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The Selkirk Rex is an easy-going relaxed cat that resembles a soft, stuffed toy that you just want to pick up and hug. One of the rexed breeds, they have a tousled disarray to their dense coats that leads makes them look as though they are having a bad hair day! Sometimes called the cat in sheep's clothing, these gentle cats bring a smile to your face and a warmth to your heart just like that favorite toy did when you were young. These plush-coated, medium-sized cats with solid boning and bodies fill your arms when you pick them up for a quick hug and cuddle.
In 1987 a feral blue tortie & white cat in Montana had a strange looking kitten in a litter of 5. At 9 weeks she came to the attention of Persian breeder Jeri Newman who took the kitten and named her Miss DePesto because she was always pestering for attention. Jeri was able to find out that her mother had hair that was not completely normal either-it had a slight kink right at the end. Miss DePesto had curly whiskers, brillo hair in her ears and the coat on her body looked like a body wave. She had a narrow muzzle with a strong whisker break, prominent cheekbones, slanted eyes and a wide flat spot between her large ears. Like a Cornish Rex, her body was heavy but her boning was fine and her legs were long.
Jeri established that Miss Depesto's littermates all had normal coats and that there were no other curly cats in the area leading her to believe that Miss DePesto might be the source of a new mutant rex gene. At 14 months of age, Jeri bred Miss DePesto to her black Persian male Ch. Photo Finish of Deekay and eagerly awaited the kittens. On July 14 Miss DePesto had a litter of 6 kittens of which 3 were definitely curly. These results proved hat the gene was a dominant unlike that of the CR and DR and that Miss DePesto carried longhair. TICA accepted the Selkirk Rex into the New Breed program in 1990 and recognized it for championship competition in February 1994.
These are loving, patient cats reflecting the temperaments of the breeds used to develop the Selkirk Rex. The British Shorthair contributed the laid-back personality, the Persian added the cuddly nature while the Exotic Shorthair brought an impish playfulness to package. Visitors are always intrigued by the cats and want to touch their coats while owners have incredible urges to pick and hug their charges-fortunately the Selkirk Rex is a patient cat that accepts these human foibles with great tolerance.
Selkirk Rex come in both long and shorthair coats. The shorthairs have a dense, plush curl to the coat that emphasizes the density of the coat and a similarity to a teddy-bear; longhairs have an even more tousled look that emphasizes the similarity to a woolly sheep. And both hair lengths come in a rainbow of colors. Lucky pet owners will always have the best coats on their cats as coats are seen in their prime on mature altered males and spayed females. The curls are most prominent on the flanks, undersides and neck. The thick, plush coat is very soft and falls in loose curls.
They are a medium to large cat with strong, heavy boning giving them a substantial feel but take time to develop to their full maturity. The head is rounded with large round eyes and a sweet expression. The body is slightly rectangular and very muscular resulting in a firm feel under the soft coat.
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Libya Crisis Map
The UN OCHA’s Information Management unit in Geneva has asked the CrisisMappers Standby Task Force to provide a live map of reports of the current crisis in Libya generated from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and mainstream media sources.
The CrisisMappers Standby Task Force was established in response to the Haiti earthquake. The Task Force partners include CrisisMappers, CrisisCommons, Humanity Road, ICT4Peace, Open Street Map and MapAction.
The Libya Crisis Map uses the Ushahidi crowdsourced crisis reporting system to map the latest news from Libya, as gleaned from social media and traditional news sources. The map has also pulled in the data collected by Arasmus, who has been using Google My Maps to map Twitter reports from Libya.
If you want to learn more about CrisisMappers the Standby Task Force blog is very informative.
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“The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest. He is a fellow who thoroughly enjoys his work, just as people who take bird walks enjoy theirs. Each new excursion of the essayist, each new “attempt,” differs from the last and takes him into new country. This delights him. Only a person who is congenially self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays.” —
Or maintain a tumbr.
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Volume 3, Issue 5 (May 2006)
Observational Study on Fall Trends in Snowboarders
Snowboarding has distinctly different injury patterns compared with traditional alpine skiing. Injuries occur more frequently in the upper extremity and less frequently in the knees compared to alpine skiing. Snowboarding continues to evolve as a sport, with active participation at all age and experience levels, and on different terrain including slopes, pipes, and terrain parks. An observational study of snowboarders at one U.S. and one Austrian ski resort was conducted during the 2004–05 season to investigate fall trends in a snowboarding population. The purpose of the study was to quantify the incidence of falling, what anatomical structure impacted during a fall, fall direction, and helmet usage as a function of age, gender, ability level, and terrain. Two categories of terrain were identified; standard slopes and terrain parks including half-pipes. Children and adults fall twice as often as youths and young adults. Beginners fall approximately six times more often than advanced snowboarders, and average more than one fall per beginner per run. Runs in the pipe and in a terrain park resulted in a fall 34 and 20 % of the time, respectively. Terrain and experience dictated which body part impacted the snow surface. For beginners, 72 % of all falls were onto the hands. For more experienced participants in the half-pipe or in a terrain park, 50 % of falls were onto the boarder's back or bottom. Helmet use for snowboarders was slightly greater than 50 %. Children were most likely to use a helmet (>90 %), while less than 40 % of young adults used helmets. These observational data will be expanded and combined with injury data to quantify injury risk in the sport of snowboarding as a function of key demographics and environmental variables.
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The John Day Letter
Reproduced from James A Williamson The Cabot Voyages and Bristol Discovery Under Henry VII. (Cambridge University Press) 1962, 212-214.
John Day was an English merchant in the Spanish trade. He wrote this letter in
Spain between December 1497 and January 1498 to the "Lord Grand Admiral",
probably Christopher Columbus. Discovered in 1956 in the Archivo General de Simancas,
the letter contains information which adds significantly to the stock of knowledge
concerning the Cabot voyages.
Your Lordship's servant brought me your letter. I have seen its contents and I
would be most desirous and most happy to serve you. I do not find the book Inventio
Fortunata, and I thought that I (or he) was bringing it with my things, and I am
very sorry not [to] find it because I wanted very much to serve you. I am sending
the other book of Marco Polo and a copy of the land which has been found [by John
Cabot]. I do not send the map because I am not satisfied with it, for my many
occupations forced me to make it in a hurry at the time of my departure; but from
the said copy your Lordship will learn what you wish to know, for in it are named the
capes of the mainland and the islands, and thus you will see where land was first
sighted, since most of the land was discovered after turning back. Thus your Lordship
will know that the cape nearest to Ireland is 1800 miles west of Dursey Head which
is in Ireland, and the southernmost part of the Island of the Seven Cities is west
of Bordeaux River, and your Lordship will know that he landed at only one spot of
the mainland, near the place where land was first sighted, and they disembarked
there with a crucifix and raised banners with the arms of the Holy Father and those
of the King of England, my master; and they found tall trees of the kind masts are
made, and other smaller trees, and the country is very rich in grass. In that
particular spot, as I told your Lordship, they found a trail that went inland, they
saw a site where a fire had been made, they saw manure of animals which they thought
to be farm animals, and they saw a stick half a yard long pierced at both ends,
carved and painted with brazil, and by such signs they believe the land to be
inhabited. Since he was with just a few people, he did not dare advance inland
beyond the shooting distance of a crossbow, and after taking in fresh water he
returned to his ship. All along the coast they found many fish like those which in
Iceland are dried in the open and sold in England and other countries, and these
fish are called in English 'stockfish'; and thus following the shore they saw two
forms running on land one after the other, but they could not tell if they were
human beings or animals; and it seemed to them that there were fields where they
thought might also be villages, and they saw a forest whose foliage looked beautiful.
They left England toward the end of May, and must have been on the way 35 days
before sighting land; the wind was east-north-east and the sea calm going and coming
back, except for one day when he ran into a storm two or three days before finding
land; and going so far out, his compass needle failed to point north and marked two
rhumbs below. They spent about one month discovering the coast and from the above
mentioned cape of the mainland which is nearest to Ireland, they returned to the
coast of Europe in fifteen days. They had the wind behind them, and he reached
Brittany because the sailors confused him, saying that he was heading too far north.
From there he came to Bristol, and he went to see the King to report to him all the
above mentioned; and the King granted him an annual pension of twenty pounds sterling
to sustain himself until the time comes when more will be known of this business,
since with God's help it is hoped to push through plans for exploring the said land
more thoroughly next year with ten or twelve vessels-because in his voyage he had
only one ship of fifty
and twenty men and food for seven or eight months-and they want to carry out this
new project. It is considered certain that the cape of the said land was found and
discovered in the past by the men from Bristol who found 'Brasil' as your Lordship
well knows. It was called the Island of Brasil, and it is assumed and believed to
be the mainland that the men from Bristol found.
Since your Lordship wants information relating to the first voyage, here is
what happened: he went with one ship, his crew confused him, he was short of
supplies and ran into bad weather, and he decided to turn back.
Magnificent Lord, as to other things pertaining to the case, I would like to
serve your Lordship if I were not prevented in doing so by occupations of great
importance relating to shipments and deeds for England which must be attended to
at once and which keep me from serving you: but rest assured, Magnificent Lord, of
my desire and natural intention to serve you, and when I find myself in other
circumstances and more at leisure, I will take pains to do so; and when I get
news from England about the matters referred to above-for I am sure that
everything has to come to my knowledge-I will inform your Lordship of all
that would not be prejudicial to the King my master. In payment for some
services which I hope to render you, I beg your Lordship to kindly write
me about such matters, because the favour you will thus do me will greatly
stimulate my memory to serve you in all the things that may come to my knowledge.
May God keep prospering your Lordship's magnificent state according to your merits.
Whenever your Lordship should find it convenient, please remit the book or order it
to be given to Master George.
I kiss your Lordship's hands,
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Citing what it calls "a scathing new expose on the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change," Fox News is trumpeting claims that IPCC reports "have often been written by graduate students with little or no experience in their field of study." Fox's article, titled "U.N. Hires Grad Students to Author Key Climate Report," comes as the IPCC prepares to issue a new report on weather extremes.
Fox's "expose" is an e-book by Canadian writer Donna Laframboise, who recruited "a team of citizen auditors" to pore over IPCC reports from the past two decades. Drawing from the book, Fox identifies four IPCC authors since 1994 who were in, or had recently completed, grad school.
Here are the facts Fox characteristically avoided: There were over 450 lead authors for the 2007 assessment report, plus 800 contributing authors and more than 2,500 reviewers. Fox identified only one graduate student who worked on the 2007 report. 1 out of over 1250 authors.
The IPCC does not conduct climate research, it reviews and summarizes scientists' studies of climate change. The assessment reports have three volumes consisting of 10-20 chapters. Each chapter has around 7-10 lead authors and 2 coordinating lead authors and goes through two rounds of scientific review. Four of the lead authors could have been chimpanzees and it wouldn't have made a dent in the scientific heft of these massive reports.
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| 0.969261
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STRESS IN INTERVIEWS
How to Control and Use Stress to Your Advantage
General Notes on Interviewing:
In order to make a lasting impression with your personality in an interview, two most important factors are charisma and energy! During interviews it is important to respond to an interviewer on an earthy, non-intellectual level. When you go into an interview, it is important to be seen in the right way. To do that, you have to be in your optimal operating state.
Stress relievers prior to interviewing include two tactics: One Minute Free-For-All: Speak loudly for one minute. Say whatever comes to your mind and you’ll find yourself loosening up and feeling more confident. This drill is like tapping into what kids do naturally-playing. They don’t mind looking stupid or silly, they’re just playing around. If you become embarrassed or are thinking “am I making a fool of myself?” you’re in the wrong frame of mind. These drills will help you get out of that.
I-don’t care swing: Swing your arms from side to side and yell, “I don’t care!” This drill will relax your entire body and mind.
Following are simple, basic methods to use when trying to make a positive impression:
|STRESS FACTOR||RELIEF FACTOR |
|Dry throat, sweat palms, wobbly knees. ||Speak confidently about something you like. Focus on something "fun"|
|You are totally unprepared for the meeting. ||Don’t announce you didn’t have time to check out their program. Put a question to the interviewer such as “how successful have your graduates been in finding work.?”|
|You are late or got lost and are late.||Call on cell phone-contact person who called you-apologize and ask if you can reschedule.|
|This interview is going poorly. ||You may/may not have an accurate “read” on the impressions you are giving the interviewer. Right now, take a deep breath and focus your attention on getting as much information as possible. Later, ask for feedback from the interviewer.|
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||This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2012)|
General surgery is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal contents including esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland (depending on the availability of head and neck surgery specialists). They also deal with diseases involving the skin, breast, soft tissue, and hernias.
General surgeons may sub-specialize into one or more of the following disciplines:
Trauma surgery
In the United States and Canada, the overall responsibility for trauma care falls under the auspices of general surgery. Some general surgeons obtain advanced training and specialty certification in this field alone. General surgeons must be able to deal initially with almost any surgical emergency. Often they are the first port of call to critically ill or gravely injured patients, and must perform a variety of procedures to stabilize such patients, such as intubation, burr hole, cricothyroidotomy, and emergency laparotomy or thoracotomy to stanch bleeding.
All general surgeons are trained in emergency surgery. Bleeding, infections, bowel obstructions and organ perforations are the main problems they deal with. Cholecystectomy, the surgical removal of the gallbladder, is one of the most common surgical procedures done worldwide. This is most often done electively, but the gallbladder can become acutely inflamed and require an emergency operation. Ruptures of the appendix and small bowel obstructions are other common emergencies.
Laparoscopic surgery
This is a relatively new specialty dealing with minimal access techniques using cameras and small instruments inserted through 0.3 to 1 cm incisions. Robotic surgery is now evolving from this concept (see below). Gallbladders, appendices, and colons can all be removed with this technique. Hernias are now repaired mostly laparoscopically. Most bariatric surgery is performed laparoscopically. General surgeons that are trained today are expected to be proficient in laparoscopic procedures.
Colorectal surgery
General surgeons treat a wide variety of major and minor colon and rectal diseases including inflammatory bowel diseases (such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease), diverticulitis, colon and rectal cancer, gastrointestinal bleeding and hemorrhoids.
Breast surgery
Vascular surgery
General surgeons can perform vascular surgery if they receive special training and certification in vascular surgery. Otherwise, these procedures are performed by vascular surgery specialists. However, general surgeons are capable of treating minor vascular disorders.
Endocrine surgery
General surgeons are trained to remove all or part of the thyroid and parathyroid glands in the neck and the adrenal glands just above each kidney in the abdomen. In many communities, they are the only surgeon trained to do this. In communities that have a number of subspecialists, other subspecialty surgeons may assume responsibility for these procedures.
Transplant Surgery
Responsible for all aspects of pre-operative, operative, and post-operative care of abdominal organ transplant patients. Transplanted organs include liver, kidney, pancreas, and more rarely small bowel.
Surgical Oncology
Surgical oncologist refers to a general surgical oncologist (a subspecialty of general surgery), but thoracic surgical oncologists, gynecologic oncologists and so forth can all be considered surgeons who specialize in treating cancer patients. The importance of training surgeons who sub-specialize in cancer surgery lies in evidence, supported by a number of clinical trials, that outcomes in surgical cancer care are positively associated to surgeon volume—i.e., the more cancer cases a surgeon treats, the more proficient he becomes, and his or her patients experience improved survival rates as a result. This is another controversial point, but it is generally accepted—even as common sense—that a surgeon who performs a given operation more often, will achieve superior results when compared with a surgeon who rarely performs the same procedure. This is particularly true of complex cancer resections such as pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple procedure) for pancreatic cancer, and gastrectomy with extended (D2) lymphadenectomy for gastric cancer.
Cardiothoracic surgery
Cardiothoracic surgeons in the U.S. (D.O. or M.D.) first complete a general surgery residency (typically 5–7 years), followed by a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship (typically 2–3 years).
In the last few years minimally invasive surgery has become more prevalent. Considerable enthusiasm has built around robotic surgery (also known as robotic-assisted surgery), despite a lack of data suggesting it has significant benefits that justify its cost.
In Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States general surgery is a five to seven year residency and follows completion of medical school, either MD, MBBS, MBChB, or DO degrees. In Australia and New Zealand, a residency leads to eligibility for Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. In Canada, residency leads to eligibility for certification by and Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, while in the United States, completion of a residency in general surgery leads to eligibility for board certification by the American Board of Surgery or the American Osteopathic Board of Surgery which is also required upon completion of training for a general surgeon to have operating privileges at most hospitals in the United States.
In the United Kingdom, surgical trainees enter training after five years of medical school and two years of the Foundation Programme. During the two to three-year core training programme, doctors will sit the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) examination. On award of the MRCS examination, surgeons may hold the title 'Mister' or 'Miss/Ms' rather than doctor. This is a tradition dating back hundreds of years in the United Kingdom. Trainees will then go onto Higher Surgical Training (HST), lasting a further four to five years. During this time they may choose to subspecialise. Before the end of HST, the examination of Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) must be taken in general surgery plus the subspeciality. Upon completion of training, the surgeon will become a consultant surgeon and will be eligible for entry on the GMC Specialist Register and may work both in the NHS and independent sector as a consultant general surgeon. However, with the implementation of the European Working Time Directive limiting UK surgical residents to a 48-hour working week. The introduction of a sub-consultant grade to enable those who have recently received a UK Certificate of Completion of Training may be necessary.
See also
- American College of Surgeons
- Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland
- Careers in Surgery - Association of American Medical Colleges.
- General Surgeons Australia
- Canadian Association of General Surgeons
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By Robin Kawakami
On any given day at the American Museum of Natural History, employees might be meeting with dignitaries, interacting with children or traveling to far-flung destinations like Antarctica or Mongolia on scientific expeditions. The office style of the nonprofit, which employs 1,179 full-time people, reflects that diversity.
“What I wear is dependent on whether I’m doing museum work or whether I’m going to be in the middle of the Gobi Desert excavating dinosaurs for a couple of months,” said Mark Norell, chairman and curator of paleontology.
Brad Harris, senior director of visitor services, said he wears jeans to “One Step Beyond,” the museum’s DJ series. “Our target demographic is 25- to 35-year-olds,” he said. “You don’t want to look like a narc.”
The Indiana Jones Mystique: For some scientists, the job invites the inevitable stereotypes, particularly involving a certain fictional archaeologist. “It kind of comes with the territory,” said Mr. Norell. “Between Indiana Jones or Ross from ‘Friends,’ everybody has their idea of what a paleontologist looks like.”
“When I show up to things, everybody expects me to come in wearing a safari belt and a pith helmet,” he added. “That’s not really me.”
“It’s very cute and so forth, and it’s given the profession quite a good image,” said Ross MacPhee, curator of mammalogy, “but most of us are not Harrison Ford.”
The Dress Code: Some departments, like security, require uniforms, while others have general dress standards. “My department is always meeting with external clients, so we always dress professionally,” said Youn-Jung Lee, senior director of event and conference services. “But if you’re in the sciences, and you’re in a lab, you can dress in jeans and it would be perfectly appropriate.”
For Justy Alicea, who prepares dinosaur and mammal fossils in a laboratory, getting dressed up for work isn’t practical. “All of us come in with the knowledge that we may get our clothes dirty, so we keep that in mind. And some of us have a change of clothes around in case we need it.”
Many of the museum’s scientists say they take the comfort route. Curator of fishes Melanie Stiassny, who says she usually opts for casual trousers, comfortable shoes and a nice shirt, said, “The reality of it is that most scientists here are A) not fashion plates and B) basically slobs.”
Write to Robin Kawakami at firstname.lastname@example.org
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305. The water interviews: Finance
Root Capital was established in 1999 to serve the grassroots enterprises that occupy the “missing middle” of financial markets in less-developed countries: they are too big for microfinance organizations and perceived as too small and risky by commercial banks. The organization’s success suggests that the scope of the need and opportunity in the missing middle is indeed great: as of this writing, Root Capital has made more than $435 million in loans to impact over 2.5 million people around the world. Along the way, the non-profit that thinks like a for-profit has attracted investments from the world’s leading coffee brands and philanthropists: Starbucks. Green Mountain. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It has been featured in the pages of the most prestigious publications: The New York Times. Wall Street Journal. Harvard Business Review. Stanford Social Innovation Review. It has garnered recognition from the biggest names in social capitalism: Ashoka. Aspen. Skoll.
In sum, Root Capital has been arguably the most important Fair Trade coffee actor most consumers have never heard of, quietly making Fair Trade work by providing the trade finance that coops need to make good on their contracts. Now it has set its sights on less traditional financial instruments: loans to increase the adoption of clean and appropriate technologies. Elicia Carmichael is leading Root Capital’s effort to promote eight “triple-win” technologies, including the water-efficient wet-mills that we have profiled here as part of our coverage of water resource management in the coffeelands. Today Elicia talks to the CRS Coffeelands Blog today to explain more about Root Capital’s pioneering work on the next frontier of rural finance.
- Let’s begin at the beginning. Tell me about the Clean and Appropriate Technologies effort you are leading at Root Capital. When did it get started? And why did Root decide to go in this direction?
As Root Capital works toward growing rural prosperity, we must take context into account; in an agricultural community, producers’ dependence on the land for their livelihoods is inextricably linked to the health of the local environment. The agricultural smallholders we work with are already noting the effects of climate change through alterations in their harvest cycles and in the health of their crops. Many of them lack the tools and information necessary to adapt to these changes and reduce their own environmental impact.
Root Capital has actually been financing clean and appropriate technology investments for rural small and growing businesses (SGBs) for a number of years, so this is not an entirely new direction for us. Since 2002, we have extended 28 loans totaling over $2 million for clean and appropriate technology investments including solar panels, fuel-efficient motors, water-efficient coffee washing stations, irrigation systems, and micro-hydro electricity generation. In 2011, we decided to more proactively promote our offerings for clean technology financing by engaging our existing clients in conversations about their long-term needs and the environmental sustainability of their businesses. There are many cases in which clean and appropriate technologies provide a solution to a business challenge while also addressing an environmental or social concern or providing added resiliency to climate change. We wanted to more systematically ensure that our clients had the information, support, and access to capital they needed to make these investments.
- What technologies are you promoting, and why did you decide to prioritize these particular technologies?
We have identified a handful of technologies that we believe are most relevant for our agricultural client base; solar panels, solar dryers, irrigation systems, biodigestors, water-efficient coffee mills, and small-scale hydro and wind turbines are all at the top of our list. Each of these technologies contributes either to the enterprise’s bottom line or to its producers’ quality of life in the home, and also conserves natural resources or lowers carbon emissions. These technologies are all also relatively affordable at a small scale and can often pay for themselves with productive benefits within a few years. We generally aim to finance investments made at the enterprise level, but where our clients have well-managed internal credit systems, we have also made loans that are then redistributed to producers for household-level impact.
- How do you help expand the adoption of these technologies?
Experience has taught us that agricultural SGBs could often benefit from implementing clean and appropriate technologies but that their managers or members may lack the time, access to information, or expertise needed to identify and act upon these opportunities. These businesses also typically lack the capital needed to make multi-year investments and the collateral they might need in order to access finance from conventional banks. We have found that these factors have a significant slowdown effect on rural demand for clean and appropriate technologies; while a technology may be useful or even necessary in a given context, it may take a while for that need to be translated into demand.
By offering our clients access to information and to the contacts in our global network, preparing our loan officers to help clients identify investment opportunities, and designing novel loan structures with customized grace periods, repayment schedules, and unconventional loan guarantees, we seek to help clients understand their options and lower their barriers to investing in clean technologies.
- So Root Capital is focused primarily on addressing the issue of finance for new hardware – a critical contribution that helps farmers overcome a huge obstacle to adopting new technologies. But what has your experience been in terms of “software” – the new knowledge and skills necessary to use the hardware effectively?
This is a great question. As with anything that requires new knowledge or a behavioral change by the user, there is certainly a learning curve associated with many clean technology investments. After careful consideration, we have determined that our current role as finance provider is to connect our clients to our network of third parties (often NGOs like CRS or academic institutions) that can guide them in analyzing the costs and benefits of specific technologies for their particular applications and environmental contexts. These collaborators can also provide vendor recommendations and facilitate the adoption process by setting up demonstration sites and offering technical assistance. Root Capital’s core role in the process is therefore confined to determining whether an investment is financially beneficial to a client and, if so, how best to structure a financing package.
- Help me understand better how this fits into Root Capital’s model. Root Capital is a leader in trade finance for smallholder coffee cooperatives. These loans make financial sense to me – they are tied to contracts with leading U.S. coffee buyers and a clear revenue stream from which the loans can be repaid. Some of the technologies you are promoting – solar energy, for example – have a huge impact on the planet, and generate gradual cost-savings over time for users, but nothing like the revenues that are generated from the coffee trade. How do you make these loans work?
Another great question. When we are presented with an application for financing one of these technology projects, we consider whether it offers increased incomes, cost savings, or simply improves quality of life. Wherever we can, we will structure a loan around the production or cost saving benefits of the technology, adjusting grace periods and payback schedules accordingly. In some cases, the technological costs are still relatively high compared to the client benefits, and for those cases we try to find partners like CRS that might offer a subsidy to lower costs and make the investment more realistic given client cash flow. In this way, our clients have invested enough to encourage their continued use and careful maintenance of the equipment, but they are not burdened with unrealistic payment expectations. As for the mechanics: most of our clean technology clients in the coffee industry are already borrowing from Root Capital to finance the fulfillment of their contracts to buyers, so we can simply bundle their payments into their trade finance obligations by associating them with specific buyer contracts. While this streamlines loan repayment processes and lowers the risk to our portfolio, it also means that it is crucial for us to have a deep understanding of the long-term relationships between our clients and their buyers.
In Nicaragua, for example, we recently financed the purchase of solar panels for the homes of 98 coffee producers through the internal credit mechanisms at two of our existing client cooperatives. To make the solar panels more affordable and adoption more likely, we partnered with an international NGO that offered a 25-30% subsidy on each panel purchased and organized household-level technical assistance in cooperation with the vendor and cooperative management. The producers who benefited are now allocating a small portion of their annual coffee submission to the cooperatives as repayment on their loans for three years. The cooperatives, in turn, pledge a corresponding amount of their annual coffee contracts to Root Capital for the repayment of the loan. As such, coffee, rather than cash, can become a more accessible form in which producers can pay for many of these investments.
- One of the clean technologies we have promoted in our coffee work in Latin America is the ecological coffee mill with a demucilager – it radically reduces water use and virtually eliminates wastewater. We have been distributing these on a grant basis because while we love the environmental impact and do see it as a technology that can contribute to improvements in coffee quality, we don’t necessarily see it as a technology that will drive income gains. Has that been your experience?
Water-efficient coffee mills are actually a great example of a possible environmental and economic win-win for a coffee enterprise. In our experience with one cooperative in East Africa, our client reported that the coffee they processed with these machines fetched double the price they could receive for home-processed coffee because they produced more uniform beans of higher quality and experienced lower losses in volume. Even after deducting the operating and financing costs of the machinery, this client reported being able to pay their member farmers 70% higher prices for their coffee than they could previously.
In scenario like this one, we would probably not seek a subsidy for the technology because the payback equation is so favorable to our client. However, we might consider that an associated filtration system or biodigestor for treating the wastewater produced from milling would be an attractive use of a partner institution’s grant funding, as these technologies do not produce a direct cash flow but do offer significant environmental impact.
It is important to note that there is great diversity in how coffee is processed in smallholder agriculture. As was the case with our East African client, some cooperatives may commercialize coffee milled at producer homes and gain great quality improvements by investing in professional milling equipment, while others may already be receiving high prices for quality and simply want to reduce bottlenecks in their systems. Root Capital’s role is to gain an understanding of how a technology will help a specific client given their existing operations, market context, and buyer relationships, and structure lending packages accordingly.
- At the 2012 SCAA Symposium Liam Brody, Root Capital’s Senior Vice President of Value Chain Relations, challenged industry stakeholders to be “pathologically collaborative.” The phrase lit up the Twitterverse and was among the more memorable of the event. It sounds to me like some pathological collaboration is necessary for this work. What kinds of organizations are you partnering with to advance this exciting agenda?
“Pathological collaboration” perfectly describes Root Capital’s approach to engaging other stakeholders, and there is no better term for what we must do to advance clean technology adoption in the coffee industry.
There is no one-size-fits-all clean technology solution to the variety of environmental challenges faced by rural SGBs and their producer stakeholders, and no one actor or sector in the value chain can act alone to address these challenges. The solutions we identify will be extremely context-dependent, and each one will draw from the competencies and offerings of our partners across sectors. Root Capital is enthusiastically aiming to join forces with the NGOs, buyers, government initiatives, clean tech entrepreneurs, and academic institutions that can lend expertise, offer subsidies, provide loan guarantees, implement technical assistance, manage demonstration projects, and connect SGBs to markets.
There are roles for all of these actors and more in building a cleaner, greener, and more resilient coffee value chain. I hope this blog post will encourage experts and novices alike to reach out to CRS and to Root Capital and lend their voices to this evolving conversation.
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Book Description: 1. This long-awaited book has been requested by many Chicken Soup readers - teens and their mothers.2. There are over 3 million graduating high school seniors each year and more than half of them apply to college.3. The line is being updated with new covers, new interior layouts, excellent editing, and up-to-date stories. The line is also returning to the core values of its heyday, delivering 101 stories in every book.4. Chicken Soup for the Soul earned the Guinness World Record for having the most books on the New York Times bestseller list at one time. 5. Last year, USA Today named Chicken Soup for the Soul #5 on its list of 25 books that left a legacy over the past quarter century. . These days, colleges are deluged with applications and the college application process has become the most traumatic thing that most students and their parents have ever experienced. Lots of books tell you how to get into college, but this book uniquely provides emotional, instead of tactical, support. The stories in the book are written by kids who have been there and want to pass on their words of support to the kids behind them. Stories cover topics such as parental and peer pressure, the stress of grades and SATs/ACTs, college applications and interviews, recruiting, disappointments and success. These stories provide moral support and encouragement to high school students going through one of the most stressful events of their lives. Parents will find Getting In...to College a great source of support and inspiration as well. The first Chicken Soup for the Soul book was published in 1993, and became a publishing industry sensation, ultimately selling eight million copies. Since then, more than 150 Chicken Soup titles have been published, selling more than 100 million copies. Chicken Soup for the Soul has won dozens of awards over the past 15 years, and its founders, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen have become celebrity motivational speakers and authors.
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Katharine Graf Estes
Assistant ProfessorUniversity of California, Davis
Office: 102N Young Hall
Infants are immersed in a world of immense complexity, yet they display knowledge of the people, objects, actions, and sounds in their environments very early in life. My research explores the mechanisms that support this early learning. In particular, the ability to detect statistical regularities may play a fundamental role in how infants learn about a highly complex, highly salient aspect of the auditory world: language. Infants become especially attuned to regularities in the sound patterns of the ambient language, including its phoneme distinctions, sound combinations within words, and its cues to word boundaries in fluent speech. Thus, when infants begin to understand and produce words, they do not start as a blank slate. I am investigating how infants learn from statistical regularities in the language they hear and the nature of what they learn.
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Pretty much anything could, in theory, become a black hole if it were squeezed down small enough. At what point would the Earth become a (very unimpressive) black hole in space? We're going to figure it out, and tell the tale of the Schwarzschild Radius.
Karl Schwarzschild is one of those people who make us resentfully conscious of just how little we get done during our days. He was a well-respected professor of astrophysics in Germany, one of the major centers of physics research. When World War I broke out, he enlisted in the army, and was sent to the Russian front. There wasn't really a pleasant front in World War I, but Russia was extra-tough, and everyone would have understood if he had just concentrated on staying alive. Instead, he got some reading material, which happened to be Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. This theory has Einstein stating that massive objects distort spacetime, and that distortion is what we perceive as gravity. Schwarzschild considered this, and thought that a massive enough object packed into a small enough space could distort spacetime enough that not even light could escape it. As there was nothing currently on his plate (probably literally), he decided to go ahead and work out that relation of mass and the space it was packed into.
He came up with the idea that the radius within which an object became a black hole could be calculated by doubling the object's mass, multiplying it by the universal gravitational constant, and dividing the entire thing by the speed of light squared. In other words:
This technically means that anything can become a black hole, as long as it's compressed down enough. "Technically" isn't the same as "practically." Recently scientists were surprised that a star forty times as massive as the sun failed to produce a black hole after its collapse. But, if we had some preternatural mass-hugger out there, almost anything could be compressed into black hole if it got pushed within its own Schwarzschild Radius. It would have to be a hell of a hug — to get the sun to turn into a black hole, it would need to be pushed down to about three kilometers in radius. The Earth would need to be pressed into having a radius of 8.7 millimeters. One could think of that as very unimpressive, but I like to think of it as being like a tiny space assassin.
Sadly, Schwarzschild died of infection within a year of coming up with his eponymous calculation. He never got to see black holes, or wide acceptance of his idea. But he certainly got a lot done.
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The former transportation hub (and now home to Science City) is the stage for host and former mayor Emanuel Cleaver and his guests, using an "on-the-air" medium to examine current issues in the Kansas City area. The City Stage is decorated like an old train station waiting room, complete with leather furniture and carts loaded with baggage. The 6-foot clock recently was restored and now occupies its traditional place in the Grand Hall. A black-and-white photo of the clock and the hall is the backdrop for the radio show. Those interested in history or architecture are often awestruck as they walk through the brass doors. It's a great setting for radio. For those who have ever sat in front of an old Philco while Fibber McGee & Molly argued over their closet, listened to FDR's broadcasts, or heard Edward R. Murrow's verbal sojourns into issues and people, this show will bring nostalgia roaring to the surface.
The stated mission of the program is to celebrate the 150th centennial of Kansas City and "look forward by looking back." Laura Zigler, producer of the show, says the original concept was to have a continuing dialogue with the community.
