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Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Atoms for Peace” (8 December 1953)
Madame President, Members of the General Assembly:
When Secretary General Hammarskjöld’s invitation to address this General Assembly reached me in Bermuda, I was just beginning a series of conferences with the Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers of Great Britain and of France. Our subject was some of the problems that beset our world.
During the remainder of the Bermuda Conference, I had constantly in mind that ahead of me lay a great honor. That honor is mine today as I stand here, privileged to address the General Assembly of the United Nations.
At the same time that I appreciate the distinction of addressing you, I have a sense of
exhilaration as I look upon this assembly.
Never before in history has so much hope for so many people been gathered together in
a single organization. Your deliberations and decisions during these somber years have already realized part of those hopes.
But the great tests and the great accomplishments still lie ahead. And in the confident
expectation of those accomplishments, I would use the office which, for the time being, I hold, to assure you that the Government of the United States will remain steadfast in its support of this body. This we shall do in the conviction that you will provide a great share of the wisdom, the courage, and the faith which can bring to this world lasting peace for all nations, and happiness and well-being for all men.
Clearly, it would not be fitting for me to take this occasion to present to you a
unilateral American report on Bermuda. Nevertheless, I assure you that in our deliberations on that lovely island we sought to invoke those same great concepts of universal peace and human dignity which are so cleanly etched in your charter.
Neither would it be a measure of this great opportunity merely to recite, however
hopefully, pious platitudes.
I therefore decided that this occasion warranted my saying to you some of the things
that have been on the minds and hearts of my legislative and executive associates and on mine for a great many months–thoughts I had originally planned to say primarily to the American people.
I know that the American people share my deep belief that if a danger exists in the world, it is a danger shared by all–and equally, that if hope exists in the mind of one nation, that hope should be shared by all.
Finally, if there is to be advanced any proposal designed to ease, even by the smallest
measure, the tensions of today’s world, what more appropriate audience could there be than the members of the General Assembly of the United Nations?
I feel impelled to speak today in a language that, in a sense, is new–one, which I,
who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use.
That new language is the language of atomic warfare.
The atomic age has moved forward at such a pace that every citizen of the world should have some comprehension, at least in comparative terms, of the extent of this development, of the utmost significance to every one of us. Clearly, if the peoples of the world are to conduct an intelligent search for peace, they must be armed with the significant facts of today’s existence.
My recital of atomic danger and power is necessarily stated in United States terms,
for these are the only incontrovertible facts that I know. I need hardly point out to this
Assembly, however, that this subject is global, not merely national in character.
On July 16th, 1945, the United States set off the world’s first atomic explosion. Since
that date in 1945, the United States of America has conducted 42 test explosions.
Atomic bombs today are more than 25 times as powerful as the weapons with which the atomic age dawned, while hydrogen weapons are in the ranges of millions of tons of TNT equivalent.
Today, the United States’ stockpile of atomic weapons, which, of course, increases
daily, exceeds by many times the total equivalent of the total of all bombs and all shells
that came from every plane and every gun in every theatre of war in all the years of World
A single air group, whether afloat or land-based, can now deliver to any reachable
target a destructive cargo exceeding in power all the bombs that fell on Britain in all of
World War II.
In size and variety the development of atomic weapons has been no less remarkable. The development has been such that atomic weapons have virtually achieved conventional status within our armed services. In the United States, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marine Corps are all capable of putting this weapon to military use.
But the dread secret, and the fearful engines of atomic might, are not ours alone.
In the first place, the secret is possessed by our friends and allies, Great Britain
and Canada, whose scientific genius made a tremendous contribution to our original discoveries and the designs of atomic bombs.
The secret is also known by the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union has informed us that, over recent years, it has devoted extensive
resources to atomic weapons. During this period, the Soviet Union has exploded a series of
atomic devices, including at least one involving thermo-nuclear reactions.
If at one time the United States possessed what might have been called a monopoly of
atomic power, that monopoly ceased to exist several years ago. Therefore, although our earlier start has permitted us to accumulate what is today a great quantitative advantage, the atomic realities of today comprehend two facts of even greater significance.
First, the knowledge now possessed by several nations will eventually be shared by
others, possibly all others.
Second, even a vast superiority in numbers of weapons, and a consequent capability
of devastating retaliation, is no preventive, of itself, against the fearful material damage
and toll of human lives that would be inflicted by surprise aggression.
The free world, at least dimly aware of these facts, has naturally embarked on a large
program of warning and defense systems. That program will be accelerated and expanded.
But let no one think that the expenditure of vast sums for weapons and systems of
defense can guarantee absolute safety for the cities and citizens of any nation. The awful
arithmetic of the atomic bomb does not permit of any such easy solution. Even against the
most powerful defense, an aggressor in possession of the effective minimum number of atomic bombs for a surprise attack could probably place a sufficient number of his bombs on the chosen targets to cause hideous damage.
Should such an atomic attack be launched against the United States, our reactions
would be swift and resolute. But for me to say that the defense capabilities of the United
States are such that they could inflict terrible losses upon an aggressor–for me to say
that the retaliation capabilities of the United States are so great that such an aggressor’s
land would be laid waste–all this, while fact, is not the true expression of
the purpose and the hope of the United States.
To pause there would be to confirm the hopeless finality of a belief that two atomic
colossi are doomed malevolently to eye each other indefinitely across a trembling world. To
stop there would be to accept helplessly the probability of civilization destroyed–the
annihilation of the irreplaceable heritage of mankind handed down to us generation from
generation–and the condemnation of mankind to begin all over again the age-old struggle
upward from savagery toward decency, and right, and justice.
Surely no sane member of the human race could discover victory in such desolation. Could anyone wish his name to be coupled by history with such human degradation and destruction?
Occasional pages of history do record the faces of the “Great Destroyers” but the whole book of history reveals mankind’s never-ending quest for peace and mankind’s God-given capacity to build.
It is with the book of history, and not with isolated pages, that the United States
will ever wish to be identified. My country wants to be constructive, not destructive. It
wants agreements, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom, and in the
confidence that the people of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their
own way of life.
So my country’s purpose is to help us move out of the dark chamber of horrors into the light, to find a way by which the minds of men, the hopes of men, the souls of men everywhere, can move forward toward peace and happiness and well-being.
In this quest, I know that we must not lack patience.
I know that in a world divided, such as ours today, salvation cannot be attained by
one dramatic act.
I know that many steps will have to be taken over many months before the world can
look at itself one day and truly realize that a new climate of mutually peaceful confidence
is abroad in the world.
But I know, above all else, that we must start to take these steps–now.
The United States and its allies, Great Britain and France, have over the past months
tried to take some of these steps. Let no one say that we shun the conference table.
On the record has long stood the request of the United States, Great Britain, and France to negotiate with the Soviet Union the problems of a divided Germany.
On that record has long stood the request of the same three nations to negotiate an
Austrian Peace Treaty.
On the same record still stands the request of the United Nations to negotiate the
problems of Korea.
Most recently, we have received from the Soviet Union what is in effect an expression
of willingness to hold a Four-Power Meeting. Along with our allies of Great Britain and France, we were pleased to see that this note did not contain the unacceptable preconditions previously put forward.
As you already know from our joint Bermuda communiqué, the United States, Great Britain, and France have agreed promptly to meet with the Soviet Union.
The Government of the United States approaches this conference with hopeful sincerity. We will bend every effort of our minds to the single purpose of emerging from that conference with tangible results toward peace–the only true way of lessening international tension.
We never have, we never will, propose or suggest that the Soviet Union surrender what is rightfully theirs.
We will never say that the people of Russia are an enemy with whom we have no desire ever to deal or mingle in friendly and fruitful relationship.
On the contrary, we hope that this coming Conference may initiate a relationship with
the Soviet Union which will eventually bring about a free intermingling of the peoples of the
East and of the West–the one sure, human way of developing the understanding required for confident and peaceful relations.
Instead of the discontent which is now settling upon Eastern Germany, occupied Austria, and the countries of Eastern Europe, we seek a harmonious family of free European nations, with none a threat to the other, and least of all a threat to the peoples of Russia.
Beyond the turmoil and strife and misery of Asia, we seek peaceful opportunity for these peoples to develop their natural resources and to elevate their lives.
These are not idle words or shallow visions. Behind them lies a story of nations lately
come to independence, not as a result of war but through free grant or peaceful negotiation. There is a record, already written, of assistance gladly given by nations of the West to needy peoples, and to those suffering the temporary effects of famine, drought, and natural disaster.
These are deeds of peace. They speak more loudly than promises or protestations of
But I do not wish to rest either upon the reiteration of past proposals or
the restatement of past deeds. The gravity of the time is such that every new avenue of peace, no matter how dimly discernible, should be explored.
There is at least one new avenue of peace which has not yet been well exploredѡn avenue now laid out by the General Assembly of the United Nations.
In its resolution of November 18th, 1953, this General Assembly suggested–and I
quote–“that the Disarmament Commission study the desirability of establishing a sub-committee consisting of representatives of the Powers principally involved, which should seek in private an acceptable solution . . . and report such a solution to the General Assembly and to the Security Council not later than September 1, 1954.”
The United States, heeding the suggestion of the General Assembly of the United Nations, is instantly prepared to meet privately with such other countries as may be “principally involved,” to seek “an acceptable solution” to the atomic armaments race which overshadows not only the peace, but the very life, of the world.
We shall carry into these private or diplomatic talks a new conception.
The United States would seek more than the mere reduction or elimination of atomic
materials for military purposes.
It is not enough to take this weapon out of the hands of the soldiers. It must be put
into the hands of those who will know how to strip its military casing and adapt it to the arts of peace.
The United States knows that if the fearful trend of atomic military build-up can be
reversed, this greatest of destructive forces can be developed into a great boon, for the
benefit of all mankind.
The United States knows that peaceful power from atomic energy is no dream of the
future. That capability, already proved, is here–now–today. Who can doubt, if the entire body of the world’s scientists and engineers had adequate amounts of fissionable material with which to test and develop their ideas, that this capability would rapidly be transformed into universal, efficient, and economic usage?
To hasten the day when fear of the atom will begin to disappear from the minds of
people, and the governments of the East and West, there are certain steps that can be taken now.
I therefore make the following proposal:
The Governments principally involved, to the extent permitted by elementary prudence, to begin now and continue to make joint contributions from their stockpiles of normal uranium and fissionable materials to an International Atomic Energy Agency. We would expect that such an agency would be set up under the aegis of the United Nations.
The ratios of contributions, the procedures and other details would properly be within
the scope of the “private conversations” I have referred to earlier.
The United States is prepared to undertake these explorations in good faith. Any partner of the United States acting in the same good faith will find the United States a not unreasonable or ungenerous associate.
Undoubtedly initial and early contributions to this plan would be small in quantity.
However, the proposal has the great virtue that it can be undertaken without the irritations and mutual suspicions incident to any attempt to set up a completely acceptable system of world-wide inspection and control.
The Atomic Energy Agency could be made responsible for the impounding, storage, and protection of the contributed fissionable and other materials. The ingenuity of our scientists will provide special safe conditions under which such a bank of fissionable material can be made essentially immune to surprise seizure.
The more important responsibility of this Atomic Energy Agency would be to devise methods whereby this fissionable material would be allocated to serve the peaceful pursuits of mankind. Experts would be mobilized to apply atomic energy to the needs of agriculture, medicine, and other peaceful activities. A special purpose would be to provide abundant electrical energy in the power-starved areas of the world. Thus the contributing powers would be dedicating some of their strength to serve the needs rather than the fears of mankind.
The United States would be more than willing–it would be proud to take up with others “principally involved” the development of plans whereby such peaceful use of atomic energy would be expedited.
Of those “principally involved” the Soviet Union must, of course, be one.
I would be prepared to submit to the Congress of the United States, and with every
expectation of approval, any such plan that would:
First, encourage world-wide investigation into the most effective peacetime uses of
fissionable material, and with the certainty that they had all the material needed for the
conduct of all experiments that were appropriate;
Second, begin to diminish the potential destructive power of the world’s atomic
Third, allow all peoples of all nations to see that, in this enlightened age, the
great powers of the earth, both of the East and of the West, are interested in human aspirations first, rather than in building up the armaments of war;
Fourth, open up a new channel for peaceful discussion, and initiate at least a new
approach to the many difficult problems that must be solved in both private and public
conversations, if the world is to shake off the inertia imposed by fear, and is to make
positive progress toward peace.
Against the dark background of the atomic bomb, the United States does not wish merely to present strength, but also the desire and the hope for peace.
The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions. In this Assembly; in the
capitals and military headquarters of the world; in the hearts of men everywhere, be they
governed or governors, may they be the decisions which will lead this world out of fear and
To the making of these fateful decisions, the United States pledges before you–and
therefore before the world–its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma–to
devote its entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of
man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life.
I again thank the delegates for the great honor they have done me, in inviting me
to appear before them, and in listening to me so courteously. Thank you. | <urn:uuid:0e7125c5-9024-4e2d-bd6e-d80fe195a0cc> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/eisenhower-atoms-for-peace-speech-text/?s= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571987.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813202507-20220813232507-00264.warc.gz | en | 0.947782 | 4,014 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Design By Decade Series
Catalogue Number: BAM076
Producer: Blue Ant Media
Subject: Arts, Canadian History, Canadian Social Studies, Family Studies/Home Economics, History, Social Studies, Tech/Voc
Grade Level: 9 - 12, Post Secondary
Country Of Origin: Canada
Copyright Year: 2011
Closed Captions: Yes
From the post-war Modern style to the diversity of the new millennium – explore six decades of Canadian design.
Featuring the collection of the Design Exchange - Canada’s National Design Museum, Design by Decade reveals the exceptional stories behind the objects of everyday life. These are the symbols of our cultural past and present.
A comprehensive and informative Canadian-produced series aimed at Grade 10 to College/University courses. Excellent resource for Canadian History, Family Studies and Home Economics, Art, and Industrial Design courses.
6 programs, 30 minutes each.
That's Art SeriesBlue Ant Media BAM063
Art is all around us: tattoos, graffiti, movie posters and book covers. That's Art?! introduces you... | <urn:uuid:19d261e0-eabd-4f0f-95dd-1ffee21099e2> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.mcintyre.ca/titles/BAM076 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817032054-20220817062054-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.812165 | 237 | 2.046875 | 2 |
As Islamist violence rocks Egypt, Egyptians in the throes of pain vow they won’t be brought to their knees
The mood in Egypt was cheerful and hopeful on Monday 23 December as Christmas Eve approached and, right on its heels, New Year 2014. That year was to mark Egypt’s endeavour to become a free, democratic State, as charted by its Roadmap to the Future. The first step was the referendum scheduled for 14 and 15 January to vote for a new Constitution, to be followed by presidential and parliamentary elections by midyear.
But Egyptians were in for a rude awakening.
Those who had slept before 1am woke up on Tuesday morning to the tragic news of a car bomb that blasted the security headquarters in the Delta town of Mansoura, the capital city of Daqahliya province. The bombing left 14 dead, eight among whom were security officials and policemen; and some 140 injured, among them many civilians—Egypt is notorious for late-night activity, and the streets were teeming with individuals at 1am. The Daqahliya security chief Sameh al-Mihi who was among the injured lost an eye; his two aides died. The blast was so powerful it was felt within a 20km circle, according to Daqahliya governor Omar al-Shawatsi. Nearby buildings and vehicles suffered damages and shattered windows. The security headquarters building caved in. The Health Ministry spokesman said the number of casualties may rise in view of the critical condition of many of the injured, and since others are feared trapped under the partially collapsed building.
It took till Tuesday evening for the Islamist jihadi group Ansaar Beit al-Maqdis to tweet that the operation in Daqahliya was successfully completed.
All Islamists in one basket
A statement emailed in English—no such text was sent in Arabic—from the Muslim Brotherhood’s London office condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms” and called for the perpetrators of the “cowardly crime” to be brought to justice. But Egyptians in their wide majority could see the characteristic stamp of Islamist violence all over the operation. They saw the MB condemnation as a bitter joke.
Egyptians today place all Islamists in one basket the main ingredient wherein is the MB; they believe Islamist groups are all allied and complicit in terrorism. Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the MB, the Salafi Jihadis waging war against Egypt in the Sinai are Hamas protégés, Ansaar Beit al-Maqdis are Sinai based Jihadis; all are Islamist by any other name. The condemnation was, for Egyptians, a petty public relations move to persuade the ‘democratic, free’ world how good, peaceful, gracious the MB, aka Islamists, are. But the real bitterness on the Egyptian street was that everyone expected the western media to fall for the MB PR move.
It didn’t help at all that the MB gloated over the victims.
Social networking sites, major among which were Facebook and Twitter, were replete with messages for MB members or supporters expressing their joy at the carnage and bodies or body parts lying around. The official page of MB supporters who call themselves the Rabaa Heroes carried a post that “this is the destiny of the infidels, and our gift to [President] Adly Mansour on his birthday.” Many boastfully reminded of the threats by MB leaders Safwat Higazy and Muhammad al-Beltagui—both are in prison today—during the Islamists sit-in in Rabaa last July and August. Higazy had then said that the MB would inflict upon Egyptians “terrorism they never dreamed existed”, and Beltagui had promised that the war against Egypt in Sinai would directly end once [the MB Islamist president] Muhammad Mursi who was overthrown on 3 July by massive public protest and military action is back as president. They wrote that it was either “legitimacy or heads flying”, and that security would be back to Egypt’s streets only if Mursi was back.
The official page of the MB’s Freedom and Justice Party accused the Egyptian government and the Coptic business tycoon Naguib Sawiris of being behind the bombing in order to rally a ‘yes’ vote for the Constitution in the January 2014 referendum.
Anger and tears
Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi declared the MB a terrorist organisation, as announced by the Premier’s spokesman Sherif Shawqy. He said the attack was a terrorist act to frighten the people and obstruct the Roadmap. “The black hands behind this act want to destroy the future of our country. The State will do its utmost to pursue the criminals who executed, planned and supported that attack,” he said.
The Minister of Interim Justice Muhammad Amin al-Mahdy broke into uncontrollable tears as he called for a moment of silence to mourn the victims.
Security was tightened over potential targets in all over Egypt: security headquarters, police stations, railway and metro lines and stations, banks, and churches.
For their part, Egypt’s various Churches all issued statements denouncing the terrorist act, mourning the victims, and offering prayers for Egypt.
Mansoura was the scene of public wrath at the MB, with protests marching the length and breadth of the town vowing to avenge the victims.
Yet the Mansoura blast was not an isolated incident; it was one among seemingly endless incidents of terrorist actions waged by the Islamists against Egypt ever since some 33 million Egyptians demonstrated on 30 June to bring down the Islamist MB regime and Mursi who was overthrown on 3 July.
Terror on campus
Even as Egypt mourned its dead, the MB charged ahead with their terror campaign against Egyptians. Male and female MB students continued their weeks-long violent acts against Egypt’s universities, the aim being to discontinue all academic activity. The violence has been especially jarring at the Islamic institution of al-Azhar University, given the high proportion of Islamist students there. The surprise, however, was that the female students emerged as the perpetrators of savage violence, as though competing with and outstripping the men.
On that fateful Tuesday 24 December, al-Azhar MB female students managed to close down the Faculties of Humanities and Islamic Studies in the al-Azhar Girl’s College, and joined the men in burning the university cafeteria. The women threatened anyone who stood in their way with acid and water mixed with hot red chilli which they aimed at the eyes. They assaulted two security guards and injured them. Twelve female and five male students were arrested.
But this was only the last in a long series of appalling terrorist acts inside the universities. In several instances, the deans of colleges were assaulted by MB male and female students inside their offices, and the rioting forced several universities to put off scheduled examinations. Non-MB students who wished to attend classes and office workers who intended to go about their business were assaulted and terrorised by the MB students. Campuses became scenes of perilous clashes. In Cairo University, the MB students forced the university guards inside their room close to the gates, locked them in and set the place alight. The men inside were saved from a terrible fate by the non-MB students who clashed with the MBs and rushed to rescue the imprisoned guards.
The Islamists even had the gall to burn the trees in and around campus.
The violence of MB women has been especially conspicuous since the overthrow of the Islamist Mursi. After they had historically been kept away from the public scene on grounds of decency, they suddenly came in handy as human shields on the front lines of demonstration, then as active terrorists. Given the suicide mentality which backs Islamist terrorism, this was not surprising. They worked to provoke and assault the police and army into retaliating; if they were injured or even killed they were sure of a place in Paradise since it was all in a good fight for Allah. According to the political analyst and scholar Abul-Fadl al-Esnawi, this marked a qualitative shift in the role of Islamist women. The notorious lynching earlier this month of the taxi driver in Mansoura who tried to drive through an Islamist demonstration and in the process ran through a protestor was executed by a woman in niqab, the Islamic full face veil.
In more than one case in demonstrations in Cairo and Mansoura last July, after-death reports proved men and women demonstrators were shot at close range from the back, meaning it was by their fellow demonstrators not by the police that was confronting them.
Last month Egypt’s activists were up in arms when a court in Alexandria sentenced 14 MB female students to prison terms that ranged from six months to 11 years on charges of rioting and blocking roads. An appeals court reduced the prison terms to a maximum one-year suspended sentence, and the women were freed. The movement they belonged to, the ‘7 in the morning’ movement so named because they began their violent street rioting at 7am, never stopped inciting or perpetrating violence. The incident, however, revealed the wide rift between mainstream Egyptians and ‘activists’. More than 90 per cent of the online comments on the sentences on the news site www.youm7.com were strongly against dealing leniently with the women, in view of the uncanny brutality they exercised and expected to get away with on account of being women.
Fair share for Copts
Not surprisingly, Christians came in for a fair share of the violence. One MB woman in niqab stood before the TV cameras during the sit-in in Rabaa and pointedly threatened Copts: “I say to the Nasaara (a derogatory word to denote Christians) ‘You’re close to us, we’ll set you aflame’.”
Last Monday, and for no clear reason, dozens of Muslim villagers in Tarshoub in Beni-Sweif some 100km south of Cairo mobbed the homes and shops of the Coptic villagers, destroying and burning a Coptic-owned house, shop, and tuk-tuk. They surrounded the village church of Mar-Girgis (St George) and attacked it with stones, pulling the priest out and forcing him to leave the village, and shuttering the 20 year-old church which serves 170 Coptic [extended] families.
The police rushed to the scene to prevent any further violence.
“Egypt will never be brought down to her knees”
A Mansoura female engineer in her fifties, a conservative Muslim, was poignantly passionate as she talked to Watani and strongly expressed the determination and steeliness of Mansoura people never to give in to the Islamists. “We won’t be broken,” she cried in tears, “Egypt will never be brought to her knees. Never!” She recounted how Mansoura residents rushed out minutes after the blast to help with the rescue operations and donate blood—she was herself in hospital waiting for her turn to donate blood. “We did the right thing to throw them off last July, and no matter how much we suffer now or how many of us are injured or killed, we won’t give in to them. They##re just proving how vicious, brutal, and inhuman they are.”
The determination to go ahead with normal life and do the best effort possible for Egypt is the best way for Egyptians to defeat those who wish to bring them down. So, as the New Year that should bring in a democratic, free Egyptian State hails, it is fitting to wish Watani readers a hopeful, triumphant 2014.
Reported by Georgette Sadeq, Mervat Ayoub, Mariam Rifaat, Girgis Waheeb
25 December 2013 | <urn:uuid:6c797bd8-5796-476c-b79e-f7dfdc11b9c4> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://en.wataninet.com/egypt-arab-spring/egypt-post-30-june/theyll-never-break-us-2/787/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281353.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00071-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974141 | 2,471 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Ukraine Cooperates with Russia on $4bln AN-70 Project
Ukrainian company Antonov together with Russian United Aircraft Corporation will participate in manufacturing Antonov An-70 transport airplanes. Russian defense ministry already placed an order for 60 such machines, USD 67 million apiece. Developed since 1978, An-70 can carry heavier cargo than existing transport planes and land on ill-equipped runways.
An-70 can carry 300 troopers, or 200 injured persons, or 47 tons of freight. Comparably, the closest alternative to An-70 - Airbus A400M Atlas - can carry 37 tons of cargo. Market price of the Spanish A400M is EUR 145 million, whereas the Ukrainian An-70 costs less than USD 70 million.
World's 10 Leading Commercial Aerospace Companies
Planes An-70 will be produced at JSC Gorbunov Kazan Aviation Production Association in Kazan, Russia. The plane can fly at a speed of 780 kilometers per hour at distances of up to 7,800 kilometers. An-70 is capable of landing on 600-800 meter runways with earth surfaces. Onboard navigation equipment allows the plane to land and takeoff at airports lacking special earth-based equipment.
The four engines Progress D-27 make it possible for shorter takeoff and landing of An-70. By the end of August 2012, Ukraine plans to finalize testing of the three-shaft propfan engine. Ukrainian state enterprise Ivchenko-Progress developed the engine, while PJSC Motor Sich, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, will produce D-27.
An-70 will be built in compliance with the AP-25 norms of the Interstate Aviation Committee - Airworthiness Standards for Category Airplanes. This will allow certification of An-70 for civilian aviation in Western Europe and North America.
The planned amount of An-70s to be produced by 2020 is 80 machines. Specifically for the purposes of An-70 production Russia will build a separate plant at JSC Gorbunov Kazan Aviation Production Association, according to the Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev.
Besides Russia, Ukraine is currently cooperating with China (AI-222-25F turbofans), Iran (An-140, An-148) on aircraft production projects. Additionally, in July 2012, joint Ukraine-Russia Ruslan SALIS GmbH won NATO air transportation bid.
Ruslan SALIS will provide An-124-100s for air transportation services for the Strategic Airlift Interim Solution project. Within the framework of previous cooperation with joint Ukraine-Russia enterprise, NATO uses An-124-100s to transport troops to and from Afghanistan and peacekeepers in and out of Darfur, as well as to deliver aid to the victims of October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.
Source : Worldwide News Ukraine | <urn:uuid:f5681b5f-12a4-46f5-97e3-22e21b44c9d1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.asdnews.com/news-44454/Ukraine_Cooperates_with_Russia_on_$4bln_AN-70_Project.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280872.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00317-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.863881 | 574 | 1.921875 | 2 |
March 27. By Arnie Epstein. Third time’s the charm! After going back and forth between the Governor and the legislature, the state’s landmark climate bill (S.9) has finally been enacted into law. The final bill sets the state firmly on a course to net-zero emissions by 2050 and includes a number of key provisions.
- Emissions limits set every five years with a reduction of at least 50% by 2030 and 75% by 2040.
- Increases offshore wind by 2,400 megawatts.
- Codifies environmental justice, EJ, population and requires EJ participation and impact report for projects.
- Provisions to increase access to solar for low-income households.
- Creation of a Net Zero energy stretch code.
- Requires municipal light plants to achieve net zero by 2050.
While accepting a number of the Governor’s proposed amendments, the legislature did not budge on the key difference with the administration – the emissions reduction limit for 2030. The final bill sets a 50% emissions limit for 2030 rather than 45% as proposed by the administration. It is hoped there will be federal support under the new administration to achieve this target.
This bill sets the stage for a decade of change and the next few years are crucial. ECA is carefully reviewing the bills filed for the new legislative session to determine those that will have the most impact in achieving the goal. | <urn:uuid:821b5f09-3460-4aaf-a702-f7d94e171799> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://ecamass.org/climate-bill-signed-into-law/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571246.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811073058-20220811103058-00277.warc.gz | en | 0.916961 | 291 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Are Cities In Kentucky Pet
Ranker site Wallethub reviewed the 100 largest cities in the country to rank them by pet-friendliness. Heres how a few of the major cities in Kentucky ranked.
In their study, Lexington-Fayette was the best in Kentucky, ranking 41st most pet-friendly city. It ranked 94th for outdoor pet-friendliness, 47th for pet budget, and 22nd for pet health and wellness.
While 41 isnt outstanding, its in the top half of the largest 100 cities.
Louisville, KY, also did fairly well, ranking 42nd overall. They also ranked 95th for outdoor pet-friendliness, 29th for pet budget, and 24th for pet health and wellness.
A Trust for Public Land study reviews the nations 100 largest cities to see which has the most dog parks per capita. Lexington, KY ranked 22nd on the list at 1.9 per 100,000 residents.
A Few More Facts For Dog
BringFido lists Kentucky as a pet-friendly travel destination with over 1300 verified pet-friendly hotels and motels. The site also lists Dinosaur World and the Kentucky Horse Park as top dog-friendly attractions.
Forty-seven percent of Kentucky residents own a dog. This is above the national dog ownership rate of 40%.
According to the American Kennel Club , the most popular dogs in Kentucky are Labradors, Beagles, and Retrievers. Other popular breeds include Yorkshire Terriers, Boxers, and Chihuahuas.
German Shepherd Dog Characteristics
German Shepherds have been one of Americas most popular dog breeds for many years. They were bred as working dogs and still carry this work ethic and energy. They make great protectors and loyal companions. German Shepherds are happiest with frequent exercise and tasks to complete. They are quick to learn and highly responsive to commands with regular obedience training.
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Choosing A German Shepherd Breeder In Kentucky
A responsible breeder will also ensure that pups have flea prevention, worm treatment, and relevant vaccinations before letting them go to their new homes.
Here are some signs of a good breeder:
- Reputable breeders will likely ask you for a spay/neuter contract that guarantees you will take the necessary steps to avoid breeding and adding to the overpopulation of dogs.
- Animals are provided with fresh water, beds, and toys in a clean and neutral environment.
- Along with breeding, enthusiastic breeders often compete in dog shows.
- Reputable breeders will provide as much ongoing support as you need, whether by email, phone, or person. A responsible breeder should always offer care for the dog until it can be re-homed if you can no longer do so.
Should You Get A Puppy From A Breeder Or A Rescue Puppy
A rescue dog has experienced a great deal of trauma in the past, and they can be a handful to look after. You should have the time and patience to take proper care of a rescue dog. Only people with previous experience caring for a dog should consider getting a rescue dog.
A dog bought from a skilled breeder is apt for a first-time dog owner. If you have small children at home, you should buy a dog that does not require much attention. German Shepherd Breeders in Kentucky will always have healthy puppies that do not have physical or mental issues and are easy to look after. It is also convenient to get a dog with a stable temperament.
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Similar Dog Breeds For German Shepherd Dog
Browse thru German Shepherd Dog Puppies for Sale in Kentucky, USA area listings on PuppyFinder.com to find your perfect puppy. If you are unable to find your German Shepherd Dog puppy in our Puppy for Sale or Dog for Sale sections, please consider looking thru thousands of German Shepherd Dog Dogs for Adoption. Also, be sure to check the German Shepherd Dog Dog Breeder listings in our Dog Breeder Directory, which feature upcoming dog litter announcements and current puppies for sale for that dog breeder. And don’t forget the PuppySpin tool, which is another fun and fast way to search for German Shepherd Dog Puppies for Sale in Kentucky, USA area and German Shepherd Dog Dogs for Adoption in Kentucky, USA area. – also known as: German Shepherd, Alsatian, Alsatian Wolf Dog, Berger Allemand, Deutscher Schäferhund
Haus Ulv Kennels ~ Working Line German Shepherds
Address Canton, KY 42211, United States
Address 14365 Brown Rd, Verona, KY 41092, United States
Phone +1 859-485-6959
Address 2330 Gray Gap Rd, Burkesville, KY 42717, United States
Phone +1 270-853-3990
Address 389 Salem Church Rd, Bee Spring, KY 42207, United States
Phone +1 270-286-0263
Address 157 Cr-1019, Orlando, KY 40460, United States
Phone +1 606-386-9521
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Ask For References From Your German Shepherd Breeder In Kentucky
When youre looking for a German Shepherd breeder in Kentucky, its always a good idea to ask for references. Responsible breeders will be more than happy to provide you with the names and contact information of previous customers.
This is a great way to get an idea of what the breeders puppies are like. Good breeders will have nothing to hide, so they should be more than willing to provide you with references.
If a breeder refuses to give you references, then thats definitely not a good sign and you should avoid doing business with them.
Be sure to contact the references and ask them about their experience working with the breeder. Were they happy with the puppy they purchased? Did the breeder follow up after the sale to make sure they were satisfied? How did their puppy turn out?
Prior to making a purchase, ask for some pictures of the puppies with both parents. This will give you an idea of what your German Shepherd will look like when he or she grows up.
How To Find A Responsible German Shepherd Breeder In Kentucky
If youre looking for a responsible German Shepherd breeder in Kentucky, then the best place to start is by contacting the German Shepherd Dog Club of America . This organization is dedicated to promoting and protecting the breed, and they only work with breeders who adhere to their high standards.
Another great resource is the website of the American Kennel Club . The AKC maintains a list of reputable breeders who have met their rigorous standards and are committed to providing high-quality puppies.
Do your research before buying a puppy, and be sure to ask lots of questions. Responsible breeders will be more than happy to answer all of your queries.
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Miller S German Shepherd And Basset Hound Puppy S
Address 1536 Cook Ridge Rd, Irvington, KY 40146, United States
Phone +1 270-547-2210
Address 2496 Girkin Boiling Springs Rd, Bowling Green, KY 42101, United States
Phone +1 270-438-2515
Address 513 Charles St, Central City, KY 42330, United States
Phone +1 270-820-6733
Address 10 Howard Ave, Lebanon, KY 40033, United States
Phone +1 270-283-8416
German Shepherd Dog Puppies For Sale Near Paducah Kentucky Usa Page 1
PuppyFinder.com is your source for finding an ideal German Shepherd Dog Puppy for Sale near Paducah, Kentucky, USA area. Browse thru our ID Verified puppy for sale listings to find your perfect puppy in your area.
AKC Registered White German Shepherd Puppies
Date listed: 07/03/2022
Aprox. 31.4 mi from Paducah
AKC Registered White German Shepherd Puppies. Born June 16th. Parents are DM clear. Will be vet checked, receive 1st round of shots and are being dewormed every 2 weeks. We…
Date listed: 07/03/2022
Tags: German Shepherd Puppies White German Shepherd Puppies WGS WGS Puppy
AKC Registered Female German Shepherd Puppy
Date listed: 07/03/2022
Aprox. 31.4 mi from Paducah
Born on April 26th, we still have 1 female blk/tan available. She is the last 1 left from the litter, she has been vet checked and had 1st round of shots by vet. She’s being…
Date listed: 07/03/2022
Tags: German Shepherd Puppies GSD
Honey Bears Miss Cucumber Melon
Date listed: 07/08/2022
Honey Bear’s Miss Cucumber Melon is a long coat black and silver female puppy born 5-2-22, priced at $1450.00. Her registration is AKC, American Kennel Club. She has a caring…
Date listed: 07/08/2022
Tags: German shepherd puppy long coat German shepherd puppy black and silver German shepherd female German shepherd puppy AKC German shepherd AKC long coat black and silver female German shepherd puppy for sale
Aprox. 105.7 mi from Paducah
Date listed: 06/28/2022
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The Authentic German Shepherd
- The reproduction of the German Shepherd is closely monitored.
- European German Shepherd dog registries are Governing Bodies for the Breed.
- Breeders and trainers have to be highly qualified.
- All German Shepherds are Authentic German Shepherds
- A countrys German Shepherd Registry will only register puppies from German Shepherds that are of very high quality, that have been evaluated and have the attributes and genetics to improve the breed and take it forward.
- Before a dog can be bred, it has to have proven that it can work in some capacity.
- All of the above ensures the litter will be of high quality. Remember the only reason two dogs should be bred is if the resulting litter will improve the breed and take it forward.
Potty Training Your New German Shepherd Puppy
Potty training your new pup is an incredibly important step in establishing a good relationship. Its best to take the time and effort to potty train them while theyre still a young puppy because it will be much easier than trying to retrain an older dog.
- Utilize crate training where you put your puppy in their kennel any time they arent being supervised or have been given free roam of the house. This will help them learn that this space is theirs and keep them from having accidents when they cant get outside quickly enough.
- Offer plenty of positive reinforcement for going potty in the right place. Have treats or other rewards on hand so that they associate certain behaviors with receiving something fun.
- Take them outside frequently, especially after meals and naps. Go to the same spot each time so they start to make the connection between going outside and doing their business.
- If you catch your pup in the act of having an accident in the house, say NO in a loud, firm voice and immediately take them outside. This will help them to understand that this is not acceptable behavior.
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Bluegrass Country German Shepherds
Bluegrass Country German Shepherds is a small breeder that offers quality AKC registered German Shepherd Dogs. Since they treat their German Shepherds as family members, they only produce one or two litters per year. It allows them to work with each adult dog while maintaining their health.
In addition, they provide early training, socialization, and stimulation, which are essential for developing German Shepherd Dogs. Their German Shepherd Dogs are expected to have large heads, strong bones, temperaments, and medium to high drive.
When trained to high standards, they make the perfect companion. In addition to being intelligent with a strong desire to learn, loyal, confident, and protective, German Shepherd Dogs are believed to have numerous desirable qualities. In addition to competing in competitive sports, they excel in service and companionship.
Visit Your Kentucky German Shepherd Breeder In Person
Whenever possible, its always best to visit your German Shepherd breeder in person. This will allow you to see the puppies in their natural environment and meet their parents. It will also give you a chance to ask any questions you may have about the breed or the breeding process.
You can also see the living conditions the puppies are kept in. When you visit a breeder, be sure to look for clean cages and plenty of human interaction. Grooming is also a good indication of how much care goes into raising these dogs, so be sure to check out the condition of their coats.
High-quality German Shepherd breeders will always have a history of doing all they can to help their customers find the right puppy for their family situation. If you have any questions or concerns about a particular breeder, then dont hesitate to ask them before making a purchase decision.
If possible, meet your potential puppys parents as well. This will give you an idea of what your German Shepherd will look like when he or she grows up.
Responsible breeders will only sell their puppies to families who are willing to commit to their welfare for the duration of their lives. Be sure to ask about the breeders return policy in case things dont work out with your new puppy.
If youre looking for a quality German Shepherd puppy, then be sure to head to one of Kentuckys many reputable breeders. With so many great options available, youre sure to find the perfect pup.
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German Shepherd Puppies For Sale Near Me
German Shepherd Puppies, West Liberty, Ky, xxx-xxx-xxxx. I have five German shepherd puppies: four males and one female. My puppies are not registered. The pups have been dewormed twice and will receive their first booster shot. They are five weeks old and almost ready for a forever home. Call xxx-xxx-xxxx if interested.
Litter of 10 CKC German shepherd puppies. I have both males and femLes registered German Shepherd puppies they will be ready to go on the 22nd of July please text or call xxx-xxx-xxxx
Ckc German Shepherd puppies. I have both male and female puppies they were born on june 11th they will be ready to go after vet clears them around July 23rd please call or text xxx-xxx-xxxx
German shepherd. All black long hair german Shepherds you can message me for more info shipping and more they were just born july 5th 2022
German shepherd. AKC german shepherd puppies Females and males First shots ,wormed,vet examined Come with full papers Ready to go July 4thAuburn,Ky
Reasons puppies. 7 puppies 4 boys and 3 girlsBlack and rusty tanRegular black and tan
Needs a good home. Jaxon is a great dog. He loves being with other dogs. He needs a place to run. I live in a1 bedroom apartment I’m gone alot so he is home by his self. He is housebroken and he doesn’t chew on furniture. If interest please texted me. xxx xxx xxx0
AKC Female German Shepherd puppy. AKC female German Shepherd puppies. Ready for new homes June 17th. Will be up to date on shots and worming by vet.
German Shepherd Breeders Kentucky Listings
|Vom Zeder Haus German Shepherds KY||KY 40342|
|German Shepherd Puppies For Sale Working Line Felder Haus German Shepherds||KY 42129|
|Freedom shepherds||KY 41056|
|Old fashion German Shepherds of Silver Edition||KY 42501|
|Haus Ulv Kennels ~ Working Line German Shepherds||KY 42211|
|Kiefers Kentucky Lake German Shepherds||KY 42044|
|D Lanor Kennels, German Shepherds in KY||KY 42120|
|DIAMOND KENNELS German Shepherd Puppies||KY 42649|
|Miller s German Shepherd and Basset Hound puppy s||KY 40146|
|Alangus Toy and Mini Aussies||KY 40031|
|Schneiden Fels German Shepherds Guido s Progeny||KY 42170|
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D Lanor Kennels German Shepherds In Ky
Address 6245 Old Gallatin Rd, Adolphus, KY 42120, United States
Phone +1 603-759-9589
Address 1765 Hardin Springs Rd, Big Clifty, KY 42712, United States
Phone +1 270-853-2723
Address 201 Claudie Ave, Elizabethtown, KY 42701, United States
Phone +1 502-649-4770
Address 315 Kurtz Dr, Murray, KY 42071, United States
Phone +1 270-681-1959
Address 2600 Basin Springs Rd, Winchester, KY 40391, United States
Phone +1 317-529-8778
Hands Over All The Paperwork
Good breeders will be eager to show you your puppys pedigree and health checkup papers. They will also have vaccination documents. Good German Shepherd Breeders in Kentucky are always excited to talk about their puppys personality and do not hold any information back. They will tell you if there are any underlying health conditions that your puppy has or might develop in the future.
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Animal Welfare & Dog Shelters In Kentucky
Kentucky saved 84,191 dogs and cats during 2020. Approximately 7,132 animals were killed over this same period. Forty-eight out of 107 of the animal shelters within Kentucky are no-kill shelters.
While the percentage of no-kill shelters is average, the state has an above-average save rate of 83%. This is moderately short of the 90% mark needed to be considered a no-kill state.
Look Out For The Signs Of An Unethical German Shepherd Dog Breeder In Kentucky
Unfortunately, there are a few unethical breeders out there who are only interested in making a quick buck. These breeders will often produce puppies without regard for their health or well-being.
If youre looking for a German Shepherd, be on the lookout for the following signs of an unethical breeder:
- Puppies that are sick or underweight
- Puppies that have been bred too young or too often
- Puppies that dont have any AKC registration
- Breeders who arent willing to provide references or meet past customers
- Breeders who wont let you contact their veterinarian
If you come across a breeder who displays any of these signs, then its best to steer clear and find another breeder.
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What Is The Cost Of A German Shepherd Puppy
German shepherds are slightly pricey. The prices go high or low depending on the breeders reputation and the dogs health. On average, it would cost you 500-2000 dollars.
The upkeep of a German shepherd puppy is tedious. They require substantial training. A German Shepherd puppy is expensive as compared to other breeds. It is tough to breed them, and the cost of aftercare is significantly high. | <urn:uuid:0bc82dcd-eae4-496d-89e1-a4143d0f36d4> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.clubgermanshepherd.com/german-shepherd-puppies-in-kentucky/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572581.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816211628-20220817001628-00071.warc.gz | en | 0.934495 | 4,178 | 1.609375 | 2 |
How would you describe your country or region and the people who live there? Although it is often cited that Moldova is the poorest country in Europe, it is a beautiful country with a fascinating history, culture and people. Its lush green hills, dense forests, and the wonderful sunflower fields are a treat to the eye. Vineyards and orchards occupy the biggest part of the country and the land is very fertile. Moldova has enriched its own culture adopting and maintaining some of the traditions of its neighbours and of other influence sources. The country’s cultural heritage was marked by numerous churches and monasteries built by the Moldavian ruler Stephen the Great in the 15th century, by the works of the later renaissance Metropolitans Varlaam and Dosoftei, and those of scholars such as Grigore Ureche, Miron Costin, Dimitrie Cantemir, Ion Neculce.
The cultural heritage of Moldova is rich in traditions and customs. The country got an international fame due to its professional craftsmanship by making fine objects of embroidery, wood carvings, knit carpets, different decorations, baskets of osier. Also, Moldova has rich folk art traditions. Moldovan songs and dances are known far and wide. Carpets are the pride of our republic. The national cuisine is known all over the world. The people of Moldova are very hospitable. They would always offer a glass of fresh and cool wine. Wine-making in Moldova has a long-standing tradition. Wine is an especially powerful symbol in Moldova; it is associated with quality and purity.
The cellars of Cricova and Milestii Mici with their extensive collection of old wines are considered to be a state treasure. As we all know, Moldova has a well-developed science and culture. Our biggest research centre is the Moldovan Academy of Science. It is worth mentioning that Mihai Eminescu and Ion Creangă, a writer, are the most influential Romanian language artists, considered national writers both in Romania and Moldova. At the same time, here in Moldova great and famous composers Gavriil Musicescu, Ştefan Neaga and Eugen Doga were born. Their works are recognized worldwide. In conclusion I’d say that Moldova is a small country, but it is really a beautiful one. And I am proud that I was born here.
Courtney from Study Moose
Hi there, would you like to get such a paper? How about receiving a customized one? Check it out https://goo.gl/3TYhaX | <urn:uuid:70bbfa01-b107-48ff-b6bb-21e93bba62f9> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://studymoose.com/moldova-and-people-who-live-there-essay | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282935.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00246-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966009 | 546 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Ok, I'm sure everybody is familiar with the feature in Windows Explorer where you can start typing a file name and it will jump to the file with the closest name to that which you are typing. I was just wondering whether there was anyway of doing something similar in a form. Where say you could begin to type the last name in a field in a table of customers for example and it would narrow the recordset down based on the letters you are typing.
The only way I can think of at the moment is to have a select query which is triggered by the textboxes on change event and then set the query as the forms control source. However this seems a little bit unprofessional and may come unstuck.
How about using FindFirst instead of requerying? I think you need at least Acc2k for that to work though.
Something like that:
Private Sub TextWhatever_Change()
Dim rst As DAO.Recordset
Dim TextLen As Long
Static OldTextLen As Long
TextLen = Len(Me.TextWhatever.Text)
'only search if the user appended something to the search string
If TextLen > OldTextLen Then
Set rst = Me.Recordset
'find the record
rst.FindFirst "Sortierbegriff LIKE '" & EscapeTicks(Me.TextWhatever.Text) & "*'"
'let the user continue typing normally
Me.TextWhatever.SelLength = 0
Me.TextWhatever.SelStart = TextLen
OldTextLen = TextLen
Probably the fastest way (minimal coding) is to use a combo box and the Auto Expand property set to Yes like Jerrie suggested. If you automatically pop up the combo box list with :
In the Got Focus event of the combo box then it will show you more than one name. You can even show as many names as you like with the List Rows property of the combo box.
