "bombardier" for the operation. The mail bag which Mr. Rupe is handing Howard is strictly permissible since some of the papers are those which would normally be sent through the post office. An idea of just how cold it was can be gained by observing the manner in which the wind is whipping the Tribune publisher's overcoat.
|Earl Howard worked in the aviation business
from 1937 to 1964 as owner of Howard Flying Service, manager of the Ames
Municipal Airport, flight instructor, commercial and charter pilot, and
airframe and engine mechanic. In 1940, he received a contract to
provide flight instruction to the Civilian Flight Training Program initiated
by our government in anticipation of the U.S. entry into World War II.
Following December 7, 1941, this program became the War Training Service.
Until 1944, Earl and his instructors provided flight training to Navy cadets.
Earl belonged to the OX5 Aviation Pioneers, an organization that chronicles the history of aviation, especially as related to the pre-war use of vee-configuration engines pioneered by Glen Curtiss. An Ames aviatrix, Vivian Snook Smedal, was also a member of this group.
After selling his private business in 1964, Mr. Howard established the Flight Service Department for Iowa State University, where he served as director of flight operations and one of its pilots until he retired in 1972. His lifelong passion for aviation also led him to two private projects: in 1967 he adapted a twin-engine plane and flew his wife, Charlotte, to Europe to attend the Rotary International Convention in France; and in 1985, he built and flew an experimental light-weight aircraft which he later donated to the Iowa State Historical Museum.
Tribune, May 2, 1950
By Bernie Kooser
Sometime about the 15th of June, on a quiet morning while the dew still glistens on the corn, fleets of trim little planes will lift themselves from airports throughout the corn belt. When their strong-nerved pilots return to their bases after hours of precision-flying, the greatest destroyer of the midwest's greatest destroyer crop will have- or be on its way to having - a monumental bellyache.
Those planes, operating from ports scattered throughout Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri, Indiana and other states, are one of the weapons being used to fight the European corn borer. Loaded with poison spray, the planes in a few hours can spread the borer destruction over acres which would take days to cover by any other method.
Typical of these bombardment units in the war on the borers is Chemical Applications, Inc., operated and officered by Ames' Earl Howard and Russell Miller, operating for the first time in 1949, the company sprayed more than 12,000 acres throughout the state. Last season, the company operated 12 planes, all Piper Cubs, equipped with tanks and spraying booms designed by Howard and Miller.
This season, the company plans to concentrate on spraying in Story county and will operate fewer planes, seven in all. In its first year of operation, the company had the planes, but didn't at first have the pilots, but the student body at Iowa State college furnished the answer to that. Faced with the need for at least 12 men who could pilot a plane with a fair degree of accuracy and precision, Howard called upon former Army and Navy pilots.
"Sure," the former service airmen said in effect, "when do you want us to start?"
It wasn't quite that simple. Before the pilots went aloft on their missions, they underwent an intensive training session under the direction of Pat MacIver, a former army pilot who is Howard's right-hand man. A nearby farmer gave MacIver permission to erect a couple of poles at one end of a field. Between the two poles was strung a ribbon. Idea: Fly down over the field about eight or 10 feet above the ground, and pull up in time so that the plane didn't crack the ribbon. The ribbon, the pilots were told was a high tension wire. The pilots caught on fast. There were only a couple of cases in which the plane and pilot hit the "high tension" wire and theoretically cracked up. The pilots learned to pull up in time.
So well had they learned their lessons that only one minor mishap occurred during the operations over the 12,000 acres last summer. And in that incident "the pilot did something he shouldn't have done," Howard observes. The pilot escaped from the crack-up with a sprained ankle and a lesson well learned.
That the training program paid big dividends is shown by the fact that several pilots were killed or seriously injured last summer in similar corn borer combat operations in the midwest. In addition to the flying training, the pilots received ground instructions and learned how to mix the chemicals which go into the 40 gallon tanks.
The planes the local firm uses are Piper Cubs, though the local men do make some engine changes to add a bit of power and install different props than are found on the standard Cubs. The planes, with their 35-foot booms can spray 12 rows in one sweep across a field. Most effective height is at about the height of the corn and it's nothing new to see the pilots come home with bits of corn stalks entangled in the landing gear from those 65-mile-an-hour passes across the headquarters of the borers.
Tests last year showed that spraying by planes resulted in about 76 percent control of the pests.
PASSENGERS ARE ALL 'BILLED' - Earl Howard (right) helps load hybrid chicks from Ames In-Cross, Inc., into his Beechcraft Bonanza in preparation for flight. Tuesday Howard will fly chicks to dealers in Farmington, N. J. Man helping Howard is Jim Auld.
Tribune, January 24, 1955
BABY CHICKS FLY WITH PLANE SERVICE HERE - Tuesday, a truck from Ames In-Cross hatcheries, Roland, will pull up to a shiny Beechcraft Bonanza plane at Howard flying service here and about 3,600 chicks will be loaded on the plane. These chicks are destined for Farmington, N.J. Their pilot will be Earl Howard, who runs a flying school, and charter service at the Ames municipal airport.
Every year, Howard hauls chicks to points all over the country for two of the three largest hybrid chick producers in the United States - Ames In-Cross and Dekalb. The operation usually lasts from January to June, the baby chick season. Howard usually carries from 3,600 to 6,000 chicks a trip, depending on how they are loaded. The chicks are flown to franchise dealers throughout the country who make the final cross for chicks to be sold to farmers the following year.
Last season, Howard flew around 500,000 commercial chicks to various parts of the country. His flights took him south to Tampa, northwest of Seattle, to the east coast and throughout the middle west. This year, he will be going to all of those places, plus California and Canada.
Howard uses two planes for the chick lift - the Beechcraft Bonanza and a Ryan Navion. On the trip to Farmington Tuesday, he will allow a day each way, actual flying time being around 6½ hours. Howard has been flying chicks for seven years. He learned to fly at Waterloo in 1935. Two years later, he came to Ames and during the war, helped train navy V-5cadets at Iowa State college for the air-transport command. He also acts as airport supervisor for the city.
Tribune, March 27, 1958
CHICKS TO CANADA - Cliff Annis (left), employee of Ames In-Cross Hatchery, Roland, and Ames pilot Earl Howard load baby chicks on a plane which will carry poultry to hatchery in Canada to be used as parent stock. The Roland company flies annually about 150,000 chicks to all parts of Canada. This particular cargo is bound for a hatchery in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Planes of this type can handle about 5,000 chicks, Howard said. During hatching season - from the latter part of February to early May - Ames In-Cross ships out three to four plane loads per week. Company also has outlets in a number of foreign countries, transportation handled by commercial airliners.
Iowa Takes to the Air, Volume Three (1941-2003) | <urn:uuid:84180ced-c5ce-4f1f-8bd4-e721f3396ca0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ameshistoricalsociety.org/exhibits/tribune/11/wf_1101.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964385 | 1,857 | 1.867188 | 2 |
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- A tumblr site dedicated to the people and places that make up Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Fighting to Keep Union Alive
When Union Mayor Bill Lindsley heard about an economist's estimation that rural Oregon towns have a 70-80 percent chance of becoming non-existent in the coming decades, he saw it as a call to action. He took a look at his town and saw what once fueled the the economy in past decades — two saw mills, a flour mill, and the railroad — had all gone by the wayside. What used to be a bustling downtown had now shrunk to to one service station, one restaurant and one tavern. Union's 2,000 or so residents now do most of their shopping in the bigger towns, like La Grande, where most of them are employed, diverting money from their own town.
But Lindsley has ideas about how to rescue the town from drifting into non-existence. He believes in a three-pronged approach, based on stimulating small businesses, enticing tourists, and bolstering vocational training in the local schools. He thinks the old days when a town could rely on one industry are over, and towns like Union must diversify in order to survive.
Do you live in a small town? What helps keep your town economically viable?
- Bill Lindsley: Mayor of Union
- Bruce Sorte: Community Economist at the Eastern Oregon OSU Extension Service | <urn:uuid:740585db-5b32-4fc1-a16b-da1f502946d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/fighting-keep-union-alive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95796 | 311 | 1.875 | 2 |
Benefits of SaaS
describes Software-as-a-Service (SaaS for short) as a software delivery model in which
software and associated data are centrally hosted on the cloud.
is just one of those SaaS platforms. The model is seeing wider and wider
adoption across our industry, for a number of good reasons.
platforms require no software or hardware installations or maintenance. As a
result deployment times can be reduced to minutes rather than months.
this can also reduce the drain on already stretched IT resources – both
physically and financially. As we manage and maintain the servers on your
behalf, you don’t have to wrestle with the day-to-day operational, performance
and scalability issues – meaning you can concentrate on designing and
developing websites for your clients.
the cloud for your website requirements enables you to instantly scale your
site to meet changing demands – Yetti includes unlimited storage and bandwidth.
The cloud offers a cost-effective approach because you don't need to make large
upfront capital investments, try to predict usage patterns, or install
expensive hardware or software to meet changing demands.
traditional software, which often requires costly and laborious backups, using
a SaaS solution removes this task. Yetti provides automatic backups without the
need of your intervention: meaning the integrity of your data is always
a subscriber, you also get the benefit of regular, small upgrades and updates.
At Yetti we are always getting feedback from our clients and making
improvements to the platform itself – you’ll find a few described in earlier
blogs for example. We operate a single instance of the platform, which powers
every site, meaning that updates and improvements roll out to every client at
exactly the same time.
solutions also make it possible to work on projects from anywhere that has an Internet
connection – enabling teams to work more effectively and efficiently. | <urn:uuid:082b7691-d3c9-4ce3-b782-6e658750addb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yetti.co.uk/blog/articles/benefits-of-saas.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925584 | 403 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Ever since Ronald Reagan’s successful run for the White House in 1980, the Republican Party has branded itself as the pro-growth, tax-cutting party. The strategy worked. Benefits of lower tax rates were well documented, Republicans regained control of Congress in 1994 after being out of power for decades and two more Republicans were elected president after Mr. Reagan left office.
More recently, the party has also promoted a flat tax. Steve Forbes, in his run for the White House, was a strong proponent of this reform. The flat tax has the dual benefit of capping the marginal tax rate to a single number for all taxpayers — no marginal punishment for success — and of significantly reducing the costs of complying with today’s virtually unintelligible tax code. Today’s Republican presidential candidates continue to promote the brand as they campaign on cutting tax rates further, and in some cases fighting for the flat tax.
As beneficial as these initiatives are, by themselves they miss the bigger picture by a very wide margin. Left unchallenged, the federal government will consume an ever greater share of the economy, and reduce further our personal freedoms. This is so because politicians from both parties have passed legislation that promises entitlements — largely from Social Security and Medicare — that are only affordable if taxes are increased to oppressive levels. As Baby Boomers make retirement plans based on these promises, politicians will have to eventually concede that either their word cannot be honored or that we must embrace a much larger government — sort of a call to arms, a shared sacrifice by all for the greater good. That moment is quickly approaching.
According to the 2006 Social Security trustees report, costs will exceed tax income starting in 2017. In addition, over the next 75 years this mismatch totals $6.5 trillion. Adding Medicare’s mismatch swells the number to $17.8 trillion.
Looking beyond 75 years, the so-called infinite horizon, the total jumps to $42.7 trillion, equivalent to a little more than three years of GDP. This means that to afford the benefits that politicians have already promised, each worker needs to pay the government all his future payroll taxes and an additional $268,000 today, or some greater amount tomorrow. Cutting tax rates does not change this. Neither does a flat tax. The party of Reagan needs to rethink its brand, and expand its agenda.
Social Security is a tax-financed system. With life expectancy increasing and birthrates falling, the number of taxpayers shrinks relative to beneficiaries. In 1950, there were 16 workers per beneficiary, today there are 3.3 and in 2040 there will be 2. As long as benefits are provided from taxes, and demographics continue as they have, either benefits must be cut or taxes must be increased, and by a lot.
But by changing the financing to a saving and investing model, eventually all benefits would be provided by one’s accumulated wealth, and most of the payroll tax would end: a very big tax cut. Yet, many Republican politicians don’t see this; they seem caught in some kind of warp wherein Social Security reform is not tax reform.
This is a lost opportunity, and for many reasons:
- All wage earners pay Social Security taxes but not all pay income taxes. The Tax Foundation estimates 43 million Americans who recently filed a tax return had no income tax liability. So a cut in income tax rates holds little interest for them.
- About 80 percent of all wage earners pay more in Social Security taxes than in income taxes. Any politician who promotes big tax cuts for all workers needs to target the payroll tax.
- Fundamental Social Security reform would be the biggest tax cut in history.
- Finally, it would significantly reduce, as opposed to limit, the size of government.
According to the fiscal 2008 budget, payroll taxes for retirement benefits were $520 billion in 2006, and individual income taxes were $1,044 billion. Reforming Social Security by allowing 5 percent of the 10.6 percent tax allocated for retirement to be saved and invested would reduce the payroll tax by $245 billion. This is equal to 23 percent of individual income taxes collected in 2006, and 17.2 percent of fiscal-year 2006 federal outlays. This would reduce taxes and the size of government more than any tax reform now proposed by Republican candidates. But they don’t seem to see it.
And herein lies the opportunity. Just as Ronald Reagan defied conventional wisdom on many issues, and with abounding success, a candidate may emerge who tells us he is campaigning on lower tax rates, a simpler tax code, smaller — in contrast to limited — government, and fundamental Social Security reform. And, importantly, he or she also tells us all these pieces fit together; they are integral to each other.
If this catches hold, the Republican Party will build on its established brand, and expand its agenda. Now out of power in Congress, and perhaps the White House in 2008, it needs no less. | <urn:uuid:c83f6629-ee99-4baf-bc97-dab32ed19fe3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/expanding-agenda | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969809 | 1,015 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter
One of the nicknames of Venus is “the Morning Star”. It’s also known as the Evening Star. Of course, Venus isn’t a star at all, but a planet. So why does Venus have these nicknames?
The orbit of Venus is inside the orbit of Earth. Unlike the outer planets, Venus is always relatively close to the Sun in the sky. When Venus is on one side of the Sun, it’s trailing the Sun in the sky and brightens into view shortly after the Sun sets, when the sky is dark enough for it to be visible. When Venus is at its brightest, it becomes visible just minutes after the Sun goes down. This is when Venus is seen as the Evening Star.
When Venus is on the other side of the Sun, it leads the Sun as it travels across the sky. Venus will rise in the morning a few hours before the Sun. Then as the Sun rises, the sky brightens and Venus fades away in the daytime sky. This is Venus the Morning Star.
The ancient Greeks and Egyptians thought that Venus was actually two separate objects, a morning star and an evening star. The Greeks called the morning star Phosphoros, “the bringer of light”; and they called the evening star Hesperos, “the star of the evening”. A few hundred years later, the Hellenistic Greeks realized that Venus was actually a single object.
We have also recorded a whole episode of Astronomy Cast that’s just about planet Venus. Listen to it here, Episode 50: Venus. | <urn:uuid:2e360093-81d1-480f-bb05-6f451d113b7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.universetoday.com/22570/venus-the-morning-star/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94087 | 350 | 3.859375 | 4 |
Wong, Martha, 1939-;
Texas--Politics and government;
Houston (Tex.)--Politics and government;
Asian Americans--Social conditions--Texas--Houston;
In 1993 Martha Wong was the first Asian American elected to the Houston City Council, and in 2003, she became the first Asian American woman elected to the Texas Legislature. In this interview, Martha answers questions about her career and her life...
Baseball coaches--United States;
Baseball players--United States.
Wayne Graham is one of the most distinctive coaches in Baseball, and is credited with more than 1400 wins as a Collegiate Head Coach. He played 11 years as a professional with the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets, and was named Texas Minor...
The passion for sports writing was imbibed in Mickey Herskowitz from an early age. Growing up in Houston, he started writing for the Houston Post when he was only 14 years old. When the Chronicle purchased The Post, he started writing for the...
Tinsley, Eleanor, 1926-2009;
City council members -- Texas -- Houston -- Interviews;
School integration -- Texas -- Houston -- History;
Houston Community College (Houston, Tex.) -- History;
School board presidents -- Texas -- Houston --...
Eleanor Tinsley talks about her years as president of the board of the Houston Independent School District, and as member of the city council.
She was involved in the school integration movement and was instrumental in the creation of the Houston...
Philanthropists -- Texas -- Houston -- Interviews ;
Houston (Tex.) -- Social life and customs;
Houston (Tex.) -- History -- Anecdotes;
Philanthropist and social activist, Jane Blaffer talks about the social life in Houston during the first half of the 20th century. She talks about the philanthropic contributions of her family as well as people like the Cullens, Imma Hogg, James... | <urn:uuid:9287e601-d2dc-446e-b5df-40516d874382> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digital.houstonlibrary.org/cdm/search/searchterm/began/mode/all/page/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942985 | 398 | 2.015625 | 2 |
While Chesterfield County School Board members were discussing safety issues Monday evening, in light of the recent tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office, along with the staff and administration of Chesterfield Ruby Middle School, were putting strategic plans into action — in light of a bomb threat that sent students and parents away from the District Spelling Bee.
“It was a bad situation that worked well,” said Chesterfield County Superintendent Harrison Goodwin. “Our partners in law enforcement got information that was linked to activities at the school and acted quickly.”
According to Chesterfield County Sheriff Sam Parker, information given to Chesterfield Chief of Police Eric Hewitt led to the interception, through social media, of “some bad choice of words.” Words, he said, “we simply couldn’t ignore.”
The same words that forced nervous Spelling Bee participants and their parents out of the building, also led to the arrest of a 13-year-old girl, although no explosives were found, lawmen said.
“The young lady will remain in custody with the Department of Juvenile Justice in Columbia for 48 hours,” said Parker, “awaiting a hearing.”
Authorities also plan to question someone else, yet to be identified, in connection with the threat. That suspect is believed to be a woman in her early 20s, said Parker.
Goodwin learned of the threat and decided to clear the building for the Spelling Bee, by text, while conducting the regular monthly school board meeting in Pageland. “Especially considering no one could reach me, the top administrator, at the time,” said Goodwin, “the response to the situation was textbook. All of the pieces of the response team puzzle fit together, which is good to know.”
Students and parents evacuated the building immediately, said Goodwin. And due to the length of time it takes to fully search a building, he said, it was decided quickly to send everyone home and reschedule the event.
Goodwin had no idea Monday, at the time of the meeting, how his words on safety would soon resonate. “We’re not preparing for that kind of tragedy,” he said of the Connecticut massacre. That kind of malicious intent would be hard to stop anywhere, he said.
“What we want to do is provide good, common sense protection, day to day,” said Goodwin.
Goodwin made several suggestions on how to beef up security measures at each of the county’s schools. Photo badges, along with a check-in system for visitors should be in every school, he said. Safety doors have already been installed at Plainview and Cheraw Intermediate.
Keyless entry and access to buildings was also on Goodwin’s list, along with more fencing. He suggested, and the board agreed Monday, to hire an “outside set of eyes” to look for possible glitches in safety procedures or facilities. “It’s nickle and dime money to pay for a lot of peace of mind,” he said.
Tuesday morning, Goodwin said the experience this week at Chesterfield Ruby Middle School should remind us of two things: We should take solace in knowing how diligent our law enforcement and administration were able to respond to a possible situation, and it should remind parents and students how significant and destructive the wrong words can be, especially when used in social media.
— Staff Writer Karen Kissiah can be reached by calling 843-537-5261, or by email at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:982a1cf8-e868-4e28-a577-c4e561c971d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecherawchronicle.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Bomb+threat+ends+District+Spelling+Bee%20&id=21420116 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971224 | 758 | 1.875 | 2 |
I had my first opportunity to try okonomiyaki or Japanese pancakes in Hiroshima. Although these pancakes are served all over Japan, the chefs in Hiroshima are famous for the number of layers their okonomiyaki have -and their ability to keep their many-layered pancakes intact till they serve them. We went to a place called Okonomi- Mura which literally translated means Pancake- Village and that’s what it was- a tall building with floor after floor of restaurants- each one serving okonomiyaki.
Our tiny- kerchiefed chef was a true artist. She created the base shape of our pancakes on her piping hot grill with her spatula- fashioning each dollop of batter into a perfect circle. After the batter had cooked she added layers of crisp shredded cabbage, crunchy bean sprouts, baked fish croutons and meaty bacon. She was cooking noodles in a wok at the same time and when they were done she added them as layer number six. She broke eggs onto the griddle and twirled and swirled them creating a scrambled egg mixture. Shrimp were dumped on the grill next and after they were sizzling our chef chopped them deftly with a razor sharp knife and then attacked an onion and green pepper with the same blade. The shrimp, onion and pepper bits were mixed together with the egg and placed on top of the pancake to form layer number seven.
Our imminently skilled chef then took that seven -layer pancake and flipped the entire thing upside down intact and after it had cooked for a few minutes she flipped it once again. What talent!
The pancakes were huge and I wish my husband and I had shared one. We could only eat about half of our enormous meal.
We purchased another memorable meal at Andersons Bakery. Established in 1948 in a bank building that had been only slightly damaged by the 1945 bombing Andersons was named after Danish story teller Hans Christian Anderson and was the first bakery in Japan to feature Danish pastry. I discovered that bakers who work for Andersons spend two years living on a farm just north of Hiroshima and learn how the wheat for Andersons’ breads is grown and harvested and how the flour is milled. The trainees are taught how to bake bread. They live together and eat together until they know everything there is to know about bread making from the field to the table.
Andersons doesn’t just have every kind of bread and pastry imaginable for sale but many other things as well. The place is really more like a deli. We purchased pickles, cheese, sliced meat, wine and fruit filled pastry. Of course we also had some of Anderson’s famous sour dough bread that has the word Hiroshima baked into the top of each loaf. We had a little picnic in the dining area of our Hiroshima hostel with all our delicacies from Andersons.
There are many good reasons to spend time in Hiroshima when you visit Japan. The excellent food is definitely one of them.
* * * * *
Published on 11/27/09 | <urn:uuid:a768b566-40cb-4522-b00b-1212f285caf3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/38963/52792684/12/con0_oth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981087 | 634 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Dr. Weinstock is a board-certified ophthalmologist. He practices general ophthalmology in Canton, Ohio, with a special interest in contact lenses. He holds faculty positions of Professor of Ophthalmology at the Northeastern Ohio Colleges of Medicine and Affiliate Clinical Professor in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science at Florida Atlantic University.
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.
Wearing correct-fitting lenses, using the correct care regimen, and undergoing periodic follow-up examinations by the fitter
should prevent most problems.
Cleanliness is essential. Do not handle contact lenses without first washing your hands. Contact-lens cases must be cleaned every day. They should be discarded and replaced periodically because they may serve as a culture medium for bacteria and fungi. Once a week
they should be washed with hot water and allowed to air dry afterward.
Any contact lens wearer must follow the general rules
of good hygiene. The wearer must also be motivated and mature enough to follow
the instructions for avoidance of problems. For this reason, some fitters will
not fit children.
Children must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
In young children (younger than 8-9 years of age), contact lenses are usually
prescribed for medical reasons only. For example, after congenitalcataract surgery,
contact lenses offer essentially normal vision without the use of thick
glasses. Parents assume the responsibility for the correct care and wearing
of the lenses.
Different types of lenses have different care
routines. In general, lens care involves rinsing of the lenses upon removal,
cleaning the lenses, and storing them in a disinfecting solution. Homemade or
non-contact-lens saline or solutions should never be used. Only use the
solutions that are recommended.
The lenses should be worn and discarded as
directed. If lenses are to be replaced on a scheduled basis (for example,
daily, weekly), it is a false economy and dangerous to try to extend the
lenses by replacing them less often.
The safest way to wear lenses is to wear them on a
daily basis and discard them every day. This avoids the use of solutions and
decreases handling. However, it is slightly more expensive, and daily
disposable lenses are not available in all prescriptions.
Overnight wear of contact lenses is available for certain prescriptions. Although approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), this is not believed to be safe by many fitters
because of the increased rate of infections with extended wear.
Most complications may be eliminated by meticulous
wear and care by the wearer and following instructions meticulously as well as
getting follow-up examinations by the fitter.
It is essential to be examined by your
ophthalmologist, optometrist, or other fitter at least once a year and more
often if extended wear lenses are worn. Every examination should, at a
minimum, include a history as to how the lenses are cared for and to find
out if there are any problems. The vision should be checked with the contact
lenses, and the lenses should be observed on the eye with the slit lamp. An
evaluation of the vision with glasses (after removing the contact lenses)
should also be performed.
The examination also includes an examination of the shape of the cornea. No distortion or changes should be present. The cornea, as well as the rest of the eye, should be evaluated
and measured, along with an evaluation for the possible presence of any eye diseases, such as glaucoma or cataracts.
In most cases, contact-lens problems are managed with no permanent damage.
Usually the patient may return to normal contact-lens use and care.
There is constant research being carried out to develop new lens materials
and designs as well as new solutions for care. It is rare to switch a patient to
a new lens unless there is a reason for it (for example, a patient may no longer
tolerate his or her lenses but will be able to resume lens wear with a new lens
type or solution).
Anatomy of the EyeEven though the eye is small, only about 1 inch in diameter, it serves a very important function -- the sense of sight. Vision is by far the most used of the fi...learn more >>
Eye Care ProvidersWhen you need to visit an eye care professional, it is important to make sure that you see the person who is most qualified to take care of any concerns you ma...learn more >>
Vision Correction SurgeryVision correction surgery changes the cornea to focus light on the back of the eye without the need for corrective lenses. There are several types of vision cor...learn more >> | <urn:uuid:2fde264a-01e3-479d-ac02-c45ccef9fc62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.emedicinehealth.com/contact_lenses/page11_em.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934882 | 1,087 | 2.3125 | 2 |
First results due from Envisat’s global health check
Initial results from an ambitious health check of the whole planet Earth are due to be released by ESA on Thursday, 28 March. The Agency is set to unveil the first images returned from the Envisat satellite, the largest and most complex Earth observation spacecraft ever flown.
Successfully launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport on 1 March, the eight tonne spacecraft is designed to continue observations carried out by ESA’s ERS spacecraft during the last decade – and so add to the ongoing body of valuable environmental data – as well as monitor many additional components of our planetary system.
The spacecraft carries ten separate instruments to enable simultaneous monitoring of land, oceans, ice fields and the atmosphere. This combined data should enable us to keep track of their complex interactions, and help answer urgent questions on how human activities may be altering our environment.
As soon as Envisat achieved its orbit - some 800 km above our heads – engineers at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, commenced the delicate task of activating each of its instruments in turn. At the same time, hundreds of people worldwide began a massive effort to verify the data the instruments started to send back.
Across the globe, sensors carried by balloon, ships and planes – as well as observers stationed on the ground from Antarctica to the Sahara Desert – are taking in-situ readings of their surroundings, to be checked against what Envisat shows from space. This continuing verification and calibration campaign is scheduled to last six months, after which Envisat should be declared operational.
Envisat’s instruments are already returning raw data to Earth, which are processed at a new facility at ESA’s ESRIN establishment in Frascati, Italy. The team at ESRIN are using specialized algorithms to ‘fine-tune’ this string of digital bits into processed material scientists will be able to use.
Once Envisat enters its operational phase, scientific researchers and industry across the planet will be able to access its data. For now, the very first Envisat results will be released to the press at ESRIN – and also here at the ESA Portal – this Thursday. | <urn:uuid:41be853f-0fe0-414e-baf9-f93b1f3c3f98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/First_results_due_from_Envisat_s_global_health_check | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935052 | 462 | 2.578125 | 3 |
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Waterloo, Ont. — A 27-year-old candidate in the competitive riding of Kitchener-Waterloo had just finished his first media interview as a politician inside a popular coffee shop between two universities, delivering a bravura performance.
The owner of the café, curious about the camera and notebook, asked him if he was going to be in the newspaper. He looked sheepish, said he thought so, and stopped.
“Aren’t you going to tell her who you are?” he was asked.
“Hi, I’m Steven Bradley Scott, a candidate with the Pirate Party of Canada.” The owner seemed interested. Her café brimmed with customers on laptops tapping into her wireless signal. Emboldened, he asked to leave promotional material.
“So, that’s how it’s done?” Mr. Scott asked afterwards.
Witness the end of slacktivism.
The Pirate Party of Canada, registered as a political party in 2010, champions issues attractive to young voters — traditionally seen as slackers unwilling to become overtly active politically. Drawing its name not from seafaring swashbucklers but from a drive to reform information, copyright and privacy laws and promote digital access, the party’s issues are not as insignificant as its name suggests.
Debates over file sharing, usage-based billing (Internet service providers ending unlimited online access) and net neutrality (preventing providers from restricting Internet content or usage) were mainstream news last year.
In Sweden, where the first Pirate Party started amid the controversy over file-sharing sites such as Pirate Bay, the party won two seats in the European Union Parliament in 2009, capturing 7.1% of the national vote and becoming the third largest party in the country.
Pirate candidates have also been elected to city councils in Germany.
In Canada, it was the huge public outcry over usage-based billing — causing the government to intervene — that made Mr. Scott, who works in Internet security, realize the Pirate Party had real value.
“That was a sign to me that my views about access to the Internet and my views about access to information and empowering the populace to make decisions were not so out there and were shared by quite a number of people,” he said.
“We’ve seen in a number of areas — Libya, Tunisia — the Internet being used as a powerful tool for change and organization within political groups.”
Pirate party leader Mikkel Paulson, 23, a web developer, is running in Edmonton Centre. He is joined by 11 other Pirate candidates in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec in the party’s first general election.
In November’s by-election in Winnipeg North, a Pirate candidate placed fifth, just behind the Greens but ahead of the Communist and the Christian Heritage candidates.
In an election of increasing narrowness, when the Conservatives are battling to win 12 additional seats to gain a majority, and the Green Party is claiming to have pushed through from the fringe to be a major party, the alternative parties are organizing to an unprecedented level, spurred in large part by the Internet and social media.
There are 15 parties registered that have never had a member elected to parliament this election, including the Green Party.
At least two small-party leaders’ debates are being planned. One will be held this Saturday at the Drake Hotel in Toronto by the non-registered Online Party of Canada, and the other will take place later this month, also in Toronto, with the Canadian Action Party and the Pirate Party.
Despite the activity, small parties have not met with electoral success in Canada. The Pirates in particular could have an uphill battle.
“Small, single-issue or single type of issue parties have the goals of using elections to advance their issue agenda, get it discussed and potentially considered by other parties, the media and ultimately the general public,” said Jon Pammett, professor of political science at Carleton University who studies federal elections.
“The Pirate Party has picked a set of quite complicated and technical issues, however, and may have some difficulty using the limited attention they get in public campaign events to adequately explain them.”
Sinclair Stevens, a former Conservative cabinet minister who is now leader of the Progressive Canadian Party, another small party, said specialization is the parties’ attraction.
“The major parties are trying to be something for everybody and end up offering nothing to anybody,” he said.
Big Data is now being used by advertisers to test the efficacy of traditional and digital media campaigns, but can it be considered a panacea?
Powered by WordPress.com VIP | <urn:uuid:2eedc5e8-f92d-42e6-8e4b-2c43077ef1f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/04/14/fringe-profile-pirate-party-champions-internet-issues/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963127 | 1,024 | 2.0625 | 2 |
70th anniversary: Belfast remembers World War II Blitz - PHOTOS
Survivors remember night of terror
As the 70th anniversary of the Belfast Blitz approaches the city prepares to remember all those who perished.
April 15, 1941 was a night when almost 1,000 people were killed during a prolonged bombing campaign by the Germans.
Belfast city was a target during second World War due to its large shipyard and aircraft manufacture base.
The night the fatal attacks occurred was Easter Tuesday 1941.
An air warden in Belfast that night said "The sirens started at quarter to eleven, and by eleven o'clock my team was on the street - that started six hours of horror, death and destruction."
For several hours, hundreds of tons of high explosive bombs and incendiaries were dropped on the city.
Crowded terraced houses were close by to the targeted docks area.
Those who were killed were stacked into the Falls Road Public baths and in a market close to the city centre.
Many of the victims could not be identified, if Rosary beads were found in a pocket then it was assumed they were Catholic.
As well as the huge loss of life, there was also extensive damage across the city, as half of the houses in Belfast city were hit by bombs which in turn left 100,000 people homeless.
One Belfast survivor recognized putting out fires throughout the city.
"Two of our comrades from the Sans Souci station were killed. They were coming along Royal Avenue when a bomb dropped and it left a crater. They drove into the crater," he told BBC New Northern Ireland.
"I saw an Alsatian dog with a dead baby in its mouth. It was running away. I took off my metal helmet and threw it on the ground. The rattle scared the dog and he dropped the baby.