Past shows have included such topics as gambling; black poets; the Kansas City, Missouri, School District; and gun control. Other shows have incorporated debates over abortion and adoption. "At the turn of the century, Kansas City was a mecca for unwed mothers," Zigler says. "What is that legacy?" In addition, Kansas back then was liberal in its interpretation of abortion laws. The show explored the issue in this context.
Cleaver says he likes to be in on the choice of topics and chooses those that interest him. He says he also likes the "drop ins." "One time (blues musician) Otis Taylor was in town and just stopped by the show," Cleaver says. Another week Harriett Woods, the first woman elected to state office in Missouri, came by while she was in town.
Zigler says that one of her favorite things about the show is the audience. "It's those human moments that you can't schedule," she says. For instance, during the St. Patrick's Day show, about 100 people were in the audience. A man stood up and related the wonderful story of how he met his wife when she visited Ireland as a teenager. They became long-distance sweethearts. He eventually moved to the United States because of the recession in Ireland and they found each other again. They have two children now and own a woodworking shop in the West Bottoms. During a show on black poets, one young man stood up and spontaneously recited his own verse -- just an example of what can happen on an unscripted show with a live audience.
Being host of a live radio show is new to Cleaver, and he admits he is still getting used to the process. Never one to shy away from tough topics, Cleaver is like a camp counselor and encourages dialogue, whether it is agreeable or confrontational; yet he has the ability to calm the waters once he has thrown a rock.
It will take some time to build an audience, especially for the morning time slot, but all involved feel as though the show will take off, and "Under the Clock" will once again become a commonplace saying in Kansas City -- as a salute to history, and a salutation to the future.
Live radio is alive, well, and living Under the Clock at Union Station every Friday on KCUR 89.3 FM at 11:00 a.m. Union Station is located at 30 W. Pershing Road. For more information, call 816-235-1551 or visit KCUR's Web site at www.umkc.edu/kcur.
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Take a child with autism out in public and you’d better have a thick skin. They can act out in public places – shouting and moaning, running, crying or acting in ways that look like a temper tantrum and then some.
What happens next?
Staring and pointing, at times. Whispering, too, and looks that can range from pitying to peeved.
“People stare. They point,” said Aimee Kauschinger, an Elma resident who has two children, including a 5-year-old autistic son.
That is why local parents of autistic children are excited about a new program that has debuted at an East Aurora children’s museum.
The program, called “Au-Some Evenings,” happens once a month at Explore & More Children’s Museum, in collaboration with an autism center at Women & Children’s Hospital in Buffalo and the Center for Autism Support and Education. Four of the evenings have been held so far.
One recent event attracted 100 people, including 30 young people with autism.
The program appears to be a first of its kind in the region and path-breaking on a larger level as autism moves into the spotlight as a national concern.
The local program provides a monthly opportunity where families with autistic kids can come together for social time and constructive play in a setting that is not only autism-friendly but also autism-focused.
“There’s just not a lot of options for us,” said Joe Borgisi, a Town of Tonawanda resident who with his wife, Julie, has two daughters, including a 6-year-old with autism. “Things tend to be overwhelming for my daughter. It’s hard to find the right fit for her.”
The evenings are not restricted only to autistic kids. Their siblings also are welcome, as are other family members and friends.
But the evenings are planned around and geared to the needs of the autistic kids.
And that makes all the difference to parents like the Borgisis and the Kauschingers.
Instead of worrying about their children running around a local mall or restaurant, they can bring them to the new program and know that they are among others who understand what autism looks, sounds and acts like.
“This is worry-free, from our end,” Borgisi said. “Everybody there understands.”
Kauschinger, a part-time nurse whose husband helps run a family auto business, said the program has helped her son and her family.
“Nathan is high-functioning,” she said. “But there are times he will have a little bit of an outburst. If people don’t know what’s going on, they will stare. People criticize what they do not understand.”
The concept of the program is simple: It’s designed to offer an evening activity open to all families in Western New York with autistic children, providing a safe and autism-friendly environment where children can play together in a setting where their behavior will not be judged or misunderstood.
The evenings, which have been sponsored by the Hodgson Russ law firm, are free to families, organizers said.
The goal is “to give children on the autism spectrum a nice safe environment, where they can go out and be kids and play,” said Dr. Michelle Hartley-McAndrew, a pediatric neurologist who is medical director of the Children’s Guild Foundation Autism Spectrum Disorder Center at Women & Children’s Hospital, one of the organizers of the new program.
“Parents really enjoy it,” the doctor said. “They feel relieved there is a safe place where their kids can go and play.”
Kauschinger put it this way: “Here, our kids can go and just be themselves. They are not judged.”
Borgisi said it is sometimes hard to get people to understand what parents of autistic children go through, in everyday situations – the grocery store, a restaurant and so on – that others take for granted.
“A lot of our friends who are parents ... just don’t understand we can’t do some of the things they can,” Borgisi said. “Daily life is just not typical in any way.”
“What Explore & More is doing is, as far as I know, the only thing like it,” he added. “I don’t know of any other activities that are THAT structured for our kids.”
The local program was pioneered by regional autism advocates, including Jana Mertz, program coordinator at the autism center at Children’s, who toured a Florida children’s facility and noted that it had autism-focused programs for kids, and Dr. Kathy Ralabate Doody, assistant professor of exceptional education at Buffalo State College, Hartley-McAndrew said.
“There was really a need,” she said. “There wasn’t an opportunity for children like this to go to a place like Explore & More and feel free.”
One primary element of the evenings is their tailoring toward autistic kids, with sensory-friendly activities designed to appeal to kids with autism, who often crave added stimulation or sensory-focused activity.
“They have sensory stations the kids can go through that are very tactile,” said Kauschinger, whose family has attended two of the evenings so far. “It’s very tactile and sensory-driven. [The kids] need stimuli – they are very sensory-driven, and stimuli are very important to them.”
The reason for the tactile, sensory-driven nature of the evenings is to provide an environment that will calm autistic children, not overexcite them, Hartley-McAndrew said.
“They may have sensory-soothing activities, sounds that are very soothing ... ways that they can play that are very soothing,” she said. “Children with an autism spectrum disorder like to engage in similar activities – it’s nice that they can go back and feel comfortable with the environment.”
“We want the children to be comfortable and the parents to be comfortable as well,” she added.
Another aspect of the evenings that makes them stress-relievers for parents is the number of staff members on hand, from both Explore & More and Children’s autism center, who are specially trained in working with children with the spectrum disorder.
“There’s a lot of staff there,” Kauschinger said. “The heavy staff [level] is really appreciated.
“The kids roam about – it’s a place you don’t have to be right on top of them.”
The reaction from parents so far has been very positive, Hartley-McAndrew said. “The first night, some parents were tearful, because their children had this opportunity,” she said.
And the program seems to work wonders with the autistic kids, according to Kauschinger.
“Kids are very rarely having meltdowns there,” the Elma mom said.
The organizers behind the East Aurora program said they would love to see the idea spread throughout the region, providing more and more opportunities for autistic kids to get out, socialize with one another and their friends and families, and have some stress-free fun.
“We want to use this as sort of a springboard,” said Hartley-McAndrew, “to create more opportunities for our children.”
The next “Au-Some Evening” will be from 5:30 to 8 next Friday. To reserve a spot, call 332-4170.
To learn more about the “Au-Some Evenings” program, visit the Explore & More website at www.exploreandmore.org.
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"Tree and Leaf" consists of a seminal essay called "On Fairy-Stories" and "Leaf by Niggle" it offers the underlying philosophy of much of Tolkien's fantastical writings.
Read an article on Leaf by Niggle
"Smith of Wootton Major" is a short story by J. R. R. Tolkien about a boy who gets a fay-star in a slice of cake during the Twenty-Four Feast, and explores Faery during the time before the next Feast.
"The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth" is a short play or dramatic dialogue in alliterative meter inspired by the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon, plus an introductory essay and afterword. It was originally published in the scholarly journal Essays and Studies in 1953. It has been published in a number of collections with Tolkien's other shorter pieces.
Originally published by Allen and Unwin on 30 October 1975; number of copies unknown. It is issued later in a slipcase together with 'the Hobbit' and 'Farmer Giles of Ham [and] the Adventures of Tom Bombadil' on 2 September of 1976. From the third impression on (1979) the cover shows the illustration of a tree by Tolkien himself.
This book contains one essay and three stories. You can find these writings in other books or collections, but it's still handy to have them in one edition. Important to know is that this book has no bearing or relation to the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, for which some readers may be disappointed. The author has many other works besides the Lord of the Rings. Like most well-known artists, they're remembered for their masterpieces, while the lesser-known works are neglected. Sad because these smaller stories are wonderfull!
The essay is a discussion of "fairy tales", and gives insight into Tolkien's concept of a "fairy tale", which are not the sugary-sweet, rot-your-mind tales we often imagine when we hear the phrase "fairy tale".
The two following stories elaborate on that concept:
"Leaf by Niggle" is a character study in a "little" man who is suprised how his insigificant work turns into something more than he could have imagined.
"Smith of Wootton Major" is a story of a man who was privilaged to visit the "perilous realms".
The last story, "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth" also reveals the authors general focus of interest - Anglo-Saxon languages, poetry, etc.
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City Council members praise its virtues. Newspaper editorials cast it as bad provincial politics. You may not be familiar with the term, but chances are you’ve seen it in action. Important building projects in Philadelphia – like the Sugar House Casino and the Barnes Museum – were impacted by Councilmanic Prerogative. So even if you don’t know what it means, you already know what it does.
In a nutshell, Councilmanic Prerogative refers to the near-absolute powers wielded by City Council members over land development projects in their districts. Each of the ten District Council members can help advance these projects or halt them in their tracks. Though this practice is not written into any law or rule book, each District Council member receives full deference from their Council colleagues when making these decisions about their own district. It’s their prerogative.
Soon, Councilmanic Prerogative may become a household word (or words).
One reason could be Philadelphia’s new zoning code which was signed into law last month. This 21st century upgrade seeks to improve the world of Philadelphia development, but it sidesteps Councilmanic Prerogative.
Another reason for increased attention about Councilmanic Prerogative is Mayor Michael Nutter’s interest in rehabbing thousands of blighted properties across the city. And the new President of City Council, Darrell Clarke, has proposed “Development Districts” where you can buy land for well below market rate. As these efforts move forward, Councilmanic Prerogative will be front and center.
Of all the powers used by Council, it’s perhaps the one with the most concentrated authority and the most visible effects. Which is why we want you to understand it.
This installment of “HOW PHILLY WORKS” will begin to get you up to speed on this important – if not hard to pronounce – practice of City Council.
- January 4, 2012
I think I already know about “Prerogative.” Can’t you get this at the Italian Market?
That’s “Perogies.” And they’re delicious. But that’s not what we’re talking about here.
OK, so I don’t know about Prerogative. Can you explain it to me?
“Councilmanic Prerogative” is an expression – pronounced per-ogative, despite the spelling -- used to describe the power of District City Council members over land use projects across Philadelphia.
That still doesn’t get me there. What kind of powers are we talking about?
The power to crank up – or grind to a halt – the gears of the government conveyor belt that approves new buildings, businesses and other land development projects.
Can’t you just build or do what you want?
Not always. Like most cities, Philadelphia has a zoning code which sets rules for what types of developments are allowed where. Before you start setting up shop on property in Philadelphia, you need to make certain your plan fits within the zoning rules.
Is that hard?
It can be. Until the new zoning code got passed last month (you can read the Committee of Seventy’s summary of it here
), Philadelphia followed development rules dating back a half-century. The process became outdated, which made it hard for many new projects to go forward.
Can you give me an example?
The most prominent example in recent years was the long and bitter fight between Fox Chase Medical Center and Councilman Brian O’Neill. That was a complicated mess, so let’s go with a simpler case. Say you wanted to open a new restaurant with take-out service. Technically, the old zoning code didn’t allow any new take-out restaurants.
That’s ridiculous! How am I supposed to get my take-out perogies?
That’s where Councilmanic Prerogative comes in. If a new building or business isn’t allowed under the zoning code, the District Council member can still make it happen.
How can they do that?
They can push for zoning rule changes – sometimes called “spot zoning.” Under Prerogative, the other nine District Council members and the seven At-Large members will almost always fall in line behind the District Council member who wants to knee-cap or advance a project – regardless of size or its value to the rest of the city.
Why does everyone on City Council go along with each District Council member?
There’s a belief among Council members that the pertinent District Council member is in the best position to understand their constituents and what projects will work well in their districts. Even more importantly, it’s good politics. By supporting a particular colleague, each of the other Council members ensures support in return on issues that matter to them.
So this turns a District Council member into the go-to person for development projects in their district?
Yes. It’s Prerogative that makes it so.
Why would they want that?
Think of each of the ten District Council members as the mayor of a city of 150,000 people. Like any mayor, they want to know – and appear to control – what goes on in their town. Prerogative is the best tool they have to know what’s going on in their districts and to exert their will before any shovels go in the dirt.
What does it take to get a District Council member on board with a project?
That differs from case to case. The use of Prerogative – which isn’t mentioned in the City Charter – is entirely up to each District Council member.
Let’s say my neighbors and I meet with our Council member about a project planned for our neighborhood. Then the result will be what we want, right?
Not necessarily. Council members also hear from project developers.
Why? We live here. Shouldn’t we get the final say for what happens in our neighborhood?
Again, it’s complicated. Sometimes a Council member will try to bring neighbors and developers to the table and find compromises that make projects a better fit for the neighborhood. For example, they may add a requirement that take-out restaurants have limited hours to avoid late-night noise. Or they can force the restaurant to ditch the take-out windows altogether. Of course, there are times when the Council member will side with the building owner or developer, leaving residents to try to figure out why.
So Prerogative can loop in neighborhood concerns, while allowing projects to move forward?
It can. Former Councilman Frank DiCicco, who represented the First District for sixteen years before stepping down last month, was widely known for his use of Prerogative to help developers and neighbors see eye-to-eye, or close to it, on new projects in his district. The Inquirer recently did a flattering article about DiCicco which you can read here
Are there projects I would know that used Prerogative?
DiCicco secured zoning changes to allow the construction of the Sugar House Casino on Delaware Avenue, the first casino in Philadelphia, but only after holding up the project for months to address increased traffic at the site. And Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell delayed the move of the Youth Study Center – needed to make way for the Barnes Museum on the Parkway – to her district until she received millions of dollars for a community center. This was a help to the neighborhood, but led to a longer timetable and more costs for the Barnes.
I’m starting to understand what Councilmanic Prerogative is. Does everyone like it?
No. Neighborhood groups often like this practice because it allows them access to a single decision maker – their District Council member – who can serve as gatekeeper for new buildings and businesses in their part of town. On the other hand, developers often raise concerns that they get forced into addressing too many individual demands by neighborhoods, along with the varying standards among District Council members, which can make the cost of development higher and less predictable. Some people will go farther and call Prerogative a reason to create jobs outside the city.
Not everyone gets a fair shake under Prerogative?
In a perfect world – and Philly isn’t one -- everyone gets equal access to the District Council member. But, for instance, if someone wanted to give campaign contributions to their favorite Council member – in whose district they either want or don’t want a development to succeed – you’d have to assume this could give them an added dollop of access.
What do the city’s leaders think about Prerogative?
Mayor Nutter, a former District Councilman himself who used to rely on Prerogative, supports it. So does Council President Clarke, who also represents a District. He recently wrote an opinion piece for The Inquirer that listed projects he believes benefited from Prerogative, which you can read here
You mentioned there’s a new zoning code. Won’t that change Prerogative?
The new code is supposed to make it easier to get zoning approval for new projects. It might make Prerogative a little less potent, but it won’t make Prerogative go away. Even DiCicco, one of the biggest users of Prerogative, pushed for the new zoning code so Council wouldn’t always be in the middle of development decisions. And noted Inquirer architecture and planning writer Inga Saffron recently wrote
that Prerogative may be on its last legs. Cynics like us aren’t so sure that Council members will happily give up their leverage.
Do other cities have Prerogative, too? Or is this just a Philly thing?
It’s not just a Philly thing. But like cheese steaks – if not perogies -- we serve up more than anybody else.
* * * * *The non-partisan Committee of Seventy wants you to get more involved in local issues -- especially since you pay the bills in this town. That is why we regularly publish this feature, now called, “HOW PHILLY WORKS.” (We used to call it “In The Know,” but who knew what that meant?) We’ll be telling you more about Councilmanic Prerogative and other complex issues. If you have thoughts, ideas or – heaven help us – criticism, or if you have friends who might want to directly receive "How Philly Works”, too, please e-mail us at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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William Hooker (pictured) plays drums like the universe throws dice: What seems random and formless is actually a pattern that approaches infinity — and in the aftermath, you marvel at the breadth and beauty of this meticulous creation. Hooker's flickering beats and pulsating vitality are the stuff of a lead instrument, a raw expression of the immediate now. His is not the "drum solo," a terrifying excursion into self-gratification; his art is the biggest bang, the birth of something large enough for all of us to live in, breathe in and dream in. Tonight at 7 p.m., William Hooker alone performs his score for Oscar Micheaux's silent film Symbol of the Unconquered at the Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves; www.webster.edu/filmseries or 314-968-7487). A direct response to D.W. Griffith's epic Birth of a Nation, Micheaux's Symbol of the Unconquered counteracts Griffith's KKK hagiography by portraying black Americans in a heroic light — and having all the rapists and murderers played by whites. In 1920, when Micheaux made Symbol, this was a defiant and radical move, much like the idea of a percussion-only live soundtrack. But all of creation is defiant and radical, so either you're in or you're dead. Tickets for this one-night-only statement of life are $5 to $6.
Sat., Feb. 23, 2008
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We hear a lot about innovation and change these days. Everyone is talking about it, every is doing it, or at least trying to. There’s a problem though, change and innovation require more than lip service. Declaring that you are innovative does not make it so.
You know what I’m talking about, someone reads an article, attends a presentation, has a conversation over coffee and comes back to work and says – we’re going to be innovative! Maybe there are even a few committees put together. But then what? Nothing. The committees quit meeting and things go back to the way they were. Maybe one or two people are still trying, but no one is listening.
You know why? Because innovation doesn’t happen by committee or decree.
Organizations do not innovate. People innovate. Inspired people. Fascinated people. Creative people. Committed people. That’s where innovation begins. On the inside.
The organization’s role — just like the individual manager’s role — is to get out of the way. And while this “getting out of the way” will undoubtedly include the effort to formulate supportive systems, processes, and protocols, it is important to remember that systems, processes, and protocols are never the answer. - Mitch Ditkoff
So how do you create a culture of innovation? You start with the people who think differently than you do.
Diversity is one of those sticky terms that people seem to boil down to creating a Benetton ad. Diversity isn’t about some magical collection of five differently colored skin tones. It’s about bringing different perspectives and backgrounds to the table and creating an environment that values what can be gained from different voices who’ve taken different paths. Skin color (or gender performance) is often interpreted as a reasonable substitute for this and, for many reasons, it has been historically. But bringing in a woman whose attitude and approach is just as masculine as the men isn’t going to help your team break outside of its current mindset. They key is to bring people who think differently than you - danah boyd*
Then get out of their way.
Once you’ve hired a good staff, you sit down, you formulate a plan and then you get out of their way. John Limbert
Let them do what you hired them to do.
The really good people want autonomy — you let me do it, and I’ll do it. So I told the people I recruited: “You come in here and you’ve got to keep me informed, but you’re the guy, and you’ll make these decisions. It won’t be me second-guessing you. But everybody’s going to win together. We’re part of a team, but you’re going to run your part.” That’s all they want. They want a chance to do it. - Gordon M. Bethune
You can not force innovation to happen. You can provide the autonomy, the trust to allow people to be innovative.
- Smart Leaders Get out of the way
- Remember to Share the Stage
- Treat Your Staff Like Adults and See What Happens
- Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
- Control is an Illusion You Need to Let Go
*danah boyd’s post is about gender issues and being a woman in todays workforce. It’s worth a read (and mostly likely a blog post) in is own right.
- The Seven Deadly Sins of Innovators
- The Hazards of Leading Culture Change
- For Those Who Are an Overnight Success and For Those Who Aren’t a Video Series From Chris Brogan
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Your Body Harbors Pounds of Microbes, Study Reveals
A microscopic view of bacteria
Congratulations! You actually weigh a few pounds less than you thought! Scientists have discovered that several handfuls of bacteria, fungi and other microbes live in and on each of our bodies, collectively composing 1 to 3 percent of our body mass. If you're a 200-pound person, up to six pounds of you are not you, but them.
That's the new finding of researchers working on a collaboration called the Human Microbiome Project. Their first-ever census of the microbial life harbored by humans reveals that healthy people share their bodies with around 10,000 species.
Many of these organisms perform such benevolent duties as cleaning our skin and helping us digest food. Some do nothing much. More mysteriously, the scientists found that nearly everyone harbors low levels of some harmful types of bacteria, too. In healthy people, these pathogens quietly coexist alongside the benign and helpful microbes. It isn't yet known what provokes them to turn infectious.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the scientists found that we are each like miniature versions of the world as a whole, hosting a different set of species in or on each of our body parts. To their surprise, they also discovered that every person's microbiome is unique. The stuff on my arm is different than the stuff on yours, for example (though both serve similar functions).
As Curtis Huttenhower, a Harvard biostatistician and member of the Human Microbiome Project, put it on Science Friday, "Everyone is a snowflake with respect to the microbiome."
Life's Little Mysteries: Gift Edition Hardcover Book
Uncover the truth behind more than 100 mysteries that surround us every day with our new hardcover book! Perfect for gifts and classrooms, and suitable for all ages. Some of the included mysteries are:
- Why Do Cats Land on Their Feet?
- How Long Does it Take to Make Petrified Wood?
- What Everyday Things Around Us Are Radioactive?
Find out all of this and much, much more in our NEW hardcover book.
It makes a great gift idea for all ages. more info>>
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To Benjamin Webb
A New Method of repaying Money lent.
Passy, 22 April 1784
I have received yours of the the 15th instant, and the memorial it enclosed. The account they give of your situation grieves me. I send you herewith a bill for ten louis d’ors. I do not pretend to give such a sum; I only lend it to you. When you shall return to your country with a good character, you cannot fail of getting into some business, that will in time enable you to pay all your debts. In that case, when you meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by lending this sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with such another opportunity. I hope it may thus go through many hands, before it meets with a knave that will stop its progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money. I am not rich enough to afford much in good works, and so am obliged to be cunning and make the most of a little. With best wishes for the success of your memorial, and your future prosperity, I am, dear Sir, your most obedient servant,
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WASHINGTON (AP) – For once, the drumbeats of division receded and Americans of every ornery opinion gathered to witness history unfold in President Barack Obama’s second-term inauguration.
Hours before Monday’s pageantry, people on foot spilled out of Metro stations near the White House and streamed toward the festivities, military vehicles and buses sealed off intersections blocks from the White House and commuters packed coffee shops, among the few businesses open on an inauguration falling on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.
A heavy and steady stream of people headed toward the National Mall as the sun rose, but there wasn’t the same early morning crush of humanity of Obama’s first swearing-in four years ago. No one expected a repeat of those unprecedented crowds, nor quite the same adrenaline-pumping excitement. But for many thousands, it was not to be missed.
David Richardson, 45, brought his children, Camille, 5, and Miles, 8, from Atlanta to soak it all in and to show them, in Obama’s achievement, that “anything is possible through hard work.”
The “mostly Republican” Vicki Lyons, 51, of Lakewood, Colo., called the experience “surreal” and “like standing in the middle of history.”
She didn’t vote for Obama and voiced plenty of worry about the nation’s future but said: “No matter who the president is, everybody needs to do this at least once.”
Outside the Capitol, scene of Obama’s noontime inaugural speech, people had their pictures taken with the flag-draped building in the background. It was cool with a steady breeze, but the crowd was spared the biting cold of four years earlier.
Kenya Strong, a 37-year-old financial analyst from Charlotte, N.C, brought her daughter, Ty, for the second time. Like Richardson, she said the event holds lessons for the young.
“It’s really important for her to understand that her potential is endless,” she said. “You have so much to live and look forward to, for yourself personally, for our country – just to see that there’s more than the here and now.”
Ty Strong, now 15, toted a new camera and broader expectations than in 2009 about the kind of people she’d meet – not just African-Americans like herself.
“There were a lot of different faces among the crowd that you don’t expect to see on an everyday basis – like more foreigners,” she said. “It was nice.”
At mid-morning, Metro subway trains through downtown Washington were no more crowded than they would be on a typical workday – except few were going to work. Although transit officials urged riders coming in from the suburbs not to change trains, passengers had little trouble switching at the busy Metro Center station.
Terry Alexander, a Democratic state representative from South Carolina, and his wife, Starlee Alexander, were taking a leisurely ride from their downtown hotel to Union Station. Four years ago, they had to ride a bus to the Pentagon from their Virginia hotel and walk across the 14th Street Bridge to the National Mall.
“It was crazy,” he said. “This is calm. Last time, we couldn’t even get down in the tunnel to get to the trains.”
Obama’s motorcade went into motion several hours before the speech, taking him with his family to St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House for a service. Before the sermon, R&B performer Ledisi sang the solo “I Feel Like Goin’ On.”
On recent visits to the “Church of Presidents,” Obama has taken to ditching the motorcade in favor of walking back to the White House through Lafayette Park.
But this was a day for a speech, a parade and the decorative rituals of power, not an idle stroll.
Associated Press writers Richard Lardner, Alan Fram, Darlene Superville, Ben Nuckols and David Dishneau contributed to this report.
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| Growing Stevia in Norway |
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Margunn Ramsli
Posted on: April 12, 2010
Please advise how to grow Stevia in Norway.
The zone map I have available only shows the southern portion of Norway. The warmest section is zone 7, but to grow it as a perennial out of doors you require tropical conditions. You might have a long enough season to grow it successfully as an annual if you garden no further north than Stockholm (Sweden) You would have to start your plants from seed or cuttings (the former is not easy) early on indoors and plant them out after the last frost date. Harvest one third of the height of the plant in mid-summer and the rest of the plants just before the first frost. Over-winter your stock plants in a cool place and water only lightly to stop shriveling.
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Kizzy Ann Stamps
It’s July 1st, 1963, and 12-year-old Kizzy Ann Stamps is a black girl preparing to enter a newly integrated school in Virginia. Through a series of letters to her new teacher, we learn that Kizzy has a lot on her mind: she doesn’t want to go to the white kids’ school (although if there are reference books, it might be worth it), and her face is badly scarred from a childhood accident. Kizzy writes in a matter-of-fact way about the daily racism she encounters, including a shocking scene where she is “switched” in public because she offended a white neighbor. Kizzy’s refuge is her dog, a stray border collie named Shag. Shag’s loyalty and intelligence help her navigate her new school and open up doors to new friendships with a white boy next door and a Scottish farmer who helps her train Shag for competitions.
Kizzy’s narration is skillfully done with an authentic voice. At times an angry child, at times precociously wise, Kizzy is a heroine with grit and likeability. Particularly interesting is Kizzy’s perception of the pervasive racism around her. At the start of the novel, Kizzy absorbs the casual cruelty directed at her, but through her new friendships she begins to see other possibilities. The epistolary style gives full rein to Kizzy’s charming voice, although it can create an emotional distance between the reader and the text. The reader might have benefited if Kizzy’s teacher had a greater role. Only one of her responses appears, and it has a saccharine feel that detracts from the authenticity of the novel.
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If you are interested in WWII and industrial design, then this will definitely be the best hour of your week. The program takes a close look at the design and engineering of the instruments of the Second World War like the Sten gun, the famous German Tiger tank (a “luxury item”) with its massive 88mm armament and the game changing Liberty Ships. The examination of the differences in design philosophy of the German armor and the Russian and American tanks is especially interesting. It can be summed up in one statement: ”Quantity has a quality all its own.”
There’s also the interesting story of how Stalin, in the 1920s feeling the need to industrialize the Soviet Union, sent a team to Detroit to learn from the American automakers and then apply that mass production manufacturing knowledge back into Russia.
It’s a fascinating film — especially the Eames bit. Thanks to M. Coleman Horn for the tip.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A new peer reviewed article entitled “Primary Risks of Oral Contraceptives and HRT” discusses the benefits of two nutraceuticals- BRM4 and Plasmanex1, manufactured by Daiwa Pharmaceuticals, and researched by Dr. Gina Cushman in clinical practice.
(Newport Beach, CA) May 3, 2012- Gina Cushman, NMD, PhD, owner and founder of HealthBridge Medical Center and HealthBridge Management LLC in Newport Beach, CA has just been published in the peer reviewed Natural Medicine Journal, the official journal of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. She discusses ways to offset the primary risks that women face when taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and oral contraceptives (OC) prescribed by their physicians, including the use of 2 natural food extracts–Plasmanex1 and BRM4–one showing anticoagulant effects and the other exhibiting certain anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. Her discussion is based on the results of a clinical research study on the extracts, that was led by Dr. Cushman at her medical practice, and presented worldwide at three PharmCon peer-reviewed continuing medical education events on June 9th, 2011; July 7th, 2011; and August 10th, 2011.
“I am pleased to see that our team at HealthBridge was able to research these nutraceuticals in a real world medical practice setting, identifying a new and important application for the products, and then share the results of our research with thousands of physicians and pharmacists worldwide, through continuing medical education seminars and now through publication in a reputable peer-reviewed journal, “ says Dr. Cushman.
Long-term use of OCs and HRT have been linked to increased risks of cardiovascular problems, and chronic immune disorders with an inflammatory component, including cancer. The research study designed and led by Dr. Cushman investigated the clinical effects of the use of BRM4 (also referred to as BioBran, MGN3 or RBAC in some countries) and Plasmanex1 (NKCP) for the purpose of uncovering potential benefits of combined use, as well as areas that may prove fruitful for further research into ways to prevent serious side effects from OCs/HRT. The 6-week private practitioner research study included case study results that demonstrated the significant impact of these 2 extracts—Plasmanex1 and BRM4—on OC users and HRT users, with regard to offsetting thrombotic risk and improving inflammatory symptoms.
Reference: Cushman, G. Primary Risks of Oral Contraceptives and HRT. Nat Med Journal. May 1, 2012. http://naturalmedicinejournal.com/article_content.asp?edition=1§ion=2&article=321
# # #
About HealthBridge Management LLC
HealthBridge Management LLC is a nationally recognized consulting firm specializing in medical marketing, sales and distribution for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. HealthBridge delivers simple, affordable and doable medical sales, research and marketing solutions to meet the need, worldwide, for quality education, and access to effective pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products. For further information on our firm, partial client list and client comments, please visit www.HealthBridge.tv or call 949.612.9890.
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tire wear - a possible indication of wheel misalignment
or worn suspension components
Basic Tire Maintenance
The air filled rubber rings we call tires are some of the most
important components of a car, at the end of the day your tires
are the only thing on your vehicle which actually touch the road.
If they're in bad or unsafe condition it can severely reduce your
vehicles performance and safety. It is critical to the safety
and efficiency of any vehicle that all the tires are in good condition
and properly looked after. Okay safety lecture over. Sorry about
When you're inspecting your tires check the tread wear pattern,
as the various ways in which the tread gets worn down can tell
you more about other maintenance issues which may need to be addressed.
It's good practice to regularly check the tires for any cuts,
bulges or foreign objects (like nails and metal debris) which
may indicate a puncture. It's not just the tread area which should
be checked either. The sidewalls are just as important to the
tire's integrity and safety.
How to check tire tread depth
Tire tread depth can be checked with a tire
tread depth gauge. Depending on where you live in the world
there is a finite minimum tread depth for legal use on the road.
The tread depth indicator will give you an accurate reading, make
sure to take several measurements of each tire at various points.
A good way of doing this is to take 3 measurements, one a short
way in from the edge of the tread, another in the middle of the
tire tread, and the last one also just in form the edge of the
tread (but on the other side). Taking three readings across the
width of the tire will let you know if the tread is wearing down
evenly. If it's not wearing down evenly then you need to read
the paragraphs below!
Uneven tread wear
Uneven tire wear, where one side of the tire wears down faster
than the other is often a sign of wheel misalignment. This can
be corrected with a wheel
alignment (tracking) adjustment. Uneven tire wear can also
be a sign of worn suspension components which need to be repaired
or replaced. Basically what is happening is that the tire is not
exactly perpendicular to the road, meaning that one side of it
is bearing more weight and undergoing more stress than the other
Tire pressure can be checked with either an analogue or digital
gauge. If the pressure is not within the manufacturers specified
level then a variety of bad, or annoying things can happen. Low Pressure - Low tire pressure can result in poor fuel
economy and tread wear which is concentrated on the outside edges.
This uneven tire wear can also cause heat buildup which can lead
to sudden tire failure (a blow out) - which in worst case scenarios
could cause and accident. High Pressure - High tire pressure will cause rapid wearing
of the center of a tire's tread. Overinflation can also mean less
grip and a harder ride.
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| OxFam Feeds the Mind and Body
You have likely never seen the wealthy eating fine cuisine on the curb, or the poor consuming rice and water next to the ice sculpture; however, that's exactly the kind of scene organizers of the OxFam Hunger Banquet want you to envision. The Oxfam Hunger Banquet has been a part of the National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week (November 16-22), which is a national effort to promote education, action, and awareness about hunger in the world.
A student in the middle class share her beans with a lower class student.
With nearly a billion people worldwide suffering from chronic hunger, OxFam strives to show the disparity between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.' During the recent OxFam Hunger Banquet, attendees assumed an identity in one of various social classes (ranging from poor to wealthy) and ate food that would be considered common to that class. While some savored the delights of fine cuisine and exceptional service, others ate basic staples.
