text stringlengths 181 608k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 3 values | url stringlengths 13 2.97k | file_path stringlengths 125 140 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.65 1 | token_count int64 50 138k | score float64 1.5 5 | int_score int64 2 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Massive Food Distribution At Globe Life Field Feeds Thousands In Tarrant County
The Rangers have yet to play a game at their brand new Globe Life Field in Arlington, but one of its parking lots was filled with thousands of cars this morning. They were part of a massive grocery giveaway from the Tarrant Area Food Bank.
The cars started lining up almost an hour before the food distribution was slated to start, and by 8 a.m., hundreds and hundreds of cars stretched across several lanes, blanketing the massive parking lot.
Members of the Texas Air National Guard ran the operation with military precision. Once the cars inched their way to the front of the line, a couple dozen airmen worked in teams to heft boxes off of pallets and load them into open trunks.
Each family drove away with about 78 pounds of food – fresh produce, frozen chicken, a gallon milk and some non-perishables.
The National Guard was called up in April to help food banks meet the wave of need unleashed when the pandemic hit Texas. Major Daryl Howard says these massive distributions can serve about 10 to 15 families a minute — and sometimes that includes familiar faces.
"Our service members and some of our airmen have had family members come through, had friends come through," Howard said. "We’re not immune to it just because we’re in the guard. But we’ve been activated and we have a job to do, and we can’t let that get in the way because our job is to make sure we help others."
But it won’t be their job for much longer. These airmen are scheduled to cycle back to civilian life at the end of next week.
Julie Butner, head of the Tarrant Area Food Bank, says they can’t do these mass distributions without them. So the state’s network of food banks have been lobbying the governor to extend their deployment.
"We’ve written to Gov. Abbott, we’ve called, we’ve solicited. We all need the Air National Guard desperately," Butner said.
The food bank will still do dozens of smaller scale events each week. The staggering demand comes just weeks before federal help for renters, homeowners and the unemployed is slated to end.
"Our best guesstimate is that 40% of these folks are new to the food bank, they have never had to ask for food before. It’s really heartbreaking," Butner said.
Over this four-hour event, the food bank and the airmen distributed more than 291,000 pounds of food to over 3,700 families — families like Liz Plumly’s.
"This last month it was a $700 income for the whole month, so we have no idea how we’re doing it," Plumly said.
Plumly said her husband lost his job in the oil patch back in February. She might try to go back to work as a middle-school teacher this fall, she says, but she isn’t sure that paycheck would even cover the cost of child care for her two young children.
"Electric bills are through the roof, and it’s hot," Plumly said. "We’ve got a newborn, and it’s getting out of control."
Keven Costlow of Arlington says he thought he was doing everything right, until he lost his writing job in March.
"Everything I planned on doing this year – and I’ve made a lot of good plans – and almost none of them are coming to fruition," Costlow said.
Velma Nelson from Fort Worth retired as planned in April. Since then, though, she’s been taking care of three grandkids because school let out early and summer activities are cancelled. And she said she needs a little extra help with groceries.
"Yep, so them being in the house all day, they walk and eat ... eat and walk," Nelson said.
For Jose Martinez, it’s been a struggle since the pandemic hit.
"Pues me afecto porque, se corto el trabajo y ahorita no estoy trabajando y pues, somos seis, seis de familia y mi suegra que esta ahí conmigo familia," Martinez said.
"Well it’s affected me because work cut off and now I am not working. And so, we are a six-person family and my mother-in-law who is with us."
He lost his job in April, and he said he hasn’t been working. He says he doesn’t qualify for unemployment, so he and his wife, their three kids, and his mother-in-law are relying on help where they can find it.
"Si, si ayuda, si me ayudas, pues."
"Yes, yes it helps. It helps me. So..."
He’s been going to food pantries, he says, but the groceries never last long enough. Meanwhile, he’s hoping his boss will call him back to work again soon.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you. | <urn:uuid:e83fc93a-7e6b-4875-a546-6c0201f03700> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.keranews.org/news/2020-07-08/massive-food-distribution-at-globe-life-field-feeds-thousands-in-tarrant-county | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571222.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810222056-20220811012056-00668.warc.gz | en | 0.969222 | 1,119 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Promoting Safety Awareness
The Village of Tinley Park is committed to ensuring the safety of all its residents and visitors. For this reason, the Fire Department offers a variety of training and educational programs to help you be better equipped to handle an emergency. Check out the programs and safety tips below to make sure you and your family know how to handle any situation.
The Tinley Park Fire Department conducts a Babysitting Class each October for students who are 12 years of age or older. This Babysitting class is designed to prepare the child with the knowledge necessary to handle various types of emergency situations the child may run across while babysitting. These include what to do if a child is injured, what to do if there is a fire or if there is a need to call the police or 911 when necessary. Each student meets with the 911 dispatchers, a police officer, ambulance paramedics and fire department personnel. Each student receives a certification of completion too.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training is held from 9 a.m. to noon the third Saturday of each month at the Fire Prevention offices, located at 17355 S. 68th Court. Classes cost $35 for residents and $40 for nonresidents, which is payable in advance. Only cash or check will be accepted.
Registration closes the Wednesday prior to the class date. Upon completion, you will be certified in infant and adult CPR / automated external defibrillator (AED) through the American Heart Association
. Health care provider certification classes are also available upon request.
Remember When Program
“Remembering When” is a Fire and Fall Prevention program designed for older adults and developed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The focus on this program is to reduce deaths and injuries from fires and burns among high-risk populations. Statistics show that falls are the leading cause of death and injuries for people over the age of 65. The “Remembering When” program delivers 16 key messages to the seniors who participate, 8 for Fire Prevention and 8 for Fall Safety. “Remembering When” has created a nostalgia theme that allows seniors to participate trivia quizzes and other activities, all the while receiving the key messages on Fire Prevention and Fall Safety.
Fire Department Special Event Request
The Fire Department and Fire Prevention Bureau will, upon filling out the Special Event Request Form at least 10 days in advance, schedule a tour or appearance at your event. Requests will be scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis. Due to the nature of our business, we will do what we can to accommodate your event. Fire Department Special Event Request Form | <urn:uuid:5895f178-08bf-4353-9187-1a1bdbb1a077> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.tinleypark.org/index.aspx?NID=171 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284352.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00190-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923632 | 541 | 2.625 | 3 |
Send the link below via email or IMCopy
Present to your audienceStart remote presentation
- Invited audience members will follow you as you navigate and present
- People invited to a presentation do not need a Prezi account
- This link expires 10 minutes after you close the presentation
- A maximum of 30 users can follow your presentation
- Learn more about this feature in our knowledge base article
Do you really want to delete this prezi?
Neither you, nor the coeditors you shared it with will be able to recover it again.
Make your likes visible on Facebook?
You can change this under Settings & Account at any time.
Transcript of Hungary
Let's dare to be big!
Budapest became a global city...
The Russian bear and the Austrian eagle execute Hungary
Area: 93,030 qkm
Population: 9,88 millions
Location in Europe
The Hungarian Conquest
The Hungarians lived around the
They started their migration from this area toward the Carpathians Basin for centuries.
The seven chieftains were the leader of the seven tribes of the Hungarians. They settled down at the turn of
the 9th and 10th century.
Debate on Hungarian origin based on the fact that Hungarian is member of the
Finno-Ugric language family
, not Slavic!
Member state of the European Union since 2004
Government: Parliamentary republic
Prime Minister (head of state):
President (representative function):
It was built in a Baroque and Neo-Gothic style between 1885 and 1904.
The biggest parliament in Europe.
Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867
Franz Joseph I.
Austro-Hungarian coat of arms
For 300 years foreign kings were on the throne of Hungary, who had ignored laws of the country.
Linked to other European Revolutions Hungary desired to be independent.
The revolution broke out on
1848 in Pest. We honor the memory of this day every year, so this is one of our National Day
Austria could defeat the Hungarian troops just with help of the Russian army.
Many people were imprisoned and sentenced to death. The 13 most important generals were executed.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Budapest
Budai Castle District
and the view of the banks of the
, the first king of Hungary, marks the beginning of Hungarian statehood
He converted the counrty to a
Hungary's other important Nation Day is
The country of water
Budapest the only capital city in the world that is rich in
with healing qualities.
But the whole country is extremely rich in this.
The public bath culture started in the Roman Age.
Two Roman provinces belonged to the Carpathian Basin.
Széchenyi thermal baths
Budapest 2000 years ago
A power in water
Outstanding sport achievements:
swimming, rowing, water polo
National Water Polo Team won
12 European championships
9 World championships
9 Olympic gold medals
A historical tragedy is connected to the success of the
Olympics in Melbourne.
Although the spots of serious fights were the streets of Budapest. In the swimming pool of the Olympic Games the game had a bloody end.
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
" the best untold story ever "
Soviet occupation of Hungary between 1945 - 1990
1956 peaceful demonstration began in Budapest. Tens of thousands of people demanded an end of the Soviet rule.
The peaceful demonstration...
... cause of the appearance of Soviet tanks...
...became a Revolution.
Hungarians suffered a cruel defeat.
Consequences of the Treaty of Trianon:
Hungarian minorities in the Carpathian Basin
Hungary lost 2/3 parts of its area in 1919-20
- the Danube passes through or touches the borders of
- it originates in the
and it flows
Hungary's largest protected area
it has been inscribed on the
World Heritage List
the second largest
river of Hungary
it can be found in many
Hungarian folk songs
the largest lake
in Central Europe
is an important event every year. (5,2 km)
The Tisza River
Foie gras with stewed apples
Stuffed cabbage with sour cream
Pálinka (made of plum) from Szatmár
Custom when people send the winter away.
The puppet is the symbol of winter which is burnt by people at he end of winter
The possible reason for this very old tradition is that people believed
in the cleaning, healing and fertility effect of water.
, lamb, bunny
Szent Iván éji tűzgyújtás
One of the most significant among the customs of the summer is l
ighting the fire
of Midsummer Night (szentiváni tűzgyújtás) on 24 June.
jump over the fire
People believe those whose jump is very successful will
during the following carnival.
May trees are mainly made by young men for the girl they like.
They erect the tree in front of the girl's house to let the village know where the object of their affection live
"the father of the hydrogen bomb"
- Rubik Ernő
- 3D logic game
- Record: 5,55 mp
- Record blindly: 26,36 mp
- Gábor Dénes
- Internationally rezognized
- Hungarian development company
- Árvai Péter, Somla-Fischer Szabolcs, Halácsy Péter
Development of computer
- Neumann János
- The theory which was created by him is the basis of today's computers
Biro :) (ballpoint pen)
- Bíró László
- Other inventions: washing machine, automatic gear-change, roll-on deodorant
- Szent-Györgyi Albert
- He received the Nobel Prize for his seminal work.
- The paprika from Szeged (Hungary) contains more vitamin-C than the lemon
- Puskás Tivadar
- Bell invented the telephone and he invented the telephone exchange.
- When he said “hallo” into the telephone receiver for the first time.
- The phrase
originates from a Hungarian word. Hallom= I hear (in Hungarian).
Hungarian inventors, inventions
- He received the 1971
Nobel Prize in Physics
- He conceived the
nuclear chain reaction
- other inventions:
Hungarian poppy seed bread pudding
People can find the Hungarian creativity in the kitchen as well
We use many types of ingredients
meats, seasonal vegetables, fruits, fresh bread, dairy products and cheeses.
One type of food can be prepeared in
A proper ratio of the different kind of spices:
paprika, rosemary, tarragon, cumin.
The Hungarian creativity
- Other inventions:
plasma lamps, TV tubes
In total: 17 prizes!
this presentation was created by:
Riczu Dalma és Görög András, scholars of Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Program
Supervised / presented by
: Áron Gábor, president of AFHRA
Amitiés France-Hongrie Rhône-Alpes:
"The Hungarian Sea" | <urn:uuid:eed14810-e284-4711-b646-d0215f58e498> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://prezi.com/xkaedvmuvsde/hungary/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283301.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00511-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.87436 | 1,569 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Floods in Texas and floods in Mumbai. Which one had the most victims? Which one got the most media attention? Here's a link to an article about living on the streets of Mumbai in the flood. Both places need assistance.
Here is the headline to an article about aid to the flood victims in the USA:
Why did America's biggest megachurch take so long to shelter Harvey victims?
Joel Osteen, who runs the megachurch has come in for a lot of stick for not opening the doors of his church to flood victims fast enough. Fair comment! Isn't Christianity supposed to be about compassion, among other things.
The church finally opened its doors after a few days, providing supplies if all kinds and explaining that the ranks of seating in the building making it a difficult place to offer as somewhere for flood victims to sleep.
America is a strange place. We tend to think that we must be pretty much alike, Americans and Britons, because we share a language. And yet I don't think we understand each other at all. These megachurches are one example.
Here's a short extract from the article:
"Osteen is one of America’s richest pastors. When congregations for multiple services are combined, 35,000 to 50,000 people attend services at Lakewood church weekly, and Osteen’s sermons are seen by more than 7 million people on TV and online. His 2004 book Your Best Life Now was on the New York Times bestseller list for over 200 weeks."
Do we have similar organisations in the UK? Do masses of people listen to sermons on television and online? I am aware of radio and television religious programmes and services but do people make money out of it? Does the idea of making money out if it even fit in with the tenets of Christianity?
Here's another bit of the article:
"His wife, Victoria, is co-pastor. The Osteens are thought to be worth millions of dollars and live in a part of Houston of that makes Beverly Hills look understated. Their net worth was calculated at over $55m in 2012, and although the church draws revenues of over $70m a year, Osteen says his only salary comes from book sales. His Night of Hope worship tour has appeared at venues such as New York’s Yankee Stadium.
The Osteens preach a distinctively American form of Christianity: the “prosperity gospel”, which holds that God rewards the deserving with material success. Immense wealth, they might argue, is not only compatible with their beliefs but a validation of them. The logical reverse side of such gospels is that poverty is in essence a matter of individual responsibility.
“I preach that anybody can improve their lives,” Osteen, a youthful-looking 54, has said. “I think God wants us to send our kids to college.”
It clearly chimes for many residents in Houston, a city that touts a can-do, dynamic capitalist ethos inflected by the get-rich-quick spirit of Texas’ periodic oil booms.
With a huge choir, expert musicians, slick preachers, giant screens and audio-visual flair that rivals anything you might find on Broadway, the church’s emphasis is firmly on scale and spectacle. That Lakewood’s services feel like the intersection of religion and entertainment is thanks in no small part to the venue itself, the onetime home of the NBA’s Houston Rockets."
Donald Iloff Jr, Lakewood’s chief of communications, defended their not offering immediate shelter on the grounds of safety concerns. He went on to add: “You have the haters. There are people who don’t like our ministry, don’t like Joel, don’t like Lakewood church specifically. And then there is a significant portion of the population that hates faith and religion.”
Of course, it could be that some of the "haters" just dislike the idea of the church as a business venture.
Here is another aspect of the megachurch business:
"The selection procedure for Pastors is quite different from anything... a young American Pastor told me: he had applied to a Church who'd given him a 'Pulpit Call', and then paid for him to come to Oxford to read theology. After the first week, he realised it was way beyond him, so he sat in his room [private house] for the rest of the time, emerging for meals, and occasional walks. Nothing could encourage him to speak to his Tutor, or to find help - he just waited it out. But when he returned to US he would of course, have 'studied theology at Oxford' even if he had nothing to show for it. Perhaps this helps explain why, for some, there is a curious interpretation of what God says/means/intends... Short of theology [among other skills]."
And "just about anyone can start a religion/church in USA and get tax free status, as S Colbert showed one night. Legacy of all the religious types unwelcome in Europe (Quakers, Puritans, etc) manning colonies. I tried reading at Oxford, a guide book, but got motion sickness on the tour bus. If just reading, sounds fine, but if one has to submit papers, oral exams... that's a fish of a different color".
What an odd situation! | <urn:uuid:2c4992ad-aa3f-4ef5-9d0b-b4cf8c956c16> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://antheaknowsbest.blogspot.com/2017/09/floods-and-religion.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571745.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812170436-20220812200436-00478.warc.gz | en | 0.968165 | 1,130 | 1.640625 | 2 |
sort by best latest
You can help the HubPages community highlight top quality content by ranking this answer up or down.
A hill is a big sized rock whereas a mountain is a larger version of a hill.. correct..?!
Mountain is taller than hills, hills are little bit above the see level, whereas the mountains are much more taller than hills and from the sea level or land level.
Hill is a small version of mountain.. :)
ok..let me tell u,
Hill is a well defined natural elevation of surface and smaller than a mountain.
Copyright © 2017 HubPages Inc. and respective owners.
Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners.
HubPages® is a registered Service Mark of HubPages, Inc.
HubPages and Hubbers (authors) may earn revenue on this page based on affiliate relationships and advertisements with partners including Amazon, Google, and others. | <urn:uuid:eb577e9e-2db2-4075-8c84-7b78c6ee8fcf> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://hubpages.com/sports/answer/75345/how-do-you-differentiate-a-hill-from-a-mountain | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279169.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00220-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903919 | 188 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Spain is not frozen out of the markets. That is the conclusion to be drawn from today's auction of Government debt - essentially the Government borrowing money from investors.
It managed to raise over the target of two billion euros on the back of healthy demand - the auction was 3.3 times over-subscribed - much better than the last time the Government came to market in April.
So what was the Spanish Budget Minister, Cristobal Montoro, fretting about on Tuesday when he warned the doors to the market were "closed" to Spain? It was alarmingly blunt language from someone at the heart of the crisis.
Looking closer at the sale, perhaps he wasn't far wrong: the yield (interest) charged by investors on the ten year bond this morning was 6.044 per cent, up sharply from 5.743 they were demanding back in April.
Nicolas Spiro, a bond strategist says "these are prohibitive rates which underscore the dramatic deterioration in Spain's perceived creditworthiness. Right now confidence in Spain is at an all-time low."
So Spain can still borrow but at a hefty price. And this was only a small auction; the country has to raise a further €80bn this year as well as €16bn for its semi-autonomous regional governments, which are seen as even riskier.
It's also worth looking at who was buying the debt: largely Spanish banks. In recent months foreign lenders have melted away and it's local institutions which have stepped in to lend the Government money.
Except, isn't it Spanish banks which are in trouble and need a bailout, likely to come from ... the Spanish government?
This circularity is one of the reasons investors are very worried about Spain and why, I expect, yields will continue to rise unless there is decisive, international action.