"I remember wrapping the baby's body in some old net curtain from one of the bombed houses.
"I left the baby with some soldiers, having attached a note to say that the body was found on York Street... Things like that, you never forget."
He also recalled a friend, who was unable to find his mother and father’s bodies after their house was bombed.
"We went down to the stalls in the market. The dead were laid out on them. And I remember going along and lifting the sheeting to look at the bodies. But we never found his parents."
There are two monuments in Belfast city where the unidentified were buried in mass graves.
Both on the Falls Road, one is located at the Catholic Milltown Cemetery, the other in the non-denominational City Cemetery.
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- Senator Schumer says Irish deserve a separate... | <urn:uuid:65083ef3-f8d3-4b41-8fb6-7d3a7cce0ea7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irishcentral.com/news/70th-anniversary-Belfast-remembers-World-War-II-Blitz----PHOTOS-118493324.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982577 | 656 | 2.375 | 2 |
April 7th, 2000
Falcon showed up Euro rally stars
When Harry Firth and his Falcon crews arrived at the starting line in the shadow of Londons Big Ben for the commencement of the Daily Telegraph London-to-Sydney Marathon in 1968, everyone laughed at the huge cars with massive steel bumper bars. (We call them kangaroo bars in Australia, and take them seriously!)
Experienced European rally crews scoffed at the huge cars saying they were too wide, too heavy and too cumbersome. The favourites amongst European rally drivers were the lithe Escorts and Hillman GTs, the sporty Porsches and the innovative Citroens.
It didnt take long for the jeers to turn to amazement as these powerful V8 Falcons worked their way through the field as cars fell by the wayside in Yugoslavia, Iran and India.
When they got to Australia, the Falcons really shone. By the time they arrived in Sydney after days of stony desert tracks and icy alpine roads, the Falcons were placed third, fifth, and eighth, and had won the prestigious Teams Prize.
One of the drivers, a young engineer named Ian Vaughan, took out third place. 25 years later Ian drove the same car on the anniversary re-run and came home second! Ian is now vice president of product development at Ford and isnt sure whether hell be at the wheel for the 50th anniversary in 2018, but that famous Falcon KAG 002 very well might be.
The car is on permanent display at the Ford Discovery Centre in Geelong.
For a great range of car
parts at great prices, | <urn:uuid:5667f8d1-923f-409f-9a99-f2897c9c2cd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fastlane.com.au/ford-history/falcon/ford75-falcon-rally.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968427 | 335 | 1.5 | 2 |
On the subject of sugar....
...I've recently returned from the land of "Sheer Curiosity".
I'd been pondering how we can best feed the intestinal flora once they set up shop inside and discovered that there are in fact "sugars" in the form of soluble fiber called "oligosaccharides" that our flora feast on. There's an amazing amount of info out there:
"Human digestive enzymes have little or no effect on raw starch and polysaccharides such as cellulose, pectin, hemicellulose, and pentosan; and oligosaccharides such as melibiose, raffinose, stachyose, fructo-oligosaccharides, isomalto-oligosaccharides, and galacto-oligosaccharides. These substances are hydrolysed to varying degrees and digested by colonic bacteria with the production of organic acids, mainly volatile fatty acids (acetate, propionate, and butyrate), and gas (carbon dioxide and hydrogen). Small amounts of lactic, formic and succinic acids are also produced. Methane may be produced in some people.
Most Bifidobacterium species metabolise a wide rage of indigestible polysaccharides and oligosaccharides to acetic and lactic acids and subsequently act as effective scavengers in the large intestine, when many oligosaccharides are ingested in the diet, while E. col 1000 i and C. perfringens do not."http://www.healthyeatingclub.org/APJ...1/mitsuoka.htm
So if we eliminate processed sugar, ie, simple sugars which easily feed the bad bacteria (as mountain mom wisely advises) and increase the complex sugars that support the friendly, we dramatically enhance the intestinal environment. To me it's now easy to see how destructive the modern diet is to our flora.http://ific.org/foodinsight/2003/ma/...ybugsfi203.cfm
Also, my wife and I now eat our probitic yogurts in the wee hours of the morning when the digestive system is basically shut down. Pregnant and lactating women have enhanced stomach acids to derive as much nutrition as possible from food. This increases the difficulty of getting the bacteria through the stomach and into the intestines. We eat one or two yogurts with two bananas for the oligosaccharides, drink a good deal of non-tap water (non-chlorinated--Evian is the choice here) and head back to bed.
With a huevos rancheros breakfast-- corn tortilla, farm fresh eggs and especially BLACK BEANS (another supreme source of oligosaccharides) the previous nights new inhabitants have plenty of food to set up shop.
Today's the day for sauerkraut!-- freshly picked cabbage from Periwinkle Farms (it's soooo sweet--but that sugar WILL already be digested when we eat the cabbage), prepared whey sittin' in the fridge, and a couple of jars, I'm ready to GO!
Looks like we're gonna...... | <urn:uuid:157a0ac1-f7a0-4368-8a20-dc5c89c3b724> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mothering.com/community/t/96009/the-power-of-probiotics/260 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900744 | 664 | 2.171875 | 2 |
In the late 1970s, a 50-year trend toward more equal distribution of incomes in the United States was reversed. At first there was debate over the evidence, but by the 1990s economists of almost every stripe agreed that income disparity was rising. When President George W. Bush declared in early 2007 that “income inequality is real—it’s been rising for more than 25 years,” the matter seemed settled.
But three big questions remained: Why were incomes becoming less equal? Was this disparity really a problem? And how come inequality of consumption wasn’t nearly as great as that of income?
The last two questions now seem to have been answered. Americans below the very top income percentiles (where paychecks continued to grow) had borrowed to keep spending despite stagnant or declining incomes. For a time, rising asset prices—especially home prices—masked how leveraged households had become. But when home prices began to decline in 2006, the result was a global bust.
In early accounts of the financial crisis, income inequality was not seen to play a major role. Now it’s beginning to get attention. When even a professor in the University of Chicago’s market-oriented finance department, Raghuram G. Rajan, fingers unequal incomes as a key factor behind the crash, you know something’s up. As Rajan tells it in Fault Lines (Princeton University Press, 2010), Washington politicians embraced more lending as the way to counteract the economic struggles of the middle class. “Let them eat credit” is his summation. We did not digest it well.
Rajan paints the rise of inequality as the product of those with more education reaping increasingly bigger rewards—the dominant explanation for decades. But while it’s certainly not wrong, it may be incomplete. Clyde Prestowitz, Arianna Huffington, Robert B. Reich, Jacob S. Hacker, and Paul Pierson see political choices at work in the inequality boom. And political choices can be reversed.
Prestowitz, a veteran Washington trade warrior, makes a thoughtful case in The Betrayal of American Prosperity (Free Press, 2010) for a government-led industrial policy aimed at creating and preserving middle-class jobs. Government already intervenes in the economy, he observes. “Our problem is that...it does so without having a sensible economic or industrial strategy to guide and control it.”
Why don’t we have a sensible economic or industrial strategy? Because corporate lobbyists keep us from having one! That’s what the other four authors argue, and before you close your ears to this antibusiness propagandizing, be warned: There’s meat to it.
Not that you’ll find much meat in Huffington’s Third World America (Broadway Business, 2010), a hasty clip job redeemed somewhat by infectious energy, the occasional bon mot, and the author’s habit of crediting all those from whom she clips. The prolific Reich, meanwhile, has delivered the busy person’s guide to inequality economics: Aftershock (forthcoming from Knopf this month) is a brisk, intelligent run-through that you can finish in two hours. | <urn:uuid:4c796834-956e-4098-a749-6e4814abb470> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hbr.org/2010/09/synthesis-bridging-americas-income-gap/ar/pr | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95324 | 666 | 2.515625 | 3 |
A small cruise ship, the Orient Queen, has been chartered by the U.S. government to evacuate Americans from war-torn Lebanon and ferry them about 130 miles to the nearby island of Cyprus, the Pentagon announced July 17th.
The Lebanese owned cruise ship, which can carry up to 750 passengers, is expected to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday and will be escorted in its evacuation mission by a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer, the USS Gonzalez.
The cruise ship is expected to make its initial evacuation crossing from Beirut to Cyprus later Tuesday. Sources said the ship probably would take the evacuees to the southern coastal port of Larnaca, which is only a few miles from Larnaca International Airport, the island's main international gateway.
The 38-year-old Orient Queen may be remembered by many cruisers as Starward, which entered Caribbean cruise service with the old Norwegian Caribbean Line (now NCL) in 1968. It was sold to Festival Cruises in 1994 and sailed as the Bolero.
Following the collapse of Festival, she was sold in 2004 to a Lebanese company and has been operated as the Orient Queen by Abou Merhi Cruises, sailing this
past winter in the Persian Gulf while based in Dubai.
A U.S. Embassy statement instructed any of the estimated 25,000 American citizens in Lebanon to be ready to leave, but many of these have dual American-Lebanese citizenship and are not expected to evacuate.
The State Department estimated that the number of Americans wishing to evacuate was probably about 5,000. | <urn:uuid:0695d18c-41d7-411e-8c8b-56f72cf5f8b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marinelink.com/news/article/cruise-ship-to-be-used-to-evacuate-americans-from-lebanon/310655.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975765 | 321 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Hubble Astronomers Uncover an Overheated Early Universe
If you think global warming is bad, 11 billion years ago there was universal warming. During this period, fierce radiation blasts from active galaxies stunted the growth of some small galaxies for approximately 500 million years.
This is the conclusion of a team of astronomers who used the new capabilities of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to probe the invisible, remote universe. The team's results will be published in the October 20 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
Using Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), the astronomers identified this era, from 11.7 to 11.3 billion years ago, when the ultraviolet light emitted by quasars stripped electrons off helium atoms. The process, known as ionization, heated the intergalactic helium from 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit to nearly 40,000 degrees. This inhibited the gas from gravitationally collapsing to form new generations of stars in some small galaxies.
Because of its greatly improved sensitivity and lower background "noise" compared to previous spectrographs in space, the COS observations were exquisite. They allowed scientists to produce more detailed measurements of the intergalactic helium than previously possible.
"These COS results yield new insight into an important phase in the history of our universe," said Hubble Program Scientist Eric Smith at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Michael Shull of the University of Colorado in Boulder and his team studied the spectrum of ultraviolet light that was produced by a quasar and found signs of ionized helium. This beacon, like a headlight shining through fog, shines through interspersed clouds of otherwise invisible gas and allows for a core sample of the gas clouds.
The universe went through an initial heat wave more than 13 billion years ago when energy from early massive stars ionized cold interstellar hydrogen from the big bang. This epoch is actually called reionization, because the hydrogen nuclei were originally in an ionized state shortly after the big bang.
The Hubble team found it would take another two billion years before the universe produced sources of ultraviolet radiation with enough energy to reionize the primordial helium that also was cooked up in the big bang. This radiation didn't come from stars, but rather from super massive black holes. The black holes furiously converted some of the gravitational energy of this mass to powerful ultraviolet radiation that would blaze out of galaxies as quasars. The helium's reionization occurred at a transitory time in the universe's history when galaxies collided to ignite quasars.
After the helium was reionized, intergalactic gas again cooled down and dwarf galaxies could resume normal assembly. "I imagine quite a few more dwarf galaxies may have formed if helium reionization had not taken place," Shull said.
So far Shull and his team only have one sightline to measure the helium transition to its ionized state. However, the COS science team plans to use Hubble to look in other directions to determine if helium reionization uniformly took place across the universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between
NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages
the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble
science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington, D.C. | <urn:uuid:db116dad-24e2-45ea-9c9e-4cbbe6ff2f2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/overheated.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929451 | 693 | 3.828125 | 4 |
The first report of the Commission on Milk Standards, appointed by the New York Milk Committee, was published in the United States Public Health Reports, May 10, 1912. The second report of the commission was published in the same place, Aug. 22, 1913. At the annual meeting of the commission, held in New York in May of the present year, the commission decided not to make any changes in the classification of the report of the commission as contained in its last published report, but recommended that efforts be made by the New York Milk Committee looking toward the adoption of a classification and standards for milk by state, local and municipal health authorities.
At the recent session of the American Medical Association, the Section on Preventive Medicine and Public Health adopted a resolution endorsing the standards suggested by the commission. This resolution was referred to the House of Delegates, | <urn:uuid:eaeb6bc5-3279-4b04-aa6f-e6049ce22df0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=435808 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969855 | 170 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Lanvin has released another video of its founder Jeanne Lanvin, this time at work supervising fittings and making final adjustments on her collection before its unveiling to the press.
The historical, recently-discovered footage shows the designer, who lived from 1867 to 1946, busy with the last-minute preparations at 22 Faubourg Saint Honoré, which remains the flagship store of the brand today.
A beautiful glimpse into fashion history, it documents the launch of her “Sorbier”, “Tubéreuse” and “Azalée” eveningwear designs. It also provides a look inside her office. “This is not just a dressmaking studio; it is a veritable cabinet of curiosities furnished by the famous Eugène Printz and houses her fabric library,” read the notes.
The notes also suggest films resurfacing from the founder’s era such as this one are “thanks to the digitalisation of cinematic archives by companies such as INA or Gaumont-Pathé”. | <urn:uuid:353e4208-2e1e-4f6e-b194-c56e53e2a6fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fashionandmash.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/archive-lanvin-film-reveals-founder-at-work-in-atelier/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961003 | 224 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Please wait while my tweets load
Diecast Model Cars are manufactured to various scales based on measurements taken from their real road going equivalents.
In Australia, the most popular scale is 1:18, or in simple terms, a model 18 times smaller than its road going equivalent. A 1:18th is about the same length as a tissue box.
Biante also manufacture cars in 1:43 and 1:64 scale. As you can see from the above graphic, 1:43 is under half the size of a 1:18 model, coming in at around 10 centimetres long (think of it as about as long as a standard Mobile Phone). A 1:64th is smaller again, and is more around the size of a traditional "Matchbox" car.
Remember however, just because the models get smaller, doesn't mean their detail is reduced. All models produced by Biante are designed to be Collectors Items and as such, are not suitable for small children as they do contain small parts.
Here is a rough guide to the size of model cars although this will vary depending on the size of the actual vehicle being replicated:
1:64 scale will be approximately 6cm long
1:43 scale will be approximately 10cm long
1:18 scale will be approximately 20-30cm long
Always remember, the higher the scale, the smaller the model.
Racing: Popular Drivers: Car Manufacturer: Model Manufacturer: Miscellaneous: | <urn:uuid:a52c328b-ccec-46c7-880d-383651c7b231> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biante.com.au/scales.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958365 | 300 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Online PD Program Helps Teachers Develop Personal Technology Skills
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March 31, 2012 By:
Pearson is partnering with Edvation to help teachers improve their skills development and use of technology in the classroom with their online pd21 professional development system. Educators will be test-driving the program live at the 67th annual ASCD conference in Philadelphia March 24-26.
pd21 will help teachers integrate resources such as Microsoft Office suite, SketchUp (for learning to design) and GeoGebra (for understanding algebra) into their classrooms in practical ways. pd21provides various options for courses, from self-paced online tutorials to anytime/anywhere workshops that focus on meaningful technology integration and 21st Century teaching. For more information, visit www.pd21.com | <urn:uuid:86a468f4-5aa4-401c-9552-db5f337d3072> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&entryid=4076 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923028 | 166 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Source: Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston, (31/7/03)
Posted: 02:40 pm 01-08-2003
Seven regional communities throughout New South Wales (NSW) will benefit from an Australian Government investment of more than $800,000 to establish and operate Community Technology Centres (CTCs), the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston, announced today.
The new CTCs in the communities of Dorrigo, Doyalson, Gerringong, Nabiac and Wallaga Lake, and additional funding for existing centres in Singleton and Scone, will allow local residents, businesses and tourists to access modern online technology and services.
CTCs are dedicated technology hubs that enable residents to access online services and training - targeting towns with fewer than 3,000 residents, and local government coverage areas of fewer than 10,000 people.
The CTC funding will be used to buy computer software and equipment and provide public Internet access, training and business services. The centres will also be managed by the community - which means that residents can have control over the services delivered to ensure they are appropriately targeted to local needs.
This funding will be delivered through the joint Commonwealth-State CTC Program funded under the Australian Government's highly successful Networking the Nation (NTN) program. It is the seventh funding round in the Australian Government's total CTC funding of $8.2 million.
To date, 99 regional communities have benefited from the establishment of CTCs - nearly half of which are smaller outreach centres serviced by a nearby CTC. The Australian Government is working collaboratively with the NSW State Government which is providing support for the CTC program including advice, networking and financial assistance worth a total of $7.2 million.
This is an excellent example of the Australian Government working in partnership with local communities to bridge gaps in telecommunications services, access and costs between urban and non-urban Australia. The establishment of CTCs means that residents and visitors to these communities will benefit from online services and training - something which has not been financially viable in the past because of high set-up and maintenance costs.
Over time, CTCs will provide an increasing range of services identified as priorities by local businesses and residents including learning opportunities, online business advice, web development and hosting. The high level of cooperation between community and business groups is demonstrated by an ever-increasing number of joint project proposals.
Click here for more information | <urn:uuid:92f454a2-b08f-43f5-876e-edb9e9f6e3ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grassroots.org.au/group/noticeboard/items/20030911010b.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954059 | 514 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Pablo P. Gutierrez died on Dec. 17 at age 93. He had suffered a long illness, but had lived a longer, full life that touched many.
Gutierrez experienced the full horror of war as a soldier in the National Guard 200th/515th Coast Artillery, deployed to the Philippines during WW II. The United States was focused chiefly on winning the European front of the war as the 1,800 soldiers from New Mexico were fighting for their lives on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. On April 9, 1942, U.S. and Filipino forces were surrendered. This began the horrific "Bataan Death March" along the peninsula to the survivors' eventual imprisonment. Soldiers were beaten, starved and executed, with as many as 10,000 perishing along the way.
Gutierrez survived the unimaginable cruelty and was one of the 900 New Mexican soldiers to return home from the mission.
When he did, he met his future life and spent the rest of his days as a dutiful, giving family man. It was this second part of his life that filled much of Friday's ceremonies.
The grand interior of the Our Lady Fatima Catholic Church in Bayard held a solemn but hopeful service in honor of a man who gave so much.
The many rows of pews were nearly filled with family, friends, veterans and other supporters at the funeral service.
The air was filled with
Father Paulus Kao officiated the service, though he was ill, and gave a no-nonsense sermon, focusing on prayers for the deceased veteran.
"I am not going to tell you all he is in heaven, because I do not know," Kao said. "Instead, our job is to pray for the soul of this man. That is what we can do."
Pray they did. After a full funeral mass, the coffin was taken from the church by soldiers from the Army National Guard's 1200 Infantry Battalion out of Las Cruces to a snow-dusted Fort Bayard National Cemetery. These official pallbearers are in the Army National Guard Honor Guard program of New Mexico. Most of the men volunteered for the mission.
"It is a huge honor for us to be a part of this celebration," said Sgt. Judas Perea, coordinator for the National Guard Honor Guard Program of New Mexico's southwestern region, who was among the Guard Friday.
After the funeral, the Honor Guard escorted the coffin and the congregation to Ft. Bayard National Cemetery, where a military ceremony was waiting.
Gutierrez received high honors for his service, with a final-gun salute tribute, flag folding and speeches from Col. Tim Paul and Guiterrez's daughter Rosemary C. Gutierrez.
Paul gave "freedom, fear and promise" as the chief reasons to remember the fallen hero.
He listed many American freedoms, like women being able to live the life they choose and voting for the candidate they believe in, saying that Gutierrez was one of the reasons Americans still enjoy those freedoms.
He then said that Gutierrez didn't face fear in battle, but danger.
"The difference between fear and danger is that fear is a choice and danger is a reality," Paul said. "If you ask me, this man faced danger without fear."
Paul also said that Gutierrez lived in an honorable fashion and that those present needed to make a "promise to live in his image."
Paul's speech touched veterans from all branches present.
"It was a honor and privilege for us to be there," said Frank Donohue, of the Gaffney-Oglesby Detachment 1328 of the Marine Corps League. "Even though we were Marines, we are all veterans here and many of us are combat veterans. We don't have a clue as to what those gentleman suffered during that four years in a POW camp. It was very brutal and those were brave souls who went through that for all of us. It's a brotherhood of men and women."
After his speech, Paul presented both a flag - folded in military fashion - and the podium to Gutierrez's daughter and longtime caregiver, Rosemary.
Rosemary approached the podium and began a speech she called, "Like Father, Like Daughter."
She talked about how clean and respectable a man her father had been throughout her lifetime - how she had never heard him use profanity, how he had quit drinking alcohol when he found out she was going to be born and the quit cigarettes when Rosemary's daughter was coming into the world.
She thanked his caregivers who had done so well by her father, their family members who had dropped everything when they heard Gutierrez had died, and members of Our Lady Fatima for all the help they provided.
Lastly, she thanked her father for being her hero and her friend.
Rosemary spent the last few years taking care of her revered father and has no regrets.
"I would do it all again," she said. "I would do it again in a second."
Benjamin Fisher can be reached at (575) 538-5893 ext. 5803. | <urn:uuid:09a222ed-4b67-493e-8f2c-e5d233fea83a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.demingheadlight.com/deming-news/ci_22282585/bataan-death-march-survivor-laid-rest?source=most_viewed.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98701 | 1,050 | 2.4375 | 2 |
If there’s one thing that bothers me this time of the year, it’s seeing ex-servicemen in wheelchairs or sporting titanium arms and legs on television. If peaceful, rational humanoids from another galaxy landed in the U.S., I have to believe they would be appalled. I can just hear them asking, “Who sent all these healthy young men and women off to be maimed and killed?” And, “Did the people who sent them lead the charge into battle?”
Many argue that having the lives of thousands of young adults destroyed – or lost – is the price of preserving our freedom. And during World War II, when America was a very different nation, most people had no trouble buying into that proposition. But in today’s corrupt, semi-socialist America, the biggest threat to our freedom comes not from abroad, but from the criminal class in Washington – and, unfortunately, no one is talking about invading the nation’s capital.
It’s time to skip the political-correctness silliness and face up to reality: Most wars are transfer-of-wealth scams – transferring money from you and me to the companies that build the planes, tanks, bombs, uniforms, drones, etc., that politicians say they need to protect us. The military-industrial complex has been dominant in all advanced civilizations throughout history, and it’s never been in better health than it is today.
We’re talking very big business here. So big that those who benefit the most from it are willing to have people killed to keep the war assembly lines moving ahead at full speed.
As a third-generation tyrant (Kim Jong Un, a.k.a. “Chublet II”) steps to the fore in North Korea, one can’t helping thinking about the infamous Korean War that ended without victory in 1953 – even though victory was in the palm of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s hand.
Or the infamous Vietnam War that ended in defeat in 1975 – even though the U.S. could have won that war years earlier, had it been willing to use overwhelming force.
Or the infamous Gulf War that ended, curiously, with Saddam Hussein still in power in 1992.
If you want to be ahead of the curve, you can add the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war to the above list as well. Bet the farm on this one: The Iraq story is going to have a very unhappy ending. The only question is whether the country will be overwhelmed by civil war or by an Iran takeover.
As to Afghanistan, it will end the same way that all Afghan wars end – meaning never. Its latest attackers – the Americans – will go back home with their tails between their legs, just as the Russians did before them. And the Afghans will continue to do what they’ve always done – fight.
It’s not possible to win a war against Afghanistan, because it’s not a real country. It’s a down-and-dirty suburb of the moon, filled with tribesmen who get up every morning, put on their skirts, and do what they’ve been doing for thousands of years – fight anyone who is willing to enter the ring with them. And if there are no takers, they’re happy to fight each other.
I don’t doubt the courage or patriotism of the young Americans for whom wheelchairs or prosthetics are now a way of life. They acted in good faith and did what they thought was right. They believed they were being patriotic and defending our freedom.
But it makes me angry that their lives have been shattered because corrupt men and women in Washington got them to believe they were fighting for a noble cause. They were not. That will become obvious to all in the coming years as we watch events unfold in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, along the way, a trillion dollars got transferred from the pockets of taxpayers into the coffers of the military-industrial complex.
With drones, bunker busters and, in a pinch, nuclear weapons, war should by now be passé. It’s not necessary to risk the lives of young men and women in far-off lands. If I were a hawk (which I most definitely am not), I’d free the North Korean people in about 17 minutes – without harming any young Americans. Iran might take a week – just long enough to turn things over to the pro-Western youth in that country whom Barack Obama was so pleased to see crushed.
But, as I said, I’m not a hawk, so I wouldn’t take either of the above actions. I’m just your average libertarian-centered conservative who is tired of war, tired of seeing young people’s lives shattered, tired of seeing American taxpayers forced to hand over their money to politicians so they can pursue never-ending overseas military adventures.
That said, let me make it clear that I’m a big advocate of having a strong national defense. My message to rogue nations would be simple: Mess with us and yesterday will always be remembered as the best day of your life. And, yes, we use nukes if that’s what it takes to make you behave.
Imagine all the lives and money that could have been saved had we hit the Tora Bora mountain range with a string of nuclear bombs in 2001. No U.S. casualties, no trillion dollars wasted, no 10 years of political posturing. And, best of all, from Russia to China, from North Korea to Iran, the rest of the world would live in fear of what might happen to them if they messed with the Great Satan. How much more comforting it is to be feared rather than liked.
The holiday season is a good time to reflect on how nice it would be if young Americans didn’t lose any more arms or legs and taxpayers would not have to fund a military-industrial complex with such a voracious appetite.
Strong national defense: Yes! Unwarranted wars and wars that we’re not serious about winning: No! | <urn:uuid:a3edf014-2257-43df-8fe4-b4856f97dd5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wnd.com/2011/12/89155/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963555 | 1,270 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Martin Heinrich (D) won election to the U.S. Senate from New Mexico last Tuesday, defeating his opponent, Heather Wilson (R), by more than five percentage points. (Here’s a review of all of the Senate results.)
The Washington Post suggests a possible reason for the victory:
The environmental community scored a string of successes Tuesday in New Mexico, Montana, Texas and other states, winning seven of eight targeted Senate races and at least three targeted House races. Although plenty of outside groups poured money into these contests, even some representatives of the fossil-fuel industry said that environmentalists had invested their resources wisely in 2012. …
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) spent more than $14 million this year, more than it had in the past three election cycles combined, and groups including the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation Action Fund, Defenders of Wildlife Action Committee, Environment America and Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund also devoted money and volunteers to key contests.
Or, to put it another way:
“There is evidence that the environmentalists have become a more mature political force,” said Scott H. Segal, who lobbies for utility companies at the firm Bracewell & Giuliani.
NPR has a story about the flip side of the coin.
During the election season, it was pretty common to hear about donors making “investments” in superPACs and other outside groups …
[T]he Sunlight Foundation calculated the return on these investments, at least on the contributions that have been disclosed. They found that a lot of the really big, much lauded superPACs kinda “fell flat on their faces,” [says Bill Allison, editorial director at the Sunlight Foundation].
Conservative super PACs spent hundreds of millions of dollars, most of it unsuccessfully. It’s an example that runs counter to that presented by the environmental groups: heavy investment in political races doesn’t seem to have made much of a dent at all.
So what’s the story? Does investing in races swing the outcome or not? The answer, frustratingly to voters and political groups alike, is: sometimes.
One analyst gave his take on that New Mexico race to the Post:
Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, who had rated the New Mexico Senate contest as a tossup/tilt Democrat at the start of the summer, questioned whether environmentalists were decisive, given the state’s Democratic leanings.
“I’m not doubting that they did something,” Rothenberg said of environmentalists. “If they hadn’t done anything, I think Wilson still would have lost.”
To Rothenberg’s point: President Obama won the state of New Mexico by an even larger margin than Heinrich. It’s unlikely, then, that environmental ads and contributions are what made up that five-point margin of victory.
In at least one case, heavy green investment was clearly not enough for victory. The Michigan ballot initiative that called for bolstering the use of renewable energy lost badly — despite green groups putting $25 million into the effort. Our David Roberts assessed what that loss means for state-level politics, with the same answer we might draw at a national level: It’s uncertain.
Environmental groups investing in political races and running ads on key green topics can raise public awareness of core issues and can, in close races, have an effect. The problem is that it’s hard to predict when you’ll succeed and when you won’t, particularly in races where the electorate heavily favors one side or the other. Often, advocacy organizations assume that even in less-close contests, their strategies are what made the difference, which can skew future political strategizing. There are few more powerful mantras in the heavily superstitious world of political campaigning than, “It worked before!”
About the only thing that can be said with certainty after last Tuesday is this: A big, diverse turnout of voters delivered a number of victories to Democrats. And we can probably say this, too: In Montana, where Sen. Jon Tester (D) was reelected by 19,000 votes in a state that went heavily for Mitt Romney, the efforts of environmental groups got some credit.
Less than three hours after Tester was declared the winner in Montana on Wednesday, LCV President Gene Karpinski received a call from the now two-term senator, thanking him for environmentalists’ support.
It’s often hard to tell when a race will turn out to be as close as Tester’s. Smart politics means taking a shot at races like Heinrich’s, too. This week has been replete with groups and individuals taking credit and blame for outcomes at every level of politics — but as with every election, the truth is much more complex. | <urn:uuid:b373ca67-a35f-4f88-a53c-7e375e989f8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://grist.org/news/do-environmental-groups-deserve-credit-for-big-wins-last-week/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966279 | 1,009 | 1.757813 | 2 |
A hardware design from an unmanned aircraft project, along with Linux and other free software, got this project done quickly at a bargain price.
The United States spends about $30 billion annually on pharmaceutical research and development, and Europe spends about $20 billion, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturer's Association. For at least one major university, Linux has played a big part in making that research more efficient and cost-effective.
Linux creator Linus Torvalds released the much anticipated 2.6.11 Linux kernel declaring, "so it's now _officially_ all bug-free." Though bugs are certain to still remain, quite a bit of effort was made to stabalize this release.
Russell Nelson, newly appointed President of OSI (Open Source Initiative), is proposing the addition of three new terms to the Definition of Open Source. The move comes after drawing fire over the growing number of licenses the OSI approves as meeting the definition and a long acknowledged problem of the proliferation of vanity licenses & incomprehensible legal jibberish.
Version 1.2.2 of the open-source content management system includes improved collaboration tools, editing tools which allow publication to browsers, and a multilingual user interface.
Imagine yourself making a Pixar movie and not paying a dime for the software needed to do it. That's the premise behind Blender 3D, a free fully featured 3D content creation suite. Open sourced under the GNU GPL since 2002, Blender has grown a lot since then. The current version, 2.36, is a real winner.
Podcasts are reinventing talk radio on the Web. These homemade audio downloads have become popular since they were introduced last year. Pontificate on your political opinions, praise your favorite bands, interview your hero -- the possibilities are limitless. Podcasts were created by fans of the Apple iPod, but you don't need an iPod or a Mac to make your own. Properly configured, the average Linux distribution can podcast with the best of them. Here's how.
A lot can change in a software release, and OpenOffice.org 2.0 is no exception. Rob Reilly takes a first look at OpenOffice 2.0 Beta, with screenshots of the latest addition to the popular office application, Base, as well as some of the other new features this open source productivity suite has to offer.
If you were Sony or Philips and you found that Microsoft had been not just using technology that you invented to invade your markets, but had been giving it away, would you want to sue or negotiate?
Certified and Supported Kits with Latest Platform-specific Linux Features and Eclipse 3.0-based Development Tools Available for Intel IOP321, IOP331, IOP332 and 80219 Processors
Win4Lin Pro™ Becomes Flagship Product for Running Windows Applications on Linux
Welcome to this year's 9th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. Harald Welte reported a 2.1 M pps (packets per second) UDP packet forwarding rate over four gigabit ethernet ports, which is a new record for Linux. After OASIS, of which Debian is a member, has accepted a patent policy that has bad consequences on implementation of the standards, John Goerzen called for support for an open letter.
VA Linux Systems Japan K.K. (VA Linux), a leading provider of Linux solutions for the telecommunications and enterprise systems markets, today announced a strategic alliance with Sun Wah Linux Limited (SWL) to jointly develop a universal Debian GNU/Linux infrastructure and actively promote the adoption of Debian-based systems in both the Japan and China markets.
Last month Linux Canada released Quasar Accounting 1.4 for Linux under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Phil Tonnellier, president of Linux Canada, says it's too early to tell if the move to open source is paying off, but response has been good so far, with more than 6,000 downloads since the January 13 release.
Imagine combining BitTorrent and streaming audio. Instead of a web host and mirrors serving up streaming audio content at their expense, each listener of the audio becomes a potential server for it.