"We are here today because 1.2 billion people live in poverty," says Deidra Cody, emcee of the banquet. "Eight-hundred-and-forty-two million of these people suffer from chronic hunger. Every 2.9 seconds, a child dies from hunger and other preventable diseases. Thatís 30,000 children a day. You may think hunger is about too many people and too little food. Not true. Our rich and bountiful planet produces enough to feed every woman, man, and child on earth. Itís about power. The roots of hunger lie in inequalities in access to education and resources. The results are illiteracy, poverty, war, and the inability of families to grow or buy food. Today, you join Oxfamís fight against hunger."
As the guests entered the Commons, they randomly selected an identity from the lower, middle, or upper class. Their seats were destined accordingly to their economics status, which would determine their lifestyle. The high-income people represent 15 percent of the world's population, who made $9,076 or more per year, while the middle class people made up 25 percent of the world's population, who earn about $912 and $9,075 per year. The lower class people made up 60 percent of the world's population.
Peoples' lifestyles were determined by their economic success. The upper class sat at a fancy table and received a bounty of food, while the less fortunate ate rice while sitting on the floor. The people in the middle class ate rice, beans, and water for dinner.
Two speakers, a student at Berea College Gyude Moore from Liberia and John Payne, retired pediatricians spoke about the effect of hunger. Moore gave the facts of the prevalence of hunger in the world and shared with the audience his personal experiences in his homeland. Moore said, "We are human beings and we must be able and willing to help one another."
More than just a social gathering or mental exercise, the event will benefit local food banks with a donation of proceeds.
This event was co-sponsored by CELTS, Student Fair-Trade Committee, Dr. Janice Blythe's Service-Learning Class, and the International Center.
Oxfam members meet at 8:00 pm every Monday in the Cafe Lounge in Woods Penn. For more information about the Oxfam Group, please contact Gyude Moore.
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FILM REVIEW 2016: Obama’s America
Today I went to see Dinesh D’Souza’s new documentary film 2016: Obama’s America. Since I’m in Massachusetts, I was concerned about finding a cinema that was showing it but to my surprise, a quick web search revealed that it’s playing in theaters all over the state.
I was also surprised to find the theater half full. On a Sunday. At a matinee. In Massachusetts.
D’Souza narrates the film and appears in much of it. At the beginning, he examines his own life in comparison to Obama’s and in fact, they have much in common. Both spent part of their early years in foreign countries, both attended ivy league schools and both married their wives in the same year. Yet for all of their similarities, the two could not be more different in their view of America and the world.
D’Souza attempts unsuccessfully to interview Obama’s grandmother in Kenya but then has a memorable interview with Obama’s half brother George Obama who lives in poverty in Nairobi.
D’Souza examines Obama’s world view through the prism of his father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. focusing on his anti-colonial leanings. D’Souza also advances the idea that the absence of Obama’s father in his young life drove him to succeed, going so far as to interview a psychologist on the subject.
The film explains Obama’s success in the 2008 presidential election through a combination of factors. The fact that very few Americans knew much about Obama was part of the strategy. The media’s lack of interest in Obama’s questionable associates like Bill Ayers also played a role. In fact, the film points out the Reverend Wright controversy as the only moment that threatened to reveal this side of Obama. A significant portion of the film also focuses on the influence of radical socialist Frank Marshall Davis, a man many Americans have still never heard of due to negligence on behalf of the media. Finally, Obama succeeded in 2008 partially because of what’s best about America, that we’re a country of good people who wanted to see an African American achieve the highest office in the land.
Throughout the film, D’Souza reminds the audience that Obama has goals which are different than the presidents who came before him and he analyzes Obama’s motivations with solid arguments based on Obama’s life experience.
He asks what America would look like under a second Obama administration. The film lays out a grim future where America’s nuclear defenses are cut and the country’s financial power is reduced to the more “fair” level of other countries. The scariest part of the film is towards the end when Obama’s record of spending and debt is explored by D’Souza and former comptroller David Walker.
My only complaint about the film is that it’s full of footage of Obama. It would be difficult to make a film about Obama without the footage, but if you’re anything like me you’re sick of seeing and hearing Obama on TV. Also be prepared for the appearance of the creepy singing Obama kids, in a scene that elicited an audible groan from some members of the audience.
D’Souza’s film is thoughtful, informative and well produced. As a political news junkie, I feared there would be nothing new for me to learn but I was wrong. There’s plenty to learn from this movie and it moves along at just the right pace, always keeping your attention.
In the end, 2016: Obama’s America can be summed up in the following way:
Don’t. Give. Obama. A Second Term.
I enjoyed the film and highly recommend seeing it.
Oh, just one more thing…
The audience clapped at the end.
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|The Financial Report,1993-94|
The information presented in Figure 1 represents solid
performance. Over the four-year period, June 30, 1990, to June 30, 1994, the
University's expendable fund balances have exceeded the University's growth in
expenditures. However, the current year's performance of 76 percent represents
a decrease from 1993's 81 percent. During fiscal year 1994, the University's
expendable fund balances essentially stayed at their 1993 levels, while
expenditures increased just under 7 percent. The major reason for the lack
of growth in expendable fund balances was that the quasi-endowment funds'
market value, which comprises over half of the University's expendable fund
balances, was unchanged from 1993.
Figure 2 shows the net revenues as a percentage of total revenues for the University's operating segments, measuring the degree to which revenues exceed expenditures. On a consolidated basis, the University's revenues exceeded expenditures during the year by 3.2 percent, a decrease from 1993's 4.6 percent. Each of the three operating units of the University, educational and general, auxiliary enterprises, and the medical center experienced decreases in their percentages for 1994 compared to 1993.
A major reason for the consolidated percentage decrease was that the medical center's net revenue as a percentage of total revenue decreased from 4.6 percent in 1993 to 2.2 percent in 1994. The decline was attributable, in part, to a continued slowing in the growth of revenue because of reduced inpatient activity. A more detailed discussion of the medical center's financial activity is presented later in this report.
Since 1991, the educational and general segment percentage has been decreasing and now stands at its 1990 level. The decreasing percentages correspond to the reduced state support the University has received since 1991. The 1994 result, although adequate, was not unexpected given that state appropriations increased by only 3.5 percent. Although other educational and general revenues increased 9 percent and exceeded the growth in expenditures of 8 percent, this activity did not fully compensate for the low growth in state appropriations for 1994.
The auxiliary enterprises experienced a slight decrease
from last year and the combined percentage of net revenues stands at just over
14 percent. When evaluating the results for the auxiliary enterprises, it must
be noted that the percentages do not reflect all expenditures related to the
replacement of equipment and renovation of facilities. Such expenditures,
which are a significant component of their operations, are generally recorded
in reserve accounts that are not included in the current funds. It is also
important to note that the auxiliaries are required to generate all revenues
through use charges and, therefore, do not receive state appropriations.
Despite the wide variance in debt service percentages, each
segment's measure is well within acceptable guidelines. The significant
improvement in the medical center's percentage for 1994 is a result of the
medical center's debt refinancing in 1993. The 1993 percentage was unusually
high due to the defeasance of the medical center bond issues.
In managing the endowment, the University must strike a balance between the dual and often competing objectives of providing income to the current University community and of providing growth in the underlying assets, so that a gift given today will provide the same level of real support to the future University community. In order to satisfy these dual objectives, the Consolidated Endowment, totaling $506 million, sets its annual distribution to the University at approximately 4 percent of the market value, leaving the excess return over spending to the appreciation of the underlying assets. The Eminent Scholar Endowment, totaling $97 million, is the investment fund for endowment assets which are eligible for income supplements by the Commonwealth. In order to maximize participation by the Commonwealth while allowing for limited appreciation, spending for the Eminent Scholar pool is set at approximately 6 percent. The remaining $45 million represents separately invested endowment assets. Not included in the endowment controlled by the University are assets held in trust for the benefit of the University and endowments held by the University's related foundations.
For 1994, the Consolidated Endowment distributed $23 million
and the Eminent Scholar Endowment distributed $5 million. The use of endowment
income may be restricted to a specific purpose by the donor or it may be
unrestricted and directed at the president's discretion. As of June 30, 1994,
68 percent of the total endowment was restricted and 32 percent was
In response to changes in the health care market-place, management has implemented its Value Improvement Plan to improve patient services and to reduce the costs of those services. By implementing a hiring freeze, the medical center was able to reduce the number of FTEs from 4,866 in August 1993 to 4,416 by June 1994. This allowed the medical center to limit the growth in operating expenses to 2.6 percent for 1994.
Office of University Publications Home Page
University of Virginia Home Page
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BEIJING - China's Internet censors have deleted U.S. Embassy posts promoting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech on Internet freedom from microblogs, parrying U.S. efforts to spur debate about Beijing's grip on free speech.
Clinton said on Tuesday that China faces a "dictator's dilemma" on Internet censorship, and that the government risks being outrun by online opinion.
The online scrap over Clinton's comments underscores how Beijing is learning to cope with a booming microblog industry that is sparking social activism.
It also highlights how governments are embracing Twitter-like sites that allow users to fire off 140-character messages to engage with citizens on an ideological front beyond their borders.
Twitter itself is blocked in China, along with Facebook and other websites that are popular abroad.
The Embassy posts, issued by U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and removed on Wednesday, asked Chinese users to opine on Clinton's speech, including on whether freedom of speech should apply in cyberspace, the Wall Street Journal reported.
It is unclear whether their removal was ordered by the government or censored by the companies that host the Embassy's microblogs, Sina.com and Tencent Holdings .
Those companies cooperate with the government under Chinese law to scrub content that is deemed illegal.
"The Ambassador recently responded to a query to the Wall Street Journal saying that we are disappointed that some Chinese Internet sites have decided to remove discussion of Secretary Clinton's Internet freedom speech from their websites," the U.S. Embassy said in an emailed statement.
"It's ironic that the Chinese are blocking an online discussion about Internet freedom."
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
On Thursday, it appeared the U.S. Embassy was having difficulty updating its Sina Weibo (microblog) page with information unrelated to Clinton's speech.
The Twitter feed of U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Buangan linked to a screenshot of the Embassy's Sina microblog which showed an error message after Buangan said he tried to post an explanation for an English-language idiom.
"Tried to update our Sina weibo account today (to explain the English idiom 'old hand') and this is the message we (got)," he wrote, linking to a picture of the message.
In response, China's Foreign Ministry said that freedom of speech on the Internet in China was guaranteed by law, but that it was firmly against other countries meddling.
"We oppose any country using the Internet as a pretext to interfere in China's internal affairs," spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters at a regular news briefing.
He Weifang, a professor of law at Peking University in Beijing and an outspoken advocate of political liberalisation, said China was facing a dilemma over control of the Internet.
"The government is expending a huge amount of resources and attention to control the Internet, but even so that's proving difficult," he said.
He noted that people use altered words and indirect phrasing to get around keyword blocks.
A scathing editorial in Thursday's Global Times, a popular Chinese tabloid run by the Communist Party's official newspaper, said the U.S. pressure over the Internet was "grandstanding".
The Global Times added that China's growing number of Internet users would soon challenge the U.S. in defining language and content on the Web.
"... The U.S. cannot play tricks on the Internet and expect to turn China into another Middle East," it wrote, where Internet-fomented uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia helped topple those countries' rulers.
Chinese Internet sites have restricted public comment on the unrest in Egypt, apparently reflecting official worry that criticism of former President Hosni Mubarak's regime could also turn on Beijing.
Spokesman Ma repeated that China hoped stability would return to the Middle East as soon as possible.
(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Sugita Katyal)
© 2013 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.
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Comparisons of different groups of students with respect to mean scale scores, achievement-level percentages, percentiles, and student group percentages are of primary interest to users of NAEP results. The user needs to refer to the results of statistical tests, rather than the observed differences, before making any statement indicating that the differences observed in the sample(s) represent actual differences in the population(s). In this section, there is additional information on the statistical tests used in NAEP. A t test for independent groups is used to compare population means where there is no overlap in terms of sampled students representing these populations. A t test for partially overlapping groups is used when part-whole comparisons are being made (e.g., comparing a state to the nation).
By convention, the results in reports and online tools indicate that means, percentiles, or percentages from two groups are different (e.g., one group performed higher or lower than another group) only when the difference in the point estimates is statistically significant at an alpha level of .05.
Since 1998, t tests have been used for results disseminated through official NAEP reports. These tests are appropriate when the statistics that are being compared are based on a sampling distribution which is not fairly normal. However, the degrees of freedom in that distribution need to be determined to define the exact shape of the student t-distribution. The degrees of freedom often refer to the total number of independently variable elements in the sample. In NAEP, determining the number of independently variable elements is not straightforward; therefore, the number is estimated.
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Yesterday, the counter of my collection
has crossed the number 333.
In German we call this a "Schnapszahl". (Schnaps = liquor; Zahl = number; a multidigit number with all digits equal is a Schapszahl)
I think the name comes from the assumption, that a Schapszahl is a lucky number and he/she who has reached this number should invite the others to a Schnaps. A virtual "Prost" to everybody! (Cheers)
Another explanation of the word is that he/she who has drunken too much Schnaps sees everything doubled or more times.
As I have given away six of my cubes to friends and relatives, since I have started counting at the end of 2009 (many more before that date), the actual number of twisty puzzles is lower by six. This is compensated by several wooden puzzles and a Rubik's slide not included in the count.
Here are some of them:
The photo has been made in January 2010 when the cube count had been 176. Only a part of these 176 are displayed here.
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There are two main misconceptions about test results and reference ranges:
Myth: "An abnormal test result is a sign of a real problem."
Truth: A test result outside the reference range may or may not indicate a problem—the only sure signal it sends is that your doctor should investigate it further. You can have an abnormal value and have nothing wrong—but your doctor should try to determine the cause.
It's possible that your result falls in that 5% of healthy people who fall outside the statistical reference range. In addition, there are many things that could throw off a test without indicating a major problem: High blood sugar could be diet-related rather than caused by diabetes. A lipid result could be high because you didn't fast before the test. High liver enzymes can be the temporary result of a recent drinking binge rather than a sign of cirrhosis. New drugs come on the market constantly, faster than laboratories can evaluate whether they might interfere with test results. It is not uncommon for many of these drugs to interfere with certain laboratory tests, resulting in falsely high or low values.
Most likely, your doctor will want to rerun the test. Some abnormal results may disappear on their own, especially if they are on the border of the reference range. Your doctor will also seek explanations for an abnormal result, such as those above. A key point your doctor will address is, how far out of the reference range is the result?
If these investigations point to a problem, then your doctor will address it. But there are very few medical questions that can be answered by a single test.
Myth: "If all my test results are normal, I have nothing to worry about."
Truth: It's certainly a good sign, but it's only one set of tests, not a guarantee. There is a large overlap among results from healthy people and those with diseases, so there is still a small chance that there is an undetected problem. Just as some healthy people's results fall outside the reference range, lab test results in some people with disease fall within the reference range.
If you're trying to follow a healthy lifestyle, take it as a good sign, and keep it up. But if you're engaging in high-risk behavior, such as drug and alcohol abuse or a poor diet, it only means "so far so good," and the potential consequences haven't caught up with you yet. A good test result is not a license for an unhealthy lifestyle.
If you had abnormal results previously, normal results certainly provide good news. But your doctor may want to conduct follow-up tests some months later to make sure you're still on track and to document any trends.
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‘And I remain puzzled as to how you can believe that the comment about the invisible hand was only about preferring local to foreign investment at nearly equal profits, when Smith both provides another example and says that his comment is true of many other cases as well. Beyond that, I would need a clearer idea of who and what you believe you are disagreeing with to tell to what degree your disagreement is or is not justified.
The first part of David’s question (was Smith making a general statement about all individuals are ‘led by an invisible hand’) is answered by reading his text more carefully for context (all references are to the definitive Glasgow Edition of Smith’s Works and Correspondence, published by Oxford University Press and reproduced by Liberty Press):
The contextual theme starts in paragraph 1 and runs through to paragraph 9, pages 452-456, WN Book IV, chapter ii. Merely to take part of paragraph 9 (456), which is the usual format of the popular ‘quotation-only’ references, misses out Adam Smith’s argument about the distortions to what he called ‘natural’ processes were caused by mercantile political economy.
To see why the statement in paragraph 9 links to what preceded it, read paragraph 6 (pp 454-5) and note the consequential importance of the home trade (‘a greater quantity of revenue and employment’):
‘… but a capital employed in the home-trade, it has already been shown, necessarily puts into motion a greater quantity of domestic industry, and it gives revenue and employment to a greater number of inhabitants of that country, than an equal capital employed in the foreign trade of consumption… Upon equal, or only nearly equal profits, therefore, every individual naturally inclines to employ, his capital in the manner in which it is likely to afford the greatest support to domestic industry and to give revenue and employment to the greatest number of people in his own country
’ (p 455; emphasis added).
Smith clearly differentiates between the ‘domestic’ and the ‘foreign trade of consumption’ and goes on to refer to ‘every individual who employs his capital in the domestic industry’, which by doing so separates ‘every individual’ he refers to from those other individuals who engage in foreign trade and who do not invest their capital domestically. Capital sent to set up a ‘factory’ in India or a plantation in Virginia does not simultaneously impact positively and equally in domestic investment and output.
The investment of Glasgow tobacco merchants (of whom Smith was very familiar from 1751-64) added to Virginia’s domestic output and employment (including slavery), with some trickle-down to Scottish output and employment in shipping, warehousing, distribution and such like, plus building trades for their Scottish magnificent houses (consumption). Its predominant investment and employment effect was abroad.
Smith sets out his hypothesis, again separating domestic from foreign industry:
‘7. Secondly, every individual who employs his capital in the support of domestick industry, necessarily endeavours to direct that industry, that its produce may be of the greatest value
Therefore, it should be clear that Smith in paragraph 9 refers to ‘every individual’ who engaged in domestic investment, but clearly not to those who engaged in foreign investment, because domestic investment did more for domestic revenue and employment than ‘an equal capital employed in the foreign trade of consumption’.
So we find that is perfectly legitimate from what Smith wrote to separate the ‘every individual’ tag from slipping from one specific group of capital investors (those investing locally) from another group investing abroad (Europe and the British Colonies, including India). Repatriated profits, especially on retirement, were mainly spent on splendid country and town houses personal consumption and prodigality, which Smith regarded as less beneficial to domestic capital investment and employment than the successive, regular and short cycles of individual capitals returning three or more times a year domestically (productive), rather than the four of five years (or even longer) they might take for one take in foreign trade. That is why the context is easily missed if Book IV, chapter ii is read hurriedly and if you are already convinced that Smith was making a general statement for all the actions of all individual investors, domestic and foreign when he was being more specific ‘in praise of, so to speak, the domestic investors.
Neoclassical economists who leapt on the ‘hurried’ reading, mainly, I suspect of the quotation separated out of paragraph 9 and not the chapter, such as Paul Samuelson, who take it as a general statement and not as Smith had written and, therefore, intended it.
This brings to the ‘case’ question: ‘he is in this, as, as in so many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention’.
First, note in the second sentence of paragraph that the ‘he’, and ‘every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in support of domestick industry’ (which thereby clearly excludes every other individual who deploys his capital in the foreign trade of consumption and not ‘domestick industry’). Smith is not making a general statement or axiom in this paragraph.
Smith states specifically, ‘ in this case’ – those in ‘support of domestick industry – are ‘led by an invisible hand’ to invest locally. And the object of the metaphor? It is his intention of: ‘only his own security’ (namely ‘his’ aversion to the greater risk of foreign trade, specified in paragraph 6, p 454).
I have already specified what Smith regarded as the purpose of using metaphors: specifically to state ‘in a more striking and interesting manner’ their ‘object’ (his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, 1762: 1983, p 29
). And the object that drives individuals to prefer the home trade to foreign trade: the security of their capital!
Now, Smith extends the applicability of the metaphor to other cases, but the same rhetorical ‘rules’ prevail, as for all metaphors (that is what Smith taught his students and has been known since Professor John M. Lothian of the University of Aberdeen, purchased 1978 in a Manor House sale two volumes of ‘Notes of Dr Smith’s Rhetoric Lectures’ (1762) and published them in 1963 (Nelson), which have been widely available from Oxford University Press since 1983.
Smith does not identify any other of the ‘many other cases’ in Wealth Of Nations, but he does identify one other use of the metaphor in Moral Sentiments (1759) and we can see the same format used by Smith of this metaphor. In TMS book IV, chapter 2, p 184, he refers to ‘the proud and unfeeling landlord’ who ‘without a thought for his brethren’ nevertheless is ‘led an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal proportions among all it inhabitants and this without intending it and without knowing it, advance the interests of society, and afford the means to the multiplication of the species
’ (TMS IV. i.10, p 184-5).
Two common features to these two cases of the use of the same metaphor of ‘an invisible hand’: the agents concerned (the proud and unfeeling landlord’ and the ‘individual’ who invests in the home market) do not intend to promote the public interest and nor do they know about the consequences of their actions.
They are motivated to do what they do by distinct causes: the landlord must distribute ‘his’ food from ‘his’ fields to ‘his’ serfs, because, self-evidently, he had no choice but to do so. Without subsistence they would starve and the basis of his self-opinionated ‘greatness’ would perish (the invisible hand was his absolute necessity to share some of his food resources to continue to bask in his power and greatness, and this had the effect of ‘advancing the interests of society’ and the ‘multiplication of the species’); and the home trade investor driven by his perception of the comparative greater ‘insecurity’ of investing abroad to invest at home instead. In doing so, he increases domestic investment and employment, without this being his intention or even thinking about it. The whole is the sum of its parts. He pursues profit on his capital, not national advantage.
I suggest that Smith demonstrated the powerful use of a metaphor to explain in ‘a more striking and interesting manner’ the unintended consequences of individual motivation in both cases.
That there are numerous other cases where unintended consequences can be demonstrated is most likely. A French Physiocrat (I think it was Mirabeau) remarked that ‘individuals think they are working for themselves but in reality they were working for everyone else’. If we could examine what motivates each individual, we could identify the object of whatever metaphor we used to describe what they actually did.
The third question about just who am I criticizing is fair enough.
I have been tracking the explosive use of the metaphor as its own object seen in the oft stated assertion that there is an invisible hand of the ‘market, supply and demand’, a theorem, a paradigm, and which somehow led to social optima and equilibrium, which, allegedly was first stated by Adam Smith, and so on.
Originally, I found this attention strange, because I had found no references by others to Smith’s use of the invisible hand when he was alive (though the metaphor was extremely well used in the 17th-18th centuries in theology and literary fiction), nor much notice of his uses taken until the last fourth of the 19th century. In the 1920s and 1930s the invisible hand (focusing on versions of selfishness/self interest leading to social maxima in output or welfare) began to appear in isolation (Pigou, Knight, Chicago oral tradition, Lange) and, after Paul Samuelson’s Economics: an introductory analysis
(1948; 19 editions and 4½ million sold) appeared, the references – and the myths - became endemic (I can send you my paper ‘Paul Samuelson and the Origins of the Modern Myth of the Invisible hand’ if you send me an email address: email@example.com).
This 20 May to 3 June, I began posting on Lost Legacy modern attributions of the invisible hand myths to Adam Smith in textbooks, but I was interrupted by illness and hospitalization from continuing until, probably, late September. You can look through the archives for examples; some titles appear below:
20 May: John Lindauer, Economics: a modern view, 1977, W. B. Saunders Company, p.12
21 May: Elbert V. Bowden, Economics: the science of common sense, 1974, South-Western Publishing Co. p. 405.
22 May: James F. Willis and Martin L. Primack. 1977. Explorations in Economics, Houghton Mifflin and Company
23 May: Edwin Mansfield: Economics: principles, problems, decisions, 1974. Norton & Co. New York, pp 16-18
24 May: Richard B. McKenzie and Gordon Tullock, Modern Political Economy: an introduction to economics, 1978, p. 111-12. McGraw-Hill, New York.
25 May: William Baumol and A. S. Binder, 1979. Economics: principles and policy, pp 593, 599, 806-7, Harcourt Bruce Jovanovich, New York
26 May: David Begg, Stanley Fisher and Roger Dornbush Economics (1984) New York: McGraw-Hill (British Edition of a popular US text)
29 May: George Reisman 1996. Capitalism: a treatise on economics, Ottawa, Illinois, Jameson Books
1 June: Alec Cairncross, 1944. An Introduction to Economics, London: Butterworth & Co
2 June: H. A. Silverman, , 5th: 1928; 11th: 1940; 16th 1964. The Substance of Economics: for the student and the general reader, London: Pitman & Sons Ltd.
3 June: Edwin G. Dolan (with the collaboration of David E. Lindsey), 1977. Basic Economics. Hinsdale, Illinois: The Dryden Press.
You may respond with a post as long as you need, which shall be posted unedited in full (email my adress above)
Labels: Invisible Hand
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|Patricia Curzi, ILGA Women Secretariat|
The 4th ILGA ASIA conference was to take place in Surabaya, Indonesia from the 26th to the 28th of March 2010, however, due to unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances, the conference had to be cut short.
ILGA is the only worldwide federation campaigning for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) rights and was established in 1978. The aim of ILGA is to work for the equality of LGBTI people and their liberation from all forms of discrimination. It seeks to achieve this aim through the worldwide cooperation and mutual support of its members.
ILGA ASIA is the Asian branch of ILGA and it has successfully organised conferences in India, the Philippines and Thailand in the past. ILGA ASIA has over 160 member organisations in more than 17 countries across Asia.
ILGA Asia accepted the proposal of GAYa NUSANTARA, the oldest LGBT organisation in Indonesia, to host the fourth Regional Conference of ILGA Asia in Surabaya, Indonesia.
The conference organisers received endorsements from the local city police to hold the conference. However, as news of the conference became known to local media and groups of fundamentalists, who opposed the conference, they began to threaten to disrupt the conference and upset the participants with violent protests. The police withdrew their endorsement of the conference fearing to not be able to control the fundamentalists and the safety of the conference participants. ILGA ASIA was then forced to announce that the conference was “officially” cancelled.
The conference was to be held at the Mercure Hotel (Accor Hotels Group), with many of the participants coming from all over Asia and who were staying at the hotel. The management of the hotel then decided that they were very uncomfortable to host the conference and accommodate the participants. Two days prior to the start of the conference, the management of the hotel demanded all the participants to vacate their rooms, which had been paid for, and find alternative accommodation. The Oval Hotel, kindly accepted to host the event and provide the rooms needed for those who had to leave Mercure. The conference organisers tried their best to mobilise as much support from high-level public figures, to persuade the police to return to their initial endorsement, but to no avail.
On Thursday the 25th of March the ILGA ASIA board called for a meeting with all the participants and explained the situation to them and the possible risks in continuing with the conference. In spite of all the threats and potential risks, the participants and the board decided to go ahead with a “meeting of activists”, as this is why they had come to Surabaya. The ILGA ASIA board commends the commitment and determination of the activists in Asia and their tenacity in wishing to persevere with the agenda under extremely difficult circumstances and to help build a world where all people are free and equal.
In the morning of Friday the 26th of March at 8.30am, the activists gathered in the corridor of the 4th floor of the Oval Hotel where Dédé Oetomo, director of GAYa NUSANTARA, Poedjiati Tan and Sahran Abeysundara, representatives of ILGA ASIA to ILGA, welcomed all the delegates and declared the “Meeting of Activists” open. Four energy packed workshops were carried out throughout the morning taking place in rooms of the board members for security reasons. Over 100 representatives from more than 12 countries participated and the atmosphere was electric.
By midday the board had received information that a group of fundamentalists had mobilised themselves after Friday prayers and were heading towards the hotel. For the safety of the participants and in the best interest of all those involved, the board decided to cancel the programme of events for the afternoon session. The heads of the fundamentalist groups entered the hotel and sat around a table in the lobby, adjacent to the elevators, talking to one another, while other demonstrators grew into a larger threatening crowd outside of the hotel lobby. The heads of the opposing groups (the Unity Front of the Community of Islam (FPUI), an ad-hoc coalition of 7 conservative and hard-line Islamic groups including the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI), Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body, the Islamic Defender Front (FPI), a local extremist group that is known for violent tactics, and the Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), a local chapter of a worldwide network by the same name that is believed to be very active in a number of countries including the United Kingdom despite being banned by many governments) demanded to speak to the ILGA ASIA organisers and Mr King Oey, a member of the ILGA ASIA board and part of the organising committee tried to reason with them, only to be assaulted in return.
Moments later, the regional board and the Secretaries Generals of ILGA and the communications team met to analyse the situation and to take necessary measures and further precautions. This involved hours of negotiation with the police and the management of the hotel. At around 4 pm, dozens more protesters arrived at the Oval Hotel and the atmosphere became more heated. The police wanted to terminate their responsibility by pressuring the conference delegates and organisers to leave the hotel immediately. Only after the mediation of some prominent public figures who were among the participants, the police finally offered protection to the participants and the hotel management accepted that they could remain in the hotel until the end of their reservations. The police also negotiated with the demonstrators and told them that it had decided to give protection to the delegates. The demonstrators however refused to leave and began to put more and more pressure on to the organising committee promising to return armed the next day. By early evening, it became necessary to evacuate the participants in groups of four. Some were aided by their embassies, others who managed to change their flights were taken directly to the airport, whilst others were moved to different hotels and some left Surabaya by land to neighbouring cities. A few remained at the hotel as “tourists”. The ILGA ASIA board wishes to thank all Indonesian activists who coordinated and put their necks on the line to ensure the safety of all the participants.
On Sunday 29 March, news spread quickly regarding an article that appeared in the Jakarta Post that morning, that the fundamentalists had threatened to come to the Oval hotel and physically remove all remaining foreigners and to take them directly to the airport. The Secretaries General of ILGA left the hotel with the last participants to a hotel near the airport, where the last departures were arranged. On the same day, news spread in relation to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, announcing a court action against the organising committee for “activities against religion”.
All iInternational participants left Indonesia and have arrived safely back to their home countries leaving the Indonesian activists to face harder challenges ahead of them.
ILGA, as part of an international coalition of LGBTI rights defenders, has initiated a coordinated operation to denounce and protest against the attack that occurred, with the concerned international bodies and to demand action from these as a result. Many voices have risen, in Indonesia and in different countries around the world, demanding the respect of human rights of LGBT people and the right to assembly.
The demand of action is based on the fact that in Indonesia:
(a) The constitution has a strong equality clause
(b) The constitution is based on secular principles
(c) Indonesia has ratified the major UN human rights treaties
The ILGA ASIA board wishes to thank all the activists that had assembled from all parts of Asia and for showing great courage in the face adversity. We wish to thank our funders [Global Fund for Women, Astraea, LGBTI Initiative of Open Society Institute, Hivos, Fridae and Oxfam-Novib] who have stood by us through this difficult time and have been a great source of strength. We are blessed by the many men and women in the Indonesian government who have stood up for our rights and have spoken out against the fundamentalists. But most of all, we are forever grateful to our Indonesian partners and the organizing team for showing great resolve and for standing up for what they believe in and showing the world what activism is all about. They are an inspiration to us all, their courage is to be admired and their commitment to a world free of prejudice and hate is a testimony to who they are.
The ILGA ASIA board stands firm in our belief that all people are created equal and free and that we all have the right to live as we are, and to love who we love. This incident has not weakened our movement but has only made us stronger. For we know our work is important and what we do changes the lives of so many people around Asia and the world. Our determination is that much stronger and our belief is that much more. Our work is not over until all people can live in a world that accepts us for who we are.
3 April 2010
Spanish version: http://ilga.org/ilga/es/article/mmSyIJV1Hs
French version: ilga.org/ilga/fr/article/mmSJIUN1fr
Portuguese version: http://ilga.org/ilga/pt/article/mmWKquW103
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Illustration courtesy WMAP Science Team, NASA
Published February 15, 2012
A powerful repulsion between normal matter and hidden pockets of antimatter could be an alternate explanation for the mysterious force known as dark energy, according to a controversial new theory.
In 1998 scientists discovered that the universe is not only expanding but that its expansion is accelerating.
This totally unexpected behavior has been called the "most profound problem" in physics, because our current understanding of gravity says that attractions between mass in the universe should be causing the expansion to slow down.
The leading theory to explain the accelerating expansion is the existence of a hypothetical repulsive force called dark energy. (Related: "New Galaxy Maps to Help Find Dark Energy Proof?")
But in the new study, Massimo Villata, an astrophysicist at the Observatory of Turin in Italy, suggests the effects attributed to dark energy are actually due to a kind of "antigravity" created when normal matter and antimatter repel one another.
"Usually this repulsion is ascribed to a mysterious dark energy that would uniformly permeate the cosmos, but nobody knows what it is nor why it behaves this way," Villata said in an email.
"We are replacing an unknown force caused by an unknown element with the repulsive gravity of the well-known antimatter."
Antimatter Hiding in "Holes" in the Universe?
According to Villata, the keys to accelerated expansion lie in large-scale voids that are seen scattered throughout the cosmos.
These holes in our map of the universe—which can each be millions of light-years wide—are inexplicably empty of galaxies and galaxy clusters. The nearest hole to us is called the Local Void, bordering the Virgo supercluster of galaxies.
Villata thinks these voids harbor vast quantities of antimatter, which could even be organized into antimatter galaxies, complete with antimatter stars and planets.
(Related: "Antimatter Found Orbiting Earth—A First.")
All this antimatter doesn't emit radiation that can be detected by current sensors, making it effectively invisible, Villata said.
"There can be various reasons why antimatter in voids should be invisible, but we do not know which of them is the right one," Villata said. "Moreover, antimatter in laboratories could have different behavior, since it is 'immersed' in a world of matter."
While we can't see antimatter superstructures, we can observe their effects on our visible universe, Villata argues, because antimatter must repel the normal matter in galaxies, pushing them farther from one another.
Villata says his theory, which will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Astrophysics and Space Science, has the potential to solve other cosmic mysteries, such as the universe's "missing antimatter" problem.
