text
stringlengths 213
24.6k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 14
499
| file_path
stringlengths 138
138
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.9
1
| token_count
int64 51
4.1k
| score
float64 1.5
5.06
| int_score
int64 2
5
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Many countries in South America are taking a stand against climate change. Though the issue is steeped in controversy, many countries believe that taking steps to adopt sustainability and alternative energy are better than doing nothing at all. Of these countries, Brazil is making the most progress. Today, Brazil generates approximately 43% of its electricity from renewable sources. Much of this energy comes from solar or wind power, but the country could soon turn to hydrogen as its energy source of choice.
The Brazilian government has been working with Ballard Power, a fuel cell manufacturer based in Canada, over the past few years. Ballard has brought fuel cells to the country that are being used to power public transportation. Brazil is now home to a veritable fleet of hydrogen-powered buses, each of which have saved the country a significant amount of money on energy costs. Now, Brazil is looking for other applications for hydrogen fuel and is once again turning to Ballard for assistance.
Whether fuel cell will take root outside of Brazil is a matter of debate. Fuel cells are notoriously expensive, which can deter some developing countries from adopting hydrogen fuel. Ballard has been working to create more efficient and inexpensive fuel cells, but whether the company can successfully bring them to South America is uncertain. For now, Ballard is focused on its work in Brazil. If new fuel cell systems prove successful there, the country may serve as an example for other South American countries and encourage them to follow suit.
|
<urn:uuid:87445fb7-52cb-4099-963b-85520dd02a60>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.hydrogenfuelnews.com/brazil-looks-to-bolster-its-hydrogen-fuel-use-turns-to-ballard-power-for-assistance/852651/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.969519
| 287
| 3.390625
| 3
|
"Jan. 18, 2013 — Activating and deactivating individual nerve cells in the brain is something many neuroscientists wish they could do, as it would help them to better understand how the brain works.
Scientists in Freiburg and Basel, Switzerland, have developed an implant that is able to genetically modify specific nerve cells, control them with light stimuli, and measure their electrical activity all at the same time. This novel 3-in-1 tool paves the way for completely new experiments in neurobiology, also at Freiburg's new Cluster of Excellence BrainLinks-BrainTools."
This is pretty awesome. Many of you may not know about research they are conducting in how to manually stimulate the brain to potentially cure psychological disorders(such as depression). Learning to manipulate individual cells with accuracy may allow us to potentially re-wire the brain to improve or even eliminate chemical imbalances.
It's been a long day, so I'll leave this one up to you to decide the implications. All I'll say is, yet more awesome science.
References allow you to track sources for this article, as well as articles that were written in response to this article.
Response: news feedI’d must verify with you here. Which isn't one thing I normally do! I take pleasure in reading a post that can make individuals think. Additionally, thanks for permitting me to remark!
|
<urn:uuid:d70080a5-477e-4eab-b565-7ada3db9dfd3>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.chainedreality.com/blog/2013/1/19/laser-controls-individual-nerve-cells.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.956022
| 286
| 2.65625
| 3
|
Do your small, everyday actions demonstrate humility? (108-2)
It takes a lifetime of consistent behavior, made up of small everyday actions, for a leader to be known for their humility. Read 1 Chronicles 17:1-27.
David has been established firmly as king of Israel. He has established Jerusalem as his capitol city. David has built a beautiful palace for himself in Jerusalem. He has moved the Ark of the Covenant, a holy object God instructed Moses to build as His home on earth, from the countryside to Jerusalem. It is at this time that David realized that he is living in luxury but no temple has ever been built for a home to the Ark of the Covenant. He calls Nathan the prophet and tells him he desires to build a magnificent temple to house the Ark of the Covenant. Nathan considers the idea and tells David to go ahead with the project.
That night God spoke to Nathan and gave different orders. Both Nathan and David showed genuine humility. Nathan had to modify his instructions to David after he too quickly spoke for God, and David responded with grace when he learned he would not build the temple. Humility is an element of leadership that keeps leaders on track and enables them to see beyond themselves.
One of my mentors in Christian film making constantly stated, “Film is a medium of action not words.” His constant reminder was that we should preach the Word through film and if necessary we could use words. People see humility like that; they judge a leader by their actions not their rhetoric. A humble leader realizes that honor accompanies a job well done and does not need to be pursued as an entity in itself.
Can you admit a leadership mistake? If you have too quickly given an opinion are you able to swallow your pride and tell your team that you found new information? If you have your mind made up to do something and your plans have to change, can you still find joy in your work and praise God for the day? A leader will have a legacy of humility when the small decisions that make up a lifetime of actions demonstrate they look beyond themselves and their personal interests to the interests of God and the best interest of their team.
Proverbs 25:27 “It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor.”
Trackback from your site.
|
<urn:uuid:63e1c181-99fa-4ebf-80f6-5252bd81a5d7>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://barrywerner.com/do-your-small-everyday-actions-demonstrate-humility-108-2/2010/02/09/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.9775
| 481
| 2.4375
| 2
|
How should I poach an egg?
What's the best method to poach an egg?
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
I've always used a wide deep saute pan or pot, and
I copy / pasted this, as it is the guide I have used, and it is wonderful:
First: Lose the big pot of water. Instead, retrieve a medium-sized skillet (10-inch diameter) that has a lid. If your skillet doesn't have a matching lid, try on some of your other lids -- one of them is bound to do the job. If not, you can cover the skillet with a baking sheet or large dinner plate. All right, go to the sink and fill the skillet with about 3 inches of water -- that's all. Put the skillet on high heat. Cover it to speed up the heating time. Meanwhile, for 4 eggs, crack one each into four small cups or bowls. You can use coffee cups, little Asian tea cups, custard cups or the little poaching cups that from the poaching set you will no longer be using.
Second: Put all cups of eggs on a plate, and have them convenient to the stove. When the water in the skillet boils, remove the cover. Add one tablespoon of plain vinegar to the water, and some salt. Vinegar helps the egg to hold its shape. Without it, the eggs will become skeins of protein tangling up in the water. When the salt goes in, it will actually raise the temperature of the water. Watch the bubbles. I happen to like the vinegar taste on the finished egg. If you don't, put the finished poached eggs in a bowl of water. This stops the cooking and washes away the vinegar. If you like the vinegar, try a splash of herbal, apple cider, or sherry vinegar.
Third: Lower the lip of each egg-cup 1/2-inch below the surface of the water. Let the eggs flow out. Immediately return the lid to the pan and turn off the heat. Set a timer for exactly three minutes for medium-firm yolks. Adjust the time up or down for runnier or firmer yolks. While the eggs cook, you have the time to make four pieces of toast, set the table, wash the empty cups, and put the buttered toast on plates. When the timer goes off, remove the cover. Ah! Lift each perfectly poached egg from the water with a slotted spoon, but hold it over the skillet briefly to let any water clinging to the egg drain off. Gently lay an egg on each piece of toast. And there you have it. Perfect poached eggs actually cooked in residual heat and not in the literal sense of the term, poached at all.
|
<urn:uuid:a4945283-b15f-4c72-b0c9-05a704913697>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/13417/how-to-properly-poach-an-egg?answertab=active
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.926239
| 595
| 1.992188
| 2
|
Hybridization, GMOs and Honeycrisp Apples
We don’t mind admitting that honeycrisp apples, a fairly recent newcomer to the world of apples, is our favorite apple for just plain eating. Their tartness balanced with a suggestive sweetness and the snap that comes with biting into one make for one of fall’s great gastronomic experiences. The apple, developed at the University of Minnesota in 1960 and released to growers and consumers in 1994, also helps illustrate a common misconception regarding genetically-modified organisms and those developed through hybridization.
The honeycrisp was developed by cross-pollination of two previously known apples: the honeygold, itself a cross between the golden delicious and the honeygold, and the Macoun. While this process can happen naturally by the wind or various pollinators (like bees), the honeycrisp was given help. The trees that produced the honeycrisp were hybridized, much like some of the tomato seed you might have used in your garden (though these are nearly always “sterile” hybrids which do not produce “true” seed or seed that will result in the same hybrid… but they will self-pollinate to produce fruit). Honeycrisp seed is also not true and will not produce like trees (most fruit trees are propagated through grafting, root-cuttings and layering, new types can only be developed through cross pollination, according to David Bedford, a scientist in the University of Minnesota’s horticultural department). While the tree’s seed is sterile, established trees will bear true fruit if pollinated with group four apple pollinators which includes Fuji, gala, golden delicious and several other apple types.
The evolution of “sweet” apples, as opposed to “bitter” apples (like crab apples) happened naturally, four to six thousand years ago (we urge you to click the link and read this fascinating story which involve bears, birds, and beetles). Cross-pollination also happens naturally between plant types and species that are genetically accepting of each other. But genetically-modified plants have DNA changes forced upon them in a laboratory. No such change could happen immediately in nature (without dozens or even thousands of years of evolution). And the results of forcing DNA material into a plant’s genetics can have unexpected, undesired consequences. A genetically-modified potato that produces its own insecticide might seem like a great idea, but in reality proved dangerous.
Now, I’m no botanist. And if the explanation above seems a bit difficult, please forgive me. But the point is this: next time you see some GMO supporter in the comments section of a blog or the letters section of a newspaper claiming that hybridization through cross-pollination, grafting or other means is exactly the same thing as what scientist do on the cellular level when they force genetic material into the DNA of an existing plant (while suggesting that those leery of GMOs are dumb or worse), don’t believe it. As the potato example above proves, GMO foods require testing and once tested, the fair dissemination of the results. There’s too much at risk, as past tests on GMO-produced foodstuffs have shown. And often, the corporations that are developing GMO vegetables and fruits have motivations other than producing a quality product, including creating plants resistant to herbicides, giving longer shelf life for perishable products (including such things as apples that don’t turn brown), or, like those potatoes, vegetables that will kill the insects that attack them. Often, the unstated reason, is to control sales. Seed patents on crops resistant to patented herbicides mean big money. The honeycrisp was also patented by the University of Minnesota but that patent has expired (here’s a link to a wonderful story on the honeycrisp and the University’s breeding program). Given the choice between a GMO potato and a hybridized apple, this honeycrisp lover will take the apple every time.
|
<urn:uuid:9cebae7a-607d-49cd-a32a-7fc99da885bb>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://blog.planetnatural.com/honeycrisp-apples/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.948671
| 835
| 3.078125
| 3
|
Vatican II's Lumen Gentium 8 says:
This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour, after His Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd, and him and the other Apostles to extend and direct with authority, which He erected for all ages as "the pillar and mainstay of the truth". This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity.(I changed the capitalization to match the Latin.) Much discussion has been expended on the claim that the Church in the world "subsists in" the Catholic Church. Some interpreters took this as a weakening of the traditional teaching that the Church of Christ is the Catholic Church. On this reading, the Church of Christ is a larger entity, and the Catholic Church is a part of it. A fairly recent Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) statement states that "subsists in" indicates "full identity".
I want to argue that the CDF is right on textual grounds (though the CDF is presumably also drawing on non-textual information about the intentions of the Council Fathers).
What does the mysterious phrase "subsists in" mean? Here we have to remember that at the time of Vatican II, the lingua franca of Catholic thought was Thomism. Even those who did not philosophically or theologically agree with St. Thomas would use thomistic vocabulary to express their views. The phrase "subsists in" is a scholastic phrase that Aquinas uses a number of times. Here are the claims I've found in my search of a lot of Aquinas' works (admittedly in English, but I am trusting the translators):
- God subsists in his essence
- The divine understanding subsists in itself
- The essence of the Father subsists in the Son
- Human beings subsist in their essences
- Christ subsists both in a human and a divine nature
- Things subsist in their being
- A substance subsists in its species
- The form of the angel or the separated soul subsists in the being
The phrase, thus, is compatible with identity as well with a very intimate relationship that isn't quite identity. We need to turn to context now. First, take the paragraph as a whole. The first sentence says that the "one Church of Christ" is "one, holy, catholic and apostolic". To read the text as saying that the Church of Christ is not identical with the Catholic Church is to attribute to the text the absurdity of saying that the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic" Church is not the catholic Church. One might try to distinguish between "catholic" in the sense of "universal" and "catholic" in a sense that indicates the Roman Catholic Church, but the text makes no such distinction, and it is fair to assume that the same word is used in the same sense in the same paragraph.
Next, take the phrase "although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure", which elements are described as "gifts belonging to the Church of Christ". This text, I think, does not fit well with the idea that the Church of Christ is the larger entity that includes the Catholic Church as a part of it. For if the Church of Christ were the larger entity, there would be no need to emphasize that the elements of sanctification and truth (I assume these are the many true and good things found in non-Catholic congregations) do in fact belong to the Church of Christ.
Moreover, the preceding paragraph introduced a distinction between the Church as a "society structured with hierarchical organs" and the "mystical Body of Christ", which two natures it says are not separate but form a complex entity, and are like the two natures of the incarnate Christ. The "society structured with hierarchical organs" surely is the Catholic Church. It cannot refer to some alleged larger Church of Christ that includes Protestants, since Protestants do not have hierarchical organs as Lumen Gentium understands them (Lumen Gentium understands the hierarchy as constituted primarily by the Pope and Bishops). But at the same time, this discussion of the Church as a structured society surely is the same entity as the Church of Christ "constituted and organized in the world as a society". Lumen Gentium's overall understanding of organic structure is hierarchical: the Pope is the principle of organic unity, and from him proceeds the unity of the Bishops.
So, the context leads us to accept that in the thought of Lumen Gentium the Church of Christ is the Catholic Church. But why, then, the use of "subsists in"? Here is a suggestion that may be completely wrong: Some of the operations of the Catholic Church (e.g., the sacrament of baptism) extend beyond the Catholic Church. Yet they always are the operations of the Church of Christ, and derive their efficacy from Christ's promises to the Catholic Church. It is not that the Church of Christ extends beyond the Catholic Church, but the operations of the Church of Christ do. And the use of "subsists in" makes possible such a distinction. This fits with the CDF's explanation, I think.
|
<urn:uuid:94c9dff8-7200-435d-812b-b35d7b74c99d>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2007/11/church-of-christ-subsists-in-catholic.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.971417
| 1,154
| 2.421875
| 2
|
By: Charles Q. Choi
Published: 04/18/2012 01:08 PM EDT on SPACE.com
The mystery of the origin of the strongest cosmic rays has deepened as new clues into key suspects, the most powerful explosions in the universe, suggest they are likely not potential culprits, researchers say.
Cosmic rays are charged subatomic particles that streak to Earth from deep in outer space. A few rare cosmic rays are extraordinarily powerful, with energies up to 100 million times greater than any attained by human-made particle colliders, such as CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The sources of these cosmic rays are a mystery.
"Nature is capable of accelerating elementary particles to macroscopic energies," said study co-author Francis Halzen at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, principal investigator at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive telescope designed to find the tiny subatomic particles. "There are basically only two ideas on how she does this — in gravitationally driven particle flows near the supermassive black holes at the centers of active galaxies, and in the collapse of stars to a black hole, seen by astronomers as gamma-ray bursts."
The prime suspect
Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe. They can emit as much energy as our sun during its entire 10-billion-year lifetime in anywhere from milliseconds to minutes.
Gamma Ray Burst
"Some gamma-ray bursts are thought to be collapses of supermassive stars — hypernovas — while others are thought to be collisions of black holes with other black holes or neutron stars," said study co-author Spencer Klein of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Both types produce brief but intense blasts of radiation."
New evidence may now rule out gamma-ray bursts as sources of these ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.
Researchers employed the IceCube neutrino detector, an array of thousands of detectors encompassing a cubic kilometer of clear Antarctic ice at the South Pole. Neutrinos are ghostly particles that often pass right through matter, only rarely striking atoms.
Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory
"This is a coming-of-age for neutrino astronomy — the first time we're able to use neutrino data as a new way of looking at astrophysical objects and say something substantive about them," said study co-author Nathan Whitehorn, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the recent gamma-ray burst research with Peter Redl of the University of Maryland.
Evidence points elsewhere
The investigators focused on neutrinos whose energy levels suggest they are linked with gamma-ray bursts. The fireballs that give rise to the gamma rays seen in gamma-ray bursts were thought to potentially hurl particles at very high energies, generating both cosmic rays and energetic neutrinos.
After analyzing data on 307 gamma-ray bursts in 2008 and 2009, the scientists discovered the levels of these neutrinos were at least 3.7 times lower than expected. This suggests gamma-ray bursts are probably not the sources of the most powerful cosmic rays.
"After observing gamma-ray bursts for two years, we have not detected the telltale neutrinos for cosmic-ray acceleration," Halzen said.
Still, it could be that current models of neutrino production from these events might be off.
"We're not entirely clear yet as to what this neutrino flux we're not seeing might mean," Whitehorn told SPACE.com. "Our understanding of gamma-ray bursts is not complete — there's a lot of theoretical uncertainty. I suspect what will happen now is that there'll be a lot of efforts in the theory community of how to get neutrino fluxes compatible with the results."
Instead of gamma-ray bursts, researchers note that black holes at the centers or nuclei of active galaxies may be responsible for these ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, sucking in matter and spitting out enormous particle jets as they gorge.
"Active galactic nuclei are big — great big accelerators that may be able to accelerate particles to very high energies," said Klein, a long-time member of the IceCube Collaboration.
IceCube has looked for neutrinos from active galactic nuclei, but as yet the data is inconclusive.
The scientists detailed their findings in tomorrow's (April 19) issue of the journal Nature.
|
<urn:uuid:e4159f2d-20e3-418b-9fbf-889931a7da10>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/19/cosmic-rays-gamma-rays_n_1436951.html?ref=topbar
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.938697
| 910
| 3.40625
| 3
|
"At a mile distant their thousand hooves were stuttering thunder, coming at a rate that frightened a man - they were an awe inspiring sight, galloping through the red haze - knee to knee and horse to horse - the dying sun glinting on bayonet points..." Trooper Ion Idriess
The Australian Light Horse Studies Centre aims to present an accurate history as chroniclers of early Australian military developments from 1899 to 1920.
The Australian Light Horse Studies Centre site holds over 12,000 entries and is growing daily.
The Battle of Rafa, Sinai, 9 January 1917, Outline Topic: BatzP - Rafa
The Battle of Rafa
Sinai, 9 January 1917
Rafa landscape, January 1917.
Rafa, the site of a former Egyptian police post on the Mediterranean border with Palestine. is the name generally given to an action between British and Turkish forces on 9 January 1917 which was actually fought about 1.5 kilometres to the south on ground known as El Magruntein. Following the capture of the other main Turkish post inland at Magdhaba (q.v) a fortnight earlier, the British commander of what was called the Desert Column, Lieut.-General Sir Philip Chetwode, prepared to take Rafa as well. Aerial patrols reported that place to be held by 2,000 - 3,000 enemy troops, who were busily digging in. Available for this operation was the Anzac Mounted Division (1st and 3rd Australian Light Horse brigades and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade) commanded by Major-General Harry Chauvel, reinforced by three of the four battalions of the Imperial Camel Corps (which also contained many Australians) and the 5th Mounted Brigade, a British yeomanry outfit.
Map outline for the Battle of Rafa, drawn February 1917.
[Click on map for larger version.]
After a period spent in reconnoitring routes and compiling plans of the Turkish defences from the air, Chauvel's troops commenced their march from El Arish at dusk on 8 January. Moving first to Sheikh Zowaiid, an Arab village sixteen kilometres short of the objective which was seized and sealed to prevent a warning being carried to the enemy, by dawn the attacking force had entirely surrounded Rafa and was in position to attack. Only at this stage was the true difficulty of the operation apparent to Chetwode and Chauvel. The Turks occupied a network of trenches rising in tiers around an earthen redoubt on a central knoll, and although these works were not protected by wire they completely dominated the long bare slopes leading up to them.
Once commenced at 10 a.m. the British assault-as at Magdhaba - made only slow progress. For the first time use was made of aircraft to direct the fire of artillery using radio, but despite this innovation the attack lacked the weight of guns to destroy the enemy's defences or their spirit. By midafternoon the force's reserves had all been committed, ammunition was getting short, and Chetwode was beginning to fret about whether success could he achieved in time to meet the pressing need for water for both his men and horses. When news reached him at about 4 p.m. that two strong groups of Turkish reinforcements, probably 2,500 men, were approaching from the east and north-east, Chetwode decided soon afterwards to break off the fight and withdraw.
Wellington Mounted Rifles 2nd Troop from 9th Squadron charging the trenches at Rafa.
Acting on this order, Chauvel had issued the necessary instructions to his brigades. As at Magdhaba, however the recall was ignored at unit level where the troops were determined to bring the action to a climax. The New Zealanders and the Camel Corps both succeeded in overrunning the redoubts in front of them, and within a short period the entire Turkish defence collapsed. Of the garrison, some 200 were killed and 1,602 taken prisoner (including 168 wounded); only a few escaped into the darkness which soon afterwards enveloped the battlefield. British losses totalled 486, including 71 killed.
With his flank guards already exchanging fire at long range with the approaching Turkish reinforcements, Chauvel did not attempt to hold the ground just won but withdrew to Sheikh Zowaiid where water and supplies had been dumped. The enemy did not re-occupy the defences, however, and - apart from a fruitless clash by cavalry and camelry the next morning with two light horse regiments left to cover a field ambulance while it searched for wounded - left the British in uncontested possession of Rafa.
Prisoners captured at Rafa.
Extracted from the book produced by Chris Coulthard-Clark, Where Australians Fought - The Encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1998, pp. 122-123.
Additional References cited by Chris Coulthard-Clark:
H.S. Gullett, (1944), The Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine, Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
A.J. Hill, (1978), Chauvel of the Light Horse, Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press.
The Australian Light Horse Studies Centre is a not for profit and non profit group whose sole aim is to write the early history of the Australian Light Horse from 1900
- 1920. It is privately funded and the information is provided by the individuals within the group and while permission for the use of the material has been given for this
site for these items by various donors, the residual and actual copyright for these items, should there be any, resides exclusively with the donors. The information on
this site is freely available for private research use only and if used as such, should be appropriately acknowledged. To assist in this process, each item has a citation
attached at the bottom for referencing purposes.
Please Note: No express or implied permission is given for commercial use of the information contained within this site.
A note to copyright holders
The Australian Light Horse Studies Centre has made every endeavour to contact copyright holders of material digitised for this blog and website and where
appropriate, permission is still being sought for these items. Where replies were not received, or where the copyright owner has not been able to be traced, or where
the permission is still being sought, the Australian Light Horse Studies Centre has decided, in good faith, to proceed with digitisation and publication. Australian Light
Horse Studies Centre would be happy to hear from copyright owners at any time to discuss usage of this item.
|
<urn:uuid:fde48352-24b9-4dd2-bea0-331ce66731e1>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog?topic_id=1113726
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.966244
| 1,348
| 3
| 3
|
Ottawa Linux Symposium: The Other Open Source Conference of July 2001by Andy Oram
While you can take the pulse of computer users from O'Reilly's Open Source Convention and other well-publicized meeting places for the Open Source community, it's the Ottawa Linux Symposium where you should go for developers' concerns. I spent four days there last week while a lot of my O'Reilly colleagues and authors were partying in San Diego. As it turned out, I got to do a fair amount of partying myself in wild and rowdy Ottawa, Canada but I'll discuss some of the substantive issues of the conference before I describe the atmosphere.
Why Linux Reaches into Areas That Are Off-Limits to Windows
Heads Up to Firewall Administrators
Ximian Gets a Lot of Play
The Politics of the Computing Conference
The Atmosphere of the Computing Conference
The mighty Nimrod was as arrogant as he was evil. Since the whole world was united in his time, he organized everyone to build a tower that would reach into heaven and to wage war against it. According to the legend, God foiled his plan by splitting the world into many nations.
Regarding the modern Nimrod, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. has declined to play God. But the Windows operating system may be splintering of its own accord. Microsoft has had to significantly cut down the Win32 libraries to make Windows CE, and this embedded version still hasn't caught on because—according to many critics—it's too large and unwieldy. At the other end of the computing spectrum, attempts to beef up Windows 2000 and make it a contender for high-availability servers handling massive loads have also fallen short. The "Windows everywhere" campaign is frustrated in its goals.
What prevents Linux from suffering the same fate? Several people at the conference seemed confident that Linux had succeeded in scrunching down small enough to fit in one's palm even as it shoots up to rule mighty computer servers.
Karim Yaghmour, an embedded systems developer, claimed that Linux has won the battle because it is so flexible in its choice of libraries, windowing toolkits, filesystems, and other open source components. Essentially, the very aspect of Linux and open source that creates a frustrating experience for current users—the semi-random agglomeration of software components from many different projects that need a lot of work to fit together—also gives it the beautiful flexibility that enables different system integrators to assemble the precise system they need.
Furthermore, Yaghmour said, Linux was pulled into new platforms and domains by people who tinkered with it for their own benefit, rather than being pushed into such domains the way Windows was pushed by Microsoft. I also heard from conference attendees that Linus Torvalds is very strict in what he lets into the core kernel, and he usually rejects features aimed at narrow environments or solutions if they make the kernel any bigger or slower.
Yaghmour is well-known in the embedded Linux world, thanks to a nice tool he developed called the Linux Trace Toolkit. It lets you watch every hardware interrupt and every kernel response to it—great for rainy Sunday afternoons, not to mention embedded system development.
Visit opensource.oreilly.com for a complete list of O'Reilly's books about open source technologies.
He gave an intriguing presentation of the Real-Time Application Interface (RTAI) and RTNet on the last day of the conference; while the presentation was sparsely attended, the many questions asked showed that there were several developers there with a serious interest in embedded real-time systems. RTAI, like the alternative RTLinux, runs underneath the Linux kernel by trapping interrupts and turning the processor over to a privileged real-time process. But RTAI goes further by allowing a regular Linux process to turn itself into a real-time process. This feature, part of the LXRT subsystem, was presented by Yaghmour with the appropriate drum rolls and flourishes as the only such capability provided by any real-time operating system. (He did point out that RTLinux provides a limited form of user-space services through a customized version of sigaction.)
Yaghmour culminated his presentation with an actual demo—a rare treat at this symposium—of real-time networking. He also predicted that RTAI would spread further through more ports, a real-time RAM filesystem, and a Flash-based filesystem.
There's a new transport-layer protocol in town. Get ready to update all your filter tables because TCP and UDP have been joined by the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP).
SCTP can deliver multiple streams of short messages between sockets. One of its big wins is that it permits multiple IP addresses to be associated with each connection, and if one connection fails the streams will automatically switch to the next. The core technology for SCTP came out of Motorola, from whence La Monte Henry Piggy Yarroll came to discuss the pending Linux API.
"SCTP should prove useful for anything involving multiple, independent, complex exchanges of messages, and anything that needs to tolerate network failures," Yarroll said. Examples include a high-volume, high-availability database, and providing IP-based connections to devices that monitor patients at a clinic.
Yarroll's lucid presentation explained how the SCTP protocol works and how to program it in the Linux implementation. Testing has shown that the protocol involves less overhead than comparable applications using TCP (at least at the user level and in CPU time; kernel performance is expected to be better too); this is attributed to the protocol's careful alignment of data on 4-byte word boundaries.
A single new call has to be added to the standard socket API, bindx, which works like bind but adds or removes an address to the same connection. The stream ID can be obtained from ancillary data. Recommended Web sites are www.sctp.org and www.sctp.de. The Linux implementation is the lksctp project on SourceForge.
Speaking of firewalls, there are a lot of new features on the way from the team developing Netfilter. Some of these seem to me to be reasonable extensions that bring the treatment of various network parameters up to the level of the ones currently recognized. Others scream "Bloat! Bloat!"
Harald Welte, who presented the changes at Friday's BOF (birds of a feather) on Netfilter, distanced himself from many of the changes while defending others. The audience vociferously recommended that the team devote itself to creating a robust test framework and recruiting testers. This sounds like good advice to me, but coding new features is fun while testing is merely indispensable.
The upcoming features that are certain to be released soon include:
Extending the "expectation" feature (which looks inside packets to determine the state of the connection in regards to the application running) to support multiple expectations. This is useful for some complex applications like IRC.
Stateful failover: If the firewall machine fails, the rules will be all ready and up to date on the box that takes over.
Allowing the tracking of connections to be restricted to particular interfaces, so you don't suffer the overhead of tracking an interface where you haven't installed any rules.
Greater efficiency when a rule is changed: the kernel won't have to reload the entire table containing all the rules.
Of the other changes, the only one that sounds both imminent and of widespread interest is a logging facility called ulog. Currently logging involves an expensive formatting and writing of a message at the kernel level. Ulog, by contrast, will perform initial filtering and send data to a user process, which can then do any desired kind of time-consuming or complex processing.
Ximian programmers working on the GNOME architecture and applications got a pretty enthusiastic reception here (as well as the expected grilling about standards support and reliability). They have triumphantly picked up Miguel de Icaza's crusade to transform the expectations of the Unix community, and they implicitly (or sometimes gleefully) criticize the usability of old applications from the X Consortium or the GNU project.
The trend they promote is away from ASCII and toward rich, displayable, typed objects; away from rc files and toward run-time discovery of interchangeable components. For backward compatibility and portability, the GNOME Helix set-up tool still queries and stores information in traditional Unix configuration files, but new facilities tend to use XML and the Wombat central database. In Evolution, which is both a platform and an application suite and which attempts to provide all the applications that office staff need to use daily, the object model extends down to a single column in a table. Each column knows whether it's a number, a string, a date, or whatever, and can be displayed and sorted appropriately.
GNOME hacker Federico Mena Quintero insisted that applications should be "consistent and pretty;" that it's ridiculous in this day and age for anyone to use a mailer that doesn't display HTML or handle MIME types; and that basic activities like printing should be offered with a full-featured interface such as paper selection. He declared that, "People who come from a proprietary world come to expect certain features in their applications."
What's good about GNOME, however, despite its unabashed admiration for the look and feel of Microsoft Office and the success of its component architecture, is that its programmers are doing things that should go far beyond what is imagined by Microsoft. The Bonobo CORBA interface should enable rich collaborative applications. There are some interesting side features, such as the index used by several applications to speed up searching, which was demonstrated by Ettore Perazzoli during his Evolution presentation. Thanks to pre-indexing, a word search on a huge mail folder or an address book finished so fast I didn't even have a chance to see the screen update itself.
Andy also edited O'Reilly's best-selling Peer-to-Peer book, a collection of essays by leading developers of well-known P2P systems, including Gnutella, Freenet, Jabber, and SETI@Home. To find out more about P2P as a technology and a business opportunity, register for O'Reilly's Peer-to-Peer and Web Services Conference, September 18 - 21 in Washington, D.C.
Most conference attendees seemed to find Ottawa a relief from the heat found in the U.S., of both the meteorological and the legal kind. But every conference on free software these days is turning into a political event, as I've repeatedly noticed at O'Reilly's Open Source and Peer-to-Peer conferences.
When I got to Canada and told customs officials I was "attending a computing conference," they searched my bag and questioned me at length about my business. I fear this may be a trend worldwide as governments hear about the transformative power of software, hardware, and the Internet—particularly in the frightening guise of arrests and corporate lawsuits. Next time I'll say I'm going to an AIDS forum or an anti-G8 demonstration.
The customs officials did not know that Hugh Daniel of the FreeS/WAN project would harangue the assembled conference attendees about the politics of software at a dinner the following evening, because Daniel himself did not know until he arrived in Ottawa and was asked to give a speech. Despite the short notice, Daniel—whose FreeS/WAN development team is dedicated to protecting privacy and freedom of expression by providing a free software virtual private network solution using IPSEC from desktop to desktop or LAN to LAN—was eloquent and galvanizing. He covered the travesties of the DeCSS case and the arrest of Dmitry Sklyarov, urging people to vote, to discuss issues with their friends, to follow new bills introduced in their governments, and to protest like hell against bad bills. (Significantly, I didn't hear Daniel say we should argue in favor of good bills.) Most of all, he ordered the audience, "Do not stop writing code that annoys my government" (U.S.).
Canadian customs officials also did not know that I would meet for two and a half hours with a lawyer who is a leading advocate of privacy and civil liberties on the Internet in Canada. He drew an activist's lesson for me from the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which has so blackened the reputation of the U.S. in such matters as the Sklyarov arrest. "Civil libertarians find a bill with 30 bad clauses and fight it down to 3 or 4; they consider it a victory and feel they did pretty well. Not true! You have to fight every bad clause."
Politics also emerged in the keynote by Theodore Ts'o, called "Ten Years of Linux." It was really a practical guide to the development of open source software in general, and focused a lot on the social issues that could have an impact on our software future. Ts'o, like Hugh Daniel, urged programmers to become political. He mentioned the Canadian DMCA-like proposal. He also warned against Microsoft, both the "Shared Source" initiative (which he said could "taint" any programmer who looks at the code) and the Hailstorm/Passport attempt to dominate e-commerce.
Nevertheless, Ts'o claimed that proprietary software played a useful role and encouraged open source developers to make it easy for proprietary companies to provide applications—"or at least be neutral; don't hurt them." This call led to a long and contentious discussion over the appropriateness of allowing device drivers to be distributed in binary-only form, and whether kernel developers should try to keep driver interfaces stable (at least within a major release of the kernel) to spare companies the pain of distributing new binaries.
The Ottawa Linux Symposium is the tangible offspring of a 4 a.m. thought in the mind of Andrew Hutton in 1999 during another Linux conference. Over the years he had noticed the growth of commercialism at Linux conferences and he was afraid that the people actually creating Linux, the people responsible for its health and future, would be shut out. The Linux Symposium, a grassroots effort by dedicated Ottawa Linux users, was his guarantee that developers would always have a place once a year where they were in control and could talk about things that really mattered to them.
Now in its third year, the Ottawa Linux Symposium has quickly become the primary forum for discussing Linux technical topics, or as organizer Craig Ross says, "a canvas for open source development." If you think of most boating conferences as being for yachts-folk, the Ottawa Linux Symposium is like a conference for the people who design and build hulls.
Four hundred and fifty people crammed into a basement of the Ottawa Congress Center makes for a high-pressure atmosphere. You certainly wouldn't be able to fit a single dancer in a penguin suit. I found the setting claustrophobic after a couple hours, but there's no doubt that the restricted setting facilitated intense personal interaction. Like many conferences, the most promising work went on in clumps of informal talkers outside the presentations.
The knowledge of the speakers was uniformly impressive, but not every topic was worthy of a presentation, in my opinion. Just because someone has a novel idea does not mean he or she has got a viable innovation—I reserve "innovation" for something that has widespread use over a long term. Some of the projects that looked exciting on paper turned out to be just clever hacks when I heard the presentation. "Linux contains lots of clever hacks," said a fellow attendee, but I believe there's a qualitative difference between the technologies we've come to depend on and some of the new things being proposed. A couple of presentations got so dull I was left deciphering the code on the T-shirt of the person sitting in front of me.
The range of topics—which varies a great deal from year to year—was somewhat restricted this time. While low-level operational features got lots of attention—cache mechanisms, memory handling, hot pluggable devices (known to the rest of the world as Plug-and-Play), filesystems, Flash chips—there was nothing about such application-layer aspects as Apache, Samba, Mozilla, or Perl. The only high-level components that made their way into presentations were KDE and GNOME. The latter, heavily pushed by Ximian (a sponsor of the conference) drew many attendees and lots of supportive interest. I think Linux developers sense that the fate of projects like GNOME and KDE will determine much of open source's success in meeting user needs.
The conference had about 50 people fewer than last year's, and many were obviously missing because their companies had folded or were falling on hard times. In addition, fewer of the well-known Linux developers were present. But Hutton says they will be back next year, and he points out, "We met people who will be key in the future." Attendees were quite focused and clearly intended to carry on the flame. The atmosphere was pretty loose at the final party hosted by Ximian. (AMD also threw a party earlier in the week, and I should not forget to say that O'Reilly & Associates was one of the dozen sponsors.)
|
<urn:uuid:cf622f04-fd00-4fc3-a075-d16c1a11975d>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/linux/news/ottawa_0801.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.960102
| 3,561
| 1.578125
| 2
|
Pregnancy can be an exciting time in life. There are numerous ways to keep you and your growing baby healthy and strong throughout your pregnancy. Maintaining a physically healthy body will also ensure the healthy development of your unborn baby. Follow our tips and you can see how to stay healthy during your pregnancy.vas reversal Cats may harbor parasites known to cause the disease toxoplasmosis, which is transferable through their litter. Draft a friend or family member to take over the kitty litter cleanup so that you avoid any contact with it during your pregnancy.
If you're an expecting mother or even just trying to conceive, become tobacco free. Smoking is unhealthy for you, and if you smoke while you are pregnant you can create health problems for your baby. It has been shown that smoking while pregnant can cause breathing problems for your baby.
Increasing iron consumption during your pregnancy is a really great idea, for the health of you and your growing baby. Low levels of iron can make pregnant women suffer from severe fatigue and can make the unborn baby have a low birth weight. Take your prenatal vitamin, which includes iron, every day and add foods high in iron to your diet.
Insomnia is common in women during their pregnancy. Taking a magnesium supplement will make leg cramps disappear and help you relax.
Try to avoid smoking or drinking while you are pregnant. Your unborn child can get harmed by nicotine, alcohol and both legal and illegal drugs. For this reason you should only consume healthy foods during pregnancy and avoid things that could potentially cause harm to your child.
Don't eat or drink items with caffeine in them if you are pregnant. You will have increased difficulty sleeping if you ingest caffeine. If you get nauseous, snack on crackers. Eating healthy can help you get enough sleep.
An increase in snoring is quite common during pregnancy, whether you had this condition before or not. Your nasal membranes will swell and you put on some fat in the back of your throat, constricting your airway and causing it to collapse. If you're snoring so much that your partner can't sleep, try using nasal strips so that your airways are opened up. Another option is having your partner wear ear plugs.
You should familiarize yourself with symptoms of premature labor. Take in as much information as you can about this, so that you can make contact your doctor at the right moment.