A fabulous first European Gentoo developer meeting and the bustling atmosphere of the FOSDEM conference in Brussels last Saturday and Sunday, news from Apache and documentation for Gentoo/FreeBSD: The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is late this week, but hopefully worth the wait. Gentoo in the press still contains indirect fallout from the Boston LWE, and an interesting article about Gentoo in the enterprise, and the community section introduces a new mailing list archive for catalyst developers and users. Our usual GLSAs and bug statistics complete the picture for this week, enjoy reading the GWN!
Solutions Linux trade show is the French annual rendez-vous of Free Software technologies and their commercial applications. This year, it ran from February 1st to February 3rd. Like preceding years, KDE-France was present and benefited of a free booth in the "Associative Village".
My heart's desire, as a gnarly old Linux/Windows sysadmin, has long been for better management utilities: directory services, user and resource management, system monitoring, and single sign-on that work across a mixed environment. Something like Active Directory, only without the vendor lock-in, and it works right....In a sane world, Novell NetWare would have remained the dominant network operating system.
“Honey pot” experiment shows unprotected Windows SP 1 at risk
OpenOffice.org has always been conservative with version numbers. Enough minor releases have boasted enough new features that the current release could easily be 3.0 or 4.0 instead of 1.1.4. Given this record, it's hardly surprising that version 2.0, for which beta code was set to be unveiled yesterday, amounts to a major rewrite of the software. Although key functionality remains largely intact, version 2.0 promises dozens, possibly hundreds, of changes. Many times during our testing of the first beta release, we felt we could almost have been looking at an entirely new piece of software. | <urn:uuid:b996b260-9811-4caa-8135-251d408a880c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lxer.com/module/newswire/past/71300 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942417 | 1,258 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Free Markets, Free People
Iranian Sanctions: Russia Makes A U-Turn
Not that some of us are at all surprised (for the umpteenth time, “Russia is not our friend”):
“At the current stage, all forces should be thrown at supporting the negotiating process,” he said. “Threats, sanctions and threats of pressure in the current situation, we are convinced, would be counterproductive.”
With that, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov effectively killed any US hopes found in Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev statement that “in some cases, sanctions are inevitable” of three weeks ago. As was predicted by many, the unilateral withdrawal of plans to base a missile defense in eastern Europe, an obvious attempt to better relations with Russia, yielded nothing.
Russia’s support is key to getting U.N. Security Council approval of any sanctions, but the country has traditionally been cautious on confronting Iran, a key trading partner and neighbor. In recent years, however, Russia has grown increasingly concerned about indications that Iran could be developing nuclear weapons, analysts say. Iran insists that its program is aimed only at producing energy.
Lavrov told reporters that Russia wants to focus on negotiations for now — particularly the concessions made by Iran this month, after the revelation that it had built a secret nuclear facility near Qom. Under heavy international pressure, the Islamic republic agreed to admit inspectors and send much of its uranium to Russia for enrichment.
Also key to any UNSC approval of sanctions is China – and they’re not at all sold on sanctions either.
However, as noted in the paragraph above, it is Iran which is in the driver’s seat here, not the US. Iran has again outmaneuvered everyone by officially revealing its “secret” nuclear facility near Qom and agreeing to allow it to be inspected. That move has effectively given the Russians the wiggle room they need to back away from imposing sanctions. Iran has years of experience manipulating this process and has once again had its way.
Meanwhile, as Marty Peretz says, Hillary Clinton’s team was engaged in trying to make a “cupcake out of a turd”:
Senior administration officials said that the differences are tactical rather than substantive. Both sides agreed that Iran would face sanctions if it failed to carry out its obligations, a State Department official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Which, of course means that nothing of substance came out of the talks. Such an agreement is the same agreement they had going into the talks. In essence, Russia turned the clock back on this process. And again, a reminder that China, a country whose support would be critical if sanctions are to be imposed, is nowhere on the playing field at the moment.
Anyway, to claim that differences are “tactical rather than substantive” is to try to hand wave away the fact that Russia is not presently on board to increase sanctions anytime soon when everyone was led to believe, just three weeks ago, that it was. I think that truly does represent a “reset”, but not in the way the Obama administration had hoped. | <urn:uuid:996917ce-ee7d-411f-98e2-c65f234b47f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.qando.net/?p=5269 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975032 | 662 | 1.609375 | 2 |
NASA licences rat-wee based astronaut sports drink
The Right Stuff™: should have been called Rodent Gold™?
NASA has offered for general sale a high-tech "electrolytic rehydration drink" developed to keep astronauts in top shape under the physiological stresses of orbital flight. For a truly authentic astronaut experience, Earthbound drinkers of "The Right Stuff™" may wish to mix their cutting-edge space beverage with (purified) rat piss.
"We developed the hydration formula to perform optimally under the most extreme conditions. The health of our highly trained astronauts was paramount," explains John Greenleaf PhD, who invented The Right Stuff™ drink while employed at NASA's Ames Research Centre in California. He's now an adviser at Wellness Brands, which has acquired the astro sports-drink licence from the space agency.
"With all that Americans and the government have invested in the space program and our astronauts, this is one clear way to protect and maximize that investment," adds Greenleaf. "And now the general public will benefit from this research as well."
According to Wellness Brands:
NASA scientists conducted extensive testing to develop the patented formulation. The formula has been used by the astronauts during missions for nearly 20 years and has been tested in controlled clinical environments on Earth.
Astronauts continue to use the patented formula on space missions to prevent the symptoms of dehydration.
It works so well for the astronauts ... you can imagine how well it will work for athletes here on Earth!
The super-duper sports drink is referred to by Greenleaf and Ames colleagues as a "hyperhydration drink" in a NASA tech memo (pdf) dating from 1994, so the Stuff™ has indeed been under development for a very long time.
Naturally, given the huge costs of space launch, astronauts don't drink bottled sports drinks of the Lucozade sort. Rather, comparatively lightweight special additives are mixed with water to concoct the hyperhydrational goodness which keeps a human body in tiptop shape even after a sweaty session on the zero-G treadmill or a punishing spacesuited struggle with recalcitrant orbital fittings.
In former times - during long space shuttle missions, for instance - the water for the Stuff™ might be obtained from such sources as fuel-cell generator exhaust. The Russian Mir space station, frequently visited by NASA astronauts in the 1990s, had a system for harvesting floating sweat droplets from its atmosphere and recycling them for drinks.
Nowadays, as is well known to regular Reg readers, the tricky problem of recycling every last drop of water from human and animal wastes - urine etc - has at last been satisfactorily solved. The new six-person crews of the International Space Station, the main human spaceflight activity of the coming decade, will quench their thirst with refreshments mixed primarily from self-sourced liquids.
And it's not just the astronauts who give every last drop to keep the taps flowing aboard the ISS. As NASA's Layne Carter reveals, a full experimental complement of 72 rats aboard the space station equals "about one human in terms of water reclamation". The Right Stuff™ as quaffed in space is mixed six parts to one from recycled human and rat sweat and urine respectively.
Of course, the re-wee used in space is probably far more pure and healthy than average tap water (or even bottled) down on Earth. Even so, you can see why Wellness Brands haven't chosen to highlight this aspect of their cutting-edge space beverage technology in their marketing.
Rat Sweat™ or Yesterday's Coffee™ probably wouldn't do nearly as well. And to be fair, as every astronaut is deemed to have plenty of the right stuff in them - and presumably so does every spacegoing rat - perhaps the trade name is quite appropriate after all.
There's more from NASA here. ®
Signs on the cages saying "prudence", "recovery is just around the corner", "I have the full support of my party"
How exactly do they extract the piss from the rats....?
Drink Brawndo - It's Got Electrolytes!
I have this sudden flashback to Mike Judge's film "Idiocracy" where the no.1 drink is called Brawndo (it's got electrolytes), where it's dispensed from drinking fountains and they even try to water the crops with it.
Then some nutcase turned it into a real drink - http://www.brawndo.com
It's got what plants crave!
It's got electrolytes! | <urn:uuid:298f5c7c-fd2a-4c66-8266-540737408b5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/05/nasa_licences_space_drink/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95708 | 946 | 1.859375 | 2 |
NEW DELHI, INDIA: A capacity of about 5,531 MW grid-interactive power generation from various renewable energy sources has been installed up to 31.1.2010 against a target of 12,300 MW for 11th Five Year Plan.
Giving this information in a reply in the Lok Sabha last Friday, the Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah said that the details of such capacity addition include, Wind Power ─ 3,857 MW (9,000 MW 11th Plan target), Small Hydro Power ─ 619.53 MW (1,400 MW), Biomass power ─ 322 MW (500 MW), Bagasse Cogeneration ─ 704.20 MW (1,200 MW), Solar power ─ 8.10 MW (50 MW) and Urban and Industrial waste-to-energy ─ 20.10 MW (79 MW).
A total grid-interactive renewable power generation capacity of 15,789 MW has been installed in the country as on 31.1.2010. The Minister also said that a total amount of Rs.390.78 crore has been released under various programmes for promotion of renewable energy sources in the country during FY 2009-10 till February, 2010.
Dr. Abdullah further informed the House that the Government has taken several steps mainly by way of suitable policy/ regulatory measures for achieving the plan targets and augmenting power generation through renewable energy sources throughout the country. These include the following:
• Fiscal and financial incentives, such as, capital/ interest subsidy, accelerated depreciation, nil/ concessional excise and customs duties;
• Preferential tariff for grid interactive renewable power in most potential States following the provisions made under the National Electricity Policy 2005 and National Tariff Policy 2006;
• Directives under Electricity Act 2003 to all States for fixing a minimum percentage for purchase of electricity from renewable energy sources taking into account local factors.
• Uniform guidelines by CERC for fixation of such preferential tariffs have been issued recently.
• Generation Based Incentives Scheme for Wind Power has been introduced to attract private investment by Independent Power Producers not availing Accelerated Depreciation benefit.
• Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission has been approved recently to give a boost to deployment of solar energy systems, solar photovoltaic as well as solar thermal, with an approved target for the first phase upto March 2013 of 1,100 MW of grid connected solar power plants, 200 MW capacity equivalent off-grid solar applications and 7 million square metre solar thermal collector area.
Other steps taken include support for sector specific seminars/ workshops/training programs and creation of publicity and awareness through electronic and print media on the need and usefulness of renewable energy. | <urn:uuid:bd8eb479-1057-4d19-85c0-629642afa291> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pcsolarpv.blogspot.com/2010/03/power-generation-in-india-from.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929004 | 558 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Civil engineers work supervising construction projects, such as buildings, roads, tunnels, bridges, and other structures. They must have extensive knowledge of design, structural integrity, and construction. Specializations may include areas such as geotechnical, structural, or transportation engineering. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) lists the following as some of the core responsibilities for jobs in civil engineering:
- Analyze project plans, survey reposts, and maps.
- Ensure all building regulations are met.
- Review budgets and test building materials and site conditions.
- Share expertise and recommendations for bid proposals, environmental impact statements, and property descriptions.
Civil engineers will also utilize design software to help create and analyze plans, so technical knowledge in these areas is essential as well. Jobs for civil engineering majors may be found with private architectural, construction, or engineering firms or with local, state, or federal government. In fact, the federal government employs about the same number of civil engineers as private industry.
Job Growth for
- Annual Pay National Average
- Hourly Pay National Average
Becoming a Civil Engineer
To qualify for entry level civil engineering jobs you will need to complete a bachelor's degree in this field or a closely related specialty, such as geotechnical or structural engineering. In addition, students should be sure to choose a program that is approved by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). This type of accreditation is required to gain licensure and work as a professional engineer (PE). A professional engineer is one who sells their services publically.
Students enrolled in a civil engineering program will gain a strong foundation in the natural sciences and mathematics. They will also learn to develop problem-solving, decision-making, and leadership skills related to their career path. Common classes for this major include:
- Environmental Engineering
- Structural Analysis
- Civil Engineering Design
While entry-level positions usually only require a bachelor's degree, some students may opt to continue on to a master's program once they have gained some experience. This could put them in a better position to fill management and supervisory positions as their career advances. For those interested in teaching at the college level, a doctorate will be required. | <urn:uuid:6f39eeb1-7c58-4b1a-a6d1-48f342d6d690> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oedb.org/engineering-careers/civil-engineer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940678 | 461 | 3.140625 | 3 |
The Dancing Plague of 1518
A French woman known as Frau Troffea stepped onto a market street in Strasbourg, France, in July of 1518 and began fervently dancing; she didn’t stop for another week. By the end of the month, over 400 other people were uncontrollably dancing; many were dying from heat stroke or exhaustion, and expressed terror at their inability to stop.
This lasted for about a month or two, and was always seen as an extremely strange and bizarre event. Recent investigations to solve this puzzling mystery suggest a mold that might have contaminated their crops; the mold makes people delusional and convulsive. Scholars have also suggested that extreme anxiety over the failure of their crops and a warning about angering St. Vitus led to a mass hysteria; a Christian legend says that anyone who incurred the wrath would be cursed with uncontrollable dancing.
ONCE MORE WITH FEELING | <urn:uuid:f9512b0d-646f-4248-939b-ec427ab5ac39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://princessjinx.tumblr.com/tagged/middle-ages | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978974 | 186 | 3 | 3 |
When Mitt Romney arrived in Jerusalem and suggested that Israel’s success contrasted with its Muslim neighbors was due to a culture of success, he was waving a red flag in front of a red bull. Romney’s comments were as provocative to the left as Obama’s “You didn’t build that” remark was to us.
To the left, success has become the Mark of Cain. Where success once used to be proof of good character, the balance has shifted and it is now proof of bad character. The left blames all disparities on injustice. If A has less than B, then B has somehow discriminated against A. All that’s left is for the sociologists and critical race theorists to plug in the variables, write their papers and explain the mechanism for the injustice and how it can be remedied through centralized redistribution.
This is the era of “You didn’t build that” where achievement is inherently unfair and an object of guilt. To succeed is to steal. Anyone who has achieved more than those around him has unfairly taken from them. And the more he succeeds, the more he has to feel guilty about and the more he must atone through social justice.
Mitt Romney didn’t build companies; he unfairly redistributed what should have been equal resources in an unequal way to create that success. America also didn’t build anything; it just looted the resources and markets that should have been divided equally among the nations of the world. And the same goes for Jews and the Jewish State. Individual success is not exceptionalism; it’s stealing from the collective.
The left already knows why Israel is more successful. Because it’s a greedy country whose success has come at the expense of its poorer neighbors. The left finds the idea of explaining success in terms of character, either individual or national, to be offensive. To suggest that success is due to personal virtue is to also imply that failure is due to a lack of virtue. The left is not interested in exploring what’s wrong with nations or groups that fail, only in explaining how their failure is no fault of their own.
The left was only interested in Jews as an oppressed minority and in Israel as a small doomed country. Once Jews became successful and Israel emerged victorious, the left turned on them and on Israel.
Israel’s success is one of the greatest weapons that the left uses against it. If Israelis were still living in tents and trying to get the power to stay on for more than a few hours a day, the Jewish State wouldn’t make nearly as tempting a target. Israel’s transformation from a bunch of refugees and farmers armed with third-rate weapons to a prosperous nation of flowering orchards, booming tech companies and new towns rising out of the earth, is proof of its immorality. If the Jewish State were truly moral, it would have stayed poor.
Most offensively Israel’s economic success has kept pace with its transition from socialist collectives to free enterprise, going from a “You didn’t build that” culture to a “You built it” culture. While the Palestinian Authority and most of Israel’s Muslim neighbors still operate under government monopolies, Israel’s tech industry revolution has boosted its international trade while making it possible for a few army or air force veterans to cobble together a company that brings a revolutionary new product to market.
USB flash drives and instant messaging software came out of that “You built it” culture. On the other side of the border malaise and misery, bombs and fanatics, have come out of the economic monopolies wielded by military rulers, tribal leaders and religious despots.
Pages: 1 2 | <urn:uuid:0f6e23d5-4b62-4afd-92d5-5c094a79a8fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/israel%E2%80%99s-you-built-it-culture/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97428 | 773 | 1.8125 | 2 |
February 10, 2010 / 26 Shvat 5770
Preparing for the first grade was never so much fun.
Soon-to-be first graders and their parents living in the absorption center at Kibbutz Beit Alfa in the North of Israel were treated to a new computer software program in February, 2010, that makes learning Hebrew fun and educational. Designed to be interactive, the program is geared towards children and adults working together to acquire language skills – an agenda that benefits both generations of new immigrants.
This new software is made part of young immigrants' education through YESODOT (Heb: Foundations), a Jewish Agency program that helps Ethiopian youngsters (pre-school through 12th grade) achieve new levels of personal and academic success through education and social initiatives. YESODOT activities take place in the supportive environment of Jewish aAgency absorption centers.
YESODOT is funded by Jewish Federations and private donors from around the world. | <urn:uuid:1b3dac62-8551-4ab3-be1b-c6a924797b48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jewishagency.org/JewishAgency/English/About/Updates/Highlights/Archive/2010/feb10a.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962731 | 196 | 2.625 | 3 |
Conveyance System Improvement Program
The CSI program looks at ways to improve the conveyance system and address public health concerns, while ensuring that the system has sufficient capacity to respond to regional growth.
The county's regional wastewater conveyance system consists of more than 350 miles of pipes and 42 pump stations that moves wastewater from local communities to the county's three regional secondary treatment plants. View service area maps.
Since 1999 the Conveyance System Improvement (CSI) program has focused on upgrades and improvements to King County-owned regional wastewater facilities in three important areas:
- Providing a consistent approach to conveyance planning throughout the service area.
- Incorporating population growth and current operational and environmental considerations in the planning process
- Providing opportunities to address common issues, leverage resources, and minimize customer disruption.
King County's Wastewater Treatment Division completed the planning process for the initial phase (five-year program) in 2003 and issued a program update in June 2007.
This website is where you will find completed planning studies and information about conveyance system planning focused on upgrading the existing regional conveyance system level of service provided to the 34 local sewer agencies in King and Snohomish Counties.
One of the highlights of this program is its integration with other system programs, as outlined in the Regional Wastewater Services Plan, including: | <urn:uuid:7404a7b5-5188-4fb4-99fe-0673cfe1fc45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.co.king.wa.us/environment/wastewater/CSI.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932036 | 273 | 1.78125 | 2 |
This poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. of Washington, D.C. from October 31 through November 02, 2006. A total of 625 registered Rhode Island voters were interviewed statewide by telephone. All stated they were likely to vote in the November general election.
Other political news of note
Leahy withholds amendment to include LGBT couples in immigration reform
Updated 27 minutes ago 5/21/2013 11:50:27 PM +00:00 Acknowledging that it would jeopardize the passage of a sweeping immigration reform bill, a top ally of LGBT rights advocates will not call for a committee vote on an amendment that would include the spouses of LGBT individuals with the same standing as heterosexual couples in immigration law.
- IRS official to invoke Fifth Amendment at hearing
- With high-tech visa compromise, immigration reform proponents win GOP ally
- A new disaster sparks an old debate on federal aid
- Senators demand answers from IRS officials but get few new answers
- Leahy withholds amendment to include LGBT couples in immigration reform
Those interviewed were selected by the random variation of the last four digits of telephone numbers.
A cross-section of exchanges was utilized in order to ensure an accurate reflection of the state. Quotas were assigned to reflect voter turn-out by county.
The margin for error, according to standards customarily used by statisticians, is no more than plus or minus 4 percentage points. This means that there is a 95 percent probability that the "true" figure would fall within that range if the entire population were sampled. The margin for error is higher for any subgroup, such as a gender or regional grouping.
Do you recognize the name ______?
(IF YES) Do you have a favorable, unfavorable or neutral opinion of ________?
If the 2006 election for Governor were held today, would you vote for:
If the 2006 election for Rhode Island U.S. Senate seat were held today, would you vote for:
Will your vote for U.S. Senate mainly be:
Do you approve or disapprove of George W. Bush’s overall job performance as President? (Is that, strongly approve/disapprove or somewhat approve/disapprove?)
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job? Is that, strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, or strongly disapprove?
Which ONE of the following issues will be MOST important in determining your vote for U.S. Senate this year:
Generally speaking, would you say things in the country are heading in the right direction, or are they are off on the wrong track?
Do you approve or disapprove of the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq? (Is that strongly approve/disapprove or somewhat approve/disapprove?)
In your view, did either of the candidates for U.S. Senate attack the other unfairly?
What is your current official party voter registration? Are you registered to vote as a:
Would you describe your personal political views as liberal, moderate, or conservative?
What is your age?
Which of the following best describes your race or ethnicity?
© 2013 msnbc.com Reprints | <urn:uuid:2ffaa3e0-3380-4113-b3da-fac135a1ff2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15547031/ns/politics/t/poll-rhode-island/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964428 | 660 | 1.515625 | 2 |
An innovative approach to relieve pain by promoting long-lasting healing of musculoskeletal conditions is now available through Dr. Tom DiStefano, orthopedic surgeon at St. Francis Orthopedic & Sports Medicine. Autologous conditioned plasma therapy, more commonly known as platelet rich plasma (PRP), is a revolutionary new treatment that is showing exciting potential faster recovery from sports medicine injuries such as hamstring strains, quadriceps strain, MCP sprains and high ankle sprains, just to name a few.
Surprisingly simple, PRP therapy involves taking a small quantity of the patient’s own blood, placing it in a centrifuge that spins the blood at high speeds to separate the blood’s components and injecting it back into and around the point of injury. Because it is the patient’s own blood, there is no risk of a transmissible infection and a very low risk of allergic reaction. The concentrated plasma jump-starts and significantly strengthens the body’s natural healing signal.
The procedure takes approximately 20 minutes, including preparation and recovery time. Performed safely in the physician office, PRP therapy relieves pain without the risks of surgery, general anesthesia, or hospital stays and without a prolonged recovery. In fact, most people return to their usual activities right after the procedure. The process is completely safe since the substances used are derived from the patient’s own body.
While responses to treatment vary, up to three injections may be given within a six-month time frame, usually performed two to three weeks apart. However, patients have experienced complete relief after the first or second injection.
Elite athletes including Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers ,Takashi Saito of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Jose Reyes New York Mets have undergone successful PRP therapy without adverse effects. However, the treatment is not restricted to high-profile athletes. PRP has been found to be effective in treating such conditions as partial rotator cuff tears; plantar fasciitis; tennis elbow; ankle sprains; tendonitis; and ligament sprains.
“Athletes value PRP therapy for its ability to help accelerate recovery from certain injuries, reduce the need for surgery and allow a quicker return to sport,” explains Dr. DiStefano. “However, anyone with a tendon or ligament injury may be considered a candidate for PRP therapy.”
When PRP is injected it stimulates the tendon or ligament causing mild inflammation that triggers the healing cascade in musculoskeletal injuries and arthritis, and allows even a severely damaged tissue to heal. Most patients don’t require anything more than cold pack for pain from the procedure. Often, following a PRP injection, an “achy” soreness is felt. This “soreness” is a positive sign that healing has been set in motion. The soreness can last for several days but gradually decreases as healing and tissue repair occurs.
For more information or to schedule an appointment with Dr. DiStefano, call St. Francis Orthopedic & Sports Medicine at (660) 562-7999. Dr. DiStefano is board-certified with the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and is fellowship trained in sports medicine. He offers a walk-in sports injury clinic from 8 to 9 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday. | <urn:uuid:277cd7c1-4974-4ee5-ba09-e542ff37436e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stfrancismaryville.com/SFHasIt/Pages/AdvancedPlasmaTherapy.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93471 | 701 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Unto itself, Texas Gov. Rick Perry's supposed business recruitment trip to California this week is nothing more than a publicity stunt, and a cheap one at that.
Perry is here after spending a few thousand dollars on a radio ad inviting California business to relocate to his state and garnering millions of dollars in free publicity from the California media.
"Building a business is tough, but I hear building a business in California is next to impossible," Perry says in the ad. "There are plenty of reasons Texas has been named the best state for doing business for eight years running."
California politicians, including Gov. Jerry Brown, played into Perry's hand by responding defensively.
"A lot of these Texans, they come here, they don't go back," Brown said. "Who would want to spend their summers in 110-degree heat inside some kind of a fossil-fueled air conditioner? Not a smart way to go."
As a matter of fact a lot more Californians have been moving to Texas than vice-versa of late, probably because its employment opportunities are more abundant while California still has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates.
Perry is highly unlikely to bag any California employers on this trip. Nor, one suspects, does he expect to do so. Unpopular at home after his rather lame bid for the White House last year, Perry knows that bashing California raises his profile at home.
All this gamesmanship aside, however, maybe Brown et al. reacted so defensively because they know that Texas' economy has been booming while California still struggles with a slow recovery from a deep recession.
Yes, some of Texas' prosperity is due to the oil boom. In fact, the California region that most resembles Texas Bakersfield and environs is also seeing a surge for the same reasons.
But that merely points up the fact that California has vast potential reserves of shale oil that it is moving very slowly, if at all, to tap.
The differences are more than oil. Texas has a much lower tax structure, including no personal income tax, a much more permissive regulatory climate, and a much lower cost of living, especially housing. That makes it attractive to business of a certain type.
California has its attributes as well, including a much better climate and unmatched natural scenery, as well as first-class research universities and in and around Silicon Valley at least a powerful entrepreneurial impulse and access to capital.
The question for California one that its politicians don't even acknowledge, much less answer is whether the state's assets outweigh its deficiencies in the global competition for investment capital.
We always assume that today's bust will morph into tomorrow's boom. But Detroit also assumed that it always would be the nation's industrial Goliath. | <urn:uuid:fc372f8d-24a2-4020-9c8c-66303f2d8a07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/12/5182945/dan-walters-california-vs-texas.html?mi_rss=Dan%20Walters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97609 | 563 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Banana slugs are hermaphrodites. Every slug has both a penis (which pops out of a pore on its head, like you do) and a vagina. Or, rather, every slug should have a penis. The truth is that quite a few of them don't and the story behind that discrepancy is rather strange and horrifying. Since there's little I love more than strange and horrifying stories from nature, you get to hear all about it.
At The Last Word On Nothing, Cassandra Willyard tells the story of a nearly 100-year-old effort by scientists to understand why some banana slugs appear to be missing their penises, or have penises that are stunted. We have known since 1916 how those penises came to be missing. Willyard describes the situation, which you can also watch in action in the video above:
Banana slugs begin their mating with a few vicious love nips. Then the animals curl around each other, forming a bright yellow yin-yang symbol. Next, they insert their penises. (Remember, they both have one.) In some cases, one slug provides sperm and the other slug receives it. More often, the slugs swap sperm. Copulation can last many hours. Then, in most cases, the slugs withdraw and part ways.
Heath caught a couple of slugs in the act. He noted the biting and the insertion. And then Heath observed something puzzling. As the slugs were withdrawing their penises, “one of the animals turned its head and commenced to gnaw upon the walls of the organ,” Heath wrote. The biting was “unusually vigorous,” he added, “and within a very few minutes the penis was entirely severed.”
The confusing part is why the hell they do this to each other.
Willyard says the best idea so far is that the penis eating represents a sort of sperm competition—a way of ensuring that the slug you just mated with isn't going to get a shot at mating with anybody else. But that's really just an educated guess.
What I like best about this story (besides the shock and awe) is that it handily illustrates one of the difficulties inherent in scientific research. In many cases, it's quite easy to answer the question, "What happens?" A century ago, scientists could easily observe and document the penis-eating behavior. All it took was somebody with sufficient interest in the question that they were willing to spend time watching many, many examples of slug sex.
But the "Why" is sometimes trickier.
Video courtesy University of California Santa Cruz graduate student Brooke Miller. See more of her work on banana slug sex.
Also included: Some fun with Latin vocabulary. Did you know that dolichophallus means "long penis"? You're welcome.
Via Ed Yong | <urn:uuid:95c9323b-0561-4083-9a62-379397b4fe7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boingboing.net/tag/awesome/page/3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9754 | 593 | 3.09375 | 3 |
versión impresa ISSN 1019-9128
J. S. Afr. Vet. Assoc. vol.81 no.1 Pretoria 2010
S I B CadmusI,*; H K AdesokanI; B O AdedokunII; J A StackIII
IDepartment of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
IIDepartment of Epidemiology, Medical Statistics & Environmental Health, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
IIIDepartment of Statutory and Exotic Bacteria, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 3NB, United Kingdom
A seroprevalence study was carried out among trade cattle slaughtered at Bodija Municipal Abattoir, Ibadan (southwestern Nigeria) over a period of 3 consecutive years from 2004 to 2006 with a view to determining the breed, sex and age distribution in the seropositivity of bovine brucellosis. In total, 1642 animals were examined for antibodies to Brucella abortus using the Rose Bengal test. Seroprevalences of 6.00 %, 6.17 % and 5.31 % were obtained in the years 2004, 2005 and 2006, respectively but a decrease in 2006 shows no significant difference (P > 0.05). The role of the breed (P > 0.05), sex (P > 0.05) and age (P > 0.05) in the occurrence of the infection was not statistically significant at 5 %, although higher rates were obtained for females and older animals. The trend in the disease over the 3-year period showed that it is endemic in trade cattle slaughtered in Ibadan and the public health implications of this are discussed.
Keywords: brucellosis, cattle, epidemiology, Nigeria, seroprevalence, zoonosis.
Brucellosis is a disease that causes serious economic losses to the animal industry and extensive morbidity in humans and thus constitutes an important public health problem that is recognised worldwide. Bovine brucellosis is a zoonotic disease transmitted from cattle to humans by ingestion of infected food products, direct contact with an infected animal or inhalation of infected aerosol. Transmission via aerosol is very efficient given the relatively low concentrations of organisms (as few as 10-100 bacteria) needed to establish infection in humans and this route of infection has serious health and safety implications. This has brought renewed attention to this old disease14. As observed in most abattoirs in Nigeria, adequate personnel and meat inspectors are lacking and safety precautions are not adhered to by livestock workers and butchers. While the disease has been eradicated in many countries by implementing expensive long-term control programmes, the occurrence is increasing in developing countries21. Bovine brucellosis is widespread in Africa, where it remains one of the most important zoonotic diseases10. Recent investigations have shown that bovine brucellosis is endemic in Nigeria based on serological studies5,8,9,12,17.
Trade cattle constitute the majority of animals slaughtered in Ibadan, south-western Nigeria, and different studies have reported the seroprevalence of bovine brucellosis in these animals8,12. Data on the yearly trend of the disease in trade animals in Ibadan are lacking, and would provide valuable information for mapping out control and eradication strategies for the disease. We therefore designed a study to monitor the trend of bovine brucellosis in trade cattle slaughtered in Ibadan over a 3-year period with the aim of determining whether age, breed and sex play a role in the seroprevalence of the disease as measured by the Rose Bengal test (RBT).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Location and duration of study
The animals screened were from the Bodija Municipal Abattoir which is the biggest in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State (southwestern Nigeria). The study was conducted over a period of 4 months during each year from 2004 to 2006.
Animals screened and sample collection
Animals slaughtered in this abattoir were mostly from the northern parts of Nigeria and derived from herds that were extensively managed, unvaccinated and with limited or no veterinary care. Blood samples were collected at random from animals available at the abattoir. In addition, there were variations in the population of cattle slaughtered over the years due to gradual decentralisation of slaughtering in this abattoir so that varying numbers of animals were screened over the years. In total, 1642 cattle were screened, comprising 917 in 2004; 405 in 2005 and 320 in 2006. The breed, sex and age of all animals were recorded.
For each animal, approximately 10 m of blood was collected in 15 m sterile tubes during slaughter. The blood samples were allowed to clot and centrifuged at 3000 g for 5 minutes. Serum samples were decanted and stored at -20 ºC until they were assayed. The serum samples were examined by RBT3.
Chi-square (χ2) tests were used to analyse the data showing the observed data against the expected data calculated under the hypothesis that there was a difference between the age, sex, breed and year. Odds ratios were also calculated for the relative significance of infections among the major breeds of cattle screened.
Over the study period, seroprevalence rates of 6.00 %, 6.17 % and 5.31 % were obtained in 2004, 2005, and 2006, respectively. The highest rates of 6.72 % (OR 1.61), 10.00 % (OR 2.18) and 8.89 % (OR 3.92) were obtained in the Red Bororo breed in 2004 and the Kuri in 2005 and 2006 (Table 1). The seroprevalence rate for each year based on sex (Table 2) revealed a higher rate in female animals. With reference to the age distribution, the most affected were the adult cattle with rates of 6.48 % in 2004, 6.96 % in 2005 and 5.54 % in 2006 (Table 3).
Seroprevalences of 6.00 %, 6.17 % and 5.31 % obtained in 2004, 2005 and 2006 respectively showed that brucellosis is endemic in trade cattle in Ibadan. The prevalence according to breed, sex, age and year of study (Table 4) revealed no significant differences in the infection rates over the period despite the decrease noticed in 2006 (χ2 for trend = 0.269, P > 0.05).
