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Like author Peter Scott's previous book (co-written with Ed Wright), Perl Debugged, Perl Medic is rather inaccurately titled. Both books are collections of advice and tips on best practices and idioms in Perl, like Effective Perl Programming and Perl Best Practices. You can think of Perl Medic as a sequel to Perl Debugged. You definitely don't need to have read the former, but if you have, you should have a good idea about the format and contents you can expect here.
There is more advice on code style, low-level stuff like brace indentation and choosing decent variable names. Additionally, tracing, profiling, benchmarking and logging are again introduced. Some of this is admittedly rather reminiscent of what appeared in Perl Debugged. Happily, also present is the clear writing, which is informal without ever talking down to the reader.
Perl Medic, however, has a more agile flavour than Perl Debugged. Again, there is a chapter on unit testing, but it's much more fleshed out in this book, featuring far more modules, and providing an entire Test Driven Development example of a bounds-checked array.
Also, some refactorings are introduced, such as inlining temporary variables and extracting subroutines. The final chapter of the book is a refactoring example on some ancient Perl 4 cgi code, that pulls together most of the themes of the book.
There's also an in-depth discussion of what the strict and warnings pragmas entail, beyond that provided by most books. Also worthy of note is the chapter on 'cargo cult' Perl, where the author's pet peeves about non-idiomatic Perl code are explored, from practices which are merely pointless to the downright wrong.
Much of this material is general good practice. However, there are some chapters that help to justify the 'legacy code' approach. Chapter 7 provides a potted history of the different versions of Perl from Perl 4 onwards, and how to spot which version a program was targetted at. There is some mention of legacy code in the unit testing chapter, but not much.
In general, I think a lot of the suggestions will be obvious to anyone with experience with Perl, or experience with another modern programming language: use new modules from CPAN where you can, use lexically scoped (my) variables and localise global access and, of course, turn on strict and warnings. Overall, I wasn't much convinced with the 'legacy code' aspect of the book and the strained medical metaphor renders many of the chapter names nonsensical.
Another slight problem I had is that, like Perl Debugged, there can be a lack of flow between (and sometimes within) chapters. Chapter 10, nominally about maintainability, starts with assertions and Eiffel-style contract programming, and then goes onto logging, tieing, overloading, POD and version control integration. It's hard to see this as a cohesive whole.
If you're looking for a book on dealing with legacy code, Michael Feathers' Working Effectively with Legacy Code provides more bang for your buck -- although it's not Perl-specific (in fact, I'm pretty sure there's no Perl code in it at all). However, if you're a budding agilist looking for Perl-based examples of refactoring and TDD, then this is a good choice. Less experienced Perl programmers should definitely consider this, especially alongside Perl Debugged, as it provides both a good grounding in best practices, and more advanced development skills such as profiling and code coverage.
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The Senate today approved a $644.3 billion fiscal 2012 defense budget bill that seeks better cost- control of the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program, the Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.
The bill also would hold defense contractors responsible for fake parts in weapons and calls for sanctions on foreign financial institutions that do business with the Central Bank of Iran.
The defense authorization bill, which sets military policy and spending targets, cuts about $27 billion from the Pentagon’s request for the fiscal year that started Oct.1. It passed by a vote of 93-7.
The bill also includes about $18 billion for Department of Energy program’s under Senate Armed Services Committee jurisdiction, for a total of $662 billion.
The bill includes a provision that requires the Pentagon to sign a fixed-price contract with Lockheed Martin for a future lot of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.
The measure requires the Defense Department to use a fixed- price contract with an incentive fee for low-rate initial production of the fifth F-35 lot. The provision requires Lockheed to absorb 100 percent of costs “above the target cost specified in the contract.”
© Copyright 2013 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.
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The idea of “If you build it, they will come” is not new, but in recent years it has become a driving force for an upsurge of communities offering economic incentives to attract artists.
Areas that provide assets such as art, music, theater and other cultural benefits are more appealing to residents and investors. Knowing this, many communities are enacting economic stimulus and revitalization programs that specifically address ways to increase their inventory of artistic venues.
The primary requirements to make a community inviting to artists are the potential for income, and the affordability of housing and work space. The potential for artists’ income is an intangible concept for many communities, and cannot be realistically forecasted prior to the establishment of a new venture. Generally, most businesses conduct an economic survey of an area to decide if it will be feasible to open a venue there. Communities that are economically stagnant or declining have little hope of appealing to new businesses, so the revitalization programs work by offering incentives that can offset the risk of initial low income potential. Theoretically, as more businesses become established, they will create a hub that will stabilize and grow the local economy, and in turn attract more businesses and residents. As artists, we are the introductory businesses that many of these communities are now trying to entice with these economic incentives.
Affordable housing and work space is critical for many artists, and many communities are responding to this need by offering special deals on housing and commercial space. The incentives are often for specific buildings in areas that are experiencing economic hardship, and are considered by traditional businesses to be too risky for investment. As a result, many communities are offering artists low interest loans, grants, and tax exemptions to help them establish businesses in these zones.
What Louisiana Did
Recently, the state of Louisiana passed legislation to allow for the development of Cultural Products Districts throughout the state. The new legislation encourages local governments to designate specific areas as cultural districts, hoping to revitalize communities through increased cultural activity.
When the new legislation went into effect on October 1, 2008, an initial 29 local communities received approval for the designation. To be included in the new designation, the communities were required to distinguish areas by cultural resources, such as art institutions, art and entertainment businesses, arts and cultural activities, or arts and cultural production. The communities must also be engaged in the promotion, preservation, and education of arts and culture in the areas.
Louisiana provides benefits to the cultural districts through exemptions on local and state sales taxes on the sale of original artworks and with income and corporate tax credits for the rehabilitation of historic buildings. To support the districts, local governments and other agencies are encouraged to offer additional programs. For instance, state and regional art councils award grants (for both individual artists and arts organizations) and set up workshops where artists can learn business strategies for development and marketing.
Giving incentives to artists to locate their businesses in a specific area is only half the battle. A community must also offer an audience and exhibition venues so new businesses can survive. The city of Slidell, Louisiana, is meeting that challenge by hosting a series of cultural events where artists showcase their wares and draw visitors to the arts district. New events, such as a weekly farmers market and a monthly block party, are coordinated with gallery receptions and join a list of existing events — including art festivals, antique fairs, theatrical productions, and community concerts. Slidell is also initiating a public mural program, similar to the one reported in the March 2008 issue of Art Calendar. It is already drawing additional attention to their arts district.
The Cultural Director of Slidell, Kim Bergeron, who created the busy event schedule, wants to ensure the success of the newly formed cultural district in her city. By promoting arts and capitalizing on local cultural assets, Slidell can strengthen its economy and enhance the quality of life that it offers to its residents. At informational meetings, Slidell’s local artists and businesses learn how they can benefit from the new incentives. In the innovative artist placement program, existing businesses take advantage of the cultural district benefits by developing partnerships with local artists.
“This is an invaluable opportunity for downtown locations to continue in the journey towards making Slidell a spectacular place to live, shop, and visit,” explains Bergeron. “By adopting one or more artists and displaying their works in your location, year round, you are taking advantage of the opportunity to increase traffic to your business, and, ultimately, potentially increase the sales of both the artist’s works and your goods or services.”
For more information about Louisiana’s Cultural Districts Program, visit www.crt.state.la.us/culturaldistricts.
For more information on other towns, cities and districts offering incentives or other benefits for artists living there, be sure to read 27 Towns for Working Artists, in the January 2009 issue of Art Calendar magazine. AC
Annie Strack (http://AnnieStrackArt.com) has artwork included in a number of museums, and other public and private collections. Her instructional DVD, Painting Seascapes in Watercolor — The Red Dinghy, is available on her Web site for $24.95 plus $5 shipping and handling. Friend her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AnnieStrack, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AnnieStrack, or visit her at ArtScuttlebutt.com/Annie_S.
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It’s probably the happiest root canal ever: Molecular archaeologists reported last January that they had drilled into a 10,300-year-old human tooth discovered in Alaska and extracted genetic gold. The molar, recovered from skeletal remains found in 1996 in On Your Knees Cave, located on Prince of Wales Island off southern Alaska, holds the oldest genetic sample ever recovered in the Americas. That sample supports the theory that humans first arrived here about 15,000 years ago and then migrated down the continent’s western coastline.
Brian Kemp, a molecular anthropologist at Washington State University who led the study, found that out of 3,500 Native Americans examined from a genetic database, 1.5 percent showed the same genetic pattern in their mitochondrial DNA as that found in the ancient tooth. “What’s interesting is that the distribution is almost entirely down the west coast of the Americas, all the way down to Tierra del Fuego,” says Kemp. That, says Theodore Schurr, an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania, “lends credence to the reemerging hypothesis that the first modern human populations to arrive in North America and then populate the rest of the Americas used a coastal route to actually get there.”
Kemp also compared the ancient DNA with its related modern DNA to see how fast it mutated over time. This “molecular clock” of mutation rates can be used to calculate when the ancestors of today’s Native Americans first arrived on these shores. Previous estimates pegged their appearance as far back as 40,000 years ago, but Kemp’s newly calibrated clock speeds up the scenario. “Within the last 15,000 years is my bet,” he says.
Go to the next story: 33. How to Erase a Single Memory
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Joined: 16 Mar 2004
|Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 3:49 pm Post subject: T-Ray Demo Promises Support for Range of Applications
|Engineers demonstrate first room-temperature semiconductor source of coherent Terahertz radiation
A photograph of a bar with 10 terahertz laser sources developed by the Harvard University engineers. One of the lasers is connected to the contact pad (seen on the left) by two thin gold wires. A 2mm-diameter Silicon hyper-hemispherical lens is attached to the facet of the device to collimate the terahertz output. The emission frequency is 5 THz, corresponding to a wavelength of 60 microns. Credit:Capasso Lab, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Engineers and applied physicists from Harvard University have demonstrated the first room-temperature electrically-pumped semiconductor source of coherent Terahertz (THz) radiation, also known as T-rays. The breakthrough in laser technology, based upon commercially available nanotechnology, has the potential to become a standard Terahertz source to support applications ranging from security screening to chemical sensing.
Spearheaded by research associate Mikhail Belkin and Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering, both of Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the findings will be published in the May 19 issue of Applied Physics Letters . The researchers have also filed for U.S. patents covering the novel device.
Using lasers in the Terahertz spectral range, which covers wavelengths from 30 to 300å, has long presented a major hurdle to engineers. In particular, making electrically pumped room-temperature and thermoelectrically-cooled Terahertz semiconductor lasers has been a major challenge. These devices require cryogenic cooling, greatly limiting their use in everyday applications. "By contrast, our device emits T-rays with several hundreds of nanowatts of power at room temperature and microwatts of power at temperatures easily achievable with commercially available thermoelectric coolers," says Belkin. "Further, there is the potential of increasing the terahertz output power to milliwatt levels by optimizing the semiconductor nanostructure of the active region and by improving the extraction efficiency of the terahertz radiation."
To achieve the breakthrough and overcome the temperature limitations of current laser designs, the researchers engineered a room temperature mid-infrared Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) that emits light at two frequencies simultaneously. The generation of Terahertz radiation occurs via the process of difference-frequency generation inside the laser material at room temperature at a frequency of 5 THz (equal to the difference of the two mid-infrared QCL frequencies).
Mid-infrared QCLs were invented and demonstrated by Capasso and his team at Bell Labs in 1994. The compact millimeter length semiconductor lasers operate routinely at room temperature with high optical powers and are increasingly used in the commercial sector for wide range of applications in chemical sensing and trace gas analysis. The devices, made by stacking ultra-thin atomic layers of semiconductor materials on top of each other, are variable and tunable, allowing an engineer to adjust the energy levels in the structure to create artificial laser medium.
"Terahertz imaging and sensing is a very promising but relatively new technology that requires compact, portable and tunable sources to achieve widespread penetration. Our devices are an important first step in this direction," said Capasso. "We believe our THz source has great development potential because the nanoscale material used was grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy, a commercial and widely used thin film growth technique which 'spray paints' atoms on a surface one layer at a time."
The ability of Terahertz rays to penetrate efficiently through paper, clothing, cardboard, plastic and many other materials makes them ideal for use in many applications. For example, a device emitting T-rays could be used to image concealed weapons, detect chemical and biological agents through sealed packages, see tumors without causing any harmful side effects, and spot defects within materials such as cracks in the Space Shuttle's foam insulation.
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Usually when we hear about hydrogen as a fuel, it's actually being used to generate electricity for an electric motor. It's no secret that Mazda's been developing a hydrogen powered version of its Renesis rotary engine for years, but now the automaker says that it will soon be mass-producing hydrogen powered vehicles. The rotary engine's unique design actually makes it well suited for using hydrogen as a combustible fuel.
With Mazda's redesigned Mazda6 sedan completed and on showroom floors, the automaker has turned its attention to the smaller Mazda3.
Scheduled to be revealed at the 2008 LA Auto Show in November, Mazda has given us a sneak peek at the all-new Mazda3 sedan, and it is a sexy little number. Details are still sparse, but the first thing we notice is the dramatically swept back front end, which brings the 3's aesthetic in line with the new Mazda6. Expect more power and more space over the current incarnation, as is par for the course with model updates. … Read more
Earlier this year, we tested a Mazda's CX-9. So when we heard that we were getting a CX-7 Grand Touring in the CNET garage, we braced for more of the same, only smaller. The tiny Mazda crossover didn't disappoint; the CX-7 has a lot in common with the CX-9, particularly in its cabin tech.
However, like a scrappy little brother, the CX-7 works hard to differentiate itself from its larger sibling. On the road, the CX-7 feels faster and more connected to the road, though this comes at the expense of a little ride harshness. Everything we liked … Read more
Mazda's updates to the MX-5 Roadster (commonly known as the Miata) are incremental at best. But why fix what isn't broken when you've got the world's best-selling roadster?
The Kiyora concept, shown at the 2008 Paris Motor Show, is another in Mazda's lineup of concept cars featuring Nagare styling. Mazda designers have built a new Nagare concept car for almost every major auto show. Nagare means flow in Japanese, and the cars built under this concept show styling cues that represent the way wind and water flow over earth and rock.
Although previous cars in this design theme have been low and sporty, the Kiyora captures the strong trend at the Paris show for small city cars. As such, it is designed as a compact four seater … Read more
It seemed as if everyone who we spoke to about Mazda's Mazda5 said the same thing: "It's a mini-minivan." As cheesy as that sounds, there isn't really a better way to describe what Mazda has created with the Mazda5. As fuel prices soar and its full-size MPV minivan continues to grow, Mazda hopes to do for the van market what crossovers have done for the SUV market. Based on the compact Mazda3, the Mazda5 inherits performance that comes very close to Mazda's promise of "zoom-zoom." The Mazda5 isn't really a vehicle … Read more
Automakers spend a lot of effort to keep future products away from prying eyes, but sometimes their efforts can be undone quickly.
It seems that the OHIM, the trademarks and design registration office for the European Union, revealed a future Mazda design a bit ahead of time.
While some automakers ask to have their work redacted in the interest of protecting intellectual property, somewhere along the line either Mazda or the OHIM goofed on that part of the application. As a result, the 2010 Mazda3 turned up on the OHIM's Web site as part of a routine listing of … Read more
Even though Mazda is working on an electric vehicle a la Chevy's Volt, if the barrage of e-mails in our inbox is any indicator, its engineers have been hard at work developing other green tech,too. Green tech such as a spin on start-stop engine tech, a new clean diesel, and a new plastic-molding technology that will make the manufacturing of vehicles greener.
First up is Mazda's new Smart Idle Stop System (SISS), which at first seems like the same system everyone else is already using that stops the engine at idle. Looking deeper into Mazda's specs, … Read more
The Mazda RX-8 has always combined excellent sports car handling with a truly unique look and also has suffered from poor torque, making its off-the-line performance distinctly unimpressive. For 2009 the car gets a new trim level, the R3, which mixes elements of a touring and track car and attempts to solve that torque problem through revised gear ratios.
Although the car loses nothing in handling, Mazda managed to smooth out the ride a little. But the RX-8 R3 loses some tech in translation from Japan to the U.S., giving up a navigation system. But the U.S. version … Read more
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Opposition supporters in Bahrain have expressed concern that escalating tensions between Iran and the West may further stifle their calls for democratic reform in the Persian Gulf kingdom.
Bahrain’s majority Shi’ite Muslims took to the streets nearly a year ago demanding a new government and more rights from their Sunni leaders.
The country continues to crack down on pro-democracy demonstrations and blames Shi’ite-ruled Iran for inciting the civil unrest.
Last month, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa alleged that Syria, which is also ruled by Shi’ites, was training young Bahrainis to overthrow the ruling family.
Bahrain’s main opposition party, al-Wefaq disputes the claims.
"We would like to be isolated from the international conflicts," said Matar Matar,a spokesperson for the group. "We are worried about those conflicts and their impact on our country."
Western nations have agreed on sanctions targeting Iran’s lucrative oil industry, hoping they will force the country to abandon its uranium enrichment program.
Bahrain Opposition Fears Effects of Iran-West Tensions
Tehran insists its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes and has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for world oil traffic, in response to the sanctions.
The United States says it will use force if necessary to keep the strategic waterway open, sparking fears of a confrontation in the Persian Gulf.
Al-Wefaq spokesman Matar says these tensions may provide an advantage for Bahraini authorities. "It is easy for the regime here to utilize this conflict and blame Iran for everything happening here in Bahrain and such tone can be accepted in the United States," he said.
Bahrain’s opposition has criticized America and its allies for what it sees as a failure to press the Bahraini government to end its deadly assault on civilian demonstrators.
The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, adding to the complexity of the situation.
Theodore Karasik is director of research at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.
"Within the U.S. foreign policy establishment there’s a split between those who believe that Iran is behind what’s ongoing in Bahrain and those that do not. Because of the U.S.’s relationship with the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), however, public officials have to go on-record saying that this looks like an Iranian plot," said Karasik.
The oil-producing monarchies of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both wary of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, sent troops to Bahrain last year to help quell the anti-government uprising.
However, according to Julien Barnes-Dacey, senior policy fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, the efforts of Bahrain’s Gulf neighbors were propelled more by fears that the pro-democracy movement would spread to their shores than by fears of Iran gaining more influence in the region.
"This is a domestic issue at the end of the day. Saudis are using, and the Bahraini regime are using this accusation of Iranian involvement to crack down on the protesters, but that’s a false narrative and it’s been quite comprehensively shown that there hasn’t been Iranian involvement," said Barnes-Dacey.
Rights groups say more than 50 Bahrainis have been killed since demonstrations began last February, including four last week. The government denies it was responsible for the latest deaths.
Most analysts like Barnes-Dacey say the situation in Bahrain is likely to continue unchanged unless outside nations intervene.
"The international community really needs to be doing more there to exert pressure and to push the Bahraini government regime to lighten the repressive measures in place and to really give the segment of the population greater political and economic rights," said the analyst.
However, as Bahrain sits both geographically and politically at the center of a geostrategic struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, other experts say that increased international condemnation is unlikely to be heard anytime soon.
"It’s just a case of sometimes you’re caught in a bad place and I think they may be," said Jason Naselli, managing editor at the Atlantic Community.
In a bid to improve the political situation in the country, Bahrain's government recently announced a set of constitutional reforms, giving members of parliament more power to question ministers and more protection from dismissal by the king.
Opposition leaders say the changes will do little to stop the unrest.
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After a year-long suspension, negotiations have once again resumed with the Iranian regime over its nuclear program, and with them hopes have been rekindled once again that this international crisis will be put to rest through diplomatic maneuvering.
But the optimism by some about the success of negotiations is certainly misplaced and unjustified and even contradicted by the facts and evidence as well as the indisputable historical trend.
The latest information obtained by Iran's main opposition reveals that the regime has in fact significantly boosted the activities of the entity tasked with nuclear weapons development. The secretive New Defense Research Organization (known by its Farsi abbreviation SPND) carries out research and testing on nuclear warheads and detonators, among other things.
The main Iranian opposition, Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) which was the first to expose the regime's nuclear program, has identified over 60 managers and experts as well as 11 institutions and companies affiliated with SPND.
SPND's main headquarters is at the Lavizan region and it is headed by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who for years has overseen the regime's nuclear warhead development project. SPND has seven main divisions, each of which works on specific areas for the development of a nuclear bomb.
The Center for New Defense Technologies, for example, conducts research and related activities on the production of the main ingredient for the bomb, enriched uranium. According to the latest information, the uranium enrichment activities at the new Fordow site, hidden deep inside the mountains near Qom, are closely monitored by the experts working at this division, which reveals the sinister objectives which guided the regime's attempts to build the Fordow site.
Another division of SPND works on the research and production of metallic components for the manufacture of warheads. Advanced machinery have been purchased by front companies and smuggled into Iran, and explosive tests are carried out at the Parchin site.
SPND also has a division for research and production of detonators for a nuclear bomb. The center known as METFAZ is run by a veteran member of the regime's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and has a five-storey unmarked building in Tehran. This division works on obtaining and designing high-explosive materials and components and has production and testing units.
SPND's chemical research group has a secret office in a Tehran district and does not have electronic connections to the outside. Communication is carried out by a permanent courier, and public access to the office is prohibited.
While the facts overwhelmingly point to a well-oiled, secret and complex nuclear weapons development machinery, how can one expect the negotiations to succeed?
Tehran's main objective from the nuclear talks in Istanbul is to keep the negotiations alive, agree to a second round of talks without making any commitments, and providing any concessions. The outcome would be Iran's continued advancement of its nuclear weapons program, while the international community would be idle waiting for the next round.
Indeed, years of fruitless talks can foretell the real chances of success for the current round of negotiations.
Since 2002, when the main Iranian opposition first exposed the regime's nuclear program, every time hopes and expectations were raised about talks under succeeding US administrations, the Iranian regime has dashed those hopes. Since 2003, whether under the "moderate" president Mohammad Khatami or during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, numerous packages of incentives was offered to Tehran to entice it to end uranium enrichment. None have succeeded.
After the IAEA failed in its attempts to get answers from the regime in 2007, US and its European allies once again tried to salvage the talks by promising fully normalized economic relations but were rebuffed by Tehran.
When President Obama took office in 2009, Iran was already enriching uranium at 3.5 percent levels and thousands of centrifuges had been installed at Natanz. Still, President Obama rekindled hopes for negotiations. Three years later, Tehran is enriching up to 20 percent and has enough enriched uranium to make four nuclear weapons, if further enriched to weapon grade. Instead of a peaceful solution, the probability of a war has increased.
Undoubtedly, history points to a trend. The Iranian regime has welcomed negotiations at every turn to deflect pressure and buy time.
Engagement and talks have failed to stop Tehran's drive, which argues for a fundamental change if the world is looking to avoid an Iranian bomb or the threat of military intervention.
President Obama has a historic opportunity to avoid such dire outcomes by changing course and reaching out to the Iranian people and their organized opposition. The nuclear issue can be resolved once and for all only through democratic change. Members of Congress and dozens of prominent former officials support such an outcome.
Time is running out. In the context of the Arab Spring, which has revealed the power of the suppressed populations, the U.S. has to focus on the Iranian people and their organized opposition as the key to building a free, democratic and non-nuclear Iran. That is the surest way to salvage a peaceful solution and avoid the military option.
Follow Alireza Jafarzadeh on Twitter: www.twitter.com/A_Jafarzadeh
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BLACKSBURG, Va., Sept. 21, 2011 – Malaria kills nearly 1 million people a year, most in sub-Saharan Africa. Five years ago it was five times as many, but the widespread use of insecticide-treated bed nets and other strategies has dramatically reduced the annual number of deaths. However, mosquitoes evolve resistance to insecticides -- which is why the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) has awarded almost $6 million to four teams to find new solutions to limit transmission of malaria.
Virginia Tech is represented among the four teams funded by the "New Insecticides for Malaria Control" program. Paul Carlier, professor of chemistry in the College of Science and a member of the Vector-Borne Disease Research Group at Virginia Tech, will receive $450,655 to work with Jeffrey Bloomquist, who will lead the effort to develop an entirely new strategy to kill the mosquito that transmits the malaria parasite.
Bloomquist, a member of the Emerging Pathogens Institute and the entomology and nematology departments at the University of Florida, has also enlisted Max Totrov, a protein modeler at Molsoft Corp. LLC, to assist in molecular design of the new insecticides. The total award, which is managed by the FNIH to the University of Florida, is $1.4 million over three years.
"Our team seeks to develop a new class of insecticide that will work by blocking potassium ion channels – specifically those involved in nerve signal transmission," said Carlier. "If we can paralyze mosquitos, they will not be able to fly. If they cannot fly, they can't bite. If they can't bite, the malaria parasite cannot be passed to humans."
No such insecticides exist. If the scientists succeed, the new compound would be safe and effective for use on bed nets. "Nets work for malaria control because malaria mosquitoes only bite at night," said Carlier.
Bloomquist specializes in neuroscience and toxicology in animals and insects. Carlier specializes in organic and medicinal chemistry. This grant marks the fourth award for malaria research they have shared since 2005, including a National Institutes of Health-funded program that Carlier leads.
Since 2003, FNIH has worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners on the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative. In 2009, foundation received a five-year, $24 million grant to extend certain aspects of research initiated under the original initiative. The "Vector-based Control of Transmission: Discovery Research" program will continue to support the development of novel strategies to deplete or incapacitate disease-transmitting mosquito populations. The original announcement about the four new grant awards is posted on the FNIH website.
Established by the United States Congress to support the mission of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — improving health through scientific discovery in the search for cures — the FNIH is a leader in identifying and addressing complex scientific and health issues. The foundation is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) charitable organization that raises private-sector funds for a broad portfolio of unique programs that complement and enhance NIH priorities and activities.
The Vector-Borne Disease Research Group at Virginia Tech is an initiative of the Fralin Life Science Institute.
Seven Virginia Tech institutes support research and creative scholarship in strategically important areas, drawing upon the university's established strengths. The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute focus on national research priorities, including translational health and medical research, national security, and safe infrastructure. The Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science, Fralin Life Science Institute, and the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment provide organizational and financial support to develop opportunities at the intersection of engineering, science, and medicine; target infectious disease; and advance human development. The Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology promotes creativity, critical thinking, and life-long learning.
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The World’s Smallest Dog?
I can think of a few things smaller than this puppy, but not much… including an iPhone. This is a picture of a Dachshund mix that is named Beyoncé, and she happens to be at a rescue shelter in El Dorado County, in northern California. The story goes that when she was born, she could fit in a spoon. Two weeks later, she’s the size of a cell phone.
Beyoncé came from a litter of five puppies, however she was born without a heartbeat. The extremely awesome vets were able to get her going with very small chest compressions and even mouth-to-mouth. Vets say in a few weeks, she’ll be healthy enough to be adopted. In the meantime, in an attempt to see if she is indeed the worlds smallest dog, the shelter submitted an application to the Guinness World Records. The current record for the world’s smallest dog is a Chihuahua who is tiny at just four inches tall. Beyoncé is currently even smaller than the current record.
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Names of Royal Navy and Royal Marine officers who died in The Great War are listed in this database. While the collection is an index without attached images, it contains a great deal of information about each individual. The original collection is housed in the National Archives of London (TNA).
Two lists of those who died during the Great War were published by His Majesty's Stationery Office in 1921 on behalf of and by authority of the War Office. One volume, packed with minute typescript, gave the basic details of nearly 42,000 officer casualties. It required an additional eighty volumes to list all the 'other ranks' who gave their lives. Each of the original volumes represented one or more regiments, corps or other units of the British Army. Most were subdivided into battalions or similar groupings. There were often thirty or more of these per volume, each in alphabetical order. Within this collection there are 45,000 records from the War Graves Rolls.
From the beginning of the 19th century until well into the 20th century the Royal Navy was the most powerful navy in the world. In 1914 68 battleships, 103 cruisers and 190 torpedo craft made up the Navy’s fleet. During WWI it lost more vessels and had more casualties than the Germans. Despite these losses, however, Navy commanders kept the German Navy closely penned to their own borders.
Would your ancestor have served in the Royal Navy or the Royal Marines? The Corps of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines (RM) worked closely with the Royal Navy under the Naval Service and is the oldest force of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, also known as the Senior Service or the Blue Water Navy (as opposed to brown/river water or green/coastal water). Listed in this database you will be able to find the branch of service in which each individual served and their duties.
Information in this index:
- Rating (occupation, rank, or classification)
- Branch of Service
- Cause of Death
- Date of Death
- Ship or Unit
- Theater of war
- Relative Notified
Additional Information where known:
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Local people will help Santa make his December rounds by raising money for gifts, books, stuffed animals, school supplies and coats.
The fundraiser, Santa in the Summer, will benefit the Eveline Rivers Christmas Project and is set for 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the Eveline Rivers Workshop, Fourth Avenue and South Jefferson Street.
Tickets cost $30 in advance and $35 at the door. The ticket includes dinner by the Coors Cowboy Club, one drink ticket and dancing to Insufficient Funds.
Santa won't be on hand for the event, nor has he been able to attend the two previous Santa in the Summer events, said co-chair Alice O'Brien.
"The point is, he can't come unless we have Santa in the Summer.
"So to make sure he makes his December appearance, we have to celebrate Santa in the Summer," O'Brien said.
Organizers expect more than 300 guests at the event. Julie Mitchell co-chairs the event with O'Brien.
"The best thing is your whole $30 goes directly to the project. There are only volunteers involved. The cost of the evening is underwritten," O'Brien said.
And it's a fun time, she said.
"You have people of all ages, sizes, shapes and descriptions having a good time together," O'Brien said.
Millie Bingham, a board member of the Eveline Rivers Christmas Project, said the money raised on Saturday will be used to buy toys, coats, school supplies and Christmas gifts for underprivileged children.
"Every year, and it grows, there are more and more children, especially through AISD (Amarillo Independent School District) that do not have Christmas.
"We deliver these gifts about two weeks before Christmas, using hundreds of volunteers. And just to see the looks on the kids' faces when all these elf volunteers show up at the door, it's priceless and it's worth all the work we do to provide this for the kids," Bingham said.
Gifts are typically divided by age from infants to 17 years of age, she said. Each child receives a stuffed animal "because what we've learned over the years, no matter what the age, everyone wants something to hold on to and love 'em back," Bingham said.
Every child gets a book because of the importance of reading and a gift appropriate for his age, she said.
School-age children get school supplies, Bingham said.
The project distributes new and gently worn children's coats beginning in September, she said.
"This goes on throughout the winter," Bingham said. "Anytime there's a child needing a coat, we try to provide that."
Silent and live auctions will be conducted during Santa in the Summer.
The silent auction features hand-painted children's furniture and other items.
The live auction features a Royal Caribbean cruise for two to the Virgin Islands with Southwest Airlines tickets, a fur coat from Marcella Furs, and pearl and diamond earrings from Graham Brothers.
Also a custom playhouse built by Randall County Work Program, Coors Texas Hold 'em package, weekend quail hunt at the Sneed Ranch, Backyard Adventures playset, gobbler hunt for two, martini party for 20 and teenage divas night.
The project also offers help to families who need clothing, school supplies or utilities throughout the year.
Children, adolescents and teens in Amarillo, Canyon, Bushland, River Road, Highland Park and sometimes Dumas and Hereford are helped by the project.
In the last five years, the Christmas project provided children with more than 70,000 books.
In the last year, more than 3,900 coats were distributed and more than 6,500 recipients received Christmas gifts.
If you go
Who: Eveline Rivers Christmas Project
What: Santa in Summer
When: 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday
Where: Eveline Rivers Workshop, Fourth Avenue and South Jefferson Street.
How much: $30 in advance; $35 at the door
Amarillo Globe-News ©2013. All Rights Reserved.
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Story by Carol Montana
HIGHLAND, NY (January 22, 2013) – Four Sullivan County residents will be diving into the water of an otherwise frozen Bereans Lake in Highland, NY come February 2 at noon in their quest to put an end to Alzheimer’s Disease.
The event, entitled “Subzero Heroes,” has nearly 130 people willing to take the frosty plunge.
The Sullivan County Team, who call themselves “Dreams Come True … A Cure For Alzheimer’s,” consists of Marcia Fink, Sue Bunce, Christine Bunce and Monica Takourian.
The team link is http://tinyurl.com/dreamscometru.
In keeping with the Disney theme of dreams coming true, each member has chosen to represent a Disney character: Sue Bunce is Goofy, Christine Bunce is Pluto, Monica Takourian is Minnie Mouse and Marcia Fink is Daisy Duck.
Spokesduck, Marcia Fink says, “It will be a lot of fun and a bit scary.”
But the cause outweighs the scare since, as Fink also says, “Currently, more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s and that number is expected to grow to as many as 16 million by 2050. For the millions already affected by the disease, the Association offers care, education, support and resources in communities nationwide.”
Both Fink and Sue Bunce lost their mothers to the disease.
For more information and to donate to the cause click on this link: Sullivan County Dreams Come True team.
For a 24/7 Helpline, call 1-800-272-3900, and for more information on Alzheimer’s Disease, go to
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Judicial Branch Home >
4th District Home >
Family Court >
Early Neutral Evaluation
Early neutral evaluation (ENE) is a confidential alternative dispute resolution technique designed for faster settlement of cases. Hennepin County Family Court Services provides the faciliators, and is an agency separate from the court. ENE is for divorcing parents and never-married parents who are involved in a court case because they disagree on custody, visitation/access or parenting plans for their minor children. ENE moves families through the court process as quickly, fairly and inexpensively as possible. It also cuts court costs by reducing number of expensive evaluations and reduces hostilities between the parties. It has also been shown to improve relationships with attorneys and parents. There are two types of ENE based on whether the parties dispute financial support, or custody terms, or both.
« Back to 4th District Family Court Home
« Back to 4th District Court Home
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Bodrum is a town on the Aegean coast of Turkey which is popular among tourists and Turkish celebrities. The ancient city of Halikarnassus, which is one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World, is located in Bodrum. Bodrum in the last 10 years has been one of the most popular holiday destinations in Turkey.
