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A coiffed pooch mistaken for a lion's cub is causing quite an uproar in Virginia.
Charles the dog was frolicking down the streets in Norfolk, minding his own business, when panicked passers-by started calling 911.
"I'd like to report a lion sighting," a caller says.
"Say that again?" a dispatcher responds.
A few minutes later, another call came in.
"I just saw an animal that looked like a small lion," a man says. "Had the mane and everything ... I don't know if it got away from the zoo, or what."
And the flurry continued, including one resident who tells the dispatcher that the "baby lion" is the size of a Labrador retriever.
As soon as the calls trickled in, the Norfolk Police Department contacted the local zoo to ensure both its lions were caged and accounted for.
"We all looked at each other like, 'Could it be?'" Greg Bockheim, the Virginia Zoo executive director, told CNN affiliate WAVY.
Zoo workers scuttled to the lions' cages, he said, but the big cats were fast asleep.
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If you don’t have IT, work on IT
If you don’t have IT, work on IT
by Mark Hardesty, D.V.M.
The author is a partner in Maria Stein Animal Clinic, Maria Stein, Ohio.
She has the IT factor,” said the voice of the veterinarian who trained me to be a practitioner. Of course, I hold what he says in high regard, but I honestly didn’t know what he was talking about. I asked him to repeat it but still didn’t understand.
My initial thought was that it might be a TV show that I’ve never seen because I only watch the tube when I am really tired and then promptly fall asleep. Or maybe it was something hip that Wisconsin teenagers were using but hadn’t passed through Facebook to Ohio yet.
Our discussion was a reference for the young doctor we have now hired. Practitioner references are the most valuable as their evaluation is in an environment much like ours.
Months later, one of my daughters said, “Dad you just don’t get IT.” I had a moment of realization. If I did get IT, I would have the IT factor, in her world. This IT factor might be like beauty, where you know it when you see it, but it’s tough to describe. So, if you are an employer looking for the IT factor, also described as engaged employees with the right combination of knowledge, skill and attitude, how do we find or create it?
If you are a young person looking for entry into the industry or an experienced worker looking for advancement, how do you acquire and demonstrate that you have the IT factor?
Many in our dairy industry have given up having the IT factor and are just taking the easy path to a paycheck. Life can be so much better if you continue to strive for self improvement.
IT can be learned
As I write this on a journey to move our youngest daughter to college in Chicago, we have just finished the summer intern season.Our practice hosts about a dozen interns annually at various levels of their veterinary training. We do our best to give them the IT factor.
Most veterinary students are from suburban backgrounds and, while very bright, have limited exposure to the world of work. Undergraduate students are recommended to get real dairy farm experience.
We hope our veterinary students have dairy experience before the crowded four-year curriculum of vet school. Dairy experience and time spent in other practices contributes to an understanding of how a business works so they see what needs to be done and just do it.
Our interns ranged from those who were very accomplished and mature to those who were truly students. The mature seized opportunities and had already grasped the urgency and confidence that guides a doctor’s way of thinking. The students feared they would do things wrong and missed learning opportunities.
If you are going to learn and grow, you have to take risks. Every intern advanced in confidence, grabbing the chance to learn. Time will tell if they get IT. New graduate veterinarians will do what I do 90 percent of the time, work. They will not be managers or consultants. They will need the IT factor.
What is IT?
The first key to the IT factor is to have people like you. You are more likely to have people appreciate your smile than you are to impress them with your knowledge. Of course, you have to have knowledge, and the slowest way to get knowledge is to assume you already have it. A sense of humor results in people liking to be around you and, thus, listening to you.
The second key to the IT factor is doing what needs to be done and helping others. I like the Redwing work boot commercial that says, “Work is work, not talking about work or telling others to work, it is just plain old doing what needs to be done.”
The third key to the IT factor is organizational skills. This includes the ability to be where you are supposed to be, on time with the things you need to do your job. I hope nobody judges my IT factor in this category by looking at my desk because there are truly too many projects and too few hours.
There are tools to help us not forget things, and they work well when we use them. Discipline is needed to continue to work the system.
We have one dairyman who has one of the night milkers clean his desk every night. Anything left on it gets put in a box. This forces him to put things in files or throw them away. Develop a system that works for your style and job demands.
On the other hand, I’ll give up the clean desk for family or recreation time. Interns learned where things are in our trucks and saw that all doctors have similar styles of organization to be successful.
The fourth key to the IT factor is pride in your work; not just getting it done. We train our students that first priority is doing things right, and the second is to do them quickly. It may not make a big difference if every knot in a suture pattern is perfectly placed, but you can bet that the surgeon who does that also gets the important steps of the surgery correct.
We teach our young doctors to always turn the uterus over and look again before calling a cow open. Taking 10 more seconds to be right is the way we demonstrate pride in our work.
The fifth key to the IT factor is an attitude of continuous improvement. I know that I had classmates who firmly believed that everything they were taught was forever factual. They resisted further learning while others have voraciously sought new knowledge and done the research to create knowledge when it was unknown. We have a requirement for continuing education, but most of us seek it far beyond what is required.
Seeing IT in action
I found that my mentor was correct about our new hire having the IT factor. She showed continuous improvement in the way she took notes during our discussions in the truck, never assuming that knowledge was complete after vet school. I see her refer to those notes often, and experienced doctors have asked for a copy.
The other four keys to the IT factor were all demonstrated on a calving that I joined her on near the end of her three-month training period. She showed pride in her work as she tied the tail and scrubbed the rear of the cow.
She assessed the position and showed organizational skills as she described the calf presentation, “We have twins, the top and most advanced one is posterior presentation with the right leg retained at the hip. The bottom one is front presentation with the left leg retained at the knee.”
To this I replied, “Pull the one that makes sense.”
She said, “That would be the bottom one because the foreleg will be easier to extract.” After the first calf was delivered, it took some work to extract the retained rear limb. It was a struggle for me not to offer my assistance, but I had confidence because she did.
At one point during the hard work, she said, “I have the hock up and am pushing it forward. I do not yet have the foot curled under, but I will.”
And she did!
During the entire 40 minutes of the calving, our new doctor lightened the mood by comments that had me and the two herdsmen chuckling.
We want everybody we work with to have the IT factor. Do you have IT? Did you ever have IT? What would your co-workers say about the IT factor at your place?
This article appears on page 699 of the October 25, 2012 issue of Hoard's Dairyman.
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Attacked in a report by the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), The Food and Drug Administration does not know how many clinical trials are going on at any given time, how many sites are conducting them, and how many institutional review boards (IRBs) are overseeing them. According to this Government report just released, (Sept. 28) the FDA audited fewer than 1% of the testing sites and, according to the New York Times, when inspectors did appear, they generally showed up long after the tests had been completed. The FDA has 200 inspectors to police some 350,000 clinical testing sites, so it’s not surprising that that many of them audit sites only part time. Privately financed noncommercial trials have no federal oversight whatsoever.
The breathtaking shock is that cats and dogs get better protection as research subjects in the U.S. than human beings. Animal research centers have to register with the Government, must keep track of subject numbers, have unannounced spot inspections and take care of problems or face closing, none of which applies to human drug or medical device trials. Perhaps we should persuade PETA to join the HHS in exposing the FDA.
This Inspector General report assailing the FDA makes one wonder about the overall reliability of some studies coming out of thousands of medical facilities, many reported in respected peer-reviewed medical journals. The media, feeding off this literature, helps drive the public appetite for more and more medical news advertised as “scientific breakthroughs.”
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Posted on Sun, Oct. 02, 2011
last updated: October 04, 2011 12:24:06 PM
FRESNO, Calif. — Medical science has long known about the effects of nitrate contamination -- dizziness, upset stomach, shortness of breath, lung infections, diabetes, possible links to cancer and potentially fatal blue-baby syndrome.
But county and state health departments don't routinely track these problems, as they do Valley Fever, flu, tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus. The nitrate problems are more subtle, and they're not specifically listed among reportable diseases for California.
So there are no official answers when someone asks how many babies have died or how many people have gotten cancer linked to nitrate-laced water in Tulare County.
People who live in small towns with the tainted water say they've seen plenty of evidence that children suffer.
"I talk to a lot of people who have children with stomach aches and dizziness," said Maria Herrera, an outreach worker for the Visalia-based Community Water Center. "I grew up in small towns around here. People talk about it all the time."
Doctors began diagnosing blue-baby syndrome in the 1940s. They recognized that nitrates interfere with the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen. In babies, cells throughout their bodies are deprived of oxygen, giving their skin a bluish tint.
But the tint may not occur, or it may be too faint to see, especially in babies with darker skin. And often the other symptoms resemble more common stomach infections that cause diarrhea or vomiting. Medical experts say the disease probably often is misdiagnosed.
Nitrates are natural in humans -- they're in vegetables. The chemicals are essential to plant growth, but in excess, they can trigger stomach upsets.
Nitrates in well water come from rotting plants, fertilizers, sewage systems and runoff from animal wastes. They seep into underground water.
They're found in water all over the globe. In the Midwest, researchers estimated 40,000 infants were living in households getting well water that exceeded federal standards for nitrates.
In the San Joaquin Valley, nitrates are found in wells from Stockton to Bakersfield -- more than 20,000 square miles. One state study of private wells in Tulare County showed 70% had nitrate problems.
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Could chocolate dipped fruit lower your colon cancer risk? Does that basket of chocolate dipped strawberries you bought as a Valentine's present have the right balance of antioxidants and flavonoids to counteract tumor development?
In addition to regular colon cancer screenings (recommended every 10 years after the age of 50), people can lower their chances of developing cancer with a healthy lifestyle and diet. According to WebMD, fruits, vegetables and whole grains have long been considered key components of a colon cancer prevention diet, but based on recent reports, it seems as if chocolate should be added to the list as well. A study published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research found that the phytochemical compounds that are abundant in cocoa can inhibit tumor formation.
"Foods like cocoa, which is rich in polyphenols, seem to play an important role in protecting against disease," said María Ángeles Martín Arribas, lead author of the study and researcher at the Institute of Food Science and Technology and Nutrition (ICTAN).
Scientists from ICTAN fed rats a diet full of cocoa (12 percent) over the course of eight weeks before chemically inducing cancer. The rats that had been eating a fair amount of cocoa showed fewer cysts, less oxidative damage and higher antioxidant activity compared to other test groups. The research team concluded that the bioactive compounds in cocoa were able to block cell-proliferation pathways and therefore slow down cancerous growth.
Procyanidins, catechins and epicatechins are some of the most active flavonoids in cocoa, which offer numerous health benefits in addition to cancer prevention, such as stopping the development of cardiovascular diseases. The researchers note that the flavonoids in cocoa are better able to transfer their health boosting properties than their counterparts in other foods because they can safely reach the intestine where they can stop oxidants from causing damage.
If further study corroborates the theory that cocoa can effectively prevent colon cancer, the number of people affected by the disease may begin to decrease thanks to dietary changes. According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the third most prevalent cancer in the United States, not including skin cancers. In 2011, there were an estimated 141,210 new cases of colon and rectal cancer, according to the non-profit organization. The number of deaths due this disease has been on a steady decline for years, largely due to catching it early with the help of routine screening.
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To all those struggling with doubt and/or nonbelief, I would suggest Ebonmuse’s wonderful post. In efforts to bridge those in between, those who considers themselves “agnostic” (which, in essence, everybody is), and those who don’t know what to consider themselves.
This post isn’t for confirmed atheists, nor for confirmed theists. It’s not for people who’ve already made up their minds, one way or the other.
No, this post is for the seekers, the in-betweeners, the tormented doubters. It’s for the uncertain agnostics, people who aren’t certain what they believe; it’s for people who feel like they no longer belong in their church, but don’t know of an alternative; and it’s for people who are experiencing a full-blown crisis of faith and don’t know where to turn.
He offers various resources (i.e., why those ugly stereotypes are exception, not the rule) for those who stumble upon his post via web search:
I have no doubt that you’ve heard plenty of gloomy and frightening stereotypes about atheists, and I can assure you that they are not true. Atheism is not incompatible with morality, nor does it require hating religious people, nor does it mean a life lacking happiness or meaning. In fact, the journey to atheism can be a wonderful, exhilarating liberation, as many who’ve walked that road can tell. The only thing being an atheist means is that you don’t believe in any gods. In every other respect, you can live your life however you want and be the same person you have always been.
All in all, I’d say its a great attempt at bridging together those in doubt.
The word atheist is a scary, scary word to many people. It’s not always conscious. In college (freshman year, ’99-00), my awesome roommate, Jen, and I considered ourselves nothing. Not sure why we weren’t ready to take the full plunge. I surely didn’t consciously reject calling myself atheist, it just hadn’t dawned on me at the time. Oddly enough, one of our friends did call himself a atheist. To this day, I cannot understand where the disconnect was. Why could the word atheist apply to someone we generally agreed with on religion and god, but not us. Perhaps, we weren’t “ready” yet. Yet, it could also depend on perception and semantics.
Being raised in a reform Jewish household, the urge to leave religion wasn’t as strong. I was never indoctrinated to the unfortunate point many others have been. I was not scared about visions of fires and flames, nor was god a major part of our lives. My mom hated going to synagogue; she made my father take me on Yom Kippur once or twice. I attended a few Bar and Bat Mitzvah services that all the kids hated anyway. When my time came around (which is a newer invention because obviously women weren’t worthy…) a Rabbi said some blessings over me in front of the Wailing Wall in Israel — without me having to read Hebrew. (Score! The easy way!) I chose not to have a boring service, just a casual party (not the wedding-like extravaganzas fellow classmates did) with friends and some family later on (where I lived at the time, Miami). I guess I was always relatively rational.
It’s very hard for some to leave their strong religious ties behind. And its sometimes just as tough for those with minimal religion. I never fought with major inconsistencies in any testament. We understood (in my household) that they were not ultimately true, but stories. At least that’s what I thought. I always assumed as a young girl that people didn’t fully believe religious stories, but used them as niceties (i.e., heaven) and conversational points. To my chagrin, as I aged, boy did I learn that was not the case!
I can’t even recall the first time I heard of Jesus but it surely wasn’t until much later on. And that, in itself, made it difficult for me to come to terms with my nonbelief. I never thought of it in terms of believer and nonbeliever, but as familial traditions. I never thought of it in terms of pure good and pure evil. Or black and white anything. I was a spectrum-range kind of child, as I still am today. I see the broader areas in between which made it difficult to understand that I was never really a believer.
Essentially, I think reaching out to those who are unsure is an excellent idea. Aiding their journey into the vast arena of understanding what atheism actually means, why people are atheists, and who else feels the same way.
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Google, Microsoft woo higher ed with free online services
- — 01 August, 2008 09:19
You can think of it as "Schoogle."
That would be Google's laid-back but unflinchingly ambitious plan to woo college and university IT departments into outsourcing not just student e-mail but Web-based productivity applications and calendaring to the search giant.
And a growing number of schools are doing just that. Wednesday Google announced 13 new U.S. institutions had signed up for the free, and ad-free, cloud-based services, ranging from the Collin County Community College District, in Plano, Texas, to giants such as Kent State and Indiana University.
That brings the total number of Googlized institutions worldwide to about 2,000 since the Google Apps Education Edition program was announced almost two years ago. Google says there are now 1 million active users among their students and faculty. To promote the idea, Google also announced it's launching in September the "App to School" road trip, a 10-stop tour, aboard an "eco-friendly" bus, visiting schools from coast to coast to talk about Google applications and listen to what students have to say about them.
Google isn't alone courting both IT departments and, especially, students: Microsoft's presence, with its Microsoft Live online services, makes the courtship a battlefield. Outfitting students with Windows laptops is no longer enough to ensure their loyalty. To meet and hold a new generation that's living on the Web, both companies are turning to a new generation of Web applications. Microsoft just released a new Flash-based front end to Live.
The Web is less about the individual and more about a personal experience of participating in a group for work and play, says Jeff Keltner, business development manager for Google Apps Education Edition. "There is a personal experience, but it moves away from [being centered on] the one machine," Keltner says. "All I need today is an Internet connection and a Web browser."
Google's education outreach began with Arizona State University (ASU), which outsourced its entire e-mail operation for 65,000 students to Google's Gmail, giving users a range of services unavailable on the school's existing e-mail system, such as 6GB of storage, built-in chat, and search, without spam headaches or downtime. It saved ASU about US$400,000 per year in IT infrastructure costs, according to Adrian Sannier, ASU's University Technology Officer.
"Your [IT] people are saying, 'we can do it,'" Sannier told the opening day audience this week at the Campus Technology 2008 conference. "And they can. They can build pyramids, too." His voice rose dramatically. "But there's no money in it!"
The idea, he told his audience, is "to get someone else to do it. Someone really big."
Google and Microsoft offer a somewhat customized version of a Web portal with services. Both can create an extension to their respective e-mail domain with the school's name, for example, firstname.lastname@example.org, though for some customers there's no visible change. When students graduate, the school notifies Google or Microsoft, which then ends the student account, while offering the student the option to continue with either a free or paid "post-graduate" online service.
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During the past years, we have witnessed continued growth and expansion of our clinical, education, research, and service missions, working in coordination with the strategic goals of the University of Florida. Our department has been central to several of the top priorities for the university-wide strategic plan including, neurosciences, genetics, cancer, and children/family issues.
In education, the Department of Pediatrics at UF has attracted UF medical students to the field of pediatrics at twice the national rate. We have provided outstanding training to pediatric residents, whose average scores for board certification are more than 100 points above the national average.
In patient care, the Department of Pediatrics has established the Shands Children’s Hospital as a hospital within a hospital on the Shands UF campus. We have accomplished numerous clinical firsts, including being the first to perform pediatric heart and lung transplants in the state, the first to bring cutting edge nitric oxide therapy into use in respiratory failure, the first to transplant umbilical cord blood stem cells for patients with leukemia and primary immune deficiency.
In research, the Department of Pediatrics has increased its rate of nationally competitive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by tenfold over the past ten years, including research in areas as diverse as HIV/AIDS research, epilepsy and seizure prediction, gene therapy for heart failure and lung disease, genetic obesity syndromes, juvenile diabetes, prenatal and postnatal nutrition, and nerve cell tumors.
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Landlocked and mountainous, Afghanistan has suffered from such chronic instability and conflict during its modern history that its economy and infrastructure are in ruins, and many of its people are refugees.
Since the fall of the Taliban administration in 2001, adherents of the hard-line Islamic movement have re-grouped.
It is now a resurgent force, particularly in the south and east, and the government has struggled to extend its authority beyond the capital and to forge national unity.
Its strategic position sandwiched between the Middle East, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent along the ancient "Silk Route" means that Afghanistan has long been fought over - despite its rugged and forbidding terrain.Great Game
It was at the centre of the so-called "Great Game" in the 19th century when Imperial Russia and the British Empire in India vied for influence.
And it became a key Cold War battleground after thousands of Soviet troops intervened in 1979 to prop up a pro-communist regime, leading to a major confrontation that drew in the US and Afghanistan's neighbours.
But the outside world eventually lost interest after the withdrawal of Soviet forces, while the country's protracted civil war dragged on.
At a glance
- Afghanistan has been torn by conflict for decades
- Nato-led foreign combat troops are due to withdraw in 2014
- The Taliban - who were ousted by a US-led invasion - want to restore strict Islamic rule and have been making a comeback
Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
The emergence of the Taliban - originally a group of Islamic scholars - brought at least a measure of stability after nearly two decades of conflict.
But their extreme version of Islam attracted widespread criticism.
The Taliban - drawn from the largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns - were opposed by an alliance of factions drawn mainly from Afghanistan's other communities and based in the north.
In control of about 90% of Afghanistan until late 2001, the Taliban were recognised as the legitimate government by only three countries.
They were at loggerheads with the international community over the presence on their soil of Osama bin Laden, who ordered the bombing of US embassies in Africa in 1998 and the attacks in the US on 11 September 2001.
After the Taliban's refusal to hand over Bin Laden, the US initiated aerial attacks in October 2001, paving the way for opposition groups to drive them from power and heralding a long-term, Nato-led military presence.
Predictions of the Taliban's demise after the adoption of a new constitution in 2004 proved to be premature - the extremist group came back with a vengeance and violence increased.Military withdrawal
Amid a rising death toll and the increasing unpopularity of the conflict among Western voters, pressure grew for a withdrawal of foreign forces.
In 2012, the 11th year of the conflict, Nato backed plans to hand over combat duties to Afghan forces by mid-2013. Some 130,000 Nato-led combat troops will leave Afghanistan by December 2014.
The alliance says it is committed to a long-term strategic relationship with Afghanistan beyond that date. Foreign military trainers will stay on.
Meanwhile, tentative steps towards a negotiated peace agreement began in 2012, when the Taliban announced they had agreed to open an office in Dubai for talks with US officials. Pakistan agreed to cooperate with the process after talks in Britain in early 2013.Drugs trade
Afghanistan's economy depends heavily on the drugs trade. The country supplies over 90% of the world's opium, the raw ingredient of heroin.
International bodies and governments say the drugs trade is helping to fuel the Taliban insurgency, which is estimated to receive up to US$100m a year from the trade.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has called on Afghanistan to target the major traffickers and corrupt government officials, who it says operate with impunity.
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edictionary was featured in Linux Journal July '03 issue
Love the command line? Hate to switch to a browser to search the web for word meanings? Well, "edict" is the word you've been looking for. edictionary is a nifty li'l app which you can use as your dictionary. It will fit quite well into your command line intensive job and it's faster than your browser too! Give it a try.
edictionary can be used to view the meaning of English words. It can also provide related details like etymology, function, pronunciation etc. Adding support for other languages is not included, but is easy. It can grab the meaning of any word from the convenience of the command line. You can ask for meanings of multiple words at once. You can call edictionary from within your scripts. The full source code is also available. Modify it for fun or for something useful!
Caution: May help improve your GRE/GMAT english score ;-)
edictionary is as platform independent as Perl, because, you guessed it, it is written in Perl ;-). Thus, all you need is Perl installed on your machine, and of course, edictionary. FYI, Perl is a platform independent language. Interpreters are available for Linux, UNIX, Windows and many other platforms, easily. If you are running Linux or UNIX, chances are that you already have Perl installed on your machine.
Help on installing and using edict is available in the documentation section.
Dedicated to all those, whose mother tongue isn't English.
Copyright (c) 2002-2004, 2010, Vishal Verma
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Burning Storm Debris
As many especially those in rural areas of West Virginia continue to clean storm debris instead of having trees and limbs carted away, they are instead burning them. That has officials in Kanawha county concerned. The little bit of rain that happened over the weekend is still not enough to make it safe and precautions must taken when burning brush and debris. State officials lifted a burn ban on July 14 because of the recent rains and to give people in unincorporated areas a way to dispose of the debris. Officials say remember if a fire gets out of control, that person is responsible for any damages that may occur. Besides being a safety hazard, brush fires can spread pollution.
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The winners of the 2011 Sami Rohr prize, the largest monetary award for Jewish writing, have been announced. This year’s finalists — all novelists, in keeping with the Jewish Council’s tradition of considering fiction and non-fiction books in alternating years — will be honored at a ceremony in New York on May 31. Austin Ratner has won the $100,000 top prize for his debut novel “The Jump Artist,” the fictionalized story of Philippe Halsman, a Jewish photographer who was charged — by an anti-Semitic Austrian court — with the murder of his own father on a hike in the Alps. Read an excerpt from the book, a review, and blog posts by the author.
Joseph Skibell’s “A Curable Romantic,” a humorous exploration of evil that pairs an unsuspecting fictional Viennese ophthalmologist with historical figures like Sigmund Freud, is the 2011 runner-up and the recipient of a $25,000 prize. Read Laura Hodes’ review of the novel in the May 27 issue of the Forward.
Other 2011 finalists include:
Allison Amend, for “Stations West,” a multi-generational epic about the family Boggy Haurowitz, one of the first Jewish settlers of the American West. (Amend’s Haurowitz is based on the real-life Boggy Johnson, who settled in Oklahoma in 1859.) Often Jewish immigrant narratives are too centered on the East coast and this is a fluent response to the tendency. Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Lynna Williams called the novel “a precise rendering of lives lived on the emotional and physical margin in harshly unforgiving places and times. Its strengths are its use of language, and compelling stories of each successive generation in a family founded on necessity and sustained on cross-purposes.”
Nadia Kalman, for “The Cosmopolitans,” which is an account of a family from the Former Soviet Union as its members (most notably the three daughters) come to terms with living in Connecticut. While undoubtedly ambitious in scope and style, this was a deeply disappointing novel that failed to come close to achieving any of its apparent aims. Though deliberately disjointed, “The Cosmopolitans” tries too hard, for too little effect and is a rare misstep by the prize committee. After having chosen the excellent Sana Krasikov and Anya Ulinich in previous years it has picked an uncompelling account of Russian-Jewish Americans by an author literarily out of her depth.
Julie Orringer, for her debut novel “The Invisible Bridge,” a 600-page love story set against the backdrop of the Hungarian Shoah. Listen to a YidLit podcast with the author and a brief review that declares the novel a good beach read.
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The trash accumulating in the Pacific Ocean – scientists estimate there are 1.5 million tons of tsunami debris alone -- is arriving on the West Coast. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
By Miguel Almaguer, NBC News correspondent
LOS ANGELES -- The first wave has arrived. And now more and more tsunami debris is washing ashore on West Coast beaches seemingly every day.
From large docks, to a motorcycle, to boat buoys, states like Washington and Oregon are seeing most of the debris. But the hunt for larger masses of debris is underway, not on shore but instead deep into the Pacific.
NBC News was aboard the ORV Alguita , a southern California research vessel, as it departed Long Beach for one if its regular debris surveys. Within just a few minutes captain and researcher Charles Moore yelled out, “We have some plastic here!”
In his net he quickly collected a handful of confetti-size pellets, or what the captain calls “dangerous … and deadly” debris that can be swallowed by marine life, and are toxic to the environment. Unfortunately the find is fairly common offshore southern California. But what many are unaware of is the “virtual garbage dump” swirling around in the middle of the Pacific.
The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a floating pile of debris too large and scattered to accurately measure, has been growing for the past 40 years -- and now the tsunami debris is making it even bigger. There’s some debate on where it begins and ends, though researchers agree it’s hundreds and hundreds of miles off the West Coast.
Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Institute recently took NBC News on his vessel to hunt for debris. He discusses the dangers microplastics pose to marine life and ocean ecology.
As explained by Moore, the garbage patch is essentially “big chunks of trash that are floating out in the ocean” … so big, in fact , Moore adds they are “creating new kinds of habitat.” Scientists say the garbage patch is a landfill of ocean debris that’s come together in a vortex of currents. Everything from fishing nets, to plastic bottles, and household goods that have been dumped or washed away converge in a system of currents that meet in the middle of the Pacific. The vortex draws debris floating in ocean currents and pulls them together, lumping them together where they can float for years.
An estimated 1.5 million tons of tsunami debris is believed to be in the Pacific. And while experts believe most of it will sink or never make it to shore, a good portion could add to an enormous problem out of sight … but not out of mind.
- Who foots the bill for cleaning up Japan’s tsunami debris?
- Dock is largest tsunami debris to arrive from Japan
- VIDEO: Tons, literally tons of debris
- VIDEO: Japan basketball washes up in Alaska
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I have a child with special needs. The term “special needs” includes conditions of many different types and severities so we have to follow up in our conversations with lots of explanations…my six year old has Down Syndrome and is still non-verbal. Now you have a better picture of my situation.
So, when asked to write an article on how to adapt a physical education program for children with special needs, it is obviously a very hard task. There are too many variables. But perhaps I can offer some guidelines.
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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack touts the benefits of Ethanol E-85 at a gas station in Nashville, TN, on Monday, May 23, 2011.
Secretary Tom Vilsack recently joined a Round Table of regional stakeholders in Nashville to discuss ways that USDA can help rural fuel station owners and cooperatives increase the availability and use of flex-fuels. About eight million cars and trucks on the road in the U.S. today can use E85 fuel, but finding a station that can dispense renewable fuels can be a challenge. Read more »
Federal, state and local officials display a map that highlights the coverage areas in which expanded and improved broadband service will be offered. They include (from left) Tom Fern, State Director for Rural Development (Ky.), Trevor Bonnstetter, CEO of WK&T, RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein, Bobby Goode, State Director for Rural Development (Tenn.), and Jonathan Miller, Ky. Finance Cabinet Secretary.
USDA Rural Utilities Administrator Jonathan Adelstein visited Western Kentucky recently to announce the start of one of the largest broadband projects in the country. Read more »
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May 17, 2012
IOC officially rejects moment of silence for Munich 11
The International Olympic Committee officially rejected a request to hold a moment of silence for the Munich 11 at the London Olympics this summer.
The request to hold the moment of silence at the Opening Ceremonies was initiated by the families of the athletes. This summer will mark the 40th anniversary of the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches at the 1972 Munich Olympics by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. Israel has regularly requested a moment of silence for the Olympics every four years, and the IOC has consistently turned down that proposal.
“The IOC has officially paid tribute to the memory of the athletes on several occasions. Within the Olympic family, the memory of the victims of the terrible massacre in Munich in 1972 will never fade away,” IOC President Jacques Rogge wrote in a letter dated May 15.
The Jewish Community Center of Rockland County, N.Y., a member of the JCC Association, and Ankie Spitzer, the widow of Israeli fencing Coach Andrei Spitzer, initiated an online petition in mid-April seeking a moment of silence at the London Games that has garnered some 38,000 signatures from around the world.
“The 11 murdered athletes were members of the Olympic family; we feel they should be remembered within the framework of the Olympic Games,” Spitzer wrote in a letter accompanying the petition.
The Israel National Olympic Committee will hold its own memorial ceremony during the games, as it has at every Olympics. Rogge pledged that IOC representatives would attend the ceremony.
