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Vic govt declines to comment on possum extinction
Victoria's faunal emblem the leadbeater possum is nearly extinct despite efforts to prevent the animals' demise. The Victorian government has declined to comment to PM on the issue, despite several requests.
Source: PM | Duration: 6min 20sec
MARK COLVIN: Last night we ran an interview with the leading expert on Victoria's faunal emblem the Leadbeater's possum who warned of the creature's likely extinction.
Professor David Lindenmayer of the ANU draws on more than 30 years of work in the Victorian Ash forests studying the possum.
He argued among other things that a new national park was needed to protect the Leadbeater's possum, because without areas completely free of logging, it had no chance of survival.
We said then that we'd be seeking a substantial response from the Victorian government tonight.
Today, the Victorian Environment Minister, Ryan Smith, declined our invitation to appear.
He referred us to the Agriculture Minister, Peter Walsh, who was also unavailable.
PM then approached the Premier's office, but he too declined.
Mr Walsh's office suggested we talk instead to the loggers' peak body, the Victorian Association of Forest Industries.
Its Chief Executive is Lisa Marty.
LISA MARTY: Look I, I think given the impact of the 2009 bushfires, which burnt 45 per cent of the Leadbeater possum reserve area, the survival of the Leadbeater possum is a concern for many Victorians, certainly including those in the forest and wood products industry.
MARK COLVIN: You don't accept what Professor Lindenmayer says, that it's the effect of both logging and bushfires?
LISA MARTY: Look I think there's a range of challenges facing the Leadbeater possum, but overwhelmingly the impact of the 2009 bushfires has made the situation very critical. As an industry and certainly as the Victorian Association of Forest Industries we're committed to responsible forest management and to the recovery of the Leadbeater possum alongside a sustainable local forest and wood products industry.
MARK COLVIN: And critical means urgent doesn't it? I mean what's being done in the very short term?
LISA MARTY: It is about the short term future of the Leadbeater possum but it's also about the future of the possum in the long term.
David Lindenmayer's work does show that over time there are a range of challenges facing the possum; so there are both short and longer term challenges.
MARK COLVIN: But this advisory committee, this Leadbeater's Possum Advisory Group, when is that going to produce any real results?
LISA MARTY: The group has been requested to provide recommendations back to the government before the end of the year. It's quite a short timeframe but we will be drawing on the latest science, including the work of Professor Lindenmayer, as well as the outcomes of recent work by the Arthur Rylah Institute, which was commissioned by the Victorian government, last year as well as the contributions of stakeholders.
MARK COLVIN: Well he tells me that he's been writing to the government and has had really no response, is he going to have any guarantee of being properly listened to by this group?
LISA MARTY: Certainly. It is absolutely crucial that the work of respected scientists such as Professor Lindenmayer, the scientists at the Arthur Rylah Institute, forest scientists, social scientists, provide concrete recommendations to the advisory group to draw on alongside the contributions of key stakeholders.
MARK COLVIN: What about his proposal that there should be a new national park; that there should be an area which is specifically reserved from logging because he says that's the only way the Leadbeater's possum, which is the emblem of Victoria, is going to survive.
LISA MARTY: Look it's difficult at this stage to pre-judge what might come out of the work of the advisory group. Suffice to say that Professor Lindenmayer is one of the key experts being engaged, and his work will...
MARK COLVIN: But isn't it fair to say that the Forest Industry Association and its previous iterations have always opposed any attempt to lock off more land for the protection of the possum?
LISA MARTY: Look I think in reality there has been an increase in reserves for the possum. It's very unfortunate that along with the impacts on the community of the 2009 bushfires, 45 per cent of the Leadbeater possum reserve area was effected. And unfortunately the Leadbeater possum has been shown to be incredibly fire sensitive and does not continue to exist in the areas which have been effect by fire; so that is really driving a more critical situation.
MARK COLVIN: You would have heard your predecessor, Robert Bain, of the Forest Industry Association last night on the Four Corners program in 1991 saying that he was not worried in the sense that good management would maintain a healthy population of Leadbeater's possum. And he told me at the time it would be alright because they'd be putting in nesting boxes. Now David Lindenmayer says that he did a 10 year study on that nesting boxes idea and the possums simply don't use them. So why would your optimism now be anymore well placed than his then?
LISA MARTY: Look I think that's true, that research has shown that in the Ash forests, where this population of Leadbeater's possums exist, nest boxes are not preferred. They do work very well in Yellingbo, it's difficult to look back and...
MARK COLVIN: That means that you have to have what they call "stag trees" those are the old trees that have the big old hollows in them.
LISA MARTY: That's right.
MARK COLVIN: And the pattern is, isn't it, that the foresters have tended to clear fell them and not leave enough for the possums?
LISA MARTY: Look there are a range of prescriptions in place at the moment to protect Leadbeater possum habitat. Obviously this is a challenging situation and we need to look at what needs to be done in the future, certainly we can look back and we need to learn from the past. But we need to understand based on the work of key scientists right now, what do we need to be doing in the future to ensure the recovery of the Leadbeater's possum. And we certainly believe that the sustainable local timber industry can co-exist.
MARK COLVIN: Lisa Marty, the chief executive of the Victorian Association of Forest Industries. | <urn:uuid:c759bab3-6064-4e3a-a064-574c9effc461> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-14/vic-govt-declines-to-comment-on-possum-extinction/4887560 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280761.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00092-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97022 | 1,417 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Overview of the .NET Framework
The .NET Framework is an integral Windows component that supports building and running the next generation of applications and XML Web services. The .NET Framework is designed to fulfill the following objectives:
- To provide a consistent object-oriented programming environment whether object code is stored and executed locally, executed locally but Internet-distributed, or executed remotely.
- To provide a code-execution environment that minimizes software deployment and versioning conflicts.
- To provide a code-execution environment that promotes safe execution of code, including code created by an unknown or semi-trusted third party.
- To provide a code-execution environment that eliminates the performance problems of scripted or interpreted environments.
- To make the developer experience consistent across widely varying types of applications, such as Windows-based applications and Web-based applications.
- To build all communication on industry standards to ensure that code based on the .NET Framework can integrate with any other code.
The .NET Framework has two main components: the common language runtime and the .NET Framework class library. The common language runtime is the foundation of the .NET Framework. You can think of the runtime as an agent that manages code at execution time, providing core services such as memory management, thread management, and remoting, while also enforcing strict type safety and other forms of code accuracy that promote security and robustness. In fact, the concept of code management is a fundamental principle of the runtime. Code that targets the runtime is known as managed code, while code that does not target the runtime is known as unmanaged code. The class library, the other main component of the .NET Framework, is a comprehensive, object-oriented collection of reusable types that you can use to develop applications ranging from traditional command-line or graphical user interface (GUI) applications to applications based on the latest innovations provided by ASP.NET, such as Web Forms and XML Web services.
The .NET Framework can be hosted by unmanaged components that load the common language runtime into their processes and initiate the execution of managed code, thereby creating a software environment that can exploit both managed and unmanaged features. The .NET Framework not only provides several runtime hosts, but also supports the development of third-party runtime hosts.
For example, ASP.NET hosts the runtime to provide a scalable, server-side environment for managed code. ASP.NET works directly with the runtime to enable ASP.NET applications and XML Web services, both of which are discussed later in this topic.
Internet Explorer is an example of an unmanaged application that hosts the runtime (in the form of a MIME type extension). Using Internet Explorer to host the runtime enables you to embed managed components or Windows Forms controls in HTML documents. Hosting the runtime in this way makes managed mobile code (similar to Microsoft® ActiveX® controls) possible, but with significant improvements that only managed code can offer, such as semi-trusted execution and isolated file storage.
The following illustration shows the relationship of the common language runtime and the class library to your applications and to the overall system. The illustration also shows how managed code operates within a larger architecture.
.NET Framework in context
The following sections describe the main components and features of the .NET Framework in greater detail.
Features of the Common Language Runtime
The common language runtime manages memory, thread execution, code execution, code safety verification, compilation, and other system services. These features are intrinsic to the managed code that runs on the common language runtime.
With regards to security, managed components are awarded varying degrees of trust, depending on a number of factors that include their origin (such as the Internet, enterprise network, or local computer). This means that a managed component might or might not be able to perform file-access operations, registry-access operations, or other sensitive functions, even if it is being used in the same active application.
The runtime enforces code access security. For example, users can trust that an executable embedded in a Web page can play an animation on screen or sing a song, but cannot access their personal data, file system, or network. The security features of the runtime thus enable legitimate Internet-deployed software to be exceptionally feature rich.
The runtime also enforces code robustness by implementing a strict type-and-code-verification infrastructure called the common type system (CTS). The CTS ensures that all managed code is self-describing. The various Microsoft and third-party language compilers generate managed code that conforms to the CTS. This means that managed code can consume other managed types and instances, while strictly enforcing type fidelity and type safety.
In addition, the managed environment of the runtime eliminates many common software issues. For example, the runtime automatically handles object layout and manages references to objects, releasing them when they are no longer being used. This automatic memory management resolves the two most common application errors, memory leaks and invalid memory references.
The runtime also accelerates developer productivity. For example, programmers can write applications in their development language of choice, yet take full advantage of the runtime, the class library, and components written in other languages by other developers. Any compiler vendor who chooses to target the runtime can do so. Language compilers that target the .NET Framework make the features of the .NET Framework available to existing code written in that language, greatly easing the migration process for existing applications.
While the runtime is designed for the software of the future, it also supports software of today and yesterday. Interoperability between managed and unmanaged code enables developers to continue to use necessary COM components and DLLs.
The runtime is designed to enhance performance. Although the common language runtime provides many standard runtime services, managed code is never interpreted. A feature called just-in-time (JIT) compiling enables all managed code to run in the native machine language of the system on which it is executing. Meanwhile, the memory manager removes the possibilities of fragmented memory and increases memory locality-of-reference to further increase performance.
Finally, the runtime can be hosted by high-performance, server-side applications, such as Microsoft® SQL Server™ and Internet Information Services (IIS). This infrastructure enables you to use managed code to write your business logic, while still enjoying the superior performance of the industry's best enterprise servers that support runtime hosting.
.NET Framework Class Library
The .NET Framework class library is a collection of reusable types that tightly integrate with the common language runtime. The class library is object oriented, providing types from which your own managed code can derive functionality. This not only makes the .NET Framework types easy to use, but also reduces the time associated with learning new features of the .NET Framework. In addition, third-party components can integrate seamlessly with classes in the .NET Framework.
For example, the .NET Framework collection classes implement a set of interfaces that you can use to develop your own collection classes. Your collection classes will blend seamlessly with the classes in the .NET Framework.
As you would expect from an object-oriented class library, the .NET Framework types enable you to accomplish a range of common programming tasks, including tasks such as string management, data collection, database connectivity, and file access. In addition to these common tasks, the class library includes types that support a variety of specialized development scenarios. For example, you can use the .NET Framework to develop the following types of applications and services:
- Console applications.
- Windows GUI applications (Windows Forms).
- ASP.NET applications.
- XML Web services.
- Windows services.
For example, the Windows Forms classes are a comprehensive set of reusable types that vastly simplify Windows GUI development. If you write an ASP.NET Web Form application, you can use the Web Forms classes.
Client Application Development
Client applications are the closest to a traditional style of application in Windows-based programming. These are the types of applications that display windows or forms on the desktop, enabling a user to perform a task. Client applications include applications such as word processors and spreadsheets, as well as custom business applications such as data-entry tools, reporting tools, and so on. Client applications usually employ windows, menus, buttons, and other GUI elements, and they likely access local resources such as the file system and peripherals such as printers.
Another kind of client application is the traditional ActiveX control (now replaced by the managed Windows Forms control) deployed over the Internet as a Web page. This application is much like other client applications: it is executed natively, has access to local resources, and includes graphical elements.
In the past, developers created such applications using C/C++ in conjunction with the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) or with a rapid application development (RAD) environment such as Microsoft® Visual Basic®. The .NET Framework incorporates aspects of these existing products into a single, consistent development environment that drastically simplifies the development of client applications.
The Windows Forms classes contained in the .NET Framework are designed to be used for GUI development. You can easily create command windows, buttons, menus, toolbars, and other screen elements with the flexibility necessary to accommodate shifting business needs.
For example, the .NET Framework provides simple properties to adjust visual attributes associated with forms. In some cases the underlying operating system does not support changing these attributes directly, and in these cases the .NET Framework automatically recreates the forms. This is one of many ways in which the .NET Framework integrates the developer interface, making coding simpler and more consistent.
Unlike ActiveX controls, Windows Forms controls have semi-trusted access to a user's computer. This means that binary or natively executing code can access some of the resources on the user's system (such as GUI elements and limited file access) without being able to access or compromise other resources. Because of code access security, many applications that once needed to be installed on a user's system can now be deployed through the Web. Your applications can implement the features of a local application while being deployed like a Web page.
Server Application Development
Server-side applications in the managed world are implemented through runtime hosts. Unmanaged applications host the common language runtime, which allows your custom managed code to control the behavior of the server. This model provides you with all the features of the common language runtime and class library while gaining the performance and scalability of the host server.
The following illustration shows a basic network schema with managed code running in different server environments. Servers such as IIS and SQL Server can perform standard operations while your application logic executes through the managed code.
Server-side managed code
ASP.NET is the hosting environment that enables developers to use the .NET Framework to target Web-based applications. However, ASP.NET is more than just a runtime host; it is a complete architecture for developing Web sites and Internet-distributed objects using managed code. Both Web Forms and XML Web services use IIS and ASP.NET as the publishing mechanism for applications, and both have a collection of supporting classes in the .NET Framework.
XML Web services, an important evolution in Web-based technology, are distributed, server-side application components similar to common Web sites. However, unlike Web-based applications, XML Web services components have no UI and are not targeted for browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Instead, XML Web services consist of reusable software components designed to be consumed by other applications, such as traditional client applications, Web-based applications, or even other XML Web services. As a result, XML Web services technology is rapidly moving application development and deployment into the highly distributed environment of the Internet.
If you have used earlier versions of ASP technology, you will immediately notice the improvements that ASP.NET and Web Forms offer. For example, you can develop Web Forms pages in any language that supports the .NET Framework. In addition, your code no longer needs to share the same file with your HTTP text (although it can continue to do so if you prefer). Web Forms pages execute in native machine language because, like any other managed application, they take full advantage of the runtime. In contrast, unmanaged ASP pages are always scripted and interpreted. ASP.NET pages are faster, more functional, and easier to develop than unmanaged ASP pages because they interact with the runtime like any managed application.
The .NET Framework also provides a collection of classes and tools to aid in development and consumption of XML Web services applications. XML Web services are built on standards such as SOAP (a remote procedure-call protocol), XML (an extensible data format), and WSDL ( the Web Services Description Language). The .NET Framework is built on these standards to promote interoperability with non-Microsoft solutions.
For example, the Web Services Description Language tool included with the .NET Framework SDK can query an XML Web service published on the Web, parse its WSDL description, and produce C# or Visual Basic source code that your application can use to become a client of the XML Web service. The source code can create classes derived from classes in the class library that handle all the underlying communication using SOAP and XML parsing. Although you can use the class library to consume XML Web services directly, the Web Services Description Language tool and the other tools contained in the SDK facilitate your development efforts with the .NET Framework.
If you develop and publish your own XML Web service, the .NET Framework provides a set of classes that conform to all the underlying communication standards, such as SOAP, WSDL, and XML. Using those classes enables you to focus on the logic of your service, without concerning yourself with the communications infrastructure required by distributed software development.
Finally, like Web Forms pages in the managed environment, your XML Web service will run with the speed of native machine language using the scalable communication of IIS. | <urn:uuid:38359125-3b66-4d97-988b-2c10fe330f9a> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zw4w595w(VS.71).aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281450.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00181-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919414 | 2,836 | 3.21875 | 3 |
As many will recall, the U.S. Department of Labor issued regulations in May 2016 that would have increased dramatically the minimum salary requirements for the Fair Labor Standards Act’s “white-collar” overtime exemptions. The 2016 FLSA regulations would have more than doubled the minimum weekly salary requirement for most white-collar overtime exemptions from $455 to $913 and contained a number of additional provisions, the vast majority of which were not viewed favorably by employers.
In November 2016, mere days before those FLSA regulations were set to become law, a federal judge issued an injunction blocking those regulations from taking effect. Since then, the possibility of those regulations ever taking effect has diminished substantially.
Now, it appears that the changes the 2016 FLSA regulations promised may become a reality for Pennsylvania employers. Yesterday, Governor Wolf announced that the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry will propose new regulations under the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act that will increase the minimum salary requirement for the white-collar overtime exemptions under this state law.
The PMWA is the state-law equivalent of the FLSA. The PMWA and FLSA both place minimum wage and overtime pay obligations on Pennsylvania employers. While the laws’ requirements are similar, they are not identical. Employers in Pennsylvania must meet the requirements of both laws to ensure compliance. In areas where one law is more favorable to employees than the other, employers must comply with the more pro-employee requirements to avoid liability for unpaid minimum wages or overtime pay.
Governor Wolf announced that the proposed PMWA regulations will raise the salary level to determine overtime eligibility for most white-collar workers from the current FLSA minimum of $23,660 (i.e., $455 per week) to $31,720 (i.e., $610 per week) on January 1, 2020. If the proposed regulations ultimately take effect, the annual salary threshold will increase to $39,832 (i.e., $766 per week) on January 1, 2021, followed by $47,892 (i.e., $921 per week) in 2022. Starting in 2022, the salary threshold will update automatically every three years. (The terms of such automatic increases have not yet been released.)
In addition, unlike the 2016 FLSA regulations, Governor Wolf announced that the new PMWA regulations will “clarify” the duties tests for the white-collar exemptions. We can only assume that such “clarifications” when issued will not be favorable for employers and will make even more currently exempt employees now eligible for overtime.
The Department of Labor and Industry anticipates releasing the proposed regulations for public comment in March 2018.
For Pennsylvania employers, all of this will feel very familiar. Should the proposed regulations become final and take effect, employers in Pennsylvania will need to take the following steps:
- Identify those employees currently treated as exempt from overtime pay and determine whether their salaries will meet the new minimum salary thresholds.
- For those employees currently treated as exempt who earn less than the new minimum salary thresholds, consider whether to increase their salaries to meet the new salary requirements or convert the employees to non-exempt status and pay them for overtime worked.
Of course, Governor Wolf announced only that proposed regulations containing these changes will be coming in March. There is no guarantee that the proposed regulations will become final in the same or similar form, and, even if they do, legal challenges may await. The PA Chamber of Business and Industry already has announced its strong opposition to the proposed changes. There is also a gubernatorial election in November 2018 that may play a large role in the ultimate fate of these proposed regulations.
Whether and to what extent these changes will become law in 2020 remains to be seen. We will provide updates on the proposed regulations as the situation warrants. In the meantime, to quote the late great Yogi Berra, it’s déjà vu all over again. | <urn:uuid:387bf467-8e31-4237-a93e-4133391601ae> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.palaborandemploymentblog.com/2018/01/articles/uncategorized/now-pennsylvanias-turn-governor-wolf-announces-proposed-increases-minimum-salary-requirements-state-law-overtime-exemptions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573104.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817183340-20220817213340-00476.warc.gz | en | 0.956305 | 805 | 1.765625 | 2 |
RICHMOND – More community college students in Virginia soon may be able to earn a degree with little to no textbook costs, thanks to a grant to Virginia’s Community Colleges from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The $200,000 grant will be used to fund a pilot program at 15 of Virginia’s Community Colleges. The project would offer textbook-free credentials to students enrolled in designated programs.
Based in part on Tidewater Community College’s immensely successful all-Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative, or “Z-Degree” program, the grant-funded pilot is expected to save some 50,000 students over $5 million in its first year by using high-quality open textbooks and other OER materials, which are freely accessible and openly-licensed.
“Textbook costs have been a barrier since before I was a community college student,” said Glenn DuBois, chancellor of Virginia’s Community Colleges. “Technology is changing the way we access information, making it faster and less expensive without compromising quality. We may never be able to bring that to every course of study. We owe it to our students, however, to bring that flexibility to every course that we can.”
Virginia’s Community Colleges are a national leader in developing OER materials and courses. Their investment, over the last three years, have engaged more than 100 faculty members at 16 colleges to create more than 70 open courses.
“We are proud to support Virginia’s Community Colleges in this effort to make education more accessible by providing students with the course materials they need, when they need them, using open educational resources,” said Hewlett Foundation Program Officer TJ Bliss. “This project will not only make education more affordable to students of Virginia’s Community Colleges, it will also increase their faculty’s freedom and flexibility to open up the classroom with a wide range of adaptable course materials.”
(photo courtesy of Lumen Learning)
About Virginia’s Community Colleges: Created more than 40 years ago, the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) is comprised of 23 community colleges located on 40 campuses across the commonwealth. Together, Virginia’s Community Colleges serve more than 405,000 students each year. For more information, please visit http://www.vccs.edu/
About The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation: The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation helps people build measurably better lives, concentrating its resources on activities in education, the environment, global development and population, performing arts, and philanthropy, as well as grants to support disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. On the web: www.hewlett.org. | <urn:uuid:8f36ffef-3ce8-49b0-8106-009930e26341> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.vccs.edu/newsroom-articles/virginias-community-colleges-receive-grant-to-cut-textbook-costs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280891.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00157-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93755 | 570 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Cybersecurity and the Internet of Things
Yes, I know that, with everything going on in the world, this is hardly a top priority right now. But a report on The Register caught my eye this week, and reminded me I had intended to write about this. So here we go.
There has been talk for a while about security problems with IoT devices, and what needs to be done to mitigate those.
The government has issued a code of practice and, frankly, it's all really rather sensible.
It is — dare I say it? — a pretty good summary of the kind of things you would hope all manufacturers of IoT devices are already doing.
Is the code of practice a law?
While it talks about regulation, and the government has said that it is:
[c]ommitting to taking forward new legislation to mandate core aspects
of the code of practice, I have not seen any draft legislation. As far as I can tell, it's "principles only" at this stage.
(And, if I'm wrong, and there is draft legislation which I've missed or forgotten, I'll update this.)
What types of device are in scope?
I don't find this clear.
The Code of Practice says that it applies to:
consumer IoT products that are connected to the internet and/or home network and associated services
There is an (expressly non-exhaustive) list of examples, including:
- connected children’s toys and baby monitors
- Connected safety-relevant products such as smoke detectors and door locks
- Smart cameras, TVs and speakers
I think that this means that network infrastructure — such as routers, wireless access points, and powerline devices — and mobile phones (some of which receive software updates for far longer, and with far greater regularity, than others) are out of scope, even if aimed at the consumer market.
(There are existing rules governing security of networks and services, as well as sector-specific privacy obligations, but these do not bite on companies which manufacture networking equipment but do not operate networks or services.)
What obligations are in scope?
The code of practice contains a number of different obligations (and, in my view, they are all pretty sensible) but not all of them look set to make their way into the first phase of legislation.
Instead, it looks as if just three principles will make the initial cut:
- IoT device passwords must be unique and not resettable to any universal factory setting.
- Manufacturers of IoT products provide a public point of contact as part of a vulnerability disclosure policy.
- Manufacturers of IoT products explicitly state the minimum length of time for which the device will receive security updates.
Kitemarking — putting labels on products so that consumers can tell at a glance what is happening — appears to be on the backburner for now.
How these are implemented in law will be interesting.
I've griped before that a legal requirement that a password must be "unique" is going to be a fun one. I am guessing that a UUID-type solution would fit the bill (although hardly user-friendly, if they have to type it in anywhere), and I suspect that this is what was meant by "unique" even if it's not necessarily what "unique" would mean legally. This is the kind of issue which makes me keen to see actual draft legislation.
Who is in scope?
The government outlined four groups of actor in its consultation document:
- Device Manufacturers – The entity that creates an assembled final internet-connected product. A final product may contain the products of many other different manufacturers.
- IoT Service Providers – Companies that provide services such as networks, cloud storage and data transfer which are packaged as part of IoT solutions. Internet-connected devices may be offered as part of the service.
- Mobile Application Developers – Entities that develop and provide applications which run on mobile devices. These are often offered as a way of interacting with devices as part of an IoT solution.
- Retailers – The sellers of internet-connected products and associated services to consumers.
We will need to see on whom the initial set of three obligations are placed. The Device Manufacturers will, ultimately, need to ensure that they, or their supply chain, implements the requirements, but, without obligations on Retailers, they are unlikely to be effective.
Will it just lead to another set of contractual requirements imposed upstream from retailers? We'll just have to wait and see.
Also unclear is whether this can have any impact on the floods of cheap devices available on the likes of Aliexpress. I doubt it. But, perhaps, if you choose to buy from there rather than a "high street retailer" or its digital equivalent, caveat emptor remains appropriate? | <urn:uuid:7ed4b598-bfc2-4a4d-8f14-9431931fa07d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://decoded.legal/blog/2020/06/cybersecurity-and-internet-of-things | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572304.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816120802-20220816150802-00478.warc.gz | en | 0.965088 | 997 | 2.375 | 2 |
FISHERS — Days before the Spark Fishers Parade, the Fishers High School Tiger Band is preparing diligently for this performance, a showcase to the community.
"We're really excited to show everyone what we've been working on. Besides the Sparks Fishers Parade, we're also getting ready for the Macy's Day Parade in 2023, which is a big deal," Chad Kohler, director of athletic bands at FHS, said.
Kohler says making sure the students are prepared for these big performances and the season ahead is important, but doesn't trump keeping the kids safe when it's hot outside.
"They're inside warming up and then they'll be out. We'll be out here for about 25 minutes," he said. "We've not spent any longer than about an hour per segment outside."
"If it's really hot, we've been going inside and doing basics and choreography stuff in one of our gyms," Katy Delaney, one of the drum majors, said. "Since our June camp is at night, it's a little less hot and we're able to be out here when the sun is setting."
Summer break has been scorching for kids across Central Indiana, making it tough for students participating in any extra-curricular activity to be outside practicing.
Dr. Gary Kirkilas, a pediatrician at Phoenix Children's Hospital, says he understands the delicate balance parents face when sending their kids to practices when the weather is extremely hot. Living in Phoenix gives him a unique perspective on hot weather.
"I think this whole week it's like in the 105 and 108 range," Dr. Kirkilas said. He shares the most common thing he tells parents with school age kids doing activities outside.
"In general, what I do recommend is to avoid the hottest parts of the day between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.," he said. "If you're experiencing a lot of hot, [if] the skin turns to a reddish color, those are signs you're experiencing heat exhaustion. It's very scary when it turns into a heat stroke. The patient will get very confused, they're not acting like themselves."
NiCole R. Keith, PhD, the past president of the American College of Sports Medicine, says parents should tell their kids to listen to their bodies when they're participating in outdoor activities.
"Our brains will tell us when we need to hydrate. If a kid says I'm thirsty, you need to let that kid drink," she said. "The older we get, the worse we are at this. We say 'I can push myself a little bit harder.' For teenagers, high school students, it's the adult's responsibility to make sure they're hydrating because they will try to push."
Kohler says proper hydration and mandatory breaks are all things reinforced to the students by the staff.
"These kids are our kids. We have to look out for them as if they're ours. We reinforce with them. We mandate that they're hydrating constantly and showing up to rehearsals with food in their belly," Kohler said. | <urn:uuid:ffe9cbb3-fb73-47a3-9823-9b7a0d58d381> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/keeping-students-safe-when-the-weather-gets-hot | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571056.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809155137-20220809185137-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.976643 | 646 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Sona Vocabulary Assistant is full-featured, internet-aware application for language learners, providing 9 activities and games. Easily create and edit media-rich word lists, which can include examples in context, notes, four sound clips per item, Web links, images, and video clips. Designed by a university language teacher for his students and for himself!
- Fixed minor issues involving completion of list in dictation activity, loading of lists with sounds for some but not all item
- Fixes for minor issues involving autoplay of sounds in multiple choice and flashcard activities
Mac OS X 10.2.7 or later | <urn:uuid:11eed8b8-5b08-44bd-bdf0-d9d6a0b831d2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31913/sona-vocabulary-assistant | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282926.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00398-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922627 | 127 | 1.914063 | 2 |
UDM students inducted into National Jesuit Honor Society
Alpha Sigma Nu history:
Jesuit colleges and universities were not yet coeducational when Alpha Sigma Nu was founded at Marquette University in 1915. The society, known as Alpha Sigma Tau until 1930, spread from Marquette to Creighton University to St. Louis University and to the University of Detroit in its first decade. By 1924, Marquette University had become coeducational and Gamma Pi Epsilon was founded to honor outstanding women. Alpha Sigma Nu and Gamma Pi Epsilon pursued separate but similar paths for almost 50 years, expanding nationally and cooperating on campuses where they existed together. The society born of their merger in 1973 is now open to men and women at the 30 institutions of higher education in the United States, Sogang University in Korea and Regis College Toronto in Canada. [From the Alpha Sigma Nu website]
Several of the University’s brightest students were recently inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu, the national Jesuit Honor Society, on April 17. According to Alpha Sigma Nu’s website, this is the highest honor at Jesuit institutions, including all disciplines. Only four percent of students are invited to membership. This includes juniors, seniors and graduate students who are in the top 15 percent of their class and have a demonstrated record of service and loyalty to the Jesuit ideals of education. The UDM students are listed below according to their school or college.
College of Business Administration:
College of Engineering and Science:
College of Health Professions:
College of Liberal Arts and Education: | <urn:uuid:fcd7b6a2-5b4d-4546-a130-8419e3347cd6> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.udmercy.edu/alumni/newsletters/summer05/alphasigmanu.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279169.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00214-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917208 | 316 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Compendium of Brewing Research ENZYMES
is a summary compilation of ASBC’s peer-reviewed research on this important brewing component. Presented in one comprehensive easy-to-use CD-ROM, the Society has compiled over 30 years of enzymes science as it has appeared in the Journal of the ASBC.
This value-packed CD-ROM presents some of the most important enzymes research ever published, organized by date, and available from your desktop. More than 260 articles were custom selected from the Journal of the ASBC and are fully indexed and searchable back through 1977, so you can find exactly the information you need.
Boolean operators help you refine your searches to even more specific levels where you can quickly scan the article titles for relevance. Once you locate articles of interest, print them or view them on-screen. Everything is conveniently packaged for ease of use and fast access. Add this CD-ROM to your personal collection today and build your knowledge of enzymes and their functionality in brewing!
Purchase the entire 5-CD-ROM series and SAVE. Includes…
MEASUREMENTS & ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES
CLEANING & SANITATION
SENSORY & FLAVOR
Thank you to the Sponsors of the
Compendium of Brewing Research - Enzymes
Compendium of Brewing Research CD-ROM: Enzymes
Local area network (LAN) multi-user license is available for an upgrade fee. Please contact MBAA
for more details about LAN licensing for this product.
The CD-ROM is licensed for Single-Use only by the individual purchaser unless extra licenses have been purchased for additional users on a local area network (LAN). This product may not be copied or shared without permission. If you have purchased additional licenses for a LAN they will be documented on your invoice.
If you received the CD-ROM from a sponsoring company, you are limited to personal use privileges unless you purchase extra licenses for a LAN. If you have questions about your usage rights or to purchase additional user licenses for this product, please contact MBAA .
Publish Date: 2008
Format: CD-ROM format compatible with Mac or PC
Publication Weight: 1 lbs | <urn:uuid:a88dc2db-7920-4890-8792-c0fb7f2b21ad> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://my.mbaa.com/ItemDetail?iProductCode=96186 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571909.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813051311-20220813081311-00270.warc.gz | en | 0.88569 | 482 | 1.726563 | 2 |
FRASER Coast pet owners should take precautions to ensure their animals cannot get trapped in flooded backyards, the RSPCA has warned.
"We're urging owners to act sooner rather than leave it 'til the last minute," said spokesperson Michael Beatty.
"Animals need to be able to access an area you know won't go under water.
"Guinea pigs in particular are often kept in hutches in the backyard. With heavy rain, they can flood and the guinea pigs drown."
Mr Beatty said people should also ensure their pets had identification.
"After every storm we end up with an influx of stray and traumatised animals, many of which have no identification. If they have identification -in particular a microchip-we can contact the owner immediately." | <urn:uuid:b293241c-f931-48b9-859a-1b202da49709> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/dont-let-animals-go-under/1731895/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719784.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00426-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966111 | 161 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Just days after joining a lobbying coalition including Google, Uber, Lyft, and Volvo, Ford is continuing to blaze a new trail. Ford Motor Co. announced it is developing an electric vehicle to compete with Tesla’s Model 3 and the Chevrolet Bolt. CEO Mark Fields confirmed the plans in a conference car, stating the company wanted to be “among the leaders or in a leadership position” as more automakers introduce long-range battery-powered cars.”
Fields said Ford is aiming to be in the same league as the Volt and Model 3, which means it would offer a battery-electric vehicle with the goal of getting a 200-mile range on each charge. Although Fields did not have too many specifications about the car, it is expected to be called the Model E. Ford has a pending trademark application for “Model E.” The plans would be for it to be assembled in 2019 at a new Ford plant in Mexico.
It is likely that Ford would would offer three versions of the Model E – a pure electric, a plug-in hybrid and a traditional hybrid. In December, Fields announced that it would add 13 hybrid or electric vehicles to its fleet by 2020. Their goal is for 40 percent of the fleet to have some electrified version by 2020. This is a lofty goal since the company needs to spend $4.5 billion to accomplish the plan in four short years.
Ford’s current electric offerings including the Focus Electric with a 76-mile range. The Focus Electric’s range is increasing to 100 miles this fall. However, Chevy’s Bolt is getting around 200 miles at least according to the advertising. The Bolt will not be in driveways until late 2016. Meanwhile, Tesla continues to lead the segment, with its Model 3 drawing nearly 400,000 pre-orders despite a two-year wait for delivery. Nissan is not giving up on the Leaf, and will sell a redesigned version of the Leaf that goes at least 200 miles by 2018.
Although auto industry insiders believe consumers want to see a car in the 200 mile range to make them comfortable with battery-powered cars, Ford scoffed at the notion. Kevin Layden, the director of Ford’s electrification programs and engineering, said the Focus is good enough. “I think right now with the launch of the Focus Electric at 100 miles, it is going to satisfy a big chunk of the population,” Layden said. “It’s going to be really affordable and a step up from where we are now.”
Ford and Tesla had previously tangled over the trademark for “Model E.” Back in December of 2013, Ford filed for trademark status for the term just months after Tesla had attempted to claim the mark. “Model E” is similar to Ford’s legendary Model T. Tesla wanted the mark since many referred to its affordable electric vehicle as the Model E. In 2014, Tesla abandoned its attempt to get the mark. Neither Tesla or Ford would confirm that Ford asked Tesla to drop their claim. Ford has been filing for protection for Model E since 2000 and at one time planned to use it for electric boats, scooters, buses and vans. | <urn:uuid:1c189ba8-790d-43ed-96c5-392eab77fc98> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://steeringnews.com/now-ford-wants-to-compete-with-tesla-developing-electric-model-e/ | 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 | 0.970917 | 658 | 1.671875 | 2 |
On at the present time to nibble on merely fat free yogurt goods. Protein is the most difficult variety of meal to the human body in becoming fatand keep a place on the body. Initially you are going to shed lots of fat, that is largely merely water that's stashed with your human body. Even if this may appear to be good sense to the majority of, this gives off my head with the amount of people around now which slim down simply by popcorn an herbal viagra. As of late, there exists a terrific requirement for over weight Us residents to give up individuals excess pounds.
Dieta De Fruta
There lots of ideas on the market which might be strict along with accomplish thanks to the way stringent they are. It is a more sensible choice to be able to bake/poach meals, considering that charred eatables (barbecuing) aren't healthy for ones technique. Instead of just participating in conditioning exercises per month to the marriage,start earlier and have absolutely this perfect figure constantly. Perhaps pilates is an excellent strategy to overall tone the body right up, and also drop some weight in a very more relaxed, stress-free means. Thus, following a healthy way of life plus a proper dieting will let you reduce these extra inches in a natural manner.
Pomegranate Slim Pills
For case, in the meal incorporating problem you will possibly not want a few meals a day, you'll be found ways to get all of the benefits in significantly less foods. The weight great loss benefits associated with ingesting pears do not have to starve yourself, greedy try to eat oranges. It is much easier to keep a person's resolve if you have an pay back. You actually probably thought it was grain, which happens to be prevalent obviously, yet healthy proteins characterizes all of our number plates each and every supper. Improving necessary protein daily allowance through weight loss can also spare muscle mass causing decrease of a lot more extra fat.
Whenever you are feeling eager consume a window water 1st due to the fact which could do the trick. Just what exactly seriously makes a difference we have found that yoga exercise functions for your benefit by shifting via the lining, which can help anyone burn off people unwanted weight over time. This sort of fat loss can be a sign of a variety of critical disorders. It will be easy to attract right up a food and use strategy that is definitely designed specifically to assist you drop some weight. Your active webcast, going on Exclusive, will characteristic inquiries inquired by simply true women of all ages involving Mai along with dietician Christina Meyer-Jax about how celebrities get their particular hottest physiques to the red-colored carpets and rugs.
You can watch videos and will refer to the manual.
Very best Weight loss guidelines | <urn:uuid:fc4527bd-3ccf-4862-80b3-1a860af2b251> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://copytaste.com/q3774 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280835.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00049-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961085 | 567 | 1.53125 | 2 |
March 8, 2011 > Lessons from the past, looking to the future
Lessons from the past, looking to the future
By Alyson Whitaker
Alameda County Office of Education has organized a special History Day Weekend March 11-12. Over 200 students from Alameda and Contra Costa county schools will be presenting approximately 100 projects, including documentary films, websites, papers, museum exhibits, and dramatic performances revolving around this year's theme-"Debate and Diplomacy: Successes, Failures, Consequences."
The weekend will kick off with a special evening presentation from civil-rights pioneers Dolores Huerta and Cruz Reynoso. Ms. Huerta was co-founder of United Farm Workers, and Mr. Reynoso was California's first Latino Supreme Court justice. Both focused significant effort in their careers to gain fair and equal rights for working people. On Friday, March 11, the two will engage in conversation about their experiences and how it influenced the development of labor relations, as well as looking to the future and discussing the challenges that still remain.
"Today, more than ever, young people see the power of their collective voice," said Sheila Jordan, Superintendent of Alameda County Schools. "We welcome Dolores Huerta as a leader in movements for social change, and are excited to have her share her wisdom and experience with students and teachers."
The Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest makes history come alive for today's youth, encouraging them to discover and learn from the cultural, social, and historic experiences of yesteryear. Through students' hands-on presentations, participants are inspired to look ahead to the future and seek after ways to affect change-for themselves, their families, communities, and ultimately their nation. Students compete at local levels, with winners advancing to regional, state, and finally, the national competition held in June at the University of Maryland at College Park.
Individuals or teams choose historical topics related to the annual theme, and go through extensive research to develop their conclusions about their topics' historical significance. They then present their finished project to a team of judges. Judges evaluate the projects, and interview each participant or team about their findings. Students have the chance to share what they learned through their research, how the topic has relevance to the theme, and what they concluded through the experience.
Students gain more than a better understanding of the past through participation in the event. History provides a great reinforcement to principles learned in other core subjects. National History Day participation also helps students improve research and reading skills, as well as critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. They gain oral and written communication skills as they prepare and present their projects, which builds self-esteem and confidence. With a stronger understanding of the democratic process and the link between the past, present, and future, they are inspired to go into the world and put into practice lessons learned through their participation in National History Day.
Students will present their projects on Saturday, March 12 from noon-3 p.m., followed by an award ceremony from 3 p.m.-4:30 p.m. The award ceremony will feature a performance by Ricardo Salinas of Culture Clash, and will include the 2nd annual presentation of the Claudette Colvin award, which recognizes the best student project challenging injustice.
More information on the National History Day Weekend can be found online on the "Events" page of Alameda County Office of Education at http://www.acoe.org/historyday. Avi Black is the History & Social Science Coordinator at ACOE, and can be reached at (510) 670-4239, or firstname.lastname@example.org.
History Day Weekend:
Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12
Friday, March 11:
"A Special Evening Advancing Civility in Public Discourse"
5:30 p.m. -7:30 p.m.
Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388 Ninth Street, Oakland
Tickets may be purchased at the door, or online at http://www.acoe.org/historyday
$15 Adults/$5 Youth
Saturday, March 12:
History Day Student Competition
12 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Oakland Museum of California
1000 Oak Street, Oakland
3 p.m. -4:30 p.m.
"The Forum" at Laney College
900 Fallon Street, Oakland
Both Saturday events are free of charge and open to the public | <urn:uuid:90acaaa9-be5d-45fc-ae9d-adb3e084de23> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://tricityvoice.com/articlefiledisplay.php?issue=2011-03-08&file=HistoryDay+++TCV.txt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280364.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00034-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954749 | 917 | 2.40625 | 2 |
AIM. The European Brain Council (EBC) is a co-ordinating council formed of European organisations in psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery and basic neuroscience, as well as of European patient organisations in psychiatry and neurology. The EBC has analysed the burden and cost of brain disorders in Europe. The aim of the present study was to provide the best possible estimate of the cost of brain disorders in Estonia on the basis of available literature.
MATERIAL AND METHODS. The study is based on the methodology of the European cost study. Twelve different brain disorders were selected. The data are the aggregated results for Estonia which are in most cases imputed from the data obtained in other European countries.
RESULTS. The total number of persons with any brain disorder in Estonia was 370 000 in 2004. The most costly per case were brain tumours and multiple sclerosis, which have a relatively low prevalence. Anxiety disorders and migraine, on the contrary, had a very low cost per case but were highly prevalent. The total cost of all included brain disorders in Estonia was 264 million euros. Affective disorders were the most costly brain disorders, followed by dementia and stroke. Brain disorders consume 2% of the gross domestic product and cost each citizen of Estonia 194 euros per year.
CONCLUSIONS. Brain disorders are extremely costly and cause a huge burden to the Estonian society. The data of the present study are probably grossly underestimated. The main difficulty was lack of high level studies in Estonia and even in all of Europe, making imputations relatively uncertain. However, cost data are extremely important
for decision makers to analyse the effects of intervention and to calculate whether an increased research effort or an increased clinical effort would pay off. There is a need to conduct direct prospective studies to estimate the actual cost of brain disorders in Estonia. | <urn:uuid:25c9c825-a781-45e0-9a91-7e7724dc578e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://eestiarst.ee/en/cost-of-brain-disorders-in-estonia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570879.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808213349-20220809003349-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.963041 | 369 | 2.4375 | 2 |
EPA To Reconsider Lake Champlain Clean-Up Plan
03/10/10 7:34AM By John Dillon
(Host) The Environmental Protection Agency is reconsidering its approval of a state clean up plan for Lake Champlain.
The plan was approved by the federal government in 2002, but pollution levels have continued to rise in the big lake.
The Douglas Administration reacted strongly to the EPA decision. Environmental Conservation Commissioner Justin Johnson said at one point the EPA had declared the Vermont plan a model for other states.
(Johnson) "This seems to be a real slap in the face to all the work Vermont has done, both the administration, the legislature, taxpayers, the congressional delegation."
(Host) EPA's decision to re-examine the clean up plan was outlined in a document filed in federal court. The Conservation Law Foundation had sued the state and the federal government, saying the clean up plan was inadequate.
Chris Kilian is Vermont director of the Conservation Law Foundation. He says that the lake is not getting clean - and that the EPA action should result in more stringent protection measures.
(Kilian) "It's reasonable as you deal with a problem like cleaning up a big water body like Lake Champlain to go back to your original assumption and make changes when you know they're wrong. And that's I think the direction EPA is heading here."
(Host) The main pollution problem in the lake is phosphorus - a plant nutrient that feeds algae blooms. Kilian says that Governor Douglas promised the clean up plan would be implemented by 2009.
(Kilian) "Instead, what we've seen are eight years of delay from the Douglas Administration, a refusal to enhance programs that are needed to clean up the lake, and increasing information documenting that not only is the lake remaining polluted but in some instances getting worse."
(Host) Environmental Commissioner Johnson said Vermont has invested more than $100 million on clean up efforts. And he said when EPA approved the plan, the agency recognized that it may take decades for all the programs to succeed.
(Johnson) "And now, we get the sense that EPA is looking to back away from their decision to approve it. And we think that is very unfortunate."
(Host) Johnson questioned why the EPA found fault with the Vermont clean up program - but not with the New York portion of the plan.
He said the problems in the lake transcend state borders. | <urn:uuid:b3ca0638-813c-4ad6-bd37-1cdb8feabc72> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/87434/epa-to-reconsider-lake-champlain-clean-up-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281226.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00381-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954474 | 495 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Jesus is important for so many reasons. First and foremost, Jesus is important because He has
made it possible for us to be made right in our relationship with God.
All of us have sinned against God, both by what we have done and what we have not done. Because God is holy, He must punish our sins. We can’t do enough good things to pay for our sins, nor can we stand before God on the merits of our own righteousness.
But God is also infinitely loving and gracious. In His great love, He sent Jesus to die as our substitute. When Jesus died on the cross, God punished Him for our sins. Jesus took the wrath that we deserve so that we can experience God’s mercy and grace. Jesus was punished so that we could be free.
Jesus is important because He is the only way to God. Through Jesus, we experience forgiveness and the newness of life.
The Bible also says that Jesus is the King of Kings and has been exalted to the highest, most important place in the universe.
As it says in Philippians 2:9-11: "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Jesus is so important that one day everyone in the universe will bow before Him and declare that He is Lord. | <urn:uuid:d5ab7b58-1e73-4665-83dc-1fc04dec79e5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.lwf.org/questions-and-answers/why-is-jesus-important | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573760.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819191655-20220819221655-00674.warc.gz | en | 0.973832 | 322 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Here’s the nail in the coffin for Bill Cosby.
Supermodel Beverly Johnson wrote a shocking and telling piece in Vanity Fair, confessing that legendary actor/comedian Bill Cosby drugged her. Johnson’s story began when an agent called her to ask her to audition for a role on “The Cosby Show.” The part was small–she was to be a pregnant woman sitting in Cosby’s office waiting room, as Cosby played an obstetrician. Rumor has it, Cosby used models to play the roles. So when Beverly was offered the role, she jumped on it.
It’s been a few months of women coming out against Bill Cosby very aggressively. The shocking number is up to 19 victims, including Johnson. Some of the alleged victims have done various interviews and now Beverly is speaking out. She’s the second most notable victim. The first was fellow supermodel Janice Dickinson, who many people raked over the coals because of her reputation of being an out-of-control pseudo celebrity. And this is one of the major reasons Johnson stayed quiet about her own story with her encounter with Cosby.
Johnson said, “As I thought of going public with what follows, a voice in my head kept whispering, ‘Black men have enough enemies out there already, they certainly don’t need someone like you, an African American with a familiar face and a famous name, fanning the flames.'” With the climate of America being mostly about systematic racism and Black men who are losing their lives at the hands of White police officers, Johnson felt guilty for wanting to share her story, but it’s the solidarity with other sexual assault victims that made her speak up. “I had to use my voice as a sister, mother, and grandmother, and as a woman who knows that, according to the C.D.C., nearly one in five women has been sexually assaulted at some time in her life, and that women of color face an even higher attack rate.”