The steady nature of the infection rates over the 3-year period (Table 4) confirms that bovine brucellosis is endemic in trade cattle slaughtered in Ibadan and possibly widespread throughout Nigeria. Although some studies in Nigeria suggested an increasing trend in the prevalence of the disease18, rates obtained in this study may be due to the persistence of the disease in the cattle population resulting from the unchanging poor husbandry practices of the livestock owners and marketers as well as non-vaccination of the cattle coupled with little or no veterinary care. One such practice is the tradition of the nomadic Fulani pastoralists who manage about 95 % of the total animal population in Nigeria19. The Fulanis are accustomed to an extensive system of management, keeping both healthy and infected animals together under purely traditional systems and travelling over long distances with limited food and water supplies8.This exposes the animals to unfavourable physiological conditions which make them highly susceptible to diseases like brucellosis and tuberculosis before being transported to the abattoirs for slaughter.
Different breeds of cattle demonstrated different prevalence rates which were not statistically significant over the years (χ2 = 0.192, P > 0.05) (Tables 1 & 4), although in some studies6,8 the White Fulani breed was the most affected; however, they are the predominant breed in Nigeria4.
The male to female infection ratios recorded over the years were not statistically significant at 5 % (χ2 = 2.004, P > 0.05) (3.5:6.4 in 2004; 7.1:5.8 in 2005 and 2.9:7.1 in 2006) (Table 2) and do not support the conclusion that females were more prone to infection, although higher rates were obtained for female animals. Other studies carried out in the same abattoir12 also showed higher infection rates in females than males. The most plausible reason given for this was the inclusion of pregnant cows in the population studied. It must be noted that sexually mature pregnant cattle are more susceptible to infection than sexually immature cattle of either sex20.
Adult cattle over the age of 3 years had the highest seroprevalence (Table 3) but this was not statistically significant (χ2 = 3.444, P > 0.05). Ordinarily, young cattle (1-3 years of age) are said to be less susceptible to B. abortus than older, sexually mature animals; however, non-vaccinated young cattle are also at higher risk of brucellosis if exposed to pathogenic strains of the organism20.
Brucellosis is a worldwide zoonosis15,16 that causes serious economic losses in livestock and poses important human health hazards worldwide12. One of the major implications of the burden of this disease in the abattoir setting is the exposure of livestock traders, butchers and other meat processors as well as veterinarians/meat inspectors. The poor facilities and safety precautions in most abattoirs and slaughter slabs in Nigeria contribute to the likelihood of exposure. In most instances, these workers use their bare hands to handle infected organs and carcasses from diseased animals. Additionally, the consumption of unpasteurised milk and milk products by some members of society is complicated by direct consumption of unpasteurised milk from the udders of cows by some of the Fulani pastoralists7. This is made worse by the close contact and co-habitation of livestock with humans. The economic impact and public health significance of the uncontrolled prevalence of brucellosis in the Nigerian livestock population is undoubtedly high19 and the financial costs of the disease nationally have been estimated to be substantial1,2.
This study had some limitations, however. Firstly, sample collection was restricted to a few months of the year and this might not give the true picture of the prevalence of the disease. Secondly, the sample size of some of the breeds of cattle encountered during this study was relatively small compared with the more popular breeds at the abattoir. This may therefore create some bias with respect to the seroprevalence rates of breeds affected. Thirdly, only RBT was used in this study and no single serological test can be relied upon in all epidemiological situations because they all have their limitations. Moreover, it has been shown that although the low pH (+3.6) of the antigen enhances the specificity of the test, the temperature of the antigen and the ambient temperature at which the reaction takes place may influence the sensitivity and specificity13.
The above limitations notwithstanding, the study highlights the endemicity of the disease over the years in trade cattle slaughtered in Ibadan. It also shows that adult and female animals play a more important role in the epidemiology of the disease, athough this is not statistically significant.
In conclusion therefore, for the control and eradication of brucellosis in trade cattle in Ibadan and Nigeria as a whole, more emphasis should be directed towards early vaccination of young animals and separation of clean and infected animals/herds. This should be combined with more government intervention in the areas of regulations and policies concerning routine screening of all cattle populations, including trade animals destined for slaughter at abattoirs in Nigeria. Coupled with these should be awareness programmes involving stakeholders in the livestock industry as well as consumers to avert public health and economic losses associated with brucellosis in Nigeria.
We thank the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA), United Kingdom, that provided the antigens used for this study.
1. Ajogi I, Akinwunmi J A 2001 Cash-flow model of the cost of brucellosis in traditionally managed cattle herds in Nigeria. Bulletin of Animal Health and Production in Africa 49:169-173 [ Links ]
2. Ajogi I, Akinwunmi J A , Esuruoso G O, Lamorde G 1998 Settling the nomads in Wase-Zange grazing reserves in the Sudan Savannah zone of Nigeria. III. Estimated financial losses due to bovine brucellosis. Nigerian Veterinary Journal 19:86-94 [ Links ]
3. Alton G G, Jones L M, Angus R D, Verger J M 1988 Techniques for the brucellosis laboratory. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Paris [ Links ]
4. Bourn D, Wint W, Blench R, Woolley E 1994 Nigerian livestock resources survey. World Animal Review 78:49-58 [ Links ]
5. Ate I U, Andrew P I R, Nok J, Tekdek L B 2007 Seroprevalence of brucellosis in puerperal cows and its public health implications in Zaria, northern Nigeria. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances 6:863-866 [ Links ]
6. Cadmus S I B, Adesokan H K, Stack J 2008 The use of the milk ring test and rose bengal test in brucellosis control and eradication in Nigeria. Journal of the South African Veterinary Association 79:113-115 [ Links ]
7. Cadmus S I B, Adesokan H K 2007 Phenotypic characterization and spoligotype profiles of Mycobacterium bovis isolated from unpasteurized cows' milk in Ibadan, Nigeria. Tropical Veterinarian 25:65-72 [ Links ]
8. Cadmus S I B, Ijagbone I F, Oputa H E, Adesokan H K, Stack J A 2006 Serological survey of brucellosis in livestock animals and workers in Ibadan, southwestern, Nigeria. African Journal of Biomedical Research 9:163-168 [ Links ]
9. Esuruoso G O, Ayanwale F O 1980 Bovine brucellosis in Lagos state of Nigeria. Bulletin of Animal Health and Production in Africa 28:11-15 [ Links ]
10. Gameel S E A M, Mohammed S O, Mustafa A A, Azwai S M 1993 Prevalence of camel brucellosis in Libya. Tropical Animal Health and Production 25:91-93 [ Links ]
11. Hamidy M E R, Amin A S 2002 Detection of Brucella sp. in the milk of infected cattle, sheep, goats and camels by PCR. Veterinary Journal 163:299-305 [ Links ]
12. Ishola O O, Ogundipe G A T 2000 Seroprevalence of brucellosis in trade cattle slaughtered in Ibadan, Nigeria. Bulletin of Animal Health and Production in Africa 48:53-55 [ Links ]
13. MacMillan A 1990 Conventional serological tests. Animal Brucellosis 206:153-197mm [ Links ]
16. Nicoletti P 1993 Brucellosis. Current veterinary therapy. In Howard J L (ed.) Food animal practice (3rd edn). W B Saunders, Philadelphia: 551-555 [ Links ]
17. Ocholi R A 1990 Prevalence of Brucella antibodies in Fulani cattle herds in Kaduna State. M.Sc. thesis, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria [ Links ]
18. Ocholi R A, Kwaga J K P, Ajogi I, Bale J O O 2004 Phenotypic characterization of Brucella strains isolated from livestock in Nigeria. Veterinary Microbiology 103:47-53 [ Links ]
19. Oladosu L A, Falade S, Akpokodje U 1986 Equine brucellosis in Nigeria. Zariya Veterinarian 1:129-133 [ Links ]
20. Radostits O M, Blood D C, Gay C C 1995 Veterinary medicine - A textbook of the diseases of cattle, sheep, pigs and horses (8th edn). Baillière Tindall, London [ Links ]
21. Seifert H S H 1996 Diseases caused by aerobic rods. I. Brucellosis. In Bokma B H, Blouin E E, Bechara G H (eds) Tropical animal health. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 356-367 [ Links ]
Received: December 2009.
Accepted: March: 2010. | <urn:uuid:649fd4d7-eea7-45f0-8faf-48ec10529694> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1019-91282010000100009&lng=es&nrm=iso | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927931 | 3,472 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Practical Solar is dedicated to introducing solar energy products that are truly practical. We currently design and manufacture concentrating solar power (CSP) systems for commercial HVAC.
Installed on the flat roof of a commercial building, Practical Solar heliostats are designed to supply all of the building's heating and cooling needs. For a number of reasons, solar panels and solar hot water systems are not suited for this task. Practical Solar heliostats collect and process solar energy in a different way, allowing them to do the job of heating and cooling commercial buildings 365 days a year without fossil fuels. The system is designed to pay for itself in two to six years. Please explore the Technology page to learn more about how the system works. | <urn:uuid:38436389-2656-4e8c-91e1-65296384b472> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.practicalsolar.com/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942033 | 152 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common behavioral conditions among children. In the United States alone, approximately 4.5 million children between the ages of 5-17 years old are diagnosed with ADHD each year. Research indicates that when treating ADHD, a multidisciplinary approach is most effective; combining behavioral therapy, exercise, dietary changes and medication. Now acupuncture can be added as one of the treatment methods that can successfully manage ADHD.
What is ADHD?
Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) is a condition of the brain that makes it difficult to concentrate or control impulsive behavior.
Children with ADHD generally struggle with paying attention or concentrating. They can’t seem to follow directions and are easily bored or frustrated with tasks. They also tend to move constantly and are impulsive, not stopping to think before they act. These behaviors are generally common in children. But they occur more often than usual and are more severe in a child with ADHD. The behaviors that are common with ADHD interfere with a child’s ability to function at school and at home.
Adults with ADHD may have difficulty with time management, organizational skills, goal setting, and employment. They may also have problems with relationships, self-esteem, and addictions.
Treatment for ADHD
Treatment for ADHD is multifaceted. It consists of ADHD medications, behavioral therapy and lifestyle and dietary modifications. ADHD is best managed when families, educational and health professionals work together to meet the unique needs of the child or adult who has ADHD to help them learn to focus their attention, develop their personal strengths, minimize disruptive behavior, and become productive and successful. Acupuncture is an excellent addition to any treatment plan as it is used to help the body restore balance, treating the root of the disorder, while also diminishing the symptoms of ADHD.
What acupuncture can help with:
• Improve focus and attention
• Manage moods
• Reduce fidgeting
• Lower hyperactivity
• Augment mood management techniques
• Enhance concentration
If you would like to learn more about acupuncture in the treatment for ADHD or one of the childhood ailments listed below, please call for a consultation.
Treating Children with Acupuncture
Children respond extremely well to acupuncture treatments for many conditions. When treating children, their comfort is of the utmost importance. Treatments tend to be shorter and acupuncture points are usually stimulated gently with very thin needles or with other techniques that do not involve needles.
Needle-free acupuncture treatments may include stroking, rubbing, tapping, and pressing the acupuncture points with tools such as brushes, rollers and blunt probes.
Common childhood conditions treated with Oriental Medicine:
• Failure to thrive syndrome
• Weak constitution
• Colic, excessive night crying, temper tantrums
• Indigestion, GERD, constipation, and diarrhea
• Night terrors
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Allergies, asthma
• Cough and colds
• Eczema and hives
• Ear infections
Ginger: Tool in Global Fight Against Childhood Killer?
Could one of the most widely used herbs in cooking around the world be just the right medicine for one of the deadliest conditions children face around the world?
That’s the promise pointed at by a study published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
In this study, researchers in Taiwan looked at the role of a ginger extract in blocking the toxin that causes 210 million cases of diarrhea worldwide. The toxin is produced by enterotoxigenic E. coli, which accounts for 380,000 worldwide deaths annually. The study found that zingerone, a compound in ginger, was the likely compound responsible for blocking the toxin.
Further study is needed to confirm these findings and determine appropriate dosage, especially for infants. But this natural wonder offers a very inexpensive alternative to drug therapy and great hope to thousands of children in poor countries around the world.
Source: American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2007 | <urn:uuid:b07bbce3-d096-45f1-ba57-2c4089a5541e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://atlanta-acupuncture.net/blog/tag/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941487 | 836 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Monday, September 20, 2010
I love canning unique recipes and you can't get much more unique than Root Beer Jelly or Cherry Coke Jelly. Jelly is made of nothing more than juice and sugar so why not use soda pop? There's really no nutritional value in jelly and the kids love it! I've heard that Root Beer Jelly was first made during the depression days when you made do with whatever you had on hand... not sure if that's true, but it makes sense. The Cherry Coke Jelly is really different, but good. The Root Beer Jelly is my kids' favorite! These are fabulous on toast, muffins or a good old peanut butter and jelly sandwich!
A jar of Soda Pop jelly is a super fun gift idea! Time to start looking ahead to neighbor and teacher Christmas gifts!
Soda Pop Jelly
2 c. soda pop
6 c. sugar
1 c. water
3 oz liquid pectin
Combine all ingredients except pectin. Heat to boiling, stirring to dissolve sugar. Once the mixture reaches a boil add pectin. Stir constantly to bring to a boil and boil hard for 30 seconds. Skim off foam, if needed*. Pour into sterile, hot jars and process for 5 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. I got 6 1/2 half pints.
*You can place the foam into a bowl and microwave it for 30-60 seconds (depending on how much you have). It turns back into jelly which is a great way to taste test! | <urn:uuid:4b04c59b-5076-4477-9071-0e671a1cbe6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theamericanhomemaker.blogspot.com/2010/09/soda-pop-jelly.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929592 | 312 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Jessica Valenti’s article, The Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords highlights the “Man-up” culture in US politics: In a country that sees violent masculinity as the ideal, it’s no wonder this rhetoric resonates, does a remarkable job of looking at Tea Party women that have promoted a culture of violence. Sheriff Dupnik acknowledged this disgrace in his press conference.
Valenti looks at several key culprits, including Sharron Angle, who suggested that if Congress “keeps going the way it is”, people would turn toward “second amendment remedies”. (The second amendment of the US constitution outlines the right of Americans to bear arms.) And in an interview with a local Nevada paper, Angle said: “The nation is arming … If we don’t win at the ballot box, what will be the next step?”
I love how Valenti articulates how these right wing women buy into a masculine model of violence for political expediency: “Stephen Ducat, author of The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity, says that masculine and violent language is often used in elections and campaigns – especially by men on the right – because of a fear of being perceived as feminine. In a sexist society, what could be worse than being called a girl? So it doesn’t seem unlikely that conservative female politicians feel the need to peddle their ideas in gendered and violent language in order to fit in with the masculinised right.” Republican Christine O’Donnell said that her opponent was “unmanly”; Angle told Harry Reid to “man up”; and Palin praised Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer as having “the cojones that our president does not have” to enforce immigration laws–all embarrassing examples of the promotion of violence. Did these women not believe there words would have consequences? I hope you will take the time to read the article in full. | <urn:uuid:b21f92bc-668e-4a23-af4f-c361d27bc26a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hulshofschmidt.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/sarah-palins-street-gangpromoting-a-culture-of-violence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956163 | 418 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Sacramento State News - California State University, Sacramento
February 13, 2007
Faire promotes arts in curriculum
Teachers participate in a workshop at last year’s Arts Resources Faire
Regional K-12 teachers, administrators and student teachers will gather together at Sacramento State for the seventh annual Arts Resource Faire, an all-day event that teaches educators how to incorporate the arts into the classroom. The free event is set for Saturday, Feb. 24 from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. in the University Union.
Participants will have the opportunity to listen to guest speakers, attend workshops and view exhibits to learn more about arts integration, strategies and easy techniques for a variety of art media. Workshops will illustrate how genres such as visual arts, music, theatre and dance can be built into the classroom curriculum.
“This year, for every school district in California, there is new state funding earmarked for the visual and performing arts,” says Sacramento State professor and faire coordinator Crystal Olson. “Because of this funding, districts will have the opportunity to support teachers with professional development, materials and supplies to deliver the arts to K-12 students. At this faire, participants can learn about the power of the arts to transform classrooms and schools.”
The event will open with the El Camino High School Jazz Band followed by a keynote address by Nancy Carr, the California Department of Education Consultant for the Visual and Performing Arts.
The faire is sponsored by the California Arts Council; Phi Delta Kappa—Sacramento chapter; Sacramento Chalk It Up!; Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission; Rudolf Steiner College and University Enterprises, Inc.
One unit of University credit is available for a fee, as well as approved professional development hours for area teachers. | <urn:uuid:82d3631c-8822-4e53-b593-c103a0a8b908> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csus.edu/news/021307ArtFaire.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922241 | 370 | 1.90625 | 2 |
When you're a mature professional with a tinge of grey, marketing to a younger generation can feel somewhat daunting; which is why sizeable budgets are spent on getting under the skin of youthful audiences. Social media acts as something of a game changer for those of us looking to understand youth today. It has opened up a vast universe of thoughts and feelings to those of us with the challenge of selling to youth.
In a recession, businesses are generally forced to focus their marketing efforts on the group with the greatest buying power. This is often youth. While they may have less money in absolute terms, a greater proportion of their cash is disposable and devoted to the pursuit of leisure and fashion. The question is - how do brands push the right buttons to entice a young person to part with their cash? This is such a conundrum that I made the role social media analysis can play in helping unlock youth insights the focus of my talk at a Haymarket Youth Marketing event this month.
Social media continues to grow at an extraordinary rate. A billion tweets are posted every three days. As of the end of 2011 there were over 180 million blogs - at which point, the people who had been counting stopped. Mumsnet now receives over 30,000 new posts most days. All the opinion contained within that social media content is a marketers' dream.
Having said that, social media research is still at a nascent stage of development and many brands are still grappling with how social media can be harnessed to deliver real and meaningful insights. One issue is it that it can be very difficult to identify demographics in social media. However, this makes it all the more important to build a contextual and content-based understanding of the audience under the microscope. For instance, we can build profiles of the typical "older youth" versus teen social media user, based on the content they typically produce. This allows the researcher to include or exclude content that appears to have been generated by different segments.
Fun vs. flattery
In the main, young youths i.e. teenagers use Twitter differently to older youth, and have differing motivations. Teens use social media to share amusing anecdotes and stories; whereas older youths use social media to project an aspirational image of themselves. The key for brands is to understand how this information is selected and edited, so that they can provide fuel for conversations. This can be achieved by providing teenagers with fun things to talk about or supporting older youths by helping them to create success stories they can share with their peers.
Another difference is that teens are likely to tweet more frequently and engage in unrestrained reporting of their everyday experiences, driven in part by the desire to boost their tweet total. In contrast, older youths are generally more considered in what they tweet, based on the image they want to present to the world. They tend to be more intent on building followers, and will use other communications platforms to engage in genuine conversations.
It's all about outcomes
Our research also revealed that teenagers are very outcomes-driven. For instance, when analysing how they feel about university tuition fees, younger youth frequently took a rather pragmatic approach with some weighing up the best institution based on return on investment, rather than basing their decisions on idealistic dreams of student life. Therefore, they may require clear evidence of how a product or experience would benefit them.
They are also surprisingly nostalgic for the recent past - for relationships, events, experiences, brands and technologies; perhaps because their lives are documented and timelined as never before. This implies that some of the nostalgia marketing that works for young adults in their later twenties might work for "young youth", although the experiences that invoke this nostalgia will need to hark back to more recent times.
Customise your marketing
By implication, businesses need to find a way to appeal to these youth segments differently, based on their diverse interests and behaviours. Given the proliferation of channels, it is now possible to reach out to different groups with distinct communications. However, this is not to advocate that brands should behave differently with different segments. There is an important distinction between being multi-faceted and two-faced. In all instances, particularly on social media, brands must hold true to their core purpose and beliefs. Indeed, any contradictions will be severely criticised on social media.
In the past, marketers often had to second-guess the issues that mattered to their customers. Today, we have the richest and most comprehensive source of customer insight at our fingertips. The challenge is to tame the beast in order to identify, extract and filter brand insights from the ever-growing mass of social opinion. This can be achieved through a mixture of sophisticated monitoring technology and expert researchers. After all, it would be a waste to allow opinions, perceptions, and needs expressed spontaneously in real time, and on the record, to lay dormant in data, when this data can be mined to uncover previously unrevealed insights. | <urn:uuid:27578f26-cc81-4e58-a0f0-f3047d6955d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/james-withey/marketing-to-older-and-yo_b_2008229.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968304 | 998 | 1.78125 | 2 |
7-Eleven has become the leader of convenience store retailing with 40,000 locations worldwide and an array of new products.
From humble beginnings dating back to 1927 in Oak Cliff, Texas, 7-Eleven was just a simple store called Southland Ice Co., that sold milk, eggs, bread and ice. Today, the chain of convenience stores is a retail powerhouse with 40,000 stores.
NEXT: Meat, Food, Ice Cream, Milk
Last updated February 25 2011: 4:51 PM ET | <urn:uuid:387d90ce-8fd7-46de-a61e-4e52111f4df0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/news/companies/1102/gallery.seveneleven_milestone/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91679 | 106 | 1.546875 | 2 |
For success with seeds, timing is everything
Around this time of year, millions of Canadians are leafing through seed catalogues or browsing through seed racks in garden centres. They are imagining all sorts of wonderful colour schemes for their gardens and anticipating baskets of fresh produce. All these good things are going to come from seeds.
It seems fairly easy, but I would guess that less than 50 per cent of all seeds purchased actually grow. This is not because the seeds are defective, even though we like to blame them; it’s most often because we need a little more information on how to have success with seeds.
Today, new hybrid pansy seeds cost about 3.7 cents each, and hybrid tomato seeds are often more than $125 an ounce. If you’re interested in saving money, there is some value in knowing at least a few of the basics about seed germination.
Firstly, most of us buy too much seed. We keep thinking that vegetable seeds are such a great investment, so we buy a few extra, just in case some don’t make it. That’s like buying a year’s supply of detergent when it’s not on sale.
As a guide, many seed companies are now listing the number of seeds each packet contains, and seed catalogues are very good at indicating how many seeds are needed per gram of seed. If you only need six tomato plants, why are you buying 200 seeds?
The next problem is what to do with seeds once we have them. Some folks leave them in the kitchen, some end up in the garage, and many get misplaced or lost. The best place for virtually all your vegetable and flower seeds is in your freezer. Not only do you know where they are, but they are also being stored at a constant temperature and humidity. This stratifies them as well, which helps speed up germination. If the World Seed Bank freezes seeds, I think it’s safe to do.
Timing is everything, as the saying goes, and this is especially true with seeds. There has to be a natural progression from seed germination to planting outside in the garden. Unless you have a perfectly controlled environment in which to keep young seedlings, you must time your seeds to correspond with the readiness of your garden outside. In other words, don’t start outdoor tomatoes until early April.
I’m also convinced that you need a cool, well-lit area in which to place your young seedlings during the early stages of growth. Adjustable PowerSmart lighting, adjustable heat and circulating fans are also important.
It takes a bit of trial and error to really achieve success with germination, but the basics are a good medium, clean starting trays, bottom heat, good light and humidity.
Starter mixes are probably the easiest way to go, and if you use these mixes in plastic cell packs or seed plug trays, your success will be far better.
Many seed catalogues indicate the temperature at which the best germination can be achieved, and you can provide that temperature by means of heating trays. Keep in mind, however, that they are not cheap.
Few seeds need to be covered with a growing mix for optimum germination. Most seeds need to be exposed to about 12 to 16 hours of high intensity light per day. They must, however, be kept humid.
After watering them carefully, using very hot water and a proper watering can or misting bottle, be sure you place some clear plastic or glass on top of the trays to hold in both the warmth and the humidity. Seeds need to be checked twice daily for moisture.
Germination time will vary with the type of seed, but as soon as they sprout, immediately remove the covers, cool them down, provide lots of light and good air circulation and keep the humidity up.
A drenching with an organic sulphur-based fungicide, like ‘Defender’, will help prevent disease. Maintain the soil on the dry side once the seeds are up and away.
Your greatest challenge will be to keep all your seedlings short and compact before they go into the garden. High light, moderate watering and cooler temperatures will help you achieve just that.
There is a lot of satisfaction in growing your own plants from seed, but germination takes a good deal of care and attention.
Seeds contain a little magic, and like a good magician, we must learn our craft well to help them perform up to our expectations.
Brian Minter owns and operates Minter Gardens just outside of Chilliwack. | <urn:uuid:d6c491fd-1794-4efd-b79e-91cbe248bc73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mapleridgenews.com/lifestyles/140190133.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961838 | 948 | 2.359375 | 2 |
This section focuses on the individual entities of the institutional setting, in which the Energy Community is embedded. The institutional setting of the Energy Community began to unfold with the 2002 Athens Process. The Treaty establishing the Energy Community reconfirmed the final structures of the institutions in 2005.
Pursuant to the Treaty, the internal decision making mechanism lays on the Ministerial Council and the Permanent High Level Group. The Treaty moreover stresses the need to have accompanying platforms enabling discussions and exchange of information. The Energy Community has, subsequently, a Forum on Electricity, Gas, Oil and Social issues. Additionally to the institutions set up by the Treaty, the Ministerial Council established Energy Efficiency (2007) and Renewable Energy (2009) Task Forces. The ministers gave mandate for Environment and for Energy Strategy Task Force in 2010 and 2011, respectively. The Secretariat is the only permanent institution within the Energy Community institutional setting.
The subpages below display the institutional setting of the Energy Community, starting with its executive organ, the Ministerial Council. The subsequent pages describe the tasks and composition of each institute. For meeting documents, please, refer to the section Meetings. | <urn:uuid:426fc5c1-cd67-4b0b-98be-de1e6fc10e0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.energy-community.org/portal/page/portal/ENC_HOME/ENERGY_COMMUNITY/Institutions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906774 | 231 | 2.09375 | 2 |
"In 1899, Pierpont Morgan purchased the Lindau Gospels from the heirs of the 4th Earl of Ashburnham; it was the first major mediaeval manuscript to enter his collections. He acquired, in this single volume, three outstanding examples of Carolingian book art: an important ninth-century illuminated manuscript from the scriptorium of St. Gall, and two of the finest surviving Carolingian metalwork bookcovers. The two covers, however, may be separated by as much as a century, and it is certain that the older of the covers did not originally belong to this codex, however early it was assimilated to it. The covers and codex can be traced back as an entity no further than 1594, the date stamped on the red morocco spine of the volume. It has not been determined whether the jewelled covers were added to the codex then, or whether repairs were made at that date to an existing bound volume, already with jewelled covers. Nor has it been established where the volume was in 1594; the first explicit record placing it in the Benedictine nunnery of Lindau, from which it takes its name, comes in 1691. Lindau is on a small island in Lake Constance, just offshore near the northeast corner. St. Gall, where the Gospels was written, is southwest of Lindau, across the lake and inland, at a direct distance of about twenty miles."
"It has long been recognized that the lower cover of the Lindau Gospels is considerably earlier than the date of the manuscript, and could not have been designed for it. This cover is one of the great treasures of early Carolingian metalwork. It has elicited a considerable literature, characterized by widely varying opinions concerning its localization and date. Such a diversity of opinion is understandable, for although the cover was clearly designed as a unit, a variety of techniques and motifs make up its individual components. The basic layout consists of an enamelled cross (both champlevé and cloisonné) within an enamelled flrame, over four background silver-gilt panels of complex engraved animal interlace patterns. The cross-in-frame motif is similar to that of Queen Theodelinda's bookcovers, mentioned above, though an interval of as much as 200 years separate the two peices of work; and, on both, the arms of the cross broaden where they join the frame (cross pattée). The four cloisonné representations of the bust of Christ on the Lindau cover, one on each arm about the center of the cross, may be related to the late seventh-century gold Cross of Duke Gisulf, each arm of which contains two repoussé portrait heads, presumably Christ's.
"Many scholars have been struck by the resemblance of the animal interlaces on the quadrants to Hiberno-Saxon decorative schemes, and several have noted a general resemblance in layout to several of the carpet-pages in the Lindisfarne Gospels of ca. 700, on which a cross pattern is brought out against an animal-interlace background. An even more specific stylistic connection has been established for the animal interlaces in the two gilt silver engraved medallions laid into the vertical arms of the cross: these follow precisely the 'gripping-beast' pattern of Viking animal ornament. Their earliest appearance in Viking art is on objects from the Oseberg ship-find, which have been dated to between 800 and 850. It has sometimes been asserted that the Viking gripping-beast style was derived from Carolingian prototypes, but this cannot be documented--unless indeed the Lindau Gospels lower cover is considered as a precdent Carolingian example" (Needham, Twelve Centuries of Bookbindings 400-1600 25-26). | <urn:uuid:8924f719-e081-4bd5-b6f2-2038260b538e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=230 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959352 | 795 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Commander Randall T. Boyd Jr.
1918 - 2001
Randall T. Boyd Jr., a retired engineer and Naval Officer was decorated for bravery during World War II and the Korean War. Commander Boyd saw combat as a naval artillery officer during World War II and as a pilot during the Korean War. He was awarded a Silver Star for his exploits during World War II and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his activities during the Korean War.
Randall Boyd was born in Hingham, Masschusetts, and raised in Weymouth. Randall grew up across the street from the Reed Avenue water tower in South Weymouth. His parents, Randall and Rachel Boyd, were from Beachmont, Massachusetts (via Antigonish, Nova Scotia) and England respectively. Commander Boyd sought a career in the Navy due to the influence of his Uncle William Seach, a Weymouth native who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor during the Boxer Rebellion. Randall, an Eagle Scout and a Weymouth High School graduate, class of 1936, attained the third highest rank in the country in a competitive examination for an appointment to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. His congressman, R.B. Wigglesworth, named him an appointee to Annapolis. Randall entered the academy in June of 1937 and graduated in 1941. A year after graduation from Annapolis, Ensign Boyd married Mary Jane Dooley of Roxbury. They were married on July 20, 1942 in Hull, Massachusetts. Randall also earned a master's degree in aeronautical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1947.
On November 10, 1942, he was artillery officer aboard the destroyer Dallas when it made a treacherous 10-mile run up the Sebou River to land an Army Ranger detachment to capture Port Lyautey Airport during the assault and occupation of French Morocco.
After World War II, he trained as a pilot in Pensacola, Florida, then served in the Korean War. Following the Korean War, he was commanding officer of Naval Patrol Squadron 34, and later was second in command at the Naval Base in Rota, Spain. After retiring from the Navy, he was an engineer at MIT's Draper Laboratory, where he worked on the Gemini and Apollo space programs, and a senior engineer at Brown and Root Inc. in Houston, where he oversaw shipbuilding projects.
Commander Boyd was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on November 29, 2001.
Commander Boyd was a remarkable man. An accomplished, decorated soldier and brilliant engineer. He was a true hero from the "greatest generation," a humble patriot with a steadfast sense of duty. | <urn:uuid:4312d356-36d8-4df3-8cec-a70b1056cdbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weymouthschools.org/district_planetarium.aspx?id=1077&ekfxmen_noscript=1&ekfxmensel=e9edebdfa_8_22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982015 | 541 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Since you have mentioned algorhythms several times, I wonder if you might reveal a bit more to what degree this is actually stochastic in origin.
In music you get three main elements: Melody, Harmony and Rhythm. I think it's plain obvious that the rhythmic part of Perniciosus was left to my discretion.
So I will concentrated on the two other elements.Melody
The melody that came directly from the computer can be found in bars 57 (6:13) to 123 (7:23). So 1:10 minutes of continuous stream of pitches. This came directly
from the computer, and I just added dynamics and some pedaling. It sounds like that, doesn't it?
The point there was to create a matrix which has no place for the audience (or the pianist I'll admit) to latch. To create a mathematical formula that would disallow the melody from repeating itself. And thus I used a computer to generate these pitches! The pitches come in permutations of 23 notes (*I think*. It's been a while since I composed this) and no permutation is the same with the other, or has similar patterns or others. It's a constant stream of notes coming to the face of the audience.
The same melodic material was used in the slow part, but treated in a completely different way and in a rather romantic fashion (as far as gestures are concerned). You can notice it in the first few bars...
And while I agree that there isn't a clear tonal center, things do revolve around C (the first and final note of the permutations)...Harmony
In the chords I had the same idea as before: Not to let two chords sound the same! So I wrote down all possible chords with 2,3 and 4 notes, without any repeating intervals in them (using a computer again), mixed them up and printed the info.
If you separate the work into three parts (slow - fast single pitches - tocatta like part) then you can say that I and II were influenced by computers, while the third is completely free.
