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Crossing The Line Ceremony
Ahoy there. What
ship is that and where are you bound?
His Britannic Majesty’s Cruiser Ajax from Bermuda bound for
south American Ports. Who
I am the Herald of his Oceanic Majesty, King Neptune, and I wish to come
I will stop the ship. Stop
both. My engines are
appears and bows to the bridge)
By what right do you challenge us upon the High Seas.
By command of my Royal Master, Lord of the Ocean.
I crave His Majesty’s pardon, and request permission to enter
His Equatorial Domain.
Royal Neptune bids you welcome, together with your crew, but will
demand the homage, which is due. For
he Decrees that all who cross the Line must first be shaved and then
baptized in brine; save those who having passed this way before and in
accordance with our Ancient Law, have shared in our time honoured
Mysteries and been presented with The Freedom of the Seas.
Are you prepared to swear to our Recorder, that everybody’s
papers are in order?
Nay, Sir Herald, this I cannot do for there are novices among our
crew. Yet everyone is keen
to play his part when the good King Neptune gives the word to start.
Tis well. His
Majesty commands that you will cause a muster of all hands to greet him
and his court from down below, tomorrow at 0-nine-double-0, at that hour
with his Queen Exquisite. My
Lord and Master come to pay his visit attended by his bears and retinue,
to see that every novice has his due.
of Police. Avast.
Belay, and likewise stop the bus.
Thus far you seem to have forgotten us King Neptune’s Maritime
Constabulary, of whom we warn all persons to be wary.
My satellites and I will search the ship to see that no one gives
our bears the slip. All
papers will be subject to close scrutiny, and woe to him unwise enough
Silence, Bears. And now hear one and all, at nine tomorrow we shall pay our
call, and so we leave you with this greeting Farewell! To our next merry meeting.
The next day
Clear lower deck. Everybody
aft. Officers athwart
ships, immediately abaft “Y” turret.
Captain and Commander in front.
starts from starboard waist. R.M.
Band and Buglers on “X” gun deck.
When the head of the procession reaches the quarterdeck, Buglers
sound the “Still.” Band
begins a Processional March and continues until court is assembled in
Captain. (Bowing of Neptune.) Our
humble Duty, Sire, may we with one accord welcome you and your lovely
Queen onboard. May I crave
pardon for my gallant crew for being nearly twelve months overdue in
making our appearance at your Court, to pay respectful homage as we
ought; but we have been preoccupied of late with certain little business
of State, which took us to a much more hostile region where we enlisted
in the “Foreign Legion.” That
work completed, we are back again seeking once more to enter your
Domain, so bid your Bears “Lay On,” you’ll find us tough, and
damned be he who first cries, “Hold, enough.”
Neptune. Well spoken, Ajax, I give you hearty greetings for many moons
I’ve waited for this meeting. Upon
this Day of days do I renew old friendships, and make friendships new.
Since you sped eastward at your King’s behest I’ve watched
you with the keenest interest. In all your journeying in Eastern waters, in all your
dallying with Egypt’s daughters, in all your games, from the day you
beat the Hood, I’ve seen you-knew you to be good.
And though tis true you never won a pot from all that fleet, they
chose you to be yacht, for no less person than the C-in-C, oh Queen
Elizabeth what a blow to thee. You
made firm friends with Officers and Ranks of t’ gallant Twentieth, the
Fusiliers from Lancs; while everywhere you’ve been, when you departed
someone, somewhere, has been left broken hearted.
And now you’re back once more upon this Station in work and
play keep up your reputation, so, when you meet your Admiral and the
rest, you’ll impress upon them who is really “Best.”
Neptune. Silence, ye Bears, forgive the dreadful pun, I know you’re
anxious for your little fun. (To
Ship’s Company.) But ere
we start upon our royal sport, methinks I’ll introduce you to my
court. First, me behold. Neptune
is I, the Might, and then my Queen, the peerless Amphitrite.
Now mark ye well my famous Chief of Police.
Who’ll never countenance a breach of peace.
The Motto of his Force is “Get your Man” and tis their boast
they carry out their plan. Nor
rank nor size can cause them to desist in arresting any persons who
resist. These will they
carry by the shortest path before my Court of justice, then-the Bath!
But meet my Doctor, who, with tasty pills will keep you fit and
cure you of all ills, and then our barbers, who with soap and brush,
will leave your skin just like a maiden’s blush.
(To Amphitrite.) Speaking
of mermaids, where are our girls today?
Amphitrite. I know the Ajax, so bade them stay away.
These fellows here, their fame has travelled far, and Neppy dear,
you know what sailors are. There is a chance, too, that the pretty dears might give the
younger element ideas.
Neptune. Ah well, my dear, no doubt you’re quite correct, in all we
do we should be circumspect, and this is not the time nor yet the place
to be distracted by a pretty face.
(To ship’s Company.) My
introductions are not yet complete; my bodyguard are hungry for their
Then when the
preliminaries are braved and every trembling novice has been shaved, we
pass them from our famous Rocking Chairs to the tender mercies of our
seeking for a meal will do their task with energy and zeal. So, when our Ancient Mysteries you’ve learned and by your
grit and courage you have earned our approbation, then it shall us
please, to confer on you “The Freedom of the Seas.”
But other matters
we would now attend bring Captain Thomson, an old and trusted friend.
brings Captain Thomson before Neptune.
Colin Sinclair Thomson, Royal Navy.)
Captain Thomson I am very glad to meet you at my
Court again, my lad. Indeed,
I’m proud to clasp you by the hand and compliment you on a very fine
command, but in addition to my greetings warm I have a pleasant duty to
perform, this being the twelfth time you’ve crossed my border, I now
invest you with this Ancient Order.
Captain with “The Order of the Trident.”)
Commander John Edmund Sissmore, Royal Navy.
A Commander’s thankless task, what’ ere his plans is usually
to carry someone’s cans; but I appreciate your heart of gold,
disclosed when yards of flannel are unrolled, so, in return for all your
deeds untold, I give you just another can to hold.
Commander with “The Order of the Periodical Can.”)
Commander (E) John Frederick Ward Tamplin, Royal Navy.
The normal duties of a Chief I find are of a very wide and
diverse kind; steam, water, oil, electric power supply and catapults to
help those men who fly; addicted to the Cine-Camera, and so to show you
how it pleases me I invest you with the Cine (E).
Commander (E) with “The Order of the Cine (E).”)
Paymaster-Commander B. H. Bowen, royal Navy.
Fish is fish and “pi” is “pi,” and ne’er the twain
shall meat. So try to keep
them separate and give the lads a treat; and trusting that in future, to
do this you will try I invest you with “The Most Exalted Order of Fish
Paymaster-Commander with “The Order of Fish Pi,” with “Roll
Major E. J. O. Ellison, royal Marines.
The rumour that has just been going round says, very shortly
you’ll be Homeward bound; and though, before, an unkind fate delayed
yer I’ll do the best I can for you, dear Major.
This little ship comes from your faithful Corps who wishes you
many happy days in store.
Major Ellison with “The Blue Funneller.”)
Flight-Lieutenant John Dalyell Stead.
Often when I’m sleeping in my bed I’m roused by hideous
noises overhead, and as tis you who causes me to rise to see a strange
contraption in the skies, to make your takings off less difficult, I
present to you this little Catapult.
flight Lieutenant Stead with “The Order of the Catapult.”)
Petty Officer Harrison.
By boats of divers things, both real and feigned, a certain
reputation you have gained, for when a story teller’s yarn is done you
usually cap it with a bigger one; instead of giving you the “Outsize
Crumpet” I shall bestow on you this little trumpet.
Able Seaman Parrett.
From the time this strange old World began I’ve always loved
the hearty trencherman. A
man to whom his food is such a joy, he’ll go the second time round the
buoy. Good men like you are
few upon this planet so please accept “The Order of the Gannet.”
A.B. Parrett with “The Order of the Hungry Gannet.”)
As Lord of all the Seas, upon my throne I have to lend an ear to
many a moan; invariably the answer that I give, “To err human-tis
noble to forgive,” So gaze on this, you’ll find it well worthwhile,
the order of the everlasting smile.
O Mighty Neptune, the Ocean’s rightful Lord, this ends the list
of those you would reward; the court must to the Bath; each at his
station all ready to perform initiation.
From here then, to the Bath, where I will wait to give a welcome
to each candidate unless he misbehave; in that event, severe but just
will be his punishment. And
when my Court and I have done our task a favour, Captain Thomson, I
would ask, that to your merry crew you will extend, today, the privilege
of a “Make and Mend.”
Lat. 00-00 North
Whereas it has been represented to me by a Competent Member of
King Neptune’s Maritime Police, that H. STRUDWICK, Leading Seaman:
CLASS FOR CONDUCT…IRREGULAR
CHARACTER ASSESSED TO DATE…BOLD AND BAD CLASS FOR
LEAVE…ALWAYS OVER THE SIDEDED Act in a manner to the prejudice and
good order and Oceanic discipline in that he had attempt t disguise
himself with a view to evading His Majesty’s bodyguard, by removing
from his face his natural chin covering of seaweed.
I hereby adjudge him to be GUILTY and sentence him to BE REFUSED
ADMITTANCE TO ANY UNDERSEA CABARET FEATURING SHRIMPS AND NYMPHS TO BE
LATHERED IN PINK AND TO BE STEEPED IN BRINE UNTIL HE IS BLUE.
Before awarding the foregoing Punishment, I did NOT investigate
the matter, and heard NO evidence in support of the Charge, nor what the
accused had to offer in his defence, but I consider the Charge to be
substantiated against him. Taking
into consideration that this is the SECOND Offence registered against
him in the Conduct Book, I adjudge him to be punished as afore stated.
Given under my hand onboard H.M.S. Ajax, at the Equator on the
First Day of September 1936.
E. J. Dale.
Police and Maritime Judge.)
Mr E.H.H. Rampling, Warrant Engineer
Chief of Police
Clerk of the World
Assistant Clerk of the World
Chief Shipwright Neville
Chief Yeoman Signals Harper
Chief Cook Babey
Sergt. Hand, R.M.
Paymaster-Commander B. H. Bowen
Makers of Regalia
Plumber Fletcher (Crowns and Trident)
Staging, etc (which collapsed) Mr
Butler (Warrant shipwright) and Staff
Swales, Commissioned Gunner | <urn:uuid:93f5910e-d7bd-468a-bfe7-23a16d2cbe56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/crossing_the_line.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904917 | 2,970 | 1.960938 | 2 |
The Durbin Amendment took effect in October and was a last-minute addition to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 approved by Congress.
Before the change, the swipe fee a merchant paid to the bank when a customer used a debit card was usually about 1 percent of the purchase price, and the average fee was 44 cents.
The cap limits the fees to no more than 26 cents per transaction, regardless of the purchase price.
The study found that the regulation would cost banks $8 billion in lost revenue. Georgia already has seen more bank failures than any other state. Since 2008, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has closed at least 80 of the state’s banks, including three in Cobb County.
“As home to many community banks, Cobb could be seriously harmed if the negative effects of the Durbin Amendment continue to creep down from larger to smaller banks,” said Kelly McCutchen, president and CEO of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.
Some community banks are partially exempted from the regulation, but McCutchen said they’re still seeing reduced revenue.
“Many smaller banks and credit unions that aren’t subject to the price controls are fearful that large retailers will drive customers toward cards issued by banks subject to the debit card caps,” he said.
Jay Gratwick is chief financial officer of Delta Community Credit Union, which has several branches in Cobb.
“Banks had counted on these interchange fees to help rationalize the costs of operating a debit-card program,” he said.
Exempt banks and credit unions can still charge the higher fees, but under provisions that just went into effect, a merchant can choose to process the transaction through a network that charges a lower fee. Retailers could also form alliances with larger banks subject to the price controls, cutting out smaller institutions.
“We worry the exemption will be eroded or eliminated over time,” Gratwick said. “If so, small institutions — those under $10 billion in assets — will be at a real disadvantage in trying to maintain debit card services.”
In the end, consumers may be the hardest hit.
“We have already begun to see that locally,” Gratwick said. “Many big banks have eliminated their free checking account products or introduced new requirements to offset some of the real decline in revenue they’ve experienced due to the amendment. They’ve had to pass part of these costs onto their customers to maintain their profitability.”
Rob Garcia, president and chief operating officer of Bank of North Georgia, agreed.
“All it has done is take billions of dollars of revenue away from banks — an already fragile industry — and passed it directly to retailers with no benefit reaching to the consumers it was supposed to help,” he said.
The biggest question is, how much more can a fragile economy take?
“Banks can only shift so much of the costs to consumers,” said John Berlau, author of the study and a senior fellow for finance and access to capital in the Center for Economic Freedom at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
“They already are having to eat some of the costs themselves. Some small community banks in Georgia also are starting to feel the pinch due to the indirect effects of price caps and other of the amendment’s provisions. This means less credit available to businesses, including the retailers that lobbied for the amendment.”
Michael J. Pallerino has reported on business news for magazines and newspapers in the Atlanta area for more than 20 years. | <urn:uuid:aef9ece3-80ba-4124-8c4c-8f374ef48455> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mdjonline.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Strikes+for+swipes-+Study+finds+debit-card+fee+cap+could+hurt+economic+recovery%20&id=19275791 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968235 | 752 | 2.109375 | 2 |
A FREE Traffic Safety Program Created With Teachers, for Teachers.
STREET SAFE is a brand new educational program that teaches pedestrian, school bus and bicycle safety to students in Kindergarten to Grade 3. It was created in response to feedback from Division One teachers on the former traffic safety program, Kinetic Kids.
STREET SAFE has been strategically redesigned to be an engaging introduction to specific traffic safety concepts at each grade level. Other improvements to the program include:
- New personal safety content with cross-curricular connections
- Carefully sequenced lessons that change and build from grade to grade
- Focused activities that are grade and age-appropriate
- New characters that age with students as they progress from grade to grade
New teacher resource guides with songs, activities and suggestions for cross-curricular connections
To preview the new materials, click on the icons below:
STREET SAFE For Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 is available to be ordered today by filling out and submitting this online order form. You can also order bicycle, pedestrian and bus safety materials and resources using the online order form.
All materials are free. Orders will be delivered directly to your school.
Last Updated May 03, 2012 | <urn:uuid:41dee047-a6d2-4bd8-b526-d8fecbb3067d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saferoads.com/streetsafe/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950321 | 257 | 2.828125 | 3 |
As part of its Community Health Action Plan, Tenke Fungurume Mining, a subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, drilled approximately 90 wells throughout its concession in the Democratic Republic of Congo to improve access to clean water and fight waterborne diseases.
Following the drilling process community members were trained to maintain the wells, and to educate residents on effective management of the utilities.
For the village of Pumpi, community members agreed to pay FC250 or $0.28 for every 20 liters of water. After less than three months, the pump had generated the equivalent of about $1,000. With these resources the Pumpi community decided to invest in classrooms for the education of children. To date, the masonry works are complete and the roofing is underway on the school building.
For further information about how Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. supports the communities in which they operate, please visit their website at http://www.fcx.com/envir/soc_com.htm
Please see the 2011 Working Toward Sustainable Development Report for more information on all of their social, economic and environmental efforts. http://www.fcx.com/envir/wtsd/pdf-wtsd/2011/WTSD_Bk_2011.pdf
KEYWORDS: Freeport-McMoRan, Tenke Fungurume Mining, Democratic Republic of Congo, Copper, Mining, water, community, wells, utilities | <urn:uuid:3e67d7c6-137a-44dc-87a0-6142a6bed15b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thenumbers.marketplace.org/publicradio/news/read/23030279/tenke_fungurume_mining | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934117 | 310 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Every good writing teacher tells us to narrow our topic because the sure sign of a novice is a paper entitled “The Universe and Everything in It.” Yet The Conflict of the Ages can rightfully include every thought every man has ever made. Augustine’s City of God, John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion and Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae are three attempts at this daunting task, yet they are incomplete. This brief overview, The Conflict of the Ages, will include information not available to Augustine, John Calvin or Thomas Aquinas. I also hope, by the grace of God, to make this much shorter work easier to understand for the modern mind. All Scripture references are from the KJV, unless otherwise noted.
The Conflict of the Ages references hundreds of authors, yet one source needs special mention. The website Sacred Texts by J.B. Hare is the largest collection of public domain material of which I am aware. The entire website of over one thousand books is available for purchase on either CD ROM or DVD ROM. All of the ancient texts I source are public domain books from this collection. A problem with this or any other collection is proving the validity of the primary sources. Though I do not know anything about J. B. Hare, except the information posted on his website, I believe that he faithfully and accurately scanned the texts. The problem is, are the texts reliable? Since they are public domain, they are older and sometimes not the latest translations. I am confident, however, that they are acceptable. Some sources I use are books where Westerners lived among a tribe and wrote down oral traditions. Though we trust that the authors accurately recorded the oral traditions, how much ‘contamination’ with outside influences shaped these oral traditions? The Lore of the Whare-Wananga, a New Zealand tribe, is well documented by the translator S. Percy Smith to be older than outside influences and free of ‘contamination.’ Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney, however, was published in 1900 after more than 250 years of wars and close contact with outsiders. The level of outside influence on the oral traditions of the North American Indians is impossible to measure or deny.
I. Desire and Interest
No power on earth can substitute for desire and interest. In the oldest written human record, The Epic of Gilgamesh, men are controlled by gods and goddesses through their desires. Children who want something can do unimaginable amounts of work to fulfill their desires when no amount of coercion can force them to fulfill their responsibilities. God has given us the responsibility is to control our desires.
A. Personal Responsibility
Some responsibilities we can ignore and others can do them for us, such as washing dishes or taking out the trash. Some can do other responsibilities for us with great difficulty, such as bathing an invalid. But some responsibilities cannot be done by anyone else. No one can memorize for us. No one else can change our will. Other people can change circumstances to force us to do something against our will, but no one can honestly change another person’s will.
1. Get Wisdom and Understanding
The purpose of this is to help us obey the command Solomon wrote in Proverbs 4:7. “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” The way Solomon uses the word wisdom is close to our idea of skill. It means a combination of the knowledge necessary for a task and the discipline to do the task correctly. Solomon exhorts us to use all of our strength and ability to become knowledgeable and skillful in doing what is right and best. He put it another way in Ecclesiastes 9:10: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”
2. Study Commanded
However, even when we have no burning desire, we are still commanded to sturdy. 2 Timothy 2:15: :Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” This is not referring to bookwork only, but is similar to what Solomon calls wisdom. It means learning what is right and doing what is right. This is a little clearer in Paul’s admonition in 1 Thessalonians 4:1: “Study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.”
3. Keep at it; a little at a time
Isaiah said in 28:10 and 13, “Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” A strict interpretation of the passage is Israelites listening to another language in captivity. However, the same principles apply to any type of study, even involuntary. Keep at it, a little at a time.
B. Attitude of the World
Charles Stanley has often said that attitude is what controls us, that it is the most important thing in our lives. The attitude of the world is self indulgence, pleasure. Self-discipline is only important when the end result is greater pleasure.
1. Love not the World
I John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The attitude of self-indulgence is at war with the love of God. This is a simple, though difficult, decision which everyone must make. 1 John 2:17: “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
2. Learn not the way of the heathen
Jeremiah 10:2: “Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen.” Where John writes about the attitude of the world, Jeremiah writes about that attitude carried out into action. Once again a simple, though difficult command.
C. Study is difficult
Some people might find study a way of escaping other responsibilities. A very tiny number of people find study enjoyable. Most people, however, would rather do just about anything rather than study. Remaining focused on the subject of study is tiring and difficult.
1. No end to book.
Solomon said, in Ecclesiastes 12:12, “Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” No one has the time to do all the studying he believes that he should. Other responsibilities interfere. No one could have ever read all the books he should have. There simply are too many books and life is too short.
2. Study wearies the flesh
Study is one of the most fatiguing tasks God has given to the children of men. He has given us the responsibility to balance the tasks in our lives for His glory. But just because a task is difficult does not mean that we should ignore it.
Proverbs 23:23: “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. “
Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Honesty and truth are similar, but not quite the same. Diogenes searched for an honest man, yet he never claimed to be one. Searching for honesty in others is certainly frustrating, but searching for truth can be quite fulfilling. Truth is an absolute, independent of the sinner. Honesty is a character trait. Since we are all sinners, each of us can be honest and truthful at one time and dishonest at another. A man unfaithful to his wife might be trustworthy with large amounts of money. A woman who lies to get a promotion at work might never even consider stealing from that same employer.
A. We are self-deceived.
Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
I John 1:8-10: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
We are born self-deceived and nothing we can do will change our basic nature.
1. We do what we want to do: Pride
Putting our own desires ahead of doing or thinking what is right is the essence of pride. Monks in the Middle Ages who gave up all their personal goods and rights would fight over a pen, simply because it was assigned to them. Apart from yielding to the control of the Holy Spirit, we are all proud. We ignore our pride by looking for pride in others.
2. What we want to do is not what is best.
This is a more subtle form of pride. We choose to do something that we are convinced is best, simply because it is what we want to do. The first and more obvious form of pride is simply doing what we want. This is convincing ourselves, and often others, that our course of action is best. True love is doing what is best for the ones we love. It is also honest.
B. Honesty is the greatest need on earth.
Complete honesty will begin by admitting that we are sinners and finish in Jesus Christ. Without honesty, neither individuals nor the human race has any hope. Wars are the result of national dishonesty. Endless fights are the result of personal dishonesty. Dishonesty is the root cause for personal destruction. Dishonesty is the root cause for family disintegration, national disintegration and ultimately, wars.
C. According to the Word of God, everyone who was ever born or ever will be born falls into one of three categories.
The Bible is a record of believers. Adam is a believer. So also are Noah, Abraham, Moses, Ruth, David, Daniel, John, Mary, Peter, Paul and many more. They are also, as we are, sinners. Their sins are recorded along with their faith.
The Bible is a record of triumph over unbelievers. Balak, Goliath, Jezebel and her prophets of Baal, Sennacherib, the Philistines, Tobiah and many others openly defied the living God. Their destruction is accurately recorded.
These are men who knew the Living God and chose to rebel against Him. Today we might say that these are men who want their freedom. Lot, Balaam, Samson, Saul the first king of Israel and Esau fall into this category. Without additional revelation, it is not possible to know if these men were believers or not. Their sins destroyed others and their life stories are great tragedies.
Very few people who look at beautiful cabinets wonder what kind of tools made them. Like those cabinets, very few people who look at our lives will wonder what kind of tools shaped us into what we are today. Tools, and skillful use of those tools, however, are essential for shaping us. We must not get wrapped up in the tools themselves, but keep our eyes focused on the ultimate goal, the ‘finished product.’
A. Designed for unbelievers or weak believers
If we look at ourselves honestly, each of us must admit that in at least some area of his life he is a weak believer. Only pride will toss aside these tools with the attitude of ‘I have progressed beyond this.’
1. Apologetics: Francis Schaeffer, Josh Mac Dowell
The science of Apologetics is the systematic defense of the Faith. It does not mean to apologize for. I am not endorsing any of the men I mention simply because I do not know enough about them. All men change from day to day. I am, however, endorsing these books. Josh MacDowell wrote two excellent books, Evidence that Demands a Verdict and More Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Both books now have been combined into The New evidence that Demands a Verdict. These books use an outline format that makes the information easy to understand. It is similar in format to many doctrines books, with a lot of information in a small space.
Francis Schaeffer, who is now with the Lord, wrote many books in prose. His books are easy to read, though the subject matter is difficult. His major apologetic work is The God Who Is There. Francis Schaeffer not only shows that God exists, but also that He is a God of Love. Each work of his that I have read remained focus on his main point and was a delight to read. If you do not enjoy outlines, I highly recommend Francis Schaeffer.
I realize that most people either skimmed over or skipped entirely my emphasis on honesty and the dangers of pride. The following is one example of why honesty and avoiding pride are so important. The source of this piece is the website http://www.infidels.org. Jeffrey Jay Lowder lists himself as editor. “Many readers will recognize me as the editor of a comprehensive Internet rebuttal to Volume I of McDowell’s Evidence. Yet McDowell completely ignored our criticisms in his “fully updated” New Evidence. This cannot be due to ignorance. I have personally tried to correspond with Mr. McDowell twice; each time I received no acknowledgement.” When I clicked on the rebuttal, I found a series of authors, with Mr Lowder writing the introduction. In the introduction he writes that the purpose for writing these articles is that “ETDAV is also arguably the most influential Christian apologetics book on the Internet, which is what led the Internet Infidels to write The Jury Is In: The Ruling on McDowell’s “Evidence”.” The first author, Farrell Till, writes in his opening paragraph:
“In ETDAV, McDowell begins his defense of the Bible with the claim that it is unique. He parades before us an array of ‘scholars’ to testify to various features of the Bible that qualify it to be considered ‘different from all others [books],’ as if anyone would seriously try to deny that the Bible is unique, i.e., different from all others. At the very beginning of my analysis of this chapter of ETDAV, I will concede that the Bible is undeniably unique. Certainly, there is no other book like it, but this fact, as we will see, becomes more of an embarrassment to the Bible than proof of its divine origin.”
This is character assassination, a tactic they frequently use, as well as flawed logic. The poor writing style makes any kind of an intelligent response difficult. Rather than angering these people with points they do not understand, we need to look at the real issue, honesty. | <urn:uuid:da6f596e-680a-43ec-9b33-b4b7ee264b34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://elkjerkyforthesoul.wordpress.com/tag/christians/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959919 | 3,199 | 2.421875 | 2 |
May 6, 2011
Women who give birth in fall and winter may be more likely to get postpartum depression than those who deliver in the spring.
Swedish researchers studied more than 2,000 new moms over a one year period.
Participants completed questionnaires on symptoms of depression as well as how much social support they had at five days, six weeks and six months after giving birth.
Between six and fifteen of every 100 mothers reported symptoms of postpartum depression.
After accounting for a variety of factors the team discovered those who gave birth between October and December were nearly twice as likely to have postpartum depression symptoms after six weeks and six months than those who had children between April and June.
The study published in the 'American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology' doesn't prove giving birth in the fall or winter causes postpartum depression.
Study authors say the reason for the link is still unexplained and urged further research on the topic. | <urn:uuid:131d2842-1c08-401d-93a8-cae5f596aa10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wctv.tv/wswg/news/wswghealth/headlines/Health_Matters_Do_the_Seasons_Influence_Postpartum_Depression_122266449.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978881 | 200 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
A Little About Canadian Culture and Unique Achievements
Canada is a nation in search of an identity. In fact the government spends tons of our tax dollars trying to invent one for us by keeping American culture away from us - but it doesn't work. It just delays us from discovering US cultural trends.
Canada is by nature basically a milder version of American culture. But we are 10 or 15 years behind. We imitate most every trend and practice that begins in America, but being so far away from it, and being at least a decade behind and having not generated it ourselves naturally out of our own culture and people, we don't ever quite get it.
We have imitation US sitcoms, imitation US gangsta rap, imitation imitation wrestling. McDonald's and KFC's are everywhere making us fat and lethargic.
We are mostly imitators, but we do have some slight differences and some unique talents.
For one thing we know something about America, but Americans barely even know we exist. They think Toronto is the capital. Americans know more about Mexico than about their more similar neighbors up north.
When Canada does have something truly unique, we have this awful tendency to get rid of it.
Canadians make great beer, much better than American beer. Even so, I'll still see Canadians in Canada buying cases of Bud or Miller and it shocks the Hell out of me! The stuff tastes like rat piss!
Canadian beer used to come in manly brown bottles called "stubbies". Our beer is so superior to US bottled pee that it deserves a handsome and unique container like this. Yet Canadian businesses are so eager to imitate US business, that they will copy even inferior ideas, like putting beer in long neck girly bottles for modern man and his skinny fingers. Real men's hands need to firmly grasp short thick stubbies.
Labatt 50, the most manly and tasty Canadian beer is now in these wimpy pantywaist American style skinny bottles.
Canada also s the quart beer bottle which is extra manly. That's what we drank from when we were 12.
Humpty Dumpty Chips guy ruined by American "tude"
Canada makes the worst pizzas - they make it with white Velveeta cheese and luncheon meat. It sort of looks like a pizza but tastes like a grilled cheese sandwich with fried bologna on it that they call "pepperoni".
BUT they make up for that with something called "Montreal Smoked Meat". This is kinda liked corned beef but much tastier and juicier. If you are in Toronto, go to Mel's on Bloor street for a great variety of smoked meat sandwiches. In Ottawa, Dunn's is good. Montreal probably has it everywhere since they invented it.
Canadians all have summer homes in the wilderness that we call "cottages". There is a whole world of unique culture that happens at cottages. That's where we shed our American ways and revert to barbarism.
There was a TV show about cottage life in the 80s called "Mosquito Lake" starring Canada's funniest man, Mike McDonald. Unfortunately it was written by bad Canadian writers trying to imitate bad American sitcom writing, instead of having Canadian comedians (like Mike) write the show sincerely in a Canadian way.
Canada grows comedians and then tends to export most of them to the US. Those of us who don't play hockey in the winter, have nothing better to do than hole up in the basement for months, drink from stubbies and make fun of each other. This is a great training ground for comedy.
Then when we grow up the Canadian government which controls and restricts the entertainment business, while trying to force us to be uniquely Canadian, sends many of its most unique talents to the US, where the market is much larger and slightly more open. It used to be a lot more open to originality, talent and competition, until they deregulated the entertainment companies and caused American culture to degenerate into severe blandness, that today is no longer that different than Canada's media culture - just a Hell of a lot more expensive.
Americans think that there is no bacon in Canada, so they invented something called "Canadian Bacon" that is chopped ham stuffed in a tube. You can't find this substance in Canada but it' all over the States.
ACTUAL CANADIAN BACON
We do have an extra meat called "Back Bacon" or "Peameal Bacon" which is super tasty and lethal.
THE TOQUE (pronounced "tuke")
Americans always laugh when I say "toque". They don't what it is, but they stole it from us. It was invented for function - it's meant to keep your head and ears warm in freezing weather.
Americans wear them to be be cool and gangsta in the middle of summer, just like they wear their pants underneath their underwear.
In Canada, toque styles change every year. The classic toque has a pompom on top.Of course Canadians have the best Hockey players, but the Americans spend zillions of dollars to steal them from us.
We have great fighters because the drinking age is 12 in Canada, and so drunk kids always fight each other on the streets - especially in Quebec, where adult teeth were a rarity when I grew up.
This is all background for the origins of Canadian Style animation.
There are some unique naturally Canadian cultural things, but the Canadian media and the Government cause Canadians in general to abandon them for superficial imitations of American culture. We copy good things and bad things about American trends indiscriminately.
We even have Canadian hip hop and homies now.
The government reacting to US influence encourages non-creative people to come up with uniquely Canadian symbols and properties and forces them upon us.
We had "Ookpik" in the 70s, but I
think he died an ugly well-deserved death.
In 1967, to celebrate Canada's independence, the government commissioned a new flag and
accepted a design that looks like a bargain basement corporate logo designed by a Sheridan College design student.
Canada's image is like a blander imitation of the United States. It's a shame, because there is a ton of natural talent in Canada, but it isn't encouraged honestly or intelligently.
It's the same way for animation. Canada produces some of the best animators in the world, but the general commercial style is a bland imitation of American style...which is an bland imitation of classic American cartoon style.
I'll get into more details, bit by bit.
Here are the main 3 ingredients of the Canadian style of animaton.
Those 3 influences, government meddling, plus America's constantly degenerating culture have led to the modern age of Canada's exciting style. | <urn:uuid:f051f6c9-a1bb-483d-afd2-9122fdeb03b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2008/09/little-about-canadian-culture-and.html?showComment=1220563980001 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95829 | 1,410 | 1.703125 | 2 |
While many of her peers are getting ready for vacations, 24-year-old Suzanne Stettinius has a less conventional plan for her summer holiday.
The Parkton woman is traveling to London to claim Olympic glory. Stettinius is competing in the modern pentathlon, an arduous daylong event requiring participants to fence, swim, horseback ride, run and shoot.
"It's pretty unbelievable right now," she said.
"The difference was that in Pony Club, we didn't do fencing," she said.
Stettinius pursued the activity more aggressively in high school when she started taking fencing lessons. She also honed her swimming skills when she joined the competitive team while a student at McDaniel College.
Qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games was no small feat. Stettinius—ranked among the top two female modern pentathlon athletes in the country—had to compete in four World Cup events, the Senior World Championship and the World Cup Final.
"I can't wait to go," she said. "I'm really excited."
In preparation, Stettinius has made training for the five-sport competition a full-time job.
"I'm not working right now," she said. "I spend all my time training."
But Stettinius is approaching the games with some trepidation. In the past two years, she has broken her neck and collarbone, and pulled a hamstring.
"I'm a little worried about it," she said.
Financial burdens are also on Stettinius' mind. She needs to raise $60,000 to fund the experience, which would include coverage for her equipment, accomodations and coaches' travel expenses. So far—with 67 days remaining before her event—$12,000 has been donated.
"This is an amateur competition so the Olympic Committee doesn't pay for anything," she said. "[Athletes] have to use their own money."
But, she added, interested donors can still help out after the event to assist her family in offsetting any upfront costs. More information on contributing is available on Stettinius' website.
"I'm just focused on doing my best," she said. | <urn:uuid:c91baf4b-7a7a-42b7-9c43-755dd01f8af1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://huntvalley.patch.com/articles/parkton-woman-headed-for-olympics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981368 | 461 | 1.5 | 2 |
dogman wrote:My daily ride climbs 1000' vertical. So what I get is often as bad as it gets. Slowing down really helps too, stay under 20 mph, and I get much better wh/mi.
Climbing that hill with a "normal" winding motor makes heat. When I was using a slower motor, I climbed cooler and also never exceeded 20 mph. Definitely got close to 2 miles per ah with that setup.
neptronix wrote:Everyone says that a slower wind is less efficient. But i always thought that they use less amps to create the same amount of torque, sacrificing top speed, which can be gained back by adding more voltage, and volts do not create heat in wiring, amps do, am i correct
neptronix wrote: and volts do not create heat in wiring, amps do, am i correct?
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests | <urn:uuid:e7bee559-524a-4c78-9f89-1455a9d47816> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=410203 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947583 | 189 | 1.570313 | 2 |
A comprehensive, well rounded academic program is provided to high school students by the North Clackamas School District. Our programs include courses in Social Science, Language Arts, Visual and Performing Arts, Science, Mathematics, Health and Physical Education, and extensive offerings in the professional/technical areas. We offer challenging and interesting courses of study which include the acquisition of academic and technically-oriented knowledge and skills. Additionally, the school-based experiences are connected with work-based opportunities. Through a planned focused program of academic and professional/technical courses, students can prepare for lifelong learning including: direct placement into the work force, advanced study at technical institutions, military training, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities.