“Unfortunately, this response is unacceptable as it rejects the central principles of global fraternity on which the Olympic ideal is supposed to rest,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Thursday in a statement. “The terrorist murders of the Israeli athletes were not just an attack on people because of their nationality and religion; it was an attack on the Olympic Games and the international community. Thus it is necessary for the Olympic Games as a whole to commemorate this event in the open rather than only in a side event.”
Rogge’s letter was in response to an official request filed by Ayalon last month.
The American Jewish Committee on Thursday called on the IOC to reconsider its rejection. “The 40th anniversary of that tragedy is a perfect opportunity for the Olympics to properly honor the memory of those innocent Israelis,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris. “The IOC refusal to hold a moment of silence during the London games opening ceremony, which will be watched worldwide, is simply shameful.”
Reps. Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel, both New York Democrats, and the Anti-Defamation League had in recent weeks also called on the IOC in letters to approve the moment of silence.
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Getting Started With Mortar
Mortar is the fastest and easiest way to work with Pig and Python on Hadoop.
Mortar's platform is for everything from joining and cleansing large data sets to machine learning and building recommender systems.
Mortar makes it easy for developers and data scientists to do powerful work with Hadoop. The main advantages of Mortar are:
- Zero Setup Time: Mortar takes only minutes to set up (or no time at all on the web), and you can start running Pig jobs immediately. No need for painful installation or configuration.
- Powerful Tooling: Mortar provides a rich suite of tools to aid in Pig development, including the ability to Illustrate a script
before running it, and an extremely fast and free local development mode.
- Elastic Clusters: We spin up Hadoop clusters as you need them, so you don't have to predict your needs in advance, and you don't pay for machines you don't use.
- Solid Support: Whether the issue is in your script or in Hadoop, we'll help you figure out a solution.
Step 1: Web Projects
To get familiar with Mortar, start with our Web Project Tutorial. These tutorials will walk you
through the basics of using Pig and Mortar on the web, without needing to install anything on your local computer.
NOTE: Mortar is supported on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE (with Google Chrome Frame installed).
Step 2: Mortar Projects
Once you are comfortable on the web, check out the Mortar Project Tutorial to see how to get the
most out of using Mortar. Mortar Projects allow you to develop rapidly on your local machine, and then run on Hadoop in the cloud with a single
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December 2011 Community Award - San Jose Unified School District's Healthy Start Program
Each December, the Sharks Foundation hosts its "Holiday Assist Party" to brighten the holidays for families in need. It's by far our athletes' favorite Sharks Foundation event of the season. Susie Aldrich and Healthy Start has been instrumental in identifying these families and ensuring they are getting the resources they need to succeed. Their tireless work goes well beyond the "Holiday Assist Party" and they have proven to be an essential resource for the students of the SJUSD.
Please give us a brief history of Healthy Start.
The SJUSD Healthy Start program was established in 1993 and offers assistance to students and families in all 42 of our schools. The mission of Healthy Start Family Resource Center is to provide integrated and easily accessible health and social services to no/low income children and families in an effort to assist them with maximizing their potential in areas of health, education and family functioning.
Some of our critical programs include:
- Health insurance enrollment assistance to help ensure that all students in our district are covered under a health insurance plan
- School Based Medical Clinics in collaboration with Santa Clara County School Health Clinics
- Food program assistance in collaboration with Second Harvest Food Bank
- Uniform and school supply program for students/families that cannot afford to purchase their own
- Holiday Assistance Program for families experiencing difficult times
- Assistance for families experiencing homelessness
- Annual clothing drive/giveaway
- Health fair opportunities for our school sites
- Safe Routes to School opportunities
What does the Holiday Assist Party mean to the families involved and to your staff?
The Holiday Assist Program gives many of our families the opportunity to experience a night of ice-skating, dinner, gifts, etc…For many families, it's a night they will never forget. Through this program we have built strong relationships with the Sharks, our school sites/staff, students and families. The Holiday Assist Party has given Healthy Start the opportunity to identify and reach out to many of our families that are in need in ways beyond the holiday program.
What are your thoughts on the Sharks players' involvement in the community?
It is amazing to see the commitment the Sharks players have to their community and to helping families that are less fortunate. To attend the holiday assist party and see the players "in action" with the families is as rewarding as seeing the families and the happiness they are experiencing. We have often had players come back after the party wanting to do even more for the families. This is completely voluntary and to see how much they want to give back shows the true character of what community involvement means to the players.
How can Sharks fans support Healthy Start?
Times are very difficult for many of our families and their needs are beyond what any one organization can take care of. Sharks fans have always shown so much generosity through events such as the food and toys drives, fundraisers, etc... We are hopeful that in the future we can expand our relationship to involve some of the other programs that the Sharks currently offer, as well as the possibility of creating new ones that will assist families in the community. Examples might be: school supplies and backpack drives and physical activity programs for students.
Why do you think Healthy Start and the Sharks Foundation have a successful partnership?
Our partnership with the San Jose Sharks is successful due to our similar mission for the community. Both organizations place education, health, safety and character development as a high priority for working with the community.
We value our relationship and acknowledge how important it is for us to work together to provide for our community. We continuously strive to improve our community connections and this award helps to show that we are connecting with the community organizations in a positive manner to make a difference in the lives of others.
Since the time I have been involved with Healthy Start I have seen how the Sharks Foundation has evolved. The Sharks Foundation does so many great things for our community and we are happy to be involved with such an inspiring organization that has an incredible impact on our community.
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The Influence of Personality on Two Aspects of Cognitive Performance: Processing Speed, and Accuracy.
Recruitment status was Not yet recruiting
Recently, a lot of evidence for a relation between measures of cognitive performance and personality characteristics has been collected. The use of computer based latency measures is often used to study mental processes in cognitive, as well as, in personality research On the basis of these relationships we can ask a question that relates to the practical usefulness (validity) of processing speed, accuracy of performance and personality measures in predicting impulsive behavior.
|Official Title:||The Influence of Personality on Two Aspects of Cognitive Performance: Processing Speed, and Accuracy.|
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Research Group D-III-1 concentrates on the question, in which way space and spatiality is or can be a medium for the representation and gain in knowledge. Already the classical Greek notion diagramma has different interesting connotations, shimmering between geometrical figure, inscription, legal act, schema of tone sequence, and cartographic sketch. It comes as no surprise that numerous projects within Topoi are concerned with diagrammatical objects: with (real or imaginary) maps, notations and scripts (e.g. cuneiform scripts), charts, or drafts.
Spatial-schematic structures play a central role in ancient disciplines, such as geometry, architecture, astronomy, mechanics, painting, or medicine. In the history of knowledge and history of sciences diagrams, as representations of data or facts, which are based on the synthesis of grafic and letters, have been used in various ways and have become a indispensable instrument. Although there are studies on the historical aspects of diagrams, theoretical research on how spatiality, visuality and knowledge are linked in diagrams is due.
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Shelter Enterprises, a Cohoes company that makes building and packaging products out of materials similar to Styrofoam, has been open on a limited basis following a fire last month that destroyed it core manufacturing operations.
Owner Jeffory Myers said Monday that new manufacturing equipment should arrive within two days, allowing the company to be back up to 60 percent production.
He said about 16 of the company’s 40 employees have been back at work, and when the new equipment arrives, an additional five to six employees with be able to work again.
The manufacturing equipment that was destroyed makes the polystyrene foam that is later molded into a variety of products. When the fire struck, the company had raw materials and finished product in another building, so the company has still be able to fill some orders.
“The building that burned was the heart of the business,” Myers said.
Myers said his customers have remained loyal, and some have even decided to wait for their orders rather than switch competitor. In some cases, Myers has lined up alternative suppliers for customers most in need.
Myers estimated that the loss of manufacturing equipment alone cost him $1 million, and the total loss to the business is also in the millions of dollars. He said it was still unclear what caused the fire, which occurred when the plant was shut down for the night.
He said he didn’t know how quickly he would be able to get insurance proceeds.
“Insurance is going to be a difficult part of it,” Myers said.
Shelter Enterprises, which is located on Saratoga Street, has been in business for 37 years.
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Mexico ups swine flu screening as cases increase
MSN: Mexico's newspapers are warning of an alarming increase in swine flu for the first time since a pandemic shut down much of the country three years ago, while the government insists there's no need for another international scare.
Federal and state health officials agree there is an increase, but they say the number of cases is within the range of a normal flu season.
The Mexican health ministry, however, has listed confusing numbers on its website and it hasn't specified the rise in cases despite repeated requests from The Associated Press.
The federal education ministry said Wednesday that it was instituting screening measures in all elementary schools for the H1N1 flu strain, commonly called swine flu when the first outbreak was discovered in Mexico in March 2009. The ministry revised its message later to say screenings are in place only at schools where children exhibit symptoms.
Local media reported a handful of schools in Mexico City have closed. The education ministry said they were private schools shuttered by administrators and parents, not by official government action.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that while Mexico is seeing more cases of the H1N1 virus, the U.S. is seeing more case of a different strain, H3N2. Antibodies for both are part of this year's flu vaccine. H1N1 is now considered a seasonal flu.
"We are not aware of any unusual changes in the virus in Mexico that would be concerning," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said in an email to The Associated Press.
Advertise | AdChoices
Besides the contradicting statements about screenings at schools, the Mexican government has also put out conflicting statistics.
The health ministry on Sunday reported 637 cases of confirmed flu cases so far in 2012 along with 10 deaths — nine of them associated with 573 cases of H1N1.
On Jan. 15, it reported far lower numbers: 181 confirmed cases for all strains of flu and five deaths for 2012, meaning cases would have increased 250 percent in just one week.
The same health bulletin said that for all of last year, there were 870 cases of all strains of flu and 35 deaths.
The World Health Organization in 2009 declared swine flu the first global flu pandemic in 40 years after the outbreak of cases in Mexico that spring as the strain spread to other countries.
Mexican authorities closed restaurants, schools, museums, libraries and theaters to stop the spread of the disease as initial reports suggested it was killing as many as one in 15 of those infected — a horrifying death rate that would have been more than three times higher than the devastating flu pandemic of 1918-19.
Additional investigation in Mexico suggested that many people had suffered only mild illness. Those cases were not counted in initial reports, meaning the death rate was much, much lower than originally estimated.
By July 2010, the Mexican government reported nearly 76,000 cases of H1N1 and more than 1,300 deaths, the most recent accumulated statistics on its website.
The World Health Organizations estimates that flu causes 3 million to 5 million cases of severe illness worldwide every year, with about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths.
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- Vidimus - http://vidimus.org -
Stained Glass Workshops in York
Posted By ltempest On June 14, 2011 @ 8:21 pm In Issue 52,News | Comments Disabled
A new programme of workshops is planned for the Stained Glass Centre,
Church of St. Martin cum Gregory, Micklegate, York:
Stained glass cutting, painting and leading workshop
Saturday 16 July- Sunday 17 July 2011, 10.30am-4.30pm on each day
In this two-day workshop you will learn the techniques of cutting, painting and leading to create your own stained glass panel. In day one you will learn the basic techniques and paint your glass, which will be fired overnight ready for you to lead and finish on the second day.
Cost including all materials for the two days is £100.
Discover the secrets of Stained Glass making
Saturday 20 August 2011, 10.30am-4.30pm
Stained glass is not a lost art! You can learn the most basic techniques of this traditional craft in a one day workshop. With our expert tuition you will learn to cut coloured glass to shape, lead and solder the pieces and produce a simple but charming piece of stained glass to keep as a decorative item for your own home, or to give away as a unique gift to a friend or family member.
Cost including all materials for each day is £50.
Saturday 10 September 2011, 10.30am-1.00pm or 2.00-4.30pm
To coincide with Heritage Open Days, in these half day sessions you will learn the basics of copper foil techniques and make a decorative item using templates provided. You will practise basic glass cutting, foiling and soldering techniques to produce your own decorative item to take home.
Cost including materials for each session is £10.00
Tutor for all sessions is Ann Sotheran, who is a Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, with over 25 years’ experience of designing and making stained glass for many different situations. She has taught evening classes in stained glass for nearly twenty years as well as various workshops and taster sessions, covering all aspects of traditional stained glass work including glass painting and acid etching. She also teaches the copper foil technique of glass assembly. Examples of her work can be found on her website www.annsotheran.co.uk
Article printed from Vidimus: http://vidimus.org
URL to article: http://vidimus.org/blogs/news/stained-glass-workshops-in-york/
Copyright © 2011 Vidimus. All rights reserved.
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The hunt for the quark-gluon plasma, a state of matter that may have existed in the very early universe, is getting a little help from a common grid tool. During the current run of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory, the PHENIX nuclear physics experiment is using GridFTP to transfer data automatically between BNL and Vanderbilt University.
Mass spectrum of μ+μ- pairs in the PHENIX detector showing clear evidence of the J/Ψ resonance. Image Courtesy PHENIX Collaboration.
Physicists study the quark-gluon plasma and other nuclear physics phenomena by examining what happens when beams of nuclei collide in the center of the massive PHENIX detector. While identifying new states of matter requires a detailed analysis of years' worth of data, a partial analysis of each day's data gives experimenters insight into the health of the detector and of the beams, ensuring that they collect high-quality data. With PHENIX's computing resources at BNL busy analyzing previously collected data, such partial analyses must take place remotely.
"We've come to rely on these daily remote analyses for real-time data monitoring and quality assurance, and for the jump-start it gives us on our physics analysis," explains PHENIX spokesperson Bill Zajc. "Looking at the partial data sets sharpens our analysis tools, so that they are ready to be used on the full data set as soon as it is available."
The PHENIX collaboration first experimented with GridFTP in 2005, when 270 TB of data was
transferred from BNL to Japan for analysis. During the current RHIC run, they have turned
again to GridFTP to make use of available resources at Vanderbilt's Advanced Computing
Center for Research and Education. Twice a day, data are automatically transferred
from BNL to Vanderbilt, where they are automatically analyzed. The results are then
transferred back to BNL every 24 hours using GridFTP.
"The analysis we do is focused on the J/Ψ meson," explains Vanderbilt physics professor Charles Maguire. "We can tell a lot about how well the experiment is going by studying graphs of just that one particle. Measurements of the J/Ψ exploit all the technology of the PHENIX detector and use all the steps in the analysis chain." Experimenters at RHIC will be able to see if something is amiss in the PHENIX hardware or software that may not be obvious in the quicker checks that are performed at the experimental site.
Analysis of the J/Ψ is also interesting for the experiment's ultimate goal of discovering the quark-gluon plasma. A decrease in the number of observed J/Ψ mesons, and an increase in the amount of other types of particles, may be a signal for the new state of matter. That analysis will take many more months and much more data to complete, but will be helped along by the daily analyses taking place at Vanderbilt.
Learn more at the PHENIX Web site.
e-mail this article
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Sholapur Travel Guide, India
Sholapur is the capital of Sholapur district, in the South Western Maharashtra region of India. Like many major Indian cities, Sholapur is an amazing cultural melting pot. Kannada, Telugu and Marathi people cohabit the city, and have worked together peacefully to build a flourishing industrial city that still keeps in touch with its customs and traditions. Sholapur is famous for its cotton industry, and the locally produced bed-sheets, or chaddars, are known for their beautiful designs and quality. Sholapur is dotted with numerous temples and religious sites which have become important tourist attractions. The city is usually crowded with visitors, both tourists and pilgrims from other parts of India. Undeniably, Sholapur is a perfect example of India’s diversity and exoticness. This Sholapur Travel Guide will give you some useful practical information about this amazing city.
Sholapur Travel Guide - Transport
Sholapur is a transport hub for Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, three major districts. The city is therefore very well connected to other large cities in India. If you’re planning to travel by train, there are frequent and regular services that connect Sholapur to Bombay and Hyderabad. In fact, most trains heading towards the Southern regions of the country stop at Sholapur. Trains are the most popular means of transport in India, and no visit to this country would be complete without getting to know India’s rail transport. If you want to get a taste of the local culture at cheap prices, this Sholapur Travel Guide recommends that you travel by rail. Buses are other fairly good options, although perhaps somewhat less comfortable than trains. If you want to travel by plane, you can only get to Sholapur from Bombay, currently the only available connection. Once you’ve arrived in the city, the best way to get around is by bus, if you have to go longer distances. If you are simply doing some sightseeing, it is recommended that you walk, as local public transport can be quite crowded, especially at rush hours.
Sholapur Travel Guide - Accommodation
India is quite a popular destination with backpackers, mainly due to its low prices. There are many affordable hostels, and even surprisingly cheap hotels with rather good living conditions. However, keep in mind that some hotels don’t quite live up to quality standards despite their good rating. Hotel Pratham is only a few minutes from the railway station, and offers modern facilities and comfortable rooms. Srikamal International hotel offers friendly atmosphere and clean rooms. It is located quite close to the shopping district, and railway station. Hotel Poonam Lodge, located close to the Central City Gardens, has en-suite rooms and relatively good conditions and a good restaurant.
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California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Tuesday that would allow self-driving cars on roads there.
Brown signed the measure during a ceremony at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
"We are looking at science fiction becoming reality in a self-driving car," Brown said.
Tech giant Google Inc. and other organizations have been working to develop vehicles that use radar, video cameras and lasers to navigate roads and stay safe in traffic without human assistance. Google has said that computer-controlled cars eventually should drive more safely than humans.
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I 'maintain' a database for a live app. Bit of a black box as it was delivered ready built. All I did was create some tablespaces and datafiles for the dev team to run scripts in.
Its 8i Standard edition, by the way.
The SYSTEM tablespace was created with a datafile of SIZE 100Mb.
I've noticed that the datafile size is growing. The actual size of the SYSTEM data isn't - just the file size. Over the last few weeks the size of the SYSTEM data has remained constant at 52Mb - But the filesize itself has grown from 138Mb (when I first noticed) in Dec '02 to 191 Mb as of today.
select file_name, (bytes/1024/1024)
I can see the SYSTEM.dbf being 191 Mb in size.
So if the data isn't being added to (ie) no new objects being created, how can the filesize increase?
now my SYSTEM TBS shows as having 52Mb used. This should therefore be my data dictionary right? The datafile for this was originally 100Mb. I tried to resize the datafile (remember there's only 52Mb in there) and this happened:
4 RESIZE 100M
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-03297: file contains used data beyond requested RESIZE value
So what's happening? Has the DD been fragmented across more than 100 contigious Mb worth of blocks or what?
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Englandby Verney L Danvers
York LNER poster 1924.
Poster produced for the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) to promote rail travel to York, ?centre of a glorious holiday district?. The poster shows a view of a cobbled street with some historic, timer-fronted houses. Artwork by Verney L Danvers, who ran a school of commercial art and was commissioned to work for fashion and interior design companies. He designed posters for the LNER, Southern Railway (SR) and London Tranport.
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Satsumas at the San Antonio Botanical Center
For those of you who planted the Satsuma Tangarine Mandarin that we talked about earlier, you've got these beautiful orange turning fruit in your yard now. And believe it or not, of course these are getting ready or getting ripe, but so are these. These are already ready too, and they're green. Of course, a lot of people get confused about citrus and they think that it's got to be orange, I guess that's where they get the name orange. But a lot of times the sugar already develops in the orange before it turns the orange color. That's why a while back they used to try to put the orange dye on them to convince people that they were ready, even though the sugars are there. If you cut into them, as you can see I've cut into this one, and it's already orange and ready to eat, but yet the outside of it is still green, as you might see.
Now, this has been a good year for citrus in the Rio Grande Valley. We've got wonderful grapefruit down there, and we're just waiting for it to turn. Oranges and citrus turn colors, just about like the leaves on the trees do, they need a little cool weather to make them really get an orange color, even though the sweetness is there. Now these will turn oranger and will turn sweeter as the cool temperatures of the fall occur. So you can leave them on and they will get sweeter and oranger as the temperature progresses.
So don't worry, because you can go ahead and eat some of your Satsumas if they're already ready. One guy told me they make the best whiskey sours you ever put in your mouth. So the oranges are ready even though they're green.
This is Jerry Parsons, Vegetable Specialist for the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, the Weekend Gardener.
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You can also download this video directly.
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HORACE WHITE PARK
Horace White Park with its rolling hills and gazebo was once the public square for the original village, purchased in 1837 by an agent of the New England Emigrating Company, Dr. Horace White. The park was named after White and his son who was a journalist, economist, and author. Horace White was an avid participant in the Civil War helping to bring slavery to an end.
The park has limestone paths that predate the park’s establishment in 1836. These paths, which extend into the Beloit College campus, were part of the Native American system of trade routes. The first cemetery was also located in Horace White Park, but was later moved to Oakwood Cemetery.
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Recommendations for College Students with Learning Disabilities and/or ADHD
1. Inform your academic advisor about your disability. Your advisor will be better able to help you if aware of your particular needs. You should plan a carefully balanced course schedule so that you’re not overloaded with courses requiring heavy reading, large amounts of memorization or extensive writing. It is better to do well with fewer classes than poorly with too many; consider taking 12 credits versus 15 per semester.
2. To the extent that you can, choose small, structured classes with professors who use multi-sensory methods of instruction (e.g., seeing, hearing and doing), provide a detailed syllabus, present information in an organized manner, and use various ways to evaluate student performance.
3. Register with Disability Support Services (DSS). The office offers an array of accommodations and services to assist students with documented disabilities. Even if you choose not to use accommodations immediately, it is advisable to register with DSS to ensure timely provision of services should you need them later.
4. Be knowledgeable about your disability and comfortable describing it so you can advocate effectively for yourself with your professors. DSS can help you with this if needed. Be sure to inform your professors of your needs early in the semester so they can accommodate you appropriately. A memorandum from DSS is needed to request accommodations.
5. Organize your learning materials and establish a set time and place to study. Estimate ahead of time how long a given class assignment will take. Generally plan on at least two hours of study time outside of class for every hour in class. Study more difficult subjects when your energy levels are highest. Build in study breaks; fatigue is a big time waster.
6. Use a calendar for planning rather than trying to keep a schedule in your head. Keep a monthly calendar with semester assignments, quizzes, exams, and special occasions, such as holidays. Then fill out a weekly calendar with slots for each hour that includes all your classes, tutoring appointments, work schedule, study time, etc. From the weekly calendar, draw up a daily calendar with a list of things to do each day.
7. Attend all of your classes, take notes and participate in class discussions. This will get you involved, and if your professor gives credit for participation, it can bring up your grade if you have trouble with tests.
8. Sit toward the front of the classroom to minimize distractions and help you focus on the professor.
9. If you have questions about course material or trouble structuring an assignment do not hesitate to talk with your professors, preferably during their scheduled office hours. It is important to seek help as soon as you need it so you do not fall behind.
10. If you don’t understand, ask your professor to rephrase the information rather than merely repeating it. Also ask for examples or applications of the material.
11. Preview lecture topics prior to class discussion. Using the course syllabus, look over the assigned textbook chapter headings, familiarize yourself with new vocabulary and preview the information to be covered before the class lecture. This will provide you with a frame of reference to help you understand and remember information later presented in class.
12. Keep up with reading assignments and use reading strategies that promote comprehension and efficiency. Such strategies include previewing new material by looking over the section headings and reading the end-of-chapter summaries and questions, highlighting important text information, and relating new material to what you already know about the subject to help you remember it.
13. Attend all review sessions offered by your professors. If you learn well by studying with others, join or start a study group to discuss and review material for your courses. You can share notes, ask each other questions, and work out problems as a group.
14. Index cards are good aids for memorization of terms and facts. Use them like flash cards, writing the key word on the front of the card and the definition or fact on the back. After you have learned them, return to them later to review for tests.
15. Use resources available on campus if you have trouble with the content of a course. Both the Academic Achievement Center and Writing Lab provide tutoring support. It is important to seek help early in the semester rather than waiting until you are having serious difficulty in a course.
16. Make an appointment to talk with a counselor if you’re experiencing trouble with emotions such as anxiety and depression, which can interfere with your academic success. The Counseling Center provides a variety of services, including individual, group and career counseling to help students resolve problems. Help is also available to improve attention, organization and time management skills.
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Rural banking targets women farmers
Savings and credit organisations are widely established across Africa, encouraging people to save and providing small loans to those who do. But in Uganda, The Hunger Project, an international organisation, is supporting women-led savings and credit groups to set up rural banks. Six such banks have been recognised by the government, and these banks are now empowering women to improve their food security and fight hunger. Wambi Michael visits a rural bank in Wakiso, some 30 kilometres from Kampala, meeting the bank manager Rose Nanyonga and customer Dorothy Kabajungu. He also hears from Daisy Owomugasho, country director of The Hunger Project in Uganda.
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| The Department of Human Services is dedicated to ensure that all individual have access to quality services that protect and enhance the community’s physical, mental and social well-being. This Human Services department gives information and delivers services in the areas of health, community services, aged care and public housing. If one has the motivation to work for his or her community the Human services are the right option. In almost all areas of Human services, there is a focus on helping others find safety, health or success within their own lives. The Human Services jobs are vital and valid, which requires a lot of commitment and motivation. For self-described ” persons” Online programs on Human Services are ideal, because job duties revolve around the development of personal and professional relationships with others- whether children, adults or seniors.
Those working in Human service have specialized training whether earned through school, Online Degrees or as a helping professional. One can hold a variety of positions, whether in residential care, correctional facilities, homeless shelters and food banks, substance abuse programs, organizations dedicated to children and families, poverty and employment services, child and elder care operations, mental health agencies and domestic violence efforts. Your role may include helping others, obtain services, monitoring and keeping records, organizing or leading group activities, assisting clients in mastering everyday living skills and modeling healthy behaviors for residents or clients. The possibilities and opportunities are endless.
It is paraprofessional, meaning not clinical or medical. Common positions, such as childcare workers, activities coordinators and in-home staff, don’t require years of extensive education. Generally paraprofessionals are part of a team that includes professional social workers, psychiatrists or doctors. The job titles and duties vary greatly. Every job in this service is valuable to an individual’s level of help or care. Despite the rewards and perks, there are real challenges for those taking up this field. When you enter the field, there is significant pressure on you to develop appropriate boundaries with those you help.
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Viridity Energy, the energy startup that is linking smart buildings, batteries, trains and other devices to the smart grid in an attempt to build “virtual power plants” for U.S. customers, has raised $15 million from a strategic Japanese conglomerate investor and big green investor Mitsui & Co. This trans-Pacific partnership has been seen as an opportunity to open up both markets.
In January 2011, the startup received a Series C round of investment at $14 million on top of a previous $10 million. The startup has also received other state grants and investments in millions of dollars to bring the total funding to about $40 million with early investors being Braemar Energy Ventures and Intel (News - Alert) Capital. Mitsui has been offered a seat in the board and hopes to see its investment internalize its “Smart Green Information Technology” business line.
This line of business includes smart grid IT services, the development of renewable energy and carbon dioxide mitigation. Mitsui is particularly interested in Viridity’s V-Power platform and hopes to develop businesses based on that capability for both domestic and international markets that includes dynamic load management and energy storage integration for various industry sectors.
Viridity’s V-Power platform verifies load reduction and market demand response and grid power sales. According to Viridity, its software can also interface with building and energy management systems to help fine tune power loads to use less electricity when prices are high. So far, it is balancing and playing into power markets in Pennsylvania campus micro-grids and involved in several projects that link batteries to the grid to cushion customers during peak price times as well as a way to sell power back to the grid.
Mitsui, on the other, is working across the green industries spectrum investing in next-gen technologies. It has joined partners like Toshiba (News - Alert), Hitachi and Accenture to build Smart City Projects across Japan in the wake of the Fukushima disaster and the resulting nationwide nuclear power shutdown.
Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.
Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.
Edited by Rachel Ramsey
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On the radio this morning a journalist from the New York Times confidently asserted that Greece would soon leave the Euro and issue Drachma. Both the new Drachma and the resulting Euro were both likely to plunge as a result and therefore it’s a good time to book an August vacation to Greece (meanwhile German vacationers are avoiding Greece in droves, no doubt wary of an unwelcome reception). While the journalist’s confident forecast of a Greek exit may be right, her analysis of subsequent market reaction (unburdened as it is by the requirement to invest other people’s savings in a commensurate fashion) is subject to the interpretation of the markets. However things turn out, one can be reasonably assured that a Greek exit isn’t going to surprise many people.
For some time we’ve felt that a short Euro represented an attractive hedge on long equity market risk. Most of the bad things that could derail equities would either start in the EU or hurt the EU harder (such as an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, a concern earlier this year). But now that the focus has moved back to Europe, and we are once again contemplating the previously unthinkable, we think there’s less protection in such a position. The Euro isn’t a good investment, but its current price is more likely an accurate reflection of the balance of risks and as such doesn’t provide much of a hedge any more.
Every time we approach what seems to be a fork in the road, a third option seemingly appears. Such is the case now, with the apparently binary option between Eurobonds and no Eurobonds now joined by a European Redemption Fund, a sort of halfway house between today’s single-issuer bonds and Eurobonds jointly and severally guaranteed by Eurozone members.
But another thought occurred to me. What’s to stop the Greek government from paying its bills with IOUs rather than Euros? It may in any case be an unavoidable choice if lenders refuse to provide additional cash to allow the Greek government to continue operating. The IOU would promise payment in the future (say, 3 years) at whatever is the prevailing currency as determined by the Greek government. These IOUs would presumably trade at a discount, but over time as more of them went into circulation they could start to function as an alternative currency. Not an immediate replacement for the Euro, but a parallel currency that could represent a softer alternative to the shock of a Euro exit. These IOUs might ultimately become New Drachma. No doubt there would be many technical challenges with such a move, but given the large part of Greek GDP represented by the government before long these IOUs could represent a substantial part of the Greek economy. Such a path might offer a more measured form of exit and devaluation, preferable to the chaos of an immediate exit. Countries in the past have operated with two currencies, although typically the US$ has taken hold following a loss of confidence in the local currency. California has even issued IOUs when its disfunctional government has failed to approve a budget.
