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|The New Colors of Vinyl
New SuperCapSR® provides color on vinyl windows with innovative scratch-resistant technology. The new color technology out performs paint in every way—it is extremely durable and won't chalk, chip or fade like paint. Now you can enjoy beautiful color on vinyl windows that are truly low maintenance and durable.
The Demand for Color
The window industry has long sought a way to add color to vinyl windows made popular by the aluminum clad systems and painted surfaces. Vinyl windows now account for over 50% of the total window market. Homeowners are looking for more color options on windows and vinyl is no exception.
While painting vinyl has and continues to be an option for adding color to vinyl windows, the durability of the paint has been an issue. Other methods have also failed. About 10-15 years ago a window manufacturer attempted a co-extruded color cap on the vinyl profile but there was excessive heat buildup which distorted the vinyl profile causing the window to fail.
New Innovation in Color – SuperCapSR
Now, thanks to a discovery born from military infra-red reflective technology – which absorbs less solar heat – Mikron Industries has created SuperCapSR®. Because SuperCapSR absorbs less heat, it prevents heat-related distortion of the vinyl window profile, even in darker colors of Bronze and Evergreen. Historically, darker colored profiles were prone to heat build-up.
In addition to its low heat absorption qualities, SuperCapSR is a much tougher surface. The extrusion process creates a molecularly-fused acrylic color layer that becomes a highly durable, integral part of the vinyl profile. Because the color layer is integral, SuperCapSR has superior scratch, chip, flake and chalk-resistance than painted window options. In accelerated lab tests, heat build-up was maintained at an acceptable range of temperature change and the color retention was terrific, meeting the stringent standards of AAMA 613. The American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) set the standards for fading, chalking, weathering and profile stability in its AAMA 613 standard developed for painted surfaces. While SuperCapSR is not a painted surface, it exceeded or met the criteria of this crucial standard.
Given its durability, every builder will appreciate its toughness on the job site and during installation. Fewer callbacks will save time and money. Homeowners will enjoy a low maintenance window with the vibrant, long-lasting color for that desired architectural look for a lifetime.
Artisan Series Featuring SuperCapSR
The new colors of the Artisan™ Series feature the exclusive SuperCapSR technology by Mikron. Now homeowners can enjoy the vibrant color options of Evergreen and Autumn Red as well as the ever-popular Bronze color. Nowhere else can you find the tough and durable color in a vinyl window product line.
With SuperCapSR on the Artisan Series window you get color with something not available from wood/aluminum clad products—a Lifetime Warranty. The consumer enjoys the peace of mind of a Lifetime Warranty and the builder enjoys having a sound manufacturer behind him with a sixty year reputation for superior service.
SuperCapSR is a registered trademark of Mikron Industries.
To learn more about AMSCO vinyl windows, click on the links below.
Artisan Series Window Styles
Artisan Series Color Choices
Artisan Series SuperCapSR
Artisan Series Grid Options
Artisan Series Window Specifications
Back to Index
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I recently interviewed Sagar Kamdar, Google’s Director of Product Management on Search, who is responsible for their Authorship program and their other “social initiatives” in search. In this Q&A, Kamdar shares how Google’s search results pages have evolved to better attribute authors and websites to content. He also responds to some questions on many search marketers’ minds, including, “Are there now improved ranking opportunities with Authorship to take advantage of?”
Google Authorship: Connecting Writers and Content Owners with Audiences
Authorship is considered to be one of Google’s “social search” efforts. Basically, it allows Google to verify the author of a Web page by having it point back to their Google+ profile page, which requires just a few verification steps and the insertion of a rich snippet on the Web page. When done right, it’s your mug showing up in the Google SERPs when people search for content that you’ve written.
Kamdar explained to me that the Authorship program was based on the premise that content associated with a real identity is often of higher quality than content published anonymously. Backing this up is a Nielsen survey taken in 2009, which showed that the people we know score the highest in terms of trust with 90 percent of total survey respondents, in comparison to only 41 percent trusting search engine results.
A great benefit with Google Authorship is the image thumbnail feature. You don’t have to be an Image SEO expert to know that photos in searches are especially good because people tend to click on them more.
Of course, one of the important reasons that Google implemented the Authorship program is to help them identify duplicate content. Some authors have had problems with others ranking higher than them in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for their own original content. Authorship is supposed to push the original author to the top of the rankings when someone does a search for their article. What it can’t yet do is exclude others who aren’t the original authors, as the screenshot below of an original article by Andy Crestodina of Orbit Studios shows.
Q&A with Google Authorship’s #1 Authority, Sagar Kamdar
How long has the Authorship program been around, and how big is it today?
The Authorship program started on June 28, 2011, a little over a year ago and with just a few authors. They now report to have hundreds of thousands of authors participating. “We’re still in our pilot phase as we’re learning a lot from authors and users as we continue to look for ways to improve the program,” says Kamdar.
Is Authorship used by Google as a ranking signal? (i.e., does it factor into search rankings?)
Not for now, but it isn’t off the table. “We use over 200 signals to determine search ranking, and although authorship is not currently one of those signals, we hope to experiment with using information about authorship as a signal in ranking in the future,” says Kamdar.
That being said, Kamdar stressed that while Authorship is not an algorithmic factor, it is a strong contribution to their social signals that are used to weight search results, including social activity outside of Google+. “We’re working on a number of signals to identify high quality authors,” he says.
How long does it typically take for Google to make the connection?
Kamdar explained that once an author is set up correctly, the timing depends on when they recrawl/index the content.
Does Google provide a way for someone to check out their Author rank “score?”
Not at this time. Other SEM bloggers have been sharing their own programs for mining Author data for link building, like AuthorCrawler, along with other tools for identifying key influencers in an industry, such as Followerwonk, Topsy and FindPeopleonPlus. These are all experimental tools used for scaling data. No case studies have appeared yet to show a direct cause-and-effect relationship with Authorship.
Does Google allow for authors to submit a “feed” of their articles for inclusion in the Authorship program?
Not at this time.
Is there a way to check which articles have been crawled and indexed that have been set up for Authorship?
Only in manual search. “We show all the articles we have crawled and indexed that have been set up for authorship,” says Kamdar. “Often times when an article is missing, it’s because authorship wasn’t set up correctly on the content, or we haven’t recrawled/indexed it since it was set up.”
How can someone get all of their previously published articles into Google Authorship?
There are many content creators who’ve already published hundreds of articles. How can they get their past articles on both their own website and websites they are guest contributors for to show up with their author identification in Google search results?
“The most important thing is to make sure on any new content you write you’ve set up authorship correctly,” says Kamdar. He recommends doing these two things:
- Email/Google+: “If you have an email address on the domain you write for, it’s best to verify the email address, and we’ll attempt to link all the content on that domain with your Google+ identity,” says Kamdar.
- Footer/Header Verification: “On most content management systems, there’s a common footer/header on each article. If people can configure the footer or header to set up authorship correctly, it’s a relatively painless task to get set up,” says Kamdar. You can see some examples with Mashable’s Ben Parr and GigaOM’s Mathew Ingram.
What does Google recommend for further information?
Kamdar personally recommends that those who are looking to participate in Authorship check out these resources:
- Sign-Up Tool: Use the sign-up tool located at https://plus.google.com/authorship, which Kamdar says has now been simplified with easier-to-follow instructions.
- Webmaster Tools Help Article: Read the help article entitled Author Information in Search Results. “We have made many changes to our help article to make things simpler to understand on how to get set up,” says Kamdar.
- Rich Snippets Testing Tool: Currently in beta, this tool will give you immediate feedback on whether you’ve set up everything correctly.
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Remember when the PC gaming market was a champion for revolutionary technologies? Over the years, the PC industry has pioneered the growth of online gaming, given rise to first-person-shooters with the tireless keyboard and mouse, introduced innovative new peripherals ranging from steering wheels to 5.1 headsets, and dramatically enhanced the graphical capability of our modern systems.
That's just scratching the surface of what PC gaming has achieved in a relatively short space of time, but in today's world, a large chunk of innovation appears to be coming from the console space - where Nintendo has in recent years transformed the gaming landscape through casual games made available via its low-cost Wii and DS consoles.
Sony's PlayStation 3 has introduced Blu-ray, and will soon try its hand at Wii-like motion with the launch of the upcoming PlayStation Move, whilst Microsoft - whose Xbox 360 has arguably taken the best of PC technology and repackaged it into a single, easy-to-use solution - hopes to revolutionise the industry with Project Natal.
But fear not, as PC gaming isn't just about pushing out class-leading frame rates. There's still some innovation on offer, and the latest development from AMD - the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition graphics card - could become one of the hottest gadgets of the year.
The card, pictured above, takes the September 2009 HD 5870 "Cypress" GPU and equips it with six Mini DisplayPort outputs courtesy of ATI Eyefinity technology, allowing the user to connect six displays to a single card.
For the gamer, that means you could combine six 30in monitors to create a single virtual display with a jaw-dropping 7,680x3,200 resolution. Try pushing that many pixels with your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 and see how far you get.
Sounds rather good, we reckon, so we've decided to put it to the test.
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What is Mother Culture?
A few weeks ago Dean called me from the basement. “What is it?” I asked as I reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Look at this,” he said. He was standing in a puddle, holding a flashlight and pointing above his head to a slow-leaking flex-pipe. “I’ll call the heating guy in the morning,” he said.
Next to the puddle was a small stack of soggy boxes. We examined the state of things inside them and found that much of our stuff was ruined. Somehow I didn’t mind very much. “Now we have less stuff.” I said. Some of the contents were fine. I came across cassette tapes of talks we had delivered to homeschool conferences. The word “cassette” tells you how old they are. Two were marked Mother Culture 1999 - the year we spoke in Massachusetts and Maine. “What on earth are we going to do with these?” I said.
The man-of-the-house does not, and I emphasis “not,” like getting rid of things but he did say, “We have CDs from other conferences . . . somewhere in all this storage . . . we’ll keep those.”
“If we ever find them.” I replied. I often lament the amount of storage we have.
Why have I chosen to devote an entire hour on the subject of Mother Culture when I am asked to speak? I do it out of sympathy. It is not uncommon for a self-sacrificing mother to feel overwhelmed or live on the verge of exhaustion. Therefore, it is just as important to encourage a mother with ways she can nurture her soul, as it is to supply her with tried-and-true ideas on how to foster “The Gentle Art of Learning” in her children.
Early in my homeschooling experience I paid attention to something I found intriguing. I don’t’ remember where I read it but I jotted it down to ponder it further. It was a quote by Billy Graham. He said, “Mothers should nurture their souls so in turn they can nurture the souls of their children.” This, my friend, is what I call Mother Culture. Every homeschool is comprised of a child (or children) and a teacher. Although the focus is on the children some of what she does for her children she would do well to consider doing for herself.
How have you nurtured your soul this week?
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19 May 2011
An end to late evidence in visa cases will help stop misuse of the system, says minister.
From next Monday, evidence submitted after a visa application has been made will not be considered.
UK Border Agency statistics show that around two-thirds of appeals allowed by immigration judges are due to late evidence being submitted.
The rules change is designed to end unnecessary appeals and help make sure that applications are right first time. It will apply to all applicants applying from within the UK through the points-based system.
Immigration minister Damian Green, said:
'For too long, the taxpayer has had to shoulder the burden of a system which allowed individuals to drag out their appeal by submitting new evidence at the last minute.
'The changes I am making today will put an end to this practice for good.
The minister added that this is one of a raft of improvements that will make the system 'more robust, efficient and cost effective'.
The government has already introduced an annual limit on economic migrants from outside the EU, as well as making major reforms to the student visa system.
These measures are aimed at attracting the brightest and the best, while reducing net migration and tackling abuse of the system.
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Video: Inventor makes machine that 'breaks the laws of physics'
A Wells inventor has put together a machine that he claims is the first step in creating free energy from perpetual motion.
He says it produces more power than it consumes.
But the patent office will not register the design – because if it works, it breaks the laws of physics.
The machine, largely created out of leftover bicycle parts and a windscreen-washer motor uses high-powered magnets and a series of flywheels to apparently create energy from gravity.
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A tiny amount of power is provided by the washer motor, using a rubber band cut from a bicycle inner tube.
The flywheels keep turning, even though it would seem impossible for the motor to move the weight of the machine.
Its designer, who wants to remain anonymous, says that it is the design of the magnets and the flywheels that makes it work.
And he claims a commercial version of the invention, around the same size as a washing machine, could produce enough power to run a house, virtually free of charge and could be installed anywhere without the need for a power source, which would make it invaluable in isolated locations.
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Each flywheel would become its own electricity generator, and he says that to make more power all that is need is to add more rotors.
The designer said: "The Alpha Omega Galaxy Freefall Generator (AOGFG) is a different eco-friendly way of producing electricity.
"The system functions as a large flywheel. Power can be generated without bio-hazards which in turn produce no harmful by-products.
"A small amount of external input is required to activate and control the system.
"This can be provided from any source such as battery, solar power or hydro power. Once operating, the external energy input can be supported by power generated and harnessed from the system itself.
"It does not need to be stationary in order to function and therefore can also be used to power, or support the powering of any type of water vessel, land vehicle or aviation machine; it can provide a solution for most energy requirements."
The designer claims that adoption of the AOGFG to produce energy for heating, lighting and power would drastically reduce emissions.
Lower energy costs would be incurred by companies lowering overall production costs therefore allowing an increase in production and enable companies to become more globally competitive.
He added: "We have already received keen interest from companies in the Far East and Europe, but would prefer for the initial production of these innovative products to benefit the UK.
"We are still in the early stages, and hope that local UK based manufacturing companies will be interested and approach us with a view to helping bring these products to market.
"Clean energy offers significant economic benefits. From manufacturing development to the support of related industries, clean energy builds new economic opportunities and creates a significant number of local jobs."
Its designer is looking for a supplier of low speed generator units suitable for use with the machine and precision engineers with the skills needed to create the components needed to improve the machines efficiency.
Anyone who would like to get involved with the project should contact gravity_free_energy email@example.com .
While the patent office will register different parts of the AOGFG, they won't allow the machine as a complete item to be patented.
Because it is claimed it produces more energy than it consumes, it is considered to be a perpetual motion machine which is the holy grail of scientists the world over.
The patent office will not allow patents on perpetual motion machines as they break the first law of thermodynamics. This states that energy can be changed from one form to another, but cannot be created or destroyed.
Engineers all over the world have created machines that they claim break this law – the machines, gathered together under the title Over Unity devices, appear to create their own power.
But so far no-one has been able to produce a machine that, as well as appearing to power itself, can power anything else.
The Wells Journal has seen the machine in action, and it does appear to work. The tiny motor should not be powerful enough to keep the machine turning once it is started with a light push – but it does..
Can you explain why the machine works, or why it couldn't produce enough power to run itself? Email
with your explanations.
You can see a short video of the machine in action at
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Friday June 18, 2010
Friday June 18, 2010
by Rev. Shelley Hamilton
Associate Pastor for Congregational Care
… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22, 23
I am an outside person. I like wind, rain, the smells of summer and spring. I also like sunshine and even a sometimes-blistering heat. I cannot imagine life without full moons, stars, and the amazing, ever-changing fragrances of changing seasons. I like the stillness of nature – even in the midst of a storm there is a foundational stillness that helps me remember God is God. Indeed, it is in the midst of creation that I come closest to being face-to-face with the Spirit of God – the Creator. I guess you could say – when I am outdoors – walking the labyrinth, sitting on a bench next to the sculpture of St. Francis, or walking through the bayou at my brother’s house I am always acutely aware of the “fruits” of God’s spirit.
Paul tells us throughout his writings in many different ways that we are to “walk by the spirit.” I have been asked many times: what does it mean exactly to walk by the spirit? I think the answer might rest within our scripture passage for this morning and can be seen in how we live revealing the fruit of God’s Spirit. Paul uses an ordinary apple as a metaphor. Obviously, when an apple tree is nourished and properly cared for, plenty of water and fertile ground, it will produce delicious and beautiful fruit. In the same way, when those of us who call ourselves Christian, live in Christ, guided and empowered by the Spirit, we too will yield good fruit. That is, we will first and foremost love; love without judgment and conditions, as God loves us. What follows is joy and peace and it becomes simple and gratifying to demonstrate kindness, goodness, faithfulness and all the other results of walking by the spirit of God.
Paul lists a variety of manifestations of God’s spirit in our verses. Still, there is wholeness to them. The “fruits” of the Spirit are whole; not singular thus, none of them is optional. The Greek word karpos or “fruit” in Galatians 5:22 is singular. John Calvin once said, “only those who bear all of the fruit, to one degree or another, actually live and abide in Christ.” Paul identifies this unity when he places love as the first of the fruits of the spirit. Did you know that love is the only quality that appears in all other New Testament listings of spiritual gifts or traits? Most preachers, teachers, historians, and biblical scholars agree: love is foundational for all other fruits of the spirit. Indeed, all the other fruits are different manifestations of love. Love, I believe, as did Paul, is the very character of God – it is who S/he is. Think about it – God loves us when we are obedient and when we are not; when we repent and when we do not. God expects us to love everyone, even those who are most difficult and ungrateful. Intimidating, is it not? I challenge us to strive today and through the weekend to show God’s love to someone, we have labeled “unlovable.”Help us today, loving God, to walk by the spirit abiding in Christ. Amen!
Holy God, receive the prayers of our hearts and the Spirit’s deep sighs for creation. Amen.
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Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is among the most vocal critics of Russia’s stance. "The main source of disappointment is Russia. Let alone raising its voice against Syria, it stands by the massacre," Erdogan said on Thursday in an interview on the Turkish television station NTV.
In response to criticism and overtures from Turkey, the Obama administration and European governments, President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin has been unwavering in its position and has fired back at the West’s approach to Syria. "The main thing is that our partners cannot stop,” Putin said last week. “Having already created an atmosphere of chaos in many countries, they are now continuing that policy in others, in particular Syria.”
As Syria’s civil war continues to escalate, why has Putin government’s stance on Syria remained largely unchanged? While arms contracts are a part of it, Russia has much broader economic ties with Syria, as well as geostrategic considerations over its future role in the Middle East.
Planes, Choppers And Bombs
The conflict has grown increasingly complex, with boundaries blurring between non-violent and armed factions, secular and Islamist, Syrian and foreign fighters. One thing has been a constant: Russian-made weapons are the staple of Assad’s army, with MiG warplanes, helicopter gunships and bombs appearing in many YouTube videos shot by the Syrian opposition. Those Russian weapons are the product of a growing arms trade that is difficult to trace and document.
Russian defense companies have signed a total of $6 billion in contracts with Syria since 2006, of which only $1 billion worth of weapons was actually shipped, according to the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), a Russian non-profit organization tracking arms sales.
While the overall value of Russian arms deals with Syria more than doubled in three years, from $2.1 billion in 2007 to $4.7 billion in 2010, Syria is a relatively small customer for Russia's arms industry. In 2011, Russia’s arms exports to Syria comprised only 5 percent of the total, according to CAST data.
Damascus, unlike other Arab nations, doesn’t have huge oil revenues to pay for the advanced weaponry it buys, and as a consequence has incurred huge debts with its main supplier. In 2005, Russia decided to write off 70 percent of Syria’s Soviet-era debt, a decision that fueled the increase of arms and energy contracts allocated to Russian companies. (The write-off reduced Syria's Soviet-era debt amount from $13.4 billion to $3.6 billion according to CAST data and analyst estimates.)
As for the specifics on what business Russia has been doing with Syria since the conflict began 18 months ago, Russian high-level officials have been vague. “Russia has its obligations to Syria under contracts that had been previously signed,” Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy chief head of the Military Technical Cooperation agency, said in July. “We are supplying arms and hardware of a purely defensive nature; it cannot be said that we have introduced an embargo on military supplies to Syria.”
Yet Russian authorities continued to sign agreements last year, with the Syrian conflict already underway. Russia’s principal military export agency Rosoboronexport signed a $550 million contract last December to ship 36 Yak-130 combat trainer aircraft to Syria. Those jets, while primarily used to train pilots, have the ability to drop bombs and launch missiles.
Russian companies also scrambled to ensure the delivery of Mi-25 helicopter gunships that had been sent back to its manufacturer by the Syrians for maintenance, said Paul Holtom, director of the Arms Transfers Programme at SIPRI, a Stockholm-based arms and military research center. Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher at SIPRI focusing on Syria, added that the Assad regime is also buying top of the line fighter-bombers: “A major ongoing deal is for 24 MiG-29SMT combat aircraft, although those are more likely to be delivered from 2013,” he said.
Besides exporting weapons, Moscow also has energy interests in Syria. The country’s oil production has been declining for years and gas reserves are limited compared to the region’s biggest players, but Russian energy companies have been able to secure long-term oil and natural gas exploration contracts that may end up changing that picture. (Admittedly, the size of Syria’s reserves, 8.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas according to the latest International Energy Statistics, pales in comparison to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which hold 890 tcf and 283.5 tcf respectively.)
Since most of these contracts are long-term, Russia is keen to avoid a Libya-style scenario, in which the ouster of Muammar Ghadafi, a longtime commercial partner of Moscow’s, and his replacement by a rebel government cost Russia an estimated $4 billion.
Russia's natural gas commitments in Syria are valued at approximately $20 billion by Oxford Analytica, a New York-based consulting firm. These commitments include construction work on the Arab Gas Pipeline linking Egypt to Turkey and a natural gas production facility, located about 125 miles east of Homs, where the bulk of the fighting has taken place. The Arab Gas Pipeline has been plagued by supply disruptions caused by attacks in Egypt, for which the local government accuses Bedouin tribesmen.
The pipeline highlights Syria's strategic significance as an energy transit, at the crossroads of the Middle East and next door to the fast-growing, and energy-hungry, Turkish economy. Immediately beyond Turkey lies another big natural gas customer, the European Union. Russia wants to keep its foot in this all-important door. Russian engineering company Stroytransgaz, along with Syrian Gas Company, renegotiated late last year the terms for a natural gas facility and reasserted its commitment to complete construction of a gas processing plant in central Syria.
This commitment may go beyond engineering and construction, too. According to Cairo-based Syrian opposition activists, Russia has been conducting military training of government forces, which Moscow denies. There are also reports of Russia and Lebanon providing media training to Syria’s state television channel to influence public opinion, according to a source inside Syria, though this could not be independently verified.
And then, beside the hardware and the energy deals, there’s symbolism. For Russia, Syria is about much more than just arms or energy trade: it is Russia's last historical Cold War ally in the Middle East. In 1971, Assad’s father, Hafez, gave the Soviets use of the Tartus military facility, a large base on Syria’s coast, which is also the only Mediterranean fueling spot for the Russian Navy. It would be a significant strategic loss if the Assad regime falls.
Fear Of Al-Qaeda
The fear of the spread of radical Islam by an increasing number of foreign fighters in Syria is also of particular concern to Moscow, especially the possibility of an al Qaeda presence. Earlier this month, Putin offered some of the sharpest criticism of international actors in Syria, alleging they backed al Qaeda-linked elements inside the country. He didn’t name names, but the criticism was pointedly directed at some Arab states that finance their fellow Sunni Muslims who make up the bulk of the Syrian rebel fighters, some of whom are known to be Islamic extremists.
“Today some want to use militants from al Qaeda or some other organizations with equally radical views to accomplish their goals in Syria,” Putin said in an interview with the pro-government Russia TV. “This policy is dangerous and very short-sighted. If that’s the case, one should unlock Guantanamo, arm all of its inmates and bring them to Syria to do the fighting. It's practically the same kind of people.”
At the end of the day, Russia has little to lose through its stance on Syria. "During the Soviet times they would have probably issued a vague, or even not so vague threat if their ally had been attacked,” said Gennady Shkliarevsky, a professor of Russian and Soviet history at Bard College. “They do not make any threats now, just warn against possible consequences."
Inside Syria, there are fewer anti-Russian protests compared to a year ago, when opposition groups still believed Moscow could pressure Assad into accepting reform. “There is no more hope that there will be a change of stance, so you don't see those demonstrations,” said Rami Jarrah, a Cairo-based Syrian opposition activist. Jarrah said Russia’s position is bound to isolate it from the growing, if fractured, opposition forces, and that it may come to regret its position. “It’s damaging because now you have extremists in Syria who will accept nothing that involves Russia,” he said. “If that sector of society grows, it becomes impossible for Russia to have any hand in the situation.”
To contact the editor, e-mail:
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Great Hurricane both blessing, curse to Ocean City
1933 storm cut new inlet at the south end of town, but also proved costly
Mountainous waves swept into the resort and covered some of the streets with two feet of sand. Water was still ankle-deep at the time of this photo. Described in the American Meteorological Society's August 1933 weather review as "one of the most severe storms that has ever visited the Middle Atlantic Coast," the slow-moving weather mass dumped 10 inches of rain a day for nearly a week, even before wind gusts as high as 80 mph and a 7-foot tide arrived. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
If only the government would dig a cut through the barrier island, they argued, they could keep larger boats in the shelter of a bay, gain direct access to the ocean, and inject new life into their fishery.
No one guessed that a storm born in the tropical Atlantic was about to intervene and do the work for them, at a heavy cost.
The Great Hurricane of 1933, which struck 75 years ago tomorrow, wreaked havoc from Norfolk to Atlantic City and killed 13 people in Maryland. It wrecked Ocean City's boardwalk, flooded the town, demolished whole blocks and cut off its rail and road links to the mainland. Damage was estimated at $7.5 million in today's dollars.
But after the wind stopped, residents emerged to discover their new inlet at the south end of town. It was like a miracle. Maryland had ponied up $500,000 to put toward digging just such a cut. But the federal contribution had failed to clear Congress.
Now the inlet had been carved by Nature in just 36 hours. Ocean water, driven across the barrier beach by the hurricane's easterly winds, had piled up in the bay. All that water needed an outlet, and it found a low spot in the storm-battered sand near the south end of the boardwalk.
Water poured through the breach for five days, according to Mary Corddry's book City on the Sand. The current ate away at the confining sand, carrying away buildings, railroad tracks and anything else it encountered.
Capt. John Elliott Sr. watched it all, and Corddry quotes his description to a local reporter in 1974. "We had a big, heavy cement septic tank for our fishing camp," he recalled. "The water got to it, rolled it over and over, and the last we saw of it, it was headed out to sea."
When it was over, the new gap in the sand was four feet deep, 250 feet wide and widening daily. To the south, the Assateague peninsula had become an island. Everyone quickly recognized that this was no calamity, but rather a gift from the sea.
The town's fishermen suddenly had direct access to the ocean. The channel made the shelter of Sinepuxent Bay available for landings by the New England fleet. And the pulse of ocean tides could revive the polluted upper bay's dying shellfish industry.
Politicians like Maryland's U.S. Sen. Millard E. Tydings immediately set about to win federal dollars to secure and improve the inlet and prevent it from clogging with drifting sand.
That's what had happened to another storm-cut inlet, opened in 1920 five miles south of town. The tidal pulse into the bay had spurred clamming and oystering there, but the industry withered after drifting sand closed the inlet in 1928.
Three days after the 1933 storm, Tydings knew it was time to act. "It seems to me the proposal has a timely significance as a public works. It would certainly encourage the people of Ocean City, who have suffered severe property damage," he said.
It was a race against the elements.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, led by Col. E. J. Dent, would have to lay down a stone jetty, reaching some 1,200 feet seaward from the beach, along both sides of the inlet. The north jetty would block the southward flow of sand, and prevent it from resealing the channel.
After dredging to a depth of 10 feet, engineers calculated that the tidal current between the barriers would keep the new channel scoured to the needed depth. Town fathers also hoped it would wash the community's raw sewage out to sea and ease pollution in the bay. The Chamber of Commerce gratefully proposed naming it Roosevelt Inlet.
Work on the $781,000 project began in October 1933 -- just two months after the storm. By August 1935, the channel had been dredged and the north bank stabilized with concrete. Jetties constructed with Port Deposit stone would follow, but the town's improvised harbor facilities were already handling a large increase in fishing activity.
Seventy-five years later, Ocean City has exploded with high-rise condos and miles of restaurants, shops and asphalt. It has a summer population of more than a quarter million people, and the inlet cut in 1933, as predicted, nourishes a busy commercial and sport fishing port.
Commercial fish landings at the resort last year totaled 10.1 million pounds, valued at $10.4 million, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Across the inlet, Assateague Island, too, looks nothing like it did in 1933. Starved of sand by the inlet's north jetty, the island's north end has lost its dunes and migrated two-thirds of a mile west, toward the mainland. It is regularly over-washed in storms.
The federal government has launched a 25-year program to pump sand onto the island from offshore bars to slow Assateague's retreat -- yet another echo of that storm 75 years ago.
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Kicking the can: Smokeless tobacco often overlooked but also hard to quitFARGO - North Dakota State University pharmacy student Paul Jilek said three years into his education, he’s already learned plenty about helping people give up smoking.
By: Ryan Johnson, INFORUM
FARGO - North Dakota State University pharmacy student Paul Jilek said three years into his education, he’s already learned plenty about helping people give up smoking.
But he said that same level of focus doesn’t seem to apply to all forms of tobacco, despite the health risks and addictive properties they all have whether inhaled through a cigarette or absorbed through a dip of chew.
“We’re taught about how to help people with smoking and smoking cessation, but nobody really touches on smokeless tobacco cessation,” he said.
There are plenty of tools designed to help quit smoking, with nicotine patches, gums and lozenges offering suggested dosages depending on how many cigarettes a person uses each day to offset withdrawal.
But those products don’t include guidelines for smokeless tobacco users, and Jilek and classmate Mike Fisher decided to do something about it.
For a research project they’ll present at a pharmacists meeting hosted by NDSU next month, the two crunched the numbers and came up with their own suggested dosages that pharmacists and physicians can use to help their patients kick the can.
Fisher said the dangers of smoking seem to be getting across to young people, and local and national trends show the country is starting to get a grip on smoking rates. But that’s not the case with chewing tobacco, snuff, snus and the other smokeless tobacco products that often are marketed to young men as a safer alternative to cigarettes.
“I don’t personally have friends that smoke, but I have a lot of friends that chew,” he said. “That’s why we took this approach.”
A CHEWING PROBLEM
Jilek said smokeless tobacco is less dangerous than cigarettes, especially because it doesn’t pose the same respiratory risks. But both contain nitrosamines, a key carcinogen in tobacco, and an average dip held in the mouth for 30 minutes packs the nicotine equivalent of three cigarettes.
“It’s not like a healthy alternative to smoking,” he said. “You still have a lot of the cancer risks, especially in the mouth and the esophagus, and it runs with all the dental problems, too.”
And Holly Scott, tobacco prevention coordinator with Fargo Cass Public Health, said statewide surveys show the use of smokeless tobacco still is a concern among middle school and high school students.
According to the voluntary and anonymous Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted every other year, about 15.1 percent of high school students in the state reported using chew, snuff or dip in the past 30 days in 1999. North Dakota saw a “pretty steady decline” in the years since, Scott said, but that usage jumped back up to 15.3 percent in 2009 and 13.6 percent in 2011.
That’s a stark contrast to what the state is seeing with cigarette use, with 19.4 percent of high schoolers saying they had smoked within the past 30 days in 2011 – a big drop from the 40.6 percent who reported doing so in 1999.
In 2011, North Dakota had the country’s fifth-highest rate of youth using smokeless tobacco, behind only Kentucky, Wyoming, South Dakota and West Virginia and well above the national average of 7.7 percent.
Youth aren’t the only ones reaching for a can here, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting 6.6 percent of those over 18 in the state used chew in 2009 – nearly twice the national average.
Other recent studies show smokeless tobacco use is on the rise across the country, especially among young men ages 18 to 24, who the CDC says are the most common users.
Fisher said those national trends suggest the local rate could rise even more, especially as booming oil development in western North Dakota draws new workers and lures young men from the Fargo area to the Oil Patch.
“We look at what’s going on in the western side of the state, and I’ve had numerous friends work out there,” he said. “Just about all the guys I see that go spend some time out in the oil fields come back smoking or chewing.”
HELPING THEIR PEERS
Jilek said North Dakota and other Midwestern states may see more smokeless tobacco usage because of their “cowboy background” and clever marketing tactics that pitch chew as the tobacco of choice for athletes and strong, masculine men.
Pharmacy associate professor Mark A. Strand said another factor may be tobacco companies regrouping after the 1998 tobacco settlements and harsh restrictions for marketing cigarettes. Instead, he said, many companies have released new products such as cherry-flavored smokeless tobacco, dissolvable nicotine “orbs” and toothpicks with nicotine in them that are easy to conceal and use.
“There hasn’t been a norm in our society yet that sees smokeless tobacco in sort of a negative light,” he said. “It’s still kind of glamorized by athletes and cowboys and country-western singers, and the tobacco companies are taking advantage of that.”
Strand said teenagers and young men that experiment with smokeless tobacco don’t intend to become lifelong users. But, like with smoking, many will become addicted and be stuck with a bad habit.
Jilek said the goal of their research was to make people aware that there is a problem with smokeless tobacco, both across the country and at an even higher rate in North Dakota.
Strand said their work resulted in “innovative” tools to help pharmacists give advice to smokeless tobacco users who want to quit. The report they’ll present next month includes both basic quit plan guidelines, such as tapering off tobacco and setting a realistic quit date, as well as a table suggesting the dosage of nicotine gum, lozenges, patches or prescription medications users may want to try depending on their habits.
“If you go to a box of Nicorette gum and you look on there, most of the time they don’t have the equivalencies for chewing tobacco; they have them for cigarettes,” Jilek said. “That’s something we wanted to put together so that they would know what to recommend.”
Strand said the work is more than just good experience for these future pharmacists – it’s also a way of addressing a problem that’s largely affecting young men around the same age as Jilek and Fisher.
Fisher said it’s a new tool that he can put to use when he starts his professional career, helping his peers make a healthy decision to kick the can and get off nicotine, whether it’s through a cigarette or a flavored pouch.
“If this helps both medical professionals and the people looking for the options themselves, that’s kind of our goal is to get that information out there,” he said.
Scott said education efforts can’t keep up with the funding tobacco companies spend to push their products, including the growing number of smokeless tobacco options, and more work is needed to remind residents just how dangerous any form of tobacco can be.
“We’re not going to see our numbers drop to 0 percent tomorrow,” Scott said. “It takes a certain amount of time, but education combined with enforcement of policy and encouraging people to quit, it’s all of those things working collaboratively together. So, yeah, we’re absolutely on the right path.”
For help with quitting tobacco, contact your pharmacist or physician or call 1-800-QUITNOW.