We encourage you to carefully choose classes that keep your goals and aspirations in mind, as well as the district graduation requirements, listed in the next couple of pages. If you are planning to attend a four-year college, look at the college requirements listed in this book. Consult web sites and books in the CAV Center for more information on specific colleges and training programs. As you are planning for your future, be sure to ask a lot of questions - of teachers, counselors, and professionals in the field in which you are interested. This is your future!
If you are a junior or a senior: Since reading, writing, speaking, and mathematics graduation requirements must be met to earn an NC# 12 diploma, freshmen and sophomore students must work diligently to meet these performance standards by the end of the sophomore year or be required to make an extra effort to meet work and assessment performance standards their junior or senior years. | <urn:uuid:aaddf1ee-9d0d-45ac-b8c5-0a351240b4ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nclack.k12.or.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=2435 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960234 | 328 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Angola has scored Africa’s first liquefied natural gas terminal.
In May Angolan state oil company Sonangol announced that the LNG tanker Sambizanga had arrived to test gas loading and connection facilities at Soyo, Angola’s port at the mouth of the Congo River.
Soyo in northern Zaire province is where Sonangol and Chevron have established a $4 billion, 5.2 million ton per annum LNG plant. Surprisingly, its intended market is not East Asia, where LNG use has been growing by leaps and bounds each year, but rather the U.S., with the first LNG being sent from the Soyo facility to the Gulf LNG Mississippi regasification terminal, under construction near Pascagoula, Mississippi for U.S. sales. The Soyo LNG plant will come online shortly.
The future seems sunny, as Angola is the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria and one of the world’s fastest-growing economies due to an on-going hydrocarbon expansion that led to Angola’s decision in 2007 to join OPEC. While Angolan initial LNG output from Soyo is destined for the U.S., the biggest customer for seaborne LNG is Japan, with annual imports of about 80 million tons, followed by South Korea and China, while Indian imports are also on the rise. | <urn:uuid:d1334489-5a3c-4fbe-b2a0-3078d0490bdd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://junkscience.com/2012/07/03/angola-builds-africas-first-lng-terminal-good-news-for-some/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94617 | 291 | 2.25 | 2 |
My three boys graduated HS between 2000-04. Really not that long ago.
We didn't have internet access until the youngest was like a junior/senior so we're talking maybe 2003. I was told that my kids would be behind. They would be computer illiterates. Today they've not only caught up but I would venture a guess they know more than most. In fact my youngest son is a computer genius in my eyes for all that he knows and does. He gets paid pretty big bucks today for what he does and it's all computer oriented. He's in marketing, sets up websites, helps businesses do better business etc, all with computer software programs that he's designing. Recently, to his own amazement, he had two corporations fighting over him with what started out to be just a job offer from a competing company familiar with his work. In the end he wound up making 20K more a year because one outbid the other for his employment.
At the time they were in HS I was leery about the whole kids on the net stuff so we opted not to bring the internet into the house. We had heard lots of rumors about the fact that being on the net was kin to dropping your kids off in the middle of NY City and letting them go with no supervision.
At the time it was just beginning to be a tool for research in the school systems. They had computer access in school if they needed to do any research but it had not been a real problem up until then. It was more of an optional thing for the most part. Today it would be impossible, it seems, just in these few short years to NOT be on the net. In fact I read recently some school systems, in an effort to save money, are requiring students to take at least one online HS class before they graduate. I have a feeling that's where we're going. If that's the case, what will we do with all these huge school buildings that were built in the last so many years?
Our kids didn't do FB or My Space. They didn't have any online friends. Neither did I. Their friends were tangible. They could see the expressions on their faces as they talked with them and they could hear the tone of their voices as they spoke with them over the phone. How in the world did we survive with no internet? Hard to imagine now isn't it? Does anyone talk on the phone anymore? I mean really talk? Seems like it's more about texting or emailing or face booking these days.
Makes me wonder what else is coming in the near future for our grandchildren? | <urn:uuid:83900cda-cdf4-417c-9932-51b1a0a1e67c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.wincustomize.com/411989/page/1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991459 | 533 | 1.609375 | 2 |
June 15, 2011 Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have discovered a key molecule needed to kill the blood vessels that supply tumours.
The research team from the institute's Molecular Genetics of Cancer and Cancer and Haematology divisions found that for anti-cancer therapies that target tumour blood vessels to work the death- inducing molecule Bim is required. The finding could lead to improved anti-cancer treatments that are based on a two- or three-pronged attack on both the tumour and its blood supply. The research will be published online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
The growth of solid tumours, such as lung cancer, breast cancer and melanoma, depends on nutrients and oxygen being provided by the tumour blood supply. Cancer cells encourage the growth of blood vessels to feed a tumour by producing the hormone-like protein, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The research by Drs Edwina Naik, Leigh Coultas and Lorraine O'Reilly, and Professors Jerry Adams and Andreas Strasser showed that VEGF produced by tumours blocks production of Bim in the cells that line the tumour blood vessels.
New 'anti-angiogenic' medications that attack the blood vessels within tumours are showing promise in starving many types of cancers by reducing their blood supply.
In this study, in experimental melanoma, lung cancer and breast cancer models, Bim levels increased in the cells lining the blood vessels when VEGF was depleted by anti-angiogenic drugs, ultimately killing the blood vessel cells. VEGF depletion reduced the number of blood vessels in tumours, making the tumours shrink. However, in mice in which the blood vessels do not express Bim, VEGF depletion did not affect the number of tumour-associated blood vessels, and tumours grown in Bim-deficient mice did not respond to anti-angiogenic treatments.
Dr Strasser said this finding suggests that strategies for treating tumours by attacking the tumour blood supply could be optimised by incorporating drugs called BH3-mimetics that cause cell death by acting like Bim at a molecular level. "Similarly, therapies that increase the amount of Bim in tumour blood vessels could enhance the effects of anti-angiogenic agents," Dr Strasser said.
"BH3 mimetics may have two beneficial effects in cancer therapy. Our previous research had showed they can directly trigger death in tumour cells, particularly when the tumour is also attacked by chemotherapeutic drugs. We now think BH3-mimetics could also impact tumour cells indirectly by killing endothelial cells within tumours.
"This suggests that a promising new approach to the therapy of solid tumours may be to use a three-medication combination of a drug that specifically targets the tumour cell, an anti- angiogenic agent to impair the tumour blood vessels, plus a BH3 mimetic that will help the anti- tumour drug to directly kill the tumour cells and also will help the anti-angiogenic agent to kill the intra-tumoral endothelial cells, which in turn will starve the tumour, causing even more tumour cell death."
The research was supported by the Cancer Council Victoria, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council, the US National Institutes of Health, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Genentech.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
- Edwina Naik, Lorraine A. O'Reilly, Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat, Delphine Merino, Ann Lin, Michele Cook, Leigh Coultas, Philippe Bouillet, Jerry M. Adams, Andreas Strasser. Destruction of tumor vasculature and abated tumor growth upon VEGF blockade is driven by proapoptotic protein Bim in endothelial cells. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 2011; DOI: 10.1084/jem.20100951
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:98ed480c-46eb-4155-ae73-2758fccd9582> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110606112814.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918734 | 843 | 2.96875 | 3 |
View Full Version : 9-ball tournament help
Hi there, my name is Evie, and I just took over as a pool-hall manager. I have played for many years, but now I need to put on a 9-ball tournament, and I am completely lost. Any advice or websites that can help?
You can download tournament charts at http://www.playpool.com/download.php, click on "Tournament Charts" and choose the right size and format (single or double elimination) that suits your needs.
Example -- If you have 28 players, choose the 32 player chart and spread the 4 byes evenly on the chart.
<blockquote><font class="small">Quote: evie:</font><hr> Hi there, my name is Evie, and I just took over as a pool-hall manager. I have played for many years, but now I need to put on a 9-ball tournament, and I am completely lost. Any advice or websites that can help? <hr></blockquote>
06-13-2002, 12:18 PM
If you have a PC available for the tournament, you can also download The Pool Tournament Manager from Ed's site at http://www.playpool.com./tptm/. It runs under Windows '95/'98/NT. It is not guaranteed to run on newer versions of the Windows operating system although some have installed it successfuly under ME and XP.
I know the author and he does good work. <BG>
06-13-2002, 01:52 PM
The playpool.com tournament manager that Ed Mercier put together is wonderful. I also suggest that you contact Danny Green of PlanetPool (http://www.planetpool.com)
He has put together a great spreadsheet of the DC/MD/VA area weekly tourny's. Once you've decided on what day of the week the tourny will be held, entry fee, format and so forth...send him an email with all that info. and the address and contact number of the poolroom and he can add it to his list.
Hope to see you at Shirlington in June. Hope you got the reply email I sent you and all the best of luck in your new job!
By the way, which poolroom?
06-13-2002, 02:05 PM
<blockquote><font class="small">Quote: Holly:</font><hr>The playpool.com tournament manager that Ed Mercier put together is wonderful.
Just because I'm a stickler for details, I wanted to clarify that it was the inimitable David L. Syrja who authored the The Pool Tournament Manager software that you're referring to. Some people think of him as an Ingrate, but we know he's a good guy, even if he is in Canada!
06-13-2002, 04:56 PM
Haven't seen any of Dave's posts in some time. Did he make the move to Canada and forget to take his computer with him? Jake
06-13-2002, 06:53 PM
I sign on this board as Mr Ingrate. Some time ago a brand new CCB poster took me to task for being an ingrate for my comments about the way Billiard's Digest was running their board and their refusal to tell me who had been awarded the Lucasi Cue. Of course I still haven't found out. George Fels said he would find out for me but never got back to me. So, I assumed they welched on their deal.
Lorri, who tagged me as an ingrate, wasn't privy to the suggestions and research I did on suggesting corrections, etc., for the board since those messages had scrolled off before she came on.
Even though I felt my criticisms were largely constructive, it amused me (my strange sense of humour) to sign up on the NEW IMPROVED CCB as Mr. Ingrate. If you click on the profile you will see my name and e-mail address.
I should have sent you a private e-mail before this and I will take care of that oversight right away.
As part of the move, I now sign on the other boards as Dave in Victoria so there is not confusion with all the other Daves.
06-13-2002, 06:58 PM
Thank you for the kind words.
Forgive me, please Mr. Ingrate, as I was so young and arrogant back then! As you can see, not much has changed save the youth! /ccboard/images/icons/smile.gif
06-14-2002, 05:59 AM
I'm sorry to say that I do not make a habit of checking the profiles of all posters. I had no idea that you were using a new name. I am very happy to know that you are still here.
Now I wonder if some of the other people that I miss are using new names or just being Anonymous.
Starting out, I don't see why you need a software program or any other tournament manager system. The simplest thing to do is get the 8, 16 and 32 man double elimination charts from playpool.com, depending on how many people you expect to show, and then have the appropriate ones blown up and made into a big chart, I had this done at a photo shop near here, Kinko's can do it. Then, with a little tripod or stand, you've got a good start. The next step is to understand placement of byes. In the past there has been lots of good discussion of this at the rec.sport.billiard newsgroup, you can access the archives through Google. You use a chart depending on how may people show. If 12 people show, you use a 16 man chart. A bye goes in each quarter of the chart, since you have four byes. If someone shows up late, you can let them in by having them pull a pill for one of the 4 bye spots, at least that's how we do it. There is no such thing as a 12 man chart, or a 14 man chart, etc. Use either 8, 16, 32, 64, etc. Look for the explanation of bye selection.
In our tournament, we've run into a problem in that the same people tend to win, and we have some weaker players that tend to lose. Instead of having a random draw, lately we've been pitting the weaker players against each other on the chart, and then drawing for the remaining spots.
06-14-2002, 07:22 AM
I knew it was a matter of time before I'd find you Dave. I'm surprized my field operative Barbara(call her Babs and she'll rip your face off)didn't inform me of this? Go figure, help isn't what it was 20 yrs. ago.
I seem to recall you moving to Canada to avoid the draft? I'm all over this one Dave. It's recently been spotted in Vegas at the Riv. Strange how it's strong enough to knock a beer can from your hand. Definitly have to look into this.
C.C.~~Dick, Dick and Dick...the saga continues....
PS: good to hear your here, Dave...
06-14-2002, 10:27 AM
Thanks for the info. I type corrected : ) No disrespect to anyone for my faux pas.
06-14-2002, 10:48 AM
Nothing to forgive. Besides it gave me a new "handle" for the new board .... almost as effective as Anonymous.
06-14-2002, 01:14 PM
Hey Big Guy!! Long time no see!!! I tried to respond to this post last night but my post wouldn't go through, so ignore CC's comment.
We missed you in Vegas. So how have you been?
06-14-2002, 01:15 PM
I was going to let you know last night but the CCB's server was acting up and after trying to post for 15 minutes I gave up and logged off!!
Barbara~~~>aka Agent 99
I've played in 4 handicap tournaments in a subburb of Chicago. Whoever wins gets raised 1 point. I think all the in the money finishers get raised 1/2 point. I started at a 5. I did poorly in my first 3 tournaments. The owner wanted to lower me to a 4 1/2. But I said I prefer to stay at 5. But I guess he raises all in the money finishers. And he lowers those that are playing poorly and winning very few games. He has books with all the tournament results for a couple years I think. Or maybe it's just all the in the money finishers. After each match you go up to the counter and he marks down who won and the score of each match. By score I mean games won like 6 to 3 etc.
06-14-2002, 01:44 PM
Doing great. The effects of chemo are all gone. Unfortunately, the weight didn't stay off. I've kept the beard off and my hair is now quite short. I look like a different person (to me anyway).
I had to miss Vegas this year as we were in the middle of selling the house and moving.
Victoria is paradise!
I came in late, so I had no idea! Dave, I'm so glad you're still with us, in a lot of ways!!!! Chemo is a bitch! But you'd have traded my reason for yours, I'd be willing to bet. My best and biggest wishes for a long and healthy future, Dave. /ccboard/images/icons/smile.gif
How does the handicap work? Like when a 4 plays a 6, what's the handicap? One plays a race to 4, the other a race to 6? Or do they give them the 8? Thanks.
06-15-2002, 12:13 PM
Thank you Lorri,
There were some 8 inches of large instestine removed, along with a tumor the size of a snooker ball, during the bowel resection operation. It was high enough up so they could re-attach it (no bag). The operation was a snap ... the chemo was something else.
I bored the board recounting my experiences and started a small contest. Unfortunately, you can't access the board archives to read any of the posts. I do have what I wrote on my personal web site: http://www.syrja.net and I think Barbara probably saved the whole thread with the hilarious responses to my drug induced rambling. Love that morphine.
I, of course, didn't save any responses because I was sure that I could get BD to make the archives work.
On the bright side, since my waste management capacity has been drastically reduced, I am no longer as full of shlt as before.
06-15-2002, 01:33 PM
Why yes Dave, I did save that thread!! I just went back and re-read some of the posts and am still laughing. Lorri's welcome to read it when we see each other next weekend at Castle.
Barbara~~~also saved Fran Crimi's combat workshop thread...
Thunderbolt. You play to your handicap. You have to win a number of games equal to your handicap. So a 4 would only need 4 wins and the 6 would need 6 wins. All 1/2 points are rounded down in the early, non money rounds. And the 1/2 points are rounded up in the later, in the money rounds. Sometimes 4 places have been paid and sometimes eight places have been paid. The winner of each tournament get raised 1 point. And all in the money finishers get raised 1/2 point. I'm not sure how he lowers people's handicap. But it seems like there are always a couple players asking to have their handicaps lowered. And I saw him take out big 3 ring binders with results from the last couple years. One of the players looked through them. Finally he said here. I haven't won since Jan. The owner checked. He said this shows me you won as a 10. So you are capable of winning as a 10. This player was a 9 now. He said I will lower you to an 8 1/2 but now lower then that. The player said thanks and turned away.
I remarked to the owner. It seems like I'm the only one who is trying to go up in his handicap. The other player overheard. He looked at me and said I've been playing for two years and only won 1 tournament. How long have you been playing. I said only 4 tournaments. But I'm trying to get better. Early Rich wanted to lower me. I prefer to have to get better or play better to win. I wasn't meaning anything bad against you. And he said will see what you want if you even last playing for a couple months. And we dropped it.
I probably should have challenged him to a match then for a few bucks. Just for kicks. But I just shut up.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.0 Copyright © 2013 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:8a85fb9e-9141-41eb-83d2-c3f721169a63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://billiardsdigest.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1840.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972923 | 2,775 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Notes: 185 / 7 months ago
Period:Nanbokuchô period (1336–92) Culture:Japan Medium:Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on hemp
Seated atop a white fox on a cloud held aloft by a pair of dragons is a young woman in fluttering, majestic raiment. She grasps a vajra sword in her right hand; in her left palm, she gently cradles a triad of sacred jewels.
The figure is a Japanese vision of Dakini, an ancient Hindu deity. According to Esoteric Buddhist texts, Dakini was originally a man-eating demoness transformed by the Buddha Mahavairocana (Dainichi Nyorai) into a powerful, life-engendering divinity. This icon embodies powers of fecundity that were invoked in imperial enthronement rituals as well as in personal contexts, and it is a telling example of medieval Japan’s complex interaction of Buddhism, Shinto kami worship, and Daoist yin-yang practices. The procreative power of the deity readily led to her assimilation with the ancient Shinto fox deity Inari, and to associations with another Hindu deity, Saraswati, who is associated with all that flows, from water to music.The Metropolitan Museum | <urn:uuid:b2caa359-5e9c-4f3d-b618-c407504f98c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://centuriespast.tumblr.com/post/32863151672/dakini-period-nanbokucho-period | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930555 | 275 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Korea said that, the agricultural products of it is tightening, thus the demand of import some kinds of product is increasing.
The Mekong Delta of Vietnam is having many advantages to export those kinds to Korea. Now, the record one is coffee, but the rice and other agricultural products are still in the limitation.
Korea is tending to import about 50,000 tons rice per year. It also reviews to buy rice from Vietnam thanks to the favorability of the Korean in Vietnam’s fragrant rice. However, the disadvantage of us is the indefinite in the quality of rice.
According to the statistic of VCCI, Korea is the important commerce partner of Vietnam through the years. In the last 2 years, Korea stood at the 4th position in Vietnam export activity. In 2011, the bilateral export turnover of two countries reached 18.5 billion USD.
Now it has about 8 provinces having the trading relation with Korea. The Mekong Delta export to Korea some kinds of product such as: aqua products, mushrooms, coconuts, and coconut products.
Mr. Jang Jin, consulate of Korea in Hochiminh city said that, to attract Korea, Vietnam needs to improve the development of infrastructure, especially in waterway.
Translated by: maxib2b.com
Gold bars will be banned on the free market and gold trading tightly controlled under Government Resolution 11/NQ-CP recently issued to stabilise the macro-economy.View more... | <urn:uuid:66edc648-fbf7-4768-9c51-d8f1185c8ec0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://maxib2b.com/newsdetail-Opportunities-for-Vietnam-export-activity-to-Korea-703-2.htm | 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 | 0.943914 | 306 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Many times the "Cheers and Jeers" editorial column is accurate and timely. Jeering the Warrior Run Area Education Association for recommending that teachers adhere to the time mandated under their contract is not one of such times.
Teachers regularly spend time conferring with students, colleagues, and administrators beyond the scope of their defined duties. In addition to these extra hours, a good deal of time is spent during non-school hours preparing lessons, grading papers, designing bulletin boards, entering grades in computers and communicating with parents.
Thus, "cheers" are in order for each hard working teacher.
"Jeers" should be reserved for the Board of Education that has been unable or unwilling to negotiate an acceptable contract to replace one that has been expired for 18 months. Perhaps those jeers will motivate the board to negotiate in good faith.
The community is urged to contact board members to encourage them to negotiate and bring this process to a conclusion. May the season of Love and Peace be a good motivator!
Priscilla Lanks, Lewisburg | <urn:uuid:ce8bd8f7-3e35-4143-9bfa-ab565f598313> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dailyitem.com/0111_letters/x1839365925/Jeer-school-board | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959647 | 214 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Have you ever read the polished floor? I read it every day when I see you. There are words on the polished floor, invisble to your eye, but I read them. Beyond a hidden world, there’s something there. I try to look out, but the words on the floor say, ‘No’. I say, ‘It’s not fair.’ The floor says, ‘Life’s not fair.’ I say, ‘Well I don’t care.’ The floor says, ‘You’re reading me, of course you care.’ Words on the polished floor: ‘Your isolation is your due, beyond this space, less of you; care and admire even more, but the polished floor, never ignore.’
Respect is an ellusive thing. Probably sounds like a cliche, but it’s true. Trouble is, half the time you don’t notice it, until it disappears and you only notice dis-. But then, disrespect is an assumption thing. And assumption; that’s a dangerous thing.
See, Neuro did some reading, tried to understand; noticed markers of modesty, privacy and insulation. So, in response, his eyes cast down to read the polished floor. Eyes aside, the wall was grey, notice the grafitti, new since yesterday. Head bowed, he passed on by, hoped he never caught an eye. On assumption, he played respect, drove it home to avoid neglect. One day missed, it wouldn’t slip by, never would he view them through a stray, spying eye.
Assumptions of the right way: well he failed in that respect. Neglecting their assumptions, he continued to read the floor. Their assumptions said he was a spiteful kid, full of hate, holding bias in his pocket. The disrespectful, prejudiced type; a cliche born of their assumptions. Assuming ignorance, expected behaviour was unexpected from a Western kid in a Western world, and so the respect flew out the window.
See, respect is an ellusive thing, but half the time you’re plainly misunderstood. Respect twists into disrespect, and now the truth is buried. Like your eye, in the floor. | <urn:uuid:e0f956a4-b307-462d-a910-f386abfcef7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://folio.me.uk/1997/11/hidden-eyes-and-lowered-gaze/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961831 | 475 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Congratulations! You have been called for an interview. How can you make sure that you make the best impression possible?
And what things should you NEVER do during your interview? Here are some tips that I have compiled from various articles and HR discussion board for how to Ace Your Interview:
Research the company BEFORE you go. Potential employers are impressed when you know something about the company. In general, it shows that you prepare for any task (a definite point in your favor). It also shows the hiring manager that you are truly interested in working for the company. Some ways you can research companies:
- Most companies have a website that can supply you with a lot of valuable information. Make sure you have a thorough understanding of what the company does. Find out what their mission is, who their customers are, and what products or services they supply.
- Check to see how the company’s stock is performing. You can get this information from almost any financial website, and most print newspapers have a financial section, too.
- Ask your friends and family if they know anyone who works for the company. An inside contact can give you a great deal of insight into the corporate culture and give you a heads up about the interview process they use.
Prepare yourself for common interview questions. Many books and online articles offer common questions and acceptable responses. For example, be ready to answer questions about your strengths and weaknesses. More importantly, be ready to explain how your past jobs and experiences make you ideal for the position, as that is what the interview is all about! You may want to practice your answers with a mentor or friend, or you could videotape your responses and watch yourself. Try to find someone who has some professional interviewing experience and have him or her honestly critique your performance.
Work on what your body is saying, too. Practice using good posture, work on your body movements and try to avoid nervous habits like tapping your pen or shaking your foot. Body language can tell a potential employer a lot about you! It can say “I’m cool and confident under pressure,” or “I’m not sure I can do this job.” Make sure it says what you want it to say!
Dress appropriately for the interview. Choose your clothing and accessories very carefully. Most people wear suits to an interview, but sometimes casual dress clothes are acceptable. Your company research can help you decide how formally you need to dress. Regardless of what style of clothes you decide to wear, make sure everything is clean and neatly pressed. If you need a haircut, get one. Pay attention to the details. Are your nails clean and trimmed? Taking the time to think about all of these things well before the interview will take some of the stress off the day of the interview – and show your future employer that you take pride in yourself (another point in your favor).
Be on time. Make sure you know where to go and how much time it takes to get there. If you have to travel during rush hour, factor time in for a traffic jam. Getting lost on your way to an important interview can leave you feeling stressed and unprepared. Consider driving there the day before so you absolutely know where you are going. This can help you be punctual (another point in your favor) because you NEVER want to show up late for an interview.
Better yet, be 10 minutes early! You may have some paperwork to fill out before the interview. Allow plenty of time to get there so you don’t appear rushed or flustered. Be careful not to arrive too early. This can annoy people at the office who are on a tight schedule. Take along some reading material to pass the time in the event that you have to wait. A newspaper or trade publication shows that you are up on current events and industry news.
Take all the necessary paperwork with you. NEVER arrive empty handed. Bring extra copies of your resume on quality paper, a pen, and something to write on. A daily planner looks professional, as well. Consider bringing a portfolio of your work. This can contain anything from writing samples to your file management system. If you have a list of references, bring it along. If you will be required to fill out an application, you may need past addresses or previous dates of employment.
Be polite and courteous to everyone. Greet the secretary or receptionist with a smile and a handshake. If you are rude to the front desk person, the person doing the hiring will likely hear about it. Smile and shake hands with everyone in your interview. Address them as Mr. or Ms. unless asked to do otherwise. If you see other workers there, smile and say hello. They may just be your co-workers soon!
Make eye contact. Looking at the floor or around the room makes you appear bored or dishonest.
Answer all questions honestly and thoroughly. Try to use positive language, even when discussing past challenges. NEVER speak negatively about past employers or supervisors. It is okay to say you don’t know an answer, but offer an explanation about how you would go about finding an answer. This can show that you are resourceful.
When the interview is over, shake everyone’s hand and thank them for their time. This shows that you care about them and their productivity, which is a definite point in your favor.
Verify the spelling of everyone’s name. Ask the receptionist if you don’t have this information. You’ll need it to send a thank you letter to everyone in the interview. Taking time to do this one small thing shows that you are conscientious and care about your co-workers. | <urn:uuid:8e5b74ca-e37d-4329-8ab3-0ae8576b3a6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.gcflearnfree.org/2009/02/19/ace-your-interview/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953567 | 1,162 | 1.710938 | 2 |
When I attended a U2 concert in May, I learned three important lessons from Bono about engaging with patients on my hospital’s Facebook page.
Traditionally, communicating messages was simply grabbing a megaphone and shouting as loud as you can, hoping your audience captures your message and takes action. But social media operates in a different manner—it’s shared interactions between friends.
Bono can show you how to do this.
Pay attention to your audience
Last month, more than 40,000 U2 fans packed the stadium in Salt Lake City, but each fan had a different level of interest in the concert. Some were there because someone had invited them. Others camped out the night before to be as close to Bono and The Edge as possible. During the concert, some fans swayed to the music, danced to the beat, or shouted “I love you, Bono!” Some fans just stood there and clapped on cue.
Do you have fans that fit into any one of those categories? Maybe they are only fans because a friend or family member invited them to join. After all, who can say no to “liking” a children’s hospital? Every Facebook page is going to have varying demographics and interest levels, so the more variety you have in your posts, the better chances you have of engaging more fans in your efforts.
Invite your fans to sing
Hearing U2 perform their music live is a great experience. But U2 did more than just play its hits. Between numbers, Bono took the opportunity to speak with his fans. This concert was actually scheduled in May 2010, but less than one week before the tour started, Bono injured his back and found himself in a German hospital, causing the concert to be postponed roughly 365 days.
Bono took a few moments to acknowledge the disappointment this caused his fans. He also expressed his appreciation to each person in the stadium for standing by him and providing such a warm welcome on a chilly May night. He also spoke about his work with Amnesty International. While Bono had messages he wanted to convey to the crowd, he also made the audience part of the concert.
On numerous occasions, Bono held his microphone out to the audience and encouraged them to sing the line, “It’s a beautiful day,” or “Uno. Dos. Tres. Catorce.” How often do you turn the microphone over to your fans and encourage them to share his or her voice? It can be as simple as asking your fans a question in a post, inviting them to share something on your wall, or encouraging them to repost some information to their family and friends.
Get creative with engagement
U2 fans fought to get as close to the stage as possible. Luckily for the fans, U2 provided many chances for fans to engage as they performed. Thirty minutes into the concert, Bono invited three sisters onto the stage, and together, they read a poem about Utah. Once the poem read, Bono laid across the lap of the three sisters and began singing, “It’s a Beautiful Day.” The sisters loved it. And the audience lept to their feet, applauding what they saw on stage.
On another occasion, Bono motioned for some of the fans to toss up white flags with the word “LOVE” written on them. Once he had one, he stuffed it in his back pocket, showed it off to the crowd (courtesy of a little hip shaking) and then tossed it back into the field of wooing fans.
Facebook offers numerous tools that allow organizations to engage with its audience—posts, questions, notes, photos, links, and customized tabs. But have you taken advantage of these features? If you have, what other ways can you use these same features to engage with your fans?
Follow Bono’s lead and take every opportunity to engage with your fans. Social media is moving forward, with or without you.
Jason M. Carlton is a communication specialist at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City. Including the U2 360 Tour concert in May, Jason has attended a grand total of two rock concerts (U2 and Bon Jovi), both of them this year. Don’t hold that against him.
This blog posting originally appeared on Ragan’s Health Care Communication News Website on June 3, 2011, and can be accessed at http://www.healthcarecommunication.com/Main/Articles/6900.aspx | <urn:uuid:8a128384-4bc8-4de3-b341-5475b9d18f34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slcprsa.org/magnificent-3-hcsm-lessons-from-bono/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974452 | 947 | 1.945313 | 2 |
What is a pagan?
The word pagan, according to Mirriam-Webster arises from 14th Middle English variation of the Latin paganus, meaning civilian or country dweller or from pagus, meaning country district.
c.1375, from L.L. paganus “pagan,” in classical L. “villager, rustic, civilian,” from pagus “rural district,” originally “district limited by markers,” thus related to pangere “to fix, fasten,” from PIE base *pag- “to fix” (see pact). Religious sense is often said to derive from conservative rural adherence to the old gods after the Christianization of Roman towns and cities; but the word in this sense predates that period in Church history, and it is more likely derived from the use of paganus in Roman military jargon for “civilian, incompetent soldier,” which Christians (Tertullian, c.202; Augustine) picked up with the military imagery of the early Church (e.g. milites “soldier of Christ,” etc.). Applied to modern pantheists and nature-worshippers from 1908. Paganism is attested from 1433.
While the dictionary definitions vary, each generally contains two to three from the following list:
a. follower of a polytheistic religion as in ancient Greece or Rome
b. follower of a Non-Abrahamic faith (is not afollower of Judaism, Christianity or Islam)
c. someone that is hedonistic, or motivated by sensual pleasure
d. one who is irreligious
e. a follower of contemporary paganism (also commonly called Neo-paganism)
Generally, among pagans, the definitions of hedonist or a person that is irreligious are not used, and are considered offensive…however, they might be used by someone that is not pagan, who may or may not know any better. Most of the time, when the term pagan is used, it is in reference to faith that is not Abrahamatic—Judaism, Christianity or Islam. This means that any number of religions in the world, from Shinto to Hinduism to Wicca follow this definition.
To differentiate members of the modern pagan movement (I hate the term neo-pagan…it gives me weird mental images of the Matrix goes to drumcircle…I prefer contemporary paganism, or just Paganism…) from members other pagan faiths, another definition is needed. The most accurate and comprehensive definition I have been able to cobble together (and it IS a work in progress) is this:
(Contemporary) Paganism is a term referring to one (or several) of many distinct spiritual paths, rather than one unified religious tradition. Pagans practice some form of mostly earth-centered, often polytheistic, religious or spiritual path(s) that generally (but not always) incorporates the use of ritual and/or magic(k) that may either be inspired by a reconstruction of, or an eclectic mix of one or multiple pre-Christian pagan faiths and other (little-p) pagan religions such as Buddhism, Hindu, etc.
Within contemporary Paganism the largest tradition is probably Wicca, which is a distinct religious tradition founded by Gerald Gardner in the 1940s, and its various descendent offshoot traditions. Some other Pagan faiths include–though this is in no way a full list–Druidry, Asatru, Heathenry, Stregheria/Italian Witchcraft, Discordianism/Subgenius, Green Witchcraft, Celtic, Hellenic, Roman and Egyptian Paganism, and (yes, though many will certainly deny it) some forms of Satanism. Additionally, some individuals of the above paths may choose not to identify as “pagan”, for various reasons that range from disliking the term “pagan” due to its lack real meaning (since it is rooted in the idea of describing what someone is *not*) to the idea that the term holds no purpose and creates an idea of false unity.
*Notice the use of mostly, often, generally, etc in the above definition. There is no one working definition for what a pagan *is*. In fact, a common joke in the pagan community is that “if you ask 10 pagans a question, you will get 20 answers.” *
Other Views and Definitions:
A Pagan or NeoPagan is someone who self-identifies as a Pagan, and whose spiritual or religious practice or belief fits into one or more of the following categories:
- Honoring, revering, or worshipping a Deity or Deities found in pre-Christian, classical, aboriginal, or tribal mythology; and/or
- Practicing religion or spirituality based upon shamanism, shamanic, or magickal practices; and/or
- Creating new religion based on past Pagan religions and/or futuristic views of society, community, and/or ecology;
- Focusing religious or spiritual attention primarily on the Divine Feminine; and/or
- Practicing religion that focuses on earth based spirituality.
And this very well thought out and somewhat academic personal opinion which I very much recommend reading in its entirety:
Since the word comes from the Latin paganus, it seems to me that it should apply to religions native to geographic territory of “Western Civilization.” I see it applying to the area covered by the Roman empire at its greatest extent and all the rest of Europe not conquered by Rome, but Christianized by the beginning of the Early Modern Period (about 1500 CE). The Latin term and the subsequent English derivation was applied within the Roman Empire or later, Christendom — Europe, the Middle East and North Africa for 1,000 years or so. It is only relatively recently that “Pagan” has been applied to religions outside that area.[snip]
There are two subclasses of Pagan religions: Neo-pagan religions and Reconstructionist religions. Neo-pagan religions are modern religions. more or less based on historically Pagan religions. and may incorporate beliefs, ideas, and practices from more than one cultural tradition and from non-European or Abrahamic traditions (e.g., Judeo-Christian magical practices or chakra theory). Definitions of “Pagan” that describe Pagan religions as being earth-centric or nature-centric more closely describe many (but not all) Neo-pagan religions than they describe Pagan religions as a whole[snip]
Reconstructionist religions attempt to revive or to recreate ancient native religions from particular places and times. Some attempt to recreate the religious practices strictly as they were known to have been. Others try to envision how that religion may have changed over time if it had been in continuous practice. Yet others, probably the majority, combine these two approaches. [snip]
My definition generally applies to contemporary religions, not ancient ones. I generally use such terms as “ancient,” “pre-Christian native” or “ancient Pagan” to describe pre-modern European or Middle Eastern religions. For cultures outside of the geographic area, I either use the name the religion uses for itself (Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism) or geographically classificatory terms such as “Native American religions” or “Polynesian ethnic religions” or “African-diaspora religions.”