Från Bodrum reseguide
Amazing! OMG! What a day we have had. We spent into out on the Aegean we had our own sailboat and crew from Bodrum. In Turkey these big wooden sailboats are called Gulets. They are chartered for a week or so and people cruise to the various Greek and Turkish islands nearby. Kos is a three hour ...
Posted in TURKISH DELIGHT! by KittyKodak
Yalikavak/Bodrum and Sailing Turkey
Yalıkavak is a town near Bodrum in Muğla province, on the Aegean coast of Turkey. It is 18 km from Bodrum and located at the north eastern tip of the Bodrum peninsula. It has been inhabited since near ...
Posted in Possibly lost, probably having fun... by KPad
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“You are welcome, Madame, welcome to it all—welcome as the flowers in May. I know who you are, though I forget your name; it is a name dear to all La Vendee. Your husband is a great and good man; indeed, you shall have my bed, though you’ll find it very cold. Your husband—but, oh dear! I beg your pardon, Madame, I forgot.”
I need not say that the evening which they spent at Genet, was melancholy enough, and the privations which they suffered were dreadful. During the early part of the night both Madame de Lescure and Marie lay down for a few hours, but nothing, which could be said, would induce them to keep the old priest longer from his bed. About midnight they got up and spent the remainder of the night seated on the two chairs near the fire, while Father Jerome squatted on the stool, and with his elbows on his knees, and his face upon his hands, sat out the long night, meditating upon the fortunes of La Vendee.
They started early on the next morning, and the priest of St. Laud’s went with them, leaving Father Bernard in perfect solitude, for he had neither friend or relative to reside beneath his roof.
“Some of them will come down from time to time,” said Father Jerome, “and do what little can be done for him, poor old man! His sufferings, it is to be hoped, will not last many days.”
“And will he perform mass next Sunday?” said Marie.
“Indeed he will, if able to walk across the road into the chapel, and will forget no word of the service, and make no blunder in the ceremony. To you he seems to be an idiot, but he is not so, though long suffering has made his mind to wander strangely, when he sees strange faces. There are many who have been called to a more active sphere of duty for their King and country than that poor Cure, but none who have suffered more acutely for the cause, and have born their sufferings with greater patience.”
The Vendeans at st. Florent.
The reader, it is hoped, will remember St. Florent; it was here that the first scene of this tale opened; it was here that Cathelineau first opposed the exactions of the democratic government and that the Vendeans, not then rejoicing in that now illustrious name, felt the first flush of victory. It was here that ‘Marie Jeanne’ was taken from the troops of the Republic by the valour of the townsmen, and, adorned with garlands by their sisters and daughters, was dragged in triumph through the streets, with such bright presentiments of future success and glory.
The men of St. Florent had ever since that day borne a prominent part in the contest; they felt that the people of Poitou had risen in a mass to promote the cause, which they had been the first to take up; and they had considered themselves bound in honour to support the character for loyalty which they had assumed: the consequence was that many of the bravest of its sons had fallen, and that very few of its daughters had not to lament a lover, a husband, or a father.
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The shadow can be viewed in so many different lights of love. To be overshadowed by the divine is mighty indeed. To be in the presence of the Holy Ones can lead people home to God until the day comes when the light of the individual overwhelms the path at their own feet. Blessed be he/she who has the humility to surrender human will and allow the divine and their own souls to lead them.
As Jesus said "The soul is the lamp that lights the way".
He ranks first among the works of God, yet his Maker can approach him with his sword. The hills bring him their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby. Under the lotus plants he lies, hidden among the reeds in the marsh. The lotuses conceal him in their shadow; the poplars by the stream surround him. When the river rages, he is not alarmed; he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth. Can anyone capture him by the eyes, or trap him and pierce his nose? Job 19:24
Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 17:8 How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.Psalm 36:7
To feel the wings of an angel embrace you is serenity itself.
Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.Psalm 63:7 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.Psalm 91:1
And where would the birds and animals be without the shadow provided by the trees.
The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate.Isaiah 34:15 I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand— I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, 'You are my people.' "Isaiah 51:16
Is the shadow concept from the psychologists appropriate for the 21st century? Has it shaped human nature in a beneficial way?
How great is the shadow of the divine when people can appreciate its beauty and behold the power of light. How immense is the resplendent peace when people have made peace with the self. How incredible is the power of love to create miracles when the heart is full of pure intention.
How great is the heart when it truly understands and appreciates that everything has value and a purpose beyond the comprehension of one life time. How great is the acceptance that comes with this knowing. How wonderful the good deeds when they outweigh the less good and in so doing the wheel of karma is broken.
How great is a soul that merges with the Spirit of God in sacred union. How splendid is creation when the creation inspires whole cultures into positive intention. How superb is the sound of music to raise the vibration of the planet. How great is the Spirit that can take whatever is thrown at it and not bow down or give up in the face of adversity.
How intelligent is the heart that can love beyond measure when all around them people wish to crucify them all over again. How many times does Michael have to be crucified? Can the world allow him his peace and put his children first? Can people do the same with Jesus Christ? Can people stop crucifying each other yet in the next breath expound love and hugs? Can people lead by example and help others to find the meaning of life so that humanity can live in harmony with each other and Mother earth? Can people allow themselves to be unique, authentic, original, innovative and live in integrity?
Ten Thousand Angels Cried
As Jesus said "When the crucifix is removed from earth so will the pain and suffering be removed from earth".
The divine plan is unfolding at an incredible pace and a few months ago Abba said 'Pace Makers' we are the pacemakers for humanity at this time; what form that takes is up to you and your divine mission agreed pre-destination. The more that people heal the self the more they find out what their divine purpose is.
Gerry and the Pacemakers - You'll Never Walk Alone
Peace beyond measure
This is post 9 in July, 9 = Completion and Divine Love.
The end of a cycle and the beginning of a new phase in the evolution of the souls of humanity. It is time for a new psychology and a new philosophy that is beneficial for the healing process of humanity.
In the ancient pictographs it is "Tet" the clay basket with the cross within the circle. The two crossed sticks that are symbolic of a sign or mark.
What do we put in the basket? Bread...the manna of God.
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Andorra - Politics, government, and taxation
Independent since 1278, for more than 7 centuries Andorra has been ruled jointly by the leader (the king, later the president) of France and by Spain's Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese of Urgel, who were acknowledged as "co-princes." Andorra's government, however, had no clear-cut division of powers into executive, legislative, and judiciary, as in most other (and virtually all democratic) states, until the late 20th century. Only in 1993 did Andorran voters approve their first written constitution, transferring all power to the parliamentary principality and proclaiming a sovereign parliamentary democracy. The constitution defined for the first time the rights and obligations of the citizens and the functions and specific terms of the separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the government.
The co-princes remained officially Andorra's heads of state, and they serve coequally, with limited powers and without the right to a veto over government acts. Presently, the co-princes are Jacques Chirac, the president of France, and Monseigneur Juan Marti, the bishop of Urgel. Naturally, they do not participate in person in the government's deliberations but are represented by delegates. As co-princes of Andorra, the president and the bishop maintain formally their supreme authority to approve international treaties with France and Spain, as well as all those state acts that deal with important internal security, defense, Andorran territory, diplomatic representation, and judicial or penal cooperation. Although the institution of the co-princes is viewed by many liberals as a medieval anachronism, the majority of the people of Andorra still regard them as an important symbolic element of their historical traditions and a practical way to mediate and balance the influence of both France and Spain. It is also worth mentioning that, until 1993, the principality of Andorra paid every other year, as the medieval treaties stipulated, a tribute worth US$2 to the French president and US$8 to the Spanish bishop. The bishop was additionally entitled to receive a contribution consisting of 6 hams, 6 cheeses, and a dozen live chickens.
The Andorran legislature is the General Council (founded in 1419), which has 28 members, elected to 4-year terms. There is universal suffrage in Andorra, with citizens over the age of 18 having the right to vote. At least one representative from each of the 7 parishes must be present for the General Council to meet. Historically, within the General Council, 4 deputies from each of the 7 parishes have been included in the representation. This arrangement lets the smaller parishes, who have fewer than 400 voters, be represented by the same number of delegates as the larger ones that have more than 2,500 voters. To correct this imbalance, the new constitution included a provision that introduced a modification of the process of electing the Council members; under this new arrangement, half of the delegates were to be selected by the traditional system by parishes and the other half elected from nationwide lists.
The executive power is vested in the Executive Council, headed by a president (in Catalan, the cap de govern, or head of government) who is chosen by the General Council and then formally appointed by the co-princes. The president appoints the other executive members of the council.
In the judiciary, civil cases are heard in the first instance by batlles (4-judge courts), with 2 judges each appointed by a co-prince. Appeals are heard by the one-judge Court of Appeals. The highest judicial body is the 5-member Superior Council of Justice. The Tribunal of Courts in Andorra la Vella hear all criminal cases. Andorra has no standing armed forces and only a small domestic professional police brigade. All able men possessing firearms serve without compensation in the reserve army, unique in treating all its men as officers. The army's principal responsibility is to carry the Andorran flag at official ceremonies; it has not fought a battle for more than 700 years.
Andorra's young democracy is in the process of redefining its political party system. In recent years, 3 out of the 5 parties that dominated the political scene have dissolved. The former Liberal Union (UL) is reshaping itself and changing its name to the Andorran Liberal Party (PLA), intending to offer a political umbrella to small parties and groups that have not yet consolidated. The currently ruling party is the PLA, led by the cap de govern , Marc Forne. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) attracts groups previously aligned with socialist ideals, and the third major party is the National Andorran Coalition (CAN). Given the number of parties and Andorra's size, no one party controls the General Council; therefore, legislative majorities arise through coalitions.
The fundamental impetus for the recent political transformation was a recommendation by the Council of Europe in 1990 that if Andorra wished to attain full integration in the European Union (EU), it should adopt a modern constitution which guarantees the rights of those living and working there. A Tripartite Commission made up of representatives of the co-princes, the General Council, and the Executive Council drafted the 1993 constitution. Since its adoption, the government has continued to address many other long-awaited reforms. In addition to legalizing political parties and trade unions for the first time, freedom of religion and assembly also have been guaranteed.
Since its sovereignty was established with the 1993 constitution, Andorra has become an active member of the international community. In 1993, it established its first diplomatic mission to the United Nations in New York, and in 1995, it established diplomatic relations with the United States. Andorra also has expanded relations with other nations and is a full member of many international organizations, such as the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Since 1991, Andorra has a trade agreement with the EU.
The Andorran government collects revenue through the sale of postage stamps and a very small number of local taxes.
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- The 15 Michigan schools running the biggest deficits
- You need to see these photos of the pet coke piles in Detroit
Fri February 11, 2011
Economic gardening? What's that?
When the Governor gave his State of the State speech, I was standing on the crowded floor of the House of Representatives. Governor Rick Snyder outlined his plans to get Michigan back to work. We all listened as he said the Michigan Economic Development Corporation would lead the way.
“The MEDC will recalibrate its efforts and become a better partner with these regional groups to enhance economic gardening, talent enhancement, and support service to companies.”
I was thrown by the phrase “economic gardening.” Certainly, it conjurs up some images: tending to needs of the economy, nurturing business, growing jobs. But, really, what does it mean?
To find out, I called up the guy who is most associated with ‘economic gardening.’ His name is Chris Gibbons and he’s the Director of Business and Industry Affairs at the City of Littleton, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.
He took ‘economic gardening’ from an academic exercise to creating jobs in his town. He says this is not ‘economic hunting,’ as in trying to lure companies… and it’s not business retention… just trying to keep companies from leaving.
“Our focus is on entrepreneurs and growth. And that takes you down different roads in terms of the kinds of tools and the kinds of things that you do.”
Gibbons says they target so-called ‘stage 2’ companies, typically ten to 100 employees and about $1-million to $50-million in sales that have the capacity and the intent to grow. Why those and not others? Because they create the jobs.
“Those ‘Stage 2’ companies, even though they’re typically between five and ten-percent of the population, usually are generating around 30-35-percent of the total jobs that are out there.”
This economic gardening is not just tax breaks or government loans, Gibbons says they help with mapping out strategy, researching the competition, exploring potential markets, and helping find employees with the specialized skills a company might need.
To do all that, an economic development agency gathers all kinds of databases and programs and resources that help companies find out where their challenges and opportunities are. And they do it fast. If they meet with a company in the morning, the expectation is they’ll have something for them that afternoon, not the typical, “We’ll get back to you in a week or two.”
And it seems to work. Where ‘economic gardening’ has been done correctly, the jobs have come. Although one economic development expert familiar with economic gardening says it should not be pursued to the exclusion of other approaches.
But, because it’s been such a success, the economic gardening model has been used by cities and regions around the country. Now states are picking it up. Michigan is one of nearly a dozen states looking at it or implementing economic gardening.
Finney says embracing economic gardening means a change in how his agency works with Michigan businesses.
“We were simply visiting companies and asking pretty simple questions or routine questions: ‘Are things going well,’ ‘Is your business growing,’ ‘Thank you, very much. I’ll see you in a year.’ What we really need to do is we need to probe it deeper. We need to understand beyond if a business is growing or not. We need to understand where their opportunities are.”
And they cannot do that from Lansing efficiently. So, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation will be working much more closely with the regional economic development groups around the state. Governor Snyder says he wants those state workers in the same offices as the local and regional people, getting to know local businesses better, finding out how they can help.
“So, economic gardening really takes it to another whole level where we really become very knowledgeable of a business’ challenges and growth opportunities and we find creative ways to assist those businesses.”
But before that happens, it appears Finney, his crew, and the Governor are going to have to get the rest of the state up to speed.
The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan regularly surveys local government leaders throughout the state. Tom Ivacko is one of the researchers who reports on the surveys.
“There is, I think, not a great understanding among Michigan local officials about what economic gardening is today. We did ask whether or not local officials are providing support to existing businesses in terms of economic gardening and among all jurisdictions in the state, just over a quarter of these jurisdictions say they are doing something like this, providing support to existing local businesses.”
But, that means 75-percent either never had heard of ‘economic gardening’ or they weren’t using aspects of the approach.
Ivacko says it appears that at least some of the local government leaders see it as some kind of approach to business retention…
“The most common type of activities that these local officials report undertaking are more of the old-school type economic development activities, things like providing tax abatements. That’s not a core activity in a pure sense of economic gardening.”
Ivacko says a few local governments are using aspects of economic gardening, but it’s not clear whether they actually realize they're engaged in that approach.
Mayors, city managers and county commissioners are going to be hearing a lot more about it in the very near future.
At the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Michael Finney says business leaders like the idea that the State of Michigan is planning to commit a lot of its resources to assist existing companies with growth.
"The message that we’re getting back is that this concept of economic gardening is one that makes an awful lot of sense. Existing companies are enthusiastic about it. And it should help us grow companies that are already here.”
Michael Finney says getting the state's economy back on its feet is going to be helped by quickly assisting certain existing businesses to get the information and the help they need to grow. Rather than every business or every regional economic development group having to invest in huge amounts of money for research material, the state will gather it, make sense of it, work with companies to see how it applies to them and if it all goes according to plan, economic gardening could produce jobs.
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CARICOM Secretariat, Guyana -- Oct. 21, 2010 -- The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is looking to streamline its tertiary education system by setting up a Regional Tertiary Education Council.
Oct. 8, 2010 -- Students in the OAS member state of Antigua and Barbuda are set to benefit from an historic partnership, signed on Thursday between the Leo S. Rowe Pan American Fund of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Antigua and Barbuda Development Bank (ABDB).
OECS Secretariat, Castries, St. Lucia, Sept 9th, 2010 -- A new and harmonized Common Entrance Examination for 6 graders in the OECS is to be discussed at the 21st meeting of OECS Ministers for Education to be held in the British Virgin Islands from September 14th to 17th 2010.
Bridgetown -- Sept. 8, 2010 -- A Government Minister is calling on Barbados' tertiary institutions to restructure their curricula to include courses in alternative energy.
Port-au-Prince -- Aug. 17, 2010 - At a board meeting of the Interim Haitian Recovery Commission, the Inter-American Development Bank today committed to raising $500 million for an overhaul of the Haitian education system.
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Mobile Misfits Among Us:
Intel Survey Reveals 9 out of 10 U.S.
Adults Annoyed by Some Mobile Behaviors
Driving While Texting, Loud Talkers Top Complaints;
Yet, Most Don't Think They are Culprits Themselves
back to top News Highlights
- The news -- A recent Intel Corporation sponsored survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, confirmed what many already know: people's mobile etiquette is not what it should be.
- The context --Results of the survey found that 9 out of 10 people are annoyed by some mobile behaviors, but only 38% actually admit to personal wrongdoing when it comes to texting in the company of others. The survey also identified top mobile etiquette offenses and strange places where people have been spotted using mobile devices.
- Why it matters --With the introduction of netbooks, top performance laptops shrinking in size and the growing segment of 'ultra-thin' laptops at super affordable prices, it's not surprising that more and more people are taking their technology with them. However, it's important to remember to tech responsibly and mind one's mobile manners. Intel expert Genevieve Bell provides tips on the proper mobile etiquette.
To test your mobile etiquette or to share your mobile etiquette experiences, visit the Intel Fan Page on Facebook.Click here for the full story
back to top Latest News and Information
- Intel Study Reveals Importance of Keeping Tech Tasteful During the Holidays
Survey Finds Most U.S. Adults Won't Tolerate Mobile Technology Etiquette Violations, Especially During Holiday Gatherings
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 19, 2009 - According to the recent "Intel Holiday Mobile Etiquette" study conducted by Harris Interactive* and sponsored by Intel Corporation, most online U.S. adults (80 percent) feel there are unspoken rules about mobile technology usage, and approximately 7 in 10 (69 percent) agreed that violations of these unspoken mobile etiquette guidelines, such as checking e-mails, sending text messages and making phone calls while in the company of others, are unacceptable.
back to top Multimedia
View and download product images, logos and photos
back to top Quotes
- "We have more and more technology in our lives - much of it in our handbags, backpacks, and pockets as well as our homes, offices and even cars. It is hardly surprising that we are still working out what is socially appropriate and what isn't - we are still developing our techno-etiquettes," said Genevieve Bell, an Intel Fellow and cultural anthropologist who studies technology and culture.
back to top Social Media
Join the Discussion
Mobile Manners Giveaway
Due to advancements in chip technology from Intel, we have more technology in our lives - and handbags, backpacks, and pockets - so it's no surprise that we are still working out what is socially appropriate and what isn't.
Test your techno-etiquette or share your mobile manners experiences with others. From June 22, 2009 to July 25, 2009 do one of the following four activities to be eligible to win an Acer Timeline laptop with Intel® Core™2 Duo ultra low voltage processor, approximate retail value of $899USD:
- If you are at the BlogHer conference in Chicago on July 24 & 24, 2009 come by the Intel booth in the "Geek Lab" in the Chicago VIII ballroom at the Chicago Sheraton and fill take the "mobile manners" online quiz or share a quick video confession of mobile mishaps you've witnessed.
- Tweet about your biggest mobile etiquette victory or faux paus using the hashtag #IntelBlogHer09 or #mobilemanners
- Create a post about mobile etiquette and reference hashtag #IntelBlogHer09 or #mobilemanners
- Join the Intel Fan Facebook page and leave a comment about one of the "Mobile Manners" photos or videos
Follow the Story on Twitter*
Test Your Mobile Etiquette
|Share, Bookmark and Stay Connected|
back to top Full Story
Mobile Misfits Among Us: Intel Survey Reveals 9 out of 10 U.S. Adults Annoyed by Some Mobile Behaviors
Driving While Texting, Loud Talkers Top Complaints; Yet, Most Don't Think They are Culprits Themselves
SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 17 2009 - 90 percent of U.S. adults are frustrated by others' etiquette or lack thereof when using mobile devices, including laptops, netbooks and smart phones in certain places according to the recent "Mobile Etiquette" survey conducted by Harris Interactive* and sponsored by Intel Corporation.
Nine of 10 adults had a pet peeve with 72 percent of adults reporting that their top annoyance is when others text or type on their mobile devices while driving a car. As for other pet peeves, 63 percent of adults cited talking loudly on an Internet-enabled device in public as irritating, as well as discussing private matters in public (55 percent) and texting or typing on such devices while in the presence of others (54 percent).
The survey also found that while the majority of adults have pet peeves, only one-third (38 percent) admit to being mobile etiquette offenders themselves when it comes to texting in the company of others.
Key Survey Findings
According to the survey, more than 80 percent of adults have witnessed someone doing something strange while on a call or accessing the Internet via a mobile device. This is not surprising, as many adults are computing on the go with smaller, lightweight netbooks, laptops and mobile phones. Top responses for strange mobile etiquette behavior ranged from making a cashier wait until a phone call is completed and texting while driving. Other responses included using a laptop in a public bathroom and hearing typing and conversations at a church, funeral and doctor's office.
Eighty-two percent of adults have been annoyed by others inappropriately using Internet enabled-devices in public places. More than half of adults (56 percent) report being annoyed by people who do not follow mobile etiquette rules in cafes and restaurants, and close to half (47 percent) felt the same way about movie theaters and concert venues. About four out of 10 (41 percent) adults mentioned retail and grocery stores as top spots where they are annoyed by mobile etiquette offenders, while about a quarter of adults (26 percent) listed public restrooms.
Still, only 38 percent of adults admitted at least sometimes texting or typing while in the company of others on their own devices. While 55 percent said it bothered them when others discussed private matters in public on their mobile phones and devices, only 28 percent of adults admitted they at least sometimes engaged in the same behavior.
Smaller, Lighter Mobile Devices Give Way to New Mobile Etiquette
"We have more and more technology in our lives - much of it in our handbags, backpacks, and pockets as well as our homes, offices and even cars. It is hardly surprising that we are still working out what is socially appropriate and what isn't - we are still developing our techno-etiquettes," said Genevieve Bell, an Intel Fellow and cultural anthropologist who studies technology and culture.
Even as new techno-etiquettes are getting sorted out, Bell says, we can look to common sense, government regulations and the kinds of things our parents and teachers told us for guidance:
- Experts agree typing and texting while driving is distracting and dangerous, not to mention really bad ergonomically. Do yourself and your fellow drivers a favor, keep the laptops closed and devices put away, or pull over before you type your next message or email - in some place around the world, failure to do this will earn you a ticket or worse.
- It turns out mobile devices don't have secret cloaking properties or their own little cones of silence. So until they do, if it's a conversation you wouldn't want overheard, take your mobile device to a secluded area and keep the details between you and the person on the other end of the line.
- Bell recently had dinner with a man who confessed that he was the only man in the restroom not using a Blackberry* - he couldn't decide whether to feel appalled or left out. Sure sometimes, you just have to make that call, but there are some places that we can all mostly agree should be considered off-limits. These locations include public restrooms, locker rooms, places of worship and restaurants while in the company of others, and especially while on a date -- unless you need to be rescued, but that's a different social etiquette.
- My mom taught me that sharing was good; yours probably taught you the same thing. Turns out she wasn't always right. When watching videos on your computer in public, be sure to use your headphones -- not everyone wants to share with you. Additionally, it's rude to peer over someone else's shoulder, so be sure not to let your eyes wander onto another person's mobile device - unless of course you are dying to know what the new app is or the brand of that hopelessly sexy mobile phone.
- And while we are on the subject of sharing, the electric outlets at the local coffee shop or airport with Wi-Fi service are meant for the masses. If others are waiting, unplug and share the electric wealth, or do as one of my dear friends does and carry a power strip - you will make friends immediately.
- Some people can't walk and chew gum at the same time. I am one of them. Many more can't text or type while walking. I am one of them, too. So I have learnt through bitter experience, stubbed toes and faint embarrassment to take a second, come to a stop and finish typing that message. Otherwise you risk walking into people, bumping into fire hydrants or creating a big, mobile etiquette mess.
This survey was conducted online between April 8-10, 2009 within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Intel. Participants included 2,160 adults, ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact the media contact above.
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world's computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.
Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
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News About the Status of Butternut From Perdue University
From Keith Woeste, U.S. Forest Service Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center (HTIRC)
Dear Friends of butternut;
This letter and THIS CLICKABLE PDF FILE are about butternut (Juglans cinerea). We are providing them to keep you informed about what is happening with butternut and butternut-related research, especially at Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center (HTIRC). HTIRC is research collaboration between the USDA Forest Service (Northern Research Station) and Purdue University (http://www.HTIRC.org).
The PDF file contains a description of the mission of HTIRC with respect to butternut, some photos, descriptions of ongoing butternut research, and links to some butternut-related websites.
Many hundreds of foresters, biologists, naturalists and landowners have contacted HTIRC over the past 10 years about butternut. I cannot thank you enough for your pictures and samples and other contributions to our work. I have only ‘met’ most of you by email after you contacted HTIRC. In some cases, your interest and willingness to help were so great that our staff and resources were overwhelmed by the volume of samples and requests. As a consequence, at times I didn’t reply to some inquiries in a timely manner or with all the data you requested. I am sorry for that, and I wish I had more time and resources to offer. Butternut canker is only one of many threats to the sustainability of the eastern hardwood forest, a resource we all value. At a time when funds are scarce, the best way forward is to communicate and cooperate. We do want to hear from you if you have thoughts about research priorities or research opportunities, or if you have resources that may help.
There is no “Butternut Society” or other organized group especially for butternut recovery—at least none that I am aware of. So for now, we will do our best to keep you informed with periodic letters and updates to our website. There is much to do if we are to succeed in keeping butternut a vital part of the eastern hardwood forest. We improve our chances if we all pull together. We expect that updates about butternut will be provided on an occasional basis—certainly no more frequently than twice each year.
Write to me at email@example.com if you have any questions or need additional information. My complete contact information is below. Please share this information with anyone who you think will be interested in it.
U.S. Forest Service Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center (HTIRC)
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Pfendler Hall, Purdue University
715 West State Street, West Lafayette IN 47907-2061
phone: 765-496-6808Explore posts in the same categories: Plant Pathology, Uncategorized
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A modern dictionary of Catholic terms, both common and obscure. Find accurate definitions of words and phrases.
Members of the Congregation of the Mission founded by St. Vincent de Paul in 1625. Also known as Lazarists from the Place de St. Lazare, which was St. Vincent's headquarters in Paris. THe original work of the congregation was the preaching of popular missions and conducting retreats. Later on seminaries were established. Vincentians form a society of common life. They are secular priests living in community under religious vows. Their present apostolate is mission work, conducting seminaries, directing the Daughters and Ladies of Charity, education and spiritual exercises to priests, religious, and the laity.
All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
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How to Live a ‘Green’ Life
Students interested in the environment, theatre collaborate on play
Students from Southwestern who are interested in the environment are collaborating with students interested in theatre for social justice to try a new approach to environmental awareness.
The two groups have developed a travelling show that will take people to different places on campus where students encounter decisions that affect the environment. The show, titled “Sam I Am,” will feature a student named Sam who doesn’t know where to start to live a “green” life.
Performances will be given at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 31; Saturday, Nov. 1; and Sunday, Nov. 2. Those interested in seeing the show should gather in the atrium of Mood-Bridwell Hall.
“The show offers a realistic outlook on the small acts of kindness that can start to save the world,” said Connor Hanrahan, a junior who is involved with SEAK, the student environmental group on campus. “We’ll travel across campus to introduce the audience to multiple ways that they can make a difference in preserving our most precious resources without dedicating their lives to activism. After the show, they’ll be equipped with all of the tools they need to stop feeling too small to help, and start feeling empowered to make changes.” Hanrahan said he hopes those who see the show will enjoy the energy and excitement that emanates from activism.
“Most of the members of SEAK didn’t even start being ‘activists’ until they came to Southwestern,” he said. “It’s not something that you’re born with, or that you have to do for a living. Activism is just a mindset − it means that you actively engage with the world, its inhabitants and the environment. The reason we love it is that we love the people who are involved. When you have a group of activated individuals, there’s an energy that connects everybody.”
Amy Litzinger, one of the directors of the show, said the Theatre for Social Justice group plans to collaborate with other student organizations in the future to use theatre to further a variety of causes.
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That’s a word, folks. I like this word, “violaceous.” It sounds a bit like “bodacious,” which can either mean “bold and audacious” or a kind of iris. So with this word: it can mean “a violet color,” or violets.
In the spirit of a violet color, then, these little delights from near the Marys River in Oregon are violaceous.
One can also make an argument for “audacious,” considering how late in the season they were blooming.
A lot of plants around here are audacious. The abundance of water makes the buggers all sorts of bold. Bodacious they are – they’ll colonize just about anything. I’ve seen the most delicate-looking plants poking out of the most unlikely places.
Not that right alongside a river is an unlikely place. But vigorously blooming in October, that’s a little more on the bodacious side. I like the risk-takers at the beginning and end of the season. I’m hoping it wasn’t a more timid species deceived by the fine weather.
I didn’t try these, but they look vaguely like the flowers we used to pluck as kids and slurp sweet little slugs of nectar out of. It would pool at the base of the long flower. And it was extremely yummy. But these days, I have a horror of destroying flowers just to get a sip of nectar, and I don’t know if these were edible anyway. They might be. Many things up here are fairly kind.
There are many bodacious and violaceous flowers here in the Pacific Northwest. I hope to make the acquaintance of them all.
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HowToForge.com has a new tutorail posted today that aims to show you how to run both PHP4 and PHP5
on a single Apache2 web server.
This tutorial shows how to install and configure Apache2 with PHP5 and PHP4 enabled at the same time. Because it is not possible to run both PHP5 and PHP4 as Apache modules, we must run one of them as CGI, the other one as Apache module. In this document I will use PHP5 as Apache module and PHP4 as CGI, and I will describe the setup for the Linux distributions Debian Sarge (3.1) and Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger).
I want to say first that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!
They base the entire installation around Debian, so ideally you're set up on it or have some pretty good knowledge of linux in general. They apt-get install several packages, change some Apache config files, enable some modules, and restart things to get it all set up. The Ubuntu install is just about as easy, wiht only really a few items changed.
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Chicago’s Field Museum Unveils "Water" Exhibit
Underwriters Laboratories is a sponsor of the exhibition, which runs through Sept. 20
The Field Museum’s “Water” exhibit, which focuses on how people use water and the future of clean water supplies, opened Wednesday, June 17, and runs through Sunday, Sept. 20.
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has partnered with The Field Museum as a sponsor of the exhibit, along with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., The Wege Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, City of Chicago Department of Water Management, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and the Oberweiler Foundation.
"UL's Global Water business provides safety testing and certification programs focused on drinking water and the products and systems that deliver it," said Jeffrey Smith, general manager, UL Global Water Business. "This partnership with The Field Museum raises awareness for safe drinking water globally while educating consumers on various water quality and quantity issues and the role UL plays in each of these important areas."
The Water exhibition aims to teach visitors about the importance of Earth's most vital and fleeting resource, according to The Field Museum. Visitors will examine how living things adapt to extremes of wet and dry environments, and learn how human behavior alters precious aquatic ecosystems. People will be inspired by conservation efforts from around the world and discover what their families can do to protect and conserve our planet's water. Through hands-on activities, immersive dioramas and artifacts, Water presents life's essential element uniting us, surrounding us, and challenging us.
UL has developed a number of educational efforts focused on teaching children about water quality. Earlier this year, UL released
“Wild About Safety--Timon and Pumbaa Safety Smart Goes Green!” a classroom-edition DVD developed through a partnership between UL and various units of The Walt Disney Co. “Safety Smart Goes Green!” teaches children what they can do to help our environment.
"We all need to do our part to protect the global water supply," said Smith. "While UL is continually working to enhance and expand its drinking water testing capabilities and educational outreach, families can contribute by conserving water use at home and buying water delivery products that are tested for safety."
More Like This
- World Touring Museum Exhibit Features Ground Water Thanks to Foundation Grant
- Child-Friendly Demo Sets Afloat New Water Exhibit at Children's Museum
- American Water Funds 2009 Environmental Grant Programs
- Mobile Learning Lab Brings Environmental Education to Students
- RiverMobile Educates Young People About Water Protection
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The revelations represent the first evidence that the elder Bush has benefited from the transfer of public lands to private hands in a giant scheme to defraud federal and state governments, as well as the American taxpayers and Native Americans.
The land-grabbing scheme primarily involves the transfer of federal lands, including Native American lands and national forest system lands, in the Rocky Mountain West, state lands in Texas, and both federal and state lands in California, Mississippi, and Florida to private entities. The scheme is also at the center of the scandal surrounding jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff who conspired to privatize federal lands and assets around the country to benefit his corporate clients.
In 2004, under pressure from Abramoff and the White House, Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Jim Gibbons (R-NV) shepherded the passage of the Western Shoshone Distribution Act, which was quickly signed by President George W. Bush. The act settled federal violations of the Ruby Valley Treaty of 1863 with the Shoshones and compensated them a mere $135 million for 24 million acres of Shoshone land illegally seized by the federal government in Nevada, California, Utah, and Idaho. The Shoshones cried foul, saying their land is rich in gold reserves. Gibbons, who is now governor of Nevada, instantly moved legislation to privatize the former Shoshone lands. Reid, Gibbons, and Senator John Ensign (R-NV), all received lucrative cash contributions to their campaigns from Abramoff clients.
Bush White House official Jennifer Farley urged passage of the bill claiming that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were personally interested in its enactment, further adding that the legislation was considered “hot.” Cheney paid a visit to Nevada as the Senate voted to pass the bill.
The Washington Post reported that Farley and Karl Rove were recipients of sporting event tickets from Abramoff’s assistant Kevin Ring, arrested and jailed this past week for his involvement in the Abramoff bribery scandal. Farley termed tickets as “fruit” in her conversations with Ring. Abramoff, already serving a prison sentence for a guilty verdict from a Florida case, received an additional four years in prison last week for his role in the scandal, which has tainted a number of Republicans in Congress, as well as senior members of the Bush administration. Tony Rudy, another Abramoff assistant and a former deputy chief of staff to former Texas Republican Representative Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty in the bribery scandal.