Developing a successful quit plan
• First, YOU have to decide you are GOING to quit.
• Focus on the adverse effects of chewing and establish your reasons for quitting.
• Recognize the stigma society places on people who use chewing tobacco, using it as motivation to quit.
• Set a realistic quit date and don’t try to do too much too fast.
• Taper yourself off smokeless tobacco. This increases quitting success rates and helps avoid nicotine withdrawals.
• Leave your tin behind and instead carry oral substitutes such as gum, hard candy, sunflower seeds or mint leaf snuff.
• Ask your pharmacist or physician if you would benefit from nicotine patches, lozenges, gum or prescription medications.
• Ask friends or co-workers who have successfully quit chewing for tips. Find out what worked for them, and use strategies you believe could help you.
• Develop a support group. Let your family, friends and co-workers know you are going to quit and that you might act a little different over the next couple of weeks.
Source: Mike Fisher and Paul Jilek, adapted from the Theory of Reasoned Action
Readers can reach Forum reporter Ryan Johnson at (701) 241-5587
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The moonwalking astronaut offers a passionate but not always persuasive manifesto encompassing space tourism and the inevitability of inhabiting Mars within a couple of decades.
Though Aldrin (Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon, 2009) again shares some impressions of his historic Apollo 11 mission, here he’s far less focused on the past than the future. For the author, who wrote the book with the assistance of veteran space journalist David, the moon is the past, at least as an American governmental priority—“a dead end, a waste of precious resources”—while Mars is the future. His vision for bringing space exploration back to the launching pad includes international cooperation rather than competition, private enterprise augmenting public subsidy, and space travel within the reach of citizens who win a lottery, a game-show competition or have deep pockets—“the pay-per-view seat price is $200,000,” he writes of one proposed expedition that has already attracted “hundreds of customers.” Aldrin envisions a cruise-ship model of commercial space travel: “Loop around the Moon, return to Earth, sling-shot around the Earth, and return to the Moon again. The round trip will take just over a week. And every time the Lunar Cycler swings by Earth, it’s met by a supply ferry, maybe even restocked with champagne, and boarded by a fresh group of travelers.” Maybe this seems feasible, but he then proceeds to his more audacious proposal: settling Mars as an outpost of human habitation, not merely exploration. It would be a six-month, one-way trip, and he sees no reason to provide those initial explorers with a return ticket: “What are they going to do…write their memoirs? Would they go again? Having them repeat the voyage, in my view, is dim-witted. Why don’t they stay there on Mars?” What he terms the “deposit, no return” nature of those voyages awaits a generation ready to go where no man has ever gone before…and to stay there.
You may say that he’s a dreamer; celebrate him as a visionary, or dismiss this as futurist fantasy.
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Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death for Iowans, taking the lives of more than 4,400 adults each year. Estimated annual health care costs in Iowa directly related to tobacco use now total $1 billion. The Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control works to reduce tobacco use and the toll of tobacco-caused disease and death by preventing youth from starting, helping adults to quit, and preventing exposure to secondhand smoke.
To achieve these goals, the Division follows Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) guidelines for comprehensive tobacco control programs. State-level initiatives include Quitline Iowa cessation services, youth tobacco-use prevention programming, enforcement of Iowa's Smokefree Air Act and enforcement of laws prohibiting tobacco sales to minors. Local tobacco control programs, called Community Partnerships, support tobacco prevention and cessation initiatives at the community level. The Division also conducts ongoing surveillance of tobacco use by youth and adults in Iowa.
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The Story Of Wild Animals:
Story Of The Shrew
Story Of The Tenrec
Story Of The Rabbit
Story Of The Chamois
Story Of The Duckbill
Story Of The Peccary
Story Of The Linsang
Story Of The Aard-vark
Story Of The Gorilla
Story Of The Weasel
Read More Articles About: The Story Of Wild Animals
Story Of The Gorilla
( Originally Published Early 1900's )
The gorilla, an enormous ape from Western Africa, is the largest member of the monkey family, but others have a much greater resemblance to man and have many human characteristics wanting in the gorilla. Of the man-like apes, the chimpanzee is the largest and most commonly known. Next comes the orang-outan, which frequently attains a height of over five feet. The gibbon is a small, active simian, and has the peculiarity of great cleanliness; the mother washing her offspring's face several times daily in spite of the struggles and screams of the young. Others are the marmoset, lemurs, the spider-monkeys.
A great deal of nonsense has been written about the impossibility of man being descended from the chimpanzee, a gorilla, or an orang. No one, however, who knows what he is talking about, can ever suppose for a single moment that such was the case. What zoologists do contend for is that, supposing some kind of evolution to be true explanation of the origin of animals, and all the available evidence indicates that it is so, man is so intimately connected, so far as his bodily structure is concerned, with the higher apes that, in this respect at least, he cannot but be considered to have had a similar origin. And on this view both man and the man-like apes are regarded as diverging branches descended from a common ancestor, "the missing link," long since extinct, and as much unlike any living ape, as such apes are unlike man himself.
That the higher apes are closely related in their bodily structure to man is obvious to all, and it is a fact that the differences between some of these apes and man-are of far less importance than those by which the lower monkeys are separated from the higher apes. It has, indeed, been attempted to show that apes and monkeys are sharply distinguished from man by the circumstance that while man is two-handed, apes and monkeys are four-handed. The difference between the foot of one of the larger apes and that of man is, however, merely one of degree, and is much less than that between the apes and the lowest representatives of the order.
Most of the monkey tribe are inhabitants of forest regions. Aided by their hand-like feet, all of them are expert climbers, and many, like the oriental gibbons and the South American spider-monkeys, but rarely leave the trees, leaping from bough to bough, and thus from tree to tree, far above the heads of the travelers below, to whom their presence is made known only by their continual howling or chattering. The climbing powers of the South American monkeys are largely aided by their prehensile tails, which serve the purpose of a fifth limb. Owing to the warmth of the regions in which most of them dwell, monkeys never hibernate. Contrary, however, to what is often supposed to be the case, several of the smaller species are expert swimmers, and will fearlessly cross comparatively large rivers.
When the human skeleton is contrasted with that of the ape the size of the ape's forearm is the most striking point of difference. Next comes the shape of the skull and the ring of bone surrounding the sockets of the eyes. The number of teeth differs in the various species. In the very young the resemblance to man is much greater than in the adult ape.
Dr: Robert Hartmann, of Berlin, who has devoted much attention to the man-like apes, observes that "in the gorilla, the chimpanzee, and the orang-outan, the outer form is subject to modifications, according to the age and sex. The difference between the sexes is most strongly marked in the gorilla, and these differences are least apparent in the gibbons. When a young male gorilla is compared with an aged animal of the same species we are almost tempted to believe that we have to do with two entirely different creatures. While the young male still shows a resemblance to the human structure, and develops in its bodily habits the same qualities which generally characterize the short-tailed apes of the Old World, with the exception of the baboon, the aged male is otherwise formed. In the latter case the points of resemblance to the human type are far fewer; the aged animal has become a gigantic ape, retaining indeed, in the structure of his hands and feet, the characteristics of his kind, while the protruding head is something between the muzzle of the baboon, the bear, and the boar. Simultaneously with these remarkable alterations of the outer structure there occurs a change of the skeleton. The skull of an aged male gorilla becomes more projecting at the muzzle, and the dog teeth have almost attained the length of those of lions and tigers. On the upper part of the skull, which is rounded in youth, great bony crests are developed on the crown of the head and on the forehead. The arches above the eye-sockets are covered with wrinkled skin, and the already savage and indeed revolting appearance of the gorilla is thereby increased."
Natural history is indebted to Paul Du Chaillu, the African traveler and explorer, for its first definite knowledge of the gorilla.
A full-grown male, if standing in a perfectly upright position, will generally measure rather more than six feet in height; and since his body is much more bulky, and his limbs are longer than those of a man, he is considerably the largest representative of his kind. As in the chimpanzee, there are distinct eyebrows on the. forehead and lashes to the lids of the eyes. The nose has a relatively long bridge, and its extremity is high, conical, and widely expanded. The upper lip is remarkable for its shortness; and the whole of the dark skin in the region of the nose, cheeks, and mouth is marked by a number of wrinkled folds. The massive jaws are extremely projecting, and with their huge tusks, or dog teeth, complete the repulsive aspect imparted to the expression by the overhanging eyebrows. The ears are comparatively small and appear to be fastened above and behind to the sides of the face. The head is joined to the trunk by a very short and thick neck, which gives the appearance of its being set into the shoulders; and the term "bull-necked" is therefore strictly applicable to the creature. This great thickness and power of the neck is largely due to the backward projection of the skull, and the tall spines surmounting the vertebra of the neck. The muscles of the shoulders and chest are equally powerful, as is essential for the movements of the mighty arms.
Although when driven to close quarters the gorilla is doubtless one of the most terrible of foes, yet it appears certain that very exaggerated accounts have been given of the natural ferocity. Herr von Koppenfels informs us that so "long as the gorilla is unmolested he does not attack men; and, indeed, rather avoids the encounter." And when these creatures catch sight of men, they generally rush off precipitately in the opposite direction through the underwood, giving vent at the same time to peculiar guttural cries. It appears that many gorillas are killed by the natives with the aid of a weighted spear suspended by a cunningly devised system of cords in the creature's path. Others are, however, undoubtedly shot by the negroes, although it would seem that, at least in many instances, such animals have been accidentally met by the hunters as they travelled through the forest rather than deliberately sought out and tracked.
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The Monkey Wrench Gang
By Edward Abbey
(Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780061129766, 480pp.)
Publication Date: December 2006
Ex-Green Beret George Hayduke has returned from war to find his beloved southwestern desert threatened by industrial development. Joining with Bronx exile and feminist saboteur Bonnie Abzug, wilderness guide and outcast Mormon Seldom Seen Smith, and libertarian billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D., Hayduke is ready to fight the power—taking on the strip miners, clear-cutters, and the highway, dam, and bridge builders who are threatening the natural habitat. The Monkey Wrench Gang is on the move—and peaceful coexistence be damned!
Edward Abbey spent most of his life in the American Southwest. The author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the much celebrated Desert Solitaire, which decried the waste of America's wilderness, Abbey was one of the country's foremost defenders of the natural environment. He died in 1989.
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"Second Honoring: The Life of Russell Means" Celebration on 40th Anniversary of Wounded Knee Occupation
On Wednesday, February 27, the family of Russell Means will hold a celebration on Pine Ridge to honor the life of Oglala activitst Russell Means. The date coincides with the 40th anniversary of the start of the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee by the American Indian Movement, led by Means.
The event will be held at Pine Ridge School in the old gymnasium, west of campus, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Doors open at 4:00 p.m. The honoring will highlight Means's life, leadership and the "eternal fire that he re-ignited throughout Indian country," reported Native News Network. Dinner will be served at the Pine Ridge School Cafeteria at 5:00 p.m. The honoring service will begin at 6:00 pm. The event will include guest speakers, including relatives, Wounded Knee veterans and visiting dignitaries.
Chris Eagle Hawk, Oglala Lakota, will be the Eyapaha (announcer), and the Creekside Singers as the honor drum. Scotti Clifford, Oglala Lakota, of Scatter Their Own will perform an honor song. The Means family is sponsoring a traditional giveaway at this honoring.
Means walked on October 22, 2012, at his home and ranch in Porcupine, South Dakota.
For further details on the event, click here.
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Citing studies and PowerPoint presentations, civic and business leaders Monday painted optimistic pictures of better homes, neighborhoods and a health care system that, they said, will rise through careful planning in the area that Hurricane Katrina savaged a year ago.
But none of this will matter if people ignore the importance of rebuilding Louisiana's eroded coastal defenses, said King Milling, chairman of the Louisiana Committee on Coastal Restoration.
Calling coastal restoration "the elephant in the closet, " Milling said that unless this natural protection system is re-established to absorb storms' fury, "We will be at risk in ways we have not yet contemplated."
Repairs could cost $14 billion and take as long as 30 years because "it's got to be done carefully, " he said during a news briefing at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel.
Before the extensive levee system that was established after the 1927 flood, the Mississippi River annually dumped tons of silt in southeast Louisiana, raising the land near its banks and setting up an ecosystem that absorbed storm surges and diminished their impact on, among other places, New Orleans.
Although the levees protected New Orleans, they kept the river from replenishing the land that the Gulf of Mexico washed away, Milling said.
Post-Katrina work should mimic this natural process, including the silting process, he said, and it must rebuild barrier islands.
Congressional legislation would pay for these projects with proceeds from oil and gas drilling, but the money from this source wouldn't come for 10 years, Milling said.
"In the next 10 years, we are probably at greater risk than at any other time, " he said. "This is an issue of the greatest urgency, and we need to deal with it. . . . It is an issue that we need to take seriously."
This pattern of prudence was emphasized repeatedly by Andy Kopplin, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, who said, "We want to rebuild safer, stronger and smarter."
So far, about $59 billion in federal money has been allocated to Louisiana, with $18 billion paying for disaster relief, $14.7 for flood-insurance policyholders and $26 billion for rebuilding.
Rebuilding is a huge task because Katrina and the ensuing floods severely damaged more than 204,000 homes and displaced about 204,000 people, said Mel Lagarde, co-chairman of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission.
So far, New Orleans has submitted 833 projects to FEMA for reimbursement, with a total value of $394.2 million. So far, Lagarde said, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has paid nearly $117.5 million for 239 of those projects.
Because New Orleans city government lost nearly half of its municipal work force and cut its operating budget in half, New Orleans is having a difficult time balancing day-to-day obligations with the bigger tasks of reconstruction, he said.
But, Lagarde said, there is no choice.
Steven Bingler, the architect and planner who is project manager for the Unified New Orleans Plan, said that neighborhood plans are being formed around New Orleans that will be assimilated into a proposal by the end of the year.
"We don't want to rebuild New Orleans the way it was, " he said. "We want to build it the way New Orleanians always wanted it to be."
One area that is being restructured is the local health-care system, which collapsed when Charity Hospital, the main source of care for people with no insurance, closed after the storm. One year later, its fate is still uncertain.
The new system, which a statewide commission is devising in collaboration with federal Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, is designed to establish a clinic-based system that will specialize in preventive medicine and set up electronic medical records that will not be washed away, as many files were after Katrina, said Donna Fraiche, chairwoman of the Louisiana Health Care Commission.
On the first anniversary of Katrina's assault, the "illusion . . . of a quick recovery" is over, and the reality of the cost of this process, in money and time, is sinking in, said Rod West, a former member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority board.
"South Louisiana is at that very point as we recover, " he said. "We are aspiring to be a better New Orleans, a better south Louisiana, but there's the reality of what it's going to take to get there. . . . We have to make the decision whether we're going to pay the price . . . for our kids and our grandkids."
Repairing damage that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita inflicted upon south Louisiana "is going to be a labor of love, but it's going to be laborious, " Gov. Kathleen Blanco said during a brief visit to the session.
She also delivered a "good news, bad news" announcement.
The state's unemployment rate is 2.9 percent, its lowest ever, but "we need a big labor force to get our work done, " Blanco said. "There are opportunities here that abound, and it will depend on the labor force."
The forum was sponsored by Women of the Storm, a nonpartisan local organization that was set up to persuade members of the House and Senate to come to New Orleans so they can appreciate the scale of Katrina's devastation. Bearing their roof-tarp-blue umbrellas, Women of the Storm lobbied members of both houses during a Jan. 30 trip to Capitol Hill, and the group is planning a return visit on Sept. 20.
So far, 55 senators and 123 House members have accepted the invitation, said Anne Milling, the coalition's founder.
"We're moving in the right direction, but we're not there yet, " she said.
. . . . . . .
John Pope can be reached at email@example.com or at (504) 826-3317.
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I believe these words are not always used as insults. For some white people with experience of nothing outside their own culture, they are everyday expressions, a language of ignorance - not hatred. But for others they suggest something more, and invite darker thoughts and deeds.
At the boys' secondary school in Woolwich where I taught, the black boys were devastated at what had happened - and afraid of what might happen next. That allowed the Afro-Caribbean and Asian boys to talk about their experiences of racism and violence.
For many, the trip to and from school meant running a gauntlet of fear from attack and insults. I was stunned and saddened at what I heard. For the most part, the white boys were equally condemning of the murder.
However, there were the usual minority of disaffected white boys who reflected the educational and personality profile of the five young men who were charged with but not convicted of Stephen Lawrence's murder, and who gave evidence at the public inquiry into Stephen's death. They were aggressive young men whose guttural language and archaic ideas about anything that deviated from their narrow experiences would produce derisory howls.
Like the five, they were committed believers in glorious isolation; they had never had any social contact with black and Asian people and found the whole idea of multiculturalism laughable.
They gloried in their rejection of anything they perceived as un-English - a poet's name, a specific reading of history. They saw their sneering lack of interest as a form of positive discrimination. Multiculturalism was an invasive, threatening and unwanted influence.
I was struck by the inarticulate opposition, devoid of a coherent morality and organisation, that these youths represent. It underlined why resistance is needed to any notion that school is the place for the three Rs and nothing else.
The death of Stephen should not be seen as a failure of multiculturalism in school and society but a reason for supporting and increasing it. The message multiculturalism delivers of mutual respect and understanding is urgently needed to illuminate the sorts of communities which would welcome those suspects home.
Dave Bryson teaches English in a south London secondary school * If you have a strong opinion on a curriculum subject, write to Brendan O'Malley, secondary editor, TES, Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield, London E1 9XY.
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Shuly Edwards is all too familiar with migraines. She used to get them as often as 20 times a month.
"It's like being hit by a truck," said Edwards. "You feel a throbbing in your head and shooting pain behind your eyes and you physically can't function."
She has three daughters under seven so when the migraines hit, they turned play time into pain.
Edwards tried medications, but they took hours to work and caused severe nausea. She heard about a clinical trial to test out a new migraine medication, Levadex, and decided to give it a try.
The new medicine is administered orally through an inhaler. It was developed by MAP Pharmaceuticals in Mountain View. The company reformulated a drug called DHE 45, which has been around for 60 years.
The drug is traditionally administered intravenously, which was inconvenient for patients.
"It also caused nausea," said Dr. James Wolfe at Allegery and Asthma Associates in San Jose. "The new delivery system allows patients to get relief more quickly and without suffering an upset stomach."
He looked at 40 patients in a double blind study and found that nearly 70 percent of those who took Levadex experienced migraine relief.
Edwards says her debilitating migraine went away in just 30 minutes. She also noticed that when she started using Levadex, she began getting fewer migraines.
"Clinical trials showed Levadex was able to keep the migraines away for 24 hours," said MAP CEO Tim Nelson.
"This is a breakthrough product," said Dr. Wolfe. He also says the drug was well tolerated by patients who suffered from asthma and migraines.
The inhaler didn't irritate asthma patients' lungs. The FDA has not yet approved Levadex as more clinical trials are needed.
If you suffer from migraines and are interested in participating in clinical trials go to the allergycare.com research page.
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Officials: I-395 project could help Arsht Center, in long term
By Zachary S. Fagenson
Although a long-discussed overhaul of the 1.2-mile I-395 bridge could take as many as 500 parking spaces from the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, center officials say they're confident they wouldn't be crippled by the project and are even hoping to benefit from it.
"In the short term it'll have some disruptive effects," said trust Chairman J. Ricky Arriola. "But long term, how can we influence it so that we have a downtown that's interconnected, increased green space [and] even increase parking once the thing is done?
"We want a seat at the table to make sure that this thing is done right."
The project, which has been in planning since the mid-1990s, looks to replace the existing bridge with a taller one closer to the arts center. The Florida Department of Transportation, which is managing the project, has long cited the existing bridge as poorly designed, structurally deficient and a source of urban blight in nearby Overtown.
But if work were to begin, the department would have to re-take control of land adjacent to the opera house that it purchased in 2004 and leases to the center for parking.
The loss of the land, where the new bridge would rise, would also include a loss of 500 parking spaces.
But Mr. Arriola said if the project were to ever get off the ground, the center wouldn't lose all parking in what appears to be its main lot.
The transportation department "owns a piece of the lot that is closest to I-395," he said. The "northern half of lot C is owned by the county, so they don't take all of that."
If the state took back part of the land, center patrons would be forced to find parking at another surface lot near the center, on nearby streets or in the Omni garage. The two-building center was built without parking of its own, though parking was originally planned.
And while most of the trust's talks seem to imply that it's dead set against the project, Mr. Arriola said a new bridge for I-395 does have potential to bring downtown together.
"If this thing ever comes to pass, it's a huge opportunity for us and the community to basically lift that eyesore of 395 into an elevated overpass so we can finally connect downtown with the rest of what was traditionally our downtown," he said. "We want to see this happen because… it's going to help Overtown and help [the center] a lot because it'll create a more [pedestrian-friendly] downtown."
Even though the project has been a dream for more than a decade, the state hopes to see it become reality soon.
Alice Bravo, director of transportation development for the transportation department, in a previous interview said the department hopes to "have a shovel in the sand four years from December."
The department's latest study on the $500 million project is to wrap up once it's approved by the Federal Highway Administration in the next few months.
Then the search begins for financing.
Meanwhile, the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority gave the trust two seats on its evaluation committee for the I-395 project and the trust has formed its own committee, headed by Mike Eidson, a partner at law firm Colson Hicks Eidson, to monitor the work.
We "have to take into account lots of things," Mr. Arriola said. There's "disruption of traffic, parking, noise and the impact of development in the areas around us.
"We basically just want to have a task force to… pay attention to conversations in Tallahassee and locally."
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Catechism of the Catholic Church
1086 "Accordingly, just as Christ was sent by the Father so also he sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit. This he did so that they might preach the Gospel to every creature and proclaim that the Son of God by his death and resurrection had freed us from the power of Satan and from death and brought us into the Kingdom of his Father. But he also willed that the work of salvation which they preached should be set in train through the sacrifice and sacraments, around which the entire liturgical life revolves." 9
1087 Thus the risen Christ, by giving the Holy Spirit to the apostles, entrusted to them his power of sanctifying: 10 they became sacramental signs of Christ. By the power of the same Holy Spirit they entrusted this power to their successors. This
"apostolic succession" structures the whole liturgical life of the Church and is itself sacramental, handed on by the sacrament of Holy Orders.
English Translation of the Cathechism of the Catholic Church for the United States of America © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.
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"Sustainability is one of the guiding principles underpinning Macquarie's graduate capabilities framework. Sustainable learning and teaching is an inclusive concept that emphasises participation, resource sharing, mentoring, collaboration and lifelong learning. The Sustainable Learning and Teaching project demonstrates ways of embedding the principle of sustainability and associated graduate capabilities in the curriculum.
The project consists of a series of short videos produced and directed by Mark Parry featuring Macquarie University staff, students, alumni and the broader community. The videos are underpinned by research-based resources developed by Anna Rowe, including an annotated bibliography and teaching strategies for sustainable learning outcomes and assessment tasks. The project was led by Agnes Bosanquet and funded by Macquarie University Sustainability."
[An interesting initiative -despite the overzealous use of video transition effects and music wallpaper.]
"Personalising learning is... ...learner-centred and knowledge-centred: Close attention is paid to learners’ knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes. Learning is connected to what they already know (including from outside the classroom). Teaching enthuses pupils and engages their interest in learning: it identifies, explores and corrects misconceptions. Learners are active and curious: they create their own hypotheses, ask their own questions, coach one another, set goals for themselves, monitor their progress and experiment with ideas for taking risks, knowing that mistakes and ‘being stuck’ are part of learning. Work is sufficiently varied and challenging to maintain their engagement but not so difficult as to discourage them. This engagement allows learners of all abilities to succeed, and it avoids the disaffection and attention-seeking that give rise to problems with behaviour.
...and assessment-centred: Assessment is both formative and summative and supports learning: learners monitor their progress and, with their teachers, identify their next steps. Techniques such as open questioning, sharing learning objectives and success criteria, and focused marking have a powerful effect on the extent to which learners are enabled to take an active role in their learning. Sufficient time is always given for learners’ reflection. Whether individually or in pairs, they review what they have learnt and how they have learnt it. Their evaluations contribute to their understanding. They know their levels of achievement and make progress towards their goals. Stimulated by How people learn: brain, mind, experience and school (Bransford, J. D., A. L. Brown, et al.)."
(Teaching and Learning in 2020 Review Group, 2007, p.6)
Bransford J.D., Brown A. L. and Cocking R. (eds.), How people learn: brain, mind, experience and school, National Academy Press, Washington DC, 2000.
1). Teaching and Learning in 2020 Review Group (2007). '2020 Vision: Report of the Teaching and Learning in 2020'. Department for Education and Skills.
"How do Rwandan envisage their future? What kind of society do they want to become? How can they construct a united and inclusive Rwandan identity? What are the transformations needed to emerge from a deeply unsatisfactory social and economic situation? These are the main questions Rwanda Vision 2020 addresses.
This Vision is a result of a national consultative process that took place in Village Urugwiro in 1998-99. There was broad consensus on the necessity for Rwandans to clearly define the future of the country. This process provided the basis upon which this Vision was developed. ...
Even if Rwanda's agriculture is transformed into a high value/high productivity sector, it will not, on its own, become a satisfactory engine of growth. There has to be an exit strategy from reliance on agriculture into secondary and tertiary sectors. The issue, however, is not simply one of a strategy based on agriculture, industry or services, but rather, identifying Rwanda's comparative advantage and concentrating strategies towards it. For instance there is a plentiful supply of cheap labour, a large multi-lingual population, a strategic location as the gateway between East and Central Africa as well as its small size, making it easy to build infrastructure (resources permitting). The industries established would need to address basic needs, for which there is a readily available market, as these products can satisfy local demand and even move towards export."
(Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for The Republic of Rwanda)
Fig.1 vvkatievv, 15 July 2009, 'OLPCorps Kenema, Sierra Leone 2009', Flickr.
"By 2020 the UK must create a balanced and sustainable knowledge economy with design as a critical and central part. There is no other option. ...
In 2010, as we emerge from one of the most severe economic crises of the last century, it is clear that the balance of the economy must change. The country, brutally, is going to have to work and innovate to make its living. There are no more easy pickings off the back of a credit boom. Britain is going to self-consciously create a national innovation ecosystem to drive new growth sectors and companies - and design must be a critical part of that effort. Successful companies will be those which develop innovative products and processes, so creating new markets and reputations for themselves.
New ways of intervening have to be found. Public spending commitments or tax concessions - the traditional ways of achieving public policy goals - are going to be extremely constrained by the necessity to reduce Britain’s budgetary deficit. The quest is on for policy levers that can deliver changed behaviour as effectively but more cheaply. ...
Design is the bridge between the consumer questing for the experiential and the company trying to meet that appetite with an offer that presents the new in a user-friendly and innovative way."
(Design Council, UK)
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I'm using PHP (with a MySQL db) to build a little gift registry system for the impending new addition to our family. Although this is a purely personal/fun project (that will all be in a password-protected directory only accessed by our friends and family), I am using the experience to try to improve my skills and knowledge with PHP security issues.
The site has an admin section where new items can be added to the gift registry and existing items can be edited. Among other things, the add (or edit) forms contain an input for a URL and an input for the display text for the URL. The URL and the display text get stored in the db and then later output on the registry page where people can browse to see what gifts we would like. Then they can click on the link to actually see the product and possibly order it.
So, pretend for a moment that this isn't my little password-protected personal project, but instead it's on a site with a mass audience. Is there any good way to "sanitize" a URL that was input by a user? How on earth would you make sure that someone isn't going to enter a link to some offensive website or some malicious script and then give it an innocuous name like "Amazon" or "Target", giving people a big surprise when they click on it!
Just curious if anyone has any thoughts on this... like I said, I'm just learning about a lot of the security issues with PHP and trying to think them through on a "safe" project before I am someday faced with doing it for real! Thanks!
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Upcoming Middle School Events
- Scholastic Writing Journalism Contest, due March 15th
- For those students interested in entering after school help is provided on January 22nd, February 12th, February 19th, & March 5th at the Middle School Building. For more information please contact Patricia McKelvy.
- Field Trip to The Desert Museum, March 18th, 8:00-12:30 pm
- Once the date is set, Parent Permission Slips will be sent home with your students. If you would like to chaperon please note on the form. For more information please contact Jamie Madden.
- End of The Year Trip to Wet N’ Wild, May 17th – More information to come
To find out what your students are doing in foundations please go Here!
Homework Help as restarted. Homework Help is open to all students who need extra help on any homework, would like to get any homework done, or are asked to be in homework help by the teachers.
When: Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday from 3:15-4:15
For more information please contact Patricia McKelvy
Important Note to Parents!
Due to recent events students are no longer allowed to have electronic devices of any kind (cell phone, music players) on their person during school hours. For more information please read this Parent Letter regarding this issue.
Satori Charter School: 6th through 8th Grades
Satori Charter School is a tuition free primary and middle school which serves children in grades 2-8.
Created in 1998, Satori Charter School was established to provide a challenging, creative learning environment which addresses the needs of the whole child while focusing on community, creativity and critical thinking.
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Novelist David Ebershoff investigates the sensitive subject of polygamy.
By Ruth E. Kott, AM’07
Top image courtesy the Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-6668
Bottom photo by Edie Sanchez
In a Milwaukee bookstore this summer, David Ebershoff, MBA’96, was confronted by a pro-polygamist. After Ebershoff read an excerpt from his most recent novel, The 19th Wife (Random House, 2008) the man jumped up, wagged his finger at the author, and announced, “If you believe in freedom, you have to believe in polygamy. If you don’t believe in polygamy, you don’t believe in freedom.” Then he walked out.
Ebershoff disagrees with that assessment of polygamy, a subject he explores comprehensively in The 19th Wife. But he doesn’t outright denounce the 19th-century Mormon practice. “Polygamy really presses on some core American values,” he says. “We believe in the right of religious freedom, the right to believe what we believe, the right for others to believe what they believe. But polygamy begins to press on those beliefs.” In other words, he explains, it forces Americans to reconsider the limits of their inalienable rights.
In the book, a New York Times bestseller and a Publisher’s Weekly Pick of the Week, Ebershoff weaves historical autobiographies, a contemporary genre mystery, academic papers, newspaper articles, letters, even a Wikipedia entry—all fictionalized, but based on historical events and people. “If you ask six people about polygamy, you’re going to get six different answers,” he says. “I thought fiction would accommodate these differences.”
The practice of “celestial marriage,” as Latter-day Saints founder Joseph Smith called it, was a central tenet in early Mormonism. Smith and his followers—including Brigham Young, who became the Latter-day Saints’ president and prophet after Smith’s 1844 murder—believed that acquiring multiple wives was a key to their salvation.
Young himself had an estimated 27–56 wives (the number varies depending on changing definitions of “wife” over time), including Ann Eliza (Webb) Young, who was 24 when she married the 67-year-old leader. Claiming spousal neglect and poor treatment, she left the Mormon Church in 1873, filed for divorce, and embarked on a cross-country lecture tour. She also published two memoirs before mysteriously disappearing in 1908.
Ebershoff first learned of Ann Eliza seven years ago while working as publishing director of the Modern Library, the classics imprint of Random House. Inspired by her story, he rewrote Ann Eliza’s autobiography using only her “basic biographical arc” as a guide.
This fictionalized 19th-century memoir is but a fragment of Ebershoff’s 519-page tome. Given equal time is a story of contemporary polygamy—laced within a whodunit. Although the Latter-day Saints abandoned polygamy in 1890 as a condition of Utah receiving statehood, plural marriage has continued today in splinter groups like Warren Jeffs’s Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Hildale, UT, and Colorado City, AZ. Ebershoff’s protagonist is 20-year-old Jordan Scott, who was excommunicated from the (fictional) fundamentalist sect First Latter-day Saints of Mesadale, AZ, for holding his stepsister’s hand. Living in Los Angeles when he reads online that his father has been murdered and his mother—the 19th wife—was arrested for the crime, Jordan returns to Arizona to unravel what actually happened.
For his research, Ebershoff traveled to Hildale/Colorado City, hoping to speak with members of the polygamist community. “But that wasn’t really going to be possible once I got there,” he says. Instead, he was literally chased out of town by a police car. In The 19th Wife, Jordan has a similar encounter in Mesadale, where he is tailed by a “jacked pick-up” until he reaches the highway.
Intertwined with Ann Eliza’s and Jordan’s stories are the voices of Ann Eliza’s relatives. Her father Chauncey Webb’s memoir, for example, recounts his initial struggle with the idea of having more than one wife. The text also includes the faux academic papers of Kelly Dee, a graduate student at Brigham Young University who set out to research Ann Eliza’s life and legacy for her master’s thesis.
The 19th Wife is Ebershoff’s third novel. His 2000 book The Danish Girl, currently in production for a movie, was inspired by the life of artist Lili Elbe (born Einar Wegener), who underwent one of the first male-to-female sex-change operations in the 1930s.
“I always wanted to be a writer,” Ebershoff says. “And then I grew up, and I needed a job.” After getting turned down by several MFA programs, he decided to try his hand at publishing. While at the GSB he interned at Random House, and he sold ads and read fiction for the Chicago Review. He now works as an editor-at-large at Random House, where he edited the late Norman Mailer for the last five years of Mailer’s life. “I’ve learned a lot about editing from being a writer,” says Ebershoff, who also teaches in Columbia University’s writing program. “I’m pretty comfortable with reading something and recognizing where it needs some work.”
Editing has also helped him to become a better writer. “If the reader doesn’t turn the page, nothing else counts,” he says. “I’ve got to give a reader a reason to turn the page.”
In The 19th Wife the steady shifts among stories, voices, and points of view provide more than one reason to keep reading—and reflect Ebershoff’s multifaceted view of polygamy. “I definitely got a better sense of the complexity of the issue,” he says. “I’ve heard people say about 21st-century polygamists, ‘How can they believe that?’ As someone put it to me, if you believed that polygamy was central to your salvation…as much as you believed the sun would rise tomorrow, then you could withstand any suffering or indignities or sadness that might come from the institution in your present life.”
On the other hand, he emphasizes, the practice has widening effects: “The one thing I do know from my experience is that a lot of children are very sad in these households.”Like many of his characters in the novel, he does not have a final opinion on the subject. “It’s nearly impossible to come to a conclusion on polygamy,” he says. “It hasn’t concluded in American history, and it’s not about to soon.”
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Welcome to the Press Room of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), brought to you by the education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD). Here you will find information about press releases, the image gallery, video libraries, mailing lists, media visits, and more.
To start receiving our news items for the media, please fill in the following form. Fields marked with a star are compulsory. If you wish to receive possible ePOD products we recommend that you provide a correct postal address as well. ePOD reserves the right to check the correctness of the information and grant access only to those that provide accurate information. You can read more under the section called Newsletters, here below.
