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I would like to Donate:
The Shark Trust frequently attend outreach events, where we engage the general public and spread awareness about shark conservation. We encourage others to spread the word and have come up with a few fun activities that everyone can get involved with while also learning all about sharks.
Sharkometer (find out how big sharks are):
The Sharkometre is a great way to introduce children to the variation in sizes between sharks, from the tiny Pygmy Lantern Shark, at just 20cm they can fit in the palm of your hand, to the magnificent Whale Shark that can reach up to 17m in length! Download instructions on how to make your own sharkometer, including shark labels (pdf).
Organise a Great Eggcase Hunt:
Search for washed up shark eggcases along your local beach and report your finding s to us to help with our Great Eggacse Hunt Project. To find out more and download lots of useful resources visit the Great Eggcase Hunt Project page.
Why not customise your Eggcase Hunt with:
- Skate mats - Create some life-sized floor mats/cut-outs in the shape of different species of skate, including the 2m wide Common Skate. Each can be printed with facts and figures relevant to each species. These can then be used as stepping-stones with the smallest skate, Starry Skate, as the starting point and the largest, Common Skate, as the goal. Find out about skates and rays.
- Eggcase Models - Monster papier mâché eggcases are always a big hit and can be cunningly devised so that toy sharks/rays can be stored inside and pulled out. Read how to make a giant eggcase (pdf).
- Displays - Once you have recorded the eggcases, display them! Peg them along a washing line, place them in a small, clear tank of water, or arrange them in a display cabinet. Alternatively you could always create a big eggcase collage.
Make your own strandline:
If you can’t get to the beach, why not bring the beach to you. When we attend outreach events we usually bring along our own strandline, as this has proven very popular. All you need is an inflatable paddling pool, some plastic sheeting, a rubber bucket, sand and flotsam. Download instructions on how to make your own strandline (pdf).
Shark Races - Run the length of two Whale Sharks and a White Shark! (That’s 40m).
Shark Quiz’s - Create a shark quiz using the information provided on the Shark Trust website.
Shark Art and Poems - send them to us and we'll add these to the website.
We hope these ideas have been inspiring. Should you try any of these activities or have any other suggestions we would love to hear from you and find out how you got on. We always welcome pictures too for our online gallery.
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far from home...
Join Date: Aug 2005
As a costume designer for MGM during Hollywood’s Golden Age, Gilbert Adrian (born Adolph Greenberg) dressed, among other stars of the studio, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, and Greta Garbo in some of their most famous roles. His dramatic ensembles were such an important element of a film that his involvement was announced in the opening credits. In 1942, parlaying his wide renown, Adrian established a fashion house that was an immediate success. His signature silhouette was characterized by wide, padded shoulders and a narrowed hipline. An Adrian design often incorporated a technique of elaborate piecing, especially with complicated mitering of stripes in graphic geometries.
With this gown, Adrian recalls his earlier Surrealist designs from the 1939 movie The Women, in which a fashion show features not only sumptuous haute-couture gowns but also a series of exaggeratedly fantastical designs that reference Elsa Schiaparelli’s collaborations with Salvador Dalí. The fabric used in this gown is most likely an example from a series of designs Dalí created for the American textile manufacturer Wesley Simpson. Adrian introduced a signature whimsy to the Surreal landscape of the print by inserting a shadowy profile at the gown’s left shoulder. He created this subtle jeux d’oeil with typical virtuosity through careful piecing—an especially difficult technique with slippery rayon crepe—rather than by the simpler process of appliqué.
Gilbert Adrian (American, 1903–1959). Print by Salvador Dalí (Spanish, 1904–1989). Dress, 1947. Light blue rayon crepe with pink, black, and gray printed Dalí motif and patches of polychrome printed rayon crepe appliqué. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Jones Apparel Group, USA, 2002 (2002.326.26a–c).
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And I am nothing of a builder
, but here I dreamt I was an architect
And I built this balustrade to keep you home, to keep you safe from the outside world
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Find More Posts by DosViolines | <urn:uuid:5e9b3b86-e96d-4270-b209-0ee9dc2a12da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.thefashionspot.com/showpost.php?p=4043750&postcount=92 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908843 | 496 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Perry won't win. Romney won't win. Romney is Mormon and people won't vote for him. Obama will win reelection.
That is.. if the U.S. doesn't break apart before then. 2012..
This is what I have gathered about earthquakes in the next 30 years. But this information is available now. Some guy on another site suggested it.
Earthquakes happen when plates slip. The sediment between these rocks is broken.
1. High air pressure over one plate and low pressure air over the other plate.
2. High steam pressure in a hollow under the ground pushing up on a plate. No steam pushing up on the other plate. The Earth is full of hollow caverns, lakes and rivers. This has just been revealed in many articles.
3. Flooding from heavy rains as a result of this latest heat wave we've been having and the melting of our ice caps causes the sediment between the plates to erode.
4. Solar flairs, planetary alignments, the Moon's magnetic pull.. ..these only have slightly mild effects on tectonic movement. Comets have just about no effect at all.
5. Earthquakes tend to happen in lines, such as on the 37th Parallel. Under that line is tornado ally where mega tornadoes have been increasing.
6. There was once just one super continent called Pangea. Its break up is cyclical and historically predictable.
7. If we have minimal loss of life from 5.0 to 6.0 earthquakes, that is good. It will let off pressure. We don't want this pressure to build up creating 8.0 and 9.0 quakes. | <urn:uuid:50658276-d470-4b35-b931-8350bc16a8e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1629543/reply26919776/copyright | 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 | 0.952881 | 345 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Our elementary Kindergarten has a cute tradition of doing "color days" for the first week + of school. Each day they focus on one color and the kids are encouraged to dress in that color and they do little projects, read books, etc. based on the color of the day.
While I wasn't certain that the Kindergarten was still doing this (it's been five years since Ethan was in Kindergarten, and three years for Owen), I hoped Color Days would be happening for Paige too. And it is! Yay! Besides wearing the cutest red dress and red sandals to school, I tried to pack her a reddish lunch also.
In our PlanetBox lunchbox she has:
- hummus on multigrain bread sandwich, cut with a heart-shaped sandwich cutter
- strawberries with a red crayon pick (I ordered those from Amazon ages ago with Color Days in mind!)
- a bit of red mini M&M's
- a wrapped string cheese that has a coordinating crayon picture printed on the wrapper.
Simple, but gets the red theme across, I think. Paige was excited and said she couldn't wait to eat it. Success!
Supplies used in the making of this lunch: | <urn:uuid:ffbc6988-f30d-47d4-9903-84536da20a5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anotherlunch.com/2012/08/planetbox-lunch-kindergarten-red-day.html?showComment=1345499974713 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966645 | 259 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Welcome to the Sixties!"
That was the message from my doctor today. Sixty years old, fifty pounds
overweight, elevated blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol and a thyroid nodule
that requires surgery. What kind of outcome is that from following a brilliant
diet and lifestyle for the past thirty years?
Of course, one can only imagine how dismal the outcome could have been, if I hadn't followed an Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle for all these years. Heredity, which stalks me even now, would surely have played out to the full extent. Instead of a slow progression of insulin resistance and borderline hypertension, I'd probably be diabetic with heart disease and malignant hypertension. And one can't even guess how heavy I might have become on a standard American diet.
So now for some small but significant steps to fine-tune things. Dark chocolate lowers LDL (bad cholesterol) and supports mood. Not something I would really want to quit, because of the health benefits, not to mention yumminess. And for a younger person, without insulin resistance, Green and Black's chocolate, sweetened with raw cane sugar, is a good way to go. But now it seems that even raw sugar is not working. So today I received in the mail a case of Chocoperfection, sweetened with inulin, zero effect on blood sugar, a prebiotic and source of fibre. That's step one.
The next point was to
appreciate the distinctions between different kinds of exercise. While yoga and
chi gong are exercise, they are not aerobic exercise. And although my levels of
aerobic exercise certainly exceed the recommended three hours a week for a
healthy person, they need to be increased to an hour a day because of insulin
Step three is to alter
the carbohydrate protein ratio--hard to do as a vegetarian. But basically it
means a kapha-soothing diet emphasizing lighter grains or grain substitutes
like quinoa and buckwheat.
My doctor, Dr Phil Weber, reminded me that the Sixties are not all bad news. The mind, he says, becomes sharper. Diagnostic skills for us doctors are at their peak. But a health challenges tend to play out, and it's time to pay more attention to self care. | <urn:uuid:390a2b8c-aa32-483c-903a-b03d6ba496e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alandiashram.org/mas_blog/2012/05/welcome-to-the-sixties.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956938 | 477 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Sell your junk for cash
Admit it: You have too much stuff, whether clothes spill out of closets, toys fill your basement or you can't actually park your car in the garage. You're not alone. Americans spend $20 billion per year on storage units, according to the National Storage Association.
If you're sick of the mess, or want to stop spending money to store stuff you don't use, sell your junk.
"There is no use holding onto things that could instead put money in your pocket. The longer you hold on to things, the more their value depreciates and the longer you are left maintaining it," says Cristin Frank, founder of The Eve of Reduction, a company that helps people reduce waste, debt and consumption.
Don't just dump your stuff on the curb for the next garbage pickup. Consider these four ways to turn your clutter into cash.
Hold a yard sale
Does your town or community hold a yard sale day? Join in. You'll get more shoppers than if you go it alone.
Ben Garvey of Audubon, N.J., participates in his town's yard sale every year. His sells almost everything for $1. He's made between $260 and $300 every year he's participated.
Exceptions to the $1 rule are anything that costs less than $1 new, and more costly items like furniture, DVDs and video games, which he prices between $2 and $5. He marks books at 50 cents because he says they don't usually sell well, and he'd rather have shoppers take two than none.
Garvey advises that you clean and dust everything before you put it out. Interacting with your shoppers helps, too. "Be friendly! Say hello, chat them up, and they're far more likely to buy something from you."
Sell it online
If you have something collectible or brand-specific that's easy to ship, you can list it for sale on eBay. You'll pay a transaction fee, but it's an easy way to have people bid on stuff you want to get rid of.
An alternative: You can sell almost anything through Craigslist.org, which is free.
"Kids' items and recognizable brand names sell great on Craigslist," says Frank. "I sold a Schwinn jogging stroller, Power Wheels riding toys and a Weber gas grill in less than 24 hours."
The keys to quick sales are good pictures and accurate descriptions.
Make Craigslist transactions in cash, and if the item is small, meet the person in a public place. If the buyer comes to your home, arrange to have someone there with you, and make sure your buyer knows the dimensions of the item.
"There's nothing worse than having a buyer at your door and the only thing preventing him from getting it out of your house is that he didn't bring a big enough truck," says Jill Valeri, owner of The Welcome Home: Interior Design Solutions, who sells furniture on Craigslist.
Be realistic about pricing, too. Start at half of what you paid retail.
If you want someone else to do the work for you, take your items to a consignment shop. They'll sell your stuff in exchange for a cut of the profits, usually 50%.
Marcia Turner, a writer and author in Rochester, N.Y., has consigned womens, kids and baby clothes, as well as furniture.
"Go through your closet and identify things you haven't worn in years, or you're tired of but are still in good shape," she says. Turner washes and irons everything so they look ready to put on the racks.
Stores have different policies about taking in clothes. Turner's favorite is Lu's Back Door in Fairport, N.Y. They'll look at your items without an appointment, though some consignment shops won't even talk to you unless you call ahead. Once they go through your pile and pick what they think will sell, all you have to do is wait for a check.
Furniture consignment works the same way. Make sure you call ahead to see if they're buying, or bring pictures into the store before loading it up on the truck, says Turner.
Give it away
You can also generate cash indirectly by giving your stuff away. "What you get from donating, besides good graces, is a tax write-off," says Frank.
Make sure you're donating to a registered nonprofit -- ask for verification if you're not going with a big-name charity such as Goodwill -- and get a receipt. When tax time rolls around, file a Form 1040 and itemize your deductions on Schedule A. | <urn:uuid:0bfff0d7-d647-489e-a75f-6d2d1fbeeeeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/05/29/is-your-trash-another-man-treasure-sell-it/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxbusiness%2Fpersonal_finance+%28Internal+-+Personal+Finance+-+Text%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971706 | 964 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Criminal Case Complexity: An Empirical Perspective
Cornell Law School
Cornell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 04-029
Case complexity persists as a central tenet in many academic and public critiques of our legal system even though little is known about two critical questions. One question is whether key actors (juries, attorneys, and judges) view case complexity similarly. In other words, do juries, attorneys, and judges agree on whether a case is complex? A second question involves the determinants of case complexity for each group. That is, what factors make a case more (or less) complex for juries, judges, and attorneys. This Article explores both questions from an empirical perspective with the benefit of recent data from four jurisdictions. The data are important as, within the context of criminal cases, they permit analyses of agreement levels among the three key actors. Results suggest that the three different actors possess slightly different views on whether cases are complex. Judges reported the lowest levels of case complexity, jurors the highest. Moreover, important variation exists in terms of what made cases complex for each group. The results implicate reform efforts. No clear consensus exists on complexity perceptions. Many of the variables that influence case complexity fall outside of reformers' reach. Variables that policy can manipulate are inefficacious.
Keywords: Empirical, case complexity, criminal, jury, judge, jury reformworking papers series
Date posted: February 4, 2004
© 2013 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This page was processed by apollo5 in 0.375 seconds | <urn:uuid:f9231daa-6d75-415a-b91f-aa258bfe0384> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=494183 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911389 | 323 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Because the deer do not eat the spiraeas in my garden, I am becoming more and more devoted to these shrubs. I would never have predicted this would happen, but one’s preferences are often shaped by unforeseen circumstances – in life as well as in the garden.
#1 Shrub for Foundation Plantings
There are the old-fashioned spiraeas with lacy white flowers such as ‘Bridal Wreath’ that are quite large, as well as many new dwarf cultivars of spiraea on the market. In fact, I read recently that dwarf spiraea has become the number one shrub used for foundation plantings, as well as for accents in beds and borders.
They are serviceable and adaptable shrubs, not fussy about the growing conditions, but they just need to be cut back. Many of the new varieties bloom on new growth so they can be cut back early in the spring before they bloom and then again after blooming to initiate further repeat bloom.
Many Foliage Color Choices
One valuable characteristic that plant breeders have given us is varied foliage colors in modern varieties. For example, Spirea japonica ‘Magic Carpet’ has red leaf shoots that mature to light green with deep pink flowers in summer and russet leaves in the fall for three season appeal. Also ‘Goldmound’ ‘ Little Princess’ ‘Peppermint Stick’ and ‘Anthony Waterer’ all have pretty foliage, as well as attractive flowers, and are easy to grow in well-drained soil in sun.
One source is Jung Seeds and Plants. | <urn:uuid:321a9071-3046-4064-b53d-08731f002272> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indianapublicmedia.org/focusonflowers/dwarf-spiraea-shrubs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971902 | 343 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Services like Google Earth are viewed by many to be nothing more than an interesting curiosity. However, for the U.S. military and other world governments the satellite images and other footage Google offers on its Earth service represents a big security risk.
BBC News reports that the Pentagon has banned Google from filming inside and making detailed studies of U.S. military bases. The ban comes after detailed footage from inside and outside of the U.S. military base at Fort Sam Houston in Texas turned on up Google Earth’s Street View service.
Street View is a service of Google Earth that allows users of the application to travel down streets from the perspective of a car driver. The problem the Pentagon had with these images was that they were shot with great detail and were found to represent a significant security risk.
The defense department said in a statement quoted by BBC News, “Images include 360-degree views of the covered area to include access control points, barriers, headquarters, facilities and community areas.” The fear is that terrorists could use the detailed images to develop plans to attack the base.
Larry Yu, a Google spokesman, told BBC News that the decision to enter the US military base had been a “mistake.” Yu further said, “[it is] not our policy to request access to military installations, but in this instance the operator of the vehicle with the camera on top - which is how we go about capturing imagery for Street-View - requested permission to access a military installation, was given access, and after learning of the incident we quickly removed the imagery".
The U.S. military isn’t the only military force that has had problems with images shown on Google Earth. DailyTech reported in July of 2007 that satellite imagery form Google Earth had shown a new Chinese ballistic missile sub in dock. Indian officials became irate when images of its new Sukhoi 30 MK1 aircraft turned up on Google Earth as well.
A U.S. spy agency stated in May of 2007 that curbs needed to be placed on satellite images made available to the public. | <urn:uuid:33fd41ae-2221-4998-a21f-0abe93360f94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=11001&commentid=264030&threshhold=1&red=3736 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969683 | 428 | 2.46875 | 2 |
[rspec-users] Step matchers
dchelimsky at gmail.com
Sun Oct 14 18:39:20 EDT 2007
On 10/14/07, Pat Maddox <pergesu at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think we all know that the readability of steps isn't great right
> now, and in fact there's a very recent thread that discusses just
> that. It was that recent thread that prompted me to explore this a
> The basic idea is that you define step matchers, which have a regex,
> and then you match step names against that regex. Kind of tough for
> me to explain so I'll just link to some code :)
> spec: http://pastie.caboo.se/107116
> impl: http://pastie.caboo.se/107117
> Instead of writing
> Given "a user named __ who is __ years old", "Pat Maddox", 22
> it allows you to write
> Given "a user named Pat Maddox who is 22 years old"
> I wrote it out as a separate matcher because it was just easiest to do
> it that way while I explored this approach, no messing around with
> RSpec internals to get it to really work. However if we went this
> route the structure would certainly be different.
> Hopefully you can get the idea from the example code. Ideally what I
> would like is to write step libraries that are external to the stories
> themselves. The stories would be much clearer because the
> implementation would not be embedded, and the step names themselves
> would make a lot more sense.
LOL - I just suggested something like this in the other thread you
cite. Though your idea strikes me as far more flexible and usable.
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
More information about the rspec-users | <urn:uuid:35fe587e-6b5b-4bed-a699-ad0609f2a591> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/rspec-users/2007-October/003706.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926122 | 417 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Obesity is bad but it might extend your life if you are at a high risk of heart failure.
The good part about having a large waist size is that it may lower your chances of adverse outcomes after a heart surgery.
Okay, so maybe it was your waist size (along with genetic factors) that put you on the operating table in the first place, but once there it is the same body fat that'll keep you alive.
Researchers call this as the "obesity paradox" where being obese puts a person on higher risk of heart diseases but over time offers protective benefits.
"We knew that obesity might provide a protective benefit for heart failure patients, but we didn't know whether this obesity paradox applied specifically to women with heart failure, as well as men — and it does," said Dr. Tamara Horwich, assistant professor of cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and senior author of the study.
Previous research has shown that people with high Body Mass Index (BMI) have a higher chance of surviving after treatment for a heart disease.
The present study found that in a group of nearly 3,000 people with advanced heart failure, men with higher BMI and larger waist size were less likely to have a heart transplant or a ventricular assist device placement than men with normal waist size and BMI. Women, too, had a significantly lowered risk of suffering from adverse health outcomes if their waist was larger.
The study was conducted over a period of two years, where researchers found that heart failure patients who were overweight or obese had a statically higher chance of surviving than people with normal weight. This applied to both men and women.
"The study provides us with more insight about how both genders of heart failure patients may be impacted by the obesity paradox. Heart failure may prove to be one of the few health conditions where extra weight may prove to be protective," said Horwich,
"The study also demonstrates how BMI and waist circumference can be used together to provide a more accurate measure of fat in the body to help determine obesity and assess risk," said Adrienne L. Clark, a resident in the department of medicine at the Geffen School of Medicine and lead author of the study.
The study is published in The American Journal of Cardiology.
Published by Medicaldaily.com | <urn:uuid:13305e79-f4a6-4a8c-a04c-d73c0462019a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/10614/20120704/obesity-heart-failure-heart-disease.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970833 | 471 | 2.796875 | 3 |
The time you spend on Facebook could help two local nonprofit organizations ease their transportation needs.
YWCA Monterey County and Loaves, Fishes & Computers Inc. are two of 500 charitable organizations selected from 4,000 applicants nationwide to compete in Toyota's 100 Cars for a Good Campaign contest. Each has a 1-in-5 chance of winning a new Sienna minivan.
Each day, five nonprofits will compete for the public's vote on Facebook, with the top vote-getter winning a van. Loaves, Fishes & Computers competes 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. July 27. YWCA gets its chance during the same hours July 28.
Loaves, Fishes & Computers has been refurbishing and providing computers to low-income individuals, families and other nonprofits for three years. It has donated 560 computers and saved more than 8 tons of equipment from landfills.
Volunteers who depend on their own cars would use the van to collect and deliver computers throughout the county.
The YWCA provides a variety of bilingual programs that are free or low-cost, as well as the county's only confidentially located safehouse for women and children fleeing domestic violence. The van would provide women at the safehouse with transportation to and from doctor appointments, court dates and support groups.
To view each organization's two-minute video explaining the contest, set up automatic reminders to vote or to vote on the appropriate day, see https://apps.facebook.com/carsforgood | <urn:uuid:5672666d-7d17-49d7-919b-51534b768f5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_21049827/local-communities-competing-vehicle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954702 | 316 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Truth About the Tea Party
Much attention has been given to the tea party, a movement that defines itself as opposed to high-deficit spending, increased national debt and tax increases.
What is the tea party? Where did it come from? Contrary to myths, it’s not a true populist wellspring. Many think CNBC commentator Rick Santelli fathered the tea party with his on-air rant last year. He was simply one piece of a greater puzzle.
It’s AstroTurf, funded by special interests and appeals to prejudices. After all, where was the tea party when Bush ran up deficits, got soldiers killed over false intelligence as well as faulty wiring by Halliburton subsidiary KBR, and was asleep at the wheel when Wall Street was making risky bets? Does anyone believe if McCain got elected, we would see tea parties in force?
Santelli's rant was actually a PR stunt to leverage upcoming contract negotiations. However, the tea party concept was already in place in August 2008, when Zack Christensen, Twitter Republican and producer for Chicago right-wing radio host Milt Rosenberg, registered the first tea party domain. After Santelli's rant, the site activated. The same day, another site was registered by Eric Odom, a GOP PR man.
It also turns out the tea party's backers from start include Koch Industries, Inc., a major oil company.
Of course, the other major players in this sham are FreedomWorks, headed up by Dick Armey, which receives funding from health insurance companies; Fox News; and Sal Russo, a Sacramento GOP guru who previously coordinated Pentagon-funded Iraq War supporters' "counter-protests" in 2005.
The one true tea party was hosted by Ron Paul and his supporters in 2007, which included in platform withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan and reducing the U.S. military presence and intervention around globe. There has been no mention of reducing the military industrial complex from the neo-tea-partiers.
The current tea party is just the latest incarnation of special interest-funded fake outrage.
Diary of Villa el Salvador
Thank you for publishing Ilene Style's article “Diary of Villa el Salvador” [Feature, June 24-30] . She painted a very vivid and painful picture of the poverty in Peru. According the World Bank, one-fifth of the world's population is living in extreme poverty, which is defined as existing, or trying to exist, on less than $1.25 a day. Poverty is cruel. Twenty-five thousand children under the age of 5 die each day due to poverty. But the media rarely mentions this. It's old news—too many of us feel that poverty always has been and so always will be. Not so. The experts such as Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in defeating poverty, are telling us that we have reached a time when extreme poverty can be eradicated.
One sustainable way of slaying poverty is by way of the process Yunus developed, micro financing—making small loans to poor people who want to begin or improve a business to lift themselves out of poverty. The problem is simply that not enough people are making these loans, even though they can be as small as $25 and many, many good organizations are in the business of facilitating these loans. There is more good news. When the loan is paid back, usually in six to 12 months, the money can be loaned again. That same $25 can be loaned again and again, helping many, many people.
As the lead singer for U2, Bono, who has spent 25 years working to defeat extreme poverty in Africa, says, "How, in a world of plenty, can people be left to starve? We think, It’s just the way of the world. But if it is the way of the world, we must overthrow the way of the world. Enough is enough.”
Where Does Oil Come From?
Oil—it's always been an abstraction to us. It's been something that magically gets from Saudi Arabia or somewhere to our gas tanks. The price at the pump we know; but do we know the oil itself? April 20, 2010, changed that. Now oil is something we can see. The pictures from the Gulf of Mexico make the former abstraction all too real. Maybe now we will understand that burned oil (or natural gas or coal) in the form of invisible CO2 is also real.
The CO2 concentration in our sea of air is now 393 parts per million (CO2now.org). May was the warmest May on record worldwide. Climate change is as real as the gunk in the Gulf.
To find out how we can cut our use of oil in half in 10 years, go to climateprogress.org.
Letter From the IRS
Today I received a letter from the IRS. It was dated June 21, 2010, and had a notice number: CP13. The letter was mailed presorted, first class, postage and fees paid, permit no. G-48. It stated that this letter is for the tax year of 2009. The letter included an insert: Dept. of the Treasury Notice 1212, “Use Our Automated Services.”
It opens with: Why We Are Sending You This Notice
It continues with “we have changed the refund amount or the amount you owe on your tax return ... “
It also states that if you agree with the change “you do not need to do anything ...”
It continues with “what you should do if you disagree ... “
Now to the meat, substance, crux or strength of this government message:
Amount of Overpaid Tax: $.04
Small balance/credit: $.04
When the refund is less than $1, it will only be sent to you upon request.
I have no idea how much it cost to send this letter. It is a two-page letter with a return voucher that had a scan bar at the bottom along with my social security number.
Should I request a refund? How much more will it cost our government to refund me $.04 past what they have already spent sending me this letter? I guess I would get one of those pretty, many-colored checks with the Statue of Liberty.
Only Hope for Democracy?
Apparently Democracy can only be saved in this state by electing Mr. Ortiz y Pino to the Lieutenant Governor's office. At least that is how he has framed this column from beginning to end [ Opinion, “Missed It by This Much,” June 10-16]. He lost, and therefore Democracy was contravened.
To me it looks like it was a fair contest. Ortiz y Pino points out the advantages of the one who bested him and leaves out the advantages he has enjoyed, such as a regular column in a weekly newspaper read by many thousands of N.M. voters.
My guess is that the primary voters have found him lacking and decided to promote the person they felt would have the best chance in the full election. How is that not Democracy in action?
Least Favorite Burque Bike Route
[ Opinion, “Hail, Velocipede!,” June 24-30] At least Coors has a bike lane! Easier than "Bicycle Blvd.," but I'll take any bike route! Which makes it infinitely preferable to the multitude of streets in Albuquerque with no lane at all. Montgomery, anyone? I've ridden Coors and I'll take it over Montgomery any day, or San Mateo. But I guess those don't necessarily qualify as bike routes.
Honestly, I can't pick a least favorite bike route, because I'm happy for any bike route or lane! I guess ones that end abruptly on you, throwing you into traffic, can be annoying if you're not expecting it.
OK, here we go—the "bicycle boulevards" like Silver in Nob Hill, et al: The extra signage and consideration is definitely appreciated, but I'd just as soon take Lead or Coal up or down since they have dedicated bike lanes and you don't have to stop every one or two blocks. Even riding down Coors in a dedicated bike lane, Westside throttle hogs and sprawling subdivisions notwithstanding, is more carefree than trying to mix fully with heavy low-speed traffic that has to stop every block or two, not to mention all the bikes that don't follow the traffic rules and make it harder for the rest of us.
Why Do We Need This?
[ News, “Council Watch,” June 24-30] I don't understand why we need a performance high school Downtown (or anywhere for that matter). The vast majority of these students will never be gainfully employed in the industry, and they can easily work within the confines of an after school arts type program at their regular school. Maybe APS could work with the KiMo Theatre as a performance center. What we really need are vocational schools that give kids some marketable hands-on skills.
And as for the convention center: It would be fine if the city would just build a complex that didn't include a hotel attached to the structure, something manageable—like $100 million, not 300+ million. Rio Rancho's arena costs $50 million (and doesn't get used).
Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address and daytime phone number via e-mail to email@example.com. They can also be faxed to (505) 256-9651. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium; we regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. Word count limit for letters is 300 words. | <urn:uuid:901fd6d5-d04b-44c0-ac37-af941f87538c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alibi.com/news/32864/The-Truth-About-the-Tea-Party.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971052 | 2,028 | 1.789063 | 2 |
In today's paper, I looked at what some cardinals in the Roman Curia, the governing body of the Roman Catholic Church, thought about Rudy Giuliani's abortion position. ("That's not very acceptable to us," said Cardinal Edmund Casimir Szoka.)