Cristobal Montoro might have been unguarded in his comments but he wasn't wrong. | <urn:uuid:85e1dc96-50f5-4af7-b8c1-0600173b3587> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.itv.com/news/2012-06-07/spain-can-still-borrow-but-at-a-hefty-price/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280718.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00411-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983555 | 393 | 1.71875 | 2 |
A few years back, there was an advertising campaign arranged by a trade group that promoted the power of print magazines. The ad campaign appeared in many magazine titles whose publishers were members of this trade group. It went on to note that although receiving content from a magazine through electronic means can be performed, one can’t beat the notion of reading something one can hold in their hands that isn’t plugged in.
Within the last twenty or so years, the text media landscape that made a very drastic change, be it magazines or newspapers. Back in the middle 1990’s, the latest medium called the internet was starting to get its act together. Many magazine titles began to make a presence on the world wide web, providing some selected content that appeared in the current issue, with an opportunity to subscribe to the publication where one can receive the full selection of information appearing in the current issue.
Over time and tide, the web began to rise up from being something that was a novelty, to change into a way of life. Many other magazine titles arranged dedicated web sites that offer related content that one could find in their issues. Meanwhile, new titles started to arrive that were web only. Those particular titles featured articles and related content that were presented magazine style, but offered nothing in print. Some charged for their service, while others offered it for free with advertising covering its expenses.
On the other hand, many titles that once existed in print ceased their paper copies going to web only. Again, they were the same publication, except for the fact they were not in print. Unlike their print version where a paid subscription was offered, these new-old web magazines were offered for free with the ads covering the costs.
Today, just about any and every magazine worth its salt is available to view and read on the net from a desktop, laptop, phone, or tablet–whatever electronic device that can be accessed via a web link.
In spite of the fact that anything web connected can access one’s magazine of chose, there is one element available to get the news the reader wants, and for something to glance at while waiting for something or another.
Print magazines, the same medium that’s been around since the days of the printing press, is still alive and living!
This obvious observation was experienced by this writer not too long ago, when yours truly played chafferer for a day, taking a colleague to a dermatologist clinic for an appointment this person arranged.
This person who we can call “Olif” had a bad foot due to his diabetes setting in. This foot held within a cast, doesn’t allow this person to drive a vehicle over longer distances. So as a good associate, yours truly played driver for Olif, taking him to his clinic located in a rather bland looking post modern building complex that held other businesses. Some were medical based while others performed some other kind of offering.
The waiting room area was very large, and very comfortable. It offered a water cooer and a coffee maker that made one cup of java at a time, using one of those coffee pods. A flat screen TV set was mounded on the wall in the corner of the waiting area, playing short medical related informercial pieces connected to the clinic’s service. The volume was down, so all one could see were the visuals with no sound. That was OK since nobody appeared to be watching at the time.
Of course, right in the middle of all of the rather plush seats were a coffee table type platform with a stack of magazines all spread out, ready to be grabbed and shuffled through. What made me amused over this pile was the fact that among the selection were a few titles I was amused to see.
For some reason, TV Guild, the long withstanding publication that’s been around since 1952 that covered TV programming since them, was found within that pile. Since I haven’t looked at a recent issue for a while, I took the liberty of grabbing it to see how this publication that has changed ownership a number of times in recent years, covers television and its many applications.
For one thing, its editorial offices are based in New York, finally escaping its presence in Radnor, PA–assuming that their editorial offices were ever located there. Second, it’s a biweekly, covering a two week span from Monday through Sunday. It’s a lot larger in size, now fitting the 8”x11” dimensions. Each issue no longer carries listings for regional or local channels, meaning that its schedule listing, posted in grid form, limits itself for standard network and cable TV/satellite channels. And although entertainment programming has been standard fare for TV since its beginnings, most, if not all, of the articles appearing focus upon such programming. Back when TV Guide was a weekly in a digest sized format, there were occasion articles that covered TV sports, news reporting, as well as trends in TV and its related factors. But those articles only appeared so often. However, much of what was seen in TV Guide could have appeared in People, Us, or those other celebrity focused titles.
However, one note came across. What was TV Guide doing in a doctor’s waiting room? I could understand about the presence of something like Time, Sports Illustrated, People, and perhaps other selections from the Time-Warner magazine stable. But why TV Guide?
Whatever the reason, these selection of magazines found spread about on the waiting room table top proves that print magazines are indeed alive and living, and will be around for a while. How long will be settled among its readers, publishers, and whatever technology becomes yet another part of the way of life.
Oh, yes! For the record, Olif will return to the clinic for a follow up, and it’s not known if I will be taking him back to that same clinic. If I do, another pile of magazines will be waiting for me to read to pass the time away, as well as to analyze for yet another article. Stay tuned!
NEWS AND REVIEWS
Performing at Theatre/Theatre in Los Angeles is the world premier of NAT TURNER: FOLLOWING FAITH, Paula Neiman’s historical drama of Nat Turner, a leader of a slave revolt where he and a group of other slaves fought back for their freedom and their rights.
The setting is Southampton, Virginia in the summer of 1831. Within the southern part of the US, slave labor and ownership was on its high peak. A massive score of “colored” people, some taken from their homeland in Africa while others native born, were toiling on farms and plantations for non existent wages while being treated as lowly animals. One of these men was Nat Turner (Tamue Massaquoi). Unlike his fellow brethren who was uneducated and illiterate, Turner held intelligence and leadership skills that would rival the write population he lived within. He fought back among the community that slaved him and others of his race. He gathered a group of other black men, fellow slaves, and set off a rebellion that was violent and furious. He felt that massive aggression was the method to fight back. Among the brutal killings and other forms of human violation, he was eventually caught for his deeds and was sentenced to death by hanging.
This play tells his saga, one of America’s annals of the slave labor movement that was perhaps the most darkest and macabre episode of them all, as a flashback. It opens with Turner at his trial where he would be sentenced and executed within a two hour period. (Justice in those early days was swift and to the point!) The narration that brings this story to life is told by another abolitionist named Gabriel Prosser, as played by Asante Jones. He was noted to be Turner’s possible inspiration to set his rebellion in motion. Although Tuner never had any personal encounter with Prosser (he died the same year that Turner was born), the two lead the way to fight for slave freedom at the cost of many lives that did include woman and children.
Although this play holds a backdrop in brutal violence, much of the intensity is presented as suggestion and addressed more as drama. The audience witnesses Turner as an anti hero. Although he did create aggressive attempts for the good of his people, he did have others killed within the aftermath, both as white townspeople and as fellow slaves. As to the named character, Tamue Massaquo’s portrayal of Turner shows him as a fierce and strong leader. He isn’t necessarily a “leading man” type, but he could pass for one if his role didn’t promote brutality. As to the others in the cast, it does boast a huge ensemble of players, ranging from his fellow slaves present to fight for the cause, to the townsfolk of Southampton who fought back through either counter attack or through the local justice system.
The cast of players appearing in this stage work adjunct to Tamue Massaquoi and Asante Jones, consists of as listed in their alphabetical order, Glenn Bond II, Sara Davenport, Dennis Delsing, Darius L. Dudley, Justin Greenberg, Jennifer Lieberman, Tarnue Massaquoi, Sade Moore, Baadia Ouba, Jaimyon Parker, Dennis Pearson, Darrell Philip, Phrederic Semaj, Hunter C. Smith, Dominique Washington, and Terry Woodberry.
In addition to the performances seen within this show, Vali Tisoaga’s set design is minimal. Just a few furnishing are set within a backdrop that is more of cloth type drapery, smattered by a few tree branches that suggest the rural community that Southampton, Virginia had been during this era. And noting of the depicted time period, Mauva Gacitua’s costuming harks of early 19th century rural America. The black slaves were more in rag-esque outfits, while the non slaves (whites) were the better dressed. These people donned “workingman’s” outfits; the same folks that ran the community, in spite of the fact that the slaves did the real work!
Directed by Dan Martin, NAT TURNER: FOLLOWING FAITH is a play that is indeed part of the history of this nation that shows off a time where force appeared to become the only answer. It may not have been the ideal chose, but this was a period in step when full fledged forceful offense and conflict had been the progressive measure. And to note, this function of aggression continues through these modern times. The overall method might be executed in another manner, but the ideas behind it all still remains. It’s a case where history does indeed repeat itself for the good or otherwise!
NAT TURNER: FOLLOWING FAITH, presented by Art of Wordz in association with Rouge Machine Theatre, performs at Theatre/Theatre, 5041 West Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, until December 6th. Showtimes are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 8:00 PM, and Sunday matinees at 2:00 PM. For ticket reservations and for more information, call (213) 529-5153, or via online at http://www.BuyTickets.at/NatTurner
Theatre West will be presenting WestFest, consisting of a sequence of original short plays performed as part of this theater group’s development of new works created from rising writers, directors, and performers showcasing their theater based skills and talents.
For four weekends throughout November, WestFest will spotlight a series of one act plays, ranging from two to five each weekend that focus upon comedy, drama, and all points in between! Each weekend will provide a new and unique collection of works that are to be featured for the first time and possibly for their only appearance, as short stage play anthologies are rather hard to come by! However, anyone who has experienced such groupings will be in for a once in a lifetime(!) theater treat!
All performance of WestFest take place at Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles. (Universal City adjacent). The series runs on November 6th-8th, 13th-15th, 20th-22nd, and November 27th-29th. Showtimes are Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00 PM, and Sunday afternoons at 2:00 PM.
For more information including the list of short plays presented each week, visit Theatre West’s web site at http://www.theatrewest.org, or call (323) 851-7977.
CONNECT WITH US!
ACCESSIBLY LIVE OFF-LINE
is a presentation of Linear Cycle Productions
(Accessibly Live’s channel on YouTube)
(Look for us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and see us on YouTube!)
ACCESSIBLY LIVE OFF-LINE (C) 2015 Linear Cycle Productions.
All rights reserved. The views and opinions are those of the writers, and not necessarily of the staff and management. ‘Nuff said! | <urn:uuid:3a527a48-16e1-48da-bbae-35c36ed4b03c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://accessiblyliveoffline.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/magazines-are-indeed-still-alive-and-living/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573197.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818124424-20220818154424-00673.warc.gz | en | 0.975897 | 2,776 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Schools and Housing Markets: An Examination of School Segregation and Performance in Connecticut
This paper examines the relationship between house price levels, school performance, and the racial and ethnic composition of Connecticut school districts between 1995 and 2000. A panel of Connecticut school districts over both time and labor market areas is used to estimate a simultaneous equations model describing the determinants of these variables. Specifically, school district changes in price level, school performance, and racial and ethnic compositions depend upon each other, labor market wide changes in these variables, and the deviation of each school district from the overall metropolitan area. The specification is based on the differencing of dependent variables, as opposed to the use of level or fixed effects models and lagging level variables beyond the period over which change is considered; as a result the model is robust to persistence in the sample. Identification of the simultaneous system arises from the presence of multiple labor market areas in the sample, and the assumption that labor market changes in a variable due not directly influence the allocation of households across towns within a labor market area. We find that towns in labor markets that experience an inflow of minority households have greater increases in percent minority if those towns already ahve a substantial minoritypopulation. We find evidence that this sorting proces is reflected in housing price changes in the low priced segment of the housing market, not in the middle and upper segments.
|Date of creation:||Oct 2002|
|Contact details of provider:|| Postal: University of Connecticut 365 Fairfield Way, Unit 1063 Storrs, CT 06269-1063|
Phone: (860) 486-4889
Fax: (860) 486-4463
Web page: http://www.econ.uconn.edu/
More information through EDIRC
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2002-08. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Mark McConnel)
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form. | <urn:uuid:fadf24fb-efff-4fe8-bee0-493361592f15> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://ideas.repec.org/p/uct/uconnp/2002-08.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283301.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00508-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899601 | 450 | 1.773438 | 2 |
When I entered only my email, I was forced to change my password. Ok, that's fine, something to do with safety I guess. So I went to my email, where I'm always automatically logged in, clicked the link in the mail. Here I was led to a page where I could fill in my new password, but without also asking to enter the old one! This is dangerous!
If someone had access to my pc and only knew my emailadress, this person could have changed my password without me knowing! Please make this more safe and let people fill in their old password first somewhere in the process, at least once.
Beside this. I find it strange that when a password auto-fill in can be made visible. This also is extremely dangerous. People can literally view your password, just by clicking on the eye.
@Nancy_OShea OP may be confused with password reset. Recently, in the case of resetting the password of Adobe ID, it seems that the specification has been changed to require a confirmation code instead of directly entering the address. | <urn:uuid:b22b2741-2415-4265-b2fe-00e844eac3c7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://community.adobe.com/t5/using-the-community-discussions/dangerous-password-procedure/td-p/10846417 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571869.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813021048-20220813051048-00073.warc.gz | en | 0.971616 | 223 | 1.796875 | 2 |
- 1 How do you move metal shelf clips?
- 2 How do you remove a broken cabinet shelf clip?
- 3 How do you remove Elfa shelf from brackets?
- 4 How do I repair damaged shelf pin holes?
- 5 How do you fix a wobbly metal shelf?
- 6 What are shelf supports called?
- 7 How do you remove a shelf glue?
- 8 How do you remove built in bookshelves?
How do you move metal shelf clips?
Pinch the clips that are extending from the side of the metal runners. Do one at a time. Grasp the clip between your thumb and index finger and tilt it up as you pinch it hard. It will pop free of the bracket slot.
How do you remove a broken cabinet shelf clip?
Drive the screw just far enough for it to grab the broken peg. (The peg will probably start spinning in the hole at that point.) Now use a claw hammer to pull the screw out of the hole along with the broken peg. Slip a scrap of soft wood under the hammer head so that you don’t mar the surface of the cabinet.
How do you remove Elfa shelf from brackets?
Simply tilt up the front of both Brackets and remove them from the Hanging Standards. Place in the desired location. To REMOVE the U-Shaped Metal Glide from the Brackets: Place one hand at the back of the glide. With your thumb on the Hanging Standard, gently push the glide forward with your fingers.
How do I repair damaged shelf pin holes?
First, you can enlarge the holes [Photo A], and then install brass sleeves that will once again hold the shelf pins securely [Photo B]. To prevent grain tear-out around the rim of the holes, use a sharp, standard-twist drill bit and drill the holes in 1⁄ 32 “-diameter increments to keep the holes centered.
How do you fix a wobbly metal shelf?
Drill a hole for each foot in the underside of one of the legs and tap in the foot, using a hammer. Right the bookshelf and put it back into position. Raise or lower each foot until the bookcase stops wobbling.
What are shelf supports called?
Types of shelf supports: L-shaped shelf supports are named shelf bracket and they are a subset of angle brackets. Cabinet shelf support, wardrobe shelf support, shelf pin, shelf support peg, shelf support push, plug-in shelf support – when used in a wardrobe or cabinet.
How do you remove a shelf glue?
If the shelf is nailed to strips of wood, use a hammer and pound up on the bottom of the shelf until it is free. If the shelf is adhered with adhesive, run a utility knife along the edge where it is adhered. It may take several passes with the utility knife to loosen the shelf.
How do you remove built in bookshelves?
Hammer the tip of a pry bar beneath the shelf between it and the cleat. Pry upward to loosen the shelf. Repeat along the length of the shelf and on both sides to free the shelf from the cleats. Remove the shelf from the cabinet. | <urn:uuid:6bcf76e9-68d5-4d04-811b-4c6cfe13de03> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://prismpowdercoating.net/metal-remov/quick-answer-hon-metal-bookshelf-shelf-clips-how-to-remove.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571993.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814022847-20220814052847-00665.warc.gz | en | 0.895138 | 670 | 1.945313 | 2 |
As the hundredth anniversary of World War 1 is commemorated, local Plaid Cymru AM for Ceredigion, Elin Jones has pieced together her own family’s history in the conflict.
The local AM knew she had a great, great uncle, Watkin Jones Davies of Coedparc, Silian, who died in 1918, and has unearthed correspondence and photographs which shed light on the history of Watkin, who is commemorated on plaques in Bethel Chapel, Silian and on the war memorial in Lampeter.
Watkin Jones Davies, a young farmer’s son, served in the Pembroke Yeomanry. He was stationed in Egypt for much of the war, and took part in fighting in Palestine. In 1918 he was posted to the western front, and died three days after Armistice Day (14 November, 1918) of injuries sustained at the Battle of Epehy that September.
Elin Jones will be joining the reenactment of the march out of Lampeter by the Yeomanry on Sunday August 10 - the regiment in which Watkin served.
Elin Jones, Plaid Cymru AM for Ceredigion said,
“This year’s commemoration has given me all the more reason to find out about Watkin Jones Davies, or ‘Wat’, my great grandmother’s brother. His is one more story of a young man killed in the First World War, but is also one that is remembered by his family in the Lampter area.
“Wat’s story is tragic in many ways. He didn’t have to sign up, as he was the only young man left on the family farm. But according to the family story, his father believed him to be pampered by his sisters, and decided the army would toughen him for farming life. He offered horses to the army to take him.
“Wat was a prolific letter-writer to his sisters back at home, and it is through these letters and other family memorabilia such as photos that I have pieced together more of the history.
“It’s very poignant to read Wat’s account of serving in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East, given the suffering that the area’s people are again enduring in 2014.” | <urn:uuid:85875a4c-b60c-46a4-927f-003e6a93e2a1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.tivysideadvertiser.co.uk/news/11397768.AM_discovers_personal_connection_with_WW1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283301.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00506-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979524 | 492 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide
This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.
Click Here to receive this Complete Guide absolutely free.
CGI programs are the most common way of servers to interact dynamically with users.
Abbreviation of Common Gateway Interface, a specification for transferring information between apache server and a CGI program. A CGI program is any program designed to accept and return data that conforms to the CGI specification.
If your application with CGI on your website then of course suExec be solution, provided by apache server. Apache users having the ability...
If you are really worried about privacy there are a few things you can do including:
Use the Adblock Plus extension for Firefox and use the Easy Privacy list as well as the Antisocial list.
This list blocks the ever increasing social networking content on third-party sites.
Use a hosts file to block the multitude of clicktrackers
If you want to do the same thing without having the hosts file slowdown, dnsmasq offers similar functionality and it...
Remobo is a free software which can be used to replace the paid versions of existing difficult to use VPN setups
as it can create a VPN instantly and securely. It lets you login easily and add users to your buddy list, and
create a secure network for you. In private chat messaging, the file sharing client helps share information
within the buddy list as well. Remobo lets you control your computer and access files securely while away from
LOL yeah ok, so some kid fresh out of college who "knows everything there is to know" about network and program security is gonna come in here and tell us what's wrong with our stuff..... I spend hours producing screen shots of programs, statistics on activity, most of which prove absolutely nothing.