You can learn more about ePOD and ESO's outreach activities here.
ESO press releases describe important scientific, technical and organisation developments and achievements, as well as results obtained by scientists using ESO facilities. The goal of these press releases is to share exciting discoveries and the beauty of the Universe with the general public.
Press release types
ESO publishes three different types of press releases:
- Science Release
A science release describes scientific results usually appearing in a peer-reviewed journal that involve data from ESO observatories or ESO staff. These press releases explain the significance of the findings and provide contact information for the scientists announcing their results.
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View all ESO press releases dating back to 1985.
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Space Scoop is a service provided by ESO in partnership with the educational project Universe Awareness (UNAWE) and is specifically addressed to children aged between seven and eleven years old, with or without the assistance of parents and educators. Space Scoop explains ESO Science and Photo Releases in a language that children can easily understand. To access them, look for the Space Scoop icon located at the top of each press release's page.
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To the best of its abilities, ESO endeavours to ensure that its press releases are factually correct representations of the underlying scientific work and are written in a way that avoids misinterpretations and exaggerations. In order to ensure that the public can consider ESO press releases as reliable sources of information, ESO has adopted procedures and principles that you can read about here.
Press Release dissemination
As a general rule, all ESO press releases are sent to media representatives subscribed to our Media Newsletter (see below), to the AAS mailing list, and to AlphaGalileo and EurekAlert! about 48 hours in advance of their public release, giving them access to the full press release text and associated multimedia. The notice is typically sent on Mondays and the press release is made public on Wednesdays. In certain cases, ESO press releases may instead be sent “For Immediate Release” or at different times with specific embargo conditions (for example, for papers published in Nature or Science).
Our advance notice system gives journalists time to research a topic, gather relevant information or conduct interviews, which leads to better and a more accurate coverage of our news and, ultimately, better information for the public. We use the well-established term “embargo” to emphasise that the material must be made public only two days later. However, it is certainly not our intention to “hype” the news item. To check the usefulness of this system, we have done a media poll in July 2011. To access the results please go here.
Wherever possible, we do our best to issue a release at (or close to) the same time as the paper’s publication in an academic journal. We recognise that material that is already public (for example, abstracts, online preprints, published papers) is “fair game” for journalists.
However, we consider that our press release package (with its less technical text, quotes from the scientists, and rich images and video), provides significant added value for journalists over the academic paper alone.
If a journalist publishes a story using the material from our press release package (for example, quotes, additional information, or associated multimedia) before the advance notice period ends, we consider this a breaking of the “embargo” conditions. We will therefore remove that journalist from the Media Newsletter mailing list. We will also request that the journalist be removed from the AAS embargo mailing list, and that the action be treated as the breaking of an embargo according to the conditions of AlphaGalileo and EurekAlert!
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Bona fide members of the press, as well as brodcasters may sign up here to receive the Media Newsletterin English or a local language at their choice. The newsletter contains ESO press releases sent about 48 hours in advance of public dissemination, as well as latest videos and footage from ESO, available for use in documentaries, movies, video news etc (see "ESO's advance notice system" above). In certain cases, ESO press releases may also be sent “For Immediate Release” or at different times with specific embargo conditions (for example, for papers published in Nature or Science).
Apart from press releases and accompanying materials, the Media Newsletter also contains latest Pictures of the Week, announcements or video materials that media representatives could find useful.
Please fill in the following form in order to be subscribed. Fields marked with a star are compulsory. If you wish to receive possible ePOD products we recommend that you provide a correct postal address as well. ePOD reserves the right to check the correctness of the information and grant access only to those that provide accurate information. Those subscribed to the newsletter will receive a confirmation email. If you have additional questions, please email email@example.com
The News from ESO Newsletter
The News from ESO Newsletter is addressed to members of the public who wish to stay in touch with the latest ESO science news, photo releases, announcements, Pictures of the Week and more. You can subscribe here or visit the ESO news archive.
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ESO Media Polls
The 2011 ESO Media Poll was distributed to people through the ePOD press and the AAS mailing lists, and responses were collected for two weeks between 24 June and 8 July 2011.
130 anonymous members of the press participated. 16 PIOs (part-time or full-time) were excluded from this analysis so as to focus exclusively on the needs of bona fide journalists, leaving 114 as the total number of participants, with an average age of 46. Of these, 36% came from the USA and Germany (in an equal split). The rest of the journalists are spread internationally, with a total of 75% from the ESO Member States.
The report gives a brief summary of the data, and a preliminary analysis, rather than a fully fledged statistical treatment. All questions have been included. All answers have been included, except for free text comments that could give indications of the identity of the respondents.
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About Face: Urbana
February 1, 2012
Today’s About Face was written by Nick Cox, a front-end developer and designer from Seattle, Washington.
In type, as in wine, there is some beautiful and industry-changing work coming out of Latin America today. Foundries such as Sudtipos and Emtype have been springing up and drawing attention to themselves with some of the more interesting and beautiful serifs, sans serifs, and script faces of the year last year.
Colombian designer César Puertas is adding to the designers that have put Latin America on the map with Urbana, a font inspired by the city of Bogotá. Designed primarily as a display face, Urbana doubles as a readable and practical font for short to medium length texts. While many of the recent releases from South America in particular have demonstrated the famed passion and flair of the culture, Urbana remains a sturdy and sensible family, while retaining a good bit of personality.
Most notable among Urbana’s features is the cut and carved style of its glyphs. This is an aesthetic nod to the days of letterpress printing, in which a counterpunch was made to create the negative space (or counters) of the letters into a punch. The punch, in turn, created the copper matrix into which molten metal was poured to create the lines of type that would eventually be inked and printed. In Urbana, the counters of many of the glyphs reference this era, exhibiting a tension between, for example, the curve of the outside of the bowl of the lowercase b, and the sharp corner inside the counter. This technique is carried over into other aspects of the letter anatomy, such as the ascender, also illustrated by the lowercase b.
Also noteworthy is Urbana’s versatility. Though Urbana was designed for use at titling sizes, it performs admirably as a text face. Further, the family is quite large, with four weights ranging from light to bold with matching italics. Provided you’re not setting type for extended reading, Urbana is an all-around sound choice.
Urbana’s rendering capability is another trait that makes it a solid bet for a vast array of typographic needs. If you’ve been following type on the web for the past two years or so, you know the heartbreak of finding a beautiful font, only to realize that it is mangled by Internet Explorer. Urbana is an excellent antidote to this problem. As you can see in the screenshot below, Urbana looks good even less forgiving rendering environments, like IE6 for Windows XP.
And again as in wine, a typeface’s qualities can be paired with that of its companions to create a sensually rich experience. Take, for example, Urbana and Abril Text. Type Together’s Abril, like Urbana, boasts several details that are honed into beautiful subtleties when used at text sizes. In this pair, the slabs of Abril Text evoke the sharp eges of Urbana’s clean cut side, and Abril’s lovely curves (on the terminal of the r, for example) bring out Urbana’s voluptuousness.
Urbana’s inherent contrast works well when specific aspects of the overall appearance are teased out by other typefaces. Take, for example, Le Monde Courrier’s generous counters. These glyphs (note the lowercase e, in particular) have an open air about them that distinguishes them from Urbana’s tight counters. When brought together, the tension between Le Monde Courrier’s loose spacing and Urbana’s relatively condensed width create a serious tone that is not without its playful side.
But it is with similarly curvy faces that Urbana really lets its hair down. In the 900 weight, Urbana’s curves and corners are at their most prominent, and when set with a rounded sans like Proxima Nova Soft, the carefree lightness is evident, and both faces bounce off one another in childlike, romper room delight.
Similar fun can be had when Urbana calls Bello out to play. When softened by a large size and subtle CSS3 text effects, Urbana is all the more curvy, and Bello’s lively script and moderate stroke contrast bring even more motion to the table.
But Urbana isn’t all fun and games. Consider using it as a text face with a smart and bookish titling face like Chaparral. This classic serif can whip Urbana into shape, and it suddenly behaves itself, showing its functionality via solid readability and compact efficiency.
Urbana is also quite handy alongside an elegant and more calligraphic serif like Athelas. In this duet, Urbana can cover short sprints of utilitarian text like lists, subheads, and short paragraphs, and Athelas beautifully expresses longer texts and titles. When set small, Urbana has a much more rounded look, which contrasts with Athelas’s more angular features, but finds a companion in the serifed beauty’s more curvaceous italic.
In all, Urbana is a solid bet for charming headlines, boisterous pairings, or sensible bits of shorter text. Its excellent rendering and wide range of weights and styles make it a strong contender in the hunt for practical all-around faces. And while it can be talked into behaving well, there are faces that can bring out its lively side. With all these qualities, Urbana is one of the region’s most useful and respectable typefaces.
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Battle of the Beans
The competition between Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks for coffee supremacy has reached new heights—literally. In February, JetBlue introduced Dunkin' Donuts blends on all routes. Starbucks, meanwhile, is served on United Airlines and Horizon Air.
A new study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham has mapped out—by destination—the illnesses travelers are most likely to come down with. The results show that the risk of malaria is dramatically higher in Africa, while respiratory diseases affect travelers to Southeast Asia most frequently. The study is being used to help detect emerging infections around the world.
Because sometimes a taxi just isn't fast enough, this spring New York City's U.S. Helicopter is launching hourly shuttle service from midtown and downtown Manhattan to American Airlines' terminals at LaGuardia and JFK airports (www.flyush.com; one-way fare $159). The flights will take only about eight minutes; passengers on American can even check baggage and get boarding passes at the heliport.
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Could "Shock and Awe" be a war crime?
Bernard Hibbitts at 3:08 PM ET
[JURIST] Lawyers with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights [advocacy website] said Friday that US officials involved in military operations against Iraq could be liable for war crimes prosecution for the "Shock and Awe" operation now under way:
A Senior Pentagon official has stated publicly: "There will not be a safe place in Baghdad...you have this simultaneous effect, rather like the nuclear weapon at Hiroshima, not in days or weeks but in minutes." The purpose is to "take the city down. By that I mean you get rid of their power, water. In two, three, four, five days, they are physically, emotionally, and psychologically exhausted.".....On the issue of ICC jurisdiction the human rights lawyers said:
According to CCR Legal Director, Jeffrey Fogel, "The laws of war prohibit civilians being targeted and there is a fundamental rule that Parties to the conflict must distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives. Parties must restrict their operations to the targeting of military objectives. The proposed U.S. "shock and awe" strategy fails on all counts and as such constitutes a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute [of the International Criminal Court]."
Generally, Americans carrying out war crimes may be able to do so without fear of prosecution before the International Criminal Court (ICC) because one of the pre-conditions to the Court exercising jurisdiction is that the individual concerned be a national of a state that is a Party to the ICC. However, the Court also has jurisdiction over crimes carried out on the territory of a State which is a Party, or onboard a ship or aircraft of a State which is a PartyRead the complete text of the CCR press release.
It has been widely reported that U.S. bombers to be involved in the "shock and awe strategy are based at the U.S. Air Base on Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean and will be loaded with cruise missiles there for use against Iraq. Diego Garcia is UK territory, which it leases to the U.S. As the UK is a Party to the ICC, crimes under the statute, including war crimes, committed wholly or in part on Diego Garcia fall within the Courts jurisdiction.
latest newscast |
|For more legal news check the Paper Chase Archive...
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According to findings from a new student-driven study out of the Lone Star College System, 78% of college students reported that their grades and learning experience are improved when technology is effectively and consistently implemented on their campus. College students believe that technology has a direct impact on their academic performance. The Report is a compilation of survey data collected from more than 6,000 students on 36 community-college campuses across the U.S.
05/05/2013 - The library cooperative OCLC recently ran a conference at the University of... Get It
04/25/2013 - GETideas.org is the incubator where education leaders can develop their professional learning... Get It
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AUSTIN — Carlos Spector said he has clients who rise in the morning not knowing whether they will see their families again after they leave for work. A sense of fear at times hangs over them — fear of losing work that their children depend on, fear of having their families broken up, fear of being deported.
Spector is an immigration attorney, a legal representative for some of the Texas residents living in the shadows.
“It’s a daily tragedy of waking up and not knowing if you’re going to make it home,” he said.
Reform for immigration is an issue that many in Texas believe is sorely needed.
According to a University of Texas opinion poll from October 2012, 76 percent of those surveyed believe that there should be stronger restrictions and controls over people coming to live in the U.S.
About 62 percent disagreed that state and local Texas police should not be allowed to routinely ask or report on people’s immigration status.
The decades-long debate hasn’t stopped. Whether employers taking cheap, illegal labor displace U.S. workers, whether an increase in undocumented immigrant activity brings criminal activity, and how to secure the U.S. border, and whether enforcement brings racial profiling, all are persistent issues.
The United States had an estimated 10.8 million people living in the country illegally in January 2010, according to a Department of Homeland Security publication. Texas had 1.77 million undocumented immigrants, second only to California with 2.57 million.
Among federal politicians, however, consensus has built that the U.S. must tend to the undocumented population already at school, already at work, already in the country.
The federal proposal
The day before President Barack Obama announced his proposal for immigration reform, the so-called Gang of Eight senators in Washington, D.C., leaked their principles for immigration reform. The bipartisan crew has Democrats such as U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Republicans such as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. They asked for a “tough but fair path to citizenship,” which includes putting candidates behind those who have already applied and tying the path to border protection. They also asked to have an employment verification system to end the hiring of unauthorized workers, and to find a way to bring to citizenship those already working the country in industries such as agriculture.
On Tuesday, Obama laid out his plan, which involves border security, going after employers who hire undocumented workers, creation of a path to citizenship by means of criminal background checks, learning English and going to the back of the line, and streamlining the immigration process.
The Texas response
While the federal government is moving toward reforms, Texas lawmakers have been relatively silent on the issue.
Gov. Rick Perry’s State of the State address didn’t address immigration, just as it did not address other incendiary issues such as abortion or gun control. He and other lawmakers have focused the “demographic cliff” of a growing state, as Texas House Speaker Joe Straus called the issue.
“The discussion of immigration reform will be happening nationally,” said Joshua Trevino, a spokesman for the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation. “Hopefully, the expectations are definitely to bring our Texas senators and representatives on board on this issue.”
That the job is mostly federal didn’t stop Texas representatives from trying to give local law enforcement the authority to enforce federal law during the last legislative session. The bills, mimicking controversial Arizona state laws, didn’t pass. Reform against “sanctuary cities” — cities that by policy turn a blind eye toward local enforcement of immigration laws — had been declared an emergency bill by Perry, but the issue has not returned this legislative session so far.
Regarding bills that mandate state and local enforcement of federal immigration laws, Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said, “I don’t think any such bill would pass.”
“There will be bills introduced, I’m sure, but they probably will not pass,” she said. “The only solution to the problem is really at the federal government level with support of state and local governments.”
Politicians may also be contending with the outcome of the 2012 general election, when Republicans got 27 percent of the Hispanic vote in the presidential election, according to news media polls.
Even so, state representatives have presented a handful of proposals for illegal immigration laws.
A bill from state Rep. J.M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, would make it an offense to transport an undocumented person. His bill would give tools to law enforcement specifically for handling the smuggling of people over the border, Lozano’s Chief of Staff Matt Lamon said.
“We have a lot of problems with human trafficking,” Lamon said, noting a summer 2012 incident in Goliad County in which more than 20 undocumented immigrants had been crammed into a van that crashed. More than half the people in the vehicle died.
A bill from State Rep. Patricia Harless, R-Spring, would make employment of an “unlawful resident alien” violate labor laws and require that the Texas Workforce Commission provide a report of complaints and violations to the Legislature.
Another bill would stop any local government entities from having a “day labor center used to facilitate the employment of aliens not lawfully present in the United States,” another would require law enforcement to check on an arrested person’s immigration status, and still another would suspend the licenses of employers who knowingly employ undocumented immigrants.
The next debates
By and large, Texas’ part in the immigration debate will be public safety, Trevino said. While gunfire can be heard across the border near the town of Roma, violence at the border is separate from immigration issues, Trevino said.
The state has “a significant public safety challenge,” Trevino said. “That is something that all Texans are rightly concerned about,” but concern for lawmakers on immigration “is going to be the same, efficient justice and equitable application of the law.”
State Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, said one idea under consideration, although nothing has been filed yet, concerns a work- permitting program that could be managed at the state level.
“That will be an interesting debate as to whether or not we can do something as a state which addresses temporary work permits,” Darby said.
The last time a bill was filed for work permits for undocumented immigrants, the bill languished in the State Affairs committee.
Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights, said he believes that the next battle for his organization will concern the treatment of people at the border. His organization isn’t happy with the connection of border protection or the connection of particular workforces with citizenship.
“We support full citizenship,” Garcia said. “At the same time, we don’t believe legalization should happen at any cost. We need to strike a balance.”
The hope of immigration reform is nevertheless enticing for Spector’s clients.
“A lot of people come in asking about the reform, if there is a chance of staying here,” Spector said. “They’ve heard that something is around the corner.”
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Dear Ask The Doctor: 4 weeks ago my doctor gave me a quick diagnosis of Sciatica (Piriformus Syndrome) due to pain in my hip and groin. I was given some stretching exercises and a script for Soma. Instead of getting better is is getting worse as now I am experiencing severe symptoms of Meralgia Paresthetica on top of it. Does this make sense? Is it likely that I would have both of these conditions without any trauma or injury? Or can the problem be something else entirely? I ask since both my spouse and dog have been diagnosed with Lyme Disease I have to wonder if this is a misdiagnosis. (I know I can't get it from them, but I could have been bit and not know).
Dear Eddie: It looks like you are having possibly a sciatica episode or a hip bursitis, please be patient and follow the doctor recommendations. On the other hand, I will give you some info about Lyme disease. You're more likely to get Lyme disease if you live or spend time in grassy and heavily wooded areas where ticks carrying the disease thrive. It's important to take common-sense precautions in areas where Lyme disease is prevalent. The signs and symptoms of Lyme disease are variable, usually involving more than one system. The skin, joints and nervous system are affected most often. If you have had the following: a small, red bump may appear at the site of the tick bite. Over the next few days, the redness expands, forming a rash in a bull's-eye pattern, with a red outer ring surrounding a clear area. The rash, called erythema migrans, is one of the hallmarks of Lyme disease; Flu-like symptoms (Fever, chills, fatigue, body aches and a headache) may accompany the rash; bouts of severe joint pain and swelling several weeks to months after you're infected. Your knees are especially likely to be affected, but the pain can shift from one joint to another; nflammation of the membranes surrounding your brain (meningitis), temporary paralysis of one side of your face (Bell's palsy), numbness or weakness in your limbs, and impaired muscle movement may occur weeks, months or even years after an untreated infection. If you know you've been bitten and experience signs and symptoms of Lyme disease particularly if you live in an area where Lyme disease is prevalent , then contact your doctor immediately.
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City’s winter was sunnier
EDINBURGH has seen the most dismal July in recent times as it was revealed that the Capital has only enjoyed half the sunshine it saw in the month of January.
To make matters worse, to date it has seen almost double the average rainfall expected at this time of year.
While temperatures in the city are unlikely to break the 16C barrier today, the south-east of the UK is experiencing a heatwave, with the mercury soaring beyond 29C.
At present, Scotland is heading for its wettest summer ever.
It is not the first time that Scotland has experienced wet summers – the last five have seen summer rainfall marginally exceed expectations.
In the 1930s, seven successive Julys had rainfall across the country that was higher than normal.
Search for a job
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Weather for Edinburgh
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Temperature: 3 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: West
Temperature: 5 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: North
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The March/April edition of Technology Review includes in interesting review by David Talbot covering BMW’s Hydrogen 7 automobile. As the car’s name implies, it is an H2-fired machine. However, BMW’s spin on this hydrogen vehicle is an unconventional reliance upon tried-and-true internal combustion (IC) to provide motive power. Other manufacturers with hydrogen aspirations are looking to put fuel cells under the hood, for example Honda’s FCX Fuel Cell Vehicle, to capitalize on the high energy conversion efficiency afforded by fuel cell technology. BMW’s IC interpretation on H2 enables vehicles that burn both gasoline and hydrogen – creating a flex fuel vehicle of a different color than ethanol yellow not reliant upon Bush’s fairytale hydrogen economy to get from A to B.
Unfortunately, Talbot’s Tech Review article buries the BMW Hydrogen 7 before putting the key into the ignition. Talbot cites a calculation by Dr. Joseph Romm, formerly of the Department of Energy, that estimates driving 1000 miles in a hydrogen car dumps 2,100 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere while 1000 miles in a conventional car produces just 485 pounds of CO2. This calculation assumes that the hydrogen is generated using electrons originating from a coal-fired power plant! Talbot and Romm could have been a bit kinder by noting that there exist more environmentally-benign (albeit less technically mature) hydrogen production methods; most notably use of renewable power sources combined with reversible fuel cells. Even deriving hydrogen from natural gas is potentially less polluting than brute-force electrolysis driven by a coal plant.
While hydrogen as an energy carrier has its problems, the bigger challenge remains lack of a clear path for the automotive industry to provide the US with cars that meet our perceived transportation needs while eliminating pollution and dependency on foreign fossil fuels. Each manufacturer seems to have its pet approach, but none has yet to invent a silver-bullet solution embraced by the market. As case in point, check out this month’s Design News feature article on the Chevy Volt and the associated commentary between bloggers Chuck Murry (“About Those Electric Vehicles…”) and John Dodge (“What about the Chevy Volt, Chuck!?”).
Hydrogen-fired vehicles may not be the right answer, but at least BMW had the courage to put a new twist on an old technology and attempt to take it for a spin. The easiest way to fail in this quest for a sustainable planet is surely to stop innovating.
We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
Healthcare might seem to be an unlikely target application for the Internet of Things technology, but recent developments show small ways that big-data is going to make an impact on patient care moving into the future.
As energy efficiency becomes more and more a concern for makers of electronics devices, researchers are coming up with new ways to harvest energy from sound vibration, footsteps, and even electromagnetic fields in the air.
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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General Practice, Solo & Small Firm DivisionMagazine
Volume 17, Number 2
FRANCHISOR SURVIVAL GUIDE TO ONLINE PRIVACY
BY DAVID W. KOCH AND MEREDITH FUCHS
This article describes the emerging legal principles of online privacy. Though developments continue at breakneck speed, a few core concepts have been established. The concepts appear prominently in both legislative proposals and self-regulatory efforts by the online business community, but the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has articulated them the most effectively.
FTC Takes Lead on Internet Privacy. Starting in 1995, the FTC conducted workshops and hearings to study online privacy concerns. In 1998 and 1999, the FTC submitted reports to Congress concerning the state of online privacy. Both reports emphasized the Commission's goal to "encourage and facilitate effective self-regulation as the preferred approach to protecting consumer privacy online." The reports identified certain core principles of Internet privacy and assessed the extent of industry's self-regulatory response.
Franchisors should become familiar with the five principles that the Commission declared to be "fair information practices." Consumers should be given notice of a franchisor's online information practices so that they can make informed decisions about disclosing personal information. Consumers should have a choice as to the use and dissemination of information collected from or about them. Consumers should have access to information collected about them and a practical way to contest its accuracy and completeness. Data collectors should take adequate steps to ensure the security and integrity of the information they collect. Finally, consumers should have a mechanism to ensure compliance with the substantive principles and recourse for failure to comply.
A related issue is equally challenging. If a franchisee maintains a website using the franchisor's mark and collects personal information from visitors to the site, does the franchisor or franchisee own the data collected? The more rights the franchisor asserts in the data, the greater the risk that the franchisor will be deemed responsible for information practices that were used to collect the data. Thus, the franchisor's concerns about fair information practices must include franchisees' websites as well as its own.
Self-Regulation Does Not Preclude Enforcement. FTC encouragement of self-regulation has not precluded use of the agency's enforcement powers against online data collectors. The FTC reportedly has more than 80 investigations under way concerning cyberspace matters. Two enforcement actions involving children's online privacy already have been settled.
In August 1998, the FTC issued a complaint and entered into a consent order with GeoCities, a company that provides free e-mail service, contests, and children's clubs through its website. The consent order mandates improved disclosure of GeoCities' information practices, usage consistent with such disclosure, implementation of an opt-in provision, and parental consent prior to submission of personally identifiable information by children. The notice provision requires GeoCities to place hyperlinks at every location on its site at which personally identifiable information is collected. The hyperlink must contain a notice stating that GeoCities collects personal information and that, by clicking on the hyperlink, users can learn more about how the information will be used.
Industry Guidelines and Privacy Seal Programs. The 1999 FTC report to Congress highlighted the Online Privacy Alliance (OPA), a cross-industry coalition of corporations and associations formed in large part to encourage industry self-regulation. Although OPA does not enforce its standards on members or others, it is notable both because of its strong support for privacy seal programs and because it has helped define the commercial standards for privacy policies under a self-regulatory framework. OPA's focus is on the adoption and posting of privacy policies by commercial entities. OPA has created guidelines for privacy policies that resemble the FTC's fair information practices. With respect to enforcement, the OPA recommends a verification and monitoring program, a complaint resolution program, education, and outreach. The OPA favors the development of privacy seal programs to maintain the self-regulatory framework. Privacy seal programs operate like a seal of approval. Website operators that agree to meet specified privacy standards and to be subject to an enforcement mechanism are entitled to display the program's seal on their website.
Impetus for Legislation. Despite the preference for self-regulation, federal laws have been enacted, and other proposals bear watching. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the only Internet privacy bill passed in Congress in 1998, required the FTC to adopt regulations for commercial websites regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of information about children under the age of 13. The FTC's rules directly affect franchisors whose websites include pages geared toward children, such as the "kids club" pages of many fast-food chains. The rules apply to every website that is either targeted to children under the age of 13 or whose owner has actual knowledge that the site is visited by children under 13. The rules govern notices websites must give about information practices, how websites treat personal information obtained from children under 13, and what rights parents have with respect to such information. The FTC's rules also require parental consent for most uses of a child's personal information.
During the 1998-1999 legislative session, U.S. lawmakers introduced five major bills that related specifically to Internet privacy: S. 809, Online Privacy Protection Act of 1999, which would require website operators to provide notice regarding the type of personal information and how it is used and disclosed, and require users to consent to or limit disclosure of such information; H.R. 1685, Internet Growth and Development Act of 1999, would require websites to post policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personally identifable information; S. 854, Electronic Rights for the 21st Century Act, would create an "opt-out" system, under which providers of "electronic communications" and "remote computing services" would be required to explain "clearly and conspicuously" how consumers could request that personal data not be disclosed; H.R. 313, Consumer Internet Privacy Protection Act of 1999, would require operators of interactive consumer services to request permission from consumers to disclose personally identifiable information to third parties; and H.R. 367, Social Security Online Privacy Protection Act of 1999, would require operators of interactive consumer services to request permission from consumers to disclose Social Security numbers or related personally identifiable information to third parties. These proposals are only a hint of the coming flood of state and federal legislation.
European Union Privacy Directive. European authorities have not been willing to give self-regulation a chance. The European Union's Directive on the Protec-tion of Personal Data (EU Directive) restricts the information that may be gathered about individuals in EU member states and forbids the export of personal data from EU member states to any country that fails to ensure an adequate level of data protection. EU officials have indicated that the United States does not meet their data protection standards. If negotiations to reconcile the standards are unsuccessful, EU member states could forbid the transfer of certain types of personal data from the EU into the United States.
David W. Koch is a partner and Meredith Fuchs is an associate with the firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding in Washington, D.C.
For more Information About the Forum on Franchising
- This article is an abridged and edited version of one that originally appeared on page 47 of Franchise Law Journal, Fall 1999 (19:2)
- For more information or to obtain a copy of the periodical in which the full article appears, please call the ABA Service Center at 800/285-2221.
- Website: www.abanet.org/forums/franchising/.
- Periodicals: Franchise Law Journal, quarterly journal; The Franchise Lawyer, quarterly newsletter.
- Books and Other Recent Publications: Building Franchise Relationships; Fundamentals of Franchising; The Franchise Law Compliance Manual.
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June has been a very hot month in Texoma during recent years, with both 2008 and 2010 making the “top 10 hottest Junes” list.
In fact the summer of 2010 included the 3rd hottest June on record, but it falls to 4th place with June 2011 now in the #2 spot.
- The hottest June on record is 1953 with an average of 85.5 degrees.
- The June 2011 average of 85.4 degrees ranks second hottest.
- June 1980 averaged 85.0 degrees and is in the #3 position.
- The June 2010 average temperature was 84.9 degrees: now in 4th place for hottest June in Texoma.
- The daily average temperature was above average every day during the month during June 2011.
Drought has begun to become a problem once again for folks on both sides of the Red, with much more severe conditions once you get just west of the KXII viewing area, about 50 miles west of I-35.
The drought will steadily worsen with high daily evaporation rates and no widespread rainfall expected into the first week of July.
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I am not one who offends easily, nor do I consider myself overly-sensitive. However, there are some words that should simply be extinguished from our vernacular. "Retard" is one of them.
Earlier this week, I was out shopping and overheard a young girl use the term in passing and it honestly bothered me a great deal. As the father of a child with autism, I’ve learned over the years that words and labels matter and many times, they can have devastating consequences.
The R-word is almost always used as a pejorative and stems from the longer, medically acceptable term "mental retardation," typically describing someone who has an IQ below 70. But like many other words in the English language, it has evolved over the years and is often used in a derogatory manner. When used improperly, "retard" and "retarded" simply reinforce stereotypes of those with emotional and intellectual disabilities and degrade them as human beings in the process.
The shopping incident got me thinking all week about the topic, so out of curiosity, I decided to do a search on Twitter to see how many messages contained the term. Not surprisingly, a flood of results came up just in the last few days, many from teens and young adults who simply don’t (but should) know better. However, I also found some other tweets from older adults as well, some with a large number of followers:
There were countless others, but these examples are a stark reminder that our society still has a long way to go in educating the public that the r-word is no longer an acceptable term to use, even in jest.
To help shed light on this subject, The Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation (in conjunction with Best Buddies and the Special Olympics) has created a Web site and campaign for the sole purpose of abolishing the term once and for all. Established in 2008, R-word.org has a stated mission to "Spread the Word to End the Word ®." The site accepts online pledges from individuals of all ages, who affirm that they will "support the elimination of the derogatory use of the r-word from everyday speech and promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities." To date, there have been over 235,000 submissions.
It’s heartening to see that this organization, and others like it, are proactively doing something about this issue. However, as many people prove by their tweets and conversations, we still have a long way to go.
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Architect: Katz Architecture
Location: 547 West 27th Street, New York City, New York, USA
MEP Engineer: Lilker Associates
Schematic Design: Charles Hemminger Associates
Lighting: Lighting Collaborative
Expediting: William Vitacco Associates
Custom Concrete: The Concrete Impressionist
Photographs: Julian Olivas of Air-to-Ground Photography
- Located in a run down 19th century factory building, the space was an abandoned former taxi garage.
- The space had heavy timber framing, which Katz highlighted by revealing the structure, leaving old floor joists and utilities open to public view.
- Katz refinished the floor in polished concrete.
The Sundaram Tagore Gallery is devoted to the exchange of ideas between Western and non-Western cultures. In keeping with its mission, the Gallery sought to bridge dualities when they moved into the ground floor of a manufacturing building in West Chelsea. The new space, which last served as a taxi garage, had to be completely overhauled to serve as a platform for cross-cultural discussion through visual art, poetry, literature, performance art, film and music.
The backdrop for this discussion was a dialogue of contrasts – existing and pre-existing, industrial and natural, textured and smooth, old and new. The design attempted to reveal the history of the space, to bridge past and present and create an environment within which artwork can hover.
Text provided by Katz Architecture.
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Little is known about crystalwings, majestic, brightly colored creatures that are rarely seen. They are so uncommon among the local villagers that they are regarded as myth, beings said to have existed centuries ago. What little that is known is this: these gorgeous animals fly very, very high and can very rarely be seen swarming over the tops of mountains, traveling to unknown lands. Their flight is silent and graceful, and they are so swift that they are seldom seen. According to ancient legend, they originate from the depths of the Caves of Nareau, where few venture dare to go. Those caves are supposedly full of treasures, but hardly anyone returns who ventures there. If you travel to Synara, you can find remnants that prove these creatures exist. Once a year these creatures molt, and the fallen gems are collected and made into exquisite jewelry, sold at a steep cost to the wealthy.
Glistening with a strange metallic shimmer, this blue egg is extremely heavy.
How odd. This small creature seems to be encrusted in tiny gems, making it both extremely heavy and beautiful. It has small wings, which you suspect will one day give this creature flight, and a long, graceful tail. This hatchling has begun to make high pitched squeaking sounds and it flaps its wings in futile attempts to fly. Attracted to anything shiny, this hatchling loves finding bright rocks to play with, and seems to enjoy eating them as well. Its diet mainly includes crystals, although it is partial to anything brought from the Caves of Nareau. Although tiny when first born, it has grown much and is already incredibly loyal to you. This little crystalwing loves acting aggressively towards anything that gets too close to its magi companion.
With each passing day, you have watched your hatchling grow more gleaming feathers and gain both weight and height. Finally this small bird has reached adulthood, standing almost as high as your chest. This crystalwing has grown up to become a beautiful and majestic creature. Having fully grown its wings, it's able to fly to extraordinary heights, even though it is an extraordinary weight. Large yellow gems are encrusted all over the crystalwing, making it a joy to behold. It glistens in daylight, the light of the sun turning the jewels into a kaleidoscope of colors. Crystalwings have very long, heavy tails, which serve as a swift and deadly weapons if any magi or creature foolishly attempts to threaten this crystalwing. It possesses powerful magical abilities over air and stone, and generally is picked by a magi gifted in these powers. The majority crystalwings are purple in color or golden, blending in perfectly with the gemstones in their natural environments. These beings vary greatly in color, though, just as the Caves of Nareau do.
- Released: May 11th, 2010
- Artist: Rijolt
- Breeds with Purple Crystalwing (New)s to result in a Green Crystalwing
- Breeds with Golden Crystalwing (New)s to result in a Bronze Crystalwing
- The Blue Crystalwings were obtained as a gift from MagiStream to players who gave five gifts to others during the anniversary event.
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Split In Formula One Looming
By Jonathan Ingram | Senior Correspondent
It’s too early to tell if the political stalemate in Formula One between the FIA and its manufacturers will result in new opportunities for U.S. racing participants. Sanctioning bodies like NASCAR or IndyCar, American promoters, teams and drivers could be affected by either a split or a compromise.