New Drachma IOUs reverses the sequence, but might offer a less time-pressured solution to the current crisis.
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BEIJING: China on Saturday welcomed the naming of Lakhdar Brahimi as the new international envoy for the conflict in Syria, vowing support and cooperation for his mission after he replaced Kofi Annan.
"China will support and cooperate positively with Mr Brahimi's efforts at political mediation," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Beijing, a traditional Damascus ally, differs with the West on how to handle the conflict in Syria, and along with Moscow has vetoed Security Council resolutions on the issue, putting it at odds with Washington and London.
China described Brahimi, an Algerian, as a man with "rich diplomatic experience and the right person to take the position".
It said it hoped he "could stick to the direction of solving Syrian issues politically" and seek "a peaceful, fair and proper settlement", as well as a ceasefire among all parties to end the violence "as soon as possible".
The United Nations named Brahimi to the sensitive post on Friday, with efforts to end the fighting in the Middle Eastern country unsuccessful so far, partly due to the differences among UN Security Council permanent members.
Beijing has repeatedly called for political dialogue and efforts by the UN to resolve the crisis.
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Hitch a Ride With FISH
FISH has been providing transportation for Concordians for almost four decades.
FISH of Concord was founded about 40 years ago as a partial response to a study of Concord’s Unmet Needs that pointed to a lack of transportation locally for those unable to drive themselves. FISH provides rides to and from medical-related appointments, but is not restricted to this type of need, for residents of Concord and occasionally Carlisle. This service is provided primarily within Concord but includes driving to medical offices in nearby communities such as Acton and Lincoln. It does not go into Boston or Cambridge.
Age is not a factor in FISH services. FISH is happy to provide rides to people of any age who, by reason of illness or injury, are unable to drive, but it does not give rides to unaccompanied minors. FISH service is for those who are able to walk, albeit with a cane or a walker, and get in and out of a passenger car. This is for the safety of both clients and drivers.
FISH does not charge for its services. The Concord Carlisle Community Chest provides financial support for the answering service, phone bill, and printing and mailing costs of the schedule. FISH volunteers receive no compensation. Drivers use their own cars and gas. Phone volunteers connect with the answering service but arrange requests for rides. In the course of a year, FISH receives around 400 requests from about 100 people and is able to respond to most of them.
FISH volunteers typically donate one day a month for service although several do more. FISH always needs new volunteers, anyone interested in volunteering should call the FISH number 978-369-2244 and they will be contacted by a FISH volunteer.
Jean Hull and Joanne Mente are in charge of the schedule and send it to 30 people each month. Ellen Bush is the coordinator for drivers and Paula Loynd coordinates the phone volunteers. Jean said they need drivers and phone volunteers and added: “It is very rewarding.”
To volunteer call Louise Haldeman, president, at 369-8562. To request a ride please call the FISH number, 978-369-2244. Many of the volunteers have been in FISH since it started 40 years ago, which illustrates the pleasure volunteering affords.
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Herodotus on Melampus
This chapter takes the two stories that Herodotus tells about the mythical seer, Melampus. It explains how his treatment combines his heritage of inquiry, poetry, and storytelling, and in the process creates new myth. Herodotus displays his historical inquiry in the passage in which he has Melampus introduce the rites of Dionysus into Greece from Egypt, but also creates or develops the pattern of story in which the ‘culture hero’ introduces new customs into Greece. He develops the use of Melampus by the poets as an exemplum in his account of the battle of Plataea, where in order to enhance the greatness of that battle, he compares the request of the seer Tisamenos for Spartan citizenship as a reward for his service in the battle to Melampus' request for Argive kingship as a reward for curing their women; but he also patterns his story according to the traditional motif of the bargain, bringing Melampus into the world of the storyteller.
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
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Magnitogorsk (məgnyēˌtəgôrskˈ) [key], city (1990 pop. 440,000), SW Siberian Russia, on the slopes of Mt. Magnitnaya in the S Urals, on the Ural River. Built (1929–31) under the first Five-Year Plan on the site of iron deposits, the city became a symbol of Soviet industrial growth. Coking coal for steel production comes from the Kuznetsk and Qaraghandy basins; there are also numerous coke and chemical plants. Magnitogorsk was a leading steel manufacturer during World War II, and though it is still a major metallurgical center, steel production has declined sharply.
See S. Kotkin, Steeltown, USSR (1992).
More on Magnitogorsk from Infoplease:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: CIS and Baltic Political Geography
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Study shows that frequent meals can lower cholesterol
Is it possible that eating more frequently can lower your cholesterol?
A study published in the British Medical Journal found that people who ate six small meals each day had an average cholesterol level that was five percent lower than those who ate only one or two big meals each day. The study, conducted at the University of Cambridge, found that eating more frequently also lowered levels of artery-clogging LDL cholesterol.
Researchers aren't exactly sure why their cholesterol was lower, but eating throughout the day may put you at a metabolic advantage, keeping energy sustained throughout the day and avoiding large blood sugar fluctuations. Here is an example:
- 7:30 a.m: 1cup cooked oatmeal topped with ground flaxseed, fresh blueberries, and skim milk, black coffee
- 10 a.m: 6 ounces of non-fat yogurt topped with a tablespoon of walnuts, water
- 12:30 p.m: Spinach salad topped with carrots, radishes, onion, cucumber and light tuna (packed in water), 2 Tbsp light vinaigrette dressing, six whole-wheat crackers and an apple, unsweetened iced tea
- 3 p.m: One cup of raw vegetables dipped in ¼ cup hummus, water
- 6 p.m: Three ounces of grilled chicken breast, 2 cups steamed broccoli drizzled with olive oil, a cup of brown rice and a bowl of berries for dessert
- 8 p.m: 3 cups of light microwave or air popped popcorn
To help you begin eating small, frequent meals/snacks throughout the day, consider these pointers:
- Always start the day off with a high-fiber breakfast.
- Spread your calories evenly among meals and snacks throughout the day. Don't let more than 4 hours go between meals and snacks (unless you're asleep).
- Keep in mind that the most successful cholesterol-lowering strategies are to moderate total fat intake, cut back on high saturated fat foods (like marbled meats, butter, cheese, baked goods and fast foods), eliminate trans fats (from foods containing partially hydrogenated oils) and substitute these foods with mono- and polyunsaturated fats (canola, olive and other vegetable oils, nuts and seeds).
- Portion control is key! Small, frequent meals mean just that – small, controlled portions.
- Choose fresh fruits, vegetables, raw nuts, or low-fat dairy foods (e.g., yogurt, cottage cheese) for portable, healthy snacks.
- Drink plenty of water throughout the day.
- Avoid snacking late in the evening; hold off snacking at least 3 hours before going to bed.
If you currently eat only one or two meals each day and find yourself skipping breakfast or lunch, start by adding small quantities of healthful foods during these meal times. Stock up on quick and healthy snack items so that you can grab them and go. Even the smallest changes in your meal pattern can have a positive impact on your weight and cholesterol.
For more information on a heart-healthy diet plan, please contact the Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation Program at 216.444.9353 (or toll-free at 800.223.2273, extension 49353) and we can schedule a nutrition consultation - or - use our Remote Cardiac Nutrition Counseling Services.
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our friend James would like to stop biting his nails. A therapist suggests applying a topical ointment that will make nail biting an unpleasant experience, in a way, punishing James for his behavior. ...
... The therapist is using a _______________ perspective. (Points : 1)
(See complete conversation and new answers below)
There are no new answers.
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See updated Fact Sheet
“We must use what has been called smart power: the full range of tools at our disposal – diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural – picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation.”
— Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
The Obama Administration recognizes that the United States and the world face great perils and urgent foreign policy challenges including ongoing wars and regional conflicts, the global economic crisis, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, climate change, worldwide poverty, food insecurity, and pandemic disease.
Military force may sometimes be necessary to protect our people and our interests. But diplomacy and development will be equally important in creating conditions for a peaceful, stable and prosperous world. That is the essence of smart power – using all the tools at our disposal.
Smart power requires reaching out to both friends and adversaries, bolstering old alliances and forging new ones. Even if we disagree with some governments, America shares a bond of common humanity with the people of every nation, and we will work to invest in that common humanity.
Foreign Policy Goals
Agility and Interdependence
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will pursue a foreign policy agenda powered by partnership, principles and pragmatism. Cooperating and collaborating with other nations and organizations, the State Department will work to design and implement global and regional solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.
Development and Human Rights as Integral
More than two billion people worldwide live on less than two dollars a day, and many suffer daily violations of their dignity and human rights. Economic and social development and the promotion of human rights worldwide, especially for women and girls, remain essential to U.S. foreign policy.
Foreign Policy Tools
The State Department will be disciplined in evaluating foreign policy choices; weighing the costs and consequences of our action or inaction; gauging the probability of success; and insisting on measurable results.
The American Spirit
American democracy continues to inspire people worldwide, and U.S. influence is greatest when we live up to our own ideals. The Obama Administration aims to make the United States an exemplar of our own values.
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Trouble is brewing for New Zealand’s dairy industry, and its aftermath could mar the country's reputation for quality milk and impact its role as one of the world’s largest dairy exporters.
The problems arose earlier this week after the country’s officials announced that tests have picked up trace amounts of residue of dicyandiamide (DCD) in milk. According to The Wall Street Journal, DCD is applied by dairy producers to pastures to prevent nitrate emissions. Read more from The Wall Street Journal.
In the wake of the discovery, two of the country’s largest fertilizer companies have suspended sales of the product while officials investigate the residue further. No international standards for DCD residue levels in milk or other food products exist, and it is only toxic to humans in large doses.
However, not having an official standard doesn’t mean that the international community won’t respond.
"In most cases, their standards are absolutely silent on this,” spokesman Todd Muller told Radio New Zealand News. “So. technically, you could be in breach of those standards should the DCD be even in very small traces in milk."
The U.S. and New Zealand dairy industries have long been rivals in the dairy export market, and the current situation may be enough to tip the scales a little bit more in favor of the U.S.
Even before the DCD residue discovery, U.S. Dairy Export Council Vice President of Communications Alan Levitt felt optimistic that the record-high U.S. dairy exports achieved last year can be maintained. Read more here.
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Indianapolis To Replace Non-Police Vehicle Fleet With EVs and PHEVs
The city of Indianapolis, home of the world famous 103-year-old Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has announced plans to migrate a large swath of its vehicle fleet to electric (EV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles.
Mayor Greg Ballard signed an executive order Wednesday mandating the city to purchase PHEVs or EVs for the non-police vehicle fleet. Plans call for the entire city fleet to electric or plug-in hybrid by 2025.
The city says the order makes Indianapolis the first municipality in the country to require the purchase of alternative fuel vehicles for the city’s non-police fleet. Central Indiana currently has more than 200 charging stations according to a statement by the city.
Mayor Ballard said the city wants to help the country reduce its dependence on foreign oil.
“The United States’ current transportation energy model, driven by oil, exacts an enormous cost financially and in terms of strategic leverage,” Ballard said in a statement. “Our oil dependence in some cases places the fruits of our labor into the hands of dictators united against the people of the United States.”
Approximately 500 non-police fleet cars will be replaced as needed, said the city, saving taxpayers approximately $12,000 per vehicle over the ten-year life cycle of each car. The city is currently working with Energy Systems Network and finance experts to convert the city’s heavy fleet, including snowplows, trash trucks and fire vehicles to compressed natural gas (CNG).
Indianapolis is seeking to partner with one or more automakers to develop a plug-in hybrid police vehicle that meets the safety, power, electronic and range needs of a modern urban police force.
According to Indianapolis officials, if a plug-in hybrid electric car could achieve 40 mpg and meet the needs of police officers, city taxpayers would save up to $10 million per year. Current city police vehicles average 10 mpg, said the city.
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FCC Broadband Plan Pushes Ambitious Agenda for U.S. Education
- By Dian Schaffhauser
After almost a year of development that included holding 36 public workshops in person and online and reading through 23,000 public comments, the Federal Communications Commission has released its national broadband plan with a formal report to Congress. Calling high-speed Internet access "indispensable for the 21st century, the foundation for our economy, the foundation for our democracy in the digital age," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski declared the plan "ambitious but achievable."
The 376-page document, titled, "Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan," laid out ways that the federal government can design policies to encourage competition in the broadband ecosystem, encompassing network services, devices, applications, and content; ensure the efficient allocation and use of government owned or influenced assets, such as spectrum and the physical components such as rooftops and rights-of-way used for deployment of networks; create incentives for universal availability and adoption of broadband; and update policies and standards in government entities such as public education to maximize usage of broadband capacity.
About half of the plan's recommendations are addressed to the FCC, while the remainder is for Congress, the executive branch, and state and local government, working with the private and nonprofit sectors.
The FCC recommended Congressional creation of a Connect America Fund to provision affordable broadband and voice with a minimum of 4 Mbps download speeds and to shift up to $15.5 billion from the Universal Service Fund to support the initiative. The Committee also encouraged Congress to ease the transition and expedite the effort by funding a "few billion dollars per year over the next two or three years."
As reported on THEJournal.com last week, the plan devotes major coverage to the impact of broadband in the education sector.
Proclaiming that "the 21st century workplace requires both a better-educated and a differently educated work force," the plan laid out 25 recommendations in areas such as improving online learning, making data more transparent, and modernizing the educational broadband infrastructure. For example, one goal laid out by the plan is to ensure that every community in America has affordable access to at least one gigabit per second (Gbps) broadband service to anchor institutions, including schools, hospitals, and government buildings. The plan recommended that the United States Department of Education consider investment in open source and public domain software alongside of commercial programs and that accreditation organizations allow students in K-12 and post-secondary education to take more courses for credit online and permit more online instruction across state lines.
Many of the recommendations address FCC requirements related to E-Rate, the FCC program that funds discounts on telecommunications equipment for schools and libraries, including the removal of barriers to off-hours community use of E-Rate funded resources and a streamlining of the application process.
Although the FCC plan encouraged additional funding by Congress to connect all public community colleges with high-speed broadband, it didn't propose an expansion of E-Rate to cover them alongside K-12, as was reported by THEJournal.com last week. Currently, according to the FCC, only 16 percent of public community colleges currently have broadband equal to or greater than 90 Mbps, equivalent to what's found in 90 percent of American research universities.
Response among K-12 and higher education organizations has been generally favorable.
Both National LambdaRail and Internet2, consortiums that offer broadband connectivity between member institutions, expressed approval of the FCC's efforts to advance broadband through community anchor institutions, which the two organizations count at 200,000.
"At NLR we've seen based on our own experience how state, regional, and national networks can collaborate to create a seamless, national broadband platform that has helped produce a quantum leap in research and education productivity," said Glenn Ricart, National LambdaRail president and CEO. "We applaud the FCC for recognizing that equipping our community anchor institutions with one-gigabit or higher connectivity to each other and to state and national resources will similarly enable our schools, libraries, healthcare providers, and other community-based organizations to be more productive and to deliver an enhanced array of services."
"The research and education community has for close to a decade promoted the use of advanced networks ... by providing state education networks access to nationwide research and education networks--creating, in essence, a 'National Education Grid,'" added Carol Willis, manager of the Texas Education Telecommunications Network (TETN), and Kim Owen, advanced applications coordinator for North Dakota State University and the North Dakota Statewide Technology Access for Government and Education network, in a joint statement. "A unified community anchor network that builds on this success represents an opportunity to not only reach many more community anchor institutions in the US but also expand the diverse collaborative community of K-20 innovators and expertise developed by our national initiative and others."
ACUTA, the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education, said it envisions a network of institutions feeding broadband out to the communities where they're located. But it won't happen, the organization suggested, without federal funding support. "Funding has always been a stumbling block for those who would provide universal affordable broadband access," ACUTA said in a statement. "The National Broadband Plan ... is an important first step that paves the way for the FCC and Congress to invest in community anchor institutions, which are uniquely positioned to maximize the return on this vital investment."
The 2,000-member ACUTA said it believes its approach of a "unified community anchor network," or UCAN, would provide a number of benefits, such as:
- Providing broadband connections efficiently by aggregating demand and sharing capacity;
- Creating jobs and generating economic growth by supporting the construction of additional broadband capacity;
- Enabling community anchor institutions to better meet the needs of people who will benefit most from public access to broadband, such as students, low-income consumers, job seekers, and rural healthcare facilities; and
- Providing for a means to connect to national backbone networks such as Internet2 and National LambdaRail.
"A Unified Community Anchor Network (UCAN) would be a major step forward in providing high-speed Internet access to the students, researchers, and faculty at our medium-sized public university," said Wendell Barbour, chairman of ACUTA's Legislative/Regulatory Affairs Committee and dean of the library at Longwood University in Farmville, VA. "High-speed access through the UCAN would help Longwood University and other institutions like ours reach out to provide vital educational and information services to the populations we serve, supporting economic development and job growth in our region."
The organization plans to hold a Webinar March 30 to discuss the plan among its 750 member institutions.
The Education and Libraries Networks Coalition (EdLiNC) said it is "delighted" with the FCC's calls to lift the current annual funding cap of E-Rate up from $2.25 billion to account for inflation. But the coalition of the major national public and private K-12 education associations, such as the Consortium for School Networking, also warned against expanding E-Rate to address needs outside of K-12 public and private schools and public libraries.
"Given the E-Rate program's current inability to meet existing demand, EdLiNC cannot support extending program eligibility to support new services, however meritorious," the organization said in a statement. "EdLiNC also cautions against making even a portion of the program's funds available on a competitive basis, as eligibility has always been determined based on need. The members of EdLiNC firmly believe that the program must be able to serve the needs of its intended beneficiaries adequately ... before extending or expanding support." The statement didn't specify what expansion, in particular, was of greatest concern.
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LETTERTO THE EDITOR
Published: Monday, November 19, 2012
Updated: Monday, November 19, 2012 13:11
To the Editor:
BBC News reported in July of 2001 that it had become possible for a woman to have a child with just two eggs--no sperm was necessary. So, I guess there is a societal power on (the natural) earth that can give two women the ability to produce children. More generally, I would ask if you believe that if a married man became infertile, he should divorce his wife? If the answer is “no” than you have introduced a spectrum of morality beyond your black-and-white paradigm.
This would make, I believe, something like same-sex marriage “morally permissible.” I believe one could argue that you can tolerate something that is morally permissible. In general, I believe Benjamin’s notion of good and evil is a bit askew. I would put forth a better dichotomy, where “good” is defined as that which is manifestly advantageous (and giving people the right to marry, adopt and contribute to the economy seems advantageous), and “bad” is defined as that which is manifestly disadvantageous.
This would involve a more practical spectrum that wouldn’t depend on transcendental knowledge of purpose and end. Instead, we could say that a cold is bad, but not evil--which is weird to say. I encourage people persuaded by Benjamin’s argument to consider this difference between the practicality good and bad vs. good and evil.
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Four French tourists have been kidnapped by armed tribesmen in Yemen.
They were reportedly abducted while travelling in a tourist convoy in the south-eastern Shabwa province.
A local official said the abduction had been carried out by tribesmen who wanted to press the government to release relatives from prison.
It is the latest such abduction. Most victims are usually released unharmed, but President Ali Abdullah Saleh has promised to crack down on the problem.
An official at the French embassy in Yemen told the Associated Press news agency that they were in touch with the Yemeni authorities and hoped to resolve the issue soon.
"We received a phone call from one of the hostages and he told us they were being treated well and were healthy, physically and mentally," deputy chief of mission Denis Douveneau said.
History of kidnappings
Local officials said the tourists were abducted by members of the Abdullah tribe.
The same clan kidnapped a former German diplomat along with his wife and three children last year but released them unharmed after three days.
Earlier reports had suggested that two of the four kidnapped tourists were German, but French authorities later confirmed all were French.
Hundreds of tourists and expatriates have been kidnapped in Yemen in the last decade by tribesmen demanding a better standard of living or the release of relatives in prison.
Although most come to no harm, several were killed in 2000 when the Yemeni armed forces attempted to rescue them in a botched raid.
In January, five Italians held in captivity for less than a week were released after their captors were cornered by security forces in northern Yemen.
At least two convicted kidnappers have been executed in the country this year as a deterrent against the practice.
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These are great tips...I agree with that. Apart from preparing all the documents you will need, you also have to prepare your health by taking all prescribed vaccines...Volunteer jobs abroad may not be financially satisfying but undergoing so can add up to your credentials.
Volunteers provide valuable services to organizations and charities around the world. Without the manpower of these individuals, there wouldn’t be enough time in the day to do an enormous amount of good in other countries. With this in mind, volunteers are highly revered for the work that they do and rightfully so. Behind every successful charitable effort is a group of volunteers that help make it happen.
If you’re considering volunteering abroad this year, there are some things that you’ll want to do in advance to help you prepare for your trip:
First Do Your Research
It’s important to know the terms and conditions you’ll be agreeing to when you volunteer abroad. Know the group or organization that you’re working with. Also, take the time to get to know the area of the globe you’ll be traveling to. Read up about its crime rate, its acceptance of foreigners, its cost of living, and its availability to resources that you’re used to having. Being prepared will help ease homesickness and make your volunteer work abroad go more smoothly.
Obtain the Proper Travel Documents You Need While Abroad
You’ll need to organize travel documents in an easy-to-carry pouch or wallet and keep your visas, passports, and other documents that you need to travel to the country you’re volunteering in. Keep a photocopy set (or two) in the luggage you’re carrying for safekeeping.
Make Certain to Pack Correctly for the Area’s Climate
No matter where your destination is, some of my advice on packing correctly is universal. Choose a durable and easy-to-transport container for your clothing. A large backpack or a secure suitcase, depending on your accommodations, should hold enough, well packed, to sustain you wardrobe-wise during your stay abroad.
Stay away from expensive or flashy luggage that might attract the attention of thieves. Natural fabrics will travel better and last longer, although cotton will wrinkle, if not carefully packed, to the point of being unworkable. Wrap these items by folding then tightly rolling them. Remember why you are traveling to your location and pack the clothing that will work best at your volunteer job.
Book Your Flight
Many of the groups that you will volunteer with will pay all or most of your travel, visa, and vaccines. Since you entering into this experience to help groups that may not be able to help you with your expenses (or, you may want to help them by not adding a price tag to your volunteer service) you may need to pay for these items on your own. Fundraisers like bake sales and silent auctions are great ways to build up the cash you will need to fund your trip. You may also apply for a travel scholarship if you are currently pursuing a degree. If non of these work you can you can always search for cheap airfare. It could be worth work after all you could look at this as more of a Volunteer Vacation.
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Filed Under: Travel
About the Author: Charissa Arsaoui is a freelance writer with a love for thrift. You can read about her adventures by visiting her blog, Confessions of a Closet Coupon Clipper.
That’s really nice. I would like to travel abroad too. To travel or to do volunteer work, whatever. As long as I get to go to a new country, experience new culture, eat weird and new foods.
Great tips. Make sure to study the native culture, read about their customs, traditions, beliefs, politics, land, economy... any and everything. Be informed, be positive, be thankful, respectful and open. Volunteering abroad can be an extremely rewarding experience and travel opportunity.
I know someone who has volunteered to teach in Cambodia. She will be teaching children in elementary school and she’s going this May. I think it’s awesome. Plus, that country is a must place to visit. Amazing culture and history. Hope I can go there too, to volunteer or to travel. Oh, good tips by the way.
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Search The Library's Lexicon
The mutual or successive relationship to the same rights of property.PRIVITY OF CONTRACT. The relation which subsists between two contracting parties.
From the nature of the covenant entered into by him, a lessee has both privity of contract and of estate; and though by an assignment of his lease he may destroy his privity of estate, still the privity of contract remains, and he is liable on his covenant notwithstanding the assignment.PRIVITY OF ESTATE. The relation which subsists between a landlord and his tenant.
It is a general rule that a termor cannot transfer the tenancy or privity of estate between himself and his landlord, without the latter's consent: an assignee, who comes in only in privity of estate, is liable only while he continues to be legal assignee; that is, while in possession under the assignment.
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The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA for short, went into effect in 1994. After it’d been passed, Mexico tried to export their avocados to the U.S. and the U.S. government resisted. The government claimed that fruit flies would enter with the avocados and destroy California crops.
The Mexican government invited USDA inspectors to come to Mexico and check for themselves, but the U.S. government declined. So, the Mexican government countered with offering to only sell their avocados to the northeastern U.S. states in the winter, because fruit flies can’t withstand that level of cold.
The U.S. government drew back again, but ended up complying when Mexico started setting up barriers for purchasing U.S. corn. Today, Mexican avocados are allowed in all 50 U.S. states, only because USDA inspectors eventually did go down and check millions of fruit and found no problems. Today, Chile, Peru, and Mexico import avocados to the U.S.
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Emanuel plan calls for longer school days, adds 10 days to CPS calendar
April 10, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Bowing to pressure from parents and teachers, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Tuesday his modified plan for a longer school day in Chicago Public Schools.
Instead of 7.5 hours for elementary schools, students would be in class for 7 hours. That is still a significant increase over the current 5 hours, 45 minutes of instruction time. The president of the teachers union said Tuesday's announcement is a step in the right direction but wants more from the mayor.
The bottom line on Tuesday's announcement: After the additional days scheduled for the 2012-13 school year, 1 hour and 15 minutes added to each day, will amount to eight weeks more instruction time next year in Chicago Public Schools as compared to this year.
The mayor sounded like a winner in his eleven-month-long effort to increase the amount of time Chicago public elementary school students spend in the classroom.
"We are gonna go from 170 days to 180 days...From 5 hours and 45 minutes to 7 hours," Emanuel said. "That comes to 40 additional days of instruction."
But the teachers' union president noted that Emanuel backed off his original plan to increase the school day to 7.5 hours.
"Today the Mayor moved his toe a half an inch from the starting line," said Karen Lewis, CTU Local 1 president. "He needs to do more. He needs to listen with both ears."
On Monday, parent organizations questioned whether a longer day in the current format used by the cash-strapped CPS would be an improvement.
"What's happening right now in our schools is not good enough. So doing more of the same is not going to change the outcome," said Lewis.
But CEO J.C. Brizard expects the longer school day will mean higher standardized test scores and more college-ready CPS students.
"It's about making sure that when kids are in high school they can get an ACT score that will prepare them for college or a career," said Brizard.
Before his news conference, the mayor toured a classroom at the Disney II Magnet School on the North Side. It has used extended classroom hours since 2008.
"We absolutely maximize our time with the students to maximize their academic, social and emotional growth," said teacher Adrienne Garrison.
"We're gonna raise the floor for everybody," said Mayor Emanuel. "We gotta make sure that everybody has a chance, just like the kids at Disney."
But the CTU's Lewis says CPS -- only five months from the fall semester -- still has not determined what it will teach during the additional 1 hour and 15 minutes a day.
"There's still no plan," Lewis said. "This was never a plan. This is a political slogan. We need to be extraordinarily clear about what that means. Nothing."
Under the changes, Chicago public high schools will have a 7.5-hour day and teachers would be given an additional 75 minutes a week to prepare their lessons.
The mayor is putting a lot on the line here. The extra instruction will have to show results, test-score-wise, in a relatively short period of time.
chicago public schools, jean-claude brizard, rahm emanuel, local, charles thomas
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TAKUO “TAK” MIYAGISHIMA REMEMBERED
Panavision Mourns the Loss of One of the First Employees
August 8, 2011, Woodland Hills, Calif. — On Thursday, August 4, Panavision lost one of its most valued employees, Tak Miyagishima, Sr. Vice President, Engineering.
“Tak’s technical and professional accomplishments are well documented, but equally important was his quiet and thoughtful leadership. The knowledge and instruction he shared with his colleagues will be a lasting legacy, and Tak will always be remembered and admired within Panavision,” said John Suh, President and CEO, Panavision.
Tak was one of the first employees hired in 1955 by Robert Gottschalk, founder of Panavision. From 1955-2011, Tak was involved in the design of many Panavision products that changed the way motion pictures were made, and most notably for the design of the Panavision optics which gained worldwide recognition during his tenure. Tak’s legacy is permanently imprinted on the company as the designer of the famous Panavision logo.
Originally hired as a draftsman, Tak quickly became the lead mechanical designer for Panavision’s growing line of optics. Tak’s first project was the mechanical design of the Super Panatar projection lens (1955), which allowed theatre owners to project multiple widescreen formats. Together with Walter Wallin, he designed the Micro Panatar Printing Lens (1955) used by film laboratories to produce film release prints from the numerous negative formats in use at that time. Following that was the 65mm Ultra and Super Panavision camera systems, including both studio and hand-held cameras and accompanying lenses. Again with Wallin, he oversaw the design and development of the Panavision Panatar anamorphic lenses (1958) (widescreen photography). In 1960, Tak was instrumental in the design of the famous “Lawrence of Arabia” telephoto lens (the “mirage” lens) which captured the iconic shot of Omar Sharif emerging from the desert. In 1967, he was involved in the design of the blimp housing for the 35mm Mitchell camera, which became known as the Panavision Silent Reflex Camera (PSR).
For the next several decades, Tak focused his attention on the development of Panavision optics, which included several series of 35mm spherical and anamorphic lenses, culminating in the mechanical design of the ground-breaking Primo lens series. Tak’s involvement in technological advancement included all facets of Panavision’s engineering and development process. His contributions were instrumental in setting many SMPTE standards, including the standard for 35mm 3-perf capture, which has been used by the television industry since the mid-1980s. Even though the majority of Tak’s career was during the film era, he continued to be actively involved as Panavision transitioned from film into digital capture. “Tak was probably best known professionally for his numerous contributions to the development of the widescreen cinema. What is less well-known are his myriad contributions to the development of electronic cinematography that continued until his final illness. We have lost a valued colleague and a wonderful friend,” said John Galt, Senior Vice President, Panavision Advanced Digital Imaging.