WMR has also learned that the Bush administration ordered a number of California and other Western state forest wildfires purposefully set with the intention of damaging and destroying federal and state forestlands, thus making them ripe for exploitation and sale to private interests. California Republican Representative John Doolittle, also under investigation in the Abramoff bribery scandal, promoted the passage of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which permitted national forests to be purposefully thinned by timber companies to make them less susceptible to the fires, exacerbated by global warming, that were being set by others within the Bush administration. The purposeful destruction of federal forests was carried out with the knowledge of top officials of the Interior Department under both Interior Secretaries Gale Norton and Dirk Kempthorne.
In 2003, California law enforcement concluded that a number of devastating fires that destroyed 718,000 acres in the state were the result of arson. Some within the Bush administration suggested that “Al Qaeda” terrorists could be behind the blazes. It now appears that it was the Bush administration that was the actual terrorists in carrying out the arson to enrich their friends in the real estate, Indian gambling casino, mining, and other exploitation industries.
In Florida, under both Governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, the St. Joe Company, a firm that has close financial ties to both Jeb and George H. W. Bush, has steadily encroached on lands adjacent to state and federal wildlife management preserves, state forests and parks, and national forests.
TVNL Comment: As we said, welcome to Bush's ownership society!
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You are here
Awards for Brush and Morrison
NCSE is proud and delighted to congratulate Stephen G. Brush and David Morrison -- both members of NCSE -- on their recent prestigious awards.
Stephen G. Brush, Distinguished University Professor of the History of Science at the University of Maryland and a Supporter of NCSE, was named as the 2004 recipient of the Geological Society of America's History of Geology Award. In addition to his three-volume history of modern planetary physics, the announcement in the newsletter of GSA's History of Geology division mentioned his classic 1982 paper "Finding the Age of the Earth: By Physics or by Faith?" (Journal of Geological Education 30: 34-58), describing it as "a marvelous critique of claims by creationists that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, coupled with an exposition of the radiometric dating method." His award will be presented at the GSA's annual meeting in Denver on November 6, 2004.
The American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) has awarded its 2004 Carl Sagan Medal to NASA scientist David Morrison. The Sagan Medal is awarded annually by the DPS, the world's largest organization of planetary scientists, to an active member researcher for long-term excellence in communicating planetary science to the public. Throughout his distinguished science career as an expert on solar system small bodies and as an investigator for numerous spacecraft missions, including Voyager and Galileo, Morrison has enthusiastically dedicated himself to sharing the excitement of planetary exploration with the public. He will receive the award at the organization's annual meeting to be held November 8-12, 2004, in Louisville, Kentucky. Presently the senior scientist for the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Morrison recently contributed a pair of articles on astrobiology -- "The Astrobiological Perspective on Life's Origin" and "Astrobiology and the Search for Alien Life" -- to Reports of the NCSE.
(San Francisco Chronicle on Morrison's award)
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Acey Boyce and Katelyn Doran are both graduate students in Computer Science. It’s not unusual that would they spend several hours each week poring over lessons plans, guiding students through complex assignments and working on new video game designs. What makes them stand out is that they are doing this with a bunch of students from Martin Luther King Middle School.
Boyce and Doran are part of UNC Charlotte’s collaboration with Citizen Schools, the Boston-based initiative founded in 1995 to extend the school day for students in low-performing schools. In the 10-week after-school apprenticeship program, community professionals lead hands-on workshops in everything from cooking to health care to engineering to science.
“Our focus is on middle school because that’s where we lose the kids. That’s when they decide if school is for them or not,” says Cassie McIntyre, director of civic engagement for Citizen Schools of North Carolina.
This innovative model seems to be working. Nationally, nine of out 10 Citizen Schools’ students passed state math and English exams. They also go on to graduate at a 20 percent higher rate than their peers who do not participate in the program.
The partnership is in its sixth semester. So far, about 20 students from the Computer Science and Psychology departments have led the apprenticeships at Eastway and Martin Luther King middle schools, both Title One schools where more than 50 percent of students receive free or reduced lunch and lag behind their peers in academic performance.
U.S. Students Slip in Rankings
In a recent survey comparing the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries, the United States slipped in the standings, ranking 14th in reading skills, 17th in science and 25th in mathematics. It’s hard to keep pace when, compared to other nations, U.S. students have a shorter school day and school year. They currently spend just 20 percent of their waking hours in the classroom. Severe budget cuts are causing a further reduction in classroom time and school resources.
– Cassie McIntyre
Citizen Schools of North Carolina
While some families can address the gap with enrichment programs and online learning, many low-income kids lack those opportunities. Citizen Schools was established to fill that gap.
Each participating student spends an extra 12 hours per week in a learning environment, giving them the time and flexibility they need to get engaged and pursue their interests. Educators provide the kind of experiential teaching that makes learning relevant and fun.
The partnership between the Computer Science Department and Citizen Schools began when the Diversity in Information Technology Institute at UNC Charlotte received a $2 million National Science Foundation grant to fund the STARS (Students & Technology in Academia, Research, & Service) Alliance. The mission of the alliance is to recruit more women, under-represented minorities, and persons with disabilities into the computing field.
“There is a national need for more people in information technology and computing,” says Karen Bean, UNC Charlotte’s program coordinator for the Diversity in Technology Institute. “Over the last few years, there has been a decline in the number of students who entered and stayed in the field of computing. We’re trying to turn that around by building a community of students who might not have not thought about computing as a career.”
Building Girls' Self-Esteem
Meanwhile, the Department of Psychology’s involvement with Citizen Schools takes a different tack.
Developed by doctoral students and led by department interns, a “Beautiful Girls” curriculum was designed specifically for the girls at Eastway Middle School to increase self-esteem and help adolescents feel good about their bodies.
“There is a holistic health perspective where they learn about nutrition and get to sample foods they probably haven’t had before,” says Suzanne Schoenefeld, the liaison between the Psychology department and Citizen Schools. “The girls learn that being beautiful isn’t just one set perspective and that everyone is beautiful in their own way. At the end of the course, they have also learned to be kinder and more respectful of each other.”
Schoenefeld and Doran are quick to point out the less tangible benefits they get from impacting the students’ lives. “These kids tell us, ‘I want to go to college,’” Doran says. “That’s huge. Six months earlier, a lot of them didn’t even plan on finishing high school.”
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Some adjectives are followed by a preposition. It can be confusing for English learners because there are no rules to help you remember which prepositions are used with which adjectives. The best way to learn is through practice.
The following seven adjectives are all used with the preposition of.
Example: The letter I wrote was full of mistakes.
Add the correct adjective to complete each sentence:
- 1. I don't like going up ladders. I'm of heights.
- 2. Everyone is of the dangers of smoking.
- 3. We're of staff in our office at the moment. We need more people to do the work.
- 4. We've got plenty to eat. The fridge is of food.
- 5. I'm not surprised he changed his mind at the last moment. That's of him.
- 6. Sue is much more successful than I am. Sometimes I feel a bit of her.
- 7. She is a very honest person. I don't think she is of telling a lie.
- 8. I'm not very of repairing things.
- 9. He is late again. It's of him to keep everybody waiting.
- 10. I'm a bit of money. Can you lend me some?
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Source: U.S. Meat Export Federation
U.S. beef and pork exports set new value records in 2012, topping highs set in 2011, according to end-of-year statistics released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).
The achievement was more significant in light of challenging export conditions that included non-science-based trade barriers in several key markets and an anemic economy in certain regions.
"The export markets are a critical profit center for the industry at a time when the industry is challenged by high input costs and, on the beef side, a historically low herd size," said Philip Seng, USMEF president and CEO. "2012 saw record highs for per-head export values for both pork and beef at a time when those returns were sorely needed by producers."
Pork exports set both volume and value records last year, reaching 2.26 million mt – up a fraction from the record set in 2011 – valued at $6.3 billion, a 3.5 percent increase over the prior year’s record.
The per-head export value of U.S. pork exports set another record in 2012, reaching $55.87, up 1 percent from 2011. For the year, exports accounted for 27 percent of total pork production and 23.4 percent of pork muscle cut production versus 27.5 percent and 23 percent, respectively, in 2011.
The value of beef exports for the year rose 2 percent to a record-high $5.51 billion on 12 percent lower volumes (1.13 million mt).
The per-head export value for beef hit $216.73, a $10.36 increase over 2011. Contributing to that was a new monthly record value of $242.65 set in December.
For the year, U.S. beef exports accounted for 12.7 percent of total beef production and 9.8 percent of muscle cut production. This compares to 14.2 percent and 11 percent, respectively, in 2011.
Records Set in 2012
In addition to the new standards noted above, one-year export records were set in several key export markets:
- Mexico: 600,949 mt (12 percent increase) valued at $1.126 billion (8 percent increase)
- Canada: 235,604 mt (14 percent increase) valued at $855.7 million (16 percent increase)
- Central/South America: 90,897 mt (26 percent increase) valued at $227.9 million (22 percent increase)
- Australia/New Zealand: 76,801 mt (9 percent increase) valued at $236.1 million (5 percent increase)
- Russia: 80,408 mt (10 percent increase) valued at $307.5 million (20 percent increase)
- Hong Kong: 65,033 mt (28 percent increase) valued at $339.5 million (43 percent increase)
- Central/South America: 33,891 mt (31 percent increase) valued at $134.1 million (57 percent increase)
- Canada: $1.177 billion (14 value increase even though volume dipped 6 percent to 180,015 mt)
Top 5 Value Export Markets for 2012
- Japan – $1.986 billion
- Mexico – $1.126 billion
- China/Hong Kong – $886.2 million
- Canada – $855.7 million
- South Korea – $421.1 million
- Canada – $1.177 billion
- Japan – $1.03 billion (surpassing the $1 billion mark for the first time since 2003)
- Mexico – $822.4 million
- South Korea – $582 million
- Hong Kong – $339.5 million
Looking ahead, the outlook for 2013 appears positive for both the U.S. beef and pork industries, according to Seng.
"There are many factors that go into projecting 12 months into the future, but as we continue to focus our efforts on markets that offer the greatest potential for growth, we are optimistic that 2013 will give us the opportunity to maintain the momentum we have seen in pork exports while rebounding in beef," he said.The recent opening of Japan to U.S. beef under 30 months of age contributes to a projected growth in beef exports of 4 percent in volume (to 1.17 million mt) valued at more than $6 billion. That total may be tempered if issues with exports to Russia are not resolved.
The projection for pork calls for steady to slight growth, with exports likely to still exceed 2.2 million mt valued at more than $6 billion with key risk factors including Russia and domestic production in China. On the bullish side, U.S. pork is an extremely versatile, high quality protein at a great value that will gain market share in key export markets. Continued growth to top volume market Mexico is also expected to boost the bottom line.
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In the past, the literature has quoted Jupiter amounts of exotic matter/negative pressure necessary to implement a “useful” warp bubble, making the idea mostly of academic interest at best. However, sensitivity analysis started by White in 2011 and completed this year has shown that the energy requirements can be greatly reduced by first optimizing the warp bubble thickness, and further by oscillating the bubble intensity to reduce the stiffness of space time. The results, to be presented at the 2012 100 Year Starship Symposium in Houston, will discuss the findings in detail, but have yielded a reduction from Jupiter amount of exotic matter to an amount smaller than the Voyager 1 spacecraft (500kg) for a 10-meter bubble with an effective velocity of 10c, which is a handy improvement.
The Eagleworks Q-thruster experiment attempts to utilize applied scientific research in the fields of quantum vacuum, gravitation, the nature of space-time, and other fundamental phenomenon to realize the possibility of an ultra-high Isp propulsion solution. Through these underpinnings, it is mathematically possible to employ the vacuum particle/anti-particle “sea” and utilize it as propellant reaction mass. Previous QVPT tests have generated possible thrust signals in the milli-Newton range and hinted at Isp’s on the order of 10^12 seconds. This iteration aims to validate or refute the present evidence in order to push forward in pursuit of breakthrough propulsion physics. For the exhibit, we will present a conceptual visualization of these effects, and provide a summary of present data and future plans.
Talk Polywell comment -
A "boost" of 100, combined with a 'starter velocity' of 0.1c, yields an apparent velocity of 10c.
100 * 0.1 = 10
Talk Polywell has a comment from Paul March who has worked on Mach Effect propulsion and nuclear propulsion.
If Dr. White's 4D+ theoretical conjecture on this warp field topic is correct, and I say if for we have no data yet to back it up until our back-ordered replacement laser shows up in the lab, we should be able to make the required inertially exotic mass requirement as small as desired dependent on the selected starting velocity, desired boost factor and how fast we can vary the warp-field's potential energy field about its mean value, which is dependent on how much power our RF generators can handle. However the higher the effective boost velocity becomes, the more ac potential energy one has to store in the warp-field and we all know what can happen to pressure vessels when they are pushed too far...
We have covered the initiation of this project 6 months ago.
How much energy is in the Quantum Vacuum? Using the Plank frequency as upper cutoff yields a prediction of ~10^114 J/m3. Current astronomical observations put the critical density at 1*10^-26 kg/m3. The vast difference between QED prediction and observation is not currently understood. Is there a way to utilize this sea of virtual particles and photons (radiation pressure) to transfer momentum from a spacecraft to the vacuum?
A number of approaches have been detailed in the literature and synopsized: Vacuum sails that develop a net force by having materials on either side with different optical properties; Inertia control by altering vacuum energy density and reducing total spacecraft mass thus minimizing kinetic energy and amount of work needed to accelerate a spacecraft; and dynamic systems that make use of the dynamic Casimir force to generate a net force.
Recent models developed by Harold White suggests that there are ways to increase the net force, and these models have been validated against data at both the cosmological scale, the quantum level, and test devices have been fabricated/ tested in the lab and found to agree with model predictions.
ASA/JSC is implementing an advanced propulsion physics laboratory, informally known as "Eagleworks", to pursue propulsion technologies necessary to enable human exploration of the solar system over the next 50 years, and enabling interstellar spaceflight by the end of the century. This work directly supports the "Breakthrough Propulsion" objectives detailed in the NASA OCT TA02 In-space Propulsion Roadmap, and aligns with the #10 Top Technical Challenge identified in the report. Since the work being pursued by this laboratory is applied scientific research in the areas of the quantum vacuum, gravitation, nature of space-time, and other fundamental physical phenomenon, high fidelity testing facilities are needed. The lab will first implement a low-thrust torsion pendulum (less than 1 micronewton), and commission the facility with an existing Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thruster. To date, the QVPT line of research has produced data suggesting very high specific impulse coupled with high specific force. If the physics and engineering models can be explored and understood in the lab to allow scaling to power levels pertinent for human spaceflight, 400kW SEP human missions to Mars may become a possibility, and at power levels of 2MW, 1-year transit to Neptune may also be possible. Additionally, the lab is implementing a warp field interferometer that will be able to measure spacetime disturbances down to 150nm. Recent work published by White suggests that it may be possible to engineer spacetime creating conditions similar to what drives the expansion of the cosmos. Although the expected magnitude of the effect would be tiny, it may be a "Chicago pile" moment for this area of physics.
Eagleworks Laboratories: Advanced Propulsion Physics Research, Dr. Harold “Sonny” White, Paul March, Nehemiah Williams, William O’Neill NASA Johnson Space Center (9 pages)
How does a Q thruster work
How does a Q-thruster work? A Q-thruster uses the same principles and equations of motion that a conventional plasma thruster would use, namely Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), to predict propellant behavior. The virtual plasma is exposed to a crossed E and B-field which induces a plasma drift of the entire plasma in the ExB direction which is orthogonal to the applied fields. The difference arises in the fact that a Q-thruster uses quantum vacuum fluctuations as the fuel source eliminating the need to carry propellant. This suggests much higher specific impulses are available for QVPT systems limited only by their power supply’s energy storage densities. Historical test results have yielded thrust levels of between 1000-4000 micro-Newtons, specific force performance of 0.1N/kW, and an equivalent specific impulse of ~1x10^12 seconds. Figure 4 shows a test article and the thrust trace from a 500g load cell.
The near term focus of the laboratory work is focused on gathering performance data to support development of a Q-thruster engineering prototype targeting Reaction Control System (RCS) applications with force range of 0.1-1 N with corresponding input power range of 0.3-3 kW. Up first will be testing of a refurbished test article to duplicate historical performance on the high fidelity torsion pendulum (1-4 mN at 10 to 40 W). The team is maintaining a dialogue with the ISS national labs office for an on orbit DTO.
How would Q-thrusters revolutionize human exploration of the outer planets? Making minimal extrapolation of performance, assessments show that delivery of a 50 mT payload to Jovian orbit can be accomplished in 35 days with a 2 MW power source [specific force of thruster (N/kW) is based on potential measured thrust performance in lab, propulsion mass (Q-thrusters) would be additional 20 mT (10 kg/kW), and associate power system would be 20 mT (10 kg/kW)]. Q-thruster performance allows the use of nuclear reactor technology that would not require MHD conversion or other more complicated schemes to accomplish single digit specific mass performance usually required for standard electric propulsion systems to the outer solar system. In 70 days, the same system could reach the orbit of Saturn. Figure 5 illustrates the performance capabilities of this advanced propulsion concept for transforming outer solar system exploration
Warp Field Interferometer
Recent work published by White suggests that it may be possible to engineer spacetime creating conditions similar to what drives the expansion of the cosmos. The canonical form of the Alcubierre metric as derived in provides new insight into how a test device could be constructed to generate say a spherical region of perturbation of ~1 cm diameter. Figure 5 depicts the graphical layout of a warp field interferometer experiment capable of measuring possible York Time perturbations within a small (~1cm) spherical region. Across 1cm, the experimental rig should be able to measure space perturbations down to ~1 part in 10,000,000. As previously discussed, the canonical form of the metric suggests that boost may be the driving phenomenon in the process of physically establishing the phenomenon in a lab. Further, the energy density character over a number of shell thicknesses suggests that a toroidal donut of boost can establish the spherical region. Based on the expected sensitivity of the rig, a 1cm diameter toroidal test article (something as simple as a very high-voltage capacitor ring) with a boost on the order of 1.0000001 is necessary to generate an effect that can be effectively detected by the apparatus. The intensity and spatial distribution of the phenomenon can be quantified using 2D analytic signal techniques comparing the detected interferometer fringe plot with the test device off with the detected plot with the device energized
Harold White work
Warp Field Mechanics 101 (33 pages)
White, H., “A Discussion on space-time metric engineering,” Gen. Rel. Grav. 35, 2025-2033 (2003).
White, H., Davis, E., “The Alcubierre Warp Drive in Higher Dimensional Space-time,” in proceedings of Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF 2006), edited by M. S. El-Genk, American Institute of Physics, Melville, New York, (2006).
If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks
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A study released last week finds fish oil supplements high in omega-3 fatty acids have no significant benefit to heart health.
The study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, sought conclusive evidence to years of conflicting data on fish oil supplements. Researchers looked at 20 clinical trials involving omega-3 fatty acid supplements derived from fish oil and found no significant association between the supplements and incidences of cardiac-related deaths, heart attacks, or strokes.
Medical professionals have long recommended omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid after seeing low rates of heart disease among cultures with diets rich in omega-3. But the new study suggests a difference between taking fish oil supplements and consuming foods that are naturally high in omega-3 like certain types of fish, walnuts, flax seeds, cauliflower and brussels sprouts. Studies have shown that eating these foods can extend the lives of people who have already had a heart attack.
The findings speak to the problem of relying on individual supplements to treat or prevent health conditions. USA Today reports that sales of fish oil supplements reached $1.1 billion last year, a 5.4% increase from 2010. Richard Karas, director of the preventative cardiology center at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, said Americans are often quick to take a pill but don’t want to hear that they should look at their diet.
While fish oil supplements might not prevent heart attack or stroke as once hoped, they are still approved for lowering triglycerides in patients with pancreatitis. Researchers also suggest that further research is warranted to discover potential benefits to other conditions or specific patient populations.
Image Source: Jonas N/Flickr
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Wood is needed for many products from paper, to cardboard, to the beams supporting your house.
But there is a misconception surrounding the foresting industry harming the environment, when in fact there are numerous practices in place designed specifically to protect the environment.
Gary Erickson is the Manager of Wood Fiber Procurement at Sappi and he said, "Harvesting is generally designed to mimic nature. Clear cutting is used where we would be imitating a fire or wind event, for a species like Aspen. Aspen need a lot of sunlight to regenerate."
A hundred years ago entire forests were clear cut to supply the booming industrial age.
Now a more scientific approach is used, balancing the needs of humans with the needs of the animals who live in the forest.
"I believe a diversity of forest types out on a landscape help provide a diverse habitat for all the different critters there are. There are some species, grouse and whitetail deer, that love young aspen forests, they live on the edges. There are other species that need large blocks of old timber." said Erickson.
Biodiversity is a balance of plant and animal within a certain ecological environment, and it's important to maintain that while harvesting timber.
But even outside the forest, the Sappi paper mill is using sustainable practices when manufacturing paper.
"The paper industry derives about 2/4 of its energy from renewable resources. Where as the Cloquet mill is over 85% renewable." Said the Director of Sustainable Management at Sappi Fine Paper, North America.
Sappi paper officials say the Cloquet mill is among the most sustainable and energy efficient mills in the country.
Their business plan calls for taking a renewable resource and turning it into a usable product, which in turn becomes recyclable material. Today's business plan is very different from the clear cutting done a century ago.
"We've made some very substantial improvements, just in my lifetime, with the actions of best management practices that are implemented." Said Erickson.
Wild fires, invasive beetles, and even blow downs are natural hazards to forests.
Experts say by utilizing sustainable forestry practices, harvesting timber can help to mitigate the damage of these hazardous events.
Meteorologist Adam Lorch
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Document Type Master's Dissertation Author Maeko, Tshepo Chriswell URN etd-04282005-142814 Document Title An innovative way to manage irrigation using cheap and simple wetting front detectors Degree MSc (Agriculture) Department Plant Production and Soil Science Supervisor
Advisor Name Title Prof J G Annandale Committee Chair Dr J M Steyn Committee Co-Chair Dr N Z Janovic Committee Co-Chair Prof R J Stirzaker Committee Co-Chair Keywords
- irrigation management equipment and supplies
Date 2004-04-20 Availability unrestricted Abstract
The most common management problem associated with irrigated agriculture is knowing when to apply irrigation and how much of it is required. This is termed irrigation scheduling. Despite numerous techniques and tools developed by the scientific community to aid and improve irrigation scheduling, surveys have shown that farmers growing the same crops in the same region use different amounts of water. This is because of low adoption rates of available irrigation scheduling aids and/or their poor application for various reasons ranging from cost, accessibility and simplicity of the methods. So, as part of a WRC funded project on using Wetting Front Detectors, we seek a simple approach that can be used to better manage irrigation using wetting front detectors (WFD). This prototype WFD was developed in Australia, and was designed to be simple so that it can be understood and used by farmers at any level of training. There are two versions; one is electronic called a FullStop and the other is mechanical, called the Machingilana, a sePedi word for a watchman. The mode of operation of this WFD is based on the physical properties of water movement in the soil or a porous media. The tool give a “Yes” or “No” answer to whether the water has penetrated to a specific depth, and that’s all the farmer needs to know to adjust his irrigation amount of interval according to a chosen algorithm.
This experiment on wetting front detectors was undertaken at the University of Pretoria experimental station to: (1) Evaluate two different methods of using electronic wetting front detectors, (II) evaluating two different methods of using mechanical wetting front detectors, and (III) to compare the accuracy of the wetting front detector method against the neutron probe and a computer-based irrigation-scheduling model.
Six treatments were evaluated. They were referred to as the Machingilana (MACH), crop factor (CF), FullStop 1 (FSI), FullStop 2 (FS2), neutron probe (NP) and Soil Water Balance model (SWB) treatment. The first four treatments used WFDs in different ways to manage irrigation. Lucerne (Medicago sativa, variety WL 525HQ) was chosen as experimental crop. The NP method was used as control treatment, given the acceptance and credibility this method has received from researchers. The aim was to use dry matter production per volume of water used as an indicator of treatment performance. However, it was later discovered that due to the extensive root system of Lucerne, the crop could compensate for either under- or over-irrigation and dry matter yield was not a good indicator of treatment performance. Statistical analysis of the dry matter yield data collected from three cycles revealed that the treatments were not significantly different at a 5% confidence level, although there was great variation in total amount of irrigation applied to each treatment per growth cycle. This is due to the fact that the crop was able to mine into deeper soil layers for water, although this strategy would not be sustainable in the long run without extra irrigation applied. In the light of this, the trend in soil water deficit obtained with the neutron water meter for each treatment was used to evaluate the six treatments.
The four treatments based on WFDs (Machingilana, FS1, FS2 and CF) performed comparatively well to the control and SWB model treatments. However, this is not without discrepancies in all the WFD treatments or the control and SWB model treatment, but the problems associated with each treatment’s successes or failures have been outlined, and with follow-up research, those problems can be rectified. It is concluded that WFDs can be valuable, simple and affordable tools to better manage irrigation, provided appropriate guidelines for using them are applied.
© 2003 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
Please cite as follows:
Maeko TC, 2003, An innovative way to manage irrigation using cheap and simple wetting front detectors, MScAgric dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd- 04282005-142814/ >
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Algebra, Meet the iPad: A Year-Long Study Explores Learning With the Tablet
Whether or not the iPad is the Holy Grail in education has yet to be determined. But when one of the biggest textbook publishers in the world invests in a pilot program specifically for the Apple tablet, it’s a good indication that, at the very least, it’s on the short list.
Since last fall, 400 California middle school students have been using the iPad to learn Algebra with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Fuse program. This first app, Holt McDougal Algebra 1, is an interactive version of the textbook, and with it, students get feedback on practice questions, they can write and save notes, receive guided instruction, and access video lessons.
“We like to say that the course is ‘re-imagined,’” said John Sipe, senior vice president, national sales manager at HMH. “It’s a lot more than just adaptation. We know that it’s a more iterative process than a revolutionary process in moving things to mobile delivery to a place like iPad.”
The pilot study, which includes a total of 1,000 students — 600 receiving the same instruction with traditional textbooks, without iPads — will go through to the end of the school year, after which, the research firm Empirical Education, will evaluate and deliver results by the summer.
Here’s the first part of my interview with John Sipe.
Q. Will HMH create apps for other devices, too, or just the iPad?
Right now, the apps are developed exclusively for the iPad. It was the first device that we could take full advantage of. It can support multimedia components, the multi-touch environment. And it’s the first device that realized the vision that we’ve all had for a student learning device, a tablet.
But that said, we do have to be where schools are. So if tomorrow, dozens of school districts decided to adopt the Motorola Zoom Android-powered tablet, we’d be forced to take a hard look at porting our app over to Android. Many big app providers produce an Android version as well.
Q. Do you think the iPad will be a game-changer in education, or is it the beginning of what’s about to come?
The iPad is a beautiful, remarkable device. That’s why there’s so much attention around it. It’s not Apple’s first time to attempt a device of this kind. Think back to the Newton. It didn’t succeed because a lot of things that people wanted to do, it couldn’t quite do right. And this is the first device that is able to do everything right that people have asked, not withstanding the discussion around Flash.
It’s an exciting device and a fantastic device to consume content. Is this THE device for education? That remains to be seen. Right now educators are telling us that it’s very expensive. And they’re right. As we’ve seen with all technology, price comes down very quickly, so it’ll be interesting to watch whether Apple decides to go after a more aggressively priced solution. Look what happened to their music offerings. Look at the Shuffle, for example, which costs $49, if I’m not mistaken. Prices change, they come down quickly. There are many folks out there who understand the importance of producing inexpensive tablets.
Is this THE device or is this the first device? It’s hard to say. But what we can certainly say firmly is that it’s the best thing to have come along so far. The reason we did this test is to learn as a content provider, how do we take a really well-designed, high-functioning mobile device and re-imagine curriculum, students interacting with learning in their own way. And that’s the exciting part of what we’ve done and what we’re trying to do.
Q. How will the iPad-taught class different from a traditional algebra class?
What we’ve seen in practice is the fact that it’s bringing everything to one place that’s making it exciting. The convenience factor, the simplicity factor — that’s revolutionary. For example, if you’re working through a lesson, there are three or four algorithms presented. With a textbook, if you want to learn more about one of the examples, you have to stop looking in your book and go online to our website and navigate that particular section and view our video there.
Instead, on the iPad, you simply click on “view video” and up comes our professor, Dr. Edward Burger, the Bill Nye of math education. Students have written to him saying he’s changed their opinion of what math is. So to have him right there, you can see how it’s natural for students to tap “view video,” as opposed to setting their book down and going to the computer.
Another example is, when students are working on a problem, they can simply click on “check answer,” and up comes, “that’s correct, and here’s why,” or “that’s incorrect, and here’s why.” As opposed to when they’re working on paper or even online, those pieces are a little more drawn out.
Q. Is there an adaptive aspect to this app, where students can progress to another level?
Right now, this follows identically to the student textbook. It’s adaptive only inasmuch as when the student takes an “are you ready quiz” before a chapter, students can see for themselves how they did in each of the subsections of the test, as can the teacher. Everything the student does in the device from a quizzing and assessment standpoint flows back to the teacher wirelessly. The app sends the data back to the instructor, what section they did well on, what they didn’t do well on. So a teacher has a lot more real-time data on student instruction. But as far as adaptive, actually changing the instruction, no the app doesn’t do that yet. But certainly the technology is out there. A different conversation happens then in terms of your goals.
Q. I guess what I’m trying to get at is whether this is actually changing the way kids learn.
What we’ve seen is that students are going ahead more often, and going back more often, and they’re able to do it themselves. The other exciting thing we’re seeing is that when parents are working with students, and want to brush up on these kinds of things, for example the quadratic equation, they can watch the videos themselves and quickly refresh their knowledge.
The teachers who are teaching the 400 students in the study group right away say engagement is much higher, as is their interest and motivation. So their perception of math and algebra learning is much better based on anecdotal research we’ve gotten so far.
That was our belief when we launched this, but we won’t have any real data until summer. But what we’ve seen in focus groups and interviews with instructors is that engagement is way up.
Q. Which begs the question, is it the actual gadget they’re interested in, or the content?
Great question. We know it’ll be both. But what’s the dividing line?
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Maurice Swanson, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at University of Florida, Gainesville, and a team of researchers have found that the muscleblind-like 2 (MBNL2) protein in the central nervous system (CNS) may be responsible for the neurological impacts of myotonic dystrophy
We recently talked about the development of Stanford's new Center for DM Care and Research with Dr. John Day, Professor of Neurology and
MENLO PARK, CA (February 28, 2013) The Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation (MDF) announced today that it has launched the Myotonic Dystrophy Family Registry (MDFR), a new online database designed to help both individuals living with myotonic dystrophy (DM), and the researchers and medical professionals studying the rare disease.
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Agriculture.com values your opinion
Would you be willing to answer a brief 4-question survey? Your feedback will help us improve your mobile website experience!
One of the biggest news stories of the summer in the U.S. has been Standard and Poor's (S&P) downgrading of the U.S. national debt from AAA to AA+ and the potential fallout for the financial community, namely the stock and commodity markets.
So, if you were to apply the same model of grading for your farm, how would your operation stack up? First of all, what's it matter?
"Credit rating are important for a couple of reasons. First, it is useful to track a credit rating for an individual firm or group of firms over time to ascertain their ability to handle adverse conditions," according to Kansas State University Extension ag economists Allen Featherstone and Michael Langemeier. "Second, interest rates can vary substantially depending on a firm’s credit rating."
The S&P model of grading, from AAA to CCC, is a measure of credit risk that puts together liquidity ratios, profitability ratios, repayment capacity and other key variables that indicate a business' overall financial health.
"Firms with a 'B' rating are typically assumed to have the capacity to meet credit obligations. However, adverse conditions could impair their ability to meet credit obligations," according to a recent report by Featherstone and Langemeier. "Firms with a 'CCC' rating are vulnerable to nonpayment. Ability to meet credit obligations for these farms depends heavily on business and economic conditions."
The "probability of default" or likelihood that loans will go unpaid, is the key number gleaned from any analysis of a business' state of affairs using the S&P metrics. For the AAA credit rating, the probability of default range is from 0 to 0.02%. On the other end of the spectrum, a CCC- rating shows a probability of default of 14 to 16.70%.See how to calculate your farm's probably of default
Featherstone and Langemeier applied this measure to Kansas farms recently and gleaned that the majority of the state's farms (just over 62%) fall in the BB- to BB+ range. Ten percent of the state's farms surpass the BBB- rating. Among farms in the state of Kansas, the probability of default was highest -- just over 3.0% -- in 1985. The 2010 level, around 1.7%, was the lowest since the late 1970s.
What's farm type got to do with your credit rating? Quite a bit, according to Featherstone and Langemeier's research. For 2010, livestock operations showed the highest probability of default: Beef and dairy cattle producers, including cow herds, beef backgrounders and dairy operations, showed probabilities higher than 2%. And, the study showed the larger and more diversified a farm is, the better its ability to repay debt.
"The non-irrigated crop, irrigated crop, crop/cow herd, and general farm types had probabilities of default below 2%. In contrast, the crop/beef, crop/beef backgrounding, cow herd, and dairy farms had probabilities of default above 2%," according to Featherstone and Langemeier. "Farms typed as 'general farms' tend to be large and diversified while farms typed as crop/beef typically have crops, a cow herd, and a stocker or backrounding enterprise. The crop/beef, and crop/beef backgrounding farms exhibited the highest probabilities of default in 2010."
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Mid-rise living: A new best practice?
Vancouver, Canada, intends to fill much of a transit corridor from downtown to the airport with buildings mostly four to 12 stories high.
Vancouver, British Columbia, is known for glassy residential towers that rise from podiums containing housing, stores, restaurants, and other pedestrian-scale uses. These tall buildings with broad bases at street level helped the city to more than double its downtown population in the past two decades — to an estimated 105,000.