But this is far from a clear-cut issue, and there is a great deal of nuance behind the church's reasoning on whether or not a pro-choice Catholic politician should be denied communion.
The Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI have suggested that church teaching exempts pro-choice politicians from communion and is "not negotiable," yet they are not exactly emphatic in enforcing the doctrine. While the threat of excommunication is not a realistic one, the pope does believe that communion and a pro-choice Catholic are "incompatible," and that the politician should "exclude themselves" from communion. Still, the Holy See has also endorsed the longstanding church practice of leaving such complicated matters to the national bishops conferences that understand a country's religious and political climate best.
In the United States, where the church is mindful of the traditional separation between church and state, the bishops have warned against a heavy-handed intrusion into politics. In 2004 the leaders of the American church released a statement disagreeing with the dozen or so bishops who publicly said they wouldn't offer John Kerry communion. Part of the reasoning was based on a doctrinal debate within the church over how directly responsible, and complicit, a pro-choice Catholic politician is with an abortion.
In June 2004, a task force of top American bishops examining the question met at a conference in Denver to discuss their findings. One of the most significant interventions on the subject came from Cardinal William Levada, who Pope Benedict would later pick to take his place as prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
Cardinal Levada reflected the church’s longstanding teaching by pointing out that not all moral issues have the same weight as abortion and euthanasia, and that “a Catholic, to be in full communion with the faith of the Church, must accept this teaching about the evil” of the two.
He also addressed the key theological question in asking “Can a politician be guilty of formal cooperation in evil?”
If the politician’s motive in supporting abortion rights is an actual intention of “killing of innocent life” then the verdict would have to be yes, he said, and the same would be true for any voter who casts a ballot in support of such an intention.
After dismissing such a situation as unlikely, Cardinal Levada seemed to buttress the Giuliani position that the matter of communion is a personal one when he said that it ultimately falls to the politician’s pastor to determine the motives for his position.
“This is the point of a pastor's solicitude for this member of his flock,” wrote Cardinal Levada. “He will need to inquire of his fellow Catholics about their intentions, about their understanding of their faith obligations, about their concept of their role in living out their faith in political life.”
He added that “The practice of the Church is to accept the conscientious self-appraisal of each person” and that “the practice of the Church does not per se exclude such persons from the reception of the sacraments.”
But that position is not universal. Speaking generally, Cardinal Szoka also discussed with me the role pro-choice politicians like Mr. Giuliani played in the actual act of the abortion.
"It’s a very complex question, because in the canon it says that those who procure an abortion, or are necessary cooperators. Now you have to decide if this politician votes in favor of this, is he a necessary cooperator, is he an approximate cooperator," said Cardinal Szoka.
In the end, he agreed that the conscience and awareness of the politician must be taken into account, but pointed out that "if to procure an abortion needs a law, then if somebody votes for that law, he certainly is cooperating."
In any case, Giuliani is in for a lot of this sort of thing if he manages to get the Republican nomination. As one veteran Church watcher suggested to me, the easiest political alternative for him may be to take the pope's instruction and just exclude himself from communion. The thrice-married former mayor, who has
never received an received only one annulment, may have already done this, as his campaign refuses to comment on when was the last time he accepted the sacrament.
[The Giuliani campaign originally responded to a question by saying that the former mayor never received an annulment, but said subsequently that they had made a mistake.]
Follow Jason Horowitz via RSS. | <urn:uuid:bf61cbfe-3a0b-40f6-ae71-9348d1540463> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://observer.com/2007/06/more-on-rudy-and-the-vatican/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979108 | 972 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Radical transparency goes mainstream:
The information age and the environmental movement have actually collided. Tons of information is available about products, including the materials and ingredients used. Websites like GoodGuide.com have a mobile application for shoppers on the move. More non-profits than ever, such as Climate Counts are ranking companies on their environmental performance, helping to make informed purchases. Many organizations are demanding more from their supply chain, knowing that this is the new frontier of the environmental movement.
“There are many companies that have done a lot on climate change internally with their own operations and what they are now doing is starting to look at the companies in their supply chain,” says Sonal Mahida, vice president of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in the United States. “We’re working with a number of companies on those issues, such as PepsiCo, IBM, and Walmart.” This often begins by asking tough questions of suppliers.
Although not all consumers want to do homework before making a purchase, this trend allows those interested to make more conscious purchases. It also encourages companies to make self-initiated improvements encouraged by transparency.
Greener fleets hit the streets:
Although personal auto sales were low last year, many companies worked on greening their fleets. Coca-Cola Enterprises’ announced that it would have the largest hybrid-electric diesel delivery fleet in North America, Frito-Lay added 1,200 efficient delivery vehicles, and UPS now has more than 1,800 alternative-fuel vehicles globally.
Energy efficiency gains horsepower:
Companies continue to take advantage of low hanging fruit to reduce energy costs and mitigate carbon emissions. A new generation of technology has made energy management simpler and easier by providing real-time information. Some software allows real-time energy pricing to be viewed along with minute-by-minute usage data. Engenuity Systems is helping McDonald’s save 13.6% each year on lighting, heating, cooking, and cooling by installing equipment that turns off lights, heating, and cooling systems when not needed.
IT aims to save the world:
The energy footprint of all the information and communication technology is responsible for 2% of the total greenhouse gas emissions, according to McKinsey & Co. The potential of such technology however is worth its weight in gold and many IT companies have been developing these valuable tools. Telecommuting and teleconferencing are two obvious examples, with Cisco and HP as leaders in this area. Software has recently been developed, such as Google’s Powermeter and Microsoft Hohm help monitor residential and business energy use. IBM also recently launched Sustainable Supplier Information Management Consulting, assisting companies to collect supply chain data.
Sarah Lozanova is passionate about the new green economy and is a regular contributor to environmental and energy publications and websites, including Energy International Quarterly, ThinkGreen.com, Triple Pundit, Green Business Quarterly, Renewable Energy World, and Green Business Quarterly. Her experience includes work with small-scale solar energy installations and utility-scale wind farms. She earned an MBA in sustainable management from the Presidio Graduate School and is a co-founder of Trees Across the Miles, an urban reforestation initiative. | <urn:uuid:b69b86a4-79fd-464d-9d68-32371e70b7fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketingspot.com/tag/green-trends/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953187 | 658 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Following SCO's allegations regarding the origination of some source code files comprising the Linux Kernel, in May of 2004 Linux creator Linus Torvalds implemented a simple method for tracking how patches reach the source tree [story]. The simple system was further refined in the following months [story], and has become second nature to most kernel developers. However, a recent debate on the lkml illustrated the fact that nothing is simple, in this case with concerns that archiving someone else's email address in the "Signed-off-by:" line could violate the UK's Data Protection Act.
Alan Cox [interview] suggested that to solve for this concern, the DCO, or Developer's Certificate of Origin, be updated to explicitly give permission to include an email address when archiving patch information. Linus agreed, "yes, I'll update the SubmittingPatches [documentation file] to state explicitly that the sign-off is a public record." Alan pointed out that adding a comment to the file alone is not enough, but that the new wording needs to be part of the DCO, "you have to -actively- agree to the DCO to submit a change, and that is what makes it work (whether you put something in submitting patches or not that is more explanatory)." Again, Linus agreed, "I'll also run it past the OSDL lawyer, and if others were to run it past their lawyers, that would be good." Once approved, the update will become version 1.1 of the DCO.
A lengthy and interesting thread was started on the lkml by Chris Wright looking to define a centralized place to report security issues in the Linux Kernel. Chris offered his services in getting things set up, addressing his email to Linus Torvalds, Andrew Morton [interview], Alan Cox [interview] and Marcelo Tosatti [interview]. He explained that he wanted to centralize the information "to help track it, make sure things don't fall through the cracks, and make sure of timely fix and disclosure". The resulting discussion was joined by numerous members of the kernel hacking community, exposing a wide range of opinions.
Linus agreed that it sounded like a good idea, but qualified this by adding, "the _only_ requirement that I have is that there be no stupid embargo on the list. Any list with a time limit (vendor-sec) I will not have anything to do with." An embargo in this case is the time period from when a security problem is first reported to when a fix can be made public. Marcelo pointed out that a certain amount of time is necessary, "for the vendors to catch up", explaining that "it is a simple matter of synchronization". Linus again stressed his dislike for the vendor-sec mailing list suggesting that at times the length of the embargo period is often more about politics than anything else. He then added, "but in the absense of politics, I'd _happily_ have a self-imposed embargo that is limited to some reasonable timeframe (and "reasonable" is definitely counted in days, not weeks. And absolutely _not_ in months, like apparently sometimes happens on vendor-sec)." In a followup comment he clarified, "btw, the only thing I care about is the embargo on the _fix_", noting that he was comfortable if there was a need to delay publishing an explanation of the security hole so long as the fix itself was quickly released.
At the July 2004 kernel summit, it was decided that the current 2.6 development process with teamwork between Andrew Morton [interview] and Linux creator Linus Torvalds was proving quite effective. The process involves using Andrew's test -mm tree [forum] as a staging area for patches prior to going into Linus' mainline tree [forum]. The system has allowed for continued evolution and new features in the 2.6 stable kernel, however it has also lead to a fair amount of discussion and debate [story]. Much of the concern is that with new features constantly being introduced, true stabilization may not be possible.
One theory presented on the lkml was that the process has changed because, "these days nobody wants to be a stable-release maintainer anymore. It's boring." 2.2 maintainer Alan Cox [story] disagreed, "that depends what kind of an engineer you are. Just as there are people who love standards body work and compliance testing/debugging there are people who care about stable trees." When asked if he was willing to maintain a stable 2.6.x kernel, Alan replied, "I'll do it if Linus wants". That is, while 2.6.10 is being developed, the suggestion is to continue to stabalize 2.6.9, releasing 126.96.36.199, 188.8.131.52, etc. And when 2.6.10 is released, to then focus on stabalizing it. Alan already maintains a 2.6-ac patchset [forum] which includes a growing number of bugfixes. However he notes that it is not intended to be all-inclusive, "the goal of -ac is to contain the stuff I personally consider important. A lot of the smaller bugfixes individually are fine but a 'complete set of bugfixes' turns into a large change set and then needs an entire validation and release cycle of its own."
David Weinehall is the maintainer of the Linux 2.0 kernel. Alan Cox [interview] handed over maintainership of the 2.0 kernel over 4 years ago. David explains in his own words:
"In December 1999, a naughty bug that allowed any local user to crash a 2.0-machine surfaced. Alan Cox admitted that he didn't have any time left to work on the 2.0 kernel any longer, and told me that if I wanted to become maintainer for 2.0 and fix this bug (and some other bugs while at it), it was fine with him."
In this interview David talks about his past, and the things he's doing now.
Jasper Spaans recently submitted a patch to the lkml that "changes all occurrences of 'flavour' to 'flavor' in the complete [2.6 development kernel] tree". This quickly led into a lengthy and frequently humorous discussion about the which spelling is better, and if it even matters.
Linux creator Linus Torvalds aknowledged that there are times when such consistency is beneficial, but that overall it was of little importance to him. Regarding the emails that were threatening to quickly grow into a full-fledged flame war, he noted, "I think you guys who care should have a huge free-for-all, an electronic mud-wrestling thing if you will. But not on [the] linux-kernel [mailing list]." In mock newscaster tone, he went on to describe what might happen, "I can see it now:"
".. Alan Cox gets up, and tackles Zwane, who goes down in the mud. Oops. They were on the same side. I guess Alan got caught up in the rush. Jasper tries to take advantage of the situation, but slips in the mud, and goes down in a heap with Alexander..."
Much of the discussion follows.
Kerneltrap has spoken with Linux guru Alan Cox. He is perhaps the second most influential Linux kernel hacker, next only to Linus. In this interview he talks about himself, his history with computers and Linux, working for Red Hat, Marcello and the 2.4 kernel, the DMCA, the future of Linux and much more. | <urn:uuid:08c9783c-c45d-41d2-ae11-4d52ae28f158> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kerneltrap.org/Alan_Cox?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964488 | 1,578 | 1.875 | 2 |
Ta-Nehisi Coates does a great job of debunking the idea—which has become prevalent on the right, in the wake of Trayvon Martin and surrounding activism—that African American leaders are somehow indifferent to crime within their communities. With a simple Google search, he offers examples—drawn from the last three years—of rallies and protests in support of efforts to curtail violence in predominantly black neighborhoods. Here he is with a little commentary:
I came up in the era of Self-Destruction. I wrote a book largely about violence in black communities. The majority of my public experiences today are about addressing violence in black communities. I can not tell you how scared black parents are for their kids, and whatever modest success of my book experienced, most of it hinged on the great worry that black mothers feel for their sons.
In addition to highlighting the obvious truth that black people care about what happens in their neighborhoods, it’s also worth pointing out the degree to which “black-on black” is a stupid way to understand or contexualize crime. Implicit in the description is the idea that crime committed against blacks by blacks has a racial component—that victims are targeted on the basis of their blackness.
The truth is that crime has more to do with proximity and opportunity than anything else. If African Americans are more likely to be robbed, or injured, or killed by other African Americans, it’s because they tend to live in close proximity to each other. Like most people, criminals almost always take the path of least resistance—nine times out of ten, they’ll go for the easy target.
To put this another way, white Americans are most likely to be victims of other whites, but there’s no talk of a “white-on-white” crime epidemic. Not that this is a surprise, but typical, explainable behavior becomes “pathology” when observed in African Americans. That this still has currency is incredibly frustrating.
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Cloud Computing | Feature
Contracting for Cloud Services on a Massive Scale
Many schools don't have the resources or the expertise to identify the right cloud provider or to negotiate an ironclad contract. For schools in the MHEC and WICHE consortia, though, all that's about to change.
- By Alicia Brazington
This is the second installment in a two-part series on how consortia are approaching cloud-based services. Part 1 examined how the Independent Colleges of Indiana selected a cloud-storage solution.
Leaders at the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) are so confident in the benefits and cost savings of cloud-based resources that they are making it possible for more than 1,700 schools to take advantage of CampusCloud by CampusEAI Consortium. Seven hundred of these schools are part of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), which represents 15 western states.
CampusCloud is a high-performance computer cluster that can, according to the group, eliminate upfront capital expenditures, reduce utilization of technical resources, and ensure high performance, availability, stability, and security. The contract, signed in late 2012, has the potential to affect more than 8 million students--split evenly among MHEC and WICHE schools--and thousands of faculty and staff throughout both regions. Numerous local, state, and regional champions worked together to make this colossal cloud offering possible, with MHEC steering the search and negotiations.
The Making of a Contract
Founded in 1991, Minneapolis-based MHEC is one of four statutorily created interstate compacts, representing a range of public and private higher education institutions in 12 states. Its Technologies Committee is one of several subcommittees tasked with guiding MHEC's course. Loosely patterned after the 60-person commission that oversees MHEC, the Technologies Committee comprises five representatives from each of the 12 states.
"What the commission does, they decide in the subcommittees," explained CIO Grant Crawford, who stressed the limitations of what MHEC's 10-person staff can achieve on its own. "This ensures that the things MHEC does are the things people want done. It also ensures they get done."
In 2012, the Technologies Committee, under the leadership of John Dunning, CIO of Wayne State College (NE), recognized that cloud computing was going to be an issue for a number of schools: It recommended pursuing a contract with an overarching service provider. As a result, MHEC initiated an RFP for a restricted set of cloud services that would allow member schools to try out the cloud without fully committing themselves. The RFP was compelling enough not only to attract interest from cloud-services providers big and small, but also to spur a request from the State of California, which wants to model its own efforts after those of MHEC.
"We didn't want schools jumping into the cloud without knowing what they were getting into," recalled Crawford. "Of more than 1,000 campuses represented by MHEC, about two-thirds have fewer than 5,000 full-time students. Some have very small IT, legal, and purchasing departments, so they are not able to identify and negotiate with vendors as effectively as we can. Our hope is that our contract will save them from a few terrible decisions--and a few months finding and choosing the right vendor."
Finding the Right Fit
That vendor ended up being CampusEAI Consortium, which will offer MHEC and WICHE schools cloud storage, virtual machine hosting, and web hosting through its CampusCloud solution. "CampusEAI understands higher ed, it recognizes what's important to us, and it knows what we care about," enthused Crawford. "There are not a lot of one-size-fits-all solutions, but we didn't have to mess with CampusEAI's services at all. They know what they offer and they know what they're doing. MHEC and WICHE campuses should not have to negotiate any more terms and conditions to get exactly what they want."
According to Crawford, CampusEAI was appealing because it was open to input on the contract, was willing to meet individual state and campus needs, and offered FERPA-compliance--including the ability to store data within the US--which larger companies were unable to guarantee.
CampusEAI is not small either. According to Anjli Jain, its executive director, more than 1,800 higher education institutions in the US currently utilize one of CampusEAI's solutions. Its large presence in the higher ed market is due partly to CampusEAI's partnership with Jenzabar, which delegates all hosting for ERP to CampusCloud.
"I believe what impressed MHEC most is that we provided a reference sheet of 300 higher ed institutions to which we already provide mission-critical services," explained Jain. "Understanding the battles that institutions face and offering simple, low pricing--that says a lot about our business. And these are business decisions, not technology decisions. Value and business continuity are what it's all about."
In assessing the MHEC contract, Jain acknowledged that there are several challenges and opportunities associated with a project of this magnitude, as well as a range of complex needs. At least 25 CampusEAI relationship managers will look at infrastructure, capacity, planning, and support at hundreds of campuses, ranging from research colleges with little cloud experience to highly technical institutions that want do much of the work themselves. Rather than MHEC and WICHE carrying the bulk of the workload, these consultants will play a major role in showing campuses the potential of the solution, and in guiding each one toward success.
"The biggest benefits of shared services are that member organizations don't have to reinvent the wheel and they don't have to take the risk," added Jain. "They can leverage existing services--including shared services already offered by MHEC--and then piggyback on existing infrastructure without the need to build capital with their own dollars. The way CampusEAI is organized as a consortium, we can invest in the institutions, so they can invest in their people and their programs."
Outlook for Early Adopters
MHEC leaders will be watching closely to see which services member schools pick up, and what stays on the shelf. It's unlikely to be able to discern any real adoption patterns until this summer, however, when most major technology changes take place. Nevertheless, MHEC leaders are confident that they have done their due diligence. What happens now is entirely up to each school, which, many would say, is just the way it should be. | <urn:uuid:af0a3a3a-592e-4838-a5df-9cd2af095e73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://campustechnology.com/articles/2013/01/09/contracting-for-cloud-services-on-a-massive-scale.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971045 | 1,348 | 1.625 | 2 |
TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency) is a way of determining which terms in a document should be weighted most heavily when trying to understand what the document is about. The term frequency reflects how often a given term appears in the document of interest. The document frequency is measured with respect to a corpus of other documents. It tells you how often the term appears in your corpus overall. The terms that are most informative about a particular text have a high term frequency and a low document frequency. The TF-IDF for a term is the product of its term frequency and the scaled inverse of its document frequency. Stopwords are those words that occur so frequently in the language that they rarely convey information about the meaning of a particular document. In this Demonstration, stopwords can be turned on and off, and the font size of each term can be scaled by various weighting factors. | <urn:uuid:14265ae9-6cdb-45b1-9176-b2c2727d7210> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/TermWeightingWithTFIDF/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963318 | 181 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Scientists looked at 160 stroke victims aged 18 to 55 who had been admitted to hospital and undergone urine tests.
They were 2.3 times more likely to have traces of cannabis in their urine as other hospital patients who had not suffered strokes.
"This is the first case- controlled study to show a pos-sible link to the increased risk of stroke from cannabis," said lead researcher Professor Alan Barber, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
"Cannabis has been thought by the public to be a relatively safe, although illegal substance. This study shows this might not be the case; it may lead to stroke."
In total, 16% of the stroke victims tested positive for cannabis compared with 8.1% of the comparison group. | <urn:uuid:61bbf0af-558a-47aa-9128-056ca38b321d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/health/cannabis-doubles-stroke-risk.20143580 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980353 | 153 | 2.234375 | 2 |
It’s Here! New Guide for Youth Advising
Comprehensive Guide Released by The Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries
Youth Ministry Advising: A Complete Guide has just been released!
This new resource, successor to the Youth Advisors Handbook, represents the most up-to-date content from the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries to support religious professionals, youth advisors and other adults in providing vibrant youth ministries.
Highlights include an all new chapter on youth leadership and an expanded section on programming, with tools from Ministry with Youth Renaissance Module; updated information on creating and maintaining safe youth community;and information on using religious education curricula with youth.
Read what the UUA Bookstore says about it:
Choosing to serve as a youth advisor is one of many ways that adults in our congregations can demonstrate their commitment to youth. Serving in this capacity, however is more than just making sure things run smoothly. Advisors contribute to faith- and spirit-centered, multigenerational, multicultural, congregationally rooted ministry to and with youth.
Youth Ministry Advising: A Complete Guide covers broad-ranging topics including ways to recruit and support youth advisors, the nuts and bolts of youth group management, the role of youth in advisors creating a safe space, leadership training, and programming and project ideas.
This resource is great, not just for lead youth advisors, but also for religious educators, ministers, and any adult who wants to work with youth in the congregation, whether in the youth group or elsewhere. | <urn:uuid:d4655390-4d58-4b2d-90ce-e3a3461db9ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blueboat.blogs.uua.org/youth/its-here-new-guide-for-youth-advising/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929402 | 315 | 1.570313 | 2 |
I noticed that verb ending syllables cover all of -u syllables (る,く,ぐ,す,つ etc) except ず,づ, ふ, ぷ, しゅう, ちゅう and じゅう.
I suspect that ず is reserved for the negative conjugation thus no plain form verb is allowed. しゅう, ちゅう and じゅう were mostly reserved for on-yomi pronunciation, I think, so no verbs for them either.
Not sure about づ.
ふ and ぷ is a curious case because there are verbs that end with ぶ but not the other two.
I'm not saying that there should always be verbs that cover each of the -u syllables but I'm just curious why there are no verbs that end with some of them. Maybe there are some historical reasons behind the gap? | <urn:uuid:57b43601-9606-4a84-93d4-9a6d38f8e4e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/2638/are-there-verbs-that-end-with-%e3%81%9a-%e3%81%a5-%e3%81%b5-%e3%81%b7-%e3%81%97%e3%82%85%e3%81%86-%e3%81%a1%e3%82%85%e3%81%86-and-%e3%81%98%e3%82%85%e3%81%86-why-not/2640 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955267 | 197 | 2.453125 | 2 |
It doesn't really matter if this is true or not, I have met a number of people who were desperately trying to "prove" their relationship to the Mayflower or some Revolutionary soldier or even, an Indian. The reasons for such efforts vary. For example, here in Arizona many people want to prove relationship to an Indian to claim tribal benefits.
Back to the question at hand. What about compiled (i.e. printed in a book) genealogies? Unless your ancestor wrote his or her own history or autobiography, these sources are almost all derivative in nature. I could spend a day or more talking about evidence and whether or not to rely on derivative evidence, but that is another topic. What is important when looking at any derivative source is to evaluate the original source provided by the author and determine the reliability of the material.
There is a vast difference between say, the Five Generations Project books, also called the Silver books from the General Society of Mayflower Descendants and "John Doe and his family" by Richard Roe with no citations to any sources and obvious errors in places and dates. What I fear is that many researchers don't know the difference.
I have several surname and family history books about my own family and I have just learned of another one I had not heard of before. I don't want to pick on any one of them in particular, but I will give some examples from a book about Sidney Tanner, my Great-great-grandfather. Here is the reference to the book:
De Brouwer, Elizabeth. Sidney Tanner, His Ancestors and Descendants: Pioneer Freighter of the West, 1809-1895. Salt Lake City, Utah (4545 S. 2760 E., Salt Lake City 84117): S. Tanner Family Organization, 1982.
This is one of those books where I can find my own name listed. In this case on page 476. OK, so many people, who do not know such books exist, are thrilled to see their name in print. In my case, the book is useful to look up people to see if we are related and how we are related, but for genealogy, it is almost useless. The book has only a very few sketchy sources listed and those that are listed are copied verbatim from an earlier book. I fully realize the massive amount of effort necessary to track down thousands of descendents of a particular ancestor, but as far as my own genealogy is concerned, the book is almost useless.
As an interesting side note, despite the existence of this and other books about the Tanners, there is a massive amount of wrong information in New.FamilySearch.org and in FamilySearch's Family Tree. It appears that many people can't even copy the book accurately.
So, here are some questions to ask about any surname or compiled genealogy book.
- Are there sources listed for the facts alleged? If not, the book is a suggestion, not fact.
- Is the information logical and believable? Does the book start out showing you a Coat of Arms from England before citing any possible relationships to the owners of those Arms?
- Does the book start with speculation about the origin of the family name? Before you get to speculations about family names, you need a solidly proved genealogy back to the remote ancestor.
- Does the book omit certain family members because they aren't "acceptable." One of my surname books omits information about my ancestor's third wife because the authors didn't acknowledge her. | <urn:uuid:e0058357-9f08-456e-a253-ffb5ea45daf0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-if-i-find-my-genealogy-in-book_2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965825 | 722 | 2.1875 | 2 |
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Alexkor - Richtersveld Joint Mining Venture
|Date: ||8 August 2007|
|Sub Category:||Joint Venture Agreement (South Africa)|
|Location:||Alexander Bay, North West Province, Republic of South Africa|
|The Richtersveld is situated in the north-western corner of the Northern Cape Province, close to the Namibian border.|
|Alternative Names:||Richtersveld Pooling Sharing Joint Venture (PSJV)|
|Subject Matter:||Collaboration / Partnership | Compensation | Mining and Minerals|
|Summary Information: |
|The Alexkor-Richtersveld Joint Mining Venture was agreed between Alexkor Ltd, a South African Government-owned diamond mining company, the South African Government and the Richtersveld Community. |
The mining venture that is the subject of this agreement is located in the Richtersveld, an area of land that was the subject of a long-running court battle for restoration of customary ownership. The property rights that were restored to the community by the Constitutional Court in the decision Alexkor Ltd v Richtersveld Community and Others (2003) CCT19 included ownership of all minerals, including diamonds, found in the land.
Under the terms of the agreement, the state's stake in Alexkor Ltd is reduced from 100% to 51%, while the community will own 49% of the company.
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Community members who had already been feeding the animals independently banded together in support of the cats. The Stanford Cat Network, as they called themselves, negotiated an agreement with the administrators, who allowed them to provide “population management” of the homeless cats on campus. Population management entails spaying, neutering and caring for the creatures, in a process often called “Trap, Neuter, Return.” This program had a dramatic effect on the campus feline population.
Though the KZSU show is perhaps the most well-known component of the Stanford Storytelling Project, it is only one segment. Founded in 2007, the Stanford Storytelling Project was created by Willinhganz, who was a fellow with the Stanford Humanities Fund at the time. Realizing the public impact of programs such as NPR’s “This American Life,” Willihnganz received funding through the Hume Writing Center and the Continuing Studies Program and began to teach classes. In these classes, students focused on writing their own memoirs and on collecting stories from around campus. Soon however, the “story collecting” expanded beyond the courses.
Beyond the gift shop, however, was an ugly history that quietly reverberated in the walls of the building. The introductory screens themselves were pasted with sheets of paper commemorating Salvadorans who were killed in the conflict between government and guerilla forces that ravaged the country in the ’80s.
While helmet usage is far from becoming the norm, the accounts provided by students such as Lindsay and the efforts of P&TS and the SUDPS may be beginning to take effect.
“I’ve been on campus on and off since 1985, and I’ve never seen this much attention being paid to promoting helmet wearing,” Yisrael said. “I’m hoping that we are reaching a ‘critical mass.’” | <urn:uuid:ccabf4b8-8e69-4bb3-b62d-97cf2ac82765> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stanforddaily.com/author/erikaalverokoski/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97719 | 398 | 2.375 | 2 |
Elidel cream without a prescription, It sounds pessimistic, i know - but facing reality is sometimes good to draw a better future:
The internet as we know it is about to die.
To make it short and simple: net neutrality is the fact that any information transiting on the network is equal to any other. Where to buy elidel cream, This simple principle ensure people that no information would be considered pre-eminent by any of the internet gatekeeper. You can read a better definition of the Net Neutrality on Wikipedia
This simple principle is at risk.