If you follow the above tips to a T, your pregnancy will be much better off for it. Pregnancy doesn't need to be a negative experience, it should be a joyful time. You can use the information that has been provided in this article to better your situation and to handle any issues that you may be dealing with during your pregnancy.
|
<urn:uuid:4e9543b2-a251-42ff-acb7-d7c4c0d41caf>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.migente.com/your_page/blog/view_posting.html?pid=2237907&profile_id=7161778&profile_name=darrellnicarry69&user_id=7161778&username=darrellnicarry69
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.966507
| 555
| 2.796875
| 3
|
Of Prayer, by John Calvin, tr. Henry Beveridge , at sacred-texts.com
We must now attend not only to a surer method, but also form of prayer, that, namely, which our heavenly Father has delivered to us by his beloved Son, and in which we may recognize his boundless goodness and condescension (Matthew 6:9; Luke 11:2). Besides admonishing and exhorting us to seek him in our every necessity (as children are wont to betake themselves to the protection of their parents when oppressed with any anxiety), seeing that we were not fully aware how great our poverty was, or what was right or for our interest to ask, he has provided for this ignorance; that wherein our capacity failed he has sufficiently supplied. For he has given us a form in which is set before us as in a picture everything which it is lawful to wish, everything which is conducive to our interest, everything which it is necessary to demand. From his goodness in this respect we derive the great comfort of knowing, that as we ask almost in his words, we ask nothing that is absurd, or foreign, or unseasonable; nothing, in short, that is not agreeable to him. Plato, seeing the ignorance of men in presenting their desires to God, desires which if granted would often be most injurious to them, declares the best form of prayer to be that which an ancient poet has furnished: "O king Jupiter, give what is best, whether we wish it or wish it not; but avert from us what is evil even though we ask it" (Plato, Alcibiad. ii). This heathen shows his wisdom in discerning how dangerous it is to ask of God what our own passion dictates; while, at the same time, he reminds us of our unhappy condition in not being able to open our lips before God without dangers unless his Spirit instruct us how to pray aright (Romans 8:26). The higher value, therefore, ought we to set on the privilege, when the only begotten Son of God puts words into our lips, and thus relieves our minds of all hesitation.
|
<urn:uuid:3e781823-e042-46e0-8551-5e80f98172ff>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/calvin/pray/pray036.htm
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.974582
| 436
| 2.390625
| 2
|
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs recently issued a remarkable press release, "Thoughts on Flash." For those unfamiliar with the debate, the Flash in question is Adobe Flash, and Jobs' 'thoughts' are a defense of Apple's decision not to support Flash on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
Jobs on Flash video, specifically:
Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.
As an iPad and iPhone owner/user, I can attest that this is an accurate reflection of my experience on both devices. The only time I encounter Flash issues are with older websites using Flash for user interface. Many of those sites have mobile versions, and their owners are quickly implementing code to direct iPads automatically to the Flash-free mobile versions. The big video sites already support HTML5/h.264 players (or even better, native Apps). The smaller sites are scrambling to convert their players and content.
So what does this battle between Adobe and Apple mean for corporate video? If you're using a player or service that already supports h.264, nothing. You're all set, and your videos most likely already work on Apple (and other manufacturers') devices. If you're just getting into corporate video, or are already hosting video using a Flash-only player, you might want to contact prospective hosts and streaming services to determine their future plans. Over 1 million iPads have already been sold, they're terrific for video, and they're being adopted in droves by higher income early adopters (a group most businesses are eager to target with corporate video). You can probably get away with Flash video for now, but you should also develop a strategy as soon as possible.
|
<urn:uuid:fcab0083-25d5-4065-8975-76541d791337>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.rewatchable.com/steve-jobs-flash/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.945651
| 503
| 1.710938
| 2
|
Inclusion and Equity Interns
The Inclusion and Equity Internship (IEI) Program is designed to expose a team of students to the scholarship and best practices concerning greater inclusiveness and equity, with the purpose of cultivating social justice leadership skills among college students. Interns attend and participate in a series of workshops and guided training to provide a common foundation that will enhance the undergraduate student co-curricular programming experience. Bi-weekly structured dialogues are designed to share experiences and provide opportunities for reflection, personal growth, and action. Interns are also responsible for conceiving, planning and executing at least one reflective diversity event or project on campus during the course of their internship.
Upon completion of this program, interns will be equipped to demonstrate well-cultivated critical thinking skills concerning inclusive and equitable practices. Such skills can be applied to educational, as well as life settings.
Each year, this program will select approximately 10 interns through an application process. For additional information about the Inclusion and Equity Intern Program, please contact Marian R. Vasser at 852-2252 or email@example.com.
|
<urn:uuid:7386fdcd-31bf-4e42-a92a-35ddf38a966c>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://louisville.edu/anthropology/site-artsandsciences-idop/diversity-programs/student-programs/inclusion-and-equity-interns
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.940063
| 232
| 1.953125
| 2
|
I wrote this back in 2008 and then took it down; here it is again, slightly updated.
Have you ever come across the notion that the world of computers is changing very rapidly? Me too. This theme runs constantly through discussions of computer and communication systems today: we'll need these upgrades; our systems will be obsolete within six months; we can't conceive of what our grandchildren will be doing with computers; and so forth.
Not surprisingly, though, really good ideas — the kind that lead to revolutionary change — are rare. General conceptual threads in computing can often be traced back to a strikingly original idea, and what we sometimes find is that our great new discoveries are what smart people have been talking about for quite some time. Here are two examples.
In 1945, Vannevar Bush published an article in The Atlantic, called "As We May Think." In the last section of his article, Bush speculates about what the future might hold for information processing:
Selection [of information] by association, rather than indexing, may yet be mechanized. One cannot hope thus to equal the speed and flexibility with which the mind follows an associative trail, but it should be possible to beat the mind decisively in regard to the permanence and clarity of the items resurrected from storage... Consider a future device for individual use, in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.
Most of the contents are purchased. Books of all sorts, pictures, current periodicals, newspapers, are thus obtained and dropped into place. Business correspondence takes the same path. And there is provision for direct entry... [A]ny item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another. The process of tying two items together is the important thing... When the user is building a trail, he names it, inserts the name in his code book, and taps it out on his keyboard. Before him are the two items to be joined... Thereafter, at any time, when one of these items is in view, the other can be instantly recalled merely by tapping a button below the corresponding code space. Thus he builds a trail of his interest through the maze of materials available to him.
Bush is describing a way of interacting with a network of information that's not vastly different from what we do today. He called his machine a memex. What's remarkable (though a bit less so if we realize that he was the director of what would eventually become the National Science Foundation) is that he wrote this a year or so before the world's first electronic computer was even switched on. That is, Bush is describing what the World Wide Web might look like based on a technological foundation of microfiche readers for browsing and (we can imagine) pneumatic tubes and Post Office trucks for data transfer.
Bush foresaw encyclopedias being made available on a memex ("reduced to the volume of a matchbox", as he put it). He foresaw "magazines, newspapers, books, tracts, advertising blurbs, correspondence" all being memex accessible. He even to some extent foreshadowed modern commentators who praise Google as "the brain I never had".
To my mind, though, one of the most interesting and subtle of Bush's insights is that while distributed access to information is critical, distributed generation of information is important as well. This might be in the form of annotations, comments, and conventional writing, but value is also provided by making connections between pieces of different information. As Bush put it, "The process of tying two items together is the important thing." And what do you do with these connections? You share them with friends when they become relevant.
For those of us who enjoy blogging for its commentary and pointers to interesting news, we have Bush (among others, of course) to thank.
Let's jump forward to the mid-1960s. We now have computers--great, expensive computers so rare that hardly anyone sees them, and a Ph.D. is often the price of admission. J. C. R. Licklider has a vision in which everyone has access to computing power. In this vision, computers are much more than just glorified calculators. They'll support the establishment of online communities.
[T]here are at present perhaps only as few as half a dozen interactive multiaccess computer communities. These communities are socio-technical pioneers, in several ways out ahead of the rest of the computer world: What makes them so? First, some of their members are computer scientists and engineers who understand the concept of man-computer interaction and the technology of interactive multiaccess systems. Second, others of their members are creative people in other fields and disciplines who recognize the usefulness and who sense the impact of interactive multiaccess computing upon their work. Third, the communities have large multiaccess computers and have learned to use them. And, fourth, their efforts are regenerative...
What will on-line interactive communities be like? In most fields they will consist of geographically separated members, sometimes grouped in small clusters and sometimes working individually. They will be communities not of common location, but of common interest. In each field, the overall community of interest will be large enough to support a comprehensive system of field-oriented programs and data.
Licklider's writing mainly appeared to be relevant in business and scientific computing, but his insights clearly generalize to what we see today. He writes of face-to-face meetings being replaced (at times) by online meetings, of short computer response times, of "free and easy" conversation being important, of computer systems taking over the tedious programming burdens that users would otherwise face, and of groups that form based on common interests and dynamically evolve. He writes, "Creative, interactive communication requires a plastic or moldable medium that can be modeled, a dynamic medium in which premises will flow into consequences, and above all a common medium that can be contributed to and experimented with by all."
For those of us who enjoy the social communities of today, we have Licklider (among others, of course) to thank.
|
<urn:uuid:8ddca41e-5f42-49c9-b000-63d33dc66d0f>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.open.salon.com/blog/rob_st_amant/2012/06/07/everything_old_is_new_again
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.968098
| 1,272
| 2.484375
| 2
|
This small head of a queen is thought to have been created in the early part of the reign of the Macedonian Greek Ptolemies and is believed to depict Arsinoe II (278–270 B.C.), sister/wife of Ptolemy II, one of a line of religiously and politically important Ptolemaic queens.Arsinoe II is shown in a style that is closely related to that of Dynasty 30, the last of the traditional Egyptian pharaonic dynasties. Indeed, the early Ptolemies made great efforts to show themselves as the inheritors of the pharaohs who had preceded them. At the same time, other motivations led to the creation of other types of royal images. Strongly Hellenistic images (2002.66), relate these rulers to the other Hellenistic kingdoms ruled by Alexander's successors around the Mediterranean. Other images depict the Ptolemaic rulers with mixed Egyptian and Hellenistic or particularly Ptolemaic elements (20.2.21).
|
<urn:uuid:89454c91-feed-4597-b044-266db989a261>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/100004483?high=on&rpp=15&pg=1&rndkey=20120807&ft=*&what=Limestone&pos=13
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.948866
| 211
| 3.65625
| 4
|
The District wide Improvement Project and the ...
|Title||The District wide Improvement Project and the Development of School Improvement Strategies by the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. Report to the Prince Albert Tribal Council, Education Division|
|Abstract||Outcomes of the District Wide School Improvement Program (DWIP), a plan to improve Native education in Saskatchewan, are described in this paper. Initiated by the Prince Albert Tribal Council (PATC) and the Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB), the school improvement model is a community-based developmental model designed to sensitize schools to their cultural environment. Needs assessment surveys were mailed to 550 parents, students, teachers, staff, band councillors, and school administrators, of whom 334 responded, a 61 percent response rate. Major concerns of constituents included teacher and program evaluation, lack of communication, the student dropout rate, the low status of Cree language and culture, lack of consistent student performance expectations, support for special needs students, insufficient funding, and lack of school/community collaboration. Based on the premise that the effective school system works with its environment, program goals include upholding the right to education, establishing local/Band governance, improving academic standards, and maintaining the cultural awareness of the Cree Nation. (35 references) (LMI)|
Using APA 6th Edition citation style.
Times viewed: 76
|
<urn:uuid:66876dbd-94c8-4127-b497-36b914d17091>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.islandscholar.ca/fedora/repository/ir:ir-batch6-6186
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.913619
| 275
| 2.734375
| 3
|
You may think being 11 years old was a dull, boring, childish time, but we're about to change your mind...
1. The Harry Potter series starts when Harry, Hermione, and Ron are 11 years old. Basically, that means 11 is the year you start learning magic and facing death all the time.
2. For many of you, 11 was the year elementary school ended and middle school began. You ruled the school in one half of the year and then conquered a whole new world in the second. You didn't realize it at the time, but that was impressive.
3. Z'OH MAH GOBSTOPPERS! SCHOOL DANCES! Many junior high and middle schools have co-ed socials and dances. This was a casual, new experience that didn't require a fancy prom dress. Plus there was no pressure to bring a date.
4. The magical wish-making time is 11:11. Your wishes came extra true when you were 11.
5. Sleepovers. There was nothing more fun than a sleepover when you are 11. Remember how difficult it was to stay awake until midnight?
6. It was a great time to experiment with glitter... in your hair, on paper, on your nails... EVERYWHERE! The only people who can get away with that much glitter are 11-year-olds and pop stars. That's it.
7. It was a good time to experiment with your tastes. For many people, it was the year that pizza and chicken nuggets stopped being the only food worth looking at. But now that you have a more sophisticated palate, you realize pizza and chicken nuggets are still pretty great.
8. The more magazine photos plastered on your wall, the more people wanted to sleep over. And if you remember reason #5, this was very, very important.
9. You could read more magazines! When you became 11, it seemed like the choices of reading material on the newsstand became endless (or more like, you got more variety when before it was just Highlights and Ranger Rick). Now you could page through more mature magazines and learn about shoes, makeup, and what celebrities look like through a zoom lens.
10. Asking your BFF to come over to dance in your room and play Mario Kart made you the most awesome friend EVER. And identifying your BFF is easy thanks to those handy, homemade bracelets.
11. Your level of sophistication (when it came to what you liked) was based on a fine line. It may have been totally out of the question to use Strawberry Shortcake toothpaste but it could be perfectly okay to still love Fruit Gushers. The best part was that it was completely up to you to decide when to be a kid and when to be a hip, cool teen.
12. You got to start reading from the Young Adult section. And lucky for you, there were so many things to read about. Hated young wizards? Fine— you could read about dragons and wallflowers instead. Hated that too? You could read about the coolest BFFs in the whole world and puberty. And it goes on and on and on...
13. Harriet the Spy: probably the coolest 11-year-old ever, depending on how high you rank Harry Potter.
14. You learned responsibility. You could finally babysit! But you could probably only babysit your siblings, and only for a few minutes while your mom or dad went to the store. But still...you were finally a babysitter!!!
15. No one understands the value of good old-fashioned letter-writing like an 11-year-old. Writing notes to friends was an art, and the more awesome the pens, the greater the masterpiece.
16. You started to develop a sense of humor, and joke-telling became a little easier.
17. Your school projects became more challenging and complicated, but also a lot more fun. Admit it: you miss making that edible mitochondria, and three-story diorama model based on Ella Enchanted.
18. You didn't have to join a gym or go to fitness boot camp. Your everyday activities like kickball, hula hooping, and jumping rope kept you fit as a fiddle.
19. The mall will never be as awesome and grand as it was when you were 11. The freedom, the choices, the candy, the colors... it almost makes you want to head to the galleria now. Almost.
20. Lockers. This was likely the year that you started having one. You learned how fun they were except for the times that you were halfway into class and realized you brought in the wrong homework. Still, decorating them was fun, right?
|
<urn:uuid:ec8d5975-6e90-4701-b09f-93f7c8d2d698>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://community.sparknotes.com/2013/01/23/20-great-things-about-being-11
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.980011
| 980
| 2.109375
| 2
|
From the Desk of Timothy Michaels
The Composition of a Song - Star Spangled Banner
A short time ago I was invited to perform for a race called “Swim Across America.” The song was to be the Star Spangled Banner and at first I just played it on my pedal steel alone. I sent the orchestrator of the race a recorded mp3 copy and he urged me to “hop it up” as he implied that it was beautiful for a calm morning with the sun rising over Lake Washington, but as far as a race goes it was to laid back and mellow. When I play a song, it makes me happy to play it, but equilly as happy to please the person listening to the song, so I added drums and bass to “hop it up.”
It turned out he was right. The swimmers at the race were extremely jazzed when I played it. They cheered like it was a big rock concert. After that, I went back to my studio and ran over the song again. I felt that even though I went to the point of adding a live recording of myself playing bass & drums for background tracks I wanted the song to go even deeper. For those who don’t know how I put together my music, you should know that I record all of my background tracks in my studio, and then mix them together for the final piece. If I am performing the piece. I will sometimes lay out prerecorded tracks, and play an instrument over them or will live record one instrument and repeat it real time to “build” a song. So with my music, if there’s a guitar in the background, it’s a real guitar, and so on. This is because I find the quality of real instruments to be very different than digitally
|generated instruments, and a sound I very much prefer. It has taken me years to master the instruments that I need for my songs, but in my mind it is well worth it.
At the end of the Star Spangle Banner, on the steel, I produced these two cords going back & forth. They intermingled with lead notes found in the cords that gave me visions of someone flying across mountains on a magic carpet. It was very mystical. But, I wasn’t allowed to play these cords for the swimmers at the race, as there was only a three minute window to play the song. Back at my studio I added the cords across the bass & drums just to jam with it and enjoy the great feeling it gave me to play this. Here’s how I get my rush! After a bit I decided to record it and it worked out to be where when I start the song, I perform it live on the pedal steel, playing the main tune across the rhythm section (bass & drums) from my stomp box . But then, about half way through the song I moved the steel back to a prerecorded track allowing me to pick up my violin and solo like crazy to the finish out the song. All who have gotten the chance to listen to this are totally impressed. Even the orchestrator of the race when describing it used the word “awesome!”
I have included the song in my repertoire for this coming weekend. If you would like to hear it performed live, please come to one of my performances this coming weekend at Bamboo Bar & Grill.
|
<urn:uuid:d4188ce0-9cb9-4f3a-8610-1ad8c0dc8cba>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://timothymichaels.net/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.979803
| 702
| 1.640625
| 2
|
At the Institute of Education we pride ourselves on the calibre of our teachers and the wide range of subjects available to our students. We believe that students should be allowed to choose whatever subjects they want to study, in any combination they want.
The following Higher Level subjects are available:
* Subject to demand
The following subjects are also available at Ordinary Level at the Institute of Education: English, French, Irish, Mathematics and Special Mathematics (for those only working towards a D3 grade).
Higher and Ordinary Level will be offered if there is sufficient demand.
|
<urn:uuid:85e91320-80cf-4a3d-bf77-15da37fc6820>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.ioe.ie/6th-year/subjects
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.925497
| 115
| 1.859375
| 2
|
S-STEM Fellowship program
The S-STEM Fellowship program provides four-year scholarships to high-achieving underrepresented students who have exhibited a commitment to academic excellence, as well as a desire to give back to society and to assist others.
A Strong Foundation
Clarkson is a nationally ranked research institution with signature programs in engineering, the sciences, and mathematics. As an S-STEM Fellow, you’ll benefit from Clarkson’s expertise and an innovative pedagogy in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.
The S-STEM Fellowship Program is a collaboration between Clarkson’s Honors Program and the Office for Institutional Diversity Initiatives. The program complements the student’s major by offering mentoring, personal development and leadership workshops, and access to research, internships, and co-ops. The S-STEM program enables its members to acquire the skills for academic and career success.
Financial Assistance and Mentorship
As an S-STEM Fellow, you will receive four years of financial assistance. In addition, you will be part of a close-knit, supportive and friendly community. You will be closely mentored to ensure that you obtain the most from your educational experience and customized tutoring — tutoring that matches personalities and learning styles as well as the subject matter — is available. S-STEM mentors will also:
- Guide you through Clarkson’s innovative, project-based interdisciplinary curriculum;
- Direct you to research opportunities on campus and internships at advanced industrial sectors; and
- Help you to build a network of alumni and industry relationships for internships, co-ops and fast-track jobs.
Professional Development and Personal Growth
The S-STEM Program offers a variety of opportunities for professional development and social interaction through seminars, workshops, field trips, and group dinners. Recent activities have included a workshop of test taking strategies and stress management, a field trip to the nearby Adirondack Park, and team-building skills activities.
About Clarkson University
Clarkson University is New York State’s highest ranked small research institution. We are the institution of choice for 3,000 enterprising, high-ability students pursuing degrees in 50+ academic programs of study. Located in the northern Adirondacks in the college town of Potsdam, Clarkson stands out among America’s private, nationally ranked research institutions because of its dynamic collaborative learning environment, innovative degree and research programs, and unmatched track record for producing leaders and innovators.
For more information, contact:
Hayley H. Shen
Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering
PO Box 5710
Potsdam, NY 13699-5710
“As a result of the workshops, seminars and activities designed to develop skills and the available opportunities, I feel comfortable asking questions and taking leadership positions. The S-STEM fellowship program has provided me with the guidance and skills I need to be successful in college!”
— Alicia Shelvay ’11
The Clarkson University S-STEM Fellowship Program recognizes talented underrepresented students who have demonstrated a strong interest to enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields despite social or economic constraints.
|
<urn:uuid:2fd3da97-3abd-44f6-bb16-9775b6a5a558>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.clarkson.edu/sstem/index.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.920113
| 652
| 1.640625
| 2
|
When I first saw the cover, I immediately placed it on order before it was released. I incorrectly assumed that it would be a how-to book on paper art & crafts. After I got the book, I quickly skimmed through the book, and much to my great delight, it was not a how-to book, but a well-curated "exhibition" on the art and craft of paper as executed by the designers and artists. I later discovered that the cover photo is a paper illustration of all the ingredients for its creator's chili recipe.
As I went past the title page, I expected to find a table of contents, but it was not included - instead, a preface appeared. As I was reading it, I was relieved to find that it was not an "academic treatise", but an entertaining, insightful, and beautifully written introduction (authored by Robert Klanten) to paper as a physical and tangible medium for use in fine arts, fashion, illustration, animation, objects and graphic design.
Due to the lack of the table of contents, I had to skim through the whole book to count the number of chapters. I have found that it was grouped into five "chapters" which looked more like categories. Each "chapter" starts with the text written by Sonja Commentz, and her writings were just as creative as many of the paper works shown in the book.
The book itself is truly mind-boggling especially when all of the works are either done in two-dimensional or three-dimensional with nothing but paper. One could say that it's sheer paper madness - murals, display, poster, collage, typography, objects, characters, toys, shoes, costume, trains, villages, repurposed/altered books, life-sized dioramas, installation sites and many more.
From examining the colorful and good sized photographs, I saw that many different paper craft techniques were employed in various projects: folding, kirigami, cutouts, silhouettes, sculpting, scoring, and embossing, to name a few. The coffee table size of the book allows many of the photographs to be large enough for me to be able to look at some of the works in detail so that the paper techniques can be figured out.
At the end of the book is an index where the first letters of the company names and even the artists'/designers' names are sorted. The strange thing is that there is a table of contents included - not for the book itself but for the CD which is attached to the inside back cover. The included CD contains both the videos (DVD) and the templates (ROM) for 18 "urban paper" artists' models. The video portion contains interviews, animation and demonstration. One of my favorite paper animation videos, This is Where We Live, done by Apt & Asylum Films is included and I was absolutely delighted to have it in my possession.
In summary, this book is the most inspiring book on paper creativity I have ever come across. I wish that it would be given a better title to do it much greater justice. Anyway, I love and am grateful for the fact that I have many of the great paper work in one bound physical copy instead of an electronic list of various paper artists'/designers' websites. I highly recommended this book for anyone who loves the look and feel of paper anywhere and everywhere.
|
<urn:uuid:5df274df-9a98-4747-8798-10aa2f478133>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.amazon.ca/Papercraft-Design-Paper-Robert-Klanten/dp/3899552512
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.976731
| 697
| 1.5
| 2
|
Book Review: Tilly's Moonlight Garden by Julia Green
Tilly's Moonlight Garden by Julia Green is a children's book recommended for ages nine and older. It is a story that will hit home for children and adults alike. Tilly's family moves into a new house, a large house that Tilly's mother has inherited. Tilly's father is a writer, often lost in his own work, and her mother is pregnant and ill enough that she is restricted to bed-rest. In her fears of the new home, new school, her mother's health, and becoming a big sister, Tilly is feeling a little lost. A wild fox in the garden and a mysterious girl leads Tilly to a secret garden. A new girl at school, Christmas, and family changes lead Tilly to question just what is real and help her grow.
Tilly's Moonlight Garden is a coming of age story with a strong sense of learning to accept yourself and your family for who they are. Tilly misses her best friend and feels lost in a big house and no neighbors to play with. Her parents are dealing with their own concerns, and obviously love Tilly (which she never doubts), but she is left to her own devices most of the time. Exploring the garden and house is entertaining to a young girl with a solid imagination, but Tilly craves more. It is only in her nighttime wanderings that the fox and mysterious girl make Tilly feel that she is having adventures. I connected with Tilly right away, including her fears about being made fun of for liking 'childish' things by classmates and worried that others are mocking her even when they might not be paying any attention to her at all. I often felt that same way as a child, and can only imagine that it is common. Tilly grows, makes connections, and channels her creativity in constructive and positive ways.
I recommend Tilly's Moonlight Garden to children that share any of Tilly's insecurities. Readers facing a move, illness in the family, family additions, or just spending a lot of time alone will find much in Tilly's mind and story that they can relate to. I will be looking for more by Green to add to my children's library as they grow up.
|
<urn:uuid:ba8828d7-1f93-4214-9fce-325e7c1fa48b>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://sstwriting.blogspot.com/2012/11/book-review-tillys-moonlight-garden-by.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.977892
| 462
| 1.539063
| 2
|
There are many types of bread, but the difference is the way they are prepared. If you check a local store, you will find products like pretzels, muffins, croissants and biscuits to name just a few. There is another type of bread that is also popular, which is the rye bread pie. Have you ever heard of it? Baking bread is not as hard as it was some years back when everything was done manually. As a matter of fact now you can be able to bake your rye bread pie (the term in Danish is rugbrdslagkage) within minutes because of the improved technology and the machines that make the baking work easier. The best thing about using a machine to bake your tasty pie is that you will not have to check the progress of your cooking, because what you will simply do is mix your ingredients well as required, and place the mixture in the machine; then set the required time and heat. When the time is up the machine will automatically switch off and your rye bread pie will be ready for consumption.
Rye bread pie is very easy to prepare
The various ingredients that you will require apart from the normal ones are rye bread flour, olive oil and of course caraway seeds that will be used for garnishing. You can use herbs like thyme, dill, oregano and garlic (which should be fresh) yeast and pepper. When you have these and the other required ingredients in place, then you should check the instructions for preparing the baking machine. You do not want to spoil your rye bread pie by undercooking, overcooking or even burning it. The best thing is that the modern machines have indications of the type of bread they can make, and all you will need is to check how to set the baking of your delicious pie. When baking the rye bread pie you will not have to grease the pans because the mixture has enough oil to enable the pie to bake without sticking.
The do-it-all machine for rye bread pie
There are special machines that will not require you to mix your ingredients for the pie. All you need to do is ensure your ingredients are there and the temperature is right before you place everything into the containers of the machine. Room temperature helps the yeast to grow. Start by adding one ingredient after the other. The first one can be the oil, then the rye bread flour and then the rest as you would prefer. Do not worry about the mixing, leave that to the machine. After you select the right temperature and time that your pie is supposed to cook you can sit down and wait for your machine to do the baking.
The machine simply presses the dough to its right state and then bakes it. You can use the settings for baking whole wheat bread or light crust bread to set the baking for your rye bread pie.
|
<urn:uuid:0f00b267-a61c-4c58-b051-99aeabd67565>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.thechefscookbook.com/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.953739
| 578
| 1.585938
| 2
|
Dogs and Fear of Strangers
Veterinarian and applied animal behaviorist Dr. Sophia Yin is author of the book Low Stress Handling and Behavior Modification of Dogs and Cats, newly released as an e-book. In the book, Dr. Yin teaches dog (and cat) owners how to help reduce their pets' anxiety around day-to-day activities. Whether the animal is petrified at the vet, skittish around visitors at home, or just dislikes simple care like grooming, Dr. Yin shares secrets of behavior modification used by professionals.
In this special guest article for Dogster, Dr. Yin writes about a problem she frequently encounters: Dogs who are very apprehensive around strangers. Here's a typical comment from someone seeking her help for this situation:
"My dog seems fine with people. He can walk in crowds and often just ignores guests, but if a stranger tries to reach for and pet him he often backs away and growls. Or at least that's what he used to do. Now he sometimes barks and occasionally snaps or bites. Why can't he tell that people are just trying to be friendly?"
Dr. Yin explores the problem in depth below.
Why Fido Snaps at Friendly People
By Dr. Sophia Yin
The main problem here usually is that Fido didn't have enough positive experiences with a variety of unfamiliar people during his sensitive period for socialization and beyond. From three weeks to three months of age, puppies are primed to explore and form bonds. Such that if they meet and greet all types of people in many types of environments and good things happen to them simultaneously, they generalize to understand that people overall are friendly. Then if this socialization continues through their adolescence, the relaxed demeanor around people becomes part of their overall personality. Those dogs who didn't get the type and amount of experiences they needed given their individual genetic make-up and early experience can end up being fearful around some or all unfamiliar people.
How People Make the Problem Worse
Of course people inadvertently make the problem much worse. For one, they forget the Golden Rule - ask to pet, first. Instead, well-wishers approach too quickly, crowd too closely or loom over like a thunderstorm ready to dump its load. Under this pressure some dogs will freeze or shrink, pretending it's all a bad dream. Others take action - usually a reflex bark or low-level growl. A few successes here, and the message is loud and clear: when strangers approach, growl and bark to keep them away. Pretty soon, your sweet, slightly insecure dog has turned into a mass of defensive rumbling.
Some owners respond by reprimanding or punishing their dog. This can teach Fido that he'd better hide his fear from you but it doesn't make the internal fear disappear. As a result, your dog may no longer show signs that he wants people to back away, instead he holds it in until he can't take it anymore and then he explodes in a full-blown bite.
Why Do Friendly People Look Scary?
Many humans can't understand why their dogs would be afraid of them when they're obviously making friendly human gestures. Turn the tables around and the picture becomes clear. Say you're afraid of spiders and your friend shoves her pet tarantula in your face. If she simultaneously reassures you, "She's a friendly tarantula. See her amicable expression?" or "She can't cause harm, she's just an innocent baby," would you suddenly feel safe?
No, in fact the only way you could get used to the spider is if you greeted it at your own pace. That means it would have to be on a table or in some locations where you could control your distance from it. Then when you were ready you could gradually approach for a closer look and to even touch it. The same goes for dogs. All dogs are not outgoing or used to meeting many types of strangers, especially if they were already shy when you adopted them or have received minimal supervised socialization with many types of humans. If you walk into a dog's personal space or even stand and reach out to let him sniff you hand or to pet him he may feel threatened or be unsure of your intentions. To him, your hand might as well be a meat cleaver.
If however, you stand straight up or crouch down on one knee while looking slightly away, then he can approach and sniff you at his own rate. You can speed up the friendship if you inconspicuously drop tasty treats close to you. If he's taking these without any hesitation, you can hold treats in your hand while averting your gaze so that shy Fido can choose to take them.
Often people manage to get through the initial greeting with Fido okay but then they make a quick or inappropriate move that scares him into snapping or running away. This is still similar to the situation with the giant spider. Even when you're finally comfortable enough to examine and touch the tarantula, if it suddenly moves its mouthparts or waves one of its legs in the air you might jump away out of fright. To you these movements may conjure images of the tarantula leaping at you and taking a bite whereas to the tarantula the movements may just be a subconscious change in position or even a signal that it's your friend. So the trick to ensuring that you don't frighten Fido even after the initial greeting is to gradually get him used to you in different positions. Avoid learning over him or reaching over his head or grabbing and hugging him so he feels confined. Instead move slowly and smoothly in order to give him a chance to back away.
Read the Dog's Signals
Probably the biggest issue with these dogs who are uncomfortable with some human greetings is that their humans as well as the unfamiliar greeters fail to recognize the neon sign flashing in the dog's body postures and movements. It says, "Help! I'm scared. Go Away." Fido may be tense with eyes darting back and forth or his gaze looking away while he's cowering. Or he may be yawning, licking his lips or panting when he shouldn't be hot. Sometimes Fido starts moving in slow motion like he's sneaking around, or his ears suddenly going out to the sides or back while his brow is furrowed in a worried look. And often his tail is down low, even between his legs. These are all signs of anxiety or fear.
What to Do if You See Signs of Fear
If you see these signs in your dog as someone reaches out to pet him, quickly move away so he's out of range of the approaching petter. Like the person who's about to pick up litter but stops because the litter starts to blow away, the signal you send by moving away is to stop. At the same time you can explain "He's afraid of new people that approach him quickly." Simultaneously get Fido's attention on you and reward him for something good such as sitting or looking at you or performing tricks. The goal is to change his emotional state from scared to happy, so that he can eventually learn to associate unfamiliar people with good things. Consequently his fear can go away. Strangers can also toss treats while looking away, but unless you're absolutely sure that you can tell when Fido is permanently comfortable with them, I'd avoid letting them pet him unless you have a professional coach you through the procedure.
For People Greeting Unfamiliar Dogs
It's important that you watch body language too. The dog may take treats from you but that doesn't mean he's ready to be touched. Watch the response to everything you do because sometimes a split second freeze or lift of the lip is the neon sign that says "That's too scary for me. Now I'm going to bite." Instead, just be happy to give treats and admire the dog without touching and know that you've given him a good experience.
What Body Language Indicates the Dog is Safe?
The body language you'd like to see when greeting a dog is one that says this whole business is ho-hum. The dog should remain relaxed and his gaze should be steady and soft. His tail should either wag or hang loosely down.
If humans would let dogs approach them at their own pace and would even make treats magically appear on the ground around them without pressuring the dog to allowing being petted, they would experience many good dog greetings and help Fido have positive experiences around unfamiliar people, too.
You can read additional articles and see videos on this topic over here.
Dr. Sophia Yin is a veterinarian, applied animal behaviorist, speaker and author of numerous scholarly articles and books about pets and their training. She is a 1993 graduate of the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and earned her Master's Degree in Animal Science in 2001, also from UC-Davis where she studied vocal communication in dogs and worked on behavior modification in horses, giraffes, ostriches and chickens. Dr. Yin currently makes behavior housecalls, teaches dog training and kitty kindergarten classes, works at San Francisco Veterinary Specialists, writes for several veterinary and popular magazines, and teaches workshops internationally on animal behavior and low stress handling. Dr. Yin made The Bark's list of the 100 Best & Brightest in the World of Dogs in 2010.
Photo: Courtesy Dr. Sophia Yin
|
<urn:uuid:7793ee2e-fc66-4ac7-a42d-2864d634f0ed>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.dogster.com/dog-training/dogs-and-fear-of-strangers
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.974346
| 1,927
| 2.53125
| 3
|
You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘immortals’ tag.
Many of the stories and myths of Taoism center on the eight immortals, a group of ancient entities who mastered powerful magic to such an extent that they transcended mortality and rose to a state of near divinity. Zhang Guo Lao, the eccentric elderly potions master, is one of the eight immortals (and we have seen what an odd figure he is), but some of the others are even more peculiar. Probably the strangest member of the group is Lan Caihe, whose age and precise origin are unknown. In fact, the gender of Lan Caihe is unknown: S/he is sometimes depicted as a young girl or a cross-dressing boy or a strange genderless old person.
Lan Caihe is the patron saint of florists and minstrels (or maybe I should say “singing courtesans” since the musical lifestyle in classical China often bore some relation to the pleasure trade). His/her sacred emblem is the flower basket, a bamboo or wicker container born on a hoe-like handle filled with up with sacred flowers, herbs, and plants. Lan Caihe is also sometimes shown holding castanets, playing a flute, or riding a crane. Ambiguity and the reversal of expectations are trademarks of this immortal as is the power of unheeded prophecy. In addition to not having a fixed gender, Lan Caihe dons heavy winter clothes in summer but strips down to a flimsy barely-there shift to sleep in snowbanks in the winter. Sometime s/he is portrayed within a melting snowbank transforming into steam from quasi-divine magic.
While some of the eight immortals have lengthy or complicated creation stories (involving magic items or a lifetime of study) Lan Caihe’s apotheosis to immortality was quick and random. While playing music, drinking heavily, and otherwise entertaining at a bar, Lan Caihe got up to go to the bathroom. Suddenly, unexpectedly, he/she flew up to heaven on a crane letting a single shoe fall down (in some versions of the tale various other dubious garments joined the shoe). Despite having immense power and magic (and immortality), Lan Caihe is frequently portrayed dressed in a frayed blue dress and only one shoe, consorting with the lowest classes of society. I can think of few figures from any mythology more evocative of the socially constructed nature of identity than this gender-ambiguous immortal.
The Chinese underworld illustrates how Chinese mythology portrays existence as a struggle through many different levels of enlightenment. The damned souls of the “dark mansion” (aka hell) are at the bottom of karmic heap. At the top of the pantheon are gods, spirit beings, bodhisattvas, and great magicians. Zhang Guo Lao was one such entity. This mythical figure was apparently based on a one-time real person, a hermit/mystic who lived on Mount Tiáo in Héngzhōu during the Tang dynasty.
One of the oldest of the eight Taoist immortals, Zhang Guo Lao was originally a fangshi (a sort of highly literate gentleman-alchemist). It was this mastery of potions which enabled him to step free of mortality (and he reputedly continues to make magical wines and elixirs from various berries, shrubs, and mushrooms). An eccentric among eccentrics, Zhang Guo Lao would frequently perform strange magic tricks to delight himself and was frequently found sipping from poison flowers and toxic plants for fun. Using his own “drunk kung fu”, he was capable of killing animals and people by pointing at them. Sometimes he would lie around dead and festering for months before leaping up and skipping through the woods.
Zhang Guo Lao is known by his long flowing white hair, his extreme age, and by his pet donkey which he is often pictured riding on (backwards of course). This white donkey was no ordinary beast of burden: when Zhang Guo Lao had reached his destination he would fold the wondrous quadruped up into a tiny slip as thin as a slip of paper. He would then keep the donkey in his cap box. When he needed to travel he would reconstitute the creature with a jet of water from his mouth. The ancient immortal also carried a “fish drum. To quote Perceval Yetts’ article The Eight Immortals (published in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society), “[Zhang Guo Lao] is easily recognized by his pao pei, a curious object which to Western eyes resembles a diminutive golfer’s bag containing two clubs. Actually it is a kind of musical instrument called a “fish-drum”, composed of a cylinder, often of bamboo, over one end of which is stretched a piece of prepared fish or snake skin. What look like two projecting golf clubs are the ends of long slips of bamboo used as castanets.”
Earlier, I wrote that Zhang Guo Lao started as a fangshi. This is to ignore his long history of lives before he ascended to near-divinity. Stories say that Zhang Guo Lao claimed to have been a court minister for Emperor Yao in a former life. Additionally, elsewhere in the canon of Taoist literature, Yeh Fa-shan, a fabulist wonder-worker, told a story about how Zhang Guo Lao started out as a bat. Indeed Zhang Guo Lao is frequently portrayed with auspicious bats (a symbol of good fortune) and is said to be able to transform himself into a bat. The idea that a virtuous bat could rise up through the ranks of being–first into a man, then into an emperor’s minister, then into an alchemist/monk, and finally into an immortal quasi-god is a “rags-to-riches” story that Horatio Algiers could never conceive of. Zhang Guo Lao’s path to godhood illustrates that America holds no monopoly on Cinderella dreams.