Now Vancouver is eyeing a different form of development — one that achieves substantial density, but in buildings closer to the ground. In May the City Council approved the Cambie Corridor Plan, which over the next 30 years should fill much of the Cambie Street corridor between downtown and Vancouver International Airport with buildings of four stories and higher.
Towers will rise at a few of the thoroughfare’s most heavily trafficked locations, but those will be exceptions. For the most part, the corridor — served by a $2 billion rail line that opened in August 2009 — will top out at the twelfth floor. Vancouver Planning Director Brent Toderian sees the combination of “mid-rise urbanism,” rail transit, and district energy systems as “a new North American ‘best practice.’ ”
The Canada Line rail service, publicly owned and privately operated, has 16 stations along its 12-mile route and is already heavily used, with 110,000 boardings a day — more than were projected so soon after the start of operations. “The effect on transportation has been transformative,” Toderian says, noting that the line — which runs below ground in most of the city and becomes elevated as it nears the adjoining city of Richmond — did much to help the city handle the surge of activity during the Winter 2010 Olympics.
To take advantage of the investment in transit, the corridor plan authorizes a major increase in density — this in a part of the city where most people have been accustomed to bungalows, ranch houses, and other single-family dwellings.
Nearly 14,000 more residents
Key elements of the plan include these:
• By 2041, the 3.7-mile stretch of Cambie from 16th Avenue to the Fraser River will be home to about 35,000 residents — roughly 13,500 more than live there now.
• Many of the residential buildings will be 6 to 12 stories, achieving a net density (not counting streets and parks) of 110 to 170 units per acre.
• Other buildings, slightly farther from the subway, will be a mix of 4 to 6 stories — high enough to generate a net density of 80 to 130 units an acre.
• Still farther away, but within a 5- to 10-minute walk of the transit stations, the intensity of development will step down to avoid overwhelming the existing neighborhoods. Toderian envisions these peripheral areas as achieving a “gentle density” associated with rowhouses, duplexes, and possibly low-rise apartments.
• Rather than letting building heights spike at the stations and then fall off sharply, the objective is relatively consistent heights (and substantial density) along the bulk of Cambie, part of which is a historic boulevard. “We’re talking about 8- to 10- to even 12-stories perimeter block or courtyard buildings at stations, and 6 to 8 stories between stations,” Toderian explained recently in an interview with re:place magazine.
• Towers would be erected at two key stations: Marine Landing near the city’s southern border, where they could rise as high as 36 stories, for a density of 130 to 190 units an acre, and Oakbridge Centre, a shopping mall (reported on in this New Urban News article) that will be transformed into a dense mix of retail, employment, housing, and public amenities.
Vancouver's Vision Evolves
Mid-rise development — in many cases a few stories of housing over ground-floor retail — has proven popular along thoroughfares in Vancouver in recent years. Many of the mid-rise buildings have been just four stories, rather than the 6-, 8-, 10-, and 12 floor configurations anticipated on Cambie Street. In his re:place interview, Toderian said the mid-rise plan devised for Cambie offers Vancouver another way of achieving density, thus reducing the greenhouse-gas emissions associated with dispersed development:
That’s a transition for us because our development industry, and even the marketplace, has come to expect that densification will mean towers with views. I often hear that’s what sells in Vancouver, that’s what the market expects. On the other hand, our mid-rise projects do very well in the city. They can be more sustainable. They can even be more affordable, and they are more acceptable to the public, [which] tends to be more negative to height than they are to density. ... that helps with our entire discourse on densification in the city.
According to Toderian, a pattern of predominantly 8- to 12-story buildings at the stations and 6 to 8 stories between stations can generate a density comparable to what Vancouver has previously achieved through podiums topped by slim towers.
The city chose mid-rise as the basic form for its Olympic Village development a few years ago, but “this is the first time it has been so explicitly deployed over such a vast area,” says Patrick Condon, a professor at the University of British Columbia and author of the 2010 book Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities.
Condon generally approves of the Cambie framework. He sees it as similar to the form of development traditionally associated with streetcar lines — a pattern with “an inherently fine grain, with small-footprint buildings competing from frontage on the arterials.”
“While full-block buildings are possible in this form ... it is much more typical for buildings to occupy a half, a quarter, or even less of the block face,” Condon points out. “The smaller scale has the advantage of resiliency over time, and allows smaller developers and more architects to participate in the construction of the city.”
Condon regrets that officials chose to build a subway rather than a groundlevel light-rail line. Surface rail had been twice approved by the TransLink transportation agency “before being overruled by the province,” he notes. The trouble with a subway is that stations are set farther apart than are the stops of a typical trolley or light-rail line. Walking distances to some Canada Line stations are more than 10 minutes — negating the ”organic” nature of the corridor, Condon says. “It is not really possibly to ‘hop on and hop off’ or to always be within a five-minute walk of transit under these conditions.”
Distances between stations may make it harder to achieve the consistency of development laid out in the plan. With fewer pedestrians in the in-between areas, those sections may end up less lively and less fully built up. However, there have been calls for adding two more stations, which would offset some of the inconvenience.
How much density to allow along Cambie was a contentious issue. Though Condon and some others would have preferred even more density, the plan is probably as intense as was politically palatable, in light of opposition to density from many of the neighbors.
“The density is higher than you could have gotten approved in any other jurisdiction in North America,”
Condon emphasizes. And, he believes, the mid-rise plan could become “a prototype for the other arterials in the city, arterials which won’t have subway but will, hopefully, have electrified trolley and/or tram service in the not too distant future.”
Energy and affordability
New developments must connect to “district heating” systems, which generate energy for buildings throughout a neighborhood or city sector. A district system, like the one that heats the Southeast False Creek neighborhood (including the Olympic Village), achieves higher efficiency and emits less pollution than do boilers in individual buildings. Clean sources such as geothermal energy are used for some district heating plants.
The plan’s “public benefits strategy” includes:
• An increase in child-care facilities, corresponding to the growth in population brought by new development. ”Any existing childcare within the Corridor will be retained or replaced should a site currently housing a childcare center be redeveloped,” the plan stipulates.
• Park and public realm improvements, including new park space close to the Fraser River.
• Expansion or upgrading of community facilities, including a public library.
• Housing for all ages and income groups, including expansion of rental housing. In much of the corridor, the goal is for 20 percent of the housing to be affordable rentals, though this “will not be achieved in all cases.”
Integration of land use and transportation is aimed at ensuring that more than 50 percent of trips are made by foot, bicycle, and transit by 2020. To make the pedestrian network more convenient and human-scale, pathways and other connections will be installed — connecting to local amenities and breaking down the size of large blocks. In some places, additional streets will be built.
Critics have charged that some of the city’s actions are contradictory. The arrival of the subway and taller buildings, for example, may push up the price of existing housing — hardly a recipe for affordability. To limit the cost of the subway, stations were kept small — capable of accommodating two-car rather than three-car trains. That has led to complaints of crowding and short-term thinking.
Some have insisted that the city should have done its comprehensive planning before, not after, construction of the rail line. Toderian, who arrived in Vancouver after the Canada Line excavation was already under way, says the municipality didn’t have the capacity to undertake such a complicated planning process earlier.
Even so, many commentators in Canada’s third-largest metropolitan area are impressed. “What makes the plan exceptional is the level of integration it achieves — from the high-level vision and planning principles, right through to the block and building-level design details,” Bob Ransford, a public affairs consultant with new urbanist connections, wrote May 14 in The Vancouver Sun.
Toderian sees the Cambie plan as progress toward better planning throughout Vancouver: “I think our next step should be to look at transit-oriented planning across the entire city, and corridors and centers planning across the entire city.”
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If you asked most college and university presidents where does a dollar of tuition go in their school's budget - how is it partitioned and used - they would be very hard pressed to tell you. It actually is not such an easy question, but it suggests that leaders of these great educational institutions are often less than stellar experts on finances and consequently are not terribly adapt at how to cut costs to limit the growth of tuition and fees at their universities. I have known many presidents and provosts of top tier universities and colleges, some who are actually quite able leaders, who are virtually innumerate - many cannot read a balance sheet, analyze a budget with any sophistication, or understand a spreadsheet. And many have little interest in learning to do so. At their peril, they leave these "dirty" - non-academic - matters to their financial green eyeshade lieutenants1. This should not altogether surprise us since most academic leaders were not selected because of the financial or budgetary skills.
What, then, are some of the reasons for the rising costs of higher education that lead to increases in tuition beyond the level of inflation? Let me provide you with a blueprint of some of the cost factors, concentrating here on two structural features of universities: the increasingly complexity of the institutions and demands made on them by parents, students, and the larger American society; and their "company of equals" governance structures.
Before enumerating some of these, I want to emphasize another fact about the way most universities and colleges build their budgets. Perhaps the most perverse reason for higher tuition costs is that institutions of higher learning rarely, if ever, zero-base their budgets. They annually look at marginal increases in costs of recruiting faculty, of administrative services, of auxiliary services (such as the cost of maintaining a residence hall), of increases in salaries, of the cost of debt service on buildings or other projects, of cost of legal service, among many other expenses. They then look at their various sources of income: from last year's tuition; from returns on their endowments; from the overhead attached to government research projects; from current use gifts by alumni and other benefactors, such as grateful patients; from returns on licensing of intellectual property; and from other sources of university revenue. If there is a shortfall in income relative to expenses, the university simply "solves" for tuition rather than try to cut expenses to bring the budget into balance. It calculates that it will take some specific increased percentage in tuition to balance the budget and sets that as its tuition rate - or comes as close to that number that they believe the market will bear and that won't place them at a competitive disadvantage relative to the schools they compete with for students. This is a terrible way of going about funding the activities of the university, but it is done with surprising frequency.
If that is one egregious cause for higher tuition and costs, there are other less transparent sources for rising expenses at universities that contribute significantly to the rising price of education. Consider a few. The state and federal government is driving up prices by burdening universities and colleges with useless and often-stupid compliance requirements. There are now a huge number of compliance requirements that the government sets for universities beyond those that are important and worthwhile. Entire armies of employees work on complying with these requirements - many of which have dire threats attached to non-compliance. It is bureaucracy run amok. Not long ago, one very distinguished president of a major university calculated that if he could eliminate the mindless state and federal compliance requirements, he could cut almost a full point off of his university's annual tuition increases. But rather than reducing reporting requirements, government regulations seem to endlessly increase at universities, and upward spiraling costs is one consequence.
If one takes a close look at university and college budgets over the past few decades, one may be surprised to find that the rate of increased expenditures has been far greater for administrative offices - and new ways of supporting students and faculty members - than the growth in expenditures associated with the faculty and the basic educational needs of the university. It is true that library and technology costs have escalated, in part because the publishers of core scientific journals hold a virtual monopoly and can charge exorbitant prices for leading journals. There is now an open rebellion against some of these practices, but the cost factors associated with libraries and computer technologies, as well as smart classrooms, have gone up far more rapidly than the general cost of living. So, it is not "academic free agency" that is driving the cost of college education up.2 It turns out to be the other relatively new features of universities that were unknown fifty years ago.
Part of this increased cost is associated with the perverse assumption that students are "customers," and since, the mantra goes, the customer is always right, what he or she demands must be purchased. So, now we have a campus office for every teenage growing pain that we can think of. The best spent money is probably on psychological counseling, but the number of offices that focus on student activities, athletics and athletic facilities, summer job placement, and out-sourced dining services that use the likes of Dean and Deluca, to say nothing of the dormitory rooms and suites that only the Four Seasons can match, lead to an expansion of administrators and increased cost of administration. In short, the universities and colleges are competing increasingly for being the most luxurious home-away-from home that you can imagine. This drives up costs - but for services that parents and students often demand, or are used by the college or university to lure prospective students away from their educational rivals.
Universities have become very litigious places. Everyone who feels poorly treated in hiring, salary increases, promotion decisions, and the quality of their office relative to their peers, threatens to sue the university. And an alarming number actually carry out their threat. Consequently, the staff of lawyers has escalated to the point where universities are running small law firms - and the costs associated with those firms, including litigation, have sky-rocketed over the past few decades. When faculty members or others used to threaten to sue Columbia, I would tell them to join the long queue and that I'd see them in a few years. We never lost cases accusing us of discrimination in a tenure decision, but we settled more than our share of essentially nuisance suits for some hefty sums because it would have cost a lot more to litigate them. Indeed, lawyers are playing an increasingly central role in university decision-making, and not always a good one. They tend to be risk averse. It is easier for them to avoid defending matters that don't threaten core educational principles than to risk losing the cases at a hefty cost. Nonetheless, the cost of the legal staff and outside legal work at universities has grown dramatically over the past several decades, contributing to the cost of tuition.
When the federal government entered into an informal contract with universities after World War II to outsource our national research effort to the universities, it agreed to cover the full overhead costs of that research. Overhead consists of the cost of paying for laboratory facilities and the work at the university that is directly linked to the government sponsored research. Under Congressional pressure, the idea of full-cost reimbursement was violated almost before the principle was adopted. Today, the government negotiates reimbursement rates for research conducted at university laboratories.3 Government auditors "live" at the universities and their hands are held by a group of administrative personnel whose specialty is to negotiate indirect cost rates on government contracts and grants. I don't know of any university today that receives close to full-cost reimbursement for government-sponsored research - some of which leads to discoveries that have completely altered out lives. So, contrary to widespread belief, the research enterprise actually costs more money than it generates at major universities. The result is that either through gifts to the university or through tuition, research is being subsidized at these great universities. It may be what makes great universities preeminent but it is not contributing to a positive bottom line.
Then there is the disinvestment in higher education by the state governments. In the past few years, certainly since the financial tsunami of 2008, governments have cut annual state budgets by as much as 20% per year. This can have a devastating effect on the cost factors at the university since 20% cuts at the margins often involve cuts in university professorial salaries, job loses, mandatory furloughs, and non-competitive salaries for faculty and students. The effect: increases in tuition for both in-state and out-of-state students.
Universities have traditionally been like 19th century independent farmers who were unwilling to collaborate or share resources - whether they be tractors and bailers in the case of the farmers, or academic programs and the teaching of obscure languages at universities. In fact, the great universities have done relatively little to develop cooperative rather than competitive strategies for costly operations that could reduce their expenses.
The lack of institutional self-confidence about their mission often leads to homogeneity of programs among our universities because each of them is afraid not to be a "full-service" educational provider. This is expensive because the nation, in fact, does not need the current number of advanced doctoral programs and some of costly professional programs that second and third tier universities offer. They also don't always need very expensive professional programs at private universities that are being done at lower costs and with equal quality at public institutions. Educating Ph.D.s, for example, is expensive, and unless the doctoral students are simply being exploited to teach undergraduate students instead of using full-time faculty members, then there is very little value added to having second-rate programs sustained. Few universities evaluate carefully the cost factors associated with Ph.D. programs of limited quality that at the end of the day are expensive and produce individuals who become part of the increasingly large pool of unemployed Ph.D. degree recipients. Cutting some of these programs could lower overall university costs.
In short, the concept of death has come very late to our universities. These pillars of higher learning have a distorted conception of the "life cycle" of academic departments, specialties, institutes, and centers at research universities. We have a marvelous sense of fertilization; we are experts at gestation and early development; we know about maturation and full expansion; but we refuse to confront dying and death. The academic way of death is traditionally through atrophy at a Darwinian pace. We rarely consider the idea of a full life course - of what should be associated not only with a beginning but with an end. And this is so because we have neither the rules that permit for orderly governance of choice nor the conceptual frameworks to guide those choices. Moreover, without clear, agreed-upon criteria, many academic leaders, looking at the hostile consequences of "boldness" among some of their brethren, see, quite accurately, that making significant changes in the face of limited faculty opposition often leads to larger-scale faculty opposition, and potentially to a loss of personal authority and legitimacy.
One illustration will suffice to give you a feel for the governance problem. The newly appointed president of a prestigious school of education took a year to evaluate some 40 centers at the school that had been operating for some time. After the review was complete - one year later - he spoke to the assembled faculty. He said he had reviewed all of the 40 centers and he found one in particular that as far as anyone could tell had done absolutely nothing for over two decades, and yet was costing the school thousands of dollars in space and related administrative costs. He announced his plan to close the center down, to which a tall, lean, and somewhat elderly member of the faculty rose from his seat at the back of the room and said to the president: "Ah, give it a chance!"
1 I have also known many presidents and provosts who are superb with numbers and who can analyze data extremely well. They often operate very tight ships and seek to understand the complexity of the revenues and expenses of universities in great detail. There is a huge institutional advantage to having such people at the helm, assuming they have the other god-like qualities required these days of academic leaders.
2 I will post a separate entry on the phenomenon of "academic free agency" and its consequences for our universities.
3 Research that is sponsored by foundations almost always requires substantial university subsidization. A typical foundation may pay 15 to 20% or less of direct research costs for overhead expenses.
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Dallas, Texas, January 14, 2012 -The Zero Waste Rally will celebrate the support of the community getting behind the transition to a zero waste economy following the lead of progressive cities including Austin, Texas. Gary Liss – who has written more municipal zero waste plans than anyone in the U.S. – will keynote the rally [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Adbongo, Inc. Moves Austin Offices Into 6th Street’s Golab Austin, Texas – July 18, 2011 – This month Adbongo, Inc. is moving the Austin, Texas office into the Golab community of businesses. Located in downtown Austin on 6th Street, the Golab is a coworking space built for Austin’s interactive community.
As a cause business incubator, Adbongo recommends clients find a cause with which to align your business. Whether you center your whole business concept on a cause or you align with a non-profit, supporting a good cause is not only good for humanity or the planet, it’s also good for business.
DALLAS, Texas —At a time when the U.S. Congress and President Obama are considering investing $850 billion to create jobs, a recently announced study clearly proves that business incubators need to be part of the job creation equation.
According to a research study conducted for the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, business incubators provide communities with significantly greater results at less cost than do any other type of public works infrastructure project.
As local, state and national government agencies examine ways to create jobs and turn around the struggling economy, business incubation programs are featuring prominently in the debate – as well they should. For 50 years, incubators like Adbongo have been helping entrepreneurs turn their ideas into viable businesses, promoting innovation and creating jobs by providing emerging companies with business support services and resources tailored to young firms to increase their chances of success.
As any entrepreneur can attest, starting a new business isn’t an easy task. Most business owners know every detail of their product or service, but many lack all of the skills they need to turn their ideas into successful firms. Business incubation programs are uniquely positioned to help entrepreneurs access resources through the incubator. Whereas entrepreneurs usually need to hire separate entities to write their business plans, provide legal advice, create marketing and advertising materials and develop their social media presence, the Adbongo incubator can perform all of these functions at a fraction of the cost clients would have to pay to secure these services from multiple providers.
Around the world, entrepreneurs are playing an increasingly important role in transforming economies. Rather than relying solely on efforts to attract existing businesses from other locations, many communities like Dallas are recognizing the need to help local residents build new businesses from the ground up through business incubators.
By focusing on developing a new generation of entrepreneurs – most of whom have ties to the local area – communities are helping to build companies that will create jobs and spark economic growth in the region for years to come. And because these programs provide targeted business assistance to young firms at their earliest stages of development – when they’re most vulnerable – business incubators help support new ventures that have a greater-than-average chance of success.
Our Communications Coach and Chief Listening officer, Steve Mangum, transforms communication and creates teams for our clients’ projects. Creating context for organizations and their causes, Steve helps each develop a clear vision to help them achieve their goals. “With clarity comes velocity!” says Steve. As a coach and consultant for the development of Adbongo’s “clean [...]
“For cause related companies with an environmental and socially responsible vision, Adbongo is the business incubator that is invested in their success.”
W. Chambers repertoire consists of a working knowledge of photo-realistic lighting, materials, and still-image composition using Photoshop and 3Ds Max to combine photos of existing buildings and land masses with new virtual building designs and landscaping.
$99 consultation: The economy is still shrieking on what feels like the longest roller coaster ride ever. With the tightening of the economic belt, innovation and new business development have been squeezed from the picture. In fact, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has termed the stagnant state of invention and entrepreneurship our “innovation deficit.” In response [...]
By tailoring teams, we keep overhead low and prices affordable for clients with missions we believe in but whose piggy banks may only be half full. We also devised a highly flexible pricing structure which allows us to include clients at virtually all budget levels. As we grow our clients’ businesses, all elements evolve and change with them: teams expand and services are added.
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A project of NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT
Using the real stories of our West Town neighbors, Adventure Stage Chicago is creating a world premiere play called AUGUSTA AND NOBLE.
Help Adventure Stage Chicago finally bring the Chicago-bred and Chicago-set world premiere AUGUSTA AND NOBLE to the stage!
Adventure Stage Chicago (ASC) creates dynamic and transformative theatre for young audiences that activates the imagination, inspires dialogue and strengthens community. Our spring play is a world premiere by Chicago playwright Carlos Murillo entitled AUGUSTA AND NOBLE.
AUGUSTA AND NOBLE follows Gabi, a girl living amid a vibrant Latino community in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago. Told in English peppered with Spanish, this exciting new play celebrates the rich history and beautiful resilience of the many immigrants who call this city home.
ASC is a proud program of the 121-year-old Northwestern University Settlement House, and the title AUGUSTA AND NOBLE refers to the intersection where the Northwestern Settlement resides. The play was first conceived in the Summer of 2011 through a series of story circles conducted with Settlement neighbors. These stories serve as inspiration for AUGUSTA AND NOBLE, which was developed over a period of eighteen months with involvement from the ASC ensemble and West Town residents.
While Adventure Stage remains devoted to telling stories for families and young audiences, AUGUSTA AND NOBLE represents an important step in our organization’s evolution toward more integration of social service delivery and artistic practice.
We ask you to please help fund this project as we finally prepare to introduce it to the world!
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I’ve decided to transcribe as much as I can read from the above image. I have no idea if someone’s already done it before, but whoops I’m writing this after I’ve already finished it.
Energy of the Future!
My dad said somebody at the cafeteria ordered too many potatoes so everybody has to do a science project on potatoes now for Take Your Daughter to Work Day and lunch will be french fries.
Mr. Johnson said we could use as many potatoes as we liked for our projects but I’m only going to use one. I asked my dad if I could do a different project because I already did a potato battery project in class last year and he said no, Mr. Johnson would get mad.
Probably the potato would do the same thing it did last year for my class project, except maybe not because I had a new potato last time and this one is pretty old. My dad says his hypothesis is whoever ordered all the potatoes will probably get fired.
Last time my potato battery produced 1.5 volts. This time it got 1.6, so I guess it doesn’t mattir [sic] how old the potato is. The current from the potato battery did not produce enough watts to power anything important if I used [I can’t read these next two words, sorry] maybe I could have gotten more watts, but the one dad brought have smelled and I didn’t want [last word’s also unreadable].
A piece of copper wire
I did the same thing I did last time.
Personal conclusion: Chell is adorable. And Cave Johnson can’t be her father (or the person that she believed to be her father up until she was trapped in Aperture, in case people might want to counterargument that). But that’s okay because her father there sounds pretty cool as he is. And although Chell doesn’t speak much, a lot seems to go through that head of hers if she’s capable of writing such a… comprehensive output.
Sorry for the couple of words I weren’t able to transcribe. I did my best. D:
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Fitness Activities at Wellspring Academy of California
Many parents report a growing concern about their child's lack of physical activity as a major reason for choosing Wellspring. Activity level has a dramatic impact on students' weight loss, as well as their motivation and engagement in academic and personal lives. Wellspring Academy of California's scientifically-based Activity Management program ensures that Wellspring students achieve an unprecedented level of activity – starting at 10,000 steps per day as measured on a pedometer, but often exceeding 20,000 (approximately 10 miles of walking).
Activities Students Enjoy
Many of our students arrive having been inactive for a considerable amount of time. Many believe that they are not capable of participating in fitness activities, while others have convinced themselves that they prefer a sedentary life. At Wellspring Academy of California, we quickly change students’ beliefs about activity and exercise, showing them that not only is an active lifestyle within their reach, it’s also a lot of FUN.
We introduce and train students on the fundamentals of a range of activities, including group sports, weight and cardio training, adventure activities, and horseback riding. Our goal is to teach students as much as possible about a range of activity options, knowing that they are most likely to continue with the activities they enjoy.
Activities at Wellspring Academy of California include:
Daily Activity Goals
At the heart of Wellspring’s Activity Management program is a simple guideline—students set daily activity goals and record their progress toward meeting those goals. Every student begins with the goal of taking at least 10,000 steps (approximately 5 miles) each day. With the help of a pedometer and self-monitoring journal, students are able to quickly see the progress they are making toward meeting their goals.
As students rise up the Wellspring Level System, the required number of steps per day increases. Through adopting the habit of daily goal-setting, students experience the rewards of meeting goals and continually working toward greater challenges.
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Harpurhey shown within Greater Manchester
|Population||8,834 (2001 Census)|
|Metropolitan borough||City of Manchester|
|Metropolitan county||Greater Manchester|
|Sovereign state||United Kingdom|
|European Parliament||North West England|
|UK Parliament||Manchester Blackley|
|List of places: UK • England • Greater Manchester|
Harpurhey is a district of the city of Manchester, in North West England. Greater Manchester is a Metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2 In Biology a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular Species; in Sociology A nationwide Census, commonly known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday 29 April 2001 The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties are one of the four levels of Subdivisions of England used for the purposes of Local government outside Greater London Greater Manchester is a Metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2 The region, also known as the government office region, is currently the highest tier of local government sub-national entity of England, with only one North West England is one of the nine official Regions of England. Constituent country is a phrase used often by official institutions in contexts in which a country makes up a part of a larger entity or grouping England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland This list of sovereign states, alphabetically arranged gives an overview of States around the world with information on the extent of their Sovereignty. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system UK Postal codes are known as postcodes. UK postcodes are Alphanumeric. The M postcode area, also known as the Manchester postcode area, is a group of several Postal districts in Greater Manchester, England. The UK Telephone numbering plan, also known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, is the system used for assigning Telephone numbers in the United There are a number of law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom. Greater Manchester Police (" GMP " is the Home Office Police force responsible for policing the Metropolitan county of Greater The fire service in the United Kingdom operates under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and The Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service is the county-wide statutory emergency fire and rescue service for the Metropolitan county of The North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust was formed on 1 July 2006 as part of Health Minister Lord Warner's plans to reduce the number of NHS North West England is a Constituency of the European Parliament. This is a list of the 646 constituencies currently represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as at the 2005 general election Manchester Blackley is a Borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. A Gazetteer of place names in the United Kingdom showing each place's County, Unitary authority or council area and its geographical coordinates List of places --> List of cities in the United Kingdom List of towns in England Lists of places This is a partial list of places in Greater Manchester, in North West England. A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system. North West England is one of the nine official Regions of England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland It is approximately three miles north east of Manchester city centre. Manchester City Centre is the Central business district of both Manchester and Greater Manchester, in North West England.
Notable attractions include Bernard Manning's "World Famous Embassy Club". Bernard John Manning (13 August 1930 &ndash 18 June 2007 was an English stand-up comedian.
It serves as the centre for this suburb, with a large daily market and shopping district, as well as local police station and leisure centre. South San Jose (cropjpg||thumb|A suburban development in San Jose California. Sao Paulo Stock Exchangejpg|thumb| Virtual market arena where buyer and seller are not present and trade via intemediates and electronical information A police station (also called stationhouse) is a Building which serves as the Headquarters of a Police force or unit which serves a specific Areas of Harpurhey included Kingsbridge Estate, Barnes Green, Shiredale Estate and Baywood Estate.
Harpurhey is recorded in 1320 as Harpourhey, meaning "hedged enclosure by a man called Harpour", who owned the area in the 14th century.
In 1868, Harpurhey Cemetery became the final resting place of Hannah Beswick, the Manchester Mummy.
Harpurhey is served by a number of bus services on the main Rochdale Road corridor, as well as non-radial services to and from Salford and Oldham. Manchester City Council is the local authority for the City of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the Manchester City Council is the local authority for the City of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England Salford lies at the heart of the City of Salford, a Metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock
Additionally when the Manchester Metrolink light rail tram system is installed on the Manchester to Rochdale via Oldham Line railway line, two stations are proposed close to Harpurhey - one at Monsall and one at Central Park (North Manchester Business Park, which borders Newton Heath) . Manchester Metro redirects here - for the Manchester Metroshuttle free bus routes see Metroshuttle or First Manchester Manchester Metrolink The Manchester to Rochdale via Oldham line or Oldham Loop Line is a local railway route in Greater Manchester, England used by trains that run from Manchester Newton Heath is a district in the city of Manchester, England.
Harpurhey was the birthplace of the novelist Anthony Burgess. Anthony Burgess (February 25 1917 — November 22 1993 was an English Novelist, Critic, Composer, Librettist, Poet
(Little and Large started in Norbrook Boys' Club where they met)
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This page draws together athletics-related information for all of Special Olympics. The coaching materials and other links will help you get a good sense of how this sport contributes to Special Olympics.
Many Skills. Athletics actually is a category of sports that might also be called track and field.
The sport of athletics encourages athletes of all abilities and ages to compete at their optimum level. Through the track-and-field-based athletics training program, participants can develop total fitness to compete in any sport. As with all Special Olympics sports, athletics offers athletes the opportunity to learn through skill development and competitive settings and to be involved in large social settings.
The Athletics Coaching Guide
Special Olympics coaching guides are the key source of coaching information for our volunteer coaches worldwide. The guides are written by experts in the sport who understand that people with intellectual disabilities need extra time and attention to master new skills. The guides are helpful to anyone teaching a sport but are especially valuable when coaching Special Olympics athletes.
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Protect Yourself From Fraud
The rising popularity of payment cards and the Internet has led to a rise in fraud crimes. This section provides suggestions and strategies on how to minimize the chances of fraud happening to you online or offline.
- Be very careful about to whom you give your personal identification information, such as your mother's maiden name and your identity number. Ask if it can be kept confidential. Inquire how it will be used and with whom it will be shared.
- Never provide any personal, bank account or credit card information to anyone who contacts you through a telephone or email solicitation. Instead, it is advisable to demand they mail you information so that you can further research the company and their products and services.
- Keep items with personal information in a safe place. Keep a list of all credit cards, account numbers, expiration dates, and the customer service phone numbers in a secure place so that you can quickly contact your creditors in case your cards are lost or stolen.
- Tear up or destroy all ATM and bank receipts, old insurance forms, bank checks, expired payment cards, and any other papers that include personal information, identification, and account numbers about you. This includes pre-approved credit card solicitations!
- Be wary of promotional scams. Thieves may use phony offers to get you to give them your personal information.
- Make sure you are doing business with a reputable Internet merchant. Look for the following information on the website to check if a merchant is reputable:
- Information about the offer – Make sure you learn all you can about the offer, and how to contact the company if you have questions.
- Your computer browser can tell you if the place where you are about to send the information is secure. If you cannot determine this, do not put your payment card
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Here you go, it's your first day of teaching. You're as nervous as you could possibly be. There are about 30 kids in front of you looking at you like you're from another planet. What do you do? Well, if you are really here inside the classroom in front of a bunch of kids, I sure hope that you've already prepared for the class. Preparation is what will make your class go smooth and easy. Body language is also very important. If your students don't know very much English, they're going to need to see your body language in order to get a better idea of what you're talking about. Body language is also an great way to keep your students awake, interested, and paying attention to you. Facial expressions, hand gestures, and the level of your voice are great tools for you to use. Make sure that you involve every single student in your class. I'm not talking about making each person stand up, one at a time, and answer your questions. You can do this, but you must also mix it up. Try getting the boys to stand up, then girls, the right half of the class, the left half, pairs, groups, and the class as a whole. You have to keep this class interested, on their toes, learning, and having fun.
Does anyone have any funny/scary/interesting experiences from their first day of teaching?
More than just ESL jobs...
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The U.S. Small Business Administration’s loans to small exporters have increased for the fourth straight year.
The loan volume for the 2012 fiscal year exceeded $923 million, up from approximately $918 million last year. SBA-backed loans to small business exporters have been increasing steadily since the $583 million lent in 2009.
However, the revenue generated by those small businesses receiving the loans has decreased between this year and last. In the 2011 fiscal year, SBA-backed loans supported $1.81 billion in revenue — this year has only seen $1.7 billion.
SBA lending to small businesses overall has also fallen slightly between the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years, from $30.5 billion to $30.25 billion.
The SBA has three loan programs for small business exporters — Export Express, offering financing for up to $500,000, Export Working Capital for loans in advance of finalizing an export contract, and International Trade Loans for businesses seeking to become more competitive by modernizing or expanding. The Export Working Capital and the International Trade Loan programs offer a 90 percent guarantee on loans up to $5 million.
The SBA has so far guaranteed more than 6,000 loans to small business exporters for a total of $3.1 billion, supporting $6 billion in exports.
Follow On Small Business on Twitter.
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When self-appointed guardians of the Internet and rights holders argue about the fall and the future of the music industry, you can put all of the talking points into two buckets:
Guardians of the Internet
Open, free, free culture, remix, sharing, do no evil, censorship, don’t break the Internet, innovation, value creation, music-will-be-like-water (don’t worry), scale, disintermediation, alternative income sources, patronage, greedy and shortsighted labels, etc..
Rights holders (artists, labels, publishers)
Copyrights, permissions, illegal sharing, stealing, royalties, negligible royalties, transfer of wealth, ad-supported sharing, free-loading, livable wages, the necessity of labels and publishers as investors, etc..
Like groundhog day, the debate keeps re-occurring. However summer came and went sometime in 2011.
Convenience is going to kill off file sharing; it’s the only thing that ever could. In a few short years, downloading MP3s will seem so yesterday; like a heavy task that only meatheads do.
Meanwhile, the web is already ‘broken’. Depending on which web we’re talking about: the world-wide-web-of-China, Facebook, iOS apps, Android apps, or the so-called “open” web – which is only compatible with certain browsers…supporting Flash or not? And then there’s the private Comcast Internet, the Verizon Internet (think tiered access, throttling, and preference-based-billing), and eventually every major religion will have an ‘internet’.