There has been some warning since the early 2000’s - some said it was not relevant, no rx elidel cream, Buy elidel cream canada, some said it was… but let’s face it: big organisation want to be the gate keeper of the internet - what could possibly stop them from doing discrimination. People reaction, cheap elidel cream no prescription, Elidel cream from india, of course. But we can see day after day that such political action is far from reaching its own set goals.
And what if net neutrality was not going to be the decisive topic of the next us elections (there is a very few chances that this notion of neutrality grab the mind of the average american) - is there really a front here in Europe which could politically oppose such move (and understand it)?
What would be left to normal people?
More important: how would we be able to rebuild what would have been destroyed?
The only alternative I can see today has been suggested last night; there was a meeting of Node London at Gasworks and someone was speaking of the implementation of a wireless alternative to the wired internet as we know it.
No tips on by who or how this global wireless network would be run - but the suggestion just caught my attention and my imagination for the rest of the meeting and a part of the night.
Here is the picture as I imagine it - this is simply a very basic scenario and is intently thought provoking:
Wireless technology let us set-up had-hoc network for a very cheap price, elidel cream generic. More and more machines comes with descent software allowing their user to share documents on a local network - simply put: running an Apache server is a few click away on an OS X machine, for example, and most Windows are coming their IIS server.
From that point we could perfectly imagine super local network, with content you would provide to your immediate neighbours, and little by little to their neighbours, and theirs, and theirs, and theirs…
Cities could be connected just by the good will of people - actually not sharing something they are paying for, but sharing a connection to someone else, elidel cream without a prescription. Elidel cream sales, And also the content could be very handpicked in the sense that it is addressed in a more tangible manner to people they know.
Of course it sounds quite irrealistic technically at the moment, but…
How would IP addresses be assigned, where to order elidel cream. Cheap price elidel cream, Also there would be geographic gaps; it’s easy in a big urban area to imagine such a high density of nodes that it could cover a whole city and why not its suburbs - of course in rural parts it would be harder to connect the dot and make a descent grid.Nonetheless I can remember some experiments in Lausanne, Switzerland were creating network bridge over hills (up and down could be the second name of Lausanne) on quite big distance… I guess there’s not only in Lausanne that people are crossing geographical gaps with wireless network.
Let’s also consider the experience gained by P2P developer’s in the fields of had-hoc networking; if a few people could get their hands on such a project - it could be a nice alternative to the internet.
Future is bright and it finally doesn’t have to be Orange.
The concept is not new and has many echoes in the network history; lots of people have thought on this for quite a long time and Pierre kindly suggested a few links:
Wireless Mesh Network which examines more precisely the feasibility of such had-hoc network on a large scale.
Net Equality is an organisation in the US which aim is to provide ‘free internet access for low-income communities, price of elidel cream. Discount elidel cream online, We provide planning, deployment resources and internet mesh products worldwide and install free network hardware in qualified communities in the Pacific Northwest.’
It’s also the topic of a novel by C, elidel cream online without prescription. Get elidel cream, Doctorow, “Someone Comes to Town, elidel cream cheapest price, Approved elidel cream pharmacy, Someone leaves Town” -you can download it from: http://craphound.com/someone/download.php
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This book is full of clear notes and exam-style practice questions covering every AS Biology topic for the AQA Exam Board. The whole thing's designed to make revision straightforward - everything you need to know is explained simply and thoroughly, helped by full-colour diagrams. It includes sections on How Science Works and Interpreting Experimental Data. There's also a sprinkling of jokes to lighten the mood. It's exactly what you need to prepare for your exams! | <urn:uuid:bdb7720f-fc68-4126-91ce-62f0690fcdf6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.co.uk/AS-Level-Biology-Complete-Revision-Practice/dp/184762118X | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950404 | 93 | 2.40625 | 2 |
So, I’m sure you would like to know a bit more about me, since you’re reading my blog and all. My name is Jason. I am twenty-three years old. I go to Franciscan University and am majoring in philosophy and theology. My major goal is to get graduate with my bachelors, get a master’s degree in moral theology, then finally get my doctorate’s degree. Step four: teach at a university.
I am a Roman Catholic, a convert from Anglicanism actually. I am a rather traditional guy. Originally from Georgia, living the faith in the land of Flannery O’Connor, I’ve gone north to be taught by Franciscan friars. Consider this blog my commonplace book from everything from philosophy & theology to classical history & literature random ideas to discussions on music and books to whatever may be happening in life today.
What does “Embers of a Thousand Days” mean?
It actual means two things. First is a reference to Ember Days, days set aside by the Church for giving thanks to God. The second reference is an analogy to actual embers, remains of coals after the fire has died, and how each day are like embers - it starts off with a raging fire then slowly dies down, waiting for it to be stoked and new wood to be feed to start the cycle over.
What exactly are Ember days?
The Church puts aside three days (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday) each of the four natural seasons for fasting and abstaining in penance with the intention of thanking God for the gifts He gives us in nature and asking Him for the discipline to use them in moderation.
Days like these reminds us that we should be humble and thankful to God during the rest of the year, making everyday a little like the Ember Days.
More information about Ember Days can be found here. | <urn:uuid:591c753f-0b42-4877-9829-c6b67edbf6bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://emberdays.tumblr.com/about | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931186 | 396 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Milwaukee's Mayor Barrett and Fellow Great Lakes Mayors Make Declaration on Water Sustainabilityby City of Milwaukee
Photo credit: Marcus Obal
Today, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who was joined by other mayors from the U.S. and Québec, made a "Declaration on Water Sustainability" and committed to common sustainable water management practices to protect the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, the largest source of surface fresh water on earth. Also at the bi-national conference of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, Mayor Barrett was elected chairman of the board of directors and will serve a one-year term.
“Today, my fellow mayors and I made an important declaration on water sustainability to protect the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence through our cities’ daily operations and long-term investments,” said Mayor Tom Barrett, Chair of the Cities Initiative. “Together, the mayors of the Cities Initiative are making a difference in the future health and prosperity of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region and are showing leadership globally in sustainable water management.”
Best Practices for Cities on Water Management
Earlier today, Mayor Tom Barrett also served on the Municipal Water Management Panel. In support of the ‘Declaration on Water Sustainability’, the Cities Initiative released a report on Sustainable Municipal Water Management, with best practices from members, along with a method for evaluating and publicly reporting on progress on common actions by cities across the basin. Members will be asked to present their public reports on sustainable water management at our next annual general meeting in June 2013.
Facing Challenges of Climate Change, Water Scarcity, and Urbanization
“In the face of climate change, increased urbanization and dwindling water supply in some parts of the globe, we must never take the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, the world’s largest source of surface fresh water, for granted,” said Mayor Régis Labeaume of the Québec Metropolitan Community, and Vice-Chair of the Cities Initiative. “As water managers, cities have a responsibility to be water-wise and report publicly on our progress in managing this globally threatened resource.”
For more information on the annual general meeting, please visit www.glslcities.org/annual-meetings/2012.cfm.
The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative (www.glslcities.org) is a binational coalition of 90 mayors and other local officials that works actively with federal, state, tribal, first nation and provincial governments and other stakeholders to advance the protection, restoration and promotion of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin. | <urn:uuid:c68ee5d6-9d81-4359-a23e-eca1e449b17e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.icleiusa.org/about-iclei/funders/blog/archive/2012/06/29/mayor-barrett-and-fellow-great-lakes-mayors-make-declaration-on-water-sustainability | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932799 | 546 | 2.25 | 2 |
Biography of Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin (1840–1917) was a French sculptor, considered by many to be the first 'modern' sculptor. He was famous not only for his work, but also for his private life, embarking on a number of romantic relationships. In 1914 he gifted a collection of his sculptures to the V&A in honour of British and French soldiers fighting side by side during World War I (1914–18).
Rodin's fame as a sculptor and the notoriety of his personal life have frequently been described and analysed in the vast body of literature that exists. It is not so surprising, perhaps, that an artist whose life work was making sculpture of the human body should also be passionate about it in his personal life.
The furore caused by his first major figure, 'The Age of Bronze'; the scandal surrounding his habit of taking many mistresses throughout his long relationship with Rose Beuret; his marriage to Rose only two weeks before her death and nine months before his own; his struggles with the art establishment; the rejection of his proposals for commissioned monuments; the enormous international fame he achieved after his 1900 exhibition - all are inextricably linked. | <urn:uuid:46933939-010e-4910-b742-508de6150cff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/rodins-life-and-work/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990589 | 258 | 3.015625 | 3 |
The bluegill is round and flat, with a distinct dark spot or smudge at the base of the dorsal fin. The ear flap is entirely black, which distinguishes it from a lot of other sunfish. Its back and upper sides are dark olive-green to black, and its belly is reddish yellow. The bluegill also has a pattern of vertical bars on the sides. During spawning season, males can be especially dark or colorful.
Scientific Name: Lepomis macrochirus
State Record: 3 lbs. 5 oz.
Image D.Raver (USFWS)
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“Discernment is the activity of determining the value and quality of a certain subject or event, particularly the activity of going past the mere perception of something and making detailed judgments about that thing. As a virtue, a discerning individual is considered to possess wisdom, and be of good judgement; especially so with regard to subject matter often overlooked by others.” (Source)
We all have the power of discernment. However, a lot of us get caught up in surface situations, taking in the superficiality of an event without reaching to what our intuition says. We allow others in our ears. We think about the perception rather than the reality. We become insecure in our initial thought. This does not have to be the case. If we follow the gut and always try our best to see a given situation from an objective perspective, then we can see the full picture–our role in it and theirs and what we can do to change the situation for the better. This is an incredible power so take it with care and be thankful for it. Remember, we all have the power. We all do. | <urn:uuid:4ba9b0ca-da65-4df2-8ed0-8ff48ce3d89e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thejolynproject.com/2013/01/28/be-active-use-the-power-of-discernment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964138 | 225 | 1.976563 | 2 |
An empire on the verge of collapse, named after a main-sequence star. When a main-sequence star has burned through its hydrogen, it switches to helium and bloats into a red giant, though it's essentially being hollowed out inside. Eventually, because it has lost the mass that could sustain its volume, it collapses. If it was an average-sized star, into a white dwarf, or a black hole if above average.
Its sapped of all its strength but its military, and now its burning that. Like a red giant, its imperial swelling is a sign of decay, not health. And its unsustainable. Collapse is inevitable. Possibly, given its size, into a black hole, which will suck the whole world in after it.
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In the discussion of the commandment of tzitzit, which is the concluding
subject matter in this week’s parsha, the Torah warns us not to follow the
dictates of our hearts’ desires and the wants occasioned by our wandering
The rabbis (especially the Netziv, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin of
nineteenth century Volozhin) who commented on this verse stated that
the ‘desires of our heart’ refers to people who perform mitzvoth but
without any faith in their worth or in their Giver, and that ‘after their
wandering eyes’ refers to those who view mitzvoth that they personally
observe through the prism of their eyes and understanding alone.
They are always willing to substitute either their desires or their
intellectual rationalizations for the pure belief in God and the
subservience necessary to serve the Eternal. Man’s natural inclination to
be independent of commands and orders of others, to do what man alone
wishes to do irrespective of duty, tradition and ultimate consequences,
always places man in opposition to this Jewish concept which stresses
obedience and humility before our Creator.
The Torah allows us desires and rational thinking. But like every other
facet of human behavior, these desires have to be channeled and
disciplined. They are not meant to run wild and follow all of the changing
whims and vagaries of human society in all of its ages and generations.
Performance of the mitzvoth faithfully and in acknowledgement of the One
Who commands those mitzvoth to be performed becomes the foundation and
anchor for the necessary disciplines that enhance Jewish life and make it
Otherwise, our hearts and eyes, our uncontrolled desires and uninhibited
intellect and thoughts, will allow us eventually to go astray.
But, why is the commandment of tzitzit the ultimate method for teaching us
these lessons of obedience, probity and faith? After all there are
hundreds of other commandments that would seem to be proper to instruct us
in the same fashion.
Here also the commentators to the Torah struggled to find a proper and
meaningful explanation. The one that appeals most to me has to do with the
form that the mitzvah takes. Even though the mitzvah applies only to four-
cornered garments, a relative rarity in post-Talmudic times, Jews
purposely wore such four-cornered garments in order to obligate themselves
in the performance of the mitzvah of tzitzit.
Thus, this is a mitzvah that was omnipresent in their lives – a garment
that was constantly worn on their bodies. It was an item of self identity
and a primary reminder of the yoke of mitzvoth and Torah that the Jews
accepted upon themselves and their generations at Mount Sinai.
Tzitzit is a mitzvah that numerically (through gematryia) and in its form
(its knots and strings) constantly reminds us of the 613 mitzvoth that are
the basis of our existence and the responsibilities in our lives and in
Tzitzit is the sum total of all of the commandments – in fact of the very
concept of commandments – that is the heart of Judaism and the nucleus of
all Jewish life. Such is the methodology of Torah in all of our behavior
Rabbi Berel Wein | <urn:uuid:17d1970f-f5f8-43c0-979d-06611c3c76b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.torah.org/learning/rabbiwein/5768/shlach.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933878 | 735 | 2.5 | 2 |
El Paso Zoo's March Family Activities
March 24: 9:30am - 1:30 pm - 13th Annual Poison Jungle Safari. One Child in Free w/ paying adult with coupon. Families will learn about the dangers of household, animal and other poisonings. English & Spanish demos. Clowns, face painting & more!
March 31: 9:30 am - 1:00pm - 10th Annual Together for Children Half-price Admission. Help us kick-off the month of April as the "Month of the Child." Wear red, yellow or blue to support the well being of children. Join the Mini-March, followed by FREE educational activities for kids.
March 17&18: 11:00am - 3:00pm Habitat for Wildlife Weekend Different wild animals have different homes called "habitats." Zoo visitors will learn all about where animals live, how and why their homes are disappearing and what you can do to make a difference. Bring used cell phones & PDAs for recycling!
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send an email to firstname.lastname@example.org, with your name and email address. | <urn:uuid:d49fdf6b-671a-489e-8ed5-acabe7a8e532> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elpasotexas.gov/community/_archive/022607/quality5.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919762 | 256 | 1.820313 | 2 |
A genetic pathologist and Nobel Prize winner, Norman Borlaug is credited with saving more than a billion people worldwide from starvation. His transformative work bringing new agricultural techniques and high-yield crop varieties to developing countries earned him an unofficial title as the father of the Green Revolution.
Norman Borlaug was interviewed by the Producers of Earth Days on June 8, 2007. He died September 12, 2009.
On a rising standard of living
When I was born in 1914, world population was probably about 1.6 billion people. About 1930 it was about 2 billion. But by the year 2000 it was 6 billion. This population monster — not only demanding more food, but more clothes, better medical care, better education, all of these things — was lifting the standard of living, much more rapidly in the USA and Western European countries, than in countries that had been left behind.
One of the great advantages of this country was the early general education for the masses of the people…. To me education is basic to building a better standard of living, in all kinds of ideological governments. Without exception. I would put this very high on the scale of necessity because it affects population growth; it affects the ability of the individual family to utilize their inherent abilities, to exploit them more, and in the process, to lift themselves to higher standards of living.
I fully believe — after having spent 62 years in developing countries and all my childhood, youth, and early years of maturity in the USA — that the human condition, in general, around the world, has improved greatly. But certain sectors have been left far behind. And that is not only sad from the standpoint of those people that live under these conditions, but [also] it is a destabilizing influence because of migration, because of all sorts of –isms — including terrorism — because they are fertile seedbeds in these vast areas of human poverty. Starting with hunger, no education. These are fertile seedbeds for planting all kinds of extremisms.
On environmental perspectives
I’m an environmentalist. I grew up on the land, a farm. A small farm. I know what the standard of living was like in the nineteen teens and ’20s, and the early ’30s. I saw the whole disastrous collapse of [the] US economy with the stock market crash, and where the rural people who produced the food couldn’t sell it.
Now the description of environmental devastation or destruction depends from the point of view of one — if I’m an affluent, capitalistic person with huge income, or even modest today, sitting in an isolated city, and you see trees being cut down, you get concerned. Or if you see agricultural chemicals being used, starting with chemical fertilizer, which is not a poison, but … [people tend to] put 'em all in one package. ... If you’re living in a big city, and you read about these things, you become sometimes a pretty aggressive environmentalist.
The general public — which, in the affluent countries, is urban — they don’t understand the problems of the small farmer. Or of the agriculture farmer in general. And it doesn’t mean that they are consciously trying to castigate the agricultural sector but it handicaps the agricultural sector. The only way you can get funds in a democratic government is by hopefully going through your local representatives and senators, to pass such legislation such as the emergency programs in the ’60s.
Before the Green Revolution took off in India, for two years in a row, there was 5 million tons of wheat, U.S. wheat, that came into India. Under President Truman, point four in his address to the union was, “we have to do something to help the countries that have been left behind. With hunger and poverty and misery.” It went through three changes in names, but that became USAID, eventually. So all of these things in their time were brought to bear on some of these problems.
On the Green Revolution
Well, the Green Revolution was a term first described by William Goud, the director of the USAID in a small conference held on the 8th of March in 1968 in a small hotel, in Washington, D.C. And it went about like this. Dr. Goud was speaking to about 30 people who were interested in international development. And he said, “some of you were in that first group [a similar group eight months previous], that are here today. I described that new technology in agricultural production was beginning to have an impact. Today I say, this impact is here. And it is not a red revolution, based on blood like that of the Soviet Union. Nor is it a white revolution, like what was done by the Shah of Iran. It’s a green revolution, based on science and technology.” ... This came from an economist in the USAID, a foreign assistance program.
Let me go back to the roots of the first Green Revolution, as described by Dr. Goud. This took place in wheat. A drastic change in improvement, during the 1960s in Pakistan first, and in India. But it affected many other countries to a lesser extent in the Near Middle East, like Turkey. Like Iran. .... But the seeds for that Green Revolution, in the case of wheat… was developed in Mexico. In the first foreign technical assistance program, a foreign organization — in this case the Rockefeller Foundation — [was] attempting to assist the government of Mexico to improve its agriculture. Originally, that program was aimed at three crops. Corn or maize as it’s called in Latin America, and beans, and wheat.
On his work
The basic problem that I’ve worked with from the time I began in international agriculture in 1944, is to produce more food for [peoples’] hunger. And most of these are very small farmers. They depend entirely on the agricultural production. To raise their productivity, so they not only produce more food for their family, but some to sell in local market. And to improve their standard of living, hopefully — [to] buy better clothes, and get their children through primary and secondary school, all of the better public health programs, all of these things. You’ve gotta try to bring all of these things together. But, for someone working in agriculture like I have been, you’ve gotta get the food-production thing going, and then at the right time, pressure governments to take action on policies on other aspects of rural development.
In many of those densely populated countries, there’s no more land to cultivate. You see, looking at the world picture on food production until the beginning of World War II, as more food was needed there were still vast tracts of land unused, or used for low-carrying capacity grazing. …More of that was planted [for production of] cereals. And this went on — in the USA it went on, in Argentina, it had gone on in European countries many times.
But [because of] that rapid growth in population that I mentioned, from 1930 onward… [came] better public health, better understanding of disease, better sanitation — this exploded. And so that then [required] the increased production [in food], especially in densely populated countries, by increasing yields per acre. .... In the case of Pakistan, production went from 4 million tons to 20 million tons in that same period of ’60 to 2000. Five-fold. In India, it went from, let’s say 12 million to 75 and a half million tons. This is a tremendous jump in production. And when this happens in one crop, the second one — if you’ve got good technology — will be accepted much more rapidly. Because that little farmer, he says, “Ah. If that fertilizer did increase wheat production like this, I’m gonna plant my rice using fertilizer too.” Even though the fertilizer dosage… and when you apply it for efficient application… he doesn’t know. But he’ll start [doing it anyway]. This forces their local research people to get out of their office and get out in the crops, and start making tests on farms. There’s a whole change in attitudes going on, of course there’s a lot of inter-fighting, some people say it’s all nonsense, it’s all foolishness, nothing’s going to happen. You’re battling all of these things.
On his Nobel Peace Prize
Most of the world doesn’t know that there’s no Nobel Prize for food or agriculture. I got the prize through the window of peace. Which is the place where most politicians get the prize for policies….
So after I received [the Nobel Prize], I was aware of this population-land-food problem, [the] environmental problem, and I said, “Look, do we have to wait for another crisis, whether it’s 30 or 40 years, before agriculture and ranching gets a fair place in the legislatures of the world from the standpoint of budget and prestige? Better we try to do something.”
Empty stomachs are not very conducive to peace. Someone who’s starving, and — especially if he sees his family starving — is going to become quite a[n] activist in trying to get that food. Killing, robbing, stealing, everything. All of the nasty things. Now, this continues to go on, but I think the general belief is that wherever you have extreme hunger and famine, there’s chaos. The whole system breaks down.
On international agricultural development
Here in the US what has happened [is] the big reduction of the percent of the total population on the land in ranching and agriculture has dropped precipitously over the last five or six decades to better jobs, and opportunity. In urban areas, in industries and computer, you name it. All sorts of high-tech. That means the size of the farms and ranches have tended to grow in size. And that was possible only by mechanization. And that came as a result of factories, working people, urban people, in those factories to produce the things that permit the farm size to grow. Now… there has to be a point where it becomes more and more difficult to produce the food even with improved technology. And so I’ve always spoken that the world needs to consider the importance of a stable or near-stable population growth, so that you can cope with this and not sacrifice standards of living and yet not be reckless in the use of that technology to attain this better standard of living. In other words, we don’t wanna cut down a lot more of our forests to open more land to cultivation. We wanna make sure that the chemicals we’re using are not very destructive to our health.
The first time that I went to China in 1974, the Cultural Revolution was still on and it was pretty miserable out there. And, we were shown some of the best communes. They didn’t look very good to me. You go out there now and you see a lot better. But, how long did it take [the US] to reduce our population from a rural population to industrial? From colonial times with 98% of the people on the piece of land, to where we are today [at] 1.5, 2%. [It] took a long time. China has to make a sizable reduction in rural population. I’m talking about income for rural life from industry rather than the land. They have made such a rapid jump in, for example, the increase in cereal production in China. All cereals. It’s even better for rice and for wheat, than for the other minor cereals. But, it’s gone from less than a ton, probably 800 kilo, to four tons per hectare. From, in other words, something on the order of 10 or 11 bushels of wheat, to 60, in 40 years. But, you aren’t going to be able to increase the standard of living of those people, if the vast majority still exist on the land, and you’ll be creating greater conflict between the rapidly increasing income and standard of living of the people in the factories, especially in high technology.
What would life be like in the United States, if we tried to go back to the technology of the early 1900s, rather than that being used now, in the early 2000s. The change has been tremendous, from the early 1900s, from my point of view, for the well-being of the tremendous number of Americans. This isn’t to say that all have benefited equally. Some sectors, small though that they be, have not benefited. And that we should try to correct. But, it has permitted the production of the basic necessities that we need for this high standard of living. Like the first one, food.
On Rachel Carson… and the upside of DDT
She was a darn good scientist at the lower biological level. And especially in marine organisms. You have to remember, when her book was written she had cancer. Like I have now. And yet she attributed her health and that of many more to the adverse effects of chemicals, which were becoming popular then. Insecticides, synthetic insecticides, herbicides, fungicides. She didn’t have any data to back up that. Of course, bits and pieces later were built to identify certain cases, where some of these had been misused.
But let me point out some of the things that were prohibited from being used [with] this emotional word: Malaria. The biggest killer to this day all across the tropical areas of Africa. At that time, in the Blacklands of the Torai in India, prior to the discovery of DDT, there was a huge area of swamp, of brush, of small trees, worthless for agriculture because of human disease. Malaria, primarily. When DDT came they could clear this, [and] it became some of the best lands in the world. In India, [DDT] played an important role in Indian wheat and rice production. Still continues to do that. These were lands that were worthless.
Now, what did the banning of DDT do to the peoples of Africa? There’s been no effective control. The world got the impression that they were spraying the jungle; this was not so.
At that time most of the use of DDT, effectively, was by spraying inside of the huts once a year or twice a year — especially the lower part — with DDT. And the insects, the mosquitoes, during the day when the sun is bright outside, they hide in darker parts. And it used to — In the case of India, when they started using DDT for malaria control, that swamp, the Torai area, was worthless. There was probably… no one knows how many millions of people with malaria. It’s not only a killer, it’s a debilitator, people can’t work effectively. It affects different people in different ways. So Ceylon, the little island, India had reduced [the number of people with malaria] from millions down to 250-300,000 people, when the ban came [on DDT]. They took it off and [the number of people with malaria] went back into the millions. In the case of Sri Lanka, they were down to 14. Took the ban off and it exploded. This is the same story, many places.
On his personal outlook
I say that life is a game. I’m talking about individual [life], or it could be an issue. It’s a game in the sense that many are participating, and you’ve gotta try to get them to pull together. If you’re negative, you will never bring together the forces of the individuals with great talent. The true leadership is what brings these pieces together. And once it’s achieved, it can be destroyed very rapidly.
First of all, there’s no question but that climate is changing. That’s not new. It’s been going on for millions and millions of years. We only need to turn back the time-clock and see how many continental glaciers have come across. Why did they come, and why did they melt? Long before there were internal-combustion automobiles and affluent people. So that’s one side to the issue.
Now, the question in trying to create this better environment, or hopefully to correct something that some say is going to destroy civilization, is, how much influence will our governments be justified in making, in trying to protect against these changes that are taking place? I say that this also has to come from science and technology with less emotions and more data. You see the tilt of the earth — the wobble of the axis — were there long before this fog and the smog of modern man. As a matter of fact, if you compare the environment we have today from the standpoint of smoke and smog, to what it was 70 years ago, it’s a lot better today than it was then. How much better? Who’s measuring it? How do you measure? These are not simple. But to go into these with a negative point of view — you go into any combat with a negative point of view, the chances are much more than 50-50, that you’re going to lose. Because, the psychology of the human being is important, rather than just the physical strength and stamina. | <urn:uuid:91208f97-0162-4806-b58c-e58fde50f06a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/interview/earthdays-norman-borlaug/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970234 | 3,657 | 2.859375 | 3 |
National Historic Site. Community museum in towering lighthouse chronicles history of the area from 1632, when Fort Ste Marie de Grâce was founded as first capital of New France, to present. The fort was abandoned in 1636; later, a lighthouse station was erected on the site. Stunning ocean views. French garden, beach, 3.5-acre park.
Facilities / Services
- Bus tours
- Gift shop
- Picnic tables
Date details/Hours of operation
10am–5pm (also weekends in Sep); O/S by appointment; park open year-round.
Details: Admission free. | <urn:uuid:7f1ba1a3-7ced-4c51-9af7-a7b2a923a1d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.novascotia.com/en/home/thingstoseeanddo/listingdetails.aspx/fort-point-museum/1299?mode=10&srch=cmVmcGc9MzY1MSZwZz0xJnBzPTI1JmNhdGlkPTImc3ViaWQ9MTMmaXNhPTEmd2NhPTAmaWR4PTc_ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933807 | 130 | 1.953125 | 2 |
I am involved in setting up many bespoke hosted solutions for various customers that I deal with as part of my job. The vast majority of these revolve around a Microsoft Windows based domain, and at the heart of this is the Domain Controller. Setting this up is simple so let’s get started.
Terminology: Domain Controller (DC)
A Domain Controller is a server that is responsible for responding to authentication requests. It is possible to have a single server or several servers acting as Domain Controllers. In the days of NT4 you would have a Primary Domain Controller and then one or more Backup Domain Controllers. Windows 2000 introduced Active Directory and eliminated the need for Master and Backup severs and utilising multi-master replication.
Terminology: Active Directory (AD)
Active Directory is a directory service that stores information relating to network objects such as Users, Computers, Printers etc. It also allows administrators to assign policies to the objects. The Active Directory database is held on the Domain Controllers.
A domain is a collections of objects including at least one domain controller that all share the same DNS namespace. For example you might have have server1.mydomain.com, server2.mydomain.com and pc1.mydomain.com these would all be part of the same domain.
A tree is a collection of domains in a contigous DNS namespace, so you could have your tree contain the domains red.mydomain.com, blue.mydomain.com and green.mydomain.com.
A Forest is a collections of Trees that share common elements such as the Global Catalog and Directory Schema.
Terminology: Global Catalog (GC)
Global Catalog servers are Domain Controllers but rather than just containing the information for their own domain they hold the information for all objects in the forest. This information is then replicated to other Global Catalog Servers in the Forest. In a large forest the information being replicated could cause network issues especially over slow WAN / Internet connections so only selected attributes of each object are replicated.