The F1 crisis will come to a head with this week’s meeting of the World Motor Sports Council on Wednesday, where both sides in the dispute will be present. If no compromise is reached the teams of Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes, Renault and Toyota will formally split to form their own championship in 2010 in a meeting scheduled for Thursday.
If a split comes to pass, it’s certain that two series will result.
Unlike the FIA, which organizes the F1 championship and is heavily indebted to bondholders, a new manufacturers’ series would be in position sign up the promoters at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Those facilities are effectively locked out of the F1 schedule currently by the outrageously high sanctioning fees required to pay off the bond debt of the FIA.
Under a split, teams such as the Charlotte-based USGPE team co-owned by Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor would be sought after by both sides. Theoretically, this new team could participate in the FIA’s championship, where it is currently contracted for 2010, and simultaneously accept an engine contract from one of the breakaway manufacturers as incentive to switch sides in 2011.
In any event, the timing for Anderson’s USGPE team and a potential American driver appears to be good. Even under a compromise and no split, USGPE would be wooed by current manufacturers. Also, the team could anticipate some budget reductions to be put in place in the case of a compromise, which would be helpful to a start-up operation.
The cost of F1 racing is at the heart of the dispute. On one side is Max Mosley, the FIA president who initiated the plan to reduce costs for participants with a budget cap. On the other side is the Formula One Teams Association, led by its chairman Luca di Montezemolo of Ferrari.
In the minds of many, Ferrari is Formula One and vice versa. That’s why the stalemate between the two sides has reached a crisis. In almost every dispute in the recent past, Ferrari has sided with the FIA and against other participating teams. As Ferrari goes, in many respects, so goes the prospects of any world championship for single seaters.
At issue is Mosley’s effort to force teams to either reduce their operating budgets or accept new teams that will run to a different set of more favorable rules by accepting a budget cap. Currently, teams are spending as much as $200 million per season or more and the figure used for a budget cap is $65 million.
Mosley has offered to compromise if the teams agree to sign on for the 2010 season, a contract process that is rarely pro forma but usually gets executed annually by the deadline, now passed. In recent years, Ferrari signing up with the FIA has quelled any insurrection among the other manufacturers on the long-simmering issues of rules and who benefits from the income generated by F1 – the teams or the organizers?
Led by di Montezemolo, this year is unusual in that the participating manufacturers have all banded together to resist committing to a new season. If Mosley agrees to step down in October instead of standing for a new term as president, that will go a long way toward quelling the crisis. Involved in a bizarre sex scandal last year that he believes was orchestrated to chase him from office, master politician Mosley could well pull off the compromise and leave with a more positive legacy.
Part of any compromise would concern a new Concorde agreement, the contract that has bound teams and the FIA together in the past. Currently, they are operating without a Concorde agreement due to a dispute over whether the teams will receive 50 percent of the income generated by F1.
Formula One Management boss Bernie Ecclestone, like Mosley, has antagonized the manufacturers. At the same time the FIA is pushing for lower budgets by teams, Ecclestone is pursuing more income with out-of-sight sanctioning fees, a situation created when he sold the marketing rights to F1 for a hefty fee while retaining control.
That process has further rankled manufacturers as traditional circuits in major automotive markets that draw crowds in the 100,000 range like Silverstone in England, Indianapolis and Montreal are replaced with new ones in the Middle East that are vacant on race weekends or filled with non-paying guests.
How will any of this affect NASCAR or IndyCar? Conceivably, either one or both could gain new manufacturers in the course of events. Honda is already in play for NASCAR as a result of dropping out of F1. On the other hand, Honda currently provides spec engines to all teams in the IRL. If it is joined by more competition in the IRL as a result of the fallout in F1, the Japanese manufacturer is more likely to stay in the IndyCar series and less likely to be interested in NASCAR.
It’s possible that a Ferrari-led breakaway group could suddenly have a total of three events in North America, including an East and West visit in the U.S. to fulfill the manufacturers’ longstanding goal of better exposure for their race teams in the American car market, one that is now more vulnerable to market share increases by foreign brands with the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler.
Jonathan Ingram can be reached at email@example.com.
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The level of public oversight on the Irish state's phone tapping and other intercept activities is a joke.
Tapping the wrong phone happens more often then you'd like to think if Britain is anything to go by. There were 50 errors there in 2008 among the .5m intercepts recorded in the report (see pg 11) of the UK's Interception of Communications Commissioner. That's up from 24 mistakes detected in 2007.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation say these statistics for the UK are not enough and even more oversight is needed. Yet in Ireland we won't even reveal how many intercepts are carried out each year. The Dept of Justice refuses to release the data even under Freedom of Information - citing security reasons.
We employ a High Court judge to check whether the gardai or the army have done anything wrong like mistakenly tapping the wrong phone. Thankfully we don't pay this judge anything extra on top of his normal salary for doing this work.
The gardai's spying is carried out by its Crime and Security division based in Phoenix Park. Once a year a High Court judge visits the park and two other sites (on the same day!) to check whether the guys doing the phone tapping have been following the rules.
As TJ McIntyre, head of Digital Rights Ireland, pointed out earlier this year the level of detail in these reports is underwhelming. Following on from TJ's post we unearthed all the reports filed over the years and found them to be remarkably similar and lacking in detail. They don't even tell us how many intercepts were performed by each agency.
We should be aspiring to a model of regulation at least as detailed as the UK's as TJ wrote earlier this year.
Judge Iarfhlaith O'Neill has recently filed his report for 2009. It is open for him to give more detail to the public but Judge O'Neill is obviously not a man who wants to break with tradition. See if you can spot any differences between his '08 and '09 reports as submitted to the Oireachtas.
There was an interesting debate on this legislation in 1993 when Willie O'Dea, then a junior minister, revealed there were 40 intercepts in operation in the state. This number is likely to have increased substantially since 1993. O'Dea said at the time it would be up to the judges to decide whether they would include statistics in their reports. Unfortunately none have.
One of those calling on the government to establish a more transparent system in that 1993 debate was Mary Harney, a then opposition TD. Now that Harney is in power she was part of a cabinet that approved a similar system that assured us that "judicial oversight" of state surveillance would be a sufficient safeguard for the public. Once again, however, there were no assurances that any information on mistakes or errors would be made public.
Dermot Ahern passed the new covert surveillance bill in July. The operation of surveillance by security forces under this bill is monitored by Judge Kevin Feeney, of the High Court. It will be interesting to see if Feeney's annual report will be in anyway more detailed than the useless reports filed by O'Neill and his predecessors.
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Whatever your reasons are for doing it, booting your Mac from another disk is never an easy task. Thankfully, programs like QuickBoot are around to make life a bit easier for you.
Not only does the application allow you to boot from a different drive, but you also get some interesting options, such as the ability to restart your system from a partition or an external device.
One of the good things about this is that after resumption with QuickBoot, the system will reboot from the default drive next time you use it.
Although the program makes it easier to boot from another disk (such as Windows, for instance), you still need to take care with it as incorrect use can lead to problems with your Mac.
Boot from a partition or external drive
Restores default boot settings automatically
Can be dangerous for beginners
QuickBoot is a small application designed to make it quick and easy to boot another drive/partition like Windows and have the system boot back to your default system after.
QuickBoot comes with no guarantee. It just may cause problems with your computer, you use this at your own risk. This is also unfinished at this state, missing some checks that might prevent possible booting problems.
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Dear Saxena ji,
Thank you for inquiry.
West facing windows can be a big source of heat, first measure which you...
Why all these are not applicable to Tuticorin port or the one planned in AP or WB ?
What an eye opener! As an environmental engineer,disposal of sanitary napkins has always been a concern during waste...
the United Nations Environment Programme (unep) has come out with a detailed map of wind and solar energy resources in 13 developing nations to pinpoint the best locations for renewable energy projects. The move is part of the first results of the project "Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (swera)", released in April 2005 by unep executive director Klaus Toepfer (see map: Clean energy sites). Countries covered are: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Cuba, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka. swera is creating a global archive of solar and wind energy resources and maps, available on cd-rom or through it's website.
"As energy planners seek cleaner energy solutions using renewable energy technologies, the availability of reliable, accurate and accessible solar and wind energy information is critical and can significantly accelerate the deployment of these technologies," said Toepfer. unep coordinated the project that had 25 other institutions working on it.
"In developing countries all over the world we have removed some of the uncertainty about the size and intensity of the solar and wind resource. swera offers these countries the technical and policy assistance," he added. Geospatial Toolkit, another tool, allows combining wind and solar maps with electrical distribution grids and other information.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/9602
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|
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Middle Stone Age (MSA) in sub-Saharan Africa / Middle Paleolithic (MP) in northern Africa
After the Acheulian, new stone tool-making and using traditions appear in Africa. This technology, called the MSA or MP, seems to replace the earlier Acheulian industries.
Anatomically modern humans also seem to have evolved at the same time the MSA emerged. Did these people who looked "modern" behave like modern humans too?
e.g., How "modern" was the behavior of MSA people, and how can we tell?
Today we will explore some data to help you understand how the regional technological traditions of the MSA compared to the ESA.
While the Early Stone Age traditions had relatively few formal "types" of tools, and focused mostly on cores and flakes or large tools (like Acheulian handaxes), MSA industries were different:
The MSA new technology is characterized by:
Connect to TimeWeb through the Prehistoric Puzzles site
- Use TimeWeb to compare the sites classified as
- Culture Group: ESA sites
- Culture Group: MSA and MP sites
- Do the MSA/MP sites and Acheulian sites have different geographical distributions?
- Do the MSA/MP sites and Acheulian sites appear to overlap in time?
- Note that the MSA and MP are divided into different sub-categories or "industries".
- Where are these different industries found? (Do they overlap in space, or occur in different regions?)
- Do these different industries occur during similar or different time periods?
- Which hominids were found associated with MSA/MP industries?
Home Page | Syllabus | Readings | Lecture Notes | Quiz Site | Assignments
Human Origins in Africa | African Resources | Archaeology Links |
Sept teaching interests | IU Anthropology
Sept research | Sept Home Page
Last updated: 7 November, 2000
Copyright Jeanne Sept 2000 : do not cite without permission
IU Bloomington Home Page
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Autobahn Goes Electro Once Again
BERLIN and PASADENA, California, January 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
It's more than a touch ironic that it was a German band which created the electronic music classic 'Autobahn' in 1974.
Wind forward nearly 50 years and it will be a million German electric cars which will be 'fahren, fahren, fahren' auf der Autobahn' by the year 2020, according to the gathered opinions of industry experts in a study by Horvath & Partners and the European Business School.
"One million vehicles still seems achievable in Germany by the year 2020. This is going to lead to opportunities not only for the supply industry but also the automotive industry," said Marko Kolbe , Senior Manager Investor Consulting - Mechanical & Electronic Technologies at Germany Trade & Invest.
Bringing that target to reality will be one of the themes discussed at the Advanced Automotive Batteries Conference (AABC) in Pasadena from February 4-8, where Germany Trade & Invest will be present to keep visitors up to date with Germany's progress at the cutting edge of electromobility.
By the end of this year, BMW's i3 is set to become the first mass-produced 0% carbon emission electromobility vehicle. Full production will be in Leipzig, where BMW's high-tech plant is the first location in Germany capable of electro-vehicle mass production.
The cars will be powered by high-voltage batteries with electronic propulsion from BMW's Dingolfing plant in Bavaria, batteries which could be charged at any one of the 150,000 public charging outlets planned for Germany (more than any other EU country) by the 2020 deadline.
"The battery is one of the most integral parts of the vehicle," continued Kolbe.
"So it is crucial for investment and research to continue in order to get a more efficient and better value battery in the cars of the future."
Germany Trade & Invest is the foreign trade and inward investment promotion agency of the Federal Republic of Germany. The organization advises foreign companies looking to expand their business activities in the German market. It provides information on foreign trade to German companies that seek to enter foreign markets.
Germany Trade & Invest
T: +49(0)30 200099-173
F: +49(0)30 200099-511
SOURCE Germany Trade and Invest
More by this Source
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Learn about PR Newswire services
Request more information about PR Newswire products and services or call us at (888) 776-0942.
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Pennsylvania remained in Hurricane Sandy's crosshairs Sunday, with forecasters predicting a one-two punch of wind and rain to start hitting the Lehigh Valley late tonight.
Although a degree of uncertainty remains about the storm's precise path, there is little doubt that it will strike most of the mid-Atlantic region at the same time as a winter storm from the west and an arctic air mass from Canada move into the area.
"It's going to be one those storms you'll remember," said National Weather Service meteorologist Valerie Meola.
The combination of weather patterns could create a hybrid storm of historical proportions based on its estimated size and duration, meteorologists said. Tropical-storm force winds will extend from the Carolinas to southern New England and could swirl over the northeast until Wednesday.
» The latest on traffic, delays and road construction delivered to your mobile phone. Click to sign up to receive text alerts!
Sandy, which was briefly downgraded to a tropical storm Saturday morning before regaining hurricane strength, was churning north in the Atlantic Ocean off the South Carolina coast late Saturday. Its maximum winds were clocked at 75 mph, the minimum for hurricane status, although higher gusts were recorded.
"Little overall change in strength is forecast during the next couple of days," according to a National Weather Service report Saturday.
The storm was on track Saturday night to make landfall around Cape May Courthouse late Monday night or early Tuesday, according to the Weather Service. But strong winds and torrential rains will be felt long before Sandy's eye crosses the coast.
The Weather Service predicts 4-8 inches of rain and winds gusting more than 50 mph, with the worst of the weather expected to strike the Lehigh Valley on Monday and continue Tuesday.
Mike Mark of Whitehall Township was taking the storm seriously Saturday afternoon as he wheeled a cart full of bottled water and frozen pizza to his SUV at the Wegmans in Hanover Township, Northampton County.
"It's just to be safe," Mark said, patting the cases of water in the cart. "I'd rather have two cases of beer."
Mark also gassed up and checked his generator in case the storm knocks out power to his home. He said he bought one last year after Hurricane Irene thumped the region.
"I'm a ex-Boy Scout," Mark said, "I'm always prepared."
Inside Wegmans, Sandy's impact could be seen on the bare shelves in the water aisle — though bottled water was available in other parts of the store. Bread remained plentiful, though most varieties of peanut butter were scarce.
Sandy's still uncertain path will dictate what areas sustain the greatest impact. More rain will fall to the south and west of the storm's eye, while wind-driven storm surges — exacerbated by a full moon Monday — will be most severe north and east of the eye, Meola said.
One early prediction that the union of Arctic air and tropical moisture would bring copious amounts of snow to Pennsylvania is unlikely to pan out, she added.
Up to two feet of snow, however, is forecast for parts of West Virginia and western North Carolina, the weather service said.
Flooding may make driving difficult Monday morning when streams may start spilling their banks and water may pool on streets. Significant river flooding across Pennsylvania is likely to follow, forecasters said.
The flooding situation is not as dire as it was when Irene struck last September, Meola said. Irene was preceded by weeks of wet weather, but now the ground is dry and river levels are relatively low.
With the flooding and extended power outages after Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee and a freak Halloween snowstorm last fall fresh in their minds, many Lehigh Valley residents are spending the weekend preparing for the worst.
Chris Shala was raising cases of beer and new coolers as high above the floor as he could get them at Kicker's Pub on West Main Street in Bath Saturday, after Lee's rains destroyed his old coolers. Last year, the sump pumps in the historic tavern's basement were no match for the Monocacy Creek, which spilled its banks and settled three feet high in the pub.
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Letters: After Sandy, rebuilding smarter
I would like to voice my opinion about calls by Sen. Charles Schumer and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone to have the National Park Service close up the new inlet breach by Old Inlet, south of Bellport ["Sandy: Breach battle," News, Nov. 20].
As a friend of the Great South Bay and an advocate for a cleaner, healthier bay all my life, I believe this breach is exactly what the bay has needed for decades! This new inlet creates flushing and cleaning, bringing great potential for the rejuvenation of the shell fishing and other marine fisheries long gone in the Great South Bay.
The recreational and economic benefits of a healthy bay are well documented. My hope is that the political leaders listen to the Fire Island National Seashore and leave the breach alone.
Steven Sinacore, Sayville
The article "After Sandy: Road to recovery" [News, Nov. 26] detailed the reconstruction of Ocean Parkway. Wouldn't this be a great time to add a bike trail to this iconic roadway?
Every few years, a bike trail connecting Robert Moses State Park and Jones Beach is suggested, but is deemed too costly. Would it add a substantial amount to the project by adding the trail at this time?
I understand that time pressure is a hurdle; however, we should consider adding this trail to our existing bike trail system.
Mike Cain, Wantagh
How to protect New York's tunnels from a storm surge ["Tunnel reopens to normal traffic," News, Nov. 26]? Here's a brainstorm based on the observation that to keep water out of a bottle, a cork is better than a piece of foil, plastic film or any membrane stretched over the bottle's mouth.
If it doesn't already exist, someone needs to invent a sprayable plastic foam that solidifies quickly. Start spraying the stuff 100 or 200 feet in from the tunnel entrance. Fill the tube from floor to ceiling. Keep spraying and filling while backing out.
The result would be a giant plug that gets tighter as water presses on it.
Levees can be overtopped. Gates only hold until they don't. A big plug, on the other hand, might leak around the edges, but it can stay jammed in until the water recedes.
Gary Matson, Sunnyside
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|3807922||VIBRATION CASTING STATION WITH SWING-IN MOLD CLAMPING HOOKS||April, 1974||Holm||249/172|
|3589199||VACUUM SAMPLER WITH POROUS MOLD INSERT||June, 1971||Levin||249/DIG.4|
|3481076||WINDOW OPERATOR||December, 1969||Bedard||292/144|
|2767011||Refrigerator latch mechanism||October, 1956||Buckley||292/144R|
|2035901||Pressure cooker||March, 1936||Ludington||292/129|
a support means fixed at one end to one of said rims;
a flexible bellows mounted at the other end on said support means;
a movable plate member secured to the opposite end of the bellows;
air inlet means passing through said movable plate member to the interior of the bellows;
a hook-like member rigidly secured to the movable plate member; and
compression spring means extending between the hook-like member and the fixed support means; and
means on said hook-like member and said support means for limiting movement by the spring means of the movable plate member towards the fixed support member in the absence of pressure in the bellows to pivot said hook-like member relative to said mold to engage the other of said rims.
This invention relates to a locking device for a mold.
Molds are used for many purposes, such as the shaping of synthetic resins, where in order to create objects of expanded synthetic resins, a relatively small amount of the material is injected into the interior of the mold. The material subsequently expands and assumes the shape of the inner surface of the mold. It is therefore desirable that the mold should be hermetically sealed and, where synthetic resins are used, it is not possible to employ elastomer joints between the mold parts since such seals would be very quickly destroyed by the materials being handled. It is therefore the practice to close the mold by pressing together rims on the mold parts.
At present the locking of molds in their closed position is effected by means of mechanical devices uniformly spaced about the mold periphery and acting on the rims of the two parts of the mold, in order to ensure air-tight closure thereof. Usually the mechanical devices used are eccentrics of toggles.
The disadvantage of such devices is that they produce a force-characteristic curve with an asymptotic shape. Consequently the travel of a locking hook engaging the rims is very limited. Moreover they have a degree of play in the region of the joint plane which should be taken up. This makes it necessary to provide special play-take-up devices and requires frequent adjustment by the operator. Furthermore if the dimensions of the locking devices vary, a poor distribution of the forces between the mold parts is produced, thereby rendering production of an air-tight closure unreliable.
It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved locking device for the two halves of a separable mold, especially for the shaping of expanded synthetic resin bodies, whereby the aforementioned disadvantages are obviated and secure, reliable locking of the mold can be effected without the drawbacks of earlier systems.
This object and others which will become apparent hereinafter are attained in accordance with the present invention with a locking or catching device which comprises a support on one mold half or part, a bellows anchored to this support at one side of the bellows, a hook engageable with the rim of the other mold half or part and carried by the other side of the bellows and means for swinging the hook laterally into and out of engagement with the rim of the other mold half when the bellows is activated by fluid pressure or depressurized respectively.
Advantageously the latter means includes a compression spring braced between the hook and the support and disposed to swing the hook away from the rim when the bellows is depressurized, the spring being compressed when the bellows is pressurized.
Stop means is provided for limiting the relative displacement of the hook and the support in the depressurized state of the bellows.
The hook can have a lip which engages the rim with a camming action to draw the hook in toward the rim further during the locking of the mold by the drawing of the hook against the rim upon pressurization of the bellows.
According to the present invention, therefore, a locking device for a mold comprises a fixed support member, a flexible bellows mounted on the support member, a movable plate member secured to the opposite end of the bellows, air inlet means passing through the movable plate to the interior of the bellows, a hook-like member rigidly secured to the movable plate and compression spring means extending between the hook-like member and the fixed support member, and there being means to limit movement by the spring of the movable plate towards the fixed support member in the absence of pressure air in the bellows, the latter means causing pivotal movement of the hook-like member.
Thus with the fixed support member located in close proximity to a mould such that the hook-like member lies substantially perpendicular to the joint plane between mold halves, such as by being located on a support post mounted on the rim of the first mold part, the absence of pressure air in the bellows allows the spring means to expand and draw the movable plate towards the fixed plate.
When the movable plate reaches the limit of its available movement, the spring force causes the movable plate and hence the hook-like member to pivot and swing the hook-like member away from the rims of the mold parts.
When pressure air is applied to the bellows to move the movable plate away from the fixed support member, this movement causes the movable plate and hence the hook-like member to pivot in the opposite direction to cause the hook-like member to engage below the rim of, and when there is an upward thrust through the hook and a downward thrust through the support post to lock the two rims together in airtight manner.
It should be noted that this pressure is the same whatever may be the variations of the dimensions of the mold, which eliminates any need for additional operations to take up play. On account of its simplicity the device of the invention is economical, and because it does not possess any wearing parts, it is extremely robust and reliable.
In a preferred embodiment, the movable plate and the fixed support member are situated on the same side of the hook as its rim-engaging lip or finger.
The menas to limit the movement of the movable plate towards the fixed support member is at the opposite side of the hook from the finger or lip, and is preferably formed by an aperture formed on the fixed support, perpendicular to the joint plane of the two mold parts, and by a rod or pin on the hook-like member. Thus, as the rod meets the bottom of the aperture, the continued thrust of the spring means causes the movable plate and thus the hook-like member to pivot, and when pressure air is applied to the bellows upward movement of the movable plate is resisted by compression of the spring to pivot the movable plate and hence the hook-like member in the opposite direction.
An embodiment of the invention is described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying schematic drawing in which:
FIGS. 1 to 3 are, respectively sectional side elevations of a device in accordance with the invention in the unlocked position, the position during locking and the locked-up position, and
FIG. 4 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow F of FIG. 2.
The locking means shown in the drawing is associated with a mold comprising a mold part 2 and a part 3 which, in the closed position of the mold, are in contact along their rims 4 which determine a joint plane 5.
The locking device is formed by a hook 6 whose curved free end finger or lip 7 can engage below the rim 4 of the mold part 3. At its other end, the hook 6 has two parallel arms or straps (FIG. 4) 8 which are rigidly secured to one side of a movable plate 9.
The movable plate 9 is connected to a fixed support 10 by the interposition of a flexible bellows 12 and the plate 9 is traversed by an inlet 11 pipe for the introduction of compressed air to the bellows. The fixed support 10 is connected to a post 13 which in turn is secured to the rim of the mold part 2. The fixed support 10 has an extension 14 extending towards the movable plate 9 in which an aperture 15 is formed perpendicular to the joint plane 5 of the two parts of the mold. The two arms 8 forming one end of the hook 6 are cross-braced by a rod 16 capable of sliding within and being stagged by the bottom of the aperture 15.
The device additionally comprises a helical compression spring 17 one end of which acts on the fixed support 10 and the other end of which acts on a bar 18 cross-bracing the two arms 8 of the hook. It is to be noted that the spring 18 is located on the same side of the hook 6 as the finger 7 of the latter.
As is shown by FIG. 1, in the absence of air pressure in the bellows, expansion of the spring 17 has drawn the movable plate 9 towards the fixed plate 10 until the rod 16 has contacted the bottom of the aperture 15, the spring force then having caused the movable plate 9 and the hook 6 to pivot to draw the finger 7 away from the rims 4.
As pressure air is introduced (FIG. 2), the movable plate 9 is urged away from the fixed plate 10 and the thrust of the spring acting on one side of the movable plate through the hook 6 causes that plate and thus the hook to pivot inwardly, until the movable plate 9 is parallel to the fixed support 10, and when the hooked end 7 of the hook 6 lies below the rims 4 of the mold parts. Continued application of pressure air causes a greater upward force on the movable plate 9 and greater compression of the spring 17, the result of which is shown in FIG. 3. The finger and rim have inclined surfaces which cam the hook to the left.
Thus the spring 17 limits the separation between the movable plate and the support 10, and the movable plate 9 tends to pivot relatively to the support 10, the spacing between these two components being less at the hook 6 side than at the other side. This effect tends to make the free end of the hook pivot towards the mold, in the direction of arrow 20 so that this end grips firmly below the rim 4 of the mold, and when the downward thrust through the pillar and the upward thrust through the hook 6 locks the rims together in air-tight manner.
It follows from the above that an appliance of this kind may be very easily automated, for its suffices to control the internal pressure of the flexible bellows 12 to cause the mold to lock-up or to unlock.
The helical compression spring may be replaced by other elastic devices, or the means providing a stop between the movable part 9 and the support 10 may be different without departing in any way from the scope of the invention.
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College Work Study
Information Literacy Assistant
Working under the general supervision of the Information Literacy Coordinator, the Information Literacy Assistant performs assigned tasks in support of the Library's Information Literacy Program. The IL assistant will help with the outreach and scheduling of Library instruction classes and will assist in the classroom as well as in preparing instructional support materials. Additional duties may include providing assistance to students (peer mentoring) at the Reference Desk.
The Information Literacy Assistant performs the following functions: schedules by e-mail and telephone instructional sessions for a variety of general education classes, including Introduction to Higher Education classes, ENGL 102 and others; follows up on Library classroom scheduling with Library instructors and department secretaries, faculty and others; assist in the preparation of handout packets and other instructional support materials; assist in the analysis of assessment tools and surveys; schedules Library classroom assistants ("rovers") and assists in the classroom as needed. Performs related duties as required within the job level of responsibilities, including assisting Library faculty at the Reference Desk.
Return to Student
Assistant Job Opportunities List
|
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The Orbiting Carbon Observatory is the latest mission in NASA's ongoing study of the global carbon cycle. It is the first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide, the most significant human-produced greenhouse gas and the principal human-produced driver of climate change.
This experimental NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Program mission will measure atmospheric carbon dioxide from space, mapping the globe once every 16 days for at least two years. It will do so with the accuracy, resolution and coverage needed to provide the first complete picture of the regional-scale geographic distribution and seasonal variations of both human and natural sources of carbon dioxide emissions
and their sinks-the reservoirs that pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it.
Mission data will be used by the atmospheric and carbon cycle science communities to improve global carbon cycle models, reduce uncertainties in forecasts of how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, and make more accurate predictions
of global climate change.
The mission provides a key new measurement that can be combined with other ground and aircraft measurements and satellite data to answer important questions about the processes that regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide and its role in the carbon cycle and climate. This information could help policymakers and business leaders make better decisions to ensure climate stability and retain our quality of life. The mission will also serve as a pathfinder for future long-term satellite missions to monitor carbon dioxide.
Scientists want to better understand the processes responsible for regulating the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,
because the increasing concentrations of this efficient greenhouse gas are warming our planet and changing its climate.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is determined by the balance between its sources, which emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and sinks, which remove this gas from the atmosphere. While natural sources roughly balance out natural sinks, human activities have thrown the natural carbon cycle out of balance.
In the 10,000 years before the Industrial Revolution in 1751, carbon dioxide levels rose less than one percent. Since then, they've risen 37 percent. Between 1751 and 2003, human activities added about 466 billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. The burning of fossil fuels, and cement manufacturing, account for about two-thirds of these emissions, while land use changes (primarily forest clearing) make up the rest. Humans are currently adding almost 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year, and this rate of emission is increasing dramatically. In fact, carbon dioxide levels have risen by 30 parts per million in just the last 17 years, and are now increasing at about two parts per million by volume per year. The current globally averaged concentration is about 384 parts per million.
Of all the carbon emitted by human activities between 1751 and 2003, only about 40 percent has remained in the atmosphere. The remaining 60 percent has been apparently absorbed (at least temporarily) by the ocean and continents. Recent inventories of the ocean can account for about half of this missing carbon. The remainder must have been absorbed somewhere on land, but scientists don't know where most of the land sinks are located or what controls their efficiency over time.
An improved understanding of carbon sinks is essential to predicting future carbon dioxide increases and making accurate
predictions of carbon dioxide's impact on Earth's climate. If these natural carbon dioxide sinks become less efficient as the climate changes, the rate of buildup of carbon dioxide would increase-in fact, today's carbon dioxide levels would be about 100 parts per million higher were it not for them.
Scientists monitor carbon dioxide concentrations using a ground-based network consisting of about 100 sites all over the world. But the current network does not have the spatial coverage, resolution or sampling rates necessary to identify the natural sinks responsible for absorbing carbon dioxide, or the processes that control how the efficiency of those sinks changes from year to year.
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will dramatically improve measurements of carbon dioxide over space and time, uniformly
sampling Earth's land and ocean and collecting about 8,000,000 measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide
concentration over Earth's entire sunlit hemisphere every
Scientific models have shown that we can reduce uncertainties in our understanding of the balance of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere by up to 80 percent through the use of precise, space-based measurements. Data from the existing ground-based monitoring network can be augmented with high-resolution, global, space-based measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration accurate to 0.3 to 0.5 percent (about one to two parts per million out of the background level of about 385 parts per million) on regional to continental
scales. This level of precision is necessary because atmospheric
carbon dioxide concentrations rarely vary by more than two percent from one pole of Earth to the other. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will have this level of precision.
Scientists hope to use Orbiting Carbon Observatory data to address a number of questions about carbon dioxide and the carbon cycle. Among them:
What natural processes absorb carbon dioxide from human emissions?
Will those processes continue to limit increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide in the future, as they do now? Or will they stop or even reverse and accelerate the atmospheric increases?
Is the missing carbon dioxide being absorbed primarily by land or the ocean and in what proportions? Which continents absorb more than others?
Why does the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide vary from one year to the next while emission rates increase uniformly?
How will carbon dioxide sinks respond to changes in Earth's climate or changes in land use?
What are the processes controlling the rate at which carbon dioxide is building up in Earth's atmosphere?
Where are the sources of carbon dioxide?
What is the geographic distribution and quantity of carbon dioxide emitted through both fossil fuel combustion
and less well understood sources, such as ocean outgassing, deforestation, fires and biomass burning? How does this distribution change over time?
Following launch from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard an Orbital Sciences Corporation Taurus XL rocket, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory will be placed in a near-polar Earth orbit at an altitude of 438 miles (705 kilometers), orbiting once every 98.8 minutes and repeating its orbit track every 16 days. It will fly in a loose formation with the other Earth-observing satellites of NASA's Afternoon Constellation, or "A-Train": Aura, Glory, Parasol, Calipso, CloudSat and Aqua. Flying in the A-Train will complement the mission's science return and facilitate observatory calibration
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Orbital Sciences Corporation,
Dulles, Va., built the spacecraft and launch vehicle and provides mission operations under JPL's leadership. Hamilton Sundstrand, Pomona, Calif., designed and built the observatory's
science instrument. NASA's Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for launch management.
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An independent children's book site with news, reviews, features and interviews.
A database of good reads for children. You can browse by award or you can search specifying reading age, period, genre, gender and ethnicity.
A website where authors and readers can connect
Book review site covering a wide range of titles, old and new. Includes a collection author interviews, plus a number of book lists. Fiction, non-fiction and children's books are all covered.
Online version of the children's book magazine - big archive of independent minded and intelligent reviews dating from 1980 to present day
This site is part of Booktrust and includes recommendations and reviews, guides to children's books and advice for parents.
A collection of links to modern children's authors and illustrators.
A database of children's book sequels. The site will help you discover the right order of a series of books from A Series of Unfortunate Events to Young Bond. Browse or search by series or author. Links to author websites are also included.
Children's version of this popular site. Includes news, reviews, features and free book extracts if you register.
The guide to Children's and Teen Literature on the Web. Includes a very comprehensive guide to children's book awards on the web and contains links to many author websites.
Encourage children to build their own library with this collection of downloadable book plates. Illustrators include Quentin Blake, Zita Newcombe and Nick Sharratt
Children's book review website. Browse by title or author for reviews. Includes book lists on specific themes and an interactive bookchooser.
Everything you need to know about children's books and authors, including new books, extracts, reviews, interviews, and competitions.
A children's book site for parents, teachers and writers. Includes sections on choosing children's books and reluctant readers.
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Although there are clear advantages, such as the work opportunities available to fully bilingual people, some disadvantages exist when it comes to bilingual education. The relative merits of a bilingual educational system have been debated by parents, governments and educators for decades now. In order to give the matter its due consideration, a careful examination of the downsides needs to be conducted.
Resistance to Change
Bilingual education that caters to immigrant students creates a problem for those students. Instead of learning the dominant language of the new country, the students are more likely to continue to rely mostly on their native language. Relying too much on an old language and not learning the primary language of a new country is a way that people resist assimilation. Single language instruction of a new student is more likely to produce someone who will have an easy time integrating into society.
Educators, lawmakers and others have challenged for decades whether or not bilingual education is actually effective. The argument has been made that bilingual programs make education as a whole more difficult for the students enrolled in the programs. If that is true, enrolling students in those programs is actually putting up stumbling blocks in the way of an education and future career rather than the opposite.
One of the problem presented by bilingual education is the quality of the teachers in the schools. It can be difficult to find enough teachers who are properly qualified and skilled in both languages to teach in these settings. For instance, some schools have hired teachers from abroad with solid Spanish skills to come into bilingual schools, but the result has been teachers without English skills at an adequate level.
More Work for Parents
When a child receives a completely bilingual education, that education requires increased parental involvement. Care needs to be taken to ensure that the child receives the maximum benefit from instruction in both languages, especially if parents only speak one of those languages. Children with parents who are more involved in their education generally have higher success rates, but bilingual education requires even more input than usual from parents.