The eleventh Emperor of the Ming dynasty, the Jiajing emperor, who (mis)ruled China from 1521 to 1567, was a tremendously devout taoist. During the Jiajing reign, Taoist symbolism became omnipresent in art and culture–especially near the end of the emperor’s reign when his fanatical search for immortality began to bring ruin to China. Jiajing porcelain is distinct in that the robust naturalism of earlier Ming blue and white ware is replaced by increasingly fanciful imagery. Cranes, dragons, phoenixes, immortals, and flaming pearls all float through a dreamlike magical world. Sorcerers and magicians frolic happily through scerene forests filled with deer, pine, fungi, and bamboo (all of which are symbols of immortality or longevity). Frilly clouds complete the picture of whimsical abandon. Even the shape of porcelain became more fanciful: to quote the website Eloge de l’Art par Alain Truong, (which contains many fine photographs of Jiajing porcelain, several of which are used here), “The double-gourd is a popular symbol of longevity and is associated with the Daoist Immortal Li Tiegui, who is depicted holding a double gourd containing the elixir of immortality.” The vase at the top of the article, which shows a lighthearted scene of people playing in a garden is double gourd shaped. Here are some additional examples of Jiajing porcelain:
Another lovely blue and white double gourd vase also reflects the Jiajing zeitgeist. On this vase, an auspicious crane flies throught the clouds above a powerful dragon.
This small jar portrays the four Daoist Immortals Li Tieguai, Liu Hai, Hanshan and Shide dancing in a pine forest beneath swirling clouds.
‘Shou’ is the symbol for longevity. This double vase presents numerous shou medallions of various sizes embedded in a matrix of clouds and flames.
|
<urn:uuid:814a72c0-8db7-46b4-b9bf-5af5d27cb74d>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/tag/immortals/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.956394
| 1,722
| 2.09375
| 2
|
Helping the law make a sound case
Deciphering the words of an urban rapper was probably the last way Martin Barry ever thought he would earn his living when he studied languages at Cambridge.
But his expertise helped convict the man, who was accused of plotting to kill a pregnant woman.
"It was one of my punch-the-air moments," said the former head of linguistics at the University of Manchester, who has been a full-time forensic voice expert for the past three years.
The case involved the rapper claiming he was recording a track in a studio when an attempt was made to murder the girlfriend of his friend and fellow rapper.
Mr Barry, 49, had to help prove whether there was a genuine date and time stamp on a recording by Kingsley Ogundele, known as rapper Snoopy Montana.
If the date was authentic, Ogundele had an alibi.
However, when he checked another recording with an earlier time stamp he found the two were identical.Speech patterns
This cast grave doubt on Ogundele's alibi because of the possibility his recording was merely a copy of an earlier rap.
It was Mr Barry's skill as a "voice detective" which helped him deliver his evidence.
But can confirming two recordings are identical be that difficult? Surely anyone listening could decide if they were the same?
Mr Barry said forensic voice experts subjected speech samples to careful listening, making a phonetic analysis of patterns of speech.
He also explained people's memories of voices were notoriously unreliable.
Mr Barry cited how one academic could not even recognise the voice of his own mother in a short recorded clip.
"People think it is easier to recognise familiar voices but that is because when you are speaking to your mother on the phone you are not expecting to hear anyone else."'CSI effect'
But according to Mr Barry, the kind of evidence he and others in his field produce is unlikely to ever gain a conviction or acquittal on its own.
"People look for the 'CSI effect' where you hear them saying: 'That's the guy' - it doesn't work like that.
"It's not like DNA evidence, where you can have a sample which is a close match to a suspect.
"The human voice is very flexible."
Sometimes he is called on to help decipher words from the smallest scraps of acoustic evidence on crackling tapes.
Mr Barry explained that with degraded recordings, speech experts were piecing together fragments of sounds, vowels and consonants, like an archaeologist uncovering a wall inscription.
Analysing recorded evidence is a relatively new form of criminal inquiry with the first high profile instance being the infamous "I'm Jack" tapes sent to West Yorkshire Police during the Yorkshire Ripper investigations in the late 1970s.
The voice experts called on by police pinpointed the man's accent to a district of Sunderland.'It was a hoax'
"They also told police they felt sure it was a hoax - even though this was not their field - and were ignored and more women were killed," said Mr Barry.
He explained while there were automatic computer-based systems for identifying voices these were not good enough for forensic purposes.
Surprisingly, in the digital era, many police forces still rely on cassette tapes, with their attendant background noise and poorer sound quality, for recording interviews.
The Association of Chief Police Officers recommended the switch to digital three years ago citing the difficulty in getting spare parts for analogue machines and criticisms from judges about the quality of recordings.
|
<urn:uuid:4a77ad89-6741-4c17-8802-d56040f90333>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-13015730
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.98645
| 725
| 2.453125
| 2
|
Cow Tax Comments
Dec 15, 2008
I live in Scotland county Missouri and have a cow calf operation. After thinking about EPA's taxation idea related to methane and cows, I wonder whether they will tax the conservation department of each state for all of the deer and turkeys that they say they own, that we feed and house????
Am I ready to pay a global warming tax on animals? NO! The latest cause of GW (global warming) is cow droppings. If this is such a big problem - before PETA organizes any more protests, the US Ag department should research the system used in Germany. All waste goes into a methane recycling program. Every farm employs the same program. There is no stink in the air, and the electricity produced about fuels the entire country. Why can't America try this idea, at least in the feedlots here in Western KS? It would be the answer for 2 major problems in society - methane pollution, and electricity.
|
<urn:uuid:58386dce-bcb4-44e0-872b-2f2e27b21d10>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.agweb.com/blog/US_Farm_Report_Mailbag_198/Cow_Tax_Comments_15494/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.934841
| 197
| 1.5625
| 2
|
22 November 2003
Poland has asked Costa Rica to extradite a Ukrainian citizen who Polish authorities say killed Jews while serving as a Nazi officer during World War II.
Costa Rican Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar said Friday that the Polish Embassy in San Jose requested Bodhan Koziy's extradition. Mr. Koziy has lived in the Central American nation for the past two decades.
Mr. Koziy is accused of killing a four-year-old Jewish girl and of participating in the murder of an entire family in 1943. Reports say a court order in 2001 to expel Mr. Koziy was frustrated because no country would take him. Costa Rican authorities say Mr. Koziy left Europe after the war ended and went to the United States, where he obtained residency in the 1950s. In the early 1980s, Mr. Koziy lost his U.S. citizenship after authorities accused him of lying about his identity. He denies the allegation.
Costa Rican authorities say they know where Mr. Koziy is living but that extradition could take months.
|
<urn:uuid:d5f55f10-d001-4f70-9fe4-71aa1c3e5116>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://worldnewssite.com/News/2003/November/2003-11-22-15-Poland.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.97627
| 213
| 1.625
| 2
|
Personally, I'm not much interested in wanting to have an all-auto bike. Maybe its nice to have one in my collection, if such a contraption ever exists, just for the kicks. But the very notion of riderless shifting is sort of repelling to me. But all people aren't like me, so its okay. Its nice to be sensitive to everyone when you're out to design something.
A month or two back, I had written a post called "New Ideas for Cycling Products". It was mostly science fiction, which I admitted. It was fun though.
Well it seems like I missed out on the All-Automatic Bicycle, a bike that thinks and shifts on its own without the rider's mechanical involvement at the handlebars.
This daydreaming of mine is based on a post on Ari's blog, pointed out to readers by James' Bicycle Design. Ari calls it "The NuFixie challenge : Can you build a 'fixed effort' bicycle?"
I want to take a small dab at this. Nothing is too technical or specific. I'm beating around the bush but I hope you see where it is that I'm beating. Drop in comments after you read.
Okay, lets take this step by step, one at a time.
HOW NuVINCI CVT HUB WORKS
Continuous variable transmission (CVT) is old old old stuff, supposedly originating with the genius Da Vinci himself. The first commercial patent was granted in the late 1800's or so. The CVT concept has never found favor with bikes nor cars but AUDI has had some luck with their multitronic CVT car. Remember that one?
Fallbrook's design is fresh. It is a step less TRACTION or FRICTION based transmission using rolling spheres and some kind of mystery fluid. Take a look.
DESIGN GOAL/PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED :
Basically, what Ari tries to ponder is this, in his own words :
The idea is to build an automatic continuous transmission for a bicycle, by wiring up a controller for a NuVinci CVT designed to maintain a constant level of effort from the rider.
Or in other words (if I have interpreted it correctly), take a CVT step less transmission equipped bike, completely eliminate the need for the handlebar shifting operation, and take care of all the upshifting and downshifting based on effort. So the input is effort, the output is a transmission change to appropriate and suitable gearing.
This can be suitable for any type of rider, also to people who can't shift because of a wrist problem, people in cold places who freeze or anyone who has handlebar phobia.
SHIFTING BASED ON WHAT?
The design goal here is to shift automatically based on EFFORT. But it depends on how to look at effort. What is effort?
Everyone has a different heart rate for a given pedalling load and the perceived exertion is also different, based on what your mindset is, how motivated you are, what your pain tolerance is etc.
Everyone has their own preferred cadence given the same kind of terrain. Furthermore, most people who ride a lot can do so in the same gear even if the terrain gradient changes gradually. Other people can't, won't be able to maintain the previous cadence, and have to shift.
But HR and pedaling cadence are not necessarily objective pointers of effort.
Power output is, and it stays constant over wide variety of conditions.
I think a solution here is to monitor a combination of power input, heart rate and cadence using the sensors available in the cycling market today.
Body temperature and gradient change may also be potential inputs. As we put more effort, our core temperature increases.
As far as gradient is concerned, we all know that when we approach a downhill, we always manually upshift in order to not spin out of gear. Question then is, can you replicate this same behavior in a computer such that a considerable altitude change alters the gearing correspondingly.
If you want to make the system more fancy, go ahead and monitor wind drag and vibration frequency corresponding to a type of terrain. For example, the best and fastest way to move over dirt roads and pave is to get into a big gear and grind at it.
THE DRIVE TRAIN COMPUTER
Right off the bat, this is a control issue.
Say this theoretical bicycle had a computer that tells the hub when to shift. I mean, it needs to have a nerve center right? You aren't doing the work of shifting, you want a type of robot, which is the goal.
Roughly, imagine the computer is a rectangular black box that is able to monitor power, HR, cadence, speed and what not. Additionally, a user may be able to change his preferred settings if they want to ride at a particular cadence that day. Whatever...
The complex part of the project is to program this computer. Perhaps you could use a PLC, something small enough in the market today, write a ladder diagram using software and fit all this into a handlebar mounted computer. PLC's are commonly used in CNC machines, AGV's, traffic light control, wherever automatic process control is the name of the game.
The computer will then be coupled electronically to a mechanical shift transducer, in this case, something that will move the idler laterally that in turn will tilt the axis of the spinning spheres in the hub. Digital signals to mechanical motion. Yada yada...
PROGRAMMING THE DRIVE TRAIN COMPUTER
This will be the main headache.
The big issue here is that human physiology varies a lot from person to person. Everyone has their own abilities, their own wattage vs. HR graph,their own lactate thresholds and power profiles and their own preferred cadence for a given situation, which may or may not be always optimum.
If you did write such a program to ready the computer for automatic shifting, could the same system be used for another person, given the above physiological differences?
I don't know the answer to that. Some like to spin fast on a hill, some like the big gears. Some are very efficient at climbing heart rate wise, while others will struggle and possibly die. Some riders wouldn't shift at all were it for a 1 mile commute to the grocery store. Others may ride 25 miles with plenty of climbing every day and plenty of shifting is called for here.
Like I echoed before, such a system will either have to be custom built or the computer must be designed in such a way as to take in a set of inputs based on different rider's abilities.
So the computer operates a mechanical actuation device that in turn rotates the idler.
You could go hydraulic. Okay, no...thats messy. Too much fluid.
Find a compact, geared DC motor that is reversible. Hook a self locking gear mechanism such as a worm gear that mates with a corresponding sprocket at the end of the idler. The selection of the motor mainly revolves around desired RPM, torque, and power output which will need to be calculated. Cost of the motor depends on these specifications.
I mean, there are tons of ways to do this. I just told you one.
TIME, FINANCIAL BUDGET AND SPECIFICATIONS
Very important with any project.
I don't know the answer to that. Who am I to sit here and say this will work, this won't work? But as with any project, things to keep in mind are :
1. Customer - Who is it, what do they want? Are they racers, recreational cyclists, beach goers, commuters, who??
2. Minimum Specifications and Additional Features - Less moving parts, so much weight, so much dimensions, so much tolerances, durability. Is it too heavy, is it too cumbersome, is it too big that it will induce aero drag?
4. Cost - How much can you make it for? How much will a customer pay for it if you solve their problem?
5. Competitors - What exists already in the market and how will your design address their disadvantages and advantages. How efficient is your design?
This project is fun but difficult. Not impossible. But its complicated and may bring in more problems that that you're trying to solve. One of the problems is there being a lot of components, wires, and moving parts. If you have all this setup and hooked to your bike and then if it suddenly takes a spill, you may be in to cover more costs in damage.
I would not even bother doing this, really. I mean, Shimano's next Dura Ace is an electronic model that just relies on pressing buttons for shifting. We've gotten things down to this level of simplicity. Next year, and the year after that, when these electronic gizmos are mainstream, they might come out with something for hybrids and street bikes. But I don't see any drastic improvements by taking even this 'button' away and making an all-automatic "thinking" bike.
Bicycles are meant to be human powered. Designs are often simpler and cost effective that way.
MY TAKE ON NuVINCI
I haven't tried it. But I like it and would like to get one, perhaps a fully fitted bicycle or just a hub to play around with in my spare time.
I also do not agree with the snobs online who put this down without knowing what it is. Gentlemen, this does not work like those cheap Auto Shift bicycles. There, the primary mode of operation is the moving of the dérailleur through centrifugal force based on pedaling cadence.
Auto shift bicycles fail precisely there - the possibility of shifting at a too low RPM when you don't want it to happen. And for maintenance purposes, what do you do if you want the chain on a particular cog? Sit there and rotate the crank at 90 rpm manually so it can shift??
Not that good design cannot come around all those issues but still...
This is a CVT hub and not a hub based gear cluster. It is meant for step less, noiseless, and smooth transmission giving you an infinite amount of gearing. There is no click-click-click.
I don't care about weight. My main concern is about the moving parts. How reliable is it in high torque, low speed situations such as standing starts and hill climbing? Will it work if I get out of the saddle and stomp on the pedals? Will that kind of friction hold? Will I be wasting my power?
These kind of questions are addressed well in the traction fluid section on Fallbrook's website. The company also got German SRM and an ex-Tour de France rider to test a Nuvinci equipped bike, as shown in this Youtube video. Based on seeing it, it seems amazingly smooth.
And what about the hub itself? If I get out into the elements, can water penetrate the outer compartment and mess with the lubricant? Can the liquid leak? Is it thermodynamically stable? Is it easy to service, maintain etc etc etc, you know where I'm going with this.
I wish that NuVinci would publish more numbers to go with their website. How efficient is this system, say compared to modern chain and derailleur systems?
Chain and derailleur systems have very high efficiencies, typically above 90%. See Chester Kyle's test study here (PDF).
I think somewhere Kyle mentions that for every 1% decrease in efficiency, 12 seconds are lost in a 25 mile TT. Well, the NuVinci may not be for racing at the moment anyway...
NuVinci CVT is very practical for hybrids, city bikes, ladies's bikes, even electric bikes.
But for the hardcore racers who like to go fast and ride ridiculously light bikes, there's no point in sitting and complaining about CVT - if you don't like it, live and let live. Its not for you. Simple.
Now I really have to chill. :)
|
<urn:uuid:c6ca8745-39ff-45af-930c-fa597cb467c9>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com/2008/06/all-automatic-cvt-based-bicycle.html?showComment=1212583200000
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.956165
| 2,506
| 1.773438
| 2
|
Morton Plant Hospital Receives Baby-Friendly Status from World Health Organization/UNICEF|
CLEARWATER, Fla. (August 12, 2003)---Morton Plant Hospital recently became the 35th facility in the United States and the second in Florida to receive the designation of "Baby-Friendly" from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). In order to achieve Baby-Friendly status, the hospital demonstrated its ability to offer breastfeeding mothers the information, skills and support needed to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies.
"Morton Plant Hospital has always been recognized as a facility that supports a mother's decision to breastfeed. The driving force behind Morton Plant's desire to pursue this designation were the mothers we care for in the community," said Hal Ziecheck, chief operating officer for Morton Plant Hospital.
"Mothers in the area know that Morton Plant will support them in whatever infant feeding method they choose," said Marcia Wiseman-Albanese, director of women and children's services at Morton Plant Hospital.
The hospital offers educational classes for expectant moms to post-delivery and beyond. In addition, there are weekly support groups for moms nursing infants and/or toddlers, as well as a working mothers group. With the philosophy, education and support in place, Morton Plant has increased the percentage of women successfully breastfeeding from 63% in 1991 to 81% in 2002.
"A Baby-Friendly facility focuses on the needs of the newborns and empowers mothers to give their infant the best possible start in life," added Wiseman-Albanese. In practical terms, a Baby-Friendly facility encourages and helps women to successfully initiate and continue to breastfeed their babies. Since the inception of the program, over 16,000 facilities worldwide have received the Baby-Friendly designation.
"In order to even be considered for Baby-Friendly status, Morton Plant Hospital
assessed, reviewed and refined its policies and procedures in promoting, protecting and supporting breastfeeding," said Wiseman-Albanese. "The next requirement was a two-day on-site survey, which assessed our ability of adopting the WHO/UNICEF's 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding."
The 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding are:
1. A written breastfeeding policy routinely communicated to all health care staff.
2. Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.
3. Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
4. Help all mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth.
5. Show mothers how to breastfeed and maintain lactation even if they should be separated from their infants.
6. Give newborn infants only breastmilk, unless medically indicated.
7. Practice rooming-in by allowing mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
8. Encourage unrestricted breastfeeding on cue.
9. Give no artificial nipples or pacifiers to breastfeeding infants.
10. Foster establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital.
Established in 1916, Morton Plant Hospital is a 687-bed facility dedicated to improving the health of all it serves through community-owned health services that set the standard for high quality, compassionate care.
In 2002, Morton Plant was named one of America's Top 50 Hospitals, according to AARP Modern Maturity magazine and a 100 Top Hospital in the "Solucient 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success" study for the fourth consecutive year. Morton Plant was also named to the 100 Top Hospital Overall list in 2002. In 2000, HCIA-Sachs (now Solucient) named Morton Plant as the only hospital in the country to achieve 100 Top Hospital status in four categories - cardiovascular, stroke, orthopaedic and overall.
In 2001, Morton Plant Hospital joined forces with H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute at the University of South Florida, Tampa to provide research and services for cancer patients. Morton Plant also offers a family practice residency program in conjunction with the University of South Florida's School of Medicine. Morton Plant Hospital is located at 300 Pinellas Street, Clearwater, Fla., 727-462-7000.
Contact: Phoebe Ochman/Beth Hardy
Morton Plant News Bureau
727 / 461-8117 Phone
727 / 468-7586 Pager
|
<urn:uuid:638e5ce9-73e2-4411-a0a4-e5516d040d93>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.mpmhealth.com/body.cfm?id=149&action=detail&ref=51
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.943903
| 921
| 2.15625
| 2
|
Moshi — CASES of domestic violence have been on increase in Kilimanjaro region as police records indicated that 375 cases had been reported between January and November 20 in the region.
Speaking at the occasion for preparation for 16 days of the fight against domestic violence in the world, ASP Grace Lyimo from the Regional Police Anti - Domestic Violence Desk in the region said a lot is desired for families to live in harmony. She said this year the number of reported domestic violence incidents increased compared to last year which stood at 210 cases in the region.
"Collection of information concerning domestic violence has been easy following measures taken by the police to introduce a special desk to educate the public to stop domestic violence in all districts," she said. ASP Lyimo said most of the cases concerned women and children who are mistreated by men with a few cases concerning men mistreated by women.
"Data collected does not only mean that the problem has grown but also indicated awareness among the community to report such matters to relevant authorities," Lyimo explained.
More than 30 Non Governmental Organization (NGOs) in Northern Zone are joining together in the 16 days of the world campaign to fight against domestic Violence, the campaign is led by Women's Global Leadership.
Speaking with reporters on behalf of those NGO's the Chairperson of the preparation Committee, Ms Honoratha Raymond from NAFGEM said culture is also the problem in increasing domestic violence in the area.
She said most of domestic violence cases end at police stations or at the preliminary hearing in the court of law because most of the people reconcile and settle the matter out of court.
She also said the problem of female genital mutilation has declined in Kilimanjaro Region from 37 per cent in 1996 to 21.7 per cent this year. The campaign is expected to start on 25 November through December 10 this year.
|
<urn:uuid:2d4919e4-2ee2-43ad-a0ee-1155281e7616>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://allafrica.com/stories/201211240339.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.973444
| 376
| 1.992188
| 2
|
Newsroom Story Ideas Archive: 2008
Don′t Lose Sleep over the Holidays
Readers are busy this holiday season, but one thing they shouldn′t skip is a good night′s sleep. Losing sleep can mean more than just feeling tired. Health problems, such as obesity and depression, and unhealthy behaviors like smoking and heavy drinking are associated with not getting enough sleep. A CDC study revealed that 10 percent of Americans don′t get enough sleep on a daily basis.
- CDC Sleep & Sleep Disorders Information
- CDC Study Reveals Adults May Not Get Enough Rest or Sleep
- Podcast: No Rest For the Weary
- Sleep e-card
Baby, It′s Cold Outside
The snow has started to fall and your readers are beginning to feel the chill that comes with winter weather. Extreme cold, or even prolonged exposure to cold temperatures, can cause health emergencies including hypothermia and frostbite. The following links offer tips on preparing your home and car for the winter, along with information on understanding wind chill.
- Extreme Cold: A Prevention Guide to Promote Your Personal Health and Safety
- Winter Weather
- PSAs on preventing and treating hypothermia and frostbite
Holiday Health Tip: Avoid Binge Drinking and Drive Safe During the Holidays
Although college students commonly binge drink, 70 percent of binge drinking episodes involve adults over age 25 years, so as your readers celebrate the holidays or ring in the New Year, they should make this season a safe one. Remind them that binge drinking not only can lead to health problems – it can also put them and their loved ones at risk. In fact, alcohol misuse is the leading risk factor for serious injury in the United States.
- CDC: Alcohol and Public Health
- Quick Stats
- Alcohol FAQs
- Formatted Article: Why Alcohol and Pregnancy Don′t Mix.
Preparing Food during the Holidays
Foodborne disease infections cause an estimated 76 million to become sick each year. Don′t let common foodborne diseases like Salmonella or E. Coli ruin your holiday party. Instruct your readers on the best ways for keeping a germ-free kitchen or use these formatted articles instead.
- An Ounce of Prevention Keeps the Germs Away brochure
- Holiday Cooking: Keeping it Safe!
- Holiday Food Safety Podcast
- Be “Food Safe” During the Holiday Formatted Articles
Rigging up Those Lights
Hanging lights, chopping down a Christmas tree, braving the crowds to get the perfect gift. Each of these activities are holiday traditions, but they share something else in common: the risk of injury. In 2007 more than 6,000 people were hospitalized due to holiday-related injuries according to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System All Injury Program. Put together some tips for your readers on how to avoid common holiday-related injuries.
- Fall-Related Injuries During the Holiday Season
- Holiday Health and Safety Tips
- The 12 Ways to Health Holiday Song
Where in the world is CDC?
Take your readers on a journey to the land of the midnight sun. They probably associate CDC with exotic locales and tropical diseases, but probably don't realize that CDC has an active presence in our northernmost state. CDC′s Anchorage, Alaska location houses the Arctic Investigations Program (AIP). Working to understand and eliminate health disparities among Arctic and Subarctic people, especially Alaska Natives and American Indians, the AIP began in 1948 and has a staff of over 35 people. Priority projects include reducing the burden of vaccine-preventable infections and infections that lead to chronic disease (e.g., Helicobacter pylori and hepatitis) in these population groups. In April 2008, the AIP team released the first study to show an association between lack of in-home running water and prevalence of respiratory and skin infections. The team partners with Alaska state and local health departments and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, and is active in the Arctic Human Health Initiative, the International Polar Year, and the International Circumpolar Surveillance Network.
- CDC′s Arctic Investigations Program
- AIP′s History
- CDC and International Circumpolar Surveillance, an Arctic Network for the Surveillance of Infectious Diseases
- CDC Press Release: Study Shows Rural Alaska Natives without In-Home Running Water Suffer More Disease
- Cancer Incidence Among Native Americans and Alaska Natives
- Native American and Alaska Native Vaccination Schedules
November is American Diabetes Month
Diabetes now affects 24 million people according to the 2007 National Diabetes Fact Sheet. Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans are at increased risk of developing diabetes. Your audience may be interested in lifestyle changes they can make to help prevent or delay diabetes such as eating right and being active.
- Data and trends
- Diabetes: Disabling Disease to Double by 2050
- CDC authored study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology on diabetes and birth defects
- Power to Prevent: A Family Lifestyle Approach to Diabetes Prevention – African American diabetes education
- Through the Eyes of the Eagle – diabetes education for Native American Children
Preparing Food During the Holidays
Foodborne disease infections cause an estimated 76 million to become sick each year. And with the recent salmonella outbreak, determining when and from what food an outbreak will strike is unpredictable. Instruct your readers on the best ways for keeping a germ-free kitchen or use these formatted releases instead.
As Americans gear up for holiday travel, it’s important for your readers to be proactive, prepared and protected when it comes to their health. CDC’s yellow book includes information on country-specific tips, a new guide to preparing a travel kit and travel notices.
- Yellow Book: International travel with infants or young children
- Special needs traveling
- Travel health tips for students studying abroad
Sharing Your Family History:
Did you know that your mother’s arthritis might run in the family? As one of many chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer, arthritis could affect anyone in the family. Suggest that when your readers get together during the holidays, they talk to the rest of the family and create a family to know their potential health risks.
- Collecting Your Family History Could Save Your Child’s Life formatted release
- Use of Family History Information in Pediatric Primary Care and Public Health: A Supplement to the Journal Pediatrics
- National Office of Public Health Genomics Family History Tools & Resources
- U.S. Surgeon General’s My Family Health Portrait
The Great American Smokeout:
Did you know that half of all Americans who continue to smoke will die from smoking-related diseases? Each year, smoking accounts for an estimated 438,000 premature deaths, including 38,000 deaths among nonsmokers as a result of secondhand smoke. Celebrated November 20th, the Great American Smokeout is sponsored by the American Cancer Society and encourages smokers to commit to a smoke-free life. Help your readers kick the habit with information from the following links.
- Data and statistics
- Exposure to second-hand smoke
- Surveillance of Cancers Associated With Tobacco Use
- Smoking Rates Highest Among People with Disabilities
- The Great American Smokeout Challenge
International Conference on Rabies,
September 29-October 3:
CDC′s 19th international conference on Rabies in the Americas (RITA) is the largest international rabies conference and will be hosted this year at the CDC. Highlights of the conference will include an appearance by a recent human rabies survivor in the United States, and the signing of a North American Rabies Management plan.
- XIX International Conference on Rabies in the Americas (RITA) Conference Site
- CDC information on rabies
World Non-Violence Day, October 2, 2008:
CDC estimates that over 1.6 million deaths worldwide occur as a result of violence, 96 percent of which occur in low- and middle-income countries. Violence is among the leading causes of death in all parts of the world for those ages 15 to 44. Use these resources to help find out more about stopping the violence.
- CDC′s Violence Prevention
- Timeline of Violence as a Public Health Issue
- World Health Organization (WHO) World Report on Violence and Health
Hurricane season is not over yet, and part of being prepared is knowing what to do after the storm has passed. These resources will help you be prepared before, during and after a hurricane.
- Latest Hurricane Updates
- Checklist for People in Path of a Hurricane
- CDC Urges Caution When Cleaning Up Mold
As the ghouls and goblins come out to play, find tips to make this Halloween fun and safe.
Breast Cancer Awareness:
In 2004, 186,772 women were diagnosed with breast cancer, and 40,954 women died from the disease. Help recognize and support the women who are fighting this disease.
- Breast Cancer
- National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program
- Screening For Breast Cancer
- Men Against Breast Cancer
Deep Vein Thrombosis:
More than 60,000 Americans die each year from venous thromboembolism; in addition, nearly half of patients with deep vein clots experience long-term health consequences that adversely affect their quality of life.
- Facts About Deep Vein Thrombosis
- Tips to Help Prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis
- Thrombosis and Hemostasis Centers
According to the National Health Interview Survey, 43 million Americans under age 65 were uninsured in 2007.
- Early Release of Selected Findings from the National Health Interview Survey
- Healthy People 2010: Access to Quality Health Services
- MMWR Article on Certain Health Behaviors and Conditions Among States and Local Areas
Down Syndrome is the most commonly identified cause of mental retardation and occurs in approximately 1 in 800 births. October is recognized as National Down Syndrome Awareness Month.
- Basic Facts About Birth Defects
- Risk Factors of Down Syndrome
- National Birth Defects Prevention Study
With Labor Day just gone by, it′s important to remember that workers are staying safe on the job. The following links go to CDC′s features on workplace safety and statistics on work-related injuries.
Return to School
As kids return to school, so do the germs. The following links provide information on CDC′s recommended vaccine schedule and highlight some adverse affects of not receiving vaccinations.
For Grandparents′ day, celebrated every Sunday after Labor Day, it′s time to recognize the grandparents of the world. The following links include resources for healthy aging and recommendations for vaccinating seniors
- Healthy Aging for Older Adults
- Adult Vaccination Schedule
- Traumatic Brain Injuries and Seniors
- CDC Recommends Seniors Get Shingles Vaccine
- Ovarian Cancer (more common among older adult women)
September is National Preparedness Month. The following links provide information about this year’s theme and what to do in case of an emergency.
September is National Infant Mortality Awareness Month. The United States ranks 23rd among industrialized nations in the world in infant mortality.
Hispanic Heritage Month
Hispanic Heritage Month begins September 15th, the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In the 2000 U.S. census, more than 38 million people identified themselves as Hispanic/Latinos. The following links provide information on Hispanic health issues.
- ATSDR Hispanic Health Program
- Office of Minority Health – Hispanic or Latino Populations
- Immunization Schedule en Español
- Health Risks and Disparities Experienced by Hispanic Youths
- HIV Incidence for Hispanic/Latinos
- Hispanic Health Fast Stats
World Rabies Day
World Rabies Day is September 28, 2008. Rabies kills more than 50,000 people and millions of animals around the world and has been reported in every U.S. state except for Hawaii.
World Heart Day
World Heart Day, September 28th, reminds us all we need to keep the beat going strong. Find resources on heart disease and more below.
Coming Next Month
Next Month... look for ideas about Halloween safety, properly preparing food during the holidays, breast cancer awareness, hurricane safety and world non-violence day.
- Historical Document: 2008
- Content source: Office of the Associate Director for Communication
- Notice: Links to non-governmental sites do not necessarily represent the views of the CDC.
Get e-mail updates
To receive e-mail updates about this page, enter your
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Rd
Atlanta, GA 30333
TTY: (888) 232-6348
- Contact CDC-INFO
|
<urn:uuid:c2b25432-bb91-4743-865b-142a154b7fa3>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.cdc.gov/media/storyideas/2008.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.901061
| 2,664
| 3.09375
| 3
|
Long-forgotten recording of Bob Dylan's Brandeis folk festival performance to be released
Alum reflects on 1963 show, collector shares how tape was discovered
It's the record that almost wasn't.
Two weeks before the release of his 1963 sophomore album, "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," made the musician an icon, he was scheduled to appear at Brandeis University's now gone Ullman Ampitheatre.
Mother Nature had other plans. It was May 10, but New England's unpredictable weather brought snow to the north, while lightning storms hovered over Massachusetts. Bolts hit transformers, sparking fires and leaving at least a few areas of Greater Boston without power.
At Brandeis, the impact was apparently less severe, but organizers changed venues for the university's first folk festival. The concert was held in the gym, and unbeknownst to Dylan and generations of fans, his seven-song set was recorded.
Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings will release that recently-discovered recording, "Bob Dylan in Concert–Brandeis University 1963," on April 12. A limited edition was first made available last year with Amazon purchases of "The Bootleg Series, Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos."
The tape is significant because "most live recordings of Bob are bootlegs. We weren't familiar with this recording," says Jeff Rosen, Dylan's longtime manager.
The recording was discovered by Jeff Gold of recordmecca.com in Ralph Gleason's massive basement collection of music and related memorabilia. Gleason was the first fulltime jazz and pop critic at an American newspaper, and was co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine. He was early to recognize the significance of Dylan, Lenny Bruce and Miles Davis, and was close to many of the musicians of the 1960s and 1970s.
After his death in 1975, his family preserved what Gold describes on his blog as "a vast archive of records, magazines, newspapers, posters, press materials and all kinds of ephemera," much of which his son, Toby, eventually sold.
Among many others, a tape with a lightly penciled "Dylan Brandeis" label, which took some time for him to decipher, caught Gold's attention. Toby Gleason allowed him to take it home and rent equipment to listen and digitalize the recording to determine whether it was a known bootleg. It wasn't.
"It took me only 30 seconds to realize that this was something big. It was obviously professionally recorded, in stereo, and the performance and sound were both excellent," Gold says, guessing perhaps a Brandeis-sanctioned recording was given to Dylan's management that night and eventually passed on to Gleason. "I think part of what makes it special is that Dylan is not yet a star; he's a promising young folksinger with a new batch of songs, none released at that point, playing a slot in a low-profile college folk festival."
Despite potentially higher bidders, Gold called Rosen and they and Gleason quickly struck a deal for the folk festival recording.
Arnie Reisman '64 was a junior back then, and co-editor in chief of the student newspaper The Justice, which was a sponsor of the event. That meant he had a hand in planning the weeklong festival.
Reisman recalls sitting that night in The Justice – housed in the basement of Mailman Hall, which was on the current site of the Office of Admissions – when someone brought the 21-year-old Dylan in for a quick meeting before soundcheck.
"He was a piece of work then, a bit of a crab," says Reisman, who added that Dylan was concerned that the equipment be appropriately set up. After all these years, it's the technology that Reisman remembers best.
"There was a tape being done by the university. From what I recall, there was only one tape recorder that was patched into the microphone," he says. "There could have been someone in the audience recording it, but it would have sounded hollow and a million miles away."
The audio technician had momentarily walked away just prior to Dylan's performance, so Ralph Norman, The Justice's photographer, was asked to step in.
"Ralph was there pushing the button," Reisman says, wondering how the tape wound up in the record company's hands. He has some theories.
To book Dylan for the show, Reisman and his classmates had worked with Manny Greenhill of Folklore Productions, which then had an office in Boston. Greenhill was a "folk, blues music entrepreneur, impresario, booker of everybody, agent of everybody" whom, current Folklore staff confirms, generally kept archived tapes of all his musicians' performances. Several acts he represented were on the bill that week, including Pete Seeger, Jesse Fuller, and Jean Redpath.
"[Dylan] was considered a local hero since he played all the clubs in Cambridge, [Mass.]. Everybody was aware that [we] were a little head of the curve," Reisman says. "He was at the cusp of turning a lot of people around to listen to his type of music."
Though Dylan was well-known to Boston-area students, he wasn't difficult to secure for the festival. He again played at Brandeis during the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
"He's clearly enjoying himself, bantering with the crowd, and while he's at the top of his game, he doesn't seem to be feeling any pressure," Gold says of Dylan's festival performance. "But it's the calm before the storm - his career is about to take off in a way no one could possibly have anticipated. He's about to become BOB DYLAN."
The recording includes: "Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance" (incomplete), "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues," "The Ballad of Hollis Brown," "Masters of War," "Talkin' World War Three Blues," "Bob Dylan's Dream," and "Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues."
|
<urn:uuid:0f83f066-99f9-4a1f-acfb-c81915f986f9>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.brandeis.edu/now/2011/april/dylan.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.987396
| 1,261
| 1.703125
| 2
|
Facebook Sharing: Stocking up on books
It’s super easy to list must-have survival books and non-fiction manuals, but recently a reader left a comment on the blog about the importance of reading to escape. So far, the U.S. Army Survival Manual hasn’t caught my imagination and carried me away to fantastical, fairytale locations.
So, I asked the Facebook crowd where they go to find cheap, or even better,free books, and they came up with a very creative list. Here it is:
- From Rachel: “Thrift stores and yard sales are good options.”
- Bonnie said, “Our library usually has a ‘free’ table.”
- From Victoria: “Our library has a sale once a year, most books are 25 cents. Aside from that, I utilize our library for books/movies/dvds. Also get ones from my mother that she has read and wants to get rid of!”
- From Erik: “Library sales, Goodwill, Salvation Army, thrift stores, yard sales. Every year where I live they have a giant free book giveaway at an old nearby mall. Also college book stores dump thousands of old textbooks out at the end of every semester.”
- Michelle says, “There are loads of free books available for Kindles. I know paper books are important too, in case of grid issues, but it is an option. I’ve gotten quite a few free cookbooks with great prep info (canning books, how to feed a family cheaply, etc.) free. They also have lots of the classics free. I don’t have a Kindle but I loaded the free program to be able to read them on my PC. For paper books I would say Goodwill, yard sales, library sales. I can come out of Goodwill with a whole bag of books for my kids for under $10.”
- From Smallacre Homestead: “Ever since the economic crises started, there have been a lot of “resale” stores popping up, usually run by charities (i.e. Catholic charities). One of those nearest us has a large book section. Hubby has been perusing Amazon for the 1 cent books, but the shipping is almost as much as buying a new paperback.”
- David’s tip: “I have found that Amazon Kindle has a ton of free books for download. I figured out that you can search for specific genres the same as you do a Google search. For example, Search for kindle + free + homesteading and I found about 30+ free books on the subject. I save these books on an SD card in a tablet with the free Kindle app downloaded. Yard sales usually yield good results as well.”
- From Erik: “At recycling centers sometimes they will let you have books if you ask.”