“For a long time I thought it was something that only happened to me, and that I was somehow responsible. So I kept my secret to myself, believing this truth needed to remain in the darkness. But the last four weeks have changed everything, as so many women have shared similar stories, of which the press have belatedly taken heed,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s story is very similar to those of many of the women who have come out. She revered Cosby because she was a young actress who wanted to make it in Hollywood. She was invited to a taping of his show and afterwards, she met the cast in Cosby’s office. He was very endeared towards her and asked about the hell she’d endured in her marriage–all a part of his plan to make Johnson feel comfortable around him.
She attended another taping, this time she brought her daughter. Cosby invited Beverly and her daughter to meet him at home for the weekend to read for the part she was offered. When Cosby suggested she bring her daughter along, she felt very comfortable with him. Because of his Jell-O Pudding endorsement, Johnson didn’t see any harm in bringing her daughter; she may be able to get a gig from it herself!
Beverly and her daughter visited Cosby’s New York City brownstone and had brunch with him. She then went on a tour of the amazing space. Again–all parts of Cosby’s elaborate plan to create a level of comfort. Beverly said, “Looking back, that first invite from Cosby to his home seems like part of a perfectly laid out plan, a way to make me feel secure with him at all times. It worked like a charm.”
A few days later, Beverly went back to his house to read for the part. This time, she went alone. They shared a light dinner and she talked with him about her plans for the future, hopeful that these intimate meetings with Cosby would help fuel her career. After dinner, Cosby showed her his massive bar upstairs. On the bar, he had a big brass espresso machine that took up half the counter. Beverly said, “At the time, it seemed rare for someone to have such a machine in his home for personal use.” This espresso machine is what Cosby used to offer Beverly a cappuccino. She told him she didn’t drink coffee, but he insisted. In fact, Beverly says, “He wouldn’t let it go. He insisted that his espresso machine was the best model on the market and promised I’d never tasted a cappuccino quite like this one.” She didn’t want to argue with Cosby, so she obliged and took a few sips to appease him.
Cosby wanted to see how Beverly handled various scenes, so he suggested (like he did with many of his victims) for her to be drunk. Remember, Johnson was going out for the role of a pregnant woman. So when she suggested she act drunk, she was confused, but went with it anyway.
Here’s Beverly’s story:
Now let me explain this: I was a top model during the 70s, a period when drugs flowed at parties and photo shoots like bottled water at a health spa. I’d had my fun and experimented with my fair share of mood enhancers. I knew by the second sip of the drink Cosby had given me that I’d been drugged—and drugged good.
My head became woozy, my speech became slurred, and the room began to spin nonstop. Cosby motioned for me to come over to him as though we were really about to act out the scene. He put his hands around my waist, and I managed to put my hand on his shoulder in order to steady myself.
As I felt my body go completely limp, my brain switched into automatic-survival mode. That meant making sure Cosby understood that I knew exactly what was happening at that very moment.
You are a motherf*cker aren’t you?”
That’s the exact question I yelled at him as he stood there holding me, expecting me to bend to his will. I rapidly called him several more “motherfuckers.” By the fifth, I could tell that I was really pissing him off. At one point he dropped his hands from my waist and just stood there looking at me like I’d lost my mind.
What happened next is somewhat cloudy for me because the drug was in fuller play by that time. I recall his seething anger at my tirade and then him grabbing me by my left arm hard and yanking all 110 pounds of me down a bunch of stairs as my high heels clicked and clacked on every step. I feared my neck was going to break with the force he was using to pull me down those stairs.
I didn’t call back the next day or any other day after that. At a certain moment it became clear that I would be fighting a losing battle with a powerful man so callous he not only drugged me, but he also gave me the number to the bedroom he shared with his wife. How could I fight someone that boldly arrogant and out of touch? In the end, just like the other women, I had too much to lose to go after Bill Cosby. I had a career that would no doubt take a huge hit if I went public with my story and I certainly couldn’t afford that after my costly divorce and on going court fees.
Wow is all we can say. Beverly Johnson is a well-respected supermodel and has absolutely no reason to make any of this up. This is by far the biggest nail in Bill Cosby’s coffin that we’ve seen yet. This is officially the start of the fall of Bill Cosby. We’ll be watching to see how many more of his victims are inspired to come out after Beverly’s confession.
Check out Beverly Johnson Talking About Her Modeling Career:
Bow Down: 12 Vintage Beverly Johnson Mag Covers That Sealed Her Status As A Legend
1. Beverly Johnson Slays Like No Other!1 of 12
2. March 1972: Glamour2 of 12
3. August 1974: Vogue3 of 12
4. February 1976: Cosmopolitan Magazine4 of 12
5. January 1979: Glamour5 of 12
6. December 1977: Vogue6 of 12
7. February 1980: Viva7 of 12
8. July 1980: Ebony8 of 12
9. August 1980: Harper's Bazaar Italia9 of 12
10. March 1981: Cosmopolitan10 of 12
11. May 1981: Glamour11 of 12
12. October 2009: Viv Magazine12 of 12 | <urn:uuid:aaefeadd-4a46-4c1b-93d6-61f3506058ea> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://hellobeautiful.com/2759046/beverly-johnson-accuses-bill-cosby-of-drugging-her/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280587.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00566-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986419 | 1,845 | 1.5 | 2 |
Re: Wax Processing questions
I took my bur comb, all nasty and black with a bunch of larvae in it (we are talking nasty here more bees and propilis than wax) in a big wok, added a gallon of water, tbl. of vinegar, boiled rapidly. I then dump it into a pan through a nylon that was stretched over the pan. Let cool. When it cools the wax is the pretest white over the top of the water that you would believe. As you melt it the second time the vinegar smell melts off. Since it is boiling in the water the fire is not an issue that I am aware of.
“Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up” Alfred Pennyworth Batman Begins (2005) | <urn:uuid:3d97592c-a85a-41b3-81be-7f5e7279a963> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?272791-Wax-Processing-questions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285315.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00567-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95476 | 162 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year in terms of hours of daylight. However, the solstice is a signal for more daylight to come in the following days, and it's one of the origins of the modern winter holidays.
"The winter solstice begins when the direct rays from the sun reach a point on the Earth, and that point is known as the Tropic of Capricorn," said AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Bernie Rayno. "It is the beginning of winter for the northern hemisphere. Summer, of course, for the southern hemisphere, and it's also the shortest day of the year as far as sunlight is concerned."
Winter solstice 2016 in the northern hemisphere will occur at 5:44 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 21.
When Christianity came onto the world scene, ancient solstice celebrations evolved into Christmas, according to AccuWeather. The time of the birth of Jesus Christ is thought not to have occurred in December, but was changed to fit the season's celebrations.
Winter solstice 2016 occurs Wednesday | <urn:uuid:fc815956-ad32-4b65-acf3-401729cbe15c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://abc13.com/weather/what-is-the-winter-solstice/1664384/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280292.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00342-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961382 | 218 | 3.859375 | 4 |
|시간 제한||메모리 제한||제출||정답||맞은 사람||정답 비율|
|1 초||128 MB||56||35||28||66.667%|
N (1 <= N <= 100) cows, conveniently numbered 1..N, are participating in a programming contest. As we all know, some cows code better than others. Each cow has a certain constant skill rating that is unique among the competitors.
The contest is conducted in several head-to-head rounds, each between two cows. If cow A has a greater skill level than cow B (1 <= A <= N; 1 <= B <= N; A != B), then cow A will always beat cow B.
Farmer John is trying to rank the cows by skill level. Given a list the results of M (1 <= M <= 4,500) two-cow rounds, determine the number of cows whose ranks can be precisely determined from the results. It is guaranteed that the results of the rounds will not be contradictory.
5 5 4 3 4 2 3 2 1 2 2 5 | <urn:uuid:14f528bc-fef4-40d7-a4e6-95005c063de4> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.acmicpc.net/problem/6156 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280410.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00447-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928739 | 269 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Birds become a problem when they decide to roost or nest in areas of a residence or business where they are unwanted. Birds, droppings and their nesting materials can carry over 60 transmittable diseases and ectoparasites that can be transmitted to other animals and humans. The longer a bird population is left to nest uninvited on your property; the more difficult it becomes to get rid of them. Proactive approaches are best when it comes to dealing with pest birds, as they will save time and unnecessary costs in the long run.
Bird infestations can also bring with them a range of other uninvited pests such as fleas and flies, but most commonly bird mites.
Civic Bird Control and Management Solutions
On a daily basis, there are 3 main species of pest bird that we deal with – Indian Mynas, Sparrows & Pigeons.
We can also provide solutions for all pest bird, contact us on 90 22 22 29 23 to discuss your bird requirements.
Bird control and management solutions we commonly use are:
1) Bird Spikes 2)Bird Netting
Reasons Why Bird Management and Bird Control in Mumbai Is Important
1. Birds, droppings and their nesting materials can carry over 60 types of transmittable diseases and ectoparasites that can be passed on to other animals and humans.
2. Bird droppings have highly acidic properties that can corrode and stain a building’s structural materials.
3. Birds and their droppings can cause contamination to food production and valuable inventory when found nesting in warehouses.
4. Regularly cleaning up bird droppings can cost Indian businesses thousands each year.
5. Droppings and nesting materials can clog drains and gutters and create a fire risk near lighting fixtures.
5. Bird droppings can also be a slip and fall hazard when not cleaned up quickly, which on your business premise could become a costly liability.
It’s important for these reasons that appropriate solutions for bird pest control in Mumbai are quickly established to avoid further costs and exposure to health risks. Remember: Proactive action is best because the longer the pest birds are left to nest, the more difficult they are to get rid of.
Contact us now on 9022222923 or Request a Call Back to book your same day service or to discuss a range of solutions suitable to protect your home and family.
Ecstasy Business Park , Office No - G21 , Ecstasy Business Park,Mulund(W) - 400080. | <urn:uuid:6f5c3d55-c11f-4e1c-b362-5305534d3772> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://civicpestcontrol.com/pest-library/birds | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00478.warc.gz | en | 0.918604 | 524 | 1.945313 | 2 |
THE long wait for older males to access state social security grants was cut short yesterday when the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) in Limpopo issued the first payments to male beneficiaries.
In the past older men had to wait until they turned 65.
The agency's provincial spokesperson, Kelemogile Moseki, announced yesterday that they would be issuing 4012 grants this month to male beneficiaries aged 60 for the first time.
Two of the men, Benson Vuma and James Lebea of the impoverished village of GaMaja Moshate, south of Polokwane, were noticeably on cloud nine on receiving their first monthly payment.
They each left the pension point at the local tribal offices with R1080 in their pocket.
Vuma, father of six children and three grandchildren, who retired from Iscor, said: "As age was catching up with me, the constant fear of dying before one could access the state grant was overwhelming. But that fear is no more."
His neighbour, Lebea, who used to work at a chemical factory in Modderfontein near Johannesburg, said he was getting impatient to access the state grant.
He said it would help pay for his household needs and the education and healthcare of his children.
Sassa acting regional executive manager Tsakeriwa Chauke said: "So far 24000 male beneficiaries aged 60 have been registered and will henceforth be receiving their old age grant.
"We hope to reach more with the help of all the stakeholders." | <urn:uuid:eea79ae3-5b5f-4fa7-9666-edd94d5e9719> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/sowetan/archive/2010/05/21/at-last-men-aged-60-receive-state-pension | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718278.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00239-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976622 | 317 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The 4 Modes of Direct
The Exalted Buddha once said:
Bhikkhus, there are these 4 realizable states:
By the body one realizes the
8 releasing liberations.
the memory one realizes one's
prior lives in all diverse detail.
By the divine eye one realizes
& rebirth of beings.
By understanding one realizes the elimination
These, Bhikkhus, are the 4 realizable States...
Buddha Metteyya depicted above will -just as I say now-
many times explain:
“You can come as you like, but
you pay as you go!”
More on Direct Experience:
Source: The Numerical Sayings of the
Buddha. Anguttara Nikāya II 182 | <urn:uuid:4d588e2e-fe9b-4c65-b87d-c36ba53c2444> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://what-buddha-said.net/drops/4_Realizations.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281069.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00268-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.763732 | 163 | 1.953125 | 2 |
With so many fabric options available today, it can be hard to decide which is the best material for your next garment. Tencel and silk are two of the most popular choices, but which is better? Both materials have their own benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important to consider what you need before making a decision.
While both silk and Tencel have their own unique benefits, Tencel is the better choice for those looking for a sustainable fabric that is gentle on the skin. Tencel is also a good option for those with allergies, as it is hypoallergenic. Silk, while a luxurious fabric, is not as environmentally friendly or allergy-friendly as Tencel.
Let’s take a deep dive:
Is Tencel same as silk?
There is some confusion about the similarities and differences between Tencel and silk. Both materials are made from natural fibers, but they come from different sources. Silk is made from the cocoons of silkworms, while Tencel is made from wood pulp.
Tencel fibers are made up of nano-fibers that make them super smooth. They also have a higher absorbency than silk.
Tencel is more durable than silk. It’s also a soft material that makes you feel like you’re sinking in butter.
What is Tencel?
Tencel is a sustainable fabric made from wood pulp. It is a natural and biodegradable fiber that is soft, strong and absorbent. Tencel is often used in eco-friendly clothing and bedding.
Tencel is a type of rayon made from the cellulose of eucalyptus trees. The process of creating Tencel lyocell is sustainable, as the whole process helps keep forests intact and reduces pollution. Tencel sheets can cost over $100 for a single set. However, you may find comfort in knowing that your purchase does not contribute to environmental degradation or animal suffering.
What is silk?
Silk is a natural fiber that is made from the cocoon of the silkworm. The fiber is incredibly strong and lustrous, making it a popular choice for clothing, bedding, and other textiles.
Sadly, silk worms are killed in order to extract the fiber, which is then woven into fabric. Silk has been used for centuries and people have tried to make the killing of these worms more humane. Unfortunately, the extraction process and end result still hasn’t changed.
Many people view silk as a luxurious material, and it often commands a high price tag. However, the environmental cost of producing silk exceeds its value as a luxury item.
There are alternatives to silk that have similar properties but do not involve harming animals. Tencel is one such alternative, and it is made from sustainable materials using a closed loop process that recycles 99.9% of the water and organic solvents used in production.
How are Tencel and silk different?
Silk has been around for centuries, while Tencel was only developed in the 1990s.
Tencel is a sustainable fabric made from wood pulp, whereas silk is made from the cocoons of silkworms. Silk is a natural fiber, whereas Tencel is a semi-synthetic fiber. Silk is silkier than Tencel, and Tencel is more wrinkle-resistant than silk.
Silk can be expensive to produce, which accounts for its high price tag. Tencel is also a luxury fabric, but it is softer and more absorbent than silk. It also costs less to produce than silk does.
Tencel also requires less energy to produce than silk does, making it an all around more sustainable choice.
What are the benefits of using Tencel?
Some benefits of using Tencel include:
- It is a sustainable fabric made from wood pulp.
- It’s biodegradable.
- Cool to the touch. The cooling effect of Tencel sheets can help you relax and drift off to sleep easily.
- It’s absorbent.
- It’s wrinkle resistant, making it perfect travel clothing.
- It’s hypoallergenic – ideal for people with allergies or sensitivities.
What are the benefits of using silk?
There are many benefits to using silk pillowcases and sheets. Silk is lightweight, so it won’t cause your head and neck to get too hot during sleep. It’s also breathable, which helps keep you cool throughout the night. Additionally, silk is non-irritating, meaning it won’t cause any skin irritation or eczema breakouts.
Silk has been shown to be beneficial for people with eczema. The smooth surface of silk prevents the overgrowth of bacteria on the skin, which can lead to inflammation, irritation, and eczema breakouts. Silk is also less likely to irritate the skin of people with eczema.
Which one is better: Tencel or silk?
When it comes to the physical properties of Tencel and silk, it can be tough to decide which one is better. They are both incredibly smooth and feel great against the skin! Ultimately, it comes down to personal preferences in terms of texture and feel.
However, when it comes to the environmental impact, Tencel is infinitely better than silk. Read more about why Tencel is the most eco-friendly fiber on the market today.
Tencel is also cheaper than silk and has a host of other great qualities that silk doesn’t have.
To wrap up
Tencel is a better fabric choice than silk for a variety of reasons. Tencel is more absorbent, softer, and less likely to cause skin irritation than silk. Additionally, Tencel is a more environmentally friendly choice, as it is made from sustainably sourced wood pulp. For these reasons, tencel should be your go-to fabric choice. | <urn:uuid:d4772fef-5d15-484b-9fbb-501c8c1409c9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://liftyourtalk.com/tencel-vs-silk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571097.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810010059-20220810040059-00264.warc.gz | en | 0.960241 | 1,254 | 2.5 | 2 |
In the Spirit of Camaraderie
In its most basic sense, ‘pakikisama’ means going along with others. Its basic etymological source is ‘sama’ (to go with). A derived term is ‘kasama’ (companion; together with). In the social interaction context, ‘pakikisama’ means ‘getting along with others’, and ideally getting along ‘well’ with others. The first part of the term ‘paki-’ is also significant, since it also happens to be the Tagalog affix for ‘please’. It’s as if the individual is being requested to ‘please’ get along well one’s fellow human beings.
Among friends and even relatives, it is considered obnoxious and unacceptable to give a direct command. To minimize the directness or “impact” of the command, Filipinos use paki nga or maki- so as not to offend. Even a boss in the office would use ‘paki-’ the equivalent of “please” in English, in giving a request to a subordinate.
Makikiabot nga (ako) ng dokumentong iyan.
Please pass (me) that document.
Pare, makikigamit nga ng cellphone mo, sandali?
Buddy, may I please use your cellphone briefly?
Makisama ka naman.
Join us, be one with us.
Wala ka namang pakikisama eh.
You have no sense of fellowship/camaraderie.
To be polite is to use paki- or maki-. This is part of the so-called “S.I.R.” coined by Filipino social scientists. SIR stands for Smooth Interpersonal Relationship. Filipinos go to great lengths to avoid offending another’s feelings which is why they have this linguistic social convention. It is also part of this whole system of pakikisama and pakikipagkapwa-tao. Pakikisama is the opposite of individualism. In Filipino culture, a person who has no pakikisama is a loner, an individualist disdained by others who seek his company. He does not know how to “go with the crowd.” A related word is makibagay, “to conform” with the group in order to maintain a Smooth Interpersonal Relationship.
Pakikisama is also sharing one’s wealth, talent, time and self with fellow human beings as in bayanihan, working together for a common good without regard for monetary remuneration. The wonderful feeling of having helped achieve something for the common good is its own reward. It is interesting to note that the root word for bayanihan is bayani, “hero;” hence, “being heroes.”
F. Landa Jocano in his book on Filipino World View (2001) relates pakikisama with two other concepts.
First, is pakikipagkawa where “a person is evaluated as good or bad, just or unjust right or wrong on the basis of how (one) regards …kapwa (the other person).” In the normative dimension, a golden rule-type is called for in relating to one’s kapwa-tao (fellow human being). The second concept is that of pakikiramay, where a person empathizes or sympathizes with fellow humans during critical periods (e.g. a death in the family).
Pakikipagkapwa-tao is a compound word that comes from kapwa “other” and tao “person” The prefix pakikpag- yields the social-participative meaning of essentially “being one in the other person’s humanity.” According to Dr. Virgilio G. Enriquez, considered the Father of Philippine Psychology, the worst insult that you could ever get from a Filipino is “Wala kang kapwa tao.” “You are devoid of humanity.”
(Leo Paz & Tita Pambid) | <urn:uuid:0940802f-c72f-4158-9408-af0747b9a53d> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.language.berkeley.edu/ucfcp/unit4/intro.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00117-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931178 | 911 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Here are the key events so far on Sunday, July 3.
Get the latest updates here.
- Ukrainian separatists backed by Russia say they have “completely” encircled the key city of Lysychansk in the eastern Luhansk region. Meanwhile, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has conceded that the city of Lysychansk, Ukraine’s last big bastion in Luhansk, could fall to the Russians.
- Ukrainian forces hit a Russian base with more than 30 strikes in the Russian-occupied southern city of Melitopol in the region of Zaporizhia, according to the city’s exiled Ukrainian mayor, Ivan Fedorov. Russia’s RIA news agency confirmed the attacks.
- At least three people have been killed and dozens of residential buildings damaged in the Russian city of Belgorod, according to the local governor. Russia has blamed Ukraine but Kyiv has yet to comment.
- The Belarusian president says his army has shot down missiles fired into their territory from Ukraine and promised to respond “instantly” to any enemy attack.
- The European Union is preparing an emergency plan to help member states cut back on Russian energy. The new measures — due by mid-July — will build on May’s REPowerEU plan to abandon Russian energy sources because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- Leaders from dozens of countries and international organisations will gather on Monday and Tuesday in the Swiss city of Lugano to discuss rebuilding Ukraine, hoping to draw up a “Marshall Plan” for the country’s reconstruction.
- Russia remains a “reliable producer and supplier of grain, fertilisers and energy”, President Vladimir Putin assured Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- Fearing Russia might cut off natural gas supplies, the head of Germany’s regulatory agency for energy has called on residents to save energy and to prepare for winter, when use increases.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies | <urn:uuid:8af56eec-043f-43d9-a18b-4070df64afb7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/3/russia-ukraine-war-list-of-key-events-day-130 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571234.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811042804-20220811072804-00066.warc.gz | en | 0.933497 | 427 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Students Participate in Live National Poll during Presidential Debate
Tonight Hamilton students will participate with students from six universities across the country in a live, pilot polling project during the presidential debate. Via a new smart phone application, more than a hundred students will be able to “register their in-the-moment reactions to what candidates are saying during a debate, using button taps (e.g. Agree and Disagree), and answering pre- and post-debate survey questions (e.g. partisanship, issue priorities, demographics),” according to the developer’s website. The students will watch the debates in the Sadove Student Center at 9 p.m.
Poll results will be available to Hamilton on Thursday along with comparison data from other participating institutions. Those include University of California, Davis; University of Maryland, College Park; University of Arkansas, Little Rock; University of Texas, San Antonio; and University of Texas, El Paso. More than 12,000 students have registered to respond to this poll nationwide. In addition to their responses during the debate, students will also be asked pre- and post-survey questions intended to collect demographic information and to help measure changes in attitudes toward the candidates during the debates.
The polling project, which will continue during the next two presidential debates and the vice presidential debate, is being directed by Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Professor of Government, with assistance from the College Democrat and the College Republican student organizations. React Labs, the entity in which the polling application was developed, is led by University of Maryland Professor Philip Resnik, who conceived and designed the polling process. University of California (Davis) Assistant Professor of Political Science Amber Boydstun is an advisor to React Labs and is leading the React Labs: Educate polling collaboration.
According to the React Labs website, “React Labs serves two primary goals. The first is supporting research and analysis: creating a new way to learn about people’s reactions to events that is fine grained, immediate, and truly large scale, a combination not achieved by traditional polling or focus groups. And unlike large scale analysis of social media postings, though it’s an interesting topic in its own right, React Labs “reaction buttons”, demographics, and pop-up survey questions give researchers a greater degree of control over the variables they’d like to study.
“The project’s second goal is to foster a greater sense of engagement between people and the events they’re watching, particularly engagement in the political process. By creating a community of active participants and making reacting, rather than just watching, easy and fun, React Labs can help give people a stronger voice in political discourse.” | <urn:uuid:14000367-8f86-4639-82a3-d506eabb8a0c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/students-participate-in-live-national-poll-during-presidential-debate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279169.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00221-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947801 | 561 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Well-known journalist, blogger, and commentator on all things related to the Vatican John Allen, Jr. will discuss the papacy of Pope Francis on Wed., Sept. 11 as part of Saint Xavier University’s (SXU) Catholic Colloquium lecture series. This event is co-sponsored by SXU’s Office for University Mission and Ministry and the Vicariate V Ministry Commission.
Allen’s lecture, titled “Faith and the ‘Francis Effect’: What a New Pope Means for the Catholic Future,” is scheduled from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in McGuire Hall, located in the Warde Academic Center at SXU’s Chicago campus, 3700 W. 103rd St. This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required for guaranteed seating. To register, please visit www.sxu.edu, keyword: allen.
Allen will bring his worldwide experience of Catholicism to a reflection on the papacy six months after the election of Pope Francis and talk about what these beginning months suggest about the future of the Church, globally and in the United States.
Allen is the prize-winning senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and the senior Vatican analyst for CNN. He is the author of seven bestselling books on the Vatican and Catholic affairs, including “The Future Church: How Ten Trends Are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church” and “Ten Things Pope Francis Wants You to Know.” Allen covered the conclave that elected Pope Francis, has traveled the world covering Catholic affairs, and writes a weekly Internet column titled “All Things Catholic.” His work is admired across ideological divides within the Church, and he is a popular speaker on Church matters in the United States and abroad.
The Catholic Colloquium lecture series, inaugurated in 2006, honors the responsibilities of a Catholic university to serve its students, faculty, staff and the broader Catholic and civic communities by providing opportunities to examine contemporary civic, religious and social questions in the light of a vibrant, socially committed faith. Speakers in this series also explore ideas and issues that foster the development of healthy, active spiritual lives.
Please note: Because a strong turnout is expected from both the SXU community and local Catholic parishes, students, staff, faculty, and teachers bringing classes are encouraged to register. People who register will have assured seating if attendance surpasses room capacity. Faculty bringing a class can register for an anticipated number of students without having to enter names. At the event, the registering faculty member will be given that number of reserved seating tokens to give to students from his/her class.
For more information, please contact University Mission and Ministry at (773) 298-3900 or firstname.lastname@example.org, or visit www.sxu.edu, keyword: allen. | <urn:uuid:c6a9c2d0-0a25-4dab-a561-42b4d02e80a1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://news.sxu.edu/2013/08/vatican-journalist-john-allen-jr-to-speak-about-pope-francis-at-sxu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285315.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00568-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93314 | 591 | 1.570313 | 2 |
- noun the act of improving the quality of something
- The modifying of devices or equipment, so as to make them compatible with other devices or equipment. Used, for instance, to match certain performance parameters.
- In telephony, the modifying of twisted pair wire so it can carry a digital data signal. Also called line conditioning (1).
- The modification of a communications line so as to improve performance. Also called line conditioning (2).
Not what you were looking for? | <urn:uuid:33584806-5b2c-4d55-83a3-a93a570ad9f2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.dictionaryofengineering.com/definition/conditioning.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282926.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00394-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918885 | 99 | 2.734375 | 3 |
|March 27 1990
||New York New York
First of all, I am delighted to be here. The great thing about being here in New York is you don’t have to worry if you’re the smartest person in the room. [audience chuckles] What uh, impels me to talk to groups like this is uh, the conviction that uh, a major aspect of what it means to be a human being has received short shrift in our civilization for at least a couple of millennia. And that, to some degree, the solution to the uh, mega-crisis that is bearing down on Western institutions is to be found in a revivifying of uh, the archaic. And this takes many different kinds of forms. It's nothing to do with what is popularly presented as the New Age. It's, to my mind, a much larger and deeper and persistent phenomenon than that. In fact, the entire intellectual tone of the 20th century can be seen as a groping toward a recapturing of this archaic mentality. This is what psychoanalysis was about. This is what cubism, surrealism, and uh—in the political s- uh, zone—negative phenomena, such as national socialism. All of these various intellectual concerns, to my mind, can be traced back to a kind of unconscious nostalgia for the archaic.
Now, when a society feels itself to be in crisis, the unconscious response is to look back into time to attempt to find a previous model that seemed to work and then to crystallize energy around that model in a def- in an effort to reorient society. The last time this happened was with the breakup of the medieval stasis of the pseudo-eschatology of Christianity, and out of that chaos, of that sense of disconnectedness, came classicism.
In other words, people were looking back into time for a serviceable model that could step in to the vacated shoes of the discredited medieval church. And what they came up with was, uh, platonic philosophy, Roman law, the asthetics that ruled Periclean Athens, and so forth. And to a degree we are still living in the twilight of that return to classicism, but it no longer serves. And in its place is this inchoate groping for a- uh, yet another historical paradigm that can somehow be contextualized in the late 20th century and give meaning to the experience that is coming, is sweeping over the world.
Now, to my mind uh, the Freudian breakthrough, what the surrealists were doing, what the abstract expressionists were doing, the replacement of phonetic alphabet linear print culture by electronic media that has happened over the last 25 years, these things are all well and good, but they are insufficient because once you begin to zero in on the notion of the archaic mentality and what it really means, you discover that at the center of it is, God forbid, the psychedelic experience.
Now, the psychedelic experience is as much a part of life as birth, death, making love, eating, conniving, so forth and so on except in this particular kind of culture that has evolved out of Western European traditions. Why this is is a very complicated question; many factors bear on it. But what I would like to talk about this evening is just offer you a model of history, how we got into the dilemma that we’re in, and what we might be able to do about it. So I will tell, uh, my version of the story of human emergence. And it goes like this:
At some time in the past—experts vary, but the numbers are in millions of years—the adaptation of advanced primates to the canopy uh, ecosystems of the climaxed rain forests of the African continent was disrupted by the cycles of desertification that periodically affect the planet, and this had the effect of forcing these primates out of their arboreal niche and into evolving grasslands.
Now, to my mind, the important point in the argument that I’m about to put forward is the idea that the previously unidentified factor impinging on human evolution and shaping the evolution of our species was tertiary mutagenic constituents of the human diet as we made the shift from a specialized fruit eating diet to an omnivorous diet that included meat. Most animal species have a very limited repertoire of acceptable foods. This is reasonable because it’s a strategy for avoiding contact with mutagenic tertiary compounds that may be elaborated by plants. But when a species comes under pressure it has to expand what it considers acceptable dietary constituents. And at that point the organism uh, is subject to mutagenic influence because testing in the diet is bringing the body in contact with all kinds of toxic compounds—tumor producing compounds, compounds which interfere with the endocrine system, compounds which are neuroactive, compounds which, uh, uh affect fertility. This has never really been discussed by evolutionary biologists as perhaps a critical factor in the emergence of the human species. My scenario goes something like this:
These pack- these primates already had a fairly complex linguistic repertoire because they had developed a pack signaling system in the treetops. They transposed this system into, uh, hunting bands, or carrion-gathering bands that were following along behind the large herds of ungulate mammals that were simultaneously evolving in this African environment. And in that situation, they came upon, uh, coprophytic —means dung-loving— fungi that were occurring concidently- coincidentally with the presence of these evolving ungulate animals.
Now, at that point the stage was set for what I believe is the greatest leap that organic organization has made probably in the last hundred million years, and there was nothing miraculous about it. Psilocybin, which is the psychoactive amine that occurs in these mushrooms, was studied by Roland Fischer in the 1950s, and the first thing he learned was that small doses of psilocybin—doses so small as to be undetectable as an actual, s- uh, experience—nevertheless uh, confer improved visual acuity. And he did elaborate tests on thousands of graduate students. In other words, you see better if you take small amounts of this drug. And Fisher said to me in his wonderful Viennese accent, "You see, this is a situation in which you actually have a better picture of reality if you take a drug than if you don’t take a drug." And he had the data to back him up. Well, you don’t have to be an evolutionary biologist to realize that a constituent of the diet which improves visual acuity in an animal that is surviving through its hunting skills is quickly going to be inculcated as an extremely favorable adaptation.
Now, when you- when slightly larger doses of psilocybin are uh, ingested accidentally or deliberately the immediate effect is increased arousal, this i- and that includes sexual arousal. And this is typical for the bioactive amines. So what you begin to see is, here is a constituent of the diet whose, whose first effect is to make those who use it more effective hunters, whose second effect is to uh, increase instances of what primatologists call successful copulations.
Q: Is that what they call it?
TM: Oh yes, indubitably.
And the combination of increased sexual activity on the part of those animals admitting this constituent into their diet becomes a kind of reciprocal feedback loop.
Now, at yet higher doses, uh, psilocybin flowers out into a profound hallucinogenic experience, uh, so profound that, in truth, it is utterly confounding to 20th century human beings. We have no metaphors for this; we can’t take its measure; we prefer to turn away from it. This is our cultural response to the presence of this dimension. But the idea that it is any- in any way understood, or uh, its implications have been assimilated, is absurd.
Now I believe that what we have here, is, in this pre- uh, historical situation, is an incipient symbiosis. I want to make clear what I mean here: I am not suggesting that there was a true symbiosis between human beings and mushrooms, uh because a true symbiosis requires millions of years to be established and is actually almost a genetic bonding of two species. But it was an incipient symbiosis. Given enough time it might have turned into a true symbiotic relationship. Unfortunately, it was disrupted by the very forces which had created it, which was a further exacerbation of this climatological aridity which was overtaking the African continent.
So the notion is that these biogenically active amines acted as a kind of catalyst on the evolving uh, neurophysiological organization of these primates. One of the most interesting effects of psilocybin is that it seems to stimulate the language forming capacity. This has been remarked upon by writers such as Henry Munn and Gordon Wasson. I mean, it is literally true that the mushroom shaman is a man of language. It is- it seems to facilitate a kind of release of the Logos and this linguistic facility, which marks- which is the great watershed in the evolution of our species out of animal organization has never been satisfactorily explained. There had to be a catalyst for it. And I am suggesting that in this early situation this catalyst was this self-reinforcing cycle where uh, uh, group sexuality, visual acuity, frequent copulation, and a devotion to ecstatic trance all combined to create an entirely different psychology, a psychology in which the ego barely existed. The- it’s almost as though you could say psychedelic drugs are an inoculation against the formation of the narcissistic ego.
Now, why should this be? It’s because, operationally speaking, what these psychoactive compounds do, not if you look at one trip, but if you look at thousands of peoples’ trips, and say, "What is the common denominator of these experiences?" what they do is, they dissolve boundaries. And this is what gives them their power, and it’s what makes them so controversial because the dissolution of boundaries is something around which we have profound anxiety both as individuals and our institutions are even more anxious about this. Any uh, compound or dietary constituent which dissolves the boundaries between human beings poses a profound problem for the kinds of social organization that we have bun- been familiar with throughout recorded history.
As the drying of the African continent continued, the- this orgiastic communal use of the mushroom, uh, became less and less frequent simply because the mushroom itself was less and less available. Ultimately, I believe, there’s evidence to suggest that honey was discovered as a method for preserving mushrooms through periods of scarcity. It’s still done this way in Mexico; however, there’s a profound problem here. Honey itself, can serve- after it has gone through chemical changes involving fermentation, it itself becomes a psychoactive compound; it becomes crude alcohol. And if your mushroom supply fades slowly enough and there isn’t sufficient attention paid to what’s going on, over a couple of millennia a- an egoless, ecstatic mushroom-using cult can turn into essentially a cult of alcohol. And the, the psychology of an alcohol cult is entirely different from the cult- the, the psychology of the psilocybin cult.
Around 12,000 years ago people began moving out of Africa and, uh, settling in the Middle East, in Palestine. Before that time, the stratigraphic record in Palestine indicates that it was very uh, sparsely populated. But these new people appeared called Natufians, and there’s considerable argument about where they came from. The general assumption is that they came from the area that Marija Gimbutas calls "Old Europe." But this is really based simply on the belief that they were so advanced that they couldn’t possibly have come from anywhere else, when in fact, an analysis of the, of the wall paintings of these people and an analysis of, uh, the pottery, seems to indicate that they came from Africa; that these were African peoples.
Uh, they at-at first they settled the lips up, you know, under rock escarpments. This is exactly the settlement pattern that we see in the Tassili n’Ajjer Plateau in Algeria where there are actually paintings on the rock walls dated 7,000-8,000 BC where we see shamans with mushrooms sprouting out of their bodies, thousands of them. Now, this mushroom-using uh, culture established itself in Palestine at Jericho. And Jericho, at its triumph, was the most advanced civilization in the world. The tower at Jericho was by all measures the most sophisticated culture of its time.
Later these same people tr- uh, settled into Çatalhöyük in Southern Turkey. Çatalhöyük is 3,500 years in advance of any other civilization on Earth at that time. The chief investigator of the site, James Mellaart, called it a premature flash of complexity and brilliance. And it disappeared. Mysteriously. The motifs may have been transferred to, to Crete, but as far as we can tell that was the last vestige of this psychedelically motivated partnership society. And it was destroyed by the Kurgan invaders, the wheeled chariot people who came from north of the Black Sea with an entirely different psychology. You see, their psychology was shaped by the domestication of the horse, which was a permission for a, um, a raiding psychology, a psychology of nomadic plunder, while the domestication of cattle in Africa some 5,000 years before had created the opportunity for this goddess/mushroom/cattle kind of psychology to evolve.
Now, these people were living- the, the, the mushroom-using peoples of the ancient Middle East and of pre-desert Africa were living in a dynamic equilibrium with the environment; this was the edenic state. I mean if you, f you read the story of Genesis carefully it is clearly the story of a drug bust. It is clearly the story of a woman’s transgressions, and Yahweh, walking in the garden, says to himself, "If they eat of the tree they will become as we are." There’s no shillyshallying about about this. What was at stake here was whether or not human beings should claim a stake of, in godhead, and the decision was made that they should not. And they were cast out of Eden. And an angel was set at the gate of Eden with a burning sword so that they cold not find their way back. This is the story of continual- centuries of continual drought, shattering the back of a partnership civilization that was at equilibrium in central Africa 15 to 25,000 years ago.
Now, we are the sad inheritors of this situation. The mysteries survived in a very attenuated form for several millennia in Crete. And Crete then became the bastion of the mystical impulse in Hellen- in Hellenistic religion, at the mysteries at Eleusis for example. What the ancient authors said, what was practiced secretly at Eleusis was practiced openly at Gnosis. And there’s considerable evidence that the mushroom cult may have persisted a long time in Crete. These puzzling so-called aniconic pillars that are, uh, erected in the center of many of the rooms of the palace at Gnosis seem very much to argue that there was a memory of this ancient religion, that the linear-B tallies on opium use yielded such high numbers when translated that the early assumption was that the glyph for opium must be the glyph for wheat. Now it’s understood that this is not the case. And it is true that the twilight of Minoan religion was an opiated twilight.
My belief is, you see, that our proclivity for drug use—this itch that we can never scratch—which really places us in a completely different category from the rest of animal organization, and I am perfectly aware that elephants intoxicate themselves on papayas and all that malarkey, but those animals that have intox- preference for intoxicants usually prefer one or two. We have scoured the biosphere for drugs of all sorts. And a drug that was used 200 years ago by 5 or 6,000 people can probably be bought within minutes if you walk out of this building because the news spreads.
We have an absolute obsession with the alteration of consciousness. And I believe it’s because we are in a state of um, I don’t know … call it trauma, denial. We, as a species, are the victims of a dysfunctional childhood. We were torn from that which gave life meaning by climatological and cultural factors which forced us then into the nightmare of history. And it is from that nightmare that we must awaken, or the lethal momentum of egocentrism is going to shove us right over the edge.
The ego is like a calcareous tumor on the personality of each of us. This tumor must be psycholytically removed. It must be dissolved. Not that we must have no ego. After all, when you take someone to dinner you want to know whose mouth to put food in. The big ego that flowers out beyond the operational need to identify with a single body is an entirely maladaptive response, and we're sick with it, through, through and through. No less a bastion of conservative and establishment thinking than Arthur Koestler in his book, The Ghost In the Machine, finally concludes, you know, we have to have a drug which inhibits the territorial impulse. That was when the territorial impulse was a big buzzword. But what he meant was, we have to interfere with the ego; It’s completely unnecessary; It’s a burden to everyone who has it, and the collective impact of it is absolutely thanatoptic.
The archaic revival is an impassioned and unconsciously driven reaching back into time: nope, the Renaissance won't do it; nope, the Greek ideals are not sufficient; no, Pharaonic Egypt isn't enough, no, no no, until finally we reach the brink of the last glaciation and there we find people who are functioning. Their fertility levels, their, uh, supply and demand relationship with their environment—all this is working.
Now, it's easy to object to the notion that an adaptation that worked for nomadic herders 15,000 years ago has any relevance to today's problem. The fact of the matter is it is the psycholytic effect on ego that makes it necessary to take the psychedelic experience extremely seriously because we want to live. We want to turn off the series of lethal, uh, cascades that seem to be leading toward a very heart-stopping conclusion, which is that this is a sinking submarine and that we cannot get out unless we change our minds. There's no question that we have the resources, the intelligence, the infrastructure to save our neck. But do we have the sense to change our mind? It is the mind that is intractable, and into our hands has then been placed this tremendously powerful tool, which our institutions immediately leap upon and attempt to stigmatize, drive under ground, criminalize, and discredit. But they have a vested interest in the continuing momentum of all of this insanity.
Ok, so that's uh, a kind of political argument for why this is a very good thing, and I trust I've convinced you all. Now I want to say something different about it which appeals more, I think, to us, not as political animals, but as dreamers, and uh, philosophers, and that is that people have not been straight with each other about how weird these psychedelic experiences are. Uh, this stuff is absolutely confounding. Uh, it is not sensory distortion; it is not a delusion of reference; it is not recovery of traumatic material from the personal past. All of these psychoanalytic models fail utterly because ultimately the psychedelic experience hardly seems to be addressing the personality of the individual, rather it is some kind of insight into a tremendum before which we are as helpless as the herders of Africa of 35 millennia ago. We don't understand what it is. We haven't got a clue. We believe in matter, causality, the here and now, the discreetness of objects, the unknowability of the future and so forth and so on. I mean, it's just a laundry list of wrongheaded notions that you can immediately disabuse yourself with- of with five grams of dried mushrooms. I mean, it is the Gordian knot of all of these, or it is the sword of Damocles cutting the Gordian Knot of these philosophical, uh conundrums. Um, so then we line up on two sides. People who say well it's not natural and it's psycho- that it induces psychosis and so forth and so on. This is all nonsense.
This is our birthright. It is profoundly our birthright in the same way that our sexuality is our birthright. The notion that a person would call themselves intelligent and aware and present in the world and that they would go from the cradle to the grave without ever having a psychedelic experience is nothing short of obscene; it's absurd. It makes my flesh crawl in the same way that celibacy and virginity make my flesh crawl. What a horrible, horrible waste of a human life.
You know, the Muslims used to say of the city, Isfahan, in Iran at its architectural height, that it was half the world—Isfahan is half the world. The psychedelic experience is half the world. If you don't have this under your belt, you don't know what's going on, you haven't got a clue about what's going on. And uh, it's not a big deal, you don't have to sweep up around my ashram for 15 years before I'm going to put the whammy on you. It requires nothing more than a personal act of courage to discover whether or not what I'm saying is true or horseshit. You know, you just have to go and look. And people want to talk about it, they want to argue about it. This is not a philosophy, or a theory, or a position, this is an experience; it's an experience. And, you know, talking to people who have not taken psychedelics and trying to convince them of the worth of it is like trying to talk a 9 year old boy out of his aversion to sexuality. He knows that it's a bad thing and should be stayed away from. But we, uh, who have found ourselves, by hook or by crook, in positions of prominence and influence cannot have the luxury of this kind of "know-nothing" attitude. If the expansion of consciousness does not loom large in the history of the human species then -in the future of the human species- then what kind of future is it going to be?
Now these compounds were originally just given a phenomenological description. They were called "consciousness-expanding drugs." We must investigate this possibility. If there were only a thousand to one chance that it was so, it would still merit intense investigation by the scientific community and everyone else with an interest in it. And yet it's fairly clear that these things do expand consciousness; that they do promote insight; that they do catalyze the release of ideas into society; that they do diminish the ego; that they do provide real insight into the functioning of things that then allows everything to move more smoothly toward a reasonable conclusion. So, it's incumbent upon anyone who is concerned about the fate of the earth, their own well-being, so forth and so on, to investigate these things. We cannot allow a frightened and constipated establishment to control this agenda.
And I am perfectly aware that there is a drug problem. There is a terrible drug problem. Uh, but it’s a different problem. It’s not a problem caused by people who are seeking expanded or higher consciousness, it is caused by people who are blotting out how the consequences of living in this kind of civilization make them feel.
And we need a mature dialogue in which each drug is dealt with on a case by case basis, and we examine the social consequences, the risk benefit picture, and then commit ourselves to those uh,compounds and courses of action that seem promising. It is an absolute disgrace that science has tolerated the intrusion of small-minded politicians into what is traditionally its bailiwick. Doctors are allowing the government to tell them what compounds they may or may not investigate? Where is the AMA on this? How can we tolerate the least informed among us controlling the agenda, when the agenda deals with the question of planetary survival?
Now, I see myself- I used to think of myself as simply a cunning linguist, but now I realize that I am actually a meme replicator. A meme, as I’m sure you all have been told many times, is the smallest unit of an idea that still has coherency. Memes are to ideas what genes are to proteins. And my notion in coming here tonight is to replicate the meme, to give permission to discuss this. And what I think should be kept center stage in thinking about this is the depth of the mystery, the mysteriousness of it, how confounding it is. I mean, there are psychoactive drugs in use in shamanic contexts, which, when purified and- and smoked for instance, give experiences the duration of which is only minutes. And yet these experiences are such a profound, uh, dissolution into another dimension that they seem to imply that we have moved hardly off the dime in terms of getting a grip on the real nature of reality.
Uh, one of the things that I find very interesting, I said in the early part of this talk, that psilocybin synergized language, and I described how it synergized consciousness in this early African situation, but it continues to act; it’s acting even as we speak. And what it seems to be holding out to those who have explored it at depth are things like, uh, an ontological transformation of the basis of language. For instance, uh, language seems to become something visible. You know, Philo Judaeus writing about the Logos, said he- he was concerned with what he called the more perfect logos. As you all know, the Logos was an informing voice that was, uh, the
sine qua non of Hellenistic spirituality. And when you got right with the world, this voice opened in your head, and informed you and guided your actions.
So, Philo Judaeus was talking about the more perfect Logos, and he says, "The more perfect Logos would go from being heard to being beheld without ever crossing over a qu- a quantized moment of transition." This actually happens on psilocybin. The project of communication which in ordinary reality devolves down into the generation of small mouth noises which move across space to be decoded inside private minds using what we hope are congruent dictionaries, can potentially be replaced by a Logos beheld—a thing seen.
The clue to this is that in our own language our notion of linguistic facility is always backed up by visual metaphors. We say, "he spoke clearly", "I see what you mean", "she painted a picture." This is saying that at unconscious levels our notion of truth is rooted in the visual. I believe that the evolu- in a sense, history is a psychedelic experience. We are unfolding endlessly into the consequences of the contact with the tremendum that raised us to self-reflection 25- or 30,000 years ago. And the question then becomes, how do we make sense of this in the future? What kind of world incorporates these kinds of insights?