- University of Michigan: Bilingual Education
- Hoover Institution; Bilingual Education: A Critique; Peter J. Duignan; September, 1998
- Intercultural Development Research Association; Current Problems in Bilingual Education: Part II; Jose A. Cardenas, Ed.D.; 1993
- BBC: The Advantages and Disadvantages of Bilingualism
- Photo Credit Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
Advantages & Disadvantages of Bilingualism
Many American cities have welcomed immigrants throughout this nation's rich history, giving rise to generations of bilingual individuals. Other Americans, raised only...
The Disadvantages of Growing Up Bilingual
Being bilingual has many advantages. It can make learning other languages easier, open the door to many different career opportunities and make...
Bilingual Teachers Issues in Texas
Bilingual Teachers Issues in Texas. Bilingual teachers are in short supply in Texas, so much so that some schools districts are paying...
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WVC 20 - 3 A- 1
§20-3A-1. Legislative purpose.
The Legislature finds that the sport of skiing is practiced
by a large number of citizens of West Virginia and also attracts
to West Virginia a large number of nonresidents, significantly
contributing to the economy of West Virginia. Since it is
recognized that there are inherent risks in the sport of skiing
which should be understood by each skier and which are
essentially impossible to eliminate by the ski area operator, it
is the purpose of this article to define those areas of
responsibility and affirmative acts for which ski area operators
shall be liable for loss, damage or injury and those risks which
the skier expressly assumes for which there can be no recovery.
Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2012 1st Special Session
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The following is a short personal reflection written for a course on inter-faith dialogue with Prof. Jacob Sherman.
“Any interreligious and interhuman dialogue, any exchange among cultures,” writes Panikkar, “has to be preceded by an intrareligious and intrahuman dialogue, an internal conversation within the person” (p. 310, 1979). My personal interest in religion, broadly construed to include both its theological and practical dimensions, arises out of polarized desires: one the one hand, I long to participate in an enduring community’s celebration and worship of divine reality; on the other hand, I remain unsatisfied by beliefs and practices that do not spring from the unique voice of divinity within me. I call these desires polar not because they are necessarily mutually exclusive, but because a certain tension arises in me whenever I attempt to sync up outward observance with inward contemplation. My desire for integration into a religious community seems to contradict my desire for an inward intimacy with the divine. Whether this tension is a mere appearance, or the result of an ontological rift between self and other, is an issue I hope to explore in the course of the short meditation that follows.
Though I cannot fully identify with any religious culture in particular, the sacred texts and esoteric treatises emerging from several traditions continue to offer me guidance on my individual path. I sometimes use the cliché “spiritual but not religious” to describe myself, but this never feels quite right, since religion in general does not strike me as an essentially dogmatic and so inauthentic response to Spirit. In fact, what calls me to the religious life is precisely the unwavering commitment that it entails. Spirituality absent a religious commitment may leave more room for autonomy and freedom, but what if a genuine relation to Spirit requires submitting to the will of something other than myself?
Of course, there is no religion “in general.” There is a vast array of cultural responses to what for now can be called “Spirit.” But even to say the diversity of religions represent responses to the same “Spirit,” or unified underlying reality, underestimates the extent to which each tradition draws from its own sources in pursuit of its own ends. How am I to decipher which tradition represents an authority worth submitting to if so many different options for belief exist amongst which to choose from? This uncertainty leads me back to my own individual autonomy, but there I find only the dizzying freedom of an “I” unmoored from any established norms or worldviews. Independent of the spiritual desires of other people, I am no longer sure what it is that I myself am after, or even what it might mean to be a self in the first place. No matter which way I turn, toward authority or autonomy, I end up confused. Is there a middle path?
Because I need to call it something, I’ll continue to refer to “Spirit” as the underlying reality drawing me to religious dialogue. Whether it is at work in the space between myself and others, or that between me in relation to myself, Spirit dynamically binds together that which may appear separate. Or at least this presupposition is the ground out of which my faith in a divine reality grows and is nourished. Though I do not know if Christianity is truer than Buddhism, or Mohamed more holy than Moses, I have faith that all human beings ultimately belong to the same universe. This faith implies that failures to communicate across cultures or between religious traditions must not be due to metaphysical discord in the cosmos itself, but rather an epistemic misunderstanding or confusion of practical contexts. In other words, it is not what each tradition is trying to know and to become that differs, but how they come to know and become it. Instead of assuming that each religion has its own unique ends, perhaps it is more fruitful to interpret diversity as the inevitable result of finite creatures attempting to know and love an infinitely creative Spirit.
The tension I experience between the desire to seek refuge in a religious tradition and the desire to intuit the divine mystery afresh within myself is unavoidable if Spirit is the relation between beings, rather than a being among beings. Religious traditions may undoubtedly help to support and sustain this relation, but they can just as easy strangle it. Spirit is grander than can be contained by the categories of any public religion or private spirituality. Its source is deeper than either. What if the very possibility of communication between beings (including that between myself and my own being) rests upon the reality of Spirit? Panikkar writes of “intrahuman” dialogue alongside “intrareligious” dialogue, which is a reflection of his cosmotheandric intuition of the interpenetration of the human, the universe, and the divine. If such interpenetration is taken to be metaphysically basic, then reality itself exists in a state of super-position between the personal, interpersonal, and transpersonal. The diversity of perspectives making interreligious dialogue necessary is then a reflection of the creative instability of Spirit at an ontological level, where as Panikkar says “everything is ultimate mediation, or rather communion” (p. 240, 1996). Each perspective on divinity exists only by virtue of its relation to the others, and it is in this tension of relation that Spirit brings forth the world anew in each moment (paying due respect to the accumulated wisdom of Its past incarnations in the process, of course).
But how is it that I am capable of taking such a perspective on the religious practices of others? Upon what sacred ground do I stand in order to make such metaphysical pronouncements? Is there some post-religious point of view capable of reconciling the teachings of all the traditions of the world? I can only have faith in this possibility, because there is, admittedly, no such point of view available to contemporary humanity (at least not one that all the religions might participate in affirming). The whole effort of interreligious dialogue must, in the end, be guided by a similar faith. The hope is that reality is ultimately communicable: both that Being itself opens intelligibly to beings, and that beings open intelligibly to other beings; and that, though the truth of reality has not yet been and may never be completely conveyed (at least between beings, if not between Being and being), human beings may nevertheless continue to asymptotically approach the universal translatability of their diverse points of view through sincere cross-cultural and interpersonal engagement.
The translatability of one culture’s relation to Spirit into another’s is never without remainder or distortion, just as a spoken sentence is never identical to the vague feeling which precedes its articulation. But in the act of attempting to communicate, and especially after having done so, the original feeling is itself transformed. It moves into an interpretive field of far greater context and dexterity, gathering greater self-understanding along the way. Translations are expressive trials where initially offensive (even if unintentional) renderings of the other meet resistance until, eventually, conversation becomes constructive and mutually revelatory. The participants in the dialogue begin to learn something, not only about each other, but also about themselves. It is not that the interior space of a foreign tradition becomes fully transparent, but that each comes to inhabit a newly enacted common interiority, a “third culture” or novel way of being human in relation to each other and to Spirit. No doubt these interior spaces will be tenuous at first, since they lack the sedimented historical matrix of symbolism and ritual that protects each of the world’s great wisdom traditions from dissolution in the sands of time. But perhaps what is needed for inter- and intrahuman dialogue is more a way of being than an ideological space to inhabit or position oneself within. This way of being would acknowledge the ontological role of mediation: that all beings are always already interbeings. It is only Being itself, or Spirit, that provides for their diversity and individuality. Spirit is infinite, and finitude its way of entering into dialogue with itself. Strictly among themselves, beings are radically open to mutual influence and transformation. But it is only through their relation to divinity that they gather themselves into a unity, be it a unity of self or community.
This is the faith that guides my daily routines and daring adventures among others. It is an open-ended faith, a path, and not a place of refuge. I believe this openness is not vague and ambiguous, but a clear reflection of the transitional nature of our times. We do not know what religious forms will emerge in the coming decades to lead our increasingly interconnected planet forward, but like Diana Eck, I am convinced that “Laying the foundations for one world is the most important task of our time” (p. 30, 1985).
1. Eck, Diana. 1985. Minutes, Sixth Meeting of the Working Group of Dialogue with People of Living Faiths. Geneva: World Council of Churches.
2. Panikkar, Raimon.
—1979. Myth, Faith, and Hermeneutics: Cross-Cultural Studies. New York: Paulist Press.
—1996. “A Self-Critical Dialogue”. In The Intercultural Challenge of Raimon Panikkar, ed. Joseph Prabhu. New York: Orbis Books.
I do not want to rule out the possibility of revelation, which some traditions claim to be the bearers of.
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Shawnee Heritage II
Ships in 3-5 business days
This is the second volume in the series of Shawnee Heritage books by Don Greene. In this volume, Don traces the lineages of some prominent Shawnee, including Cornstalk, Tecumseh and many others. His research reveals relationships by intermarriage and adoption of the Shawnee with a number of other Native American nations, such as the Powhatan, Cherokee and Creek. This work pulls together the entries from Shawnee Heritage I, updates them, and puts them in a coherent genealogical framework. This is a valuable book for those with Native American roots, an interest in all things Shawnee or as an aid in scholarly research. Several appendices provide a linguistic, cultural and historical context and present Don's view of the rich Heritage of the Shawnee.
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Anyone who checks Google Now compulsively on a Jelly Bean-equipped Android phone might have noticed a surprise appear while they were checking for directions home from that big Halloween bash. An unannounced pedometer card has surfaced that shows just how many miles we (or our phones) have been biking or walking in a given month, with the intent clearly to spur couch dwellers into action. The discovery at Droid-Life reveals that Google has been using the GPS information it already had to catalog our athletic progress since at least September — a bit creepy, but not shocking when the positioning is already needed for directions. As for the mileage figure you see above? It’s not this writer’s only phone, so that distance is much lower than it should be. Really. Honest.
Google Now slips in a pedometer, reminds us we need to get out more originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Le Moyne College’s O'Connell Professor in the Humanities, Dr. Mary MacDonald of the Religious Studies Department, participated in the Parliament of the World's Religions held late last year in Melbourne, Australia. MacDonald presented a paper titled "Orientations to the Land in Australia," considering the perspectives of Indigenous Australians and Settler Australians and asking whether the two groups can make common cause for the benefit of all who now call Australia home.
MacDonald journeyed to Australia to take part in a panel titled: "The Doctrine of Discovery and Indigenous Peoples." The panel explored the justifications given by colonial powers for forcibly acquiring the land of indigenous peoples and the collusion of the church in such acquisitions. The other participants were Dr. Philip Arnold (Religion, Syracuse University), Tonya Gonella-Frichner (Onondaga Nation, lawyer working with the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues), Faithkeeper Oren Lyons (Onondaga Nation), and Steve Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape, Indigenous Law Institute, columnist for Indian Country Today). In his presentation Lyons noted that we need to work as allies in educating our people about the history of the Doctrine of Discovery and its legacies.
The first World's Parliament of Religions was held in 1893 in Chicago as a global dialogue of religions. One hundred years later, a second parliament was held in Chicago to celebrate the centenary and this led to a new series of parliaments which now convene every five years. The idea of the parliaments is that people of various faiths come together to listen to each other and commit themselves to working together for the sake of the Earth and its inhabitants. The latest parliament, ushered in to the sounds of the didgeridoo mingled with the music of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, focused on indigenous peoples and environmental issues. In the opening ceremony Professor Joy Murphy Wandin, the senior elder of the Wurrunjeri people of the Kulin nations welcomed the participants to “country.” Her welcome was followed by musical performances, blessings by the various religious groups participating in the parliament, and remarks by public officials. After a week filled with religious services, lectures, panels, and workshops, the parliament concluded with another ceremony, at which the Dalai Lama spoke. He highlighted the responsibility of those present and their communities for ensuring peace and justice in our common future.
For more information about the parliament, visit www.parliamentofreligions.org/
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by Joe Shea
July 3, 2012
IF THIS WAS 2015, YOU'D STILL HAVE POWER
BARDENTON, Fla., July 3, 2012 -- Hundreds of thousands of Washington, Baltimore area and Virginia residents have endured stifling, 95+-degree heat without electricity for refrigerators, air conditioners and televisions as a July heat wave sweeps over the north Atlantic Seaboard - and they represent the last of at least four million people who were without power for days during the past week.
For many, it was the second time this year multi-day power outages struck their communities (as they did during last winter's blizzard), and the third time since 2010. Yet it doesn't have to be that way, and with a little luck and a small investment, it won't happen to well-prepared homeowners again after 2015.
That's when the first electricity-generating "hydrino" reactors from BlackLight Power Co. of Cranbury, N.J., ought to go on sale - or become ready to rent - for homeowners across the country.
Although some scientists say the reactors are ready now, there remain many months of refinement and certification before the deployment of the inexpensive new 5 kW-to-10 kW devices that will power homes or entire neighborhoods from a single small, suitcase-sized box of wires and specialized parts for a fraction of the cost of conventional electric generators.
Hydrino reactors, which have been little talked-about in the mainstream press, are the invention of scientist Randell Mills, a tall, rangy Pennsylvanian in his late '50s who first got a degree in medicine from Harvard and went back to school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to get post-graduate degrees in medical engineering.
Like millions of Americans, Mills was enthralled by news of the 1989 Pons-Fleischmann experiments with "cold fusion," and has been working tirelessly since then to both explain the physics and, based on that, build a low-cost, non-radiating, non-polluting and easily rechargeable source of power for individual homes, offices and factories that will take them all off the national power grid forever. More than 200 laboratories around the world have since replicated the "excess heat" findings of the University of Utah scientists, according to an exhaustive study of the topic by the hard-nosed newsmen of the CBS investigative series, "60 Minutes."
While Mills has suffered unwarranted criticism from some of America's most powerful physicists, including former American Physical Society spokesman Robert Parks and President Obama's current Secretary of Energy, Dr. Stephen Chu. He has gotten little help from Rep. Rush Dew Holt, the physicist-turned Congressman who represents his community, and what some say is an irritable personal manner has turned off hundreds of his fellow physicists and would-be fans.
Yet at least six American utilities, including a major electric-power broker in Washington and a multinational corporation in Italy , have ordered reactors from BlackLight, and venture capitalists including a former USAF chief of staff and a former Westinghouse CEO have invested more than $70 million in his ideas.
When hydrino reactors are sold or rented, if their homes don't get flooded or burn down homeowners are likely to never suffer a power outage, and can expect to pay as little as a tenth of their current electric and heating bills for a leased unit. When a catalyst used in the devices needs replacement every four or five years, it should cost no more than $25.
The science behind the hydrino reactors is dauntingly complex and has been explained in at least 88 peer-reviewed articles in physics and chemistry journals, many written by Mills and a team of mostly Asian and Chinese scientists whose names appear on the articles with his.
Within miles of the Princeton University offices where Albert Einstein once toiled, and close to the former labs of Thomas Edison, Mills has created his own theory of quantum and classical physics, self-publishing the densely-constructed equations on his Web site. Much of the theory has been validated by scientists from big-name universities like Cal Tech and MIT and even Fortune 500 companies. They say Mills' theory and science works, and so do his reactors.
Getting them to private homes, however, requires passing a number of hurdles, including certification by the independent Underwriters Laboratory and probably a host of other federal and state bureaucracies. Mills will have to persuade executives at Home Depot and Lowes and Sears, among many others, that the reactors are safe and easy to install. Finally, parents and other homeowners will need to believe that having a hydrino reactor in their home presents no danger to their children or themselves.
Once all these tasks are accomplished, though, the winds can blow their hardest and the rain and snow can fall until doomsday, and all the power lines in the world can go down: they will have safe, reliable power through it all.
Joe Shea, editor and founder of The American Reporter, has written extensively on new advances in power technology for this publication.
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I read an interesting report today published by the debt charity Consumer Credit Counselling Services (CCCS) that showed that self-employed workers are far less able to repay their debts than those who do not work for themselves.
Overall, of the 10,000 self-employed people who approached CCCS for debt help last year, only 17 per cent were able to be recommended a debt management plan, as opposed to 27 per cent for CCCS clients overall.
The charity commented on the figures, saying that part of the problem is that as increasing numbers of people are let go by their employers, more and more people are choosing to set up their own business as opposed to finding a new job elsewhere. And as a result, more people are unable to repay existing debts, nor even cover their day-to-day living expenses due to their loss in earnings when working for themselves.
What’s the problem?
Being self-employed means your income can vary greatly from month to month, and this can put a great deal of stress on your finances, particularly for regular expenses, such as your rent/mortgage, food and travel costs that have to be paid out on a monthly basis.
What’s the solution?
Here are a few tips on the financial side of being self-employed:
- Before deciding to go into self-employment the most important thing is to have a significant amount of money put aside to help manage your cash flow. This money should be separate from your regular emergency fund or other savings, and will act as a cushion, helping you regulate money coming in and going out. A safe bet is to have six month’s worth of expenses in the account, so you can pay out your bills on time, without being stressed about when you will be getting paid by your clients. This means you won’t have to be reaching for the credit card to cover short-falls if money going out becomes greater than money coming in every now and then (which may happen from time to time, for example during the summer when your clients will be on holidays and no invoices will be getting processed).
- You should also think carefully before going into business for yourself and workout how much you will realistically be able to earn. When setting your rates, remember that as a self-employed worker it’s possible that you will not work full time all the time, especially in the beginning. This means you can’t charge the hourly rate you may have been earning previously as a full-time employee – you have to charge more in order to make up for the times when you’re not working. If the rate you will have to charge becomes too high, you may not get any work, so do your research before setting up your new business – talk to people in the industry and ask for advice.
- Seek independent financial advice before you start out to get a grip on the financial realities of running your own business. The tax process is different, and you will have to put money aside throughout the year to meet your tax bill at the end of the year – putting 20 per cent of everything you earn into a dedicated savings account is a good idea.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for advice if things take a turn for the worse and you need help. Burying your head in the sand won’t make your money issues disappear – a good first step if you are dealing with debt worries is to speak to a debt charity such as CCCS.
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The March 18, 1911 Penny Illustrated Paper (London, England) ran a piece by J.C. Bristow-Noble titled, "Woman of the Future," in which he makes predictions about the woman of 2011.
Bristow-Noble writes that contrary to what Bernard Shaw says, women will not abandon the skirt or the petticoat because, "I tell you in confidence as many husbands have been snared by a lace frill as by a pretty face." In other words, ugly women need to be fashionable (read: slutty?) if they want any shot at snagging a husband.
The author also writes that women, though they will get the "accursed vote," will not be any smarter a hundred years hence:
Again, rise, please, from your tomb a hundred years hence, and perhaps you will be astounded to find woman not a jot cleverer than her great-grandmother was. Indeed, she will not have the amount of brains that the present-day woman can boast.
The author then goes on to talk about the innate desire for every woman to marry and look after the kids. He does, however, say "most of them" and "many women" which to me seems downright progressive for the time.
The little typist sitting on her stool vows that she has no desire to marry -- indeed, that she loathes men, and is as happy as the day is long. Gentle reader, show some of them a picture of a little villa with a bit of ivy crawling up the wall out Brixton way, containing a cradle to rock, a potato to peel, and a little "general" to howl at. They will fall at your feet and offer up their prayers to you if you will give them that little kingdom; and thus it will be with many women through all time. A woman is a woman, and, try how she may, she cannot escape from herself.
Bristow-Noble concludes by stating that, "A hundred years hence, the fashionable age at which to marry will be between forty and fifty," though it seems unclear given the context if he's talking about men or women.
Previously on Paleo-Future:
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On the Road 2010: Day Thirteen
Each summer the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.
Laurel Gray ('09)
"The world was created in seven days.
We won our freedom in seven days.
They shot me on December seventeenth.
I am not sad.
I am happy."
With these words uttered by one man in a small chapel, we begin our journey through a museum of the Romanian Revolution. It begins in the courtyard, where a photograph displays the crowd of 150,000 people that stood in the square now dubbed "Victory Square" in December of 1989. The courtyard is open to multiple stories of balconies, where flowers and cactus ("special flowers for the special people who visit us)" grace the rusting iron pots hanging off the thin rail.
We wander up the stairs to the second story and enter a room with sheafs of newspaper clippings, papers, and magazines organized meticulously onto different shelves. The papers are organized by date and subject, the shelves upon which they rest are categorized by country. This holds all of the texts, materials, and reports of the Romanian Revolution during, before and after the seven days of December in 1989 when the Romanian people overthrew Nicolae Ceausescu.
We are next led into a room where we watch documentaries of the revolution, and then a history on the life of Ceausescu. Like many leaders wreathed in overwhelming power and prestige, Ceausescu was adamant that the people of Romania worship him with a fervor closely resembling the people of China's praise for Mao, or the way in which the people of North Korea today venerate Kim Jong Il. Ceausescu egotism spread so far as to try to alter his own history. Staff was hired to create a new childhood history for Nicolae, one full of heroism and love for Romania and the Romanian people. All of the facts were fabricated, and yet the people still had to learn this history by heart in school, learning to repeat lies. Ceausescu's hobbies (mainly hunting) were celebrated in propaganda videos, and his perpetually youthful face covered huge banners across every city. He and his wife had so many palaces across the country that they were not able to live or even visit each ostentatious building.
Yet still, the United States government was supporting this leader, because Ceausescu portrayed himself as an anti-Soviet communist, a platform which he was rooted to long after the communist era of the Soviet Union ended and the relations of the Soviet Union with the rest of the world were once again relaxed. It is at this time in the presentation of the Romanian Revolution that I become annoyed and angry. I am frustrated, for while I highly value the education I received in high school, I did not learn much of the history, politics, and social upheavals of Central Europe. I was completely unaware of the immense power Ceausescu held over an entire nation, and I did not know of the vast destruction he wrecked over the Romanian countryside, nor of the social upheavals of his reign.
Yet this museum and the information it houses is only a small fraction of the knowledge and discussions we have all received on this trip. It has ceased to be a novelty when I learn of a piece of history I never knew, as it is blatantly obvious that my education, and the education many other youth in the United States probably receive, is biased and incomplete. We learn what others think is important (or even worse, we learn the information that is present on the AP exam), but this is dangerously ignorant. Instead, we cannot consider ourselves "experts" in any particular topic until we study it from multiple perspectives. These perspectives cannot come strictly from a textbook or from a professor in the United States education system, but rather from people of different cultures, nations, and backgrounds. "History is bunk" is something Henry Ford once declared, and in my opinion, this is undoubtedly true until every single perspective of an event is taken into account, and even then the event of the past can be skewed.
So when we walk into a museum dedicated to the Romanian Revolution, and one man is bent on collecting documentation from literally every single country and every major news source from said country, it is clear that this person is determined to create a complete picture of the seven days that defined his life and many of those around him. He does this so that the Revolution is never forgotten, and so that people around the world can be educated about seven days that won a country its freedom.
Again, this is a noble goal, and one to be respected. Yet I am not of this man's generation; I and the rest of the youth are the "new" generation. So when this man declares that the neo-communist party "protects killers. They are free. It is a shame" I am hesitant to give him my full attention and respect for his materials. Yes, I never lived through a communist era and I do not know of the full impact of Ceausescu because I never experienced it. However the attitude of revenge against the persons formerly in power seems to me inherently wrong as the cycle of mistrust and anger will simply begin again.
As one of my fellow classmates pointed out later, this is the exact attitude that defines the current youth in Romania. No one under the age of 20 has a full perspective of life under Ceausescu, and so it is possible for them (and us) to view Ceausescu's reign as "history," a thing of the past. But his legacy still remains throughout Romania. It is present in the attitudes of the people, it is obvious in the pervasive distrust of the government, and it is visible in the huge cement monstrosities that form the old housing projects and apartments. So while the current youth may not know of Ceausescu through experience, everyone is still affected by his past reign. The museum of the Romanian Revolution is another piece in this vast puzzle of events and opinions that has shaped and defined the Romanian people for decades.
Our time at the museum ends with a request to help find materials about the Romanian Revolution from sources in the United States. We gather for a group picture in the courtyard, sign all of our names in a guest book (proof for the museum's donors that people do indeed visit this place), and then file out the door onto the streets. After the past couple of hours, our journey through modern day Timisoara seems unusually bright.
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Grace's parents and brother Albert, Jr., testified. Dempsey seemed determined to make the point that both Delia and Albert, Sr., gave their consent to Grace going to a birthday party with Fish. When it came time for Grace's father to testify, he was overcome with emotion and began to weep loudly.
On the third day of the trial, over the strenuous objections of the defense attorney, a box of Grace Budd's remains was brought into the courtroom as evidence, while Det. King recreated from Fish's confession how the girl was killed. Then Gallagher reached into the box and held out the small skull of the dead girl. It was a very dramatic moment. Dempsey sought a mistrial.
Dempsey focused on the cannibalism issue as a central part of the insanity defense. It was clear that he was trying to establish that Fish had eaten parts of the girl's body — something that no sane person would do. But he was unsuccessful in establishing and proving that Fish actually did what he said he did with her body.
Fish appeared to be completely indifferent throughout the trial. Although, at one point, he expressed to his attorney that he had a desire to life because "God still has work for me to do."
Dempsey put several of Fish's children on the stand to testify to his bizarre behavior — self-flagellation and sticking needles in his body, as well as his religious delusions. They also testified that he was a good father who always provided for them and never physically abused them.
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iPhone ensemble premiere
The Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble performs its first concert
Twenty students studying at the University of Michigan are set to perform a concert using iPhones as musical instruments. The concert results from a course entitled ‘Building a Mobile Phone Ensemble’, taught in conjunction with the university’s computer science, music and engineering departments.
Assistant Professor Georg Essl, a computer scientist and musician, devised the course to allow students to use various components of Apple iPhones – including wireless radios, motion sensors and the touchscreen – to explore and create new forms of musical performance. Essl has even named this emerging genre – ‘the MoPho’.
‘We’re not tethered to the physics of traditional instruments,’ says Essl. ‘In order to come up with a creative piece you have to engage with the technology, but in order to make technology interesting, you also have to engage with the musicality.’
Although the first course of its kind, it is not the first ensemble to use the Apple iPhone as a musical instrument. Essl and others involved in the project have performed in other groups at other universities. In Europe there have been similar events – in the UK the London Community iPhone OSCestra performed the Doctor Who theme on iPhones in May.
The free public concert by the Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble will take place on 9 December at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
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such as "Introduction", "Conclusion"..etc
For years, international policy on the environment and biodiversity has
not just been the concern of governments. Countless other organisations
and their mutual strategic alliances also play a significant role.
Without them there would be no sustainable fish in the supermarket and
no FSC wood at the DIY centre. However, Dutch researcher Ingrid
Visseren-Hamakers has discovered that only a small proportion of these
'partnerships' make a substantial contribution to biodiversity.
An important outcome of partnerships are certification systems for
products that have a major impact on biodiversity, such as wood, soya,
palm oil, fish or sugarcane. Thanks to these partnerships it is widely
accepted that sustainability policy is not only developed by
governments but also via market interests. Consequently by purchasing
sustainably produced products, consumers can make a contribution to
international environmental policy.
Of the 24 partnerships Visseren investigated, seven (the so-called
'gems') make a unique and significant contribution to biodiversity
policy; the others play a less prominent role and are less effective.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is one of these 'gems'. This
partnership was one of the first of its kind. The FSC has played a
significant role in ensuring that certification standards have now
become a normal instrument for sustainability policy. Moreover, the FSC
is unique due to its relatively high level of ambition for
sustainability and the fact that social, environmental and economic
interests carry equal weighting in the partnership.
The difference between the 'gems' and the less effective
partnerships lies, for example, in the high level of ambition, the
focus on results and the strategic deployment of the gems. Partnerships
are also dependent on power relations, the local politics and
government policy. A striking outcome of the research is that the
efficacy of partnerships is generally not facilitated if national
governments become actively involved.
Governments have an indisputable role
Visseren's research demonstrates that many partnerships choose to
develop less stringent standards. The environmental improvements that
must be implemented to satisfy these standards are relatively small.
However, this might lead to the standards with a higher level of
ambition and a higher environmental yield being priced out of the
market. Governments ought to ensure a level playing field for these
different types of certification systems. A new balance should be found
between guidance by governments and the market; more coordination by
governments is desirable. This way, both government policy and the
partnerships would become more effective.
The doctoral research 'Partnerships in biodiversity governance: An
assessment of their contributions to halting biodiversity loss' was
carried out at Utrecht University under the auspices of the
'Partnerships for sustainable development' programme that was funded by
the NWO programme Social Scientific Research into Nature and the
Enter the code exactly as it appears. All letters are case insensitive, there is no zero.
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The New York Times - PERSONAL FITNESS; Said the Doctor to the Cancer Patient: Hit the Gym
By Anahad O'Connor | The New York Times :: August, 2008
"[Cancer survivor and associate professor of political science at the University of Minnesota Wendy Rahn] founded a nonprofit group called Survivors' Training, and in January opened a fitness studio... offering yoga, strength training, Pilates and Nia, which combines dance and martial arts. 'I like to think of it as a support group that moves,' she said."
Anahad O'Conner, Wendy Rahn
"Gyms and fitness centers have begun stepping in to meet a small but growing demand for programs designed to not only hasten recovery but to address the fatigue of chemotherapy, the swelling of lymphedema and the loss of muscle tone."
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The Diploma Project is presented in public before a State Board of Examiners. The general requirements for presentation include demonstration of good knowledge on the contemporary urban trends, logical structuring and a convincing justification of the solution offered. The specific requirements are: (a) in case of practical/applied development – clear and original concept for development of the territory considered; well-grounded opportunities for concept realisation; (b) in case of ...
The prevailing types of public buildings – historic development, modern trends and principal norms, are presented.
A fragment of Pre-diploma project І (PUBSP1) is developed in a preliminary design phase.
A typical and complex public building – a hall for visual demonstration or a sports hall is designed. The functional and technological aspects of the corresponding type of building are examined in detail.
Types of buildings, which give opportunity to students to operate with ideas, interpreted in architectural form at a maximum freedom of opinions and preferences, are designed.
The foundations of the design of buildings, justified from a functional, town planning and compositional point of view, are presented with the help of a small public building.
The variety of types, decisions and approaches to the design of typical public buildings is presented.
Students are introduced to the designed in the corresponding semester types of buildings. Their knowledge about the peculiarities and versatility of public buildings is extended. The course is presented by lecturers, having an opinion on the elucidating of the function, on the performance and the use of the buildings. The second part of the course emphasises on “philosophy”, symbolic, and other conceptual problems and problems of the creative process.
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Especial greetings to all our English Oratorians.
Hilary White has a good observation about what happens when you entrust yourself to St Philip:
He has no qualms whatever about taking your life and holding it upside down and shaking it until all your stuff has fallen out of the pockets. When he rights you again, everything will be better, but different.Please remember Hilary in your prayers as she is going through a rough time healthwise at the moment.
Hilary's post reminded us of a good set of photos on the Transalpine Redemptorists' blog from 2009. On the last day of their pilgrimage, they celebrated Mass at St Philip's altar in the Chiesa Nuova and had a tour of St Philip's rooms, courtesy of Brother Edward of the London Oratory.
You might like to read my sermon from a few years ago: St Philip, a saint for saints, or one given by Fr Nicholas Schofield: This is the Saint of Cheerfulness and Kindness.
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If Apple’s iPhoto seems to take over your photo collection and organize it in such a way that takes up three times more space on your hard-disk than it has to, or if you simply have a whole lot of photographs on your computer still in their DCIM folders in no order whatsoever, then Exiftool is for you.
Exiftool is an command-line (AKA command prompt) basedapplication that allows one to read, write, and edit meta information stored in the EXIF data of every image. EXIF data can retain every single piece of information about a photograph taken with a digital camera including date, time, lens, focal length, shutter speed, ISO rating, camera name, camera owner name, last edit date, and much more.
My favourite use for this program would have to be its ability to automate a folder of images into new folders determined and labeled by date, or to automate different labels for each image file by date, or what-have-you. Depending on one’s knowledge of command-line environments like Terminal the options are virtually endless.
In fact, Exiftool does much more than help you organize your photographs, and there are probably a ton of features that I don’t even know about just yet. The fact remains, this application is robust with features and is pure gold for anyone trying to manage their photographs and for anyone who wants to edit, write, and read meta information.
A simple, command-line based application, Exiftool is a little difficult to jump into, or rather, it can be. Command-line interfaces are never the most accessable, but for photographers that don’t mind learning a little bit, the Exiftool webpage is actually a tremendous resource.
Installation on Mac OS X is as simple as most programs, but running it is a little different in that you must open a Terminal window and find the directory that contains your photographs, and then implement Exiftool using the commands found at the Exiftool webpage. Getting into all of the commands within this post would surely make this very lengthy so I recommend you visit Phil Harvey’s Exiftool webpage and take your time going through the various sections so that you can get a good understanding of how it is implemented.
While I don’t own a PC, the installation instructions for PC are straight forward, yet they could be a little unfamiliar to those used to just double-clicking an install file. Again, with this it is very important to take your time and read what’s relevant to your platform (be it PC or Mac).
If you are absolutely clueless about command line interfaces and are on a Mac using OS X then check this link to learn more. If PC is your platform and you are also in need of some command-line information then check this link to learn more on that.
In scoring this program for a rating, I have docked .2 simply because there is no GUI (graphical user interface) which would really make this program accessible to everyone. Still, for an open source power house of an application, no GUI and all this ability is okay by me.
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|
Posted by Amanda on Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 11:04am.
Content and Development
The student covers all key elements of the assignment in a substantive way.
∑ Reviews the three business problems identified in Week Six paper
∑ Develops technology solutions to the identified business problems at Club IT
∑ Prepares technology plan according to the sample provided in Appendix F
∑ The paper is 1,750 to 2,100 words in length.
The student is comprehensive, accurate, and persuasive.
The student develops a central theme or idea directed toward the appropriate audience.
The student links theory to relevant examples and uses the vocabulary of the theory correctly.
The student states major points clearly with specific details, examples, or analysis; and organizes logically.
The introduction provides sufficient background on the topic and previews major points.
The conclusion is logical, flows from the body of the paper, and reviews the major points.
Readability and Style
Paragraph transitions are present, logical, and maintain the flow throughout the paper.
The tone is appropriate to the content and assignment.
Sentences are complete, clear, and concise.
Sentences are well constructed, strong, and varied.
Sentence transitions are present and maintain the flow of thought.
The paper, including the title page, reference page, tables, and appendixes, follows APA formatting guidelines.
Citations of original works within the body of the paper follow APA guidelines.
The paper is laid out with effective use of headings, font styles, and white space.