- Margaret says, “Sometimes you can find people giving away free books on Craigslist. Check the “free section.”
- Bethanne shared this link for free Kindle books.
- From Lola: “Our local library has a paperback exchange… you can take as many paperbacks from that section as you want, and either replace them with books you have read or not.”
- Carol shared this: “Garage sales, thrift stores, but also sales at bookcloseouts.com and also freebies/ cheapies for kindle. If you get a solar recharger for it, the kindle can be a very portable way to store a lot of books.”
- Gayle is already prepared, “Too funny! This past summer I started accepting the libraries trash books. Classics actually, they said no one reads anymore and were going to throw them in the trash. I figured I’d add them to my stash because frankly I love books. I never thought about entertainment for the apocalypse lol! I am glad my selfish side can now be justified! Thank you!”
- Greg/Teresa said, “Best place is Swap.com- all you pay is the shipping for the media form you are mailing.
Don’t forget books for the kids. Even if your kids are little, go ahead and buy chapter books for reading aloud. I read the Magic Tree House series to my two long before they could read that level of book on their own, and I’m currently reading Robinson Crusoe to my son. Oh, and don’t forget audio books!
Do you have other tips for free/cheap books? And, if you haven’t ‘Liked’ The Survival Mom Facebook page, join in! That’s where you’ll find all kinds of discussions, tips from readers, newsworthy articles, inspiring quotes and a lot more.
© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.
|
<urn:uuid:1bf9e895-ed89-4c52-b51c-ad89c2531312>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2012/09/19/wfacebook-sharing-stocking-up-on-books/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.948514
| 1,038
| 1.8125
| 2
|
The selections in this little anthology, the first of its kind on the Pacific Coast, were prepared with a view of making them as representative as possible and pleasing the many, rather than satisfying the few. The volume is intended simply as a note of introductiona few poetical blossoms from Californias garden of literaturein the hopes that, if sufficiently interesting, it will induce a wider acquaintanceship with the work of the various authors.
I wish to express my appreciation to all those who have so generously contributed their verse as well as for the use of poems from privately printed books. Grateful acknowledgment is also due the following publishers, owners of copyrights: WesternMessrs. A. M. Robertson, Paul Elder & Co., Whitaker & Ray-Wiggin Co., Blair-Murdock Co. and Hardy Publishing Co.; EasternMessrs. B. Huebsch for E. H. Griggs; Little, Brown & Co. for Helen Hunt Jackson; Charles Scribners Sons for Robert Louis Stevenson and Juliet W. Tompkins; Doubleday, Page & Co. for Edwin Markham; Macmillan & Co. for Wallace Irwin; Houghton, Mifflin & Co. for the selections from Bret Harte and E. R. Sill published by special permission and Funk & Wagnalls for the poems of Richard Realf, copyrighted 1898.
|
<urn:uuid:a4ce9d01-8122-4199-a078-89bedf8292e9>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.bartleby.com/260/1.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.932819
| 279
| 1.71875
| 2
|
There are lots of ways to save energy in the home that won’t inconvenience your daily life but WILL save you money. Here are just a few:
Turn down your central heating just a little, and don’t forget to adjust storage heaters as the weather warms up.
Turn off lights when you leave the room. It’s not true that leaving them on uses less energy than switching them on and off.
Fit energy saving light bulbs as your old bulbs expire – watch out for special price offers.
Only boil as much water as you need. If everyone in the UK stopped overfilling the kettle, we would save enough energy to run most of the street lighting in the country.
Don’t leave appliances on standby at night – switch them off. And don’t leave mobile phone chargers switched on when not in use. Standby appliances and unused chargers are using an estimated £1billion of electricity every year – and some of that money is yours!
|
<urn:uuid:aa271f1e-ea1c-4d03-9f80-f9e4a123042f>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://islayenergytrust.org.uk/races-project/carbon-saving-project/energy-saving-tips/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.945668
| 207
| 2.46875
| 2
|
- Filed Under
In the United States, some on the nativist fringe suspect that Mexican-Americans are reconquistas.
As if we're agents of the Mexican government working quietly to undermine U.S. sovereignty in the Southwest and hasten the day when that real estate reverts to its previous owner. That's loco.
But here in the most populous city in North America, I've just heard a competing argument that is just as far-fetched. Some Mexican politicians and intellectuals now want to bestow another title upon the estimated 35 million Mexican-Americans who live north of the border: ambassador. They want us to ...
|
<urn:uuid:1282289e-5ab3-488d-b525-60cac48458a0>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.thecalifornian.com/proart/20121115/opinion/311150013/ruben-navarrette-not-ready-mexico-s-makeover?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7Cfrontpage%7Cs&pagerestricted=1
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.947318
| 130
| 1.859375
| 2
|
Help:Sources Consulted but Not ReferencedEdit This Page
From FamilySearch Wiki
| This help article will guide you as you edit in the Wiki. See Contributor Help for more help articles.|
Visit the Wiki Help Forum as you have questions.
When doing research for a wiki article you're writing, you often find yourself studying Websites and books that you thought might yield major record collections or facts you'd need for the article. Sometimes these sites don't yield enough new information to make them worthy of citing in the article. For instance, if you're writing an article on Maps of Accident, Pennsylvania, you might find that Website A contains a couple of maps while Website B has all the maps found in Website A plus twenty more. In such a case, you might want to link the article to Website B and not link to Website A. However, you might want to let others know that you did consider Website A. So while you might not link the article to it or mention it in the article's footnotes, you might want to mention it somewhere.
One example of the way this problem can be solved is Maryland Maps, which is just being built. On the Discussion page, contributors can add to a bibliography of Maryland maps Websites and reference books. The bibliography table contains a column where contributors can add notes about the scope and depth of each source. This will help contributors evaluate sources side by side and consider which ones to include in the Maryland Maps page. The best sources will be added to the Maryland Maps page and will be referenced either with a link or a footnote. Meanwhile the sources which are not referenced in the Maryland Maps page can still be found in the bibliography.
Do you have an idea that improves upon this one? Please contribute to this article's Discussion page!
New to the Research Wiki?
In the FamilySearch Research Wiki, you can learn how to do genealogical research or share your knowledge with others.Learn More
|
<urn:uuid:2907d396-3b97-412b-82de-21f85af1b42f>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/index.php?title=Help:Sources_Consulted_but_Not_Referenced&oldid=1169692
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.917633
| 403
| 2.46875
| 2
|
Welcome to the Lacey Township Office of Emergency Management
The goal of the Lacey Township Office of Emergency Management is to plan and prepare for emergencies; educate the public about preparedness; coordinate emergency and preplanned response; and disseminate emergency information.
Emergency Mitigation Practices
OEM oversees planning efforts for natural and man-made hazards. OEM conducts basic emergency management training, and fosters public-private communications. OEM conducts township-wide preparedness exercises to test plans and response techniques, and to identify areas for improvement.
Emergency Response Coordination
OEM works to ensure information gathering, decision making, and resource allocations are carried out effectively. OEM monitors incidents affecting Lacey Township 24 hours a day. During major events, an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is a central point for information coordination, resource requests, and decision making. OEM supervises all EOC operations.
Public Education and Awareness
OEM works with local businesses, organizations, and individuals to promote the ideals of continued preparedness. OEM will provide its FEMA Ready Preparedness package to any organization upon request.
Emergency Alerts and Notifications
During an emergency, OEM works to provide unified, accurate, and timely messages to the public. These messages come in several forms, including Nixle alerts, reverse 9-1-1 calls and social media blasts. Click the links above to register for the Nixle and reverse 9-1-1 services.
|
<urn:uuid:f45fd4d3-2d1d-4d8b-8e86-9e1a1671a878>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.laceyoem.org/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.905071
| 292
| 2.015625
| 2
|
by Tyler Urich
July 19, 2011
North Sentral Kossuth High School Band
Grade Information Sheet
Students will receive a letter grade for participating in band. Students will receive grades in several areas as noted below.
Daily/Participation..........................................4 Points per Day
Students earn up to 4 points per day for each day of class. Points are awarded for following proper rehearsal etiquette (no talking, no chewing gum, correct posture, etc.) and for appropriate effort during the rehearsal.
Band Lessons............................................20 Points Per Lesson
Students are scheduled for individual or group band lessons. These lessons are scheduled out of students’ study halls whenever possible. When not possible, lessons will be scheduled either before or after school or during homeroom. Students earn up to 20 points for each voice lesson. Points are awarded based upon the student’s effort and/or progress.
Concerts/Performances.....................100 Points per Performance
Students may earn up to 100 points for each concert or other large group performance. All students are expected to perform with the band. Proper concert etiquette and procedure is expected of all participants. Please check your schedules EARLY so there are NO CONFLICTS with the performance schedule.
Quizzes/Evaluations/Misc. Assignments................Points Vary
Written quizzes, evaluations, and other miscellaneous assignments may be given throughout the year. The number of points possible will vary dependant upon the level of activity and the difficulty. For instance, a post-concert evaluation may be worth more points than a terminology quiz.
Opportunities for makeup work and extra credit will be provided for.
To receive credit for band lessons missed, make arrangements to make them up out of your study hall or before or after school. Band lessons MUST be made up BEFORE the next regularly scheduled lesson. After that time, the lesson score will remain a "zero." Missed lesson will earn a maximum of 16 points.
Outside Concert Attendance
Students may earn up to 4 points per outside concert attended. Concerts attended must by a high school level instrumental ensemble, a collegiate level instrumental ensemble, or a professional instrumental ensemble. Elementary and/or junior high concerts DO NOT count. Students must provide proof of attendance by providing a program or ticket stub from the performance. The student must also complete a performance evaluation form (available on the NSK web site). Both the program or ticket stub and evaluation form MUST be turned in to Mr. Urich WITHIN THREE (3) WEEKS of the date printed on the program or stub in order to receive credit. This can be completed at any time during the quarter.
Students are expected to be in class on time. Students must be in their seats with their folders by the time the second bell rings. Any student that does not adhere to this will receive an unexcused tardy. The tardy policy for the NSK Music Department is as follows:
- The first unexcused tardy will result in a verbal warning.
- The second unexcused tardy will result in a verbal warning.
- The third unexcused tardy will result in a 20 minute detention
- Each subsequent tardy will result in a 30 minute detention.
Being a member of the band is being a member of a team. We must all work together to accomplish our goals. Teamwork take much effort, and includes cooperation, courtesy, and commitment. Everyone has a responsibility to the group. These responsibilities include (but are not limited to):
- Show respect for the director, other members or the ensemble, and yourself.
- Show respect for the band room, the equipment, and the music.
- Be on time to all rehearsals.
- Be prepared with music folder and in your seat when it is time for class to begin.
- Put forth your best effort every day with a positive attitude.
- Be responsible for all classroom materials including written work, hand outs, permission slips, band uniforms, etc.
- ABSOLUTLEY NO FOOD OR GUM IN CLASS!
Attendance is required at all performances! Performance dates are listed here and will be announced in class. An ensemble depends on all of its members. All students are expected to fulfill their responsibility to this ensemble. Performances are the culmination of the classroom learning! They are an important assessment and a significant part of your grade. You must let Mr. Urich know if you will not be able to participate in a performance as soon as possible. Excused absences are rare, but extenuating circumstances do happen and will be considered on an individual basis. Family vacations, work, birthdays, visiting relatives, too much homework and "I don't have a ride" are NOT valid excuses for missing performances. Please plan ahead!
- All concerts listed in bold are MANDATORY.
- All members should have their eyes on Mr. Urich at all times during the concert, even if a member's section is not playing.
- The only time it is acceptable to not be looking at Mr. Urich during a concert is between pieces. During this time, members of the choir should be looking around to acknowledge the audience with very large smiles on every face.
- There will be absolutely NO DISTRACTIONS from members during concerts. this includes things like talking, laughing, etc.
- Be on time for all performance. This will usually mean 30 minutes before a concert is set to begin. Call times may vary by concert.
- Wear appropriate attire.
- Demonstrate proper concert etiquette both as a performer and as an audience member.
- Always do your best!
Band members will be provided a uniform for marching band. Students will be responsible for proper care of their uniform and garment bag. Incoming freshman are responsible for purchasing a pair of marching shoes (available from Mr. Urich).
- Black dress pants and black socks.
- Black dress shoes—MUST BE CLOSED TOE.
- White dress shirt.
- Black dress pants and black socks
- Black dress shoes.
- White dress shirt and tie.
Grades are based upon percentages of the number of points possible.
F 59% and below
|
<urn:uuid:0725bbe4-f15c-48ae-baf1-0511f77eaacf>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.sentralschools.org/vnews/display.v/ART/4e2601de29ffb
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.916404
| 1,283
| 2.125
| 2
|
There are over 3,500 people living in the streets of Bishkek – the capital of Kyrgyzstan. We work with homeless people with the aim of sustaining their lives, assisting them with restoring their ID, obtaining employment, and permanently getting off the streets.
We're new, but we have BIG dreams. For now, however, we're helping others by creating their crowdfunding campaigns because the people most in need of the support often lack the resources (like Internet access!) to create & manage campaigns themselves. We take NO cut of the proceeds. Every dime we receive goes to the campaign's beneficiary.
IGNITE Greater Newark is impacting the life path of young leaders through transformative experiences.
Ask Your Family seeks to make growing up a better place and improve the quality of life for all. We do this by mentoring the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Transgendered and Straight community between the ages of 13 and 21.
Education and empowerment of individuals to engage in skills based volunteering and grassroots organization to do good across the world.
If meat is made from muscle tissue, why do we grow a whole animal when we could start with muscle cells? Avoid slaughter, disease, wastes of food, water and land.
Bringing the joy of Puppetry to underprivileged school children in Bali- Indonesia to help promote values such as Peace
Under Privilege Children education,food shelter to the needy and church construction
Lots of creative stuff for mentally disabled people and fugutives, childrens farm.
We aim to inspire kindness throughout the world and help businesses to direct their charitable efforts to small and medium not-for-profits which need more awareness and funding.
|
<urn:uuid:b8f1c677-7bc7-44ef-aafa-c19d03354691>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://startsomegood.com/Support/1?sort=2
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.950779
| 342
| 1.882813
| 2
|
|Photos||Video & Audio||Blogs||Statistics||Archive||Games||Mobile|
While it's fine to toast West Indies' success at the World T20, it will be a travesty to spark off comparisons with what was achieved three decades ago by Clive Lloyd's team because the circumstances back then were different, writes Kunal Pradhan in Pune Mirror. Words and phrases like "comeback", "1979", "Lloyd", and "World Cup" should not be used.
Why the desire to trivialise history for the sake of a newspaper headline or a band running across a television screen? What's worse is the content of the articles and TV discussions in which Sunday night's champions are being celebrated as "freewheeling" cricketers, "just like their predecessors were 33 years ago". It's a reinforcement of the racist stereotype that West Indies cricket thought it had shed long ago. Their fast bowlers were not quick because they were "naturally gifted", or because they were tall, strong and Black.
In the Guardian, Andy Wilson and Vic Marks list out the best and worst moments of the World T20.
And how to improve the tournament? - I'd go for two groups of six, with the top two from each qualifying for the semi finals. This would allow the tournament to start with a bang, as opposed to the damp squib in the current system, make every game meaningful, and give the less-fancied countries - Ireland, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe - more of a crack. AW
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
|
<urn:uuid:7ebbeff4-573b-4c25-a50e-c970c4fea98c>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/622102.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.956836
| 327
| 1.554688
| 2
|
The English language: Louis Armstrong sang about it and George Bernard Shaw is said to have remarked upon it. America and England may be two countries separated by a common language, but if you're a "holidaymaker" (that is, someone going on a vacation) headed for the capital city on the other side of the big pond, perhaps we should review some basic vocabulary.
Welcome to London!
Sir, Madam, your black cab awaits. When you get to the top of the "queue," or line, the driver will put your bags beside him in the front, since there is not a front seat, nor is there a trunk. If there were, the trunk would be called the "boot"; a car's hood is the "bonnet." As you get in, the driver will nicely caution you to "mind your head," then chug along past "articulated lorries" (semi trucks) on the "dual carriageway" (multi-lane section) of the "motorway" (highway) via "roundabouts,” over a "level crossing" (railroad crossing) or two. You'll find it odd that he drives on the left, but if you stay a "fortnight," or two weeks, you'll become accustomed.
Let's drop the quotation marks and parentheses (known as speech marks and brackets) and see how well you catch the meanings from here on out.
Knowing British terms can be helpful when seeking information. Here, a wheelchair user at the Science Museum in …Arriving at the hotel
Say cheers at the kerb by the pavement in the car park and proceed to reception to register. If your baby needs a crib, ask for a cot. If you need a cot for a third person in the room, request a rollaway. Take the lift upstairs from the ground floor (the first floor is the American second floor) to unpack your mac, brolly, trousers, lounge suit, frocks, jumpers, trainers, court shoes, vests, tights and knickers, placing them in the chest or hanging them in the wardrobe. Ring the concierge to book dinner at a brilliant restaurant with a good situation. Head for the loo, turn on the tap and wash up.
A meal is a bit of a challenge; here are the basics. At the bar, a spirit served without ice is neat, not straight up. A beef filet (pronounced fill-it) is steak and a joint is a roast, while grilled means broiled. A jacket potato is a baked potato and is considered a meal in itself, albeit for lunch. Chips are French fries and crisps are potato chips.
A hamburger bun is a bap and a hot dog roll is a bridge roll. A frankfurter does not exist, but you can call it a sausage. On the vegetable front, courgettes are zucchini, aubergine is eggplant, bell pepper is green pepper, swede is like a turnip and broad beans are lima beans (only they taste better). Chicory is endive and endive is chicory. And, as Louis Armstrong sang to Ella Fitzgerald, tomato/tomahto are actually the same thing.
This sandwich is served on a bap with hand-cut chips at the Breakfast Club diner in Islington. (Photo by Pawel …After pudding, sorbet or some sweets, have a black or white coffee, then ask for the bill, not the check. It's always nice to have someone else do the washing up.
Various and sundry chores
Should you require any items, hop on the tube to the High Street, where the shop assistant at the chemist can sort you out with nappies, a spare dummy, nail varnish, hair grips or an Alice band, elastics, sellotape, a biro, a cotton reel or other bits of haberdashery. You may stop at the corner shop, also called the newsagent, for a SIM card for your mobile, handy as your morning alarm. Alternatively, inform reception at what time you'd like someone to ring you up or knock you up. (Really, it's English for a knock on your door.)
Best off you don't take ill whilst on the road. Just the thought alone may give you goose pimples. A visit to hospital or to surgery (the doctor's or dentist's office) requires a whole new vocabulary list. Indeed.
Content by Laurie Jo Miller Farr
|
<urn:uuid:6cb90559-3bf5-44fb-9d38-e753782c64d7>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://shine.yahoo.com/visit-britain-us/visiting-britain-manage-queen-english-day-one-003122551.html?.tsrc=yahoo
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.94666
| 939
| 2.375
| 2
|
Source: History Detectives: "Quaker Map"
Funding for the VITAL/Ready to Teach collection was secured through the United States Department of Education under the Ready to Teach Program.
Gwendolyn Wright from The History Detectives has a mission: to determine if Anne Zorela's antique map is a diagram of the Underground Railroad routes. One reason Anne believes the map is authentic is because of the Quaker meeting houses pictured. The Quakers helped fugitive slaves along the railroad routes. The documented region was also a known hotbed of Underground Railroad activity. These and other reasons have her convinced but she wants more proof to support her conclusion. Professor Gwendolyn Wright disagrees with Anne because fugitives as well as conductors and helpers on the Railroad would’ve been discovered and killed if a map fell into the wrong hands.
African American history, social studies, geography, Ohio State History
The following Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions are best suited for middle school students using this video in an English language arts or social studies lesson. Be sure to modify the questions to meet your students' instructional needs.
What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?
Frame (ELA) What is a conclusion? In order to draw a conclusion about a topic, what must you do? What type of information do you need?
Focus (ELA) As you watch the video, try to determine what conclusion Anne draws about her map. What information does she use to support her conclusion?
Follow Up (ELA) Does Anne have sufficient proof to support her conclusion about her map? Why or why not? Do you think her conclusion is correct? Provide details from the video to support your point.
Frame (SS) What was the Underground Railroad? What was its main purpose?
Focus (SS) As you watch the video, consider why the Underground Railroad was so secretive. What did escaped slaves and the people who helped them have to fear? What were the laws regarding slaves and the people who helped them at that time?
Follow Up (SS) Why are there so few documents from the Underground Railroad in existence? What groups of people can we conclude would have the most knowledge about how the railroad actually operated?
GWEN WRIGHT: The horrors of slavery forced those in bondage to make the ultimate choice – to remain in shackles or to risk their lives by escaping. By the late 1700s, as more northern states passed emancipation laws, rewards for the return of fleeing slaves became a standard feature in American newspapers. Under the constant threat of capture, the terrified escapees will eventually find a possible source of help, a secret network of individuals who in the 1800s come to be known as the Underground Railroad. Almost 200 years later, Anne Zarella from Bradley Beach, New Jersey, has a strange map she suspects may be related to this clandestine escape network. I'm Gwendolyn Wright and I’m meeting with Anne to take a look at what she found.
ANNE: And here's the map.
GWEN: Thank you. Well, I see here's the Ohio River in Southern Ohio. Now, how did you come to find this map?
ANNE: Well, my husband and I went to a garage sale in 1997. We bought the map for $45. It wasn't until I got it home and really looked at it that I noticed that it was unusual.
GWEN: Now where did you get the idea that this map was connected to the Underground Railroad?
GWEN: Anne's done a little research and has discovered that the area of her map, Southern Ohio, was a hotbed of Underground Railroad activity in the middle of the 19th century. She's also noticed a series of odd markings on her map.
ANNE: There are all these dotted lines, but none of them have a name. And, I began to wonder what kind of map it would be where you didn't name the roads that…so you wouldn't be traveling on roads. You'd be traveling in some secret way.
GWEN: Well, let's look at the key. "Those marked thus are meetings of friends..."
ANNE: Yes. And, I'm assuming that these were Quaker settlements.
GWEN: Well, the Quakers called themselves Friends and these must be their meeting houses.
ANNE: Right. Where they worshipped.
GWEN: You know there were a number of them, in fact, in this area.
ANNE: Yes. And, of course, the Quakers were related to the Underground Railroad. They helped the escaped slaves.
GWEN: Now, tell me exactly what you'd like for me to find out, Anne?
ANNE: I would like to know if the map is authentic. If it really was used for the Underground Railroad. If some conductor on the Underground Railroad actually carried the map. I can see it was carried by someone.
GWEN: Well, it'll be an interesting quest for me to see what I can find out. May I take it with me?
ANNE: Please do.
GWEN: Anne certainly has an intriguing map, but I’m not sure about her theory. I suspect not many roads in these rural areas had names back then. And it seems unlikely that a slave could have used a map like this. Most couldn't read. Anne thinks an Underground Railroad conductor, someone assisting escaping slaves may have carried it. That's possible, but it seems a bit far fetched. If he or she were caught, an entire network of safe places and people who tried to help would be destroyed. Here's the area we're looking at. Ohio, the Ohio River, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. But there's no date or signature, so it's hard to know who made Anne's map or when. We have very little material evidence from the Underground Railroad today. So if this map is what Anne thinks it is, it could be quite a significant find.
Academic standards correlations on Teachers' Domain use the Achievement Standards Network (ASN) database of state and national standards, provided to NSDL projects courtesy of JES & Co.
We assign reference terms to each statement within a standards document and to each media resource, and correlations are based upon matches of these terms for a given grade band. If a particular standards document of interest to you is not displayed yet, it most likely has not yet been processed by ASN or by Teachers' Domain. We will be adding social studies and arts correlations over the coming year, and also will be increasing the specificity of alignment.
|
<urn:uuid:08991827-15bf-4afe-9958-919a5eecbca0>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/vtl07.la.rv.text.undergrnd/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.971639
| 1,357
| 4.125
| 4
|
A local organization is helping to make sure it stays sweet and doesn’t go sour. The Alfred Saliba Family Services Center held a workshop today on tips to avoid dating a "jerk or jerkette."
The seminar explained when to notice a relationship has gone sour. Leader, Tommy Davis, says building a solid foundation first is the key to any successful relationship.
"We need to know five things: know, trust, reliance, commit, and touch. And if you use those in that order, then it'll help guide you to a safe way into dating,” explained. Davis.
Davis says partners should also be best friends and in order to keep the flames going, he says make sure all the right relationship skills are there.
|Get the ingredients you need to cook with Rach all week long.|
|Full length exclusive concerts from hot artists.|
|Take a break!
Classic Pacman, Frogger, Asteroids and more.
Sell almost anything locally.
|
<urn:uuid:bb324575-7c85-40b3-b7a7-c751fea0a343>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.wtvy.com/news/alabama/headlines/Avoid-Dating-a-Jerk-or-Jerkette-188506221.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.926467
| 207
| 1.765625
| 2
|
- Category: Environmental
- Published on Friday, 18 May 2012 14:19
- Written by Press Release
TUCSON, Ariz.--(ENEWSPF)--May 18 - Conservation groups officially notified the U.S. Forest Service of their intent to file a lawsuit against the agency for its failure to protect endangered California condors in Arizona’s Kaibab National Forest from toxic lead ammunition left behind from hunting activities. Lead ammunition is the leading cause of death for Arizona’s California condors — which are among the world’s most endangered species — and is completely preventable since nonlead alternatives are now readily available.
The groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and Grand Canyon Wildlands Council — provided the notice under the Endangered Species Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
“At a time when other agencies are stepping up efforts to get toxic lead out of the food chain, the U.S. Forest Service continues to bury its head in the sand, refusing to exercise its authority to protect wildlife on its lands and prevent the needless lead poisoning of Arizona’s condors,” said Jay Lininger, a conservation advocate with the Center. “If we want condors to survive, we must stop using ammunition that contaminates their food supply with toxic lead, especially on our national forests.”
California recently switched to mandatory nonlead ammunition for hunting in that state’s condor range; yet the Forest Service allows the continued use of lead ammunition in the Kaibab National Forest of northern Arizona, despite overwhelming evidence that lead ammo jeopardizes the survival and recovery of endangered species, including condors.
“Lead poisoning is a huge problem, not just for the condor but for other wildlife and even humans,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “Nonlead ammunition is now available for virtually all hunting uses, including the 22 rimfire ammunition, previously thought to be technically infeasible. Our national forests should lead the way in protecting the magnificent condors of the Grand Canyon region from further lead poisonings.”
Condors were first reintroduced to the Vermilion Cliffs near the Arizona-Utah border in 1996 and were classified as an “experimental nonessential population” under the 10(j) rule of the Endangered Species Act. Now more than 60 condors fly freely throughout the region, including the Kaibab National Forest, Grand Canyon National Park and lands in Utah and Nevada.
Since condors have been released in Arizona, at least 12 to 14 have died of lead poisoning, making such poisoning the bird’s leading cause of death. Scientists agree that lead ammunition used in hunting is the primary, if not the sole, source of the lead poisoning of condors, which often feed on carcasses and gut piles of game. Increasing numbers of wild condors must periodically receive emergency lifesaving treatment for lead poisoning. In 2006, 95 percent of all Arizona condors had lead exposure, and 70 percent of the Arizona population was treated. Condor experts have concluded that as long as lead ammunition is used in the condor range, recovery of the species is unlikely.
Hunting is allowed in most of the Kaibab National Forest, and no restrictions have been imposed on the use of lead ammunition by either the Forest Service or the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Conservation groups want to work with the Forest Service to develop a plan to require the use of nonlead ammunition in the Kaibab without having to file a lawsuit. If forced to file a lawsuit, the groups could seek an immediate ban on the use of lead ammunition in the Kaibab.
Find more information about the lead poisoning threat at www.savethecondors.org.
|
<urn:uuid:095e70ed-be06-47b9-991d-7d404d6ed710>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/science-a-environmental/33544-lawsuit-launched-to-protect-endangered-california-condors-in-arizona-from-lead-bullets.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.942387
| 781
| 2.5625
| 3
|
I have been surprised several times before, during and after the ISC West conference to hear remarks about ONVIF and PSIA standards development work as if the two groups are running a horse race and one or the other will be (or has been) declared the permanent winner.
It is nothing like that.
Standards are an ongoing effort as technology evolves, and the rate of technology advancement continues to accelerate. Just like CD and DVD recorders and players support multiple standards from different groups, ONVIF and PSIA are involved in parallel but differing standards development work.
The real winner had better be the end-users, or else there is no reason to engage in the efforts. So I want to address the most common question I hear from end users.
Q: Should I be paying attention to the ONVIF and PSIA standards work?
A: Yes. From this point on, every ISC West and ASIS conference should have interoperability activities worth attending. Additionally, expect vendors to include status reports and demonstrations for their adoption of standards in their sales and educational presentations and literature.
Putting Standards Development into Perspective
Periodically, I am asked why I have such a positive attitude about the current status of physical security industry standards development — given that the degree of standards implementation varies among manufacturers and a high level of interoperability between systems has not yet been achieved in product implementations. The developments to date actually are impressive when you contrast the size of our industry and the size of the standards groups with other interoperability standards efforts.
The IEEE 802 Standards Development Group was formed 30 years ago to address Ethernet networking. At that time, the IEEE had 150,000 members because it was formed by combining the Institute of Radio Engineers (nearly 100 years old at the time) and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (about 80 years old then). Now the IEEE has about 400,000 members. Four years after its formation, the IEEE released its first two standards, and has released dozens of Ethernet networking standards and updates since. All of our corporate networks and many home networks depend on standards from this working group.
Typically, the broader that the scope of the standards is, the longer is the period of development. Historically, most significant standards development efforts span 4-10 years. For example, six years for the IPv6 protocol standard from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and this standard is just beginning its actual customer deployment phase. The development and adoption of BACNET from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) took 10 years. Both of these groups were in existence for many years prior to these standards efforts.
Progress in the Security Industry
The ONVIF and PSIA standards development organizations are both less than three years old. Both already have compliant products, and have exhibited proof of concept demonstrations at trade shows. That’s something to get excited about — especially for the security industry, which is long overdue in embracing the idea of interoperability standards. It is the “long overdue” situation that makes end-users, specifiers and integrators over-anxious for progress — and who can blame them? But we should have at least some applause for this comparatively excellent progress from working groups that are much smaller and younger than those found in larger industries.
ONVIF and PSIA’s approaches to the market are very different. ONVIF has chosen to develop an overarching global IP interface standard and roll out individual specifications focused on one market segment at a time. In this fashion, the group has been able to garner widespread support in the video realm, and is also gearing up for the release of an access control specification later this year (Editor’s Note: see page 32 of this issue for more on the ONVIF access control standard).
|
<urn:uuid:44d36184-2df0-43e8-9fa4-bb95eebd89fb>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.securityinfowatch.com/article/10517902/convergence-qa
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.957738
| 783
| 1.625
| 2
|
|For students of the professional MBA programme, placements are a vital culmination to their academic pursuits. The placement process allows an organization to visit the institute and witness the efforts that have gone into grooming the young management aspirants. |
At NRIBM, the placement process is a team effort. The placement committee consisting of the Director, the Placement Co-ordinator and the faculty works alongside the students in all the stages right from conceptualizing and designing the brochure to inviting companies for the campus recruitment.
|
<urn:uuid:ef65909a-1aba-4fd6-a787-fc8c96c6be4e>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.nribm.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=28
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.930778
| 103
| 1.617188
| 2
|
PMP Certification: Identifying the Scope of a Project
Starting with the project's results is the best route to understanding the project's scope. The first order of business is to identify your customer and sponsor definitions of a successful project. You'll see how to make the definition of success measurable and quantifiable. By being able to define what makes your project successful, you figure out how to
- Manage expectations for customers and sponsors
- Set the appropriate criteria for project acceptance
- Determine how the project should be measured
You'll also determine
- Key milestones: set, track, and control
- Quality standards you must satisfy
The success of your project requires setting, managing, and meeting or exceeding customer expectations. If you meet or exceed their expectations, your customers will be satisfied and happy. Happy customers are a key element in determining the success of your project.
Situational exam questions feature the scenario of an unsatisfied customer. The question asks:
What could the project manager have done to prevent the situation?
Or two variants:
What can you do to prevent a customer from becoming unsatisfied?
How can you change an unsatisfied customer to a satisfied one?
The correct response is for the project manager to begin by setting customer expectations. You set expectations by clearly defining the scope of the project — that's before the customer has the chance to become unsatisfied. Documenting requirements and having the customer sign off on those requirements round out the answer. The key to understanding unsatisfied customer questions is to recognize how the processes in the given scenario relate to each other (process interactions) and to their results (process outputs). Because each scenario is different, the processes involved vary. Sometimes, it's a scope scenario. But it could involve time, cost, or quality scenarios. Think of a linear process — going forward along the project timeline from the beginning. Determine where the customer became unhappy: at what process interaction or out. Then think about the process steps going backward from the result (or output) to the intermediate results. When you get into this mindset, you'll be able to visualize how to re-create the steps of any process, as well as how to correct or prevent a missed step.
Identifying project stakeholders
A stakeholder is anyone who has a clear stake in the project's success. For example, any individual or organization actively involved in the project — and whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the project's success or failure — counts as a stakeholder. Stakeholders can be internal or external to the performing organization, and all their expectations must be managed. Each stakeholder risks something of value in the project's outcome.
The most important stakeholder is the customer. Internal stakeholders include internal customers, departments, management, employees, and administrators. External stakeholders include customers, suppliers, investors, community groups, and government agencies. Naturally, stakeholders have their own agendas, goals, and priorities.Stakeholder managementis the process of aligning stakeholders with each other and the team.
In a typical project, key stakeholders are the people in the following roles:
- Steering committee: A group of high-level executives from functional company areas (and customer representatives) who provide guidance and overall strategic direction. By contributing their functional expertise, they add strategic input to the project. They can also enlist cooperation from their functional groups, making it possible for a larger part of the organization to have a stake in the project's success.
- Project champion: A senior executive who promotes and defends your project within the larger parent organization.
- Sponsor: The one who provides financial resources and direction. This person must have the management authority to settle any disputes between project staff and functional staff.
- Performing organization: The company or group doing the work.
- Project organization: A group that serves the project and participants. It includes the structure, roles, and responsibilities of the project team, as well as its interfaces to the outside.
- The project organization is not the same thing as a projectized organization. The project organization refers to the project team itself. Projectized refers to a specific model where organizations are structured by projects rather than by functional departments. The project doesn't belong to any department, but to the entire organization.
- Project manager: The person who manages the project daily.
- Customer: The buyer expected to use the product or service that the project creates. In practice, it's anyone who participates in focus groups or has bought the company's (or competitors') products.
- Project team member: Anyone performing work on the project, especially someone who manages (or reports directly to) the project organization; team leaders are the heads of individual groups within the project team. In addition to people loaned from other departments or from resource pools, the team also includes all contractors and consultants.
- Individual contributor: Anyone working on the project without a management role but sharing accountability for achieving results.
- Functional manager: Handles the business and technical management of a functional group — in particular their performance review.
- Project accountant: Provides cost and budget information for the project. Usually this is a member of the accounting department (often on the controller's staff) who can ensure that invoices for project work get paid on time and can provide data for your earned value measurements.
- Project influencer: Is positively or negatively impacted because of the result of the project or potential changes from the project.
- Information sources: Individuals who provide helpful information. They may have special knowledge of the project as a result of their roles in similar projects, or they might be customers of similar products. They may be experts in law or human resources, or in an industry association.
You must ensure that diverse individuals function as a team. You have to coach, lead, and ensure the team's commitment to a common mission for which they are mutually accountable. With functional managers, you'll resolve conflicts between team members; each may have different time priorities, individual objectives and goals, and available resources. Also with functional managers, you'll resolve resource conflicts and negotiate compromises.
|
<urn:uuid:5fdcceaf-d3e7-4cbc-95b9-1fcf53f62516>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/pmp-certification-identifying-the-scope-of-a-proje.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.941658
| 1,241
| 2.703125
| 3
|
|4822962||Hydrostatic hitch control||April, 1989||MacCourt||200/61.88|
|4392546||Suspended operator station||July, 1983||Brown et al.||180/89.13|
|4372341||Rotary switch valve||February, 1983||Crawley||180/329|
|4026379||Multi-positional seat having a following instrument panel||May, 1977||Dunn et al.||180/331|
|3841429||DEVICE FOR A STRADDLE-CARRIER OR A SIMILAR VEHICLE||October, 1974||Falcone et al.||180/89.13|
mounting said control panel on said console for pivotal movement thereof with said seat about said pivot axis;
said seat including fore-and-aft adjustment means for selectively positioning said seat relative to said steering mechanism in a direction toward and away from said steering mechanism; said seat further having a pan member supporting a seat cushion for receiving said operator and being moveable with said seat, said control panel being affixed to said pan member for movement with said seat, thereby maintaining the positional relationship between the control panel and the operator sitting on said seat cushion during movement of said seat toward and away from said steering mechanism,
said seat further including height adjustment means for effecting a vertical adjustment movement of said seat cushion relative to said steering mechanism, said height adjustment means being positioned above said pivot mechanism to effect vertical movement of said pan member without causing vertical movement of said steering mechanism such that the positional relationship of said control panel relative to an operator sitting on said seat cushion is maintained during vertical adjustment movement of said seat relative to said steering mechanism.
This invention relates generally to tractors having an operator's station rotatable about an arc of at least approximately 180° to permit proper orientation of the operator for convenient operation of the tractor in opposing directions and, more particularly, to a control panel for controlling the operative functions of the tractor being mounted for movement with, and in fixed relationship to, the seat.
A hydrostatically driven tractor of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,341 and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,962, is operable in opposing directions with equal efficiency. To facilitate the operation of such a tractor, the operator's seat and steering mechanism are formed as a part of a console pivotally supported from the frame of the vehicle to permit rotation of the console about a generally vertical pivot axis to enable a positioning of the operator sitting in the seat cushion to face the forward direction of travel irrespective of which opposing direction is considered to be forward.
The operator's station is mounted within a cab enclosure and is provided with a control panel having mounted thereon various control devices for operatively controlling the various functions of the tractor, such as hydraulic lift functions, power-takeoff engagement, and speed and direction of movement of the tractor. These particular control devices have been customarily mounted laterally of the pivotable console such that the operator uses one hand when operating the controls in a first direction, but then must utilize the other hand to manipulate the control devices when the console is rotated to face in the opposing direction.