According to standard physics, matter and antimatter particles should have been created in equal amounts during the big bang. Yet the visible universe appears to be dominated by structures made up of normal matter.
To determine how much antimatter might be contained in the Local Void, Villata calculated how much would be needed to create a repulsive force strong enough to explain the so-called Local Sheet. This collection of normal matter, which includes our Milky Way and other nearby galaxies, is all moving at the same speed.
"If each void contains a mass of antimatter similar to that calculated for our Local Void ... then our universe would host an amount of antimatter equivalent to that of matter, and [there] would finally be a matter-antimatter symmetric universe," Villata said.
But Do Matter and Antimatter Repel?
While Villata's theory doesn't require mysterious forces created from nothing, it does rely on the untested assumption that matter and antimatter are mutually repulsive.
There is as yet "no [experimental] evidence that antimatter repels matter," said physicist Frank Close of the University of Oxford in the U.K., although, he added, plans are underway at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland to test the idea.
In fact, Dragan Hajdukovic, a physicist at CERN, recently proposed a separate antigravity theory that also relies on repulsion between matter and antimatter to explain dark energy and dark matter.
Hajdukovic called Villata's theory "an interesting idea," be he added that he disagrees with the hypothesis of a matter-antimatter symmetric universe.
"The major problem is why [such] big quantities of antimatter in the voids are not observed," Hajdukovic said.
In Hajdukovic's theory, antimatter particles spontaneously pop in and out of existence in the quantum vacuum, which is the name physicists give to seemingly empty space.
"I use the reality of the quantum vacuum. For a physicist, it is more natural and plausible," Hajdukovic said.
"In order to explain the invisibility of antimatter, proponents of a matter-antimatter symmetric universe would be forced to invoke an additional hypothesis"—such as the emission by antimatter of so-called advanced photons, which travel backward in time and so wouldn't be detectable to current instruments.
"It is not a good sign for a theory if one hypothesis immediately demands introduction of other hypotheses."
But study author Villata argues that the assumptions in his theory—including matter-antimatter repulsion and advanced photons—are predicted by well-established theories in physics.
In that sense, he said, there is "no introduction of other hypotheses."
These six scientists were snubbed for awards or robbed of credit for discoveries … because they were women.
Scientists say they've learned why penguin wings, now used for swimming, no longer get the birds off the ground.
A boulder-size meteor slammed into the moon in March, igniting an explosion so bright that anyone looking up at right moment might have spotted it.
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Community colleges are known for low tuition — and low prestige. A new company called Quad Learning is teaming with community colleges to offer an online honors curriculum, reports Inside Higher Ed. Investors hope students will pay more for an honors degree.
Students enrolled in the program — which is delivered in an online, synchronous format, but with extracurricular and other face time — pay more than they would to enroll in the traditional academic programs at their institutions, but significantly less than they would at most public and private four-year alternatives.
Next year, students will compete for 160 slots in Spokane’s program, paying $5,985 for the year, compared to the normal $3,921 tuition for in-state students.
Colleges will use the extra tuition to pay Quad Learning for its technology and coaching services.
For those extra dollars, students have much smaller classes, significantly more interaction with academic coaches from their colleges and from American Honors, and much more help in college guidance to help them prepare to transfer once they’re done, said Lisa Avery, dean of American Honors and global education at Community Colleges of Spokane.
Community college instructors in the American Honors network will collaborate on curriculum development and set common learning outcomes. However, each college will be able to adapt learning materials and assign its own faculty members to teach the honors courses. Honors graduates will find it easier to transfer to top universities, predicts Quad Learning.
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POSTED: Monday, October 5, 2009 - 10:09am
UPDATED: Thursday, February 25, 2010 - 12:34pm
Today is the last day for voters to register for the November 3rd Constitutional Election in Texas.
On the ballot for voting on November 3rd are:
- HJR 132: "The constitutional amendment authorizing
the financing, including through tax increment financing, of the acquisition
by municipalities and counties
of buffer areas or open spaces adjacent to a military installation for
the prevention of encroachment or for the construction of roadways, utilities,
or other infrastructure to protect or promote the mission of the military
- HJR 36-1: "The constitutional amendment
authorizing the legislature to provide for the ad valorem taxation of a residence
solely on the basis of the property's value as a residence homestead."
- HJR 36-3: "The constitutional amendment
providing for uniform standards and procedures for the appraisal of property
for ad valorem tax purposes."
- HJR 14-2: "The constitutional amendment
establishing the national research university fund to enable emerging research
universities in this state to achieve national prominence as major research
universities and transferring the balance of the higher education fund to
the national research university fund."
- HJR 36-2: "The constitutional amendment
authorizing the legislature to authorize a single board of equalization for
two or more adjoining appraisal entities that elect to provide for consolidated
- HJR 116: "The constitutional amendment authorizing
the Veterans' Land Board to issue general obligation bonds in amounts equal
to or less than amounts previously authorized."
- HJR 127: "The constitutional amendment to
allow an officer or enlisted member of the Texas State Guard or other state
militia or military force to hold other civil offices."
- HJR 7: "The constitutional amendment authorizing
the state to contribute money, property, and other resources for the establishment,
maintenance, and operation of veterans hospitals in this state."
- HJR 102: "The constitutional amendment to
protect the right of the public, individually and collectively, to access
and use the public beaches bordering the seaward shore of the Gulf of Mexico."
- HJR 85: "The constitutional amendment to
provide that elected members of the governing boards of emergency services
districts may serve terms not to exceed four years."
- HJR 14-1: "The constitutional amendment
to prohibit the taking, damaging, or destroying of private property for public
use unless the action is for the ownership, use, and enjoyment of the property
by the State, a political subdivision of the State, the public at large,
or entities granted the power of eminent domain under law or for the elimination
of urban blight on a particular parcel of property, but not for certain economic
development or enhancement of tax revenue purposes, and to limit the legislature's
authority to grant the power of eminent domain to an entity."
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Nell Lundy Characteristics
Nell Lundy was able to witness one of the first censorship events of the recent scrutiny of politics in art, an incident involving the "sacrilegious" use of the American flag. The tape won a first prize at the 1990 AFI/Sony Visions of U.S. Video Contest and has been broadcast on WTTW-Chicago and Deep Dish TV. Lundy has just completed Jane: An Abortion Service , a history of a Chicago women's group that provided safe but illegal abortions during pre-Roe years; she and co-producer Kate Kirtz received ITVS funding and an NEA Fellowship to complete this project.
--Video Databank Catalog
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The research and consulting firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) reports that subsidies for fossil energies are far outweighing those for renewables. While many governments are putting support behind clean energy, the figures show that renewables are still far behind, reports BNEF.
The following is a summation from BNEF of its analysis, released earlier this week:
In all, governments of the world provided approximately $43-46bn to renewable energy and biofuels technologies, projects, and companies in 2009, BNEF concludes in preliminary analysis. This total includes the cost of feed-in-tariffs (FiTs), renewable energy credits or certificates (RECs), tax credits, cash grants, and other direct subsidies. (It does not include more upstream support, such as subsidies to corn farmers to grow feedstock for use in US ethanol plants, nor does not include any value transfer due to carbon cap-and-trade schemes.)
The $43-46bn figure stands in stark contrast to the $557bn spent on subsidizing fossil fuels in 2008, as estimated by the International Energy Agency last month.
"One of the reasons the clean energy sector is starved of funding is because mainstream investors worry that renewable energy only works with direct government support," said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance. "Setting aside the fact that in many cases clean energy competes on its own merits - for instance in the case of well-situated wind farms and Brazilian sugar-cane ethanol - this analysis shows that the global direct subsidy for fossil fuels is around ten times the subsidy for renewables. And that is without taking into account the enormous security and public health costs of fossil fuels, as well as the appalling pollution catastrophes on the Gulf Coast, the Niger Delta and elsewhere."
The BNEF preliminary analysis suggests the US is the top country, as measured in dollars deployed, in providing direct subsidies for clean energy with an estimated $18.2bn spent in total in 2009. Approximately 40% of this went toward supporting the US biofuels sector with the rest going towards renewables. The federal stimulus program played a key role; its Treasury Department grant program alone provided $3.8bn in support for clean energy projects.
China, the world leader in new wind installations in 2009 with 14GW, provided approximately $2bn in direct subsidies, according to the preliminary analysis. This figure is deceptive, however, as much crucial support for clean energy in the country comes in form of low-interest loans from state-owned banks. State-run power generators and grid companies have also been strongly encouraged by the government to tap their balance sheets in support of renewables.
Feed-in-tariffs (FiT) subsidizing the purchase of clean electricity in Europe accounted for roughly $19.5bn of the total 2009 spend, or just under half the global total. Germany is home to what was the world’s single most expensive clean energy subsidy program in 2009, BNEF's preliminary research found. Its FiT cost Germany’s ratepayers an estimated $9.6bn in 2009 and is a reflection of the extraordinary number of PV systems installed in the country in recent years.
The gap between what governments spend on subsidizing fossil fuels and clean energy should narrow considerably in 2010 for two reasons. First, support for renewables and biofuels will grow as disbursement of $188bn in global stimulus funds for clean energy accelerates, based on BNEF research. Second, the amount governments such as China spend to keep fossil fuel prices artificially low for consumers has dropped as oil prices retreated from their mid-2008 peaks. Simply put, less government support is needed to make these dirty sources of energy more affordable to populations around the globe.
To add your comments you must sign-in or create a free account.
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SANTA CRUZ (CBS/AP) — Blue whales, the world’s largest animal, are being seen in droves off the Northern California coast.
Biologists say they are being lured by an increase this year in their favorite food: the shrimp-like creatures known as krill.
In Monterey Bay, whale watching tour operators have reported seeing as many as 100 blue whales and the same number of humpback whales.
Marine biologist Nancy Black said that basking sharks, the world’s second-largest shark species, have also made an appearance.
Blue whale sightings are generally rare. The animals were nearly hunted to extinction a century ago and remain endangered. They can also stay under water for more than 20 minutes.
There are about 10,000 blue whales left worldwide.
(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Charter School Basics
What is a charter school?
A charter school is a public school of choice that operates under the terms of a charter, or contract, with an authorizer, such as the state and local boards of education or the Georgia Charter Schools Commission. Charter schools receive flexibility from certain state and local rules in exchange for a higher degree of accountability for raising student achievement. Charter schools are held accountable by their authorizer(s) for upholding the terms of their charter.
Are charter schools public schools?
Yes. Charter schools are public schools. As such they receive public funding, cannot charge tuition, must have fair and open enrollment, must be secular, and are required to serve all student populations, including students with disabilities and English language learners.
What is the difference between a charter school and a traditional public school?
Two words can help distinguish charter schools from traditional public schools: autonomy and flexibility. Charter schools are governed, not by a local board of education, but by an autonomous non-profit board of directors, and they receive flexibility from certain state and local rules and regulations in exchange for a higher level of accountability. Charter schools use this flexibility to implement innovative or unique programs, in order to provide educational options to parents and students that are not typically available in the traditional public schools.
What is the difference between a charter school and a magnet or theme school?
A magnet or theme school is typically a school within a local school district that offers a certain instructional program. Many magnet or theme schools may have admissions criteria such as: test scores; teacher recommendations; or grades. Charter schools operate independently from the local district, and they are not allowed to have admissions criteria. For example, a charter school cannot require students to pass a test or have a certain grade point average in order to be admitted.
What is the difference between a charter school and a private school?
Charter schools are public schools of choice. Unlike private schools, they receive public funding, cannot charge tuition, and are not allowed to have admissions criteria. Also unlike private schools, charter schools are subject to many of the same state and all federal regulations as traditional public schools. For example, charter schools participate in the same statewide assessments and accountability measures as traditional public schools.
How many charter schools are there in Georgia?
There are currently 119 charter schools in Georgia, not including schools within charter systems. Of the 119 charter schools, there are 88 start-up charter schools and 31 conversion charter schools. In addition, there are 14 charter systems in Georgia, which include 107 schools.
Types of Charter Schools in Georgia
What are the different types of charter schools in Georgia?
In Georgia, there are two types of charter schools: start-up charter schools and conversion charter schools. Start-up charter schools are often grouped by their authorizer: locally-approved charter schools, Commission charter schools and state-chartered special schools.
What is a start-up charter school?
A start-up charter school is a charter school that did not exist prior to becoming a charter school.
What is a conversion charter school?
A conversion charter school is a charter school that previously existed as a traditional public school. The traditional public school entered into a charter to gain additional flexibility in exchange for greater accountability.
What is a Commission charter school?
A Commission charter school is a start-up charter school approved by the Georgia Charter Schools Commission. The Commission acts as an alternate authorizer for schools which have been denied by a local district.
What is a state-chartered special school?
A state-chartered special school is a school that has been approved by the State Board of Education after having been denied by a local school district.
What is a charter system?
A charter system is a local school district that operates under the terms of a charter between the State Board of Education and the local school district. The system receives flexibility from certain state rules and regulations in exchange for greater accountability. There is an emphasis on school-based leadership and decision-making.
Charter Authorizers in Georgia
What is an authorizer?
An authorizer is an entity which has been granted the authority to create charter schools. Authorizers make decisions regarding the approval and renewal of charters. They also conduct ongoing oversight to evaluate performance, monitor compliance, and enforce the terms of a charter.
Who are charter school authorizers in Georgia?
In Georgia, local boards of education and the State Board of Education, and the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, are charter school authorizers. In order to be granted a charter, schools must be approved by both their local board of education and the State Board of Education, OR by the Commission.
Admissions and Enrollment
Is there an admissions process for charter schools?
The typical admissions process for a charter school is as follows:
a) Application – can require information regarding contact information, residency and grade level. The application to a charter school should NEVER include information that screens applicants such as: prior test data, letters of recommendation or special services, gender, race, language spoken at home.
b) Enrollment preferences are then applied to the pool of applicants.
c) If the number of applicants exceeds the number of spaces, then a random selection (lottery) will be held. The lottery must be open to the public.
d) Student registration - admitted students submit information that is excluded from the admissions application. Enrollment procedures for charter schools are the same as those for traditional public schools. To read these requirements, see SBOE Rule 160-5-1-.28
Can charter schools select their students?
Charter schools, as public schools, must adhere to the same open admission and enrollment standards as traditional public schools. With the exception of certain allowable admissions preferences, charter schools may not select their students, nor deny admission to any applicant provided that there is space for that student within the school’s capacity.
What is a legally allowable enrollment preference?
A legally allowable enrollment preference allows applicants in certain categories admission to the charter school outside of the random selection (lottery) process. In the case of start-up charters the categories allowable under the Charter Schools Act are as follows: siblings of a student enrolled in the start –up charter school; a sibling of a student enrolled in another local school designated in the charter; a student whose parent or guardian is a member of the governing board of the charter school or is a full time teacher, professional, or other employee at the charter school; and students matriculating from a local school designated in the charter.
Conversion charter schools may legally allow enrollment preferences for: a sibling of a student enrolled in the charter school or in any school in the high school cluster; a student whose parent or guardian is a member of the governing board of the charter school or is a full time teacher, professional, or other employee at the charter school; students who were enrolled in the local school before it became a charter; students who reside in the charter attendance zone specified in the charter.
State-chartered special schools may give enrollment preferences to a student whose parent is a full time teacher, professional, or other employee at the charter school or to a student currently enrolled in a state chartered special school or a sibling of a student currently enrolled in a state-chartered special school.
A charter system shall enroll students pursuant to the terms of its system charter.
Do charter schools have an attendance zone?
Yes, charter schools define their own attendance zone within their contract. Enrollment preference is given to students who live within the charter school’s defined attendance zone. If seats are not filled after students within the attendance zone are admitted, the school may open up enrollment to any student living within the school district in which the charter school is located.
Do charter schools have an enrollment cap?
As part of their flexibility, charter schools have the ability to set an enrollment cap. Typically, a charter school may cap its enrollment as a reflection of its distinct educational program, or based on facilities limitations. If the number of applicants for a school exceeds the number of available spaces, the school is required to hold a random selection lottery. The lottery must be open to the public.
How does a charter school lottery work?
Charter schools are required to conduct a lottery when there are more timely filed applications for admission then there are seats. The lottery must be by random selection and the results must be validated for accuracy. The results of the lottery must be made public.
Do charter schools serve students with special needs?
Yes. Charter schools, as public schools, are required to comply with IDEA and section 504.
Testing and Accountability
Are charter school students required to participate in the same state assessments as traditional public school students?
Pursuant to the Charter Schools Act, Charter Schools, as public schools, are subject to the Georgia statewide accountability assessments.
How are charter schools held accountable for academic results?
Schools are held accountable for academic results through their charter contract with an authorizer (the local school district and/or the State Board of Education). The contract stipulates certain academic performance goals that the school must meet in order to fulfill the terms of its charter.
How do I find out how a particular charter school is doing?
Information regarding a charter schools performance can be accessed on the Georgia Department of Education Accountability website.
Organization and Governance
Who runs a charter school?
A non-profit governing board holds the charter for the school. The governing board is responsible for ensuring that academic performance measures set forth in the charter are met. The governing board’s duties and responsibilities include school-level decision making, fiscal management, and a variety of school operations such as personnel decisions.
How do charter schools choose a governing board?
Charter schools typically select governing board members who have expertise in areas that would enable them make informed decisions on all aspects of operating a school such as education, law, finance, marketing, non-profit management or any other background that is critical to the vision of the school.
How many members are on a charter school governing board?
There is not an exact number; however, the typical charter school governing board has between seven and fifteen members.
How is the governing board run?
Each governing board is unique. However, a governing board typically has by-laws that determine the composition of the board, general operations, as well as elections, terminations, vacancies and conflicts of interests. Governing boards should meet regularly throughout the school year.
What authority does the board have if the school contracts with an educational management organization (“EMO”)?
The charter school’s governing board has the decision making authority, not the EMO. EMO representatives cannot sit on the governing board of a charter school, as this presents a conflict of interest.
How does the principal fit into this structure?
The principal oversees the charter school’s daily operations and reports issues to the governing board regarding areas identified in the charter contract. The principal may also serve as an ex-officio member of the board. As an ex-officio member of the board, the principal shall not participate in voting.
Charter School Funding
How are charter schools funded?
Charter schools are funded from multiple sources, much like their traditional public school counterparts.
Charter schools’ funding sources include:
- State Quality Basic Education(QBE) Funding
- Local Funding
- Federal Grants
- Fundraising and Other Charitable Contributions
Do charter schools receive the same amount of funding as traditional public schools?
Yes. According to GA Code section 20-2-2068.1(a), “the local board and the state board shall treat a conversion charter school no less favorably than other local schools located within the applicable local school system unless otherwise provided by law. The local board and the state board shall treat a start-up charter school no less favorably than other local schools within the applicable local system with respect to the provision of funds for instruction, school administration, transportation, food services, and, where feasible, building programs. “
Charter Schools and the Law
What law governs charter schools in Georgia?
The Charter Schools Act of 1998, which is located in Title 20 of Georgia Code, is the law that governs charter schools.
What is a “broad flexibility waiver”?
A broad flexibility waiver (formerly called a “full flexibility waiver”) allows a charter school or system to implement academic and organizational innovations by waiving certain educational state rules and regulations contained in Title 20 in exchange for increased accountability for student achievement.
Which laws, rules and regulations cannot be waived by charter schools?
Charter schools and systems are subject to all provisions outlined in O.C.G.A. 20-2-2065(b). In particular, charter schools may not waive state laws or State Board of Education rules pertaining to health and safety, funding formulas, or accountability provisions. In addition, charter schools may not waive any aspect of federal law. This includes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as No Child Left Behind), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and all applicable civil rights legislation.
Which students may attend charter schools?
Students that reside within the charter schools’ or charter systems’ attendance zone or meet the legally allowable enrollment preferences may attend the charter school.
What is an attendance zone?
The attendance zone is all or any portion of the local school system in which the charter school is located and may include all or any portion of other local systems if it is jointly authorized.
Can students outside of the attendance zone attend a charter school?
Students outside of a charter school’s attendance zone may not attend unless there is a contractual agreement between the local board of the school system where the student resides and the school system where the charter school is located.
What is a charter?
A charter is a performance-based contract between a local board of education and the charter petitioner, the terms of which are approved by the State Board of Education (SBOE) in the case of a local charter school, between the SBOE and a charter petitioner in the case of state-chartered special school, or between a local board and the SBOE in the case of a charter system. See O.C.G.A. 20-2-2062(1)
What is included in a charter?
Although this list is not exhaustive, a charter generally includes the following: charter term, goals and objectives, governance, attendance zones, enrollment priorities, compliance with federal law, accountability provisions.
Who are the signatories of a charter?
The signatories for start-up charters and conversion schools are the governing board, the local board of education and the State Board of Education (SBOE). The signatories for charter systems are the local board of education and the State Board of Education (SBOE). The signatories for state-chartered special schools are the governing board and the State Board of Education.
What is the duration of a charter?
Pursuant to O.C.G.A. Sections 20-2-2067.1(b), the State Board of Education typically grants 5-year charters. At the request of the petitioner, this term may be shorter. Charter terms may not exceed 10 years.
May a charter be amended?
Yes, a charter contract may be amended pursuant to O.C.G.A. Section 20-2-2067.1. Amendments are subject to local and state board approval.
May a charter be terminated?
Yes, a charter contract may be terminated.
Under what circumstances may a charter be terminated?
A charter may be terminated under the following circumstances.
- A majority of parents and guardians of enrolled students OR a majority of faculty and instructional staff vote to request that the state board of education terminate the charter.
- The state board finds that a school has failed to adhere to terms of its charter, has failed to comply with generally accepted standards of fiscal management, or has violated applicable laws, or finds evidence that the continued operation of the school would be contrary to the best interests of the students or the community.
- Upon the written request of a local board of education, provided that the local board provided reasonable notice to the school and an opportunity for a hearing.
Please consult O.C.G.A Section 20-2-2068 for more details regarding the termination of a charter.
Whom can I contact if I did not find the answer to my question here?
Please contact the Charter Schools Division at (404) 657-0515 or email@example.com.
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The Music School is a self-contained department which has a fully equipped music technology suite and five teaching rooms. The two full time members of staff teach the class music whilst there are fourteen dedicated specialists who teach the instrumentalists and vocalist on a one-to-one basis.
The Music Department is fortunate to be inextricably linked with the musical work of the cathedral, enjoying the professionalism of the choristers singing in the Cathedral Choir and using their deep-seated musical expertise after they have left the choir. Take up of Music at GCSE and A Level is high and many pupils go on to study music in further education.
The cathedral affords the department an ideal performance space; alongside the carol services, eucharists and other special services the choirs and orchestras give many concerts in the Nave. Recent repertoire has included Beethoven and Haydn symphonies and performances of Requiems and Glorias by Fauré, Vivaldi and Rutter.
Listen to AS Level pupil, Philip Quinlan, play an extract of Newton Faulkner's 'All I Got' on the guitar
There are regular trips to concerts, both locally and further away to bolster the lessons taught in the classroom and there have been a number of trips abroad, where the choirs and orchestras have had opportunities to perform in some outstanding places, including Notre Dame Cathedral and Chartres Cathedral.
There are a large number of choirs and instrumental groups that rehearse and perform throughout the academic year. The King's Harmonists, a close-harmony group of eight voices, has recently recorded a CD of popular light jazz pieces and regularly sings outside the school for various charities and functions.
Listen to A Level pupil, Joshua Ip, play an extract of the first piano sonata written by Beethoven, composed in 1795 and dedicated to Joseph Haydn
>Listen to the King's Chamber Choir perfoming Lulee Lulay at the Christmas Carol Concert in the Cathedral.
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Continuous refinement of a basic theme, the Porsche engineered Type 30 of 1929. Still with swing axle rear end and semi-elliptics at the front, there were hydraulic brakes, the solid engine had pushrod ohv and a mere eight main bearings, and in the forms sold here the car was attractive but not very inspiring. Early cars had three speeds, but four speeds were in from the Safety model of 1933, which was known in Austria as the Type 430.
- 2078cc (S6 OHV)
- Front engine, rear-wheel drive
- Production dates:
- 1931 to 1936
- Number produced:
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Warm welcome in the capital of cool
Friday, 30 March 2012
Serbian capital Belgrade has a lot in common with Belfast, it’s just emerged from a long and bitter conflict. But it’s also a bit of a party capital, as SHARON HALL discovered recently...
BELGRADE was recently named the new city of Cool. Also, the new New York. Oh Yeah? This is the land associated with communism. Tito – tagged as a dictator. Milosovich - a monster, tried indeed for war crimes. So Belgrade - Cool ? How?
Anyone from a city like Belfast synonymous with “The Troubles" and that ship that sank, will know well how it could be. A city emerging from recent violence certainly can't rely on a pretty face alone. The scars can give texture to a place but - Cool?
It's a three-hour hop from the UK to Belgrade, and once you are there you can leave your euro and sterling woes behind as the Serbian dinar goes a long way, so that's pretty cool for starters.
Belgrade is situated on the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers. They say it's as far West you can go in the East and as far East you can go in the West so, as a gateway to everywhere, it inevitably has a violent and turbulent history. It dates back to the 4th century BC, when the area was settled by Celtic tribes, hmm, not a good sign perhaps, of a peaceful future.
The Ottoman's held it until 1878, and when Serbia got its independence, Belgrade became the capital.
PLACES OF INTEREST
(Apart from the bars, clubs and restaurants)
During the daytime, if you actually manage to see any of it, stroll along the medieval Prince Michael Street, (named for the most enlightened ruler of Serbia) and up to the city's Kalemegdan fortress which is as good a position as any to ponder the layers of history that define this place. Perched on rocks above the confluence of the Danube and Sava , Belgrade has been conquered 77 times and destroyed and rebuilt during its 7,000-year history. I began to see why this city would become famous for partying.
After the First World War, Belgrade became the seat of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and in 1929, the country changed name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia under Tito who, strangely to us perhaps, is revered as something of a hero here, perhaps because he held the whole shooting gallery together.
To read the rest of Sharon Hall's feature on her trip to Belgrade and see all the pictures, pick up a copy of Northern Ireland Travel News...
If you're having difficulty obtaining a regular copy of Northern Ireland Travel News, you can join our subscription list by calling the Travel News Office on 028 90666151.
The BIG Trade Event - 2013
- Free Trade Exhibition
- Fantastic Prizes to be won
- Sponsored Themed Buffet & Drinks
- Sponsored Breakfast & Lunch (Pre Register for your chance to be invited)
- Chill Out Zone & Taste of... Event
11th & 12th June 2013
Hilton Hotel, Templepatrick.
This Weeks Travel News
Another Gatwick Flight and Onboard Catering BoostedNorthern Ireland’s largest airline is to increase its flights...Read More...
Smoother Transatlantic Travel Thanks to New AgreementAir Canada and Aer Lingus have signed an interline agreement to...Read More...
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Missouri to unveil veterans history project
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A statewide project that documents Missouri soldiers’ stories in their own words will be publicly unveiled Thursday.
The Veterans Day event at the University of Missouri in Columbia features a project previously known as Missouri Veterans Stories.
The project began in 2007 in Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder’s office and has since produced about 1,300 videos of World War II veterans through a private firm. But state lawmakers last year cut $600,000 from the project’s budget.
The new Missouri Veterans History Project is a nonprofit effort that now relies on university researchers and graduate students as well as volunteers.
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ACT Reports That Significant Gaps Persist Between Career Interests of 2010 High School Graduates and Job Projections
IOWA CITY, Iowa—ACT has released national and state-specific data for all 50 states that helps answer the question: Are students prepared for college and career? The analysis reveals likely shortfalls in high-growth career fields as well as inadequate preparation to succeed in coursework required for these fields.
The analysis compares data from two sources for the nation and for each of the 50 states: long-term occupational projections and results contained in ACT’s recently released The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2010 reports. A state’s occupational projections are based on job growth and job replacement forecasts for the decade ending 2016 to 2018. ACT is an international not-for-profit organization experienced in educational and workplace skills assessment and research.
The ACT report reveals career interests and achievement results for the 2010 ACT-tested high school graduates. The analysis in bar chart form shows the five highest-growth career fields in each state requiring a two-year college degree or higher; the percentage of 2010 ACT-tested graduates in the state expressing interest in those five career fields; and the percentage of students meeting ACT’s recommended College Readiness Benchmarks in each of four subject areas (English, reading, mathematics and science) who expressed interest in each of the high-growth career fields
One analysis reveals the gaps between projected job openings and student career interests. A second analysis indicates the college and career readiness of ACT-tested graduates interested in the five high-growth career fields. These data may have implications for economic development nationally and in each state.
The nation’s five fastest-growing career fields requiring at least a two-year degree, based on 2008-2018 annual projected job openings from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, are depicted below. These five career fields account for 53 percent of the demand for jobs.
However, for all five career fields, the percentage of the nation’s 2010 ACT-tested high school graduates expressing an interest in those fields falls short of projected openings. The most significant gaps are for Computer/Information Specialties (9 percentage points) and Education (7 percentage points).
Far too few students who expressed interest in the five high-growth career fields have attained the level of knowledge to be ready for college-entry coursework in English, reading, mathematics and science as measured by ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks.
The ACT College Readiness Benchmarks, which are based on the actual grades earned by students in college, give ACT the unique ability to define college and career readiness and report student performance results relative to that goal. The benchmarks specify the minimum scores needed on each ACT subject-area test to indicate that a student has a 50 percent chance of earning a grade of B or higher or about a 75 percent chance of earning a C or higher in a typical credit-bearing first-year college course in that subject area (English composition, college algebra, introductory social science and biology). Years of empirical ACT data indicate that students who meet or surpass the College Readiness Benchmarks are more likely to go to college, stay in school and graduate with a college degree.
“Students interested in these careers mostly met the College Readiness Benchmarks in English and reading,” said ACT chief executive officer Jon Whitmore. However, only about a quarter of the students met all four College Readiness Benchmarks within each of the five career fields.”
Whitmore added, “ACT research indicates that given these results, many students are not on the right path to take advantage of career opportunities in these high-growth fields requiring a two-year degree or more. Fortunately, given that the occupational projections extend through 2018, there is time for middle and high school students to consider, plan, and prepare for careers in the fields where openings are projected to be the highest.”
Example occupations for the five highest-growth career fields are as follows:
- Education: such as secondary school teachers, secondary school administrators
- Computer/Information Specialties: such as computer programmers, database administrators
- Management: such as hotel/restaurant managers, convention planners
- Community Services: such as social workers, school counselors
- Marketing/Sales: such as insurance agents, buyers
For more information, see the complete College and Career Readiness Report for the nation and for each state. Workforce data appears on page 17 of the national report and on page 10 of each state report.
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Tarzan The Ape Man
Pulp writer Edgar Rice Burroughs introduced Tarzan to an appreciative audience in 1912. Conceived as a rebuttal to humanity's increasing urbanization and dependence on technology, the jungle foundling quickly became a cottage industry, endorsing products and starring in silent films, radio shows, and comic strips. Since Burroughs' day, Tarzan has been played by countless actors in projects both high-minded and low, but just as Boris Karloff's take on Frankenstein's monster has superseded even the original novel, Tarzan has become synonymous with the first man to play him in the talkies, Olympic swimming champion turned actor Johnny Weissmuller.
The yell has a lot to do with it. Depending on who's doing the telling, Tarzan's signature cry was either created by the MGM sound department by combining animal sounds with operatic sopranos, or it was a skill Weissmuller picked up while listening to yodelers as an immigrant kid in Chicago. Whichever the case, the sound is as recognizable as the national anthem, and it's a sterling example of early Hollywood's ability to remake the world in its own image. What does yodeling have to do with the African wilds? Absolutely nothing. But try looking at a jungle dripping with vines and not imagining a loincloth-clad ape-man swinging through it.
Weissmuller made his Tarzan debut with 1932's Tarzan The Ape Man, fighting crocodiles and giant apes and courting Maureen O'Sullivan's readily seduced Jane, a process that more or less repeats itself in the series' best follow-up, 1934's Tarzan And His Mate. What's striking about these early adventures is how little adventure there is to them: Weissmuller is never less convincing than when he's asked to fight, and what action there is relies heavily on stock footage left over from the now-forgotten hit Trader Horn. Instead, the films devote much of their run time to O'Sullivan's discovery of how little use she has for polite society. Once she hits the jungle, it's a matter of minutes before her proper English character starts shedding clothes and casting smoky glances in Weissmuller's direction.
The implementation of the Hays Code ensured that this couldn't last, a development instantly announced by O'Sullivan's modest garb in subsequent entries. After bringing a touch of style to Tarzan Escapes (more or less re-shot from scratch after the now-lost original version proved too dark for test audiences), director Richard Thorpe steered the series toward competent predictability. Chimp sidekick Cheeta provides more comic relief with each entry, Johnny Sheffield turns up as "Boy" beginning with Tarzan Finds A Son!, when the chips are down the elephants show up with a well-timed stampede, and Weissmuller and O'Sullivan's home starts to look increasingly like a treehouse precursor of Levittown.
Predictable as they are, the Tarzan movies remain enjoyable to the last, though they aren't always comfortable viewing to contemporary eyes. The animal stunts, for example, all look like they could benefit from the presence of the American Humane Association. (Should chimps really be allowed to taunt leopards?) The portrayal of African natives can hardly be called enlightened, either, but the series' jungle politics hide a subtle critique: Crises only occur when stupid white people show up and start trouble.
O'Sullivan and MGM lost interest in Tarzan after Tarzan's New York Adventure in 1942, but Weissmuller stayed the course, taking the series to RKO and fighting jungle-based Nazis before moving on to the Jungle Jim series. By then, he'd warded off pygmies, lions, scheming Englishmen, and, most impressively, several pretenders to the Tarzan throne, including a competing series launched by Burroughs himself. With his coiffed hair and self-conscious posing, Weissmuller made, by any objective standard, an improbable jungle man. But he's Tarzan through and through. That's entertainment.