Follows rules of grammar, usage, and punctuation.
Spelling is correct.
Here is my essay. Will you proofread it and give me advice? I am really bad with using transitions and I have not written my conclusion yet. Maybe you can help me there. My essay is due Sunday 27th at midnight.
Club IT Part 3
Amanda Kaye Preston
March 27, 2011
Club IT Part 3
Ruben Keys and Lisa Tejada graduated with degrees in Business Administration and decided to follow their dreams and open a nightclub. Club IT has high ceilings and high energy lighting that creates an ambience of fun and energy. The nightclub focuses on music such as hip-hop, techno, electronic, MP3, live bands, and some top 40ís thrown in. Ruben and Lisa run the office and all financial aspects of the business, but need help in information management. As a result, they hired an intern to help improve information management. The intern found three business problems which are: the nightclub does not have a dashboard, the website and internet connection needs to be improved, and the supply chain needs improvement. She has developed a technology solution that would create more profit which could lead to a second Club IT. She also prepared a technology plan that consists of seven criteria which are: organization description and demographic information, goals and strategy, professional development, assessment needs, the budget, evaluation, and inventory. Letís take a closer look at the first three business problems and their solutions.
The first problem is Club IT does not have a dashboard. A dashboard will provide Ruben and Lisa with rapid access to timely information and direct access to management reports (Rainer, 2009). With a dashboard in place Club IT should make more profits due to receiving the reports quickly and the capabilities of the digital dashboards. The second problem is the website and internet connection needs to be improved. To improve the speed of the internet Lisa and Ruben have agreed to get wireless broadband technology. The new service is extremely quick and since most of Club ITís customers are mostly Net Generation and Millennials they will enjoy being able to access the internet on their Web-enabled mobile phones. The nightclubís website also needs to be improved to meet the demands of their customers. All four types of e commerce have been added to the website. Adding e-commerce will boost sales and increase the customer base. Customers can buy merchandise and tickets through Club ITís website by using B2C and m-commerce. Ruben and Lisa can pay their employees through B2E and buy supplies through B2B. Another ability that was added to the website is customer feedback. Customer feedback is vital to the success of a business. With feedback Club IT will know what the customers like and dislike. Club IT will be able to see their weak spots and make improvements. The third problem is correcting the supply chain by adding a supply chain management. Employees and the owner currently order supplies manually which means there are numerous ways to make an error. Implementing a supply chain management would make it easier to manage supplies, reduce human errors, lead to greater productivity, lower costs, and reduce inventory. A SCM system can reduce uncertainty and risks by decreasing inventory levels and cycle time and improving business processes and customer service (Rainer, 2009). Implementing a SCM also involves an interorganizational informational system that involves information flows among two or more organizations. The intern has suggested sharing information along the supply chain to solve common supply chain problems and improve demand forecasts. After the intern identified three business problems and developed a technology solution she then prepared a technology plan.
The first criteria of the technology plan are Organization and Demographic Information. People in the organization consists of: two owners which are Ruben Keys and Lisa Tejada, one assistant manager, four bartenders, six waitstaff, two stewards, two short-order cooks, and four security men. The organization serves the community ages 21 and up because alcohol is consumed and sold on the premises.
The second criteria are Goals and Strategy. The short-term goal of Club IT is to make profit and create a customer base. The long-term goal is for Club IT to be successful not only now, but in several years to come and to one day be able to open a second Club IT. Information systems will help achieve these goals by handling vast amounts of information, performing intricate calculations, and controlling many simultaneous processes that humans are not well suited for. Information systems will such as ERP and TPS will relay information from one functional area to another and TPS will monitor, store, collect, and process data from the nightclub to inform Ruben and Lisa how the business is doing. A dashboard will provide Ruben and Lisa with swift access to important information and direct access to management reports (Rainer & Turban, 2009). With a TPS they will be able to keep track of quantities and cost of food and beverage operations, marketing campaigns, concert events, and payroll. All of the people in the organization will benefit from OASs. For an example, the assistant manager can make schedules and create word documents using OASs. Business intelligence will provide Ruben and Lisa with current and predictive views of business operations as well as historical. BI will support better decision making therefore Club IT will have a better chance at being successful. Another very important information system that will help Ruben and Lisa achieve their goals is electronic commerce systems. Electronic commerce system is a type of interorganizational information system that will allow organizations to conduct internet based transactions. Most of Club ITís customers are Net Generation and Millennials, therefore, they will be using e-commerce and m-commerce frequently. It is very vital that Club IT has e-commerce and m-commerce will boost sales and hopefully expand the customer base.
The third criterion is Professional Development. Ruben and Lisa will learn the new system then they will teach the assistant manager who will teach the employees. The assistant manager will work one on one with the employees until they are confident using the new system. The employees will be scheduled to come in on days off or off hours to learn the new system. The assistant manager will train one bartender, waitstaff, steward, and short-order cook. Then he or she will train the other employees in that order until everyone is comfortable using the system. It is important that at least one employee of all job descriptions are able to use the new system. Time is very limited when it comes to training new employees on a completely different system especially when you have 18 employees to train not counting the assistant manager and the owners. The staff will learn only their functional area unless Ruben and Lisa say otherwise. All of the employees except the security guard will learn how to use the TPS and OAS. The security guards will not be running a register so they will not need to learn how to use the system. The staff will learn how to use the TPS and OAS and will integrate it into their work because they have no other option. It is a requirement that they understand and use the two basic organizational information systems.
The fourth criterion is Assessment of Needs. The current technology environment at the organization is slow internet access. There is not any information about the previous technology other than the slow internet speed. Club IT will invest in a wireless broadband technology which is significantly increase their internet connection. Having a bad internet connection could compromise Club ITís performance in all business aspects. Ruben and Lisa will subscribe to Bloomberg LLP. Bloomberg LLP is a privately held company that provides a subscription service that sells financial data, analytic software to leverage the usefulness of these data, trading tools and news (Rainer & Turban, 2009). The owners will use Bloomberg keyboard which is color coded to display the desired information on the computer screen. The proposed services and systems that will be purchased and installed to meet Ruben and Lisaís goals are: wireless broadband technology, ERP, TPS, OAS, BI, E-commerce, M-commerce, and subscribe to Bloomberg LLP. It will take approximately six months to implement these services and systems.
The fifth criterion of the technology plan is The Budget. The budget for Club IT is $28,269 which is the NPV. The intern has decided to lease the applications because she thinks it will save the company money in the long run. Software is extremely expensive and it is likely to become obsolete in a short period of time. Another way to save money is to outsource or use application service provider. An application service provider is an agent or a vendor who assembles the software needed by enterprises and packages the software with services such as development, operations, and maintenance (Rainer, 2009). Leasing from ASPís offers reduced expenses in the initial development stage, reduces the cost of software maintenance and upgrading, and Club IT could select another software product from the vendor to meet its changing needs, therefore making it more competitive by being able to adapt quickly to the changing market. The best use of the funds is to lease from ASPís.
The sixth criterion is Evaluation. In the beginning of Club IT Ruben and Lisa made an IT architecture which is a plan of the information assets and a guide to current operations as well as a blueprint for future directions. They constructed an organizational strategic plan which states Club ITís overall mission, goals, and steps necessary to reach those goals. They also constructed an IT strategic plan which is a set of long-term goals that describes the IT infrastructure and identifies the IT initiatives needed to achieve the goals of Club IT (Rainer, 2009). The first step in the IT strategic plan is it must be aligned with the organizational strategic plan. Second, provides IT architecture that enables user, applications, and databases to work together seamlessly. Third, it must efficiently allocate IS development resources among competing projects so that the projects can be completed on time and within the budget and have the required functionality (Rainer, 2009). It is important to go over the organizational strategic plan and the strategic plan at least once a year to make sure the business is on the right track.
The final criterion for the technology plan is Inventory.
- BUS 210 - SraJMcGin, Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 1:50pm
"that creates an ambience of fun and energy. " = create (you have a compound subject which is plural)
"needs to be improved" = need (again "they" need = plural)
"needs to be improved." = need (since this is a common error for you, always check subject and verb agreement = that both are either singular or plural)
"Information systems will such as ERP" = delete will = Information systems such as ERP, etc.
"use application service provider." = use an application, etc.
Make sure each new topic has its own paragraph. That was not very consistent.
The "conclusion" will reiterate your thesis.
- bus 210 - 1, Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 5:54pm
- bus 210 - 1, Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 5:55pm
- bus 210 - -1', Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 5:55pm
- -1' - 1, Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 5:55pm
- bus 210 - 1, Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 6:04pm
- bus 210 - -1', Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 6:04pm
- -1' - 1, Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 6:04pm
- bus 210 - 1, Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 6:04pm
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For Further Reading
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Who is it that says most, which can say more,
Than this rich praise, that you alone, are you,
In whose confine immured is the store
Which should example where your equal grew?
Lean penury within that pen doth dwell
That to his subject lends not some small glory;
But he that writes of you, if he can tell
That you are you, so dignifies his story.
Let him but copy what in you is writ,
Not making worse what nature made so clear,
And such a counterpart shall fame his wit,
Making his style admired every where.
You to your beauteous blessings add a curse,
Being fond on praise, which makes your praises worse.
Although a continuation of the rival poet(s)' sequence this sonnet introduces new material by investigating the reality of all comparisons. The youth is beyond compare, as attested in 18, and any praise of him is merely a repetition of what he is (38 & 39), and the miracle of his perfection foreshadows all attempts past and future to provide an exemplar who could match him (53 & 59). To a certain extent therefore the poem is a re-hashing of old ideas, but here the implication is, more or less, that all language is useless, for what after all is the point of asserting time and again that 'you are you', and how could language itself, something entirely isolated and separate from the youth's existence, do anything but provide an empty shell as an example of the thing itself? The conclusion therefore is that all poetry in this context is worthless, especially that of the rival poet(s), who flatter to deceive. But the youth himself is (deliberately it seems) brought in to undermine the conclusion - perhaps he is not the perfect exemplar described in the first four lines, for he has a sickly interest in this false praise that is heaped on him, and this flaw in his character only makes the situation worse, for the more he welcomes it, the more of it is generated and thrown upon him.
The meanings of some of the lines, especially 1-4, have always proved especially difficult to ascertain, and have taxed the minds of the best commentators in the past. I provide some alternative interpretations below, but do not claim to have any magic key to unlock their true meaning. The best that can be done is to try to retain in suspension in one's mind some of the most likely readings, and to proceed from there.
The 1609 Quarto Version
WHo is it that ſayes moſt,which can ſay more,
Then this rich praiſe,that you alone,are you,
In whoſe confine immured if the ſtore,
Which ſhould example where your equall grew,
Leane penurie within that Pen doth dwell,
That to his ſubiect lends not ſome ſmall glory,
But he that writes of you,if he can tell,
That you are you,ſo dignifies his ſtory.
Let him but coppy what in you is writ,
Not making worſe what nature made ſo cleere.
And ſuch a counter-part ſhall fame his wit,
Making his ſtile admired euery where.
You to your beautious bleſſings adde a curſe,
Being fond on praiſe,which makes your praiſes worſe.
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About SAT Test
The SAT TEST is conducted to streamline the process of admission to the various colleges in the US. SAT TEST is like a common entrance test for all the students who wish to study in the reputed colleges of US. Instead of undergoing separate entrance procedures for different colleges SAT TEST, being a common and standardized test, makes the task easier and convenient for both the students and the college authorities. SAT TEST is widely accepted by colleges across the US, therefore there is no need for students to approach the various colleges separately for appearing in their admission test. Instead SAT TEST provides a platform for them to prepare for just one test and be able to apply to as many colleges as they choose to. It is the College Board (which is an association of all the colleges and schools), which administers the SAT TEST with the help of ETS. ETS is a private organization run by qualified professionals, which conducts various standardized tests across US including the SAT TEST.
Let us discuss a few things about SAT test. For anyone to be able to score well in SAT it is essential to know a few basic things about SAT test. You should have clear understanding about SAT test structure, about SAT test scoring, about SAT test sections, about SAT test syllabus etc. The SAT TEST has 2 classifications: SAT-I, which is a reasoning test, and SAT-II, which is a subject based test. When we refer to SAT, we generally refer to the SAT TEST of reasoning. Students may appear for the SAT reasoning test or for the SAT subject based tests on a particular date.
SAT Reasoning Test
The SAT TEST of reasoning is basically a test, which can effectively judge the student's ability to think, reason and apply his knowledge. These skills are considered to be very essential for further studies and thus form the basis of a good performance in the academic sphere.
The SAT reasoning test is of 3 hours and 45 minutes and is classified into three main sections. These are Critical Reading Section, Writing Section and Mathematics Section. All the three sections are further divided into 3 parts, making a total of nine. Apart from these there is a tenth section, which is called the Experimental Section. The experimental section does not count in the final score of the SAT TEST and can be any one of the previous sections. The purpose behind the experimental section is to try new questions for future and make SAT a fair test. Now let us have a look at all the three sections separately.
Critical Reading Section
This section is also called the verbal section and is a 70 minutes long section of the SAT TEST. It comprises of questions based on sentence completion and passage-based reading. So it is a measure of a student's understanding and his aptitude to apply the knowledge. The student is required to read and understand the passage or the sentence and his understanding can be judged with the questions that follow. He will be able to attempt the questions well only if there is proper understanding of the same. The test is divided in three parts out of which two parts are of 25 minutes each and one is of 20 minutes. The total number of questions in this section is about 67 with approximately 19 sentence completion questions and 48 passage-based questions.
- The sentence completion questions are multiple-choice type questions where a given sentence has some blanks to be filled. There are choices given for answers and the student is required to pick up the most suitable choice of words given, to form a meaningful and grammatically correct sentence. This tests the vocabulary of the student and also his ability of sentence formation. So the student is required to weigh all the choices in respect of the sentence and should be able to identify the right answer
- In the questions on passage-based reading, there are a number of long as well as short passages given. The passage is followed by questions based on it. These questions are also multiple-choice type questions. The passages could be on any topic and the student is required to read it carefully before answering the questions. These questions could test your vocabulary in addition to testing your understanding of the passage based on the information given in the passage. They could also test a student's ability to draw conclusions on the topic and understand the idea behind writing it. So, one has to be very careful before attempting such passage based questions. The student should be able to find out the crux of the passage and know the idea behind it.
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PROCEDURES FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENT APPLICANTS
Obtaining a Visa
In order for an applicant to obtain an F-1 visa to enter the United States, King's College must issue the student a properly-executed Form I-20A-B/I20ID. An F-1 visa may be granted to an alien "who is a bona fide student qualified to pursue a full course of study" at an academic institution authorized to admit foreign students. The individual must prove to the U.S. Consular official that he or she wishes to enter the United States temporarily and solely for the purpose of study and that the applicant has a permanent residence in a foreign country that he or she has no intention of abandoning.
Requirements to receive Form I-20AB/I-20ID
The school may issue a Form I-20A-B/I-20ID to a foreign applicant only after the following conditions have been met:
- The prospective student must make a written application to the school
- The written application, the student's transcripts or other records of courses taken, proof of financial responsibility for the student, and other supporting documents must be received, reviewed, and evaluated by the institution.
- The student's qualifications must meet all standards for admission.
- The prospective student must be accepted and enrolled in a full course of study.
- A King's College Declaration of Finances along with a non-refundable $500.00 enrollment deposit must be secured by the institution before an F-1 visa can be issued.
- International applicants are required to submit documentary evidence of financial support. These documents, which determine official verification of funds, can be either bank statements with the bank official's signature/seal or a notarized or certified letter indicating sufficient financial resources available to provide for educational expenses in the United States.
Applicants should be advised that they are likely to be required to present documentary evidence of financial support at the time they apply for their visa.
The date classes begin is the reporting date of arrival on the Form I-20. If the student arrives after this date, they might not be able to enter the country. Plan to arrive several days before the start date in order to participate in the Orientation activities. If the student is living on campus, their housing should be confirmed. Upon receipt of the I-20, the student should go to the consulate to obtain their visa, marked F-1 (student status).
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Step Three of the Snowflake – The Characters:
Virginia “Ginnie” Dare
- DoB – August 18th, 2257 (Age 15)
- Description – Black hair, dk. brown eyes, 1.75 m., slim build running to curves, dark skin
- History – Born in space to a spacing family.
- Marooned with an injured Jess, Ginnie needs to make sure they survive and discovers a plot to destroy a portion of the Rafe colony.
- The character’s motivation – To become a more vital part of the ship/be seen as more of an adult.
- The character’s goal – Survival of her team/the colony
- The character’s conflict – The terrorists
- The character’s epiphany – Becoming an adult can’t be rushed.
- During a less than routine repair, Ginnie and Jess get marooned on Rafe 3 a large rocky satellite. Jess is injured and Ginnie needs to set up camp. While placing an encrypted radio beacon, she sees some activity on what is supposed to be an otherwise barren moon. She catches some local radio traffic that indicates these people are here for nefarious purposes. At first she thinks that they are plotting an attack on the Commonweatlh presence. After checking with Jess and doing some further investigation they find out that it’s the colony they want to attack. They will be targeting the space port that Helena is supposed to land on. The two women must stop the attack until they can get into radio contact with someone.
- Description – Light brown hair cut short, hazel eyes, 1.5m wiry build, very pale skin, freckles
- Jess must help Ginnie as best she can, while injured, to help Ginnie survive and to warn the Helena and or the authorities.
- The character’s motivation – To help Ginnie grow.
- The character’s goal – Survival
- The character’s conflict – injury/terrorists
- The character’s epiphany – What mistakes you can let someone make.
- Jess calls on Ginnie to help her effect some repairs once they are past the blockade. It’s not part of her normal duties, but Ginnie’s expressed an interest in learning new things since she’ll be staying on board for a while. The pod they’re working on becomes damaged and ejects from the ship taking the two women with it. They’re close to the moon and use the tools they have to guide the pod and its contents safely to the surface. She’s injured in the process and must guide Ginnie through getting a shelter set up and a radio beacon. Then she must also help her deal with the terrorists.
Nuchtchas – President of Rafe
- Description – Long straight black hair with a green streak, blue eyes, 1.63 m curvaceous, milky skin
- Nuchtchas is leading her people in a secession and they’ve hired the Dares to help deliver some supplies.
- The character’s motivation – A successful and peaceful secession from the Commonwealth.
- The character’s goal – Getting the supplies necessary to make that happen.
- The character’s conflict – The Commonwealth and the Liberation Movement.
- The character’s epiphany – She will realize that the cost of freedom can often be too high.
- Called by her people to break from the commonwealth, Nuchtchas wants to do so as peacefully as possible. Long time friends with Walter Dare, she hires his company to deliver data, some raw materials, and necessary fuel to take them through what may be a long siege. If the first one goes well there may be more and if the secession is successful a lucrative contract is guaranteed. She’s caught between negotiating with the blockade and keeping her people happy. They’re in the third month and getting restless. She’s aware of the small minority involved in the Liberation from but is unaware of what they’re willing to do.
John Wilkerson – Leader of the Liberation Movement
- Description – Crewcut sandy hair, greenish brown eyes, 1.7, thin build
- He believes that Nuchtchas is a weak leader and that decisive action is necessary to throw off the shackles of the Commonwealth.
- The character’s motivation – Separation from the Commonwealth and its eventual downfall.
- The character’s goal – Freedom for Rafe and the presidency.
- The character’s conflict – Ginnie and Jess
- The character’s epiphany – Don’t mess with the Dares.
- John has long been dissatisfied with Commonwealth rule. He believes that Rafe’s abundant mineral resources belong to the people first and foremost. He also believes that the Commonwealth is holding all of the colonies back. He has a small loyal team behind him. If achieving his goals cost lives, even his own, he believes that it’s worth it (though he won’t risk his own unnecessarily). He is personally overseeing operations on the moon and will try and cause as little collateral damage as possible he knows the Dares are coming and will try and make it look like the Dares are in collusion with the Commonwealth and brought a bomb in to destroy the space dock. In one of the pods there is just such a bomb placed there by one of his allies outside the blockade.
Colonel Ed Delaney – In charge of Commonwealth blockade “Operation Hydra”
- Description – Bushy silver hair, light blue eyes, 2.1 m, stocky
- Delaney is near the end of his career and wants this last mission to be his final gold star.
- The character’s motivation – a glorious retirement
- The character’s goal – To bring Rafe back into the fold.
- The character’s conflict – Both the liberation front and the legitimate government are doing everything they can to stop him.
- The character’s epiphany – Doing the right thing is more important than glory
- Delaney is given this final assignment – do what it takes to bring Rafe back in to the Commonwealth. Equal parts military leader and diplomat, he’s a powerful personality. He arrived with the blockade three months ago and has regular contact with the presidency. He has agents on Rafe feeding him information and knows more about the LF than Nuchtchas does, though not about the attack. He and Nuchtchas have become fairly friendly thanks to regular calls, but he is as unrelenting as his superiors. They will not break the blockade under any circumstances.
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Allium Cepa 30 X
Allium Cepa 30 X, 250 Tablets by HYLANDS HOMEOPATHIC | 354973290143
Allium Cepa (Red Onion) is a homeopathic remedy for the treatment of colds, allergies, and hay fever with sneezing, nasal discharge and excessive tearing often accompanied by laryngitis with raw sensation down into the chest.
Wide-ranging claims have been made for the effectiveness of onions against conditions ranging from the common cold to heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and other diseases. They contain chemical compounds believed to have anti-inflammatory, anticholesterol, anticancer, and antioxidant properties such as quercetin. However, it has not been conclusively demonstrated that increased consumption of onions is directly linked to health benefits.
Onions may be especially beneficial for women, who are at increased risk for osteoporosis as they go through menopause, by destroying osteoclasts so that they do not break down bone.
An American chemist has stated that the pleiomeric chemicals in onions have the potential to alleviate or prevent sore throat.
Adults dissolve 4 tablets under tongue 4 times a day, children 2 tablets as above. In acute cases take 4 tablets every hour until relieved or as directed by a licensed practitioner.
Do not use if cap band is missing or broken. If you are pregnant or nursing, consult a licensed health care professional before using this product. If symptoms persist for 7 days or worsen, contact a licensed practitioner. Keep this and all medicines out of the reach of children.
To be used according to label indications and/or standard homeopathic indications.
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This editorial is part of our GREAT DEBATE feature 'Why Aren't There More Women In Positions Of Power?'
It is a credit to the women's movement that its early days seem less like the distant past and more as if they were from a different civilization. Jeannette Pickering Rankin—a Montana Republican and peace activist—became America's first Congresswoman in 1916.
She reportedly burst into tears before voting against the declaration of war with Germany. "I felt the first time the first woman had a chance to say no to war she should say it," she recalled. The New York Times' editorialized that her vote was "final proof of the feminine incapacity for straight reasoning."
Rankin's very presence was taken as evidence of her radicalism. But slowly, women moved from the edges to the mainstream. The number of women in the 535 Congressional offices hovered around or just just under 20 seats for decades. But women admirably began filling out state-level offices at the same time.
The year 1992 was aptly dubbed, the "Year Of The Woman," since there were more women elected to Congress than in any previous decade. This past election cycle is the first time that the number of women in Congress has stayed level since 1987. But there were a record number of Republican women elected thanks to the Palin Effect.
Worldwide, the U.S. ranks 90th in the number of women in a national legislature compared to other countries.
Jon Terbush / Business Insider
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EU leaders debate "a big leap forward" to strengthen their union and save the euro at a two-day summit starting Thursday, but divisions may scuttle efforts to shore up the single currency.
European Union heads of state and government gather from 3:00 pm (1300 GMT) as the debt crisis, now in its third year, widens to Cyprus and Spain after contaminating Greece, Portugal and Ireland.
And with Italy, the third largest eurozone economy Italy too under threat, the EU is under pressure from world leaders to prevent a collapse of the single currency that would have unfathomable global repercussions.
Europe's leaders are expected to agree a growth pact to revive the continent's flagging economies and propel the 27-nation bloc towards greater union, the first step being a banking union.
France and Germany agree "we need more Europe, we need a Europe that works, the markets are expecting this, and we need a Europe whose members help each other," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after meeting French President Francois Hollande on the eve of the talks.
"We both want to deepen economic, monetary -- and in the future political -- union, to arrive at integration and solidarity," Hollande said.
The eve-of-summit statements followed weeks of divisions between the leaders of the EU "big two" over ways out of the relentless debt crisis.
This 19th summit since 2010 "is perhaps the most important since the foundation of the EU" 60 years ago, said the head of the global IFF bank lobby Charles Dallara.
"It's about winning back the trust and confidence of long-term investors," he told the German weekly, Die Zeit. "I'm afraid they'll only allow themselves to be convinced by comprehensive solutions."
But in Spain, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned that the eurozone's fourth economy was running out of time and could not finance itself for long at the high rates of almost 7.0 percent it now pays on markets.
"There are institutions and also financial entities that cannot access the markets. It is happening in Spain, it is happening in Italy and it is happening in other countries," he said.
Italy too fears a freefall and Prime Minister Mario Monti has warned he is ready to stay until Sunday if necessary to come up with answers to the crisis that will satisfy markets ahead of Monday's opening.
Among short-term solutions is an ambitious pact to kickstart growth by injecting 130 billion euros ($163 billion) into floundering economies facing record unemployment of 11 percent.
For the longer term, leaders will be asked to sign on to a roadmap toward tighter economic and monetary union over the next decade, with the first step a banking union to be agreed by the end of this year.
The worry is whether this will be enough to satisfy markets and whether Hollande and Merkel can overcome their differences.
"Unless France and Germany can soon agree on a grand bargain, disaster may loom," said analyst Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform.
Under increasing pressure from partners in the larger eurozone economies, Merkel says there can be "no quick, no easy" solutions, no "magic formula".
Hollande on the other hand rejects Merkel's austerity-driven approach to solving the crisis and her insistence that budgetary discipline come before solidarity.
The new French leader, along with Italy's Monti, notably favours dipping into the eurozone's 500-billion-euro rescue pot to help Spain's distressed banks or buy bonds of virtuous economies whose borrowing costs are soaring due to market pressure.
But Merkel is firmly opposed to throwing money at struggling banks or poorly run economies.
Commenting on eurobonds, a way of pooling European debt, Merkel said Wednesday: "I consider them wrong and counterproductive."
She is unlikely to be favourable either to reports that Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will ask EU partners to "respond to sacrifices" by changing the conditions of the country's second EU-IMF bailout.
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by Göran Therborn, University of Cambridge, UK, Linnaeus University, Sweden, and Member of the Program Committee for the ISA World Congress of Sociology in Yokohama
The last two decades have been good for poor nations of the world. Since the late 1980s, what the international economic organizations call “developing Asia”, mainly China, India and the ASEAN countries, has been growing at a pace about double the world as a whole. Since 2001, sub-Saharan Africa, the tragic laggard of development in the last third of the last century, has been outgrowing the world, including the ‘advanced economies’. Latin America has been growing faster than the rich world since 2003, and the Middle East since 2000. Except for post-Communist Europe, ‘emerging and developing economies’ also weathered the Anglo-Saxon bankers’ crisis much better than the rich world.
Nations and Classes
We are experiencing a historical turn, not only in geopolitics but also in terms of inequality. The 19th and 20th century international development of underdevelopment meant, among other things, that inequality among humans became increasingly shaped by where they lived, in developed or underdeveloped areas, territories, nations. By 2000, it has been estimated that 80 per cent of the income inequality among households depended on the country you live in (Milanovic 2011: 112). This is currently changing. Inter-national inequality is declining overall, although the gap between the rich and the poorest has not stopped growing. But intra-national inequality is, on the whole, increasing, albeit unevenly, denying any pseudo-universal determinism of ‘globalization’ or of technological change.
This amounts to a return of class, as an increasingly powerful global determinant of inequality. Class has always been important, but in the 20th century context of mainly national class organizations and class struggles – albeit including some networks of ‘proletarian internationalism’ – national class inequality was overshadowed by global inter-national gaps. Now, nations are growing closer, and classes are growing apart.
The class side of the new global distribution pattern grew to prominence in the 1990s. That was the time when Chinese inequality soared, even more than along the capitalist road in the former Soviet Union, when the modest tendency to (rural) equalization in India was reversed into increasing rural as well as urban inequality. In Latin America, Mexico and Argentina had their neoliberal inequality shocks. An IMF (2007: 37) study has shown, if not properly reflected upon, that on a global scale the only group which increased its income share in the 1990s was the richest national quintile, in high as well as in low income countries. All the other quintiles were losers, although not dramatically.
The most important changes have taken place at the very top of the income distribution, between the richest 1%and the rest – and between the 0.1% or 0.01% and the rest. The US Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz has recently (Vanity Fair May 2011) pointed to the capture of his country by the richest one per cent, who own 40% of the nation’s wealth, who appropriate nearly a quarter of the annual national income, and who make up virtually the whole US Congress. Around the turn of the last century the richest 1% accounted for 15% of US income, as against 9-11% in India (Banerjee and Piketty 2003).
The inegalitarian trends of China and India, and of developing Asia generally, have continued in the new millennium, as in USA (Luo and Zhu 2008; Kochanowicz et al. 2008; Datt and Ravaillon 2009). Accelerated economic growth in India, for instance, has hardly had any positive effect on the poorest fifth of Indian children, two thirds of whom were underweight – a life-long weakening condition – in 2009, as in 1995 (UN 2011: 14). The vigorous economic growth in the 2000s of what used to be the Third World has had no effect on hunger in the world. The number of undernourished has risen from 618 to 637 million people, 16% of humankind between 2000 and 2007 (UN 2011: 11). Food prices continue to rise. At the other end, in March 2011 Forbes magazine gleefully announced two records of its listed billionaires in 2010, namely, their record number, 1,210, and their total wealth, $4.5 trillion, larger than the GDP of the world’s third largest national economy, Germany. 413 are Americans, 115 (mainland) are Chinese, and 101 are Russians.
However, there is no inevitability, technical or economic, about increasing inequality. From its admittedly vulnerable position as the world’s economically most unequal region, Latin America is currently the only region of the planet where inequality is decreasing (CEPAL 2010; UNDP 2010). As this is largely a political effect (Cornia and Marorano 2010), of revulsion against the neoliberalism of the military dictators of the 1970s and 1980s, and of their more or less democratically elected civilian successors, the ongoing redistribution policies of Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and others also reflect the importance of class, in this case the money-grabbing of the rich oligarchs.
Another way of comparing (income) classes across nations is to calculate their Human Development Index, which includes income, life expectancy, and education, a heroic, very complicated operation with considerable margins of error. Nevertheless, it offers a noteworthy picture of world inequality. The poorest American quintile has a lower level of human development than, e.g., the richest quintile of Bolivia, Indonesia, and Nicaragua, below the most lucky 40% of Brazil and Peru, and has a level about equal to the fourth quintile of Colombia, Guatemala, and Paraguay. (Grimm et al. 2009, Table 1.)
Class, at least as a reference of distributive justice, is also likely to grow for other reasons than national economic convergence. Existential inequalities of racism and sexism, even if still potent here and there, are clearly being eroded. An important recent example is the fall of apartheid in South Africa. Democratic South Africa is also giving us one of the most dramatic examples of class inequality after institutionalized racism. Daring World Bank economists, Branko Milanovic (2008: Table 3) and others, have estimated the Gini coefficient of income inequality among the households of the planet at about 65-70 in the 1990s-2000s. But in 2005 the city of Johannesburg has one of 75! And this was measured in terms of consumer expenditure, which always gives a lower inequality figure than income measures (UN Habitat 2008: 72). Even allowing for margins of error, it does not seem presumptuous to say that the post-apartheid city of Johannesburg harbors at least as much economic inequality among its (mainly citizen) inhabitants as all the humans on the planet.
Four Roads of Class Politics
The likely resurgence of class may take at least two, very different directions, a middle-class and a working-class direction, each with two major sub-variants. One, ideologically predominant, middle-class variant looks forward to an emerging global middle class taking possession of the earth, buying cars, one-family houses, and an endless amount of electronics and consumer durables, and spending on international tourism. While this globalized and upgraded consumerism may cause nightmares for ecologically conscious people, it makes businessmen, the business press, and business institutions salivate. Middle-class consumerism has the great advantages, on top of business profits, of both accommodating the privileges of the rich and of providing a quiescent horizon of aspiration for the popular classes. These business dreams are not beyond the possible, but they tend to underestimate the social explosiveness of the current trajectory of economic distanciation and exclusion.
In the second alternative, the widening gap between the middle class and the rich carries the former into politics before consumption. In recent years we have seen something which Europeans, at least, have not experienced since 1848 – middle classes mobilizing in the streets, even making middle-class revolutions. Many of these middle-class mobilizations have been socially and economically reactionary, like those against Allende in Chile and against Chavez in Venezuela, or, more recently, the US Tea Party. Contrary to liberal mythology, there is nothing inherently democratic in middle-class mobilizations, the Thai “Yellow Shirts” of 2008, or the drivers of the putsches in Chile and Venezuela bear witness to that.
Other middle-class protests, however, have been hostile to oligarchic, ‘crony’ capitalism as well as oligarchic politics. The so-called Orange revolution in the Ukraine may come closest to the ideal type. But the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011 also included a significant, probably crucial middle-class component. The exclusive capitalism of high finance or of high politics, the political economy of, by, and for the richest one per cent, might bring an angry middle class onto the political stage with unpredictable outcome.
The other class direction focuses on the working class. The era of a historically vanguard industrial capitalism has now gone, together with the opponent it empowered , namely, the working-class movement, predicted by Marx in mid-19th century, which did materialize in Europe, in the Nordic countries above all. Europe and North America are now de-industrializing, private financial capitalism is outgrowing public sectors, the working classes are being divided, defeated, and demoralized. The resulting economic polarization and soaring intra-nation inequality is the North Atlantic contribution to the global resurgence of class (as a structural mechanism of distribution).
The relay of an industrial working class has been passed on to China, the emerging centre of world manufacturing. Today’s Chinese industrial workers are largely immigrants in their own country, given the still lingering hukou system of different urban and rural birthrights. But the growth of Chinese industrial capitalism is strengthening the workers’ hand as currently manifested in localized protests and rising wages (Cf. Pun Ngai in Global Dialogue 1.5). The political regime of China is still formally committed to socialism, in some sense. What the future holds is anybody’s guess. But a new round of distributive conflict, driven by industrial labor, largely displaced from Europe to East Asia, is not to be excluded.