It would be desirable to provide an operator's station for a hydrostatically driven tractor in which the operator's station includes a rotatable console in which the control panel mounting the various control devices for manipulating the operative functions of the tractor is rotatable with the console so that the operator will have consistent, uniformly positioned mechanism for operation of the tractor.
It is an object of this invention to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art by providing a rotatable operator's station having the control panel affixed to the rotatable console for movement with the operator's seat
It is another object of this invention to mount the control panel in a position to be movable with the seat so that the positional relationship between the control panel and the operator's seat will be maintained.
It is a feature of this invention that the control panel is formed as part of a pan member positioned underneath the seat cushion, but above the adjustment devices in the seat for positionally varying the location of the operator's seat relative to the steering mechanism.
It is an advantage of this invention that the control panel is positioned in a fixed relationship with respect to the operator's seat irrespective of the positional adjustments made to the seat or the rotated position of the seat relative to the tractor.
It is another advantage of this invention that the operator will have a uniform positioning of the control panel irrespective of the adjustments made to the seat.
It is another feature of this invention that the control panel is moveable with the seat relative to the steering mechanism with respect to all positional adjustments of the seat.
It is still another object of this invention to provide an operator's station having a control panel moveable in a fixed relationship with the operator's seat, which is durable in construction, inexpensive of manufacture, carefree of maintenance, facile in assemblage, and simple and effective in use.
These and other objects, features and advantages are accomplished according to the instant invention by providing an operator's control station for a hydrostatically driven tractor in which the operator's control station is rotatable to orient the operator selectively in opposing directions, wherein a control panel having control devices for manipulating operative functions of the tractor is connected to a pan member supporting the seat cushion receiving the operator such that the control panel rotates with the operator's control station. The pan member is positioned above both the fore-and-aft adjustment mechanism and the height adjustment mechanism for the seat so that the control panel is maintained in a constant positional relationship relative to the operator irrespective of the adjusted position of the seat relative to the steering mechanism.
The advantages of this invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed disclosure of the invention, especially when taken into conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a tractor incorporating the principles of the instant invention, a portion of operator's cab being broken away to more clearly show the operator's station, the rotative movement of the console being shown in phantom;
FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of the vehicle showing a top plan view of the operator's station corresponding to lines 2--2 of FIG. 1, the rotated position of the console being shown in phantom; and
FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of the operator's station corresponding to lines 3--3 of FIG. 2 to show an elevational view of the operator's seat and attached control panel.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a side elevational view of a tractor 10 incorporating the principles of the instant invention can best be seen. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,341 and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,962, the descriptive portions of both patents being incorporated herein by reference, the tractor 10 is hydrostatically driven and can be operated with equal efficiency in either opposing direction. The tractor 10 is typically referred to as having a cab end 12 and an engine end 13 to which reference is typically made to indicate the forward direction of travel. The tractor 10 is provided with a frame 11 supported above the ground G by conventional ground wheels 15. Operative power is provided by an engine (not shown) enclosed within the hood 14 positioned at the engine end 13 of the tractor 10. The tractor 10 is preferably articulated so that the steering can be accomplished through conventional manipulation of the articulation joint (not shown). Alternatively, the tractor 10 could be steered through a conventional pivotable turning movement of one pair of the ground wheels 15.
Referring now to FIGS. 1-3, it can be seen that the operator's cab 20 is mounted on the cab end 12 of the tractor 10 and forms an enclosure within which the operator's station 22 is positioned. The operator's station 22 includes a pivotable console 25 mounted on a pivot mechanism 27 supported by the frame 11. The pivot mechanism 27 defines a pivot axis 28 about which the console 25 is rotatably movable to orient the operator so that the operator is facing the selected forward direction of travel, which can be toward either the cab end 12 or the engine end 13, depending on the direction of oil flow through the hydraulic system of the hydrostatically driven tractor 10.
The console 25 includes a seat 30, a steering mechanism 35, a hollow housing 33 extending between the seat 30 and the steering mechanism 35 to position the steering mechanism 35 at an appropriate location for convenient manipulation by the operator positioned in the seat 30, and a control panel 40 having mounted thereon various control devices, such as a control lever 42 operable to control the speed and direction of travel of the tractor 10; rocker switches 44 operable to control electrohydraulic functions, e.g. three point hitch lift cylinders, auxiliary attachments, etc.; 46 for controlling the rate of hydraulic flow to electro-hydraulic functions; and a PTO engagement lever 48.
The cab 20 provides a relatively small space within which the console 25 can be pivotally moved about the pivot axis 28. Accordingly, it is necessary to reduce the overall length of the console 25 by tilting the steering mechanism 35 toward the seat 30 and to move the seat 30 toward the steering mechanism 35 to permit the console 25 to clear the cab support posts 21 during its rotative movements. The arc 36 shown in FIG. 2 depicts the path of movement of the console 25 when being rotated from one selected orientation to the other. Because of the rotative movements imposed on the steering mechanism 35, it is preferable that the steering operation be accomplished with a conventional hydraulically operated mechanism, rather than mechanically.
The seat 30 is provided with a base frame member 51 which is attached to the housing 33 and supports the seat 30 for rotation on the pivot mechanism 27 about the axis 28. The base frame member 51 supports a conventional height adjustment mechanism 53 operable to selectively permit the seat 30 to move vertically relative to the base member 51, thereby changing the height of the seat 30 relative to the steering mechanism 35. The seat 30 is also provided with a conventional suspension mechanism 55 including an adjustment mechanism 56 to compensate for the weight of the operator positioned in the seat 30, and a shock absorber 57 to provide smooth riding characteristics.
The seat 30 is also provided with a fore-and-aft adjustment mechanism 58 which includes a pair of transversely spaced bottom rails 59a fixed connected to the height adjustment mechanism 53 for vertical movement therewith and adapted to slidably receive a corresponding pair of top rails 59b to permit linear movement of the seat cushion 31 in a fore-and-aft direction relative to the steering mechanism 35, permitting the operator positioned on the seat cushion 31 to selectively adjust his position relative to the steering mechanism 35 for convenient and comfortable operation thereof.
The seat 30 further includes a pan member 60 affixed to the top rails 59b of the fore-and-aft adjustment mechanism 58 so as to be moveable therewith. The pan member 60 directly supports the cushion 31 and extends laterally of the cushion 31 for the mounting of the control panel 40 transversely of the cushion 31. Accordingly, the control panel 40 is positioned to the side of the operator seated on the cushion 31 and is movable with the cushion 31 so that the relative position between the control panel 40 and the seat cushion 31 is fixed.
One skilled in the art will readily realize that the control panel 40 is movable with the seat cushion 31 irrespective of the adjustments made with the height adjustment mechanism 53 or the fore-and-aft adjustment 58 relative to the steering mechanism 35. Furthermore, the control panel 40 is rotatably movable with the seat 30 about the pivot mechanism 27 defining the axis 28, allowing the operator positioned on the cushion 31 to utilize the same hand to control the operative functions of the tractor 10 irrespective of the rotated or adjusted positions of the seat 30.
It will be understood that changes in the details, materials, steps and arrangements of parts which have been described and illustrated to explain the nature of the invention will occur to and may be made by those skilled in the art upon a reading of this disclosure within the principles and scope of the invention. The foregoing description illustrates the preferred embodiment of the invention; however, concepts, as based upon the description, may be employed in other embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the following claims are intended to protect the invention broadly as well as in the specific form shown.
|
<urn:uuid:cb7760e6-9d38-406d-94c4-f39e364cf134>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5086869.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.938619
| 2,571
| 1.585938
| 2
|
Friends of Edison National Historic Park in West Orange to Present Edison's 1910 "Frankenstein" at Hat City Kitchen Sunday, October 28
Saturday, October 20, 2012 • 1:51pm
WEST ORANGE, NJ - On Sunday, October 28, 2012, the Friends of Edison National Historic Park will present Frankenstein, a 15 minute silent film released by the Edison Company in 1910. The single print film adaptation was discovered in the mid-70s after being thought forever lost.
The screening will take place at Hat City Kitchen at 1:30 on Sunday, October 28. Tom Meyers, Executive Director of the Fort Lee Film Commission, and John Columbus, Founder and Director of the Black Maria Film Festival, will introduce the film and lead a discussion following the screening.
Hat City Kitchen (http://www.hatcitykitchen.com/) is located at 459 Valley Street, Orange, New Jersey, near the West Orange border. Hat City Kitchen opened in the Valley Arts District of Orange in 2010. Its name evokes the local factories that once employed thousands and supplied haberdashers all over the world. Housing and Neighborhood Development Services Inc.(HANDS), which has rehabilitated scores of homes in the area, owns the restaurant and hopes that its 1890s building will become a bustling performing-arts space.
Thomas Edison National Historical Park is a National Park Service site that preserves and promotes the extraordinary achievments of Thomas Alva Edison. Historic artifact and archive collections are housed and maintained at the Edison Laboratory Complex and Glenmont, the Edison family estate. You can visit their site at http://www.nps.gov/edis.
The Friends of Thomas Edison NHP is a not-for profit organization supports the Thomas Edison NHP in the through advocacy, volunteer service and fundraising. The Friends also assist in fundraising and special events planning for Edison NHP.For additional information please call 973-736-2916 or send email (preferred) to firstname.lastname@example.org.
Get local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone everyday with our free newsletter.
|
<urn:uuid:94e5a441-cc7a-4dfc-a98e-75ee78562d29>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://thealternativepress.com/articles/friends-of-edison-national-historic-park-in-west
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.917131
| 430
| 1.664063
| 2
|
Last year came to an exciting end with the discovery of an Earth-like planet, Kepler-22b, orbiting a sun-like star outside of our solar system. It was found by NASAs Kepler mission and is the first planet detected orbiting in a stars habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist.
The Kepler mission also found 9 other near-Earth-size potential planets that orbit in the habitable zone of their host star. And this month, scientists published results of a 6-year study strengthening the possibility that life forms similar to those on Earth exist elsewhere.
So could 2012 be the year to find extraterrestrial life? Investigating Kepler-22b and the other possible planets is certainly a good place to start.
Natural History Museum extra-planetary expert Sara Russell comments on the finds, "These are really exciting new discoveries. It has been one of the main aims in astronomy over the last decade or so to search for Earth-like planets, and it looks as if we are getting nearer that goal.
"Kepler 22b is similar to the Earth in being a similar distance away from its sun, but in some ways it is very different - it is probably much larger than the Earth, and so not an actual "twin"," says Russell.
Scientists do not yet know if Kepler-22b is made up of a rocky, gaseous, or liquid composition. It is about 600 light years away, within our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
What is essential for life?
So, what is needed for life forms to exist? "At the moment our own planet is the only known example of a host for life, so it is difficult to say what is really essential," says Russell.
Most scientists, including Russell, agree that it is important to have water, and so the planet would need to be in the habitable zone, where it is neither too hot nor too cold to have liquid water.
Other factors such as the type of orbit and star are also important. Russell explains, The star around which the planet orbits would need to be stable, and the planet would ideally have a low eccentricity, which means its orbit is close to circular rather than elliptical, which would keep the conditions on the planet more consistent.
'There would also need to be a supply of the elements that are important to make life: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen.
What kind of life are we likely to find?
Earth has an incredible variety of life, from single-celled amoeba to the mighty whale. So what type of alien life are we likely to find?
"I think that it is very likely that we will find extraterrestrial life in the form of simple, perhaps one-celled, extraterrestrial organisms, says Russell. 'There are many many planets in our galaxy and the basic elements needed for life are very common.
"We would have to be really lucky to find anything more sophisticated. On our planet, single-celled creatures existed for billions of years before more complex life evolved, and our technologically advanced life has only been around for a tiny fraction of the Earth's existence."
Where else are we likely to find life?
If not on Kepler-22b, then where are we most likely to find life, and how will we find it? There are several new generation telescopes that are currently searching for terrestrial-like planets, says Russell.
"I anticipate that over the next few years we will hear about dozens of discoveries of planets that are quite similar to Earth, and many of them may be habitable.
"We also should not dismiss the possibility that there may be life nearer to home, in our own solar system. Some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn have water and the right temperature regime to host life."
Will we ever see extraterrestrials?
We are unlikely to be able to see life forms that may exist on planets outside our solar system (exoplanets), because they are too far away and we do not yet have the technology to reach such places.
Russell explains, 'The exoplanet searches will only be able to tell us at a very basic level whether there is life or not. For example, we can tell if there are life forms breathing from the composition of the atmosphere, which we can detect using telescopes from far, far away. There is no way we would be able to tell what that life looks like.'
In the meantime, Russell is busy characterizing materials from our own solar system. She studies the diversity of rocks, using meteorites that originate from different parts of our planetary system. This means Russell can better understand what extra-solar planets may be made of and what their geology is like, and therefore decide if they are likely hosts for life.
The Kepler mission is searching only a portion of our own galaxy, to find out how many of the billions of stars have Earth-size planets in or near habitable zones. With 10 possible candidates found so far, the search for alien life is getting closer. When asked what her most likely reply would be if life was found elsewhere, Russell responds, I'd say, "I told you so!"
Explore further: Dark, massive asteroid to fly by Earth on May 31
|
<urn:uuid:914b3b94-39bf-4dfa-b9ac-e2b662850929>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://phys.org/news/2012-01-year-extraterrestrial-life.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.962544
| 1,085
| 3.859375
| 4
|
Mostyn hunted north of Yellowknife and says he and his companion took three wolves on the third day of their hunt. "All the wolves were big, with great fur at that time of year. We hunted by truck and snowmobiles, talking with ice fishermen on Great Slave Lake to see if they'd seen any wolves." [Editor's note: See photo of Mostyn's trophy in our online Trophy Gallery.] He also gives the guiding, outfitting and accommodations across-the-board excellent ratings. "Warner and his partner know the country well and have a great deal of experience. These guys know how to get you a wolf." Mostyn stayed in a hotel in Yellowknife and ate in local restaurants. "That ice road is the eighth wonder of the world, and being on it was simply an amazing experience," he says.
At press time, we talked with Warner, who told us he hunts only in March when the days are longer and the ice roads are still in good condition, giving access to the hunting country. Hunger forces the wolves to hunt into daylight hours at that time. "We'll drive right past the treeline and out onto the tundra to hunt," says Warner. "One of the keys is finding the caribou when we can. The wolves are often nearby. By law we can't use bait, so this is an active hunt, moving first by truck, then following wolf tracks or actually chasing the wolves down by snow machine."
Though there's no distinction drawn in the record books, Warner says he hunts two recognizable types of wolves. "The brush wolves, which are usually gray and somewhat blockier," he says "tend to stick closer to timber and have distinct territories for each........(continued)
|
<urn:uuid:5f6b90e4-1279-48fe-b418-b62a437d5dd8>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.huntingreport.com/hunting_article_details.cfm?id=2927
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.980901
| 357
| 1.570313
| 2
|
When the arteries in your heart become narrowed or clogged by
cholesterol and fat deposits they can't supply enough blood to the
heart, which results in heart disease. One of the ways you can reduce
your risk of heart disease is by gaining control over your
What Is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a waxy substance that can be found in all parts of
your body. It aids in the production of cell membranes, some hormones
and vitamin D. The cholesterol in your blood comes from two sources:
the foods you eat and your liver. However, your liver makes all of the
cholesterol your body needs.
Cholesterol and other fats are transported in your blood stream in
the form of round particles called lipoproteins. The two most commonly
known lipoproteins are low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and
high-density lipoproteins (HDL).
LDL is commonly called the "bad" cholesterol. It's a type of fat in
the blood that contains the most cholesterol, so you want your LDL to
be low. HDL is known as the "good" cholesterol. It's a type of fat in
the blood that helps to remove cholesterol from the blood. Since
"good" cholesterol prevents the fatty buildup and formation of plaque,
you want your HDL to be high. Your total cholesterol is a combination
of LDL, HDL and other lipids (fats).
What Is a Healthy Cholesterol Level?
High cholesterol is a significant risk factor in heart disease.
Cholesterol is specific to each individual and a full lipid profile is
an important part of your medical history.
In general, ideal levels are as follows:
- LDL - less than 100 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl)
- HDL - greater than 40 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) for men, greater than 50 mg/dL for women
- Triglycerides- less than 150 mg/dL
- A total cholesterol level below 200 mg/dL is considered desirable
If you already have coronary artery disease
(CAD) or an increased number of risk factors for heart disease, your
physician may determine that your LDL cholesterol level must be lower
than100 and may even need to be lower than 70.
Recent studies have shown that those who are at highest risk for a heart attack
should lower their LDL cholesterol level to less than 100. An LDL
cholesterol level of 70 or less may be optimal for those people at the
very highest level of risk. Always consult your physician for a
How to Control Your Cholesterol
It is important to work with your doctor on a plan to control your cholesterol. Some general tips include:
|
<urn:uuid:f9aae6d3-61ed-401c-ae04-ba2d1323136e>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/heart/prevention/pages/cholesterol-and-heart-disease.aspx
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.918927
| 569
| 3.546875
| 4
|
FOUNDING FATHERS AT THE FINE ARTS CENTER
The scene is set and the tone is set very quickly. Members of the 2nd Continental Congress are arguing about whether or not the Colonies should declare independence from England. As they bicker and debate John Adams is the driving force behind the drive to break away from Britain. Some of the others are so tired of his tired old argument that in the opening number they plead, "For God's Sake, John, Sit Down!"
It's done with the kind of respect usually shown by members of congress who may or may not actually respect one another. Maybe that hasn't really changed.
We all know how it ends..they write and then approve and then sign the Declaration of Independence. The story of how they get there is quite a ride.
Director Tim Muldrew points out in his program notes that the musical "1776" has some historical inaccuracies that were created for dramatic effect. They took some liberties in the pursuit of liberty. With that in mind it's still an intriguing look back at what the Founding Fathers went through to make that most important of decisions.
Cory Moosman commands the stage as John Adams. His singing voice is great and it's also his speaking voice that grabs your attention and won't let go. There is a lot of dialog between the songs in this show and Moosman won't let it falter.
As serious as the subject matter is, this show is surprisingly funny. There's some back-and-forth banter between committee members over which one of them should actually draft the document. It's a musical highlight of the show. There is humor inherent in Sherman Edwards' music. Throw in his clever lyrics and a moment like "But, Mr. Adams" is memorable. It also helps that in this production the men in the roles of Adams, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston are all talented performers.
Below: Franklin, Jefferson and Adams. Photo: CS Fine Arts Center
There are only two women among the men. Halee Towne is terrific as Martha Jefferson. When Thomas Jefferson (the always impressive Marco Robinson) is picked to write the declaration he has writer's block. His wife Martha is summoned to Philadelphia to ummm....un-block him. Full disclosure here Halee is a good friend...but even if I'd never met her I'd tell you that her song about Thomas Jefferson's musical skills is wonderful. In "He Plays The Violin" she waltzes her way through an explanation to Adams and Franklin about why why she fell for the quiet Jefferson. Adams and Franklin need no explanation of why he fell for her.
That brings us to Ben Franklin himself. In real life actor Colin Alexander is British. In the show he is playing an American who wants no part of Britain. In the script Franklin is as clever and witty as we'd expect. He's also self-deprecating at times...and deadly serious when he needs to be. Alexander gets all of that just right. He's also got just the power in his voice we'd expect from a man of Franklin's stature.
Colin Alexander and Cory Moosman were both guests last week on 11 News at 4 and it was a pleasure talking to them about their work in this show. It was an even greater pleasure watching them do it.
Now to the other woman in the show. From time to time the letters between John Adams and his wife Abigail become part of the plot. She appears on stage, in John's mind if not really in Philadelphia, to argue with him, support him and eventually even advise him. Full disclosure again, Jen Lennon, who plays Abigail is my sister. Again though, even if I'd never met her I'd tell you she does a great job! I'm proud of her.
Here's a blog entry I wrote about Jen and her role last week.
The moments between the two of them are touching. They both sing well and they sing well together. Here they are in another photo from The Fine Arts Center.
The relationship between John and Abigail is one of the elements that help show the humanity of the people who played such a crucial role in the birth of our nation.
There are powerful moments throughout the Fine Arts Center Theatre Company's production of "1776". Near the end of Act 1 a courier who's been in battle has a song about losing his two best friends. Corbin George is a sophomore at Coronado High School, but he takes center stage for "Momma Look Sharp" like he belongs there.
In Act 2 South Carolina's Edward Rutledge reprimands the Northerners for what he calls their hypocritical involvement in the slave trade. Max Ferguson does a remarkable job as Rutledge in "Molasses to Rum". I talked to him briefly after the show. "It's really a great song," he told me. It's also really a great singer.
Kevin Rorke as John Dickinson, Ken Robinson as Richard Henry Lee and Sammy Gleason as Andrew McNair also provide some memorable moments. There are many other performances and performers who shine in "1776".
At a time when the word patriotic is sometimes tossed around flippantly, this is a nice reminder of what it's really all about.
It's also a nice reminder that we don't have to go all the way to Denver for great theatre...it's right here in Colorado Springs. It's through June 5th it's at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Here's a link for tickets.
We'll talk again soon.
KKTV firmly believes in freedom of speech for all and we are happy to provide this forum for the community to share opinions and facts. We ask that commenters keep it clean, keep it truthful, stay on topic and be responsible. Comments left here do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of KKTV 11 News.
If you believe that any of the comments on our site are inappropriate or offensive, please tell us by clicking “Report Abuse” and answering the questions that follow. We will review any reported comments promptly.powered by Disqus
|
<urn:uuid:248dc13d-693a-4487-951a-10dcf1caf4a5>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.kktv.com/blogs/blogwithdon/1776_-_History_With_Humor_121863169.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.977591
| 1,266
| 2.21875
| 2
|
Can Running Form Be Learned?
The notion that athletes receive instruction or training in technique
that would help them excel in their sport does not seem very controversial.
It would seem to make sense to teach athletes the mechanics of their sport.
Yet, it seems that much of the instruction out there for runners consists of
yelling "faster" or the ever popular, "catch that guy in front of you." Why
is it assumed that efficient running form should just come naturally or is
in some way, inborn? Anyone with children knows that along with running,
throwing also comes naturally. Why is it then that a pitcher would
need additional instruction on the mechanics of a curve ball? After all, anyone
can throw. The fact is, athletes in most other sports are inundated with the
specific fundamentals and mechanics that will help them reach their potential.
Why not runners?
To provide education to runners about the fundamentals of their sport
is precisely the goal of Stride Mechanics, LLC.
How often have you admired and envied those elite runners who run with such ease and grace?
Do you find yourself wishing that you had the "talent" to run with a similar effortless stride?
You have it:
Efficient running form is not restricted to only talented "naturals"; there are specific characteristics that elite runners share that you can learn and practice. You can learn the secrets of efficient runners and make them your own.
You will learn:
You will see immediate pay-offs and benefits.
- The anatomical mechanisms the body employs to dampen the effects of impact during running.
- The importance of the arms during the various phases of the running stride.
- The biomechanical characteristics that research has found to be common among efficient runners.
- A series of exercises intended to facilitate the mechanics of proper running form.
Whether your goal is to run faster or just more comfortably, the techniques learned here will help you get there.
Substantial return on investment.
For a very small investment, you will learn to make every run a pleasure.
© 2007 Stride Mechanics, LLC.
|
<urn:uuid:7b5c9219-e75e-4311-bc66-1bb77c3ec33e>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://stridemechanics.com/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.965066
| 441
| 2.703125
| 3
|
I like your shoelaces.
Thanks, I stole them from the president.
Tell this to people and if they answer the correct answer then you know you have found another one of us :) Don't tell people what it means if they don't know! REBLOG and spread the word!!
Enceladus vents water into space from its south polar region. The moon is lit by the Sun on the left, and backlit by the vast reflecting surface of its parent planet to the right. Icy crystals from these plumes are likely the source of Saturn’s nebulous E ring, within which Enceladus orbits. Mosaic composite photograph. Taken by Cassini, December 25, 2009.
|
<urn:uuid:bda354f7-0715-4ecd-8048-3b855f2aa0a1>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://yoonjohn.tumblr.com/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.955046
| 147
| 1.757813
| 2
|
The battle of the budget
Why the epic fight over EU spending is a wasted opportunity
HOTEL rooms have been booked for the extra-long weekend. Spreadsheets are being readied. Bogus arguments and blackmail strategies are being honed. As European leaders prepare for their seven-yearly epic battle over the EU’s budget, they will now be on their worst behaviour.
Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, who will chair a special budget summit on November 22nd and 23rd, has told leaders to be prepared to stay in Brussels for several nights. Veterans of past budgets say reaching agreement at the first attempt would be remarkable. This time the economic crisis in the euro zone raises the stakes. A stalemate would only feed the uncertainty that already surrounds the European project.
The bitterness that the EU budget generates is disproportionate to its importance. It accounts for just 1% of the union’s GDP, or about 2% of government spending; the disputed amount is a fraction of this. Still, over the seven years of the “multi-annual financial framework”, the pot of money at stake is about €1 trillion ($1.3 trillion).
For poorer countries in central and eastern Europe, net transfers from the EU are a big boost, for some approaching 5% of national GDP. For southern countries deep in recession, such as Greece and Spain, they are a lifeline. For Italy, which has become the biggest net contributor and fears its position will worsen, paying in to the EU makes getting its finances in order even harder.
Countries are coalescing around loose (yet often divided) groups. There are the “friends of cohesion”: the net recipients of regional spending, such as Poland, Hungary and the Baltic states. And there are the “friends of better spending”: the net contributors, such as Germany, France, Britain and several northern European states. Less organised are the supporters of farm subsidies under the common agricultural policy who straddle both camps, including France, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Romania.
At the furthest end of the tug-of-war stands the European Parliament, the friend of all EU spending. It wants the union to have more “own resources”, meaning revenues independent of national treasuries, and is covetous of the financial-transactions tax that 11 countries plan to introduce. If it does not get new own resources, says the parliament, it will veto the budget.
Tugging hard alongside is the European Commission. It has revised its draft budget to €1,033 billion, after adding money for Croatia, which joins next year. It has resorted to the old fiscal trick of keeping some items off-budget. When these are added, its proposal comes to €1,091 billion—a 6% increase in real terms.
At the other end of the rope stands Britain, with few real friends these days. It wants spending frozen at 2011 levels. And it wants the budget set using the actual sums paid out, which are lower than the “commitments” in today’s budget (that makes for some fuzziness in the British bid: it seeks to reduce the commission’s request by between €100 billion and €200 billion, depending on who does the sums). The British say that, for a country sharply cutting expenditure to curb its budget deficit, a real-terms freeze for the EU is generous. David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister, says he too is ready to cast his veto.
The British are also at the centre of another fight, about their budget rebate. Over the years other states have secured reductions; now the Danes want one too. The commission proposes to simplify the complex system of abatements. But regardless of the merit of reform, no Tory prime minister could touch the rebate won in 1984 by Margaret Thatcher. Many now ask whether Mr Cameron really wants a compromise, or would prefer—for domestic reasons—to cast his veto, as he did last December. The cost of stalemate, apart from isolation, would be to roll over the 2013 budget plus inflation (meaning that the budget would be bigger than Britain seeks) and mess up planning for regional funds.
All will be watching mighty Germany. It says the budget should be capped at 1% of the EU’s gross national income (reducing the commission’s plan by about €130 billion), but is being pulled in many a direction. As an advocate of austerity, it sympathises with the British. But as a big recipient of farm subsidies, and as the other half of the Franco-German partnership, it may collude with France to preserve agricultural spending. And it will want to keep supporting the EU’s ex-communist members around and beyond its eastern border.
Looming over the fight are two broader questions: the future of the euro zone and the future of Britain in the EU. The euro zone is talking about “fiscal capacity”, jargon for creating a separate budget to stabilise the currency. At the last summit in October, Mr Cameron argued long and hard over the degree to which the two budgets were “unrelated”. Some fear he wants to use the “fiscal capacity” to demand cuts in the EU budget. More likely, he wants to set a marker for the looming treaty renegotiation, in which Britain may seek to loosen its ties.
So after all the hue and cry, the most likely outcome is a budget that offers little change. The partisans of farm subsidies, regional funds and the rebates will fight each other to a standstill. The most likely casualties are sensible growth-promoting forms of spending, such as cross-border infrastructure and research, that have no entrenched lobbies.
If the EU were starting anew, it would not come up with today’s budget. It would not spend 40% of its cash on agriculture. It would not need all sorts of rebates. And it would not have a budget of absurd rigidity, in which even unspent money must remain in “national envelopes”. Even if a deal is reached next month, the summit will be a wasted opportunity. If this crisis is not the time for radical reform, when is?
|
<urn:uuid:9db4f182-36f2-48dc-9aac-d6372dffc499>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21565217-why-epic-fight-over-eu-spending-wasted-opportunity-battle-budget
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.958516
| 1,297
| 1.6875
| 2
|
Sources of financial assistance available to students attending Thomas Aquinas College include Pell Grants, California State Scholarships (Cal Grants), local and national scholarships, Direct Student Loans, Canada Student Loans, and Veterans Administration benefits.
Since the College receives no federal campus-based funds or contracts, some federal aid that is normally available to college students elsewhere is not available to those who attend Thomas Aquinas College. The College does, however, have its own aid program that is funded through contributions made by benefactors of the College. This program includes Service Scholarships (work-study) and grants.
Each financial aid request is reviewed carefully in an effort to arrive at an accurate determination of need for financial assistance. This process takes into account the family’s income, assets, family size, number of students in college, and other pertinent information. The College does its best to address each family’s individual circumstances while maintaining equity and fairness.
After the College determines that a student has financial need, a financial aid package is assembled in this order: (1) outside grants and scholarships which the student has received or is expected to receive (e.g., Pell Grants, state grants, local and national scholarships, Veterans Administration benefits), (2) self-help aid in the form of a student loan, (3) self-help aid in the form of a Service Scholarship (work-study) awarded by the College, and (4) a tuition grant from the College.
Follow the links below for more information on each of the following:
|
<urn:uuid:f1825292-6faf-412d-ab37-672d997d6c59>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://thomasaquinas.edu/admission/types-financial-aid-available
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.957231
| 312
| 1.6875
| 2
|
Canada's Africentric school opens in Toronto
September 9, 2009
By IAN ROBERTSON, SUN MEDIAhttp://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/09/09/10799466-sun.html
TORONTO -- Toronto's first black-focused school opened yesterday with drumbeats and a tradition that children rely on entire communities.
"It takes a village to raise a child," community organizer Donna Harrow said, quoting an African saying she applied to everyone supporting the Africentric Alternative School.
Harrow and Angela Wilson urged the Toronto District School Board in mid-2007 to address low achievement and a 40% dropout rate among black students. After a heated debate, trustees six months later voted for the facility.
The Africentric School, whose 115 students -- 30 more than registered last week -- are brought from across the city, emphasizes heritage but must meet education requirements.
"The focus is on youth and our culture ... a lot of our history," Alcian Morgan said, as she, husband Keith Freckleton and daughter Stacey, a York University student, took photos with the Jamaica-born couple's youngest child.
After an African drum group's rhythmic welcome, community activist Clem Marshall, of the Black Secretariat, said ancestors were with them in spirit, helping provide the "strength and courage to be here today."
|
<urn:uuid:655aa69b-9804-451b-a5a3-240d18c6f30f>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.monctonforums.com/index.php?topic=994.0
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.955616
| 286
| 1.625
| 2
|
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE — Few things are more important than reliable medical equipment. If equipment is unavailable, not calibrated correctly or malfunctions, it could place someone's life in jeopardy, which is why the 2nd Medical Operations Support Squadron Biomedical Equipment Technicians here work behind the scenes to ensure Barksdale's medical equipment stays in proper working order.
"It's our job to ensure that all medical equipment on base is safe to use, serviceable and properly configured," said Tech. Sgt. Orlando Ortega, BMET flight chief. "We fix broken stuff. We're maintainers, but our job is to fix everything you would find in a hospital."
Ortega, who's been a medical maintainer for 12 years, said BMET plays an integral role in keeping the hospital running successfully.
"It's our responsibility to make sure the equipment works," he said. "When we do our job correctly it allows the rest of the hospital staff to focus only on helping patients."
BMET frequently bails the dental squadron out with emergency issues fixing everythin from small fixes to dental chairs, Tech. Sgt. Rosalynn Davis, 2nd Dental Squadron, Logistics NCO in charge, said.
"We wouldn't be able to function if we did not have the BMET in our facility - they are definitely critical," she said. "As crucial as they are to is, I am certain they are just as crucial to other units in the medical group. We would have to wait longer to get our equipment fixed which could cause mission stoppage. They are jacks of all trades."
However, Ortega said it's not just blood pressure cuffs and thermometers that his shop repairs on a daily basis. They fix everything from dental chairs to x-ray machines, optical equipment and coffee pots.
"We're not required to use technical orders like the maintainers on the flightline," he said. "We're not working on just one kind of equipment, everything we fix has several different variations, so what works for one won't work for the other. We have to rely heavily on our training and general understanding of electronic principles for our job."
In addition to technical training, medical maintainers rely greatly on teamwork to get their mission accomplished.
"We work closely with a lot of other organizations in the hospital," Ortega said. "We have all sorts of test equipment that we use to calibrate everything in the hospital, so we use PMEL to calibrate our calibration equipment. We also work closely with the medical logistics flight on equipment procurement."
However, being a part of the medical maintenance team does come with its fair share of work. Barksdale's BMET Flight is comprised of only two Airmen working to get the job done.
With an average of three to four pieces of equipment a day and more than 30 unscheduled "emergency" fixes per month, the BMET Airmen put in long hours to keep the hospital running like a well-oiled machine.
"As with any other organization on base, it's hard to do more with less, but we usually offset the work load with longer hours," Ortega said. "It's tough, but it's rewarding when you see the direct impact you have on the mission."
He recalls the moment he realized the role BMET plays in the bigger picture.
"We procured and maintain a corneal topographer which is used by the eye clinic to aid in making extended wear contact lenses. This is important for our flyers for obvious reasons and this is a purchase that I helped make. The research that I did is going to help the flying program. That's definitely my favorite part of this job."
Though heavily involved in both the 2nd Medical Group and base mission, to many, the BMET flight is the hospital's best kept secret.
"It's shocking to me that most people don't even know we exist," Ortega said. "That's good because it means we're doing our job. We know we're doing our job when people come into the hospital and aren't worried about the equipment being used or if it's working right or going to malfunction."
In order to provide such a high quality of work, BMET Airmen attend a one-year technical school and constant on-the-job training, as well as continuously attending upgrade training to keep up with technology changes and industry standards.
As hospital staff, BMET Airmen are also medics and therefore required to stay current on their medical training.
"Everyone who works in the hospital is a medic," Ortega said. "We're not surgeons or anything but we're required to have at least a general medical background. I think that's one of the most visible differences between us and maintainers who work on the flightline. In a mass casualty situation, we would be expected to help out. We can't just say 'we're maintenance, that's not our job.'"
Ortega said having a general medical knowledge base also helps the maintenance aspect of their job because sometimes they have to train users on how to use the equipment as well.
While it may seem like a lot to ask of the BMET Airmen, Ortega said having such a diverse knowledge base pays off when they're deployed.
"Deployed hospitals don't have facility managers so when there is a problem or if the air needs to be fixed or anything is broken, the staff is looking to us to try to fix it," he said. "We kind of transition into the hospital's civil engineers in deployed environments and that's kind of cool."
Though their primary mission is to fix medical equipment, the BMET flight prides themselves on being "jacks of all trades," -- a responsibility they don't take lightly.
"The government vehicles on base have a maintenance shop, the B-52s on the flightline have the aircraft maintenance squadron, and the 2 MDG has us," said Ortega.
|
<urn:uuid:958d78cd-db2d-4411-9abd-74514104096d>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://bossierpress.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8632:medical-maintainers-keep-2-mdgrunning-strong&catid=27:military-news&Itemid=166
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.976871
| 1,246
| 1.835938
| 2
|
China Calls for Immediate Cease-Fire in Libya
Beijing (AP) - China called Tuesday for an immediate cease-fire in Libya where the U.S. and European nations have launched punishing airstrikes to enforce a U.N. no-fly zone.
All parties must "immediately cease fire and resolve issues through peaceful means," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regularly scheduled news conference, citing unconfirmed reports that the airstrikes had caused civilian deaths.
China was one of five countries that abstained from last week's vote on the U.N. resolution to allow "all necessary measures" to stop Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's assault on rebel-held towns. It was approved with the backing of the United States, France and Britain.
Beijing has been sharply critical of the airstrikes that hit Libyan air defenses and forces for a third night Monday. The Foreign Ministry registered "serious reservations" about the resolution, and on Monday the country's most important political newspaper compared the Western airstrikes against Libya to the U.S.-led invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In places such as Iraq "the unspeakable suffering of its people are a mirror and a warning," the Communist Party's flagship newspaper, People's Daily, said in a commentary.
China has historically opposed foreign military interventions as part of its long-standing policy of staying out of countries' internal affairs.
Jiang said China, one of five veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, only opted not to oppose the resolution out of consideration for the support shown for the measure among Arab and African nations.
North Korea also Tuesday urged an immediate halt to the airstrikes. An unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman said they were a "wanton violation" of Libya's sovereignty and a "hideous crime against humanity."
The spokesman also accused the United States of wanting regime change in Libya and control of its natural resources. The comments were carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
|
<urn:uuid:96f097c4-04b6-448d-b4e3-d58b81c0fa8b>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/china-calls-immediate-cease-fire-libya
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.968507
| 405
| 1.6875
| 2
|
More people take BART, MUNI to SF State
October 4, 2008 5:54 PM
SF State’s latest transportation study concluded that more people are using public transit to commute here now than a few years ago.
But if the university plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions while still adding 5,000 full-time students, it needs to promote and accommodate public transit and bicycling even more, officials said.
More than 2,500 students and 700 faculty and staff completed an online survey last spring that asked how they commuted to and from SF State on April 30. The survey also asked whether people would buy a university-issued transit pass allowing unlimited access to MUNI and BART for a semester.
Thirty-six percent of those surveyed took MUNI for at least part of their commute to SF State, 34 percent drove alone and 21 percent used BART and the university shuttle from the station in Daly City, according to a report published last summer on the survey results. Seventy-six percent also expressed interest in buying a transit pass from the university.
The latest figures differ significantly from the last survey, taken in fall 2005, which listed driving alone and carpooling as the two most popular modes of transportation. BART and MUNI were third and fourth, respectively.