Well, I believe that the place to lean is on a new modality for language, that syntax, properly understood, is beheld. It’s very interesting to me that the most powerful of these hallucinogens are also endogenous neurotransmitters. DMT, without contest, is the most terrifyingly powerful hallucinogen that exists in nature, and it occurs in the human brain as a normal part of human metabolism. The fact that the experience only lasts a few minutes is a profound statement about the brain’s ability to identify and, and uh, render inactive these compounds. I mean, the brain is hit by a wave of DMT and it says, I know what this is. And we can shunt this to indoleacetic acid and excrete it in a matter of minutes. So this, this state is not far away from us. It could be as little as a one or two gene mutation away. The pineal gland is generating adrenoglomerulotropin [???]. This is an MAO inhibitor of the beta-carboline class, very similar to the compounds that occur in ayahuasca and yage. It appears that the chemistry of thought and the chemistry of shamanic ecstasis are simply points on a continuous spectrum.
So, to my mind, this is the great untold secret of our civilization. To not know about this is to be absolutely in the dark about what is going on. And how many people do know? Some of you may know a story by the Argentine poet, uh, Jorge Luis Borges, a story called The Cult Of The Phoenix. And he says that there is a cult; its practitioners have suffered in every pogrom in history; its practitioners have participated in every pogrom in history; it honors no class, no race, no place, no time; one child may initiate another; ruins are propitious places. The initiate do not speak of it, and to some it seems absurd. What he is describing is the fact that in this world of ours, there is in fact an umbilical knot. There is in fact a blind spot that we have all overlooked, or many people have overlooked. The people in this room, I assume, are an exception.
But the fact of the matter is that if you search far enough, if you look at the oldest places the densest jungles, if you talk to the least assimilated tribes, sooner or later you are going to confront the psychedelic experience. And at that point your relationship to reality becomes very different from that of everyone around you because everyone around you is searching for the answers. The task of the person who by one means or another has found their way to the psychedelic experience is to face the answer. The answer is found.
We have arrived at the end of the road in terms of a powerful tool for inducting us into what Wittgenstein called the realms of the unspeakable. We need no more powerful tools than what we’ve inherited from these shamanic cultures. It’s a question, pure and simple, of courage, of having the guts to use it, of surrender. And of course it had to be that because surrender requires the abandonment of the ego. And it is the ego’s house of cards that is entirely at risk if we begin to look more deeply, uh, at the psychedelic experience. So it is a challenge for the society. It is a challenge for the individual. It is, it- you are not an ingénue if you have arrived at this place in the spiritual quest. Now the tools and the information are put into our hands and it’s up to us to decide what we’re going to do with it and how we’re going to apply it.
And, uh, the evidence that this is our birthright, that this is what we came from and yearn to return to, is all around us. But it has been suppressed by a male dominated phonetic alphabet, yack-yack-yack kind of culture, which we are all unquestionably embedded in. But I can’t stress enough that the consequences of not taking this seriously, are, I believe, the death of the planet. I don’t think that through exhortation and preaching, and legislation, and manipulation through propaganda, that we’re going to get people to do what must be done in order to set this ship right. They are going to have to be touched by the tremendum.
And I scoured India, and sat with these roshis and rishis and geishas, and gurus, and went through the whole nine yards. And as far as I’m concerned it’s a skin game. They’re standing in for the real thing. The real thing is the felt presence of immediate experience and that’s what this is giving back to us. It is putting you back into your place, and your time, with the knowledge, now, that there is a goal, there is reason to hope, there is something to save.
The inner richness of the human being causes everything else to pale by comparison. I could loot Madison Avenue to my heart’s content and furnish my apartment, and it would be as garbage compared to the inner richness of the mind of one of these Mexican or Amazonian shaman. We have to find our way back to the authenticity of the body and to the connection to the vegetable matrix of the planet.
We are not apart from nature, but are if we cut off our channels of communication to it, and I don’t mean this in some airy-fairy way. I mean that if you are not embedded in the use of a plant hallucinogen, there is no way for you to get your instructions in the larger dance of what is happening because the Gaian mind, the over soul, whatever you want to call it, this is how it controls the global mega system, through the shedding and release of chemical messengers of all sorts that move all kinds of organisms around, including self-reflecting higher organisms.
Well, I think you get the drift. [audience chuckles] So why don’t we knock off. Now you can bring out the knives.
TM: Thank you.
JB: Terence, what's this "inside" stuff? You know, you, you, you talk about Whitehead, and then you insist upon this notion of interiority. I object to your attack on "Harry Winston".
TM: Well, is he here?
JB: I don't see the difference between "Harry Winston" and the inside your "soul". If you want to talk about language preeminence, or the idea of language as de-creation, which I think you are getting at- that languages strips something away and reveals, then, as Wallace Stevens noted, it's the "to be said" is what do I want to strive for, and then you can't differentiate between "gems" or "inside the mushroom", inside the "soul". I mean, you have this real interiority thing, this idea of depth, when language is surface. Language doesn't go inside. It doesn't go outside.
TM: Yes, you're right. The trick is to operationally realize that, see. And that's very hard to get from here to there in the present situation.
JB: But that's accretion, going from a to b, from here to there. That's the same as interiority.
TM: Yes. This is true. But if everybody had a devotion to Harry Winston the politics of South Africa would be much more complex. Uh, and it's funny, this Harry Winston argument goes clear back to The Doors of Perception. You probably all remember where Aldous Huxley says, we like gems because they remind us of the things glimpsed in interior worlds. So he's saying really that the material world at its best is a poor simulacrum of this, uh, of this other place. And culture strives for it. Design is clearly this effort to drag ideas into matter. And yet for them to retain their quintessential aura as nonmaterial things, it seems to be the most successful ones are that.
JB: But I, I mean, aren't you saying that we're talking about something that can't be talked about? And aren't all these phrases we throw around merely comfort words?
TM: Oh, absolutely.
JB: And straw horses?
TM: Oh yes, you know, this is a con.
JB: So why don't we have some coffee.
Q & A [NOT INCLUDED IN CURRENT AUDIO]
Q: Is it essential to your argument, Terence, to establish that there were in fact more or less egoless societies, partnership societies, pre-patriarchal?
TM: Is it necessary to establish it? I'm sure you recognize this as Riane Eisler's notion. Her word. She and I have worked together. She doesn't care to publicly embrace my conclusions, but she does say, you're right, there is something going on where pastoralism emerged. And the emerging of pastoralism and the discovery of the mushroom would be very much intertwined. I don't see how a society could use psilocybin orgiastically without being egoless. I believe the concern with paternity, with tracing the paternal line, which could have only arisen post ego was what then shut down these orgiastic religions, because men were more concerned with determining paternity than they were with having a good time, in fact.
Q: They were getting egos that needed to be defended that way.
TM: They needed to know who their sons were and they wanted to pass on their property, their cattle, their cash, affluence, or whatever it was.
Q: Do you think the evidence for these more or less egoless societies is pretty strong?
TM: No, I would say that I wish it were a lot stronger. How in the world, through archaeology, are you going to establish the egoless nature of a society? What I would like to see done would be someone to go into southern Algeria, to the Tassili n'Ajjer Plateau, and carry out a serious archaeological project.
To my mind, if you could find a Çatalhöyük-style site in Algeria that was 3- or 4,000 years older than Çatal, it would be perfectly reasonable to headline it as Eden dug up. In other words, that would prove that this high civilization was flourishing in Africa and that it was disrupted by desertification. And that would pretty much make it circumstantially fall into place.
Q: The archaeologists in Budiš, as you know, have presented something that looks like evidence. Whether it's conclusive or not is another question. Cities without walls, for example, burials without battle-mutilated bodies, burials without the typical trophies that are found in patriarch suit. And heroes, too.
TM: Around 10,000 BC we get what's called the ten point techno complex, meaning the sudden accumulation of pointed flints at village sites rather than in hunting areas, indicating that there were large concentrations of arrows fired near habitation sites. This was not hunting. The indirect evidence for this kind of egoless society, to my mind, is in the Amazon today. I've spent a lot of time down there taking ayahuasca, for example, with these up-river folks. Harmine before it was found to become specific with an alkaloid taken from a cereal plant, was called telepathine.
It is literally true that these Amazonian small hunting-gathering societies achieve a state of profound group-mindedness under this drug. And it's in those situations that they decide whether to go to war or whether to move the village, what crops should be planted, whether to take slaves. It's a state of group-mindedness. I have participated in these states and if you want anecdotal evidence I can give anecdotal evidence that very odd things are going on in these sessions. What you think are your own private hallucinations can suddenly begin to be critiqued by the guy sitting at your elbow. This is very impressive.
Q: One last thing, a speculative kind of thing. Do you think that if you allow that there are things that should be salvaged from our ego and scientific culture, do you think the best of our culture might be salvaged in a synthesis culture?
TM: Oh, yes. I'm not an anti-science person or anything like that. I think everything went toward a purpose. I look at western man through the metaphor of the prodigal son. We are the prodigal son. We wandered from the family hearth into history. And then we returned to the way of our fathers. But we have made the peregrination of the history that descended into a Faustian relationship with matter. Now, knowing what we know about matter, those techniques in the hands of a shamanically inspired society will create the global solution that we're seeking. But in our own hands we can seem only to use these techniques to destroy our enemies and poison ourselves.
Q: It seems to some extent that you're preaching to the choir in this particular group.
TM: Well, what a relief.
Q: There's an attitude you have towards the establishment in some way as if they object to this. I don't think they have an objection. The mega hospitals are filling up with narcissistic personalities and borderline personalities, and hysterical personalities. Do any of you know roughly what I'm talking about? Now, we could very easily, if you tell me the dose, send a grant in. Or the makers of leading drugs would be happy to find something for this group of people. It has nothing to do with objecting. If you have the right dose of psilocybin, which will, theoretically, these people are a narcissistic personality, is the extreme of it. If you set it up in a scientific way, they'll buy it.
TM: I'm very close to efforts to do this kind of thing and I can tell you it's an absolute nightmare. A drug as innocuous as MDMA is a schedule one drug. That means it's to be treated like heroin.
Q: No, no, no. For prescribing. But you can use a lot of drugs in the research. So you get special numbers and things like that.
TM: There are no protocols for human administration of psychedelic drugs in this country, nor have there been for 15 years.
Q: This was Humphrey Osmond and other peoples' agenda many years ago but it was shut down fully.
Q: It starts with Timothy Leary. What you're saying gives me deja vu of Timothy 20 years ago.
TM: Only because you misremember what he said. He never said anything like this. The rhetoric of the '60s was entirely devoid of any sensitivity to shamanism, of any awareness that these things had ever been done in the human past. They thought it was a miracle drug that had come out of a Swiss laboratory. They didn't realize that it was the way religion has always been practiced except for the last 2,000 years.
Q: Can you comment on the ways of triggering these experiences, psychedelic experiences, electromagnetically? You know, Persinger's work in Canada?
TM: For those of you who don't know, Persinger believes that UFO encounters are caused by geomagnetism in the earth, which then can be sufficiently strong to actually disrupt neurological functioning. But the general answer to your question is, no, I don't believe you can do this any other way. I mean, theoretically perhaps electromagnetism or something like that, but practically speaking, nothing works like this does. Yoga is futile. It's absolutely pointless.
A DMT trip lasts seven minutes. And five minutes after you come down you cannot tell that you have taken a drug, you don't have a headache, you're not tremoring, you don't even have a dry mouth. It is the most profound psychedelic experience a human being can have this side of the grave. So what's holding everybody up?
Q: Terence, you don't want to admit that some people don't want to have an experience that they'll never forget.
TM: Well, you're right.
Q: Will you talk about the relationship between psychedelics and the materialization of objects or the ability to transmute matter?
TM: Well, this is a very fringy sort of thing. It has to be anecdotal. You know, Whitehead, who I base a lot of what I think and feel on Whitehead, and he enshrined in the English language the phrase, the "fallacy of misplaced concreteness." This means believing that that's there, and this is here—the fallacy of misplaced concreteness. The most puzzling aspect of the psychedelic experience, and I'm loathe to even raise it because I don't want to defend it, is, if you do it enough and you watch it enough, you come to the conclusion that there are no boundaries; that the world is some kind of linguistic structure. It is not made of quarks or electromagnetic fields or mu-mesons. It's made of language. And the objection always brought against this point of view is, okay, so say something and make it come to be. And of course this is quite a challenge.
But on the other hand, perhaps that's not a fair approach. After all, everything around us as we sit in this room, for miles and miles in all directions, is an exudate of the human imagination. There is nothing that didn't come out of human minds. We have surrounded ourselves with a self-generated hallucination. We are like coral animals and we excrete ideas. We take matter and we lay into it platonic forms of tremendous complexity. So I think I'm fearful of this area because I think that you can sail off the edge. I'm fearful of it all. I am impressed by the awesome power of it. I think all of these things should be studied with an absolutely unbiased mind. And in no other area do I think this is possible.
Q: Let me ask you this question. You're very persuasive that at some period in time if the shamanistic culture had not changed very much the world might be a rather peaceful and glorious society today without much population growth, without much technology and so forth. But take the world as it is today, which I guess you have to do, and assuming, let us say, that because of the tremendous power of this little group, the day after tomorrow your message has gotten across and we are back in the shamanistic world. Could you sketch in your own mind what the society that we now have, which is hugely overpopulated and highly over technologically-encrusted and so forth, give us five or six minutes of your wonderful words as to what you see the society coming to.
TM: The thrust of history is toward the imagination. This was Blake's position—that our destiny was in what he called the divine imagination. Now, I know that virtual reality was slammed up one wall and down the other, so I don't want to clutch it to my breast this evening. But I do think that some combination, that the difference between computers and drugs is going to migrate toward the vanishing point, that the computers of the future will be drugs, and the drugs of the future will be computers. In other words, they're both information processing systems. Obviously microminiaturization and greater insight into the functioning of these compounds and so forth … everything is syncing toward the microphysical realm. My fantasy of an implementation of a psychedelic future is a world that looks very much like the world of 25,000 years ago, except that if you are a person in that world, when you close your eyes, there are menus, there are choices, there is an invisible interface. In other words, the imagination has become hardwired as the cultural dimension in which we all live.
By referring to New York as an excrescence of the imagination, but New York has tremendous solidity, a tremendous lump in momentum because it is made of matter. But if the implementation of design ideas were nothing more than the pushing of a button and skyscrapers a thousand stories high could spring up in virtual reality, then design will become the leading edge of culture. This is our future. Our future is in art. Our future is in realizing the imagination. And then, inhabiting it. And I grant you, in five minutes I cannot explain to you exactly how do we back out from 5 billion people, how do we feed everybody while this is going on.
The politics of the psychedelic experience are such that you introduce people to the idea of inner riches. Why bother with Harry Winston? Because the better stuff is inside. The better stuff costs nothing. The stuff cult, which is sweeping the planet and emptying the earth of its metals and polluting the rivers could be chalked off in a world where the imagination was the value that was being maximized. The short answer to your question is, a radical mentalization of culture to pull back from resource extraction and toxification of the environment.
Once you unleash psychedelics in the population the dreams that will be dreamed are large dreams, indeed. It's very clear that within the next 50 years we will understand the human genome to sufficient depth to probably take control of the human form, we will become who we want to be. We will design ourselves into being the kind of organism that is consonant with our politics. Strangely enough, the only kind of organism I can think of that is congruent with our politics would be something like a mushroom.
A mushroom is a mycelial network through the soil. It has as many connections as a neuro network. If it's a psilocybin mushroom it's a network filled with neurotransmitters, yet it's as fine as a cobweb. Look at how delicately the mushroom touches the earth; it lives only on decaying matter. But if it has menus inside of itself, then it may be living in situ, a fuller, deeper, richer, more feeling filled existence than we can imagine. So I don't think we should cling to the monkey form. Shedding the monkey is a real potential possibility. Techno freaks will want to download us into a solid state cube on the dark side of the moon. I would rather download us into planktonic life and put is into the oceans.
I was recently in Mexico and these huge stratocumulus clouds float over the Yucatan Peninsula. And I was looking and thinking, you know, if a person were the size of a water droplet every one of us could fit into one of these clouds. And look how non-destructive these stratocumulus clouds are. They just drift around, and around.
Q: Terence, do you suggest that civilization or whatever the form is, to change from the forest to the grasslands goes back about 30,000 years? Two questions: First, with that you suggest that Africa is where the cradle of civilization is. Are you also suggesting that civilizations don't go back anywhere in the world farther than that? And what about South America?
TM: Oh, yes. I accept all ordinary dates. I am no friend of Atlantis.
Q: Unlike Thor Heyerdahl?
TM: What I've done here this evening is just create a string of metaphors to try and pique your interest. Not once did I do justice to the truth of the situation or the depth of the psychedelic experience, because it cannot be told. It cannot be told. My technique is to tell the wildest, strangest story I can think of, claim that's the psychedelic experience, and leave it at that. But you should all know that the journey begins where the words stop.
Q: I want to go back historically for a minute. If we can. The shift of psilocybe, obsidian versus what appears to be a later shift to copper and amanita. Do you see a relationship with the shift from psilocybe to amanita in the ego context?
TM: I'm not sure I accept your premise. Were these two mushrooms ever overlapping in their range? Amanita is a creature of the arctic, generally, the arctic.
And psilocybin, in the
stropharia cubensis, which is the worldwide one associated with cattle, was a lowland tropical mushroom. Gordon Wasson, who was a wonderful man, spread a lot of confusion about amanita muscaria, and it would take an evening to sort that all out.
Q: On the Pacific coast of the northwest amanita and psilocybes grow virtually side-by-side.
TM: Although there is no proof that the people of the northwest coast ever were aware of those mushrooms.
Q: I have an answer to that. I was in a place called Magadan, Soviet Far East, in the fall. I had a conversation with a Soviet scientist, who showed me a photograph that they had of a man, which they discovered on Kamchatka, which had a mushroom on his head. And that same exact figure was found in Mayan culture. So it seemed when people came across, they worked their way down and they brought the mushroom culture with it.
TM: Well, that's a theory that doesn't give much credit to the mushroom. You don't require cultural diffusion theories if you believe that the mushroom simply speaks.
Q: But you have a DMT experience that …the one that you will never forget. . .
TM: Well, it depends on your personality. I've seen people smoke DMT and give an entirely convincing display while they were on it, and then come down and say, number one, "I will never do that again," number two, "I don't remember anything," number three, "please leave."
Q: Could you trigger this without mushrooms?
TM: It's a very interesting question. Once a person has smoked DMT it's possible to have a dream in which the subject is raised, the pipe is produced, and it happens. I find this profoundly interesting because it's absolute proof that all the machinery necessary is present in the unstoned natural brain.
At one point, in grappling with the UFO problem, I tried to think in terms of perhaps DMT was loading into adipose tissue and some kind of stimulus could suddenly cause all this stuff to drop out into your system and you would have this sense of hackle-raising strangeness and a rising sense of energy, then a descent into hallucinogenesis.
When DMT was first discovered people were jumping up and down. They thought they had found the schizogen—the chemical key to psychosis. The current thinking about DMT coming out of this University of Alabama, is that probably DMT mediates attention. They believe that when you scan a room, lock on to a face, and grock it, that something is happening with DMT there. It's very useful, these compounds which can be activated and deactivated so quickly. And this is what the body needs to make use of. And many neurotransmitters have this spiking ability where they can shift from one catalytic state to another very rapidly.
There's a generation of hard science that needs to be done here. You can think up great experiments and find projects forever. None of it has ever been done because it's forbidden. It's taboo.
Q: Let's go back to the issue of menu. This is more of a technical question for you. You've been emphasizing psilocybin and mushroom-based psychedelics. How would you, for instance, compare them with mescaline or lysergic acid, or ketamine, or ibogaine, or yage, the same thing, all appear to address some portion of this opening, this ascending door. Now, if we have a collectivistic culture, that is, to say the least, and we are fusing, would you produce a hierarchy of availability? Would you produce a kind of synthetic mix of all these sources, or would you recommend a kind of graduated measurement of intake? How would you appropriate each of these substances with specific forms of psychedelic insight?
TM: I don't want to talk as though I would make social policy because I think people should be free to do what they want. What I would tell you, though, is to my mind the word psychedelic has been used far, far too broadly, and that where we need to concentrate is on the tryptamine hallucinogens. Specifically psilocybin, DMT, DET, DPT. Then secondarily, the indole hallucinogens including LSD and ibogaine. Mescaline, I consider to be a visually active amphetamine. And not nearly so interesting.
Q: So you would produce a hierarchy?
TM: Let me tell you my rules. If you're going to take a drug, here are the three questions you should ask yourself about this drug, to my mind. Number one, does it occur in nature as a metabolite in some organism? This tells you already that it's not pernicious to life. The next question is, does it have a history of human usage? This makes it even more acceptable. If you have a plant or a drug that has a history of human usage over thousands of years, you don't have to worry about tumors, blindness, infertility, anything weird like that. You've got your human data in hand in the form of the anthropological record. The third and most difficult test for a compound to pass is, does it occur as a constituent of normal human metabolism? The only drugs which can pass all three of these filters are tryptamine hallucinogens, specifically DMT.
You see, serotonin is 5-hydroxytryptamine, this major neurotransmitter system in the brain. Psilocybin, 4-phosphoyloxy and N-dimethyltryptamine. DMT, dimethyltryptamine. I prefer thinking of these things not as drugs really, but as diddling with levels of endogenous neurotransmitters.
Q: It's interesting that you excluded ketamine from your hierarchy.
TM: Oh, no, that stuff is … I found it very interesting, I have played with it too, but it's not in this ballpark.
Q: What is the natural form of DMT?
TM: Dimethyltryptamine occurs in the human brain and certain deep sea fish, in many generative plants. In fact, interestingly enough, DMT is the most widely distributed hallucinogen in organic nature.
Q: What is the most common one? Or the most optimally used by traditional cultures?
TM: It's used in ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is a combinatory drug where, if you take an MAO inhibitor, and that causes the DMT to become active if taken orally, if you don't back DMT with an MAO inhibitor you take it orally, it will be destroyed. So ordinarily it's smoked. In terms of a shamanic religion that is regularly accessing DMT for sure it's these banisteriopsis cults in the Peruvian, Ecuadorian Amazon.
Q: And is there a tradition similar to that going on in another culture, in another part of the world?
TM: One of the puzzles of psychedelic botany that has never been successfully dealt with is the tremendous concentration of these plants in South America. The Asian tropics are almost devoid of hallucinogens and the South American tropics have like up to 53 species. No one has ever created a satisfactory model for how evolutionary forces could end you up in a hemispheric segregation of drug molecules.
Q: Based upon what you said earlier, might that not leave you to believe that South America could be the cradle of civilization rather than Africa?
TM: No, because I see ample evidence in Africa, and there's a mountain of paleontological evidence that you would have to go against to move the human origin point to South America. I have enough troubles of my own without taking on somebody else's battle.
Q: Why do you need the notion that we are in a bad moment in time? Why do you need for your argument the notion that, you know, you are going to go and rediscover your roots, and this will solve the problem? I have a problem with anybody's talking with the crisis in order to explain a viewpoint that can be valid or not valid without a crisis.
Q: Could I put a rider on this one? You took us down one side of the view, this stereoscopic view is, you have you and history, and that which you didn't get to say tonight, which was that software and that reading of the pattern of the evolution of what's going on. This is where the crisis moment and the chaos moments come in. I was just wondering if you would, as you respond to this, tell us a little bit about that.
TM: I attempted to compartmentalize my intellectual life to make it easy for you. When John asked me here, I said, "Okay, I'll talk about my theory of time." And John said, "Oh, no, if there's a computer involved nobody will come." So I said, "Okay, I'll drop that." Well, next time, if you ever get a next time with the Reality Club. It seems to me that cultures do not create new paradigms except under pressure of crisis. Because if there's no crisis there's, you know, if it ain't broke, why fix it?
My view of history is that time is a kind of variable. Novelty is a previously unrecognized constant in the universe, and novelty ebbs and flows; it's the force which builds up and tears down—empires, love affairs, species, investments—it operates on all scales. Out of a deep inspection of the functioning of our own nervous system we can extrapolate maps of a fractal nature and a mathematically formal nature that, lo and behold, can be overlaid over the whole of reality. Again, feeding back into my conclusion that reality is made of language.
It would be fairly disingenuous in any context to argue that we're not facing crisis. And then, in terms of the politics of this position it's necessary to remind people that they're facing a crisis because otherwise there is no impetus to an act of courage. In other words, who's going to jump out of a fourth floor window? But everybody will jump out of a fourth floor window if the building behind them is on fire. You have to get people aware of what's going on.
Part of the ego sickness of our society is our incredible ability to deny what's going on. It's all around us. This is a dying planet. It's been dying for 10,000 years. The species count is falling exponentially. What does it take to get people off the dime?
Q: We're not facing a crisis, we're facing thousands of crises, all different kinds of crises and they're very different in nature. I find your talk very problematic, because I'm in favor of taking psychedelics into adulthood. I like the drugs, but there's something about the way in which you argue for it. You propose an evolutionary and very globalizing model instead of an ideological model. It's as if something inevitably will happen through the use of these drugs rather than a sensitivity to the many different kinds of things which will happen through the use of substances like this, depending upon the culture into which they fall.
There's been quite a similar debate in anthropology in terms of literacy, where, in the '70s people like Goody in England, and Havelock, thought that literacy inevitably produced certain kinds of phenomena in society, and then a spate of evidence showing that that's not the case. Literacy is used in many different ways. It's in favor of both secrecy and the free dissemination of information, in abstract thought and non-abstract thought. And the differences are not available.
TM: I don't agree with your premise that we have thousands and thousands of problems. We have one problem; it's the ego. And the retraction of the ego, it will all fall into place. You know? Humility: the ability to defer to the other person; the ability to forestall gratification; the ability to assess consequences. If we can get a hold on the ego, all the rest will fall into place. And I think if we can get a hold on the ego, the best-intentioned programs will come a cropper.
Q: Terence has spoken a lot this evening about the shrinking of the ego. Okay. And I'm curious, and it's a bit rhetorical question, but when your ego shrinks and when your personality shrinks, what do you find beyond the veil of the personality? Because your denial of, let's say, an Akashic record or something like that, a membrane of life that one can visibly turn to and view, presupposes an understanding reincarnation is not possible, that perhaps the empathy within different life forms, where a human and a plant can communicate, or an animal can communicate. I wonder, Jimi Hendrix put it, "Are you experienced?"
TM: As I understand your question, it is, what do I feel when I shrink my ego? The felt presence of immediate experience. That's what the ego dams from reaching the self.
Q: Have you passed into a place where the colors disappear, a void appeared before you? A pure void of consciousness where perhaps the bubble of the personal self breaks and you will then open up into a sea of consciousness that was much higher than you are personally?
TM: Well, you have those kinds of experiences, but you can't navigate through the world like that.
Q: Isn't that what tribal cultures do? They're synesthetic cultures. From what I've heard the only place that happens in western civilization is when people like us are on psychedelics.
Q: What do you think you're going to get, and don't get, when you get it? When you get rid of the ego, then, what happens to all of us in our endeavors?
TM: We mis-define it. We can all keep doing a lot of what we're doing. You just feel differently about it. Probably most of the people in this room, powerful as they are, have their ego under control because when you have your ego under control you don't take yourself seriously. That's all. You know, it's provisional. You know, it's all a game. But the people who take it seriously, my God, they're like another species.
Q: Are you sure that it's not excessive testosterone?
TM: No, I have stayed very clear of gender-specific denigration or association.
Q: There are theories that anything with testosterone climbs hierarchies and is very egotistical, even if it is raised as a woman and has some organ producing testosterone that's not we're not aware of.
TM: Stoned men don't participate to the same degree in those kinds of monkey games. I don't mean us. We probably do. I mean, in pre-history. This was while it was being taken. Imagine a culture where, at every new and full moon, let us say, everybody took a strong hit of mushrooms and made love in a heap. Well, how are you going to come out of that talking about my cattle, my hut, my land because you don't even know who your children are. And it's a different head.
Q: Is your experience of South America, that any isolated tribes such as these people are devoid of ego?
TM: Yes, there are tribes for whom all they know is cooperation. How about the Machiguenga?
Q: I've been with the Machiguenga, in Peru and I noticed among them a very warlike tendency. They said that we don't like those people up the river. I was on the Manú River. We don't like those people up there. They had bows and arrows. I have them at home. They're very violent people.
TM: Within the group.
Q: But that's essential. Part of its essential. Then your group is always localized, always provincial.
TM: But we have a global tribe. We know that.
Q: I'm really curious, because at one time in Africa you painted a picture, at least from the impression that I got, that these cultures which existed were devoid of aggressive tendencies through the mushrooms. Got rid of our ego. And we do not worry about our children, about copping somebody else's cows. Now, am I to believe that these two isolated cultures still exist in some place in the Amazon?
TM: No, because a number of factors that were present aren't present.
Q: Is it possible that they could be? Because as you all know there are still cultures down there we cannot get in contact with.
TM: Almost. Yes. Theoretically there's nothing against it but there's going to be 20 people who are probably nomadic and who flee at even the sound of an outboard motor. You're not going to get a lot of satisfying interaction with these folks.
Q: It's very idealistic and I accept everything you say. But what about the fallout? Do you think everybody can react this way, this wonderful way and … a shaman, to see the world wonderfully, lose their egos, good, nice, clean, and interact? We'd have chaos.
Q: In the '60s, when LSD came out, there was no stigma. Everybody was roaring and ready to do research on that. I was doing research; I was injecting it into patients with focal cerebral disease. I had all sorts of phenomena, and I wrote it up and it was great. Then you start carrying the people in who overdosed and did too much of it and so on and it became a real mess. I'm from the standard society that says no drugs or anything like that. I'd give drugs to everybody, legalize the whole damn thing. But to envision an idealistic world coming out the way you picture it, is absurd. It ain't gonna happen. | <urn:uuid:daed2db8-a81c-4c73-8f62-be6383aa939d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://asktmk.com/talks/Touched+by+The+Tremendum | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571090.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809215803-20220810005803-00071.warc.gz | en | 0.972087 | 14,663 | 1.578125 | 2 |
She is no spring chicken, and appears to have spent a few years roosting rough.
But Boomerang the pigeon has lost neither her homing instinct - nor her sense of occasion.
After ten years away, she suddenly turned up at the home of the man who raised her.
And on Father's Day, no less.
Loft and found: After ten years of cooing and fro-ing, Boomerang flies back
At first, Dino Reardon thought the bedraggled bird running towards him at his home in Skipton, North Yorkshire, was a stray.
'I checked the tag and nearly collapsed when I saw who it was,' he said.
'I just couldn't believe it. She could barely stand up and couldn't even make it into the aviary, she was just exhausted.
'I spent all Sunday feeding her glucose and honey to try and get her energy back from the journey.'
Her return was not completely unexpected, however - as her name suggests.
Boomerang's homing instinct is the stuff of legend among pigeon fanciers.
The 13-year-old bird first made headlines back in 1998, when Mr Reardon gave her to a friend in Algeciras, southern Spain, after retiring from breeding racing pigeons.
Boomerang promptly flew the 1,200 miles back home.
Home to roost: Boomerang is the daughter of famous racing pigeon Bluey
Mr Reardon immediately gave her to another breeder in Filey, North Yorkshire - but she returned to his pigeon loft again.
Finally, still in the same year, Mr Reardon gave her to his friend Alf Pennington in Lancashire.
Mr Reardon had not seen her since... until Sunday.
It is not known exactly where she had flown from, as Mr Pennington is thought to
have died five years ago.
'I don't have a clue were she's been since Alf died but I'm glad she's home,' said Mr Reardon.
Boomerang's feats are all the more remarkable because she is not a racing bird.
The daughter of Bluey Champion, a winner of 17 national titles, she was kept for breeding.
She must have inherited her homing skills from her father, who was once 'birdnapped' and had his wings clipped by thieves, but escaped and walked 60 miles back to Mr Reardon's home.
Pigeons have a lifespan of three to five years in the wild, but live to around 15 in captivity.
Boomerang's return has attracted interest from breeders as far afield as South Africa, who have been phoning constantly since her reappearance.
But yesterday Mr Reardon - whose pigeons come from stock which have been in his Italian family for 200 years - said that she will be staying put.
'She will be going nowhere from now on,' he added.
'She is staying here and will be looked after for the rest of her life. She has already paired up and if she lays any eggs they will be staying with me.' | <urn:uuid:175a4bec-860e-4b08-aa75-52e083ee73a8> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.standard.co.uk/news/boomerang-the-racing-pigeon-returns-to-the-owner-who-gave-her-away-ten-years-ago-6916754.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720468.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00488-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988767 | 646 | 1.75 | 2 |
Yesterday at the Royal Dutch Shell AGM in The Hague, the company’s leadership was grilled with questions and concerns about its high-risk plans for offshore U.S. Arctic oil exploration, and how it will square that circle with its apparent commitment to take climate change more seriously.
Interventions ranged from powerful statements and concerns from indigenous leaders on the front lines in Alaska, to hard-hitting questions from institutional shareholders about the very real financial risks of the high cost Arctic program.
It was one of these many questions that prompted a curious response from Shell’s CEO, Ben van Beurden. Why was everyone picking on Arctic oil? In his view, connecting Arctic oil to climate change is, “illogical”. Oil is oil. It was an interesting response that seemed to offer a lot of insight into Shell’s disconnect from the biting reality: the fundamental point that we are going to have to leave fossil fuels in the ground if we are serious about addressing climate change.
The economics are clear; the only way Shell can ever make money with Arctic oil is if climate change remains unaddressed. Shell’s Arctic program is a multi-billion dollar bet that we will fail to avoid dangerous climate change and that is why the company is feeling the heat from a growing coalition of investors, stakeholders and ordinary citizens.
We already have more than enough fossil fuels in proven reserves to exhaust our global carbon budget. In fact, well over 75% of the oil, coal and gas we already have access to will have to remain in the ground in order to have a decent chance at avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.
This means we face some serious questions about how we are going to divide up the remainder of the burnable carbon. There are many factors that will play into this: cost, carbon intensity, equity, geopolitics… but it isn’t hard to understand why high cost, high risk oil that is at a minimum a decade away from production doesn’t make the cut.
It seems there are two possible explanations for the CEO’s concerns about the logic of it all. The more charitable interpretation is that Mr. van Beurden is suffering from a dangerous case of fossil fuel fatalism. The delusional sense that continued and rapid growth of fossil fuel use is inevitable, and that prosperity in the coming decades rests on the back of increased exploration, expansion and exploitation of fossil fuels.
The other explanation is that Mr. van Beurden – a chemical engineer by training – understands very well that you can’t put more into the atmosphere than the atmosphere can safely hold, but that his company will fight tooth and nail for a disproportionate share of the remaining carbon budget.
Either way – the end result is the ongoing and aggressive efforts by Big Oil to convince us that our fossil fuel addiction can’t be overcome, at least not until they have squeezed every last penny possible out of high-carbon fuels.
You can read more here, here or here about the economic case that drives the Arctic-climate conundrum that has Mr. van Beurden so outwardly perplexed. Whether he really misunderstands the problem or pretends to, it’s clear that many people do indeed suffer from fossil fuel fatalism. Not least the politicians and diplomats who find it so hard to show leadership on climate change.
And meanwhile, the burden also rests on all of us to free ourselves from our own fossil fuel fatalism. Yes the stuff has powered the past, but that is not a convincing reason for it to power the future. In fact there are many more convincing reasons that it won’t. We just need to stop letting the fossil fuel industry define the limits of what is possible. That era is ending with the growing movement to leave it in the ground. | <urn:uuid:66d19183-ad53-4240-bb82-c254f3b5264a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://priceofoil.org/2015/05/20/fossil-fuel-fatalism-untouchable-arctic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571234.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811042804-20220811072804-00075.warc.gz | en | 0.957182 | 776 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Alberta’s premier launched targeted public-health initiatives aimed at slowing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic as the third phase of the pandemic set new records on Thursday.
On Thursday, the province announced 2,048 new cases, the most in a single day since the pandemic started in March 2020. Premier Jason Kenney has cautioned Albertans that if the trend persists, more drastic steps, such as curfews, will be required.
Kenney said at a news conference that starting Friday, the province will introduce targeted initiatives in hot spots throughout the province where there are more than 350 open cases per 100,000 residents and at least 250 overall active cases.
Starting Monday, all junior and senior high schools in the targeted communities will switch to at-home learning, though some have already made the switch to online learning. Starting Friday, all indoor exercise and indoor sports facilities will be closed. The required limitations would last at least two weeks, according to Kenney.
People who do not pay their fines and do not comply with health measures now risk being unable to renew their driver’s license or complete other transactions at registry facilities, he said. “This is about those who refuse to take the pandemic seriously and seek to put others in danger by disobeying public health orders.”
On Thursday, there were 21,385 active cases, a rise of 447 from the day before. Active cases in the province peaked at 20,976 on Dec. 13 during the second wave.
There were also 1,329 reports of extremely infectious variants of concern. Variants are now responsible for 62% of all active cases in the province.
COVID-19 was being treated in 632 Alberta hospitals, a small decrease from the day before. There were 151 patients in ICU beds, up to six from the previous week. “I wanted to take a moment to emphasize the seriousness of the situation we’re in now, and how bad things could get if Albertans don’t make a concerted effort in the coming weeks,” Kenney said.
“What I can say is that I don’t want to be standing here in two weeks having to impose a hard lockdown on Alberta, which we’ve avoided as a province in the last year because people don’t respond to this call.” | <urn:uuid:cb5e439e-9c43-4cd6-a540-6cb9540a30ef> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://ptcnetwork.ca/as-covid-19-cases-rise-alberta-adopts-new-targeted-public-health-policies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570879.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808213349-20220809003349-00474.warc.gz | en | 0.962676 | 490 | 1.640625 | 2 |
If you think Christine Bentz is at home bragging about graduating as class valedictorian with a perfect grade-point average, think again.
The 17-year-old senior at Regis High School will be the third member of her family to accomplish the academic feat in the past three years at the school.
"My brothers and I have very competitive personalities and we constantly try to outdo each other," says Bentz.
But Bentz's schoolwork is just one part of what makes her an Academic All-Star.
With a list of extra curricular activities that is tiring just to think about, Bentz is always on the go.
Her list of involvements includes leading two church youth groups, rehearsing for an upcoming choir and play performance, running track, chairing Regis' student body and teaching piano lessons.
Oh, and then there's her classes, which consist of such brain teasers as calculus, physics and third- year Spanish.
So how does Bentz do it? She credits her Catholic faith, family and friends for support.
"It is hard to juggle everything and sometimes my parents have to tell me to slow down and take a breath of fresh air," she says.
Bentz is considering attending Franciscan College in Ohio or George Mason University in Washington, D.C.
firstname.lastname@example.org or (503) 399-6744
There is one very specific change that I would like to see happen in our education system, and it involves elementary students. One thing I have learned throughout my education is the development of the human mind, particularly in my psychology class. It's been proven that the "window" in the human mind for learning a language or a second language closes at age 12. I think this information is very important, and we should utilize it as best we can.
One major thing that differentiates young American students from their European counterparts is their knowledge of several languages in elementary school along with English. I have taken foreign language courses in high school, but it is a constant struggle. I wish I had been given the opportunity to begin learning and even learn to the point of fluently speaking another language as a child.
I would go about this by changing the curriculum in elementary schools. When children begin elementary school, they are taught to read and write English. Along with these studies, they should be taught basic language skills, reading and writing in a foreign tongue. Learning another language opens up a person's horizons to new cultures and new ideas. I believe this would be a great asset to the K-12 education system, and our future generations as well. | <urn:uuid:df9771a9-9246-4932-9300-39c736b99b04> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/education/2005/01/28/christine-bentz/77155924/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571719.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812140019-20220812170019-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.974948 | 555 | 2.25 | 2 |
Encouragement from a friend or relative can help a pregnant woman quit smoking.
This paper presents research into whether active social support caused low-income women to smoke less during and after pregnancy. In addition, the study evaluated the nature of the support (e.g., positive or negative comments). Recruitment took place in 2005 in urban clinics in Minnesota and Ohio. Subjects were pregnant women in their first or second trimester, over 18 years old, and current smokers.
Each subject identified someone in her social network to act as a supporter. The study was a randomized trial; each subject-supporter pair was randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. All subjects received a single counseling session that provided motivational techniques and information about community resources for quitting. Supporters in the intervention group also attended a counseling session; supporters and counselors identified specific activities to help the subject quit smoking. Through monthly telephone conversations, counselors monitored what supporters were doing to discourage subjects from smoking. Researchers did not contact supporters assigned to the control group.
- A pregnant woman whose supporter was in the intervention group (i.e., received counseling) was more likely to say that the supporter had a “high” commitment level to helping her quit smoking.
- A friend’s support was more beneficial than support from a relative.
Many women who smoke continue the habit after becoming pregnant. This randomized trial, conducted among low-income women, assessed the effects of mobilizing social support to help pregnant women quit smoking. Support from friends and family makes it less likely that a woman will smoke during pregnancy. | <urn:uuid:dffb8110-ba8d-4bc2-aa33-a530706d7db4> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2010/03/increasing-support-for-smoking-cessation-during-pregnancy-and-po.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280266.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00497-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968495 | 320 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Should I pay attention to crime statistics?
It can affect your insurance premiums, the property prices, what the shopping strip down the road looks like (security grills and roller doors or pot plants and picture windows) and so much more. The frequency of break-ins or general crime in the area you live can affect your lifestyle as well, but should we all be locking the doors, bolting the windows and hiding under the bed?
Australia ranked 20th in the top 23 safest countries in the world to live.* We have an amazing country where outdoor living and utilising our beautiful open spaces, stunning countryside, and clean well-maintained parks is commonplace, even in our most densely populated cities. Our comparably small population is relatively safe and law abiding.
That's not to say there is no crime, a quick look at your local evening news program will tell of all the bad stuff that's going on in your neighbourhood and the internet will report any that the TV news missed. One neighbourhood can be more susceptible than another but as far as your home security, taking practical common-sense measures to protect your property should be standard where ever you live.
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The trouble with crime statistics is that they change every month and probably paint a frightening picture of any suburb. Complacency in a relatively safe area can be just as impractical as living in fear in a so-called 'at risk' area. Everywhere is at risk and everywhere can be safe. Thieves don't care where you live and are happy to travel to a new suburb.
Deadbolting all entry points, installing security lighting, keeping your home visible from the street and investing in a quality reliable home security system will help protect your home, whether you live in Logan, Mt Gravatt, Ascot, or McDowall.
For more advice on staying safe in your home, where ever you live, speak to your local home security specialist for expert recommendations on protecting your property.
Want to know what's going on in your Brisbane neighbourhood? Take a look at the Crime Map - crimemap.info
Ref: *Legatum Institute 2016 Legatum Prosperity Index | <urn:uuid:879f3f03-7605-4d81-954d-1bdebdde14e2> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://alltronic.com.au/security-blog/should-i-pay-attention-to-crime-statistics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570692.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20220807181008-20220807211008-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.923231 | 467 | 1.875 | 2 |
On Wednesday, I had a medical procedure that I’d been waiting for since March.
I knew it would be invasive, so I tried to stay in the present and talk myself through it.
However, I wasn’t able to complete it awake. An alternative choice was offered to me when I spoke plainly and candidly to the surgeon: “I have a history of trauma. You cannot put anything down my throat. I cannot do this without sedation. Is there another way?”
I am grateful she respected my wishes. I am also grateful she acknowledged why it would be so hard for me and that I wasn’t alone. In fact, many patients might express similar sentiments with much regularity.
I think when people hear the word “flashback,” they often think it means remembering something bad.
But it’s more than that. A flashback is a reaction to a memory that has often manifested for years in the body.
For me, a flashback reaction begins with ringing in my ears, tunnel vision, a lump in my throat, difficulty swallowing and breathing, feeling light-headed, nauseous, profuse sweating, an accelerated heart rate akin to being on a treadmill, restless legs, and trouble remaining seated (a prompt from my primal brain to fight, flee, or freeze). But these are only the physical manifestations.
Mentally, the fear often becomes so intense that people dissociate and are unsure of where they are or what they are doing and will forget what they were doing before it happened. It can be hard to distinguish between a time of trauma and the present when a flashback is occurring. The brain experiences something that connects the dots.
In my own experience, this happens when there is someone who looks like a past offender (or may be related to them), the smell of certain alcoholic beverages on someone’s breath, certain air fresheners (or a person’s cologne), the color yellow, and so on. For me, these can open up a carefully secured file in my brain of old memories that make it feel like my trauma is happening now all over again.
A flashback is not just remembering a traumatic event. It is being forced to relive and reexperience it over and over again. It is not the same as anxiety or a panic attack—I’ve experienced both as well.
The key difference is that generalized anxiety is the fear of the unknown, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the fear of what we already know.
A lot of people confuse panic attacks with flashbacks.
Panic attacks can evoke almost all the same physiological responses and they are scary as f*ck, but they are not always associated with memory or past trauma. Often, they are stress-induced or the reason could be subconscious and the person is unaware of the trigger.
Panic attacks can also come out of nowhere, usually in the worst places possible, such as events and in the checkout line at the grocery store.
Thankfully, they often pass faster than flashbacks, but it sure as hell doesn’t feel like it at the time. Many people compare a severe panic attack to what dying might feel like—I concur.
Here are a few ways to tell the difference between panic attacks and flashbacks, and how we can deal with them:
>> In a panic attack, people tend to need to reduce their amount of external stimuli. They may feel the need to leave where they are and get to a safe place like a bedroom, their car, or a washroom.
They often need a quiet space where they can use deep diaphragmatic breathing—deep enough to pull the belly in and exhale long enough to puff the belly out. Some use a grounding object like a ring they spin on their finger or a rock in their pocket to run their fingers over its edges. They can also implement self-talk as assurance: “I’m in the Walmart parking lot, and I’m safe. It’s just a panic attack. This will pass. Breathe. Relax your shoulders. Open and close your fist. Focus on your safe place.”
Some close their eyes, some don’t, as it can increase dissociation from the present—I don’t. My safe place is on a beach, at sunset, hearing the waves kiss the shore. If none of those things work and you have medication, you may or may not need to take it. If you do, take it with zero shame.
>> Flashbacks often (not always) require the opposite approach: the need to increase external stimuli to bring one back into the present. The mind has dissociated and does not know the day nor the hour. It is reliving an event that already happened and believes we are back there; frozen in time.
Many people during severe trauma go blank, and their mind leaves their body and completely dissociates from the experience (this is the “freeze” response and a highly adaptive brain response in order to survive such fear or threat of danger). Later in flashback mode, some will freeze again, feel immobilized, and paralyzed once more.
Others will have the need to do the opposite of what they did in trauma time: they fight or flee, and this can range from an angry outburst to stripping off layers of clothing that feel confining (been there, done that; bra in the mandarin at the table) to anything in between.
We might also feel the need to escape, whether that is literally leaving the triggering situation or using substances to do so (flee and freeze can become familiar ways to cope, but they’re not functional and can be maladaptive when we are not in imminent danger). We end up running and hiding from any experiences, places, or people that might remind us of that trauma and eventually become afraid of things we do not need to fear.
It can also become an automated response to want to numb and separate from those thoughts by always doing and filling our mind, which keeps us from being mindful. Often, sensory overload can help bring someone out of a flashback. It is something external and it activates our senses to bring us back to the present.