A fourth class scenario would derive its primary dynamic from the heterogeneous popular classes of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and their, perhaps, less forceful counterparts in the rich world. Empowered by a rise of literacy and by new means of communication, the popular class movements face great hurdles of division – ethnicity, religion, and particularly the divide between formal and informal employment – as well as the dispersion of activities, for example in street hawking and small sweatshops. But the barriers to organization, mobilization and rallying are not insurmountable. India has spawned strong organizations of self-employed, the Red Shirts movement of the Thai popular classes returned as the country’s prime political force in the July 2011 elections, and popular class coalitions have produced left-of-centre governments in Brazil and in a number of Latin American countries.
Each of these four class approaches to world inequality has a sociological plausibility, globalized middle-class consumerism, middle-class political rebelliousness, industrial class struggle – including the possibility of class compromises – decamped from Europe to China and East Asia, and, fourthly, heterogeneous popular class mobilizations, headed by Latin American and Southeast Asian movements, but possibly involving Arab countries and Sub-Saharan Africa (Cf. Enrique de la Garza and Edward Webster in Global Dialogue 1.5). The most likely scenario for the future are strides along all four roads. Their relative significance is not only impossible to predict, but weighing the evidence as well as assessing its meaning and value are also likely to be controversial.
More clear, however, is that while nation-states remain formidable organizations and class conflicts will remain mainly state-bounded, the new turn of global inequality means that classes will rise and nations decline in determining human life-courses.
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Should you feed or starve your muscles during workouts?
Written by: Matt Fitzgerald
We all know that consuming carbohydrates during strenuous endurance exercise enhances performance. Given this fact, it would seem to be a good idea to consume carbs, in a sports drink or gels, during every long or hard run, as the resulting elevated performance in each workout would yield a stronger training effect that, over time, would add up to greater fitness.
However, recent science has shown that the opposite is true. The body actually depends on the depletion of carbohydrate (that is, glycogen) stores in the muscles and liver to trigger some of the positive physiological adaptations to training, such as increased fat-burning capacity. When carbs are consumed during a workout, the body’s own carbohydrate stores become less depleted and there is a less pronounced training effect.
Even so, research has shown that while training in a glycogen-depleted state enhances low-intensity endurance in mice, it does not enhance high-intensity time trial performance in humans compared to training with normal glycogen levels. Thus it is still unclear whether the benefits of consuming carbs during workouts outweigh the benefits of withholding carbs during workouts or vice versa.
Researchers from the Australian Institute of Sport recently sought to put this question to rest one way or the other. They divided a pool of trained cyclists and triathletes into separate groups and had each of them go through a 28-day block of training, with one group consuming carbs during every workout and the other group abstaining from carbohydrate intake during workouts. Performance was measured before and at the end of the training block in a cycling time trial. The researchers found that performance improved equally—7 percent on average—in both groups despite greater increases in carbohydrate-burning capacity in the carb group.
Obviously, the improvement in time trial performance was a result of the training and not to the provision or withholding of carbs during training. So it appears that the benefits of training with carbs are indeed counterbalanced by those of training without, at least in relation to high-intensity, moderate-duration time trial performance. One wonders if there might be an additive effect associated with mixing carb-fueled and non-carb-fueled workouts in training. In other words, would athletes who consumed carbs in some workouts and did not consume carbs in others get fitter than athletes who did just one or the other? I humbly propose that this be the next study done in this area.[sgi:MattFitzgerald]
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World's Strangest Towns
Deep in the California desert exists a strange, lawless town, where folks live without running water, yet create outdoor art installations and host concerts.
Slab City, CA, is unafraid to embrace its quirks, and it’s one of a rare breed of towns that draw travelers for their novelty factor at a time when the world feels increasingly homogeneous, teeming with high-rises and chain stores. After all, we’re not talking about just an offbeat tourist attraction; these places take strange to a whole new level.
Consider Thames Town: the Chinese knack for knockoffs has spawned this full-on replica of an English town in a suburb of Shanghai, complete with cobblestoned streets and red phone booths. Have a pint at the pub, post the photo to Facebook, and your friends will be none the wiser.
In upstate New York, Lily Dale is odd in an entirely different way, attracting an outsize population of mediums and psychics who claim to reconnect with the afterlife. Steven Cantor, who directed the recent HBO documentary No One Dies in Lily Dale, tried to capture the town’s peculiar energy.
“There are dozens of psychic mediums strolling the grounds, doling out messages from the beyond, particularly during regularly scheduled, immensely popular group sessions centered around an old tree stump, which they believe to be a vortex of spiritual energy,” says Cantor. “It’s something you have to see to believe.”
That sentiment applies to each of the strange towns that made our list, perhaps most of all Elista, a Russian town almost as passionate about chess—an enormous board covers much of the town square—as it is about Buddhism.
If you’re inspired to go hunting for the unusual, you may not have to look far. Just outside of Tampa, FL, there’s a town popular with retiring performers who keep circus trailers and elephants on their lawns. Your hometown might even take inspiration from a place in Australia that went to unconventional means to put itself on the tourist map—by covering its buildings in dozens of murals.
While every town has a story, these strange spots have the best punch lines.
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Why do women shame other women?
Yesterday was a day of crappy stories. Maybe you’ve had a day like that before. It’s the kind of day when everywhere you go, someone tells you about another yucky thing that they’ve experienced. It’s not always experiences of violence, sometimes its experiences of feeling belittled, disregarded, or shamed. The common theme in each of these stories for me was that they were stories of women shaming other women.
The sad truth is that this shaming happens a lot. It happens through eye rolling, gossiping, yelling, and blaming. It happens when a woman discounts the experience or opinion of another woman. It happens when we let things like age, gender identity, sexuality, race, socio economic status, or relationship status influence our determination of another woman’s worth. We even find ways to shame powerful and successful women, like some of the harsh critiques of Beyonce’s performance at the Super Bowl.
This shaming doesn’t make sense to me. It’s not okay, but the truth is that even I find myself doing it. My feminist framework has taught me that this shaming stems from internalized sexism. My feminist framework has also taught me the value of valuing other women. The world needs women’s stories. We have to make an effort to understand and cherish women’s experiences.
With that, I have two challenges for myself today. I am challenging myself first, and this one will be hard for me, to pause before I get snippy and examine the real reasons why I’m being so critical. My second challenge is to relate to the women around me in a way that builds them up rather than breaks them down. This probably won’t mean that I’ll wander around smiley and chipper and spouting compliments. It’s just going to mean that I will have mindful contributions and discussions, demonstrating that I appreciate what others are bringing to the table.
Consider taking a few moments to think before you act today. I really don’t believe that too many women out there start their mornings with the goal of making someone else feel bad today. What can you do to avoid becoming the antagonist in another woman’s story?
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The last thing Boeing needs right now is a strike but that may just happen after 11,000 technical workers voted to reject a new contract in a dispute that could shut its assembly lines.
As it races to bring the Dreamliner plane back into service, Boeing faces the prospect of wider disruption after 15,500 engineers said they too could strike even as they accepted a similar contract offer.
Many experts had expected the engineers to reject their contract too, and shares of Dow component Boeing were up slightly in premarket trading on the news.
But the possibility of a shutdown could hardly have come at a worse time for the embattled aircraft maker.
Boeing is scrambling to find a solution to the lithium battery fires that have grounded the 787 Dreamliner, a key aircraft for the company. Authorities in the United States and Japan are investigating the cause of two fires on the new jets, and Boeing says it has engineers working around the clock to try to find a solution to the problem.
But airlines' demand for the planes and Boeing's concerns about maintaining its supply chain have forced the company to continue to build Dreamliners at a rate of five a month, even though they can't deliver the completed jets to customers.
The union that represents engineers and technical workers, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), has not set a deadline for when the technical workers might walk off the job. It urged Boeing to return to negotiations to reach a new deal for tehcnical staff.
Boeing said in a statement it was "deeply disappointed" by the technical workers' vote, and described the contract offer as market leading. It did not say whether it would return to the bargaining table.
The contract includes a 5% increase in the annual wage pools for the two employee groups, which even the union leadership acknowledged was good. But the union objected to changes in pension benefits and retiree health care coverage. Previous contracts expired in November.
The last time SPEEA struck at Boeing in 2000, it shut down the company's aircraft production for 40 days.
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Most of our customers’ solar installations are grid-tied, which means they are connected to the utility. The solar panels on their roof- or ground-mounted arrays collect energy from the sun and generate DC electricity, which is converted to AC electricity and used for their homes’ electricity needs. Any excess energy is fed through their utility meters and into the electrical grid for other utility customers to use.
Benefits of Grid-Tied Solar Electric System
One great thing about being grid-tied is that it allows for net metering, which is the way the electric utility pays you back for excess electricity generated by your grid-tied solar system. The electric company credits your account for the electricity you contribute, spinning your meter backwards.
Another advantage of grid-tied solar systems are the financial incentives that offset part of the cost of going solar. Currently, the federal government offers a 30% income tax credit for grid-tied solar systems. Many state and local governments also offer incentives, commonly in the form of rebates and power generation credits.
Will Grid-Tied Solar Electric Systems Work During a Blackout?
The downside of a grid-tied solar system is that if the power goes out, you will be in the same boat as your neighbors. During a power interruption, your solar system’s inverter has a safety feature that shuts it down when it senses the lack of AC voltage from the utility. This prevents electricity from your solar panels from electrocuting technicians working on the power lines.
So even though your array may be producing power, you won’t be able to use it during a blackout.
While it’s possible to purchase a solar system with an additional inverter and battery bank, it greatly increases the cost (by about $15-$25K). With this setup, if the grid is down, the system will still charge your battery backup system. The size of your battery backup system would be determined by the load you would expect to meet during power outages. The price would vary depending on the number of appliances you want to run and the duration you’d want to be able to remain autonomous from the grid.
A grid-tied solar system is a great way to pay the utility less for electricity. But in the event of a power outage, the most economical solution for most people is to use a gas-powered generator for imperative electricity demands until the utility is back up and running.
If you would like to learn more, call 888.56.SOLAR or schedule your free solar evaluation.
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Parkersburg's strategic location at the confluence of the Little Kanawha and the Ohio River
aided its development as an industrial center. In 1810 the Virginia legislature passed an act to found the town. Improved transportation modes and routes to the area soon followed. West Virginia's first oil wells were drilled nearby in 1860, which made Parkersburg the supply and shipping point for the 'black gold' fields.
Parkersburg is part of the Parkersburg-Marietta, West Virginia-Ohio metro area.
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- Managing Construction >
- First Step: Get a Permit
First Step: Get a Permit
Here's your guide to getting a building permit from your municipality before starting construction work on your home.
- Photo: Flickr
Building application and approval processes vary from town to town and district to district, but most municipalities will review plans and approve them directly through the building or planning office. Some will let you pay the fee and walk away with the permit to post in your window.
Other municipalities will require an appearance before the zoning or planning board prior to issuing approval. How closely they monitor your project and how difficult your permit is to obtain depend on a number of factors, primarily the size of the addition, whether it can be seen from the exterior, the degree to which it impacts the building footprint, and where your house is located.
In San Antonio, TX, a standard building permit for additions under 1,000 square feet that are a single story tall can be obtained immediately. “For a residential room addition of less than 1,000 square feet, all we need is a site plan showing the dimensions and setbacks,” says Jacob Sanchez of the San Antonio Building Department. Any addition that is more than 1,000 square feet or is two stories tall or more requires a plan review. “The review takes anywhere from 10 to 15 days,” Sanchez says. For an additional fee, homeowners can put a rush on their review, cutting the wait time to about five days.
Building Permits in Historic Districts
For buildings located in an historic district — be it Texas or Massachusetts — the process is much more involved. Many homeowners would say that the hardest part about renovating a historic structure is obtaining the permit. Each historic district has its own guidelines and process for reviewing designs and approving permits. For some, approval centers on creating an addition that is seamless, blends with the original structure, and is constructed of like materials. In Rowley, MA, David Masher had to show how the design and materials used would blend with the original facade of his 1890 Victorian home. Masher had reviewed the Historic District Commission (HDC) document that outlines acceptable and unacceptable practices and materials prior to his appearance before the commission. “We told them we were in complete compliance with their document. If anything, we’re bringing the house back to its original condition,” he says.
Masher’s addition is visible from the street, which triggers an automatic review and approval signoff from the Rowley Historic District Commission. Masher, who had been through prior approvals, knew to be prepared. “You have to know when they meet and be prepared,” he says. “I came with a full set of plans with four views. I left the plans and a request for review three weeks before the meeting,” he says. That gave the board time to review the plans and prepare questions for the presentation. With the signoff from the District Commission and approval from the Conservation Commission that oversees the wetlands that abut his property, Masher was on his way to obtaining all signoffs for the permit.
In San Antonio, all additions to historic properties are reviewed by the Historic and Design Review Commission (HDRC). “Certainly, they will review a visible addition with greater scrutiny than one that is in the back and concealed from the front,” says Brian Chandler, senior planner with the City of San Antonio Historic Preservation Office. All applications for additions require a complete set of plans with floorplans, elevations, a site plan, and relevant photos of the property. “The HDRC will look at the following factors: scale and massing in relation to the existing structure and for the district overall, and materials,” according to Chandler. The goal is to blend the addition into the existing structure while maintaining the integrity of the neighborhood around it.
Purpose of Permits
In all cases, the intention is the same — the goal of the permitting process is to ensure that safe, appropriate, and historically sensitive additions are made to local buildings. Masher has been through the process repeatedly and understands the goals of his local HDC. “The point is to keep the character of our historic district,” he says, and to ensure that existing architecture is cared for and improved whenever possible. Chandler adds that new additions and structures must fit within the context of the existing built landscape and demonstrate a certain “compatibility with the existing historic and architectural integrity of a district.”
Unlike the Rowley HDC, the HDRC of San Antonio does review the specific materials used for any addition to a structure within the historic district. The purpose is to ascertain that the materials selected will complement the existing building while remaining distinct from the original structure. “They encourage compatibility of design and materials without replicating,” Chandler says. Not all preservation codes want a seamless addition; some, like San Antonio, want the building to read as a history that includes transitions and adaptations. These changes can then be read by later historians who review the building for adaptations and authenticity.
Every municipality has its own order of approvals to follow to obtain a building permit. They can be mundane — such as proving that taxes are up to date — or they can be a challenge. For Masher, the HDC approval was just one of many signoffs required for his permit. He had to have proof that his water, sewer, gas, electric, and tax payments were current, as well as approvals from the Historic District and Conservation Commissions.
In San Antonio, additional approvals may stem from the initial presentation to the Historic and Design Review Commission. “About four cases out of an average of 25 to 30 cases on an agenda will be sent to one of five different HDRC committees (sign, architecture, demolition, Riverwalk, and public art) for further review,” Chandler says. The commission may even require an on-site visit and interview with the applicant before a return appearance at the next meeting.
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- Severe migraine-like symptoms:
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Severe migraine-like symptoms: conditions which causes severe headache. See detailed information below for a list of 6 causes of Severe migraine-like symptoms, Symptom Checker, including diseases and drug side effect causes.
Home medical tests possibly related to Severe migraine-like symptoms:
Listed below are some combinations of symptoms associated with Severe migraine-like symptoms, as listed in our database. Visit the Symptom Checker, to add and remove symptoms and research your condition.
Review further information on Severe migraine-like symptoms Treatments.
Some of the comorbid or associated medical symptoms for Severe migraine-like symptoms may include these symptoms:
Research the causes of these more general types of symptom:
Research the causes of broader types of this symptom:
Research the causes of related medical symptoms such as:
Research the causes of these symptoms that are similar to, or related to, the symptom Severe migraine-like symptoms:
Read more about causes and Severe migraine-like symptoms deaths.
Leg cramps at night a classic sign: The symptom of having leg muscle cramps, particularly at night, is a classic sign of undiagnosed diabetes. However, there are also various other causes. See causes of leg cramps or misdiagnosis of diabetes....read more »
Mild traumatic brain injury often remains undiagnosed: Although the symptoms of severe brain injury are hard to miss, it is less clear for milder injuries, or even those causing a...read more »
MTBI misdiagnosed as balance problem: When a person has symptoms such as vertigo or dizziness, a diagnosis of brain injury may go overlooked. This is particularly true of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), for which the symptoms are...read more »
Post-concussive brain injury often misdiagnosed: A study found that soldiers who had suffered a concussive injury in battle often were misdiagnosed on their return. A variety of symptoms can occur in post-concussion syndrome...read more »
Children with migraine often misdiagnosed: A migraine often fails to be correctly diagnosed in pediatric patients. These patients are not the typical migraine sufferers, but migraines can also occur in children. See misdiagnosis of migraine or introduction to...read more »
Vitamin B12 deficiency under-diagnosed: The condition of Vitamin B12 deficiency is a possible misdiagnosis of various conditions, such as multiple sclerosis (see symptoms of multiple sclerosis). See symptoms of Vitamin B12...read more »
Other ways to find a doctor, or use doctor, physician and specialist online research services:
Rare types of medical conditions and diseases in related medical categories:
Conditions that are commonly undiagnosed in related areas may include:
The list below shows some of the causes of Severe migraine-like symptoms mentioned in various sources:
This information refers to the general prevalence and incidence of these diseases, not to how likely they are to be the actual cause of Severe migraine-like symptoms. Of the 6 causes of Severe migraine-like symptoms that we have listed, we have the following prevalence/incidence information:
The following list of conditions have 'Severe migraine-like symptoms' or similar listed as a symptom in our database. This computer-generated list may be inaccurate or incomplete. Always seek prompt professional medical advice about the cause of any symptom.
Select from the following alphabetical view of conditions which include a symptom of Severe migraine-like symptoms or choose View All.
Ask or answer a question about symptoms or diseases at one of our free interactive user forums.
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This information shows analysis of the list of causes of Severe migraine-like symptoms based
on whether certain risk factors apply to the patient:
Medical Conditions associated with Severe migraine-like symptoms:
Head symptoms (10192 causes), Pain symptoms (6458 causes), Sensory symptoms (7134 causes), Neurological symptoms (9575 causes), Sensations (6520 causes), Brain symptoms (2787 causes), Nerve symptoms (9132 causes), Common symptoms (8589 causes), Body symptoms (5672 causes)
Symptoms related to Severe migraine-like symptoms:
Doctor-patient articles related to symptoms and diagnosis:
These general medical articles may be of interest:
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More than one in seven Americans lives below the poverty line, the highest proportion in nearly two decades, and many cannot afford a lawyer to resolve non-criminal legal problems involving such issues as spousal abuse, eviction, child custody and consumer fraud. Government-financed legal-aid programs have long helped fill the gap, but the weak economy and enormous pressure on state and federal budgets are putting those programs at risk. The Legal Services Corp., a nonprofit that distributes federal funding to civil legal-aid programs nationwide, faces potentially steep budget cuts in Congress, and some conservatives want to end the program altogether. As money for legal-aid programs shrinks, a growing number of poor people are representing themselves in court -- often to their own detriment. Meanwhile, debate continues about whether the nation's 1 million private lawyers should be required to provide free legal help to the poor.
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Today I am honored to share a guest post by the astounding Michelle Simkins, aka Greenwoman, as part of her "Summer of Bloggerly Love" tour. The general theme: Love. I'm guest posting on her blog today, so be sure to visit. Here, I give you Michelle and her take on our lexicon of lurve. Nom nom nom!
Y'all, we have a problem. It goes a little something like this:
- a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
- a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
- sexual passion or desire.
- a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.
- (used in direct address as a term of endearment, affection, or the like): Would you like to see a movie, love?
- to have love or affection for: All her pupils love her.
- to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for (another person).
- to have a strong liking for; take great pleasure in: to love music.
- to need or require; benefit greatly from: Plants love sunlight.
- to embrace and kiss (someone), as a lover.
And those are just the official definitions. The dictionary forgot "to, like, really totally enjoy?" As in, "I love avocados." Or, "to find unbearably cute," as in "I love puppies."
And forget about defining love as "want to stalk" or "think you own". That's much deeper than I really want to go in this post.
Do you see my problem here? Our love lexicon SUCKS. We REALIZE there's an enormous difference between the affection we feel for a parent or child and sexual desire (unless, of course, you are reading The Collector's Edition of Victorian Erotica, in which it appears that people only have intimate encounters with their relatives or their teachers, or both. And usually there is a switch or riding crop involved somewhere. And excessive use of the word "lascivious". Not that I would know from experience or anything.) And we know that sometimes sexual desire comes without "profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person."
We won't talk about sexual desire and avocados.
The lack of terminology for the varieties of love and affection gets us in trouble all the time. If I tell you "I love you" on Twitter, chances are good that I don't mean "I want to spend the rest of my life with you and would jump in front of a speeding train to save you." Rather, my meaning probably falls somewhere between feelings of friendship and enjoyment of avocados. Probably I like you more than avocados, but it's hard to say. I like avocados an awful lot. So what do we do? I think we need a new Lexicon of Love, people. I would like to make some proposals toward that end. Let us consider the following terms.
aff could be used when we feel affection for someone, such as a child or a friend or someone with whom we've had meaningful interactions. "I aff you." I think it's cute, don't you? And then we'd have a new noun too. "She's my affie." It's like BFF. Only, more sincere (because let's face it, BFF's never ARE Best Friend's Forever.) But that's another blog post.
fam could be a term for affection such as we'd feel for a member of our family.We could use it to express not just familial love, but also the kind of deep friendship that we feel for our chosen families. "I fam my friend Linda.".
lust. We already HAVE a word for sexual passion and desire, and it's a good word. I think we should start using it more often. Dude, if you just want to sleep with someone, call a hard on a hard on. No need to say you love them; say "I lust after you", and nobody gets hurt.
nom is a perfect way to express our deep enjoyment of certain foods. "I totally nom avocados." Because nomming is more than eating, right? It's consuming with gustatory delight and enthusiasm. It is the love of the eating world.
wub: I have often seen casual love and affection spelled "luv" or "lub" or "wuv" or "wub". I have chosen "wub" because of it's similarity to web. And I propose that "wub" should henceforth be used to denote the specific variety of love we feel for those who amuse and delight us on the internet (or web). It is, you see, web love. I wub you, Feral Pony. I wub the Goat Posse. And none of you expect me to drop to one knee with a little velvet box. Unless, of course, it's a little velvet box full of avocados, and someone just kicked me in the leg.
If we adopt these or similar terms, we could then reserve the term "Love" for "profoundly tender, passionate affection" and avoid confusion. I would be free to express my feelings for the funny folk I meet on the internet without anyone showing up in my driveway with a UHaul and a Justice of the Peace.
And I'm definitely open to other suggestions. I know I have many friends who are more clever than I am and who can help me solve this linguistic problem.
Let's nom some avocados, affies. I wub you all.
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The Oakland Asian Cultural Center believes that culture and heritage play a critical role in building and maintaining vibrant and healthy communities. The Center showcases a wide range of cultural and artistic expression including: dance, literature, music, and the visual arts. OACC serves as a resource for understanding the legacy of Asians and Pacific Islanders and their unique influences on the cultural identities and enrichment of our communities. The Oakland Asian Cultural Centerís commitment to quality programming and services is designed to promote our evolving cultures and ultimately build bridges of understanding among all communities.
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This Polar Bear and two cubs were feeding on a just caught bearded seal. The polar bears keen sense of smell can detect a seal from a mile away and under three feet of snow. This image is from World's Deadliest.
A Nile crocodile (crocodylus niloticus) displaying its teeth in South Africa. They have up to 68 teeth - shed and replaced all their lives, to keep them sharp. The Nile croc is Africa's biggest reptile and the top predator in its rivers. It grows longer than five meters, and weighs more than 900 kilograms. This image is from World's Deadliest.
A Jumping spider has its fangs in a fly. The jumping spider has eight eyes and eight legs to work with. It has 360 degrees of vision and also great distance vision. This image is from World's Deadliest.
Brazil: A frog in the rainforest surrounding Jau National Park. Frogs are very sensitive to humidity so their abundance in the rainforest can be a good indication that the ecosystem is doing well. This image is from Access 360°: The Amazon.
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The Newark Museum’s collection of Art of the Americas includes both Native North American art, the focus of a permanent gallery, and Latin American art. Its holdings comprise over 4,500 objects with a geographic span from Alaska to Argentina and a time span from the pre-Columbian era to the present.
The strengths of the Native North American art collection lie in works produced in the western and central United States, although art from the Great Lakes, Southwest, Plains and California are also well represented. While there is some pre-contact material (primarily ceramic and stone artifacts), most of the works date from the 19th to the late 20th century. The collection represents the diversity and richness of indigenous arts with a range of object types, from tools and household objects, personal objects and clothing, to ritual and ceremonial objects, and paintings and drawings.
These collections were begun in the 1910s and have grown steadily since. Among the important early collections acquired by the Museum were those of Willard Olsen (Kuskokwim River, Alaska), Alfred Anderson (Coronation Gulf, Canada) and Amelia Elizabeth White (Southwest/Plains), who was an influential patron of Southwest Indian arts in Santa Fe during the 1920s and 1930s. Many fine examples of pueblo pottery date from this early period of collecting, including an exceptional Zuni storage jar currently on display. The collection of North American baskets is also comprehensive and includes many superb examples, including a number of magnificent Pomo feather baskets.
The Museum’s collection emphasizes the dynamic nature of Native American artistic traditions. The contemporary vitality of tradition-based forms is represented by recent work by outstanding Pueblo potters such as Elizabeth Naranjo and Margaret Tafoya, contemporary textiles by Ramona Sakiestewa and Juanita Tsosie, and recent baskets by Mohawk artists Mary Leaf and Mary Adams. In addition to tradition-based art made for local use, the Museum’s collection includes important examples of art produced for external markets over the past century. These include beadwork made by Tuscarora women for sale during the Victorian era, carvings by Haida artist Charles Edenshaw from the 1920s, watercolors by Pueblo artists from the 1920s and 1930s, and paintings by the Seneca artist Sanford Plummer from the 1930s and 1940s.
The Museum’s collection of Latin American art dates to the early decades of the museum’s founding. Its holdings collections range from pre-Columbian works, primarily from Mexico and Peru, to contemporary ceramics, household objects, clothing and textiles spanning a geographic range from Mexico to Argentina. Among the highlights of the collection are textiles from both Central and South America, represented by fine examples from Guatemala, Peru and Bolivia. Other strengths of the collection include popular arts from Mexico and art of the Peruvian Amazon, including outstanding examples of Shipibo pottery and weaving.
You can contact the Art of the Americas Department at email@example.com
Images top to bottom:
Eunice Carney, Dance Boots, Athapascan artist, Kutchin, Alaska, Mid-1980s, Moosehide, seed, beads, Purchase 1986, The Members Fund 86.32
Bandolier Bag, Western Great Lakes artist, Late 19th century, Broadcloth, wool, cotton, beads, brass buttons, Gift of Mrs. B. S. Comstock, 1924 24.27
Rose Gonzales, Bowl, ca. 1940, Pueblo artist, San Ildelfonso, New Mexico, Terracotta, Purchase 1979, Sophronia Anderson Bequest Fund 79.622
Juanita Rsosie, Christmas on the Navajo Reservation, 1970s, Navajo artist, Shiprock, New Mexico, Wool, Purchase 1977, Felix Fuld Bequest Fund 77.4B
All works shown here are from the Collection of Newark Museum.
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It’s often difficult to remain calm in the midst of a toddler’s storm. However, it is totally possible to redirect, or even teach your child when tempers are surging. Try one simple technique of breathing which is calming, and forcing deep breaths. The next time you feel frustrated, need to gain control, or address a misbehavior, take the time to smell the roses. Bring your fingers to your nose, as if holding a bouquet of rose buds, and breathe in, very deeply. Now, as if holding a lit candle in your left palm, blow it out, long and slow, exhaling everything. Even a young child can learn how to self-regulate, as he watches you take control by taking time to smell the roses! There are several other, very effective breathing, self-regulating techniques which children love to practice in the car or before bed. Take time to teach your child one technique each week, and within just over a month, you can prompt him to “fill up like a balloon”, “become a pretzel”, “drain out all the water (and stress!)”, and more. Children of all ages will be successful with these fun yoga positions and medatative breathing, while learning to calm down, self-regulate, and de-stress. Have fun together while you learn, relax and breathe deeply. Read the full article, “Control your temper, then teach your child”.
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Statins Won't Hurt, Might Even Help, Your Pancreas: Study
TUESDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Statins don't raise the risk of pancreatitis, a painful and potentially life-threatening inflammation, a new review finds.
Putting to rest concerns raised by previous research, this new study finds cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Lipitor (atorvastatin) and Zocor (simvastatin) may actually help ward off pancreatitis. The pooled analysis of 21 published and unpublished randomized, controlled trials -- the gold standard of medical research -- found that people taking statins were at 18 percent to 23 percent reduced chance of developing pancreatitis.
Researchers also looked at a class of drugs called fibrates, which doctors prescribe for people with high triglycerides, another type of blood fat. Their analysis found a slight, but statistically insignificant, increase of developing pancreatitis from fibrates.
"Statins seem to carry a previously unrecognized benefit of reducing pancreatitis risk, which actually contradicts what was previously reported in the literature," said senior study author Dr. David Preiss, a physician at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
The study is published in the Aug. 22/29 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The pancreas, an organ located behind the stomach, makes digestive enzymes and hormones including insulin.
Prior studies have suggested that statins may increase the risk of pancreatitis, but the new review of data from trials that included more than 150,000 participants found no such connection.
"This data give us confidence we don't need to worry about pancreatitis occurring from statin drugs," said Dr. Robert Eckel, past president of the American Heart Association and a professor of medicine at University of Colorado, in Denver.
Statins work by reducing LDL ("bad") cholesterol, and studies have shown this reduces heart attacks and strokes, he added.
The story with fibrates is more complicated. Fibrates help to reduce triglycerides, an unhealthy blood fat, while boosting HDL ("good") cholesterol. But studies on whether reducing levels of triglycerides using fibrates leads to a reduction in heart attacks and stroke have been mixed, experts said.
And very high triglyceride levels on their own are a risk factor for pancreatitis.
About 1 percent to 3 percent of people who develop pancreatitis die from it, Eckel said. Symptoms of pancreatitis include severe belly pain, nausea, vomiting and fever.
In the review, researchers examined data from seven randomized clinical trials of fibrates that included data on more than 40,000 participants. Patients, who were followed on average for more than five years, had slightly elevated triglyceride levels -- between 145 mg/dL to 184 mg/dL. (Normal is below 150 mg/dL, Eckel said.)
Among those patients, the analysis showed a slightly increased chance of developing pancreatitis while on fibrates, but it wasn't statistically significant.
Based on that finding, the authors said statins appear to be better than fibrates at preventing pancreatitis in people with slightly elevated triglyceride levels.
What's not covered in this review is what effect fibrates would have on people with higher triglycerides. Typically, when Eckel sees patients with very high triglyceride levels (above 1,000 mg/dL), he first puts them on a low-fat diet to bring down the levels to the 500 to 1,000 mg/dL range before prescribing fibrates.
"The fibrate trials gives us a hint that maybe there was a relationship between the fibrates and pancreatitis, but that wouldn't keep us from using fibrates to treat high triglycerides," Eckel said.
Overall, whether they were taking statins, fibrates or placebo, the number of people who developed pancreatitis in the trials was small -- less than 1 percent.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more on statins.
SOURCES: David Preiss, M.D., Ph.D., physician, University of Glasgow, Scotland; Robert Eckel, M.D., past president, American Heart Association and professor, medicine, University of Colorado, Denver; Aug. 22/29, 2012, Journal of the American Medical Association
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House Giveaway to Big Oil Jeopardizes America's Wildlife
Bill would open up millions of acres of protected offshore federal waters and sell off 400,000 acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed HR 3408, the natural resources section of the transportation bill. The bill would open up millions of acres of protected offshore federal waters in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans, and in Alaska's salmon factory, Bristol Bay. It requires the Interior Department to sell 125,000 acres of commercial oil shale. The bill also mandates the selling off 400,000 acres of the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas companies and requires the building of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said today:
"When your public approval rating shrinks smaller than your shoe size, it's a good time to start siding with the American public instead of the extreme agenda of oil lobbyists. This bill would recklessly jeopardize some of America's most iconic wildlife, from the Arctic's polar bears to the Atlantic's humpback whales, while forcing the approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline even before a route is determined. While the Senate is doing the hard work of crafting a bipartisan compromise, House Republican leadership seems content to send a belated valentine to Big Oil that has no chance of becoming law.
"And for what? Oil drilling is currently at an eight-year high, yet drivers are paying gas prices that are near all-time highs. And even under the Congressional Budget Office's best-case scenario, it would take years for drilling revenues to produce less than one percent of the revenues needed to fund the overall transportation bill. As the natural resources we all value are put at risk, the benefits are concentrated in the hands of the few, like the five biggest oil companies that posted $135 billion in profits last year alone."
Cross-posted from NWF's Media Center.
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Consumerism, DVDs/Books, Economics, Food Shortages, Society, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 30, 2011
Download the Food and Democracy e-book
To give some excellent reading for the readerholics amongst you, regular contributor Marcin Gerwin has put together an excellent collection of articles to create a highly readable e-book focusing on food sovereignty — the necessity for it, the challenges to achieve it, and the solutions associated with it.
Produced by 17 authors from around the world, attacking the same topic and interconnected issues from different angles, this is a great read and is not only a valuable overview of the crisis we face but ships with excellent holistic suggestions for how we can extricate ourselves from it.
Read it, enjoy it, and please do circulate it!
Nice work Marcin!Comments (7)
Deforestation, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Population, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Earth Policy Institute August 28, 2011
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
Photo © Craig Mackintosh
People do not normally leave their homes, their families, and their communities unless they have no other option. Yet as environmental stresses mount, we can expect to see a growing number of environmental refugees. Rising seas and increasingly devastating storms grab headlines, but expanding deserts, falling water tables, and toxic waste and radiation are also forcing people from their homes.
Advancing deserts are now on the move almost everywhere. The Sahara desert, for example, is expanding in every direction. As it advances northward, it is squeezing the populations of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria against the Mediterranean coast. The Sahelian region of Africa—the vast swath of savannah that separates the southern Sahara desert from the tropical rainforests of central Africa—is shrinking as the desert moves southward. As the desert invades Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, from the north, farmers and herders are forced southward, squeezed into a shrinking area of productive land. A 2006 U.N. conference on desertification in Tunisia projected that by 2020 up to 60 million people could migrate from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa and Europe.Comments (4)
Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society — by Earth Policy Institute August 16, 2011
In late August 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approached the U.S. Gulf Coast, more than 1 million people were evacuated from New Orleans and the small towns and rural communities along the coast. Once the storm passed, it was assumed that the million or so Katrina evacuees would, as in past cases, return to repair and rebuild their homes. Some 700,000 did return, but close to 300,000 did not. They are no longer evacuees. They are the first large wave of modern climate refugees.