The brief “elevator definition” of Paganism which I find most helpful is: Paganism is a general term for all the ancient and modern religions which identify Nature as the body of the Divine. Hinduism is the Paganism of India; Taoism the Paganism of China; Shinto the Paganism of Japan; Santeria, Voudon & Macumba are the Paganisms of the African Diaspora; etc.
Pagans often speak of many Gods and Goddesses, but this polytheistic imagery may be meant metaphorically, since many Pagans are pantheistic. Pagans honor both feminine and masculine images of the Holy.
by Rev Christa Landon @ Pagan Institute
A Pagan is a member of an eclectic, mostly modern, religious movement encompassing a broad array of religions that revere the Divine in nature and/or draw upon the myths and symbols of ancient faiths.
by Larry Cornett @ Pagan Institute | <urn:uuid:8eb6e9d1-6f9b-43fd-942a-bb5b6e1d7160> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nuannaarpoq.wordpress.com/topics-in-contemporary-paganism/defining_paganis/ | 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 | 0.931288 | 1,760 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Ultrasound Kills Red Tides
Dangerous red tides that kill fish and marine mammals and are toxic, even carcinogenic, to humans, might be destroyed using bursts of ultrasound.
Researchers at the U of Hull in the UK experimented with ultrasound on a species of algae that can cause respiratory disease and liver cancer in humans, reports New Scientist.
The team tested three frequencies of ultrasound on Anabaena sphaerica. All worked, though the 1-megahertz band was most effective—probably by bursting the buoyancy cells filled with nitrogen that keep the algae afloat.
Of course, you've got to ask what else the sound might be killing.
In response: The researchers believe ultrasound could be targeted to individual species of algae and the resonant frequency of their buoyancy cells. In theory, this wouldn't damage regular plant cells, which are relatively impervious to pressure waves.
These high frequencies are also absorbed rapidly in water. At 1 megahertz the effective radius is less than 60 feet. That's good in that it limits the affected zone but bad in that it would be a lot of work to cover a big bloom.
The study also doesn't acknowledge—as far as I can tell—the fact that when a whole bunch of algae die and sink to the bottom they fuel a bloom of decomposers who suck up all the available oxygen in the water—turning a red tide into a dead zone.
Still, it might be a way to nip a bloom in the bud. Though we still need to tackle all those annoying onshore factors that grow red tides in the first place, like fertilizer and manure run-off from abusively unsustainable agricultural practices.
The paper's in Applied Acoustics. | <urn:uuid:71a69132-a4a1-4c5e-9694-6eb1eea4ab11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/05/ultrasound-kills-red-tides | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944466 | 358 | 3.0625 | 3 |
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As we prepare for our state’s 150th birthday and reflect upon our history, we have many wonderful people for whom to be thankful — people who have worked together to make West Virginia what it is today. Our state was built by people of all...
Black History Month 2013 In honor of Black History Month, the Doleman Black Heritage Museum recognized the following athletes during a program Feb. 23 at The Maryland Theatre: Tom Parson Jr. Parson played basketball at North Hagerstown High School and...
Thumbs up to the students who participated in the annual Washington County Spelling Bee at Western Heights Middle School. These children battled nerves and some tough words to make their parents, teachers and communities proud. Thumbs up to the Doleman...
firstname.lastname@example.orgThe 4th Doleman Black Heritage Museum Celebration of Black History on Saturday at The Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown was a bit of a family affair for the Parsons. Cathy Parson and her brother, Tom Parson, were among those honored at the event for their...
The Williams family and members of Greater Campher Temple will observe a memorial service celebrating the life of Pearl J. Harvey Williams. The service will be held at the church Sunday at 4 p.m. The church is at 125 W. Bethel St. in Hagerstown. The...
email@example.comLetterkenny Army Depot’s first African-American commander spoke during the Chambersburg base’s annual Black History Month observance. Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert C. Gaskill Sr. was the guest speaker at Wednesday’s event held in...
firstname.lastname@example.orgAfter the Civil War, an organization known as the Freedmen’s Bureau set up 11 schools for blacks in Washington County. The bureau worked with communities to establish locations for black schools, some of which were established in churches, said...
A Black History Month program will be held at Memorial Recreation Center, 109 W. North Ave., Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m. Members of the Doleman Heritage Museum will be in attendance and will display their art exhibit to the public. Speakers scheduled for...
African-Americans have been part of the American story from the founding of our nation. Men and women of African ancestry have been instrumental in forging the great nation we have today. For too long, racism and prejudice obscured the rich history of...
The Zion Baptist Church ministry will show the movie “Courageous” Saturday at 6 p.m. in the fellowship hall of the church, 61 W. Bethel St. The doors open at 5:30 p.m. Admission costs $2 per person and there will be free popcorn and drinks....
1. Shepherd alumna 'homecoming' Carolyn Malachi will sing songs combining jazz, hip-hop and spoken word at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 1, at Shepherd University's Storer Ballroom in the student center, off King Street, Shepherdstown, W.Va. The concert...
“I want to know how everyone else in Smithsburg has to follow the rules, and a councilman on West Water Street does not. A jungle of plants almost completely surround and hide a fire hydrant, and obstruct the sidewalk. Everyone else gets citations...
Mar 7, 2013 |Story| Herald Mail
Mar 6, 2013 |Story| Herald Mail
Mar 2, 2013 |Story| Herald Mail
Feb 23, 2013 |Story| Herald Mail
Feb 22, 2013 |Column| Herald Mail
Feb 13, 2013 |Story| Herald Mail
Feb 10, 2013 |Story| Herald Mail
Feb 8, 2013 |Column| Herald Mail
Feb 2, 2013 |Story| Herald Mail
Feb 1, 2013 |Column| Herald Mail
Jan 28, 2013 |Story| Herald Mail
Jun 7, 2012 |Story| Herald Mail
Original site for Black History topic gallery. | <urn:uuid:9a169f63-3433-42eb-914b-abea43c463ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.herald-mail.com/topic/arts-culture/history/black-history/01000008754.topic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929007 | 885 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The details of what happened on the boat leading the flotilla trying to enter the Gaza Strip are still coming to light. CNN in the U.S. is speaking about “conflicting accounts,” though the videos it keeps playing seem to vindicate the Israeli side. (You see an Israeli soldier dropping into the deck, and then you seem him getting attacked. There is no indication that the IDF soldier had opened fire. The same video appears on an Israeli website here.) And yet, none of this has prevented worldwide international condemnation, including the hauling in of Israeli ambassadors in Sweden, Spain, and Turkey. And the grim results seem very clear: between nine and 15 people on board killed, and at least two Israeli soldiers in critical condition with stab and gunshot wounds.
Veteran Israel journalist Ron Ben-Yishai at YNet describes IDF soldiers who were ill-prepared for having to disperse a violent response. “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” the soldiers yelled to each other as they were attacked, picked off one by one as they landed on the deck, still believing they were dealing with innocent ideologues rather than orchestrated violence. “Navy commandoes slid down to the vessel one by one,” Ben-Yishai reports, “yet then the unexpected occurred: The passengers that awaited them on the deck pulled out bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The fighters were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly.” Later on, caches were found on board containing more weapons. What’s clear is that these people were prepared for a fight — peace activists, indeed.
But beyond the question of what happened on the boat, and the more serious questions of the evolving nature of pro-Palestinian activism and the IDF’s apparent failure to prepare for a violent response, the event is also an important test case for how Israel is doing at adapting itself to the new rapid-information media world. The answer: so-so. On one hand, it’s clear that the Israelis, and especially the IDF, have made major advances in internalizing the message that the media battle is a crucial and — more often than not — decisive element in modern warfare. They released videos that would have remained classified not too long ago; they cleared a commando who took part in the raid to interview with the Associated Press and CNN; and they have emphatically made the case that the people on board planned to use force in advance. All these facts suggest a sea change in the way the IDF deals with the media, one that we already saw in the last Gaza war with the creation, for example, of a YouTube channel for the IDF. The result has been that, at least here in the United States, television coverage has been somewhat balanced.
At the same time, Israel is still far behind the Palestinians in real-time rapid response and pre-event preparedness.
I spoke this morning with a senior producer for one of the major network news divisions in the United States. “This morning, I received a well-phrased press release from the office of [PA spokesman] Saeb Erekat,” he told me. “I got it at 4:36 a.m. It was obviously prepared in advance. Now it’s 11 a.m., and I still have got nothing from the Israeli government.” Predictably, that news release, which was sent out to key journalists around the Western world, was full of half-truths (like the assertion that the passengers on the ship were “unarmed civilian activists” who were “savagely attacked” by the IDF), but the point is that for all of Israel’s rapid response, it was wildly outmaneuvered by the Palestinian media commandos. As CNN pointed out, the pro-Palestinian activists were live-streaming the event and sending messages via Twitter throughout. “Despite everything they’ve been through,” he continued, “the Israelis seem to have been taken utterly by surprise. It’s always react, react, react — never proactive.”
UPDATE: A good friend of mine is a nurse who was on duty in the emergency room at a Jerusalem hospital when some of the injured “activists” were brought in. She tells me that many of them are wearing camouflage. “Not sure they were official Turkish army clothes,” she says, “but they weren’t civilian dress, that’s for sure.” | <urn:uuid:9768d692-e1ee-46bb-85e0-b96ea3465df9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.commentarymagazine.com/topic/sweden/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982973 | 958 | 1.539063 | 2 |
For the past two years, the United States, European states, and the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have pretended that their past deep divisions about the relationship between free speech and religion have been laid to rest. In 2011, Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18 seemed to end a more than decade-long campaign by the OIC to criminalize “defamation of religion” under international human-rights law. All parties have hailed R 16/18 as a dramatic breakthrough and a model for combating discrimination and intolerance. The so-called Istanbul Process has seen a number of high-level meetings, one of them chaired by then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, aimed at consolidating the consensus and identifying the precise obligations under R 16/18.
Yet at the recent opening of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s 22nd session, two very different speeches demonstrated that the putative consensus around R 16/18 is a charade, and that the global battle over free speech has not ended in perpetual peace, but is merely suspended by an uneasy truce.
On February 26, U.S. diplomat Esther Brimmer hailed Resolution 16/18 as “a remarkable achievement” and applauded the leadership of Turkey and Pakistan as well as “the support of the OIC Secretary-General.” According to Ms. Brimmer:
The international consensus on this issue offers a practical and effective means to fight intolerance, while avoiding the false choice of restricting the complementary and mutually-dependent freedoms of religion and expression.
She went on to state that hate speech “can be marginalized and defeated, not by less speech, but by more,” and that “countless examples have taught us that attempting to outlaw free expression is as dangerous as it is ineffective.”
Accordingly, the official American interpretation of R 16/18 is basically that the international community has reached a consensus around an approach mirroring the protection of free speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Since no other country — including European liberal democracies — has legal protections of speech comparable to those guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, it would have been a remarkable success for American diplomacy if such a feat had been achieved. But as the speech by Pakistan’s representative in the council — on behalf of the OIC — demonstrated, that is not quite the case.
On 25 February, the Pakistani representative stated that
there are emerging challenges and issues which need to be addressed by international human rights law. . . . Negative stereotyping or defamation of religions is a contemporary manifestation of religious hatred, discrimination and xenophobia. While the freedom of expression is sacrosanct, it must not be exploited to incite hatred against any religion and violence against its followers.
In other words, the OIC explicitly equated “defamation of religion,” a broad and nebulous category including religious satire and criticism, with advocacy of religious hatred, which is prohibited in Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a primary instrument of international human-rights law. That should not come as a surprise. In numerous speeches, the secretary general of the OIC has referred to R 16/18 as including an expansive interpretation of the prohibition against advocacy of religious hatred, which would cover Danish and French newspapers’ publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed, and which essentially amounts to smuggling a blasphemy ban in through the back door.
The American and the OIC interpretations of R 16/18 are evidently irreconcilable. Caught between these positions one finds the Europeans. On one hand, EU member states have consistently rejected the concept of “defamation of religion,” but on the other, the EU and all its member states have adopted laws against racial and religious hatred, which are often enforced. To the extent that the OIC position on R 16/18 becomes the accepted one under human-rights law, there is therefore a risk that it could affect the interpretation of hate-speech laws in liberal democracies other than the U.S. This potential danger was highlighted during the fallout from the crude anti-Islamic film The Innocence of Muslims, when EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton issued a joint press release with the OIC and the Arab League. The statement invoked R 16/18, mentioned the prohibition against advocacy of religious hatred, and emphasized the need to “respect all prophets.” | <urn:uuid:a969fe8a-0c87-4127-a898-a6833d79fd72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nationalreview.com/articles/342072/questionable-victory-free-speech-jacob-mchangama?pg=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962009 | 914 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Apparent Ridges for Line Drawing
Three-dimensional shape can be drawn using a variety of feature lines, but none of the current definitions alone seem to capture all visually-relevant lines. We introduce a new definition of feature lines based on two perceptual observations. First, human perception is sensitive to the variation of shading, and since shape perception is little affected by lighting and reflectance modification, we should focus on normal variation. Second, view-dependent lines better convey smooth surfaces. From this we define view-dependent curvature as the variation of the surface normal with respect to a viewing screen plane, and apparent ridges as the loci of points that maximize a view-dependent curvature. We present a formal definition of apparent ridges and an algorithm to render line drawings of 3D meshes. We show that our apparent ridges encompass or enhance aspects of several other feature lines. | <urn:uuid:788596d0-5075-4227-ba99-ecde6d2ea5cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csail.mit.edu/videoarchive/research/gv/apparent-ridges | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914582 | 177 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Capitol reporter Mary Wilson covers Pennsylvania politics and issues at the Pennsylvania state capitol.
This week, Adjutant Gen. Wesley Craig told us Pennsylvania National Guard troops deployed to New York and New Jersey to help with storm recovery would be returning this week.
Well, kids, it looks like they're home -- after anywhere between five and 13 days away. More from the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs:
More than 400 Pennsylvania National Guard members recently returned from New York and New Jersey after providing support for Hurricane Sandy relief operations.
The soldiers and airmen were mobilized beginning Nov. 3, and spent between five and 13 days out of state.
“Our soldiers and airmen did a terrific job responding to the needs of our neighbors in New York and New Jersey,” Maj. Gen. Wesley Craig, Pennsylvania Adjutant General said. “The readiness, adaptability and professionalism of our dynamic force is always showcased in instances like these. Our soldiers and airmen are indeed always ready and always there at a moment’s notice to respond to operations at home and abroad.”
The troops supported a wide range of operations including: fueling officially plated vehicles with unleaded and diesel fuel, assisting and supporting civilian authorities, movement and distribution of relief supplies, and providing communications capabilities to areas in need.
Nearly 375 soldiers and airmen were deployed to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, N.Y. Units represented include: the 28th Military Police Company, Johnstown; the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Washington; the 228th Brigade Support Battalion, Easton; the 171st Air Refueling Wing, Coraopolis; the 193rd Special Operations Wing, Middletown; the 201st RED HORSE Squadron, Annville; and the 111th Fighter Wing, Horsham.
Nearly 50 additional guard members were deployed to Lakehurst and West Orange, N.J., supporting fueling and communications missions. Units represented include: the 271st Combat Communications Squadron, Annville; and the 328th Brigade Support Battalion, Lebanon.
The guard members were providing support through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, or EMAC. The EMAC is an interstate mutual aid agreement that provides a mechanism for sharing personnel, equipment and resources among states during emergencies and disasters. EMAC has traditionally been used by states for National Guard, emergency management and other types of response assistance.
“The efforts of our Pennsylvania citizen-soldiers and citizen-airmen were truly appreciated by the residents of New York and New Jersey,” said Craig. “From phone calls of thanks, thanks provided in person on the streets, to thanks on our various social media sites; we know they provided much needed help and an assuring presence where they were sent.”
In addition to support provided out of state, at the peak of the storm response more than 2,000 Pennsylvania Guard members were placed on duty in Pennsylvania in support of operations related to Hurricane Sandy.
Pictures from the Guard’s response to Hurricane Sandy can be found on the Pennsylvania National Guard’s Flickr site at: http://j.mp/PNGSandy.
The PA National Guard can be followed via Facebook at www.facebook.com/panationalguard, Twitter at www.twitter.com/panationalguard, YouTube at www.youtube.com/panationalguard, Flickr at www.flickr.com/panationalguard and Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/panationalguard.
Published in State House Sound Bites
Support for witf is provided by:
Support for witf is provided by: | <urn:uuid:1a993ec8-2eb3-4ea7-bb39-573bd4168f55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.witf.org/state-house-sound-bites/2012/11/pa-national-guard-troops-back-in-state.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952716 | 744 | 1.554688 | 2 |
New Mobile Distribution Unit will take supplies directly to those most affected
Volunteers mobilizing in Dallas to prepare and ship emergency supplies
DALLAS, May 4, 2011—The Christian humanitarian organization World Vision is dispatching today a Mobile Distribution Unit from its facility in North Texas, which will provide emergency relief supplies for up to 500 people devastated by tornadoes in Alabama.
As part of its large-scale response to the worst natural disaster in the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina, World Vision will also be sending a semi-truck to Alabama with 26 pallets of relief supplies, including shoes, clothing and cleaning materials. On Monday the organization’s relief team completed its assessment of needs and distributed initial supplies of personal hygiene products to families in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.
“We’re most concerned about low-income families who don’t have many resources to recover from these disasters,” said Phyllis Freeman, World Vision’s domestic disaster response director.
The Mobile Distribution Unit will be able to drive directly into affected communities and provide urgently-needed items like hygiene kits, shoes for kids, and batteries and flashlights since many areas are still without power.
"This part of the country is not a part of tornado alley. That’s what is making this so horrific.” Freeman said. “This is hurricane country. That’s why we want to do our work as fast as possible. There’s no way of knowing what hurricanes may be coming in the future.”
World Vision is partnering with local churches and organizations to set up points of distribution for relief supplies. The organization has provided $10,000 worth of cash grants to be given to the most vulnerable families who have been impacted, and hopes to disburse more grants as fundraising increases.
“We don’t know what to do,” said Connie McDonald, whose home fell off its foundation and was further damaged by a falling tree. She and her husband recently refinanced their home to pay for their daughter’s cancer treatment. “That’s why I’ve cried all day. I’ve been real brave up until today . . . What will we do financially?”
World Vision’s facilities in North Texas are serving as its domestic disaster headquarters with 56,000 square feet of space and 1,000 pallet spaces of relief, recovery, and building materials ready to ship. Meanwhile, Dallas volunteers are assembling hygiene kits for distribution and preparing medical supplies to be shipped quickly to the disaster site.
In addition to responding to vulnerable communities in Alabama, World Vision is also working with local partners to provide emergency relief supplies to children and families affected by weather-related disasters in Oklahoma, North Carolina, Mississippi, Missouri and Virginia.
About World Vision World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. We serve the world's poor -- regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.For more information on their efforts, visit WorldVision.org/press or follow them on Twitter at @WorldVisionNews | <urn:uuid:8049eaa6-fe5d-42b4-a6a7-2c9e7576afd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/about/20110504-tornado-relief-supplies-alabama | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948311 | 656 | 1.796875 | 2 |
- Theater Kikker Kleine Zaal/Small Hall
By: Chokepoint Project
registration via email@example.com
During the recent uprising in Egypt, in January 2011, the order was given to “turn off” the Internet, sending shock waves around the world. Murmurs were heard of US security agencies and American politicians asking for access to a similar kill switch. These actions force us to look at who owns the Internet? This is where the Choke Point Project comes in, mapping the nodes of control in service of the multitude of global citizens whom authoritarian regimes can act upon without their consent.
The workshops teach people how the Internet works, including its underlying structures. Exploring themes such as privacy, data security, civil rights in a digital environment. It will give anyone attending a foundational basis with which to understand how the Internet works and show you how secure you are technically, legally and practically. You will walk away more aware of the inherent problems therein and a more healthy paranoia, feeling safer when warranted and feeling properly insecure when not. Able to understand higher level discourse on these topics, improving decision making and giving insight into subjects where the Internet is concerned.
Choke Point Project has been selected as 2011 winner of [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant as part of the Prix Ars Electronica 2011. | <urn:uuid:be2ad54d-4c7c-40c1-82c6-da3df2f34b57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://impakt.nl/festival/2011/programme-2011/0-thematic/sweatshops-and-field-trips/chokepoint/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935336 | 280 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Reprogrammed performance chips.
Replacing the stock ECU chip with a reprogrammed performance chip is a good option for anything up to a 10% increase in engine power. This is mainly due to the way in which the stock ECU chip is programmed. In essence, the stock ECU is programmed for optimal performance at peak torque so as this ensures that the car is drivable at low engine speeds. As most cars would be driven at low engine speeds of up to 3,500 RPM, ensuring that the car drives perfectly at these engine speeds is perfectly reasonable; unless you want to modify your car! A reprogrammed performance chip will be programmed for optimal performance up to the engine red line, releasing a moderate power increase but making the car less drivable at lower engine speeds.
This is all good and well if the performance chip is fitted on its own; however, fitting a reprogrammed chip to a modified engine for the purpose of accommodating the engine's new fuel requirements is a completely different story. The modifications carried out on your engine will alter the performance characteristics of the engine, as well as its fuel requirements and would require a chip programmed to meet those specific requirements. Thus, the chip will be specific to your car and could be quite expensive. Fortunately, some turbo and supercharger kit manufacturers will include bigger injectors and a reprogrammed chip in their kit but they would assume that you have made and will make no other modifications to your engine, or the reprogrammed chip will be useless.
Should you want to carry out additional modifications to your engine, you would need a different reprogrammed chip as you engine characteristics would change. Therefore, before you consider getting a reprogrammed performance chip for your ECU, you should first consider whether you will want to carry out more engine modifications at a later date. In such an event, it may be a better idea to fit a fully programmable aftermarket ECU that will allow you to reprogram the ECU as you make modification changes to the engine. | <urn:uuid:6d952de5-1539-43cf-ad20-7bfe92a6b065> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.custom-car.us/efi/performance-chips.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963661 | 413 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Thanks to the WWF's ‘Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard Initiative’ consumer interest in the environmental issues surrounding the production of palm oil is building.
Consumers care about the environment, prove that you do too
Now is the time to act and GreenPalm programme offers an easy to use and affordable solution.
GreenPalm for own label
If your business produces own label products, please ask the manufacturer of those products to purchase GreenPalm certificates on your behalf. Alternatively, you may purchase GreenPalm certificates yourself, in order to be able to claim that your business supports the production of sustainable palm oil. Either way you would be entitled to print the GreenPalm Sustainability logo on product packs, as well as refer to your support of GreenPalm in promotional material.
GreenPalm for retail
As a retailer you can also support the production of sustainable palm oil by requiring the manufacturers of the products you sell to support the GreenPalm programme. You could then make claims in-store that all products you sell support the production of sustainable palm oil, as well as refer to your support in promotional material.
So get in touch. It's easy to support sustainable farming and production through the GreenPalm programme.
Have your answer ready for the WWF - 'we support GreenPalm!' | <urn:uuid:45702a11-e756-4c24-8b79-3ee45483e581> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenpalm.org/en/how-can-i-get-involved/retailers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952365 | 270 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Scott Walker's "Year of the Veteran?"
State Documents Reveal Scott Walker Knew His Repeal of the Equal Pay Act Would Harm Veterans
New state documents obtained by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin reveal that Scott Walker was well aware of the fact that his repeal of Wisconsin’s Equal Pay Act would have devastating consequences for veterans.
Walker’s repeal of Wisconsin’s Equal Pay Act has consistently been documented as part of the Republican War on Women, but lost in the discussion for some has been the fact that this legislation strips critical pay equity protections for veterans, seniors and disabled workers as well.
In March 2012, the Wisconsin Association of Concerned Veterans Organizations (WACVO) contacted Scott Walker to request that Walker veto SB202, the repeal of Wisconsin’s Equal Pay Act, because the bill, “strips veterans of employment discrimination redress in circuit court.”
The letter further stated that, “As best WACVO can tell, this legislation has passed both the senate and assembly and is awaiting your signature. It would be highly irregular, and the irony would be lost to no one, if you were to sign this legislation into law without correcting this oversight in the same week you declare, “Year of the Veteran” in Wisconsin.”
Also in Walker’s “Year of the Veteran,” two Scott Walker associates, Tim Russell and Kevin Kavanaugh, have been charged in the John Doe criminal corruption probe with embezzling more than $62,000 from charities intended to benefit veterans and the families of fallen soldiers. When asked to respond to the charges, Walker simply stated that he was, “disappointed.”
“Scott Walker has a long history of using veterans as pawns for his own personal, political gain,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Friday. “This time, Scott Walker’s political stunt is not merely offensive. His radical pursuit of a rigid ideology actually puts the men and women who have served our country so honorably at risk.” | <urn:uuid:9c23199d-240b-4a74-893d-e70b9da86aa1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wisdems.org/news/press/view/2012-05-scott-walkers-year-of-the-veteran | 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 | 0.959689 | 425 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Fun Flower Activities for Kids
Springtime brings a wonderful opportunity to teach your kids about flowers – the different colors, climates and cultures around them.
What you need:
- Little plastic flower pots (you can get these cheap at most nurseries or even the dollar store)
- Potting soil
- Flower seeds
- Popsicle sticks
- Non toxic glue
- Green construction paper
- Solid color paper cupcake liners
- Non toxic markers, paint or crayons
- Large white poster board or sheet of paper
- Clear plastic table cloth
- Various fruit cut into circles and ovals
What to do:
- Go to a local nursery, greenhouse or if you are lucky enough go to your Macy’s flower show.
- Talk to your kids about the different colors & smells of flowers. Explain how different climates have different flowers and how some flowers need more sun and warmth than others. Tell your children about how different cultures use flowers for celebrations and decorations. You may need to do a little research online beforehand if you aren’t sure about this.
- When you return home, give each child a flower pot. Have them fill up their flower pot with soil and plant the flower seeds. Put the seeds in a place where they will get necessary sunlight. Tell your children that these are their special flowers and they will have to care for them every day so they will grow. Let your kids name their flowers so they feel more attached to them and will care for them.
- Make your own flowers by taking a popsicle stick and coloring it green. Cut out two green leaves from the construction paper and glue them on to the popsicle stick. Take the cupcake liner and glue that onto the top of the stick for the flower.
- Have your kids color the white poster board making it into a garden. They can add grass, flowers, trees, bunnies, birds, the sun, etc. When they are done, place it on the kitchen table & cover it with the clear plastic table cloth. You now have a garden table.
- Take your cut up fruit, place it in the center of the table. give each child a plate. Let them arrange the fruit into a flower. Have them show it to everyone before they eat it. Even better take pictures of their creations and scrapbook them! We found that grapes, bananas, strawberries and raspberries worked well.
Our Kolcraft kids not only had fun at their flower party, but learned so much about flowers, colors, climates and cultures in the meantime!
About the Author - ColleenF
I am the Digital Media Specialist at Kolcraft. | <urn:uuid:26759e6d-38a1-4328-b4e9-f4240bb07de5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kolcraft.com/blog/fun-flower-activities-for-kids/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930793 | 547 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Glossary of Library Terms
Abstract – A summary of a journal article. Reading the abstract first can help you determine whether or not the full article will be useful. Some journal databases will have only abstracts or will have a combination of abstracts and full-text articles.
Bound Periodical – A set of print magazines or journals that have been collected together and bound like a printed book, making it easier to preserve their contents and store them on one of the library shelves. At the USF Tampa Library, most bound periodicals are found in the Basement (beginning 2012 Fall Semester).
Call Number – A unique series of letters and numbers assigned to a book to tell you where it can be found on a library shelf. DVDs, CDs, government documents, microforms, and print periodicals are also assigned call numbers. You can use the USF Libraries Catalog to find out what call number has been assigned to a particular item.
Catalog – A database that can be searched for books and other items to see if the library has the item in its collection. For electronic items (such as e-books), the catalog provides a link to the item. For print items, the catalog provides the call number to help locate the item on the library shelf. For circulating items, the catalog tells you whether or not the item has been checked out, and if so, when it is due to be returned to the library.
Circulate, Circulating Collection – If a book or other item can be checked out and removed from the library by a student or faculty member for a period of time, it is said to “circulate”. The USF Tampa Library’s 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors contain the Circulating Collection (books that circulate). The DVDs and CDs on the 6th floor also circulate, as do many of the government documents in the Basement. To check out a circulating item, take it to the Library Services Desk on the 1st floor, together with your USFCard.
Citation – Information that uniquely identifies a source used for a paper or presentation, allowing others to find it. A citation usually consists of a title, author, publication date, and other publication information.
Database – An electronic collection of information, such as journal articles. Some databases contain magazine articles, newspaper articles, other written material, images, sound files, or video files.
Dissertation – A book-length research document produced by a student to fulfill the requirement for earning a doctoral degree. A similar document produced by a masters-level student is known as a thesis.
Full Text – The entire text contents of a research article, instead of just the abstract. Some journal databases provide full-text for all of their articles, while other databases provide the full-text for only some of the articles and only abstracts for other articles.
Government Documents – Printed materials produced by the U.S. federal government or by the Florida state government. These reports and other materials are shelved in the USF Tampa Library’s Basement, and many of them can be checked out.
Hold Request – A request that a book that has been checked out to someone else be returned earlier than its due date so that the requesting user can check it out. To place a hold request, click the link in the USF Libraries Catalog just below the book’s due date. This sends a notification to the person who has checked out the book, asking them to return it to the Library. As soon as the book is returned, the user who placed the hold request will be automatically notified that the book is at the Library Services Desk, ready to be checked out by the user.
InterLibrary Loan (ILL) – A way to obtain a book or article from another library that is not held by the USF Tampa Library
Journal – A magazine-like periodic publication that contains research articles
Microfiche, Microfilm, Microform – Because some publications were printed on paper that was not designed to last a long time (newspapers), or would take up a lot of room if stored in the library (magazines or educational reports), these publications have been photographed and reduced in size onto a plastic-like storage medium known as microforms. Microforms that are rolled up like an old movie film are known as microfilm, while those that are on individual sheets (each about the size of an index card) are known as microfiche. Microfilm and microfiche can be read using special viewing machines, and can be scanned and saved as a PDF file (or other format) onto a USB flash drive, or emailed.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article – A research article that has been submitted by its author(s) to a journal for publication, but first reviewed by several other researchers (the “peers”, also known as “referees”) for appropriateness and to meet that field’s standards, in order to obtain approval for publication.
Periodical – A serial publication (see Serial) that comes out more than twice a year, such as a journal, magazine, or newspaper.
Refereed Journal Article – See Peer-Reviewed Journal Article.
Reference Book, Reference Collection – A book that is not intended to be read in its entirety but instead is designed to be used to look up the answer to a question is known as a reference book. Reference books in the USF Tampa Library are usually kept in the Reference Collection (this includes the Ready Reference collection on the 1st floor, the main Reference Collection on the 4th floor, and the Reference Annex in the Basement). These books may not be checked out but may be used inside the Library (including photocopying or scanning relevant pages).
Reference Services, Reference Librarian – Assistance in using the library is known as reference services, and includes answering questions about the library’s resources and services. Reference services in the USF Tampa Library also include assisting students and faculty in finding appropriate materials for their assignments and research. Reference services at the USF Tampa Library are provided by faculty known as reference librarians, or by other trained library staff. To use reference services, users may visit or call the Library Services Desk (located on the Library’s 1st floor) or may contact a librarian by email, chat, or text message.
Reserves – items that are in high demand by students (such as for a class assignment or for test preparation), and that have been re-located to the Library Services Desk, usually at the request of a course instructor. Reserve items are usually highly restricted in how long the item may be checked out, in order to provide access by as many different students as possible.
Scholarly Journal Article – See Peer-Reviewed Journal Article.
Serial – A publication that comes out more than once, such as a journal, magazine, newspaper, or yearbook
Stacks – The library shelves
Thesis – See dissertation.
Volume – A collection of periodical issues, usually published within the same year or part of a year | <urn:uuid:96c83dbd-f245-48d3-b243-87ea25356e8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lib.usf.edu/help/glossary-of-terms/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944119 | 1,459 | 2.875 | 3 |
L is the inductance in henries. Putting a voltage source across an inductor causes the current to rise as a ramp.
1 volt across 1 henry produces a current that increases at 1 amp per second.
An inductor is normally formed from a coil of wire which may be wound on a core of magnetic material.
Danger! If you try to stop a current going through an inductor you will generate a high voltage. This will not be enough to kill you (unless it is a very big inductor, but will be enough to kill a transistor (electronic switch) that has the temerity to attempt the feat. Some way of dissipating this energy is required. Even an ordinary mechanical switch will have its life shortened by being expected to switch an inductive load.
For a DC circuit, use a diode clamp circuit to limit the voltage across the switch to 0.6volts more than the supply (but make sure that the supply can take it - with an electronic power supply you may merely be wrecking your power supply), or RC "snubber".
Transformers - multiply an AC voltage by the turns ratio. They are quite efficient - power out is only a little less than power in.
The existence of transformers is the main reason why AC power is used.
Transformers may be used in the first stage of producing low voltage power for electronic circuits.
Inductors are imperfect. For a start the coil has finite resistance, and significant capacitance. Where there is a magnetic core, there are imperfections associated with this. Firstly the magnetic material More seriously, a solid metal core can act as a one turn transformer.
For low-frequency work a core of soft iron is used, which may be laminated. For high
[Incidentally, "core store" uses high hysteresis
Real choos and washing machines use induction motors.
Switches are classified in terms of the number of poles and number of throws.
Common types are SPST DPDT SPDT, sometimes with centre-off position.
Use of DPDT switch as reversing switch. Switch tree for selecting power source.
Push button switches.
Note that contacts bounce for about a millisecond after closing. This is not noticable to people, but it is noticable to logic circuits which can respond in nanoseconds.
Switches are rated for current and voltage.
These are electro-magnetically operated switches. So the input circuit behaves as an inductor with some loss (the energy required to operate the switch as well as the normal resistance) and the output circuit behaves as a switch.
Relays take milliseconds to operate, and can only manage a few million operations in their lifetime, but they can take a lot of abuse, unlike electronic switches which can die from a very brief overvoltage. | <urn:uuid:6493e47b-5d1e-495c-8dc8-4bbc9519771c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www-robotics.cs.umass.edu/~grupen/503/SLIDES/RC_circuits2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9345 | 587 | 3.375 | 3 |
The David Borwein Distinguished Career Award was created in 2004 to recognize individuals who have made exceptional, broad, and continued contributions to Canadian mathematics. The first award was presented in 2006.
The David Borwein Distinguished Career Award is a bronze sculpture created by artist Helaman Ferguson . The sculpture is based on Benson’s formula for Madelung’s constant for NaCi (Mathematics of Salt) and reflects David Borwein’s love and appreciation of mathematics in general and classical analysis in particular.