(If you have people in your life who know you have PTSD, tell them ahead of time what works for you and what doesn’t. It can be frightening for them as well if they don’t know what is happening; ask my friend who found me hiding and crying inconsolably like a child when I was 45, under a kitchen table, clinging to its legs for protection.)
Here are a few examples of what can bring us back to the present moment:
>> Sound: Turning on the radio and cranking up the volume brings people back into the present.
>> Smell: Some people carry aromatherapy or use strong aromas, like basil or lavender, to smell something in the moment that can overrride the smells associated with a traumatic experience.
>> Taste: Carry disgusting cough drops and suck on something unfamiliar or sour like a lemon drop or something salty like a pretzel (something you didn’t taste during the time of the traumatic event). I don’t know a single soul who hasn’t been so sick after eating something or drinking something that they never ate or drank again. Taste is a powerful resource.
>> Touch: When I did my PTSD program, nurses and doctors would often use an ice pack on the back of the neck to bring someone into the present. It is using the startle reflex in reverse. I’ve heard that some consider this barbaric. I’m not suggesting throwing someone in a bathtub of ice cold water, but a freezie or an ice cube in the hand, or splashing your face with cold water can work wonders.
>> Sight: Try and get back to the moment by counting the number of things around you that are a certain color. Then your focus shifts to the location you are in—in the here and now. This is probably the easiest way to reorientate if we are out in public. Choosing to find and scan for a certain color or item engages the cognitive parts of our brain and diminishes the activity in our fear response centre. Logic and fear exist in different parts of the brain.
Enlist the help of those you trust, and be honest about the best ways to help you if you have a panic attack or a flashback. It’s no different than what you might tell someone to do if you had diabetes, seizures, or a severe allergic reaction to peanuts.
The more knowledge people have, the more they know and the more they can help you. Also, be honest: if you don’t want them to speak to you or touch you, but just be there, then say so (just like I would hope someone would share where their EpiPen, medications, or inhalers are, so that if something happens, they wouldn’t have to go looking frantically and have a panic attack of their own).
We need to start normalizing these conversations about mental health. | <urn:uuid:c36dffcd-3550-4c66-8bc4-b9acbaafe90b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.elephantjournal.com/2020/08/how-trauma-survivors-can-tell-the-difference-between-panic-attacks-flashbacks-christina-lepore/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571472.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811133823-20220811163823-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.965306 | 1,895 | 1.96875 | 2 |
State laws govern waters close to the shore, but under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) of 1953, federal law generally applies to distances farther out. State laws can govern beyond the shore but only if they are “applicable and not inconsistent” with federal law.
The dispute arose when an offshore oil rig worker filed a class-action lawsuit claiming his employer was violating state law by failing to pay him for hours he wasn’t working but had to remain on the drilling platform. California wage-hour law requires employers to compensate workers for time spent on standby.
But the court found that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which mandates payment only for hours actually worked, applied instead. “[O]ur consistent understanding of the OCSLA remains: All law on the OCS is federal, and state law serves a supporting role, to be adopted only where there is a gap in federal law’s coverage,” the court said. Since the FLSA directly addressed this wage-hour issue, the “state law is not adopted as surrogate federal law on the OCS.” | <urn:uuid:25753efd-1545-4f9d-a617-fd163b6b1dba> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.mercer.com/our-thinking/law-and-policy-group/federal-wage-law-applies-to-offshore-rig-workers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571911.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813081639-20220813111639-00468.warc.gz | en | 0.957147 | 236 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Fact check: Claims of electoral fraud in Rome, dubbed 'ItalyGate,' are baseless
The claim: Votes were switched from Trump to Biden at the U.S. Embassy in Rome
At 3:41 a.m. on Jan. 7, Vice President Mike Pence confirmed that President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump — an act that marked the formal end of the presidential race, per USA TODAY.
Nonetheless, some internet users have continued to levy baseless claims about electoral fraud. This week, there were multiple videos posted to Facebook that alleged the vote count was changed in Rome.
"The theft of the election was orchestrated in the Rome Embassy, on the second floor of Via Veneto, by an employee, Stefano Serafini, foreign service officer of over 20 years," she said. "Stefano Serafini coordinated with a General Claudio Graziano."
"General Graziano is on the board of Leonardo — the defense contractor, Leonardo SPA," Strollo Zack continued. "Leonardo used their military satellite uplink to load the software and transfer it over to change the votes from Trump to Biden."
She also alleged that recent arrests of employees at Leonardo were related to the incident, and that the plan was orchestrated by former President Barack Obama, with help from former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the CIA.
Strollo Zack — a former lobbyist and current chair of Nations in Action, an organization established in 2017 and dedicated to advocating for families, according to its website — also made an appeal for funds to help her gather more evidence.
Conversation Controversy also shared a 13-minute video in which retired CIA station chief Bradley Johnson shares a similar version of the theory, connected to another debunked theory about election servers in Frankfurt, Germany.
"The U.S. elections were changed, the results were changed in those five or six key states, then all of those voting machines were hooked up to the internet," he said. "The internet then was used to download that information to these famous servers in Germany."
"So from there, those were uploaded and sent to Rome, and this is where this took place," he continued. "Once they created all the new data and manipulated all the data that was there, they sent these new numbers back up through this military satellite (...) and back down to all the machines here in the United States in those five or six states."
Johnson also claimed the time it took to upload the data to servers in Germany and Italy, manipulate it in Italy, and send it back to the U.S. was the source of the "sudden" uptick in votes for Biden in some states.
"ItalyGate" has quickly spread to around the internet. The three videos have amassed a combined 100,000 views and 7,000 shares on Facebook. An interview of Strollo Zack on America Can We Talk? on YouTube has also garnered over 400,000 views.
Conversation Controversy, Strollo Zack, American Can We Talk? have not responded to requests from USA TODAY for comment.
Trump Train News Media told USA TODAY that they are not responsible for the content, since it was sent to the page to share.
Johnson told USA TODAY that "it’s clear from Italian newspapers this is going on," though he provided no proof.
No evidence of switched votes or electoral fraud, per multiple officials
The claims in both videos on "ItalyGate" are baseless. They are also easily contradicted by statements from multiple federal officials who have found no proof of electoral fraud.
On Nov. 12, a national coalition of election security officials announced that "there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," per USA TODAY.
"All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary," they wrote. "This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors."
The coalition — which included the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Association of State Election Directors — also deemed the election "the most secure in American history."
On Dec. 1, then-Attorney General William Barr also told the Associated Press that the U.S. Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
An apparent uptick in votes for Biden in some states also wasn't proof of malfeasance.
USA TODAY, Reuters, PolitiFact and the Associated Press have debunked these claims. Most "spikes" were caused by late-counted absentee ballots, which tended to skew Democratic, or left-leaning counties that released results in large batches.
Aspects of ItalyGate easily disproven, details inaccurate
Some aspects of the claims in the videos are also easily disproven.
For example, the theory relies on the notion that votes were changed via satellite, software or the internet. But hand recounts of paper ballots have confirmed election results in at least one contested state and locality.
In Georgia, officials performed a weeklong statewide audit of paper ballots that affirmed a narrow victory for Biden, per USA TODAY. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the audit "reaffirmed that the state’s new secure paper ballot voting system accurately counted and reported results."
A hand tally of every vote cast for president in Antrim County, Michigan, also confirmed that its machine-tabulated results were correct, per the Detroit Free Press. Out of 15,962 votes cast, the hand recount showed a net gain of 12 votes for Trump, who won the county but lost the state.
Multiple details in the videos are also inaccurate.
Gen. Claudio Graziano is not listed as a member of the board of directors at Leonardo, per its website. Graziano serves as the chairman of the European Union Military Committee, per a website run by the European Union.
Leonardo and Graziano have not responded to requests from USA TODAY for comment.
Employees of Leonardo were arrested on Dec. 5, but they were arrested for their alleged role in hacking the company's computers to steal sensitive information between 2015 and 2017, per Reuters.
And there was no raid of election servers in Germany. USA TODAY has previously debunked that theory, since the U.S. Army denied preforming such a raid, and the company whose purported servers were seized didn't even have servers in Germany.
Proponents of "ItalyGate" have also claimed that the news media in Italy has covered the scandal. However, the Italian news feeds of the the Associated Press, Reuters, and Sky News and contained no references to any of the claims, per Lead Stories.
Our rating: False
Based on our research, the claim that votes were switched from Trump to Biden at the U.S. Embassy in Rome is FALSE. There was no evidence of switched votes or electoral fraud in the presidential election, per multiple officials. "ItalyGate" relies on the notion that votes were changed via satellite, software, or the internet. But hand recounts of paper ballots have confirmed election results in at least one contested state and locality. And other details of the theory are inaccurate and easily debunked.
Our fact-check sources:
- USA TODAY, Jan. 7, "Pence affirms Biden as winner, formalizing electoral count after day of riots at Capitol; Trump prepares for exit"
- USA TODAY, Nov. 12, "Election security officials: 'No evidence voting systems compromised'"
- Associated Press, Dec. 1, "Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud"
- USA TODAY, Nov. 20, "Election 2020 live updates: Georgia recount results confirm Biden won the state, flipping it for Democrats"
- Detroit Free Press, Dec. 17, "Antrim County hand tally affirms certified election results"
- Leonardo Company, Accessed Jan. 8, Board of Directors: Composition
- European Union External Action, Accessed Jan. 8, European Union Military Committee
- Reuters, Dec. 5, "Italian police arrest two over hacking at defence group Leonardo"
- USA TODAY, Nov. 17, "Fact check: Story of Army raid to seize election servers in Germany is false"
- USA TODAY, Nov. 5, "Fact check: That spike in the Wisconsin vote tally was expected and legitimate, not fraud"
- Reuters, Nov. 10, "Fact check: Vote spikes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania do not prove election fraud"
- PolitiFact, Nov. 4, "No, these FiveThirtyEight graphs don’t prove voter fraud"
- Associated Press, Nov. 4, "Graph shows thousands of ballots reported at once, overwhelmingly for Biden"
- Lead Stories, Jan. 7, "Fact Check: 'Stefan Serafini,' An Alleged Foreign Service Officer, Did NOT Work With Barack Obama, Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi And Others To Rig The 2020 Election"
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. https://offers.usatoday.com/specialoffer/
Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here, for more. | <urn:uuid:dbf19064-24d2-4150-b237-2084e2f0121b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.indystar.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/01/08/fact-check-italygate-claims-electoral-fraud-rome-baseless/6567335002/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572304.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816120802-20220816150802-00476.warc.gz | en | 0.961065 | 1,951 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The Blood Moon 2018 is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for skywatchers around the globe as it will also represent the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century during which, the Moon will be visible from Earth in red color on July 27 from 11:44 to 1:51 am.
The total phase of the “blood moon” eclipse of July 27 will last 1 hour and 43 minutes, during which Earth’s natural satellite will turn a spectacular red or ruddy-brown color. From start to finish, the entire celestial event will last nearly four hours.
When to watch?
The total lunar eclipse will be fully visible in Delhi. The penumbral eclipse will begin at 11:44 pm IST followed by a partial eclipse at 11:54 pm.
A total eclipse will start at 1:00 am (July 28). The moon, closest to the center of the shadow, will showcase the maximum eclipse at 1:51 am.
At 2:43 am, the total eclipse will end. The partial eclipse will start again around 3:49 am. At 4:58 am, the penumbral eclipse will end. The total duration of the eclipse will be six hours and 14 minutes.
The moon turns deep red or reddish brown during eclipses, instead of going completely dark. That’s because some of the sunlight going through Earth’s atmosphere is bent around the edge of our planet and falls onto the moon’s surface.
The eclipse will be visible in the Eastern Hemisphere including Eastern Africa, the Middle East, Central and Southern Asia and the Indian Ocean region.
Unlike with solar eclipses, no special equipment is required to observe lunar eclipses. It is entirely safe to view directly with the naked eye, telescopes or binoculars, say experts. | <urn:uuid:6b0d7fbe-1f8a-4368-8d0e-048fab898a0d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.thestatesman.com/world/blood-moon-2018-heres-guide-watch-centurys-longest-lunar-eclipse-1502664541.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00474.warc.gz | en | 0.896248 | 377 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Having a long life with your pet is important to you. Like all great pet parents, you are always feeding your dog or cat high-quality food, giving your pet supplements to stave off future problems, and making sure your pet has enough exercise to live a long and happy life. However, the truth is, the average life expectancy of a pet is about 10-14 years. While that may not seem like a very long time, it’s roughly 53-69 years old in dog years, and 56-72 years old in cat years.
However, there are a few dogs and cats that don’t really fit into that average range. In fact, did you know that one of the oldest living cats was 35 years old? Therefore, as you can see, there are special pets that can really break that life expectancy mold.
If you are considering a new pet, life expectancy may be something you want to consider when choosing your pet’s breed. If you have small children in the house, you may want to make sure your pet will provide your child with years of fun and playtime. With that being said, here are a few cat and dog breeds that have been known to live the longest. | <urn:uuid:a1e6edac-35d6-411d-9b2d-f7cfec5da9ee> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://news.petmeds.com/news/pet-meds/which-dog-and-cat-breeds-live-the-longest/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280266.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00498-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943093 | 251 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Originally posted at 11/9/2010
Raven MQ is a new project that I am working on. As you can guess from the name, this is a queuing system, but it is a queuing system with a few twists. I already wrote a queuing system in the past (Rhino Queues), why write another one?
Raven MQ builds upon the experience in building Rhino Queues, but it also targets a different set of usage scenarios. Like Rhino Queues, Raven MQ can be xcopy deployed, but it is not usually used in a traditional point to point messaging system. Instead, Raven MQ is a queuing system for the web. What do I mean by that? Raven MQ has a different set of design decisions, focused on making some things that are traditionally expensive in queuing systems cheap:
- Unlike in most queuing systems, queues are cheap. That allows you to create an unlimited amount of queues. Typical deployment of Raven MQ will have at least one queue per client.
- Which leads to the next point, Raven MQ is designed to support literally thousands of clients.
The model isn’t the traditional queuing one you might be familiar with from MSMQ:
Instead, the model uses a central server to hold all the information:
The decision to directly support those clients is what makes Raven MQ unique.
Raven MQ offers two distinct models for transporting messages. The first is the traditional queue model, where each message can only be consumed by a single consumer. This is not a very interesting model.
A much more interesting model is the message stream. A message stream in Raven MQ is a set of messages sent to a particular queue. But unlike a queue, reading a message from the stream does not consume it. That means that multiple consumers can read the messages on the stream. Moreover, clients that arrive after the message was sent can still read the message (as long as its time to live is in effect).
The previous section is probably hard to understand. As usual, an example will makes all the difference in the world.
Let us imagine that we are building a CRM system, and we are currently viewing a customer screen. At that point, we are subscribe to the following streams:
- /streams/system/notifications – Global system notifications
- /streams/customers/1234 – Updates about customer 1234
- /streams/users/4321 – Updates about our logged on user
And the following queue:
- /queues/mailboxes/1234 – Replies to our particular client
The idea is pretty simple, actually. When we read the customer data, we are loading it from the view model store, but we also need to be able to efficiently get updates about changes that happen to the customer when we are looking at it. We are doing that by subscribing to the appropriate stream. Another user who is also looking at the same user is also subscribed to the same stream. Even more importantly, a user that opened the customer after some changes have been made (but before they were written to the view model store) will also get those updates, and will be able to reconstruct the current state in an seamless manner.
This approach drastically simplifies the update problem in complex systems.
Why call them streams and not topics?
Topics are a routing mechanism, but with Raven MQ, streams aren’t used for routing. They are used to hold a set of messages, that is all. The problem with routing is that you can’t join up later and receive previously sent messages, and (much worse) you can’t really use routing on the web, because when you have potentially thousands of clients, all coming & going at will, you can’t setup a queue for each of them, it is too expensive.
The stream/notification model solve that problem rather neatly, even if I say so myself.
What I did not discussed?
Please note that I am discussing the system at a very high level right now. I didn’t talk about the API or the actual distribution model. That is intentional, I’ll cover that in a future post. | <urn:uuid:557e7b15-5abe-43e6-b195-fcc17959c20c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://ayende.com/blog/4687/raven-mq-principles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571989.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813232744-20220814022744-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.948398 | 939 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Ok, good point. But how do you go about deciding for which country a 10biUSD is going to make a difference? If we look around, there are plenty of countries with a bad economic crisis. Wait, don't tell me. I thin I know the answer. And unfortunately, the way this government approaches policy making, I don't expect the US to have a long lasting recovery so soon. Maybe not in the next decade.
Well, this might be boarderline Meaningless Drivel, but as long as the discussion satys on economics, seems like a valid Job Discussion topic to me.
Originally posted by Vitor Belfort: Why doesn't Israel talk to the IMF(Interantional Monetary Fund)...... ripp off
I guess it didn't talk to the US for a few reasons... 1) The IMF usually makes loans as a last restor, i.e. to prevent currency collapses. Israel is no where close to that. 2) The IMF loans usually come with lots of strings attached. I doubt the US loans had as many restrictions.
Originally posted by Carlisia Campos: Ok, good point. But how do you go about deciding for which country a 10biUSD is going to make a difference? If we look around, there are plenty of countries with a bad economic crisis.
Well, there are a number of factors which go into this, not all of which are economic. Economically speaking, if there is economic turmoil is a "keystone" country, it could destabalize all the currency in a region. In other words, the trouble may spread. They basically to look at the depth and scope of the impact is the economy continues to go south. There is also self interest, Israel does a lot of trade with the US, and so if they have torubles, it may have some influence on the US economy. There may be geo-political issues as well... weak economies may hurt military positions of certain countries and can have political implications in a region. (I state this in generic terms, because I don't want to get into a discussion on US foreign policy in this forum.) --Mark | <urn:uuid:f390e7fa-9cb7-469e-abe0-e3051fa89746> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://coderanch.com/t/27722/careers/offers-bn-aid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572021.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814083156-20220814113156-00074.warc.gz | en | 0.964463 | 442 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Things are heating up in the centre of Caracas. The heat is sweltering and Venezuela’s presidential elections are fast approaching on 14 April. It is hard to find a quiet moment in between the seemingly endless ‘red points’ which hand out posters and information in support of Nicolás Maduro’s election campaign.
However, Henrique Capriles too has his supporters, who are intent on speaking out against what they see as an undemocratic government. In Plaza Candelaria, 18-year-old Yelis, is working handing out Capriles’ leaflets, but she agrees to take a few minutes out to be interviewed.
‘This government isn’t democratic, because they use power and they use the people. They want to make a revolution and they criticize capitalism, but they are the capitalists. I think that Capriles has better intentions than the government does,’ she tells me.
‘What is your opinion of capitalism?’ I ask.
‘I think capitalism is a good thing and can help provide give people the opportunity to work. This government talks about a revolution based on equality, but equality isn’t the same thing is justice. Because there are some people who work really hard for many hours, and the government want to take their money away and give it to people who don’t work at all.
‘For example, the system of the misiones [Bolivarian missions] needs to change. There is one called Mision Vivienda, which is a government programme that builds houses and gives them to people who have lost their homes or have problems, but it isn’t just that, because if you get an apartment from the Mision, you have to vote for the government! It’s like buying peoples votes. They don’t vote for the government because they like them, but because if they don’t they can’t get a home.’
‘But how does the government know who they are going to vote for?’ I reply.
‘Well, people are scared that they’re going to lose their job or home if they don’t vote for the government. For example, my dad lost his job just because he voted against the government!’
It’s difficult to know how to get to the bottom of such a claim, especially when it is presented without evidence to support it. Despite Yelis’ view that the system of voting doesn’t work, it is votes for Capriles on Sunday that she is campaigning for.
‘I think we need to improve our relations with the US. What happened is that Chavez was always criticizing the ‘Yankee capitalists’, but the government were still buying clothes and everything.
‘In truth, I really think that Capriles is going to win. Maduro doesn’t want to improve the country.’
This overwhelming confidence has been prevalent amongst opposition supporters in the run-up to the elections, not least due to the rhetoric of their presidential candidate. I ask Yelis what has changed since the last election, only six months ago, when Capriles was badly beaten.
‘Well he’s made the same campaign as last time, but this time he’s speaking more to the people’ she explains. ‘In every state he’s visited, Capriles is talking more about people’s problems, with the lights and with jobs, and he’s proposing more solutions.’
In the La Paz Mision Vivienda complex, there are two huge blocks of brand-new apartments with a children’s playground in front. Although progress hasn’t been as quick as hoped in a country with a severe shortage of housing, this week alone has seen hundreds of bungalows being delivered to families from the poorest sections of society in several states. Here, I come across a different set of opinions.
‘If I tell you how we were living before,’ says Paola, a woman in her late forties, ‘you won’t even believe me.’
When I ask how things would change if Capriles were to win the elections, I am met with radiant smiles and a chorus of responses.
‘We’d be back living in the hills,’ says Teresa, ‘where we were before! We are going forward with this process, and Capriles can never win!’ | <urn:uuid:c3ec9441-6cc5-4e4e-bea7-0d73f12b741d> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://jodymcintyre.wordpress.com/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719041.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00167-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97708 | 953 | 1.929688 | 2 |
President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to pass legislation that Democrats say will save people from drowning in student loan debt.
But the bill he wants Congress to pass would save borrowers about $1 a day, less than the going price for most candy bars.
U.S. President Barack Obama wants Congress to pass a student loan bill, but a recent analysis shows that bill would save students just $1 a day. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
On Saturday, Obama called on Congress to pass a Democratic bill allowing people to refinance their student loan debt. On Monday, he's expected to reiterate that support, and announce the expansion of a program to help people minimize their monthly student loan payments.
"The good news is that Senate Democrats are working on a bill that would help more young people save money," Obama said Saturday. "Just like you can refinance your mortgage at a lower interest rate, this bill would let you refinance your student loans."
But the top Republican on the Senate's education committee said Sunday that the Senate bill would raise taxes by $72 billion over ten years, just to deliver a benefit that amounts to $1 a day. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) called on Obama to work with Republicans to find a more effective solution, just as the two parties did last year.
"Hopefully he will work that way again instead of joining Senate Democrats' political stunt to give some former students a $1-a-day subsidy to help pay off loans while raising income taxes by $72 billion," Alexander said. "Under existing law those students already can lower their monthly payments more than the Senate Democrats $1-a-day scheme would — without raising taxes and the debt."
Alexander based his estimate of a $1 per day savings on a Congressional Research Service report, which said undergraduate student borrowers would save just $38 a month on their loan payment, slightly more than $1 a day. Graduate borrowers with $40,000 in loans would save $23 a day, and parent borrowers with $50,000 in debt would save $32 a day.
Alexander said the average undergraduate student has $21,600 in loans, while the average graduate has $27,000 in loans. He said best way to help students get out of that debt is to create the conditions for job creation.
"College graduates don't need a $1-a-day taxpayer subsidy to help pay off a $27,000 loan," he said. "They need a good job."
The bill from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposes to let people refinance their student loans at lower rates, and it would cost $51 billion over ten years. The cost of the bill is offset by a $72 billion tax increase on high-income earners, starting at incomes above $1 million per year.
Read the CRS's report on loan refinancing here: | <urn:uuid:e3de615c-ace0-4e88-9fc3-459c39e4e243> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.theblaze.com/news/2014/06/09/obamas-solution-to-save-people-from-student-debt-would-save-borrowers-just-1-a-day | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573876.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20220820012448-20220820042448-00077.warc.gz | en | 0.978238 | 595 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Constitutional Law: First Amendment
When we think of freedom of speech, we generally think of protest, dissent and political controversies. There is good reason for this; robust discussion of issues of public policy and candidates for public office is an essential element of democratic self-governance. Today, however, the First Amendment is also invoked – often successfully – in a variety of other contexts. Can the Federal Government limit tobacco advertising? Can a school punish students for “cyber-bullying?” Can a city ban billboards for adult entertainment businesses?
This course will provide a detailed examination of First Amendment doctrines and their application in a wide variety of contexts, both traditional and contemporary. Topics will include: political speech, obscenity, libel, commercial speech, regulation of electronic media, limitations on the “time, place, and manner” of expression, symbolic speech, and rights of association. Some comparisons will be made between First Amendment doctrines and other areas of constitutional law. | <urn:uuid:f8a0d0c3-59a4-41b6-9536-0526d74a7918> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.law.pitt.edu/academics/courses/catalog/5301 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719465.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00096-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951218 | 199 | 3.25 | 3 |
The official name of the country is the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is found in Western Europe with German as the official language. The country has only one university: University of Luxembourg.
Contact Schools Directly about Bachelors in Health in Luxembourg 2017
The health sector is getting more complex and demographic change is continuing – for physiotherapists this means it is increasingly important to improve and substantiate the quality of their work in prevention, therapy and rehabilitation with the help of scientific education. [+] | <urn:uuid:1154b274-7382-4229-b608-98e04fb61f5e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.healthcarestudies.com/Bachelor/Luxembourg/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279650.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00440-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9523 | 102 | 2.09375 | 2 |
They don’t talk about global warming, Afghanistan or the oil spill. They don’t fly reporters down to hurricane zones, war zones or global summits on one topic or the other. There are numerous media outlets for these hefty topics. But not at E!, the network that made Kim Kardashian’s fabulous figure, famous. The people behind E! Network programming believe that consensus around the virtual water cooler is built over light-hearted topics that don’t make people cry. So they focus on “Pop Culture,” because it’s what most people talk about.
It may not be commonly obvious that the E! Network has been around for two decades. For a significant chunk of that history, E! had a tendency to program “specials” on the life of long dead or aging celebrities. That format soon began to fray at the edges and it became the dated brand that no one wanted to date. But lately E! has revamped and rebranded itself as the place for discussing pop culture in a variety of formats. From its cheeky, gossipy, newsy approach on the “Daily 10,” to “The Soup,” and “Chelsea Lately,” E! is attracting larger audiences in the key 18 to 49 demographic, while also generating buzz for “creating celebrities” such as the Kardashians and Kendra.
Behind the re-branding of E! is Suzanne Kolb, a brilliant, branding brain with impressive academic credentials and lots of practical media experience. Thank her if you liked “Dawson’s Creek.” At Style Network, Kolb gave Phat Fashion’s, Kimora the platform to display her life of “fabulousity.” At E! Kolb enthusiastically markets the brand online, on satellite radio and on lots of other places. As a result their web traffic has increased to 86 million page views per month. In 2009, the E! Nnetwork generated more than $200 million in ad revenue
- New Media
- How To | <urn:uuid:f10a786d-a04a-488a-8751-b72298a60819> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://coolintl.com/building-a-brand-in-light-hearted-media/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280242.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00074-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945666 | 431 | 1.585938 | 2 |
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We are the very first integrated maker space, co-working space, startup incubation, and Fab Lab for the thirsty makers, tinkerers, innovators and entrepreneurs.
Learning Programs for Makers
Skill-ED, 6-month program, is designed in a way to ensure that you spend most of the time building real products and machines instead of sitting in the class with a notebook and a pen.
Fab Academy is a 6-month diploma program, spanning from Jan to Jun. You will learn how to envision, prototype and document your ideas through many hours of hands-on experience with digital fabrication tools.
Why Workbench Projects?
DIGITAL FAB LAB
Our space includes 100-watt laser, three 3D printers, CNC machines and vinyl cutter for super fast prototyping and production.
We provide power and hand tools for woodworking, welding, acrylic joint, or even a smooth paint job! Create magic with hands!
Our space offers WiFi, AC rooms, dedicated tables, and comfy chairs. Come and witness new era of culture.
Consulting options to help you build and run your own Mini-Makerspace, Mini-Fablab or Fablab successfully.
We’ve experts for testing designs, predicting potential problems and tweak answers for design questions early on.
We offer perfect ecosystem to widen your network and to increase visibility. Become part of our community.
Space to meet over coffees and beers for spreading the good word of maker culture. Come, let’s start a conversation.
We have experts to mentor and guide you on your projects in blockchain, IoT and other futuristic technologies.
My entire team was prototyping by the end of the first day!
Workbench Projects provided all the facilities for us to create our prototypes and quickly test their performance. WP labs are the best place to build your product. Their ecosystem helped us not only make our products but also to explore the market we were targeting.
Jagsir Singh, The Badgorilla
“An apple tree did it for Newton, bathtub did it for Archimedes. This unique space in town will surely do it for you!” | <urn:uuid:3942a9ed-972b-47de-8ab0-be4fa37691b7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://workbenchprojects.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571097.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810010059-20220810040059-00275.warc.gz | en | 0.899498 | 531 | 2.078125 | 2 |
I'm about to create a threaded environment of totally seperated engines.
I found this page in the documentation: http://www.angelcode...ultithread.html
It says something about threading, but I don't think this matches my situation.
I want to have about four totally seperated scripting engines which DO NEVER come in interaction with another engine.
Another question is: DO I need four engines? Couldn't this be solved using four contexts?
Also, the scripts are allowed to access only thread local variables and functions.
So I am doing right with not implementing thread-safety mechanism?
Are there other points I have to look at?
Edited by thewavelength, 17 September 2012 - 02:40 AM. | <urn:uuid:407fb86b-134c-4996-b386-32bbfbe901f9> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.gamedev.net/topic/631398-threading-of-multiple-engines/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280266.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00499-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937465 | 155 | 1.507813 | 2 |
In this paper, the UDE (uncertainty and disturbance estimator) based robust control is investigated for a class of non-affine nonlinear systems in a normal form. Control system design for non-affine nonlinear systems is one of the most difficult problems due to the lack of mathematical tools. This is also true even for the exact known non-affine systems because of the difficulty in explicitly constructing the control law. It is shown that the proposed UDE-based robust control strategy leads to a stable system. The most important features of the approach are that (i) by adding and subtracting the control term u, the original non-affine form is transformed into a semi-affine form, which not only simplifies the control design procedure, but also avoids the singularity problem of the controller; (ii) the employment of UDE makes the estimation of the lumped uncertain term which is a function of control input, states and disturbances possible, rather than states alone; and (iii) it does not require any knowledge (e.g., bounds) about the uncertainties and disturbances, except the information about the bandwidth, during the design process. The stability of the closed-loop system is established. Effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated through application to the hard disk driver control problem.
- Dynamic Systems and Control Division
UDE-Based Robust Control for a Class of Non-Affine Nonlinear Systems
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Ren, B, & Zhong, Q. "UDE-Based Robust Control for a Class of Non-Affine Nonlinear Systems." Proceedings of the ASME 2013 Dynamic Systems and Control Conference. Volume 3: Nonlinear Estimation and Control; Optimization and Optimal Control; Piezoelectric Actuation and Nanoscale Control; Robotics and Manipulators; Sensing; System Identification (Estimation for Automotive Applications, Modeling, Therapeutic Control in Bio-Systems); Variable Structure/Sliding-Mode Control; Vehicles and Human Robotics; Vehicle Dynamics and Control; Vehicle Path Planning and Collision Avoidance; Vibrational and Mechanical Systems; Wind Energy Systems and Control. Palo Alto, California, USA. October 21–23, 2013. V003T34A004. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/DSCC2013-3807
Download citation file: | <urn:uuid:85618557-8055-4ec6-a0e7-a97603a466bf> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://nuclearengineering.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/DSCC/proceedings-abstract/DSCC2013/56147/V003T34A004/228850?searchresult=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571911.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813081639-20220813111639-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.873838 | 501 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Drugs, sex, furriners, Bible, flag
Most perfect front page in Fox history! Murderous Mexicans stalk your border, spurned commie spy rat's ex-hubby spills all to the Torygraph, godless schools scorn the Bible, and California pees all over the flag* and the memory of September 11.
The last of these comes with a genuinely Frankensteinian lede:
Governor Schwarzenegger issued an apology Friday after California residents are up in arms that a flag mural — paying homage to victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — was painted over after the state ruled it was graffiti.
... and the usual sort of evidence to support a claim like "California residents are up in arms":
Sandy Kraft said, "I drive this every day and to not see it up there waving at me, even though it doesn't wave, it's still waving at you."
Ever wonder why Planet Fox seems so different from the world you saw when last you peeked outside? That's the basic agenda-setting hypothesis, summed up in a metaphor that Max McCombs and Don Shaw** borrowed from Bernard Cohen's "The Press and Foreign Policy": The press isn't very good at telling people what to think, but it's really, really good at telling people what to think about. Thanks largely to the groundbreaking 1972 M&S article, Cohen's book has probably got the highest ratio of times-quoted-to-times-read of anything that doesn't claim to be scripture, so here's the sentence after the famous one, just so you can say you've seen it:
It follows from this that the world looks different to different people, depending not only on their personal interests but also on the map that is drawn for them by the writers, editors and publishers of the papers they read.
The big papers donned the sackcloth and ashes in a hurry last year as they bemoaned their failure to take the Tea Party folks and the climate deniers seriously. That was a mistake; for as long as we've had "objectivity" as an ideal in journalism, malicious people have been able to beat the system at its own game. We don't need to give these folks the time of day. But we do need their map, and -- conveniently -- some days they publish alarmingly detailed copies.
* It's hard to find any plausible meaning in English under which Schwarzenegger could have "nixed" the flag mural, but was it over when the Austrians bombed Pearl Harbor?
** For the record, yes. Your Editor got a C in journalism history from Don Shaw back in the (ahem) Ford administration. | <urn:uuid:b66e950f-b709-4b3f-9f8b-87dc7a12063a> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://headsuptheblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/drugs-sex-furriners-bible-flag.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281649.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00442-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969594 | 543 | 1.570313 | 2 |
What's the meaning of pursuit?
The action of pursuing means to follow, track or hunt someone or something, you can also be in pursuit of an answer to a question, it is a strong determination to get what you want. "Hhe cat crouched in the grass in pursuit of a bird". "He was in the pursuit of happiness".
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Help make Alexa smarter and share your knowledge with the worldLEARN MORE | <urn:uuid:172aff9e-6483-421b-853f-c3c6e2397c9a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://alexaanswers.amazon.co.uk/question/6jFLAab5cdmdeuiSUTWWAI | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570879.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808213349-20220809003349-00474.warc.gz | en | 0.951406 | 94 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Anyone who is new to trading may find the stock market to be intimidating due to the abundance of figures, flashing screens, and confusing lingo. Quite different from putting money into a piggy bank or a high street savings account.
The stock market has the potential to offer better returns than cash on deposit if you are saving for the future, which is at least five years away. Additionally, it can stop the destructive effects of growing costs.
Why Purchase Shares?
According to Credit Suisse, the return on equity investments has historically outperformed other asset classes by between 3 percent and 6 percent a year going back over 120 years (although past performance is no guarantee for the future).
Before investing any money, it’s important to consider if stock investing is a good fit for you and to make sure you proceed in a prudent and secure manner.
There are several investment options. You can choose from one, a few, or all of the options below. It all comes down to your objectives and how involved you want to be in actively managing your portfolio. The key choices are:
- purchasing a single share. This is presumably the one that requires the most time. You should read about it properly before getting into it.
- Invest in exchange-traded funds based on shares (ETFs). ETFs serve as a bridge between purchasing shares directly (above) and purchasing funds (below). In order to mirror an underlying stock index, such as the UK’s FT-SE 100, ETFs invest in a variety of individual shares. Purchasing shares of the firms on the same index is what investing through ETFs is like. Similar to corporations, ETFs are traded on exchanges, but they provide more diversity.
- Put money into pooled or communal investing funds. These are managed by qualified managers that handle share portfolios and other asset types for investors. Funds concentrate on particular nations, regions (such as the UK, the Far East), or industry sectors (such as technology). Managers choose select firms to put in their portfolio for actively managed funds. Algorithms are used by passively managed funds to monitor the performance of a specific stock market index.
How To Buy Shares For Beginners?
Now when you know why investing in shares is profitable in the long run and whether you would like to go this route or not, it’s time to figure out how to buy shares. You can easily buy shares in 4 easy steps.
1. Decide On A Stock Broker Online
You can buy stocks with online stock brokers. You may quickly purchase stocks on the broker’s website after creating and financing your account. Other choices include purchasing shares directly from the business or utilizing a full-service stockbroker.
2. Read About The Shares You Want To Buy
The process of choosing stocks may begin once your brokerage account has been created and financed. Investigating businesses you are already familiar with from past customer interactions is an excellent place to start.
It’s time to perform some investigation when you’ve determined which businesses they are. Start with the annual report of the business, in particular the management’s message to shareholders. The letter will offer you a broad overview of the company’s current situation and provide the report’s data some perspective.
After that, the majority of the data and analytical tools you require to assess the company will be accessible on your broker’s website such as on the Bitcoin loophole. The majority of internet brokers also provide training sessions on how to utilize their products and even fundamental courses on stock selection.
3. Be Clear About The Number Of Shares You Buy
There should be no pressure placed on you to purchase a specific quantity of shares or to include a company in your whole portfolio at once. To get your feet wet, think about beginning with paper trading utilizing a stock market simulator. Paper trading allows you to practise buying and selling stocks using fake money.You may buy only one share to get a sense of what it’s like to own individual equities and to determine whether you have the stamina to weather the tough times with little loss of sleep. As you develop your shareholder swagger, you may gradually increase your position.
4. Make Your Stock Portfolio More Effective
We hope that your first stock purchase ushers in a lifetime of prosperous investment. But if circumstances get challenging, keep in mind that every investor has challenging times, even Warren Buffett. Keeping your perspective and focusing on the things you can control can help you succeed in the long run. Market swings are not one of them. However, you have some things under your control.
The best basic rules to follow when buying stocks online are to choose an easy-to-use broker or an exchange like the bitcoin loophole, study the companies you’re interested in, decide how much you want to invest, choose an order type that makes sense for you, and monitor your stocks (but not too closely). If you can complete these steps, you’ll be well on your way to building a stock portfolio like a pro. | <urn:uuid:28d45c54-fb41-4721-a6bb-252d88eeb32b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://thegarret.org.uk/why-invest-in-shares-and-how-to-buy-shares-for-beginners/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00478.warc.gz | en | 0.937204 | 1,045 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Your compost is ready to harvest if it looks like dark, rich soil and smells earthy. This normally takes 3 to 6 months. Spread the compost around plants or mix it with soil to create your own potting mix. Always cover soil and compost with a layer of mulch to keep it alive and thriving.
Tumblers allow you to batch produce compost as they have two compartments so you will never have to stop composting. When one side is full you can let it mature while you simply start filling the second compartment. By the time one side is full the other side is ready with fresh compost from your garden.
Place a bucket or cart underneath the compartment you will be emptying. Open the door or hatch to release the compost into your chosen container. This container can be permanently kept underneath the tumbler to collect any liquid to be diluted and used as a fertiliser on your garden.
Compost is always good for vegetables and exotics plants, but is often too rich for native plants.
Don't worry about eggshells or avocado seeds not breaking down. If the rest of the compost is black, fluffy and smells earthy then it's okay. The eggshells won't be visible in your garden once you add a layer of mulch over the top.
If neither side is not quite ready to harvest you can empty one side and cover it with a tarp or rug and leave it in the sun for another few weeks until it's ready.
Did you know?
Your backyard compost is unlikely to get hot enough to kill seeds. If plants like tomatoes and pumpkins sprout where you don't want them, just pull them out and through them back into the compost or replant them in a veggie garden. | <urn:uuid:ac5aab18-de0f-4e9a-8677-f20067838085> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://compostrevolution.com.au/tutorial/tumbler-composting/6/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571982.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813172349-20220813202349-00070.warc.gz | en | 0.942697 | 365 | 3 | 3 |
What can a wholesaler can do to improve his situation? After all, it isn’t easy being a wholesaler?
Here are some critical facts a wholesaler needs to consider every day:
- Knowing what goods to buy is the most critical thing.
- Managing profitable inventory is the next most important thing, leaving administration (licenses, sales taxes, regulating costs & overhead) as the remaining important area.
- Buying, managing/merchandising, and administration are three areas that can make you or break your business.
What is the best indicator of buying the right goods to inventory? Some wholesalers would say profit (or buying profitable goods), which is certainly important but I believe the correct answer is INVENTORY DAYS. Often items with low mark-up, if they turn fast enough, can turn a profit.
The least number of days you hold an item usually means the more profitable that item is. Certainly mark up (gross profit) is extremely important. Examples are all around us:
- low priced coffee
- used cars
- bottles of water
- flavored ices
- copper tubing
all the above are examples of items that sell (turn) quickly.
Warehousing costs the company not only in rent (and heat and lighting) but also ties up funds available to purchase more profitable faster turning items. It also may take up warehouse space. And yet so few wholesalers look at inventory turns and inventory days.
How does a wholesaler manage inventory so that it is profitable? Certainly jewelers know the first rule of inventory, which is safeguard it (safeguard all assets). I remember a business that rebuilt and fixed (returned radios and other electronics) from Sears and the like in New Jersey. It didn’t take them much time to put up steel gates and security guards to protect the inventory from the employees who fixed, shipped and warehoused the newly fixed (refurbished) radios and devices.
Don’t just safeguard inventory from theft or acts of god, but measure the time you hold it and keep it free from being damaged. Some perishable foods and milk have such short shelf lives that inventory turns are the lowest and accounts receivable almost non-existent. We can all learn something from those industries about moving merchandise.
Administration often bogs down the small operator of merchandise. Discount stores, wholesalers of plumbing supplies, auto parts, jewelry, even coat hangers and airplane parts are sensitive to government regulations, registration, sales tax and other reporting. Here is an area where your CPA can help develop or improve your systems for recording sales, internal controls, compliance and reporting. In most businesses, cutting a cost usually results in bottom line profit. It’s the absolute best way to have your accountant pay for himself/herself. Even a $3,000 or $5,000 investment in streamlining the sales process through collection can save a company tens of thousands of dollars every year.
Harlan Kahn CPA
Don’t leave without downloading my free ebook here “Do you own your business – or does it own YOU!”
Great insights to revive the dream.
If you are ready to get more from your business – apply for a free business strategy session here. | <urn:uuid:17d6841e-9311-450d-a669-96d3fd2a0230> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://parisac.com/2016/08/wholesaler-trade-secrets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570765.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808031623-20220808061623-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.936876 | 691 | 1.9375 | 2 |
How can Michigan's Native communities address sexual assault and domestic violence?
How does a community address domestic violence and sexual assault when calling the police is not often an option?
This is the question facing Native communities in Michigan, according to Lori Jump and Rachel Carr of the advocacy group Uniting Three Fires Against Violence.
Rates of domestic violence and sexual assault are extremely high for Native American women. Sixty-four percent will experience some sort of domestic violence, while as many as 1 in 3 will suffer a sexual assault. These problems are only exacerbated by the fact that it's extremely difficult to use the legal system to hold perpetrators accountable.
Jump, the group's Executive Director, and Carr, a policy specialist, explain that a series of Supreme Court rulings have created a complex system of limited legal jurisdiction for tribal nations.
In many cases, Native courts cannot prosecute non-Natives for crimes on Native land.
In domestic violence and sexual assault cases, tribal courts can prosecute non-Natives only if the court can prove that a perpetrator had a connection to the tribe as a family member, works on the land, or has some other direct link.
If a non-Native person just walks onto Native land and commits an act of sexual assault, however, tribal courts have very few options. In too many cases, that perpetrator is not held accountable.
At the same time, Native people are already over-represented in the criminal justice system. The relationship between policing, law, and Native communities has long been strained.
So when an act of domestic violence or sexual assault occurs, explains Jump, too many victims wonder "What's the point of calling the police? Nothing is going to happen."
So what’s The Next Idea?
Uniting Three Fires Against Violence addresses these difficult problems by coordinating education and advocacy across 12 different tribal nations in Michigan.
There is no typical day at the organization. Some days staff members might be speaking at educational meetings for tribal leaders, or they might be coordinating resources to help professional assault survivor advocates stay on top of changes to domestic violence law. Other days, they could be connecting Native victims to community members who can perform healing ceremonies.
Since every tribe has their own unique legal system, working across those different court contexts can be difficult, said Carr.
Tribes that have been federally recognized for a longer period of time might have lots of advocacy and protection in place, whereas tribes that have recently gained federal status might have almost no policy infrastructure for dealing with these types of violence.
In those "younger" tribes, Uniting Three Fires might start trainings explaining "what is domestic violence?," or "why is sexual assault a problem in our community?" For more established tribes, the work involves updating legal codes to come into concert with new federal guidelines.
Through all of this, Uniting Three Fires uses "culturally appropriate" approaches to solving domestic violence and sexual assault in Native nations. This means having an awareness of Native history and legal frameworks, and understanding why people might be reluctant to work with U.S. government systems.
It also means helping Native victims access culturally-specific spiritual practices and support systems.
Jump knows first-hand how important it is to take this approach. In Native communities that have had such difficult relationships with law enforcement, she says, "it's hard to think that there's someone there to help you."
But, "at the end of the day," according to Jump, "it's about providing justice."
Lori Jump is the Executive Director of Uniting Three Fires Against Violence. Rachel Carr is the organization's Policy Specialist. | <urn:uuid:bf8ee3e4-e018-4fd2-bbba-66c232df61c9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.michiganradio.org/families-community/2016-03-24/how-can-michigans-native-communities-address-sexual-assault-and-domestic-violence | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00665.warc.gz | en | 0.957075 | 737 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Everybody knows the truth – smoking is bad for your health. At best, long-term cigarette use can lead to infertility, breathing difficulty and greatly decreased lung capacity. In the worst-case scenario, smoking kills – studies estimate that one person will die as a result of smoking every 8 seconds. That’s two people since this article began. If you are ready to begin the process of quitting, this article offers tips on how to stop smoking today.
5 Ways To Kick The Habit
1. Be Prepared
When it comes to changing a long-term habit, success is largely dependant upon good preparation. It’s no good making an impulsive decision to quit, only to return to smoking after a few days. To that end, set a clear, realistic ‘stop smoking day’ and mark it on your calendar. Become familiar with the fact that you are going to become a non-smoker. Some people decide to cut down the number of cigarettes they smoke per day as they get closer to their date, but the most important thing is to be ready for the day when you will stop.
2. Stop The Brain From Craving Nicotine
To a large degree, your smoking habit is a chemical one. When nicotine enters the body, it affects an area of the brain that makes you feel relaxed and comfortable. When this area of the brain does not get the nicotine supply it has become used to, you may be left feeling irritable and frustrated. One solution is a form of nicotine replacement such as a patch or gum that contains a small amount of nicotine. Whilst this is never ideal for long-term use, it is certainly preferable to smoking a cigarette that contains tar and a range of dangerous chemicals. Alternatively, tablets are available that affect the part of the brain that craves nicotine. Pills like Champix not only reduce cravings but also make the act of smoking less enjoyable.
3. Go For A Pretend Cigarette
We already know how to stop smoking using a pharmaceutical tool, but it is important to remember that your habit is only part chemical. As well as the addictive nature of nicotine, you no doubt have a routine of smoking. For some people, they smoke when they are stressed or nervous. Others smoke when they are at the pub. Whatever you habit, there is no reason that you need to stop it – in fact, keeping to your normal routine can make your transition to non-smoker easier. Do you usually have a cigarette break at work? Step outside, breathe in the air, and have your break at normal – this time, without the cigarette.