II is just the computer speaking, and I uses the same material but in completely different ways.
I was very curious (as a research method probably), to study the extent that a composer can influence a given and non human material. Not a Bach melody but a computer melody. And I do feel that the first part is doing that very well. With great variation, difference of pace and interest. Then again this is me talking... Thoughts behind the work and the technique
The main idea of the work was explained above. The idea behind the technique is that if you give the audience a completely grey background (a stream of notes with no connection with each other), any element that stands out will be amplified! Computer generated material, so 'equal' in a sense, but the composers' use of it, and the control applied gave it shape... (Again I think).
The same technique was used later on, while doing my PhD for different reasons... Again the results are... interesting to say the least (and not displeasing I hope)!
Thanks for offering me a chance to talk about this! ^_^ | <urn:uuid:c4aa7ec2-2c64-4e6c-bb6b-62b6480e9250> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pianosociety.com/new/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=52750 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96404 | 663 | 2.765625 | 3 |
You can add these boxes to your site.
Every thing has a link like this:
Add this to your blog
Just click on it and follow the one-step instructions. Whenever you add one of these boxes to your site you will be getting links back to you in our site!
The Eighth Ottoman–Venetian War was fought between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire between 1714 and 1718. It was the last conflict between the two powers, and ended with an Ottoman victory and the loss of Venice's major possession in the Greek peninsula, the Peloponnese. Venice was saved from worse by the intervention of Austria in 1716. The Austrian victories led to the signing of the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, which ended the war. More information...
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Register now, and make your vote count more!Votes of unregistered users count only half as much compared to registered users. | <urn:uuid:0413851c-7f52-4730-8ecb-277060aa9986> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://likeorhate.com/thing/1765808/Ottoman%E2%80%93Venetian_War_(1714%E2%80%931718) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954204 | 202 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Total shoulder replacement is a surgery done to treat different shoulder conditions and injuries, such as:
During this surgery, the painful, worn shoulder joint is replaced with a new joint made from metal and plastic.
The surgery relieves shoulder joint pain caused by a shoulder condition or injury.
Problems from the surgery are rare, but all procedures have some risk. Your doctor will review potential problems, like:
Talk to your doctor about these risks before the surgery.
Before surgery, you may meet with your doctor for a physical exam, medical history, and tests. You may have the following done:
Talk to your doctor about your medicines. You may be asked to stop taking some medicines up to two weeks before the procedure like:
You will be given general anesthesia or regional anesthesia before surgery begins.
General anesthesia will block pain and keep you asleep through surgery. It is given through a vein in your arm or hand or as a gas through your lungs.
Regional anesthesia blocks pain in a certain part of the body, in this case your upper body. It does not keep you asleep during surgery. It is given through a vein in your arm or hand.
The doctor will make a cut through your skin near your shoulder. The large muscles around the shoulder will be pulled back. She will then make a cut in the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff is made up of tendons that cover and support the shoulder joint. Pulling back the muscles and tendons will allow the doctor to have a clear view of the shoulder joint.
The doctor will then remove the shoulder joint and replace it with an implant that looks very similar. It includes a ball, socket, and stem parts.
After inserting the implant, the doctor will close the rotator cuff, muscles, and skin with stitches. A drain may also be inserted to remove fluids that may build up in the shoulder after surgery.
You will be taken to the recovery care unit where nurses will monitor you. They will watch your vital signs (eg, blood pressure, pulse, and breathing). X-rays may also be taken.
A few hours
Anesthesia prevents pain during surgery. As you recover, you may have some pain. Your doctor will give you pain medicine.
This surgery is done in a hospital. The usual length of stay is 2-3 days. If you have any problems, you may need to stay longer.
You may start physical therapy as early as the day after your surgery. A physical therapist will work with you to help you regain your range of motion and strength in your shoulder. You will also continue physical therapy after you leave the hospital.
You will wear an arm sling for the first several weeks after surgery. The sling will help support your shoulder as it heals. You should be able to do simple tasks, like feeding yourself and dressing, within two weeks after surgery. In the meantime, family members or friends may help you with daily activities.
When you return home, take these steps:
Call your doctor if any of these occur:
In case of an emergency, call for medical help right away.
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Canadian Orthopaedic Association
Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation
Shoulder joint replacement. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons website. Available at: http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00094 . Updated October 2007. Accessed September 29, 2011.
Shoulder replacement surgery: diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Hospital for Special Surgery website. Available at: http://www.hss.org... . Updated September 25, 2007. Accessed September 29, 2011.
Total shoulder joint replacement. Cleveland Clinic website. Available at: http://my.clevelan... . Updated July 21, 2009. Accessed September 29, 2011.
Last reviewed October 2011 by John C. Keel, MD
Last Updated: 12/7/2011 | <urn:uuid:2e50cbc3-f8e7-43f7-8684-ca80939de326> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://healthlibrary.epnet.com/GetContent.aspx?token=66c1aa34-5d24-4aa2-9de1-a775b0b63d50&chunkiid=662568 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934801 | 816 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Malaysia After Mahathir
Malaysia After Mahathir
HONG KONG, January 19, 2010 -
Corruption in Malaysia is spiraling out of control, according to Barry Wain, Writer-in-Residence at the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and author of the new book Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times. Wain made the charge in a talk before the Asia Society Hong Kong Center in which he addressed a number of problems currently besetting the nation of 28 million people.
"The place has always been corrupt," Wain alleged, "and it has deteriorated markedly and shows up in Transparency International's annual report. In UMNO (the ruling party), people join to get advantages in business, to get contracts. They expect to make money by joining the party. UMNO itself as a party needs to reform, but it needs to be part of wider reforms to stamp out corruption."
A former editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal, Wain blamed Malaysia's controversial affirmative action program for the exodus of talented Malaysians to
neighboring Singapore, which has prompted concerns of a brain drain. "Its benefits are no longer accruing to Malaysians who need it most—the poorest. They are accruing to the best-connected Malaysians, basically those connected to the ruling party."
Meanwhile, the predominantly Muslim nation is beset by worsening ethnic tensions triggered by political considerations. "When UMNO is in trouble," Wain said, "when it looks like it's losing its appeal, it harps on about Malay domination that flows into Islam and religion, and gets nasty. I think inter-ethnic relations have deteriorated and I'm a bit worried about the way it might go, particularly if UMNO starts getting closer to defeat."
Wrestling with the long-term decline of his party, Najib Razak—who became Prime Minister last April—has been hindered by the pervasive patronage system that was in place under former premier, Mahathir Mohamad. To make matters worse, Wain continued, Najib's reputation has been tainted by a scandal in which one of his key advisers was acquitted in the murder of his ex-lover, a Mongolian model.
"It is potentially very embarrassing for the prime minister to be implicated in such a grisly murder this way. His attitude is to ride it out and hope it goes away. Unless he comes clean and makes a statement and explain the connection, it may haunt him for a long time," Wain speculated.
With a rising level of discontent, the disaffected have turned to the coalition of opposition parties led by Anwar Ibrahim, the former finance minister. A one-time protégé of Mahathir Mohamad and UMNO stalwart, Anwar spent almost 20 years in the party until losing favor with Mahathir.
"Malaysians will have to make up their own minds how much they trust him. There's certainly a prevailing view that he changes too quickly and too often and cannot be trusted," observed Wain.
Reported by Penny Tang, Asia Society Hong Kong Center | <urn:uuid:38b7e427-a62f-4899-a3a8-05e3ec0bc137> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asiasociety.org/hong-kong/malaysia-after-mahathir | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976959 | 651 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Limited freight rail service in the North Bay could start as soon as next week after an operating agreement was struck between two rail agencies Wednesday.
The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit district board approved an agreement with the North Coast Railroad Authority on how it will share the tracks, including giving SMART priority during peak commute times.
"This is big news for us," said Mitch Stogner, executive director of the North Coast Railroad Authority.
The agreement is contingent on the NCRA board approving the accord and a final environmental impact report, according to Farhad Mansourian, acting SMART general manager.
Those two actions are scheduled for an NCRA board meeting in Healdsburg on Monday. If approved, limited freight service could begin late Monday, Stogner said. The $3 million environmental impact report evaluates the impacts of train operations on the Russian River area of the line.
"The first 30 to 60 days would see very limited service as crews become acclimated," Stogner said, adding that service through Novato still would be weeks away. An agreement with the city of Novato is pending.
The environmental group Friends of the Eel River, citing the NCRA's financial plan and what it sees as the potential for environmental damage, is threatening legal action if freight trains begin to roll.
"We don't support what they are trying to do," said Nadananda, the group's executive director, who goes by
Last month the Federal Railroad Administration partially lifted an emergency order that stopped all train service on the line in 1998 after a series of El Niño storms. The action gave the green light to freight service on a 62-mile stretch of railroad from Brazos Junction in Napa County east to Highway 101 in Marin, and extending north along Highway 101 through Novato, Petaluma, Cotati, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa and Windsor.
In Novato there would be seven crossings, and trains would travel no more than 25 mph. Delays at crossings would be less than one minute, NCRA officials said. Trains would only run during daylight hours and likely make one round-trip on the line, three days a week, most likely on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The NCRA has invested more than $60 million since 2007 to repair 56 crossing signals, replace 50,000 cross ties and repair 43 rail bridges, among other steps. NCRA leases the track to a private short-haul rail operator, the NWP Co.
The trains would haul feed grains, wood products, building materials, wine and other general merchandise during the start-up phase between Napa and Windsor.
Contact Mark Prado via email at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:e5ce33c2-0344-4e26-be96-ec8eb16f7be5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_18282609 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963551 | 558 | 1.5 | 2 |
Buttons rule the world, how would you else power on your favorite Apple device?
Some games are really hard to explain due to being either so far out there, or highly innovative in concept. Button Brigade is hard to explain due to being both far out there, and being innovative in the humongous puzzle genre. It is a game that basically throws out the core foundations of any puzzler, and creates a completely new way of looking at problems. Usually you have to move something onto a button to push it for example. In Button Brigade you bring the button with you to the proper door, or function you want to perform. A timed gate might be impossible to enter when you touch the button located far to the right. Grabbing the button, and taking it all the way to the gate there is ample time to enter it.
A rewind button can be used, as a means of retrying when something has got itself messed up. It can also be used to get rid of enemies, open doors and other Jedi Mind Trick kind of antics. The further you progress in the game the more innovative the puzzle design becomes. At times even too intricate for the casual gamer, and at other times there is a discord between the slow pace of a puzzler and the quick action Button Brigade demands.
You are in control of a weird worm consisting of four white dots not completely connected. The movement is fluid, but at the same time weirdly disconnected. When ramming into something the force seems to be stronger at the end of the worm making it squirm violently. To move it you hold the screen in the area you want it to approach. Where the game gets interesting is when you have to occupy, and carry buttons. To enter a button you have to tap it with two fingers, and to disembark you tap away from it with two fingers. Either tapping it in the case of keys, bombs and rotary buttons does any action the button can perform. Other buttons that fire distance lasers, or waves you draw from the button in the direction you want to fire. Too often I have found myself accidentally disembarking, or taking off in the other direction when I have tried firing at enemy worms. This is where the game starts to struggle. As innovative, as the controls are for the puzzle elements, as cumbersome are they for the action parts.
Cheap deaths, and long stretches of puzzles to redo until you reach the hard point of a level make for a slightly annoying experience when the levels get harder. The worm lacks a life meter, and that keeps it hard to know when to retreat or when to push forwards. Enemy worms can arm themselves with buttons as well, and at times it is hard to navigate past them when the segments of the worm have a life of their own.
The presentation is a bit sparse, and both textures and effects have a DIY feel to them. Having a main menu with a couple of buttons to press is not that straightforward, as should be. I have managed to erase my save game twice by touching the x-button on the main menu. The sound is also not that exciting, albeit there is something about the quirky music that sticks with me. Overall though a slap of paint, and some polish would enhance Button Brigade quite a lot.
I really wanted to love Button Brigade after I saw the really cheesy trailer, and initially I did. Then repetitive retries, cheap deaths and unclear menu options spoiled it somewhat. I still think it is a highly enjoyable puzzler that brings a lot of new ideas to the table.
Button Brigade $2.99 Universal for iPad/iPhone/iPod
Seller: Axis Sivitz | <urn:uuid:8a9a4d60-ecfa-48fd-9b95-4f8e9da4345b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.touchgen.net/button-brigade-review | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959898 | 744 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Emily Alpert, a senior policy manager at ONE, is reporting on agriculture programs live from Malawi.
When I woke up this morning, it was gray, cloudy and smelled distinctly of rain. While this might seem like a gloomy day when staying in bed might be the preferred option, rain here in Malawi is a lifeline for millions of smallholder farmers who depend on agriculture –- and rain -– for their livelihoods.
Over the next week, I’m going to be learning about a number of agricultural development programs in Malawi. Some are part of the US government’s Feed the Future Initiative. Others are funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. What I’m fascinated by is the opportunity to learn about how all the programs put together, from research and seed development to marketing and trading, make up the agricultural value chain. Not to mention, the importance of linking all of these components together to generate improved farm productivity, income, growth and eventually poverty reduction. At ONE, we call this the “multiplier effect.”
If you take a look at ONE’s infographic on the multiplier effect here (see image above), this is how I envision the sites I’m going to visit this week will fit into the cycle:
- Smart agriculture investments could be the development of improved seed varieties for cassava, pigeonpea, chickpea, maize and cassava produced at the Chitedze Research Station
- Crop diversity occurs when smallholders, like the ones that participate in the Wellness Agriculture and Livelihoods Advancement in Zomba (part of the US Feed the Future Initiative) produce a variety of staple grains, legumes and vegetables
- The Chitedze research on legume crops helps to provide a key source of protein in diets and improved access to fresh dairy products from the Chistano dairy farm also improves nutrition
- The World Food Program’s Purchase for Project (P4P) pilot operating in Malawi right now not only buys food from smallholders (trade crops in markets), but the food they donate to schools helps kids, especially girls, to stay in school
- At the Feed the Future Market Linkages Initiative, Chitosa Trading –- a grain bulking warehouse -– is a growing business, employing grain purchasers and creating a guaranteed market for small-holder farmers leading to improved incomes for everyone involved
- Funwe Farm, a small seed production business supported by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, practices conservation agriculture improving soil health, helps farmers in the community to become more productive and creates employment for more than 150 people throughout the year
All in all, I hope to see that these programs and initiatives together are creating a sustainable path out of poverty for Malawi’s small-holder farmers and rural communities. Stay tuned for updates along the way. | <urn:uuid:fa93c12d-7f71-415e-83df-fd77921dcc17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.one.org/us/2011/03/24/for-malawi-the-path-out-of-poverty-starts-with-farms/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91736 | 588 | 2.71875 | 3 |
3D printing technology is hot and getting hotter. Whereas once 3D printers were limited to a few select materials, these days inputs include metal, plastic, glass, wood, and—human cells? Bet you didn’t see that coming. (Actually, if you’re a regular here, you probably did.) Bioprinting firm, Organovo, isn’t anywhere near 3D printing a hand or heart. But a recently announced partnership with 3D modeling software giant Autodesk (maker of AutoCAD) might speed things up a bit.
We first encountered Organovo in 2009. The firm introduced the NovoGen bioprinter in 2010—the first of its kind—and has since built ten more. At a cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and as yet only rudimentary capability, bioprinting technology is firmly in the developmental stages.
But its potential is great. Organovo’s machines print human tissue just like ordinary 3D printers—additive construction guided by 3D computer models—but instead of inert materials they deposit living cells amid a simultaneously printed gel scaffold.
Already bioprinters are capable of printing small parts, like arteries or knee cartilage. And in the near term, the most likely use is in drug testing—an $11 billion market in itself.
But eventually (years from now) researchers hope to print, not just the piston, but the entire engine—a new heart or lung—customized and made entirely from a patient’s own tissue, limiting the probability of rejection by the body and doing away with long and uncertain waiting periods for donors.
Until now, however, one of the biggest limitations to bioprinting wasn’t the hardware. It was the software. Just last September, in the Wall Street Journal, Hod Lipson of Cornell’s Creative Machines Lab noted, “We have machines that can make almost anything, but we don’t have the design tools. In bioprinting, there’s no computer-aided design software for body parts.”
That’s where Autodesk comes in. The design firm practically owns the 3D modeling market. Their software is near ubiquitous in any profession that builds things. Now, they’re moving from dead designs into the land of the living.
Autodesk’s Carlos Olguin says, “Life is becoming a nascent design space in an engineering sense. It’s subject to specs, subject to QA, it’s repeatable. Biology is becoming an engineering discipline.”
Wired recently described bioprinting design software as a DOS-like dinosaur—not exactly suited for your typical biologist or researcher whose specialty is necessarily not writing code. From that perspective, a partnership with Autodesk can only bring good things for Organovo and bioprinting at large.
Autodesk’s 123D design suite for non-professionals and AutoCAD for professionals are powerful, relatively easy to learn, and can already be paired with a home or third-party 3D printer. 123D Catch can even build printable 3D models using a series of pictures from your smart phone. One imagines that technology might one day translate body imaging (MRI, X-Ray, CT scan) into 3D models for bioprinting transplantable organs.
Printing a new liver on demand instead of waiting for a transplant is an exciting prospect—tech that could save many lives. But it is realistically still years away. Developing, de-bugging, and refining the software will be a lengthy process. And clinical trials in bioprinting are five or more years distant, never mind full approval for human use.
Image Credit: Organovo | <urn:uuid:63c321d7-aa56-4bbf-badf-55b2024f7591> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://singularityhub.com/2013/02/13/autodesk-and-organovo-team-up-to-bring-printable-human-organs-closer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921734 | 786 | 2.75 | 3 |
I Am A City Builder
To me, there is no greater calling than building cities. Cities foster proximity. Proximity promotes interaction. We know that the closer people are to each other, the healthier, more productive, more economically secure, innovative, creative and efficient they are because of the interaction.
Cities are more than a collection of buildings. People are the magic of cities, and City Builders create places for people.
Why are City Builders important? Quite simply, buildings are where people live, work and create.
City Builders make places where dreams come to life. Buildings and the public spaces around them are where inspiration, creativity and innovation happen.
In Portlandia, they sing that Portland is the place young people go to retire. I believe that Seattle is the place people come to change the world.
Seattle is a regional hub that attracts people from around the world, and Seattle has produced more than its share of global companies and NGOs. City Builders are an integral part of this dynamic.
City Builders seeks to raise awareness of what we do and our place in the community. You are a critical part of city building. Join us.
Photo credit: Laurie Ascanio, GLY Construction | <urn:uuid:1e4897fc-9e99-4188-af08-47f1f8551c74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://citytank.org/2012/02/14/i-am-a-city-builder/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952708 | 251 | 1.671875 | 2 |
This year marks the 10th year remembrance of the horrific day that changed our Nation and affected people around the World.
Most of us remember where we were and/or have an incredible account of what happened on September 11th, 2001!
You may or may not have personally known the innocent victims of the World Trade Center attacks on Twin Towers in NYC, or on the Pentagon in Arlington, VA, or in the field in Shanksville, PA.
Finding out what happened, most of us sat in dread, grieving for the victims, families, and friends of this terrorist act.
I can’t mention September 11th, without recognizing fallen first responders; those who died from diseases caused by pollutants caused by the disasters; and our military and civilians who have fought for the War on Terror and died for our Country.
New Bern Now wants to help share extraordinary stories experienced by local residents. We are working on a video and article to share with National media outlets to make sure those who lost their lives on 9/11/2001, did not die in vain.
Please give us a call at 252-638-6858 or send us an email if you would like to contribute your story with us no later than July 15, 2011. | <urn:uuid:d6297b9f-3bbf-4bf3-b82a-3fcdee078d20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newbernnow.com/NC/2011/07/where-were-you-on-september-11-2001.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962014 | 255 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Under the thumb of paralyzing drought this season, farmers are experiencing significant market changes that are driving commodity prices up while commodity supplies are expected to tumble.
A recently released report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City explains the initial impacts that will be absorbed by consumers and producers in 2012. Report authors Jason Henderson, Omaha branch executive, and Nathan Kauffman, economist, explained that many factors have changed the market landscape this summer, including dwindling expectations of what was once rumored to be the most promising harvest in U.S. history.
"Although crop prices have yet to match the 50-percent price increases in 1988, further reductions in harvest expectations could send crop prices higher," the authors noted. "Surging crop prices could offset yield losses and raise U.S. gross crop revenues above initial 2012 estimates."
The report indicates that higher food prices are expected next year, and consumer spending patterns will likely follow those changes in food price.
Though many factors will contribute to increasing food prices, concern is developing among producers regarding crop insurance's ability to offset revenue losses. The report estimates that some payments could reach more than $300 per acre.
Ranching, dairy and feeding operations will face different challenges. The authors report that 70% of all beef cows are in states that are have pasture conditions rated as poor to very poor. These conditions have impacted hay availability and quality. The report notes that alfalfa prices have risen 15% since May. | <urn:uuid:a74682b2-852e-4c52-8e38-dad9ae8ed61d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://farmprogress.com/story-kc-federal-reserve-estimates-drought-impacts-0-62262 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956832 | 295 | 2.3125 | 2 |
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The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge (Touchstone Books)by David McCullough
Synopses & ReviewsPlease note that used books may not include additional media (study guides, CDs, DVDs, solutions manuals, etc.) as described in the publisher comments.
This monumental book tells the enthralling story of one of the greatest accomplishments in our nations history, the building of what was then the longest suspension bridge in the world. The Brooklyn Bridge rose out of the expansive era following the Civil War, when Americans believed all things were possible.
So daring a concept as spanning the East River to join two great cities required vision and dedication of the kind that went into building Europe's great cathedrals. During fourteen years of construction, the odds against success seemed overwhelming. Thousands of people were put to work. Bodies were crushed and broken, lives lost, notorious political empires fell, and surges of public doubt constantly threatened the project. But the story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge is not just the saga of an engineering miracle; it is a sweeping narrative of the social climate of the time, replete with heroes and rascals who helped either to construct or to exploit the great enterprise.
The Great Bridge is also the story of a remarkable family, the Roeblings, who conceived and executed the audacious engineering plan at great personal cost. Without John Roebling's vision, his son Washington's skill and courage, and Washington's wife Emily's dedication, the bridge we know and cherish would never have been built.
Like the engineering marvel it describes, The Great Bridge, republished on the fortieth anniversary of its initial publication, has stood the test of time.
"The impact of the soaring structure upon the American imagination and American life has now been measured with sagacity and style by David McCullough....The Great Bridge is a book so compelling and complete as to be a literary monument, one of the best books I have read in years. McCullough has written that sort of work which brings us to the human center of the past." Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times
"After reading David McCullough's account, you will never look at the old bridge in quite the same way again." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times
"The Great Bridge is a great book....What David McCullough has written is a stupendous narrative about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, with a cast of thousands (give or take 100), whose major characters come alive on the page as authentically, as creatively, as would their fictional counterparts if one had the imagination to dream up such a yarn. Once again, truth is not only stranger than fiction but a hell of a lot more entertaining. Get your hands on The Great Bridge.... This is the definitive book on the event. Do not wait for a better try: there won't be any." Norman Rosten, Newsday
"David McCullough has taken a dramatic and colorful episode out of the American past and described it in such a way that he sheds fresh light on a whole era in American history." Bruce Catton
"McCullough is one of our most gifted living writers." Marie Arana, The Washington Post
Published on the fortieth anniversary of its initial publication, this edition of the classic book contains a new Preface by David McCullough, 'one of our most gifted living writers' (The Washington Post).
Built to join the rapidly expanding cities of New York and Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Bridge was thought by many at the start to be an impossibility destined to fail if not from insurmountable technical problems then from political corruption. (It was the heyday of Boss Tweed in New York.)
But the Brooklyn Bridge was at once the greatest engineering triumph of the age, a surpassing work of art, a proud American icon, and a story like no other in our history. Courage, chicanery, unprecedented ingenuity and plain blundering, heroes, rascals, all the best and worst in human nature played a part. At the center of the drama were the stricken chief engineer, Washington Roebling and his remarkable wife, Emily Warren Roebling, neither of whom ever gave up in the face of one heartbreaking setback after another.
The Great Bridge is a sweeping narrative of a stupendous American achievement that rose up out of its era like a cathedral, a symbol of affirmation then and still in our time.
This monumental book is the enthralling story of one of the greatest events in our nation's history, during the Age of Optimism — a period when Americans were convinced in their hearts that all things were possible.
In the years around 1870, when the project was first undertaken, the concept of building an unprecedented bridge to span the East River between the great cities of Manhattan and Brooklyn required a vision and determination comparable to that which went into the building of the great cathedrals. Throughout the fourteen years of its construction, the odds against the successful completion of the bridge seemed staggering. Bodies were crushed and broken, lives lost, political empires fell, and surges of public emotion constantly threatened the project. But this is not merely the saga of an engineering miracle; it is a sweeping narrative of the social climate of the time and of the heroes and rascals who had a hand in either constructing or exploiting the surpassing enterprise.
About the Author
David McCullough has been called a "master of the art of narrative history." His books have been praised for their exceptional narrative sweep, their scholarship and insight into American life, and for their literary distinction.
In the words of the citation accompanying his honorary degree from Yale, "As an historian, he paints with words, giving us pictures of the American people that live, breath, and above all, confront the fundamental issues of courage, achievement, and moral character."
Author of 1776, John Adams, Truman, The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, and Brave Companions, he has received the Pulitzer Prize twice (in 1993, for Truman, and, in 2001, for John Adams), the Francis Parkman Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and has twice won the National Book Award.
For his work overall he has been honored by the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, the St. Louis Literary Award, the Carl Sandburg Award, and the New York Public Library's Literary Lion Award. None of his books has ever been out of print.
In a crowded, productive career, Mr. McCullough has been an editor, essayist, teacher, lecturer, and familiar presence on public television — as host of Smithsonian World, The American Experience, and narrator of numerous documentaries including The Civil War and Napoleon. He is a past president of the Society of American Historians. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received 31 honorary degrees.
A gifted speaker, Mr. McCullough has lectured in all parts of the country and abroad, as well as at the White House, as part of the White House presidential lecture series. He is also one of the few private citizens to be asked to speak before a joint session of Congress.
Born in Pittsburgh in 1933, Mr. McCullough was educated there and at Yale, where he was graduated with honors in English literature. An avid reader, traveler, and landscape painter, he lives in West Tisbury, Massachusetts, with his wife Rosalee Barnes McCullough. They have five children and 15 grandchildren.
Table of Contents
1. The Plan
2. Man of Iron
3. The Genuine Language of America
4. Father and Son
6. The Proper Person to See
7. The Chief Engineer
8. All According to Plan
9. Down in the Caisson
11. The Past Catches Up
12. How Natural, Right, and Proper
13. The Mysterious Disorder
14. The Heroic Mode
15. At the Halfway Mark
16. Spirits of '76
17. A Perfect Pandemonium
18. Number 8, Birmingham Gauge
19. The Gigantic Spinning Machine
20. Wire Fraud
22. The Man in the Window
23. And Yet the Bridge Is Beautiful
24. The People's Day
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» Arts and Entertainment » Architecture » Bridges | <urn:uuid:f7586afa-6126-4359-9ad4-2fecbf4b47bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.powells.com/biblio/65-9780671457112-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949722 | 1,837 | 1.859375 | 2 |
MODERATOR: Good morning, everybody. Hope you all had a good sleep. The following is going to be embargoed until GMT noon here for reasons that you will understand, because it reflects a variety of meetings that the Secretary has had on the margins of the Somalia conference with her counterparts.
QUESTION: When is this embargoed to?
MODERATOR: Okay. Just to repeat, this will be embargoed until noon today, London time, GMT, because it will be -- what you are about to hear reflects a variety of meetings that the Secretary is having with counterparts who are headed to Tunis tomorrow on the margins of today's events here in London on Somalia.
We have with us [State Department Official] to lead you out on those conversations, hereafter known as "Senior State Department Official." And he will be previewing for you, based on her conversations, what we expect to have happen in Tunis tomorrow.
Take it away, [Senior State Department Official].
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Good morning, everybody. Since her arrival, the Secretary has had a number of conversations and meetings with European and Arab counterparts. Obviously, she is in London for the Somalia conference that I can leave others to talk about. But she has taken the opportunity in order to make sure that we all are properly prepared for the Friends of the Syrian People conference tomorrow in Tunis. So I will talk about – a bit about the conversations and meetings she has had with Arab and European interlocutors, focused on the meeting in Tunis and the situation in Syria.
The Secretary has been working with her counterparts on the three pillars that we have discussed before that we would like to see as outcomes from the Tunis conference tomorrow. There is a lot of – she has had a lot of discussions, for example, on the humanitarian aspect. How can we work together as an international community in a concrete and tangible way to address the very real needs of the Syrian people? There is a lot of concern, of course, about what’s happening in places like Homs, the horrific conditions in which people (inaudible), and how do we get the right type of humanitarian and medical assistance (inaudible) that people need.
And (inaudible) general agreement that while the -- while we have all -- all of us have been working with various humanitarian well-known organizations, UN organizations on the ground, that the real challenge is the access issue. And it is going to be up to the Syrian Government to be – the Syrian authorities, the Syrian regime – to respond to international community’s real commitment to provide the type of assistance.
I think one of the things you are going to see coming out of the meeting tomorrow are concrete proposals on how we, the international community, plan to support humanitarian organizations on the ground within days, meaning that the challenge is on the Syrian regime to respond to this.
The second area of focus, naturally, is about the transition, the backing of the Arab League initiative, the political horizon. The Syrian National Council will be at the conference in Tunis tomorrow. The Syrian National Council has been in touch with many of us in the United States, other interlocutors, about its own transition plan that they will be discussing with the international community tomorrow.
The Syrian National Council has also been working to reach out to people inside Syria to make sure that what they say tomorrow does reflect realities on the ground inside Syria and a pragmatic way about how you move forward in implementing a transition plan. Everybody is backing the Arab League transition plan who’s at the conference tomorrow, but it’s incumbent upon the Syrian National Council to talk about how they would translate that transition plan into action on the ground and for them to articulate it in a compelling way that’s comprehensible, understandable to Syrians inside and out.
The group meeting tomorrow will, of course, show that we support these efforts, not only the Arab League transition plan but the Syrian National Council’s efforts to implement the Arab transition plan.
The third area that the Secretary has been talking about with her counterparts is basically the pressure and isolation track. And this has to do a lot with the sanctions. We have implemented sanctions on Syria and continue to look at the ways that we can increase the pressure. The Europeans have. The Arabs have as well, such as Saudi Arabia announcing the suspension of commercial. So the Secretary has been working with her counterparts to see how we can make sure that the pressure track that we’re all engaged in is, first, focused, but second, coordinated enough that the impact is greater than just individual (inaudible) on the Syrian authorities, on the Syrian regime, to show the international resolve to address these real concerns.
There’s a lot of – there’s a large number of people that have been – a large number of countries and organizations have been invited tomorrow. I think you’ll see a strong chair statement coming out of the Tunisian host tomorrow that reflects these three pillars that I just talked about.
MODERATOR: Good. Thank you very much. Unfortunately, [Senior State Department Official] only has a little while, so (inaudible) three or four, and then if we need to get back with him later in the day, we will do that.
Who wants to (inaudible) the first question?
QUESTION: I would love to ask a question, but I keep getting bumped off this call and so I have no idea what points one and two were.
MODERATOR: Okay. Well, we will obviously transcribe this as quickly as we can and get it back out to you as well. But points – point one was humanitarian, point two was supporting the transition.
QUESTION: [Senior State Department Official], if I may, it’s Steve here. Can you talk a little bit more about this issue of the humanitarian aid? You said the real challenge is up – on the Syrians to allow access. But they haven’t, so why would we think they would now?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, one thing is that all of us have been working individually, we’ve been supporting UN agencies and other organizations that have a track record around the world of working in a crisis environment. In some cases, this has gotten in but in small quantities or gotten in quietly through other means.
What we want to have come out tomorrow is a strong international, unified position on this that sends a strong message to the Syrian regime that they are the ones that have a responsibility to allow this access in. But we, the international community, are prepared to support those agencies that can respond. We have the resources and the will to do so. (Inaudible) that we send a collective message to the Syrian regime that it is incumbent upon them to respond to a unified plan that’s coming out of the international community. In a way, it’s not only a humanitarian access but it’s also related to the pressure track that I described as the third pillar of the meeting tomorrow.