While public transit has increased ridership since the last survey, part of the discrepancy between the two data sets may come from a change in the surveying method, said Wendy Bloom, campus planner.
SF State collected the 2005 results with an intercept survey, where people stationed at major thoroughfares on campus interviewed people entering or leaving campus.
“With the intercept survey, you’re asking fewer people, you’re asking them fewer questions and you’re grabbing people on the run,” Bloom said.
This year, the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) created an online survey and e-mailed a link to all university e-mail accounts. “This recent survey is more detailed, more comprehensive, and more people took it,” Bloom said. “I think this is a more reliable baseline. It’s more accurate information.”
SF State conducted the survey because it promised the City of San Francisco it would monitor its own growth, said Jason Porth, associate director of community relations.
The university expects to increase its full-time equivalent students from 20,000 to 25,000 by 2020, nearly a five percent increase each year, and the city requires SF State to minimize the added impact to traffic, he said.
The latest results will “essentially set a baseline for us to look at as we continue to grow,” Porth said. “So, in 2011, we can ask ‘Where are we now? Did we grow the way we thought we were going to grow?’”
Changing the climate of discussion
But since President Robert A. Corrigan signed the American University and College Presidents Climate Commitment last year, “we realized we [also] needed this information to assess our greenhouse gas emissions related to commuting,” Bloom said.
The commitment requires SF State to reduce its emissions until they no longer negatively impact the environment. Half of the university’s emissions come from automobile commutes to and from the campus, according to SF State’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory published last summer.
Thus, reducing traffic and reducing emissions “are inextricably tied together,” Bloom said. “The commitment further highlights the need to reduce car trips, and to look at transportation planning in a comprehensive way,” said Bloom, who added that administrators are currently reviewing such a plan with recommendations based on the latest survey.
Though that plan is still pending, several efforts to reduce traffic and emissions have already begun.
One indirect effort is the gradual increase in campus housing. “Clearly [student residents] are not driving to campus—they’re walking,” Porth said. More than 25 percent of freshman surveyed said they walk to school, easily the highest figure among undergraduates and likely because many live on or near campus, according to the report.
MUNI and the University Transit Pass
Another way SF State can reduce traffic congestion is by increasing ridership on public transportation, particularly MUNI, which has several routes that reach the university directly.
“We can work with MUNI to improve service to campus significantly,” said Carlos Davidson, director of environmental studies. “There’s room for cooperation and changes that will benefit commuters to campus and let us take better advantage of the public transportation system in San Francisco,” he said.
Porth said SF State is “committed to doing everything we can to make MUNI viable” for as many people as possible. More people would take it if there were sufficient infrastructure and the price was right, he said. That is why a university-issued transit pass “is something we’re eager to explore.”
More than three-quarters of students, faculty and staff said they would consider buying such a pass, though maybe not for full price, according to the report. “Approximately 50 percent of respondents are only willing to pay $75 or less per semester for one. Given that Muni passes currently cost $45 a month or about $180 a semester, some subsidy from the parking fund or other funding sources may be necessary to garner the support of the student population as a whole to implement a universal transit pass program,” the report stated.
Should such an initiative require funding from student fees, as Davidson said he thought it would, “the students would have to vote on it and approve it. It would require a student movement, student input and education,” Porth said.
Thanks to some potential changes to MUNI routes near SF State, though, a pass might become even more valuable for some.
Recommendations from MUNI’s Transportation Effectiveness Project are “full of many potential improvements for service in this side of town,” including extending the J Church line to SF State and increasing the frequency of the 28 and 28L, Porth said.
Porth said he is glad that the TEP proposals, which could take effect next year, recognize SF State as “one of the biggest users of the M line and 28. There’s lots that can be done to better serve us,” he said.
SF State is also working with BART to potentially combine MUNI’s stop for the 28 line with the university’s shuttle stop across the street. “It makes a lot of sense, from a safety perspective” because commuters will no longer have to pick a line and run across the street if they picked the wrong one, Porth said. “I think that will make a big difference.”
The push to increase bicycle accessibility
“More people would cycle if they felt safe doing so,” said Porth, adding that several people who took the survey expressed concerns about bicycling safety and new routes in their comments. While plans to make bicycling to SF State easier had already begun, “it bolstered our view that this was a very important thing,” he said.
Two hundred new bicycle racks arrived on campus in September and more may be on the way, providing more parking options for what appears to be a growing number of bicyclists.
“I like the work that’s being done on campus with bicycles,” Davidson said. “SF State is rapidly increasing its friendliness to bicycle commuting,” If it continues to improve accessibility, “there’s no reason why [the number of people] bicycling couldn’t double or triple.”
The next project will be to construct a bike path between University Park North and Thornton Hall. The $500,000 project, funded in part by a grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, “could begin this semester and could be completed by spring 2009 or summer,” Porth said.
The path would allow bicyclists an alternative route to campus safer than 19th Avenue and would be a significant piece of an upcoming full route from Holloway Avenue to Buckingham Way, he said.
POST A COMMENT
|BACK TO TOP|| |
Copyright © 2008 [X]press | Journalism Department - San Francisco State University
|
<urn:uuid:acc1b63b-85e9-48bc-8ea8-812dfe5a0a80>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/news/011804.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.967579
| 1,749
| 1.5625
| 2
|
An Electronic Bucket Brigade Could Boost Solar Cell Voltages
Berkeley Lab scientists uncover the secret of remarkable photovoltages in ferroelectrics.
If solar cells could generate higher voltages when sunlight falls on them, they’d produce more electrical power more efficiently. For over half a century scientists have known that ferroelectrics, materials whose atomic structure allows them to have an overall electrical polarization, can develop very high photovoltages under illumination. Until now, no one has figured out exactly how this photovoltaic process occurs.
Now a team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley has resolved the high-voltage mystery for one ferroelectric material and determined that the same principle should be at work in all similar materials. The team’s results are published in Physical Review Letters.
“We worked with very thin films of bismuth ferrite, or BFO, grown in the laboratory of our colleague Ramamoorthy Ramesh,” says Joel Ager of Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division (MSD), who led the research effort. “These thin films have regions – called domains – where the electrical polarization points in different directions. Ramesh’s group is able to make film with exquisite control over this domain structure.”
Because BFO has a range of unusual properties, the group led by Ramesh, who is a member of MSD and a professor of materials sciences, engineering, and physics at UC Berkeley, has long studied its characteristics by building custom devices made from the material.
The BFO films studied by Ager and his colleagues have a unique periodic domain pattern extending over distances of hundreds of micrometers (millionths of a meter). The domains form in stripes, each measuring 50 to 300 nanometers (billionths of a meter) across, separated by domain walls a mere two nanometers thick. In each of these stripes the electrical polarization is opposite from that of its neighbors.
Because of the wide extent and highly periodic domain structure of the BFO thin films, the research team avoided the problems faced by groups who had tried to understand photovoltaic effects in other ferroelectrics, whose differences in polarity were thought to surround impurity atoms or to occur in different grains of a polycrystalline material.
By contrast, says Ager, “We knew very precisely the location and the magnitude of the built-in electric fields in BFO.” Thus Ager and Jan Seidel of MSD were able to gain “full microscopic understanding” of what went on within each separate domain, and across many domains.
High voltages from an electronic bucket brigade
“When we illuminated the BFO thin films, we got very large voltages, many times the band gap voltage of the material itself,” says Ager. “The incoming photons free electrons and create corresponding holes, and a current begins to flow perpendicular to the domain walls – even though there’s no junction, as there would be in a solar cell with negatively and positively doped semiconductors.”
In an open circuit the current flows at right angles to the domain walls, and to measure it the researchers attached platinum electrical contacts to the BFO film. Says Ager, “The farther apart the contacts, the more domain walls the current had to cross, and the higher the voltage.”
It was clear that the domain walls between the regions of opposite electrical polarization were playing a key role in the increasing voltage. These experimental observations turned out to be the clue to constructing a detailed charge-transport model of BFO, a job undertaken by Junqiao Wu of MSD and UC Berkeley, and UCB graduate student Deyi Fu.
The model presented a surprising, and surprisingly simple, picture of how each of the oppositely oriented domains creates excess charge and then passes it along to its neighbor. The opposite charges on each side of the domain wall create an electric field that drives the charge carriers apart. On one side of the wall, electrons accumulate and holes are repelled. On the other side of the wall, holes accumulate and electrons are repelled.
While a solar cell loses efficiency if electrons and holes immediately recombine, that can’t happen here because of the strong fields at the domain walls created by the oppositely polarized charges of the domains.
“Still, electrons and holes need each other,” says Ager, “so they go in search of one another.” Holes and electrons move away from the domain walls in opposite directions, toward the center of the domain where the field is weaker. Because there’s an excess of electrons over holes, the extra electrons are pumped from one domain to the next – all in the same direction, as determined by the overall current.
“It’s like a bucket brigade, with each bucket of electrons passed from domain to domain,” Ager says, who describes the stepwise voltage increases as “a sawtooth potential. As the charge contributions from each domain add up, the voltage increases dramatically.”
BFO itself is not a good candidate for a solar cell material – for one thing, it responds only to blue and near ultraviolet light, which eliminates most of the solar spectrum. “So we need something that absorbs more light,” says Ager.
The efficiency of BFO’s response to light – the ratio of charge carriers per incoming photons – is best near the domain walls. While very high voltages can be produced, the other necessary element of a powerful solar cell, high current, is lacking.
Nevertheless, says Ager, “We are sure that this effect will occur in any system with a sawtooth potential, and perhaps in other geometries as well. We are already beginning to investigate new candidates.”
Marrying the “bucket brigade” photovoltaic effect in ferroelectrics to the high currents and high efficiencies typical of today’s best solar cells could lead to extraordinarily powerful solar cell arrays in the future.
“Efficient photovoltaic current generation at ferroelectric domain walls,” by Jan Seidel, Deyi Fu, Seung-Yeul Yang, Esther Alarcón-Lladó, Junqiao Wu, Ramamoorthy Ramesh, and Joel W. Ager III, appears in Physical Review Letters and is available online at http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v107/i12/e126805. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science through the Helios Solar Energy Research Center, and by Berkeley Lab’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.
The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://science.energy.gov.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world’s most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab’s scientific expertise has been recognized with 12 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more, visit www.lbl.gov.
|
<urn:uuid:dccd769e-e403-4465-922f-709d77521fe6>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.worldofphotovoltaics.com/cpv_technology_innovation/an_electronic_bucket_brigade_could_boost_solar_cell_voltages.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.922116
| 1,572
| 3.375
| 3
|
5 tips to reinvent your retirement plan
Most people think planning for retirement is a chore, like taxes. But how much better would it be if you treated it like planning for a vacation, or something fun?
DJ Wika Szmyt (left) speaks with her friend Krystyna as she plays music at a club in Warsaw January 4, 2012. Szmyt, 73, spends her retirement days behind a DJ console watching people dance to her rhythms. (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel)
"Fewer than 10 percent of Americans can answer five basic questions about retirement," said retirement expert Julia Valentine, author of "Joy Compass: How to Make Your Retirement the Treasure of Your Life." "Many people over 50 feel that there should be a system in place that looks out for them—but we have to embrace that we are truly on our own."
"Twenty-seven states have mandatory sex education classes and only three states have mandatory financial education in the schools, so it's no wonder we are behind," Valentine said. "People want miracles, or they don't want to know anything about our financial crisis."
Here are Valentine's five retirement reinvention tips:
Get a visual.
"People are emotional when it comes to money—they aren't calculators," she said. "Looking at a number isn't going to sink in for a lot of people. But if you get a vision in your mind of what retirement will look like, maybe a place you can go or something you can enjoy, it will help you save.
"When people visit a retirement community (and) realize they could live overseas for so much less, it gives them a vision for their future they can truly get excited about. It's not about focusing on what you don't have saved, it's about what you can have when you start the process of keeping track of your money that will help you get there."
Alleviate angst with automation.
"We cannot be stuck worrying about whether we keep track of every Starbucks coffee," Valentine said. "There are lots of banks that offer an automatic savings accounts and employers offer automated 401(k)s. The more routine our behavior becomes, the more naturally it is to do. If you get an automatic email showing your balance, that can be helpful to some people."
Fuel your own fire.
"Think back to high school—you are exhausted, can't do your homework, and then all of the sudden a boy calls, and you're ready in six minutes," she said. "We find the burst of energy for the things that motivate us. Do you want to take your grandchildren to Disney? Do you like seeing them open your Christmas presents? I work people through the process so they have an emotional connection to the enjoyment they feel by being able to spend on those things they love."
Design your destination.
"When we put our conscious attention on whatever is going on, it produces better results," Valentine said. "And we can't wait for opportunities to find us, we have to create them ourselves. … We all have expertise, and leveraging that is hugely important. I knew a musician that made a small salary as a violinist, so he started a business as a violin dealer — and he was able to leverage his expertise to bring in income."
Knowledge is power.
"If you really want to make these changes, you will have to learn some new skills by the time you are 60," Valentine said. "My parents didn't want to Skype and now my mother is addicted to it. They'd rather have the banker hold their hand than automate their banking, but when they see the money they can earn, it becomes more appealing.
"For the new year, make it your resolution to really master financial communication and change your skill sets. We have enough research to show us exactly how to create well-being in every aspect of life — we're just not applying it. In 2012 we need to start applying it as much as possible."
|
<urn:uuid:d48a5b9b-2169-49b3-affa-c8a7f55d34fe>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.redeyechicago.com/news/local/andersonville/ct-tribu-weigel-retirement-reinvention-20120105,0,7876756.column
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.975695
| 821
| 1.65625
| 2
|
NEW BEDFORD — A growing green revolution is quietly taking root on the South Coast, slowly being spread by a coalition of farmers, environmentalists, social service representatives, health care agencies, and academics.
The local sustainable agricultural movement leaders are organizing to promote community gardens in urban settings, and supporting local farmers through community-supported agriculture co-ops and farmer's markets— the first steps in a kind of back-to-the-earth focus aimed at teaching people how to grow their own healthy food.
More than two dozen interested parties turned out for an Oct. 8 regional "visioning session" held by the Community Garden Coalition, each searching for a way their organizations and support groups could help encouraging the "grow your own movement" typified by a South End neighborhood group's plan to launch a community garden project this spring.
Potential obstacles to promoting local agricultural efforts in both the cities and the suburbs were up for discussion, with stiff competition for dwindling local, state and federal grant money being one major concern. In the New Bedford project, the city is donating the empty lot, and the Department of Community Development and Housing is assisting residents with the project.
Similar community garden projects are in the works in Westport, Fall River, and Fairhaven, with some gardens to be tilled and planted next season as either co-op food production ventures or for charitable efforts, workshop attendees reported.
Brix Bounty Farm owners Derek and Katie Christianson are spearheading the Community Garden Coalition's educational component, hosting free lectures and discussion groups on agricultural topics at their North Dartmouth farm (brixbounty.blogspot.com). They are planning the second in a series of monthly soil, nutrition and vegetable farming workshops later this month.
The group has also prepared a PowerPoint demonstration on community gardening opportunities which can be viewed by interested organizations.
"Community gardens and backyard gardens are going to be a big part of sustainability in the near future," Mr. Christianson suggested at the end of the workshop session at UMass Dartmouth's downtown campus on Purchase Street.
The grow-your-own movement is spreading throughout the country, and more and more young farmers are trying to make a living growing food they try to sell in local stores and farmer's markets, he indicated. Tough economic times make the prospect of inexpensive healthy food from backyard gardens and orchards even more attractive, Christianson noted.
Educational support for sustainability efforts are also being ramped up at both UMass Dartmouth and Bristol Community College, representatives indicated. BCC professor Nancy Lee Wood said the college hopes to have a new 29-credit organic farming technician program up and running by 2010, helping to fill the need for trained professionals to support local agricultural operations.
Non-credit courses are already being set up in horticultural areas, and the college will be establishing a community garden project on campus next summer, she reported.
Susan Jennings of the UMass Dartmouth Office of Sustainability said the university is also planning to expand their curriculum in this area, and related environmental topics in coming years to meet growing demand in the education marketplace.
Other members noted that County Extension Service representatives and publications are also available to support educational efforts, and the media should be employed to help publicize agricultural success stories.
Dartmouth orchard owner Karl Glosl and Rochester farmer Susan Peterson, chair of the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District Committee, offered some practical tips on consideration of planning for water and power sources, garden site soil testing and pre-season soil conditioning, and the need for some guidance from experienced growers.
Richard Crouse of Big Brother/Big Sister, said the opportunity to grow things might provide career paths for at-risk youngsters and improve social interaction in any neighborhood. In an optimistic moment, he suggested that the coalition should set a general goal of helping launch "100 community gardens in the next 10 years— or is that number too low? Should we aim even higher?"
Topics for future discussions among coalition members include apprentice agricultural opportunities with local farmers; ways to encourage youth stewardship of community garden projects; and developing strong liasons with the health and social services agencies promoting the increased growing of healthy fresh food for the entire community.
For more information on the local effort to promote sustainable agriculture, or to access the Community Garden presentation, contact Kathleen Christianson of the UMD Office of Campus and Community Sustainability at firstname.lastname@example.org.
|
<urn:uuid:7a5d69e5-2864-4bc3-b74d-67f7c9450de5>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008810150415
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.945954
| 900
| 2.3125
| 2
|
In my last post, I described the discovery of a Ross's Goose on 24 March 2011, a first record for Dearborn. The goose was banded, and we have just received the details from the Bird Banding Lab.
This was a nestling male banded on 7 August 2006 in Nunavut. This much I knew from reporting the goose on the Bird Banding Lab's web site. The location, it turns out, is McTavish Point. The geocoordinates are 67.75, -101.08333, which places it north of the Arctic Circle in the Queen Maud gulf region, where over 90% of the world's Ross's Geese nest.
This map (click to enlarge) shows the banding location with a red marker: this is 1900 miles in a straight line from Dearborn. I've also indicated the location of Akimiski Island in James Bay, Nunavut. Although we do not see many Canada Geese with orange neck collars around here any longer, this is where nearly all of them were banded (more on the Dearborn-Akimiski connection here).
Ross's Geese have undergone a substantial population increase in the last few decades, and while once exceedingly rare in the Midwest and eastern U.S. during migration and winter, they have been showing up in these regions with increasing frequency. The increase in Arctic-breeding geese (especially Snow Geese) has profound impacts on sensitive habitats. "Our" Ross's Goose was banded by Ray Alisauskas, a scientist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, one of the key researchers working on the status of Ross's Goose and Snow Goose and their impacts on Arctic ecosystems. (Thus answering the obvious question of who would be in such a remote place banding geese!)
Most of the specific information on the winter or migratory distribution of Ross's Geese based on band recoveries is from hunters. Presumably, a report like ours, from a live bird, is quite rare.
While not the flashiest bird, this Ross's Goose surely had one of the most interesting stories of any bird we have encountered!
|
<urn:uuid:0b646528-108e-425d-a086-ebc77fa5a019>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://net-results.blogspot.com/2011/04/update-on-rosss-goose.html?showComment=1302218153142
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.96285
| 441
| 3.09375
| 3
|
By Dr. Mercola
A study on belly fat presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress1, 2 confirms that visceral fat – the type that gathers around your internal organs – is far more dangerous to your health than you might think.
The traditional index of obesity, BMI (body mass index), has been proven to be terribly flawed as having a normal overall BMI and high abdominal obesity was found to be more dangerous than having a total BMI in the obese range.
For example, cardiovascular deaths in the study were 2.75 times higher for those of normal weight who had big bellies compared to those with both a normal BMI and a normal waist-to-hip ratio. It also implies that monitoring one's belly fat is more important than watching BMI.
According to Medical News Today:3
"Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, M.D., senior author and a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochestor, explained: 'We knew from previous research that central obesity is bad, but what is new in this research is that the distribution of the fat is very important even in people with a normal weight.
This group has the highest death rate, even higher than those who are considered obese based on body mass index. From a public health perspective, this is a significant finding.'
...Dr. Lopez-Jimenez wants readers to understand that even though their body mass index might be normal, it doesn't mean they have a low risk of heart disease. People can determine their risks by getting a waist-to-hip measurement, because where fat is distributed on the body can tell a lot, even if people have normal body weights."
Your Ideal "Weight" is Not Necessarily Based on Pounds...
There are a number of methods for calculating your ideal body size. The study above used waist-to-hip measurement. This is done by measuring the circumference of your hips at the widest part, across your buttocks. Then measure your waist at the smallest circumference of your natural waist, just above your belly button. Divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement to get the ratio.
The University of Maryland offers a handy online waist-to-hip ratio calculator you can use, which also tells you whether or not you might be at an increased risk for heart disease. The featured study used the following waist-to-hip ratio designations:
- Normal = 0.85 or below in women, and 0.90 or below in men
- High = 0.85 or greater in women, and 0.90 or greater in men
Another even simpler method to figure out if you have a weight problem is to measure only your waist circumference (the distance around the smallest area below the rib cage and above your belly button). Waist circumference is the easiest anthropometric measure of total body fat.
Either of these methods are far better than BMI for judging disease risk, as BMI fails to factor in how muscular you are. BMI also cannot give you an indication of your intra-abdominal fat mass.
Waist size, on the other hand, gives a good indication of the amount of fat you're carrying, particularly around the stomach area. Abdominal fat is considered an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease and stroke. Your waist size is also a powerful indicator of insulin sensitivity, as studies clearly show that measuring your waist size is one of the most powerful ways to predict your risk for diabetes. If you're not sure if you have a healthy waist circumference, a general guide is:
- For men, between 37 and 40 inches is overweight and more than 40 inches is obese
- For women, between 31.5 and 34.6 inches is overweight, and more than 34.6 inches is obese
Body Fat Percentage – Another Way to Gauge Ideal Body Size
Yet another tool, which many experts are now leaning toward as the most accurate measure of obesity, is body fat percentage. As it sounds, this is simply the percentage of fat your body contains, and it can be a powerful indicator of your health.
- Too much body fat is linked to chronic health problems like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
- Too little body fat is also problematic and can cause your body to enter a catabolic state, where muscle protein is used as fuel.
A general guideline from the American Council on Exercise is as follows:
||Women (percent fat)
||Men (percent fat)
||32 percent and higher
||25 percent and higher
Body fat calipers are one of the most trusted and most accurate ways to measure body fat. A body fat or skinfold caliper is a lightweight, hand-held device that quickly and easily measures the thickness of a fold of your skin with its underlying layer of fat. Taken at three very specific locations on your body, these readings can help you estimate the total percent of body fat within your entire body.
You can also use a digital scale that determines body fat, which is what I use personally. I use an Eat Smart Precision GetFit Body Fat Scale that I picked up from Amazon for around $50. Although many body fat measurements can be inaccurate, they are nearly all more accurate than BMI, and are particularly useful to determine whether you are gaining or losing fat. Although the absolute value may be off, the direction you are going (whether your body fat is going up or down) will be very accurate, and this is an incredibly useful measure of whether you're nearing your health goals or not.
Remember that it is FAR better to monitor your body fat percentage than it is your total weight, as the body fat percentage is what dictates metabolic health or dysfunction – not your total weight.
Does Reducing Fructose Intake Matter If You Want to Lose Weight?
A recent study published in the Nutrition Journal4 has brought questions about the health impact of high fructose corn syrup versus sugar back to the fore. The authors claim their findings indicate there's no difference between regular sugar and high fructose corn syrup on weight loss. Dr. Richard Johnson, author of The Sugar Fix, and The Fat Switch (which I'll discuss in a moment), sent me the following rebuttal to share with you.
A recent study from James Rippe's group reported in the Nutrition Journal that low calorie diets caused equivalent weight loss regardless of the content of sugar or high fructose corn syrup. The study involved randomizing 267 overweight adults to receive low calorie diets containing either:
- 10 percent of the calories as sugar (sucrose)
- 20 percent as sugar (sucrose)
- 10 percent as high fructose corn syrup, or
- 20 percent high fructose corn syrup
Each group was given a diet calculated to reduce total calorie intake by 500 calories, and all groups were enrolled in an exercise program. At the end of 12 weeks all low-calorie groups showed similar decreases in weight. The authors concluded that the key aspect for weight loss is caloric restriction and not the content of fructose in the food. They also said that diets containing sucrose and high fructose corn syrup acted no differently from each other.
Why the Fructose Content of Food Counts
Let us address two issues that this study raises. The first question is whether it matters to reduce the intake of added sugars when you go on a diet. The second question is whether there is any real difference between table sugar (sucrose) and high fructose corn syrup.
- Does reducing sugar content matter? It is true that weight is largely governed by the law of thermodynamics, and that to lose weight the most effective way is to reduce food intake. This is why any diet that reduces calories will be effective at weight loss. However, reducing intake of added sugars, such as from table sugar (sucrose) or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), does matter. These sugars contain fructose, and fructose has been shown to encourage weight gain because fructose can induce resistance to leptin, a hormone that controls appetite.
When fructose is fed to animals, they lose their ability to control their appetite. Restricting fructose intake can lead to a recovery of leptin sensitivity. This may be one reason low carb diets encourage weight loss, as they are essentially low fructose diets.
However, the problem with the study by Rippe is that all four diets consisted of an equivalent reduction in calories – so the benefit of reducing fructose on weight would have been largely obscured. However, we can see trends of a benefit – in that the two diets that contained 10 percent sucrose or HFCS showed a 3.3 and 4.15 kg weight loss, whereas the two diets that contained 20 percent HFCS or sucrose only had a 2.4 and 1.9 kg weight loss. This is likely because the diets lower in fructose were able to satisfy the appetite more effectively and likely did lead to some differences in energy intake.
Of greater concern is not weight, but the effects of fructose on body composition, fatty liver and insulin resistance. Fructose can rapidly induce metabolic syndrome and fatty liver that is not observed in animals fed the same number of calories as glucose or starch.
Weight gain is driven more by calories, but fatty liver and insulin resistance are driven more by fructose. In this study, the authors did not look at fatty liver or insulin resistance as outcomes. However, they did measure changes in fat percentage – again we see similar trends, with a reduction of 1.5 to 2.4 percent of fat in the 10 percent sucrose and HFCS groups, and a reduction of 1.1 to 1.3 percent of fat in the 20 percent sucrose and HFCS groups.
Thus, these studies suggest that reducing calories may reduce weight, but the content of fructose does matter.
Indeed, it is a shame that the authors did not include a hypocaloric diet with high sugar content. For example, some adolescents are ingesting 30 percent of their diet as added sugars. We found that laboratory rats given a diet of 40 percent sugar developed frank diabetes and fatty liver even when they were calorically restricted. We therefore need to rethink about the question of whether calories are just calories. Calories are important when it comes to weight, but the type of calorie can make a big difference on how it affects our risk for fat accumulation and diabetes.
- Are there differences between sugar and HFCS? The study by Rippe's group also implies that HFCS and sugar are relatively equivalent in their effects. For sure, both contain fructose and can induce metabolic syndrome and weight gain in animals. However, there are several differences that suggest that HFCS may be slightly worse.
First, soft drinks containing HFCS do contain more fructose than soft drinks with the equivalent amount of sucrose, in part because of the higher fructose content in HFCS. Our group found that this translates into higher blood fructose levels and higher blood pressure following ingestion. More recently, Michael Goran's group found that the percentage of fructose in HFCS-containing drinks is often higher than labeled, and may contain as much as 65 percent fructose.
Second, there may also be differences in how the fructose is absorbed between the two drinks. Thus, HFCS may result in faster absorption of the fructose since the fructose is not bound, whereas sucrose must first be degraded to glucose and fructose in the gut before it is absorbed. Our group found that mixtures of fructose and glucose led to worse fatty liver in laboratory animals than equivalent amounts of sucrose. Clearly more studies are needed, but the evidence does suggest that there are likely biological differences in these two added sugars.
In summary, we would recommend reducing intake of added sugars, both from sucrose and from HFCS, in any dietary plan. Reducing natural fruit intake is less necessary for while these fruits also contain fructose, they also contain many excellent nutrients that help combat the effects of fructose. More studies are needed to determine if the biological differences between HFCS and sucrose are clinically important.
'Fat Switch' May be Key to Turning Off Obesity
If you have ever struggled losing weight and keeping it off, you already know what a challenge that can be. Dr. Johnson's new book, The Fat Switch, presents a groundbreaking approach to preventing and reversing obesity. Dr. Johnson asked me to publish his book to help spread the word and we hope to do just that. It's the first book we've published that I did not write, because I felt it shared a powerful message on a very important topic that is central to the work we teach on this site.
I firmly believe that understanding how fructose influences your fat metabolism by activating your "fat switch" is key for achieving optimal weight and health. According to Dr. Johnson, based on his decades of research:
"Those of us who are obese eat more because of a faulty 'switch' and exercise less because of a low energy state. If you can learn how to control the specific 'switch' located in the powerhouse of each of your cells – the mitochondria – you hold the key to fighting obesity."
I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book, which has been described as the "Holy Grail" for those struggling with their weight. In it, Dr. Johnson explains the details behind these five basic truths:
- Large portions of food and too little exercise are not solely responsible for why you are gaining weight
- Metabolic Syndrome is a normal condition that animals undergo to store fat
- Uric acid is increased by specific foods and causally contributes to obesity and insulin resistance
- Fructose-containing sugars cause obesity not by calories, but by turning on the fat switch
- Effective treatment of obesity requires turning off your fat switch and improving the function of your cells' mitochondria
How Biological Survival Mechanisms Influence Your Weight
While Dr. Johnson is a kidney expert, his research has led him into areas the typical nephrologist will never delve into. In The Fat Switch, he explains how biological survival mechanisms influence body weight in previously unsuspected ways. In the first official review of the book, published in the University of Colorado Hospital magazine, The Insider, Todd Neff writes:
"Uric acid is best known for causing gout, a type of arthritis caused by buildup of uric acid crystals in joints. But the more Johnson and his team looked at uric acid, the more havoc the acid appeared to wreak. In research pending publication, Miguel Lanaspa and Johnson have fingered uric acid as a culprit in obesity.
Uric acid comes from the breakdown of the cellular fuel ATP (produced by the mitochondria) as well as the breakdown of DNA and RNA, primarily from foods. But this breakdown doesn't have to yield uric acid, Johnson and Lanaspa found. There's a fork in the metabolic road, with only one of the paths leading to uric acid.
It's a rocky path. Uric acid stresses mitochondria, which leads mitochondria to boost fat synthesis while burning less energy, Johnson and colleagues have found. The implication is that the same amount of food builds fat into – and saps energy from – people on the uric acid pathway, Johnson and colleagues found.
'Too much food intake plus too little exercise equals Fat,' Johnson wrote. 'However, our work suggests the interpretation is different. Obesity is not from gluttony and idleness, but rather because we have activated the same program all animals use to increase fat stores.'"
How is this biological "fat-storage program" activated? In short: fructose consumption.
Fructose, regardless of its source (although in the modern diet, the vast majority of it comes from processed foods and beverages), is acted on by the enzyme fructokinase in your cells. This enzyme is needed for your body to extract the energy from the fructose. But before getting to that energy, the fructokinase uses up ATP – the fuel in your cells – which activates the fat-storing uric acid metabolic pathway.
So while diet and exercise are still important factors, consumption of fructose appears to have an overriding impact on whether or not your body will hold on to and keep adding to its fat stores or not – despite your best efforts at eating well and exercising. To learn more, listen to my previous interview with Dr. Johnson, in which we discuss the book and the fat-switch mechanisms at greater depth.
Download Interview Transcript
|
<urn:uuid:29ba0941-dab0-4049-99fd-55109b8f8790>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/10/26/belly-fat-health-dangers.aspx?e_cid=20121026_DNL_art_1
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.950984
| 3,352
| 3.140625
| 3
|
There is a certain beauty in the most terrible things. I came across this photo a while ago, and sent it to a friend, asking if he could guess what it was. Although he is a PhD in Physics and works in a highly technical field, his guesses were all, understandably, around organic objects - viruses, fungi and so on.
In fact, it is a nuclear explosion. During the American nuclear tests of the 1940s, they needed a fast-action camera to capture the explosions and the events of the milliseconds following, as part of the research. Harold Egerton developed the Rapatronic lens, which could capture an exposure of one ten-millionth of a second, and this photo (and the ones below) are the result. The exposure was made less than a millisecond after detonation, when the advancing front of the explosion has not yet reached the ground. The glowing spikes below the ball are an example of the 'rope trick effect', where the ropes holding the tower absorb the intense light of the explosion, heat up and vaporise. The following images show the same scene a couple of milliseconds later.
I find these images both eerily beautiful and terrifying.
Explanations here, here and here.
|
<urn:uuid:cc6a0427-feb7-4972-a5bf-02f5f3a2fe25>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://goingfastgettingnowhere.blogspot.com/2009/07/utterly-amazing.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.950346
| 252
| 2.359375
| 2
|
EMC crashes the server flash party
Lightning strike with thunder to follow
The perfect server flash storm hitting storage arrays has generated EMC's well-signalled Lightning strike; VFCache has arrived, extending FAST technology from the array to the server. Project Thunder is following close behind, promising an EMC server-networked flash array.
This is a major announcement and we are covering it in depth.
FAST (Fully-Automated Storage Tiering] moves data in an EMC array into higher-speed storage tiers when it is being accessed repeatedly and server applications don't want to wait for slow disks to find their data.
EMC boasts that its customers have purchased 1.3EB of fast-enabled since January 2010, and it has shipped more than 24PB of flash drive capacity, more than any other storage vendor. Times have changed and flash in the array is no longer enough.
Fusion-io has attacked the slow I/O problem by building server PCIe bus-connected flash memory cards holding 10TB or more of NAND flash, and giving applications microsecond-class access to random data instead of the milliseconds needed from a networked array. The threat here is that primary data could move from networked arrays into direct-attached server flash storage.
EMC's response is to put hot data from its arrays into a VFCache (Virtual Flash Cache) solid state drive in VMware, Windows or RedHat Linux X86 servers from Cisco, Dell, HP and IBM. This provides random read access performance equivalent to Fusion-io once the cache has warmed up and is loaded with hot data.
VFCache is a 20-300GB PCIe-connected flash memory card, using, as rumoured, a Micron SLC card (P320h we think) or LSI WarpDrive SLC flash, Micron being the primary supplier. (Micron has just tragically lost its CEO, Steve Appleton, in a plane crash after winning what must have been a hotly-desired OEM contract.) The P320h is a fast flash card, doing 750,000 random 4K block read IOPS.
The EMC cache increases 4KB - 64KB block random read I/O speed but not write I/O speed. VFCache will not cache read I/Os larger than 64KB. There is no write caching.
We're told "testing in an Oracle environment showed [an] up to 3X throughput improvement and 50 per cent reduction in latency." EMC asserts that "VFCache is the fastest PCIe server Flash caching solution available today." This does not necessarily mean it is faster than Fusion-io's server solid state storage; that is not a "caching solution" in the way VFCache is.
Storage array and cache interoperability
EMC says VFCache works with EMC VMAX, VMAXe, VNX and VNXe array FAST. Does VFCache only work with EMC VMAX and VNX arrays? No, indeed not; VFCache is storage-agnostic and will work with all 4Gbit/s and 8Gbit/s Fibre Channel-connected block storage. No change is needed in the back-end block arrays.
We're told that, by working in conjunction with EMC FAST on the storage array, VFCache offers coordinated caching between the server and the array. How does this work? EMC says VFCache's caching algorithms promote the most frequently referenced data into the cache. Okay, but this isn't co-ordinated caching between the array and the server. This is VFCache doing its own caching on the server irrespective of whatever caching the array is doing. For example, EMC doesn't say the array will not cache data that VFCache is caching.
LSI WarpDrive SSD
There appears to be no active interaction between VFCache and array FAST at all, EMC saying VFCache is transparent to storage, application, and user.
With writes, the VFCache driver writes data to the array LUN and, when that completes, write data is asynchronously written to the flash cache. It appears the back-end array is not involved in managing VFCache at all; in fact; it doesn't even know VFCache exists.
Next page: Limitations and futures
|
<urn:uuid:b1273c69-b9a3-4f22-ac40-9062b08927f2>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/06/emc_vfcache/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.923794
| 903
| 1.96875
| 2
|
Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies
Africana Studies is the systematic study of the historical, cultural, intellectual and social development of people of African descent, the societies of which they are a part, and their contribution to world civilization. Its principal geographic domains are the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, the African continent, and increasingly western Europe where large communities reside. The field features a diversity of approaches, intellectual and practical interests, and draws upon the humanistic, social and behavioral sciences into its interdisciplinary framework.
Through our department students can obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree with either a Major or a Minor in Africana Studies.
The major in Africana Studies prepares students for a wide range of professional and career opportunities. Majors can continue to graduate (including doctoral level) studies in the humanities, social and behavioral sciences, or pursue professional programs in law, medicine, business, and journalism. Graduates who enter the job market are prepared for careers in human services and public health, education, public relations, community development, urban planning, and more generally for jobs in the public sector, in central cities and urban institutions, or jobs that involve cultural or intergroup relations as well as international affairs. In the context of metropolitan Detroit, Africana Studies graduates will be better prepared to deal with the complexity and diversity of the city's political and demographic realities as they assume important leadership roles.
Admission Requirements: See the general requirements for undergraduate admission in the University Undergraduate Bulletin.
Scholarship for AFS Majors: Majors are eligible for scholarship awards under the Coleman A. Young Scholarship Endowment Fund. To qualify, a student must maintain a minimum honor point average (H.P.A.) of 3.0 in the Department, exhibit qualities of leadership, and/or perform significant service to community development. An award committee selects recipients; the amount depends on the funds available.
Students must complete 120 credits in course work including satisfaction of the University General Education Requirements (see General Education Program) and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Group Requirements (see Group Requirements), as well as the Departmental major requirements cited below. All course work must be completed in accordance with the regulations of the University and the College governing undergraduate scholarship and degrees; see Bachelor's Degree Requirements, Academic Regulations, Academic Regulations: Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Bachelor's Degree Requirements: Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Major Requirements: Majors must complete at least thirty-six credits in a prescribed course of study, including:
1. AFS 3420 (four credits).
2. Completion of study in an approved area of concentration (twenty-four credits).
3. Field Work (AFS 5991) and/or Directed Study (AFS 6990) (three to eight credits).
Areas of Concentration
Cultural Studies and the Arts (twenty-four credits): This concentration is designed for students who are interested in exploring the relations between cultural expression/production and the social experience of Black life.