David Borwein served as president of the CMS from 1985-1987. He was head of the mathematics department at the University of Western Ontario from 1967 to 1989. He has published over 125 papers and remains actively involved in research. His contributions to Canadian mathematics are extensive and include acting as a referee for a number of mathematical journals, serving as a reviewer for NSERC and NSF proposals, and being actively involved in the committees and programs of the Canadian Mathematical Society. | <urn:uuid:805a25bb-0c2d-4d30-8321-bc1c78a2f251> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cms.math.ca/Prizes/info/db | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967535 | 205 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Cultural Workers Matter: Louisiana's cultural workers make up the second largest job cluster in the state. Unfortunately, too many earn low wages and have little or no insurance. See how one of our partners is making a difference.
June 08, 2012
The Mid South is known the world over for its contribution of talent to literature, art, sports and music. And while the region is just beginning to understand how this rich culture can improve its economy, many of those working in the cultural industry--musicians, artists, and those in the restaurant business--are low-wage and seasonal employees without health insurance or with inadequate coverage.
Andy Cornett was a lifelong Louisiana musician and enjoyed touring and playing with his band. When he fell on hard times and needed open heart surgery, the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation was there to help him, ensuring he received the operation. Afterward, Andy went into a deep depression, preventing him from reuniting with his band and earning an income.
“Through our Behavioral Health Pilot Program funded by the Foundation for the Mid South, we were able to reach out to the local Acadia/Vermilion Hospital facility for in-depth day group-patient therapy,” said Jackie Richard, Development Director of LCEF.
Through the pilot program, Andy received therapy services at a reduced rate of 90%. After two months of daily group therapy, he was on stage again with his band.
Andy Cornett recently passed, leaving behind his band and his family. The Behavioral Health Pilot Program and the LCEF has offered bereavement counseling to Andy’s family.
There are nearly 150,000 cultural workers like Andy in Louisiana, making the cultural sector the second largest job cluster behind life sciences (e.g. health/ hospitals). Over half of these workers are located in southeast Louisiana with most in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
The economy of Louisiana is only as strong as its employees; and cultural workers are a very important part of the equation, but research shows they are often slow to seek mental health services. To overcome this obstacle, LCEF began raising awareness by hosting medical screenings in nontraditional venues, such as restaurants before hours, backstage before performances and at festivals.
Along with a number of partners like South East Community Health Systems, Acadia/Vermillion Behavioral Hospital, and a host of social workers, the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation is protecting the states valuable cultural assets and ensuring people are physically and mentally well and able to earn a living.Return to News | <urn:uuid:db5a85c3-2eba-4919-a9e5-6631e8071dce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fndmidsouth.org/news/view.php?entryID=93 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970513 | 512 | 1.78125 | 2 |
All of our actions have consequences. This relationship is as dependable as the ripples created by throwing a pebble into a lake. Consequences can be either good or bad. Problems arise when we don’t think about or recognize the consequences of our actions.
When you are not aware of the consequences of your behavior, two things may happen. In the case where the consequences are negative, you run the risk of repeating the same mistake. When you are pleased with the consequences, you may also fail to duplicate the behavior that gave you the desired results. In either case, you will be frustrated.
For example, how far could you get driving a car if you didn’t comprehend the consequences of the various controls? Without an understanding of the operation of the steering wheel, gas pedal, and brakes, you wouldn’t remain on the road for very long.
Your life works the same way. It’s important to understand the consequences of your actions. Many of the consequences you experience are predictable. However, there may be some you didn’t anticipate. They are part of your unending education.
Unexpected consequences provide you with new insights. Invaluable knowledge can be gained by analyzing exactly what happened and why. The discoveries made in this fashion provide you with new information you can use to reach your goals.
Ideally, when assessing various courses of action, analysis of the corresponding potential consequences enables you to make the best decision. This is the basis of the carpenter’s adage “measure twice, cut once.” You have probably been told numerous times to think before you act.
Acting impulsively, without thinking, is the same as cutting without measuring at all. This approach is similar to attempting to drive a car by cranking the steering wheel in one direction and then correcting by cranking in the other direction. You will run off the road in short order.
Not every decision you make will be perfect. Your objective is to take the most appropriate action based on the information you have available. If the actual consequences are not what you wanted, you must then take different action and keep going. Don’t waste any time lamenting what you should have done differently.
Ignoring or denying the link between your action and the corresponding consequences will often make things worse. You won’t be able to take control of your life unless you see yourself as responsible for the outcomes you are experiencing.
When faced with undesirable consequences, you want to first identify the cause. Next, determine the action you need to take to mitigate, change, or eliminate them. Then get in gear and do whatever is necessary to correct the situation. Action, not complaining, brings results.
If you fail to take personal responsibility for your actions, you will exacerbate your situation. Those who blame others for their circumstances develop a victim mentality. The result is a belief that they have no power over the direction of their destiny. This type of thinking leads people to accept suffering as normal and unavoidable.
The only way to effect different consequences is to alter your actions. This is accomplished by being proactive in every area of your life. Then when something happens you don’t like, your first response will be “what do I have to do to fix this?” | <urn:uuid:013aa131-7633-47aa-a0f8-763cfc2736f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theresident.com/2012/09/11/actions-have-consequences/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948523 | 680 | 3.125 | 3 |
Mushrooms have been valued throughout the world as both food and medicine for thousands of years. In virtually every culture people enjoy hunting for wild mushrooms. Europeans have always appreciated their gastronomic value. In Japan, pushcart vendors on the streets still sell medicinal mushrooms to the average citizen who uses them to maintain health and promote longevity. Some Japanese people have even been said to travel hundreds of miles in order to collect wild mushrooms that grow only on very old plum trees--such as the Reishi--renowned as a cure for cancer and degenerative diseases. Likewise, for over 3,000 years the Chinese have used and revered many fungi for their health-giving properties, especially tonics for the immune system.
Today, these health-promoting mushrooms are becoming an integral part of a healing diet. Further, they may also be an excellent food for staying trim and healthy. Because fats occur in mushrooms in minor amounts, especially compared with protein and carbohydrates, and the fatty fraction consists predominantly of unsaturated fatty acids, such as linoleic acid, they may be the perfect food for losing weight and maintaining a healthy heart and cardiovascular system.
Some Major Medicinal Mushrooms
Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) is a prized mushroom with a delicious taste and texture. It is used medicinally for diseases involving depressed immune function-including cancer, AIDS, environmental allergies, Candida infections, and frequent flu and colds. Shiitake is also beneficial for soothing bronchial inflammation and regulating urine incontinence (Bo and Yun-sun, 1980), as well as for reducing chronic high cholesterol. Japanese products containing LEM, a polysaccharide-rich extract from the shiitake mushroom, and similar extracts from maitake are currently undergoing trials in Japan and the U.S. to test their effectiveness in treating various forms of cancer.
According to one prominent Japanese researcher, lentinan (a cell-wall constituent extracted from the fruiting bodies of shiitake) is an immunomodulating agent which may be useful both as a general rejuvenative for older persons, as well as prophylactically to protect healthy, physically active young people from overwork and exhaustion (Aoki, 1984).
According to manufacturers' recommendations and the few clinical trials performed with humans, in the early stages of AIDS or chronic hepatitis the best dose of LEM may be between 2-6 grams/day in 2 or 3 divided doses. Once the disease is more stable, the dosage may be decreased, perhaps to 1/2 -1 gram per day (Sharon, 1988).
Commercial preparations of shiitake are available in natural food markets. Standardized extracts are preferred because the amount of lentinan present is clearly stated on the bottle. Note that although fresh shiitake can be a valuable dietary supplement, the amount one would need to eat for medicinal doses is so high that it might cause digestive upset. That is why LEM, which is concentrated and easily absorbed, is preferred as medicine.
Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) is, without doubt, one of the most famous medicinal mushrooms. It is known as ling-zhi in China and reishi in Japan. In the last 20 years, reishi has been tested in human clinical studies and is thought to be beneficial for a wide variety of disorders, including neurasthenia, insomnia, rhinitis, and duodenal ulcers (Ying et al, 1987). It has also been used for liver pain, symptoms associated with anorexia, retinal pigmentary degeneration, and progressive muscular dystrophy; (Chang & But, 1986; Chang et al, 1984; Huidi & Zhiyuan, 1982). Reishi has also shown favorable results in treating hepatitis (Chang & But, 1986), chronic bronchitis; coronary heart disease, allergies, and altitude sickness. Traditionally, reishi was very expensive, because it only grew in the wild, but it is currently both accessible and affordable due to cultivation techniques developed in the last 20 years (Willard, 1990). Today it is used primarily for aging-related conditions and cancer and as an immune stimulant.
Maitake (Grifola frondosa) is a delectable mushroom that is extremely popular in Japan. In the U.S. it is currently being studied in medical clinics in the U.S. for patients with breast and colorectal cancers (Miller, 1994). In China a maitake extract was shown to have an anticancer effect in patients with lung, stomach, hepatocellular cancers, and leukemia. Reduced side effects from chemotherapy have also been reported (Nanba, 1994a,b). Dr. Joan Priestley, MD reports that her patients with Kaposi's sarcoma and other symptoms of AIDS show improvement when administered maitake extract, and Dr. David Hughes, MD has had positive results with Kaposi's sarcoma lesions (Nanba, 1994a). It potentially benefits diabetics (lowering blood glucose) and people with hypertension.
Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) is extremely delicious as well as conferring various health-giving properties. Traditionally, it has been used to strengthen veins and relax tendons. In China oyster mushroom is indicated for joint and muscle relaxation (Yang & Jong, 1989). A product containing oyster mushroom, called "Tendon-easing powder," is effective in the treatment of lumbago, numbed limbs, and tendon and blood vessel discomfort.
In the Czech Republic, extracts have been made from the fruiting bodies as the main ingredient in dietary preparations recommended for prevention of high cholesterol (Opletal, 1993). The dried oyster mushrooms are said to be high in iron, so they are potentially good blood builders.
F. velutipes is a popular edible mushroom in Japan where a tender cultivated form of the wild version is called "enokitake." It is commonly used in Japanese cooking and increasingly can be found in salads in gourmet restaurants. If taken on a regular basis, Flammulina velutipes may prevent, as well as cure, liver disease and gastroenteric ulcers (Ying et al, 1987; Yoshioka et al, 1973).
Enokitake contains several types of amino acids including valine, which inhibits the growth of Ehrlich ascities tumour and sarcoma 180 in mice; and lysine, reported to increase body height and weight (Ying et al, 1987). Enokitake contains a cardiotoxic protein (flammutoxin) that is rendered harmless when subjected to heat (100 degrees C) for 20 minutes. I would caution against the chronic use of enokitake raw in salads or other dishes.
Sources of Medicinal Fungi
Powdered concentrates (capsules, tablets, granules)
Liquid extract products (tinctures, ampules--extract in honey base)
Since the scientific literature seems to point to whole mushroom fruiting bodies as being especially active as antitumor agents and immune enhancers, I recommend taking dried and powdered mushrooms by the teaspoon, either in a cup of ginger tea, or even sprinkled into soup or on stir-frys and rice, etc. When placed in "00" capsules, the average amount of powdered mushroom/capsule is about 400 mg. For mild to moderate immune support I recommend 2 capsules morning and evening. For specific immune-suppressed conditions, take 2-3 capsules 3 times a day.
To make a mushroom extract that is stronger and more readily assimilated, try simmering the mushrooms (as many fruiting bodies or pieces as can be covered by the water in a pot) for about an hour. Strain off the dark tea and replace the liquid with fresh water to cover the mushrooms and simmer for another 30 minutes. Strain the new tea and add it to the first decoction; simmer several hours until it is reduced to a thick paste. Take this paste off the heat, scrape it out with a cake spatula, and knead it with an organic rice or wheat flour to a dough-like consistency. Pack small pieces of this dough into "00" capsules and take 1 of them morning and evening. The dough can also be dried in a food drier or oven with low heat. The dried extract pieces can then be powdered in a blender or coffee grinder. The powder can be packed into capsules or sprinkled on food.
Teas and Soups
Teas are a good way to use medicinal mushrooms, and they should be simmered until the tea is somewhat dark and strong-tasting--about 40 minutes to an hour.
For soups, add a variety of vegetables to the mushroom tea stock. Fish, chicken, or a little red meat can be added for certain deficiency conditions. Drink the broth (1-3 cups a day) and eat the vegetables.
Use Summary of Major Medicinal Mushrooms:
Recommended Reading List
return to articles index | <urn:uuid:99e021ba-1848-4fa8-8193-72ba4fdd6186> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christopherhobbs.com/website/library/articles/article_files/mushrooms_med_03.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937789 | 1,869 | 3.03125 | 3 |
HAT TIP: By David Giambusso/The Star-Ledger
U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, the elder statesman of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, died after a months-long battle with colon cancer today, according to three sources close to the Payne family. The longtime politician was 77.
Payne announced last month he was under treatment for colon cancer but said that he expected to make a full recovery. Last week, though, his health took a turn for the worse.
He was hospitalized at Georgetown University Hospital, but on Friday was flown back to New Jersey on a medical transport. After arriving at Teterboro airport, he was taken to St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. Payne, a Democrat who represented New Jersey’s 10th congressional district for 23 years, was placed in hospice care and died early this morning.
The state’s first — and currently its only — black congressman, Payne headed one of Newark’s most powerful political dynasties. His son Donald Payne Jr. is the Newark City Council president, as well as an Essex County Freeholder. His brother and lifelong political partner, William, is a former state assemblyman.
“He’s had a tremendous impact on the state, country and the world,” William Payne said.
Payne was up for re-election this year and facing a primary in June. Despite his condition, he vowed to run again only last month and refused to take a leave of absence.
A former teacher, insurance executive, city councilman, and county freeholder, Payne’s lifelong dream was to become a congressman. In 1988 he finally achieved that goal and was returned to Congress 11 times — by some of the widest margins in New Jersey congressional history.
While in the House of Representatives, Payne was known as a tireless advocate for his constituents, a champion of education and a de facto ambassador to Africa. He helped secure $100 million to help prevent and treat Malaria and HIV/AIDS, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.
“New Jersey has lost one of its greatest leaders in the fight for equality and fairness for all Americans, and one of the greatest advocates for families of the Garden State,” said U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, whose 8th district shared parts of Montclair, South Orange and West Orange with Payne.
“Donald Payne was a true trailblazer – a champion for education and civil rights who sought to combat injustice all over the world. I will greatly miss my friend and brother,” Pascrell said in a statement released this morning.
Payne was recognized in Congress for having the most supportive record on issues regarding the Northern Ireland peace process. He helped win passage of a resolution declaring the killing in Darfur genocide and he authored the Sudan Peace Act, facilitating famine relief efforts.
State Sen. Richard Codey called Payne’s legacy a strong one, and one that merits emulation at all levels of government, particularly with regard to oppressed peoples.
“He was bigger than life but never conducted himself that way,” Codey said by phone this morning. “If you were violating somebody’s rights, you better get out of the way.”
Although Payne was well-known for his interest in African affairs, Payne, for instance, also long supported peace initiatives to end sectarian violence in Ireland, Codey said.
“People always associated him with Africa and advocating for Darfur and he did, but color didn’t matter to him, just your civil rights,” he said. | <urn:uuid:8440bbab-3828-45da-9792-61e56fb17029> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://skepticalbrotha.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/congressman-donald-m-payne-1934-2012/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=27cac980df | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977923 | 752 | 1.671875 | 2 |
3.5 weeks in Brazil
Professor James Kahn
Amazonas is a huge Brazilian state of 1.5 million sq. kilometers which retains ninety-eight percent of its original forest cover. This course examines the importance of the forest for economic development in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy, and how policies can be develop to promote both environmental protection and an increase in the quality life in both the urban and rural areas of Amazonas. The learning objectives of this course integrate those of the economics and environmental studies majors. Students are asked to use economic tools in an interdisciplinary context to understand the relationships among economic behavior, ecosystems and policy choices. Writing assignments focus on these relationships and look towards the development of executive summary writing skills. Prerequisites: ECON 101 or ENVS 110.
Program Fee: $2,325. (To be paid to W&L) includes room, some meals, boat tickets, mandatory supplementary health insurance, fees paid for guides and to villages, etc.
Other estimated expenses: Airfare hometown-Miami-Lexington (est. $400); international airfare (est. $800); taxis (est. $100); meals (est. $700); immunizations (est.$200); visa ($220) miscellaneous spending money (est. $200).
Mandatory Pre-Departure Orientation: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 7 p.m. in Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library.
Please contact Prof. Kahn for further details. | <urn:uuid:48b7cbe1-a26e-4531-8dc5-ba80ef69a940> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wlu.edu/x49770.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912102 | 306 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Amanuensis: a person employed to take dictation or copy manuscripts.
I read about Amanuensis Monday in Heather Rojo's blog "Nutfield Genealogy," who read about it in Randy Seaver’s blog “GeneaMusings” and he read about it on John Newmark’s genealogy blog “TransylvanianDutch”. That said, for me this is a great way to transcribe and post my Uncle Ralph's letters.
An everyday kind of guy, my Uncle Ralph wrote letters telling his sisters of his daily life in the 1980s as well as regaling them with family history that he remembers. In this letter, he mentions his sister Margie, who was the next youngest to him. He also tells his baby sister, Olive, about the older generations and stories that she was too young to remember.
Dear Olive & Norman,
Your letter came the same day I wrote to you. Getting some funny weather now. Supposed to be a Santa Ana that can get only within 5 mi of the beach. Most of your Santa Anas, its just as hot at the beach as it is on the desert. This ones different. 70 degrees at the beach till 5 mi inland then to 95 to 100 & the desert 116 yesterday at Palm Springs.
Knocked $30 off the elect bill this last month but it was still almost 46.00 but the weather had cooled so we just had the house open with a fan or two on.
Not much news, its mostly all political now. The Liars are out in full force now. So I never listen to them. I just read their record and on most of them its pretty shoddy.
Yes I suppose being the youngest & coming to Calif so young you might not even heard of most of your relatives. I didn’t keep in touch like Margie did but I met lots of them & knew of others & nearly all the older generations are in Wisconsin. Some in Iowa, not many in Minn or Mich. In wis there were the Burmeisters, Fosses, Irelands & McPhersons, also a few Foys , in Iowa, the Fiskes. In those days people were close knit, some of them never got over 50 mi away from home in their life time. In those days, and late in the afternoon would pull into any farm house & ask to stay all night. It was common precedure if you lived close to a highway & very few would take money for putting a person up. I know 2 or 3 times a year some one would stop at our place to stay, team & all & all of them Perfect strangers. In one way it was a way of getting outside news (outside of a 20 mi circumference). Also in those days you might work for a neighbor 4 or 5 days but never think of getting paid except by him helping you.
I can remember Dad giving me hell. He was going to shock grain for another farmer & then that fellow was to shock corn for Dad. The only thing Dad and Mother had to go to Madison so Dad told me to go in his place which I did but when I finished shocking his grain, he asked if I’d rather have the 3.00 or have him come up & shock corn for me. The 3.00 looked big to me & it was no problem for me cut and shocks the corn. Only I didn’t know what bawling out I was going to get when Dad got home.
Write when you can & say Hi to everyone.
Ralph & Sally | <urn:uuid:274d3aeb-b488-4b83-aae0-fe69b39d61f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rootsnleaves.blogspot.com/2010/04/amanuensis-monday-mcpherson-history_19.html?showComment=1271694172569 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985213 | 741 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Photo: Pascal BovetRemember way back, uh, two days ago when I wrote a post arguing that new EPA rules will not threaten electric system reliability? Well, just in the last day or so, more evidence has emerged to support that position. I enjoy being right, so I’m doing a follow-up post. Hopefully this will not be a daily thing.
First, as Inside EPA reports, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), a trade group for investor-owned utilities, has done its own internal study on coal-plant shutdowns. Now, you have to keep in mind that EEI and other industry groups have, in public anyway, been making hysterical predictions about a huge wave of immediate plant shutdowns that will cast whole regions of the country into darkness. So what do they find when they study the matter internally?
- There will be far fewer shutdowns than industry shills are predicting — around 321 plants, or 48,000 megwatts’ worth (roughly 14 percent of current coal capacity, or 5 percent of total generation capacity).
- The shutdowns will take place over a much longer period of time than industry shills are predicting — over a decade rather than in the next two or three years.
- Most of the closures are happening for other reasons, unrelated to EPA rules — the plants are old, they’re uneconomic to run, they’re getting beat by cheap gas.
Second, the Dept. of Energy (DOE) has just released its own in-depth study [PDF] on the reliability question. It’s interesting because DOE deliberately analyzed a worst-case scenario, a “Stringent Test Case” that the agency acknowledges is more severe than what’s actually anticipated when the rules are implemented.
Even using that extreme case, DOE found that “the overall supply-demand balance for electric power in each region examined would be adequate,” and furthermore, that “mechanisms exist to address such reliability concerns or other extenuating circumstances on a plant-specific or more local basis.” This is more or less what other analysts have found as well.
In short, there’s a growing — at this point overwhelming — body of evidence that it is perfectly possible to shut down the nation’s dirtiest coal plants and still keep the lights on. This won’t stop industry shills from fear mongering, but it should fortify the spines of wishy-washy moderates in Congress. | <urn:uuid:ad8937c0-3e73-41c7-afec-17870ed6ae1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://grist.org/coal/2011-12-01-evidence-shutting-down-coal-plants-will-not-threaten-reliability/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937264 | 522 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Australian Bureau of Statistics
3306.0.55.001 - Marriages, Australia, 2007 Quality Declaration
Latest ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 30/09/2008
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Marriages continue to increase in 2007: ABS
Over 116,000 marriages were registered in Australia during 2007, according to new figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
This is the highest number of marriages registered in a single year since 1990. The crude marriage rate (marriages per 1000 population) has however, decreased in the last 20 years from 7.1 in 1988 to 5.5 in 2007.
The number of marriages registered in 2007 grew by almost 2% from 2006, with Western Australian and Tasmanian registrations showing the largest growth, up by 6% and 5% respectively.
Over the past 20 years, couples have been delaying the age at which they marry. In 2007, the median age at first-time marriage was 29.6 years for males and 27.6 years for females, compared to 26.1 years and 24.0 years in 1989.
There was a continued trend towards civil ceremonies throughout 2007, with 63% of couples choosing a Civil Celebrant to officiate their marriage, compared to 20 years ago when almost 60% of marriages conducted were by a Religious Minister.
Other findings include:
These documents will be presented in a new window.
This page last updated 30 September 2008 | <urn:uuid:6b941841-7997-4540-b957-b69c4bb132d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/3306.0.55.001Media%20Release12007?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3306.0.55.001&issue=2007&num=&view= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946755 | 310 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Have you ever saved flowers before by pressing them between the pages of a book or hanging a bundle of them to dry in the air? They are both good, easy ways to dry flowers. But there's another way to do this.by using what's called a desiccant. A desiccant is a drying agent.
The goal in drying flowers is to remove as much moisture as possible while keeping the shape of the original flower. The faster you can dry them, the more vibrant the flowers' color will be. The fastest way is with a desiccant.
The kinds of drying agents people usually use are fine, dry, clean sand; Borax from the laundry section at the grocery store; or silica gel, which you can get at a craft store.
Since many wildflowers are protected, it's best to use flowers from your garden. Pick your flowers in the late morning, after the dew has dried but before the noonday sun hits them. Then follow these instructions.
Put a block of Styrofoam or floral form in the bottom of a bucket. An old ice cream container works great because you can dry the flowers upright. Add a layer of drying agent so that the bucket's half-full with Styrofoam and the drying agent.
Cut back the stem of the flower until it's only 1-2 inches long. Add a piece of floral wire to be the new stem. Stick a piece of floral wire in the base of the blossom. Then, fold the wire so the flower and wire can be buried in the drying agent. When the flower's dry, it'll have a sturdy stem that you can wrap with floral tape.
For flat flowers, like daisies, place the blossom face down in the desiccant. If your flowers have a lot of petals, put them right side up with the stems and wires pressed down into the Styrofoam.
Gently cover the flower with the remaining desiccant, spooning it carefully over the blossom so that some falls between the petals. Be careful not to crush the flower.
When the flowers are completely covered, add an airtight lid. Air-tight is important because if the container is not air-tight the drying agent will absorb moisture from the air, instead of from the flowers.
Place the bucket in a dry, brightly lit place for three to eight days. When the flowers are dry the petals will feel papery. Gently pour off the desiccant until you can pick up the flowers by the stem. And you will have a perfectly dried flower, bright, beautiful, and ready to last a long time. | <urn:uuid:69ed1501-1c73-4164-b89d-5ae592c024f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/cool/ameliaflowers.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929359 | 548 | 2.734375 | 3 |
No doubt, wood floors are beautiful. But as beautiful as they can be, wood floors are not always the best design choice in certain circumstances. What’s the next best alternative? Check out laminate flooring.
Invented in 1977 and first introduced by the brand Pergo to the European market in 1984, laminate flooring is relatively inexpensive, easy to install and holds up well to lots of foot traffic. Plenty of commercial enterprises use laminate for this reason. Laminate floors are a little more moisture resistant than traditional wood floors, so to a degree, they can be used in areas where wood is inadvisable. Laminates are built with a transparent, protective wear layer that is resistant to dogs, cats, chairs, and high heels. It needs no special cleaners and never requires waxing or polishing. The biggest appeal may be economics — laminate is available for as little as $2 to $4 a square foot.
Here’s what you need to know about laminate floors:
- Not all laminate is equal. There are laminates that are extremely cheap — and they look cheap too, and don’t wear well. Beware of suspiciously low prices and look for the seal of the North American Laminate Flooring Association, or NALFA. NALFA certification tells you that a product bearing its logo is recyclable and conforms to all regulations regarding formaldehyde emission.
- Opt for laminate that does not use glue. Click-together laminate floors are easier to install, and by not using glue, your floor won’t emit icky gasses that will pollute your home’s air.
- You can find laminate that looks like wood, marble, stone and tile. Every laminate piece contains a layer of a high-definition, detailed image that can realistically simulate all sorts of colors and patterns in natural materials. Because printing technology has improved dramatically since the early days of laminate floors, you can find high quality, textured laminates that appear to be pine, hickory, oak, saltillo tile, black slate, teak and more. Below, check out a slate floor.
- You will need to put down an “underlayment” when installing a laminate floor. Underlayment (which may or may not be built into the laminate floor product) is a requirement for any installation. It’s helpful in absorbing some of the minor imperfections in the subfloor, reducing some noise when walking on the floor, and softening some of the impact. Some underlayments also offer a moisture barrier on one side, which is a good idea for bathroom and wet-area installations.
- Laminate floors installed directly on concrete or in areas with a lot of moisture need an additional moisture barrier. Before installing a laminate floor in a damp environment, consider that laminate floors can buckle and warp, just as wood does. Explain your plans to the retailer best to decide whether laminate is the best material for your needs.
- It’s resistant, but not indestructible. Laminate flooring is stain- and fade-resistant and has a tendency to repel water. It’s an extremely hard and durable surface, but it is possible to scratch it. It’s not possible to repair the actual scratches when they occur, so be sure to buy extra material with your initial purchase and hold onto it in case you’ll need it later. Laminate can’t be refinished, so once it’s scratched or damaged, it cannot be salvaged.
And here’s a laminate “tile” floor:
Below, a laminate “pine” floor:
Is laminate for you? If your budget is tight and if your area is high traffic, laminate could be a viable option. Be sure to do your research carefully to purchase a floor that will withstand the test of time.
Here’s a house that’s like a poem about concrete.
Every aspect of the BA House in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina is constructed using poured-in-place concrete.
The ubiquitous concrete is balanced by the warmth of rich dark wood shutters.
The concrete is used in amusing ways, as in forming this tiny horizontal window.
The nailed-together wooden forms that were used to pour its walls, barely held together.
Their brief struggle is immortalised in concrete.
Even the interior furnishings are poured from concrete, and then honed to a gleaming silvery patina.
It is used to form the kitchen counters – for a surprisingly robust and earthy effect.
The floors are polished to a rich and deep patina - while the ceilings reveal the wooden forms used in making the concrete.
Another concrete form becomes the void that creates the swimming pool.
Amid all this focus on the solid materiality of concrete – the interior makes light solid too.
A glass box of light pours down from the sky into its central space.
The light is more than a skylight on a ceiling.
It becomes more like a solid cube of sunlight.
From one side of the light cube, only the light at bottom is revealed. Above it, you guessed: concrete.
At night, the shape inverts, as the black sky is crossed by a passageway of light.
A very interesting house.
Sometimes a small change can have a very big effect.
A narrow, cramped and dark three-story building was on this tiny site.
The owners, a young couple, hoped to be able to brighten it.
The original three storied house had occupied a passageway from the busy High Street in Clapham, London, to a stables behind the larger building next door.
Cramped bedrooms all faced the noisy street, and at ground level the entrance was also the dining room, while access to the garden was effectively blocked by an uninviting extension.
To make it bright, the architects, London-based alma-nac, topped a new arrangement with a long sloping roof dotted with skylights to bring sunlight into each storey.
This new exterior roof and wall was treated as one unit and covered with grey slate roofing tiles.
They extended the house at the rear, opening up the ground floor and bringing light into the entire space. A study was added in addition to the third bedroom.
They opened up the full width of the building to the garden with folding doors, replacing the tiny dilapidated door to the garden. Read the rest of this entry »
A very beautiful yacht house that includes four apartments for vacations is sited on the southernmost tip of Ukraine’s Crimean coastline.
Designed by the Italian firm based in the UK,Robin Monotti Architects, the Foros Yacht House is inspired by the traditional Russian “dacha” holiday homes.
Neighbours include the dachas of former USSR president Gorbachev and current Ukrainian president Yanukovich, and close by are magnificent palaces and churches from the Tsarist era.
Monotti conceived the building as a contemporary reinterpretation of these traditional villas on the coast.
The design started with the central yacht storage space which is a space 18 feet high and 45 feet deep.
The original idea was just to store the client’s 13 foot yacht, and provide “captain’s” quarters.
Only afterwards did the client decide to add the three rental apartments, taking advantage of “the Russian Riviera”, with its dramatic coastal scenery and balmy Mediterranean climate. Read the rest of this entry »
A staircase that is a home for books was made in a renovation of a north London home by Hackney studio Platform 5.
The clients needed to house an extensive book collection.
So at the heart of the house, the main feature is a double height library built around a staircase.
The upward movement of the stepped bookcases echo the steps in the stairs.
At the top of the stairwell, a cosy study desk is tucked into the landing space.
The small desk juts out over the stairwell, making use of the waste space. Read the rest of this entry » | <urn:uuid:87dae9fc-9f60-4cda-9db3-62cbe4e1d8fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.homedesignfind.com/category/gardening-outdoor/page/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938232 | 1,718 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Prepaid cards make money mobile, controllable and accessible for all sorts of groups. For instance, migrant workers who can’t get a bank account for want of a permanent address, but who still wish to shop online, can use a prepaid card on the Internet. Or, perhaps they’d rather be paid in a more secure format than ready cash. A prepaid card is the answer – and mobile enough to take wherever they go.
For governments, cash can be hard to control. They may want to make sure it finds its way into the right hands and is used for the right purposes. Paying benefits or allowances onto a prepaid card gives back a measure of control and makes distribution simpler. Cards can be raised quickly for specific events – for instance in the U.S., prepaid cards were used to distribute money to those most affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Retailers are keen to remove cash from the equation too, especially in situations where cash is just as inconvenient such as fast food outlets or any high throughput outlet. Combine a prepaid card with contactless card technology which doesn’t require a PIN number or authorisation, and the transaction process becomes even quicker and less labour intensive.
The list of potential applications is expanding rapidly. Nearly 30 separate uses have been identified. From gift cards in stores to foreign currency cards that offer consistent rates of exchange; from money remittance cards to cards with other electronic money technology attached, such as e-wallets and e-purses.
FIS is a pioneer of prepaid card processing. Since we launched the UK’s first prepaid card in conjunction with MasterCard in 2005, its popularity has risen at a dramatic rate. We now develop prepaid card solutions across Europe and the world, handling more than 100 million cards. | <urn:uuid:0c498928-3427-4da0-9674-9e54a78bf5aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fisglobal.com/EMEA/Kenya/product-prepaidcards | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959381 | 362 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Performative Architecture Studio 2011: The Book
A Master-level design course at the University of Melbourne, the Performative Architecture Studio explores the concepts and techniques of digital architectural design including complex geometries, complex systems and interactivity. It challenges contemporary understandings of creativity and enables its participants to explain and defend their design decisions. In 2011, the studio produced an installation that combined parametric geometries of an inflatable structure, computer vision capabilities, self-organising agent systems, dynamic lighting and generative sound into one interactive performance. This publication explains what was involved. Its first chapter is by Kirilly Barnett and the rest is group work by the studio students (see full credits inside). | <urn:uuid:54edd82c-8fe7-4971-927f-8f30c0778374> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://issuu.com/ertf345345/docs/pas_2011_journal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911676 | 141 | 2.109375 | 2 |
A major in Celtic Studies is concerned with the academic study of the Celtic languages, past and present, and the culture and history of the Celts. The aim is to enable students who have developed an interest in various aspects of Celtic Studies to pursue a program of study that offers a representative range of subject areas.
A major in Celtic Studies consists of at least 36 senior credit points from the units of study in Celtic Studies including:
CLST2601 Defining the Celts and CLST2605 The Celts in History and two CLST language units, that is:
CLST2606 Old Irish 1; CLST2602 Old Irish 2; CLST2604 Middle Welsh 1; CLST2603 Middle Welsh 2; CLST2607 Modern Irish Linguistics; CLST2608 Modern Welsh Language and Culture 1; CLST2609 Modern Welsh Language and Culture II; CLST2610 Modern Irish Language and Culture I; CLST2611 Modern Irish Language and Culture II; CLST2612 Scottish Identity, History and Culture, or no more than 18 senior credit points of cross-listed units to the major.
Sydney Arts and Social Sciences graduates work in government departments at all levels, and major private sector consultancies and corporations, locally and overseas. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences offers a range of subject areas that prepare graduates for careers in administration, education, business research, marketing, media, management consultancy, public relations, gallery and museum curatorship, hospitality and tourism, community and welfare. Our graduates are proficient in research and inquiry, and demonstrate personal and intellectual autonomy, and ethical, social and professional understanding, qualities sought after by leading employers all over the world.
Further study for major
Eligible candidates may proceed to an Honours year in the Bachelor of Arts, or apply for admission to a rich postgraduate program in the humanities and social sciences, comprising advanced learning and professional courses. Master degrees include capstone projects ranging from internships with government and non-government organisations in Australia and overseas, the gallery and museum sector, and leading media organisations, to opportunities for independent research projects which prepare students for higher degrees by research.