QUESTION: Hey [Senior State Department Official], it’s Elise. Can you talk a little bit about – the Secretary had said in advance that maybe you would be (inaudible) ways to strengthen the opposition. I know you’re going to hear from them what you (inaudible), but can you talk about any aid, any type of capacity building that you’ll be discussing with the opposition about how you can help them unify and increase their strength inside and outside the country?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Part of what we’re going to do tomorrow is we’ll be able to hear their needs, because they’re going to present to us not only their plan but their needs – how they – what they need from us in terms of support in order to respond to the situation on the ground in Syria and to promote the Arab League transition plan. So part of this is them telling us what they need, us being able to collectively decide how to respond to that, who has the best capacity for this or that or the other to meet their needs, match our capabilities with their needs.
But we have had an ongoing discussion with them. We’ve had ongoing meetings with them, and not just the United States, others from the Arab world and from Europe. And I think that all of us have been favorably impressed with how they have increased their outreach to a wide variety of Syrians. It’s a very complicated political situation that they face that the Syrian opposition members, whether they’re inside or outside, have a hard time communicating with each other given the restrictions that are put on to the – onto the internet, onto movement, given the horrific conditions under which people are living and operating inside Syria.
And in fact, the opposition has done a fairly good job of reaching out, being able to synthesize views from across Syria. And I think that all of us are favorably impressed with the direction in which they’re moving. But we’ll hear from them tomorrow in terms of specific needs.
MODERATOR: Two more. Kim, go.
QUESTION: Yeah. And then if you can just expand a little bit more on the humanitarian plans - is it a very concrete proposal on exactly how you’re going to deliver that will then require permission from – access from the Syrians? Or it is just a general “we want to deliver aid”?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, Kim, let me say that, as I said earlier, the Secretary has really focused today with her interlocutors, and the interlocutors have focused with her, on the three pillars that we talked about: humanitarian, transition plan, and the sanctions pressure track. And that’s really been the focus of her conversations with her interlocutors today in preparation for that meeting tomorrow.
And on the – again, on the humanitarian side, there are resources available from all of us. There are organizations that have the capability of working in environments such as this. And what, as I said earlier, what you’ll see from us tomorrow is a unified plan of how we would work together to move forward on delivering the type of medical and humanitarian, shelter assistance, that people need, but with a clear message to the Syrian regime that the burden is on them to respond to provide the type of access needed in order for the international community to help the citizens of Syria.
MODERATOR: Let’s have one more, and then we’ve got to let [Senior State Department Official] go.
QUESTION: I have a question. This is Karen. I just wondered if --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.) Hey, can I just ask a question, please?
QUESTION: Go ahead.
QUESTION: First, is there any dollar sign associated with the humanitarian proposal that you’re going to put forward tomorrow? Second – or is there no dollar sign? Second, (inaudible) on-the-record briefing the other day raised the possibility or helped open the door to the possibility of the United States supporting the arming of the opposition. Has the United States Government made any progress toward such a decision, and do you expect there to be any explicit discussion in the meeting tomorrow about the possibility of arming the opposition? Thanks.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: On the first question, there are – I think the Tunisians invited 73 organizations and countries to go, and most of those have individual assistance budgets, and we’ll see what is said about a dollar amount. But I don’t think resources is the problem. It is the access, the facilities that are needed, the conditions that are needed in order to allow that to be delivered. So we’ll see what’s said tomorrow, but I would look again at what kind of message it is that we are sending to the Syrian regime rather than a dollar amount, because the constraint has not been on dollars.
The – on the second question, the focus really is, as I said, tomorrow that – on what are the elements needed to respond to the tangible needs of the Syrians on the ground – that has to do with humanitarian access; and what is needed to promote a political transition – and that is a unified message of pressure (inaudible) that its current behavior is unacceptable, and second, to work with the opposition on implementing a pragmatic, practical transition plan that disproves Bashar al-Assad’s theory that the only alternative to him is chaos and civil war.
MODERATOR: Okay. Let’s do one last one from Karen since we have (inaudible).
QUESTION: Yeah, thank you. That actually was what I was going to ask. I mean, I think that a number of countries coming to this conference have expressed their individual desires to start arming the opposition. And the question is to what extent is that going to be put on the table. Or are you guys going to talk about it with the door closed and just not tell anybody?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: What unifies this group tomorrow, what has brought together so many countries and organizations in sending a unified message to Bashar al-Assad about that he’s on the wrong path, is this desire for a political solution and to respond to the immediate (inaudible) of the Syrian people. That’s what brought everyone together tomorrow, and I think that’s the unified message that you’re going to see coming out of tomorrow.
MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you so much. | <urn:uuid:31bfd403-2d60-41d5-a5e7-84a8caa79223> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/02/184501.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965827 | 2,850 | 1.710938 | 2 |
A study conducted by analyst firm Freeform Dynamics and commissioned by IBM claims that Linux desktops are easier to implement than IT staff expected if they targeted the right groups of users, such as those who have moderate and predictable use of e-mail and office tools
The research behind the report entitled Linux on the Desktop: Lessons from Mainstream Business Adoptionwas compiled via an online survey that polled 1,275 IT professionals from the U.K., U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries across Western Europe and the Nordics. 90 percent of the study's respondents had direct experience with desktop Linux deployment in their business.
According to Freeform Dynamics' analysis of the data, experienced users said that Linux on the desktop was best achieved when it was first targeted to groups of non-technical users. Transaction workers and general professional workers were seen as more than twice as likely to be primary targets for desktop Linux adoption than mobile and creative staff. A majority of the respondents indicated that Linux desktop deployments to these targeted groups was easier than anticipated.
Notable statistics of the study include:
- 71% of respondents indicated cost reduction as their primary driver for adoption.
- 35% stated the ease of securing the desktop was another primary driver
- 32% cited the lowering of overheads associated with maintenance and support in general were factors contributing to the benefit of desktop Linux adoption
- Those with experience of Linux desktop rollouts are 50% more likely to regard non-technical users such as general professional users and transaction workers as primary targets for Linux
- 58% of those with prior experience of a Linux desktop rollout see general professional users as primary targets
- 52% of those with prior experience of a Linux desktop rollout see transaction workers as primary targets.
- 32% of those with prior experience of a Linux desktop rollout see power users as primary targets.
- 47% of respondents said usability was the main consideration when evaluating or selecting a desktop Linux distribution for use in a business environment | <urn:uuid:49e8caac-e24d-436f-98c8-c15d2f280a8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drdobbs.com/parallel/linux-desktops-easier-to-implement/217600609 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962801 | 401 | 1.875 | 2 |
Considering all those cinematic or literary occasions in which an emigrant wagon train on the California/Oregon trail was pictured being attacked by a war-party of Indians, it actually happened as represented on very few occasions. That is, a defensive circle of wagons, with the pioneers being well-dug in while the Indians ride around on horseback, whooping and shouting to beat the band, and firing volleys of arrows at them. Very likely, more emigrants died in accidents with firearms than were ever actually killed by Indian attack. A little disconcerting for the fan of westerns to find this out; kind of like discovering that most cowboys didn't have much use for a six-shooter, and that most western towns were really rather refreshingly law-abiding places. It ruins a whole lot of plots, knowing of these inconvenient verities. But those historians who become passionately interested in the stories of the trail, the frontier, the cattle baronies; they are not terribly surprised. As with everything, the more one looks - the more nuance appears. But of such dramatic incidents are books made, non and fiction alike.
Why does this image reoccur, in the face of considerable scholarship to the contrary? Besides the inherent drama in the stories of the westering pioneers and gold-rushers and the desire of those later telling the stories to heighten the drama, the biggest reason may be that those who took part in the great transcontinental migrations fully anticipated encounters of that sort. They had two centuries of bitter history to draw upon, of grudges and warfare and atrocities on both sides. Of two cultures colliding, of ancient grudges breaking into fresh enmity; why would it be any different west of the Mississippi than it had been east of it?
Amazingly, for at least two decades, until well after the Civil War, the wagon-train pioneers encountered little open hostility from those various tribes whose territories they passed through. Not of the open sort described above, anyway. There was a degree of petty thievery and low-level harrassment, of oxen, horses and mules stolen or strayed at night, sniping from the badlands along the Humboldt River, and sometimes single wagons and small parties of travelers beset, robbed or murdered at any point along the way.
There are any number of reasons for this relative tranquility, some of them overlapping. In the early years, there were relatively few wagon parties venturing over the trail during the course of the trail season. They were transitory, well-armed and usually well led, and had absolutely no desire to pick a fight with warrior-tribes like the Sioux, the horse-lords of the upper plains. Other tribes along the route took the opportunity to do business with the wagon-train parties, either trading commodities or labor in helping them to cross rivers, and as historian George Steward pointed out, it must have gotten pretty boring in the winter camps in the Rockies and the upper plains. A new set of travelers passing through their lands offered at least some interest to the same old routine.
Until the Civil War there were only a handful of incidents where Indians made a concerted, sustained and ultimately effective attack on a wagon train party; twenty members of the Ward party (including women and children) were overrun and gruesomely massacred near Ft. Hall in 1854, and 44 emigrants of Elijah Utters' company met a similar fate after being besieged near Castle Butte, Idaho in 1860. Considering the enormous numbers of emigrants and Indians wandering around, fully armed and not particularly inclined to trust each other very much, the length of the trail and the wide-open nature of the country, this is a very fortunate record indeed.
But there was one single incident which puts the deaths of the Ward and Utter parties into the shade, and besides which all the other incidents pale. There was indeed one particularly brutal and horrendous massacre of wagon-train emigrants which started almost exactly as outlined in all those melodramatic books and movies: the pioneers forted up in a circle of the wagons, and besieged for days while awaiting rescue by the cavalry.
This happened in 1857, when the opening of the trail season saw a number of prosperous but restlessly ambitious emigrants taking the trail west, many of them linked by ties of kin and friendship: the Bakers of Caroll County, Arkansas, and the Huff and Fancher clans, from Benton County, were joined at some point along the long trail from the jumping-off place at the edge of the sea of grass by families with the prosaic names of Tackett, Jones, Mitchell and Prewitt. Alexander Fancher, the paterfamilias and trail-boss of the Fanchers was experienced in the ways of the emigrant trail, having gone back and forth several times. He and his kin intended to settle for good in California and to that end had bought not only their wives and children, but much of their portable property and savings, and a large herd (estimated at 800-1,000) of long-horned Texas cattle. Some of the party were Argonauts, intending to look for gold, but the Fanchers’ cattle were their gold, and intended to market them at a profit to the hungry gold miners in California. They had already registered a brand, for their new ranch and herd.
By 1857 the emigrant trail was not the long and desperate march through unsettled wilderness that it had been ten or twelve years before. The US Army had managed to sketchily garrison and patrol the Platte River Valley, and Mormon settlements spreading out from Salt Lake City offered one last and often life-saving chance at rest and resupply, before the final calculated leap into the desert and over the sheer mountain wall of the Sierra Nevada. The Fanchers and the Bakers and the other families, numbering about a hundred and fourty men, women and children, arrived in the Salt Lake City area at the end of August. After consultation, they decided that they were too late in the season to venture the northern trail, following the Humboldt River into the desert where it sank eventually into the sand, and up the long rocky climb up the Truckee River to the mountain pass named after the emigrant party which had so famously left their own traverse too late.
Experienced and sensible, Alexander Fancher and his fellows would not chance being trapped in the snow; not with their long train of wagons, their herd of cattle and their horses. They would take the southern route, the old Spanish Trail that lead down through the Mojave Desert, through the less precipitous passes farther south. (Roughly following present-day I-15, from Salt Lake City, Los Vegas and San Bernardino) It would be a long haul through various deserts, and a couple of hard pulls through mountainous terrain, but nothing like the cruel snows which had doomed the Donner-Reed Party ten years before. By early September they had reached Cedar City, the last outpost for resupply before descent of the Virgin River George and the long desert crossing below it. They met a cold reception from the Mormon settlers there, and were not able to purchase any supplies. Doubtless shrugging it off, they moved on south and camped in a pleasant mountain valley at the foot of the Iron Mountains and adjacent the Spanish Trail.
This camping place offered generous pasturage and water, but on the morning of September 7th the emigrants began to be attacked by a large war-band of Piute Indians. Dismayingly, it soon became clear that the Indians were unusually persistent; this was no quick smash and grab ambush, a sudden screaming foray at dawn, with a handful of casualties and a few cattle or horses stolen in a few minutes. This was a deadly, concerted siege. The Fanchers and the Bakers and the others swiftly forted up, chaining their wagons together and digging hasty trenches; they held out for five days. Seven of them were killed outright, another twenty or so wounded, and dismayingly, they began to run low on ammunition, and were tormented by an inability to reach water without being repeatedly sniped at. Of two men who attempted to fetch water from the spring closest to the encampment, one was shot down, and the other escaped - but not before seeing that the man who shot them was not an Indian.
But this was not very unusual; there were brigands all over the west who pretended to be Indians as a cover for robbery and murder, and there were whispers of white turncoats among the various tribes. Still and all, when the cavalry appeared on the horizon, probably everyone in the besieged encampment took a deep breath of relief. Here was rescue at hand; well armed frontiersmen like themselves. Not actually the cavalry, for this was still Mormon territory; this was the local militia, their leaders advancing under a white flag, with good news for the emigrants.
They could leave, the militia leader said. They had been able to call off the Piutes and negotiate some kind of truce with them. But they would have to disarm and leave their wagons and cattle and horse herd, and walk back under escort of the militia to Cedar City. Oh, the children and the wounded could be taken in wagons, but everything else would have to be left behind. No doubt the Fanchers and the Bakers, the Prewitts and the Tacketts and their wives and older children did not like the idea much, but they had their lives and what small valuables they could carry on them. And so they left the wagon encampment in three parties, trusting the men who had come to their rescue. First came some wagons with the wounded, some of the women with babies and small children in it, then another group of women with the older children on foot, and then the men, each of them escorted by a militiaman.
And when a prearranged signal was given by the militia leader, they turned and executed the men, and all of the women and children but for seventeen of them who were babies or assumed to be too young to ever remember what they had seen at the place called Mountain Meadows.
(to be continued) | <urn:uuid:2f6ecf04-3e1d-41ea-aa56-65630904c90d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://truewest.ning.com/profiles/blogs/forting-up-part-one-of-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98001 | 2,126 | 2.75 | 3 |
By: Suzanne Maiden, M.A., LPC
I recently saw Leonardo diCaprio’s latest movie, Inception. Although this movie does not feed the audience the plot, e.g., you really have to pay attention, it was worth the energy. Whoever wrote the screen play knows a thing or two about dreams. Someone did their homework.
As a practicing psychotherapist, I encourage patients to share their dream content. And, I am the first therapist in the country (I’m pretty sure…) to be federally funded to facilitate Dream Analysis groups with convicted felons - people in recovery from substance abuse. It’s cooler than cool. I love what I do. I get shivers and my arm hairs stand at attention when someone presents their dream and they have an ‘ah-ha’ moment. Because I know that the dream spotlights critical information for that person. I couldn’t make this stuff up.
Two thoughts that I want to share regarding the movie Inception. First, it accurately portrayed the concept of projection. For example, when we dream of someone – it seldom is that person. Our psyche uses their image to underscore that inner part of ourself. It’s called a projection. Inception beautifully illustrated this when the main character, played by Leonardo diCaprio, was teaching a young intern, played by Ellen Page, about dreams. The intern was observing her own dream and saw many other people – she assumed the people were separate people vs. split-off pieces of herself. diCaprio’s character explained: ”It’s just a projection – all of those other people are YOU… Those are your projections.”
Second, the movie showed how extensive our defense mechanisms are and how difficult it is to break through them. Each of us has layers and layers of Ego defenses we created to protect us. Psyche is very smart and seeks survival. When we are emotionally wounded, psyche creates a type of scar – an emotional ‘thickening’. Defense mechanisms aren’t bad – they serve an important role in helping us survive pain-filled emotional trauma. However, just like too much physical scar tissue can make an area inflexible, emotional ‘scar tissue’ can too. When we become too rigid, we break under stress vs. sway with it. Inception illustrated this when the characters tried to break into another’s unconscious via a dream – and encountered an enormous, impenetrable, complete with armed guards structure. This fortress is a perfect metaphor for our highly guarded Ego defenses.
If you’re interested in mind-bender plot with fast action and dream analysis 101 - see Inception. | <urn:uuid:22deea36-f6bf-454c-b511-acb093890250> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dearzanny.com/2010/08/12/inception-movie-about-dreams/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95048 | 563 | 2.171875 | 2 |
I obviously believe using resources found on the Internet can be a very useful tool for student learning. However, the financial crisis now occurring in the United States (and which affects the entire world), I believe, is an exception.
None of the sites on The Best News/Current Events Websites For English Language Learners list and none of the other links on my website under News have even attempted to explain what”s going on in the financial markets in any kind of accessible way or, even any way at all.
This may be because it’s too complicated for them to explain, or this week’s events have just happened to quickly for them to respond. If it’s the second reason, perhaps this week we’ll see some new resources out there.
So I’ve been looking for some resources that are accessible to me so I can develop an accessible classroom lesson for my English Language Learner students. And, even with that change, I haven’t been able to find much.
The best ones I’ve found are:
MSNBC has several good, short online videos, particularly one on What Brought The U.S. Economy To The Brink. You can also see and play other good video clips on the same page.
The New York Times has a series of interactive features on The Debt Trap. On the lower right of the screen you’ll see “Series Index.” When you click on that, links to all the different parts of the series show-up.
The N.Y. Times also has a nice infographic called A Year of Heavy Losses that shows that magnitude of money lost by lenders, though it doesn’t explain why.
In addition, the same paper has an online timeline called How A Market Crisis Unfolded.
Time Magazine has a good article entitled How Financial Madness Overtook Wall Street. Again, it’s not accessible to ELL’s, but it does have good background information for teachers preparing lessons.
Please let me know when you find other good sites for teachers or students to learn what in the world is going on with our economy these days.
I might have found a good explanation that might be accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners. However, I can’t figure out how I can make it legible to students. What’s Next: Innovations In Newspapers highlighted a one page comic strip developed by the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper.
However, I can’t figure out how I can easily enlarge it so students can see the words clearly. Any suggestions out there?
CBBC Newsround has “delivered” with a short and simple article entitled World Caught In Huge Cash Crisis.
How To Explain The 2008 Financial Crisis To Your Kids (And Most Adults) is a short video from “Say It Visually.” A closed-caption version, which the link in this post leads to, is available on Dotsub.com.
The Cincinnati Enquirer has a good infographic called Anatomy Of A Meltdown.
All of the resources I have listed here so far do just that — try to explain why we’re in our financial crisis.
I’m adding a new web tool into that mix that’s a little different (and California-centric). It’s an online interactive from the Sacramento Bee that, with very little teacher guidance, English Language Learners can see how the downturn is affecting different regions in the Central Valley — including our own.
It’s called The Economy At A Glance.
Our students don’t really need help in seeing how it’s affecting their lives since they experience added financial hardships everyday. However, this kind of graphic begins to provide them with a slightly bigger picture. | <urn:uuid:37f1355d-82bf-42bf-a82d-9b31a8da1af3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/09/20/the-best-sites-to-learn-about-the-us-financial-crisis/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940309 | 795 | 3.25 | 3 |
Reflecting on Mahathir’s Legacy in Malaysia
Conducted one of my periodical Amazon price checks today on journalist Barry Wain’s new controversial book “Malaysian Maverick”, which details the legacy of Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Still 80 bucks which I can’t afford.
But I thought it would be worth noting some of the interesting things those who have read the book have noted since its release earlier this year, since Mahathir’s legacy will cast a shadow over Malaysia for a long time to come. I myself still vividly remember his teary ‘resignation’ announcement in June 2002, which I witnessed along with several shell-shocked family members crammed into my grandmother’s house in Malaysia and glued to the television set.
On the Judiciary and Monarchy:
`Hang the lawyers, hang the judges” was one of Mahathir’s favorite private slogans. He argued that the idea of natural justice, which, among other things, required that accused parties be allowed to tell their side of the story, was a relic of British jurisprudence that was ill-suited to modern Malaysia. In a complicated political fight in the late 1980s over the leadership of the UMNO, Mahathir cooperated with the King to undermine the judiciary’s ability to grant a fair hearing to a group of UMNO members who challenged his supremacy over the party. His conciliation of the monarchy, however, was a political tactic that quickly outlasted its usefulness. By the mid-1990s, he had lost patience with the old elites because of the political damage done to the UMNO by the frequently aired stories of princely excess, erratic behavior and corruption. A constitutional amendment passed in 1994 under Mahathir’s pressure gutted any real political power the monarchy once had, and reduced it to a handmaiden of the UMNO.
On Economic Growth:
By many measures, Mahathir’s and the UMNO’s economic policies worked. Once a colonial agricultural backwater marked by widespread poverty, Mahathir’s Malaysia became, within a generation, an impressively performing Southeast Asian economy. Twenty years of Mahathir’s policies (on the back of the New Economic Policy introduced in 1971), had reduced poverty from half of the population in 1970 to just over 5 percent by 2002. Bumiputra standards of living rose markedly. Higher education expanded, medical care became much better and a modern infrastructure network connected all parts of the country. Once ugly and dirty towns and cities became much healthier, more attractive places to live.
As with every other developing economy in the region, however, this growth came at a price. While by the 1990s most Malays were better off than their parents, the urban middle classes benefited most from the country’s modernization. Farmers and the rural petty bourgeoisie, the people Mahathir grew up with, were largely left behind during the 1990s economic boom. In addition, poor non-Malays, Indians and Chinese alike, saw their incomes stagnate while the Malays were favored by affirmative action programs.
Corruption spread like cancer through the UMNO political system. Politics became thoroughly monetised as the scramble for new wealth corrupted the values of the first generation of UMNO leaders. Opportunists took over local politics, and lavish spending on local elections became the norm. At a higher level of capital accumulation, a huge wave of privatisation and investments in mega-projects made the politically connected fabulously wealthy. One critic said “piratization” rather than privatization was the correct word for the sell-off of state assets, since the process only assisted a few well connected people who won projects in no-bid, murky transactions that were heavily political.
Most often, the consequences of overly ambitious plans were ignored. The country’s consumers and taxpayers paid dearly for some of Mahathir’s ambitions. Readers of the book will be familiar with many of Mahathir’s big-ticket ideas: The Proton car, the Bakun dam, the high-tech Multimedia Super Corridor, the Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the Putrajaya administrative capital. Big government spending on heavy industry and infrastructure development began in the 1980s as a sort of hyper-Keynesianism; the government wasn’t just borrowing in times of economic contraction to stimulate the economy, but all the time. The UMNO’s Fleet Holdings was an active, aggressive investment channel for the government. Mahathir, as Wain describes it, had an “edifice complex”: He was obsessed with mega projects that would impress the world and intolerant of any criticism of the cost or rationale of these endeavors.
On Political Freedom:
Mahathir as Prime Minister proved to be a formidable enemy of anyone who tried to cross him or go against his wishes. Politics in the 1980s saw a Mahathir-directed reorganization of the UMNO. He sacked his enemies in the government, bullied the press into towing the government’s line, and used the much-hated Internal Security Act to silence and jail his opponents. Wain argues that the climate he played a key role in creating – one of complete disregard for the rule of law and a “by any means necessary” attitude to destroying critics – governed the treatment than any prominent person [like Anwar] who ran afoul of Mahathir could expect from the government-controlled press and organs of state.
On Security and US-Malaysia Relations:
In 1984, during a visit to Washington DC in which Mahathir met President Ronald Reagan, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and others, he secretly launched an innocuous sounding Bilateral Training and Consultation Treaty, which Wain described as a series of working groups for exercises, intelligence sharing, logistical support and general security issues. In the meantime, Mahathir continued display a public antipathy on general principles at the Americans while his jungle was crawling with US troops quietly training for jungle warfare.
On the Man Himself:
Mahathir had…a fully-developed sense of injustice. He appears to this day to continue to resent much of the west, particularly the British. Wain writes exhaustively of Mahathir’s deep antagonism over both British elitism during the colonial days and the disdain of his fellow Malays (Mahathir’s parentage is partly Indian Muslim on his father’s side), especially the Malay royalty. That antagonism against the British has been a hallmark of his career – from the time he instituted the “Buy British Last” policy for the Malaysian government as prime minister to the present day. Robert Mugabe…remains in Mahathir’s good graces. Asked recently why that was, an aide told me Mugabe had driven the British out of Zimbabwe and was continuing to drive out white farmers to this day, although he was replacing them with people who knew nothing of farming. That expropriation of vast tracts of white-owned land might have destroyed Zimbabwe’s agricultural production. But, the aide said, “He got the Brits out.”
The ability to work both sides of the street was a Mahathir characteristic. “While [Mahathir] has been a public figure in Malaysia for half a century and well known abroad for almost as long, he has presented himself as a bundle of contradictions: a Malay champion who was the Malays’ fiercest critic and an ally of Chinese-Malaysian businessmen; a tireless campaigner against Western economic domination who assiduously courted American and European capitalists; a blunt, combative individual who extolled the virtues of consensual Asian values.”
Most of the reviews I’ve read so far suggest this is a pretty fair book, and it has been flying off the shelves. Still waiting on that price decrease though… | <urn:uuid:b0d5a478-b93d-4023-8146-519facaff426> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asianist.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/reflecting-on-mahathirs-legacy-in-malaysia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970425 | 1,655 | 1.921875 | 2 |
A new generation of robotic explorers are going to search for water on Mars.
The rover is a mobile geology lab
Mark Adler, deputy manager on the US space agency (Nasa) mission, talks to BBC News Online's Helen Briggs about what they might encounter.
HB: How does each rover work?
MA: It's a solar powered robot. At about 9 am it will wake up and by 2-3 pm in the afternoon it will send back what it has done. It then goes to sleep and our job begins here on Earth.
We have about 19 hours to figure out the data and send a series of instructions to the rover next morning.
HB: How similar are they to Pathfinder's Sojourner, the first Martian rover?
MA: Pathfinder was quite similar in terms of its landing system for entry and descent to the surface of Mars. From that point on it looks a lot different to Pathfinder.
The purpose of that mission overall was a technology demonstrator, but it did do some good science.
Mars Exploration Rovers (Mer) is a science mission. Once the landers have delivered the rovers, they are discarded. Now the rovers are completely independent - they can go off to do work and have no reason to go back to the landers.
HB: Will the Mer mission be looking directly for evidence of life?
MA: Our rovers' main science objective is to understand the water environment of Mars. They're not looking for life, they're looking for ancient environments that could have harboured life.
What we learnt from Viking is that it is very difficult to come up with specific experiments to look for something you don't really know what to look for.
This is taking a more measurable approach - trying to understand Mars as a global environment and using the rovers to look at the local environment.
To answer those (life) questions definitively we need to bring samples back (to Earth).
What we want to do is find the right places to go to Mars using our orbiters and landers, then go to these places and bring samples back.
Even if the rovers don't strike gold, sending a set of instruments to Mars has always taught us new things.
HB: Do you think this latest mission will capture the public imagination?
MA: Part of the mission is to inspire the next generation. The mission is an independent rover that can go off over the hill to explore the other side. The public will participate through the website.
We're going to two new places where we haven't been before. Meridiani has chemical evidence of a mineral - haematite - we believe could have formed in water. The evidence comes from Mars Global Surveyor.
Gusev is a morphological site, a crater that could have been a large lake in the ancient history of Mars. The instruments will tell us if it was a lake.
Within weeks, there will be some preliminary answers. There may well be argument about the data for years afterwards. | <urn:uuid:8287d1bd-8218-43bb-80f2-2799a114a967> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2962990.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957639 | 621 | 3.640625 | 4 |
July 26, 2011 Leave a comment
I was involved in a conversation the other day with a company that had taken investment from a customer, and given them a seat on the board. They had very clear views on the ingredients that made their relationship with the customer/investor work.
- The motivation for the investment is good for the company. In this case the investor wanted to buy from the company but didn’t think the company was well enough capitalised to support the product in the long term – a problem solved by their investment. In other cases, a a customer may try to become an investor to prevent their competitors getting access to the technology, or even to “kill” the technology altogether.
- The investor respects the confidentiality of other customers. In order to protect the confidentiality of other customers, many of who would be competitors of the investor, the company articles of association had clauses added to allow the board to exclude directors from the meeting and from receiving papers containing information about other customers.
- The company, investor and their competitors have a common goal. In this case the goal was to reduce fraud in the industry as a whole. This meant that although the investor could gain a competitive advantage from the technology it also stood to gain more by shareing it with others. Otherwise there could have been a conflict, with the investor trying to prevent the company selling to their competitors.
- The investor adds credibility. Having an investor that is seen as a leader and innovators within its industry may add significant credibility. On the other hand, taking investment from an industry pariah may do quite the opposite. It’s not always easy for companies coming in to an industry to know which companies are which, but it is important to find out before taking investment.
- The purchase and investment were separate transactions. The deal for the customer/investor to buy from the company was negotiated by the relevant operational team and the investment was negotiated by corporate finance. While there was communication between the teams, each transaction was negotiated without linkage to the other. | <urn:uuid:fc20279a-470d-4b71-a06e-44b92c1d6df6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.salientpoint.co.uk/2011/07/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986355 | 416 | 2.28125 | 2 |
BOGOTA, Colombia — A 100-foot, twin-screw diesel submarine seized at a jungle shipyard in Ecuador marks a quantum, if anticipated, leap in drug-smuggling evasion technology, the top U.S. counter-drug official for the region said Sunday.
"It is the first fully functional, completely submersible submarine for transoceanic voyages that we have ever found," Jay Bergman, Andean regional director for the Drug Enforcement Administration, told The Associated Press.
Until now, all the smuggling vessels seized on the high seas or at clandestine shipyards built to haul multiton loads of cocaine under the Pacific's surface were semisubmersibles. They typically unload drugs destined for the United States off Central America and Mexico.
Equipped with air intake and engine exhaust pipes, none of those craft were capable of fully submerging so they could evade radar and heat-seeking technology of drug-interdiction aircraft.
The camouflage-painted vessel seized by Ecuadorean police Friday appears by contrast to be capable of long-range underwater operation — a development U.S. analysts have long expected, Bergman said.
Acting on a DEA tip, the Ecuadoreans found it at a sophisticated shipyard with living quarters for at least 50 people on a jungle estuary several miles from the Colombian border, he said. It had yet to make a voyage.
Built of fiberglass and other composites, it has a conning tower, periscope and air conditioning
Compared to semi-submersibles, which cost less than $1 million each to build, "this is in a new maritime drug-trafficking class of its own," Bergman told the AP. | <urn:uuid:929025e7-d416-4afe-9f99-ddcf825b8893> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_15442059?source=rss&nclick_check=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944707 | 357 | 1.796875 | 2 |
I recently adopted a cat, and I am having a hard time deciding what to do with the kitty litter. Is there some kind of green litter that is best to use? Anything flushable and sewage-tank friendly? Or, can I compost the litter — and what should I use to cover it up with?
Just as our eco-children can be diaper-free, it appears our cats can be litter-free. Teach your kitty to use the toilet! Tutorials and tips await you on the internet, and Grist staffers have confirmed that this seemingly bonkers notion works. If you undertake this monumental task and succeed, no cat hater will ever be able to impugn your cat’s intelligence.
Should you choose to stick with the litter box, please eschew clay. Bentonite clay is strip-mined to make cat litter, which is not only destructive to the natural environment, but ridiculous. We strip mine for cat poop? As far as other materials go, I don’t understand why wood shavings from a nearby carpenter wouldn’t work just as well as store-bought litters — and I don’t need to know — but today’s cat owner has a wide choice of recycled-paper and wood options. I’d go for one of the recycled-content types. By the way, adding our favorite magic ingredient, baking soda, can help you keep things fresher longer, and therefore use less litter.
How to get rid of it, you ask? Most knowledgeable folks recommend flushing the actual poop — though if you have a septic tank, garbage may be a better choice — and then tightly bagging the litter to send to the landfill. Check with your town’s solid-waste agency for more details.
There is also another option, which I won’t even explain until I say this: Cats can carry the disease toxoplasmosis and pass it on to us via oocysts (a dormant stage of the disease) in their feces. This disease can be fatal to infants and immune-system-deficient adults, and make the rest of us sick. Do not handle cat poop if you are pregnant, and don’t let small children do it either. Wash your hands thoroughly after handling cat poop, no matter who you are.
That said, you can compost your catbox contents! Use a separate container from your other compost. It doesn’t need to be fancy — a small trash can with holes in the bottom and a tight lid will be fine. Just put the soiled litter in, and after all the poop has been in there anaerobically composting for over a year, spread it on your ornamental plants. Or you can bury fresh feces in a foot-deep hole, though not within 100 feet of a water source. Do not put fresh or composted cat poop in your vegetable garden. And if you have kids playing in your yard, I wouldn’t do any of this.