1. AFS 2010, 3200, 3250.
2. AFS (ENG) 2390, 5110, 5310.
3. Two courses from: AFS 2210, (SOC) 2600, 3160, 3180, 5130, 5320.
4. One cognate from: AFS 5480; A H (AFS) 3750; ANT (AFS) 5260; ENG (AFS) 2390, MUH 3360, 6310; COM (AFS) 5040; COM (AFS) 4240.
Development and Public Policy (twenty-four credits): This concentration emphasizes historical, political and policy dimensions of the economic and social development of Black communities.
1. AFS 3250, 3420.
2. Three courses from: AFS (HIS) 5320, (HIS) 3160, (W S) 5110; HIS (AFS) 3140 or HIS (AFS) 3150; AFS 3160, 3180, 3250, 3360; 3420 (P S 3820); 5480, 6600.
3. Two courses from: AFS 2500, 2600, 3860, (ISP) 5130, (HIS) 5320, (SOC) 5580, (PSY) 5700.
4. One cognate from: ANT 3110, 3520, 6230; GEG 6150, 6350; ISP (AFS) 3610; HIS 3996, 5730; P S (AFS) 5030, (AFS) 5740, 6050 (AFS 6100); SOC (AFS) 5570; S W 6510.
Electives for the major must be chosen from the courses listed or any new courses approved by the Directors of the Program. Click here for a list of all the AFS courses.
Students majoring in other fields can minor in Africana Studies. The minor consists of six courses in this department. These must include AFS 1010 and two of the following: AFS 2010, 2210, 3180, 3200, 3250, 3420. Students wishing to minor in Africana Studies are encouraged to visit the departmental office for information and counseling. A minor may be declared when filing for graduation.
|
<urn:uuid:0430e77e-a4b8-4692-a8d9-cbc1223ae6d1>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://clasweb.clas.wayne.edu/africanastudies/UndergraduateDegree
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.905954
| 1,102
| 1.8125
| 2
|
Almost half of the Medicare patients in the study had had a colonoscopy less than seven years after getting normal results from an earlier test. The test is recommended just every 10 years, starting at age 50, for people at average risk whose initial test is normal.
The study showed that among those 80 and older, one-third had a repeat exam within seven years of the previous colonoscopy. That’s an age group that can skip the test altogether if no problems have been spotted before.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends against routine colon cancer screening for most people 76 to 85 — and says for those older than 85, screening risks outweigh the benefits.
The older you are, the more likely you are to die from other causes before cancer becomes deadly, which means the screening procedure’s risks may outweigh its benefits in many aged patients, the study authors said.
“I was surprised by the magnitude of the issue,” said lead author Dr. James Goodwin, a geriatrician and researcher at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
In the study, researchers chose a random national sample of Medicare claims and enrollment data from more than 200,000 patients over 65 who received colonoscopies between 2001 and 2008. The number of patients in the sample totaled 24,071 — all people considered at normal risk for colon cancer.
The results suggest most of the repeat exams were unnecessary; only 27 percent of all study patients with frequent exams had symptoms that might have raised suspicion of cancer, including abdominal pain, change in bowel habits, and weight loss. The study appears in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine.
The colonoscopy is considered one of the most effective screening tests available, and it’s credited with saving thousands of lives by catching cancer early. The doctor uses a thin flexible tube to examine the intestines. It can snip off suspicious-looking growths.
The exam is generally pretty safe, but does have risks that occur more often with older patients, including complications from sedation, accidental perforation of the colon and bleeding.
Medicare covers colonoscopies every 10 years — more frequently for high-risk patients, including those with a family history of colon cancer. But in this study, the authors excluded high-risk patients.
Colonoscopy costs vary widely but typically exceed $1,000. While Medicare rules say the government won’t pay for too-frequent colonoscopies, only 2 percent of the study claims were denied for repeat exams in people without symptoms.
The results suggest the Medicare regulation “is not working,” Goodwin said.
Excessive colonoscopies are not just economically costly, he said, noting they can pose a real harm to patients, especially older ones.
Robert Smith, director of cancer screening at the American Cancer Society, said some doctors may recommend more frequent colonoscopies because they think 10-year intervals are too risky. Some may think, incorrectly, that finding any growths, even non-suspicious polyps, means a repeat exam should be done within less than 10 years, Smith said.
Some doctors also order repeat tests “because they want to bring in income,” he said.
Besides being risky and costly, too-frequent screenings make colonoscopy resources less available for people who really need them, Smith said.
But, he pointed out, while colonoscopies may be overused in the elderly, the exams and other colon cancer screening methods are underused among some groups, including the uninsured, blacks and Hispanics.
The government’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a statement in response to the study, saying the agency recognizes the importance of effective screening as well as “the importance of ensuring Medicare beneficiaries only get screened at appropriate intervals.”
Medicare covers the exams every two years for high-risk patients, but if the study results are true, “then we need to further validate the accuracy of our payments,” said agency spokeswoman Ellen Griffith.
|
<urn:uuid:3b62837a-cae8-4822-b63f-9b7d74051c4a>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.paducahsun.com/view/full_story_housecall/13204998/article-Many-get-colon-screening-too-often?instance=house-call
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.959517
| 840
| 2.4375
| 2
|
Everybody complains that people shouldn't talk on cellphones while driving. And yet it seems pretty much everybody does it.
That may be because so many of us think we're multitasking ninjas, while the rest of the people nattering away while driving are idiots.
But scientists say that the better people think they are at multitasking, the worse they really are at juggling.
Researchers at the University of Utah wanted to find out which personalities were more likely to try to do two tasks at once. They're keenly interested in people who talk on the phone or text while driving, since there's plenty of data that even using a hands-free phone boosts the risks of accidents.
That bit isn't exactly breaking news.
For quite a few years, researchers have been making the case that people who drive while using phones drive as badly as people who are legally drunk. But we persist in thinking we can handle it.
How come? The Utah folks speculated that multitaskers would be more apt to test high for traits like risk-taking, sensation-seeking and impulsivity. Turns out the researchers were right.
They asked student volunteers whether they used cellphones while driving, and whether they were good at multitasking. Then they tested the students' multitasking ability by asking them to solve math problems while remembering random strings of letters.
They found that the people who multitasked the most in real life the impulsive risk-takers were actually much worse at juggling tasks than people who rarely drove while phoning.
Even worse, these demon multitaskers thought they were terrific at it, though the cold, hard data proved they weren't.
"People don't multitask because they're good at it," says David Sanbonmatsu, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah and lead author of the study, which was published online in the journal PLOS One. "They do it because they are more distracted. They have trouble inhibiting the impulse to do another activity."
Seventy percent of the study participants, all college undergraduates, said they thought they were better than average at multitasking. Of course, that's statistically impossible a drivers' ed version of Lake Wobegon, with all multitasking drivers above average.
Texting drivers aren't the only ones who think they're aces at jobs they're actually flubbing. There's plenty of other research showing that people tend to overestimate personal attributes like attractiveness and talent. That proved true in this study, too. It was the non-risk-taking non-texters who actually turned out to be better at multitasking. They could maintain focus and get the job done.
"People sometimes think multitasking means greater productivity," Sanbonmatsu told Shots. "That's not what the findings in the literature say at all. A lot of times people multitask because they can't focus on the task that's most important to them."
Sanbonmatsu and his colleagues are now going to look into why we keep driving while texting, even though we know it's dangerous. Maybe it's because we think that, unlike the other mopes on the highway, we're just darned good at it.
Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
|
<urn:uuid:387446d7-8121-4b2d-b768-e6cf16613cdf>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.gpb.org/news/2013/01/24/if-you-think-youre-good-at-multitasking-you-probably-arent
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.979455
| 676
| 2.4375
| 2
|
See How Patagonia Spent $3.8 Million This Year
Photo: Via Patagonia - Photographer Tim Davis
Patagucci is the mocking term sometimes used to label the outdoor clothing company, Patagonia, in reference to what some people view as high priced goods. We don't know what Gucci do with their money, but Patagonia's customers are transparently informed where a sizeable chunk of their spend is headed. To initiatives that help make the world a saner place.
In the past fiscal year Patagonia gave away $3,816,750 in grants and in-kind donations. That makes $34 million USD they've put back into the environmentally and socially responsible community since 1985. To give that figure some context, its worth remembering that Patagonia is still a privately held company, whose owners aren't pocketing those millions. Instead, this past year almost 400 environmental groups were beneficiaries of this generous largess. But grantees aren't the only ones to reap the rewards of Patagonia's benevolence.
What about the worms and gardens that reveled in two tons of compost from the company's own cafeteria?
Or the cardboard recyclers who scored 206,800 kg (456,000 lbs) of cardboard?
Or the charities who shared in the $200,000 USD that Patagonia paid out as part of their Employee Charity Match, whereby the company equals charity contributions made by employees.
Consider the cleaner air and smaller carbon footprint that resulted from the 14,280 miles which Patagonia employees rode to work in Bike to Work Week alone.
Read the downloadable PDF document "Patagonia Environmental Initiatives 2009" and you gain an insight into this company's many other green endeavours. Like how the 80% of their Fall 2009 clothing line can now be recycled through their Common Threads program. How they've trained 953 activists, at their Tools for Grassroots Activists Conferences. (These are not casual affairs -- the 2008 conference cost Patagonia almost $100,000 to run.) And how 750 employees have been paid, since 1992, to donate their energy, skills and enthusiasm as part of Patagonia's environmental internship program.
In the document Catherine Barnes described how as a retail inventory manager,she helps generate sales that fund Patagonia's environmental programs. Then, "as a member of the grants council, I help to distribute some of that money. The synergy makes my daily work more meaningful, giving me a greater sense of pur-
pose as I help Patagonia fulfill its mission to "use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis."
So next time you are griping about the ticket price of a Patagonia product consider the broader positive result your purchase will have. As the company themselves see it; "Patagonia is a small, but relatively influential company. We know that if we don't reach beyond our own walls to implement our environmental work, the impact won't be felt."
More Patagonia Eco Initiatives
• Patagonia Say Resole Worn Shoes, Before Buying New
• Patagonia Expand Common Threads Recycling Program
• Patagonia Adds Five Products to Footprint Chronicles
• Patagonia Continue to Walk Their Eco Talk
• Yvon Chouinard Wins Environmental Good Guy Award
|
<urn:uuid:fb46b1f4-179c-4465-b7e7-b4949ba9043a>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-fashion/see-how-patagonia-spent-38-million-this-year.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.941252
| 686
| 1.789063
| 2
|
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- May 2011
- February 2011
- November 2010
- February 2010
- November 2009
- August 2009
What About Prevention?
Intervention or Prevention—it’s complicated.
Hang around a prevention specialist long enough and you’ll hear a story. There’s one about the frustration of repeatedly rescuing drowning people who keep floating down the river from upstream. Or maybe they’ll tell you the one about extracting the injured people from the wrecked cars at the bottom of the steep embankment below a curving road. “Sooner or later,” your prevention specialist friend will tell you, “folks realize that it makes more sense to find and fix the broken bridge up the river or to install a guardrail on the winding road than to just keep saving and healing the victims.”
Identify risk. Create awareness. Implement protective strategies (like new bridges or guardrails.) That’s prevention in a nutshell. It’s hard to argue with the wisdom of prevention.
Over the last six years, 1in6 has become a respected leader in the effort to support men who had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood to live healthier, happier lives. That’s our mission. It doesn’t really sound like prevention. Are we missing the boat?
1in6 doesn’t present ourselves as a “prevention” organization. But there’s actually more going on than initially meets the eye.
Though our focus is unambiguously on helping men (and those who care about them) understand and heal from past troubling sexual experiences, we’re acutely aware of the potential benefit of our work to preventing future harm as well.
Since most of us are raised in cultures where males are often shamed or ridiculed for revealing vulnerability or for expressing feelings of sadness or fear or hurt, it can require great courage for a boy or man to acknowledge having been abused sexually. Most don’t. And as a result, many people are simply unaware, or possibly even defended against believing how widespread sexual abuse of boys actually is. So, spreading awareness that one of every six adult men in the U.S. (19 million men) has experienced sexual abuse in childhood can play a critical role in highlighting risk and encouraging preventive actions before a child is harmed.
Simply stated, you’re not likely to recognize risks or to take steps to prevent harmful behavior if you don’t know or don’t believe there’s a real risk that those behaviors will occur.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (there’s that word again) (CDC) and others have defined three kinds of preventive actions, which they often refer to as primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. They all depend on raising awareness about specific risks and addressing those risks.
Childhood vaccinations are an example of Primary Prevention. Ideally, everyone gets them—not just kids who are immune-deficient or who come from families where there’s been chicken pox or measles before. All kids are vaccinated regardless of risk. Everyone’s protected.
The same is true with primary prevention of sexual abuse. Ideally everyone is given the same knowledge about the prevalence of abuse, about good interpersonal boundaries and healthy sexuality, about recognizing sexualized behaviors that could harm any child. When adults and children are vaccinated with that knowledge, all children are better protected. And when those risky behaviors appear, everyone has access to information about how to get outside help before a child is harmed.
This is where 1in6’s role gets confusing.
Because even though our stated mission is about “intervention,” after the fact—we address all those “primary prevention” issues in depth as we guide people who’ve experienced abuse toward healing and recovery, and as we work to make everyone more aware of the prevalence and impact of abuse.
The same holds true for secondary and tertiary prevention—efforts directed at people who are at higher risk than others, those with particular characteristics or experiences, different from the norm, which make them more vulnerable. Not surprisingly, research shows us that both boys and men who have once experienced sexual, physical or emotional abuse are at a higher risk for subsequent victimization, especially if they haven’t received help to cope effectively with the resulting feelings. (The same is true for women and girls).
Men are particularly vulnerable here because of the social prohibitions against describing their emotional distress, expressing feelings other than anger, or asking for help. So men’s substitute, coping strategies can often lead to emotionally numbing compulsive behaviors, or addictions to things like drugs, alcohol, work, food, sex, dangerous activities, and exercise; or to other more extreme negative behaviors, like physical, emotional or sexual violence against themselves or others.
Once again, a huge part of 1in6’s approach to healing involves encouraging men to explore those prohibited feelings, to understand and to begin to develop, different, safer, healthier means of coping with them. This sort of intervention can have a crucial impact on a man’s ability to avoid his own re-victimization as well as changing his behaviors that are harmful to others. And our focus in our professional trainings on a trauma-informed understanding of men’s ineffective coping strategies highlights the clear role service providers can have by recognizing the links between addressing men’s past traumatic experiences and diminishing the risk for future harmful actions.
1in6’s mission is still about healing and recovery. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever bill ourselves primarily as a “prevention” organization. But everything we do is geared toward supporting men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood to become healthier, happier, more respectful and productive members of our families and communities. A crucial piece of that effort is educating the world about the prevalence of abuse of boys, its impact and how to help. And when all is said and done, it’s hard to imagine a better prescription than that for prevention.
By Peter Pollard
Peter Pollard is the Training and Outreach Director for 1in6, Inc. Peter previously worked for 15 years as a state, child-protection social worker and was the Public Education director at Stop It Now! Since 2003, he has served as the Western Massachusetts coordinator for SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) and also does work for a Certified Batterers Intervention Program.
|
<urn:uuid:4322f848-05b2-4bdd-b91d-d78a1e24abd7>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://1in6.org/2013/02/what-about-prevention/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.956041
| 1,437
| 1.734375
| 2
|
Waiting for Siri: Why Apple's Personal Assistant Isn't on the iPad (Yet)
- Mar 19, 2012
If you've been waiting for Siri on iPad, I've got bad news for you. It's going to take a bit more time for Siri to fully debut — if at all. In fact, Siri isn't about to launch on the newest iPad at all during its third generation debut.
Yes, you'll see dictation on the new iPad. All the dictation how-to covered in our Talking to Siri book will apply. But you won't be able to tell Siri to wake you up in the morning or ask her if you should take an umbrella to work. That's because Siri isn't just about speech-to-text; Siri's actually about providing an integrated assistant that translates speech commands to operating system (OS) services.
How Siri Works on Your iPhone
Siri on the iPhone offers features that connect to your address book, to your music player, to your alarm clock, and so forth. Each of these is implemented through an expansion of the iOS core services. Core services refer to the fundamental OS user interface on Apple devices. This includes the Finder app on OS X and what's internally called "Springboard" on iOS.
Springboard refers to the icon-launching screen and the recent applications tray that appears when you double-click the Home button. Springboard both lets you launch applications and provides a framework for applications to talk to each other, and it provides the key technology that powers Siri.
When you speak to Siri, the iPhone translates your speech into phonemes. Phonemes are the perceptually distinct units that make up the sound you utter. The Siri system sends these phonemes off to be processed remotely as "Server Bound" requests. After processing at Apple's data center, they return to your iPhone as client bound "Ace" (assistant) commands. These are structured application-specific assistant elements such as reminder payloads for creating new reminders, and calendar events for reporting about your day, phone calls that need placing, and the "user utterance" speech bubbles that show you what you just said.
Apple's highly structured Ace implementation means that the Siri Assistant can process your requests and transform them into meaningful searches and updates for iOS. A reminder is sent off through Springboard to the onboard reminders app. Phone calls are diverted to the Phone app. Audio playback commands are handled by the built-in iPod features of the Music app.
Each Ace element has a specific app target, whether it's internal to the Siri interface (show a Wolfram-Alpha search result, update a speech bubble, or speak Siri's response) or external (the Clock app, Reminders, Mobile Safari, Messages, iCal, etc). Ace commands are routed for handling to the app or core service that best handles it.
And Why She Can't Easily Make the Leap to Your iPad
The iPad lacks many features supported by the current Siri Ace command set. You cannot set timers or place calls and many units do not offer onboard GPS — although they do provide Wi-Fi positioning. Lacking GPS means that in-car directions in particular may not be available; interstate highways are not noted for their static Wi-Fi hotspots, especially outside of major cities.
These missing features mean that for Apple to deploy Siri to the iPad would require a major platform-specific rewrite. That's a lot to ask when you consider that Siri itself remains in its initial beta release.
What's more, Siri provides one of the biggest sales points at this time for Apple's premiere product, the iPhone 4S. Keeping it exclusive to the 4S can only help those sales and won't hurt the new iPad. Extending dictation features to the iPad is sure to be a winner on its own: users will be able to speak emails and Google search terms, as well as dictate tweets and Facebook updates.
I certainly look forward to seeing Siri make the jump to more platforms, but recognizing how fundamental its implementation is to the core OS and its services helps me understand why it will still take a bit of time before we see that happen. When Siri does move fully to the iPad, expect it to provide a limited vocabulary of actions. Without telephony and the alarm app, and without GPS on the WiFi units, Siri's abilities may be curtailed.
Want to know more about how Siri works — and how she can work for you? Check out Talking to Siri: Learning the Language of Apple's Intelligent Assistant, Erica Sadun and Steve Sande's book about getting Siri to do almost anything for you.
|
<urn:uuid:2e1a7b36-ba62-4638-9fe9-aa0195618340>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.quepublishing.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1854712
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.948308
| 948
| 1.671875
| 2
|
Click any word in a definition or example to find the entry for that word
90% of the time, speakers of English use just 7,500 words in speech and writing. These words appear in red, and are graded with stars. One-star words are frequent, two-star words are more frequent, and three-star words are the most frequent.
The thesaurus of synonyms and related words is fully integrated into the dictionary entries. Click on the T button in an entry to review the synonyms and related words for that meaning.more
Don't forget to take an extra pair of shoes.
Remember to take a pen with you.
What time do you take Amy to school?
We took the plants into the greenhouse.
The cat had to be taken to the vet.
Our guide took us around the cathedral.
On long journeys I always take my dog along.
We took my mother for a drive in the country.
We took him to catch his train.
Take Debbie this cup of coffee, will you?
Let's take the presents to them tonight.
My old job took me into the city a lot.
The steps took us up to a cave in the cliff.
The journey will take you through some beautiful scenery.
Her amazing energy has taken her to the top of her profession.
acts that took the country into war
They'll take us to court if we don't pay up soon.
Bank robbers took the manager hostage overnight.
Take a deep breath.
Tom took a sip of his drink.
I took a quick look at the audience.
Let's take a walk down to the river.
The government must take action to stop this trade.
You need to take more exercise.
Your odd behaviour is going to take a bit of explaining.
It's going to take some doing to persuade them!
Admitting what she had done took a lot of courage.
It takes talent and dedication to become a top dancer.
It doesn't take much to start her crying.
Do you have what it takes to be a teacher?
I've decided not to take the job.
Sorry, we don't take credit cards.
She won't take my advice.
That's my final price, take it or leave it.
Please stop! I can't take it any more.
In this job you have to be able to take criticism.
I'm not going to take defeat lying down.
You don't have to take my word for it – ask anyone.
That's the truth, take it from me.
Take as many cakes as you like.
Let me take your coats.
Her mother took her gently by the shoulders.
I'll take her in my arms and kiss her.
I took the baby bird gently in my hands.
I took a course in computer programming.
Are you taking algebra this year?
Take the knife away from her!
These drugs should take the pain away.
Will you take the plates out of the cupboard?
Government officials came to take soil samples from the factory site.
The scientists will take more readings from the lava flow.
They've taken several scans of her brain.
A nurse took his temperature every hour.
May I take a picture of the two of you?
The town was finally taken after a six-week siege.
What size batteries does your torch take?
cars that take unleaded petrol
Do you take milk in your coffee?
They are refusing to take food.
He tries hard, but I just can't take him seriously.
She took his remarks as a compliment.
They took the rainbow as a sign from their god.
We can't take his silence as proof of his guilt.
Please take a seat.
The new president will take office in January.
They're shooting at us! Quick, take cover!
Can you take the risk that you might lose your money?
I did all the work, but Gill took all the credit.
The rebels are taking control of the city.
We must encourage fathers to take full responsibility for their children.
I'm afraid she took offence at my remarks.
He's never taken much interest in his kids.
I take the view that children should be told the truth.
This is the British English definition of take. View American English definition of take.
the part of the nucleus of an atom that has no electrical charge
… to reveal a small part of your intentions in order to attract support, without actually committing yourself to doing anythingadd a word
A must for anyone with an interest in the changing face of language. The Macmillan Dictionary blog explores English as it is spoken around the world today.global English and language change from our blog
|
<urn:uuid:4a3d07a0-a457-4d4b-aef4-24e9a66c59ec>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/take
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.981206
| 994
| 2.296875
| 2
|
Adopted Amendment to 19 TAC Chapter 97, Planning and Accountability, Subchapter AA, Accountability and Performance Monitoring, §97.1005, Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System
I. Statutory Citation (PDF)
II. Text of Adopted Amendment to 19 TAC Chapter 97, Planning and Accountability, Subchapter AA, Accountability and Performance Monitoring, §97.1005, Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System (PDF)
The rule action presented in this item will be filed as adopted with the Texas Register under the commissioner's rulemaking authority. This item adopts an amendment to 19 TAC Chapter 97, Planning and Accountability, Subchapter AA, Accountability and Performance Monitoring, §97.1005, Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System. The amendment adopts applicable excerpts of the Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System 2008 Manual. Earlier versions of the manual will remain in effect with respect to the school years for which they were developed. No changes have been made to the rule or manual since published as proposed.
Texas Education Code (TEC), §7.028(a).
July 15, 2008
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND SIGNIFICANT ISSUES:
House Bill 3459, 78th Texas Legislature, 2003, added the TEC, §7.027, limiting and redirecting monitoring done by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to that required to ensure school district and charter school compliance with federal law and regulations; financial accountability, including compliance with grant requirements; and data integrity for purposes of the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) and accountability under TEC, Chapter 39. Legislation passed in 2005 renumbered TEC, §7.027, to TEC, §7.028. To meet this monitoring requirement, the agency developed the Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System (PBMAS), which is used in conjunction with other evaluation systems, to monitor performance and program effectiveness of special programs in school districts and charter schools.
Agency legal counsel has determined that the commissioner of education should take formal rulemaking action to place into the Texas Administrative Code procedures related to the PBMAS. Given the statewide application of the PBMAS and the existence of sufficient statutory authority for the commissioner of education to formally adopt rules in this area, portions of each annual PBMAS Manual have been adopted since the first PBMAS Manual was developed in 2004-2005. The PBMAS evolves from year to year, and the intent is to annually update 19 TAC §97.1005 to refer to the most recently published PBMAS Manual.
The adopted amendment to 19 TAC §97.1005 updates the current rule by adopting excerpted sections of the PBMAS 2008 Manual. These excerpted sections describe the specific criteria and calculations that will be used to assign 2008 PBMAS performance levels.
The 2008 PBMAS includes several key changes from the 2007 system. Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) (Accommodated) results for English Language Arts (Grade 11), Mathematics (Grade 11), Science (Grades 5, 8, 10, and 11), Science (Grade 5 Spanish), and Social Studies (Grades 8, 10, and 11) have been incorporated into TAKS performance indicators as appropriate. TAKS Grade 8 Science results have also been incorporated into all TAKS performance indicators. As a result of the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) standard setting timeline, the Reading Proficiency Test in English (RPTE) Multi-Year Beginning Proficiency Level Rate indicator used in the 2007 PBMAS has been suspended and will be reinstated with the 2009 PBMAS. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Indicator #1(i-ii) used in the 2007 PBMAS has been replaced with Title I, Part A TAKS passing rate indicators in Mathematics, Reading/ELA, Science, Social Studies, and Writing. In addition, three new Title I, Part A Report Only indicators have been added to the NCLB program area.
A new indicator to measure potential disproportionate out-of-school suspensions of students with disabilities has been added to the special education program area. Several new or revised participation indicators are being implemented in the 2008 PBMAS. These indicators measure students' participation in TAKS, TAKS (Accommodated), TAKS-Modified, and TAKS-Alternate. Finally, adjustments have been made to the performance level cut points for all PBMAS TAKS performance indicators, and a hold harmless provision has been added to the special education program area to address the impact of the phase-in of TAKS (Accommodated) and Grade 8 Science results into the 2008 PBMAS. Changes to the PBMAS indicators for 2008 are marked in the manual as "New!" for easy reference.
The adopted amendment also modifies subsection (d) to specify that the PBMAS manual adopted for the school years prior to 2008-2009 will remain in effect with respect to those school years.
No changes have been made to the rule or manual since published as proposed.
The TEA has determined that there are no additional costs to persons or entities required to comply with the proposed rule action. In addition, there is no direct adverse economic impact for small businesses and microbusinesses; therefore, no regulatory flexibility analysis, specified in Texas Government Code, §2006.002, is required.
PUBLIC AND STUDENT BENEFIT:
The adopted amendment will continue to inform the public of the existence of annual manuals specifying PBMAS procedures by including this rule in the Texas Administrative Code.
PROCEDURAL AND REPORTING IMPLICATIONS:
The adopted amendment establishes in rule the PBMAS procedures for 2008. Applicable procedures will be adopted each year as annual versions of the PBMAS Manual are published.
LOCALLY MAINTAINED PAPERWORK REQUIREMENTS:
The public comment period on the proposal began May 16, 2008, and ended June 15, 2008. No public comments were received.
OTHER COMMENTS AND RELATED ISSUES:
Staff Members Responsible:
Criss Cloudt, Associate Commissioner, Assessment, Accountability, and Data Quality
For additional information, email email@example.com.
|
<urn:uuid:bcb2974f-3dbd-4cd9-985f-f134db81d347>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147494747&ekfxmen_noscript=1&ekfxmensel=e9f6cb525_620_622
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.91381
| 1,291
| 1.546875
| 2
|
Learn the helpful habit of decluttering
By Tom Phelan - Staff Writer
Feature Article - posted Fri., Mar. 18, 2011
No doubt you have seen TV shows about people who live in squalor, because they can’t, or won’t, throw anything away. That’s obsessive behavior. But short of that, many people have a problem that we can simply call “clutter.”
If that’s what your home suffers from, and you want to take a shot at cutting the cluttering, implement some or all of these ideas.
Decluttering doesn’t just mean getting organized. You can organize your junk drawer, clothes closet, garage, or kitchen cabinets, but still not truly declutter. That type of organization, while well-meaning and surely satisfying, is only temporary.
If you organize all or part of your home without changing your habits and patterns of behavior, it’s all for naught. You can only declutter your life by changing the way you think. Start small and select something simple.
Mail is a good example. In many families, more than one person may go to the mailbox. Finding the mail after that may be a daily treasure hunt. It may end up on the kitchen table, in the laundry room, or lost forever.
Make a change here. Designate only one person to get the mail. Don’t get the mail on your way out of the house. It will likely end up in the car. You will eventually take it inside at some point and toss it on a table somewhere, thus repeating a bad habit.
Only go to the mailbox when you can deal with the mail, but deal with the mail when you get it. Don’t even open junk or advertising mail. Throw it in a box, and send it out with your recycle bin. Get or make an ‘outgoing’ mailbox. Don’t even bring it in the house. Keep it outside, and get rid of it on trash day.
Open anything that really looks important, and deal with it appropriately right then. Keep a folder for bills that require mailing a check. If you still write checks, decide to deal with them periodically – once per week or perhaps on paydays. At worst, stick all bills or business response mail in a manila folder – one for each month – and when everything in that folder is dealt with, shred all the paper, and begin to fill up next month’s.
You can ease this burden further by using your bank’s automatic bill-pay service, in which case you will only need to file your paper bills until they are totally useless. If you feel comfortable with letting go of the paper trail, choose the paper-less billing option from your utility company, credit card, bank, etc., and use your computer to keep track of things.
For record-keeping purposes, you can usually download digital copies of bills, statements and bank accounts transactions. If you have no choice but to get paper bills, your option should be to scan them into your computer, and store them as though they came to you in digital format. Then shred the paper.
Deal with other paper in your house in a similar way. Have a place for the newspaper to go. It may lie on a coffee table until it has been read, but then it should go into a basket, box or a recycling bin.
If you have to separate different types of recyclable materials, get different colored receptacles for other types of paper. Make yourself adopt this rule: If you pick it up, deal with it – don’t just move it. Use paper shredders responsibly, or box sensitive material to be shredded. Deal with that box when it gets full.
File as little hardcopy documentation as possible. Instead, scan it into a digital file-keeping system when you receive it. Then trash it. It’s easier to store, requires a lot less space, and it’s easier to throw out when you don’t need it anymore.
So there it is. You have decluttered one aspect of your household. Celebrate that success by applying the same principles to other things that get cluttered, such as clothing, shoes, kitchenware, keepsakes, and even furniture. What’s even more important, involve and help other members of your household to learn clutter-free living.
Remember that whenever something comes into the house, it replaces something else that gets tossed.
|
<urn:uuid:894df940-1683-4270-a317-2d41691f4fcf>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.remindernews.com/article/2011/03/18/learn-the-helpful-habit-of-decluttering
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.940663
| 938
| 2.359375
| 2
|
More on Drilling for Oil
By Nick Fritsch
Have you seen the TV spots by T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire oilman? Here are the opening highlights. “Let me share a few facts: Each year we import more and more oil. In 1973, the year of the infamous oil embargo, the United States imported about 24% of our oil. Today, we import almost 70% of our oil.”
Pickens continues, “This year, we will spend almost $700 billion on imported oil, which is more than four times the annual cost of our current war in Iraq. In fact, if we don't do anything about this problem, over the next 10 years we will spend around $10 trillion importing foreign oil. That is $10 trillion leaving the U.S. and going to foreign nations, making it what I certainly believe will be the single largest transfer of wealth in human history.” When he states, “we're going to work our way out of this mess.” I am inclined to believe him. Common sense says drilling for oil is a Band-Aid?, not a cure.
His experience and the trillions of dollars that he states will go to foreign governments, capture my attention. Rather than sending our money to the Middle East and other scattered nations that create oil jobs there, he proposes a national plan. Interestingly, it is a ten-year plan that parallels the “Placing a man on the moon by the end of this decade.” that we keep hearing bantered about. It is time to make an investment in a cure.
If given such a challenge, the technological advantage the U.S. enjoys would seem to make this a win-win. Instead of taking those trillions of dollars to pump oil and burn it (wasting it); we can invest much of the money in our economy, create American jobs while we work shoulder to shoulder on renewable fuels and technology to multiply the efficiency of our vehicles. Pickens” plan focuses on solar and wind driven power. Check out more specifics for yourself at the website: www.pickensplan.com. There is both a video as well as the text of his plan.
Return to Current Edition
|
<urn:uuid:e6aa7171-8ad8-44fe-a5ef-5c66dbfb0aa3>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://clearwatergazette.com/20080717/fritsch.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.951477
| 459
| 1.726563
| 2
|
NAT'L CORN GROWERS ASSN PRESIDENT'S OP-ED: FARMING IS A WAY OF LIFE, NOT A "SYSTEM"
Mar. 11, 2013
Source: National Corn Growers Association news release
National Corn Growers Association President Pam Johnson, a sixth-generation family farmer in Floyd, Iowa, sent the following response to ScientificAmerican.com after an article on corn farming by Jonathan Foley.Click here for Foley's original article.
By Pam Johnson
As a farmer, one of the many whom Jonathan Foley regards as "the hardest working people in America" and as "pillars of their communities," I would like to speak out about how today's corn farmers, their trade associations and others whom Foley has vilified have not only rethought the so-called "corn system," but are continually improving it.
Thanks to technology in the tractor and on the field, and smart agronomic practices like conservation tillage, things are only getting better. Here are a few thoughts from my field:
Versatility. Foley talks about the versatility of corn, and he's right. It's now in thousands of products. While some people don't like that, it makes perfect sense that we can produce a grain every year that meets all these needs.
Farming is not just about food. It provides the cotton and leather for clothing and the wood for housing and paper. And, yes, it provides field corn for fabrics and fuels as well as food and feed.
Efficiency. In 1932, corn farmers planted 113 million acres of corn, and harvested 2.6 billion bushels. This year, even with a record drought, we brought in 10.8 billion bushels on 97 million acres, the eighth largest corn crop ever.
We are using the best seed genetics, technology and agronomic practices to produce a corn plant that maximizes the use of sunlight, water and nutrients. Another measure of efficiency: Americans spend less on food than anywhere in the world. Our store shelves are filled with a variety of healthy foods for all tastes and preferences.
Sustainability. This efficiency means we are using our inputs more wisely. Between 1980 and 2011, corn farmers decreased land use per bushel by 30 percent, soil erosion by 67 percent, irrigation by 53 percent, energy use by 43 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 36 percent.
A 2010 study from Stanford University says that advances in high-yield agriculture have prevented massive amounts of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere - the equivalent of 590 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. Another example of sustainability is ethanol, which provides a significant benefit when it comes to reducing greenhouse gases, compared to gasoline, of up to 59 percent.
Diversity. Corn farming is not a monolithic "system." Corn growers have a variety of different challenges to face and agronomic methods at their disposal. Farming in Florida will differ from farming in Illinois; in Minnesota, from Texas; in Oregon, from Virginia.
Farmers are not victims of some faceless and nameless "system." As a corn grower, I do what's best for me and my family and base my planting decisions on what the marketplace tells me to produce, not because of any "system." I choose the seed.
I choose the nutrients and the crop protection. I choose whom to sell it to. My trade association is run by family farmers, and its policies and actions are directed by us, the farmer membership.
Over the last 10 millennia, growing corn has been important to humans. It is even more so today.
Farmers like me choose to grow corn, and we do so in the context of providing corn as a valuable resource to provide for the needs of Americans and a growing global population who has needs for more food and energy - needs that we are proud to supply.
Farmers have a great story to tell, and I encourage them and their allies to tell this story through great programs like the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance ( www.fooddialogues.com ), CommonGround ( www.findourcommonground.com ) or the Corn Farmers Coalition ( www.cornfarmerscoalition.org ).
|
<urn:uuid:4406e8cb-1e4e-4706-bb78-e850b51ebce1>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.agrimarketing.com/s/80822
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.946106
| 859
| 2.453125
| 2
|
Paris is such an amazing city! Just when I think I’ve seen it all,
I discover a whole new batch of historic landmarks that keep me
thrilled for another week.
Arguably the most beautiful sight I saw these last few days was
Garden – or, as it’s called over here, the Jardin du
Luxembourg. My friends and I took photos of ourselves in the trees
and in the flowers, but I noticed the native French people were
giving us weird looks. It turns out we weren’t supposed to step
over the small little fence blocking off the foliage – whoops!
But seriously, the garden looked amazing. It’s huge and was
constructed in the 1600s by Marie de Medici, who was the widow of
Henry IV. It contains over 100 statues, monuments and fountains,
including the very first model of Frederic Bartholdi’s Statue of
Liberty. It was cool to see a miniature version of what has become
an iconic American landmark.
I also visited the Pantheon, which is a building that holds the
remains of distinguished French citizens. It’s a very interesting
structure in terms of its design and serves as a perfect example of
neoclassicist architecture, modeled closely after the Pantheon in
Rome. I thought that the giant dome of France’s Pantheon made the
building look very much like the U.S. Capitol in Washington,
By far the coolest part of the Pantheon is that it contains the
remains of France’s greatest thinkers, Voltaire and Jean Jacques
Rousseau. How crazy is that? The Pantheon ranks as one of the best
landmarks I’ve seen since I’ve been abroad.
Meanwhile, I made sure to get a taste of contemporary French
culture by checking out a local art gallery.
The art I found there was reminiscent of graffiti artwork back in
New York. David Cintract, the artist whose paintings struck my eye,
uses vivid colors and an assortment of random objects to create his
unique pieces. The original paintings were about 16,000 euros and
up . . . so I chose to buy a five euro poster.
I’m coming up on my last week here in Paris, so I’m going to try
and make the most of my time. I’ll be absorbing as much French
culture as I can, and I may just eat a snail after I’m done with
finals. I’ll be sure to keep you posted! Au revoir!
|
<urn:uuid:85257e46-43af-45a2-b226-6e6384930213>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.stjohns.edu/alumni/discover/pwk2/pwk2.stj
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.954537
| 559
| 1.703125
| 2
|
USDA Estimates Higher Milk Production and Lower Prices
May 16, 2011
Dairy markets remain active with good demand, but strong grain prices, along with questions about hay availability and the weather, will have a bearing on the milk/feed ratio.
Much of the excitement in the markets over the past few weeks has taken place in cash butter and nonfat dry milk.