First the application
Their big investigation focuses on a front end... | <urn:uuid:509c8d60-d54e-4e67-ae72-9fd3739384bf> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog/recent-entries/index592.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988717783.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183837-00075-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929228 | 633 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The thought of running both a furnace and heat pump may feel somewhat unusual at first. After all, why do you need two heaters? Even though furnaces and heat pumps both deliver energy-efficient heat, the variations in their design actually make installing both of them a potential option. It’s not for everyone, but in the right conditions you could definitely benefit from having a furnace and a heat pump.
You should take a look at several factors in order to confirm if this kind of setup helps you. Your local climate and the square footage of your home are both highly important, namely for the heat pump. This is because some models of heat pumps begin to work less effectively in winter weather and larger homes. Even so, you can still take advantage of heat pump installation in Mankato area.
Heat Pumps May Be Less Effective in Colder Weather
Heat pumps are typically less effective in cooler weather because of how they generate climate control in the first place. Compared to furnaces, which combust fuel to create heat, a heat pump reverses its supply of refrigerant to pull heat from outdoor air. This heat is then brought inside and distributed around your home. Assuming there is still some heat energy in the air, a heat pump can function. But the colder the temperature, the less reliable this process is.
The less heat energy is available outside, the more effort is required for a heat pump to bring heat indoors to reach your desired temperature. It can depend on the exact make and model, but heat pumps can start to lose out on efficiency at temperatures of 40 degrees and below. They still remain an energy-efficient option until 20-25 degrees, at which a gas furnace should be more effective.
What Temperatures Do Heat Pumps Run Best In?
Heat pumps work best in temperate climates 40 degrees and up. That said, you don’t have to sacrifice the benefits of a heat pump just because the local climate is cold. As a matter of fact, that’s why having both a furnace and heat pump can be worth the expense. You can favor the heat pump for energy-efficient heat until the weather is cold enough to call for switching to something like a gas furnace.
Some makes and models claim greater effectiveness in cooler weather. For example, the Lennox MLA heat pump is capable of operating at 100% capacity at 0°F. It can even continue running in temperatures as low as -22°F. For optimum energy efficiency, you’ll likely still want to swap to the furnace in especially cold weather.
So Should I Put In a Heat Pump If I Have a Gas Furnace?
If you’re thinking about maintaining the most energy-efficient HVAC system achievable, owning a heat pump and gas furnace at the same time warrants the investment. Not only is a dual-heating system flexible, but it offers other advantages like:
- A source of backup heating – A redundant heating system means even if one breaks down, you still have the ability to heat your home. It might not be the most energy efficient, but it’s better than shivering in an unheated home while you sit around for repairs
- Lower energy costs – The ability to choose which heating system you use based on the highest energy efficiency lowers your total costs. Smaller heating bills over the life span of these systems can really add up to plenty of savings
- Less strain on both systems – Instead of running one system all winter long, heating resources are split between the furnace and heat pump. Essential hardware may survive longer as they’re not under nonstop use.
If you’re still unsure about heat pump installation in Mankato area, don’t hesitate to contact your local certified technicians. They can evaluate your home’s comfort needs and help you figure out if a dual-heating HVAC system is the right option. | <urn:uuid:9736ea91-2336-4a8b-805c-b645bf8fc939> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.northerncomfortinc.com/blog/do-i-need-a-furnace-with-a-heat-pump | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571536.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811224716-20220812014716-00266.warc.gz | en | 0.940649 | 800 | 2.53125 | 3 |
NELLORE, India — India has long struggled to provide enough electricity to light its homes and power its industry around the clock. In recent years, the government and private sector sought to change that by building scores of new power plants.
But that campaign is now running into difficulties because the country cannot get enough fuel — principally coal — to run the plants. Clumsy policies, poor management and environmental concerns have hampered the country’s efforts to dig up fuel fast enough to keep up with its growing need for power.
A complex system of subsidies and price controls has limited investment, particularly in resources like coal and natural gas. It has also created anomalies, like retail electricity prices that are lower than the cost of producing power, which lead to big losses at state-owned utilities. An unsettled debate about how much of its forests India should turn over to mining has also limited coal production.
The power sector’s problems have substantially contributed to a second year of slowing economic growth in India, to an estimated 7 percent this year, from nearly 10 percent in 2010. Businesses report that more frequent blackouts have forced them to lower production and spend significantly more on diesel fuel to run backup generators.Continue reading the main story
The slowdown is palpable at Sowmya Industries, a small company that makes metal shutters that hold wet concrete in place while it solidifies into columns and beams, a crucial tool for the construction industry.
The company, located outside this city on the southeast coast of India, is struggling with several issues, including a 20 percent increase in the price of raw materials and falling orders.
But Sowmya’s manager, R. Narasimha Murthy, said the lack of reliable power was an even bigger problem. His company loses three hours of power every evening. And all day on Wednesdays and Saturdays — euphemistically called “power holidays” — it receives only enough electricity to turn on the lights but not enough to use its large metal-cutting machines.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Mr. Murthy. “Power is a basic need. Everything is dependent on power.”
It was not supposed to be this way. Two years ago, more than two dozen large power projects were planned near the company’s workshop, but most of them have been scrapped or put off because India cannot dig up enough coal to fuel them.
Mr. Murthy’s frustrations reflect a broader national malaise. Analysts say India’s economic woes could have been easily avoided if policy makers had better addressed problems like its electricity shortage, weak infrastructure and restrictive regulations. Instead, policy makers have been distracted by corruption scandals and turf battles.
“There is virtually no new investment by both the government and private sector,” said Ashok M. Advani, executive chairman of Blue Star, the biggest maker of commercial air-conditioners in India. “We have such an uncertain environment.”
In the last year, the nation’s power problem has grown acute, with the gap between demand and supply jumping to 10.2 percent last month, from 7.7 percent a year earlier. In some states like Andhra Pradesh, where Nellore is, and in neighboring Tamil Nadu, blackouts have become so common that many factories report getting more electricity from diesel generators than they do from the power grid, at a cost that is roughly three times higher.
A major problem is the anemic production of coal, which provides 55 percent of India’s electricity. Coal production increased just 1 percent last year while power plant capacity jumped 11 percent. Some electricity producers have been importing coal, but that option has become more untenable recently because India’s biggest supplier, Indonesia, has doubled coal prices.
India has one of the world’s largest reserves of coal but it has not been able to exploit it effectively, largely because a state-owned company, Coal India, controls 80 percent of production. The company has been hamstrung by political decisions like a policy that requires it to sell coal at a 70 percent discount to market prices. Critics also say it has not invested aggressively enough in new mines and technologies.
Policy disputes have also caused problems. In recent years, coal regulators tried to open new areas to mining, but they did not coordinate their decisions with environmental regulators, who have blocked much of that mining because it would destroy dense forests.
India also appears to have a lot of cleaner-burning natural gas, but it has not fully exploited those reserves, either. Private firms have few incentives to do so because the government has capped the price of that fuel.
“There is a huge crisis looming,” said Chandan Roy, a retired executive at a state-run electricity producer, the National Thermal Power Corporation. He added that potential solutions were well known but political leaders were reluctant to carry them out because it would mean raising prices for electricity and fossil fuels.
For many businesses, the power shortage has become debilitating.
In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Srihari Balakrishnan, a textile factory owner, said he goes through 6,300 gallons of diesel fuel on an average day to keep his operation running, spending $3,000 more than he would if power were available around the clock.
“We are not able to use 20 to 30 percent of our capacity,” he said. “We can’t use grid power for two full days of the week. When we have power, we have a six-hour cut,” he added, using an Indian term for blackouts.
Mr. Murthy of Sowmya, the shutter maker, said that his production could be 30 percent higher if he had access to reliable power. On a recent Friday afternoon, his workers were rushing to cut metal plates by the end of the day. They would not be able to use the machines the next day, when they would turn to welding the plates into shutters, which can be done with conventional power from the grid rather than industrial-grade power.
“When the power shuts down, no machine here will work,” Mr. Murthy, 35, said as he walked through his workshop. “We have to plan in advance.”
Mr. Murthy’s brother started the business nearly eight years ago, and together they built it to $390,000 in annual revenue. They primarily supply small contractors in the Nellore area, where the economy is dominated by rice farming and an expanding port.
Just 18 miles from their workshop is the site of several proposed power plants that should have eliminated the need for arranging their work around the power schedule.
V. Balashowry, the entrepreneur behind one of those power plant projects, Kineta Power, applied for a supply of fuel from Coal India four years ago. He had hoped to be producing nearly 2,000 megawatts of power by now, which would have increased the electric capacity in the state of Andhra Pradesh by about 15 percent.
Mr. Balashowry, a former member of Parliament for the governing Congress Party, has already bought 1,150 acres of wooded and pasture land, including 850 acres from the state of Andhra Pradesh, and has secured environmental approval for his plant. But no bank will give him money to build it until Coal India agrees to give him fuel.
“We have resources in India, but they aren’t able to do the proper thing,” he said, referring to government officials, during a recent interview in New Delhi.
Other companies are also stuck. Reliance Power, controlled by the investor Anil Ambani, says it has stopped construction on a large electricity plant nearby because it can no longer afford to buy coal from Indonesia as planned.
Mr. Murthy’s business suffers a double blow — he does not get enough electricity and there is less construction in the area, which means less demand for shutters.
He says a couple of years ago, the company was thriving because the power shortage was not as acute and government projects and private construction bolstered demand for its products. He now has 10 employees, down from 15 two years ago. “It was a very rapid drop-off,” he said. “Last year, we had a night shift as well.”Continue reading the main story | <urn:uuid:959b5d1f-84ff-4d38-9ca3-ab1923896115> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/business/global/india-struggles-to-deliver-enough-electricity-for-growth.html?_r=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285001.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00303-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978119 | 1,731 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Kaufman in Kaufman County, Texas — The American South (West South Central)
Mrs. William P. King
(Donor, Land for County seat, Kaufman County)
King's Fort had grown into village of Kingsborough, later given same name as county.
Erected 1970 by State Historical Survey Committee. (Marker Number 8529.)
Location. 32° 35.372′ N, 96° 18.587′ W. Marker is in Kaufman, Texas, in Kaufman County. Marker is at the intersection of West Grove Street and North Jackson Street, on the left when traveling west on West Grove Street. Click for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 100 West Mulberry Street, Kaufman TX 75142, United States of America.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Kaufman County (a few steps from this marker); Colonel Isham Chisum (within shouting distance of this marker); Kaufman County Confederate Soldiers Monument (within shouting Greenslade Drug Store (within shouting distance of this marker); First Baptist Church of Kaufman (about 700 feet away, measured in a direct line); Covenant United Presbyterian Church (approx. 0.2 miles away); First United Methodist Church (approx. 0.2 miles away); Huff-Park House (approx. 0.2 miles away). Click for a list of all markers in Kaufman.
Categories. • Politics • Settlements & Settlers •
Credits. This page originally submitted on , by Rheba Bybee of Seagoville, Texas. This page has been viewed 115 times since then and 4 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on , by Rheba Bybee of Seagoville, Texas. • Bernard Fisher was the editor who published this page. This page was last revised on July 28, 2016. | <urn:uuid:10f7f781-87e6-4193-a252-56df3cef1145> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=96208 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280900.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00003-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917147 | 389 | 2.109375 | 2 |
I'm a professional and
|0 people have tried Avocado and Soybean Extract||0 people have prescribed Avocado and Soybean Extract|
Effect of Avocado and Soybean Extract on Osteoarthritis
Special extracts of avocado and soybeans called avocado/soybean unsaponifiables (ASUs) have been investigated as a treatment for osteoarthritis with very promising results in studies enrolling a total...
Read more about Osteoarthritis and Avocado and Soybean Extract. | <urn:uuid:f4835997-6142-41be-b4da-29a6b6f705c0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.foundhealth.com/avocado-and-soybean-extract/usage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571234.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811042804-20220811072804-00077.warc.gz | en | 0.901548 | 112 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Carbon footprint, waste management, densification, energy efficiency, renewable materials… One cannot speak of sustainable development without thinking about the city model that we need for urban environments to grow with the least possible impact on the environment and to use natural resources . Some of the conversation has been entrenched in public discourse for years and social awareness is growing, but broader and cross-sectoral changes are needed to transform the way we live and build. An idea that is right at the heart of the educational and research work of the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC).
Since then and inspired by the culture Manufacturer, Technology and experimentation went hand in hand in each of the 11 master’s programs taught by the institution, driving trends and conversations and experimenting with ancient and innovative techniques: Advanced Architecture; Ecological buildings and biocities; New designs; Robotics and advanced manufacturing… When the IAAC opened its doors in the Poble Nou neighborhood more than two decades ago, they were talking about digital design and manufacturing when nobody else was; its first prototype from 2001 already used the Internet of Things; and more than a decade ago efforts turned towards ecology, wood and sustainable building. The institution has agreements with the UPC and the US MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, among others, and its manufacturing laboratories (Fab Labs) are part of a network of more than 2,000 similar facilities around the world.
“The IAAC was quite a pioneer when it came to identifying trends that will shape the future of cities, of the way we live and of the materials we will build with,” says Daniel Ibáñez, new director of an institution that is based in aims to increase the national presence of a school whose pupils are mainly foreign (96-97%) in the coming years. Today there is no doubt that we need to change the way we plan and build to meet climate, economic and social challenges. and that necessarily implies much more information. “We work a lot with data: when we start building a self-sufficient building, when we don’t have data about the context, the environment, how the sun is moving, where it really makes sense to have windows or photovoltaic panels. .. When we start planning a neighborhood, it is impossible to do so without understanding the data on the local economy, mobility, environmental issues or waste management,” argues Areti Markopoulo, academic director of the IAAC. The Catalan institution devotes between 25 and 30% of its income to some type of grant.
Renewable raw materials and sustainability
Innovation in architecture does not always mean a leap forward. The answers to the social and environmental challenges we face may lie in the past, but also in the environment around us. Innovation can mean, for example, building with materials that have been used for centuries, such as wood or earth, and reinterpreting their use thanks to technological data and traditional techniques from all over the world. “Why build with wood?” asks Ibáñez: “The central theme is the environment. A building made of concrete is a source of emissions, another made of wood is a sink for them. The first requires 1,200 degree ovens, which requires a lot of energy; while the second is a deposit of all the carbon that the tree absorbs as it grows and which is fixed in the wood, where it remains for 100 or 200 years.” The innovation lies in the use of cross-laminated timber (or CLT, for its English acronym), something that, he adds, “is revolutionizing the construction sector because it allows load-bearing facades to be made instead of load-bearing walls and floors.” In 2021 they presented mass of wooda national network of experts, companies and organizations to promote industrialized solid wood construction.
Valldaura Labs is the IAAC headquarters in the Collserola Natural Park on the outskirts of Barcelona. There, the Master’s degree in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities (MAEBB) is taught, a comprehensive program in an old restored farmhouse that houses students who are trained throughout the year to understand how to construct ecological buildings. collect solar and heat data; Carbon footprints in relation to the materiality of the building… and many other aspects related to the issue of climate change. Each year, the students also spend the final months making a 1:1 scale prototype: they not only design it, they define it, execute it, assemble it and experience it; Using local materials and wood from the adjacent forest, which they use according to a sustainable forest management plan. Is it now conceivable to continue growing without concrete? Not quite, Markopoulo explains: “It’s a material that is still necessary, but its protection has to be reduced and it has to be combined with other materials.”
Projects like the forest observation tower that this year’s students are building; the tiny house (2019), a small self-sufficient house capable of generating its own energy, in which students experimented, for example, with flat geometry inside and more complex shapes outside; the house quarantine (2020) and the solar greenhouse (2021). “There’s a beautiful idea of going back to nature to learn things we’d forgotten: when a tree is felled, how a forest is managed so as not to kill it; What can you do with the resin of a tree, with its fibres… We are talking about circular bioeconomy,” explains Vicent Guallart, director of Valldaura Labs.
It should not be forgotten that sustainability also has a human and social facet. Daniel Sorial, a 27-year-old student from Egypt, chose the Master of Advanced Architecture because it gives him an overview of the different disciplines and how they relate to architecture and gives him the opportunity to design and pursue a wide range of interests. “But also because it enabled me to investigate the relationship between neuroscience and architecture and how spaces affect the cognitive-emotional behavior of users.” Some of the projects developed here by the students aim to rethink the densification of cities; or to address the nature of self-sufficient buildings, where they function in extreme weather emergency scenarios: for example, a building that can change its roof to collect water, or that has photovoltaic panels to collect solar energy.
Innovation in the DNA
Digital fabrication, 3D printing, drones, experimentation with new materials… “When we talked about digital fabrication 20 years ago, hardly anyone knew about it, but today it’s relatively widespread,” recalls Ibáñez. But what is it made of? “Basically you give the machine a completely digital geometry, something that you drew on the computer; the program translates it and then moves a drill according to the design you created”. Although 3D printing is a common technology in other fields, its use in construction is entirely new and there are few prototypes proving its feasibility. One of them is the 3D house, a small one-room house built in Valldaura with earth and thanks to this technology.
“Up until 50 years ago, half of the world’s population still lived in mud houses. And only 10 years ago, for pollution and sustainability reasons, we realized that it was a very good building material,” says Edouard Cabay, co-director of the postgraduate course in 3D printing architecture. “Earth is an interesting material because it didn’t take energy to turn it into a building material; it is 100% natural and non-toxic and requires no transportation. Of course, there are also some disadvantages, such as lower water resistance. But if you design it well, these aspects don’t necessarily make it a bad building,” he argues. “Because it is such an ancient material, communities around the world have developed ways for centuries to make a mud building perform well in its physical, climatic and social environment.”
However, printing a building with earth is a new avenue where the pioneers lack references. “In everything we do, we encounter many small problems and we have to invent solutions. Therefore, instead of reinventing everything, there is an important research and documentation work,” explains Cabay. 3D printing also serves to create prototypes quickly and easily, while in other disciplines the prototype represents a significant cost factor. “And when you remove the 3D printed component, it’s a type of construction that’s already being done in some ways in developing countries, especially in desert climates where water isn’t typically an issue,” says Ibáñez.
Automation, robotics and customization
“What we’re working on at IAAC is how automation and robotics can allow us to build with the experience of humans and local artisans,” says Markopoulo. “Previously, the cost of a facade where each panel was different and had its own orientation was very high. But we have seen that when making a facade from panels, it is interesting that it follows the movement of the sun in order to achieve maximum indoor comfort. And we are also experimenting with air (drones) and ground robots (Rover), which can also scan environments and extract data.
All these uses have practical and immediate uses: if you are remodeling a building, for example, you fly the drone and you can carry out a precise scan, but not only the shapes, but also at a thermal level, to know where it is hotter and where it is colder . It’s a type of technology that can be applied on multiple levels, from a simple building to the Collserola Valley itself, where they have a robotic farming project that allows them to see the condition of crops and monitor a large space around find the best places for each type of farming or measure soil quality.