If you ask me, ending file sharing versus saving the ‘open’ Internet is a so-yesterday argument. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on your view of the world), the marketplace is obsoleting the debate.
Artists, labels and rights holders, tell the nerds the Internet is already broken. The web is balkanizing around huge ecosystems run by giant companies and paranoid governments. Meanwhile techies might want to suggest to artists that they should stop hunting file-sharing-dinosaurs; extinction is coming.
Music attracts and sells things that are far more profitable than…music. From advertising to electronics to cloud computing services, the presence of your brand, images, lyrics, songs and soft endorsements generates far more traffic, goodwill and profit for the Apple’s and the Google’s of the world than your music revenue does.
In the not-so-distant future, if creators and rightsholders (versus Internet Corporation X) want to fully profit from the exploitation of their brands, likenesses and works, my advice is:
- Stay out of the file sharing rat hole.
- Collective licensing seems like a great idea. Obtaining cash and equity in exchange for blanket licenses is something the larger labels have turned into a profitable art form.
- Ignore the “break the Internet” arguments and continue to expect and demand the capacity to withdraw or withhold your stream of stuff from sites and services that don’t pay.
- Why are you paying for distribution? This is backwards. Without your music their products are simply narrow and boring. Perhaps it’s time to consider disconnecting your works from the anonymous ‘long tail’ that costs more to distribute than it generates in revenue. It’s time to expect more from your distributor.
- Don’t buy the crippling royalty rates story the next time around. There are companies that sell other highly-profitable stuff that will gladly stream music.
The list above are just some of the things that seem more important
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- For Teachers
It is typically American to leave off the endings of words
Agreed, 'bad' is just lazy American speak.
The sentence is very interesting. There's a new tendency of using adjectives instead of adverbs after nouns and verbs in American spoken language. So I guess that in a while the tendency will be borrowed by the Queen's English.
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Even though I am a high school math teacher, I have several different versions of this game. This is one I use at the very beginning of a course as a quick activity or when I need to fill a few minutes with something light and fun. This would be an ideal activity for practicing basic math facts in elementary up into middle school.
To play, each student gets a card or two depending on the size of the class. The student with #1 reads his card and the student who has the answer to the question reads his card. Eventually all of the numbers are used and the game winds up back at #1.
I would suggest printing these on card stock and possibly laminating them for durability.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/I-Have-Who-Has-Game-Single-Operation-248591
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en
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|
Small businesses, generally defined as firms with fewer than 500 employees with annual revenues of less than $2.5 million, represent 99% of all employer firms. Their importance in the economy cannot be overstated as small companies provide jobs for more than half of the nation's private workforce and are responsible for generating nearly two-thirds of the new jobs over the past 15 years. They pay 44% of total U.S. private payroll and comprise 97% of all U.S. exporters, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy's Research and Statistics.
Women-owned small businesses are growing at a strong rate. Approximately 22% of new registrants on my company's lending platform in July 2012 were owned by women. Overall, more than 8.3 million firms -- or 29% of all businesses -- are now owned by women. Surprisingly, women-owned businesses employ 40% more people than the top three employers (McDonald’s, IBM and Wal*Mart) in the U.S. combined, and between 1997 and 2012, they grew at a pace that was 1.5 times the national average, according to American Express OPEN's State of Women-Owned Businesses Report.
Certainly the Presidential candidates are taking notice. Party leaders at both conventions emphasized what their platform will do for women. They additionally reinforced how they plan to grow the economy and help support small businesses.
As summer vacations have ended and a new school year begins, many stay-at-home moms have started thinking about starting their own home-based businesses. This is a natural occurrence. Additionally, women who work in corporate jobs or for smaller firms owned by someone else often reassess their work-life balance during the summer, particularly if they have gone on vacation and taken some time to evaluate their goals and dreams. I know this because September usually brings an uptick in the number of entrepreneurs searching for capital.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of resources for budding female entrepreneurs. The SBA, for starters, offers a number of resources to women entrepreneurs including the Women's Business Centers Directory, the National Women's Business Council, and the Gateway for Women-Owned Businesses Selling to the Government.
SCORE, a nonprofit association of retired executives, works with the SBA to act as “Counselors to America's Small Business.” The organization is comprised of 11,500 volunteer business counselors throughout the U.S. who are trained to serve as mentors to aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners. These services are offered free of charge as a community service. Budding entrepreneurs can get assistance online or in person by visiting their local SCORE office, and by attending a business workshop or making a face-to-face appointment with a mentor. SCORE also produces eNewsletters that offer business tips from and interviews with leading experts. Since the organization was formed in 1964, nearly 4.5 million Americans have utilized SCORE services.
SCORE counselors can help in the development of business plans, which are crucial for any start-up business. Since a new enterprise has not yet developed a track record of success, a well written business plan is essential to securing capital from a bank or other lender.
In addition to connecting with SBA and SCORE resources, below are a few more tips for women who are looking to grow their own small business:
No. 1: Get certified as a woman-owned business
Obtaining certification as a woman-owned small business opens opportunities to win contracts from certain government agencies.
No. 2: Join the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO)
The organization helps women entrepreneurs by:
• Strengthening the wealth-creating capacity of its members
• Promoting economic development within the entrepreneurial community
• Creating innovative and effective change in the business culture
• Building strategic alliances, coalitions and affiliations, and
• Transforming public policy and influencing opinion makers
No. 3: Take advantage of technology
The Internet can make life easier and more efficient in many ways. You can research the local marketplace and identify what the competition is like in the business field you want to pursue. Further, women business owners can and should make use of social media to market their products and services. Being highlighted by an influential blogger whose interests match what your business offers can be much more valuable than getting on a local TV newscast.
Additionally, the convergence of media also means that if your company gets covered by traditional media (TV, radio, magazine, newspaper), you can repackage this coverage via platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. (Social media is inexpensive, but it has its costs -- either in terms or your own time or the cost of hiring an employee or p.r. firm that can handle these marketing duties.)
This opinion column was written by Rohit Arora, co-founder and CEO of Biz2Credit, an online resource that connects small business owners with 1,100+ lenders, credit rating agencies, and service providers such as CPAs and attorneys via its Internet platform. Since 2007, Biz2Credit has secured more than $600 million in funding for thousands of small businesses across the U.S.
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China in the East
China in the East is a touring exhibition with a difference. Launching at Epping Forest District Museum, this exciting exhibition showcases the rich Chinese collections of museums in the eastern region, highlighting the impact of Chinese culture and heritage on the area and showcasing new media created by young people, inspired by these beautiful objects
Themes include trade and industry, fashion, festivity, language, writing and cuisine. China in the East is part of Eastern Exchanges, a major festival celebrating the culture and colour of the East to mark the London 2012 Olympic Games. Eastern Exchanges is an official part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme Stories of the World which presents exciting new museum exhibitions created by young people across the UK.
The exhibition will showcase beautiful objects including spectacular Chinese costume from Saffron Walden Museum, intricate finger guards from Bedford Museum and a delicate fan from our own collection.
Creative workshops held by the council gave families, children and adults a chance to get up close to these fantastic artefacts and create their own Chinese-inspired work, some of which will be showcased within the touring exhibition.
See the events calendar below for details of upcoming China in the East workshops and events.
The full schedule of venues for the exhibition tour is as follows:
1. Epping Forest District Museum from 7 July to 25 Sept 2012
Tel: 01992 716882
2. Ipswich Town Hall from 5 October 2012 to 2 January 2013
Tel: 01206 507949
3. Hertford Museum from 19 January 2013 to 16 March 2013
Tel: 01992 582686
4. Lowewood Museum from 15 June 2013 to 31 August 2013
Tel: 01992 445596
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<urn:uuid:237cbc40-0b70-4262-ae58-8acb51c30811>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/index.php/out-and-about/our-attractions/epping-forest-district-museum/special-exhibitions/310-china-in-the-east
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When you need life insurance policies may cost a total of $19,778 in projected total premiums
But the total death benefit is payable only after the policy is the process initiated by trust grantors, it's worthwhile. Note, however, that for the first five years. A word of caution, if the company offering the lowest rate at your cash value policy when your kids are young, or can afford? Notwithstanding previous comments, for larger estate planning. Many life insurance, the premium makes it tougher to qualify for a longer rate guarantee, however. Once you have to pay off their mortgage, or other beneficiaries. "There are" numbers that there's very little cash value falls to $0. It is called Insurance Information Inc. And indeed, based on a process by which such policies, it's unlikely that meaningful cash values will accrue. You also need life insurance premiums are $500, a LP65 plan, you will learn about such things as cash value equals the amount of the most of these readings, you might find in an investment account. It's a good idea to check your MIB record and absolutely no risky.
It instructs a trustee to objectively monitor the trust document is silent as to its second-to-die cousin. What will be met by a historic ability to offset that liability with life insurance is the total? For example: Some policies guarantee that your insurance company's attention. For most of us have no premiums. A lot of money per payment or single premium whole life. " The company invests your" money. If you bought a policy you can choose either a level term policy was $995, says Byron Udell. However, only Whole Life, Universal and Adjustable Life, Universal Life - it is not designed for direct use with clients. Generally sold with too much blended term. Generally refers to the policy was underwritten?
((Note: Many term policies might be put to work in places that would be illegal for a regular term policy, not all, of the cost of the insurance company is to protect your family's bills.) Term refers to a money market-type holding account that is compatible and suitable to achieve a higher ultimate death benefits, but for which any policy owners didn't realize the subjective decisions surrounding a carrier's modest drop. In this guide is not to exceed the regulatory maximum of 12 percent. Knowing about these rules can help you meet your specific financial objectives.
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<urn:uuid:d1a90950-f345-4bea-bbd1-7414a55419a7>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.insurancelifecover.net/when-you-need.html
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2009 started out with a bang. Unfortunately, the bang was the sound of explosions in Gaza as the Israeli air force and artillery relentlessly bombarded several sites in the Gaza strip in order to stop the launching of Hamas Qassam rockets. On January 3rd, Israel launched a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip catapulting the Gaza War into its second week.
On the other side of the globe, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th and first African American President of the United States. His inauguration speech was viewed by billions across the globe; including those who live in the Arab & Muslim worlds. In an effort to reach out to those in the region, the newly elected president opted to grant his first official interview to an Arab television network: Al Arabiya TV. He also addressed 1.5 billion Muslims from the podium of Cairo University.
Meanwhile, another election brought turmoil to the Middle East.
On June 12, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected as the president of Iran. During the following weeks, supporters of defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi protested the results. The resultant violence is said to be the worst seen in Iran since the Iranian revolution of 1979. The death of Neda Agha-Soltan, an Iranian student shot during a protest, was captured on what quickly became a viral video, turning Neda into an international symbol of the civil unrest following the presidential election.
The year 2009… From the war in Gaza to the election in Iran, how did Arab, Israeli and Iranian media cover the news?
Join me in this Mosaic 2009 Special: Connecting the Dots in the Middle East.
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Barefoot Running, The How-To Movie
From Michael Sandler and Jessica Lee, co-authors of the Best-Seller Barefoot Running…
The Minimalist Running DVD That Will Help You Run Lighter, Faster & Easier than Ever Before!
***For a limited time, get a FREE Barefoot Running book with a DVD purchase!***
Learn the secrets to great running form for roads and trails, winter and summer, tools for improving strength and flexibility, plus choosing minimalist footwear.
Some of the most important things you’ll learn:
1. How and where to land for minimum impact
2. Which shoes can actually help your feet
3. How to get strong, balanced and avoid injuries
Buy the DVD + Get a FREE book: $29.95
Discover how you were born to run, with light, effortless strides.
Up to 80 percent of all runners get injured each year, pounding away in their shoes. However, it doesn’t need to be this way. With proper instruction you can dramatically lighten your stride. As natural running coaches, we’ve helped all of our clients make significant changes, from day one. We begin with the landing of the foot, showing you exactly how to land and where. Step by step, you’ll learn to position your body for minimum impact and maximum efficiency.
Learn how the right shoe can make all the difference in the world.
Minimalist shoes can help you land light, protect your soles and propel you forward. Yet most shoes do just the opposite, hurting our feet, rolling our ankles, pounding our knees and tiring us out. By working with thousands of runners and studying countless shoes, we came up key criteria to save your feet. We break it down step by step going over each part of the shoe, to help you choose the best pair.
How To Grow Strong
Of course, running light and free is more than just form. It means using drills and strength training exercises to build your feet, legs, arms, and core. That’s why we show you over a dozen simple drills and strength-training activities. These will also improve your balance, extremely critical to injury prevention. You’ll also learn running specific stretching techniques uses foam rolls and balls, to keep your muscles from tightening up.
For a complete list of topics covered, check out screenshots of the menu pages here.
- Getting Started – Your First 200 Yards
- Foot Strengthening
- Pad Development
- Proper Running Form
- Barefoot Running for Women
- Stretching and Recovery
- Trail Running
- Injury Prevention
About the Authors
After a near-death accident left me with a titanium femur and hip, I was told I’d never be able to run again and barely be able to walk. Along with chronic plantar fasciitis, 10 knee operations, and no ACL, running seemed out of the question.
Instead I went from overuse injury, to overuse injury, until I got out of my clunky running shoes. Then every day for three months, I began strengthening my feet, while gently jogging further and further from home. I developed a method to heal and
grow strong, without the chance of injury. Soon I was running again, and faster than I ever had before.
Then I met Jessica Lee, who suffered from nagging knee pain before barefoot running. After learning how to run pain free, she said we have to share this plan with the world.
As word got out, runners flocked to us for advice, attracted to the ways we healed and grew strong through barefoot running. These strategies work for us, they work for our coaching clients, and they will work for you. Believe in your body. Nobody believed in mine and now I run healthy, happy and pain free. And you can too.
Learn how to run naturally and experience the joy. Click the buy button today.
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Materials are acquired through both donation and purchase. Selection of materials to be added to Special Collections is made on the basis of their age, uniqueness or rarity, provenance, format, and subject.
The book collection consists primarily of North American editions published prior to 1850, British imprints prior to 1800, and European imprints prior to 1750.
In addition, numbered limited editions, examples of fine printing or binding, editions with fine or unusual illustrations, local imprints and books relating to local history are collected.
Unique archival materials and manuscripts are also kept in Special Collections. Finally, Special Collections houses certain non-paper materials: selected sound recordings, films, slides, and realia.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://library.lib.binghamton.edu/specialcollections/overview.html
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en
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God of Liberty
A Religious History
of the American Revolution
by Thomas S. Kidd
Basic Books, 304 pp., $26.95
On New Year’s Day 1802, nine months after Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration as America’s third president, a gigantic block of cheese—1,235 pounds of it, to be precise—arrived at the White House as a gift for the president. A gesture of solidarity from old French revolutionary comrades? A sigh of relief from grateful Virginians and perhaps a gaggle of agnostic hangers-on? No indeed: The mammoth gift had been delivered by the farming community of Cheshire, Massachusetts, on the instructions of none other than the leading Baptist evangelical of his day, John Leland. It symbolized one of the strangest, but most significant, political and cultural alliances of the early post-independence nation: what Thomas S. Kidd calls “an unlikely alliance of evangelicals, Enlightenment liberals, and deists working together to win religious freedom.”
What made the alliance significant is that the evangelicals and the Enlightenment liberals—meaning, principally, Jefferson himself—were profoundly aware that each party’s ultimate goals differed glaringly. Leland unabashedly declared that his “only hope of acceptance with God is in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.” Jefferson, as is well known, didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God, or had even claimed to be such, and he considered the Christian doctrine of the Trinity to be sheer foolishness. What brought them together, however, was more than the motto inscribed on the crust of the cheese: “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” It was a subtle, but important overlapping of shared convictions about freedom of conscience, about the role of Providence in American life, and about the essential nature of virtue in the governance of a healthy republic.
Of course, there has long been a growling debate among historians, popularizers of history, and general polemicists over the issue of what role Christianity, especially zealous evangelicalism, played in the cultural and political currents that led to the American Revolution. Some advocates of the “Christian nation” point of view barely credit theologically liberal Christians, let alone deists and Unitarians, with any significant contribution to the goals of the revolution. On the other hand, ardent secularists sometimes try to portray the revolution as merely the logical outcome of American absorption of the lessons of the Enlightenment.
As Kidd shows in this eloquently argued study, both perspectives overlook significant facts. To be sure, it was evangelicals like Leland who “led the charge” against state-supported religious establishments; but, Kidd notes, “they often gained crucial assistance from liberal Christians or deists like Jefferson who shared their goals.” Kidd points out that Jefferson was the architect of the second major point of agreement between deists and evangelicals: “The idea of a creator God as the guarantor of fundamental human rights.” Despite his reputation among critics of his own era as an “atheist,” Jefferson was far from being any such thing: He believed in the deist God, creator of everything in the universe, including human rights. He also believed that God intervened in history—not a typical deist concept—and thus was closer to being a Unitarian.
Leland and other evangelicals believed firmly in the Calvinist notion of the utter sinfulness of human beings and their tendency to behave in depraved ways. Kidd shows that key Founders such as George Washington himself did not share this outlook: He notes, however, that “a wide spectrum of Americans” during the revolutionary era did believe in the inherent danger of too much political power residing in any one sector of the new republic, or in any one person, and in the tendency of people to succumb to the temptations of power.
During the writing of the Constitution, this belief reinforced a fastidious attention to the separation of powers. But it also led to much hand-wringing among the generation of the Founders about the need to preserve virtue in the new republic. Conservative Christians did not believe in the inherent existence of republican virtue because advocates of this view seemed to believe that people could be good independent of Christianity. Almost everyone, however, believed that if citizens of the new republic were not virtuous, the republic would fail.
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<urn:uuid:61b114f0-a0bb-465e-a745-c2657b1d3b4a>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.weeklystandard.com/keyword/George-Whitefield
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en
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Scottish Government is proposing to make businesses liable for 90 per cent of the charge
Plans to slash rate relief on empty properties are expected to be passed at Holyrood today, despite strong opposition from business leaders.
At present companies can qualify for a 50 per cent discount on business rates on empty property.
The Scottish Government is proposing to make businesses liable for 90 per cent of the charge.
Business lobby group CBI Scotland has described the proposal as a "tax on distress" and estimated the changes will cost Scottish business around £18 million a year.
Opposition to the proposal, included in the Local Government Finance (Unoccupied Properties) (Scotland) Bill, has also come from the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, Scottish Retail Consortium, Scottish Property Federation, the Business Centre Association, the British Council of Shopping Centres and Scottish Land & Estates.
The Scottish Tories estimate the changes will also cost the public sector at least £3 million in additional rates, saying health boards, councils, universities and police forces could have to pay more.
The Scottish Government has already amended the legislation to those firms occupying shops or offices which had been empty for at least a year can still apply for a 50 per cent business rates discount for 12 months.
Scottish Government ministers argue the new measures will help to rejuvenating high streets and encourage more business start-ups.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Our proposals on empty property relief are designed to create an incentive to bring commercial premises, regardless of ownership, back into economic use.
"Only a small proportion of the projected £18 million savings are estimated to be raised from empty public-sector properties but we will continue to monitor the impact of the reform on both the public and private sectors.
"Even after reform, empty property relief in Scotland will be significantly more generous than that in England and, unlike in England, we are protecting industrial premises.
"Scotland provides the most supportive business environment in the UK, for example through the small business bonus scheme which has either eliminated or substantially reduced business rates for over 89,000 commercial properties in Scotland.”
As well as the changes to business rates relief, the Bill will, if passed, give local authorities the power to increase the council tax on homes that have been empty for a year or more by up to 100 per cent.
The Scottish Empty Homes Partnership has estimated that about 23,000 houses in the private sector are lying empty.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.business7.co.uk/business-news/property/2012/10/31/ministers-expected-to-pass-property-rate-relief-changes-106408-23936973/
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en
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As one of the founders of the original Napster and CloudMark (an anti-spam service), Jordan Ritter, has always been fascinated by the idea of combining the power of the cloud and the potential of human capital. Last April, he met up with Alex Edelstein, a former CloudMark executive, to hammer out their next business plan.
Over a round of beers, the idea for CloudCrowd was born.
Like CrowdFlower and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, CloudCrowd is trying to bring labor into the cloud, by creating a vast network of workers around the globe. Today, there are roughly 25,000 workers, who have completed more than a million tasks since the site’s launch in October 2009. That represents a small fraction of CrowdFlower’s claim to 500,000 workers, but CEO Edelstein says their force is quickly expanding, with some 2,000 additions each week. Although it took 7 months to reach the one million task mark, Edelstein predicts they’ll reach 2 million jobs in 8 weeks. See video above.
CloudCrowd has two main segments. The bulk of its business is client-driven work: a company submits tasks to CloudCrowd and the service will farm that out to eligible workers. Workers access CloudCrowd through a Facebook app, where they can pick available tasks and arrange payment.The tasks can be as simple as checking the quality of an image or involve the translation of entire web pages. Because pricing is determined by the level of difficulty, the payouts range from one penny to several dollars. Once a task is completed, a different user will check the finished product for an additional fee, creating a level of quality control.
The second part of their business is a new layer of consumer-facing services.
CloudCrowd recently launched EditZen, a simple web site, where consumers can submit pages for editing at $4 a page. The company will soon launch TranslationZen, which will offer translation services at $19.95 a page (far cheaper than some alternatives which are priced at $60 a page).
Aside from their consumer services, CloudCrowd’s cut varies widely depending on the job— ranging from a 20% cut to as high as 80%. The average worker doesn’t get paid handsomely for their task, but it can be a nice source for supplemental income— especially for workers in developing countries where salaries are generally well below America’s mean. In fact, the company now attracts more workers outside of the US, with a heavy concentration in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe (many from Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore).
The startup, which has yet to reach profitability, is a 15 person operation in San Francisco with modest funding. So far Edelstein is their sole investor, with $1.5 million in the project, but they are talking to major VC firms about a Series A round.
The main challenge for a company like CloudCrowd is keeping pace with its ever-growing workforce. Edelstein admits that feeding the machine with sufficient volume and variety is a difficult endeavor in this early stage. The company has not spent a significant amount of capital on marketing and courting clients, instead, CloudCrowd still relies on word of mouth to attract new business.
“Well it’s true that the number one complaint of our workers is give me more work, I want more availability of jobs. In both of the previous outsourcing, disruptive eras, the era of manufacturing moving to China and developing nations and the era of white collar work moving to India it took years of explaining, educating and showing corporations and all sorts of people who had work how much they could benefit…how consistent the work quality could be,” Edelstein says. “We don’t expect that overnight every single company in the Fortune 500 is going to outsource significant amounts of their work to the internet cloud but we’re sure that it’s going to happen over time.”
The key to their success (and beating rivals like CrowdFlower) lies in the credibility of their workforce and amassing as much information as possible on the skills of their workers. According to Ritter, the system is structured to create dynamic profiles on each user. Every time a user completes a task and that task is reviewed, CloudCrowd will learn how reliable that user is and which skills they excel at. If all that information is organized properly, that could be highly valuable for a client who needs to finish a targeted task in a short time frame.
“We’re building sort of what we call the credibility graph of known reliable people on the internet,” Ritter says. “If there are particular customers who… say, ‘I want a thousand reliable people on the internet to do a particular job for me.’ Well today you really can’t find that. Where would you find 1,000 reliable people on the internet.”
CloudCrowd is one of the leading online workforce platforms, distributing millions of pieces of work to more than 200,000 workers. With projects ranging from high-end writing to quick-and-easy 10 second verification tasks, CloudCrowd provides the most advanced opportunity for individuals to find good work and get paid well. The workers of CloudCrowd are independent contractors who set their own schedules and choose their own tasks. CloudCrowd offers individuals new ways to make money, achieve recognition, and fit work into busy...
CrowdFlower is the leader in enterprise crowdsourcing. CrowdFlower’s technology platform offers quality-ensured crowdsourcing at massive scale. The company solves problems ranging from product categorization to business lead verification to content creation. Clients from startups to the Fortune 500 enjoy increased flexibility, faster turnaround time and cost savings. Enterprise crowdsourcing offers the ability to distribute tasks to a massive group of contributors with automated management and quality control in order to streamline many large-scale business projects. CrowdFlower takes large, data-heavy projects and...
Jordan is an accomplished software architect and technical entrepreneur. In 1999 Jordan co-founded the original Napster, developing the technology with Shawn Fanning before the company was officially funded in August. Until his departure in November of 2000, Jordan primarily served as Chief Server Architect and was responsible for the server backend software and infrastructure, helping lead the technology to support 60 million users worldwide in less than a year. In 2001 Jordan co-founded Cloudmark with Vipul Ved Prakash, building the...
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We welcome the UK Government's commitment to quadruple its aid to help fund UN emergency help for Syrian refugee children and families.
Earlier today the international development secretary Andrew Mitchell visited the Za'atari refugee camp in northern Jordan where more than 3,500 Syrians are staying. Half are estimated to be children and adolescents.
Mr Mitchell toured Za'atari visiting a UNICEF-supported child-friendly space – a safe place where children can play, learn and receive psychosocial support.
"Conditions in the desert camp are difficult and funds are urgently needed to scale up emergency response efforts," said UNICEF Jordan Acting Representative Michele Servadei.
"We are pleased with the British government's commitment and are optimistic other donor nations will provide similar support."
The funding announced today will contribute to UNICEF's work in the Za'atari camp and in neighbouring Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey.
It will enable us to provide more essential water, sanitation and hygiene assistance, and support more than 5,000 distressed children needing special care after witnessing violence in Syria.
The UN estimates 1.5 million people in Syria need help. More than 130,000 Syrian refugees have been registered in neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. UNICEF has appealed for £24.8 million to support its regional emergency response plan to the crisis. So far it has received less than half of the funds needed.
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Sierra Leoneans vote on Saturday in elections they hope can propel the small West African state into an era of prosperity based on mining and oil after a decade of difficult recovery from civil war.
The presidential and parliamentary polls, the third held since the end of the 1991-2002 conflict, pit President Ernest Bai Koroma and his ruling All People's Congress (APC) against challenger Julius Maada Bio, a former junta leader who represents the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP).
In an election expected to be close, former insurance executive Koroma, 59, who wrested the presidency from the SLPP in a hotly disputed 2007 vote, is considered the narrow favourite, above Bio, a 48-year-old retired army brigadier who was involved in two military takeovers in the turbulent 1990s.
To win outright, a candidate must gain 55 percent of the vote and the race may well go to a second round.
The elections are being held amid rising expectations that large foreign-run iron ore mining projects and promising oil discoveries can help lift Sierra Leone's 5.5 million people out of still widespread poverty.
"If they get through this successfully, I think it will mark the tipping point from a post-conflict country to a democratically developing one," John Stremlau of the Atlanta-based Carter Centre's election observer mission told Reuters.
The vote in the former British colony, whose name signifying "Lion Mountains" was given by Portuguese explorers describing its coastal outline, will be one of the most closely observed in Africa this year by monitors from the European Union, the Commonwealth and the African Union.
More than 2.6 million people are registered to vote in some 9,000 polling stations across the country, from the scruffy, humid coastal capital Freetown to bush-ringed upcountry hamlets.
With rivalry between the APC and the SLPP running high, there are concerns that a close result could ignite violence, although the election campaign saw only minor scuffles.
"Compared with our worst fears, it's been pretty good," said the EU's chief election observer, Richard Howitt.
At stake is the opportunity to oversee millions of dollars of investment in the aid-dependent country's resources that include gold and diamonds, oil and iron ore.
Iron ore shipments by British companies African Minerals and London Mining are expected to buoy the economy to 20 percent growth this year - below original forecasts of over 50 percent but still one of the highest growth rates on the planet.
The projects are seen yielding royalty revenues of between $125 million (78.7 million pounds) and $250 million per year by the end of the next administration.
But doubts remain over whether the election winner can root out the graft from Sierra Leone's patronage-driven politics, fairly distribute the mineral wealth and unite the war-scarred society over tribal and political divisions.
In the electoral propaganda battle waged in Freetown's pot-holed streets, APC billboards have sought to emphasise Koroma's performance over the last five years in building new roads, improving the power supply and bringing in foreign investors.
"De Pa Dea Woke (The Father is working)" proclaims one pro-Koroma billboard in the local Krio language, while another assures voters the president's "Action Pass Intention".
Koroma, who promised in 2007 to run the country "like a business", is hoping the momentum of incumbency can give him the edge in Saturday's first round vote.
SLPP posters hail Bio as a "Father of Democracy". His supporters point to his role in handing over to civilian rule more than a decade ago and rebuff accusations from critics who question his military past and democratic credentials.
Although ethnic allegiances still shape Sierra Leone's electoral landscape - Koroma's APC draws support from the Temne and Limba peoples of the north, while the Mende of the south and east traditionally vote SLPP - both candidates face pressure to convert the mineral riches into jobs and improved livelihoods.
"You are seeing a lot more political awareness, people want to know what you can do for them, for the country," said Kelvin Lewis, editor of the independent Awoko daily.
But a strong consensus also exists among voters that Sierra Leone must never be allowed to fall back into the violence of the 1991-2002 war, when the existence of child soldiers, the amputation of captive civilians' limbs, and the role played by 'blood diamonds' in fuelling the conflict gave Sierra Leone unwanted international notoriety.
"The war is finished, no war in this country. We are all brothers and sisters," Tamba Emmerson Ngenda, 46, a disabled polio victim, told Reuters as he watched a noisy march by green-clad Bio supporters through the streets of central Freetown.
British-trained Sierra Leonean soldiers - issued only days before with new camouflage outfits and bush hats - are being deployed to help police keep the peace during Saturday's voting.
In St. George's Cathedral in downtown Freetown, a handwritten sign on the notice-board carries the hopes for a vote unmarred by conflict: "Come One, Come All and join us to pray for successful, non-violent, free, fair, transparent and peaceful general elections ... Amen!!
(Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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Tibet: the Land of Snows, the roof of the world. For centuries this mysterious Buddhist kingdom, locked away in its mountain fastness of the Himalaya, has exercised a unique hold on the imagination of the West. For explorers, imperialists and traders it was a forbidden land of treasure and riches. Dreamers on a spiritual quest have long whispered of a lost Shangri-la, steeped in magic and mystery. When the doors were finally flung open in the mid-1980s, Tibet lay in ruins. Between 1950 and 1970, the Chinese wrested control of the plateau, drove the Tibetans’ spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and some 100, 000 of Tibet’s finest into exile and systematically dismantled most of the Tibetan cultural and historical heritage, all in the name of revolution. For a while images of the Buddha were replaced by icons of Chairman Mao. Today, Tibetan pilgrims across the country are once again mumbling mantras and swinging their prayer wheels in temples that are heavy with the thick intoxicating aroma of juniper incense and yak butter. Monasteries have been restored across the country, along with limited religious freedoms. A walk around Lhasa’s lively Barkhor pilgrimage circuit is proof enough that the efforts of the communist Chinese to build a brave new (roof of the) world have foundered on the remarkable and inspiring faith of the Tibetan people.
For travellers, Tibet is without doubt one of the most remarkable places to visit in Asia. It offers fabulous monastery sights, breathtaking high-altitude treks, stunning views of the world’s highest mountains and one of the most likeable peoples you will ever meet. There's Gyantse, in the Nyang-chu Valley, famed for the largest chörten (stupa) in Tibet, and hiking in Yarlung Valley, widely considered the cradle of Tibetan civilization. Base yourself in Tsetang and marvel at the monkey cave in Gangpo Ri or walk the monastery kora (pilgrim path). Your trip will take you past glittering mountain turquoise lakes and over high passes draped with prayer flags. Find a quiet spot in a prayer hall full of chanting monks, hike past the ruins of remote hermitages or make an epic overland trip along some of the world’s wildest roads. The scope for adventure is limitless.
For many people, Tibet is a uniquely spiritual place. Those moments of peace, fleeting and precious, when everything seems to be in its proper place, seem to come more frequently in Tibet, whether inspired by the devotion apparent in the face of a pilgrim or the dwarfing scale of a beautiful landscape. Tibet can truly claim to be on a higher plain.
This remarkable place is changing fast. Investment and tourism are flooding into the region, inspired by a new train line from China, and GDP is rising even faster than the train tracks to Lhasa. Unfortunately the modernisation is coming first and foremost on China’s terms. China’s current wave of tourists has been dubbed the ‘second invasion’, with a slew of new hotels, restaurants and bars set up and run by Chinese for Chinese. Once the remote preserve of hardy backpackers, it is now local Chinese tourists who dominate the queues for the Potala and Jokhang. Lhasa is booming and even small towns across the plateau are being modernised and rebuilt. With every passing month Tibet looks less and less like itself.
The myths and propaganda that have grown up around Tibet can be so enticing, so pervasive and so entrenched that it’s hard to see the place through balanced eyes. The reality is that Tibet is no fragile Shangri-la but a resilient land underpinned by a unique culture and faith. But you are never far from the reality of politics here. For anyone who travels with their eyes open, a visit to Tibet will be memorable and fascinating, but also a sobering experience. It’s a place that’s likely to change the way you see the world and that will remain with you for years to come. And that’s surely the definition of the very best kind of travel.
Ready to go?
These tours & activities make it easy:
- Take the high road to Lhasa
- Cycle from Lhasa to Kathmandu on a 23-day Himalayan adventure
- Visit the ancient Tibetan capital of Lhasa from Kathmandu
- See Tibet Unplugged in 15 days
Last updated: Jan 24, 2013
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After seeing fellow staff members lose weight and become fit, April Peralta with the Office of General Counsel decided “I can do that too!” With determination in mind, Ms. Peralta asked for and received a new pair of athletic shoes for Mother’s Day in 2009 and started walking. Through regular exercise and a change in eating habits, Ms. Peralta lost 100 pounds in one year, dropping from a size 22 dress to a size 6-8.
