text stringlengths 213 24.6k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1 value | url stringlengths 14 499 | file_path stringlengths 138 138 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.9 1 | token_count int64 51 4.1k | score float64 1.5 5.06 | int_score int64 2 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BY SCOTT FELDMAN, email@example.com
3:05 AM CDT, June 14, 2012
A scam designed to trick elderly people into wiring money to con artists has caught the attention of the Aberdeen Police Department.
Several residents have recently been victimized by the scam. Capt. Dave McNeil of the Aberdeen Police Department said the scam has been going on for years.
"Our goal is to make sure no one else will fall victim to this scam," McNeil said.
McNeil described how the scam puts a significant amount of pressure on elderly people to wire large sums of money - without alerting authorities.
Here's how it works. An elderly person will receive a phone call from a friendly-sounding voice. The scam artist will identify himself as a lawyer and say that the victim's grandchild has been arrested in Mexico or Canada, and they need money quickly to pay for a lawyer or post bail.
The victims of the scam are told their loved one is afraid of job loss and embarrassment, so they are instructed not to tell anyone that they are sending money, McNeil said. The phone call is from a foreign country, so it can't be traced. Once the wire transfer goes through, the money cannot be refunded.
"They wire their hard-earned money to places in Canada or Mexico and it's almost impossible to get it back," McNeil said.
The exact details of the scam vary, McNeil said. Sometimes, the criminal pretends to be the grandson before asking for the money, sometimes a person will receive multiple calls from different people asking for money, but the common thread among the fraud is a demand for a fast, discrete transfer of money which preys on the desire of a person to help a loved one.
McNeil said this type of call is usually a scam. Anyone who receives such a call should contact their family and verify if their loved one is actually in trouble before sending money, McNeil said. If a person does not want to risk embarrassing their family, they should contact law enforcement, which can usually determine whether or not a person has actually been arrested, he said.
"Who wouldn't want to help a family member in need?" McNeil said. "But you have to verify they need help."
Victims of this fraud are often reluctant to come forward because they are embarrassed, McNeil said.
McNeil said this scam has been prevalent in Aberdeen, but Shelley Bernhardt, director of Consumer Protection at Western Union, said in an email that this type of emergency scam happens throughout the U.S.
Western Union agents are trained to ask questions about transactions and watch for signs of consumer fraud, Bernhardt said. They are also trained to warn customers if they suspect fraud and suggest the person not send the money.
In cases where the agent is certain of fraud, they can refuse the transaction even if the customer insists, Bernhardt said.
Bernhardt said a money transfer can be halted before it is paid, but once the transaction goes through, the money is gone and consumers cannot obtain a refund from Western Union, even if the transfer was the result of fraud. Wire transfers are completed quickly, she said, sometimes within minutes, so people should be certain they know where their money is going before it is sent.
"Generally, the most important thing people should keep in mind is to only send money to people they personally know and trust and never send money to someone they've only met online," Bernhardt said. "With regard to emergency scams, people should verify all emergency situations before sending money."
Tips to protect yourself from fraud
·Verify every emergency situation before sending money.
·Only send money to people you personally know and trust.
·Never send money in advance to obtain a loan or credit card.
·Never provide your banking information to unknown individuals or businesses.
·Never send funds from a check in your account until it officially clears.
Source: Western Union
Copyright © 2013, Aberdeen News | <urn:uuid:5e84508a-d493-4b63-a5ff-be12472820a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aberdeennews.com/news/aan-1b.06-14-12.mid.community.elde-20120614,0,6370780,print.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965543 | 824 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Wed July 11, 2012
Google Expected To Pay Fine In Privacy Setting Case
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some other news. Google and the Federal Trade Commission are near a deal that could result the largest fine for privacy violations ever imposed by that agency.
NPR's Steve Henn has the story.
STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Jonathan Mayer, a computer science grad student at Stanford, discovered that Google was tracking millions of Apple computer users without their consent. The search giant was tricking Apple's Safari web browser into believing that these users were filling out web surveys that didn't actually exist. These fake interactions allowed Google to start placing cookies on the browser and selling targeted ads.
JONATHAN MAYER: This feature was not any sort of commonly accepted business practice - we only identified four companies that were doing it.
HENN: Mayer says Google was by far the biggest. He discovered this behavior just months after Google signed a consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission promising not to mislead Americas about its privacy policies.
Now, according to sources familiar with the investigation, Google has agreed to pay a $22.5 million fine.
Jeffrey Chester runs the Center for Digital Democracy - a privacy watchdog group.
JEFFREY CHESTER: The question is really whether this fine will really change Google's practices when it comes to privacy.
HENN: Even though this will be the largest civil penalty ever levied by the FTC, Google earns roughly that much money every four and a half hours. And the deal doesn't require Google to admit violating its consent decree or breaking any federal laws.
Steve Henn, NPR News, Silicon Valley. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio. | <urn:uuid:31030500-88c9-40b2-87bb-bcbdffc0e0f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://krvs.org/post/google-expected-pay-fine-privacy-setting-case | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945506 | 354 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Abundant acorns made hunting tougher for deer hunters.
Missouris 2010-2011 archery deer harvest dipped by 17 percent, following a trend seen during the various portions of firearms deer season.
Bowhunters checked 43,281 deer during the archery deer season Sept. 15 through Nov. 12 and Nov. 24 through Jan. 15. That is 8,691 fewer than during the 2009-10 archery season, which set a record high.
Top archery deer harvest counties were Jackson with 980, St. Louis with 898 and Jefferson with 876. The combined 2010-11 firearms and archery deer harvests total 274,794, a decrease of 8 percent.
Resource Scientist Lonnie Hansen, the Missouri Department of Conservations (MDC) deer expert, attributed the decrease in archery deer harvest to the same factors that held down the 2010-2011 firearms deer harvest.
Hansen said archers shot 25 percent fewer deer in the Ozark Region during the 2010-11 season than the previous season. The Ozark Region firearms deer harvest was down 21 percent from the previous season. Overall, the Ozarks 2010-11 deer harvest was down 22 percent. The reason, according to Hansen, was a good acorn crop.
We knew going into the season that hunters would have a tough time, said Hansen. Acorns were abundant in southern Missouri this year, and that meant deer didnt have to move around much to find their preferred food. That makes deer harder for hunters to find.
I have heard some people say we use acorns as an excuse when the harvest is down. But if you look at data from the past 20 years, the correlation between big acorn crops and reduced deer harvests is unmistakable.
The reduced deer harvest in the Ozarks has a silver lining, according to Hansen.
What happened in the Ozarks was exactly what we expected, he said. We shot the deer hard down there in 2009-10, so we had fewer deer to start with. Then we got an abundant acorn crop, so naturally there was a reduced harvest. Next year, if we have a moderate acorn crop, you can expect to see the Ozarks deer harvest jump back up as the regions deer herd continues its slow, long-term growth.
Hansen said offsetting factors kept the deer harvest in northern Missouri very close to last years figure. Deer numbers in many parts of northern Missouri have declined in recent years, but a delayed effect of weather in 2009 propped up the 2010-2011 harvest.
Bowhunters checked 13 percent fewer deer in northeastern Missouri during the 2010-11 season. However, the firearms deer harvest was up 3 percent in the region. The combined archery and firearms harvest in the northeast region topped the 2009-10 figure by a narrow margin, just 235 deer.
The situation was much the same in northwestern Missouri. The archery deer harvest there was down 12 percent from 2009-10, but firearms deer hunters shot 2 percent more deer. Northeast Missouris combined archery and firearms deer harvests beat the 2009-10 deer figure by a nose, just 32 deer.
Hansen said northern Missouris deer harvest might have been smaller if hunters had enjoyed better conditions in 2009.
We had a very wet fall in 2009, and farmers had a dickens of a time getting crops out of the field. There was still a huge amount of standing corn during the November portion of firearms deer season, and that gave deer lots of places to hide. The November hunt normally produces well over 80 percent of the firearms deer harvest. In 2009, it fell to 78 percent. That meant we went into 2010 with more deer than we would have if the weather had been more normal.
FUTURE DEER MANAGEMENT
Hansen said the decrease in northern Missouris deer harvest over the past few years is clear evidence that MDCs efforts to get a handle on deer populations are working. Reaching that tipping point ushers in a new era in deer management in the Show-Me State, which Hansen said he finds exciting.
The downturn is something we have been expecting and watching for, he said. As we develop recommendations for future deer seasons, we will re-examine things like the availability of antlerless permits. We also are going to look for innovative ways to help deer hunters and landowners manage local deer herds. They have direct experience with deer in their areas, and ultimately control the number and kind of deer harvested in their areas. Deer management is going to become much more collaborative, and local than in the past. | <urn:uuid:577f06a2-a5d1-4086-8442-9a4a7089315b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=7542&p=84736 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967955 | 942 | 1.84375 | 2 |
- When the Hubble Space Telescope retires in a few years, a NASA-led collaboration plans to replace it with a telescope of an entirely new generation.
- The James Webb Space Telescope’s ultralight, shape-adjusting mirrors will have six times the light-collecting power of those of the Hubble, and its instruments will be sensitive in parts of the spectrum where most telescopes have been lacking.
- Infrared radiation will open new vistas on the earliest ages of the universe, when the first stars and galaxies formed, and also on planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy.
- The most delicate part of the mission will be when the telescope and its giant heat shields unfurl out of the rocket that will carry them into orbit. Even a small technical glitch could render the $5-billion observatory inoperable.
The mirror, a perfect hexagon of gunmetal gray, stands vertically on a low platform. It is about two inches thick and more than four feet wide, a precisely carved slab of beryllium that gleams in the low light of this optics laboratory near San Francisco Bay. My guide, chief engineer Jay Daniel, watches my footing as I step gingerly in front of the mirror to see my reflection. “It’s like your bathroom mirror,” Daniel says, chuckling.
The other side of this looking glass, though, is nothing like a household vanity. The slab of metal is mostly hollow, drilled out by machinists to leave an intricate triangular scaffold of narrow ribs. It is beautiful in its geometric precision, and I resist the urge to touch one of the knifelike edges. The polished front layer that remains, Daniel says, is a mere 2.5 millimeters thick. From its starting weight of 250 kilograms, the entire mirror now weighs just 21 kilos. That is light enough for a rocket to hoist 18 of them deep into space, where the curved mirrors will join as one to form the heart of the most audacious space observatory ever launched.
This article was originally published with the title Origami Observatory. | <urn:uuid:5631a914-a6db-403d-a170-f733375113b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=origami-observatory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927135 | 432 | 3.328125 | 3 |
The Green Bridge is the unofficial local name of the Paris Road Bridge carrying Louisiana Highway 47 across the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet between St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans, Louisiana. It is sometimes also called Paris Road Bridge. The name "the Green Bridge" came from it originally being painted green. About 1980 it was repainted brown, and more recently grey, but locals continued referring to it as "the green bridge".
Interstate 510 ends just to the north of the bridge. Both ends of the bridge are in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, but Chalmette, Louisiana is a short distance south of the bridge, which provides the most important road link for St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, and is one of only four routes into the parish, the others being Judge Perez Drive, the Chalmette Ferry, and the St. Bernard Highway.
Coordinates: 30°0′18.0″N 89°56′20.5″W / 30.005000°N 89.939028°W | <urn:uuid:0d5d4ebe-8870-47b5-ac89-867119b56fc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bridge_(New_Orleans) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947036 | 207 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Wealth has always been a means of social improvement, providing access to education, material comfort, professional opportunities and a better life.
It is safe to say that wealth is one of the good things in life.
Investing almost always involves taking chances and serious investing, as opposed to taking a wild punt on a stock market move, ties up your money for a good length of time.
But what are the hidden truths behind investing and what should you do before making the decision to invest?
1. It’s easier to lose money than to make it
2. More domestic break-ups and rows are caused by money, or rather
the lack of it (or the spending habits of one partner), than anything else. It seems that money is more important to many people.
3. You’ll be a better investor if you’ve secured your home base -
getting a roof over your head whose costs are sustainable is the vital first move. Buying, if you can, is usually better than renting, so a mortgage is the number one investment (this could equally be an investment property also given the constraints and risks of buying in a market like Dubai).
4. Paper profits have no more value than the piece of paper they’re
written on. What your investments are worth on a statement is just a row of figures. Until you turn that investment into cash by selling, it won’t put a roof over your head, put food on your table or provide an income if something happens to the breadwinner (see your financial adviser if you have noting in place to protect your income and debts).
5. Borrowing money to buy investments can be a very fast route to the
bankruptcy court, as can gambling on stock markets.
Before you invest, you will need to consider all of the above truths and take a closer look at yourself and those around you. You should be aware that no easy routes exist in finance. But more importantly, that everything revolves around you and your family and not the commission needs of assorted advisers and hucksters who claim to have the solution to your problems!
Before you start investing, take a cool look at your personal wealth. Draw up a balance sheet so you can check how much comes in each month from work, interest payments, dividends or pensions. Then look at where the money goes.
The knowledge this exercise brings will help you focus on your goal of increasing your wealth.
Investing almost always involves taking chances and serious investing, as opposed to taking a wild punt on a stock market move, ties up your money for a good length of time. Assuming that you have some spare money, think about how investing it rather than spending it will affect your household.
What you do with your money should have a goal as investments are generally intended for future consumption. Almost everyone can save some money without sacrificing too much lifestyle. Even small amounts each day can soon mount up and this is especially true for expatriates here in the Emirates. None of us pay any income tax so all of us should be making the most of this time in our lives by saving as much as possible.
However, before investing for the longer-term, you need to set up your own personal emergency (or rainy/sunny-day) fund for contingencies that you can imagine but couldn’t pay for out of your purse or wallet. The fund should contain enough money to pay for events such as a sudden trip abroad if you have close family in distant lands, any domestic problem that wouldn’t be covered by insurance, a major repair to a car over and above an insurance settlement (especially if you are commuting to or from Abu
Dhabi!) or a doctor or vet’s bill not covered by insurance.
An emergency cash reserve will serve as reassurance so you can ride out any investment bad times more easily!
The writer is senior financial consultant at Acuma-Independent Wealth Advice, Dubai. Opinion expressed here is his own and do not necessarily reflect that of Gulf News. | <urn:uuid:ac1dc819-d1c7-4126-84d9-5fe20af8879a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gulfnews.com/business/opinion/checking-your-personal-life-before-you-invest-1.1138631 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96264 | 831 | 2.296875 | 2 |
The Arc of Northern Rhode Island
The Arc of Northern Rhode Island (The Homestead Group) is a not-for-profit human service agency providing supports and services for people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities.
The Arc has a long and rich history, formed more than fifty years ago by volunteer-parents seeking support and services for their children with disabilities.
Today, The Arc operates a Habilitative Services Division, a Residential Services Division, and an Independent Living Services Program. Altogether The Arc provides services to over 350 individuals.
The mission of The Homestead Group is to help the people we support lead the lives they want and deserve.
- Our services will be participant centered.
- The community is where people we support live, work and play.
- Systems of support as a means to an end. | <urn:uuid:fac3882b-e817-48a8-a87d-94d0dd458861> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.arcofnri.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939035 | 169 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Study of Repetitives Stress Injury in Ultrasound Technicians
In 2009 90% of sonographers reported scanning in pain. Sonographers suffer from work-related musculoskeletal disorders as a result of ergonomic hazards and working conditions. The purpose of this study is evaluating the upper extremity kinematics and kinetics while a sonographer is scanning the kidneys with their dominant hand. Greater understanding of the loading in the upper extremity due to muscular activity during scanning could be helpful in assessing risk of injury because continuous co-contraction of muscles from long-term static loads without sufficient breaks could result in muscle fatigue and reduced local blood circulation. Frequent co-contraction in the muscle is also a source of injury. Quantifying the loading in the upper extremity would be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of future transducer designs to reduce injury.
To learn more about Jenn's work you can contact her at: firstname.lastname@example.org
Automatic atlas based registration and segmentation of bones from fused CT/nuclear imaging data sets
Longitudinal preclinical imaging studies generate large quantities of data. Analyzing this data is a time consuming process, usually done by hand, sometimes with the aid of software. Relying on human interpretation can lead to different and sometimes conflicting results. My project uses an articulated skeletal atlas of a mouse. This atlas is registered to the ct data, then the registered atlas is applied to the fused nuclear imaging data set to extract uptake for individual bones. The entire process is automated, saving the researcher time and providing consistent results.
To learn more about Jeff's work you can contact him at: email@example.com
Development of computer-aided detection (CAD) tool for liver metastasis micro CT imaging using targeted contrast agent
Preclinical in-vivo micro CT studies of liver metastasis are difficult due to poor inherent soft tissue contrast and the need for highly technical, manual analysis of the data. Research has implicated that Kupffer cells in the liver encapsulate liver metastases providing an opportunity to deliver macrophage-specific contrast agents for the detection of small metastatic lesions. The Kupffer cell targeting contrast agent will enable automated detection of liver lesions via CAD software and allow for large scale studies. This imaging method could be a useful tool to facilitate longitudinal imaging of liver metastases in mice and has the potential for translation into clinical practice.
To learn more about Anderson's work you can contact him at: firstname.lastname@example.org
Electronic Laparascopy Trainer
Surgical training for laparoscopic surgery, a minimally invasive abdominal surgical technique, is currently performed using either virtual reality systems or more commonly simple box trainers. A need for a more interactive data-driven training protocol has been identified. In collaboration with educators at Grand Rapids Medical Education Partners an electronic device is being developed and tested to add data functionality, interactive features, and data collection to existing box trainers.
To learn more about Paul's work you can contact him at: email@example.com
Heart Rate Artifact Suppression
Motion artifact strongly corrupts heart rate measurements in current pulse oximetry systems. In many, almost any motion will greatly diminish the system’s ability to extract a reliable heart rate. The artifact is most likely present due to normally non-pulsatile components of the body, such as venous blood and tissue fluid, which become pulsatile during motion. Through the use of hardware, software, and signal processing techniques, a wearable heart rate monitor that is not susceptible to motional artifact will be developed. The final goal will be to design a device that can reliably extract the subject’s heart rate despite the presence of motion artifact.
To learn more about Chris's work you can contact him at: firstname.lastname@example.org
Modeling carotid arterial stenosis and studying the physical properties, with the intended goal to create a model to more accurately predict plaque rupture. I am using current CFD techniques to create the model.
Creating a Power Wheel Chair Training platform intended to help young people with motor disabilities learn to use a Power Wheel Chair.
To learn more about Allen's work you can contact him at: email@example.com
I am in the process of making revisions and upgrading a power wheel chair trainer. The current power wheel chair trainer was built 2 semesters ago and was not suitable for some of the students at Lincoln Development Center. The changes include: Making it longer, rounded front bumper for easier doorway access, stronger connection between drive unit and wheelchair platform, longer battery life in the drive unit and the wireless remote. Myself and a few other bio-med grad students will be designing and building an all new power wheel chair trainer in the near future.
To learn more about Ryan's work you can contact him at: firstname.lastname@example.org
Page last modified September 24, 2012 | <urn:uuid:e3d6cd17-9656-4630-ac1c-5466e87188d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gvsu.edu/engineering/biomed/projects-7.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901915 | 1,030 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Why Suspending Kids Does Not Work
As a school administrator I was never a proponent of frequent or automatic out-of-school suspensions for students. Of course, some offenses were so egregious that they demanded removal from school and separation from other students. A couple of times state law with its zero tolerance for some offenses required removing the student from school. And sometimes out-of-school suspension was the only way to get the parent’s attention and/or cooperation. Still, for the most part, it was hard to see how removing a kid from school really taught him or her anything or improved the student’s behavior.
In a couple of schools, one of my first changes as head administrator was to establish an in-school suspension room. This adjustment satisfied teachers who demanded that the student be removed from their room for a period of time while allowing the student to keep up with his or her studies. For many students, in-school suspension actually served as a means for getting caught up as it provided a little one-on-one tutoring from the suspension room teacher. The only problem, of course, was the additional expense of another teacher, but I always felt it was a small price to pay for a long-term advantage.
Now some schools are trying another approach to student discipline: restorative practices. It appears to me that this idea is a newer iteration of restitution theory, which I have seen used at some schools with good results. Basically, the idea is that rather than to simply punish a student by suspension, teachers and administrators work with students and parents to decide upon consequences of bad behavior and a plan of action to correct it. Students have the opportunity to make amends for problems that resulted from poor choices on their part, and they begin to see a cause and effect relationship between their behaviors and the consequences that follow.
Some schools have established student courts to deal with student misconduct. Students are trained in the process, and students guilty of misconduct may choose either suspension or appearance before the student court. While some educators claim that student courts have been successful, others, myself included, worry that adults may be seen as abdicating their roles as providing adult guidance and consequences. In addition, one has to wonder whether kids questioning other kids and coming up with consequences for a peer’s behavior may build resentment on the part of the accused and a sense of superiority on the part of students on the court.
Still, searching for alternatives for out-of-school suspension is a valuable endeavor, especially when you look at some of the statistics for suspensions. For example, a study released last year by the Council of State Governments Justice Center found that half – half, mind you – of students in Texas had been suspended of expelled at least once in grades 7-12. That’s over a million students. The study also found that black and Latino students were more likely than white students to be suspended and that suspended students were more likely to drop out of school.
An analysis of federal education data this fall found that nearly one in six black students were suspended in the 2009-10 academic year, a rate three times that of white students. For black kids with disabilities the rate was one in four.
What do kids learn when they’re suspended from school? And what’s our responsibility as educators for all kids? Restitution theory, restorative practices, counseling, in-school suspension – all are better alternatives than shutting kids out of the very thing that might make a difference in their lives. It’s still about connecting with kids and making them want to be in school because the connections matter. When we suspend kids, we’re admitting that we’ve failed at that connection. | <urn:uuid:839f7d36-3b5a-406c-ac8a-9b6cb655af22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.scholastic.com/practical_leadership/2012/10/why-suspending-kids-does-not-work.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978054 | 758 | 2.203125 | 2 |
When the starting point is disaster, the triumph of recovery is made all the more sweet for two Vermont shortlines.
When Hurricane and then Tropical Storm Irene rode along the East Coast of the United States in late August 2011, reactions to the damage ranged from shocking in the southeast to bullet dodging in New York City. By the time the storm blasted into Vermont on Aug. 28-29, 2011, winds had died down, but the amount of rain that fell unleashed some of the worst flooding the state had experienced in decades. For Vermont Rail System and New England Central Railroad, the storm left the shortlines with track sections hanging in mid air, compromised bridges and shut down both railroads for close to three weeks.
While it’s not unusual for hurricanes and tropical storms to affect the New England Central, according to Charles Hunter assistant vice president of government affairs for RailAmerica, which owns and operates the NECR, the south end of the system located in Connecticut and Massachusetts has been the focus of storms over the past 10 years. In order to prepare for Irene’s impact, Hunter says NECR halted both freight and Amtrak passenger operations prior to Irene’s arrival.
Over on Vermont Rail System, employees were on standby the day of Irene’s arrival. Charlie Lemieux, VRS superintendent of maintenance-of-way, described the preparation as a bit of a waiting game to see what the storm would do. VRS ran patrols in front of trains until waters became overwhelming, operations stopped and employees were pulled off the line for safety.
“As far as any other prep work, there wasn’t much to do until the storm left and we saw what we were dealing with,” said Lemieux.
Both railroads were left to deal with extensive damage. Between the two railroads, there were close to 150 washouts, six compromised bridges and nearly 35 miles of track that had been destroyed.
“NECR had washed out road bed with the rails and ties suspended in mid air, we had bank slides as deep as 50 feet below where the track use to be, mud slides and trees came down over the right-of-way and, while we did not lose any bridges, we had some bridges where the head walls and the piers were affected,” said Hunter.
Lemieux said the Green Mountain Railroad (GMRC), part of VRS, received the worst damage between Rutland, Vt., and Bellows Falls, Vt., where a few bridges were off their abutments and more bridges were lost between Rutland and Hoosick Junction, N.Y.
“We had approximately six miles of track that was totally undermined and washed out and we had at least 15 miles of track that was underwater that we could not access until the water subsided,” said Lemieux.
Once the water receded, Lemieux said only seven miles of track out of the 15 were a total loss and the rest of the damage consisted of superficial washes.
For NECR, the damage was especially painful to discover as the shortline was in the middle of a large improvement project for Amtrak’s Vermonter line. The high-speed rail improvements had just been completed about a month before Irene’s arrival and included installation of continuously welded rail, new crossties, highway-rail grade crossing safety improvements and other track improvements.
“The low point was assessing all the damage, that was pretty depressing,” said Rick Boucher, assistant general manager for NECR, “Especially after a large project where everything had looked so good and then basically, overnight was destroyed.”
“We had brand new cwr hanging in mid air,” said Hunter, “The good news is that because we had installed the rail and installed new ties or re-spiked the ties we were keeping, most of the elements stayed intact even though they were hanging in mid air.”
Organizing the repair
Post storm, both railroads were shutdown to thru traffic. VRS required an assessment by helicopter after the storm and determined priority to be opening the Green Mountain Gateway between Rutland and Bellows Falls. NECR divided the repair effort into four zones, a plan developed by RailAmerica’s director of structures Bill Riehl and director of engineering Ron Marshall after they completed an on-site assessment of the damage. The worst, zone 3, located in the Roxbury and Braintree Vt., area also dubbed the Red Zone. Work began in zones 1 and 4 and progressed toward the Red Zone.
“We worked toward the Red Zone because we knew access to it would be difficult,” said Boucher. “The plan was to attack [the damage] from each end with the anticipation that by the time we got to the Red Zone, some of the roads would be opened up enough that we could begin to truck some material in and we could bring material in by rail as well, if we had zones 1, 2 and 4 done.”
Access problems due to many roads in Vermont having been washed out by the storm were an issue for both NECR and VRS.
“With anything of this magnitude, there will always be little quirks that will happen along the line that we try to overcome,” said Lemieux. “The biggest one was trying to get the aggregate material to the different locations. A lot of locations were not road accessible and the roads were washed out. It was difficult to get the material to the job sites where it needed to be.”
“We had to actually construct roads to reach our right-of-way to conduct repairs,” said Hunter. “We worked with the local farmers and land owners to get their permission to build roads into those areas and everyone was great to work with. Vermont Agency of Transportation issued a 30-day suspension of environmental permitting for railroad repairs and road repairs, so we were able to get in to do the necessary repairs without the permitting process.”
Once access issues were resolved, the real repair work began and on VRS, bridge repair was a focus.
“On the GMRC there was no traffic because we had a bridge in Proctorsville, Vt., that was off it’s abutment and one in Arlington, Vt., and there were no trains running until we got all bridges safe to run over,” said Lemieux. “One particular contractor that was outstanding was Engineers Construction, Inc., they did a wonderful job for us. We had them concentrating on bridges. Some of the abutments were gone and one bridge, 114, was at a tilt of about 30 some odd degrees.”
Lemieux said that in order to repair the bridge, which was recently completed, the contractors drove pilings down and made a new bridge seat. Heavy-duty cranes were brought in to move the bridge onto temporary pilings so traffic could travel over it before final repairs could be made and the structure was placed on new bridge seats.
NECR had to deal with a lot of holes left by washouts. Dealing with larger holes threatened the shortline’s aggressive recovery schedule.
“At one point, we thought we were falling behind, but once we got through a few critical areas, we made up time,” said Boucher. “We had one area with three large holes, basically a whole curve was just gone with one section of track left in the middle, but the track itself was over a bank and there was just subgrade left. Three large holes had nothing, no subgrade everything was gone. We had to start from the bottom. Some of those holes were 25-30 feet deep and they ranged from five to 800 feet long.”
Boucher also notes the NECR’s bridge contractors, Osmose Railroad Service, Inc., and Engineers Construction, Inc., were responsible for keeping to the repair schedule.
“Initially, we thought it would be Sept. 23 before the bridge work would be completed. Those contractors did a heck of a job to beat their own initial estimates also,” said Boucher.
The shortlines were not alone in their recovery effort. Aid came from the region’s other shortlines, contractors and the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association. ASLRRA put out an All Points Bulletin for dump cars and both the NECR and VRS said they received a good response from neighboring railroads.
“Railroads are an interesting industry in that not only do we compete with each other but we also cooperate with each other for certain freight movements,” said Hunter. “Generally speaking, the railroads in New England are very response-oriented. When somebody has a problem, the other railroads will help you out.”
Open for business
It took three weeks for both shortlines to transition between storm-ravaged to back in business. VRS dumped 60,000 tons of rip rap and on the NECR, 15,000 tons of ballast was dumped, 12,500 feet of damaged right-of-way was repaired and all but a small section of new cwr was able to be placed back into service.
Lemieux and the rest of the VRS team were happy with the accomplishment of a quick and thorough recovery effort.
“We had many meetings on it and we came up with a date that we wanted to hit, it could have been a long shot, but that’s what we wanted, we are very proud that we were able to do that,” said Lemieux. “We dealt with a lot of little issues, but the main motivator was that our customers were not receiving their commodities. We were very much customer-oriented to get us up and going because once we’re going, we can help Vermont get up on its feet.”
The engineering department at NECR originally aimed for the railroad to be back in service on Sept. 23. The first train was run on the entire line on Sept. 20, three days ahead of the goal.
“It was a collective effort by everyone, good planning, a lot of support and cooperation from the contractors,” said Boucher. “As we got into that Red Zone, things started going faster than anticipated. We thought we were really going to struggle with accessibility and the repairs actually went a lot quicker than we thought.”
For their efforts to recover from Irene, both railroads were awarded the Herb Ogden Award for Rail Advocacy from the Vermont Rail Action Network.
The last piece of the puzzle is to figure out how to cover the multi-million dollar price tag associated with Irene’s damage. Because Vermont owns the line VRS operates on, the repair effort is eligible for FEMA funds. However, NECR, as a privately owned entity is not eligible, leaving only the Federal Railroad Administration’s Disaster Relief Fund for financial aid.
“There is no money in that fund,” said Hunter. “We’re trying to get that funded, which would not only help our railroad but other railroads in the northeast that sustained damage.”
Waiting around for monetary relief is not something either railroad is doing, as they are both still involved in Vermont’s continued recovery. The state’s highways did not recover as fast as the rail lines. Both shortlines are involved in the running of aggregate to help repair the state’s road network. | <urn:uuid:b6fcc6f0-9dde-4f96-9966-82690aa2621f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rtands.com/index.php/track-maintenance/on-track-maintenance/a-hurricane-happening-irene-recovery.html?channel=55 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986926 | 2,409 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Georgia Skin Game
Morton was a contradictory man, a “puzzingly” complex man. At pne point in his career Morton made records for a folklore collection and tackled it with many indigenous songs. The first slaves brought to New Orleans were called Dahomeans, and Vodun the name of their religion. According to “The Story of Jazz” by Marshall Stearns, West African influences lasted for years in “laissez faire” New Orleans and slowly combined with European music in “private vodun ceremonies and performances in Congo Square.” Vodun still remains and New Orleans is its capital in America.
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian. | <urn:uuid:8d1469c0-65b6-467c-a037-f4d17729e79e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195083491.001.0001/acprof-9780195083491-chapter-20 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957686 | 197 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Mind Over Money
Some fascinating concepts and studies in this fairly in-depth article -- Mind over money: Studies indicate cash affects our social interaction. I thought this closing quote from one of the authors of a cited study was most interesting:
"If it's more important to have self-motivation it might be good to have reminders of money," Vohs said. "If group harmony is important, it might be a good idea to keep the idea of money down. People will have to decide what goals are in the best interest."Update: Another article about the same studies: Mere Thought of Money Makes People Selfish. A quote:
"In a series of nine experiments, researchers found that money enhanced people's motivation to achieve their own goals and degraded their behavior toward others. The concept of money, they suggest, makes a person feel more self-sufficient and thus more apt to stand alone.
The scientists said the study had nothing to do with making a person feel wealthy. When real or fake money, or even a photo of cash, was placed in sight of participants, they became selfish." | <urn:uuid:610f30ad-8e7f-422c-a128-e24fc586765f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifestylism.blogspot.com/2007/01/mind-over-money.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96661 | 225 | 2.59375 | 3 |
- About us
- Join Unite
- Your employer
- Burger King
- Call Centres
- Language Schools
- Maori TV
- Pizza Hut
- Restaurant Brands Call Centre
- SkyCity Hotels & Casinos
- Know Your Rights
- Health and Safety
- 2010-11 Christmas & New Year holidays
- Delegate's Charter
- Having a baby? Parental Leave
- New law for shifties
- Redundancy rebates for workers
- Starting a new job
- Working for Families
- Create content
You have the right to choose your doctor, not your employer
Some employment agreements require that staff members must be seen by a doctor selected by the company.
This practice is illegal and any employee who has it stipulated in their employment agreement that they must see a company provided medical practitioner is entitled to ignore this and see a doctor of their own choice.
It is common and legal for an employer to request a medical certificate if the employee is claiming sick leave, and it is necessary for the employee to provide one under the Holidays Act.
But it is also written in the Holidays Act that any person can determine who gives them medical treatment. | <urn:uuid:2d1d1267-eec8-4ef8-9d1d-a5a9bb07edab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unite.org.nz/node/418 | 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 | 0.924294 | 247 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The concept of marketing has evolved over time. Whilst
in today’s business world "the customer is king". In the past this was not the case, some businesses put factors other than the customer first. This article examines factors that businesses may orientate their marketing around, so that you can recognise when your marketing strategy is orientated around something other than the customer.
The focus for the business is to reduce costs through mass production. A business orientated around production believes that the "economies of scale" generated by mass production will reduce costs and maximise profits. A production orientated business needs to avoid production efficiency processes which affect product design and quality. Compromising product design and quality for the sake of production is likely to reduce the product's appeal to customers.
A product orientated company believes that its product's high quality and functional features make it a superior product. Such a company believes that if they have a superior product customers will automatically like it as well. The problem with this approach is that superiority alone does not sell products; superior products will not sell unless they satisfy consumer wants and needs.
A sales orientated company's focus is simple; make the product, and then sell it to the target market. This type of orientation involves the organisation making what they think the customer needs or likes without relevant research. However as we know sales usually aren't this simple. An effective marketing strategy requires market and marketing research, prior to product development and finally an effective promotion strategy.
A market orientated company puts the customer at the "heart" of the business; all activities in the organisation are based around the customer. The
customer is truly king!. A market orientated organisation endeavours
to understand customer needs and wants, then implements marketing strategy based on their market research; from product development through to product sales. Once sales have begun further research will be conducted to find out what consumers think about the product and whether product improvements are required. As markets continuously change, market research and product development is an ongoing process for a market orientation company.
In today’s competitive world, it is more important than ever to implement a market orientated strategy. In this digital age customers are able to research the products available on the market fairly quickly. If an organisation does not offer customers what they are looking for (product and customer service) they will buy from a competitor that does.
Studying Business Management Visit www.learnmanagement2.com | <urn:uuid:90134666-23b3-4698-b82f-769bbc73af48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.learnmarketing.net/orientations.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954503 | 496 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Squeaky bum time
The tense, final stages of a competition.
This curious phrase emerged in the UK during the final stages of the 2003 Premiership football league, when arch-rivals Arsenal and Manchester United were both in contention to win the league. The coinage is commonly attributed to United's manager Sir Alex Ferguson and is often cited as an example of the notorious 'mind-games' indulged in by him and his opposing manager, Arsene Wenger. The allusion is, of course, to the sound made by squirming in one's seat as one's team's fortunes wax and wane.
The earliest example that I have found of the phrase in print is in a quotation by Ferguson, printed in The Daily Express newspaper, 18th March 2003, in an article headed 'Fergie just can't stop playing his mind games':
"They [Arsenal] have a replay against Chelsea and if they win it they would face a semi-final three days before playing us in the league. But then they did say they were going to win the Treble, didn't they? It's squeaky bum time and we've got the experience now to cope." | <urn:uuid:38a6baac-1355-49d1-945b-903eeb1b0d85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phrases.org.uk/meanings/squeaky-bum-time.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985958 | 239 | 2.09375 | 2 |
American Le Mans Series President and CEO Scott Atherton has green on his mind, but not the kind you’re thinking off. As the head of what is generally recognized as the country’s most environmentally-friendly major racing league, he is thinking of ways to make his series an even bigger showcase for the latest in sustainable automotive technologies.
Fox Car Report caught up with him at one of the “greenest” stops on the ALMS calendar, the bucolic road course at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, where he was holding court over the third round of the 2011 season.
FCR: In 2008 the ALMS launched the Michelin Green X Challenge, a championship within a championship that rewards teams for being fast and fuel efficient while promoting the use of renewable fuels. How is the program working for the ALMS as a promotional tool?
SA: It’s done a couple of different things. It’s brought the attention of race fans and manufacturers to what we consider to be the one example of green racing that really has some substance behind it. We’ve got four different alternative fuels being developed. You have Michelin making great strides increasing the effective use of their tires, such that the cars have to change tires less frequently, which is the ultimate goal.
You also have the other example of bringing really advanced technology into racing, which we hoped would be the case in this, where manufacturers are bringing technology that you and I have never heard of [such as Porsche’s flywheel hybrid system] and we’re hearing about it for the first time in racing. And it isn’t intended just to make a better racecar, but it’s ultimately there to develop that technology so that it can be applied to a consumer product.
FCR: You currently have cars in the series running on E10, E85, diesel and isobutanol. What’s next?
SA: The one example that I think is probably next up is going to be a natural gas car, to demonstrate the competitiveness of natural gas, and the ease and convenience of refueling, because right now that’s seen as one of the impediments. If you can take away some of what the consumer would describe as downside issues, and demonstrate its competitiveness and the fact that you don’t have to sacrifice anything, I think it would go a long way toward mainstream acceptance of natural gas as a fuel for any type of vehicle.
FCR: Do you see any way that a pure electric car could be incorporated into the ALMS?
SA: In time, yes. Currently, no. The technology doesn’t exist for a pure electric platform to compete at this level. It’s simply the battery life involved and the ability to maintain this level of extreme performance using that source of power.
We’re actually looking at a couple of different all-electric racing series that would not be part of the American Le Mans Series itself, but would be part of our weekend. Spec car, spec powertrain, to demonstrate the technology and to provide an environment to advance the technology. There are a couple of manufacturers who have approached us about doing just that. It wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about who they are, because in both cases we’re very committed to a non-disclosure agreement, but I think if you looked around the auto shows, and you saw what’s being showcased, you could easily figure out who we’re talking to.
FCR: One of the most exciting developments in racing in recent years was the announcement that the innovative, needle-nose DeltaWing race car has been accepted to compete in the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans. How instrumental was the ALMS in making that happen?
SA: We fielded the inquiry shortly after the decision was made not to have the DeltaWing be the next generation Indycar, and it was just to see if our form of racing would entertain bringing something as radical as that into the fold. This would be an ideal fit for the American Le Mans Series and it would be one of our proudest moments to introduce this revolutionary technology, in the form of half the horsepower, half the weight, half the energy consumption and all of the performance of today’s prototype in the new DeltaWing form.