Terminology: Directory Schema
The Directory Schema a database of all the object classes such as users, groups computers etc and attributes that can be stored in the directory. The schema can be extended to include additional classes and attributes.
Terminology: Flexible single master operation (FSMO)
FSMO pronounced “fizz-mo” also known as operations master roles. There are five FSMO roles that exists. Some of these are required once per domain and some once per forest. We’ll look at FSMO roles in a later article but for now as we are only deploying a single server all roles will exist on the one server.
1. We start with a fresh install of Windows Server 2008 R2 which at the moment is just part of a workgroup and does not have any domain membership. First thing we need to do with our new server is to set the name of our new server. We do this by going into “System Properties“. Once there we need to click on “Change” under the “Computer Name” tab, this will open the “System Properties” dialogue box for us.
In here we’ll enter our new server name “server“, we want to ignore the Member of section because this is used if we want to add our server or PC to a domain. After clicking OK we’ll be prompted to reboot the server for the changes to take effect.
Alternatively we can do this using commands from the command prompt, the command we would use is “netdom renamecomputer currentservername/newname:newservername/reboot:0” where newservername is the name we want to change our server to and currentservername is the name of the server currently, we can find the current name from the output of the “hostname” command. We specify the “/reboot:0” to reboot the server after the change and to wait for zero seconds before reboot, if we don’t add the “:0” to the end the server will wait for the default 30 seconds before restarting.
Once we enter the command we will be asked if this is what we want to do because changing the name after certain roles have been installed can cause issues with the services. As this is a new server install we have no services or roles installed that would require a fixed name so we can choose Y to continue, the server will then reboot.
2. OK so the server is backup, the next thing we need to do before promoting the server to a domain controller is is set a static IP address. We do this in the “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties” dialogue. We just need a static IP address, the correct subnet mask and gateway. I’ll enter the DNS server addresses too, because when we install the DNS server role later it’ll automatically take the values set here as our forwarder addresses and set our DNS server as 127.0.0.1.
Alternatively we can do this at the command line with the “netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”myadapterid” source=static address=myipaddress mask=mysubnetmask gateway=mydefaultgateway” command where myadapterid is the idx value show in the output of the “netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces” command.
Now we can add our DNS servers using the command “netsh interface ipv4 add dnsservers name=”myadapterid” address=mydnsserver index=x validate=no” where myadapterid is the same idx value as earlier, mydnsserver is the ip address of your DNS server and x is the index so 1 for the first DNS server address, 2 for the second etc, I always add “validate=no” to the end to stop windows
We can then verify with “ipconfig /all” that all the information we have entered has been assigned to the adapter.
3. We’ll run a tool called “dcpromo“. This will launch a wizard and allow us to promote this server to a Domain Controller. We can run “dcpromo /answer:C:\filename.txt” where C:\filename.txt is the full path and name of a text file that we create with all the answers the wizard would ask us defined to allow for an unattended setup of the domain.
After running “dcpromo” the server will start to install the Active Directory Domain Services binaries to the server.
Once this has completed, you will be presented with the wizard and asked if we wish to use advanced mode installation. We can also launch the advanced mode installation by adding the switch “/adv” to the “dcpromo” command. The advanced mode install gives us additional options in particular is the Domain NETBIOS name, when not in advanced mode the server will determine the best name to use but when using advanced mode we can set our own. So going with the old adage “more is better”, let’s tick “use advanced mode configuration” and click next.
4. We are presented with a page of text, basically this is saying that some older clients and applications may not be compatible with the new Domain Controller because of newer more secure settings preventing clients from using the weaker NT4 style cryptography algorithms.
We’re OK with this so we can just click next.
5. Now our first proper question. Do we want to set this up in an “Existing Forest” or do we want to “Create a new domain in a new forest”. We have no existing Forest or Domain so we need to choose the option to create a new one. You’ll also see options greyed out beneath “Existing Forest” these let us specify what type of new Domain we would be adding to our forest. For now we’ll click “Create a new domain in a new forest” and click Next.
We now need to pick out FQDN or Fully Qualified Domain Name for our new forest and domain. We’ll go with “pebelnet.local”. You can use a full real Internet domain name such as “pebelnet.co.uk” but usually the servers responsible for your real domain name are completely separate from your Windows doamin and you’ll have problems with DNS later on down the line.
The server will then check to see if it can find the new forest/domain name you specified is already in use. If all is OK you’ll be asked to enter a NETBIOS name. The server will try and determine the best name to use based on the FQDN you entered, usually this is acceptable, however in some cases you may wish to change it and without the “use advanced mode installation” ticked at the beginning we wouldn’t have been given this option.
6. So we are now asked to set the Forest Functional Level. The Forest Functional Level is the level of the earliest version of windows you want to add as a domain controller to the forest. If the level is set at “Windows Server 2003″ you can only add domain controllers running Windows Sever 2003 or later, you will not be able to add Windows Server 2000 to the forest because the level is too high. Similarly if the level is set at “Windows Sever 2008 R2″ servers running Windows Server 2000, Server 2003 and Server 2008 will not be able to join the forest as domain controllers.
Where possible I like to set the Forest Functional Level as high as I can as more features are available in the later levels, however if you choose a lower level you can at a later stage increase the functional level but you cannot decrease it.
We are only going to use Windows Server 2008 R2 in our forest but just in case we’ll set it to the “Windows Server 2003″ level and click next.
7. Next the server will examine the DNS configuration and checks to see if we have a DNS server available and if we have any DNS server that are already authoritative for our chosen forest / domain name.
After the server has finished checking it will now ask us what additional options we wish to install. As this is our first Domain Controller it must be the Global Catalog too, because we arn’t managing DNS for this domain elsewhere we need to install the DNS server role also. The third option we have is for a RODC or Read Only Domain Controller, these are domain controllers that do not allow changes to be made to made to Active Directory and do not store password by default. Because of this we cannot have our first Domain Controller as a RODC.
RODCs would be used in branch offices or in insecure locations, if access was gained to the server objects within the directory could not be altered, i.e. users cannot be added or removed, passwords changed etc. As passwords are not stored on the server if it was stolen from an insecure branch office then someone trying to obtain or brute force the passwords would be out of luck. We can specify that the RODC stores passwords for certain accounts, like the users and computers at the branch office so they can have their logons authenticated locally. But again if the server is stolen, the administrator can remove the server from the domain / forest, without all the issues associated with removing Domain Controllers that cannot be safely demoted, this act also resets the passwords and in effect lock out the accounts of all the users and computers that that RODC has stored.
So getting back to the setup. Lets make sure DNS is selected and click next.
8. The server will go ahead and examine the DNS configuration again and we should then be told that the server cannot find a DNS server for the domain we specified earlier and therefore cannot create a delegation for this DNS server. We’re fine with this because we’re using a “.local” domain and this is only specific to this Windows Domain we’re creating now so we can click yes to continue.
9. We now get to choose where to put the Database Log Files and SYSVOL. In an ideal world each of these would be on their own separate volume for easier recovery in case of hardware failure. This isn’t possible in our setup as we only have one volume available to us so we’ll have to stick with the defaults.
10. We now need to pick a DSRM or Directory Services Restore Mode password, this password will be used if we have a problem with Active Directory and need to boot the server in DSRM, the boot option is found in the boot menu by pressing F8 at startup just like you were trying to get into safe mode. Pick something secure and something that you can remember when you need it.
11. We are now presented with a summary of our setup before we commit it. You can also export the answer file using the “Export settings…” button, this will save a copy of the answer file that can be used with the “dcpromo /unattend:c:\myanswerfile.txt” command. The export will remove any passwords set such as the DSRM password and these will have to be re-added manually to the text file before it can be used for an unattended setup. Clicking next will start the setup of our Domain Controller.
12. The server is now installing various roles and components needed to function as a Domain Controller. Once it has complete we click the “Finish” button and the server will prompt us for a reboot to complete the setup.
13. Now our server has booted back up it is now a domain controller, we need to login for the first time, the administrator’s password is still the same as before, the password we set during the wizard is just for the Directory Services Restore Mode. We can confirm by looking at the install roles in “Server manager” and can see the roles “Active Directory Domain Services” and “DNS Server” as installed roles.
We’ve seen how to setup Windows Server 2008 R2 as a Domain Controller in a new Forest. We’ve seen the additional options available during setup, and what options, such as Global Catalog and Read Only Domain Controller, do for us and our Windows Domain.
I hope you found this post informative, please leave a comment if you have any questions or feedback. | <urn:uuid:819829f9-4ad1-48cf-9bd9-fd32c44e934f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pebelnet.co.uk/creating-a-domain-controller | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904559 | 3,076 | 2.9375 | 3 |
IDA study on Peak Oil debate (August 2008) (review)
The Institute for Defense Analyses released its very thorough “Review and Analysis of the Peak Oil Debate” authored by Brent Fisher last summer, but I only discovered it today (thanks to a link at DTIC, below). This 50-page study is detailed, balanced in its determinations, carefully worded and thoroughly sourced.
The study focuses on three related aspects:
- First, it reviews the Hubbert theory, examines its assumptions and the criticisms leveled by its critics, and then presents the results of IDA’s own modifications to Hubbert’s theory.
- Second, it reviews peakist arguments which are based on declining discovery rates (and the counter-claims by optimists).
- Third, it reviews Matt Simmons’ concerns about Saudi oil production (and the counter-arguments).
The study’s executive summary ends with these two sentences:
“We conclude from these reviews that the most alarmist of the peak-oil claims are likely false. Still, we see some convincing reasons to think that global oil production could peak within 20 years, with demand outstripping production indefinitely.”
I wish that Fisher had related the 20-year time frame to the warning of the Hirsch Report (2005) that an intensive mitigation program will need to be in place at least 20 years before peaking if we are to avoid serious economic and social consequences.
However, this and many other aspects are slightly beyond the scope of Fisher’s “review and analysis of the debate.”
This study is very helpful and may be added to the growing list of studies from military/security researchers which identify peak oil as a legitimate concern, worthy of further scrutiny.
But almost no-one from this list (including Fisher) has addressed the subsequent questions and concerns which arise from an awareness /acceptance of the peak oil concept:
- export decline (please see Armed Forces Journal Forum posting #7)
- fuel poverty: how will sustained high oil prices affect the global economy, “globalization” itself, public revenues & public services, low-income families, etc? (please see Jeff Rubin’s recent book, Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller)
- Agri-food: this sector may be squeezed from both ends (by family farmers who can’t afford fuel, and by a faltering import/export system, Armed Forces Journal Forum posting #17).
- Emergency planning: how might a severe fuel (& food) emergency be best planned for and administered? (Armed Forces Journal Forum postings #9, #10, #15, #16, #17)
- Domestic security: are there foreseeable problems which warrant military analysis & planning?
On that final point, I was very pleased to see Fisher state, “Such a peak warrants serious attention by stakeholders with a view out this far [30 years] – including the military” (pg. I-1).
While Fisher states “we are skeptical of an imminent peak within the next decade” (pg. I-1), his report was published three months before the release of the IEA’s most recent World Energy Outlook which bluntly stated, “Current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable…. What is needed is nothing short of an energy revolution (WEO, pg. 37).
Elsewhere Fisher accurately portrays the IEA as having “views which coincide mostly with those of the optimists” (pg. IV-8). When the perennial optimists suddenly warn of unsustainable trends in energy supply and issue urgent calls for an energy revolution, the rest of us really should take heed. Had Fisher known of the most recent IEA data on oilfield depletion rates, he might have worded his conclusions with a stronger tone of urgency. As it is, Fisher did an excellent job of covering what he intended to cover. There is much that he did not address, but his intention was to do a 50-page analysis of the debate, not write a manual which addresses “next steps.”
In concluding that peaking is likely to occur “within a generation” and that this prospect warrants serious attention by the military, Fisher has done much to advance this timely issue. I hope that Fisher (and other analysts with his degree of objectivity and thoroughness) will consider addressing the subset of concerns which arise from his conclusions.
Here is the link to Brent Fisher’s IDA study: Review and Analysis of the Peak Oil Debate | <urn:uuid:a126a7b7-dda7-437d-96d2-29bc8978570a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.resilience.org/stories/2009-06-19/ida-study-peak-oil-debate-august-2008-review | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955629 | 950 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Benefits of Australia-Malaysia FTA questioned
An Australian parliamentary committee has questioned the benefit of finalising a Free-Trade Agreement with Malaysia.
Legislation to support the agreement was introduced to the parliament this morning, seven years after the idea was first mooted.
However, the Australian Parliament's Committee on Treaties handed down its final report on the free-trade agreement yesterday and called for an independent cost-benefit analysis.
Kelvin Thomson, the committee's chair, also raised concerns about the impact the agreement might have on environmental and labour standards.
"If you have imports that are being made by companies that are not observing proper labour standards or proper environment standards, and they are cheaper than the local manufacturer, they would enjoy unfair advantage and provide and incentive for poor labour standards and environmental standards in Australia," Mr Thomson said.
"We don't want to see that. We want to see standards being maintained and indeed lifted right around the world," he added.
The government is not bound to adopt the committee's recommendations, but has to respond to them within 90 days.
It is expected the legislation will be passed by parliament before the end of this month, and Australia's Home Affairs Minister, Jason Clare, said it will eventually allow for tariffs on almost all imports and exports to be reduced.
"Both countries have committed to the treaty coming into force on January the first and passage of this amendment and the subsequent amendment will enable this to happen," Mr Clare said.
The agreement will affect dairy, automotive, food manufacturing, wine and iron and steel products, as well as business and education services.
"It will actually, I believe, assist businesses in considering off-shore expansion into the region," Larry Gould, president of the Australia Malaysia Business Council, said.
"Malaysia is a great business hub because of its location in Asia - English-speaking, [with a] fairly stable political environment."
Trade between Malaysia and Australia was worth $AU16 billion last year, and the government hopes this FTA will boost bilateral trade further. | <urn:uuid:d57a8636-560e-4f17-ba86-8f0999a0f06e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-01/an-australian-parli-discusses-fta-with-malaysia/4345842 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971349 | 421 | 2.09375 | 2 |
- uploaded: Jun 8, 2008
- Hits: 196
Lloyd Pye is one of the world's leading proponents of the Intervention Theory of origins, which stands in sharp contrast to Darwinism, Creationism, and Intelligent Design.
His classic book about these subjects, Everything You Know Is Wrong -- Origins of Life and Humans, has been fully revised and updated as of July, 2007.
Lloyd is also the caretaker of the famous Starchild skull, and has written a new book about his eight years of struggle to get it scientifically tested to establish beyond dispute the precise genetic heritage of both of its parents. So far, extensive testing indicates that its mother was a normal human but its father was, in all probability, something other than entirely human.
Lloyd Pye's new book is titled The Starchild Skull -- Genetic Enigma or Human-Alien Hybrid? | <urn:uuid:af36badb-27af-46e2-8453-49a1404bf4a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.disclose.tv/action/music/89/Starchild_Skull__Genetic_Enigma_or_Alien_Hybrid_/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961178 | 183 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The issue: As flu season approaches, we learn that this year’s flu strain is the same as last year’s. Why get a shot?
Our opinion: This is a new year. It’s time to get vaccinated. It’s the smart thing to do. We can already hear the arguments: “But this year’s flu vaccine is the same as last year’s so we don’t have to get the shot this year.”
How wrong you would be.
We suspect the people who delight in fostering the many myths about the flu vaccine are cut from the same piece of cloth as those who warn us not wear our seat belts you know the rest: in case we’re in a fiery crash and need to escape in a hurry.
We’ll let some local experts have their day on this one.
“One shot is good enough for one flu season, but there is some evidence – depending on who it is and how substantial their immune system is – that a vaccine might not be effective beyond one flu season,” said Dr. Kenneth J. DeBenedictis, Reading Hospital director of epidemiology, infection control and prevention, in a Reading Eagle story. “In some individuals, their immunity will wane.”
Flu season in Berks County typically ramps up in December and winds down by March, agreed DeBenedictis and Dr. Robert S. Jones, chief of infectious diseases at both St. Joseph Medical Center and Reading Hospital.
It’s a safe vaccine and it is recommended that anyone older than 6 months get it, DeBenedictis said.
Pregnant mothers who are inoculated are also giving the vaccine to their unborn children, he said.
That’s important because flu can be a serious crisis for a newborn, he said.
Here’s another reason to get the vaccine.
A study published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reinforces what many experts already knew: that vaccinating preschool-age children is in their best interest.
According to The New York Times, the U.S. began recommending influenza vaccinations for preschoolers in 2006 and for all children 6 months and older in 2008. But Canada did not require preschoolers to be vaccinated.
The Times reported: “scientists found that after 2006, the rate of emergency room visits for 2- to 4-year-olds was 34 percent lower in Boston than in Montreal. Moreover, emergency room visits by 5- to 18-year-olds were 18 percent lower in Boston, probably because vaccination of preschoolers reduced the likelihood of transmission of flu to older siblings and because the policy raises vaccination awareness among the parents of older children as well.”
Now that autumn is here, it’s time to think about putting screen doors away, planting chrysanthemums and getting the warm coats out of mothballs.
While you’re at it, think about flu shots for the whole family – except infants under 6 months old, of course.
Just as there’s no reason not to wear your seat belt, there’s no reason not to get your flu shot. | <urn:uuid:091bcb66-53e6-434f-b7f3-b949c67e9d66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vaccinews.net/2011/09/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963202 | 665 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Aerobic Training, another major component of exercise…
Posted Jun 30 2008 12:40pm
Aerobic training or cardio training is one of the three major elements of a good quality fitness routine. It can be the most important for certain groups of people. It’s the one way to reduce cholesterol, and the major way to drive down blood sugar on a regular basis for diabetics. It’s important for those with any type of heart disease (with your doctors blessing of course) to increase cardiovascular fitness and strengthen the heart muscle. It’s important for everyone to do in order to burn calories and to strengthen and maintain a strong heart muscle. It also helps to reduce stress, you can actually feel your frustrations melt away with the sweat coming out of your pores!
To make the best of your aerobic workout you need a heart rate monitor. To calculate your aerobic range, which is 60% to 85% of your maximum heart rate, you deduct your age from 220, then take that number which is your maximum heart rate and multiply it by .60 and .85 arriving at your aerobic range. Using the heart rate monitor, exercise with your heart rate between those two numbers for a minimum of 30 minutes three times per week. As your heart becomes stronger, you should work up to four times per week, or go to 45 minutes three times per week to get the best results.
You can use a road bike or a stationary bike, the streets or the treadmill or any of those machines lining the walls of the gym, just choose your favorites and get going! Just for fun try every one of the machines for 10 minutes each the next time you’re at the gym. | <urn:uuid:a9d24f00-1338-4b46-b26e-e94b02f0475d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wellsphere.com/exercise-article/aerobic-training-another-major-component-of-exercise-8230/915069 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9221 | 347 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Yesterday, the inauguration of the XIX International AIDS Conference took place without Spain declaring its economic contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which the government had committed to resume. For this reason, Salud por Derecho and Médicos sin Frontera decided to send a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mr. Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, expressing our concern. In Salud por Derecho we have also published a whole page open letter, very similar to the official letter, in various national newspapers (El Mundo, La Razon and ABC) to extend our concern to the rest of society.
Due to the decrease in funding, the Global Fund had to cancel its 2011 economic round, removing the G20 from its list of recipients of assistance to combat AIDS, and its target number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment are in danger due to the economic reduction of donor countries.
Spain became the fourth largest donor to the Global Fund in 2009, when its contribution was 200 million Euros. The following year, 50% was cut and last year Spain withdrew all of its contribution. The disappearance of Spain’s funding is alarming because of the weight and importance it once held for the Fund, especially considering there was a previous commitment.
Scientific advances and efforts carried out by States and organizations, such as the Global Fund, have truly changed the course of the disease in recent years, enabling access to antiretroviral treatment to more than six million people worldwide, reducing not only the number of new infections by 20 percent, but also mother-to-child infections, etc. Despite this encouraging data, the economic cuts in the area may seriously jeopardize the progress made, just when we were at a turning point in relation to the disease.
Fortunately, the Minister García-Margallo and the current government see the importance that the Global Fund has in the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; reason for which they announced five months ago that Spain would once again contribute resources to the Global Fund. Salud por Derecho welcomes the initiative of the Government in announcing their recommitment, but we are concerned that, to date, they have yet to confirm the exact amount that will be destined to the Fund. We hope the International AIDS Conference will encourage the Government to formally announce the contribution to the Global Fund this year. | <urn:uuid:0ebf2ade-c0dc-4d27-b7e9-159a4afb176e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saludporderecho.org/en/we-advocate/for-a-world-without-aids/open-letter-to-the-minister-of-foreign-affairs-and-cooperation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958174 | 492 | 1.929688 | 2 |
There are entire generations of filmgoers not fortunate to have seen one of the most beautiful women in the world in her prime, on the big screen. So the restoration and rerelease of "Tristana" would be welcome just for offering us the experience of seeing the larger-than-life Catherine Deneuve the way she was meant to be seen.
But the late Luis Bunuel's fourth-last film is worth watching for more than the beauty of its star. The 1970 film might not be his best work, but it's a haunting piece of art and one that delves deeply into many of his obsessions.
Bunuel began his career in 1929, directing the surrealist short "Un Chien Andalou," which he wrote with his friend Salvador Dali. "Tristana" is not a surrealist film; it instead portrays all too fiercely the realities of corruption, hypocrisy and the power people can wield over one another -- and usually not for good.
|3 out of 4 stars|
|» Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Fernando Rey, Franco Nero|
|» Director: Luis Bunuel|
|» Rated: PG|
|» Running time: 95 minutes|
Deneuve reteamed with Bunuel three years after their triumph with "Belle de Jour." In this adaptation of Benito Perez Galdos' 1892 novel, Deneuve plays a character rather more innocent. Tristana is left an orphan in Toledo, Spain, when her beloved mother dies. A local nobleman, Don Lope (Fernando Rey), has promised to take care of the girl. But it isn't long before the inveterate womanizer makes his daughter his lover. Something of her stolen innocence remains, though, though she endures the old man's perverse attentions for years.
It's only when she meets the artist Horacio (Franco Nero) that she begins to think of escape. He recognizes her rare beauty immediately and wants to paint a portrait of her. As Tristana confesses to the housekeeper, "I said yes to everything. I couldn't take my eyes off him." It's a dangerous relationship -- Don Lope doesn't actually allow her to leave his house. "If you want an honest woman, break her leg and keep her home" is his philosophy.
Tristana soon plans an escape. But can she ever leave the dominating Don Lope? The answer is found in some words Horacio utters when Tristana says she wants to run away with him but not marry him. "You remind me of that scoundrel. You talk like him."
"Tristana," as we might expect from Bunuel, deals with the big issues: religion, capitalism, power, freedom. Don Lope is an odd duck, a well-regarded do-gooder who would rather sell his silver than work but refuses to take a generous offer for that silver. With such intense themes dramatized by such curious people, it's no wonder "Tristana" was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
It's hard to imagine this almost-melodrama as a success without its star, though. Deneuve is achingly beautiful. And what's more interesting is how she uses her beauty to show the shifts in her character. After Don Lope has taken advantage of her, she immediately looks less like a girl and more like a woman. The transformation continues as Tristana herself transforms. The film takes place over many years, and the slight aging of Tristana is completely believable. (The French Deneuve and the Italian Nero, however, have had their voices dubbed. It's not much of a distraction.)
As Tristana begins to understand what Don Lope has done to her, she finally loses her innocence for good. "Be careful," a character tells her. "There's something diabolical about that bitterness." How an innocent can become a devil is just one of the many wondrous things Bunuel in his genius shows us. | <urn:uuid:c8891e54-6700-41d1-bfbc-95185e16f5b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonexaminer.com/deneuve-restored-to-her-prime-in-tristana/article/2514141 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976691 | 842 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Primed Materials - Stairway Painting And Finish
Primed materials are usually referring to pre-painted, treated or coated materials. The black arrows in the picture below are pointing to two separate door jams that have been pre-painted or primed, before they left the manufacturing warehouse.
It's not uncommon to find doors, wood trim, windows, furniture, paneling, stair parts and handrails that have been pre-primed. Just because something was pre-painted, doesn't mean that its in perfect condition, I purchased plenty of doors that eventually warped and didn't close properly.
Primed Material Use Warning
If you purchase something that was pre-painted, you need to keep
something else in mind. The item that was primed, might not have enough
paint on it. Some of these products might need to be primed again,
before applying your finish coat.
Something else that you should keep in mind, if you're building a home, remodeling a bathroom or just working on a another do it yourself project around the house. Try to avoid leaving these products exposed to any moisture.
It's not uncommon for wood trim, siding, stair parts and yes, even doors, to fail around humidity. I've seen primed materials curve into different shapes, more than once.
Stairs / Stair Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | <urn:uuid:2b2f0dd6-2d75-46b5-aad3-b95309865c32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stairs4u.com/glossary/primed_materials.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961709 | 302 | 1.664063 | 2 |
S/Sgt. Robert E. Peterson
Robert E. Peterson was born on March 6, 1921, to John E. Peterson and Maibel
I. Schwarz-Peterson in Chicago, Illinois. With his brother, Roy, and his sister, June, he was
raised at 906 South Ninth Avenue in Maywood, Illinois. His father
was the Chief of Police in Maywood. After high school, he worked
as a underwriter for Aetna Insurance Company.
Bob attended school in Maywood and was a 1938 graduate of Proviso Township High School. At the age of fifteen years old, he got his parents to sign his enlistment papers to join the 33rd Tank Company of the Illinois National Guard on June 12, 1936. He remained in the National Guard until June 11, 1939, when he was discharged.
On October 1, 1939, Bob reenlisted in the National Guard with his two best boyhood friends, Jim Bainbridge and Ray Vadenbroucke. A few weeks later the company was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, for what was suppose to be a year of training.
From November, 1940 to the late summer of 1941, the men of the 192nd Tank Battalion trained in offensive tanks tactics. During this time Ray attended cryptology school. In the late summer of 1941, the battalion was sent to take part in maneuvers at Camp Polk, Louisiana.
It was after the maneuvers in Louisiana that Bob and the other members of the battalion learned they were being sent overseas. Bob was given leave, said his goodbyes and returned to Camp Polk to prepare for duty overseas.
From Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, the 192nd sailed for the Philippine Islands. After stopping in Hawaii, the battalion arrived in Manila on Thanksgiving Day, 1941.
On December 8, 1941, just ten hours after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Bob lived through the attack on Clark Field. The tankers were assigned to guarding the perimeter of the airfield to prevent the Japanese from using paratroopers.
After the Japanese landed troopers at Lingayen Bay, Bob and the other tankers were sent north. From this time on, the tanks were used as a rear guard to hold a position so that the Filipino and American troops could withdraw.
On January 31, 1942, Bob wrote a letter to his parents. His family received the letter on March 31st. In the letter he stated, "Things are a terrible mess." He told his parents he was getting enough food and that they should not worry about him.
The tanks of B Company and C Company engaged the Japanese and wiped out what became known as Tuol Pocket. Next, Bob and the rest of B Company was given the duty of guarding the east coast of the Bataan Peninsula from possible Japanese invasion.
During the day, the tanks would hide under the jungle umbrella. At night, the tanks would pull out onto the beaches. One night, while he was on this duty that Bob and the other tankers were involved in a firefight with Japanese barges that were attempting to land troops.
On February 3, 1942, while on this duty, Bob lived through a strafing and bombing by the Japanese. Everyday, "Recon Joe" would fly over attempting to locate the tanks. After one member of the company attempted to shoot him down, the Japanese sent in fighters to strafe and bomb. Three members of B Company died during the attack. Bob was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.
On April 9, 1942, Bob and the rest of the 192nd became Prisoners Of War when Bataan was surrendered to the Japanese. Bob and those members of the company who did not escape to Corregidor made their way to Mariveles at the southern tip of Bataan. After being searched, Bob started what became known as the Death March.
Bob, Jim Bainbridge and Ray Vadenbroucke made the march together. Jim Bainbridge was ill with dysentery, so Bob and Ray carried him between them. At San Fernando, the three soldiers were packed into a boxcar. At Capas, they disembarked and walked the last miles to Camp O'Donnell.