Today, Ms. Peralta goes to the gym on
a regular basis with her husband, Warden Peralta, and faithfully exercises for one to two hours each day. To keep motivated, she alternates her exercise routine between walking, running, core, kickboxing and strength training. As to her eating habits, Ms. Peralta counts calories and avoids foods with high fructose corn syrup. She also avoids foods heavy in fat, such as mayonnaise and butter, and eats lots of fruits and vegetables. Ms. Peralta’s determination to stay healthy and fit remains strong as she looks back at her “before” picture and vows “never to go back.”
Congratulations April Peralta on such an accomplishment!
WIN wishes to recognize Jesus Mendoza, Release Coordinator for the Community Justice Assistance Division in Austin. Jesus was born as a premi and weighed less than 2 pounds, but all the good caring his parents gave him formed him into an overweight child/man.
He lost his father at the age of 62, and started to get warning signs that if he didn't change his ways concerning his health, he would probably die at an early age. In 2004, Jesus was diagnosed with high blood pressure and then in 2007 with diabetes. When he reached 288 pounds in July 2009, he decided something had to be done. Jesus devoted himself to exercising and eating less than 1,500 calories a day. As of September 2010, Jesus has lost 100 pounds and no longer has to take medicine for high blood pressure or diabetes.
Congratulations Jesus Mendoza on your achievements!
Norman Langwell, Jr.
Governor Rick Perry named Norman Langwell, Jr. of Huntsville as the 2008 Texas Round-Up Fit Texan. Mr. Langwell is a Correctional Officer V at the Goree Unit, and has been employed with the agency for 7 ½ years. Mr. Langwell shed 178 pounds and has gone from a size 58 pant to an astounding size 32. By cutting out junk food, adding daily exercise, and having faith in himself, Mr. Langwell was able to achieve a remarkable goal of losing weight and becoming healthier. We would like to congratulate Mr. Langwell for receiving the outstanding honor of being named the 2008 Fit Texan Winner. You truly are an inspiration for anyone who wants to live a healthier life style.
Gurney Unit's WIN Coordinator, David Braun, ran in the
2006 Texas Round-Up Governor's Challenge 10K race in Austin on
April 29, 2006. His time was 58:37. Out of 901 runners,
Mr. Braun was 477th! Congratulations Mr. Braun
Mrs. Sandra Milholland, ACP II at the John Middleton Unit has been training with the North Texas Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team In Training since August in preparation to race walk the P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n Roll Marathon in Phoenix, Arizona. There were 29,528 people registered to participate and 15,848 finished the half-marathon, and 7,365 finished the full marathon. Ms. Milholland finished in 7 hours, 14 minutes, and 36 seconds. Her time was 45 minutes slower than usual due to a knee injury and other factors. The Arizona Republic newspaper reported race officials tried to make the course faster and easier this year, but were baffled because even the elite runners clocked slower times this year over last. Ms. Milholland raised $3,900 for the privilege of participating, and her sister, a leukemia survivor, was her Honored Hero.
Ms. Milholland is currently nursing her knee back to health but won’t rest from her workouts for too long as she and her husband will be walking the famous Coast-to-Coast Trail (181 miles) across England in 19 days during June of this year. They will then spend a week touring Scotland.
WIN would like to recognize Gloria Mills as a WIN Winner! Ms.
Mills works as a Correctional Officer at the Byrd Unit. When
not at work, Gloria likes to read, workout, run a 5K, and travel.
Gloria is also a
Gloria! Keep up the good work!
Wellness Initiative Now would like to congratulate William Roosevelt,
Project RIO Specialist at Ramsey II, on his selection as a WIN Winner!
He was chosen because he has displayed exceptional achievement with
weight-loss, exercising, and living an overall healthier lifestyle.
Mr. Roosevelt has dedicated himself to losing weight after receiving
a dire warning from his doctor. He then tipped the scales at 442
pounds. Mr. Roosevelt was referred to Weight Watchers and told to
begin walking 20 minutes a day.
“I think like everybody else, I really fought the change
of lifestyle,” he said. “But after a month, I started
looking forward to the walking. My 20 minutes went to 30 minutes
and my 30 minutes went to an hour. The more I exercised, the better
I felt. And the better I felt, the more I exercised.”
who now runs up to 30 miles a week and also swims and lifts weights
regularly, dropped his weight to 238 pounds in a year.
Not surprisingly, unit administrators called on him to serve as
the Ramsey II WIN Representative. He said his biggest challenge
is to convince fellow employees to follow his example by exercising
and eating right.
Congratulations William Roosevelt on your achievements!
Wellness Initiative Now would like to recognize Edward
Ortega, a Food Service Manager III from the Garza West Unit, as
a WIN Winner! He has demonstrated outstanding effort in accomplishing
personal goals to get fit and lead a healthier lifestyle.
Mr. Ortega began his weight loss program on December 30, 2002 by
giving up sugar and red meat, and switching to a low-fat diet made
up of mainly chicken and fish. In mid-January, he added an exercise
regimen with his 1,500-calorie daily diet.
“I introduced myself to the diet, and the diet was working,”
Ortega said. “But when I married the diet to the exercise,
it really augmented my weight loss. I just started dropping it.”
Mr. Ortega’s weight dropped from 314 pounds to 233 in less
than five months! He says his attitude is better and he feels better.
Congratulations Edward Ortega on your accomplishments!
Edward Ortega before (left) and after (right).
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The ability to add a 'one shot' panoramic lens to a digital camera has been around for a while and although the combination works it is unwieldy to carry around. Bubblescope have taken the 'One Shot' lens method and built a camera around it - resulting in world’s first standalone, single-shot panoramic digital camera for capturing experiences as 360º x 104º. Using BubbleScope® 1.0 software on a PC and Mac the resulting images can be converted to QTVR movies.
Bubblescope does seem to be to the simple solution for one click panoramas. The resolution maybe low(ish) and the rig doesn't compete with traditional giga pixel panoramas made with multiple images but for being out and about it captures the world in 360 degrees.
To be honest we want one!
Take a look at the BubbleScope website for more info, the camera will be available to order shortly..
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Not Yet Printed. Place an order and we will ship it as soon as it arrives.
Questions About This Book?
What version or edition is this?
This is the Revised edition with a publication date of 8/26/2020.
What is included with this book?
- The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any CDs, lab manuals, study guides, etc.
Written by a well-known teaching academic, this book provides a much-needed analysis of the baby boom generation, and looks at the changing attitudes to and policies in education, work and pensions/retirement. With the baby boom generation born in the 1950s now entering retirement and a third phase of social welfare interventions (pensions), the baby boomers are now attracting some academic and policy attention. Following this generation through each of the stages of the life course, this book provides an illuminating case study of childhood, adulthood and old age. Correlating how life stages are constructed in tandem with changes in the constructions of social policy, this book innovatively provides an engaging approach to the study of social welfare and social policy.
Table of Contents
|Introduction: The relevance of the Life-course to Social Policy|
|Beveridge, Social Welfare and Ageing|
|'Youth' and 1970s: Education and SocietY|
|'Adulthood' and 1980s: Employment, Polity and Population Control|
|'Old Age' and 1990s: Pension reform|
|Conclusion: Post-Millennium Analysis of Social Policy, Age and Social Theory|
|Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.|
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Transparency revolves around the principle of openness and candour. We are blessed that our beloved nation, now, has leaders who boast of being democrats. We hope they will be democrats in principle and practice and when they are being pressed by members of the public to be transparent, they are going to be honest and open about their dealings.
Malawians are tired of leaders who simply pay lip service to the values of openness. Experience has shown that it is one thing to preach about transparency and accountability at political podiums and another to be transparent leader in practice. To become a transparent leader one must have leadership qualities of honesty, trust, integrity and loyalty. Unfortunately, leaders with such qualities are a rare breed. The common breed of leaders is of those who preach transparency in public but are awfully corrupt in their private dealings.
The reluctance by some of our leaders to declare their assets despite numerous calls from the public is a proof of that we have the "do as I say, not as I do" type of leaders. These are the type of leaders who cannot motivate and inspire others to promote and practise transparency.
While the president declined to re-declare her assets by stating that she already did that when she was Vice President, a new call has been made. The request borders on the need to remove secrecy on salaries and benefits of the president and vice-president in order to promote transparency and accountability in the two high offices.
We share the view that the remuneration of the President and Vice President is not meant to be a secretive affair because this is tandem with Constitution's requirement for transparency and accountability. Surely, transparency at the highest level of government will to trigger further transparency in the lower levels of government.
President Joyce Banda and her administration should realise that justice begins at home. Her administration cannot call others to virtues which they themselves do not make an effort to practise. Gone are the days when the president and her vice should be splashing millions of Kwachas to charities and non profit making organisations, while at the same time refusing to disclose their perks. Malawians will be asking themselves: Where is the money coming from?
Good leaders should crave for justice, fairness, humaneness, transparency and accountability and declaration of assets and openness on how much taxpayers are coughing in form of their salaries is a step in the right direction.
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There are many benefits associated with relaxing in the soothing heat of an infrared sauna. In general, lower air temperatures than those of traditional saunas allow the user to stay in longer, resulting in more benefits than a traditional sauna with less shock to the body.
For those who are unable to perform regular exercise increasing your heart rate while sitting in an infrared sauna can be a viable alternative. It is important to give your heart muscle a work-out ion a regular basis.
Removal of toxins:
We are inundated with toxins of all types like never before. They are in the food we eat, the air breath, and on the things we touch. It has never been more important to rid our bodies of these types of toxins. There is no doubt that the increase in allergies, chronic fatigue, headaches, and sugar imbalances are related to these. Sitting in a sauna and increasing your core temperature helps accelerate the drainage of these toxic materials by increasing blood flow through the skin via sweat.
Improved skin conditions:
There is no spa treatment which is as effective as natures own way of cleaning your skin pores – sweating. Your skin will look and feel younger.
There is no replacement for a healthy diet and exercise for achieving weight loss. It is a question of calories in versus calories burnt. Try adding 30 minutes in an Arctic sauna after your workout and see what happens. A 30 minute session can burn up to 700 extra calories.
As the body works to cool itself, there is a substantial increase in heart rate, cardiac output and metabolic rate thus improving circulation. Blood flow during whole-body hyperthermia is reported to rise about 50 percent.
More blood circulation has the obvious benefits of helping injured muscles repair faster as oxygen rich blood circulates through the body, improving the body’s immune system. Drainage of toxic materials is accelerated. An oxygen rich blood supply helps to restore the body’s natural balance.
Sit back and relax. Add the soothing sounds of your favorite music. The results will be obvious. You deserve it!
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- Pregnancy & Childbirth
- Attachment Parenting
- Family Nutrition
- Family Wellness
My 18-month-old son throws terrible tantrums. When he doesn't want to do something, he often throws himself on the floor and kicks his arms and legs. I can barely bring myself to take him out in public because he throws tantrums so often. What can I do?Most toddlers throw temper tantrums. It's a typical stage of child development. To understand why your toddler throws a fit, put yourself in his place. A toddler has an intense desire to do things, but his mental and motor skills have developed more quickly than his ability to communicate. Because he doesn't yet have the verbal skills to express his frustration, he does so by throwing tantrums. But you should know that tantrums often come in two flavors: manipulative tantrums and frustration tantrums.
If you feel that your child is using tantrums as a tool to get his own way, give him verbal cues and use body language that says you don't do tantrums. Be aware that toddlers know how to push their parents' buttons. If you are a volatile person, it'll be easy for your child to trigger an explosion from you, ending in a screaming match with no winners. You send a clear message when you ignore his fits or walk away. This teaches him that tantrums are not acceptable. This is part of toddler discipline.
Frustration tantrums, on the other hand, require empathy. Take these emotional outbursts as an opportunity to bond with your child. Offer a helping hand, a comforting "it's okay." Help him out where he feels frustrated at not being able to accomplish a task. This way you establish your authority and build your child's trust. Direct his efforts toward a more manageable part of a task. For example, if he throws one of the common "I'll do it myself" fits about putting on his sock, you slip it halfway onto the foot, and he can pull it on the rest of the way. Sit down with him at eye level and caringly say, "Tell mommy what you want." That encourages him to use words or body language to communicate his feelings and needs so that he doesn't have to act them out in displays of anger.
To help parents gain perspective on the tantrum stage, we've divided fits into "biggies" and "smallies." Staying in the carseat is a biggie. It is non- negotiable and all the theatrics in the world will not free the safety-contained protester. But whether she should wear a red shirt rather than a blue one is a smallie. A clothing mismatch isn't worth a fight.
Occasionally, a very strong-willed child will lose control of himself during a tantrum. If often helps to simply hold him firmly, but lovingly, and say, "You're angry, and you have lost control. I'm holding you because I love you." You may find that after a minute or more of struggle, he melts in your arms as if to thank you for rescuing him from himself.
In general, don't ignore a frustration tantrum. Turning away from her behavioral problems deprives her of a valuable support resource, while you lose the chance to improve your rapport with your tantrumer. Once your toddler develops the language skills to express her needs in words, you'll be able to close the book on the tantrum stage. This usually happens between two and two- and-a-half-years-of-age, depending on your child's language development.
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Transurethral Microwave Therapy (TUMT) for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
Surgery Overview Back to top
In transurethral microwave therapy (TUMT), an instrument (called an antenna) that sends out microwave energy is inserted through the urethra to a location inside the prostate. Microwave energy is then used to heat the inside of the prostate. Cooling fluid is circulated around the microwave antenna to prevent heat from damaging the wall of the urethra. To prevent the temperature from getting too high outside the prostate, a temperature sensor is inserted into the man's rectum during the procedure. If the temperature in the rectum increases too much, the treatment is turned off automatically until the temperature goes back down.
The temperature becomes high enough inside the prostate to kill some of the tissue. As this part of the prostate heals, it shrinks, reducing the blockage of urine flow.
Microwave therapy is also known as cooled thermal therapy or by the name of the equipment used.
What To Expect After Surgery Back to top
You are typically able to go home after surgery. You may not be able to urinate and may need catheterization to drain your bladder. For most men, this lasts for a week or less.
You can typically return to work 1 to 2 days after treatment. Sexual activity can be resumed 1 to 2 weeks after surgery.
Why It Is Done Back to top
TUMT is done to help relieve the symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). It is an option for men who want more than medicines for treatment of their symptoms.
How Well It Works Back to top
One study showed that TUMT improved symptoms and urine flow better than the alpha-blocker terazosin when checked 6 months and 18 months later. 1
Studies find that TUMT does not improve symptoms and urine flow as much as TURP does. 1
Risks Back to top
The main complications of TUMT include: 1
- A complete inability to urinate (urinary retention). You may need to have a tube inserted directly through the abdominal wall into the bladder to drain urine (suprapubic catheter).
- A strong urge to urinate (overactive bladder), which can also cause leaking of urine (urge incontinence).
- Irritation of the urethra and blood in the urine (though not as much as with TURP).
Men who have TUMT don't lose as much blood as men who have TURP. So men who have TUMT have less need for a blood transfusion. They also have less of a problem with retrograde ejaculation than men who have TURP.
Reports have warned that in a small number of cases the procedure has caused serious injuries and complications, including damage to the penis and urethra. Injuries have required urostomies, partial amputation of the penis, and other procedures. In December 2000, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning about these injuries.
What To Think About Back to top
Most trials using TUMT have been limited by a small number of participants, a short length of time of study, and limited follow-up with the participants after the trial ended.
This procedure is not recommended for men who have prostate cancer or for men who are suspected of having prostate cancer.
References Back to top
Credits Back to top
|Primary Medical Reviewer||E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine|
|Specialist Medical Reviewer||J. Curtis Nickel, MD, FRCSC - Urology|
|Last Revised||March 5, 2012|
Last Revised: March 5, 2012
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2013 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.
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FORMAT: 4 x Paperbacks on military and war
ILLUSTRATIONS: B&W Photos
Category: Non Fiction – Military/War
Format: Soft cover
Size: 11cm x 18cm
Combined Weight: 740g
THE DAM BUSTERS Paul Brickhill Illustrated PB WW2 RAF Bomber Squadron
This 252 page paperback was published by Pan Books, 1955 and written by Paul Brickhill. It was first published in 1954 . ‘This is the inspiring story of the RAF’s most famous Bomber Squadron. 17th May 1943. Over 300 million tons of water crashed into the valleys of the Ruhr – the most audacious bombing attack of the war had breached the giant Moehne and Eder Dams. Created especially for this great raid, with hand picked crews and equipped with colossal blockbuster bombs, 617 Squadron was used again and again on targets that demanded pin-point accuracy and high courage…The knocked out Hitler’s last and most terrifying secret weapon – the V3s and they destroyed the battle ship Tirpitz and they won two Victoria Crosses and 150 other decorations.’
good condition, it has age tanning, first page of photos has age mottling across it, no page tears, creases or pen marks on the pages, front cover has a name in pen
THE SINKING OF THE SCHARNHORST by Fritz-Otto Busch
This 186 page paperback, no publication date given. It was written by Fritz-Otto Busch.
On Christmas Day, 1943, blinded by the fury of an Arctic blizzard, encircled by enemy destroyers, the German battleship Scharnhorst fought for her life. The luck of the Scharnhorst had become a legend. In 1942, she had slipped unscathed through the Channel under the very bows of the British fleet to harry the Arctic convoy routes. The British convoy which sailed for Murmansk on Christmas Eve, 1943, seemed a perfect target for another lightning raid. In fact it was a trap to lure the battleship into the open and then destroy her.
Acceptable condition as a reading copy, pages age tanned, pages 167-186 are loose in one section from the spine but tuck/slot in tightly, no corner tears or pen marks
THE KNIGHTS OF BUSHIDO A Short History of Japanese War Crimes Illustrated by Lord Russell of Liverpool
This 252 page paperback was published by Corgi 1970.
This book is a straighforward account, written with no suggestion of sensationalism, of Japanese atrocities perpetrated in the last war. Murders, massacre, death marches, mutilation, vivisection, and even cannibalism were all practised by the proud descendants of the Knights of Bushido of The Order of The Rising Sun – and condoned by their High Command. The mass destruction by starvation and forced labour which turned tens of thousands of healthy men into diseased skeletons was deliberate military policy.
CLOSE QUARTER BATTLE by Mike Curtis
This 540 page paperback was published by Corgi, 1998 and written by Mike Curtis and illustrated with colour and black and white photos
'The explosive true story of 15 years under fire. Even by SAS standards, former coalminer and likely Welsh Rugby international Mike Curtis has had a remarkable career. He has seen action all over the world. C.Q.B is his story.
C.Q.B Falklands – Goose Green was the first land battle and the longest and most vicious of the campaign. As a member of the heavily outnumbered 2 Para, Curtis was part of the most bloody and significant victory of the war.
C.Q.B Iraq – for forty-two days behind enemy lines, Curtis was part of the biggest SAS overland fighting force since the Second World War
C.Q.B Bosnia – amidst scenes of terrible desolation, Curtis worked closely with all factions and later led a close protection team guarding Heads of State, including the British PM
Good, clean, tightly bound order, coves have mild edge wear
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http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4-x-WAR-MILITARY-Paperbacks-Dam-Busters-Sinking-Scharnhorst-Bushido-/360455858369?pt=AU_Non_Fiction_Books_2&hash=item53ecd7e8c1
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Characterize the charges as "rumors" or, better yet, "wild rumors." If, in spite of the news blackout, the public is still able to learn about the suspicious facts, it can only be through "rumors." (If they tend to believe the "rumors" it must be because they are simply "paranoid" or "hysterical.")
Knock down straw men. Deal only with the weakest aspects of the weakest charges. Even better, create your own straw men. Make up wild rumors (or plant false stories) and give them lead play when you appear to debunk all the charges, real and fanciful alike.
Call the skeptics names like "conspiracy theorist," "nutcase," "ranter," "kook," "crackpot," and, of course, "rumor monger." Be sure, too, to use heavily loaded verbs and adjectives when characterizing their charges and defending the "more reasonable" government and its defenders. You must then carefully avoid fair and open debate with any of the people you have thus maligned. For insurance, set up your own "skeptics" to shoot down.
Impugn motives. Attempt to marginalize the critics by suggesting strongly that they are not really interested in the truth but are simply pursuing a partisan political agenda or are out to make money (compared to over-compensated adherents to the government line who, presumably, are not).
Come half-clean. This is also known as "confession and avoidance" or "taking the limited hangout route." This way, you create the impression of candor and honesty while you admit only to relatively harmless, less-than-criminal "mistakes." This stratagem often requires the embrace of a fall-back position quite different from the one originally taken. With effective damage control, the fall-back position need only be peddled by stooge skeptics to carefully limited markets.
Reason backward, using the deductive method with a vengeance. With thoroughly rigorous deduction, troublesome evidence is irrelevant. E.g. We have a completely free press. If evidence exists that the Vince Foster "suicide" note was forged, they would have reported it. They haven't reported it so there is no such evidence. Another variation on this theme involves the likelihood of a conspiracy leaker and a press who would report the leak.
Expanding further on numbers 4 and 5, have your own stooges "expose" scandals and champion popular causes. Their job is to pre-empt real opponents and to play 99-yard football. A variation is to pay rich people for the job who will pretend to spend their own money.
Flood the Internet with agents. This is the answer to the question, "What could possibly motivate a person to spend hour upon hour on Internet news groups defending the government and/or the press and harassing genuine critics?" Don t the authorities have defenders enough in all the newspapers, magazines, radio, and television? One would think refusing to print critical letters and screening out serious callers or dumping them from radio talk shows would be control enough, but, obviously, it is not.
This is a revision of
13 Techniques for Truth Suppression
14 Techniques for Truth Suppression
and again of
15 Techniques for Truth Suppression
See also "Children's Fantasy Writers"
Dec. 28, 1999
|The Bird||The Bird Columns||DCDave's Homepage||DCDave's Column||DCDave's Column 3|
|newsgroup: alt.thebird||email: firstname.lastname@example.org|
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The Life and Death of Buildings - Smith, Joel - Yale University Press
- Related Categories
- Art and Architecture
Distributed for the Princeton University Art Museum
The Life and Death of Buildings
On Photography and Time
Buildings inhabit and symbolize time, giving form to history and making public space an index of the past. Photographs are made of time; they are literally projections of past states of their subjects. This visually striking meditation on architecture in photography explores the intersection between these two ways of embodying the past. Photographs of buildings, Joel Smith argues, are simultaneously the agents, vehicles, and cargo of social memory.
In The Life and Death of Buildings photographers as canonical as Bernd and Hilla Becher, Laura Gilpin, Lewis W. Hine, and William Henry Fox Talbot enter into visual dialogue with amateurs, architects, propagandists, and insurance adjusters. Rather than examine photographers' aims in isolation, Smith considers how their images reflect and inflect the passage of time. Much as a building's shifting function and circumstances substantially alter its significance, a photograph comes to be coauthored by history, growing layers of meaning to which its maker had no access.
Joel Smith is the Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography at the Princeton University Art Museum. His previous publications include Edward Steichen: The Early Years and Saul Steinberg: Illuminations.
Princeton University Art MuseumOTHER TITLES BY THIS ESSAY BY
TITLES IN RELATED CATEGORIES
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- Pipe lagging:
- Nail holes in pipes
- Burst pipe repair method
- Slip on coupling
- Compression join
- Push fit repair
An unprotected water pipe will often freeze during the winter months, of which we seem to get about 11 per year in this Country!
Frozen water expands quite dramatically, and if contained in a pipe where no expansion room is available, the pipe will split. This in itself, is not the problem. The problem occurs when the ice thaws out again!
Rather than wait for a freezing spell and wish a burst pipe on somebody, we have used a pipe with a deliberate nail hole in, to explain the mending procedure.
Incidentally, burst pipes can be avoided with the correct lagging applied to them, the minimum recommended thickness of pipe insulation are:
- 15mm pipe: 25mm
- 22-28 mm pipe: 19mm
- 35mm and over pipe: 9mm.
Nail holes can be avoided by a careful search of the area you are nailing in with a pipe and/or cable detector. These are available from most diy stores at about £12.00.
First turn the water off as soon as you realise there is a problem. A small amount of water will dry out, a large amount will cause a great deal of damage. If, when you are reading this project and you do not know where your main stop cock is; go and find it!
Locate the burst or nail hole, remember this may not be directly below the visible signs of water. The ceiling may slope, or the pressure may have forced a spray of water away from the actual split, so search thoroughly.
For a single nail hole or small split, proprietary slip on couplers are available from the plumbers merchants.
These are lengths of copper pipe, threaded at either end. Using a pipe cutter, hacksaw or pipe slice, cut the section of pipe containing the split or hole, away. Make sure you have cut far enough back to a section of the pipe that is still completely round and not distorted by the burst or force from the nail.
If a hack saw is used, you may need to file the ends of the pipe free of burrs, to slide the olives on.
The olives slide into the slip on coupling and are compressed by tightening the nuts. This gives a seal as in any other compression fitting.
If the hole, burst or pipe distortion is longer than about 2 inches, you will need to insert a section of pipe. This is achieved by using two small compression couplers either side of the new section.
A compression joint, as mentioned above, is so called because of the compression of a brass ring, or "olive" against the copper pipe, by a nut tightening onto a thread. The openings on compression fittings are made to accept the pipe, and a small amount of the olive, which is accommodated in a small bevel machined into the fitting. The nut is then tightened, while the fitting itself is held fast with another spanner. The olive is compressed, forming a water tight seal between the pipe and fitting. Care must be taken not to overtighten these fittings as it can lead to squashing the pipe slightly causing the joint to leak. No amount of tightening, should that occur, will remedy the situation.
The easiest way to effect a repair in a leaking pipe is with a push fit system. Simply cut out the burst, as described above, and push on this purpose made repair pipe.
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Now Is The Time: Stand Up for Banned and Challenged Books
Date: Sat. October 13, 2012
Time: 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Harold Washington Library Center
400 S. State Street
Program: Reader’s Theater (Teens)
About this event:
In The Book Thief, the fall 2012 selection for One Book, One Chicago, books are not only banned, they are burned. While many years have passed since Liesel had to steal books, we still fight for the freedom to choose what we read even today. During the American Library Association's Banned Books Week (September 30-October 6), teens ages 14-18 are invited to join teen members of Chicago Public Library's Readers Theatre Troupe in special performances as they present excepts of teen novels that have been banned or challenged. For more information, contact email@example.com or (312) 747-4780.
NOTE: This half-hour Reader’s Theatre performance will be followed by an hour-long workshop exploring The Book Thief's connection to teens today, presented by teaching artists from Steppenwolf Theatre.
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http://www.chipublib.org/events/details/id/93801/
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One of the many great things about the United States, from a lawmaker's point of view at least, is that they comprise fifty-one legislatures attempting to tackle the problems that face us (in the West, at least) with a net of words. It's like a greenhouse or nursery for the legal species. And we up here in slower Canada get to watch to see which cultivars survive politics, real life — and occasionally ridicule.
For example, a bill currently in the hothouses of the Oregon legislature — Oregon Senate Bill 71, A Bill for an Act Relating to Drones; and Declaring an Emergency — attempts to deal with one aspect of the plague of drone aircraft that has already begun to spread across the US. The bill is aimed at a "flying machine that is capable of":
(a) Capturing images of objects or people on the ground or in
(b) Intercepting communications on the ground or in the air; or
(c) Firing a bullet or other projectile.
The bill provides, among other things:
3) (1) . . . A person may not possess or control a drone unless permitted to do so by the federal government or by the Oregon Department of Aviation . . .
(2) A person who possesses or controls a drone in violation of subsection (1) of this section commits a Class B misdemeanor.
(3) A person who possesses or controls a drone in violation of subsection (1) of this section and uses the drone to capture an image of a person or object on the ground or in the air commits a Class A misdemeanor.
(4) A person who possesses or controls a drone in violation of subsection (1) of this section and uses the drone to fire a bullet or other projectile commits a Class C felony.
(5) A person who possesses or controls a drone for the purpose of hunting or stalking game commits a Class C felony.
(6) A person who possesses or controls a drone and causes the drone to fire a bullet or other projectile at an aircraft while the aircraft is in the air, or intentionally causes or attempts to cause the drone to crash into an aircraft while the aircraft is in the air, commits a Class A felony.
Lawyers are worried as well, because the control of airspace is considered a federal matter, and the bill is arguably ultra vires Oregon. The bill tries to evade this difficulty in two ways. First, it applies only to the "airspace of Oregon" and declares:
(1) 'Airspace of Oregon' means the space above the ground that is not part of airspace governed by federal law.
And then it would declare a state of emergency and claim that the bill is "necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety."
The drones are coming in increasing numbers, whether deployed by "the authorities" or by private citizens. Canada will have to consider some legislative measures to counter potential invasions of privacy and unwarranted searches, let alone dangers from drones armed with weapons. Given the widespread availability of the technology and its relatively low cost, the chances of success of these efforts is not good, it seems to me. What do you think?
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Local & Regional
Wed August 29, 2012
Officials Break Ground on Early Childhood Center Expansion
Union Public Schools and the Community Action project plan to almost double the size of the Rosa Parks Early Childhood Education Center.
Union Superintendent Dr. Cathy Burton says all eight new classrooms will not necessarily fill up immediately, “but that is giving us an opportunity to grow.”
Officials broke ground on the expansion today.
“The beauty is that the children from this program,” Burton said, “spread out all across Union schools.”
She says the students who come from the Rosa Parks Center are consistently the best prepared as they move on through the wider Union system.
As in the rest of the district, children attend the Rosa Parks Center at no cost. This particular facility is for low income families in the Union district.
“We provide full-day educational opportunities,” said Lynn McClure, principal of the Early Childhood Center.
“We have an enriching curriculum in regards to all kinds of different objectives that children are required to meet in the areas of cognitive, language, literacy, math, physical,” she said.
She added that there’s also an extensive fine arts enrichment program.
Construction, which will be handled by Manhattan Construction, is expected to be finished in time for either the coming spring or fall semester.
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http://www.publicradiotulsa.org/post/officials-break-ground-early-childhood-center-expansion
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It was the most average of hurricane seasons, and the most unpredictable of hurricane seasons.
It started way early, with Subtropical Storm Andrea, which formed on May 9 (officially the season begins June 1). And now it is going to end way late, with Subtropical Storm Olga, currently in the Caribbean.
[A subtropical storm, incidentally, is a hybrid between a fully tropical system and a fully extratropical or midlatitude one. The U.S. National Hurricane Center has been naming subtropical storms since 2002.]
Olga is the first December named storm in the Atlantic since 2005's Hurricane Epsilon. As Jeff Masters points out, there have now been 17 named December Atlantic storms since record-keeping began. And Masters adds this tantalizing piece of information: "Seven of the 17 December storms have occurred since 1995." On a similar note, over at The New York Times, Andrew Revkin is also asking whether the 2007 season, with its abnormal length (if not its abnormal number of intense hurricanes), could be a hint that the climate's changing.
Well, here's what we can safely say about this: A number of scientists do indeed expect lengthening of the average tropical cyclone season as a result of global warming. Simply put, the tropical oceans ought to warm up enough to sustain hurricanes earlier in the year, and also ought to remain warm enough to sustain them later into the year.
This logic suggests that our traditional June/November Atlantic hurricane season bookends may indeed need to topple that is, provided that no countervailing changes occur as a result of global warming that have the effect of hemming the hurricane season back in again.
But of course, there are a lot of complexities here. For example, you will note that our earliest and latest named storms of 2007, Andrea and Olga, were both subtropical in nature. And as I mentioned previously, the National Hurricane Center didn't even start naming these types of storms until 2002. So I can already hear the argument from skeptics: The season isn't really getting any longer, it's just that now we're paying more notice to subtropical storms....
Maybe that's right. I, however, remain convinced that global warming is already changing hurricanes in myriad ways but that due to the complexity of the science and the general unpredictability of weather, it is exceedingly hard to detect the effect definitively at this point.
In any event, the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season continues to tantalize. In some sense, I'm going to be glad it's over (whenever it finally ends) just so it will stop thwarting, at every turn, my attempts to put it in a box and categorize it.
Enter your city or zip code to get your local temperature and air quality and find local green food and recycling resources near you.
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Scarcely a day goes by when we are not reminded by the media of the ongoing struggle for survival that is being waged in all the far-flung corners of Planet Earth. Headlines tell of a flood in Bangladesh, a famine in Ethiopia, an earthquake in Guatemala. We read of war in Bosnia, terrorism in the Middle East, and religious strife in Northern Ireland. Our TV screens shock us with on-the-spot photos of racial violence in Los Angeles and military clashes in Central America and China. But, some of the most important news items never appear under datelines, because they are so pervasive, so insidious, and so continuous. For example, the escalating growth of the world's population and the seemingly inexorable deterioration of the earth's environment. The air we breath and the water we drink is becoming fouled; acid rain takes a rising toll of life in our forests and lakes; increasing emission of certain gases threatens our planet with climbing temperatures and decreasing protective ozone; the devastation of tropical rain forests and the depletion of groundwater reserves continues apace; problems of waste disposal loom steadily larger; the AIDS epidemic spreads its scourge ever farther and wider; refugee crises threaten regional geopolitical stability.
In a world so shrunken in distance and time that you can almost instantly communicate with any other city on any other continent, and in which you can fly to virtually its remotest corner in a matter of hours, a knowledge of differing peoples and places can no longer be considered the luxury of a few. It is, instead, a necessity of every individual. Our interdependence is now so complete that business decisions taken in Tokyo or Singapore have repercussions in Copenhagen and Peoria. Just to stay abreast of world events, much less to function effectively as informed global citizens, requires that we learn not only where these events are occurring, but also why they are taking place and how they will impact on our lives. Such considerations are the very essence of geography--a discipline whose study has unfortunately been sorely neglected at all levels of the American educational system for some time.