4. Get Medical Help
Nobody knows how to stop smoking better than a doctor and seeking the advice of a medical professional can be the difference between another failed attempt to quit and a successful, lifelong change. Doctor’s can offer pharmaceutical treatments that might help, as well as more detailed, specific advice that is tailored to your unique needs and lifestyle. Best of all, if you’re embarrassed to face the judgement of your usual doctor, you can now get advice online, as well as a prescription for the medicine that may help.
5. Change Your Attitude
At the end of the day, kicking the habit is most effective when you have seriously decided that the time is right for you to quit. Unless your mindset towards smoking changes significantly, it’s easy to fall into the trap of having a cigarette ‘just this once’, or ‘because I’ve done so well for the past week’. Take a long, hard look at the reasons you are deciding to quit and hold them in your mind. Write them down, stick them on your wall, repeat them to yourself every morning – whatever it takes to remember that smoking is a problem, not a reward.
Gradually, newer and healthier habits will begin to form and resisting cigarettes will be easy. There’s no instant fix on how to stop smoking, but with time and effort you can be free from your dangerous chemical addiction.
Dr Paul Conley is an experienced GP who works in a busy NHS doctors’ surgery in Hampshire. He qualified in Medicine from Southampton University Medical School in 1980 and has spent over 30 years in the UK and other English speaking countries. His regular GP practice covers the whole spectrum of medical disorders, from managing long-term conditions such as diabetes and heart disease to treating acute illnesses such as chest infections. | <urn:uuid:a73ccdc1-8461-4cb1-a02e-33e55537285a> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/how-to-stop-smoking-5-ways-to-kick-the-habit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721355.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00014-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946751 | 908 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Concerns were raised after it was feared thousands would visit the coast in East Lindsey at the weekend after the Government eased Covid-19 restrictions to allow people to travel.
With another May Bank Holiday at the weekend, an RNLI spokesman said: "Many people will want to visit the coast and participate in water-based activities such as swimming, kayaking, surfing, boating and angling.
"At present there are no RNLI lifeguards on beaches and although our volunteer lifeboat crews are fully operational, should they be needed, it is important that anyone visiting the coast understands the risk and takes the necessary steps to keep themselves safe.
"This will also help to reduce the demands placed on our lifeboat crews and other emergency services including HM Coastguard. In this way we can all work together to succeed in ensuring the coast is a safe place to visit.
"We would urge anyone planning a visit to the coast to follow RNLI safety advice."
•Take care - know your route and your limitations
•Have a plan - check the weather forecast and tide times
•If you fall into the water unexpectedly, FLOAT TO LIVE. Fight your instinct to thrash around, lean back, extend your arms and legs, and Float
• If individuals are choosing to go sailing or yachting it is important to ensure that equipment is properly checked and serviceable before going afloat.
•In any coastal emergency dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard. The RNLI is currently seeking further clarity following the update given by the UK Prime Minister on Sunday (10 May) and will be engaging with a number of watersport governing bodies and other stakeholders to help inform its response. | <urn:uuid:34b5c29d-c048-43e9-9bb5-b3642dd87673> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.lincolnshireworld.com/news/people/be-responsible-rnli-warns-visitors-to-coast-2857268 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00475.warc.gz | en | 0.958937 | 350 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Western Europe. It is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest. It covers an area of and has a population of more than 11.5 million, making it the 22nd most densely populated country in the world and the 6th most densely populated country in Europe, with a density of. The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi and Liège.
Legally, Belgium is a sovereign state and a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. Its institutional organization is complex and is structured on both regional and linguistic grounds. It is divided into three highly autonomous regions: the Flemish Region in the north, Wallonia in the south, and the Brussels-Capital Region. Brussels is the smallest and most densely populated region, as well as the richest region in terms of GDP per capita.
Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups or communities: the Dutch-speaking Flemish Community, which constitutes about 60 percent of the population, and the French-speaking Community, which comprises about 40 percent of all Belgians. A small German-speaking Community, numbering around one percent, exists in the East Cantons. The Brussels-Capital Region is officially bilingual, although French is the dominant language. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments.
Historically, Belgium is part of an area known as the Low Countries, a somewhat larger region than the current Benelux group of states that also included parts of northern France and western Germany. Its modern name is derived from the Latin word Belgium, used in Julius Caesar's "Gallic War", to describe the region in the period around 55 BCE. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, the area of Belgium was a prosperous and cosmopolitan center of commerce and culture. Between the 16th and early 19th centuries, Belgium served as the battleground between many European powers, earning the moniker the "Battlefield of Europe", a reputation strengthened by both world wars. The country emerged in 1830 following the Belgian Revolution, when it seceded from the Netherlands.
Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. The second half of the 20th century was marked by rising tensions between the Dutch-speaking and the French-speaking citizens fueled by differences in language and culture and the unequal economic development of Flanders and Wallonia. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Despite the reforms, tensions between the groups have remained, if not increased; there is significant separatism particularly among the Flemish; controversial language laws exist such as the municipalities with language facilities; and the formation of a coalition government took 18 months following the June 2010 federal election, a world record. Unemployment in Wallonia is more than double that of Flanders, which boomed after the war.
Belgium is one of the six founding countries of the European Union and its capital, Brussels, hosts the official seats of the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Council, as well as one of two seats of the European Parliament. Belgium is also a founding member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD, and WTO, and a part of the trilateral Benelux Union and the Schengen Area. Brussels hosts the headquarters of many major international organizations such as NATO.
Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy. It has very high standards of living, quality of life, healthcare, education, and is categorized as "very high" in the Human Development Index. It also ranks as one of the safest or most peaceful countries in the world.
Pre-independent BelgiumThe Belgae were the inhabitants of the northernmost part of Gaul, which was significantly bigger than modern Belgium. Caesar used the word "Belgium" once, to refer to their region. Gallia Belgica, as it was more commonly called, became a Roman province as a result of his conquests. Areas closer to the Rhine frontier, including the eastern part of modern Belgium, eventually became part of the province of Germania Inferior, which interacted with Germanic tribes outside the empire. At the time when central government collapsed in the Western Roman Empire, the region of Belgium was inhabited by a mix of Frankish tribes and a more Romanized population. During the 5th century the area came under the rule of the Merovingian kings, who had already seized power in what is northern France. A gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire.
spread to the south in the mid-1570s after Spanish troops mutinied for lack of pay and went on the rampage in Antwerp, destroying 1,000 houses and slaughtering 17,000 people. Military terror defeated the Flemish movement, and restored Spanish rule in Belgium.
The Treaty of Verdun in 843 divided the Carolingian empire into three kingdoms, whose borders had a lasting impact on medieval political boundaries. Most of modern Belgium was in the Middle Kingdom, later known as Lotharingia. Only the coastal county of Flanders became part of West Francia, the predecessor of France. In 870 in the Treaty of Meersen, modern Belgium lands all became part of the western kingdom, and in 880 in the Treaty of Ribemont, Lotharingia came under the lasting control of the Holy Roman Emperor, but the lordships along the "March" between the two great kingdoms maintained important connections.
Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries.
Emperor Charles V extended the personal union of the Seventeen Provinces in the 1540s, making it far more than a personal union by the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 and increased his influence over the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
The Eighty Years' War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and comprised most of modern Belgium. This was the theatre of several more protracted conflicts during much of the 17th and 18th centuries involving France, including the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine Years' War, the War of the Spanish Succession, and part of the War of the Austrian Succession.
Following the, the Low Countries—including territories that were never nominally under Habsburg rule, such as the Prince-Bishopric of Liège—were annexed by the French First Republic, ending Austrian rule in the region. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1814, after the abdication of Napoleon.
Independent BelgiumIn 1830, the Belgian Revolution led to the separation of the Southern Provinces from the Netherlands and to the establishment of a Catholic and bourgeois, officially French-speaking and neutral, independent Belgium under a provisional government and a national congress. Since the installation of Leopold I as king on 1831, now celebrated as Belgium's National Day, Belgium has been a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a laicist constitution based on the Napoleonic code. Although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949.
The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party and the Liberal Party, with the Belgian Labour Party emerging towards the end of the 19th century. French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie. It progressively lost its overall importance as Dutch became recognized as well. This recognition became official in 1898, and in 1967, the parliament accepted a Dutch version of the Constitution.
The Berlin Conference of 1885 ceded control of the Congo Free State to King Leopold II as his private possession. From around 1900 there was growing international concern for the extreme and savage treatment of the Congolese population under Leopold II, for whom the Congo was primarily a source of revenue from ivory and rubber production. Many Congolese were killed by Leopold's agents for failing to meet production quotas for ivory and rubber. In 1908, this outcry led the Belgian state to assume responsibility for the government of the colony, henceforth called the Belgian Congo. A Belgian commission in 1919 estimated that Congo's population was half what it was in 1879.
, 4 September 1944
Germany invaded Belgium in August 1914 as part of the Schlieffen Plan to attack France, and much of the Western Front fighting of World War I occurred in western parts of the country. The opening months of the war were known as the Rape of Belgium due to German excesses. Belgium assumed control of the German colonies of Ruanda-Urundi during the war, and in 1924 the League of Nations mandated them to Belgium. In the aftermath of the First World War, Belgium annexed the Prussian districts of Eupen and Malmedy in 1925, thereby causing the presence of a German-speaking minority.
German forces again invaded the country in May 1940, and 40,690 Belgians, over half of them Jews, were killed during the subsequent occupation and The Holocaust. From September 1944 to February 1945 the Allies liberated Belgium. After World War II, a general strike forced King Leopold III to abdicate in 1951, since many Belgians felt he had collaborated with Germany during the war. The Belgian Congo gained independence in 1960 during the Congo Crisis; Ruanda-Urundi followed with its independence two years later. Belgium joined NATO as a founding member and formed the Benelux group of nations with the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Belgium became one of the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 and of the European Atomic Energy Community and European Economic Community, established in 1957. The latter has now become the European Union, for which Belgium hosts major administrations and institutions, including the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the extraordinary and committee sessions of the European Parliament.
GeographyBelgium shares borders with France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Its total surface, including water area, is. Before 2018, its total area was believed to be. However, when the country's statistics were measured in 2018, a new calculation method was used. Unlike previous calculations, this one included the area from the coast to the low-water line, revealing the country to be larger in surface area than previously thought. Its land area alone is 30,278 km2. It lies between latitudes 49°30' and 51°30' N, and longitudes 2°33' and 6°24' E.
Belgium has three main geographical regions; the coastal plain in the northwest and the central plateau both belong to the Anglo-Belgian Basin, and the Ardennes uplands in the southeast to the Hercynian orogenic belt. The Paris Basin reaches a small fourth area at Belgium's southernmost tip, Belgian Lorraine.
The coastal plain consists mainly of sand dunes and polders. Further inland lies a smooth, slowly rising landscape irrigated by numerous waterways, with fertile valleys and the northeastern sandy plain of the Campine. The thickly forested hills and plateaus of the Ardennes are more rugged and rocky with caves and small gorges. Extending westward into France, this area is eastwardly connected to the Eifel in Germany by the High Fens plateau, on which the Signal de Botrange forms the country's highest point at.
river between Dinant and Hastière
landscape near the German border
The climate is maritime temperate with significant precipitation in all seasons, like most of northwest Europe. The average temperature is lowest in January at and highest in July at. The average precipitation per month varies between for February and April, to for July. Averages for the years 2000 to 2006 show daily temperature minimums of and maximums of and monthly rainfall of ; these are about 1 °C and nearly 10 millimetres above last century's normal values, respectively.
Phytogeographically, Belgium is shared between the Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Belgium belongs to the ecoregion of Atlantic mixed forests.
ProvincesThe territory of Belgium is divided into three Regions, two of which, the Flemish Region and Walloon Region, are in turn subdivided into provinces; the third Region, the Brussels Capital Region, is neither a province nor a part of a province.
PoliticsBelgium is a constitutional, popular monarchy and a federal parliamentary democracy. The bicameral federal parliament is composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Representatives. The former is made up of 50 senators appointed by the parliaments of the communities and regions and 10 co-opted senators. Prior to 2014, most of the Senate's members were directly elected. The Chamber's 150 representatives are elected under a proportional voting system from 11 electoral districts. Belgium has compulsory voting and thus maintains one of the highest rates of voter turnout in the world.
The King is the head of state, though with limited prerogatives. He appoints ministers, including a Prime Minister, that have the confidence of the Chamber of Representatives to form the federal government. The Council of Ministers is composed of no more than fifteen members. With the possible exception of the Prime Minister, the Council of Ministers is composed of an equal number of Dutch-speaking members and French-speaking members.
The judicial system is based on civil law and originates from the Napoleonic code. The Court of Cassation is the court of last resort, with the courts of appeal one level below.
Political cultureBelgium's political institutions are complex; most political power is organized around the need to represent the main cultural communities.
Since about 1970, the significant national Belgian political parties have split into distinct components that mainly represent the political and linguistic interests of these communities.
The major parties in each community, though close to the political center, belong to three main groups: Christian Democrats, Liberals, and Social Democrats.
Further notable parties came into being well after the middle of last century, mainly around linguistic, nationalist, or environmental themes and recently smaller ones of some specific liberal nature.
in Brussels, one of six different governments of the country
A string of Christian Democrat coalition governments from 1958 was broken in 1999 after the first dioxin crisis, a major food contamination scandal. A "rainbow coalition" emerged from six parties: the Flemish and the French-speaking Liberals, Social Democrats and Greens. Later, a "purple coalition" of Liberals and Social Democrats formed after the Greens lost most of their seats in the 2003 election.
The government led by Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt from 1999 to 2007 achieved a balanced budget, some tax reforms, a labor-market reform, scheduled nuclear phase-out and instigated legislation allowing more stringent war crime and more lenient soft drug usage prosecution. Restrictions on withholding euthanasia were reduced and same-sex marriage legalized. The government promoted active diplomacy in Africa and opposed the invasion of Iraq. It is the only country that does not have age restrictions on euthanasia.
Verhofstadt's coalition fared badly in the June 2007 elections. For more than a year, the country experienced a political crisis. This crisis was such that many observers speculated on a possible partition of Belgium. From 2007 until 2008 the temporary Verhofstadt III Government was in office. This coalition of the Flemish and Francophone Christian Democrats, the Flemish and Francophone Liberals together with the Francophone Social Democrats was an interim government until 2008.
On that day a new government, led by Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme, the actual winner of the federal elections of, was sworn in by the king. On 2008 Leterme announced the resignation of the cabinet to the king, as no progress in constitutional reforms had been made.
In December 2008 he once more offered his resignation to the king after a crisis surrounding the sale of Fortis to BNP Paribas. At this juncture, his resignation was accepted and Christian Democratic and Flemish Herman Van Rompuy was sworn in as Prime Minister on 2008.
After Herman Van Rompuy was designated the first permanent President of the European Council on 2009, he offered the resignation of his government to King Albert II on 2009. A few hours later, the new government under Prime Minister Yves Leterme was sworn in. On 2010, Leterme again offered the resignation of his cabinet to the king after one of the coalition partners, the OpenVLD, withdrew from the government, and on 2010 King Albert officially accepted the resignation.
The Parliamentary elections in Belgium on 2010 saw the Flemish nationalist N-VA become the largest party in Flanders, and the Socialist Party PS the largest party in Wallonia. Until December 2011, Belgium was governed by Leterme's caretaker government awaiting the end of the deadlocked negotiations for formation of a new government. By 30 March 2011 this set a new world record for the elapsed time without an official government, previously held by war-torn Iraq. Finally, in December 2011 the Di Rupo Government led by Walloon socialist Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo was sworn in.
The 2014 federal election resulted in a further electoral gain for the Flemish nationalist N-VA, although the incumbent coalition maintains a solid majority in Parliament and in all electoral constituencies. On 22 July 2014, King Philippe nominated Charles Michel and Kris Peeters to lead the formation of a new federal cabinet composed of the Flemish parties N-VA, CD&V, Open Vld and the French-speaking MR, which resulted in the Michel Government. It is the first time N-VA is part of the federal cabinet, while the French-speaking side is represented only by the MR, which achieved a minority of the public votes in Wallonia.
Communities and regionsFollowing a usage which can be traced back to the Burgundian and Habsburg courts, in the 19th century it was necessary to speak French to belong to the governing upper class, and those who could only speak Dutch were effectively second-class citizens. Late that century, and continuing into the 20th century, Flemish movements evolved to counter this situation.
While the people in Southern Belgium spoke French or dialects of French, and most Brusselers adopted French as their first language, the Flemings refused to do so and succeeded progressively in making Dutch an equal language in the education system. Following World War II, Belgian politics became increasingly dominated by the autonomy of its two main linguistic communities. Intercommunal tensions rose and the constitution was amended to minimize the potential for conflict.
Based on the four language areas defined in 1962–63, consecutive revisions of the country's constitution in 1970, 1980, 1988 and 1993 established a unique form of a federal state with segregated political power into three levels:
- The federal government, based in Brussels.
- The three language communities:
- * the Flemish Community ;
- * the French Community ;
- * the German-speaking Community.
- The three regions:
- * the Flemish Region, subdivided into five provinces;
- * the Walloon Region, subdivided into five provinces;
- * the Brussels-Capital Region.
The overlapping boundaries of the Regions and Communities have created two notable peculiarities: the territory of the Brussels-Capital Region is included in both the Flemish and French Communities, and the territory of the German-speaking Community lies wholly within the Walloon Region. Conflicts about jurisdiction between the bodies are resolved by the Constitutional Court of Belgium. The structure is intended as a compromise to allow different cultures to live together peacefully.
Locus of policy jurisdictionThe Federal State's authority includes justice, defense, federal police, social security, nuclear energy, monetary policy and public debt, and other aspects of public finances. State-owned companies include the Belgian Post Group and Belgian Railways. The Federal Government is responsible for the obligations of Belgium and its federalized institutions towards the European Union and NATO. It controls substantial parts of public health, home affairs and foreign affairs. The budget—without the debt—controlled by the federal government amounts to about 50% of the national fiscal income. The federal government employs around 12% of the civil servants.
Communities exercise their authority only within linguistically determined geographical boundaries, originally oriented towards the individuals of a Community's language: culture, education and the use of the relevant language. Extensions to personal matters less directly connected with language comprise health policy and assistance to individuals.
Regions have authority in fields that can be broadly associated with their territory. These include economy, employment, agriculture, water policy, housing, public works, energy, transport, the environment, town and country planning, nature conservation, credit and foreign trade. They supervise the provinces, municipalities and intercommunal utility companies.
In several fields, the different levels each have their own say on specifics. With education, for instance, the autonomy of the Communities neither includes decisions about the compulsory aspect nor allows for setting minimum requirements for awarding qualifications, which remain federal matters. Each level of government can be involved in scientific research and international relations associated with its powers. The treaty-making power of the Regions' and Communities' Governments is the broadest of all the Federating units of all the Federations all over the world.
Foreign relationsBecause of its location at the crossroads of Western Europe, Belgium has historically been the route of invading armies from its larger neighbors. With virtually defenseless borders, Belgium has traditionally sought to avoid domination by the more powerful nations which surround it through a policy of mediation. The Belgians have been strong advocates of European integration. Both the European Union and NATO are headquartered in Belgium.
Armed forcesThe Belgian Armed Forces have about 47,000 active troops. In 2019, Belgium's defense budget totaled €4.303 billion representing.93% of its GDP. They are organized into one unified structure which consists of four main components: Land Component, or the Army; Air Component, or the Air Force; Marine Component, or the Navy; Medical Component. The operational commands of the four components are subordinate to the Staff Department for Operations and Training of the Ministry of Defense, which is headed by the Assistant Chief of Staff Operations and Training, and to the Chief of Defense.
The effects of the Second World War made collective security a priority for Belgian foreign policy. In March 1948 Belgium signed the Treaty of Brussels and then joined NATO in 1948. However, the integration of the armed forces into NATO did not begin until after the Korean War. The Belgians, along with the Luxembourg government, sent a detachment of battalion strength to fight in Korea known as the Belgian United Nations Command. This mission was the first in a long line of UN missions which the Belgians supported. Currently, the Belgian Marine Component is working closely together with the Dutch Navy under the command of the Admiral Benelux.
EconomyBelgium's strongly globalized economy and its transport infrastructure are integrated with the rest of Europe. Its location at the heart of a highly industrialized region helped make it the world's 15th largest trading nation in 2007. The economy is characterized by a highly productive work force, high GNP and high exports per capita. Belgium's main imports are raw materials, machinery and equipment, chemicals, raw diamonds, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, transportation equipment, and oil products. Its main exports are machinery and equipment, chemicals, finished diamonds, metals and metal products, and foodstuffs.
The Belgian economy is heavily service-oriented and shows a dual nature: a dynamic Flemish economy and a Walloon economy that lags behind. One of the founding members of the European Union, Belgium strongly supports an open economy and the extension of the powers of EU institutions to integrate member economies. Since 1922, through the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union, Belgium and Luxembourg have been a single trade market with customs and currency union.
at Ougrée, near Liège|left
Belgium was the first continental European country to undergo the Industrial Revolution, in the early 19th century. Liège and Charleroi rapidly developed mining and steelmaking, which flourished until the mid-20th century in the Sambre and Meuse valley and made Belgium one of the three most industrialized nations in the world from 1830 to 1910. However, by the 1840s the textile industry of Flanders was in severe crisis, and the region experienced famine from 1846 to 1850.
After World War II, Ghent and Antwerp experienced a rapid expansion of the chemical and petroleum industries. The 1973 and 1979 oil crises sent the economy into a recession; it was particularly prolonged in Wallonia, where the steel industry had become less competitive and experienced a serious decline. In the 1980s and 1990s, the economic center of the country continued to shift northwards and is now concentrated in the populous Flemish Diamond area.
By the end of the 1980s, Belgian macroeconomic policies had resulted in a cumulative government debt of about 120% of GDP., the budget was balanced and public debt was equal to 90.30% of GDP. In 2005 and 2006, real GDP growth rates of 1.5% and 3.0%, respectively, were slightly above the average for the Euro area. Unemployment rates of 8.4% in 2005 and 8.2% in 2006 were close to the area average. By, this had grown to 8.5% compared to an average rate of 9.6% for the European Union as a whole. From 1832 until 2002, Belgium's currency was the Belgian franc. Belgium switched to the euro in 2002, with the first sets of euro coins being minted in 1999. The standard Belgian euro coins designated for circulation show the portrait of the monarch.
Despite an 18% decrease observed from 1970 to 1999, Belgium still had in 1999 the highest rail network density within the European Union with 113.8 km/1 000 km2. On the other hand, the same period, 1970–1999, has seen a huge growth of the motorway network. In 1999, the density of km motorways per 1000 km2 and 1000 inhabitants amounted to 55.1 and 16.5 respectively and were significantly superior to the EU's means of 13.7 and 15.9.
From a biological resource perspective, Belgium has a low endowment: Belgium's biocapacity adds up to only 0.8 global hectares in 2016, just about half of the 1.6 global hectares of biocapacity available per person worldwide. In contrast, in 2016, Belgians used on average 6.3 global hectares of biocapacity - their ecological footprint of consumption. This means they required about eight times as much biocapacity as Belgium contains. As a result, Belgium was running a biocapacity deficit of 5.5 global hectares per person in 2016.
Belgium experiences some of the most congested traffic in Europe. In 2010, commuters to the cities of Brussels and Antwerp spent respectively 65 and 64 hours a year in traffic jams. Like in most small European countries, more than 80% of the airways traffic is handled by a single airport, the Brussels Airport. The ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge share more than 80% of Belgian maritime traffic, Antwerp being the second European harbor with a gross weight of goods handled of 115 988 000 t in 2000 after a growth of 10.9% over the preceding five years. In 2016, the port of Antwerp handled 214 million tons after a year-on-year growth of 2.7%.
There is a large economic gap between Flanders and Wallonia. Wallonia was historically wealthy compared to Flanders, mostly due to its heavy industries, but the decline of the steel industry post-World War II led to the region's rapid decline, whereas Flanders rose swiftly. Since then, Flanders has been prosperous, among the wealthiest regions in Europe, whereas Wallonia has been languishing. As of 2007, the unemployment rate of Wallonia is over double that of Flanders. The divide has played a key part in the tensions between the Flemish and Walloons in addition to the already-existing language divide. Pro-independence movements have gained high popularity in Flanders as a consequence. The separatist New Flemish Alliance party, for instance, is the largest party in Belgium.
Science and technologyContributions to the development of science and technology have appeared throughout the country's history. The 16th century Early Modern flourishing of Western Europe included cartographer Gerardus Mercator, anatomist Andreas Vesalius, herbalist Rembert Dodoens and mathematician Simon Stevin among the most influential scientists.
Chemist Ernest Solvay and engineer Zenobe Gramme gave their names to the Solvay process and the Gramme dynamo, respectively, in the 1860s. Bakelite was developed in 1907–1909 by Leo Baekeland. Ernest Solvay also acted as a major philanthropist and gave its name to the Solvay Institute of Sociology, the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management and the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry which are now part of the Université libre de Bruxelles. In 1911, he started a series of conferences, the Solvay Conferences on Physics and Chemistry, which have had a deep impact on the evolution of quantum physics and chemistry. A major contribution to fundamental science was also due to a Belgian, Monsignor Georges Lemaître, who is credited with proposing the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe in 1927.
Three Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine were awarded to Belgians: Jules Bordet in 1919, Corneille Heymans in 1938 and Albert Claude together with Christian de Duve in 1974. François Englert was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013. Ilya Prigogine was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977. Two Belgian mathematicians have been awarded the Fields Medal: Pierre Deligne in 1978 and Jean Bourgain in 1994.
DemographicsAs of 1 January 2020, the total population of Belgium according to its population register was 11,492,641. The population density of Belgium is as of January 2019, making it the 22nd most densely populated country in the world, and the 6th most densely populated country in Europe. The most densely populated province is Antwerp, the least densely populated province is Luxembourg. As of January 2019, the Flemish Region had a population of 6,589,069, its most populous cities being Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges. Wallonia had a population of 3,633,795 with Charleroi, Liège and Namur, its most populous cities. The Brussels Capital Region has 1,208,542 inhabitants in the 19 municipalities, three of which have over 100,000 residents.
In 2017 the average total fertility rate across Belgium was 1.64 children per woman, below the replacement rate of 2.1, it remains considerably below the high of 4.87 children born per woman in 1873. Belgium subsequently has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 41.5 years.
Migration, nearly 92% of the population had Belgian citizenship, and other European Union member citizens account for around 6%. The prevalent foreign nationals were Italian, French, Dutch, Moroccan, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish and German. In 2007, there were 1.38 million foreign-born residents in Belgium, corresponding to 12.9% of the total population. Of these, 685,000 were born outside the EU and 695,000 were born in another EU Member State.
At the beginning of 2012, people of foreign background and their descendants were estimated to have formed around 25% of the total population i.e. 2.8 million new Belgians. Of these new Belgians, 1,200,000 are of European ancestry and 1,350,000 are from non-Western countries. Since the modification of the Belgian nationality law in 1984 more than 1.3 million migrants have acquired Belgian citizenship. The largest group of immigrants and their descendants in Belgium are Moroccans. 89.2% of inhabitants of Turkish origin have been naturalized, as have 88.4% of people of Moroccan background, 75.4% of Italians, 56.2% of the French and 47.8% of Dutch people.
LanguagesBelgium has three official languages: Dutch, French and German. A number of non-official minority languages are spoken as well.
As no census exists, there are no official statistical data regarding the distribution or usage of Belgium's three official languages or their dialects. However, various criteria, including the language of parents, of education, or the second-language status of foreign born, may provide suggested figures. An estimated 60% of the Belgian population are native speakers of Dutch, and 40% of the population speaks French natively. French-speaking Belgians are often referred to as Walloons, although the French speakers in Brussels are not Walloons.
The total number of native Dutch speakers is estimated to be about 6.23 million, concentrated in the northern Flanders region, while native French speakers number 3.32 million in Wallonia and an estimated 870,000 in the officially bilingual Brussels-Capital Region. The German-speaking Community is made up of 73,000 people in the east of the Walloon Region; around 10,000 German and 60,000 Belgian nationals are speakers of German. Roughly 23,000 more German speakers live in municipalities near the official Community.
Both Belgian Dutch and Belgian French have minor differences in vocabulary and semantic nuances from the varieties spoken respectively in the Netherlands and France. Many Flemish people still speak dialects of Dutch in their local environment. Walloon, considered either as a dialect of French or a distinct Romance language, is now only understood and spoken occasionally, mostly by elderly people. Walloon is divided into four dialects, which along with those of Picard, are rarely used in public life and have largely been replaced by French.
ReligionSince the country's independence, Roman Catholicism, counterbalanced by strong freethought movements, has had an important role in Belgium's politics. However Belgium is largely a secular country as the constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the government generally respects this right in practice. During the reigns of Albert I and Baudouin, the Belgian royal family had a reputation of deeply rooted Catholicism.
Roman Catholicism has traditionally been Belgium's majority religion; being especially strong in Flanders. However, by 2009 Sunday church attendance was 5% for Belgium in total; 3% in Brussels, and 5.4% in Flanders. Church attendance in 2009 in Belgium was roughly half of the Sunday church attendance in 1998. Despite the drop in church attendance, Catholic identity nevertheless remains an important part of Belgium's culture.
According to the Eurobarometer 2010, 37% of Belgian citizens responded that they believe there is a God. 31% answered that they believe there is some sort of spirit or life-force. 27% answered that they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life-force. 5% did not respond. According to the Eurobarometer 2015, 60.7% of the total population of Belgium adhered to Christianity, with Roman Catholicism being the largest denomination with 52.9%. Protestants comprised 2.1% and Orthodox Christians were the 1.6% of the total. Non-religious people comprised 32.0% of the population and were divided between atheists and agnostics. A further 5.2% of the population was Muslim and 2.1% were believers in other religions. The same survey held in 2012 found that Christianity was the largest religion in Belgium, accounting for 65% of Belgians.
Symbolically and materially, the Roman Catholic Church remains in a favorable position. Belgium officially recognizes three religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
In the early 2000s, there were approximately 42,000 Jews in Belgium. The Jewish Community of Antwerp is one of the largest in Europe, and one of the last places in the world where Yiddish is the primary language of a large Jewish community. In addition, most Jewish children in Antwerp receive a Jewish education. There are several Jewish newspapers and more than 45 active synagogues in the country.
A 2006 inquiry in Flanders, considered to be a more religious region than Wallonia, showed that 55% considered themselves religious and that 36% believed that God created the universe. On the other hand, Wallonia has become one of Europe's most secular/least religious regions. Most of the French-speaking region's population does not consider religion an important part of their lives, and as much as 45% of the population identifies as irreligious. This is particularly the case in eastern Wallonia and areas along the French border.
is the seat of the Islamic and Cultural Center of Belgium
A 2008 estimate found that approximately 6% of the Belgian population is Muslim. Muslims constitute 23.6% of the population of Brussels, 4.9% of Wallonia and 5.1% of Flanders. The majority of Belgian Muslims live in the major cities, such as Antwerp, Brussels and Charleroi. The largest group of immigrants in Belgium are Moroccans, with 400,000 people. The Turks are the third largest group, and the second largest Muslim ethnic group, numbering 220,000.
HealthThe Belgians enjoy good health. According to 2012 estimates, the average life expectancy is 79.65 years. Since 1960, life expectancy has, in line with the European average, grown by two months per year. Death in Belgium is mainly due to heart and vascular disorders, neoplasms, disorders of the respiratory system and unnatural causes of death. Non-natural causes of death and cancer are the most common causes of death for females up to age 24 and males up to age 44.
Healthcare in Belgium is financed through both social security contributions and taxation. Health insurance is compulsory. Health care is delivered by a mixed public and private system of independent medical practitioners and public, university and semi-private hospitals. Health care service are payable by the patient and reimbursed later by health insurance institutions, but for ineligible categories so-called 3rd party payment systems exist. The Belgian health care system is supervised and financed by the federal government, the Flemish and Walloon Regional governments; and the German Community also has oversight and responsibilities.
For the first time in Belgian history, the first child was euthanized following the 2-year mark of the removal of the euthanization age restrictions. The child had been euthanized due to an incurable disease that was inflicted upon the child. Although there may have been some support for the euthanization there is a possibility of controversy due to the issue revolving around the subject of assisted suicide. Excluding assisted suicide, Belgium has the highest suicide rate in Western Europe and one of the highest suicide rates in the developed world.
EducationEducation is compulsory from 6 to 18 years of age for Belgians. Among OECD countries in 2002, Belgium had the third highest proportion of 18- to 21-year-olds enrolled in postsecondary education, at 42%. Though an estimated 99% of the adult population is literate, concern is rising over functional illiteracy. The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks Belgium's education as the 19th best in the world, being significantly higher than the OECD average. Education being organized separately by each, the Flemish Community scores noticeably above the French and German-speaking Communities.
Mirroring the dual structure of the 19th-century Belgian political landscape, characterized by the Liberal and the Catholic parties, the educational system is segregated within a secular and a religious segment. The secular branch of schooling is controlled by the communities, the provinces, or the municipalities, while religious, mainly Catholic branch education, is organized by religious authorities, although subsidized and supervised by the communities.
CultureDespite its political and linguistic divisions, the region corresponding to today's Belgium has seen the flourishing of major artistic movements that have had tremendous influence on European art and culture. Nowadays, to a certain extent, cultural life is concentrated within each language Community, and a variety of barriers have made a shared cultural sphere less pronounced. Since the 1970s, there are no bilingual universities or colleges in the country except the Royal Military Academy and the Antwerp Maritime Academy, no common media and no single large cultural or scientific organization in which both main communities are represented.
Fine artsContributions to painting and architecture have been especially rich. The Mosan art, the Early Netherlandish, the Flemish Renaissance and Baroque painting and major examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture are milestones in the history of art. While the 15th century's art in the Low Countries is dominated by the religious paintings of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, the 16th century is characterized by a broader panel of styles such as Peter Breughel's landscape paintings and Lambert Lombard's representation of the antique. Though the Baroque style of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck flourished in the early 17th century in the Southern Netherlands, it gradually declined thereafter.
During the 19th and 20th centuries many original romantic, expressionist and surrealist Belgian painters emerged, including James Ensor and other artists belonging to the Les XX group, Constant Permeke, Paul Delvaux and René Magritte. The avant-garde CoBrA movement appeared in the 1950s, while the sculptor Panamarenko remains a remarkable figure in contemporary art. Multidisciplinary artists Jan Fabre, Wim Delvoye and the painter Luc Tuymans are other internationally renowned figures on the contemporary art scene.
Belgian contributions to architecture also continued into the 19th and 20th centuries, including the work of Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde, who were major initiators of the Art Nouveau style.
The vocal music of the Franco-Flemish School developed in the southern part of the Low Countries and was an important contribution to Renaissance culture. In the 19th and 20th centuries, there was an emergence of major violinists, such as Henri Vieuxtemps, Eugène Ysaÿe and Arthur Grumiaux, while Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone in 1846. The composer César Franck was born in Liège in 1822. Contemporary popular music in Belgium is also of repute. Jazz musician Toots Thielemans and singer Jacques Brel have achieved global fame. Nowadays, singer Stromae has been a musical revelation in Europe and beyond, having great success. In rock/pop music, Telex, Front 242, K's Choice, Hooverphonic, Zap Mama, Soulwax and dEUS are well known. In the heavy metal scene, bands like Machiavel, Channel Zero and Enthroned have a worldwide fan-base.
Belgium has produced several well-known authors, including the poets Emile Verhaeren, Robert Goffin and novelists Hendrik Conscience, Georges Simenon, Suzanne Lilar, Hugo Claus and Amélie Nothomb. The poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1911. The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé is the best known of Franco-Belgian comics, but many other major authors, including Peyo, André Franquin, Dupa, Morris, Greg, Lambil, Edgar P. Jacobs and Willy Vandersteen brought the Belgian cartoon strip industry a worldwide fame. Additionally, famous crime author Agatha Christie created the character Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective, who has served as a protagonist in a number of her acclaimed mystery novels.
Belgian cinema has brought a number of mainly Flemish novels to life on-screen. Other Belgian directors include André Delvaux, Stijn Coninx, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne; well-known actors include Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jan Decleir and Marie Gillain; and successful films include Bullhead, Man Bites Dog and The Alzheimer Affair. In the 1980s, Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts produced important fashion trendsetters, known as the Antwerp Six.
FolkloreFolklore plays a major role in Belgium's cultural life: the country has a comparatively high number of processions, cavalcades, parades, 'ommegangs' and 'ducasses', 'kermesse' and other local festivals, nearly always with an originally religious or mythological background. The Carnival of Binche with its famous Gilles and the 'Processional Giants and Dragons' of Ath, Brussels, Dendermonde, Mechelen and Mons are recognized by UNESCO as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Other examples are the Carnival of Aalst; the still very religious processions of the Holy Blood in Bruges, Virga Jesse Basilica in Hasselt and Basilica of Our Lady of Hanswijk in Mechelen; festival in Liège; and the Walloon festival in Namur. Originated in 1832 and revived in the 1960s, the Gentse Feesten have become a modern tradition. A major non-official holiday is the Saint Nicholas Day, a festivity for children and, in Liège, for students.
CuisineMany highly ranked Belgian restaurants can be found in the most influential restaurant guides, such as the Michelin Guide. Belgium is famous for beer, chocolate, waffles and french fries with mayonnaise. Contrary to their name, french fries are claimed to have originated in Belgium, although their exact place of origin is uncertain. The national dishes are "steak and fries with salad", and "mussels with fries".
Brands of Belgian chocolate and pralines, like Côte d'Or, Neuhaus, Leonidas and Godiva are famous, as well as independent producers such as Burie and Del Rey in Antwerp and Mary's in Brussels. Belgium produces over 1100 varieties of beer. The Trappist beer of the Abbey of Westvleteren has repeatedly been rated the world's best beer.
The biggest brewer in the world by volume is Anheuser-Busch InBev, based in Leuven.
SportsSince the 1970s, sports clubs and federations are organized separately within each language community. Association football is the most popular sport in both parts of Belgium; also very popular are cycling, tennis, swimming, judo and basketball.
Belgians hold the most Tour de France victories of any country except France. They have also the most victories on the UCI Road World Championships. Philippe Gilbert is the 2012 world champion. Another modern well-known Belgian cyclist is Tom Boonen. With five victories in the Tour de France and numerous other cycling records, Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx is regarded as one of the greatest cyclists of all time. Jean-Marie Pfaff, a former Belgian goalkeeper, is considered one of the greatest in the history of association football.
Belgium hosted the 1972 European Football Championships, and co-hosted the 2000 European Championships with the Netherlands. The Belgium national football team reached first place in the FIFA World Rankings for the first time in November 2015.
Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin both were Player of the Year in the Women's Tennis Association as they were ranked the number one female tennis player.
The Spa-Francorchamps motor-racing circuit hosts the Formula One World Championship Belgian Grand Prix. The Belgian driver, Jacky Ickx, won eight Grands Prix and six 24 Hours of Le Mans and finished twice as runner-up in the Formula One World Championship. Belgium also has a strong reputation in, motocross with the riders Joel Robert, Roger De Coster, Georges Jobé, Eric Geboers and Stefan Everts among others. Sporting events annually held in Belgium include the Memorial Van Damme athletics competition, the Belgian Grand Prix Formula One, and a number of classic cycle races such as the Tour of Flanders and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. The 1920 Summer Olympics were held in Antwerp. The 1977 European Basketball Championship was held in Liège and Ostend.
- Retrieved on 7 June 2007.
- —Reflections on nations and nation-state developments regarding Belgium
- at UCB Libraries GovPubs
- information from the United States Department of State
- from the United States Library of Congress
- from the BBC News
- from International Futures | <urn:uuid:506dc799-c4fa-4288-ba73-3a861c74973e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://owiki.org/wiki/Belgium | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570741.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808001418-20220808031418-00078.warc.gz | en | 0.960745 | 10,237 | 3.25 | 3 |
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- Our first tutorial takes a look at getting VPN as a Service working with OpenStack, by getting OpenVPN running in a virtual machine running in an OpenContrail subnet. OpenContrail is an Apache-licensed project designed to provide services needed for network virtualization and are an alternative way to set up portions of your network. Instructions are given for both Ubuntu as well as CentOS / Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
- Docker is clearly generating a lot of excitement in the development community, but how do you get Docker to play nice with your OpenStack cluster? Use OpenStack's own orchestration system, Heat, to get you started. In this guide, the OpenStack integration specialists at eNovance provide instructions and a sample template for getting multi-tenant Docker working using OpenStack Heat.
- While this trick isn't for OpenStack itself, if you're an OpenStack contributor, using this trick will make all of your reviewers love your code just a little bit more. Rather than commiting one big code package with lots of different things going on that may be hard to follow, why not split them into smaller, easier-to-understand chunks. Sean Dague provides this guide for splitting up git commits.
- DevStack makes a lot of changes to your machine in order to get its environment standardized into a way that all of its components expect. But this might have some unexpected or undesirable results for everything else you do on that machine, so many people choose to run their DevStack tests in a virtual machine. To get easier access to the code, you might want to mount it through NFS. Adam Young has a guide to get that set up in your development environment.
- Sometimes things go wrong, and instances can go down in unexpected ways. Even if the instance has disappeared, OpenStack might still think it's there. If this happens, one way to deal with it is to delete these phantom instances directly from OpenStack's database. This guide will show you how to do that with a simple script.
That's it for this month. Check out our past OpenStack tutorials collection for more great guides and hints. And if we missed your favorite new guide or resource, let us know in the comments! | <urn:uuid:5714ddc7-ae0b-4d39-bae5-f236697e0b08> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://opensource.com/business/14/8/5-new-openstack-tips-and-walkthroughs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281353.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00061-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922605 | 568 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Shakeup to training for apprentice mechanics
Apprentice mechanics from McIntosh & Son are being trained to better use technology in their jobs with the agricultural machinery dealership
FIRST-year mechanic apprentices traditionally went out and bought a toolbox and as many hand tools - sockets, spanners, rachet, ball-pein hammer, pin punches, screw drivers - as they or their family could afford.
Employers provided the specialist tools they would work with under supervision on particular makes and models they were likely to encounter in the workshop bays as they learned on the job.
But times and agricultural machines have changed.
Now, the first thing a first-year agricultural mechanical technology apprentice buys when they are taken on by an agricultural machinery dealership, is a robust laptop or notebook computer.
One tough enough to withstand the jolting, the occasional drop and the heat that comes with field work and operating from a service truck rather than an airconditioned office.
For apprentices joining McIntosh & Son, one of Western Australia's most progressive agricultural dealership networks with its own Registered Training Organisation (RTO) to train apprentices outside of the normal TAFE system, it will be more than a learning aid.
Certainly, apprentices will use their laptop or notebook computer over the next four years as they study to obtain their AUR30420 Certificate III in Agricultural Mechanical Technology and AUR20220 Certificate II in Automotive Air Conditioning Technology formal qualifications.
They will use it too for accessing digital technical reference and service manual libraries maintained by most agricultural machinery manufacturers like New Holland, Miller, Morris, MacDon, Hardi and others that McIntosh & Son is a distributor for.
Plugged into the data link connector of the machines the apprentices will work on, to access onboard diagnostics or live-data streams, their laptop or notebook computer will become an essential tool to help them determine if a problem exists with a machine and how to rectify it.
Ultimately, that first-purchase laptop or notebook computer will become more important and indispensable than any other tool in their second-purchase toolbox - not just throughout their apprenticeship, but right through their career beyond as a qualified technician.
This year McIntosh & Son dealerships have started their first two female apprentices in an intake of 21 first-years intending to become qualified agricultural mechanical technicians.
According to their trainers and service managers, Georgia Dalton, 18, at McIntosh & Son Katanning and Chloe Ludlow, 21, at McIntosh & Son Albany, are already setting high standards among their colleagues.
This year is also a landmark for the dealership group's RTO at the other end of the apprenticeship time scale.
Later this year its first cohort of qualified technicians will graduate after completing their apprenticeships.
McIntosh & Son RTO compliance officer Paul Berghella, who oversees the training program and visits apprentices and their service managers at dealerships throughout the year, explained why the group undertook to train its own apprentices.
"Firstly, we developed our own RTO because we recognised our apprentices were not getting the level of training that we required for our business and to support our customers in the regions, from the TAFE system," Mr Berghella said.
"That was simply because the TAFE system doesn't have the ability to access the product information, knowledge and manufacturer intellectual property that we do as dealers.
"We are in constant contact with what is happening in the industry, with what is being developed - the TAFE system falls behind on that and behind contemporary technology.
"As a dealership group we have our own product experts as well as access to the manufacturers' product experts and that's what is happening here today."
When Farm Weekly visited McIntosh & Son Katanning recently, 19 of the first-year mechanical technology apprentices from across the group were there for an introductory training session on the Miller Nitro self-propelled sprayer.
It was conducted by national training manager Tim Morris from McIntosh Distribution, the national distributor for Miller.
"The second aspect to developing our own RTO was to reinvest back into our own regions," Mr Berghella said.
"This is something McIntosh & Son takes very seriously and have always done and continue to do across the group.
"The whole focus is to open up our business for local young people who are finishing school to offer them real career paths in this industry.
"You can come in and start a career in just about any department - you are getting real work, you earn a real wage, you begin your working life in a community you know and you've got areas to move in."
Mr Berghella said the alternative for many regional school leavers was to move out of home and go to Perth or a regional city to pursue training or further education, often without the prospect of a job at the end of it.
"Planning for what you see here today started some five years ago," he said.
"It took us two years to actually write up the curriculum, the policy and the procedures - everything that goes into an RTO - before we were registered (December 2019)."
Mr Berghella said the first two years of the RTO involved intensive consultation with apprentices and dealership management to ensure training met expectations and to understand how it translated into the workplace.
Out of that continuous improvement program came a concept of utilising the experience and expertise within their own employees and manufacturers, to implement a complementary 'Milestone program' running alongside the apprenticeships.
"We wanted to engage young apprentices the moment that they start with us, because not everybody comes off a farm and knows agriculture," Mr Berghella said.
He said while fundamental units of the nationally-recognised formal training for first-year apprentices dealt with safety, understanding customer needs and communication in the workplace, McIntosh & Son's Milestone program took it further.
"So we have the fundamental training a technician builds their knowledge and experience on, which is the RTO training," he said.
"Then we have our Milestone program as a second pillar, aimed to develop a real knowledge of every piece of machinery they will be exposed to - it covers balers, tractors of all different types, telehandlers, loaders, combine harvesters, spreaders, sprayers, tillage gear, the whole lot.
"We then extended it further, so that these apprentices will be exposed to each of the departments of the dealership as well.
"They'll be exposed to the parts, warranty and sales departments - to give them an understanding of what sort of job their colleagues do and how important each person's role is in the overall day-to-day functioning of a McIntosh & Son dealership.
"They will also attend field days where they get to meet customers and see how we present machinery.
"McIntosh & Son has a large demonstration program each year that we will send our apprentices to - we want to show them how the machines are set up and see how the machines perform in the real world.