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"Where did you come up with the idea for that piece of beaded jewelry?"
I hear that all the time when I'm showing someone a piece of
my handmade beaded jewelry. And really, if you know where to look, you'll find
beaded jewelry design ideas all around you. Coming up with beaded jewelry
design ideas can be as easy as playing around with your favorite beadweaving
If you love making handcrafted beaded jewelry, you'll love
our new free eBook, our Guide to Making
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Need a few good ideas to get you started? Check
out our favorite blogs about beaded jewelry design ideas, including five ideas
for making beaded necklaces, four fun ideas for making beaded earrings,
sketching ideas for beaded necklace shapes, and examples straight from the
sketchbooks of our readers about how to sketch out your beaded jewelry designs!
Try Dustin Wedekind's instructions for brick
stitch increases and decreases to learn more about how to shape this very
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to see how brick stitch is used to create these easy-to-wear beaded bracelets.
Next, learn how to do two drop odd-count peyote
stitch with Dustin Wedekind's directions. This popular variation on peyote
stitch can be used to create shape and texture in your beaded jewelry designs.
Follow up with Laurie Nelson's lovely Lady's Slipper Earrings to see how shaped
peyote stitch can be used to make beaded flower petals.
Netting can be used in so many different ways to
create wonderful beaded jewelry designs, and Dustin Wedekind's hexagonal
netting tutorial illustrates how this beading stitch can be modified to create
lovely shapes. Bonnie Voelker's Potato Chip Netting project takes it one step
further and uses free-form netting to create one-of-a-kind beaded jewelry.
Right-angle weave is probably the most loved and
feared beading stitch around. But never fear - in Stitch Pro by Jean Campbell,
she takes the guesswork out of single needle right-angle weave. Once you've
mastered right-angle weave, try Eileen Arnstein's Link Necklace, composed to
right-angle weave chains that are linked together as you stitch them!
So the next time you feel like making beaded jewelry, sit
down with these handy references and see what comes out of your own
imagination! Who knows? You might find that you have more beaded jewelry design
ideas in you than you ever thought possible! Download your copy of Beading Daily's Guide to Making Jewelry With Beads: Create Handmade Beaded Jewelry from Your Own Bead Jewelry Designs
today and see where your creativity (and the beads!) will lead you.
Filed under: Peyote stitch, Beaded Beads, Bead Making, Brick Stitch, How To Bead, Seed Bead Patterns, Bead-weaving, Bracelet Making, Earring Making, Necklace Making, Bead Crafts, Beaded Jewelry Design, Beads, Jewelry Making, Beading Daily
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Egypt Feature Story Egypt Tourist Safety in Prospective
by Jimmy Dunn
May 4, 2005: We've had some good years since 1997. Between then and last year, Egypt had no tourist deaths that we know of due to any form of violence. I exhorted not infrequently the safety record for tourists, and indeed, it was safer for a tourist to be in Egypt than at home, because the murder rate in most civilized countries account for more deaths than tourist deaths in Egypt (obviously, since there were none).
Then, last year Egypt suffered a major set back at Taba, resulting in the death of about 30 people, and this year we have had several more tourist deaths due to violent acts. (I will not report on these incidents here, as they are, as always, well documented in the news.) What's it all mean? We regret the loss of these tourists, and the Egyptian government is very serious about protecting foreign tourists. Furthermore, it should be pointed out that almost all Egyptians, many of which earn their living in the tourist industry, are outraged by this type of act. Egyptians remain a very hospitable people who truly enjoy inviting guests to see the wonders of their country.
In deciding on one's relative safety in Egypt, we must assess the risk, and in doing so, we find a number of interesting statistics, and perhaps a little more safety than what we might otherwise believe. Last year (2004), Egypt received about 8.1 million tourists. Of those, 30 died in one violent act, which indicates a death rate from violence towards tourists of about .004 per 1,000 visitors.
Now consider this. In the US last year, the murder rate was .04 per 1,000 people (CNN reports .062). Washington, DC, a prime tourist destination in the US was considerably worse than the national average, with a murder rate of .693 per 1,000 population. This means that a tourist visiting Egypt last year was some 173 times safer than one visiting Washington, DC. (The overall murder rate in Washington DC is about 1,000 times greater than for the overall murder rate in the country of Egypt. There were about the same number of murders in Washington, DC, as in all of Egypt). In fact, simply getting into ones car was much more dangerous than a trip to Egypt, with traffic fatalities amounting to .14 per 1,000 people in the US.
Admittedly, many European countries are safer than the US, with murder rates in Italy, the UK, Spain, Germany and France at around .01 per 1,000 and yet, this still indicates that the average tourist in Egypt was safer than at home in these European countries. And while there have been several incidents this year claiming the life of several tourists, the overall safety record is probably better than last year so far.
Tourist safety in Egypt is not a matter of luck. Admittedly, the safety procedures placed on the tourist industry, which is one of Egypt's most important sources of income, are sometimes stifling. Egypt keeps a very close eye on it's tourists, particularly Americans, providing groups with armed guards All major, and many minor, hotels are equipped with metal detectors and guards, and when violent events such as those of late occur, the government is known to go a bit overboard on arrests. Nevertheless, that is what it takes to protect their three thousand year old tourist trade.
What about the future? Overall, Egyptians are a very peaceful people and it is they who usually suffer the most from terrorist events. This is not to say that additional acts of violence might not occur in the future, in Egypt as elsewhere. However, the Egyptian government keeps a keen eye on major radical elements (more often than not from a prison cell), though it is possible that more minor elements can slip beneath the radar, as they recently did. Yet overall, the Egyptian government probably has a better awareness of radical elements within Egypt than the US and other western governments have on such people within their own borders. And while we cannot discount future problems in Egypt, neither can we guarantee in the US that our children will be safe when we send them off to school, that a fellow worker won't go postal, or that our own homegrown radical elements will not blow up another federal buildings.
In no way do we mean to diminish the loss of life of tourists who have died in Egypt, but some perspective needs to be put on what continues to be, regardless of recent travel advisories to the contrary, a destination that is relative to the risks that confront us on a day to day basis, a very safe and fun destination.
Who are we?
Tour Egypt aims to offer the ultimate Egyptian adventure and intimate knowledge about the country. We offer this unique experience in two ways, the first one is by organizing a tour and coming to Egypt for a visit, whether alone or in a group, and living it firsthand. The second way to experience Egypt is from the comfort of your own home: online.
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Voting in the second phase runoffs of Egypt’s parliamentary elections kicked off on Wednesday, amid new allegations of electoral violations and fraud.
Egyptians are more than halfway through a six-week process of electing a new lower house of parliament - the first elections since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak in February.
Most observers agreed that the first two phases of the elections were largely free and fair.
But Al-Masry Al-Youm, an independent English-language daily newspaper in Cairo, cited reports of irregularities during Wednesday’s runoffs:
The One World Foundation, an Egyptian human rights group, said supporters of the Salafi-led Nour Party prevented one of its observers from taking photos outside a polling station in Arbaeen, Suez.
Army officers also impeded its monitoring activities at another station in Minyal Shiha, Giza, the foundation said.
The foundation said an army officer at a polling station in Ahnasia, Beni Suef, confiscated the cellphone of one of its agents and deleted video clips saved on it before returning it back. A police patrol arrested another observer in Zorab, Suez.
Mahmoud Salem, a revolutionary candidate who lost during the first phase of elections in Cairo, also wrote on his blog, “Rantings of a Sandmonkey”, of alleged vote fraud:
The parliamentary elections are fraudulent. I am not saying this because I lost- I lost fair and square- but because it’s the truth. The fraud happened on the hands of the election workers and the Judges. People in my campaign were offered Ballot boxes, employees and judges in polling stations were instructing people who to vote for and giving unstamped ballots to Christians in polling stations where they are heavily present to invalidate their votes, and the Egyptian bloc has about half a ton of correct ballots- ones that showed people voting for them- found being thrown in the streets in Heliopolis, Ghamra, Shubra, Zaitoun, Alexandria, Suez and many other districts. The amount of reports of fraud and legal injunctions submitted against these elections are enough to bring it all down and have it done all over again.
Read the whole post here.
Meanwhile, voter turnout on Wednesday appeared to be lower than in previous weeks.
Several polling stations in Giza were mostly empty, according to voters on Twitter:
— Zeinab (@_Zouba) December 21, 2011
— Adel Abdel Ghafar (@dooolism) December 21, 2011
[Pic via Adel Abdel Ghafar]
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To remove condensate from piping to prevent damage to the piping and control valves, while assuring that production steam users receive dry steam.
Steam Trap Requirement
Adequately sized drip pockets on the bottom of piping or upstream of heat exchanges, collect condensate which then flows to the steam trap. The trap should discharge the condensate quickly.
Steam Pressures and Temperatures
Generally constant, with some seasonal variation. Of all industrial steam trapping applications, these are the higher pressures often exceeding 600 psi. Design pressures and operating pressures can be different and superheat is frequently encountered.
Relatively small and constant while in normal operation, typically to 50 or 100 lb/hr. Startup loads can be heavier. Boiler carry-over produces slugs of condensate which are unpredictable in magnitude and frequency. Desuperheaters that are malfunctioning can produce unexpectedly high loads.
Drainage to Trap
Usually by gravity with the steam trap installed below the steam line. Occasionally piping in trenches or underground have steam traps installed above the pipe, but the condensate collecting point is below the pipe. This is called lift drainage and requires a lift fitting.
Variable. Freezing is the more common concern.
Need is minimal. Pipe lines frequently have separate vents. Startup may present the most common need. Under running conditions, CO2 may be a problem.
Shock, Vibration, Water Hammer
Generally from inadequate drainage of condensate, which moves at high velocity (5,000-10,000 fpm). Thermal ratcheting may also occur at startup.
Dirt and Corrosion
If dirt and corrosion exist at the steam trap, consider what may be happening at the equipment being protected. A common source of foreign matter is packing used to seal leaks. The use of some amines and hydrazine can present "dirt" problems.
Steam Trap Installation
If bypasses around a trap station are installed and utilized during warm-up, consider installing a trap downstream of the bypass valve to reduce the risk of steam blow if the bypass is left open.
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We’re excited to introduce a new guest blogger, Certified Professional Organizer®, Sharon Lowenheim. She has first hand knowledge and a few tips about staying organized in a small space. Welcome, Sharon!
Staying organized in a New York City apartment is challenging. We have no basements, attics, or garages in which store things we aren’t using daily. Our kitchens tend to be small, with never enough cabinet space and no pantry. Closets are few in number. In some ways, these limitations are a blessing, as they force us to make decisions about what items are truly important to us.
To help my clients make those decisions, we use one of my basic organizing principles: “Use it, love it, or lose it.” There are things that we use every day — toothbrush, coffee cup, and bedroom slippers. We definitely want to keep those. There are also things that we love, that make our lives meaningful — like photographs, music, and art. We definitely want to keep those, too.
What about the stuff that we don’t use very often and we don’t love? We should examine those things very carefully. What are they contributing to our lives? Are we holding on to them just because we’ve always had them? Here is an analogy that my clients have found helpful. Let’s pretend that you are packing for a journey. When you pack for a trip, you don’t take along everything you own, do you? That would be cumbersome. You only pack those items you anticipate needing or using on that trip.
So, let’s pretend that you are packing for a journey that starts today and continues until the end of your life. What do you need to pack to go on that journey? What items will not serve you on that journey and can be left behind? Thinking about your possessions in this way — and their applicability to the life you are living now as well as the one you expect to live in the future — can help you to let go of items that you have been holding on to out of habit.
Once you use the “Use it, love it, or lose it” principle — and the journey analogy — to arrive at the right amount of stuff for you, then it’s time to apply another of my basic organizing principles: “One in, one out.” Every time something new comes in your home, something of equivalent function should be donated, recycled, or thrown away. Otherwise, you just end up with the same problem again: a home full of stuff you don’t use anymore.
Clothes are an interesting case in point. Did you know that we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time? We love getting new clothes, and we want to wear them as often as possible. They fit well, they aren’t faded or soiled or stretched out, and they are this year’s styles and colors. Every time our new clothes come out of the laundry, we wear them again. What we don’t think about is are the clothes that we are not wearing because of our new clothes. The tired old clothes from a few seasons ago are regulated to the back of the closet. That’s why it’s prudent to get rid of your least favorite item when something new comes in.
These techniques that I use with my New York City clients in their small spaces will work equally well for those of you who have larger spaces but still feel overwhelmed by the excess.
About The Author
Sharon Lowenheim, Certified Professional Organizer®, helps individuals in their homes or offices to overcome three kinds of clutter: physical clutter, electronic clutter, and mental clutter. Her specialties are: maximizing the space in New York City apartments, and helping high performers to spend their time more productively. Sharon founded Organizing Goddess, Inc., in 2006 after 25 years in Corporate America working for three of the world’s largest companies. She is a native New Yorker, and has spent a lifetime developing techniques for living happily and comfortably in small spaces. Sharon graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. She did her graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a Masters degree in Computer Science as well as an MBA from the Wharton School.
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You've seen many Muslims take delight in the fact that we were arrested at the Dearborn Arab Festival. Now take a good look at what we were arrested for. Then ask yourself, "Why would Muslims be so happy that Christians were arrested for peacefully sharing the Gospel?"
Also take a close look at the accusations of the Dearborn Police, Mayor John C. O'Reilly, certain local Christian leaders, etc. Then ask yourself, "Why are so many people lying about Acts 17?"
“An illegal arrest is an assault and battery. The person so attempted to be restrained of his or her liberty has the same right to use force in defending him or herself as he or she would in repelling any other assault and battery.” (State v. Robinson, 145 ME. 77, 72 ATL. 260).
“Each person has the right to resist an unlawful arrest. In such a case, the person attempting the arrest stands in the position of a wrongdoer and may be resisted by the use of force, as in self- defense.” (State v. Mobley, 240 N.C. 476, 83 S.E. 2d 100).
“One may come to the aid of another being unlawfully arrested, just as he may where one is being assaulted, molested, raped or kidnapped. Thus it is not an offense to liberate one from the unlawful custody of an officer, even though he may have submitted to such custody, without resistance.” (Adams v. State, 121 Ga. 16, 48 S.E. 910).
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March 16, 2011 — Dry, High Fire Danger East; Northwest to See Additional Precipitation
High pressure will continue to dominate our weather for the next couple of days. That means more sunshine and well above average temperatures across much of the state. Highs in Casper will be in the upper 60s and lower 70s. Conditions will stay mainly dry as well.
South to southwest winds will pick up in the east and south today. 15 to 30 mph sustained winds will be common, with gusts up to 40 mph or higher. This wind, combined with the very dry conditions and low relative humidity has lead to very high and extreme fire dangers in some portions of the state. Parts of eastern Wyoming are in a Red Flag Warning today. Portions of central Wyoming are in a Fire Weather Watch on Saturday. Casper is included in the Fire Weather Watch.
Northwest Wyoming will be the only part of the state that will see moisture. Temperatures even there will be warm enough for the precipitation to stay in the form of rain today in the lower elevations. Snow is expected to mix with the rain tonight. This corner of the state will see more showers and mixed showers on Saturday too.
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Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
Simply begin typing or use the editing tools above to add to this article.
Once you are finished and click submit, your modifications will be sent to our editors for review.
feature of Houston
...and petrochemical industries to Houston, and chemicals remained important after the war ended. Land annexed in 1948 nearly tripled the city’s area. In 1961 the Manned Spacecraft Center (renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973), the command post for flights by U.S. astronauts, was opened near Clear Lake, about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of downtown, making Houston a focus of the...
What made you want to look up "Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center"? Please share what surprised you most...
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Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.
behavior is the hallmark of this disease. Children begin to bite their fingers, lips, and the insides of their mouths as early as two years old.
As children grow, self-injury becomes increasingly compulsive and severe. Eventually, mechanical physical restraints will be necessary to prevent head and leg banging, nose gouging, loss of fingers and lips from biting, and loss of vision from eye rubbing, among others. In addition to self-injury, older children and teens will become physically and verbally aggressive.
The cause of these behaviors is not entirely understood. However, some experts believe it is related to abnormalities in brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. It should be stressed that the child does not want to hurt himself or others, but is incapable of preventing these behaviors. People with Lesch-Nyhan syndrome have been described as “doing the opposite” of what they really want.
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The Canadian Patent Act and Patent Rules provide the entire statutory framework for patent law in Canada. The Act and Rules contain all of the requirements to be satisfied before the Commissioner of Patents is obliged to grant a patent. These requirements relate to two main aspects of patents: (a) the nature of the invention for which patent protection is sought; and (b) the patent application that describes and claims the invention.
The Act and Rules form a complete code for patent grant. Subsection 27(1) of the Patent Act requires the Commissioner of Patents to grant a patent if the criteria set by the Act and Rules have been satisfied. Nothing further is required for patent grant and nothing further may be considered by the Commissioner, whose powers are entirely derived from, and limited by, the statute.
To obtain a patent, the applicant must first prepare and file a patent application that includes a disclosure and claims. Once the applicant requests examination and pays the requisite fee, the Patent Office assigns an examiner to the case. The examiner usually reviews the application and the invention defined by the claims within two years after the examination request.
Patent prosecution is the back-and-forth dialogue between the Patent Office and the patent applicant concerning the statutory requirements for patent grant and the extent to which the claimed invention and the patent application satisfy these requirements. During substantive examination, the patent examiner assesses the claimed invention and patent application in light of the requirements set by the Patent Act and Patent Rules. If the examiner perceives deficiencies, he or she will issue an office action and cite the statutory provisions upon which the objections are based. The patent applicant may then respond to the examiner by arguing against the objections, amending the patent claims, or both.
Geared toward foreign counsel, this series will consider common Canadian Patent Office objections to patent applications and claimed inventions. Each post will outline the objection, review the relevant statutory provision, and provide some insight into how the objection may be addressed. The next post will examine an objection to an equivalents clause under subs. 27(3) of the Patent Act. Future postings will consider other typical objections, such as:
- the claims are broader in scope than the teachings of the description (Rule 84)
- the claimed invention includes dosing elements (s. 2 of the Act)
- the description fails to demonstrate, or provide a sound prediction of, utility of the claimed invention (s. 2 of the Act)
- the claimed invention is inherently anticipated (s. 28.2 of the Act)
- the claims do not reflect the “promise of the patent” (s. 2 of the Act)
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Exercise Science Outreach
Employee Fitness Program (EFP)
The UNH EFP originated in 1988. The UNH President’s Office designated start-up funds to the (then) Department of Physical Education’s Exercise Physiology Faculty to establish an exercise testing and training facility, which would be made available to interested benefits-eligible faculty and staff. Equipment for testing and training was purchased and a graduate student was hired to run the day-to-day operations of the program. The initial call for participants went out to all eligible faculty and staff. The response was overwhelming with over 250 respondents. A lottery was held to select 100 participants. Since 1988, 100 new participants have been tested annually. In 1995, the program was moved to the Field House Balcony where it currently resides. To date, over 1,600 UNH faculty and staff have been tested and have used the facility on a regular basis.
The UNH EFP provides a real world laboratory situation for graduate and undergraduate students in The Department of Kinesiology/Exercise Science. Students are actively involved in all aspects of fitness development and programming. Included are fitness testing, graded exercise testing, blood lipid assessment, pulmonary function testing, body composition testing, exercise prescription, personal training, program development, program marketing, data collection, and data tracking.
The exercise facility located in the Field House on the UNH-Durham campus is approximately 3,600 square feet in size. Exercise equipment includes StarTrac treadmills and elliptical trainers, LifeFitness Exercise cycles, Schwinn AirDyne cycles, StairMaster step machines, Concept II rowers, Nautilus strength stations, and free weights and equipment.
Our hours of operation during the Academic Year are:
M-F: 11:00 am – 1:30 pm & 4:00 – 6:30 pm
M-W-F: 6:00 – 8:00 am
Starting May 20, 2013 Our Summer hours are:
M-W-F: 11:30 – 1:00 pm
We are closed during all University Holidays
Questions? Contact the Program Director:
Timothy J. Quinn, Ph.D.
University of New Hampshire
Department of Kinesiology
New Hampshire Hall #119
124 Main Street
Durham, NH 03824
- Major Declaration
- Contact Us
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Here's a look at the life of Egypt's first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsy.
Personal: Birth date: August 20, 1951
Birth place: Sharqiya, Egypt
Marriage: Naglaa Ali Mahmoud
Children: Five adult children
Education: Cairo University, BS, Engineering, 1975; Cairo University, MS, Metallurgical Engineering, 1978; University of Southern California, PhD, Materials Engineering, 1982
Other Facts: He is described as "uncharismatic" and a "spare tire" because he was not the Muslim Brotherhood's first choice to run for president.
Has called Israeli leaders "vampires" for killing Palestinian civilians.
Believes women and non-Muslims should be ineligible for the Egyptian presidency.
His two oldest children have U.S. citizenship, they were born in Los Angeles.
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Here are my top ten considerations when designing a new skin (the way the website looks, which overlays the actual coding "like a skin") for Age of Intrigue:
1. Senior Eyes: Font Size
One of het main requests I've had from users was to please could the fontsize be larger. I am not just teasing when I say this is a primary concern in our community especially, due to increased age. We are no longer teenagers. Many of us are past the age of 35 though few would admit it. This means that our eyes are slowly failing us, and at least the availability of a larger font is high on the wishlist so that text is easy to read and doesn't tire us too soon. However, even teenagers like larger fonts. Readibility is a top concern in skin design. Tip: you can increase or decrease the font by using the A button on the right hand side of the navigation bar.
2. Enough contrast between colours
This is also an issue of readibility & visibility, not just for aging eyes, but for the colourblind. One our users depends on the webmaster to keep the site accessible by providing enough contrast in tone between the colours. Remember that old exercise in art class where you must provide different shades of grey from light to dark with a single pencil in about five steps or blocks? If two colours are of the same tone, basically the same block of grey, they will be difficult to differentiate to a colourblind person. A site that uses different tones is also perceived as prettier and easier to use by non-handicapped users so it is a win for everybody.
3. Not too much contrast between colours
Not all colours fit together. I see a lot of sites when advertising for the game and I can tell you that one of the most annoying things to look at is glaring colours that hurt the eyes in that particular combination, usually colours directly opposite of each other on the colourwheel in the same tone. It is better to increase visibility by using different tones than to use truly contrasting colours. Tip: you can view sets of colours that go well together on sites like http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html .
The skin contains graphics that you will see for a long time, sometimes several hours at a time. Any flash images are therefore annoying, as are, in my humble opinion, chatboxes that are directly visible on the main site. They are distracting from the main purpose of the boards which is reading and writing. This is one of the reasons why we have discouraged the use of pictures in threads as well.
5. Ease of Use
Ease of use, or the way in which the skin represents features of the boards that we use, is a very important consideration that needs a lot of experimenting and asking our users for feedback. Little adjustments are still being made when a request is put in to the Technical Forums. We have the new post link in the navigation bar now, plus we removed the “jump to the next forum” link that was overlapping with the moderator tools. Tip: if you have an idea for an improvement, ask in the Technical Q & A forum.
6. Loading Time
There are two considerations here: 1) a number of people all around the world are still on dial up. You remember dial up and how slow it was especially when dealing with graphics? 2) an increasing number of people are using smartphones to use peruse the internet. It is new, it is hip but it brings back old problems. Yep, graphics again as the main offenders. In short a skin should be able to load fast and thus can't be as graphic intensive as we'd like. Flash is definately out (again), as are certain scripts. We have also discouraged using many or large pictures in threads or signatures. Having pictures hosted on our wiki instead of a third party host also increases the swiftness of our site. Tip: you can check the loading speed of your website with free online apps.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Yet we all know instinctively what is ugly. It is all about colour coordination, lines of design, sharp images. Likely by taking into account all of the above the skin already goes a long way towards being pretty, but it needs that little extra, the artistic touch.
Your skin should be tailored to the theme of your site. This may seem obvious but it is oft forgotten. In the case of our baroque site it means certain colours but also putti, curls and above all graphics that play a role in our game such as Windsor castle. This is why a new season will usually see a new skin for the game. Tip: do you have an idea what would be good graphics for our next skin? Your suggestions are always welcome at the Technical Q&A forum.
You don't want a site that looks like any other site. How would you know that you are at Age of Intrigue? We have taken great care to ensure that for instance the icons used to mark threads are unique to our game, including a so called flavicon which shows up in the address bar.
Last but not least. Any skinrequest must be within the technical skills of your webmaster, yours truly. I have learned a lot over the last two years, but I'm still a beginner. Sometimes I'll just have to admit that we can't be as amazing as some of other sites which are frequently run by ICT professionals who run a gaming site on the side. I'm not
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no.1 Sketches of the life of Billy Cobb.....
Sketches of the Life of Billy Cobb, and the Death of Tommy Pain: compiled from original documents, obtained in an original manner, with cuts: to which is added, an expostulatory epistle to Mr. Hone, the Lunarian / by the author of the Dorchester guide. 2nd ed. London: Printed (for the author,) and sold by Dean and Munday, ca. 1819. 35p.
A satirical account of William Cobbett exhuming the remains of Thomas Paine in New Rochelle ten years after his death and bringing them to England in order to inspire a democratic revolution. Most of Paine's bones have been lost leaving Paine the only Founder without a gravesite.
no. 2-4 Coins
Created in England in 1793; during the era when other "condor coins" were minted by towns in the absence of national hard currency. The coins minted carried propaganda against Paine's Rights of Man. Lore has it that the coins were nailed to the bottom of boots, allowing nobility to “tread” on Paine.
Coin 2 The Wrongs of Man & January 21, 1793 ( Louis XVI was executed in Paris on that date)
Coin 3 May the Knave of Jacobin Clubs Never Get a Trick Jacobins were the radical democrats in the French Revolution.
Coin 4 Contains an engraving of Paine being hung on the reverse side, with a church in the background with the phrase The End of Pain.
no. 5 Age of Reason
Paine, Thomas. The Age of Reason; being an investigation of true and fabulous theology. Paris: Printed by Barrois; London: Sold by D.I. Eaton, 1794. 55p.
The Age of Reason is still the most widely read of all of Paine’s works. Started in Paris just before his arrest, and finished after his release, Paine was determined to put his religious ideas to paper before his death. Many printers in Europe and America were imprisoned for printing this work. Paine, like many leading Founders, was a Deist. Part of his political philosophy of democracy was that all superstitions and restraints on science and reason were obstacles to an engaged and educated electorate.
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About 60+ youth live at the Schaffner Juvenile Detention
Center in Harrisburg, PA. They reside in two different
sections of the center. The first being: "The
Pods." The second being: "The Shelter."
Pods houses the youth who have been involved in
heavy crimes. They live in a high security environment.
The Shelter offers a less harsh living environment
for trouble youth, without the need for high security.
Many of the children and youth come from torn
homes, needing attention and care. Some of these kids
possess very little hope for the future and their family's
The Messiah students who visit Schaffner quickly become
some of the kids’ favorite visitors. As we arrive
at Schaffner we sign in and decide whether or not to
split up to visit both the Pods and the Shelter, or just
one or the other. Once in the Pods or Shelter, we play
a few games with the kids and have Bible study and
small group prayer sessions.
You will not only touch the lives of these kids, but
many of them will make a lasting impact upon you as
well, as you hear the challenges and highlights of their
The team visits young people in juvenile prison weekly to lead
a Bible study and to show them the love of Christ. Trips leave
Eisenhower Circle on Thursdays at 5:15pm and return around
• 87% of current delinquents have a parent or sibling
in jail, and many of these kids have their own
kids at home. The cycle of violence makes "being
good" seem impossible, and kids find themselves
in prison again and again.
• If recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an
estimated 1 out of every 20 persons (5.1%) will
serve time in a prison during their lifetime." US
Dept. of Justice
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The state unemployment picture worsened last month, with jobless rates creeping higher in 44 states, according to a government report released Friday.
Only two states and the District of Columbia saw unemployment rates edge lower in July, while four states saw no change in rates, according to the Labor Department's monthly report on state unemployment.
That's worse than the previous month, when far fewer states recorded increases in unemployment rates. In June, jobless rates rose in 27 states, while 11 states and the District of Columbia reported rate declines and 12 states had no change.
Nevada, a swing state in the upcoming presidential election, posted the highest unemployment rate last month, at 12 percent. Rhode Island and California followed, with rates of 10.8 percent and 10.7 percent. North Dakota, where an oil boom has led to a flurry of new jobs, had the lowest unemployment rate in the country last month, at 3 percent.
Among key swing states this election, six states reported that their unemployment rates rose last month: Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire and Iowa. Ohio's unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.2 percent.
Wisconsin, which CNN moved into the toss-up column Thursday, posted a rise in unemployment to 7.3 percent from 7 percent.
Compared to the same month a year ago, only three states have jobless rates of 10 percent or higher, down significantly from 10 states and the District of Columbia last year. Overall, 44 states and the District of Columbia have lower jobless rates than a year ago.
Earlier this month, the government's widely watched monthly jobs report showed that employers added 163,000 jobs in July, but the jobless rate increased to 8.3 percent. According to the state unemployment report released Friday, 23 states posted rates below that national rate last month, while eight states had higher rates.
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According to Wikipedia.com:
The Pink Panther is the main and title character in the opening and closing credit sequences of every film in The Pink Panther series except for A Shot in the Dark and Inspector Clouseau. His popularity spawned a series of theatrical shorts, merchandise, a comic book, and television cartoons. He starred in 124 shorts (either theatrical or televised), 10 television shows and three prime time specials. He’s also known as Nathu and Pangu in East and South Asia and Paulchen Panther (Little Paul the Panther) in Germany.
The animated Pink Panther character’s initial appearance in the live action film’s title sequence, directed by Friz Freleng, was such a success with audiences and United Artists that the studio signed Freleng and his DePatie-Freleng Enterprises studio to a multi-year contract for a series of Pink Panther theatrical cartoon shorts. The first entry in the series, 1964′s The Pink Phink, (which was also his first appearance) featured the Panther harassing his foil, a little white moustached man who is actually a caricature of Friz Freleng (this character is officially known as “The Little White Guy” and/or “The Man” ), by constantly trying to paint the little man’s blue house pink. The Pink Phink won the 1964 Academy Award for Animated Short Film, and subsequent shorts in the series, usually featuring the Pink Panther opposite the little man, were successful releases.
In an early series of Pink Panther animated cartoons, the Pink Panther generally remained silent, speaking only in two theatrical shorts, Sink Pink and Pink Ice. Rich Little provided the Panther’s voice in the latter shorts, modelling it on that of David Niven (who had portrayed Clouseau’s jewel-thief nemesis in the original live-action film). Years later Little would overdub Niven’s voice for Trail of the Pink Panther and Curse of the Pink Panther. All of the animated Pink Panther shorts utilized the distinctive jazzy theme music composed by Henry Mancini for the 1963 feature film, with additional scores composed by Walter Greene or William Lava.
In the Fall of 1969, the Pink Panther cartoons made their way to NBC television shown Saturday mornings via The Pink Panther Show. NBC added a laugh track to the original cartoons, with Marvin Miller brought on as an off-camera narrator talking to the Pink Panther during bumper segments featuring the Pink Panther and The Inspector together.
Pink Panther shorts made after 1969 were produced for both broadcast and film release, typically appearing on television first, and released to theatres by United Artists. One version of the show was called The Think Pink Panther Show. A number of sister series joined The Pink Panther on movie screens and on the airwaves, among them The Ant and the Aardvark, The Tijuana Toads (a.k.a. The Texas Toads), Hoot Kloot, and Misterjaw (a.k.a. Mr. Jaws and Catfish). There were also a series of animated shorts called The Inspector, with the bumbling Clouseau inspired Inspector and his sidekick Sgt. Deux-Deux, whom the Inspector is forever correcting. (“Deux” is French for “two,” meaning the little man’s name is both a pun and a play on words, “two” appearing twice in the name.) Other DePatie-Freleng series included Roland and Rattfink, The Dogfather (a Godfather pastiche), with a canine Corleone family and two Tijuana Toads spinoffs, The Blue Racer and Crazylegs Crane.
In 1976, the half-hour series was revamped into a 90-minute format, as The Pink Panther Laugh and a Half Hour and a Half Show; this version included a live-action segment, where the show’s host, comedian Lenny Schultz, would read letters and jokes from viewers. This version flopped, and would change back to the original half-hour version in 1977.
In 1978, after nine years on NBC, The Pink Panther moved to ABC and was rebranded The All New Pink Panther Show, where it lasted one season before leaving the network realm entirely. The ABC version of the series featured sixteen episodes with 32 new Pink Panther cartoons, and 16 of Crazylegs Crane. The 32 new Pink Panther cartoons were eventually released to theatres by United Artists.
In 1971, Gold Key Comics began publishing a Pink Panther comic book, with art by Warren Tufts. The Pink Panther and the Inspector lasted 87 issues, ending only when Gold Key ceased operations in 1984. The spinoff series The Inspector (also from Gold Key) lasted 19 issues, from 1974 to 1978.
During the final years of the Panther’s theatrical run, DePatie-Freleng produced a series of three primetime Pink Panther television specials for ABC. The first was 1978′s A Pink Christmas. It featured the cool cat in New York being cold and hungry looking for a juicy holiday dinner. The other two specials premiered on ABC after the shorts officially ended in theaters, 1980s Olym-Pinks and 1981′s Pink at First Sight. In November of late 2007, the three specials were released on a single disc DVD collection, The Pink Panther: A Pink Christmas from MGM Home Entertainment/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
The studio was sold to Marvel Comics in 1981, and became Marvel Productions (now its legacy is became part of The Walt Disney Company). In 1984, a new Saturday morning series was produced entitled Pink Panther and Sons. In this incarnation, the still-silent Pink Panther was a father of his two talking sons, Pinky and Panky. While popular, critics complained that there was not enough Pink Panther to maintain interest for a full 30 minutes.