Butter staged a rally and tried to remain above $2.00 as buyers were aggressively procuring supply for future needs. However, once price reached $2.10, buyers said enough is enough and stepped back. This then caused sellers to become the aggressive ones wanting to move product rather than hold on to it. Price quickly fell below $2.00 again solidifying the sideways trading pattern likely to be maintained for the foreseeable future.
Churning has been active, but manufacturers are attempting to keep on-hand supply limited. There is little interest in speculating by holding supply for higher prices. Ice cream production is increasing, but cooler weather has been a limiting factor allowing more cream to be available for churning. Supply and demand seems to be balanced despite higher exports. In fact, butter and milkfat export sales in March was 102% higher than the same month a year earlier and up 30% from the previous month.
Lest we get too excited and wonder why price is not significantly higher, we need to look back at last year. The average butter price during March 2010 was $1.45, while the average this year was $2.06. So, this is already factored in and despite good demand, prices are remaining in a range. It is possible this price range may hold for the rest of this year as stocks are slowly building and orders are being filled.
Nonfat dry milk price moved lower over the past weeks. There had been a large price spread of 20 cents between Extra Grade and Grade A for a time. However, rather than Grade A moving up in price, Extra Grade finally fell and fell quickly. Current prices on the CME Group cash markets are virtually in line with regional prices rather than having the disconnect seen previously. The main reason Extra Grade price remained at $1.80 for awhile was due to no interest in trading on the daily spot market. But eventually something had to give. Exports for the month of March were 46% higher than a year earlier.
USDA released its first estimate for 2012 milk production last week in its monthly World Supply and Demand report. Its current estimate is for production to reach 198.7 billion pounds, up 3.3 billion pounds from the estimate for this year. Even though grain prices are expected to remain high, milk per cow is expected to increase.
Interestingly enough, milk prices are estimated to be lower next year. Class III price is expected to range between $15.35-$16.35 per cwt., a decrease of nearly a dollar from this year. The Class IV price is estimated between $16.30-$17.40 per cwt., a decrease of nearly $2.00 with the all-milk price between $17.35-$18.35 per cwt., a decrease of around a dollar per cwt.
It had been anticipated this year that milk prices would move significantly higher due to strong grain prices. March did reach $19.40 per cwt. and likely the highest price of the year. Milk production continues to increase despite higher grain prices. Farmers are able to cash-flow at these higher feed prices. They’ll continue to do so unless delayed planting weather and adverse growing weather push grain prices significantly higher than they already are. USDA did release its estimate for 2012 corn ending stocks at 900 million bushels. This keeps a tight stocks-to-use ratio and remains below the magic billion-bushel carryout number. Soybean ending stocks are expected to be 160 million bushels – comfortable but still tight.
A major concern this year is going to be hay availability and price. Acres of hay were to be plowed out or planted with corn to take advantage of the higher price. Wet weather may have changed some of this, but hay prices are expected to increase substantially this year. This will definitely have an impact on the milk/feed ratio. Weather is the ultimate card that will be played affecting milk price.
- Fonterra auction on May 17
- April Milk Production report on May 18
- June federal order Class I price on May 20
- April livestock slaughter report on May 20
- April Cold Storage report on May 20
Robin Schmahl is a commodity broker and owner of AgDairy LLC, a full-service commodity brokerage firm located in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. He can be reached at 877-256-3253 or through their website at www.agdairy.com.
The thoughts expressed and the data from which they are drawn are believed to be reliable but cannot be guaranteed. Any opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. There is risk of loss in trading and my not be suitable for everyone. Those acting on this information are responsible for their own actions.
|
<urn:uuid:5f9233fb-b96a-4810-a15e-9753011ec438>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.agweb.com/livestock/dairy/blog/AgDairy_Market_Update__236/usda_estimates_higher_milk_production_and_lower_prices/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.975355
| 1,048
| 1.898438
| 2
|
The percentage of U.S. college freshmen who return to the same school for their second year is declining, according to an ACT national survey.
Sixty-six percent of first-year college students returned to the same institution for their second year of college in the 20072008 academic year, the lowest percentage since 1989. This figure is down from 68 percent in 20062007 and 69 percent in 20052006.
In five of the eight types of postsecondary institutions surveyed, retention is at its lowest level since data gathering began in 1983. They are PhD public, PhD private, MA private, BA/BS private, and two-year private institutions.
The exception to the current downward trend is two-year public colleges. Fifty-four percent of students at two-year public colleges returned for their second year in 20072008, up from 51 percent the previous year.
In fact, the current retention rate for two-year public institutions is at an all-time high.
Retention rates vary widely among different types of schools. They remain significantly higher at four-year schools (71 percent) than at two-year schools (54 percent), as has been the case historically. In addition, four-year private colleges continue to slightly outpace public schools (private, 73 percent; public, 71 percent), although the gap between the two is narrowing. Nevertheless, nearly all four-year institutional categories have experienced declines in retention over the past two years or more.
The data in the report were gathered in ACTs annual survey of U.S. postsecondary institutions, which was completed by more than 2,500 two-year and baccalaureate colleges and universities across the country.
|
<urn:uuid:32aa16cb-43a3-4e65-b8cc-fc6d0d653118>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.act.org/activity/spring2009/returning.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.976076
| 343
| 1.914063
| 2
|
Ol' Myrt here has been grasping for a better way to describe how I wish genealogy seminars and presentations would change. This article from Edutopia.org has the answer.
How Collaborative Learning Leads to Student Success, while focusing on college students, stimulates thought on restructuring our genealogy seminars, conferences and workshops.
Back in May 2011, Ol' Myrt here wrote 90 Minute Institute and Conference Sessions, citing an article by Dr. David Rock Rethinking how we 'conference' How to design a conference with the brain in mind. My comments then still hold true:
"Dr. Rock feels that the current paradigm of conference attendees sitting through a 60 minute lecture, followed by a quick break is counter-productive to the learning process. I've attended conferences, where by the end of the day my brain was mush, so I could relate to Dr. Rock's comments."
Unfortunately our conference schedules have remained the same, and for the most part our teaching methods continue to lack understanding of best learning processes for our exhausted attendees.
COLLABORATION IS MORE THAN A BUZZ WORD
The Genealogical Proof Standard does well to guide genealogy researchers in their individual pursuits, but collaboration isn't specifically mentioned. The implication is that we compose soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusions for those who wish to "check out" our research.
What about collaboration with other researchers to test out our reasoning earlier in the process?
Where is there time for active collaboration? Certainly not at a typical genealogy society meeting, fraught with all-too-long business meetings, leaving little time for the featured speaker to rush through his slides.
Saturday workshops may provide hands-on experimentation, and a little more give and take, but typically presenters don't provide enough time for the give and take. I've heard some folks like Randy Seaver and my cousin Russ Worthington do give what I'd call "real" workshops. The Pro-Gen Study Groups work well in this regard where:
- discussion is more important than lecturing
- real time research provides insights a PowerPoint slide cannot impart
Conferences with vendor halls provide opportunities for vendors to demo their websites and software, but the bottom line is not to be ignored. Vendors have to sell product, and that takes all too much time unless they bring along extra employees to ring up your bill.
Institutes such as IGHR, SLIG and the new GRIP approach this form of collaborative learning, particularly when there are small group "homework" (read that late night!) assignments. The focus is developing research methods, not one's own research challenges.
If you attend any of Ol' Myrt's webinars, Second Life chats or all-day seminars, don't expect to take it sitting down - its all about collaborative learning. Feedback. Active participation. I want discussion. I want differing points of view. I want additional suggestions. I'd rather "discuss" five concepts well than squeeze 10 into a 60 minute "lecture".
NOTE: next Tuesday's Just Genealogy Second Life discussion on "Proof Arguments" has a prep assignment -- 2 related articles by noted genealogists. But the real learning will happen when we discuss how we each tackle the problem of composing proof arguments and not just relying on "fill in the blank" genealogy programs.
You can bet we will retain more info if we actively participate in a collaborative learning environment.
|PHOTO: My screen shot of the 8 March 2012 APG Second Life Chapter Meeting.|
Happy family tree climbing!Myrt :)
Your friend in genealogy.
G+: +Pat Richley-Erickson
Second Life: Clarise Beaumont
|
<urn:uuid:0ef02a2b-9bdb-447f-a080-e01fc31416df>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2012/12/collaborative-learning.html?showComment=1355630346528
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.925452
| 765
| 1.710938
| 2
|
About Legacy Learning Systems
In a world of cheap, over-hyped, "Learn This Overnight" instructional videos, Legacy Learning Systems was founded to produce truly comprehensive multimedia training courses for those who want serious instruction in the comfort of their own homes. We believe that learning should be fun, unintimidating and systematic, with each new skill building on the previous one. Our first courses were in music instruction, but other topics related to the arts, hobbies, career, and a variety of special interests are under development.
Our Mission: Bringing Personal Dreams Within Reach
Nearly all of us have that one thing we've always wanted to learn. To sing. To dance. To play an instrument. To surf, sail, cook, or speak a foreign language. Whatever it is, we all have something we wish we could do. A personal dream.
As time passes and life gets in the way, that little dream can seem farther and farther out of reach. School is out of the question. Private lessons are pricey and inconvenient. But what if something could make it possible?
That is our mission. To make difficult skills accessible through multimedia self-education courses. To bring personal dreams within reach.
What Should You Expect from a Legacy Learning Systems Course?
First, your lessons will be always be laid out in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step progression with everything you need in one place. No need to buy countless training videos from a patchwork of sources.
Second, your Legacy course will take you far beyond the basics of the typical instructional video. We get you started quickly, but your lessons will take you as far along the path to mastery as you choose to go. You won't find a more comprehensive multimedia training course on your topic anywhere!
Perhaps most important, you won't have to learn alone. Our online support community is an integral part of the learning process and is free for all of our students. The very same instructors who wrote your course will be there for you when you have questions or need encouragement. Students who participate in this community are able to discuss their progress, post their successes, and interact with other students as much or as little as they wish. We are not finished when you buy our course. We are finished when you have reached your dream.
|
<urn:uuid:9a5ac258-c356-4470-a200-209a99ff0995>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.learnandmaster.com/main/pages/about-us/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.960146
| 468
| 1.734375
| 2
|
Comprehensive Guide to selected species of:
Birds of the Boreal Forest « back to Guide
Upland Sandpiper Bartramia longicauda
Family: Sandpipers, Scolopacidae
Audio: Martyn Stewart, © Naturesound.org
An estimated 14% of the species' North American breeding range lies within the Boreal Forest.
Description 11-12 1/2" (28-32 cm). A sandpiper of open meadows with long yellowish legs, slender neck and small head, and short bill. Upperparts brown and scaly, underparts streaked and barred. Ends of wings are dark in flight; tail long and wedge-shaped. Often holds wings upward briefly on alighting, exposing black and white barring on underwing.
Habitat Breeds in open grasslands, prairies, and hayfields, also grassy airfields; generally frequents open country during migration.
Nesting 4 pinkish-buff eggs, with brown spots, in a grass-lined nest in a hollow on the ground.
Voice Alarm call a mellow quip-ip-ip-ip. On breeding grounds and at night during migration, a long, mournful, rolling whistle.
Range Breeds from Alaska east to New Brunswick and south to northeastern Oregon, Oklahoma, and Virginia. Winters in southern South America.
Discussion Formerly abundant, this attractive bird of open grasslands was shot in such large numbers for food and sport that it became very scarce. Now given complete protection, it has increased once again; its principal danger is now habitat destruction. The Upland Sandpiper often flies with wings held stiffly in a downward curve, like a Spotted Sandpiper, especially on its nesting grounds. When alighting, the "Grass Plover," as it was known to hunters, holds its wings over its back before folding them down in a resting position. In old books this bird is called the "Upland Plover."
|
<urn:uuid:4bb48fe3-8d1d-47d0-a0fb-a4774dd399be>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.borealbirds.org/guide/guide_detail.php?curr_rec=92&from=0&sort=&view=fieldlist&guideid=1&groupid=1&familyid=&term=&process=1
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.927942
| 416
| 3.640625
| 4
|
[visited 20/3/11] What a lot of pain for what is actually a very easy to find site. For any future seekers, the site is to the North of long lane, so there really is no need to get right up on the top of the hill which is South of long lane. This sits in a very similar landscape position to Green Low, overlooking a clough to the left facing downwards and some way down from the top of the hill it sits on. As such I view them in a similar light.
A clear circle, but relatively small, any stones are mostly buried. I see this as a ring cairn ahead of the embanked circle classification, though they do have a tendency to meet in the middle! Great views looking North and definately worth a visit.
Access is not difficult in a small field next to a rocky track. I parked down in Horwich End and walked about a mile up hill to the site, but temporary parking might be possible at the end of long lane.
Third attempt, and with stronger legs, I finally found this site, and what a superb place to put whatever it is. Stunning views of Eccles Pike, Whaley Bridge and further on to hilltops and lows unknown [at least by me] especially at 9am on a wonderful clear spring morning.
It measures 36 by 34 feet across, so rather small, with a pronounced bank on the western downhill side. Several larger stones, with many smaller and buried stones found by probing, all around the perimeter, with a single central stone. Highly unlikely to be the result of field clearance, as there are several other stones in the field and a deep narrow gully only 50 yards away downhill. Easily visible from a long distance [so how did I miss it before? Too bloody lazy to walk another 50 yards...steep path though], but alone in the landscape.
I was under the impression it was a hengiform thing, but there's no evidence of a ditch, it's far too small, but it would be pretty perfect as a stone and earth barrow that has been robbed out. Suggestions of it being a stone circle are probably based on the stones visible around the edge and the central stone, like a small version of Arbor Low, complete with flat stones. As well as the stones around the field, there is a very large one under the tree in the field over the path to the south. The field has never been ploughed [or the farmer had an unlimited supply of blades to break] so the ridge around the edge survives well enough to give an impression of how wide it originally was.
A skull currently at Tunstall Farm was alledgedly from this site.
Low grass covered rubble bank, around 13x11m in size, bank broken to the NNE & SW. With several large-ish stones on the banking.
The stone circle theory comes from a geezer named W.Andrew...who described the site as 'being a stone circle similar to the 9 ladies.' the rest of his description is a bit confusing....but he makes no mention of seeing upright stones and describes it much like it is now.
Barnatt reckons on it being a robbed cairn and the stones around the bank being kerbstones.
|
<urn:uuid:bd661433-cd84-4ecd-8a89-aeb00d7fa6b6>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://themodernantiquarian.com/site/5387/ladder_hill.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.967311
| 674
| 1.53125
| 2
|
TOP STORY >> Golf course best use of the land, park study says
Leader staff writer
More than 150 people crowded into the Sherwood council chamber to hear representatives from ETC Engineering explain their plan for the city’s 16 parks.
Even though the audience made suggestions to improve many of the park plans and ideas, the vast majority were there to hear about park number 16—the 106-acre North Hills Golf Course property.
The city condemned and purchased the defunct golf course and country club last year at a price of $5.5 million and is making monthly payments of about $28,000 on the property.
The course has been dormant for about two years and the greens have died off and many of the sand traps have broken down. But many on the council want it to become an 18-hole golf course again.
The mostly pro golf course crowd applauded when Mizan Rahman with ETC agreed. “We did not look at the feasibility or the cost, but looked at what was the best use of the land,” he explained.
“Since it already was a golf course we felt that was the best use.”
Rahman added that his firm looked at the possibility of making a nine-hole course on the property and using the rest of the land for activities like a professional tennis center and a small water park.
“A nine-hole golf course would cost more than the 18-hole course,” he said, “because three holes would have to be completely redone for the nine-hole course.” Rahman also said the activity produced from a tennis center and a water park would be too intense for the area.
Rahman said he didn’t have any cost figures. That’ll be up to the city council. “Our job was to look at the best use for all the park lands, not the cost.”
Previous feasibility studies conducted in 2007 suggest it will take $1 million or more to get the golf course in shape and up to $500,000 a year for maintenance, equipment and personnel. Those studies suggested the course would lose money for the first three years before holding its own in its fourth year of operation—those figures were based on 23,000 to 30,000 rounds of golf being played there annually.
Landscape architect and golf course designer Steve Hales of ETI, at a council workshop earlier this month, suggested that it will cost $150,000 to rebuild the greens.
Other costs, according to Hales and others, just through 2009, include sprinkler system repairs at $100,000; maintenance and cart repairs at $50,000; clubhouse repairs at $50,000; signage, tools flags at $25,000; and equipment leasing at $28,000.
Salaries for six months would be $35,000 for a golf course superintendent; $13,500 for a full-time maintenance worker and $20,400 for two part-time laborers.
On a scale of 1 to 10, an initial investment of $500,000 would bring the course up to a 3 or 4 in quality, said Hales.
“Why don’t we do a trial run to just get it up and running to see how it holds up and to limit your investment, then later bring it to full potential,” Hales suggested at that workshop.
At the Monday night meeting, Karilyn Brown asked if the park study was really just a wish list and if the focus was going to be on the golf course, would it push back work and improvements for all the other parks.
Rahman said his company’s research highlighted those things that needed to be done now, then those that would be nice when money becomes available.
“You’ve got to have a plan or a dream as a starting point and then when money becomes available you do what you can,” he told the audience.
Carolyn Chalmers was worried about the cost of the golf course, citing the 2007 studies which said the greens’ fees needed to average about $24 per round and between 23,000 and 30,000 rounds of golf needed to be played.
Alderman Charlie Harmon said there has been no talk about fees except that they would be comparable to the courses around Sherwood. “It would be dumb of us not to be comparable,” he said.
Sherwood resident Steve Winchester said the land needed to be a golf course and as soon as possible. “Let’s take advantage of what we have. Let’s make it into something worthwhile. That land and that course mean a lot to a lot of people. Build it and they will come,” he said.
Another public meeting to discuss the golf course plans, as well as those for all the other parks is set for 5 p.m. Monday, May 11.
|
<urn:uuid:6fec104e-2954-4e24-b7b8-db2bef44b53a>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.arkansasleader.com/2009/04/top-story-golf-course-best-use-of-land.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.97346
| 1,016
| 1.796875
| 2
|
John Cochrane is blogging, something I take complete credit for since I introduced Cochrane’s ideas to HTML here.
He writes in a lengthy internally dependent style reminiscent of my own. Nonetheless I will try to excerpt the key points
We all agree that "Ricardian Equivalence" is how the economy would and should work, if there were no "frictions," or other problems.
I am not so sure about that. From what comes later it is clear that Cochrane means something different by Ricardian Equivalence than I do.
When I use the term Ricardian Equivalence I mean that when the government borrows money the fact that future taxes will have to rise induces folks in the economy to save more money.
What’s absolutely key here – and I will show later – is that this means that ceteris paribus interest rates do not rise from an increase in government borrowing.
This claim I believe is false and I think many other people do as well.
Now, I’ll try to quote enough to show Cochrane’s meaning of the term.
So according to Paul, the prediction of a properly functioning economy is that people who take out a $100,000 mortgage consume $100,000 less in the first year; that they do not do so is proof stimulus works.
. . .
But what about the extra $100,000 of "spending"? Doesn’t the new house contribute to "aggregate demand?" What, in the classic view, goes down by $100,000?
. . .
The question is not the family’s spending, but where did the $100,000 come from, and what were they going to do with the money?
. . .
Most likely, someone was saving money, and put it in a bank. If this family didn’t take out the loan, another family would have (perhaps at an infinitesimally lower interest rate) done so, and the economy would have built a different house.
. . .
To me, this example illustrates beautifully how Krugman "got this wrong." He never asked where the $100,000 loan came from! In his analysis of government borrowing and spending, he does not ask, who lent the money to the government, and what were they planning to do with it otherwise. People "with an economics training" are supposed to remember lesson one — follow the money and pay attention to budget constraints.
What Cochrane is invoking here is what I would call adding-up constraints. In this version of the world the government borrows money. This means that there are fewer savings available for non-government borrowers. Those fewer savings must be rationed and in a free market economy this is done with the price mechanism.
Interest rates in the economy rise so that fewer people want to borrow and so that more people want to save. Once, interest rates have adjusted the increase in private savings and the decrease in private borrowing exactly match the increase in public borrowing.
Thus, there is no increase in aggregate demand.
However, very importantly, in this mechanism interest rates rose to clear the market for loanable funds.
Now, what about government stimulus?
If the first mechanism is at work then certain types of stimulus will never be effective. For example, simply rebating taxes to families will have no effect. People know that this simply means more taxes later and so they save exactly the amount of the stimulus.
If the government buys stuff rather than rebating taxes then this can only work if the stuff the government buys is not a direct substitute for what people would have bought themselves. If it is then people will simply refrain from buying stuff and save instead.
If it is not then people will save some but not completely because otherwise they would have suffer extraordinarily in this year. They would rather spread the pain of paying for this government purchase over several years.
So, that’s what I think of as Ricardian Equivalence.
Now, what about adding up?
Remember that key in the adding up mechanism was that the interest rate cleared the market for loanable funds. However, real life baseline interest rates are controlled by the Federal Reserve.
Now, suppose the Federal Reserve holds interest rates constant even if the government is borrowing more money. This means that now the total amount of public plus private borrowing exceeds the amount of savings.
How does the market clear?
The market clears because the Fed prints money in order to fund the desired amount of borrowing.
Or, to more accurately represent the world we live in today: in the face of extra demand for borrowing banks turn excess reserves into required reserves by making creating more checking accounts which are in turn the basis of loans to consumers and businesses.
The answer to where does the money come from is that it is created out of thin air, either by the printing press or switching reserves from excess to required status.
|
<urn:uuid:69bc8287-1a06-4a2e-9499-54cca9bceada>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://modeledbehavior.com/2012/01/01/cochrane-on-stimulus-and-ricardian-equivalence/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.966226
| 1,021
| 2.796875
| 3
|
People were living and working in constant filth and germ infested environments during the Industrial Revolution, so health was an everlasting issue. Diseases and sickness couldn't be stopped, controlled or maintained, and their technology and methods of curing diseases weren't well developed. With the coming of the second Industrial Revolution, more weapons to fight disease were discovered and administered.
Since technology was beginning to grow, so did the number of weapons doctors had to overcome diseases. The X-ray, discovered by Wilhelm Roentgen, was a key part in diagnosing medical problems faster and with more accuracy. Edward Jenner was one of the most important men in the history of medicine. His ideas of vaccinations gave birth to the most effective way of prevention. Although painful to have it administered, it can save your life. Jenner noticed that people whom contracted cowpox, which was a milder for of the deadly smallpox disease, usually didn't come down with smallpox. His discovery paved the way for vaccinations of deadly diseases. Louis Pasteur, a French scientist, devised a way to slowly heat milk to ferment the milk more slow to kill the germs. Many more discoveries were made, including antiseptics and the germs that cause over 11 diseases. The contributions made during the second Industrial Revolution saved countless lives in their time and the future.Back to Top
Life During Industrial Revolution -- TransportTeam ID: C0116084
|
<urn:uuid:0d6b87da-7275-4785-851a-ab60848c8331>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0116084/IRM.htm
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.973245
| 285
| 3.09375
| 3
|
SkyLab Officially Opens at Prince George Library
After months of construction the Prince George Library has officially opened its new computer centre. Starting today Sky Lab will be open for library goers. Library Spokesperson Andrea Palmer says SkyLab has many new features people can use.
23 new computers, we've got new wireless access up there, beautiful, comfortable chairs people can sit at with laptop desks," says Palmer, "we've got amazing views of the city, westerly views of UNBC that you haven't seen before."
Palmer says SkyLab is a great way to access the resources the library offers. The library will have different activities throughout the day for people to learn what SkyLab has to offer.
Most Viewed Stories
Questionable Content? Click here to report it to the webmaster.
Popular Blog Articles
|
<urn:uuid:0772dabf-e73d-4835-8cff-b235e20876d0>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://hqprincegeorge.com/news/local_sports/news/v/Local/77865/SkyLab-Officially-Opens-at-Prince-George-Library
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.939415
| 172
| 1.929688
| 2
|
“We had about 30 or 40 people waiting in line at 8:30 a.m.,” said Richmond County Elections Director Lynn Bailey.
Bailey said 927 voters went to the polls Monday.
In Columbia County, the first person lined up just after 7 a.m. outside the Board of Elections office in Evans, and by 7:40 a.m., “the line was well-formed,” said county Registration Coordinator Nancy Gay.
By the end of the day, 1,025 had voted, Gay said.
Charles Bullock, a retired Richmond County educator, said he went to vote to avoid long lines Nov. 6.
“I’m doing my duty as a registered voter in the United States,” said Bullock, 77, who first voted in 1954. He said his teacher at Lucy C. Laney High School, Herbert Wilson, marched about 30 of his classmates to the old county courthouse to vote.
It was Wilson’s mission to “make citizens” out of his students, Bullock said.
“That was back during Jim Crow, when people got beat for trying to vote,” said Bullock, who said he hasn’t missed an election since.
Monique Sheppard said she couldn’t recall her first time voting, or even whether she voted at all when she was 18, but she takes it very seriously now.
“Over the years you re-evaluate your priorities,” said Sheppard, who turned 44 on Monday. “I thought this would be a great birthday present to myself – go out and vote.”
Staff Writer Barry Paschal contributed to this article.
|
<urn:uuid:98dd6e6c-3da7-45cd-a0b0-02d72cd77da9>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2012-10-15/turnout-strong-first-day-early-voting-officials-say?mmo_ccc=xfinity
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.981268
| 355
| 1.53125
| 2
|
As I work extensively with companies developing computer software and hardware, I am proud to be a member of the British Computer Society (the BCS). I receive regular emails and magazines and occasionally attend local meetings. This week an email newsletter alerted me to a blog by John Morris on the BCS web site entitled "Data Migration and User Stories".
Morris writes in praise of "User Stories" used in Agile programming which are (and here he quotes from Wikipedia) "A software system requirement formulated as one or two sentences in the everyday language of the user". When I read this I didn't know whether to cheer or to weep. Here is a technical expert in a highly technical field who is at last paying attention to the fact that the system he is building needs to be used by real-world end users - not techies or geeks - to do real-world jobs. I suppose any consideration of user needs is a huge improvement on no consideration at all, so I think I'll err on the side of cheering.
But putting the needs of the real end user at the focus of technology projects is something everyone should all aspire to, and technical authors, usability specialists, and interface designers have been fighting on behalf of real end users for decades. It's been a fight because in most cases software developers and other technical experts dismiss our concerns because we're not programmers. The only things that are new about Agile "User Stories" is that a it's a cute name for thinking about real end users, and it's part of a popular development methodology which happens to be the latest trend.
I've not been a big fan of Agile, because in most of the implementations I've seen the daily scrums and the like focus on minutiae of code, and the big picture goals - helping real-world end users do their jobs - get lost. But if Agile development teams really do develop user stories, and really do keep referring back to them to make sure their project is on track, then there is a glimmer of hope.
11 hours ago
|
<urn:uuid:217d6a22-7a7f-43d8-adae-76992813b609>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.theblockheadblog.co.uk/2008_04_20_archive.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.955807
| 419
| 1.648438
| 2
|
Global Orgasm — Just Do It
VERMONT — When The Beatles implored us all to “come together,” this probably isn’t what they had in mind.
At the precise moment the sun reaches its most southerly point — 1:08 a.m. on December 22 in Vermont (otherwise known as the winter solstice) — the world will experience an unprecedented climax. At least that’s the hope of those organizing the second annual Synchronized Global Orgasm for Peace.
In addition to encouraging humans everywhere to enjoy themselves and one another, promoters of the Global Oh have semi-serious intentions. They point to the work of the New Jersey-based Global Consciousness Project, which finds that a simultaneous planet-wide experience of a maximum-magnitude event can affect global awareness. The fall of the World Trade Center is cited as one such instance; a synchronized global orgasm could be another.
Some Vermonters are eager to do their part.
“The work that we do is arduous and offers little reward, so in order to sustain our efforts, we do need to do things like this,” says Serena Chaudhry, director of the Peace and Justice Center in Burlington.
|
<urn:uuid:cee83c6c-3034-423d-a315-5681f1da1950>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.7dvt.com/2007/global-orgasm-just-do-it
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.927995
| 260
| 2.015625
| 2
|
“9/11 truther” refers to anyone who doesn’t believe in the first conspiracy theory of an external terrorist attack.
The external terrorist theory was injected into the Internet within 14 minutes of the first weapons platform hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
This theory which would ultimately morph into an al-Qaeda attribution was injected by Teachers’ (TIAA-CREF) agents led by Bernardine Dohrn at Northwestern University’s School of Law where she lectures on Torture and the Rwanda Genocide, and Dohrn’s Warmist colleagues in the NU Kellogg School of Management, including Richard Sandor and Philip Ginsberg.
We now know that al-Qaeda scripts, simulations and visualizations for 9/11 were pre-prepared by Teachers’ agents using NU’s iCAIR/Internet2 facilities and injected via C-SPAN to establish a lock on the public psyche.
NU’s Warmist Teachers’—they wrote the 350 Cap-and-Kill Rule Set for Obama—made a huge strategic error though; they prepared an explanation of why the Twin Towers would come down days or weeks before they did and then injected this bogus explanation into a live broadcast over C-SPAN a mere two days after the collapse—September 13, 2001.
The need for speed was obvious; the Teachers’ had to conceal Dohrn’s use of fuel-air explosives in the WTC HVAC systems and legitimize cat-bond insurance claims for the double occurrence where the kickbacks would be shared inter alia with saboteurs and members of the Carbon Disclosure Project including the BBC Pension Trust and USS-Teachers’ pension funds.
“Why did the World Trade Center towers collapse?
13 Sept 2001—Press Release—by Zdenek P. Bazant McCormick School Professor and Walter P. Murphy Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Northwestern University. The towers of the World Trade Center were designed to withstand as a whole the horizontal impact of a large commercial aircraft. So why did a total collapse occur? The reason is the dynamic consequence of the prolonged heating of the steel columns to very high [a lie if heating was due to al-Qaeda jet fuel burning with black smoke, the truth if it was due to fuel air explosives pumped throught the HVAC systems] temperature. The heating caused creep buckling of the columns of the framed tube along the perimeter of the structure, which transmits the vertical load to the ground”N.B. NU’s Bazant and Hani Mahmassani—Director of the al-Qaeda supply chain at the NU Transportation Center—worked together on crowd dynamics prior to the 9/11 collapse so that high-value Warmist deniers at eSpeed-CO2e, Aon and Marsh Mclennan could be herded into pods e.g. WTC elavators or stairwells prior to being vaporized with expert witness in the FDNY.
Dead men tell no tales but the internet never dies.
|
<urn:uuid:ca51c6dc-1eb4-4e99-88fc-de2c151620d6>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.abeldanger.net/2010_01_01_archive.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.930658
| 638
| 1.84375
| 2
|
Pets in Bed: More Dangerous Than Bedbugs?
Lots of people sleep with their dogs and cats, but the habit carries a low but real risk of diseases (including plague), infections (including MRSA), and parasites (including worms).
Click here to read the full story.
No profanity or inappropriate comments will be allowed.
Offensive posters will be blocked from future postings.
|
<urn:uuid:ebae0148-01ca-4def-a77d-0e9fb8a3c7f3>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.cbs47.tv/webmd/pets/story/Pets-in-Bed-More-Dangerous-Than-Bedbugs/EGyBXVwdSEWgSwiJbFQD3w.cspx?p=Comments
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.919363
| 80
| 1.90625
| 2
|
Tropical Storm Isaac churns into eastern Caribbean
- unverified comments
Thank you for your submission.Error report or correction
For full hurricane coverage, interactive map of active storms and useful links with information of steps to take in the event of a hurricane, go to Hurricane Central.
ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) - The churning center of Tropical Storm Isaac spun over tiny islands at the eastern entrance to the Caribbean, where many seafront bars and restaurants stubbornly remained open Wednesday evening as lightning and thunder crackled and choppy surf slapped against piers and seawalls.
U.S. forecasters said Isaac was likely to approach Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as a hurricane late Thursday or early Friday after intensifying over the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. It was predicted to move on to Cuba as a tropical storm and perhaps eventually menace Florida as a hurricane later in the week.
By Wednesday evening, the storm was 65 miles southwest of the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. Isaac was moving west at 21 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
At the bar of the Fort Young Hotel in Dominica's coastal capital of Roseau, a few tourists and locals spent the evening drinking cold beer and chatting over the sound of white-crested waves just outside.
"The skies were very black and cloudy most of the day, but it's been pretty quiet so far. Some rain, very little wind," bartender Raymond Reynolds said at the 71-room hotel on the jagged, densely forested island. "We've been through this before."
As the storm approached, military authorities at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, canceled several days of pretrial hearings in the case of five prisoners charged in the Sept. 11 attacks. They also planned to evacuate about 200 people, including legal teams and relatives of Sept. 11 victims.
Isaac also posed a possible threat to Florida during next week's Republican National Convention in Tampa, according to forecasters, though the storm's track was uncertain.
In the U.S. Virgin Islands, along the harbor in St. Croix's historic town of Christiansted, piers normally lined with pleasure boats were empty Wednesday. Business owners stacked sandbags around the doorways of the pastel-colored buildings that line the narrow streets. One bar advertised a "hurricane party."
Lia Studdard, who owns a 40-foot boat moored in the harbor, planned to spend the storm holed up in a hotel room with a view of her vessel.
"I don't think it's going to be as bad as everyone expects," Studdard said. "Worst case scenario, I'll take my dinghy and go out and drop another anchor."
The U.S. Virgin Islands commissioner of public works, Darryl Smalls, said crews distributed sandbags to residents in St. Croix, where schools and government offices were ordered to remain closed Thursday. St. Kitts announced similar closures for Wednesday.
On the U.S. island of Puerto Rico, Gov. Luis Fortuno declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard. He also canceled classes and closed government agencies. Federal officials closed the popular San Felipe del Morro castle in Old San Juan. The storm was expected to pass just south of Puerto Rico on Thursday.
Authorities in Puerto Rico reported that a 75-year-old woman died Wednesday in the northern city of Bayamon when she fell from a second-floor balcony while filling a barrel with water in preparation for the storm.
The U.S. Coast Guard closed all ports in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to incoming commercial ships and warned that all commercial vessels bigger than 200 gross tons must leave or obtain permission to remain in port.
As he campaigned in Nevada, President Barack Obama received an update from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on U.S. preparations for Isaac, deputy press secretary Josh Earnest reported.
"FEMA has been in close coordination with local officials and emergency managers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands," Earnest told reporters as Obama flew to a later stop in New York. Earnest said FEMA had deployed teams to both locations.
The storm unleashed downpours on the French island of Guadeloupe on Wednesday, said local chief meteorologist Norbert Aouizerats. In Martinique, officials warned of swollen rivers and flooding. Meteorologist Jean-Noel Degrace said at least 3 inches (8 centimeters) of rain had fallen Wednesday morning. The leader of Martinique, Laurent Prevost, urged people in low-lying areas to evacuate, but there were no immediate reports of damage.
In the Dominican Republic, authorities banned boats from entering its waters and warned of heavy rains from Thursday through Saturday.
Liat airline and American Eagle canceled flights to islands including Dominica, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe and Martinique.
On the island of Vieques, which lies just east of Puerto Rico, people prepared for the government to temporarily shut off power.
Glenn Curry, an owner of Bananas Guesthouse, said he closed the restaurant and would move guests to a higher floor.
"I don't think this is going to be a major storm, but it's going to be noisy and unpleasant for a few hours," he said.
|
<urn:uuid:3060216e-5742-4a3c-a1f3-3d14dd33a0b6>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2012/aug/22/isaac_082312_185938/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.967515
| 1,125
| 1.84375
| 2
|
On Saturday February 23rd we will host our first Find It ,Pick It, Cook It, Eat It Workshop of 2013. We will go deep into the woods and see what is peeking up after the winter. Already I have had a sneak preview and there are lots of interesting leaves and salady things beginning to emerge. We will look for edible leaves, shoots and herbs as we walk through the woods. We will pick them and make them into something delicious to eat when we get back to Killedmond
Photos of some of the actions at earlier workshops with guests and students.
It is amazing how Spring creeps up ; already birds are beginning to sing and from my kitchen window today I saw a Rook inspecting an old nest and carrying some big twigs back to it. A major reconstruction job is obviously underway. I just hope the high winds don’t knock it down after all the twig carrying and general cawing that is going on at the moment.
But back to our Workshop. If you haven’t been to one of these before, they are good fun, with delicious organic food and the expectation that we will forage for some delicious edibles in the woods and make them up into salads which we can eat with crunchy home- made bread. We have made it easier for you to book now with Pay Pal. So lets kick off this Spring with a great wild walk in the woods and baskets of delicious edibles to bring back with us for Afternoon Tea in front of a roaring log fire. We look forward to seeing you here in Killedmond.
|
<urn:uuid:93623bac-6285-4b6c-a7c3-d0df028374d3>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.blackstairsecotrails.ie/11-days-to-go-for-our-first-workshop-of-the-year/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.964804
| 321
| 1.804688
| 2
|
Up next in Self-Help & Improvement (50 videos)
Learn 50 ways to improve yourself with the tips in these Howcast videos.
You Will Need
- Essential oils
- A spray bottle
Learn how to use oils
Learn the various ways you can use essential oils. Put several drops on a tissue, cotton balls, or a handkerchief; add them to a pot of simmering water, a humidifier, or a diffuser; or make a scented mist by putting one cup of distilled water mixed with 10 drops of essential oil into a spray bottle.
Get more done at work
Get more done at the office with the scent of lemons. One Japanese company pumped a lemon scent through vents and found that employees made 54 percent fewer errors than those who toiled in an unscented room.
Sniff some peppermint before you go to the gym. One group of exercisers who did felt less tired after a treadmill workout than those who didn’t.
Be a better driver
Drivers who got a whiff of strawberry while at the wheel drove better and less aggressively than motorists who didn’t, according to a study.
Make yourself more attractive to men by scenting yourself or your surroundings with cinnamon. Research shows they love the smell.
Reduce dental anxiety
Take a sniff of orange or lavender oil before a root canal. A study showed it reduced anxiety and improved the moods of dental patients.
Lift your mood
Lift your spirits with a woodsy fragrance like cedar or pine. In one study, those who did felt more relaxed and carefree, and less depressed.
Sleep like a baby
Inhale jasmine before you go to bed for a better night’s sleep.
|
<urn:uuid:58d1a969-807b-412a-a94f-56872232d1a1>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.howcast.com/videos/164134-How-to-Use-Aromatherapys-Essential-Oils-to-Improve-Your-Life
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.908589
| 363
| 2.09375
| 2
|