By the way, reading more than one poop letter makes me ill, as I learned with dog-poop scooping. If you cat owners have something to share — and I know you do — please do your business in Gristmill. Thanks. | <urn:uuid:1edd257a-702e-4eac-bd63-1b1015fd5a4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://grist.org/article/kittylitter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92086 | 678 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Overview and Risk Factors
Infantile colic refers to excessive and persistent crying in a baby less than 3 months old. Although the condition is sometimes attributed to psychosocial causes, this chapter will focus solely on digestive contributors. Criteria developed by pediatrician Morris Wessel in 1954, and used as a diagnostic standard ever since, define colic as crying that occurs in an otherwise healthy baby for 3 or more hours a day, on 3 or more days a week, for 3 or more weeks. These criteria are somewhat controversial in that they may not adequately distinguish abnormal crying from normal behavior that occurs around 6 weeks of age.
Colic episodes are usually characterized by increased intensity, duration, and irregularity of crying that borders on screaming; hypertonicity; general inconsolability; and abrupt onset and conclusion.
Symptoms of colic may include flushing, constipation, tense abdominal distention, loss of appetite, and persistent crying and irritability.
Risk factors for infantile colic are poorly understood. The condition does not appear to be related to gender or gestational age at birth and is not a sign of lactose intolerance. The following list identifies possible risk factors that have emerged in research studies, but whose validity has yet to be established:
- Parental smoking.
- Stressful home environment, including maternal prenatal anxiety and depression.
- Caucasian race.
- Residence in developed nations and/or locations farther from the equator.
- Feeding practices, which include swallowing of air, excessive feeding, and underfeeding.
- First-born birth order.
- Possible nutritional contributors are described in Nutritional Considerations.
Diagnosis and Treatment
A detailed history is important, along with questions to determine the social factors at play with the parents and how they respond to their crying baby. It is essential to consider the possibility of parental abuse.
A complete physical exam should be performed, and colic should be a diagnosis of exclusion. Routine laboratory tests, stool samples, and imaging may help rule out malabsorption, intussusception, and bowel obstruction.
Colic is self-limiting and will resolve with time. Offering reassurance to the family is helpful, and all interventions should be individualized to the family's needs. In addition to dietary factors described below, the following interventions may help decrease the severity and length of illness, although most evidence is inconclusive.
Parental counseling and support may be an effective strategy for reducing parental anxiety and infant crying.1
Feeding techniques that may reduce air-swallowing include breast-feeding at 1 breast (as opposed to equal feeding time at each breast);2 using a curved bottle with a plastic bag for feeding with formula or pumped breast milk; and keeping the infant in an upright position.
Two studies show the potential benefit of herbs. Fennel seed oil3 and a tea containing chamomile, fennel, licorice, vervain, and balm-milk4 both significantly improved colic with reference to the Wessel criteria. However, prolonged tea consumption at 32 ml/kg/d could adversely affect infants' nutrient intake,5 and caution is advised.
Reduction of stimulation may be helpful. Neurobehavioral assessments have shown that infants with the greatest responsiveness to external stimuli are more likely to be colicky, compared with other infants.6 This may explain the finding of a systematic review that stimulation reduction was a beneficial strategy for colicky infants.7
Lactase and simethicone have not generally been shown to be helpful. Sucrose is not sufficiently calming to justify its use.
Dicyclomine should not be used to treat infantile colic due to risk of serious adverse effects, including seizures and death.
Links between diet and infantile colic should be regarded as tentative, pending further research. Nevertheless, some evidence indicates that replacement of cow's milk and cow's milk-based formula with hypoallergenic formula, or elimination of cow's milk products from a breast-feeding mother's diet, may be helpful to certain patients. Also, in some cases, the maternal diet may influence colic as a result of the transmission of offending proteins or other compounds through breast milk. The key nutritional issues are as follows:
Cow's milk proteins. The possibility that cow's milk proteins may elicit colic symptoms is supported by at least 2 kinds of evidence. The first is the observation that colic symptoms often improve in infants who are either given formula free of cow's milk proteins or who are breast-fed by mothers who avoid cow's milk.8,9 The second is the high number of infants who experience colic symptoms when challenged indirectly with breast milk subsequent to maternal ingestion of whey capsules.9
In spite of the belief that the maternal intestinal wall provides a barrier to large molecules, it has been shown that cow's milk proteins are absorbed from the maternal gastrointestinal tract into the circulation and subsequently pass into breast milk. Passing on these proteins when breast-feeding is a suspected cause of colic.10
Disaccharidase deficiency or galactosemia may also cause colic symptoms.11 A 1-week trial of a hypoallergenic formula may be recommended for colicky infants,7,12 although this is not a proven strategy for reducing colic symptoms.
Allergy-causing and gas-producing foods. A breast-feeding mother who eats a hypoallergenic diet may improve her infant's colic.5 Breast-feeding mothers with atopy may find that colic symptoms increase on days that dairy products are consumed.13 A survey of breast-feeding women revealed that the foods mothers found to be most strongly linked to colic in their infants were cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower), onions, and chocolate.14
However, evidence is increasing that many other foods may exacerbate colic. In a randomized controlled trial in which many of these foods (eg, cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, soy, and fish) were excluded from the diets of breast-feeding women with colicky infants, a reduction in colic symptoms was observed, compared with women who continued eating these foods.15
Fructose malabsorption. Rarely, patients with colic may have isolated fructose malabsorption and respond to a fructose-free diet.16
Parental smoking cessation.
Nutrition consultation: to advise breast-feeding mothers in the use of a dairy-free or hypoallergenic diet, as appropriate, and arrange follow-up.
Social work consultation: to assess home environment, and arrange follow-up to assess the possibility of ill feelings toward the infant, care provider burnout, and maternal depression or anxiety.
What to Tell the Family
In the absence of other medical issues, colic typically resolves within 4 months, and is always self-limited. Reassurance of the family is important. Dietary changes, including a dairy-free or hypoallergenic diet for breast-feeding mothers or the use of a nondairy or hypoallergenic formula, may be given a therapeutic trial. If switching to a soy-based formula, it is essential to use a baby formula, not common soy milk sold in grocery stores.
All household smokers should stop smoking for the present and future health of the baby and other family members.
Caregivers should understand that they may not be able to console the infant on every occasion, and that caring for a colicky baby is very stressful. They should be encouraged to ask for help if anxiety, depression, or feelings of frustration or anger toward the baby arise. Reducing stimulation, including the stimulation of a family's repeated efforts to console the baby, may result in decreased colic symptoms.
1. Taubman, B. Parental counseling compared with elimination of cow's milk or soy milk protein for the treatment of infant colic syndrome: a randomized trial. Pediatrics. 1988;81:756-761.
2. Evans K, Evans R, Simmer K. Effect of the method of breast feeding on breast engorgement, mastitis and infantile colic. Acta Paediatr.1995; 84:849-852.
3. Alexandrovich I, Rakovitskaya O, Kolmo E, Sidorova T, Shushunov S. The effect of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) seed oil emulsion in infantile colic: a randomized, placebo-controlled study. Altern Ther Health Med. 2003;9:58-61.
4. Weizman Z, Alkrinawi S, Goldfarb D, Bitran C. Efficacy of herbal tea preparation in infantile colic. J Pediatr. 1993;122:650-652.
5. Garrison MM, Christakis DA. A systematic review of treatments for infant colic. Pediatrics. 2000;106(pt 2):184-190.
6. St James-Roberts I, Goodwin J, Peter B, et al. Individual differences in responsivity to a neurobehavioral examination predict crying patterns of 1-week-old infants at home. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2003;45:400-407.
11. Kerner JA Jr. Formula allergy and intolerance. Gastroenterol Clin North Am. 1995;24:1-25.
12. Sicherer SH. Clinical aspects of gastrointestinal food allergy in childhood. Pediatrics. 2003;111:1609-1616.
13. Evans RW, Fergusson DM, Allardyce RA, Taylor B. Maternal diet and infantile colic in breast-fed infants. Lancet. 1981;1:1340-1342. | <urn:uuid:780e149e-2cfc-4c27-9dab-378d6538e187> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tcolincampbell.org/courses-resources/article/infantile-colic/category/gastrointestinal-disorders-1/?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=76&cHash=68836e8cbff23e9a4b9021872bd35fde | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923296 | 2,011 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Reduce Alzheimer's-related hospitalizations prior to nursing home admission, researchers advise
Healthcare providers should work on keeping Alzheimer's patients out of a hospital before they enter a nursing home, a new study suggests.
Investigators analyzed Medicare expenditures in three different phases of Alzheimer's disease care: post-diagnosis but before nursing home admission; permanent nursing home admission; and other nursing home time, which included the use of Medicare's hospice benefit.
According to the data collected between 1999 and 2007, Medicare paid out, on average, $29,743 per patient during hospitalizations for Alzheimer's and related disorders (ADRD). However, that figured dropped around $10,000 over a longer time period once the patient permanently entered a nursing home, Brown University researchers found.
Providers whose reimbursements will be grouped together within accountable care organizations will have an incentive to reduce hospitalizations, the study authors advised.
The study, which was conducted in collaboration with researchers from Pfizer, was published Tuesday in The American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias. | <urn:uuid:c343478c-3aa8-4de5-93ba-9385298eb7b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcknights.com/reduce-alzheimers-related-hospitalizations-prior-to-nursing-home-admission-researchers-advise/article/235954/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949165 | 217 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The miombo1 woodlands, recognized for their floristic richness and widespread occurrence of the genera Brachystegia, Julbernadia, Isoberlinia and their associates (Malaisse, 1978), form the dominant natural woodland type in southern Africa. They extend across about 2.7 million km2 of the African sub-humid tropical zone from Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo in the north, through Zambia, Malawi and eastern Angola, to Mozambique and Zimbabwe, even extending roughly to the Zimbabwe-Botswana border. Comprising up to 8500 vascular plant species, the miombo ecozone belongs to one of the floristically richest areas in Africa (Tuite and Gardiner, 1994). Although the composition and structure of miombo varies with soil quality, rainfall, altitude and land use (Endean, 1967), the trees are distinguished by the shape of the dominant trees which are short, slender boles with markedly ascending branches and light, shallow, flat-topped or umbrella-shaped crowns (White, 1983).
It is estimated that over 75 million people live within the miombo biome and that the woodlands directly support the livelihood of over 40 million people in this African region. A further 15 million people living in towns and cities throughout the miombo ecozone also depend on food, fibre, fuelwood and charcoal from miombo woodlands (Bradley and McNamara, 1993; Dewees, 1994). For most rural communities, the woodlands are a primary source of energy, in the form of firewood and charcoal, and a crucial source of essential subsistence goods (Dewees, 1994; Morris, 1995). Important products include poles and construction products, timber, materials for tool handles and household utensils, foods, medicines, leaf litter, grazing and browse. In addition, woodlands have a service role in controlling soil erosion, providing shade, modifying hydrological cycles and maintaining soil fertility. Religious and cultural customs, which relate to designated woodland areas and certain tree species, are vital to the spiritual well-being and effective functioning of rural communities.
However, due to the intensive use to which the woodlands have been subjected, it is widely accepted that there is very little unmodified woodland remaining. For instance, over 95 percent of existing woodland cover in Malawi has been heavily modified while mature miombo woodland in Tabora region in Tanzania is mostly secondary (Dewees, 1994). It is estimated that about 600,000 hectares are cleared every year for other land uses and that the rate of deforestation is increasing every year. The various causes of deforestation are mainly agricultural expansion, shifting cultivation, commercial timber harvesting, overexploitation for fuelwood and poles, overgrazing, excessive burning and general industrial development including general urban development.
Although the miombo woodlands have been described many times (Malaisse, 1978; Kayambazinthu, 1988; Lowore, 1993; Frost, 1996), their ecology, silviculture and management potential are still not well understood. It has therefore become increasingly recognized that the technical capacity to manage these forests in southern Africa is inadequate and is preventing them from being managed sustainably in the region, in spite of the intensive use to which they are subjected. Further, land tenure systems and land-related cultural values are critical factors in the sustainable management of forests and in the adoption of any long-term technologies especially in southern Africa, in which culture is highly regarded. The history of land tenure and its governing cultural values in the southern African countries dates back to pre-colonial rule and, like most African countries, the regime of land tenure systems and related cultural values can be traced back to the late nineteenth century. Land was initially under the customary tenure system until the coming in of colonial governments. The colonial era introduced the system of individualized private and public tenure parallel to the pre-existing system of customary tenure.
In much of sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the southern African region, natural resources (i.e. forests, woodland savannas, coastal mangroves, etc.) serve as a safety-net for rural households coping with agricultural shortfalls, consistently provide income and food security for the rural poor, and supply medicinal plants on which traditional healthcare systems depend (FAO, 2003). The miombo woodlands of southern Africa, held in a variety of tenurial and management regimes, form such an integral part of the livelihood and farming systems, and it is apparent that poor rural households, particularly those affected by HIV/AIDS, appear to rely more and more on miombo resources as their capacity to farm the land and engage in other livelihood coping strategies declines. HIV/AIDS has become the world's most devastating epidemic with over 40 million people infected by the end of 2001, of which at least 28 million people were in sub-Saharan Africa where it has caused the greatest burden by threatening human development and survival. This figure represents approximately 71 percent of all people living with HIV/AIDS in the world. About 81 percent of all HIV infected women and 79 percent of all HIV/AIDS orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa. In this region, more than half of new infections are occurring in young people aged 15 to 24 years, with teenage girls more likely to be HIV infected than boys of similar age (GoM, 2003).
Although it would appear that woodlands are therefore an essential safety net for HIV/AIDS affected households, these are only anecdotal observations. Further, though it is generally established that HIV/AIDS constrains agricultural productivity, reduces household wealth and food security, and increases demand for healthcare, relationships between these impacts and natural resources have thus far been overlooked in the analysis of HIV/AIDS (FAO, 2003).
To the extent that households and communities affected or afflicted by HIV/AIDS depend on natural resources, overlooking these relationships limits the development of multisectoral interventions that build on and support local responses to HIV/AIDS and the ability of the natural resource sector to plan and manage for the sustainability of these responses. The paucity of, and need for, empirical evidence regarding the relationships between HIV/AIDS and natural resources has been a common consensus at recent government and non-governmental HIV/AIDS planning meetings (ABCG, 2002; USAID, 2002). This study was therefore designed to generate information on the current and potential responses of the miombo woodlands as a safety net and the likely impact on the sustainability of the resource. Such information would then help in the design and development of appropriate multisectoral interventions and in planning for sustainable management of the resources and their responses.
The objectives of the study in trying to obtain some indication of the extent of the interface of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and miombo woodlands are as follows:
· Determine if and how HIV/AIDS (and related socio-economic impacts) affect household use of miombo woodlands.
· Determine if there has been a change in differential use and access.
· Determine the effect of HIV/AIDS on the resource.
· Determine the effect of HIV/AIDS on resource management.
1 Miombo being a vernacular word that has been adopted by ecologists to describe the dry deciduous woodland ecosystem | <urn:uuid:b6969260-5ea8-4c9f-85e9-a65a96be7d1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/j6038e/J6038E-03.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942733 | 1,475 | 3.296875 | 3 |
By Stephanie Ciccarelli
July 19, 2010
"In a world..."
You might recognize that sort of phrasing and associate it with what some in our industry refer to as the Voice of God.
What defines "The Voice of God" when spoken of in voice over terminology?
Today, we're going to take a closer look at what the stereotypical sound is, why it became so popular and how the voice type, or rather the "sound," may have got its name.
The use of language as a form of expression, the spoken word specifically, has played a role in our human existence since the very beginning. In our earliest days we were gifted with language skills and capabilities superior to those of any other beings. We also have the ability to choose which words to use and how we employ those words.
The fact that we are able to speak is amazing in itself, but what makes us truly unique is that we can use our voices to communicate a message verbally in a number of ways using complex language skills, phrasing and tone.
When it comes to the voice, there are many ways to classify and describe it, whether by pitch, range, resonance, or other vocal qualities.
Common vocal classifications are soprano, mezzo, alto, tenor, baritone and bass.
While they primarily describe vocal range, we also at times identify with and use archetypes when describing a voice. No doubt you've heard of the "soccer mom," the "surfer dude" or the "announcer."
One vocal archetype that never seems to go out of style is the Voice of God.
Typically, this vocal delivery is associated with the baritone of a movie trailer voice talent. The most universally known performer who possessed this iconic delivery, and arguably developed it, was the late great Don LaFontaine. If you don't know his name, you know his voice. Don specialized in trailer and promo for decades and passed away on September 1, 2008.
To put a face to the name and the voice, take a look at this YouTube video featuring the GEICO commercial Don LaFontaine took part in.
In voice over terms, a male voice talent performing this delivery generally is a baritone whose voice is:
๠Audible to the ear
๠Bears a gravelly tone
๠Commands attention
These qualities, while relevant to artistic direction aimed at achieving a particular vocal delivery that books movie trailer reads, are not fully consistent with what is known about how God chooses to speak, His voice being described as inaudible to the ear and heard in your heart as a still small voice, a silent whisper.
Some people joked that God wanted Don to give His voice back, but from what I can see, God gave Don his own unique voice, as we are all given a unique voice, and enabled Don to use it to the best of his ability.
Don was and still is a beloved figure in our industry. He was immensely talented, generous and successful.
I can't help but wonder if perhaps people thought that the qualities Don's voice and his delivery possessed were similar to how they perceived or hoped God's voice to be like?
This topic so far as I know has not yet been discussed, at least from this angle. Do you have any ideas or comments you'd like to share?
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Vox Daily offers a daily dose of voice acting news, articles, tutorials, interviews, intelligent conversation and business ideas for voice talent and voice actors.
Becoming a voice actor, working from your own home recording studio and auditioning for voice-over jobs is within your reach! | <urn:uuid:9871bb95-a2d7-4d0e-a298-fc2be4df3913> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2010/07/the_voice_of_god.html | 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 | 0.972687 | 758 | 2.484375 | 2 |
A senior official of the Department of Education expressed regret today for an incident that happened when he was a young teacher in the late 1980s, saying he should have handled it differently, but that society could benefit from his error.
Kevin Jennings, director of the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools and founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), has been criticized by social conservatives for a passage in his 1994 book “One Teacher In Ten.” At the time, only a few people knew that Jennings, then a 24-year-old teacher at Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, was gay. In the Spring of 1988, a young woman who knew Jennings was gay, brought to his office a high school sophomore whom Jennings called “Brewster” in the book.
As Jennings wrote:
“’Brewster has something he needs to talk with you about,’ she intoned ominously. Brewster squirmed at the prospect of telling, and we sat silently for a short while. On a hunch, I suddenly asked ‘What’s his name?’ Brewster’s eyes widened briefly, and then out spilled a story about his involvement with an older man he had met in Boston. I listened, sympathized, and offered advice. He left my office with a smile on his face that I would see every time I saw him on the campus for the next two years, until he graduated.”
Jennings in 2000 told a GLSEN conference that Brewster told him he “’met someone in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him.’ High school sophomore, 15 years old. That was the only way he knew how to meet gay people. I was a closeted gay teacher, 24 years old, didn’t know what to say, knew I should say something quickly. So I finally, my best friend had just died of AIDS the week before, I looked at Brewster and said, ‘You know, I hope you knew to use a condom.’ He said to me something I will never forget, He said ‘Why should I, my life isn’t worth saving anyway.’”
That Jennings knew of a sexually active minor, of any gender, involved with “an older man” and didn’t take steps to report that relationship to the student’s parents or to authorities has made him a target for criticism – long before he was put in charge of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools.
In July 2004, before Jennings was about to receive the National Education Association’s Virginia Uribe Human Rights Award, Diane Lenning, head of the NEA’s Republican Educators Caucus, protested, suggesting that Jennings “did not report sexual victimization of a student to the proper authorities” and asked "Is it a good idea for NEA to honor as exemplary a teacher who engages in unethical practice?"
Jennings today issued a statement saying, “Twenty-one years later I can see how I should have handled the situation differently. I should have asked for more information and consulted legal or medical authorities. Teachers back then had little training and guidance about this kind of thing. All teachers should have a basic level of preparedness. I would like to see the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools play a bigger role in helping to prepare teachers.”
Education Secretary Arne Duncan issued a statement today supporting his colleague, saying “Kevin Jennings has dedicated his professional career to promoting school safety. He is uniquely qualified for his job and I’m honored to have him on our team.”
Administration officials point out that Jennings has received accolades from the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Association of Independent Schools, the National Education Association, and the Massachusetts Counselors Association, and he has been named to a commission by former Republican Massachusetts Gov. William Weld.
In July, the conservative Family Research Council launched a “Stop Jennings” campaign in which they seized upon not just that one incident with Brewster, but other comments from his past. The liberal Think Progress has issued a fact check of what they call a “right-wing smear campaign” against him by those who oppose homosexuality.
Today’s statement is a departure from the posture Jennings took in 2004, when he protested Lenning’s campaign against him, saying that the “comments and accusations made by Diane Lenning regarding my career while I served as a teacher at Concord Academy were not only personally hurtful but inaccurate and potentially libelous."
It has also been noted that the new head of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools wrote, in his 2007 autobiography, "Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son: A Memoir,” that in his high school years he “got stoned more often and went out to the beach at Bellows, overlooking Honolulu Harbor and the lights of the city, to drink with my buddies on Friday and Saturday nights, spending hours watching the planes take off and land at the airport, which is actually quite fascinating when you are drunk and stoned."
Jennings today said: "I have written about the factors that have led me to use drugs as a teen. This experience qualifies me to help students and teachers who are confronting these issues today.”
UPDATE: CNN's Jessica Yellin has spoken to "Brewster," who says despite Jennings' recounting of the story, he was 16 at the time, which was then the age of consent in Massachusetts, and further he was not sexually active at the time.
"Since I was of legal consent at the time, the fifteen minute conversation I had with Mr. Jennings twenty-one years ago is of nobody's concern but his and mine," Brewster tells her. "However, since the Republican noise machine is so concerned about my 'well-being' and that of America's students, they'll be relieved to know that I was not 'inducted' into homosexuality, assaulted, raped, or sold into sexual slavery."
Brewster says, "In 1988, I had taken a bus home for the weekend, and on the return trip met someone who was also gay. The next day, I had a conversation with Mr. Jennings about it. I had no sexual contact with anybody at the time, though I was entirely legally free to do so. I was a sixteen year-old going through something most of us have experienced: adolescence."
He adds, "I find it regrettable that the people who have the compassion and integrity to protect our nation's students are themselves in need of protection from homophobic smear attacks. Were it not for Mr. Jennings' courage and concern for my well-being at that time in my life, I doubt I'd be the proud gay man that I am today." | <urn:uuid:c851a6cd-b61b-4e5e-b6f8-a4f56c96e5e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2009/09/head-of-office-of-safe-and-drug-free-schools-expresses-regret-for-controversial-incident/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98642 | 1,428 | 1.84375 | 2 |
University of Nevada
Giant Goldfish Uses Invade Against Lake Tahoe! It’s Super Effective!
Whenever a new species is introduced into an ecosystem it risks setting that ecosystem off balance, and that's why biologist Sudeep Chandra is worried about the increasing giant goldfish population of Lake Tahoe. The fish are not native to the lake, and could be competing with other species for food, and pooping so much that they are affecting the algae populations in the lake. The real fear of course is that the goldfish will master SPLASH and gain enough experience to eventually evolve into mighty Gyarados.Read on...
Police Say U of Nevada Student Hacked School’s Network and Changed Grades for Money
19-year-old University of Nevada student Tyler Coyner has been accused by police of leading a group of thirteen students who have been charged hacking into Pahrump Valley High School's network and changing the grades of Pahrump students for a fee. The activity supposedly took place over the course of two semesters. Coyner was a student at Pahrump Valley High School, and according to a profile written on him by the Pahrump Valley Times, he graduated as salutatorian with a 4.54 grade point average, which, according to Nye County Sheriff's Office, was also changed via nefarious digital means. When police raided Coyner's dorm, they claim to have found a flat-screen television that was supposedly stolen from a local Wal-Mart, along with equipment for making fake IDs. Coyner, along with the rest of the accused team and involved students, were charged with conspiracy, theft and computer intrusion. (PC World via Boing Boing)Read on... | <urn:uuid:3a90496e-0250-4a16-89ca-6f2f3f44a278> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geekosystem.com/tag/university-of-nevada/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971057 | 356 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Catalog of the Fine Arts Collection
Please note that the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum prohibits the use of images from its collection in public exhibition, broadcast, electronic reproduction or publication in any form without prior written permission from the institution. If you would like to reproduce any of the Art Gallery images in any form, contact us at 748-8291.
After Carlo Dolci (1616-1686), Italian
Carlo Dolci's portrayal of the early Roman St. Agnes includes her identifying attribute, a lamb. The lamb was also an early Christian symbol of Jesus in his sacrificial role and may have represented Agnes' devotion to him as well as her own martyrdom. She was killed at the age of thirteen for refusing marriage to a Roman prefect because she had already devoted her life to Jesus. Like many of Dolci's works, including the two others reproduced in the Athenaeum's collection, St. Agnes centers upon the subject's head and torso bathed in a bright, dramatic light against a dark backdrop to accentuate her emotional state, a signature characteristic of Italian Baroque art. | <urn:uuid:b0f1327c-1dbf-4435-b836-78203ee5c8e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stjathenaeum.org/gallery_images/st-agnes.htm | 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 | 0.96555 | 229 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Art major Melissa Duran draws nude model Michael Sscmidt on paper for her life drawing art class. Since the class is on Halloween, the instructor arranged to have a Halloween-themed model to come in to class.
Photo by John Morfin.
Art 112 Life Drawing class arragned for a special Halloween-themed nude model for Oct. 31.
Professor Hagop Najarian said, ”I thought we would take advantage of Halloween and have the model dress up in costume.”
The professional model named Michael Schmidt wore a black wings and used prosthetic horns and a tail in order to look like a demon.
"I'll glue on the horns and the tail for Halloween," said Schmidt.
Schmidt also stated that he performs themed modeling quite often.
Schmidt was in a seated pose and held a three-pronged fork, signature tool of "the devil."
The backdrop for the model contained skulls, crossbones, and pumpkins, as well as a red spotlight which shined down over him.
The students were seated in a semi-circle around the model.
Every student had a different perspective of the model, depending upon where the student was seated. The light shined on the model from different angles which also caused certain effects.
“Every model we put in here we use to draw usually has a different characteristic and body type like skinny, tall, short, male or female," said Najarian.
"This particular model dressed up in a demon outfit with a tail and horns. I think it’s fine. It’s interesting for the students because, he is not just nude, now they have to think of him as an actual character."
Art major David Guerrero found the Halloween-themed model challenging to draw due to the fact that the model wore black wings.
“We get used to drawing the body as it is. When we get even a small piece of clothing, there is a little bit of a challenge,” said Guerrero.
Art major Alba Bermudeg enjoyed drawing the Halloween-themed model.
“Bringing in the Halloween theme was interesting," said Bermudeg. | <urn:uuid:177db2b0-0f13-43c5-8107-5dd286e4a9ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.talonmarks.com/news/2012/nov/02/halloween-drawingsangeon-art/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965939 | 447 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The old testament has a story relating to this question. Exodus 1:15-21 ( in my translation, available on Wikisource,
And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwifes, one of whose names is Shiphrah, and the second Poo'ah. And he said, "When you deliver for the Hebrews, and you saw upon the paired rocks, if it is a son, and you killed him, and if it is a daughter, she lives." And the midwives feared God, and did not do that which the king of Egypt commanded, and they let live the boys born.
And the king of Egypt called the midwives, and told them "Why did you do this thing, and let the boys born live?" And the midwives told Pharaoh that the Hebrews are not like the Egyptian women, that they are animals, not even does the midwife arrive, and they have delivered. And God made good for the midwives, and multiplied the nation, and they became very mighty. And it was because the midwives feared God that he made households for them.
Here, the midwives say that the Hebrew women are like animals, not needing a midwife. This is an obvious lie, and it is a useful lie, because it allows the midwives to save the boy babies. God rewards the midwives financially for this.
In traditional translations, the midwives statement is translated to "the Hebrew women are very lively, they deliver before the midwife arrives". This mistranslates the word "Chayoth", which means "animal" by substituting a different meaning, which is a feminine adjective meaning lively, which is both a painfully stretched interpretation and completely spoils the beautiful and jarring sentiment. This sentence reveals a lot about Pharaoh's Egyptian supremacy ideas--- he is willing to believe any demeaning fact about the Hebrews. This is a biblical parallel to the Nazi-hiding example used in Matt White's answer.
The midwives lie for the purpose of a greater good. Exodus does not ask people to be stupid, and if they have to lie to the authorities, this can sometimes be a good thing. Established religion is authoritarian, so it is not a good interpreter of the holy texts, which are written by inspired authors. This passage is both mistranslated and ignored by Christians and Jews alike. | <urn:uuid:bd09697d-d6f7-4852-b64e-471dc8343903> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/1048/is-the-ends-justify-the-means-compatible-with-christianity?answertab=votes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960735 | 486 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Capitalizing People's Titles
and the Names of Political Entities
One of the most frequently asked questions about capitalization is whether or not to capitalize people's job titles or the names of political or quasi-political entities. Most writing manuals nowadays seem to align themselves with the tendency in journalistic circles: less is better. When a title appears as part of a person's name, usually before the name, it is capitalized: Professor Farbman (or Professor of Physics Herschel Farbman), Mayor Perez, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. On the other hand, when the title appears after the name, it is not capitalized: Herschel Farbman, professor of history; Eddie Perez, mayor of the city of Hartford; Juan Carlos, king of Spain. Although we don't capitalize "professor of history" after the individual's name, we would capitalize department and program names when they are used in full*: "He worked in the Department of Behavioral Sciences before he started to teach physics." (We do not capitalize majors or academic disciplines unless they refer to a language, ethnic group, or geographical entity: Roundbottom is an economics major, but he loves his courses in French and East European studies.)
The capitalization of words that refer to institutions or governmental agencies, etc. can well depend on who is doing the writing and where or from what perspective. For instance, if I were writing for the city of Hartford, doing work on its charter or preparing an in-house document on appropriate office decor, I could capitalize the word City in order to distinguish between this city and other cities. "The City has a long tradition of individual freedom in selecting wallpapers." If I were writing for the College of Wooster's public relations staff, I could write about the College's new policy on course withdrawal. On the other hand, if I were writing for a newspaper outside these institutions, I would not capitalize those words. "The city has revamped its entire system of government." "The college has changed its policy many times."
We don't capitalize words such as city, state, federal, national, etc. when those words are used as modifiers "There are federal regulations about the relationship of city and state governments. Even as nouns, these words do not need to be capitalized: "The city of New York is in the state of New York" (but it's New York City). Commonly accepted designations for geographical areas can be capitalized: the Near East, the American South, the North End (of Hartford), Boston's Back Bay, the Wild West. Directions are not capitalized unless they become part of the more or less official title of a geographical entity: "He moved from south Texas to South Africa."
Capitalization in E-Mail
For some reason, some writers feel that e-mail should duplicate the look and feel of ancient telegraph messages, and their capitals go the way of the windmill or they go to the opposite extreme and capitalize EVERYTHING. That's nonsense. Proper and restrained capitalization simply makes things easier to read (unless something is capitalized in error, and then it slows things down). Without the little tails and leaders we get in a nice mixture of upper- and lower-case text, words lose their familiar touch and feel. Text written in ALL CAPS is extremely difficult to read and some people regard it as unseemly and rude, like SHOUTING at someone close at hand. Restrain your use of ALL CAPS in e-mail to solitary words that need further emphasis (or, better yet, use italics or underlining for that purpose, if your e-mail client provides for that treatment).
Words Associated with the Internet
There is considerable debate, still, about how to capitalize words associated with the Internet. Most dictionaries are capitalizing Internet, Web, and associated words such as World Wide Web (usually shortened to Web), Web page, Web site, etc., but the publications of some corporations, such as Microsoft, seem to be leaning away from such capitalization. The Yale Style Manual recommends capitalization. The words e-mail and online are not capitalized. The Guide to Grammar and Writing is a monument to inconsistency on this issue.
The most important guiding principle in all such matters is consistency within a document and consistency within an office or institution. Probably the most thorough and most often relied upon guide to capitalization is the Chicago Manual of Style, but the Gregg Reference Manual is also highly recommended. | <urn:uuid:ffe0cb50-38eb-418d-8697-68a6aaf66a9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/capitals.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950539 | 918 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Dear Mr. Berko: My wife and I are 65 and 67 respectively. We sold our small business in the high-tax state of California for $525,000 two years ago and invested $135,000 of that money in dividend stocks, put the remaining in money market then moved to be with our children. We have just enough income from our Individual Retirement Accounts, Social Security, plus a duplex in Bethlehem, Pa., and won't (for three to five years) need to use sales proceeds of our business to help with living costs. We want to put the remaining $390,000 in stocks but we get confused listening to the financial TV shows plus Bloomberg, CNBC and FOX. Our stockbroker here is very bullish but I expect this of a stockbroker because that's how they sell things. He wants us to invest $250,000 in four mutual funds and $140,000 in 15 of his firms recommended stocks. He thinks these 15 stocks can double in the next 18 months.