During his long history at Panavision, Tak was a member of many organizations including the American Society of Cinematographers, SMPTE, the Academy’s Science and Technology Committee and the International Standards Organization (ISO). Tak also became one of the first three Academy Science Fellows, which is a new designation from the Academy for technologists who are retired but still have knowledge to share with the industry. In July, Tak was given a copy of his oral history, of which the only other two copies reside in the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library and at the Pickford.
Tak has been presented with multiple awards over the course of his career, including a Fuji Gold Medal, an Emmy statuette and the ASC’s President Award (received with Al Mayer, Sr., Panavision). In 1999, he received the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation from the Academy, and in 2004 he was awarded the highest honor from the Academy, an Oscar statuette, the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, which is given to a select group of people for their contributions the industry.
As someone who was here at the birth of the company, Tak’s influence and Panavision’s iconic rise is only surpassed by the respect he earned during his career from his peers and fellow employees. “Tak was a mentor to generations, myself included. One of Tak’s greatest attributes was his willingness and eagerness to share his vast accumulation of knowledge he acquired over five decades in this industry,” said Dave Kenig, long-term employee and friend.
Phil Radin, Executive VP, Worldwide Marketing, added, “Tak was one of those rare individuals whose life made such a positive impact on many different levels. He was a supportive and loving husband, raised wonderful children, and had a vast and meaningful impact on the industry he chose to work in. He also had a long and fruitful life. His Panavision family will miss him terribly. Tak was a unique and wonderful individual.”
Tak was an extremely devoted family man and a cherished friend. He is survived by his wife, three sons and three grandsons.
About the company
Founded in 1954, Panavision Inc. is a leading designer and manufacturer of high-precision camera systems, comprised of film and digital cameras, lenses and accessories for the motion picture and television industries. Panavision systems are rented through its domestic and international owned and operated facilities and distributor network. Panavision also supplies lighting, grip and crane equipment for use by motion picture and television productions.
For more information contact:
Worldwide Marketing Communications
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--or at least how I see itComedian and actor, Tracy Morgan
I believe in free speech, with that said if you choose to take that freedom and stick your foot in your mouth-well then that's on you.
Funnyman and "30 Rock" star Tracy Morgan has done exactly that by going on a public diatribe about gays.
According to Hollywood Gossip, the "30 Rock" star was performing at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on June 3 when he allegedly told the sold-out crowd, "Gays need to quit being pussies and not be whining about something as insignificant as bullying."
Okay forget the double negative-but really pussies about bullying? C'mon Tracy, you're killing me.
He later suggested that being gay was something kids "learn from the media and programming," and said he would stab his own son if he ever talked to him "in a gay voice."
What exactly is a gay voice? Is there a certain pitch or tone that signals one is gay and if so what are those levels? But more importantly, someone needs to call Child Protective Services on his ass for that last comment. Really? Stab your own son for speaking "in a gay voice."
I really hate it when people at their top of their game slip up and screw it all up over nothing.
There's no law that says that Tracy Morgan has to like gays, in fact I don't really care if he likes gay people or not. But it's one thing to not like gay people and another to go on a public tirade and that's where Tracy Morgan went wrong.
Apparently he's learned nothing from the many Black people who made the same mistake before him and found themselves in homophobe rehab and blacklisted from ever working in Hollywood again.
Now while Black people may overlook his comments-because if we're going to keep it real, there are many Black people who probably agree with what he said-the reality is that Black people aren't "30 Rock's" main audience and we certainly aren't the ones who green light Morgan's career moves. In retrospect, the only thing worse he could have done would have been to target Jews.
I have no sympathy for Tracy Morgan. Not only because of what he said, but more because he was stupid enough to say it publicly.
I am not one of these gay people who feel that everyone should love all gay people-especially when I know that I don't even like gay people myself half of the time.
Tracy Morgan made his bed and now he's going to have to lay in it. That's on him. I fully expect the usual suspects to issue statements condemning him and blah blah blah. Chances are they won't stop there. They'll petition to have him kicked off of the show and like with Isaiah Washington attempt to ruin another Black man's career. If that happens, Black people will probably get pissed and blame it on the gays, because while we all aren't "30 Rock" fans most of us do like Tracy Morgan the comedian and occasional film actor. Which is exactly what we don't need as we head into a highly politicized presidential election where as sure as I am Black, the Republican Party can be counted on to use gay marriage and immigration as issues to try and sway the Black vote.
And yes, I am sure Tracy Morgan's people will issue the appropriate statement apologizing. He may even get blackmailed (no pun intended) into doing a few gay bullying PSA's in an effort to save his career, but in the end, none of it is going to matter.
It's sad, but these days Tracy Morgan would have had a better chance at saving his career and face had he been a white man insulting Black people than a Black man insulting gays.
Based in Los Angeles, Jasmyne A. Cannick writes about the intersection of race, pop culture, and politics. She can be reached at www.jasmynecannick.com.
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Our tiolets are separate, in a room next to the shower and sink bathroom...
and folks, don't get too paranoid. We are all have some pretty good immunity to the germs we are used to.
That's why we get diarrhea much more easily when we travel--our immunity system is not familiar with the germs that are prevalent there and who the local folks can deal with through having been exposed.
Sort of like the Native Americans dying from usually harmless European children diseases, when they first came in contact with them.
And even if you had germs on your toothbrush--you put toothpaste on, which kills most of them, and you don't just lick the brush off and swallow, and so forth...
what matters is the amount of germs. With a smaller quantity, we can build up more immunity, while our body kills them, with a large amount, we go into a cleaning process such as diarrhea, to remove the excess.
If we're never
getting in contact with any germs, due to too much desinfection, it's actually bad for a healthy individual's immune system, as it needs to have challenges and "training units", to stay in good shape.
Theory goes, that if the immunity system is being underchallenged, by too much desinfection, it still wants to play with something and then picks pollen and other things instead, to play war with them.
Everything in our body has a purpose and needs to be occupied and "entertained", if you will, with "duties".
Quite like the sex drive.
Even if there is no partner around to make babies with, it still wants to do it's thing and keeps nagging to the mind.
...Don't do enough sports and lie around all day and your heart muscle will lose ONE THIRD of it's size after a few days of laying around.
That's why people get mobilized as soon as possible after ops.
Could go on but you're probably bored by now or thinking about how to contradict me, so I will stop.
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Gary Sellani wrote: > I've always felt that slides had the best color accuracy. (OK, potential for > the best color accuracy to keep the word demons off my back.) If you use > the higher speed slide films (Provia or Elite), the high contrast and low > latitude problems are reduced somewhat, but not to the degree of print film. Provia, by the way, is not one of the films listed as having outstanding color accuracy -- it is an "enhanced" color film akin to, but without quite the cartoon boost of, Velvia. While I use EPP 100 for most of my product shooting, it is also considered a slightly enhanced film compared to what most consider the dean of accuracy, EPN. > Print film is very forgiving, but the print process seems to be a random > number generator. You can take multiple print photos and the sky will not be > the same in any photo if the main elements of the scene are different. > [Shoot a scene without people, then with people, and note how the sky isn't > the same. I think the printers have computers that lock on flesh tones. There are several reasons that the sky will not be the same shade of blue. One of them has to do with the polarization of the light that occurs naturally in the sky. If you point one arm at the sun, and then put your arm out at a 90 degree angle to that direction, you can circumscribe a circle. The sky will be the deepest blue along the line of that circle and lighter in other places. Second, the amount of water vapor in the sky can lighten it considerably, while more or less dust in the atmosphere can either deepen the blue or turn the sky brown or yellowish. The blue of the sky will also obviously change depending on the time of day and the angle of the sun. Print film isn't to blame -- you can actually do a pretty good job of getting colorsYou'll with the instruments that custom printers use these days... > I prefer slide film for keeping your images in order. [I'm sure you have the > clear sheets with pockets to hold slides that you can put in binders.] While others prefer using proof sheets with their negs. This way, the original neg doesn't have to come out of the box when you're searching for a specific shot... > Note that for print film, the lab compensates the exposure, which undoes > your bracketing. This can be really annoying if you are trying to get a dark > sky effect, such as shooting a lighthouse just after sunset. This is where > it would be interesting to have a film scanner. I would like to know how > much of the latitude is due to the print film and how much is due to the > printing process. It's actually pretty easy to determine the latitude of a print film, and photographers have done it for ages. It has to do with the same testing that produces that characteristic "shoulder and toe" curve, and is done in a very analog way (though it can be done more quickly with instruments, of course). You don't need a film scanner to determine the "best" exposure, either. Have a "true proof" sheet done. This is one in which the film is placed in strips on a sheet of paper, and base density of the film is exposed to just barely match the blackest black the paper will produce. If you have normal contrast in your film development, your best exposure for the film/developer/paper combination will be the one that looks best (not underexposed, not blown out) on the proof sheet. You'll also be able to see exactly what your bracketing looks like. You may be interested to know that the "latitude" of the printing process is going to change significantly in the one-hour photolab business as printers replace their current machines with the new "digital" systems. You'll still have your film processed in the usual way, and you'll still receive prints back on photopaper, but in between will be different. Instead of exposing the print film directly onto the paper through an optical system, your film will be scanned, analyzed, and then digitally printed onto the photo paper. This will allow some rudimentary sharpening, contrast control, etc. One of the main beneficiaries of this process will be prints that are seriously underexposed, and which would have been printed to a flat, murky middle grey -- these prints can be enhanced to give more color and contrast (though shadow detail that wasn't there won't be there in the print, of course), and will almost look normal. To keep this somewhat relevant to epson inkjets, I find the colors are more > saturated when I print on my Epson 1200 than the colors in the original > image. I use the saturation control in the print driver, but this isn't > perfect. At the moment, I am settling for acceptable results, but not > getting exceptional results. > Saturation may not be your best control, here. You may have a lot more contrast than you need, and this can produce what looks like oversaturated results in print. You haven't mentioned if the colors seem more saturated than what appears on your monitor. If you're using slide film, you'll always have more range of color than you can reproduce on a reflective surface. In order to make a print from a slide, you need to compress that range of colors. When you make a direct print on photographic paper (Type R) from a slide, you'll find that almost always the colors are super saturated and the shadow and highlight detail are lost. Most printers use a technique called Unsharp Masking (YES!) that is designed to reduce the contrast levels. The other option is to make an internegative on a special very low contrast material and then print from that. You're going to have the same situation with moving from a transparency (slide) to a print. Most software has compensation built into it that will reduce the contrast levels considerably to make allowances for the differences in range available in a slide and in a print, but if your software doesn't take care of things automatically, you need to adjust it yourself. david - Please do not include an entire message in your response. Delete the excess. http://www.leben.com/lists for list instructions.
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kru-sə-fai • Hear it! • Verb, transitive
Meaning: 1. To execute someone by nailing them to a post with a crossbar to the arms. 2. To punish or berate someone viciously, brutally.
Notes: Unfortunately, this word is so useful it has begotten a large family of words referring to torture and torment. Someone who crucifies in either of the two senses above is a crucifier and the act of crucifying is crucifixion. If excruciating pain represents the extreme in torture, that is because excruciate is based on the same sense of crucifixion. Today Christians throughout the world commemorate the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified, a day now called “Good Friday” in English.
In Play: Aside from Eastertide, we use this word today only in the figurative sense as a hyperbole: “Dad is going to crucify you when he finds out you bent his Bentley!” In fact, we probably overuse it: “Gladys Friday was crucified by the boss in front of the whole office when she arrived at the meeting late.”
Word History: Proto-Indo-Europeanroot behind crux turns up in many modern Indo-European languages. English crook and crutch share the same origin. Of course, we borrowed crux itself from Latin to refer to the central point of an issue. This sense of crux goes back to a reference to a crossroads at which a decision must be made. The adjective crucial “decisive” reflects this same sense. The F in the Latin verb figere came from an older PIE word dhig- “to fix, set”, which seems to have come to English as dig. The semantic road between these two words is too long to travel in this Good Word entry.
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The time to be spent by hundreds of thousands of NHS staff in registering for smartcards and Pin codes is necessary for the security of systems that will allow authorised users to access a database of 50 million patient record summaries and other systems. The smartcard also allows auditors to track who has accessed or amended a record.
But the time that doctors and nurses have said they need to spend registering for smartcards has not been discussed with most NHS staff and is seen by some clinicians as an encroachment into the time they have for patient care. It also comes at a time when politicians are promising to reduce paperwork for front-line staff so they can do their main jobs unimpeded by bureaucracy.
Officials working for Connecting for Health, the new name for the national programme for IT in the NHS, say that a rigorous registration process for the issuing of smartcards is needed to verify the identify and roles of users, to ensure that they see only the information they are entitled to view.
But some doctors say the process is too time-consuming.
Paul Cundy of the British Medical Association's GP IT committee said the registration process is necessary for security but will be a "big burden for the NHS".
Early adopters of the system in Barnsley have expressed concerns to the NHS that it takes 10 minutes at best and typically between 12 and 20 minutes to issue a smartcard to a member of staff.
When this is multiplied by the number of smartcard users, the total time spent by the NHS, including more 660,000 clinical staff, on the registration process would be between 160,000 and 266,000 hours.
In addition, thousands of clinicians will need to sponsor colleagues to verify their identity and bona fides before smartcards can be issued. The time overhead for hard-pressed doctors and clinicians raises questions about whether they will try and avoid registering to use the new national systems unless IT suppliers and the NHS reduce the bureaucracy and system delays.
The registration process involves completion of a six-page "RA01" form which cannot be submitted online.
Doctors, nurses and other staff must prove who they are, either by sponsorship from a senior clinician or manager, or by showing evidence such as a passport or driving licence. They must also have their photos taken for the cards - which officials say can take longer than expected as some individuals request photos to be retaken.
Officials say that as specialists gain experience of issuing smartcards, the average time taken to issue them could be reduced to about 10 to 12 minutes. But this estimate does not take into account the time that clinicians and managers will need to spend deciding what information each member of staff can access, or the re-issuing of access authorisations when users change jobs and roles.
An additional concern for doctors and nurses is that, once a smartcard is issued, it takes 40 seconds every time the card is used to open a browser or use the first software application. Cundy said many doctors will not use any system that delays access to patient records for 40 seconds every time they use their card.
A spokesman for Connecting For Health said, "Early-adopter sites provide us with feedback that we use to improve what we do as we roll out further to the NHS. We are in discussions with human resources on the most effective and efficient way of operating the registering process."
NHS IT diretors' smartcard concerns
IT directors in the NHS say there are unanswered questions over the issuing of smartcards:
- What will happen if doctors and nurses forget to bring their cards to work?
- Will ward staff and GP practices try to make life simpler by sharing cards and Pin codes?
- How well will the smartcard systems work? Kingston NHS Trust, an early adopter of the NHS Care Records Service, which includes summaries of electronic patient records, has reported that smartcard and registration equipment is slow and unreliable.
- Does the NHS have enough staff dedicated to ensure that people who leave the health service will have their card revoked, or could these end up still in circulation, used as spare cards or without authorisation?
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It's Not Just Trayvon: 9 Other Cases That Prove People of Color Can't Safely Walk the Streets of America
Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email.
The death of Trayvon Martin has lit up the media for much of the past month. While there's a certain degree of added tragedy due to Martin's age, people of all ages have good reason to fear vigilantism and police brutality in the United States. It's worth noting that despite nearly 200 attempts, a federal anti-lynching law was never passed in the United States. Further, Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law, and others like it, have led to what is essentially legalized murder in several areas of the country.
Lynchings and racist murders didn't end with the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Even in the 21st century, people of color can't walk in safety in many parts of the country. Here are several cases that illustrate this sad truth.
1. Bernard Goetz
In 1984, Bernard Goetz shot four young black men who tried to mug him on a subway platform in New York City. It's hard to fault a man for wanting to defend himself against a legitimate attack, even if he was carrying an unlicensed firearm. However, what would the reaction have been if a black man had shot four white teenagers? While the legal system found that fear, not racism, drove Goetz's decision to open fire, Goetz himself admitted that the skin color of his assailants increased his fear. Goetz, an unassuming man who promotes vegetarianism, is far from David Duke. But that's sort of the point. There are few better examples of the effects of institutional racism on otherwise "good" people.
2. James Byrd, Jr.
The dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in 1998 is one of the most notorious hate crimes in recent memory. After offering Byrd a ride home, John King, Lawrence Brewer and Shawn Berry took Byrd to a secluded area of town, beat him senseless, urinated on him and dragged him for three miles chained to the back of a truck. Alive and conscious for most of the torture, Byrd died when decapitated by a culvert. Police found Byrd's remains in 81 different places along the route the assailants took. John King reportedly made a reference to William Luther Pierce's racist novel The Turner Diaries before Byrd's beating began. King and Brewer got the death penalty, with Berry getting a life sentence. Brewer was put to death via lethal injection in September 2011. King remains on death row, pending an appeal.
3. Mulugeta Seraw
Mulugeta Seraw was an Ethiopian immigrant who sought a better life in Portland, Oregon. His dreams came to a close on Nov. 12, 1988, after a confrontation with three white racist gang members outside his apartment. The three men -- Steve Strasser, Kyle Brewster and Ken Mieske -- beat Seraw with baseball bats while their girlfriends watched. The group then left Seraw to die in a puddle of his own blood, in a killing the notorious Tom Metzger called their "civic duty." Strasser and Brewster caught manslaughter charges, while Mieske received a life sentence for first-degree murder. Seraw's son and father later received pro bono representation from the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center in a suit against Metzer and his son John. Seraw's family received $12.5 million in damages. Metzger later had to forfeit his home and go on welfare. He still has to make monthly payments to Seraw's surviving family.
4. Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith is a name that will live in infamy in the minds of people of color in the Chicago area. In 1999, this follower of imprisoned Creativity Movement leader Matthew Hale went on a two-state, three-day shooting spree two days after Hale was denied a license to practice law in the state. Nine Orthodox Jews were shot and wounded in the spree. Ricky Byrdsong, a former Northwestern University basketball coach was shot and killed in front of two of his children. A black minister and Won-Joon Yoon, a 26-year-old Korean pursuing a doctoral degree in computer science at Indiana University were other victims of the killing spree. Smith later shot himself while fleeing the police in a high-speed car chase. The Creativity Movement views Smith as a martyr to its "cause."
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Are You Mindful of the Economy?
by Phil Kaplan
More millionaires than ever in prior history grew out
of the Great Depression.
More Fitness Professional successes can come
out of this period in history than ever before!
personal trainers will laugh, invest, enjoy, build,
grow, develop, and prosper. Most won’t.
this exploratory brief, I’ll help you understand
lines are so clear between “those who will” and
“those who won’t,” but I have always struggled to
find what, precisely, “the lines” are made of.
I’m referring to the separation between personal
fitness trainers who will achieve some modicum of
success, and those who will complain about “the
industry” and its unwillingness to provide.
I spend 5 minutes speaking with a personal trainer,
I can tell which side of the line he or she will
land on. I
can tell by language, attitude, outlook, perspective,
body language, eye contact, and expressed passion.
The challenge is one of qualification.
Absent of the 5 minute conversation, what
is the “thing,” the element, the “stuff” that serves
as the separating force?
the years I’ve called it The X-Factor, or simply
referred to it as “the Right Stuff.” Although I inherently understood it, I struggled
with expressing the distinction in an absolute form. I couldn’t seem to narrow it down to a defining
attitudinal trait or a specific mannerism.
as we embark upon 2009, “the industry” is not the
only villain the also-rans are willing to indict.
Now they have a larger foe. It’s a massive enemy. The news media presents this invader, this destroyer
of the human condition, as unstoppable in its torturous
onslaught. It’s . . . THE ECONOMY!!!!
time for those personal trainers who are financially
strained and would like to "turn things around"
to gain some new perspective. Let's answer the following
suffers in a crippled 21st century economy?
who rely on credit will suffer. The retail marketplace typically rides
the Holiday Season by offering credit terms including
attractive phrases such as “same as cash,” “interest
free,” or “no payments until . . . . “ The challenge lies in extending credit
when the banks and creditors have empty drawers. Only the strongest or most creative retailers
will weather the storm.
who sell exclusively through retailers are also going to experience radical shifts in volume. As the retail traffic diminishes, so too
must the supply which at one time might have exceeded
demand. Cost cutting leads to job losses, and the
snowball effect is inevitable.
item sellers will feel the economic tightening.
luxury items, such as yachts, may continue to
sell, but as public awareness shifts to preservation,
everything from high end Harleys to high end watches
will suffer reduced consumption.
Ditto for high end purses and $50 socks. The consumer will make conservative choices
and realize the absurdity in paying more for a
name or prestige in areas where it’s rarely recognized.
“life” purchases requiring mortgages are going to become increasingly scarce as we compound the mistakes
financial institutions will now pay for with the
mortgage crisis affecting property values.
is one more large group who is destined to find suffering amidst the economic
group is a volunteer group, although the members
may not acknowledge their voluntary status.
The group is comprised of individuals who
buy into the negative talk and fail to shift to
accommodate the changing climate.
need not suffer at all during a global economic
Professionals need not suffer. They may have to work a bit harder, they
may have to reposition themselves a bit, they
may have to form new strategic alliances, and
they might find extreme benefit in an enhanced
education as to how to better serve the present
population, but this is an ideal time for committed
fitness professionals to prosper.
“line,” the distinction I referred to earlier, is not crystal clear.
It is an attitudinal expression, one that
reveals itself in language and thought. Those who are going to face struggle and challenge
pursue their careers with the following thought:
want to be a personal trainer
who are destined to prosper pursue their careers
going to earn a living as a personal trainer
distinction may sound simplistic, but it’s incredibly
individual who sets out to be a personal trainer
can wave his or her flag as soon as certification
and a client base are secured. The goal has been met. The dream may not have been, but the aspiration
has met an end.
If thrilling outcomes fail to manifest, the
inherent attitude is, “I did my part. I got certified and got clients.” Somehow the universe is then supposed to deliver
met the universe.
It doesn’t deliver.
you commit to earning a living, to finding true
prosperity in the noble and rewarding field of personal
training, you realize the certification process
is nothing more than an entry, and the acquisition
of clients is an ongoing requirement that begets
Only when you learn to maximize and build
upon those opportunities can you step into the world
Be Better Project was designed to embrace the desires
of those trainers who seek prosperity. It has nothing to do with instant riches.
It’s a pure and credible curriculum structured
so your energy output brings you extreme reward.
It is challenging. It is strategic. It is proven
you’ve decided to blame “the economy,” you’ll likely
find some commiserative comfort in that blame.
like the few who command prosperity, you’ve decided
to be all that you’re capable of, I can teach you
how to build a forever clientele, how to grow your
business in a manner that feels effortless, how
to position yourself as a “need” not a luxury, and
how to find compensation directly in line with your
The bottom line is, the committed personal
trainers who have become a part of my Be Better
project understand their careers as vehicles to
prosper. They are different. They land on the right
side of the line. They posses confidence, certainty,
you want to find out more about my Be Better Project,
with the Subject Line, “I Want to Be Better” and
I'll respond to schedule a 10-minute telephone conversation.
2009, I’m working ONLY with 100 fitness professionals,
and they’re all connected by the principles I’ve
developed that lie at the root of Personal Training
Prosperity and The Be
If you believe you might want to be a part
of this group, having me as your personal coach,
and connecting with like-minded fitness professionals
who are all committed to their “livings,” email
me at email@example.com
and include a phone number.
I’ll have someone call you to set up a time
that you and I can discuss your future.
Professionals explore the Professional
More About Be Better
your information in our database to make sure
you're kept abreast of 2009 programs, seminars, and
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Policy makers have been urged to plan care strategies to reduce a predicted large increase in mental health problems.
The King's Fund says the government needs to provide extra care and support to both improve the nation's health and to reduce the cost of mental illness in terms of lost productivity.
Its report, Paying the Price, says the cost of mental health services are set to more than double in the next 20 years.
While the prevalence of most mental disorders is likely to remain stable during the next two decades, the study claims that there could be a huge increase in dementia by almost two-thirds due to an ageing population.
As such the bill for mental health services is expected to grow from £22.5 billion to £47 billion.
The Paying the Price study also estimates that mental illness in England cost £50 billion last year.
Almost half, £22.5 billion, represents money spent on direct NHS and social care services to support people with mental disorders.
More than half, £26.1 billion, represents the estimated cost to the economy of earnings lost because of the thousands of people unable to work due to their mental illness.
The report suggests a number of ways to reduce the prevalence of mental health problems and to help thousands of people back to productive work.
Professor Martin Knapp, co-author of the report, said: "We found that paying for more people to be treated would create net savings as reductions in lost employment costs would outweigh treatment costs.
"With a third of adults with depression and a half with anxiety disorders not in touch with services there is significant potential to treat more people with those illnesses and make savings because of the boost to the workforce.
He added: "The government, the NHS, social services and employers need to extend efforts to help people with mental health needs who are of working age but not in employment to get back to work."
King's Fund chief executive Niall Dickson commented: "The fact that we are living longer is a cause for celebration but it will mean that the health and social care systems will have to cope with a dramatic increase in the number of people suffering from dementia.
"Unless there is a major breakthrough in drugs to arrest the course of this illness, there will be a great need for extra care and support, some of it quite intense.
"The projections in this report should help policy-makers and those responsible for local services plan for future demand."
In response to the report, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said: "We recognise that dementia is now one of the most significant health challenges facing our society.
"That is why we are determined to bring dementia out of the shadows and later this year we'll launch the first ever national strategy to improve the quality of life for people with dementia and their families."
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Jim Begg, director general of the national industry association Dairy UK, said that throughout the EU, input costs and tighter regulations have been a common concern for manufacturers over the last 18 months.
While predicting strong long-term potential for UK-based producers and suppliers, particularly from a focus on functional ingredients, Begg claimed the same businesses were at threat from the wider challenges affecting European dairy.
He suggested that global fears over economic certainty had compounded farmers’ calls for higher payments for their milk at the same time consumers demand lower priced dairy goods.
“We know that dairy farmers are experiencing very tough conditions, with historically high prices still for many inputs and pressure on returns,” stated the association. “Milk processors are also facing a difficult market.”
Begg claims that although the UK market is proving extremely susceptible to these factor, due in part, to the country’s reliance on the financial sector, ongoing devaluation of the national currency may have some export benefits.
“The weakness of the pound (Sterling) versus the euro clearly favours stronger exports to the Euro zone,” he stated. “The strength of the pound relative to the euro is helping to cushion the effects of the recession in the UK, by making [its] exports more competitive.”
Despite the potential protection afforded by Sterling, Dairy UK suggests that low confidence from farmers in the country was cutting down the level of milk being supplied to manufacturers, potentially setting back export potential.
“Many of our continental neighbours, including the Netherlands, France and Denmark, have actually increased milk output,” added Begg.
Dairy UK suggests that conversely, the country’s manufacturers and producers had made some real advances in boosting reputation of their products across Europe and even further away.
”UK-produced dairy commodities are recognised around the world for their high standards, and there is an increasing market abroad for value-added British products, such as cheese,” claimed Begg.
The association played up attempts to improve the environmental impacts of the country’s production through schemes such as the Milk Roadmap, designed to offer methods for greener dairy processing and production.
While the association says it had worked with international counterparts in providing information to draw up similar national schemes, it claimed that the UK industry should prove adept at showing some resilience to the prevailing cost and eco-challenges.
“Britain and Northern Ireland continue to be among the most competitive environments in which to produce milk, thanks to a mild, wet climate,” said Dairy UK. “Cost relief should start to feed through from lower oil prices this year.”
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November 10, 2009
A high-level International Labour Organization (ILO) Mission to the Philippines wrapped up on September 29, feeding hopes that international attention will help stem the tide of violence and intimidation that has been unleashed on Filipino trade union organizers and human rights advocates.
Military and police violence against labour and human rights activists in the country and anti-union actions by local governments and the judiciary have reached disturbing levels in recent years. This year's International Trade Union Confederation survey of violations of trade union rights starts by identifying the Philippines as a country where "widespread and grave anti-union practices have unfortunately continued," noting that the situation had deteriorated since the previous year's report.
National and international labour rights organizations finally succeeded this June in breaking the deadlock at the ILO after three years of lobbying to bring a high-level ILO mission to the Philippines. The ILO Mission had previously been blocked by the Philippines government, whose consent was required under ILO protocols.
The ILO Mission, which began its visit to the Philippines on September 22, was charged with investigating the killings of 92 union leaders and activists since 2001. In announcing the investigation, the ILO referred to "serious allegations of the murder of trade unionists, death threats, arrests of trade union leaders in connection with their trade union activities, widespread impunity relating to violence against trade unionists and the militarization of workplaces in export processing zones (EPZs) and special economic zones."
Labour leaders from the Solidarity with Cavite Workers (SCW) organization presented before the ILO delegation, citing violent methods used by security forces to enforce the state government's unwritten "No Unions, No Strikes" policy in the Cavite Export Processing Zone.
On December 11, 2006, two activists with the Solidarity of Cavite Workers were shot by a lone assassin outside the gates of the Yazaki-EMI factory where they worked. Jesus Buth Servida was killed instantly, and his companion, Joel Sale, sustained gunshot wounds. The gunman reportedly walked casually away from the scene of the crime.
The SCW also presented evidence of abductions of two female union leaders, police assaults on legal picket lines at garment factories in the Zone, factory closures in the middle of collective bargaining negotiations, and vilification of trade unions and leaders by local government officials.
Extrajudicial killings of trade union leaders have been supplemented with judicial harassment of labour and human rights activists and labour lawyers, who have faced repeated arrests and imprisonment on baseless charges.
While the ILO Mission is a positive step, much remains to be done. The effort to expose and condemn violations of trade union rights in the country needs to be backed up by increased pressure from governments and companies that do business in the Philippines.