Related subject areas | <urn:uuid:6f215aca-3b49-454b-a0a1-3f782ed96bba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sydney.edu.au/courses/programs/bachelor-of-arts/Bachelor-of-Arts-Languages/celtic-studies-major | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907151 | 446 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Yesterday Silicon Graphics, the venerable producer of workstations and servers targeted at the visualization function, declared bankruptcy and annnouced a sale for $25M. And while it’s easy (and right) to note that the evolution of markets involves (even requires) “creative destruction” to properly move forward, sometimes it’s worth at least a moment of pause for regret to those who fell.
The first startup with which I was ever involved was one that competed (in our small way) with SGI. We were among the first shops to recognize that the open “organ bank” of commodity computing could, with the then-recent additions of multi-processor computing and workstation-class graphics acceleration on the Windows platform, compete reasonably well on peformance (and extremely well on price/performance) with the likes of SGI’s workstations. While we were a tiny part of SGI’s ultimate demise, the broader trend of SGI’s users moving to more open platforms shrunk their addressable market dramatically.
But SGI, despite the anachronism it eventually became, advanced the industry through some of its most transformative periods. Both as a provider of technology and as an enabler of creative expression, their products were revolutionary at the time, and so for me personally, I’ll remember the company fondly. Even if all that’s left are those of us who remember that the Googleplex was SGI’s campus first. | <urn:uuid:073c2c68-80eb-4532-9b0d-ae4d6820d727> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fiveyearstoolate.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/rip-sgi/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96277 | 314 | 1.65625 | 2 |
This is a standard for comparing the study attainment and performance of students of higher education across the European Union and other collaborating European countries. For successfully completed studies, ECTS-credits are awarded and simply called credits in the EDE-EM programme.
One academic year corresponds to 60 credits that are equivalent to 1500-1800 hours of study in all countries irrespective of standard or qualification type and is used to facilitate transfer and progression throughout the Union. (See here for more.)
The general structure of EDE-EM is a three-year programme of 180 credits: 60 credits in each year. Each student is offered different curricula, which are associated with a choice of two (possibly three) partners in which the student will study. The student will spend most of her/his Doctorate (at least three semesters) in these two (possibly three) universities, called in the following universities of specialization.
Students should ask the authorization to the Director of Studies if they want to take more than 30 credits in a Semester of the Program.
This arrangement leaves open the possibility to visit during one semester a third university, Partner or Associated Partner of the EDE-EM network, in which the student can take 30 credits that will be counted in the EDE-EM curriculum. | <urn:uuid:bba8ba89-353d-4598-b62e-dda98d991be3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://erasmusmundus-edeem.univ-paris1.fr/programme/credits/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955989 | 260 | 1.953125 | 2 |
DoD Defends Readiness Record
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2000 People wanting to know if U.S. forces are ready "should ask Saddam Hussein," said Defense Secretary William S. Cohen Sept. 7.
Cohen, visiting Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, said the United States has the best forces in the world.
"I think we should ask [Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein whether or not [U.S.] forces were ready to carry out Operation Desert Fox," Cohen said. "I think we should ask [Serbian President Slobodan] Milosevic as to whether or not we were ready to carry out the Allied Force operation in Kosovo."
Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said during a Pentagon press conference Sept. 7 that the United States is spending close to $300 billion per year on national defense. "It's more than all our NATO allies combined are spending," he said.
Bacon said the military could always spend more, but that "the military and civilian leadership has worked very hard in the last several years to meet the needs of the military."
Bacon cited recent pay hikes, pay table reform and revamping the military retirement system as examples of DoD's efforts to make military careers more attractive.
Recruiting has been a problem for the services, but Bacon said these personnel changes seem to be working and noted all four services will make their fiscal 2000 recruiting goals.
Bacon also said DoD has devoted $60 billion to modernization in the fiscal 2001 budget, up from $43 billion in fiscal 1998. Modernization is not only accomplished through new equipment, but also through new ideas. Bacon described the Air Force unmanned aerial vehicle programs as ways to gather intelligence and place it in the hands of those who need it quickly.
He spoke about the Army's efforts to make the service lighter, more mobile and more lethal. The Navy is looking at ways to make ships more modern and more lethal with fewer sailors aboard. "We're working on a variety of projects," Bacon said. "This takes time. It requires a lot of investment, but we won't see the results immediately."
Responding to reporters' questions about troops on food stamps, Bacon said that unfortunately some people in the military qualify for them, but the number is dropping. A total of 19,400 service members received food stamps in 1991. "Today we estimate that there are 5,100 people on food stamps," Bacon said. He noted that DoD has asked Congress for authority to take over the program for active duty service members. By not considering housing allowances as income, which the Agriculture Department does, DoD could actually increase the number of service members eligible for assistance by 2,500 to 2,800.
Bacon also pointed to another indicator of readiness -- operations and maintenance funding. "The amount of spending per active-duty soldier, sailor, airman and Marine has increased by 20 percent in real terms in the last decade," he said. The number went from just over $50,000 in 1992 to more than $60,000 in fiscal 2001. | <urn:uuid:40f43eb2-4cdb-479a-9b7b-d56d29364d62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=45460 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975057 | 641 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Posted by Derek Flood 2 weeks 4 days ago
Paranorman, the stop-motion animated feature by Laika Studios just came out on Netflix instant download, so we decided to watch it for our family movie night. It's a fun film, perhaps a bit too scary for the little ones, but what really stood out for me was the surprisingly deep morality in this little film. This comes in an unlikely package since the film is about zombies and witches. Not surprisingly, if you look for Christian reviews of the film you will see many focus on warnings to stay way from the occult. Sadly, this response misses the profoundly deep moral message behind this film — one that confronts religious violence, and instead promotes a message of redemption and forgiveness. That's quite a bit of insight for a cartoon! The premise of Paranorman is that the town of Blithe Hollow (not coincidentally set in Massachusetts, as we will see later) is about to be overrun by zombies because of the curse of an evil witch. Only Norman Babcock, an odd boy who can speak to the dead, can save the day. The movie begins by having us get to know Norman, who is emotionally isolated because his family does not understand him, and his peers ostracize and ridicule him as a "freak" at school. The only person who believes Norman is his friend Neil Downe, and overweight boy who is himself bullied.The town is in peril because three centuries ago, an evil witch was executed, and in revenge put a curse on puritan judge and her accusers, cursing them to rise from the grave as zombies. So each year the curse of the witch must be appeased by reading from a mysterious book at the grave of the witch in order to prevent a zombie apocalypse. But this year that does not happen, and the zombies overrun the town. The townspeople and local police form the typical Frankenstein mob, complete with pitchforks and shotguns to kill the zombies. As the mob mentality grows, Norman and his motley band are threatened by the mob as well. This is the first point where we see the film’s unmasking of "virtuous" violence: in the logic of many films, so long as someone is a "monster" or an "alien," it is okay to kill them. So we have no problem with watching mass killings of monsters or aliens in movies because ... well ... they're monsters. So you're supposed to kill them. That's what good guys do in movies. This is the unquestioned plot of hundreds of movies. As long as the Storm Troopers in Star Wars are faceless, we don't bat an eye when Luke kills one after the other. They have been dehumanized, and so it's okay to kill them all. The same is true for the Orks in Lord of the Rings, or the witch and her minions in the Chronicles of Narnia.
Posted by Derek Flood 25 weeks 3 days ago
A 10-year-old boy holding a grenade approaches a group of soldiers. He does not respond to their shouts. One shoots him with his M-16 and the boy crumbles to the ground, dead.Did he have a choice? It was do or die, kill or be killed. Still he killed a little boy, and those images still haunt him.This is a classic example of psychological trauma: A person is put in horrific life-threatening situation where they do not feel they have control. That's the situation he found himself in. It was a no-win scenario — kill a little boy or have you and your friends all die.Soldier suicides have reached epidemic numbers. As the AP reports, More soldiers are taking their own lives than are falling in battle. Add on top of that, the many who suffer from PTSD, and who as a result find themselves estranged from their home, their loved ones, and indeed from themselves.
Posted by Derek Flood 35 weeks 4 days ago
Why did Jesus have to die? Was it to appease a wrathful God's demand for punishment? Does that mean Jesus died to save us from God? How could someone ever truly love or trust a God like that? How can that ever be called "Good News?"It's questions like these that make so many people want to have nothing to do with Christianity.Countless people filling our pews have adopted this hurtful view of God and themselves. It has led many to internalize feelings of shame and self-loathing, thinking this is what God desires. Others have lost their faith entirely because of it, unable to worship a God who seems to them to be a moral monster. Faith motivated by fear, threat, and feelings of worthlessness. How could things have gone so wrong? When did the good news become bad news?
Posted by Derek Flood 37 weeks 4 days ago
I was watching this recent video where Tim Keller (along with Don Carson and John Piper) addresses why The Gospel Coalition is explicitly complementarian (a nice way to say that they don't believe in gender equality). Why do they see this as something that a group that is supposed to be focused on the Gospel would need to stress? Keller begins by saying that he does not think the issue of gender roles are directly part of the Gospel, and acknowledges that bringing it up in the context of answering a person's questions of what it would mean to be a Christian could "certainly muddy the waters."So why the focus then? He says it has to do with how we read Scripture.
Posted by Derek Flood 42 weeks 1 day ago
Biblical literalism, and the corresponding idea of the inerrancy of scripture, has been bumping up against the sciences for a long time.Way back in the Renaissance, the church insisted that the Bible taught that the sun revolved around the earth, and charged Galileo with heresy for claiming otherwise. Today, the debate between the Bible and natural science continues, most notably in the evolution/creation debate.While discussions of religion and science usually revolve around conflicts with natural science, I'd like to propose that the place we really should be placing our attention is the relationship between faith and the social sciences.As our understanding of all science grows, it becomes harder and harder to maintain the position of biblical literalism without seeming absurd.Maybe we haven't all heard the thunder clap yet, but the lightning bolt struck a while ago. We are going to have to adjust our reading of the Bible to coincide with a modern scientific understanding of the universe. In broad strokes, that shift has already happened.
Posted by Derek Flood 44 weeks 3 days ago
One of the highlights of the Wildgoose Festival for me was a sneak preview of the feature length documentary Hellbound?,which will be released in select theaters nationwide this fall.The film picks up on the recent media buzz generated by Rob Bell's controversial bestselling-book Love Wins, taking that debate into new levels of intelligence and depth.Like any good documentary, we have the entertaining attention grabbing parts, which aren't hard to find when your topic is Hell and damnation:We meet people at a death metal concert, take a tour through "Hell House" where actors attempt to traumatize teens into the kingdom by reenacting scenes from Columbine. Then there are the street interviews with the rather obviously mentally unstable and angry folks from Fred Phelps' church, holding their "God Hates Fags" signs and screaming at anyone who passes by.The movie quickly moves beyond this however, delving into the deeper issues at hand. Unlike so many other Christian films, Hellbound? is neither sentimental nor sensationalist. The word that comes to mind instead is depth.
Posted by Derek Flood 45 weeks 1 day ago
Yesterday, I was walking through Dolores Park and heard a street preacher, saying "If you've ever stolen a stick of gum, then you are guilty of sin! If you've ever looked at Facebook at work, then you've stolen from your employer, and that's sin!"Of course we all know where he was headed: If we have sinned—even with a trivial infraction like a stick of gum—then God who is holy must punish us for all eternity in Hell unless we accept Jesus right now.I mean, seriously, gum? Why can't God just get over it? Is God less moral than all of us are? This is not a picture of holiness, it is a picture of a petty tyrant. Aside from the horrible picture of God that this gives us (and honestly, who could ever love, trust, and feel safe around a God like that?), what this ultimately does is trivialize sin. It makes sin into a petty infraction of little consequence.
Posted by Derek Flood 1 year 9 weeks ago
Hearing about the injustice and suffering in our world can be overwhelming. The problems seem so insurmountable. Is it really possible to make a difference? Well, here's some good news. We already are making a big difference. Consider these statistics cited by Dr. Scott Todd from Live58: "We used to say that 40,000 children die each day from preventable causes. In the 1990s, that number dropped to 33,000 per day. By 2008, it dropped again to 24,000. Now it is down to 21,000. That means that in a generation we cut that number in half. 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty today. That's a staggering amount, but let's put those numbers in perspective: In 1981, 52 percent of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today it's 26 percent. Again, that means we have cut the number in half, and we did it in one generation." Now, if you are anything like me then your reaction to poverty is a mixture of compassion and helplessness. If you're reading the Sojourners blog, then I assume that you already care about the least like I do, and that you know how big the problems are. I often find myself asking: What can I do? What can anyone do? We've heard the bleak statistics before. It's not news that there is a problem.The news is that there is actually hope for real change.
Posted by Derek Flood 1 year 19 weeks ago
Everybody needs forgiveness.But it’s hard to face that. It feels threatening, like an accusation. So we tend to get defensive and start justifying ourselves, rather than seeing the one we’ve hurt. If we’re honest, though, we all know that we’ve done things that have hurt others. Probably lots of things.One thing that still haunts me from my past happened when I was just eight years old. There was an autistic boy at the after school program I was in, and one day I got so frustrated with him that I beat him up.
Posted by Derek Flood 1 year 22 weeks ago
Pepper spray.Those two words bring to mind two very contrasting images from recent headline news: One is the shocking image of University of California at Davis students seated on a pathway, arms linked in peaceful protest, as they are repeatedly doused with pepper spray by a zealous campus police officer. The other is of the equally zealous shopper on Black Friday who sprayed her fellow Walmart customers so she could buy a discounted X-Box.On the one hand we have an image of the power of nonviolent protest to expose injustice, and on the other an appalling image of consumer greed.These are the signs of our times. | <urn:uuid:4783df4c-e9ad-454b-be64-2d667186e7f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sojo.net/biography/35617/blog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968153 | 2,345 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Hair loss is relatively common in women with about 30% experiencing at least some degree of thinning in their lifetime. However, because female hair loss tends to be diffuse (less hair all over) and because women often maintain their frontal hairline their hair loss may not be noticeable, particularly in its early stages.
The psychological effects of hair loss can be significant for women and many are emotionally affected, even with modest amounts of thinning. This is, in part, due to the false assumption that it is uncommon for women to lose their hair and that hair loss in women is perceived to be socially unacceptable. Both of these erroneous perceptions make dealing with hair loss particularly difficult for women.
In addition, the widely used medication Propecia is not indicated for women, so there is a misconception that medical progress in treating female hair loss is not as advanced, or that the medical community does not take the treatment of female hair loss as seriously. Lastly, because hair loss in women can so often be disguised with existing hair, many women choose to hide their hair loss from others. Not sharing their problem tends to isolate them and makes the ability to deal with their hair loss all the more difficult.
Hair loss in women is generally very gradual, with the rate accelerating during pregnancy and at menopause. It can also show seasonal variations and it is more easily affected by hormonal changes, medical conditions and external factors.
Causes of Hair Loss in Women
Common or “hereditary” baldness in women, also called female pattern alopecia, is genetic and can come from either the mother’s or father’s side of the family. It is affected by the actions of two enzymes; aromatase (which is found predominantly in women) and 5-alpha reductase (which is found in both women and men). However, since the diffuse pattern of hair loss typically seen in women can be caused by a number of medical conditions other than common genetic hair loss, a thorough evaluation is particularly important for female patients. If an underlying medical cause can be found and treated, the hair loss can often be reversed. Read more about the Causes of Hair Loss in Women.
Classification of Female Hair Loss
Ludwig Class 2: Moderate Hair Loss
The common diffuse pattern of female hair loss caused by heredity is organized by the degree of thinning. This system of classification for hair loss in women is called the Ludwig Classification. Hair loss in the Ludwig system is labeled as being mild, moderate and extensive. Read more about the Classification of Hair Loss in Women.
Diagnosis of Hair Loss in Women
Dr. Shah using densitometer to diagnose hair loss in women
The diagnosis of “female pattern” hair loss is relatively straightforward when there is a history of gradual thinning in the front and/or top of the scalp, a relative preservation of the frontal hairline, a positive family history of hair loss and the presence of miniaturization in the thinning areas. Miniaturization, the progressive decrease of the hair shaft’s diameter and length in response to hormones, can be identified using a hand-held device called a densitometer.
Besides densitometry, two other common diagnostic tests that can be performed in the physician’s office are the hair-pull (a test for shedding) and the hair pluck (a test for hair damage). If common causes are ruled out, a more thorough diagnosis is called for, which may include blood work, a biopsy, or other laboratory testing. Read more about the Diagnosis of Hair Loss in Women.
Treatment of Hair Loss in Women
Hair Loss Medication
Rogaine (minoxidil), a topical hair loss medication, has a 2% solution that is approved for women. Although Propecia (finasteride), is not indicated for women, some female patients with hair loss may benefit from using the oral medication spironolactone (used mainly to control blood pressure). Read more in the section on Hair Loss Medication.
Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) is a treatment for hair loss based on the principle of photo-biotherapy where a laser stimulates hair follicles on the scalp producing thicker hair shafts and a fuller appearance. LLLT is most useful in patients with diffuse hair loss (the most common pattern seen in women) although the benefits are generally modest. Two commonly use forms of laser treatment for hair loss are the Laser Comb and the Laser Cap. Both products can be used at home. Read more in the section on Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT).
Since women’s hair loss is typically diffuse with a persistent frontal hairline, it is generally possible for women to be able to hide their thinning with creative styling and other camouflage techniques. Using cosmetic camouflage products may also help. A number of over the counter products are now available that can make the hair look thicker. They come in a variety of forms; powders, sprays and creams. The main limitation of these products is that one must have enough hair to hold the cosmetics in place and, unless it is applied properly, it may not look natural. Read more about Cosmetic Camouflage.
Surgical Hair Restoration
The development of surgical hair transplant techniques, particularly Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT), allows many women to have a completely natural hair restoration. When performed on a good candidate, hair transplantation can produce a dramatic change in a woman’s appearance. See the results below of a hair transplant in one of Bernstein Medical – Center for Hair Restoration’s female patients.
Bernstein Medical Hair Transplant Patient
Before (left) and After (right)
See more before and after hair transplant photos of some of our female patients.
Note: It is particularly important for any women considering a surgical solution, to have a careful physical examination to make sure that the diagnosis is correct and to determine that they have an adequate donor hair supply. For those women in whom surgical hair restoration is indicated, special surgical skills are required to achieve optimal results. It is a mistake for a surgeon to assume that hair loss in women can be treated the same way it is in men.
For women who have unwanted body or facial hair, Dr. Bernstein’s wife Shizuka is the owner of Shizuka New York; a well-known Manhattan day spa located adjacent to Rockefeller Center at 7 West 51st Street, New York, NY. The Spa offers full skin care services and hair removal.
Read answers to many frequently asked questions on hair loss in women. | <urn:uuid:f96a4256-6309-47a8-816f-c70788b0fe18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bernsteinmedical.com/hair-loss/women/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96196 | 1,354 | 3.21875 | 3 |
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Re: [TCML] Ball Lightning
It is real. I've seen it routinely form under the "v" shape of a large
radio tower's guy wires prior to a powerful thunderstorm. The nearby leaves
(fall) were all sucked up tightly against the tower as well suggesting an
electrostatic origin. When the tower was regrounded to help prevent
exxcessive lightning strikes the effect went away.
No, it's not induced.
A bit off topic though.
On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 9:00 PM, S&JY <youngs@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> This was just published-I thought some of you would be interested.
> Personally, I believe ball lightning is a real, physical phenomena, not
> something induced into people's brains.
> Steve Y.
> ScienceDaily (May 19, 2010) - Ball lightning is a rare circular light
> phenomenon occurring during thunderstorms. Scientists have been puzzled by
> the nature of these apparent fire balls for a long time. Now physicists at
> the University of Innsbruck have calculated that the magnetic field of long
> lightning strokes may produce the image of luminous shapes, also known as
> phosphenes, in the brain. This finding may offer an explanation for many
> ball lightning observations.
> Physicists Josef Peer and Alexander Kendl from the University of Innsbruck
> have studied electromagnetic fields of different types of lightning strokes
> occurring during thunderstorms. Their calculations suggest that the
> fields of a specific class of long lasting repetitive lightning discharges
> show the same properties as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a
> technique commonly used in clinical and psychiatric practice to stimulate
> neural activity in the human brain. Time varying and sufficiently strong
> magnetic fields induce electrical fields in the brain, specifically, in
> neurons of the visual cortex, which may invoke phosphenes. "In the clinical
> application of TMS, luminous and apparently real visual perceptions in
> varying shapes and colors within the visual field of the patients and test
> persons are reported and well examined," says Alexander Kendl. The
> physicists have now calculated that a near lightning stroke of long lasting
> thunderbolts may also generate these luminous visions, which are likely to
> appear as ball lightning.
> Their findings are published in the journal Physics Letters A.
> Is the mystery of ball lightning solved now?
> Ball lightnings are rather rare events. The majority of researchers agree
> that different phenomena are likely to be summarized under the collective
> term "ball lightning." Over time, various theories and propositions about
> the nature of these experiences have been suggested. Other researchers have
> produced luminous fire balls in the laboratory, which appeared not
> completely unlike ball lightning and could explain some of the observations
> but were mostly too short lived. Other plausible explanations for some of
> observations are St. Elmo's fire, luminous dust balls or small molten balls
> of metal. In which cases then, can a lightning bolt invoke a ball-shaped
> phosphene? "
> Lightning strokes with repetitive discharges producing stimulating magnetic
> fields over a period of a few seconds are rather rare and only occur in
> about one in one hundred events," reports physicist Kendl. "An observer
> located within few hundred metres of a long lightning stroke may experience
> a magnetic phosphene in the shape of a luminous spot." Also other
> sensations, such as noises or smells, may be induced. Since the term "ball
> lightning" is well known from media reports, observers are likely to
> classify lightning phosphenes as such. Alexander Kendl's hypothesis that in
> fact the majority of ball lightning observations are phosphenes is strongly
> supported by its simplicity: "Contrary to other theories describing
> fire balls, no new and other suppositions are necessary."
> Tesla mailing list
Tesla mailing list | <urn:uuid:5da5cd72-7c8b-4cf4-8579-ab2eb630f42e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pupman.com/listarchives/2010/May/msg00208.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924065 | 869 | 2.015625 | 2 |
According to Philip Roth’s introduction, “Life with a Star,” though a novel, is based heavily on Weil’s own experiences. He escaped being rounded up by Nazis in Prague by faking his own suicide and going into hiding.
Originally published in 1949, the book chronicles the lonely life of Josef Roubicek, who is struggling to survive during Germany’s occupation of of the Czech capital, Prague, while World War II is raging. New, nonsensical regulations seem to pop up daily, such as the prohibition against riding on trains and the simultaneous declaration that he must ride in the back seat of a train. He often visits his aunt and uncle, a subtly humorous element of the book, as the pair seem to blame him for the atrocities being perpetrated upon the Jews of Prague.
Josef is slowly dismantling and burning items in his apartment, symbolic for how he is slowly disappearing and becoming less of a person under Nazi rule. He is doing it so that when they come for him, they will have nothing to take. Josef later realizes that at least he still has the stars in the sky.
“I must look only at them, “ I told myself. “It’s a pity I didn’t think of them earlier. I won’t be alone anymore when I think of them. They belong to me and have always belonged to me. Nobody can take them away from me.”
In a clever literary device, Weil has Josef relay his thoughts through Tomas, the stray cat who has taken up residence with Josef (illegally, since Jews were not allowed to own pets).
Weil employs a stream-of-consciousness style of writing in part; time weaves back and forth between the present and the past, when Josef was a happy bank clerk and in love with Ruzena, his married lover. Josef also speaks to Ruzena as if she is still with him and dreams about her often.
Throughout the book, Josef’s isolation from the people of Prague is heartbreakingly vivid. He has many close calls where he defies curfew or covers the yellow star sewn on his clothing or is called to the administrative offices for instructions as to where to go, where to work, what he is allowed to do and not do. As he is declared unfit for hard manual labor, he is assigned to rake leaves in a cemetery, where he ironically finds comfort, warmth and friendship among a rotating group of co-workers.
The reader is made to feel Josef’s isolation and loneliness and what it must have been like to not know where your next meal is coming from or the terror of being called on to a transport bound for slaughter. Nonetheless, despite already feeling half-dead, Josef clings to life and hope:
“Hope didn’t weigh much when you put it on the scale.”
Don’t let the slim volume of pages and the seemingly simple storyline fool you: the book, written literally and metaphorically, is overflowing with inspiring ideas and mind-boggling turns of phrases.
For example, Josef describes the state of being hungry with this passage:
“There were signs everywhere, even in restaurants where they served potatoes with gravy, in shops, taverns. Even Hunger had learned to yell! I paced with him, back and forth, but he was more persistent.
Then he slowly settled down. He probably became used to me, so that there were times when he didn’t make himself heard. I was weak. Perhaps Hunger loves weakness; perhaps he wanted to see me humiliated. But I didn’t bargain with him. I was just glad he behaved himself. I was afraid I would wake him.”
Interestingly, Josef is not identified as a Jew, nor are the officials referred to as Germans or Nazis, only as “they.” Arguably, this has the effect of making this a more universal story, one that could be told even out of the context of the Holocaust. Nonetheless, it is clear that Weil’s main character was a Jew.
Weil was truly a magician with words, and nowhere is this more apparent than in a passage toward the end of the book, after which more and more townspeople were rounded up on the transports:
“Death was deaf to pleas. It was impossible to bribe her with flowers; it was impossible to make her smile and be kind. Nothing could disguise her ragged shroud. She was plain, a beggar, and only the fact that she was all bones prevented her from fastening a star to the place where she should have had a heart.”
Though Weil was a prolific author in his lifetime, his only other work that has been translated from the Czech is entitled “Mendelssohn is on the Roof,” which was published posthumously. Brilliant, moving and inspiring, “Life with a Star” deserves to be in the forefront of classic Holocaust literature.
(Hilary Daninhirsch can be reached at email@example.com.) | <urn:uuid:863161c7-0c31-41f9-9847-82acecd8930e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thejewishchronicle.net/pages/full_story/push?article-Weil%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%98Life+with+a+Star%E2%80%99+pairs+Holocaust+reality+with+inspiring+hope%20&id=15988066&instance=secondary_stories_left_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987387 | 1,076 | 2.484375 | 2 |
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Hudson Valley News
Tue October 9, 2012
Stink bugs problem in the Hudson Valley studied
Researchers are trying to figure out how bad the stink bug problem is for Hudson Valley farms. WAMC's Dave Lucas has more....
Stink bugs have been in the valley since 2008, but the Poughkeepsie Journal reports that their populations have increased dramatically this year. The invasive insect feeds on fruits and vegetables and is a menace to farmers.
Cornell University's Hudson Valley Laboratory will attempt to quantify the economic impact of stink bugs in the region this month. Cornell entomologist Peter Jentsch said early indications are that as much as 20 percent of some orchards' fruit crops have been affected.
Amy Hepworth of Hepworth Organic Farm in Milton says the bug has already been into her zucchini, peppers and tomatoes.
Stink bugs are currently in more than 30 states.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. | <urn:uuid:11cdcadb-3959-40ae-9185-9cb8738ab793> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wamc.org/post/stink-bugs-problem-hudson-valley-studied | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926574 | 281 | 2.15625 | 2 |
The key to a remote upgrade is to be able to boot from floppy disk to perform the upgrade, and then to reboot from the hard disk. The possibilities are:
Most BIOSs allow the boot disk order to be controlled through the BIOS' configuration. If the BIOS supports a serial console then the machine can be upgraded whilst leaving the floppy disk in the drive. No one need attend the site to upgrade the operating system
Someone can insert a floppy disk before the upgrade and remove it afterwards. Most co-location sites will provide this level of "board-swap" technical support.
Two records of the CMOS memory which stores the BIOS configuration can be made: one for booting from floppy and another for booting from hard disk. Unfortunately the nvram device driver does not yet work on a wide enough variety of machines for this HOWTO to pursue this option further. | <urn:uuid:04d45b7d-9023-4bca-9a89-2f5a223a0f6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Remote-Serial-Console-HOWTO/rhl-selectboot.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924951 | 178 | 1.648438 | 2 |
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Search Tags: Patrick Gallagher
Gallagher is asking all 10 of the agency's labs to consider how they are set up to meet their mission. NIST is playing a more critical role than ever in many of the administration's priorities. He says the agency is considering its options for revamping its IT lab.
Government and industry leaders are coming together to discuss progress the government has made to advance open standards in interoperability, portability and security in cloud computing. The National Institute of Standards and Technology will hold its Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop III April 7-8 at the agency’s headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md. Working groups formed at [...]
The America Competes Reauthorization Act authorizes the agency's programs and sets a path toward the future. President Obama signed the bill into law Tuesday. Several other science and technology agencies receive marching orders from lawmakers.
With so much at stake, what role, if any does the federal government play in protecting the .com Internet domain? Several experts offer some candid observations on what the government's role should be.
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Ok, i got a question. I saw outside my window a large swarm of flying creatures in my back yard. My first thought was “Christ! I got a hive somewhere” I headed back there, looked around and didn’t see anything at first.
Then i spotted it. A beam of my house had this TINY pin hole, and these little winged red things were climbing out and flying off, and flying back into the wee tiny pin hole.
Now, they don’t buzz, and they don’t fly like a bee. They just flutter and are all over the place. Kind of like a moth or a fly. They ae also coming out during the day mainly from what I have seen.
I live in California, the Bakersfield area. Anyone know what these might be, and how to get ris of these pests / bugs…whatever? Thanks in advance!
i could try wd-40 I suppose…
After I first got a good look at them, i thought…maybe they were termites…but a friend of mine said termites wouldnt be coming and going like that..they would only come….so…im left utterly confused. | <urn:uuid:053acb4d-cd98-4b33-bc68-79d389c287e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://petitepets.com/blog/tag/flying-creatures/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982689 | 251 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Knee Pain: Are You at Risk?
Arthritis, obesity, and other common factors can result in painful, creaky knees. Here's what may put you at risk.
If you often notice that your knees are sore or stiff, you're in plenty of company these days. For a variety of reasons, many Americans are feeling knee pain, and their numbers are growing. So what's causing all these creaky knees?
Knee Pain: Why the Knee Is Vulnerable
For starters, the knee is a complex piece of equipment that does a lot of heavy lifting.
"The knee has what we call six degrees of freedom, meaning it can move in six different directions. That allows us to do a lot of different movements, but it also puts it at risk of being injured," says Jonathan Shook, MD, an orthopedic surgeon in Indianapolis who treats a variety of joint problems.
"Out of ankles, hips, elbows, and shoulders, probably half of all orthopedic visits that I get are for the knee. I'd say that's probably similar among most orthopedists who see all types of problems," says Dr. Shook.
Knee Pain: Risk Factors
Osteoarthritis is a common cause of knee pain, and several risk factors that are common in the United States are fueling a rise in osteoarthritis of the knee, says Matt Busam, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at the Cincinnati Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center.
"The increasing prevalence of obesity and the aging of a large segment of the population means that we orthopedists — and primary care providers — are going to see significantly higher numbers of people with knee arthritis," explains Dr. Busam.
Being overweight or obese can make your risk of osteoarthritis skyrocket by as much as four to five times. Roughly two-thirds of American adults now weigh too much, and about one-third of adults are obese, which means they're extremely overweight. According to government guidelines, a woman who is 5 feet 6 inches tall and 155 pounds would be overweight, and if she weighed 186 pounds, she'd be classified as obese.
Age is another factor behind the increase in knee pain. Government figures say that by the year 2030, nearly one in five Americans will be 65, and knee and other joint pain will be a particular problem for that age group. It's estimated that nearly half of all adults will develop knee osteoarthritis over their lifetimes, with the obese and those with prior knee injuries at highest risk.
Knee Pain: Prevention
If you want to minimize your chances of knee pain later in life's journey, think about reaching a healthy weight and getting plenty of exercise now. "I would say adamantly and emphatically, based on a multitude of studies, that staying active, staying fit, and continuing with weight-bearing exercise throughout your life actually prevents arthritis," Busam says. Experts also recommend wearing well-fitting shoes and warming up before exercise to avoid injuries.
To prevent the common problem of knee pain, be mindful of risk factors and take steps to prevent this problem in your knee joints. | <urn:uuid:ff246b83-575b-462b-b885-6ab514bd3032> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.everydayhealth.com/knee-pain/knee-pain-risk-factors.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966569 | 647 | 2.234375 | 2 |
A clause in the Jobs Bill that is expected to be made into law in April will offer greater freedom to hedge funds and investment banks in their ability to advertise their services to the general public. The new freedoms could allow a whole host of marketing schemes to be used by funds which might allow them to become more popular among the general public. Such a move is interesting but not unexpected in the Jobs Act which rolls back many regulations on the financial services industry. The ban dates back to the Securities Act of 1933 and so this would be the first time in US history that funds could actually advertise. We speculate as to a couple of the effects this could have in the coming years.
If ordinary people were allowed to invest in hedge funds and were able to, at the moment one of the main obstacles to that is the inability of funds to attract a large number of investors. If such moves were made the mystification and demonization of hedge funds among the general public. This would be welcomed by many in the financial services sector. Since the 2008 crisis there has been a huge amount of straw man trials of people in the industry, as well as a few actual trials, these have colored perception among the public and come around to put greater political pressure on funds and interference by both regulators and government. The ability for ordinary people to be involved and have some understanding of what a hedge fund is could have an effect on dulling the fighting instinct and making the growth in the financial sector a much less maligned part of the economy.
Currently hedge funds are not allowed to legally market their products to the general public. This law could change that and could open new realms of business in the hedge fund sector. If the investment funds are able to attract a larger audience they could begin to accept smaller amounts of money and the value of their funds would still surely rise. If hedge funds that attract the general public become bigger and stay successful it will attract more and more funds to the same type of business. In this speculation funds aimed at lower initial investors would be more profitable and more attractive to the best managers. Certainly an interesting prospect.
In what ways would the funds employ their new found marketing abilities? Starting off it would probably look very high end, Tag Heuer rather than Coca Cola, and be aimed at high finance customers. But if this does have the effect of popularizing this type of investment that would have to change. We’ve already seen banks and insurance company’s once safe havens of more conservative advertisement, buckle in favor of quirky and funny ads. Could we be enteering a world of talking animals and sea captains? Hedge fund ads with Cameos from old TV shows and animated characters sound fun but who in the industry is actually ready for that particular change? | <urn:uuid:f4264cb6-ab65-4443-ac32-cf27a88d0a75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.valuewalk.com/2012/03/jobs-bill-eases-hedge-fund-advertisement-rules/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977319 | 555 | 1.648438 | 2 |
As someone who's spent a lot of time on a minecraft renderer, you probably just want to stick with removing internal edges and don't bother with merging faces.