Subscribe to the Newsletter the formation of EL PAÍS | <urn:uuid:63dfe67b-11cf-4629-99db-e6f04edfac9f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://reviewtwist.com/this-is-how-one-imagines-sustainable-cities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571222.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810222056-20220811012056-00667.warc.gz | en | 0.947749 | 2,070 | 3.1875 | 3 |
A strong commitment to protecting people and the environment
Bechtel is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace, as well as protecting the environment and local communities affected by project development. This objective is inherent within our planning, design, and construction of projects worldwide. To facilitate this approach, Bechtel has Environmental, Safety and Health requirements that apply to all projects regardless of geographic location, and. uses an ES&H Management System that is certified to ISO 14001 and 45001.
Contractors selected to perform work on our projects are expected to comply with applicable laws, regulatory requirements, contract obligations, and Bechtel ES&H requirements. Program elements span all three ES&H disciplines, and include:
- Employees who work on site attend ES&H new-hire orientation and applicable specialized training, as ES&H knowledge and awareness is stressed;
- Employees are expected to demonstrate ES&H leadership, program participation, and commitment to Bechtel’s Zero Incident philosophy;
- Managers and supervisors participate in ES&H inspections, self-assessments, audits, meetings, and incident investigations to evaluate ES&H compliance and identify opportunities for improvement;
- Supervisors conduct "toolbox" meetings and pre-task briefings with employees to emphasize important ES&H issues associated with their work activities, including controls, mitigation, and corrective actions;
- Employees participate in an ES&H behavior-based program that emphasizes leadership, employee engagement, mentoring, recognition, and opportunities for employees to recommend ES&H improvements;
- Employees are supplied with appropriate personal protective equipment (e.g., hard hat, safety glasses, gloves) and tools to allow them to perform their work safely and maintain and properly operate equipment;
- Controls and mitigation measures are applied based on hazard analysis, risk assessment, and regulatory requirements and permits;
- An emergency response plan and resources are established and supported with necessary equipment, training, and drills; and
- ES&H documentation includes pre-job planning and training records, audits and inspections, injury/illness cases, performance data, hours worked, and other records.
Specialized ES&H requirements may apply, depending on a contractor’s scope of work, site-specific conditions, work methods, and proximity to communities and protected resources, including:
- Fall protection and prevention measures when working at heights greater than 6 feet, confined space entry processes, dropped object protection, traffic controls and personnel interface, fire prevention measures, lockout/tagout requirements related to hazardous energy, excavation and trenching controls, hazard communication, tool use, and equipment operations;
- Waste management, project approval of safety data sheets for proposed chemical products, spill prevention and control, protection of natural and cultural resources, erosion and sediment control, stormwater and groundwater management, wastewater management, and fish/wildlife protection;
- Occupational health protection and monitoring where workers could potentially be exposed to elevated noise levels, hazardous substances, risk of musculoskeletal injury, heat or cold stress, or pathogens. Other health-related aspects include employee well-being programs.
If selected to bid work, contractors are provided with detailed information on a project’s ES&H requirements. Contractors are expected to demonstrate in their bid proposal that they have applied appropriate ES&H requirements to the hazards associated with their scope of work. Each project evaluates contractor responses, and the results are a factor in determining whether the contractor is awarded the work.
Work crews are expected to perform daily pre-task planning to identify potential hazards and corresponding mitigation measures to eliminate or minimize risks. Bechtel’s Job Hazard Analysis system and pre-task planning process, known as Field Level Hazard Assessment, are pre-task planning methods.
Contractors are responsible for conducting and documenting regular inspections and periodic evaluations of their work activities to verify compliance with the project’s ES&H requirements. Contractors also participate in project-wide ES&H audits conducted periodically by Bechtel.
Contractors are responsible for selecting and holding their own suppliers and lower-tier subcontractors to the same standards and requirements that apply to their scope of work as set forth in their contract.
If a government law, regulation, or requirement exceeds a project’s ES&H requirements, the more stringent requirement will apply.
The following sections provide additional information on important elements of Bechtel’s ES&H program.
Zero Incident philosophy
Bechtel has adopted a Zero Incident philosophy, meaning that all work-related incidents - including injuries, illnesses, property damage, and environmental incidents - are considered preventable. All employees are granted Stop Work Authority as part of that strategy, recognizing the importance of early employee involvement during planning and work execution. The philosophy promotes:
- Awareness of individual responsibility to identify and mitigate unsafe practices and at-risk conditions within and near the workplace;
- A team mentality that recognizes ES&H contributions by all employees, applying supervisor and team capabilities and knowledge for risk management; and
- A culture in which everyone accepts responsibility and accountability for environmental protection and their own safety and health, as well as the safety and health of coworkers.
Contractors are responsible for complying with all governing environmental laws, regulations, permits, and project plans. An Environmental Management Plan prepared by each project describes environmental requirements, responsibilities, and documentation. Contractors are expected to use effective planning and control measures applicable to their scope of work.
Environmental permitting and approvals will be identified and defined as an Owner, Bechtel, or Contractor responsibility depending on the authority having jurisdiction. Permits and approvals will be received prior to the associated work being performed.
Environmental topics can be diverse depending on the location and regulatory requirements. Protection of natural resources can include erosion and sediment control, stormwater and groundwater management, restricted clearing of vegetated areas or access to unique habitats, wastewater and stormwater discharge, species conservation, and site and habitat restoration.
Cultural resource protection can involve processes to protect and document archaeological and historic sites, protection of important resources with cultural value to a community or indigenous peoples, and stop-work procedures in the event of an unanticipated discovery (e.g., human remains, artifacts).
Other environmental topics include controls to minimize carbon emissions and energy use, hazardous waste management, methods to achieve waste minimization through recycling/reuse and material selection, spill prevention, and noise mitigation measures.
Contractors, sub-tier contractors, and suppliers will be required to comply with all access restrictions, including prohibitions on access to sensitive resources (e.g., wetlands, archeological sites, special wildlife habitats) or areas adjacent to the worksite.
Contractors may be required to provide a supplemental Environmental Plan that addresses specialized or early work activities not fully addressed in the project’s Environmental Management Plan. Bechtel has to accept the plan before associated work can be initiated. | <urn:uuid:74cba619-ec05-465c-9533-e0415088db4f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://shengjiche.com/index-149.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571911.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813081639-20220813111639-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.926842 | 1,410 | 1.585938 | 2 |
This item is available under a Creative Commons License for non-commercial use only
O’Dowd, C., Mothersill, C.E., Cairns, M.T., Austin, B., Lyng, F.M., McClean, B. and Murphy, J.E.J. Assessing the mitochondrion as a biomarker of fish tissue damage using g radiation as a stress model in vitro.
There is an ever-increasing need for biomarkers to identify toxic stress in the aquatic environment. Such techniques need to be accurate, expeditious, ethical and economical. Typically, in vitro based platforms fit these criteria however many of these systems often undergo ‘assay drift’ and consequently do not fully represent the real-life situation.
In recent years, there has been growing interest in the mitochondrion and its (dys)function or altered function and dynamics as a marker of toxic assault. The mitochondrion is an essential organelle in the cell and is associated with energy production and metabolism in the organism as it is the site of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). It has its own genetic material which is more susceptible to damage than nuclear DNA (nDNA) due to its proximity to the site of OXPHOS, the absence of introns, the lack of a protective histone coat and effective repair mechanisms which are present in nDNA. Stress responses including increases in mitochondrial mass and alteration in the activity of proteins associated with OXPHOS have been reported and offer potential as putative biomarkers of toxicity.
In this study, we used real-time PCR to identify alterations in mitochondrial genome copy number in cultured fish tissues exposed to g radiation. These values were compared to the activity of the citrate synthase enzyme, an established marker of mitochondrial mass in cells. Results show that while this approach is appropriate and the technique is robust, expeditious and straightforward, further development is required to yield greater enhancement and sensitivity.
Colm, J., O'Dowd: In Vitro Enabling Technologies for use in the Aquatic Environment. Doctoral Thesis. Dublin Institute of Technology, 2010. | <urn:uuid:ef6b4a7b-56cb-4909-9601-a3fc54efa70e> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://arrow.dit.ie/sciendoc/106/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721405.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00312-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918431 | 441 | 2.109375 | 2 |
A-Type: Date Masamune
In ancient Japan, the samurai warriors were a living symbol of honor. Each samurai had their own specially made armor, and symbol to fly high on their flags while going into battle, as well as a katana to fight by their side. The Sengoku Samurai each have their own unique looking armor, that is tied to their name- no matter how many centuries have passed. These figures capture the beauty of the yoroi armor, as well as the flags and katana that these samurai fought along side with. Even on a much smaller scale these figures emulate the details and time that has gone into the making of the yoroi armor.
About the Samurai:
Date Masamune is well known for having one eye, and even has the nickname "One-Eyed Dragon". When he was a child, smallpox took the sight in his right eye, though how he lost the actual eye itself, is left to different theories. Date Masamune ended up serving under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, which he was really left no choice to do. Date also expanded trade in the Touhoku region and even encouraged foreigners to come to his lands. He sent Hasekura Tsunenaga to go on a voyage to create relations with the Pope in Spain, making the voyage one of the first successful Japanese voyages to cross the world. | <urn:uuid:c5e98621-0c0d-4646-ab6f-443c513b6f37> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://samuraimarket.net/collections/samurai-figure/products/a-type-date-masamune | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570913.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809064307-20220809094307-00076.warc.gz | en | 0.975028 | 335 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Physics/Schrödinger equation/wave function representing orbitals
QUESTION: Hi Steve,
I am in a first year undergraduate chem course learning about atomic structure and I don't quite get Schrödinger equation.
Can you explain the Schrödinger equation to me in simple/layman terms.
In addition, I also don quite get how the Schrödinger equation relates to wave function.
I searched on the internet and I found out that the wave function describes the position/energy of an electron which confuses me.
Can you explain in simple layman terms what the wave function is and how does it relate to atom orbitals. As I know each orbital have their own wave function.
Many Many Thanks,
ANSWER: Let me start you with a little history. Light is a wave. It obeys a wave equation, actually a set of them known as Maxwell's equations (not all his, he just put them together in a recognized succinct form for the first time). Waves obey wave equations. When in a ridiculously tiny doctoral dissertation de Broglie postulated that some electron scattering data (British scientists, I believe) which was eerily similar to x-ray scattering data meant that electrons also behaved as waves then Schrodinger said that they must also behave as waves. You see, "particle" just means that something must be absorbed or emitted as a whole, not that it has some kind of solid mass like our intuition mistakenly leads us to. Wave means that it extends through space and behaves like a wave...and therefore probably obeys a wave equation. Someone at the meeting where Schrodinger proposed this heretical idea (so I heard in grad school), demanded that he go and solve that equation.
The story goes that he disappeared up into the mountains on a skiing trip with one of his many many mistresses...and she must not have been that great because he came down from that ski trip with the wave equation figured out. He figured it had to obey the typical rules of differential equations and came up with the simplest equation he could that satisfied the known physics...like the de Broglie wavelength. The details are unimportant to the level you're looking for.
Long story short, if you look at any wave...sound, light, electron...throughout space you must be able to create a function to describe its condition at that point in space. What the strength of the electric field is, how dense the air is, etc...for particles it's the wavefunction. That gives you a strange sort of density-related thing which you can relate to the probability of finding the particle at any point during an observation.
That's basically it as far as layman's terms you're asking for, actually. It's related to the probability, satisfies a bunch of boring math rules, but what it's used for in practice is to find the probability that a particle will be observed in a location at a time...when used properly. That gives you everything, like the probability that it will be found at a point near what it is bound to (like an electron around an atom, that gives the atom its quantum shape, if you will). Or the probability that a particle will be observed outside of a barrier (quantum tunneling, a more advanced topic).
But you asked in the context of chemistry. The wave equation and the wave function (the wave function is something you solve the wave equation...essentially just a set of math rules that the wave function is known to obey...in order to find) are both dependent on energy. Energy of the Coulomb force (nucleus to electrons) depends on position. The solution to the wave equation, when you take into account the space relationship of both, gives you both the energy and the spatial distribution of the electrons in an atom.
I won't lie, the details are ridiculously complex and involve a lot of quantum mechanics and angular momentum and such...but in layman's terms the above is what you need to know. You're trying to wrap your brain around something that is simultaneously too big and too simple to comprehend without a great deal of study and years of hard work in a short time... The equation determines the function. The situation determines how the equation will be solved and therefore the combination of the equation (the physical reality of how space works) determine the function. The function determines the probability of an electron being anywhere (think of it as its "reality density" if you can). Stable solutions are states which the electrons around atoms can be found in, that kind of thing.
Good luck. :)
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hi Steve,
Thank you very much for the through answer.
I just have two additional questions.
I would like to know how does the wave function relate to Heisenberg uncertainty principle and are they quite similar ?
What is the definition of angular momentum in layman terms.
The uncertainty principle is something one derives from experiments and a consequence of the wave function. Griffiths' quantum mechanics book does a good job of explaining it. Waves have well-defined energies when they have a sinusoidal type of wave function (which is distributed in space). Waves with well-defined positions in space have ill-defined energies (Fourier transform, if you wish to read further) because they don't have a precisely defined frequency.
Angular momentum is the amount of "spin" that a thing or a wave has. That's as well as I can define it, the "amount of rotation" that something has. Whether that rotation is in the object itself (spin) or in how it orbits (orbital angular momentum...like a tiny hurricane). | <urn:uuid:0f5d6403-c90f-4caa-a769-041a275ce1db> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://en.allexperts.com/q/Physics-1358/2013/10/schr-dinger-equation-wave.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280587.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00559-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948475 | 1,173 | 2.875 | 3 |
Free online calculators. Number theory.
Collection of online calculators which will help you to solve mathematical tasks. With these calculators you can find the greatest common divisor (GCD) and the least common multiple (LCM) of two numbers and perform calculations in a column between whole numbers and decimals.
Add the comment | <urn:uuid:a6f533ba-e171-4196-a7c5-651a5e2bb2e5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://onlinemschool.com/math/assistance/number_theory/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280128.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00387-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.883453 | 70 | 2 | 2 |
Did you know that French is an official language in 32 countries, with a projected growth to 750 million people worldwide by 2050? Meanwhile, Mandarin Chinese is currently the language with the greatest number of speakers, and Spanish has more than 470 million speakers worldwide, including in Central and South American countries and the US.
You can start your study of languages at DMU in either French, Mandarin or Spanish at beginner, GCSE (intermediate) or advanced level and learn at a grade and pace that suits you and your needs. Learning a new language not only helps to provide you with linguistic skills but can also enhance your skills in your native language and develop your presentation, written and critical skills. Competence in another language is fast become an essential skill for success in the global job market. By combining your study of Education Studies with a language, you can develop your employability with a second language that helps distinguish you from other graduates.
Throughout your degree, you will cover a series of core modules in Education Studies including perspectives on education, thinking and learning in higher education and evidence-based teaching and learning. You will combine this with two 15 credit modules per study level in your chosen language, which will equate to three hours of language per week. During these modules, you will develop your language skills through the study of the country and its society, culture and people.
- Delivered by experienced academics and developed with input from sector professionals, ensuring learning is up to date with current practices and challenges in the sector.
- Placement opportunities offer you the chance to undertake work experience in local schools, where you can put your learning into practice and gain valuable real-world experiences.
- By joining the DMU Education Studies Students’ Society you can enrich your experience through stimulating debates and social events with other students.
- Gain international experience through our DMU Global programme, which has enabled students to teach English to school children in Taiwan, consider inequality and segregation in New York, and support refugees in Berlin.
- Learn a modern foreign language while studying how people learn and perspectives on education, with the flexibility to specialise in your areas of interest through option modules. Modules you can choose from include Computer Programming as a Tool for Learning, Education and the Arts and Education and Equality. | <urn:uuid:92d64687-a849-407a-bef4-f05f20e212aa> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://maitriglobaleducation.com/institute/business-management/de-montfort-university/education-studies-with-mandarin-french-or-spanish-ba-hons | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00476.warc.gz | en | 0.953289 | 463 | 2.21875 | 2 |
An anonymous reader writes "As part of his 1680-page book Mac OS X Internals: A Systems Approach, Amit Singh of kernelthread.com wrote a very detailed technical history of Apple's operating systems. Since he had to cut down on the history chapter because of the book's already too-large size, most of this chapter didn't make it to the printed book. Singh has made available the history chapter as a free PDF. The file is 140 pages long, and is generously filled with figures and screenshots. It starts with the internals of the original Apple I and goes through a tour of all operating systems Apple dabbled with, including internals of A/UX, Lisa OS, and such. It even covers details of outside influences like the Xerox Alto, STAR System, Smalltalk, and Sketchpad, and closer to home things like Mach, NeXTStep, and OpenStep." | <urn:uuid:c2fa8795-23a9-4fea-ab50-2306e3cd7e4b> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://slashdot.org/story/06/07/25/1257244/a-technical-history-of-apples-operating-systems?sdsrc=prevbtmprev | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720737.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00220-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955244 | 184 | 2.03125 | 2 |
We are all […] sufficiently familiar with the fact that many words have much implication; but I think we need to reflect upon the circumstance that every word implies some proposition or, what is the same thing, every word, concept, symbol has an equivalent term or one which has become identified with it, – in short, has an interpretant.
Whatever a word addresses […] or stands to, is its interpretant or identified symbol. Conversely, every interpretant is addressed by the word; for were it not so, did it not as it were overhear what the word says, how could it interpret what it says. There are doubtless some who cannot understand this metaphorical argument. I wish to show that the relation of a word to that which it addresses is the same as its relation to its equivalent or identified terms. For that purpose, I first show that whatever a word addresses is an equivalent term, – its mental equivalent. I next show that, since the intelligent reception of a term is the being addressed by that term, and since the explication of a term’s implication is the intelligent reception of that term, that the interpretant or equivalent of a term which as we have already seen explicates the implication of a term is addressed by the term. The interpretant of a term, then, and that which it stands to are identical. Hence, since it is of the very essence of a symbol that it should stand to something, every symbol – every word and every conception – must have an interpretant – or what is the same thing, must have information or implication. | <urn:uuid:f41ecef7-3bc7-4be1-b00a-6daa841003a5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.commens.org/bibliography/manuscript/peirce-charles-s-1866-lowell-lectures-logic-science-or-induction-and-3?width=600&height=600 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817032054-20220817062054-00470.warc.gz | en | 0.980055 | 323 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Portrait of the Author Nikolay Novikov.
1797. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia. More.