"They'll go out with field technicians to do start-ups, giving them more exposure to customers and this gives customers a chance to get to know them."
Mr Berghella said difficulty getting specialist instructors into WA during the COVID-19 pandemic had seen a lot of training material go online, but McIntosh & Son's RTO experience had also resulted in a further training development.
"We've (McIntosh RTO) been asked to use our resources to deliver the fundamental New Holland training and its systems training (for WA)," he said.
"These are the prerequisite training programs that every apprentice needs to do before they can start the more advanced field tech training that they will do with New Holland, for instance.
"So we are now developing a third pillar, if you like, which is the factory training which we hope to introduce for New Holland in 2023."
McIntosh & Son hoped the end result achieved by the three pillars of the RTO coming together will be qualified technicians who have a much broader understanding of its business and a broader understanding of the agriculture industry in general.
"We know our customers will continue to appreciate the benefit of the support they will get from McIntosh & Son," Mr Berghella said.
Training will continue throughout the year at the two registered training centres, McIntosh & Son Wongan Hills and Katanning.
Applicants interested in the 2023 apprenticeship intake can apply anytime between now and October.
- Applications and further information: Go to mcintoshandson.com.au/careers
Want weekly news highlights delivered to your inbox? Sign up to the Farm Weekly newsletter. | <urn:uuid:8569b9b1-51c1-4f27-a6fd-1d09647add65> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://classifieds.stockjournal.com.au/news/agricultural-machinery/shakeup-to-training-for-apprentice-mechanics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571284.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811103305-20220811133305-00470.warc.gz | en | 0.963869 | 1,789 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Yesterday’s horrific murder of nine people worshipping at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church replayed a central theme in American history. It is the question, fought for centuries with both words and weapons: to whom does this country belong?
The alleged gunman, twenty-one year old white man Dylann Roof, killed six women and three men, including pastor Clementa Pinckney, who was also a South Carolina state senator. A witness to the shooting reported that the killer said: “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”
That a white terrorist murdered an African American politician and African American bystanders in a black church, using language straight out of Reconstruction, is not an accident. It reflects the vital intersection of American politics, race, and religion since 1866.
In the wake of the Civil War, white southern Democrats initially refused to face the reality that they would have to share any sort of economic, political, or social power with their former slaves. With the encouragement of President Andrew Johnson, who had taken over from the slain President Lincoln during Congress’s long summer recess, white legislatures in the South ratified the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, but then promptly set about recreating the conditions of servitude. In most states, black people could not congregate, had to sign year long work contracts, and could be arrested on charges of “vagrancy,” fined, and then bound to whoever paid their fine. Nowhere could a black person testify in court against a white person, so nowhere could a black American claim the protection of the law against theft, rape, or murder.
When Congress reconvened in December 1865, congressmen refused to return their black wartime allies to quasi-slavery under the very men who had spent four years trying to destroy the Union. They put forward the Fourteenth Amendment to give black men a civic identity that would give them legal rights as a condition for the readmission of the southern states to the Union. When southern whites retorted that they would rather remain under military rule than submit to black equality, northern congressmen passed the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867, which called for new southern state constitutional conventions to rewrite state constitutions providing for black civic rights before the states could be readmitted to the Union. Crucially, the Military Reconstruction Act permitted African American men to vote.
White southern Democrats recoiled at the idea of sharing political rights with black men. But African Americans and white southern Republicans, who had supported the Union during the war, recognized the power of their position. Republicans across the South began to organize black voters. One of their most common venues for political organization was among the very powerful black churches, especially the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and many of the early leading black politicians were clergymen.
At first, white Democrats stood against the political awakening of southern African Americans by simply refusing to enroll voters. This prompted Congress to put the military in charge of voter registration. When both white and black Republicans registered to vote and elected moderate constitutional conventions, white Democrats organized a new force to stop their political opponents from taking over their states: the Ku Klux Klan. Before the 1868 elections, members of the Ku Klux Klan murdered at least a thousand African Americans and their white allies. In South Carolina, they killed African American clergyman and state legislator B. F. Randolph at a train depot in broad daylight.
Congress stood against Klan terrorism with an 1871 law making their political intimidation a federal offense, a distinction that enabled President Grant to stop the depredations of the Ku Klux Klan by imposing martial law in parts of the South and by having federal courts, rather than local courts, try offenders. For the next twenty years, white southerners controlled black political voices by finding ways either to work with black voters or to silence them. This was imperative, they insisted, for black voters were only interested in social welfare legislation that would cost tax dollars and thus “corrupt” the American government.
In 1889, the threat of a new Republican administration to mount a federal defense of black voting brought a new construction to the idea of the corruption of government. A new generation of white Democrats worried far less about political than about social issues. They insisted that black men must not vote because if they voted, they would take local political offices. This would give them patronage power, for in the nineteenth century, local positions depended on the goodwill of local politicians. Black men would, for example, become school principals. There, they would use their power to hire teachers to force young innocent white girls to have sex with them in exchange for jobs. This political exchange very quickly turned to the idea that black political power meant widespread rape. By the early twentieth century, lynching black men was almost a civic duty for white citizens: only by purging the government of black voices could the nation be made safe.
When Roof said: “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go,” he was echoing the fear of black political power laid down in the aftermath of the Civil War, when white American men had to face the reality that this nation is, in fact, made up of far more women and people of color than it is of white men. That fact inspired terror – and terrorism – among white men in the late nineteenth century. It did so again after 1954, when Brown v. Board warned white Americans that they would again have to share their country with African Americans. Then, as in the late nineteenth century, white Americans turned to terrorism against black political voices as, for example, when four Ku Klux Klan members bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and murdered four little girls.
Yesterday, it seems, our history echoed again. | <urn:uuid:9e4417b3-26fc-4253-9f6c-f2923fa16987> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://werehistory.org/american-domestic-terrorism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282926.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00393-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964945 | 1,204 | 3.25 | 3 |
The Secretary-General met today with H.E. Mr. Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa.
He thanked him for his personal cooperation with the United Nations in trying to resolve a number of peace and security issues in Africa.
They discussed the situation in Burundi, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including the role of South Africa as a contributor to the Force Intervention Brigade of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
The Secretary-General welcomed South Africa’s involvement in international efforts on climate change and sustainable development.
They also discussed UN issues, including Security Council reform.
New York, 26 September 2015 | <urn:uuid:ebf1e640-a35f-4c37-b355-1677237cc171> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.un.org.za/the-secretary-generals-meeting-with-h-e-mr-jacob-zuma-president-of-the-republic-of-south-africa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00423-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927401 | 147 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Some consider virtual reality to be akin to mere hallucination, whereas others see it as potentially on a par with physical reality. Both seem possible to me (depending on the precise nature of the VR we're imagining), so let's try to clarify matters by drawing some distinctions. First, we can consider the epistemic dimension of whether you remain aware (on some level) that you're in a virtual world, or if the VR is all-consuming. More importantly, I think we can identify variation along a metaphysical dimension of sorts, as per the following three alternatives:
(1) Passive Experience Machine: You are passively fed an externally determined 'phenomenal soup' (including the phenomenal experience as of making certain decisions), effectively living out someone else's story from the inside.
(2) Active Solipsism: A genuinely interactive fiction, where you make decisions that affect how things turn out. But you are the only sentient being immersed in the world -- any others you "see" are mere simulacra (or 'Non-Player Characters', in geekspeak).
(3) Active Shared Virtual Worlds: In this final category, the virtual world serves as a medium for causally interacting with other people, as in The Matrix.
When it comes to assessing a life spent immersed in such VR, I think these differences are of immense normative significance. The Passive Experience Machine is indeed akin to an extended hallucination, and a life so bereft of agency may strike many of us as no life at all. The case of Active Solipsism is at least some improvement on this, though still abhorrent insofar as we are social animals who value genuine relationships, and see them as grounding much of the meaning in our lives.
What about the final option: Active Shared VR? In principle (i.e. if the VR faithfully reproduced all the multi-modal sensory richness and fine-grained environmental responsiveness that physical reality has to offer), I think that such a world must be acknowledged as no less 'real' - in any sense that matters - than our own. It seems a piece of metaphysical chauvinism to claim otherwise: to think that when lovers intentionally cause mutual sensations of kissing this only counts as really kissing when there aren't any bits or bytes (but only atoms serving in a non-computational capacity) in the causal chain. (Compare the absurdity of claiming that people on the phone aren't really talking to each other, but merely "simulating" talking.) What's so special about material reality? It only matters insofar as it provides a common causal medium for the interaction of minds against a stable backdrop; but any other equally-responsive and stable medium could fill this role just as well -- its intrinsic nature, as material or computational, cannot plausibly be thought to matter.
'Reality' is just the stable causal backdrop for interacting minds. As such, it is multiply-realizable. Material stuff can do the job of reality, as can computational bits and bytes (at least in principle), or we could even have a kind of Berkeleyan Idealism according to which our existence is fundamentally based in the mind of God. So long as the requisite stability and mutual (counterfactual-supporting) causal influence obtains, the fundamental grounds don't matter. Our everyday concepts, and hence the contents of our desires, typically concern the surface structure of reality (that which the materialist and idealist worlds have in common), not its fundamental nature. So this is not a difference that would make a difference, so far as most of us are concerned.
(N.B. It would make a difference if the causal structure mediating our experiences were to be excised or impaired. I'm no subjectivist: a world where people have no causal impact on each other's experiences is a world that's sorely lacking.)
So, I agree with Alexandre Erler that "there is an important difference between my actually going to see the pyramids of Egypt, or having sex, and my sitting alone in my house in an armchair with electrodes plugged into my brain... believing I am doing these things." But then, there's also an important difference between merely believing that you're doing these things, and actually doing them in a different medium. This distinction is occluded if we fail to carefully distinguish the different forms that a 'Virtual Reality' could take. | <urn:uuid:9b8edebb-c408-498a-8f4d-a9ecbc93cd02> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.philosophyetc.net/2009/09/hallucination-virtual-reality-and.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280292.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00346-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949425 | 891 | 1.695313 | 2 |
|A Yemenite Jew looks at his village in Silwan (circa 1901)|
The caption on this Library of Congress photograph reads, "The village of Siloam [i.e. Siloan, Shiloah, Silwan] and Valley of Kedron, Palestine." But whoever wrote the caption, perhaps 110 years ago, missed an important fact. The man standing above his village is a Jew from Yemen.
The most famous Jewish Yemenite migration to the Land of Israel took place in 1949 and 1950 when almost 50,000 Jews were airlifted to Israel in "Operation On Eagles Wings -- על כנפי נשרים" also known as "Operation Magic Carpet."
But another migration took place 70 years earlier in 1881-1882 when a group of Jews of Yemen arrived by foot to Jerusalem. They belonged to no "Zionist movement." They returned out of an age-old religious fervor to return to Zion.
The new immigrants settled on Jewish-owned property in the Shiloah Village outside of the Old City walls of Jerusalem.
|A Jewish Yemenite family (circa 1914)|
The gentleman in the photograph above wears the distinctive Jewish Yemenite clothing of the time, according to a Yemenite expert today.
The photo collection also contains portraits of Yemenite Jews, such as this family portrait from the early 1900s. Look at the picture, presumably of three generations. And realize that if that baby were still alive today, 100 years later, he would be the family elder of another three or four generations of Jews in the Holy Land.
The Jews of Shiloah were the targets of anti-Jewish pogroms during the anti-Jewish riots in 1921 and again during the 1936-39 Arab revolt when they were evacuated by the British authorities.
Jewish families returned to Silwan/Shiloah after Israel reunited the city of Jerusalem in 1967.
PS. I have already had an interesting response from a descendent of a resident from the Shiloah village:
לעניות דעתי התמונה של הגבר על רקע הכפר היא של יהודי חבאני ( יהודי חבאן היו גבוהי קומה) ושל המשפחה נראה שהיא משפחה שעלתה מצנעא
In my humble opinion, the man in the picture with the [Shiloach] village in the background is a Jew fom Habani (the Jews of Hamani were tall) and the family looks like a family that made aliya from Saana. | <urn:uuid:767f7cba-1994-4ffb-b37b-6b19b3017518> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2011/09/yemenite-surprise-in-siloamshiloah.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281353.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00065-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946202 | 623 | 3.0625 | 3 |
By Pedro Campos
HAVANA TIMES, March 25 — The Cuban government recently announced the effective devaluation of the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) to the US dollar, an action that will benefit the Cuban economy in general and many individual Cubans in particular, though what was still left in place is a staggering and controversial 10 percent surcharge.
Nonetheless, along with this positive measure in the area of finance, which will have medium and short-terms effects, others should follow.
Apart from the official studies and analyses — which point to the stimulation of flows of hard currency into the country (especially through tourism, foreign investment and remittances) — the devaluation will also receive the political backing of wide sections of the island’s population, not to mention Cubans abroad. In short, it will contribute to the reduction of existing pressures building up at the core of Cuban society.
It will benefit the Cuban government, which controls the country’s finances, its banks, the domestic hard currency market (through the network of money exchange centers, CADECA), large and medium-sized tourism agencies, government chains of retail stores that sell in hard currency, and is the principal beneficiary of dividends accrued through foreign investment.
However also emerging as direct beneficiaries will be those Cubans who receive remittances, those who travel abroad to fulfill professional contracts and then return with dollars; tourism workers, who will now will be able to receive more tips from the expected increase in activity, self-employed workers who have some type of relation to tourism, and all those persons who are not controlled nor controllable by the government and who operate independently – a not so insignificant percentage.
Indirectly the devaluation could bring benefits to all Cubans because it could contribute to energizing the internal and external market, promoting the real value of the domestic currencies and stimulating other types of rational economic measures. And especially, it could help to create conditions for the elimination of the dual currency.
Now, if the government would reduce the value of the CUC from 25 to 20 regular Cuban pesos would mean putting the CUC at the value previously held by the dollar in relation to Cuban pesos, which increased to 25 pesos with respect to the CUC. This would immediately and effectively help the popular economy and the general invigoration of the domestic market.
We would see important short-term positive effects in the increase of production and the revaluation of the domestic currency by virtue of the increase in the turnover and monetary circulation of the currency and of value added (something that our economy experienced previously with the measures of the 1990s, but which were later cutback).
Other very important general regulations that would be very welcome and would benefit the economy for many Cubans would be the elimination of absurd prohibitions and regulations that incredibly continue to persist. These would include allowing the sale and purchase of automobiles and houses, the elimination of current travel restrictions and immigration requirements and their high costs, and the deactivation of monopolistic government systems over production, distribution and consumption.
If one wants to have a vibrant external market, it is first necessary to promote the internal one. No solid international economy has been created that was not based on a strong domestic market. How can this be accomplished without economic incentives, without micro-credits, with high taxes, and without family or individually-owned capital that can be employed individually or cooperatively, or without increasing the revenues of the workers (who are those who consume en masse)?
But if one wants to advance to socialism, what is especially needed are changes in the current state relations of wage-labor production and in the bureaucratic regulations that constrain popular creativity and the generation of necessary consumer goods and services.
These would include such changes as direct incentives to workers in government enterprises through the equal distribution of part of the profits of each production unit or service, as well as the active and democratic participation of the workers in the management and administration of these entities.
It would also include the full authorization of self-employed work without any discrimination against technical or professional work, reductions in taxes on self-employment, a new law on cooperatives that frees this form of production from the current government/state tutelage and extends to industry and services, the dismantling of the monopolistic systems that block the productive and commercial labor of farmers and other producers, the reduction of direct and indirect taxes on non-state economic activities and the establishment of credit policies that stimulate these.
Other democratic and socializing measures would be necessary (as I have been explained in other articles) to guarantee advances toward the new socialist society “with all and for the well being of all.” But that is not the point of this commentary.
However there are some actions that are urgently needed because of their degrading significance toward human beings and their counterproductive effects on the Cuban revolutionary process itself. These include those related to the travel restrictions within the country, the ley de peligrosidad (vagrancy law) and the need to train the police and members of the various security agencies so as to end the siege against people of African descent and those people who think different politically.
Without socialization, without democratization and without full freedom, no socialism is possible.
To contact Pedro Campos write: [email protected] | <urn:uuid:085b54bb-8f82-4e0c-a978-e40979d30f19> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://havanatimes.org/opinion/on-cubas-devaluation-further-proposals/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571745.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812170436-20220812200436-00470.warc.gz | en | 0.961806 | 1,086 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Yinka Bokinni, now a DJ for Capital Xtra, grew up on the North Peckham estate that became notorious after the murder of ten-year-old Damilola Taylor in November 2000. Taking a break from the decks, Bokinni presents this documentary, talking about her experience of growing upon the estate and the impact the murder of her friend had on her life. After Damilola’s death, the North Peckham estate became known for crime and violence, and a few months after it was demolished entirely. The families and the community that lived there were displaced and dispersed around London, and never saw each other again. But now Bokinni is on a mission to reclaim her memories of the estate and reconnect with those who lived there to celebrate the life of the boisterous and funny boy they knew as “Dami”. It’s tough watching these people discuss the trauma they experienced so young in their lives, but through it they find comfort in shared experience and emotional release. They also reflect on the cultural melting pot that was 1990s Peckham, where people didn’t see race or religion, and simply accepted each other. Bokinni navigates all this with admirable frankness and warmth, and in her hands this is a moving and in some ways uplifting film.
The Telegraph’s Michael Hogan agrees by saying “For a film about the loss of a young life, it was somehow uplifting and redemptive,” calling it “a subtle, moving look at class and community, loss and trauma.” Ellen E Jones in The Guardian calls the film “very moving, not only for people who come from a similar background to Bokinni…but for anyone in any frequently misrepresented group.” The Times’ Carol Midgely however comments that “This film seemed almost like a therapy session for Bokinni” and was “sometimes repetitive.”
First shown October 2020. | <urn:uuid:601dcecc-3bd3-456d-b10d-76ed2b1f2ac4> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://must.app/library/damilola-the-boy-next-door/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571190.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810131127-20220810161127-00073.warc.gz | en | 0.977564 | 409 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Microsoft will ship Windows 10 later this year and with it comes an offer to upgrade existing versions of Windows to the operating system for free.
Since the majority of Windows users probably does not know about that offer as they may not read tech sites at all or only sporadically, Microsoft pushed updates to Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems that prepare the system for the update.
At least one of the updates, KB 3035583, appears to have been designed to advertise Windows 10 once it comes out.
While that may make sense, some users may not want to upgrade their system to Windows 10 after all. If you prefer to keep using Windows 7 or even Windows 8, there is no reason to keep these updates installed on the computer.
How many updates we are talking about?
- KB 3035583 - According to Microsoft, this update enables "additional capabilities for Windows Update notifications when new updates are available".
- KB 2952664 - Labeled a compatibility upgrade for upgrading Windows 7, its purpose is to "make improvements to the current operating system in order to ease the upgrade experience to the latest version of Windows".
- KB 2976978 - A compatibility update for Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 which "performs diagnostics on the Windows system [..] to determine whether compatibility issues may be encountered when the latest Windows operating system is installed.
- KB 3021917 - Does the same as KB 2976978 but on Windows 7.
- KB 3044374 - This update for Windows 8.1 enables systems to upgrade from the current operating system to a later version of Windows.
- KB 2990214 . Does the same as KB 3044374 but on Windows 7.
Those are the updates currently provided by Microsoft.
Remove those updates from Windows
First thing you may want to do is find out whether those updates are installed. If they are installed, you can remove them from the system and block them from being installed again.
Do the following to check if an update is installed:
- Tap on the Windows-key, type cmd and hit enter.
- Type powershell and hit enter.
- Use the command get-hotfix -id KB3035583 to find out whether the update is installed
- To speed things up, query for all updates in a single command like this: get-hotfix -id KB3035583, KB2952664,KB2976978,KB3021917,KB3044374,KB2990214
Obviously, only updates provided for the operating system may be installed. The updates on the screenshot above have been found on a system running Windows 7.
You can use the command line to remove Windows Patches as well.
- If you are still in Powershell type exit to leave.
- Use the command wusa /uninstall /kb:2952664 to uninstall a patch
This removes the update that you have specified from the system. You will get a prompt for that and need to run the command for all updates separately.
Note that you may get a restart prompt after uninstalling updates. Complete the process before you do so.
Windows Update will pick up those updates again after you restart the computer. Since you don't want them to be installed again, you need to block those updates from being installed.
- Tap on the Windows key, type Windows Update and hit enter.
- If the updates are not listed on the page, perform a manual check for updates.
- Click on "x important updates are available" afterwards.
- Right-click on any of the Windows 10 related updates and select "hide update" from the listing.
Doing so blocks these updates from being installed automatically on the system.
These updates are displayed in a light gray font color afterwards and once you leave the page, don't show up anymore.
Should you want to restore them at a later point in time, for instance because you want to upgrade to Windows 10 after all, then you need to restore them with a click on "restore hidden updates" in the interface.
There you find them all listed and options to re-enable them.
While you should not see any side-effects after the removal, it may be a good idea to monitor the system after the removal to make sure that this is indeed the case. | <urn:uuid:19efbb05-46af-4b4b-be52-8f714c36fdd5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://comtek4u.com/content/2015/04/16/how-to-remove-windows-10-upgrade-updates-windows-7-and-8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572192.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815145459-20220815175459-00067.warc.gz | en | 0.883407 | 890 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Wandering in the streets of Japan, travelers are often appealed by the curtain-like fabric hanging in front of the entrance of stores. They are usually rectangular in shape, with one or more vertical slits cut for easier passage. This unique kind of items in Japan is called noren.
Noren are traditional Japanese handicrafts made of cloth, ropes, beads or bamboo and in assorted colors, sizes and patterns. Hung at entrance or in windows, they can protect the house from sun, wind and dust; placed between rooms, they serve as space dividers.
Many shops and restaurants use noren as their signboard, displaying their names and logos on the fabric. For instance, noren with the hiragana ゆmarks a public bath. Traditional drinking houses are recognized by the twisted-rope noren. The presence of noren can signify whether the establishment is open for business as they are always taken down at the end of the business day. At the same time, the cleanness of noren provides customers with some clues to the popularity of the shop or restaurant.
Frequently imprinted with the shop’s name, noren hold a larger meaning of symbolizing the Japanese merchant’s spirit. The disciple of a shop is granted the privilege of using the noren only when he is qualified to leave his master and become independent. In other words, noren represent the reputation of a business. Therefore, customers have always considered noren as a major criterion for selecting a store.
Besides, noren are irreplaceable for decorative and aesthetic purposes. Noren are always presented with an effortless simplicity, whose elegant lines, soothing colors and minimalist patterns rid people of life’s excess. The feeling of calm will ultimately wash people over. The sway of noren in the wind passes a valuable idea: there is beauty in simplicity.
assorted adj. 各种各样的
signboard n. 招牌
Hiragana n. 平假名
privilege n. 荣幸
criterion n. 标准
aesthetic adj. 美学的 | <urn:uuid:b8def6cc-7339-4f3a-84ec-a60a100e366a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://we.sflep.com/resource/readingdetail.aspx?type=3&id=61292 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572908.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817122626-20220817152626-00073.warc.gz | en | 0.735212 | 1,554 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Real help for acne sufferers (both Hormonal and Bacterial)
I used to have such bad acne after I graduated High school it was ridiculous, and the fact that my first Dermotologist was an idiot didn't help. I tried everything, soaps creams you name it and it all added to the problem. It turned out that I had hormonal acne. Going on birth control drastically changed my skin. But when I didn't have health insurance anymore I had to find another way to keep my hormones balanced and my skin clear... There are natural ways to balance hormones for both women and men, it's just a matter of looking online to find what's best for you (as well as consulting your doc about what's ok for your body). Drinking soda (and other products high in sugar), ingesting foods high in salt (especially deli meats) spicy foods, and over-eating all contribute to bad acne. One with acne should look into hair, skin and nail vitamins, minerals like zinc, amino acids (since they help your body repair cells including skin!) like methionine which is aimed at disorders of the hair and skin (best broken down with vitamin B and available at Vitamin Shoppe), certain herbal combinations (Dragon Herbs explains different combinations and what they are used for) and Collidial silver. It also boosts your immune system so you really can't go wrong (and available at Vitamin Shoppe too). Stress and lack of sleep are detrimental to skin health! Don't squeeze your pimples, it breaks bonds under the skin and around the pimple which forces pimple matter into new areas under the skin and makes it bigger! (And not to mention more inflamed!) Remember beautiful skin comes from the inside!!! Drinking lots of water helps too!
As far as washing my face goes I have found that Dawn and Palmolive dish soaps that "cut grease" (not the Palmolive oxy clean line tho it's too strong) have worked the best for me. At first it does dry out your skin but after your skin becomes accustomed to the soap, you don't need lotion right away to keep your skin soft. Speaking of which, I don't use any special lotions either... Just baby sunblock or any other non-greasy suntan lotion (Banana boat products have been the best for my skin) For on the spot pimples I use a half of a bottle of water that I mixed with fine Sea Salt crystals (available at any grocery store). I dip a Q-tip into the extremely salty water and put the Q-tip onto the pimple. I hold it there until that spot is numb. I do this at least twice daily until its gone. Usually if I take care of it early enough it's gone by the next day or at least smaller. Good luck and hopefully what has worked for me can help you! | <urn:uuid:ec2c1a06-b745-43af-8178-59a459ab4e11> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.healthboards.com/boards/acne-tips/535202-real-help-acne-sufferers-both-hormonal-bacterial.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281331.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00222-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963617 | 591 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Darlington Association on Disability aims to ensure that disabled people have control over their own lives. DAD works to achieve this by promoting issues which effect disabled people and providing practical services to assist disabled people and their carers. By joining DAD's membership scheme you will be helping us to continue our essential work.
Membership is open to disabled people and non-disabled people who actively support the mission and aims of DAD. As a member you receive an invitation to quarterly general meetings, opportunities to attend other ‘member only’ events and social events and most importantly have voting rights.
All trustees must be members of the organisation, 75% of which must be disabled people.
Should anyone wish to express interest in joining DAD, please read the next section carefully and join online or contact our Head Office for further information.
You are able to complete the membership form online but is important to read the following notes referring to the 3 choice questions at the end of the form before submitting the form.
1. Definition of a Disabled Person
A person who has or who may experience disability as a barrier in society deriving from a long-term physical, sensory, learning or mental impairment or condition that is more than minor or trivial irrespective of cause or diagnosis.
2. Definition of Carer
Carers are family, friends or neighbours who provide physical, practical or emotional care or supervision to another person, as a result of that person's age, frailty, mental or physical health needs or learning disabilities. People often find it difficult to see themselves in this role and may resist being called carers, seeing themselves as primarily sons, daughters, husbands, wives etc.
3. DAD Memorandum and Articles
Please read the Memorandum and Articles (PDF version or Word version) as by ticking the confirmation box, you are consenting to apply to be a member of DAD in its form as a company limited by guarantee and agree to be bound by its Memorandum and Articles of Association which specify a maximum liability of £1 in the highly unlikely event of insolvency.
Now please go to the membership form.
Any enquiries, please contact Judith on 01325 489999 or email Judith Gledhill.
As a local organisation we very much rely on the support of our local community, and continue to support people flexibly to have greater choice and control and remove the barriers that disabled people and children experience in their everyday lives. We support over 2,000 people every year. But we need your help. | <urn:uuid:61f31c52-a20a-475f-9573-628578b8cf6c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.darlingtondisability.org/about/membership | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572089.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814234405-20220815024405-00070.warc.gz | en | 0.956534 | 513 | 1.523438 | 2 |
It is said that inquiring minds want to know, and that seems especially true of the minds of Gay and Lesbian Germans of Munich, Germany.
The folks at the Munich Ulrichs Committee, the Homosexuality and History Forum, the Pink List political action committee, and the Munich Gay center "SUB" decided early in 2000 to honor Ulrichs with a series of lectures in Ulrichs' honor.
To coincide with Ulrichs' August birthday and because they knew Michael would be in Italy for Ulrichs' birthday, the group asked Mike to give a presentation. Since it was scheduled for August 24, it kicked off a series of events in Munich, including an Ulrichs' birthday party on August 26 on Karl-Heinrich-Ulrichs-Platz.
So it was that a happy group of men and one woman gathered on a balmy night at the Café Regenbogen (Rainbow Cafe) on Lindwurm Strasse to hear Mike tell all he knew about "Ulrichs and America." Especially pleasing to Michael was having a woman in the audience. He was told later that she was grappling with coming out, and the speech was very inspiring to her. There was even an Afro-American in attendance. Finally, a couple in attendance had visited Ulrichs' grave earlier in the year.
The Café Regenbogen, a nice building several stories high located in a pleasant neighborhood, is run by AIDS-Hilfe. The group provides many services for persons with AIDS, including lodging. The first floor room has a cafe and space for meetings.
As a nod to his hosts and as another way to honor Ulrichs, Michael, after writing his speech in English, presented his talk in German. The speech was very well received and video-recorded by the folks from the Homosexuality & History Forum for their archives. The speeches in the lecture series have been published by the Verlag rosa Winkel (see also Publications).
Return to Top of Page
Return to Munich Table of Contents
Return to Memory Book Table of Contents
Return to Celebration | <urn:uuid:6b4df530-92a2-4764-b2cf-8b43ab11d055> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/celebration2000/mike.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285289.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00151-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980317 | 436 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Thinking about automotive technician jobs in the Silver State? Nevada is a great place to live if you want to be a mechanic. From Reno to Carson City to Las Vegas and everywhere in between, there are shops in need of skilled, expert technicians. The national average annual salary for an automotive technician is roughly $37,000 but in Nevada, the average is $40,700. So, you’re already a leg up on other areas of the nation, but with the right training and education, and a little bit of planning, you can actually earn substantially more.
Start by learning more
Your first step should not be putting in an application with a dealership or nearby repairs shop. Instead, you need to get the right education. Today, most employers in the industry expect applicants to have a firm knowledge of the basics at the very least. If you don’t have the right education and training, you’ll find a much harder time locating employment, and you will not earn as much. There are several schools in Nevada that can offer automotive repair courses, including the following:
- College of Southern Nevada
- Truckee Meadows Community College
- Western Nevada College
- Automotive Technology Training
Most of these courses will take about a year to complete, although some are six-month courses. Once you’ve completed yours, you will have the grounding in the basics most employers in the industry expect. You should be able to find an entry-level job at this point, although your pay will reflect the fact that this is only an entry-level position.
Your next step should be to pursue your ASE certifications. The National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence has been the gold standard for the automotive industry for a long time. Today, the NIASE offers computerized testing at monitored testing facilities across the nation, including in Nevada. You’ll find many different certification courses that can be taken, which allows you to pursue your interests, as well as specialties that will be most valuable to you in Nevada.
For instance, air conditioning certification would be a very wise move, particularly if you live and work in the valley as opposed to working near Tahoe or in Truckee. You can (and likely should) also pursue your master ASE certification. This proves that you have mastered a very wide range of topics related to auto repair, maintenance and service, and will ensure that you have access to some of the highest paying automotive technician jobs in Nevada.
Supplement your income with work as a mobile mechanic
Plan carefully, and get the education you need. It is possible to earn a very good salary as an automotive technician in Nevada.
While there are many career options for mechanics, one option you might consider is working with YourMechanic as a mobile mechanic. YourMechanic technicians earn up to $60 an hour and complete all work onsite at the car owner's location. As a mobile mechanic, you control your schedule, set your service area, and serve as your own boss. Learn more and apply. | <urn:uuid:274dde3d-1b04-410d-ba06-c517391d3e47> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.yourmechanic.com/article/how-much-does-a-mechanic-make-in-nevada-by-valerie-johnston | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285315.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00566-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962574 | 622 | 1.632813 | 2 |
I’ve got a question here from somebody in Australia, in Sydney, Australia. What are the symptoms of severe vaginal yeast infection?
The symptoms of severe vaginal yeast infection can be sometimes mistaken for bacterial vaginosis. Symptoms generally include itching and sometimes severe itching. Itching can be bad and really uncomfortable. I’ve had some patients that can’t work anymore because of the itching. Itching, redness, discharge is quite common. Discharge can be clear, a white finished discharge up to a thick, almost like cottage cheese white discharge, but the two characteristic symptoms would be itching and discharge.
BV or bacterial vaginosis is that fishy odor or the foul-smelling vaginal area. Generally, there’s not a really bad foul smell with a vaginal yeast infection. It can be a musky sort of odor, but not generally a really fishy strong sort of smell. We get that more with bacterial vaginosis. Bacterial vaginosis will also have more of a whitish or a gray waterish discharge. Itching can be there, but nowhere near as intense as the vaginal yeast infection, which can be really bad. I’ve also found many women complain about a lot of pain after intercourse with a Candida yeast infection as well. They also get them with bacterial vaginosis, but even more so with the vaginal infection. The key symptoms are those two things. Think about the itching. Think about the discharge.
Now some women with Candida yeast infections also get pelvic pain to different degrees. Many of them can even have a low-grade endometriosis without even knowing about it. I discovered years ago that many cases of severe endometriosis are, in fact, caused by a yeast infection. It makes sense because if you’ve got a vaginal infection and you’re going to treat it with applicators or creams from the doctor and you’re going to take diflucan or fluconazole recurrently to cure this problem. You’re not going to cure it with drugs. You’re not going to cure it with creams. All you’re doing is you’re driving it further up the vaginal area, in through the cervix, into the endometrium, and then eventually you get endometriosis. So you get basically an inflammation in the wall of the womb. Yeast actually can get through there and start creating an immune reaction. Cysts will develop; small cysts develop around that area and that becomes endometriosis.
Endometriosis has skyrocketed since tampon use with many women. I’ve got a female doctor friend who said that she found years ago a massive connection between endometriosis and chronic vaginal yeast infection, so you need to bear that in mind, too. You could have a low-grade pelvic pain.
If in doubt, make sure that you get checked out and have a swab and have that cultured for Candida to see whether you’ve got a bacterial problem in the vaginal area or a yeast infection.
Be sure to check out my other videos on how to get rid of a woman’s yeast infection by doing the “kill and build phase.” This is a bulletproof way; 99 percent guaranteed to get rid of this vaginal infection.
Thanks for tuning in. | <urn:uuid:67ea381a-c590-4ad1-9498-9f87243c6312> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.candidacrusher.com/signs-and-symptoms-of-severe-vaginal-yeast-infection.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280242.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00071-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955046 | 703 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Cheesecakes are notorious for developing cracks on the surface. Most cracks can be prevented if you simply remember to avoid over-beating and over-baking the batter, but if you're really serious about preserving your cheesecake's appearance, you can take a few additional steps to achieve that smooth, pristine surface.
Before Baking the Cheesecake
1Grease the pan well. A baked cheesecake shrinks as it cools. If the sides of your pan are not thoroughly greased, the cheesecake may cling to the sides and pull apart in the center as it shrinks. Greasing the pan encourages the cheesecake to pull away from the sides and shrink in.
- You can use cooking spray, butter, margarine, or shortening to grease the pan. As a general rule, the sides and bottom of the pan should appear glossy and feel greasy to the touch, but they should not be dripping wet.
- Use a clean paper towel to spread the shortening, spray, or butter around the sides of the pan evenly.
2Mix lightly. As soon as the ingredients have been combined and the batter is smooth, stop mixing it. Over-mixing the batter can cause air bubbles to get trapped inside, and these air bubbles are ultimately the main cause of cracks.
- Inside the oven, the air bubbles created in the batter expand and try to escape. They move to the top of the cheesecake, creating a crack or indentation as they break free.
3Consider adding a starch to the batter. Add 1 Tbsp (15 ml) to 1/4 cup (60 ml) of cornstarch or flour to the batter alongside the sugar.
- Starches minimize the amount of cracking that can occur. The starch molecules get in between the egg proteins and prevent them from over-coagulating. As a result, the cheesecake shrinks less, causing fewer cracks.
- If you're working with a recipe that already includes flour or cornstarch, however, you may not need to add any extra. The writer of the recipe may have already taken the matter of starch into consideration.
4Add the eggs last. Eggs bind the ingredients of the batter together, and as a result, they are the main component responsible for trapping air bubbles inside the cheesecake. Mix the rest of the ingredients together thoroughly before adding the eggs to reduce the number of trapped air bubbles.
- Any lumps created by the cream cheese or other ingredients should be completely beaten out before you add the eggs.
- Mix the batter as little as possible after you add the eggs.
5Rest the pan in a water bath. A warm water bath keeps the moisture in the oven high, but more importantly, it prevents the cheesecake from getting too hot during the cooking process.
- To create a warm water bath, first cover the sides and bottom of your cheesecake pan with aluminum foil to provide an extra barrier from the water. Use heavy-duty aluminum foil, if possible, and wrap outside of the pan as securely as possible.
- Rest the cheesecake pan inside a larger pan. Fill the larger pan with 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) of warm water, or just enough water to surround half of the depth of the pan.
While Baking the Cheesecake
1Bake at a low temperature. Ideally, you should bake your cheesecake at a temperature of 325 degrees Fahrenheit (160 degrees Celsius). Extreme temperatures and dramatic temperature changes can cause the cake to crack, but cooking the cheesecake at a fairly low temperature can minimize the risk.
- You can bake a cheesecake at a lower temperature if the recipe calls for it, but avoid temperatures that are higher than this. At high temperatures, the egg proteins over-coagulate and cause the cheesecake to split apart at the surface.
2Consider turning off the heat early. Instead of keeping the oven on the entire time, turn the temperature off after about 45 minutes. Leave the cheesecake inside for another hour or until done. The batter should continue to bake inside the warm oven.
- Gently baking the cheesecake for the final hour prevents it from over-baking, which is important since over-baking can cause cracks to form.
After Baking the Cheesecake
1Test doneness with an instant-read thermometer. Check the center of the cheesecake with the point of an instant-read cooking thermometer near the end of the cooking time. When the cheesecake reaches a temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65 degrees Celsius), it should be removed from the oven.
- A cheesecake will always crack if the internal temperature rises above 160 degrees Fahrenheit (70 degrees Celsius) during the baking process.
- The thermometer will leave a hole in the center of your cheesecake, so you can skip this step if you want a perfectly smooth surface. Many people consider a hole to be far less distracting than surface cracks, though. Since the thermometer will allow you to measure the doneness on a detailed level, it's a valuable tool in the battle against surface cracking and definitely has its benefits.
2Do not over-bake the cheesecake. The cheesecake is done with the outer perimeter is firm but 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.6 cm) of the center is still wobbly.
- Note that while the center should look moist and wiggly, it should not look runny.
- The center will firm up as the cheesecake cools.
- If you bake the cheesecake until the center appears dry, you'll end up drying the cheesecake out. This dryness is another factor that can cause surface cracking.
3Run a knife along the edge of the pan. After pulling the cheesecake out of the oven, let it cool undisturbed only for a few minutes. After those minutes pass, run a smooth paring knife around the inner sides of the pan, separating the cheesecake from the pan.
- Since cheesecakes shrink as they cool, this action further prevents the dessert from clinging to the sides of the pan as it shrinks and tearing apart at the center.
4Cool the cheesecake slowly. Allow the cheesecake to cool at room temperature until the cake itself drops down to room temperature.
- Do not refrigerate the cheesecake immediately after pulling it out of the oven. The dramatic shift in temperature can cause cracks to form.
- Place an inverted plate or cookie sheet over the cheesecake as it cools to protect the surface.
- After the cheesecake drops to room temperature, refrigerate it for another six hours or until it fully solidifies.
- If your cheesecake still cracks, hide the crack by using it as a starting point when cutting the dessert.
- You can also disguise cracks by spreading sour cream or whipped cream over the top of the cheesecake, or by drizzling the dessert with a topping or sauce.
Things You'll Need
- Cooking spray, butter, margarine, or shortening
- Paper towel
- Cornstarch or flour
- Heavy-duty aluminum foil
- Large pan
- Instant-read cooking thermometer
- Paring knife
- Plate or baking sheet
Sources and Citations
- ↑ http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/bakingtips.cheesecakes/Cheesecakes.cfm
- ↑ http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/articles/cheesecake-tips-and-techniques.html
- ↑ http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/CheeseCakeCrack.htm
- ↑ http://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/cooking-questions/why-does-cheesecake-crack-00420000013279/
- ↑ http://www.foodchannel.com/articles/article/how-do-you-prevent-cracks-in-the-top-of-a-cheesec/
In other languages:
Русский: предотвратить растрескивание чизкейка, Deutsch: Verhindern, dass Käsekuchen reisst, Português: Evitar que um Cheesecake Rache, Español: evitar que un pastel de queso se agriete, Italiano: Evitare la Formazione di Crepe nella Cheesecake, Français: éviter qu'un cheesecake ne se craquelle, Bahasa Indonesia: Mencegah Retakan pada Kue Keju
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 44,982 times. | <urn:uuid:58ac54b3-db27-40d2-91cd-c3ed99c801ec> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.wikihow.com/Keep-Cheesecake-from-Cracking | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281649.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00445-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.866085 | 1,860 | 2.296875 | 2 |
BERLIN, GERMANY. Getting out of the taxi and meeting the heat of the city in Berlin, I could feel the rich history of a city that is a cultural and travel epicenter. I came to Berlin to study the Holocaust and did mainly that, while friends traveling with me took in the shopping and nightlife. I was able to view one side of the city, so I can only offer my experiences studying its history and vast connections to World War II.
I visited the Berliner Dom first, as it was the most centrally-located spot on my must-see list. The Dom, at am Lustgarten, is a massive cathedral with murals covering the towering ceilings. If in Berlin, you cannot miss this city landmark that costs just 4 Euros for students. On the lawns outside, you can get an even better look at the enormous building with its green domes and intricate detailing. It is a common wedding locale, so you may even get to observe stunning wedding photos being taken.
Pergamon Museum, at Bodestrasse, is a great place to see some wonderful pieces of history up close and personal, but the wait time can be extensive. Combined with an all-day pass that costs 17 Euros for the all the museums on “Museuminsel,” a better option might be to just see the museum gardens. The entrance gardens of the Pergamon Museum provide the same Roman feel of the museum but without all the hassle. Columns placed throughout the gardens and the beautiful landscaping really make it a sight to see. The gardens are centralized around a set of dual staircases that lead up to an elaborate building maintaining the Roman theme. The gardens of the Pergamon Museum are a great place to relax and take in the historical sights while also a having a perfect photo opportunity free of charge.
Naturally when going to Berlin, an important stop for any visitor is the Brandenburger Tor, the classic gate at Pariser Platz in many a postcard from Germany’s capital city. It is a wonderful place to snap some touristy shots while also seeing an important piece of Berlin’s history. The gate has stood through and witnessed many wars. It is most notable for its place during the fall of the Berlin Wall. The gate is an essential part of the Berlin experience, too classic to miss.
Another historical glimpse of the Berlin Wall lies on Bernauerstrasse, where you can see an extensive exhibit showcasing the actual location of the Berlin Wall between two sides of one street. Metal poles show exactly where the wall used to stand, and an outdoor exhibit shows just how difficult life was during the separation of East and West Germany. There are many photos of the wall with watchtowers, vicious dogs, barbed wire, and booby traps. If you visit this memorial you will garner an entirely new perspective on the Cold War and its effects.
The Topography of Terror details the inner workings of Berlin during its darkest times. The outdoor and indoor exhibit takes a look at the remains of what were the SS and Gestapo headquarters during World War II. Later, it also became a of a part of the Berlin Wall.
Distinct historical layers of oppression are in clear view. First, the oppression of those under the Nazi regime can be seen in what remains of the SS buildings. The more recent oppression of those living in East Germany is brought to life through the beaten-down memorial to the Berlin Wall. A most effective way to learn of Berlin’s history is to visit this museum on Niederkirchnerstrasse.
The memorial I was most interested in seeing up close was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This museum, located on Cora-Berlinerstrasse, is underground, but above is a memorial that is often said to be very subjective. The free-of-charge museum is beautiful, with an exhibit dedicated to letters written during the war.
The memorial dedicated to victims of the Holocaust is something you must see in person. Its concrete slabs of varying heights are spaced out so that when you walk between then you feel like you’re in a corn maze. Standing and looking up at the memorial, seeing only concrete, made me think that this is what victims of the Holocaust might have seen: a sea of grey, with no clear way to escape their reality. Yet others saw a less grey future; they saw hope. You have to go there to form your own opinion of what such an ambiguous memorial could mean.
Berlin is the city to go to if you are studying the Second World War. It is a city that is incredibly rich in history and to visit these locales is a way to experience that vast history with a limited amount of travel time. Berlin is a city of duality: a place filled with museums, culture, and memorials, but still a happening city filled with life and any and all activities you desire. | <urn:uuid:c472f910-339d-4563-972a-989ba5b7e0c7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://archives.rgnn.org/2014/03/29/cultural-highlights-of-berlin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572581.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816211628-20220817001628-00077.warc.gz | en | 0.966088 | 1,013 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Houses and Homes Homes Around the World Houses Homes Around The World BBC - Buildings Kids Pages Houses Make your own Village! Homes Flipbook Building a playground Flipbook Our Fort Flipbook Homes Brainpopjr Inside the House Big Universe Reader Homes Where children sleep Different kinds of houses Houses around the World Khmer Homes Cambodian Cultural Village Let's Go... to Cambodia homes around the world game Building games for kids online Tree House Building - Bob the Builder House GameCreate a House - In Korean! Play My New Town Doll House Games - Play Beach House Decoration Play Winter House Makeover Play Chinese Palace Doll House Play Family Dollhouse 4 Play Hansel and Grethel House City Creator - Build a town! Magnum: The places we live Houses resources online Three Little Pigs Housing Houses Coloring Pages | Homes building theme activities Fairytale homes Lesson Plan - Types of Houses Houses and Communities Where Children Sleep slideshow Where chn sleep fullscreen Letter H House printables Lesson Plans: Napping House Houses,great site for teachers Shelters Primary School Homes resources Wonderful Houses Homes Around the World |
Nisc K1 Homes and Houses
A UOI into How and where people live is determined by a range of factors.
Created by :mattjnz | <urn:uuid:c07ae172-fa2e-4e70-a38b-8162cb7e2b8e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://certificering.symbaloo.com/mix/nisck1homesandhouses | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573399.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818185216-20220818215216-00076.warc.gz | en | 0.790117 | 261 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Ready to choose your wedding party? It"s vital to know the difference in between a maid that honor and a matron the honor and how you have the right to incorporate these roles right into your crew.
You are watching: What is the difference between matron of honor and maid of honor
Before you can even start choosing your wedding party members, you’ll need to understand what every the different roles mean. And also one of many confusing questions is the difference between a maid of respect vs. A matron that honor. If you have actually lots of nearby friends and family members, you may want to take into consideration incorporating both that these functions in your wedding party. However is that actually appropriate, etiquette-wise?
Here’s everything you should know about the maid of honor vs. Matron the honor duties so you have the right to actually choose your wedding party!
What’s the difference in between a maid of honor vs. A matron the honor?
It’s really easy—a matron of respect is a head bridesmaid that happens to be married, while a maid of respect is unmarried. In both cases, these duties are thought about leaders that the bridesmaids, meaning it’s an extra-special honor regularly bestowed ~ above the bride’s sister, various other close relative, or finest friend. And also remember, a maid or matron of honor doesn’t have to be a woman—we’ve watched plenty of weddings with men of honor, too!