Since conditions at Camp O'Donnell were extremely bad, Bob, Ray and Jim went out on a work detail to collect scrap metal. The POWs would tie ropes between cars or trucks and then tow them to San Fernando. Each man sat in a vehicle and steered it as it was pulled. He remained on the detail until November 1942.
When the detail ended, Bob was sent to Bilibid Prison outside of Manila because of malnutrition. He remained at Bilibid until April 1943, when he was sent to Cabanatuan. During his time as a POW, in addition to malnutrition, he also suffered from dysentery, beriberi, and pneumonia.
On August 13th, the POWs were taken to the Port Area of Manila. They boarded the Noto Maru and were packed into the holds of the ship. Bob and the other POWs were put into the hold of the ship back to back while standing up. When the hold was full, the Japanese closed the hatches. There was very little water and no sanitary facilities. For the men in the hold, food was not as important as water. Men began going crazy and would attack each other for the smallest reasons.
During the voyage, the prisoners heard a "bang" under the ship. They assumed that it was a torpedo from an American submarine. Another ship in the convoy that was carrying POWs was hit by torpedoes resulting in the deaths of almost 1500 Americans. The trip to Japan took eleven days to complete and resulted in the deaths of fourteen men. The prisoners were only allowed on deck once a day for about fifteen minutes.
The ship sailed on August 27, 1944, and stopped at Formosa before sailing to Moji, Japan. Bob landed in Japan on September 4, 1944. On September 9th, he arrived at Hanawa POW Camp which was also known as Sendai #6. The camp was located on the Island of Honshu.
The POWs in the camp mined copper. The work was extreme dangerous. The POWs often did work that the Japanese considered too dangerous for the Japanese workers to do. The POWs at this camp were so isolated that they had no idea how the war was going.
One morning, the POWs fell out for assembly. Bob and the other men were
told to return to their quarters. Bob and the other men had no
idea that the war was over. For the next several days, this
When the rail line was repaired, Bob and the other men rode the train into Yokohama. From there, they boarded U. S. ships and were returned to the Philippines. In the Philippines, Bob was reunited with his boyhood friend Ray Vanderbroucke. His other boyhood friend, Jim Bainbridge, had died while a POW. On October 8, 1945, Bob left the Philippines for home.
Bob returned home and was sent to Billings General Hospital at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, to recover from his years as a POW. He was next sent to Percy Jones Convalescent Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan. He was discharged from the army on April 22, 1946. Bob married Lillian Gorka. Together, they raised three children; Ray, Cathy and Steve. Bob opened his own insurance business in Maywood and remained in the National Guard and rose to the rank of captain before leaving the National Guard. Bob was also active in the Maywood VFW and American Legion.
Robert E. Peterson passed away on May 6, 1965. He was buried at Concordia Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois. | <urn:uuid:dc6d1818-064f-4929-8b13-1465b307afcd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.proviso.k12.il.us/bataan%20Web/Peterson_R.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988426 | 1,597 | 1.632813 | 2 |
This book deals with Concentration.
The Concentration is of the kind indulged in by the Buddha for the 6 years between his Renunciation and his final Enlightenment under the Bodhi-Tree.
He achieved all the psychic powers that were attainable by concentration, including the 10 miraculous powers, and the super-normal knowledge like the Divine Eye and the Divine Ear, and recollecting the previous existences and the passing away and rebirth of beings, and also the 4 Formless States of the Sphere of Infinite Space, and the Sphere of Infinite Consciousness, and the Sphere of Nothingness and the Sphere of Neither-Perception-nor-Non-Perception. But he was not satisfied that all these psychic powers solved the problem of Birth and Death, for the solution of which he had renounced his kingdom.
He was doing ordinary mundane concentration, and it was only when his mind switched on to meditation on ultimates that he finally achieved Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree.
We must fathom our motive for doing either Concentration or Meditation. Concentration will produce the following psychic powers, and more:
Levitation of your body off the ground
Seeing the auras of others
Walking on water
Flying through the air
Experiencing Joy and Bliss and Rapture, which are beyond the ken of ordinary mortals.
Attaining the ecstatic state of mental tranquillity
Attaining the power of the Celestial Ear, by which you hear Sounds, both human and divine, both far and near
Attaining the power of the Celestial Eye, by which you see material things and places regardless of distance, and by which you penetrate into the minds of others and read the nature of their thoughts
Attaining the power of recalling your previous existences and the existences of others
Attaining the powers of seeing beings pass away and their rebirth.
Meditation is meant for the person who is fed up with the cycle of Samsāra, being reborn again and again for millenniums and aeons, once as a man, next as a deva or all animal, and may be for some time in hell or the upper reaches of the highest heavens. He is fed up with it all and does Vipassanā (Insight) Meditation towards achieving Freedom from Rebirth. At least, if he becomes a Sotāpanna, he can rest on his oars, knowing that he cannot be born again in the realms of woe, including hell, and he has a maximum of only 7 existences before reaching Nirvana, the Highest Goal.
Vipassanā Meditation is on ultimates and the three characteristics of existence, namely,
Dukkha (Sorrow or Misery),
Anattā (No Soul, No Self and No Control)
and will finally lead to Magga Wisdom and to Nirvana.
Buddhism is the only religion that promises its Highest Goal in this existence.
So you have your choice as to what you want to do. This book will show you how. The psychic powers achieved by Concentration are no mean thing, and the achieving of even some of these will take a lifetime, and the fact that you are still an ordinary human being indicates that you are not yet freed.
There are a few expressions that we have to grapple with, namely. Mundane, Supra-mundane, Super-Normal, Super-Conscious, Transcendental and Lokkuttara.
The question is whether the expression, "Transcendental Concentration" is a contradiction in terms. All concentration is mundane, within the 31 planes of existence. Then the word "supra-mundane", which occurs in connection with Meditation, has been reserved for "Lokkuttara", where Nirvana is the object, as in the Noble 8-fold Path.
In which case, where does the word, "Trancendental," come in? It is a question of translation. If the Jhāna factors of Applied Thought (vitakka). Sustained Thought (vicāra), Joy (pīti), Bliss (sukha) and one-pointedness (ekaggatā) are all transcended in turn to arrive at a higher stage of Jhāna, it should not be wrong to call them Transcendental Minds.
Book I deals with Abhidhamma and Book II with Concentration. There is necessarily duplication of material in Book I and Book II, each book being sufficient unto itself, so that there is no need to read Book I if you confine yourself to Concentration. | <urn:uuid:7d3c4622-52d2-4bb0-85dc-25b679d1e4cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.palikanon.com/english/intro-abhidhamma/book_ii.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952486 | 947 | 1.625 | 2 |
Bad moms, good moms, moms who drink — the media is so mother-centric these days that it's easy to forget many kids also have a male parent. But according to the New York Times, we ignore dads at our peril.
The Times's Laurie Tarkan describes a new study showing that low-income families benefited when fathers took parenting classes. She writes that "fathers not only spent more time with their children than the controls did but were also more active in the daily tasks of child-rearing. They became more emotionally involved with their children, and the children were much less aggressive, hyperactive, depressed or socially withdrawn than children of fathers in the control group." However, the effect was greatest when moms attended classes alongside dads, implying (unsurprisingly) that parents who communicate and support each other are best for kids. But dads may have trouble getting the support they need.
Tarkan writes that, "as much as mothers want their partners to be involved with their children, experts say they often unintentionally discourage men from doing so. Because mothering is their realm, some women micromanage fathers and expect them to do things their way." The assertion is a little annoying, reminiscent as it is of a similar narrative about chores: women just don't let men do the laundry, the thinking goes, because it has to be done their way. Similarly stereotypical are the words of Dr. Kyle Pruett, co-author of the book Partnership Parenting. He says, "dads tend to discipline differently, use humor more and use play differently. Fathers want to show kids what's going on outside their mother's arms, to get their kids ready for the outside world." Pruett adds that dads "tend to encourage risk-taking and problem-solving" — but these are pretty sweeping generalizations. I know my dad didn't "encourage risk-taking," unless you call not driving on the freeway until you're eighteen years old a risk. And slotting parents into sitcom-ready roles (Mom the protector, Dad the one who lets you get dirty) only multiplies the obstacles they have to face in working together.
But there are some ways that larger social expectations harm both moms and dads. Tarkan quotes psych professor Philip A. Cowan, who says,
The walls in family resource centers are pink, there are women's magazines in the waiting room, the mother's name is on the files, and the home visitor asks for the mother if the father answers the door. It's like fathers are not there.
By treating moms like the primary parent, research centers and other social services just make it more difficult for dads to get involved — and maybe even perpetuate the notion that only Mom knows the right way to do things. Rather than accusing individual mothers of considering motherhood their "realm," we should be tackling the widespread cultural perception that women naturally know about child-rearing and men are just bumbling babysitters who show up every now and then to teach baseball skills. Cowan says parents need to stop criticizing each other so much — "Instead, they should be saying, ‘How can each of us be the kind of parent that we are?'"— but parenting experts have some large-scale recommendations that may be even more effective. Tarkan writes,
[P]ictures of families on the walls of clinics and public agencies should have fathers in them. All correspondence should be addressed to both mother and father. Staff members should be welcoming to men. Steps like these promote early and lasting involvement by fathers.
These may seem like small changes, but they would start sending the message that parenting is a cooperative process, not Mom's job and Dad's hobby. It's a message that moms, dads, and kids all desperately need. | <urn:uuid:3afe11a4-2203-4f1c-9942-c7ccebe8df7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jezebel.com/5396111/to-benefit-kids-give-dads-their-due?tag=moms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974866 | 771 | 2.15625 | 2 |
A Record Number Turn Out for Our Eighth Annual Mini-Med School
Thursday, September 04, 2008
A record number of attendees filled the house at this year's first Mini-Med School session.
The University of Maryland School of Medicine's eighth annual Mini-Med School started on September 3, 2008, with a record number of participants turning out for the first class. Offered as a public service by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Mini-Med School is a series of tuition-free classes designed to help Baltimore residents improve their health and well being. Mini-Med School lectures are presented by faculty physicians at the medical school, and are open to everyone. The sessions are designed to be casual, fun and informative presentations on health care issues that are important to the community.
More than 300 students – a mix of both Mini-Med alumni and newcomers – enjoyed lively and informative presentations by Dr. Alessio Fasano and Dr. Carnell Cooper, during the first week's session. Dr. Fasano – a professor in the Department of Pediatrics and director of the Center for Celiac Research and the Mucosal Biology Research Center – spoke about irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and celiac disease. Dr. Cooper, associate professor in the Department of Surgery, tackled the difficult issue of violence prevention.
Although celiac disease was once thought to be exclusive to European countries and people of European origin in the United States, new diagnostic tests have proven that it exists in populations around the world, including African-Americans. Dr. Fasano detailed the symptoms of the disease, including weight loss, abdominal pain, chronic fatigue, weakness, malnutrition and other gastrointestinal problems. He urged those who are showing symptoms or who have a genetic predisposition to the disease to be tested. Celiac disease can only be treated with a gluten-free diet, which is very difficult to follow. Dr. Fasano and his colleagues at the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research are dedicated to learning the cause of celiac disease, identifying new medications, and, ultimately, finding a cure.
Unfortunately, there are also no medications to treat the problem of violence in our society, which has been growing at an alarming rate. As a surgeon at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, Dr. Cooper has seen more than his fair share. He's fighting back with the Violence Intervention program, which strives to prevent violence among Baltimore City's most at-risk populations through research into the causes of violence and the development of intervention programs. The Mini Med school audience was eager to hear all about the program long after his presentation was over, so Dr. Cooper stayed to answer parents' questions about how to protect their children from a violent future.
Mini Med School will continue every Wednesday through October 1, 2008 from 6-8pm in the MSTF auditorium at 685 W. Baltimore Street. Topics include Autism, Genetics, Brain Disorders and a Nutrition and Fitness presentation from best-selling author Dr. Pamela Peeke. Classes are free, and all are welcome. Those who attend four of the five classes will receive a Mini-Med School diploma. See the Mini Med website for more information. | <urn:uuid:e48779d5-9635-4bb6-8f17-38cbff656a16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://somvweb.som.umaryland.edu/absolutenm/templates/?a=542&z=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956923 | 645 | 1.90625 | 2 |
As part of the program, Waldron receives around $3,000 every year for the next five years for a total of $15,000. Moving to the small town of Hillsboro, he believes, was the right decision for his family’s future. “It had two perks: to be closer to the family, but also to be able to jump ahead financially, which is something I wanted to take advantage of as well.”
Piccirillo’s program in Niagara Falls offers a similar incentive for freshly-minted professionals. “We’re a city that has lost 50,000 people over the last 50 years. We’re a post-industrial city trying to redefine itself.”
We’ve talked a little before about how some cities are trying to figure out how to keep their young, college-educated citizens from abandoning them to head off to join other young people in cities like San Francisco, New York, or Raleigh, N.C.
Now, some of these cities are providing a new incentive to lure the kids, which is basically: Stay and work in our city for a certain amount of time, and we will pay off some or all of your student loans! It’s an interesting idea, and the cities offering these programs hope that these young people will establish roots and create a flourishing community. Or, knowing how flighty young people are, they’ll stay until their loans are paid off, and then run off to their next big adventure somewhere else. | <urn:uuid:7cb884ac-78b6-4316-a91d-2533584f7135> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thebillfold.com/2012/06/cities-that-will-pay-your-student-loans/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969509 | 317 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Asbestos was commonly used in building materials from the 1940s until the mid-1990s. Because exposure to asbestos can cause disease, a national ban on the manufacture, importation and installation of products containing asbestos was introduced from 1 January 2004.
The inhalation of asbestos fibres may result in serious diseases, such as asbestosis, mesothelioma or lung cancer. Because the level of exposure that may cause health problems is unknown, any exposure to asbestos should be avoided.
Asbestos may be found either firmly or loosely bound in a number of products once used in the Australian building industry, including:
- Roofing and shingles.
- Under eaves.
- Exterior wall cladding.
- Interior walls and wet areas.
- Thermal boards around fireplaces and in switch boards.
- Backing material on floor tiles and vinyl flooring.
- Gaskets and seals in wood stoves.
- Textured paint.
- Garages and workshops.
- The brakes, clutches and gaskets of cars.
- Insulation used on hot water pipes, hot water cylinders, domestic heaters and stoves.
Asbestos may also be found in a range of other products.
It is estimated that at least one in every three buildings constructed between the 1940's and 1990's contain asbestos products.
What does asbestos look like?
It is very difficult to identify asbestos by looking at it. If you are uncertain about what a substance is, you should treat it as though it contains asbestos. The only way to be certain is to have a sample analysed by a laboratory. A licensed asbestos removalist could also help identify materials containing asbestos.
What should I do if I find asbestos?
If you are concerned about any asbestos in your home you should contact a licensed asbestos removalist who can assist you. A list of licensed asbestos removalists can be found on the Workplace Standards Tasmania website at www.wst.tas.gov.au (search for 'licensed asbestos removalists') or by contacting the Workplace Standards Helpline on 1300 366 322.
May I remove asbestos from my home?
It is recommended that you contact a licensed asbestos removalist if you are considering having asbestos removed from your home. Asbestos is dangerous and while it is not illegal for you to remove asbestos from a property that you own, you are strongly advised not to do so unless you have undertaken training and are competent in safe asbestos removal practices.
You must consider your health and safety if you are considering doing asbestos removal. You must also consider the health and safety of other people in the area, including children, and people on neighbouring properties. These people may be exposed to asbestos fibres released during removal works.
How do I dispose of asbestos?
Asbestos is classified as a hazardous material, so there are rules about how it can be transported and where it can be disposed of. If you are planning to remove asbestos yourself, you need to contact your local council first. Your local council can tell you about any planning approvals or permits that are required before you begin.
How does the asbestos need to be prepared for disposal?
Asbestos waste should be prepared for disposal in accordance with the Safe Work Australia "Code of Practice for the Safe Removal of Asbestos" (available at www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/). This includes:
- Asbestos being double bagged or double wrapped in heavy-duty 200µm (minimum thickness) polythene plastic or bags.
- Labelling of the prepared bags with an appropriate warning, clearly stating that they contain asbestos and that dust creation and inhalation should be avoided. For example:
CAUTION - ASBESTOS
DO NOT DAMAGE OR OPEN BAG
DO NOT INHALE DUST
CANCER AND LUNG DISEASE HAZARD
- Use of controlled wetting of the waste to reduce asbestos dust.
Where is my nearest asbestos disposal facility?
Hobart City Council-McRobies Gully Landfill Site- McRobies Road, South Hobart
Glenorchy City Council-Waste Management Centre- Jackson Street, Glenorchy
What are the costs of asbestos disposal at my nearest disposal facility?
McRobies Gully - approx $25 per flat trailer load (6 x 4).
Glenorchy Tip at Jackson Street - $200.00 per tonne or part there of and $100.00 per tonne there after. (Costs are as of October 2011)
How do I contact my local disposal facility?
McRobies Gully (6224 8519)
Glenorchy Tip at Jackson Street (6216 6712)
On which days/times can I take my asbestos to my nearest disposal facility?
McRobies Gully Tuesdays and Thursdays between the hours of 11am -1pm
Glenorchy Tip at Jackson Street Monday - Friday before 3pm
Clarence City Council Environmental Health Services - 6245 8614
Workplace Standards Tasmania has a dedicated asbestos website: www.asbestos.tas.gov.au/
Information is also available at www.wst.tas.gov.au or by phoning the Workplace Standards Helpline on 1300 366 322 (inside Tasmania) or (03) 6233 7657 (outside Tasmania). | <urn:uuid:92730b1e-f47a-4cf7-9422-de754968bfa6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ccc.tas.gov.au/page.aspx?u=1616 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903623 | 1,114 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Affinity Health Science Libraries
Affinity Health System employs a staff of professional librarians to provide the most trusted, up-to-date health resources. Their job is to connect you with some of the best health and medical resources available on the Internet and in print.
Our professional health librarians are available to assist you in finding healthcare information. Affinity Library Services offers health information for patients, families and the community.
All services are:
- available to the community
- free of charge.
Examples of questions that our patrons ask us:
- Do you have any cookbooks with recipes for diabetics?
- What are the latest treatments for asthma?
- My mother had a bone density test. What are the normal values and what do they measure?
- Can I find out the educational background of a specialist my doctor has recommended?
- My father’s doctor has prescribed a new heart medication for him. What are the possible side effects and drug interactions?
- Consumer health and patient education
- Magazines and Medical Journals
- Audio CDs
- Full-text health and medical databases
- Quality internet sites
- Archives – History of the Hospitals and Mercy School of Nursing
- Quiet areas for reading
- Private video-viewing rooms
- Online Searches and Reference Services
- Assistance of professional librarians
- Free photocopying of health-related information
Mercy Medical Center
St. Elizabeth Hospital
The information provided by Affinity Library Services is for general use and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Any medical or other decisions should be made in consultation with your health care provider. | <urn:uuid:f24328df-6fd5-4b4d-ac1b-f69906b939bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.affinityhealth.org/page/health-library | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901665 | 342 | 1.84375 | 2 |
"Unauthorized Migrants: Numbers and Characteristics," a report by the Pew Hispanic Center counters the stereotype of undocumented migrants as single males with very little education who perform manual labor in agriculture or construction. The study shows that most of the unauthorized population lives in families, a quarter has at least some college education and that illegal workers can be found in many sectors of the U.S. economy.
Building on previous work that estimated the size and geographic dispersal of the undocumented population, the new report offers a portrait of that population in unprecedented detail by examining family composition, educational attainment, income and employment.
The study was prepared by Jeffrey S. Passel, a veteran demographer and senior research associate at the Center, using a well-established methodology to analyze data from the March 2004 Current Population Survey, which was conducted by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The report estimates the number of persons living in families in which the head of the household or the spouse is an unauthorized migrant--13.9 million as of March 2004, including 4.7 million children. Of those individuals, some 3.2 million are US citizens by birth but are living in "mixed status" families in which some members are unauthorized, usually a parent, while others, usually children, are Americans by birthright. | <urn:uuid:7f6a9fae-dd6d-4506-9585-59dfe9f9bbd1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=23294&category=214 | 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 | 0.970415 | 267 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Evacuation meant that many schools in evacuated areas had to shut. Once children started to move back to their homes provision had to be made to re-start the education process in that area. Even in areas deemed safer from bombing, head teachers were given precise instructions as to their responsibilities while bombing raids were a potential threat. Schools in the east of Sussex were in a curious position. The county was considered safe enough not to warrant the evacuation of children who lived within that county. It was also thought to be safe enough to receive evacuated children from London and its surrounding areas. Yet Luftwaffe fighter and bomber aircraft passed over the county daily during the Battle of Britain and the subsequent Blitz. East Grinstead in particular suffered large fatalities – including children – when the town was bombed.
In what was titled ‘Bulletin 32’, the Director of Education, J H Baines, sent a letter to all head teachers of schools in the east of Sussex. The letter also went to those head teachers who had accompanied their children from schools in Dartford, London County Council and Croydon to reception schools in Sussex.
“Re-opening of schools after Whitsun: Following upon the wireless announcements all local and visiting schools in the East Sussex Reception Area will re-open on May 14th, 1940. It is inevitable that some teachers who have left the area may be delayed in returning, but the staff available should ensure that work is commenced on the Tuesday morning.
Air raid precautions: General precautions – Head teachers will no doubt have heard that the government advice to the public with regard to the carrying of gas masks. They should now see that all children carry their gas masks to and from school each day. An inspection of the masks should be undertaken without delay, necessary adjustments attended to and defects and losses reported to the local ARP organiser.
Schools with shelter protection are reminded of the desirability of practice in speedy occupation of trenches and shelters. All stirrup pumps should be tested to see that they are in working order.
It is assumed that each school has made its own arrangements, as indicated in Bulletin No 10, for the carrying out of ARP and has appointed staff to deal with these matters and with the supervision of the children while using the shelters in cases where this protection is available. This applies to the arrangements made for the dispersal or otherwise for children attending supplementary accommodation.
Danger of articles dropped from aircraft: The attention of all children should be drawn to the danger of touching an article, which may have been dropped from enemy aircraft. Any article of this nature observed should be reported to the local police.” | <urn:uuid:6d7d826a-fba3-4571-808e-ad73e09b3c3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/evacuation_education.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980381 | 540 | 3.015625 | 3 |
I have some great news for UCF students: Congress finally reached a deal to stop the interest rates from doubling on federally subsidized student loans for another year. After weeks of argument over how the cost would be covered, the two parties agreed to pay for the deal by raising premiums for federal pension insurance.
This is a great moment for students because it gives hard-working collegiates a fair shot at affording their education. In total, 7 million students will be affected. The average student won’t have to put up an extra $1,000 on their student loans, and students with the most need won’t have to worry about paying an extra $5,000 on their loans. This deal represents an investment in students, putting faith in our future and our potential for greatness.
Not only does this deal ensure that our interest rates stay the same, but it also emphasizes the importance of the student vote and student voice in politics.
Congress needs to make sure that the policies that are approved are made with students in mind. Some might think that students and young people are a separate part of the constituency, or that we don’t realize that government policies will affect our futures and us, but it is our job as young Americans to prove them wrong. We need to act on our own behalf — whether that’s by voting, organizing or getting our voices out through other outlets. For those of you who would label yourself as “uninformed,” take the initiative to learn how these big policies affect you and your loved ones on a personal level. For those of you who are already very familiar with the issues, you need to be out there encouraging other students to join the cause that will expand those policies and beliefs.
There are people in Congress making decisions who may not live to see the consequences of their actions. The others are people who are fighting for the rights of young Americans because they know that we want our country to move forward in a way that’s inclusive of our needs, not in a way that projects that a student voice doesn’t need to exist.
On Nov. 6, the student vote will decide which path this country will take — and the two choices could not be any more different. The contrast between the two candidates is stark, and the lines of separation could not be any clearer. The student vote is critical in this election, and one thing that both parties can agree on is that this election is the most important one of our lives. So, as a student, do you want to put the country’s car in drive or in reverse? That’s what your vote will decide.
Take the first step today and register to vote. Or if you’re already registered to vote, update your address to where you live for nine months of the year — at UCF. Vote for the representatives who will not only amplify your voice as a student but also make your voice their priority.
Anyone interested in writing a column for the Opinions section at the Central Florida Future can contact the Opinions Editor, Kaley LaQuea, at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:f2e9d779-59a3-45cd-a783-c239fb06871d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/mobile/opinion/loan-deal-shows-value-of-college-student-vote-1.2746232 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967924 | 646 | 2.078125 | 2 |
In a transesophageal echocardiogram, a transducer is inserted through the mouth and down the throat into the esophagus. High-pitched sound waves (ultrasound) are sent through the transducer to produce an image of the heart and sometimes the aorta.
Normally the transducer is moved over the surface of the skin on the chest.
A transesophageal echocardiogram is often used for obese people because evaluating the heart through a thick chest wall is hard. This method allows a clear view of the valves and their ability to function. It provides a better view of heart valves than a standard transthoracic echocardiogram, but the procedure is more complicated.
eMedicineHealth Medical Reference from Healthwise
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Find out what women really need.
Most Popular Topics
Pill Identifier on RxList
- quick, easy,
Find a Local Pharmacy
- including 24 hour, pharmacies | <urn:uuid:27675932-4f94-4eea-85cb-9a7afce104f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.emedicinehealth.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=134354&ref=136917 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902201 | 250 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Allogeneic Stem-Cell Transplant Survivors Face Long-Term Challenges
People who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HCT) and survive for at least 2 years remain at increased risk of premature death even 15 years after treatment, reports a new study published online August 1 in Blood. This group of survivors also faces long-term challenges affecting their overall health and well-being, including difficulty maintaining employment, as well as finding and retaining health and life insurance.
Advances in stem-cell transplantation "have made it a curative therapeutic option," explains Dr. Smita Bhatia, professor of population sciences at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center and lead author of the study. "We need to focus on the survivors. Half [of the cohort we studied] has survived longer than nine and a half years, and one thing that we have shown quite definitively is that these survivors continue to face challenges." Read more
Guest Update by Dr. Robert Croyle
The Imperative of Improving Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates
A study published last October in Cancer modeled how different scenarios - each of which took into account changes in screening, risk factors, and optimal use of chemotherapy - would influence mortality rates from colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death. In every scenario, mortality was decreased by varying degrees over the next two decades, but in each case the most influential factor was improved screening rates.
It's a troubling fact, however, that colorectal cancer screening rates continue to lag well behind those for other cancers. This is discouraging given that, when caught early, colorectal cancer is highly curable.
The reasons behind this shortfall are complex, but there is widespread agreement that if significant improvements in colorectal cancer screening are to be realized, the primary care setting will be the most crucial contributor. Read more | <urn:uuid:e11b72d2-61f8-48b1-8a56-288301282bf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin/archive/2007/082107 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956278 | 390 | 2.1875 | 2 |
For the fifth year, a coalition of signatories to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) are pressuring companies to fulfill their stated commitments to corporate sustainability reporting.
The investors, from 12 countries and with more than $3 trillion in assets under management, have identified 29 companies that are members of the UN Global Compact (UNGC) but "have failed to produce the mandatory annual report that communicates their progress on corporate sustainability." The investors have written to the 29 companies, challenging them to produce the annual corporate responsibility report known as a Communication on Progress (COP) that is required of the more than 7,000 corporate members of UNGC.
A press release declines to identify the 29 laggards contacted by the coalition. In 2010, Gavin Power of UNGC told SocialFunds.com, "The investors feel strongly that they get better results through private negotiations. Given their success rates, we’re comfortable with that policy."
The coalition has met with a measure of success over the years of its engagement. From 2008 through 2011, an average of 40.1% of laggard companies submitted sustainability reports after being contacted by the investors. Last year's engagement identified 33 laggards, 13 of which subsequently submitted COPs. Ten laggards were expelled from UNGC.
Since 2005, UNGC has expelled more than 3,000 companies for failing to produce a COP, which reports on corporations' efforts to implement UNGC's ten sustainability principles. Last year, in order "to motivate companies at all levels to strive for greater integration of the principles," the Global Compact introduced a Differentiation Framework, which aims to mainstream sustainability reporting and improve transparency and disclosure.
Notwithstanding the admirable goals of UNGC, the markedly high expulsion rate has raised eyebrows among some corporate responsibility observers. Mallen Baker, the founder of Business Respect, wrote in a blog post titled Global Compact keeps fishing the bodies out the river, "CSR membership organizations -- some of them with real commitments and obligations -- do not see such high drop-out rates."