Dear B.R.: Classical scholars dispute whether the Greek physician Hippocrates or the Roman physician Galen should be credited with the phrase, "First do no harm." Though that maxim was intended to speak to doctors, it should also apply to stockbrokers and financial advisers. Investing, like medicine is equal parts science and guesswork.
You can go bonkers listening to the financial news commentators on Bloomberg, Fox News or CNBC and for the most part, their take isn't worth a bucket of night soil! They obsess gravely about the short-term effects of housing, unemployment, oil prices, interest rates, gross domestic product and inflation rather than the more important long-term consequences of the future. But you need to understand the future because that's where most of us intend to spend the rest of our lives.
Most of the media (print media, too) have a short-term orientation and lack the skill sets to convert today's news to tomorrow's reality. If you act on the advice of those boneheads you could fail; so perhaps "do no harm" should equally apply to the media, too.
Now, I don't know if the market will end the next two years lower than it is today or higher than it is today. Some of the suits on Wall Street believe the correction has another 1,000 points to 1,500 to go. Other equally knowledgeable suits suggest that the recent market behavior was an anomaly and the Dow will continue upward. But I've always had a long-term fix on the market and believe that the Dow Jones Averages will be trading at 24,000 in 10 to a dozen years. Though, at your age and stage, long-term may be a year or three and you can't take the risks.
Free advice is worth what it costs you. The advice I'm giving you is good, old-fashioned common sense gained from 45 years of managing money for investors. There are few of us old-timers around with that kind of solid, hands-on experience.
The mutual funds recommended by your broker really suck, but that's what his firm tells him to sell! How sad for his clients. And burn those stock recommendations, too. None of those issues pays dividends and I believe his firm's research is compromised by the investment banking business they expect to get. While some of those picks could be on the mark, I trust that broker's opinions about as much as a fat chicken would trust a butcher in a fresh-meat market.
Now I'm going to recommend that you only invest $130,000 of that $390,000 today with $70,000 in no-load funds and $60,000 in common stocks.
I want you to purchase $20,000 in Fidelity Balanced Fund (FBALX-$20.46) that has three-, five- and 10-year returns in excess of 10.5 percent. I want you to purchase $15,000 of Fidelity Contra Fund (FCNTX-$67.60) with three-, five- and 10-year returns in excess of 11 percent. Then $20,000 of T. Rowe Price Equity Income Fund (PRFDX-$30.53) with three-, five- and 10-year returns of 10 percent. Finally, $15,000 of American Centuries Utility Fund (BULIX-$18.26) that has three-, five- and 10-year returns of 9.6 percent. Reinvest all dividends and capital gains until you need the income.
Then purchase the following dividend growth issues. Buy 400 shares of Pfizer (PFE-$26.78), yielding 4.4 percent; 200 shares of Bank of America Corp. (BAC-$51.82), yielding 4.4 percent; 400 shares of Reaves Utility (UTG-$25.71), yielding 5 percent; 250 shares of American Capital Strategies Ltd. (ACAS-$47.29), a business development company yielding 7.9 percent; 250 shares of Washington Mutual Inc. (WM-$42.17), yielding 5.1 percent; and 200 shares of Buckeye Partners LP (BPL-$52.01), with a 6.1 percent yield. Reinvest all the dividends until you need the income.
I suspect that the market could take a few more dips this year and next. Therefore, I recommend that you place open stop orders to buy 400 shares of Pfizer at $21, 200 shares of Bank of America at $47, 400 shares of Reeves at $19, 250 shares of Washington Mutual at $42, 200 shares of Buckeye at $41 and 250 shares of Allied at $31. When those orders begin to execute, purchase $70,000 as before in Fidelity Balanced and Contra, T. Rowe Price and American Centuries. Meanwhile, keep the remaining $130,000 in a money market account. You might need that cash to contribute to next year's political campaigns.
Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 1416, Boca Raton, FL 33429 or e-mail him at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:e276f94e-1a22-4a3a-8529-f32e8baad96b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bendweekly.com/Business/Money/5096.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958355 | 1,256 | 1.5625 | 2 |
From HThorne328 on Sun, 11 Jul 1999
Can you please help me. What is the difference between silver, gold, blue, etc., on the CDR disks? Also what does matte mean? Thank you. I'm very confused.
I'm pretty sure that matte refers to the finish (texture) on the back of the CDR media (the "label" side or "non-recording" surface). A matte finish is probably better for writing on (using using permanent marker). Whether writing on your CDR media is advisable (as opposed to cutting labels to cover the back surface) is a matter that's best answered by the maker of the particular brand of media you're buying.
It just so happens that I found a great FAQ (*) on the topic of CDRs by Andy McFadden the other day (while answering other mail, naturally).
- (CD-Recordable FAQ http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq ) You want "Section 7"(*) in particular. This talks about media.
- (CD-Recordable FAQ - Section 7 http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/faq07.html#[7-1]) The gist of what Andy is saying here is that you really want to shop in small quantities and use the scientific method (experiment with your combination of recorder, readers and media) until you find a brand that meets your needs. Then you can go for the volume discounts.
(Elsewhere he makes frequent mention of the back surface of the CD discs and how some of them have the recording foil exposed while others have an additional layer of plastic --- which I guess at least one brand refers to as "Infoguard." I've seen some CDRs like this, with a delicate foil on the back which could be easily scratched --- thus ruining the data that was stored on its other side. I don't consider them to be suitable for any purpose. Luckily they don't seem to be common anymore. Even the cheap bulk CDR media have the recording foil fully encased).
From HThorne328 on Mon, 12 Jul 1999
Wow, that was all I was hoping for and more. Great job!!!! Thank you
Glad I could help. | <urn:uuid:8aa6127b-a43c-4287-bb95-2e0bffe93fd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://artfiles.org/tldp.org/LDP/LGNET/issue44/tag/26.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944983 | 464 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Heavy breathing -- an obscure link in asthma and obesityAugust 29th, 2008 in Medicine & Health / Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
There is a strong link between obesity and asthma and as the prevalence of both conditions has been increasing steadily, epidemiologists have speculated that there is an underlying condition that connects the two. But one long-suspected link, the systemic inflammation associated with obesity, has been ruled out by a recent New Zealand study that found no evidence of its involvement.
"We were disappointed not to find a 'smoking gun' that would explain the common association between obesity and asthma," said lead researcher, D. Robin Taylor, M.D., of the University of Otago in New Zealand. "However, this research points us to other possibilities that future research should examine."
The results were reported in the first issue for September of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
"We hypothesized that the low-grade systemic inflammation present in obesity would augment the inflammation of asthma (a synergistic effect)," wrote Dr. Taylor. "Or alternatively, that the inflammation of obesity might affect the airways independently (an additive effect), perhaps resulting in mixed airway inflammation."
In order to determine if there was indeed an interaction between systemic and local inflammation, the researchers recruited 79 women—20 who were obese with asthma, 19 who were of a normal weight with asthma, 20 who were obese but who did not have asthma and 20 controls.
Asthmatics were told to stop using their anti-inflammatory inhaler treatment to avoid confounding effects until "loss of control." After the withdrawal period of four weeks, subjects underwent blood tests and tests for biomarkers of systemic and airway inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and cytokines in blood and inflammatory cells and cytokines in sputum. Those that are known to be relevant in both obesity and asthma were chosen. The researchers then analyzed for interactions between systemic and airway-specific markers of inflammation.
"What we found was that although inflammatory cells and other biomarkers of inflammation were increased, there was no significant interaction demonstrated between obesity and asthma," said Dr. Taylor.
Although their inflammation hypothesis was not supported by their results, Dr. Taylor points out that it does provide valuable direction for future research. "This does not change the fact that there is a well-established link between asthma and obesity. Sometimes a negative result is important, and the results add to our body of knowledge regarding the obesity-asthma link. Now we need to look in other directions for the answers."
Animal studies suggest that changes in innate immunity may occur with obesity. "We did not look at this in our patients. Given that asthma is immunologically driven, this is a potential avenue for further research," said Dr. Taylor. "Alternatively, it may be that dynamic changes in lung function that occur with episodes of asthma are different with excess body weight."
Whatever the link is, uncovering it will have important clinical implications. "Obese patients with asthma are more difficult to treat because their response to bronchoconstriction is exaggerated and gives the impression that the asthma is worse," said Dr. Taylor. "They may well have worse symptoms, but not as a result of underlying airway inflammation. Still, the typical response is often to increase their inhaled anti-inflammatory therapy. This is unlikely to provide the answer and may even do harm. The answer lies in dealing with the obesity itself."
Source: American Thoracic Society
"Heavy breathing -- an obscure link in asthma and obesity." August 29th, 2008. http://phys.org/news139235813.html | <urn:uuid:5e4e27c2-edd8-4d56-82d2-dfe9320b934e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/print139235813.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973306 | 760 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Libya's former prime minister will be put on trial for crimes he allegedly committed during the rule of Muammar Gaddafi.
Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi was extradited from Tunisia, which he fled to in September 2011 after the fall of Tripoli to rebel forces.
"Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi will appear tomorrow [Monday] on the occasion of a first case" against him, Taha Baara, the public prosecutor's spokesman, said in Tripoli on Sunday, adding that Mahmoudi faces charges of "prejudicial acts against the security of the state".
Baara said on Sunday that al-Mahmoudi is facing charges regarding his role in a number of cases during the civil war, as well as undermining the country's security.
Rights groups objected to his extradition on June 24, saying that he could face the death penalty and in July, Mahmoudi protested his innocence from his prison cell in the Libyan.
"I am not guilty, not guilty, not guilty," he said during a visit to the prison organised by the authorities in an apparent bid to quash rumours he had been tortured.
"I am ready to be tried by the Libyan people. I am sure of myself and of my innocence," he said at the time.
Along with Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's most prominent son, Mahmoudi is one of the few remaining keepers of the many state secrets under Gaddafi, who was killed on October 20 last year.
A physician by training, Mahmoudi was loyal to Gaddafi until the end, serving as premier from 2006 up to the final days of his regime.
Elsewhere in Libya, the Libyan air force announced on Sunday that it would begin dismantling a stockpile of outdated surface-to-air missiles which had been positioned around the country by the former leader.
Military engineers have started removing potentially toxic fuel from the Russian-made weapons, which were brought to Libya from the Soviet Union in 1972.
"The air force chief of staff officially announces the beginning of a plan to remove and clean all the affected areas," air force chief of staff, Colonel Gumma al-Abanny said.
Gaddafi scattered hundreds of SA-2 missiles across Libyan cities.
While NATO forces destroyed nearly 80 per cent of these in 2011, leakage of toxic gas from the remaining weapons is still a concern.
As well as outdated missiles, Libya's new rulers have also been struggling to rid the streets of smaller weapons, which have been in plentiful supply since last year's war.
In a recent drive, the government set up collection points in major cities, allowing Libyans to hand in small firearms, explosives and even rocked-propelled grenade launchers. | <urn:uuid:1ce5bf7a-7700-4e37-b9fe-42626a943309> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/11/20121112244246422.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980656 | 556 | 1.578125 | 2 |
All of living is a process of coming of age, of reconciling
the essence of the inner self with one’s outer being,with the world, and with
changing expectations for that self in the world.
- Kay E. Vandergrift
The teen and young adult years, when young people are perched precariously on the brink between childhood and
adult responsibilities, are, of course, when the coming of age process is most obvious.
and the mature imagination of a man is healthy;
but there is a space of life between,
in which the soul is in a ferment,
the character undecided, the way of life uncertain,
the ambition thick-sighted.
- John Keats
An intolerable waiting,
A longing for another place and time,
You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.
- Abraham Lincoln
The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect,
he becomes an adolescent;
the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult;
the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.
- Alden Nolan
We don’t stop playing because we grow old.
We grow old because we stop playing.
- George Bernard Shaw
You grow up the day you have your first real laugh — at yourself.
- Ethel Barrymore
Young dancers are training at a very vulnerable time in their lives, through adolescence, and
while they are trying to work out who they are as people, never mind as a dancer.
So train the whole person, not just the dancer.
- Deborah Bull
Life turns for you.
This is a magic time,
a mythic passage,
In your becoming
We who welcome you,
None of us is too old
So as to have forgotten
–the mystery of not
–the delight of first
–the impatience to hurry
what will come next
–the terrible wonderfulness
of the changes… | <urn:uuid:07042d33-927e-4e9c-ae7c-cd9e7c0b6ea4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/tag/band-e-amir/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918736 | 410 | 2.140625 | 2 |
By Timothy Chilman
Military action by the US against Fidel Castro’s Cuba was first suggested by President Eisenhower. The Cold War was at its peak, and the downing of Gary Powers’ U2 had occurred not long before. Eisenhower wanted to invade Cuba immediately before President Kennedy’s inauguration. On January 3 1961, at a meeting with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and others, he said he would take action against Castro before the inauguration if only an excuse presented itself. If no excuse were forthcoming, he “could think of manufacturing something that would be generally acceptable”: an attack by the US against the US, which would appear to be an attack by Cuba..
Operations Northwoods was a plan by the highest echelons of the US military to initiate war with Cuba by false flag operations. It had the written approval of all the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Operation Mongoose was initiated in May of 1961, aiming to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government. The project involved 400 CIA officers working full-time. One plan was to spray a television studio where Castro was scheduled to appear with a hallucinogen, another to contaminate his shoes with thallium which would cause his beard to detach. And there was the one about getting the Mafia to assassinate Castro for $150,000, very plausible after Castro moved against their casinos and brothels. Two Mafia bosses, Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli, were approached, and others became involved. Castro apparently complained of twenty CIA-sponsored attempts on his life.
In a meeting at the White House on February 26, 1962, Robert Kennedy, concerned by the various plans of Operation Mongoose, told its Chief of Operations, Edward Lansdale, to cease all physical endeavors against Castro and instead concentrate on Cuban intelligence gathering. This humiliated Lansdale, who had been personally selected by JFK to oversee the operation.
Operation Northwoods was then conceived. A memorandum to the Secretary of Defense dated 13 March 1962 and entitled “Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba” said that world opinion should be manipulated to portray the government of Cuba as “an alarming and unpredictable threat to the peace of the Western Hemisphere”.
One idea that was seriously contemplated was Operation Dirty Trick. If John Glenn’s Mercury rocket had exploded upon launching on February 20 1962, the US objective would be to provide unarguable proof that it was caused by the Cuban government. Such a thing could be achieved by manufacturing evidence to prove the Cubans had interfered with the rocket electronically.
Operation Bingo saw the choreography of a number of events in and near the Guantanamo Bay US naval base in Cuba. Friendly Cubans dressed in Cuban uniforms would initiate riots close to the base’s main gate and others would act as saboteurs within the base. Aircraft would be sabotaged, ammunition blown up, mortars launched and fires started.
Another plan suggested re-enactment of the February 1898 explosion on board the USS Maine in Havana Harbor, which killed 266 sailors at a time of heightened tension with Spain. Spanish officials were very helpful in the immediate aftermath, leading Captain Sigsbee to say “Public opinion should be suspended until further report” in his first telegram. But a naval inquiry concluded that a mine had detonated beneath the ship.
The Yellow (i.e. sensationalist) Press of the US had long agitated the US public with tales of Spanish concentration camps and the like (The first ever use of such camps. Josef Goebbels later said it was Britain). It seized on the episode, and soon war with Spain was afoot and over a million men signed-up for military service.
The naval findings were always controversial, and in 1976, Admiral Hyman G. Ricker published the book How the Battleship Maine Was Destroyed. Hyman used two experts on explosions and their effects on ships’ hulls and also the original documentation to determine the cause. It was found that the damage was inconsistent with a mine explosion. More likely, the explosion occurred in a coal bunker beside a magazine.
The US military wanted to re-enact this exactly: “We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba”. Lists of casualties in US newspapers would provoke “a helpful wave of national indignation”. While the plan never came into effect in relation to Cuba, many believe it did in the Gulf of Tonkin.
It got better. “We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign” targeting Cuban refugees living in the US.
More suggestions included the genuine or simulated sinking of a ship carrying Cuban refugees to Florida, arrest of supposed Cuban agents, bomb explosions, and release of falsified documents.
Another plan was to take advantage of Dominican Republic sensitivity to intrusions of its national air space. C-46 or B-26 aircraft marked as Cuban could conduct night-time cane burning raids. Purportedly Cuban messages would be sent to Communists in the country and arms shipments found. MIG aircraft could be flown by US pilots for “additional provocation”. Aircraft and ships could be hijacked.
One of the more elaborate plans was to contrive an incident showing, beyond doubt, that Cuban aircraft had show down a civil airliner. Passengers, all US intelligence operatives using well-prepared aliases, would board a genuine civil aircraft but later leave it, whereupon the airplane would be flown by remote control over Cuba. Its transmission of a “Mayday” message on the international frequency saying it was being attacked by Cuban fighters would be rudely interrupted by the airplane’s destruction. The International Civil Aviation Organization, not the US government, would announce the event.
At 2:30pm on Tuesday, March 13, 1962, JCS chairman General Lyman Lemitzer signed the document before attending a “special meeting” at the office of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. What transpired at the meeting is not known, however three days after, President Kennedy informed Lemnitzer there was almost no chance the US would follow the plan. Apart from anything else, four divisions couldn’t be spared.
The military leadership was unimpressed by Kennedy, viewing his government as excessively liberal, inexperienced and soft on communism. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, unaware of Northwoods, reported on right-ring extremism in the military and called for examination of ties between Lemnitzer and right-ring organizations. Two popular books spoke of a right-wing leadership rebelling against government policy of the time.
Approximately one month after proposing Northwoods, the JCS heads sent McNamara a harshly-worded memorandum: “The Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that the Cuban problem must be solved in the near future”. Military intervention was again proposed.
Lemnitzer believed actions would be sufficiently rapid for the United Nations to not be a problem. It would be best to act before National Guard and Reserve forces returned to civilian life. There was no security agreement between the USSR and Cuba, which was not a member of the Warsaw Pact, and the Soviets had yet to establish major bases in Cuba.
Castro would be removed and the US military would govern Cuba: “Forces would assure rapid essential military control of Cuba… Continued police action would be required”. All the Cubans were in line for was a change of dictator.
McNamara had by now lost all confidence in the military supremo and rejected almost every proposal he made. One of Lemnitzer’s staffers thought rejections were so routine that it put the military into an “embarrassing rut”. Unaware of Northwoods, he was dismayed by McNamara’s treatment of Lemnitzer: “He gave General Lemnitzer very short shrift and treated him like a schoolboy. The general almost stood at attention when he came into the room. Everything was ‘Yes, sir’ and ‘No, sir.’”.
Months later, Lemnitzer was refused a second term as JCS chairman and banished to Europe to become head of NATO. He later told a Congressional committee that the Pentagon never planned an invasion of Cuba.
Planning for “pretext” operations against Cuba continued at least until 1963. One was to spark-off a war between Cuba and a neighbor, giving the US the excuse to take the side of Cuba’s adversary. Among the countries suggested were Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, creating the prospect of British intervention.
Another plan was to pay somebody within Castro’s government to attack the US. In May 1963, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul H. Nitze wrote to the White House suggesting inviting attack on surveillance aircraft by mounting provocative missions. When a low level flight was later made across Cuba, the only Cuban reaction was protest.
On November 18, 1997, these documents were among 1521 pages released by the body dealing with records of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the result of Congressional efforts to give the public better access to governmental records related to the assassination of JFK – who was, incidentally, allegedly killed by a Cuban sympathizer.
Online, it has been reported by ABC and the BBC and offline in a New York Times article of November 19 1997 (“”Declassified Papers Show Anti-Castro Ideas Proposed to Kennedy,” late edition – final, section A, pg. 25, column 1).
There’s just one teeny oddity. The section about staging the shooting-down of a US aircraft by Cuban fighters said the agents posing as passengers would resemble “a group of college students off on a holiday”. On holiday? That’s British English. The Yanquis way to say it is “on vacation”. Pentagon documents undergo repeated review which ponders the significance of every last comma. Half a dozen pairs of eyeballs, including the JCS chairman and every JCS member, would have reviewed the document. Funny, that.
“Operation Northwoods: American Terrorism”. 12 August 2010. 04 November 2010. Truth is Treason. <http://www.truthistreason.net/operation-northwoods-american-terrorism.>
“Timeline: 9/11″. BBC. 14 Feburary 2007. 04 November 2010. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/conspiracy_files/6338551.stm.>
“Edward Lansdale”. Spartacus Educational. 04 November 2010. 04 November 2010. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDlansdale.htm.>
“Operation Mongoose”. Globalsecurity.org. 04 November 2010. 04 November 2010. <http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/ops/mongoose.htm.>
“Operation Northwoods Conspiracy Theories”. Conspiracy Theories and Hoaxes. 04 November 2010. 04 November 2010. <http://www.conspiracy-theories-hoax.com/operation-northwoods-conspiracy-theories.html.>
“Operations Northwoods Documents On the Website of the US National Archives and Records Administration”. Wanttoknow. 04 November 2010. 04 November 2010. <http://www.wanttoknow.info/operationnorthwoods.>
“Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962”, The National Security Archive, 30 April 2001. 04 November 2010. <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/.>
Baggins, Brian. “Possible Actions to Provoke, Harrass, or Disrupt Cuba”. Parascope. 04 November 2010. 04 November 2010. <http://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/subject/cia/mongoose/terror.htm.>
Crubaugh, Joe. “U.S. Sponsored Terrorism – Operation Northwoods”. ezinearticles.com. 04 November 2010. 04 November 2010. <http://ezinearticles.com/?U.S.-Sponsored-Terrorism—Operation-Northwoods&id=495923.>
Ruppe, David. “U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba”. ABC News. <http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662.>
Schneier, Bruce. “’Body of Secrets’ by James Bamford”. Salon.com. 25 April 2001. 04 November 2011. <http://www.salon.com/books/review/2001/04/25/nsa.>
Spannaus, Edward, “When U.S. Joint Chiefs Planned Terror Attacks on America”. Executive Intelligence Review. 12 October 2001. <http://larouchepub.com/other/2001/2839operation_northwds.html.>
TO CREATE SUPPORT FOR CUBAN WAR”. Whatreallyhappened.com. 04 November 2010. 04 November 2010. <http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/northwoods.html?q=northwoods.html.> | <urn:uuid:5c6da982-198b-454f-9859-b9f043226d85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theoriesofconspiracy.com/2011/09/a-tale-of-terrorism-by-the-u-s-government.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960563 | 2,789 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Published in Gene Therapy Weekly, March 24th, 1997
Lark's senescence gene research program has moved to a new phase with direct testing of tumor derived cell lines to identify potential mutations in its previously announced candidate senescence gene linked to cellular aging and cancer. The research helps identify the types of mutations in the gene which could contribute to cell immortalization, a prerequisite of cancer.
Previous research has firmly established that four genetic pathways, known as Complementation Groups A, B, C, and D work together to prevent cell...
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NewsRx also is available at LexisNexis, Gale, ProQuest, Factiva, Dialog, Thomson Reuters, NewsEdge, and Dow Jones. | <urn:uuid:1a96c0ea-7f67-40c3-af41-35d4659e7085> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsrx.com/newsletters/Gene-Therapy-Weekly/1997-03-24/199703243334GW.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935489 | 177 | 2.234375 | 2 |
100 Million Americans Living in Spiritual Poverty!
In a post last year, she wrote that this “dynamic tension remains and the struggle continues unabated. I don't seem to have progressed too far along in resolving that conflict, but I have progressed. And, it is reassuring to realize that Siggy is correct when he says, To struggle with faith is as much a part of faith as anything else."
I think that last statement is quite accurate, in the identical sense that one could say that “to struggle with knowledge is as much a part of truth as anything else,” or “to struggle with love is as much a part of relationships as anything else," or "to struggle with virtue is as much a part of being good as anything else." In each given case, the struggle is founded upon the faith that truth, love, or goodness exist, and that it is worthwhile to struggle toward them. I think we are simply built this way, in the same way that the flower is built to turn toward the sun. The flower never stops to think about whether it is worthwhile to do so, nor should we stop to wonder whether the True, Good and Beautiful exist. Just bend your will in their direction, and be nourished by their transparent light.
Humans, by definition, are fated to inhabit the vast middle realm between being and nothingness, the absolute and the relative, matter and spirit, time and eternity. The paradoxes of human existence are impossibly difficult if you give them even a moment’s reflection, but they all result from this I-AMbiguous in-between realm in which we pass our days. A human being is the only thing in the cosmos that is both a fact and a possibility -- even an infinite possibilty, more or less. But from here to there is a struggle.
Despite all of our scientific and technological advances over the past 300 years, I see no evidence that human beings are any happier than they have ever been. If anything, happiness might be even more elusive, because life is so much easier than it was for past generations. We expect things to go well and are devastated when tragedy and disappointment hit, which they inevitably do. To paraphrase or possibly plagiarize Theodore Dalyrmple -- and this is something no liberal understands -- Misery rises to the level of the means availible to alleviate it.
Repeat after me, lurking lefty: I am an unhappy person and there is nothing Mommy Government can do about it, because my misery will just rise to the level of Mommy's efforts to alleviate it. And soon my misery will sink even beneath that level because of my frustrated sense of infantile entitlement and my abiding belief that someone else should make my life pain-free. Amen.
No one in the past felt they were entitled to the things we take for granted -- health, plentiful food, absence of physical pain, a long life, thriving children, a foolproof plan, an airtight alibi, Bob Dylan's new unlisted phone number, a Las Vegas wedding, a Mexican divorce... Thus, it was no doubt easier not to become overly attached to the temporary and transient. Death was a constant reminder of the fragility and fickleness of existence. (In fact, this proximity to death probably conributes to the fact that the Islamists are willing to die for their insane beliefs, while so much of the West cannot even muster the enthusiasm to defend its rare and precious civilization.)
Last week the census bureau informed us that there are 37 million Americans living in poverty. First of all, they're only talking about material poverty, not the millions of leftists who waste away in spiritual poverty, which is a far greater existential threat to the union. But even then, as Robert Rector explains,
"The typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR, or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry, and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family’s essential needs. While this individual’s life is not opulent, it is far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians."
Furthermore, the majority of true poverty is behavioral and can be explained by two factors: "Their parents don’t work much, and their fathers are absent from the home.... Nearly two thirds of poor children reside in single-parent homes; each year, an additional 1.5 million children are born out of wedlock. If poor mothers married the fathers of their children, nearly three quarters of the nation’s impoverished youth would immediately be lifted out of poverty."
But over the past 35 years, the left has done everything possible to trivialize and disincentivize marriage. In fact, it is in their interest to undermine marriage, because the disaster that results benefits them politically. Much of the Democrat base is composed of the victims they help create, such as single mothers and "helpless" blacks. "Although work and marriage are reliable ladders out of poverty, the welfare system perversely remains hostile to both. Major programs such as food stamps, public housing, and Medicaid continue to reward idleness and penalize marriage. If welfare could be turned around to encourage work and marriage, the nation’s remaining poverty could be reduced."
A more realistically stoic attitude -- to put it mildly -- prevailed in the West through the great depression and World War II. For example, as recently as the 1970’s, inflation was completely misunderstood by economists, and therefore untamable. The “boom or bust” business cycle really only began to seriously flatten after the Reagan revolution, in that our inevitable recessions are far less severe than in the past. What was once a plague is now a common cold, and yet, leftist econmanists such as Paul Krugman are more hysterical than ever.
Similarly, I am blessed to have diabetes at a time when it is so easy to control it with different types of insulin and instantaneous digital readouts of my blood sugar, but my mother, just one generation before, had no such control, with devastating results. LIkewise, my father died at 58 of an abdominal aneurysm that is easily detectable today with a $35 exam at a health fair.
Given these profound existential changes, I think it is natural that westerners began to focus on this side of the “time-eternity” divide, and look for their spiritual sustenance in the things of the world, so to speak -- relationships, possessions, experiences. But does it work? I suppose for some. For others -- perhaps we’re just neurotic, I don’t know -- there is nothing in the field of time that will suffice or answer to this deeper call of the Spirit. It is a part of us that cries out for something that is not found in the objects of the world, and is only satisfied by one thing.
Is it real, this part of us that cries out for transcendence? I don’t know if that is the proper question. It’s somewhat analogous to falling in love and asking yourself if love is real or just an illusion, a trick of the nervous system. I’m imagining the Gagboy 10 or 20 years down the line, when he is at the peak of his enchantment with the opposite form of the complementary gender:
“I know it looks like women are attractive, but don’t be fooled. It’s just Darwin playing tricks on you, trying to get you to reproduce. In reality, woman aren’t attractive or unattractive. To the extent that you find them alluring, just remember that it’s just an illusion programmed into you by evolution. In short, I am only looking at this Victoria's Secret catalogue for its scientific value. Now run along and mind your own business.”
“Gee, thanks, gagDad!”
Isn’t this the same kind of “sophisticated” advice we might receive from the typical college professor regarding the spiritual dimension? “God? Nothing more than an illusion programmed into our nervous system. Just ignore it.” But doesn’t that just beg the question of whether everything is just an illusion built into our nervous system, including the statement that everything is? That way madness lies. But also tenure, so there are compensations.
If we consider religiosity on a continuum from extreme atheism on the left side (“zero”) to mystical union on the right (“one hundred”), let us suppose that Dr. Sanity is at 50. Well, probably more like 40. I myself started at closer to zero, or at least veered in that direction after an initial interest in Eastern religions prompted by the Beatles’ (especially George’s) adoption of yoga. But I became seriously interested in philosophy during my college years, and virtually all modern philosophy is essentially atheistic, whether existentialism, positivism, phenomenology, what have you.
Just recently I have begun to think of religiosity as simply “the right way to live,” so to speak. After all, these are traditions that somehow nourished the human soul for hundreds and thousands of years, almost as if we were made for them and they were made for us. Regardless of whether or not we may attribute these traditions to a creator, I find that there is a wisdom in authentic religion that far surpasses what any single mind could have come up with.
It’s a bit like marriage and the family. No one “invented” either, but for most people -- clearly not everyone, but for most -- it is simply the “right way” to live. Sure, you can experiment with other ways. Like Bill Maher, you can date porn stars, substitute dogs for children, and worship the earth, but is this really the way we’re built? Does he look happy or well adjusted to you?
I didn’t actually dive headlong into spirituality until 1995. In my case it was yoga, but once I did, the part of me that was hungering for transcendence all along began to “grow.” It reminds me of what they say about babies -- ”sleep begets sleep.” That is, if they nap more during the day, they sleep better at night. Likewise, faith begets faith. Just by taking that leap and living in the way humans have always lived, something automatic seems to kick in, an innate, uncreated wisdom.
I don’t mean to trivialize it, but it reminds me of sports. I think it has to do with the arrival of the Gagboy three seasons ago, but before that, I was an absolutely fanatical Dodger fan. To be honest, the spell started to be broken when they were purchased by Fox from the O’Malley family, but from the age of nine, I lived and died with each win or loss. I would listen to entire games on the radio even after the team had been mathematically eliminated from the pennant race, apparently hoping that they could somehow overcome the rules of arithmatic. And yet -- especially as an adult -- I would sometimes reflect on the absurdity of my devotion. As Seinfeld said, when it comes right down to it, since the players constantly change, you're essentially rooting for laundry. But was I any happier when I thought this way? No, not at all. In fact, it just spoiled the fun.
There’s an old saying in baseball: “Don’t think, you’ll hurt the ballclub.” I think most secular philosophy falls into this category. There are ways to think that will be metaphysically fruitful and add to your fulfillment, other essentially abcircular forms of thought that are spiritually barren and go from nowhere to nothing (and certainly won't help you hit a curveball). To be honest, they aren’t worthy of man, itself a statement that touches on the mystery of what man actually is.
The "good news" of religion is that the world is not a closed circle, that it is not an eternal prison, that it has an exit and an entrance.... "Perdition" is to be caught up in the eternal circulation of the world of the closed circle... [whereas] "salvation" is life in the world of the open circle, or spiral, where there is both exit and entrance. --Meditations on the Tarot | <urn:uuid:4da567db-1ded-4fb2-b457-0cd3b71b9e6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2007/09/100-million-americans-living-in.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 | 0.968549 | 2,664 | 1.515625 | 2 |