Atherton adds that the DeltaWing could make its competition debut as early as next year’s ALMS season opening 12-hour race in Sebring, Florida, prior to heading to Le Mans. But with only about seven months remaining before the green flag drops, he cautions that there may not be enough time to develop the car before the race.
Still, the ALMS chief believes that the DeltaWing could represent the biggest game change in auto racing since mid-engine cars began their dominance of open wheel and sports car racing in the 1960s. He says that plans are in the works for it to run the full 2012 ALMS season as an unclassified demonstration vehicle, before a possible change in the regulations that would allow it to compete in the top prototype class, if the vehicle lives up to its promise. | <urn:uuid:8369eb7f-9142-4e0c-8d6d-e60578167607> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/07/12/electric-and-natural-gas-powered-cars-could-join-american-le-mans-series/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969031 | 1,062 | 1.695313 | 2 |
No longer an optional extra, but a built-in part of Windows 7, PowerShell 2 enables administrators to manage the computers in the enterprise from both the command line and from scripts.
No matter how we try to get away from the command line, for many administrative and maintenance jobs for both individual PCs and for an office full of Windows 7 computers, when push comes to shove you can’t beat individual shell commands or reusable batch or script files. That’s why I was very happy to see Microsoft’s new PowerShell 2 baked into Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
The single most important change in PowerShell 2 is that it is not just for individual computers, retro-fitted for administering multiple PCs. No, this version of PowerShell was designed from the beginning to manage networked PCs. In short, PowerShell is just as much for network administrators as it is for system administrators or PC technicians.
PowerShell is built on top of Microsoft’s .NET Framework. Its commands, or “cmdlets,” are actually .NET classes that invoke a PowerShell program, script (*.ps1), modules (PowerShell scripts that execute in its own environment without affecting the outside system), and executable file. The PowerShell user interface, which looks a lot like the old Windows DOS prompt, also lets you create aliases with familiar DOS command names for cmdlets. So, for example, you can still use “move” to move a file or directory even though “mv” is the PowerShell command.
PowerShell also uses that old Unix/Linux concept of pipelines to “pipe” or transmit the output of one command to be the input to another. Unlike Unix though, which uses character streams, PowerShell pipeline passes PowerShell Objects, which are all typed .NET objects, between cmdlets.
The end result is a programming language and environment that you can use to create quite complex programs. Administrators who also have .NET development experience will find PowerShell programming to come quite easily.
Putting PowerShell to Use
For those to whom coding doesn’t come easily, Microsoft provides a pair of tools to help them get up to speed. The first, PowerShellPack consists of ten PowerShell 2 modules. These let you set up everything from a user interface to a simple graphics editor.
What’s far more important for an enterprise administrator is that the PowerShellPack includes several ready-to-use modules such as PSUserTools (for adding users on a system, checking for elevation, and to launch an administrator session) and TaskScheduler (for setting up, managing, and deleting system tasks). These represent a big step forward toward easy remote administration without the need for a third-party program.
For administrators who really, really do not want to touch a command line again or to write out scripts by hand, there’s the PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE). With the ISE, according to Microsoft, you can run “commands and write, test, and debug scripts in a single Windows-based graphic user interface with multi-line editing, tab completion, syntax coloring, selective execution, context-sensitive help, and support for right-to-left languages. You can use menu items and keyboard shortcuts to perform many of the same tasks that you would perform in the Windows PowerShell console. For example, when you debug a script in the Windows PowerShell ISE, to set a line breakpoint in a script, right-click the line of code, and then click Toggle Breakpoint.” To get a better idea of what PowerShell ISE looks like in action, watch this ITExpertVoice screencast.
Of course, to really get the most out of PowerShell 2, you’re going to need to get your hands dirty and code. Or, do you?
Microsoft provides numerous PowerShell guides, which have some of the best question and answer sessions with experts I’ve seen for any programming language. If you’re already a VBScript expert, Microsoft provides a guide for getting up to speed with PowerShell. Finally, Microsoft has an excellent collection of ready-to-use PowerShell scripts.
One thing I especially like about the Microsoft PowerShell script collection is that it’s easy to sort through them; you can find exactly what you need without much fuss or muss. For instance, I quickly found scripts for digging out User Object information from Active Directory; Creating an Active Directory User Object, and the ever-useful, List Inactive Computer Accounts in Active Directory. It’s worth picking up PowerShell just to use these automated scripts.
There are also several useful independent PowerShell script sites. Among the better ones are PowerShellCommunity, ScriptFanatic, and PowerShell Pro. (Know of some other good resources? Share them with the rest of us in the comments section.)
PowerShell 2.0 for the Administrator
Just at a glance at the sheer number of new PowerShell cmdlets that were designed with system manager and network administrators in mind is impressive. These include: Get-Hotfix, Send-MailMessage, Get-ComputerRestorePoint, Add-Computer, Rename-Computer, and Reset-ComputerMachinePassword. Maybe the day will yet come when we really can sit at our desks and remotely manage all our users!
OK, that’s a pipe-dream so long as users can manage to kick free their power-cords and insist that you come fix their “broken” computer. But, the richness of PowerShell 2′s commands does make it possible to do a lot of remote PC provisioning and management without stirring from your chair.
What makes this possible is PowerShell Remoting. This feature enables you to execute scripts to one or hundreds of remote machines. In addition, thanks to PSJob, you can run PowerShell commands, cmdlets, and modules in the background. Best of all, you can perform transaction operations that let you run cmdlets when certain conditions are met and roll them back if circumstances change.
PowerShell 2 supports two kinds of remote management: Fan-in and Fan-out. With the first, scripts are pushed to remote users as they log into a single corporate server. Once they are connected, the scripts run automatically. So, you could have your users automatically get their patches from a server when they login to the office network. In Fan-out remoting, which uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and Windows Remote Management (WinRM), commands and scripts are pushed out to PCs to run immediately.
I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible with PowerShell 2, but I think you get the idea. Scripting has never offered such powerful potential before for managing whole networks of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 systems. In addition, since PowerShell 2 can be added to earlier versions of Windows, you can expand your PowerShell management tools across your entire Windows-based network.
If you’ve been avoiding scripting, it’s time to stop. These tools are exactly what you need to make managing even the largest networks much easier and less time-consuming. Enjoy.
Want more like this? Sign up for the weekly IT Expert Voice newsletter so you don’t miss a thing! | <urn:uuid:e3871b32-ec6b-4ee0-8e8e-17475804288d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://itexpertvoice.com/home/a-powershell-2-0-introduction-for-system-administrators/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905155 | 1,486 | 1.953125 | 2 |
stories left before being redirected to Clickshare to login or register.
New Maine contractor law goes into effect
Monday, December 31, 2012
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine's Labor Department says the state's new independent contractor definition is going into effect.
Officials say the new law that goes becomes effective Monday clarifies the conditions under which a worker should be classified as an employee or as an independent contractor. It also applies the independent contractor standard uniformly across unemployment, wage and hour, and worker's compensation laws.
Labor Commissioner Jeanne Paquette said under the old rules, a business could classify a worker as an employee under worker's compensation rules, but as an independent contractor for unemployment taxes.
Paquette says the new law also establishes penalties to deter businesses from intentionally misclassifying people as independent contractors when in fact they're employees. | <urn:uuid:70b63a57-7ae2-4ffc-b5d4-86e60c024cc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121231/AP01/312319990/-1/FOSNEWS0413&CSProduct=fosters&CSProduct=fosters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956012 | 176 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Myriad's patent claims are directed, inter alia, to several isolated human DNA molecules that represent the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. These gene mutations are associated with an increased risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer. Because women with these gene mutations are much less likely to survive into old-age, many choose to undergo extensive preventive surgery in an attempt to avoid the risk. In other words, the genetic information and testing technology is important.
Fundamentals of Patentability: Most patentability decisions focus on either an invention's obviousness or a patent's failure to properly disclose the invention. The Myriad case looks at something more fundamental – whether isolated human DNA is, in general, the type of thing that should be patentable.
Product of Nature: In this case, all the parties agree that the claimed DNA molecules are "compositions of matter" that nominally fall within the statutory guidelines of patentable subject matter found in 35 U.S.C. § 101. The disagreement comes from the common law gloss that the Supreme Court has added to the statute. Namely, the Supreme Court has repeated stated that, regardless of the novelty of the invention, neither products of nature nor natural phenomena qualify for patenting. The big issue in this case boils down to whether the claimed molecules fall within this product of nature exception.
Human-Made Inventions: According to the Court, "human-made inventions" sit at the opposite end of the spectrum from products of nature. To be distinguishable from products of nature, a human made invention must be "markedly different" or express "distinctive" characteristics from what is found in nature.
Patenting Isolated cDNA: Myriad's patent also claim cDNA molecules that are synthesized in the lab using the naturally occurring enzymes reverse transcriptase and DNA polymerase. cDNA differs from native DNA in that the cDNA typically (and in this case) represents only the information for a single gene and with unnecessary (intron) information removed. Native DNA is typically part of a large single molecule (a chromosome) that includes lots of genes and lots of introns intermixed between and within gene coding. The human body has a natural process for accessing and using the particular gene when it is needed. To do this, enzymes are able to create an RNA strand that mirrors the DNA information and that removes the introns. In the human, that RNA is then used to create a protein used by the body. For Myriad, the RNA is instead transcribed back into DNA (now called cDNA because it is [c]omplementary to the RNA).
To be clear, Myriad did not claim to invent any of this process or to invent cDNA in general. Rather, Myriad invention is that it created a cDNA molecule that holds the exact same information as the naturally occurring BRCA1/BRCA2 RNA. Certainly, cDNA is chemically different from RNA -- it is preferred in the lab because it is double-stranded and typically more stable. An additional difference here is that the claimed cDNA is isolated from the cell and the living organism so that it it can be tested and used in different ways.
Holding: cDNA is Markedly Different from That Found in Nature: The Federal Circuit considered these arguments, but decided to take a different perspective -- focusing on differences instead of similarities. In holding the claims patentable, the court reasoned that:
- The claimed cDNA is a molecule that is not found in nature.
- The claimed cDNA is quite different from a native chromosomal DNA.
- Human intervention of cleaving and/or synthesizing is necessary to make the cDNA.
- Because the molecule is changed, it cannot be said to be merely "purified."
- Judge Moore goes on to explain that the cDNA sequence is "completely different than the corresponding RNA."
Insignificant Extra-Solution Modification: In a number of cases, the Supreme Court has worked to conflate the issues of patentable subject matter with issues of obviousness and novelty. Thus, for instance, courts have repeatedly noted that insignificant extra-solution modifications of an invention cannot whitewash an otherwise unpatentable invention. Here, potential conflation has a strong foothold because the real breakthrough at the time was discovery of the genetic sequence itself. It took tremendous effort and ingenuity to discover that transcription map and that map was the key to their discovery as outlined in the inventors 1994 Science article. However, in 1994 (the time of the invention) once a sequence was known, almost any trained molecular biology lab technician could manufacture the isolated cDNA with effort but without much necessary ingenuity. If the discovered map itself was unpatentable as merely information and the process to create the isolated DNA was already known, then where is the invention? This type of analysis is outside of mainstream Federal Circuit decisions, but if the Supreme Court takes the case, the interplay between what was invented and what was already known may well be an important element in to the court's discussion of patentable subject matter. | <urn:uuid:b4db4081-6500-4678-9937-188129d570e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2011/08/patentable-subject-matter.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95139 | 1,044 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The science of stories: Learning how to tell a tale is the film industry's most important skill
Bobette Buster – a master of the craft – tells Tim Walker why creating a hit movie is no guessing game.
You need only study this week's cinema listings to know Hollywood is running out of stories. Wrath of the Titans is a sequel to a remake of a film based on a millennia-old Greek myth. Battleship is a movie adaptation of a board game. Mirror, Mirror is a version of Snow White, the fairytale first committed to celluloid by Walt Disney 75 years ago. Another big-budget take on the same story, Snow White and the Huntsman, comes out in June.
The industry is long on "re-imaginings", but short on imagination.
The problem, explains story specialist Bobette Buster, is that studios are neglecting one of the most important – and cheapest – parts of the filmmaking process: development. "I see it on screen over and over again," she says. "People who have a good idea but become frustrated with the story development process and eventually just say: 'It's good enough'. They think they can fix the problems later with marketing. Pixar is an exception: it takes apart its stories at least four or five times before putting them out and it takes the time to create a great tale, well told."
Buster is a screenwriter, creative development producer, consultant to Disney and Pixar and professor of screenwriting at USC in Los Angeles, the world's leading film school. She has lectured on cinematic language around the world and this month appears at the Do Lectures in Wales, where she'll emphasise again the centrality of story. "Few people are born storytellers," she says. "At USC a lot of students arrive thinking we should just hand them the equipment and get out of their way, but we put them through story development classes and the scales fall from their eyes: storytelling is a mentored craft and artform that has to be handed down."
Born in small-town Kentucky in 1953 ("Think Bedford Falls in It's a Wonderful Life"), she grew up listening to her relatives' tales of high drama or hilarious comedy. Her grandfather was said to have been the Buster family's finest storyteller, but her father came close.
"They had great timing," she explains, "and they always gave the 'gleaming detail': each character in a story had a defining foible or feature to make them unique. They had learned natural storytelling principles by having them passed on."
In the early 1980s, the US Library of Congress issued grants for the collection of oral histories from certain remote rural regions, where a generation was dying out. Buster went back to her hometown to take part. The accounts she collected are now in the Kentucky Museum. "As a girl, I had no idea I was growing up in the middle of a major folk art... My great-aunt died when she was 97. She could recall the stories of her grandfather, who fought in the Civil War and died when he was 94. There was a 150-year timeline of stories that felt very immediate."
After studying film at Northwestern University in Chicago and a spell working in TV news and documentaries, she won a place at USC on a graduate course in creative producing.
There she learned that the lifeblood of the industry was development and that at least $1bn per year was being spent on the hunt for stories. Studios and writers, she believed, were working at cross-purposes, leaving many promising ideas in development hell.
"I was observing this, thinking: 'Does it have to be this inefficient?'" She spent hours in the libraries of USC and the Academy of Arts and Sciences, reading old drafts of produced scripts: an unlikely early version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Paul Schrader, writer of Taxi Driver; a near-unrecognisable 170-page draft of Star Wars, in which "General" Luke Skywalker was also Darth Vader. "I studied the progression from great idea to great final draft and the pattern of problems a filmmaking team has to grapple with at each stage. With that I created a set of tools to help people move through the development process better."
Soon, she put her principles into practice for director Tony Scott's development company, on films such as The Last Boy Scout (1991) and Crimson Tide (1995). "We got hold of one script," she recalls, "from a crazy new writer called Quentin Tarantino. It had already been sold. We were sent it as a sample, but Tony read it and said: 'I want to do this'. The script was True Romance and the rest is history. We developed a relationship with Quentin and helped him to get financing for Reservoir Dogs." She took what she'd learned back to USC to teach an intensive course in development, later adapting it for film schools and universities around the world, not to mention film studios.
Cinema, says Buster, is "the medium of transformation", and every story must include a character who "changes 180 degrees". Paraphrasing Anne Rice and F Scott Fitzgerald, she suggests there are only two genuine cinematic stories: re-invention or redemption. American cinema dominated the medium's first century because "The American Western is the ultimate story of reinvention. Anyone from the Old World could come to the New World. Reinvention is the American Dream."
One of Buster's lectures is on The Godfather, an anti-redemption story in which Michael Corleone chooses to become not a hero, but the great antihero. "A time-honoured story is that of the man who, for a greater cause, chooses to damn himself. That's The Godfather, or Unforgiven... In Trainspotting, Renton causes the downfall of all his friends. People say it's a film about drugs, but it's really about tribal bonding. He transforms himself by yanking himself out of that mate culture, but he breaks an unforgivable bond of trust and can never return. It asks: 'What does it take to become your own person?'"
The transformation story, she explains, was a product of capitalism. Early cinema was a trial-and-error business and its audience responded best to tales of "profound transformation, so the industry said: 'Let's find more transformation stories.'" Now, however, capitalism is damaging story.
Studios, says Buster, made a business decision to cease investing in "execution-dependent development", meaning they won't fund the development process for a new and untested idea that isn't a sequel or a comic book or a board game. "Today, The Godfather would have to be produced independently." Buster thinks some of the strongest stories in cinema today aren't fiction narratives, but documentaries.
"There is phenomenal work being done in documentaries. The constraints of raising funds and delivering ideas that can be marketed worldwide have created a really taut story discipline among documentary makers."
And as the best documentaries prove, stories – even fairytales – are far more than mere entertainment. One of Buster's recommended texts is Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment. "Bettelheim survived the Holocaust. He became a child psychologist at the University of Chicago, where he argued that those children who had read Grimm's fairytales had been psychologically prepared for the Holocaust. They'd been taught that someday, somebody might throw you into an oven; someday, a wolf might eat you; someday, you will be lost in the forest.
"Think of Toy Story 2. Woody is facing the fact that someday he will be thrown away. It teaches an audience the people they love and cherish will someday abandon them; they should respond to it by loving those people regardless. Storytelling is a profound responsibility: you are psychologically preparing people for their future."
Bobette Buster is speaking at the Do Lectures, 25-29 April, dolectures.com
Arts & Ents blogs
Thirteen-year-old Conor awakes in bed one night to discover that the yew tree outside his house has ...
It’s hard not to feel sorry for doe-eyed Andy. He spends months pining after Louise, has huge nostr...
Fragility of life looms large over an episode that closes with the scarring on Julie's stomach. Whil...
Uri Geller psychic spy? The spoon-bender's secret life as a Mossad and CIA agent revealed
Theatre review: Daniel Radcliffe gives an admirably honest performance in Michael Grandage's play The Cripple of Inishmaan
Russell Brand takes his Messiah Complex to the Middle East
Art review: The BP Portrait Award 2013 reveals our endless fascination with self-scrutiny and the human face
Vice pulls 'breathtakingly tasteless' fashion shoot glorifying the suicides of famous female authors from Sylvia Plath to Virginia Woolf
- 1 Diary of Second World War German teenager reveals young lives untroubled by Nazi Holocaust in wartime Berlin
- 2 Bosses of collapsed banks should be sent to jail, banking standards commission tells George Osborne
- 3 Breaking the Silence: In the reality of occupation, there are no Palestinian civilians – only potential terrorists
- 4 Uri Geller psychic spy? The spoon-bender's secret life as a Mossad and CIA agent revealed
- 5 Vice pulls 'breathtakingly tasteless' fashion shoot glorifying the suicides of famous female authors from Sylvia Plath to Virginia Woolf | <urn:uuid:d48236f9-8050-4053-b967-b89d8e5073d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-science-of-stories-learning-how-to-tell-a-tale-is-the-film-industrys-most-important-skill-7637443.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969264 | 1,959 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Last month, Visually teamed up with Wiley & Sons Publishing to give away three free copies of Stories That Move Mountains. We have selected the winners through a random drawing and have notified them by replying to their comments on the original article. Congrats to the winners!
As one of the co-authors of Stories That Move Mountains, one of my biggest goals is to bring useful design tips to people that may not design every day.
Stories That Move Mountains describes the CAST process, which involves developing strong content, identifying your audience and knowing everything about them, determining the best story to communicate, and putting it all together in a successful presentation that can bring forth the desired change.
Here, we focus on how to put together some of the pieces of a cohesive final presentation — specifically, symbols and icons.
Now, we’re not talking about Marilyn Monroe or other cultural icons, we’re talking about graphic representations of ideas, concepts or things. “Things” that could be a role within an organization, it could be part of a process, or it could be a deliverable of that process, but it all comes down to how you want to code the content. These are elements that may be needed to show the problem you are trying to solve, and we’re assuming you have already determined use of an icon is the best method, as opposed to a photo, text, etc. In most cases, symbols and icons help to represent parts of a more complex process of some kind.
Now that we’ve nailed down the context… This is a four-part study.
1. So here you are, unsure how to proceed with developing some relevant visuals. Go to the whiteboard and mindmap, based on a key-word surrounding the icon you need to represent. Chances are you have multiple elements you need to represent, so create a mindmap for each one to determine key words, elements or items that relate to them, so you can determine what the icon might have for a “subject.”
Put aside your mindmaps momentarily now and proceed to step two.
2. Icons, symbols or signs have actually been studied. The study, called “Semiotics,” determined that there are several icon creation methods—meaning the icon may not always need to be a “thing.” In the book for instance, I reference fire. If you are depicting fire, it could be an actual graphic icon/symbol of fire, it could be the word fire, or it could be something that hints to fire—like smoke or a firefighter’s hat. Often times, the straight-forward graphic of fire will work just fine: then it’s just a matter of determining style, which we’ll get into shortly.
Just remember that when it comes to coding your page, icons can be as simple as a shape that acts as an identifier, or as complex as an illustration. In most cases, though, they are simple enough to work small on a page that contains other elements.
3. LOOK OUT, it might get messy! Now take some of the more significant words and findings from your mindmap and use them to search for icons online (for reference and inspiration only). What do you like? Why? Now let’s stretch a bit. You have determined your approach, and assuming you have an icon set—meaning more than one—you need to make sure they work together. They should have a similar style and feel—and since they are probably meant to be part of a bigger picture, they should be fairly simple and effective at smaller sizes.
What does “style and feel” mean? Is it “loose” or refined, does it break the boundaries or stay neatly within? Is it daring, loose and reckless or mild-mannered and understated? How does that line feel? In classes, I have always challenged students with that last question. Pay attention to the very nature and details of the shapes and lines, for both consistency and how they feel—or the impression they give you or your audience (test them out on some trusted colleagues). Truth and perception is in the details… because taken as a whole, all these little things make a difference to your audience.
You should use similar treatments to lines and line weights, shapes, and colors. Beyond that, it’s about seeing them together, and making sure that any one of them doesn’t stick out or draw unwanted attention. Mind you, like I’m implying here, you may WANT one of them to draw attention, so just make sure it’s justified. Sometimes simply changing the icon color to warm colors will attract (cool colors recede), and the line weight stays the same.
4. Lastly, implement them on your page. Whether part of a layout or an infographic, make sure they work with the other elements on the page, and fine-tune as needed. Icons rarely will sit alone in your presentation. They are made to visually code the content when text or other imagery is not the right choice. Not only do they provide variety, but we all know reading a presentation is not the best way to affect change—especially if you’re speaking at the same time.
You may even want to get your first drafts onto your visual story sooner, because seeing them together as a whole could change everything. Make all attempts to reference the elements directly on the page is coding or defining is needed—meaning tell us once wit a direct reference and let the audience do the rest. You set it up, and the audience engages in their own way. That’s what we call creating a visual bombshell instead of bullets—PowerPoint pun intended. Good luck!
Mark D. West is one of the authors on Stories That Move Mountains, a book about using stories and visuals to make top notch presentations. | <urn:uuid:8608a83b-00a7-4627-b076-7b6860a34eea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.visual.ly/looking-at-the-pieces-using-symbols-icons-in-your-visual-story/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940868 | 1,217 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Kentucky Law Uncovers Dentists Who Prescribe Opioids to Those Who Abuse Them
A Kentucky law that requires anyone writing a prescription for a controlled substance to check the state drug monitoring database has led to the discovery that some people addicted to opioids are targeting dentists.
The law, signed by Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear earlier this year, requires that all pain clinics be licensed, specifies requirements for ownership and employment, and obliges Kentucky’s licensure board to develop regulations for pain clinics. It gives law enforcement easier access to the state’s prescription drug monitoring database, known as KASPER (Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting). Doctors have to examine patients, take full medical histories, and check electronic prescription records before writing prescriptions for opioids.
Sergeant John McGuire of the Louisville Metro Police Department’s Prescription Drug Diversion Unit told The Courier-Journal the abuse of drugs prescribed by dentists for tooth pain has not received widespread attention. “If you can prescribe drugs, you’re a target for these people,” he said. Dentists typically only write prescriptions for three to four days at the longest. It is more common for people looking for large quantities of opioids to prefer obtaining prescriptions from general physicians, who will prescribe drugs for longer periods.
Dentists most commonly prescribe oxycodone and hydrocodone, the article notes. Some dentists, who suspect a patient is addicted to opioids but appears to be in real pain, will prescribe tramadol, which is less addictive, according to McGuire.
“Dental pain is sort of an immediate thing,” said Mike Porter, Executive Director of the Kentucky Dental Association. “I think dentists are sympathetic to that, and maybe a little bit vulnerable. Hopefully, KASPER will help solve this problem.” He said his organization has been educating dentists and patients about the new law. | <urn:uuid:3184a57c-14b3-4526-8e6a-d43e4822f675> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/community-related/kentucky-law-uncovers-dentists-who-prescribe-opioids-to-those-who-abuse-them | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943352 | 400 | 2.140625 | 2 |
The Role of U.S. Foreign Aid in HIV/AIDS Prevention
Michael J. Gerson, columnist for the Washington Post, former policy aid in the Bush administration, and senior advisor to ONE, will speak on the University of Iowa campus on Wednesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. in the Old Capitol Museum.
He will discuss the 10–year success of bi–partisan American programs aimed at fighting global HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty. He will share personal stories about his time in Africa and his unique role in creating and implementating the President's Emergency Plan For Aids Relief, and Malaria Initiative. He will also share how advocacy organizations, like the ONE Campaign, are helping to build the political will among American voters and policy makers to sustain and promote these life–saving programs
This event is free and open to the public.
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accomodation in order to participate in this program, please contact the PPC's Community Engagement Coordinator, Liz Watson, at elizabeth–m–firstname.lastname@example.org or (319) 335–6817. | <urn:uuid:9bd39bed-a467-4de5-bdea-944a905e81ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://international.uiowa.edu/content/role-us-foreign-aid-hivaids-prevention | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93908 | 248 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Cancer drugs cause cancer? AIDS drugs cause AIDS?
I am DONE with this thread.
Cancer drugs cause cancer? AIDS drugs cause AIDS?
I am DONE with this thread.
5'0" female, 42 years old.
Started Primal October 31, 2011, at a skinny fat 111.5 lbs.
Current weight: 101.5. lbs and holding steady. Spring yardwork here we come!
Co-worker 1: Needs to lose ~50. Now he wants to start Mayo Clinic Diet. Yeesh. Give it up, man.
Co-worker 2: Needed to lose ~55. Lost 20 from stress. Started Primal in Sept, lost 20 more, but gained 10 back on a carb spree. We're working on it.
Actually JamesS, I would love to know your top 5 tips for weightloss. There is a lot of conflicting info on this forum, so I tend to stick to the info in Mark's book. Not asking you to refer to any of that, but if you have an opinion, I would love to hear it. Thanks
Thanks for the counterpoints on iodine JamesS.
Secondary leukemia associated with a conventional dose of etoposide: review of serial
And docetaxel that can cause leukemia:
I am not going to go through the long list of carcinogenic antineoplastic drugs. All people really have to do if they really want to learn the facts is do a little simple research.
So why did I explain all that? Because it is important to understand what the symptoms of the syndrome AIDS are. So the definition of AIDS constitutes immune suppression leading to opportunistic infections, which the virus human herpes virus type 6 variant A (HHV6-A) can do, but not HIV, and with the expanded definition the drop in CD4s below 200, which is the only thing HIV can do.
So back to AZT (zidovudine). AZT was not invented for AIDS, it was invented as a chemotherapy drug back in 1962. The drug was found to be so deadly though that it was banned for human use. When AIDS appeared it was brought back on the market in an attempt to recoup the original financial losses. As with HHV6-A, AZT can cause a complete collapse of the immune system, unlike HIV. AZT does this by destroying the bone marrow. When the bone marrow is destroyed there are no stem cells being produced to form immune cells, including CD4 cells. Once the CD4 cell counts drop below 200 an AIDS diagnosis can be given. With the decline of all other immune cells the immune system collapses leading to the formation of the opportunistic infections including the cancers Kaposi's sarcoma, lymphoma and squamous cell carcinoma.
In fact there are numerous documented cases of perfectly healthy people testing HIV+ and developing AIDS symptoms shortly after starting on AZT. There are also documented cases of people going off AZT and all their AIDS symptoms disappearing. The AMA refers to these cases though as "spontaneous remissions" rather than admitting the drug was causing the AIDS.
In one of my old Physician Desk References (PDRs) from shortly after AZT was put on the market they clearly stated that AZT could cause symptoms of AIDS. Again, AIDS is symptoms so they were admitting that AZT caused AIDS. As this fact started getting exposed though this line was removed from future PDRs.
Then there was the largest study ever conducted on AZT, the Concorde Study. This study confirmed that the use of AZT shorted the lives of people testing HIV+ rather than extending it due to the ability of AZT to completely collapse the immune system. And once again what happens when the immune system is completely collapsed? The person has a drop in CD4s low enough to be defined as having AIDS and they develop opportunistic infections that also allow for a diagnosis of AIDS.
Also note that as soon as new AIDS drugs were introduced to replace AZT as the primary drug treatment the incidence of AIDS cases immediately started declining in the U.S.
Again, all of this can be easily verified with a little simple research.
2. Exercise. Muscle burns fat even in a resting state. Therefore, the more muscle a person can develop the easier it will to lose weight. As fat is reduced this will also reduce estrogen levels that contribute to fat formation. And if the exercise is routine enough the body can learn to burn its fat stores as its primary means of energy production.
3. Diet. In my opinion the diet should be primarily low glycemic vegetables and fiber rich foods to slow glucose uptake. Meats from mammals and fowl and dairy should be limited in large part due to their hormones that promote weight gain. This includes organic. Organic may be lower in these hormones but these animals still produce their own hormones that remain in the meats and dairy. If fruits are consumed again high fiber and low glycemic.
A primarily plant based diet also has the benefit of being higher in phytoestrogens that can help reduce weight again by antagonizing real estrogens. And the fibers of the plants feed the flora that metabolize estrogen metabolites further reducing the estrogen load.
4. Digestive bitters to help improve not only digestion but also the breakdown of excess hormones by the liver that would otherwise contribute to weight gain. Note though that bitters should not be used if you have had your gallbladder removed.
Bitters also help to reduce body fat by improving liver function allowing for the increased breakdown of fat stores.
5. Drink plenty of water, especially cold water. Water helps to remove toxic wastes from the body that can otherwise be stored as fat if not processed or eliminated.
Drinking more water can also help flush out excess sodium that can cause increased weight through water retention.
Cold water causes the body to burn a significant amount of calories to warm the water up to body temperature.
And there was one forum where the forum owner was making the most bizarre claims such as acidity in the body causes the body to turn in to a puddle of goo. He is also the one that taught Grizz to believe that sunlight was acidic due to its hydrogen content. Sunlight is made up of photons, not hydrogen. Anyway, despite his claims being continually debunked by myself and several other people this guy had a strong cult-like following. His followers harassed me relentlessly on Curezone and even attacked me on on my personal message board I had at the time.
People get in to this zone of belief that they don't want challenged. If they find out what they believed for so long was a lie all along they feel like they were "taken" and this makes them angry and they lash out at the exposer.
It would be like if someone walked in to a Southern Baptist Church and started proclaiming that God and Christ are complete myths. This would not go over well at all because their belief systems are being challenged.
But it is up to the person to decide if they wish to dismiss evidence to protect their beliefs or to research the evidence to see if their belief system needs to be adjusted. I cannot force anyone to either of these. I simply present what I know and the evidence for those who are interested in the information and evidence. If I thought nobody here was interested in what I have to present I would not even waste a second here.
Besides, if everyone had the same beliefs life would be pretty boring. After all what would we have to discuss if all had the same information and all agreed with it.
I think she took my comment in stride. I appreciate your concern for her though. You are a good friend.
Also keep in mind that in order to know you are getting 150mcg you would have to be supplementing. But you will also be getting more iodine from your diet. How much will depend on the foods being consumed and how much. For example, beef and dairy tend to have a fair to high amount of iodine. Seaweeds in the diet or the use of iodized salt will also provide additional iodine. This is another reason I like micrograms of iodine as opposed to milligrams since it is hard to gauge the amount of iodine coming from diet.
I have not done too much on other health forums lately. I was very active on Curezone for over three years, but I am glad to be away from there anyway. The site has really gone downhill. The motto is "Educating instead of medicating" but the majority of the posts now are on religion, politics, Jew bashing, posting music videos, etc. and rampant personal attacks. What little is posted on health is mostly debunked BS that they refuse to let go of.
Other than that I check the Meteorite Junction board because one on my hobbies is collecting meteorites. Here is sampling of my collection I have posted:
Meteorite Junction • View topic - James' Collection | <urn:uuid:fb52aeb3-5f5b-485f-b89f-df9138bd8a9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread63393-31.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969706 | 1,839 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Headaches and Migraines
The Mount Sinai Center for Headache and Pain Medicine can provide individually tailored treatment plans plus counseling for patients with a variety of headache and migraine types, including:
A migraine is a one-sided, throbbing headache of moderate or severe intensity. It usually lasts 4-72 hours and is associated with light and sound sensitivity, nausea and vomiting. It occurs more frequently in women but it is not uncommon in men. Typically there is someone else in the family with a history of migraine. Migraines are sometimes accompanied by aura, or flashing lights or zigzag lines, loss of vision, and tingling in the face or body.
Chronic migraines are headaches that occur 15 or more days a month for more than three months in a row. Some of the headaches in the month should have typical characteristics of a migraine, however not all of them will feel like a migraine. Risk factors for developing chronic migraine include overuse of rescue medication for migraine and obesity.
Menstrual migraine refers to a migraine headache suffered by women during their menstrual cycles. Generally, menstrual migraines occur right before, during or immediately after a woman's period. It is the shift in estrogen during this time that triggers the migraines.
This type of headache is a mild intensity headache that often feels like a pressure or a tight band around the head. This headache can cause increased sensitivity to light or sound and occasionally cause nausea, however usually these features are not prominent. Generally, tension headaches involve both sides of the head and can last hours to days.
Cluster headache is a rare type of headache characterized by a severe one-sided pain usually behind the eye or around the temple. These headaches are associated with eye tearing, eyelid drooping, nasal congestion or runny nose on the side of the head pain. Each headache lasts typically 30-45 minutes and often the headaches recur at least once during the day, often at similar times. The headaches cluster in period of weeks and then go away. A person can be pain free for months to years.
Exertional headaches are closely related to a physical activity. Typically these headaches have a quick build up to a severe intensity during the triggering event and can vary in duration. Types of activities that can trigger exertional headaches include coughing, sneezing, running, having a bowel movement and sexual intercourse. Headaches triggered by these kinds of activities in rare cases can be associated with a more serious problem and so they should always be discussed with a physician.
Primary Stabbing Headache
Primary stabbing headache, sometimes known as a “jabs and jolts” headache, can often been seen in people who have migraine or cluster headaches. They feel like a sharp jab in a specific location on the head and last only for a few seconds, sometimes repeating a few times in a row. The stabs can stay in one area or sometimes move to another part of the head.
Trigeminal neuralgia is facial pain usually over the cheek or jaw that feels like an electric shock. It can occur hundreds of times a day and often people are very sensitive to touch in that area. Attacks can be triggered by touching the face, chewing, talking or even the wind blowing against the face. It can be misdiagnosed as a tooth related problem that doesn’t respond to dental treatment. The cause of trigeminal neuralgia is sometimes related to a blood vessel that touches and irritates the trigeminal nerve, which is responsible for sensation in the face. | <urn:uuid:c10ce2b3-2702-4183-9cf0-4c71ddbe013a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mountsinai.org/patient-care/service-areas/neurology/areas-of-care/center-for-headache-and-pain-medicine/headache-types | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949376 | 725 | 3.046875 | 3 |
ND National Guard Members HonoredA Grand Forks couple deployed overseas is overwhelmed. They are among 75 soldiers of the 188th being honored for their sacrifice and service during the war on terror.
A Grand Forks couple deployed overseas is overwhelmed.
They are among 75 soldiers of the 188th being honored for their sacrifice and service during the war on terror.
Jacqueline and Fransisco Raatz are a couple on the same mission not only in life, but on the job.
"We started dating in January of 2009, were married September of that year and then we deployed a few months later," Jacqueline said.
The pair is part of the 188th Air Defense Artillery Regiment. '
They say being together made things much easier.
"It was great to have her with and my first deployment I wasn't married to her and it was a lot different," Francisco said.
This couple was among the many men and women being honored at the Alerus Center during the Freedom Salute Ceremony Sunday in Grand Forks. It celebrated soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan the past year.
"It's a little overwhelming to be honest, but it's great," Jacqueline said.
Sunday was a chance for not only guard members to be recognized but their family members as well.
"We do the freedom salute to recognize the outstanding performance of all our soldiers, to thank the families for their sacrifice, to congratulate them on a successful mission and very safe mission," Guard Commander Dave Spynczynatyk said.
State leaders recognize the soldiers to make sure they know just how much they have done for our freedom and for our country.
"I'm not really about recognition but it's really nice to have it," Francisco said.
"It makes me proud today to be a soldier in the National Guard. It's a great unit and I'm proud of it," Jacqueline said.
Soldiers were deployed from November 2009 to December 2010. | <urn:uuid:584a2366-9153-4924-9286-c499bef30ad3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/id/6417/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987925 | 403 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Source code for NAADSM/PC 3.2.13
This page is intended for programmers and advanced users who wish to review or modify the NAADSM/PC source code, or to build the application from source code.
NAADSM/PC is composed of two major components: the graphical user interface and the core model library. These two components are written in different languages and must be compiled separately. These components make use of several subcomponents and libraries, each of which must also be downloaded and installed or compiled.
The graphical interface
The graphical interface of NAADSM/PC is written in Delphi Version 7, Professional Edition. While it may be possible to compile the interface with other versions of Delphi, no others have been tested.
Download the Delphi source code for the NAADSM/PC user interface (as a ZIP archive)
Required libraries and components for the NAADSM/PC interface
The user interface requires the following external libraries and components:
The NAADSM core library
The NAADSM core is written in C and is shared between NAADSM/PC and NAADSM/SC. For NAADSM/PC, the core code is compiled as a dynamically linked library which is then called by the user interface.
The core library can be compiled with the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) for Windows, version 3.4.2 or higher. There are a number of implementations of GCC for Windows, the two most prominent of which are included in Cygwin and MinGW. The core library must be built with the MinGW implementation of GCC: libraries built with the Cygwin tools are incompatible with NAADSM/PC.
Download the C source code for the NAADSM core library (as a ZIP archive)
Required libraries for the NAADSM core
The NAADSM core library makes use of several additional programming libraries. In most cases, compiled binary versions are available. It may be necessary, however, to build some libraries from source code. As noted above, libraries must be built with the MinGW implementation of GCC: libraries built with Cygwin are incompatible with NAADSM/PC. | <urn:uuid:90c72792-759b-4845-834a-fbe6025ee751> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.naadsm.org/source/source-pc/3.2.13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926179 | 447 | 2.28125 | 2 |
This series of articles looks at how the optimizer builds up an executable query plan using rules. To illustrate the process performed by the optimizer, we'll configure it to produce incrementally better plans by progressively applying its internal exploration rules. You can read about the basics of how a plan is conrtucted in Part 1.