Novikov, Nikolay Ivanovich
(1744-1818) - Russian author and publisher. He published satirical magazines, where he criticized the serfdom of Russian peasants. He also opened schools, libraries and printing shops in the cities of Russia to help with the education of Russia's lower classes. For his criticism of the existing regime he was imprisoned by Catherine II
in the Schlisselburg Fortress in 1792-1796 | <urn:uuid:414d8b2b-a260-42bd-9546-88fc8b54599f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.abcgallery.com/L/levitzky/levitzky4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279650.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00437-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930515 | 122 | 1.929688 | 2 |
It's all about using concrete – an important part of the construction. You can create two different work schemes for using concrete.
You can have a prefabricated structure that needs to be poured by concrete, or you can expect a concrete builder to shape and pour the structure.
The concrete contractors in Ventura County can do one or both tasks depending on your needs and comfort. For example structuring, casting, and ignoring various types of shapes and structures including parentheses of their responsibilities.
You can check various online sites to contact concrete contractors in Ventura country.
Image Source: Google
Regardless of your needs, certain Ventura County contractors may be able to take care of you, both small and large. You can only use their services for pouring purposes or until the end of the process.
The special contractors are available in Ventura County according to the terms of the contract agreement. These various construction materials are another reason you can choose a Ventura County contract facility.
With a variety of concrete, which is elegant and varied, you can design the choices and preferences you want. This is because the needs for different shapes and structures cannot be the same.
The concrete construction companies in Ventura County meet your preference for decorative, colored, and colored concrete. At present, there are also aggregate varieties and those that have a salty texture and a broom lining. | <urn:uuid:f623f672-1b66-4d08-8b8f-22fd9d1dd7fc> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.aztlanvirtual.com/tag/plumber/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571758.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812200804-20220812230804-00671.warc.gz | en | 0.93672 | 271 | 1.78125 | 2 |
CISA Releases the Drought and Infrastructure: A Planning Guide (Drought Guide)
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released the Drought and Infrastructure: A Planning Guide (Drought Guide) to help CISA Regional staff, local, tribal, territorial, and regional governments, communities, infrastructure providers, and other stakeholders anticipate and reduce the potential consequences of droughts on critical water, transportation, dams, power, and other services. The Guide resulted from a collaborative inter-agency effort with members of National Drought Resilience Partnership. The Drought Guide is a supplement to CISA’s Infrastructure Resilience Planning Framework (IRPF) and is intended to be used as a resource for CISA Regions and PSAs who receive stakeholder requests related to drought.
The Drought Guide includes four sections: 1) an overview of drought and federal information sources on risk; 2) examples and an illustrative graphic of direct and indirect impacts that drought can have on infrastructure systems; 3) a table of federal tools and resources to assess vulnerability or mitigate risk of drought, which are organized according to the IRPF process; and 4) a list of additional information sources that can be requested from CISA and other agencies.
The Drought Guide is meant to be independently explored by users who are anticipating and preparing for the consequences of drought on infrastructure services. The guide directs users to the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and other agencies’ information and decision tools.
Protective Security Advisor, Region 5, Illinois
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Cell: 217-299-3954 | firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:f5338838-fee9-494d-81fe-2b4db66922f5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.irpt.net/cisa-releases-the-drought-and-infrastructure-a-planning-guide-drought-guide/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570692.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20220807181008-20220807211008-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.88098 | 364 | 2.546875 | 3 |
ISRAELI Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin got what he wanted from his visit to Kennebunkport - United States approval of the loan guarantees put on hold last year by President Bush. The president concluded that Mr. Rabin's freeze on new settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza was adequate to take the $10 billion in guarantees off the shelf again.
This development gives Israel the wherewithal to get on with the difficult task of housing and employing some 400,000 new citizens. The US had been inclined to help with this task all along - but not at the cost of appearing to back the expansionist settlement policies of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
Of course, the step also gives Mr. Bush a political fillip, brightening his relationship with Jewish voters.
The Palestinians and other Arabs watching these developments can't be surprised. They knew how badly the Bush White House wanted to mend relations with Israel. They also know that the US administration, given its political challenge, needs results from the peace process. The pressure to compromise could now shift onto Arab shoulders.
When talks resume in Washington on Aug. 24, Palestinian autonomy will top the agenda. Some legalistic treatises on the subject are already before the negotiators. The sides would do well to step back from the details and try for an agreement on principle as to what autonomy should accomplish.
The Rabin government and the US may balk at Palestinian insistence on an elected legislative council, if it too clearly implies immediate Palestinian statehood. But whatever the name of the elected body that would administer the West Bank and Gaza, it should have clear rule-making authority. The Israeli government's military stranglehold must yield.
Autonomy also raises the sensitive issue of voting rights for the Arabs of East Jerusalem - which could bring up the thorny problem of the city's ultimate status.
The outlook, therefore, isn't rosy. But there's more room for optimism than before Rabin's electoral triumph. His government, while it's going ahead with 10,000 housing units already under way in the territories, brings to the table a commitment to peacemaking its predecessor lacked.
Rabin's move to repeal the Israeli law banning contact with the Palestine Liberation Organization is another hopeful sign. The PLO must have at least a clear background role in the peace process. The US government, committed by Bush to an active role in the coming talks, should follow suit by scrapping its own anti-PLO statutes. | <urn:uuid:e2f20833-90fc-4e77-93e9-70ff75824755> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://m.csmonitor.com/1992/0813/13203.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721278.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00147-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958342 | 509 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Maloff, Saul 1922–
Maloff is an American editor, literary critic, and novelist. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 33-36.)
There has been some speculation in psychological jargon that one must first find one's father before being able to reject him. With a new twist, to this insight—such as it is—Saul Maloff has written a novel ironically called "Happy Families." With the closest possible eye for detail and with perceptions that are sharpened to razor-edge, we are introduced to the American Family as a moribund institution. The emphasis, however, is on the father-daughter syndrome in our great society.
With a devastating irony, we are treated to a kind of epiphany—and a palimpsest too. Filled with unconscious reflections of a literary nature, we unmask layer upon layer of narration to produce an idea—and the idea is a simple one, though rather unpleasant. Truth, as Mr. Maloff indicates, is often unpleasant. And as we read on we learn—over and over again—that fathers with seventeen-year-old daughters have problems, to say nothing about the problems the seventeen-year-old daughters have with fathers…. It would seem that these young creatures are careless, insolent, flaunting, instinctual, mammary and fleshy, smoldering—and, in some cases, much more….
There is superb craftsmanship here as ideas come and go, that are fragmentary and elusive. Mr. Maloff has the ability to bring us into direct contact with the minutiae of life, its feel, and color, and smell, its nuance and humor. The characterization—especially of Mr. Kalb's boss—is superb. (p. 208)
Clara M. Siggins, in Best Sellers (copyright 1968, by the University of Scranton), August 15, 1968.
Happy Families … is actually less a novel than a long psychiatric nightmare conceived in despondency and executed in a kind of manic misery. The wish-fulfilling, therapy-begging ending is of a piece with the rest of the fantasies, oblique interior monologues, and shadowy comic encounters in the book: stuff that dreams are made of when the spirit is being torn apart on a torture rack of intolerable circumstance. But there is a not unwholesome fascination in staying with the author through his dark night of garrulous catharsis. We soon realize that Saul Maloff is not going to tell us much of a story, yet something very exciting emerges.
Kalb is the standard loser of much Midwestern or New York-based fiction since World War II. Herzog without the academic extras. Jonathan Baumbach's "man to conjure with," only in terms of a daughter instead of a son. Herbert Gold's Herbert Gold, but with one girl instead of two, and minus the acquired sophistication. To be sure, Kalb's head is full of literary references and camp (the book wouldn't be a bad cram text for an advanced degree in English or Popular Culture).
Samuel I. Bellman, "Incestuously Lusting Fathers," in Saturday Review (copyright © 1968 by Saturday Review, Inc.; reprinted with permission), September 7, 1968, p. 46.
The principal difficulty with Saul Maloff's intelligent and entertaining new novel [Heartland] is that the ground it explores has already been rather thoroughly plowed. Its central theme—that of the vaguely intellectual New York Jew set uncomfortably down on a corn-fed provincial campus—has been examined by, among others, Bernard Malamud in A New Life and John Updike in Bech. The bizarre ritual its protagonist encounters is out of The Golden Bough and bears striking if entirely coincidental similarity to the tale spun by the whilom movie actor, Thomas Tryon, in his current best-seller, Harvest Home.
Still Maloff is a novelist of skill and wit, and there is much to recommend in Heartland….
Maloff has described Heartland as "a comic fable," and at its best the comedy is indeed good. (p. 30)
Heartland is nothing if not a "New York novel" in point of view, conscious and deliberate; for Maloff seems to recognize that New York provincialism is as ripe a subject for satire as heartland provincialism. At times, however, [his] satire is heavy-handed … [and] may not make Saul Maloff many friends in the heart of the heart of the country, but it is, on the whole, provocative and perceptive. (p. 31)
Jonathan Yardley, "Jew among the Alien Corn," in The New Republic (reprinted by permission of The New Republic; © 1973 by Harrison-Blaine of New Jersey, Inc.), September 29, 1973, pp. 30-1.
Starved for good humor, I was ready for what Heartland's advertisers promised—a story that would tickle and absorb. I needed a whole loaf of the stuff lost somewhere between Camelot and Operation Candor. But I wound up eating cake.
Some cake! More like crumbs, tiny bits of stuff that had to be pressed hard between thumb and forefinger and rolled together before they could be made to resemble an edible mass. Now, if Saul Maloff were a new bride who couldn't boil water, his latest novel's faults might have been easier to swallow. But he is a writer of considerable skill and experience. And Heartland is a concoction so blatantly tasteless in parts that it might've been cooked up by the folks who brought us C-rations….
Oh, there were good moments in Heartland, chiefly when Maloff prepared a smörgasbord of colorful demonstration scenes, familiar entrées from the 1960s which he molded to suit the current taste for Zionist theatre. But if the setting was colorful, the hero was all wrong. Superstars who give mass movements bounce have the talent to concoct a heady brew, but Maloff's hero, Isaiah Greene, produces a watered-down vin ordinaire. (p. 282)
Greene (and therefore Heartland) struck me as a literary gimmick that happened to coincide with the Mideast crisis and the decline of the vocal, militant segment of the women's movement: a slick, plastic robot in a Dynel wig, properly tousled to create the right effect, all done up in baggy corduroys with suede patches at the elbows just the way somebody imagined an aging New York Jewish academic ought to be….
Some day, I hope, male anxieties and prejudices won't be presented in fictional form projected as women's faults, a defensive and dishonest approach to humor which makes true satire impossible. If the book has any redeeming value, it lies with the women Maloff introduces. Such women! They supply all the action, for good or ill. But unfortunately they are only pseudo-women, cardboard mock-ups of the army of flesh and blood serfs already on their feet and marching, breaking out of the cookie-cutter stereotypes that generations of male and male-oriented writers have produced. This novel is a contribution to that movement. And that is something. (p. 283)
Bonnie Stowers, "Low Pressure at High Altitude," in The Nation (copyright 1974 by the Nation Associates, Inc.), March 2, 1974. | <urn:uuid:087c267d-46f6-4f9a-a1e8-f99240d01a89> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.enotes.com/topics/saul-maloff | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280364.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00025-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957722 | 1,534 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Differentiating about a manager and a leader, Shri Randhir Singh(Associate Vice President, Havells India) focused on the new management era and the how an ideal leader should be in the current scenario. One should be well equipped with both soft and hard skills to succeed in today’s world.
The first step in being a successful leader is to not get distracted. The biggest trait in a leader is to remain trust worthy, gain trust of his employees which is brought by transparency.
One should have clarity of thought, and successful leaders are ones who has clarity on these three terms namely “what”, “why”, and “how”.
One should manage fear and leverage failure in their quest to become a successful leader. To sum up, a good leader is the one virtue of all these qualities and is the one who should be able to foresee the future. | <urn:uuid:3afba055-d951-4682-a638-dde3fc74602f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.pagalguy.com/articles/ntpc-school-of-business-hr-conclave-day-2-shri-randhir-singhassociate-vice-president-havells-india | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00266.warc.gz | en | 0.975231 | 188 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Stainless Steel 405
Principal Design Features
405 is a 12% chromium steel designed to be used in the as-welded condition. Unlike other 12% chromium steels, it is not subject to a great deal of hardening through air cooling form high temperatures.
Commonly used for annealing boxes, steam nozzles, quenching racks, partitions and other fabrications that cannot be annealed after welding.
Soft and ductile, 405 can be easily machined using most standard practices. Experienced machinists comment that 405 machines similarly to 4130 alloy steel.
405 can be easily spun, drawn and formed using common forming procedures.
405 can be welded using shielded fusion and resistance techniques. Oxyacetylene welding is not recommended. Use 405 Cb electrodes that contain columbium rather than aluminum to control hardening. Post weld annealing will maximize ductility.
Soak at 1500-1600 F(817-871 C) and then quickly increase to 1900-2050 F(1038-1121 C). Do not remain at this temperature as the result will be excessive grain growth. Do not work below 1500 F(816C). After forging, air cool and anneal.
Soak at 1200-1400 F(649-760 C), air cool.
While this alloy does not respond appreciably to heat treatment, soaking at 1800-1850 F(982-1010 C) followed by oil quenching will increase mechanical properties.
Specific Gravity: 7.72
Specific Heat: 0.11
Thermal Conductivity: 416
To Send a Request for Quote, please Click Here, call 973.276.5000, or fax (973) 276 – 5050 | <urn:uuid:15451247-cbcb-4b4f-bb1e-591c4ef1ac68> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.steelforge.com/stainless-steel-405/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281069.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00269-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.806637 | 368 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Published on May 7th, 2009 | by Timothy B. Hurst19
San Francisco OKs California’s Largest Municipal Solar Project
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s plan to create one of state’s largest solar photovoltaic plants was approved by the city’s Board of Supervisors.
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors Tuesday passed a proposal giving clearance to Recurrent Energy to Construct a 5 megawatt solar photovoltaic plant and sell energy to the city at a cost of about $2 million annually. The new plant, to be built in the city’s Sunset District, will be the largest municipal solar power project in California.
“Yesterday, San Francisco took another major step towards achieving our commitments to reduce greenhouse gases and grow our green economy,” said Mayor Newsom in a statement.
Newsom, who sponsored the legislation, added that the project would more than triple San Francisco’s solar energy production and “help lead the state towards a future of clean, renewable energy.”
Developing the project will be San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy. Under the deal, Recurrent will assume initial financial responsibility for the cost of installing and operating the plant. In return, the city incurs no upfront cost, but enters into a purchase agreement with Recurrent, buying the plant’s energy at a cost of 23.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, plus 3 percent per year.
In March, Recurrent purchased the solar project pipeline of up to 350 megawatts from UPC Solar, a Chicago-based renewable energy development company. The recent transaction provided Recurrent Energy with direct access to project opportunities in development across the continental United States, Hawaii, and Canada.
Note: If you live in San Francisco (or other cities) and are looking for residential solar, check out 1 Block Off the Grid’s group purchasing program. Both GO Media and 1 Block Off the Grid (1BOG) are owned by Virgance.
Image: Artist rendition of solar PV plant at Sunset Reservoir courtesy of Mayor Newsom’s Office
[UPDATE]: This project has passed the Board of Supervisors. See the official press release on page 2. | <urn:uuid:12d423a4-e3ba-4334-b093-0e7e7e35f2af> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/05/07/san-francisco-oks-californias-largest-municipal-solar-project/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280242.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00079-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.884811 | 466 | 1.796875 | 2 |
What does BRASS mean in Accounting?
This page is about the meanings of the acronym/abbreviation/shorthand BRASS in the Business field in general and in the Accounting terminology in particular.
Find a translation for BRASS in other languages:
Select another language:
What does BRASS mean?
- an alloy of copper and zinc | <urn:uuid:0e999cf7-cc8d-45b7-ac60-c7a2a67674b3> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.abbreviations.com/term/242504 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283301.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00503-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.870099 | 73 | 1.679688 | 2 |
A wide range of peppers are grown in home gardens, including sweet varieties such as bell, pimiento and banana peppers, and hot varieties such as jalapeno, cayenne and habanero. These peppers are all closely related and grow under much the same conditions, which makes them well suited to planting in the same general area.
It is a commonly held myth that sweet peppers planted near hot peppers will take on a hot flavor, which is why many gardeners avoid planting them close together. In fact, pepper plants are self-pollinated, which means it is impossible for hot peppers to affect the flavor of nearby sweet peppers, or vise-versa.
Different pepper varieties planted nearby may occasionally cross-pollinate, which will not affect the flavor of the current year's crop, but can sometimes produce hybrid seeds. This means that seeds saved from these peppers and replanted the following year might produce fruit with unpredictable shapes or flavors.
Hot peppers and sweet peppers thrive under the same growing conditions, which makes them well-suited to companion planting. Peppers may ripen at different times, giving you a variety of different pepper types and flavors over the course of the growing season. Other ideal companion plants for peppers include carrots, onions, eggplants and tomatoes.
Peppers grow best in a sunny location with moist but well-drained soil. Avoid planting peppers in a location where the ground becomes wet and waterlogged. The ideal soil is loose, moderately fertile, and has a pH between 6.2 and 7.0. A soil test kit, available at most garden stores, will tell you the pH and nutrient content of your soil, and can be used as a guide when you select and apply soil amendments. Avoid overusing commercial fertilizers, as this can cause plants to produce vigorous leafy growth and very little fruit.
Planting and Care
As a tender, warm-season annual, peppers do not grow well under cold conditions, and they should never be planted outdoors until all danger of frost has passed. You can start seeds in containers indoors, eight to 10 weeks before the last average frost date for your region. You can set out transplants in your garden once the ground has warmed and is dry enough to work with. Water at the time of planting and as needed during dry conditions, but do not over-saturate the ground. Most peppers are ready to harvest within 70 to 85 days of transplanting.
- Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:188f867b-7840-4e75-b18c-7c33a0befc5b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://homeguides.sfgate.com/can-plant-sweet-hot-peppers-close-together-40331.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280891.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00161-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948334 | 512 | 3.21875 | 3 |
The tech industry has been obsessed with commoditization as a market trend since the crash. For most, its simply a chicken littlish "my prices are falling!" But I know a little too much about commoditization from a former life, co-founding a commodity exchange for bandwidth and leading a risk management software company for a time. My company moved out of the telecom market when it crashed into equities, but others remain. While building an exchange, we had to work with energy and other commodity traders to understand their fundamentals and apply them to markets otherwise driven by innovation. Some of the research we did back then can be found at Oncept, including how we identified market characteristics unique to telecom such as temporal and geographic arbitrage. So before I moved up the stack, I learned just enough to be dangerous.