The only other way I can think of is turning on Key Preview and putting some code in the On Key Press event of the combo box. Did you want to 'jump' to the best match or filter for the best match? The difference being, the filtering would remove items from the list and the jump would just move up an down the list.
Not really sure that this is what you wanted but take a look at the sample database I posted here. When the form opens, Tab 3 times to move to the JobNameLookup field...(ComboBox) and start typing either of these words:
Note, as you type the first "H" it pulls in one of the choices, then type another letter and another. As you fill it in more you get closer to a possible match.
hope this is what you needed.
have a nice one, | <urn:uuid:10fa9b01-5d02-4269-b566-8d7f0f9791e0> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.dbforums.com/showthread.php?1060590-Real-Puzzler%21%21%21%21%21 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718423.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00272-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920302 | 584 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Managing multiple sites with a single BAS
As technological advances add features and enhance performance of plant BASs, systems are being harnessed for wider application.
As technological advances add features and enhance performance of plant BASs, systems are being harnessed for wider application. Important building management objectives range from improved HVAC equipment schedules and increased workforce productivity through enhanced environmental conditions, equipment diagnostics, and improved energy cost control and monitoring capabilities.
At Graco, Inc., a Minnesota-based fluid handling systems and components firm, an added goal was linking multiple remote sites to a single BAS. In 1995, management committed to air conditioning the company's Minneapolis plant. Corporate Facilities Manager Mike Hatling responded with a plan to replace the facility's aging rooftop units and install a BAS to manage them. His vision was to install a system that would extend to other company facilities and allow his staff to manage all aspects of their mechanical systems effectively, efficiently, and centrally.
The result was the installation of more than 50 rooftop units with built-in controls at two facilities linked to a BAS from the same vendor. The second plant was a new 333,000 sq-ft structure located in nearby Rogers, MN. Tying both plants to a single BAS gave the company unified comfort control along with the benefits of a single supplier, and took the company closer to being able to remotely dial in and check conditions at multiple sites.
The system was soon extended to other facilities and applications. At the Rogers plant, the BAS now monitors air compressors as well as the HVAC system. Then, chillers at a third facility were linked to the central BAS. Most recently, rooftop units at the firm's Sioux Falls, SD, plant were connected to the BAS by phone line. The Minneapolis corporate maintenance staff monitors the equipment. Notes Hatling, "If a problem arises, a phone call is often all it takes to solve it."
In addition to centralized control, the BAS is also helping manage energy costs. Among the applications is a regular check of outside air damper positions. The system provides real-time instant access to data on the central display. The company plans to improve maintenance and control strategies further by converting pneumatic controls to DDC.
Information for this section was provided by Graco, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, and The Trane Company, La Crosse, WI. The BAS is a Tracer Summit from The Trane Company's Building Automation Systems Div., St. Paul, MN.
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Annual Salary Survey
Before the calendar turned, 2016 already had the makings of a pivotal year for manufacturing, and for the world.
There were the big events for the year, including the United States as Partner Country at Hannover Messe in April and the 2016 International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago in September. There's also the matter of the U.S. presidential elections in November, which promise to shape policy in manufacturing for years to come.
But the year started with global economic turmoil, as a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing triggered a worldwide stock hiccup that sent values plummeting. The continued plunge in world oil prices has resulted in a slowdown in exploration and, by extension, the manufacture of exploration equipment.
Read more: 2015 Salary Survey | <urn:uuid:71fa1f88-626c-4a17-9a83-863b818b5fd1> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.plantengineering.com/single-article/managing-multiple-sites-with-a-single-bas/f52a4bb062c410ed9ccbabeab49b78fe.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718296.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00538-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956246 | 682 | 1.523438 | 2 |
30 U.S. Code § 125 - Patents in North Platte Reclamation Project; mineral rights; subrogation
Where reclamation homestead entry was made prior to July 17, 1914, pursuant to the Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 389, 43 U.S.C. sec. 431), as supplemented, for lands in the Northport Division or the Interstate Division of the North Platte Reclamation Project, and after such entry the lands have been or are hereafter withdrawn, classified, or reported as being valuable for any of the minerals named in sections 81 and 121 to 124 of this title, the patent shall not contain a reservation of such minerals. If any such mineral deposits on account of which the lands were withdrawn, classified or reported as being valuable have been leased by the United States, such patent shall be made subject to the rights of the lessee, but the patentee shall be subrogated to the rights of the United States under the lease.
Act of June 17, 1902, referred to in text, is act June 17, 1902, ch. 1093, 32 Stat. 388, as amended, popularly known as the Reclamation Act, which is classified generally to chapter 12 (§ 371 et seq.) of Title 43, Public Lands. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 371 of Title 43 and Tables.
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII. | <urn:uuid:c2e4713a-a7c1-4153-a73e-9cdaf903647e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/30/125 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285289.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00143-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966697 | 312 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Scandal! Scandal! Scandal! Russian athletics has been embroiled in a drugs-related mess, with authorities standing accused of using banned substances to enhance the performance of athletes, and then intentionally destroying over 1,000 crucial samples. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which commissioned a report into the dodgy goings-on, has called for Russia to be banned from future competitive events, but Russian authorities have essentially responded with a great, big 'prove it'.
This isn't the first time athletics has been rocked by accusations of doping, nor will it be the last. All sport is peppered with cheats, desperate to gain a competitive edge over rivals and willing to use any means available. Below are the most common performance-enhancing methods in use.
That loud, angry, veiny, terrifying bastard at the gym who treat dumbbells like ragdolls might just be on anabolic steroids. Testosterone, nandrolone and tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) fall into this category, stimulating muscle growth and, in many cases, higher levels of aggression. They’re popular because they allow you to train harder and make faster recoveries, enabling you to get the results without putting as much hard work in.
Peptide hormones are actually naturally-occurring substances that circulate in the bloodstream, though, sneaky as we are, we've found ways of using them to gain unfair physical advantages. Human growth hormone (HGH), insulin and erythropoietin (EPO) can enhance muscle growth and boost your production of red blood cells, essentially transforming you into a supercharged tank. They can also alter the balance of other hormones in your system.
It may sound like Greek to many of you, but you've probably come across Beta2 Agonists many a time, without giving them a second thought. You may even use them on a daily basis, naughty naughty. They feature in inhalers, relaxing users’ airways and allowing more oxygen to makes its way into the bloodstream. They've caused a lot of controversy in the past -- just ask Alain Baxter -- as inhalers still tend to be seen as innocent breathing aids. However, they're undoubted performance enhancers.
As anyone who likes booze or coffee can testify, diuretics (such as alcohol and caffeine) make us piss. A lot. They’re not performance-enhancing drugs themselves, no matter how much you wish they were, but are often used as a means to flush the body of any residue left behind from steroid use. They're also loved by by boxers, who can use them as a quick and easy way to make weight ahead of fights.
Amphetamines fall into this category, and though they're mainly associated with ADHD and narcolepsy treatment, it's been found that small doses can actually elevate performance. Athletes can use them to increase their heart rate, brain activity and overall focus, enabling them to perform at a higher level than usual.
Perhaps surprisingly, athletes have been known to use narcotics in order to train for longer periods of time. That’s because substances like morphine (and... ahem... heroin) kill pain, allowing you to fly through extended sessions without feeling worse for wear. Long-term effects can be particularly bad, however, as athletes risk doing irreversible damage to their bodies by ignoring continually existing injuries.
Blood doping is a huge issue, though it doesn't always involve the use of banned substances. It's simply the process of artificially increasing the concentration of red blood cells in the bloodstream. As we all know, such blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to the muscles, and a higher concentration can seriously improve an athlete's aerobic capacity and endurance.
Enemies of sport have two main methods available to them. They can inject extra red cells, taken either from a donor or the athlete's own blood -- your body replenishes the supply once they've been removed -- or take drugs, such as peptides, to boost production. | <urn:uuid:0b992283-c5fe-42f2-b4ea-7efa5ed5a37d> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2015/11/drugs-in-sport-the-most-common-performance-enhancing-methods-amongst-athletes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281331.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00224-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952603 | 829 | 1.507813 | 2 |
ANSI approves new RIA robot safety standard
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved a new U.S. national robot safety standard. Developed by Robotic Industries Association (RIA), Ann Arbor, Mich., the ANSI/RIA R15.06-2012 standard has been updated for the first time since 1999 and now is harmonized with the ISO 10218:2011 standard for robot manufacturers and integrators.
The adoption of the international standard allows systems designed and built in one country to be freely moved to other countries while maintaining compliance with safety regulations. A key feature in the standard is collaborative operation, which is the introduction of a worker to the loop of active interaction during automatic robot operation. Systems can be designed for the operator to load and unload the robot directly or drive the robot manually to a selected location, eliminating the need for fixtures. | <urn:uuid:afdcf554-948a-48f2-a90c-acd74054578a> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.thefabricator.com/news/automationrobotics/ansi-approves-new-ria-robot-safety-standard | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720153.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00324-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.895005 | 178 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The Triple Bottom Line
- Apr 09, 2013
The U.S. commercial real estate industry has made some significant strides on the sustainability front recently. Caught between altruistic reasons for pursuing green development and management and the need to justify it financially, a group of largely unsophisticated market players has tended to take easy, predetermined paths without fully scrutinizing the results. But as executives grow familiar with sustainability, they are evaluating green practices more strategically—and implementing those measures into more properties and even entire portfolios.
That trend gave rise in 2010 to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Volume Program, which now counts a diverse assortment of 46 investors, retailers, schools and government agencies that certify large numbers of new projects, existing properties or both. Such commitment remains the purview of the most sophisticated sustainability-minded players, according to consultant Tom Paladino, who helped to develop LEED ratings and write the reference guides for the soon-to-be-launched version 4 update. But he reports that stepped-up involvement by industry leaders and proven benefits at the property level are also fueling broad interest in a more strategic approach to sustainable design.
Conditions seem ripe for large-scale change, given the combination of scientific advancements, expanding municipal mandates, and improved—if still modestly so—capital flows. As we emerge from the Great Recession, investors and developers remain fiercely protective of the bottom line. Continued reticence by lenders will likely reinforce that mindset, even as their prospective clients grow more eager to deploy their capital and start building again. That creates a fertile environment for more programmatic planning.
At the same time, sustainable processes and materials continue to increase in variety, accompanied by benchmarking tools that make calculating benefits easier than ever. Fuel cells, new exterior glazing materials, shading devices, photovoltaic technology and numerous other innovations have already proven their value in Europe’s more mature sustainability markets or in the U.S. multi-family sector. Those advances are now catching on in U.S. commercial real estate. And although the payoff often remains further in the future than real estate executives generally prefer, a growing number of case studies offers examples of cost-saving tactics.
Still missing, Paladino pointed out, is hard data on how green practices affect the bottom line, as measurement has typically focused on environmental rather than financial impact. Tracking longer-term results could present skeptics with a strong business case, and provide clearer guidance for choosing from the growing menu of green strategies. The next step will be to combine the environmental and financial analyses to arrive at a true triple-bottom-line benefit for people, planet and profit.
Suzann D. Silverman, Editorial Director | <urn:uuid:77a99001-600f-4656-a56c-c9d91d42e8da> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.cpexecutive.com/post/the-triple-bottom-line/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280835.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00053-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929813 | 556 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Sun Sign astrology is a much-maligned branch of astrology. How can people be grouped into 12 categories and have generalisations made about them? Many people – and many astrologers – ridicule the idea. Yet much simpler generalizations exist and are accepted. What about naive generalizations about being “introvert” or “extrovert”. Or about being “typically” American, French, Indian etc.
A Comfortable Living
The extraordinary fact is, that most sun-sign columns in newspapers are written by very skilled astrologers, who excel in their field whether giving consultations, holding seminars or writing articles. Some keep a low profile about their sun sign work – some even have aliases like Orion etc. One of the nice things about writing a sun-sign column is that the astrologer is paid at going journalist rates – and that means well-paid. And God knows an astrologer deserves to be able to live a reasonable life – without having to be supported by a loving spouse or odd jobs.Full-time astrologers can develop truly professional skills which are of benefit to everyone.
Sun Sign skills
One point that critics do not realize is that writing sun sign analyses is difficult. Apart from considerable language skills and the ability to express universal ideas in a succinct manner, you have to have your finger on the pulse, you have to know exactly what’s going on in the heavens, and you have to have an incredible grasp of the 12 solar houses, their rulers – and the dispositors of these rulers. Talking to a skilled sun sign astrologer is an awesome experience. This person will be able to tell you the major themes in your life at any given moment – and give precise dates – whilst you, struggling with transits and progressions cannot even identify these changes with advanced methods.
How to do it
In this short article, I would like to show something of the complexity of this process. Take a look at the horoscope below: This shows the general situation when the Sun moved into Leo in July 1997. The secret of Sun Sign Astrology is to place zero degrees of the Sun Sign on the Ascendant, make a horoscope with Equal Houses and judge circumstances according to the relationships of Solar House Rulers, and, most importantly, concentrating on the “traditional” rulers for Scorpio (Mars), Aquarius (Saturn) and Pisces (Jupiter).
So what’s going on for Leos then? Well, for example Mars is in Leo’s 3rd House, and…oh, dear…opposition Saturn. So here comes a detailed interpretation for a Leo:
Trouble with authority in all education matters. An enormous workload. Brothers have a tendency to bully. Your partner (7th House Ruler Saturn in 9th) is under extreme severe attack (opp. Mars). This is a recurrence of circumstances which popped up in February 1997, only to recede again. (Why? Because Mars was opposite Saturn in February but went retrograde, and is now repeating the aspect) Recommended solution for partner: more freedom, alternative healing, travel. (Saturn is after all sextile Jupiter in Aquarius in the 7th) It is important for your partner to retrace his/her steps to pick up opportunities which presented themselves previously. (Saturn is now stationary and goes retrograde until 17 December)
Of course there is much more – that was just about Leo’s partner.
If analysing another sign, just place zero degrees of that sign on the Ascendant and go for it. Take a look at the following solar horoscope for Libra … same planetary positions, but the horoscope has been moved around. So how’s Libra (and Taurus, for that matter)? Well, Venus is changing signs from Leo, where she has been romanced, wined and dined, had fun with friends, and perhaps a little bit of travel too with the opposition to Jupiter in Aquarius. But, oh!…, she’s heading into her fall in Virgo, and to make matters worse hits a square to Pluto when already weakened. So here is the prediction:
The days of sunny romance are over, and you have to get down to practicalities. An existential crisis threatens (Venus is in the 12th) and it is time to abandon impractical beliefs and convictions. Avoid fanatical obsession with details. Traumas in your work life – secret enemies undermine your security. Be prepared to take a loss or make a break.
Well it’s not much fun for the Venus-ruled whilst Venus is in Virgo. No good aspects until the trine to Neptune at the end of the sign. (And she’ll need a drink by then!)
Those who are really skilled will be able to take dispositors into account. For example Venus in Virgo definitely suffers, but at present Mercury, the dispositor of Venus, is exalted in Virgo. Therefore she can expect honourable treatment from people who count. On the other hand, Mars’ situation, which is already appalling (in exile and opposition to Saturn) will be weakened further when Venus which disposes of him gets broken down in Virgo. It’s like being in a crumbling hotel in Baghdad, under siege by aggressive fundamentalists.
Go forth and practice!
Well, that’s how it’s done. Go forth to parties and other informal meets and astound your friends. If you know your stuff, you will always hit the mark.
© Adrian Ross Duncan | <urn:uuid:969c92ab-cb74-4560-ac52-86c329317889> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://astrowow.com/blog/sun-sign-astrology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279410.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00165-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946137 | 1,159 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Federal wage-and-hour laws require you to have a reliable system to accurately keep track of employees’ hours and pay. Casual timekeeping systems can easily trigger a back-wage lawsuit.
Companies subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act ( ) must keep records for both nonexempt and . The regulations don’t say which types of recordkeeping or timekeeping methods you should use, but they do specify the necessary data you need to maintain on all employees.
Wage-and-hour lawsuits are growing exponentially, according to the fourth Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report from national law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP. The report showed that class actions under the FLSA dominated the legal scene. Another notable trend is the increase in back-wage suits on behalf of higher-income employees, such as those in financial services.
In both types of suits, the key is the time an employee puts in ou...(register to read more) | <urn:uuid:2eaae22b-4d05-4362-a0aa-28cc88bf7440> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/4502/payroll-records-timekeeping-for-exempt-nonexempt-workers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00116-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940246 | 195 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Breakfast on a submarine has an odd ring to it — like brunch on a tennis court.
Yet once a month, Neil Chaitin, an old submariner and trustee with San Francisco’s National Maritime Park Association, hosts a morning meal with invited guests aboard a World War II sub, the USS Pampanito, at Pier 45. Like cooperation at the Board of Supervisors and an inexpensive new seafood restaurant, the Pampanito is one of those San Francisco institutions that we know exist, but few of us have never seen.
After a hearty breakfast of “flapjacks and hockey pucks” (pancakes and sausages) prepared by Pampanito’s manager, Aaron Washington, City Insider can recommend a visit wholeheartedly. (Tours are available daily.) Among those invited this month was Supervisor-elect David Chiu, who turns out to be a former competitive sailboat racer from his days in Boston.
We learned that the sub jammed a crew of 80 in the cramped quarters — often without a shower for weeks at a time — and that it rescued over 70 prisoners of war who were left to die in the water after the Pampanito hit their ship with a torpedo.
Of course, Chaitin said, this is nothing like today’s nuclear subs.
“They cost a billion dollars apiece and we are building one and a half a month,” he said.
Chiu, mindful of the city’s anticipated $575 million budget deficit for the coming fiscal year, was impressed.
“If we could only have the money for that half a sub,” he said. | <urn:uuid:d95f970e-3f92-4192-b5f5-d607b703ec72> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2008/12/18/an-insider-y-breakfast-club/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280242.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00082-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947008 | 347 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Assessing the relationship between city growth and electricity use over time: A comparative analysis of Chandigarh and Seattle
MetadataShow full item record
Urbanization in developing countries will be one of several global processes that define the 21st century. The ramifications of hundreds of millions of rural citizens transitioning to urban lifestyles are multifold and highly uncertain. The state of the global climate is one particularly dubious outcome of this process, due to the expected rises in energy consumption that accompany urbanization. Still, the subsequent socioenvironmental impacts of 21st century urbanization are reliant upon decisions made by planners and policy-makers at the local level regarding the characteristics of both growing cities and newly created ones. This thesis attempts to engender a better understanding of the relationship between common characteristics of cities and their resulting energy consumption by comparing two cities from distinct contexts. I employ a longitudinal, mixed-methods approach to analyze data for Seattle in the United States and Chandigarh in India to discern similarities and differences between both cities regarding population size, density, urban form, electricity consumption, and climate over time. In contrast to a strictly quantitative approach, I employed a mixed method research design in order to take advantage of qualitative data obtained through field observations in both cities. The result is a thorough assessment of the relationship between city growth and energy use among two cities characterized by dissimilar geographical and socioeconomic settings. The analysis and discussion yielded several notable findings. In both cities the residential sector is the predominant categorical user of electricity, though recent growth trajectories differ. The urbanization process that is currently occurring in Chandigarh appears quite unique compared to what has ever occurred in Seattle. Climate change will impact electricity use in each city but the outcomes will differ due to geographical differences. It is possible and useful to compared seemingly matchless cities, though there are numerous methodological impediments to such a process. These findings indicate the need for mixed method research approaches that bolster quantitative analysis and contribute to a unified science of urbanization.
- Urban planning | <urn:uuid:5516b28f-153c-4f30-8a26-eb92f7d3ba49> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/26844 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280872.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00318-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935831 | 405 | 2.1875 | 2 |
The FNNDSC maintains an Ubuntu Linux-based high-performance computing (HPC) cluster named PICES (Pediatric Imaging Cluster for Exploratory Science).
The cluster is used by the FNNDSC for its own computational needs and is also used by several other research labs at Children’s Hospital Boston. The cluster is currently made up of five HP WS460c G6 Workstation Blades. Each blade is equipped with 36GB RAM and two Intel® Xeon® X5550 @2.67 Ghz 8-Thread (4 Core) CPUs for a total of 80 threads and 180GB RAM. Two of the five blades are equipped with NVIDIA QUADRO FX 5800 4GB CUDA and OpenCL-compatible GPUs via a PCIe Graphics Expansion blade. Rentable storage space is provided for each lab using the cluster by Research Computing on a Network Attached Storage device that can be mounted via NFS from any of the cluster nodes and is attached via multiple gigabit ethernet connections. FNNDSC also provides it own storage space including two 14TB RAID-5 servers (28TB total).
If interested in using the PICES HPC for your own CHB-based research, please contact us. | <urn:uuid:120e8587-c2a1-42e7-9f76-9bffed885fd8> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research/centers/fetal-neonatal-neuroimaging-and-developmental-science-center/research/high-performance-computing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280587.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00562-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908061 | 251 | 1.75 | 2 |
September 30, 2019
The future of chips: SMART announces successful way to manufacture novel integrated silicon III-V chips
The Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT's Research Enterprise in Singapore, has announced the successful development of a commercially viable way to manufacture integrated Silicon III-V Chips with high-performance III-V devices inserted into their design.
In most devices today, silicon-based CMOS chips are used for computing, but they are not efficient for illumination and communications, resulting in low efficiency and heat generation. This is why current 5G mobile devices on the market get very hot upon use and would shut down after a short time.
This is where III-V semiconductors are valuable. III-V chips are made from elements in the 3rd and 5th columns of the elemental periodic table such as Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs). Due to their unique properties, they are exceptionally well suited for optoelectronics (LEDs) and communications (5G etc) - boosting efficiency substantially.
"By integrating III-V into silicon, we can build upon existing manufacturing capabilities and low-cost volume production techniques of silicon and include the unique optical and electronic functionality of III-V technology," said Eugene Fitzgerald, CEO and Director, SMART, MIT's Research Enterprise in Singapore. "The new chips will be at the heart of future product innovation and power the next generation of communications devices, wearables and displays."
Kenneth Lee, Senior Scientific Director of the SMART LEES research program adds: "However, integrating III-V semiconductor devices with silicon in a commercially viable way is one of the most difficult challenges faced by the semiconductor industry, even though such integrated circuits have been desired for decades. Current methods are expensive and inefficient, which is delaying the availability of the chips the industry needs. With our new process, we can leverage existing capabilities to manufacture these new integrated Silicon III-V chips cost-effectively and accelerate the development and adoption of new technologies that will power economies."
The new technology developed by SMART builds two layers of silicon and III-V devices on separate substrates and integrates them vertically together within a micron, which is 1/50th the diameter of a human hair. The process can use existing 200mm manufacturing tools, which will allow semiconductor manufacturers in Singapore and around the world to make new use of their current equipment. Today, the cost of investing in a new manufacturing technology is in the range of tens of billions of dollars, thus this new integrated circuit platform is highly cost-effective and will result in much lower cost novel circuits and electronic systems.
SMART is focusing on creating new chips for pixelated illumination/display and 5G markets, which has a combined potential market of over $100B USD. Other markets that SMART's new integrated Silicon III-V chips will disrupt include wearable mini-displays, virtual reality applications, and other imaging technologies.
The patent portfolio has been exclusively licensed by New Silicon Corporation Pte. Ltd. (NSC), a Singapore-based spin-off from SMART. NSC is the first fabless silicon integrated circuit company with proprietary materials, processes, devices, and design for monolithic integrated Silicon III-V circuits (www.new-silicon.com).
SMART's new integrated Silicon III-V chips will be available next year and expected in products by 2021. | <urn:uuid:9b361394-dd81-4051-9714-c216d81aee20> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://techxplore.com/news/2019-09-future-chips-smart-successful-silicon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817032054-20220817062054-00474.warc.gz | en | 0.928768 | 711 | 2.828125 | 3 |
In Spielplatz Ltd v Pearson and another the Court of Appeal had to decide whether a chalet was a chattel (movable possession) or had become part of the land on which it was situated. The Court decided it was part of the land.
In 1992, the freehold owner of a naturist resort granted an annual tenancy of a plot of land to the Pearsons. The tenancy agreement described the premises as “the plot or clearing in the grounds”. The previous tenants had built a chalet on the land and the Pearsons separately purchased the chalet from them.
During 2011 and 2012, the Pearsons carried out extensive renovations to the chalet but after some unfriendly correspondence between them and the freeholder, the Pearsons were served with a six-month notice to quit.
The case revolved around whether the chalet formed part of the plot of land. If so, the tenancy would include both soil and chalet and not just the land itself. This would make it a tenancy of a separate dwelling and protected under the Housing Act 1988as an assured tenancy. A landlord of an assured tenancy can only recover possession by following the procedures set out in the Act and demonstrating one of the statutory grounds for possession. Spielplatz had done neither as it asserted that the Pearsons had an unprotected tenancy of the plot which it had ended by the notice to quit. The Pearsons won the first round. The freeholder appealed.
The Court of Appeal referred to the well-established House of Lords decision in Elitestone Ltd v Morris 1 W.L.R. 687, which held that whether a structure could be removed from the land without being demolished was of significant importance. If not, then the structure could not have been intended to remain a chattel and must have been intended to form part of the land.
Expert evidence adduced at trial had indicated that the chalet could not be removed without dismantling it into its constituent parts. This evidence, together with the fact that the purpose of the chalet was to enable its occupiers to enjoy the amenities of the land, left the Court of Appeal in no doubt that the chalet was part of the land. Further, the fact that the tenancy agreement did not refer to the chalet did not prevent the chalet from becoming part of the land.
The Court of Appeal reiterated that it was immaterial that both parties believed that the chalet belonged to the Pearsons to sell on to any purchasers of their lease. This misplaced belief, the court said, “amounts to nothing more than evidence of their subjective beliefs and intentions upon which Elitestone shows no reliance can be placed”.
The result was that the Pearsons had the protection of statute and the freeholder’s possession claim failed.
The question of what has become part of the property and what is merely a chattel is frequently relevant to commercial property in the field of dilapidations claims. In the residential sphere, any landlord finding itself in a similar situation to Spielplatz may wish to comply with the requirements of the Act before seeking to recover possession as otherwise it could find itself feeling rather exposed. | <urn:uuid:7a7196bb-0f77-41dd-98d5-2395a12d27f6> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=e59a28ab-5b2a-420e-b349-8971595a0fb7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279933.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00123-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971717 | 676 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 10: Chapter 23: Verses 34-43
One of those ladies, who was (forcibly) held back by her husband, mentally embraced the Lord even as she had heard of Him, and cast off the body, that had been brought about as a result of her (past) actions. Having fed the cowherd boys with the same food of four kinds, Lord Sri Krsna (the Protector of cows) too, though all powerful Himself, partook of it (in the end). Thus imitating the ways of men and delighting the cows and cowherds as well as the cowherdesses by His personal charm, speech and doings, Lord Sri Krsna (who had assumed a human semblance for the sake of sport) carried on His pastimes (in Vraja). Presently the aforesaid Brahmanas were filled with remorse to realize (through the fellowship of their pious and devoted wives) that they had committed an offence in that they turned down the solicitation of Balarama and Sri Krsna (the Rulers of the universe), who were behaving as men. Perceiving the transcendent devotion of their womenfolk to Lord Sri Krsna and full of regret to find themselves devoid of it, they severely condemned themselves (as follow):- "Fie upon our threefold birth (in the shape of our being born of Brahmana parents, investiture with the sacred thread and consecration for the sacrifice in which we are engaged) and learning (mastery of the Vedas); fie upon our sacred vow (of continence for the period of the sacrifice); fie upon our versatile knowledge; fie upon our pedigree and fie upon our proficiency in rituals when we have actually turned our face away from Lord Sri Krsna (who is above sense-perception). | <urn:uuid:11a43916-f27d-4faf-9880-6ee781de8fb0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://en.krishnakosh.org/krishna/Srimad_Bhagvata_Mahapurana_Book_10_Chapter_23:34-43 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573118.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817213446-20220818003446-00679.warc.gz | en | 0.977342 | 393 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Gets a character or word from an input stream.
Standard I/O Package (libc.a)
int getc ( Stream)
int fgetc (Stream) FILE *Stream;
int getchar (void)
int getw (Stream) FILE *Stream;
The getc macro returns the next byte as an unsigned char data type converted to an int data type from the input specified by the Stream parameter and moves the file pointer, if defined, ahead one byte in the Stream parameter. The getc macro cannot be used where a subroutine is necessary; for example, a subroutine pointer cannot point to it.
Because it is implemented as a macro, the getc macro does not work correctly with a Stream parameter value that has side effects. In particular, the following does not work:
In such cases, use the fgetc subroutine.
The fgetc subroutine performs the same function as the getc macro, but fgetc is a true subroutine, not a macro. The fgetc subroutine runs more slowly than getc but takes less disk space.
The getchar macro returns the next byte from stdin (the standard input stream). The getchar macro is equivalent to getc(stdin).
The first successful run of the fgetc, fgets, fgetwc, fgetws, fread, fscanf, getc, getchar, gets or scanf subroutine using a stream that returns data not supplied by a prior call to the ungetc or ungetwc subroutine marks the st_atime field for update.
The getc and getchar macros have also been implemented as subroutines for ANSI compatibility. To access the subroutines instead of the macros, insert #undef getc or #undef getchar at the beginning of the source file.
The getw subroutine returns the next word (int) from the input specified by the Stream parameter and increments the associated file pointer, if defined, to point to the next word. The size of a word varies from one machine architecture to another. The getw subroutine returns the constant EOF at the end of the file or when an error occurs. Since EOF is a valid integer value, the feof and ferror subroutines should be used to check the success of getw. The getw subroutine assumes no special alignment in the file.
Because of additional differences in word length and byte ordering from one machine architecture to another, files written using the putw subroutine are machine-dependent and may not be readable using the getw macro on a different type of processor.
|Stream||Points to the file structure of an open file.|
Upon successful completion, the getc, fgetc, getchar, and getw subroutines return the next byte or int data type from the input stream pointed by the Stream parameter. If the stream is at the end of the file, an end-of-file indicator is set for the stream and the integer constant EOF is returned. If a read error occurs, the errno global variable is set to reflect the error, and a value of EOF is returned. The ferror and feof subroutines should be used to distinguish between the end of the file and an error condition.
If the stream specified by the
Stream parameter is unbuffered or data needs to be read into the
stream's buffer, the getc, getchar,
fgetc, or getw subroutine is unsuccessful under the
following error conditions:
|EAGAIN||Indicates that the O_NONBLOCK flag is set for the file descriptor underlying the stream specified by the Stream parameter. The process would be delayed in the fgetc subroutine operation.|
|EBADF||Indicates that the file descriptor underlying the stream specified by the Stream parameter is not a valid file descriptor opened for reading.|
|EFBIG||Indicates that an attempt was made to read a file that exceeds the process' file-size limit or the maximum file size. See the ulimit subroutine.|
|EINTR||Indicates that the read operation was terminated due to the receipt of a
signal, and either no data was transferred, or the implementation does not
report partial transfer for this file.
Note: Depending upon which library routine the application binds to, this subroutine may return EINTR. Refer to the signal subroutine regarding sa_restart.
|EIO||Indicates that a physical error has occurred, or the process is in a background process group attempting to perform a read subroutine call from its controlling terminal, and either the process is ignoring (or blocking) the SIGTTIN signal or the process group is orphaned.|
|EPIPE||Indicates that an attempt is made to read from a pipe or first-in-first-out (FIFO) that is not open for reading by any process. A SIGPIPE signal will also be sent to the process.|
|EOVERFLOW||Indicates that the file is a regular file and an attempt was made to read at or beyond the offset maximum associated with the corresponding stream.|
getchar, fgetc, or getw subroutine is also
unsuccessful under the following error conditions:
|ENOMEM||Indicates insufficient storage space is available.|
|ENXIO||Indicates either a request was made of a nonexistent device or the request was outside the capabilities of the device.|
These subroutines are part of Base Operating System (BOS) Runtime.
The feof, ferror, clearerr, or fileno (feof, ferror, clearerr, or fileno Macro) subroutine, freopen, fopen, or fdopen (fopen, fopen64, freopen, freopen64 or fdopen Subroutine)subroutine, fread or fwrite (fread or fwrite Subroutine) subroutine, getwc, fgetwc, or getwchar (getwc, fgetwc, or getwchar Subroutine)subroutine, get or fgets (gets or fgets Subroutine) subroutine, putc, putchar, fputc, or putw (putc, putchar, fputc, or putw Subroutine) subroutine, scanf, sscanf, fscanf, or wsscanf subroutine.
List of Character Manipulation Services, Subroutines Overview in AIX 5L Version 5.1 General Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs. | <urn:uuid:99bcdebb-86ad-4e5f-afac-69af0f2279c4> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://ps-2.kev009.com/wisclibrary/aix51/usr/share/man/info/en_US/a_doc_lib/libs/basetrf1/getc.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571911.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813081639-20220813111639-00476.warc.gz | en | 0.8406 | 1,456 | 3.890625 | 4 |
Institute of Materials and Process Engineering (IMPE)
The IMPE possesses extensive competencies in materials sciences and process engineering, the fusion of which enables the development of innovative materials, manufacturing processes and systems.
The IMPE accompanies its project partners in close cooperation from the idea through development to implementation in production. The research team consists of engineers, materials scientists and chemists who contribute their extensive experience to the joint projects.
The IMPE is organized in seven laboratory groups that are well networked within the School of Engineering and the ZHAW and whose employees work closely together.
The activities of the approximately 50 employees in research and development are focused on the following core areas
Bundled competence from classic materials to composite materials and other high-tech materials under a single roof.
Interfaces between materials and their environment: coatings, functional surfaces and adhesive technology.
Functional materials for process engineering - process development for the production of new materials and for environmental technology.
The IMPE has full access to a state-of-the-art equipment for testing, analysis and characterization of materials, surfaces and coatings as well as to installations and equipment for process engineering and process technology.
Our expertise continually improve through our national and international collaborations.
The IMPE Institute of Materials and Process Engineering is involved in the following study programmes and continuing education:
Frontiers in Energy Research.
6(5), pp. 1-9.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2018.00005
AM Expo 2018, Luzern, 6.-7. März 2018.
Additive Manufacturing and Biofabrication, Zürich, July 2018.
Ceramic Forum International.
95(3), pp. E 27-E 32.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-3574
Swiss Engineering STZ.
115(4), pp. 12-13.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-3371
The IMPE at a Glance
Team (around 50 staff members) | <urn:uuid:47d4462b-13d4-4b93-abf3-e9493063a47d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.zhaw.ch/en/engineering/institutes-centres/impe/?tx_zhawdspace_zhawdspace%5B%40widget_0%5D%5BcurrentPage%5D=12&cHash=92e9d18e767a82b5070f3bb69096036c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572212.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815205848-20220815235848-00475.warc.gz | en | 0.900612 | 484 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Over the past decade, Kodak’s various RFS desktop scanners have been popular with deadline-conscious newspapers because they’re the fastest on the market – RFS means Rapid Film Scanner. The speed comes from a big monoblock CCD and flash illumination instead of the usual linear CCD and cold cathode lamps. The current RFS 3570 has a maximum resolution of 2,400dpi, grabs an 18MB scan in an impressive 18 seconds and accepts film from 35mm to 120 sizes. However, it costs a huge £5,500 and its footprint is about the same as a desktop PC.
The new RFS 3600 scanner for 35mm slides and filmstrips has little in common with the 3570. It’s a lot cheaper, but much slower because it uses conventional linear CCD and lamp technology. It has much better maximum resolution of 3,600dpi, a respectable dynamic range of 3.6, and 12-bit imaging. Its footprint is about the size of one of Digit’s A4 pages, and the blue-&-silver case is attractively styled. Unusually, the price includes ten Kodak Supra 400 negative films.
No fiddly film holders
The RFS 3600 can take either single-mounted 35mm slides, or film strips of any length that, unlike most scanners, are fed in directly with no need to fiddle with a film holder. The motorized film advance lets you preview a whole strip at once, set up the frames you want, and leave the scanner to read them in high-resolution batch mode. There’s no provision for APS film cartridges, though.
The scanner has a USB and two SCSI-2 ports on the back, with cables for both, but unlike many rivals, there’s no SCSI PCI card provided.
A 3,600dpi scan gives a 50MB scan from a full 35mm frame, and took 3 mins 20 secs on a Mac G4/400, and 2 mins 50 secs on a Pentium III/933 with SCSI-2. Scanning software is provided for Mac OS and Windows with identical user interfaces, running as a Photoshop import plug-in. The colour management menu includes easy options for choosing monitor and printer ColorSync ICC/ICM profiles, plus pull-down lists of common film types. You can save a whole group of settings and apply to other images.
An adequate set of scanning controls is provided, but using them is difficult because of the tiny preview window. It’s hard to judge the correct position for the eyedropper tools, or the fine control of the density curve and slider controls. The preview window can be launched into a separate, scaleable window, but you can’t increase the preview resolution, so zooming-in merely reveals the low-res pixels.
When you pre-scan a whole filmstrip, the thumbnails appear in a row at the top of the menu, which you click on to bring into the main window. Misaligned frames can be nudged left or right using a pair of buttons on the scanner case – you can see the film through the top window in the scanner.
Image quality is mixed. Automatic exposure, corrections and colour work well, and the resolution goes as high as most people will ever want. Given the tiny previews, it’s probably best to use the auto settings and then fine-tune using Photoshop. There’s no dust removal filter, which is a pity. My test scans had more pronounced on-screen noise than rival models.
Kodak announced this scanner last September, but software problems delayed it until June. My feeling is that the software is still inadequate due to the tiny windows. The price is about £170 cheaper than the Polaroid SprintScan 4000, and £80 dearer than the Nikon CoolScan IV. The £899 Polaroid gives broadly similar quality to the Kodak but is much faster, with a higher max res of 4,000dpi and a slightly lower 3.4D dynamic range. The £650 CoolScan IV has USB (only), a lower maximum res of 2,900dpi and a 3.6D dynamic range and comes with Digital ICE3 technology. | <urn:uuid:23722a62-e483-40c6-a984-9177e72d1d42> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/reviews/creative-software/rfs-3600/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281419.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00486-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915957 | 885 | 1.601563 | 2 |
May 24, 2009 |
And now, some numbers for Maki Kaji, the man who helped invent Sudoku: 1984 -- year he created the puzzle, which was based on an American game called Numbers Place. 35 -- seconds it took for him to come up with the game's Japanese name ("su" means number; "doku" means single). 0 -- trademarks that Kaji secured before his game was reproduced around the world. "Some friends said, 'Maki, you should have trademarked Sudoku. You could have been a millionaire,' " Kaji told a crowd of about 50 during a recent appearance at the Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival in Washington.
October 8, 2008 |
A Japanese American theorist whose work helped explain how the cosmos came into being and two Japanese theorists who predicted the existence of a family of exotic particles called quarks will share the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics, the Swedish Nobel Foundation announced Tuesday. All three studied a curious but essential phenomenon known as broken symmetry, which helps to explain the behavior of matter on the smallest scale, where the everyday laws of physics seemingly break down or are ignored.
January 31, 2008
With the world's tiger population sagging to fewer than 7,000, now's the time to learn about and preserve this rare species of big cat. The Discovery Science Center provides children ages 3 to 17 with a hands-on, high-tech window into the world of the Bengal tiger at Tigers: Tracking a Legend, an exhibit blending biology, ecology and natural history to tell the story of a tiger family in India's Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.
February 16, 2006 |
WHEN he designed his dream house, Rudolf Schindler was faced with a thorny problem. The house was to be not just for him and his wife but also for another family, the Chaces. The two couples wanted to live semi-communally, socializing and entertaining together while maintaining their privacy. There would be one garage and one kitchen, but everything else had to come in pairs: two fireplaces, two grassy patios, two open-air sleeping porches.
January 11, 2002 |
The great popularity of Morton Feldman's very slow, very minimal, very soft and exceedingly long late chamber works has been fueled by fine recordings that have been coming out during the last decade. One such recording is that of the trio "Crippled Symmetry" for flute, percussion and keyboards, released by members of the California EAR Unit in 1999. But hearing the score performed live by the EAR Unit Wednesday night at the Leo S.
January 11, 2002
Anyone who thinks that palindromists wander too far from the mainstream ("For 2002, a Word From Palindromists: Yay," Jan. 1) should keep in mind that the very first exchange within our species was delightfully symmetrical. He: "Madam, I'm Adam." She: "Eve." ROB CARROLL Lake Forest Let's change to the European date style, at least for February. Feb. 20 will be 20/02/2002. TIM MAHAR Manchester, TN | <urn:uuid:3cde0b42-8dbb-45ba-b7e8-58b148401ba8> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/symmetry | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720845.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00086-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96549 | 643 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Here is more from Psyblog (here) on attention. This time on the independence of eye direction and attention.
Eye direction normally coincides with where attention is directed but it is such an important social signal that disguise is sometimes necessary. Take these for instance:
People in close proximity like rail commuters who can watch each other by adopting a fixed gaze and letting their attention wander around the visual field.
Parents keeping tabs on their children out of the corner of their eye while looking at their conversational partner.
Skilled sports people hiding their intended passes or moves by using their peripheral vision rather than looking directly…
Posner and others argued that it is our attention moving around the visual field, often remarkably independent of our actual gaze direction. Indeed even if we’re looking directly at something, and when we don’t expect to see it, we’re no more likely to notice it than if it appears on the edge of our vision…
It appears that attention can be likened to a spotlight roving across our vision like a virtual eye, just picking out the things in which it is interested; it’s not as attached to where we point our eyes as we might imagine. | <urn:uuid:4888f837-1d1e-41cf-9dc0-a24a29557a29> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://charbonniers.org/2009/04/17/attention-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279933.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00128-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951188 | 244 | 2.828125 | 3 |
To review what is stated in the Gauge tutorial, just because you are using the same yarn and needle size suggested by the pattern doesn’t mean you are going to achieve the desired results. When you’re rearing to go on a new project it can be challenging to get yourself to spend the time checking gauge. If the pure logic of the explanation hasn’t swayed you, consider the following horror story:
Jane Doe decides to knit a sweater. The pattern states that the gauge should be 5 sts/inch and suggests a size 8 needle. Jane decides she doesn’t want to spend time making a gauge swatch and dives right into the sweater pattern, casting on 180 stitches to make a garment that she thinks will be 36″ around. She busily knits and labors for months creating the sweater, dreaming about the day she’ll finish and put it on to the delight of her friends and family. Little does Jane realize that her gauge is off. It’s off by a lot. She is a tight knitter and is actually achieving 6 sts/inch rather than the required 5. What does this mean for Jane and her ill-fated sweater? It means that her garment is actually 30″ around and far too small for her to wear! This tragedy could have been prevented by knitting a gauge swatch and discovering the need to switch to a larger needle before she began the sweater.
Now that you have been struck to the very core with fear, you should be ready to make your swatch. Here we will go through the process of making a gauge swatch. Read on for tips and handy suggestions.
Preparing to Swatch
You probably know already whether you knit tightly or loosely. Look at your yarn and choose your needle size based on the suggestions. If it suggests that a size 8 needle achieves 5 sts/inch and you know you are a tight knitter, choose a larger needle size such as 9. If you knit loosely, you might test your swatch using a size 7 needle. If your knitting is usually right as rain or you’re not sure of your style, go ahead and begin with the suggested size.
Creating the Swatch
Using the indicated gauge, cast on six inches worth of stitches. If the indicated gauge is 5 sts/inch, you will cast on 30 stitches, for example. Knit the first inch in garter stitch (knit every row). This will prevent the swatch from rolling at the edges and will make it easier and more accurate to measure. Change to stockinette stitch (alternating knit and purl rows) for five more inches. Switch back to garter stitch and knit one more inch. Take your needles out of the stitches – you can pick them up later if necessary. This will ensure that the needle doesn’t affect your swatch gauge.
Measuring the Swatch
Lay the swatch out flat on a hard surface without stretching it. Place a firm ruler (wood, metal, plastic) across the swatch horizontally and mark the beginning and end of a four inch section of stitches with two straight pins. Count the number of stitches between the pins and divide that number by 4 to find the number of stitches per inch. Do not ignore fractions of stitches! You now have an accurate measure of your gauge with the yarn and needles you used to make the swatch. If this number matches that which is listed on your pattern, you are ready to begin your project. If the number doesn’t match the necessary gauge, you will need to increase or decrease your needle size to remedy the situation. Too few stitches per inch? Use a smaller needle. Too many stitches per inch? Use a larger needle. With your new and improved needle size in hand, pick up the live stitches from your first swatch. Knit another five inches of stockinette and then one more inch of garter. Measure again and continue this process until you have achieved the desired results.
Note: To achieve the greatest accuracy in measuring your gauge, you may want to launder the swatch as you will the finished item. Wash it and dry it according to the yarn care instructions and then block it. Now measure the gauge. The finished gauge can be slightly different than the unblocked gauge. Washing your swatch will help you to fit a garment more precisely.
What to do with that Swatch!
Your completed swatch can be just that – a swatch – or it can become something more. Once you’ve figured out the needle size you need, you can frog the swatch and use it for your project. You can also tag it and keep it for reference in your swatch library. Bind it off and use it as a pocket for your next sweater. If you’ve got some extra time and yarn to spare, knit your swatch in the round and finish it off as a simple hat when you’re done measuring. Swatching can be fun as well as being a knitter’s lifesaver. Come on in, the water’s fine!