Part Two - Producing the Fully-Optimized Plan
As a reminder, here is the sample query we are optimizing:
Part One ended with this partially-optimized plan:
The optimizer has pushed the predicate "ProductNumber LIKE 'T%'" down from a Filter iterator to the Index Scan on the product table, but it remains as a residual predicate. We need to enable a new transformation rule (SelResToFilter) to allow the optimizer to rewrite the LIKE as an index seek:
Notice that the LIKE is now expressed in a SARGable form, and the original LIKE predicate is now only evaluated on rows returned from the seek.
The remaining inefficiency is in scanning the whole Inventory table index for every row returned by our new seek operation. At the moment, the JOIN predicate (matching ProductId between the two tables) is performed inside the Nested Loops operator. It would be much more efficient to perform a seek on the Inventory table's clustered index.
To achieve that, we need to do two things:
- Convert the naive nested loops join to an index nested loops join (see Understanding Nested Loops Joins)
- Drive each Inventory table seek using the current value of Product.ProductId
The first one is achieved by a rule called JNtoIdxLookup. The second requirement is a correlated loops join - also known as an Apply. The rule needed to transform our query to that form is AppIdxToApp.
With those two new rules available to the optimizer, here's the plan we get:
We're now pretty close to the optimal plan (for the specific value in this query). The last step is to collapse the Compute Scalar into the Stream Aggregate. You might remember that the purpose of the Compute Scalar is to ensure that the SUM aggregate returns NULL instead of zero if no rows are processed.
As it stands, the Compute Scalar is evaluating a CASE statement based on the result of a COUNT(*) performed by the Stream Aggregate. We can remove this Compute Scalar, and the need to compute COUNT(*), by normalising the GROUP BY using a rule called 'NormalizeGbAgg'. Once that is done, we have the finished plan:
In the next two parts of the series, I'll show you how to customise the rules available to the optimizer, and explore more of the internals of query optimization. | <urn:uuid:1a3545fc-783d-4544-a955-a9d9a82030d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQL+Server+2005/71020/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915919 | 572 | 1.882813 | 2 |
In all societies men . . . have lived in the interstices of their
institutions. They have counted on the mercy of error, ignorance and
forgetfulness in their dealings with their fellows and the state. They have
often been wrong in so doing-morally and/or factually. But in a world of
computers this mercy may not long exist. All our failings and achievements, our
credit-worth and our petty delinquencies, our obedience and our defiance, can
live in the constant present of the machine.
Donald G. MacRae,
"Introduction" to Spencer's The Man Versus the State. (Baltimore:
Penguin Books), 1969.
IX Action Agenda for the Secretary of Health,
Education, and Welfare
The charter directs us to specify the steps that must be taken to put
our recommendations into effect. We have done so in this chapter. For each
action outlined below, the chapter and pages of the report where the
corresponding recommendation is discussed are indicated.
We have made a number of recommendations that require the submission of
legislative proposals to the Congress as follows.
- To establish a code of fair information practice for all automated
personal data systems maintained by agencies of the Federal government or by
organizations within reach of the authority of the Federal government. The code
should embody safeguard requirements for both administrative systems and
systems used exclusively for statistical reporting and research, and should
provide injunctive relief as well as civil and penal sanctions for violation of
the code [Ch. IV, pp. 50, 53-64; Ch. V, pp. 86-87; Ch. VI, pp. 97-102] .
- To establish protection against compulsory disclosure through legal
process for identifiable personal data used exclusively for statistical
reporting and research [Ch. VI, pp. 102-106]:
- To amend the Freedom of Information Act to require that an agency
obtain the consent of an individual before disclosing data about him in
identifiable form [Ch. IV, pp. 64-66] .
- To protect individuals against unauthorized use of the Social
Security number by providing that:
- (i) an individual shall have the right not to disclose his
Social Security number unless specifically required to do so by Federal statute
[Ch. VIII, pp. 125-126] ;
- (ii) any oral or written request made to an individual for his
Social Security number shall be accompanied by a clear statement of the legal
basis for the request [Ch. VIII, pp. 125-126 ] ;.
- (iii) an individual shall have a right to redress if his lawful
refusal to disclose his Social Security number results in the denial of a
benefit, or the threat of such denial [Ch. VIII, pp. 125-126] ;
- (iv) any organization or person required by Federal law to
obtain and record the Social Security number of an individual shall be
prohibited from using or disclosing it without the individual's informed
consent, except as may be necessary to the Federal purposes for which the
number was obtained and recorded [Ch. VIII, pp. 130-132] .
- To prohibit any person or organization from using any Social Security
number, or any number represented as a Social Security number, for promotional
or commercial purposes [Ch. VIII, pp. 134-135].
- To amend Section 609 (a) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act
- (i) to give an individual the right to inspect personally the
records that any consumer-reporting agency maintains about him, and to copy
their contents or have copies made [Ch. IV, pp. 66-70];
- (ii) to delete the exceptions from disclosure to an individual
now permitted for medical information and sources of information used in
investigative consumer reports [Ch. IV, pp. 70-71 ] .
Action by the Secretary to initiate these legislative proposals should
be taken in concert with the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Treasury,
and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, as appropriate.
Many of our recommendations can be implemented by the issuance of
regulations or administrative guidelines.
Regulations should be issued:
- To make applicable all the safeguard requirements for automated
personal data systems to all systems within the Department [Ch. IV, pp. 50-64;
Ch.V, pp.85-87; Ch. VI, pp. 95-102] .
- To make applicable all the safeguard requirements for automated
personal data systems to all systems that can be reached through grant,
contract, or other relations with the Department [Ch. IV, p. 50; Ch. V, p. 86;
Ch. VI, p. 96] .
- To amend the Department's regulation under the Freedom of
Information Act to provide that the consent of an individual shall be obtained
before disclosing any data about him in identifiable form [Ch. IV, pp.
Administrative guidelines should be issued:
- Establishing procedures for rigorous and thorough evaluation of
- (i) any proposal to create or expand any automated personal data
system within the Department (Ch. IV, pp. 5152 ] ;
- (ii) any proposal to use administrative personal data for
statistical reporting or research [Ch. V, pp. 82-86] ; and
- (iii) any proposal that would tend to require the creation or
expansion of an automated personal data system outside the Department in
response to requirements or needs of programs and activities of the Department
[Ch. IV, p. 521.
- Requiring that a regulation, with notice of proposed rule making, be
issued by the Department before taking any action that would tend to require a
State, locality, or other grantee to create or expand an automated personal
data system [Ch. IV, p. 52].
- Providing for the publication annually of a compilation of the public
notices of all automated personal data systems maintained within the Department
[Ch. IV, pp. 57-58; Ch. VI, pp. 99-101 ] .
- Directing the Social Security Administration:
- (i) to undertake a positive program to issue Social Security numbers
to ninth-grade students in schools, provided (a) that no school system be
induced to cooperate in such a program contrary to its preference; and (b) that
any person shall have the right to refuse to be issued a Social Security number
in connection with such a program [Ch. VIII, 127-1281;
- (ii) to undertake no positive program of issuing Social Security
numbers to children below the ninth-grade level [Ch. VIII, p. 1281;
- (iii) to limit affirmative measures taken to issue Social Security
numbers pursuant to subparagraph (B) (i) (II) of Section 205 (c) (2) of the
Social Security Act, as amended by Section 137 of Public Law 92-603, to
applicants for or recipients of public assistance benefits supported from
Federal funds under the Social Security Act [Ch. VIII, pp. 128-130] ;
- (iv) to provide SSN services only to organizations or persons
required by Federal law to obtain or record the Social Security number, and
then only as necessary to fulfill the
- (v) to monitor all future legislative proposals dealing with the
Social Security number and to recommend actions to be taken by the Secretary to
assure that such proposals will be enacted only after full and careful
consideration in well advertised hearings that elicit substantial public
participation [Ch. VIII, pp. 129-130].
In addition to the steps necessary to put our recommendations into
effect, there are some further steps the Department can take to assure that the
goals of the recommendations are fully achieved. These include:
- Communicating opposition to any proposal for the adoption of any
nationwide, standard, personal identification format, with or without the SSN,
that would enhance the likelihood of arbitrary or uncontrolled linkage of
records about people, particularly between government or government-supported
automated personal data systems;
- Making comments on proposed Federal legislation having implications
for personal privacy in record keeping which will seek to assure incorporation
in such legislation of safeguard requirements of the kind recommended in this
report for all automated personal data systems;
- Encouraging attention in all forms of educational activity to the
individual citizen's stake in his personal privacy, to the practical exercise
of his rights with respect to the records maintained about him, and to the
social impact of computerbased record-keeping systems;
- Supporting research on the use and impact of computerbased
record-keeping systems in such areas as education, health services delivery,
public assistance, juvenile delinquency prevention, and community mental
- .Encouraging the development of standards of ethical behavior and
professional competence for data-processing personnel;
- Enhancing the capacity of the Federal government to design and
develop computer-based record-keeping systems without reliance on outside
- Monitoring the application of the safeguard requirements to
determine whether they are having their intended effect and, most important,
whether they are themselves a source of any adverse social consequences;
- Cooperating with the States in developing uniform State legislation
to establish the recommended code of fair information practice for all
automated personal data systems that would not be reached by Federal
legislation. Among the organizations through which such cooperation might be
undertaken are the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws,
the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, the Council of State
Governments, the National Governors Conference, the National Legislative
Conference, and the National Conference of State Legislative Leaders.
- Urging the Office of Management and Budget to direct all Federal
agencies to require their grantees and contractors to operate automated
personal data systems with all the safeguards we recommend for systems
supported by the Department. In the interest of convenience and simplicity for
grantees and contractors, the Office of Management and Budget might prescribe
government-wide grant and contract conditions incorporating the safeguard
requirements we recommend, just as it now prescribes conditions in such areas
as intergovernmental planning and financial management. While such action may
not be feasible until there has been some experience in applying the safeguard
requirements, we would expect to see the Department take a lead role in
promoting uniform, government-wide safeguard requirements for automated
personal data systems of Federal grantees and contractors.
Responsibility for taking the actions necessary to implement our
recommendations will have to be assigned to many officials of the Department
who are already burdened with other duties. They will need guidance and
assistance. The Secretary will need to designate someone who can devote
substantial time and effort to assuring that these actions are taken in a
timely and effective fashion. Therefore, an official in the Office of the
Secretary should be given responsibility to serve as a combination advisor,
monitor, and catalyst to assure that the concerns addressed in this report
receive continuing attention, and specifically, to assure that automated
personal data systems within the Department, and within grantee and contractor
agencies, are operated in accordance with the safeguards we recommend. This
official should have adequate authority, staff, and support to conduct these
This official should be directed to embark on a positive program of
heightening concern within the Department for the issues raised in this report.
This program should reach to all who now do, or are apt in the future, to use,
direct, or contribute to the use or development of automated personal data
systems, at all Civil Service grade levels and in all operating agencies.
We expect that the Secretary may wish to have the report reviewed by
many key officials of the Department, including the heads of each of the
Department's operating agencies. Following such a review, a detailed plan to
carry out the foregoing action agenda will have to be formulated.
Once such a plan has been adopted, responsibility will have to be
assigned to someone to oversee its execution. To start this process we
recommend that the Secretary:
- Assign responsibility for distributing the report for review to the
Executive Secretary of the Department; and
- Assign responsibility for preparing a detailed plan to carry out the
action agenda to an official in the Office of the Secretary.
Table of Contents | <urn:uuid:37a6fe46-ae08-43a9-9c41-0aa575a467d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://epic.org/privacy/hew1973report/c9.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912169 | 2,608 | 2.234375 | 2 |
IV. COUNTRY REPORTS
At the behest of the General Assembly, in June 1993, the Commission asked all member states to provide information on measures implemented to enhance economic, social and cultural rights. The Commission is appreciative of the efforts of member states that submitted reports regarding the status of these rights in their jurisdiction as well as reports that address that status of the rights of children, women, and the handicapped in their countries. In 1993, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, and Venezuela submitted reports. These reports set forth the applicable laws that cover specific rights and also include, in many cases, programs of action that the respective governments have already implemented or intend to implement. Many of the reports also point out the failures and inequities within their systems. Some of these points are discussed in the paper, such as the lack of public funds allocated for health and educational programs and the historical structural problems that continue to frustrate efforts to alleviate poverty and illiteracy. The following is a brief summary of the reports submitted this year.
CANADA: The government of Canada submitted a supplemental report to the one it submitted in 1992 with copies of Canada's reports to the United Nations on the status of Economic, Social and Cultural rights in Canada. The first Canadian report gave a broad description of the basic elements of the Canadian system for the protection and promotion of human rights. Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms establishes a number of grounds under which discrimination is prohibited. Although social condition is not one of these grounds, the Supreme Court of Canada has held that the list in section 15 is not exhaustive and that other distinctions based on analogous grounds are subject to review. Within each jurisdiction at the federal, provincial, and territorial levels, the human rights legislation prohibits discrimination on grounds that are not enumerated in section 15. In some of these legislations social condition is included.
In Canada, the provinces have established social welfare programs for persons in need. The federal government assists in the funding of these programs through the Canada Assistance Plan. These programs set standards for eligibility for the assistance to secure an adequate standard of living in Canada.
The report to the United Nations on Articles 10-15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1992) states that food supply is not a problem. Canadians produce enough food for themselves and for export to other countries. The social assistance which is available for people in need makes specific provisions for food. However, during the 1980's these were not enough and an alternative form of assistance in the shape of "food banks" became a significant recourse for people to supplement their food provisions.
Aboriginal communities experience problems of nutrition. The government is addressing these problems particularly in the areas related to the food habits of the aboriginal people and the contamination of their traditional food sources.
Canadians receive a wide range of free medical services. The cornerstones of Canada's health services are: reasonable access to insured services without impediment by way of user charges and extra-billing, comprehensiveness of insured services covered, universality of population covered, and public administration on a non-profit basis. The Canadian government provides direct medical services for the Inuit and status Indians and is gradually transferring control of health services to the aboriginal communities who live south of the 60th parallel.
Canada provides primary education, free of charge for all.
CHILE: The report submitted by the government of Chile documents the application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Chile. President Aylwin's government implemented a development strategy focused on economic growth and social justice. The report states that the focus on social programs was translated into substantial improvements in the areas of employment, salaries, control and reduction of inflation, an increase in economic investment and growth, and an increase in public expenditure (21% real between 1990-1992) on social programs such as: health, education, and housing, which totaled 60% of the total public expenditure. The report indicates that, in 1990, 20% of the highest income earners held 54.7 % while the lowest 40% held 14.7% of the national income.
The report explains that despite recent efforts to improve the quality of life for the general population and to eradicate poverty, serious problems persist at the regional and communal levels. These include, in particular, infant mortality, malnutrition, and school attendance. The report suggests that the solutions to these problems requires the promotion of social programs as well as the introduction of affirmative action programs that benefit the underprivileged.
The Chilean health system is a mixed one. The public health sector is primarily responsible for preventative care, environmental issues, and medical care for approximately 80% of the population. The report states that infant malnutrition has declined since 1984.
The government's educational policy focuses on attuning the educational system to the needs of the twenty first century as well as resolving the persistent problems of unequal access to education that will guarantee full integration into society. In order to achieve these goals, the government has implemented programs which will extend the reach of pre-school education, increase the number of schools in rural areas as well as improve the quality of existing programs.
The report indicates that a large number of poor children (732,792) do not have access to any schooling. The first program that addressed the need to improve the quality of education and equal distribution was the Programa de Mejoramiento de la Calidad de las Escuelas Básicas de Sectores Pobres 1991-1992 (Program to Improve the Quality of Basic Schooling in the Poor Sectors 1991-1992). This program entailed the renovation of physical infrastructures, free education for teachers, donation of textbooks, improvement of libraries, programs to improve teaching, etc. The Programa de Mejoramiento de la Calidad y Equidad de la Educaión (Program to Improve the Quality and Equity in Education), which began in 1992, entailed an investment of 170 million dollars.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: The report submitted by the government of the Dominican Republic simply states that economic, social and cultural rights are guaranteed in article 8 of the Constitution and sets forth the rights in this article and its subsections. The limited information submitted makes it impossible for the Commission to analyze the social situation in the Dominican Republic and supervise the promotion of these rights.
EL SALVADOR: The government of El Salvador submitted a report on the application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in El Salvador. The report explains that the government lacks information about the general social conditions in the country because in the past twenty years no census has been taken to determine the problem areas. In addition, the report notes that, as a result of the civil war that ravaged the country over the past decade, the situation of children of families in extreme poverty worsened.
The report explains that the government's Social Development Plan 1989-1994 (Plan de Desarollo Social del Gobierno) seeks to raise the standard of living in the country and initiate a process that will eradicate poverty in the long run. The Plan calls for the reallocation of public investment to prioritize primary needs such as: health and nutrition, education, environment, housing, and other social services. The Social Investment Fund (Fondo de Inversion Social) grew out of this plan with the objective to promote the eradication of poverty by promoting investment in social and community programs for the vulnerable sectors of society.
Within the Social Development Plan, the government elaborated, in 1991, a National Health Plan (Plan Nacional de Salud). The document emphasizes a change in focus on prevention, health education, and improving the environment. Vaccination programs were extended to reach 80% percent of the affected population. Efforts have been taken to increase access to potable water principally in rural areas.
The Social Development Plan also focuses on education in its efforts to decrease poverty. Starting in 1990, the Ministry of Education shifted its focus to human resources and financing in order to increase access to education and reduce absenteeism, drop outs and ultimately, illiteracy.
MEXICO: The Mexican government submitted reports it presented in January 1993 for the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations. The reports indicate that in 1990, 7.2% of the population did not receive any income, 56% of the population received income up to two times the minimum wage, and 7.6% received up to five times the minimum wage. The main population that lives in poverty is in rural areas with 80% of agricultural workers living in poverty, and half of this number live in absolute poverty. The indigenous people, migrant workers, small land owners in non-arable areas live in the worst conditions.
The government has a national development plan that covers 1989-1994 and addresses issues of health, social assistance and social security. The government initiated a series of surveys and studies which revealed that nutritional levels differ in the different regions in the country. With respect to the general malnutrition of children under 5 years, the report states that the situation is better in the southern and central regions than in the northern and urban areas. The government subsidizes certain basic products to protect the poor sectors of society. The government also provides programs of food rationing and feeding centers.
To determine the general health conditions in the country, the report analyses infant mortality rates throughout Mexico. The report notes that infant mortality is closely related to socio-economic factors. Eleven areas have a higher rate than the national average, which indicates that the health conditions in these areas are deficient. In general there is a greater life expectancy in the urban areas than in the rural ones. The level of medical resources is significantly less in rural areas. The population in extreme poverty both in urban as well as rural areas lives has the most precarious health situation.
In terms of educational programs, the government provides free primary education. The report notes that primary education is organized differently between urban and rural areas. In rural areas, the lack of resources, teachers and the distances between communities has forced schools to group children of different ages in the same class rooms. In 1991, approximately 225,000 children did not have access to schools, primarily in rural and indigenous areas. The programs that have been implemented to expand access to education in rural, indigenous and marginalized areas take place with the economic and technical cooperation of UNICEF and the Bernard Van Leer Foundation.
The government has also initiated efforts to improve the quality of education that includes efforts to prolong attendance in school between the ages of 6 and 14 years in populations that have poor attendance ratings and drop outs. Four states that have two thirds rural population were chosen to initiate the program.
NICARAGUA: The Nicaraguan government's 1993 economic program aimed to stabilize the economy and to increase the standard of living by means of a program of adjustment and growth that privileged investment, reduced public and private consumption, and froze salaries to encourage employment and reactivate production. The report states that the government's social policy intends to prioritize the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of society that include children, handicapped, the displaced and others. It intends to do so by promoting the participation of members of communities to locate the problem areas.
In terms of observing the right to health in Nicaragua, the Ministry of Health includes in its Plan Maestro de Salud 91/96 (Master Health Plan 91/96) a program for a new health system (Sistema de Salud-SILAIS) which will implement local systems for integral health attention.
Similarly, the report states that the Ministry of Education has implemented programs to improve the quality of education by integrating plans that involve parents in school activities, improving school curricula, and introducing new books. The Ministry is planning a program to invest in renovating school infrastructures.
PANAMA: The report on the status of economic, social and cultural rights in Panama includes an explanation of the guarantees recognized in the national constitution, and a description of the general economic situation of the country highlighting relevant aspects of status of health, education, housing, labor, and social welfare rights.
The Panamanian government is focusing its efforts to reactivate the economy in order to create employment. Its Estrategia Nacional de Desarollo y Modernización Económica (Economic Development and Modernization Strategy) consists of a series of directives to promote development and modernization of the economy. A key emphasis is placed on creating employment, but it also contemplates policy aimed at sustainable development and the diminishment of poverty.
The report explains that while the country has made significant strides in the area of social rights, a large portion of the population, however, is still subject to marginalization and poverty. The information submitted indicates that 50% of Panamanian families live in poverty, a situation that is critical when one considers that 27% of poor families live in absolute poverty. The report observes that poverty mainly affects households headed by single women, which makes up 22.8% of Panamanian families.
On December 30, 1991, the National Government passed Law No. 31 which established the Reforma Tributaria (the Taxation Reform), aimed at improving distribution of income and consequently, to raise income that can be directed toward the poorer sectors of society. The national government has simultaneously tried to restrict its expenditures while reorienting investment towards social programs.
The Health Ministry is making efforts to eliminate hunger, malnutrition and to generally guarantee the rights to adequate nutrition through its Programa Nacional de Alimentación y Nutrición (National Food and Nutrition Program).
The right to education is recognized in the Panamanian Constitution and free education is provided to all up to university level. Moreover, article 95 of Law No. 47 authorizes the Ministry of Education to establish alternative schools or courses for illiterate persons older than school age, as well as schools or courses of industrial arts, agriculture or whatever may be necessary in a particular region or community. The government seeks to eliminate illiteracy by guaranteeing the right to have access to complete one's formal education and thus be eligible to be incorporated in to the work force. The report notes however, that there are serious difficulties in implementing these literacy campaigns. Most importantly, there is a shortage of funding which results in a shortage of teachers, transportation and teaching materials to reach all the areas in need.
PARAGUAY: The Paraguayan government submitted a report Plan Nacional de Accion Por La Infancia: Desarollo Humano y Consolidación Democrático (National Plan of Action for Infants: Human Development and Democratic Consolidation) prepared in 1991 by the Coordinating Committee of the Paraguay-Unicef Program. The paper evaluates the social conditions in the country that, until recently, had been largely ignored. According to the paper, the national government seeks to implement structural reforms that will increase public participation and improve the distribution of income in the country in order to achieve greater social equality. The National Development Project (Proyecto Nacional de Desarollo) targets the most vulnerable sectors of society and emphasizes infancy. Part of this program of action entails allocating greater amounts of public expenditure to social programs for needy people and communities. The government wants to encourage public participation to determine solutions to problems particular to different groups and communities.
The report explains that despite the fact that in the last few decades Paraguay ranks among the countries in Latin America with the greatest economic growth, such growth did not translate into increased human development. Instead, Paraguay suffers from serious inequities, namely, unequal distribution of income, an absence of political participation, a lack of support for women's issues, inadequate health policies, and a distrust of non governmental organizations. Women and children are particularly affected by a grave inadequacy in the areas of health, environment, and education. The report singles out peasant women and indigenous people as the groups most affected by poverty and explains that this is due in large part to a gross concentration of land ownership in few hands.
VENEZUELA: The Venezuelan government submitted a report that discusses the situation in the country with respect to the rights of children, women, refugees and the general situation of economic, social and cultural rights. The report explains that the economic crisis that began during the 1970's and which was aggravated in the 1980's has had a deteriorating effect in the evolution of social rights. The country has witnessed a diminishment in attention directed towards the general population.
An economic reform program was introduced in 1989, which included an expansion of social programs. Many of the social reforms have received both the technical as well as the financial support of multilateral and bilateral organizations.
The chapter on economic, social and cultural rights summarizes a series of problems that frustrate social development, these are: a shortage of funds to cover social security and education; differences in the levels of social development between states and in the distribution of resources to various institutions, such as, universities and hospitals, to the detriment of investment in areas such as pre-school education and preventative health programs which have a greater social impact; shortcomings in the educational system that enable adequate integration into a competitive and changing work place; general financial limitations in the social sectors; and institutional restrictions to distribute and adequately monitor resources.
The chapter on the rights of children explains that the program of economic reform and development has occasioned irreconcilable deprivations and created a situation which registers a high percentage of children with health disadvantages, serious nutritional problems, high levels of illiteracy, children abandoned and child laborers.
V. ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVE USE AND ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES
In determining whether adequate measures have been taken to implement and secure economic, social and cultural rights, the Commission shall pay close attention to the equitable and effective use of available resources and the allocation of public expenditures to social programs that address the living conditions of the more vulnerable sectors of society which have been historically excluded from the political and economic processes.
The following graphs use information obtained from the 1993 United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report. The Commission is aware that there is a lapse between data collection and publication and hence, the information provided in these charts is unavoidably dated. Nevertheless, the information is instructive in terms of revealing important trends and tendencies in the area of economic, social and cultural rights. Consequently, it is useful to gauge the level of commitment on the part of governments to guarantee the material well-being, the personal security and freedom from discrimination of persons within their jurisdiction.
The statistical deficiencies evidenced by these graphs are symptomatic of the general neglect and lack of political commitment regarding economic and social rights. Nevertheless, the statistics that are available demonstrate the correlation between the neglect of economic, social and cultural rights, and poverty. A brief glance at the public expenditure index makes apparent the inadequate level of public expenditure allocated to education and health care, with exception perhaps of Canada. It is also apparent that the level of absolute poverty in so many of the countries is unacceptable, especially when contrasted to the gross national product ("GNP") and the dramatic imbalance in the distribution of income in each country. The statistics regarding the number of children who die before the age of five is alarming and highlights the inadequate attention directed towards ameliorating what are substandard levels of nutrition and health care.
In general, throughout the region, there are unacceptable numbers of people who live in conditions that deny them a minimum level of material well-being which is able to guarantee respect of their rights to personal security, dignity, equality of opportunity and freedom from discrimination. | <urn:uuid:83b2d590-cddc-4648-9d7f-cb6a43d1a9c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cidh.org/annualrep/93eng/chap.5a.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945213 | 4,000 | 3 | 3 |
ScienceDaily has an interesting article that looks at ad-hoc wireless networks and how they might be even more useful on a large scale. The RUNES project is featured as an example of software projects that might be able to make mobile devices that form self-organizing wireless networks to help promote this goal. "RUNES set out to create middleware: software that bridges the gap between the operating systems used by the mobile sensor nodes, and high-level applications that make use of data from the sensors. RUNES middleware is modular and flexible, allowing programmers to create applications without having to know much about the detailed working of the network devices supplying the data. This also makes it easy to incorporate new kinds of mobile device, and to re-use applications." | <urn:uuid:57b33c96-02c4-4e1d-aafc-88f7ae7337c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/08/03/14/1948249/wireless-networks-that-build-themselves?sdsrc=next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94924 | 154 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Hello, unEarthed readers! I’d like to introduce you to a new Earthjustice production designed to keep you up-to-date on the latest Earthjustice ...
Mountain Heroes: My Story
"When they leave, after the coal company is done with this, we'll not have any resources, we'll not have any land, we'll not have any water, the air is already poisoned. We just don't know what to do about it … It's just a scary thing."
The Appalachian Mountains as they should be, against a glimpse of what mountaintop removal mining is doing to them.
Recently, thanks to a nonprofit flight operation called SouthWings, I had the opportunity to fly in a small airplane over a mountaintop removal coal mining site in West Virginia.
We flew over the Hobet mountaintop removal mining site, which measures to more than 20 square miles of demolition, and though I will try to put what I saw into words, it can only really be understood through the eyes. So I'm sharing a few photos that illustrate a scale of destruction that words cannot convey.
Click on the Images Below to see a Full-View Gallery
Taking the Mountain from the Coal
The Appalachian Mountains are home to some of the world's most biodiverse hardwood forests, and are the origins of some of the nation's most important drinking water sources. Before mountaintop removal mining, coal companies took the coal from the mountain. Today, they are taking the mountain from the coal.
People Get in the Way of Coal Mining
Families had been living in these mountains for generations before coal companies figured out a way to blow up the mountain to cheaply extract the coal. The Caudill-Miller family has owned this farm for a hundred years, but now it is engulfed by Arch Coal's destruction. As Arch Coal's machines were encroaching upon the property and the farmhouse, built in 1920, the coal company attempted to buy the property from the family. The Caudill-Millers would not sell. In an attempt to force them out of its way, the company sued the family, claiming that mountaintop removal mining was the best use of the land. A court ruled in favor of Arch Coal, but the Caudill-Millers kept fighting and won the appeal, which allowed them to hold onto their family's land. But they still could not stop the devastation on all sides of them.
Moving a Mountain
Flattening mountain is no simple process. First, the forests are clear cut, and the trees are pushed into a tremendous pile, where they are either hauled away by timber companies, burned, or dumped into the valley below as "mining waste." All of the life that existed within the forest is extinguished. Then comes the task of moving the top of the mountain. It involves detonating hundreds of tons of explosives to break apart the mountain's surface and loosen the layers of rock beneath.
Filling the Valleys
For every ton of coal that's mined, approximately 16 tons of earth need to be moved. This can result in tens of millions of tons of rock and rubble, which is dumped into the valleys surrounding the mountains, burying streams and creating "valley fills." In this picture, you can see the beginnings of a valley fill, just to the right of the airplane part. Valley fills are permitted by a loophole in the Clean Water Act that was written in the beginning of George W. Bush's administration.
Move Over Human Miners, Big John Is Here
In mountaintop removal mining, jobs once held by people are replaced by machines. A dragline excavator measuring eight-ten stories tall and capable of moving hundreds of metric tons of rubble obsoletes numerous mining jobs. Here, the dragline on the Hobet site, nicknamed "Big John," does the work. Coinciding with the rise of mountaintop removal, the number of coal miners in Appalachia declined from 122,102 to 53,509 between 1985 and 2005, proving false the argument that this kind of mining provides jobs. In fact, the highest levels of unemployment and lowest incomes are located in the parts of Appalachia where the heaviest mining takes place. There are more public school teachers in West Virginia than surface miners.
The Imposing Sludge Dam
When the coal leaves the site, it must be washed and prepared to be shipped off to coal-fired power plants. After washing the coal, what remains is a thick, toxic brew of liquid waste called "slurry" or "sludge." This sludge is so harmful, so toxic, and so latent with heavy metals like arsenic, mercury, chromium, cadmium, boron, selenium, and nickel, that instead of treating it, it is easier for the coal companies to dispose of into large earthen, unlined dams high in the mountains. The sludge dams, now numbering more than 500 across Appalachia today, often tower high above communities, holding back billions of tons of poisonous sludge. For communities nearby, these dams may be out of sight, but they are not out of mind. Sludge dam failures are a real threat that residents nearby live with every day. In 1972, a sludge dam in Buffalo Creek, WV, failed, and a tidal wave of toxic sludge killed 118 people almost instantly. More than 4,000 others lost their homes. In 2000, another sludge dam burst in Martin County, KY, setting off a 12-million gallon wave of toxic black, lava-like sludge that swallowed up communities and homes. Residents say the spill continues to contaminate their waters even now, 11 years later.
Like Putting Lipstick on a Pig
After the site is mined, coal companies are supposed to then begin the process of "reclaiming" the land for development. However, 90 percent of mountaintop removal sites have not been converted to any kind of economic use. And the land, after being stripped and razed to expose heavy metals, cannot sustain most forms of life, save a few varieties of extremely tough non-native grasses. So when they are finished, the coal companies coat the mined surface with turquoise-hued hydroseed and fertilizer, which gives way to weed-like grasses in short order. The grass gives the appearance of life, even though the mountain’s life has been wiped away forever, and attempts to veil the barren moonscape that has been created.
This pictures shows only a portion of the Hobet complex's expansive obliteration, now more than 20 square miles in size. Over the last 10 years, the site's size has nearly doubled. NASA has a time-lapse slideshow that illustrates just how quickly this has happened. What will this look like in 10 more years? What will West Virginia and the rest of Appalachia look like in 10 years? | <urn:uuid:98640aec-f6a6-48c4-bee9-e2e89a5fac1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://earthjustice.org/blog/2011-october/mountaintop-removal-a-view-from-up-above | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958032 | 1,412 | 2.625 | 3 |
Healthy Discipline for Adopted Children
When you discipline your adopted child, you need to consider her chronological age as well as her emotional age.
If possible, understanding any past injuries (emotional or physical) unique to your child will help you as you seek healthy discipline methods. Keep in mind that healthy methods of discipline should account for the child's age and personality and the parents' and the child's needs for control, safety, proximity and consistency in order to create a new environment where attachment and trust can grow.
Parents often think of their child in terms of her chronological age. When you think of your adopted child, you need to consider her chronological age and her emotional age. Her emotional age may be significantly younger than her chronological age. You may have a child who is 10 years old but functions as a 4-year-old. You will need to tailor your interactions with her to the level of a 4-year-old. This includes not only your expectations for her behavior, but also the words you use to describe those expectations.
In addition, it means setting her boundaries in line with a lower age level. In so doing you will begin to make up for the parental care she needed but did not receive during her early development. As you interact with her according to her emotional age, she will have the chance to "catch up" and thus actually "grow up" in the progressive manner God designed. If you have a 6-year-old who functions as a 4-year-old, then you will want to set a limit such as, "You may ride your bike to the end of the cul-de-sac while I am watching." As she matures, "You may ride around the block when you have my permission."
You need to help your child out of the aroused state of fear that often comes with discipline and bring him into a calm emotional state with you. If you will decrease your child's stress level, he will have the opportunity to learn from experience, which is necessary for change.
Let's say that Jane's 4-year-old daughter picks the deli counter line to lie down on the floor and begin kicking and screaming. What should she do? This is a nightmare for most parents who would rather crawl in a hole than have their child act up in the grocery store. Although it may be very annoying if you are near the end of your shopping trip and the cart is full, your best response is likely to be picking up your child, with special attention to restrain flailing limbs, and carrying her out to the car, leaving the shopping cart for the store attendants to deal with.
Tantrums lose most of their energy without onlookers. When the tantrum is over, you may or may not choose to go back into the store. If you do choose to go back in, remind her what the rules are for grocery stores (for example: stay in the cart at all times, do not take things off the shelves and no yelling). Usually after a few times of leaving the store the child realizes she can't manipulate you with misbehavior and these outings become easier.
If you're dealing with an older child, obviously you can't keep him buckled in the cart. You can, however, require him to keep a hold of the cart with one hand, not take things off the shelves and not yell. If the hand comes off the cart, the cart stops moving until the situation is resolved. Again, usually "bad behaviors" decrease without an audience, so rapid departure, child in tow, may still be the best option. Don't start naming off consequences to be expected when you get home, as that will only escalate the arousal level for both of you.
Let's return to the story of Karen and Russell at the beginning of this article series. We must be aware that Karen is struggling internally because of the pain Russell has brought into her life. She is grieved because she didn't expect the adoption experience to go this way. Karen thought that her love for Russell would knock down all barriers and he would love her in return. She thought about the home where he first lived. She thought of his lengthy abuse history and multiple foster placements. She especially thought about saving him from all that. So why is Russell rejecting and disdaining her?
The key that Karen has not understood yet is that all of Russell's broken attachments and unmet needs have resulted in him feeling terribly threatened and fearful. Russell is not choosing to be defiant in order to "thank" his mom for adopting him. He simply needs different approaches to learning appropriate behavior. He needs approaches that see incremental change as successful.
So, when Karen told Russell to look at her, and he did for a few seconds, but then averted his gaze, that was a positive step for him. She can change the course of the interaction by sitting near him on the couch, taking a moment to calm herself, then saying, "Russell, let's get ready to eat." He may look at her or not and he may or may not say a word. She may then gently put her hand on his and say, "Let's turn off the TV and put the toys away." She can begin to put up the toys, modeling what she wants him to do. She should not put away everything. Russell should help. (This may take some time, so she should turn off the kitchen appliances.) After the room is reasonably clean, they can move to the sink, wash hands and sit to eat together. This will be different than she expected, but step-by-step they will connect.
It is also very important to consider your child's personality and history when you are going to be transitioning to a new activity (e.g., going somewhere, getting ready for bed, picking up toys, etc.). Some children are able to quickly shift from one activity to another. Other children need a little advance notice of what is coming. This might mean going into the room, making eye contact — or otherwise establishing that what you are saying is being heard — and then saying something like, "Russell, dinner will be ready in about 20 minutes. In about 10 minutes you'll need to start getting ready to come to the table. I'll set the timer to remind you." Timers are helpful because they are objective when we are not. You may still need to come alongside and move through the transition together, but in time it will become easier.
Each approximation is a good thing, not a failure because it did not reach the final goal. As your child's fear lessens, he will not always have an immediate fight, flight or freeze reaction. He can learn the cause and effect of his actions.
On really hard days, parents who have adopted a child with significant attachment problems need to remember that their child's rejection is not personal. Their child would reject anyone who tried to love her. She does not know what she needs. She fears letting someone else have control. She will protect herself against any further pain by denying that her new parents are important to her. Her thinking may be something like this: When they get rid of me it will be on my own terms. I made them do it and it doesn't hurt so much because I don't love them.
Remember, if you use discipline methods that heighten the stress level and physiological arousal, you will reinforce the patterns of brain activity, emotional response and behavior that you want to extinguish. If you help your child calm down and connect with you even when you are correcting his behavior, you will create an environment where he can flourish.
If your child is acting out more severely than the examples given in this article series, you will need professional help to devise a workable plan for your family. This series is not meant to provide individualized advice. It is impossible to address the numerous unique situations that parents will face. Don't hesitate to seek professional help if the situation is beyond your control.
Taken from Handbook on Thriving as an Adoptive Family, published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., © 2008 by Sanford Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:88a55362-05f7-416d-9461-9efb2b92b87c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/adoptive_families/disciplining_adopted_children/healthy_discipline_for_adopted_children.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976909 | 1,664 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Michael B. Sherman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
My major interests are in three-dimensional organization of large macromolecular complexes and cell organelles by electron microscopy, cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) in particular. CryoEM allows to study symmetric particles, e.g. spherical viruses, ordered assemblies (2D crystals, helical arrays, etc.) and asymmetrical complexes in their native state. Unique structures are studied using electron tomography. I am interested in structural studies of symmetrical as well as of asymmetrical particles by these techniques.