"Some NGOs have criticized the organization for not having enough teeth to enforce standards on its members," Baker wrote. "What is simply not good enough is the Global Compact trumpeting its high expulsion rate as a badge of honor."
The investors wrote to 89 additional companies, acknowledging their advanced levels of reporting. Of the 89 leaders, only two -- Symantec and Dow Chemical -- are headquartered in the U.S., and Dow is currently embroiled in a widely reported controversy over its sponsorship of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Dow is the owner of Union Carbide, whose factory in Bhopal, India, leaked poisonous gas in 1984, killing 15,000 people. Dow bought Union Carbide in 2001, and disavows any legal responsibility for liabilities relating to the Bhopal disaster.
U.S.-based members of the investor coalition include Boston Common Asset Management and Trillium Asset Management. | <urn:uuid:3ca4601c-292b-4d38-bf0d-6578faf46b1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/03/20/29-corporations-fail-file-promised-sustainability-reports | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95733 | 599 | 2.125 | 2 |
Agricultural Leaders To Serve As Key Advisors for California State University
Contact: Claudia Keith, firstname.lastname@example.org, or Paul Browning, email@example.com, (562) 951-4800
(Oct. 26, 2006) - Industry leaders from the field of agriculture met this week with officials from the California State University to help identify how to better prepare students for a career in agriculture and to expand partnerships between the university and the agriculture industry. The CSU Agriculture Advisory Committee, as the group is formally named, is a follow up to an initial forum the CSU held at its Fresno campus in 2005 with key agriculture leaders to highlight the impact the CSU has on the agricultural workforce and to discuss the university’s essential role in agricultural research and education.
The CSU produces more than 52 percent of the state’s graduates in agriculture-related majors (nearly 1,200 students) and in certain specialized majors like food and nutrition studies, agricultural engineering, and horticulture, the CSU produces more than 90 percent of the state’s graduates. In addition, the CSU is also a leader in applied research and has established the California Agricultural Research Initiative (CSU/ARI), an applied agricultural and environmental research program that leverages public funding with university and industry capital through collaborative university/industry partnerships. The CSU has five campuses that carry agricultural-related programs including Chico, Fresno, Humboldt, Monterey Bay, Pomona and San Luis Obispo.
“We look forward to working with the advisory committee members on issues that can benefit CSU students in the agriculture disciplines by better preparing them for the challenges of the workforce,” said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. “The committee members represent the top leaders in agriculture and we value their input on what our students need to know in order to be successful.”
Members of the CSU Agricultural Advisory Committee include:
Former Cal Poly San Luis Obispo dean of agriculture Joseph Jen, who most recently served as Under Secretary of Research, Education and Economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is serving as senior advisor to the committee. George Soares, managing partner of Kahn, Soares & Conway, LLP is serving as chair of the committee.
In 2005, the CSU Ag Advisory Committee was instrumental in helping to secure additional federal funding in support of the CSU’s Agricultural and Environmental Research programs. The federal fund supplements the state government appropriated CSU/ARI fund to deliver applied agricultural and environmental research.
In addition, the Committee will be offering input on curricular requirements to meet industry’s needs for well prepared graduates, as well as identifying further opportunities for the CSU to partner and engage with leaders in the agriculture fields.
For more information on the CSU’s impact in agriculture and other industries, go to www.calstate.edu/impact.
Last Updated: October 26, 2006 | <urn:uuid:ca1b6f71-1b4c-47c5-ad70-9b45b56e2082> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.calstate.edu/PA/news/2006/Ag2.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935313 | 616 | 1.5 | 2 |
MINNEAPOLIS - It was a long day that finally paid off for five members of the Mahtomedi Science Bowl team.
The team took home the championship trophy this past weekend at the Regional Science Bowl at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
Tackling topics ranging from trigonometry to nuclear energy to bacteria, the team answers mutliple choice and short answer questions in a fast paced game that resembles Jeopardy.
But unlike the television game show, if the team got a question right, they got a shot at a bonus question.
"The key to really winning is unlocking those bonuses because they enable you to score much more points," said team captain Ben Nelson.
The team says they averaged about 70 points per round, and their opponents scored anywhere from eight to 68 points per round. As winners, the team will travel to Washington, D.C. in April to complete in the national competition.
Of course, the team is hoping a certain celebrity host shows up to read a question or two.
(Copyright 2013 by KARE. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) | <urn:uuid:2db3f50a-b044-49d6-a780-348d2511ca5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kare11.com/simplyscience/article/1013570/231/Simply-Science-Mahtomedi-Science-Bowl-team-is-tops | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954297 | 240 | 1.523438 | 2 |
This article contains important information about procedures for handling work related injuries or illnesses.
Reporting an Accident
Accident reports should continue to be completed by the injured employee's supervisor and should be forwarded to the Health Center within twenty-four (24) hours of the accident's occurrence. The Health Center FAX number is 765-285-1103.
Regardless of the nature or severity, all injuries incurred when on the job must be reported to supervision at once, during the same shift on which the injury occurred. The Health Center provides and/or directs the medical care for employees injured on the job. The Health Center hours are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Thursday, and Friday and 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday. The doors lock and last patients are accepted at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. respectively.
Accident Report Form
The accident report form to document all on-the-job injuries can be printed from HR Forms on the Ball State Web site.
Form: Worker's Compensation First Report (of Employee Injury/Illness)
Employees injured outside Health Center operating hours who are in need of immediate medical treatment but whose injuries are not so severe as to warrant Emergency Room treatment, should be referred to the US HealthWorks medical clinic on 3911 W. Clara Lane which is open 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. seven days a week, except major holidays. After Health Center and US HealthWorks hours or due to the severity of the injury, such injured employees should be referred to the BMH Emergency Room which is open twenty-four (24) hours a day every day.
The right to direct the medical treatment of employees injured on the job is retained by the University. Therefore, the decision of when and where to send an employee for medical treatment will be made by the person in charge of the affected employee's shift based on the nature and extent of the injury. If an employee is referred to US HealthWorks or the Emergency room, the person in charge of that shift who made the referral should leave a voice mail message for Employee Relations at 765-285-1823, so that the University may begin to manage the worker's compensation claim and verify worker's compensation coverage when contacted by the medical provider on the next business day.
If an employee is referred outside of the University for emergency treatment, the employee must follow-up at the Health Center the next day the Health Center is open. Although US HealthWorks or the Emergency Room clinics may advise the employee to return there or to his/her personal physician for follow-up treatment, such non-emergency visits are not covered by worker's compensation.
In addition, specific internal departmental regulations for handling and reporting on the job injuries should continue to be followed.
Questions regarding worker's compensation or on the job injuries should be directed to Diane Drake.
Copyright © 2013 Ball State University 2000 W. University Ave. Muncie, IN 47306
800-382-8540 and 765-289-1241 | <urn:uuid:3129214f-6148-4632-b852-3e1a6cc26e9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cms.bsu.edu/about/administrativeoffices/humanresources/employeeinfo/workcomp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946124 | 648 | 1.570313 | 2 |
It's a well-worn argument between designers and engineers: Can you drive an emotional decision based on data? We think so! In fact, we've come up with a way to combine both personal preference and analytics for results that help everyone on the team make the best decisions.
Verify is a great way to quickly collect and analyze user feedback. We created this web-based tool to help users act on hard data, not intuition or gut-reactions.
Designers shouldn't shy away from working with data, in fact they should embrace it. Data works as an agent for esoteric ideas that may have no grounding, and it helps validate the strategy of a design concept. Before you launch a real product, be sure to collect data and learn how to use it to influence the design process in a way that supports or improves specific decisions, rather than the entire concept.
A great example of data-driven decisions came up recently with a client of ours. We weren't sure how to proceed with the timestamps on comments - do we use a literal time stamp with date and time, or a relative stamp with something like '3 days ago.' We ran a test with Verify for a day and got back some results which helped us inform the client and make a better, specific decision. Check out the results:
Another example is this blog post - we had discussed what type of smiley face to use in the header, settling on a sketched version instead of a more graphically rich version. Were we right? Help us out by taking a new Verify test - we'll update this post with the results in a couple days.
Remember: testing and data collection tools won't do your work for you. They're not going to help your customers give you good ideas, so don't rely on them as a crutch. Data is great to have, and terrific for helping move a project forward, but be careful to ask the right questions and create good hypotheses. Otherwise, you could end up with wrong assumptions, or end up with a very different project than you originally had in mind. | <urn:uuid:681594da-4c27-402c-a56c-57dcaebb7674> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zurb.com/apps/415-make-smart-data-based-decisions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953725 | 425 | 1.726563 | 2 |
If you want to stay sharp and in control of your life well into your golden years, there are proactive methods to achieving the mental alertness you need. More and more research is pointing to the fact that physical activity and lifestyle choices have more to do with preventing Alzheimer s disease (AD) and other forms of dementia – once thought to be a normal part of aging – than pure genetics. So if you had a parent, grandparent or sibling with AD it doesn’t mean you have to follow the same path.
Statistics gathered from extensive research do point toward a higher risk of developing AD if you had a close relative with AD – as much as 50%, but that has less to do with genes and more to do with following their lifestyle patterns. If for example, your parents were smokers who rarely exercised, you may have developed some of the same destructive habits.
What can you do to break the cycle and prevent AD? Take action and take control today. Even if you are in your 60s or 70s you can reverse some of the damage done to your brain through poor diet, inactivity, or damaging lifestyle choices. Scientists have discovered very recently that the brain has the ability to repair cells and neurotransmitters and improve cognitive function and memory.
It’s Not Too Late to Make A Difference: Start the 5 Steps Today
1. Eat Right. It seems so simple, yet too many people just don’t get enough of the mind preserving antioxidants found in fresh fruits and vegetables. A well-balanced diet, free of diary products and using low fat sources of protein will protect both heart and mind.
2. Supplement where necessary. Many diets lack the nutrients proven to promote brain health. These include sources of essential fatty acids found in fish and specific herbs and minerals that can enhance cognitive function.
3. Exercise. Originally it was thought that exercise increases blood flow and oxygen to the brain cells. This is still true, but a report prepared for the National Institutes of Health states that exercise can also stimulate the production growth factors, which are molecules produced by the body to repair and maintain nerves.
4. Lower Your Cholesterol. Many people with early dementia or AD symptoms may have actually experienced small strokes that damaged the brain’s neurotransmitters. By keeping cholesterol levels in check, the arteries are free and clear of plaque that can cause stroke.
5. Do your Mental Exercises. Keeping up with current events, working puzzles each day, learning and memorizing new information all work to keeping a mind strong and alert. It is normal for people to sometimes forget a name or date, but the more practice recalling such information the greater the brain’s ability to do this throughout old age. In the case of mental challenges, the more you do the more you can push back the clock on cognitive decline.
Five easy steps, when you think about it, can do much to make aging an event to celebrate instead of dread. With age there comes experience and wisdom, and we should all do whatever is within our power to be able to pass that on to the next generation. | <urn:uuid:6973b350-cd8d-4050-ae14-e21d4d89271b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://finallyat40.com.au/womens-health/win-an-annual-french-provincial-subscription/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952044 | 632 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Structural Genomics Analysis:
Characteristics of Atypical, Common and Horizontally Transferred Folds
We conducted a structural genomics analysis of the folds and structural superfamilies in the first 20 completely sequenced genomes by focusing on the patterns of fold usage and trying to identify structural characteristics of typical and atypical folds. We assigned folds to sequences using PSI-blast, run with a systematic protocol to reduce the amount of computational overhead. On average, folds could be assigned to about a fourth of the ORFs in the genomes and about a fifth of the amino acids in the proteomes. More than 80% of all the folds in the SCOP structural classification were identified in one of the 20 organisms, with worm and E. coli having the largest number of distinct folds. Folds are particularly effective at comprehensively measuring levels of gene duplication, because they group together even very remote homologues. Using folds, we find the average level of duplication varies depending on the complexity of the organism, ranging from 2.4 in M. genitalium to 32 for the worm, values significantly higher than those observed based purely on sequence similarity. We rank the common folds in the 20 organisms, finding that the top three are the P-loop NTP hydrolase, the ferrodoxin fold, and the TIM-barrel, and discuss in detail the many factors that affect and bias these rankings. We also identify atypical folds that are “unique” to one of the organisms in our study and compare the characteristics of these folds with the most common ones. We find that common folds tend be more multifunctional and associated with more regular, “symmetrical” structures than the unique ones. In addition, many of the unique folds are associated with proteins involved in cell defense (e.g., toxins). We analyze specific patterns of fold occurrence in the genomes by associating some of them with instances of horizontal transfer and others with gene loss. In particular, we find three possible examples of transfer between archaea and bacteria and six between eukarya and bacteria. | <urn:uuid:9b8addb1-ccd2-4db1-ad62-39657801cee4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://genecensus.org/20/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950169 | 425 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The beautiful colour of a gemstone is its most defining characteristic, and many jewellers
consider it to be the most important evaluation criterion. When deciding upon gemstone colour,
examine hue, tone, and saturation.
The most valuable gemstones are those that exhibit a pure colour and only "slight" hues of
other colours in addition to their primary colour, as all Blue Nile gemstones do. For example,
Blue Nile sapphires range in hue from "slightly purplish-blue" to "slightly
greenish-blue," pink sapphires always range from "pink" to "slightly
purplish-pink," and rubies range from "slightly orangish-red" to
"slightly purplish-red". Variation
in a gemstone's hue will be called out in the gemstone details on the product detail page.
Tone represents the depth of colour, ranging from colourless to black. Gemstone tone is described as
"light," "medium-light," "medium," "medium-dark,"
and "dark." Blue Nile offers gemstones with the most sought-after tones that
fall within the medium-light to medium-dark range. For all of our gemstone jewellery,
you'll find any tone variations are called out in the gemstone details.
Saturation, or colour purity, refers to the degree to which the gem is free from brown or grey hues.
The most desirable gemstones, which show little grey or brown, are often described as having
"vivid" or "strong" colour saturation. Generally, the levels of colour saturation
will not be called out in the product details because the gemstones in our jewellery are
hand-selected for their vivid colours. | <urn:uuid:f2962b9a-7d75-4045-bf74-971f4270242f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bluenile.com/bg/gemstone-jewellery/gemstone-colour?mod=colour | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931826 | 378 | 2.125 | 2 |
Before I go any further, it is pertinent to say that not all greenways allow pets. The Chattanooga Riverpark is a nearby example. They have designated dog parks, and dogs, even on a leash, are not permitted on the Riverpark.
Some have asked that our Greenway banish pets. These complaints have come from those who have experienced an unpleasant step into something “unpleasant,” or those who have had a confrontation, either with the animal or its owner. Unfortunately, these incidents are going to happen when man and beast are mixed in a public setting.
The confrontations are not limited to man vs. dog. About three years ago, I witnessed an overzealous dachshund pay the price as he picked on a very patient Labrador. After about 15 seconds of “end-of-his-leash” snarling, the Labrador had had enough and grabbed the aggressor by his head and gave him a few shakes. Luckily, no animal was harmed, but the two pet owners were pretty shaken up by the drama.
When the Greenway board gets complaints about pets, it is usually neglect on the part of the pet owners. However, a vast majority of those who take their pets with them on the Greenway observe these common courtesies:
1. Keep your pet on a leash at all times: This is not just courteous, it is a rule. No pets are allowed to run without leashes while on the Greenway.
2. Clean up after your pet: This is also a rule. Dogs should be taken several yards off the Greenway to do their business. If an accident happens, it is the responsibility of the owner to clean it up. Several “Doggie-Pot” stands are located along the Greenway and contain bags for cleaning up after your pet.
3. Don’t allow your pet’s leash to block the Greenway: There has been more than one complaint involving owners who allow leashes to stretch across the width of the Greenway. This is extremely dangerous for approaching runners and bikers who may not see the leash in time.
One of the goals for the Greenway is to provide at least one dog park. Dog parks are becoming very popular and allow for dogs to run free in a designated, enclosed area. Watch for development on this in the coming months.
Also, one of the new additions to the Greenway is a water fountain that doubles as a fountain for dogs. The new fountain is located between 20th and 25th streets and has a separate ground-level spout for dogs on those hot summer days. Thanks to People for Care and Learning and the Cleveland Rotary Foundation for funding this newest addition.
Thanks to all the responsible pet owners who adhere to the rules and regulations. You help make the Greenway experience that much more pleasant! | <urn:uuid:26b978b2-0b56-41b1-80fc-b213ec49a7dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clevelandbanner.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Inclusion+of+dogs+is+important+part+of+the+experience+of+the+Greenway%20&id=21323851&instance=main_article | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977128 | 590 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Agere Systems' giant semiconductor plant on South John Young Parkway ceased operations Friday, its remaining workers driving away one by one from what was once Central Florida's greatest hope for a high-tech future.
After failing in a three-year search for a buyer, Agere decided to sell the plant's microchip-making machinery and mothball the building.
The shopping-mall-sized factory stopped production a week ago, giving its remaining 400 production workers a few extra days to prepare for the shutdown.
Agere, which designs and sells semiconductors for the telecommunications industry, decided to outsource microchip manufacturing several years ago. Initially, it hoped another chip maker would buy the plant and stamp out Agere chips under contract.
"We continued to look for ways to sell the Orlando facility as an ongoing operation, but unfortunately we didn't find a buyer," Agere spokesman Glen Haley said. "There are only a very few companies that have the ability to make capital investments needed to run this kind of plant."
Two decades ago, when the plant opened as a unit of AT&T, microchip developers typically manufactured their own products. Chip making was one of the most promising areas in the technology field, and Central Florida saw an opportunity to become a global center for the business. State and local governments offered large tax incentives to plant owners over the years, most of which were never used.
Hopes for a regional microchip industry collapsed during the technology bust that began in 2001. Today, chip making has become a specialty, with semiconductor design companies contracting with chip makers to produce their products.
"The semiconductor industry is extremely capital intensive and extremely cyclical," said Richard Fox, president of the Orlando investment firm MetaTech Ventures. "Agere decided that it wanted out, but it decided that at a time when there were 30 plants like this one on the market. For Agere, the plant was like a used car in a lot filled with very similar-looking used cars."
After failing to find a buyer, Agere, which is based in Allentown, Pa., switched to a different strategy. It has sold a portion of the 200 acres surrounding the plant to a real-estate developer and this month announced that several buyers would pay $89 million for the plant's hardware.
Fox said he doubts the 1.1 million-square-foot plant will ever produce semiconductors again.
"Maybe a warehouse or some retail use," Fox said. "It's hard to say what it could be used for."
Agere held a job fair this month for its soon-to-be-discharged employees. As recently as 2000, the plant had 1,800 workers. About 135 will remain for a short time to assist in the shutdown.
Haley said departing employees would receive a severance package negotiated several years ago through a contract. Agere said that it didn't want its employees interviewed as they left the plant on Friday.
Charles Whitehead, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2000, said the union is hoping workers will receive "entitlements" under a contract provision that deals with the outsourcing of jobs.
"We finished all the production work in the building last week," said Whitehead, whose union represents hourly workers at the plant. "This week, those who remained ate small lunches with each other and exchanged addresses and phone numbers."
Whitehead, who worked for Agere and its predecessors Lucent, AT&T and Western Electric for 38 years, said he will retire. Others, he said, would move to jobs in the industry elsewhere around the country. But he expects most will look for other work in different fields.
"Most people are still undergoing a denial type of thing," Whitehead said. "It's hard to think that there is nothing left to do here." | <urn:uuid:7eb6eed4-5796-47e4-b68e-48c9c25bd96e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2005-10-01/news/AGERE01_1_plant-semiconductor-microchip | 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 | 0.977741 | 788 | 1.75 | 2 |
I was wondering if there was a way to use a map that I have stored on an ESRI server in a telerik radMap. I am not very familiar with the radMap control so any help would be appreciated. I have found the documentation on using a radMap with Shapefiles, but as with a lot of documentation, it was not very helpful. Thank you.
I am assuming that by ESRI server you mean ArcGIS Server. From the documentation only Bing and OpenStreetMap are supported: http://www.telerik.com/help/wpf/radmap-overview.html
However, it appears that a custom provider can be created to use ArcGIS Server map service.
So if you are using a cached service then you would want to create a TileProvider and if you are using a dynamic map service then you should want to create an ImageProvider.
The only other option it seems is to export your data as a shapefile or KML file and load that in the control.
It appears that a UriImageProvider is provided that may work, but I do not know how the request is sent to the server for the bounding box, but you could point it the map service and include the export to png and it may work. | <urn:uuid:db70ff05-b4ee-4a98-99ba-7cb005b45573> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/46732/using-a-map-from-esri-server-in-a-radmap | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955629 | 265 | 1.710938 | 2 |
About the Fellowship
The MirandaNet Fellowship
The MirandaNet Fellowship, a non-profit making professional organisation established in 1992 by Christina Preston, works closely with over 800 members through an e-community of practice consisting of international ICT policy makers, teachers, advisers, teacher educators, researchers and commercial developers in over 70 countries. Becta called the MirandaNet Fellowship the Facebook of the international ICT community. UNESCO has called us the Robin Hood of professional development in digital technologies. This is because we find funders who will fund programmes in order to stimulate case study material - or we invite teachers to work on our research projects as co-researchers. The Fellowship leads as one of the most highly-regarded influencers in the use of digital technologies to enhance learning and for teacher education both in the UK and internationally, and provides a forum where professionals from different specialisms can share experience, expertise and philosophical approaches about how these digital technologies are best used in teaching and learning (see the E-Journal for more information). Members join for free as scholars. They are awarded a Fellowship when they publish an article about their specialisms (see the Fellowship for more information).
MirandaNet Fellows also publish in international journals with particular expertise in building knowledge online, innovative Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes for the educational workforce and the effective use of digital technologies in the curriculum and for learning. A developing venture is the creation of MirandaMods. Using a range of sound, visual and mapping technologies, members collaborate on building a knowledge map of their expertise in a particular field to share on the web. Some of the topics are ICT CPD, Visual Learning, Mobile Learning and Educational Games. The Fellowship is non-profit making and supported by companies who develop projects with the members including small companies and multinationals like Apple, Toshiba, Hewlett Packard, Steljes and Oracle (see the Company Associates for more information).
Email can be sent to these people:
- Christina Preston, Founder
- Office Manager
- Web Editor | <urn:uuid:40874cd3-f394-4734-a838-6969d2e4d24e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/fellowship/about.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933796 | 414 | 1.648438 | 2 |
has launched an unprecedented operation to increase security on the Syrian border
in the wake of ongoing turmoil in the country.
Fearing the Syrian regime will lose its grip on the country allowing Global Jihad
cells to base themselves in the Golan Heights,
the army has initiated a "facelift" meant to ensure that the barrier on the border, set up nearly 40 years ago, will remain impenetrable.
Two weeks ago, forces in the Golan Heights started working on a project to massively upgrade the barrier which stretches over tens of kilometers. The efforts will include setting up a new fence, deploying an advanced alert system to replace the old one and significantly improve the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps' observations layout.
IDF jeep patrolling the border (Photo: Yaron Brener)
Budget considerations meant that only very limited means were put in place to upgrade security at the border. Just two 8-kiolmeter stretches of the fence were replaced following the riots during the Nkaba and Naksa days.
Old fence (Photo: Yaron Brener)
Army sources estimated that the project will cost Israel
some NIS 6 million per kilometer. The new fence will be shorter than the one on the southern border but the new alert system is slated to improve the IDF's operational capabilities. New roads were also paved in several spots, improving the patrol squads' response time.
Combat Engineering forces are operating in the area accompanied by armored tractors and bulldozers. Armored and Artillery Corps units are providing the security. The IDF's activity is coordinated with the UN's border forces who are closely monitoring the operation. The army is hoping to complete work within a few months.
New alert system to be installed (Photo: Yaron Brener)
The sense of urgency is derived from fear that terrorists will exploit the Syrian regime's loosing grip in the country to carry out attacks against soldiers or civilians, much like recent efforts on the Sinai Peninsula. The Golani Brigade's elite combat unit Egoz has been called in to support the forces along the border for this reason.
Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Major-General Yair Naveh on Tuesday warned of increasing terrorist activity near Israel's borders. "Fear of escalation is growing in the wake of activity on the Syrian border," he said. | <urn:uuid:0846cbeb-1ad0-494d-8820-e7c8f19d2464> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4281021,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953923 | 473 | 1.679688 | 2 |
TV Industry Body, Mic-Maker: More DTV Receiver Testing Needed
Television trade publication Broadcasting & Cable is reporting that microphone-maker Shure as well as the National Association of Broadcasters are asking for more DTV receiver testing that would ensure that unlicensed mobile devices would not cause interference with digital television signals.
According to Shure, among the FCC's findings after testing eight "late-model DTV receivers" was that the receivers are extremely vulnerable to harmful interference not only from devices on adjacent channels but from ones two or more channels away.
Broadcasting & Cable explains the NAB pointed out that the FCC found that weak DTV signals were easily disrupted, and that that precludes the use of so-called spectrum "sensing " devices, which some commissioners have pointed to as a way to insure efficient spectrum use while protecting TV licensees.
The big issue here is that, as Broadcasting & Cable's John Eggerton notes, the FCC has already begun the process of opening up the spaces--so-called white spaces--between TV station frequencies for advanced wireless services, but has not decided whether those should be licensed or unlicensed.
"The bottom line for broadcasters and Shure is that the FCC must do more testing, expand those tests, and come up with rules that effectively protect existing devices, like TV sets and wireless microphones," Eggerton added.
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Listed below are links to sites that reference TV Industry Body, Mic-Maker: More DTV Receiver Testing Needed:
TrackBack URL for TV Industry Body, Mic-Maker: More DTV Receiver Testing Needed: | <urn:uuid:41695884-d8c1-445b-9311-06c1141b0371> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.tmcnet.com/regulations/research/tv-industry-body-micmaker-more-dtv-receiver-testing-needed.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949108 | 331 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Water flow experiment begins at Grand Canyon
Experiment aimed at building beaches and sandbars on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon
Authorities have launched an experiment aimed at building beaches and sandbars on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar opened the river outlet tubes at noon Monday. The peak flow will last 24 hours from Monday night into Tuesday, and the river will run high for five days.
The heavy rush of water down the river at Glen Canyon Dam is part of a government program to restore the Grand Canyon's ecosystem.
The goal is to wash millions of tons of sediment downstream to create beaches and improve habitat for plants and animals, and protect archaeological sites.
It's the fourth experimental flush since 1996.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:9526a0cf-70f1-439d-b870-3f42b5a5306d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kesq.com/kesq/Water-flow-experiment-begins-at-Grand-Canyon/-/232254/17476342/-/view/print/-/74phdl/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910481 | 178 | 3.03125 | 3 |
POSTED: 03:54 a.m. HST, Aug 28, 2012
Investors who buy bonds issued by the state of Hawaii are not being compensated adequately given the risk presented by the state’s high unfunded pension liability and debt load, according to analysis by Barron’s, a weekly financial newspaper.
Hawaii’s unfunded pension liability combined with government debt add up to 16.1 percent of the state’s gross domestic product, the 48th highest ratio of all states, according to the report. The Barron’s analysis was based on the newspaper’s own data and information from Eaton Vance, a municipal bond fund manager. The top-rated state, South Dakota, has a pension liability and debt ratio equal to just 1 percent of GDP.
Normally, bonds issued by states with weaker fiscal positions carry higher yields to compensate investors for the additional risk. In this case, however, the opposite is true. Hawaii 10-year bonds are yielding 20 basis points above comparable Treasury securities, while the yield on South Dakota bonds is 28 basis points higher. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
“For municipal bond investors, it all boils down to this: The risk of investing in the debt of some of the country's least financially sound states, compared with the most sound, is not always reflected in the price of their bonds,” according to the Barron’s report. | <urn:uuid:cb74bf1a-647d-446d-a209-55e0de56baeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/167629915.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946526 | 302 | 2.28125 | 2 |
The St Lawrence, an iron steamer of 2 220 tons, had been under charter to the British Government as a troopship, leaving England for Cape Town some five weeks before the disaster occurred, and passing Madeira on 14 September. She then steamed south until 7 November against strong headwinds. On board were the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Buffs (3rd Regiment of Foot), and though statistics vary in contemporary reports, passengers numbered over 400 men, women and children, many of the officers being accompanied by their wives and families. There was also a crew of 67 souls. In her hold were a thousand pounds worth of Government stores, including 9 mountain guns and fifty pounds of gunpowder.