A new series of cartoon were created in 1993, simply titled The Pink Panther, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation, premiered in syndication in 1993, and had the Pink Panther speaking with the voice of Matt Frewer (of Max Headroom fame). Unlike the original shorts, not all episode titles contained the word “pink,” although many instead contained the word “panther.” Voice impressionist John Byner returned to voice both the Ant and the Aardvark.
In July 2007, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Jordan’s Rubicon animation company began co-production of the animated series Pink Panther and Pals portraying a teenaged panther and his friends. The 26 episode TV series premiered worldwide in spring 2010 on Cartoon Network. In 2011, a new 22-minute holiday special entitled A Very Pink Christmas aired on ABC Family and later Boomerang in the U.S, YTV in Canada, and Boomerang in the UK, during the month of December.
After acquiring United Artists in the early 1980s, MGM continues to own the ancillary rights and trademarks to the Pink Panther franchise today.
The German television version which started airing in 1973 in ZDF, was presented in 30-minute episodes, composed of one Pink Panther cartoon, one episode of The Inspector and one episode of The Ant and the Aardvark. Most notably, the difference between the German and the English version of The Pink Panther is a rhymed narration in the German version (spoken by voice actor Gert Günther Hoffmann), commenting and describing the plot. For this show, custom intro and end sequences were cut together from existing pieces of animation.
The Pink Panther remains popular some 45+ years since his first appearance. In addition to the regular airing of the classic cartoon, the panther also appears in the following:
The Pink Panther is associated with a number of cancer awareness and support organisations. The Pink Panther is the mascot of the New Zealand Child Cancer Foundation and for a line of clothing to promote breast cancer awareness.
As Pink Panther historian Jerry Beck notes, “Classic animation pretty much died in the ’60s, everyone had kind of bailed out. But his creators didn’t rest on their laurels. They didn’t make the cartoons to look like Warner Bros. cartoons, or Disney cartoons, or the UPA look of Mister Magoo and Gerald McBoing-Boing. They came up with their own clever new style. The only other important cartoon of the ’60s was Yellow Submarine.”
The Pink Panther was therefore a notable contribution to the animation art form. Top animation directors such as Hawley Pratt, Gerry Chiniquy, Robert McKimson, and Sid Marcus contributed to a distinctive style, supported by master story writer John W. Dunn. Produced after theatrical cartooning’s golden age of the 1940s and 50s, they were constrained to the limited animation techniques applied to Saturday morning cartoons of 1960s and after. Within these limitations, the Pink Panther made creative use of absurd and surreal themes and visual puns and an almost completely wordless pantomime style, set to the ubiquitous Pink Panther theme and its variations by Henry Mancini. The overall approach is reminiscent of the classic silent movies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
Cultural references were more muted and stylized, resulting in a cartoon with longer-term, more cross-cultural appeal not shared by contemporaries such as Yogi Bear and The Flintstones, with their greater reliance on contemporary American pop culture. The Pink Panther also remained constrained to the classic six-minute form of theatrical shorts, while contemporaries expanded into longer, sitcom-like story lines, up to a full 30 minutes of broadcast TV in the case of The Flintstones. Freleng’s colleagues credit his sense of creative timing as a key element to the cartoon’s artistic success. Freleng himself regarded the Pink Panther as his finest achievement and the character he most identified with, according to family and colleagues interviewed on the 2006 DVD release.
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Sleep on it: Why regular rest makes for a more productive lifestyle
When a boss catches an employee napping at work, are they likely to be fired or will the employer realise that taking a nap doesn’t always need to be seen negatively; the employee may simply have been recharging their batteries? No prizes for choosing the right answer there.
Unfortunately, taking a nap, or stealing forty winks during the day is usually regarded with negative connotations. In a busy office, naps are seen to be taken by lazy individuals and people lacking ambition. Napping is perceived as the private reserve of older people, but how many folks know that Winston Churchill always demanded a mid afternoon nap? He’s in good company too, being joined by regular napping experts Thomas Edison, John F Kennedy, John D Rockefeller and Napoleon. If it’s good enough for them, might it be right for everyone?
The after-effects of returning to work after a short rest period
There have been many scientific research studies into the effects of napping and they almost all move towards the same general conclusion that a brief nap, usually taken after lunch, can help people become better problem solvers. It also improves alertness and promotes performance and education making it an essential requirement for students as well.
Rest rejuvenates energy, vision, short term memory, performance, motivation, vigilance and patience. With that in mind, one should consider the implications of not breaking up a day with a short rest. You just pictured a bunch of unmotivated, impatient and frustrated people lacking energy and starting to neglect their performance, a scene that will no doubt be familiar to anyone who has ever suffered through the late afternoon period of a long day in the office.
Napping isn’t sleeping. Taking a nap means devoting 10-20 minutes of your time to rest and drift into the first stage of the sleeping pattern, without moving onwards into the deep sleep that won’t help revive a person’s energy immediately and will probably cause more trouble later as less sleep will be required at night.
Rest instills calm
Tired people are more likely to be angry, moody and burn out at a faster rate. Regular rest periods, always taken at the same time every day to help set the body clock, will instill a sense of calm and keep the mind fresh and alert. The heartbeat slows down to a normal level. Blood pressure is reduced because an individual will be lying down and relieving all need for the body’s muscles to work hard.
Stress disappears immediately as a person enters a stage similar to meditation, which everyone knows helps relieve stress and calms a person down after a busy day at school, the office or in the workplace.
Resting helps make work more interesting
Having been established that taking a few minutes break from a computer every forty five minutes will improve a person’s ability to focus on their work and generally install a healthy attitude, taking a nap has similar effects, but with only one 15-20 minute break required.
Instead of popping a can of expensive energy drink which contains excessive amounts of caffeine and taurine to help employees stay awake during the later afternoon, a short power nap breaks up the day’s activities and provides a refocus of the job in hand. It allows the mind to be cleared and if a job is complex, a fresh view of how to complete it, or perhaps presents a chance to step back and then review the work already completed with a final edit for perfection. A caffeine kick from a coffee will take half an hour to work, so it be best to drink the favorite coffee just before the nap begins.
If naps are combined with regular breaks which include time to stand up, walk around, drink water and loosen up, the body will react well to going back to the demands of work, rather than spending all day in one position.
Rest gives you time to reflect
Successful individuals are more able to reflect on their day’s work, especially later in the afternoon, after they’ve made full use of a short nap. When the brain has taken time to shed the excess overload of a day’s work, a clear head can look back at what has been achieved, which helps a person plan for the next day, without high levels of stress making them overly self-critical.
A logical mind gives an employee the purpose to critically look back and see what more they could have achieved, while taking pride in the work that was completed accurately and on time.
There is one final benefit to taking a daily short nap as demonstrated by Greek scientists; people who take short naps in the afternoon are 37% less likely to die from a heart related illness. Isn’t that a significant reason to argue for a regular nap?
- Can the Human Soul Be Weighed?
- Most Incredible and Mysterious People with Superpowers
- Impact of Fear on the Human Brain
- Revealing the Mystery of Dreams and Dreaming
- What Happens to Our Brain When We Break Up?
- Quick Sleep Technique: How to Get Enough Sleep in 5 Hours
- Exercises For Energizing Astral Body (part one)
- How Music Can Relieve Stress and Boost Immunity
- Effect of Consciousness on Reality Seems to Be Proven
- Possible to Read Dreams Using Brain Scans!
About Laurent Kelly (10 posts)
Laurent Kelly is interested in helping young people achieve their goals whilst maintaining a happy and healthy lifestyle. His website Student Lifestyles
features educational tips and lifestyle advise for anyone seeking motivation or self-improvement.
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In an effort to provide a healthier learning environment for schoolchildren, the Power Authority has replaced old, polluting coal-fired furnaces at 74 public schools in New York City, Buffalo and Great Neck with clean, modern natural gas- or oil-fueled boilers, using funds from Governor Pataki's Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act of 1996. A total of $125 million in Bond Act Funds has been earmarked for the Clean Air for Schools Program.
Separately, we oversaw replacement of coal-burning furnaces at 12 New York City public schools under a $12.5 million pilot program, using NYPA funds and money provided through a federal program. The work from both programs has resulted in the elimination of 856,000 pounds of harmful emissions each year from the air that students and teachers breathe.
Power Authority government customers—and taxpayers—benefit from a program providing for the design, engineering and installation of various types of energy-efficient chillers. By performing a life-cycle cost analysis, we can determine the most cost-effective chiller plant option based on a particular customer's operational and budgetary needs.
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Stalemate on Darfur
When we wrote last week about Darfur, the UN was talking about taking over peacekeeping duties from the African Union there. Now top UN officials are claiming that the African Union is backing away from the plan. The Sudanese government has opposed UN involvement, and has helped fuel anti-UN sentiment around the continent, with other African leaders expressing concern that outside involvement will only cause more violence in the region.
Among other things, the UN's special envoy for Sudan, Jan Pronk, said that "there has been talk" that Sudan will become the "same situation as Iraq a couple years ago"i.e., that an insurgency will appear to fight the intervention force, or that al-Qaeda will become more active in the region. Just days ago, Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir warned that Darfur would become a graveyard for any military force entering the region without Sudan's permission.
It's questionable how long the African Union can remain effective in Darfur. A larger intervention force will be needed not only to stop the Sudanese militias that continue to carry out genocide, but also to enforce negotiations between Darfur and a president who demonstrates a lack of regard for his own citizens. Today the United States will hand the rotating Security Council presidency over to Argentina. That leaves a month before the seat goes to China, which has significant oil and trade interests in Sudan and is extremely unlikely to take any sort of lead in halting genocide there.
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The National Asset Management agency has been set up to manage non-performing property loans. As part of the set-up the government aims to prevent windfall gains from re-zoning land.
It has imposed an 80% rate of Capital Gains Tax on certain land disposals. This has caused some confusion as many taxpayers think that it relates to all land disosals are caught.
The disposals caught by the tax are
- Where the land has been rezoned.
- Getting planning permission is not rezoning.
- The designation of the land must change from
non-development to development
from on type of development to another e.g from commercial to residential
Finance Act 2010 introduced a provision that planning perissions involving a material contravention of the Local Development Plan are also caught by the tax
This very brief outline shows how complex this issue is. You should always seek professional taxadvice.
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November 1, 1918
The laid back California style clashed with the countywide order to wear a mask. Spanish Influenza was here and taking a toll. Though the chief of police was also acting health officer for the city at first he took a relaxed approach to the crisis. C.L. Day’s Telegram ran a scolding story at the top of the page.
THE MASK LAW
Flagrant Violation of
Ordinance in Down Town Section
Where Officers Fail to Enforce
If you are a law abiding citizen and think that all laws are made to be obeyed you will of course obey the ordinance requiring you to wear a mask over the mouth and nose.
If you think laws are made for other people but not for you, or if you think it right to evade the law, you will probably wear the mask under your chin, on your hair, in your pocket or not at all. And if you have any standing in the community you will probably get away with it.
Notwithstanding Chief of Police Cook’s warning this morning that people who defied the mask law would be arrested, no arrests had been made at noon today and one could stand at almost any corner for a few minutes and see dozens of violations. One business man walked up to Chief Cook and stood chatting with him several minutes and during all of that time had a cigar in his mouth and his mouth was not covered with a mask.
Officers walked the streets and did in some cases instruct people to put their masks on properly. But scores were allowed to pass without a word being said to them.
In another story the totals read, 76 cases of flu reported, eleven of pneumonia and six influenza-pneumonia deaths in San Luis Obispo. (The headline only said five deaths.) The nine new cases reported in the last 24 hours was a new record and indicated the epidemic was still on the upswing.
November 2, 1918
Schools were closed but kids were expected to keep up with their lessons. The paper published home study outlines for the week for first through eighth grade.For a fifth grader at Court School
Elementary Arithmetic Long division page 181 Ex. 261
Introductory Geography–Southern States pages 83-107
Beginner’s History—Mace, pages 54-71
Reading Carpenters Geographical Reader—North America pages 83-107
November 5, 1918
In a letter to the editor G. E. Glendenning was upset about a run in with a cadet guard from Cal Poly. He was walking to town with a friend on Cal Poly School main road intending to cross the railroad tracks at the Hathaway Avenue crossing.
He was stopped by an armed cadet near the boy’s dormitories and told to go back. Glendenning took the shortcut through the downed fence at the tracks.
I started for the fence, without taking any notice of what was happening in the rear. Guard brought his rifle to his shoulder, but was persuaded by my friend to stop at that. Guard said he was acting under orders from Major Ray. I question the propriety of placing a rifle in the hands of an irresponsible boy.
(The crossing no longer exists but is seen in this photo. A Cal Poly building is behind the telegraph pole. The pine tree is near where the student was hit with a beer bottle during the Poly Royal Riot years later. The location seems to be a magnet for student irresponsibility. The barn advertises Mail Pouch tobacco.)
Santa Barbara County closes saloons in an attempt to quell the epidemic. In San Francisco a man rigged a tube to his cigarette holder enabling him to smoke and still comply with the mask law.
November 7, 1918
False reports were circulating that World War I was over. The final treaty would not be signed until November 11 but the Health department held firm on a ban on public gatherings. The Telegram approved with this typo headline.
Health Board Wisely Puts
Ban on Public Celebration
Owing to Inflneza Epidemic
The Health Board will not allow a celebration tonight or at any time while the influenza situation continues as at present. This also puts the ban on the trench lunch and speaking that was to be held on Freemont Heights Saturday.
Immediately after the Telegram posted bulletins announcing the cessation of hostilities, the fire bell was rung and a few minutes the round house whistles and church bells added to the din. Plans were immediately started for a celebration to begin at two this afternoon.Members of the Municipal Band went to Health officer Cook and asked for a permit for the band to appear on the streets without masks. Cook stated that he could not permit them to do so nor would he permit any public demonstration or gathering of the people. This action was taken upon advice of physicians and seems to meet with popular approval.
Every one feels like celebrating and had it been permitted the old town would have been torn upside down. But the health of the community is of greater importance than a public demonstration. It is probable that the flu situation will clear up soon and when it does and the mask ordinance is revoked the people will have an opportunity to celebrate and it will be some celebration.
Plans are already under way for a celebration that will be the biggest thing of the kind ever pulled off in the city and the entire county will be given an opportunity to be in on the big time.
November 14, 1918
The paper had stopped reporting deaths on the front page, on some days it was hard to find mention of the epidemic. While it was true that world events were dramatic there was less space devoted to the major local story than before. Stories often had a dark scary sentence followed by forced optimism. It would imply that the worst was over. Much more space was devoted to those ill or recovering than the deaths.
In many parts of the county the disease has been of such a malignant type that people have been stricken and died within 24 hours. This city has been more fortunate, but a continuance of the epidemic may result in similar condition.
In the future the Telegram reported deaths from other regions frequently but the local fatalities would be found in the fine print inside the paper if at all.
If someone had time it would make an interesting senior project to track the coverage.
Thirteen new cases were reported this day. The paper scolded people again for not wearing masks in the face of increasing numbers of cases. Seventeen patients were in the hospital but all were reported as improving.
It was reported that the flu had reached the Japanese district in town and the paper called that the regulations be rigidly enforced there.
At some point mask wearing people with fogging glasses and the ever helpful Telegram suggested that the whiners wad cotton under their glasses to block their breath.
November 18, 1918
The three local deaths were reported on the back page this day.
The Santa Maria Valley was hit hard. The paper estimated 45 deaths mostly in the labor camps that serviced the Orcutt oil fields and the Union Sugar Mill. Hospitals were jammed and there was a shortage of nurses. Often nurses would arrive and then fall sick.
November 19, 1918
The paper’s headline crowed optimism on the bottom of an inside page but if you read the story all the way through you discover two more deaths.
TWO OLD CASES OF FLU
TODAY; EPIDEMIC CHECKED
Only two cases of influenza were reported to Health Officer Cook for the period ending at two this afternoon.
Both of these are said to be of several day’s standing but were not reported.
Cook stated this afternoon that so far as he knows no new cases have developed and the indications are that the epidemic is under control.
Adrian P. Bailey.
Adrian P. Bailey died last evening at 8:20 at the home of his brother W. D. Bailey. Influenza-pneumonia was the cause of his death. He was a native of California aged 33 years.
Racism of the time is reflected in the latter part of the story. The story records no name or age.
A Japanese employed by the Southern Pacific Co. fell victim to the influenza yesterday at the Red Cross ward at the county hospital. Members of his family are expected to arrive from Portland tonight to attend the funeral.
November 23, 1918I
n a signal that the epidemic was waning the county lifted the mask ordinance. But schools were still closed. Theater advertising had returned to the pages another indication that people were getting out again after a five week ban.
December 5, 1918
On an inside page the paper tries to soft-pedal the news.
OF FLU CASES BUT
The story claims that people are now recovering quickly from the flu and includes this sentence that tries to be comforting but somehow isn’t.
There have been no fatalities from flu in the city for several days.
Later in the story:
Several Spanish families are reported as being in bad shape as to finances and badly in need of help in caring for the sick. One family of nine, residing on Sycamore street, has eight in bed, the other being the only one to be about. She is just recovering from the malady.
December 9, 1918
Schools had reopened December 2. Vacations were to be shortened to make up for lost time, depending on how students fared in testing following weeks of home study. High school students needed to keep up on Latin, shorthand and penmanship lessons among others. Attendance was down, teachers were sending pupils home at the first indication of a cold and some parents were keeping their students out. An indication of the situation was that the High School reported 12 absences.
Two more flu deaths were noted, this time the news returning to the front page. Mrs. Kathryn C. Silsby and Mrs. Orle Mayfield.
Coverage of the outbreak by this point was intermittent in the paper. The Wikipedia entry suggests that the virus may have mutated again to a less lethal strain some time in the winter. Across the United States about 28% came down with the flu and 500,000 to 675,000 died. Worldwide the disease may have killed as many as a million people a week for the first 25 weeks.
If anyone comes across definitive numbers for the county please post a comment. The History News Network has a collection of influenza stories.
Wallace Stegner writes about the effects of Spanish Influenza in his semi-autobiographical novel “The Big Rock Candy Mountain.”
Chet is left at home after his parents and brother were taken to the hospital.
Sometimes he stood on the porch on sunny, cold mornings and watched Lars Poulsen’s sled go out along the river toward the graveyard, and the thought that maybe Mom or Pa or Bruce might die and be buried out there on the knoll by the sandhills made him swallow and go back inside were he couldn’t see how deserted the street looked, and where he couldn’t see the sled and the steaming gray horses move out along the river. He prayed earnestly at night, with tears, that none of them would die. He resolved to be a son his parents could be proud of, and sat down at the piano determined to learn a piece letter-perfect before Mom came home. But the silence of the house weighed on him; he lay sometimes with his forehead on the keyboard, and listened to the sound of one monotonous note. It sounded different with his head down, and he could concentrate on how different it sounded so that he didn’t get afraid.
UPDATE: Thanks to Alecia Wright at San Luis High School
Graduating class of 1919 – 13 students
Graduating class of 1918 – 16 students
If the high school was reporting 12 absences that was almost the equivalent of a whole grade level calling in sick.
Links to other stories in the series:
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To Kneel Or Stand
A few weeks ago I was practicing technique with a big, strong rock climber who had a grip from hell and tenacious isometric strength. I noticed how much he liked controlling my gi, breaking my posture and attacking with collar chokes. Since I knew we were going to spar soon I formulated a simple sparring strategy: I told myself that as soon as I ended up in his guard I would stand up and not go back down onto my knees until I was past his guard.
Why did I do this? The answer should be obvious at the end of this article.
A coarse classification divides guard passes into either standing or kneeling guard passes. If you wanted to break it down a bit further you could say that there are standing and kneeling methods of opening a closed guard, and standing and kneeling methods of actually passing an opened guard. Both standing and kneeling methods have their strengths and weaknesses – I use them both, but I try to choose the appropriate approach for the situation.
Kneeling in your opponent’s guard makes you a little harder to sweep because your center of gravity is closer to the ground. If you are kneeling in an opponent’s guard your arms and neck are more easily available for him to attack, but it is quite difficult for him to leglock you.
If you choose to stand in order to pass the guard you make yourself a little more vulnerable to sweeps and leglocks. The advantage of standing passes is that you are more mobile and that it is harder for your opponent to attack you with chokes and armlocks.
How can you use this information?
If you have both standing and kneeling guard passes in your repertoire you can tailor your game to avoid your opponent’s strengths. If your opponent specializes in chokes and/or armlocks then get to your feet whenever you end up in his guard and try to work your standing guard passes. If your opponent is a leg locking machine then consider engaging him on your knees.
Additionally, guard passing methods vary greatly from club to club. In some clubs kneeling guard passes predominate, whereas other schools tend to mix standing and kneeling guard passes. Schools that do a lot of MMA or no-gi grappling tend to use more standing passes, although few schools use standing methods exclusively.
If you know that your opponent is from a school that uses only kneeling guard passes then you could try only using standing passes against him: he is unlikely to be as skilled at defending against a standing opponent and you could soon find yourself past the guard.
Good luck with this concept!
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which describe complex harmonic motion. This family of curves was investigated by Nathaniel Bowditch in 1815, and later in more detail by Jules Antoine Lissajous (a French name pronounced [lisaˈʒu]) in 1857.
The appearance of the figure is highly sensitive to the ratio a/b. For a ratio of 1, the figure is an ellipse, with special cases including circles (A = B, δ = π/2 radians) and lines (δ = 0). Another simple Lissajous figure is the parabola (a/b = 2, δ = π/2). Other ratios produce more complicated curves, which are closed only if a/b is rational. The visual form of these curves is often suggestive of a three-dimensional knot, and indeed many kinds of knots, including those known as Lissajous knots, project to the plane as Lissajous figures.
Lissajous figures where a = 1, b = N (N is a natural number) and
are Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind of degree N.
The animation below shows the curve adaptation with continuously increasing fraction from 0 to 1 in steps of 0.01. (δ=0)
Prior to modern electronic equipment, Lissajous curves could be generated mechanically by means of a harmonograph.
Practical application
Lissajous curves can also be generated using an oscilloscope(as illustrated). An octopus circuit can be used to demonstrate the waveform images on an oscilloscope. Two phase-shifted sinusoid inputs are applied to the oscilloscope in X-Y mode and the phase relationship between the signals is presented as a Lissajous figure.
On an oscilloscope, we suppose x is CH1 and y is CH2, A is amplitude of CH1 and B is amplitude of CH2, a is frequency of CH1 and b is frequency of CH2, so a/b is a ratio of frequency of two channels, finally, δ is the phase shift of CH1.
A purely mechanical application of a Lissajous curve with a=1, b=2 is in the driving mechanism of the Mars Light type of oscillating beam lamps popular with railroads in the mid-1900s. The beam in some versions traces out a lopsided figure-8 pattern with the "8" lying on its side.
Application for the case of a = b
When the input to an LTI system is sinusoidal, the output is sinusoidal with the same frequency, but it may have a different amplitude and some phase shift. Using an oscilloscope that can plot one signal against another (as opposed to one signal against time) to plot the output of an LTI system against the input to the LTI system produces an ellipse that is a Lissajous figure for the special case of a = b. The aspect ratio of the resulting ellipse is a function of the phase shift between the input and output, with an aspect ratio of 1 (perfect circle) corresponding to a phase shift of and an aspect ratio of (a line) corresponding to a phase shift of 0 or 180 degrees. The figure below summarizes how the Lissajous figure changes over different phase shifts. The phase shifts are all negative so that delay semantics can be used with a causal LTI system (note that −270 degrees is equivalent to +90 degrees). The arrows show the direction of rotation of the Lissajous figure. m
Popular culture
- Lissajous figures are sometimes used in graphic design as logos. Examples include:
- In computing, Lissajous figures are in some screen savers.
See also
||This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2010)|
- "Did 'Vertigo' Introduce Computer Graphics to Cinema?".
- "The ABC's of Lissajous figures".
- "Lincoln Laboratory Logo". MIT Lincoln Laboratory. 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
||This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (November 2010)|
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lissajous curves|
Interactive demos
- 3D Java applets depicting the construction of Lissajous curves in an oscilloscope:
- Interactive Lissajous Curves in Java – graphical representations of musical intervals, beats, interference, and vibrating strings
- Simple HTML5 Lissajous curve generator – allows controls for A and B as integers from 1 to 12 each
- Animated Lissajous figures
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UN calls on Israel, Palestinian groups to end their conflict, urges enquiry into Israeli actions
Monday, November 20, 2006
Qatar called an emergency meeting of the General Assembly on Saturday to debate the ceasefire resolution that fell at the Security Council last week on account of a veto by the United States. After some amendment, the General Assembly passed the resolution with a large majority. 156 countries supported, seven opposed and six abstained in the vote. Among those opposing were Israel, the United States and Australia.
The resolution calls on both Israel and Palestine to stop their violent activities: the Palestinian firing of rockets into Israel and the Israeli incursions into Palestinian territory.
The reason given by Ambassador Bolton for opposing the motion was that it served the interests of those “hostile to Israel's inalienable and recognised right to exist”. Attempts to form a party of national unity in Palestine are being thwarted by failure to agree on this point. Although Fatah would acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, Hamas is opposing any such statement. The UN resolution also instructed the Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to investigate the killing of 19 people by shell fire in Beit Hanoun in Gaza. At least 12 artillery shells landed on the village because, according to the Israelis, of a “tragic mistake”.
Reports are now coming in of a repeat of the “civil defence” measures taken on Saturday by civilians swarming around and over a house targeted for demolition by Israeli military forces. On this occasion, the house is occupied by a senior member of Hamas, the ruling party. It is located in Beit Lahiya in the north of the Gaza strip.
- "Two Palestinians die, over seven others are wounded as Israeli attacks continue" — Wikinews, 20 November, 2006
- ""Civil defence" thwarts Israeli air strike on Gaza refugee camp" — Wikinews, November 19, 2006
- "Two Palestinians die, over seven others are wounded as Israeli attacks continue" — Wikinews, November 20, 2006
- "Islamic Jihad considers halting rocket-fire into Israel" — Wikinews, November 18, 2006
- "Israeli Woman killed by Qassam rocket" — Wikinews, November 15, 2006
- "Israeli soldiers suspected of executing unarmed, injured men in Gaza" — Wikinews, November 14, 2006
- "Palestinian Foreign Minister: No peace with Israel" — Wikinews, November 12, 2006
- "Palestinian teenager killed in Israeli airstrike" — Wikinews, November 6, 2006
- "Israeli attacks in Gaza kill 17" — Wikinews, November 4, 2006
- "UN urges end to Mid-East violence" — , November 18, 2006
- "Gazans gather to foil air strike" — , November 20, 2006
- "Tears and blame amid Gaza's dead" — , November 16, 2006
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Qatari Gas Company Hit With Virus in Wave of Attacks on Energy Companies
- 5:04 PM
The Qatari natural gas company commonly known as RasGas has been hit with a virus that shut down its website and e-mail servers, according to news reports.
The malware, however, did not affect the company’s operational computers that control the production and delivery of gas, an official of the Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas company told Bloomberg.
The attack reportedly began Aug. 27. The RasGas website was still unavailable on Thursday, three days after the attack.
Qatar is the world’s largest producer of liquified natural gas. RasGas, a joint operation of Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil, distributes about 36 million tons of the resource annually.
It’s unclear if the malware that struck RasGas is the same Shamoon malware that is believed to have been used in an attack earlier this month against Saudi Aramco.
Shamoon has a destructive payload that deletes files on computers that it infects, according to researchers at Israeli security firm Seculert, who have examined it.
Officials of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, acknowledged last weekend that about 30,000 of its computers were affected in that attack, but also claimed that production and distribution of oil were not affected. The attack reportedly replaced data on machines with images of a burning U.S. flag after destroying files.
A hacktivist group calling itself by the evocative name “Cutting Sword of Justice” claimed responsibility for the Saudi Aramco hack, in posts to Pastebin. The group said the hack was to avenge the “atrocities taking place in … Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon [and] Egypt” and seemed to suggest that Shamoon was the malware used in the attack.
In describing the attack, the alleged hackers wrote, “[W]e penetrated a system of Aramco company by using the hacked systems in several countries and then sended [sic] a malicious virus to destroy thirty thousand computers networked in this company….
“This is a warning to the tyrants of this country and other countries that support such criminal disasters with injustice and oppression,” they went on to write. “We invite all anti-tyranny hacker groups all over the world to join this movement. We want them to support this movement by designing and performing such operations, if they are against tyranny and oppression.”
Yet another attack earlier this year against Iran’s national oil company involved a piece of malware dubbed “Wiper,” which systematically deleted data and system files from computers. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Wiper may have been created by the same nation states behind Stuxnet, DuQu and Flame. Israel and the U.S. are believed to be behind those cyberespionage toolkits and weapons.
Wiper, and its attack on the Iranian oil industry, is believed to have been the inspiration for the attackers who subsequently targeted Saudi Aramco and RasGas. The attackers behind the latter hits, however, are not believed to be affiliated with any nation state.
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An economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, speaking Friday at the Morningstar Ibbotson Conference 2013 in Hollywood, Fla., said there were several factors that prompted him to “make the case for stronger growth in 2013.”
Kevin Kliesen, who shared his own views (not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve System), also cautioned “that economic momentum weakened over the last three months of 2012, though there were pockets of strength in key areas.”
Kliesen pointed out that the St. Louis Financial Stress Index, which tracks 17 indicators (including risk spreads), is now lower than its long-run average level. Plus, “Some calm has returned to European sovereign debt markets,” he said.
An additional positive factor is that business capital spending is rebounding, after remaining in a lull for most of 2012. “Financial market conditions are supportive of faster growth,” he said, “and there is not much worry about inflation in the near future.”
The economist shared three other sets of reasons behind his expectation that the economy will have a strong year in 2013:
- Consumer spending is improving, forecasters expect long-term interest rates to stay low, and household wealth should keep improving;
- Housing fundamentals “look good,” inventories are low, prices are moving higher, labor markets are seeing improvement, and affordability is high;
- Housing growth is usually followed by growth in business capital spending.
“It appears that most, if not all, of the excess housing inventory has been worked off,” Kliesen said.
The economist also outlined several trends that do not bode well for the U.S. economy in the longer term.
One of his main concerns is the impact of the jump in the payroll tax, “which should have a significant impact on the low and middle strata of consumers." Compounding that problem and its impact on growth will be fiscal policy, he noted.
These shifts could lead to a 1.2% drop in consumption during the first half of 2013 and a 2.5% decline in the second half, said Kliesen, pointing to Goldman Sachs’ estimates.
While the markets don’t seem too worried, increased “rancor and political gamesmanship could dent consumer confidence and keep economic-policy uncertainty at elevated levels,” he explained.
Longer term, Kliesen said the high debt relative to the economy would reduce growth, including living standards. This happens as more resources are devoted to the public sector and fewer to capital investment.
This cycle can feed on itself and, when combined with higher future taxes, impact new technology.
“A fiscal exit strategy is necessary,” concluded Kliesen. “High levels of debt eventually lead to bad outcomes—choices must be made.”
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Academics and advocates alike should consider that Justice Clarence Thomas has a unique voice on the Supreme Court bench, and if they want Thomas to act on racial-justice issues, they should try to find a way to reach him on his own terms, said visiting professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin at a lunch talk sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Law April 14.
“Tempers flare when Justice Thomas’s name is mentioned,” said Brown-Nagin, and “I understand the depth of feeling.” Thomas “occupies the so-called black seat on the Supreme Court and he holds views, liberals say, that are adverse to blacks….He disfavors race-conscious remedies…and has a rather dim view of Brown.”
Brown-Nagin said she disagrees with Thomas on many issues. As a beneficiary of Brown v. Board of Education whose parents grew up in the Jim Crow South, Brown-Nagin disputed Thomas’s claim that quality, integrated education has no lasting benefits for African-American students. Nevertheless, she chose to take a contrarian position because much of the rhetoric about Thomas’s jurisprudence is exaggerated and intellectually dishonest. Thomas has been called “someone who looks black, but thinks white,” she said, and an “Uncle Tom” who “obeys” Justice Antonin Scalia. A recent article by a legal academic called Thomas even worse—he was a “Sambo” for cultivating good relations with whites for his own advantage and to the disadvantage of other blacks.
“I think the rhetoric is inhumane…It’s dehumanizing to Thomas as well as to all of us,” Brown-Nagin said. “In my view, it’s well beyond what anyone needs to do to make their point.”
In substance, the criticisms misrepresent Thomas’s views in at least two important race-related cases, Grutter v. Bollinger and Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, she said. “I think that he has something to say and it’s worth hearing.”
In some respects Thomas’s dissenting opinion in Grutter discusses affirmative action with more breadth and depth than Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s majority opinion, Brown-Nagin said. O’Connor uncritically accepted the University of Michigan’s argument that enrolling a racially diverse student body was central to its educational mission and that assembling diverse classes required race-conscious measures because minorities on average have lower LSAT scores and grades.
Brown-Nagin says Michigan ignored “an elephant in the room”: how reliable are LSAT scores for predicting success in law school or law practice, and are these measures overused in the admissions process? A group of students who wrote an amicus brief on behalf of Michigan in Grutter disputed the plaintiffs’ claims of entitlement to admission to the law school because their test scores were higher, on average, than affirmative action admits.
According to the students, “The problem that race-conscious admissions policies address is not the limited…academic ability of minorities. The problem… is that law schools rely so heavily on the LSATs when they know it does a poor job of predicting future academic performance for African-American students, Hispanics, Native Americans, certain Asian groups, women on average, and most definitely students of working class and poor backgrounds.”