In 2006 and 2007, at our urging, a group of major US apparel companies including Wal-Mart, American Eagle Outfitters, Liz Claiborne and Gap spoke out against numerous incidents of violence against labour organizers and human rights advocates, warning the Philippines government that "these alleged incidents appear to be part of a larger pattern of harassment and violence against workers, labour leaders and human rights promoters that could discourage companies from doing business with your country."
Yet Canadian companies - which are the second biggest international investors in the country's mining sector, after Australia - have remained conspicuously silent in the face of increasing human rights abuses in the country. Nor has the Canadian government spoken out on the growing repression facing union leaders and human rights advocates. On the contrary, in July of this year the government welcomed a business mission from the Philippines, posting a notice from the Business Processing Association of the Philippines online that urged Canadian companies to "put the Philippines on your global value chain."
Not that they need much encouragement. TVI Pacific, Telus, Bombardier, Manulife and Sunlife are already heavily invested in the Philippines despite the country's dismal human rights record. Canadian imports from the Philippines increased in 2008 as compared to 2007.
As long as the Filipino authorities and business interests are rewarded economically for the repression of labour and human rights activists, the abuses will continue and increase. Breaking that pattern doesn't necessarily require a break in trade or divestment by Canadian companies. What it does require, however, is active and public condemnation by both the Canadian government and Canadian investors and targeted and progressively increasing penalties if the Philippine government fails to stem the violence.
More than anything, the triumph of impunity depends on the silence of everyone in the room. Breaking that silence should not be left to the ILO or local human rights organizations alone. If Canadians are willing to accept a share of the benefits of trade and investment in the Philippines, we have to also accept a share of the responsibility to protect the rights and physical integrity of those workers and communities that make those benefits possible.
This MSN article was originally publised on rabble.ca
See also: "Philippines Bloody for Unionists, But Invest There Says Ottawa" in The Tyee.
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The coinage that has been made by the Royal Mint for the people of England and then the United Kingdom over the last 1000 years is an important way in which to understand the history of the country.
Coins are valuable historical artefacts that can illuminate the economics and technology, the art and politics, the religion and ceremonies of a people. How a nation consciously chooses to represent itself on its coinage is testimony to what it values and celebrates. Coins have existed as one of the most widely used ways in which a state or monarch has communicated with people and from the earliest of times the symbolic meaning of coins has not been lost on those who exercise power.
The Royal Mint Museum has a collection of British coins of unrivalled importance. It sheds light not just on the coins as issued but also, through a unique collection of trial and experimental pieces, on how coins have been designed and manufactured.
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NASA's Curiosity rover has another, even bigger, apparently history-making discovery that might just change everything about the universe as we know it — but they aren't telling anyone what it is, exactly, until scientists can be absolutely sure it's not a dud. Thanksgiving nerd speculation, of course, is go for launch.
John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the mission, tells NPR's Joe Palca in an interview that aired today that his team has found something really, really cool on Mars with Curiosity's SAM soil-collecting device: "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," Grotzinger exclaimed. Unfortunately, NASA won't be telling us what said cool secret is until they run a bunch of tests to make sure what they found is authentic.
The scientists thought they had made an exciting breakthrough earlier, when a tool picked up some methane in the Mars atmosphere, which would have been a first — and could indicate that life previously existed on Mars. They had to test to make sure the methane didn't travel with the Rover from earth, though, and once they did their due diligence it turned out the methane piggy-backed from earth. The team was predictably deflated.
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If you think you can work from home, be your own boss, and become successful without any assistance I guarantee it will take longer, be harder, and less profitable than if you work with a team, hire professionals in areas you aren’t great at, and joint venture with others that compliment you. Collaborate with like-minded [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Christmas traditions’
What do you learn from the mistakes you make? Would you like to know how to master your mistakes and become a master in life, living fully, passionately, doing what you love?
Law of attraction life coaching can inspire, motivate and support you in becoming successful attracting what you want instead of wasting time with what you don’t need.
The term life coaching may be a new concept especially law of attraction life coaching. I thought so too 4 years ago. I’d heard about ‘THE SECRET’, in fact [...]
Successful entrepreneurs realize that with today’s vast exposure world-wide their message must be specific, decisive,and consistent while offering value that stands out. Unless well known, a large franchise or extremely efficient as a marketer, no matter how great the information you have, you are only a little splash in a big pond.
Your brand, your logo, mission statement, intention, elevator pitch, customer service and guarantee are what attracts your clients and builds your business. I just spent the past 5 weeks with Catrice Jackson creating the future me and am excited to be starting my new venture at http://wendymackaycoachinginc.com – Igniting SPARK in the souls [...]
Every moment of our lives are influenced by who, what, where and how we perceive what we hear, see and do. You may have heard; “if you want success, surround yourself with successful people”. By surrounding ourselves with like-minded authentic successful people you are influenced. We have the opportunity to ask questions and learn from [...]
Are you a baby-boomer woman (55-60)? Are you living fully in mid-life doing what you love and loving what you do? Are you feel fully appreciated for all you do by those you do it for?
Do you ever ask yourself: Is This All There Is ? When is it my turn to have [...]
There’s so much talk about living authentically with integrity, especially if representing yourself online, but what does this really mean?
According to the dictionary authenticity is “of undisputed origin: genuine, original”. Who are we if not original? That’s such a valid question. Many people are so lost in believing they must act in a particular way [...]
Are you happy in your career, relationship, financial security and optimal health? If not, do you tend to worry and think “what if’ I’d done this or that” or “I should have…”? If you are a worrier or find yourself constantly making excuses for circumstances you’re creating dis-ease in your body, mind and soul. Like [...]
As a care-giver for my own mother, as well as caring for a patient as an employee I know first hand the importance of caring for ME. Caring for others feels extremely rewarding and valuable. It can also feel frustrating and lonely. As baby-boomers age, the need for support will continue to increase. Financially, people [...]
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I was mildly disturbed when our family went to diabetes camp last summer to see that all but two of the young adult diabetics who were counselors there were significantly overweight. Was this coincidence, or is it more difficult for a Type 1 diabetic to control his/her weight than a non-diabetic? Is there a basic difference in metabolism, or might this be a side effect of extra calories needed to treat lows?
Diabetes Camp was a wonderful experience for the whole family, by the way. I enthusiastically recommend it.
It's hard to be sure what you mean by "significantly overweight." Obesity is common, and insulin can cause weight gain.
My advice is to relax, and to enjoy camp. And don't put your values about obesity into your daughter's thinking: you might make her get obsessive about her weight.
Original posting 31 Dec 96
Last Updated: Tuesday April 06, 2010 15:08:51
This Internet site provides information of a general nature and is designed for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your own health or the health of your child, you should always consult with a physician or other health care professional.
This site is published by Children With Diabetes, Inc, which is responsible for its contents.
© Children with Diabetes, Inc. 1995-2013. Comments and Feedback.
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At Lazar, they're thinking GREEN. They're concerned about the impact that global warming, deforestation and hazardous waste are having on our fragile planet. That's why they've made a commitment to produce long lasting quality furniture while offering our customers materials and methods that have the least impact on our environment. Recently, Lazar as a founding member, joined the Sustainable Furniture Council, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting sustainable practices within the home furnishings industry with the objective of creating a healthy balance between environmental conservation, social equity and economic development. We in the furniture industry need to accept our responsibility and do our part to protect the environment. Lazar is thinking green. Are you?
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Beatrice Jagbah relaxes under the evening sun after a full morning of teaching at the local school followed by a hard afternoon catching up on farm work. “I haven’t been paid for six years,” she says. “But I believe the government when it says it will pay me in June.”
Beatrice is the only female teacher in Upper Wedjah District in Sinoe County. She’s been working at the local public school in Jalay’s town since 2004 and hasn’t received a cent. Regular salaries for government workers are a problem, but it is teachers, especially in the rural areas, who sometimes feel it the most.
When Beatrice finishes teaching at one o’clock every day she makes her way to the farm, her only means of income. While most other women get to the fields by six every morning, she has to work extra hard in the afternoon to make up lost time. When asked why she does it, she simply says, “I want to help. I want my community to be educated.”
Jalay’s Town, where Beatrice lives, is a nine hour drive from the capital, Monrovia, through the counties of Montserrado, Margibi, Grand Bassa, River Cess and Sinoe. Along with five other towns, it forms part of the Upper Wedjah District. More of a village than a town, it is one of only a handful of communities that has access to Sapo, Liberia’s first and only National Park. It’s arguably one of the most beautiful areas of the country, but access to education is an issue for every single family here.
“We are just trying,” Beatrice says as she explains how she’s responsible for 67 students in the kindergarten class at the town’s only school. The other three teachers manage the remaining 106 pupils. From Beatrice’s tin roofed house, Upper Wedjah District Public School is less than a ten minute walk away. “There are many children but the government is promising to bring us more teachers,” Beatrice says. “The District Education Officer and the County Education Officer visited the school and said we don’t have enough staff. They are right. We have too many children and not enough teachers.”
Set in a clearing on the edge of the village, the school comprises of a two block, concrete compound. Painted sky blue with glassless windows, students from kindergarten to the 6th grade sit at small wooden desks facing a blackboard. For a school in the Western world this would mean children from the ages of four to eleven. But in Liberia, it’s not unusual to see men and women in their 20s or even 30s still at school.
Universal primary education is one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for Liberia. However, it is hard to see that being achieved by the target date of 2015. The government itself, headed by Africa’s first elected female President, launched its National Girls’ Education Policy in April 2006, making universal primary education free for every Liberian child. But young girls and boys selling peanuts, fried plantain and boiled eggs on the streets or laden down with buckets of water on their heads is still a common sight all over Liberia.
In the rural areas, like Jalays town, access to education is even harder. For those continuing their schooling beyond grade six, it’s a two and a half hour walk to the nearest high school. It means for many women, their academic education simply stops. ‘I finished school in the 11th grade,’ Beatrice says. ‘But I don’t know any women around here who graduated from high school.’
The recruitment of female teachers, like Beatrice, in Liberia is a huge problem. At the moment, USAID says only fifteen out of every hundred teachers are women. That’s an improvement from 2007, when it was just 8 percent, but teaching in Liberia remains a very male-dominated profession. “I don’t know the reason why. I just can’t tell,” says Beatrice. “Women did go to school but many dropped out because of the war.”
Cultural constraints, family responsibilities and access to education make it a lot harder for women than men to move up the career ladder in every profession in Liberia. In a country ravaged by 14 years of civil war, it was hard for everyone to get an education but it was the female population who suffered the most. According to the CIA World Fact book, nearly 60 percent of women over the age of 15 in Liberia can’t read or write. For men, it is closer to 30 percent.
So, for a profession where literacy skills are paramount, it is easy to understand how Beatrice is the only female teacher in her district and among a minority in the entire country. It says a lot about the determination and passion of this woman to work without any money for six years to ensure the next generation of women stand a better chance in life. “The government promised they will pay me, and I believe that they will pay,” she says. “They promised, so they will do it.”
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(via andrewtsks, molls, Calvin’s Canadian Cave of Coolness: I Will Take The Truth Anywhere I Can Find It, etc.)
Well, this would be true, except, as the New York Times/CBS poll shows, the Tea Partiers aren’t a bunch of working-class folks mad about losing jobs. They’re a bunch of middle-upper class right-wing activists mad because Obama’s the President and taxes go to schools, hospitals, police, roads, and everything else America doesn’t deny to poor people.
For instance, 23 per cent of Americans think the most important problem facing the country is the economy. So do 23 per cent of Tea Party supporters. But another 27 per cent of Americans think the biggest problem is a lack of jobs. Only 22 per cent of Tea Partiers say jobs. Tea Partiers are more likely than average to call a problem “Politicians/Government” (13 per cent as compared to four per cent), and the deficit (11 per cent as compared to five). The emphases are different here. Americans don’t like a bad economy that leads to them being unemployed. Tea Partiers don’t like government and the deficit, which they blame for a lack of jobs.
Further, 54 per cent of Americans blame the Bush administration or Wall Street for the state of the economy (32 and 22 per cent respectively). Only five per cent of Tea Party supporters blame the Bush administration. This is the Bush Administration that ran the economy for eight years before the economy went to shit. And one tea partier in twenty blames Bush. A plurality of Tea Partiers (28 per cent) blame Congress for the state of the economy. A further 10 per cent blame the Obama administration, and only 15 per cent blame Wall Street.
A majority of Americans think the government should spend money to create jobs. A majority of Tea Party supporters would prefer the government to reduce the deficit. A plurality of Americans (39 per cent) think the deficit is the fault of the Bush administration, you know, the administration that pitched Medicare Part D, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the upper-class tax cuts, all of which were unfunded. Tea Party supporters are most likely to blame Congress (37 per cent, as opposed to 19 per cent of the American public), followed by Obama (24 per cent, as opposed to a mere eight per cent of the American public). If there’s a problem, Tea Partiers blame it on the Democrats. 38 per cent of Americans have a favorable view of Republicans. 54 per cent of Tea Partiers have a favorable view of the GOP.
56 per cent of the Tea Party supporters think Obama’s policies favor the poor, as compared to just 27 per cent of the general population. Tea Partiers are most likely to think Obama has increased taxes; Americans are most likely to think Obama has kept taxes the same (both are wrong).
Tea Party supporters are less concerned than the average American that they will be out of work in the next twelve months. Tea Party supporters are more likely than the average American to rate their household’s financial situation as “good” or “very good.” Tea Party supporters are more likely to call themselves middle class and less likely to call themselves working class. Tea Party supporters, on average, make more money than other Americans.
Larry Flynt and an awful lot of other people have misread the Tea Party. Supporters of this movement are more likely to be wealthy, educated and Republican. They are not working class people who are frustrated that they are out of work. They are reasonably well-off Republicans who dislike the Government spending money on poor people. Americans dislike Wall Street, Tea Party supporters dislike Democrats. This is a right wing movement, and speaking to it in social justice terms will not work. Larry Flynt, you are wrong.
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Mr. Andreessen, a transplant from the Midwest, was a founder of Netscape, which made the first popular Web browser, and Opsware, which Hewlett-Packard bought for $1.6 billion. But he wanted to prove that he could become one of the storied venture capitalists who invest in the next big thing, Claire Cain Miller of The New York Times writes.
In 16 months, Mr. Andreessen’s firm, Andreessen Horowitz, which he started with Ben Horowitz, also a founder of Opsware, has earned a solid reputation among entrepreneurs because it helps founders run their companies. It has also managed to break into the top ranks of venture capital firms by investing in some of the most competitive deals, like Foursquare and Zynga.
On Wednesday, Andreessen Horowitz cemented that status when it announced that it had raised $650 million for its second fund. The amount is unusual and all the more remarkable because the firm is so new.
Although it is too early to judge the firm’s financial success, Andreessen Horowitz represents a new breed of venture capital firm that is financing new kinds of start-ups. These firms are shaking up an industry in need of change because returns for the decade ended in June were negative 4.2 percent.
The Hong Kong securities regulator announced on Tuesday that it had discovered possible financial irregularities at the just-shuttered Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange and said it referred the matter over to the police for investigation.
Yahoo’s deal for Tumblr raises questions about its ability to make money by selling ads, among other thorny issues.
Rather than taking unfair advantage of what Congressional investigators say are a host of tax code loopholes, Timothy D. Cook said, the company was a victim of an outdated tax system.
Why do communities fail to secure the buildings that house their children against momentous hazards?
There are affordable ways to live more safely in tornado zones.
Poland, pushed by E.U. directives to change the way it deals with waste, is adopting a Canadian technology that allows energy to be created through the burning of trash.
Paul Finebaum, the radio host known for his popular college football show, will reportedly start his new job Aug. 1.
A day after Yahoo’s board approved a deal to acquire Tumblr, Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s chief, and David Karp, Tumblr’s founder, reassured users that Tumblr would operate as it did before.
“The Eternal Wonder,” an unpublished novel by Pearl S. Buck that surfaced last year in a storage unit, is to be released this fall by Open Road Integrated Media.
A federal judge’s ruling could halt the resale of digital music as well as other digital good like e-books.
A world-renowned physicist meets a gorgeous model online. They plan their perfect life together. But first, she asks, would he be so kind as to deliver a special package to her?
The Winklevoss brothers have moved on from their battle with Mark Zuckerberg and are more active than ever.
Questionable financial tactics are one reason for the enormous backlog of applications for a caregiving benefit, officials claim.
While a recent article by Angelina Jolie about her mastectomy and reconstruction raised awareness, it may have left the impression that the surgeries are quick and easy procedures, some doctors fear.
Some parents worry about giving their children pain relievers like ibuprofen and acetaminophen, based on reports that children given the drugs are more likely to develop asthma. But a new study suggests that the relationship may be little more than a statistical oversight.
To understand Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr, consider Yahoo’s deal for GeoCities in 1999. | For technology deal makers, business is booming. | SAC Capital Advisors is bracing for another round of withdrawal requests. | Apple avoided billions in taxes in the United States and around the world, Congressional investigators disclosed.
Sign up for the DealBook Newsletter, delivered every morning and afternoon, and receive breaking news alerts throughout the day.
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|Federal Communications Commission
1919 - M Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20554
|News media information 202 / 418-0500
Fax-On-Demand 202 / 418-2830
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974).
FCC RELEASES DIGITAL TELEVISION CONSUMER BULLETIN
The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology today issued a Digital Television
(DTV) Consumer Information Bulletin to provide consumers with more information on what
promises to be one of the most significant developments in television technology since the
advent of color television in the 1950's.|
The Consumer Bulletin will provide consumers with information on the new DTV technology, its upcoming deployment, developments such as improvements in the compatibility between digital programming and the equipment used by broadcasters and cable operators, and the capabilities and features that are expected to be available in the new DTV sets.
This bulletin, and updated information on DTV, is available on the FCC web site at
News Media Contact: David Fiske (202) 418-0513
The arrival of digital television ("DTV") this fall promises to be one of the most significant developments in television technology since the advent of color television in the 1950's. DTV has the capability to provide clearer and sharper, cinema-like pictures as well as multi-channel, CD-quality sound. It can provide new uses such as multiple video programs or other services on a single television channel, including data services. The use of DTV technology will also allow television to enter the digital world of the personal computer and the Internet.
As with any major technology change, it will be important for consumers to understand the capabilities of new equipment in order to make purchase decisions. The new digital television sets will have many new features and technical characteristics that will vary somewhat between different models and manufacturers. In addition, special features may be needed when using DTV sets to receive programs from cable, direct satellite, or other video service providers.
This bulletin has been prepared to provide consumers with information on the new DTV technology, its upcoming deployment, and the capabilities and features that are expected to be available in the new DTV sets. We will release periodic updates to this bulletin to help consumers keep up with digital television developments such as improvements in the compatibility between the digital programming and equipment used by broadcasters and cable operators.
1. Why change today's TV system to DTV?
Today's television system has served the American public well for almost three generations. Over the years, additional features and functions, such as color, stereo sound, remote control, cable channels, closed captioning, and parental control features were developed. Even with these improvements, TV sets became less expensive and more affordable.
However, today's television system is now showing its age. A transition to digital is occurring in all media technologies. Direct broadcast satellite providers, for example, have offered digital service since their inception. In contrast, the shortcomings of the 50-year-old analog technology used by broadcasters -- such as limited resolution and color rendition as well as problems with "ghosts" and interference from other radio sources -- have become increasingly apparent as consumer TV sets have become larger and more technologically advanced.
Therefore, at the request of the television broadcast industry, the FCC sponsored an effort to investigate the possibility of significantly improving the technical quality of today's television system.
More than 10 years ago, scientists and engineers in the broadcast, cable, and consumer electronics industries and in government worked on the development of this new television system. Many different approaches were developed and tested. Today's DTV system represents the culmination of this work. DTV eventually will replace today's analog television service. After a transition period that allows stations to construct DTV transmission facilities and consumers gradually to replace their TV sets, broadcasts using the existing analog television system will cease and all over-the-air broadcast television service will be provided with the new DTV system.
2. What is DTV?
DTV is a new "over-the-air" digital television system that will be used by the nearly 1600 local broadcast television stations in the United States. The DTV standard is based on the Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) standard A/53. (For more details on this standard, you can also visit the ATSC web site at (http://www.atsc.org/.)
The DTV standard is a very flexible television system that will allow broadcasters to provide new and higher quality services. First, DTV will permit transmission of television programming in new wide screen, high resolution formats known as high definition television (HDTV). In addition, the new DTV television system allows transmissions in standard definition television (SDTV) formats that provide picture resolution similar to existing television service. Both the HDTV and SDTV formats will have significantly better color rendition than the existing analog television system. The DTV system also will allow broadcasters to transmit multiple programs simultaneously using a single television channel. TV stations will, depending on the type and source of programming, be able to transmit multiple SDTV programs or in some cases two HDTV programs. DTV also will provide improved audio quality, similar to that of compact discs, with up to five channels of sound per program.
The new system will also support delivery of digital data services simultaneously with television and audio programming. Using this data transmission capability, it will be possible for broadcast stations to send publications (such as a local "electronic newspaper"), program schedules, computer software, information requested about specific products, or virtually any other type of information, at the same time that they transmit regular television programming. The DTV system also provides the flexibility to support the introduction of new services in the future, as technology and viewer interests continue to develop.
3. How does DTV provide these improvements?
With DTV, television pictures, sound, and new data services will be transmitted digitally, rather than as an analog signal. The increased capabilities and new services of DTV are made possible through the use of digital compression techniques that allow more information to be transmitted in the same amount of spectrum used by an existing television channel. The data rate of the DTV signal in the 6 MHz broadcast television channel is 19.44 Mbps. This compares with data rates of today's telephone modems of between approximately 28 and 56 Kbps.
4. How will DTV be provided by broadcasters during the transition?
Television stations will operate two channels during the transition: an existing analog channel as well as a new DTV channel. The analog channel will allow consumers to continue to use their current TV sets to receive traditional analog programming during the transition. The DTV channel will allow consumers to receive new and improved services with new DTV sets or with special converter boxes that will allow some DTV programs and services to be viewed on existing analog sets. Roughly 1/2 of the nation's households should be able to receive DTV service by the end of 1999, and everyone else will have access by 2002 (more information on this schedule is provided below). At the end of the transition -- which is currently scheduled for 2006 -- stations will relinquish one of their two channels as they cease analog service and make the change to all-DTV service. The transition schedule is subject to periodic review by the FCC and can be extended beyond 2006 if certain conditions relating to the number of consumers who can receive DTV signals are not met.
5. When will broadcasters begin providing DTV service?
Local broadcasters will be initiating DTV service at different times. A station may begin DTV service as soon as it has received its FCC permit and is ready with equipment and other necessary preparations. The FCC has established a schedule by which broadcasters must begin DTV service (absent extenuating circumstances that may affect individual stations). This schedule requires that stations affiliated with the top four networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC) in the 10 largest markets begin service by May 1, 1999. Stations affiliated with these networks in markets 11-30 must begin service by November 1, 1999. All commercial stations must begin DTV service by May 1, 2002, and all noncommercial educational stations must start by May 1, 2003. A number of stations started DTV service in November of this year. These stations are indicated in the chart below:
Stations Providing DTV Service - November 1998*
|Los Angeles||KABC||KCBS||KNBC||KTLA (WBN)|
|San Francisco||KGO||KPIX||KTVU||KRON||KBHK (UPN)|
|Portland, OR||KOPB (PBS)|
|Kansas City||KCPT (PBS)|
|Harrisburg, PA||WITF (PBS)|
|Jackson, MS||WMPN (PBS)|
* The information in this table is provided courtesy of the National Association of Broadcasters. It will be updated periodically as additional information becomes available.
6. Will DTV operate for the same hours and reach as far as existing local TV service?
TV stations generally will be required to operate their DTV service on the same schedule as their existing service. Most stations' DTV service will reach at least as far as their existing service. However, some stations may operate initially with lower power transmitters, which may cause DTV service in these individual cases to not reach as far as existing TV coverage. You can contact your local TV station to see if its DTV service will be available where you live. Specifically, you may want to ask your local broadcaster whether its DTV signal is strong enough to cover its entire analog service area. If it is not, you may want to ask your broadcaster whether your neighborhood is within the station's initial DTV coverage area and when the broadcaster plans to extend its DTV signal coverage.
7. Do I need a new TV set to receive DTV?
In general, to enjoy the full benefits of DTV such as wide screen, higher resolution pictures you will need to purchase a new DTV set. Existing television sets will not be able to display DTV signals. However, it is expected that less expensive converter boxes will be available that will allow you to watch standard definition DTV on an existing TV set. These boxes will receive DTV signals and convert them to the transmission system used by existing TV sets. The pictures received through these converter boxes should be clear of the "ghosts," and other interference that are characteristic of today's analog TV service in some areas. These converter boxes also will allow any new DTV programs (i.e., programs that are not also available via traditional analog service during the transition) to be displayed on existing TV sets. However, because most existing TV sets were not designed to display high resolution pictures, converter boxes will not be able to provide the higher HDTV picture quality that will be available on new DTV sets. Also, it is possible that some new DTV sets may be marketed that will not be able to display all DTV formats. For example, some DTV sets may not be able to display HDTV signals at their full resolution potential or some sets may not have the new wider screen size. Consumers should be aware of these format differences in selecting DTV sets and should ask electronics retailers to fully explain the capabilities of new DTV equipment.
8. Will the new DTV sets be expensive?
Just as color sets were expensive when they were first introduced in the mid-1950's, the new DTV sets will be expensive at first. However, manufacturers have indicated that they expect prices to fall over time. As noted above, consumers also will have the option of obtaining a converter box that adapts an existing set to digital service. The price of these boxes is expected to drop significantly during the transition to full DTV service.
9. Do I need an outside antenna to receive DTV? Is the antenna I use for existing TV reception good enough?
DTV is intended to work with an outside TV antenna (as is today's analog TV service). If you have an outside antenna and it provides acceptable TV reception now on UHF channels (i.e., channels 14-69), it should also work for DTV. Also, if your indoor antenna is capable of receiving UHF television service now, you may also be able to receive DTV service with that antenna. Indoor DTV reception is affected by a number of factors that vary depending on local conditions. Many retailers carrying DTV equipment have information about local reception conditions. In addition, some retailers are providing technical assistance to customers currently purchasing DTV equipment, including in some cases visits to the home to assist with reception issues. You may want to advise your retailer whether you plan to use an indoor or outdoor antenna and ask whether technical assistance is available.
10. Will I be able to receive existing TV programming on my DTV set?
Yes, digital television sets available during the transition will be fully compatible with traditional analog TV programming. These new digital sets will have the capability to receive new DTV programming and will also be able to receive all the programming you receive today on your traditional set. This means that new DTV sets will be able to display all of the programming available today from broadcasters, cable operators, satellite TV services, other video service providers, and pre-recorded sources. So if you buy a new digital set, you will not lose the ability to get any of the programs you now receive on your current set. You should know, however, that depending on your cable operator's plans for carrying DTV signals (see below), you may need an antenna to receive broadcast DTV programming. To watch both antenna-received programming as well as programming from other soucrces such as cable or satellite, you may need extra equipment (such as an input selector or "A/B" switch).
11. Will cable systems carry local DTV signals?
The FCC does not currently require cable systems to carry DTV signals. The FCC is, however, considering whether to impose such requirements. Nevertheless, some cable operators have indicated that they may carry the DTV programming of local broadcast stations. If these signals are carried in their original DTV format, no additional equipment will be needed to receive them on DTV sets. Some cable systems may, however, convert DTV programming to different digital formats and/or may carry DTV signals at lower resolutions than the original broadcast signal. In such cases, special cable "set-top" boxes may be needed to receive DTV. Consumers should consult with their local cable operator about its plans for providing the DTV programming of local television stations. Because cable operator plans vary from market to market, consumers seeking additional information may want to pose the following questions to local cable providers:
Will your cable system carry local digital broadcast channels when they become available in this market?
If I receive my local digital broadcast programming over cable, will these channels be in the same resolution as if I was receiving them with an antenna?
Will I need a new cable box to receive local digital broadcast channels?
If I will need a new cable box, how much will it cost?
Can I buy the new cable box from a retail outlet, or must it be provided by the cable company?
If I need a new cable box, how will it affect the features of my new DTV set? For example, will I be able to use picture-in-picture features? Can I use the on-screen program guide that is included in my new DTV set?
12. Some cable systems are offering digital services. Does this mean that these cable systems will provide DTV signals just like broadcasters?
Not necessarily. Many cable systems are now offering digital service. However, these digital systems generally are intended to allow cable systems to provide more channels and other services, such as access to the Internet. Special digital set-top boxes are needed to convert digital cable signals for display on existing TVs. Also, cable systems use different digital standards than the DTV standard used by broadcasters and current DTV sets, so digital cable services currently cannot be directly received by DTV sets. Therefore, just as is the case with many existing TVs, a special digital set-top box will be needed to receive digital cable services on a new DTV set. Consumers should be aware that there may be additional charges for digital cable services and that special set-top boxes are needed to receive them. The FCC has instructed the cable industry and consumer electronics manufacturers to work together to try to develop standards to facilitate compatibility between DTV sets and digital cable service. This eventually may permit DTV sets to receive cable service (including digital service) without the need for special converter boxes.
13. Will there be any HDTV cable programming available?
Yes, based on currently announced plans. Like broadcasters, some cable programmers are planning to offer HDTV programming. In particular, some cable programmers are planning to offer high definition versions of "premium" content such as movies and live sporting events. If you are considering the purchase of a DTV set, you should know that you initially may not be able to receive premium cable channels in high definition formats because copyright agreements have not been completed. Specifically, certain kinds of premium content generally will not be available in HDTV formats until methods for preventing the making of unauthorized copies become finalized. Work on these "copy protection" solutions is underway but is not yet complete. You therefore may wish to ask your local cable operator to describe its plans for offering high definition cable channels. Specific questions you may want to ask include:
Is your cable system planning to offer any digital cable programming? If so, what programming will be in HDTV formats?