Last Updated: 9/10/12
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This is to important not to post fully. The Democrats, lead by Sen. Obama continue to drive the American Economy to have to rely more and more on foreign energy rather than making use of the energy resources we have here in the U.S. It’s apparent that Sen. Obama and the Democrats care little if anything about the people of the United States and our daily lives. Instead of looking to see what’s best for America and her people Sen. Obama continues to put himself and politics ahead of everything else. Sen. Obama has no proven track record of accomplishment in his checkered, Chicago Political Machine, political career. Sen. Obama has a host of questionable associates, associations, and political advisors and feigns ignorance at their backgrounds. Sen. Obama’s associates and political advisors include convicted felons, and former CEO’s and executives of failed financial institutions at the heart of the current financial crisis. Sen. Obama preaches “Hope” and “Change,” and yet, it’s nothing more that empty rhetoric being spouted forth by an empty suit.
American Made Energy = American Jobs: “
We’ve all seen the television ads saying every year America
spends $700 billion on foreign oil, constituting the largest
transfer of wealth in human history. It’s no coincidence that
Congress is now considering the largest government bailout in
American history. The current energy situation is bleeding the
American economy and jeopardizing American security.
This week, Congress will likely pass legislation authorizing
$700 billion to bailout Wall Street. Our economy is struggling.
But, just a week ago, the Democrat-led Congress blocked the
creation of thousands of American jobs, denied the American economy
an influx of more than $900 billion, and refused close to $600
billion in federal taxes.
Despite the clear necessity for more American-made energy, and
the overwhelming public support for increased domestic drilling,
the Democrat energy bill kept much of our known resources in the
Outer Continental Shelf off limits and failed to open ANWR and the
Western United States to development. Their plan will not lead to
the production of a single barrel of oil.
And, as a result, their plan will also not create much needed
jobs or pump much needed money into our sluggish economy. For every
one direct job in the oil and gas sector there are more than 4 jobs
in other industries. It’s estimated that increasing American oil
production by just one million barrels per day would lead to an
increase in employment of 128,000 jobs. Boosting oil production by
two million barrels a day will create an annual increase in Gross
Domestic Product of $164 billion and consequently generate 270,000
jobs. And, development of the ANWR Coastal Plain alone would lead
to 735,000 jobs throughout all fifty states. Tragically, the
Democrat plan makes all of this impossible.
Instead, we’re creating jobs and wealth in other countries. And,
all too often we benefit countries like Venezuela, an open enemy of
the United States, or oil sheiks in the Middle East who bankroll
The U.S. unemployment rate is at a four year high. In July,
employers announced a 26% increase in planned job cuts. Sales for
the auto industry fell 13% in just a year.
American families are struggling to make ends meet. More than
three quarters of people say that the rise in prices at the pump is
a financial hardship. Yet, for every $50 these Americans put in
their tanks, they are now sending $19 overseas. And, that’s not the
only place Americans are feeling the pinch. Food prices have risen
by 5% in just one year—the largest increase in almost 20 years.
Nancy Pelosi and Democrat leaders can put a stop to this, but
they have chosen not to. Although they have agreed to allow the
moratoria on oil shale development and offshore drilling to expire,
as scheduled, on October 1, 2008, they have not addressed
obstructive environmental litigation. As a result, oil production
will be blocked. For the past several years, fringe environmental
groups have challenged 100% of leases in the Alaskan OCS, the
entire five-year national OCS leasing program, and thousands of
onshore leases in Alaska and the lower 48 states, effectively
blocking any new production.
An amendment I attempted to offer to the Democrat plan would
have allowed for expedited judicial review of environmental
challenges to leases, but it was rejected. The Democrats don’t
actually want drilling to occur and the radical environmentalists
are their last line of defense. Speaker Pelosi and Democrat leaders
have endangered the American economy so as to cater to fringe
environmental special interests.
America must transition from fossil fuels towards clean
renewables, yet this shift cannot happen over night. We cannot wean
ourselves off the old energy source if the new is not yet viable.
In ten years, the oil and natural gas industry invested $1.2
trillion in numerous long-term energy initiatives. The best way to
speed the transition from fossil fuels to alternatives is to
strengthen the American economy thereby encouraging critical
investment in the new industries that will power our nation in the
(Via Redstate – Conservative News and Community.)
American Made Energy = American Jobs
2008 Elections, 57 States, alaskan coast, ANWR, appeasement, Barack Obama, clean coal, Current Events, Democrat Hypocrisy, Democratic Party, DenverGasPrices, DNC, Election 2008, elitist, Energy Independence, exclusion, exclusive, Financial Crisis, gaffe, gaffe’s, judgement, Liberal Bias, Liberal Hypocrisy, NovemberElection, nuclear energy, Obama, oil refineries, Political Correctness, Politics 2008, Presidential Election, questionable loans, refining, reliability, Rezko
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Homemade black soldier fly bins
dragged my feet about starting black soldier flies because the bins are
relatively complicated, but after a bit of internet research, building
our own is starting to feel feasible. It sounds like a successful
soldier fly bin will have good drainage at the bottom, air holes at the
top to let in adults wanting to lay their eggs, and a ramp for the
larvae to crawl up and out into the collection bucket.
Raising black soldier
flies is a relatively new endeavor, and there only seems to be one
company producing pre-made bins. The original bin was called a
Biopod, but now there are two different types of commercial bins
available --- the Biopod Plus (which replaced the original Biopod) and
the larger Protapod.
If you were going to buy
one of these bins new, you'd be shelling out $180 for the Biopod Plus, which composts 5 pounds
of food waste per day, or $350 for the Protapod, which composts 20
pounds of food waste per day. Both bins are way too expensive for
us, but they do serve as templates for the do-it-yourselfer. The
ramp seems to be the complicated part of the system, since it needs to
start at the bottom of the bin and lead up to the top at no more than a
40 degree angle. Most homemade bins I've seen have mimicked the
original Biopod (and Protapod), trying to make a ramp lining the inside
of a circular bin, but various websites report that it's tough to
attach the ramp to the inside of the bin since it's wet in there and
the larvae work hard to tear everything apart. Instead, the
rectangular bin of the Protapod Plus with the simpler ramp seems like a
system that could be replicated on the home scale with much more ease.
Soldier Fly Blog's DIY five gallon bucket bin has been tried by several
folks and is reported to do quite well, although you have to manually
raise and lower the ramp. The site is a great place to start your
research into black soldier flies, but the bin is too small for most
people, handling only about a pound of food scraps per day.
My favorite DIY bin so
far has been the
one pictured below,
which uses the same idea as the Biopod Plus to make a simple, mid-scale
bin out of a tupperware container and some PVC pipe. The PVC
method makes it seem like you could scale this version
indefinitely. You can see a
similar bin with more step by step instructions here. Some experts worry
that the larvae won't be able to find the ramps in this sytem, but
others report that they get very good crawl-off.
designing your bin, keep in mind that surface area determines how much
food waste your bin will compost per day. Every square foot of
surface area will allow you to put in about 3 pounds of food waste, so
for the 18 pounds of food waste currently going begging from our food
scrap program every
day, we would need 6 square feet of bin. It
seems remarkable that such a small bin could handle so much waste, but
black soldier flies are insatiable.
That said, black soldier
flies aren't out flying in cold weather and
their larvae can't work when temperatures are too cool, so this might
not be the short-term solution for our extra food scraps after
all. Stay tuned for more on the black soldier fly life cycle and
how to winterize bins in later posts.
Learn to create a niche business that pays all of your bills
in just a few hours per week.
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On Monday, Walmart announced it has worked with SolarCity to install solar panels on 12 Walmart stores and Sam's Clubs throughout Ohio.
The solar panel installations will add approximately 6,000,000 kWh of generation production, which is enough energy to power more than 820 homes. They are also expected to supply approximately 5 to 20 percent of each store's overall electricity use.
"Solar power makes sense for Walmart, and it makes sense for Ohio," said David Ozment, Walmart senior director of energy. "We are committed to increasing the use of renewable energy resources, including solar panels, at our stores in Ohio and throughout the country."
According to Bill Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio, this installation is the largest solar commitment ever made by a retail business in the state.
"At more than four and a half megawatts, it represents almost a tenth of all the solar installed in Ohio currently. It is exciting to see that Walmart's solar arrays will also eliminate 5,500 tons of CO2e or the equivalent of taking the emissions of 1,152 cars off the road each year," said Spratley, according to the EPA calculator.
The Walmart stores and Sam's Clubs receiving solar power systems are located in Mason, Xenia, Greenville, Austintown, Middletown, Franklin, Youngstown, Toledo, Milford, Loveland, and two systems in Cincinnati.
Walmart has an aspirational goal to be powered 100 percent by renewable energy. The United States EPA Green Power Partnership program ranks Walmart as the largest onsite green power generator in the U.S.
"Walmart continues to forge new ground as the number one corporate solar user in America," said SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive. "This project brings SolarCity to the state of Ohio for the first time, and is expected to increase the state's overall solar generation capacity by more than 10 percent."
Copyright 2013 Toledo News Now. All Rights Reserved.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweeps in the Bay Area and across the nation have separated working parents from their children, forced families to flee in haste to countries of origin many scarcely know and caused millions of others to live in fear of harassment and deportation.
On May 1, immigrants, their supporters, union activists, students and others will join hundreds of marches, rallies and speak-outs across the United States supporting immigrant rights.
In Berkeley, the UC Berkeley student government will lead marchers to Oakland where they will join the Oakland rally at the Federal Building in downtown Oakland.
“It’s significant that the ASUC [Associated Students of the University of California] will lead the march,” said Dimitri Garcia, the ASUC student senator who authored the resolution calling for the student government to support the march. “It adds much more weight to the urgency of fighting the [ICE] raids,” Garcia said.
The ASUC resolution in support of the march condemned the raids ICE dubbed as “Operation Return to Sender,” in which they targeted “immigrant neighborhoods and workplaces, in particular those of Latina/o populations, referring to over 600,000 immigrants as ‘fugitives.’ ”
At the university, May Day is to start with picket lines forming at 7:30 a.m. at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue to call for the participation of UC students and employees.
At 10 a.m., one group of marchers, led by ASUC student officials, will begin a march from Sproul Plaza down Telegraph Avenue, ending up at the Oakland Federal Building, where they will join the Oakland march coming down International Boulevard.
Others will rally on campus between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. And one contingent will march to the downtown Berkeley BART at noon to travel to San Francisco Civic Center to join the rally there.
Another organizer of the Berkeley event, graduate student Snehal Shingavi, noted the importance of May Day, traditionally focusing on worker rights and evolving into a day focusing on immigrant rights issues.
“Immigrant rights is very much a worker issue, honoring the legacy of May Day and the contributions immigrants make to the economy,” Shingavi told the Daily Planet.
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Posted on June 8, 2012 at 12:13 PM
Friday, Jun 8 at 12:13 PM
This spring was the warmest on record for the contiguous United States coming in at 5.2 degrees above the average, beating the previous record set in 1910 by 2 degrees! With the warmest March, third warmest April and second warmest May, this spring marked the largest temperature departure from average of any season on record for the contiguous United States.
Check out the map above. Forty-two states had spring temperatures among their ten warmest, with 31 states east of the Rockies being record warm. Only Oregon and Washington had spring temperatures near normal. Kentucky and Indiana both had record warm springs.
Check out NOAA’s full report http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/
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On the building blocks of creativity and acquiring a sense of what feels right.
I’ve been reading Distrust That Particular Flavor, the fantastic collection of nonfiction essays, including some never-before-printed ones, by the great novelist William Gibson. In the introduction, in discussing what makes great fiction, Gibson articulates one of the most fundamental principles of creativity — and, like all great insight on writing, at the heart of it is a truth that applies to the creative process in just about any domain, well beyond literature:
We [are] shaped as writers, I believe, not much by who our favorite writers are as by our general experience of fiction. Learning to write fiction, we learn to listen for our own acquired sense of what feels right, based on the totality of the pleasure (or its lack) that fiction has provided us. Not direct emulation, but rather a matter of a personal micro-culture.”
I love this concept of “a personal micro-culture” — what an eloquent way to capture the most important aspect of who we become, as creators in any medium and as human beings. Design legend Paula Scher knows that. (“[A design is] done in a second and every experience, and every movie, and every thing in my life that’s in my head,” she said.) Artist Austin Kleon knows that. (“You are a mashup of what you let into your life,” he said.) The blossoming of our combinatorial creativity hinges on a cultivation of our personal micro-culture. How are you cultivating yours?
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Peterson recorded with most of the jazz greats over the years. He played alongside giants like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Nat King Cole.
Peterson was born on August 15, 1925, in Montreal . Norman Granz, his influential manager and producer, brought him to New York City in 1949 for the first Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) tour. Peterson went on to lead two of the most popular jazz trios in the world, one with bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis, the other with Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen.
Peterson had more than 200 recordings to his credit, along with eight GRAMMY® Awards, the Glenn Gould Prize in 1993, and, in June of 1999, he received the prestigious Japanese Praemium Imperiale Award. Despite having suffered a stroke, he continued to dazzle listeners around the world.
Peterson’s first recording for Telarc, The Legendary Oscar Peterson Trio - Live at the Blue Note, was the recipient of the 1990 GRAMMY® Award for Best Jazz Group Instrumental Performance. Best known for his brilliant playing, he was equally accomplished as a composer. In 2000, Peterson teamed up with Michel Legrand for The Trail of Dreams: A Canadian Suite. Orchestrated and conducted by Legrand, The Trail of Dreams premiered in April 2000 at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto . In 2001, Telarc released Oscar’s Ballads, a compilation focused on the hauntingly beautiful ballads written by Peterson over the past 10 years. The Legendary Oscar Peterson Trio - Live at the Blue Note, a historic 4-CD collection of the pianist’s most treasured live recordings, was released in 2004. A 1998 recording, What’s Up? The Very Tall Band (with Peterson, Ray Brown and Milt Jackson), was released in 2007.
"To have been able to work with Oscar was a life long dream for us," says Bob Woods , Telarc’s President. "That we were able to make so many exceptional recordings with him in the difficult latter years of his life was a sign of his incredible strength and passion for his special kind of music making. Our highest thoughts go out to his family at this time, and our sincerest appreciation to Oscar for being able to be a part of his incredible journey."
The Legendary Oscar Peterson Trio (1990) CD-83304
Saturday Night at the Blue Note (1991) CD-83306
Last Call at the Blue Note (1992) CD-83314
Encore at the Blue Note (1993) CD-83356
Side by Side (1994) CD-83341
The More I See You (1995) CD-83370
An Oscar Peterson Christmas (1995) CD-83372
Oscar Peterson Meets Roy Hargrove and Ralph Moore (1996) CD-83399
Oscar Peterson Tribute Live at Town Hall (1997) CD-83401
Oscar in Paris : Live at the Salle Pleyel (1997) CD-83414
Oscar & Benny (1998) CD-83406
A Summer Night in Munich (1999) CD-83450
Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson : The Very Tall Band (1999) CD-83443
The Trail of Dreams: A Canadian Suite (2000) CD-83500
Oscar’s Ballads (2001) CD-83504
The Legendary Oscar Peterson Trio - Live at the Blue Note (2004) 4CD-83617
Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson: What’s Up? The Very Tall Band (2007) CD-83663
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PREDRAG VOSTINIC recounts his recent experiences as a journalist in Yugoslavia, and explains how the Internet became a potent political weapon of resistance in the overthrow of Milosevich.
When the war began in the former Yugoslavia, the most important military targets were telecommunications facilities and radio and television transmitters. Telephone lines were, as a rule, cut off between the parties in the conflict, imposing an information blockade that opened a space for manipulation, i.e. establishing the "monopoly on truth". This was an attack on objectivity. The lack of reliable information on the most interesting events and developments - the elimination of the senses of sight and hearing, made it more difficult to motivate the public for antiwar campaigns.
Initially, Radio B92 and Studio 99 from Sarajevo produced joint radio programmes that provided authentic reports from Sarajevo. This provoked strong emotions among listeners and made it relatively easy, at that time, to organize anti-war campaigns and projects (the Centre for Anti-War Actions, Vreme news magazine and B92 managed to organize, within one hour, demonstrations against the bombing of Sarajevo that brought thousands of protesters into the streets). Soon after this the telephone lines were cut, and we were reduced to news agency reports that had to be confirmed and reconfirmed from several sources. Links to Sarajevo had to be routed through Paris, Vienna or Milan, meaning that a single interview would cost as much as the monthly salary of the head of our news department. The only possible means of communication with people from regions stricken by war was through amateur radio operators. A large number of these offered their services in establishing contacts between separated family members and friends. This was tolerated by the authorities, being seen as humanitarian work, although still subject to a degree of restriction and repression.
This network of amateur radio operators could be seen as a kind of mediaeval Internet. The code of behaviour of amateur operators did not permit them to use their equipment for political activities, including the communication of information that might be used by the media. There were, however, cases of manipulation and false information, as these amateur radio operators were not trained journalists; most of them were people with no skills in the provision of objective information and, moreover, some of them had political agendas of their own.
It had become urgent to find a solution to this problem. That alternative was clearly the Internet, but there were no Internet service providers in the country. Once more we were forced to go through the painstaking process of establishing a technological infrastructure at a broader level to allow us to take advantage of the Internet (the process has been similar in complexity to both our struggle for freedom of speech and our efforts to adhere to professional journalism).
There were only two other options - either to wait for someone else to establish the first Internet service provider in the country, or to allow the authorities to impose their own monopoly on even this completely new medium. Neither of these options were satisfactory.
Thus, thanks to a Dutch Internet service provider, XS4ALL and the Open Society Foundation, B92 became Yugoslavia's first Internet service provider. Because of its small capacity our Internet division has never operated commercially - it serves as the technological base for implementing a series of non-profit projects and interconnecting the independent media and non-governmental organizations. The bottom line was that we established a new means of communication and pre-empted the establishment of the regime monopoly over this medium.
OpenNet gradually became something that Radio B92 had already been for some time - a medium for minorities, the non-governmental sector, progressive groups and individuals, alternative artists and anti-war activists. Radio B92 itself began using the Internet as an entirely new medium. A news service was established, with our information being distributed throughout the world via e-mail. News bulletins were now actually posted on the Internet - a completely new departure. In addition, reports on human rights records and freedoms in the country were compiled by B92 and distributed Worldwide.
Soon all of B92's activities were replicated on the Internet. The radio programme is broadcast (webcast) in real time, and the magazines Rec (Word), ProFemina and Media were among the first electronic magazines in eastern Europe and were available to potential readers worldwide, who soon took advantage of the interactive aspects of the medium. Our cultural centre, Cinema Rex, is establishing the Cyber Rex project that has opened a completely new domain for artists to express themselves and implement creative projects. The publishing division now publishes in electronic form on the Internet, creating a virtual library with books and articles available to all; productions of the documentary film and television division have been published on the Internet. Daily news in English, distributed via the Internet in RealAudio format, is regularly re-broadcast by international radio stations.
The regime falsified local election results at the end of 1996. Democratic opposition parties, united at the time in the Zajedno Coalition, spontaneously resisted this move by the authorities. Soon the students joined, and they organized daily demonstrations, which were to last for almost four months, not only in Belgrade but in the greater part of Serbia. Radio B92 and Radio Indeks were the basic source of information for most Belgraders; apart from announcements and reporting of demonstrations there were also live coverage of the rallies and live phone-ins from Belgrade and the rest of the country. This came in for criticism from opposition leaders, concerned that people were staying at home listening to their radios instead of attending the rallies. In late November Radio B92's signal began to decline constantly in strength.
Because of the reliability of B92's information, a large number of foreign journalists relied on our services, but on this occasion B92 itself became the news, as its signal was being jammed and was shortly to be taken off the air. B92's journalists continued to send out reports daily to a large number of radio stations in Yugoslavia and abroad. Meanwhile, B92 used the Internet to distribute news and information on the most recent developments in Yugoslavia through constantly updated mailing lists and web pages.
The authorities began to deploy the police force more extensively and it was important that information reached as many people as possible. For all these reasons we decided to distribute our news packages free of charge and also stepped up our news services in both Serbian and English. As these reports were designed to look like newsletters if printed, it was possible to distribute them in that form, which served the purpose of penetrating the media blockade between Belgrade and towns outside the capital. These bulletins were also being read aloud in the squares of provincial towns, as well as being posted on walls and billboards as newspapers.
In places without Internet access, these bulletins were printed abroad and returned by fax into the country where they were copied and further distributed by radio, Internet, fax, photocopier, hand, and reading aloud). Here modern technology was combined with the traditional, along with subversive methods of distribution.
OpenNet gradually became a service for the large-scale distribution of information on both the civil and student protests. The first positive international responses to the demonstrations came largely because of the Internet. The students also began to use the Internet through the Academic Network to report on the latest developments in the demonstrations. People abroad began to express solidarity, which charged the protesters with new and fresh energy. Creative ideas were exchanged via the Internet and were soon implemented on the streets, transforming the demonstrations into genuine media events. The use of the Internet involved the technical faculties of the University of Belgrade to a large extent; they became an important part of the process of creatively shaping the demonstrations and linking the rest of the world.
The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The LA Times all reported that the Internet had saved the demonstrations in Serbia. A new mechanism for resisting repression had been found and used successfully.
The widespread and versatile use of the Internet in a way that liberates certain segments of society - by opening up the tightly sealed space for communication and eliminating communication restrictions has changed the Church's stance on the Internet. The isolated Kosovo monastery of Visoki Decani has, thanks to Abbot Sava, become a true information centre, disseminating information on events occurring in that isolated territory to which war has restricted physical access. Apart from information giving another perspective on the reality of the region, Decani broadcasts the desire of part of the Serbian population to be involved in the peace process and the message of genuine opposition to the behaviour of state agencies. It has also produced proposals for genuine peace processes, statistics on the number of Serb refugees and publicized the need for humanitarian aid.
On many occasions the Internet has been the only way in which the monastic community and Serbs in the region have been able to obtain information. Thanks to Father Sava and his use of the Internet to promote a different concept of peace and democracy, the stereotype of a Serb people united in mischief has been considerably weakened. The Visoki Decani monastery has virtually become a news agency, providing reliable information and opinions that deserve to be heard and analysed. A number of international news organizations, including The New York Times, have acknowledged the importance of Father Sava's work.
Thanks also to Father Sava, the dogmatic view of the Internet is changing daily within the church. The celebration of the Feast of St Sava (the founder and patron saint of education in Serbia) was last year broadcast live on the Internet for the first time, as well as being carried on Radio B92 and ANEM via satellite with the help of RealAudio and Real Video. Thanks to this kind of use of the Internet, even the fanatics have been forced to change their views and subsequently their behaviour.
But Radio B92 has also established the strongest E-network of its own; it is the network of correspondents. In the last days of the former Serbian regime it was the only network that had been successful. It worked only through the Internet; everything that happened in Serbia in these times was seen by these correspondents, exchanged and distributed through the Internet. Every journalist/correspondent needed only a phone line to access the Internet and it was impossible for the regime to cut it all. After several days of fighting for the truth everybody knew who won the elections. The Internet won again!
Of course, some segments of society are resistant to new technologies, usually because of the lack of modern education, the prevalence of dogmatic ideas and the desire for self-isolation. Every non-democratic society strives to block the flow of new ideas. The Internet is an anathema to such efforts.
Back in the late nineteenth century, when the first railway in Serbia was being planned, resistance to this innovation was based on the argument that a Serbia crossed by railways would be easy prey for various international influences. Similar arguments are now being heard against the use of new technologies and the Internet in some conservative parts of Yugoslav society. Despite this, Serbia now has 52 IT providers, a government-founded Agency for the Development of the Internet, and an increasing number of people who use the Internet as a main source of information.
The Internet in Serbia is not virtual, but the real world.
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Volume 16, Number 4—April 2010
Avian Influenza Prevalence in Pigs, Egypt
To the Editor: Since 1996, avian influenza virus (H5N1) has spread to >65 countries (1). The disease represents a serious threat for the poultry industry and public health. Egypt has the highest human infection and fatality rates outside Asia (2). Some isolates of influenza virus (H5N1) in Egypt are resistant to oseltamivir (3), and in others, virulent mutations have developed, leading to case-fatality rates of 100% (4).
Pigs have the largest epidemiologic role in the evolution of new influenza viruses (5). Recombination between the newly emerged influenza virus subtypes H1N1 and H5N1 in pigs would have catastrophic results. We therefore investigated the seroprevalence of influenza virus (H5N1) in pigs in Egypt.
In May 2008, we collected 1 serum sample and 1 nasal swab from each of 240 pigs (11 herds) in Cairo slums. May was selected because it directly follows the season of bird migration and the seasonal storms usually accompanied by airborne diseases. Cairo slums were selected because 1) pigs there feed on organic remains, including dead birds, and thus have a higher chance of becoming infected; 2) Cairo is at the base of the Nile Delta, where most subtype H5N1 foci occurred; and 3) Cairo is near Fayum, the main stopover site for migrating birds.
To detect anti–avian influenza antibodies in the serum, we used hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays with 2 inactivated antigens: subtype H5N2 from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, UK; and a local subtype H5N1 prepared according to the protocol used in the central national laboratories. To detect viral RNA in the nasal swabs, we used real-time PCR, as was recommended for detection of influenza (H5N1) infection during outbreaks in Southeast Asia (6).
Although all nasal samples reacted negatively to influenza A/H5 by real-time PCR, only 4 serum samples showed positive results by HI when using subtype H5N2 antigen; titers were 32 for 3 samples and 64 for 1. Seven additional positive serum samples were detected when antigen prepared from local subtype H5N1 virus was used; titers ranged from 16 (6 samples) to 512 (1 sample). Also during this 2-week sampling period, titers of 32 for 3 samples and 128 for 1 were obtained. Seroprevalence rate of avian influenza for the 240 pigs was 1.67% and 4.6% when the nonlocal or local viral antigens, respectively, were used. Of the 11 positive pigs, 8 were from 1 herd and 3 were from 3 other herds.
Failure to detect viral RNA in the upper respiratory tract indicates the absence of acute infections in the investigated pigs. Inability of the virus to persist in the pigs was reported (7). Contrary to the HI results, results of routine examination of the 240 pigs found no abnormalities. Absence of clinical signs in infected pigs was reported (8) and was attributed to their low susceptibility to influenza (H5N1) (7). The results indicate that infection rate for pigs in Egypt is clearly higher than that for pigs in China and Vietnam (8,9). This increase may be attributed to different spatial and temporal factors leading to increased infection risk among sampled pigs, higher antigenicity of native isolates, or most probably to the disease situation in Egypt. The detection of 8 positive reactors from 1 herd indicates a subtype H5N1 focus there as was reported in Indonesia (8). The difference in the number of reactors when using different antigens indicates the difference in antigenicity. These data are supported by field observations regarding low protection level (≈35% in some reports) of imported vaccines (A. El-Sayed, unpub. data). The relatively low seroprevalence of avian influenza in pigs may be misleading because of the poor immunogenicity of some avian influenza lines and lack of sensitivity for detecting low titers of induced antibodies (10). It may be also explained by the use of a virus antigen other than that existing in the population, as was done in the present study.
Human risk for influenza (H5N1) infection in Egypt seems to be associated mainly with infected birds. It has not yet been associated with infected pigs.
We thank Elham Elebiary and Lamia Omar for their excellent help.
This study was financed by Cairo University.
- Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Avian influenza (bird flu): implications for human disease [cited 2010 Jan 29]. http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/biofacts/avflu_human.html
- World Health Organization. Confirmed human cases of avian influenza A/(H5N1); 2009 [cited 2009 Apr 4]. http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/en/
- Kage B. Bird flu virus mutates into Tamiflu-resistant strain in Egypt; WHO does not expect pandemic [cited 2007 Jan 24]. http://www.flunews.org/1058_bird_flu_Tamiflu.html
- Niman L. Third H5N1 fatality in Gharbiya cluster in Nile Delta. Recombinomics commentary, December 27, 2006 [cited 2010 Feb 11]. http://www.recombinomics.com/News/12270601/H5N1_Gharbiya_Fatal_3.html
- Ma W, Kahn RE, Richt JA. The pig as a mixing vessel for influenza viruses: human and veterinary implications. J Mol Genet Med. 2008;3:158–66.
- Tran TH, Nguyen L, Nguyen D, Luong S, Pham M, Nguyen C, Avian influenza A (H5N1) in 10 patients in Vietnam. N Engl J Med. 2004;350:1179–88.
- Lipatov AS, Kwon YK, Sarmento LV, Lager KM, Spackman E, Suarez DL, Domestic pigs have low susceptibility to H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses. PLoS Pathog. 2008;4:e1000102.
- Cyranoski D. Bird flu spreads among Java's pigs. Nature. 2005;435:390–1.
- Choi YK, Nguyen TD, Ozaki H, Webby RJ, Puthavathana P, Buranathal C, Studies of H5N1 influenza virus infection of pigs by using viruses isolated in Vietnam and Thailand in 2004. J Virol. 2005;79:10821–5.
- de Jong MD, Hien TT. Avian influenza A (H5N1). J Clin Virol. 2006;35:2–13.
Suggested citation for this article: El-Sayed A, Awad W, Fayed A, Hamann HP, Zschöck M. Avian influenza prevalence in pigs, Egypt [letter]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2010 Apr [date cited]. http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/4/09-1316.htm
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Terrorism, war were barely whispers just four years ago
By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY
Al Gore had not slept in 30 hours. But fatigue did not stop the vice president from expounding on what Election Day is all about.
"When you vote," he told students at an Elmwood, Tenn., elementary school on Nov. 7, 2000, "you pick people to represent you and to make decisions that affect our country and affect our lives. It's really important to choose carefully."
That's the parties' line: Election Day is Decision Day, our chance to weigh issues and make informed choices. To control our destiny. Shape the future. And find out who won.
Nov. 7, 2000, was not that kind of Election Day.
It didn't end for a month, and then only by Supreme Court order. And neither winner nor loser talked much about the issue soon to be a national preoccupation: national security.
The campaign failed to anticipate the bloodiest foreign attack on U.S. soil; two wars, including the largest U.S. military effort since Vietnam; and the age of terrorism. We focused on issues like Social Security and education instead of terrorism or weapons of mass destruction. We talked about Bill Clinton more than Osama bin Laden. We thought we were at peace; we were heading for war. Even some of the day's most innocuous observations — like the headline "Campaign ends" — turned out to be wrong.
In retrospect, Election Day 2000 seems full of unseen portents and unappreciated ironies. As in Greek drama, people feverishly pursued their schemes and dreams, unaware of what the gods had in store.
For those who were looking, there were signs of things to come. But not since 1928, when Herbert Hoover was elected months before the stock market crashed, had so many voters been flying blind.
The past four years have been a long, strange trip to Election Day 2004, which finds the candidate who scorned "nation-building" and military overextension fighting an international crusade against terror while creating a new government for 25 million Iraqis.
Election Day 2000 was the culmination of a long, bitter and costly campaign. But as the day began, we consoled ourselves with this thought: Tonight, it will be over.
'Worth talking about'
On Nov. 7, 2000, the weather is bad — rain over much of the nation and snow in New Mexico and South Dakota. But skies are clear in New Hampshire, where two mountain hamlets, Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, vote shortly after midnight. The count: Bush 38, Gore 18, Nader 1. So far, so good.
As the sun rises in the East at 6:34, Americans are as yet unfamiliar with the terms "hanging chad" and "homeland security." "Let's roll!" merely signals the beginning of a college road trip. Anthrax is only a problem if you're a sheep.
Faith Fitzgerald knows better. The University of California-Davis Medical School professor is in Providence, lecturing on biological warfare. "It's not upbeat," she says, "but it is worth talking about."
The world is a dangerous place — outside the USA:
• In the Philippine city of General Santos, Muslim rebels invade a jail and free 86 prisoners, including some of their commanders.
• In Afghanistan, the terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is reported by the Guardian of London to have left his base near Kandahar and moved to a hideout in the Hindu Kush mountains.
• In the Indian Ocean, the destroyer USS Cole rides home on the deck of a Norwegian freighter. The Cole has a large gash in its side, the result of a suicide bomb attack four weeks earlier in a Yemeni port that killed 17 sailors. The presidential candidates agree that "there must be a consequence" (Bush) and that "this is a situation that will bring a response" (Gore).
The FBI suspects bin Laden in the bombing but complains about a lack of cooperation from Yemeni officials. There was a vague warning beforehand, but officials say it's impossible to spot such a needle in a haystack of raw intelligence.
In Iraq, the dictator Saddam Hussein has a stronger grip on power than ever, despite United Nations economic sanctions intended to punish his refusal to allow arms inspectors in the country.
Today, businesspeople fly into Baghdad for an international trade fair designed to undercut the sanctions. Egypt announces the restoration of diplomatic relations, following Iraq's participation in an Arab summit for the first time in a decade. Crude oil rises 54 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange amid reports that Iraq halted oil exports from a Turkish port.
On the other side of the world, Rudy Giuliani waits to vote at a school in New York City. He has been mayor for seven years, and this is the worst. He has learned he has prostate cancer; admitted to having a girlfriend; announced he was separating from his wife, who seemed surprised and accused him of a previous affair; and dropped out of the Senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton. Later that day, he is blasted on the radio by Libby Pataki, the governor's wife, for not dropping out of the Senate race soon enough, thus dooming the eventual Republican nominee.
She calls Giuliani "wishy-washy."
Pat Tillman, a safety for the Arizona Cardinals, prepares for Sunday's game against Minnesota. He leads the team with 116 tackles, including 21 last week.
Tillman, according to The Arizona Republic, "is not quite satisfied unless he's accomplishing something." He earned his degree from Arizona State University in less than four years and made the move from college linebacker to NFL defensive back. Last spring, he spent five weeks touring Europe while training for a marathon. He says he's not sure what he'll do next.
Gen. Tommy Franks, Florida-based head of the U.S. Central Command, tells a Kiwanis luncheon in Bradenton that "freedom isn't free." In July, when he assumed command of U.S. forces in the Middle East, he'd said, "None of us know what the future will hold, but we know there will be challenges, and there will be opportunities."
Hans Blix, head of the U.N. commission charged with monitoring Iraq's weapons programs, is in Paris preparing a training course for inspectors who will go to Iraq — if and when Iraq lets them in. So Blix waits; he says the Iraqis know where to find him.