Let me provide some definitions and then apply them to the commoditization of software.
First, a commodity market exists when:
- There is a common definition of the good and standardized contract. This includes its quality or service level and keep in mind there are over 100 gradients of West Texas Intermediate Crude, the most liquid oil contract.
- There is enough liquidity, or volume of trading in the market
- There is no concentration in supply
- There is no concentration in demand
- Pricing is volitile and indexed
Second, the Internet is a force for commoditization. It aggregates liquidity in otherwise fragmented markets, make pricing transparent and reduces transaction costs.
Third, all markets trend towards commoditization and prices decline. A market where prices have a rising trend is in contango, when prices trend to zero the market is in backwardation. Innovation creates new products and bundles that are initially in contango, but backwardation raises its ugly head at increasing speed with competition.
Fourth, when commoditization occurs the market grows in volume. Inflection points usually happen when there is a market failure that identifies new risks. When new risks are factored into models, the new risk management practice enables greater liquidity.
Fifth, there are four outstanding risks to manage:
- Market risk -- price volatility
- Technology risk -- obsolescence
- Operational risk -- execution
- Credit risk -- counterparties and exposure
There is little doubt that MIPS, Mbs, Mbps and Mhz meet the criteria for commoditization. If you are a player in a Datacommodity market, here's some ways you can make money:
- Volume, through realizing economies of scale and speed
- Trading, through arbitrage
- Bundling, through realizing economies of scope and span with an adaptive infrastructure
- Risk Management, through offering your customers bundles that shield them from volatility. Above all, this is managing complexity
Common wisdom in the valley is that when commoditization occurs in your market, you have to move up the stack. This is partially true, but forces some companies to move into services too early or without a competitive advantage. Instead, the first step is to address risks and inefficiencies -- to innovate in marketing, not as in spin, but value chain orchestration and commercial configuration. Embrace commoditization, since it is inevitable. One positive trend is companies already up the stack now take commodity managment as a core competency (e.g. Google's hosting complex) or are addressing it with partners that offer Grid Services.
Now on to software. This week, Jonathan Schwartz commented:
For software to be a commodity, intellectual property is a commodity, and I'm not buying that.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of commodities are intellectual property, not physical goods. They are derivatives. When someone writes an option, the intellectual property is rights afforded in the agreement. Currency, the largest market of a good, is also an information good. But Jonathan's point may be that IP goods are so maliable its hard to see them as fungible.
The software industry was due for commoditization, but something disruptive happened -- the rise of open source. At the time when competition would usually prompt the creation of a standardized commercial agreement, open source agreements like GPL were created. In other words, monopoly positioning commercial competition prevent necessary cooperation to pool risks and grow the market profitably. This could not have happened if the Internet didn't allow open source advocates to find each other in numbers and collaborate, not just in commons-based peer production of goods, but the commercial rights to them.
Now the industry is pooling risk in two areas: technical standards and open source. Standards are not about a common definition of a good for trading, they are interfaces for interop, which reduces transaction and switching costs (reduced lock-in and ability to bundle for customers). Besides the economic efficiencies gained, they enable easy combinations, or bundling, which drives innovation up the stack.
Open source reduces risk for participants of competing in markets where they don't have advantage. They contribute to the pool and benefit. Current open source agreements are awash with free options that could be seperate agreements. Their constraints on commercial use do not serve many markets. A standardized agreement reduces transaction costs and attracts liquidity. Especially when this contract has no competition. I have to wonder how long it will take for existing players to wake up and standardize a commercial agreement. The market has room for both open and commercial agreements and all software business models will trend towards hybrid (e.g. Socialtext has a hybrid open source business model that provides both open source, hosted service and appliance options to customers). I'll take the ASP Geneva Agreement with service schedule five, please.
A commodity market exists for software, primarily in components under open source agreements. In most commercial markets for software, there is too much concentration in supply and lack of standardized agreements for there to be a commodity market. Instead, commercial markets are using open source inputs. Witness the raft of startups building upon the LAMP stack.
But there will always be innovation in software and not all software will be a commodity. The trend is more software being built upon commodity inputs, mostly open source. While software that automates business process have grow into largely mature saturated markets, there is room for innovation. Much of the low hanging fruit is in managing the complexity we have created or orchestrating new elements of the network. But software for people goes largely unserved. The vast majority of employees are not engaged in process, they manage exceptions to process. Each wave of innovation leads to standardization which begets innovation again.
What's interesting is how players like MySQL are fostering a commodity market of open source derivatives while de-commoditizing with commercial services. They manage risk, complexity and quality for customers. As a vendor, they benefit from innovation in a liquid open market to reduce their own technology risk. Their pricing is disruptive and their role in orchestrating the value chain allows them to mitigate market risk.
Embracing commoditization doesn't just have to happen in areas where the software is core infastucture or the market player arose from open source. Its a simple acknowledgement of risk and the foresight to cooperate with erstwhile competitors. | <urn:uuid:9493198f-ec44-4603-8f3c-1b42c4528afa> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2004/07/tech_commoditie.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280221.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00229-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948435 | 1,457 | 1.59375 | 2 |
CAIRO (AP) — A leading rights group has called the recent drone attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on an airport in Saudi Arabia an “apparent war crime.”
Human Rights Watch urged the Houthis to stop attacks on civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at HRW, said “unlawful Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen never justify Houthi attacks on Saudi civilians,” according to a statement Friday.
The Houthi attack on the southwestern Saudi town of Abha’s regional airport wounded 26 people Wednesday.
A Saudi-led military coalition has been fighting the Houthis since March 2015. The conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country has killed an estimated 60,000 people and left millions suffering from lack of food and medical care. | <urn:uuid:e53c57c1-df5e-430b-8f29-d3e59941879d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/rights-group-houthi-attack-on-airport-apparent-war-crime/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00269.warc.gz | en | 0.94425 | 170 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Kitchen illumination guidelines
As long as you can see what you are doing, everything is ok. Right or wrong? Well, you are right and wrong.
While you can see what you are doing, there is still a guideline to follow when designing and implementing lighting in a kitchen
Illumination is measured in a quantity known as candles, or foot-candles.
Definition of foot-candle
“a unit of illuminance or illumination, equivalent to the illuminationproduced by a source of one candle at a distance of one foot and equalto one lumen incident per square foot.”
Required illumination of preperation surfaces in restaurant kitchens: 50 candles.
Food display areas: 20 candles.
Requred illumination of walk in coolers: 10 candles.
Article by Gene Cox, Texas Food Manager Training | <urn:uuid:a29a05cb-cbb9-4a45-881c-052adb2e6a5e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://texas-food-manager.com/kitchen-illumination-guidelines/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573193.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818094131-20220818124131-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.898388 | 175 | 2.96875 | 3 |
A northern Minnesota wildlife sanctuary known for its up-close views of black bears in their natural habitat is offering a chance to have breakfast with them.
Well, not quite. The humans are restricted to a viewing deck with Continental breakfast while the bears enjoy their somewhat more substantial morning meal.
That's one of many summer opportunities to see and photograph bears at the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary, which opened for the season last week. Among the highlights: three weekend wildlife photography workshops with pro photographers.
The refuge has an unusual back story of its own. In the 1970s, logger Vince Shute began leaving food in an open meadow to lure the bears away from raiding food supplies at work sites. The normally reclusive bears have gotten used to the arrangement. Today, regulated feeding continues from May to October to preserve opportunities for observation and learning. | <urn:uuid:1a793c91-2ff2-4b7f-b6bd-3ccfeaa078fb> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.travelgumbo.com/blog/minnesota-sanctuary-offers-breakfast-with-bears | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.967244 | 170 | 1.96875 | 2 |
California Opiate Addiction Information
Due to California’s diverse culture, and close proximity with Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, California continues to have one of the largest drug problems in the nation. However, what is most concerning is that the use of dangerous illegal drugs like Heroin and powerful prescription drugs like Oxycontin, have seen a huge uptake in recent years. Drug treatment specialists report that over the last 10 years, heroin use has increased almost 25% due to the large availability of Mexican black tar heroin and heroin from Asia. This increased availability of high purity heroin that can be ingested by snorting or smoking the drug, has attracted a new, younger population to use heroin without a syringe or needle.
Whether you live in large metropolitan areas like beautiful Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, or smaller communities such as Ventura, Palm Springs or Yuma, heroin and other opiate addiction is a major problem all across California. However, what many Californians may not realize about opiate addiction is that, like any addiction, it is a mental disease and needs to be treated as such. Without the proper treatment, many users can go on for years using heroin and other opiates and can devastate and destroy their lives, and countless lives around them.
Seeking Help for a Heroin Addiction in California
All over the state of California there are many different types of drug treatments available including residential, inpatient and outpatient treatments. The best treatment method must also be determined by the severity and duration of the heroin addiction. In many long term cases, heroin users have built up such a large dependence to the drug that severe withdrawal symptoms can occur if the patient immediately stops using. These withdrawal symptoms can vary in the level of severity, and can even be life threatening in rare cases.
Suboxone Doctors in California
See All California Suboxone Doctors
Using Suboxone to Combat Opiate Withdrawal Symptoms
Suboxone is a prescription medication that has proven to be quite effective in the treatment of opiate addiction. Suboxone is often administered in an outpatient setting and helps to ease withdrawal symptoms associated with heroin and other opiate dependency. Suboxone also works in cases of prescription drug withdrawal, including oxycodone, oxycontin, vicodin, percocet and morphine. Suboxone also works to detoxify the body of all existing opiates by encouraging the body to purge itself of all existing traces of the drug.
Find a Suboxone Doctor Near You
The purpose of Suboxone is to help aid the opiate treatment process by decreasing the pain and discomfort associated with withdrawal symptoms, while helping the body to rid itself of existing traces of the drug. This could take anywhere from one to two weeks, until the withdrawal symptoms have dissipated and further treatments can be started. If your looking to contact a licensed Suboxone physician near you feel free to look over our California Suboxone directory for more information. | <urn:uuid:4ade6442-e5f7-4b77-b23f-f45fc58869e8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.suboxone-directory.com/california-opiate-addiction/?order_by=rating_order | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571234.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811042804-20220811072804-00072.warc.gz | en | 0.941974 | 598 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Is it true that Extended Zip File uses encryptions to make files more secure?
Others answers (1)
- eAnswers...Dec 10, 2013
Yes, it is true that Extended Zip File uses encryptions to make files more secure. ZIPX stands for "Extended Zip File" and it is one of the most advanced compression methods available in WinZip. It is also very much secure and can be opened by a wide variety of programs. This type of file system makes use of encryptions, this enables the files to stay secure, only for the eyes of the designated recipient. To know more check this :- http://www.softango.com/extensions/zipx
- RelationshipsMay 14, 2014
- 16 Acts Of Random Kindness That Will Revive Your Hope For The Future Of Mankind
- Show More | <urn:uuid:5d5f0390-c4db-451c-9c5e-1d258be79287> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.eanswers.com/is-it-true-that-extended-zip-file-uses-encryptions-to-make-files-more-secure.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283008.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00080-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.881522 | 173 | 2 | 2 |
Millennials are willing to sacrifice high incomes for meaningful work, but the nonprofit will retain them if it gives them freedom within a framework.
"The future is here — don’t get left behind. Your nonprofit likely wants to attract donors, retain employees, and recruit volunteers. Right? That means you need a clear plan for enticing, engaging, and keeping Millennials.
"As employees — An estimated 80 million young Americans belong to the so-called Millennial generation, roughly ages 18 to 38. In five years, they will represent half of all workers.
"Working with this generation of employees can be frustrating if you don’t understand their world view. So educate yourself about what it takes to attract and retain them."--Cynder Sinclair, Noozhawk | <urn:uuid:a313f16b-f418-410b-9cf3-f5ac5630e229> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.philanthropydaily.com/millennial-remain-interested-in-nonprofit-sector-and-thrive-with-freedom-in-a-framework/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570871.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808183040-20220808213040-00264.warc.gz | en | 0.908911 | 163 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Blueprint to a Virtualised Business
Sumit Mukhija , National Sales Manager - Data Centre, Cisco India & SAARC
Ask any old-economy businessperson, and they will unanimously agree that deals are made through nuances of expression, body language, personal rapport and interaction. In these days of the global enterprise, there is significant benefit in enabling a workforce with the tools and technologies that empower more visual interaction between employees and customers, and within teams.
Collaboration: The growing ecosystem of mobile devices, collaboration technologies, and nearly limitless bandwidth provides such a strong and seamless web of connectivity that geographically dispersed offices and people of the connected enterprise feel and behave like one cohesive entity. The challenge here, however, is that the applications, resources and the technology backbone that powers this level of collaboration needs to be replicated across offices and sites to create a truly connected global enterprise, and requires investments of a great magnitude, which would definitely affect the bottom line.
While enterprises are able to justify this level of investments in some sites, other sites with a smaller number of staff may be unable to enjoy the full technological benefits present in other offices. Virtualisation of these resources is now being seen as the answer to these concerns. With virtualisation, an organisation would not need to replicate investment and installations at various sites, but can simply virtually recreate or provide secure online access to these resources to employees on the corporate network, from their desks, from a mobile device, or even from a public or shared computer.
Virtualising the Business: The shift to a virtualised enterprise is not an overnight shift, and calls for a holistic, and well-planned approach by the IT department in consultation with IT vendors and networking partners. A logical, and phased approach to this implementation, would multiply the benefits of virtualisation to employees across the network, and bring considerable business benefits to the enterprise with a connected and collaborative workforce.
The path to true virtualisation of the enterprise has three distinct phases-Infrastructure Consolidation, Resource Provisioning, and Flexible Service Automation.
Infrastructure Consolidation: In this step, the process is back-end, as existing computing and storage resources are moved onto newer and fewer devices capable of performing multiple functions. Servers, storage equipment, networking gear and other data center resources are also consolidated into a smaller number of physical locations.
Resource Provisioning: In this phase, applications are rolled out based on logically-partitioned computing, network, and storage resources, which have been assigned parameters based on current and projected usage patterns. A robust network infrastructure is a prerequisite to the success of this phase, and the IT department also needs to have clear guidelines and a roadmap as to which applications and technologies need to be assigned percentages of compute and storage.
Flexible Service Automation: The virtualised enterprise is now ready for business, and while users enjoy the benefits from day one, back-end responsibilities for the IT department continue to be the automation of security responses, and self-healing systems. Improved reliability becomes possible in the virtualised network with lower human intervention, once the foundational guidelines have been established. The total cost of ownership too is reduced, as there are lower chances of human error. Automating these processes allows for a policy-based, adaptive infrastructure that improves business agility for the virtualised business.
The Human Factor For this vision to be realised, there is the need for a business to embrace new technologies and networks. While this can be achieved easily, the true challenge lies in the acceptance of a new technology within the organization. At an individual level, exposure to a wide network may be intimidating at first, and people might be reluctant to share ideas and best practices across the network, for fear of being not being given credit. However, the benefits of virtualisation would be evident very soon and would enable newer ways of working together, creating the need for new interworking dynamics between colleagues and teams, eventually creating a stronger. A more agile, resilient organization that can respond quickly to a changing business environment. | <urn:uuid:50fa527e-4a9d-4cd9-9b50-889398047e21> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.cisco.com/c/en_in/about/knowledge-network/virtualised-business.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280504.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00139-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936612 | 815 | 1.554688 | 2 |
New safety rules that played a part in JetBlue Airways' epic meltdown this week could further stretch the industry's supply of pilots, and cause problems at local airports nationwide.
That's because busy regional airlines, which carry a big chunk of all U.S. passengers, are particularly vulnerable to the same rules that felled JetBlue (. )
At issue is an FAA policy that went into effect on Saturday requiring more rest for pilots.
Experts say the rules will mean more flight cancellations in bad weather, since weather-related delays will eat up the fixed number of hours that pilots are allowed to be on duty.
More downtime will also exacerbate an existing shortage of pilots, which could eventually cost some cities service altogether.
Many major airlines are not really affected by the rules because their union contracts already require similar rest periods for pilots. But JetBlue's pilots are not in the union, so the carrier had to make adjustments when bad weather backed up flights.
And many regional carriers might have to follow suit. While many of them are unionized, their pilots don't have the same strong contracts as those at the major carriers. So they too will have to start giving pilots bigger breaks.
Regional jets operate about half of the nation's passenger flights and carry about 25% of fliers.
What's more, about 70% of U.S. cities -- from Bangor, Maine, and Bakersfield, Calif., to Shreveport, La., and Kalamazoo, Mich. -- are served only by regional outfits.
Regional airlines operate under contracts with the major carriers under names such as American Eagle and Delta Connection. They typically carry passengers between smaller airports and the major hubs.
The new rest rules were aimed at combating the problem of pilot fatigue, after the crash of a regional jet in Buffalo in 2009 that killed 50 people.
They require a minimum of 10 hours of rest before a pilot reports for duty, and place weekly and monthly limits on the amount of time a pilot can work.
The upshot: Airlines as a whole will have to hire an estimated 8% to 10% more pilots, according to airline consultant William Swelbar.
"The industry will be required to have more pilots on hand today to do the same amount of flying as it did a week ago," he said.
For regional carriers, which have around 16,000 pilots, that will be a costly and difficult requirement.
Regional carriers already have a hard time hiring pilots because they pay a fraction of what the major carriers offer.
"Communities that rely on regional airlines are going to lose service -- it's just a question of where and how much," said Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association, the industry trade group. "There just aren't enough pilots."
Two other relatively new rules, unrelated to the rest policy, are making the pilot shortage at regional carriers more acute. One has led to a jump in the number of pilots retiring, while the other has prolonged how long it takes to hire new pilots
"I'm all for the new rules. They're great for safety," said Kit Darby, a consultant who helps pilots with their careers. "But [they] ignore the tenets of business, which is that you need the pilots to do the job. The rules should have been phased in."
Darby said it's too soon to say which cities are at risk of losing air service altogether. He believes eventually the airlines will have to decide which cities are no longer profitable enough to justify using the limited supply of pilots.
"It's not something that typically happens the day the rule takes effect," he said. "But it will happen when the regionals run out of pilots." | <urn:uuid:7183eaff-cfc7-45d2-8801-6e81c63dc57f> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/09/news/companies/pilot-flight-cancellations/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721387.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00447-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965068 | 759 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Piano Lessons Sutherland Shire - Piano Teachers Sutherland Shire
The piano is a keyboard instrument that always makes a beautiful, extremely variable sound. It represents the most highly developed means of satisfying musical needs in a musical instrument. It can produce melody and harmony at the same time. Its range covers almost all the sounds used in music and it can produce an extraordinary variety of soft and loud musical notes with great speed and tone colour effects. A piano is more than a mechanical device, because it can express human emotions. Learning to play the piano can open the door to the development of the theory aspects of music and it can also reward you with a fantastic, fun filled musical experience that can stimulate the senses. Caterina Franco Music Tuition can offer you the best advice in Sutherland Shire for Piano lessons that will get you started.