Download a printable version here. | <urn:uuid:61af8a89-a349-4e70-9ff5-66b75867e693> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://tutorials.knitpicks.com/swatching/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279169.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00215-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942994 | 1,055 | 2.609375 | 3 |
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]چکیده [English]
This paper focuses on the residential sector demand for electricity, natural gas and petroleum products (Kerosene, gas oil and LPG) in Iran in the context of a popular locally flexible functional forms - “the almost ideal demand system (AIDS)”. We pay explicit attention to the theoretical regularity conditions of positivity, monotonicity, and curvature. We treat the curvature property as a maintained hypothesis and provide a comparison in terms of models' ability in estimation and in terms of violations of the theoretical regularity conditions.
Finally, We provide a policy perspective, using annually data set from 1971 to 2005 (a total of 35 observations) and parameter estimates and a full set of elasticities (price, income and Allen & Morishima elasticities) that are consistent with full regularity.
JEL Classification: C3, C51, Q41, Q43 | <urn:uuid:7284d773-b497-4e6d-9394-19a92897c4d2> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://jte.ut.ac.ir/article_29258.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570879.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809003642-20220809033642-00666.warc.gz | en | 0.818826 | 272 | 1.539063 | 2 |
In the battle against contraceptives and the RH Bill, the CBCP keeps saying big words like “contraceptive mentality” and the “culture of death”, but do we know what they really mean? For example, let’s take a look at what Jaro archbishop and then CBCP president Angel Lagdameo said in 2007:
Since the Church objects to the use of artificial contraception, the church likewise objects to their dissemination, creating thereby a contraceptive mentality towards a culture of death.
Or what San Fernando, Pampanga archbishop Panciano Aniceto wrote in late 2009:
Textbooks consistently using the term “reproduction” instead of “procreation,” even if intended for Catholic schools, should be thoroughly checked for the contraceptive mentality.
It seems those phrases were popularized if not coined by Pope John Paul II in his 1995 enclyclical Evangelium Vitae, where he wrote:
It may be that many people use contraception with a view to excluding the subsequent temptation of abortion. But the negative values inherent in the “contraceptive mentality”—which is very different from responsible parenthood, lived in respect for the full truth of the conjugal act—are such that they in fact strengthen this temptation when an unwanted life is conceived. Indeed, the pro-abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church’s teaching on contraception is rejected.
That last sentence reminds me of the Christian Courier writer Wayne Jackson’s comment on Human Life International founder Dr. Paul Marx’s argument that “widespread contraception always leads to abortion”:
In reality, his argument is a non-argument. He might as well contend that people who engage in sexual activity are more likely to procure abortions than those who do not! This is a truism. But sexual activity per se does not always lead to abortion.
So even assuming that “the pro-abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church’s teaching on contraception is rejected”, do we now condemn contraception, a lawful act, based on its tendency to increase the probability of acceptance or even desensitization towards abortion, a procedure deemed illegal in our country?
And how do we differentiate between “contraceptive mentality” and “responsible parenthood”? Pope John Paul mentioned “respect for the full truth of the conjugal act” with regards to responsible parenthood, and if by “full truth” he meant the inviolable inclusion of procreation in every sexual act, why does the Church allow natural family planning methods where the act is deliberately timed during the wife’s sterile period, or sex between couples who, because of sickness or age, can no longer bear a child?
Let’s see what else Pope John Paul had to say:
…despite their differences of nature and moral gravity, contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the same tree…in very many other instances such practices are rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality, and they imply a self-centered concept of freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfillment…
Does the use of contraceptives exemplify a “hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility”, which probably means engaging in sex solely for pleasure without regard for the consequences? Hardly. The mere act of wearing a condom, for instance, shows concern for the woman’s health – at the cost of decreased pleasure. Does that reflect a “self-centered concept of freedom”?
…The life which could result from a sexual encounter thus becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs, and abortion becomes the only possible decisive response to failed contraception.
Now that sentence is made of two parts existing in different tenses, but taken as a whole it seems to make sense. So let’s try to break it down. The first part talks about a potential (future) pregnancy which should be avoided at all costs, but in the second part that pregnancy has already occurred (present) due to failed contraception, and yet it assumes that the great effort spent to prevent the former automatically dictates a similar degree of proclivity to end the latter. No, being pro-contraception does not necessarily mean pro-abortion.
While it is true that the taking of life not yet born or in its final stages is sometimes marked by a mistaken sense of altruism and human compassion, it cannot be denied that such a culture of death, taken as a whole, betrays a completely individualistic concept of freedom, which ends up by becoming the freedom of “the strong” against the weak who have no choice but to submit.
Did Pope John Paul (or Archbishop Lagdameo) just associate contraception with euthanasia on top of abortion? I hope not, because in contraception there is no life “not yet born” or “in its final stages” – there is simply no life at all! So it isn’t really a freedom of the strong against the weak, because in contraception the weak hasn’t existed yet. It’s just personal freedom.
But contraception is not all about freedom. It’s about health, and of using our human intellect to maintain a healthy, happy life without killing the “weak”. As Wayne Jackson said:
Frequently a woman’s health is an issue relative to the number of children she should bear. Shall a woman be forced to jeopardize her physical welfare simply to satisfy the demands of a conclave of bachelors in Rome?
The Catholic clergy makes much ado about the use of “artificial” devices to facilitate birth control. But by what spiritual criterion does one determine that the use of some artificial devices to accommodate physical needs are permissible (e.g., eye glasses, hearing aids, etc.), and yet, the use of other material devices (to assist with physical needs) are prohibited? It is a manifestation of arrogance to set oneself up as a pontificator of such matters.
And that is where the Church is good at, as a self-appointed pontificator, expressing not opinions but judgments – authoritative, arrogant assertions of what is right and wrong – on matters which lifelong bachelors should have no business to begin with. | <urn:uuid:1943a449-1678-497e-b2d2-cd2b8af2a7ec> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://filipinofreethinkers.org/tag/wayne-jackson/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721278.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00148-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949311 | 1,312 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Now the monkeying around is over and a strict beauty regime has helped her boost her silky smooth skin, glossy hair and healthy hue a woman in her primate deserves.
Effie, keen not to become a rainforest fashion disaster, manages to keep looking her gorgeous best, thanks to a daily dose of vitamins.
Keepers at London Zoo have given the ravenous western lowland gorilla’s diet a powerful boost with multivitamins for beautiful hair, skin and nails.
The multivitamin supplements, Vitabiotics Perfectil Plus Skin, have helped Effie to keep blossoming.
Originally from the forests of central Africa, Effie came to England from Germany in 2007 to join the ranks of the zoo’s Gorilla Kingdom. She has a reputation for stealing food from her friends when they aren’t looking. And, at six-foot tall and weighing 15 stone, who’s going to make a monkey out of her?
Since Effie started her daily cocktail of pills, she has caught the attention of the silverbacks.
Since Effie started her daily cocktail of pills, she has caught the attention of the silverbacks
One potential suitor is 15-year-old Kumbuka, who stands seven-foot tall and weighs an imposing 29 stone.
He’s been flirting with the other females and showing off his impressive agility climbing.
But so far his aping around has not won over hard-to-get Effie who doesn’t seem to give a monkey’s. Experts first hit upon the idea of supplementing her diet after Effie’s companion Mjukuu was given pre-natal vitamins to keep her healthy during and after pregnancy. A zoo spokesman said: “Gorillas, like humans, require a nutritious and balanced diet if they are to maintain long-term health. Nutritional supplements have provided a safeguard to ensure Effie is receiving a range of vitamins and minerals every day.” | <urn:uuid:3d4441f0-d128-464f-851c-083496e8d7f2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/447604/Effie-the-Gorilla-is-in-her-primate-thanks-to-a-daily-dose-of-vitamin-pills | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285315.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00575-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954202 | 414 | 1.59375 | 2 |
This decision reverses a prior directive prohibiting CSIS from doing so. To accept information gathered by foreign governments that implicitly or explicitly authorize torture is itself an act of complicity. This radical policy shift by the Conservative government violates domestic and international law, is profoundly unethical and ultimately undermines Canada’s democratic traditions.
In terms of international law, Canada is a signatory to the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Article 4(1) of the Convention prohibits signatories from enacting policies that involve “complicity or participation in torture.” The Convention against Torture and the Geneva Conventions are components of an evolving body of international law which recognizes that governments are morally and legally obligated to preserve human dignity even – perhaps especially – in times of crisis, chaos and war.
With reference to constitutional law, the Canadian Charter prohibits government policies that subject individuals to cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. Since torture by definition entails inflicting physical or psychological pain on others, it is degrading and cruel treatment. While Charter rights are open to political and legal interpretation, some are so necessary to sustain a free and civilized community that they should be immune from the hoary calculus of reasonable limitations.
From an ethical standpoint, the federal government’s policy reversal is unjustifiable on both rights-based and utilitarian grounds. To claim, as some do, that individual rights on occasion must be sacrificed to preserve them is not contradictory but rather incoherent. Utilitarianism asserts that an ethical course of action is one that maximizes overall happiness, well-being, or social good. The federal government is using a discredited version of utilitarianism – securing public safety – to justify its decision.
Does the policy of torture preserve public order and safety? There is no credible independent study conclusively demonstrating its use either produces reliable information or prevents terrorist acts. Indeed, former U.S. officials have confirmed that “enhanced interrogation” – a euphemism for torture – was used to extract information alleging a connection between al-Qaeda and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Citizens now know this fiction was one of the central justifications for the 2003 Iraq War. It is unforgiveable for a government to declare war, or diminish freedoms, on the basis of unreliable and misleading intelligence.
Democratic governments must vigorously ensure and faithfully preserve public order. We sacrifice our souls, however, if we descend to the level of terrorists who themselves use expediency to justify their heinous acts. The Conservative government has deeply betrayed the public trust by forsaking cherished traditions and principles such as the rule of law, constitutionalism, freedom and human dignity merely for unreliable information. Two U.S. presidents, despite their efforts, have been unable to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp – a sobering reminder that hands once dirtied cannot be unsoiled.
Read more about this issue on the CBC website.
Opinions expressed in this story are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Douglas College. Want to write a piece for doug? See our writer's guidelines. | <urn:uuid:7451204d-e45e-4553-acbd-0e4d143e8c41> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.douglasishere.com/2012/02/using-intelligence-derived-from-torture.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279368.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00330-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927688 | 625 | 2.5 | 2 |
I traveled to the nation’s capital earlier this week, and I liked what I heard.
It’s not every day one can travel to Washington, D.C., on official business and hear encouraging news about education policy changes coming down the pike.
But my recent meeting in the nation’s capital with state education chiefs from across the country defied expectations.
I think most who work in Maine schools would be similarly encouraged by what I heard: There’s a sense at the federal level that states – especially rural states like Maine – need flexibility when it comes to reforming our schools and measuring how well we’ve done it.
While in Washington, I learned that four dedicated senators and their staffers are hard at work determining what the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will look like when it comes up for reauthorization before Congress. We’re told that could happen as early as this fall.
What does that mean for Maine schools?
A rewritten Elementary and Secondary Education Act will replace the nine-year-old No Child Left Behind law that requires that schools everywhere make seemingly arbitrary increments of progress toward seemingly arbitrary levels of proficiency each year. (By 2014, that proficiency level will be 100 percent for all children in all schools.)
Those proficiency levels are determined largely by one measure: students’ performance on standardized tests that measure achievement in math and English language arts.
In Washington, my colleagues and I held a productive meeting with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. He was receptive to our message that the next landmark education bill needs to be flexible, while holding students and teachers to rigorous standards aimed at preparing our children for college and 21st-century careers.
There isn’t just one way to carry out reforms in our schools, and there isn’t just one way to measure how successful we are in doing that.
There’s more to our children’s education than teaching and testing math and language arts. The most important federal law that governs our schools needs to reflect that. | <urn:uuid:031853bf-c935-410b-b72e-01132b42b08d> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://mainedoenews.net/2011/04/01/promising-signs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720972.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00251-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953361 | 419 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Chernyeklobuki (Black Hoods) Released
Were a group of semi-nomadic Turkic tribes that settled on the frontier between the Rus' states and the Pecheneg during the 11th century and the 12th century. They fought as mercenaries for various Rus' princes, forming most of the light cavalry for the Rus armies.
Their name means "Black Hats or Black Hoods".
The name Chernye Klobuki appears in the chronicles of Kievan Rus' at the ens of the 11th century, when they settled primarily south of Kiev and Pereiaslav.
You can order them now.
"Medieval Russian" Section | <urn:uuid:313a75ca-ef6a-46c6-b0c9-2de18978f932> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.fireforge-games.com/fireforge-games-miniatures/featured/chernyeklobuky-released | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281331.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00219-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937568 | 139 | 2.5 | 2 |
Some are bigger, some smaller, but pretty much every spiral galaxy we see has a roughly spherical puffy bulge of stars in its core (like in the edge-on spiral NGC 4565, shown here to the right). This downtown region of a galactic city is a bit mysterious. It contains old stars, very little gas, lots of dust… and we’re not sure how they form.
But a new observation of a cluster of stars in our Milky Way’s bulging center may have the key we’ve been looking for. Behold Terzan 5:
[Click to galactify, or grab the higher-res 1350 x 1370 version.]
Pretty, isn’t it? My first glance at this image made me think, "Oooh, sweet." My second glance made me think "Hey, wait a sec…" and my third, after reading the scientific paper, made me smile. Terzan 5 is a pretty interesting place.
It’s just over 19,000 light years away, toward the galactic center. That area is lousy with thick patches of dust, making it very difficult to see anything, like trying to see a forest through a thick fog. These images were taken with the Very Large Telescope (srsly), an 8-meter goliath in Chile. The observations were done in the infrared, which can travel more easily through the thick dust — specifically at 1.2 and 2.2 microns (our eyes can see out to about 0.8 microns; anything longer than that is infrared). Amazingly, this image is a total of only four minutes of observations, two minutes in each filter! And while the size of the image is comfortably larger than the full Moon on the sky, the resolution is about 0.1 arcseconds, about that of Hubble! That’s why the second time I glanced at the image I was amazed; the star images are sharp and clear.
Also, see how the stars appear to be redder on the left in the picture of the cluster above, and bluer on the right? That’s not because the stars themselves are different; it’s because the dust between us and the cluster is thicker on the left, making stars appear redder. The astronomers studying Terzan 5 had to account for that when they investigated the stars. The wide-field picture to the right shows you just how hard this can be; the center of our galaxy is a frakkin’ mess. You can see Terzan 5 in the center of this very wide image as the blue glow; everything else is stars and dust obscuring the view. I’ll add that this picture is pretty darn cool all by its lonesome, especially if you download the grossly embiggenated 240 Mb version.
Still, astronomers are clever, and were able to tease solid data out of the observations. And when they did get their results, they were surprised to see two different kinds of stars in the cluster. In the image, Terzan 5 appears to be a globular cluster: a spheroidal ball of stars held together by its own gravity. The Milky Way has well over a hundred globulars orbiting it. But usually, stars in globular clusters are all about the same age, indicating they were all formed at the same time. Terzan 5, however, appears to have two different populations of stars, one older than the other. Moreover, the younger ones appear to be more centrally concentrated in the cluster, with older stars farther out from the center.
That’s pretty weird. One possible way this could happen is if Terzan 5 isn’t really a globular cluster, which form from collapsing clouds of gas around the same time the Milky Way itself did. Maybe instead Terzan 5 is the remnant of a galaxy in and of itself, a small dwarf galaxy that got torn apart by our Milky Way’s gravity. Terzan 5 may have been a snack for our galaxy!
That would explain the two kinds of stars — galaxies, especially dwarfs, typically undergo different epochs of star formation — as well as their different positions inside the cluster. But the weird thing here is that the amount of iron in the stars matches the amount of iron in stars in the bulge of our galaxy. That’s an odd coincidence, if Terzan 5 formed separately from the Milky Way’s bulge.
But maybe, all together, this makes sense. Perhaps Terzan 5 really was once a dwarf galaxy. It fell in to the galactic center and got torn apart (we know that happens, and may explain how galaxies like the Milky Way grow to such large size). If that happens, the stars from the shredded dwarf 5 get tossed out, and become part of the Milky Way’s bulge, which puffs up due to the adding of these stars to its population. The remaining stars form the small ragtag spherical clump which we now see as Terzan 5.
If this is true, then it may be the key we need to understanding why spirals have bulges. They don’t necessarily form at the same time the galaxy itself does, but instead grow over time as the galaxy feeds on smaller, weaker galaxies. [Note that this is related to, but different from, a post I put up last week about globular clusters and galactic bulges.]
This type of galactic archaeology is amazing to me. We see what looks like one kind of object — a globular cluster — which upon closer examination (which itself was pretty tough to do) turns out to be perhaps a totally different kind of object — a half-digested galactic corpse — that itself became part of our own Milky Way, and by the way may also be the missing link we’ve been looking for between how spiral galaxies are born and how they form their central bulges.
All in all, not a bad piece of detective investigating! But of course, for astronomers, it’s all in a
day’s night’s work.
Image credits: NGC 4565: Bruce Hugo and Leslie Gaul/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF; Terzan 5: ESO/F. Ferraro; Region around Terzan 5: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Links to this Post
- Troythulu’s Nu’z « The Call of Troythulu | November 25, 2009
- Phil Plait: The Milky Way bulges with cannibalized corpses! « fehlmann.net | November 25, 2009
- Zombie Galaxies say (Dust) Graaaains « Micro Black Holes | November 28, 2009
- Carnival of Space #131 | Starry Critters | November 30, 2009
- OrbitalHub » Carnival of Space #131 | December 6, 2009
- The Universe Was Created Recently, ish « Eye on the ICR | May 30, 2011
- More Galaxies – DpSU « Eye on the ICR | June 27, 2011 | <urn:uuid:dbc530e0-5859-4b69-b0c7-5986a07b60c1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/11/25/the-milky-way-bulges-with-cannibalized-corpses/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280791.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00358-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942003 | 1,460 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Project Vote Smart is now offering access to a world of political information through the World Wide Web.
Georgia's Technology Jewels
By embracing new policy goals, pursuing public-private partnerships and committing adequate resources, Georgia has become a successful innovator in using technology to deliver vital public services.
Justice & Technology
Small Ohio Court Saves Big
The Gallia County, Ohio, Clerk of Courts Office took advantage of technology larger counties were using and found that just because they were smaller didn't mean they had to be left behind.
Tips from Those Who've Been There
Building your own network is a complicated process. Understanding other communities' experiences may help you determine whether or not a community network is right for you.
Government on the Web
Government indeed likes the Internet. But the question is, is government providing anything useful, or is it there for the thrill of it?
Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader
Long-time consumer advocate Ralph Nader needs no introduction. He has been leading public interest campaigns, including the Taxpayer Assets Project, which has worked to open public access to JURIS, a Department of Justice data service, and EDGAR, a Securities and Exchange Commission system. The following interview was conducted by Government Technology Features Editor Brian Miller.
Technology & Governance
National CIO? Congress Says No
Congress briefly considered creating a Chief Information Officer (CIO) to coordinate information technology for the entire federal government. This summer, however, the bill changed. | <urn:uuid:c1b09e86-8630-4bd2-8448-5cd073b09905> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.govtech.com/magazines/gt/Government-Technology-November-1995.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285289.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00147-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943834 | 301 | 1.921875 | 2 |
By THE AFRICA BAZAAR Staff Writer
May 28, 2015
While there is no sign that the recent influx of Burundian refugees into western Tanzania will ease anytime soon given the dire nature of the political situation in Burundi, the cholera epidemic that has emerged in western Tanzania as a result of overcrowded camps and unsanitary environments among refugees has improved, but holds uncertainty to its abatement.
That uncertainty is due to the fact that while many refugees are housed in official camps, these areas are still ill-equipped to deal with the thousands of desperate and displaced refugees that have crossed the borders to seek refuge in the country, which have mired the national and international community’s efforts to effectively curb the cholera outbreak in the refugee camps in Kagunga, Tanganyika Stadium, and Nyarugusu refugee camp, leaving gaps for high risk infection transmission, according to a World Health Organization representative.
“The prompt response by WHO, UN Agencies, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and other partners has greatly contributed to reducing the number of cholera cases but the crisis is far from over and significant challenges remain ahead,” said WHO Representative for Tanzania, Dr Rufaro Chatora who recently visited the area to access the humanitarian crisis and identify ongoing needs.
He noted that despite significant improvements, especially at Kagunga, the crisis remains dire in the region.
“The pressure has now shifted to Tanganyika Stadium and Nyarugusu refugee camp where the sudden increases in population have resulted in very limited access to clean water, poor sanitation and inadequate access basic health care services,” he said.
The situation in western Tanzania underscored the need for the international community to further strengthen coordination mechanisms to scale-up the provision of health care services and basic shelter, food, water and protection services to high risk populations.
For example, pregnant women, children, elderly people- who are most vulnerable to health risks and need special attention- including people living with HIV/AIDS or people with chronic illnesses have limited access to essential medical care.
Many of the refugees also have malaria, and some with current illnesses have no access to their medicines because most of them fled Burundi without taking essential items.
Since mid April, thousands of people have fled Burundi to seek refuge in neighboring countries including Tanzania, Rwanda, and DRC, due to violence and riots that erupted after the Burundian President declared his intent to run for a third term presidency, which many in the country and the international community say violates the country’s constitution and the Arusha Agreement that was signed in 2012, ending the civil war in the country.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 50,000 refugees have arrived in Tanzania as of May 25, with 5929 refugees reported to camp at Kagunga, 40519 in Nyarugusu, and a fluctuating number of about 4000 at Tanganyika Stadium due to rapid arrivals and departures.
Dr Chatora added that the priority of the international response system is now to step up their coordinated response efforts to meet the health needs of the asylum seekers and local populations in and around the Kigoma region, including intensifying treatment and prevention of cholera, and ensuring adequate supply of medicines and supplies, and improving access to clean water
The WHO, who is coordinating its efforts through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW), has dispatched and mobilized 12 health experts to the area to help support management of the cholera outbreak in Kagunga and Tanganyika Stadium Cholera Treatment Centers, and is providing medicines and supplies to all three sites to treat more than 60,000 people for cholera, acute watery diarrhea, and common diseases like malaria for three months.
WHO said it also has deployed international experts in Outbreak and Disaster Management, Surveillance and Data Management.
Other national and international agencies, including UNHCR, United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Population Fund, International Rescue Committee, Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières, Tanzania Water and Environmental Sanitation, CARITAS, Plan International, and World Food Program, have also stepped up their assistance to help reduce health risks.
The situation in western Tanzania could very well represent a test for WHO, the UN and the rest of the international health community and emergency response system, which was widely criticized for their lackluster response and ill-equipped handling of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, to see how well they handle the current cholera outbreak in Tanzania.
Lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak and the needs to restructure how the organization and its peripheries respond to global health emergencies and health threats were top of the agenda at the recently concluded annual “World Health Assembly” meeting that took place in Geneva, Switzerland, where WHO and member stakeholders mulled over the response system to the Ebola outbreak and gleaned lesson learned and gave the director of organization the green light to reform the global emergency and response system so the organization can prepare and respond rapidly, effectively with flexibility to global emergencies and disease outbreaks.
As part of its efforts to accelerate research and develop vaccines, and drugs for diseases and other health threats that currently do not have any medicine for, the WHO will establish a two-year pilot program with an initial investment of US$100-million contingency fund to provide financing for in-field operations for up to three months. The contingency will then be evaluated as needed.
To respond swiftly and effectively to global emergencies, WHO said it will create a “clear and effective command and control systems” that will manage mechanisms across all the three levels — headquarters, regional and country offices — of the health organization.
In addition, to improve preparedness and response for future health emergencies in a timely manner, WHO will create an emergency program whose core principles will emphasize predictability, humanitarianess, accountability, timeliness as well as adaptability and flexibility that will serve as a guide for responding to all hazardous health emergency situation.
The health organization will work with governments to help countries better prepare for emergencies by strengthening their national health systems and taking steps to improve functioning, transparency, effectiveness and efficiency of the International Health Regulations.
While no death or new case were reported in the cholera outbreak in western Tanzania as of May 25, 4408 people were diagnosed and treated.
Copyright © 2015 ImeK Media, LLC. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:4e062067-0ec3-4b33-8ff0-ab872955c48a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://theafricabazaar.com/progress-but-no-certainty-cholera-epidemic-eases-soon-in-western-tanzania/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572043.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814143522-20220814173522-00478.warc.gz | en | 0.954682 | 1,329 | 2.0625 | 2 |
|Tuesday, February 14, 2006|
|Australia considers betting levy for sports|
As a result of the enormous growth in sports betting (estimated 1,6 billion AUS $), the provincial gaming authorities and sporting representatives seemed to have agreed in principle that the sporting bodies should receive a percentage of the betting volume on their sports.
A sports minister commnted: "What is being proposed is reasonable; nobody else on-sells a product for others to make money from without securing a return. I don't think anybody has a problem with that. “
Sporting bodies that are likely going to benefit the possible new law are Cricket Australia, Tennis Australia, PGA Tour of Australasia, Football Federation Australia, the National Rugby League and the Australian Rugby Union.
Some of the money would be used to protect the integrity of sport from betting corruption. | <urn:uuid:33fc3cbb-73f1-43ac-8260-1304211780bf> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.ifhaonline.org/default.asp?section=Resources&story=255 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570879.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808213349-20220809003349-00474.warc.gz | en | 0.952274 | 176 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Thanks to a complete (and I mean complete) collection of screenshots graciously sent in by Brent Terrazas, I have been enlightened as to my need for Linux. Looking over the screenshots, I see a great deal of variation — more so than any of the Mac or PC browsers at my disposal — in terms of how designs are rendered on various Linux-driven browsers. The obsessive-compulsive designer in me suddenly sees an incredible need for my own Linux setup — not only for design-testing and cross-browser compatibility purposes, but also because I have always wanted to learn the ways of the Jedi..
A long time ago, I had a copy of Red Hat something or other setup on a dual-partitioned laptop, but that has long since vanished into the ether. I still have those old Red Hat installation disks, but I am certain that there is a much better solution available and would prefer to go with something as current and flexible as possible. So my question to you is, what is the best way to go for setting up with Linux? I currently own three machines: a Sony Vaio running Windows, a Macbook running OS X, and an old trusty laptop PC running, yes you guessed it, Windows 98SE. Is it ideal (or possible) to setup Linux on one of these existing systems? Or would it be better to invest in a new computer (I think it would, but my wife would probably disagree) for the purpose of learning and using Linux? I have read about thumb drives and CD-based Linux operating systems as well; any advice on those?
And then, and most importantly, what is the best version of Linux (preferably open-source) currently available? I realize that I am probably opening a big fat can of worms by asking these questions, but I prefer to get input from people with whom a mutual resonance has been established, namely, my readers. Plus, assuming that I succeed in setting something up, I will be sharing Linux-related information here at Perishable Press, so whichever Linux version I end up with is the one that you will probably be reading about (from time to time). So chime in with your thoughts — I trust your advice and look forward to your hearing your ideas about this. | <urn:uuid:6608cc73-5eb7-42bf-b35e-6551bd1a2252> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://perishablepress.com/i-need-linux/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283008.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00086-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962209 | 461 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The dead cluster around Thomas Cromwell in this darkly magnificent sequel to “Wolf Hall.”
He keeps them with him, giving the names of his beloved wife and daughters to the falcons he flies with his king, Henry VIII, and nursing memories of his disgraced mentor, Cardinal Wolsey, whose persecutors will soon suffer Cromwell’s vengeance. Deceased enemies also linger in his thoughts: He’s forced to reconsider his hatred for his brutal father, and he can’t seem to dismiss Thomas More, whom he maneuvered to execution in 1535. More’s bitter aphorisms resurface to remind Cromwell of the dangerous path he has chosen in serving Henry’s capricious royal will.
There will be plenty of fresh corpses by the time Hilary Mantel’s narrative completes its mordant course through the nine months required to send Anne Boleyn to the scaffold and clear the way for Henry’s new love, Jane Seymour. With ruthless efficiency, Master Secretary Cromwell facilitates this judicial murder, as well as the concomitant deaths of four men who made the mistake of crossing him. “He needs guilty men. So he has found men who are guilty. Though perhaps not guilty as charged.” Cromwell knows the risks he runs in bending the law to the king’s desires. “Your new friends will make short work of you once she is gone,” warns Anne’s brother.
Those “new friends” are England’s old aristocratic families, who disdain the Boleyns (and Cromwell) as plebeian upstarts. Their pragmatic alliance with the Master Secretary implies no real amity. The class animus that gave “Wolf Hall” much of its bite is even more pronounced here: The nobility frequently and openly insult Cromwell with sneering references to his low birth, poor education and unseemly ambitions. His refusal to respond to their barbs fools them into thinking he’s a servile conniver with no pride. If they paid proper attention to the histories of the men he chooses for dispatch to the block with Anne, they would realize that Thomas Cromwell doesn’t get mad, he gets even.
Faced with the challenge of topping her formidable achievement in “Wolf Hall,” winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize, Mantel pushes her protagonist deeper into a moral quagmire and invites our complicity with his descent. Cromwell was no saint in the previous novel, but it was easy to be on his side as he faced down arrogant aristocrats, remained loyal to Wolsey and nonetheless rose to a position of power that he aimed to use for the benefit of England’s common people. If we felt sorry for Katherine of Aragon, Henry’s discarded queen, her fate was no worse than confinement in a country manor. The stakes are mortal in “Bring Up the Bodies,” and Cromwell, as lucidly self-aware as ever, doesn’t pretend that his tactics are anything but merciless; his goal anything but murderous.
The grim passages in which Cromwell bluntly tells the accused they are going to be convicted, that their possible innocence is irrelevant, recall the interrogation scenes in Arthur Koestler’s “Darkness at Noon” — told from Gletkin’s point of view instead of Rubashov’s. “You cannot make my thoughts a crime,” protests a nobleman who admits to amorous feelings for Anne but denies acting on them. The Stalinist cadences of Master Secretary Cromwell’s title reverberate in his reply: “If thoughts are intentions, if intentions are malign. . . .” Mantel allusively links Tudor absolutism to 20th-century totalitarianism, showing Cromwell as the reluctant but resolute instrument of authority that defines guilt to serve its own purposes. Henry needs Anne to be an adulteress and the gallants who flirted with her to be treasonous conspirators, so that he can legally marry Jane. The dirty details are his secretary’s problem.
The reader’s problem, deliberately created by Mantel, is that we know Cromwell too intimately to hate him for his terrible deeds. We understand the stark imperative that drives him: Satisfy the king or be thrown to the aristocratic wolves. We feel his bleak acceptance of guilt that is no less onerous for being unavoidable. The past he has shared with us “lies about him like a burnt house.”
It doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, does it? The pleasures of “Bring Up the Bodies” — and they are abundant, albeit severe — reside in Mantel’s artistic mastery. She animates history with a political and psychological acuity equal to Tolstoy’s in “War and Peace” (and she might have the edge on Count Leo in politics). Sardonic humor, particularly in scenes with not-nearly-as-dumb-as-she-seems Jane Seymour, leavens the ominous mood. Gruffly compassionate toward villains and victims alike, Mantel reveals their weaknesses and cruelties bundled up in a flawed humanity we share. The most flawed and human of all is Cromwell, who in the summer of 1536 defies his enemies and covertly rationalizes the bodies he has piled up to their advantage: “Let them try to pull him down. . . . They will find him stuck like a limpet to the future. He has laws to write, measures to take, the good of the commonwealth to serve.”
He has four years to live. And Mantel has one more novel planned to see Thomas Cromwell to his destiny. If that finale matches the somber brilliance of its predecessors — and there’s every reason to believe it will — these will be fitting volumes to place on a bookshelf next to Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy as thrilling examples of the finest works of historical fiction in contemporary literature.
Smith, a contributing editor of the American Scholar, reviews books frequently for the Los Angeles Times, AARP and The Post.
BRING UP THE BODIES
By Hilary Mantel
Henry Holt. 410 pp. $28 | <urn:uuid:2b77d4e4-fe71-4628-af55-d9a8ffd79f95> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-world-hilary-mantels-bring-up-the-bodies/2012/05/07/gIQAlVF08T_story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570741.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808001418-20220808031418-00076.warc.gz | en | 0.963805 | 1,327 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Worthy Christian News » Christian » Vatican Approves Exorcist Association
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
VATICAN CITY (Worthy News)-- The Vatican has formally recognized the International Association of Exorcists, a group of 250 priests in 30 countries who liberate the faithful from demons, according to the AP.
The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported Tuesday that the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy had approved the organization's statutes and recognized the group under canon law, thereby giving it the authority to perform exorcisms.
The head of the association, the Rev. Francesco Bamonte, said the Vatican approval was cause for joy.
"Exorcism is a form of charity that benefits those who suffer".
The Catholic Encyclopedia defines an exorcism as "the act of driving out, or warding off, demons, or evil spirits, from persons, places, or things, which are believed to be possessed or infested by them, or are liable to become victims or instruments of their malice." The Rite of Exorcism is a sacramental by which a priest is authorized to drive out those spirits.
Last year Pope Francis was seen placing his hands on the head of a penitent purportedly possessed by four demons in what exorcists alleged was a prayer of exorcism, but Vatican sources said it was simply a prayer, period. | <urn:uuid:f2b816af-4ede-4db3-a4f9-21e9c82dbe68> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.worthynews.com/16801-vatican-approves-exorcist-association | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281419.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00491-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952174 | 286 | 1.5625 | 2 |
طراحی کنترل کننده PID متمرکز مبتنی بر استراتژی تکامل سازگاری ماتریس کواریانس
|کد مقاله||سال انتشار||مقاله انگلیسی||ترجمه فارسی||تعداد کلمات|
|55636||2010||7 صفحه PDF||سفارش دهید||محاسبه نشده|
Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت)
Journal : Expert Systems with Applications, Volume 37, Issue 8, August 2010, Pages 5775–5781
In this paper, design of centralized PID controller using Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMAES) is presented. Binary distillation column plant described by Wood and Berry (WB) having two inputs and two outputs and by Ogunnike and Ray (OR) having three inputs and three outputs are considered for the design of multivariable PID controller. Optimal centralized PID controller is designed by minimizing IAE for servo response with unit step change. Simulations are carried out using SIMULINK-MATLAB software. The statistical performances of the designed controllers such as best, mean, standard deviations of IAE and average functional evaluations for 20 independent trials. For the purpose of comparison, recent version of real coded Genetic Algorithm (RGA) with simulated binary crossover (SBX) and conventional BLT method are used. In order to validate the performance of optimal PID controller for robustness against load disturbance rejection, load regulation experiment with step load disturbance is conducted. Also, to determine the performance of optimal PID controller for robustness against model uncertainty, servo and load response with +20% variations in gains and dead times is conducted. Simulation results reveal that for both OR and WB systems, CMAES designed centralized PID controller is better than other methods and also it is more robust against model uncertainty and load disturbance. | <urn:uuid:3e1f7704-62e0-42a7-8f0b-bc0f823bc3e9> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://isiarticles.com/article/55636 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279650.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00431-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.757535 | 522 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Fading light dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky,
From afar drawing nigh,
Falls the night.
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, From the hills,
From the sky.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.
Then good night, Peaceful night,
Till the light of the dawn
God is near, do not fear,
Friend, good night.
Also Remembered At
The Wall of the Missing
October 08, 1933 at Boise,
Service in the US Army from Boise, ID
10, 1953 at the age of 19
Earned The Medal of Honor During the Korean War For heroism
July 08 - 10, 1953 at Pork
chop Hill, Sokkogae, Korea
Schoonover was in charge of an engineer demolition squad which
was committed to dislodge the enemy from a vital hill. When the
heavy fighting made it impossible to carry out his mission, he
employed his unit as a rifle squad and, forging up the steep
barren slope, participated in the assault on hostile positions.
When an artillery round exploded on the roof of an enemy bunker,
he courageously ran forward and leaped into the position,
killing one enemy and taking another prisoner. Later, when
friendly forces were pinned down by vicious fire from another
bunker, he dashed through the hail of fire, hurled grenades in
the nearest aperture, then ran to the doorway and emptied his
pistol, killing the remainder of the enemy. When the enemy
counterattacked he constantly exposed himself to the heavy
bombardment to direct the fire of his men and to call in an
artillery barrage on hostile forces. Although the company was
relieved early the following morning, he voluntarily remained in
the area, manned a machinegun for several hours, and
subsequently joined another assault on enemy emplacements. When
last seen he was operating an automatic rifle with devastating
effect until mortally wounded by artillery fire. | <urn:uuid:0cb1e050-8d28-4c6a-8804-b8d3ddea9ddc> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://homeofheroes.com/gravesites/states/pages_pz/schoonover_daniel.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721141.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00415-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936494 | 428 | 1.765625 | 2 |
I use hardware store bought flashlights mounted on my handlebars using hose clamps. I'ts as generic as you can get.
I use a strip of old inner tube to protect both the flashlight and the handlebar. That also increases grip so the light is more stable.
It's not as fast to install as a commercially available solution, but takes no longer than a minute. Gluing the rubber strip or a small piece of foam tape to the inner side of the hose clamp can speed things up.
This mounting is fairly substantial and it even holds up to MTB riding on rocky trails.
I select the flashlights that have similar beam patterns and functions as a proper bike light, like light intensity levels and/or blinking (I suspect the components are effectively the same, the bike specific ones just use a special housing and change the price accordingly)
If your existing lights are mostly cylindrical, you can use this approach. Use foam tape or rubber strips to cushion the lights. You'd need two clamps per light. One goes "permanently" affixed to the light, with the second clamp interlocked like a chain link. The second clamp goes to the handlebar, and this is the one you open and close to install or remove. (So you leave the bike clean when not using the light)
A more elegant solution may be to 3D print adapters or mounts that can work with many of your existing lights. Or, you could make copies of some of your existing light mounts and have many mounts on one handlebar. I'd go with this approach if the existing lights where particularly good but also expensive enough that I'd not want to spend on.
But, ultimately, most lights use mounts that are fairly easy to install or remove with no tools or at most using a simple screwdriver (something that you should have always at hand when riding bikes, in a multi tool or small tool pouch).
For example, my wife has one where the mount is a special molded piece covered in rubber. The solid part half wraps around the handlebar and a thick rubber "cord" wraps the rest and locks into a hook in the same mount. It can be removed or installed in just seconds. The mount is semi permanently attached to the light's housing and allows for side to side angle adjustment.
I borrowed this light on a short period in which "I did not know beforehand which bike I'd be riding". I just carried that light in my backpack and only installed if necessary | <urn:uuid:20b05351-0a5a-4955-bf17-67b335bc34ad> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/8729/are-there-any-light-mounting-products-that-is-adjustable | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.942859 | 512 | 1.585938 | 2 |
At times we can all get lost in our old habits and can’t seem to pull ourselves through. Parents, especially, often feel like they are failing or could do better.
Once in a while you hear something from someone or hear a line on TV or the radio that resonates with you and triggers you to start doing something or stop doing something.
This is by no means a complete list but here are some thoughts…
- Don’t use your child as your confident, therapist or fellow victim. They don’t want to know!
- Don’t try to cause problems in your child’s relationship with the other parent – you are hurting your child.
- Don’t bad mouth the other parent, their new partner or choices for their new life.
- Don’t purchase your children’s allegiance, acceptance, understanding or forgiveness.
- Don’t compete with the other parent.
- Don’t use your child to communicate with the other parent – be an adult and role model and do it yourself.
- Don’t take them away from their extended family.
- Don’t expose your kids to your dating life.
- Don’t introduce new partners to your kids to soon and certainly not before your kids are ready.
- Don’t pressure you children to accept or like your new relationship.
- Don’t be negative about relationships, commitment or marriage/common law.
- Do put your child and their wellbeing before everything else.
- Do take responsibility for your own behaviour. We ask that of our children!
- Pick your battles and avoid getting pulled into emotional old scripts out of habit.
- Do take the high road. This will save you a lot of stress especially when you know the other person won’t or can’t.
- Respect your child’s relationship with their other parent.
- Respect that your former spouse has a parenting style of their own.
- Do stay out of your former spouse’s life and business.
- Apologize and/or forgive yourself and you former spouse.
- Make the decision to move on.
- Get excited about your new life and share the excitement with your child.
- Do look forward to the future and help your kids do the same. | <urn:uuid:f889032a-0d3c-48f8-a60e-3cc19cc4a15d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://summitmediationgroup.ca/do-and-do-not/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572021.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814083156-20220814113156-00078.warc.gz | en | 0.922976 | 500 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Visited 24th August 2003: Is this one site or two? Nobody seems to know for sure. We parked up right next to the north eastern section of the site, and while Alfie dozed in the car we tried to figure out what went where. Like Cashtal yn Ard there's a forcourt, a clearly visible tomb entrance, and a long denuded cairn with chambers, but in this case the road cuts the end off.
On the other side of the road is the south western section of King Orry's Grave, and this may or may not be part of the same cairn. The solitary standing stone is thought to be the last of the stones that defined the arced wall of yet another forecourt (this suggests to me that the two sites aren't part of the same tomb).
Both parts of the site are difficult to interpret. Luckily there are big information boards on both sides of the road with reconstructive illustrations on them (slightly fanciful, but still useful). If you plan on visiting King Orry's Grave, I'd recommend getting hold of a plan beforehand. It will help.
The Manx National Heritage information board next to the south western part of the site has this to say about King Orry:
King Orry is an almost legendary character revered by the Manx as their greatest king. He was King Godred Crovan, who seized the throne in 1079 and created the kingdom of Man and the Isles stretching from the Irish Sea to the Outer Hebrides. Several monuments are named in deference to him, but there is no connection between the historical figure and these prehistoric remains. | <urn:uuid:62b34b0b-a8c9-48ae-a323-03c36c9014af> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/365/king_orrys_grave.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284352.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00196-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951561 | 338 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Volunteers will assist park biologists in reducing human-wildlife conflicts by detecting and mitigating the availability of human food in campgrounds, parking lots, lodging facilities and other park areas including both frontcountry and wilderness areas; monitor movements of bears using radio telemetry; assist in capture, immobilization, tagging, and relocation of bears; assist with negative conditioning of bears and other wildlife using various tactics which may include the use of a paintball gun; complete daily patrol logs and bear incident reports and enter information into a database; assist with capture and relocation of other wildlife including small mammals, rattlesnakes, and birds; and assist with other wildlife management programs when necessary. Volunteers may also participate in wilderness patrols, focusing on educating hikers and backpackers about bears and proper food storage, doing food storage patrols, and chasing bears from backcountry campsites. This position requires a high level of public contact.
Public education (wildlife, food storage); patrols in both frontcountry and wilderness areas; finding and correcting food storage violations through written and verbal warnings; radio telemetry and wildlife tracking; scaring bears from development with training that will be received on the job; data entry; assisting with wildlife captures; responding and assisting to various wildlife management calls including but not limited to moving rattle snakes, assisting with injured wildlife, or helping remove wildlife trapped in buildings; other duties as assigned.
Applicants should be able to work as a team member during patrols and bear capture efforts, but also work well independently, willing to work long and irregular hours and weekends as dictated by bear activity, be in excellent physical condition to negotiate rough and mountainous terrain, lift and carry at least 50 lbs, and be an experienced hiker.
Wildlife management work including work with bears and other large potentially dangerous wildlife, hiking and walking over rough terrain day and night, working in extreme weather conditions, smoke, temperatures over 100 degrees or below freezing, and working near firearms.
Volunteers must commit to the position for at least 12 weeks (May - August) but preference for people with longer availability will be given. Volunteers will be expected to work 40 hours/week. An academic background or training in wildlife management, zoology, or biology is desired. Must have CPR training and first aid certification. Must have valid driver’s license.
APPLY through: https://www.volunteer.gov/s/volunteer-opportunity/a093d000000Um14AAC/yosemite-bear-patrol | <urn:uuid:f44f72fe-6864-48b2-964e-f52896e1ca66> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://wfscjobs.tamu.edu/jobs/yosemite-bear-patrol-yosemite-national-park/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00466.warc.gz | en | 0.936738 | 526 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The main motive for the creation of the microscope was the struggle against malaria — in the developing countries about a billion microscopic examinations of the blood samples per year have to be carried out for malaria diagnosis. A standard laboratory microscope is an expensive and fragile device. Stanford scientists have managed to construct a microscope with magnification up to the 2000x, while the cost of all the components in a mass production will be 97 cents. The microscope body is cut out and folded from a sheet of thick paper. Other components are a flat battery, a LED switch, a piece of conductive copper tape and a glass or a sapphire ball lens.
Paper microscope fits easily in your one's pocket, weighs less than ten grams, can be used for brightfield, darkfield, polarized and fluorescent microscopy, and even work as a projector. One battery lasts for 50 hours. Microscope can easily endure pretty rough usage, it can even be stepped on, it can be dropped on the floor — it can withstand anything that a piece of cardboard can withstand. The quality of the microscope image is sufficient to determine various types of infections in outdoor conditions.
The simple design and low cost allow to speak about other promising applications in scientific and medical purposes, as well as at schools. The microscope can be put together in 10-20 minutes, and its price can be even lower, if instead of the most expensive component — the sapphire lens — much less expensive optics with smaller magnification are used. In one lesson each student is able to self-assemble the microscope and conduct a series of experiments.
An article detailing the design and characteristics of the microscope is published openly. | <urn:uuid:7399a766-a3fc-46d7-9f9c-b5cfa8ff39b9> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://kukuruku.co/hub/diy/at-stanford-university-a-paper-microscope-has-been-developed-that-costs-less-than-a-dollar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280825.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00201-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94034 | 333 | 3.75 | 4 |
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Picture Of The Day--Washington Senators Spring Training 1958
51 years ago The Washington Senators trained in Orlando, Florida using famous Tinker Field as their home base. Like many of Washington's teams in the 1950's, the 1958 version was not that good either. But what they did have were a handful of good young players that over the next few seasons would become solid Major League Players. One of whom would become a Hall Of Famer.
Outfielder Roy Sievers was just coming off leading The American League in Home Runs with 42 in 1957. His outfield mate--Jim Lemon was the only other true hitting star on the ballclub. The Senators had traded away eventual American League Batting Champion Pete Runnels over the previous winter. Those three were this team's veterans--but not their future.