Can I have actually both a maid that honor and a matron of honor?
Yes, you entirely can! though it works particularly well if you’re having a bigger wedding party, friend can definitely have both a maid that honor and also a matron of respect in her crew. In fact, if you want to have more than one maid of honor and/or matron of honor, that’s fine, too. Your wedding party need to reflect her relationships v your love ones—don’t be fear to break v tradition and do what renders you happy!
What room their responsibilities?
A maid that honor and also matron of honor have a most duties to handle—and there’s no difference in between the work of a maid of honor and those of a matron the honor. Not just do they offer as leader of the bridesmaids, they also have come plan and host the bachelorette party and shower, assist the bride v pre-wedding projects and tasks, provide a speech throughout the reception, and also much more!
If you have two (or more!) “head bridesmaids” you’ll need to divvy up these jobs. It all counts on the strengths and availability of your maid that honor and also matron that honor. Maybe your maid of honor can plan the bachelorette party, while your matron of respect plans the shower. Or probably your matron of honor handles the party plan while your maid the honor can be existing for dress shopping or various other wedding-related projects. Talk to her maid of honor and also matron of honor to identify the work that every feels an ext comfortable tackling. Her head bridesmaids will most likely be thrilled that they can divide increase the responsibilities—less press for everyone!
Do my maid that honor and matron of honor wear the very same thing?
They certainly can, but some couples like to have actually their maid of respect and/or matron of respect stand out from the remainder of the bridesmaids. Her maid of honor and also matron that honor deserve to wear different dresses (or dresses in various colors or patterns) than the remainder of the crew, bring different bouquets, or also wear a distinctive accessory, favor a headband or sash.
When do my maid of honor and matron of honor walk down the aisle?
Traditionally, the maid of respect or matron of respect is the last human to walk down the aisle before the bride. Occasionally she walks in a pair with the ideal man, or occasionally by herself.
See more: What Does Ily Stand For In Texting, What Does Ily Mean And Stand For
If you’re having both a maid that honor and a matron that honor, you can have lock walk down the aisle together, in a trio through the best man, or separately. You’ll additionally need to decide that stands closest come the bride at the altar—there’s no rules around this, so base your decision on her relationships v your maid and also matron the honor. | <urn:uuid:11b9b22f-02c4-4f7c-bf2d-d62d58be77b7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://keolistravelservices.com/what-is-the-difference-between-matron-of-honor-and-maid-of-honor/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572408.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816151008-20220816181008-00668.warc.gz | en | 0.947668 | 962 | 1.554688 | 2 |
This standard was last reviewed and confirmed in 2018. Therefore this version remains current.
ISO 16772:2004 specifies a method for the determination of mercury in an aqua regia extract of soil, obtained in accordance with ISO 11464 and ISO 11466, using cold-vapour atomic absorption spectrometry or cold-vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry. The limit of determination of the method is at least 0,1 mg/kg.
Status : PublishedPublication date : 2004-06
Edition : 1Number of pages : 8
Technical Committee:Chemical and physical characterization
Buy this standard | <urn:uuid:14f07a51-094d-4353-a574-f1e5e3f73a8a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.iso.org/standard/32401.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571911.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813081639-20220813111639-00474.warc.gz | en | 0.772757 | 158 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Instructions for Reporting Placement of Adult CTE Students In Secondary Agencies
The Adult Placement Workbook, (formerly called the CTEDS-2A) is used to report program outcomes on adult students who completed, left, or are continuing in a career and technical education (CTE) program.
Each agency may develop its own survey procedures for obtaining post-program data on program completers, leavers, and continuing students. All completers, leavers, and continuing students must be accounted for whether or not a response to a survey is obtained. All agencies are to report on students who completed or left their CTE program during each grant year (that runs from July 1 through June 30) as well as those students who continued their CTE program.
The completed Adult Placement Workbook should be submitted no later than March 31 each year. Submit your report in paper form mailed to the address below
New York State Education Department
89 Washington Ave.
Career and Technical Education Office Rm. 315EB
Albany, NY 12234
General Requirements and Information
- The information recorded on the Adult Placement Workbook must be based on an actual count of individual students. The count may be derived from computer records, paper files or other sources of individual student data.
- Each adult CTE completer, leaver, or continuing student is to be counted only once in the columns containing data by gender. This means the “totals” column (column D) should reflect an unduplicated count of adult CTE students. A duplicated count is possible when reporting the special populations “economically disadvantaged” and "disabled." To report completers, leavers, or continuing students of multiple programs, include them in the program where most time was spent. In the event that equal time was spent in two programs include the student in the program that was most consistent with his or her primary occupational objective.
- Retain a copy of the completed Adult Placement Workbook and signed certification page.
Additional questions can be directed to Deb Reiter at:firstname.lastname@example.org
Adult Career Technical Education: Organized educational activities that offer a sequence of courses that
- provide individuals with coherent and rigorous content aligned with challenging academic standards and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers.
- provide technical skill proficiency, an industry-recognized credential, a certificate, or an associate degree; and
- may include prerequisite courses (other than a remedial course) that meet the requirements of this paragraph, and
- include competency-based applied learning that contributes to the academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning and problem-solving skills, work attitudes, general employability skills, technical skills, and occupation-specific skills, and all aspects of an industry, including entrepreneurship, of an individual.
Adult Career Technical Education Program Completer: A student who fulfilled all the requirements of an adult CTE program and in doing so has attained academic skills, vocational skills and a local credential.
Adult Career Technical Education Program Leaver: A student who has left an adult CTE program without fulfilling all the programs requirements.
Adult Career Technical Education Program Continuing Student: A student who remains in an adult CTE program and has not yet fulfilled all the programs requirements.
Economically Disadvantaged: Individuals from economically disadvantaged families. SED interprets this as an individual who participated in any of the following economic assistance programs:
|Pell Grant,||Tuition Assistance Program (TAP),|
|Aid for Part-time Study (APTS)||Educational Opportunity Program (EOP),|
|Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP)||Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge (SEEK), and College Discovery (CD),|
|Women, Infants and Children (WIC),||Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI)|
|Workforce Investment Act,||Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF),|
|Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA),||Other public assistance programs serving economically disadvantaged; such as: Food Stamps, Home Energy Assistance Payments (HEAP), Trade Readjustment Act, and Refugee and Immigration Affairs Assistance,|
complete income eligibility criteria for New York State Opportunity programs is found at http://www.highered.nysed.gov/kiap/colldev/HEOP/ (in feature box on right).
Disability: An individual who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity, a person who has a history or record of such impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such impairment.
Steps to complete adult placement form
Step 1: Identify the completers, leavers, and continuing students to be counted according to the definitions above. The adult placement form is to include data for students who were enrolled during 2014-15 CTE programs at the agency preparing the form.
Step 2: Eliminate duplication in students reported in Column D. The adult placement form is used to report an unduplicated count of program completers, leavers and continuing students by gender. If a student completed two programs, report him or her in the program where most time was spent.
Step 3: Obtain and organize performance information on completers and leavers. To obtain performance information agencies should review their own databases and conduct a survey following the program's completion. This survey should take place no sooner than 3 months after program completion and no later than 6 months. This database review and survey process should identify the status of all completers, leavers and continuing students.
Step 4: Complete a separate worksheet for each program delivered. The summary sheet for an agency’s overall adult CTE effort will be filled in automatically from the results of the Adult Program worksheets. Report the results of individual programs by Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code. So, if an agency offers two adult dental assisting programs—the results for these two will be reported on one worksheet.
The placement outcomes (listed below) are mutually exclusive subsets of the totals. If a student is working in related employment while attending further education, record that student where most time is spent. In the event that equal time is spent in employment and education, record that student in employment. Also note that the sum of completers, leavers and continuing students must equal the previously reported enrollment totals for each CTE program. The placement outcome categories are:
- Number placed in related employment: this is the number that were placed in employment related to the CTE program the student completed.
- Number placed in unrelated employment: this is the number that were placed in employment unrelated to the CTE program the student completed.
- "Number placed in the military"
- Number placed in additional education
- Number who are unemployed: this is the number that were actively seeking employment but were unsuccessful in obtaining employment.
- Number who are not in the labor force: this is the number that had withdrawn from the labor market, i.e., no longer actively seeking employment.
- Number whose status is unknown
It should be possible to determine the number of completers, leavers and continuing students using existing student data. The placement outcome categories (A through G) for completers and for leavers will require a survey. Note that the sum of the completers, leavers and continuing students from a given program must equal the prior reported enrollment for that program. | <urn:uuid:fb15b2fb-4b3a-4de9-9a59-f360834821f6> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.p12.nysed.gov/cte/perkins4/Adult/AdultCTEplacementData.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280410.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00448-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943881 | 1,549 | 1.695313 | 2 |
|Número de publicación||US3658707 A|
|Tipo de publicación||Concesión|
|Fecha de publicación||25 Abr 1972|
|Fecha de presentación||16 Sep 1969|
|Fecha de prioridad||19 Sep 1968|
|También publicado como||DE1946239A1, DE1946239B2|
|Número de publicación||US 3658707 A, US 3658707A, US-A-3658707, US3658707 A, US3658707A|
|Inventores||David James Delafield, Alan H Edwards, Keith Owen|
|Cesionario original||Exxon Research Engineering Co|
|Exportar cita||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Citada por (41), Clasificaciones (86)|
|Enlaces externos: USPTO, Cesión de USPTO, Espacenet|
United States Patent O U.S. Cl. 252--51.5 A 27 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Improved anticorrosion agents for lubricating oils and fuels such as gasoline consisting of a mixture of (l) carboxylic acids containing to 60 carbon atoms per molecule, or esters or anhydrides of such acids and (2) esters of alkoxylated phenol-aldehyde resins.
This invention relates to fuel or lubricating oil compositions and in particular gasoline compositions.
Certain additives have been proposed for use in gasoline and other fuels which reduce corrosion and in the case of .gasoline act as anti-icing agents and carburettor detergents. Such additives have not however been completely successful when moisture is present in the fuel, since haze and emulsion problems can arise together with an unacceptable loss of the additive either into the aqueous phase or by adsorption onto tank or pipe line surfaces particularly when rust is present. Additives have also been proposed for use in lubricating oil compositions to reduce corrosion but frequently the pressure of such additives can further aggravate problems of emulsion formation When moisture is present particularly for example in steam turbine oils.
According to this invention improved fuel or oil compositions comprise a major proportion by weight of a fuel or lubricating oil and a minor proportion by weight of (A) (i) a mono or poly-carboxylic acid which contains 10 to 60 carbon atoms per molecule, or an anhydride or an ester of such an acid; or (ii) the reaction product of said acid, anhydride or ester with a hydroxy or an amino compound, and a minor proportion by weight of (B) an ester of an alkoxylated phenolaldehyde resin, (A) and (B) preferably being dissolved in a diluent or solvent.
Although the composition can contain any fuel, e.g. a kerosine, a gas oil, a distillate fuel such as a diesel fuel, an aviation jet fuel, the preferred fuel is a gasoline.
The gasoline can be a conventional gasoline for internal combustion engines, and these are supplied in a number of grades. lSuch gasolines may consist of mixtures of hydrocarbons of various types, including aromatics, olefins, paraifins, isoparafiins naphthenes and sometimes diolefins. The gasolines are derived from petroleum by refinnig processes such as fractional distillation, thermal cracking, steam cracking, catalytic cracking, catalytic reforming, polymerisation, hydroforming, alkylation and isomerization. Motor gasolines usually boil between 25 and 225 C. when tested by ASTM Method D86. Their (vapour pressures as determined by ASTM Method D323 are varied, depending on the season of the year during which they are to be used, from about 6 to about p.s.i. at 100 F. Their octane numbers as determined by ASTM Method D908 may range [from about 70 to 105 or higher.
Aviation gasolines are prepared by blending constituents similar to those found in motor gasolines but usually have narrower boiling ranges from about 37.5 C. to 165 C.
3,658,707 Patented Apr. 25, 1972 and somewhat more rigid specifications than do motor gasolines.
Suitable lubricating oils include animal, vegetable, or mineral oils, for example, petroleum oil fractions ranging from spindle oil to SAE 30, 40 or 50 lubricating oil grades; castor oil, fish oils, oxidised mineral oil or bright stocks. Synthetic esters may also be used, e.g. diesters such as those prepared by esterifying carboxylic acids such as adipic or sebacic acid with monohydride alcohols; or complex esters obtained by the esterification of a polyhydric alcohol (e.g. a polyglycol) with a dibasic acid (e.g. sebasic acid or adipic acid) and a monohydride alcohol (e.g. 2-ethyl-hexanol or a C oxo alcohol).
When additive (A) (i) is a monoor poly-carboxylic acid or an anhydride theerof it is preferably a compound represented by one of the following formulae wherein one of R and is a hydrocarbyl group containing 10 to 50 carbon atoms, and the other is either a hydrocarbyl group containing 10 to 50 carbon atoms, or hydrogen; X and Y are hydrogen atoms or hydrocarbyl groups and m is zero or an integer and n is zero or an integer. Of course R and must not be such that the total number of carbon atoms per molecule exceeds 60. In particular one of R and is preferably an alkyl or an alkenyl group containing 12 to 20 carbon atoms and X and Y are preferably hydrogen atoms, and m and n are each preferably integers of between 1 and 5. The groups R X and Y can be straight or branched chain, cyclic or acyclic, and although they may be aromatic they are preferably aliphatic.
Suitable examples of acid (1) are oleic acid, stearic acid, palmitic acid, and lauric acid.
As examples of acid (2) one may use polypropenyl, or polyisob-utenyl succinic acids, e.g. tetrapropenyl succinic acid.
Examples of anhydrides (3) and (4) include lauric anhydride and a polypropenyl succinic anhydride such as tetrapro penylsuccinic anhydride. Alternatively additive (A) (i) can be an ester of a monoor poly-carboxylic acid, and such esters include the esters of acids (1) and (2) described above. These esters are preferably derived from a low boiling alcohol e.g. one containing 1 to 5 car- HO (CXYh? Z1 2 Where X, Y and Z are hydrocarbyl groups or hydrogen atoms and m is zero or an integer and n is zero or an integer, and R is a hydrocarbyl group containing 1 to 50 carbon'atoms, or a hydrocarbyl group containing 1 to 50 carbon and also one or more ether linkages, or may be hydrogen if both m and n are integers. Preferably neither m nor n exceeds 5.
Particularly suitable alcohols are monohydric alcohols, e.g. those containing less than 20 carbon atoms per molecule, especially monohydric alcohols containing from 4 to 12. carbon atoms per molecule. Thus suitable alcohols from which additive (A) is derived include butanol-l, pentanol-l, isooctanol, isodecanol or dodecanol-l. If desired, however, the additive can be derived from a glycol, e.g., one containing 2 to 60 carbon atoms, for example ethylene glycol, butylene glycols, pinacone, tetramethylene glycol etc. in which case one mole of glycol reacts with two moles of acid or anhydride.
Aromatic alcohols, e.g. benzyl alcohol, toluyl alcohol, may also be used; as may phenolic compounds, such as phenol itself, the cresols, xylols or catechol.
Another suitable class of mono-hydroxy compounds are ether-alcohols which are for example obtained by reacting aliphatic alcohols with an alkylene oxide. Suitable ether alcohols contain for example 2 to 40 carbon atoms per molecule, and include methoXy-methanol, ethoxy butanol, or ethoxyethanol.
Suitable amino compounds include p-, sor t-monoamines, diamines, polyamines, or hydroxyamino compounds.
Suitable amino compounds from which additive (A) (ii) may be derived include amines of the formulae where R R and R are alkyl, alkaryl or alkenyl groups containing 1 to 200 carbon atoms, or hydroxy or amino substituted alkyl or alkaryl groups containing 1 to 200 carbon atoms, or hydrogen atoms.
When reacted with a monocarboxylic acid, amides or salts of the following formulae are formed where R is as defined previously. At least one of the groups R R R and R should contain at least carbon, atoms, particularly between 12 and 20 carbon atoms.
Suitable nonamines are those of the formula R NH R3R4NH 0r R3R4R5N Where R3, R4 and R5 BIC hydrocarbyl or substituted hydrocarbyl e.g. alkyl, cyclo alkyl, aryl, alkenyl, substituted aryl or heterocyclic radicals. Thus, the groups R R or R can be for example octyl, nonyl, decyl, undecyl, pentadecyl, hexadecyl, octadecyl, eicosyl, octadecenyl, or octadecadienyl.
The groups R R and R can vary widely, and may for example contain from 1 to 30 carbon atoms, preferably 8-22 carbon atoms.
Aromatic monoamines include aniline, substituted anilines, benzylamine and naphthylamine. Suitable heterocyclic amines include furyl amine, piperidine and N-vinyl pyrrolidone.
Suitable polyamines which can be used include aliphatic polyamines, and heterocyclic polyamines. The preferred polyamines are alkylene polyamines, and hydroxy alkylene polyamines.
Thus, suitable polyalkylene polyamines are those compounds having the formula H N(RNH H where R is an alkylene radical or a hydrocarbyl substituted alkylene radical and y is an integer. Thus, suitable polyamines are diethylene triamine, triethylene tetramine, or tetra-ethylene pentarnine.
The hydroxyamino compounds which may be used include monohydroxyamines of the formula R4 R3'I IR6OH dihydroxyamines of the formula R OH R1011 or trihydroxyamines of the formula HO-RuN where R and R are hydrogen or hydrocarbyl groups and R R and R are divalent hydrocarbon, e.g. alkylene groups.
Thus, the groups R and R may be alkenyl, alkyl, cycloalkyl, or phenyl groups and the groups R R and R may be alkylene groups of the formula z). where x is preferably a whole number from 1 to 8.
In general the hydroxyamino compounds should preferably contain from 1 to 40 carbon atoms.
Particularly suitable are monoalkanolamines, especially where the nitrogen atom is substituted by alkyl groups, e.g. monoalkanolamines of the formula N n 0H where R and R are alkyl groups, e.g. C to C alkyl groups and R is an alkylene group, e.g. a C to C alkylene group. Thus, one may use N,N diethyl ethanolamine or N,N dibutyl hexanolarnine.
Also suitable are monoalkanolamines in which one or more of the alkyl groups also contains an amino substituent, i.e. amino alkyl monoalkanolamines, e.g. amino ethyl ethanolamine, amino propyl ethanolamine, amino propyl butanolamine, etc. One may of course use analogous amino alkyl dialkanolamines, e.g. N-amino ethyl diethanolamine.
The additive (A) (ii) is preferably the reaction product of a hydroxy or an amino compound with a succinic acid, anhydride or ester which has been substituted by one or more hydrocarbyl groups. Particularly suitable hydrocarbyl groups are alkenyl or alkyl groups, e.g. those containing from 3 to 55 carbon atoms, especially 10 to 40 carbon atoms.
Thus, the substituted succinic acid can be represented by the general formula where one of R and R is hydrogen, and the other is an alkenyl group. The alkenyl group can be straight-chain or branched chain and is preferably derived from a polyolefin, e.g. polypropenyl, polyisobutenyl or polypentenyl, and preferably of MW 50 to 600. Instead of being substituted by a hydrocarbyl group this substituent group can be a hydrocarbyl group which itself is substituted by a small proportion (e.g. less than 10%) of other atoms or groups, e. g. halogen atoms or nitro groups.
The corresponding anhydride, or ester can also be used. If an ester, it is preferably derived from a low boiling alcohol, e.g. one containing 1 to carbon atoms per molecule. Thus, the methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl or pentyl esters should preferably be used.
One of the preferred additives (A) (ii) for use in the fuel compositions of this invention are esters represented by the formula 0 ca c 1 a \m where either one of the groups R and R is an alkenyl group containing from 8 to 40 carbon atoms and the other of the groups R and R is a hydrogen atom, and R is C to C alkyl group, or the group wherein R and R are C; to C alkyl groups and R is a C to C alkylene group, the total number of carbon atoms in the groups R R and R being from 4 to 12.
The mono-ester may conveniently be prepared by reaction of equimolar proportions of the substituted succinic acid or its anhydride with a mono-hydroxy compound. Usually simple admixture is suflicient, but when reacting a hydroxyamine with the substituted anhydride heating may be necessary.
Depending on the reactants used and the quantities used therefore, additive (A) (ii) can be a mono-, di-, or polyester, or an amide, or an amidine.
If desired additive (A) (ii) can be an ammonium or amine salt of the reaction product between an amino or hydroxy compound and a monoor poly-carboxylic acid, the anhydride thereof, of the ester thereof (e.g. a substituted succinic acid, anhydride or ester). Of course, there must be at least one free carboxylic group or phenolic hydroxy group present for the salt to be formed.
Other particularly preferred additives (A)(ii) are the reaction products of a fatty acid (e.g. oleic acid, linoleic and stearic acid) and an amino alkyl monoalkanolamine, (e.g. amino ethyl ethanolamine, or amino propyl propanolamine).
If desired the fuel or oil compositions of this invention may include mixtures of two or more of the above described additives (A) (i) and/or (A) (ii).
The phenol from which the ester of an alkoxylated phenolaldehyde resin (B) is derived may contain a substituent such as a hydrocarbyl or a substituted hydrocarbyl group or an acyl group. This substituent may be in the para position with respect to the phenolic group, but can however be in the metaor ortho positions. Substituted hydrocarbyl groups may be hydrocarbyl groups substituted with, for example, halogen atoms. Preferably the hydrocarbyl group is unsubstituted. This hydrocarbyl group can be an alkyl group, e.g. a branched chain alkyl group, but can also be, for example, an alkenyl group. Particularly suitable substituted or unsubstituted hydrocarbon groups are those containing between 1 and 30 carbon atoms, e.g. methyl, t-butyl, hexyl, decyl, tetradecyl, octadecyl or stearyl, eicosyl, tetracosyl, hexacosyl or mixtures of these groups.
In preparing the phenol-aldehyde resin the phenol is condensed with an aldehyde. The aldehyde is preferably formaldehyde, or para formaldehyde but other aldehydes, especially those containing not more than 25, e.g. less than 8 carbon atoms per molecule could be used instead, e.g. acetaldehyde, butyraldehyde, benzaldehyde, or propionaldehyde. Furfuraldehyde may also be employed.
The phenol-aldehyde resin from which the ester is prepared may be prepared by methods well known in the art.
When the phenol-aldehyde resin is derived from phenol itself, a particularly suitable method of preparation is that given in Preparative Methods of Polymer Chemistry, Interscience Publishers Inc., New York by Sorenson and Campbell, p. 295 (1961 ed.) i.e. heating together phenol and aldehyde in the presence of an acid catalyst. When reacting phenol with the aldehyde it is preferred that O.6O.95 moles of aldehyde be employed to every mole of phenol.
In order to alkoxylate the phenol-aldehyde resin thus obtained one reacts the resin with an-alkylene oxide. Preferably the alkylene oxide contains not more than 4 carbon atoms per molecule, e.g. ethylene oxide, propylene oxide or butylene oxide.
The resin may be reacted with the alkylene oxide in the presence of a catalyst, e.g. an alkaline catalyst such as sodium acetate, sodium hydroxide or sodium 'methvl ate. The amount of alkaline catalyst may be small, e.g. between 0.1% and 2% by weight. The reaction may take place under pressure, e.g. up to pressures of 20 atmospheres, and the reaction temperature may be as high as 200 C. The alkoxylation is conveniently carried out in the presence of an inert solvent, e.g. xylene, Decalin, or diethyl ether. Usually the quantity of alkylene oxide reacted is from 1 to 2 moles per hydroxyl radical in the resin.
Finally, to prepare the ester (B) the alkoxylated phenolaldehyde resin is reacted with a carboxylic acid, or a derivative thereof, preferably a mono-carboxylic acid. Especially suitable are mono-carboxylic acids containing between 8 and 32 carbon atoms per molecule, e.g. the higher fatty acids. Thus, saturated fatty acids include lauuric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid; whilst unsaturated fatty acids include oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid. One may of course use a mixture of acids, e.g. mixed fatty acids such as the fatty acids obtained from the hydrolysis of cottonseed oil, or soyabean oil.
Instead of reacting the alkoxylated resin with a carboxylic acid one can use, for example, the corresponding acyl chloride or anhydride; or in some cases one may employ transesterification.
.Generally one reacts about one equivalent of carboxylic acid per hydroxy group in the resin.
Additive (B) may if desired also incorporate a homopolymer of an alkylene oxide (e.g. ethylene oxide, propylene oxide) or a copolymer of a mixture of alkylene oxides (e.g. ethylene oxide and propylene oxide), formed by reaction with an alkanolamine such as methanolarnine, a dialkanolamine such as dipropanolamine. The production of such polymers is known to the art; see, for example, US. Pat. 1,923,178. Such a polymer is simply mixed with the ester of the alkoxylated phenol-aldehyde resin.
The additives (A) and (B) may if desired be dissolved in a diluent, e.g. toluene, kerosine or xylene. The concentration may be, for example, around 25 to 75 wt. percent, e.g. 50 Wt. percent.
Suitable quantities of additives (A) and (B) are 0.00005 wt. percent to 0.025 wt. percent e.g. about 0.0025 wt. percent of (A) and 0.000005 to 0.025 wt. percent e.g. about 0.0005 wt. percent of (B) based on the total weight of the fuel composition. For oils, suitable quantities are for example 0.005 wt. percent to 0.5 wt. percent, particularly 0.015 to 0.03 wt. percent of (A) and 0.005 to 0.5 wt. percent, particularly 0.025 to 0.25 wt. percent of (B), based on the total weight of the oil composition.
The fuel may also incorporate other additives. Thus, gasoline, may also contain anti-knock agents, e.g. tetra ethyl lead, halohydrocarbon scavengers, e.g. ethylene dibromide or ethylene dichloride, or deposit modifiers, e.g.
organic esters of oxy acids of phosphorus, or antioxidants e.g. 2,4-dimethyl-6-t-butyl phenol and N,N di sec butyl para phenylene diamine.
EXAMPLE 1 Preparation of Additive (A).-Equimolar quantities of tetra propenyl succinic anhydride and NN' diethyl ethanolamine were stirred together with 50% wt. of kerosine diluent at ambient temperature.
Preparation of Additive (B).-Slightly less than molar quantities of para-formaldehyde were reacted with p-tbutyl phenol at about 385 F. in a heavy aromatic naphtha solvent system. After the reaction was completed the solvent was adjusted to give a solution containing about 50 wt. percent phenol-HCHO resin, the resin then being neutralised with excess NaOH. The solution was then ethoxylated by reacting with ethylene oxide (1.6 gm. oxide per 1 gm. of resin solution). After neutralisation with naphthenic acid and adjustment of the pH to about 2 to 3 with dodecyl benzene sulphonic acid the ethyoxylated resin solution was reacted with palmitic acid to form the ester. 7
The ester was then mixed with about /3 its weight of copolymer of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide with diethanolamine having a MW of about 4000 to 5000. This mixture was then diluted about 50% with a heavy aromatic naphtha solvent to give additive (B).
A gasoline composition was prepared by adding to gasoline 0.0001 wt. percent of additive (A') and 0.0001 wt. percent of additive (B'). The advantages of this composition over gasoline compositions containing only (A') (B) are indicated by the following test procedure.
Test Procedure 250 mls. of gasoline were stirred gently by magnetic stirrer with 10 mls. of deionised water in a 1000 ml. glass cylinder. A mild steel specimen was suspended in the mixture on one of two copper coated steel rods Which were immersed parallel to each other, but not in contact with each other. The appearance of the steel specimen was inspected at regular intervals to assess the amount of resting formed.
Results Percent wt. add.
Additive in gasoline Observations of steel specimen Additive A lttuslt3 appeared during 6th day. Additive B 2 0.
Additive A 0001 Rust appeared during 10th day. Additive B 0001 Do.
EXAMPLE 2 Percent w. add. Observations of Additive in gasoline steel specimen Additive A 0, 0015 B17150 appeared after ays. Additive B 0. 0015 Rust appeared after 8 days. Add tive A. 0. 00075 }No rusting appeared Additive B 0. 00075 after 14 days.
EXAMPLE 3 Equimolar quantities of tetrapropenyl succinic anhydride and n-octanol were refluxed in toluene for 3 hours in the presence of a trace of tri-ethylamine. The solution obtained was used as additive C.
Gasoline compositions were prepared having the following compositions Percent area rusted Number of days exposed. 1 2 3 4 Gasoline itself 50 Composition (1) Nil Trace Trace Composition (2) Nil Trace Trace 10 Composition (3) 5 5 10 10 Thus, it can be seen that minimum rusting takes place when gasoline compositions of the invention (compositions 1 and 2) are used.
What is claimed is:
1. An oil composition comprising a major proportion by weight of an oil selected from the group consisting of a fuel oil and a lubricating oil and a minor proportion by Weight in an amount suflicient to inhibit corrosion of a mixture comprising:
Additive A, which is selected from the group consisting of monoand poly-carboxylic acids which contain 10 to 60 carbon atoms per molecule, anhydrides of such acids and monoor polyesters of such acids; monoor polyamides and amino salts of such acids and mixtures thereof; said esters being derived from a hydroxy compound of the formula where X, Y and Z are hydrocarbyl groups or hydrogen atoms and m is zero or an integer, and n is zero or an integer, and R is a hydrocarbyl group containing 1 to 50 carbon atoms, or a hydrocarbyl group containing 1 to 50 carbon atoms and one or more ether linkages, or hydrogen when both m and n are integers, or hydroxyamine of the formula where R and R are hydrogen or hydrocarbyl groups, and R R and R are divalent hydrocarbon groups; said amides being derived from an amine chosen from the group consisting of (i) monoamines (ii) aromatic monoamines (iii) aliphatic polyamines (iv) hydroxy alkylene polyamines (v) heterocyclic polyamines; or said hydroxyamine and said amino salt being derived from said amine or said hydroxyamine; and Additive (B) which is a carboxylic acid ester of an alkoxylated phenol-aldehyde resin wherein said alkoxyl group contains 1 to 30 carbon atoms and said aldehyde contains 1 to 25 carbon atoms; and the proportion by weight of A to B ranges from 500:1 to 1:500 when in said fuel and from 100:1 to 1:100 when in said lubricating oil.
2. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein the fuel is a gasoline.
3. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein additive (B) is derived from a phenol substituted with a hydrocarbyl group.
4. A composition as claimed in claim 3 wherein the hydrocarbyl group contains between 1 and 30 carbon atoms.
5. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein the aldehyde is formaldehyde or para formaldehyde.
6. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein additive (B) is derived from an alkylene oxide containing not more than 4 carbon atoms per molecule.
7. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein additive ('B) is derived from a mono-carboxylic acid having between 8 and 32 carbon atoms per molecule.
8. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein Additive (B) also incorporates a homopolymer of an alkylene oxide or a copolymer of alkylene oxides, said homoor copolymer containing the residue of an alkanolor dial kanolamine.
9. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein Additive A is selected from the group consisting of:
where one of R and is a hydrocarbyl group containing 10 to 50 carbon atoms, and the other is either a hydrocarbyl group containing 10 to 50 carbon atoms, or hydrogen.
10. A composition as claimed in claim 9 wherein m and n are each integers of between 1 and 5.
11. A composition as claimed in claim 10 wherein the acid or anhydride is selected from the group consisting of polypropenyl and polyisobutenyl succinic acids and a polypropenyl succinic anhydride.
12. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein additive (A) is derived from a monohydric alcohol containing from 4 to 12 carbon atoms per molecule.
13. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein Additive (A) is derived from said hydroxy compound.
14. A composition as claimed in claim 13 wherein neither in nor n exceeds 15. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein additive (A) is derived from said monoamine selected from the group consisting of amines of the formulae R NH R R NH and R R R N where R R and R are hydrocarbyl or substituted hydrocarbyl.
16. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein additive (A) is derived from said polyalkylene polyarnine having the formula =I-I N('RNH I-I where R is an alkylene radical or a hydrocarbyl substituted alkylene radical.
17. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein Additive (A) is derived from said hydroxyamine.
18. A composition as claimed in claim 17 wherein additive (A) is derived from a monoalkanolamine where R and R are C to C alkyl groups and R is a C to C alkylene group.
19. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein Additive (A) is derived from said monoamine of the formula where R R and R are alkyl, alkaryl or alkenyl groups containing 1 to 200 carbon atoms, or hydroxy or amino substituted alkyl or alkaryl groups containing 1 to 200 carbon atoms, or hydrogen atoms.
20. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein additive (A) is derived from a monoalkanolamine in which one or more of the alkyl groups also contains an amino substituent.
21. A composition as claimed in claim 20 wherein the amino alkyl monoalkanolamine is selected from the group consisting of aminoethyl ethanolamine, amino propyl ethanolamine, and amino propyl butanolamine.
22. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein Additive (A) contains an acid portion derived from a succinic acid, anhydride or ester which has been substituted by one or more hydrocarbyl groups.
23. A composition as claimed in claim 22 wherein the hydrocarbyl group is selected from the groups consisting of alkenyl and alkyl groups containing from 10 to 40 carbon atoms.
24. A composition as claimed in claim 23 wherein the alkenyl group has a MW of between 50 and 600..
25. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein additive (A) is an ester represented by the formula Il -CH iii-ca where either one of the groups R and is an alkenyl group containing from 8 to 40 carbon atoms, and the other of the groups R, and
i is hydrogen, and R is a C to C alkyl group, or the group wherein R and R are C to C alkyl groups and R is a C to C alkylene group, the total number of carbon carbon atoms in the groups R R and R being from 4 to 12.
26. A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein Additive (A) is derived from a fatty acid and said hydroxyamine, said hydroxyamine being an amino alkyl monoal-kanolamine.
27. A composition as claimed in claim 26 wherein the fatty acid is selected from acids consisting of oleic acid, linoleic acid and stearic acid.
References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,334,158 11/1943 Von Fuchs et al. 252-56 R 2,498,195 2/1950 Ballard et al. 252--51.5 R 2,718,503 9/1955 Rocchini 25251.5 A 2,939,842 6/1960 Thompson 44-62 X 3,448,049 6/1969 Preuss et al 252-5 1.5 A
DANIEL E. WYMAN, Primary Examiner W. J. SHINE, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R.
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|Clasificación de EE.UU.||508/306, 44/351, 508/476, 252/392, 508/511, 508/551, 44/389, 44/391, 44/400, 44/403, 252/396, 508/530, 44/398, 508/555, 508/500|
|Clasificación internacional||C10N30/04, C10L1/18, C10L1/22, C09K15/20, C10N30/12, C10N30/02, C10M159/12, C10M167/00, C10L1/234, C10N30/00, C10L1/14|
|Clasificación cooperativa||C10L1/19, C10M2207/22, C10M2207/281, C10M2207/10, C10M2215/06, C10M2209/105, C10M2207/34, C10M2215/04, C10M2215/225, C10L1/1881, C10M2207/285, C10M2207/404, C10M2207/304, C10M2215/064, C10M2203/108, C10L1/2383, C10M2209/103, C10M2209/109, C10M2207/40, C10M2207/283, C10M2207/288, C10M2209/106, C10M2207/282, C10M2213/04, C10M2215/042, C10L1/143, C10M2215/22, C10M2207/286, C10L1/2222, C10M2209/107, C10M2209/112, C10M2207/24, C10M2207/123, C10M2213/06, C10N2260/04, C10L1/198, C10M2203/00, C10M2207/284, C10M2215/28, C10M2215/221, C10M2207/142, C10M2215/082, C10M2207/14, C10M1/08, C10L1/222, C10M2213/00, C10M2217/046, C10M2209/101, C10M2215/30, C10M2215/08, C10M2215/226, C10M2217/06, C10M2207/129, C10M2215/044, C10M2207/402, C10M2209/104, C10M2215/26, C10M2207/125|
|Clasificación europea||C10M1/08, C10L1/14B| | <urn:uuid:a1f31827-cfbc-4e0b-a316-136e3ac90c92> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.google.es/patents/US3658707?dq=flatulence | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719677.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00559-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.851912 | 9,613 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Did you ever wish there was a simple, natural, cost free method of maintaining a balanced and dynamic state of mind? According to a landmark breakthrough in the research of meditation versus relaxation techniques at the University of Sydney, it is possible for anyone to attain and maintain an optimum state of awareness without drugs, auto-suggestion, or other forced attempts at establishing inner equilibrium. The wisdom of the ancient seers finally revealed!
Until now, so-called meditation techniques showed identical results as any common relaxation methods, leading scientists to believe that meditation is not a unique state. But now, through research with Sahaja Yoga Meditation, which easily brings the practitioner into the optimum state of alert ‘mental silence’, amazing new phenomena are coming to light. For example, with all other techniques, there is a common rise in skin temperature; when in fact the actual, unique state of meditation produces the opposite effect, and a delicate cool breeze is felt emitting from the hands and the top of the head, as demonstrated consistently when mental silence is achieved.
“People change, not because of what they know, but because of what they feel.”
RESPONSES IN SCHOOLS TO SAHAJA YOGA MEDITATION:
(the text and audio quotes are from high school students, staff and assistants in New York City; most of the photos are from Morocco and Austria)
~“Wow, that was really cool!”
~“The exercise we did basically helped me forget all the negative things that were in my mind. I feel more relaxed and more comfortable.”
~“Do you think itʼs possible for someone to be born connected to the universal collective consciousness?”
~“I got my attention focused, it was great – Iʼm going to do it at home.”
~“Iʼve been doing Sahaja Meditation for three weeks now. It calms you down, itʼs relaxing, it gets you ready for class.”
~“I felt upset when I started, sad and mad at the same time, now I feel OK and good.”
~“I ran a Sahaja Meditation class as part of a mind, body, spirit seminar. Later, I asked the class for a thumbs up, thumbs down on the meditation, and the vast majority raised their thumbs up. I definitely want to do more in the New Year. ”
~“I am absolutely amazed. If youʼd told me this morning that some of my students, who canʼt keep quiet for 30 seconds would sit here in deep meditation for 10 minutes, Iʼd have said you were crazy. I want to learn Sahaja Meditation too.”
~“Some of the kids whoʼve been coming to the meditation class are quite difficult, one has been on suspension, and one has learning difficulties. Other teachers, without knowing why, have commented on the change of behavior of theses students after just one meditation session. The first week we had 21 students attend, and the second week it was 27, so theyʼve been telling their friends. Iʼm really surprised to see some of the students whoʼve turned up.”
~“Iʼm amazed at what Iʼve seen here today. I want to learn to do this meditation myself.”
Health Corps coordinators say:
~“After speaking with students afterwards, more and more keep coming up to me and telling me what a wonderful experience it was for them. Their minds were cleared of so many different things and they felt rejuvenated and revived! I will never forget the experience and think it is something that will live in my mind for quite some time. Who else can say that they got almost 60 teenage students to sit quietly with themselves and their thoughts (or absence of thoughts) for more than 30 minutes? THIS was POWERFUL!”
~“Even after trying the meditation in the summer, I was skeptical of its ability to reach the students that I teach. But just last Friday I watched a group of kids at the Lincoln High School fair get really into the meditation, and I was really impressed by the facilitators at the health fair in my school. While some students werenʼt interested, most of them touched something deep inside themselves.”
~“Sahaja Meditation has been a huge success and the Friday morning sessions are the highlight of the week.”
~“The vast majority of students who attended the meditation sessions said how much theyʼd enjoyed it. This could bring about a fundamental change in how students relate to the outside world.”
Students were asked to write what’s stressing them and then to look at that list after Sahaja Meditation:
We asked the students to make a list of what was stressing them right now. Then we introduced them to Sahaja Meditation and meditated for some ten minutes or so. At the end of the meditation, we asked the students to look at the list again, and to draw a line through any issues that were no longer stressing them.
Out of approximately 50 students who tried the meditation that day, only three or four said they didn’t like it. The rest were extremely positive in their comments, and some typical comments were as shown below. Consistently, in all the schools where Sahaja Meditation has been introduced to date, irrespective of which part of the country, most high school students find Sahaja Meditation very easy to do, even more so than adults.
What’s stressing me:
“Bullies, Grades, Family, School, Relationships”
Post Sahaja Meditation: All the above crossed out.
“Wow! That really worked! I just let go of all the strings pulling me down from my past and I realized that those times don’t last. I was stressed, and when I said, ‘I forgive’, it pushed it out.”
What’s stressing me:
“Homework! I feel it increases all the time.”
Post Sahaja Meditation: The above crossed out.
“What I experienced was unreal. I was stressed and now it is completely gone.”
What’s stressing me:
“Yesterday I was stressed because I didn’t know what to wear, and I’m stressed about my math test because I do not know how to memorize formulas.”
Post Sahaja Meditation: The above crossed out.
“This process was really an enjoyment. The things I worried about are not that big of a deal and I can always ace another assessment if I try to study a little more”.
And here are some comments from a recent health-fair at a Newark high school:
~A teacher: “I had a headache and my leg was hurting. Now my headache is gone, I can’t feel the pain in my leg and I feel completely relaxed.”
~A boy, about ten years old, sat, eyes closed, grinning and saying out loud, “I’m forgiving myself….I’m forgiving myself.” When he opened his eyes and was asked how he felt, he replied, “Like I’ve got an icepack on my head!”
~Another student, about thirteen, came up and said in a rather mocking tone, “What is THIS all about?” Then he sat down and went into meditation for at least ten minutes. When he opened his eyes he said, “I’ve just entered a whole new world…I feel like a different person.”
~Another boy, when asked how he felt, replied, “Like a new man.”
~One girl, about 15, went into meditation for ten minutes and then said, “This is fantastic. This is SO right for me.” Then she ran off and came back with a friend, sat her down and told her, “OK, close your eyes, take your attention up above your head, stop thinking and forgive everybody.”
~One of the other stallholders, when asked if she wanted to learn how to meditate, asked “What makes you think I don’t know already?” She sat down and started swaying around on her chair. Someone helped her achieve an improved inner balance, then she calmed down and stayed in deep meditation for 15 minutes. When she opened her eyes she said, “This is different to anything I’ve ever tried before. It’s so simple and practical and effective. I definitely want to pursue this.”
~At a high school in the Bronx, at the first of a six week meditation class, the group, including the chemistry teacher, finished their very first Sahaja Meditation with a collective, “Wow!” The teacher later mentioned that everyone really enjoyed the experience.
(At one school in Brooklyn where a regular class Sahaja Meditation class has been running for nearly six months, some students are now moving on from the basics of learning to meditate in mental silence, or “thoughtless awareness”, to being able to balance their own subtle energy system, which means in effect, changing a bad mood into a good one.)
And – not to suggest there are any similarities between school and prison! – here is some info about meditation in prisons….
Positive report from the Commonwealth Human Rights about Sahaja Yoga Meditation programs in Indian prisons:
Sahaja Yoga Meditation has been taught in the Tihar prison since 1997.
A report from the Commonwealth Human Rights studied the effects of the intervention of 129 NGOs in Indian jails. About Sahaja Yoga Meditation, it acknowledges the help given by this method to the prisoners, and the fact that over one hundred prisoners from Tihar wrote a testimony to explain the benefits Sahaja Yoga Meditation brought them, reporting improved physical, mental and emotional conditions.
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"This project will cut through some of the worst traffic in the state, creating the capacity to move up to 800 riders in each direction every few minutes with zero congestion," said Sound Transit Board Chair and King County Executive Dow Constantine. "It will immeasurably improve the lives of its riders. It will also prove critical to the functioning of I-5 as the region's population grows approximately 30 percent in the next two decades."
The machine, which between 2011 and 2012 successfully completed two one-mile tunnels for the University Link light-rail project, is one of three TBMs that will help extend light rail 4.3 miles further north. The University Link light- rail project is currently scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2016, six to nine months early and is more than $100 million under budget. The $2.1-billion Northgate Link Extension, which will open in 2021, will run mostly underground through one of the most congested travel corridors in the region and includes underground stations serving the U District and Roosevelt and an elevated station at Northgate. The line will add major new capacity to the region's transportation system, offering fast, frequent and congestion-free service 20 hours a day. A trip from Northgate to downtown will take 14 minutes. Northgate to UW Station will take eight minutes.
The tunneling contractor is now finalizing the TBM assembly before moving it into launch position to complete final safety and operational checklists. The TBM weighs more than 1 million pounds and stretches more than 300 feet long, including the conveyor systems that remove the spoils.
The joint venture of Jay Dee Contractors, Frank Coluccio Construction Company and Michaels Corporation won the contract for the Northgate Link tunneling work with a proposal that was 25 percent below the engineer's estimate. | <urn:uuid:183edde5-dd02-4480-ab6c-52e92b4d6c8a> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.rtands.com/index.php/passenger/rapid-transit-light-rail/sound-transit-prepares-to-launch-first-northgate-link-tunnel-boring-machine.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 | 0.947572 | 367 | 1.867188 | 2 |
This ubiquitous and cosmopolitan lawn and garden weed is also one of the most ancient remedies in the herbalist's repertoire, as the species name suggests. The common name, dandelion, stems from the French "dent de lion" or lion's tooth.
Its sunny yellow flowers that turn into white balls of airborne seeds are familiar to everyone I have encountered, although not everyone has dug the plant up to observe the vertical taproot furnished with numerous short, thickened rootlets. The leaves all attach at one point, the place where the stem and the taproot meet at the surface of the soil; they form a circle or basal rosette. Leaves are variously lobed and toothed and may be less than 2 inches to almost 2 feet (5 to 50 cm.) long, depending on habitat.
Method of Collection:
Early June is the best time to harvest dandelion greens. I dig the whole plant from the garden with a shovel; it is easiest if the soil is soft from recent rain. Knocking the extra dirt from the roots, or picking away clods of dirt with fingers is easy enough, but if you want to use the greens and edible buds they are rather difficult to clean. Try to be careful not to get dirt on them. A strategy I discovered to minimize the spreading of dirt onto greens and buds was to collect small quantities at one time, process them, and then go back to dig for more. In a huge pile of uncleaned plants the dirt would inevitably be shaken from the roots onto the leaves.
The final cleaning of the roots works best with a dry brush, about 9 inches long, with big bristles. You do not want to use water, because wetting the roots would slow down the drying. Hitting the root with the tips of the stiff bristles is a good way to get it just as clean, and also removes the slender rootlets that protrude from the taproot. Slice the roots into 1/2-inch (1 centimeter) pieces. I have found it much easier to dry the dandelion roots if they are chopped; if I do not chop them into chunks when they are fresh it is almost impossible to do it later when they are hard and dry. The chopped roots dry in three days if they are spread out on a net, screen or drying rack.
Sun-drying does not damage roots as much as it damages leaves or stems. A warm, dark, well-ventilated place in a house or shed is all right. The warming oven of a woodstove is not too hot; in fact, slight roasting improves the sweet taste of dandelion roots. Some herb collectors are now using microwave ovens to dry their harvest.
The number of species is large, with many groups that are only recognized by specialists, but the one called Taraxacum officinale is the most widespread. Originally from Europe, it was introduced into South Africa, South America, North Zealand, Australia, India, and all of North America except the tundra barrens, although another species grows in the high Arctic tundra. Like most introduced weeds it is common in waste places, roadsides, and gardens.