Her captain, HYDE, was not well and lying fully-clothed on his bed when at 3 a.m. on the morning of the 8 November his chief officer, SHELTON, reported to him that the morning was fine and that land was in sight afar off. A few minutes later the officer returned to say that the land was not as distant as he had initially believed and that he had seen a light on shore (this later proved to have been a star). The captain immediately went on deck, and, the look-out reporting something ahead, Hyde ordered the instant stopping and reversing of engines. It was too late: the ship struck the reef and her bow firmly settled down, water rapidly filling her compartments.
Hyde reported to the colonel in command of the troops that the ship was ashore and that the men should go to quarters while the crew cleared away the boats. All was done speedily and calmly, with no panic or confusion; the women and children went into the boats first, followed by the men. The passengers were gradually landed safely, and the boats returned to the ship to take off provisions - beef, bread and water. A Captain WYLDE was commissioned to ride for Cape Town with news of the wreck; his journey was accomplished in eighteen and a half hours. Meanwhile, courageous attempts were made by captain and crew, who remained on board, to re-float the ship by setting her sails and reversing engines at top speed, but it was clear that she could not be saved and would eventually become a total wreck. 100 tons of coal had been thrown overboard in an effort to lighten the ship. Sails were sent for use as tents on the barren shore, arms, ammunition and baggage were taken off, and the crew, with provisions and blankets, were at last ordered to the boats which were made fast to the stern of the vessel.
When Wylde's report was received at the Castle, the news was telegraphed to the Naval Authorities at Simon's Bay, and the Spitfire and Spartan dispatched to convey the shipwrecked soldiers and others to Cape Town. Other vessels involved in the rescue were the Donald Currie steamer Koodoo, the steamer Gnu and HMS Active.
REPORTS OF THE WRECK
The Times, London, carried a report of the wreck of the St Lawrence on 6 December 1876. On 13 December, the same paper mentions that the ship had "some five hundred soldiers on board, chiefly from the 2nd Regiment of the 3rd Buffs" - which lends support to the possible presence of members of other units.
An inquiry into the wreck was held, and The Times of 18 January 1877 stated that "the loss of the ship was attributable to a strong north-easterly current. The master is held to be in default for not coming on deck immediately land was sighted ... The fact that land was sighted so much sooner than expected should have made him aware that the ship was much nearer the land than the reckoning placed her. A cast of the lead would have shown him he was on the bank of soundings and the ship would doubtless have been saved. After the wreck he showed great presence of mind and made admirable arrangements for landing the troops and stores. He did not desert her until all hopes of saving her were gone. His certificate therefore was only suspended for six months. The certificate of Mr Shelton, the chief officer who was in charge, was suspended for twelve months."
Of the 50 tons of gunpowder on board, only 10 tons were recovered. The 9 mountain guns and most of the Government stores were lost.
LIST OF OFFICERS OF THE 3RD BUFFS ON THE ST LAWRENCE
Col C PEARSON
Maj H PARNELL
Capt C J HAMILTON
Capt A W GILSTON
Capt R A HICKSON
Capt A H WYLDE
Lieut R S MOODY
Sub-Lieut C H GORDON
Sub-Lieut D F LEWIS
Sub-Lieut H R KNIGHT
Sub-Lieut D GREEN
Lieut and Adjutant A C JACKSON
Quartermaster W G MORGAN
Attached Surgeon-Major H WALKER
Sergt-Maj P MURPHY
Bandmaster R SWEENEY
Schoolmaster J ECCLES
Quartermaster-Sergt J GROVES
Sergt-Instructor of Musketry T WORBOYS
Paymaster Sergt J FAIRLEY
C R CLERK
Drum-Maj J GLEESON
Attached Arm-Sergt W WERNHAM
(The above list is taken from the Cape Times, 14 November 1876.) | <urn:uuid:f9372eac-2b3d-49f7-8cfe-48b47e5141fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/04/wreck-of-st-lawrence-great-paternosters.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988522 | 1,126 | 3.265625 | 3 |
The City of Petersburg operates three museums and two visitors' centers through its Department of Tourism. The Department also offers walking tours, special lectures, temporary exhibits and other special events throughout the year.
Explore Petersburg's rich history by visiting the Petersburg Museums where the City's past comes alive through art, architecture, decorative arts and Civil War artifacts. In addition to permanent and temporary exhibitions, the Museums have a rich archives of photographs, documents and artifacts pertaining to Petersburg's history from the pre-Revolutionary War era through the twentieth century.
Hours of Operation
Museums: Monday-Saturday, 10am-5pm; Sunday, 1-5pm
Old Towne Visitor Center: Monday-Saturday, 9am-5pm; Sunday, 12pm-5pm
Carson Visitor Center: Monday-Sunday, 9am-4pm | <urn:uuid:21d309ab-b962-46d2-a848-ff13f616c358> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.petersburg-va.org/tourism/index.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90406 | 174 | 1.59375 | 2 |
UN chief upbraids dithering nations over climate fund
- COP17: Robin Hoods take on the 1% Bankers
- Ministers at COP17 deserve Oscars, say NGOs
- The future of the planet is at stake, warns UN chief
- Crunch time at COP17 as high-level negotiations begin
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on heads of state to show leadership and resolve any differences they may have on the Green Climate Fund in Durban, so the fund can be launched.
On Wednesday, he implored developed countries to contribute to the Green Climate Fund and fulfil their obligations to the developing world.
He added that the UN was “deeply committed” to the initiative so poor countries can access and use the funds.
Countries agreed to set up the Green Climate Fund last year in Cancun. The fund will raise and disburse $100-billion in per year by 2020 to help developing countries cope with the effects of climate change. Because of the amount of money involved, negotiations concerning the fund have been hotly contested. By comparison, the World Bank disburses about $40-billion a year.
Setting up the Green Climate Fund was one of the priorities of the negotiating parties going into COP17. But negotiations on the fund stalled last week when the United States, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela raised concerns with the discussion document being considered. The process got back on track, however, after a series of informal discussions were held.
Momentum has been growing since the high-level segment of the negotiations began this week and insiders say it’s becoming more likely that the fund will be put into operation by the end of the conference. However, it remains to be seen how, exactly, the fund will be filled.
Since the beginning of the conference, NGOs have warned that if developed countries did not make and honour pledges to raise money, the fund would become an “empty shell”. Their fears are based on historical precedent—10 years ago, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established a fund to finance the most urgent adaptation needs of the least developed countries. To date only $415-million of the $2-billion needed was pledged to help implement adaptation programmes. Many fear that unless innovative and reliable sources of funding are found, the Green Climate Fund will go the same way.
Ban echoed these concerns on Wednesday. “The new fund must not be an empty shell,” he said, adding that although industrialised countries would have to inject sufficient capital, it was not enough to rely on public sources of funding. A combination of public and private sources of funding would be essential. “The scale of resources and the kind of investment requires governments to work together with private sector,” he said.
Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who co-chaired the UN’s high-level climate finance advisory group, echoed this sentiment, saying the debt crisis had underlined the fact that countries should look for funding both from public and private sources. He said it was “challenging but feasible” to mobilise the $100-billion needed but that the key to raising the funds would be to introduce a price on carbon.
It’s been suggested that the price of carbon be pegged at about $25 per tonne. Most of this could be incorporated into the national fiscus while a small percentage is channelled into climate finance.
Stoltenberg said introducing a price on carbon would have a “triple positive effect”. It would encourage people to reduce pollution, contribute to the development of climate friendly and clean technology, and it would generate revenue, which could be used for government purposes as well as for climate action.
The European Union (EU) already has a carbon pricing and emissions trading scheme. Australia recently decided to introduce carbon pricing and China also has a carbon pricing pilot project in the pipeline.
Stoltenberg said that in addition to carbon pricing and emissions trading, levies on so-called “bunker fuels,” the carbon-intensive fuels used for shipping and aviation, would also help raise funding.
Multilateralism moving forward
Meanwhile, national planning commissioner Trevor Manuel and also co-chair of the advisory committee, also called for carbon to be priced. “Carbon must be priced, it must be uniform and it must be adhered to.”
He called the existence of high levels of greenhouse gases a “market failure,”
“When you use resources like water and you don’t price it in the equation, it’s indicative of market failure,” said Manuel. “It’s for that reason this must be corrected.”
South Africa has advanced plans to implement a carbon tax, and some say the implementation could happen as early as next year.
Manuel also called for countries to honour the tenet of multilateralism when considering innovative sources of finance to raise the funds needed by the Green Climate Fund. He said multilateralism was important for global climate finance as taxes that would be imposed in one place, would be allocated in another place, through mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund.
He expressed reservations about the EU’s decision to place a tax on all airlines flying in and out of Europe in a bid to reduce aviation emissions because it had been implemented in a unilateral way and because it made it difficult to exempt poor countries.
He warned that if multilateralism was not respected, countries could end up with another Kyoto Protocol, “which allows countries to opt out if they don’t like the rule”.
For the latest COP17 news and special features view our special report. | <urn:uuid:8958abb8-d832-43e4-b654-4dbed01562ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mg.co.za/article/2011-12-08-un-chief-upbraids-dithering-nations-over-climate-fund | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957993 | 1,191 | 1.882813 | 2 |
CALM’s animal for the ages
Known as a silent flyer, the owl has now become the silent, but impressive, guardian of transportation at the California Living Museum (CALM) in Bakersfield. Approximately 9 feet tall and weighing 3,000 pounds, the metal interpretation of a great horned owl, resting on a pedestal of native stones, resides inside the Central California Children’s Railroad venue at CALM. Dedication of the artwork, by local celebrity sculptor Betty Younger took place on April 3.
Younger and husband Milton officially donated the work of art before an audience that included Kern County Superintendent of Schools Christine Lizardi Frazier, visitors, CALM Foundation board members, staff and media. Large crowds were already enjoying CALM’s Spring Fling, which annually offers a special children’s admission during the week schools are out. A surprise train stop next to the sculpture permitted visiting parents and children to take part in the dedication ceremony, too.
Frazier stood beside the Youngers under the seemingly protective, all-searching gaze of the huge-eyed owl. She expressed her thanks and expectations for the new monument.
“Very few things at CALM are directed just to the children,” Frazier said. “Betty wanted to do something that would get kids excited about coming here, and that would give them the curiosity to find out more about the great horned owl. Its position will be ideal for it to be seen by children riding the train and that should get them really excited.”
Younger said the project took approximately four years to complete. She did not want to rush it because CALM was working on opening the Cats of California (mountain lions and bobcats) exhibit at the time, and Younger did not want to take the effort away from making that happen. She said the inspiration came from a visit to a metal salvage yard.
“I was touring the back lot and saw these huge pieces of pipe,” Younger said. “I could see the eyes, the way it was curved. It was so stimulating. I had a 40 foot trailer and left with three huge pieces of pipe loaded onto it. I saw it as an animal and a way to get children involved in art and animals. The eyes will watch over the children, the traffic on Alfred Harrell Highway and the people who live around CALM. It’s eyes are always open and never shut. It’s my gift to CALM and the children of Kern County.”
Children in the future will have to be content with viewing the owl as the train passes by it. Those there for the dedication, actually got to go up close, size it up from all angles and feel the texture of the sculpture.
“It’s going to attract a lot of kids,” said Ana Gamboa, who traveled to CALM from Earlimart with her children. “It will open up their imagination. The image is really attention grabbing. It represents everything CALM is about – animals living in the wilderness.”
Probably not by chance, just outside the exit from the railroad venue, CALM volunteer docent Robin Jaske was showing off a real, live screech owl to visitors who strolled by.
“An interesting fact about owls is that their eyes are fixed in their heads,” Jaske told those who came for a closer look. “They don’t have ocular muscles to move their eyes side-to-side. That’s why they can turn their heads so far around to the rear. Their feathers are different from all other birds which allows them to be silent flyers.”
There is more owl fun planned for the county’s children. CALM has announced a “Name the Owl” contest. Younger will help CALM pick the winner who will receive a family membership to CALM and a Great Horned Owl stuffed toy. Check with CALM, http://www.calmzoo.org, for more details. | <urn:uuid:5db8759a-bdc4-4b11-bbcc-4fa04c2faba7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kern.org/2012/04/calms-animal-for-the-ages/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974213 | 843 | 2.015625 | 2 |
"Dilbit" is a contraction of "diluted bitumen", a little word loaded with controversy that has recently entered the English vocabulary. This is because "bitumen", a word in long existence, has entered popular use as the peanut butter-like concentrate extracted from Alberta's tar sands. Since bitumen is too thick to move through pipelines, it is diluted with benzene, naphtha, hydrogen sulphide and other proprietary ingredients — "diluent" — to make the bitumen fluid enough to be pumped. The result is dilbit, usually about 70 percent bitumen and 30 percent diluent. Although often compared to crude oil, it is categorically different.
This was illustrated on July 25, 2010, when 3 million litres of dilbit burst from Enbridge's 6B pipeline into Michigan's Kalamazoo River. Unlike crude oil, dilbit only floats for about nine days — more or less, depending on temperature and weather conditions. Then the solvents of the diluent evaporate, the dilbit reverts to bitumen and usually sinks if the spill is in water. At this point the traditional methods of recovering crude no longer work. (As a comparison, about 10 percent of conventional crude oil sinks.) Even the 15 percent recovery of a marine oil spill — the usual measure considered a "successful" cleanup — is unlikely. After the volatile, toxic and carcinogenic components of the diluent release into the air, the bitumen migrates to the bottom of the river or ocean, where its dispersal is essentially unstoppable and cleanup is nearly impossible. River ecologies pose a special problem because removing the bitumen from the bottom usually causes irreparable trauma to the sediment and gravel of the living bed.
This dilbit is the material that Enbridge's $6 billion Northern Gateway pipeline would move over and under 773 of BC's creeks, streams and rivers on its way from Alberta to Kitimat. And this is the material that tankers would be transporting along 230 km of the narrow and winding Douglas Channel, past the shoals and reefs of Caamano Sound, then through the waves and storms of Hecate Strait on its way to offshore markets in Asian.
The imagination boggles at the environmental implications of a spill occurring anywhere along this route. How is bitumen to be recovered from any of the remote watercourses along the 1,172 km of the pipeline? The delays caused by remote and inaccessible locations would mean that bitumen would be dispersed along countless kilometres of pristine rivers before — or even if — cleanup crews could arrive. This is treasured wilderness, nature's heaven, salmon country, the indispensable heartland of BC's marine ecology. Enbridge discovered that the bitumen spill in the Kalamazoo River, conveniently in a flat, populated and accessible region of Michigan, could be 18-times more expensive to clean up than conventional light crude. (During the last decade, industry's average cost of cleaning up a barrel of spilled crude was $2,000; the cost of cleaning up a barrel of dilbit is estimated at $29,000.) And even after two years of effort and an expenditure of over $800 million, the Kalamazoo cleanup is not complete — whatever “complete” means for an oil spill. In all likelihood, a comparable spill in BC's wilderness could not be contained and would probably never be cleaned up.
Then consider a tanker spill of dilbit anywhere in BC's marine environment. At least the largest proportion of crude floats and a small portion of this is recoverable. Sunken bitumen would soon submerge to unrecoverable depths, its gummy and sticky black mass dispersed along the ocean bottom by tides to become a permanent and toxic fixture of the benthic ecology. It could eventually travel for hundreds of kilometres, washing ashore unexpectedly in distant places, perhaps for decades after the initial spill — the time delay a nearly perpetual reminder of the consequences of some unforeseen natural disaster or, much worse, of the gross stupidity of some engineering miscalculation or preventable mistake.
The silence on the dilbit issue is deafening. Significantly, Enbridge took weeks to notify US authorities that their spill on the Kalamazoo River was not light crude but dilbit. No wonder. No one has had any experience dealing with a major dilbit spill. The Kalamazoo experience was the first. As Robyn Allan, the former CEO of the Insurance Corporation of BC, noted on CBC radio's The House (Aug. 11/12), no risk analysis of the Northern Gateway pipeline project by Enbridge includes any reference to the Kalamazoo River spill, suggesting that no experience has been gleaned from it and applied to BC's rivers. "So far," Allan said, "it's as if Kalamazoo never happened."
Which is probably what Enbridge would prefer. Dilbit and bitumen present complications that are incompatible with their promotion of the Northern Gateway project. As their Kalamazoo mishap has established, a dilbit spill in an aquatic environment cannot be properly addressed with known technology, the cost of cleanup is horrendous, the damage to corporate profit is considerable, the stigma on reputation is lasting, and the public relations dimensions are lethal. The challenge of cleaning up ordinary crude is bad enough without having to consider a mix of diluent and bitumen. The wisest strategy for a corporation that is constantly spinning a positive message and opportunely escalating safety assurances is just to pretend that Kalamazoo didn't happen. And then, when the subject of the Northern Gateway arises, hope than no one will notice the sound of its silence.
Postscript: The recent and surprising proposal by newspaper mogul David Black for a $13 billion refinery in Kitimat complicates rather than solves the bitumen problem. | <urn:uuid:e645f4fb-f3fb-4a01-af74-dcf8574c0ee2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecanadian.org/item/1685-ray-grigg-dilbit-silence | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950406 | 1,188 | 3.3125 | 3 |
- May 21, 2013
Every Pentecostal weekend, when the Wave Gothic Festival, a legendary annual gathering for "dark" music and arts, kicks off in the eastern German city of Leipzig, the world is reminded that nobody does goth quite like the Germans. more... [ Comment ]
- May 09, 2013
Father's Day in Germany is traditionally an occasion for massive alcohol intake and a bit of quality time with the guys. One such gathering on Thursday, however, was disrupted by a lightning strike, sending dozens of revellers to the hospital. more... [ Comment ]
- December 31, 2012
When the sound of singing men echoes through the Alpine valley and the trees appear to have legs, it's time to celebrate the New Year again in the Swiss region of Appenzell. The mountain tradition hearkens back to medieval times, and brightens up the dark winter with spectacular costume and song. more... [ Comment ]
- October 26, 2012
Halloween spooks are for wimps compared to the grisly Christmastime traditions of Europe's Alps, where demonic creatures come out to punish naughty children or to drive winter away each year. A gorgeous new photography book explores the many guises of these wild monsters, whose traditional rumpus harkens back to pagan rites. more...
- September 17, 2012
One of Germany's most unusual aquatic sports competitions features dozens of paddlers in non-conventional vessels. Vying for gourd glory, they splash their way to the finish line in enormous pumpkins. The Ludwigsburg Palace regatta has become one of the country's most photogenic sporting events. more... [ Comment ]
- August 24, 2012
Times are tough in Spain, and people have little to smile about these days. But the annual battle of ugly faces in the Basque city of Bilbao proves that the country has lost none of its sense of humor. more...
- May 18, 2012
Most people consider Oktoberfest to be the biggest drinking celebration in Germany. Often overlooked are the country's Father's Day celebrations, which involve oddly dressed men pulling wagons filled with beer into parks and drinking until they pass out. more...
- March 18, 2010
The annual Fallas festival is taking place this week in Valencia on the Spanish coast. During the street parties and parades, giant sculptures are exhibited, judged in a competition and then ceremoniously burnt. more...
- February 15, 2010
The traditional Carnival parades held around Germany are famous for strange costumes and wild parties. But the small town of Dietfurt in Bavaria is becoming known for something a little more odd: During the festive season, the whole town turns Chinese. more...
- January 06, 2010
The Christmas season only really ends in Europe on Jan. 6. Traditions across the continent vary wildly -- from processions of kings and gift-bearing witches to brave souls diving into icy waters. more... | <urn:uuid:fd88cb17-d1f6-4f22-a3ba-7fcad6ab5fc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spiegel.de/international/topic/europes_weird_ways/ | 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 | 0.926096 | 611 | 1.703125 | 2 |
India’s liberalisation, no doubt, has changed the economic landscape of Indian lives though to various degrees and levels. It overhauled India’s economy; government policies on economy, business, education, investment, foreign collaboration and privatisation; created billionaires owning multinational companies and acquired a competitive economic growth rate that poises the nation to be a world economic leader in the coming decade next to china.
But what has it done to the ordinary people of India?
Ideally, it would have transformed them into entrepreneurs, being able to make informed choices in doing business and managing various aspects of their lives. To make choices, they should be thinking rationally and acting freely; be creative, imaginative, good leaders, managers and decision makers, good individuals, role models to family, good politicians and good citizens.
And how many Indians have become anything of that?
In 1991, when a bankrupt India was initiated into economic liberalisation, hardly few Indians knew what it entailed and from the government’s side, it did very little to create any public awareness on the topic. So in all probabilities, the public was forced to take it as it came; as the opening up of the new consumer shops across the nation, availability of foreign branded goods in the place of ugly, inefficient, non-consumer caring local products and the opening up of unprecedented job markets both locally and internationally.
It is in the Indian blood to be enthused by chances. This time the chance came in the highly advanced IT industries an industry key to the materialistic development and advancement of the liberalisation and globalisation packages. Indians’ intuitive intelligence and flair for numbers made their overwhelming entry into the industry. When job opportunities in the industries soared up locally and internationally, so did the Indians qualifying out of universities and colleges earn those jobs. The industry added another dogma to the Indian communities around which they created a new religion the digital religion.
The industry also made many millionaires out of Indians.
Even earlier to liberlisation, Indian professionals were in great demand in the foreign nations. With the advent of liberalisation and the nations across the world embarking on massive developmental and construction projects their demand multiplied. Not only professionals, its blue colour force also gained demand overseas, especially in the Gulf regions.
The new riches brought in new challenges to the Indian communities, who paid very little attention to them. I shall discuss a few of those challenges here and in my future posts.
1. Indians adopted a new spendthrift economy.
Indians in all my presumption had traditionally maintained a spiritual relationship with money. I am not talking about India’s fake spirituality that the human welfare is determined by one’s birth, but spirituality in economy. Those who earned money through hard work, had realised that its transaction should be carried out in a religious manner. That is money is not simply material, rather a disciplined and moral approach should regulate its creation and consumption.
But for the contrivances of globalisation and the market, money is purely material regulated by strange rules, morality not one among them. They tossed into Indian hands plenty money; foreign money, bribe money, charity and aid money, black money, loan money and all with such ease that they dropped their traditional sense of economy to adopt a spendthrift one.
A major share of India’s growth profile comes from the consumer spending of its newly moneyed class. It comes to them as an ego boosting gala. One is tempted to have a comparison of this modern economic gala with the old extravagance of its racist, oppressive categories – the royals, the feudal chieftains, and their satellites who were known for pillaging the nation’s wealth. How devastating its impact was on the common man’s life no words can explain. Yet to their peril those common men and women are now developing a piquant taste to follow those oppressors extravagance and lifestyle.
The post- globalisation scenario made a turn around in the economic lives of its oppressed categories. Global openings and the subsequent call for human skills gave the socially backward a new impetus to sell their skills in the lucrative markets, locally and internationally for good economic returns. But the social changes it would have brought about are in question. That is to what extent had globalism resolved the caste discrimination in India? To some extent, it replaced caste with class-the lower, middle and the upper economic classes. It does not mean that the class status made any serious dent into the feudal mentality of India’s so called upper castes.
This class hierarchy immediately gave rise to an economic rivalry. The new Indian dream has become to scale down the barriers of this hierarchy; that is each is in competition to the next level by adopting whatever means. India’s civil servants’ answer to this competition is bribe. They no longer play tactics to lure customers into paying brirb but threaten them with a -no bribe no service -slap. In the place of the bribe being a few rupees in the past, now it comes in thousands. In Kerala, the most literate state in India, almost hundred percent of its civil servants do not full fill their official duties for which they take a salary from the government, without receiving a bribe.
However, it may not be fair to single out the civil servants alone in this case. Instances of allegations against government and political leadership for taking bribe or commission worth millions of U.S dollars from foreign multinationals while signing in business deals are not uncommon. That the truth about such deals is often hard to come by even after years of court battle is a test to both India’s democracy, judiciary as well as to the ethos of globalisation. All those force Indians to take a light-hearted approach towards bribe and criminal offenses.
In short, since the advent of Globalisation, Indian society underwent massive transformation, in most cases, for the worst. In an egotistical society as that of India it was a recipe for their moral peril as well. On the face of greed, they lost their sense of right and wrong. In the social front, anti-social and immoral activities gained momentum. Means by which one earned wealth became irrelevant. Young girls were sent to prostitution often at the knowledge of parents and families. The hardworking tradition of the ordinary people was replaced with dependency. A relative, a sibling or a progeny in a foreign land was expected to bear the cost of the luxury and extravagant lifestyle of those who remained behind at home. Young men were ready to be recruited for criminal doings for money.
Though India’s economy is apparently not on a hard hit, under the current world economic recession, Indian expatriates are going to be the most affected ones. But surprisingly they are the least willing to talk about them.
From Kerala alone, 30 lakhs (3 million) have been in the overseas services, among them, 2 million in the Gulf region alone. According to an article on India Today(23rd Feb. 2009), in the last 33 years, they have remitted to the State more than RS.200, 000 crores. Their annual remittance, more than 40,000 crores was twice the State’s annual tax revenue, and one fourth of the national average. But apparently only five percent of that money was put on productive investment. As per an estimation, one-fourth of the gulf Keralaites are loosing jobs and returning home. Yet it is difficult to get a reliable statistics on their employment or return from a government or Human Resource sources.
The State government has announced a rehabilitation package costing 110 crores the details of its implementation is apparently not available. The national government is insensitively silent on the matter.
Given the situation, life would not be easy for most of the returning individuals. In the current globalised and market based society where human relationship has acquired values in terms of what their earning can buy those who are returning job-less are not going to find their home-experiences very pleasant. While a sympathetic approach to rehabilitation is needed for them, the serious question that everybody should be asking now is, can we once more believe in the economic stunt of liberalisation that it is the answer to our economic problems and means to development and progress?
it is true, liberalisation has unleashed Indian potential and created opportunities. It produced Indian millionaires and billionaires. It displaced the economic landscape of the country to the point of no return. However damaging its impacts are, it is going to stay on for a long period. It is for the Indians to rediscover themselves and practice the right economic sense their older generations had maintained once, to avoid a possible economic peril for following the economic extravaganza of their once economic oppressors.
This was a post written in 2009; but most of the points I raised then are still relevant now. | <urn:uuid:306b58ae-17ca-4b1f-ac71-8376996faa2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indiablooming.com/india-economy/indias-liberalisation-its-impact-on-indians-sense-of-economy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964587 | 1,811 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Iraqis Pay Tribute to U.S. Service Members
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
ARLINGTON, Va., May 27, 2004 As the sound of "Taps" wailed from Army Sgt. Major Henry Sgrecci's bugle today, seven Iraqi citizens pressed their new prosthetic hands against their hearts at the Tomb of the Unknowns here to honor U.S. service members who have given their lives in Iraq.
Seven Iraqi merchants put their new prosthetic hands across
their hearts May 27 while laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at
Arlington National Cemetery in honor of U.S. service members killed in Iraq.
Photo by Donna Miles
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
The seven men, all Iraqi merchants, have been in the United States since mid- April to receive their new "bionic" hands to replace the ones amputated by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as punishment for trading in U.S. currency. In addition to providing them with new $50,000 prosthetic hands, U.S. doctors in Houston also removed the tattoos Saddam had imprinted on the merchants' foreheads to draw further attention to their misdeeds.
During this week's visit to Washington, D.C., the Iraqis made a pilgrimage today to Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place for 65 service members killed in Iraq. There, the group laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns to honor U.S. service members killed while overthrowing the brutal regime under which they and millions of other Iraqis had suffered for decades.
Nasaar Jondi, one of the merchants, reflected on his predicament nine years ago, as he sat in prison waiting for Saddam's doctors to chop off his right hand. The night before his sentence was carried out, Jondi wrote his wife, "Do not be sad. Hopefully Allah will replace my hand with an even better one." Today, as the proud recipient of a new prosthetic hand made possible through donations by U.S. medical facilities, medical staff, companies and citizens, Jondi reflected on his new fortune personally and as an Iraqi citizen -- and the cost that made it possible.
"Without the tremendous sacrifices of American servicemen and women, we would never have had a new beginning and a new Iraq," he said.
Like nearly all Iraqis, Laith Agar had seen unforgettable suffering and death under Saddam which he said gives him a greater appreciation for life and an appreciation for those willing to lay theirs down for others.
"Life is the most precious thing for a human being, and these people have made the ultimate sacrifice," said Agar, a resident of Baghdad. "They came to Iraq and died for Iraq and for all humanity. We will never forget the contributions these heroes have made."