As The Senators headed to Spring Training that February--turnover had again mostly made Washington a young team. Camilio Pascual and Pedro Ramos were talented pitchers in their early 20's. And in this photo from Spring Training 1958--two of Washington's prize everyday youngsters are shown. One would have a breakout '58 season. The other would arrive in 1959--for good.
On the left waiting to catch a ball--Centerfielder Albie Pearson was in his first year on a big league roster. The diminutive centerfielder parlayed this opportunity into becoming The American League Rookie Of The Year. Pearson was a previous subject of a Picture Of The Day.
Former George Washington University star in Football and Baseball--Steve Korcheck--is just to the left of Pearson. A journeyman Major League Catcher at best, Korcheck made Washington Baseball Historian Phil Wood's Day as a youngster--when Phil met Korcheck working on the same job as Phil's Dad. "Oh My God! Steve Korcheck!!" Phil told me in our conversation last November. "Honestly, if it had been Ted Williams I would not have been more thrilled.” Korcheck didn't last long in The Majors.
Nor did Bob Malkmus--on the extreme right in this photo. A journeyman middle infielder, Malkmus actually played briefly for The 1957 World Series Champion Milwaukee Braves. Was eventually drafted twice in The Rule V Draft--once by Washington from Milwaukee and again by Philadelphia from Denver of The American Association. Malkmus would have one really nice campaign--as a Super Substitute for 1961 for The Phillies. He started at 2nd, 3rd and Shortstop for Philadelphia that season.
But the very sight of a very young Harmon Killebrew, following through on a toss, makes this photo very special. Little did anyone realize that "Killer" was one year away from beginning a tremendous career. Sadly for Washington Fans, mostly in Minnesota, as The Senators moved to The Twin Cities for 1961. Up and Down from The Minor Leagues since signing as an 18 year old in 1954 out of Idaho--Killebrew would spend most all of '58 in Chattanooga (The Senators AAA Farm Club). But in 1959--Harmon would launch 42 Home Runs and knock in 105 Runs with Griffith Stadium as his home park. The beginnings of a fabulous Major League career. Over the next 14 years--Killebrew would hammer over 25 Home Runs--13 times. The only time he did not--Old Number 3 missed one third of the season due to injury. Harmon Killebrew was a feared slugger. 12 time All-Star. Winner of The Most Valuable Player Award--top 4 American League MVP Candidate six different times.
The Heart & Soul Of The Minnesota Twins Great Teams of The 1960's.
Killebrew finished his illustrious career with 573 Career Home Runs.
May someone for Our Washington Nationals breakout and surprise everyone in 2009 and fulfill a fine Major League Career in The Nation's Capital too. There really are some similarities (good one's too) between that old '58 Senators Team and Our 2009 Nationals Version.
Washington Senators Spring Training--1958. The Picture Of The Day.
Photo by George Silk. Copyright--Time, Inc | <urn:uuid:5b931a18-5f23-4a8d-bc1d-95db532b55f5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://nats320.blogspot.com/2009/02/picture-of-day-washington-senators.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279224.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00480-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955284 | 835 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Then there’ll certainly be instances when you are feeling the requirement for many money saving ideas if you should be students. It may be since Force Engineering you want to get yourself anything good however Bridge Project , you purchased up all of your allocation for month or that week. If you should be an older student, you may attempt to balance your reports, extracurricular activities having a part time work to make better money however, you may discover that it’s still insufficient. That is if you want anyone to provide you with some cash saving ideas so you may collect some success.
It’s crucial that you don’t see learning as something trivial before evening if you want money quickly about money saving methods. It’ll be late to handle any guidance of money saving ideas that you could have learned, so do begin today while that occurs. Here are 5 easy to execute money saving ideas as you are able to use inside your everyday life. You may just end up to become a rich student.
1. Plan beforehand
This task must be utilized in exactly what you need to do, particularly if you’re an university student. That is among the money saving ideas that may stop you from overspending before you transfer to your dorm.
Perform up on a depth check whether you be eligible for specific student awards or any scholarships before you place your signature to that particular student loan form.
Next, road out your money flow chart. Consider where the origin of one’s ‘money’ is. Aside from obtaining money from your own parents, figuratively speaking, could you receive yourself a component-time work to verify your regular ‘revenue’?
You need to now put aside your allowance for the fix monthly expenditure because planning may be the first stage of the money saving ideas. Spend your cash for the food, publications, etc and be sure you adhere to your strategy! Self discipline is essential here. You may discover all of the money saving methods on the planet but you’ll not succeed when that you don’t adhere to them.
It’s also extremely important which you put aside an amount of cash for emergency purposes. As a result, it’s crucial that you adhere to the cash saving ideas which you have learned to use. If you want it you wish to have that amount within the bank.
Having put aside an amount of cash for the food means you’ve to locate a cheaper method to obtain the food. This may be a place which you didn’t recognize whenever you still stayed with your parents. Now you need to stop eating at junk food shops while you will certainly discover that you’ve realized your allowance soon. Try getting your personal meal to school. It’s more affordable and more healthy. That is another of many money saving ideas as you are able to affect collect more success.
3. Get full benefit of student discounts
Browse the shops that provide unique student discounts whenever you show your student ID. Among the money saving ideas lets you know to discover methods to spend less money for that same quality products searching for savings!
Instead, you may wish to patronize a particular institution frequently and in a short time, you’re destined to obtain reward cards to be a loyal customer. When they didn’t provide following a couple weeks of constant patronize question them for just one.
4. Pay with cash
Anything saving tips information can inform you to prevent using credit cards, credit cards and checks. That is an important position since you don’t wan to overspend. Therefore, usually spend with cash-only, except in emergencies. This can also enable you to monitor your money flow easier.
5. Keep occupied
Avoid idling as this can guide one to put money into sport rentals, snacks or movie tickets. Stay occupied so you won’t surrender for your own temptations of shelling out for material not in your budget record. Adhere to the budgeting in saving money tips which you have learned. One-way would be to join groups at school. Find something that may interest you and be a part of their actions. In this manner, you’ll not get bored.
Follow-through using the actions outlined within the above money saving ideas and you’ll be amazed in the amount of cash gathered at the conclusion of the year. Adhere to your collection budget strategy because you don’t actually need the true luxury products and you’ll have profit the financial institution for a crisis. Who says students aren’t effective at acquiring money by making use of some cash saving ideas? | <urn:uuid:25e407d2-0da0-4369-a044-857544278659> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.businessmediagroup.co.uk/money-saving-tips-5-easy-strategies-for-students-to-obtain-wealthier/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572212.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815205848-20220815235848-00466.warc.gz | en | 0.940556 | 958 | 1.8125 | 2 |
A new breakthrough in the understanding of the neurological basis of chronic brain dysfunction following stroke
Chronic neurological dysfunction produced by stroke and traumatic brain injury has long been thought to be irreversible. A new scientific discovery by the INR, as documented in the medical literature (article 1; article 2), now promises to change current thinking about the potential for recovery of function, even years after the acute event.
For more scientific information, please see:
- Selective TNF Inhibition for Chronic Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury – An Observational Study Involving 629 Consecutive Patients Treated With Perispinal Etanercept, Edward Tobinick MD, Nancy M. Kim, et al. CNS Drugs. 2012 26(12): pp.1051-70.
- Perispinal Etanercept for Post-Stroke Neurological and Cognitive Dysfunction: Scientific Rationale and Current Evidence. Ignatowski TA, Spengler RN, Dhandapani KM, Folkersma H, Butterworth RF, Tobinick E. CNS Drugs August 2014, 28(8):679-697, published online 27 May 2014. (Download full-text PDF).
- For an independent scientific opinion, please see this article, lead author Professor Ian Clark from the Australian National University in Canberra, especially pages 1014-1015.
Consultation for Stroke at the INR
This treatment is not for acute stroke. Consultation with an INR medical provider following hospital discharge is encouraged, even if the stroke has occurred years before. Please call the INR in Florida +1 (561) 353-9707 for further information.
Scientific References (clicking on title will access the scientific abstract and full-text of the article)
1.Feuerstein GZ, Liu T, Barone FC: Cytokines, inflammation, and brain injury: role of tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Cerebrovasc Brain Metab Rev 1994, 6:341-360.
2.Barone FC, Arvin B, White RF, Miller A, Webb CL, Willette RN, Lysko PG, Feuerstein GZ: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha. A mediator of focal ischemic brain injury. Stroke 1997, 28:1233-1244.
3.Nawashiro H, Martin D, Hallenbeck JM: Neuroprotective effects of TNF binding protein in focal cerebral ischemia. Brain Res 1997, 778:265-271.
4.Pappata S, Levasseur M, Gunn RN, Myers R, Crouzel C, Syrota A, Jones T, Kreutzberg GW, Banati RB: Thalamic microglial activation in ischemic stroke detected in vivo by PET and [11C]PK1195. Neurology 2000, 55:1052-1054.
5.Zaremba J: Contribution of tumor necrosis factor alpha to the pathogenesis of stroke. Folia Morphol (Warsz) 2000, 59:137-143.
6.Zaremba J, Losy J: Early TNF-alpha levels correlate with ischaemic stroke severity. Acta Neurol Scand 2001, 104:288-295.
7.Zaremba J, Skrobanski P, Losy J: Tumour necrosis factor-alpha is increased in the cerebrospinal fluid and serum of ischaemic stroke patients and correlates with the volume of evolving brain infarct. Biomed Pharmacother 2001, 55:258-263.
8.Gerhard A, Schwarz J, Myers R, Wise R, Banati RB: Evolution of microglial activation in patients after ischemic stroke: a [11C](R)-PK11195 PET study. Neuroimage 2005, 24:591-595.
9.Tobinick E: Perispinal etanercept for neuroinflammatory disorders. Drug Discov Today 2009, 14:168-177.
10.Chio CC, Lin JW, Chang MW, Wang CC, Yang CZ, Chang CP: Therapeutic evaluation of etanercept in a model of traumatic brain injury. J Neurochem 2010, 115:921-929.
11.Tobinick E: Perispinal etanercept: a new therapeutic paradigm in neurology. Expert Rev Neurother 2010, 10:985-1002.
12.Esposito E, Cuzzocrea S: Anti-TNF therapy in the injured spinal cord. Trends Pharmacol Sci 2011, 32:107-115.
13.Tobinick E: Rapid improvement of chronic stroke deficits after perispinal etanercept: three consecutive cases. CNS Drugs 2011, 25:145-155.
14.Tobinick E: Deciphering the physiology underlying the rapid clinical effects of perispinal etanercept in Alzheimer’s disease. Curr Alzheimer Res 2012, 9:99-109. (Download free full-text PDF).
15.Tobinick E, Kim NM, Reyzin G, Rodriguez-Romanacce H, Depuy V: Selective TNF Inhibition for Chronic Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury : An Observational Study Involving 629 Consecutive Patients Treated with Perispinal Etanercept. CNS Drugs 2012, 26:1051-1070.
16.King MD, Alleyne CH, Jr., Dhandapani KM: TNF-alpha receptor antagonist, R-7050, improves neurological outcomes following intracerebral hemorrhage in mice. Neurosci Lett 2013, 542:92-96.
17.Lei B, Dawson HN, Roulhac-Wilson B, Wang H, Laskowitz DT, James ML: Tumor necrosis factor alpha antagonism improves neurological recovery in murine intracerebral hemorrhage. J Neuroinflammation 2013, 10:103.
18.Works MG, Koenig JB, Sapolsky RM: Soluble TNF receptor 1-secreting ex vivo-derived dendritic cells reduce injury after stroke. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 2013.
19.Faingold CL: Chapter 7: Network Control Mechanisms: Cellular Inputs, Neuroactive Substances, and Synaptic Changes. In Neuronal Networks in Brain Function, CNS Disorders, and Therapeutics. Edited by Faingold CL, Blumenfeld H: Elsevier; 2014
20.Siniscalchi A, Gallelli L, Malferrari G, Pirritano D, Serra R, Santangelo E, De Sarro G: Cerebral stroke injury: the role of cytokines and brain inflammation. J Basic Clin Physiol Pharmacol 2014. | <urn:uuid:c05b1236-c2c9-49e4-8534-b91f650f8b4d> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.nrimed.com/stroke-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00427-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.724965 | 1,424 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Last December, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger created a new panel to figure out how to solve what may be California's worst-ever budget crisis. The state's two biggest retirement funds will owe at least $49 billion they don't have, and Californians will be paying this bill for decades. The man Schwarzenegger chose to lead this historic undertaking is commission chairman Gerald Parsky. But for the hundreds of thousands of teachers and state employees who depend on these funds, his appointment should be cause for alarm. Just ask the employees of the University of California.
Parsky's reputation as a financial genius is undisputed, at least among the people who count. A former official in Richard Nixon's Treasury Department, Parsky made a fortune in real estate, junk bond, and venture capital investments. In the 1990s, he gradually rose through the ranks of the California Republican Party until he became one of the state's most important power brokers. He raised millions to organize the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego, and chaired the state presidential campaigns of George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004. Today, he reviews candidates for California US Attorney positions on behalf of the Bush Justice Department. He has been appointed senior economic adviser to presidential candidate John McCain; if McCain is elected president, Parsky could well become the next secretary of the Treasury.
But it was in his capacity as a regent of the University of California that Parsky made his greatest impact. In the ten years before he took over as chair of the Regents' Investment Committee, the university's pension plan, which provides retirement benefits for more than 190,000 employees, made a small fortune playing the stock market and investing in long-term bonds. The fund earned so much money that it literally paid for itself in fact, employees haven't had to pay into their pension plan since 1990. These generous retirement benefits have been critical in attracting renowned professors and researchers, who draw considerably lower salaries than they would at top-tier public or private universities. Without the pension plan and other benefits, the university would be starved of talent.
In 1999 and 2000, in a series of secret meetings, Parsky spearheaded an effort to radically remake the pension fund's investment philosophy. Under his leadership, the regents gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Los Angeles investment firm to recommend and implement changes to the way the university invests tens of billions of dollars. At the same time, the president of that firm, Wilshire Associates, gave tens of thousands of dollars to the very Bush presidential campaign chaired by Parsky.
Wilshire, Parsky, and the Regents' Investment Committee farmed out control of the investment fund to an army of pension consultants and money management firms, ending the decades-long practice of using university staff to trade stocks themselves. Along the way, they humiliated and destroyed the reputation of Patricia Small, the UC treasurer who had managed the investments for years and strenuously opposed their plans. Billions of dollars in stock were bought and sold in the midst of a massive stock market crash.
Seven years later, what was once one of the most lucrative pension plans in America is in desperate trouble. Before Parsky and his colleagues restructured the investment strategy, the university's fund easily made more money than the average pension plan. Now, it ranks among the country's worst performers. Before Parsky's reforms, the university paid nothing to outside money management companies, aside from a small venture capital arm. Last year, the UC treasurer's office paid at least $32 million to forty different money management companies whose investment advice may have cost the fund billions of dollars.
Now, faced with sharply declining investment revenue and rising retirement benefit costs, university officials have asked their employees to start paying money back into the pension fund for the first time in seventeen years. The amount is projected to steadily rise over the next few years until it constitutes 8 percent of each employee's paycheck. Many claim that they can't possibly afford such a blow, especially those who are struggling to pay California's record mortgages. From professors to secretaries and janitors, more than 120,000 university workers now face one of the worst personal financial crises in the institution's history.
Gerald Parsky led a campaign to remake the university pension plan from top to bottom, and the retirement future of almost 200,000 people has been profoundly damaged. Thanks to Governor Schwarzenegger, this same man has now been asked to reform two of the largest public pension plans in the country. Hundreds of thousands of people now depend on him to make the right decisions. In the last seven years, the employees of the University of California have learned what happens when he makes the wrong ones.
In the late '90s, Patricia Small ran the UC treasurer's office, supervising a modest staff of analysts. A lifer with 28 years in the system, she oversaw the university's pension portfolio, mostly stock in 65 to 80 big companies, plus some bonds and venture capital. Small's investment performance was remarkable even by the standards of the go-go 1990s. According to university records, the retirement fund earned an average of 15.6 percent per year from 1990 to 2000, while the median performance for comparable multibillion-dollar portfolios was 13.5 percent. In a 2000 San Francisco Examiner story, former regent Glenn Campbell sang Small's praises: "Her rate of return has been outstanding, higher than almost any other university."
Parsky's rise began around the time Small started at UC. In 1971, he became a special assistant in Richard Nixon's Treasury Department. There he met his future business partner William Simon, and was promoted at age 32 to become an assistant secretary of the Treasury. The two went on to build an investment firm that made both of them rich, but Simon left in 1991 following an acrimonious business dispute. Parsky renamed his company Aurora Capital Partners, buttressed his fortune with lucrative investments, and became a player in the California GOP. He was appointed to the UC Regents by Governor Pete Wilson and he headed the host committee when the Republicans held their 1996 convention in San Diego, securing the party millions in donations. Later, as a Bush fund-raiser, he proved second only to Texas campaign chair Kenneth Lay.
In February 1999, when Parsky chaired the Investment Committee of the UC Regents, he convened a series of closed-door meetings with a select panel of regents, at which the regents hired Wilshire Associates to analyze the UC pension fund's performance. For this, the Los Angeles investment firm was paid nearly $350,000. A few months later, its analysts returned with a dire forecast: The fund had serious problems.
As the dot-com boom went into overdrive, Small had dumped some stock and bought up long-term bonds. Because interest rates were remarkably high at the time, her move locked in a steady flow of cash as a hedge against a market crash. But Wilshire claimed that her plan exposed the pension plan to too much risk by holding so much in long-term bonds and investing in just eighty companies. The consultant recommended dumping many of the long-term bonds and reinvesting as much as half of the domestic stock in index funds: large, diversified collections of securities designed to mimic overall market performance.
Small and her staff fought back in reports and letters to the regents. Long-term bonds actually lowered the risk, she said, because their lifetimes are better synchronized with the way the fund pays out retirement benefits. And selling and reinvesting billions in assets would cost millions in brokerage commissions and fees. If the university did what Wilshire asked, it would spend a fortune just moving cash around.
But what really bothered Small was more fundamental. As she recalled in a 2004 letter to the regents, she was worried that the university was poised to radically and swiftly change its investment philosophy on the advice of a single consultant. Furthermore, she wrote, Wilshire never properly analyzed the risks of its own investment strategy. And those risks were clear to any prudent investor. By spring of 2000, the dot-com bubble was beginning to burst, and the financial press was filled with trepidation.
Wilshire's people were barely interested in her opinion, Small wrote in 2004. "The only time the treasurer's office met with Wilshire for the 'office review' was for one day in the month of February 1999," she wrote. "As treasurer I was dumbstruck that not once did Wilshire ask about portfolio risk, how it was measured and controlled. I was so startled that I complained immediately to the Investment Committee Chairman. ... I was told 'not' to pursue the issue."
In fact, according to Small's letter, her access to the regents was suddenly, inexplicably curtailed. In January 2000 she was ordered not to talk to any regents about investment matters outside of their board meetings. University vice president Michael Reese denies that Small was forbidden to talk to the regents, but refused to elaborate, citing confidentiality issues.
Former regent Ward Connerly is best known as the man who ended UC's affirmative action policy, but he also was dedicated to its finances. He chaired both the finance and audit committees and sat on the Investment Committee. Connerly recalled that Wilshire's people ruled the day, baffling regents who thought the fund was doing just fine. "The whole field of money management is surrounded by such mysteries," he said in a recent interview. "Deliberately, in many cases. They come in with all these actuarial studies and dazzle you with bullshit. ... And so these people came in and threw all this nonsense at you about what Harvard and Yale are earning, even though you believe your performance is doing a magnificent job."
Parsky made Wilshire's job easier, Connerly added, by attacking Small's job performance in ways that seemed a little too enthusiastic. "We didn't want to challenge the chair of the committee who was himself sort of involved in this area," the former regent said. "There were those, however, who were wondering whether this was a personal dispute between the chair and the treasurer."
By late spring of 2000, Small was fighting for her career. In a May 15 letter to Parsky that was copied to the rest of the regents, she said that Parsky had apparently decided her conduct was so unprofessional that he was doing a "performance review." This, she wrote, was based not upon her years of service, but the previous two months of what Parsky had allegedly characterized as "evidence of poor attitude, a lack of commitment to the Board of Regents, or incompetence."
UC vice president Reese responds that "annual performance reviews are standard practice for all employees." But judging from Small's letter, this review was anything but commonplace. Indeed, her tone was almost frantic. "I respectfully note that there seems to be a high level of miscommunication and misunderstanding as to the reasons for my recent actions, and a misconstruing of my motives," Small wrote. "I have no agenda other than the best interest of the regents, the beneficiaries of the investment portfolios, and the financial protection of the university investable assets."
Again she maintained that Wilshire was pushing major changes far too quickly. "The Board of Regents has historically moved very cautiously when making decisions of such financial magnitude," Small insisted. "While following a more open, informed, and independently evaluated process may not be as 'speedy' as consultants to the university may like, the due diligence and reasonable business judgement rules require me to advise the regents there are 'risks' of implementing a new 'Plan' with new benchmarks without following tried and true financial analysis."
Three days after Small sent her letter, the regents handed Wilshire another $350,000 contract this time to implement the very changes it had recommended.
Why, after so many years of stellar returns, were the regents racing to put outside money managers in charge of tens of billions of dollars, and paying Wilshire handsomely to make it happen?
A story in the San Francisco Examiner may have shed some light on the mystery. In July 2000, reporter Lance Williams revealed that Dennis Tito, Wilshire's president, had donated $80,000 to the California presidential campaign of George W. Bush the very campaign fund overseen by Gerald Parsky just one week before Parsky and the regents granted Wilshire its second major contract. The previous year, Williams reported, Tito and a number of other Wilshire executives and their wives had given a total of $10,000 to Parsky's Bush campaign. Not long after, Wilshire scored its earlier contract to analyze the fund's performance.
Parsky denied that he was trying to fire Small, or that he'd done anything improper. "I have never had any contact with Mr. Tito about making contributions to the Bush campaign," he told the Examiner. But the story clearly rattled cages at UC. The Express has obtained a draft of an open letter written by the regents' staff that Small claimed she was asked to sign. It reads in part: "Despite misleading news reports, these steps have been undertaken with the full input of the regents, the treasurer's office, and outside investment experts. The review was conducted in a manner consistent with university practices and in the best interests of the university, its employees, and pension funds. As a result, we are confident that the pension fund will continue to provide robust and secure benefits to the university employees it serves."
According to UC's Reese, Small was never asked to sign any letter, and adds that the treasurer contributed a quote to a press-release expressing confidence in the fund's future. Small maintained that she was asked to sign, but would not.
In any case, the treasurer recalled spending the middle of 2000 in a shell-shocked limbo. Her mother was entering the final stages of a terminal illness when, according to Small's 2004 letter, John Davies, then-chair of the board of regents, quietly approached her and suggested she might consider "retiring." By August, her lawyer had received a severance deal from the university that included a section threatening financial retaliation if the treasurer "disparaged" the regents. Small's lawyers, she wrote, were told she would be fired if she didn't sign the contract. So she signed.
Parsky was given ample opportunity to comment for this story, but did not. University spokespeople said he was "traveling," and requested questions in writing. Parsky never answered them, but Reese released the following comment: "The Express' latest series of questions assumes the inaccurate premise that the university's investment policies were revised in 2000 as a result of personal conflicts, business intrigue, and political conspiracy. The questions about Regent Parsky, in particular, are based on old, discredited stories and border on character assassination." (Lance Williams, now at The San Francisco Chronicle, says his reporting was never discredited.)
For his part, Ward Connerly is still bitter about Small's ordeal. "I thought Patty was treated badly," he said. "She didn't deserve her fate. I felt that then, I said and I will say that now. ... Outside money managers would love to get their mitts on a portfolio as large as the University of California. So I had questions whether someone was setting Patty and her staff up by making claims about her performance and morale and other things, pointing the finger at the treasurer.
"Some very good regents who were very active when I came in ... paid a lot of attention to what went on with the investments," Connerly said. "Just one of those guys would spend more time than any of the present regents combined. So they were monitoring this thing, and they were tickled by the performance, and then all of a sudden, and it really happened very hastily, there was all this criticism of her performance?"
In November 2000, in accordance with Wilshire's recommendation, UC traders sold nearly $11.6 billion in stock in a single week. That's according to Jeffrey Heil, who managed the equity division at the time and claims the move was perfectly appropriate. But Small insisted that it was irresponsible. In her letter to the regents, she wondered at the rashness of the act: "How could Wilshire have ever recommended the speed of such a major change?" she wrote.
That was just the start of the outsourcing. By late 2002 the university had laid off all its in-house equity traders and was paying millions to external fund managers to oversee its entire stock portfolio. According to Heil, who lost his job in 2002, that move led to a steady erosion in profits. "All they were doing was paying these expensive outside firms with high fees to do the same as we were doing in-house, but at a much higher cost," he said. "They were overpaying in management fees and getting underperformance from their managers kind of the worst of both worlds."
Because investments are always more volatile in the short term, it would be unfair to judge Wilshire based on the UC fund's performance a short time after Small's ouster. But over almost seven years, the numbers have shown a sustained pattern of mediocre profits. Nearly every pension portfolio in the country is now doing better than the university's. According to a report by State Street, the university's custodial bank, 86 percent of large US investment trusts outperformed the UC pension fund from 2001 to 2006. Figures from the National Association of State Retirement Administrators and the investment firm Northern Trust also highlight the university's subpar returns. Had the pension plan even performed as well as half of its peers in the five years ending June 30, 2006, it would have netted an additional $3.3 billion.
When asked about this downturn, the treasurer's office responded that its portfolio had beaten an important industry benchmark, the S&P 500/Lehman Aggregate portfolio, between 1999 and 2006. But that calculation includes the 1999-2000 fiscal year when the fund, still under Small's leadership, beat the S&P 500 by a country mile. The university is using results from the very investment philosophy it repudiated to obscure the failings of its new strategy.
Even some of Parsky's peers have complained. "A number of regents have asked why the university's returns are not comparable to those of other educational institutions," the minutes of an investment committee meeting stated last year. "Regent [Paul] Wachter recalled that a chart showing investment results for seven large universities had appeared in The Wall Street Journal. The results for the University of California were the worst among those institutions. He questioned why UC cannot perform as well as Harvard."
Despite the fund's poor showing, at least a few parties made out like bandits. In fact, the close dealings between Wilshire Associates and the university raised questions about conflicts of interest. Besides the suspiciously timed Bush campaign contributions, UC eventually hired Wilshire to implement its own recommendations. This violates a fundamental ethical principle, said Edward Siedle, a former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer who has investigated pension fund abuse for 25 years. "It's like you going to a Ford dealer and saying, 'I'll give you a hundred dollars to tell me what car to buy,'" he said. "And they'll say, 'Great, buy a Ford.'"
Connerly also objected to giving Wilshire the second contract. He complained, according to the minutes of one meeting, that "by recommending a consulting fee of $400,000 in the plan, Wilshire had effectively determined what its fee should be." In addition, he argued that hiring Wilshire would set it up to win yet another contract this time to serve as the university's general pension consultant. "Connerly suggested that the continued retention of Wilshire Associates would provide them with an advantage over other firms," the minutes stated.
Sure enough, Wilshire scored the general pension consultant contract a year later, a deal worth more than $1.3 million over three years. And while serving in this capacity, Wilshire sold the treasurer's office access to its proprietary Compass software, netting itself $108,000 more.
This isn't the first time Wilshire's conduct has been questioned. In late 2003, according to a story in Money magazine, Wilshire was implicated in a "fast trading" scandal in which company officials used specialized knowledge of overpriced securities to rapidly buy and sell millions of dollars in mutual funds, netting a tidy profit without any risk, but running up the commission costs for small-time investors. The scheme was perfectly legal, but reeked once again of conflicts of interest. Mutual-fund managers knew that Wilshire, as a pension consultant, could recommend them to handle money for Wilshire's pension-fund clients, so they had a strong incentive to let the firm dip in and out of their funds. That scandal may have made Wilshire too hot for the university when its contract expired in 2004, the regents went with another company.
But the damage was done. Letting Wall Street handle its pension portfolio has cost the university a fortune in yearly fees and commissions, even as profits have lagged. Under Small's leadership, the fund spent roughly $5.5 million a year to buy and sell bonds and almost nothing to trade stocks. The year after her resignation, bond commissions jumped to $11 million last year, the university paid more than $22 million. Meanwhile, UC paid private fund managers $32 million last year to trade stocks it used to handle in-house.
Financial outsourcing is hardly limited to the University of California. With roughly $6 trillion in assets at stake, public pension fund management and consulting is among the most lucrative corners of the financial services industry. It's also one of the least regulated. In 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission wrapped up an eighteen-month probe of 24 pension and 401(k) fund consultants. Nearly four in five, the SEC reported, had financial relationships with the money managers they were recommending to their pension clients, even as most of the consultants purported to provide impartial references. Sometimes they sold software to the money management firms The New York Times reported that some money managers viewed the purchases as simply a way to ensure that their services were recommended to pension fund trustees. The SEC also found evidence of kickbacks: Some consultants sought out managers willing to route the stock trades back to the consultant's brokerage wing. According to The Los Angeles Times, Wilshire, one of the companies surveyed, received a letter from the SEC "suggesting the firm improve its disclosure."
Might Wilshire have recommended managers who in turn hired it to broker the trades? That's difficult to assess, since university officials swear they don't know who pocketed the millions in brokerage commissions they have paid out since 2002. "The treasurer's office tracked commissions when these assets were managed internally," spokesman Trey Davis wrote in an e-mail. "They are not tracked now; rather, the commissions are just netted against transaction costs."
Former SEC lawyer Siedle isn't buying it. "That's horseshit," he countered. "The university knows exactly who got paid to do what. They have to by law. A fiduciary is charged with monitoring costs. One of the most significant costs of running a pension plan are brokerage commissions. They're lying to you about that. And if they're not, they're really fucking up."
When asked again to review its brokerage commissions, university officials did not provide any further information.
Indeed, it seems as if the worse the pension fund does, the less willing the university is to tell the public. For example, comparisons of the fund's performance versus similar pension plans and investment trusts were once a regular feature of the treasurer's annual reports. But as fund performance began to go south, the regents and the treasurer's office became reluctant to compare it with its peers. At an investment committee meeting on May 15, 2002, Parsky noted that the committee "had urged that the regents not pay close attention to the university's peer institutions, which tend to have very different investment profiles." By 2005, the regents' new pension consultant had delivered a lengthy report arguing that such comparisons were useless: "They appeal to the 'horse-race' mentality in the investment community."
Last January, Charles Schwartz, an emeritus physics professor from UC Berkeley, was the first to publicly note that the university's bank had listed the pension fund among the nation's lowest performers. When UC officials gave him the data after repeated Public Records Act requests, they were careful to state that "The treasurer's office has moved away from peer group comparisons."
According to Schwartz, this was just part of a long-standing pattern of obfuscation on UC's part. For the past seven years, this retired professor has obsessively catalogued the fund's performance and analyzed every report by Wilshire and the treasurer's office, pointing out what he claims are critical flaws in the consultant's risk analysis and demanding the minutes to secret regents' meetings.
The regents, many of whom are investment and business professionals, dismissed Schwartz as a gadfly. After all, he has complained publicly for decades about the board's lack of accountability. In the early 1990s, as a state budget crisis drove up UC student fees, Schwartz started a campaign to "democratize" the regents, whom the governor appoints to twelve-year terms. His effort flopped, and the professor set out to enjoy his retirement. But when Schwartz began reading news accounts of Small's ouster, something didn't feel right. Thus began his long campaign to analyze every financial report and catalogue every conflict-of-interest allegation against Wilshire.
Schwartz is no investment expert, but he is a physicist who knows his numbers. To him, Wilshire's pension-fund analysis reads like mathematical nonsense. "A key part of their report was making projections of future performance on the investments," he said. "Any such projections must involve a lot of uncertainties. And in the Wilshire report it was just ignored. The numbers were just put down as if they were absolutely reliable.
"About a year later, I discovered that the numbers were just plain wrong," Schwartz said. "After some correspondence, it was admitted that yes, they made a mistake."
Schwartz eventually published a series of papers on his Web site that meticulously critique the regents' rationale for switching investment strategies, and document his campaign to get information. The regents continued to laugh him off literally. In a January 2003 dispatch, Schwartz recalled listening to a broadcast of a regents' meeting: "I heard one regent ask, 'Will you send a copy to Professor Schwartz?' A round of laughter ensued."
They stopped laughing later that year, when Schwartz, the Coalition of University Employees, and the San Jose Mercury News sued to force the university to release minutes of its secret meetings. UC lawyers appealed all the way to the state Supreme Court, but eventually lost and had to comply.
The secret meetings also revealed a disturbing practice. Since the regents had to reveal pension fund figures to the public, they discussed how they could minimize the impact by timing the disclosure to coincide with the 2002 election. "The Chronicle will be full of other stuff," regent Peter Preuss assured, according to a Mercury News report. At one point, Norman Pattiz asked his peers, "When is this going to hit the fan?" When told the numbers would be made public the day after the election, he replied, "That's good." The other regents laughed, and Bruce Lehmann, a consultant, interjected, "Thank God the doors are closed."
At the Berkeley Faculty Club last month, professors and other employees picked at a spread of hummus, falafel, and artichokes. But Ari Krantz, an attorney for the university's 65,000 unionized workers, quickly tarnished the buffet with some bad news. Just a few years back, he told them, the pension fund was making enough money to pay all of its members' retirement benefits and still have hundreds of millions of dollars in profit. Now, Krantz announced, the fund was so broke that within two years, it would be unable to even cover the benefits. For almost seventeen years, employees had enjoyed an extraordinary "contribution holiday" during which they didn't have to pay into their pension fund. Those days, he warned, were over.
From professors to janitors, UC employees get relatively meager pay last year The Berkeleyan, Cal's in-house newsletter, reported that they get 10 to 15 percent less than colleagues at comparable institutions. Thousands of university employees have been willing to work for low pay precisely because their benefits are so exemplary. Now, many worry that the regents may undo one of the things that made working there worthwhile.
Krantz said that UC negotiators want employees to divert a portion of their paychecks to the pension fund up to 8 percent eventually. The university has promised to match the contribution, but what seems like a generous offer is, in fact, a fraction of what the regents once paid. "Historically, the university had paid many times what employees were paying, more like five-to-one on average," Krantz said in a later interview. "Employees would pay 2 percent of salary, and the employer would pay everything else." Now, Krantz said, there's a growing sentiment among union members that the regents are asking ordinary workers to pay for the university's financial incompetence. UC spokesman Paul Schwartz didn't dispute these facts but said Krantz has an alarmist way of characterizing the situation.
The unions are still bargaining with the university over contribution terms, Krantz said. If workers have to pay back into the fund, union leaders want UC to raise salaries to market rates. In addition, they want the pension fund turned over to a "joint governance" board that will give employees a say in how it is invested.
"I'm really quite angry this could happen," said Paul Brooks, a Cal spectroscopist on the unions' bargaining team. "It's almost as though there's been a shift in the last twenty years, where UC regents really cared for students and employees, to a private management philosophy where they think student fees should be raised simply because they're below market."
Joe Pulido has maintained buildings at UC Berkeley for 28 years. He remembers how pleased he was when the contribution holiday started. "Some of the people I know it's gonna be a hardship, because they don't make enough money to make ends meet as it is," he said. "I'm talking about a lot of my friends. They make less than $35,000 a year as it is. People these days are living month by month. They need the money now."
Connerly believes the university has only itself to blame. "You go from performance that had always been consistently good, and if it's now down, and there is a consistent pattern of being down, the employees better be asking some questions here," he said.
While UC workers ponder their new financial reality, Gerald Parsky is enjoying the highest stature of his career. Despite his track record, his position as chairman of Governor Schwarzenegger's special commission has raised no red flags as he sets out to tackle the profound financial problems facing the state's largest pension plans.
Steve Mehlman, a spokesman for the California State Employees Association, said his members were relieved that the governor didn't stack the commission with people who would try to convert the pension funds to a 401(k) system. "We believe the panel seems to be made up of reasonable people, and we're waiting, seeing what the panel is going to come up with," he said. Yet when asked about Parsky's history with the UC fund, Mehlman replied, "We were not aware of this."
While no one can accuse Parsky of purposely sinking any public pension fund, he has shown a clear predilection for hiring external managers even when they don't merit the contracts. What's more, the circumstances regarding Wilshire's hiring suggest that Parsky may be willing to put his political interests ahead of the public good. There's no denying he spearheaded a financial disaster that has led to billions in lost profits, tens of millions in unnecessary fees, and tens of thousands of employees who are now facing life- changing cuts in compensation. Now hundreds of thousands of state employees will have to wait and see how Parsky's leadership might affect their futures. They'll know by year's end. | <urn:uuid:d3e81bc5-eb04-4409-ad1b-3110397c164b> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://m.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/parskys-party/Content?oid=1083283&showFullText=true&gpt=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719465.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00097-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980077 | 6,669 | 1.929688 | 2 |
AUSTIN, Texas — Statewide assessment results released Friday show students in grades 3 to 8 are beginning to recover from COVID-19.
KRIS 6 News received a preview of the results, which show gains in two areas, mathematics and reading.
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said that the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness program, or STAAR results, shows the commitment by teachers, administrators, and programs implemented to address the student's needs.
2021 saw the single largest gain in mathematics over the last 10 years. At the same time, recovery is not back to pre-COVID numbers, Morath said.
"In terms of the story of academic recovery, we've seen a pretty noticeable jump in mathematics proficiency relative to the dip that occurred as a result of COVID-19," he said.
Marath credits teachers and principals statewide for the progress that has been made so far.
"What is also true is we have not fully recovered from the effects of the pandemic and mathematics we have," Morath said. "We do have quite a ways to go to get back to our former level of student performance and proficiency in math."
Reading numbers were even more significant, with the state back on an upward growth.
"We are essentially back at a level that we would have expected had COVID-19 never happened in the first place," he said.
He attributes this to reading academies and investments in literacy for students.
The news for students across the board is similarly good.
"It is not just one group of kids that has benefited; it is public schools serving all public school students to improve outcomes for kids across the state of Texas," Morath said.
Legislation enacted last year requires districts to provide 30 hours of tutoring, per subject area, for any student that has failed a state exam. Morath acknowledges the additional stress this has put on teachers but says the test scores prove it is working.
He adds many districts are implementing tutoring into daily schedules to help alleviate stress on teachers in upcoming school years and it will be built into the academic calendar.
Parents can go online to view results at the STAAR parent portal by entering student's personal information. | <urn:uuid:9c220682-9755-47b1-a123-07ab31e67763> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.kristv.com/news/local-news/staar-results-show-students-recovering-from-covid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571911.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813081639-20220813111639-00473.warc.gz | en | 0.968354 | 458 | 1.820313 | 2 |
- Oct 24, 2007
Unnaturalness vs. Naturalness
An Article on Presentation
An Article on Presentation
Unnaturalness is actually very simple to define, and I'm going to since it's good to know the jargon before moving onto the subject. Unnaturalness is anything that is not normal and seems out of the ordinary to a spectator when performing an effect for them. Now, I do not wish to bring any magicians or their effects down, but a wonderful example of this is S.C.A.R.E.D. by Jamie Daws. Let me note, before I continue, that I think the highest of Jamie and I consider him to be a talented magician.
The reason I am addressing this trick is because of it's large amount of unnaturalness, which ulitmately makes the trick less of a "hard-hitter" and "miracle", and more like a "puzzle" of sorts. And since you're a magician, you definitely want miracles instead of puzzles. Puzzles are everyday occurances that do not leave lasting impressions, because people can pick up a newspaper and do a puzzle any time they want. What you want to present to them is a miracle. Something that your spectators will be speaking about twenty years into the future; something that will be with them the rest of their lives and that they will tell their grandchildren about. That is how you want to affect your spectators when performing for them.
Here is a wonderful quote from Derren Brown's Tricks of the Mind, a great book which covers presentation quite well, so I suggest you read it. His example (just to bring you up to speed) is a magician pulling out a coin, placing it onto a table, then picking it up again and making it disappear.
"Firstly, why put a coin down in order to pick it straight back up again? Who other than a seriously retarded individual would enact such an absurdity? Such odd behavior does rather detract from a convincing moment of magic. If you remove a coin from your pocket, place it on a table near you, then immediately pick it up to show that it's gone, then clearly the action of putting it down and picking it up was somehow special and necessary, and its very unnaturalness suggests to the spectator that some derring-do must have occured."
- Derren Brown
Tricks of the Mind, page 24
Suspicious actions and movements bring forth suspicion from the spectator. You must always have a normal reason for doing an action. Remember the old addage, actions speak louder than words. Giving some excuse that you are just doing "so and so because of this", is certainly not good enough. No matter what you say, doubt will creep into the spectators mind. Why should they believe you when you give a verbal reason for doing something? You are a magician trying to trick them and they have no reason to accept your statements about your actions. Your actions should be the ones claiming naturalness, not your words.
Once again, I'm going to bring up S.C.A.R.E.D. by Jamie Daws. I've been getting some heat from thinking that this trick is unnatural and not good to use; I'll explain my reason why I think it isn't an effective trick. In case you don't know, the trick is a haunted deck effect where the spectator picks a card and then the deck cuts to their card without the magician seemingly doing anything. The reason S.C.A.R.E.D. is so unnatural is because while the deck is moving you have your hand on it. As stated before, actions speak louder than words and spectators aren't going to believe everything you say. Spectators will think of the trick in this way. Paraphrasing Newton, "For every action, there is an equal reaction." So naturally, for every reaction there is an action. Spectators will think, "The magician has their hand on the deck and the deck is moving. Something must be making it move and the only thing touching it is the magician's hand. So, the magician's hand must be making the deck move somehow." Remember, spectators don't think we have supernatural abilities automatically, we must convince them that we do. Anything suspicious and unnatural will convince them otherwise. Now I'm going to move on and make some other points; later I will bring S.C.A.R.E.D. back up. As I move on, I want you to remember the "somehow" in the spectators thought stated before. Let's move on to another Derren Brown quote.
"The magic happens not from what you do, but from what the spectator perceives. And it has its home not in the fact that the coin vanishes (that's the result of the magic), but how it vanished (that would be the magic part)."
- Derren Brown
Tricks of the Mind, page 29
As Derren Brown explained above, your presentation should always affect what the spectator perceives. If they perceive everything you do as natural and fine, when the result happens, they are left without a how because for them there isn't one. You have just done the impossible in their eyes! You've removed the how by convincing them that everything is completely normal. This is the basis of magic; this is the true illusion and trickery that you should display as a magician. This is why magicians show their ropes as being normal, and their boxes as being normal, and their cards as being normal. Derren Brown goes on further in Tricks of the Mind, to explain that by taking away the how, you impact the spectator much more vividly. You leave no doubt in their mind that what you did was a miracle, because it couldn't have been a trick, there was no how! It couldn't have been a trick, the magician wasn't doing anything "funny" because everything was completely natural in their eyes.
"To give you an example in magic, if I were to put a coin in my left hand and then pull my right hand away, and then make all kinds of wavy motions with my right hand after I put the coin in the hand, when the coin vanishes the audiences assumes that the waving of my right hand had something to do with it."
- Alan Zingg
Time to Be Awesome Episode 08
With S.C.A.R.E.D. you leave a path to the how, and that how is the magicians hand on the deck. Instead of leaving the avenue of how open, we should keep it closed by doing everything naturally, and S.C.A.R.E.D. just isn't natural. It doesn't matter what you say, your actions are screaming that something is going on; there is some reason for your hand on the deck. This is what makes it more of a "puzzle" than an actual "miracle". It leaves the how wide open.
Now, you might be thinking, what effects are natural in magic? Well, I'll give you an example. Double lifts are used by more magicians than any other sleight because the move flows with naturalness. If a magician does a double lift correctly, spectators just think the magician is turning over one card. They think this because that's what the actions are screaming to them. That's why continuity with double lifts is essential to a good double lift.
In conclusion, look over the effects you perform. Are there an unnecessary moves or actions? If they are, is there a way to filter them out? Trust me, doing this will greatly improve your impact on spectators. Always remember, your actions should speak naturalness, not your mouth. | <urn:uuid:c4550a62-f1f0-4110-878c-4ad2f848a9e1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.theory11.com/forums/threads/unnaturalness-vs-naturalness.12439/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573540.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819005802-20220819035802-00475.warc.gz | en | 0.972993 | 1,602 | 2.234375 | 2 |
EVERY day we wake up is an opportunity to fill up on love and show our loved ones how much they mean to us.
But, if tomorrow never comes will the love you gave in the past last their lifetime?
Would you leave them with untold memories of loving experiences with you?
We become pretty blase' about our existence, choices, actions and our relations.
Yet when we are faced with our own mortality due to ill-health, an unexpected change of circumstances or a tragedy we suddenly realize that life is supposed to be simple.
It's about living a life that's connected with all that is vital and meaningful, spending time with people that support and empower us, doing the things that make our heart sing, nurturing and loving our loved ones.
All of these things contribute to making the world a little happier and loving place to be.
Three years ago in the middle of some major life changes, in a dream, I was personally confronted with a variation of this question.
I saw myself lying on a bed in a dim-lit room with my mum sitting to one side of me and my six-year-old daughter on the other mopping the sweat pouring from my brow.
Two other ladies were present, speaking in hushed tones.
As my eyes adjusted to the scene I realized with a jolt that I was dying and my family were present to help me let go with ease.
In the seconds that followed my brain went into panic mode trying to make sense of the scale of what was happening especially in the context of leaving my family... then thoughts gate crashed my mind presenting itself as the sound of metal clanging against metal.
"Did I love them enough so they still feel my love when I'm gone?" - as my mind simultaneously scrambled for an answer and a way to escape the enormity of the situation - I opened my eyes.