Dandelion has been considered a mild detergent, aperient, and diuretic.
The Latin name, officinale, indicates that dandelion was the official remedy for a number of ailments. It was an ingredient in many of the patent remedies of the snake-oil peddler days. To quote Millspaugh, "Taraxacum has been used in medicine from ancient times; it is one of those drugs, overrated, derogated, extirpated, and reinstated time and again by writers upon pharmacology, from Theophrastus to the present day."
Dandelion has been recommended in hepatic obstruction, and as a general liver and kidney stimulant. Since liver and kidney disorders manifest themselves in numerous ways, the dandelion root juice and extracts have been popular as a general tonic over the entire world. The plant's slightly bitter taste seems medicinal to many people.
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Copyright © 1987 by Eleanor G. Viereck | <urn:uuid:df860d23-f7c1-4a9d-8222-52d9ff5a48e1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/curriculum/Books/Viereck/viereckdandelion.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572221.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816060335-20220816090335-00064.warc.gz | en | 0.952314 | 887 | 3.15625 | 3 |
In the past few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved from a disruptive technology into a social phenomenon. IoT has had a profound effect on our perception of the devices around us as well as the modern environment we live in.
This intersection of machine and human worlds is ushering in a new era in which technology will be embedded into everything we do. In this post, we’ll take a look at the top trends in IoT development and related disciplines that are making this happen.
Integrating IoT With AI
Perhaps no other technology right now garners as much attention as artificial intelligence (AI). But with all the advancements this field has brought us already, it’s well-warranted.
In 2019, Gartner predicts that 14.2 billion connected devices will be in use. This will undoubtedly result in an immense mountain of data, the lifeblood of IoT. After all, IoT is really a network of connected hardware that pushes, pulls, and acts upon data from the real world to produce results.
Of course, it’s not so much about the amount of data as it is about the quality and how it’s used; smart analytics are key to optimizing the value that organizations get from data. Businesses are always looking to employ the best technologies to sharpen and streamline their analytics, and AI is front and center in these endeavors.
As processing power continues to increase, so does machine learning productivity. So it makes sense that machine learning and AI will become an integral part of every digital leader’s arsenal going forward.
Today, many companies rely on clouds to store and access their data. But the costs of these services can be expensive. On top of this, cloud storage often requires substantial bandwidth to access data.
Last but not least, the current options available are not cutting it for many companies. Organizations are realizing that only a public cloud, private cloud, or a private data center will not satisfy their needs. But a mix of them could do the trick.
As a result, connected clouds are rapidly gaining momentum. They can meet companies’ needs for an array of applications such as cloud-source storage, app deployment, networking, and security. Going forward, many businesses will implement a mix of public, private, and hybrid cloud environments to achieve the secure and seamless service their operations require.
Edge Computing Will Unlock More IoT Value
When it comes to some time-sensitive events, centralized and cloud computing will not suffice. As IoT gets refined and more of these situations are realized, we’ll start seeing a dramatic shift away from centralized and cloud architectures to edge architectures.
Edge computing is a powerful paradigm of processing that’s incredibly flexible, seamless, and fast. Instead of having analysis and computing done remotely, edge architectures allow these things to happen on the device itself. As we mentioned, this is extremely useful for situations where nanoseconds matter, like in self-driving car decisions.
Beyond this, edge architectures also mean less chance for a data breach affecting a network to harm the edge computing devices as well. These devices are expected to continue working despite any cybersecurity attacks or network outages. The world of IoT has been struggling with security for quite some time, so this boost in safety is much needed.
It’s important to note that edge computing will eventually evolve into something more; the set of layers associated with edge architectures will form what’s known as a mesh architecture, an unstructured architecture that comprises a range of devices and services all dynamically connected. In turn, mesh architectures will allow for more flexible, responsive, and intelligent IoT solutions.
The Rise of Digital Twin Technology
In recent years, a new buzzword has taken the Internet and tech scene by storm: digital twin. Essentially, a digital twin is a virtual replica of something physical such as a product, process, or system. They act as a data bridge between the physical and digital worlds.
Basically, sensors collect real-time data about a real-world entity. The data is then used to build a digital duplicate of the entity. This allows the item to be analyzed and manipulated so it can be understood and optimized better. If you haven’t heard of the term “digital twin” before, you may know it by its many other names: hybrid twin technology, virtual twin, digital asset management, virtual prototyping… there’s a bunch.
Digital twins are already being used as simulation tools to work on improving machine learning, AI, and IoT. They’re also being used to connect systems in healthcare and commercial real estate to yield unprecedented insights.
Before, digital twins were only used to represent single items, but they’ve now expanded to denote systems of interconnected things. As a result, more businesses are seeing digital twins as an opportunity to optimize their operations and improve their products and services.
5G Is Coming
5G, short for fifth-generation cellular networks, will forever change how we use smartphones and emerging technologies like the Internet of Things.
But what is it? 5G is the next generation of a set of rules and practices used to establish the functionality of a cellular network. This includes aspects like the radio frequencies used and how devices like computer chips share data and transmit signals.
Because it will optimize a variety of performance factors like power consumption, latency, bandwidth, and operating cost, 5G will open up a plethora of new capabilities for IoT devices and other technologies.
In 2019, we can expect to see a piecemeal rollout of 5G across the United States, with cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and Minneapolis getting it first. But it probably won’t be available nationwide until 2020.
More IoT Innovation Awaits
With each of these trends beginning to take off, we’re about to see a whole new era of innovation in the Internet of Things. The past few years have been great for IoT, but they’ll pale in comparison to what’s in store for the future.
What IoT trend are you most excited about? Which one do you think will have the greatest impact on society? Let us know in the comments!Tags: 5G, 5G infrastructure, app developers san francisco, cybersecurity, intenet of things, internet of things app developer, internet of things app development, internet of things devices, IoT app developer, IoT app developer San Francisco, iot app developers, iot app development, IoT app development San Francisco, IoT cybersecurity, IoT development, mobile app developers San Francisco, mobile app development San Francisco | <urn:uuid:e75eebfb-bd66-40ff-8586-0bb80ed8ac5e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.dogtownmedia.com/the-top-iot-trends-youll-see-over-the-next-few-years/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.933324 | 1,360 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Infertility is common. In fact, in the United States, about
This isn’t a one-sided concern: In more than
Looking at this data, it makes sense that infertility is a multibillion-dollar industry that includes expensive treatments like in vitro fertilization.
And there’s a constant search for the next big thing — a magic bullet of sorts — that will put an end to the struggle in both men and women, preferably for a reasonable price.
Enter sea moss. The internet is currently abuzz with claims that this red seaweed could be the answer, but does it live up to the hype?
The short answer is that this nutritionally beneficial sea vegetable has some promise but little evidence to back it up. Let’s take a closer look.
Like we mentioned, sea moss is a red seaweed/algae. It shares that classification with its more famous cousin, nori. Sea moss — scientifically known as Chondrus crispus — is also called Irish moss.
It’s found in the more northern areas of the Atlantic Ocean, which is why it’s been harvested primarily in the northeastern United States and in northern Europe.
It can also be found around the Caribbean Islands, where it’s touted as an aphrodisiac for men (more about that in a minute).
Outside of the Caribbean, it’s more often used for its carrageenan — which, in turn, is used to thicken foods and drinks.
The claims circulating around sea moss involve both male- and female-factor infertility. This certainly makes it sound appealing as a catch-all remedy if you’re having difficulty getting pregnant.
Because sea moss is commonly used in the Caribbean as a natural sexual enhancement product for men, many say it can increase testosterone levels and sperm count, giving fertility a boost.
For women, it’s claimed that the nutrients in sea moss — particularly iodine, B vitamins, calcium, and zinc — make it a fertility powerhouse that can speed up the process of getting pregnant if you’re having trouble.
So, are the claims true? Let’s look at what we already know, as well as what the research says about sea moss specifically.
When it comes to sea moss being a male aphrodisiac, the evidence is mostly anecdotal — and that’s OK.
If those who are eating sea moss (or creating a gel from it) believe it enhances sexual desire or function, then it probably does for them. And as we learned in Sex Ed 101, having sex is one important way to become pregnant.
But does sea moss really increase testosterone, and does higher testosterone mean higher fertility? The short answer is a twofold disappointment: There’s no scientific research suggesting that sea moss increases testosterone, and higher testosterone doesn’t equate to being more fertile.
It’s true that the body needs testosterone in order to produce sperm, and sperm are needed to fertilize an egg and achieve pregnancy. But increasing the amount of testosterone circulating in the blood won’t lead to more or better sperm. Other hormones are responsible for that.
However, the nutrients in sea moss could contribute to a healthy diet, which can help ease issues that do contribute to infertility in men — such as metabolic syndrome and obesity.
There’s actually something to the claims that the nutrients in sea moss may help with babymaking.
Take folate, for example. A 100-gram portion of sea moss has 182 micrograms (mcg) of folate, according to the
Folate supplementation (synthetic form: folic acid) may be beneficial when you’re trying to conceive. That’s because this nutrient has been shown to improve pregnancy rates, according to a
Sea moss also contains zinc (1.95 milligrams per 100 grams), which has been researched in animals for its effect on egg quality. It’s now commonly recommended that you make sure you’re getting enough zinc if you’re trying to conceive.
(Incidentally, folate and zinc supplementation may also improve sperm quality in some men, according to a
The USDA doesn’t record iodine data for sea moss. However, many sea plants do contain this nutrient. Iodine deficiency can lead to hypothyroidism, and hypothyroidism may impair fertility.
But on the other hand, too much iodine can create other thyroid problems, like goiter. And due to the creation of iodized salt, iodine deficiency is rarer than it used to be.
There is no research specific to consuming sea moss to improve fertility in women.
Check your sources
When evaluating any product — even a naturally occurring one that can be eaten as food — claiming to boost fertility, research the source of the claim and check with a doctor.
For example, there are sites claiming that sea moss is a vegetarian source of vitamin B12. But in fact, if you check
If you’re looking for supplements to take to improve your fertility, there are products that have far more research behind them — like co-enzyme Q10 — than sea moss.
A high-quality prenatal vitamin containing folate and B vitamins may be a good place to start. Perhaps most important for your overall health, be sure you’re consuming a diet rich in vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.
Consult with a doctor before adding any supplements to your daily regimen. If you’ve been trying to get pregnant for more than a year — or more than 6 months if you’re over the age of 35 — ask for a referral to a reproductive endocrinologist or other fertility specialist.
There’s a lot of hype these days around sea moss as a natural remedy for infertility in both men and women.
But unfortunately, we’ve yet to find a magic bullet solution for this common issue. The old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” seems to apply here.
On the other hand, sea moss does have nutrients that are good for you.
However, be extremely cautious about eating it in large quantities or taking it in pill form. Supplements aren’t regulated in the same way as medications, and too much sea moss could put you at risk for certain health problems.
If you’re dealing with infertility, it can feel very lonely as you watch family and friends get pregnant around you. Rest assured, though: You’re not alone.
Your doctor can point you in the right direction for getting what you need to help you grow your family. | <urn:uuid:666a93de-c3f5-4c0a-bf84-cdb61c8b5c4b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.healthline.com/health/fertility/sea-moss-and-fertility?utm_source=ReadNext | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00469.warc.gz | en | 0.946415 | 1,387 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Suggest a source article to use for creating given article in given target language using translation
The language of the source article can be derived from:
- The language (other than the current one) where the user has more contributions.
- A language the user has accessed (based on the ULS-CompactLinks ), giving priority to larger wikis which are more likely to act as source languages.
- Previous translation
The possible source languages can be an input to api. Since some of them are client side information. | <urn:uuid:8cadc256-7855-49c4-adca-ff9f7c982201> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T227571 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571536.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811224716-20220812014716-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.879787 | 110 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Border Patrol is working to educate people on the dangers that lurk in and around the number of illegal immigrant stash houses throughout the Valley. They're hoping, that by talking about the issue, it might open people's eyes to just how serious this issue is getting. So far in 2013, 90,000 people have been taken into Border Patrol custody.
Border Patrol Chief Rosendo Hinojosa said that's over 50 percent more than the same time last year.
Of those 90,000, about 55,000 are not Mexican nationals. They are mainly from Central America.
About 12,000 of those immigrants who make their way illegally into the U.S. are juveniles.
Once they get here, these people are taken to stash houses and are often left without food, water or a place to sleep.
Not only do these homes subject these immigrants to disease, sometimes death.
Hinojosa said they also open the door for sexual assaults.
Last year Border Patrol recorded 11 reported sexual assaults. So far in 2013, 18 have been reported. | <urn:uuid:aa16714a-c3a4-4e72-b3ab-66190aef510e> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://valleycentral.com/news/local/illegal-immigrant-numbers-already-surpass-2012?id=903991 | 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 | 0.973938 | 217 | 2.046875 | 2 |
As we begin to conclude our study of the Judicial Branch of government, I would like for us to reflect on the role of this branch and the importance of presidential judicial appointments.
"During the spring 2020 presidential primaries, days before his set of big wins on Super Tuesday, Biden pledged to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, if elected. Now, with the chance to do so, just over three-quarters of Americans (76%) want Biden to consider "all possible nominees." Just 23% want him to automatically follow through on his history-making commitment that the White House seems keen on seeing through."
Q1. How do you feel about President Biden's decision to appoint the first African American female to the U.S. Supreme Court? Do you stand with the 76% surveyed who would rather the president consider "all possible nominees"? Or, do you stand with the 23% surveyed who want him to follow through with his commitment? Defend your response.
Q2. Describe how ideological changes in the composition of the Supreme Court due to presidential appointments have led to the Court’s establishing new or rejecting existing precedents. Give at least one example.
Q3. Explain how the other branches of government can limit the Supreme Court’s power. | <urn:uuid:9fdb05c6-27b1-4518-b64c-4bee616b030d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.currituck.k12.nc.us/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&ModuleInstanceID=1926&ViewID=DEDCCD34-7C24-4AF2-812A-33C0075398BC&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=17991&PageID=664&Tag=&Comments=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573760.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819191655-20220819221655-00667.warc.gz | en | 0.953195 | 260 | 3.046875 | 3 |
I still remember the first time I heard someone say that. See, growing up, my parents owned a butcher shop, and all the men in my family (plus some of the women) enjoyed hunting. Before I get a bunch of enraged emails from PETA members, let me stress that the shop was a small-time operation where ethical treatment of the animals was a concern, and we actually ate and, in many cases, used the hides from the animals that we hunted. Growing up in that environment, I wasn’t even aware, as a child, that some people might find eating meat unethical or stomach-turning.
Today, it definitely makes sense to me why some people choose to “not eat anything with a face,” and I’m actually pretty conscious about the foods I eat myself. But you’re not here to read about my thoughts on vegetarianism, are you? You’re hear for blog tips. So, I’ll ask you this:
Does your blog have a face?
I promise this conversation will come back to food, but first let me explain what I mean by “face.”
Quick, without thinking – Who’s the face of Disney. I’m sure that 99% of you immediately thought of Mickey Mouse, with maybe a few of your “outside the box” people answering with another Disney character or Walt himself. But really, Micky Mouse is their face, the brand of this company. Who’s the face of Frosted Flakes? Tony the Tiger. Who’s the face of Nintendo? Mario. Who’s the face of Old Spice? The Old Spice guy, of course.
It’s not just about fictional characters representing a brand, though. Let’s move into the “real world” so to speak. Who’s the face of Apple? Steve Jobs. Who’s the face of Microsoft? Bill Gates. Or, let’s look at it on a smaller blog level. Who’s the face of Problogger? Pioneer Woman? After Graduation?
Ok, that last one was shameless plug for my own blog, but you get the point. Even if you don’t read these blogs currently, you can quickly go to these pages and get a handle on who represents that business. I say “business” because that’s what a blog is if you want to make money from it – and if you don’t, well, these tips don’t really apply to you, so it doesn’t matter!
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is not having a “face” to represent their blog. If you want some privacy, for whatever reason, that’s fine – use a cartoon or caricature. The Robot’s Pajamas is an example of a site that does this well.
What you shouldn’t do is just use a logo or some kind of other design to represent your site. Sure, there are some people who do it, even some successful people (Men with Pens comes to mind), but by far, this puts you at a disadvantage when connecting to readers. Think about it. On a social network, how do you feel about someone who uses a picture of their face versus someone who uses a logo? What about gravatars – how does your feeling about a comment attached to an avatar that actually shows the person versus an avatar that’s just a design (or no avatar at all).
It’s easier to visualize someone as human when you have a real face, or at least a funny cartoon character face, to attach to the name. You remember them more easily and are more likely to reply to them. When it comes to monetizing, having a “face” also makes your readers more likely to buy something from you. After all, it’s easier to trust a face than it is to trust a logo. It doesn’t matter if you’re a super model or not.
So, if you haven’t already, go update your profiles, gravatars, and about me pages to include a picture of your face. You’re the representative for your business, so the more real and approachable you are, the better.
After all, the competition is less likely to eat anything with a face. | <urn:uuid:f6599dd0-ba56-4f2c-a0ff-6d5f9c9c331b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.blogworld.com/2010/09/08/does-your-blog-have-a-face/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570879.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809003642-20220809033642-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.956667 | 921 | 1.5625 | 2 |
This article deals with a reality that is, sadly, not fair in many cases. It discusses the question of how organizations can organize a Scrum process without wasting most of their time and helplessly surrendering themselves to so-called or self-proclaimed Scrum experts with their mantra of “The full facts have yet to be established”.
The game usually starts even before the project begins in a process step, let’s call it demand management.
A change advisory board has to deal with a large number of project proposals, which are usually described at a high level and prioritized, but only rarely come with an estimate.
And of course there is time pressure.
If this seems familiar to you, read on. If you’ve never experienced this before, you’d rather read a different story – a beautiful one.
The mantra of many Scrum Masters is this: “We do Scrum, we don’t give an estimate”. That is why Scrum is accused of being closer to communism than to reality.
Scrum is not necessarily a project management method, but rather an implementation method (like Waterfall in the past), yet it is directly related to the project and all of its aspects.
Many Scrum experts have settled comfortably in the method, gained some wisdom and simply ignored important questions – apparently, these are not important enough for many Scrum experts to answer.
You can be a Scrum expert if you correctly answered eighty questions at Scrum.org in one hour. Then you know what a Scrum team consists of, how many minutes a daily can last, what a timebox is, that the team is above everything and that Scrum attaches importance to transparency.
What you don’t know is, of course, what a project will cost and when it will be finished.
Here, it will be pointed out immediately that a backlog potentially lives forever and is constantly updated and that, in the beginning, a handful of stories are enough to start the development – which often enough also corresponds to reality and is absolutely true and meaningful in my eyes.
So why this article?
Because Scrum as a methodology is described quite comprehensively, but that is not the whole truth.
Because the truth – from a philosophical point of view – also knows a relation to reality. And reality often looks like this:
Scrum process ping-pong
The organization would now like to opt for Scrum as a methodology – in many cases it has no other choice – because the detailed specification of a classic waterfall is missing due to time and/or complexity constraints.
It will now ask itself how the Scrum project should be budgeted and controlled before the project proposal can be approved. This is where an amusing or frustrating (depends on the perspective) game of ping pong starts.
IT is supposed to estimate the project, but they can’t, because the requirements are not well described or incomplete (in most cases, it is both). They return it to the technical department. They, in turn, can’t describe it any better, because they lack the IT expertise; after all, they are supposed to describe a product and not a business process.
The match goes back and forth for a while until the players lose interest. A draw. What to do now?
Of course, both are right. IT doesn’t have a crystal ball and now they are protected by the Scrum process or by the Scrum experts and their mantra.
The first mistake which is often made here is that the fact that you cannot estimate precisely at the beginning is being generalized.
The second mistake lies in a misinterpretation or overemphasis of Scrum as a value creation instrument.
Of course, Scrum is a methodology that focuses on the process of value creation. Sometimes it does so too little if it emphasizes the DevOps culture and the self-organization of teams too much and fails to consider that a team is not an end in itself, but should create a product. And then again it does so too much, when it screams out loud “business value first” and leaves another aspect almost by the wayside.
First of all, Scrum is a risk management method.
Yes, you did read that right. Software development is a complex and complicated matter. Even more so if you try to develop breathtaking software of the highest complexity without an exact specification.
Teams that accomplish this do incredible things. It’s like a tightrope act on a skyscraper without a net. Scrum tries to handle this risk with everything it has. And that includes – and this is unfortunately often overlooked – the development rhythm.
Scrum introduces vertical, feature-oriented development – unlike a Waterfall, where the development is more horizontal and layer-oriented.
Let’s look at the relationship between the two methods from a different perspective: the value creation perspective.
Waterfall, which consists of the phases specification, implementation, verification (test), and documentation, creates value only in the implementation phase. Of course, the specification is a prerequisite for the value creation, and the verification and documentation set the sustainability of the value creation, but the value creation itself takes place only during the implementation.
This is completely different in Scrum. Here we try to extend the value creation period to a maximum. Start extremely early (Sprint 1) and – through the use of test automation, continuous integration up to release on demand – stop feature development only shortly before release. This, too, is clearly part of a risk management strategy.
Nevertheless, one of the serious mistakes that are unfortunately made is that often a chronological development (as in Waterfall) takes place again. So first the start page with the login is developed and then they slowly move on to the next step.
Like an artist who walks over a wire rope and realizes only after a third of the way that the rope is not properly tied at the other end, many teams arrive far too late at the architectural challenges when they operate this way. A safe way back is impossible.
What Scrum – if understood as a risk management method – actually corresponds to is not the phrase “Business Value first”, but “Risk first”.
Scrum process: Risk first
First, in short sprints with some proof-of-concepts, prototypes or whatever, we try to identify and eliminate the risks. This is also added value, but follows different principles.
And now we incorporate this insight into project management so that we can achieve good project controlling in just a few steps. And this is how it works:First, in short sprints with some proof-of-concepts, prototypes or whatever, we try to identify and eliminate the risks. This is also added value, but follows different principles.
- First of all, the project application in the Demand Tunnel is estimated roughly
First, we recommend t-shirt sizes that correspond to a certain range (e.g. S <= 50 days, M up to 200 days, it doesn’t matter). Of course Story Points and Fibonacci can also be used for this if your CAB knows this. This rough estimate is only used to determine an initial budget. The probability of occurrence should be 50%, which is anything but accurate.
- Then we define a first phase up to the point of no return
This is the point up to which you can cancel or restart a project relatively safely without losing too much money. In my opinion, this point should only account for a maximum of 10% of the initially planned project duration. In this phase, you work according to the “risk first” method, i.e. you do everything you can to assess and eliminate your risks. For after this phase you should gain approx. 80% certainty about the project. This phase is not about generating any business value, it’s only about gaining certainty about the feasibility of the project.
- In the third phase, you create the MVP (minimum viable product)
I.e. the core process of the application; the smaller the definition, the better. In this phase, only business value is created. Code optimization, sustainable quality, pixel-precise UI, fancy features – all of these are secondary. After this phase, you should occupy a market before someone else does. Winning prizes with this product is as unlikely as it is desirable. You’re there, that’s enough. In this phase you should increase the security from 80% to 95% as early as possible. Since your backlog will, in fact, never end, you will never get closer to 100%. But usually you can live comfortably with this uncertainty.I
- In the fourth phase, i.e. after the MVP, you let the product mature
You will have received a lot of feedback about the MVP. This means that you won’t burn money senselessly when the product is mature, but you can optimize exactly what your customers really need.
This rhythm provides organizations with security early on, even though there is quite a lot of uncertainty at the very beginning.
This cannot be avoided, but it should disappear quickly.
If risks can be controlled rapidly with this method, organizations are also more willing to take them on at the beginning. | <urn:uuid:e5a0cb5d-18ad-42c9-834d-d5122c43607c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://blog.runscrum.io/blog/scrum-process-risk-management/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572215.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815235954-20220816025954-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.948107 | 1,922 | 1.8125 | 2 |
An ice cube having a mass of 50 grams and an initial temperature of -10 degrees Celsius is placed in 400 grams of 40 degrees Celsius water. What is the final temperature of the mixture if the effects of the container can be neglected? Discuss your answer.
Please papers ordered from Destiny papers.net academic writing service should be used as reference material only. Therefore, when citing a paper you get from us in your own work, it should be properly referenced.
+1 (940) 905-5542 | <urn:uuid:d78f3296-e503-4e2c-bd7d-bda3880c2ecb> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://destinypapers.net/what-is-the-final-temperature-of-the-mixture/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571097.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810010059-20220810040059-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.819964 | 139 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Are You Prepared for a Ransomware Attack?
Do you know how you would respond if a virus infected your computer network and held all of your files for ransom?
If you don’t, now is the time to start thinking about a response.
The FBI recently issued a “Public Service Announcement” to warn about the continued threat of ransomware. Ransomware, as the name implies, is a type of malicious software that holds a computer system or files for ransom until a monetary amount is paid. Ransomware, along with phishing and spearphishing attacks, is just another tool in the cyber criminal’s arsenal.
The scheme starts with an unsuspecting victim who has clicked on an infected e-mail, downloaded an infected attachment, or visited an infected website. The virus works its way through the person’s computer or network, encrypting all of the files. After encryption, usually the only way for the victim to get those files back is to pay the criminal some type of ransom payment.
Businesses should be aware of the increase in ransomware attacks. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has said that, from April 2014 to June 2015, there were 992 complaints about CryptoWall, one particular type of ransomware. The victims of these attacks reported losses of at least $18 million.
These attacks can severely cripple a business. If you have files on your computer network that you need to access every day—patient records, billing information, e-mails— what would you do if someone was holding them hostage? We take it for granted, but in this digital age, it would be tough to operate a business without access to your computer network.
Before it gets to that point, the FBI offers the following recommendations for preventing an attack:
- Always use antivirus software and a firewall;
- Enable popup blockers;
- Always back up the content on your computer; and
- Don’t click on any suspicious links or attachments or visit suspicious websites.
One other consideration for small businesses is that you may want to investigate investing in routine off-site data back-up and restoration.
If you have questions about ransomware or have suffered a ransomware attack, please contact our office at 814-870-7600 or complete this form on our website. | <urn:uuid:45e3d374-2a76-4276-9deb-2a1c38754742> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.macdonaldillig.com/resources/news/news-item/are-you-prepared-for-a-ransomware-attack- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571993.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814022847-20220814052847-00671.warc.gz | en | 0.945822 | 476 | 2.484375 | 2 |
One of the questions I’ve been asked after yesterday’s blog post about Phix’s ContractLib is why not just use PHP’s built-in assert() function? I think it’s a great question, and the best way to answer it is to take a look at the key differences between two solutions.
Side By Side Comparison
|Implementation||PHP extension written in C (ships as standard part of PHP)||PHP library written in PHP|
|Enable / disable execution||Partial (there is an overhead when disabled, but it’s low)||Partial (there is an overhead when disabled, but it’s higher)|
|Issues PHP4-style warning when tests fail||Yes (configurable)||No (throws a ContractFailedException instead)|
|Terminate PHP script when tests fail||Yes (configurable)||Only if the ContractFailedException is never caught|
|Quiet eval of test expression||Yes (configurable)||No (not required; test expressions are pure PHP code, not eval() strings)|
|Callback on failed test||Yes (configurable)||No (unwinds the stack instead by throwing ContractFailedException)|
|Throws Exception when tests fail||No (but can emulate if you write your own assert() callback method)||Yes (standard behaviour)|
|Tests are pure PHP code||No – recommended way is to pass strings into assert() to be eval()’d||Yes|
|Error report includes original value that failed the test||No||Yes|
|Support for per-test custom failure messages||No||Yes – are required to provide one|
|Support for Old Value storage and recall||No (but can emulate by hand)||Yes|
The Differences Explained
The key difference is one of philosophy. assert() sits well with the PHP4 style of error reporting and handling, whereas ContractLib is firmly in favour of the OO world’s approach to reporting errors.
It’s a personal preference, but I think that PHP4-style errors have no place in code that has any desire to be robust. Exceptions aren’t perfect, don’t get me wrong, but their core property of unwinding the call stack in an orderly fashion makes writing robust code much easier. And they also carry a payload – information about what went wrong and why – which PHP’s assert() cannot provide to the same extent.
It’s much quicker to debug something when there’s a record of the value that failed the test. For that reason alone, I’d always prefer something like ContractLib over the built-in assert() approach.
But we can’t ignore the fact that these are tests that get shipped to, and executed in, the production environment. Unlike unit tests, adopting programming by contract will slow down your PHP code in production. The question is: by how much?
What About The Performance?
I’ve done some benchmarking between the two, using the five tests listed in the final example in yesterday’s blog post. It’s a real-world example of the kind of tests that I would look to add to code to improve robustness.
Here are the results I gathered, calling the tests 10,000 times in a tight loop. The tests were run from the command line, and the times do include PHP start-up / shutdown time and the time taken to parse each test file. I assumed a best-case scenario, where the tests would always pass.
|Test Approach||Time w/ Tests Disabled||Time w/ Tests Enabled|
|Tests written using assert()||1.103s (100%)||5.989s (543%)|
|Tests written using ContractLib||3.055s (277%)||3.096s (281%)|
When tests are disabled, using assert() is much cheaper than using ContractLib today. That’s to be expected, as assert() is written in C. I imagine that we could get close to the same performance if ContractLib was rewritten in C as a PHP extension.
But, when tests are enabled, assert() is much slower than ContractLib. Why? Because the recommended way to use assert() is to pass the test in as a string. PHP has to convert that string into bytecode to execute, and that conversion appears to be quite expensive.
Given the choice, I’d rather trade things running a little slower in production for having much faster tests when I’m writing code, and that’s why I created ContractLib. Plus I get much better information to understand why the test failed, and if I wanted to run the tests in production, I can handle their failures in a much saner way.
In my experience, the time it takes to develop and ship code is normally more critical than how fast the code runs in production. Developer time has become a scarcer resource than CPU time.
Used intelligently, these kinds of tests in your code can help your team deliver quicker, because the code they are using and reusing is more robust first time around. Programming by contract is different to, and complements, unit testing because contract tests catch errors in using the code. | <urn:uuid:5bd73720-2107-45c1-83a1-fe8b97ad62a6> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://blog.stuartherbert.com/php/2012/01/17/comparing-contractlib-to-phps-built-in-assert/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279224.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00477-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.897234 | 1,115 | 1.515625 | 2 |
« Back to Positioning the Library
Sno-Isle LibrariesWatch Video
Innovation SummaryThe “Community Ambassador” program at Sno-Isle Libraries enlists, equips and enables individuals to share testimonies and stories about the importance of public libraries within their sphere of influence. The program transforms “fear of library advocacy” into the “joy of sharing library stories.”
Sno-Isle Libraries found that consistently high customer satisfaction and non-user awareness ratings did not translate into corresponding levels of support in recent levy and bond measures. Calls for library advocacy went unmet and grassroots support seemed negligible when it really mattered. A suitable method for engaging advocacy and citizen awareness-building was missing.
The Library District knew it must find a way to transform the level and depth of broad-based support before facing the pressures of eventual ballot measures. Lessons had been learned that the time to deepen awareness and engage support is not when the ballot question is before the public, but years before.
Sno-Isle Libraries chose to better understand why challenges existed in finding advocates and how they were used. Subsequently, the Library District developed a new strategy to advance and enable advocacy by fitting it within a larger initiative to build and use a storehouse of library stories and testimonials. “Library advocates” were then reframed and repurposed as “Community Ambassadors” who could help share these stories and supply the missing connection with taxpayers, voters and residents.
Community Ambassadors are individuals who share their testimony and stories about the library. They converse with and listen to contacts within their spheres of influence. This is a much warmer, softer role than being perceived as someone who is an agenda-pusher and who overwhelms others using philosophical debate, facts and figures.
This more gentle interpersonal and positive, diplomatic approach was presented and warmly received by existing library supporters – trustees, Friends, local advisory and foundation board members, to leverage their social network connections.
Community Ambassador use impromptu opportunities to share their testimony and collected stories to illustrate how important the library is with people within their sphere of influence.
The Community Ambassador program creates a vital connection with Sno-Isle Libraries and its customers and also between library customers and non-users. The program is broadening visibility of library services, channeling community passion about the importance of libraries, and fostering a better understanding of library funding realities and needs through stories and testimonials.
Training: Several three-hour interactive training sessions taught Ambassadors:
• how to view every conversation and venue as an opportunity to promote libraries,
• how to develop and share their testimony and stories,
• how to share pertinent library information.
At graduation, attendees celebrated and received official ambassador badges, resource binders and certificates of graduation. They were asked to report back to Library staff and share their conversations with contacts.
Tools/Support: A number of tools were developed to support Community Ambassadors.
• Ambassador resource binder included a variety of library user stories and library facts.
• Short video clips for Ambassador use with audiences.
• Quarterly e-letter, “Ambassador,” sent to graduates and targeted audiences with new library stories and testimonials, early-breaking library news and “insider” information.
• Regular library news updates sent between newsletter issues.
Early positive outcomes from the program include:
• Significant participation - Sixty-two Community Ambassadors graduates within first five months.
• Ongoing positive feedback – Anecdotal feedback and Zoomerang surveys indicate desired activities.
• Targeted behaviors achieved – On average, each participant has shared with approximately 20 individuals. Ambassadors have:
o shared with family at home (46%);
o shared with friends and neighbors at social gatherings (77%);
o shared library stories in stores, restaurants or coffee shops (38%);
o given community presentations in front of groups (54%),
o sent email using library stories in emails (25%);
o blogged or posted online through social media (17%),
o sent letters to opinion pages of local newspapers (17%;) and
o published newspaper articles with library stories (25%).
• To date, 27 magazine, newspaper and newsletter articles and letters to the editor have been submitted.
• Vital early successes have validated the softer word-of-mouth approach –Early positive results reflect the power of in-person story-telling and story-sharing through social media sites.
Positive, receptive responses from their audiences validate the Ambassador and fuel their willingness and excitement to tell others. This emboldens Ambassadors to share stories with a widening circle of family, friends and contacts who tend to value what they hear as credible and genuine.
Plans call for twice-annual electronic surveys with Ambassadors to measure thoughts about the program, to provide opportunity for self-reporting by Ambassadors on their activity and to collect insights/feedback from the field. We also plan to incorporate questions, in future district-wide library user and non-user surveys, to measure the effectiveness of Community Ambassadors efforts.
Giving voice to this cadre of Community Ambassadors has translated their passion for libraries into positive actions and results. | <urn:uuid:8bb96135-504a-4eb4-b8c5-ed6daef01293> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.urbanlibraries.org/community-ambassador-innovation-183.php?page_id=40 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280835.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00473-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944072 | 1,072 | 2.25 | 2 |
Columbus energy company plans waste-to-energy plant to former Youngstown Thermal site
"The boilers are actually still here," said SOBE Thermal Energy Systems CEO David Ferro.
And with them, lots of history.
But as Ferro walked us through the former Youngstown Thermal facility downtown, he explained how that history will help shape its future.
"All this will be completely renovated," he said.
Ferro's vision - to turn what used to be Youngstown Thermal into a waste-to-energy facility.
"We are bringing innovation," he said. "We've got a lot of support."
The facility would not burn, but indirectly heat things like tires, railroad ties and plastics.
That creates a synthetic gas to use in process heating, gas turbines or reciprocating engines to make electricity.
We pressed him to assure people that the process is safe and that the energy produced will be truly clean.
"We have the data to prove it and once we're operational we're going to make at least some of that emissions data to the public," Ferro said.
Ferro has already applied for air permits.
Thursday, he'll meet with Youngstown city council's public utilities committee to go over the project.
He knows people will have questions but is confident in the answers they'll get.
"Years of trial and error with a pilot facility in Germany...we hired independent engineering companies to validate the gas composition and the emissions associated with burning that gas."
Ferro also says there's no hazardous waste removal, no importing energy to run the facility, and that emissions are clean controllable to less than EPA requirements.
The facility would operate continuously and wouldn't rely on government subsidies.
Ferro expects to have the facility finished and operating by this time next year. | <urn:uuid:bc16ee69-b3fa-4c2d-abbf-49c2c139dc72> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.wfmj.com/story/46913288/columbus-energy-company-plans-wastetoenergy-plant-to-former-youngstown-thermal-site | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00475.warc.gz | en | 0.973044 | 373 | 2.125 | 2 |
Portuguese has over 200 million native speakers, and it is the sixth most common language in the world. The language originated from Latin roots and became popular after a Roman invasion of the western region of the Iberian Peninsula (the area known today as Portugal) during the third century BC. The incoming Romans blended their language with that of the natives, so Portuguese began to change. Traders of the time began to use the language, so it spread rapidly, making its way into Africa and Asia and eventually Brazil. In fact, before the language was officially modernized, it was quite unique. Today, there are more traces of Greek and Latin and fewer words from the original Portuguese language. | <urn:uuid:1ed739b5-5fde-476f-a3cc-1ef0adbc32ba> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://conversational-languages.com/book/the-brazilian-portuguese-language-part-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572581.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816211628-20220817001628-00068.warc.gz | en | 0.983443 | 139 | 3.5625 | 4 |
Death---What You Can Expect
If you would like to print it out in plain text, click HERE
As the Time of Death Nears...
As your loved one's time draws near, your anxiety level reaches its peak and your anticipation of the unknown prompts many questions. In an attempt to answer some of these questions, I have prepared the following information for you. It consists of signs which precede death in most people as their body systems slow down and finally cease functioning. For some people these signs appear a few hours before death; for others, a few days. There is no particular order in which these events occur, and some people do not experience all of them. I hope that by your knowing what to expect, you will be comfortable in continuing to provide your loved one the same loving support which has sustained him/her during the illness. Also included are some suggestions for promoting the comfort of your loved one as these signs occur. During this final stage of life, there are no "rights" and "wrongs." Whatever you feel like doing for your loved one is the "right" thing for you to do. This may be no more than sitting or lying with your friend or loved one and communicating assurance that you are there.
Your Loved One May Experience...
There will be less interest in eating and drinking. For many patients, refusal of food is an indication that they are ready to die. Fluid intake may be limited to that which will keep their mouth from feeling too dry.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Offer, but do not force, food, liquids, and medications. Pain which has required medication to control in the past may no longer be a problem. Urinary output may decrease in amount and frequency.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Nothing, unless the patient expresses a desire to urinate and cannot. Call the hospice nurse for advice. As the body weakens, the patient will sleep more and begin to detach himself from his environment. The caregiver's attempts to make him more comfortable may be refused.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Let him/her sleep. At this point, "being with" is more important than "doing for." Mental confusion may become apparent as less oxygen is available to supply the brain. The patient may be disturbed by "strange" dreams.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: As he awakens from periods of sleep, remind him of the day and time, where he is, and who is present. This is best done in a casual, conversational way. Vision and hearing may be somewhat impaired, and speech may be difficult to understand.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Speak clearly, but no more loudly than necessary. Keep the room as light as the patient wishes, even at night. Carry on all conversations as if they can be heard, since hearing is the last of the senses to cease functioning. Many patients are able to talk until minutes before death and are reassured by the exchange of a few words with a loved one. Secretions may collect in the back of the throat and rattle or gurgle as the patient breathes through his mouth. He may try to cough up mucous. His mouth may become dry and encrusted with secretions.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: If the patient is trying to cough up secretions and is experiencing choking or vomiting, humidification of the air with a cool mist vaporizer may help. Otherwise, call your Hospice nurse for advice. Secretions may drain from the mouth if the patient is placed on his side and supported with pillows. Cleansing the mouth with swabs dipped in glycerin or mineral oil or even cool water will help to relieve the dryness that occurs with mouth breathing. Offer water in small amounts to keep the mouth moist. A straw with one finger placed over the end can be used to transfer sips of water to the patient's mouth. Breathing may become irregular with no periods of breathing, or apnea, lasting around 20 to 30 seconds. The patient may seem to be working very hard to breathe and may make a moaning sound with each breath. As the time of death nears, breathing may again become regular but shallower and more mechanical in nature.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Raise the head of the bed if the patient breathes more easily this way. The moaning is not necessarily indicative of pain or distress, but often is only the sound of air passing over very relaxed vocal cords. As the oxygen supply to the brain decreases, the patient may become restless. It is not unusual for patients to pull at bed linens, to have visual hallucinations, or even try to get out of bed at this point.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Reassure the patient in a calm voice that you are there. Prevent him from falling if he tries to get out of bed. Soft music or a back rub may help quiet him. The patient may feel hot one minute and cold the next as the body loses its ability to control its temperature. As circulation slows down, the arms and legs will become cool and may be bluish in color. the underside of the body may darken. It may be impossible to feel a pulse at the wrist.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Provide and remove blankets (not electric) as needed. Sponge patient with cool washcloth if this promotes comfort. Change perspiration-soaked garments and bed linens if the patient wishes. Loss of control of bladder and bowel function may occur around the time of death.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Protect the mattress with a plastic sheet. Keep chux or waterproof padding under the patient, and change as needed to keep the patient comfortable.
At the Time of Death...
The patient cannot be aroused.
The eyelids may be partially open with the eyes in a fixed stare.
The mouth may fall open slightly as the jaw relaxes.
Any waste matter in the bladder or rectum will be released as the sphincter muscles relax.
Hope our logo helps you find your way back to us.
Back to End Of Life Index | <urn:uuid:59b68626-fa29-4569-97a2-9cacec0d7644> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.zarcrom.com/users/alzheimers/e-06.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281331.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00217-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957421 | 1,235 | 2.109375 | 2 |
- One of the major factors that determine the compensation amount (damages) of a personal injury claim is called pain and suffering.
- Compensation for personal injury claims falls under economic and non-economic damages.
- Pain and suffering is the physical and emotional damage experienced because of your injuries
Contrary to what many people believe, accidents are mostly avoidable. This is because the major causes of car (and other auto-related) accidents are negligent driving and driving under the influence. Even the government knows this; and as a result, several laws are in place to ensure victims of these accidents are duly compensated.
However, auto accidents are not the only cause of accidents resulting in personal injury. Other examples include slip-and-fall accidents, medical malpractice, and even dog bites. The common thread among all these examples is that they happened because of someone else’s negligence and as a result, you can pursue compensation from the responsible party’s insurance company.
Be sure to check out our Ultimate list of personal injury questions for even more answers to all of your questions.
We also published an Atlanta accident map to determine where accidents, injuries, and fatalities are most common on Atlanta roads. Be sure to pay particular attention when you are driving, walking, or riding in these areas.
How Compensation for a Personal Injury Claim is Calculated and Settled
While there are many aspects that make up a successful personal injury claim, one of the major factors that determine the compensation amount (damages) is called “Pain and Suffering.”
Typically, compensation for a personal injury claim falls under two categories – economic and non-economic.
Economic damages are awarded for anything with a set dollar value to it. This includes lost wages, medical bills, property damage, etc. These are easily calculated and present no real limitations to being awarded to the victim.
On the other hand, non-economic damages are much more difficult to assign a dollar value, and as such, most victims are often shortchanged unless they have an experienced personal injury attorney representing them. A good attorney can help victims recover compensation for the pain and suffering the accident caused them regardless of how challenging that could be.
What Are Pain and Suffering?
Although the definition of pain and suffering is vague, it can easily be defined as the physical and emotional damage experienced because of your injuries. These include:
- Physical pain resulting directly from the accident
- Emotional trauma such as insomnia, fear, depressed mood, and anxiety
Filing Insurance Claims for Pain and Suffering in Georgia
Next, an attempt is made to assign a dollar value to that pain and the resulting psychological damage. This is where the issue arises for most victims.
However, the good news is that the law makes it possible to file an insurance claim for pain and suffering. The Georgia law that governs this subject is OCGA 9-10-184, and it says:
“In the trial of a civil action for personal injuries, counsel shall be allowed to argue the worth or monetary value of pain and suffering to the jury; provided, however, that any such argument shall conform to the evidence or reasonable deductions from the evidence in the case.”
How Are Pain and Suffering Calculated?
According to the concluding part of the quote above, several factors must be taken into consideration before an amount can be awarded in a personal injury lawsuit. These factors include:
- The severity of the injuries sustained
- The overall pain and discomfort associated with those types of injuries
- How those injuries have affected your life, job, relationships, etc.
- The amount and types of medical treatment those injuries require and the associated costs
- The effect of those injuries on the victim’s Family Members
- How long those injuries took to heal, and if there will be further needed for future care – including therapy, medications, surgeries, etc.
Once all these factors have been considered, the insurance adjusters or the jurors (if the case does to trial) will award a reasonable and fair amount of money to the victim. Note, however, that Georgia does not have any statutory limit on pain and suffering damages, meaning there is no limit to the amount of reasonable compensation I can help you recover.
Methods Used to Calculate Pain and Suffering Damages
To reiterate, there is no standard way to calculate the actual costs of pain and suffering because it is purely subjective no matter how you look at it. Nevertheless, some common methods used by most insurance companies and injury attorneys include:
- Multiplier Method: This method works by multiplying the total medical bills related to the injuries by a number from 1.5 (for minor injuries) to 5 (for severe injuries) to find the actual pain and suffering amount. This is based on the idea that your pain and suffering (non-economic) is worth at least 1.5 times the economic cost of fixing that injury.
- Per Diem Method: This method works a bit differently from the multiplier method discussed above. Instead of multiplying the medical bills based on the amount of perceived pain, the Per Diem method calculates daily pain suffering. The word ‘Per Diem’ is Latin for “by the day” and it works by assigning a dollar value to each day the victim remains incapacitated from the time of the accident till when he or she reaches maximum medical improvement.
Generally, the more severe the injuries sustained are, the greater the amount of compensation to be expected in the settlement. The most important thing is to be able to prove with substantial evidence that the victim suffered significant pain and suffering.
How to Prove Pain and Suffering to the Court or to the Insurance Company
Proving to the jury or to insurance adjusters the extent of your pain and suffering is one of the most difficult parts of any personal injury case. Proving pain and suffering is more than just describing it, it must be demonstrated. Listed below are a few documents you can use to do just that:
- Medical reports from the doctor
- Prescription receipts from the hospital
- Over-the-counter medication receipts
- Medical bills, if applicable, for therapy, ambulance costs, x-rays, emergency room visits, etc.
- Proof of lost wages
- Photos of your injuries, and
- Psychological evaluation
These documents will definitely help in proving pain and emotional suffering in court and thus getting you the settlement you deserve.
However, even the most ironclad evidence can be overplayed if the attorney lacks experience. Hence, why it is important to ensure you hire a personal injury attorney with experience in Georgia personal injury law and who understands all that goes into winning cases.
For a free case evaluation, call or contact me today. I will personally offer you a no-strings-attached consultation to discuss the details of your case. | <urn:uuid:dc14d1aa-2c4d-4579-86b7-d89521c4ce73> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://atltriallaw.com/what-is-pain-and-suffering-reimbursement-everything-you-need-to-know-in-the-state-of-georgia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570741.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808001418-20220808031418-00065.warc.gz | en | 0.94614 | 1,407 | 1.976563 | 2 |
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