Spherical viruses are highly symmetrical; they infect variety of animal and plant cells. The structure opens way to understand their mechanism of action and allows to target specific epitopes to neutralize them. As an example, in Red clover necrotic mosaic virus (RCNMV), whose structure we determined at 8Å resolution, substantial portion of its genome is ordered and forms a distinct cage within the viral capsid. We found that depletion of Ca and Mg from RCNMV causes structural changes resulting in opening of ~13 Å diameter channels at certain locations in the capsid allowing RNA to egress and start replication. Recently determined structure of Western equine encephalitis virus is the first example of a wild type BSL-3 agent spatial organization determined by cryoEM with imaging performed in a BSL-3 containment, a unique laboratory space available at UTMB. In addition to traditional cryoEM of single particles we used cryo-electron tomography to study three-dimensional organization of a bunyavirus Rift Valley fever virus which at the time was unknown to have any symmetry. We plan now to apply that method to study cells, cellular organelles and cell-pathogen interactions.
Asymmetrical assemblies are the most challenging case for structural studies. An example is LDL, one of the major lipid carriers in blood. They have only one protein component, apolipoprotein B-100, whereas the rest of the particle (78%) is composed of various lipids. Amazingly, despite their high lipid content, they are rigid enough to maintain their overall shape and characteristic lamellar organization of the core. We found that the lamellae most likely consist of cholesteryl esters; therefore with low or no cholesterol in LDL they do not have striated cores and are less rigid. The findings provide an important hypothesis that LDL depending on cholesterol content would interact with LDL receptors differently causing lipid metabolic disorders. | <urn:uuid:e0e540bc-9ae8-447e-b00e-aae3d3365b5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hbcg.utmb.edu/faculty/sherman/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935681 | 515 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Interiority and Exteriority in Premodern, Modern and Contemporary Thought
Ed. by Campe, Rüdiger / Weber, Julia
Aims and Scope
What are emotions, where do they originate and how are they brought into being? While from antiquity to early modernity, affects or passions were mostly conceived of as external physiological forces which act upon a passive subject, modern conceptions generally locate emotions within the subject. Drawing on the dichotomy of “interiority / exteriority” as a complex interdependent relationship, they mostly envision emotions as interior processes. Contemporary conceptions of emotion from such different fields as human geography, art history and cognitive sciences recently started to challenge this notion of internal emotions by developing alternative descriptions of externalized emotion.
This book reevaluates premodern, modern and contemporary conceptions of affects, passions and emotion by analyzing various historical manifestations of the discourse on emotion. Unlike most previous research, which ‑ especially in the German tradition ‑ often focused exclusively on the rise of the modern (Romantic) interiority without paying attention to the underlying dichotomy of “interiority / exteriority”, this study aims to explore the historical preconditions, the internal logic and the possible shortcomings that inform our thinking on emotion.
- Approx. 300 pages
- Type of Publication:
- History of Emotion; Interiority/Exteriority; Cultural History; Cognitive Sciences | <urn:uuid:6e49688a-b922-47b1-8f7c-d29257a2d065> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/178392?format=EBOK&rskey=6NlG1G&result=8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902848 | 292 | 3.03125 | 3 |
With the Exchange Web Services project, I have found a lot of .NET example code that makes connecting to Exchange from .NET a breeze. It's orders of magnitude easier than from Java, and that's to be expected – Microsoft's primary focus is on Microsoft. I do, however, want to make it as easy as possible for people to integrate Exchange into their applications, and from a UI point of view, the easiest way to do this is through .NET.
Providing a .NET control that facilitates this as Open Source is definitely on the to-do list for the Exchange Web Services project, but I was not sure how I would do this for OpenEdge as non-UI controls are not supported and most of the work that the control does is communication with the Exchange Web Service in a multi-threaded configuration on background threads.
On May 5th, Progress temporarily raised the restriction to test the OpenEdge GUI for .NET bridge with controls that have no user-interface so that users can experiment with the controls and determine what types of controls should be supported. My company, Intangere, thus signed up for the program and created a control that mimics the behavior of a proposed Exchange Web Services control. This test has been surprisingly successful, and this article provides some information about the test and the code and a document that describes its use.
Progress would have had logistical issues incorporating an Exchange Web Server into their nightly build simply to test the background functionality that this control will provide. To test the functionality, therefore, I needed to provide Progress with an example that replicates the functionality that I expect to use in the Exchange Web Services architecture.
The model at left graphically demonstrates how the architecture of the code works. The model closely mimics the model for the Subscription and Notification API that I discussed in the Exchange Web Services – Subscriptions and Notifications post that I wrote back on April 26th.
Starting from the right of the diagram, Listener.exe is intended to emulate the functions that are performed by the Microsoft Exchange Web Services API. Specifically, it supports registering subscriptions and notifying the client of "updates" on a background thread. All communication between the client and Listener.exe is by means of .NET objects serialized as XML.
The EWSEmulator Control is a .NET control that has no user interface and performs the function that the Java EWS WebService and the Java HTTP Servlet perform. As such, it is derived from System.ComponentModel.Component and it handles the job of communicating with Listener.exe, both in terms of posting subscription requests, and in terms of receiving notifications. The control receives the notifications on a background thread (the Notification Processor) which deserializes the objects and hands them to the event generator which raises a .NET event on the UI thread.
Receiving the event on the UI thread is one of the most critical components of this control. OpenEdge is single-threaded which means that if an event is raised on anything but the UI thread, it is likely to cause problems for OpenEdge. So the Event Generator's sole function is to marshal all notifications and generate a .NET event on the UI thread.
The User Interface Logic is responsible for registering subscriptions via the embedded EWSEmulator Control, shutting down the Listener service and reacting to events raised by the Event Generator.
So how did the test go?
I'm not going to spend a lot of time telling you about the gory details of the code. You can download the code and a document that describes a lot more about my experience and findings, and you can even run it and look at both the ABL and .NET code. The document is a PDF contained in the zip file.
In a nutshell, though, I was able to duplicate the behavior I was looking for, marshal the events onto the UI thread, and get OpenEdge to react to those events without too much trouble. Section 4.2.2 of the document provides a description of how the marshaling works.
More importantly, I was also able to establish that the volume of data that can be handled by the OpenEdge ABL in this kind of communication was significantly greater than I had thought. I was able to generate upwards of 400 messages per second from Listener.exe and the client handled them without losing any.
Of course, no one in their right mind would expect the client to handle that volume of traffic, especially considering that every event had to be marshaled to the UI thread. But it was encouraging to learn that it was possible.
What this test has proven is that the OpenEdge GUI for .NET is more than capable of supporting background controls, provided they conform to the rule that all threads need to be marshaled to the UI thread before an event is raised.
Also, I made extensive use of the XmlSerializer, HttpListener, HttpWebResponse, and several other streaming classes and had no problem at all with OpenEdge.
I have submitted this code and these findings to Progress Software and hopefully they will be able to lift the restriction on use of non-UI controls with OpenEdge GUI for .NET.
Feel free to download the example code and documentation and mess with it, and please let me have your feedback. | <urn:uuid:be8092c7-3f8e-436d-a6f8-799063a1775f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thesoftwaregorilla.com/2010/06/openedge-gui-for-net-testing-the-bridge/ | 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 | 0.953717 | 1,084 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Thanksgiving and Reputation
2008 has been a rough year for many and especially the last few months. I have many friends out of work on Wall Street and on main street. When these friends call for advice on how to handle the current crises in their lives I remind them that we are called to give thanks for not only the good things in our lives, but also for the crises in our lives. Some become humbled and want to know more and some look at me like I am crazy!
QUESTION: Do we really understand the true meaning of Thanksgiving, and how does it affect our reputations?
John was laid off at Lehman Brothers and has a beautiful and supportive wife, three kids in college, a large apartment in Manhattan and a beautiful home and large sailboat in the Hamptons. I am not worried as much about his finances as I am about his attitude toward learning from this experience.
Peter was an assistant manager at a department store on Long Island. The chain of stores recently closed and Peter, who is also married, but has a family of four young kids, is a bit concerned about his finances. He only has savings to last another month or so without a new job, but his attitude is right on! He is trying to learn as much as he can from the experience and appreciate all the blessings he still has in his life. He is spending more time with his family and also giving back as much as he can to his community, especially those in a worse position than himself: the homeless. Peter and his family will be helping to feed the homeless at a soup kitchen on Long Island this Thanksgiving. Peter is human. At times, he worries, but he tries to give his worries and troubles to God. He prays often. He speaks about his fears and concerns with his wife. He attends church on a regular basis. Peter is an excellent example for us all.
So what about John? Well, let’s just say that John’s identity was tied up mostly with his job. John is very angry he was laid off. What did I do when he asked for help? Well, I recently introduced John and his family to Peter and his family over brunch in Manhattan. Their wives got along swimmingly (something I had hoped for.) Peter is beginning to rub off on John. John is beginning to see how truly fortunate he has been and wants to give back for the first time in his life.
I told John before he begins giving back I thought it might be important for him to understand why it is so important for all of us to also give thanks for our pain, for our crises and for our troubles. I told him once he fully understood why he would really enjoy giving back, but only after giving thanks for both good and bad times.
We must remember Thanksgiving began as a tradition in our country only after the first settlers from England almost died. They struggled to survive and with the help of Squanto and other Native Americans, they learned to feed themselves in a harsh, cold winter environment where others perished. Times were hard. Much harder than the first settlers ever imagined. Sound familiar? Sounds like the conditions many in the world are now facing as winter is about to begin.
The difference between many of the Pilgrims and our society today is FAITH – theirs was strong and ours, at times, is spineless.
I received a call from my friend John last week. He was not angry for the first time in a long time.
“I think giving thanks is one of those things that is a purposeful decision that we have to do regardless of our circumstances,” he said. “If our thanksgiving or our joy depends on circumstances, it will fluctuate all the time. I know a lot of people have had a difficult time this year. Even when we don’t seem to have anything, we need to pay attention to the things we do have, instead of what we don’t have. I learned if we have our health, if we have our family, if we have a home, if we have our friends, if we have faith in God, we are rich!”
I had the biggest smile on my face. I told John how proud I was of him. I shared with him how our fathers had taught us some pretty backward ideas regarding dealing with our emotions, sharing our feelings with others, especially those we love and how I thought he was on the right track with so many areas of his life with this revelation. I told him, most importantly, I was proud of how he was embracing faith as a powerful life tool and how it will greatly improve his reputation, his marriage, his career and his relationship with his kids. He agreed and also began giving back as he also began to give thanks for the success and struggles in his life.
He thanked me, but I told him he was thanking the wrong person. I shared with him that I struggle with many areas in my own life and that I was only the messenger, but I told him to give all praise to God often and always.
Remember, do the right thing when your reputation is in crisis and seek the counsel of an experienced reputation management expert. It will be a major challenge, but ultimately the rewards of repairing your reputation will be great. Why? Because Your Reputation Is Everything!™ | <urn:uuid:9f1cffe1-6ca9-4bdc-b9b7-99f89b093b6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reputationdoctor.com/2008/11/thanksgiving-and-reputation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992391 | 1,095 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Story URL: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=186084
Story Retrieval Date: 6/19/2013 1:02:29 AM CST
Courtesy of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Having Braille questionnaires and instructions available for blind research participants are ways to include more people with disabilities in mainstream health research, according to Case Western researcher Ann Williams.
Including disabled critical to health studies, researchers say
The first formal guidelines for a new model called “universal design of research,” to address the underrepresentation of people with disabilities in mainstream health research was proposed Wednesday by researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
“We want to change the way health-care research is done so that people with disabilities are routinely included in studies,” Ann Williams, a researcher and adjunct faculty member at Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
Universal design of research, which was described in a commentary published in this week’s Science Translational Medicine, provides researchers with practical guidelines to promote inclusion of people with disabilities in biomedical and psychosocial research as participants.
Williams and colleagues called on researchers to rethink requirements for research participants so that more people, including those with disabilities, can benefit from future health-care interventions.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 47.5 million Americans, or 22 percent of the U.S. population, have a disability.
They also have from the same health conditions that affect the general population, such as diabetes and heart disease, but are often excluded as potential research participants because of their disabilities.
If researchers are unable to provide materials to people with low vision or blindness to fill out questionnaires, they may exclude those potential participants from their study without exploring ways to include them, Williams said.
According to Janet Szlyk, president and executive director of The Chicago Lighthouse, a non-profit that serves the city’s blind and visually impaired population, universal design of research is extremely critical.
“It’s so much more compelling when you read a research study and see a wide variety of people who were included as participants,” said Szlyk, an experimental psychologist, who also oversees the center’s Low Vision Clinic, where broad-based research and clinical trials are underway. “Those results could be generalizable to anyone.”
She said there is no lack of enthusiasm among the blind and visually impaired community to take part in research studies.
“Our community is excited about participating in research,” Szlyk said. “They want to be involved and make a difference. Even if it doesn’t help them directly, they want to help others. It’s very positive.”
Williams pointed out that while extensive research has been done relating to specific disabilities themselves, information about general health concerns for people with disabilities is sparse.
“If you’re not sampling from the entire population, you really can’t apply your results to the entire population.” Williams said. “A person in a wheelchair needs to prevent heart disease just as much as a person who can walk.”
By including that person in standard research on exercise as a prevention for heart disease, researchers could begin to build a database on what is needed for that particular aspect of human diversity she said.
According to Williams, researchers have consistently found that when products and environments are designed to be accessible to people with disabilities, those things become easier to use and more convenient for the general population.
For example, curb cuts, which are concrete ramps connecting the surface of a sidewalk with the street, enable people in wheelchairs to move safely in public places.
Curb cuts were a result of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 that made public places accessible to those with disabilities, but the population who are the largest users of curb cuts are healthy people who have no mobility impairment, Williams said.
The general public now regularly uses curb cuts for bicycles, wagons, strollers and rolling luggage.
“If we design research that has enough flexibility to include people with disabilities and is more generalizable, the entire population will benefit,” Williams said. “It has happened in every other area where universal design has been applied.”
At Case Western Reserve University, Williams and her team hope that researchers will begin to include people with disabilities in their studies.
They purchased as easy-to-use amplifiers for the hearing impaired, iPads, for the visually impaired to easily enlarge print, and other equipment.
Those tools will be available for loan to researchers to help them incorporate the new design approach into their studies.
Williams recalls that only a few years ago that health-care research excluded women and minorities from research done on healthy, caucasian men. When they were included as participants, differences in the findings resulted.
“We want it to be just as unacceptable to exclude people with disabilities, as it currently is to exclude women and minorities from research,” Williams said. “We think that differences will emerge because disabilities are a part of human diversity.” | <urn:uuid:20bbb2a7-31ce-4736-b940-631ca1f2d822> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=186084 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962386 | 1,077 | 2.625 | 3 |
Pieces of Our Past: October
Four balls for a walk and three strikes for an out were established in baseball in 1889, five decades before the birth of Little League Baseball. The need for an umpire to count the number of balls and strikes per player resulted in a tool known as a ball-strike indicator.
An indicator used by a Little League umpire is on display in the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum in South Williamsport, Pa.
The indicator records the number of strikes, balls, outs and the inning.
Umpires are directed to use the indicator as a tool, not a crutch. They are directed to “refrain from holding your indicator in front of your eyes after every pitch.” Instead, umpires are trained to change an indicator without looking at it and when they do look at it, umpires are to hold it by their left hip and “glance down to see the count.”
In the mid-1800s, indicators changed from season to season as the rules for walks and strikeouts varied. At one point, the ball count was as high as nine in 1874. By 1887, the numbers changed to five balls and four strikes before settling to four and three, respectively, in 1889.
The indicator is part of an exhibit that features Howard Gair, who served as Little League’s umpire-in-chief for many years, and Frank Rizzo, who umpired all of the Little League World Series games from 1947 to 1988.
During his tenure, Mr. Gair umpired 495 Little League games starting in 1940. Mr. Gair went on to become perhaps the best-known amateur umpire in baseball history.
Mr. Rizzo was umpire-in-chief for many years after Little League moved from Williamsport across the West Branch of the Susquehanna River to its complex in South Williamsport in 1959.
The Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum, 525 Route 15 Highway, just south of Williamsport, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and by group appointment from Labor Day through Memorial Day. From Memorial Day to June 30, the museum is open Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. From July1 to Labor Day, the museum hours are: Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The facility is accessible to the disabled.
Rates are $5 for adults; $3 for those 62 and older; $1.50 for children between the ages of 5 and 13. There is no fee for children 4 or younger. Group rates and tours are available. The museum also offers birthday parties and after-hours facility rentals.
The museum is closed on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Days.
For more information, call the museum at (570) 326-3607; or visit www.LittleLeague.org/learn/museum.htm. Friend the Museum on Facebook, at: www.facebook.com/LittleLeagueMuseum or follow on Twitter, at: www.Twitter.com/LittleLeagueMuseum | <urn:uuid:29e855ec-2e83-40db-89a3-f9a67ced67b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.littleleague.org/learn/museum/pop/pop11/pop11UmpireCounter.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967699 | 686 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Determining (epi)genetic therapeutic signatures for improving lung cancer prognosis
Coordinator: Manel ESTELLER
Project Number: 258677
EC contribution: € 2,965,749
Project website: http://www.curelung.eu/
Lung cancer (LC) is still the most lethal type of cancer worldwide. The extremely poor prognosis for LC patients is partly due to the lack of effective therapies. At present, most patients with pulmonary carcinomas are treated with chemotherapy. This essentially consists of classic cytotoxic drugs which only improve survival in small cohorts in few cases. In spite of the rapidly growing understanding of the epigenetic and genetic profile of LC, such knowledge has contributed little to improving therapeutics. This scenario, however, is likely to change soon because several specific cancer therapies, targeting molecules that are altered in cancer, are being developed or are already undergoing clinical trials. Thinking ahead, our proposal focuses, on the one hand, on validating novel and specific therapeutic strategies, with particular emphasis on discovering (epi)genetic alterations that could act as novel targets for therapies, and, on the other, on defining the (epi)genetic markers that could determine the efficacy response or resistance to targeted therapies as well as the acquired resistance of the tumours to therapy. To reach our goals, we have designed an integrative and interdisciplinary approach involving leading European clinical scientists of international renown with prominent preclinical and basic research groups using high throughput and state-of-the art platforms for genomics and gene expression analysis. To date, no such comprehensive information exists. The results will be of great value for the stratification of lung tumours according to their genetic background for tailored treatments. The development of an (epi)genetic-based therapeutic prediction model will hopefully set the basis for future tailored treatment of LC as well as of other epithelial cancers. | <urn:uuid:1532cba8-d84c-4b37-b088-260012958bd5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ec.europa.eu/research/health/medical-research/cancer/fp7-projects/curelung_en.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941943 | 390 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About HTTP in 6 Pages or Less
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.
Hypertext is a multi-linear set of objects, building a network by using logical links (the so-called hyperlinks) between the nodes (e.g. text or words). HTTP is the protocol to exchange or transfer hypertext.
While none of YOU might need this, I know there's nuggets here that I can use right way. I mean I can wait to use this info to help explain to [name deleted... yes, you honey] why her "internet is broken..." :P
(Note: Opinions expressed in this article and its replies are the opinions of their respective authors and not those of DZone, Inc.) | <urn:uuid:2dbbf9d1-9fbd-4648-bc9c-054968b20fa7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dotnet.dzone.com/articles/everything-youve-ever-wanted | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913457 | 184 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Pentagon to unveil plan guiding big spending cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is rewriting its defense strategy to absorb hundreds of billions of dollars in defense budget cuts while scaling back the longstanding Pentagon goal of being ready to fight two wars simultaneously.
Underscoring the political dimension of Washington's debate over defense savings, President Barack Obama planned to make a rare appearance at the Pentagon on Thursday to outline the new strategy. The administration says tighter budgets are a must but will not come at the cost of sapping the strength of a military in transition after a decade at war.
In a presidential election year the strategy gives Obama a rhetorical tool to defend his Pentagon budget-cutting choices. Republican contenders for the White House already have criticized Obama on a wide range of national security issues, including missile defense, Iran and planned reductions in ground forces.
The strategy, to be outlined at a news conference also attended by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Joint Chiefs chairman, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, is not expected to mark a big change in defense priorities. It may set the stage, however, for expected cutbacks in Europe and big weapons programs.
It also will move the U.S. further from its longstanding goal of being able to successfully fight two major regional wars — like the 1991 Gulf War to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait or a prospective ground war in Korea — at the same time. This takes into account a bigger focus on immediate threats like cyber warfare and terrorism.
The administration and Congress already are trimming defense spending to reflect the closeout of the Iraq war and the drawdown in Afghanistan. The massive $662 billion defense budget planned for next year is $27 billion less than Obama wanted and $43 billion less than Congress gave the Pentagon this year.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama was closely involved in the defense strategy review, meeting six times since September with top defense officials, including Panetta and Dempsey. Carney said Tuesday the review will set priorities to ensure that defense spending reductions are "surgical."
The notion of sizing and shaping the U.S. military to be able to fight two major regional wars had its origins in efforts by the Pentagon to design a post-Cold War military after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
A decade later senior U.S. officials were questioning the rationale for maintaining a two-war strategy. In June 2001, for example, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress the strategy was "not working." But a short time later the U.S. was in fact fighting two wars — in Afghanistan and Iraq — although neither fit strictly the definition of wars against nation-state aggressors.
Factors guiding the Obama administration's approach to reducing the defense budget are not limited to war-fighting strategy. They also include judgments about how to contain the growing cost of military health care, pay and retirement benefits. The administration is expected to form a commission to study the issue of retirement benefits, possibly led by a prominent retired military officer.
The administration is in the final stages of deciding specific cuts in the 2013 budget, which Obama will submit to Congress next month. The strategy to be announced by Panetta and Dempsey is meant to accommodate about $489 billion in defense cuts over the coming 10 years as called for in a budget deal with Congress last summer. Another $500 billion in cuts may be required starting in January 2013.
A prominent theme of the Pentagon's new strategy is expected to be what Panetta has called a renewed commitment to security in the Asia-Pacific region.
On a trip to Asia last fall, Panetta made clear that the region will be central to American security strategy.
"Today we are at a turning point after a decade of war," Panetta said in Japan. Al-Qaida is among a range of concerns that will keep the military busy, but as a traditional Pacific power the United States needs to build a wider and deeper network of alliances and partnerships in that region, he said.
"Most importantly, we have the opportunity to strengthen our presence in the Pacific — and we will," he said.
The administration is not anticipating military conflict in Asia but Panetta believes the U.S. got so bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 that it missed chances to improve its position in other regions.
China is a particular worry because of its economic dynamism and rapid defense buildup. A more immediate concern is Iran, not only for its threats to disrupt the flow of international oil but also for its nuclear ambitions.
Looming large over the defense budget debate is the prospect of reducing spending on nuclear weapons.
Thomas Collina, research director at the Arms Control Association, believes the U.S. nuclear program can cut $45 billion over the coming decade without weakening the force. He estimates that reducing the U.S. strategic nuclear submarine force from 12 subs to eight could save $27 billion over 10 years. Another $18 billion could be saved by delaying the building of a new fleet of nuclear-capable bomber aircraft, he says.
Panetta has not publicly endorsed eliminating any of the three legs of the nuclear "triad" — bombers, subs and land-based missiles — but in a letter to Congress last fall he wrote that if the Pentagon faced an additional $500 billion in spending cuts starting in 2013 it might eliminate the land-based missile leg, saving $8 billion.
Collina in an interview said he doubts Panetta's strategy review will make more than incremental cuts in nuclear weapons spending.
"My guess is it wouldn't reduce or eliminate any leg of the triad," he said.
Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robertburnsAP | <urn:uuid:37e5616c-6daa-40de-a8ea-d4338750c904> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cnsnews.com/pentagon-unveil-plan-guiding-big-spending-cuts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956684 | 1,168 | 1.640625 | 2 |
More and more fitness centers are offering athletic performance classes that involve sports drills specifically designed to help you excel at an individual sport, such as golf, tennis, snowboarding, or skiing. The drills mimic the stresses you put on your body when you’re playing the sport. For example, you might sprint to improve your tennis game or do squats to get ready for the slopes. Traditionally, this type of workout class has been geared to athletes, but some gyms are offering them for weekend warriors and more casual participants.
Get in Shape With a Boxing Workout
Boxing can be learned at specialized gyms, where amateur fighters can train and eventually spar with each other in practice and competition. But group boxing classes at health clubs — designed more for fitness than fighting — are popular. Most casual boxing workouts are a combination of boxing techniques and a dance workout. They’re more intense, you’ll move faster, and you’ll use different muscles than you usually use in traditional exercise programs. GET MORE HERE | <urn:uuid:9db7bb6b-9707-448f-a13c-5b2bc12399e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hellobeautiful.com/1904405/bored-with-your-fitness-routine-shake-it-up/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935482 | 209 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Question: "What is the meaning/definition of the word Catholic?"
Answer: The word "catholic" literally means "universal," as in "the universal church." It originally was applied to all Christians because we are all part of the universal church in the way that we are all members of the Body of Christ. The Latin word is catholicus, and in Greek it is katholikos, from the Greek phrase meaning "on the whole, according to the whole or in general." The word in English can mean "including a wide variety of things; all-embracing," or "of the Roman Catholic faith," or "relating to the historic doctrine and practice of the Western Church.”
It was first used to describe the Christian Church in the early 2nd century to emphasize its universal scope. The term has been incorporated into the name of the largest Christian communion, the Roman Catholic Church, which consists of 23 churches sui iuris, in full communion with the Bishop of Rome. The largest of these, the Latin Rite consists of nearly 95% of the population of the Catholic Church. The remaining 5% consist of the 22 Eastern Catholic Churches
Some Protestant churches use the term "catholic Church" to refer broadly to all believers in Jesus Christ across the world and the ages, regardless of denominational affiliation. Generally, to avoid confusion between this concept and the Roman Catholic Church, theologians will refer to the “universal church” as the “church catholic,” utilizing the lower case, instead of “Catholic Church.”
The Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran, and some Methodists declare that their churches are catholic in the sense that they are in continuity with the original universal church founded by the Apostles. The Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches all believe that their church is the only original and universal church. Catholicity is considered one of Four Marks of the Church, the others being unity, sanctity, and apostolicity according to the Nicene Creed of 381: "I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church." It is crucially important to remember, though, that when the early Christians used the term “catholic,” they were not referring to any particular church, denomination, rite, or communion. They were simply referring to all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
© Copyright 2002-2013 Got Questions Ministries. | <urn:uuid:fc935349-e63c-4c01-8138-fcea86970c97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gotquestions.org/Printer/Catholic-meaning-definition-PF.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967237 | 507 | 3.203125 | 3 |
India's external affairs minister took on Pakistan at the United Nations on Monday for raising the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
S. M. Krishna told the General Assembly that India has resumed dialogue with Pakistan and wants to normalize relations. But he lashed out at a speech last week by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardarif, saying the neighboring nation had no business meddling in India's predominantly Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir, which India claims as sovereign territory.
"An unwarranted reference has been made to Jammu and Kashmir from this podium," he said, adding, "We wish to make it abundantly clear that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India." Zardari said in his speech that Kashmir remained "a symbol of the failures of the United Nations system rather than its strengths." He said a solution could only be reached in an "environment of cooperation."
As the annual high-level meeting of the General Assembly wound down Monday night, representatives of India and Pakistan traded several rounds of rebuttals before a mostly empty chamber. The Pakistani delegation was seen smiling and shaking their heads as an Indian diplomat issued yet another reply to a statement by Pakistan.
A violent separatist insurgency that started in 1989 drew a crackdown by Indian forces that has killed about 68,000 people in Kashmir, where public resentment against Indian rule runs deep.
The rebellion is largely suppressed, with occasional flare-ups. The Indian army said last week that a fierce gunbattle killed a suspected rebel and a soldier. Earlier this month, Indian police arrested Merajuddin Wani, one of the longest-surviving rebel commanders in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
The Supreme Court has held that the two-finger test on a rape survivor violates her right to privacy, and asked the government to provide better medical procedures to confirm sexual assault.
The Bombay High Court has refused to quash a criminal complaint against an artist who painted nude and derogatory pictures of his estranged wife in his bedroom
Ahead of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to India, about 50 people on Saturday held a protest in Delhi demanding suspension of talks with China.
Rejecting the bail plea of Saradha Group promoter Sudipta Sen and one of his close aides, a West Bengal court Saturday sent them to judicial custody till May
The Tihar Jail here registered a record turnover of Rs.32.17 crore in 2012-13 against a turnover of Rs.12.20 crore during the previous year.
The orange city on Saturday recorded a maximum temperatures of 47 degrees Celsius, making it the hottest place in the country
Eight villagers, including 3 children, and a securityman of elite Cobra battalion were killed in an encounter between security forces and the ultras in Naxal-affected Bijapur. | <urn:uuid:fc812e18-b1a2-44d5-9430-9062999f5450> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.in.com/news/current-affairs/india-clashes-with-pakistan-at-un-50135648-in-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956594 | 562 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Skype has started an investigation about a potential security risk that can give away an account holder’s latest recognized Internet Protocol (IP) address.
The privacy concern displays a user’s IP address through general info and log files even if the targeted user is not on its contacts list.
Adrian Asher, Director of Product Security at Skype, said, “This is an on-going, industry-wide issue faced by all peer-to-peer software companies. We are committed to the safety and security of our customers and we are takings measures to help protect them.”
Skype currently employs a peer-to-peer (P2P) system to route data traffic, but security experts have recently alerted users of its proprietary encryption system that it has yet to undergo thorough examination.
“Even if a system is offering you a means to “mask” your IP address, it would be a wiser assumption that the IP address of your computer and the kinds of activity it is engaged in is visible on at least some basic level and that other apps on your system may well leak further data,” commented Rik Ferguson, Director of Security Research and Communication at EMEA, to answer the report.
Communications software users that are anxious of potential security threats can always use a virtual private network (VPN) to make their data seem to originate from another country. A different approach for users to transmit imprecise IP addresses on the Internet is to use The Onion Router (TOR), a service that provides user anonymity and hard-to-track Internet traffic. | <urn:uuid:fe7594a2-70ab-46b9-80eb-6ff6673bdf7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://socialbarrel.com/skype-probes-potential-security-threat-to-its-users-ip-addresses/36995/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952905 | 325 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Patients need more than a spoonful of sugar
Date: 19th October, 2012
For immediate release
Patients need more than a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down
Given that half of patients with long-term conditions have been found by the World Health Organisation to incorrectly take their essential medication; doctors are being encouraged to seek patient buy-in during the treatment decision making process.
Prior to the annual Medicines New Zealand Conference last week Kevin Sheehy stated in a TV3 News interview that the “non-adherence epidemic” is a serious issue, where two in five patients with chronic illnesses will stop taking their treatment after one year.
“There are major benefits in medicines preventing conditions like stroke or heart attacks and if you use your treatment properly your chances of reducing those are substantial, whereas if you don’t use your medicines - you are still at risk” said Mr Sheehy.
Non-adherence to treatment is not only a burden to patient health; it also significantly contributes to wastages in healthcare spending and resources.
Mr Sheehy explains, “Globally, it has been estimated that about 8% of the health budget could be saved if medicines were used correctly, and that is approximately the total annual budget of Pharmac, New Zealand’s drug funding agency.”
Experts in the field of health psychology have discovered proven ways to assist healthcare professionals to improve their patients’ adherence to treatment, optimise health outcomes and make lasting lifestyle changes.
According to Health Psychology Specialist, Dr Kate Perry from Atlantis Healthcare, specialists in patient adherence solutions, understanding the patient perspective is the first step towards improving adherence.
“In order to improve adherence to medication we first need to understand why patients stop taking their treatment correctly. Although some people simply forget, research shows us that in the majority of cases non-adherence is related to how patients perceive their condition and treatment,” says Dr Perry.
“For example, if a patient believes their condition will only last a short time, they will be less likely to take their treatment in the long-term. Similarly, patients living with largely asymptomatic conditions, like hypertension, may not see the need for treatment as they are not experiencing symptoms day-to-day.”
Dr Perry elaborates, “Patients may also be worried about side-effects or may have concerns about medicines being unnatural or artificial in some way, and could benefit from a better understanding of how their treatment works.”
“This highlights the importance of talking to patients about their condition and treatment; through having these conversations, doctors and other healthcare professionals can work alongside their patients to improve medication adherence” says Dr Perry.
Dr Kate Perry is a key member of Atlantis Healthcare’s world-leading health psychology team, which is headed by Professor Keith Petrie from the University of Auckland and Professor John Weinman from King’s College in London.
--- ENDS --- | <urn:uuid:0f085695-40a3-46b6-a14d-27fbfa48b8c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE1210/S00091/patients-need-more-than-a-spoonful-of-sugar.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948602 | 617 | 2.375 | 2 |
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines "mentor" as a “trusted counselor or guide.” So what does it mean to be a mentor to your child during his/her college years? This is a new chapter in the lives of both you and your student. Your relationship is evolving, and you both need to redefine it. Here are suggestions on ways to approach this stage of your relationship with your student:
• Tell your student it can be good to take some risks; trying something new can be a difficult hurdle for some students to overcome.
Helping your student achieve personal, academic, and professional goals are our priority at RMU. Our faculty, staff and student mentors will work closely with him/her to help them make the most of their RMU experience. Nothing, however, can replace the influence and support of parents and families.
Internships and student workers are an important part of the Department of Campus Recreation. Without students who are willing to take on leadership roles and professional development opportunities, the programs and activities offered would cease to exist. One such opportunity falls within our PREP (Professional Education Program) where one student each semester serves as a Campus Recreation Assistant.
This student serves a role as paid employee and learns valuable skills within athletic administration that will help the student develop professional competencies, strengthen their resume, and provide them with opportunities to build relationships with RMU staff members and other student leaders.
Class of 2012 graduate Corey Beynon served in this role for the past two years and currently works for EDMC as an admissions representative. Corey speaks highly of his experience within the PREP program calling it, “some of the best times of my college experience…I learned a great deal and had a great time planning events and meeting new people.”
For more information on student employment and PREP positions, please visit the RMU Career Center homepage at rmu.edu/careercenter.
The Center for Student Success oversees two programs where students become mentors to first-year students: the First-Year Seminar Program and the Early Success Program. Each allows for first-year students to make a connection with an upper-class student, while giving them the freedom to ask questions when they may not know how to find the answers. Each mentor goes through a rigorous training process that helps them understand and assist with transitional issues that first-year students experience. Many of the mentors also experienced transitional issues – homesickness, stress, loneliness – so they are able to offer suggestions to students based on their personal experiences.
In addition to student mentors, parents can also become mentors to their child, even from hours away, both socially and academically. Socially parents can help by learning about RMU; this issue of Family Connections is a great place to start. Read the mailings that the university sends out about upcoming events. Surf rmu.edu and find out what clubs and organizations are available for students. Encourage your child to become involved at RMU. Encourage them to spend weekends here. This is crucial to the adjustment to your child’s new home away from home. Going home each weekend may seem like the cure for homesickness, but it's not. Becoming adjusted and comfortable in the RMU environment is the best cure for homesickness.
Academically, you can become a mentor by asking about your child’s class work. Students love to answer the question, “How are classes?” with “Great”, even though sometimes they may not be. Ask open ended questions, and then ask questions from the answers your child gives. If your child indicates that he or she is having difficulty in a class, encourage him/her to talk to the instructor. Do not offer to call the instructor yourself—learning independence and how to take ownership of his/her education are two of the most important lessons your child can learn during college. Encourage your child to attend tutoring. The peer tutors at RMU, just like the mentors, go through an intensive training session prior to and after becoming tutors. Encourage your student to meet with their counselors – their Center for Student Success Counselor, Career Counselor, and Financial Aid Counselor – and especially with their Academic Advisor. These people comprise the support circle that is set up for your child.
At RMU, our goal is to help each student succeed, but we can only do that if they allow us to help them!
Thursday, January 31, 4:40 – 6:10 p.m.
CREATIVITY AT WORK
Wednesday, April 3, 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
EMPLOYER NETWORKING RECEPTION
Wednesday, February 20, 5 – 7 p.m.
FOCUS ON YOUR FUTURE
Thursday, April 4, 4 – 6 p.m.
Wednesday, February 27, 3:45 – 5:15 p.m.
SPRING JOB FAIR
Tuesday, April 9, Noon – 4 p.m.
Sewall Center Arena
WESTPACS JOB FAIR
Wednesday, March 13, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Monroeville Convention Center
The Multicultural Peer Mentor Program was created to provide first-year minority students with the tools they need to succeed at Robert Morris University. The program provides each student a mentor who will act as an extension of the Multicultural Student Services office.
Mentors take a genuine interest in the success and acclamation of the mentee to the RMU community. The students lead workshops, community services projects, and off-campus trips to help first-year students make connections with the university. Currently, ten mentors work for the program. These mentors have an average GPA of 3.1 and are actively involved in campus life. The mentors were selected based on their academic achievement, leadership experience, and their ability to serve as positive role models.
Currently 45 first-year students are enrolled in the program. These first-year students are from a broad range of different backgrounds, cultures, and geographic locations. Any first-year student still interested in becoming involved in the Multicultural Peer Mentor program can contact the Office of Multicultural Student Services at 412-397-3811.
The Office of Student Civic Engagement (OSCE) provides a variety of opportunities for students to be mentored throughout their time at RMU as well as to serve as mentors to youth in the community. Two of its signature programs are the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance (NLA) and Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS).
Students in diverse majors, who are interested in pursuing professional careers in the nonprofit sector, can receive personalized and ongoing mentoring from the Director of Student Civic Engagement through RMU’s Nonprofit Leadership Alliance Program. The NLA Program introduces students to career opportunities in fields as varied as higher education, health care, the arts, international relations, and human services, to name a few. Through a combination of course work, workshops, an internship, a student club and attendance at a national conference, students develop skills that help to prepare them for entry level professional positions. Students work on the requirements for the NLA Program at their own pace, meeting one-on-one with the OSCE Director throughout their years at RMU. NLA students also benefit from the mentoring relationship with their internship site supervisor at organizations as diverse as Boy Scouts of America, the Pittsburgh Symphony, UPMC, and United Way, among many others.
Encourage your student to investigate the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance Program by contacting Donna Anderson, Director of Student Civic Engagement at 412-397-3674 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
RMU students have the opportunity to give back to the community through the campus chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters, which partners with a nearby afterschool program run by the Felician Sisters. BBBS serves children in communities who need help the most, including those living in single parent homes, growing up in poverty and coping with parental incarceration. Over the course of the academic year, RMU works with a BBBS site coordinator to train and place thirty student mentors, known as “Bigs”, at Mooncrest, a local impoverished housing plan. As a Big, each student serves as a mentor to an at-risk child in the neighborhood. RMU Bigs commit to visiting with their mentees, or “Littles”, in a group setting once each week. During these visits, Bigs not only help their Littles with homework, they also play board games, create arts and crafts, and engage in outdoor play as time allows. Each Big/Little relationship is different—ensuring that the individual mentor’s and mentee’s needs and wishes are met.
While there is an application process to become a Big, any RMU student is invited to interview for the program. Regardless of major, age, or background every student has something valuable to offer to a child in need. The thought of mentoring a struggling child can be daunting at times, however, as long as the mentor has a genuine interest in creating a meaningful and committed friendship with their mentee they can make a positive and lasting impact.