One of the defining characteristics of our time is the swelling flow of environmental refugees, including those displaced as a warmer climate brings more-destructive storms and rising seas. The prospect for this century is a rise in sea level of up to 6 feet. Even a 3-foot rise would inundate parts of many low-lying cities, major river deltas, and island countries. Among the early refugees will be millions of rice-farming families from Asia’s river deltas, those who will watch their fields sink below the rising sea.Comments (1)
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Markets & Outlets, Processing & Food Preservation, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Genevieve Hopkins August 15, 2011
Have you heard about the Australian Government’s proposed National Food Plan? Nope? Neither had we until we read an article in the most recent newsletter from Green Pages stating that Senator Joe Ludwig has extended the deadline for submissions until September 2. Don’t get us wrong, we’re supportive of extending the deadline but we are very concerned that this is the first time we’ve heard anything about the government’s efforts to develop a national plan for our food production, supply and consumption.Comments (5)
Deforestation, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Rhamis Kent August 9, 2011
A comprehensive, lasting security is created through giving people a viable means to provide for themselves.
The ultimate goal should be to enable the country of Somalia and its people to create a self-sustaining economy of their own. Only then will there be a meaningful, lasting peace.Comments (1)
Biodiversity, Deforestation, Food Shortages, Soil Erosion & Contamination — by Earth Policy Institute August 3, 2011
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
The thin layer of topsoil that covers much of the earth’s land surface is the foundation of civilization. As long as soil erosion on cropland does not exceed new soil formation, all is well. But once it does, it leads to falling soil fertility and eventually to land abandonment. As countries lose their topsoil through overgrazing, overplowing, or deforestation, they eventually lose the capacity to feed themselves. Among those facing this problem are Lesotho, Haiti, Mongolia, and North Korea.Comments (1)
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, People Systems, Population, Society, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 28, 2011
In a world of decreasing energy excess, will ancient hostilities get reignited or defused? What will peak oil and economic collapse mean for our human relationships if we fail to prepare for the stress ahead?
“It was a dark and misty night…”
So begins many a dramatic work of fiction. I am not going to begin a novel in this way – rather, just a short description of my first major contact with a Roma (known as ‘Gypsy’ to many in the North, but this word is regarded as derogatory by many Roma).
It was only my second visit to this region, in December 1993, and on this very cold and bleak night I almost got into a physical scuffle with a rather large and inebriated Roma man, due to some very inappropriate attentions he was giving my wife – and every other attractive female, one by one, on the train we were travelling on. We were travelling from Prague to central Slovakia – a seven-hour journey through the night to our stop – and, being the eve of Christmas eve, the train was absolutely jam-packed with people trying to return to their families, many from working in Prague or Germany. After coming to the aid of my wife, I was quickly surrounded by several of his Roma friends. In such circumstances, one has visions of being thrown off the train into the snow, or worse. Through translation they learned the ‘woman’ was my wife, and one man subsequently apologised for his friend. The Mexican standoff was seemingly defused.Comments (6)
Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 27, 2011
Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition movement, gives a great TED Talk.
Biodiversity, Community Projects, Deforestation, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Terraces, Village Development, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 26, 2011
Many of you will remember the inspiring and encouraging example of earth restoration found in the story of the Loess Plateau in China (see links at bottom). John Liu was the man heavily involved in this amazing and very large scale initiative. In this new video, below, you’ll see Mr. Liu turning his eyes toward Africa, where Rwanda is now the focus of an earnest bid to restore its degraded forests and farmland, whilst simultaneously improving the lives of the communities they host. You’ll see many excellent examples of holistic thinking in this short documentary.
You’ll also learn of the praiseworthy work of Dr. Rene Haller, whose observational skills are highly adept at tailoring biological solutions towards rehabilitating the most degraded of lands.
Rwanda – Forests of Hope
Duration: 26 minutes
Conservation, Food Shortages, Irrigation, Regional Water Cycle, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Earth Policy Institute July 22, 2011
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
Many countries are facing dangerous water shortages. As world demand for food has soared, millions of farmers have drilled too many irrigation wells in efforts to expand their harvests. As a result, water tables are falling and wells are going dry in some 20 countries containing half the world’s people. The overpumping of aquifers for irrigation temporarily inflates food production, creating a food production bubble that bursts when the aquifer is depleted.
The shrinkage of irrigation water supplies in the big three grain-producing countries—the United States, India, and China—is of particular concern. Thus far, these countries have managed to avoid falling harvests at the national level, but continued overexploitation of aquifers could soon catch up with them.Comments (1)
Biodiversity, Biofuels, Community Projects, Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Economics, Energy Systems, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Land, Markets & Outlets, People Systems, Society, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling — by I-SIS July 20, 2011
Small integrated farms with off-grid renewable energy may be the perfect solution to the food and financial crisis while mitigating and adapting to climate change
A Sarvodaya villager sells a diverse range of organic produce roadside
– with more than 95% of it grown behind the stall, and by her own family
Photo © copyright Craig Mackintosh
In a Nutshell
An emerging scientific consensus that a shift to small scale sustainable agriculture and localized food systems will address most, if not all the underlying causes of deteriorating agricultural productivity as well as the conservation of natural soil and water resources while saving the climate.Comments (1)
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Land, News, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 17, 2011
This is by-law madness, and it’ll have to change…. I rather blatantly encourage everyone to disregard dumb rules like this which would stop you from increasing your resiliency and demonstrating better use of your lawn space. The more of us who rebel against absurdity, the easier it becomes to legalise sustainability. I just hope you’ll be smart enough to ensure that your lawn-liberation is done whilst keeping aesthetic standards high as well (i.e. don’t give people justifiable reason to complain!). Julie Bass’ nice tidy veggie planters, which you’ll see in the videos below, are a good example, and only reflect all the more poorly on the neighbours who have complained and the local government who are obviously wholly ignorant of where we presently stand in history….
Vegetables are most definitely suitable!Comments (23)
Biofuels, Economics, Food Shortages — by F. William Engdahl July 14, 2011
Editor’s Note: When I got to the final sub-heading, ‘New Global Dustbowls’, I thought Engdahl (who I’ve come across before, and also ran a couple of articles in a previous editorial role) has started to understand the soil connection in all this as well, but unfortunately (in my opinion) he bottomed out by closing on solar flares…. Despite missing the peak energy component, and the biomass/CO2 relationship and implications of all this, many of the points he covers here are well worth going through and taking note of. In short, it’s a long but worthy read that well covers the mechanics that have been, and still are, shaping a rather disastrous future.
My late grandfather, a man of sturdy Norwegian-American farm stock, who later became a newspaper editor and political activist during the First World War, used to say, ‘A man can get used to pretty much anything with time, except dying…and even that with some practice.’ Well, as fate has it, it seems we, the vast majority of the human race, are about to test that adage in regard to the availability of our daily bread itself.
Food is one of those funny things it’s hard to live without. We all tend to take it for granted that our local supermarket will continue to offer whatever we wish, in abundance, at affordable prices or nearly so. Yet living without adequate food is the growing prospect facing hundreds of millions, if not billions, of us over the coming years.Comments (6)
Biodiversity, Consumerism, Economics, Fish, Food Shortages — by George Monbiot July 12, 2011
Click for larger view
Courtesy: Marc Roberts
Have I just witnessed the beginning of the end of vertebrate ecology?
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom
Last year I began to wonder, this year doubt is seeping away, to be replaced with a rising fear. Could they really have done it? Could the fishing industry have achieved the remarkable feat of destroying the last great stock?Comments (14)
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Dams, Demonstration Sites, Earth Banks, Education Centres, Food Shortages, GMOs, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Irrigation, Land, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Conservation, Swales, Terraces, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 7, 2011
I’m adding the following clips as a positive supplement to the preceding post. I think it’s important to see that positive work is happening, and that GMOs are not only not needed, but they are a definite threat to these excellent efforts. Permaculturists working, or intending to work, in Kenya could potentially find ways to network with organisations like these, and to offer extra design tools to further strengthen their efforts.
The first video is from the Grow Biointensive Agricultural Center of Kenya (G-BIACK), who look to be doing some great on-the-ground work to educate and transform Kenyan communities and help them return to more resilient, affordable and healthy agricultural and community systems.
This second clip, from The Haller Foundation, will be especially appreciated by permaculturists — it’s a fantastic video show-casing some excellent permaculture action, also in Kenya:Comments (4)
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The Main Street Journal
Restoring Trust In Our EconomyJames S. Henry and Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 07.21.10, 06:00 PM EDT
Page 4 of 4
The New Deal
These five fixes are simple enough for even Tim Geithner and Larry Summers to get. Compared with other recent reforms, they would also be relatively easy to implement. Most important, they'd provide clear solutions to our economic woes that people would finally be able to trust.
Do you trust the government? Wall Street? Big corporations? Don't trust anyone? Click here for Forbes' complete package on "The Trust Gap."
James S. Henry is an economist, lawyer and investigative journalist and former chief economist for McKinsey & Co. He is the author of Banqueros y Lavadolares (1996),The Blood Bankers(2005), and Pirate Bankers (forthcoming). Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a professor of economics at Boston University and author of Jimmy Stewart Is Dead--Ending the World's Financial Plague with Limited Purpose Banking.
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In the Digital Era, it’s imperative that your company get on board with signing up for social media websites to stay in touch with customers. However, just signing up isn’t enough; there’s an art to reaching out to customers in the right way. Posting relevant information and posting often enough without customers feeling that there’s too much or too little information coming from your company via social media websites isn’t easy, but knowing how and why your company needs to use social media websites is important to its continued success. Some of the greatest social media pages have been on vague topics such as car insurance, fitness, and energy drinks!
Utilizing social media to keep your company’s public image positive is the best way that you can take advantage of this technology. Customers like to be kept in the know regarding business decisions, new products, or information about current products or events. Many websites, such as insurance comparison websites, will use social media to broadcast on how one can save money on a particle plan. If regular companies use social media websites, then every type of business should!
One complaint that customers have time and time again is that companies keep them in the dark about updates, especially when something goes wrong. Take the recent hack of the PlayStation Network, for example. Despite Sony’s presence on a myriad of different social networking websites, plus their own blog on their company website, customers grew hostile towards the brand when it failed to disclose information regarding the safety of their personal information.
Whether things are going right or wrong, one thing customers appreciate is information. Hearing it straight from your company is going to quell nasty rumors and keep customers loyal. The brief updates allowed by Twitter are perfect for letting customers know what’s going on in the company.
Personalized Customer Service
If you have a relatively small company, you can use social media websites as a way to allow customers to give you feedback and to respond to said feedback. For example, you can use Facebook to allow customers to post comments or complaints, and have an employee respond to those complaints individually.
This gives customers a voice, and lets them know that you are listening more than receiving a canned response via email would. Additionally, it answers questions that other customers are probably curious about, and lets you know if you need to make changes to your product or service.
Driving Traffic to Your Website
Having a strong presence in all types of social media will allow you to drive more traffic to your company website. Every profile you make on a social networking website will have a link to your company website, meaning every outlet you use drives traffic to your website. To put it simply, more social media means more traffic, which means more business.
Some companies believe that simply signing up for social media websites is enough to get their name out there. However, keeping the profile current and interacting with customers is what makes social media so valuable to companies. Some of the best social media websites are from companies in the areas of car insurance and credit cards. If you’re going to sign up for social media websites, make sure that you take the time to include relevant information about the company in the company profile, and intend to update the profile regularly.
Depending on the size of your company, it may be beneficial to hire a person that is dedicated to interacting with customers through the use of social media. If you have a very small company, this task can probably be delegated to a current employee in addition to their current responsibilities.
Employees that interact with customers via social media should either be marketing professionals, or at least skilled in interpersonal relations, with some experience in customer service.
Grow Your Customer Base
Social media gets your brand name out there, but you can gain more customers by offering their first try of your product or service free or at a significant discount. Devise a plan to allow customers that “follow” your company on social media websites to have access to special coupons that are only available to social media users. That way, you get customers in the door to try your product, and you now have them keeping up with what your company is doing, in addition to new offers or products that may be available.
The use of social media is a great way to grow your business and keep in touch with your customer base. Knowing how to use social media in a way that will benefit your company is important, and keeping one employee dedicated to keeping your company’s social media presence up to date will help your company move along the road to success.
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The DSLR Filmmaker's Handbook: Real-World Production Techniques
Other Available Formats: E-book
Shooting HD Video with a video-enabled DSLR has many benefits and some tricky drawbacks that digital filmmakers and videographers can overcome to get professional results. The DSLR Filmmaker's Handbook helps filmmakers harness the HD video capabilities of their DSLRs to create professional-level video. Packed with professionally-tested techniques, this indispensible book serves as a training guide for the complex steps that must be taken before, during, and after filming.
- Teaches you the key tools and techniques for using your DSLR to shoot high-quality, professional-level video
- Distills dense information about filmmaking and filters it down to easily understood granules
- Shows you what to expect and what to avoid with your DSLR and how to maximize the visual look of your film
- Shares tools and techniques that have been used in real-world, independent movie-making environments
The DSLR Filmmaker's Handbook shows you how to overcome any tricky drawbacks that you may face while shooting HD video with your DSLR.
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By Kathleen Murphy
Don't mispronounce the name of the state of Arkansas. It's
AR-kin-saw by state law.
The legislature established the proper pronunciation of Arkansas
in 1881, and it's only one of thousands of odd state laws
on the books across the country.
Be careful, for example, not to hunt birds from an airplane
in Tennessee; its illegal. And dont think of popping
a champagne cork in Colorado on Christmas Day.
As 36 legislatures meet this month, lawmakers will be focused
more on writing new laws than on ridding the statute books
of bizarre or obsolete rules. But the dusty dinosaurs of the
legal code--while good for a few laughs and even the basis
of a board gameare a bugaboo for a few fussy statehouse
watchers who want to clean the slate.
Erasing odd laws has been a life's work for former Colorado
state lawmaker Jerry Kopel. Once a copy editor for the Rocky
Mountain News, Kopel, 76, combs the Colorado law books, which
now measure 34 inches end-to-end, and annually urges the legislature
to repeal outdated statutes. Last year, he inspired lawmakers
to get rid of a law that encouraged cities to build housing
developments for World War II veterans.
As long as I'm breathing, I'm going to be getting rid
of obsolete statutes," Kopel said.
Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who is to be a visiting
fellow at Harvard University this spring, proposed setting
aside every fourth year for reviewing, updating or deleting
laws. That way we won't get endless, obsolete laws piling
up on the books," Ventura said in his 1999 book I Aint
Got Time to Bleed.
Venturas idea didnt catch on in Minnesota, but
last year Nevada and Michigan did rub out some of their outdated
statutes. Nevada repealed a 1969 law that made it a misdemeanor
for anyone other than a barber to advertise haircuts. Michigan
jettisoned a requirement that a horse- or mule-drawn sleigh
must have "bells attached to at least one of the animals
in such a manner as to warn foot travelers of its approach."
Antiquated laws are rarely enforced. Still, said Michigan
state Sen. Tom George, R-Kalamazoo, If you have laws
on the books that are so outdated that they appear ludicrous,
it can undermine people's faith in the law. And law enforcement
always has the discretion to enforce laws. If it's on the
books, they may decide to enforce it, and that may distract
from more important things."
In 1998, for example, a Michigan canoeist faced charges for
cursing aloud under a statute enacted in 1897. The obscene-speech
law prohibited cussing or using vulgar or insulting language
within earshot of women or children. The American Civil Liberties
Union took on the canoeists case, and a Michigan court
struck down the law in 2002.
Odd laws long have had entertainment value. Even William
Shakespeare poked fun at outdated rules in his 1623 play,
Measure for Measure, in which a main character is threatened
with death for violating outdated marriage customs.
These days, chronicling laws like Michigans cussing
prohibition has been a profitable hobby for Jeff Koon, who
started a list of peculiar statutes as a high school student
in 1998 and posted them on a Web site, DumbLaws.com
Koon and fellow Georgian Andy Powell recently created The
Real Dumb Laws board game and wrote a 2002 book based
on their findings, You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire
Hydrant. A Michigan law that forbids tying an animal to a
fire hydrant inspired the title.
Among hundreds of other doozies they turned up:
"It helps keep things in perspective. A lot of people
are able to relate to these laws because these laws come from
all over. Every state has dumb laws," said Koon, a University
of Georgia sophomore.
Historians debate whether Arkansas prescribed pronunciation
stems from a you-say-tomato-I-say-tomahto tiff
between the state's two U.S. senators. The diction dispute
has inspired many tall tales, including that the law resulted
from the statesmens concern about how they were introduced
on the U.S. Senate floor, said Steve Chism, a University of
Arkansas librarian. The rhetorical problem is that Arkansas
lies just down the Arkansas River from Kansas (pronounced
KAN-sas.) The river, by the way, is pronounced AR-kin-saw
in Arkansas and ar-KAN-sas in Kansas.
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Download the Free Unbound MEDLINE PubMed App to your smartphone or tablet.
Available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Android.
Med Eng Phys [journal]
- Biomechanical analysis of different types of pedicle screw augmentation: A cadaveric and synthetic bone sample study of instrumented vertebral specimens. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
- Med Eng Phys 2013 May 11.
This study aims to determine the pull-out strength, stiffness and failure pull-out energy of cement-augmented, cannulated-fenestrated pedicle screws in an osteoporotic cadaveric thoracolumbar model, and to determine, using synthetic bone samples, the extraction torques of screws pre-filled with cement and those with cement injected through perforations. Radiographs and bone mineral density measurements from 32 fresh thoracolumbar vertebrae were used to define specimen quality. Axial pull-out strength of screws was determined through mechanical testing. Mechanical pull-out strength, stiffness and energy-to-failure ratio were recorded for cement-augmented and non-cement-augmented screws. Synthetic bone simulating a human spinal bone with severe osteoporosis was used to measure the maximum extraction torque. The pull-out strength and stiffness-to-failure ratio of cement pre-filled and cement-injected screws were significantly higher than the non-cement-augmented control group. However, the cement pre-filled and cement-injected groups did not differ significantly across these values (p=0.07). The cement pre-filled group had the highest failure pull-out energy, approximately 2.8 times greater than that of the cement-injected (p<0.001), and approximately 11.5 times greater than that of the control groups (p<0.001). In the axial pull-out test, the cement-injected group had a greater maximum extraction torque than the cement pre-filled group, but was statistically insignificant (p=0.17). The initial fixation strength of cannulated screws pre-filled with cement is similar to that of cannulated screws injected with cement through perforations. This comparable strength, along with the heightened pull-out energy and reduced extraction torque, indicates that pedicle screws pre-filled with cement are superior for bone fixation over pedicle screws injected with cement.
- Assessment of gait sensitivity norm as a predictor of risk of falling during walking in a neuromusculoskeletal model. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
- Med Eng Phys 2013 May 10.
Quantifying the risk of falling (falls risk) would be helpful in treating people with gait disorders. The gait sensitivity norm (GSN) is a stability measure that correlates well to risk of falling in passive dynamic walkers but has not been evaluated on humans or human-like walking models. We assessed the correlation of GSN to risk of falling in a neuromusculoskeletal (NMS) walking model. Specifically, we evaluated the correlation of GSN to the actual disturbance rejection (ADR) of the model and the sensitivity of this relationship to gait parameter, Poincaré section selection and steady state variability correction. Statistically significant results at p<0.05 were obtained for some of the gait indicators evaluated at the point in the gait cycle where they were most variable. The correlation between GSN and ADR was sensitive to gait indicator and Poincaré sections evaluated but not to steady state variability correction. The current work suggests some simple steps to reduce the sensitivity of GSN to arbitrary and subjective factors. Overall, the findings support the potential of GSN to be a clinically applicable measure of falls risk. Further study is required to identify methods to more definitively select the various factors within the GSN calculation and to confirm its ability to predict falls risk in human subjects.
- Evaluating and improving the quality of time-dependent, diffuse reflectance spectroscopic signals measured from in vivo brain during craniotomy. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
- Med Eng Phys 2013 May 10.
BACKGROUND:Optical spectroscopy can be used to assess the pathophysiological characteristics of diseased and injured biological tissue in vivo in a non-destructive way. It is often used in conjunction with a contact optical probe for the purposes of operating and sensing in a sterile field. Since the probe is often held by the hand of an investigator during data acquisition, any hand instability can affect the quality of acquired data and, hence, degrade the accuracy of diagnosis. This study was designed to quantitatively characterize these artifacts, and then propose an effective engineering solution to remove them.
METHODS:Time-dependent diffuse reflectance spectra (Rd(λ,t)) were acquired from the normal cortex region of pediatric patients undergoing epilepsy surgery. They were acquired at a rate of 33Hz, and their range was 400 and 900nm. Two distinct ways of collecting data were tested: one with the fiber optical probe held by the surgeon's hand during data acquisition, and the other with the probe held by a specially designed probe holder. The probe holder was designed and constructed to minimize the variations in probe contact pressure and contact point for the full duration of any given investigation. Spectral data acquired using versus not using the probe holder were characterized and compared in the time, wavelength, and frequency domains, using both descriptive and inferential statistics.
RESULTS:Hand motion manifested as strong random variations in Rd(λ,t) which impacted temporal and frequency characteristics of Rd(λ,t). The percentage standard deviation %STD of Rd(λ,t) acquired without probe holder could be as high as 60%, and they are significantly higher than those with probe holder at all wavelengths. This difference is especially prominent between 400 and 600nm. Rd(λ,t) acquired without the probe holder also processed a higher spectral power energy in the frequency domain than those with the probe holder. The correlation analysis revealed that the hand motions induced synchronistic variations in Rd(λ,t) between 600 and 800nm, but this synchronicity is not obvious between 400 and 600nm.
CONCLUSION:The results of this investigation demonstrate the nature and the magnitude of hand motion induced artifacts in in vivo diffuse reflectance spectra and propose one potential solution (i.e., a probe holder) to remove them. These findings allow us to improve the quality of time-dependent, diffuse reflectance signals acquired to study the dynamic characteristics of biological tissues, like brain, in vivo.
- Spectral analysis of intracranial pressure signals recorded during infusion studies in patients with hydrocephalus. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
- Med Eng Phys 2013 May 8.
Hydrocephalus includes a number of disorders characterised by clinical symptoms, enlarged ventricles (observable using neuroimaging techniques) and altered cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics. Infusion tests are one of the available procedures to study CSF circulation in patients with clinical and radiological features of hydrocephalus. In them, intracranial pressure (ICP) is deliberately raised and CSF circulation disorders evaluated through measurements of the resulting ICP. In this study, we analysed seventy-seven ICP signals recorded during infusion tests using four spectral-based parameters: median frequency (MF) and relative power (RP) in three frequency bands. These measures provide a novel perspective for the analysis of ICP signals in the frequency domain. Each signal was divided into four artefact-free epochs (corresponding to the basal, early infusion, plateau and recovery phases of the infusion study). The four spectral parameters were calculated for each epoch. We analysed differences between epochs of the infusion test and correlations between these epochs and patient data. Statistically significant differences (p<1.7×10(-3), Bonferroni-corrected Wilcoxon signed-rank tests) were found between epochs of the infusion test using MF and RP. Furthermore, some spectral parameters (MF in the basal phase, RP for the first frequency band and in the early infusion phase, RP for the second frequency band and in all phases of the infusion study and RP in the third frequency band and in the basal phase) revealed significant correlations (p<0.01) between epochs of the infusion test and signal amplitude in the basal and plateau phases. Our results suggest that spectral analysis of ICP signals could be useful for understanding CSF dynamics in hydrocephalus.
- The influence of elastic upstream artery length on fluid-structure interaction modeling: A comparative study using patient-specific cerebral aneurysm. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
- Med Eng Phys 2013 May 7.
Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations using a patient-specific geometry are carried out to investigate the influence the length of elastic parent artery and the position of constraints in the solid domain on the accuracy of patient-specific FSI simulations. Three models are tested: Long, Moderate, and Short, based on the length of the elastic parent artery. All three models use same wall thickness (0.5mm) and the elastic modulus (5MPa). The maximum mesh displacement is the largest for the Long model (0.491mm) compared to other models (0.3mm for Moderate, and 0.132mm for Short). The differences of hemodynamic and mechanical variables, aneurysm volume and cross-sectional area between three models are all found to be minor. In addition, the Short model takes the least amount of computing time of the three models (11h compared to 21h for Long and 19h for Moderate). The present results indicate that the use of short elastic upstream artery can shorten the time required for patient-specific FSI simulations without impacting the overall accuracy of the results.
- Validation of multiple subject-specific finite element models of unicompartmental knee replacement. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
- Med Eng Phys 2013 May 3.
Accurate computer modelling of the fixation of unicompartmental knee replacements (UKRs) is a valuable design tool. However, models must be validated with in vitro mechanical tests to have confidence in the results. Ten fresh-frozen cadaveric knees with differing bone densities were CT-scanned to obtain geometry and bone density data, then implanted with cementless medial Oxford UKRs by an orthopaedic surgeon. Five strain gauge rosettes were attached to the tibia and femur of each knee and the bone constructs were mechanically tested. They were re-tested following implanting the cemented versions of the implants. Finite element models of four UKR tibiae and femora were developed. Sensitivity assessments and convergence studies were conducted to optimise modelling parameters. The cemented UKR pooled R(2) values for predicted versus measured bone strains were 0.85 and 0.92 for the tibia and femur respectively. The cementless UKR pooled R(2) values were slightly lower at 0.62 and 0.73 which may have been due to the irregularity of bone resections. The correlation of the results was attributed partly to the improved material property prediction method used in this project. This study is the first to validate multiple UKR tibiae and femora for bone strain across a range of specimen bone densities.
- A statistical finite element model of the knee accounting for shape and alignment variability. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
- Med Eng Phys 2013 May 3.
By characterizing anatomical differences in size and shape between subjects, statistical shape models enable population-based evaluations in biomechanics. Statistical models have largely focused on individual bones with application to implant sizing, bone fracture and osteoarthritis; however, in joint mechanics applications, the statistical models must consider the geometry of multiple structures of a joint and their relative position. Accordingly, the objectives of this study were to develop a statistical shape and alignment modeling (SSAM) approach to characterize the intersubject variability in bone morphology and alignment for the structures of the knee, to demonstrate the statistical model's ability to describe variability in a training set and to generate realistic instances for use in finite element evaluation of joint mechanics. The statistical model included representations of the bone and cartilage for the femur, tibia and patella from magnetic resonance images and relative alignment of the structures at a known, loaded position in an experimental knee simulator for a training set of 20 specimens. The statistical model described relationships or modes of variation in shape and relative alignment of the knee structures. By generating new 'virtual subjects' with physiologically realistic knee anatomy, the modeling approach can efficiently perform investigations into joint mechanics and implant design which benefit from population-based considerations.
- Effect of wheelchair mass, tire type and tire pressure on physical strain and wheelchair propulsion technique. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
- Med Eng Phys 2013 May 1.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of wheelchair mass, solid vs. pneumatic tires and tire pressure on physical strain and wheelchair propulsion technique. 11 Able-bodied participants performed 14 submaximal exercise blocks on a treadmill with a fixed speed (1.11m/s) within 3 weeks to determine the effect of tire pressure (100%, 75%, 50%, 25% of the recommended value), wheelchair mass (0kg, 5kg, or 10kg extra) and tire type (pneumatic vs. solid). All test conditions (except pneumatic vs. solid) were performed with and without instrumented measurement wheels. Outcome measures were power output (PO), physical strain (heart rate (HR), oxygen uptake (VO2), gross mechanical efficiency (ME)) and propulsion technique (timing, force application). At 25% tire pressure PO and subsequently VO2 were higher compared to 100% tire pressure. Furthermore, a higher tire pressure led to a longer cycle time and contact angle and subsequently lower push frequency. Extra mass did not lead to an increase in PO, physical strain or propulsion technique. Solid tires led to a higher PO and physical strain. The solid tire effect was amplified by increased mass (tire×mass interaction). In contrast to extra mass, tire pressure and tire type have an effect on PO, physical strain or propulsion technique of steady-state wheelchair propulsion. As expected, it is important to optimize tire pressure and tire type.
- Peri-implant bone microstructure determines dynamic implant cut-out. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
- Med Eng Phys 2013 Apr 24.
Dynamic implant cut-out is a frequent complication associated with surgical fracture fixation. In this in vitro study, we investigated the influence of the local trabecular bone microstructure on the rate and path of implant migration. Dynamic hip screws were implanted into six human femoral head specimens with a wide range of bone volume fractions. The specimens were subjected to image-guided failure assessment using physiological dynamic hip loading. Mechanical testing was used intermittently with high-resolution computed tomography scanning. A high correlation was found between the bone volume fraction and implant migration (R(2)=0.95). Profiles of the bone-implant interface were computed based on the positions of the screw and the femoral head. With a larger interface, the implant migration rate was smaller. The bone-implant interface was significantly smaller on the approximated screw migration path than if it had been on a straight line in loading direction. We thus hypothesize that implants migrate on a path of least resistance. This would indicate a relevant mechanism for targeted surgical intervention.
- A finite element analysis of bone plates available for prophylactic internal fixation of the radial osteocutaneous donor site using the sheep tibia model. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
- Med Eng Phys 2013 Apr 23.
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The apostles obeyed Jesus' command to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit. Having done so they were empowered to lay the foundations from which Jesus' disciples could, ever after, live out the teaching of His earthly ministry in the power of the same Spirit. Luke has told us that his book is about the ongoing impact of Jesus' earthly ministry. What we have read so far concerns the first weeks and months after He left. The empowerment of the Holy Spirit showed itself in the life of His apostles and disciples. They became a bright light shining so Israel and Jewish descendents dispersed in various places could hear the good news. They received it with joy. There are inklings and hints in these first 6 chapters that the gospel was on the verge of spreading into gentile regions near and far. But first, the apostolic synagogue had to be set up. The work of the apostles commissioned by Jesus Himself meant Jerusalem was their initial base of operations. Jesus had told them to wait for the Spirit in Jerusalem from there they would be His witnesses "throughout Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth" (1:8).
We can discover something interesting by thinking about the phrase "to the end of the earth" - what does end mean? Was this the farthest land or was this about the last things? The word means 'extremity' and it can refer to space as well as time. So how did the apostles understand Jesus' command? Were they to always base their operations in Jerusalem and from there send out messengers to the ends of the earth? Or was this a command which required the apostles to take the good news to the farthest extremity? Or is it, perhaps, something else? It seems to be that it is Jesus' description of what happens when we, His disciples, take Him at His word. We discover that the good news is a message for all times and places. This was our Saviour's prophetic description of how we will live!
Luke describes the many surprises the Holy Spirit had for the growing community. The apostles led a well-respected synagogue which met at Solomon's Portico in the temple. The religious authorities opposed them bitterly. It is noteworthy that apart from references to Pilate, when Jesus' trial is mentioned, Luke does not say anything about the Roman authorities - the focus is on the Sanhedrin. After the lame man's healing, Peter and John were dragged before it. Later the High Priests and Sadducees imprisoned the twelve but an angel mysteriously freed them. That was just before the Council adopted Gamaliel's policy of "leaving them alone". Then Luke tells us how a problem in food distribution was solved, as a prelude to Stephen's arrest. A group including some from the Jewish community in Cyrene, Egypt, conspired to have Stephen executed for blasphemy.
In all this the main character in Luke's story, is the Holy Spirit Himself. He is always a few steps ahead preparing the way, encouraging the followers of Jesus to move on and take the good news with them wherever they go.
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Are Bike Shares Ready for the Big Apple?
Yesterday, New York City’s Department of Transportation announced the launch of a bike share program of 600 stations and 10,000 bikes. User pay $100 a year to pick up a bike from any station and, for no additional charge, ride it for 30 to 45 minutes. Bike shares have been popping around the world: Mexico City is working to grow its program to almost 4,000 bikes by the end of this year, while Hangzhou, China, has a system with 50,000 bikes. New York’s will be the biggest in America, where biking is far less popular as a means of commuting than in China. New York is the city where one measly bike lane has been kicking up controversy for over a year now. Is the bike share concept ready for these mean streets?
It takes dedication to bike in New York City. Drivers are notoriously aggressive. The city’s added miles of bike infrastructure, but lanes can still migrate from one side of a one-way streets to the other or run from pavement onto cobblestone without warning. Old brownstones and tenements don’t have bike storage. It’s a pain to carry a hunk a metal up four flights of stairs, but leave your bike chained outside overnight, and its handlebars and seat will disappear by morning. Still, the number of cyclist in the city has been growing: the last three years saw the three largest annual increases in ridership since the city began measuring in 1986. New York cyclists even have their own Twitter hashtag, #bikenyc.
New York's Department of Transportation said yesterday that the bike share system “has been extensively tested,” citing systems in Washington, D.C, London, Boston, Denver, Montreal, Toronto, and Minneapolis. “Each successive city has added new innovations,” a DOT press release said. City officials think bike shares are ready for the big time, and psyched New Yorkers are suggesting locations for stations or brainstorming occasions when it’ll come in handy (“When I was planning on taking the bus, but it just didn’t come. #BikeShareMoment”).
If bike sharing is going to work on such a large scale, the city needs to make sure that it has enough bikes. “Part of what makes [bike shares] good is ample supply of bikes and stations, and a station density that is similar to transit density,” says Dani Simons, communications director for the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy. The idea is to have enough infrastructure to make bike shares a competitive option for people: in practice, this means that no one should have to waste time searching for a station to park a bike. New York’s system will have about 10 as many bikes as the system in Washington, D.C., which has become too popular.
I’ve ridden my bike around both D.C. and New York, though, and the experience is quite different. I’d recommend the bike share to anyone visiting or living in D.C.: it’s pleasant and calm enough to bike there that even occasional cyclists can feel comfortable. I can’t say I’d say the same about biking in New York, especially in Manhattan. Biking has gotten easier in New York, but like driving and walking, biking is more intense there than almost anywhere else.
What’s promising about the New York system, though, is that it could introduce more New Yorkers to biking by making it easy for them to try short trips without the hassle of storing a bike. While D.C. is small enough that a bike ride can easily substitute for a trip on the hot, ever-delayed Metro, New York planners envision the bike share system as an extension, rather than a replacement, for the subway, suggesting a bike instead of “the long walk from Avenue D to the 6 train,” a 20-minute route for which there’s no public transportation available, or to get to the closest express stop. It could even convert some anti-bike New Yorkers: if there’s one thing New Yorkers like, it’s getting where they’re going as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
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