Why select caterina franco MUSIC TUITION for piano Lessons? Our music academy is a wonderful environment that adults and children look forward to coming to over and over! Here are just some great details to choose caterina franco MUSIC TUITION for your Piano Lessons!
Playing a musical instrument is a great fantastic way to improve fine motor skills and it offers a wonderful multi-sensory experience. It involves training delicate control of the muscles and the rehearsal of extremely complex movements so that they become natural or automatic. The ability to read and interpret intellectual information such as music notation in real time, the ability to visualize and recall from memory lengthy patterns of sound while instantaneously giving meaning and expression to those sounds, and the ability to react to feedback from the three primary senses involved in creating music – sight, sound, and touch. And all this may happen concurrently in an instance of music making.
The piano is diverse from other instruments as the number of tasks essential in execution of a piece on the piano is commonly much greater than on other instruments. For example, on a flute you may only be capable of playing a single melody; a piano piece may involve you to play quite a few melodies at any one time, regularly involving some type of chordal accompaniment as well. Additionally, on keyboard instruments the left and right hands frequently move individually of one another than they do on other instruments.
Some of the outstanding composers through-out history were the almost all pianists. This is not an accident as keyboard instruments particularly pianos are only a limited group of instruments on which you can potentially play a complete piece of music, including melodies, counter-melodies and accompaniments – the piano often being recognized as the only instrument which could completely challenge the orchestra in terms of the power and fullness of its sound. The arrangement of the keyboard also reflects the way musical tones are arranged in European music, the origin of most of the music we listen to today, which enables an appropriate understanding of how music is written.
Learning to play the piano will simply give you, or your children, a lifetime of entertainment and an incredible sense of achievement and pleasure.
Our professional piano teachers can teach you to:
- Learn to play and name common notes, rhythm and harmony
- Learn to play your favourite songs
- Put your hand anywhere on the keyboard and play notes
- Improvise, even on fast-changing notes
- Improvise an endless stream of creative musical phrases
- Focus on technique
Piano Lessons Key Details
- Beginner piano lessons
- Adult piano lessons
- Reading music for piano
- Piano scales
- Intermediate piano technique
- Piano exam tuition
- Diploma level piano lessons
- Contemporary piano
- Classical piano
- Jazz piano
- Piano for leisure syllabus
- Piano improvisation
- AMEB piano tuition
- ANZCA piano tuition
- Guild piano tuition
- Trinity piano tuition
- Piano theory
- Piano accompanying
- Band or ensemble work | <urn:uuid:e890a76a-aa80-4683-9543-937e25568d68> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.musictuitions.com.au/piano-lessons | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282926.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00397-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929508 | 782 | 2.46875 | 2 |
I am going to move on to a discussion of Communion. In many ways it will mirror the baptism discussion.
In the spectrum of views on communion we have Roman Catholicism on one end and memorialism (most modern evangelicals) on the other. Catholics believe that the elements actually become that which is signified, while memorialists do not believe that Christ is present in any special way--His presence is no different at the Lord's Supper than it is when we pray or even just think about Him. In memorialism, or Zwinglianism, The Lord’s Supper, like baptism, is not a means of grace but a personal testimony of faith and remembrance.
Luther and Calvin, especially Luther, land mucher closer to the Catholic end of the scale than to the Zwinglian. While they disagreed on the details of Christ's presence, they absolutely agreed that He is present in a way that is very different that, say, during prayer.
Their lack of agreement on the details is understandable. Scripture has left us with a mystery in that regard. However, while the trees may not be discernible, the forest certainly is. The bible is clear that while communion is a memorial of Christ it is also something much more, and His presence is real, and communion and union with Him occur.
This supernatural aspect of Communion is rejected by many because, well it is supernatural. It is as if the creator of all things is incapable of any real presence during the sacrament.
These are just some random initial thoughts which I hope to flesh out in some detail. | <urn:uuid:046507b8-fddc-402e-aa57-8be427ea48f2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://helives.blogspot.com/2004/07/real-absence.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284405.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00039-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967222 | 325 | 1.78125 | 2 |
firm that another company controls. At the very least 20% of stocks usually are utilized for this. The directories are interlocked to be sure a common plan and similiar goals have been in place.
company over which another firm workouts a diploma of control that is lower than the amount of control exercised over a subsidiary. In bookkeeping, these types of control is typically taken fully to indicate the ownership with a minimum of 20 per cent of voting shares, many say inside handling of the connect firm. Linked companies normally have interlocking directorates assuring they usually have common policies and complementary targets. | <urn:uuid:5752b4b5-1cd4-41c5-bee1-6bb4d9d5c56f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.all-dictionary.com/meaning%20of%20associate%20company | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279368.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00329-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966898 | 121 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The CLEP Calculus Rapid Learning Series includes:
- 24 Core Concept Tutorials (Flash Movies)
Concept maps, easy introduction to the topic, concept illustration with annotations and animations, sample problems explained with step-wise strategies and topic summary.
- 24 Problem-Solving Drills (Flash Games)
Feedback based Quizzes, concept-based problems, summary reviews on all problems and scoring system to track performance.
- 24 Super Review Cheat Sheets (PDF Printables)
One cheat sheet per topic, key concepts in a single-sheet, at-a-glance review of each topic and both printable and laminatible Ideal for exam prep quick review.
- 24 Quick-Read Chapter Mini-Books (PDF Printables)
24 Slide-by-slide printable eBooks for each chapter, as the study companion of the visual tutorials.
- 24 Learning-on-the-Go AudioBooks (MP3)
24 mp3 audio tutorials for 24 chapters, perfect supplement to the visual tutorials.
RL514: CLEP Calculus Visually in 24 Hours
CLEP is the fast track to get college credit and Rapid Learning is the fast track to prepare for CLEP. The required topics are overwhelming to study by self reading in absence of classroom instruction. Rapid Learning overcomes this learning gap by offering visual lectures developed and narrated by college professors. Let our experts guide you through your study by following our signature Rapid Learning System - Visual Tutorials + Problem Drills + Cheat Sheets.
This visual course provides the comprehensive coverage of the required topics by the CLEP, with one-to-one match with the official required topics. Study the most relevant content and study them powerfully with Rapid Learning.
Core Unit #1 – The CLEP Foundation
- Tutorial 01: The Guide to the CLEP Exam
- Tutorial 02: Precalculus Review for CLEP Calculus
Core Unit #2 – Functions and their Properties
- Tutorial 03: Functions and Analysis of Graphs
- Tutorial 04: Exponential Functions and Equations
- Tutorial 05: Inverse Functions and Logarithms
Core Unit #3 – Limits and Continuity
- Tutorial 06: The Concepts of Limits and Vertical Asymptotes
- Tutorial 07: Trigonometric Limits and Continuity
- Tutorial 08: Limits Involving Infinity
- Tutorial 09: Rates of Changes
Core Unit #4 – The Differential Calculus
- Tutorial 10: The Tangent and Concept of Derivative
- Tutorial 11: Differentiability and Rules of Differentiation
- Tutorial 12: The Chain Rule and High Order Derivatives
- Tutorial 13: Implicit Differentiation and Related Rates
- Tutorial 14: Applications of Differentiation
- Tutorial 15: More Applications of Differentiation
Core Unit #5 – The Integral Calculus
- Tutorial 16: Riemann Sums and Definite Integrals
- Tutorial 17: The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus
- Tutorial 18: Antidifferentiation and Techniques of Integration
- Tutorial 19: Numerical Integration by Rectangles and Trapezoids
- Tutorial 20: Applications of Integration - Average Value and Area
- Tutorial 21: Differential Equations and Analytical Methods
Core Unit #6 – CLEP Calculus Skills
- Tutorial 22: Problem Solving in CLEP Calculus
- Tutorial 23: Graphing Calculator in Calculus
- Tutorial 24: CLEP Calculus Exam Guide
Master CLEP Calculus the rich-media way, get started now:
Disclaimer: CLEP is a registered trademark of the College Board, which does not endorse, nor is affiliated in any way with the Rapid Learning courses. | <urn:uuid:36915965-6934-48e1-99c7-4a2736e1dbed> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.rapidlearningcenter.com/clep/clep-calculus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285289.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00152-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.819375 | 763 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Soon after my kids were born I noticed that I now lived in a bizarre new world. One filled with brand new, unique and unusual circumstances owing to the fact that all of my dealings revolved around the lives of kids. I also noticed that a lot of the situations I was finding myself in sorely needed but did not have words to describe them. While most of the world and the people in it bend over backwards to accommodate children, the English language does not.
A kid haggles with you to buy them candy in the supermarket checkout aisle… you have to engage in intense negotiations to get a child to take medicine.. when your kid is finished with something, like a food wrapper, they think the proper course of action is to hand it to their mother… Your kids show up in the middle of the night to take over your bed…
Things like these are such common, every day occurrences that there ought to be words to describe them. But there aren’t. Or there weren’t.
I started making up words to describe these kinds of things so parents could more easily describe their days. Because parents are already frazzled enough. These words I’ve made up are called “Phrazzlers.”
Do any of these describe you or your children?
The long, drawn-out battle to get a child to take medicine.
(PILL-o-JAHK-uhr) n :
A child who manages to coax their way into his parent’s bed to sleep.
A child’s desperate attempt to convince his parents to buy them some of the candy conveniently located in the supermarket checkout aisle
To live on virtually nothing but chicken fingers and French fries.
A child who urgently needs your assistance at the precise instant you finally manage to sit down to rest.
A mother who embodies Zombie-like qualities after many months of sleep deprivation.
A kid who has no qualms about barging in on you in the bathroom.
When a child opens a re-sealable food package in a reckless fashion such that it is no longer re-sealable.
A mother’s ability to ignore the barbaric agony of childbirth and let herself get pregnant again.
The consolation gifts you buy for your kids when you don’t take them with you on vacation.
When someone or some thing brings your baby’s nap to a premature end.
A grown up who pretends not to know the answers to the world’s oldest and tiredest riddles so a kid can feel like a comedian.
(eg: Dad: “Hmmm. I don’t know. Why DID the chicken cross the road?”)
A kid’s notion that the proper course of action to dispose of something they are finished with, such as a food wrapper, is to hand it to their mother.
The book “Phrazzlers: Funny New Words to Describe the Wild World of Parenting is full of these types of words. And there are funny videos giving more glimpses inside the book at www.Phrazzlers.com. | <urn:uuid:892a69b3-3375-4c32-a143-e5744caa10dd> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.momseveryday.com/centralwisconsin/local/headlines/kiddictionary-phrazzlers-223135071.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280587.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00568-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94015 | 650 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Transparency International has just issued its Corruption Perceptions Index 2012. The scale ranges from one hundred (“highly clean”) to zero (“highly corrupt.”) One hundred-sixty-seven countries were surveyed this year. The African countries with the highest scores were those that usually do best on such scales: they are small (Botswana, sixty-five; Cape Verde, sixty; Mauritius, fifty-seven.) Among the larger states, Ghana (forty-five) and South Africa (forty-three) did the best, as they usually do in that category. At the bottom were Chad (nineteen), Sudan (thirteen), and Somalia (eight.) Among larger African states, Ethiopia’s score was thirty-three, Kenya’s was twenty-seven, Nigeria’s twenty-seven, and Congo-Kinshasa’s was twenty-one.
World-wide, two-thirds of all countries scored less than fifty out of a one hundred. It is no surprise that the highest scores were Denmark (ninety), Finland (ninety), and New Zealand (ninety). All three are small, highly developed and generally have the best social statistics in the world. The lowest scores are also no surprise: Afghanistan (eight), North Korea (eight) and Somalia (eight).
But in the broad, middle range, those that scored fifty or below included Estonia (sixty-four), Puerto Rico (sixty-three), China (thirty-nine), and India (thirty-six.) Russia’s score was twenty-eight. China and India, of course, have the largest populations in the world, and their combined populations make up more than half of humanity.
The third largest country in the world by population is the United States. Its score was seventy-three; the United Kingdom was seventy-four, Germany, seventy-nine, and France seventy-one. Canada was eighty-four.
The survey measures perceptions of corruption, not actual levels of corruption. With a few exceptions, most of the world’s population perceives corruption in their own country to be a major issue. That is certainly true in Africa where, for example, in South Africa and Nigeria the media constantly bewails official corruption and sees it as a barrier to sustainable economic development. | <urn:uuid:ab257ef5-a897-4fd1-97b5-9be203287743> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://blogs.cfr.org/campbell/2012/12/07/corruption-more-than-just-an-african-reality/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284405.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00032-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963439 | 485 | 2.546875 | 3 |
April 12, 2007
V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church's sole openly gay bishop, added his voice to New Hampshire's civil unions debate, saying legalizing same-sex unions doesn't threaten religion or families.
Robinson testified at a state senate hearing on civil unions, which passed the house last week. He said he went to the legislature as a religious leader and a New Hampshire citizen seeking equality for himself and his partner of nearly 20 years.
"What we seek in the civil realm is the equal treatment by the state government in supporting this development of our relationship with the legal, financial, and societal underpinnings which are afforded married couples at the very moment they say 'I do,' " he said.
"Would that we could get all heterosexual couples to take these commitments and responsibilities so seriously," he said.
"This legislation simply has nothing do to with religious bodies and their affirmation or rejection of such unions in the civil realm," he said. | <urn:uuid:e805715c-196c-4087-a576-13abe4ff2db5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://walkingwithintegrity.blogspot.com/2007/04/gay-bishop-speaks-in-favor-of-nh-civil.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283008.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00088-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976285 | 196 | 1.875 | 2 |
As we watch the world deal with the devastating effects of the earthquake in Japan, and the aftershocks that have continued to ravage that country, many may be thankful that they don’t have to deal with earthquakes here.
But there are several regions in the U.S. that might consider doing some planning for an earthquake. California might be top of mind when it comes to earthquakes. However, there are serious concerns over fault lines in the Midwest.
The New Madrid fault spans from northeast Arkansas to southern Illinois, passing through Missouri, western Tennessee and western Kentucky. The Wabash Valley fault is located along the Wabash River between southeastern Illinois and Indiana.
The New Madrid earthquake series that occurred in 1811 and 1812 includes some of the largest earthquakes in U.S. history, with estimated shock magnitudes of 7 to 8 and several hundreds of aftershocks.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the perception of strong shaking during this earthquake series was estimated to be two to three times larger than the 1964 Alaska earthquake and about 10 times larger than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Historically the size of earthquakes in the Wabash Valley do not reach the magnitude of the New Madrid, but it has been reported that this fault poses a high risk of damage with magnitudes that could reach up to 7.
A 2009 study by the Mid-America Earthquake Center found that if the New Madrid earthquakes of the 1800s occurred today it would have a devastating impact. According to some news reports it would dwarf the catastrophic damages of any natural disaster this nation has ever experienced. Results from the Mid-America Earthquake Center study indicate nearly 7.2 million people would be homeless, 2.6 million households without power, 130 hospitals damaged and $300 billion in economic losses.
It’s unknown when and if an earthquake could happen, but there is a better chance of an earthquake occurring in this area than winning the lottery, says Steve Cain, Extension Disaster Education Network Homeland Security Project Director.
There are steps that you can take to prepare your operation, in the event that an earthquake would occur. The four steps are:
1. Get a kit
2. Make a plan
3. Be informed
4. Get involved
The first step is to get a kit. This means that you gather enough food and water for the number of days you think it would take emergency personnel to get to you. This is typically three to five days, says Cain. But if the New Madrid or Wabash fault had an earthquake of 8 or 9 you’d be looking at five or more days of food storage.
Non-refrigeratored food items are recommended for your kit, such as peanut butter. Check the date for freshness and rotate items through. One gallon of water per day per person or pet should also be included in the kit. Make sure to rotate water too. Your pantry can be considered the kit, as long as it has the right supplies.
A National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA radio is useful tool to have. It can be handy to have one in the barn as well as the house.
Other useful items include a flashlight, whistle, first aid kit, wrench or pliers, and prescriptions. If there are infants in the house the kit should also contain formula and diapers. It’s good to pack cards or other items to entertain both kids and adults. If you have pets make sure to stock pet supplies.
The second step is to make a plan. How will you get in contact with employees or family? How will your operation run? It’s important to think through how you will handle the situation ahead of time.
Next, be informed. Talk with local officials and find out what the possible local disasters in your area are.
Lastly get involved. Take a look at your local farm organizations, how could you get involved. Talk with the local Red Cross or local emergency responders they may have a program to train first responders in your area.
The number one thing you can do to help other people in a disaster situation is to prepare yourself for the disaster, says Cain. “You are saving other people, because emergency personnel don’t have to save your life.”
Stay tuned to the May issue of Dairy Herd Management for more information on how to prepare for a disaster. | <urn:uuid:c6b18e95-f623-405b-9724-48ec684f30ed> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.dairyherd.com/dairy-news/latest/Is-an-earthquake-likely-120005619.html?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279224.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00482-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958564 | 894 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Rabbit Stew And A Penny Or Two
- Author Maggie Smith-Bendell
- Narrator Patience Tomlinson
- Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
- Run Time 6 hours and 6 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Biography: general.
Listen to a sample
What to expect
Born on a Somerset pea-field in 1941, the second of eight children in a Romani family, Maggie Smith-Bendell has lived through the years of greatest change in the travelling community’s long history. As a child, Maggie rode and slept in a horse-drawn wagon, picked hops and flowers, and sat beside her father’s campfire on ancient verges, poor but free to roam. As the twentieth century progressed, common land was fenced off and the traditional ways disappeared. Eventually Maggie married a house-dweller and tried to settle for bricks and mortar, but she never lost the restless spirit, the deep love of the land and the gift for storytelling that were her Romani inheritance.
Maggie’s story is one of hardship and prejudice, but also, unforgettably, it recalls the glories of the travelling life, in the absolute safety of a loyal and loving family. | <urn:uuid:4801fab8-5658-4a34-98f7-4ac53e6aae0c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://xigxag.co.uk/audiobook/rabbit-stew-and-a-penny-or-two-9781405510943/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573876.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20220820012448-20220820042448-00069.warc.gz | en | 0.928179 | 259 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Since March 2020, the pandemic has wreaked havoc on students’ lives and learning. Congress has responded by showering schools with money — $193 billion, so far — to help students catch up academically, cope with mental health struggles and reengage with school.
Lodi Unified, a diverse, mid-size district in the Central Valley, typifies what most districts in California are experiencing as they ponder how to spend their unprecedented funding windfall against a backdrop of dire and escalating needs.