If your student is interested in becoming a Big, they can contact Jessica Mann, Volunteer Service Coordinator at 412-397-3835 or email@example.com to learn more about the program.
Planning a successful career is a challenging endeavor. Career Center staff members are available to help students at every step along the way and provide a variety of resources and services. Without question, networking is an important part of the career planning process. Therefore, the staff encourages students to connect with networking contacts working in their field who can provide specific career information and job search advice. To build their network, students are encouraged to conduct informational interviews, shadow professionals on the job, participate in part-time jobs and internships, and attend job fairs and networking events. In addition to meeting networking contacts through these experiences, students will ideally find a mentor. Like networking contacts, mentors essentially provide career advice and assistance. However, the relationship with a mentor is a longer commitment, and the mentor has more of an investment in the mentee's future. Finding a mentor can be invaluable to a student during college as well as throughout their career.
Whether searching for a networking contact or a mentor, students must first explore initial connections with professionals working in their field of interest. To assist students in this process, several years ago the Career Center started an online alumni networking program through ColonialTRAK, the office's job posting and registration database. While many alumni were willing and excited to join the program, maintaining current information proved to be a difficult challenge, as alumni changed jobs or contact information.
Due to the increased popularity of LinkedIn, the largest professional networking site, the Career Center decided in fall 2012 to transition its networking program from ColonialTRAK to a specific group in LinkedIn, called the "Robert Morris University Career Network." The group provides an opportunity for current RMU students, alumni, faculty, and staff to connect with each other about career-related topics. Students can connect with other members to explore career information and learn about specific fields. Career Center information such as resume and interviewing tips, job search strategies, and networking/employment events will also be posted to this group. Members will have the opportunity to join subgroups where they can discuss opportunities related to their career field. To participate, students should create an account on LinkedIn.com. Once an account has been created, students will be able to search “Robert Morris University Career Network” and join the group. Although the group was just recently launched, the Career Center expects it to grow quickly and provide many valuable opportunities for students to connect with alumni, faculty and staff.
In September RMU marked the successful completion of the largest fundraising campaign in RMU history and the opening of the Wheatley Center, the new building for the School of Communications and Information Systems (SCIS) at the university’s main campus in Moon Township.
The 50,000-square-foot facility includes an art gallery, a 3-D design room, a screening room, computer labs, a café, and more. It was named for Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) a slave, poet, and the first African-American woman to publish a book. The name was selected by SCIS full-time faculty and staff and announced during the event.
The Wheatley Center is possible thanks to the $40 million Changing Lives, Building Futures fundraising campaign, which also paid for the School of Business building that opened last year.
“This building is symbolic of how the capital campaign has contributed to the ongoing transformation of Robert Morris University while allowing us to stay true to the mission and core values that this community embraces like no other university I've seen,” said Gregory G. Dell’Omo, president of Robert Morris University.
More than 8,200 donors contributed to the university over the course of the campaign, which launched in 2006. Other campaign achievements include 30 new scholarship funds and an endowed research center, the RMU Research Center on Black Male Educational Student Success, which is funded through a gift from The Heinz Endowments. Dell'Omo noted that the center grew out Crawley's own research, which also is the basis of the Black Male Leadership Development Institute and the Black Male Empowerment Network at RMU.
"This is just one powerful example of how RMU faculty continuously link their academic research to real world applications, which, in turn, help change lives at RMU and beyond," said Dell'Omo.
A highlight of the evening was the opening of the first exhibition, “Reframing Research,” which featured research-based art work by Media Arts faculty.
"The building provides a beautiful, bright, vibrant, and inviting atmosphere for teaching, learning, and engagement," said Barbara J. Levine, dean of the School of Communications and Information Systems. "It will be open to the entire university and members of the community for events like seminars, workshops, gallery exhibitions, screenings, and theatrical performances. It's really a wonderful addition to the RMU campus."
The School of Communications and Information Systems includes degree programs in communication, media arts, computer and information systems, English, and organizational leadership. Its new building is part of a plan to give each of RMU’s five schools its own dedicated space. The university soon will break ground on a medical simulation center for the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, set to open in 2013.
Family Connections is a publication designed for the parents and families of Robert Morris University students. It is compiled by the Office of Student Life and printed in cooperation with the Office of Public Relations and Marketing.
Editions are printed in the fall, winter, and spring of each academic year. We are interested in your feedback about this publication. E-mail your comments and suggestions to firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:15a43155-12e0-4900-84a1-2209b0c6cd81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://byrnes@rmu.edu/parents/ParentsConnections/Winter2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960517 | 3,113 | 2.03125 | 2 |
LOS ANGELES — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not decided whether it will hold a public hearing on a plan to restart the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant in California, the nation's top nuclear regulator said Tuesday.
NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane told reporters in Washington, D.C., that she is aware of strong public interest in California and among some members of Congress for a public hearing, but said agency officials still are working to determine the best way to inform the public. She called the situation at San Onofre complex.
"This is a constantly evolving situation," she said. "Every day brings a new surprise."
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an independent arm of the agency, sided Monday with environmentalists who have called for detailed public hearings on Southern California Edison's restart proposal.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said the board's decision established "a legal framework for a full public hearing before any final decision on the restart of the San Onofre nuclear power plant is made."
Macfarlane stopped short of saying whether a hearing is a requirement of Monday's decision.
"We are trying to devise ways to explain to the public what is going on here," she told reporters after a speech to the nuclear industry.
The plant between San Diego and Los Angeles hasn't produced electricity since January 2012, after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of unusual damage to hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water.
Edison wants to run the Unit 2 reactor at no more than 70 percent power for five months, which it projects will stop damage to tubing in its steam generators.
In its ruling, the licensing board called Edison's restart plan an "experiment."
Macfarlane said with or without a public hearing, a decision on the restart plan will not be made until at least late June.
In a brief statement, Southern California Edison said it's evaluating the board's ruling.
The company noted it had separately submitted paperwork to change the seaside plant's operating rules to permit the single reactor to run at reduced power, down from the now-required 100 percent. Parent company Edison International raised the possibility last month of retiring the plant if it can't get one reactor running later this year. | <urn:uuid:7e56e594-17f0-4e33-87d3-fd1009b4408b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/a66724f47b2140d2ab71db566f0980b5/CA--Nuclear-Plant-Problems | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954593 | 462 | 1.875 | 2 |
Just to correct something:
The SSI tables are not straight-up navy tables, they're based on Doppler studies, and thus considered "more conservative" than the navy tables.
There are a number of versions of the tables out there, all of them are at best approximations, and just because a dive profile puts you one column over in remaining nitrogen time, doesn't mean much at all. Your instructor should know that! I wouldn't worry about it -- if you look into it, the difference will only be a few minutes either way.
Another way to look at it is compare it to using a computer: there are different algorithms used among computers, just like there are different tables. If you and your buddy have different computers, and they indicate a slightly different RNT, does that mean one is defective?
Finally, unless you are descending vertically to a fixed depth that happens to be on the chart, staying there, and then ascending straight up, the chart has a built-in "penalty", and will be more conservative than a computer. That's the main reason I like using a computer -- no silly penalties for normal multi-level diving.
If you are really worried about it, as you should be for instance, if you have some condition that pre-disposes you to DCI, then I recommend buying a computer that allows you to program in an extra safety margin, and use it. The Suunto computers, for instance, use an algorithm based on "micro bubble" research that gets imncreasingly more conservative for multiple repetetive dives on the same day, and you can program them to provide an increased level of conservatism.
To me the most worrisome thing about the experience you describe is the reaction of your instructor -- obviously not very knowledgeable about scuba. | <urn:uuid:79f3dbde-81dd-4699-9b2a-956d189110a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scuba.com/scubaforums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=7075 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954888 | 371 | 1.664063 | 2 |
The power of discerning a cheap, yet dependable hosting company
As the information technology sector fosters incessantly, modern hosting solutions are brought in to make web page creation and management easier than ever. A web hosting plan with the smallest web space and bandwidth amounts used to cost 10’s of USD a month, but nowadays, some distributors offer unlimited packages for just a fraction of the cost, enabling clients and small-scale firms to assume their place in the Internet world.
Moderately Priced, Stable Web Page Hosting Plans
The creation of more powerful configurations and the distribution of different tasks between several web servers enable suppliers to furnish qualitative, yet cheap web hosting plans. With a shared hosting plan, each and every user hosts an account on a web hosting server and since many other individuals share the very same hosting server, the cost of the service is very inexpensive. Depending on the given corporation, there may be disk storage, monthly traffic or CPU usage limits, but owing to the immense competition on the market and the abovementioned allocation of tasks, most top companies provide unlimited feature accounts. The most common limitation is related to the central processing unit load, and such a quota restriction is a way for the firm to ensure that all accounts on the server will have guaranteed system resources and that if a specific account loads the web hosting server, it will not have a bad effect on the other ones, inducing all the sites on the server to become inaccessible. A shared web hosting service can be used for any small or medium-sized website - from a private online diary, to a forum or a small-scale web storefront.
Affordable Virtual Private Web Hosting Servers
For more famous web sites that receive 1000’s of hits each and every day, there is also an affordably priced, avant-garde solution - a VPS. With this kind of website hosting, there are just a few accounts on a physical server, which still maintains the price rather inexpensive in comparison with a dedicated server. Each virtual server has guaranteed resources that are much more than those of a shared website hosting package, which renders it accomplishable for people to establish big online shops, e-learning web sites with 100’s or 1000’s of users, and sizable company web pages. Similar to the shared web site hosting plans, the Virtual Private Server hosting accounts have one or more features with a given allowance, which ensures the errorless operation of the other accounts on the web server. The good side of the virtual web hosting server is that the client has complete root access, in other words services can be initiated and stopped, any software platform can be activated, and the web hosting server can be rebooted through a virtualization panel tool, also famous as a container. Since some script-powered sites require supplementary server-side software to be activated, being granted root access is an essential point for these sites to work immaculately.
An Array of Web Space Hosting Control Panel Types
The site content is managed via a web page hosting Control Panel just as any shared webspace hosting account. The CP brands differ depending on the webspace hosting company, but the most famous ones are Hepsia, cPanel, DirectAdmin, Plesk and H-Sphere, and they all give you the essential functions to handle your online portals, to set up and manage files, databases and Email Manager, create password protected areas, install scripts via a 1-click applications installer menu, and examine web traffic statistics for your domain names. Unluckily, only Hepsia offers domain name registrations, transfers, renewals and a lot of domain name administration possibilities, via a very user-friendly section dubbed Domain Manager.
Moderately Priced Cloud Hosting Accounts by '50Webs Web Hosting'
'50Webs Web Hosting' is one of the web portals where you can take a peek at and assess different cloud web hosting plans and hosting service. They provide professional web page hosting solutions on cutting-edge servers at astonishingly inexpensive rates, so you can have all you need for your Internet presence - a web hosting account, domain name, and, if you manage a web shop, you can also obtain an SSL certificate. All these services are easily administered through one single Control Panel GUI. | <urn:uuid:522fc669-6f76-43c7-8075-5e907285a867> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.belatedtruth.com/hosting/cheap-web-hosting/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90954 | 873 | 1.5625 | 2 |
In a letter to The Union, Randi Briggs expresses an emotionally appealing argument for many, but it is misled and inconsistent.
The purpose of a car or airplane is transportation, whereas the purpose of a gun is to kill. If an attacker is stopped in self-defense then the purpose of a gun has been successful.
Yet, to suggest that people-killing weapons are not being abused is absurd. Based on this, one might agree that Iran should have nuclear bombs, because it makes them feel safer and so they deserve the right to have them.
Common sense demonstrates that not everyone is equally responsible with weapons, thus the restriction of dangerous guns is essential, otherwise, they will continue to be abused.
The age-old argument between the so-called rights of the few versus the many does not give the minority the right to cry “fire” in a crowded theater.
I do appreciate the desire of law-abiding citizens for using guns in self-defense, but the instruments involved are now out of all proportion. The essential disagreement here is in the conflict between public safety versus public rights, and we now know that the public safety has suffered enormously.
Therefore, our laws must be changed for the benefit of the many. | <urn:uuid:69c396b5-54cf-4383-9c06-455161e4aa41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theunion.com/entertainment/activitiesandevents/4581268-113/gun-public-purpose-abused?layout=320 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963026 | 252 | 1.679688 | 2 |
In 2010, Simple Acts Ministry played a strategic role in helping to open the first faith based dorm at Montford. The dorm houses 50 prisoners who have been screened by the prison chaplain and have agreed to follow a strict set of rules.
Residents must consistently attend faith-based learning classes. Simple Acts has been given the rare opportunity to teach these classes three nights a week, recruit teachers, and to recommend the curriculum.
With that freedom, we’ve been able to teach spiritually-based studies such as “Quest For Authentic Manhood,” and “Experiencing God.” Using an excellent program known as “S.A.L.T.” (Seven Areas of Life Training), we lead prisoners through a well rounded, seven month discipleship process that includes the Spiritual, Social, Physical, Financial, Marital and Parental areas of life.
Our classes vary and may include life skills training, Bible Studies and principles for spiritual growth. In most meetings, we include time for interaction, discussion and prayer. The spiritual depth, and the show of concern these men have for their fellow inmates is tremendous. | <urn:uuid:5ea53ff5-61eb-426d-8014-2f900431ba51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://simpleacts.net/behind-the-walls-2/faith-based-dorm/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960567 | 235 | 1.585938 | 2 |
As of October 18, Bill Gates has donated more than $3 million to support I-1240, according to the Washington Post.
Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen of Seattle and Alice Walton of Wal-Mart founding family have also contributed, among others, according to state public disclosure records.
Supporters of the initiative, including Finne, point to the financial muscle of Washington state's teachers unions and approximately $33 million per year that is collected in union dues as the other side of the money trail. The unions are against the charter initiative.
Georgia's Amendment 1
In Georgia, 2,700 miles away, voters also have charters on their minds.
Charter schools have existed in Georgia for 17 years. If a group wants to start a charter school, it brings its petition before a local school board, which will approve or deny the request. If rejected, the group can go to the State Board of Education, but if the charter is granted, the school cannot receive local tax funding, only state and federal funds.
There was a third route: The Georgia Charter Schools Commission. But in 2011, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled this commission unconstitutional. The result was the drafting of Amendment 1 to the Georgia State Constitution.
Amendment 1 would give a state commission the authority to approve charters. A commission of individuals appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and state House speaker could approve a charter school petition that had been denied by a local school board and the state board.
Rich Thompson is a parent of two daughters. He and his family live in Southwest Atlanta. Every school day, he drives past the neighborhood school located half a mile from his home to transport his daughters to two charter schools more than 10 miles away. He supports Amendment 1.
Thompson said he tells other parents that his daughters, like their kids, are unique and that they need a school system tailored "to their needs, and not the needs of a system." | <urn:uuid:ec512cc2-f81b-4ba4-9068-da707e6a7fe4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wxii12.com/news/national/Voters-weigh-charter-school-initiatives/-/9677834/17285154/-/item/2/-/2kqmcd/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979106 | 391 | 1.820313 | 2 |
- Supervisors & managers
- Every Researcher Counts: equality and diversity in researcher careers in HEIs
- Every Researcher Counts case studies
- Institutional practice - University of Sunderland
Institutional practice - University of Sunderland
The University of Sunderland takes a holistic approach to equality and diversity. The aims are consistency and inclusivity where equality and diversity is embedded into business as usual activities. Staff views are actively sought, as well as collecting and using data and learning from what it reveals, ensuring activities are steered to where they are most needed.
In order to embed equality and diversity into business-as-usual practices, the chosen approach has been not to police Equality and Diversity but to promote it. The initial action was to distribute a constant stream of communications on several levels including putting up posters around all university buildings and sending newsletters to staff, constantly sending out positive messages.
- Equal pay
- The wider community
- Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
- Disability audits
The University of Sunderland trains all staff in Equality and Diversity. A management programme is currently being developed for leadership with equality and diversity embedded within it. Similarly, as part of induction processes the Equality and Diversity Manager meets with all staff to talk about inclusion, diversity and fostering the university community, which is a community which values dignity and respect at work and ensures collective principles based on fairness, respect and responsibility. Indeed, the feedback received from staff surveys indicates that the University is seen as a responsible organisation.
The University of Sunderland actively engages in opportunities to benchmark itself against the sector and other universities. One of the most successful areas is that of equal pay and closing the gender pay gap. Since 2003 the University has consistently conducted annual equal pay audits and taken action where appropriate. The University also publishes its gender pay gaps. Since its inception in 2003 the University has progressively been closing the gender pay gap and this open and transparent policy was cited as best practice by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission in 2010.
In support of this holistic approach the University is keen to develop relationships with the wider community. Strong local strategic partnerships have been built, and positive angles for collaborations with staff, students and the city in general are always being sought. The following examples provide a flavour of some of the partnerships in place at the University.
The University of Sunderland has an open approach to faith, and the University chaplain chairs a city wide interfaith group to support and encourage an understanding of all faiths. Prayer facilities are in place, providing space for staff and students to pray. In 2009, in order to further recognise and promote different cultures, the chaplaincy and student union organised a Diversity Celebration event where staff and students shared food, music and learned about different cultures. Similarly, the University decided to make Chinese New Year a civic event open to all, which was held at the football stadium in Sunderland. This meant that, rather than the Chinese community having their own event, it was a large celebratory event which everyone could become involved in and enjoy.
The University of Sunderland works closely with Age UK and have signed up to the Age Concern Pledge ‘Break the Age Barrier in the Workplace', which is all about valuing older people in the workplace. As part of this collaboration the University was actively involved in an inaugural event Age UK organised designed to break down age barriers. During this event the university's international students met with a group of older people giving everyone the opportunity to learn about and from each other.
In 2010, the charity Age UK was given an honorary fellowship by the University of Sunderland in recognition of its work in improving the quality of life for older people.
The University of Sunderland is committed to improving the workplace for LGBT staff and so hosted a best practice event with speakers from Stonewall and from the University. This event also promoted the activities of Sunderland Partnership LGB Independent Advisory Group. Indeed, the University, working alongside the Sunderland Partnership LGB Independent Advisory Group, led events on International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) joining together to show support to the event.
Finally, to understand some of the obstacles staff and students with a disability may face and to enable the university to take positive action, the University of Sunderland are conducting two audits. For the first, a blind student has been recruited to assess accessibility issues within the University on a 6 week summer internship. Similarly, an accessibility audit of our buildings will be undertaken by a severely disabled wheelchair user who will produce a report of her findings for appropriate actions to be taken.
The University of Sunderland's holistic approach to equality and diversity should mean all of its staff at whatever level feel able to declare their needs and that line managers and PI's know how and where to access anything they need to support their staff and colleagues.
- Create the right culture - one that everyone feels a part of
- Promote rather than police Equality and Diversity
- Make Equality and Diversity business as usual | <urn:uuid:6a19697d-f29b-4aa1-b6d1-020a11efc144> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vitae.ac.uk/policy-practice/468611/Institutional-practice---University-of-Sunderland.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961861 | 996 | 1.914063 | 2 |
The Decline of the Dollar
by C. Fred Bergsten, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Speech given before the World Economic Forum
January 29, 1999
© 1999 by C. Fred Bergsten. All rights reserved.
C. Fred Bergsten was also Chairman of the Competitiveness Policy Council (1991-97) and the APEC Eminent Persons Group (1993-95) throughout their existence. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs (1977-81) and Assistant for International Economic Affairs to the National Security Council (1969-71). He has authored or edited 27 books on a wide range of international economic topics including Global Economic Leadership and the Group of Seven (1996).
One of the major global economic events of 1999 is likely to be a sharp decline in the exchange rate of the dollar. There are at least four reasons for this prospect.
First, America's current account deficit will rise to about $300 billion (and the merchandise trade deficit will approximate $350 billion). This equates to about 3½ percent of the country's GDP, roughly the same level reached at the previous peak in the middle 1980s-after which the dollar fell by over 50 percent against both the DM and yen. The deficits are already at record levels in dollar terms. The net foreign debt of the United States will rise to almost $2 trillion.
The flipside of America's debt and deficits is of course the large creditor positions and surpluses of Japan and Europe. Japan's surplus is headed toward a record $150 billion in 1999 and the yen has already risen sharply against the dollar (and everyone else). Euroland's surplus is a bit smaller but, as the European Commission pointed out in its convergence report in March 1998, is "unusually high" and larger than at any time since the middle 1980s when it reflected the largest dollar overvaluation in history. Exchange rates always respond eventually to these external fundamentals and 1999 is likely to be the year of reckoning for the dollar for the other three reasons.
Second, the rise in the American deficit will intensify a wide range of protectionist trade pressures in the United States. The steel industry is already seeking comprehensive relief. Machine tools, semiconductors, shipbuilding, textiles and several agricultural sectors may not be far behind. If American economic growth slows enough to push unemployment up by even a modest amount, as seems likely, the trade deficit will be blamed for "exporting jobs" and the pressure on trade policy will become intense. The likelihood of a sympathetic reaction by the Administration is highlighted by its acknowledged debt to organized labor, for delivering the money and votes that propelled the Democrats to their surprise "victory" in November's midterm elections, and by the early phases of the Presidential campaign for 2000.
These protectionist pressures will focus media and public attention on the trade deficit, as will the Administration's effort to win Congressional approval for new "fast track" trade negotiating authority. Particular concern will be expressed about Japan and China, with which America's bilateral imbalances are soaring to record levels. Market attention to the external deficit will escalate sharply as a result. Previous US efforts to reduce its deficits via dollar depreciation will be recalled. This series of events will add to the prospect of a sizable dollar fall.
Third, the creation of the euro could be the proximate trigger for the next phase of the dollar decline. It is now widely agreed that the euro will become a major global currency, perhaps eventually challenging the dollar for global financial supremacy. That historic development will entail a large portfolio diversification from dollars to euro, perhaps reaching $500 billion to $1 trillion over the next few years.
The international ascent of the euro will produce a sharp initial rise in its exchange rate. Euroland will export considerable quantities of capital, increasing global supply of the new currency along with demand for it. But the stock adjustment, mainly out of dollars, will occur much more quickly than this flow effect. A euro appreciation of about 10 percent is called for to restore sustainable current account positions but overshooting is quite possible and some European economists anticipate appreciation of as much as 25-40 percent.
Fourth, the US economy is likely to slow sharply in 1999. American interest rates are still quite high in real terms by historical standards. Its short-term rates are a good deal higher than Europe's and they will probably fall considerably farther. European interest rates may drop too but the differential in favor of the dollar is likely to decline. Any recovery in Japan would probably produce higher rates there and add to the reduction in transPacific yield differentials as well.
Structural, systemic and cyclical considerations therefore all point to a dollar downturn over the coming year. Our latest calculation of fundamental equilibrium exchange rates at the Institute for International Economics suggests equilibrium rates of about 1 euro = $1.25-1.30 and $1 = 100 yen. This implies that the required dollar decline will average around 10-15 percent, about as much as in 1971-73 (though much less than in 1985-87).
Market rates typically overshoot, however, so the dollar could depreciate well beyond these levels in its initial fall. Such an overshoot could be quite uncomfortable for all countries involved. An excessive appreciation of the yen, like its rise to 80 to the dollar in early 1995, could severely retard Japanese recovery. A sharp rise in the euro, while helping to establish the new currency's market appeal, could increase unemployment across Europe. The situation in the United States is complex: substantial dollar depreciation would help correct the trade deficit and check protectionism over the next couple of years but, with the economy still near full employment, might also trigger inflationary pressures and push interest rates back up just when the economy was slowing down.
There will thus be a need for the G-3 (Euroland, Japan, United States) to manage their exchange rates much more actively in the upcoming period . The best approach, as proposed by the new German government and supported by Japan and the other continental European members of the G-7, would be installation of a regime of "controlled flexibility." The G-3 could seek agreement on wide (20-30 percent) equilibrium ranges, both in the transition period to the euro and subsequently for the longer run, and try to avoid severe dollar overshooting on the downside. They could deploy joint intervention, additional interest rate cuts in Euroland and Japan, and perhaps fiscal expansion in the United States to defend the announced ranges against excessive dollar weakness. Europe will also need to adopt serious supply-side measures to reduce unemployment by increasing the flexibility of its labor and capital markets; the alternative of substantial fiscal expansion, in addition to violating the Stability Pact, would produce a Reagan-Volcker policy mix (instead of the much more desirable Clinton-Greenspan mix) that includes much higher interest rates and much greater euro appreciation.
The lesson for the longer run is that floating exchange rates, like "fixed" rates before them, frequently degenerate into prolonged misalignments that generate substantial economic dislocations, set the stage for new bouts of financial instability, and threaten the global trading system with major outbreaks of protectionism. If left unattended, global instability is likely to worsen in the future with the advent of the euro because then the world's two leading economies, both continental in scope with relatively little reliance on international transactions, could be frequently tempted to practice "benign neglect." Both short-run market prospects and long-term systemic considerations thus point to the urgent need for adoption of more stable currency arrangements among the world's largest economic powers. | <urn:uuid:d49155dd-2db7-4ec9-a915-55c84e7cda2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/print.cfm?researchid=335&doc=pub | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947663 | 1,541 | 2.078125 | 2 |
The New York Times certainly was casual and superficial in likening TV comedian Jon Stewart to Edward R. Murrow. Not only that, but the discussion about the absurd comparison has been accompanied by the appearance of media-driven myth.
The Atlantic post said of Stewart and Murrow:
“Both men stuck their necks out. Both went first into a sort of no-man’s-land. It is probably true that only Murrow in his time had the bona fides to stand up to McCarthy (and don’t forget, Murrow waited years before doing so).” [Emphasis added in bold.]
That claim is just absurd.
While Murrow did take on McCarthy, in a much-celebrated half-hour television program in March 1954, he was scarcely alone in challenging the senator and his communists-in-government witch-hunt. And certainly not the first.
Among these journalists with the bona fides was the Washington-based syndicated columnist Drew Pearson.
As I note in Getting It Wrong: “During the four years of his communists-in-government campaign, McCarthy had no more relentless, implacable, or scathing foe in the news media” than the muckraking Pearson, who wrote the widely published “Washington Merry-Go-Round” column and had a radio show.
Pearson was no saint. Jack Shafer of slate.com not long ago described Pearson as “one of the skuzziest journalists to ever write a story.” Pearson was intrusive and overbearing. He readily made enemies, and almost seemed to relish doing so.
But there’s no denying that he was quick off the dime, that he went after McCarthy hard and relentlessly, and that he immediately recognized the dubious quality of McCarthy’s claims about communists in high places in the U.S. government and military.
Pearson first wrote about McCarthy’s allegations on February 18, 1950, just days after McCarthy had begun raising them, notably in a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia. Pearson called McCarthy the “harum-scarum” senator and said that when he “finally was pinned down, he could produce … only four names of State Department officials whom he claimed were communists.”
Two of the four people named by McCarthy had resigned years earlier; another had been cleared, and the fourth had never worked for the State Department, Pearson wrote.
Pearson followed up with another column, writing that “the alleged communists which he claims are sheltered in the State Department just aren’t.”
Pearson also noted that he had covered the State Department for years, during which time he had been “the career boys’ severest critic. However, knowing something about State Department personnel, it is my opinion that Senator McCarthy is way off base.”
As he was.
Pearson leveled not just a few, scattered shots at McCarthy. His challenges in print became a near-barrage. Pearson scrutinized the senator’s tax troubles in Wisconsin, his accepting funds from a government contractor, and his taking suspicious campaign contributions back in Wisconsin.
McCarthy confronted Pearson in the Sulgrave’s coat check room and either slapped, kneed, or punched the columnist.
Richard Nixon, who recently had been sworn in as a U.S. Senator, intervened to break up the encounter. Nixon, in his memoir RN, said Pearson “grabbed his coat and ran from the room. McCarthy said, ‘You shouldn’t have stopped me, Dick.’”
So Pearson had the bona fides.
So did James A. Wechsler, editor of the New York Post.
In 1951, the Post published a 17-part, bare-knuckle series about McCarthy. The installments of the series addressed McCarthy’s tax troubles, his hypocrisy, and his recklessness in raising allegations about communists in government.
The closing installment likened McCarthy to “a drunk at a party who was funny half an hour ago but now won’t go home. McCarthy is camped in America’s front room trying to impress everybody by singing all the dirty songs and using all the four-letter words he knows. The jokes are pointless, the songs unfunny, the profanity a bore.”
The series was published 2½ years before Murrow’s television program on McCarthy.
And Wechsler paid a price for it, too. He was hauled before McCarthy’s investigative subcommittee and grilled about his dalliance years before in the Communist Youth League.
Wechsler characterized the closed-door hearing as “a reprisal against a newspaper and its editor for their opposition to the methods of this committee’s chairman.” But he complied, reluctantly, with the subcommittee’s demand to produce names of people he had known to be communists during his time in the Youth League.
By the time Murrow took on McCarthy in March 1954, the senator’s favorable ratings had crested and entered a terminal decline.
Thanks to the work of Pearson and Wechsler and other journalists, they already knew.
Recent and related: | <urn:uuid:567a6718-dda2-4180-931d-ab960589e249> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mediamythalert.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/only-murrow-had-the-bona-fides-nonsense/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980409 | 1,090 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Tanks, reactors and other vessels can be cleaned in many ways. However, use of automated clean-in-place systems has increased rapidly. That's because automated devices clean more thoroughly than other methods, dramatically reducing or eliminating risk of cross-contamination caused by product or cleaning-chemical residue.
Automated cleaning provides other benefits as well:
• faster return to service of vessels -- downtime can be reduced by as much as 90%;
• decreased water and chemical use;
• lowered wastewater disposal costs;
• improved safety because workers no longer have to enter tanks; and
• better staff productivity because people can be deployed to other tasks.
The decision to automate is easy -- a plant usually can recoup the cost of an automated system in the first few months of operation through reduced chemical and water costs and increased production. However, determining the best cleaning equipment can be hard. If vessels are large, have obstructions such as mixing paddles, and contain sticky, flammable or toxic residues, selection can get challenging. So, this article offers some guidelines to help you choose the most appropriate equipment for your operation.
TANK CLEANING: THE STARTING POINT
Before you begin evaluating cleaning equipment, you must understand your cleaning requirements.
Residue. First, assess the residue to determine what's required to remove it. Is the substance sticky or easily cleaned? Can a cleaning liquid dissolve it? If not, what level of impact is needed to break it up and wash it away?
(If you're not sure how to remove the residue, a cleaning equipment vendor can use computational fluid dynamics modeling to determine the flow rate, operating pressure, coverage and the position of the spray head for complete cleaning of the vessel and any permanently installed equipment.)
Cleaning agents. Once you understand the residue's characteristics, you can sort out which cleaning agents to use. Chemical additives typically are employed to remove contaminants, improve tank wetability and reduce foam. Heat can boost the cleaning action of many water-based detergent chemicals.
Vessel size. Interior surface area and distance between the walls substantially affect selection. Evaluate the spray distance, usually measured in terms of the vessel diameter, but also consider vessel length and height. For example, for a 20-ft.-dia., 40-ft.-long vessel, use two vessel cleaners that each can handle up to 20 ft. or a single vessel cleaner that can handle up to 40 ft. You many need multiple nozzles if the spray can't reach a part of the vessel due to internal obstructions such as an agitator (Figure 1).
[Avoid Costly Design Mistakes]
Impact. The level of impact needed to thoroughly clean vessels depends on the residue, cleaning chemicals and water temperature. Hard-to-clean residues require greater impact. The theoretical spray impact, I, equals K Q P½ where K is a constant, Q is flow rate and P is liquid pressure. | <urn:uuid:37ec160f-8999-46f0-8f79-c397ba24460f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chemicalprocessing.com/articles/2011/effectively-clean-tanks-reactors/?start=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941672 | 604 | 2.671875 | 3 |
This is the second half of the paper I presented to the the Evangelical Philosophical Society Annual Meeting in Milwaukee three weeks ago. It is part of a two-part post series; make sure you have read part one Peter Singer on Human Dignity and Infanticide.
II. Marquis’ Critique
In my previous post I sketched Singer’s desire account of killing and how it relates to Singer’s preference utilitarianism and position on vegetarianism. Don Marquis has offered two kinds of counter examples to the desire account of killing: take depressed people who are either suicidal or simply don’t care about life, but whom we know will with medication or counselling overcome this. Such people have no desire to live, yet it seems they have a right to life. Killing them is not in their interests and we would wrong them, not just their relatives or society, if we killed them.
Or consider people brainwashed in a religious cult to commit suicide, or people who, believing they will be rewarded in the afterlife, offer themselves as voluntary human sacrifices. These people lack a desire to live yet they still have a right to life. Morality requires we try and save them from the cult rather than that we kill them. The desire account thus appears false, and given that preference utilitarianism entails the desire account, preference utilitarianism is problematic.
These counter examples are part of a more general problem. Singer’s position infers a right to continue to exist from a desire to continue existing. However, the inference that “X has a prima facie right to Z” from “X desires Z”, is problematic. Children have rights to medical care, nutritious food, and education, but often children have little or no desire for these things. Often in cases of complicated medical procedures the child lacks a conception of the operation itself, yet it still has a right to such things. This claim is based on it being in their interests to have these things, and they will be harmed by not having them, it’s not plausible to ground these rights in the fact the parents or society want the child to have them.
III. Singer’s reply
In A Reply to Don Marquis, Singer acknowledges the cogency of Marquis’s counter examples and offers a revision to the desire account of killing. He cites the example of a tennis player who desires to drink a bottle he believes is full of water, but in reality contains poison. Singer concludes from this case “if a person’s desire to die is based on a false belief, it does not justify assisting him in satisfying the preference”, also ruling out the example of the fanatical religious believer. Similarly, “for a preference to be one we should act upon it should be based not only on accurate information …” but also a “calm and rational assessment of the situation”; this rules out the example of the depressed individual.
Singer’s revision means the issue is not the actual desires an individual has but rather their ideal desires, i.e. desires the individual would have had if they were reasoning correctly and had correct information. Marquis’s counter-examples therefore fail.
IV. Critique of Singer’s Reply
I will offer three lines of response to Singer’s reply.
Motivation and Arbitrariness
The first problem is that Singer’s position appears unmotivated. Anticipating Singer’s response, Marquis noted that while infants lack actual desires to continue to exist, it’s not clear they totally lack a rational desire to live because “if a fetus were fully informed and rational, it would desire to live” . Singer’s modification then would appear to undercut his advocacy of infanticide.
To avoid this, Singer adopts a particular conception of ideal desires. Ideal desires are a being’s actual desires corrected for false information and errors of reasoning. Seeing infants lack any desire to continue existing they cannot in this sense have an idealised desire to exist in the future. Consequently, Singer suggests that preference utilitarianism should be modified so as to involve the maximisation of idealised preferences so defined. The problem is that apart from the fact it enables him to both support abortion and infanticide and avoid the counter examples, Singer offers no reason why one should adopt this particular conception of ideal desires. Various different conceptions of ideal desires have been proposed which will get around the counter examples aforementioned and not all of them involve the modification of actual desires. Consequently, Singer’s position appears unmotivated.
Singer’s response to this rejoinder is to state,
“Adjusting a person’s actual desires for errors is one thing; attributing a wholly new desire to a being that is not capable of having any desires at all, or any desires of the relevant kind is something else altogether, and something for which there is no obvious motivation”
This is inadequate; Singer asserts that his account is different from one other account and that this other accounts is unmotivated. But the fact other accounts are unmotivated does not entail that Singer’s own account is motivated.
The Hamlet problem
A second problem is that even if Singer’s account escapes Marquis’s counter example it seems vulnerable to a new one. Consider the following lines from Hamlet,
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t! ah fie! ’tis an unweeded garden,
Hamlet expresses a desire to die, but refrains from doing so only because he believes God has issued commands prohibiting self-slaughter. This is not an eccentric position – large numbers of people believe that suicide is wrong on the basis that God prohibits. Nor is it implausible that many of these people are such that, if they believed God did not exist or that he did not issue such a law, and instead held beliefs like Singer’s they would have no objection to suicide in a variety of circumstances.
Singer however considers the belief that God prohibits killing human beings to be “religious mumbo jumbo” and his theorising is premised on considering such doctrines false. Moreover, Singer’s adoption of preference utilitarianism is closely connected with his belief that “those features of ethical judgement that imply the existence of objective moral standards can be explained away by maintaining this is some kind of error-perhaps the legacy of our belief that ethics is a system of divine law”. Consequently, from the point of view of Singer’s moral theorising the religious believer’s desire to preserve his life is based on a false belief. Singer’s argument appears to justify involuntary euthanasia for a large class of people whose reason for avoiding suicide is religious.
Singer responds to this objection as follows:
At the level of ethical theory, as distinct from the world in which we live, Flannagan is right; but it scarcely needs saying how dangerous it could be for people to take it upon themselves to judge whether others-who have their own view about whether they want to go on living-would have the same views were those views accurate, and on the basis of that judgement, kill those who would want to go on living if their beliefs were accurate. With John Stuart Mill, I think we should generally assume, that for competent adults at least, “each is the best judge and guardian of his own interests” This will not always be true…but we should normally treat it as though it were.
This however is inadequate in light of the previous discussion. Singer deals with Marquis’s counter example of a fanatical religious believer who consents to human sacrifice by saying that it’s not the person’s actual desires which count but their “rational” desires, that is, the desires we would have if we had no false religious beliefs.
When he responds to the person who refrains from suicide only because they believe God prohibits it he claims it’s dangerous to ask whether people would want to go on living if their beliefs were updated to be accurate and we should rely instead on what their actual desires and decisions are.
This seems inconsistent, for if we should follow what people actually want then he falls prey to Marquis counter example and if we should focus on rational desires he falls prey to mine; he can’t just switch back and forth between the two accounts.
Infanticide of non-disabled children
This brings me to a third and final problem with Singer’s response to Marquis. His modification of preference utilitarianism appears to render his stance on infanticide inconsistent with his position on animal experimentation and vegetarianism.
In his discussion of infanticide Singer makes it clear that he supports only the killing of disabled infants. He states:
“the difference between killing disabled and normal infants lies not in any supposed right to life the latter has and former lacks but in other considerations, most notably the attitude of the parents”
….the birth of a child is usually a happy event for the parents. They have, nowadays, often planned for the child. The mother has carried it for nine months. From birth, a natural affection begins to bind the parents to it…it is different when the child is born with a disability.
Singer explicitly appeals to the actual desire parents and other adults have for “normal” infants to live as the basis for why it’s wrong to kill such infants.
Singer’s revision of preference utilitarianism in terms of ideal desires undercuts this argument. By Singer’s own admission the actual desires parents and society have towards infants are both irrational and based on false beliefs. Singer grants that his views about the status of infants are “at odds with the virtually unchallenged assumption that the life of a new born baby is sacrosanct as that of an adult” “During the centuries of Christian domination of European thought the ethical attitudes based on these doctrines became part of the unquestioned orthodoxy of European civilisation” So according to Singer, current parental and societal attitudes towards infants are ultimately largely based on “religious mumbo jumbo” and hence based on false beliefs.