Will my new DTV set be able to receive HDTV cable programming when it becomes available?
If not, can my new DTV set be upgraded with new capabilities or special equipment to receive HDTV cable programming when it become available?
14. Will I be able to receive satellite TV services, including new HDTV programming, on my DTV set?
Yes, with the proper equipment. Satellite TV providers currently deliver programming service to consumers using separate satellite reception equipment (typically, a set-top satellite receiver and a satellite dish). Some satellite TV providers recently have announced plans to supply high definition digital programming for DTV sets. New set-top satellite receivers and slightly larger dishes generally will be needed to receive this programming. In addition, some consumer electronics manufacturers have announced plans to provide new digital sets with a built-in satellite TV receiver. If you purchase one of these sets, you may not need a separate set-top device. You may wish to ask your satellite TV provider about its plans for providing DTV programming, including any plans for providing high definition programming.
15. Where can I get more information about any of these questions and issues?
For more information on these topics, you can e-mail questions to the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology at email@example.com. Also, as discussed above, you should contact your local television station, cable provider, satellite service provider, and consumer electronics retailer to learn more about specific issues. The FCC also will provide additional consumer bulletins in the future to keep consumers informed as the DTV transition progresses.
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Is Biocoal the Answer?
A recent Bangor Daily News article (here) discusses how the new owners of two paper mills in Millinocket, Maine plan to use this technology to convert wood waste into torrefied wood also known as biocoal. Proponents tout the technology as carbon neutral if waste material is used as the source for the process.
Nick Sambides Jr., BDN Staff
Posted Dec. 01, 2011, at 12:56 p.m.
MILLINOCKET, Maine — Cate Street Capital has purchased for more than $20 million the North American rights to the technology to manufacture biocoal, a huge step toward adding the production of treated wood at its Katahdin Avenue paper mill and creating several hundred jobs, officials said Thursday.
Cate Street subsidiary Thermogen Industries LLC secured exclusive rights from Scotland-based Rotawave Biocoal to manufacture a type of machine — called Targeted Intelligent Energy System, or TIES — that makes biocoal, or torrefied wood, which would replace coal burned at electricity plants, Cate Street spokesman Scott Tranchemontagne said.
“It is the most tangible sign of our commitment to moving this project forward,” Tranchemontagne said Thursday of the $20 million deal. “We have the technology. We have a wonderful site at the end of the Golden Road and we have a labor force that is ready and willing to work. Those are some key pieces to any business looking to start up.”
If Thermogen’s plans reach fruition, Cate Street senior vice president Richard Cyr said, Thermogen’s production of biocoal would help transform the state forest products industry.
Thermogen and Cate Street subsidiary Great Northern Paper Co., which operates the East Millinocket and Millinocket paper mills, would also benefit from several independent and ongoing governmental and private business initiatives.
Those initiatives include the $10.5 million reconstruction of 233 miles of northern Maine railroad tracks, the expansion of the shipping port in Searsport, Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to extend a natural gas line to the Katahdin region by 2013, and Cate Street’s own revitalization of the mills.
By acquiring the rights to TIES, Rotawave Biocoal’s microwave-based biocoal production system, Thermogen has solidified plans to install five or six TIES machines in Millinocket starting in November 2012. Creating jobs for 22 to 25 workers directly and dozens of truckers, loggers and other support providers indirectly, the first $35 million TIES machine would supply United Kingdom utilities with biocoal, Cyr said.
Millinocket would be the site of the first of four or five biocoal mills eventually nationwide, Cyr said. Rotawave’s attempt to sell its technology rights to a Vancouver company that would have built a biocoal factory in British Columbia last year fell through, he said.
“We have been looking for a home for Thermogen for two years. Over that time we have been studying a lot of technologies,” Cyr said, calling Rotawave’s “the one that created the best end product.”
Engineers are developing plans now to site the machines at the Millinocket mill as Cate Street assembles its financing and seeks engineers to build the Rotawave machines, Cyr said. Cate Street hopes to have the design and financing ready within four months, with mill site work possibly beginning then as well, Tranchemontagne said.
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In an interview between Mike Sylvester and Dr Barry Sears (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6aTIjjNFts
WFS), Dr Sears says that if one takes carbs out of a diet to such a great degree, the body rebels... if one doesn't put enough carbs into the mouth for brain function, it will send out the hormone cortisol to tear down muscle mass and convert it into glucose.. and if one does this long enough they develop insulin resistance and regain all the weight.
Does anyone have experience with this?
I tried zero to very low carbs (eg a salad every few days) for three weeks and lost enough water and fat so that I could see the outline of a six pack. It was the leanest I'd ever been. And I don't think I lost much, if any, muscle mass in the process. If it is supposed to cause cortisol production I should imagine that the fat on my abdomen would increase or be really hard to get rid of? But that wasn't the case to my knowledge.
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About the Koch Chair
The Koch Chair brings visiting scholars distinguished by their knowledge of and commitment to Catholic intellectual and cultural tradition into dialogue with the academic disciplines. This approach supports a full range of expertise, from science to the arts and humanities. The Koch Chair aims to extend the legacy of Catholic thought to all members of the campus community.
The concept of the Koch Chair is unusual within Catholic higher education because most institutions offer Catholic teaching within a single department. The intention of the Koch Chair is to provide opportunities for faculty, staff and students to gain an enriched understanding of the heritage of Catholic thought that has shaped not only the faith tradition of CSB/SJU but also the pursuit of knowledge across disciplines.
The Koch Chair sponsors a lecture series and other events aimed at engaging members of the campus community in dialogue on topics that inform, illustrate, and promote the interface of the Catholic intellectual and social tradition with the wider culture.
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Mower Tract Ecological Restoration
The Wes-Mon-Ty Resource Conservation and Development Project,
Appalachian Plant Materials Center, and Monongahela National Forest
have joined forces to restore watershed conditions and the native red
spruce-northern hardwood ecosystem on surface mined land on Cheat Mountain.
Through the use of native vegetation to reduce maintenance costs and increase
the probability of success a restoration project and habitat improvement project
has been implemented on the Mower Tract, which was surfacemined in the early
80s. The objective is to establish and restore native species of shrubs, trees,
and herbaceous plants to this area with a short-term goal (5-20 years) of
enhancing habitat for early successional species and a long-term goal of spruce
ecosystem restoration. The primary plant species targeted to use for long term
restoration efforts include, but are not limited to: speckled alder, bigtooth
aspen, balsam fir, and red spruce.
The Forest Service is working with partners to collect seeds or roots from
trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants native to the high elevations of West
Virginia. The Appalachian Plant
Materials Center has propagated several species including common elderberry,
yellow birch, black locust, alternate-leaved dogwood, scarlet beebalm, and bigtooth aspen. Initially, 417 1 gallon pots of beebalm and elderberry were planted
by hand with pick axes and shovels. The following planting days implemented a
Skid-Steer with an auger which allowed for deeper and larger holes for the 2
gallon aspen pots. The auger aided in a total of 246 beebalm, 195 yellow birch,
67 black locust, 18 alternative-leaved dogwood, 772 elderberry, and 501 bigtooth
aspen being planted on approximately 30 acres, for a total of 1799 native
plants. Beebalm and elderberry plants were flagged to help with follow up
observations. Each aspen was staked when needed and secured with flagging tape
to dissuade grazers until trees were established; additionally, each aspen was
flagged for follow up observations. To help establish an effective experimental
design for next spring, ten aspen trees were fitted with a 1x1 square meter
garden fabric sheet to deter sod re-growth and terra-sorb was scattered in the
bottom of 20 aspen holes.
Mower Tract wildlife habitat enhancement and ecological restoration has many
short term and long-term benefits. Primarily, native flora restoration on the
Mower Tract will greatly succor and conserve species including the Cheat
Mountain salamander, northern flying squirrel, snowshoe hare, golden eagles,
woodcock, ruffed grouse, saw whet owl and a number of pollinating animals by
providing a variety of food sources and niches. Short term benefits are already
being realized as wildlife feeding and pollination has already been observed
this summer season. In the next 40 years, a vast habitat improvement is expected
regarding natural biodiversity by establishing a vegetative community which will
proliferate itself naturally.
||Bigtooth aspen are native to the Monongahela
National Forest and grow quickly to shade out invasive grasses and
provide a food source and habitat.
||Several aspen were staked in preparation of high winds and flagged
to deter wildlife from grazing on the young tress before their roots
became established. Ten aspen were fitted with garden fabric sheets to
control the growth of invasive sod.
August News and
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Members visit free all year! Purchase and visit today.
Avoid the line! Print your tickets at home.
Bob: Male, born June 14, 2002 at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Arrived at the Zoo on April 17, 2003. Identifiable by a bright white mask.
Goldie: Female, born June 14, 2002 at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Arrived at the Zoo on April 17, 2003. Identifiable by a golden crest.
Spiderman: Male, born June 14, 2002 at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Arrived at the Zoo on April 17, 2003. Identifiable by a dark mask.
These three coatis are siblings from the same litter.
Look below the rocky outcroppings or up high on the branches.
The white-nosed coati is also referred to as coati mundi. In Belize they have a local name "Quash".
White-nosed coati typically live into their teens in zoological settings. In the wild they may live between 5-10 years.
Coatis are considered non-seasonal breeders, however many accounts have them breeding between April and June. Gestation is typically 10-11 weeks. A female may emerge from the nest with her young within 5 weeks after birth. The coati may produce a litter of 2-7 offspring. The young weigh only 3.5 to 6.3 ounces (100-180 g) at birth.
A typical day would find a coati foraging and walking up to 1.5 miles (2000 meters) a day in search of food. Coatis will climb trees however they spend much of their time on the ground. When startled the coati will climb to the tree tops for safety. They have been observed climbing as high as 98 feet (30 meters). They are a diurnal species, which means they are active during the day.
Their head and body measure 1.3-2.3ft (400-700mm) and their shoulder height is measured at about 1 ft (300mm). The tail alone can measure 1-2.3ft (300-700mm). They are similar in size to a raccoon.
9-13 pounds (4-6 kg).
The coati is an omnivore consuming mainly fruits and insects in the wild, but they also enjoy a variety of small vertebrates and eggs. At the Zoo the coati receive a base diet of a commercial raw meat mix. The meat mix provides the majority of the nutrients the animals require. The enrichment portion of the diet includes a variety of insects, fruit, eggs and rodents offered on a rotation through the week. The enrichment portion of the diet promotes normal feeding and foraging behaviors and contributes to the overall nutrient intake of the animal.
The coati can be found inhabiting tropical rainforests and dry scrub. They range from Arizona through Mexico and Central America to Panama and can be found in some areas of South America.
3400 W GIRARD AVEPHILADELPHIA, PA 19104
COPYRIGHT ©2013PHILADELPHIA ZOOALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Positive displacement flowmeters, also known as PD meters, measure volumes of fluid flowing through by counting repeatedly the filling and discharging of known fixed volumes. A typical positive displacement flowmeter comprises a chamber that obstructs the flow. Inside the chamber, a rotating/reciprocating mechanical unit is placed to create fixed-volume discrete parcels from the passing fluid.
In the VFF the rotor is basically a disc shape with an annular groove on its underside capable of holding and transporting flow from the chamber inlet to the outlet. Some fluid is also transported in a cavity formed between the rotor outside wall and the chamber wall. A centre 'peg' under the rotor is constrained to run in a circular groove in the body. A web (or plate) in the body is engaged with a slot in the rotor and this modifies the rotation to that of an oscillation as flow passes. It is this oscillation that produces the compartmentation of the fluid into 'positively displaced pockets'. The top of the rotor is equipped with a powerful magnet directly above the 'peg' that is on the underside and so this also has a circular path which allows it to engage and disengage a reed switch sensor located in the top cap above. A volt-free contact closure output signal is given for each oscillation which represents a volume increment. The fluid is transported in a 'positive' manner at all times. The typical metering repeatability is better than 0.2% and a meter accuracy of 1% actual reading is usually obtained over a substantial flow range. For lowest flows the meter will under-read the actual flow in a consistent manner. This allows an improved wide-range system accuracy to be gained by the use of a linearising electronics instrument.
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DR. HOOK- Phew! Sweaty palms, pits a slick problem
Sweaty hands? Feel the pressure? When I was younger, I used to sweat at the drop of a hat. In high school, I was in a show choir, "The Top 20." One dreaded night just before a performance, I ripped my pants in a bad place, but in Ethel Merman style, the show must go on!
I was so nervous that my glasses fogged up, I sweated bullets, and my singing/dancing partner had to endure holding my sweaty hand. If I were Tarzan, I would have slipped off the vines and fallen into the mouth of a waiting crocodile.
Sweaty hands, feet, and armpits are no laughing matter for those with hyperhidrosis: excessive sweating (or, as Miss Manners would no doubt prefer, "perspiration"). Let's just focus on sweating hands, feet, and/or armpits, which are a source of embarrassment for those who suffer with the problem.
Everyone's armpits sweat. That's why men wear T-shirts under their dress shirts (though Clark Gable didn't in It Happened One Night, which made his fans perspire more than his armpits). But in hyperhidrosis, the sweating occurs with stress, nervousness, or hot situations. Interestingly, hyperhidrosis doesn't occur during sleep (unlike night sweats, which occur mostly in the head, neck, and torso).
There are as many deodorants and antiperspirants as hair coloring products on the pharmacy shelves because nobody wants to smell like a hockey player with seven missing teeth. The appearance of sweaty armpits is so not America's Next Top Model. When all over-the-counter antiperspirants fail, patients head for the doctor.
Aluminum is more than a foil wrap. It's also a key ingredient in products such as Drysol and Xerac to stop sweat glands from secreting. (I like the name Drysol because it sounds like something used in a home improvement show.) These heavy-duty antiperspirants are used everyday until the hyperhidrosis stops, and then used about once a week for maintenance.
However, hyperhidrosis of the hands and feet is much harder to treat than in the armpits. Hyperhidrosis of the feet can not only cause emotional distress but also bring unhealthy consequences. You know how when you soak in the tub too long your fingers and toes look like prunes? The same thing happens to feet trapped inside warm, dark shoes. The skin easily breaks down, making the feet prone to bleeding and infection. (Do not open mouth, insert foot.)
Shaking hands is a source of embarrassment. Can you imagine interviewing for a job? It's a nerve-wracking experience: you're worried your hands are going to sweat profusely– wait, they are sweating profusely– oh, boy you don't want to slime the new boss's hand, can't give him an Asian bow instead, yada yada yada. Not good.
What if you work in retail and your sweaty hands leave marks on the clothes? How about construction? Can you imagine swinging a heavy tool and having it fly out of your hands into someone's car windshield?
What are some remedies?
Botox does more than iron out an old face. It also blocks the sweat glands. But it has to be administered in a scatter-shot pattern of tiny injections that can be quite painful. An ion machine with plain ole tap water is being studied because it seems to work for some folks– and it's painless. Surgery– I shiver– can be done to destroy the nervous system that stimulates the sweat glands, but in general it's not recommended.
I don't sweat like I used to. Is it because I'm calmer? Hmmm, define "calm." People ask me if I get nervous when I'm on the TV news, and fortunately I do not. I struggle enough putting on my makeup at 6am. I would hate to powder my nose twice.
Dr. Hook cracks a joke or two, but he's a renowned physician with a local practice. Email him with your questions.
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June 6, 2012: Ray Bradbury dies at 91.
The great American author (best known for his science-fiction works) of Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and hundreds of other novels, short stories, plays, passed away today after “a lengthy illness”. The obituary that appeared in The New York Times calls him “the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream”. Following Bradbury’s death, Steven Spielberg said of the author: “In the world of science fiction and fantasy and imagination he is immortal”; President Obama remarked that “his gift for storytelling reshaped our culture and expanded our world”.
More quotes from Bradbury and from his works:
Books were only one type of receptacle where we started a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical about them at all. The magic is only with what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment.
If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war.
Stuff your eyes with wonder … live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.
If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn.
- Fahrenheit 451
There was always a minority afraid of something, and a great majority afraid of the dark, afraid of the future, afraid of the past, afraid of the present, afraid of themselves and shadows of themselves.
- The Martian Chronicles
A good night sleep, or a ten minute bawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, is good medicine.
The first thing you learn in life is you’re a fool. The last thing you learn in life is you’re the same fool.
- Dandelion Wine
Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.
- “The Meadow”
I wonder how many men, hiding their youngness, rise as I do, Saturday mornings, filled with the hope that Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam and Daffy Duck will be there waiting as our one true always and forever salvation?
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Casco, ME (NEWS CENTER)-- Camp Sunshine is for kids who have a life-threatening disease. They come with their families for a week of fun and relaxation to be with others in similar situations. It is one of the only camps in Maine that opens in the winter.
Families come from all over the Northeast during illness-specific weeks. Families are housed on the grounds near Point Sebago, on Sebago Lake.
"You don't need to explain yourself. We're all in the same situation," said Susan MacIntosh James, the mother of an eight year old whose cancer is in remission.
The families share in many outdoor activities including, ice skating snow shoeing and cross country skiing. This winter, some outdoor activities have been curtailed because of a lack of snow.
Inside, the kids play in age groups in a big rec room or get together for swimming. The happiness in the room is a far cry from the way families felt when they first learned the diagnosis. "It was devastating," said Julie Pike of Jay, Maine.
Families learn that a diagnosis of life-threatening illness is not necessarily a death sentence. A mixture of families are invited each week that the camp is open. Some are new, some are in treatment and some are in remission.
During their week at Camp Sunshine, the kids don't seem to care. They just want to have fun.
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Seven-year-old Samuel Boutwell is an outgoing and well-spoken second grader. He loves to play with his dogs and play soccer, but he loves something else even more.
Samuel is a Baptist preacher at a church in his home town of Brookhaven, a small town in southwestern Mississippi. He also preaches outside in front of the local Wal-Mart, and has preached on the road in Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Washington D.C., and the streets of New York City.
Like many, Samuel said he became a preacher after he was "saved" by Jesus -- he just happened to be 3 years old at the time. "After I got saved, I knew I could try to reach more people to try to get saved," Samuel said. His sin against God? Disobeying his mom. And so the boy turned to Jesus.
When asked to describe God, Samuel said, "Can you show me a building that didn't have a builder, could you show me a painting that didn't have a painter? Because nobody made God. He just exists." Samuel is home-schooled and fed a steady diet of Scripture, but his father, Kendall Boutwell, a born-again lay preacher himself, said the idea of preaching was all Samuel's.
Soon after he was saved, Samuel said God spoke to him by helping him come up with things to preach about. "When I asked to preach, right when I think I can preach, God gives me something right there," he said.
Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest and preacher and a professor of religion at Barnard College, wondered if Samuel's words truly come from divine inspiration. "Is he merely parroting some line…that he gets from a parent, or from a minister, or is it something that comes from the wellspring of the soul?" Balmer asked.
Balmer is the author of a dozen books on religion (his next book, "God in the White House: A History -- 1960-2004," will be published in spring 2008). He said that kids simply don't have the life experience to preach. "I believe that one's calling as a minister arises out of the crucible of one's experience…and there's a certain maturity that comes with that, a certain understanding of the faith that comes with that."
But Samuel's father believes his son gets his understanding from God. "I know he's divinely inspired…if you listen to the messages, the different ones on the different subjects, yes, he's definitely divinely inspired," said TK. He also believes that his son is not too young to preach.
Another child minister, 9-year-old Terry Durham bills himself as the "little man of God." He's a travel-worn veteran compared to Samuel Boutwell. Terry has preached in cities around the country since he was only 4 years old. But he doesn't stop at just preaching. His grandmother, Pastor Sharone Monroe, said that "ever since he was a baby he was layin' hands and praying for people."
Monroe raised Terry and taught him much of what he knows about preaching and touching people to take away their pain. "When I touch the people, I feel God's hands come into my hands," said Terry, "and it's so exciting to see God move in the midst of their problems."
Terry calls himself a prophet, not a healer, and adults seem to flock to him. He disagrees with the idea that he might be too young for preaching, saying "people say Jesus started at the age of 12. And they say that my grandmother is pushing me, but it's not my grandmother, it's the power of God that's pushing me."
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“Human guinea pigs”, “gambling with health” and “shadowy research project”—the terms came thick and fast in Greenpeace’s revelation about Golden Rice earlier this year.
Referring to something it “discovered” four years previously, the environmental pressure group issued a press release at the end of August revealing that a team of scientists from the United States had “fed a group of 24 children aged between six and eight years of age a potentially dangerous product” in Hunan Province, China. It encouraged readers to be “pretty outraged”.
Greenpeace’s allegations were levelled against researchers from Tufts University in Boston, who had been working on a long-term and well-documented study on rice that could produce beta-carotene, which when eaten is converted into vitamin A.
The new rice variety was created by splicing two genes into white rice, and scientists have since found a way to include iron in newer varieties. Together it adds up to a pretty useful package when you consider that a full one-half of the world’s population is vitamin deficient, according to the United Nations.
Work on Golden Rice actually began nearly a decade before the Hunan research took place. A team of European scientists had, in 1999, used open-source technology to develop the strain into what would become the first major genetically enhanced food in a new generation of bio-engineered produce that could be eaten directly by the consumer.
It might be the case that the Hunan researchers cut some corners, as Greenpeace alleges, and a Tufts ethics committee is currently looking into that. But to say that Golden Rice was “potentially dangerous” is tantamount to over-egging the flan with every yolk in China.
The trial was meant to find out if the addition of a small amount of Golden Rice into the food of young Chinese children would deliver enough added nutrients to have a significant impact on their development. According to an article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition—the report on which Greenpeace based its “discovery”—the results of the research were extremely positive.
China, as the world’s largest rice producer, had hitherto been a proponent of genetically modified research and supports agricultural biotechnology. Indeed, authorities in the country have approved Bt rice, a locally developed strain of engineered rice, although it is not yet in production.
But the country has reacted heavy-handedly since Greenpeace’s “findings”, not least due to the ensuing public outcry. Rumours shot across the Internet, through the Chinese social media site Weibo, claiming that the rice would make the children impotent in later life, among other scare stories. Naturally, those villagers whose children were involved in the trial were outraged, as one would expect them to be as they lacked the benefit of informed judgement.
The Chinese media, meanwhile, sensing an opportunity to hurl dirt at the United States, continued to fan the flames with its own hysterical outrage, claiming that the research was part of a scurrilous conspiracy between the American government and local scientists to carry out a secretive experiment on its country’s unwitting children.
The three Chinese scientists implicated by Greenpeace, as FoodNavigator-Asia reported last week, paid for their involvement by forfeiting their jobs. However, both the American and Chinese researchers continue to assert that all studies were transparent, and claim they informed all parents involved that their children would be eating nutritionally enhanced rice.
And here is the bone of contention. While the parents do not deny the scientists’ assertions, their outrage stems from the terminology: that the “nutritionally enhanced” rice was never referred to as “genetically modified”.
As a result, local government officials paid compensation—substantial by local standards—to the parents. All the while, research that is meant to help the 100m children with vitamin A deficiency across the globe is now under a shadow in the world’s most populous nation.
Greenpeace has made no bones about its opposition to modification, even as a means to secure food supplies and enhance the meagre produce available to the poorest and most deprived. Instead, it champions vitamin tablets and organic farming—worthy indeed, but not much use for those living hand to mouth.
It all goes to show how much emotive power the letters G and M have, even to those who cannot define what they mean when put together. Rather than join in with the lynch mob, as it has done, the Chinese government and others like it should instead be acting to inform those in need of the true benefits of the technology it has already approved.
Greenpeace might have said: “We're... seeing a huge amount of time, energy and talent being wasted on what is essentially yet another example of big business hustling in of one the world's most sacred things: our food supply.” But the reality is that it is guilty of wasting the same resources on these unnecessary PR coups.
Editor's note: What is your opinion on this controversy? Has Greenpeace overplayed its card or is GM rice a danger, in spite of its known benefits to the world's poor? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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Report: Facebook Apps Transmit Personal Data
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
There's new evidence that popular Facebook applications, such as the game Farmville, could compromise users' privacy. The Wall Street Journal reports that advertisers and data-collection companies have been using these apps to collect the indentifying information from Facebook users.
Farmville and other apps are made by third-party companies, and Facebook forbids them from sharing users' IDs with others. But as NPR's Martin Kaste reports, Facebook's privacy rules are hard to enforce.
MARTIN KASTE: Harlan Yu is a computer science grad student at Princeton, and when he heard last night that Facebook apps might be leaking personal information, he decided to check it out for himself.
Mr. HARLAN YU (Student, Princeton University): So I hooked up my browser to Farmville.
KASTE: He ran a special program that let him see all the information leaving his Facebook account, all those packets of data that you and I never see. And he looked especially closely at the data that Farmville was sending to other companies.
Mr. YU: So I could look at requests from Farmville.com to, say, doubleclick.net, which is Google's advertising company, and it's clear that my Facebook user ID is embedded in those requests.
KASTE: Now, you may say: Who cares if some advertising company knows that I play Farmville? And the answer is nobody. But that's not the data that Chris Soghoian is worried about.
Mr. CHRIS SOGHOIAN (Research Fellow, Center for Applied Cyber Security Research, Indiana University): What's being given away is your name.
KASTE: Soghoian is a fellow at the Center for Applied Cyber Security Research at Indiana University. And he says the problem is, your name is being linked to a lot of formerly-anonymous data.
Think of it this way: for years, data companies have been collecting information about an anonymous person who happens to sit at your computer: They have a virtual folder full of data about that person's habits, his purchases, and so on. But once you play Farmville, and it passes along your Facebook ID, advertisers can finally take that fat folder of market research and put your name on it. But Chris Soghoian doesn't really blame Facebook for this.
Mr. SOGHOIAN: This is not about Facebook's screw-up. Facebook had a screw-up similar to this in May, but this particular instance is about the Facebook app developers like Zynga and a few of the others. And they could have taken proactive steps to protect user data, to product the user ID from being inadvertently or advertently leaked.
KASTE: In fact, Soghoian says this is a potential problem outside the Facebook universe, too. He says other sites, such as Google, could pass on your ID the same way. That's because this information is often contained in the URLs of the websites you visit, that's that long line of data with the web address and other kinds of information. Most people's Web browsers just pass the URL information along.
Mr. SOGHOIAN: It's whatever is in the URL. If the URL contains, you know, personal information, that gets transmitted. If they URL includes your search terms, that gets transmitted. Whatever's in the URL gets transmitted.
KASTE: Facebook did not grant NPR an interview for this story, nor did Zynga, the company that makes Farmville and other Facebook games. On its blog, Facebook says it's working on a technical fix for the ID leaks, but it also says the press has, quote, "exaggerated the leaks' implications."
In an interview with NPR last year, Facebook public policy director Tim Sparapani admitted that someone could create a Facebook application that, quote, "abuses a user's privacy..."
(Soundbite of archived audio)
Mr. TIM SPARAPANI (Public Policy Director, Facebook): But when that happens, we find out about it, and we take action to enforce our terms of service. And then we take legal action to scrape back data that's been unlawfully or inappropriately gathered from our users.
KASTE: Facebook has not yet said whether it will try to scrape back the user data that was leaked in this case.
Martin Kaste, NPR news.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
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|Online Banking Security – Firms Take On Scammers with Exclusive Web Addresses|
|Written by Doug Miller|
|Wednesday, 22 August 2012 12:29|
In an era of ever more-integrated online banking, financial institutions have a security problem. Con artists have been trolling for vulnerable account holders through phishing and site-spoofing since the start of online banking. These issues have persisted over time with hacking and unauthorized access to clients’ account information occurring frequently enough that bolstering security is always at the top of banks’ to-do lists. Efforts to make online account access more secure have included various forms of two-factor authentication (e.g., B of A’s SiteKey and Chase’s Identification Code), along with the addition of security Information to email messages to alert clients that the email is legitimate. These features have helped protect clients from hackers and educate them about popular scams but security issues remain a concern.
Chase Identification Code Verification
As reported recently in the Wall Street Journal, one of the newest fronts in the war against scammers is dedicated Internet domain extensions. The new extensions, which the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers is currently considering, would enable banks to assign firm-based endings to their web addresses, such as dot-citi (.citi) or dot-amex. The approval of such extensions would mark a major departure for the web as a whole, as traditional .gov, .edu, and .com address endings continue to dominate (at least in the U.S. market).
The idea behind these new extensions is that ID thieves will find it more difficult (if not impossible) to fake a site address that has a dedicated domain extension. For example, con men currently create knock off sites to prey on unsuspecting card users through misspellings of traditional banking sites, like www.capitolone.com. With the introduction of these new extensions, online banking users will be provided with an easy way to check for the legitimacy of a private site login page.
The potential of this new anti-fraud solution seems to have attracted attention from most of the big banking and credit card companies. Most of the major banks, with the notable exception of Wells Fargo, have submitted a registration request to the non-profit company that regulates internet naming conventions.
Considering that a surprising portion of online users still believe that they have received an email from a Nigerian prince in need of help transferring money, it is important that firms educate clients about the new web address changes and encourage them to be diligent online. Without proper education, the new site extensions and the subsequent rebranding of banking sites, may end up being more of a marketing initiative for tougher security measures than a genuine enhancement in the security users enjoy online.
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Guest 1: Sue Johnson, coauthor, and Rick Johnson, illustrator, of Grandloving.
Topic: Making memories with your grandchildren.
Issues: How grandparents provide stability and security for grandchildren; fun, inexpensive things to do with the grandkids; staying in touch over long distances; tips for grandparents caring for or raising grandchildren.
Guest 2: Lisa Guernsey, author of Into the Minds of Babes.