In the dark quiet that followed a simple answer formed - "tell them and show them you love them regularly even if it's just a text".
I was away at a seminar so that morning I called my family and told them I loved them and how much they mean to me.
What I learned from the dream was to express love always no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time - just do it.
In the end you don't want to wonder whether you loved enough.
What would you do differently if you knew tomorrow would never come?
Who would you spend the day with?
How would you spend it?
What changes would you make about work?
Who would you call to make things right?
Post the changes you would make or ask me a question in the comment box below. To instantly boost your love and receive insights go to www.lovefrominsideout.com.
Check out Terai's season promotion of Heart aligned coaching or book in for a 'Break through to Love' event. | <urn:uuid:0791c540-937b-4bfa-bea0-019a2d4cce80> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/love-lasts-lifetimes-toowoomba/1620696/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280410.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00449-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972641 | 596 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Educate ME Foundation, Inc. is a social enterprise determined to increase the number of men and women of color in the field of education. We seek to change the education system by creating a continuum for men and women of color to grow, achieve, and succeed from high school to career.
We're Changing Lives
Through engagement in high school Educate ME Foundation inspires interest and exposure to pursuing a career in education. Through mentorship we develop and assist our cohort of students in college. We retain and provide resources after graduation and into career. Motivating these men and women to further their education and seek leadership roles to transform classrooms, schools, and their communities.
Looking for a position in education? Let Educate ME help you find your dream school!
We are building a community of educators of color across the nation.
We are inspiring a generation of educators to empower the next generation of educators.
We advocate for equitable instruction for children of color.
We understand our community’s needs, and we address them.
Elevate students to a level where they learn deeply and remarkably
Educate ME recruits students in high school, college students and career changers who are interested in pursuing a career in education and assist them in their path to teacher certification and beyond.
Educate ME partners with teacher prep programs, organizations, and universities to ensure our recruited candidates can receive the training and support on the path to become a certified educator.
Educate ME provides support and professional development services through training, workshops, and professional mentorship to current and aspiring educators.
Educate ME strives to inspire our current educators to encourage and empower the next generation of educators of color. Sparking the continuum to begin again. | <urn:uuid:2ea6187f-28e3-4e36-9b9b-97d8cdb1c6c3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.educatemefoundation.org/about-us/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571222.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810222056-20220811012056-00673.warc.gz | en | 0.947914 | 391 | 1.921875 | 2 |
One of the more important recent advances in neuroscience research is the understanding that there is extensive communication between the immune system and the central nervous system (CNS). Proinflammatory cytokines play a key role in this communication. The emerging realization is that glia and microglia, in particular, (which are the brain's resident macrophages), constitute an important source of inflammatory mediators and may have fundamental roles in CNS disorders from neuropathic pain and epilepsy to neurodegenerative diseases. Microglia respond also to proinflammatory signals released from other non-neuronal cells, principally those of immune origin. Mast cells are of particular relevance in this context. These immunity-related cells, while resident in the CNS, are capable of migrating across the blood-spinal cord and blood-brain barriers in situations where the barrier is compromised as a result of CNS pathology. Emerging evidence suggests the possibility of mast cell-glia communications and opens exciting new perspectives for designing therapies to target neuroinflammation by differentially modulating the activation of non-neuronal cells normally controlling neuronal sensitization, both peripherally and centrally. This review aims to provide an overview of recent progress relating to the pathobiology of neuroinflammation, the role of microglia, neuroimmune interactions involving mast cells, in particular, and the possibility that mast cell-microglia crosstalk may contribute to the exacerbation of acute symptoms of chronic neurodegenerative disease and accelerate disease progression, as well as promote pain transmission pathways. We conclude by considering the therapeutic potential of treating systemic inflammation or blockade of signaling pathways from the periphery to the brain in such settings. | <urn:uuid:4d8be6e6-aedc-44f6-bdb2-5caf64ac1d39> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22516295/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572043.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814143522-20220814173522-00471.warc.gz | en | 0.921295 | 333 | 2.109375 | 2 |
G&G Precision has appeared in the pages of this magazine once before. The eight-employee job shop in Winder, Georgia, uses creative workholding techniques on low-cost machine tools to manufacture high-value precision components, such as implants for spinal correction. We described some of this process engineering in an article in 2008. While co-owners Paul Gombar and Rich Griffith have always been proud of what the shop can accomplish through this kind of engineering, the two men say they have also always known that these creative techniques could carry them only so far. Customers’ work continues to advance in complexity. At some point, that complexity would call for the shop to add more sophisticated equipment. The shop would have to step up, perhaps in a significant way.
That point seemed to come last year. Two new contract production jobs presented the shop with two significant machining challenges. One job, involving a titanium alloy part with a difficult feature, favored a rigid 3+2 machining center. The other job, which consists of dozens of related part numbers, argued for single-setup machining on an eight-axis turning center. The shop took on both jobs, and it purchased both of these machines.
For a shop this small, it was a very big move. The two machines together cost more than all the other equipment the shop had ever purchased to date. Both machine types were also foreign to the shop, which previously had relied on simple machining centers and lathes.
In addition, the machines arrived at roughly the same time. They were installed within two weeks of each other, requiring the shop to bring both machines into service together.
Mr. Gombar was the one who had to master the new machines and make them productive for the shop. To allow him to work on both machines, he had them installed close to each other in an expansion space added to the shop for this purpose. For weeks, he put in long nights in this area, equipping the machines to run the new parts and learning how to employ the machines effectively.
He could have avoided the stress. Neither machine was truly necessary for G&G. The shop bought the five-axis machine largely for the sake of a machined blend that a setup on a three-axis machining center could not generate effectively. The blend is cosmetic, and it may not have proven significant in the marketing of the final part. Similarly, the shop bought the complex turning center for parts that could have been produced in multiple setups on simpler machines, using the same sort of engineering creativity the shop has already employed successfully in the past.
Plus, none of the parts to be run on either machine have yet been released into production. At this writing, FDA review of the medical products that will use these parts is still a hurdle to be cleared. At best, G&G was confident that it would be machining these parts, but not certain. Buying the new machines was a risk.
But it was time, the shop owners say. Both of them believe this. It was time for the shop to have the capabilities of both of these new machines—not just for the sake of these likely jobs, but also for the sake of the unknown jobs that the shop will now be able to pursue with this equipment.
In a way, the shop owners jumped on these new production jobs as justification—even rationalization—for capabilities they were increasingly intent on acquiring.
And the fact that two different rationalizations for two different types of machines arrived simultaneously just made the move more interesting.
Here is a look at that move. Full production with these machines hasn’t yet begun, but the machines are already changing the shop. Here is a look at the effect that these new machines have had upon G&G so far.
The new 3+2 machining center is a Kitamura Mycenter-3XG outfitted with a heavy-duty tilting trunnion table from Koma Precision as well as a Big Plus spindle interface and corresponding toolholders from Big Kaiser. The machine also has a laser toolsetter from Renishaw.
All of these choices aim toward dimensional precision, Mr. Gombar says. The shop chose both the machine and its trunnion for their accuracy and rigidity. The dual-face contact of the spindle interface ensures rigidity as well, while the laser toolsetter captures precise tool offset measurements. The machine was costly for the shop in multiple ways—not just because of the price (higher than the low-cost machining centers the shop is accustomed to), but also because various aspects of the machine required Mr. Gombar to spend time on learning. (For example, the machine presented the shop with its first Mitsubishi control.) The entire system was installed as a package by Flint Machine Tools of Snellville, Georgia, and Mr. Gombar credits the support of this company with helping him ascend the learning curve more quickly than he otherwise would have.
The machine’s precision, along with 3+2 work positioning, was important to G&G because of one particular machined feature. The titanium part to be run on this machine is the larger half of a two-piece mechanism that surgeons will use to clamp a patient’s spinal vertebra. This part has a fin-like feature projecting from it—to mate with the other piece—and the transition between the fin and the rest of the component created a surface that was difficult for G&G to machine smoothly. When prototypes were milled on a three-axis machining center, the shop had to use a long tool to reach this surface. Tool deflection produced a visible discontinuity in the area of the blend. Even though the customer was not concerned with this imperfection, Mr. Gombar and Mr. Griffith worried that the customer’s customer would not react so favorably. Plus, they say G&G has a reputation for quality machining, and the parts it ships are arguably its most important marketing. Therefore, the shop invested in precise 3+2 machining for the sake of this blend, with the hope that the same capability would also be valuable for other challenging jobs in the future.
For now, the machine is having an impact on jobs won in the past, Mr. Gombar says. This result of buying the machine has been an important surprise.
It all started with a tooling suggestion, he says. For G&G’s new process on the machine, Flint Machine Tools recommended end mills from G.W. Schultz Tool. That recommendation inspired G&G to perform a battery of cutting tests in search of the most effective tools and parameters. When the shop won a pre-production order for 150 pieces of the new part number, Mr. Gombar’s machinist father, Paul Gombar, Sr., oversaw this testing, which involved running different pieces with different cutters and different sets of cutting conditions so performance could be documented. At the end of these tests, the shop adopted not only the G.W. Schultz tooling, but also what was for G&G a different approach to milling titanium—an approach combining much higher speeds and feed rates with much lighter depths of cut than the shop was accustomed to using. That approach will be applied to the new part number when it goes to production, Mr. Gombar says. In the meantime, though, this method of machining has already been copied by other
G&G employees running titanium jobs on existing machines.
G&G staff member Daniel Dimonda describes an example. The process for a production titanium part run on a small vertical machining center was recently re-engineered to take advantage of the high-feed, low-depth technique. Reducing stepover allowed cutting speed to increase from 100 to 350 sfm, with feed rate increased by the same proportion. Cycle time for the part has gone down.
Mr. Gombar views this process improvement as an unexpected side benefit that makes him feel even more confident about the value of the new machining center. Stepping up to higher-value equipment gave the shop both the opportunity and the impetus to examine its established machining techniques. The examination has led to advances that are valuable not only for this machine, but for the other machining centers in the shop. Even before full production on the new machine has begun, the experience with it has elevated the level of the shop’s performance.
The other new machine in the shop is an eight-axis turning center with two opposing spindles and two gang turrets. The machine (the shop wishes not to disclose its make and model) superficially resembles a CNC Swiss-type lathe, albeit with no sliding headstock. Three part families totaling 36 part numbers will be run on this machine—all implant components related to spinal fusion, and all of them machined from PEEK. Though none of these parts requires turning, Mr. Gombar recognized a multitasking turning center as the right solution for reasons that go beyond roundness. The tiny, detailed parts require machining on both faces and all around the periphery. Machining them from barstock on this machine will allow the shop to make them in one setup, minimizing error. In fact, feeding a PEEK bar into this machine will allow batches of these parts to be produced in long, unattended cycles. These parts also have not entered full production, but when they do, the turning center will almost certainly become G&G’s most productive machine.
Mr. Gombar says he is now “at one” with this machine, having recently spent more time than he ever expected on getting to know it quickly and thoroughly. The postprocessor allowing him to use the shop’s CAM software with this machine was not yet ready when his customer asked for prototype parts. Therefore, he ended up programming the machine by hand, writing the program line-by-line in a PC text editor.
It might have been for the best, he says. Thanks to the challenge of this programming (which accounted for many of his recent late nights in the shop), he now knows the machine’s capabilities very well. He thinks he also produced a program that will be better for the shop than what the CAM software might have generated. His one program covers all 36 part numbers by relying on variables to adapt the machine moves to the different part designs. This will make it easy to modify the program across the entire set of parts, and to add new parts to these families in the future.
He also found unusual ways to use the machine efficiently. The turning center is configured so that one turret machines the part in the first spindle and the other turret machines the part in the second spindle, and he suspects the CAM software would have programmed the cycle this way. But in the case of a serration tool needed for both faces of the part, Mr. Gombar’s program has the second turret mill the part with this tool even while the part is still in the first spindle.
He says this exercise in becoming familiar with the machine’s capabilities has also helped him to better recognize its potential. This machine—and to a lesser extent, the 3+2 machine—represents considerable capacity for full-scale production of high-value parts. The shop’s hope of marshaling this capacity is leading to other changes, he says—changes throughout the shop that affect the ways that all work is performed.
One of those changes has to do with discipline in using cutting tools. G&G’s staple has traditionally been machining prototype parts. That specialty, fortunately or not, has permitted the shop a lack of structure and consistency in the way it uses tooling. One-off jobs are often needed so quickly that the shop’s best guess of cutting tools is sufficient, along with similar guesses at cutting parameters. However, the value realized as a result of searching out optimal tools and parameters for the new titanium part was revealing. In search of similar process gains, Mr. Gombar has tasked Mr. Dimonda and Justin Gombar (his son) with paring down the shop’s tool choices into a standard list that will work with nearly all of the jobs the shop is accustomed to running. Establishing this standard list will allow the shop to begin developing optimal parameters for each of those tools. That knowledge will be particularly valuable as production work occupies a larger share of the shop’s capacity.
The shop is also pursuing ISO certification. Too often, the owners say, G&G has struggled to prototype a complex part successfully only to miss out on winning the production work. “The story of my life,” Mr. Gombar says. Lack of ISO certification is a frequently cited reason.
The shop’s success at prototyping is actually part of the problem. Enough production work has been won on the basis of prototyping success to keep the shop occupied. The customers in these cases are so impressed with the prototypes that they overlook the fact that G&G fails to meet all of the their nominal qualifications for suppliers, one of which is certification. The shop is ISO compliant, but not certified, Mr. Gombar says, and frequently (too frequently?), that compliance has been close enough. Now, the shop will close this gap. Doing so has become all the more all the more urgent now that the shop has the higher-value capacity to support.
When the shop took its big step of buying this capacity, it couldn’t have known how many other shop-wide changes the move would encourage. Going forward, will G&G win enough new production work to both fill the new capacity and enable the shop to step up even higher? It will be worthwhile to check in with the shop one more time in the coming years to learn the answer. | <urn:uuid:7e50a691-bd84-4bd4-91bb-2167c16dd977> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/the-big-step-up | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719908.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00157-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963854 | 2,852 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Shoulder to shoulder
Britain’s role in America’s alleged torture programme is looking murky
WITH a thinner body and fuller beard, Binyam Mohamed stepped off a plane onto British soil for the first time in nearly eight years last month. He brought back stories, published in a newspaper interview on March 8th, of his detention in Pakistan, Morocco, Afghanistan and, from 2004, Guantánamo Bay. He claimed that, as a Moroccan torturer set about his penis with a razor blade, he was asked questions supplied by MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence service. Initially arrested after travelling to Afghanistan on a false passport, Mr Mohamed is not everyone's idea of a reliable witness. But claims about Britain's role in his mistreatment, and that of others, are looking increasingly plausible.
Binyam Mohamed manhandled
The day after the interview, Martin Scheinin, a UN special rapporteur on human rights, published an analysis of the abuses that have taken place around the world in the name of fighting terrorism. Few countries got off lightly: France, Germany and Italy are among those who, like Britain, sent interrogators to Guantánamo despite calling for its closure. But Mr Scheinin fingered Britain as America's chief cheerleader. Along with America and Australia, British personnel have interviewed captives held incommunicado by Pakistani intelligence “in so-called safe houses, where they were being tortured”. Even if they did not witness torture, their presence “can be reasonably understood as implicitly condoning such practices”, he wrote.
As for extraordinary rendition—transferring people without legal formalities to countries that practise torture, or to secret CIA prisons—Britain was the only western European country to be named as one that “facilitated” renditions. There are “consistent, credible reports” that British personnel have “provided intelligence or have conducted the initial seizure of an individual” for extraordinary rendition, Mr Scheinin reported. In response, the Foreign Office could only repeat its condemnation of both extraordinary rendition and, indeed, torture.
Mr Mohamed's case, and the allegation that MI5 was complicit in his torture, has been under investigation by Lady Scotland, the attorney-general, since October. Opposition politicians accuse her of bias—she is a Crown appointee—and foot-dragging, and have demanded a judge-led inquiry. If that is granted, more secrets may well emerge.
Last year David Miliband, the foreign secretary, apologised after it emerged that two American rendition flights had stopped on Diego Garcia, a British territory—an idea the government had previously dismissed as nothing more than “conspiracy theories”. Last month John Hutton, the defence secretary, acknowledged that British special forces had captured two Pakistanis in Iraq and handed them over to American custody, after which they were transported to Afghanistan in contravention of an agreement with Britain. Earlier, the government had denied that too. What skeletons will fall out of the closet next?
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Shoulder to shoulder"
From the March 14th 2009 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition
The economy shows up the differences between the Tory leadership contenders
Ofsted reckons tens of thousands of children attend clandestine institutions
For sale: vintage grave, one careful owner | <urn:uuid:c329f17d-cb11-4147-94bd-d3cfa5c5ef2c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.economist.com/britain/2009/03/12/shoulder-to-shoulder | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573540.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819005802-20220819035802-00471.warc.gz | en | 0.961995 | 703 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Digital x-ray systems are now widely used in hospitals in the UK. Most systems have facilities to take measurements from the images that, we are lead to believe, can be used in accurate pre-operative planning. The aim of this study was to assess whether or not pre-operative planning can reliably predict the size of the implant required when using a hemiarthroplasty to treat an intracapsular hip fracture.
A magnification factor was calculated for pre-operative pelvic x-rays using typical beam to plate distance and plate to hip distance. The pre-operative digital radiographs of 188 consecutive patients who underwent a hip hemiarthroplasty were examined. The femoral head diameters of both the fractured and non-fractured sides were measured. The size of the implanted prosthesis was also recorded from the patients’ operation notes. The x-ray measurements were multiplied by the magnification factor and compared with the known size of the prosthesis. The calculated magnification factor was 128%. Attempts at estimating implant size from measurements of the fractured and non-fractured sides underestimated the size of the prosthesis by 3.0mm (CI 6.5 to −0.5) and 3.1mm (CI 6.8 to −0.6) respectively.
Many hospitals do not stock the full range of hemiarthroplasty implants on the shelf. Sizes at the extremes of the range may need to be specially ordered. It is important that the correct size prosthesis be inserted; an oversized prosthesis can increase the risk of dislocation and an undersized prosthesis will result in point loading and acetabular erosion. Our study shows that pre-operative planning consistently underestimates the size of the implant. However, the accuracy of these estimations is not sufficiently reliable, being +/− 3.5mm, to be able to accurately predict the size of the prosthesis required. Reasons for the under estimation are likely to be due to the fact that the measurement taken from the images does not account for the articular cartilage covering the femoral head. One of the factors leading to inaccuracy in the estimation is variation in patient anatomy and habitus, which affects hip to plate distance and thus the magnification factor. Also, the distance of the beam to plate will vary according to the radiographer’s positioning of the x-ray source.
In order to accurately pre-operatively plan the size of the prosthesis one would need to standardise the beam to hip distance. radio-opaque markers would need to be positioned at the level of the hip in order to accurately calculate the magnification factor. Without these modifications, we do not feel that hip prosthesis size can be accurately predicted from pre-operative images.
Correspondence should be addressed to: Léana Fourie, CEO SAOA, PO Box 12918, Brandhof 9324 South Africa. | <urn:uuid:0fd65c07-6b80-48bc-8d0d-45d567ef989a> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.bjjprocs.boneandjoint.org.uk/content/90-B/SUPP_III/472.2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281649.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00438-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942142 | 592 | 2.015625 | 2 |
"Research shows that early intervention services can significantly improve a child’s development. It’s never too early to prepare a child for success in school…and ultimately in life.”
Coral Gables, FL (PRWEB) February 04, 2016
Coral Gables Counseling Center, a group practice in Miami, has expanded their services by adding School Psychologist, Cristina M. Olaechea, Ed.S. with over 15 years of experience working with children ages 3 to 5. Mrs. Olaechea is highly trained in administering psychoeducational testing in order to assess cognitive, academic, processing, and social-emotional functioning. She conducts psychoeducational assessments with children and adolescents from Prekindergarten through Grade 12 and offers cutting-edge, digital administration of certain instruments via iPad. Observations of the child in the home or school setting are also incorporated when deemed necessary.
These evaluations involve an in-depth interview, testing that is tailored to the individual, followed by a feedback session to collaboratively formulate a plan for maximizing the student’s educational experience. Mrs. Olaechea prepares integrated psychoeducational reports detailing her findings and includes recommendations for parents, teachers, and collaborating professionals. Coral Gables Counseling Center has seen an increase in demand for psychoeducational testing in the last year and needed the expertise of a specialist skilled and trained in offering cutting edge options.
Parents are having to make the decision to get their child tested in order to seek a more challenging educational environment or to address delays reported by teachers and/or the parent themselves. Either way, it's not a common "topic of conversation" but with more and more private schools opening in the area of Miami-Dade County and higher expectations for children to go to college, psychoeducational testing is on the rise.
About Coral Gables Counseling Center: Coral Gables Counseling Center is a group practice of highly skilled clinicians offering the most comprehensive services in the areas of mental health, behavioral health, and self-development including Life and Nutritional Coaching. They provide their clients with diverse therapeutic support for individuals, couples, children, adolescents, adults and families. An environment for anyone to "Give your Mind, Body & Spirit Some Love." | <urn:uuid:79542961-ab17-4d37-a426-a069254ca4c8> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.prweb.com/releases/Cristina/Oleachea/prweb13185195.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281424.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00336-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940348 | 466 | 1.78125 | 2 |
TRACE ELEMENTS IN MAGMAS
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
|SIZE:||244 x 170|
|TYPE:||Professional and Vocational|
Product Description for TRACE ELEMENTS IN MAGMAS
This book brings together the essential theory required to understand the behaviour of trace elements in magmas and magma-derived rocks.
Customers who viewed 'TRACE ELEMENTS IN MAGMAS' also looked at... | <urn:uuid:e6df4d0e-848c-413b-b79a-b50667006215> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.mapsinternational.co.uk/product_details.asp?pid=9780521036344&t=TRACE-ELEMENTS-IN-MAGMAS | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281226.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00384-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.653757 | 90 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Coding is a vast field growing fast and improving the lives of people who work with computers in any industry. Traditionally, the animation used to be done by drawing the figures with minimal change of movements or any area animators wanted to animate. The process was, of course, tedious as for 1 second, 24 frames needed to be drawn (using 24 fps frame rate), and then they were merged on a film and played to give a sense of motion. Gradually with the development of IT, animation became computer oriented. Programming languages use algorithms that can create animations through a series of commands. Although it is not necessary to learn in-depth programming languages to make a career out of animation, it is always helpful to know some of them, so you know what is going on in the background. Learning the way to code will be beneficial when you want to be an animator. With the progress in technology, computers were able to minimize the use of manual effort when creating animation.
Any animation, VFX, or game production company these days is always hard-pressed for time and money, so they are looking for any kind of help to speed up their process or make things cheaper. Artists who know how to code can contribute to that in many ways. If we know just a little bit of code, we already have a better understanding of what might be happening behind the scenes, which will immensely reduce your stress levels when something breaks or doesn’t provide the required output. If you know how to code, you can write your tools for yourself, which becomes a great value add to your company. Other details, apart from programming, can make us better animators. As we all know, animators work as a team, and you need to be a good team player. We should keep an eye for detail and suggest small details that can benefit the project. Having a good hand at drawing is always welcome in animation.
Let us now discuss some animation tools which are used commercially as well as by personal freelancers for animation:
- 3ds Max (Autodesk). Autodesk is a commercial animation software tool that allows animators to create or produce 3D animations.
- After Effects (Adobe). Digital artists use this commercial tool to add visual effects and motion graphics elements to film, TV, video, online content, presentations, etc.
- Blender (The Blender Foundation). It is a free, open-source 3D graphics creation suite where you can create animations, digital art, visual effects, any kind of model whether it is 2D or 3D with the use of a comprehensive feature set.
- Maya (Autodesk). This commercial software provides digital artists with a complete platform and an extensive feature set, including modelling, simulation, and rendering, to create 3D computer animations.
Frequently Asked Questions on Animation:
- What does an Animator do?
Ans. In simple words, Animators create 2D and 3D models, moving images, and visual effects for television, movies, video games, and other forms of media.
- What skills do animators need?
Ans. Besides creativity, animators should have good drawing skills and understand colour, texture, and light. They must also have communication and presentation skills, time-management skills, and attention to detail. Coding and drawing skills are an add-on that enhances someone’s career and works in the field.
- What qualifications/degree is needed to become an animator?
Ans. Employers require a bachelor’s degree in animation, computer animation, computer graphics, or other related areas. Certificate or diploma courses are also applicable.
- What are the few animation software for beginners?
Ans. Cartoon Animator 4, Stop Motion Studio, and Blender are the few software that can help kickstart a career in animation. Moreover, they are all open-source software.
- What are the companies that use animation?
Ans. Some world-famous companies use animation. Walt Disney Studio, DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Animation etc., are some of them. | <urn:uuid:e84de95d-5c12-460b-8236-914b6688e95e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.repunext.com/is-coding-necessary-for-animation-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.93886 | 846 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Macroglossum stellatarum (Linnaeus, 1758)
Description: Wingspan 50-58mm. The adults are dayflying and generally brown with small distinctive white patches on sides of the abdomen. There is also a black anal tuft. The forewings are a dull brown with darker crosslines. The hindwings are mainly orange.
Key Identification Features:
Flight Period: This migrant moth has been seen in N.Ireland as early as late April right through until the beginning of October. It is most commonly observed during June and July.
Status: A day-flying species that migrates from southern Europe each year to Britain and Ireland. In the past it was not always reported annually from N. Ireland. However, in recent times, probably due to the increased number of observers, a small number are usually seen, even in the poorest of years.
Ecology: This is most frequently reported from dry rocky grassland usually in coastal localities, especially in the east of the province and inland from urban and suburban gardens, where its characteristic feeding behaviour resembling that of a hummingbird attracts attention. It is particularly attracted to tubular nectar-rich flowers such as Buddleia Buddleja davidii, petunia, red valerian Centranthus ruber and many others in search of nectar. The larvae feed on various species of bedstraw Galium spp.
World Distribution: Across the Palaearctic except for northern regions.
Bradley & Fletcher number: 1984 Agassiz number: 69.010
UK Moths account
|Thompson, R. S. & Nelson, B., 2003 (Oct 2). [In] The Butterflies and Moths of Northern Ireland |
|Copyright ©NMNI, 2002-2015| | <urn:uuid:7cbea398-bee0-4d4d-b5df-f976c67a5a12> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.habitas.org.uk/moths/species.asp?item=6072 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281353.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00071-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927098 | 365 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Motherhood, probably more than anything else in life, teaches us to say yes. Indeed, there are a million and one yeses in motherhood, all of them held together in the tension of unspeakable love and piercing swords, both large and small: yes to carrying new life; yes to the physical discomfort of a rapidly changing body; yes to painful birth, tender scars, and sore breasts; yes to being unable to conceive; yes to miscarriage; yes to adoption; yes to a willful two-year-old, three-year-old, or teen; yes to indescribable love for a new baby; yes to caring for a sick child; yes to countless nights of praying for a reckless young adult; and yes to practicing repeatedly and then rejoicing over a first step and every first step thereafter.
I had always thought of motherhood as “doing” something, such as getting pregnant, bringing home a baby, loving and fashioning a little heart and soul, and forming and directing another’s life. I now understand that motherhood is meant to “do” something to us: form and fashion us, awaken and enrich us, strip and heal us, and teach us to become women of prudence, patience, and perseverance, as it trains us constantly in the art of consent. Much like the practice of prayer, motherhood holds the potential to mold us into beings who are receptive to God and to others, into persons who become ever more capable of living a life-giving, love-expanding yes.
Mary is the icon of humanity precisely because she reveals to us how to say yes to God. She shows us what a profound effect authentic human surrender can have— both on us and on the world around us, giving us a window through which to see how divine activity is supposed to play out in human affairs. Mary illustrates for us in living color the way in which all human beings are purposed to relate to God, teaching us what it looks like to open our hands, hearts, and bodies to him to allow the divine presence to penetrate and transform us and the entire created realm.
Mary’s life teaches us that we are meant to be actively receptive to God, to his grace and to his will. Active receptivity is the ability to at once surrender and receive. It sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s not. We must actively surrender to God in order to receive what he has for us.
Why? We must do so because surrender involves the critical gesture of opening our hands. Hands clamped tight, holding on to our will and our ways, leave no room for God’s gifts.
The greatest gift ever given to mankind—the Redeemer, the God-man, Jesus Christ—came forth in response to the surrendered yes of a woman. Mary demonstrates just how pivotal our assent is and how imperative it is that we learn to hear and readily respond to the voice of God.
Reprinted from Mary’s Way: The Power of Entrusting Your Child to God by Judy Landrieu Klein with the kind permission of Ave Maria Press.
Buy this book through our Amazon affiliate link and support CatholicMom.com with your purchase!
Copyright 2016 Judy Klein | <urn:uuid:a6ce1a6a-a0f5-4695-a185-fc8abec5bd49> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://catholicmom.com/2016/10/02/annunciation-yes-surrender-excerpt-marys-way/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280730.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00248-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959855 | 673 | 1.960938 | 2 |
A prospective study that recruited a significant proportion of people newly diagnosed with HIV in four locations in Indonesia and offered them immediate antiretroviral therapy (ART) found that only 35% of them were still on ART and virally suppressed at the end of the year.
The study, published in The Lancet HIV, draws attention to challenges with the HIV care cascade for men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender women and people who inject drugs. It has now moved on to a second phase to find out what interventions will improve retention and viral suppression in these key populations most at risk of HIV.
The Indonesian epidemic
Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, also has the fourth largest number of new HIV infections per year: the World Health Organization estimates that 73,000 people are infected per year, only behind China, India and Russia. It is also the only country in the Asia-Pacific region where HIV prevalence is still increasing, up from very few people with HIV in 2000 to an estimated 630,000 now. HIV prevalence is still low in the general population at 0.5% but is estimated to be 39% in people who inject drugs, 12.8% in men who have sex with men, 7.4% in transgender women and 7.2% in female sex workers.
It was estimated that only 10-20% of Indonesians with HIV were receiving ART at the end of 2016. So the investigators decided to prospectively evaluate strategies to improve the cascade of HIV care in members of key populations.
The study and its participants
The study was conducted in the two cities of Bandung and Yogyakarta and the island of Bali, each of which have high prevalence and clinical services with experience of working with key populations. The populations selected for the study were men who have sex with men (MSM), female sex workers (FSW), transgender women (known as waria in Indonesia), and people who inject drugs (PWID). Because the study failed to find many PWID, a fourth arm enrolling only PWID was added in the capital, Jakarta, and they could already be diagnosed as long as they had not previously taken ART.
The study was based in hospital centres, which then invited local clinics to participate. As a result, 77% of participants were diagnosed and 67% had their baseline ART assessment visit at primary care centres. Slightly over half of these were government-run local health clinics, known in Indonesia as Puskesmas, and the rest at NGO-run private clinics. Not all the Puskesmas and NGO clinics prescribed ART, and in these cases people were referred to clinics that did.
The study enrolled 831 participants. These formed a high proportion of people diagnosed at the study sites over the trial period.
Because of the Indonesian reporting system, it is impossible to say what proportion of newly diagnosed people this represents in the localities and whether that differs from population to population, but the researchers estimate that in Bali, they recruited 70% of members of key populations who had been diagnosed across the island in the study period. The Indonesian Health Ministry estimates that only 44% of people with HIV in the country have been diagnosed.
Of the 831 enrolled, 77% were MSM, 14% were FSW, 6% were PWID and 3% were waria. There were some differences between the groups: for instance, MSM tended to be slightly younger than the median age of 27 years and waria and PWID were older (34 years). FSW and waria were more likely to lack secondary education, with only 26% and 44% having attended high school, compared with 86% of MSM.
One cause for concern was that a high proportion of those diagnosed had advanced HIV disease and had presumably been infected for several years. At diagnosis, 73% of participants had a CD4 count below 350 cells/mm3 and 15% had an HIV-related condition.
The ‘cascade’ in the study looks like this. At the end of the first year:
- 85% had been linked to care;
- 73% (86% of those linked to care) started ART;
- 55% (75% of those starting ART) remained in care, which meant having at least one follow-up appointment in any three-month period;
- 39% (71% of those who remained in care) had the required viral load test between five and nine months after study initiation;
- 35% (48% of those who started ART, and 64% of those retained in care) were virally suppressed (below 200 copies/ml).
The researchers do not have data on undiagnosed infection. However, using the the health ministry's estimate that 44% of people with HIV are diagnosed, the proportion of all people living with HIV who are virally suppressed would be 15% – identical to the ministry’s own figure.
Viral suppression rates were lower in non-MSM: they were 26% in waria, 23% in FSW, and 20% in PWID, compared with 39% in MSM.
Education was a significant factor in achieving undetectability; 48% of study recruits with degree-level education achieved viral suppression compared with 17% with primary education or none.
Twenty-seven per cent of participants were diagnosed at clinics that did not prescribe ART. These people were considerably less likely to reach viral suppression.
While 87% of people tested in a clinic offering ART started it, only 35% started if they had to be referred to a different centre for treatment. The figures for viral suppression were respectively 47% and 13%. So people were more than three times more likely to become virally suppressed if they did not have to travel to another clinic to get ART.
‘Loss to follow-up’ (LTFU) over the course of the whole study was defined as failing to attend an appointment in a six-month period. LTFU was higher in FSW, PWID and waria than in MSM. It was 60% lower in the university educated.
Of note, although 83% of participants were given an efavirenz-containing single tablet, LTFU was 45% lower in people taking non-efavirenz-based regimens.
Where were the weak points in the cascade?
One thing cascades can do is to show where the weak points are in the care continuum. In the case of MSM and FSW, the biggest drop came between starting ART and being retained in care: 16% of MSM and 20% of FSW who started ART were not retained in care according to the definition of the study, i.e. attending three-monthly appointments.
However, while this patient factor was important, so was the provider factor of whether viral load testing was done, and this was the biggest failing in the care continuum for waria and PWID. Twenty-six per cent of waria and 33% of PWID who were retained in care failed to receive a viral load test, as did 18% of FSW and 14% of MSM.
For those who did stay in care, it was the absence of viral load testing rather than adherence that contributed to the low suppression levels in the final cascade step. This is underlined by the fact that the viral suppression rate was excellent in those who were tested: it was 96%, and this varied little between groups.
Although a qualitative analysis from this cohort has not yet been published, the researchers do mention that earlier qualitative research in Bali had uncovered that staff competency and workload, the inability to do all diagnostic tests recommended, and fear of stigma among patients attending local facilities all served as barriers to integrating ART into the Puskesma primary-care system.
The study offers an interesting insight into the barriers faced by some middle-income countries like Indonesia in tackling their HIV epidemics and it will be interesting to see if the interventions introduced in the second year of the study produce better viral suppression rates.
Januraga PP et al. The cascade of care among key populations in Indonesia: a prospective cohort study. The Lancet HIV, early online publication. August 2018. See abstract here. | <urn:uuid:1adccd0d-89f5-4d7c-ab08-eb42ae72c166> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.aidsmap.com/news/sep-2018/indonesia-tackling-hiv-one-worlds-fastest-growing-epidemics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00473.warc.gz | en | 0.982179 | 1,690 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Fermentation is more an art than a science, says Australian wholefood chef Holly Davis. In this fun interview she explains the importance of fermentation to a healthy diet, and shares a traditional Halloween recipe for Celtic speckled tea loaf.
This interview comes courtesy of Radio New Zealand.
Believe it or not, Halloween was not invented by candy stores or costume makers. The trick-or-treat night first originated in Ireland, where it evolved from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhaim. In pagan times it marked the end of the agricultural cycle, when crops were harvested and stored for winter.
Being a time of transition – between worlds, so to speak – there was plenty of room for superstition and the notion of spirits roaming the land, which is where our modern Halloween tradition probably comes from.
But it was also a time to celebrate and to feast. One of the staples of an Irish Halloween is known as “Ara'n breac” (aka “barmbrack”), which is a cross between bread and cake.
The loaf traditionally contained various objects baked into it - a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin (originally a silver sixpence) and a ring. Each item carried a meaning: the pea meant you would not marry that year, and the ring meant would be wed within the year.
Most of all, it tasted great. "You have a cup of tea and a piece of barmbrack and you're in heaven," says Holly.
Leavening is the form of fermentation used in making the loaf, with the help of spent yeast leaves from dark ale or stout. Grains are inherently difficult to digest and many people have problems with gluten, but a sourdough starter does the leavening for you and “pre-digests” the flour, making it easier for your body to absorb the nutrient value of the grains.
Holly first got into fermentation aged only 14 due to her early interest in macrobiotics, in which fermented foods are used as condiments. She's been learning more for the past 40 years. Most people know yoghurt involves a culture, she says, but without fermentation we also wouldn't have vanilla, coffee, chocolate and black tea – not to mention cheese, olives, salami and cured fish.
You can find Holly’s recipe here – and many more in her new book, Ferment: A Guide to the Ancient Art of Making Cultured Foods.
This content is published under licence and in partnership with Radio New Zealand, one of the world’s foremost public broadcasters. To learn more go to radionz.co.nz
Follow the freshest thinking @fitplanetmag. | <urn:uuid:afe62fd1-7bec-4a03-8c2d-a05309c2ea0e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.lesmills.com/in/fit-planet/nutrition/fermented-comfort-food/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570765.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808031623-20220808061623-00275.warc.gz | en | 0.960666 | 569 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Biotech is one of the most regulated businesses on the planet, so it’s clear that if Aastrom Biosciences is going to get anywhere, it had better have a good strategy for working with U.S. drug regulators. This week, the Ann Arbor, MI-based company took a couple of important steps in the direction that investors like to see.
On Monday, Aastrom (NASDAQ: ASTM) said its experimental adult stem cell therapy was granted “Fast Track” designation by the FDA, which means it is eligible for a faster-than-usual six-month review that regulators sometimes grant for new life-saving therapies. A couple days later, Aastrom filed its all-important pivotal stage clinical trial proposal for review by the FDA. If the agency agrees this is a well-designed experiment that can prove the value of the Aastrom approach, then the company could start recruiting patients before the end of March.
This clinical trial is being designed to enroll between 500 and 600 patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI). This is a severe form of cardiovascular disease in the legs, known as peripheral artery disease, in which blood vessels get so clogged up that doctors choose to amputate. Aastrom’s approach involves withdrawing a patient’s bone marrow cells, incubating them in a proprietary process at its Ann Arbor facility, and spurring growth of adult stem cells and progenitor cells that promote healing. Those revved up cells get re-infused into the patient, and they are supposed to foster growth of new blood vessels to improve circulation.
There could still be some back-and-forth negotiating left between the company and regulators about the design of this trial, but a few important elements are already known, says Aastrom CEO Tim Mayleben. Like a recent (failed) trial Sanofi-Aventis ran for critical limb ischemia, the Aastrom study will be designed to see if its method can reduce the rate of amputations, and death, after 12 months of follow-up, Mayleben says. It will enroll patients in North America. It will probably take 18 months to recruit them all, and another year of follow-up, he says. An independent panel of experts will review the blinded study data part-way through, probably in the second half of 2012, and recommend whether researchers should keep going, or whether to pull the plug.
The study is a big, bold wager for a company like Aastrom, with a market valuation of a little more than $40 million. It will cost about $30,000 to $35,000 per patient to conduct the study, and the total budget will run between $15 million and $20 million, Mayleben says. So there’s obviously pressure to make sure the company is on the same page with the FDA, and to get the trial done right the first time.
“We don’t expect a lot of disagreements with the agency,” Mayleben says. “We’ve had a good collegial discussion with them thus far. We understand where they are coming from, and they understand where we are coming from. Our goals are to bring forward a new treatment for critical limb ischemia.”
One of the important points for regulators, and the company, is that this trial shouldn’t be plagued by the kinds of subjective biases that often trip up other companies. With cancer drugs, for example, researchers who treat patients often look at a CT image to see if a tumor is really shrinking, and they often have different opinions than radiologists who look at the same picture in a central office. Tumor shrinkage itself is really just a “surrogate” measurement that’s supposed to provide a quick read on whether a drug is actually going to help people live longer, the gold standard for success in cancer drugs.
But with critical limb ischemia, patients have essentially run out of options other than amputation. About one-fourth of patients die within the first year of diagnosis, and less than one-fourth of patients survive as long as four years. So a trial that straightforwardly measures survival and amputation rates is practical for a company of Aastrom’s size to run, and will provide hard objective data that will say whether it’s working.
“If your therapy works, you know it, and if it doesn’t work, you know that too,” Mayleben says.
Besides the interactions with the FDA, which will probably take a couple months to nail down, the next big item on Aastrom’s to-do list is an appearance at the VEITH symposium, a meeting of vascular surgeons in New York in November. We’ll keep an eye out for those findings to see if it says anything really new about the Aastrom approach, and offers much confidence on whether it might work in the upcoming Phase III trial.
By posting a comment, you agree to our terms and conditions. | <urn:uuid:df059d47-3d05-435d-8a85-9f2d92e11a85> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.xconomy.com/detroit-ann-arbor/2010/10/22/aastrom-maps-out-pivotal-trial-strategy-with-adult-stem-cell-therapy/?single_page=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283301.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00506-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950851 | 1,054 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Drugs that can help people lose weight—great! That was my first reaction. But the more I read, the more I started questioning.
The big question on this issue seems to be, who’s doing the urging? If doctors are getting pressured to agree to start prescribing expensive drugs to people who are overweight, and even to prescribe bariatric surgery, who has the most to gain? Will the insurance industry have a lower overall total output? Not likely, because much of the cost they might save on treating diseases linked to obesity will now be transferred to treating obesity itself. Will the health care industry’s charges go down? Unlikely. Will patients who receive these drugs be able to permanently maintain the weight loss, or if they have relied on the drugs to help them lose weight but haven’t learned new eating habits, how many will relapse—with untold further implications for their health?
And although it may appear at the end of every one of the MedPage today reports, I never noticed until now the disclaimer box at the end of the article announcing that the physician members of the panel doing this urging had to disclose possible conflicts of interess. The list of pharmaceutical companies they all mentioned is like a who’s-who of the drug world—Accumetrics, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., Merck/Schering-Plough, and Schering Plough Pharmaceuticals. Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Fournier, GlaxoSmithKline, Kos Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Sankyo, and sanofi-aventis.
If all these potential conficts of interest are real, what are the chances doctors might also get pressured to accept something else for following drug company “prescriptions” for how to practice medicine… Yeah, that disclaimer box makes me nervous. Continue to theAmerican Heart Association panel discussion on doctors being urged to attack obesity as a disease state. | <urn:uuid:7f730699-ea9c-4272-a003-18243bc8e427> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://biomednews.org/doctors-urged-to-attack-obesity-as-a-disease-state/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571989.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813232744-20220814022744-00468.warc.gz | en | 0.951893 | 414 | 1.695313 | 2 |
I was dating an ESI-Fi who had been married to an auto worker in Flint, Michigan, for many years, and she had acquired his effortless racist speech. Once, when she was talking about her husband, she said that the neighborhood where he lived was full of n******.
Most of the circuit breakers in my head tripped out when I heard her say that. I slapped my forehead and said "You can't say that. That neighborhood is bad because the people who live there are poor."
She immediately looked panicky because she's not, fundamentally, racist. I've watched her on dates and she looks at people as people, even though her speech is full of terms which would not fly in my social circles. You know how some women acquire the political beliefs of their husband, without actually incorporating them into themselves? I think she's like this.
So, she immediately said "Oh! You're right. That neighborhood is poor." And then she made a mark in her brain, like someone does when they find out how to spell a word they've been mispronouncing, and we moved on.
Just for the record, my ESI grandmother also spoke like this, but she added Catholics and Italians and bohemians and other sub-categories to the mix. She just grew up in a time when this speech was commonly used by almost everyone.
Unless you're really old, you might not know what things were like, just a few decades ago. Complete transitions can happen fast, like the one in US society where being gay is not a curse any more. | <urn:uuid:10b2b27f-914d-478b-b3c7-dba4b15be99e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.the16types.info/vbulletin/showthread.php/62511-ESI-Fi-vs-ESI-Se | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00671.warc.gz | en | 0.993085 | 346 | 1.546875 | 2 |
I am happy to report that I am very close to being complete with my decluttering plan. I am also finding that part of the deal is that I have to commit to keeping things "tidy," so I don't get caught in the clutter trap in the future.
None of this kind of clearing and decluttering happens by accident. You have to create a plan. And then you have to commit to sticking to it if you are serious about it.
Some suggestions are offered below on how you might create your own plan if this is of interest to you. You don't have to undertake all the recommendations to be successful. But they may go a long way toward helping you get started if decluttering is something you would like to do for yourself and your family.
Start by first creating a plan you will commit to and stick with. Set goals. Then schedule the process. Get clear about what you want to tackle first. Do you want to use the KonMari method, or do you want to tackle room by room? If you take the time upfront to create a decluttering plan, you will be more likely to succeed.
1) Decide on Your Goals – Create a decluttering plan that inspires you. Set small goals for yourself. Then set up a timeline. Set goals for each room. You may not be able to do everything you want right away. So, some goals may be short term, and some may be long term.
2) Set Your Own Rules – Set ground rules for yourself. For example, don't succumb to the temptation of stopping when it gets hard in one room and moving to another. Stick with it. Finish the room or the category--whichever method you chose for yourself. Be careful not to over-schedule yourself. Set small goals so you can feel successful.
Success breeds more success.
3) Create a Reasonable Time Frame – Take out your calendar. Pick a date to start. Set reasonable goals for when you might finish a category or a room. Be flexible in case it doesn't go as smoothly as you would like. Try to make it fun!
4) One Room / Space / Category at a Time – When you create your schedule, don’t pick more than you can do realistically. Choose one category, one room, or one space to work on at a time. Maybe all you have time to do on your day off is to clean the kitchen drawers, for example. That’s okay. Being realistic about your plan is vital to your success.