In a similar way Singer stance on animal experimentation entails that such preferences are irrational. His position is that antecedent to any actual desires human beings to preferring the interests of a human infant over that of an animal is an arbitrary irrational bias in favour of our own species. Very few parents or other people in society show the same “rational” concern and care for dogs, or pigs or cats, that they do for new born infants. So it’s hard to see how people’s strong desire to preserve new born human infants can be a preference that Singer’s modified preference utilitarianism should take into account. Singer’s stance on infanticide (in emphasising that it could only apply in limited cases) therefore seems to contradict his position on animal experimentation which does not allow for over-riding by religiously motivated desires.
Don Marquis “ Singer on Abortion and Infanticide” in Peter Singer Under Fire: The Moral Iconoclast Faces His Critics ( Chicago and La Salle : Open Court Publishing Co, 2009) 141.
Peter Singer “ A Reply to Don Marquis” in Peter Singer Under Fire: The Moral Iconoclast Faces His Critics (Chicago and La Salle : Open Court Publishing Co, 2009) 153-162.
Ibid, 155.
Don Marquis “Singer on Abortion and Infanticide” 144.
Peter Singer “ A Reply to Don Marquis” 156.
Peter Singer, “About Ethics” in Writings on an Ethical Life ( Harper Collins: London, 2000) 22.
Peter Singer, “Justifying Infanticide” in Writings on an Ethical Life ( Harper Collins: London, 2000) 187. | <urn:uuid:d08a5281-26f6-4dfc-95c5-84c8ff1e2603> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mandm.org.nz/2012/12/peter-singer-on-human-dignity-and-infanticide-part-two.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946424 | 2,555 | 1.84375 | 2 |
...and this last one...
Burial Site of Elamite King Undergoes Excavations, Iran
Feb 13, 2005, 06:50
The archeological site of Arjan, Khuzestan province, where it is believed that the greatest Elamite King has been buried along with all his invaluable personal pocessions, will soon undergo new studies.
Archeologist will start in a few days time to demarcate and dig boring pits in Arjan area, which is some 300-400 hectares and is located in Behbahan, in the southern province of Khuzestan.
During the work, experts aim to answer numerous questions they have and specially find out whether the area has really been the Elamite city where one of the greatest Elamite Kings, Kiddin-Khutran (1235 - 1210 BC), ruled.
A decade age, the coffin of Kiddin-Khutran, burried gloriously in the Arjan area, was accidentally discovered, bringing its site to world-wide fame. Invaluable items including a heavy gold ring which was an indication of the King’s power, were found in the metal coffin.
Today the site has become the target of agricultural activities of locals who have entered the land without permission of the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism (ICHTO) Department of Khuzestan. Archeologists and officials of the ICHTO hope that setting the perimeters of the site would help move the farmers out and preserve the land.
So far no archeological research has been carried out on the historical site of Arjan and the coming up activities are considered to initiate a new archeological season, which experts hope would reveal secrets of the Elamite King unburried there before, and introduce another part of Iran’s history to the world. | <urn:uuid:2027476c-bab4-4f3a-8870-a4aa4f23a11f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kingtutone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1306&p=13209 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949219 | 379 | 1.960938 | 2 |
UN General Assembly Vote to Implement Goldstone Report is Supported by 12 Security Council Membersvon Ronda Hauben
Gaza Probe Resolution Passes in General Assembly
On Friday, February 26 there was snow storm in New York City making travel difficult, with snow one foot deep. Yet shortly after 10 am the United Nations General Assembly held its meeting to consider the resolution A.64/L.48 “Follow-up to the report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (II).”
This resolution extended for five additional months the call to both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to carry on iinvestigations in accord with international standards into the alleged international law violations described in the Goldstone Report. The Goldstone Report issued in September 2009, documented the results of an investigation into the possible violations of international law by Israel in its assault on Gaza in Operation Cast Lead from December 27, 2008 through January 18, 2009. (1) The Report also alleged violations by the Palestinians in their rocket launches on southern Israel.
The vote on the General Assembly resolution, A/64/L48 was 98 in favor, 7 opposed, 31 abstentions and 56 not voting.(2)
In November 2009, an earlier resolution gave Israel and the Palestinians three months to carry out these investigations into their own possible violations of international law. (3) The vote on this earlier resolution in November 2009 was 114 Yes, 18 No, 44 abstentions, and 16 not voting. The total vote for this 2nd resolution was lower than the November vote. This was likely due to snow storm in the New York area making it difficult for some of the delegates to get to the General Assembly meeting. Two of the delegates who arrived after the voting was closed, representing Laos and Armenia, asked that the record reflect that they would have voted in favor of the resolution.
Comparing How Security Council Members Voted in November 2009 and February 2010
Some analysis of the recent vote is illuminating. China, the one permanent member of the Security Council to vote in favor of the earlier resolution at November’s General Assembly meeting, also voted in favor of the new resolution. France and the United Kingdom, two of the permanent members of the Security Council had abstained in the November vote. In this vote, they joined China in voting in favor of the resolution. Russia had abstained in the November vote and again abstained in the recent vote. The only Security Council member to vote against the General Assembly resolution in the November vote was the United States. The United States also voted against the resolution on February 26.
In November’s vote only four of the non permanent members of the Security Council voted for the resolution. Five of these nations have since left the Security Council as their two year terms expired. They have been replaced by five newly elected non permanent members. In the February 26 vote, nine of the elected, non permanent members of the Security Council voted in favor of the General Assembly resolution. The nine non permanent members voting for the General Assembly resolution were Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Gabon, Japan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Turkey, and Uganda. Of the non permanent members, surprisingly Mexico abstained in this vote, as Mexico had voted in favor of the resolution in November.
It is significant that 12 of the member nations that serve on the Security Council, in a vote in the General Assembly, voted in favor of the recent resolution. This is an encouraging sign that there are indeed members of the Security Council who are concerned about what has been happening in Gaza and that the needed investigations be conducted by Israel and the Palestinian Authority. This represents an important change. In the previous vote only five of the member nations on the Security Council voted to support the General Assembly resolution and nine abstained.
Will Change Reflected in GA Vote Affect Security Council Ability to Discuss Gaza?
In previous efforts to have the Security Council discuss the Goldstone Report, and the problem of the Israeli closure of the border crossings into Gaza, it was not possible to get the nine votes needed to get the discussion on the agenda. Article 27(1)of the United Nations charter states that decisions “on procedural matters shall be by an affirmative vote of nine members.” Since there is no veto on procedural matters, as long as nine votes can be gained to discuss an issue, it may at least be possible to break the silence that has prevailed at the Security Council on the issue of the Goldstone Report and the blockade of Gaza.
Secretary General Asked to Report in Five Months
It is notable that there is no request in the recent resolution that Ban Ki-moon or the Security Council monitor the actions of the parties during the five month period of the resolution. The Secretary General’s report to the General Assembly on the implementation of the November resolution resulted in his submitting reports by Israel and the Palestinians to the General Assembly with little additional substance contributed by the Secretary General to the report. The Secretary General’s report to the General Assembly contained no substantive analysis of the progress made by the parties in their investigations. Instead his report stated that from the materials received from Israel and the Palestinians, “no determination could be made on the implementation of the resolution by the parties concerned.”(4)
Goldstone Report Requested Monitoring by Expert Committees
The Goldstone Report had recommended that there be a means to monitor the progress of the investigations by Israel and the Palestinians. It recommended that the Security Council establish a committee of experts in the relevant international law to report on the legal proceedings undertaken by Israel for its investigation and that there be a similar committee of experts to monitor the investigations undertaken by the Palestinians. Such committees of experts provide a means to evaluate whether the investigations by Israel and the Palestinians fulfill the obligation to be “independent, creditable and in conformity with international standards.” Amnesty International has called on the Secretary General to establish such a body of independent experts to assess the efforts of the parties to carry out adequate investigations.(5)
World Opinion and Israel’s Obligations in Gaza
It is over a year since the Israeli assault on Gaza in Operation Cast Lead. While progress appears to be slow, world opinion supported by the Goldstone Report is increasing that Israel be held accountable for the deaths of over 1400 Palestinians by its military assault. The action by the General Assembly on February 26 puts off Israel’s obligation to report on its internal investigation for up to an additional five months. The General Assembly, however, maintains its authority to oversee the situation and to consider further action if necessary by other United Nations bodies, including the Security Council, if Israel’s actions continue to prove unsatisfactory.
1) The Goldstone Report is available online.
2) For list of nations and how they voted, see Annex, “General Assembly Requests Secretary-General to Submit Further Report on Investigations into Violations During Gaza Conflict”, UN Press Release, February 26, 2010.
3) Ronda Hauben, Goldstone Report Transmitted to UN Security Council, OhmyNews International,11/27/2009
4) Ronda Hauben, Ban Ki-moon on Goldstone Report Progress, OhmyNews International, 2/8/2010
5) Amnesty International, “Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: Renewed UN Call for Gaza Conflict Accountability Welcomed as Important Shift”, Amnesty International Public Statement, February 26, 2010. | <urn:uuid:64f323c3-0ea5-4275-8df9-e57b81c93b84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2010/03/01/un_general_assembly_vote_to_implement_goldstone_report_is_supported_by_12_security_council_members/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958339 | 1,514 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Model Chance was a project funded by the National Science Foundation to develop simulation software and classroom activities to help middle school students learn about probability and data modeling. The simulation tool was integrated into our data-analysis software, TinkerPlots and was eventually released as TinkerPlots version 2.0.
One of the needs the project responded to was that at the time curriculum materials on probability conveyed little sense of the importance and range of applications of probability, and that prior to high school we treated probability and data analysis as separate strands. The new software and materials allowed students to investigate real-world problems, such as the probability of false positives from medical screening tests, the probability of injury from repeated exposure to various risks, and chance-based processes, such as evolution and diffusion.
The project team included researchers from 10 universities. Materials had been field tested at the Lynch Middle School in Holyoke MA, and Rose Park Middle School in Nashville TN. | <urn:uuid:322099cd-c807-4769-b508-5ff344e5ad46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.srri.umass.edu/model_chance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968367 | 188 | 3.15625 | 3 |
3G at 2G frequencies edges closer in UK
One more consultation, and we're there
Ofcom has laid out the legal changes that will permit 3G technology at 2G frequencies, along with allowing radar-equipped level crossings, and radio for scuba divers, all by November.
The changes come as part of a general tidying up of legislation that clarifies licence-free deployments of radar at level crossings, and two-way satellite services for domestic broadband, as well as permitting those under water to broadcast at higher power and officially allow in-air Wi-Fi.
The regulator issued a consultation in March, and there haven't been a lot of changes since then despite robust responses from the Radio Society of Great Britain and concerned individuals.
The problem is that most of the legislation is EU-mandated, so Ofcom is just fitting it into UK law. The removal of technical restrictions on the 2G frequencies is a case in point – the debates happened at EU level, Ofcom is just filling out the paper work.
But in other cases Ofcom has been busy – rejecting a proposal from satellite operators that permissible transmission power be increased to 60dBW, rather than the 55dBW proposed. Much is expected of HDFSS (High-Density Fixed Satellite Systems – satellite broadband for the masses) but the regulator points out that allowing transmissions at 60dBW would require an exclusion zone around airports which would be hard to enforce.
Standing up to the RSGB is less impressive – Ofcom does that all the time, on this occasion deciding that manufacturers of underwater radio kit will bear responsibility for ensuring it automatically switches off when on the surface, allowing transmission at higher power when submerged in all that radio-absorbing water.
But less controversial is the decision to allow National Rail to deploy radar at level crossings, and to permit the use of Wi-Fi (at both 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz) on aeroplanes, though the rules now clarify that neither frequency is to be used for air-to-ground communication.
The proposals (pdf), which are still officially a "consultation" but should pass into law come November, also include some discussion about Complementary Ground Components (ground-based in-fill for satellite services) – which most countries hand out free with a satellite licence, but Ofcom has proposed billing for. Ofcom's approach is looking surprisingly sensible since LightSquared got off the ground, and the regulator sensibly postpones any decision on the matter. ® | <urn:uuid:36e34a97-38ed-4e43-84b9-dc66a5cf1bf4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/26/short_range_radio/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947728 | 515 | 2.0625 | 2 |
- uploaded: Feb 8, 2013
- Hits: 250
...THE FINAL CODA...???
Should 2 EMVs of this ''MAGNITUDE'' suddenly appear above our skies as they have done here ... the Earth would be plunged into ''darkness''... Visual reference would estimate the size of the objects to be many[20Xs min] times the size of our planet...
These ENORMOUS EMVs come from within our own Solar system and have been found to reside in the rings of Saturn...There is NO other place for such ''GARGANTUAN'' craft to remain hidden...These craft have been sitting stationary by the Sun since early January...Strange that supposed researchers of truth haven't mentioned this...We should be very concerned... 3 DAYS OF DARKNESS ANYONE?...
...WAKEY WAKEY !!! | <urn:uuid:63390adf-d733-4895-8e5b-9e999fa4ae38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/124744/SDO_HUGE_EMVs_BY_THE_SUNSTILL_THERE_FOLKS_1ST_2ND_FEBRUARY_2013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916799 | 177 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Jay W. Marks, MD, is a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist. He graduated from Yale University School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine and gastroenterology at UCLA/Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
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.
Dysphagia is the medical term for the symptom of difficulty
swallowing, derived from the Latin and Greek words meaning difficulty eating.
Mechanism of swallowing
Swallowing is a complex action.
Food is first chewed
well in the mouth and mixed with saliva.
The tongue then propels the chewed food
into the throat (pharynx).
The soft palate elevates to prevent the food from
entering the posterior end of the nasal passages, and the upper pharynx
contracts, pushing the food (referred to as a bolus) into the lower pharynx. At
the same time, the voice box (larynx) is pulled upwards by muscles in the neck,
and, as a result, the epiglottis bends downwards. This dual action closes off
the opening to the larynx and windpipe (trachea) and prevents passing food from
entering the larynx and trachea.
The contraction of the muscular pharynx
continues as a progressing, circumferential wave into the lower pharynx pushing
the food along.
A ring of muscle that encircles the upper end of the esophagus,
known as the upper esophageal sphincter, relaxes, allowing the wave of
contraction to push the food from the lower pharynx on into the esophagus. (When
there is no swallow, the muscle of the upper sphincter is continuously
contracted, closing off the esophagus from the pharynx and preventing anything
within the esophagus from regurgitating back up into the pharynx.)
The wave of
contraction, referred to as a peristaltic wave, progresses from the pharynx down
the entire length of the esophagus.
Shortly after the bolus enters the upper
esophagus, a specialized ring of muscle encircling the lower end of the
esophagus where it meets the stomach, known as the lower esophageal sphincter,
relaxes so that when it arrives the bolus can pass on into the stomach. (When
there is no swallow the muscle of the lower sphincter is continuously
contracted, closing off the esophagus from the stomach and preventing contents
of the stomach from regurgitating back up into the esophagus.)
After the bolus
passes, the lower sphincter tightens again to prevent contents of the stomach
from regurgitating back up into the esophagus. It remains tight until the next bolus comes along.
Considering the complexity of swallowing, it is no wonder that swallowing,
beginning with the contraction of the upper pharynx, has been "automated,"
meaning that no thought is required for swallowing once swallowing is initiated.
Swallowing is controlled by automatic reflexes that involve nerves within the
pharynx and esophagus as well as a swallowing center in the brain that is
connected to the pharynx and esophagus by nerves. (A reflex is a mechanism that
is used to control many organs. Reflexes require nerves within an organ such as
the esophagus to sense what is happening in that organ and to send the
information to other nerves in the wall of the organ or outside the organ. The
information is processed in these other nerves, and appropriate responses to
conditions in the organ are determined. Then, still other nerves send messages
from the processing nerves back to the organ to control the function of the
organ, for example, the contraction of the muscles of the organ. In the case of
swallowing, processing of reflexes primarily occurs in nerves within the wall of
the pharynx and esophagus as well as the brain.)
The complexity of swallowing also explains why there are so many causes of
dysphagia. Problems can occur with:
the conscious initiation of swallowing,
propulsion of food into the pharynx,
closing of the nasal passages or larynx,
opening of the upper or lower esophageal sphincters,
physical blockage to the
passage of food, and
transit of the bolus by peristalsis through the body of the
The problems may lie within the pharynx or esophagus, for example,
with the physical narrowing of the pharynx or esophagus. They also may be due to
diseases of the muscles or the nerves that control the muscles of the pharynx
and esophagus or damage to the swallowing center in the brain. Finally, the
pharynx and the upper third of the esophagus contain muscle that is the same as
the muscles that we use voluntarily (such as our arm muscles) called skeletal
muscle. The lower two-thirds of the esophagus is composed of a different type of
muscle known as smooth muscle. Thus, diseases that affect primarily skeletal
muscle or smooth muscle in the body can affect the pharynx and esophagus, adding
additional possibilities to the causes of dysphagia.
Odynophagia and globus sensation
There are two symptoms that are often
thought of as problems with swallowing (dysphagia) that probably are not. These
symptoms are odynophagia and globus sensation.
Odynophagia means painful swallowing. Sometimes it is not easy for
individuals to distinguish between odynophagia and dysphagia. For example, food
that sticks in the esophagus often is painful. Is this dysphagia or odynophagia
or both? Technically it is dysphagia, but individuals may describe it as painful
swallowing (i.e., odynophagia). Moreover, patients with gastroesophageal reflux
disease (GERD) may describe dysphagia when what they really have is odynophagia.
The pain that they feel after swallowing resolves when the inflammation of GERD
is treated and disappears and is presumably due to pain caused by food passing
through the inflamed portion of the esophagus.
Odynophagia also may occur with
other conditions associated with inflammation of the esophagus, for example,
viral and fungal infections. It is important to distinguish between dysphagia
and odynophagia because the causes of each may be quite different.
A globus sensation refers to a sensation that there is a lump in the throat.
The lump may be present continuously or only when swallowing. The causes of a
globus sensation are varied, and frequently no cause is found. Globus sensation
has been attributed variously to abnormal function of the nerves or muscles of
the pharynx and GERD. The globus sensation usually is described clearly by
individuals and infrequently causes confusion with true dysphagia.
The most common swallowing symptom of dysphagia is the sensation that swallowed food is sticking, either in the lower
neck or the chest.
If food sticks in the throat, there may be coughing or
choking with expectoration of the swallowed food.
If food enters the larynx,
more severe coughing and choking will be provoked.
If the soft palate is not
working and doesn't properly seal off the nasal passages, food?particularly
liquids--can regurgitate into the nose with the swallow. Sometimes, food may
come back up into the mouth immediately after being swallowed.
With neurological problems, there may be
difficulty initiating a swallow because food cannot be propelled by the
tongue into the throat.
Elderly individuals with dentures
may not chew their food well and therefore swallow large pieces of solid food
that get stuck.
Polio is caused by a virus and has been around for thousands of years. There
are even Egyptian artifacts portraying individuals with typical features of
post-polio paralysis. Polio has been called | <urn:uuid:1e239d76-9418-4b9a-8971-a449a9da4170> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medicinenet.com/swallowing/article.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919311 | 1,846 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Courtesy of University of Colorado at Denver/AP
Courtesy of University of Colorado at Denver/AP
AURORA (AP) – Spero Manson never set out to become a medical anthropologist. It was a college calculus class that changed the trajectory of his career.
Manson is a professor of psychiatry and public health at University of Colorado at Denver’s Nighthorse Campbell Native Health Building at the Anschutz Medical Campus. He is also director of the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health at the Colorado School of Public Health. And he originally set his sights on becoming a medical doctor.
But in the late 1960s, during the second quarter of his freshman year at the University of Washington, he found himself bamboozled by calculus.
His academic adviser told him that if he wasn’t able to master calculus, he probably wasn’t cut out for medicine. Shortly after he dropped his pre-med major, he happened to sit in on a lecture by a medical anthropologist who specialized in studying the health of native people in foreign lands. Manson became inspired.
“I realized what I really wanted to do was make my life’s work about understanding how social and cultural factors affect people’s risks of physical health, emotional and psychological problems,” he said.
Since then, his singular career focus was to study medical anthropology. Manson has worked at the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado since 1986 and specializes in health issues in the Native American and Alaska Native populations. He teaches topics ranging from psychiatric assessment and diagnosis to epidemiology.
Manson was drawn to studying indigenous cultures and health because of his own heritage.
He is an Native American from the Pembina Chippewa tribe. Manson was the second of 67 grandchildren on his father’s side, born in the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota, where he lived until he was 5 years old.
Manson’s father worked for the Great Northern Railway, causing his family to move 11 times in 12 years. “Every move west from one depot town to the next was a promotion,” Manson said.
Manson graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 1972, then went on to receive a master’s degree in anthropology in 1975 from the University of Minnesota and a doctorate in anthropology in 1980, also from the University of Minnesota.
In the mid-1970s, motivated by advisers he met during school, he decided to travel to Pakistan.
“My advisers, who were very senior and well-respected people, said a real anthropologist needed to go overseas, learn a new language and get outside of my own culture,” he said.
While in Pakistan, Manson learned Urdu and researched medical systems.
That was the beginning of a lifelong commitment to studying health systems in native populations.
During his early studies of Native Americans and Alaska Natives, he found that the most prevalent health issues in those populations were communicable diseases. As the diseases became better controlled over the years through public health measures and vaccinations, the life expectancy of native people began to increase, he said. But as those life expectancy rates increased, so did the chances for obesity and diabetes.
“The challenge now has been to figure out how primary care, which is fairly good in Indian and native communities, can be used to identify individuals at risk for more chronic diseases,” Manson said.
Health problems among Native American are issues that Manson is keenly familiar with, because they are rampant in his own family. About two-thirds of his 66 cousins have suffered from health problems, including diabetes, alcoholism and cardiovascular disease, he said.
Manson also has researched myriad mental-health issues currently facing Native Americans.
“Between 70 and 75 percent of American Indians experience in their lifetimes horrific trauma that is outside of the range of normal human exposure,” Manson said.
Those traumas include car accidents, incidences of domestic violence and mental-health issues as a result of military duty.
Up to 40 percent of males in tribal communities serve in the military, Manson said. Because they are exposed to those types of traumas, Native Americans are at a greater risk for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and alcohol and substance abuse problems.
To address the gap in mental-health resources, which are scarce among Native Americans, Manson helped launch a tele-psychiatry project 16 years ago.
Currently, the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health hosts 14 tele-psychiatry clinics in states including Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and Alaska.
“The opportunity to work with Indian and Native American communities as we do gives me a chance to reinvest the knowledge and experience I’ve had in improving the lives and welfare of my people,” he said. | <urn:uuid:add0d356-8e98-428c-9130-e207dc87157d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://durangoherald.com/article/20130209/LIFESTYLE01/130209574/0/LIFESTYLE04/Indigenous-health:-Challenging-but-rewarding | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978045 | 1,008 | 2.21875 | 2 |
‘Keertanegalu’ (kIrtanegLu) (ಕೀರ್ತನೆಗಳು) (Songs in praise of God) belong to the genre of the musical outpourings of a poetic mind that sprang to light all over the country as a consequence of the ‘Bhakti movement’. The literal meaning of the word ‘Keertane’ is praising. They came to the fore ground in Karnataka after a powerful movement initiated by the ‘Shiva Sharanas’ in the twelfth century. (Even Shivasharanas have written songs that resemble Keertanas. They are called ‘Had’(hADu) and ‘Geethe’ (gIte) The vaidic religion which was gradually loosing its sway over the people due to the threats posed by Jaina and Veerashaiva upsurge had to find ways and means of reaching the masses and thus expand its base. An unflinching loyalty to Sanskrit would have been counter productive. This situation resulted in the composition of many songs sung in the praise of the lord as also propagating the philosophical and ethical precepts of ‘Hinduism’. Some degree of liberalism is an essential part of these movements and ‘Haridasa Sahitya’ was no exception. However this movement was more of a reformist strain in the iron clad caste system rather than an out and out rebellion. The more important proponents of this credo such as Purandaradasa and Kanakadasa faced stiff resistance from within the system. The fact that Kanakadasa belonged to the lower hierarchy of the caste system did not assuage the situation.
The seeds of the movement were sown by saints such as Achalanandadasa, Narahariteertha and Sripadaraja. However it gained genuine momentum with the advent of Purandaradasa and Kanakadasa. This tradition has survived for almost six centuries. Haridasas laid an emphasis on the emotional and moral aspects of religious aspects of Bhakti rather than the ritualistic practices imposed by the hegemony of the caste system. They did not really break new grounds in terms of philosophy because they were unflinching votaries of dualism. (Dwaita)
‘Keertanegalu’, the songs composed by these two seers and their successors were written in simple Kannada with genuine literary merits. A ‘Keertane’ begins with a ‘pallavi’, (a refrain that occurs at the end of every stanza) anu pallavi and a particular number of stanzas. Like the ‘Vachanas’ of the twelfth century keertanas also did not have a story line. They were short lyrical compositions with ethical thoughts delineated with the help of literary devices such as simile, metaphor and imagery. The figures of speech were taken from every day life and retained their sensual beauty. More importantly they could slip in to the tradition oral literature of Kannada with great facility. The songs are as much amenable to the demands of the classical music as to the limited ability of a street singer. These songs were set to classical music much later even though Purandaradasa is deemed as the founder of Karnataka Sangita.
The term ‘Keertana’s usually
apply to the songs composed by the ‘Haridasaru’ and they are exclusive of categories
such as suladi, (suLAdi) ugabhoga (ugABOga) and mundige. (munDige) Their
literary fame rests on the poetic usage of mythology and epics, appropriate use
of the spectrum of human emotions, a poetic language that captures the very
core of Kannada and a diction which combines the standard language and the
spoken variety with great success. The songs of Purandaradasa that are built
around the life of
Of course Keertanas were composed even after this incandescent period and names such as Vijayadasa and Jagannathadasa spring to the mind immediately. They represent a period when the movement was appropriated by the fanatic hegemony and the compositions fail to inspire the community in spite of the poetic merit hear and there. But the keertanas of the main protagonists have an appeal even to the modern secular mind and they have become an inseparable part of Kannada literary tradition.
1. The Pathway to God in Indian Literature, R.D.Ranade
2. Hymns for the Drowning, A.K.Ramanujan
3. Sharma, B.N.K (1981,2000) . History of Dvaita school of Vedanta and its Literature. Bombay: Motilal Banarasidass. ISBN 81-208-1575-0. | <urn:uuid:7d00627c-795e-438c-b840-1a665b68c583> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.classicalkannada.org/DataBase/KannwordHTMLS/CLASSICAL%20KANNADA%20LITERATURE%20HTML/KEERTANEGALU%20HTML.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959405 | 1,041 | 3.484375 | 3 |
In what can only be seen as an important victory for Cuba and a rebuff to U.S. policy toward the island nation, on the last weekend in January the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states (CELAC), meeting in Santiago de Chile, elected Cuba to the presidency of the organization and handed the chairman’s baton to Raul Castro, who was present at the meeting. Further, a large delegation of European leaders, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was also present, giving Cuba’s presidency move added momentum and relevance. All this points up again the need for the U.S. to change its isolated and outdated policy toward Cuba.
But until now, the U.S. has taken the position that it will take no step to improve relations with Cuba until Alan Gross, the USAID contractor imprisoned for “actions against the Cuban state, ” is released. The Cubans needless to say would expect some quid pro quo and hint that the U.S. should in return release the Cuban Five. The release of all five is unlikely, however, especially as one, Gerardo Hernandez, however unfairly, is in for life for “murder,” accused of having been involved in the shoot down of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996 (though there is not a shred of evidence against him).
Some U.S. officials have given the impression that the Cuban position is set in stone, that the U.S. must release all five or there is no deal. A Johns Hopkins delegation in Cuba recently, however, found this not necessarily to be the case. Cuban officials with whom we spoke indicated that even the question of an exchange for Gross is certainly open to negotiation.
And what of Alan Gross himself? He is certainly not innocent of any wrongdoing, as the U.S. maintains. He was distributing sophisticated communications equipment in clear violation of Cuban law and memos that have surfaced make it clear that he was working (however unsuccessfully) to undermine the Cuban government. But there is no blood on his hands and he is guilty on no heinous crime.
There is no reason, in short, that imaginative diplomacy and negotiations could not lead to the release of Alan Gross and open the road to improved relations between the U.S. and Cuba. And certainly this is in the interest of the U.S., given that its present Cuban policy is rejected by the rest of the world and leads nowhere. Every year when the vote on the U.S. embargo comes up in the UN General Assembly, the vote is overwhelming. One or two tiny island nations in the Pacific may vote with us, and always Israel. But however it votes, Israel is one of Cuba’s most active trading partners. It votes with us but it too rejects our policy. We are alone.
None of this is reflected in President Obama’s statement of January 30 suggesting that Cuba is living in the past and should change. But in fact it is changing. Some 52 years have passed since we broke relations with Cuba. It is no longer the ally of the Soviet Union. It is no longer trying to overthrow other governments in the hemisphere and thus now has diplomatic relations with all of them. And it is moving toward a more open economic system. The world has changed, as has Cuba. Only our policy remains frozen in time. It is long since time to change it. And we could certainly do more to encourage Cuba in the right direction through engagement rather than continued efforts at isolation.
And perhaps there is hope. In his January 30 statement, President Obama said that he could foresee improved relations during his second term if Cuba meets him half way.
And Josefina Vidal, a senior Cuban Foreign Ministry official, replied that the U.S. could “count on the willingness of the people and government of Cuba to work to advance bilateral relations.”
Let us hope they both mean what they say.
Wayne S. Smith was the Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana (1979-82) and is now an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University and a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C. | <urn:uuid:2d53ab94-7df1-4f97-bfb5-990bf54998f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cipcubareport.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/an-isolated-and-outdated-u-s-cuba-policy/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=d64817105f | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979299 | 857 | 1.921875 | 2 |
By Pete Williams
Olof Dallner was just 16 months removed from a major alpine climbing accident when he entered last weekend’s Spartan Death Race in Pittsfield, Vermont.
The 34-year-old Swedish scientist, who has lived in New York City for the last three years, still feels some lingering effects from the accident in his left arm. But that wasn’t enough to keep him from winning the Spartan Death Race, perhaps the most mentally and physically taxing event in endurance sports.
Dallner, who also won the inaugural winter Death Race in March, was in the lead when the Death Race was called on Monday – 67 hours after it began and with just 51 of 344 athletes proclaimed official finishers.
The obstacle and challenge-driven race required competitors to complete more than a dozen unusual, grueling mental and physical challenges throughout a 50-mile course in the dense Vermont woods.
Some of the challenges included: a 25 mile/12-hour hike (done as a team challenge) carrying either a kayak, water filled plumbing pipes or a tractor tire above their heads; a 250 question exam with brain twisters; swimming in the Chittenden dam; form work including stacking hay bales; 1,000 Burpees; log chop; a 2-mile body roll through a sheep paddock; carrying a 50-lb bag of cement to the top of a mountain on a 3+ hour trek up and through a steep ravine and waterfall (and if the bag broke they had to head back down to get a new one); plus many more grueling challenges, all the while carrying all required gear, food and water in 40-lb packs.
The theme of the race this year was “Betrayal” which came to life throughout the event. Organizers planted seeds of doubt and distrust in the competitors by declaring that they was open to mislead or betray other racers, but other competitors were there to potentially do the same to them.
This format played havoc with the racers psyche. The ultimate betrayal came after 30 hours when a group of competitors planted by race organizers deliberately began cheating during a challenge. Once the other competitors saw how easy it was to cheat, many cheated. But when confronted they understood that cheating was not without consequence. The penalty for the cheat was 6-hours standing in a 45-degree pond and other comparable tasks.
“I’d see people get betrayed and they’d get angry and quit but that’s part of the game,” Dallner said.
Dallner said his toughest challenge was something called “The Roll,” where competitors had to roll side-over-side across a quarter-mile field strewn with pine cones, brush, and poison ivy for three hours.
“I’m not sure what kind of plants those were but my arms were stinging pretty bad,” Dallner said. “My arms are all scabbed up from that.”
This is what Joe DeSena and Andy Weinberg had in mind in 2005 when they came up with the Death Race as an alternative to triathlons and other endurance races they felt had become predictable and routine. The idea was to create an event athlete couldn’t possibly train or prepare for in advance.
The race has gotten longer each year as it seems organizers like to wait until 80 percent of the field has dropped out before calling time. Last year’s race went on for 45 hours. In 2010, DeSena and the gang launched the Spartan Race, which now features events at three different distances.
Dallner said he got into Spartan Races after being sidelined for nearly three months following an alpine climbing accident in Vermont in February of 2011. An ice pillar he was climbing collapsed, sending him on a 75-foot fall. His ropes held, but he still crashed against the wall, breaking his helmet in two. He spent four days in an ICU in New Hampshire and underwent surgeries to repair nerve damage in his arm.
Dallner, who works in genetics developing a hormone that controls eating behavior, quickly discovered a knack for obstacle racing and won the winter version of the Death Race in just under 32 hours.
Upon arriving at last week’s version of the Death Race, he reported that he did not meet the race requirement of generating media coverage prior to the event. Weinberg said he would have to swim 12 miles afterward, relinquish his title (if he won), or quickly come up with some media coverage.
Dallner already is scheduled for both versions of the 2013 Death Race.
Florida finishers of the 2012 Spartan Death Race: Andrew Andras (Miami Beach), Joshua Clifford (Fort Walton Beach), Joe Falcone (Boca Raton), and Ricky Weiss (Tallahassee) | <urn:uuid:f5cfa46d-d7e3-41b2-8347-b329aca5e8ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://endurancesportsflorida.com/tag/toughest-endurance-event/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974051 | 998 | 1.734375 | 2 |
|Click photo to enlarge
Swartz Creek, Genesee County, Michigan
Lat: 43° 01' 45"N, Lon: 83° 51' 57"W
Clayton Township, Section 10
Contributed by Len Thomas, Sep 10, 2008, last edited Sep 27, 2008
Total records = 1,436.
To reach cemetery from Miller Road in Swartz Creek MI drive north
on Seymour Road for 5.14 miles, turn left or west onto Beecher Road.
The cemetery will be on your left or south side of Beecher Road
in .5 mile.
The Bendle Cemetery was established in the early 1800s, and is
operated by Clayton Township. It is an active cemetery and inquiries
should be directed to the Township Clerk. The cemetery is well-maintained
and evokes nostalgia with so many large trees amid the headstones.
The u-shaped driveway provides easy access to the entire cemetery.
I compiled this transcription using a 1961 transcription by Merle
Perry as a basis. I walked the cemetery to verify the headstone
inscriptions and checked these against the records, with Sally
Lurvey, township clerk. All inscriptions are included, even if
a spouse is not deceased. This is complete up to Sep 09, 2008.
- Len Thomas
b. = birth date
d. = death date
mar. = married
d/o = daughter of
s/o = son of
w/o = wife of
h/o = husband of
vet. = veteran with no other military information, except the
(Name) = name in parenthesis, for women, indicates maiden name
Michigan Genealogy Links | <urn:uuid:3807bc00-4970-4819-8911-4029b85cd491> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://interment.net/data/us/mi/genesee/bendle/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90895 | 356 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Zebra Finch colours are an interesting subject. This is just a short introduction.
Zebra Finch feather colours consist of Black, Fawn, Orange, Chestnut and the absence of colour: White. All of these can be more or less diluted to produce other colours: creams and greys.
Other colours than these are not possible without hybridization. As a result, you will never se a Zebra Finch with truly Red or Green or Blue feathers.
The non-feathered areas can be red or yellow - or any shade in-between. Black is also possible, but currently only seen on young birds.
Eumelanin is a type of melanin which colours feathers grey or black. In a slightly changed form, Eumelanin is also the pigment responsible for the fawn colour.
Pheaomelanin is a different type of melanin. Phaeomelanin is responsible for the orange and chestnut colours that you find on Zebra Finches, such as the cheek patches and the base colour in the flank of the normal Zebra Finch.
Lipochrome is a fatty so-called carotenoid colour that is responsible for the red colour of the beak and the orange colour of the legs. Lipochrome is also responsible for the yellow colour of the beaks and legs of the Yellow Billed mutation. Lipochrome is never found on Zebra Finch feathers.
On other species, such as canaries, lipochrome can be found in feathers where it is responsible for the wellknown Canary-Yellow and Red colour. These colours are not possible to achieve on Zebra Finches because of the lack of lipochrome on the feathers. | <urn:uuid:090aac05-73e8-4fba-9401-61ac85dc8395> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zebrafinch.info/colours/melanins.asp?language=fr | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93426 | 353 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Levels of Interpretation in Dante
||This passage from Paul (Galatians 4:24-31)
is often credited with the beginning of allegorical interpretations of scripture:
"These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants.
One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of
Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is
free, and she is our mother. For it is written:
Be glad, O barren woman,
who bears no children;
break forth and cry aloud,
you who have no labor pains;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband.
Now you brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the
ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But
what does Scripture say? 'Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's
son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.' Therefore, brothers,
we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman."
Paul takes a story from Genesis in which Abraham is commanded by his wife Sarah
to put away her slave and his concubine, Hagar, who had born to them a boy Ishmael. Sarah,
who has given birth to her own son, Isaac, no longer wants Hagar and Ishmael to vie for
Abraham's attention. Paul takes this story and interprets it as a allegory of life under
the Old Testament law versus life under New Testament grace.
||Augustine, as well, held a view of scripture that examined passages from an
allegorical perspective. As a result, he argued that truths might be intended by God in
scripture that the human author had not intended:
"So when one person has said 'Moses thought what I say', and another 'No what I
say', I think it more religious in spirit to say 'Why not rather say both, if both are
true?' And if anyone sees a third or fourth and a further truth in these words, why not
believe that Moses discerned all these things? For through him the one God has tempered
the sacred books to the interpretations of many who could come to see a diversity of
-- The Confessions 12.30 (41)
||Dante himself wrote on the nature of interpretation in his early work Il
Convivio (The Banquet). There, he reflected the traditional medieval understanding
that interpretation can take place on four levels: the literal, the allegorical, the
moral, and the anagogical.
The literal represents the most obvious reading.
The allegorical tends to understand the literal set of actions as being symbolic of
certain other principles.
The moral draws ethical principles from the literal action.
The anagogical applies the principle to the final state of the believer.
Another famous letter to Can Grande Della Scala, which some scholars discount as
Dante's, also argues that this same system can be applied to The Divine Comedy.
According to the letter, Dante's Divine Comedy should be understood as a work
that literally describes the afterlife - hell, purgatory, and heaven. Yet the work is
really more concerned with the present state of humans: "the end of the whole and of
the part is to remove those living in this life from the state of misery and lead them to
the state of felicity."
from Il Convivio
from Il Convivio
from Letter to Can Grande
|Literal - "This is that sense which does not go beyond the strict limits of the
- Orpheus' lyre makes wild animals tame and trees and stones attract towards him.
- Christ ascends the Mount of Transfiguration with three of the twelve apostles.