It's tempting when you've got a 'simple' world, but as you add more and more gameplay it becomes progressively harder to manage. It's just too damn handy to do some thing per-vertex (eg. minecraft does it's fake AO lighting via vertex colours), as well as making it easier to do texture atlas/layer tricks to get richer surface detail. And of course it means that you have to do more work when you change a single block in your world.
The biggest rendering drag I found was that even after frustrum culling a minecraft-style world has lots of underground caves that are still considered visible. That can mean you're drawing twice or three times as many polys as you need.
You *should* be able to do something about that with occlusion queries, but I never got around to trying it. Minecraft doesn't IIRC, but that's probably because it's awkward 16x16x128 world structure makes it a bad fit. | <urn:uuid:a9a3e4b6-ee9d-4f60-8508-08a5318b6e0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.java-gaming.org/index.php?topic=28361.msg257541 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97576 | 239 | 1.507813 | 2 |
A Principle of The Traditional American Philosophy
7. Equal, by God's Gift, In Sight of God and Law
". . . all men are created equal . . ." (Declaration of Independence)
1. The traditional American philosophy teaches that all men are created equal, made equal at birth by their Creator, but equal only in the sight of God and Law.
Basic Definition of Equality
2. This philosophy asserts that equality in the sight of God is in the religious realm and means being equal spiritually, while equality in the sight of Law means being entitled to equal legal justice and having the right to be considered and treated as equal in Freedom from Government-over-Man. Equal legal justice means equal treatment under equal laws--that is, just laws expressive of "just powers" (to quote the term used in the Declaration of Independence) designed to make and keep secure the equal rights of all Individuals and, therefore, compatible with Natural Law (God's Law) on which Man's God-given, unalienable rights are based. It requires respect by government for such equal rights of all Individuals. Also included, of course, is equality as to The Individual's duties underlying Individual Liberty-Responsibility, especially the duty to respect the equal rights of others.
The Ideal of Equality in 1776 - in the Face of Inherited Slavery System
3. This word equal, according to the American philosophy as defined in the Declaration of Independence, means equal in freedom of The Individual. This bars slavery of Man to Man. This truly expressed the American ideal and goal in 1776, despite the laws then making slavery legal in America as the result of an ancient system inherited from the Old World--fostered by the slave trade which was supported by the king of England despite protests of the Colonies, as noted in Jefferson's "Rights of British America" (1774) and in his first draft of the Declaration of Independence. At the first opportunity to act in this regard, in adopting the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the Congress prohibited slavery from being practiced in the Northwest Territory. The fact that slavery had to be faced as an existing condition in 1776, and the difficulty and slowness of its ultimate abolition, did not impair the spiritual integrity of the 1776 proclamation of the ideal and goal of the American philosophy in these words of the Declaration of Independence: "all men are created equal"--in the sight of God and Law. By 1776, a number of slave-owning leaders--notably Washington, Jefferson, and George Mason--were deeply concerned about the need and desirability of abolishing slavery (through appropriate government action). It was generally recognized that the inherited institution of slavery was violative of the principle of Natural Rights and therefore of the American philosophy as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence. To repeat, the then-existing fact of slavery in America did not lessen the value, or impair the integrity or validity, of the Declaration's definition and proclamation of The American Ideal--the hope and goal of the American philosophy--with which slavery was inconsistent. Indeed, this fact magnified the nobility of this Ideal's proclamation.
Equality in Freedom of Opportunity for Self-Development
4. The Declaration's pronouncement assured a sound philosophical basis for equality in freedom of opportunity--Freedom from Government-over-Man--to realize to the full the Individual's own highest potential in all aspects of life. This involves maximum freedom of choice. This is always subject to observance of the duties of Individual Liberty-Responsibility under constitutionally limited government, including the duty to respect the equal rights of others.
Equality in Freedom from Government-over-Man in the Economic Realm
5. In the economic realm also, this word "equal," as used in the Declaration of Independence, means only equal in freedom of opportunity. That is, freedom from the Government-over-Man type of restrictions upon The Individual's opportunity to strive for material security and advancement through his own self-reliant efforts, as he plans and manages his own life and work and the economic security of himself and his dependents. It means equal in freedom from those things which add up to Government-over-Man in general.
Individual Self-reliance and Group Cooperation Constitute the Sound American Formula
6. The American philosophy makes the question of economic security the responsibility of The Individual and of groups of Individuals. Examples will be clarifying. First and foremost are the family and, further, religious groups as well as fraternal groups--all acting voluntarily. Self-reliance of The Individual is the key here, whether acting singly or cooperatively with other Individuals.
Public "Aid" for the Genuinely Needy Must Be on Lowest Possible Governmental Level
7. Any locality's necessity to provide public aid for the relatively few persons who are helplessly and genuinely needy, judged by the "means" test (to determine the need of government aid to live), must be met on the lowest possible governmental level, under the traditional American philosophy and system of constitutionally limited government and decentralized power. This is according to the controlling intent of those who framed and adopted the Constitution and each of its amendments, under which the Federal government is prohibited from performing this task either directly, or indirectly through financial aid to State or local governments or to Individuals. (See also Pars. 8-10 of Principle 5 and Pars. 4-5 of Principle 11.) This is partly because Federal aid inescapably results in time in Federal control, either directly or indirectly--sometimes by subtle means. This decentralized power of government to provide public aid to the genuinely needy assures maximum safeguards against fraud, waste, political manipulation, and other adverse results in the administration of such activity. This decentralization saves money for the people as taxpayers whose funds pay the bill, in last analysis, no matter which government does the taxing for this purpose; and, at the same time, best results are obtained for all concerned, including the needy.
8. The American philosophy also teaches equality in freedom of enjoyment of The Individual's unalienable rights, therefore equality in freedom from infringement of those rights by other Individuals (who would, by any such infringement, trespass beyond the limits of their own equal rights)--freedom in strict conformity with the Constitution, as amended. This applies whether any would-be infringers act as separate Individuals, or in groups, or in formal organizations such as associations of men in the economic realm - for instance, employers' associations, or employees' organizations. If any such violation of any Individual's unalienable rights, or the supporting rights, be perpetuated with the connivance of government--by its sin of omission or commission, by its sanction through either threat or actual use of force, or by enacted law--the offense is all the more anti-moral, anti-Constitution and anti-American. No allegedly good end can justify use of evil means such as this, according to the American philosophy's code of ethics and the underlying moral code.
9. The ideals and principles, the spirit and lofty vision, of traditional America give highest priority to the concept of the inviolability of each Individual's right to full liberty--including complete freedom of each Individual's right to full liberty--including complete freedom of choice--in his own private life and in his choice of associates in all aspects of life. This is limited only by the requirements of the duty aspect of Individual Liberty-Responsibility: due respect for the equal rights of others and for just laws (per Par. 2 above). This refers, for example, to laws such as criminal laws against a conspiracy to commit murder, or a conspiracy designed to subvert all American values and governments such as the Kremlin-controlled Communist ("Party") conspiracy in America--involving properly punishable guilt by association of persons (not of ideas) for an evil and justly forbidden purpose, the guilt being evidenced basically by the overt act of joining the conspiracy. Also included is the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men--the right of The Individual to be let alone by government. In America, this means to be let alone in the enjoyment of his unalienable rights, under the protection of the safeguards provided by the Constitution. This right to be let alone applies equally against infringement of The Individual's privacy in this regard by other Individuals, whether acting singly, in groups, or in organizations. This right to be let alone is co-extensive with, and substantially overlaps, the right to freedom of choice: the right to do as one pleases subject only to the above-mentioned duty aspect of Individual Liberty-Responsibility. The anti-morality of the evil precept that the end justifies the means--that an allegedly good end justifies resort to evil means to accomplish it--is most offensive in the eyes of the American philosophy's moral code stemming from the fundamental principle of Man's creation and endowment with rights from God. An example is resort to this evil precept in attempted justification of infringement of The Individual's above mentioned right to freedom of choice of associates in every realm of private life--the economic, social, religious and community in general; and all the more so when any violation of the Constitution is also involved in any such infringement. This anti-morality is compounded in evil implication if any government coercion is involved; which is true partly because government coercion (always backed by force, or the threat of force), so used, can later be used in reverse to compel disassociation--also violative of The Individual's freedom of choice.
Examples of What "Equality" Does Not Mean
10. To understand the meaning of the word "equal" more clearly and precisely, mention of what it does not mean is needed. For example, it does not mean equal opportunity, much less government-provided equal opportunity--but means equal freedom of opportunity as a part of Freedom from Government-over-Man. It does not mean being equal with regard to government-provided security (even if any such phantom goal for all the people were feasible for a long period without their abject slavery to government under a system of prison-type security). Nor does it mean being equal as to anything whatever to be provided by government, except equal legal justice under equally applied laws--the above-mentioned just laws. It certainly does not mean equality in servitude to government in any degree, however disguised--for example as tax-slaves subjected to the tyranny of oppressive, even confiscatory, taxes used for instance by usurpers to buy popular support for activities in furtherance of their usurpations in defiance of the Constitution's limits on their powers.
11. The word "equal" in the Declaration of Independence assuredly does not mean being born equal in the sense of being identical--either mentally, or physically, or in intelligence, or in capabilities, or in character, or in virtues, or in potential in regard to accomplishments or attainments, or in any of the various other ways in which men differ by nature's dispensation, from birth to death. It does not mean being equal with regard to any supposed right to material possessions, or to any claimed right to government-provided economic assistance, support, or security.
Equality in Private Life Excluded
12. As a final example, the word "equal" does not mean any kind or degree of government-provided, much less government-forced, equality in private life, such as social equality. Such a meaning would be flagrantly in violation of the spirit of the Declaration of Independence as well as of the spirit and letter of the Constitution, when construed in keeping with the original and always-controlling intent of those who framed and adopted the initial instrument and each of its amendments. Any idea of government-forced equality in Man's private life, social or otherwise--whether the forcing be done by "police state" methods or by any other type or degree of pressure by government or by others (threatened or applied, including "moral" pressure)--is bankrupt spiritually and morally. It is on a par with "forced brotherly love," a monstrous concept which is the product of "confusing the vocabulary." It violates the above-discussed right to be let alone, the right to freedom of choice, of the other Individuals involved, whose right to this aspect of Liberty cannot justly be thus sacrificed in the name of Equality; which would thereby be perverted into inequality as to Liberty, in conflict with the duty aspect of Individual Liberty-Responsibility. The power of government, or any private group, cannot ever justly and properly be used in connection with any such victimizing of any aspect of any Individual's Liberty.
13. In sum, the word "equal" in the Declaration of Independence means, first, spiritual equality (equality in the sight of God) and, second, equality in the sight of Law (basically the people's fundamental law, the Constitution)--primarily equality in Freedom from Government-over-man. | <urn:uuid:ae91cc72-ee99-457f-808e-ffba76e5eae0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lexrex.com/enlightened/AmericanIdeal/yardstick/pr7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946941 | 2,649 | 4 | 4 |
Massey Mine Boss Sentenced; Feds Toughen Mine Safety Rule
Nearly three years after a deadly mine explosion in West Virginia, a former Massey Energy mine superintendent has been sentenced to prison and federal regulators have toughened a regulation that could have helped prevent the disaster.
The sentencing was part of a plea agreement in which May is cooperating with federal prosecutors as they continue to investigate the April, 2010, explosion that killed 29 coal miners at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine.
May pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and admitted to ordering a company electrician to disable a methane monitor on a mining machine so it could continue to cut coal without automatic shutdowns. The monitor is a safety device that senses explosive amounts of methane gas and automatically shuts down mining machines when dangerous levels of gas are present. The incident was first reported by NPR in July, 2010.
U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin says the sentence sends "a powerful message to this mine manager and other mine managers who would put profits over safety: if you violate mine laws and put miners at risk you will go to jail."
May also pleaded guilty to deceiving federal mine safety inspectors and hiding safety violations.
Prosecutors indicate they're aiming higher up the corporate ladder, targeting former Massey managers and executives. David Hughart, a former president of a Massey mining subsidiary has also entered into a plea agreement.
Just as May's sentencing hearing concluded, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) toughened and streamlined a regulation that had rarely been enforced and could have helped prevent the Upper Big Branch tragedy, according to disaster investigators.
MSHA calls it the "pattern of violations" rule and it's supposed to identify coal mines with serious, persistent and habitual safety violations and then target them for heightened scrutiny. But MSHA failed to enforce the rule in the first 33 years of its existence, in part because of a self-imposed and cumbersome regulatory step.
"It was clear after Upper Big Branch that some companies were violating lifesaving mine safety requirements over and over again," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who has called for mine safety reforms.
Investigators concluded that the Upper Big Branch mine qualified for preliminary "pattern of violations" (POV) status before the April, 2010, explosion. But regulators failed to apply the rule, blaming a "computer glitch" that has never fully been explained.
The revised rule eliminates preliminary steps so that regulators will have a much easier time citing and sanctioning habitual violators of serious safety standards. The new rule also triggers automatic and immediate shutdowns of mining areas if serious and substantial violations are found in mines with POV status.
"We think that this final rule will help prevent another tragedy such as occurred at the Upper Big Branch Mine," says Joe Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health.
In a news conference this afternoon, Main added that "we have a better monitoring tool in place" since the computer error that kept the Upper Big Branch mine from receiving preliminary POV scrutiny before the April, 2010, explosion.
Main said that the mine's violations data were not entered into MSHA's computer tracking system. "I think we're doing a much better job of managing the system," he said.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the ranking minority member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, hailed the new rule. But he said more reforms are necessary to assure the safety of coal miners.
"It is Congress's responsibility to enact further commonsense reforms that will protect miners and incentivize mines owners to implement a culture of safety," Miller said.
Congress has not passed any mine safety reform measures since the Upper Big Branch explosion. Rockefeller has sponsored a Senate measure that aims to provide better protection for whistleblowers who report mine safety violations, better protect miners from the mine dust that causes black lung, and give MSHA more oversight authority, accountability and enforcement tools. | <urn:uuid:162a1c94-150e-4aec-99f7-7a978f1c5496> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kalw.org/post/massey-mine-boss-sentenced-feds-toughen-mine-safety-rule | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965862 | 803 | 1.664063 | 2 |
DC-8 completes Alaskan mission
NASA's DC-8 traveled to frosty Alaska in November to study active volcanoes, the Hubbard glacier, forests and sea ice. Using the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AirSAR), digital elevation models were taken that will allow scientists to evaluate landscape changes and assess volcanic hazards.
Image Right: The DC-8 - bearing its Dryden paint scheme - flies a mission in 2004. The research aircraft recently returned from a mission in Alaska. NASA Photo by Tony Landis
The Alaska AirSAR 2004 study began in September but the mission was delayed when the aircraft sustained damage during takeoff at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage.
Making the trek to Alaska during winter weather conditions proved a challenge for the Dryden-based Lockheed maintenance crew. In addition to being prepared to de-ice the aircraft - a procedure that's rarely called for at the aircraft's home base in Southern California - two crewmembers stayed with the DC-8 to keep both plane and onboard instrumentation warm during the cold Alaska night.
"The ground crew did a great job in getting the aircraft ready under a tight schedule and in getting us off each morning, on schedule and in less-than-ideal weather conditions," said Steve Durden, AirSAR manager at JPL in Pasadena.
"The volcanoes - Veniaminof, Shishaldin, Westdahl, Cleveland, Carlisle, Herbert and Spurr - are among the 100 active volcanoes at the higher latitudes in the North Pacific region," explained Ken Dean, research associate professor at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska at Fairbanks. "These volcanoes have the potential of injecting ash into the troposphere and stratosphere, which is of concern to commercial and military aircraft. Studying subtle volcanic changes may eventually improve the ability to alert the public, government agencies and industry of potential ash eruptions."
AirSAR acquired data that will be used to derive an accurate digital elevation model of the Hubbard glacier, which has been advancing since it was first mapped in 1898, enabling scientists to assess its mass.
New data captured by AirSAR during the 2004 study will be compared to similar data taken during 1988, to assess possible changes in recent climate patterns.
Scientists have gathered biophysical information of forest study sites from the Kenai Peninsula to Northern Alaska's Brooks Range to use in comparing vegetation at the study sites to that of surrounding areas.
Chris Miller, Dryden's DC-8 mission manager, credited Airborne Science personnel for the success of the mission, noting that some went beyond the call of duty and made heroic efforts to complete the study in difficult weather.
The Alaska study was funded by NASA's science mission directorate. The directorate's work is focused on understanding the Earth as an integrated system and using Earth system science to improve prediction of climate, weather and natural hazards.
+ View Volume 46, Issue 11, December 2004 Dryden X-Press
+ View current headline stories
Dryden Public Affairs | <urn:uuid:01f225f5-48c2-4ee5-b1a7-22ddefeec127> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/X-Press/stories/123104_dc-8_alaska.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943238 | 625 | 2.984375 | 3 |
India has cultivated quite a reputation for itself. First of all, it is the second most populous nation in the world. It has over a billion people in the world and it is one of the world’s fastest growing economies. These facts may not make you jump out of your seat just yet. India, in fact, is a nation with very rich cultural and ethnic backgrounds. There are over hundreds of ethnic groups in there with very many dialects. This richness in culture is evident in its architecture on the city streets. The influence of Hinduism is visible in their architecture.
What do you think of when you think Indian? Most of us think of spicy food, right. But it is not only the food that is spicy and alluring, an India poster is also very colorful. A poster representing a particular aspect of Indian culture will do wonders for living room. For instance a poster of the Indian architecture, including the Taj Mahal and many other temples, will get your gastric juices going. A poster of a beautiful woman wearing a sari will also add a lot of color to the room.
India is one of those places that immediately speak to your heart. Therefore, a canvas print representing its culture will immediately call out to you when you view it for the first. Some great canvas and art prints of various artworks can greatly improve the ambiance of your room making you look forward to coming back again. | <urn:uuid:19812bdd-8ec8-4097-b9a8-3515105a5fcc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artflakes.com/en/india-poster?permalink=india-poster&sort_by=popular&page=1&per_page=24&locale=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969223 | 288 | 2.1875 | 2 |
A widely seen weed which becomes the cause of headache for serious gardeners is Creeping Charlie or Ground ivy. This is an aromatic, perennial, evergreen creeper of the mint family. These weeds are mostly seen to thrive in moist shady areas, but many times it is found to love sun light also. These are native to Europe, and are widely encountered in most regions of the U.S. Its rhizomatous method of reproduction is the reason for the spread of this ground ivy. Also, you may have happened to see a variegated version of creeping Charlie that is being sold at many nurseries. These weeds are having a squarish stem which varies in length from dark green to purple. And it bears flowers which are in the shape of a funnel and are found in bluish purple color. This plant spreads fast to form a dense mat over the ground.
Most of the gardeners do not find creeping Charlie as a wild ground cover; instead they try to get rid of it considering it is a lawn weed. In order to kill this invasive weed, usually gardeners spray glyphosate based herbicides such as roundup. Also there exists a popular home remedy for killing creeping Charlie which involves the use of Borax. In Sydney building inspections conducted by pest and building inspection experts help the people to get the most scientific method of eradicating this invasive weed. Use of glyphosate and Borax based remedy are found to be useful by many. And there is a funny part of its story that this weed was intentionally brought to North America by European settlers. | <urn:uuid:00a54487-db7b-4500-9c39-fcadc31aaaf4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/forums/forum45/2677.html | 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 | 0.968715 | 318 | 2.46875 | 2 |
A recent wave of high-profile data security breaches involving unauthorized access to personal data highlights the increasing problem of identity theft and other information-related crimes. These personal data security breaches and the proposed state and federal legislation triggered by such security failures mean that companies' data security practices will be subject to increased scrutiny. Failing to take appropriate measures to prevent a data security breach might result in potential enforcement action from federal and state governmental authorities (and possibly also from foreign authorities), private lawsuits, and negative publicity.
Companies, particularly any entities that realize that they have become complacent about adhering to data security requirements, should reevaluate their data security practices for any inadequacies in light of applicable data protection laws and the representations made in their privacy policies.
This article discusses recent instances involving the breach of data security; it also informs companies of certain governmental enforcement actions, relevant legislation and federal agency guidance involving data security issues, and describes certain actions that companies should take when reevaluating their data security practices. Finally, this article discusses briefly data security issues in the context of global outsourcing.
I. Recent Breach Of Data Security Occurrences
The most notable instance in the recent string of data security breaches involves ChoicePoint, one of the largest consumer data warehousers in the U.S. ChoicePoint allowed criminals posing as legitimate businesses to have access to the personal data of approximately 145,000 individuals. ChoicePoint notified consumers whose personal data was stolen that such data might have been compromised as a result of the security breach. The notification was prompted in large part by a California law requiring such disclosure (discussed in more detail below). Other recent occurrences include LexisNexis (a compiler of legal and other information), which initially admitted that hackers had gained access to the personal data of 32,000 individuals, but then revised that number to approximately 310,000 affected individuals, and DSW (a nationwide shoe retailer), which informed the public that credit card information had been stolen from more than 100 of its stores. Furthermore, data security breaches have occurred abroad. Japan's Mizuho Bank, for example, has acknowledged losing the personal data of 270,000 customers.
More recently, a security breach at CardSystems Solutions ("CardSystems"), an Atlanta-based payments processor, exposed more than 40 million account numbers to thieves. CardSystems is the largest security breach yet reported in the recent string of similar reports.
In addition to companies, universities have had significant data security problems due to "hacker" incidents or lost laptops. Boston College, for example, recently warned over 100,000 alumni that their identities could be compromised as a result of a data security breach. At the University of California, Berkeley, a thief stole a laptop computer that reportedly contained the personal data of approximately 100,000 students, former students and applicants. Hackers also gained access to a computer system of the University of California, San Diego, compromising the personal data of 380,000 individuals.
II. State And Federal Reaction
A. Enforcement Actions and Authority
In an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") earlier this year, ChoicePoint states that "the SEC is conducting an informal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding any possible recent identity theft, recent trading in ChoicePoint stock by [certain ChoicePoint officers] and related matters." In the same filing, ChoicePoint further states that the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") "is conducting an inquiry into [ChoicePoint's] compliance with federal laws governing consumer information security and related issues." In addition, it has been reported that the ChoicePoint incident is being investigated by a number of states, including North Carolina, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Texas.
Generally, federal agencies may bring enforcement actions under several federal laws that address the protection of personal data, including without limitation the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ("GLBA") (protects personal data collected by financial institutions and nonaffiliated third parties); the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (protects personal data collected by covered entities, such as health plans, healthcare clearinghouses and healthcare providers); the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (protects personal data collected from children under the age of 13); and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (protects consumer privacy, enhances the accuracy of credit report information, and helps prevent identity theft).
From an international perspective, U.S. companies could also face enforcement action from foreign governmental authorities in the event there are data security breaches that involve the personal data of foreign customers.
B. Proposed Laws, Congressional Hearings and Federal Guidance
What prompted ChoicePoint and perhaps others to disclose the fact that there was a breach in data security is a California law (S.B. 1386) that requires companies to provide notification to consumers when there is a data security breach involving their personal data. Other states, including Georgia, Connecticut, Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota and Washington, have already enacted legislation similar to the California law; similar legislation is pending in other states.
There are dozens of privacy-related bills pending in Congress. Senator Dianne Feinstein has called for additional federal protection against identity theft, and has introduced legislation setting federal standards for consumer notification of data security breaches (S. 115). In addition, there are bills pending in the House and Senate, H.R. 1080 and S. 500, respectively, that would give the FTC additional authority to oversee entities that collect and sell personal data. More recently, Senator Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Patrick Leahy, the committee's ranking member, introduced S. 1332, the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2005, a comprehensive privacy bill that would impose stringent compliance requirements and create new penalties, including jail time, for intentionally and willfully concealing the fact of, or information related to, a security breach.
At a recent Senate hearing (June 2005), the FTC recommended that Congress consider broadening data security protections for sensitive consumer data and require all companies, not just financial companies, that possess such data to inform consumers when there is a security breach that could result in identity theft. Specifically, the FTC "recommends that Congress consider whether companies that hold sensitive consumer data, for whatever purpose, should be required to take reasonable measures to ensure its safety. Such a requirement could extend the FTC's existing GLBA Safeguards Rule to companies that are not financial institutions. Further, the [FTC] recommends that Congress consider requiring companies to notify consumers when the security of this information has been breached in a manner that creates a significant risk of identity theft."
In March 2005, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation jointly issued "Interagency Guidance on Response Programs for Unauthorized Access to Customer Information and Customer Notice."1 This final guidance interprets these agencies' customer information security standards under the GLBA and states that financial institutions should implement a response program addressing data security breaches involving customer information. The guidance document describes the appropriate elements of a response program, including customer notification procedures. Additionally, under the final guidance, an institution should notify its primary federal regulator as soon as possible when the institution becomes aware of an incident involving unauthorized access to or use of certain "sensitive customer information."
In addition, the FTC similarly has published a guidance document on how to comply with the "Safeguards Rule" of the GLBA, which includes a discussion on managing system failures for financial institutions subject to FTC jurisdiction.2 For example, this document suggests that customers should be notified promptly if their personal data is subject to loss, damage or unauthorized access. The FTC also offers a separate guidance document on information compromise and the risk of identity theft.3 This second document provides guidance on when it would be appropriate to notify law enforcement, affected businesses and consumers in the event of a security breach.
III. Data Security Practices
A company that collects personal data should reevaluate its data security practices and ensure that:
(1) one or more employees have been designated to coordinate such practices;
(2) procedures are in place to regularly monitor and test such practices;
(3) firewall, encryption and other data security software is in place and up to date;
(4) customers are properly verified before they are allowed access to their personal data;
(5) third parties receiving personal data are verified as legitimate businesses;
(7) for employees who have access to personal data, there are employee background checks, employees sign nondisclosure agreements and employees are properly and adequately trained regarding data security measures;
(8) unusual employee access (and timing) to personal data is monitored;
(9) clear and effective security management procedures are in place to address issues raised by an actual breach in data security;
(10) paper shredders or similar devices are used to properly dispose of offline data;
(11) hard drives and backup devices are properly wiped and destroyed before being discarded;
(12) access to data servers and other storage devices is restricted, and physical measures are used to protect such devices;
(13) large-scale downloads and transfers of personal data are monitored and restricted; and
(14) reasonable steps are taken to select and retain service providers that are capable of maintaining appropriate safeguards for personal data, and such service providers should be required by contract to implement and maintain such safeguards, among other measures (e.g., requiring such service providers to notify the company in the event there is a breach of data security).4
The security measures discussed herein should be adopted and implemented in harmony with data protection laws applicable to a company's business practices, as well as industry security standards applicable to such practices. For example, most companies that work with credit card companies must meet a set of standards required by a group of credit card companies, including American Express, Mastercard International and Visa International, for securing cardholder information. Data security procedures should be flexible enough to keep pace with evolving data protection laws and applicable security standards, as well as sophisticated cyber threats, and companies should continue to monitor such laws and standards in light of their business practices. It is important to note that, although computer hackers cause data security breaches by circumventing firewalls and stealing personal data, there are other situations that involve stolen laptops or similar portable devices that store personal data. Thus, companies should simply avoid storing personal data on such devices if it is not necessary to do so. In addition, companies should reduce the amount of personal data on their systems by removing, and no longer collecting, data that they do not actually need (in accordance with applicable laws).
IV. Global Outsourcing And Data Security
In the FTC's view, a company subject to privacy obligations under U.S. laws may not avoid such obligations by outsourcing its data processing activities to offshore service providers. Specifically, the FTC stated that "[a] company that is subject to U.S. laws is responsible for the use and maintenance of consumer information in accordance with those laws. Simply because a company chooses to outsource some of its data processing to a domestic or offshore service provider does not allow that company to escape liability for any failure to safeguard the information adequately." In those cases, the FTC "would look to whether the company that outsourced the data processing employed sufficient measures reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances to maintain and protect the privacy and confidentiality of personal information."5
Thus, it is imperative that companies engaging in global outsourcing arrangements understand the significant legal implications that arise when personal data is involved in such arrangements. Of particular concern is that many countries to which personal data is outsourced do not have data protection laws. Before entering into an outsourcing relationship with a foreign service provider, a company should take appropriate due diligence measures with respect to the service provider (e.g., ensure that the provider has procedures in place to accommodate certain standards imposed by the company). The foreign service provider should be obligated by contract to take appropriate measures to safeguard the personal data that is collected, used or disclosed on behalf of the company, in accordance with the company's data protection standards. Companies should be particularly wary of "confidential" contract form language in these arrangements.
The trend toward greater data protection and security is likely to continue through legislative efforts at both the state and federal levels. Companies should pay close attention to the flurry of privacy-related legislation that is currently being considered in state and federal legislatures, in addition to similar recently enacted legislation. Companies that collect personal data from foreign consumers should also be aware of the potential applicability of foreign data protection laws.
Many data security breach instances involve a failure in the security process, rather than the security technology. Thus, employees and vendors must be properly screened and trained to handle personal data. It is imperative that every single link in the company's chain, including vendors that handle outsourced information, is taken into account when data security policies are created.
4 Existing contracts with service providers should also be amended to provide for the security of personal data.
5 Letter from Timothy J. Muris, Chairman, Federal Trade Commission, to the Honorable Edward J. Markey, U.S. House of Representatives (May 7, 2004).
Timothy McTaggart, a Partner in the Corporate and Financial Services Department, and Demetrios Eleftheriou, an Associate in the Telecommunications Department, are with Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. | <urn:uuid:774c3781-b842-4dc8-b07c-2b8afe5ef477> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metrocorpcounsel.com/articles/5879/technology-law-firms-what-every-business-should-know-about-data-security | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940245 | 2,739 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary
A business that invests in real estate. Investors buy shares in a REIT to invest in real estate in much the same way as they might buy shares in a mutual fund to invest in stocks. A REIT is set up to minimize or avoid corporate income taxes.
Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.
August 19, 2010, 5:23 pm | <urn:uuid:e9dbca83-30b1-4669-b61f-86f0ba4b0069> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/real_estate_investment_trust_reit?quicktabs_3=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913759 | 91 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Use the following directions to check each buildings energy usage on the Lawrenceville and Westminster Campus.
Use website http://10.78.0.10/login
- Enter Username & Password
Click on the Lawrenceville Campus or Westminster Campus map
- Click on building you are interested in looking at
- Where is says "Equipment Access", click on the Electric Meter
This will take you to a screen that shows the meter in real time.
- To look at the whole day or, any day you want:
On the left, in the middle area, look for "Average Demand"
- Click on the number in that box and it will take you to a grid that should have a blue line.
- In the top left, you will see a box that says "today". There is a drop down menu next to that box. Click it.
From here you have several options for data you would like to look at:
- If you want to look at a specific date/time range, click on "Time Range", then click on the little clock. Make sure that for start and end, they both say "fixed"
You can change the date, year, time, am/pm, whatever you want, then click on "ok". It will give you a new graph.
You can glide the mouse over any portion of the graph to see what the KwH usage is at any time (it will give you a date, time and KwH).
- When finished, just log out. | <urn:uuid:8ca7946c-bf99-4bb0-81d2-e001c288ec51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rider.edu/about-rider/sustainability-rider/sustainable-campus/rider-university-energy-meter-directions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908252 | 313 | 1.59375 | 2 |
How To Paddle Kayaks
Learning how to paddle kayaks is easier said than done. Paddling kayaks is often difficult if you have no prior experience. It is fairly common for beginners to fall out of the kayak or to roll it when first starting out. These tips will help you learn how to paddle kayaks and reduce the number of times you fall out into the water. You may want to practice paddling a kayak on dry ground first before placing the kayak into the water.
Things you'll need:
Kayaking paddles and gear
- Paddle kayaks with the proper sitting position. Many people make the mistake of sitting incorrectly in the kayak, adding instability. The proper way to sit in a kayak is with your back firmly against the seat, keeping your knees bent comfortably. It’s important to experiment with the proper knee position because if your knees are kept too straight, your lower back will begin to hurt. However, if your knees are bent too much, you will hit them while paddling.
- Paddle kayaks with the proper hand placement. Finding your proper hand placement on the paddle is important. To find your hand placement, begin with your hands shoulder-length apart and centered. Hold the paddle centered above your head, creating an almost 90 degree angle with your elbows. The goal is to create an equal amount of paddle on both sides of your hand.
- Paddle kayaks with the basic forward power stroke. To perform the forward power stroke, place the paddle blade into the water near your toes. Pull the paddle back towards your hip. After the paddle has reached your hip, remove it from the water and repeat this on the other side of the kayak.
- Paddle kayaks with a sweep stroke. You can’t go in a straight line forever and are going to have to turn at some point. To turn a kayak you have to perform the sweep stroke. The sweep stroke is basically allowing the paddle blade to drift in an arc shape on the side of the kayak. The goal is to force the bow of the kayak away from the paddle blade, allowing the kayak to turn.
Learning how to paddle kayaks takes practice to keep the kayak upright and to put as little strain on the body as possible. It is not difficult to paddle kayaks but it will take practice and upper body strength. Maintaining physical fitness is important if you plan on kayaking frequently. | <urn:uuid:7f01c826-ade5-4f32-b89f-8df86981043c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mademan.com/mm/how-paddle-kayaks.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939594 | 507 | 2.390625 | 2 |
m.kirkcaldie-remove at unsw.edu.au
Sun Mar 20 21:27:21 EST 2005
In article <ir9s31tlhhpmmtpplufie8hdiov0qnnnrd at 4ax.com>,
r norman <rsn_ at _comcast.net> wrote:
> Still, the real "transmission" of the action potential, as you say, is
> the successive replication of a completely new action potential at
> each node. The longitudinal flow of current is simply the decremental
> spread of activity that is the mechanism underlying the triggering.
> If find that it usually takes two or three rounds of courses for
> students to really start to get it. It starts in intro biology and
> continues in animal physiology. By the third time in a specialized
> neuro course, it finally starts to really sink in and gel.
I find the Mexican wave analogy does it every time - the action
potential corresponds to each person standing up and sitting back down,
nothing physically moves overall. The length constant is how many seats
away you're looking to get your cue for when to stand, and the time
constant is what you use for the cue - the person starting to move, or
when they have fully stood, etc. Myelin is empty seats between crowd
members - forces them to take their cues from further away. I've had a
lecture audience do it for me!
I find the analogy is surprisingly precise, to the extent that I
sometimes use it to remember this stuff myself! Pity there's not really
anything you can liken to a current though.