5) Set Up a Space for Holding the Junk (For Now) – This process will take a while if you do it right.Choose a place to put boxes that are labeled, "Trash," "Keep," "Donate." Some people like a fourth box for items they want to sell. Organize the way you want that works for you. You need a place to keep these boxes while you’re going through the decluttering process. (I used the upstairs bathroom that no one uses.)
6) First Let Go of the Stuff Mentally - This has been discussed before, but it’s essential. When you tackle a room, you have to mentally let go of the idea that you need to keep everything--even things you no longer use. Allow yourself to forget about the money you’ve spent on the item. Instead, think of the money you’re going to save as you don’t buy more things you don’t need to clutter up your home ever again!
7) Use the Right Organizational Tools – Marie Kondo doesn't recommend that you buy commercial/plastic storage boxes. She doesn't even suggest that you buy a lot of fancy organizers. Small boxes can do the trick. She uses recycled shoe boxes and empty gift boxes of different sizes for different types of storage. I used a recycled box that came from Amazon the other day to hold some of the loose items in my utility drawer in the kitchen. It is incredible what a difference it makes! And it was the perfect size!!!
8) Develop Clutter-Free Habits – Even before decluttering one room, start developing clutter-free habits. For example, touch the mail once while you stand over the garbage. Inventory and organize everything you have. Toss things the moment you don’t need them and stop buying things without a plan for its use.
The one thing you’re going to learn with decluttering is how small actions can make a huge difference. You’ll realize that you have far more control over your environment than you ever thought possible. It may be decluttering your physical environment, but it’s also freeing you up mentally for success in every aspect of your life.
It is hard to explain just how exhilarating this process can be. It was at times exhausting, I admit. But I was determined to stick with it.
And the benefits are unexpected. By taking control of my closet space which had intimidated me for the last two years, I took control of myself. I exerted the self-discipline to tackle what felt like a daunting task and stuck with it until it was complete. I felt more confident about myself and more competent in my ability to stick with something difficult. And it did, in fact, spark "joy."
This may not be something you care about right now. But we all face times in our lives when we are faced with getting rid of stuff. Someone dies. How do you manage the disposal of their belongings? We almost all move every so often. You either need to downsize or evaluate what to take with you and what you wish to replace.
The decisions that go with this process can be useful in other areas of your life, too. The point is to get yourself unstuck. Don't fall victim to your stuff. Don't let your clutter control you. Take control of your clutter and clear out what you no longer need.
Clearing the space in your home or office can provide more room for being creative and productive. Don't believe me? Try it.
Until next time. | <urn:uuid:6694be99-4fa5-490e-9cf4-6b59afecaa17> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://kittyboitnott.coachesconsole.com/v3/newsletters/creating-a-plan-for-decluttering-your-environment--and-your-life.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570913.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809064307-20220809094307-00073.warc.gz | en | 0.956053 | 1,262 | 1.757813 | 2 |
My friend George Nunes, GM for the record label Show Dog Universal Music, emailed me this interesting article the other day regarding how much major labels still invest in music acts.
In the graphic below you’ll see how major labels are currently advancing and promoting acts, primarily pop acts, in order to break them to the general public. It’s an interesting refresher in how much major labels are still able to put towards music, albeit music we may not care for. Their options are minimal and their expectations are high. With this still hefty investment, it makes you wonder how successful they could be pushing smaller, touring groups instead of putting all their eggs into one basket.
Let’s break these numbers down for an indie act:
1. The typical advancement they pay ALONE will cover a bands’ wages for at least a couple years. Think about giving a band with 4 members this type of advancement. They could be on the road CONSTANTLY and still have rent paid while they were away. Where would the record company be making their money back? That’s for them to figure out. I’m just breaking down this number.
2. The recording costs in this graphic suggest they are using professional studio time which is interesting considering how powerful home studios are now. The great recording studios of the 70’s and 80’s are a dying breed. Considering the fact that most pop music is over compressed and mastered at a high volume you wonder why this is even necessary. A $25,000 budget can easily meet the criteria of any indie album since you don’t need to actually write the music in the studio. Most independent acts like to find that rustic “hole in the wall” to record. Here in Portland, OR we have a studio called Type Foundry that usually goes for $350 a day…A DAY! Let’s say you budget $4,000 for incredible mastering, that leaves you $21,000 to make an album. If you used a studio like Type Foundry that would give you 60 days in studio. TWO MONTHS STRAIGHT to record an album. Considering albums don’t sell like they used to the band will probably release more of a long EP, so you could get one album for $25,000. That leaves you with either a $275,000 surplus OR it covers 10 more albums just like it in the artist’s contract. That is content, constantly being created, to constantly be marketed.
3. VIDEOS DO NOT NEED TO BE EXPENSIVE. Azealia Banks is a great example. She shot the video for “212” with a single cam and that video got her a deal with Interscope (and yes some other things were in play). Reality is videos don’t have the marketing strength they used to. People love the visual aspect but it doesn’t need it to be cray cray. An indie band/label could easily get 3 videos for around $3,000 each. That’s $9,000 total. So that leaves, on the high end, a $290,000 surplus. 4. Tour Support is actually where $100,000 makes sense. In fact I think it could be more. Touring is where bands are making their brand really stick. The internet just confirms the consumers love for the band. The growing complication with touring is the “Festival Mentality” that keeps eating up acts throughout the year. A lot of bands aren’t touring during the summer because festivals are going on. But anyone can tell you that festivals, while pretty awesome socially, are not an ideal way to see your favorite bands. The best sound, lights and vibe are in a venue that caters to only them and the touring support. An indie band doesn’t normally get these kinds of amenities so imagine their pleasure when they find out they are going to tour with an established act? $100,000 should be used for a touring expenses, touring vehicle and marketing. With that budget a band should be able to tour the US and Europe for two years EASILY.
4. Marketing and Promotion should be a huge money suck but the reality is that if you gave an indie band $200,000 - $500,000 to promote themselves they wouldn’t even know what to do with it. That’s because the main difference between large major label acts and indie bands is the way the artist themselves connects to their fans. Indie bands thrive on having personal relationships with their fans. Knowing them and staying in touch with them. This can be done insanely cheap. Fans that hold that strong personal relationship tend to be constantly in tune with the band. Major labels need to spread the pop act as far across the market as they can since most of their fans are going to be more fleeting and apathetic. Its incredible how much money needs to be spent on marketing for a Nicki Manaj record when EVERYONE knows its coming out. Everyone knows it. I’m sure the marketers for large labels have numbers to back it all up, but it is still mind boggling why it requires that much money to remind her fans that the music is going to be available. I look at bands like The XX, and while I don’t know how much they spent on marketing for their latest album, I am pretty sure it pales in comparison to the Bieb’s latest. Marketing dollars do tend to relate into sales but $200,000 to $500,000? An indie band would probably require $100,000 for an album to be promoted and then proceed to tour their asses off and get to know their fans. That is the reality, that is the way of life for them.
I really don’t know what Major Labels’ profit margins are now a days. That would be a pie graph I’d actually be interested in seeing. But given the basic budget information in the above graphic it’s hard to understand why they don’t see potential in developmental artists. Artists with smaller egos, with more humble expectations and with a stronger support system. I still believe that record labels are where artists are truly born and brought to the public, but they need to re-evaluate their budgets so they can maximize their roster potential. | <urn:uuid:d48688b3-a6aa-4957-b1b3-531f568792cf> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/major-labels-still-invest-in-music-kinda.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280310.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00187-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96648 | 1,310 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Flemish School. He was painting portraits in England between 1633 and 1641.
LONDON, NATIONAL GALLERY
CORNELIUS VAN DER GEEST Bust length, nearly full face, in a black silk doublet. The head is slightly tilted forward, the grey bearded chin resting on a pleated falling ruff. Painted c. 1620.
Purchased with the Angerstein Collection in 1824.
EQUESTRIAN PORTRAIT OF CHARLES I The King, bareheaded, in body armour, with buff boots, is seen nearly in profile mounted on a great fawn-coloured horse advancing to the left. He has a baton in his right hand. Closely following-under a large tree on the right, is the King’s equerry, Sir Thomas Morton, carrying his master’s helmet. To the left is a distant landscape. Inscribed on a tablet hanging from the tree trunk: Carolus I. rex Magnae Britanie.
Painted c. 1636 for the King, from whose collection it was sold to the Elector of Bavaria, and purchased at Munich by the great Duke of Marlborough.
Purchased from his descendant in 1885.
LONDON, WALLACE COLLECTION
A YOUNG ITALIAN NOBLEMAN Whole length, standing full face, the left elbow resting on a pedestal, the right hand holding his gloves, the left hand hanging down. In black clothes, with broad flat linen collar and cuffs.
Painted in Genoa, perhaps from one of the Lomellini family (see Edinburgh, below).
PHILIPPE LE ROY AND HIS WIFE ” A full-length portrait of the Chevalier Roy, Counsellor to Prince Ferdinand. He appears to be about forty years of age, and his fine expressive countenance is seen in a three-quarter view, with dark hair, a tuft of beard, and mustachios; his dress is composed of a black silk vest with slashed sleeves and pendcnt frills and ruffles, and a full mantle over his left shoulder; he is represented standing erect, with the left hand on the hilt of his sword, and caressing a greyhound with the other. Signed A. V. Dyck.” (Smith.)
“A full length of the Chevalier’s wife, a lady about twenty-seven (sic) years of age, fair complexion, and round face, seen in a three-quarter view; light hair dressed in bushy curls and decked with a feather; she is attired in a black striped silk robe with full sleeve, girt round the arms with white ribands; a double lace frill covers the neck and shoulders, and a triple collar of pearls and a plated brooch adorn her bosom; the left hand holds a fan of feathers, and the right is placed on the waist; a little dog is playing at her feet.” (Smith.)
These portraits are ” among the masterpieces of Van Dyck’s second Flemish period.” They are inscribed: (94) Aetatis suae 34 a 163o, and (79) AEt. Suae. 16 A I631.
EDINBURGH, NATIONAL GALLERY
THE LOBELLINI FAMILY A group of five whole-length figures against a trophy of brown and blue flags hung upon the walls of a hall which has an archway opening on a blue dark sky towards the left. Near the centre a lady in a black robe, with grey ruff and cuffs, is seated in a red chair; beside her, to the left, stands a man also in black, his right hand on his sword hilt; and still farther to the left another man in black armour damascened with gold carrying the broken shaft of a lance in his right hand, his left resting on his sword hilt. On the right of the lady stand two children, a boy in crimson embroidered with gold, who stands next her and holds her hand, and a girl in deep yellow with her hands in front of her. At the lady’s feet is a small dog.
Painted in Genoa 1623-27.
Purchased from the Marchese Lomellini in 1830.
PORTRAIT OF CHARLES I A superb group composed of the King (standing in profile to left, but with his head turned toward us), the Marquis of Hamilton holding the King’s horse, and an esquire. The King is in a white jacket, red breeches, and buff riding boots, and his hair falls over his neck from beneath a broad-brimmed felt hat with a feather. His left arm is akimbo, his right extended, the hand resting on a long cane. His left leg is slightly advanced. Beyond him the landscape is open, but on the right a large tree overshadows the Marquis and the horse, of which only the head and forequarters come into the picture.
Painted in 1635.
LA VIERGE AUX DONATEURS To the left, under an overhanging rock, the Virgin is seated with the Child on her knees, who with His right hand is stroking the cheek of the donor, who kneels in profile towards Him, his wife also kneeling at his left side in the foreground. The Virgin wears a red dress, and violet mantle, and grey veil. The donor and his wife are both in the con ventional costume of black, with white ruffs and cuffs. In the sky are two cherubim bringing crowns of flowers.
THE MARQUIS OF AYTONA This is considered one of Vandyck’s finest equestrian portraits. The Marquis is in full armour, but bareheaded, and with a large white collar. He is mounted on a white charger, and faces us as he turns a corner on the road, Plain landscape background.
THE PAINTER’S WIFE Three-quarter length, seated, in profile to left, but her head turned towards us. In a plain silk gown with very full sleeves. With her left hand she holds the top of a violoncello, while the right is crossed over her left arm holding the bow diagonally across her sleeve and skirt: Loose curly hair on either side of the face.
SUSANNA AND THE ELDERS Susanna is seated facing us, her left hand clasping a cloak to her breast, her right extended in the act of preventing it being snatched from her by one of the elders who stands in profile at her side. Between the two is the other elder with his finger on her bare shoulder. Behind on the right is a stone fountain with a Cupid.
CARDINAL BENTIVOGLIO Whole length, seated nearly full face in a large armchair beside a table, on which is a vase of flowers. A man of middle age; with moustache and pointed beard. He is dressed in Cardinal’s robes with a white embroidered roccetto. Background a curtain. Painted at Rome in 1623.
SAMSON AND DELILAH On the left is Delilah reclining on a couch, an old woman standing behind her. She stretches out her left hand towards Samson in the centre, who struggles to his feet as he is seized and bound by four or five armed Philistines-one behind him, and the others on the right. In the left foreground is a small dog. | <urn:uuid:24dec684-a32a-4948-a57f-bef96fcdfaba> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://art.yodelout.com/painterartist-sir-anthony-van-dyck/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00429-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957394 | 1,596 | 2.328125 | 2 |
As part of our summer reading programming, I decided to have a Winnie the Pooh program. The program was advertised as being for all ages but planned for the expected audience of ages 2-5. Because the turnout for our summer reading storytimes had been so big, we anticipated a large crowd and decided to hold the program in the library’s community meeting room. As had been done with all our summer reading storytimes this year, I accommodated the large crowds by scanning the books I planned to use and projecting the illustrations on the big movie screen.
We first looked at pictures up on the big screen of Winnie the Pooh and his friends, while standing and singing If You’re Happy and You Know It. Piglet was happy (if you’re happy and you know it/clap your hands), Eeyore was grumpy (if you’re grumpy and you know it/stomp your feet), Tigger was bouncy (if you’re bouncy and you know it/jump up and down) and Pooh was hungry (if you’re hungry and you know it/rub your tummy).
Next it was time for our first book, Peek-A-Pooh by Andrea Posner-Sanchez.
The kids stood up again for the next activity, We’re Going On a Heffalump Hunt. I simplified We’re Going On a Lion Hunt and substituted a hunt for a heffalump instead. We slooshed through the mud, swam through a lake, crawled through tall grass, climbed a tree, and crept into a cave, where we might have seen a heffalump! Of course, we were too scared to look and had to run away home.
Our second book, Pooh’s Honey Tree by Isabel Gaines, was next.
Then we counted bees while doing the fingerplay Here is the Hive.
Here is the hive (hold out your fist) but where are the bees?
Hidden away where no one can see.
Watch them come out of the hive,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5! (bring your fingers out of the fist one at a time)
Next, we played a game called Who Has Pooh’s Honey? Because we were using the room’s big screen, I created a powerpoint for the game, but it could also be done on a smaller scale as a flannelboard. I created a picture of a scene with several animals, and asked the question “who has Pooh’s honey?” We then chose each animal and looked at their picture, one at a time, to see if they had Pooh’s honey jar. When we saw a picture of a giraffe, we asked “did Giraffe take Pooh’s honey?” The next picture showed that Giraffe had a beach ball, but no honey. We went through each animal, until finally we determined the culprit (spoiler alert–it was the sun). This could be done as a flannelboard similar to Little Mouse, Little Mouse Are You in the (color) House?, with each animal on the flannelboard having an object behind it. If you would like to see the powerpoint for this, just let me know.
Then it was time for another book, Pooh Loves You by Fran Posner.
By this point, we were all ready to stand up so it was definitely time to do Pooh Bear Pooh Bear Turn Around (with the appropriate motions).
Pooh Bear, Pooh Bear/Turn around
Pooh Bear, Pooh Bear/Touch the ground.
Pooh Bear, Pooh Bear/Tie your shoe
Pooh Bear, Pooh Bear/That will do.
Pooh Bear, Pooh Bear/Go upstairs
Pooh Bear, Pooh Bear/Comb your hair.
Pooh Bear, Pooh Bear/Turn out the light
Pooh Bear, Pooh Bear/Say good night.
It was then time to really rev it up and practice jumping, so we were ready to bounce like Tigger. We did red light/green light jumping, jumping when they saw a green light on the big screen and stopping when they saw a red light. In a smaller group, I use a green paper plate for the green light and a red one for the red light.
Once we were warmed up, it was time to bounce! I played the song The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers and we bounced away to the music.
Finally, it was time for the big finale, the bear parade. In the publicity for the program, I asked those attending to bring a bear with them for the bear parade, and many did. However, it wasn’t necessary to have a bear to enjoy the bear parade. I burned a cd with a good marching song (that shall remain nameless until I can remember the title) that repeated several times, and we marched to the music around the perimeter of the room with our bears. A fun way to end a fun program! | <urn:uuid:f31b879f-9295-4837-be0a-c5b5627110a8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://1234morestorytimes.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/program-winnie-the-pooh-party/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00270.warc.gz | en | 0.968731 | 1,065 | 2.59375 | 3 |
This is the online directory with the main schools in Thailand that offer an Education in English. The programmes vary from the International Baccalaureate (I.B.) programme, which includes PYP, MYP and Diploma to the British GCSE and GCE examination systems. All schools are required to satisfy the requirements of the Thai national system.
The International Baccalaureate Organizations Diploma Programme was created in 1968. It is a demanding pre-university course of study that leads to examinations. It is designed for highly motivated secondary school students aged 16 to 19. The programme has earned a reputation for rigorous assessment, giving IB diploma holders access to the worlds leading universities. The Diploma Programmes grading system is criterion-referenced, which means that each students performance is measured against well-defined levels of achievement. These are consistent from one examination session to the next and are applied equally to all schools.The IBO has shown, over the course of 30 years, that students are well prepared for university work. They are accepted by universities in more than 110 countries.
The Ministry of Education accepts the IB Diploma as equivalent to the
Thai high school diploma. However, the IB Diploma must be presented individually
to the Ministry of University Affairs to obtain the certificate of equivalency.
Procedures and requirements for entry to universities are available from
the Ministry of University Affairs.
The Ministry of University Affairs | <urn:uuid:26a74cfd-e951-44e7-9891-13ff7d64569b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.english-schools.org/thailand/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572908.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817122626-20220817152626-00073.warc.gz | en | 0.949354 | 314 | 1.9375 | 2 |
In-depth article about whether you really should have health insurance or not for your dog. I agree that you really need to know how much you are spending on the health of your dog now to decide whether health insurance is right and what type of health insurance you should be purchasing. The health insurance company makes all the difference as well – choose the wrong one and you will be out a lot of money on monthly premiums with no pay backs on your vet bills.
Since most pet owners have health insurance for themselves, many wonder if their dogs need similar protection. But according to the July 2003 issue of Consumer Reports, “Pet insurance won’t necessarily save you money. In fact, with it, you can end up paying far more for veterinary care than if you don’t have insurance.” The Consumer Reports analysis indicates that purchasing pet insurance might increase the amount an owner pays in veterinary costs by thousands of dollars over the life of the pet. The magazine considers pet insurance to be “a form of enforced savings that almost never covers the entire bill.” The magazine reports that putting the premium into your own bank account each month would accomplish the same goal.
If you want a direct financial benefit, Christine Zink, D.V.M., who is well versed in sports-related canine injuries, has a good suggestion. She says, “You need to have really complete records of your dogs’ veterinary bills over a period of at least three years.” You need to know exactly how much you spend on veterinary care and on exactly what services and procedures.
Here is part one of the previous story I posted about. Definitely something to consider when looking around your pasture, look for these plants. | <urn:uuid:e451b873-929e-4669-aa77-94e8c08cdad5> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://evetclinic.com/tag/veterinary/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720380.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00056-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963709 | 352 | 1.984375 | 2 |
On August 14, 1996, a 59-year-old deputy fire chief was critically injured and two other fire officers received minor injuries after inhaling toxic gases at a fire scene. The incident occurred at a fast food restaurant when a fire broke out in the hamburger broiler. Spreading into the hood and exhaust ductwork above the broiler, the fire quickly spread to the roof of the building where it was drawn into the roof top air conditioning system. The heat apparently burst the air conditioner's cooling coils, releasing Freon gas into the fire that thermally decomposed into acid and phosgene gases. The toxic gases were drawn into the building and mixed with the smoke and other fire gases until the fire fighters began to ventilate the building and extinguish the fire. This pushed the smoke and gases out the rear of the building, surrounding the fire chief who was standing outside near the back door. The chief, who was not wearing an air mask, developed severe respiratory symptoms and was immediately taken to the local hospital where he was admitted and hospitalized for two days. Two other officers, the department chief and a fire captain, also received minor injuries after breathing the smoke. Both were examined at the hospital and released. After his release from the hospital, the deputy chief returned to doing administrative work but was prohibited from fire fighting. On August 24, 1996, ten days after the incident, the deputy chief collapsed at his home and died of complications related to his injury. NJ FACE investigators concluded that, to prevent similar incidents in the future, employers should follow these safety guidelines: 1. Fire departments should develop and implement an exterior perimeter policy for SCBA use. 2. Incident commanders should be notified of any potentially hazardous or unusual situations. In addition, restaurant owners should take the following fire protection measures: 3. Restaurant owners should ensure that staff are trained in operating the emergency fire suppression system and that exhaust hoods are kept free of grease.
Accident-analysis; Accident-potential; Accident-prevention; Accidents; Injuries; Injury-prevention; Safety-education; Safety-equipment; Safety-practices; Safety-measures; Traumatic-injuries; Work-practices; Training; Region-2; Fire-fighters; Fire-fighting; Fire-fighting-equipment; Fire-hazards; Fire-protection; Fire-safety; Occupational-accidents; Occupational-exposure; Occupational-hazards; Occupational-health; Gases; Work-analysis; Toxic-gases; Combustion-gases; Emergency-responders | <urn:uuid:6625aad4-dcc2-4885-b6ff-1abb9134b741> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/nioshtic-2/20026642.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279224.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00476-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962344 | 532 | 2.796875 | 3 |
School of Medicine
Showing 1-10 of 19 Results
Professor of Pediatrics (Hematology/Oncology) at the Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital
Current Research and Scholarly Interests Hematology/Oncology, Phase I drug studies for childhood cancer, overcoming multidrug resistance in leukemia and solid tumors, biology and treatment of acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, early detection of central nervous system leukemia by measuring growth, factor binding proteins.
Assistant Professor of Radiology (Pediatric Radiology)
Current Research and Scholarly Interests Ultrasonic beamforming, imaging methods, systems, and devices.
The J.G. Jackson and C.J. Wood Professor in Chemistry
Bio Professor Dai?s research spans chemistry, physics, and materials and biomedical sciences, leading to materials with properties useful in electronics, energy storage and biomedicine. Recent developments include near-infrared-II fluorescence imaging, ultra-sensitive diagnostic assays, a fast-charging aluminum battery and inexpensive electrocatalysts that split water into oxygen and hydrogen fuels.
Born in 1966 in Shaoyang, China, Hongjie Dai began his formal studies in physics at Tsinghua U. in Beijing (B.S. 1989) and applied sciences at Columbia U. (M.S. 1991). His doctoral work under Dr. Charles Lieber at Harvard U. (Ph.D. 1994) focused on charge-density waves and superconductivity. During postdoctoral research at Rice U. with Dr. Richard Smalley, he developed carbon nanotube probes for atomic force microscopy. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1997, and in 2007 was named Jackson?Wood Professor of Chemistry. Among many awards, he has been recognized with the ACS Pure Chemistry Award, APS McGroddy Prize for New Materials, Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics and Materials Research Society Mid-Career Award. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, AAAS and National Academy of Sciences.
The Dai Laboratory has advanced the synthesis and basic understanding of carbon nanomaterials and applications in nanoelectronics, nanomedicine, energy storage and electrocatalysis.
The Dai Lab pioneered some of the now-widespread uses of chemical vapor deposition for carbon nanotube (CNT) growth, including vertically aligned nanotubes and patterned growth of single-walled CNTs on wafer substrates, facilitating fundamental studies of their intrinsic properties. The group developed the synthesis of graphene nanoribbons, and of nanocrystals and nanoparticles on CNTs and graphene with controlled degrees of oxidation, producing a class of strongly coupled hybrid materials with advanced properties for electrochemistry, electrocatalysis and photocatalysis. The lab?s synthesis of a novel plasmonic gold film has enhanced near-infrared fluorescence up to 100-fold, enabling ultra-sensitive assays of disease biomarkers.
Nanoscale Physics and Electronics
High quality nanotubes from his group?s synthesis are widely used to investigate the electrical, mechanical, optical, electro-mechanical and thermal properties of quasi-one-dimensional systems. Lab members have studied ballistic electron transport in nanotubes and demonstrated nanotube-based nanosensors, Pd ohmic contacts and ballistic field effect transistors with integrated high-kappa dielectrics.
Nanomedicine and NIR-II Imaging
Advancing biological research with CNTs and nano-graphene, group members have developed ??? stacking non-covalent functionalization chemistry, molecular cellular delivery (drugs, proteins and siRNA), in vivo anti-cancer drug delivery and in vivo photothermal ablation of cancer. Using nanotubes as novel contrast agents, lab collaborations have developed in vitro and in vivo Raman, photoacoustic and fluorescence imaging. Lab members have exploited the physics of reduced light scattering in the near-infrared-II (1000-1700nm) window and pioneered NIR-II fluorescence imaging to increase tissue penetration depth in vivo. Video-rate NIR-II imaging can measure blood flow in single vessels in real time. The lab has developed novel NIR-II fluorescence agents, including CNTs, quantum dots, conjugated polymers and small organic dyes with promise for clinical translation.
Electrocatalysis and Batteries
The Dai group?s nanocarbon?inorganic particle hybrid materials have opened new directions in energy research. Advances include electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and water splitting catalysts including NiFe layered-double-hydroxide for oxygen evolution. Recently, the group also demonstrated an aluminum ion battery with graphite cathodes and ionic liquid electrolytes, a substantial breakthrough in battery science.
Associate Professor of Radiology (General Radiology) and, by courtesy, of Pediatrics (Hematology/Oncology)
Current Research and Scholarly Interests As a physician-scientist involved in the care of patients and investigating novel pediatric molecular imaging technologies, my goal is to develop innovative, safe, accurate and efficient imaging solutions to significant problems in disease diagnosis. My research team works on novel cellular imaging techniques for improved detection and characterization of malignant tumors in pediatric patients, for the diagnosis of immune system disorders and for in vivo evaluation of stem cell transplants.
Mark M. Davis
The Burt and Marion Avery Family Professor
Current Research and Scholarly Interests Molecular mechanisms of lymphocyte recognition and differentiation; Systems immunology and human immunology; vaccination and infection.
Ronald W. Davis
Professor of Biochemistry and of Genetics
Current Research and Scholarly Interests We are using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Human to conduct whole genome analysis projects. The yeast genome sequence has approximately 6,000 genes. We have made a set of haploid and diploid strains (21,000) containing a complete deletion of each gene. In order to facilitate whole genome analysis each deletion is molecularly tagged with a unique 20-mer DNA sequence. This sequence acts as a molecular bar code and makes it easy to identify the presence of each deletion.
John W. Day, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology, of Pediatrics (Genetics) and, by courtesy, of Pathology at the Stanford University Medical Center
Current Research and Scholarly Interests Our Neuromuscular Division coordinates a comprehensive effort to conquer peripheral nerve and muscle disorders, including the muscular dystrophies, motor neuron disorders, neuromuscular junction abnormalities, and peripheral neuropathies. With patients and families foremost in mind, we have had success defining and combating these diseases, with research focused on identifying genetic causes, developing novel treatment, and maximizing patient function by optimizing current management.
Vinicio de Jesus Perez MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine)
Current Research and Scholarly Interests My work is aimed at understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in the development and progression of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). I am interested in understanding the role that the BMP and Wnt pathways play in regulating functions of pulmonary endothelial and smooth muscle cells both in health and disease.
Luis de Lecea
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Major Laboratories and Clinical and Translational Neurosciences Incubator)
Current Research and Scholarly Interests My lab uses molecular, optogenetic, anatomical and behavioral methods to identify and manipulate the neuronal circuits underlying brain arousal, with particular attention to sleep and wakefulness transitions. We are also interested in the changes that occur in neuronal circuits in conditions of hyperarousal such as stress and drug addiction.
Cornelia L. Dekker, M.D.
Professor (Research) of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases)
Current Research and Scholarly Interests The Stanford-LPCH Vaccine Program provides an infrastructure for conducting clinical studies of vaccines in children and adults. We conduct immunology studies of seasonal influenza vaccines in twins, in a longitudinal cohort of young and elderly adults and studies of various vaccine candidates for NIH and industry. Additionally, we were a CDC Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment site for 10 years working on safety issues concerning licensed vaccines. | <urn:uuid:ce479f96-7fbd-4eca-a3bd-11e8767cbbd5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/psychiatry/browse?name=d&org=school-of-medicine/child-health-research-institute | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280364.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00029-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901084 | 1,693 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Once a winner
by Leo McKinstry
HarperSport £18.99 pp528
In 1966, Alf Ramsey became the first and probably the last English manager to win the World Cup. In 1970, in Mexico, he might well have won it again had not his resilient goalkeeper, Gordon Banks, been smitten by a stomach infection on the eve of the quarter-final against West Germany. His reward for all this from a resentful and vindictive Football Association was a pension of £25 a week, augmented in his latter years of isolation and encroaching Alzhei-mer’s by a state pension of £70. To survive, his widow was obliged to sell all his football memorabilia.
“You did it, Alf!” cried Nobby Stiles, the abrasive England right half, after the win at Wembley. “We’d have been nothing without you!” It does indeed seem unthinkable that, without Ramsey’s inspiration, organisation and dedication, England could ever have done what they did. His | <urn:uuid:7c9f62af-5191-4d84-868f-29585b1a1bf2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/sport/article197209.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280835.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00475-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978625 | 216 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Colleagues and Friends,
It is an honour to present to you the work of my Office over the course of 2014. The Annual Report that has been made available gives an overview of OHCHR's efforts to translate human rights norms into reality for people across the globe.
I come to you at what may prove to be a turning-point in our young and troubled century. There is real danger that in their reaction to extremist violence, opinion-leaders and decision-makers will lose their grasp of the deeper principles that underpin the system for global security which States built 70 years ago to ward off the horror of war.
The fight against terror is a struggle to uphold the values of democracy and human rights – not undermine them. My Office strongly supports efforts by States around the world to prevent and combat terrorism, and to ensure that the perpetrators of terrorism, as well as their financiers and suppliers of arms, are brought to justice. But counter-terrorist operations that are non-specific, disproportionate, brutal and inadequately supervised violate the very norms that we seek to defend. They also risk handing the terrorists a propaganda tool – thus making our societies neither free nor safe.
The Takfiri movement, root causes of extremism, counter-terror operations
The so-called ISIL movement gloatingly broadcasts its acts of horror in Syria, Iraq, and recently Libya, in a deliberately public theatre of cruelty. I am appalled by the massive suffering this group provokes: from the murders, torture, rape and sale of children that were highlighted a few weeks ago by the Committee for the Rights of the Child; to mass beheadings; burning people alive in cages; seemingly genocidal attacks on ethnic and religious groups; the obliteration of due process; torture; deprivation of income and every kind of service and resource; recruitment of children; the destruction of elements of the cultural heritage of humanity; and, not least, particularly vicious and comprehensive attacks on the rights of women and girls.
In Nigeria, bloodbaths by the Boko Haram group have included the use of young girls as remote-controlled bombs, in explosions that tear apart their bodies as well as those of many others. Like ISIL, Boko Haram abducts, rapes and enslaves women and girls, recruits children, loots resources, and metes out arbitrary and lethal punishments. The group has forced an estimated one million people to flee. Increasingly intense fighting across the Cameroon, Chad and Niger borders has led to deployment of neighbouring forces, and the African Union has formed a Regional Multi National Joint Task Force, or MNJTF. OHCHR has deployed staff to Cameroon to provide reliable information on the human rights situation in the Far North region. They will also contribute to the UN’s response, including support to the operationalization of the MNJTF, notably by mainstreaming respect for human rights, humanitarian and refugee law in the planning process.
I am bound to note that over the past year, observers have reported that the counter-insurgency effort has been marked by significant human rights violations by Nigeria's Security Forces and affiliated militia. They include arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and summary executions. The Special Rapporteurs on Summary Execution and Torture have noted allegations that following a March 2014 attack by Boko Haram on the Giwa military barracks, Nigerian Armed Forces allegedly executed over 600 Boko Haram suspects. If true, this would constitute a war crime. Despite the difficult situations that they face, it is essential that all counter-insurgency forces across the world uphold the rule of law, in accordance with international human rights obligations. This is not only an absolutely vital principle; it is an effective strategy. Communities which believe that their Government seeks to protect them are far more likely to cooperate with the authorities, and far less likely to incline towards rebel groups.
In Libya, the lawless actions of a multitude of heavily armed groups have generated an increasingly alarming crisis. My Office and UNSMIL report arbitrary killings, as well as attacks on protected civilian sites, abductions, torture and other forms of severe ill-treatment. Human rights defenders, journalists and some minority groups have been threatened and attacked. The turmoil in Libya is profoundly disturbing, and has evident cross-border impact. My Office will be presenting a detailed report to the Council during this session.
I am also increasingly concerned about the human rights impact of the crisis in Yemen. My Office in Yemen reports that violations of international human rights and humanitarian law have been committed by all parties, in complete impunity. They include killing civilians; attacks on and use of schools and hospitals; recruitment of children; arbitrary detention; and torture. Given the country's chronic under-development, including one of the world's highest rates of malnutrition, the crisis in Yemen will have profound repercussions for civilians. In addition, the volatile situation is generating regional – and even global – consequences, most evidently in terms of migration.
The decades-long conflict in Somaliagrinds on. Insecurity remains a challenge and my Office has been informed of numerous human rights abuses, including arbitrary executions, attacks on journalists and targeted killings of political figures. Military campaigns continue to cause civilian deaths, destruction and displacement, and I urge all parties to the conflict to conduct their military operations in line with international humanitarian law and human rights law.
To be truly effective, any response to extremist violence must be targeted, proportionate, and legal. Military campaigns, financial sanctions and attempts to staunch the inflow of weapons – such as the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty – may be part of the solution. But other actions are needed to stem the root causes that feed into these conflicts. We must acknowledge that large numbers of people do not join such extremist movements en masse because they have been suddenly and inexplicably hypnotised. Extremism – however repugnant – is nurtured by ideology, and by alienation fed by years of tyranny, corruption, repression, discrimination, deprivation and neglect of the legitimate rights of communities.
Thus the vengeful actions of the Syrian Government – whose campaign of violent repression against what were originally peaceful protestors began four long years ago – have now morphed into wave upon wave of pitiless assaults by all sides. The Security Council, deadlocked by vetoes or threats of vetoes, has been powerless to step in and alter this landscape of destruction and bloodshed. The Syrian conflict has killed well in excess of 200,000 people, and continues to kill more every day. It has involved the torture and ill-treatment of countless others; forced millions to flee; and deprived even more of the basic conditions for a decent life, including the rights to education, food, healthcare and housing.
Events in Syria have also had acute and dangerous impact on neighbouring countries. And this destruction is a major factor behind the rise of the takfiri mind-set.
In Iraq, dictatorship, sanctions, occupation and sectarian politics have now generated great violence and widespread contempt for human life. However, the new Government shows welcome signs of breaking with that pattern.
Many of the recruits that flock to ISIL from well over 50 countries are drawn, I believe, by messages of persecution and pity: filled with ill-defined rage at what they perceive as unfair treatment in their own context, they may genuinely feel they are signing up to protect the abused. One need not look far to find this propaganda – "come to Syria and give your life real meaning by offering it up in the service of suffering orphans."
The fact that the vast majority of ISIL's victims are fellow Muslims receives far less publicity. A real campaign of ideas to discredit ISIL will need to mobilise such facts. It should also seek to infuse fresh courage into the overwhelming majority of peaceful and tolerant Muslims around the world, to encourage them to take a stand and voice the essential nature of their faith. But above all, the struggle to combat extremist violence must tackle the visions of injustice that fuel it, as well as the experiences of humiliation, inequality and discrimination that may drive – though they do not excuse – the urge to destroy.
Following the recent terror attacks in Paris, I was impressed by the French Prime Minister's admission that, quote, "many ills gnaw at our society", including, as he said, "a geographic, social, ethnic apartheid...(and) daily discriminations." To undermine the forces of extremism in the long term, we need that kind of clarity of vision – to be followed up by hard and detailed work to redress these violations of human rights.
Terrorist attacks cannot destroy the values on which our societies are grounded – but laws and policies can. Measures that build what has been termed the "national security state" – such as arbitrary or prolonged detention; torture and ill-treatment; massive surveillance that contravenes the right to privacy; unfair trials; discriminatory policing; and the abusive use of legislation to curb legitimate rights to peaceful protest and to freedom of expression – are human rights violations. They generate legitimate resentment, harm social cohesion, and undermine the essential values of the international community.
In the United States, the Senate report on torture in the context of counter-terrorism operations is courageous and commendable, but profoundly disturbing. For a country that believes so strongly in human rights to have swiftly abandoned their fundamentals at a time of crisis is as astonishing as it is deplorable. And yet few other countries have had the courage to likewise publicly investigate and publicly admit to rights abuses resulting from counter-terror operations – and many should.
Under international law, the report’s recommendations must be followed through with real accountability. There is no prescription for torture, and torture cannot be amnestied. It should also lead to examination of the institutional and political causes that led the US to violate the absolute prohibition on torture, and measures to ensure this can never recur.
As the Senate report clearly demonstrates, the neglect of due process, use of torture and collective punishments that were permitted by US officials in the post-9/11 context did not make the world – or the US – any safer. On the contrary, they increased the threat of terrorism, by feeding into the grievances on which it thrives. The orange jumpsuits of Guantanamo are a recruitment tool for ISIL and other groups. As former President George W. Bush has conceded, Guantanamo became, I quote, “a propaganda tool for our enemies."
Public freedoms and freedom of expression
Terrorist attacks, particularly on the media, may have a chilling effect on freedom of expression; they are planned precisely to cause such fear. But the major obstacle to freedom of expression is the restrictions placed on it by Governments.
I am disturbed by a continuing trend of harsh restrictions on public freedoms by States across all regions. I refer to military crackdowns on demonstrations; harsh sentencing of human rights defenders, journalists and dissidents in politically motivated trials; brutal punishments for simple tweets; censorship; oppressive and illegitimate regulations of civil society movements; the use of new technologies to stifle human rights in the virtual space; and new security laws that are unjustly broad, endangering civil liberties and human rights.
And yet the great pillar of every resilient and participative society is freedom of expression. Freedom to formulate the ideas of equality led to the overthrow of colonialism, and has powered every movement against discrimination and injustice. To immunize against dictatorship or totalitarianism, to undo discrimination, to drive justice and accountability, we need freedom of expression – full and free and far-reaching. There is no good governance without free speech.
When powerful leaders feel threatened by a tweet, a blog, or a high-school student's speech, this speaks of profound underlying weakness. And when writers are abducted, jailed, whipped, or put to death; when journalists are assaulted, subjected to sexual violence, tortured and killed; when peaceful protestors are gunned down by thugs; when human rights lawyers, human rights defenders and land activists are arrested and jailed on spurious charges of sedition; when newspapers are attacked or shut down – such cases attack and undermine the foundations of stable governance.
I am appalled by the rising tide of attacks around the world that target people on account of their religious beliefs, including in their places of worship. We continue to observe horrific acts of racial and religious hatred, including in many countries in Western Europe and North America, as well as evidence of unfair policing, daily insults and exclusion, and barriers to opportunity. It should be obvious that Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and attacks that single out Christians or other groups because of their beliefs are identical manifestations of the same poisonous intolerance.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the oldest of our core human rights treaties. These five decades have seen great successes and numerous tragedies. Based on the Convention, the tireless efforts of Committee members over the years, and the strong voices of civil society, many States have strong legal protections in place against racial discrimination. This protection cannot be allowed to give way in the face of political pressure to fan the flames of hatred.
As the Convention clearly states, speech can be an incitement to action — in some cases, very violent and hateful action. My Office has been instrumental in a series of important efforts to foster more effective implementation of the Convention's prohibition on advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. I urge States to refer to the Rabat Plan of Action regarding prohibited forms of speech, and to implement Resolution 16/18 in order to combat intolerance, stigmatization, and discrimination, incitement to violence, and violence against persons based on religion or belief.
Countries of concern in the context of a shrinking democratic space
It is also vital that national legislation give sufficient space, encouragement and protection to human rights defenders, the media, alternative political ideas and civil society groups. Civil society movements, with human rights at the core of their missions, not only do profoundly empowering work: they also expose difficulties that should be addressed, in every healthy society.
I am encouraged to note that in Tunisia, we are seeing steady progress on anumber of key fronts. We have witnessed fair elections and peaceful transitions in power. Differences are mostlybeing resolved through negotiations rather than through the resort to violence, and important steps are being taken to enhance human rights protections and entrench the rule of law. The country is also embarking on a vital process to come to terms with the legacy of past abuses and corruption. More needs to be done to nurture the people’s confidence that there will be no slipping back to the old ways. My office in Tunis is working closely with all sectors and stakeholders to help ensure that mechanisms are in place to prevent andprotect against human rights violations, and to ensure past victims will obtain justice.
I am also optimistic that 2015 will be a decisive year for the future of peace in Colombia. After five decades of a devastating civil war, we trust that the peace dialogue between the government and the FARC will succeed. An unprecedented 60 victims have given testimony at the negotiating table in Havana, and I welcome this inclusion of their needs and perspectives in this process.
However, in Egypt there has been a surge in arrests for “protesting without a legal permit”, and trials of dozens of political and human rights activists. Judges have on several occasions sentenced over 100 people at a time to death or life imprisonment, in processes that may violate the right to fair trial and due process. Egypt clearly faces the threat of violent extremism, particularly in the Sinai where dozens of Egyptian soldiers and civilians have been killed. But restriction of people's right to freedom of expression and association is deeply worrisome, and it is likely to prove counter-productive. I urge the Government to recognize that the way forward, to ensure peace, stability and prosperity for all Egyptians, is through a genuine dialogue with all national stakeholders. Participation in peaceful protest, or criticism of the Government, should not be grounds for detention or prosecution. I am glad to say that we hope to make progress on these points, since in close consultation with the Government of Egypt, OHCHR has developed a programme of training, capacity building and practical assistance.
In Thailand, which was once a force for democracy in the ASEAN context,the military authorities continue to silence opposition under martial law. More than 1,000 people have been summoned or detained since the May 2014 coup, and many of them brought before military courts. The legal prohibition on criticism of the monarchy has been increasingly deployed. At a time when a new constitution is being drafted, freedom of expression is needed to ensure genuine debate.
In The Russian Federation, killings of opposition leaders and human rights defenders by unknown assailants are a source of grave concern. Against a pattern of increasing challenges facing civil society, I urge the Government to ensure that non-governmental organizations, human rights defenders, and the media have the space and protection they need to be able to carry out their important functions, in line with international human rights standards. There are also worrying developments - especially human rights violations affecting Crimean Tatars - in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, whose status is prescribed by UN General Assembly resolution 68/262 on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
I remain very concerned at the deteriorating human rights situation in Venezuela, particularly the government’s harsh responses to criticism and to peaceful expressions of dissent. The use of lethal force against demonstrators is deeply disturbing. We have also received repeated reports of intimidation and public smear campaigns, including by high-ranking government officials, of human rights defenders. I am particularly concerned at the continued detention of opposition leaders and demonstrators, often for prolonged periods.
In Myanmar, after recent years of reform, there are signs of a return to the suppression of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. A rising tide of extreme nationalist and religious invective is also prompting regressive measures against women and minorities, such as the Rohingya. Conflict between armed groups and the military in the north and northeast of the country has had significant negative impact on the civilian population.
In Turkey, recent amendments related to the security laws could, if adopted, have detrimental effect on human rights and freedoms. I urge the Government to take into consideration the views of civil society; to bring the laws regulating use of force by law enforcement officers in line with international standards; and to ensure that freedom of expression online and offline is legally protected. I also encourage the authorities to finalize the important initiative to establish an independent oversight body for allegations of human rights violations by police.
Concerns persist regarding the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, including with regard to the situation of human rights defenders, application of the death penalty, and use of corporal punishment. A group of this Council’s independent experts has called on Saudi Arabia to bring its judicial system in compliance with international standards, and I second that call – noting also that there is ample evidence to show that the death penalty has no impact whatsoever in reducing crime.
I also sharply regret renewed use of the death penalty in Indonesia, Jordan and Pakistan – countries that had previously observed a moratorium – and by the continued high rates of judicial executions in China, Iran, Iraq and the United States.
In both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, I am disturbed by restrictions on the media, freedoms of association and assembly, and on the democratic space in the context of forthcoming elections. In recent months, the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the DRC has reported that political opponents and civil society activists have been targeted by security and defence forces, and several demonstrations have been violently repressed, including by use of lethal force in several parts of the country, with impunity. The recent armed incursioninto the north west of Burundi,resulting in a large loss of life, is also of great concern as the country prepares itself for national elections.
I am especially pained to report that forthcoming elections in Tanzania, Burundi and possibly elsewhere have generated acute fear for the physical security of people with albinism. The trade in their body parts for the purposes of rituals that purport to bring good fortune is simply shocking, and all Governments concerned must take strong action to protect the people at risk.
The overall human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory will be the subject of a separate and full discussion during this Council session. Here I will highlight only issues regarding freedom of expression and other public freedoms, which have deteriorated significantly during the reporting period. Use of force by Israeli Security Forces during demonstrations in East Jerusalem, and also by Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, resulted in significant civilian casualties. Members of political opposition groups have also been frequently arrested and detained by Palestinian security forces in the West Bank and Gaza, raising concerns that this is aimed at stifling opposition. The authorities in Gaza have cracked down on political and social activists, and freedom of expression. OHCHR has continued to document cases of arbitrary arrests and detention of journalists and human rights defenders for participating in public events.