Topic: How screen time affects children from birth to age five.
Issues: Why the concerns about television causing ADHD are overblown; why “interactivity is not all it’s cracked up to be; how baby videos may be doing more harm that good; the damage done by having a television going in the background.
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In a culture where high-tech is synonymous with high-class, simple technology can seem irrelevant and outdated. After all, the low-tech lifestyle of horse-drawn carriages, weaving looms, and windmills hearkens back to an era predating our grandparents. Who wants to carry the stigma of appearing old-fashioned? Yet that desire to be modern — through new cars, computers, and televisions — has led to many social ills such as climate change, e-waste, and the obesity epidemic. Perhaps it’s high time to rethink high-tech.
The trouble with high-tech is that it prefers complicated solutions to simple ones. Take the problem of navigation, for example. Where a simple map and compass would do, high-tech prefers a GPS device instead. With the low-tech solution, all that’s needed is a piece of paper and a magnetized piece of iron. The high-tech device, however, requires batteries for power, integrated circuits for the computer, light-emitting diodes for the display, and hundreds of geosynchronous satellites for geolocation signals. Such sophistication, indeed, might come in handy for a truck driver or a mail carrier. But for the average commuter, the selling point of a GPS device is usually some minor convenience like voice navigation. How trivial, given high-tech’s record of wanton environmental destruction.
That pattern of environmental destruction is no accident. With high-tech products, wastefulness is built into the very design of its life-cycle. When a device requires electronics to manufacture, it is nearly impossible for an ordinary person to build it using scrap material. Any boy scout can print out a map using scratch paper and magnetize a compass made of scrap iron. Assembling your own TomTom — using only repurposed electronics, no less — is a superhuman feat (1).
So high-tech devices must always come from stores, which have little incentive to recycle. Repairs, when offered at all, are rare and expensive. That does not trouble shoppers as much as it should, since they have grown accustomed to devices that are not built to last. But will they ever grow accustomed to e-waste and landfills?
A pitiful trend emerges. Rather than empowering a person to solve his own problem, high-tech makes him dependent on outside infrastructure. A traveler must now rely on semiconductor factories, satellite networks, and coal power plants to figure out where he is. This forms the beginning of a vicious cycle: the more he uses his GPS, the quicker he forgets traditional navigation skills. Map illiteracy rates will rise, making GPS devices appear all the more essential. It is a likely situation, considering that only two centuries ago, our ancestors could navigate using stars alone.
Depending on a Rube-Goldberg machine is not cheap. Embedded in the price tag of every GPS device is the price of its specialized components: the processor, the LED display, the memory chips, the lithium-ion battery, the antenna, and the plastic surrounding the electronics. But the heaviest costs aren’t reflected in the price at all: they are passed on to future generations. Recycling e-waste is expensive, and no one wants to pay for the cleanup of space debris left by decomissioned satellites (2).
Alas, money can’t buy everything, especially not the infrastructure that high-tech demands. This is especially true in the backcountry, but even in the city, infrastructure can fail during an emergency. Satellite signals can grow weak, batteries can die, electronics can short-circuit, data can be erased, and GPS stores can close. When the infrastructure that sustains high-tech shuts down, so do the inventions. Modern technologies are not as robust as their primitive counterparts, so they simply stop working — often when needed the most.
It makes sense, then, to search for better technology — technology that is not highly complicated but rather highly appropriate. The ideal technology will be small in scale, easy to build, simple to fix, straightforward to recycle, low in cost, and highly reliable. This quest for appropriate technology, it turns out, often leads us back to the technology of our ancestors.
Besides, there’s no shame in being old fashioned. Horse-drawn buggies might draw unwanted attention, but other simple inventions, such as bicycles, vegetable gardens, and solar cookers, can even be stylish. You just need the will to get started — and maybe a little courage to deal with those curious neighbors and their impolite stares.
- Gpskit.nl teaches you how to build your own GPS using common hardware. The problem is that it’s difficult to recycle electronics.
- All those satellites produce a lot of space debris. Who will clean up all that floating garbage?
- Low-Tech Magazine has some great articles on low-tech inventions.
- Photo credit: Calsidyrose, CC BY.
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Britain plans to scrap development aid to India by 2015 as critics argue the fast-developing nation no longer needs the money - and the UK can no longer afford it.
"It's obviously terrific that India is now growing fast and that is improving the lives of many of the people - both the wealth and some of the burgeoning middle class …. But the fact is that there is still a very large number of very poor people in India and on average it's still a country with very modest incomes. So although we're aware of the growing inequality and the very large number of wealthy people - there’s an enormous number of very poor people who are being reached with British aid at the moment."
- Owen Barder, Center for Global Development in Europe
But some aid organisations have already voiced their concerns that India's poorest will miss out.
Oxfam says the decision to completely withdraw funding is "too hasty" and World Vision criticised the decision, warning that it was “no easy task for any government to lift so many out of poverty in the short term”.
Britain is instead pledging a new approach to foreign aid that will not include India with a greater focus on helping the world's poorest.
The UK says the relationship will move from aid towards trade as its granting of foreign aid becomes increasingly controversial at home.
In a statement Justine Greening, the UK's development minister, said: "Having visited India I have seen first-hand the tremendous progress being made. India is successfully developing and our own bilateral relationship has to keep up with 21st Century India. It's time to recognise India's changing place in the world.''
Critics of foreign aid also argue that pouring millions into relatively wealthy countries devalues the concept of aid.
The UK is among the world's top foreign aid donors and is committed to increasing expenditure in line with United Nations targets, which for the world's wealthiest nations, is to increase foreign aid expenditure to 0.7 per cent of GDP by 2013.
"This cannot be an ego issue; this is not something that has been channelised to the Indian economy per se. I don't think we should look at aid as help, we should look at it as a contribution – that's a positive term .... Instead of using the words "aid versus trade" we've got to look at it as "aid versus trade-off" it has to be a win-win situation … Let it continue the way it is but try and ensure there is a reverse contribution from that state that benefits Britain."
- Chetan Sharma, a financial analyst
But as the world's major donors face economic problems of their own, some argue that foreign handouts would be better spent at home. The UK is itself currently spending $70bn in interest payments on its debts.
Meeting those UN targets means getting UK taxpayers to foot a $20bn foreign aid bill - which is an estimated quarter of its entire defense budget.
Meanwhile, India, a former British colony, is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and its manufacturing industry has helped make it a major global player. But while the rewards for some have been huge - for millions poverty remains a brutal reality.
Yet, there have been signs that foreign aid has become unpopular among some Indians. Earlier this year, P. Chidambaram, India's finance minister, told the parliament it was "perfectly acceptable" for the UK to reduce the assistance.
"We don’t really need the aid ... We have accepted it in the past but I think both countries have agreed that we can emphasise on trade, rather than aid," he said.
So, with billions of dollars being sent to relatively well-off countries, can the world's wealthier countries still afford to fund the poor? And is foreign aid getting to those countries that really need it?
To discuss this, Inside Story presenter Stephen Cole speaks to guests: Owen Barder, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Global Development in Europe. He was a former senior official at the British department for international development; Chetan Sharma, a senior financial analyst and columnist; and Alex Scrivener, the policy officer for the World Development Movement and a specialist on aid.
"We spend just 0.6 per cent of our gross national income on overseas aid and if you compare it to the amount of money [spent on] the UK foreign policy and trade policy through the World Bank and the IMF we are actually sucking out of developing countries through unfair trade, it's actually not very much money at all.
What we must remember is that India is a country full of very, very poor people - it is one of the most unequal societies in the world. Half a billion people live in conditions of extreme poverty. So when we talk about giving aid from rich countries to poor countries, that's an outdated way of looking at things we should be thinking about it as rich people and poor people - and there are a lot more poor people in India than there are in the UK."
Alex Scrivener, a policy officer for the World Development Movement
DONORS AND RECEIVERS OF AID:
The five biggest aid donors in the world, as of last year are:
- The United States, committing $30.7bn a year
- Germany, which gives some $14.5bn annually, followed by the UK, France and Japan
The biggest recipients of aid are:
- Afghanistan, which receives about $5.3bn a year
- Indonesia, which gets more than $2.9bn
- India, which receives about the same - $2.9bn
- China, which gets $2.4bn
- Iraq, which receives $2.3bn
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Posts Tagged ‘Canadian Cities’
Calgary, Waterloo, Ottawa, Vancouver, St. John’s and Richmond Hill have what migrants are looking for when choosing where to locate, according to the Conference Board’s second report assessing the attractiveness of Canadian cities. The performance of these cities is compared on 41 indicators grouped across seven categories: Society, Health, Economy, Environment, Education, Innovation, and Housing.
For migrants with a university degree, the Education category matters the most (21 per cent) in the decision to locate, followed by Society (20 per cent), Innovation (19 per cent) and Economy (13 per cent). Migrants without a university education consider, in an overwhelming fashion, that the Economy category matters the most (33 per cent) and followed by Society (20 per cent).
Read the details of the overall grades and performance by category at the Conference Board of Canada of CNW Group Ltd.
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Victor Garber, at left, as Ken Taylor and Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez in "ARGO," a presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures in association with GK Films, to be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Photo by Keith Bernstein
It’s no surprise to New York Times bestselling author and Canadian history professor Robert Wright that “Argo” is ruling the roost at this year’s movie awards or that it is, favored to win an Oscar for best picture.
“Ben Affleck is a really nice guy. And ‘Argo,’ his new movie about the rescue of six fugitive U.S. diplomats in Tehran in 1980, is without question the best spy thriller to hit the big screen since Jason Bourne lost his birth certificate,” said Wright, speaking as a fan of movies and spy thrillers. “I really like the Bourne movies. This has a lot of the same cloak-and-dagger techniques that make them so exciting to watch.”
But as a historian, it’s worrisome to Wright to think that the movie is now what people equate to the Iran hostage crisis.
Nov. 4, 1979, was the day Iranian students stormed and occupied the United States embassy in Tehran, taking 66 embassy personnel hostage. The ordeal lasted 444 days, with 52 of the hostages held in captivity for the entirety. Amidst the chaos, six Americans managed to evade capture. At the heart of the operation to extricate the U.S. officials was Ken Taylor, the take-charge and unflappable Canadian Ambassador to Iran, and John Sheardown, the pipe-smoking veteran with grandfatherly appeal in charge of the Canadian embassy’s immigration section. For three months, Taylor and his wife Pat, along with Sheardown and his wife Zena, concealed the six Americans from the revolutionary government. Sheardown, who was never mentioned in the film and died three months after it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, knew possibly as early as the day the embassy was attacked that his friend Bob Anders, an American consular official, had not been taken hostage. He and Zena decided together that should Anders need refuge, they would take him in. “Taylor agreed that they - and by extension Canada - should do everything in their power to help,” said Wright, whose book, “Our Man in Tehran” (Other Press, 2011), is considered a definitive source on the crisis.
Once all six Americans (known as the “houseguests”) were brought in from the cold, it was decided four of them would stay with the Sheardowns, and two would go to the Taylors.
“Most filmgoers don’t fret about the historical accuracy of blockbuster movies. Hollywood giveth (‘Ghandi,’ ‘Schindler’s List’) and Hollywood taketh away (‘JFK,’ ‘Titanic,’ ‘Pearl Harbor’),” said Wright.
As for “Argo” being the story of record, “It’s already starting to happen,” Wright said. “I was in a seminar when one of my students told me he saw ‘Argo’ and thought it was great that Canada helped the CIA rescue six American hostages.”
As the young lad quickly learned from the professor of history at Trent University in Oshawa, Ont., it was Canada that spearheaded the operation, not the CIA. Former Canadian ambassador Taylor, whose role in “Argo” is portrayed by Victor Garber, told a Toronto Star reporter, “The movie is fun, it’s thrilling, it’s pertinent, it’s timely. But look, Canada was not merely standing around watching events take place. The CIA was a junior partner.”
Canadians got the passports for the six houseguests. They bought the airline tickets and drove to the airport. For his efforts, Taylor was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. But the real Canadian caper -- as the covert operation is known -- was very garden variety, other than the plan for the houseguests to pose as Canadian filmmakers.
Chris Terrio’s script is thrilling and based on selections from “The Master of Disguise” written by CIA operative Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) and Wired magazine’s “The Great Escape” by Joshuah Bearman. Nominated for Oscar’s best adapted screenplay, it’s a story filled with fuel-injected suspense such as the final scenes at the airport where they are detained and narrowly escape capture by the Iranians. That never happened. But that scene has audiences holding their breath and imagining the fear that everyone involved in the escape were likely feeling at the time.
That’s the magic of cinema at work.
“Do I wish the movie would have been more accurate? Naturally, I am a historian but that isn’t reason enough to say Affleck’s not deserving of all this. It really is terrific and it’s been good for me and it’s been good for the story,” Wright said. Historians will just have to wait for the documentary, “Our Man in Tehran.”
Seth MacFarlane hosts the 85th Academy Awards airing on the ABC Television Network, Sunday, Feb. 24 (8:30-11:30 p.m., ET). Red Carpet coverage begins at 8 p.m. Oscar nominations for “Argo” (Warner Bros.) include best picture, Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney producers, best supporting actor, Alan Arkin, best original score, Alexandre Desplat and best adapted screenplay, Chris Terrio.
The following are a few interesting facts about the secret mission to save six Americans during the Iran Hostage Crisis, according to Canadian history professor and author Dr. Robert Wright and CIA operative Tony Mendez:
Ken Taylor’s friend Peter Jennings, then an ABC News correspondent in Tehran, went to dinner at Taylor’s house. The Americans hid the entire time. When Jennings found out later Taylor had withheld the scoop of a lifetime, he playfully chastised the ambassador.
Studio Six Productions office was previously occupied by Michael Douglas, who just finished work on “The China Syndrome.”
The fake Studio Six production office received 26 scripts, including one from Steven Spielberg.
Coincidently, the name of the Swiss jetliner the Americans boarded was “Argau.”
Several ambassadors knew about the houseguests’ existence and aided in efforts to keep them safe: Troels Munk of Denmark, Chris Beedy of New Zealand and Sir John Graham of the UK. At one point, Britain hosted five of the houseguests, while the Swiss harbored one.
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It’s been a while since our last post about Chinese idioms (成语 – chéng yǔ). In Chinese, the word for idiom literally means “to become a part of the language.” All idioms are composed of four characters, and most come from ancient literature. As such, the meaning of the idiom itself is usually more than the four characters on their own can describe. The overall meaning is linked to the story or myth from which it came. They can be difficult to understand, as they do not follow the usual grammatical structure and syntax of the modern Chinese spoken language. To catch you up on what we’ve covered already, here are the links to previous posts:
Part One – 班门弄斧 － bān mén nòng fǔ – “Wield the axe before Master Carpenter Luban”; 沉鱼落雁 – chén yú luò yàn – “Causing the fish to sink deep in water and the geese to fall to the ground”; 呆若木鸡 – dāi ruò mù jī – “Dumb as a wooden rooster”
Part Two – 半面之交 – bàn miàn zhī jiāo – “A nodding acquantaince”; 大公无私 – dà gōng wú sī – “Be impartial and unselfish”; 孤注一掷 – gū zhù yī zhì – “To concentrate one’s strength and resources on one thing”
Part Three – 痴人说梦 – chī rén shuō mèng – “A fool tells about his dreams”; 道听途说 – dào tīng tú shuō – “Roadside gossip”; 囫囵吞枣 – hú lún tūn zǎo – “Swallow the dates whole”
Now that you’re all caught up, let’s learn three new Chinese idioms!
半途而废 – bàn tú ér fèi – “Give up halfway”
According to this story, there was a man named Yue Yang Zi (乐羊子) who lived during the Warring States Period (战国时期 – zhàn guó shí qī). Yue left home and his wife to pursue his studies, but returned after just about a year. Of course, his wife was shocked to see him home so soon, so she asked him if he had finished his studies more quickly than he had anticipated. He replied, “I’ve been away so long, I was just homesick” (出门时间长了想家 – chū mén shí jiān cháng le xiǎng jiā). His wife, who had been weaving, proceeded to take a pair of scissors and cut the cloth she had been working on. “What’s the difference between me wasting time on this cloth and you wasting time on your studies?” she asked her husband. Yue felt ashamed about giving up, and he felt moved by his wife, so he headed back out to continue his education. Seven years later, he returned as an official.
This idiom is used in a derogatory sense for someone who has given up, but it is also used to motivate people to continue to work hard.
HERE is a good video of this idiom from the Chinese website YouKu.
家喻户晓 – jiā yù hù xiǎo – “well known; understood by everyone”
The history of this idiom comes from a story about a woman named Liang. One day, there was a fire inside of her house while she was out. When she returned home, she noticed the house up in flames, and realized that her nephew and her own child were trapped in the house. She bravely ran into the burning house, attempting to save her brother’s child first. However, the smoke blocked her vision, and when she got outside it became clear that she had rescued her own child first. Afraid of being criticized for being selfish, she rushed back into the fire to save her nephew. Sadly, the fire was too strong, and Liang burned to death. Of course, everyone in the village knew about this tragedy.
As such, this idiom is used today to describe something that is known by everyone. For example, when you punch it into the popular Chinese search engine Baidu.com, one of the pictures you get is of Ronald McDonald, or the “well-known McDonald’s uncle” (家喻户晓的麦当劳叔叔 -jiā yù hù xiǎo de mài dāng láo shū shu).
HERE’S another YouKu video showing the story of this idiom.
破釜沉舟 – pò fǔ chén zhōu – “break the woks and sink the boats”
This story dates back to the Qin Dynasty (秦朝 – Qín cháo) (221-206 BC) and the Battle of Julu (巨鹿之戰 – jù lù zhī zhàn). Leading the Chu (楚) rebel forces was a man named Xiang Yu (项羽 – Xiàng Yǔ). After crossing the Zhang River (漳河 – zhāng hé ) into enemy territory, he ordered his troops to sink all of the boats and destroy all of the woks. He provided his soldiers rations for three-days, and they headed out to battle. Knowing that victory was the only way for them to survive, his troops fought hard for many days and eventually won the battle.
This idiom is used to describe one’s undying resolve to achieve a goal. It’s similar in English to saying “cross the Rubicon” or “the point of no return.”
A clip from a Chinese movie depicting the story of this famous idiom.
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Havana's immigration offices have been inundated with eager travelers in recent days, as Cubans rushed to apply for their first passports, with the abolition Monday of severe travel restrictions for most citizens, according to the BBC
Cuba virtually closed down its borders soon after the 1959 revolution to thwart a mass exodus of the island's talent to the United States. President Raul Castro promised change long ago but it was delayed, because Communist Party officials worried it would lead to massive migration, the BBC reports.
The move follows other steps to loosen government control over private lives. Cubans can now buy and sell their houses and cars; own mobile phones; and enter hotels previously reserved for foreigners.
Travelers can now stay away for two years instead of 11 months and extend that time further; those who left illegally more than eight years ago will no longer face impediments to come home, the BBC reports.
The main reason for the loosening of restrictions is the government hopes that by easing travel more Cubans will work and study abroad and then bring their money and expertise back to the island.
There are, however, some restrictions that still do apply.
The law refers to "preserving the qualified workforce" and on state TV a senior immigration officer singled out athletes and "vital" professionals as well as Communist Party leaders, the BBC reports.
Financial impediments also make it difficult for the average Cuban to travel, although costs have been reduced.
Previously, the total cost of all the official permits ran to around $300 — 15 times the average monthly state salary, which was a serious impediment to travel. A passport now runs approximately $100.
The United States currently issues around 20,000 immigrant visas for Cubans a year; qualifying for a tourist visa is far harder.
The State Department says it is "working to ensure that mechanisms are in place" should the number of visa applications or attempted raft-crossings soar, but urged people "not to risk their lives" at sea.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
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10 October 2012
Micro-manufacturing machine wins Innovation Hothouse competition
A team of recent graduates who designed a micro-manufacturing machine called 'The Polyfloss Factory' to transform waste thermoplastics such as polypropylene into a new versatile material, have won this year's Innovation Hothouse competition.
The graduates of the Innovation Design Engineering course run jointly by the Royal College of Art and Imperial College created Polyfloss, a versatile and reusable material, which can be manufactured on a small scale using their machine, to win the competition and inaugural J C Gammon Award for Innovation.
The machine heats and spins small pieces of waste thermoplastics into a candy floss-like material, which the team has called Polyfloss. This new material provides heat and noise insulation and can even be used to make non-shrinkable yarn, suitable for knitting. As it is easy to re-melt and uses inexpensive moulds, multi-structured products with both hard and soft surfaces can be easily created. The first product to be made from Polyfloss is PolyPanel; a wall panel for interior and exterior spaces, providing a barrier for noise, harsh temperatures or impact resistance.
The team behind Polyfloss had to fight off tough competition from the other finalists, who all had to pitch their designs to a panel of judges, in a scenario not dissimilar to Dragon's Den.
Dick Glover, Director of Research at McLaren Automotive and Chair of the judging panel, said: "The standard of entries for this year's competition was exceptionally high. This is not only a good sign for the future of UK engineering, but also for the hi-tech entrepreneurial-driven economy which is becoming increasingly important to the future well-being of this country."
In addition to £9,000 prize fund for all finalists, the winning team will be able to access in-kind support and expertise from a consortium of companies that specialise in supporting start-up ventures. The team will be guided through the use of this award package by the Innovation Hothouse Business Angel panel whose objective is to see the Polyfloss factory developed into a viable business.
Notes for editors
- The Innovation Hothouse competition is run by The Royal Academy of Engineering, Institution of Engineering Designers, Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
As well as a trophy, the £5,000 'J C Gammon Award for Innovation' prize is awarded to support the individual or team in developing their project after the event. Runners-up prizes of £3,000 and £1,000 were presented. The ultimate aim of the scheme is that participants are encouraged to start-up and create flourishing businesses. For more information about the finalists and competition, please visit: http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/releases/shownews.htm?NewsID=775
- Founded in 1976, The Royal Academy of Engineering promotes the engineering and technological welfare of the country. Our fellowship - comprising the UK's most eminent engineers - provides the leadership and expertise for our activities, which focus on the relationships between engineering, technology, and the quality of life. As a national academy, we provide independent and impartial advice to Government; work to secure the next generation of engineers; and provide a voice for Britain's engineering community.
For more information please contact:
Ian J Bowbrick at The Royal Academy of Engineering Tel. 020 7766 0604; email: Ian Bowbrick
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How to Work with Windows XP Mode
How to enable Away Mode in Windows 7
Windows Away Mode similar to Sleep and Hibernate Mode, it turns off the power of most equipment to save energy and can be fast woken up to work. But when the computer is in Away Mode, the background tasks such as downloading,recording processes are actually continue to work.
Windows 7 XP mode Upgrade
I now have a dual boot system with W7 Home Premium 64 Bit on one drive and my old XP 32Bit on another drive.
I am thinking of upgrading to W7 Professional so I can have the XP mode ability in W7.
This is what it says on the Microsoft site:
[h=2]Installing and using Windows XP Mode[/h]To use Windows XP Mode, you need to download and install Windows XP Mode, which is a fully licensed version of Windows XP with Service Pack 3.You also need to download and install Windows Virtual PC, which is the program that runs virtual operating systems on your computer.
When you install a program in Windows XP Mode, the program becomes available for use in both Windows XP Mode and Windows 7.
1--Is the licensed version of Windows XP Mode I download have anything to do with my already licensed version of XP on my other drive ?
In other words, will I have TWO XP licenses.My own and the new one I download?
2--Do I have to purchase the XP Mode Version or is it included with my upgrade purchase price to Windows 7 Professional?
3--My scanner works in Windows 7 but some features, like the film scanner attachment only work under XP.
Will I be able to install the XP scanner software in XP mode without it conflicting with the scanner operation when I use it in Windows 7?
4--How much hard drive space will be used installing XP mode ?
5--Will doing any of this drive me to the brink of insanity ?
Virtual PC - Windows XP Mode
Windows 7 virtual PC? Well, it's actually running the Windows XP mode in Windows 7! Using Windows Virtual PC, you can run many older Windows XP applications within Windows XP Mode and launch them from the Windows 7 desktop with just a single click.
What is safe mode?
Safe mode is a troubleshooting option for Windows that starts your computer in a limited state. Only the basic files and drivers necessary to run Windows are started. The words Safe Mode appear in the corners of your monitor to identify which Windows mode you're using.
Windows 7 Compatibility Mode to Run Old Programs
Windows Vista and Windows 7 will work with most software that was designed for Windows XP and even some software that was written for Windows 98 or earlier versions of Windows. However, sometimes older software may be difficult to install or run on Windows Vista or Windows 7. If you are having difficulty trying to run old games or software on your modern PC, the first thing to try is changing the compatibility mode options. This video will show you how to do that.
Windows XP Mode - Prerequisites & Installation Guide
Windows XP Mode or XPM is a very useful feature which allows Windows 7 users to run a pre-configured virtual machine with a licensed copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3. This allows users to run old applications in Windows XP mode directly from Windows 7 therefore eliminating the need to have both operating systems installed. This feature helps eliminate many issues, especially in corporate networks which use a lot of old software. In this article I will show the following: when is Windows XP Mode useful, which are the prerequisites for installing it, how to install it and how to configure its installation.
Install and use Windows XP Mode in Windows 7
Using Windows XP Mode, you can run programs that were designed for Windows XP on computers running Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions that also meet certain hardware requirements.
Windows XP Mode was primarily designed to help businesses move from Windows XP to Windows 7. It isn't optimized for graphic-intensive programs such as 3D games, nor is it well suited for programs with hardware requirements such as TV tuners.
LIBusb, USB ports doesn't work. Safe mode also no work
After I install LIBusb I could work futher. But after I put him off en reboot an hour later my wired mouse en keyboard didn't work anymore.
When I restart in safe mode both still doesnt work.
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64b
Computer: HP Pavilion p6250
Problem can't boot into eithre normal Windows mode or safe mode
I have a Sony VGN-FW139E with window vista. When my computer tried to boot into Windows, it just hangs on window vista loading screen.
If I selected Safe mode or Safe mode with Networking, I got this message.
Then it did not get any further.
How to Install Windows 7 Windows XP Mode?
After download the Windows 7 Windows XP Mode package, you need to install the file. This feature is only available for Windows 7 professional, enterprise and ultimate edition.
Using Windows XP Mode
This video shows you how to use Windows XP Mode to run programs made for Windows XP in certain editions of Windows 7
Create XP virtual mode shortcut on Windows 7 desktop
This should be simple, I have Googled it several ways to no avail.
I want to create a shortcut on my W7 desktop that will open the XP virtual mode. Now I have to
1) start menu > 2) all programs> 3 Win virtual mode> 4) Windows XP mode. 4 mouse clicks plus scrolling to the end of all programs.
Lots of wasted time, there has got to be a simple (K.I.S.S) way to place a shortcut on the W7 desktop.
I found: Windows XP Mode base.vhd. Is the the file I need the shortcut to? Is it the "exe"
XP Mode: What programs do work in Windows 7
I've read many links included in this forum & online in general, but still lack clarity on why XP Mode would be needed for use in Win 7 Pro.
If you're using 32-bit software made this decade, what programs do not work in Win 7 Pro that work in Win XP Pro?
Start your computer in safe mode
Safe mode starts Windows with a limited set of files and drivers. Startup programs don't run in safe mode, and only the basic drivers needed to start Windows are installed. Safe mode is useful for troubleshooting problems with programs and drivers that might not start correctly or that might prevent Windows from starting correctly. If a problem doesn't reappear when you start in safe mode, you can eliminate the default settings and basic device drivers as possible causes. If a recently installed program, device, or driver prevents Windows from running correctly, you can start your computer in safe mode and then remove the program that's causing the problem.
Windows 7 fonts & their availability in XP virtual?
W7 & XP virtual are working fine. My reason for using XP virtual is a graphics program I've used for yrs.
Noticed when I'm in that program in XP virtual mode some fonts don't render, (they are OK in W7 mode but not XP mode) I get are sm boxes in XP mode. What did MS do to the font function?"A TTfont by another name is still a TTfont."
If I add the special fonts I used previously w/XP, will they work in XP mode? There are about 145 in W7 fonts folder now and I don't want to mess things up.
Troubleshooting problems while in safe mode
Safe mode is a troubleshooting option for Windows that starts your computer with only basic services and functionality. If an existing problem doesn't reappear when you start Windows in safe mode, you can eliminate the default settings and basic device drivers as possible causes.
Safe Mode in Windows 7
Learn about: How to use Safe Mode for removing software, running antivirus and antimalware scans, or rolling back, disabling and uninstalling drivers in Windows 7.
Dirty shutdown and restart after entering sleep mode
I'm somewhat tech savvy, and my laptop has me absolutely stumped. I'll cut to the chase:
I get a dirty shutdown and restart (prompting Windows' safe mode option) any time the system attempts to enter sleep mode--whether by the Start menu or by pressing the power button (which I've set to enter sleep mode).
I've asked Windows to produce a dump file in the event of a BSOD, but none have been created. I've gone through all driver updates I can think of, HP siteupdates, reinstalled the OS twice, etc.
I had some luck re-enabling the Windows 7 logon screen, which had previously been disabled. Worked for a few days, and I'm back where I started.
What is Safe Mode
In this article we're going to talk about Safe Mode in Windows 7. First, we’ll discuss what safe mode is and why you might need to use it. Then we will go over methods of getting in and out of it.
Add "Safe Mode" to Windows Boot Manager Screen
This will show you how to add Windows 7 Safe Mode to the Windows Boot Manager to be able to easily select to startup into Safe Mode, Windows 7, or any other installed OS at boot from the Windows Boot Manager screen.
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Despite the wet weather over the Jubilee weekend, a quarter of people in Britain attended one of the thousands of events, large and small, across the country to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne.