O’Connor does not address the issue, but Thomas “engages this argument frontally. He takes it on. In fact, he runs with it, and in the process he shows that he certainly is no clone of [Justice Antonin] Scalia…on this particular issue.”
Thomas said law schools’ need to use race criteria to select a diverse student body “is a self-inflicted wound.” Thomas wrote, “Having decided to use the LSAT, the law school must accept the constitutional burdens that come with the decision.”
Thomas argued that law schools lack the will to come up with standards that are not discriminatory. Thomas also insisted that affirmative action stigmatizes beneficiaries—a claim that Brown-Nagin noted is without empirical support.
Thomas’s views on testing are consistent with academic critics on the intellectual left who have long claimed that some testing practices disadvantage minorities and in particular those minorities “who are not even in the pipeline” to Michigan’s application pool. Like these critics, Thomas “views [minority students] as full stakeholders—stakeholders who are entitled to an educational structure that facilitates their climb.”
In Zelman (2002), the Supreme Court upheld Cleveland’s school voucher program even though parochial schools disproportionately participated in the plan.
Thomas voted to uphold the program because he worried that failing urban schools disproportionately affect minority children and because of the core purposes of the 14 th Amendment. “He rejects the logic [of those] who oppose vouchers on the basis of what he says are ‘formalistic concerns about the Establishment Clause and a romanticized ideal of universal public education.’”
Critics of school choice claim that vouchers will lead to the collapse of public schools by skimming the best students and resources from the system, which will ultimately hurt poor minority students.
These claims “have resonance,” but “are overstated,” Brown-Nagin said. “Many poor minority parents support school choice.” In fact, one of the first successful school-choice programs, begun in 1970, was the brain child of a Democrat, an African-American assemblywoman from Milwaukee. Yet critics “are still attacking those who support school choice as if to do so is extraordinary and out of touch with blacks,” Brown-Nagin said. “It’s intellectually dishonest to brand Thomas as out of touch on this issue and as unconcerned when he clearly is concerned about racial justice and…the plight of poor minority children” in particular.
Thomas’s objections to the agenda favored by liberal civil rights groups turn on remedial considerations, Brown-Nagin pointed out, rather than on a “disregard of racial inequality” as some claim. “What he will not do is embrace race-conscious remedies,” she said, a belief he has stated for a long time. Critics should accept his position and “move on.”
Brown-Nagin also suggested the anger at Thomas is connected to the conventional but wrong-headed wisdom, since Brown, that the Supreme Court can best address racial justice, when perhaps political means would work better.
Brown-Nagin said that advocates who are concerned about racial injustice should acknowledge Thomas’s views in their efforts to craft viable legal and political solutions to social problems.
“If Thomas is willing to support a Zelman-type remedy, then why not think about fashioning [those types of remedies]? Why not consider the merits of class-based affirmative action rather than rejecting it out of hand because it is a less [desirable] remedy than race-based affirmative action?
“His ideas are not fully formed. He doesn’t really accept
the full implications of what’s he’s saying…but
he is lodging a critique that no one else is in the legal academy,
and so we should listen to him,” she said. “If one is going
to try to engage him, the rhetoric needs to be toned down.”
|
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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My Friend Who Made History
On January 9, 1961, an 18 year old from Atlanta did what everyone who wanted to register for classes at the University of Georgia that spring semester did. She and former classmate, Hamilton Holmes, showed up on the Athens campus. But their experience was different: they were met with ugly shouts and racial epithets from what had been until then an all-white student body.
The young woman was Charlayne Hunter, a high school academic star, who had been approached by black civic leaders in Atlanta who were looking to challenge segregation in the state’s colleges. A couple days later, Hunter and Holmes were forced to return to their homes in Atlanta after an angry mob gathered outside her dormitory and threw bottles and bricks through the windows. But the two soon returned, with the help of a federal court order; both stuck it out and went on to graduate a few years later.
While all this was happening in Athens, just 95 miles to the east, in Augusta, Ga., a 14 year old was mainly focused on her junior high school studies and life, with still unclear dreams about which college or career lie ahead. She heard little or nothing of the commotion taking place at the state’s premier public university. But she would eventually be aware that the old South was changing, whether it wanted to or not, and that change would make the whole country a better place.
Twenty-two years later, when that second young woman joined the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour team as they were about to launch the first hour-long newscast on broadcast television, one of her -- my -- new colleagues would be the woman who had made history integrating the University of Georgia. She was by now Charlayne Hunter-Gault, a prize-winning journalist and former writer for the New Yorker.
Charlayne would become my good friend, someone I admired enormously for the courage she showed at such a young age, only to be deepened by the years she spent reporting on, and writing about, inequality in America, and later, South Africa, where she lived for two decades.
She would win many journalism honors and would continue, as she still does today, to write and speak with a clear, forceful voice about some of the most important stories of our time. She appeared on the NewsHour the other day, reporting on the shamefully high incidence of domestic abuse in South Africa. I never stop marveling at the uncommon qualities she brought to a hostile college campus so many years ago, making her a central figure in the Civil Rights movement and in American history.
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Writing a novel? There’s first-draft flow, and there’s editing flow. And then there comes a time when you think you might be done, yet the manuscript is still not quite “there.” To sell your work to an agent, and then to a publisher, and finally to a great many readers, put thoughts of flow aside now, and consider the following advice. Each of the guides mentioned is worthy of your careful attention.
- Don’t describe your characters in generic terms.
- Don’t construct a majority of your sentences the same way.
- Don’t be clumsy in your use of foreshadowing and anticipation.
- Avoid flabby phrases.
- Don’t write scenes in which “it’s all good.”
For full explanations of each tip on the shortlist, click the link above.
Writers and other creative types aren’t immune to the impulse to start anew each time we unwrap a new calendar. I began making New Year’s resolutions back in elementary school, and at best, my resolutions, like most people’s, were always qualified failures. Yet there’s something highly symbolic about believing there’s a right time to start again. Give yourself the edge this year…
ONE WRITER’S RESOLUTIONS
- Write regularly. That, for me, means at least an hour, five or so days a week. Five minutes here and there when the spirit moves me won’t count.
- Stare down rationalizations. No more “but blogging counts.”
- Clear the decks the night before, rather than leaving all those piddling tasks for first thing in the morning (my best thinking time). I will reduce my RSS feeds to the essentials, ignore junk mail, let friends wait before responding (though not too long).
- Set weekly goals. What worked when I was writing articles and my goals were very market-oriented (much like this writer’s), was to “have something in the mail every Friday.” Now, working on a novel, what counts is accumulating words.
- Carry a notebook when keeping or accompanying someone to a medical appointment. Rather than leaf through a magazine, I will make a few detailed notes about my surroundings to use creatively later.
- Read only very good novels. When a book I’ve begun reading is deeply flawed and annoying, I will stop reading it. No more “let’s just see what happens.”
- And finally, because I’m only too aware that people drop dead unexpectedly, I resolve to ask occasionally: Is the way I’m spending today the way I want to have spent one of my precious days?
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Why You Should Always Read Your Credit Card Statement
The two most important pieces of information on the credit card statement are the minimum payment amount and the payment due date. We have to know this so we can make payment and avoid the consequences of a late payment. But, your credit card billing statement has a lot of other details that are equally important.
To confirm your transactions
Your credit card statement will include a list of all the transactions made to your account in the most recent billing cycle. Read through each of them to be sure they were transactions you made. Any strange transaction should be reported to your credit card issuer, regardless of the amount. Some small transactions are made by potential fraudsters looking for open, active accounts.
You have 60 days from the date the billing statement was mailed to dispute billing errors in writing to your card issuer’s address for receiving correspondence. While the card issuer is investigating your dispute, you’re not responsible for paying those disputed charges.
To confirm your last payment was applied correctly
We often check our bank accounts to confirm a payment has been processed. But, just because the credit card issuer cashed your check doesn’t mean they assigned to your account correctly. Check your credit card statement to confirm your payment was applied to your account and on the right date.
You should also confirm that payments are correctly applied to balances with different interest rates. If your credit card has balances with different interest rates, for example a balance transfer and a purchase, the minimum payment must be applied to the balance with the highest interest rate. Check your credit card statement to confirm this is the case. Your card issuer may allow you to specify how the remainder of the payment should be applied, but they’ll likely put it toward the balance with the lowest interest rate.
To get details about paying off your account
Credit card issuers are now required to include a minimum payment warning on your credit card statement. The warning lets you know how long it will take to pay off your balance if you make only the minimum payment. It will also let you know the total amount you’d end up paying if you make just the minimum payment. If you’re paying the minimum, make sure you know the impact.
Your credit card statement will also include the payment you’d have to make to pay your balance off in 3 years. That information is useful when you want to get rid of your credit card balance much sooner or if you want to save some money on interest.
To learn of changes to your account
You can learn about a change to your credit limit, interest rate, or fees by looking at your credit card statement. Typically, a summary of the changes will appear on your credit card statement. But, you’ll miss that information if you never read through your entire statement.
To find the address for correspondence
Credit card issuers receive letters at a different place than they receive payments. So, if you need to mail your creditor a letter – perhaps to dispute credit report information or to close your account – make sure you send the letter to the correct address. Otherwise, your letter may not wind up in the right hands. Or, it could take longer to reach the right person. Some creditor letters, like billing error disputes, are time-sensitive so sending to the right place is imperative.
Set aside a time to read through your credit card statement, several days before your due date is best. Reading your billing statement puts you in control of your accounts.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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The Illinois Department of Agriculture is encouraging farmers to save their empty agrichemical containers. The department announced this week that it has arranged to recycle them.
Beginning in August, sites throughout the state will collect the containers and grind them into small plastic chips that will be used to make shipping pallets, fence posts, drainage tubing, plastic lumber and other useful products.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Leader Union, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
If you are new to the award winning Leader Union and wish to get a subscription or simply gain access to our online content then please enter your ZIP code below and continue to setup your account.
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<urn:uuid:9e71fe7f-4046-42f8-bf65-35ca6161b0fb>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.leaderunion.com/content/recycling-program-set-agrichemical-containers?mini=calendar-date%2F2012-12
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
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U.N. Finds Huge Solar and Wind Potential in Developing Countries
April 27, 2005
Thirteen developing countries hold the potential for thousands of megawatts (MW) of solar and wind power, according to the preliminary results of a study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The UNEP announced in mid-April that its Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA) project has found the potential for 26,000 MW of wind power in Sri Lanka, as well as 7,000 MW of potential wind power in Guatemala and 2,000 MW of potential wind power along Ghana's border with Togo. The project has also carried out studies in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Cuba, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Kenya, Nepal, and Nicaragua. The $9.3-million project, largely supported by the Global Environment Facility, started in 2001.
One specific result of the project was the finding of significant wind power potential in Nicaragua, prompting the Nicaraguan National Assembly to pass a decree that gives wind-generated electricity priority over other options when fed into electricity grids. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency and Inter-American Development Bank have subsequently launched wind energy feasibility studies in Nicaragua, and two wind projects totaling 40 MW are now moving ahead. See the UNEP press release and the SWERA Web site.
DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is contributing to the project, which uses satellite data, ground-based instruments, and computer models to assess wind and solar energy resources in the 13 countries. Results from six of the countries are available on the NREL Web site.
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<urn:uuid:7094188e-9880-41ca-bf4d-c00558fce7cd>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/sunshot/news_detail.html?news_id=9017
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|
en
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WHEREAS, Years of research confirm biblical warnings that alcohol use leads to physical, mental, and emotional damage (e.g., Proverbs 23:29-35); and
WHEREAS, Alcohol use has led to countless injuries and deaths on our nation's highways; and
WHEREAS, The breakup of families and homes can be directly and indirectly attributed to alcohol use by one or more members of a family; and
WHEREAS, The use of alcohol as a recreational beverage has been shown to lead individuals down a path of addiction to alcohol and toward the use of other kinds of drugs, both legal and illegal; and
WHEREAS, There are some religious leaders who are now advocating the consumption of alcoholic beverages based on a misinterpretation of the doctrine of "our freedom in Christ"; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, June 13-14, 2006, express our total opposition to the manufacturing, advertising, distributing, and consuming of alcoholic beverages; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we urge that no one be elected to serve as a trustee or member of any entity or committee of the Southern Baptist Convention that is a user of alcoholic beverages.
RESOLVED, That we urge Southern Baptists to take an active role in supporting legislation that is intended to curb alcohol use in our communities and nation; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we urge Southern Baptists to be actively involved in educating students and adults concerning the destructive nature of alcoholic beverages; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we commend organizations and ministries that treat alcohol-related problems from a biblical perspective and promote abstinence and encourage local churches to begin and/or support such biblically-based ministries.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://sbc.net/resolutions/amResolution.asp?ID=1156
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Lawmakers from the White House to Capitol Hill to the Western Plains agree that the fast-approaching, $85 billion in cuts to the federal budget jeopardize everything from combat readiness to pre-K programs. But they also express little optimism about a deal to avert the reductions before they kick in Friday.
All of them made their case over the weekend for President Obama along with congressional Democrats and Republicans to reach a budget deal to avert the cuts -- known as sequester. However, both parties accused each other of extending the stalemate.
“It will kick in,” Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn told “Fox News Sunday.” "The reason there is no agreement is because there's no leadership from the president on actually recognizing what the problem is."
He was joined on Fox by Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, who agreed the cuts would occur -- “unless the Republicans are willing to compromise and do a balanced approach.”
Congress agreed to the massive, across-the-board cuts in 2011 after failing to reach a deal on more measured reductions.
Should no deal be reached, the government will be forced to make drastic cuts with hardly any leeway to save some programs.
This would lead to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of workers at such agencies as the Transportation and Defense departments and would impact such parts of the everyday American life as commercial air travel and federal meat inspections.
President Obama during this weekend's weekly address said congressional Republicans could easily stop the cuts by agreeing to close tax loopholes that protect the wealthiest Americans.
“Unfortunately, it appears that Republicans in Congress have decided that instead of compromising -- instead of asking anything of the wealthiest Americans-- they would rather let these cuts fall squarely on the middle class.”
Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley called the cuts “senseless.”
"And it's a damn shame because we've actually had the fastest rate of jobs recovery of any state in our region,” he said Saturday during the winter meeting of the National Governors Association.
House Republicans have said reduced spending needs to be the focus and have rejected the president's demand to include higher taxes as part of a compromise. They say legislation passed in early January already raises taxes on the wealthiest Americans to generate an estimated $600 billion for the Treasury over a decade.
Some governors said the budget impasse was just the latest crisis in Washington that is keeping businesses from hiring and undermining the ability of governors to develop state spending plans.
"I've not given up hope, but we're going to be prepared for whatever comes," said Nevada's Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval said Saturday. "There will be consequences for our state."
Several Cabinet secretaries also went on the Sunday television talk shows to warn of the approaching economic fallout.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said 70,000 fewer children from low-income families would have access to pre-kindergarten Head Start early education programs. Furloughed meat inspectors could leave plants idled.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned that travelers could face delays because the Federal Aviation Administration is in line for $600 million in spending cuts.
He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Transportation Department would not compromise safety but acknowledged air traffic controllers could be furloughed.
Top Republicans on Senate and House transportation and aviation panels accused the administration of raising an unnecessary alarm.
"Before jumping to the conclusion that furloughs must be implemented, the administration and the agency need to sharpen their pencils and consider all the options," the lawmakers said in a joint statement.
The cuts would trim from domestic and defense spending alike.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces. He said the "vast majority" of the Defense Department's 800,000 civilian workers would have to lose one day of work per week, or 20 percent of their pay, for up to 22 weeks, probably starting in late April.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, called those defense cuts "unconscionable" and urged Obama to call lawmakers to the White House or the presidential retreat of Camp David for a last-minute budget summit.
"I won't put all the blame all on the president of the United States,” he said. “But the president leads. The president should be calling us over somewhere -- Camp David, the White House, somewhere -- and us sitting down and trying to avert these cuts."
LaHood also urged his colleagues to watch "Lincoln," Steven Spielberg's film about President Abraham Lincoln's political skills.
"Everybody around here ought to go take a look at the 'Lincoln' movie, where they did very hard things by working together, talking together and compromising," he said. "That's what's needed here."
But there are few signs of urgency among congressional leaders, who have recently indicated their willingness to let the cuts take effect and stay in place for weeks, if not much longer.
The sequester cuts, with few exceptions, are designed to hit all accounts equally. The law gives Obama little leeway to ease the pain. Even if granted flexibility to apply the cuts with more discretion -- a legislative step Republicans said Sunday they might pursue -- White House officials say that would still require severe reductions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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|
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Beyonce - Inspiration behind Beyonce's name revealed15 February 2013
Beyonce's mother Tina Knowles gave her daughter her name to keep her own family name alive.
Inspiration behind Beyonce's name revealed
Beyonce was given her name by her mother to save her own father's legacy.
The singer's got her unusual moniker because her mother Tina Knowles was worried her own pre-married family name Beyince would die out because they weren't many boys to carry on her dad's surname.
Speaking at the premiere of the 'If I Were A Boy' hitmaker's new HBO documentary 'Life Is But A Dream', Beyonce's maternal uncle Roland Beyince said: ''My sister Tina didn't think we had enough boys in the family to keep the [Beyince] name going, so she gave Beyonce our last name as the first name.''
The premiere took place at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York on Tuesday (12.02.13) and was attended by Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z as well as a host of stars including Oprah Winfrey, Chris Rock and Russell Simmons.
The 31-year-old R&B superstar admitted she hopes the tell-all film will inspire her and Jay-Z's 13-month-old daughter Blue Ivy Carter. Beyonce said: ''I hope that she will see all of the beautiful times [and] all the tough times that led up to her being here. I'm hoping that ... it can comfort her and inspire her in her life when she needs it.''
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This is a picture of the sun taken in visible light by the Big Bear Solar Observatory last summer. Take a good long look. You might as well take advantage of this opportunity, because you cannot look directly at the sun in real life without hurting your eyes very badly.
It looks just like you thought it would doesn't it. Except for those two dark spots right near the middle. Those are sunspots.
The sun was very quiet when this picture was taken. At times there are a lot more sunspots on the surface.
Sunspots are places on the sun where solar "storms" may be developing. Solar "storms" are not storms as you know them. They are places where energy is being stored and may be released explosively.
These sunspots don't look very impressive. But wait until you see them in other types of light.
The two buttons below show the sun on the same day as the picture you have already seen. The first button is a picture of the sun in a type of red light called Hydrogen-Alpha. In this light sunspots can be seen very clearly. The second button is a picture of the sun in xrays. This is light far beyond purple. It is given off by very hot gases high above the visible surface of the sun. In this light, the very hot gases above the sunspots glow brightly.
All of these types of light help scientists understand things that happen on the sun.
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<urn:uuid:09e47b2b-dee7-4fdc-9c30-259e2516b1b2>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.windows2universe.org/cool_stuff/Exploratour_1p10.html&edu=elem
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|
en
| 0.971112
| 301
| 3.25
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|
It was both the first Frankenstein movie and it's parent studio's film shot in color, and the first horror movie with mature content. The movie that made England's Hammer Films internationally famous, 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein is a well crafted thriller whose cast and director manage to overcome a so-so script by Jimmy Sangster.
In a prison cell awaiting execution, a deparate man tells his tale to a priest. Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) devotes his life to discovering the method of restoring life back to the dead. With the help of former tutor Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart), Frankenstein succeeds in bringing a dog back to life. But the Baron has bigger ambitions. He wants to create life itself, using (as in the Mary Shelley novel) the parts of dead bodies to literally build a new being. Resorting to grave robbing and charnel house shopping, Frankenstein, despite Paul's protests, creates a creature (Christopher Lee) whose donated brain is, sad to say (for Frankenstein, not the audience) damaged. Murder and deception quickly follow.
As writer Bill Warren and others have noted, The Curse of Frankenstein was released at a time when the glut of low-budget science fiction films, mostly shot in black and white, were waning. Horror, thanks in part to the old Universal film versions of Frankenstein and Dracula now being shown on TV, was making a comeback. Hammer Films not only reintroduced the horror film genre to new fans at this time, but they ramped up the thrills by shooting in bright, eye popping color and by taking a more adult attitude only previously hinted at before by other films. Such an attitude is seen by Frankenstein's caddish treatment of his maid with whom he has an affair with (which also introduced a more mature take on sex in this genre) while engaged to his cousin Elizabeth (the gorgeous Hazel Court) and his blase attitude when collecting the needed body parts to complete his creature.
And let's not forget the gore. When Frankenstein's creature is shot in the eye, the audience at the time this film came out must've freaked!
Director Terrence Fisher keeps things brimming along at a rapid pace. He also manages to overlook various holes in Jimmy Sangster's less-than-average screenplay. (One big goof: we never actually see the creature kill anyone. Sure, he comes towards his victims, but then the scene fades to black. That's what we call a cheat!) The performances by Urquhart, Court and Lee (who, with no dialogue and ugly makeup, succeeds in creating a memorable character by miming and subtle body language) are fine, but it's Peter Cushing's Frankenstein that gets the audience's attention. With that mad gleam in his eye when unwrapping a pair of hands he just happened to acquire, or wiping blood off his hands onto his fancy jacket, Cushing is spellbinding. Despite the horrible acts he performs, the audience can't help but be on Frankenstein's side!
You can reserve the film online from us here.
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<urn:uuid:b48cdd88-5cc3-4dba-b07e-c1c313895250>
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http://www.greenwichlibrary.org/blog/eds_blog/2010/10/the-curse-of-frankenstein-1957.html
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en
| 0.962609
| 623
| 1.648438
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|
What not to do to a cars painted finish
There are do’s and dont’s.
Preserving a finish requires different approach than restoring one.
The mentality of a person focused on preservation is quite the opposite of one who’s focus is to restore.
Preservationist understand the necessity of restoration products and their place.
They won’t care one way or the other that you wax your car, They understand some people need wax, Their paint is so bruised from past waxing, polishing and claying, it needs wax like a old woman needs makeup.
There is an understanding Preservationist have that makes it easy to determine when a product is designed to restore a finish and when one is designed to preserve one.
For example water will help preserve a finish polish will help restore a finish.
On the other hand people who use restoration products on everything don’t seem to have a clue.
They do not understand the concept of preserving the cars finish, They want to “fix it”, make it better.
This mentality allows no room for growth, they think the finish on a brand new car should be treated like the finish on a car 10 years old.
The fact is a car that is 10 years old can benefit from both, restoration and preservation depending on its condition. A factory new paint job cannot benefit from restoration, there is nothing to restore. Yet when a person’s focus is so single minded he somehow misses that point.
Preserving the factory finish on your new car is an art, It’s a discipline that some of us have down to a science. There are the basics that will serve you well if you stick to them.
To begin with friction is your enemy, no matter what guise it comes in. Friction is the kiss of death to acrylic paint.
You want to avoid any unnecessary friction on your finish. Its only so much rubbing anything can take before it begins to wear away, paint is no different. The first thing is looses is its factory gloss.
Friction comes in many ways and forms.
Most of us are aware of the dangers of tight spaced parking lots, and shopping carts. Many of us will go to extremes to avoid the possibility of accidental friction. This includes parking across two parking spaces and parking at the end of the lot.
While these tactics help they are not fool proof. Fools will find you and park as close to you as they can, why? In short….they are fools. All the fool sees is a good parking spot next to your car.
The same fool will use your car as a stand to sit grocery bags while they fiddle around for their keys. It’s all ready understood that they will bang their door into the side of your car several times before they are finish.
The same fool will then let his cart roll into another parked car as they exit.
Next on the list of things to avoid are situations with friends, where parked cars stand in for benches, tables and walls. Usually there is always one individual who has keys or some other paint damaging or metal item attached to their clothes.
Most of purest know to avoid automatic carwashes. That could change over time with the newer brushless carwashes that have become more attractive because friction is reduced significantly.
As the car goes through the wash it passes through hanging felt like layers assisted with high pressure jet streams of water. Cleaning soaps and wax are applied as well. This process is followed up by detail men that will dry the car and dress the tires. Not as brutal as the carwashes of old but the stigma associated with those old hard roller brushes still stays on.
Hand washing is by far the best way to protect your finish. It involves the least amount of friction. It also allows for close surface inspections. This allows you the opportunity to catch any defects from aging or road wear early.
The most common destructive friction is intentionally applied for the purpose of improving external esthetics.
1. Dry wiping. Dusting a car that was washed the previous day with a damp towel is fine, dry wiping a car that has a couple of days layers of dirt on it is damaging.
2. Washing a car from the bottom up is damaging. Cleaning from the bottom up is damaging because most of the dirt and grit will collect at the bottom of the car, This grit will cut into the paint as it is pulled up toward the top of the car. You should always wash from the top down.
3. Using a bucket without a hose. Dirt and grit will collect in the bucket and will be spread across the paint. You need a hose to keep the water in the bucket clean and the soap from drying on the car.
4. Drying from the bottom up. Drying should also begin at the top and work to the bottom, this avoids pulling the inevitable dirt and grit you missed across the top of the car. Turning and folding the towel helps keep the application surface clean.
5. Dirty towels. Don’t just grab anything and go to wiping on your car. The towels you use for your car should be protected and kept clean, a dirty towel with either grit or harden wax can leave bruise marks on a paint job. These things all have a cumulative effect so you may not realize you are dulling your paint while doing any of the don’ts above. However it’s inevitable you will see the damage and when you do, you will know how it happened.
6. Don’t put anything on your paint that you will be forced to take off. In a word “WAX”. Applying and removing wax is a source of friction that over time becomes redundant and damaging.
These tips will help you keep your paint looking it’s best longer and make your car more enjoyable to drive.
Posted: November 8th, 2010 under Alien Intelligence.
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A new O’Reilly/PayPal report on web-native payment platforms, “ePayments: Emerging Platforms, Embracing Mobile and Confronting Identity,” is now available for download.
Among the topics covered in the report are the rise of payment platforms, the mobilization of money, and the advent of contactless payment in mobile commerce. This excerpt looks at the role big data is beginning to play in fraud detection for these services, and the new opportunities that development brings. Additional excerpts will be featured here on Radar throughout the week.
Web-native payment platforms have a tremendous challenge combating fraud — greater in complexity than that faced by traditional payment processors. But the solutions they have devised to deal with it have created some enormous new opportunities.
First, the problem: payment platforms have to process orders from many more sources than do credit card companies. “Traditional processors have to deal with tens of thousands of sources of fraud at each individual point-of-sale or merchant site,” said Matthew Mengerink, VP of Platform at PayPal. “PayPal has to be able to identify potential sources of fraud from the almost 90 million browsers and mobile phones that are constantly connecting to our payment processing services. We’re dealing with a much larger challenge, and we’ve designed systems to identify and manage fraudulent activity often before it has started.”
PayPal, Amazon, and Google have all developed sophisticated analytical tools and infrastructure to identify patterns of fraudulent activity. Paypal, for example, has a series of Fraud Management Filters that screen payments and sort out transactions that warrant review because of their amount, their origin, or other factors that can be set by a merchant. But the opportunity to identify fraud reaches far beyond this virtual point of sale. PayPal and Amazon have developed fraud detection tools that depend on massive datasets containing not only financial details for transactions, but IP addresses, browser information, and other technical data that will help these companies refine models to predict, identify, and prevent fraudulent activity. PayPal and Amazon have had years to amass databases of the transaction details for hundreds of millions of customers across thousands of merchants.
These tools vastly improve on the periodic, offline analysis that has been the norm. Institutions traditionally sampled existed data and ran nightly or weekly analyses using fraud-detection models. The newer approaches perform continuous, real-time analysis on large datasets, applying some of the lessons that Google and others have learned for indexing the web to the problem of calculating the risk of fraud for individual consumers or merchants. There’s a swarm of activity around a new crop of “big data” tools like Hadoop, MapReduce, and BigTable that can deal with huge amounts of data. The fraud question is a large driver of all this activity.
“Sampling is dead,” said Abhishek Mehta, a big data lead at a large U.S. bank institution. “When banks stored petabytes of information on magnetic tape, it was impossible for them to develop appropriate models to measure risk without resorting to sampling techniques. Today we can run analysis on upwards of 50 petabytes of data to more accurately calculate risk. Technologies such as Hadoop allow us to do things that were previously impossible.”
Mitigating risk is just one use for all this data. With everything that payment platforms know about their customers — transactions, searches, messages, likes and dislikes — they can increasingly use this information to devise sophisticated advertising models or predictive analytics for selling products and services. Privacy advocates might be alarmed, but the payment providers are just continuing a model pioneered by financial institutions decades ago for identifying consumer preferences and identifying fraud risks. The emergence of tools for processing big data creates new opportunities for payment platforms and vendors to get better at what they already do.
A payment system built on top of systems that facilitate real-time analytics creates some interesting possibilities. Consider the architecture of a modern advertising network like Google’s DoubleClick. DoubleClick and other ad networks have refined real-time auctions that deliver targeted ads to users in milliseconds. When a request for an ad comes in from a browser, it’s quickly passed to one or more advertisers, each of whom has between 10-20 milliseconds to match that user to a profile and assign a potential value to its bid. The high bidder gets to place its ad — and it all happens in under a second. These interactions are happening with every click, generating a massive amount of real-time modeling and calculations that drive an efficient market for advertising.
Imagine a similar system for electronic payments in which a payment platform offers potential transactions to competing credit issuers. As you browse an e-commerce site, your browsing history and the item you’re considering come together to create a risk profile. The site or payment platform may offer that profile and the details of the transaction to a handful of competing lenders so that at checkout you receive several offers for financing from different banks. If you have previously chosen to pay automatically with the most advantageous offer, the site could automatically select the credit source offering the best terms. From your perspective, your funding sources and credit card don’t have a fixed APR; the rate is variable and can change depending on your evolving real-time risk and the risk of the merchant.
Real-time analysis like this was, until recently, an impossible idea. But the innovations of ad networks like DoubleClick and Google AdSense have shown their potential and created an efficient market for advertising. A real-time approach to analytics in payment will undoubtedly lead to a wave of innovation among merchants and banks at the point of sale.
Excerpts from “ePayments: Emerging Platforms, Embracing Mobile and Confronting Identity” will be published throughout the week. You can download the full report here.
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Getting to grips with Callisto
Inside the Eclipse release
It is interesting to see how Eclipse is becoming the tool platform for languages beyond Java. ";Eclipse has never been about Java," says Milinkovich. "We happen to implement in Java, but we have always been interested in developing tooling for as many languages and as many platforms as we can find interested parties willing to lead projects. C and C++ have been very successful for us. Having first-class support for PHP from Eclipse is also very important for the Eclipse community."
It is an easy decision for vendors like Adobe or Zend, or for open source communities looking for an IDE for up-and-coming languages like Ruby. If you set out to build an IDE, a lot of the work is in the infrastructure and plumbing. Eclipse gives you that free; and across multiple platforms.
Best on Windows?
The Eclipse platform is built using the Standard Widget Toolkit, which wraps native platform widgets in a cross-platform Java API. The idea of SWT is to provide excellent platform fidelity; but in consequence, there are more differences between platforms.
Is Eclipse best on Windows, acceptable on the Mac, and below par on Linux? "On the Mac in particular, I've been told that Eclipse running on the new Intel Macs are showing a major performance improvement," says Milinkovich. "On the Linux side, there have been some committers on Eclipse that have contributed back to GTK in the past to try to help with performance, but Eclipse is a very complex user interface and we're really straining the bounds of what GTK is capable of.
"I've talked to the SWT team about this several times and they really do feel that they've done everything they can do in SWT to make the performance better on Linux. Now there are some things coming in Cairo [a vector-based cross-platform graphics library] which are improving the situation on Linux as well. For example, getting printing working properly."
"The fact of the matter is, right now Win32 is probably the most finely-tuned GUI platform out there," he continues. "That's just a statement of fact. They've been at it a long time and they've got enormous resources, so they're fast."
These are contentious remarks, but in truth, one of the design goals of Eclipse was to compete effectively with Microsoft's Visual Studio. When Eclipse was formed five years ago, it was felt that this could not be done with Swing, the native Java GUI framework. That argument is now hard to sustain, but goes some way to explain why Eclipse is a good Windows citizen. Still, as Milinkovich notes: "There are a lot of Eclipse users on Linux and the Mac that are very happy with the performance."
IBM in disguise?
Eclipse was formed in 2001, when IBM open sourced a large part of its code for the Websphere Studio Java IDE. Eclipse could not have happened without IBM, but its large presence has raised suspicions among its competitors.
Borland's former CEO, Dale Fuller, assured me back in 2003 that Eclipse was full of "little booby traps" which direct you towards Websphere. Since then Borland has reversed its attitude, and the forthcoming JBuilder is built on Eclipse, but suspicions remain. so, I asked Milinkovich whether Eclipse is dominated by IBM.
"The governance of Eclipse, in terms of the board of directors, the Eclipse Foundation, the byelaws, and so on, are completely open and level." he replied. "IBM does not have any special vote or any veto power within the Eclipse foundation. When the Eclipse foundation was set up, IBM agreed that all of the votes from all of the committers who work for a particular company collapse into one vote. In other words, an individual committer member at Eclipse has as much of a vote for the board representation of the committer community as all of the committers from IBM combined. So I think IBM went way beyond the call of duty when they agreed to the governance model at Eclipse."
"The other side is that they are clearly the largest patron of Eclipse, and are investing the most in terms of resources. Frankly, I think that's a good thing. I'm never going to turn away a project proposal from IBM just because it comes from IBM. But we have seen over the last two years a significant drop in the proportion that IBM represents at Eclipse in terms of the committer population. They've dropped from somewhere around 80 per cent in 2004 to just below 50 per cent now. We're doing that by growing the number of projects and committers at Eclipse, not by turning away good ideas or good people from IBM."
Committers are those who have write access to the Eclipse code repositories. To become a committer you have to be elected by existing committers on a project. That is the only requirement, so committers can be individuals or from companies which are not Eclipse members. Milinkovich estimates that "15 per cent of our committer population are individuals".