In Hungary, recent actions against civil society organizations, including those working on human rights issues, are the latest in a disturbing series of curbs on public freedoms. We have also observed restrictive media laws and challenges to the independence of the judiciary. I urge the Government to ensure that the critical voices of civil society organizations – such as those working on the rights of minorities – are encouraged.
A recent wave of assaults on opposition figures and NGO activists in Armenia is also very worrisome. In Azerbaijan, the work of civil society and human rights activists is impeded in many ways, with legislation precluding NGOs from receiving domestic grants, let alone foreign, for their legitimate activities.
In China, the rapid pace of development and on-going reforms have given rise to an increasingly vibrant society. But tolerance for freedom of expression remains arbitrary, and human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and other activists frequently face sanctions, despite the positive contribution they can make to transparency and accountability in the country.
In Viet Nam, independent writers, bloggers and human rights activists have faced harassment by the police and authorities; arrest; detention in harsh conditions; and criminal convictions -- in some cases with severe sentences, under vaguely defined crimes such as “disseminating materials deemed to oppose the government”, or “promoting reactionary ideas”. The Government restricts independent media, and closely controls publications, radio and TV stations, as well as restricting access to the Internet.
In Bangladesh, the appalling attack on a freethinking blogger and his wife last week is the latest shock in an escalating atmosphere of political violence. At least 80 people have been killed, including several children, in arson attacks and clashes between political parties and security forces. Civil society and freedom of speech is also under attack, not only by extremists but also due to heavy-handed official responses. I join the Secretary-General in appealing to all political leaders to de-escalate the violence, find paths of political dialogue and ensure respect for human rights.
Other country situations of concern
In Ukraine, any further escalation of violence may prove catastrophic for the human rights of 5.2 million people who live in the eastern conflict zone. This crisis is deeply alarming for all those who had assumed that Europe had become the one continent where war would no longer occur. With its rapid and extensive deployment, and the painstaking monitoring manifest in its nine public reports to date, the work of OHCHR's Ukraine Monitoring Mission has been exemplary, and we strongly hope that all parties will abide by the current cease-fire and all the provisions of the Minsk Agreements. In its second year of operations, our mission will also work on capacity building and technical cooperation, in addition to monitoring. It will also work with UNHCR regarding protection concerns, as part of the UN humanitarian emergency response.
In South Sudan, the risk of outright ethnic war is ever-present. Because of the conflict, and massive associated displacement, famine now stalks the land. UNICEF reports at least 229,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, a condition likely to cause permanent damage – if, indeed, they live. Countless violations of human rights have been recorded, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and sexual violence, and people have clearly been targeted purely because of their ethnicity. There has also been a marked failure by both Government and opposition forces to protect civilians and to hold perpetrators accountable. The UN continues to protect over 100,000 civilians in its Protection of Civilian sites. A final peace agreement was scheduled to be signed this week, but recent signs have not been hopeful. Last month, Assistant Secretary-General Ivan Simonovic, visited the country and reiterated a strong message of accountability to political and military leaders.
Fighting and violence in the Central African Republic continues to generate great suffering, particularly among minorities and those displaced. With the assistance of the international community, the transitional authorities should pursue efforts to overcome sectarian and ethnic divisions. Ensuring accountability for gross human rights violations remains a key priority, and it will be critical to provide adequate funding for the establishment and operations of the Special Criminal Court to deal with serious violations of international law.
The situation is also dire in Sudan, in Darfur. The plight of civilian populations is especially troubling, with over 400,000 people displaced in 2014 alone. Human rights violations are extensive, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, sexual violence and targeted attacks against civilians by all parties to the conflict. Regarding the reports of a mass rape in the town of Thabit, I am deeply concerned that the Government has refused to grant UNAMID access, to conduct a full-scale human rights investigation.
Mexico is a stark example of the way unchecked criminal violence can threaten hard-won democratic gains. I have repeatedly expressed my concern over generalised violence in parts of Central America and in Mexico, and alleged links between organised crime, security forces and local and central authorities. The disappearance of 43 students in Iguala is far from an isolated case, but it challenges the authorities to take decisive action to end impunity and prevent such crimes in the future.
This session will be an opportunity to reflect on the follow up to the Council’s efforts with respect to human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The Commission of Inquiry report that was presented to the Council one year ago has galvanised international attention and action, including a briefing of the Security Council on this issue in December. There is now unprecedented determination among Member States to demand improvements, and accountability for those responsible. At the same time, we welcome the early signs of responsiveness from the DPRK to engage more fully with the international human rights system. I am pleased to report that the field based structure envisioned by the Human Rights Council in its last resolution will shortly be opened in Seoul, and will provide a new hub for information-gathering, documentation, technical assistance and outreach on this issue.
At this session, Member States were also due to consider my report on the implementation of Human Rights Council resolution 25/1 on accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, including the findings of the comprehensive investigation mandated by the Council. After serious reflection, and acting upon the suggestion of the investigation's group of experts, I recommended that the presentation of this report be deferred until the 30th session of the Human Rights Council in September. This was based on my assessment of the changing context in Sri Lanka, the broad signals of cooperation I have received from the Government, and the possibility that new information will become available for the report.
The Government has agreed to invite the Special Rapporteur on Truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence, and the Working Group on enforced and involuntary disappearances, as well as myself, to visit Sri Lanka before the September session. During this period, OHCHR staff also plan to engage on the ground with all stakeholders to advance transitional justice issues. This is a singular opportunity for the Government to lay the foundations in justice for lasting peace and reconciliation. I urge the authorities to consult deeply with the people, particularly victims, in order to design mechanisms that will work and not repeat the failures of the past.
On many vital issues, only cooperation can establish real solutions, and 2015 will be a particularly crucial year for international partnership. As the Secretary-General has said, "We are the first generation that can end poverty. We are also the last generation that can slow global warming before it is too late."
To solve poverty, it is vital that we acknowledge its causes, which centre on discrimination and power. People are poor because they are deprived of opportunities and resources; because they are subject to the whims of the powerful; because public resources are confiscated by corruption and poor governance; and because their voices are suppressed and denied.
Economic and social rights build strong societies. They are not an optional luxury for times of peace; they are rights in the full meaning of the word, and a tool for building peace and powering true development. Societies that are participatory can benefit from the skills of all – including girls, women, and minorities and castes that previously suffered discrimination. And when adequate services are provided, such as decent health, education and housing, there is massive economic benefit to all, and a dividend in stable peace.
Conversely, when international human rights obligations to respect, protect and fulfil these rights are deferred or breached, the entire economy, and society, is weakened.
The Ebola epidemic underscores an essential truth that is often overlooked, which is that human rights are extremely practical tools for preventing and combating major disease-related crises. If the right to adequate health had been honoured, and health policies conceived with the involvement of – and accountable to – local communities, it would likely have been easier to contain the outbreak. The result would have been fewer deaths, fewer orphans, and less damage across every kind of economic and social terrain.
After Ebola, surely we all must acknowledge that the provision of adequate services for all is not only necessary and just – it is far cheaper than solving the disasters that are generated by deprivation. The world simply cannot afford development that ignores fundamental rights such as the right to health. We also need to learn long-term lessons, putting people and their rights at the centre of policies regarding food, housing, health, education and all other policies.
The Secretary-General’s synthesis report on the Sustainable Development Goals emphasises the importance of human rights, participation and inclusion, both as tools to drive sustainable development, and as benchmarks for its success. The report specifically emphasises that access to information, and freedom of expression, assembly, and association, are vital to development. Over the course of 2014, OHCHR continued to step up its work to assist in strengthening the Sustainable Development Goals with forceful human rights principles, including equality, access to decent services, inclusion, and a strengthened global partnership. There has been tremendous progress in development across a range of topics, and we have real hope for further important advances with the new agenda.
The spectre of comprehensive and permanent climate change is not only an assault on our common ecosystem: it violates our human rights. Unchecked, climate change could undercut the rights to health, to food, to water and sanitation, to adequate housing, and –for the people of small island States and coastal communities – even the right to self-determination. And it will only be solved if States adopt real and cooperative solutions. I am pleased to note that tomorrow, the Council will have the opportunity to hear directly from the President of Kiribati and the Prime Minister of Tuvaluon this critical issue.
Migration is another issue that cries out for more thoughtful and coordinated action between States. The notion of ghost ships drifting on auto-pilot towards the coasts of Europe in the hopes that coast-guards will rescue the people on board – and the hideous sight of men and women tearing their flesh on barbed-wire fences in a desperate, and sometimes lethal, attempt to clamber into Western Europe and find a better, more peaceful life: such scenes are simply intolerable.
And they are not restricted to Europe. In the Americas, hundreds of thousands of people are forced to flee the uncontrolled violence of criminal gangs, and may then be preyed upon by criminal gangs during their attempted journey. And in the Indian Ocean, irregular migrants and asylum seekers attempting to reach Australia by boat are being intercepted and diverted to detention and resettlement in countries that are far less equipped to receive them. It is truly urgent that we seek far more thoughtful, and better-coordinated, responses to migration: responses that are humane, and which fully acknowledge the human rights of every individual involved at all points of origin, transit and destination.
It is my hope that the International Decade for People of African Descent will inspire all of us to grasp the deep harm that is done by discrimination. I have personally been inspired by many thinkers of African descent, and the racism, xenophobia, and deprivation that so many continue to endure, in every region, is an appalling affront to the human rights we stand for.
I want also to highlight the pressing need for women to participate in all discussions of strategic responses to extremist violence, to discrimination, and to deprivation of all kinds. Part of our response to the brutalities of extremist groups must be a repeal of discriminatory legislation, and implementation of inclusive and non-discriminatory policies. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Programme of Action, and we can seize this opportunity to go beyond lip-service to gender equality – genuinely challenging, and dismantling, the power structures and dynamics which perpetuate discrimination against women.
It is the people who sustain government, create prosperity, heal and educate others and pay for governmental and other services with their labour. It is their struggles that have created and sustain States. Governments exist to serve the people – not the other way round.
Governments that protect human rights, combat discrimination and deprivation, and which are accountable to their people are more prosperous and more secure than those which stifle rights, hamper opportunities, and repress freedoms. When people’s rights are respected – when they are accorded dignity, have opportunities to express their skills and are given a fair share of resources – they form resilient societies. When they are wronged, their rights betrayed, there is a constant threat of turmoil. Respect for the human rights of the people is not destabilizing; but driving legitimate opposition underground is.
Reorganisation of OHCHR
I would like to turn now, for a few moments, to our new initiative on change management, which I spoke of on Monday. This initiative is based on the outcomes of the functional review. It will make us more effective in protecting and promoting human rights, and in discharging our mandates as called for by relevant organs and sub-organs of the UN. It will also generate savings, which we will be able to re-invest in core activities; and it will increase possibilities for mobility or career advancement for our staff. My staff has been briefed on this initiative, and the Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General have been informed and are both supportive.
The functional review was a comprehensive exercise led by external experts. It took into account a long series of internal discussions and external reviews, extensive consultations and analysis involving a large number of staff. And it identified a pressing need for organizational change.
Over the last few years, especially, the demand placed on our field presences has grown considerably. The 2014 crises in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Ukraine, among others – as well as the conduct of new human rights investigations or fact-finding missions in previous or on-going crises – have given new weight to the challenges before us. OHCHR also faces sharply increasing requests from countries for technical assistance. All of this means that OHCHR needs to devolve greater resources from headquarters to the field – building on the decision taken ten years ago to emphasize field-work.
Likewise, human rights are being given increasing attention by the UN leadership and members: this is reflected in the Secretary-General’s Human Rights Up Front initiative, the post 2015 development agenda, and increasing engagement by OHCHR with the Security Council and others. It requires a commensurate strengthening of our New York office.
Building on the functional review, I have decided to reshape OHCHR’s structure. We will shift some resources closer to the countries that we aim to assist and the people whose rights we are mandated to protect. We will also strengthen our presence in New York. And we will maintain a critical mass in Geneva, to continue to service the needs of the Council and other mechanisms.
Subject to the agreement of the intended host countries, we will create seven new regional hubs, located in cities where the UN presence is already strong, or where regional organizations, including human rights organizations, are headquartered. Our stronger New York presence will reflect our increasing involvement in discussions on peace and security, the right to development and rule of law.
At OHCHR Headquarters in Geneva, we will flatten the organisational structure, streamline reporting lines and delegate authority to the lowest possible level. I intend to foster a culture of innovation, to support creative and innovative responses to the immensely complex human rights issues we face. I plan to establish three technical divisions in Geneva, instead of the previous four: the new Mechanisms Engagement Division; the Integrated Country Engagement Division; and the Research, Policy, Methodologies and Special Procedures Division.
We are preparing a detailed implementation plan which will take into account the steps I can undertake under my authority, and the steps which will require approval from the General Assembly. At the end of March, I will review the implementation plan with senior staff, to discuss any further adjustments needed. We will consider how best to review our component of the UN Strategic Framework, recognizing that this is a rearrangement of resources rather than a strategic change in policy or programmatic terms.
Implementing this change process will demonstrate our ability to adapt to increasing expectations and responsibilities. It will also show the continued relevance of human rights mechanisms and our country-level engagement. And finally, it will allow us to become better able to deliver effectively and efficiently on our mandate. I am certain that with your support – the support of the Member States – we will be successful.
In the past few days, I have had the privilege of meeting heads of delegations from more than sixty countries, and these bilaterals have been richly informative. However, Member States had requested that I circulate my statement 48 hours ahead of delivery, and thus it may not reflect some of the observations conveyed to me during these meetings. I recommend, Mr. President, that we consider a different format in future, so that the High Commissioner’s report to this interactive session can benefit from the information that has arisen during bilateral meetings in the High Level Segment, as well as from information conveyed by my Office, civil society and National Human Rights Institutions.
It is my strong belief that human rights are the only viable way to build safe and harmonious societies. As we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the United Nations Charter, I trust you will agree that the continued strength and independence of OHCHR, and our work to assist States to promote human rights, is vital to the interest of the people of our world. | <urn:uuid:53184a73-b042-4d09-ba83-4d3e8bf653b8> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15642&LangID=E | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280504.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00143-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955764 | 7,963 | 1.710938 | 2 |
In the period after the Second World War the teashops J.Lyons & Co. began a programme of maintenance. Materials were in short supply and so they decided to concentrate on improving the cosmetic appearance of their shops by commissioning lithographs. Young British artists including Ardizzone, Duncan Grant, John Nash and L.S. Lowry were commissioned for the first series of lithographs which were produced in 1947. The present work is the original for Picture 1 in series one, which totalled sixteen works in all. Many of the lithographs were designed to plate by the artists themselves and each artist received a fee of £50-100 depending on their reputation and whether an original was used or auto-lithographed. The print run for the series was 1,500 and the prints were initially hung in only 30 tea shops in London. In a short time they generated so much interest that they were eventually hung in all Lyon's teashops and put on sale to the public. Two more series were commissioned in 1951 and 1955 in response to their popularity and on completion of the entire project there was an exhibition of the forty posters at the Tea Centre, London, which was opened by Sir Kenneth Clarke. When the teashops closed from 1960-70 the lithographs that had been on display were dispersed. | <urn:uuid:836a5927-ce11-4d63-9b60-965a654e7132> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Drawings-Watercolors/edward-jeffrey-irving-ardizzone-the-railway-station-5168109-details.aspx?intObjectID=5168109 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279915.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00284-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992103 | 264 | 1.898438 | 2 |
In Presidential Statement, Security Council Hails Successes of Scaled-up Ebola Response, Calls for Stronger Coordination to Identify Gaps, Trace Contacts
While reiterating grave concern about the unprecedented extent of the Ebola outbreak in Africa, the Security Council today noted the international community’s “considerable” efforts to scale up its coordinated response, which had led to important progress on the ground.
Through a statement presented by Julie Bishop, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia, which holds the November presidency, the Council praised the crucial contributions of regional States that had led the ground response to Ebola and continued to address the wider political, security, socioeconomic and humanitarian impacts of the outbreak.
“Since we last met much has happened. The response capacities available to national and local authorities have expanded substantially,” David Nabarro, Special Envoy of the Secretary‑General on Ebola, said in a meeting that also heard videoconference briefings by Anthony Banbury, the Secretary‑General’s Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER); and Thomas Mauget, the Head of the French Red Cross in Guinea, from Accra and Conakry respectively.
“But if we take our eye off the ball, case numbers will climb again — and we all count the cost,” Mr. Nabarro added.
Through the statement, the Council underscored the continued need for robust contact tracing — finding everyone who comes into direct contact with someone infected by Ebola — as well as social mobilization and community level engagement, especially outside of major urban areas in the most affected countries. It stressed the need for UNMEER to strengthen its coordination with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as with partners, such as the Mano River Union, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), expressing concern about the recent reported Ebola infections in Mali.
Further, it was critical, the Council stated, to put in place medical evacuation capacities, as well as treatment and transport provisions to facilitate the immediate and unhindered deployment of health and humanitarian workers.
The 15-member body urged all States, bilateral and multilateral partners to accelerate the provision of resources and financial assistance, as well as mobile laboratories, field hospitals, trained clinical personnel and services in Ebola treatment units and isolation units, therapies, vaccines and diagnostics to treat patients; and personal protective equipment for first-line responders.
The “dynamic” needs on the ground required a “flexible” international response, the Council stated, strongly urging States, airlines and shipping companies to maintain trade and transport links with the most affected countries.
In his briefing, Mr. Nabarro noted that while the total number of cases continued to rise, the overall rate of increase had begun to slow. At the same time, transmission was still “intense and rapid” in many locations, and the outbreak had spread geographically. There were hotspots in northern Guinea and western Sierra Leone, with a new chain of transmission in Mali. “This outbreak will not be over until the last case is identified, isolated and under treatment,” he said.
He gave primary credit for progress to the communities that had mobilized to change practices to safely bury the dead, care for the sick, limit physical contact and improve hygiene. Medical personnel skilled in dealing with the illness were also critical, as was addressing the socioeconomic factors.
The initial short-term target for the Secretary‑General’s Multi-Partner Trust Fund, $100 million, had been met and disbursed to the World Food Programme (WFP) for critical programmes, he said, but there was a $700 million shortfall to meet all estimated needs through March 2015, along with funding of similar magnitude for recovery efforts. Skilled health professionals were also urgently needed. “The international community must maintain its urgent response,” he said.
Mr. Banbury concurred that while the worst-case scenarios had not come true, the crisis was still serious. Fifty-five per cent of cases were being isolated. However, the countries of West Africa still did not have the capability to respond quickly to outbreaks in new areas. It was a very complex emergency. Beyond the death and infection tolls, which were probably being under-reported, the disease had had a terrible effect on livelihoods; the Liberian economy was now expected to shrink by 4 per cent. More than two million people were being kept out of school and half of the workforce in affected countries had lost their jobs. Government revenues had decreased while needs had soared.
He said infrastructure and tools to combat the crisis did not exist, as the spread of the disease had been unprecedented. UNMEER’s first 30 days had focused on getting the necessary personnel and resources on the ground simultaneously. The Mission was already operational in the three most-affected countries, and deploying more staff into remote areas where the disease could spread. Today, in consultation with the national authorities, it had been asked to take rapid and decisive action to stem the outbreak in Mali. Overall, UNMEER had a 30-60-90-day plan to achieve its objectives, including logistics, information management and human resource mobilization at all levels.
While current strategies were working with a crisis management structure in each country, he said, eradicating the epidemic required an enormous increase in resources. The amount of contact tracers and mobility in hard-to-reach or more widespread places would be significant. “There is a long battle ahead of us,” he said. He paid tribute to Médicins Sans Frontièrs and to communities beset by the epidemic for their efforts, but warned that “as long as Ebola remains in one country, it threatened all countries.”
Mr. Mauget said that the first Red Cross treatment centre had already opened in Guinea, providing hope for the ill, but the country still had a critical need for supplies, medical staff and capabilities, with a resurgence of Ebola infecting new areas. He paid tribute to Guinean Red Cross members who had been exposing themselves morally and physically, treating people and accompanying bodies to ensure safe burial. Outreach was also critical to win the hearts and minds of the local population, much of which remained suspicious of counter-Ebola teams. Skills in areas such as water, sanitation engineering and transport of medical resources were also in short supply. He welcomed international support to those battling Ebola on the front lines, but agreed with other briefers that such support must be intensified.
Representatives of affected countries — Guinea, Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone — also addressed the Council, expressing gratitude to those involved in executing a coordinated global response to Ebola. While they highlighted ways international efforts were “catching up” to the fast pace of the disease, they urged a vigilant and sustained focus on aggressive interventions to stop its spread.
Also speaking today were the representatives of United States, China, Chad, France, Nigeria, Lithuania, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Jordan, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Republic of Korea, Chile and Argentina.
The meeting began at 3:10 p.m. and ended at 6:40 p.m.
Council President JULIE BISHOP, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia, said rising food prices, closed schools and lost livelihoods were just some of the consequences of the Ebola outbreak. The Council had rightly determined that the crisis threatened international peace and security. Ebola had infected more than 15,000 people and, as women had been exposed at higher rates than men, their needs must be prioritized in the response. “Complacency is our worst enemy,” she said, noting that while progress had been seen towards the 70 per cent targets for isolation, treatment and safe burial by 1 December, gains could easily be reversed. The response must adapt to the evolving nature of the outbreak, while the secondary impacts of the crisis — including the breakdown of national health-care systems — must be addressed. Australia would fund and staff 100 beds for treatment in Sierra Leone, and provide technical personnel for non-front-line roles, bringing its total commitment to fighting Ebola to $42 million.
SAMANTHA POWER (United States) cited efforts to ensure that 70 per cent of burials were conducted in a safe manner within 60 days, and said that in Sierra Leone’s capital, safe burials had jumped from 30 per cent to 98 per cent in less than a week. On 4 November, 33 of 53 of the country’s affected districts could transport samples to a lab for testing; by 17 November, all 53 districts had that ability. Yet, it would be “reckless” to think the disease had been contained. Last week, 533 new cases were confirmed in Sierra Leone, the highest weekly tally since the outbreak began, and the disease had emerged in Mali. The response must be “fluid, nimble and regional”. UNMEER must better target the work of United Nations agencies and others to maximize the effectiveness of the response. Donors must tailor interventions to “the needs of the moment”, while more countries must send health-care workers to help national responders. Governments should stop hampering volunteers from becoming involved. Health-care workers from affected countries must be better protected and more must be invested in helping neighbouring countries prevent outbreaks. “Ebola punishes us for every mistake,” she said.
LIU JIEYI (China) welcomed the results of the international Ebola strategy but noted that the disease had not yet been contained. That meant the international community should work harder to fight the outbreak, consolidating achievements, further strengthening monitoring and prevention, and gathering necessary data to advance needed science. He called on all partners to honour their commitments of assistance to fight the outbreak and make plans to help the affected countries strengthen their health systems. His country had provided four batches of emergency assistance representing record totals of outlay, with a treatment centre in Liberia staffed with health-care workers. More staff was teaching and providing treatment in varied locations, and a range of resources was being provided. Chinese companies in the region had also contributed in cash and kind.
GOMBO TCHOULI (Chad), noting encouraging signs in the fight against Ebola as well as the continuing international threat of the epidemic, saluted the resilience of affected countries as well as the efforts of those involved, particularly those who gave their lives. He called on the media to pay a positive role in raising awareness but not spreading panic. Stigmatization must be avoided and the countries affected should not be isolated. He also called on the international community to further strengthen their response to the disease.
FRANÇOIS DELATTRE (France) said that progress had been significant but not sufficient to contain the disease, and conveyed condolences to those who had lost their lives. Top officials of his country were travelling to the affected country to pledge their commitment and visit treatment centres. France was building a centre in Conakry, Guinea to treat all those affected, and had placed evacuation capacity at the disposal of all treatment workers. More treatment units were being prepared, training was stepped up and coordination with the United Nations system was being boosted. Work was being done in Mali as well. Efforts were being made to isolate the virus but not the countries. He pledged that his country would continue to work side by side with the countries of the region through the post-Ebola period.
USMAN SARKI (Nigeria) said it was important to heed the messages of today’s briefers and continue to intensify the effort to eradicate the Ebola virus. It was important to acknowledge the efforts of subregional and regional organizations, as well as non-governmental organizations working on the front lines. Nigeria had committed both financial resources and personnel to the effort, and had been able to eradicate the outbreak in its territory, demonstrating that the fight against Ebola could indeed be won. It would nevertheless remain vigilant. Noting the vulnerabilities of the post-conflict countries affected, he called for sustained and targeted assistance rather than isolation, supporting the Secretary‑General’s recommendations in that light. His country would not relent in its efforts until the disease was eradicated in his subregion.
NIDA JAKUBONĖ (Lithuania), paying tribute to those on the front lines fighting Ebola and extending sympathy to victims and their families, said that efficient operational coordination among key actors at the country level should be further strengthened. Bolstering response, prevention and awareness-raising capabilities was also a priority. Her country had contributed to recovery efforts through WFP and was closely coordinating responses with its European Union partners. Advanced consideration for the post-Ebola phase was needed, focusing on comprehensive strategies to build the health-care systems of the affected countries and strengthen societal resilience. She pledged her country’s readiness to engage with its partners on such efforts.
SYLVIE LUCAS (Luxembourg) expressed hope that the Council and General Assembly would continue to give the necessary support to fighting Ebola in West Africa, stressing that, while the latest World Health Organization (WHO) report had shown a decrease in cases in Liberia, international efforts must be intensified. In December, two Luxembourg air ambulances would be available to evacuate Ebola patients. Her country had arranged such transport, allowing humanitarian aid to reach Conakry, Freetown and Monrovia. Luxembourg’s total contribution to the Ebola fight was more than $2 billion. Noting the importance of preventing, isolating and treating all Ebola cases as soon as possible, she said Luxembourg supported a regional Red Cross programme that would help Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Mali, Niger and Senegal. The international community must prepare for a post-Ebola scenario. Luxembourg was working with the Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone configurations of the Peacebuilding Commission.
PETER WILSON (United Kingdom) said more must be done to extinguish the Ebola crisis and lay the foundations for tomorrow, noting that his Government had committed $350 million to combat the disease, as well as 820 military personnel to support national efforts in Sierra Leone. It also had helped to deliver safe burial work, training more than 800 workers per week. It was working to deliver 200 community health-care centres across Sierra Leone, rolling out a command and control model across districts. He asked partners to explore whether they could provide health workers for staffing centres being built in Sierra Leone, as well as lab technicians and biomedical scientists to help United Kingdom staff run the labs. He urged a focus on coordinating the United Nations system; harnessing the global supply chain; rapidly mobilizing and coordinating resources; communicating with all stakeholders; and focusing on all the most-affected countries, through preparedness and contingency planning. The number of health workers in the affected countries must be scaled up, especially in local district.
DINA KAWAR (Jordan) said Ebola threatened international peace and security, noting that it would inflict $32.6 billion in damages by 2015 in the three most affected countries, as well as carry long-term humanitarian and social impacts. Despite that the infection rate had stabilized, efforts must continue to ensure Ebola did not spread to neighbouring States. She called on all national, regional and international actors, including UNMEER, to identify gaps in the response, and to efficiently provide basic services. Efforts by the Mano River Union, African Union, ECOWAS and other partners must be streamlined. Reaffirming the importance of preventive measures, she urged States to develop work plans and mechanisms to strengthen the response at all levels. National leadership in affected countries was essential. Among other things, the international community must continue providing field hospitals, clinical services, mobile labs and diagnostic methods.
PETR V. ILIICHEV (Russian Federation), while agreeing that destabilization could result from the Ebola epidemic in the countries affected, maintained that the lead role in the effort should be taken by the United Nations specialized agencies and the Assembly. Before the disease had been declared a threat to international peace and security, his country had begun assisting the countries most affected by the scourge. He described some of Russian Federation’s contributions, including hospital building, scientific research on treatments and sanitation standards. His country would continue to work with international partners to fight the epidemic and prevent deterioration of conditions in affected countries.
OLIVIER NDUHUNGIREHE (Rwanda) welcomed the decrease in the rate of transmission of Ebola, but agreed with the briefers on the continued peril of the situation and thanked all countries that had contributed to fighting the disease. He fully supported the African Union mission for that purpose, welcoming in particular its communications strategy. He hoped that the international community would keep its efforts strong to contain the disease and to help the countries recover from the crisis, in cooperation with the Peacebuilding Commission and all partners.
PAIK JI-AH (Republic of Korea), paying tribute to those who were on the front lines fighting Ebola, said it was important that all parties align their efforts with UNMEER and called for immediate measures to ensure food security in the affected countries as well as to ensure the safety of health workers. Community-level approaches, mitigating fear and building trust, were essential. While there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel in Liberia, all must remain vigilant, she stated, noting her country’s contributions in the effort and pledging its commitment until the disease was eradicated.
IGNACIO LLANOS (Chile), reiterating solidarity with the affected countries and victims of Ebola, said that the situation still presented a threat to international peace and security. He thanked those who were fighting the epidemic, including the Cuban health workers deployed in the region. Successful experiences of countries in the region could be helpful to keep new outbreaks in such countries as Mali from spreading. His country was working with regional organizations and United Nations agencies to fight the epidemic. Long-term assistance for recovery of the affected countries must be taken into account in the renewal of mandates of peacekeeping operations in the region. It was important, finally, that individuals and countries suffering from the disease were not stigmatized.
MARÍA CRISTINA PERCEVAL (Argentina) said it was indispensable to cooperate in different ways to prevent the transmission of Ebola throughout the region — and the world, cautioning against any efforts to stop trade, close borders or cancel transport services. There was no alternative to cooperation. Indeed, there were uncertainties, including in macroeconomic and financial projections. The World Bank said damages could reach $4 billion by year-end, while others had estimated $36 billion. The response must be coordinated and cooperative. Ebola had impacted agricultural production, which in turn, had exacerbated food insecurity. Lauding efforts by the affected countries to emerge from poverty and exclusion, as well as those working to halt the Ebola scourge, she urged bearing in mind those who were infected, who could easily also fall victim to technocracy. Noting the important role of the media in that regard, she said: “This is how we overcome prejudice, by demonstrating we are not indifferent”, including to those working in United Nations field missions.
MAMADI TOURÉ (Guinea), expressing deep condolences to the family of Marcel Rudasingwa, the head of crisis response on Ebola for Guinea who died this week, thanked all those who were assisting his country and said that as of 19 November, the total declared cases there numbered 2,055, of which 1,224 had died. Ebola had been fought successfully in many areas, for example 23 of 33 prefectures in the administrative region of Conakry had not reported new cases for 21 days. Even so, there was continued increase of cases in coastal and forest areas of the country, with three prefectures in emergency phases. In those prefectures, the struggle had intensified in terms of awareness-raising, putting in place early-warning systems, safe burials, tracing of contacts and rapid reaction to cases of infection. Describing the framework strategy to fight the disease, he said that the accelerated implementation of the plan depended on rapid mobilization of resources and engagement of all Guineans. Warning that all the progress of recent years in his country was threatened by the outbreak, he called for partners to support socioeconomic recovery in the region simultaneously with the fight to contain the epidemic.
MARJON V. KAMARA (Liberia), noting that while infections and death due to Ebola had declined considerably in her country, said the disease was not yet under control. The Government would increase support for community care centres, as well as people in quarantine and those facing stigmatization after discharge. The next step would be to upgrade regular health facilities in order to minimize the chances of recurrence, followed by efforts to obtain support from partners for economic recovery. Noting that prospects were “dim” that the outbreak would reach the projected one million mark by January 2015, she said the worst-case scenario might have been averted. Opportunities for addressing the social and economic effects of Ebola should be explored, including budget and livelihood support. She requested ECOWAS to provide observers for senatorial elections, which the Legislature had approved for 16 December.
VANDI CHIDI MINAH (Sierra Leone) said investment in the fight against Ebola in West Africa was one of collective security, noting that Sierra Leone had seen a spike in reported cases. The situation was critical and depressing. He expressed hope UNMEER would evolve into a competent institution. Ebola had taken a toll on Sierra Leone’s gross domestic product, employment, food transport and agricultural cycles, profoundly affecting society’s most productive members, women disproportionately so. Personal protective equipment, technical and logistics experts, sustainable livelihood support and incentive payments for burial teams were required in greater quantities. He urged UNMEER to quickly deploy its personnel with a nimble bureaucratic footprint. Expressing thanks to Cuba for its “fearless medical diplomacy”, he said national health systems were on the verge of ruin and requested assistance for rebuilding them. He also asked the United Nations to be fully engaged with African institutions to beat Ebola.
DIANGUINA DIT YAYA DOUCOURÉ (Mali), thanking all those who had responded to the Ebola crisis, said that his country had unfortunately recorded its first case on 22 October, a small girl who had travelled from out of the country and then died. Authorities swiftly traced everyone who had come in direct contact with her, but new cases arose. As of 20 November, there were 310 people being monitoring and two suspected cases had been identified. There had been a total of five deaths. Describing extensive efforts on the part of the Government and people of Mali to keep the disease from spreading despite limited resources, he appealed to the international community for more substantial and coordinated support to the region to fight the disease. He pledged his Government’s continued coordination with all partners, including regional and subregional organizations, in the effort.
The full text of presidential statement S/PRST/2014/24 reads as follows:
“The Security Council reiterates its grave concern about the unprecedented extent of the Ebola outbreak in Africa, which constitutes a threat to international peace and security, and the impact of the Ebola virus on West Africa, in particular Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The Security Council expresses its appreciation for the crucial contributions and commitments made by the Member States of the region, to continue to lead the ground-level response against the Ebola outbreak, as well as to address the wider political, security, socioeconomic and humanitarian impact, including on food security, of the Ebola outbreak on communities and the need to plan for the longer term recovery in the region, including with the support of the Peacebuilding Commission. The Security Council underscores the continued need for robust contact tracing, social mobilization and community-level engagement efforts, especially outside of major urban areas in the most affected countries.
“The Security Council stresses the importance for the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) to continue to strengthen coordination with the Governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and all national, regional and international actors, including bilateral partners and multilateral organizations, including the Mano River Union, African Union, Economic Community of West African States, European Union, World Bank Group and the United Nations system, in order to more readily identify gaps in the response effort and to utilize all Ebola response assistance more fully and efficiently, particularly at the local level. In this regard, the Security Council requests that the Secretary-General accelerate efforts to scale-up UNMEER’s presence and activities at the district and prefecture level outside of the capital cities.
“The Security Council expresses its concern about the recent reported Ebola infections in Mali. The Security Council recognizes the important steps taken by the Government of Mali, including by appointing an Ebola Incident Coordinator to lead a whole-of-Government response. The Security Council affirms the importance of preparedness by all Member States to detect, prevent, respond to, isolate and mitigate suspected cases of Ebola within and across borders and of bolstering the preparedness of all countries in the region. The Security Council recalls the International Health Regulations (2005), which aim to improve the capacity of all countries to detect, assess, notify and respond to all public health threats.
“The Security Council welcomes the efforts undertaken by UNMEER to provide overall leadership and direction to the operational work of the United Nations system, as mandated by the United Nations General Assembly. The Security Council underscores the need for relevant United Nations System entities, including the United Nations peacekeeping operations and special political missions in West Africa, in close collaboration with UNMEER and within their existing mandates and capacities, to provide immediate assistance to the governments of the most affected countries.
“The Security Council lauds the critical, heroic and selfless efforts of the first-line responders to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, including national health and humanitarian relief workers, educators and burial team members, as well as international health and humanitarian relief workers contributed by the Member States of diverse regions and non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations. The Security Council expresses its condolences to the families of the victims of the Ebola outbreak, including national and international first-line responders. The Security Council urges all Member States, non-governmental, inter-governmental and regional organizations to continue to respond to the outstanding need for medical personnel, as well as related critical gap areas, such as personnel with expertise in sanitation and hygiene.
“The Security Council underscores the critical importance of putting in place essential arrangements, including medical evacuation capacities and treatment and transport provisions, to facilitate the immediate, unhindered and sustainable deployment of health and humanitarian relief workers to the affected countries. The Security Council welcomes the steps announced by Member States and regional organizations to provide medical evacuation capacities for health and humanitarian relief workers, as well as other treatment options in situ.
“The Security Council notes the considerable efforts of the international community to scale-up its coordinated response to the Ebola outbreak and the important progress on the ground as a result of these contributions. In this regard, the Security Council commends those Member States, which, in concert with other actors on the ground, have opened Ebola treatment units and provided other crucial support in the affected countries. The Security Council urges all Member States, bilateral partners and multilateral organizations, to expedite the provision of resources and financial assistance, as well as mobile laboratories; field hospitals to provide non-Ebola-related medical care; dedicated and trained clinical personnel and services in Ebola treatment units and isolation units; therapies, vaccines and diagnostics to treat patients and limit or prevent further Ebola infection or transmission; and personal protective equipment for first-line responders. The Security Council calls on Member States, especially in the region, to facilitate immediately the delivery of such assistance, to the most affected countries.
“The Security Council emphasizes that the dynamic needs on the ground in the most affected countries require that the international community’s response remains flexible, in order to adapt to changing requirements and rapidly respond to new outbreaks.
“The Security Council strongly urges Member States, as well as airlines and shipping companies, while applying appropriate public health protocols, to maintain trade and transport links with the most affected countries to enable the timely utilization of all efforts aimed at containing the Ebola outbreak within and across borders of the region. While recognizing the important role that appropriate screening measures can play in stopping the spread of the outbreak, the Security Council expresses its continued concern about the detrimental effect of the isolation of the affected countries as a result of trade and travel restrictions imposed on and to the affected countries, as well as acts of discrimination against the nationals of Guinea, Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone, including Ebola survivors and their families or those infected with the disease.” | <urn:uuid:e42d12c3-cbf4-4064-a4d8-a1c11621decc> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://press.un.org/en/2014/sc11663.doc.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00275.warc.gz | en | 0.968607 | 5,920 | 2 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — JOSEPH BIDEN JR. was only 29 when he learned the power of money to corrupt American politics.
It was 1972. Mr. Biden, a Delaware Democrat, was running for the United States Senate. If Biden won, he would become the second-youngest senator in the nation's history.
With eight days to go, Biden trailed by only 2 points. Advisers told him: Raise some money quickly, keep your radio ads on the air, and you can win.
Desperate for cash, Biden visited some of Delaware's wealthiest businessmen to plead his case. They put the crucial question to him: "Joe, what's your position on capital gains?"
Biden now says, "I knew the right answer for $20,000. I knew the right answer for $30,000. I knew the right answer for $40,000."
But Biden didn't give them what they wanted. As he sadly rode back to Wilmington, Del., without their contributions, he figured the race was lost. Somehow, Biden won anyway - by less than 3,000 votes. But the experience has left a bitter taste, even after 20 years.
"That's the manner in which [campaign] funding corrupts," Biden told a group of fellow senators at a hearing last week. And that is why he is pushing a reform plan, a Democratic bill called S.3, which would use taxpayer money to pay for House and Senate campaigns.
Tom Cronin, a political scientist at The Colorado College in Colorado Springs, says that in American politics, "Money doesn't talk, it shouts." It opens the doors of power for special interests.
Despite all the reforms of recent years, money still plays a big role. In 1992, financiers (read "Wall Street") pumped $3,104,788 into the Democratic Party to help Bill Clinton, according to Common Cause. Hollywood entertainers gave $1,658,880. Real estate interests contributed $955,300. Big labor chipped in $3,695,638.
When the phone rings, can the White House ignore those interests? Hardly, critics say.
Such arguments make many Republicans boil. With federal debt spinning past $4 trillion, with deficit spending approaching $1 billion per day, the GOP says this is no time to turn public money over to politicians to spend on themselves.
Sen. Don Nickles (R) of Oklahoma explains his opposition to S.3: "I support campaign reform, but this is not reform. It is a handout for politicians."
A bill similar to S.3 passed the last Congress. President Bush vetoed it. The bill would cap spending for House and Senate races and limit contributions from political action committees. In exchange, candidates would get partial public financing.
Democrats have put the campaign finance bill on a fast track. A Senate vote is expected in April.
S.3 not only upsets Republicans, but worries some outside reformers as well. Ellen Miller, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics Inc., says she has "completely mixed feelings about the whole thing."
One of her concerns, she says, is "soft money," gigantic contributions from private contributors to political parties. She wonders: If Democrats stop soft money from business sources, will they also block it from labor unions?
Ms. Miller also wonders if the Democrats' caps on election spending are too high. As now written, the bill would allow House candidates to spend up to $500,000 in the general election. In Senate races, the maximum allowed for the general election in the largest states would be $5.5 million. The overall cost to taxpayers for an election cycle could reach $500 million.
Republicans, who regard spending caps as a violation of free speech, see two hopes to head off the Democrats.
First, they will propose changes to the Democratic bill to make it more palatable. Leading Democrats say they are open to ideas. Republicans doubt it.
Second, Republicans may filibuster S.3 to death in the Senate. Forty-one votes are needed to block cloture, and Republicans, with 43 members, may succeed.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky, leading the GOP fight against S.3, has tried to persuade Democrats to craft a bill that both parties could strongly support.
He has made little progress.
A bipartisan measure might include guaranteed low rates for candidates from broadcasters; a ban on franked mail during election years; a prohibition on most "bundling" of contributions by lobbyists, labor unions, and business people; and controls on soft money.
But majority leader George Mitchell (D) of Maine says spending limits are a must. "Without spending limits ... candidates will never cease their pursuit of money," he says. | <urn:uuid:3a70bf97-89bd-491f-a20b-59a12c38733f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.csmonitor.com/1993/0309/09013.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00430-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963481 | 985 | 1.890625 | 2 |
How to slow down, listen to yourself, enjoy and improve relationships with a receptive state of mind
Our society runs in fast motion. There is much to do and technology easily eats up whatever time we have when we are done with our to-do list. The straight out truth is this speed is taking a toll on our lives and relationships. I'm one of those people who have much to do and love technology- internet, social networking, my DroidX, etc. However, what easily happens to others, happened to me. I stopped reserving space in my life for slowing down and listening to the “beat of my heart.”
There is much going on “out there” but there also is much going on “in here.” Yes, in my own body and soul, there are feelings, desires, intuitive senses as well as a desire for inner peace. My commitment to myself is to take some time every day to meditate, experience and get to know what I am feeling and release these feelings to experience more inner peace. If I listen to my feelings, I am more likely to be constructive in stressful situations as opposed to engage in some immediate tension-reducing behavior that does not ultimately give me what I want. I invite you to do the same. Constant busy-ness does not bring more meaning and joy to our lives. I am convinced that periodic slowing down to listen to ourselves actually makes us more effective and we get more done.
It reminds me of a client I had that refused to slow down despite the fact that I gave her an assignment to slow down for 10 minutes every day. She claimed that she had no time to slow down for even 10 minutes. One day, her husband showed up to a session without her and I asked where she was. He said that she pulled out her back and had not been able to move out of her bed or do even a bit of work in the last two weeks. She admitted that her back went out because of the constant stress and that taking 10 minutes a day for herself would have interrupted the stress cycle and she would have been for more ahead in her work if she did those 10 minutes a day breaks I asked her to do.
Listen to "Self", Listen to Others
Listening to “self” is developing a receptive state of mind. This receptive state of mind allows you to enjoy smelling the roses, hearing birds chirping, tasting delicious food, feeling the gentle wind across your face and seeing a cute baby’s smile. Tuning in your senses reanimates the world around you. It is a more soulful way to live.
As you slow down for periods of the day to experience your own bodily emotions, sensations and desires; you can utilize this same receptive state of mind to become a good listener to others. Most people spend very little time truly listening where the full attention is on the other person, taking in what they are saying, meaning and feeling.
I work with couples every day to develop the skills to be receptive listeners. One of the great joys is to have the experience of being heard even if what needs to be heard are unpleasant, difficult feelings and opinions. I am convinced that most couples waste so much time in the wrong direction; always trying to prove their respective points and push their own agenda. If we put as much effort into slowing down and becoming receptive to the other person, we will have more of what we want from our partner. They might even change their mind and agree with you AFTER AND NOT BEFORE you are receptive to them. Then again, if they still disagree, it might not matter much since you are enjoying the connection with your grateful partner, grateful for your willingness to be receptive and understanding to his or her point of view.
I ask you to commit to a daily dose of slowing down. Do a simple breathing meditation or simply ask yourself what you are feeling right now. Develop a receptive state of mind as you take in the environment through your senses. Lastly, utilize that same receptive state of mind to practice being a truly effective listener to your partner and others and see how quickly your relationships improve. | <urn:uuid:537dd012-3c56-4197-a84a-a8c740282348> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.yourtango.com/201172657/creating-receptive-state-mind | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281450.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00172-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977526 | 846 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Imagine a world where taking pictures and posting them to your social media accounts only requires you to think for it to happen - a world where the true power of your brain is set free, where you are no longer tied to your smartphone or tablet in order to communicate with the world.
Well, that world is here today.
MindRDR connects Google Glass with a device to monitor brain activity, allowing users to take pictures and socialise them on Twitter or Facebook. No physical interaction required.
Once a user has decided to share an image, we analyse their brain data and provide an evaluation of their ability to control the interface with their mind. This information is attached to every shared image. | <urn:uuid:28a38470-544f-4f43-aa33-e5f430d6ba7a> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/freeing-power-your-mind-controlling-google-glass-your-thoughts-11723 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279224.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00476-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929498 | 139 | 2.09375 | 2 |
BETTER TOUCH BETTER BUSINESS
Contact Sales at GOLDEN BAKE.
Extruding is a simple means of dough forming for soft, high-fat dough cookies. A cookie extruding machine forces the pourable dough through holes in a die plate. Since cookie dough is much more fluid than hard and soft dough, it can be called a batter. Therefore, the dough is extruded instead of sheeted or molded. Depositing is a form of extrusion as well, there is no difference from each other. The firmest cookie doughs(similar to soft biscuit doughs) are usually wire cut. In particular, wire cutting is able to form sticky raw cookies containing coarse particles such as dried raisins, chocolate chips, nuts and so on.