- "When the people of Israel went up out of Egypt, Judea was made holy and
|1.The Exodus of Israel from Egypt
as "the state of souls after death."
|Allegorical - "This is disguised under the cloak of such stories, and is truth
hidden under a beautiful fiction."
||Example one represents the ability of song
to tame cruel hearts and to influence those without rational reflection.
||1. Our Redemption in Christ
Comedy as "man as by good or ill deserts, in the exercise of the freedom of his
choice, he becomes the exercise of the freedom of his choice, he becomes liable to
rewarding or punishing justice."
|Moral - "This sense is that for which teachers ought as they go through
writings intently to watch for their own profit and that of their hearers."
||Example two teaches the ethical principle
that "for the most secret affairs we ought to have few companions."
||1. The conversion of the soul from sin to
2. "To remove those living in this life from the state of misery and lead
them to the state of felicity."
|Anagogical - "This occurs when a writing is spiritually expounded which even in
the literal sense by the things signified likewise gives intimation of higher matters
belonging to the eternal glory."
||Example three can be understood to
represent "that when the soul issues forth from sin she is made holy and free as a
mistress of herself."
||1. Departure of the soul from the sinful
state of this world to the eternal, graced state of eternity.
2. Literal and anagogical
are the same.
So, if not according to Dante himself, at least according to a tradition closely
associated with him, The Divine Comedy can be understood as much about this life as | <urn:uuid:4461f62b-c04e-4613-be68-b82df1eeccff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/dante2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942884 | 1,243 | 3.28125 | 3 |
The ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch addresses two lawsuits concerning the Forest Service's Travel Management Plan for southwest Montana's Gallatin National Forest. The Gallatin Travel Plan, which is the first of a series of similar plans to be issued by national forests nationwide, was finalized in 2007 to designate areas where motor vehicles may be used in the Gallatin forest.
In response, three conservation groups, represented by Earthjustice, challenged the plan's rules for the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area, a 155,000-acre region running along the Gallatin Mountain Range from Hyalite Peak south of Bozeman, Montana, to the north boundary of Yellowstone National Park. The Wilderness Study Area contains important habitat for grizzly bears, wolverines, and lynx, but the Forest Service authorized increased levels of snowmobile and motorcycle use in the area.
The court's ruling agreed with the conservation groups that the Forest Service's decision improperly degraded the wilderness character of this area in violation of federal law.
"The Gallatin Crest is the bridge that brings the spectacular scenery and wildlife of Yellowstone right down to our Bozeman backdoor," said Bob Ekey, Regional Director of The Wilderness Society. "It is a big part of why we all choose to live here, and it deserves to be managed in a way that assures we will never lose the Gallatin's wild character."
"It is unfortunate that past decisions by the U.S. Forest Service were failing to protect the wild character of the Gallatin Crest from rampant off-road vehicle use, degrading wildlife habitat and the wild character Congress acted to protect 31 years ago," added Tim Preso, staff attorney for Earthjustice, who represented conservationists in the lawsuit. "We are pleased the magistrate judge agreed the law does not permit this area to become a motorized playground."
The ruling also addressed a second lawsuit, this one by off-road enthusiasts, asserting that the Forest Service had gone too far in restricting motorized uses elsewhere in the Gallatin forest. The magistrate judge rejected the off-roaders' arguments.
"This is a good day for wildlife and for people who love this part of the forest. It moves us toward a balance that protects the wildlands and winter habitat of special places like the Gallatin Crest," said Craig Kenworthy, Conservation Director for Greater Yellowstone Coalition.
The magistrate judge's ruling now must be reviewed by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, who will enter a final judgment in the case.
"We're very pleased the findings protect our historic mountain trails by rejecting motorized users' claims that ATVs should have been allowed on wilderness study area trails," said John Gatchell, Conservation Director at Montana Wilderness Association. "We're hopeful these findings -- if adopted by the court -- will ensure the quiet beauty and magnificence of the wild Gallatin Range is maintained without loss until Congress acts."
Tim Preso, Earthjustice, (406) 586-9699
Craig Kenworthy, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, (406) 556-2803
John Gatchell, Montana Wilderness Association, (406) 443-7350, ext. 106
Bob Ekey, The Wilderness Society, (406) 586-1600, ext. 102 | <urn:uuid:57c0d4a1-43ed-403b-912b-ef2769bbc50a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2008/court-rules-to-keep-wild-parts-of-gallatin-national-forest-wild | 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 | 0.925922 | 673 | 2.265625 | 2 |
(WBNG Binghamton) The streets of Binghamton are lined with history, from the buildings to the people that walk them. Decades ago, one local legend has left a lasting impression on the First Ward.
Masty Huba is the source of those legends, and has garnered interest from filmmakers.
The film got started with stories of people that knew him. "The Legend of Masty Huba" dates back to the 1940s. He was a homeless man who relied on the community for food, shelter and drinks, according to local lore.
"He basically lived off the community, because the community wanted him to live. That's the story I was told when I was a kid," Phil Filfata said.
In return for those favors, Huba supplied jokes, laughter and company.
He was a man with more friends than most, and decades later the memory of Huba still remains.
There are pictures and paintings of him scattered throughout historic bars in the Binghamton area. Huba still has people entering local bars and reminiscing about his jokes and songs.
"It always seemed like no one ever wanted him to leave the bar when he walked in, people always talked about people's faces lighting up,"Filfata said.
Director of "The Legend of Masty Huba" Kyle McKeveny began his research nearly five years ago. It started with trips to local bars and listening to stories from locals.
"It was fun to go through and figure it all out," McKeveny said.
"There are so many stories about him out there, yet he's been dead a long time," McKeveny said.
For one local bar there's even a rule to keep the late Huba happy.
"Rules say you have to leave one stool down at night," said co-owner of the Old Union Hotel, Adam Kipp.
The consequences are not something new owners of the Union Hotel want to find out. Part of the legend is specific to the bar. Owners say when they bought the bar, they were told to leave a bar stool down upon closing, or Huba's ghost would break glasses.
McKeveny's journey ended with a film he says captures a piece of history. Bar names may change and shut down, but Huba's Legend will always remain.
Pictures and more stories can be found on the Masty Huba Facebook page. | <urn:uuid:96e17026-5ed8-4f1c-bfa4-40544a9402c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbng.com/video/The-Legend-of-Masty-Huba-Lives-On-187827621.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983397 | 502 | 1.882813 | 2 |
College fair comes to RosemountMarch 19 fair will bring representatives from more than 100 colleges and military organizations
By: Nathan Hansen, Rosemount Town Pages
Early-bird underclassmen and seniors who are late to the college-planning process can gather some information about post-graduation options while staying close to home when Rosemount High School plays host to a college fair March 19.
The fair, put on each year by the Minnesota Association of College Admission Counselors, rotates among the four-year high schools in Independent School District 196. This year’s version will bring about 120 colleges and military organizations — from Air Force National Guard to Winona State — to the RHS student center. The fair, one of several MACAC is holding in the Twin Cities, is a smaller version of the fair the group puts on each fall. RHS counselor Denise Cochran said that means shorter lines and more chances for students to find the information they want.
To make things even easier, students can sign up ahead of time for a college fair boarding pass that college representatives can scan when students want more information. For students, that means less time writing down personal information at each stop they make and more time exploring.
“Parents and students can just zig-zag around, pick up materials,” Cochran said. “You can chat with people rather than write your name and have a sore hand.”
To sign up for a boarding pass visit gotocollegefairs.com.
There will likely be a few seniors at the fair who are getting a late start to their post-high school planning, but Cochran said the fair is meant mostly for freshmen, sophomores and juniors who are still early in their college selection process. Many will have already gone to MCAC’s bigger fair. Last year’s fair at Eastview High School drew about 600 people. Most will come from schools in District 196, but the event is open to anyone who wants to show up.
“It’s a good process for them to just whet their appetites,” Cochran said.
The MCAC college fair will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. March 19 at RHS. | <urn:uuid:370ed56d-6112-4a52-a92f-772dd8d95a98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rosemounttownpages.com/event/article/id/32167/publisher_ID/26/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957672 | 462 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The Network Switching Subsystem (NSS)
The Network switching system (NSS), the main part of which is the Mobile Switching Center (MSC), performs the switching of calls between the mobile and other fixed or mobile network users, as well as the management of mobile services such as authentication.
The switching system includes the following functional elements.
Home Location Register (HLR)
The HLR is a database used for storage and management of subscriptions. The HLR is considered the most important database, as it stores permanent data about subscribers, including a subscriber's service profile, location information, and activity status. When an individual buys a subscription in the form of SIM then all the information about this subscription is registered in the HLR of that operator.
Mobile Services Switching Center (MSC)
The central component of the Network Subsystem is the MSC. The MSC performs the switching of calls between the mobile and other fixed or mobile network users, as well as the management of mobile services such as such as registration, authentication, location updating,
handovers, and call routing to a roaming subscriber. It also performs such functions as toll ticketing, network interfacing, common channel signaling, and others. Every MSC is identified by a unique ID.
Visitor Location Register (VLR)
The VLR is a database that contains temporary information about subscribers that is needed by the MSC in order to service visiting subscribers. The VLR is always integrated with the MSC. When a mobile station roams into a new MSC area, the VLR connected to that MSC will request data about the mobile station from the HLR. Later, if the mobile station makes a call, the VLR will have the information needed for call setup without having to interrogate the HLR each time.
Authentication Center (AUC)
The Authentication Center is a protected database that stores a copy of the secret key stored in each subscriber's SIM card, which is used for authentication and ciphering of the radio channel. The AUC protects network operators from different types of fraud found in today's cellular world.
Equipment Identity Register (EIR)
The Equipment Identity Register (EIR) is a database that contains a list of all valid mobile equipment on the network, where its International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) identifies each MS. An IMEI is marked as invalid if it has been reported stolen or is not type approved. | <urn:uuid:cb4edddd-a7be-4a8a-8d19-15241cee1da0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tutorialspoint.com/gsm/gsm_network_switching_subsystem.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928372 | 503 | 2.375 | 2 |
A number of false conclusions are drawn by focusing only on outcomes. A common one focuses on the dangers of free markets and an open economy. Critics, especially earnest Christian critics, often attack economic freedom and capitalism based upon the very real dangers of consumerism. This association between markets and consumerism is so common that it often goes unchallenged. I hear it almost daily. But is the connection between free market capitalism and consumerism correct? Does opposition to consumerism, which is clearly a rampant problem in the church in the West, obligate one to oppose markets and growing a (global) business? Keep in mind, before you leap into this debate, that you should always ask a few questions before you leap.
The first question should be obvious? What exactly is consumerism? So far as I can tell the term "consumerism" was first used in 1915 to refer to the "advocacy of the rights and interests of consumers" (Oxford English Dictionary). But this is not the common way most modern writers use the term. Consumerism refers rather to the sense that was first used in 1960 when the word referred to an "emphasis on or preoccupation with the acquisition of consumer goods" (Oxford English Dictionary). In the light of the following texts I think we should oppose consumerism, or preoccupation with goods:
“Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; your life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15).
“Try to be content with essential food and clothing. If you are attached to riches, you can be trapped by senseless desires” (1 Timothy 6:8-10).
Jesus enjoyed the good things of life such as friendship, food, wine and even a cushion under his head. He lived a non-possessive (simple) life. He was unusually detached from family, friends and material things. But the reasons are deeply rooted in who he was and why he came to live and die.
At the same time it seems apparent that more than a few of the faithful, in both the Old and New Testament, were wealthy. The point here is that you can be wealthy and detached from stuff at the same time, though Jesus clearly says it is very difficult. This is why you must “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed” (Luke 12:15). The sin is not in having things but in being owned and controlled by the things you possess. This gets very close to what consumerism really is when our definition is clear. A consumer, as the more recent definition says, is preoccupied with acquisition! You can have wealth but not be preoccupied with it. In fact, some of the finest Christian benefactors in history have been extremely wealthy. Monasteries, colleges and hospitals have all been built because of Christian wealth.
The problem here needs sharper and clearer definition if the followers of Christ are to live well in the West. Consumerism has become a dominant ideology in Western culture. Seeking and having more is a reason to live for many, many people. “Born to shop” creates a few smiles but it is a terrible thing to admit!
The aim of Christian teaching is to help the followers of Christ think through an issue like this one critically. What is the relationship between the church and culture at this point? This leads to a number of other pertinent questions:
1. Does the church build and develop along consumerist lines?
2. Do we imitate consumerism in the way we present the gospel?
3. Have we been clear about the discipleship of all of life or just about private, spiritual concerns?
4. What public policy best serves the true enrichment of our neighbors? (This is one for considerable debate and Christians can legitimately disagree about this and should keep talking and listening.)
I believe we moved, especially in the post-World War II era, from a more healthy form of capitalism to a morally uncontrolled consumerism. Because of this shift in our culture arguments are made today for consumerism that should be challenged. But in the process we should not attack economic freedom through good intentions that are wrongly based. | <urn:uuid:ec8794dc-c7be-4bb8-8916-e8c9b23b15cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnharmstrong.com/?p=219 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974336 | 854 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Wired Equivalent Privacy
From MTU LUG wiki
WEP is short for Wired Equivalent Privacy. The purpose of WEP was to add a tiny level of security to make it difficult for the average person to listen in on traffic going on a WiFi network. WEP uses the RC4 algorithm which is no longer recommended for new systems, is quite secure when implemented properly.
RC4 is a stream cipher. The algorithm is initialized with a specific seed value and then generates a pseudo-random stream of bits that is XORed with the data. WEP generates this seed using a 40-bit (later 104-bit) key and a 24-bit initialization vector. The key is shared across all devices, the initialization vector (from now on called IV) is regenerated for each packet sent across the network. The IV used to seed RC4 is sent in the clear as part of the transmission.
Original attacks against WEP relied on weak IVs that leaked information about the other parts of the key. An attack like this required approximately 1 million to 5 million packets to obtain the required number of weak IVs. Obviously that is alot of traffic to capture and store. This attack was known as the FMS attack. Eventually vendors released updated drivers that simply didn't use weak IVs.
Luckily someone named KoreK came along with a new statistical attack against WEP that only relied on unique IVs. This attack requires about 250,000 unique IVs for a 40-bit WEP key. This still takes a long time to gather, but an order of magnitude less than the FMS attack. An attacker can use a tool like airodump to capture packets on a WiFi network. After gathering the required number of packets s/he then runs aircrack on the packet log and the key will be discovered.
Luckily WEP has another vulnerability we can exploit to generate encrypted traffic on the network. A replay attack is when you retransmit an encrypted message with the hopes that the destination will accept it. There is no check in WEP to ensure that it won't decode and pass on already decoded packets. The retransmitted packet will obviously use the same IV each time, but if a host on the network responds then it's response will use a new IV each time.
To usefully exploit this flaw you need a packet that a host will respond to. Luckily most networks have lots of these, its part of being an ethernet network. Address Resolution Protocol (aka ARP) is used by hosts on an ethernet network to discover what MAC address corresponds to an IP address. This is used to fill in the link-layer fields of the packet. This ARP packet is broadcast to all hosts on the network and a host will always respond to an ARP query that contains it's IP address. ARP packets are perfect for the replay attack because of this. Aireplay is a tool that is used to do exactly this.
The KoreK attack combined with the replay vulnerability can crack a 40-bit WEP key in under 30 minutes. 104-bit WEP in under an hour. | <urn:uuid:54c3f069-d7fb-4736-b86a-3b488ffe96ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lug.mtu.edu/mediawiki/index.php?title=Wired_Equivalent_Privacy&oldid=1100 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948674 | 638 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Dogs in the City
Dogs in the city is a reality-based television program in which master dog trainer Justin Silver uses his considerable skills for relating to the canine species. To help resolve a variety of issues between dogs and their owners Mr. Silver has a rather unique in on Orthodox style when it comes to resolving issues of the canine variety he relates to the dogs on their level almost as though he can read their minds he also helps to teach the given canines to leg it companions how to better communicate and interact with their dog so that both owner and dog can live together in a more harmonious environment.
In each episode, Mr. Silver will apply his unique perspective to the dog and owner relationship to resolve a variety of issues, which can be everything from a couple who wishes to move in together. But their partner is deathly afraid of their dog or a maybe a couple, who has recently gotten divorced, and their canine companion is having a rather difficult time adjusting to the joint custody, lifestyle. They are now dealing with worthy episode may be dealing with behavioral problems such as unnecessary aggression towards visitors. Difficulty potty training a puppy or any other issue that goes along with having a pet of the canine variety. Often times, the owners are found to have just as unique personalities and issues as their dogs and Mr. Silver, must contend with them as well and show them how their negative behavior or reactions is eliciting a negative response or reaction in their pet.
Justin Silver proves that communication with the pet really is a two-way street and they have feelings and concerns and issues. Just like any human partner in a relationship would end sometimes it takes a considerable amount of effort on the part of both parties to achieve the most positive outcome possible. Mr. Silver teaches owners how to connect with their pets on a deep and meaningful level and thereby establish a lifelong bond of love and friendship, while at the same time making sure that the dog or dogs have the social skills necessary to interact with other members of society, both human and canine alike.
Dogs in the City Full Episode Guide:
Season 1 (17 full episodes, 13 clips available)
Episode 6 - You Can Teach Old Dogs New Tricks
First Aired: July 11, 2012
Episode 5 - Eating House and Home
First Aired: June 27, 2012
Episode 4 - Someone Is Gonna Get Hurt
First Aired: June 20, 2012
Episode 3 - Don't Give Me The Drool
First Aired: June 13, 2012
- Episode 2 - He Barks and He Barks and He Barks
- Episode 1 - I Speak Dog | <urn:uuid:9e16a01f-6956-4b96-b0a3-218265617cb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yidio.com/show/dogs-in-the-city | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974927 | 534 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A groundbreaking new study shows that antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), when taken correctly and offered along with condoms and counseling, could help to prevent HIV infection. Results show that taking the drug Truvada was associated with a 43.8% reduction in HIV infections. The study involved about 2,500 sexually active gay men and transgenders from cities around the world, including San Francisco.
The method is known as PrEP (pre-exposure prohylaxis). It’s an experimental approach that involves taking antiretroviral drugs before exposure to the virus.
In the wake of the PrEP study we sat down with Steve Gibson, Director of Magnet, our Gay Mens Health Center, to understand what this study means for San Francisco.
No. This is the first in a series of trials to determine if taking antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) orally, a pill a day, could be used to prevent HIV transmission. You must also understand, the drugs were administered as part of a comprehensive package of prevention, including counseling, condom promotion, and screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). So far, there is no evidence of how the pill would work without the comprehensive prevention package.
No. No prevention method is 100% effective. Much more research is needed – and happily is underway – before we can understand just how effective and practical PrEP might be in preventing HIV. But for now, this is the important message: know your current HIV status and that of your partner(s).
Condoms are the best way to prevent getting or transmitting HIV during anal sex. We also know that using condoms all the time isn’t realistic or even desirable for some guys, and that there are harm reduction strategies like sero-sorting and sero-positioning that may reduce likelihood of transmission. In fact, HIV positive and negative men in San Francisco have made great strides to reduce the likelihood of transmitting or acquiring HIV by adopting some of these strategies. The hope is that someday, PrEP may be one more tool to help further reduce HIV transmission.
Excellent question. No. In fact, the research shows antiretroviral drugs only have the potential to protect someone from HIV. That leaves many other STIs, like syphilis, gonorrhea, and Chlamydia, that you could still contract in your throat and butt as well as your penis.
Because there remains an urgent need for a range of safe and effective prevention strategies. Approximately 2.7 million people are infected annually around the world, including 56,000 in the United States and approximately 800 to 1000 in San Francisco. Although behavior change programs have contributed to dramatic reductions in these rates, far too many people are getting infected with HIV each year, including right here in San Francisco.
It means PrEP worked best when the study participants took all the pills they were supposed to take exactly as they were supposed to take them. So if this is eventually approved for use, we’ve learned that it’s very important that people adhere to the regimen. This is not something that can be taken casually.
Only a small portion of study participants were successful in taking the medication daily, exactly as they were supposed to. There are several reasons for this. First, taking a daily medication is a challenge for anyone. Life happens, and people miss doses for all sorts of reasons. This is particularly problematic for HIV medications, which require strict adherence to be effective in fighting HIV.
Second, a number of people in the study experienced nausea and headaches during the first month of the trial. This is just one of the “real world” complications we have to consider as we look at PrEP and how effective it could be.
Yes. These drugs can cost more than $14,000 per year for daily doses. We are concerned that only people who can afford the medications, or people with private health care, will have access to PrEP. But advocates are focusing on drug pricing and coverage to ensure equitable access, should PrEP prove to be as effective as the recent study suggests it might be.
Absolutely. We believe, along with many in San Francisco, that anyone with HIV should be able to access proper care and treatment. We still have work to do on this front. There are still people living with HIV in San Francisco who have other more pressing life matters such as mental health, substance use, or who are homeless, that make it difficult to sustain HIV care. Addressing the health disparities among people living with HIV and AIDS in San Francisco remains our top priority.
As we’ve said, the use of these medications as prevention is still in the very early stages of research. But here’s what we know for sure: they improve the lives of people already living with HIV. So we strongly feel that ARVs must be accessible first and foremost to all HIV positive people who need them.
This study really underscores the need for people to know their HIV status so that appropriate prevention, treatment, and care services are made available to them. It’s important to remember that 1 in 5 people nationwide who are HIV positive do not know their status.
Beyond that, this study holds promise. This may be the most significant advance in HIV health and prevention for gay men since the mid-90s with the release of more effective ARVs, giving real hope that we could someday break the back of the epidemic. It’s of course tempered and qualified hope, but it is hope nonetheless, and that’s significant since we haven’t had that kind of optimism in a very long time.
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has a great deal more information about PrEP on its web site. To learn more, visit: www.cdc.gov/hiv/prep.
For more information about the actual study, you can visit: http://www.helpfighthiv.org/prepare.htm
Individuals who are wondering if PrEP may be an option for them should consult their physician.
The best way to fight HIV is to know your status. A simple test can determine if you are infected with the virus.
Our diverse programs help thousands of people every year. From testing to prevention to care, our services assist communities where need is greatest.See what we're doing... | <urn:uuid:f6f31639-5436-498e-9f1e-a13de9bd7040> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sfaf.org/hiv-info/hot-topics/from-the-experts/2011-01-prep-your-questions-answered.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964891 | 1,300 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Scientists and technologists-often deplored, sometimes feared, frequently on the fringes of society-have become hip.
They grace the covers of news magazines, their frequently arcane research is the stuff of bestsellers, and one of the members of their clan has become the richest man in America.
Even the motion picture industry has caught on. Historically, movies have tended to portray scientists as a tad mad. But such films as "Contact" show that scientists can be, well, almost like normal people. Of course, that film was based on a novel written by a scientist, the late Carl Sagan.
This evolution in the perception of scientists has come about largely because science and technology play an increasingly important role in all our lives.
Instant global communications and television coverage have shrunk the world. A kid with a desktop computer can create new images and new tools-maybe even break into computer systems that keep track of everything from our bank accounts to national security projects. There seems to be an electronic gadget to meet every need.
We all have what we need now to do some science ourselves, ranging from computers to digital imaging to direct access via e-mail to scientists and their institutions.
And that has led to the emergence of something new in our society.
Borrowing a phrase coined by science historian C.P. Snow, literary agent and science author John Brockman calls it the "third culture.
"In the past, culture has been defined as art and music. When we have those, we have culture. When we don't, we don't.
But Brockman argues that technology has brought science into our lives in such a dramatic way that a third culture has emerged.
In 1981, Brockman founded the Reality Club, an assortment of movers and shakers from the world of science who traditionally meet in Chinese restaurants and artists' lofts around New York City to ponder the great imponderables of the day. In the most common expression of the third culture, a year ago Brockman started a Web site (http://www.edge.org) to give scientists a forum in which to share their thoughts and their questions with the world at large.
He says the site addresses the motto of the Reality Club: "To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves.
"Much of the discussion on the site centers on the emergence of this new, global culture. Some of the material is written specifically for the site, but some of it, including an essay by Kevin Kelly, executive editor of Wired magazine, first appeared elsewhere.
"This new third culture is an offspring of science," writes Kelly in a piece originally published in the Feb. 13 issue of Science. "It's a pop culture based in technology, for technology. Call it nerd culture.
"The computer revolution brought science into our lives as never before, and for the Nintendo generation, technology became their culture.
And somewhere along the way, Kelly argues, a "funny thing happened: Nerds became cool.
"But nerds are not interested in science per se, Kelly argues. The third culture is interested in results, particularly innovation.
"Its thrust is not pursuing truth, but pursuing novelty," Kelly writes. " 'New,' 'improved,' 'different' are key attributes for this technological culture.
"Yet oddly enough, some of the scientific arenas that are most in vogue these days have little to do with novelty or even a tangible payback to society. No one really needs to know the nature of a black hole, for instance, but astronomy is one of the hottest buttons in science.
Nerds may be hip, but they are the toolmakers. They are beholden to science because science fuels their revolution. But it is the tools that fascinate them the most, not the science.
Technology may be the pathway to the third culture, but some scientists are hip these days despite the fact that they may never have written software or created a new gadget. They are hip because they are addressing questions that spring from the roots of intellectual curiosity.
Stephen Hawking, whose writings about astrophysics triggered much of the current interest in science, is an intellectual innovator, not a creator of computer games and novelties.
Yet Hawking could fill an auditorium in seconds with people eager to learn what he has to say about the dynamics of the cosmos.
Ironically, his crippling disease has left him capable of speaking only through a computer-driven technological innovation. Does that make him a product or a guru of the third culture?
Scientists have frequently been on a roller coaster when it comes to public perception. Their image plummeted with fears growing out of the nuclear age and rose with humans landing on the moon. But it may remain at a high level for many years to come. It is rooted in a broad segment of society that is, in varying degrees, directly engaged in science. Despite the powerful new astronomical observatories springing up around the world, for example, most comets are still discovered by amateurs with backyard telescopes.
And the meteoric rise of Microsoft was driven by Bill Gates, who dropped out of Harvard and created the most powerful software company in the world.
Yet despite all that, my hunch is that more kids could name a dozen movie stars or sports heroes than a couple of scientists.
That is partly because many still feel intimidated by science, and scientific success frequently goes unnoticed."
Since 1937, the United States has anointed a national poet laureate but never a science laureate," Kelly points out.
Maybe the time is ripe to change that, now that scientists are hip. If that ever happens, we may not need to worry about those science scores anymore.
Kids will see just how cool it can be to be a nerd. | <urn:uuid:b934fa41-efb6-40ef-b882-8d82eeadb06b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edge.org/news/a-brief-history-of-how-the-once-maligned-nerd-became-cool | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961024 | 1,204 | 2.75 | 3 |
How to prevent insider trading in your ranks
One of the most recent high-profile scandals to hit headlines is the insider trading trial of Rajat Gupta, a former director of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Procter & Gamble Co., which is built on accusations Mr. Gupta leaked confidential business information to hedge fund company Galleon Group.
For companies, the Gupta case is yet another reminder of the importance of ensuring that insiders with privileged access to non-public information play by the rules laid down by lawmakers and securities regulators.
"Insider trading is bad for everyone - investors, businesses, the country," says Al Rosen, a chartered accountant with Rosen & Associates Ltd., a Toronto firm that specializes in investigative accounting. "From a company's perspective, the business suffers in the sense that people lose respect for their management team, and the company starts losing its investors."
While the country's securities regulators and courts see only a few cases of insider trading cases each year a number of market observers have pointed to consistent patterns of trading spikes in the days before an announcement of earnings or a significant business development, such as a merger.
"Insiders can't trade during certain periods, such as before a quarterly earnings release or before a company releases material information," says Brian Smith, a professor of finance at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., who has been studying insider trading for years. "But our evidence indicates that insiders aren't restricting themselves during these blackout periods."
To protect their reputation and shareholders, companies need to wield their own whip on insider trading, says Mr. Smith. For starters, they can't just rely on the country's laws; they need to have their own insider trading policy - something that most large companies have but is still missing in many publicly traded companies.
An insider trading policy needs to clearly spell out the definition of an "insider" and "insider information," says Dr. Smith. It should also specify blackout periods when insiders are not allowed to buy or sell stock.
Benjamin Silver, a Montreal-based lawyer with McCarthy Tétrault LLP, notes that most large companies today require their top officers to notify the company's chief financial officer or legal department before making a trade.
More companies are also moving toward automatic share plans for their senior officers, says Mr. Silver. These plans allow top leaders such as CEOs to sell their shares according to a pre-arranged schedule.
"The concept is that you take away the discretion to trade from the insider, and the trading decision has nothing to do with the insider and is not necessarily dependent on any event," says Mr. Silver.
Automatic share plans also make it easier for senior officers to exercise their stock options. Without such a plan, CEOs and other top officers typically have very limited periods during the year when they can trade; in addition to the usual blackout periods, they're also prohibited from trading during times when they possess non-public material information which.
To minimize their risk for insider trading, companies need to keep a close eye on external parties such as advisers and consultants, says Mr. Rosen. In a case that led to Canada's first criminal conviction for insider trading, a former Toronto lawyer named Gil Cornblum - who later committed suicide - secretly obtained confidential client information and passed them on to his accomplice Stanko Grmovsek, who made trades based on these insider tips.
Having an internal watchdog is a good idea, says Mr. Rosen. He recommends assigning at least one employee to monitor the company's stock trades.
"And if you don't have someone to do this internally, then farm it out."
Companies should also take the time to carefully review analysts' reports for possible information leaks, says Mr. Rosen.
"Be careful that they're not putting out 'buy, buy, buy' recommendations to help underwriters sell your company's stock."
It's also important to have third-party verification, says Mr. Smith. An accountant or auditor should check insiders' holdings at the end of the year and compare these to transactions they reported throughout the year, he says.
Create a policy
Translate the country's criminal and securities laws on insider trading into clearly defined rules your officers and employees must follow. Be sure to specify blackout dates and spell out the meaning of insider and insider information.
Take extra precautions
For instance, go above and beyond what the law requires by asking senior officers to notify your CFO or legal department before they exercise their stock options.
To address the tight trading restrictions put on CEOs and other top officers, companies should consider automatic share plans that allow trades on a pre-arranged schedule.
Have an internal watchdog. Assign someone to monitor trades of the company's stock. It's also a good idea to form an investigations group that can look into suspicious trading activities.
Get outside help
Have a third party, such as an accounting firm, come in at the end of the year to verify insiders' holdings against their reported trades throughout the year. | <urn:uuid:d261dd07-7a0d-4984-989a-75361452e57d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20120607/SRSTRATEGYINSIDER0607ATL | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960763 | 1,026 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Rodney King, the African-American motorist, whose March 1991 videotaped brutal beating by the Los Angeles police sparked the worst racial riots in the US history, dies at 47.
King's fiancée, who found his body at the bottom of a swimming pool at the house in early Sunday, called 911 to report the incident, police Lt. Dean Hardin said, the Associated Press reported.
Police officers rushed to the scene and pulled King out of the pool. The unresponsive King was taken to the hospital where, the police said, he was pronounced dead at 06:11 (13:11 GMT).
After his death, African-American civil rights activist Al Sharpton stated, "Rodney King was a symbol of civil rights and he represented the anti-police brutality and anti-racial profiling movement of our time.”
The LA riots started on April 29, 1992 when an all-white Simi Valley jury acquitted four LA Police Department (LAPD) officers of wrongdoing in King’s beating.
Over the course of six days, the unrest spread quickly throughout the city and left at least 53 people dead, about 2,500 injured, and caused over-USD-one-billion property damage.
Following the bloody protests, two of the four police officers were sentenced to two years in prison.
At the time of the riots, police brutality and bigotry was the order of the day for the LAPD, according to representatives of the African-American community.
At 26, King had been imprisoned for robbery. On March 3, 1991, when temporarily released on bail, he was arrested again for refusing to stop his car after overspeeding.
The four police officers who arrested King, brutality kicked him and beat him with electroshock and ordinary batons. Meanwhile, a bystander videotaped the incident from his apartment window. The video rapidly spread and was viewed across the US.
In an April interview with Los Angeles Times
, King said, “People look at me like I should have been like Malcolm X or Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks.”
In other remarks, King pointed to the impacts of his ordeal on police brutality and racial discrimination and noted that unless the LAPD violence had happened against him, Barack Obama would not have been elected as the US president.
King, who suffered permanent injuries and was hobbling for the rest of his life, believed that his image would always signify the police brutality.
He built a swimming pool at his house yard and craved the date of his beating on the bottom of the pool.
In his memoirs tilted “The Riot Within: From Rebellion to Redemption,” King elaborated on the challenges he faced during his life.
In other interviews, he pointed to the fact that he had never managed to find a fix job and that he was broke and in debt despite the advance payment he had received for his book. | <urn:uuid:909515cf-e94f-42d9-bc50-f4c55d946340> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.presstv.ir/detail/246715.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984779 | 593 | 2.546875 | 3 |
ContraryInvestor<JUNE NEWSLETTER>Of Currencies And Global Capital Flows
As we move into the summer of 2012, we once again find ourselves in a world of heightened asset price volatility, concerns over European governments and the Euro banking system as a whole, as well as clear economic slowing in the emerging economies. As you’ll remember, we lived with very similar concerns and circumstances during the summers of 2010 and 2011. Is it déjà vu all over again?
In this discussion we look at what we believe to be a very important topic receiving far too little attention in the mainstream financial media that happens to have direct bearing on short term investment decision making and outcomes. We want to discuss the role and importance of currencies and global capital flows in the current environment. Quick word of warning. For many of you this may seem incredibly simplistic. This of those discussions where we’re trying to address those that do not work in the investment industry and do not follow the financial markets on a constant basis.
One of the most important big picture issues in the current environment is to remember that we are in a completely interconnected world. Amidst a period of sovereign debt crisis (in Europe for now), it’s not just the reality of the interconnected physical global economies that is important in determining short to intermediate term broad asset class or specific asset price outcomes, but the nature of continually adjusting global currency cross rates as well as the actual movement of global capital flows also very much influences asset prices. A bit of a three dimensional chessboard? Yes.
Let’s start with important facts that we know.
FULL @ http://www.contraryinvestor.com/mo.htm
Concentrate, and ASK the 8-Ball! | <urn:uuid:4c2e4905-5077-4f80-ac0f-cdc2092b5eab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=76200264 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928756 | 362 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Hercules is an Italian adventure film written and directed by Luigi Cozzi. The movie follows the adventures of the well-known mythological hero but gives the story a modern twist, pitting Hercules (Lou Ferrigno) against an evil wizard named Minos (William Berger), who wants to take over Hercules' world using science and modern technology. The film deviates from the original story and forges it anew for the new generation, replacing ancient lore with scientific twists. Instead of completing twelve labors, Hercules must rescue Princess Cassiopia, avenge his mortal parents, and fight his way through legions of robots and monsters in order to get to Minos.
Along the way, Hercules makes several new friends, including a cursed witch, travels to exciting destinations, such as the center of the world, and learns more about himself and the evil forces that are at work to take over the world. However, the movie never completely abandons its roots. In fact, the film seamlessly ties in some of the original mythology into this modern adventure, making an all-new tale. Hercules is found fighting Hydra, rescuing damsels, pitting his strength against both man and beast, as well as meeting well-known gods such as Zeus, Hera, and Athena.
The film has great technical value, using stop-motion animation to make scenes come to life, such as fighting robots, bears, and other enemies thrown in Hercules' path by Minos. The musical score is composed by Pino Donaggio, a famous Italian composer, who is best known for his hit single, "Io che non vivo," or "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" when performed in English. Though not a box office hit, the film has become a favorite among fans of Lou Ferrigno. This led to a sequel called The Adventures of Hercules. | <urn:uuid:bc3d151f-f330-4375-9afe-2397128a9ebe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yidio.com/movie/hercules/8530 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964014 | 378 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Born: Kippenheim bei Lahr, Germany
October 14, 1893
The second oldest of six children, Emma was raised by observant Jewish parents in a small town in southwestern Germany and they settled in the industrial city of Mannheim after World War I. There she had two children, a son in 1924, and a daughter in 1930. Emma helped her husband in his business.
1933-39: After the Nazis came to power, Emma's husband lost his business. Her sister Linnchen emigrated to South Africa, and the Nazis deported her brother Arthur to Dachau. When the Nazis burned down the local synagogue and Jewish school in November 1938, Emma and her husband decided to send their 14-year-old son to Britain. They remained behind; her husband felt that the Nazis would not harm them any more than they already had.
1940-42: On October 22, 1940, the Freunds were ordered to prepare to leave Mannheim and to assemble near the train station. They disobeyed the order and tried to hide with a Jewish family living outside of Mannheim, but were discovered. The family was deported to Gurs, a camp in southern France. Emma and her daughter were separated from her husband and then transferred to yet another camp, Rivesaltes. Emma fell ill, but was relieved when a Jewish children's aid society managed to get her daughter out of the camp.
Emma was transferred to the Drancy transit camp in August 1942. She was deported to Auschwitz on August 14 and gassed upon arrival. She was 48 years old. | <urn:uuid:1159b650-2fb6-45b8-9e8a-7834e3900964> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_oi.php?MediaId=1467 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987838 | 326 | 2.875 | 3 |
ACT Chief Minister and Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Katy Gallagher, today officially launched the first of 20 new accessible, articulated, large-capacity and environmentally friendly buses for the ACTION fleet.
"It is great to see the first new articulated bus in Canberra in nearly 20 years now entering service and I have no doubt it will be a valuable addition to the ACTION fleet," the Chief Minister said.
"Between now and March 2013, twenty easy access articulated buses will be progressively delivered replacing ACTION's ageing articulated fleet, some of which are now up to 24 years old.
"These new buses will assist in meeting demand on ACTION's most highly patronised routes, such as the Blue and Red Rapid services, while also providing the safest transport for school children where high capacity buses are needed.
"I also hope they help to make public transport a more attractive alternative to driving for Canberrans," the Chief Minister said.
A team of ACTION fleet representatives, together with driver and workshop representatives, performed a pre-production test of the buses last year to finalise their specifications.
The buses carry up to 107 passengers (65 seated) and are the latest available from the manufacturer, Scania. They are fully accessible, climate controlled and low emission and meet Environmentally Enhance Vehicle (EEV) emission standards.
Since the bus replacement program began in January 2004, 191 new buses have been added to ACTION's fleet, replacing older non-DDA compliant buses. The 20 new articulated buses have been funded as part of the $75 million allocated in and since the 2008-2009 ACT Budget. The 2012-2013 ACT Budget provides a further $48.527 million to replace 90 buses over the next five financial years.
"These replacements will be part of the ACT Government's commitment to achieving an accessible fleet target of 55% by December 2012 to meet the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA)," the Chief Minister concluded.