More information about the Neur-sci | <urn:uuid:55568054-8401-4dd9-9756-a75c358521d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/neur-sci/2005-March/060430.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939899 | 364 | 2.578125 | 3 |
The Washington Post offers some reporting from Yemen that suggests the U.S. drone campaign there is creating a mess:
U.S. airstrikes have killed numerous civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other parts of the world, and those governments have spoken against the attacks. But in Yemen, the weak government has often tried to hide civilian casualties from the public, fearing repercussions in a nation where hostility toward U.S. policies is widespread. It continues to insist in local media reports that its own aging jets attacked the truck.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has kept silent publicly, neither confirming nor denying any involvement, a standard practice with most U.S. airstrikes in its clandestine counterterrorism fight in this strategic Middle Eastern country.
In response to questions, U.S. officials in Washington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said it was a Defense Department aircraft, either a drone or a fixed-wing warplane, that fired on the truck. The Pentagon declined to comment on the incident, as did senior U.S. officials in Yemen and senior counterterrorism officials in Washington.
Since the attack, militants in the tribal areas surrounding Radda have gained more recruits and supporters in their war against the Yemeni government and its key backer, the United States. The two survivors and relatives of six victims, interviewed separately and speaking to a Western journalist about the incident for the first time, expressed willingness to support or even fight alongside AQAP, as the al-Qaeda group is known.
“Our entire village is angry at the government and the Americans,” Mohammed said. “If the Americans are responsible, I would have no choice but to sympathize with al-Qaeda because al-Qaeda is fighting America.”
Public outrage is also growing as calls for accountability, transparency and compensation go unanswered amid allegations by human rights activists and lawmakers that the government is trying to cover up the attack to protect its relationship with Washington. Even senior Yemeni officials said they fear that the backlash could undermine their authority.
“If we are ignored and neglected, I would try to take my revenge. I would even hijack an army pickup, drive it back to my village and hold the soldiers in it hostages,” said Nasser Mabkhoot Mohammed al-Sabooly, the truck’s driver, 45, who suffered burns and bruises. “I would fight along al-Qaeda’s side against whoever was behind this attack.”
Relatedly, Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen spoke to the Canadian International Council about the budding air war in Yemen. It's a very illuminating interview and in it, Johnsen argues that U.S. policy in Yemen is backfiring:
In the West, the debate over U.S. policy in Yemen has become focused on drone strikes, but in Yemen, the focus is on the civilian casualties that are a result of some of those strikes. When the Obama administration started carrying out attacks in Yemen, there were about 200-300 individuals affiliated with AQAP. Today, it’s at least 1,000 – in fact, the U.S. State Department estimates that it’s at least a few thousand. I don’t think all of this is attributable to the use of drones, or to the civilian casualties they’ve resulted in, but I think a large portion of it is, and because of this, one of the things that I think the U.S. has to do is reconsider its strike policy.Johnsen goes on to argue that a more targeted policy of fewer strikes against only truly high value targets may yield better results. But he also makes a crucial point -- because of the secrecy that surrounds U.S. counter-terrorism policy, it's very hard to make critical judgments about its effectiveness:
So we’re all basing our analyses on what’s been made public, and because there’s so little of that and so much that remains shrouded in secrecy, we’re all able to import our own biases into the discussion. Two well-intentioned, honest individuals could look at the same thing, and one could claim the action represents an evolution of what the term “imminent threat” means, while the other could see an example of the U.S. acting as a counterinsurgency air force. The truth is that most of us on the outside just don’t know what the government officials who are making these decisions are thinking, or what’s driving the program. | <urn:uuid:abdada0a-8ccf-4549-b056-cb721051cd6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2012/12/is_the_us_digging_itself_a_deeper_hole_in_yemen.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968578 | 931 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Though photo manipulation has become more common in the age of digital cameras and image editing software, it actually dates back almost as far as the invention of photography. Gathered below is an overview of some of the more notable instances of photo manipulation in history. For recent years, an exhaustive inventory of every photo manipulation would be nearly impossible, so we focus here on the instances that have been most controversial or notorious, or ones that raise the most interesting ethical questions.
We’ll continue to update this gallery as more incidents come to our attention, so if you come across any notable ones you think we should include, feel free to send us an e-mail at
[Click thumbnails to view complete images.] | <urn:uuid:48cd8f42-a813-4918-936d-1387e41a75a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fourandsix.com/photo-tampering-history/tag/politics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949569 | 143 | 1.828125 | 2 |
BOOK REVIEW: “Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life” (Sari Nusseibeh)
by Andreas Pflitsch
Sari Nusseibeh’s account of his life in Palestine is a story which goes well beyond the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Andreas Pflitsch says the book is a multi-faceted portrait of its times
The milieu in which Oz grew up in the early 1950s, just after the founding of Israel, was an unknown parallel world for Nusseibeh. It opened his eyes to the mutual ignorance of Israelis and Palestinians. “As there were practically no Arabs in the childhood experiences of Amos Oz, I was prompted to think about how I grew up. What did my parents know of his world?” He asks himself if it is not this “inability to imagine the lives of ‘others’” that is, in the final analysis, at the “core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” And so he began to write.
The book presents the reader with the political memoirs of a member of one of Jerusalem’s most prominent families in the person of Nusseibeh. Born in 1949, the year in which the state of Israel was founded, he was witness to the increasing decline of the influence of the old city elite.
Although his father, who had already served in various Jordanian ministerial posts, was named Governor of the Jerusalem Region by the King of Jordan in 1963 and could thereby continue in his traditional role, the Six Day War of 1967 and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem finally put an end to the era of the local establishment.
A political academic
During the Six Day War, the author attended an elite school in England. In 1968, he began studies at Oxford, after which he spent time in Abu Dhabi and earned a doctorate at Harvard. By the end of the 1970s, he was at Birzeit University, which had been founded in 1972.
Using his own family background as the setting, Nusseibeh relates the history of Palestine, in particular that of Jerusalem, in the 20th century. His account spans the period from the First World War and the 1936 revolt, via the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the Intifada, up until the present situation, in which both Hamas and the settler movement continue to propel the region into a spiral of violence.
The author intertwines political events, private affairs and the process of social transformation to create a very readable story, which, considering all the details, never comes off as academically aloof. Nusseibeh is quite free in his opinions when describing the (limited) possibilities and (missed) opportunities of Palestinian politics, but he is never ideological and is self-critical without being maudlin.
Jews and Arabs as allies
His relationship to Arafat sways between critical distance and admiring recognition, whereas his criticism of Ariel Sharon, not surprisingly, is unambiguous. Nusseibeh believes that there can only be a common solution, that Jews and Arabs are “allies,” and every attempt to separate them leads along a dangerous and mistaken path that is the “product of the modern European myth of a ‘pure’ nation, unblemished by foreigners.”
Nusseibeh’s book has something in common with the autobiographies of two other politically committed Palestinian intellectuals, Edward Said’s “Out of Place” and Hanan Ashrawi’s “This Side of Peace: A Personal Account.” A wide point of view and an interest in cultural and social developments link Nusseibeh with the first book, whereas he shares Ashrawi’s love of detail in his depiction of the background to the negotiations in Madrid, Oslo, and Washington.
Nusseibeh’s “Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life” offers a history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that extends far beyond a description of his own life, and, in its many-faceted portrait of the times, truly serves as a counterpart to Oz’s autobiography.
Both authors equally excel in maintaining a self-critical stance and reflect upon their own entanglement in the ideologies which legitimize the positions of their two societies. The manner in which they have succeeded gives rise to optimism, despite the ongoing situation.
© Qantara.de 2008 | <urn:uuid:d98bf0b6-fdb9-4c4c-b45e-e2d3d8a33afe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/book_review_once_upon_a_country_a_palestinian_life_sari_nusseibeh | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966206 | 936 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Kenya happy with progress of Rio+20
(Speech by President Mwai Kibaki during the Rio+20 Summit in Rio De Janeiro Brazil on June 20)
It gives me great pleasure to address this important and historic Conference. At the onset, I would like to thank President Rousseff and the people of Brazil for the warm hospitality extended to my delegation and I since our arrival here. I also congratulate you for successfully hosting this Conference.
Twenty years ago, Agenda 21 – the blueprint for sustainable development was adopted during the Earth Summit. The international community of nations has once again assembled in Brazil to secure renewed political commitment for the advancement of sustainable development and poverty eradication.
I wish to affirm Kenya’s commitment as we collectively endeavour to chart the way that will lead to a brighter and more prosperous future for all.
Since the adoption of Agenda 21, significant social and economic progress has been witnessed globally. However, this progress has largely been uneven, both in achieving goals set out as well as in fulfilling the agreed commitments.
It is against this backdrop that this Conference will focus its attention on the theme of a Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication.
Indeed, green policy options provide opportunities for increased and sustainable productivity, decent jobs, poverty eradication, environmental protection and economic development for the benefit of humankind.
Transition to a Green Economy should be inclusive as well as address the social agenda while respecting country ownership and different levels of development.
It is therefore important that policies supporting a Green Economy are devoid of trade barriers and conditions to aid for them to be feasible. Poverty eradication should also serve as an important indicator in formulating and applying green economic policies.
In addition, it is my hope that during this Conference, a formal process will be established to explore the options for establishing an international Sustainable Development Financing Strategy. This will facilitate the mobilization of financial and other resources to assist developing countries make the transition to the Green Economy more effectively.
As we approach the 2015 Millennium Development Goals deadline, I am pleased that that there is consensus to establish a formal process that will deliberate on the new Sustainable Development Goals.
This initiative will underscore our political commitment to economic development, social growth and environmental protection. However, the application of the new goals should take into account different national circumstances and priorities for the achievement of sustainable growth.
Equally, Rio+20 should provide direction on strengthening the institutional framework for sustainable development. This will ensure effective implementation of green initiatives at national, regional and international levels.
To this end, Kenya supports the strengthening of the Economic and Social Council as the principal body for policy coordination and integration of the three pillars of sustainable development.
My government is pleased with the progress that has been achieved here in Rio de Janeiro, particularly with the agreement to strengthen and upgrade UNEP. In this regard, certain key functions have been agreed upon. They include:
1. Universal membership in the Governing Council to strengthen UNEP’s governance;
2. The agreement to have increased and stable financial resources from regular UN budget and voluntary contributions; and
3. Consolidation of Headquarter functions in Nairobi; among others.
All these functions must be implemented as soon as possible in order to give effect to the will of this Conference.
Ultimately, these steps will have to be complemented with the transformation of UNEP into a full United Nation Environment Organisation (UNEO), of equal status with other UN bodies in order to balance the three dimensions of sustainable development and to enable the upgraded body play its rightful role as the authoritative voice of the environment within the United Nations system.
On its part, Kenya as the host country of UNEP, promises to provide office and support facilities for the expanded membership of the Governing Council.
We will build and avail such facilities within easy reach of the current UNEP offices in Nairobi as a way of enabling and facilitating full participation of all member states of the United Nations in the Governing Council.
In conclusion, I wish to emphasize the fact that the decisions we make during this Conference will have a profound impact on the future of sustainable development. Let us come together and agree to work towards a brighter, prosperous and more equitable world for present and future generations.
(Mwai Kibaki is the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces of the Republic of Kenya) | <urn:uuid:a9a9dbbd-f72c-430c-b08f-d84dd71f60a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/eblog/2012/06/21/kenya-happy-with-progress-of-rio20/?wpmp_switcher=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935856 | 894 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Roland Walker, a colorful and highly regarded defense attorney who was a fixture in Baltimore courtrooms for six decades, died Saturday of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, at his Lutherville home. He was 82.
"Roland was always a person's lawyer. He represented people, not organizations or institutions, and he did it brilliantly," said Joseph F. Murphy Jr., former chief judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals. "He did mainly criminal defense work and always had a wonderful way with people, judges and jurors."
"Roland Walker is a legend. He never blew his horn. For him, actions spoke louder than words," said Baltimore County District Judge Sally C. Chester, who went to work in 1978 as Mr. Walker's law clerk. "He had integrity and honesty."
"The legal profession has lost a master," said Baltimore defense attorney Jane G. Loving. "He was courtly and authoritative without being aggressive."
After graduating from City College in 1946, where he ran track and was a football cheerleader, Mr. Walker's goal was to get a job at a Read's drugstore.
After being turned down because he was too young, "his brother took him to the University of Baltimore to discuss the possibility of college," said a son, Bart A. Walker, a lawyer who lives in New York City. "The registrar asked him what he wanted to study and he didn't know. She suggested pre-law when he told her his father was a bail bondsman."
When Mr. Walker graduated in 1950 from the University of Baltimore at age 20 with his law degree, he was too young to take the bar examination. Instead, he joined the Army where he served with the Judge Advocate General Corps as a defense attorney.
He was admitted to the Maryland State Bar in 1952.
After being discharged from the Army in 1955, Mr. Walker returned to Baltimore and opened a private practice in the Court Square Building at Lexington and Calvert streets, where he worked for the next 50 years.
Without any clients in those early days. Mr. Walker would sit in courtrooms observing lawyers trying cases. One day, he was watching a trial in which a woman had been accused of murdering her husband.
"He went up to the defense attorney and asked why he wasn't using the defense of temporary insanity. The attorney said he didn't think it was a good case," his son said.
After Mr. Walker laid out his strategy, the attorney told him if "you can make the case, then why don't you try," his son said. Mr. Walker did and won the case.
For nearly the next 60 years, until being forced to retire last year because of his illness, Mr. Walker became a ubiquitous presence in Baltimore courtrooms, where he was a friend to all.
"He clearly cared for his clients. He was always well-prepared, knew the law and when to apply it," said Ms. Loving. "He was such a gentleman. If anyone could work out a case, people wanted to work with him."
"Roland was the kind of attorney who had opponents but no enemies. When I was a prosecutor and had cases with him, he was forceful but never obnoxious, and judges respected him for that," recalled Judge Murphy. "He never tried any sneaky moves.
"Litigation can be difficult, but Roland never made it more difficult. His clients, former clients, lawyers and judges always flooded to him," said Judge Murphy, who is now in private practice. "You can't expect clients to love their lawyer, but that's the way they felt about him. He was able to maintain good and lasting relationships."
"I always thought he was a first-rate defense attorney. He always played by the book," said retired Baltimore Circuit Judge Joseph H. H. Kaplan. "He was a very honorable guy, and I always liked to see him in court."
Mr. Walker favored well-tailored suits and fast automobiles. His Jaguar convertible sported a distinctive vanity license plate that read "WALK." | <urn:uuid:f11bfbdf-e6e8-4b73-92e0-ea8cb18cc3bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-roland-walker-20130314,0,1692505.story?track=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.994448 | 846 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Fumee Lake Natural Area
located on the border of Wisconsin
in the Upper Peninsula's Dickinson County
Established in 1992, the Fumee Lake Natural Area has over 1800 acres used in a wide variety of non-motorized activities. The Fumee Lake Natural Area was formed when 80% of Dickinson County voters favored a bonding proposal for the acquisition of Fumee Lake for its "use and preservation as a Natural Area".
One of the areas greatest attributes is its location. A few minutes off U.S. 2 west of Norway and east of Quinnesec, it lies within five miles of Dickinson Countys most populated metro areas, a fact that a visitor is not able to detect due to the sheltering of the surrounding hills.
The Fumee Lake Natural Area has a number of unique features. Fumee Lake and Little Fumee Lake provide a total of five miles of undeveloped shoreline. In addition to numerous wetlands, 507 acres of surface water holds a fishery deemed "very remarkable and unique" by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The area has historically been home to a number of rare or threatened species including the Bald Eagle, Common Loon, and seventeen species of orchids. Three plants on Michigan's Threatened Species list are found here: Walking Fern, Purple Cliff-brake and Marsh Grass of Parnassus.
The Fumee Lake Natural Area is used by educators to teach students about ecology. A number of non-motorized recreational opportunities await its visitors. Hiking, biking, bird watching, and nature photography in the spring, summer, and fall; Cross country skiing and snow shoeing in the winter months. Everyone is welcome to enjoy this four-season natural area.
For more information on the Dickinson County Area,
The Tourism Association of the Dickinson County Area | <urn:uuid:8e12cbb1-1cdd-4bdc-9cab-c1cc909c73e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fumeelakes.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91997 | 380 | 3.03125 | 3 |
"Tackling violence in
schools" - High-level Expert meeting
|27.06.2011 - The High-Level
Expert Meeting is jointly organised by the Norwegian Royal Ministry of
Education and Research, The Norwegian Royal Ministry of Children, Equality
and Social Inclusion, the Norwegian Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
Council of Europe and the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General
on Violence against Children. The European Wergeland Centre is a co–partner.
The meeting will pursue the following objectives:
• to share recent global and European data and research in combating violence against children in schools;
• to consolidate the various national and international methodologies, strategies, initiatives and good practices, including human rights and democratic citizenship education, to make schools free from violence;
• to identify instruments, methods and recommendations for the follow-up work of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, to prevent and address violence against children in schools, and
• to define the role that the Council of Europe could further play in addressing violence in schools via its future Strategy on the Rights of the Child (2012-2015).
The conclusions and recommendations from the High-Level Expert Meeting will inform the follow-up process to the UN Study on Violence against Children promoted by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, and feed into the Council of Europe Strategy on the Rights of the Child (2012-2015) to be adopted by the Committee of Ministers in early 2012.
The High-Level Expert Meeting will bring together around 40 to 50 participants including representatives from regional organisations, international experts, individual countries as well as children and youth with experience in or commitment to the development of integrated national strategies, policies and programmes to combat violence against children in schools.
* Concept paper of the meeting | <urn:uuid:452e9e94-4161-4598-9de8-8bf6f875448b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/children/News/Oslo06-11/OsloJune11_en.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924936 | 375 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Etsy, the popular e-commerce site full of one-of-a-kind trinkets, handmade jewelry, and other personalized high-quality items, has risen to become a formidable competitor to eBay and other web-commerce platforms.
Brooklyn-based Etsy is very popular among women, in fact 80 percent of its customer base are women and 50 percent of its staff are women.
Despite this, the company realized it was lacking in one place: female engineers.
The commerce site went from having just three female engineers in early 2011 to 20 as of late 2012.
The tech industry is infamously dominated by male programmers and engineers. So how did Etsy do it?
Etsy’s CEO Kellan Elliot-McCrea shared this insightful presentation on how his company hired more qualified women in engineering.
Recommended for you: | <urn:uuid:862e5d43-e224-4506-9a56-c9c025e111d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thegrindstone.com/2013/02/12/work-life-balance/an-inside-look-at-how-etsy-grew-its-female-engineers-by-500-in-1-year/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976419 | 174 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Amish Acres, discover the Amish life
Being immersed in a foreign culture is an experience many of us savor. We open our eyes to new cultures and ways of life through our travel experiences. Recently while traveling in the Midwest I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the Amish culture, during a visit to Amish Acres in Nappanee, Indiana.
The Amish live side by side in communities with the English as we are called by the Amish in Midwestern communities, yet our cultures are worlds apart. The Amish live by the rules and beliefs of their founders, guided by Bishops in their individual communities. Amish communities live with varying rules according to their Bishop. Some Amish are allowed to ride in cars and the majority are allowed to use telephones for business purposes, though phones are forbidden in Amish homes. Others are allowed to travel on Amish organized bus tours or even to fly by air though generally Amish travel strictly by horse and buggy or bicycles.
The Amish are traditional farmers plowing with draft horses and man power. Modern machinery is shunned, electricity forbidden except for business purposes such as refrigeration of goods for sale. An Amish home is simple with wood fire heating, oil lanterns and wood stoves for cooking and baking. The Amish speak German among themselves and church services are held in High German though the Amish speak flawless English to outsiders.
Amish Acres allows us to step inside the Amish culture for a day, experiencing what life on a traditional Amish farm means. Visitors can tour an Amish home on the property where three generations of Amish immigrants lived. We can experience their one room school house, eat their delicious home cooked meals and take a ride in an Amish horse and buggy around the property.
Though I grew up living near Amish communities the Amish culture still fascinates me. I find myself driving through small communities in northern Indiana and Ohio watching with fascination as Amish families work and interact in the community. Though I’ve had numerous opportunities to take close up photos of the Amish I resist, knowing it’s against their religion to be photographed. Instead I take far away shots to maintain their privacy and respect their culture.
Amish Acres gives visitors an excellent up close experience in Amish living. They offer informative guided tours and an opportunity to explore an Amish farm. They also offer a theatre with videos on Amish life, one geared specifically for children. In addition there are regular theatre productions offered included Plain and Fancy and visiting musical performances.
Amish Acres offers meals that can only be described as country home cooking. The food is plentiful and delicious. Amish Acres offers a Threshers Meal which is served family style at your table. This meal includes fried chicken, ham or roast beef. Along with this bountiful selection you’re provided ham and bean soup, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans and exceptional homemade bread with delicious apple butter. For dessert there are a selection of rich, delicious pies, including shoefly pie, dutch apple, custard, peanut butter, coconut cream and several others.
Amish Acres offers a lunch menu from 11-2 that includes a hearty beef stew in a hearth bread bowl, chicken and noodles, a sandwich platter including ham, smoked sausage and chicken salad with a choice of several home cooked side dishes including beef and noodles or ham and bean soup. Amish Acres specialties include sassafras tea, shoefly pie, fresh baked bread, homemade butter and locally made apple butter.
Amish Acres also has a wine tasting loft where visitors can taste a variety of wines made locally in Indiana and Michigan. The wine tasting loft offers two options for visiting wine lovers. The Wine tasting loft is open on Friday and Saturday from 2-7 p.m. with hours varying according to season. The wine tasting loft offers discounts on quantity and case purchases and offers a wine accessory shop.
Amish Acres offers an interesting cultural experience. It’s a glimpse into a world far removed from our everyday life and an opportunity to explore a culture that is shrouded in mystery.Visitors to Amish Acres can choose from single day tickets, the Country package, a Holiday package or one of the Theatre packages with shows such as Plain and Fancy, or A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. They also offer additional seasonal theatre productions, including Cinderella.
Amish Acres hours change in the winter season. Starting Nov 8th Amish Acres is closed on Monday and Tuesday until spring. January through March the entire resort is closed with the exception of the Inn at Amish Acres.
* This visit was courtesy of Amish Acres
1600 West Market St.
Nappanee, Indiana 46550 | <urn:uuid:655d13c5-3524-4317-8a8b-080153740d9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blogs/hammockinparadise/2010/11/09/amish-acres-discover-the-amish-life/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964716 | 992 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Staff Picks of the Week:
Memorial Day 2013
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Greater Love Video Illustration » Everlasting God Worship Music Video »
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* This is one of the most ‘well-known pre-Easter’ stories in scripture. Fulfilling the prophecy, our Lord Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey with pomp and circumstance befitting a King. People lined the road, took off their coats laying them in the path, waving palm-branches, and crying “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna.”
* Dr. Luke records that the singing and praising reached such a fever pitch of the traditional church leaders wanted it quieted and quieter. Yet, we read in the HCSB that the city was ‘shaken.’ KJV translators, who were a good bit more sedate, says the city was ‘moved.’ The NIV uses the word “stirred” while the ESV reads “stirred up.” The Greek word is the root for our word “seismic.” Jesus’ entrance, whether a planet, a place, or a person, is always seismic! But never forget, for Jesus, shaking, stirring, and moving are not enough (it is only the beginning). The same people who lined road with calls of “Praise Him” at the beginning of the week were stirred up by the Pharisees in front of Pilate’s hall by week’s end to shout cries of “Slay Him.” They were stirred but not changed.
* This past week we have had a “stirring event.” The music, messages, and meetings, stirred our hearts, but the question is, “Were we changed?”
* Consider 3 ways to discern the change which only Jesus can give:
1. HEAD – The head is the control center of each one of us and represents our ‘mind’. For the person who has been changed, it is a transformation of the mind! Romans 12:2 says, “Be not conformed to the world, but the transformed by the ‘renewing’ of your mind.” The change is indeed a renewal, a renovation, and/or a makeover!! For the person who is changed it begins in the minds, the Holy Spirit creates in us a conscious. Philippians 2:5 speaks our having the mind of Christ and that what it means to be changed. Illus: thought life, concepts, etc.
2. HABITS - are the great killers of a passionate spiritual life. Candidly, bad habits are between you and God what Adultery is between you and your mate. If you come to Christ with ingrained habits, He will meet you where you are. In fact, did you know “that is exactly how God wants you to come?” Never “clean up to come to God, come to God to get cleaned up,” is this why we sing, “Just as I am”. Habits in a life are generally what controls life. Examples are smoking, drinking, drugs, and pornography. We ask, do “bad habits mean I am not saved?” if you are “stirred but not changed,” going back to those habits will be easy because you’ll have no Holy Spirit to assist. However, if we are indeed changed, the Holy Spirit will become our conscience.
Stirred But Not Change – Pg 2
* This is the reason Paul writes to Timothy about a “seared” conscience. Never forget, sinful habits will destroy your joy, peace, security, ability to share Christ. (TCAAH) If you have a sinful habit present in your life there are two possibilities; first – the person is not saved, or there exists a seared conscience.
3. HEART – Our heart
- All Sermons on Change
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Join the discussion | <urn:uuid:285c16de-6e70-4a65-bcb7-12f029e894ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/stirred-but-not-changed-jerry-watts-sermon-on-change-144498.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937725 | 954 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Understanding Transgender Communities and Equal Rights in Newton
The Newton Human Rights Commission will sponsor an event next week to provide more information to Newton residents about the transgender community.
Do you have questions about the transgender community?
The Newton Human Rights Commission will host an educational forum this week that aims to inform local residents and business owners about the transgender community.
"Understanding to Enactment: Applying the Transgender Equal Rights Law in Newton," will take place at the Newton Senior Center on Thursday, Nov. 29 from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.
According to Commission member Holly Ryan, the event aims to give an overview of transgender communities, including terms used, definitions and labels.
With her recent appointment and the passage of the transgender anti-discrimination law, Ryan said the timing was right to bring this kind of education and information to Newton.
"I gave myself a mandate that I needed to do this," Ryan said. "It's never been done before."
In addition to her position on the Human Rights Commission, Ryan was the former co-chair of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC). During her time at the MTPC, she worked with legislators to pass the transgender anti-discrimination law, which went into effect on July 1, 2012.
Thursday's event at the senior center will be led in part by MTPC Executive Director Gunner Scott. It will start off with information on how to understand the transgender community itself, Ryan said, including language and misconceptions about transgender people.
A portion of the event will also feature videos from the "I AM: Trans People Speak" series, including a video from Ryan.
"[The videos] allow people to really see who transgender people are," Ryan said.
Those who attend the event will also have a chance to learn more about topics pertaining to transgender employees in the workplace and how to support and communicate with those employees as well as handle conflict resolution with co-workers.
In addition to the information and training provided during Thursday's event, Ryan said there will be a wealth of resources and contact information available for local business owners, landlords and public educators.
For more information on the Human Rights Commission, contact the Newton Health & Human Services Department at 617-796-1420.
A full press release from the Newton Human Rights Commission is included below:
From Understanding to Enactment: Applying the Transgender Equal Rights Law in Newton
This year the state of Massachusetts enacted a statewide law adding transgender people to other protected classes for non-discrimination… but who are transgender people? There are approximately 33,000 transgender people in Massachusetts and how many are citizens, business owners, neighbors, friends, and family in Newton? Cities of all sizes have transgender people either as constituents and/or employees.
This event will highlight personal experiences of transgender men and women, family members and friends through videos from I AM: Trans People Speak collection and short presentation as way to understand this emerging community. This training encompasses collaborative learning model by using interactive methods; providing cultural information; skills building; and problem solving techniques for supporting employees and constituents.
- Overview of transgender communities including terms, definitions, and labels
- Supporting transgender employees and their co-workers in promoting an inclusive workplace
- Communication, conflict resolution, and responding to co-workers through skills building exercises
At the end of the Program you will be able to:
- Have basic understanding of transgender issues, language, and community
- Assess the workplace environment and constituent service experience from the perspective of transgender employees and constituents
- Have the skills and tools to promote diversity and intervene when necessary | <urn:uuid:164df981-96be-4ecb-8323-77c63bba1e86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newton.patch.com/articles/understanding-transgender-communities-and-equal-rights-in-newton?logout=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949376 | 733 | 1.953125 | 2 |
|MARY SHEDS LIGHT ON ROLE OF WOMEN|
|Pope John Paul II
|God's saving plan which is revealed in creation attributes equal dignity and worth
to women, but it also affirms the uniqueness of the gift of femininity.
At the General Audience of 6 December 1995, the Holy Father continued his catechesis on the Virgin Mary, calling particular attention to her as the model for woman's role in the contemporary world. His address was the eighth in the series on the Blessed Virgin.
1. As I have already explained in the preceding catechesis, the role entrusted to Mary by the divine plan of salvation sheds light on the vocation of woman in the life of the Church and society by defining its difference in relation to man. The model represented by Mary dearly shows what is specific to the feminine personality.
In recent times some trends in the feminist movement, in order to advance women's emancipation, have sought to make her like man in every way. However, the divine intention manifested in creation, though desiring woman to be man's equal in dignity and worth, at the same time clearly affirms her diversity and specific features. Woman's identity cannot consist in being a copy of man, since she is endowed with her own qualities and prerogatives, which give her a particular uniqueness that is always to be fostered and encouraged.
These prerogatives and particular features of the feminine personality attained their full development in Mary. The fullness of divine grace actually fostered in her all the natural abilities typical of woman.
'Let it be done to me according to your word'
Mary's role in the work of salvation is totally dependent on Christ's. It is a unique function, required by the fulfilment of the mystery of the Incarnation: Mary's motherhood was necessary to give the world its Saviour, the true Son of God, but also perfectly man.
The importance of woman's co-operation in the coming of Christ is emphasized by the initiative of God, who, through the angel, communicates his plan of salvation to the Virgin of Nazareth so that she can consciously and freely co-operate by giving her own generous consent.
Here the loftiest model of woman's collaboration in the Redemption of man every man is fulfilled, this model represents the transcendent reference point for every affirmation of woman's role and function in history.
2. In carrying out this sublime form of co-operation, Mary also shows the style in which woman must concretely express her mission.
With regard to the angel's message, the Virgin makes no proud demands nor does she seek to satisfy personal ambitions. Luke presents her to us as wanting only to offer her humble service with total and trusting acceptance of the divine plan of salvation. This is the meaning of her response: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38).
It is not a question of a purely passive acceptance, since her consent is given only after she has expressed the difficulty that arose from her intent to remain a virgin, inspired by her will to belong more completely to the Lord.
Having received the angel's response, Mary immediately expresses her readiness, maintaining an attitude of humble service. It is the humble, valuable service that so many women, following Mary's example, have offered and continue to offer in the Church for the growth of Christ's kingdom.
3. The figure of Mary reminds women today of the value of motherhood. In the contemporary world the appropriate and balanced importance is not always given to this value. In some cases, the need for women to work in order to provide for the needs of their family and an erroneous concept of freedom, which sees child-care as a hindrance to woman's autonomy and opportunities, have obscured the significance of motherhood for the development of the feminine personality. On the contrary, in other cases the biological aspect of childbirth becomes so important as to overshadow the other significant opportunities woman has for expressing her innate vocation to being a mother.
In Mary we have been given to understand the true meaning of motherhood, which attains its loftiest dimension in the divine plan of salvation. For her, being a mother not only endows her feminine personality, directed towards the gift of life, with its full development, but also represents an answer of faith to woman's own vocation, which assumes its truest value only in the light of God's covenant (cf. Mulieris dignitatem, n. 19).
4. In looking attentively at Mary, we also discover in her the model of virginity lived for the kingdom.
The Virgin par excellence, in her heart she grew in her desire to live in this state in order to achieve an ever deeper intimacy with God.
For women called to virginal chastity, Mary reveals the lofty meaning of so special a vocation and thus draws attention to the spiritual fruitfulness which it produces in the divine plan: a higher order of motherhood, a motherhood according to the Spirit (cf. Mulieris dignitatem, n. 21).
Women sow the seeds of the civilization of love
Mary's maternal heart, open to all human misfortune, also reminds women that the development of the feminine personality calls for a commitment to charity. More sensitive to the values of the heart, woman shows a high capacity for personal self-giving.
To all in our age who offer selfish models for affirming the feminine personality, the luminous and holy figure of the Lord's Mother shows how only by self-giving and self-forgetfulness towards others is it possible to attain authentic fulfillment of the divine plan for one's own life.
Mary's presence therefore encourages sentiments of mercy and solidarity in women for situations of human distress and arouses a desire to alleviate the pain of those who suffer: the poor, the sick and all in need of help.
In virtue of her special bond with Mary, woman has often in the course of history represented God's closeness to the expectations of goodness and tenderness of a humanity wounded by hatred and sin, by sowing in the world seeds of a civilization that can respond to violence with love.
Provided Courtesy of: | <urn:uuid:3df73f44-2c60-4326-a4ed-b6dafd7310d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP951206.HTM | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957865 | 1,282 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy uses a special chamber, sometimes called a pressure chamber, to increase the amount of oxygen in the blood.
Some, but not very many, hospitals have a hyperbaric chamber. Smaller units may be available in outpatient center.
The air pressure inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber is about two and a half times greater than the normal pressure in the atmosphere. This helps your blood carry more oxygen to organs and tissues in your body.
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Read the full text of Some Asthmatics Are Good Actors and leave a comment! Read all of Rick Frea's Posts Visit Respiratory Therapy Cave, Rick... Read more » | <urn:uuid:a8a27d83-97a8-4d81-b956-3abe080f07a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthcentral.com/asthma/h/heliox-therapy-asthma.html | 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 | 0.900478 | 259 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The Police Control Room is one of noisiest junctions in the city
The blaring of horns on city roads is a common phenomenon. The tendency to drive the vehicle with a hand on horn is jacking up the noise pollution with every sunrise.
If the noise pollution levels were to be considered, the officials concerned were doing very little to control the noise pollution. The police and Road Transport Authority (RTA) are supposed to keep tab on it. But, there are hardly any measures taken in that direction. Growing number of vehicles and deliberate honking are said to be the main reasons that made the city end up on top of noise pollution level charts.
The Police Control Room (PCR), one of the busiest junctions in the city, is the biggest offender during daytime at a loud noise exceeding 70 decibel (db) on any given day; according to the ambient sound quality standards, maximum noise must not exceed 55 db. The PCR Junction, however, recorded 71 db -75.2 db in May this year, according to Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) data. With the buses coming from and going to city bus terminus, merger of Eluru and Bandar Roads, flyover carrying One Town traffic etc. meet at the PCR junction leading to snail’s pace of movement of traffic at the PCR Junction. The restless vehicle uses bang their horns at their will.
The Benz Circle, another junction where movement of heavy transport vehicles is high, is no exception. The Benz Circle recorded 64.7 db to 72.4 db. Interestingly, Autonagar, an industrial area, has recorded much less than the PCR and the Benz Circle junctions. The noise pollution in Autonagar hovered around 59.9db sometimes reaching 61db. Not surprisingly, noise levels are high in almost all commercial areas like Besant Road.