Next page: Hands on with Eclipse
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White-tailed kite makes rare appearance in northeast Kansas
The white-tailed kite is rarely seen around these parts.
Biology experts are unsure how the adult bird ended up north of Lawrence in the last week. It's only the third documented sighting in Kansas.
¢ To get to a public viewing area of the white-tailed kite, take U.S. Highway 24-40 east from North Lawrence and turn left on East 1600 Road.
¢ Proceed about a mile and follow the jog and drive over Mud Creek. Take a left to continue on East 1600.
¢ Follow the road for about three miles, through twists and turns until you see the entrance to the Nelson Environmental Study Area is on the right at 350 Wild Horse Road. The Nelson is not open to the public.
¢ Continue north for about 3/8 of a mile. At a sharp bend in the road, pull off next to a pipe gate. Scan the fields to the north and east for the bird.
"A lot of bird watchers are coming from out of town to try to see it because it's such a rare sight," said Galen Pittman, station manager for the Kansas Biological Survey.
He first noticed the kite about 1 1/2 weeks ago, and since then people have popped in from as far away as Wichita, Hays and Columbia, Mo., to catch a glimpse of the kite. Word traveled quickly after Pittman and other enthusiasts shared news of their sighting with those on an e-mail subscriber list.
The bird has hung around the Nelson Environmental Study Area, administered by the Kansas Biological Survey, north of Lawrence in Jefferson County off Wild Horse Road.
The white bird of prey has spent its time soaring and coasting in the sky and looking for field mice in prairie grass.
"If there's enough wind blowing, it will actually hang in the air like a kite," Pittman said.
When it finds prey, the bird holds its wings steeper and swoops down to snatch up the mouse.
The bird species typically resides in California and southern Texas with other sightings in Arizona, Florida and New Mexico. Mostly, the kites live in Central and South America.
"There's a lot of serious birders who have come out," Pittman said. "Otherwise, it might take them years to see it because it's so rare."
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- Posted By: Surendra Dara
- Written by: Surendra Dara
Brown marmorated stink bug adult male (Photo by: Surendra Dara, UCCE and Rodney Cooper, USDA-ARS)
Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), Halyomorpha halys Stål was recently found in San Luis Obispo County in an incoming shipment of household items from Pennsylvania, where it is considered as a serious pest. Ag Commissioner’s office took immediate action to eradicate this intruder by physical removal and chemical treatments. In light of this, here is a brief note on this invasive pest.
Origin and distribution: BMSB is native to Asia and is considered as an important pest in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. It was first reported in Pennsylvania in late 90s and is now reported in a majority of the states in the US. However, reproducing populations may not be present in all the states it was found. In California, Los Angeles County is the only place where populations of BMSB are known to exist.
Host range: It has a wide host range that includes about 300 species according to a report. It feeds on a variety of hosts that include fruit trees, broadleaved trees, vegetables, field crops, and ornamental plants. It is also a nuisance to homeowners as it looks for hiding locations in or around the houses to overwinter.
Depressions on the fruit surface normally result from late season feeding damage of BMSB (above). Corking injury due to the necrosis of damaged tissue (below). (Photos by Chris Bergh, Virginia Tech)
Damage: BMSB has piercing and sucking mouthparts with which it sucks plant juices from fruits, pods, or other parts and causes malformation, discoloration or cloudy spots, depressed areas, and wart-like growth depending on the plant or damaged part. Small dark spots also develop as a result of puncturing by its mouthparts and these areas can harbor secondary infections. BMSB is also known to transmit witches’ broom, a phytoplasma disease in princess tree (Paulownia tomentosa) in Japan, but such disease transmission has not been reported in the US.
Characteristic features that help distinguish the brown marmorated stink bug from other stink bugs
(Photo by: Surendra Dara, UCCE and Rodney Cooper, USDA-ARS)
Biology: BMSB belongs to the stink bug family Pentatomidae in the order Hemiptera. It is a shield shaped bug which emits pungent odor when disturbed. Adults are 12-17 mm long with mottled brown body. Last two antennal segments have alternating light and dark bands which appear as a single white band. This is a characteristic feature of this species. Exposed margins of the abdomen (not covered by the wings) have alternating brown and white bands. White bands are also seen on legs. Eggs are spherical to barrel-shaped, white to pale green and deposited each week in clusters of 20-30 on the underside of leaves. Female can lay 250-400 in its life time. There are 5 nymphal instars which range in size from 2.4 to 12 mm. First instar nymphs are reddish orange and second instars are black. Later instars develop brown coloration. Depending on temperature, egg stage lasts for 4-5 days and each nymphal instar for a week. Adults reach sexual maturity in two weeks.
Adults mate in spring and females continue egg laying for the next few months. Adults gather in large numbers in fall in search of overwintering places. In warmer regions of China, BMSB has multiple generations per year. In the US, it was initially thought to have a single generation, but recent reports indicate more than one generation per year.
Management: Hand removal or vacuuming is the best way to remove BMSB in or around homes. Mechanical exclusion by sealing the cracks and crevices that serve as hiding locations, and using screens for doors and windows is also important. Various insecticides are available for managing this insect in other situations. In laboratory bioassays, pyrethroid insecticides (especially bifenthrin) were more effective compared to neonicotinoids and an organophosphate compound. Males were less susceptible than the females to thiomethoxam (neonicotinoid). There are no known natural enemies in the US, but an egg parasitoid [Trissolcus halymorphae Yang (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae)] is found to be very effective in China.
What to do: It is important to note that care must be taken to exclude pests in packages while moving from other areas. If you notice BMSB in your surroundings, bring it to the attention of the Ag Commissioner or contact me at firstname.lastname@example.org or 805-781-5940.
Bernon, G. K., M. Bernhard, E. R. Hoebeke, M. E. Carter and L. Beanland. 2004. Halyomorpha halys, (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), the brown marmorated stink bug; Are trees the primary host for this new invasive pest? GTR-NE-332. Proc. XV USDA Interagency Res. Forum on Gypsy Moth and Other Invasive Species 2004
Jones, J. R. and P. L. Lambdin. 2009. New county and state Records for Tennessee of an exotic pest, Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), with potential economic and ecological implications. Florida Entomologist 92: 177-178.
Nielsen A. L, P. W. Shearer, G. C. Hamilton. 2008. Toxicity of insecticides to Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) using glass-vial bioassays. J. Economic Entomol. 101: 1439-1442.
Yang Z., Y. Yao, L. Oiu , Z. Li. 2009. A new species of Trissoltus (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) parasitizing eggs of Halyomorpha halys (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) in China with comments on its biology. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 102: 39-47.
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To achieve these objectives, Natural Vitality operates in two ways: First, we produce high-quality award-winning dietary supplements to assist individuals in achieving optimum health. And second, a percentage of product sales funds our Natural Revitalization environmental action initiative, a program that supports organic farming and environmental stewardship.
As part of this program, Natural Vitality works with groups such as Remineralize the Earth, the Center for Food Safety, and the Bionutrient Food Association, a nonprofit research, education, and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting and implementing natural ways to restore health and vitality to our soil and our food. Natural Vitality also helps educate consumers with a free award-winning online magazine, Organic Connections (www.organicconnectmag.com).
Natural Vitality believes that agriculture focused on quality, rather than quantity, is critical to our health. For our dietary supplements, we seek out organic whole-food ingredients wherever possible. All the fruits and vegetables we use are organically grown. The agave, stevia, and fruit flavorings are organic as well. This not only assures customers of no pesticide residues and no GMO ingredients but also provides financial support to organic farming.
Additionally, Natural Vitality products often contain patented forms of supplement ingredients. These are standardized for consistent potency and many are backed by clinical research. In every product, ingredients—including ones that play an auxiliary role—are incorporated in amounts that provide an optimum, noticeable benefit.
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In Dubai, the State of The World is in Dispute
|9:49:52 AM, Sunday, January 30, 2011|
“A cluster of 300 artificial islands off Dubai's coast in the shape of a global map is stable, its developer Nakheel insists, despite a court claim alleging that "The World" was neglected and eroding away.
"There is no issue with the stability of The World islands that are approximately 70 percent sold and handed over," a Nakheel spokesman said when asked about the allegations.
"The island purchasers (have) the responsibility to proceed with their developments in due course," he added.
The islands, many of which represent individual countries and which can only be accessed by boat or helicopter, were meant to be one of the Gulf city-state's crowning developments.
Builders have announced plans for a few of the islands, but development has yet to begin on most of them.
A company contracted to provide logistics support to the islands filed a claim with a tribunal that handles cases related to the emirate's troubled Dubai World conglomerate, alleging that third-party developers had not been encouraged to develop the islands, and said they were being hit by erosion…”
-- Who would have thought!?
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People are supposed to love other people (and perhaps, pets and local sports franchises). So why is it that consumers are …
“For her, transformation is about self-esteem and about buying stuff.”
“Flea markets proliferate a volume of goods needing to be sold and people who are hungry — emotionally and aesthetically — to sort out the meaning of life … For most people who go on these ritualized scavenger hunts looking for something that they may not know exists, it is a kind of pilgrims’ process through the detritus of the past.”
‘Tis the season to bring your clutter to the curb and offer it to the masses for free. It’s also the time of year to dust off your two-wheeler, pump up the tires, oil the chain, and—if it’s even in the realm of possibility—pedal your bicycle to work.
A new psychology study shows that people who feel loved and accepted by others place lower monetary values on material possessions than folks who feel insecure and unloved. In other words, the folks who don’t feel valued and appreciated tend to value their stuff more.
“The things we are trained to think make us happy, like having a new car every couple of years and buying the latest fashions, don’t make us happy.”
Four new books explore why consumers do what they do—even when they know it’s unhealthy, unsanitary, and/or obviously bad for their finances.
The result will be that instead of clutter, you’ll have space and a refreshing sense of Spartan simplicity—and you won’t have to look at all that stuff you never use, and probably should have never bought. And instead of money disappearing into the cash registers of retail centers all over your neck of the woods, you’ll have some money …
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Straight talk on Ethanol
Let me get something out there right off the bat. Ethanol will never totally satisfy America's appetite for fuel. It won't even come close. In fact, if it ever reached the 15-20% mark of our total fuel needs, then I would be completely surprised. The critics who bemoan ethanol don't have the mental capacity to see this. Instead of looking at the big picture, they would rather cry out loud that ethanol is a waste of resources for this reason or that.
The price of food is too high now... cause… ethanol.
Farmers are plowing up too much land.. cause.. ethanol.
Water aquifers are drying up.. cause.. ethanol.
None of these excuses hold much merit. First off, the left over material from the corn that is used to make ethanol with is eventually resold as feed. Most responsible farmers rotate their crops every year and very rarely plow up additional land mainly because there are many subsidies out there to apply for that keep them having to do that. Water aquifers have been in trouble for a long period of time and has nothing to do with increased production of corn but rather a misuse of irrigating practices and growing city populations.
Right now, America imports somewhere between 55-60% of its oil needs (a third of which comes from the volatile Middle East). This number has continued to grow since the early part of last century. For the first time we have a chance to stop this increasing number. The renewable fuels that are popping up everywhere are one sensible domestic answer that doesn't disrupt our comfortable lives too much.
Why pooh-pooh that? It doesn't make any sense. Sure, ethanol is not the total answer, especially corn ethanol. Even if we turned over all the farms in America to growing corn for ethanol, which is a ridiculous thought, and stopped exporting 20% of each years crop yields, we would still need to import almost 45% of our oil needs. There are better crops for ethanol like switch grass, which has the potential to yield almost eight times more fuel per acre than corn, but again, it's not a cure all... but it's a start and it is attracting a lot of smart people and entrepreneurs into the field.
And that is a good thing. Don't put it down. Embrace it. It's better than importing more oil from the Middle East. Anything is better than importing more oil from the Middle East even if it's not the cure all end product. Heck, we can import ethanol from friendlier places like Brazil. Also, did you know that the big oil companies had profits of over $135 billion this past fiscal year? At any rate, there has to be a process by which we move from one antiquated fuel to another future fuel. Ethanol and other renewable fuels is that process.
Where it leads only time will tell.
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I Never Had to Write “Too Wordy” on Any of This Kid’s Essays
We were watching The Kite Runner when one kid wondered aloud why the hot Afghani-American chick would be so “pressed” about a guy who writes for a living. Tino, doing his best Roger Ebert, summed up her motivation thusly: “Dude, he’s a poet … and bitches love words.”
I asked this same kid, a terrific soccer player and all-around athlete, why he chose tennis over lacrosse, the sport which would seem to be more suited to his exceptional athleticism. His not-quite-ready-for-ESPN-response? “Duh. ‘Cause tennis is a co-ed sport, and I like vagina.” Advantage, Tino.
As Judges Smailes So Wisely Put It in Caddyshack, “The World Needs Ditch-diggers, too!”
I saw one of my students coming out of the library after completing the ASVAB, a test that predicts whether a kid has a shot at making it in the military. It’s no piece of cake, but any kid with a solid grasp of standard communication skills can ace it.
This girl, however, when it comes to the English language, has sub-standard skills.
I asked her with great enthusiasm, “Hey, Jaz! You going into the military?” She replied with much less enthusiasm, “Well, I wuz. But I don’t know now … they was askin’ questions about ‘godges’ and shit like that. I don’t know what no ‘godge’ is. Looks like Job Corps for me!”
Do you know what a ‘godge” is? Neither do I. But I do know what a “gauge” is, which is what this senior was referring to. I guess she won’t be reading any gauges or godges on a nuclear submarine.
There Are No Stupid Questions? Bullshit.
Kid reached into the tissue box on my desk, stopped in a panic and asked, “Are these clean?” Instead of just nodding, I figured I’d make him pay for such a stupid question. I said, “No! If there’s not too much snot on the used ones, I just fold them up and neatly tuck them back in there.” Note to self: If this kid believes in the concept of recycled tissues, never use the toilet paper at his house.
My Lunch Went Uneaten That Day
After being absent for a week, one of my senior females came up to me at my door and explained why she had been out. The excerpts from this conversation are below, and they are verbatim, for I jotted them down as soon as I was able to pry myself away from The Most Disgusting Sharing Session Ever.
“I thought I was getting my period because my panties were all bloody … I was like ‘What the fuck?”… I had really bad hemorrhoids … It looked like my intestines were coming out my ass … It looked like I was shitting out my own intestines … You don’t know true humiliation until a doctor is sticking his finger in your butthole with your mom in the room … I had to stick those, uh, what are the called … depositories? … up my ass … part of the problem is that I get constipated and can’t poop for two days.”
Anyone still want to begrudge a teacher his summer vacation? I’m using mine for post-traumatic image therapy.
Is This English Class or a Remaking of Caligula?
I overheard a black girl complain to her friend, “You know how ashy these things get!” I’m thinking she is referring to her arms, her legs, her hands … Nope. I look over and she has her hand shoved down her shirt, applying lotion to those ample, apparently ashy tits. This girl is built like Beyonce. I wanted to tell her that there ain’t a guy in the world who would be put off by any ash on those tits. But with my pension getting closer every year, I declined.
In another class, I heard a girl complain, “I can’t find my hole!” I looked up in alarm and met her eye to eye. I gave her a look of mock alarm. After she was finished laughing, she said, “No, I mean for my tongue ring!”
Oh, I knew she knew where the other hole was. She has one kid already and another on the way.
I Guess Grandma Can’t Wait for Adam Sandler In the Sidesplitting “Oh, That Wacky Sandusky!”
A girl in the small, special class was telling us about one of her more traumatic life experiences. “I was looking in this drawer and I found a picture of my dad naked and he was holding his thing and it was all hard.”
I asked, “What did you do?”
She said, quite sanely, “I cried! Then I showed it to my grandmother.”
Me: “Oh my god, and what did she do?”
Girl: “That crazy bitch just laughed! She thought it was hilarious.”
I Overheard the Following Random Lines While Standing Outside My Door Between Classes This Year
“I wish my dick was smaller.”
“But you don’t understand, I can’t afford anymore brain damage.”
“Oh yeah, baby! Turned 18 today! Gonna head down to the gas-o-leeeeeen station after school and buy some dirty mag-a-zeeeeeens!”
“Ew, you smell like masturbation!”
(Said to a chunky senior who used to be an obese freshman. His nickname is Chips, due to the fact that he used to devour them nonstop.) “Damn, Chips! In ninth grade you used to be a house! But you look good now. Now you just a trailer.”
“Headin’ to the strip club tonight, boyeeee! It’s my favorite night of the week there! Thick Thursday!”
“I think my dad is gay. I checked History on the computer last night and found gay porn sites, and we’re the only two who use the computer. I always thought he might be a fag.”
“If I can piss someone off and ruin at least a little part of their day, that’s reason enough for me to keep getting out of bed in the morning.” (This was from a teacher.)
And that’s another year’s wrap-up of all the fun provided by the students in a public high school. Next week’s final installment for this school year will involve some of the more absurd teacher moments.
Ned Bitters teaches high school and dreams of one day seeing one of his former students on stage at a strip club. You can contact him at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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Both Andrew Sullivan and Kevin Drum are wrong, but I think Drum is infuriatingly wrong.
They’re arguing over a statistic, the observation that about 46% of Americans believe the earth is 6000 years old and that a god created human beings complete and perfect as they are ex nihilo. Andrew Sullivan sees this as a consequence of the divisiveness of American politics, that they’re using it as a signifier for red vs. blue.
I’m not sure how many of the 46 percent actually believe the story of 10,000 years ago. Surely some of them know it’s less empirically supported than Bigfoot. My fear is that some of that 46 percent are giving that answer not as an empirical response, but as a cultural signifier. That means that some are more prepared to cling to untruth than concede a thing to libruls or atheists or blue America, or whatever the “other” is at any given point in time. I simply do not know how you construct a civil discourse indispensable to a functioning democracy with this vast a gulf between citizens in their basic understanding of the world.
Drum is quite right to point out that this is a bogus correlation: the US has been about evenly split on the issue for as long as we’ve been polling our citizens on it. There’s been a gradual drift to sharpen the distinction along political lines — a hundred years ago, the most likely proponents of creationism would have been liberal Democrats — but it’s largely because the Republican party has stepped in to embrace the demographic of ignorance and anti-intellectualism, becoming a kind of general know-nothing party. These differences have been here all along and are not a product of partisan politics; it’s just that one party had the brilliant idea of enthusiastically waving the flag of stupidity.
But Kevin Drum goes too far. He claims the fight over evolution isn’t actually all that important, and that the science doesn’t really matter.
The fact is that belief in evolution has virtually no real-life impact on anything. That’s why 46% of the country can safely choose not to believe it: their lack of belief has precisely zero effect on their lives. Sure, it’s a handy way of saying that they’re God-fearing Christians — a “cultural signifier,” as Andrew puts it — but our lives are jam-packed with cultural signifiers. This is just one of thousands, one whose importance probably barely cracks America’s top 100 list.
And the reason it doesn’t is that even creationists don’t take their own views seriously. How do I know this? Well, creationists like to fight over whether we should teach evolution in high school, but they never go much beyond that. Nobody wants to remove it from university biology departments. Nobody wants to shut down actual medical research that depends on the workings of evolution. In short, almost nobody wants to fight evolution except at the purely symbolic level of high school curricula, the one place where it barely matters in the first place. The dirty truth is that a 10th grade knowledge of evolution adds only slightly to a 10th grade understanding of biology.
Oh, great. That’s all we need — for both parties in our polarized political system to abandon science.
Drum is making a very stupid argument. Most Americans have trouble balancing a checkbook — ever witnessed a confused high school student try to make change at a fast-food restaurant — so what the heck do they need algebra for? Why even bother with basic arithmetic? Teach them how to use a calculator in first grade, bam-pow, math education is done.
How many Americans read a novel as adults? How many bother with magazines, even, short of looking at the pictures? You don’t even need to read to be able to navigate our highways — knowing symbols and names are enough. Teach kids the alphabet, show ‘em how to write their name and roughly recognize place names, and wham-bam-zowie, reading is done by second grade. Ship ‘em out into the workforce by third grade.
We’ll just let the eggheads take the advanced courses, like geometry and creative writing and literature.
Drum isn’t arguing anything that extreme, of course, but it’s a logical consequence of his reasoning: he doesn’t use biology, and he doesn’t think most Americans use much biology, therefore it’s a frippery that can be set aside.
Now, I think evolution should remain in high school texts anyway. Why? Because it’s true. Biology is a science, and evolution is one of the pillars of modern science. For me, that’s a cultural signifier every bit as much as a literal reading of the Bible is for 46% of the country. But you know what? I could spend an entire day arguing politics and economics and culture with a conservative and never so much as mention evolution. It’s just not that important, and it doesn’t tell us much of anything about our widening political polarization. We should keep up the fight, but at the same time we shouldn’t pretend it has an epic significance that it doesn’t. I’m not optimistic about anyone or anything “bringing the country together,” but not because lots of people choose to deny evolution. Frankly, that’s one of the least of our problems.
You know what? I could spend all day arguing science with a conservative (and I have!) and never once mention politics or economics or culture. Therefore, politics and economics and culture are unimportant.
Funny how that works.
The evolution statistic does have epic significance. If kids were graduating from high school unable to read or do basic arithmetic, we’d see that as a serious indictment of our educational system…and we’d be right to worry about our future as a technological society. That 46% of our citizens graduate with a complete denial of a most basic, fundamental fact about our world — that all of the sciences, not just biology, but physics, geology, chemistry, and astronomy concur that the planet is billions of years old — represents a massive failure of our educational system. In itself, it’s a small problem — it’s knowledge of one small detail. But as a symptom, it indicates a nation-wide problem.
I don’t just blame the schools, though: it’s not that they can’t teach a simple, fundamental fact. It’s that there is immense cultural push-back that opposes a scientific truth. If it were just an omission in the school curricula, it would be trivial to fix — but no, it’s a symptom of systemic rot in the whole body politic and a reflection of a crippling anti-intellectualism in this country. That’s what has epic significance.
It directly affects us in two ways.
One is that it’s nice to be able to American biology departments and medical research and say they’re doing fine, and it’s true that we have excellent opportunities for advanced research, but it’s our public schools that fill the pipeline leading to those places. Look in our research labs, and what will you see? Swarms of Chinese students. I have no objection to that, but think long term: most of those students will go home to build careers there, not here. Students who do not get the basics of science are handicapped when it comes to progressing up the academic ladder, so sure, let’s knee-cap our student base by telling them all that the most minimal, trivial understanding of an entire large discipline isn’t actually all that important. Where are our future American biologists going to come from, then?
Second, this is going to be the century of dependence on the sciences. Climate change is going to hit us all; environmental crises are going to rise up all over the place; we’re going to face shortages of energy and fresh water; emerging diseases will be a major concern; new biomedical technologies will cause cultural shocks; the whole world is going to change. Most people, I agree, will not be doing the research that leads to changes, and most of those problems will require political and social changes to correct, but how are you going to convince people to, for instance, change their fuel consumption habits when they’re in complete denial of the basic facts? How can you expect people to appreciate the importance of ecology and global interactions when you tell them that evolution doesn’t matter? How will you get them to make rational decisions to control pandemics when they can’t comprehend probability, epidemiology, and viral/bacterial evolution on even the most basic level?
Most importantly, though, this utilitarian attitude that all that matters is what people can directly use in their day-to-day life is a denial of the Enlightenment and principles on which our country was founded. It’s a rejection of the liberal ideal that human beings should be well-rounded and informed individuals — the informed citizenry that should be the foundation of a democracy. We can’t expect everyone to be biologists or poets or political scientists, but we should expect that one outcome of a public education is an appreciation of the breadth of human endeavor, and at least a smattering of the fundamentals of a wide range of subjects, sufficient that, to make it practical again, students can make informed career decisions and understand a basic argument from evidence from an expert. We lack that now. And to wave away a simple but essential starting fact about our existence as unimportant is deeply offensive.
I’ll leave you with the words of Thomas Jefferson, who understood deep down how important the principle is, even if he never heard a word about evolution.
I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness…Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [tyranny, oppression, etc.] and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.
Shorter Thomas Jefferson:
If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be.
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Trees and forests are integral to our American way of life. They give us shade and shelter, refuge and refreshment, clean air and water. From tree-lined neighborhood streets, to sun-dappled urban parks, to national parks blanketed in green, we count on them to be there for the next generation.
But today, many of America’s trees and forests are being destroyed by invasive insects and diseases. These invaders are removing entire species of trees from our forests and neighborhoods, threatening our air, water and way of life. With global trade, non-native organisms hitchhike their way into North America aboard wood packaging or nursery plants. The emerald ash borer has laid bare suburban streets in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, and now threatens Illinois and Wisconsin; a pathogen known as sudden oak death has killed more than 1 million trees in California. Such invaders will cost the United States potentially billions of dollars in prevention and eradication.
In the United States we are working to restore America’s forests through on-the-ground partnerships that benefit people, water, and wildlife. Existing laws can stop invading pests and diseases – but only if those laws are enforced. The Nature Conservancy has joined with other like-minded organizations to urge Congress to increase funding to combat destructive insects and diseases. Without adequate funding, the primary agency charged with protecting U.S. forests and agricultural plants can’t fulfill its mandate. The Conservancy has also made recommendations about how to improve existing regulations. As a nation, we must also create incentives to encourage industry to take action as well.
March 07, 2013
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Are There Any Instincts?
The Johns Hopkins University
THE conception of instinctive activities is a fairly definite one in general psychology, and we may without hesitation accept it as it is generally understood; namely, as designating any responses which have not been learned.
The conception of an instinct, or of instincts is however a very confused one, and recent texts show great vacillation in the application of the term. Some authors apply the term to what Warren in his recent classification lists as instincts, and also to what Warren lists as reflexes. Some authors restrict the term to groups of activities which are unconscious: others insist on consciousness as one of the specific differentia of "instinct," In most cases, it is assumed that "instinct" does not involve volition : but I do not think all authors would agree to this restriction. I refrain from introducing pertinent illustrations solely because I do not wish it supposed that I have more pointed objections to certain methods of treatment than I have to a great many others.
The greatest confusion of all results from the failure to distinguish between the instinct as a group of activities teleologically defined, and the instinct as a physiological group. It makes consider-able difference whether, for example, we consider the "feeding instinct," as made up of the activities which result in food being secured; or consider it as a certain physiological group of activities which we may name from its most characteristic result, but which is defined by its actual reaction characters, and in that way distinguished from other physiological groups.
The confusion may perhaps not be an important matter for general psychology in its present state of development. Certainly, the presence of the confusion in some general texts seems to have no particular bearing on the further work in these texts. In social psychology however, the term is capable of great abuse, and is decidedly dangerous unless applied in a carefully considered and standardized
( 308) way; and it is from the point of view of social psychology that I am here approaching the topic. I am not concerned for the present as to whether the "instinct," as defined, shall turn out to be conscious or unconscious; or whether if conscious, it is volitional or non-volitional: I am concerned simply with the question of the definition itself; whether it is to be teleological or physiological.
The term "instinct" might be applied consistently, as it is applied at times, to a certain definite group of muscular and glandular performances—a form of behavior, in one of the various meanings of the elusive term "behavior"—resulting from a definite stimulus or complex of stimuli. The concatenated movements of the muscles of the face, throat, and viscera, with attendant glandular changes, which make up the sucking reaction of the infant: or the disposition to make these movements upon certain stimuli : might very well be designated as "instinct," regardless of whether consciousness or volition is, involved, and quite apart from the fact that the reaction may be useful. That there are "instincts" in this physiological sense of the term, I suppose no one could deny: certainly I shall not deny it. But it is very difficult to adhere to this meaning of the term, if we may judge by the procedure of the various authors who deal with the topic, and I am very strongly convinced that it is not at present possible to secure agreement to confine the term to this meaning.
At any rate, I propose to join in the neglect of the physiological use of the term, and formulate the inquiry to ask whether there are "instincts" in the teleological sense—the sense in which the term is used in McDougall's Social Psychology.
In the teleological use of the term, as I have already indicated, the activities are grouped and classified in accordance with the results obtained in the outer world, physiological and psychological groupings being largely neglected, and where introduced, being always subsidiary to the teleological groupings. Thus; the "instinct of flight" includes all those activities which result in a get-away from a dangerous locality : the "instinct of repulsion," all those activities which re-move something from the animal's environment: the "instinct of curiosity" includes the activities leading to examination: "pugnacity"' includes the movements which eventuate in combat: the "parental instinct" is the sum of the activities which result in the care and protection of the child: the "instinct of reproduction" includes those activities which result in the propagation of the species: The "gregarious instinct" is the composite of activities which result in forming a herd and
( 309) holding it together, and so on through the list. (Of course I mean that the tendency to these activities constitute the "instincts," but the shorter expressions are not misleading).
This teleologic 1 grouping of activities under the concept of "instinct," so forcibly represented by McDougall, is apparently widely accepted, and so thoroughly fixed that there is little possibility of using the term in any other way. In discussing the question whether or not there is an "instinct,” as a usefully discriminable entity, we are therefore not denying the physiological grouping previously mentioned. Nor are we denying the possibility of a psychological grouping: such may be discoverable, although no one has so far made any serious search for it. New terms will have to be found for these groupings.
The grouping of activities into "instincts" may be admitted to be a useful procedure, if it be clearly understood to be a device of convenience only, similar to the arrangement of documents in a well ordered filing system. Just as there may be different filing systems for different purposes, so different classifications of "instincts" are useful, if they are not misunderstood as being anything more. We may classify "instincts" under two, four, twenty, or a thousand headings, according to the particular purposes we have in view, and may then use another classification for another purpose.
The constant tendency in social psychology is to consider these convenient groupings arbitrarily made, as if they were series of natural and generic distributions on the psychological level, and to deduce a set of important deductions from the classification adopted. Having posited a "pugnacious instinct," for example, one writer proceeds gravely to infer that war is forever a necessity, as the expression of this "instinct." Controversy over the hypothetical "moral instinct" is another illustration of confused procedure. As a matter of fact, ,there is or is not a "moral instinct," according to the plan of the author. If it is deemed useful to segregate, in the outer world, certain effects which are to be named "moral"—and this segregation can un-questionably be made--any unlearned tendencies which contribute to these effects, legitimately make up a "moral instinct." If the classification of effects as "moral" is not chosen, then of course there is, for the author choosing, no "moral instinct." Again; if it is advisable to distinguish between the mere process of copulation and the processes of conception and birth, there is an "amatory instinct," distinguishable from the "reproductive:" otherwise there is not.
The impossibility of considering the teleological classification of
( 310) "instincts" as more than a matter of convenience, is shown by the overlapping of the "instincts." Even the teleologists point out that "pugnacity" arises from other "instincts." As a matter of fact, there are very few actual responses of the animal which do not form part of a number of "instincts," whatever the system of classification. The same physiological activities, and in part the same conscious processes, are involved, in primitive man, in pursuing a deer for food, and in pursuing a female for amatory purposes. In other cases the same reactions may now be classed as mere "flight," now as manifestations of "gregariousness," now as manifestations of "self abasement." The same fears and perhaps the same desires may be involved in several cases.
I am sure that all the activities, physiological and psychological, of which the animal is capable, participate at some time or other in the expression of the "reproductive instinct." By taking the teleological "instinct" as if it were a psychological or physiological entity, the Freudians accordingly arrive at the grand conclusion that there is nothing in the animal world but "sex instinct." The reactions shown by a child may later be utilized by the "sex instinct." Hence, it is assumed that in its first appearance, the reaction is "sexual." In stating that serious results flow from the confusion of the teleological and the psychological points of view I am not theorizing, but referring to plain and deplorable matters of fact.
The present tendency to develop social psychology on the basis of a classification of "instincts" results in as many kinds of social psychology as there are classifications: and the possible number is legion. By assuming that some preferred classification represents an ultimate list of essentially different units, a psychologist is enabled to develop a system which is in reality nothing but a logical deduction from the assumptions made in the list adopted. Each system may be as logically perfect as any other. In the same way, Euclidean geometry, hyperbolic geometry, and parabolic geometry, each legitimate and exclusive of the other, are built up, each on its definite postulates. As. an illustration of this sort of construction in social psychology we may compare Trotter's Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War with McDougall's Social Psychology, and with the Freudian system. One might go further, and consider the less sharply drawn systems resulting from the assumption of moral and religious "instincts." If an "instinct to imitate" be assumed, still different systems result.
The consequences of carrying over to psychology the teleological
( 311) conception of "instincts" are much complicated by further assumptions concerning the role of consciousness, and of volition. We might examine the deplorable consequences of this complication in child psychology, where, if possible, the confusion is even worse than in social psychology: but it is better to deal with the more fundamental fallacy, and settle it in such a way as to abort the fallacies based upon it.
With teleology as t method, we need have no quarrel, and we should not lightly underestimate its importance. Perhaps it may be of far greater value than psychology. Perhaps there is no such a thing as social psychology. But if so, let us call the topic by some other name, and cease to delude ourselves into accepting it as psychology. Personally, I am inclined to favor the belief that a social psychology may be developed. In such a science, teleological methods may legitimately be employed, if properly labeled, just as physiological methods may be. One must however beware of a teleology masquerading as psychology, even though: it utilizes a great deal of psychological material, and employs some psychological methods.
Accepting the term "instinct" in the sense in which it is most emphatically used at the present time, we must conclude that for psychology there are no "instincts." There is a great deal of instinctive activity, both conscious and unconscious, and probably both volitional - and non-volitional: instinctive perceptions and thoughts no less than instinctive acts and emotions. These activities may well be considered in their physiological groupings, and possibly in their psychological groupings, if such groupings are discoverable. I am at present inclined to think that the possibility of discovering social psychology rests upon the possibility of discovering psychological groupings of instinctive activity: and neither of these discoveries is likely to be made until we cease talking of "instincts.”
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