Cookie forming machine
In general, cookie forming machines consist of a hopper and two rolls that play the role of extruding dough. It is a simple design, the two feeding rolls generate friction with the batter while running to achieve and thereafter the batter pressure. The extruding rate is affected by the feeding roll speed, the consistency of the batter and the pressure in the chamber. While the dies decide the shape and size of extrusion.
While forming the soft, smooth and almost pourable consistency dough, the depositing machine is more suitable than the wire cutting machine. There are cone shape piping nozzles below the rolls and they could have patterned ends to provide strong relief to the raw cookies while depositing. Individual and intermittent deposits may be achieved through the lowering and raising of the depositing machine. When the nozzles are lowered to be near the oven band or conveyor belt, the batter is then extruded onto the band or conveyor belt. After finishing extrusion, the nozzles are allowed to raise back and the deposit breaks away from the nozzles.
Different from the depositing machines, the nozzles are replaced with a batter band below the rolls. There are dies arranged on the batter band. The dough is extruded through dies and then cut by reciprocating wire. The raw cookies then drop directly onto the oven band or conveyor belt. It is possible to have different shape dies on the batter band which allows variety production for packs of assorted cookies.
If you find this article interesting, please follow our Facebook▶https://www.facebook.com/biscuitequipment We will share more fun things about biscuits both on our website and Facebook. | <urn:uuid:331f4f00-8568-4e1b-be20-9d4572a5d3a2> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.foodsmachine.net/cookie-forming.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00477.warc.gz | en | 0.912856 | 515 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Thursday, May 5
204 S. Thornton Ave
Cost: $5 (Register in advance)
Capacity: 20 people
The State Archive Preservation Facility is a state of the art preservation facility for all formats of historical resources: library materials, archival collections, fine art, motion pictures, archeological collections, and three-dimensional (or artifact) collections—from the Wisconsin Historical Society, the State Capitol and Executive Residence, the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research at the UW-Madison. The tour will include the specialized storage areas for both the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Veterans Museum; the conservation lab; and the American Indian Collections Care Suite.
Sign up for this tour during the online registration process.
Location and Transportation
Via Madison Metro bus: Take the #7 bus from the N. Carroll & W. Mifflin bus stop (on Capitol square in front of the State Historical Museum). The bus departs at 8:42am. Ride about 12 minutes and signal to depart at Williamson & Rogers St. Walk 2 blocks on Williamson St in the same direction the bus travelled to Thornton Ave. Turn left to cross Williamson Street, continue on Thornton. Thornton dead ends into a bicycle path and the driveway to the SAPF.
Note: meet in the Concourse lobby at 8:25 and a MAC volunteer will lead you to the SAPF via this bus route.
Bus fare is $2 cash only, no change given (more fare information).
Bus routes 4, 6 and 7 all run between the Concourse Hotel and the SAPF neighborhood. Check Google Maps or the City of Madison Metro Transit page to plan your trip. | <urn:uuid:9c8f49e7-1f20-4357-9035-ec9dcf17105d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://madisonmac2022.wordpress.com/2022/02/15/tour-of-the-wisconsin-state-archives-preservation-facility-sapf/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571150.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810070501-20220810100501-00679.warc.gz | en | 0.865734 | 353 | 1.578125 | 2 |
I-Schools as a Natural Home for Digital Libraries Education
Wildemuth, Barbara M.
Pomerantz, Jeffrey P.
Fox, Edward A.
MetadataShow full item record
Given that digital libraries (DLs) bring together technology, information, and people who use information, it can easily be argued that i-schools should play a central role in educating DL professionals. This study examines the existing roles that i-schools play in DL education from two different vantage points: their offering of DL courses and their participation in a DL curriculum development project. In addition, we explore the potential to expand the iSchools Caucus by recruiting those schools that a reactive in DL education efforts (i.e., those that offer courses or participate in curriculum development) but are not yet members of the Caucus. DL courses in the i-schools were further analyzed, in terms of the topics covered, the textbooks used, and the types of assignments used. This analysis was based on the seven course syllabi available on the open Web. | <urn:uuid:c11c2908-711e-4b44-9ac9-1db086e3d8f5> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/52832 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719908.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00158-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943024 | 213 | 2 | 2 |
Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl is one of the world’s leading authorities on Islamic law and Islam, and a prominent scholar in the field of human rights. He is the Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor in Islamic Law at the UCLA School of Law where he teaches International Human Rights, Islamic Jurisprudence, National Security Law, Law and Terrorism, Islam and Human Rights, Political Asylum and Political Crimes and Legal Systems. He is also the Chair of the Islamic Studies Interdepartmental Program at UCLA.
Among his many honors and distinctions, Dr. Abou El Fadl was awarded the University of Oslo Human Rights Award, the Leo and Lisl Eitinger Prize in 2007, and named a Carnegie Scholar in Islamic Law in 2005. He was previously appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, and also served as a member of the board of directors of Human Rights Watch. He continues to serve on the advisory board of Middle East Watch (part of Human Rights Watch) and regularly works with human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (Human Rights First) as an expert in a wide variety of cases involving human rights, terrorism, political asylum, and international and commercial law. In 2005, he was also listed as one of LawDragon’s Top 500 Lawyers in the Nation.
A prolific scholar and prominent public intellectual, Dr. Abou El Fadl is the author of 14 books (five forthcoming) and over 50 articles on various topics in Islam and Islamic law. He has lectured on and taught Islamic law throughout the United States and Europe in academic and non-academic environments for over twenty years. His work has been translated into numerous languages including Arabic, Persian, French, Norwegian, Dutch, Ethiopian, Russian, and Japanese, among others.
Dr. Abou El Fadl is most noted for his scholarly approach to Islam from a moral point of view. He writes extensively on universal themes of humanity, morality, human rights, justice, and mercy, and is well known for his writings on beauty as a core moral value of Islam. He is one of the foremost critics of puritan and Wahhabi Islam. Dr. Abou El Fadl has appeared on national and international television and radio, and has published widely in such publications as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Boston Review and many others.
Professor Abou El Fadl is the founding advisory board member of the UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law (JINEL), and an editorial board member for Political Theology, the Journal of Religious Ethics, the Journal of Islamic Law and Society, the Journal of Islamic Law and Culture, and Hawa: Journal of Women of Middle East and the Islamic World, among others. He also serves as an advisory board member for the University of Adelaide Research Unit for the Study of Society, Law and Religion (RUSSLR) in Australia; the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Islam Initiative Publications Project; the Harvard Press Series on Islamic Law; and the Journal of Islamic Studies (Islamabad), among others.
His most recent works focus on authority, human rights, democracy and beauty in Islam and Islamic law. His book, The Great Theft, was the first work to delineate the key differences between moderate and extremist Muslims, and was named one of the Top 100 Books of the Year by Canada’s Globe and Mail (Canada’s leading national newspaper). His book, The Search for Beauty in Islam: A Conference of the Books, is a landmark work in modern Muslim literature.
Dr. Abou El Fadl holds a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Islamic law from Princeton University. Dr. Abou El Fadl is also an Islamic jurist and scholar, having received 13 years of systematic instruction in Islamic jurisprudence, grammar and eloquence in Egypt and Kuwait. After law school, he clerked for Arizona Supreme Court Justice James Moeller, and practiced immigration and investment law in the U.S. and the Middle East. He previously taught Islamic law at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, Yale Law School and Princeton University. | <urn:uuid:bb134de2-0e9a-4c41-89f8-41da84c5e909> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://www.law.ucla.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/khaled-m-abou-el-fadl/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719468.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00528-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957236 | 905 | 1.671875 | 2 |
|Blood levels of resistin, a hormone produced by fat cells, can independently predict an individual’s risk of heart failure, cardiologists at Emory University School of Medicine have found.
Their findings were presented Nov. 12 at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions conference in New Orleans.
"This is one of the strongest predictors of new-onset heart failure we've been able to find, and it holds up even when you control for other biomarkers and risk factors including high blood pressure and diabetes," says Javed Butler, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine and director of heart failure research at Emory University School of Medicine.
The finding comes out of the Health ABC (Aging and Body Composition) study, sponsored by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. The Health ABC study followed 3000 elderly people in the Pittsburgh and Memphis areas over seven years starting in 1998.
Although scientists don't know the exact function of resistin, it appears to be associated with both inflammation and insulin resistance, says Vasiliki Georgiopoulou, MD, a post-doctoral research fellow with Butler who presented these findings. "Recent laboratory studies have also shown that resistin decreases the ability of rats’ heart muscles to contract," she adds.
In the Health ABC study, the risk of new onset heart failure increased by 38 percent for every 10 nanograms per milliliter increase in resistin levels in blood. Resistin was a stronger predictor of heart failure risk than other inflammatory markers linked to heart disease, such as C-reactive protein, the researchers found.
"Considering the increasing number of people who are obese or have diabetes, very many of them are going to be at some level of risk for heart failure later in life," Butler says. "The value of a marker such as resistin may be in accurately identifying among this large population of at-risk individuals who is at the highest risk and then targeting interventions to those people."
Investigators from several institutions contributed to the study, including the University of Lausanne, Harvard Medical School, University of California San Francisco, University of Pittsburgh, Wake Forest University, Boston University and the National Institute on Aging.
About Emory Heart & Vascular Center Emory Heart & Vascular Center doctors are committed to providing clinically excellent cardiovascular patient care, pioneering innovative clinical research and training the best heart specialists in the world. A component of Emory Healthcare, the Center is consistently recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top heart centers in the country. Emory Healthcare is the clinical arm of Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center and is the largest, most comprehensive health care system in Georgia. | <urn:uuid:0254a8c5-20ec-4a6a-939b-1219b68b7dd5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.whsc.emory.edu/press_releases2.cfm?announcement_id_seq=16524 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282935.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00239-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94329 | 551 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Naya is interested in developing new algebraic-topological methods to extract information from datasets across different scientific disciplines. Topological methods offer a unique way to understand qualitative information about the structure of data, which is particularly important when the structure is not well-understood a priori.
Fewer that 1% of know protein structures listed in the Protein Data Bank are known to be knotted, and understanding their folding mechanisms and the functional advantages of the occurrence of knots is an open question in biology. One stream of Naya's research, led by Agnese Barbensi, is applying tools from knot theory to provide topological shape descriptors of these proteins, and to study the topological untangling of such structures.
Naya has also worked with Daniele Celoria on developing a link between discrete Morse theory, combinatorics and knot theory. The main output of this research is a generalisation of two results, one from combinatorics and one from knot theory, captured in a single result called the generalised Clock Theorem.
Naya worked on a collaboration led by Professor Kathryn Hess in the field of computational neuroscience. Modelling the brain as a directed graph, they are seeking to understand the space of subgraphs explored by the brain after inputting different stimuli. This project combines topological data analysis with network science and was motivated by data and simulations from the Blue Brain Project. | <urn:uuid:d017990f-fcd9-4020-af28-5f9bb597c617> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.turing.ac.uk/people/doctoral-students/naya-yerolemou | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571719.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812140019-20220812170019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.94366 | 290 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Eddy Current Proximity Sensors Information
Eddy current proximity sensors and switches detect the proximity or presence of a target by sensing fluctuations in a magnetic field generated by a reference coil. The variations in this field are due to the presence of nearby conductive objects. Field generation and detection information is provided in the kHz to MHz range. They can be used as proximity sensors to detect the presence of a target, or can be configured to measure the position or displacement of a target.
Eddy current proximity sensors can detect the position of conductive objects with high resolution. A coil at the face of the sensor is used to generate an alternating magnetic field. As a conductive object approaches the magnetic field, eddy currents are induced in the target object. In opposition to the magnetic field at the face of the sensor, the induced eddy currents generate an opposing magnetic field that draws its potential from the sensor. This destructive interference is used to calculate the position of the target. Since the signal response to the position of the target is highly linear, true eddy current sensors are typically used for the measurement of linear position, while simpler inductive sensors are typically used for proximity switches.
Eddy current model. Image Credit: Lion Precision
Target materials for eddy current proximity sensors can be magnetic, non-magnetic, ferrous, and non-ferrous.
- Magnetic target materials are magnetized, usually with a permanent magnet component.
- Non-magnetic detection targets do not require magnetization.
- Ferrous targets for position detection include iron or iron-based materials such as steel, stainless steel, etc.
- Non-ferrous target materials are metallic but are not iron or steel-based, such as aluminum, brass, and copper.
When searching for eddy current proximity sensors, operating distance and repeatability are the most important parameters to consider. Other considerations include switch performance, body type, electrical connections, and various features.
Rated operating distance is the critical distance at which switching takes place. It is important to choose a sensor that will operate in the required sensing range. This could be dictated by process requirements and mounting options.
Repeatability is the distance within which the sensor repeatably switches. It is a measure of precision. Depending on the application, precision could be an important design criterion when selecting a sensor.
Electrical Switch Performance
Depending on the power options available, power requirements may be a key specification when selecting a sensor.
The device can be powered by either an AC or DC power source.
Load configurations are important parameters to consider. Eddy Current proximity sensors may switch an AC load or a DC load. DC load configurations can be NPN or PNP.
NPN is a transistor output that switches the common or negative voltage to the load; load connected between sensor output and positive voltage supply.
PNP is a transistor output that switches the positive voltage to the load; load connected between sensor output and voltage supply common or negative.
Wire configurations are 2-wire, 3-wire NPN, 3-wire PNP, 4-wire NPN and 4-wire PNP.
2-Wire DC circuitry typically includes a diode bridge in series with the sensor, allowing functionality either as NPN or PNP in a DC circuit.
Acceptable values of leakage current must be evaluated in this type of circuit
Switch types can be normally open (NO) or normally closed (NC).
Image Credit: Fargo Controls, Inc.
If the switch is a NAMUR type switch or a specialized switch for switching a resistive load. It will require an external amplifier.
Eddy current proximity sensors are typically housed in either a barrel or rectangular housing.
- A barrel body style is cylindrical in shape. The barrel of the sensor is typically threaded so that with the help of two lock-nuts the sensor can easily be adjusted closer or further from the target as necessary.
- A rectangular or block body style is a one piece rectangular or block shaped sensor.
Electrical connections for eddy current proximity sensors can be fixed cable, connector(s), and terminals.
- A fixed cable is an integral part of the sensor and often includes "bare" stripped leads.
- A sensor with connectors has an integral connector for attaching into an existing system.
- A sensor with terminals has the ability to screw or clamp down.
There are a number of features that may be important to consider when selecting eddy current proximity sensors.
- Field adjustable sensors are required when adjustments need to be made while the proximity sensor is in use. Potentiometers are commonly used to control the magnetic field strength or detection range.
- Self-teaching proximity sensors can be auto-calibrated to trigger the switch at a specific target location.
Materials of construction and enclosure ratings must be considered when the sensor will be located outdoors or exposed to extreme temperatures, or under the influence of wet, humid, dusty, dirty or corrosive process conditions.
|Enclosure ratings are specified by "National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA)" or "Ingress Protection (IP)" ratings.| | <urn:uuid:a88cb717-6e0f-4451-934d-2e93a1917525> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.globalspec.com/learnmore/sensors_transducers_detectors/proximity_presence_sensing/eddy_current_proximity_sensors | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721174.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00283-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.883471 | 1,054 | 3.6875 | 4 |
In commemoration of the approximate 200th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, the London actor and theatrical entrepreneur David Garrick launched the first celebration of Shakespeare as “the god of our idolatry” in 1769, helping to fashion the Bard as the larger-than-life, iconic representation of English literary achievement.
The events that Garrick planned on the sacred site of Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, included everything from a concert of music to fireworks and a horse race, although not, significantly, a Shakespeare play. Garrick’s emphasis was on Shakespeare the man, the “Warwickshire lad” who put a human face on literary greatness even in his debut moment as public spectacle and national icon.
Despite the torrential rains that dampened Garrick’s festivities, his Shakespeare Jubilee began a trend. Shakespeare soon grew steadily in the public eye from good writer to literary super-star, becoming the celebrity whom the public both worships and desires to know as “Will.”
Paradoxically, making Shakespeare larger than life had the effect of bringing him up close and personal to his fans: Shakespeare is arguably one of two British authors whom we call by their first names today. The other one, of course, is Jane Austen, and these two literary super-stars are the subjects of Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity, on exhibit at the Folger through Nov. 6.
A mere two decades after the Jubilee at Stratford-upon-Avon, businessman John Boydell opened the doors of his fashionable Shakespeare Gallery on the Mall in London, filled with “big hit” scenes from Shakespeare’s plays painted on life-sized canvases by a range of contemporary artists.
While this first Shakespeare museum was ultimately a financial failure, for a decade and a half before it closed in 1804 it was the place to go to binge watch Shakespeare during the London “season.” Boydell’s gallery had a large shop that sold engraved prints of the paintings. These handsome engravings provide a valuable record of the compositions of the many original paintings that have now disappeared.
The What Jane Saw website (www.whatjanesaw.org) painstakingly reconstructs the eighteenth-century Shakespeare Gallery so that modern visitors might imagine what it would have been like to stroll through it during its heyday. In addition, the Folger owns several examples of the few surviving paintings, including George Romney’s The Infant Shakespeare attended by Nature and the Passions, a literary nativity scene now on display in all its glory in the Great Hall as part of Will & Jane. Obviously not a scene from any play, this “baby Shakespeare” arrests visitors to the Folger with solemn infant eyes, evoking in his nakedness and vulnerability the sense of intimacy that Garrick’s audience might have felt with the “Warwickshire lad” in 1769.
[Listen to a Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episode about the Boydell Gallery.]
200 years seems to be a linchpin anniversary. Will & Jane takes us fast forward to 1995, when another writer began her meteoric rise to literary stardom in a parallel moment of public spectacle and worship: the BBC’s television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. The desiring gaze of Elizabeth Bennet (played by Jennifer Ehle) on the manly charms of a wet-shirted Darcy (played by Colin Firth) triggered a small tsunami of Jane Austen adaptations at roughly her 200 mark. It also sparked a new interest in Jane herself. Who was this woman who authored some of the greatest love stories of our time? Did she fall in love like her heroines? Oh, surely, she did, suggested the film Becoming Jane—but with whom, when, and how?
The fact that we have almost as little biographical information about Austen as we do about Shakespeare has not stopped us from imagining rich love lives for both of them. Hail the modern biopic, from Shakespeare in Love to Miss Austen Regrets. As eager fans, we want to reward the writers who have given us so many peak moments of vicarious romance with rich love lives of their own. In both cases, fans also crave the intimacy with their beloved writers that comes from personal knowledge.
Both Will and Jane became public spectacles at, roughly, the 200th anniversaries of their literary afterlives. What is there about that 200-year mark that provoked the urge to celebrate these authors into spectacular celebrity? Will & Jane offers both a few answers to that question as well as plenty of opportunities to get up close and personal with the two authors whom we know on a first-name basis. | <urn:uuid:4f6cb830-53f8-4716-8db2-10cf6a6a082d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/2016/10/07/spectacle-shakespeare-jane-austen-200/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570793.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808092125-20220808122125-00665.warc.gz | en | 0.957429 | 990 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The wasted big chance
The United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen last December was presented as the most important climate Summit of the decade, it was called to replace the famous Kyoto Protocol. Indeed, it was a very important opportunity for the EU to demonstrate its capability to lead the change needed to stop global warming. The EU directed the preparation talks for the Copenhagen Conference, and it even proposed a 30% emissions decrease by 2020 if joint by the rest of the developed world. Still, the meeting ended up with a short and disappointing document made up between the US and the emerging economies which the EU merely accepted.
The European Parliament delegation to the conference admitted in a declaration that the high expectations and well-meaning ambitions of the EU had been left without response. The goal was to arrange a legally binding agreement which would build up, among other policies, a system of international monitoring of emissions, in where the states could mutually inspect their outcomes. Instead, the final text establishes a system of international consultations in where every country will communicate their level of emissions to the UN with full respect to their sovereignty. This is a sad victory of those countries that still see environmental policies as a dispensable enemy to their growth.
The new European strategy
Now the EU has to find a way to restore its capacity and influence to lead the fight against climate change. This is nowadays a field in where the EU has to hold the leadership for its own right and the moral authority that arises from being the only region so far to have established concrete goals of emissions decreasing and mechanisms to implement them.
Now the EU has to find a way to restore its capacity and influence to lead the fight against climate change. This is nowadays a field in where the EU has to hold the leadership for its own right and the moral authority that arises from being the only region so far to have established concrete goals of emissions decreasing and mechanisms to implement them. In order to do so before the next conference in Cancun at the end of this year, the commission published this March a communication to the other institutions titled “International climate policy post-Copenhagen: Acting now to reinvigorate global action on climate change”.
This document comes up with several important initiatives, such as the creation of an international market of emissions similar to the one functioning in the EU. The results must first be seen at home. Whatever the outcome in Denmark, the first that the EU is going to do is carry on with the project launched a couple of years ago; the Climate and Energy Package, which establishes a reduction of 20% of the emissions by 2020 together with the same amount of increasing increment in renewable resources and efficiency improvement.
These are remarkable goals compared with what any other region has proposed so far. They will work both as an example to the world and as a way to build a more energetically independent Europe. Most of the member states are energetically dependent; either of Russia in central Europe or of Algeria and other countries in the southern states. This should gradually stop being a weak point for the EU as a global actor, and since our resources are not as abundant, the best solution is to implement the first steps to transform the industry into the exploitation of green energy.
The failed sovereignty
These policies might carry things out at home, but they will not have it easy to change the strategies of the main polluters of the world. One of the issues in which the EU has to play a biggest role is in the negotiation with developing countries. The communication of the commission also includes and explores the way to resolve the difficult debate about the financial help that the so-called G77 members demand to implement any actions. In its recently published communication, the commission declares its willingness to initiate a fast-start funding commitment, together with the Economic and Financial Affairs Council and, internationally, with the other developed nations.
Furthermore, the EU is resolved to lead the creation of a market of emissions more robust and inclusive than the proposed in the Kyoto Protocol. This would be divided up in various steps. By 2015 an OECD-wide market should be functioning, and before the end of this decade the goal is to expand it to other developed countries like Japan or Australia. The successful functioning of the European Union Emission Trading System since 2005 is another case of the advantages of shared sovereignty, contrarily; the failure in setting up a concrete form of trustworthy inspections in the final Copenhagen Accord exposes the severe limitations of impenetrable sovereignty to solve global problems.
The climate will be if Europe is
The solution is easier to say than to do, but at the international level, it would mean to have a more effective system of negotiations in the UN and a fully enforceable international environmental law.
The solution is easier to say than to do, but at the international level, it would mean to have a more effective system of negotiations in the UN and a fully enforceable international environmental law. The power equilibrium however, with the emerging economies and the lack of political willingness take most of the goals that Europe fights for out of the scope of many countries. The role of the EU in this decade can be crucial for the future of the climate change, but it depends on its ability to make tools for international pressure out of these initiatives. Just as in any other field, if the Union does not translate its economical weight and soft power into leadership in the international arena, there won’t be much hope left for the climate. | <urn:uuid:cee00073-b350-407f-b6fc-2d1fc8c3e892> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.taurillon.org/International-Climate-Policy-Post-Copenhagen-what-role-for-the-EU | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281450.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00173-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955686 | 1,103 | 2.25 | 2 |
Community computing allows anyone to get involved in protein design — from home.
We created a video game which lets anyone contribute to cutting-edge scientific research. Join this free online game and help us to design new proteins to cure diseases, create new materials, and develop new ways of capturing and storing energy.
To learn more about the power of people playing Foldit, watch the inspirational film “The Contenders”, a GE FocusForward short film by Lucy Walker. It describes how a team of Foldit players “helped the anti-AIDS drug quest” as reported in this Nature Structural and Molecular Biology Paper published in September 2011 by the Baker Laboratory.
We need your help to determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins. By running this free program on your computer while you aren’t using it, you can help us speed up and extend our research in ways we couldn’t possibly attempt without your help. You will also be boosting our efforts to design new proteins to fight diseases such as HIV, Alzheimer’s, malaria and cancer. Please join us! Rosetta@home is not for profit. | <urn:uuid:b494f471-7a53-413f-9b3f-752e46b57786> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.ipd.uw.edu/community/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571198.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810161541-20220810191541-00275.warc.gz | en | 0.923783 | 241 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Even for long-distance cruising, twin-engine propulsion packages often make more sense than single-screw installations...
Historically, single-engine installations in yachts have been thought to be more economical than twin-engines set-ups for cruising — both in terms of initial cost and ongoing operation. But that is mostly a myth.
True, a single engine of a given HP sometimes costs less initially than two engines whose combined HP are equal that of the single engine. However, because most cruising wander far from immediate help (even if only operating alongshore and island-hopping), most cruising owners and skippers want a way to “get home” in the event a main propulsion engine fails. Consequently, the common approach to a single main-engine installation is to also rig some form of alternative “get back to port” propulsion power - perhaps using a jackshaft or hydraulic PTO or even an electric motor driven by a genset. The downside of such solutions is that they are themselves expensive to assemble and install and far less reliable than simply splitting the marine propulsion system into twin engines and screws.
Admittedly, that is a sweeping generalization. But it’s one that stands up whether you’re looking at Caterpillar, Cummins, John Deere, Kubota, MAN, MTU, Volvo Penta, Yanmar, or other engines built for the marine market. But don’t take my or anyone else’s word for it… work the numbers for yourself.
Just remember, while you’re at it, a single-engine main propulsion installation does not necessarily use less fuel because, single engine or twin, a given yacht requires a given amount of horsepower (and fuel burn) to achieve a given level of speed. Whether you supply all the required horsepower from a single engine or half of the required horsepower from each of two smaller engines, the rate of fuel burn at a given boat speed will be virtually the same. (https://www.seattleyachts.com/news/powering-up-your-yacht)
To be sure, it doesn’t always work out that way since a 200-HP engine may weigh more than ½ of a 400-HP engine. But then again, it might work just fine — as it happens to in the following comparison. Consider, for example, the following two John Deere Marine Diesel engines:
Suppose we need 500 total HP to drive a yacht at the desired speed under specified load and sea conditions. And we can find that power in either a John Deere 6135SAFM85-M3 marine diesel or in a pair of 4045SFM85-M4 marine diesels. Are there serious disadvantages to using the twin-screw set-up? Not really. The pair of 4.5-liter 4045s weighs less than the single 13.5-liter 6135 engine; their weight-to-HP ratio is better; and their rated RPM at the target HP, although somewhat higher, is far from pushing the envelope. Moreover, in this case, any added cost involved in having two sets of shafting and props is more than offset by the lower overall price of the pair of smaller engines.
Since the marine sector of the market is relatively so small compared to the overall engine market, for many years engine choices were drastically restricted by the very limited selection of available engines and horsepower ratings. This meant, for a given HP requirement, it was often difficult to find two smaller engines to replace a single engine to drive a given load. These days, however, the selection has grown, and in general, twin-engine rigs don’t suffer weight-wise or cost-wise in comparison to single engine set-ups — as many people. even some pros in the industry, continue to believe. And the situation has been improved even more by increases in the array of available marine gears, as well.
Always keep in mind, the advantage of a twin-screw installation does not have anything to do with performance. Driving a given yacht at a given speed under the same load and sea conditions depends on the amount of thrust delivered by the propeller or propellers. Which is related to the total HP developed by the engine or engines.
The advantage(s) of twin-screw installations have to do with engineering redundancy — and the operational margin of safety that introduces. For running home (or to a safe port) on a single engine is much less risky and generally more reliable and no more costlyy than limping home on an expensive “emergency” wing engine driving your vessel’s single screw via a connection that would have Rube Goldberg grinning from his grave. — Phil Friedman
Read more articles from Phil Friedman: | <urn:uuid:d16d4137-319f-4e19-88fc-49cf4294e3c3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.seattleyachts.com/news/single-versus-twin-screw-propulsion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571234.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811042804-20220811072804-00070.warc.gz | en | 0.953276 | 985 | 2.546875 | 3 |
5 superfoods for superskin
When it comes to skin health, it is not just what you put on your skin that matters. Beautiful skin starts from our diet and the food we consume is as important as the skincare products we apply religiously. A poor diet can quickly lead to lacklustre skin and acne breakouts while a healthy diet based on whole foods including a variety of fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, fish and whole grains can actually alleviate your skincare problems from the inside out! What we eat can definitely affect how we look so it’s time to include these 5 superfoods into your diet if you want to get healthy, glowing skin effortlessly:
Pic Cr Left, Pic Cr Right
Ah… The fruit of the millennials! Delicious on its own and even better on toast. Not only are avocados yummy, they are also excellent for the skin! It is rich in omega-9, which keeps your epidermal layer (the topmost skin layer) moisturised, which in turn ensures that you have noticeably hydrated, healthy-looking and protected skin. Avocados are also chock-full of carotenoids, the antioxidant that not only fights free radicals (major culprits of damaged skin and ageing), it also helps your skin maintain optimal water content and elasticity. Fun Fact: Hugh Jackman paired avocado with chicken breast daily to get ripped for his role as Wolverine. Are you an avocado convert now?
Delicious raw or cooked, there are hundreds of ways to enjoy salmon, including grilled, baked, smoked or our favourite sashimi-style. Salmon is amazingly packed full with omega-3 fatty acids along with vitamin D and selenium, which help to protect your skin from the sun. These polyunsaturated fatty acids also keep your cell membranes healthy and hydrated, acting as a gatekeeper to keep toxins out and your skin looking soft and supple. Fun Fact: Victoria Beckham incorporates omega-3-rich fish into her daily diet. “I used to have really problematic skin and my dermatologist said to me, ‘You have to eat salmon every single day,’ I said, ‘Really, every day?’ And he said, ‘Yes. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, you have to eat it every single day.’” If you are still not a fan of salmon……
- Dark Chocolate
Can’t stay away from chocolate? Might as well indulge in the kind that gives back. Flavonols (the type of flavonoid found in chocolate) help your skin look its best. This antioxidant found in chocolates can help your skin protect itself from UV damage (bye wrinkles), fight free radicals (so long, sun spots) and increase blood flow (hello dewy glow!). Cocoa helps reduce stress hormones, which means less collagen breakdown in the skin, and fewer wrinkles. Caution: only dark chocolate with at least 70 percent cocoa content can deliver these benefits so don’t go crazy on those calorie-inducing sweets! #fightagainstdiabetes
All fruits have benefits for the skin, but blueberries are rockstars. These ‘little blue dynamos’ are rich in antioxidants and vitamins A and C. The phytochemicals found in blueberries help to neutralise free radicals, which might otherwise damage skin cells, protecting your skin from the ravages of time. It has been proven that consumption of blueberries helps with several skin conditions and its topical application has been touted as the cure for damaged or acne-prone skin. So add them to your cereal for a delicious breakfast or just enjoy some on their own to help slow down your skin ageing process!
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade! We all know vitamin C is essential and great for you, but how exactly does it benefit the skin? Well, we need it to produce collagen, a protein that supports skin firmness, strength and repair. Citrus fruits contain loads of vitamin C, which helps our body produce collagen and elastin which are essential for firmer, healthier skin. Wrinkles be gone! Health tip: Take a cup of lemon water first thing in the morning on an empty stomach to detoxify your liver and face your day’s challenges with zest!
So there you have it, 5 superfoods you need to jumpstart your beauty regime. Be your own kind of superhero(ine) today!
In good hands, | <urn:uuid:70cad26d-3c37-47fc-bd7b-2d06bc755a72> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://esteticabeauty.com/blog/beautiful-skin-inside/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570921.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809094531-20220809124531-00270.warc.gz | en | 0.943163 | 953 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Utilitech Compact Fluorescent Lamps ( CFL Bulbs )
A Utilitech Compact Fluorescent Lamp, or Utilitech CFL Bulb for short, is designed to directly replace the more traditional incandescent light bulb. Also known as Energy Saving Light Bulbs in Europe, will fit into any bayonet or edison screwthread lighting fixture.
CFL Bulbs work in exactly the same way as traditional fluorescent strip lighting used for decades in industrial applications. The only difference is now there exists technology to bend the fluorescent tube into a shape that will fit into the same space as a regular lightbulb. The other advancement in technology that has made CFL bulbs possible is the compact electronic ballast. An electronic ballast is a small circuit the regulates the electricity in the bulb, eliminating flicker.
How do CFL Bulbs Work?
Like all fluorescent lighting, CFL bulbs are filled with mercury vapour, an inert gas like argon or krypton and at luminous material like phosphorus.
When electricity is passed through the tube, the mercury vapour is “excited” which in turn activates the phosphorous material causing it to emit light.
The phosphorous material in the light is what gives it it’s colour, the more phosphorous you add to the light, the more like daylight the colour will become. However, there is a drawback, the more phosphorous you add, more electricity will be needed to power the bulb.
CFL Bulbs are Energy Efficient
A 20 watt Utilitech CFL Bulb will emit the same amount of light as a 100 watt incandescent bulb. That is 1/5th of the power of a traditional light bulb, imagine is you replaced all the incandescent bulbs in your home with Utilitech Lighting CFL bulbs, your power costs for lighting would be reduced by a massive 80%.
Because they are so energy efficient, CFL bulbs produce very little heat. This can be a great relief for anyone who has been used to the effect that their halogen recessed lighting has been having on their kitchen. You will also save even more energy there will be less need to use air conditioning due to the reduced heat.
They also have very long lives, where as the typical incandescent bulb lasts for around 1 year to 18 months, a CFL bulb will last up to 15 years.
There are Some Disadvantages
CFL bulbs used to cost considerable more than incandescent bulbs. As more people adopt them and they are manufactured in greater quantity, the price gap is slowly narrowing. Today a CFL bulb is only around twice the price of an incandescent.
All fluorescent type bulbs contains mercury vapour. This means that care has to be taken not to break the bulb, as the mercury vapour can escape, causing health issues. Mercury should not be disposed of in the normal trash. CFL light bulbs should be taken to specialist disposal centres. Information on you closest disposal centre will be available from your local municipality.
Warm up time is another minor disadvantage of the CFL bulb. Incandescent bulbs are “instant on”, reaching their full brightness as soon as the light switch is flicked. CFL bulbs may take up to 2 minutes to warm up and reach their full brightness. Because these types of bulb are only designed to work at one power rating, they are not suitable for dimmer switches.
Whatever the short comings of Utilitech CFL bulbs may be, one thing is clear, they use significantly less power than traditional bulbs. While new emerging technologies like LED may one day eventually surpass CFL, at this point in time they remain the most cost efficient and environmentally friendly option. | <urn:uuid:6952df25-65d2-49ab-9c76-7b590ea4c4ba> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.utilitechlighting.org/cfl-bulbs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571056.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809155137-20220809185137-00673.warc.gz | en | 0.944775 | 756 | 2.640625 | 3 |
One forgets how very very good the online Perl documentation is.
I recently decided to while away an hour or two by trying to learn the basics of the WordPerfect 8 macro language. Partly this is just nostalgia -- once upon a time I knew the WP5.1 macro language quite well -- and partly it was that I was so fed up with the lack of a working command in MSWord for "copy this as HTML" that I decided to try cobbling something of the sort together for my WP8.
So I tried reading the docs for WP8's macro language. I would kill for something like perlfunc for it. There's a short reference to the commands, but nothing like the start of perlfunc, the "Perl Functions by Category" part.
Here's my contribution to macrodom:
Application (WordPerfect; "WordPerfect"; Default!; "EN")
// Open a window for the directory containing the current file.
AppExecute (CommandLine: "explorer.exe " + ?Path)
Once I get my copy-as-HTML macro producing better code, I'll post it. | <urn:uuid:ac2592cb-de5c-4744-b456-148d59966b45> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://use.perl.org/use.perl.org/_TorgoX/journal/5069.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280730.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00249-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938641 | 236 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Radiation therapy treats cancer by using high-energy waves to kill tumor cells. The goal is to destroy or damage the cancer without hurting too many healthy cells.
This treatment can cause side effects, but they’re different for everyone. The ones you have depend on the type of radiation you get, how much you get, the part of your body that gets treatment, and how healthy you are overall.
There’s no way to predict how radiation will affect you. You may have few or only mild side effects from your treatment; someone else may have a lot of problems or very severe ones.
When you get radiation therapy, you’ll work with a doctor who specializes in this type of medicine. It's important to talk with her about how the treatment might make you feel and what you can do to feel better. If the therapy makes you uncomfortable, speak up. If you keep your health team informed, they can help you get through treatment.
How Soon Might I Have Side Effects From Radiation Therapy?
There are two kinds of radiation side effects: early and late. Early side effects, such as nausea and fatigue, usually don’t last long. They may start during or right after treatment and last for several weeks after it ends, but then they get better. Late side effects, such as lung or heart problems, may take years to show up and are often permanent when they do.
The most common early side effects are fatigue and skin problems. You might get others, such as hair loss and nausea, depending on where you get radiation.
How Can I Handle Fatigue?
The fatigue you feel from cancer and radiation therapy is different from other times you may have felt tired. It’s an exhaustion that doesn’t get better with rest and can keep you from doing the things you normally do, like going to work or spending time with family and friends. It also can seem different from day to day, which makes it hard to plan around it. It can even change how well you're able to follow your cancer treatment plan.
Let your doctor know if you’re struggling with fatigue. She might be able to help. There are also things you can do to feel better:
- Take care of your health. Be sure you're taking your medications the way you're supposed to. Get plenty of rest, be as active as you can, and eat the right foods.
- Work with a counselor or take a class at your cancer treatment center to learn ways to conserve energy, reduce stress, and keep yourself from focusing on the fatigue.
- Save your energy for the activities that are most important to you. Tackle them first when you’re feeling up to it.
- Keep a balance between rest and activities. Too much bed rest can make you more tired. But don't over-schedule your days without giving yourself breaks.
- Ask for help from family and friends. If fatigue is interfering with your job, talk with your boss or HR department and ask about taking some time off from work or making adjustments in your schedule.
Keep in mind that the fatigue from radiation therapy will probably go away within a few weeks after your treatment ends.
What Kind of Skin Problems Can Radiation Therapy Cause?
The way external radiation therapy affects your skin is similar to what happens when you spend time in the sun. It may look red, sunburned, or tanned. It may also get swollen or blistered. Your skin may also become dry, flaky, or itchy. Or it may start to peel.
Be gentle with your skin:
- Don't wear tight clothing over the area that's being treated.
- Don't scrub or rub your skin. To clean it, use a mild soap and let lukewarm water run over it.
- Avoid putting anything hot or cold on the area unless the doctor tells you to.
- Ask your doctor before you use any type of ointment, oil, lotion, or powder on your skin.
- Ask about using corn starch to help relieve itching.
- Stay out of the sun as much as possible. Cover the area getting radiation with clothing or hats to protect it. Ask the doctor about using sunscreen if you must be outdoors.
- If you’re having radiation therapy for breast cancer, try not to wear a bra. If that isn't possible, wear a soft, cotton one without underwire.
- Don't use any tape, gauze, or bandages on your skin unless the doctor tells you to.
Your skin should start to feel better a few weeks after therapy ends. But when it heals, it may be a darker color. And you’ll still need to protect yourself from the sun even after radiation therapy has ended.
Will Radiation Therapy Cause My Hair to Fall Out?
Only people who get radiation to the scalp or the brain may have hair loss. Others won't. If it does happen, it’s usually sudden and comes out in clumps. In most cases, your hair will grow back after therapy stops, but it may be thinner or have a different texture.
Some people choose to cut their hair short before treatment begins to make less weight on the hair shaft. If you lose hair on top of your head, be sure to wear a hat or a scarf to protect your scalp from the sun when you go outside. If you decide to buy a wig, ask the doctor to write a prescription for one and check to see if it's covered by your insurance or is a tax-deductible expense.
What Are Other Possible Early Side Effects From Radiation Therapy?
Other early side effects you might have usually depend on where you get the radiation.
Radiation therapy to the head, neck, or parts of the digestive system can make you lose your appetite. But it's important to keep eating a healthy diet while you’re having treatment to keep your body strong.
- Try eating five or six small meals spread out through the day instead of three large ones.
- Try new recipes or foods.
- Keep healthy snacks on hand. It will help you eat when you're hungry rather than waiting for mealtimes and maybe losing your appetite.
Before you start radiation to your head or neck, see your dentist for a thorough exam. Radiation can cause problems in your mouth that include:
- Mouth sores (little cuts or ulcers)
- Lack of saliva
- Thick saliva
- Trouble swallowing
- Jaw stiffness
Tell your cancer team about any of these problems so they can help you feel better. To help manage these side effects:
- Avoid spicy and acidic foods.
- Don't smoke, chew tobacco, or drink alcohol.
- Brush your teeth often with fluoride toothpaste and a soft brush.
Radiation therapy to the head can sometimes cause hearing problems. One reason might be that it hardens the wax in your ears. Let your doctor know if you have trouble hearing.
Radiation to the head, neck, and any part of the digestive tract can cause nausea and vomiting. Let your doctor know if that happens. She can give you medicine to control it. Also, you might be able to learn relaxation techniques and biofeedback to help control and reduce feelings of nausea.
Radiation therapy to your belly can cause diarrhea, which typically starts a few weeks after therapy begins. The doctor will likely prescribe medications to help control it. She’ll also suggest changes in your diet, such as eating small meals more often, avoiding high-fiber foods, and getting enough potassium.
Fertility and Sexual Issues
Radiation therapy to your pelvis can affect your sex drive and whether you’ll be able to have a child. If you want to start a family or have more children, it’s important to talk to your doctor about how the treatment will affect your fertility before treatment begins.
Women shouldn’t try to get pregnant during radiation therapy because it can hurt the baby. It also can stop periods and cause other symptoms of menopause.
For men, radiation to the testes can affect sperm count and how well they work. This doesn't necessarily mean you can't father a child. But if you want to have kids later on, you should talk with your doctor to see if you should use a sperm bank before treatment begins.
Treatment to the pelvis can make sex painful for some women and can also cause scarring that makes the vagina less able to stretch. In men, radiation can affect the nerves and blood vessels that control erections. Your doctor can help you understand what might happen and how you can handle it.
It's natural to have less interest in sex when you’re having treatment for cancer. But your sex drive will usually come back after treatment stops. Talk openly with your partner about how you can stay close. Make sure you listen to their concerns, too.
What Are the Late Side Effects From Radiation Therapy?
Late side effects from radiation therapy take months and sometimes years to show up and usually don’t go away. But not everyone will have them.
These problems happen when radiation damages your body. For example, scar tissue can affect the way your lungs or your heart works. Bladder, bowel, fertility, and sexual problems can start after radiation to your belly or pelvis.
Another possible late side effect is a second cancer. Doctors have known for a long time that radiation can cause cancer. And research has shown that, although rare, some people can get the disease again after radiation therapy has cured them before. Talk with your doctor about the potential risk and how it compares to the benefits you’ll get from radiation therapy. | <urn:uuid:e708d7d9-bec8-49af-8333-04206c9b1ba2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.webmd.com/cancer/what-to-expect-from-radiation-therapy?src=rsf_full-2946_pub_none_xlnk | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279189.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00053-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951632 | 1,997 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Social media is a popular and powerful set of online tools for communication, engagement and connections across communities.
Value to IFLA
Social media provide value to IFLA members by providing:
Insight into IFLA’s advocacy activities and professional activities, and potential for direct contribution;
Forums to discuss professional issues with colleagues, on topics of interest to members;
Amplification of events including President's Meetings, annual Congress;
Links to relevant and timely news and issues (knowledge sharing).
Social media at IFLA
IFLA Headquarters manages IFLA accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo and YouTube, which represent the main outlets for official IFLA news and information via social media.
IFLA Headquarters supports use of social media by:
Utilising social media channels to raise IFLA’s profile in the broader environment;
Monitoring mentions of IFLA across social media, amplifying communication as appropriate;
Providing guidance to Officers on use of social media;
Managing notice and takedown procedures for content hosted on the ifla.org domain (sites such as Twitter and Facebook have their own takedown procedures).
It is up to each IFLA unit (Strategic Programmes, Divisions, Sections and SIGs) how they prefer to communicate, bearing in mind issues of geography, technology access and cost, and reporting requirements. There is no obligation to use any particular social media site to communicate with members. IFLA provides blogs and mailing lists.
Your own social media accounts
Any content shared on an IFLA social media account should consider these basic principles:
Be accurate, timely, professional:
Make sure that you have all the facts before you post. Cite your sources. Respect privacy and copyright – don’t post personal information without consent, and only use third-party materials (such as photos) where you have permission to do so. Choose administrators for social media accounts who can monitor and respond in a timely fashion. Write in an engaging, active tone;
Be considerate of IFLA’s name and branding:
You may not imply IFLA endorsement of statements, events, products or services without written permission;
You must not modify the IFLA logo. You may choose an avatar or other image to represent your account, such as the section name.
Utilise the expertise of your IFLA community. Make sure that standing committee members are participants and contribute to the dialogue.
Identify yourself and take responsibility. When participating in or maintaining a social media site on behalf of your IFLA unit, clearly state your role and goals.
Naming social media accounts
IFLA units must clearly name themselves when creating social media accounts. You may use an acronym or the full name. For example:
IFLA Academic and Research Libraries Section
Section Information Coordinators, SIG conveners, and other persons responsible for social media, blog and other content disseminated by IFLA units, must be a member of their standing committee and abide by IFLA’s Rules of Procedure
It is good practice for more than one standing committee member to have access.
Accounts that are no longer necessary should be deleted.
Questions about content
If you have any questions about content, seek guidance from IFLA Headquarters or your section Chair before posting. Please contact email@example.com for more information.
IFLA reserves the right to remove or retract any content that is deemed to be inappropriate, inaccurate or in violation of copyright. Such content includes, but is not limited to, content that is unsolicited, commercial, off-topic, abusive, obscene, in violation of copyright laws, otherwise unlawful, fraudulent, or threatening. | <urn:uuid:059e4ae6-1f90-4149-a9a7-03631141d749> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://ifla.org/social-media-guidelines | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280128.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00384-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905757 | 779 | 1.648438 | 2 |
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