Basin Al Fadhly said he wanted to visit Arlington National Cemetery to pay tribute to America's fallen warriors "and to express gratitude to the American people and the American Army that carried out the liberation of Iraq from Saddam."
For Hassan Al Gearawy, the visit to Arlington was a way to express his appreciation to the families particularly the mothers of U.S. service members killed in his country's liberation. "I wanted to salute them and express my thanks and gratitude to the mothers of those martyrs," he said.
Earlier this week, the group visited the White House, where President Bush told them he was "honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein."
The president praised Dr. Joseph Agris, a plastic surgeon based in Houston, who conducted the surgery to put new prosthetic hands on the Iraqis, and Don North, a documentary producer who brought the plight of the seven merchants to Agris's attention.
"These men had hands restored because of the generosity and love of an American citizen," Bush said. "And I am so proud to welcome them to the Oval Office." | <urn:uuid:494bbc73-c61c-4046-9318-b6950d1eaa9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=26394 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975076 | 826 | 1.570313 | 2 |
"As President-elect Obama announced key members of his national security and foreign policy team today yesterday, accompanying his words was a stunning visual: Of the six appointees joining Obama on stage, three were women. All of us at The White House Project were thrilled to finally see, as Al Kamen called it in his Washington Post Column, "a national security team that looks like the nation."
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The Obama Team!
I could not have said it better myself.... pulled from the White House Project Newsletter!
The White House Project congratulates these women--Senator Hillary Clinton, Obama's choice for Secretary of State, longtime White House Project advocate Governor Janet Napolitano for Secretary of Homeland Security, and Susan Rice for US Ambassador to the United Nations--on their remarkable achievement, particularly as it comes in a field overwhelmingly dominated by men.We are happy not only for this group of women as individuals, but also for what their selections signify: the public's growing acceptance of women in non traditional roles, and a long overdue shift in the understanding of what makes for a secure world. In this age of globalization and nontraditional international threats, it is increasingly apparent that the conventional approaches of military and national defense are not enough to ensure the safety of the people and the state. Women have traditionally accepted that security is all-encompassing, involving economic, diplomatic and social solutions, and although a recent Pew Study shows that foreign policy is one of only two issues that the public still feels are better held by males, the same study reveals that Americans put much greater stock in women leaders when it comes to working out compromises, employing honesty and creativity, representing the public's interest, and standing up for what they believe. These skills, essential for effective policy making and relationship building, need only be coupled with the right tools to ensure that women can be more effective participants in the security dialogue. Long advocating the inclusion of women's voices in this conversation, The White House Project is more committed than ever to train women to more ably and expertly lead on issues of national security. With your help, we can continue to fill the leadership pipeline with more knowledgeable women who will add new and important perspectives to the conversation about security."
Support the White House Project ! To Marie Wilson, their fearless leader, thanks for all the work you do! | <urn:uuid:2b801e43-f43f-48c9-949c-4238d2ec3204> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pursepundit.blogspot.com/2008/12/obama-team.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962974 | 475 | 1.6875 | 2 |
To see a child starving... a visit to the South
Trip Start Feb 12, 2006
17Trip End May 12, 2008
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Life is built on our experiences, the things we see and do, and recently our lives have been changed by what we have seen... people starving. A little girl, who is 4 years old, yet looks half that, a little girl who is too weak to walk or brush away the flies on her face. Her ribs are visible through her skin, her belly is protruding unnaturally and her arms and legs bone thin. Her hair is orange from vitamin deficiency and the expression on her face, the look in her eyes seems so empty and distant. Everyone has seen images of starving children, we say "that's sad" and turn the channel. But to see starving people in one's presence is overwhelming. It's incomprehensible that there are people with nothing to eat; whose only option is clay dirt mixed with water and cactus to fill their belly a little and stave off the hunger pangs
In late December and mid-January we had the opportunity to visit the South of Madagascar on a reconnaissance trip with our counterpart organization, who is working with several other NGOs to provide food aid. Food insecurity is a reoccurring problem in this arid part of the country, yet this year many factors combined to make it even more devastating.
While visiting rural communes we drove through a dusty town and saw our Peace Corps friend standing on the side of the road. The people in his town are hungry and for some reason didn't qualify for food aid. His friends and neighbors are selling their possessions- their pots, dishes, etc to buy food. Schools are half empty because children are too hungry & weak to learn. For a few, water is distributed through a lottery system and for most sold at prices to high to afford. Farmers are burning the thorns off of cactus to feed their livestock and themselves. We saw the wells they dig, the scarce & dirty water they drink and their sandy fields. Later when we visited in January the fields of corn had started to sprout after some rains came, but the insects are destroying them- yet another obstacle.
We've heard that food distribution has been going on for at least 15 years in this part of the country, which should make one realize the necessity of proactive approaches rather than yearly reactive ones
As you sit down to dinner remember that there truly are starving people around the world and be thankful for all the abundance that you are blessed with. On our second trip it started to pour down rain and we watched in delight from under an awning as kids skipped and dashed about carrying buckets with gigantic smiles on their faces collecting the rainwater. The chore of fetching water was completely gone; there was pure bliss in gathering this liquid gold.
Jenny & Aaron | <urn:uuid:2b236311-595b-4ae8-9c50-c64aa9275cd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenaaronmad/madagascar/1173705900/tpod.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975752 | 588 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Would you be upset if you walked into a hotel room to find that the curtains were drawn, the TV was silent, and the staff were keen not to wash your towels each day?
These are some of the questions hospitality giant Accor has been seeking to answer as it prepares a major new sustainability strategy designed to slash environmental impacts and curb energy use across its 42,000 properties.
"In hospitality, the standard practice is for the guest to enter the room with the curtains open and the TV on with a welcome screen, and to then have their towels changed every day," Sophie Flak, the company's executive vice president for sustainable development, told BusinessGreen.
"But the sustainable way is to have the curtains closed, the TV off and to not change the towels every day. We've been training people the old way and we need to move to the new way."
The company has undertaken a major survey of customers to assess their willingness to support more sustainable practices. The full results will be released next year, but Flak said that early indications are encouraging.
Some 67 percent of respondents said that a sustainable hotel is as comfortable as a conventional hotel, and 70 percent said that they prefer a hotel with sustainability credentials.
Accor is also engaged in a major training program for its 145,000 staff around the world designed to promote green best practices.
"When we clean in the traditional way it takes several dozen liters of water, on average around 25 liters of water per bathroom," explained Flak. "But after training we can get that down to two to three liters using new cleaning materials and techniques. We are doing a lot of R&D and testing different cleaning technologies."
The company is also testing a wide range of clean technologies to identity those that deliver the best environmental and financial returns, including anaerobic digestion systems, different solar technologies, geothermal power and combined heat and power networks.
The results will feed into a five-year sustainability plan due to be unveiled early next year.
Flak also revealed that hotel managers' bonuses could soon be partly dependent on their ability to meet environmental targets.
"Our managers' bonuses are already based on top and bottom line performance and then they have energy and water targets," she said. "But we are planning to integrate the environmental targets into the bonus schemes."
Editor's note: This article originally appeared at BusinessGreen.com and is reprinted with permission.
Image CC licensed by Flickr user UggBoy♥UggGirl. | <urn:uuid:b674bd7a-9e1d-4d0d-8763-33f12b0c3d14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/12/29/accor-aims-draw-curtain-unsustainable-hotels | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972368 | 510 | 1.90625 | 2 |
The Abbey Library of Saint Gall was founded by Saint Othmar, the founder of the Abbey of St. Gall. The library collection is the oldest in Switzerland, and is one of earliest and most important monastic libraries in the world. It holds 2,100 manuscripts dating back to the 8th through the 15th centuries, 1,650 incunabula (printed before 1500), and old printed books. The library holds almost 160,000 volumes. The manuscript B of the Nibelungenlied is kept here.
Photo and description found at TwistedSifter(dot)com. | <urn:uuid:8564f1a7-168a-4c2a-8674-bb30ca3ec76a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chaostheoryglass.tumblr.com/tagged/15th | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94227 | 120 | 2.53125 | 3 |
After learning that Wisconsin's first lady Tonette Walker would host a garden party on Saturday, July 2, a group of nearly a dozen people formed a flotilla that set sail to the shore of Lake Mendota off the governor's Maple Bluff executive residence.Do you think social media might play a significant role in teaching the social graces? Why would you harass a politician's wife in her backyard? And brag about it? And envision a burgeoning movement of like-minded louts... in boats?
... The flotilla consisted of two kayaks, two canoes and a paddleboat.
"Saturday was kind of a test drive," [Arthur] Kohl-Riggs says. He has since created a Facebook event called "A Summer Full of #wiflotilla" to organize future lake shore protests. Flotilla protesters are also organizing with the Twitter hashtag #wiflotilla.
He would like to see a more consistent presence on Lake Mendota and is in the process of trying to schedule a weekly flotilla. He also hopes people will start flotilla protests in their hometowns throughout the state. Social media will play a significant role in organizing and publicizing the events.
You know we're always struggling with runoff into Lake Mendota. Must the politics drain into there too?
"Wisconsin has a lot of waterways," Kohl-Riggs says. "We're trying to let Walker and his administration know that there's an active resistance to him on every waterway in the state."You know we have a big problem with invasive species in the Wisconsin rivers and lacks. Let's not introduce homo politicus.
IN THE COMMENTS: Robert G. said"
I was at my parents' house in Madison this weekend and got to witness this first hand! In fact, I also used the term "jackasses" in my tweet I posted at the time (http://goo.gl/aNfam). The article doesn't mention the first round when it was just one motorboat and they were using a loudspeaker to chant "recall Walker" and such. That lasted about an hour, then they left and about an hour later this goofy flotilla arrived. At one point one of the Governor's lakeside neighbors got in her canoe and joined the flotilla. | <urn:uuid:14867be8-27c0-4b70-95af-771a7de4ecd1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/newest-wisconsin-protest-jackassery.html?showComment=1310157000089 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968618 | 476 | 1.71875 | 2 |
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Most apps, and even the Start screen, have additional options that don't fit on-screen or get handled by Charms. In desktop applications, these functions are usually found in the uppermost toolbar or buried within the menu bar. Since Microsoft's Windows 8 UI has none of the usual windowing mechanisms, these functions had to go elsewhere.
Right-clicking in the Windows 8 UI usually brings up one or two bars: the App bar from the bottom of the screen and/or the Navigation bar from the top of the screen. Both the App and the Navigation bars change to suit to the current app. Below are some examples of the options and controls found in these bars.
On the Start screen, the App bar brings up the All Apps button.
The Start screen has no Navigation bar. The Windows Store, on the other hand, has a Navigation bar, but no App bar.
The Bing Weather app has both an App and a Navigation bar. The App bar has controls for changing your home location, using a current location (via location services), switching between Celcius and Farenheit, and refreshing the forecast. Meanwhile, the Navigation bar has options to switch to another location, return to the home location, and see an overview of weather around the world.
In Internet Explorer 10, the App bar, oddly enough, contains navigation controls (back, forward, reload, and a location/search bar). The Navigation bar in Internet Explorer 10 hosts thumbnail shortcuts for each open tab.
Programs use the App and Navigation bars to hide extraneous options, like the menu bars we're accustomed to. Between them (and the Charms bar), we're actually surprised how much room there is for added functionality. And yet, controls are all large enough to easily tap with your finger.
Speaking of, now that we understand how to get around the Windows 8 UI with a mouse, let's look at multi-touch. | <urn:uuid:fb15333e-1ebd-4349-9409-15065a05302c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-8-review,3334-9.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91071 | 407 | 2.125 | 2 |
Lecture by Dae-Kyun Ro: "Chemical Diversity and Evolution Sunflower Family" : 31. maj 2011
Lecture by visiting speaker Dae-Kyun Ro, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary.
The title of the talk: "Chemical Diversity and Evolution Sunflower Family"
When: Tuesday 31st May, 13:00-14:00
Abstract: Asteraceae (or Compositae) is the largest plant family which constitutes 8% (~23,000 species) of flowering plants on earth. It first emerged from South America at about 50 million years ago and has become dominant cosmopolitan plants as represented by sunflower and dandelion. One characteristic chemical constituent of Asteraceae is sesquiterpene lactone (STL). Thousands of bioactive STLs derived from several C-15 core structures have been documented, but their biochemical mechanism is poorly understood. We postulated that studying STLs in Asteraceae could provide an insight into the adaptive evolution of enzymes that has led to the enormous chemical diversification in this family. Natural variants of closely related enzymes, such as cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s), will be excellent templates for the evolution-inspired structure-function analysis. In order to better understand the catalytic evolution in the STL biosynthesis, we first focused on the conservation of the key P450 enzyme that catalyzes three-step oxidations of the C12 carbon of sesquiterpene backbone, hence adding a C12 carboxylic acid moiety. Homologs of Artemisia annua amorphadiene C12 oxidase were cloned from three major subfamilies (Asteroideae, Cichorioideae, and Carduoideae) and also from a basal lineage (Barnadesioideae) of Asteraceae. These were functionally expressed in yeast synthesizing the substrate, germacrene A. All of the recombinant P450s were able to catalyze the conversion of germacrene A to germacrene A acid (GAA), substantiating that this three-step oxidation activity is conserved at the basal lineage of Asteraceae. Interestingly, these germacrene A oxidases (i.e., evolutionary predecessors of amorphadiene oxidase) showed promiscuous activities toward various non-natural substrate, but the later-evolved amorphadiene oxidase showed activity only for amorphadiene. Using this new P450, the yeast strain was further engineered to produce GAA to look for the lactone-forming enzymes. For this purpose, transcripts from sunflower (Helianthus annuus) trichome were sequenced, and a P450 clone encoding 8-beta-GAA hydroxylase was functionally identified. Its closest homolog in lettuce (Lactuca sativa) was also identified; however, this lettuce P450 catalyzed the 6-alpha-hydroxylation of GAA, which result in non-enzymatic formation of the simplest STL, costunolide. Homology modeling of these two P450s suggests that subtle residue variations in the active site appear provide regio- and stereo-selectivity of these two related enzymes. Evolutionary significance of these 8-beta- and 6-alpha-GAA hydroxylases will be discussed in the context of Asteraceae phylogeny. | <urn:uuid:f3290ddb-5f72-4634-ab6d-68bc760dff05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.plbio.life.ku.dk/English/Aktiviteter/2011/3105_Dae-KyunRo.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925666 | 699 | 1.875 | 2 |
Are You Grumpy When You Wake Up? — Survey of the Day
But a new survey of 2,000 adults by Triton Showers has found that 60 percent regularly awake in a bad mood. All in all, the average person gets up on the wrong side of the bed twice a week.
Then there are the unlucky 25 percent who arise surly every morning.
The good news is that most morning grumps say that their mood improves by about 8 a.m. | <urn:uuid:3de3a888-0707-4916-96c2-a8544a071fd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://965kvki.com/are-you-grumpy-when-you-wake-up-survey-of-the-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947919 | 99 | 2.046875 | 2 |
TEACHING OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS
I have been regularly surprised about how many Managers I come across who believe that a valid Management approach is to look for people to do something wrong and then to help them correct it. I surmise that this satisfies two basic urges that these managers must have. The first one is that it gives them a chance to prove that they are more skilled than their subordinate, and therefore justify their elevated position, and secondly it gives them a chance to show that they have retained the Vocational skills that made them the brilliant “engineer” that they were in the first place. For many this helps to overcome the worry that being just a “manager” is not enough.
I have always believed that this is totally the wrong approach, and I am reminded of a friend of mine in New Zealand who went through a rather messy divorce. After the departure of his wife and son, he realized that he was rather lonely and decided that he should get a puppy to keep him company during the evenings and weekends.
Unfortunately the puppy got into the habit of peeing on the floor of his bedroom. Being a skilled “Engineer”, and seeing a problem that needed solving, he attacked this problem with incredible zeal. Every time that he found a puddle of pee, he would grab the puppy by the scruff of the neck, drag it into the bedroom, rub its nose in the pee, slap it on the rump with a piece of rolled up newspaper, and throw the puppy out of the window. ( he had a one story house so no need to call the SPCA). He could justify this approach by rationalizing that he had shown the puppy the problem (pee on the floor), had administered the resulting punishment (slap), and had shown the solution (do it outside).
After about 10 days of this the puppy started going into the bedroom, peeing on the floor and jumping out the window.
The problem with this approach to problem solving is that the puppy obviously understood the process. It was just trying to cut out the bits that it didn’t like …. It didn’t like having its nose rubbed in the pee nor being slapped with the newspaper.
People are no different.
When we make mistakes, none of us particularly like having our noses rubbed in it, neither do we like being punished for it.
As a result, when Managers take this approach to problem solving, the result is that people take the same approach as the puppy… they start to cut out the bits that they don’t like, such as being caught, reprimanded and punished, which means that mistakes often get hidden rather than being made visible and resolved jointly.
The way to train a newly acquired puppy to pee where you want it to, means that you have to dedicate at least the first weekend to training the puppy on what is expected. You do this by taking the puppy out to the required dog loo every 30 minutes or so, and waiting for the puppy to pee. When it does (and they do a lot), you praise it lavishly, and at the same time give it a command as it does the job. It will very quickly associate the praise and fuss with doing the job in the right way, in the right place, and very quickly the command (like “busy, busy, busy” which we use with our five dogs) becomes the suggestion to the dog that it is time it went outside and relieved itself. The early positive re-enforcement of the behavior that is required, quickly gets established as the pattern of behavior that should be followed.
In this respect, people are not very different.
You can achieve a lot more as a Manager by looking for your people to do something right, and then reinforcing that behavior with praise and reward, than by waiting for the mistakes. I understand that there are times when the mistakes need to be addressed, but if the culture of positive re-enforcement is the predominant one in the group, the need to occasionally address the problems becomes easier to deal with and has less negative impact on the group’s ability to work openly and well together. | <urn:uuid:c1575e14-7d9c-4a5e-a288-a4757f570683> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.roc-group.de/posts/show/284-teaching_old_dogs_new_tricks/de-de | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983254 | 861 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Alternative Solutions: Helium 3 Fusion
Continuing with Chico Town's alternative energy solutions series, we bring you Helium 3 Fusion. It's a type of nuclear fusion reaction that produces hardly any of the harmful radioactive waste that causes 3-eyed fish and sterile nut sacks. Helium 3 provides more bang for the buck since just a ton of the stuff is equivalent to $4 Billion dollars worth of oil!
The website EV World interviewed David Sereta this week on his efforts to make our planet a better place (he even planted 1.3 Million Trees himself) and promote alternatives to our oil addiction. The following quotes from the article that are sure to piss you off:
"If you don't get financing behind revolutionary-thinking scientists and scientific studies, you can't get anywhere.
He said that during the filming of a documentary, he interviewed the head of the solar lab at Sandia in New Mexico where they were "looking at massive breakthroughs in solar power and they're crying for money over there. There's no money." He added that neither the current Bush Administration nor the previous Clinton Administration provided the lab with enough money to pursue these potential breakthroughs.
...He's so keenly interested in Helium 3 as not only an earth-bound power source but as a propulsion system that could accelerate a spaceship to one-tenth the speed of light. He said the NASA's head of propulsion technology personally told him that he was excited about it's possibilities, but without private funding or Congressional appropriations the technology would have to sit on the shelf.
With the war in Iraq costing over 200 BILLION dollars, its a shame that we couldn't toss 10 Million to fund a Helium 3 Fusion reactor. Read more on David Sereda's work in developing Helium-3 and even a lil' something about UFO's and such. | <urn:uuid:2510c07a-6637-4f8d-a42e-8ba098cf2b5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chicotown.com/2005/12/alternative-solutions-helium-3-fusion.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96097 | 376 | 1.8125 | 2 |
10 Fascinating Facts About Men, Sex and Testosterone
Our culture has endowed women with some exotic qualities -- mystery, hidden depths, secret knowledge; all very alluring. But also very explainable. For a long time, women had little voice, so of course we were a mystery. Mute the TV and you won’t understand what the show is all about.
Men, by contrast, are alleged to be much more direct; even their primary sexual characteristics are obvious, hanging out there like an awning, compared to the secret gardens of women. In fact, the male stereotype was so set in my mind that the first time a straight man said to me, “It doesn’t always have to be about sex,” I looked at him like a puzzled dog. Men, I thought, were supposed to be relatively simple creatures, driven by sex, food and sleep (and sometimes Star Wars).
In reality, men are every bit as complicated as women and thoroughly fascinating in their sexual mechanics, hormonal fluctuations and brain functions. Here are 10 fun facts about male sexuality that make men a little easier to understand.
1. "I’m not gay but my boyfriend Testosteronius is."
Male sexuality was a different ballgame in ancient Roman times than it is now. One’s sexuality was defined not by preference for one sex or another, but as being “active” or “passive.” Active meant you were the penetrator and passive meant you were the penetrated. Sex was more about social status than anything.
N.S. Gill on About.com, reports that men of “good standing” were active, and they “initiated acts of penetrating sex. Whether you did this with a female or a male, slave or free, wife or prostitute, made little difference -- as long as you were not on the receiving end, so to speak.” (Only freeborn youths were out of bounds.) It’s actually quite complicated, but, writes Markus Milligan in Archeology News, “From a societal perspective, to be 'passive' or 'submissive,' threatened the very fabric of masculinity, with feminine traits, submission and passive mannerisms being an act of the lower class and slaves.”
So in ancient Rome if you were on top you were a top. We’ll call you Testosteronius.
2. Making a man out of you.
Let’s keep talking about testosterone, or T, because there’s no discussing male sexuality without it, the “quienes mas macho” of hormones, the thing that literally makes men men. All embryos develop the makings of both male and female sex organs: testosterone, under certain conditions, stimulates the growth of the male organs. It waves its magic wand and voila! You get a magic wand.
And once it’s made you a boy it doesn’t just leave you hanging; it accessorizes you as a male, making your voice deeper, your body hairier and muscle mass bigger. You also get that most useful and attention-getting of ornaments, the testes, which in turn, produce testosterone, though it’s regulated in the brain by the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, a little love triangle known as the HPG axis (hypothalamus, pituitary, gonad).
So that’s some of the technology of testosterone, which you probably think of as being at the helm of the male sex drive and manly traits. Interestingly, less than 100 years ago no one thought about it at all. Harvard Medical School associate clinical professor Abraham Morgentaler writes in Testosterone for Life (source of the HPF info) that, “For several thousand years, farmers have found that castrating domesticated animals made them infertile and more docile as well as greatly reducing their sexual activity. They did not know, however, that they were reducing a specific substance, because testosterone was not identified until the 1930s.” | <urn:uuid:5da7aa16-df93-455b-9b1b-58cb373e4ab9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alternet.org/10-fascinating-facts-about-men-sex-and-testosterone?page=0%252C2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97372 | 849 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Slide 10 of 29
For a model to resolve a perturbation, it has to be at least three grid points in amplitude (slightly above the level of “noise”).
Garbage-in; Garbage-out: This term is not intended to downplay the capabilities of Numerical Weather Prediction. It is however intended to emphasize the limitation of data analysis on areas where reliable data is not available for model initialization, as is the case over the open waters of the Tropical Atlantic. In the absence of data, the analysis is only as good as the previous forecast. Thus, if a model forecasts a wave over the Tropical Atlantic, the true nature, or existence, of that wave will not be determined by the numerical model until that perturbation reaches a reliable data source. This is until the wave reaches the Eastern Caribbean where RAOBS and surface observations are routinely available.
Although higher resolution satellite imagery is now available, cloud-drift vector estimates still carry errors large enough to force modelers to give little weight to this information when generating the initial analysis. This is unless the satellite data is also supported by nearby RAOBS and/or pilot reports, which are close to none over the Tropical Atlantic. During the analysis process pilot reports carry more weight than satellite derived data… which underscores the importance of PIREPS. | <urn:uuid:9ca64ef6-05f8-4845-9be9-63b2d1375202> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/international/training/tropicalwaves.old/sld010.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923203 | 275 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Map 1a: The French claim to North America, 1754.
*Refer to a modern map of the United States while answering the following questions.
1. How many states appear to be in the area of the original French claim?
2. Is your community in the Mississippi Valley? along one of the other rivers in the French claim? in Spanish Louisiana? in the area of the Louisiana Purchase?
3. Is there a difference in the size and area of Spanish Louisiana and the Louisiana Purchase? Why?
* The maps on this screen have a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a high quality version of Map 1a, Map 1b, and Map 1c, but be aware that each file may take as much as 30 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem. | <urn:uuid:bd8ccae6-1d6e-4aca-926e-b0242a8e54ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/20vieux/20locate1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933179 | 174 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Designed to protect the privacy of individual student test scores, grades, and other education records, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 places limits the access of educational researches, and slows research not only in education but also in related fields, such as child welfare and health.
Recent trends have converged to greatly increase the supply of data on student performance in public schools. Education policies now emphasize education standards and testing to measure progress toward those standards, as well as rigorous education research. At the same time, private firms and public agencies, including schools, have replaced most paper records with electronic data systems. Although these databases represent a rich source of longitudinal data, researchers' access to the individually identifiable data they contain is limited by the privacy protections of FERPA.
To explore possibilities for data access and confidentiality in compliance with FERPA and with the Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects, the National Academies and the American Educational Research Association convened the Workshop on Protecting Student Records and Facilitating Education Research in April 2008. | <urn:uuid:f839320d-7337-408b-b528-0299fb1c96b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12514 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931241 | 213 | 2.890625 | 3 |
BBC News: The team at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in Guildford goes to use Android-based smartphone to control 30cm-long nano-satellite and take pictures of the Earth in a space mission later this year.
Chris Bridges from the Surrey Space Centre said: "If a smartphone can be proved to work in space, it opens up lots of new technologies to a multitude of people and companies for space who usually can't afford it. It's a real game-changer for the industry."
Thanks to CDM for the link!
Update: Electronics Weekly too runs an article on this project. | <urn:uuid:5ff465be-2a2a-4f7a-a829-6cb1ebf6ab4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2011/01/camera-phone-in-space.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913668 | 128 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Reasonable Person Principle is the rule which you must abide by when accessing this network. Put differently, following the Principle is your obligation to your fellow community members.
The Principle was borrowed from Carnegie Mellon University, who use it as the governing principle for access to their computer systems; since it works for a whole University, we hope it will work for an IRC network with a few thousand participants. So far, results have been positive.
From Carnegie Mellon University's own explanation of the Principle:
Reasonable people think about their use of these facilities, and the needs of others, and adjust their behavior to meet the goals of a common good for the community, i.e., expressing what you want to say, but accepting and accommodating the needs of others. | <urn:uuid:d837cbf1-6094-408b-9e48-f4340fbc23da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irc.perl.org/reasonable_person.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972137 | 153 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Posted at: 12/18/2012 8:39 PM
Minn.'s Walz Open to New Gun Restrictions
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - U.S. Rep. Tim Walz of Minnesota says he is rethinking his opposition to a ban on assault weapons after the Connecticut school massacre.
Walz tells the Star Tribune (http://bit.ly/YikjK6) Tuesday that he remains a "proud" defender of gun rights. But he believes the gun lobby and other Second Amendment advocates are ready to show more flexibility following Friday's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
The Democratic congressman won a fourth term last month with the endorsement of the National Rifle Association.
Walz was one of 65 Democrats in the U.S. House who signed a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in 2009 opposing any prospective moves by the Obama administration to ban assault weapons.
Walz stopped short of endorsing new efforts to ban assault weapons.
Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) | <urn:uuid:5093df11-dbd3-41a3-906c-37495f6deb4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kaaltv.com/article/stories/S2871523.shtml?cat=10217 | 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 | 0.917183 | 247 | 1.539063 | 2 |
|This material is published under the OGL|
Spell Stowaway [Epic]Edit
Choose a spell-like ability the character knows, or a spell the character can cast. The character is attuned to the magic he or she chooses. If another spellcaster within 300 feet of the character uses this magic, the character also immediately gains the magic’s effect as if it had been used on the character by the same caster. The character must have direct line of effect to the spellcaster in order to gain the benefit of the attuned magic (though the character does not have to know the spellcaster is present, and he or she can be flat-footed). The magic’s duration, effect, and other specifics are determined by its original caster’s level. | <urn:uuid:cb36b71e-dadb-4085-9b3e-341750554731> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/SRD:Spell_Stowaway | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949589 | 162 | 1.9375 | 2 |