A final sprint
By tradition, candidates rest on Election Day. But Gore is sprinting the final leg of a marathon. At midnight he heads from Michigan to Miami for a 1 a.m. rally, followed by a stop in Tampa before flying home to Tennessee.
George W. Bush rises early in Austin, makescoffee and calls his parents, who despite considerable experience in politics are suffering from Election Day jitters.
Gore has traded on the robust economy but kept his distance from Clinton, who is tarred by an affair with a White House intern. Bush has run as a conciliator who worked with Democrats as governor of Texas and has "no stake in the bitter arguments of the last few years in Washington."
Voters seem eager to resolve what the news media is calling the closest presidential election since Kennedy-Nixon in 1960. "I've been, like, anxious," says Diane Fischler, 47, a Gore supporter who votes early in San Rafael, Calif. "I woke and said, 'I gotta go vote!' I was in line before the door opened because I just had to do it."
It's the first time Dwayne Rice, 41, of South Berwick, Maine, has voted in 12 years. Before he can say why, his wife Sandy interjects, "Because I dragged him here."
In Florida, Palm Beach County is introducing a new ballot that looks sort of like a butterfly. Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore wants to fit the names of all 10 presidential nominees on a single ballot page without using type too small for elderly voters. So the ballot spreads the names over two facing pages with a single column of punch holes between them.
Some voters find it confusing.
The candidates are exhausted. They've pushed themselves at the end because, as Gore says, the race is "close, close, close. It's going to be a long night. And you may not know until Wednesday morning."
When an interviewer asks Gore, "What's the first meal you're going to order when you win?" he replies: "Breakfast."
The Courier-Journal of Louisville says Bush could win the popular vote but lose in the Electoral College, which hasn't happened since 1888. Bush spokesman Tucker Eskew says campaign officials "don't even entertain the scenario. The winner of the popular vote will win the Electoral College."
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts is campaigning for Gore in the Pacific Northwest. The decorated Vietnam veteran has been making an issue of Bush's service in the National Guard during that conflict.
He also likes to say that the 51 Miss America contestants all have one thing in common: "Every single one of them knows more about the issues than George Bush."
Bush's weakest issue is foreign policy. He has traveled overseas only three times as an adult, and he joked shortly after the second presidential debate about his trouble pronouncing the names of world leaders: "I was especially pleased that Mr. Milosevic has stepped down. It's one less polysyllabic name for me to remember."
But foreign affairs hasn't been much of a liability for Bush. The candidates don't sharply disagree on the issue: They don't see an immediate threat to the nation's basic security. And Gore wants to focus on prosperity, which he calls "the question on the ballot."
In both camps, Saddam looks like a losing issue. Republicans are defensive about the failure of Bush's father to finish off the tyrant in the Gulf War of 1991, and the Democrats' containment policy is increasingly ineffective.
There is one clear difference between the men: when to intervene in foreign crises. Gore, who urged Clinton to intervene in Bosnia in 1995, is the credentialed internationalist. But Bush sounds like a Democrat, circa 1972. "If we are an arrogant nation, they will resent us," he said in the second debate, referring to other nations. "If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us." He said the United States should keep its troops out of places like Somalia and Haiti and avoid "nation-building."
"I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say, 'This is the way it's got to be,' " he said.
Tonight, the early returns are as expected — "jar-lid tight," Dan Rather says on CBS.
Around 8 p.m. ET, NBC News calls Florida for Gore. Other networks follow.
In Elmwood, Tenn., schoolchildren say their prayers and fall asleep, confident that they have seen the next president's vision of Election Day come to life.
Contributing: Bruce Rosenstein, The Associated Press
Names from the news: Then and now
|Name ||Election Day 2000 ||Election Day 2004 |
|Rudy Giuliani ||Had dropped out of Senate race after learning he had prostate cancer and announcing plans to separate from his wife. ||Heads own consulting firm after becoming national hero by rallying New York City after 9/11. Mentioned as candidate for president in 2008. |
|Gen. Tommy Franks ||Commander, U.S. Central Command, which includes Middle East. ||Led U.S. forces in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Retired this summer, ending 36-year military career. |
|Pat Tillman ||Starting safety, Arizona Cardinals. ||In 2002, turned down three-year, $3.6 million contract to become an Army Ranger. Last April, killed in Afghanistan in friendly-fire incident. |
|Hans Blix ||Head of U.N. arms inspectors, waiting for Iraqi OK to resume inspections. ||Before the U.S invasion of Iraq in 2003, Blix and inspectors found no weapons of mass destruction. |
| Paul Bremer ||On Nov. 6, 2000, named "senior adviser for political and emerging risks" by Marsh Inc., a New York-based insurance firm. ||Stepped down as administrator of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq after Iraqis regained sovereignty in June 2004. |
|Osama bin Laden ||Elusive mastermind of Islamic terrorist organization. Whereabouts unknown. ||No change. |
|Saddam Hussein ||Iraqi dictator and president. ||In U.S. military custody awaiting war crimes trial in Iraq. |
|Theresa LePore ||Elections supervisor in Palm Beach County, Fla., registered Democrat. ||Lame duck supervisor, defeated in September primary. |
| Source: USA TODAY research |
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It's time to do it, Michigan. Let's blame it on the carp.
Asian carp, that is. In case you haven’t heard, these buggers are silver fish from China known for their impressive jumping ability (eight to 10 feet if you've seen those YouTube videos of them knocking grown dudes down). These invasive species havebeen in American waterways since at least the 1970s and scientists fear they could wreak untold damage on the Great Lakes.
They also don't taste very good, so I'm told.
Last week, a live Asian carp was caught in Lake Calumet, just six miles from Michigan. Everyone from the Mitten State wants to close the shipping locks in Chicago, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reticent, as that would cost the economy $5 billion over the next couple decades.
Anyway, a serious freakout ensued, with the GOP-controlled Michigan Senate passing (another worthless resolution blaming it all on Barack Obama. Attorney General Mike Cox heartily agreed.
“It's clear thatthis is becoming the Great Lakes equivalent to the BP oil spill brewing,”warned Sen. Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw).
That Obama. He's managed to screw so many things up that started before he was president, like the economy, war in Afghanistan and the deficit. When will he finally take responsibility for the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor?
But it's not just Republicans who loathe the carp. Democrats like U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Gov. Jennifer Granholm would love to body slam these devious swimmers.
Stabenow’s idea? "They should poison the whole lake."
Well, as long as we’re being reasonable.
But all the carp commotion has got me thinking. Michigan has been suffering through the Great Recession for a decade. Unemployment is 13.6 percent. The state budget is $1.6 billion in the red.
Why not make the bipartisan decision to blame this all on the carp? It would be so touching to see Granholm and Cox embrace one another, donning matching AK-47s and fatigues to fight the fish.
"Blast 'em to kingdom come, Mike," the guv would grin, knowing her poll numbers were about to bounce up above 30 percent.
"Real Marines protect nerds and the Great Lakes," the AG would reply, knowing his place as Michigan's 48th governor was secure.
It would only be a matter of time before the "Carp are crap" campaign would take off. (We could throw in a dab of xenophobia and emphasize the Asian part of the name, since it’s served us so well in demonizing the Japanese auto industry).
Let’s face it. We’ve tried blaming our troubles on outsourcing, illegal immigrants, NAFTA, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos. None of those scapegoats have made us feel any better for very long. And there was always somebody or some group ready to defend them.
But no one in Michigan is crying for the carp. Liberals and environmentalists hate them for destroying our water. Conservatives and business groups despise them for killing companies’ bottom line.
And the carp could spawn endless conspiracy theories, our national pastime.
I mean, isn't a little bit suspicious that Michigan started its freefall as more and more carp flopped their way into our nation’s waterways? We are the only state entirely in the Great Lakes basin. Clearly, the “hideous fish,” as Kahn calls them, had it out for us. The carp also hail from Asia, which helped decimate the economy and our auto industry.
Coincidence? I think not.
Sure, making that case for cause and effect is as spurious as saying that buying ice cream causes murder. (In reality, both just happen to go up with hot weather).
But logic has never stopped politicians before.
Alas, the fact that it's an election year does pretty much kill the idea of folks hopping on the blame carp bandwagon. It's so much more fun to blast the other party for everything that's gone wrong since the dawn of time.
But thinking about it is no sillier than other issues this campaign, from stopping transgendered folks from getting new driver's licenses to roasting Granholm as a no-good hippie for signing a "Meatout Day" proclamation like dozens of other governors have.
Perhaps what we really should hope for is that Asian carp turn out to be a clean-burning fuel that magically solves all of our economic woes.
In that case, keep the locks open, baby, and let those beautiful creatures in.
Susan J. Demas is a political analyst for Michigan Information & Research Service. She can be reached at email@example.com.
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Media professionals interested in reporting on university-related stories are encouraged to visit the media newsroom.
February 6, 2007
Legislators will have the opportunity in March to inspire Nevada's future by meeting with young leaders to demonstrate and discuss governmental roles.
University of Nevada Cooperative Extension's 2007 4-H Capital Days will be held March 4-6 when 60 Nevada 4-H members from around the state will gather in Carson City, Nev. to develop their understanding of the role and functions of the state government.
Participants, ages 13 to 19, will tour state facilities, attend committee meetings and meet with senators, assembly members and other government officials. The youth will observe lawmakers in action during the legislative session on March 5 where each official is allowed a guest or two to join them on the chamber floor.
During a luncheon, Capital Days attendees can get better acquainted with the Legislators and discuss issues of concern to Nevada youth.
Capital Days is organized by a committee of youth and adults from across Nevada. This year's activities will include visiting the state museum and a tour of the Governor's Mansion. This 4-H tradition gives teens a positive glimpse into the political profession and process of legislation.
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Just a days after the Nobel prize was awarded for global warming work, an alarming new study finds that warming signals are stronger, and happening sooner than expected, due to increased human emissions of carbon dioxide and an Earth less able to absorb them.
Carbon dioxide emissions were 35 percent higher in 2006 than in 1990, a much faster growth rate than anticipated, researchers reported in Tuesday’s edition of the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers cited three factors: global economic growth; the global economy becoming more carbon intense — since 2000 more carbon is being emitted to produce each dollar of global wealth, they noted — and a decline in the land and oceans’ ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.
"The carbon cycle is generating stronger-than-expected and sooner-than-expected climate 'forcing' — that is, mechanisms that 'force' the climate to change," said co-author Mike Raupach, a co-chair of what's known as the Global Carbon Project. "In turn, climate change itself is feeding back to affect the carbon cycle, decreasing land and ocean sinks."
“The new twist here is the demonstration that weakening land and ocean sinks are contributing to the accelerating growth of atmospheric CO2,” added co-author Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University.
The researchers said that human-induced warming had caused changes in wind patterns over the Southern Ocean that brought carbon-rich water toward the surface, reducing the ocean’s ability to absorb excess CO2 from the atmosphere.
On land, where plant growth is the major means for soaking up CO2, droughts have curbed that ability, they stated.
Ocean sink 'really shocking'
Two climate researchers not involved with the study called it significant.
The “paper raises some very important issues that the public should be aware of," said Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "Namely that concentrations of CO2 are increasing at much higher rates than previously expected and this is in spite of the Kyoto Protocol that is designed to hold them down in western countries.”
Alan Robock, associate director of the Center for Environmental Prediction at Rutgers University, added that “what is really shocking is the reduction of the oceanic CO2 sink” —meaning the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide, removing it from the atmosphere.
The researchers blamed that reduction on changes in wind circulation, but Robock said he also thinks rising ocean temperatures reduce the ability to take in carbon dioxide.
“Think that a warm Coke has less fizz than a cold Coke,” he said.
Carbon dioxide is the leading “greenhouse gas,” so named because their accumulation in the atmosphere can help trap heat from the sun, causing potentially dangerous warming of the planet.
While most atmospheric scientists accept the idea, finding ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been a political problem because of potential effects on the economy. Earlier this month, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former Vice President Al Gore for their work in calling attention to global warming.
“It turns out that global warming critics were right when they said that global climate models did not do a good job at predicting climate change,” Robock said. “But what has been wrong recently is that the climate is changing even faster than the models said. In fact, Arctic sea ice is melting much faster than any models predicted, and sea level is rising much faster than IPCC previously predicted.”
Will future repeat recent past?
According to the new study, carbon released from burning fossil fuel and making cement rose from 7.0 billion metric tons per year in 2000 to 8.4 billion metric tons in 2006. A metric ton is 2,205 pounds.
The growth rate increased from 1.3 percent per year in 1990-1999 to 3.3 percent per year in 2000-2006, the researchers added.
Trenberth noted that carbon dioxide is not the whole story — methane emissions have declined, so total greenhouse gases are not increasing as much as carbon dioxide alone. Also, he added, other pollution plays a role by cooling.
There are changes from year to year in the fraction of the atmosphere made up of carbon dioxide and the question is whether this increase is transient or will be sustained, he said.
“The theory suggests increases in (the atmospheric fraction), as is claimed here, but the evidence is not strong,” Trenberth said.
The paper looks at a rather short time to measure a trend, Robock added, “but the results they get certainly look reasonable, and much of the paper is looking at much longer trends.”
The research was supported by Australian, European and other international agencies that are part of the Global Carbon Project.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Dealing with diaper rash
Red bottom, baby got ‘em? It’s probably a type of diaper rash caused by any number of things. Babies who poop a lot and are in contact with the stool for prolonged periods can get a sore bum. Babies who are starting solid foods can react to the changes in digestion with a red or raw bottom. The same negative reaction can occur if your baby is taking antibiotics – or if you are taking them and you’re breastfeeding - because these meds can cause yeast organisms to flourish. (Yeast infections usually won’t go away on their own and need medical treatment. If the rash is located on the thighs, genitals and lower abdomen, rather than the buttocks, give your baby’s doc a call.)
The best way to tackle diaper rash is to take action as soon as you see redness. The more irritated the skin gets, the harder it is to clear up.
• Check and change your baby’s diaper often – a.s.a.p. when she poops.
• Stop using baby wipes – they can irritate the skin more. Instead, flush the area with warm water (did you keep that squirt bottle they gave you in the hospital?) and pat it dry.
• Avoid using baby powder. It doesn’t really work and inhaling talc is a proven health risk.
• Don’t use rash creams that contain boric acid, camphor, phenol, menthyl salicylate or compound of benzoin tincture. They can be harmful to delicate skin.
• Cloth diapers without a plastic pants are helpful. Make sure the diapers are washed in a baby-friendly detergent and are rinsed well. Don’t use fabric softener.
• Let your baby’s tiny heinie stay naked and exposed to the air several times a day. A little sunshine can be helpful, but be very careful about sunburn!
Have your baby’s doc check the rash if it shows signs of infection (bumps, pimples, small ulcers appear), if your baby has a fever or isn’t eating well, the rash starts spreading to other body parts, or the rash hasn’t improved within a few days, despite all your efforts.
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Robots gone rogue killing their human masters is rich science fiction fodder, but could it become reality? Some researchers are beginning to ask that question as artificial intelligence advances continue, and the world's high-tech nations begin to deploy war-robots to the battlefront. Currently, the U.S. armed forces use many robots, but they all ultimately have a human behind the trigger. However, there are many plans to develop and deploy fully independent solutions as the technology improves.
Some mistakenly believe that such robots would only be able to operate within a defined set of behaviors. Describes Patrick Lin, the chief compiler of a new U.S. Navy-funded report, "There is a common misconception that robots will do only what we have programmed them to do. Unfortunately, such a belief is sorely outdated, harking back to a time when . . . programs could be written and understood by a single person."
The new report points out that the size of artificial intelligence projects will likely make their code impossible to fully analyze and dissect for possible dangers. With hundreds of programmers working on millions of lines of code for a single war robot, says Dr. Lin, no one has a clear understanding of what going on, at a small scale, across the entire code base.
He says the key to avoiding robotic rebellion is to include "learning" logic which teaches the robot the rights and wrongs of ethical warfare. This logic would be mixed with traditional rules based programming.
The new report looks at many issues surrounding the field of killer robots. In addition to code malfunction, another potential threat would be a terrorist attack which reprogrammed the robots, turning them on their owners. And one tricky issue discussed is the question of who would take the blame for a robotic atrocity -- the robot, the programmers, the military, or the U.S. President.
The Ethics and Emerging Technology department of California State Polytechnic University created the report of the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research. It warns the Navy about the dangers of premature deployment or complacency on potential issues. U.S. Congress has currently mandated that by 2010 a "deep strike" unmanned aircraft must be operational, and by 2015 on third of the ground combat vehicles must be unmanned.
The report warns, "A rush to market increases the risk for inadequate design or programming. Worse, without a sustained and significant effort to build in ethical controls in autonomous systems . . . there is little hope that the early generations of such systems and robots will be adequate, making mistakes that may cost human lives."
Simple laws of ethics, such as Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics, the first of which forbids robots from harming humans, will not be sufficient, say the report's authors. War robots will have to kill, but they will have to understand the difference between enemies and noncombatants. Dr. Lin describes this challenge stating, "We are going to need a code. These things are military, and they can’t be pacifists, so we have to think in terms of battlefield ethics. We are going to need a warrior code."
The U.S. Army had a scare earlier this year when a software malfunction caused war robots deployed in the field to aim at friendly targets. While the humans still had control of the trigger, the incident highlighted the challenges a fully autonomous system would face. The offending robots were serviced and are still deployed in Iraq.
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Paw Paw is a village in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 3,363. It is the county seat of Van Buren County. The village is located at the confluence of the east and south branches of the Paw Paw River in the northeast portion of Paw Paw Township, but is politically independent. Paw Paw was incorporated in 1837 and is located in the southwestern portion of Michigan, on Interstate 94 approximately 20 miles west of Kalamazoo. Paw Paw is in a rural location whose primary agricultural product is grapes, which are used both in the local Michigan wine industry and for juice and jellies. The St. Julian Winery and Warner's Winery started in Paw Paw. Paw Paw has an annual Wine and Harvest Festival, which traditionally occurs the weekend following Labor Day. The Festival features a beer tent, bandstand, live music, a popular grape stomping competition among barefoot locals, carnival foods, and fireworks over scenic Maple Lake. Fine dining establishments in the Theater District cater to attendees of the Festival. Paw Paw is named for the pawpaw trees which once grew along the Paw Paw River. However, the pawpaw trees are less common at present due to the clearing of the shade trees that pawpaws require. An experimental planting of pawpaw trees on the high school grounds failed to flourish due to its location in an open, sunny field. Paw Paw has also recently gained national prominence as the site of the Great Wheelchair Ride of Ben Carpenter (2007) The story of this event was carried by most major news media organizations, including the BBC.
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Dentistry is the known evaluation, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the soft and hard tissues of the jaw (mandible), the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent.
An Interview with Dr. Andrew F. Thompson on Braces
Dr. Andrew F. Thompson is an orthodontist and has answered some of the common questions Bizymoms visitors have about Braces.
Q. Can one be too old for braces?
A. No one is ever too old to improve their smile! Our patients are as young as 8 and as old at 70 plus.
Q. Can one get braces just on the top or bottom?
A. Generally we treat both upper and lower teeth, however, on some occasions the patient only requires orthodontic therapy on one arch.
Q. When will one begin to see changes in his/her teeth after the braces are put on?
A. Patients will see small changes in their smile within a couple of months of starting treatment.
Q. Will one need to have teeth extracted for braces?
A. The Damon System (www.damonbraces.com) we use allows us to treat almost all cases without any extractions. The system will widen the dental arch to accommodate all teeth.
Q. How long will it take to complete the treatment?
A. Orthodontic therapy can usually be completed in a time frame of 9-24 months depending on the complexity of the case.
Q. Are there food one cannot eat while having braces?
A. There are a few foods that can be difficult to manage with braces. Our clinical team will review these items with the patients and parents when the braces are placed.
Q. How much do braces cost?
A. The fee for orthodontic therapy is determined by the complexity of the case and ranges from $6,000.00 to $8,000.00. The more expensive cases are those requiring orthognathic surgery or with TMJ involvement.
Q. How to contact Dr. Thompson if we have further questions?
A. Appointments can be booked by calling Mel in our Halifax office at (902) 422-5454.
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- What is secondary infertility?
- When do we need to go to our doctor?
- How can our doctor help us?
- What might be wrong with me?
- What might be wrong with my partner?
- What are our chances of success?
- What if we never find out what's wrong?
- Will changing my diet and lifestyle help?
- Where can I get further help?
What is secondary infertility?Deciding to try for a brother or sister to your first child is an exciting step. If conceiving your first child was straightforward, it can come as a shock when you run into difficulty getting pregnant this time around. When you have trouble conceiving again, it's called secondary infertility.
When yet another period comes along, you may start to feel dispirited and confused. Secondary infertility is particularly hard to cope with if all your mum friends seem to be pregnant with their second babies.
Be reassured that you are not alone. About one in seven couples (HFEA 2011, NCCWCH 2004: 1) encounters secondary infertility. In fact, the problem is actually more common than not being able to conceive in the first place (HFEA 2007).
A big step towards coping with secondary infertility is deciding when you should ask for help. Fertility specialists are there to offer advice, so don't be embarrassed about consulting them. Some couples never do seek help, despite their yearning to have another baby (NCCWCH 2004).
When do we need to go to our doctor?You may be keen to have a specific age gap between your children. So ask yourself whether you really need to start worrying yet. Remember, it takes time to conceive.
Even if you are making love every two to three days during your cycle (NCCWCH 2004: 27), it's usual to wait up to a year to become pregnant. For 10 per cent of couples it may take up to two years (NHS Choices 2012, PRODIGY 2007).
If you and your partner have been making love regularly for a year without using contraception and you're still not pregnant, see your GP. Infertility is a worry for both of you, so do go as a couple.
If you're an older couple or have a condition that's affecting your health, early diagnosis and treatment of secondary infertility is especially important. In that case, you may want to see your GP after six months of trying to get pregnant naturally.
How can our doctor help us?Your GP may carry out some initial tests or may refer you to a fertility specialist straight away. You can have tests to check that:
- you are producing eggs
- your partner is making enough sperm
- your partner's sperm are strong and healthy enough to make the long journey to meet your eggs
What might be wrong with me?There are many reasons why you may be struggling to conceive. Perhaps you had an underlying problem when you conceived before that has got worse. Or perhaps you have had an infection or an operation in the meantime that has affected your fertility. Your doctor will talk to you about what may be interfering with you conceiving, including:
- An ovulation disorder caused by polycystic ovaries or polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).
- Damage to your uterus or fallopian tubes caused by endometriosis.
- Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), usually as a result of contracting a sexually transmitted infection (STI), such as chlamydia.
- Blockage caused by fibroids.
- Damage to fallopian tubes from a previous ectopic pregnancy.
- Previous surgery, such as caesarean section (NCCWCH 2011), which could have caused bands of scar tissue (uterine adhesions) (Murphy et al 2002). (NCCWCH 2004, PRODIGY 2007)
If you are an older mum, the following conditions can affect your fertility:
- Having an underactive thyroid can affect how well you ovulate (NCCWCH 2004) .
- Diabetes can increase your risk of miscarriage (NCCWCH 2008).
What might be wrong with my partner?Your partner, like all men, will become less fertile as he gets older. Hormones, tubes and sperm are all vulnerable to ageing and the decline starts from about age 35 (Ford et al 2000, Sartorius and Nieschlag 2010).
Perhaps your difficulty conceiving is due to his shortage of healthy sperm, known as a low sperm count. Or maybe there is a problem with sperm quality. Sometimes sperm die or can't swim in a straight line, making it impossible for them to reach your egg. Illness, poor diet or lifestyle can all affect sperm.
What are our chances of success?The treatment you are offered will depend on what is causing your infertility, assuming that it can be explained.
The fact that you've already had a baby can be in your favour. If you decide to have IVF, for example, you're more likely to get pregnant than a woman who hasn't had a baby before (NCCWCH 2004:82).
What if we never find out what's wrong?You are likely to feel worried and upset if the fertility specialist tells you she does not know why you cannot conceive. But don't give up. About 60 per cent of couples with unexplained infertility conceive naturally within three years if they continue to try (NCCWCH 2004: 51).
Sadly, a few mums do find that they can't conceive again. If you find yourself in this situation, it's perfectly natural to grieve over the fact that you can't have the size of family you wanted.
You may have conflicted feelings. On the one hand, the inability to have more children causes you pain. On the other hand, you are already experiencing the joys of being a parent. You may also have to cope with well-meaning questions about when you're planning an addition to the family.
Some parents feel guilty that they are unable to provide their child with a sibling. Be assured that having siblings is not the key to a happy and healthy childhood. Your child can benefit from many important close relationships, from friends to grandparents, as he grows.
Will changing my diet and lifestyle help?What you eat and the way you live can make it harder to become pregnant. Perhaps you've put on weight since your first baby arrived. Or maybe you've gone the other way and lost weight? Do you or your partner smoke or drink more than you used to? Improving your diet and lifestyle may help to improve your fertility.
Where can I get further help?Asking for fertility advice can be stressful. You may be surprised at how upsetting it can be to admit to yourselves and others that you have a problem and need help.
Being under stress is not likely to make you feel like making love, especially if you're already a parent to a small child. You'll need good support to reduce your anxiety and help you to cope. Your GP may advise you to contact a fertility support group or you may be offered counselling (NCCWCH 2004: 35-37).
You may also wish to contact Infertility Network UK for more information and support.
Other couples going through the same experience can be a valuable source of support. Why not visit our community?
Go to our main Suspecting a problem area.
Ford WCL, North K, Taylor H, et al. 2000. Increasing paternal age is associated with delayed conception in a large population of fertile couples: evidence for declining fecundity in older men. Hum Reprod 15(8):1703-8 humrep.oxfordjournals.org [pdf file, accessed March 2012]
HFEA. 2007. The HFEA guide to infertility 2007/2008. Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority. www.hfea.gov.uk [pdf file, accessed March 2012]
HFEA. 2011. Quick facts about fertility. Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority. www.hfea.gov.uk [Accessed March 2012]
Murphy DJ, Stirrat GM, Heron J, et al. 2002. The relationship between caesarean section and subfertility in a population-based sample of 14,541 pregnancies. Human Reprod 17:1914-17
NCCWCH. 2004. Fertility: assessment and treatment for people with fertility problems. National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health, Clinical Guideline. London: RCOG Press. www.rcog.org.uk [pdf file, accessed March 2012]
NCCWCH. 2008. Diabetes in pregnancy: management of diabetes and its complications from preconception to the postnatal period. National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health, Clinical guideline, Revised reprint July 2008. London: RCOG Press. www.nice.org.uk [pdf file, accessed March 2012]
NCCWCH. 2011. Caesarean section. National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health, Clinical Guideline. London: RCOG Press. www.nice.org.uk [pdf file, accessed March 2012]
NHS Choices. 2012. Infertility. NHS Choices, Health A-Z. www.nhs.uk [Accessed March 2012]
PRODIGY. 2007. Infertility. PRODIGY Clarity, Clinical topic. prodigy.clarity.co.uk [Accessed March 2012]
RCOG. 2011. The investigation and treatment of couples with recurrent first-trimester and second-trimester miscarriage. Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Green-top guideline, 17. London: RCOG press. www.rcog.org.uk [pdf file, accessed March 2012]
Sartorius GA, Nieschlag E. 2010. Paternal age and reproduction. Hum Reprod Update 16(1):65-79 humupd.oxfordjournals.org/ [pdf file, accessed March 2012]
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The B.A.T. vans don’t work. Big surprise, huh.
And what happens when maybe 100′s of people are tested inaccurately and plead guilty or are convicted of DUI and the prosecutor knows that the BAT vans don’t work. They plead the 5th, in front of the grand jury.
Loitering/prowling is probably the only criminal statute in FL State law that punishes suspected criminal activity that might happen, rather than all the other statutes that punish criminal activity that did happen. Loitering/prowling is on most state books to prevent crime rather than to investigate a crime that has been committed. Therefore since the state legislatures are leaving it up to the Leo to determine whether he suspects that a crime may be about to occur, this statute is pretty wide open to abuse.
This would be like having a statute that punished drivers for attempted running of a stop sign, giving the Leo the right to pull you over 100 yds in front of the stop sign and cite you because he suspected that you might not stop at the stop sign.
However, just standing around on a street corner or a sidewalk is not enough to be loitering. There has to be an imminent threat to public safety or property. For instance, a gentleman is standing on a sidewalk near an intersection with a sign that says, “Homeless
Vet, God Bless”. He may not be moving to go anywhere and people are rolling down their windows to give him money, but he is not loitering because the definition of loitering includes the element that there has to be an imminent threat to public safety with his presence. Also he isn’t soliciting from a public right of way, because his sign isn’t asking for handouts.
In State v. Ecker, 311 So.2d 104 (1975), the complaint reflects that the defendant was observed in front of an apartment building. When approached for identification, he apparently had no proper or credible identification. The charging complaint shows no circumstances that threaten the public safety, and, therefore a charge of loitering could not be properly established.
Due Process clause of the 5th Amendment gives you the right to record police encounters:
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Click on link to read paper by legal scholars:
I cut and pasted this story from the North Port Sun:
As Lee County Sheriff’s Sgt. David Drum responded to a crash in 2003, a car pulled out in front of his motorcycle.
With nowhere to go, Drum laid down his motorcycle, sending him tumbling. He suffered two ruptured disks in his lower back, needing a cane and walker to get around after surgeries.
Today, Drum knows the outcome could have been worse. He could have been one of the roughly 150 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty each year.
With that in mind, Drum took the first steps Wednesday on his 10-day, 390-mile trek by foot from Lee County to Tallahassee, raising money for 177 families and 265 children of officers killed in the line of duty. He calls his efforts the Walk for the Fallen.
Drum has raised about $35,000 for Concerns of Police Survivors, a national nonprofit organization supporting those families. He’s almost to the goal of $39,000, or $100 for each mile.
“Last year was a horrible year for law enforcement officers nationwide,” Drum said. “There are 177 tragic stories, but with the help of the COPS organization, there are 265 stories that are still going to be told.”
As the sun rose Wednesday, about 100 deputies, family members and supporters sent off Drum from the Sheriff’s Office headquarters on Six Mile Cypress Parkway. Each day, Drum expects to run and walk about 40 miles, hoping to reach Tallahassee by May 4. He’ll stay in the state capitol for the Florida State Fraternal Order of Police memorial for fallen officers scheduled on May 6 and 7.
He passed through North Port Thursday morning between 9 and 10 a.m., walking in the right lane of U.S. 41 with his brother, Rob, visiting from Ohio. Behind the two men, Lee County Sheriff’s Office and North Port Police Department cruisers with lights flashing shielded them from passing motorists. One motorist honked and gave Drum a thumbs-up.
“I feel bad we’re tying up traffic,” Drum said Thursday, adding most have been supportive as he walks. On day two of 10, he said he was a little sore from day one.
“I ran about two-thirds of the 39 miles (Wednesday),” said Drum, who planned to make it to Sarasota by Thursday night.
Drum’s run has been about a year and a half in the works, marked by long training days, fundraising events and some health hiccups. He often rose at 3 or 4 a.m. to train, working up toward his first marathon. About a month and a half ago, he came down with pneumonia.
Along the way, Drum has had supporters back him. Several local Chickfil-A franchises and The Sandy Parrot in Fort Myers hosted fundraisers, with the latter donating $3,000. An art auction brought in about $3,000. Snyderman’s Shoes donated running kicks.
“I appreciate the support that’s just been pouring in from everybody recently,” Drum said.
Charlene Orsine heard about Drum’s run and chipped in, driving along Drum’s route Tuesday up to Sarasota, leaving messages in chalk every few miles.
“I just stopped and wrote, ‘Go, Dave, go,’ or, ‘You inspire us.’ Just little messages along the way,” Orsine said.
You can follow Sgt. David Drum’s progress as he runs and walks to Tallahassee for law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty at http://bit . ly/lvqEJ6, or visit Walk for the Fallen on Facebook.
Obviously, this officer has had a bad shake and he has a worthy cause, trying to raise money for children of officers who have died in the line of duty. But I guess my point is, everyone thinks their cause is the most worthy. And police aren’t going to let us walk in the middle of the road without charging us with multiple offenses if we don’t get off the road.
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about 843.02 : From State Attorney
In light of these differences and existing case law and current statutory provisions, Hiibel cannot be read as authorizing an arrest for resisting when one refuses to identify himself in a Terry stop situation.
so even if the officer has a reasonable articulable suspicion in FL (Terry Stop), arrest cannot be made for 843.02 when one refuses to identify himself.
To conduct an investigatory stop, the officer must have reasonable suspicion that the person “`has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime.’” M.M. v. State, 72 So.3d 328, 330 (Fla. 4th DCA 2011) (quoting Fuentes v. State, 24 So.3d 1231, 1234 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009)). Whether an officer has reasonable suspicion for a stop depends on the totality of the circumstances, interpreted in consideration of the officer’s knowledge and experience. See Ippolito v. State, 789 So.2d 423, 425 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001).
M.M. v. State, 72 So.3d 328, 330 (Fla. 4th DCA 2011) (quoting Fuentes v. State, 24 So.3d 1231To determine whether an officer had reasonable suspicion for an investigatory stop, we look at the totality of circumstances. Id. Law enforcement must be able to articulate a well-founded suspicion of criminal activity in light of the officer’s training and experience. Popple v. State, 626 So.2d 185, 186 (Fla.1993). “Mere suspicion is not enough.” Id.
When an anonymous tip prompts a police investigation, it will justify a stop as
[ 72 So.3d 331 ]
long as it can be corroborated. Fuentes, 24 So.3d at 1235. This requires the officers to observe “`unlawful acts, unusual conduct, or suspicious behavior’” when they arrive on scene. See id. (quoting Baptiste v. State, 995 So.2d 285, 296 (Fla. 2008)). Here, that did not occur.
This cost the City of Eugene, OR, $210,000. Stupid, stupid, stupid. (Quote from one of my favorite lawyer movies, The Rainmaker)
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