As the PCB is not recording the noise pollution in commercial areas, no exact data is available. The PCB records noise pollution levels at the PCR, Benz Circle and Autonagar ten times in a month. | <urn:uuid:294c1ba5-3406-4693-b756-25d2994bb5e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Vijayawada/an-assault-on-the-eardrum/article3721782.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943506 | 424 | 1.984375 | 2 |
ReutersAn aerial view of the Syncrude oil sands mine north of Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Nebraska’s state environmental agency seeks a long list of data from TransCanada, the operator of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, including the mix of chemicals used to dilute the heavy Canadian oil sands crude that it would carry to the Gulf Coast. The agency has been reviewing a proposed new path for Keystone XL that aims to avoid the permeable soil and high water tables of the state’s Sand Hills region. [E&E]
A decision this spring by United States trade officials to impose tariffs on Chinese solar panel imports that have shipped since February has proved painful for American companies that purchased them. All told, American importers of the Chinese panels could have to pay about $100 million in retroactive tariffs, according to their lawyers’ estimates. [InsideClimate News]
The logging company Sierra Pacific agrees to pay the United States government $122.5 million in damages to settle a lawsuit over a 2007 wildfire that was among the most devastating in California history. The settlement will include a $55 million cash payment and 22,500 acres of land in California owned by Sierra Pacific. The Forest Service will choose the land, which is expected to bridge gaps between existing national forests and support critical watersheds and sensitive species habitats. [Reuters]
After an extremely bumpy start in 2007, Paris’s bike-sharing service is now judged a success. Some 138 million people have used the bicycles, 225,000 subscribers have signed up, and the service achieved profitability last year. [Inter Press Service]
American companies that provide oil-field services are seeking to gain a foothold in China by investing in local partners before the country opens a second round of bidding for its huge reserves of shale gas. Last year Chinese state-owned companies were allocated shale-gas blocks in the first round. [The Wall Street Journal]
Ed Alcock for The New York TimesA Parisian rides a Vélib rental bicycle in the Place de la Concorde.
As I reported last week, Paris has begun rolling out new electric vehicles in a car-sharing program called Autolib.
The city says the goal is to reduce car ownership, traffic and tailpipe emissions, improving residents’ quality of life. Bolloré, the company funding the project, wants to showcase its electric vehicles and its lithium-metal-polymer battery technology.
While far behind cities like Amsterdam (who isn’t?), Paris is trying to hold its own in the green sweepstakes. To date, one of its most important projects has been a short-term bicycle rental system. Vélib, which started in 2007, is today fully integrated into the fabric of the city, counting millions of passenger trips each year. In proposing my Autolib article, I explained that the city was seeking to build on that “‘hugely successful’’ model.
My characterization of the bike program as ‘‘hugely successful’’ led to a lively debate among my editors, a number of whom argued that Vélib was not in fact successful because it had failed to reduce traffic and so many of the bicycles are damaged, vandalized or stolen that the program was probably running at a loss.
The Parisian bike-share program, known as Velib, has been studied by other cities looking to reduce traffic congestion, including New York, San Francisco and London. (Nick Kurczewski for The New York Times)
From our friends at the Wheels blog:
PARIS — The Velib bike rental system has been hailed by Parisians and tourists alike for its convenience, as well as for being a “green” alternative to getting around the French capital via taxi, bus or metro. But the high cost of fixing, maintaining and, in many cases, replacing the fleet of about 20,000 bikes is proving too much for JCDecaux, the company that runs the program.
The Velib name is in itself a play on words, a combination of “velo” (bike) and “liberté” (freedom). But many riders seem to be taking a bit too much liberty when it comes to the bikes.
A Velib bike with a flat tire. (Nick Kurczewski for The New York Times)
Of the 15,000 bicycles originally disbursed for the program, more than half have disappeared, reports the BBC, presumed to be stolen. Some Velib customers have even taking to filming their Velib (mis)adventures and posting the destruction of the bikes on video-sharing sites like YouTube (here’s one). The practice apparently even has its own catchy nickname: “Velib extreme.”
Nearly all of the original bikes have been replaced. At an estimated cost of roughly $500 each, the cost for replacing the entire fleet of 20,000 bikes would run about $10 million.
According to the BBC, Remi Pheulpin, JCDecaux’s director general, told Le Parisien that replacement and maintenance costs are “so high that a private business cannot handle it alone, especially as it’s a problem of public order. If we want the Velib set-up to keep going, we’ll have to change the business model.”
Paris is trying to ease traffic with new commuter boats. If they become popular, will diesel emissions be an issue? (Photo: Voguéo)
For the past six months, Parisians have had a new mode of public transport at their disposal: a fleet of dual-engine catamaran boats along the Seine river. The Voguéo service, which debuted last June, covers about 9 kilometers as it chugs through South Eastern Paris.
The city’s mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, sees the boats as an integral part of an overall strategy to ease congestion on the streets of Paris. From a “News From France” newsletter published by the French Embassy in Washington:
The creation of Voguéo is part of Mayor Delanoë’s plan to reduce car traffic in Paris by 40 percent by the year 2020. In 2007, the mayor launched the public bicycle rental program Vélib’ (see NFF 07.10), and now, just one year later, the number of bicycles and stations have doubled. Vélib’ is now the largest bike rental service of its kind in the world.
Although commuter boats were a common method of transportation in Paris a century ago, they have since yielded to other forms of public transit. With shuttles nagivating the Seine two to three times an hour, Voguéo is a contemporary way to take a stroll — or perhaps “cruise” — down memory lane.
The embassy reports that the mayor would like to expand the system to cover all of Paris, though it remains unclear just how popular the boats will ultimately be. And while a reduction in traffic in the city seems likely to reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions produced by the City of Light, the boats’ diesel engines might well raise some environmental questions. (Burning marine diesel fuel, which produces nitrous oxides and polluting particulate matter, is notoriously dirty.) | <urn:uuid:297243c5-a7e2-47e4-8cc6-34c7946ec6f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/paris/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959475 | 1,507 | 1.5625 | 2 |
During 1975 Dicky Drew-Smythe became involved with the filming of John Huston's 'The Man Who Would Be King' being made in Morocco. It is believed that somewhere in Morocco he still has a traditional Berber wife 'given' to him at the time - though quite what a more modern 'pc' view on this would be is open to conjecture - either way, the 'marriage' was never consumated and the thought of the young woman still waiting around for him is beyond contemplation.
He made a number of location visits (accompanied by his second wife, Mary, on one occasion) and recognised this film-making experience as one of the highlights of his life making the comment at interview that he would like to become further involved in the film industry; this, however, was not to be.
The dapper, moustachioed, small-knit man sat astride his grey horse, holding a stick in one hand and a plastic cup of tea in the other.
He watched intently as five hundred yelling Bashkai warriors, hurling spears, firing arrows and scything the hot desert air with curved swords, rushed down a dusty hill topped by a picturesque, red sandstone castle, to do bloody battle with another advancing army, also armed with the same kind of weapons, but with the additional advantage of rifles. Shots rang out and a dozen Bashkai fell, mortally wounded. A voice shouted, "Cut cameras 1 and 2!" The dust cleared. The warriors grinned at one another. The man on horseback smiled slightly and took a gentle sip of tea. Another "take" was "in the can" and he approved.
The scene was Morocco, just outside a small village called Tifoultoute, the location for a spectacular film titled "The Man Who Would Be King", and the man on the grey horse was Captain Richard Drew-Smythe, army and battle technical advisor to the movie company. Captain "Dicky" Drew-Smythe was in his element. Ex-Indian Army and Gurkha Battalion, expert on military matters and battles, not to mention horses and mules, was combining an essential and responsible job with enjoyment and flair. Business and pleasure. And he was a happy man.
"I love every minute of it," he said, as he dismounted and strolled across to a tent for another cup of tea. "I find the whole thing absolutely fascinating. Of course, our band of warriors aren't exactly what you might call Sandhurst ... but they're a good, enthusiastic bunch and they're doing what's needed wonderfully well."
Dicky Drew-Smythe couldn't be more English if he donned a crown and ermine-trimmed robe. He has that unmistakable, slightly clipped accent denoting an ex-English Public School, ex-Sandhurst, ex-British Army Officer; a friendly, confident air and, what's more, even sports a monocle from time to time. No doubt he also wears a bowler and carries a brolly when out walking back home in London's Chelsea. But the hot sun and desert sands of Morocco (doubling for 1880s Kafiristan in the film) are not Chelsea and here he wears cavalry-twill trousers, check open-neck shirt and tasteful yellow pull-over.
He's your typical British gent. He's a nice, amiable and amusing British gent into the bargain, which all goes to help when you're dealing, as he is, with such motion picture luminaries as John Huston, Sean Connery and Michael Caine, director and stars of John Foreman's production "The Man Who Would Be King".
Captain Drew-Smythe was born near Bristol, Gloucestershire on July 23rd 1920 and educated at Clifton College and Marlborough, two of England's most famous Public Schools. He first became a student at the Royal Veterinary College in Edinburgh then trained for the Army at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, being commissioned into the Indian Army in 1938.
He was sent to the First Gurkha Regiment, in the North of the Punjab, in the Himalayan foothills and was then posted to a training batallion down in the valley 200 miles away. Later came service on the Manipur Road and through Burma. After suffering a mishap, he became a Staff Captain at Agra but became bored with sitting behind an office desk and subsequently joined the Army Remount Section, still in India. Then it was back into Burma with an Advance Field Remount Depot and three Field Remount Sections, ending up at a large Remount Base at Imphal. The Remount Section supplied all kinds of animal transport, ranging from officers' chargers to transport donkeys, ponies and mules.
Captain Drew-Smythe is an official with the British Horse Society, working for the Riding Establishments Act Committee, as an Inspector of Riding Establishments and Schools throughout the whole of Greater London and the Home Counties which is how he came to be put in touch with the executives of the film.
"I came out to Morocco first with action director, Bob Simmons, and an advance party to recce the area of the battle between the Bashkai and Er-Heb Armies (the latter commanded by Sean Connery, Michael Caine and Saeed Jaffrey as an ex-Gurkha). We worked out a battle plan and then I helped to re-write that portion of the script which covered the battle. Apart from this battle, I'm generally on hand to sort out all kinds of little problems and queries that may crop up from day to day such as appropriate words of command, army drill, general battle routine, handling of weapons, the Indian market and so on."
"There was one particular problem we needed to solve ... what sort of flower would Roxanne (Shakira Caine) give to Dravot (Sean Connery) when she first meets him? In other words, what sort of flower would be applicable to Kafiristan at that period? The answer, I think, would be either a marigold or a jacaranda. I also organised the Grand March of Dravot's Army through the valley. And I'm generally around to clear up any little points that may arise."
Dicky lives in Chelsea but he gets away whenever he can to his small stud farm in West Wales where he has ponies and a few dogs."It's a good life," he says, "but now I've had a taste of the film business I hope to have the opportunity of doing more advisory work like this in the future if I get the chance. It's extremely stimulating and rewarding." And, with that, Captain Dicky Drew-Smythe went back to his horse ... and his tea ...
John Foreman's production of John Huston's "The Man Who Would Be King" stars Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer and Saeed Jaffrey. The Panavision Colour Film is produced by John Foreman and directed by John Huston from a screenplay by John Huston and Gladys Hill, based on Rudyard Kipling's classic story. James Arnett is Associate Producer and the Director of Photography is Oswald Morris. The Royal Service Company Production is for distribution by Columbia/Allied Artists and is made entirely on location in Morocco. The spectacular and colourful story tells of two tough, shrewd and inseparable ex-British Army sergeants who, in the 1880s, decide to make the hazardous journey from India, through Afghanistan, to the wild and primitive country of Kafiristan and there make their fortunes and set themselves up as kings ... | <urn:uuid:1029bda5-43c3-4780-a235-63cfd9be0e90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zipworld.com.au/~lnbdds/king/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974226 | 1,586 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Since 1981 Marcia Moen has taught philosophy at the University of Hartford, winning numerous teaching awards for courses ranging from Logic to Kant's Critiques to Sex, Selfhood and Society.
The syllabus in a current course in philosophy and literature, co-taught with a colleague from the English Department, pairs Plato with John Updike, and physicist Stephen Hawking with Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." "Marcia's teaching always illustrates the connections," a former student says.
There was the student Moen bailed out when a fender bender saddled him with a big repair bill. "She paid it in full," he recalls, "then put me to work doing yard work at her house to pay her back" - yard work that turned into long talk sessions about philosophy, literature and life. Moen's husband is also a philosophy professor, and their home serves as a haven for students looking for a home-cooked meal, a hard to find book or some good conversation.
Moen grew up in a North Dakota prairie town, and exudes a mix of the practical and the poetic. "Philosophers are analysts and builders, as well as dreamers," she insists. A philosophy professor's job involves challenging the easy relativism prevalent among today's students - a "who's to say?" attitude, she calls it - while helping differentiate between information, knowledge and wisdom. UHa students past and present speak of her with affection and awe. "Some teachers say, `my door is always open,'" one explains. "Marcia is different. Her brain is always open. She never stops giving what she knows. She never stops learning."
GREAT PROFESSORS OF CT | <urn:uuid:f36024d9-fd65-4fd2-9d6c-d058511d4430> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.courant.com/topic/hc-profs_moen.artaug25,0,4397914.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971162 | 347 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Nobel Peace laureate Jody Williams brings tough love to the dream of world peace, with her razor-sharp take on what "peace" really means, and a set of profound stories that zero in on the creative struggle -- and sacrifice -- of those who work…
Dr. Carol Rosin a former NASA scientist turned Disclosure Project witness shares very important information with us. Keep in mind this was back in 2001 before 9/11 back when it was only Oklahoma city and the '93 WTC bombing and they realized they were going to need something bigger...
Dr. Carol Rosin worked directly under Verner Von Braun, the NAZI V2 Rocket Scientist from Operation Paperclip. That's a pretty solid inside connection to a very serious source. I don't think she is… Continue
Added by SiNeh~ on October 21, 2010 at 11:47am —
Just exactly how Corporations treat people, especially those in the third world. In this feature length documentary, directors German Gutierrez and Carmen Garcia present a searing indictment of the Coca-Cola empire and its alleged kidnapping, torture and murder of union leaders trying to improve working conditions in Colombia, Guatemala and Turkey.
Since the colonization of America, a phenomenon was created called alarmism. It is practiced daily now through our media with a call for heightened emotions about anything. It grew from a simple form of alerting others to present danger to the psychosis that permeates our televisions, radio shows and the internet news outlets, chat rooms and web sites. This alarmism is deteriorating the very roots of all life as we know it. It can be used to… Continue
The End of the Oil Spill
Written by David Wilcock Friday, 16 July 2010 22:13
The oil spill has ended. Over a week before the cap was placed, I found out the problem would be stopped -- and am very glad my insider sources were correct! Here's the story you're not going to read about in the news...
INSIDER SOURCES REVEAL WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
In order to explain to you how this story came about, some background is… Continue
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An asphalt volcano is a rare type of submarine volcano (seamount) first discovered in 2003. Several examples have been found: first, along the coasts of America and Mexico, and, recently, all over the world; a few are still active. Resembling… Continue | <urn:uuid:3223c9a1-8266-4e7d-bd99-73d550aa873f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thegic.org/profiles/blog/list?user=0tj8w4aei6ecl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955845 | 497 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The digitization of libraries had a clear initial goal: to permit anyone to read the contents of collections anywhere and anytime. But universal access is only the beginning of what may happen to libraries and researchers in the digital age. Because machines as well as humans have access to the same online collections, a complex web of interactions is emerging. Digital libraries are now engaging in online relationships with other libraries, with scholars, and with software, often without the knowledge of those who maintain the libraries, and in unexpected ways. These digital relationships open new avenues for discovery, analysis, and collaboration.
Daniel J. Cohen is an Associate Professor at George Mason University and has been involved in the development of the Zotero extension for the Firefox browser that enables users to manage bibliographic data while doing online research. Zotero is one of many new tools that are attempting to add a social dimension to scholarly information on the Web, so this should be an interesting talk.
- Cohen, D.J. (2008). Creating scholarly tools and resources for the digital ecosystem: Building connections in the Zotero project. First Monday 13 (8)
- Hull, D., Pettifer, S., & Kell, D. (2008). Defrosting the Digital Library: Bibliographic Tools for the Next Generation Web PLoS Computational Biology, 4 (10) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000204 | <urn:uuid:c1222c9d-64e7-4c75-aca3-9b983fba7fe1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://duncan.hull.name/tag/george-mason-university/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90743 | 284 | 2.609375 | 3 |
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However what exactly are you trying to accomplish? Is water forming on the floor surrounding the fridge, or is it sweating on outside?
In the unit you have the drain for the evaporator which is behind the panel on the upper freezer compartment this is not a simple just open and clean. And its doubtful that its plugged.
A evaporator pan is located under the fridge. open up the door on bottom and there should be a long air grill exposed across the bottom from side to side. Most simply pull straight out as they are held on by pressure clips on each end. The grill simply pushes back on once your done.
Once the grill is off, there should be an exposed pan on the bottom, most for what ever reason are on the left side. Simply pull this pan out carefully and clean it. Running a vacuum will help a lot. As normally this is where all the dust, animal hair and things that go bump in the night end up. Once done replace the pan and replace the grill and you should be fine once again. Unless you dumped something within the box there should be no blockage on any interior drain.
If water is collecting on outside of fridge or leaking out then the heater for the fridge may have stopped working. Quite often when this happens the freezer tends to ice up a lot. | <urn:uuid:6dedee8a-006f-4967-8318-13813b2d5bf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hometalk.com/m1yu80zvv4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955131 | 294 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Predictably, I received some dissenting responses to my previous column on normalization and performance. Not only do they prove my point that there is logical-physical confusion among practitioners, but they also
I've been in the computer business for over 20 years and fully realize the fallacy in the idea that any database system and/or computer system can "guarantee correctness." It is beyond the function of any database system to guarantee correctness.That being said, the issue comes down to correcting errors in the database. Now we get to the down and dirty, the consequence of errors in the database and the complexity of finding and correcting consequential errors in the database.
In order to assess the validity of my claim it is important, of course, to define correctness in a database context. This I will do in this article. Next month I will demonstrate, by using an example and issuing a challenge, how prohibitive denormalization is from an integrity perspective.
My first article in this series concludes as follows:
DBMS and tool vendors, database professionals and users, desire accurate answers from databases. Yet the vast majority are unaware that, as Hugh Darwen states, a database is a set of axioms; the response to a query is a theorem; the process of deriving the theorem from the axioms is a proof; a proof is made by manipulating symbols according to agreed mathematical rules. The proof, of course, can only be as sound as the rules are. That makes the DBMS a deductive logic system: it derives new facts (query results) from a set of user asserted facts (the database). The derived assertions are true (query results are correct) only if (a) the initial assertions are true and (b) the derivation rules are logically sound. Neither are most practitioners aware that the truth of the initial assertions--the correctness of the database--must be ensured by the DBMS's integrity function, and the correctness of the derivations (query results) by its manipulation function, only if the design of both databases and DBMSs adheres to the sound and fundamental principles of logic.
Assertions of fact are propositions in logic; databases represent propositions about the real world. The representation must, of course, be correct. The correctness of a database consists, therefore, of two components:
- the truth of the propositions it represents in the real world (that is, they must, indeed, be facts)
- the consistency of row values (rows represent the propositions) with the business rules in effect
Obviously, no DBMS can know whether the propositions are true or not in the real world, which is, I think, what the above reader implies and what Chris Date means when he says that "a DBMS can and should enforce consistency, but can't enforce 100% correctness."
However, it should also be obvious that database values which violate any applicable business rule cannot possibly represent true propositions and, thus, a database containing such values is not correct. Business rules are represented in the database by integrity constraints. It follows that the least and the best a DBMS can do to guarantee database correctness is to enforce the integrity constraints declared to it. Date's consistency is, therefore, for all practical purposes, DBMS-enforced correctness. And it is in this sense that the theoretical foundation--predicate logic and set mathematics--underlying RDBMSs and relationally designed databases guarantees database correctness. Conversely, DBMSs and databases lacking a proper foundation in logic cannot guarantee such correctness (see Chapter 2 in my "Practical Issues in Database Management" book).
Stay tuned for Part II.
About the Author
Fabian Pascal has a national and international reputation as an independent database technology analyst, industry critic, consultant, author and lecturer. For more than 13 years he held various analytical, and management positions in the private and public sectors, was affiliated with Codd & Date, has taught and lectured at the business and academic levels, and advised vendor and user organizations on database technology and implementation. He is co-founder and editor of Database Debunkings, a web site dedicated to dispelling prevailing fallacies and misconceptions in the database industry, with C.J. Date as senior contributor. He has contributed extensively to most trade publications, and his third book, Practical Issues in Database Management--A Guide for the Thinking Practitioner, was recently published by Addison Wesley.
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This was first published in April 2001 | <urn:uuid:a96357e1-8511-4f86-b45a-3fc192543761> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/tip/What-you-dont-know-about-denormalization-can-hurt-you-Part-I | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928318 | 1,051 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Today’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 29:3 through 2 Chronicles 31:21
King Hezekiah did not waste a minute beginning the process of repairing and reopening the temple. In the very first month of the first year of his reign he summoned the priests and Levites to meet him at the courtyard east of the Temple (2 Chronicles 29:3-4).
Let’s get a picture of this in today’s world…let’s say you got a new CEO, administrator, or commanding officer at your job. What if he/she called a meeting of the managers or officers within his/her first week of being there and said:
“Listen to me you leaders, it’s time to clean house! You are an embarrassment to the founders of this organization. This is why our business is in the tank. I’ll be meeting with our board of directors today to lay out a plan to return to the company we once were. There will be no more slackers. You have been chosen to lead; now it’s time to lead, follow or get out-of-the-way!”
If you read 2 Chronicles 29:3-11, that’s “sort of” what Hezekiah told the priests and Levites. When he spoke his last sentence, they got right to work:
- They purified themselves (the first thing Hezekiah told them to do)
- Then they began to cleanse the Temple
- They were careful to follow all the Lord’s instructions
- They carted all the defiled things from the Temple to the Kidron Valley
Hezekiah must have put the fear of God in those priests and Levites; they completed the project in only sixteen days! As soon as they finished, they immediately went to King Hezekiah and gave him a full report—we cleansed the entire Temple of the Lord, the altar of burnt offerings and it’s utensils, and the table of the Bread of the Presence with all its utensils. They also recovered all the items discarded by King Ahaz when he was unfaithful and closed the Temple and they are now in the front of the altar of the Lord, purified and ready for use. (2 Chronicles 29:18-20)
What was the result of Hezekiah’s House Cleaning?
- The Temple of the Lord was restored to service.
- God’s hand was on the people in the land of Judah, giving them all one heart to obey the orders of the king and his officials, who were following the Word of the Lord.
- King Hezekiah prayed for the people; God listened to Hezekiah’s prayer and healed the people.
- There was great joy in the city for Jerusalem had not seen a celebration like this one since the days of Solomon.
As I read the account of Hezekiah’s passion to purify the priest and Levites and clean and restore the Temple I began to think about another temple…
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself… 1 Corinthians 6:19
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have our “temples” repaired and restored like the Temple of the Lord in Hezekiah’s day–To have our health restored, a new-found desire to follow the Word of the Lord with our whole heart, God hearing our prayers and restoring our bodies, minds, and spirits to the way He meant them to be, and sense of joy that we haven’t know for years…
Yes Lord! We want this!
But, (here’s that word again)
are we willing to do what Hezekiah did?
Dear Heavenly Father, forgive us for not keeping this temple, our bodies pure and clean. Holy Spirit, help us to understand at the heart level that our body, soul and spirit are where you live. We want to be pure for you. Speak to us loudly with your Fatherly conviction about the areas that aren’t pleasing to you. Jesus, help us to learn from “no hesitation” Hezekiah and clean our spiritual house–NOW! In Your Name we pray. Amen and Amen!
A “No Hesitation” Hezekiah wan-a-be!
© 2012 Dianne Guthmuller
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 25:1 through Proverbs 29:27 | <urn:uuid:f98ff44d-e86e-44b7-a448-1c191d17390a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dianneguthmuller.com/does-your-temple-need-a-cleaning-2-chronicles-293-11/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958593 | 961 | 1.703125 | 2 |
49:01 minutes (23.53 MB)
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“In fourteen hundred ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…” So, is it a day to celebrate?
The Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria brought Christopher Columbus and his fellow explorers from Spain to what he thought was India…it was actually the Bahamas.
Despite claims that he “discovered” this new land, the “New World” was in no way vacant.
For the native people living here, Columbus’ arrival was no day to celebrate…as Harvard historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote, "The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide."
Today, an exploration of the famous…and infamous explorer Christopher Columbus.
We’ll talk to teachers and hear about how they teach their students about this explorer… we’ll talk to one researcher who says Columbus was not a poor Italian peasant but a wealthy Portugese spy... with Polish roots - - and another scholar who has shown, through genetic testing, that Columbus and his men brought syphilis from the New World, back to Europe.
Join the conversation. Should this day be a national holiday? Should we be celebrating Christopher Columbus? | <urn:uuid:9411e371-b734-48a7-96da-b530353ae61d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cpbn.org/program/where-we-live/episode/wwl-columbus-revealed?mini=calendar/2013/02/all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951355 | 256 | 3.28125 | 3 |
We’re huge fans of the Arduino around here at GeekDad, so we’re particularly enthused about the “Arno.” What makes this kit stand out among the dozens of Arduino-based boards out there? Well, the Arno includes a dozen pre-wired devices such as LEDs, switches, and temperature sensor, and the Arno includes the best guidebook I’ve seen. If you are interested in getting started with embedded computing but is reluctant to mess with a soldering iron, this is the kit for you!
The guys at Olympia Circuits, the Makers behind the Arno, described their motivation for the board:
When Kevin and I started selling our own Arduino boards at Maker Faires, it became clear that there were still people (a LOT of people!) who just weren’t ready to go for it. This point was driven home when we put together an “Intro to Arduino” class at a local community college. Instead of attracting artists and hackers, the class filled up with retired engineers and electronics technicians. It was a great group of people, but it made us realize that there are still barriers to entering the Arduino world.
The Arno Kit is our answer to the problem of getting people over the “hump” and into the world of Arduino. We created the Arno board, a “beginner-kit-on-a-board,” and wrote a book that 1) covers the basics of electronics and programming, 2) explains how the circuits on the Arno board work, and 3) provides over 40 example sketches with explanations. With the Arno, we get rid of the bins of components, the jumper wires, and the solderless breadboard. The Arno is not a “shield” to be used with another Arduino board, rather it is a complete, functional Arduino board with the basic circuits from a beginner kit already built-in.
The Arno includes a dozen on-board components: 4 LEDs, 2 momentary switches, an RGB LED, a piezo buzzer, a phototransistor, an IR emitter, a thumbwheel potentiometer, and a temperature sensor. As mentioned above, these devices are pre-connected to the I/O lines of the Atmega 32U4, making them immediately ready for use. These elements provide everything a budding hardware hacker needs to master the basics of digital electronics, and enable the creation of some very interesting projects along the way. Continue Reading “Arno: The Best Darn Arduino Starter Kit Ever” » | <urn:uuid:5dc37d76-992f-453a-bad8-fb9c5ec2167b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wired.com/geekdad/tag/olympia-circits/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947405 | 536 | 2.25 | 2 |
Color Shading and Inserting Text to Profile VIs Visually
The NI Idea Exchange is a product feedback forum where NI R&D and users work together to submit ideas, collaborate on their development, and vote for the ones they like best. View all of the NI Idea Exchanges to post an idea or add your opinion on an existing one today!
What bugs me about the VI Profiling Tool is that it is not intuitive. The information it provides is really useful; however, it's so hidden and difficult to interpret that few people actually know where it is to use it. Let's say you are simply acquiring data using DAQmx and writing that data to a file, as below:
You might want to find out how to make this more efficient, but the only way you know is to insert Tick Count VIs and wrap your wires through sequence structures to do it. It's annoying, and there are other ideas from JackDunaway (here) and JohnMc19 (here) which aim to simplify the use of those VIs.
But why re-code your application when the VI Profiler can do it for you? In addition, the VI profiler has more timing information (longest, shortest, average, total, etc) as well of number of runs and memory allocation data.
Good news: VI Profiler makes getting the data easy.
Bad news: VI Profiler makes using the data difficult.
Why Using the Profiler is Difficult
First, you need to know it exists among a number of bland and condensed gray menus (Tools>>Profile>>Performance and Memory).
Next, you have to coordinate starting the profiler with starting your VI (start the Profiler, then start your VI, then stop your VI, then stop the Profiler).
Finally, you have to dig through a TON of VIs to find the ones that are relevant (I assume this is because, for polymorphic VIs, all of the instances are loaded into memory, even the dozens that aren't currently being used.)
When you find the VI you wish to examine, it will look something like this:
Have fun sorting through that! When I finally find a VI that's hogging memory or speed, I'd expect to click on it to navigate to that VI. NOPE! All the VI Profiler does is make the line bold. Not particularly easy to use...
I can't say if it's possible to get rid of VIs that aren't being used, or to make the menu option more visible to the user, but I do have an idea or two for how to make this information easier to understand in LabVIEW.
So here's what I suggest:
Adding a couple of check-boxes to the top of the VI Profiler will view in relation to your LabVIEW VI. Notice the extra check boxes in the top of this image.
One checkbox allows you to color the column you wish to highlight in your LabVIEW code. The other checkbox inserts a text comment containing the highlighted data straight into you LabVIEW code (right next to the sub VIs):
From the above picture, you can clearly see the Write to Spreadsheet File VI is the slowest to execute. Next in line are the Start DAQmx Task VI and then the Stop DAQmx Task VI. So if a developer wanted to find out how to make his loop run faster (and therefore increase the rate data is read from his PC RAM), he would know the VIs that are more red are the ones he needs to focus on first.
Also, if a user wants to highlight the memory usage, he could select a memory column from the VI Profiler.
Then the LabVIEW block diagram would look like this:
In this case, if a developer wants to find out how he can optimize his code for memory usage, he knows where to start.
Side-note: I think selecting multiple colors at a time (one for each column of data you wish to highlight) would be cool, but that would start to get messy on the block diagram.
Other data, like the number of runs, could highlight which sections of code are running more often than others.
If we integrate the VI profiler more effectively into LabVIEW, there are a lot of benefits:
1. Re-coding to find timing specs won't be necessary for Sub-VIs
2. Monitoring memory allocations much easier (some users don't know it's possible with LabVIEW).
3. When there's a problem, it's easier to understand which SubVIs are slowing down code or hogging their memory.
4. Developers can further code development WHILE being wary of inefficiencies.
5. More integrated development environment "feel" for new customers or the experienced G-coder. | <urn:uuid:62487de4-7375-443f-bf0f-e9d3d46d3068> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Color-Shading-and-Inserting-Text-to-Profile-VIs-Visually/idc-p/1288356 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940493 | 990 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Raising a "Good Sport"
It’s a competitive world out there, and whether your kids compete in athletics, music, or even academics, they will have to learn how to be “good sports.” Being a good sport doesn’t just mean knowing how to lose gracefully – although that’s a part of it too. It means doing your best, enjoying the competition, and appreciating the effort of everyone else in the game.
Raising a good sport starts at an early age, when you serve as a model of good competitive behavior for your kids. Show them how you have fun playing soccer whether you score a goal or not, and show them how you still have a good time even when you lose three games in a row at “Crazy 8’s.” Additionally, you can set up small “competitions” (“Let’s see who can pick up the most toys in the living room!”) and give them plenty of praise when you’re on the losing end (“You sure did a great job – next time I’m going to try to do it more like you!”).
Next, give them plenty of opportunities to experience the excitement of competition. Whether it’s your favorite NFL team playing in the Superbowl, or your neighborhood flag football game, let them enjoy having a team to root for. Then you can surprise them by appreciating – and even applauding for – great plays by the other team.
At a certain point, they’ll be old enough to get involved in competition themselves, and that’s when the real parenting challenge begins. That’s because you can have control over your own behavior – and to some extent your child’s – but you can’t control what the other kids or their parents might say or do. Plus, even though losing is part of the game, it can be disappointing and painful. Here are some tips to help your child through:
Keep the emphasis on fun: Whether your child is bounding off the field with joy, or dragging her feet in dejection, your first question should be, “Did you have fun playing out there?”
Focus on the effort: Praise him for the effort he made, as in, “I saw you really running fast to catch that ball.” If he is upset about having made a mistake, talk about it in terms of what he can work on for next time: “Maybe we should practice fielding some more pop flies – I’ll bet the more we do it, the better it will be next time.”
Keep the lines of communication open: Make sure you are on good terms with the coaches (please – no threatening) and make sure your child feels like she can talk to the coach too, so that she understands what is expected and what she needs to work on.
Insist on zero tolerance for taunting: This should be a league rule, or a team rule, but at the very least you should insist that your child does not engage in un-sportsmanlike taunting. If the other team is taunting, teach your player to ignore it or respond with a simple, “We don’t talk like that on our team.”
Eliminate private incentives: Just about every coach will beg you to refrain from dangling incentives, like money, for a scored goal or a win. It shifts the emphasis away from the joy of the game, and it discourages a team effort (i.e. your child is charging toward the goal and ignoring his teammates because he wants that $10 bill).
Check your ego: Tell yourself this over and over again if you need to: It’s not about you, it’s about your kid. It doesn’t matter if you were an All-American and your kid is struggling to make the junior varsity team. This is your kid’s experience to live, and he is an individual with his own set of talents and experiences.
Of course there may be some bad days along the way, but as long as your child can handle those disappointments and remain eager to return to the game, you will have a good competitor on your hands. And remember that the lessons he or she learns along the way will be invaluable for navigating just about any situation – in school, at home, at work, and throughout life as an adult. | <urn:uuid:17ca9275-881e-4611-8b02-4782d4b80475> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.justmommies.com/tweens-and-teens/fitness-and-sports/raising-good-sport | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970219 | 933 | 2.828125 | 3 |
I’ve been thinking recently about Grant Morrison’s “hypersigil” concept, but considering as not an occult/magical practice, but as as a cybernetic phenomena. [...]
The way I see it, the online persona, fictional self, or avatar one creates can create feedback loops to reinforce behaviors and perceptions and have a create significant “real world” changes in a person’s life over time.
In the case of Grant Morrison, he was also shaping his persona in the letters column of The Invisibles, in interviews he gave, and his public persona at comic conventions.
Read More: Technoccult | <urn:uuid:33b450d7-77ff-447d-8b10-8911bb4e08d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://disinfo.com/2010/02/hypersigils-reconsidered/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928116 | 135 | 1.640625 | 2 |