- Statement ends -
Section: Katy Gallagher, MLA | Media Releases
02 6205 8144
0478 474 071 | <urn:uuid:9051d98f-36d8-4811-aa50-f583df664e17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/open_government/inform/act_government_media_releases/gallagher/2012/first_new_articulated_action_bus_in_20_years_rolls_into_town | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946768 | 417 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Community blooms in the historic lakeside hamlet
Shirley LaForest considers herself lucky to have lived in many places over her 74 years — North Carolina, Georgia, even the tiny atolls of Micronesia. But none of those could she call home. For LaForest, home was, and remains, a quaint lakeside hamlet where neighbors know each other’s business, for better or worse, and the idea of a “strong sense of community” is not just a feel-good bromide. It may be hard to believe such a place exists in today’s era of epidemic individualism, cynicism and general wariness, but LaForest’s hometown is by no means an invented Brigadoon. It lies right across Lake Champlain from us, in Essex, N.Y.
If you’ve ever traveled to the Adirondacks via the Charlotte ferry, you’ve visited LaForest’s ancestral land, if only briefly. Most ferry passengers don’t stay long in Essex, especially in the off-season when the village center is all but shut down. But if you did hang around, chances are you’d find the community enviable in nearly every respect, except for the fact that the closest gas station and grocery store are at least 5 miles away.
Fewer than 700 people make their permanent home in Essex, according to the 2008 U.S. Census estimates, yet despite its size, the village is a hive of activity. Over the years, residents have started a first-run film society , an arts association, a community theater and a summer concert series that attracts nationally known classical musicians. The town also supports three churches — one Methodist, one Episcopal and one Catholic — that are venues for plenty of community events, from potlucks to organ recitals.
The town’s early identity as a principal maritime port may help explain how Essex became the tight-knit community it is today. Essex was settled in 1765 by a wealthy landowner, William Gilliland, and officially gained town status in 1805 when it separated from neighboring Willsboro. Over the first half of the 19th century, the town had an essential role in the growth of North Atlantic cities, serving as a gateway to the natural resources of the Adirondacks. Forest products, iron, leather and stone from the surrounding area helped put the harbor town on the map.
In addition, Essex became a major center for ship building, producing hundreds of shallow-draft, flat-bottomed cargo boats at its two shipyards. The prosperous town developed a population of more than 2300 people, who were primarily lured by the bountiful opportunities in the shipping industry.
Then, in 1849, the railroad came to the Champlain Valley. The growing prosperity that Essex enjoyed due to its central port location ground to an unceremonious halt. Because of the trains, which provided faster, cheaper transportation, Essex’s economy collapsed. The population shrank rapidly as people sought work elsewhere; 150 years after the railroad arrived, Essex numbered only 880 people.
The town was so small that Shirley LaForest went to elementary school in a one-room building that lacked electricity and running water. Her freshman class in high school consisted of her and one other student. But, she says, Essex was a “wonderful place to grow up.” Until she was 10 years old, LaForest, who now serves as the town historian, lived on a farm just outside the village. When her oldest brother took over the farm, she and her parents moved to the leafy hamlet, which looks much as it did when the railroad arrived. Because the population immediately began to decline, new construction nearly stopped, and the town was frozen in time. It now boasts one of largest collections of pre-Civil War architecture in the state of New York.
The imposing stone structures that line the town’s main drag make up a veritable textbook of architectural styles. Prim, geometric Federal-style houses sit next to ornate, pilastered Greek Revival homes. The steep gables and gingerbreading of the Carpenter Gothic structures look quite at home abutting the broad eaves of the Italianate buildings. The village’s tree-lined boulevard, while bereft of many businesses, is perfect for summer strolling.
Though LaForest moved off the family farm, her connections with her community remained strong. “There was a lot of family nearby, and neighbors, and you just knew you could count on everyone being there for you,” she says. “I think most folks would tell you that.” LaForest reckons that even today she is related to at least half the native population of Essex.
Gayle Perry is another long-time Essex resident — though, because she was born in neighboring Elizabethtown and spent part of her youth there, she jokes that she’s not truly a local. The 50-year-old says she feels similar to LaForest about Essex’s sense of community, though she can’t quite put her finger on why. Perhaps that’s the way it’s always been, she posits. Everybody pitches in and helps their neighbors — perhaps the only way to live happily in such isolation. “Essex is one of those true North Country towns, where everybody knows you and the people are so wonderful,” Perry says.
Despite her relative youth — for Essex — Perry is somewhat of an anachronism. She met her husband, Bob, at a softball game just after her junior prom. He’s the only man she ever dated, and they’ve been married for 32 years. The pair runs Cedar Hedge Farms, a huge organic crop operation that grows hay, wheat, soybeans and corn. One of their two sons, Adam, is a fourth-generation farmer who is being groomed to take over the operation when his parents retire. Perry and her family are the picture of a bucolic life, and she likes it that way. “With farming, you either love it or hate it,” she says.
Perry and LaForest represent a dwindling native population, one that’s gradually being squeezed out of the town by transplants and summer residents who choose to retire there. But there’s little, if any, animosity between the groups, the women say. Old and new residents come together to produce plays, host concerts, run film nights and organize community potlucks.
Perry grumbles that transplants from metropolitan areas have driven up housing costs, since they’re willing to pay far more than locals can afford. That is perhaps the biggest issue in Essex, but it doesn’t seem to prevent people from getting along. Most transplants acknowledge that their presence has contributed to the escalation in property values.
Jim Van Hoven is one transplant who’s witnessed the town’s “gentrification.” He and his wife, Colleen, worked in the New York City area for years as educators; when they were ready to purchase a second home, they looked no farther than Essex. Van Hoven, 69, went to summer camp in the area as a child and fell in love with the town over the years. His wife was easily convinced. “We liked Essex because we love the water, we love the mountains, and we love history,” Van Hoven says.
His more urbane friends questioned the couple’s move. He tried to paint them a picture of the town and its appeal, but, he says, “It’s just something you can’t explain.” Part of what Van Hoven likes about Essex, he says, is the diversity of the population — not the ethnic or racial diversity, which is nil, but the jumble of people with different income brackets, educational backgrounds and life experiences. Like Perry and LaForest, Van Hoven appreciates that everyone knows each other: After a recent trip to the hospital, he says, his phone rang off the hook with neighbors asking if he was OK.
The Town of Essex is not solely the domain of wealthy retirees: An increasing number of younger people are choosing to live there as well. Mark and Kristin Kimball, a thirtysomething couple who run the much-vaunted Essex Farms , chose the lakeside town in 2003 as the home base of their operation. It employs about a dozen young people, from prep-school teenagers to graduated Ivy Leaguers.
Mark and Erin Hall, another couple in their thirties, landed in Essex almost by accident. They always thought they’d settle in Burlington, but after spending a summer in Essex, they decided to stay. “We’re in the fifth year of a two-year plan,” Mark Hall quips.
Hall, 37, attributes their decision to stay largely to the people of Essex. Hall, an architect, and his wife, an interior designer-cum-baker, bought a fixer-upper house in the village and set about becoming part of the town. “I’ve never experienced the kinds of community we have here. It’s like an island community,” Hall says. He and his wife have connected with the small but active local population of young people largely through their 20-month-old daughter, Oona.
When she is old enough, Hall says, Oona will attend the Lakeside Preschool at Black Kettle Farm , a progressive, sustainable enterprise in neighboring Whallonsburg run by the Eddy Foundation , a nonprofit land trust. The preschool was founded recently to meet the needs of a growing populace of children.
Living in Essex hasn’t always been easy. It was only within the last five years that the town got decent cellphone and Internet service: former New York governor George Pataki bought a farm in Essex and needed access to the outside world.
Sometimes, Hall says, he feels he’s missing out on something. But new residents say the sense of intimacy and security that comes from living in a remote rural environment trumps whatever they had to leave behind. That can’t-quite-put-your-finger-on-it sense of community wins out.
Though she roamed far afield, Shirley LaForest always felt the town’s draw. Eventually, she let Essex pull her back. “I feel so rooted here,” she says. | <urn:uuid:3cbc57b7-1d19-4f8e-adfc-cb0ae5a39a83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.7dvt.com/print/36787 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972214 | 2,183 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Talk:Argument from faith
There are sorts of beliefs that you must hold in order to be a functioning human. You do not have to hold them unexamined, however. The most basic beliefs I know of that you can hold are Occam's razor and induction. You can determine, with Occam's razor and induction, whether Occam's razor and induction work in our universe. You see the problem. You might be justified in calling my continuing use of Occam's razor and induction an act of faith.
Premise 2 is useless in this argument. An appropriate premise would be "The existence of God can be determined by faith". The phrasing used seeks to justify a lack of physical evidence.
I take issue with the section entitled "False premise p1a". In particular, the first sentence, "The premise that nothing can be proven for certain or from scratch can be demonstrated as false when you consider 'I think therefore I am', mathematics and the 3 logical absolutes." I am not an expert in formal logic or in philosophy, but I am an expert in mathematics, so it is from this perspective that I comment. The 3 logical absolutes seem to me to be conventions that we follow without question because they seem to be reasonable. That is, they are axioms of logic. An axiom is something which is accepted without proof, which to me seems to be not contrary to the concept of faith, but rather similar to it.
But, as far as the math goes, one cannot prove that 2+2=4 "from scratch". In fact, developing the amount of machinery necessary to even define what is meant by all of the symbols in that statement requires quite a bit of axiomatic definition. That is to say, at some point we must admit that we have to stop proving claims and simply agree that we believe a certain thing.
I think perhaps it would be best to avoid this half of the argument and simply stick to the second half of the argument, where it is asserted that absolute knowledge is never necessary in interacting with the real world, since empirical science is never absolute but "it works" and therefore is useful. Keith Penrod 13:06, 21 March 2013 (CDT)
- The logical absolutes are simply formal statements of how we link definitions to the things they define. They just explain that when we use (for example) the term "your next-door neighbor", we generally mean "a person who lives in a house next to your own" and not "the manhole cover in the intersection of 15th and Main", nor "Ghengis Khan", nor any of the near-infinite number of other things that do not match that definition. When we say "A", we mean "A" and not "not A"; when we talk about "B" in terms of "A" or "not A", "B" cannot be both "A" and "not A". Jdog 10:08, 22 March 2013 (CDT) | <urn:uuid:6e1b61bf-0447-44bb-ab48-9fa21ea1ed33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Talk:Argument_from_faith | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954083 | 619 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Benefits Of Loyalty Programs
Benefits of Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs refer to structured marketing activities responsible for rewarding, and thus encourage, loyal purchasing behavior. This kind of behavior is potentially benefiting to any organization. Loyalty programs offer various advantages like the ones below.
1. Customer incentives
Most grocery stores offer loyalty programs in the form of gifts to new customers like an incentive for shopping at that particular store only. Such programs encourage people to become frequent shoppers at that shop. Some programs require people to become members in order to access certain deals that are only given to members only.
2. Great deals
Loyalty programs usually offer great deals on daily items used by people, particularly at grocery stores. Products such as milk, sugar, bread, eggs and sometimes fruit and flour are given great discounts for customers who are loyal shoppers to a certain store. Usually, they require showing identification to get loyalty program discounts.
3. Free items
Loyalty programs offer something useful for every person and if a person does not like what an organization offers like a radio or television, there is normally another reward or discount given like an alternative. Most stores prefer using the option of purchasing one item to get another free. Giving away free items helps in customer retention and it also encourages more shopping.
4. Enhance profits
A great method of enhancing business profits is through using loyalty programs. Even though it may seem that a business is losing by giving away free stuff, these programs usually motivate customers to spend more money at a specific store. Good quality goods are normally provided at discount prices, with the option of additional gifts upon purchase. An organization can therefore enhance their profits immensely through loyalty programs.
Nevertheless, discounted services and products are at times perceived like lacking the similar guarantee and quality. This is by far the only major disadvantage linked to loyalty programs.Benefits Of Loyalty Programs | <urn:uuid:7eba1195-f269-4471-9bbc-b9f15564bf8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://benefitof.net/benefits-of-loyalty-programs/ | 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 | 0.943637 | 382 | 1.929688 | 2 |
REGISTER NOW AND GET
• 5 FREE tracks! • 101 tracks for $9.99
ClassicsOnline Home » FORSYTH, M.: Cello Music (Soaring with Agamemnon) (Forsyth, Longworth)
FORSYTH, M.: Cello Music (Soaring with Agamemnon) (Forsyth, Longworth)
As a new Canadian, professional musician I wanted to know more about the composers of my new country and especially those who wrote for the cello, my instrument. I quickly came across this recording and after hearing a few excerpts online I knew I had to own the whole CD which I downloaded from ClassicsOnline.
Since then I have ordered the sheet music for one of the pieces (Ecletic Suite). The fact that the interpreter is the daughter of one of the composers (M. Forsyth) makes her interpretation all the more moving and energetic. The Duets for two cellos are very nice too, and will make great pieces for students.more....
Last Albums Viewed
FORSYTH, M.: Cello Music (Soaring with Agamemnon) ... | <urn:uuid:63165200-f955-4d32-8885-9db48439a5d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=1108525 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920854 | 239 | 1.5 | 2 |
Alabama's involvement with the United States' participation in World War I in many ways reflected the state's pre-war culture, economy, society, gender and racial relations, and politics. Mobilization generated a frenzy of activity but engendered few permanent changes, other than acting as a catalyst for the Great Migration, as tradition yielded only slightly to modernism.
From its beginnings in August 1914, the European war created problems in Alabama. Trade disruptions beginning in 1915 and America's rapidly expanding efforts to supply the Allies affected Alabama's economy before and after the United States declared war in April 1917. Significantly, British industrial production shifted from making cloth to making war material, so its demand for southern cotton plummeted, depressing cotton prices and reducing traffic in the port of Mobile. There, city leaders tried to improve local dock facilities to attract deep-draught ships, which they hoped would make port in Mobile when trade resumed. Only a lack of capital and concerted political wrangling finally convinced the state to create the Alabama State Docks Commission, which took over dock construction in Mobile.
Events in other parts of the United States had an impact on Alabama as well. As industry began to supply the Allies with war material, more than 150,000 whites and approximately 85,000 blacks left rural Alabama for jobs in the North and in manufacturing centers elsewhere in the South. Landowners protested the resulting labor shortage and even sought to have labor recruiters from northern industries arrested, but these efforts could not stem the tide of out-migration. Birmingham suffered from a different problem shortly after the U.S. entered the conflict. Railroad traffic became snarled from New England to the Midwest, and with railcars sitting idle there, Birmingham's steel production slowed precipitously because of a lack of access to markets. Only after December did the jam clear.
Military mobilization engaged Alabama almost immediately after the United States declared war in April 1917. Powerful congressmen
secured three training bases for the state. The Thirty-seventh Ohio "Buckeye" Division trained at Camp Sheridan, much to the delight of Montgomery's merchants, who prospered from the new business, while Army pilots from Taylor Field enthralled Montgomery's elite. Camp McClellan
in Anniston hosted the Twenty-ninth "Blue-Gray" Division from the mid-Atlantic region.
Alabama National Guard units, which had served in a military effort in Mexico against Francisco "Pancho" Villa's rebellion from October 1916 to April 1917, returned just in time to be mobilized for the European war. Initially, Alabama units protected public utilities and infrastructure, but in August they were mustered into federal service. The First and Second Alabama Infantry entered the Army's Thirty-first Infantry Division, whereas the Fourth Alabama became the 167th Regiment of the Forty-second (Rainbow) Division. The 167th fought in the 1918 Aisne-Marne Offensive, and the Thirty-first remained at Camp Wheeler in Georgia.
In addition to providing 5,000 National Guardsmen and 7,000 other volunteers, Alabama contributed approximately 74,000 white and black draftees, called "selectmen," to the Army. Most black troops were assigned to labor battalions, but two black units that trained in Alabama, Maryland's First Separate Negro Company and Ohio's Ninth Battalion of Infantry Colored, saw action with the Ninety-third Division under French command. More than 2,500 Alabamians were killed fighting in the fields of France.
The state government prepared for war as well. Governor Charles Henderson established the Alabama Council for Defense as the local arm of the Council of National Defense and appointed administrators to state subsidiaries of various nationwide resource administrations, such as the U.S. Food Administration and the War Industries Board. The Alabama Council for Defense took more than a year to find its footing, but after reorganizing in June 1918, it coordinated the war service of more than a dozen agencies.
Alabamians from all walks of life pitched in to help the war effort. Many joined voluntary organizations such as the Red Cross, the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense, the War Camp Community Service, the YMCA, the YWCA, and the Four-Minute Men and Women, which were groups of amateur orators who promoted the war effort. Others formed ad hoc service groups. Near Camps Sheridan and McClellan, women assisted soldiers' families, provided transportation to and from camps, and hosted social gatherings to draw soldiers away from prostitutes and saloons. Local communities, professors from Alabama State Normal School for Negroes, and women's clubs in Montgomery and Tuscaloosa organized canning factories to preserve Victory Garden produce and keep food affordable in their cities.
The war had a direct economic impact on state industry. Federal money poured into the Muscle Shoals area and led to the construction of what became Wilson Dam and two nitrate plants along the Tennessee River, although they did not contribute to the war effort. Similarly, federal contracts drove the building of ship yards near Mobile. Millions of dollars in wages flowed into both areas, but thousands of new workers encountered serious overcrowding. The war economy also improved demand for Birmingham's iron products as well as the state's timber, food, and fiber. Prices rose, and wages, job opportunities, and living standards improved.
Despite white mistrust as war fever spread across the state, black Alabamians continually demonstrated their full support for the war. Black spokesmen like R. R. Moton, G. T. Buford, Emmett Scott, and dozens of local leaders organized their segregated communities for patriotic rallies, Liberty Bond drives, draft registration, and send-offs for both black and white troop trains. Whenever possible, blacks ran parallel war services, including the Red Cross, ad hoc clubs, and even the men's and women's Four-Minute speakers' series.
On November 11, 1918, the Allies and Germany signed an armistice that effectively ended the war in which Americans had fought for only 19 months. World War I left a mixed legacy in Alabama. Though mobilization had demonstrated the efficiency of an expanded governmental role and had broken down some barriers to women and blacks participating in mainstream society, the war experience did not change Alabama's traditional conservatism. For example, the Alabama legislature refused to consider the Twentieth Amendment, so women in the state received the right to vote only after enough other states ratified it.
African Americans especially were disheartened by the lack of change after the war. Believing that wholehearted participation on the homefront and in the trenches would soften Jim Crow laws and practices, blacks quickly realized that their support had been in vain. Soldiers returned to segregation and inequality, and black leaders found their pleas for full citizenship ignored. In Alabama's race relations, only the memory of the hope for full rights remained.
World War I did advance a more Progressive agenda in state politics, however, because it exposed the generally poor health and low literacy rates among recruits from Alabama. Governor Charles Henderson hired physician Hastings Hart of the Russell Sage Foundation to study the state's institutions. Hart's findings, including low spending on education and low school attendance compared with national averages, embarrassed Alabama politicians and enhanced the Progressive candidacy of Thomas Kilby, who served as governor from 1919 to 1923. Although unable to enact all the reforms he sought, particularly the elimination of the notorious convict-lease system, Kilby did use government power to make life in the state more equitable and to reform many outmoded institutions.
Overall, Alabamians fully participated in mobilizing and fighting America's first "total war" of the twentieth century. After
the armistice, they rapidly returned to life as they had known it, with a few changes in the political role of women and the
social role of government. In the 1920 presidential election, candidate Warren Harding suggested the United States return
to "normalcy." By then, Alabama already had.
Amerine, William H. Alabama's Own in France. New York: Eaton & Gettinger, 1919.
Olliff, Martin T., ed. The Great War in the Heart of Dixie: Alabama in World War I. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2008.
Scribner, Christopher MacGregor. "Progress Versus Tradition in Mobile, 1900-1920." In Mobile: The New History of Alabama's First City, edited by Michael V. R. Thomason, 156-180. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2001.
Truss, Ruth Smith. "The Alabama National Guard from 1900 to 1920." Ph.D diss., University of Alabama, 1992.
———. "The Alabama National Guard's 167th Infantry Regiment in World War I." Alabama Review 56 (January 2003): 3-34.
Martin T. Olliff
Published May 22, 2008
Last updated June 1, 2012 | <urn:uuid:fb528c36-bdd8-40d1-83f0-5852e092c916> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1545 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953399 | 1,818 | 4.1875 | 4 |
As the general manager of Leatt Brace USA, Phil Davy knows a thing or three about protective motorcycle gear. You may have heard of a brand called Icon Motorsports, well Davy was the visionary brain behind the brand that put protective riding apparel onto the backs of many riders who would have otherwise never worn any. Way back when, Davy started out as road salesman for O’Neal USA in 1977 selling Jofa brand hockey pads to dealers for motocross use before the company designed and developed its own line of clothing and protective gear. Then there was a stint with AXO Sport America before he was hired by Parts Unlimited (LeMans) to develop what would become Icon. After that? “After eight years of Icon, Dr. [Chris] Leatt contacted me and, knowing his product, I was immediately interested in being a part of his team,” Davy explains.
Why Leatt? The main thing, Davy says, is the company’s laboratory staff in Cape Town, South Africa. This is a team with extensive medical expertise — two biomedical engineers, a sports medicine engineer and company founder, Dr. Chris Leatt, a medical doctor and trauma surgeon. It’s this expertise that sets the company apart, giving it the edge in developing better functioning safety products. These are products designed to protect people, he says, and not just items built to a price point or splashed with NBG.
Dealernews: Give a little history about the evolution of Leatt Brace?
Phil Davy: Dr. Chris Leatt was racing a motorcycle race in his home of South Africa when he was asked to help a badly injured rider. This rider, quite tragically, died of his injuries, which included severe neck injuries. At that moment, Dr. Leatt decided something needed to be done to help prevent neck injuries the same way other injuries have been reduced by other motorcycle safety products. It took years, sweat, and I’m sure a few tears along with a lot of money to bring out the first Leatt neck brace. In the U.S. no distributor was interested in carrying the neck brace so Leatt had to start it’s own distributing company, now called Leatt USA. Now, just a few years later, we are getting close to having sold 1 million neck braces worldwide, and there are plenty latecomers who are trying to copy our success.
DN: Leatt has grown from being a neck brace company to include several new products in its lineup. What is the next evolution of Leatt?
PD: When I started at Leatt some of the first things I did was ask a lot of questions from a lot of people. Reps, dealers, other distributors and the riders themselves. Believe it or not, the retail customers answered my questions better than any other source. When I asked off-road racers why they didn’t wear a neck brace the most common responses were that the braces did not work well with their chest protectors, riding jackets or hydration systems. We listened, we got to work and since we came out with those products our sales are up over 50 percent this year. Our chest protector lineup, alone, for fall is 15 part numbers for kids to fat guys. Our solution for hands-free hydration, while racing, is particularly revolutionary. What’s next? Check out the next Leatt catalog.
DN: What can powersports dealers do to get their customers to buy and wear protective gear and apparel?
PD: I have made 40,000 dealer visits in my career and there is one common dealer success I have seen over and over again, sadly in not many dealerships: That is proactively getting the customer to try something on. If the protection item is a helmet, jacket, boot, chest protector or neck brace, the best way to bring the customer closer to a buying decision is to encourage them to try it on. I have been in dealerships where this simple conversation works so well, and is so natural that when I compliment them on it they are surprised. They think everyone does it. I learned this simple tactic from good dealers and just watch when you or your staff does it right. You can actually see and hear in the retail customer’s voice the increased confidence in the product just by putting it on. Do this and prosper.
DN: What are powersports dealers doing wrong when it comes to selling protective gear and apparel?
PD: I have spoken to many dealers who think that putting too much emphasis on pushing safety gear scares off potential new customers. That is incredibly wrong and self destructive. Injured, maimed and dead motorcyclists do more to chase away new customers than any safety pitch. To be safe and enjoy our sport, you must first recognize the dangers, then use training, experience and protective gear to minimize them. I will also say that using these safety products yourself, and getting your staff to use them goes a long way in creating a better selling atmosphere.
DN: What is Leatt doing to get the new STX Road neck brace in front of riders, many of whom wear the bare minimum of protective gear?
PD: A good question. I’ll tell you what we are planning; how well it works out is yet to be seen. The first adopters of a new type of safety device likely will be the same type of riders who were first to adopt products like the brightly colored riding jackets and vests, who put reflective tape on the backs of their bikes and wear only CE approved armor. Many of these types of riders are in riding clubs and organizations, so our first marketing job is to go to their events and work hand in hand with progressive dealers who sell there. We can educate, do fittings and free demos and turn those educated riders into our ambassadors. Getting MSF RiderCoaches and Cape Fox instructors involved as well as the motorcycle media and forum enthusiasts to demo the product is all part of the picture. We already have a few dozen progressive dealers turning profit on this new product category now and more every day. In this economy, where dealers just can’t sell as many tires, or helmets or bikes as they used to, it makes perfect sense to look into new product categories especially ones that can help save their customers’ lives.
DN: Tell us a little bit about your background in selling protective gear?
PD: I started in the industry as a road salesman for O’Neal USA in 1977. I was the protective gear king of Southern California selling mostly Jofa brand hockey pads to dealers for motocross use. I did that for 10 years, then was there for another three years as sales manager, during which time we designed and developed our own line of clothing and protective gear. I then worked for AXO Sport America while they were the best-selling brand of off-road gear. When AXO distribution was taken over by Helmet House I moved there as the AXO brand manager. In 2002 I was hired by Parts Unlimited to launch a new brand idea they had called Icon, but I didn’t like their idea. So with the help of a fantastic design team we turned it into my brand vision and it because the bestselling sportbike apparel/protection in North America. After eight years of Icon Dr. [Chris] Leatt contacted me and, knowing his product, I was immediately interested in being a part of his team.
DN: Who is Leatt USA’s target customer?
PD: Fortunately everyone on an ATV or motorcycle needs protective gear. Unfortunately if these riders were really very safety conscious they wouldn’t be on an ATV or motorcycle to begin with. So we focus our attention of those that are “relatively” safety conscious. Like off-roaders and motocrossers, who know they are going to crash, and the type of street rider who takes his riding gear a little more seriously than the helmetless idiots.
DN: What was your vision of Leatt when you were hired?
PD: Quite simply I wanted to change us from “Leatt Brace,” as most people knew us to “Leatt,’ a full-line, high-end protection company with neck braces as the flagship of the line.
DN: What can you say about any potential partnerships between Leatt and other manufacturers?
PD: We have quite a good relationship with a lot of other off-road-based companies who know and use our products. We also use O’Neal USA as our exclusive distributor for our bicycle products and we make private-label braces for both Troy Lee Designs and Fly Racing/WPS.
DN: What will get more riders wearing protective gear?
PD: All protective gear, every brand for every form of motorsports, needs to improve the desirability factor of their safety gear. To just expect riders to buy safety gear because it is safe and functional is a huge mistake that has led to the poor percentage of users we all have today. The single best way to get riders to wear more and better protective equipment is to make those products look so good, so cool, that the rider feels that they will look better by wearing them. While there are a huge number of truly well-dressed, safety conscious riders out there, the sad fact is that they are in the minority.
DN: What’s the next revolution of rider protection for street? Off-road?
PD: Can’t tell you, but keep a lookout for some clever safety solutions from Leatt.
This story is an expanded version of a story that appeared in the Dealernews September 2011 issue. | <urn:uuid:3108d61a-228d-4469-b7ee-8943988f2285> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dealernews.com/dealernews/article/five-questions-phil-davy-leatt-usa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974779 | 1,995 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Maintaining a credit card is a responsibility that people should take seriously. The way a person handles his credit card is a reflection of how he manages his life in general. It takes a responsible person to manage his finances well. Overlooking one’s expenses may bring future problems in terms of allocating budget. Miscalculation and overspending are big mistakes that can have a negative impact on one’s life. Inability to fulfill credit card obligations can affect one’s credit standing and credit worthiness. There are online credit report that reveals a person’s credit scores. This kind of access is beneficial for people handing out loans or entering business transactions. It is vital to determine a person’s credit worthiness before making substantial investments or loan grants.
Written By: rachel - Apr• 02•10 | <urn:uuid:0fc4bd08-05ef-4fff-91f5-a194f979b210> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mysoulfulthoughts.com/?p=933 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952215 | 171 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Adolescents’ conceptualisations of depression (a helpful label, chronic medical problem, or personality characteristic) affected their attitudes and decisions about treatment
Q How do adolescents with depression experience and understand the disease? How do they interpret the medical diagnosis?
Modified grounded theory.
Oregon and Washington state, USA.
A purposive sample of 15 adolescents 14–19 years of age (mean age 16 y, 53% girls) who were diagnosed with depression was recruited from a non-profit, group model, health maintenance organisation. Most were no longer receiving treatment.
13 adolescents participated in individual 90 minute interviews; 2 were interviewed by telephone. Questions focused on reasons for depression and the process of examining their feelings and determining whether they needed professional help. Interviews were tape recorded, and field notes documented additional information such as non-verbal communication. Tapes and field notes were transcribed verbatim, and data were analysed using constant comparison.
A theoretical, chronological scheme was developed based on participants’ descriptions of their experiences. (1) Growth of distress. Many teens wished to return to the time before they became depressed. They described the slow growth of distress over months or years, from imperceptible to incapacitating. Often, a specific event (eg, parental divorce or death of a relative or friend) triggered the growth of distress … | <urn:uuid:b822a9b4-81c4-42b4-a196-c868f2df79d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ebn.bmj.com/content/8/3/93.extract?cited-by=yes&legid=ebnurs;8/3/93 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955045 | 274 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Despite successes, Congo Basin forests being ‘emptied’ of their elephants
A total of 17 poachers were arrested between January 16 and January 23 in the Gabonese side of the Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM) Landscape, an area encompassing Gabon, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, recognized as a priority place for biodiversity conservation, according to Joseph Okouyi, a senior warden at the Gabonese National Parks Agency.
“We never arrested so many poachers in such a short period of time – a clear sign that our strategy of fighting wildlife criminals through increased manpower is an effective one,” he said, adding that a further twelve poachers had managed to avoid capture during the same operations.
But, Okouyi warned that “terrifying” intelligence collected from those arrested hinted that TRIDOM was being emptied of its elephants, and that the only effective way to win the war against poachers is through effective regional and international cooperation.
More Resources to preserve Central Africa’s elephants
“Last year we had 20 operational ecogards at our disposal to patrol an area which at more than 12,000 square kilometers is equivalent to a country the size of Jamaica,” Okouyi said.
“Now we have 43 ecogards. We have two times more capacity.”
“With more men you have more patrols and cover more ground. Not only does this result in more arrests, but it sends a strong signal to poachers that we are here.”
With up to 40,000 elephants, the TRIDOM Landscape is home to Africa’s largest forest elephant population. Unfortunately it is also one of the most dangerous places in the world for elephants, with dozens being killed every day for their ivory.
Map of the TRIDOM Landscape which encompasses Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of Congo. Areas in darker green within the landscape are national parks.
“WWF congratulates the Gabonese National Parks Agency and military for these arrests,” said Bas Huijbregts, head of the WWF’s campaign against illegal wildlife trade in Central Africa.
“These operations are even more impressive when we consider they were undertaken in one of the most heavily forested and inaccessible areas on earth,” he said.
Central African forests are being “emptied” of their elephants
“Although we are happy with these arrests, terrifying information we have obtained indicates that we have only chipped the tip of the iceberg of elephant killings in this part of Central Africa,” Okouyi said.
Okouyi explained that one of the individuals in custody said that a hunting party was usually composed of at least three hunters, seven to ten porters and a representative of the buyer. A hunting party, he explained, ended when each porter carried 40 kilograms of ivory – worth up to $70,000 per hunting party.
“This can represent up to 40 dead elephants per hunting party,” Huijbregts explained.
“Although we are only just beginning to understand the dynamics of this criminal activity, we know that several of these groups are out there every day.”
“The forests of Central Africa are being emptied of their elephants,” Huijbregts said.
The need for more collaboration
But Gabonese wildlife authorities are not just facing an enemy with incredible numbers, there is the added difficulty that many of the actors originate from and partly operate in other countries, reflecting the transnational aspect of illegal wildlife crime.
“It is unfortunate but true that many of the poachers and many of their bosses in north Gabon are Cameroonian nationals and operate from villages and towns north of the border, as well as its port Douala and its capital Yaoundé,” Okouyi said.
“We also know that some of these hunting parties are commissioned by Chinese nationals.”
“This is why it is so important that we increase our collaboration with neighboring countries, especially Cameroon, but also with specialized international law enforcement agencies such as INTERPOL,” Okouyi added.
According to WWF, it is rising demand for ivory in countries like Thailand and China that is pushing poachers to hunt elephants at unprecedented levels.
“Collaborating with demand countries like China and Thailand is therefore essential to stop demand which is the root cause of these massive elephant killings,” he concluded.
Massive quantities of illegal African ivory are being laundered through Thai shops.
To save Africa’s elephants it is essential that Thailand closes this legal loophole. Join us in asking Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to ban all ivory trade in Thailand.
TAKE ACTION NOW AND SIGN OUR PETITION: http://bit.ly/13xf6hg | <urn:uuid:d186b49e-bf25-48d0-a05b-18111ec7ebf4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/search_wwf_news/?207372/Despite-successes-Congo-Basin-forests-being-emptied-of-their-elephants | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958276 | 1,016 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Australian Rugby League Commissioner Catherine Harris launched the sport’s sixth annual Women in League celebrations Thursday, saying it was vital that the game continued to recognise and reach out to women.
“There are four key areas we need to look at: the role of women playing Rugby league; the role of women who support the sport as volunteers, partners, referees and coaches; the women who work in the game; and the mothers who make the decisions to allow their sons and daughters to play or to go to matches,” Harris said.
“Women make up half the population and they are mothers to the other half! Sport is an area that has traditionally not been good at recognising women and that is why the Harvey Norman Women in League round is important.
“Rugby league is a fabulous sport with great ball skills, incredible athletes and teamwork and it is as entertaining to women as it is to men.”
The ARLC released figures at the launch showing positive signs for the increasing role of women in the sport.
- A 70% increase in the number of women in Board or executive management positions
- A 10% increase in the number of women in other management positions
- A 20% rise in female participation from 5,490 in 2011 to 6,559 in 2012
- Female club membership increasing by 20,000 in 2011 to 82,250 to account for 41% of all members
- The number of female volunteers across the country now reaches 52,000
- ARL Development staff now delivering skills and curriculum-based lessons to almost 750,000 female students across Australia and New Zealand.
The Women in League Round is round 16 this year, played from June 22-25.
Harris and the ARL’s General Manager of Community, Culture and Diversity, Trish Crews were joined at the launch by a team of women representing the many important roles women play in Rugby league, including: the first woman to control a Toyota Cup match Kasey Badger; academic advisor on the NRL’s Welfare and Education Committee Professor Catharine Lumby; the game’s first full-time development officer devoted solely to female participation, Sam Scott; and Jillaroo Jess Palmer, a member of the NSW women’s team to play Queensland in the Interstate Challenge at Penrith during the Women in League Round.
The McGrath cancer Foundation will be the 2012 charity partner.
Image: NRL Photos | <urn:uuid:701bee61-baab-4317-a9b7-8c9d483ebf3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sportsbusinessinsider.com.au/news/arl-targets-four-key-areas-for-womens-involvement-in-league/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959751 | 500 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Denver (AP) A section of U.S. Highway 6 leading to Central
City and Black Hawk is officially back open, after being closed for nearly three months. Authorities shut down the highway through Clear Creek Canyon in late June after hundreds of tons of rock poured down a 100–foot–high mountainside, just east of where U.S. 6 and Colorado Highway 119 converge.
Work crews had to remove 40,000 cubic yards of rock, much more than first thought, because of unstable conditions. They also installed 60,000 square feet of wire mesh to prevent more slides, and replaced 1,000 tons of asphalt.
Workers still need to install another 10,000 square feet of wire mesh, but State Project Engineer Russel Cox says the highway will remain open.
Officials say the total cost of the rock fall cleanup and
mitigation will amount to $3.2 million dollars.
Copyright 2005 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.
© KKCO NBC 11 News - All Rights Reserved | <urn:uuid:20a59702-dca5-41f0-a62f-fec55175f02a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbc11news.com/news/headlines/2058357.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940682 | 208 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Neighborhood | Community
Peninsula Volunteers, Inc., is proud to present a lecture about the aftermath of the Arab Spring in North Africa and the Middle East. The lecture will be given by Dr. Ishmail Agayev, a renowned expert on Middle East affairs.
It has been a year since the Arab Spring that brought about a revolution against the corrupt regimes in the Middle East. What are the real changes that took place in the region and what could happen next?
This lecture will analyze and discuss the ongoing political developments and the results of this major historical event of the last 2 decades. New and rare video materials will be viewed. Guests will also listen to audio segments on the latest political commentaries and predictions about the future of the Middle East and its impact on the world community. Join us for this informative and engaging discussion.
About the Speaker
Ismail Agayev Ph.D. has written two books and numerous articles on current political and cultural developments in the Middle East and the Caucasus region. A professor of philosophy and history of religion, Dr. Agayev has worked at major educational institutions across the former USSR, and chaired the Department of Islamic Philosophy and Culture at the Academy of Science, Baku, Azerbaijan, from 1993 to 1999. In the United States, he has taught at several universities in California, including San Francisco State University's Life Long Learning Institute.
Submitted by the FullCalendar Event Promotion Service | <urn:uuid:d28ed68b-3d03-4055-a72e-1208defbbd52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ktvu.com/events/detail/3084051/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943238 | 291 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Welcome to Kitchen Queries, where the nigella.com team will answer your cooking or food related questions. We’d love you to submit some of your recipe problems, dilemmas or queries for us to get our teeth into!Submit your query
Please note, we are only able to answer questions selected for publication and aren't able to enter into personal correspondence.
I made Nigella's Parmesan Shortbreads and they were delicious. I was wondering would it be possible to make them up to the stage where you roll them into a cylinder but then freeze them until needed and cook them when taken out of the freezer and thawed out?
Posted by JudithTownsend. Answered on 16th Feb 2013 at 12.00
The dough for Nigella's Parmesan Shortbreads (from Nigellissima) freezes very well and there are two ways to freeze the dough.
You can freeze the dough once it has been formed into cylinders. Wrap the cylinders in a double layer of clingfilm (plastic wrap) and then a layer of foil. Freeze the dough for up to 3 months. Thaw the dough cylinders overnight in the fridge, then slice and bake as directed in the recipe.
You can also freeze the dough once it has been sliced into dics. Form the dough into cylinders and chill for about an hour, cut and place the slices on baking sheets lined with baking parchment. Freeze the shortbreads until solid, then transfer to plastic bag and store in the freezer until ready to bake. Bake the shortbreads dirtect from frozen following the instructions in the recipe. As the shortbreads are small the cooking time is the same.
Baked shortbreads will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
Need some help in the kitchen?
Ask NigellaSubmit your query | <urn:uuid:c81b736f-ac1c-4458-a4a7-f66661b7f6ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nigella.com/kitchen-queries/view/Parmesan-Shortbreads/3959 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949798 | 376 | 1.773438 | 2 |