One in five reported that community spirit in their neighbourhood improved thanks to the revelries, according to research by Co-operatives UK, a trade association.
Women led the way in organising the Jubilee festivities, with one million helping to put on an event compared to just half a million men.
Street parties and other celebrations attracted a good mix of ages. In fact those aged between 18 and 24 were more likely to take part (28%) than retired people (22%), the survey suggests.
The Jubilee was most popular in southern England, where 34% of people joined an event, and eastern England (31%), and least popular in Scotland, where just 7% got involved.
The way Britain came together for the Jubilee may go some way to reversing a marked decline in community spirit over recent decades.
Researchers found that the number of neighbours we know by name has halved in the past 30 years.
However, millions of small acts of kindness still go on daily around the nation. Three-quarters of those questioned said their neighbours helped them in the past two years, including by looking after pets (18%), taking in parcels (63%) and keeping a spare key (24%).
The number of people reporting problems or disputes with their neighbours fell slightly, from 44% in 2010 to 42% this year. The top three complaints were noise (affecting 22% of people), general behaviour (11%) and children’s behaviour (9%).
Based on these figures, Co-operatives UK calculates a Good Neighbour Index which compares the state of community relations against a baseline figure of 100 for 1982.
This shows that things have got significantly worse over the past 30 years, with the figure now standing at 48.5. But, perhaps thanks to the Jubilee, this is 5% up on last year’s figure of 46.2.
Ed Mayo, secretary general of Co-operatives UK, said: “The UK is at heart a co-operative nation and the Jubilee celebrations gave us a permission slip to come together.
“With twelve million adults taking part in local events, this has been the largest recorded programme of voluntary social action in modern times.”
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A new analysis of China’s commercial truck market finds that demand for heavier chassis and cleaner diesel engines will spike over the next five years, offering potentially big revenue-generating opportunities for U.S. and European truck makers. And that positive result could also benefit U.S. truck fleets by lowering the cost of emission control technologies.
According to the report due out next week from research firm Frost & Sullivan titled “Strategic Analysis of the Chinese Commercial Vehicle Market,” that country’s commercial truck production is projected to expand from 1.92 million units in 2008 to over 2.68 million units by 2015 – resulting in a compound annual growth rate of 4.9%. That growth is being driven by several factors, including new roadway weight limit rules, increased fuel taxes, and the harmonization of China’s truck emission statutes with those of the U.S. and Europe, said the report.
The end result, noted Sandeep Kar, program manager &senior industry analyst with Frost & Sullivan’s North American automotive & transportation practice, is that China’s truck manufacturers are increasingly looking to forge partnerships with U.S. and European truck OEMs to gain design expertise in fuel economy and emission control systems.
By extension, Kar told FleetOwner, economies of scale gained from such joint ventures could lower the global cost of producing emission control system components-- possibly leading to price reductions for such system from U.S. and European truck markets.
“How do OEMs get economies of scale today? They can’t in their local markets – truck [sales] volumes are low in Europe and the U.S.,” he explained. “So you must take your technology abroad to markets that are growing. That not only gives you economies of scale but a way to test out technology as well; all while helping top and bottom line revenue look better and better.”
Kar said Chinese demand for heavy trucks – those with gross vehicle weights of 14 tons or more – will climb due to several factors. The first is new “charge-by-weight” laws that severely penalized overloaded vehicles . These rules should force many Chinese truck owners to upgrade from medium trucks (with GVWs of six to 14 tons) to heavier models capable of legally hauling heavier loads. The second is a boost in diesel fuel taxes from 1 cent to 11 cents per liter. That move will drive demand for more fuel -efficient engines, Kar said. Finally, the harmonization of Chinese truck emission rules with those of the U.S. and Europe – expected to occur in stages between 2010 and 2012 – will boost demand for emission control systems.
All of this will help drive yearly heavy truck sales to levels far in excess of North America volumes, Kar noted. “Right now, the North American Class 8 market is hovering between sales of 100,000 and 150,000 annually,” said Kar. “Chinese heavy-truck demand will be in the range of 500,000 units annually; more than five times the volumes currently seen in North America.”
The benefit for U.S. fleets is that higher adoption rates of emission control systems in China could help lower the cost of similar technology for them. “It’s about leveraging the sales volume of China and other growing truck markets, like Russia and India, to drive the overall cost of emission technology down,” he said.
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Psychological and educational needs of the inmates are not given importance.
Junior inmates of juvenile and observation homes may be influenced to enter the world of crime by seniors who stay along with them, warned a report prepared for the Kerala State Legal Services Authority.
The report was prepared following an order of Manjula Chellur, the Chief Justice of the High Court of Kerala and C.N. Ramachandran Nair, former executive chairman of Kerala State Legal Services Authority. There are eight children’s homes, 14 observation homes, one Balasadanam, two special homes, three After Care Homes and three institutions for children who need special care.
The Juvenile Justice Boards are not taking care of the mental and psychological aspects of the inmates of the institutions. The institutions do not have separate study rooms. They are not even provided sufficient furniture. The ill-educated staff of these institutions do not understand the psychology of the children, the report said.
The report prepared by a team comprising Prabha Sagar, psychologist, Bindu Sreekumar, mediator/counsellor and R.Vishnu, Yoga trainer, appointed by the Kerala State Legal Services Authority and the Department of Prisons, also found that the education and development of skills children of these homes were not given importance.
The study found that observation homes did not have compound walls. The training modules for vocational training of inmates were obsolete and warranted modernisation.
The report suggested that Children’s Homes and other Homes should give the children love, protection and security and a family atmosphere that takes care of their emotional and mental aspects. The service of psychologists and psychiatrists should be taken for taking care of the mental health of children. Only those persons with special skills in dealing with children should be appointed staff of the institutions, it suggested.
The panel, which also looked into the health and mental health issues faced by prisoners in the jails, reported that 25 per cent female prisoners suffered neurotic disorder.
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Unemployment offices are doing a brisk business these days. For the rest of us, times are tough. Rather than playing state lottery games, investors now play a game called "waiting to see how far the Dow Industrial Index dropped" at the end of each day in order to gauge the state of one's investments or retirement funds. As the latest market studies (see below) show, few companies are exempt from the effects of the current economic recession.
What makes this economic event different than past downturns is the way we receive our news. While evening newscasts still exist, few people wait for the news. With Internet access via almost any computer or cellular telephone, the latest economic reports and forecasts are always available. And with up-to-the-minute information on stocks and bonds, and the steady stream of bad reports from Wall Street, investors have grown cautious where, in the past, armed with less information, there was more of a tendency to "take a chance" on an investment. Wireless technology has us connected at all times, but having too much information is not always for the better.
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June 2012 - Posts
Windows 8 will provide further security improvements and a preliminary list is noted below:
How Windows 8 Beefs Up Security
QUOTE: Windows 8 promises to be much more secure than Windows 7 — so much so that some users might not like it. Chris Valasek, a researcher with the San Francisco security firm Coverity, has been playing with the developer preview version of Windows 8 since last fall. He told the British tech blog the Register that while the internal structure is not too different from that of Windows 7, there are a few new features that will nonetheless beef up Windows 8's security considerably.
App store - New Windows 8 Apps will be contained by a much more restrictive security sandbox
Internet Explorer 10 -- Locking down the browser with improved Flash & Java protection and other safeguards
Secure Boot -- It means that all installed operating systems, whether on a hard drive or on an optical drive, will be checked for digital certificates of authenticity before they're allowed to start the machine.
Windows Defender -- Windows 8 will have a Microsoft first — a built-in anti-virus software installation
In about 10 days, the FBI will carry out another stage of malware cleanup as noted below
DSNChanger Malware - FBI will take infected PCs offline on 07/09/2012
DNS-CHANGER MALWARE test site
(if you see RED your PC may be infected ... GREEN indicates no infection is present)
QUOTE: In 10 days, there's a chance you will not be able to access the Internet on your personal computer. No email, no Facebook, no Google, no Twitter — nothing. This potentially dire situation is due to the nasty DNSChanger Trojan, and the fateful date of July 9, on which the FBI is set to take all computers still infected with the malware offline for good.
Launched by Estonian cybercriminals, the DNSChanger malware infected Windows PCs, Macs and routers across the world and enabled the crooks to hijack victims' Web traffic and reroute it to rigged sites. After the FBI, in "Operation Ghost Click," busted the criminals last November, the FBI set up surrogate servers to keep the computers infected with the Trojan temporarily online so users could clean them.
But on July 9, those surrogate servers are coming down. In his Krebs on Security blog, researcher Brian Krebs cites a statistic from the DNSChanger Working Group, which estimates that more than 300,000 computers are still infected with the malware.
NMAP is an excellent network vulnerabilty assessment tool and a new version is now available:
QUOTE: Nmap 6.01 source code and binary packages for Linux, Windows, and Mac are available at:
Here are the changes in 6.01:
o [Zenmap] Fixed a hang that would occur on Mac OS X 10.7. A symptom of the hang was this message in the system console:
o [Zenmap] Fixed a crash that happened when activating the host filter.
o Fixed an error that occurred when scanning certain addresses like 192.168.0.0 on Windows XP:
o Fixed a bug that caused Nmap to fail to find any network interface when at least one of them is in the monitor mode. o Fixed the greppable output of hosts that time-out
o [Zenmap] Updated the version of Python used to build the Windows release from 2.7.1 to 2.7.3 to remove a false-positive security alarm flagged by tools such as Secunia PSI.
As with any beta version, please be careful and technical skills should be in place to uninstall or troubleshoot potential issues. During first few days of testing, no issues have been discovered and it installed cleanly.
Microsoft Security Essentials - New Pre-Release version
QUOTE: As a Microsoft Security Essentials Prerelease user, you will have the opportunity to explore and test new builds of Microsoft Security Essentials before they are publically available and provide feedback to Microsoft. Your feedback helps Microsoft to make its software and services the best that they can be. As a Microsoft Security Essentials Prerelease user, Microsoft Security Essentials updates will automatically be installed on your computer through Microsoft Updates.
Below is a "how to reset link" for Internet Explorer that includes a special FixIT tool from Microsoft. Occasionally this environment might become damaged and this allows a reset back to initial default settings.
Internet Explorer Settings - How to reset this for your PC
Below is a "how to reset link" for Windows Update that includes a special FixIT tool from Microsoft. Occasionally this environment might become damaged and this allows a reset back to initial default settings.
How to Reset Windows Update
While this POC attack and research paper are complex and highly mathematical in nature, further developments should be closely watched.
RSA SecurID 800 Tokens - New attack could reveal keys in about 15 minutes
QUOTE: Scientists have devised an attack that takes only minutes to steal the sensitive cryptographic keys stored on a raft of hardened security devices that corporations and government organizations use to access networks, encrypt hard drives, and digitally sign e-mails. The exploit, described in a paper to be presented at the CRYPTO 2012 conference in August, requires just 13 minutes to extract a secret key from RSA's SecurID 800, which company marketers hold out as a secure way for employees to store credentials needed to access confidential virtual private networks, corporate domains, and other sensitive environments. The attack also works against other widely used devices, including the electronic identification cards the government of Estonia requires all citizens 15 years or older to carry, as well as tokens made by a variety of other companies.
The latest research comes after RSA warned last year that the effectiveness of the SecurID system its customers use to secure corporate and governmental networks was compromised after hackers broke into RSA networks and stole confidential information concerning the two-factor authentication product. Not long after that, military contractor Lockheed Martin revealed a breach it said was aided by the theft of that confidential RSA data.
The Security News Daily shares some valuable tips to be careful with sites you connect to, as well as performing e-commerce activity while on the road. Sites that you connect to may not be well secured and you should avoid banking, internet purchases, and even email if you are not sure of the overall safety of the site hosting internet services.
How to Keep Your Wi-Fi Safe While Traveling
QUOTE: But before you get too relaxed, beware. Lurking on that public Wi-Fi network you’re using might be identity thieves and account hackers who are waiting to pounce on your information. “If you are logged in and it’s not secure, pretty much everything that travels over the air is vulnerable,” said Chris DePuy, vice president at the Dell’Oro Group, a market research firm in Redwood City, Calif.
Security News Daily – How to secure Wireless home network
Facecrooks security shares an interesting workflow diagram and key procedures when security or content abuse is reported.
Facebook - How internal teams respond to reported incidents
QUOTE: Facebook Safety has posted a note and an infographic that details the internal teams, guidelines and workflows that are involved in the Facebook reporting process. (the image is rather large, so you might have to download it and view it in an editor to view it properly). Facebook has hundreds of moderators based in four centers that evaluate content based on established community standards. The following four distinct teams act and respond accordingly:
1. Safety Team – Violence and Harmful Behavior
2. Hate and Harassment Team – Hate Speech
3. Abusive Content Team – Scams, Spam and Explicit Content
4. Access Team – Hacked and Imposter Accounts
The Safety Team will contact law enforcement authorities when credible threats of violence are present.
An interesting analysis on the design of these scams, intended to reach just a small number of individuals who might be more easily persuaded to fall for these attacks.
Nigerian email scams are designed to be obvious
QUOTE: Here's a modern-day question: Why are Nigerian con-man emails so obvious? Because that makes sure only stupid people will respond to them, says Microsoft security analyst Cormac Herley in a newly released research paper. "Far-fetched tales of West African riches strike most as comical," Herley writes in the introduction to his paper. "Our analysis suggests that is an advantage to the attacker, not a disadvantage." But even if 99 percent of the thousands of people who receive the email ignore it, that still leaves quite a lot of sad suckers who are taken in by the tale. And, reasons Herley, if those people are dumb enough to believe such a silly story, or ignorant enough to have not heard a decade's worth of Nigerian email jokes, then they're quite likely to fall for the old-fashioned "advance fee" con that the email sets up.
A good security awareness article regarding the need to secure profile information and be careful with information that is posted.
Facebook - Employers may review unprotected profiles
QUOTE: Whether you're looking for a job, or already have one, there's one thing you can be sure of: It's not only your Facebook "friends" who are looking at your social media profile Those doing the hiring freely admit they search potential job candidates' Facebook profiles. If you think your current co-workers, employees or boss aren't stopping in for an undetected peek at your profile every so often, you're deluding yourself. "So what?" you think. "There's nothing on my Facebook profile that I'm ashamed of." Are you sure? You might be surprised how much of what's on your Facebook page is inappropriate for work.
Here are just a few of the things you're revealing about yourself that you might not have considered.
1. Your age. Even if you didn't use your real age when you signed up for Facebook, it's pretty easy to figure out.
2. Your political beliefs. Anyone with a little common sense knows that talking politics at work is a bad idea, but anyone checking out your Facebook page could probably pretty easily figure out where you stand.
3. Your personal life. What's the point of putting on a power suit for work if everyone in your office can see photos of you in your pajamas on Christmas morning on your Facebook page?
4. Your childhood. those photos your mom keeps posting of you as a kid in the bathtub are cute, too. While they're not exactly blackmail material, there's little doubt they'll help undermine your efforts to command much respect around the office.
5. Your religious beliefs. What you believe is no one else's business. But that doesn't mean they won't hold it against you.
6. Your work alliances. Even if you think you're good at playing office politics, odds are your Facebook page tells the real truth about who you like and who you don't.
Trend Micro shares an awareness of the need to have unique and strong passwords to help mitigate on-going website attacks.
Password Attacks - Several websites comprised during June 2012
QUOTE: The month of June is turning into a very bad month for password security. Last week three major sites – Linkedin, eHarmony, and last.fm – all suffered from major leaks that put millions of user passwords online. Earlier this week, it was revealed that the game League of Legends has also suffered its own flaw which put customer data – including passwords – out into the open. What have we learned about password security from these incidents? That people are still using woefully insecure passwords. Too many people are still using frightfully short passwords like 1234, or words that are too short/guessable (examples would be job or linkedin).
On June 6, 1977, I started as a Sr. Programmer/Analyst for Atlantic Mutual Insurance Companies. I became a Project Manager in 1979 and worked in a number of job roles, including our initial implementation of IBM PCs in 1981 (management of project, training new users, etc). I started with Microsoft DOS 1.1 and have been using PCs on a daily basis since then. I currently work for another company in supporting an automated Commercial Lines policywriting system. However, I continue to work in the same building that I started my early career in the industry (as the other company purchased the data center). I am greatful for the opportunities to learn and put these skills to work over time in providing for my family. All professionals need continuing education and that has been beneficial in a professional that is constantly changing.
Fake Android Security App is Mobile Zeus Malware in Disguise
QUOTE: A new variant of the Zeus banking malware is masquerading as a security app in order to lure users trying to protect their Android devices from…malware. The fake security app, called the Android Security Suite Premium, is actually the latest Zeus malware, Denis Maslennikov, a Kaspersky Lab researcher, wrote on SecureList on Monday. Once Android Security Suite Premium is installed on the mobile device, it displays a blue shield icon on the menu and a fake "activation code" when executed, according to the blog post. The app first appeared in early June, and there are at least six different versions.
The malicious app can intercept incoming text messages and forward them to remote command-and-control servers. Depending on the user, the messages could include sensitive data, such as password reset links or even one-time passwords. Any of the six C&C servers could send instructions to the app to uninstall itself, collect and transmit system information, and installing other malicious applications
Sophos has published the top five malware attacks circulating for the Android smartphone
Android - Top five malware attacks detected in the wild
QUOTE: The release of a brand new version of Sophos's free anti-virus for Android (it actually does much more than just anti-virus, hence our marketroids call it Sophos Mobile Security) makes this an opportune time to update users on the Android malware landscape. SophosLabs has examined the stats produced by installations of Sophos Mobile Security, which is now being used on Android smartphones and tablets in 118 different countries around the world - and it's making for interesting reading about which malware is being most frequently encountered on the platform.
These malicious apps can send and read SMS messages, potentially costing you money. In fact, it can even scan your incoming SMS messages and automatically remove warnings that you are being charged a fee for using premium rate services it has signed you up for.
1. Andr/PJApps-C. When Sophos Mobile Security for Android detects an app as Andr/PJApps-C it means that we have identified an app that has been cracked using a publicly available tool. Most commonly these are paid for apps that have been hacked. They are not necessarily always malicious, but are very likely to be illegal.
2. Andr/BBridge-A. Also known as BaseBridge, this malware uses a privilege escalation exploit to elevate its privileges and install additional malicious apps onto your Android device. It uses HTTP to communicate with a central server and leaks potentially identifiable information.
3. Andr/BatteryD-A. This "Battery Doctor" app falsely claims to save battery life on your Android device. But it actually sends potentially identifiable information to a server using HTTP, and aggressively displays adverts.
4. Andr/Generic-S. Sophos Mobile Security generically detects a variety of families of malicious apps as Andr/Generic-S. These range from privilege escalation exploits to aggressive adware such as variants of the Android Plankton malware.
5. Andr/DrSheep-A. Remember Firesheep? The desktop tool that can allow malicious hackers to hijack Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin sessions in a wireless network environment? Andr/DrSheep-A is the Android equivalent of the tool.
Apple will be implementing new security controls for apps as noted in the following link:
Apple iOS6 improves iPhone and iPad application security
QUOTE: The next version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 6, will request explicit permission before allowing third-party applications to access user information. It's a privacy upgrade that could benefit Apple's hundreds of millions of iPhone and iPad customers. In the new iOS 6, Apple will force apps to get user permission before accessing Contacts, Calendars, Reminders and Photos, MacRumors reported. The enhanced security feature, outlined in the "Data Privacy" section of Apple's iOS 6 Release Notes, was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers
The Microsoft Security Updates for June 2012 contain an important Internet Explorer fix that the ISC rates as "Patch Now". As new exploits are circulating, it is important to ensure users are up-to-date on all security updates
MS12-037 patch protects against New IE based exploits circulating
F-Secure highlights new removal process used by ZeroAccess malware
ZeroAccess malware - deletes itself using an innovative technique
QUOTE: We normally see malware developing and evolving over the years. One particular malware we've been following is ZeroAccess, which has been continuously improving which we first detected it in late 2010. Case in point: in the latest samples, its self-deletion routine has changed. This is a simple Windows batch file ZeroAccess used to use to remove itself after execution, as a fast and simple way to hide any traces of its presence from the user. Lots of other malware use this batch file self-deletion method. Recently though, it looks like ZeroAccess wants to be a bit more different and make things more complicated for analysts.
Facecrooks Security notes this recent development is a legitimate link where Facebook is sharing basic security tips with it's user community.
Facebook - Simple Security Tips now highlighted for Users
Facebook - More details on Security settings
QUOTE: If you see a link at the top of your Facebook page to ‘simple security tips,’ don’t be surprised or alarmed that it could be a scam. Facebook has created a page with some common sense security tips, very much like the ones we often release. The resource page contains a short video from a member of Facebook’s Security team, and the following top three tips shown below:
1.Know how to spot a scam -- If an offer looks too good to be true, it probably is. Think twice before you click on a link for free airline tickets or other common scams.
2.Choose a one-of-a-kind password -- Is your Facebook password different than your email password? If not, please reset your password today.For more password related security tips see our article: The Top Ten Commandments of Password Protection.
3.Confirm your mobile number -- If you forget your password, we’ll be able to text you a new one. To make sure we can reach you, confirm your mobile number. We often encourage our readers to enable login approvals, so that even if your Facebook password is compromised the hacker will need a code sent via text message to access your account.
Please note that the Internet Explorer MS12-037 update is rated as "PATCH NOW" by the ISC and is being actively exploited in the wild.
Microsoft Security Updates - June 2012
Microsoft Security Updates - June 2012
(excellent analysis by ISC)
More Posts Next page »
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This week’s children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog, is now available here. This week Terry Doherty and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; and grants, sponsorships & donations. There's no 21st Century Literacy news this week, for some reason. I think that the holidays have people in back to basics mode, focusing on book drives and book-related gifts. Still, there are a host of fun stories to share.
As in previous years, the Canada Post is accepting letters to Santa Claus, in order to help promote literacy. "More than 11,000 current or retired Canada Post employees (known affectionately as postal elves) volunteer their time to help Santa respond to truckloads of letters in the language in which they are received--27 languages last year, including Braille. In 2008, Canada Post elves replied to more than 1.4 million letters and 63,000 emails." More details are available in this news release. [Image credit: Microsoft ClipArt]
Episode 5 of the NCBLA's Exquisite Corpse Adventure (a project to promote the joy of reading, courtesy of the Center for the Book and the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance) is now available. This episode was written by Gregory Maguire and illustrated by Chris Van Dusen. Monica Edinger has an excerpt at Educating Alice.
Terry is starting a new monthly meme at The Reading Tub, rounding up reviews of early readers and chapter books. Terry's ultimate goal, of course, is to "encourage kids working to become successful readers". She says: "In the middle of each month, we’ll collect reviews of easy readers and/or short chapter books. Didn’t read one last month? Not a problem, your review can be from the previous year. So in January 2010, feel free to pull a post going back to January 2009!" She's taken the time to outline the characteristics of easy readers and short chapter books (also a Cybils category for the past two years), too.
And because she is tireless when it comes to promoting literacy, Terry is thinking ahead to the Share a Story - Shape a Future literacy blog tour for March of 2010 (March 8-12). The theme for 2010 will be It Takes a Village to Raise a Reader. I'll be hosting Friday, with a theme of Reading for the Next Generation: "This is the day for talking about how to approach reading when your interests and your child's don't match. It may be that you don't like to read but your child does, how to raise the reader you're not, and dealing with the "pressure" of feeling forced to read." But check out the full post, including ways that you can participate, at Share a Story. [Logo created by Susan Stephenson, The Book Chook]
The National Council of Teachers of English recently held their annual convention. There were many posts about the conference spread about various blogs. One particular post that I wanted to share was from Donalyn Miller at The Book Whisperer, recapping Sarah Mulhern's session about the benefits of reading aloud. There's a nice list of the benefits of classroom read-aloud, as well as a list of websites that Sarah uses to help her to select books for read-aloud (and to which Donalyn has helpfully added links). Clearly, Sarah and Donalyn are kindred spirits when it comes to kids and reading (and kindred spirits of mine, too, though I'm not a teacher).
Wired Magazine's GeekDad interviews Leonard Marcus about his new book, Funny Business: Interviews with Writers of Comedy, and why funny books work so well for kids. Here's a snippet: "They want to read funny books more than any other kind — especially kids who don’t think of themselves as readers... It would be interesting if someone just did a “funny shelf.” It would be the most popular shelf in the library."
Literacy & Reading Programs & Research
The Teach Effectively! blog discusses an upcoming American Educational Research Journal article about the different types of early reading instruction needed by children depending on their competency level when entering kindergarten. "Susan Sonnenschein and colleagues reported that kindergartners who enter school with relatively higher competence in literacy benefit more from instruction that emphasizes extracting meaning from what they read but their counterparts who enter kindergarten with lower literacy competence benefit more from instruction that emphasizes decoding. As children progress through the elementary grades, however, the effects of different instructional emphases lessen."
Education Week shares an opinion piece by Dane L. Peters (subscription required to read the full article) about the benefits of letting students choose what they are interested in reading. I certainly agree with the author's conclusion: "Let young people decide what they should read based on where they are in their intellectual development and maturity. It’s the best way to keep them reading." I found this link via tweet from @DonalynBooks (who got it from @englishcomp).
The Rutland Herald recently published a feature story by Christina Kumka about a Rutland school's Annual Literacy Night, as well as their Everybody Wins!-sponsored mentoring program. What I especially liked about the article were some statistics about the mentoring program: "A survey of more than half of the mentors involved in the program last year showed that nearly all the students said their reading mentors helped them read better. Of the parents that responded to the survey, 71 percent said their child's vocabulary skills improved or improved greatly. And of the teachers who responded, 90 percent said because of their mentoring relationship, their students felt that more adults cared about them." Nice!
BBC News reports, in an article by Sean Coughlan, "School improvement in England is being held back by a "stubborn core of inadequate teaching", says the annual report of education watchdog Ofsted." The BBC article cites some questions about the report, and about Ofsted, from various government representatives, however, so the results appear a bit in dispute.
Grants and Donations
According to a recent press release, "Holiday shoppers will have the opportunity to give the gift of reading through the Verizon Foundation's annual Season's Readings campaign. The public is invited to take part in the campaign, from Nov. 25 through Dec. 31, by logging on to http://www.firstbook.org/verizon and making a donation to First Book, a nonprofit organization that provides new books to children in need by distributing the books through local schools, libraries and other nonprofit children's organizations throughout the country. A contribution of just $2 buys a new book. For every donation to First Book through the Web site, Random House Children's Books will make a matching donation of new, free books to First Book (up to 300,000 books)."
Here's a neat little fundraising idea for a literacy program. "Katie Doyle Myers and her 4-year-old son, Finn, love to read together. So when her son asked her what it would be like to read 100 books in a day, she decided to turn that idea into a way to raise money for a Boulder nonprofit called Reading Village. Reading Village promotes literacy in Guatemala... She`s planning to read 100 books, heavy on the super-hero stories, to Finn on Saturday at various locations around Louisville." I love it! You can find more details in this Daily Camera article by Amy Bounds.
Then there's this Sydney Morning Herald story by Debra Jopson about a city school whose children donated more than 2000 books to a tiny school in a poor Aboriginal community. "The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, which organises Share-A-Book, took 8000 books from Sydney and Melbourne to Tennant Creek, ... where about 120 people live in a cluster of houses, the must-haves of city children's lives are absent. There is no mobile phone connection, no home internet, no TV, no library and certainly no book shop. School is a single classroom where all ages learn together." The article quotes children from both ends of the exchange.
Lots of organizations and communities are holding holiday book drives (which is great). There are too many stories for us to link to them all. But I did think that the one from the Statesman Journal and the Marion County (Oregon) Children and Families Commission was particularly compelling. A variety of groups are working together to try to collect 12,000 books in 12 days. The article says things like "Reading is the fundamental skill that opens doors to success in school and in society. Kids who spend their idle time reading for pleasure, as well as reading for learning, are less likely to fall into negative behaviors and to become an economic drain on society" and "Books are as important for nourishment of a child's mind as food is to a child's body." Nice to see a community banding together over these ideas. (Another heart-felt article about the same book drive is here).
The Observer (Dunkirk, NY) reports that "With generous support from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, BGCA (Boys & Girls Clubs of America) has teamed up with Developmental Studies Center to implement AfterSchool KidzLit, a proven reading enrichment program for young people in grades K-8. Boys & Girls Club of Northern Chautauqua County is one of 18 organizations across the country selected to benefit from essential after-school educational assistance that emphasizes literacy. Each Club is receiving a $5,000 program implementation grant and an AfterSchool KidzLit kit, including grade- and age-appropriate books and leader's guides."
That's all I have for you here this week. I also have links to a few articles specifically geared towards parents at Booklights, in my Literacy 'Lights from the Kidlitosphere column. I suspect that Terry will also have some last-minute literacy links at The Reading Tub, too. Thanks for reading, and for caring about children's literacy.
© 2009 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. All Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, and may result in my receiving a small commission on purchases (with no additional cost to you).
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How does on measure the worth of a man?
How does one try to surmise it?
Can a man be appraised like a parcel of land?
There are so many things that comprise it;
For the gem of his soul has such faceted cut,
That we're hard put to judge by set standard.
It depends from which angle you're viewing the gem,
How it's depth and it's beauty are rendered;
So how can we measure the worth of a man,
When we can't see all sides of the jewel?
Do we measure the body, the spirit, the soul,
A man is not single, he's plural;
So to even attempt to judge part of a man,
Without giving thought to the others,
Is like trying to sing just part of a song,
It's left lacking as you will discover;
So leave the appraising to He who is worthy,
To judge on the part or the whole;
For once He's refined him the whole man is worthy,
And he comes forth shining as gold.
"FOR HE KNOWETH THE WAY THAT I TAKE; WHEN HE HAS TRIED ME, I SHALL COME FORTH AS GOLD."
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