Since 2019, Lodi Unified, which encompasses the city of Lodi, northern Stockton and surrounding rural communities, has seen enrollment drop and its percentage of high-needs students increase.
Last year, more than 70% of the district’s students were low-income, English learners, in foster care, homeless or in the migrant program. With a growing percentage of Latino and Asian students, Lodi’s demographics closely mirror those of the state as a whole.
“This funding has been such a gift. I feel so blessed,” said Patricia White, principal of Elkhorn School, a fourth-through-eighth-grade school in Lodi Unified. “To see the impact on students, to watch the improvement and see them be successful, it’s the best gift you can get. It’s everything, honestly.”
With the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the most recent of three major Covid relief bills, California has received more than any other state: A total of $26.3 billion, amounting to an average of $4,260 per student. Schools can spend that money on anything that helps students recover from the pandemic, including mental health counselors, tutors, tablets and Wi-Fi hot spots, and activities like field trips and after-school clubs intended to make school fun again.
In part because of its growing number of high-needs students, Lodi Unified received more than $131 million in state and federal Covid relief funds, roughly a third of its overall budget pre-pandemic, that it must spend by 2024. Initially, the district purchased tablets and other technology to help students and teachers during distance learning, but now that campuses have reopened, the district is focusing on social-emotional initiatives and academic programs that address learning loss.
McNair High School, a predominantly low-income school in Stockton, has spent its Covid relief funds on a slew of new classes, mental health services and materials to smooth students’ return to in-person school. Among the expenditures, so far: 30 new sewing machines for a fashion design class, new cardiopulmonary resuscitation dummies for a health class, a new Advanced Placement statistics class and boxes of ingredients for students in the culinary program.
The school is also providing more college tours and field trips, substance abuse and suicide prevention counselors, and counselors who specialize in mental health and college and career advising. Every student has a tablet, and those who fell behind during distance learning can make up credits after school or during the school day.
Teachers have some new tools, too, such as microphones, so students can hear them talk through their masks.
“This funding, it’s allowed me to say ‘yes’ a lot,” said McNair Principal Mark Dawson. “We’ve all seen the economic ups and downs, so we know this won’t last forever. We want to take advantage of it now and hope it becomes permanent because the needs will still be there.”
One of the more popular additions at McNair is a new theater production class.
Prior to the pandemic, the school only had one such class; extra funding allowed the school to add a second class so more students could enroll.
Students learn lighting and sound design, how to make costumes, how to design and build sets and props, stage management and other behind-the-scenes theater skills.
It’s also been a great avenue for students to make new friends, learn teamwork and empathy and regain social skills lost during distance learning, said teacher Valorie Fitzgerald.
“Everyone’s suddenly talking about social-emotional learning, but in the performing arts, this is what we’ve always done,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s a magnificent way to learn life skills. … I can’t think of a better use of government money.”
For Koro Ly and her brother Jared, the class has been a lifesaver. The siblings had a rough time during the pandemic.
Their mother was ill with Covid for several months, they had to take on extra responsibilities at home, they transferred to a new school, and distance learning was isolating and dispiriting.
But now their days are filled with whomping willows, flying cars and shrieking shacks, stage props they helped craft for a Harry Potter-theme school production.
“This is just such a close-knit, accepting class. It’s had a big positive impact on me,” said Koro Ly, a senior. “With stage production, you can build an entire world. You know every inch of it. And then to stand back on opening night and see it all up there, it’s just really satisfying.”
Still, deciding how to spend the Covid relief money has not been easy, said district Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Robert Sahli. After collecting input from staff, students and the community, and complying with all the state and federal guidelines, the district still faces a roadblock: hiring.
The statewide teacher shortage has prevented Lodi, and countless other districts, from expanding their teaching staff despite ample funding to do so. The teacher shortage is especially acute for math, science, bilingual education and special education. Fewer teachers earned credentials during the pandemic, according to the Learning Policy Institute, and more teachers left the profession due to burnout or retirement. The result is that districts are competing to hire from a smaller pool of qualified candidates. Hiring tutors and teaching assistants is not much easier.
“You have two choices. You can spend the funds on equipment or personnel,” Sahli said. “The problem is there’s not a lot of people to hire. We could hire more staff tomorrow, but they’re not available.”
Keeping new staff on board after the Covid relief money runs out is a concern for Lodi and most other districts. Lodi administrators are hoping the school board agrees to fund the new positions in 2025 and beyond so layoffs won’t be necessary.
Overall, the risk is worth it, Sahli said.
“We are thrilled that this funding will provide our students with much-needed additional opportunities for both academic and social-emotional support,” Sahli said.
Elkhorn School, a fourth-through-eighth-grade school in Stockton, has partly solved the hiring problem by looking for staff in unusual places. A new after-school chess club funded by the Covid relief money, for example, is being taught by the school custodian.
A longtime chess player, Shaun Montemayor thought students might enjoy learning the game as a fun after-school activity. After all, he said, chess helped him get through the long months when campus was closed. So he pitched the idea to the school principal, Patricia White, and she approved it.
About 40 students regularly attend the chess club, pairing up at outdoor picnic tables with oversize chessboards and plastic black-and-white pieces. On a recent afternoon, some students had a total, razor-like focus on the game before them. Others were talking and joking and moving from table to table, while some were animatedly debating strategy.
“The pandemic was tough on kids…but chess can help. There’s a lot of life lessons in chess — patience, how to plan ahead, discipline, focus, how to win, how to lose. And it’s fun,” Montemayor said.
Spenser Avellar, a seventh-grader, said that if it wasn’t for the Elkhorn chess club, he’d just go straight home after school. That might be OK, he said, except he doesn’t have a chessboard at home.
“It’s an addicting game. There’s so many options,” he said. “Since I started playing chess I’ve learned to think before I do anything. Before I used to be, ‘OK, I’m just going to do what I’m going to do.’ Now I think about it first.”
Kaden Trinidad, who’s in fifth grade, has been playing chess for years but comes to the chess club to hang out with friends and learn new moves. He said it’s much more entertaining than playing video games or chess online.
Abraham Flores, an eighth grader, said the chess club has cheered him up after a difficult year, when he lost a grandparent to Covid and was “super lonely” when his school closed due to the pandemic.
“No one in my family likes chess, so it’s good to come here and have people to play with,” he said. “When you play chess against someone, it’s always a learning experience. I always learn new moves. It’s never the same old thing.”
Chess is just one of the initiatives funded by Covid relief money at Elkhorn. There are more mental health counselors, an after-school science club where students build rockets and compete against other schools, a homework club staffed with tutors and aides to help students who fall behind, and schoolwide team-building activities.
The impact of these additions has been immediate and “phenomenal,” said White, the principal at Elkhorn. Students’ behavior and social skills have dramatically improved, she said, and most students who lagged academically during distance learning have caught up.
In deciding what to prioritize, social-emotional activities such as the chess club were an obvious choice, White said. Students would never be able to focus on classwork until they felt relaxed, comfortable and connected to school again, she said.
“Without these programs, students’ grades would not be where they are. More students would be tuned out. They wouldn’t have the work ethic,” White said. “The effects of (these programs) have been huge. … You can see the happiness.”
To get more reports like this one, click here to sign up for EdSource’s no-cost daily email on latest developments in education. | <urn:uuid:e575587d-9d77-4dc3-8946-1717c6e935df> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://edsource.org/2021/how-one-california-school-district-is-using-covid-relief-money/664383 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572021.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814083156-20220814113156-00069.warc.gz | en | 0.966914 | 2,272 | 2.34375 | 2 |
If your Outlook inbox is overflowing, you probably feel more stressed — and less productive.
To protect your inbox from spam and clutter, the CyberSafe at USPS team offers these tips:
• Never use your Postal Service email address for personal or non-work purposes, such as social media and online shopping.
• Don’t use your USPS address to subscribe to notifications that aren’t related to your work, such as news feeds, listservs and updates from retailers.
• Before hitting “reply all” on an email chain, look at all the recipients and make sure each one has a business need for the information.
• Set Outlook “rules” to declutter your inbox automatically. The ServiceNow Knowledgebase site has instructions on creating these rules.
The CyberSafe at USPS Blue page has additional information on effectively managing emails. | <urn:uuid:e182e34e-7b5f-4dab-8bc1-1a8af923d355> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://link.usps.com/2018/06/18/thin-is-in/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573533.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818215509-20220819005509-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.920086 | 177 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The purpose of this lesson to assist student understanding of why the American Constitution places ultimate authority of the military in the hands of civilians rather than military leaders. Students should appreciate the historical uniqueness of the American military as an extension of constitutional principles in which the people always have the last word.
Grade 9-12 The Dynamics of War Powers
This three-part lesson asks students to think critically about the nature of the War Powers identified by the Constitution. Beginning with the historical foundations of the War Powers as written in the Constitution, students will explore why the Founders identified the War Powers as they did, using primary sources to back up their arguments. Students will then consider how War Powers have changed over time, evaluating the evolving dynamic of powers between the three branches of government.
Veterans Day Lesson Plans & Resources
Find new ways to teach students about the meaning of Veterans Day, celebrated on November 11th. Share My Lesson’s collection of free, vetted K-12 lesson plans and activities has new ideas, including how to turn this holiday into a community action day and a helpful toolkit for children of military families. | <urn:uuid:ea290002-47f1-4cc5-8aff-4b498b32b405> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.civicsrenewalnetwork.org/civicdays/veterans-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570868.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808152744-20220808182744-00075.warc.gz | en | 0.943615 | 226 | 4.21875 | 4 |
Go to part 2/3
Also by John Clark:
A Social Ecology
by John Clark
The article can be used if you note that it is forthcoming in M. Zimmerman et al., Environmental Philosophy, second edition (Prentice Hall, 1997)]
In its deepest and most authentic sense, a social ecology is the awakening earth community reflecting on itself, uncovering its history, exploring its present predicament, and contemplating its future. One aspect of this awakening is a process of philosophical reflection. As a philosophical approach, a social ecology investigates the ontological, epistemological, ethical and political dimensions of the relationship between the social and the ecological, and seeks the practical wisdom that results from such reflection. It seeks to give us, as beings situated in the course of real human and natural history, guidance in facing specific challenges and opportunities. In doing so, it develops an analysis that is both holistic and dialectical, and a social practice that might best be described as an eco-communitarianism.
The Social and the Ecological
A social ecology is first of all, an ecology. There are strong communitarian implications in the very term ecology. Literally, it means the logos, the reflection on or study of, the oikos, or household. Ecology thus calls upon us to begin to think of the entire planet as a kind of community of which we are members. It tells us that all of our policies and problems are in a sense "domestic" ones. While a social ecology sometimes loses its bearings as it focuses on specific social concerns, when it is consistent it always situates those concerns within the context of the earth household, whatever else it may study within that community. The dialectical approach of a social ecology requires social ecologists to consider the ecological dimensions of all "social" phenomena. There are no "non-ecological" social phenomena to consider apart from the ecological ones.
In some ways, the term "social" in "social ecology" is the more problematical one. There is a seeming paradox in the use of the term "social" for what is actually a strongly communitarian tradition. Traditionally, the "social" realm has been counterposed to the "communal" one, as in Tönnies' famous distinction between society and community, Gesellschaft and Gemeinschaft. Yet this apparent self-contradiction may be a path to a deeper truth. A social ecology is a project of reclaiming the communitarian dimensions of the social, and it is therefore appropriate that it seek to recover the communal linguistic heritage of the very term itself. "Social" is derived from "socius," or "companion." A "society" is thus a relationship between companions--in a sense, it is itself a household within the earth household.
An Evolving Theory
Over the past quarter-century, a broad social and ecological philosophy has emerged under the name "social ecology." While this philosophy has recently been most closely associated with the thought of social theorist Murray Bookchin, it continues a long tradition of ecological communitarian thought going back well into the nineteenth century. The lineage of social ecology is often thought to originate in the mutualistic, communitarian ideas of the anarchist geographer Kropotkin (1842-1921). One can certainly not deny that despite Kropotkin's positivistic tendencies and his problematical conception of nature, he has an important relationship to social ecology. His ideas concerning mutual aid, political and economic decentralization, human-scaled production, communitarian values, and the history of democracy have all made important contributions to the tradition. However, it is rooted much more deeply in the thought of another great anarchist thinker, the French geographer Elisée Reclus (1830-1905). During the latter half of the last century, and into the beginning of the present one, Reclus developed a far-ranging "social geography" that laid the foundations of a social ecology, as it explored the history of the interaction between human society and the natural world, starting with the emergence of homo sapiens and extending to Reclus' own era of urbanization, technological development, political and economic globalization, and embryonic international cooperation.
Reclus envisioned humanity achieving a free, communitarian society in harmony with the natural world. His extensive historical studies trace the long record of experiments in cooperation, direct democracy and human freedom, from the ancient Greek polis, through Icelandic democracy, medieval free cities and independent Swiss cantons, to modern movements for social transformation and human emancipation. At the same time, he depicts the rise and development of the modern centralized state, concentrated capital and authoritarian ideologies. His sweeping historical account includes an extensive critique of both capitalism and authoritarian socialism from an egalitarian and anti-authoritarian perspective, and an analysis of the destructive ecological effects of modern technology and industry allied with the power of capital and the state. It is notable that a century ago Reclus' social theory attempted to reconcile a concern for justice in human society with compassionate treatment of other species and respect for the whole of life on earth--a philosophical problematic that has only recently reemerged in ecophilosophy and environmental ethics.
Many of the themes in Reclus' work were developed further by the Scottish botanist and social thinker Patrick Geddes (1854-1932), who described his work as "biosophy," the philosophical study of the biosphere. Geddes focuses on the need to create decentralized communities in harmony with surrounding cultural and ecological regions and proposes the development of new technologies (neotechnics) that would foster humane, ecologically-balanced communities. He envisions an organicically developing cooperative society, based on the practice of mutual aid at the most basic social levels and spreading throughout society as these small communities voluntarily federate into larger associations. Geddes orients his work around the concepts of "Place, Work, and Folk," envisioning a process of incorporating the particularities of the natural region, humane, skillful and creative modes of production, and organically developing local culture into his "Eutopia" or good community. Geddes calls his approach a "sociography," or synthesis of sociological and geographical studies. He applies this approach in his idea of the detailed regional survey as a means of achieving community planning that is rooted in natural and cultural realities and grows out of them organically. He thus makes an important contribution to developing the empirical and bioregional side of the social ecological tradition.
Many of Geddes' insights were later integrated into the expansive vision of society, nature, and technology of his student, the American historian and social theorist Lewis Mumford (1895-1992), who is one of the most pivotal figures in the development of the social ecological tradition. Ramachandra Guha is certainly right when he states that "[t]he range and richness of Mumford's thought mark him as the pioneer American social ecologist . . . ." Most of the fundamental concepts to which Bookchin later attached to the term "social ecology" were borrowed from Mumford's much earlier ecological regionalism. The philosophical basis for Mumford's social analysis is what he calls an "organic" view of reality, a holistic and developmental approach he explicitly identifies as an "ecological" one. In accord with this outlook, he sees the evolution of human society as a continuation of a cosmic process of organic growth, emergence, and development. Yet he also sees human history as the scene of a counter-movement within society and nature, a growing process of mechanization.
Much like Reclus before him, Mumford depicts history as a great struggle between freedom and oppression. In Mumford's interpretation of this drama, we find on one side the forces of mechanization, power, domination, and division, and on the other, the impulse toward organism, creativity, love, and unification. The tragedy of history is the increasing ascendancy of mechanism, and the progressive destruction of our organic ties to nature and to one another. The dominant moment of history, he says, has been "one long retreat from the vitalities and creativities of a self-sustaining environment and a stimulating and balanced communal life."
Mumford describes the first decisive step in this process as the creation in the ancient world of the Megamachine, in the form of regimented, mechanized massing of human labor-power under hierarchical control to build the pyramids as an expression of despotic power. While the Megamachine in this primal barbaric form has persisted and evolved over history, it reemerges in the modern world in a much more complex, technological manifestation, with vastly increased power, diverse political, economic and cultural expressions, and apparent imperviousness to human control or even comprehension. Mumford sees the results of this historical movement as the emergence of a new totalitarian order founded on technological domination, economic rationality and profit, and fueled by a culture of obsessive consumption. The results are a loss of authentic selfhood, a dissolution of organic community, and a disordered, destructive relationship to the natural world.
Mumford's vision of the process of reversing these historical tendencies is a social ecological one. He foresees a process of social decentralization in which democratic institutions are recreated at local and regional levels as part of organic but diverse communities. "Real human communities," he contends, are those that combine unity with diversity and "preserve social as well as visual variety. " Following Geddes and prefiguring bioregionalism, Mumford believes that the local community must be rooted in the natural and cultural realities of the region. "Strong regional centers of culture" are the basis for "an active and securely grounded local life." Regionalism is not only an ecological concept, but also a political and cultural one, and is the crucial link between the most particular and local dimensions and the most universal and global ones. "The rebuilding of regional cultures" Mumford says, "will give depth and maturity to the world culture that has likewise long been in the process of formation." Mumford contends that an epochal process of personal and social transformation is necessary if the course of history is to be redirected toward a humane, ecological, life-affirming future. Much in the spirit of communitarian philosopher Martin Buber (1878-1965), he foresees a humanized, cooperative world culture emerging out of regenerated regional cultures that arise in turn out of a regenerated human spirit.
While he begins with a general perspective on society and nature that is close to Mumford's, Bookchin makes a number of crucial contributions to the further development of a social ecology. Most significantly, he broadens the theoretical basis of the communitarian, organicist, and regionalist tradition developed by Reclus, Geddes and Mumford by making dialectical analysis a central focus. He thereby opens the way for more critical and theoretically sophisticated discussions of concepts like holism, unity-in-diversity, development, and relatedness. He also develops Mumford's defense of an organic world view into a more explicitly ecological theoretical perspective. Mumford's analysis of the historical transformation of organic society into the Megamachine is expanded in Bookchin's somewhat broader account of the emergence of diverse forms of domination and of the rise of hierarchical society. He devotes more detailed attention to the interaction of the state, economic classes, patriarchy, gerontocracy, and other factors in the evolution of domination. Of particular importance is Bookchin's emphasis on the central role of the developing global capitalist economy in ecological crisis, which corrects Mumford's tendency to overemphasize the technical at the expense of the economic. He also adds some additional chapters to the "history of freedom," especially in his discussions of the mutualistic, liberatory and ecological dimensions of tribal societies, millenarian religious movements and utopian experiments. Finally, while his predecessors presented a rather general vision of a politics that was anti-authoritarian, democratic, decentralist and ecological, Bookchin gives a concrete political direction to the discussion of such a politics in his proposals for libertarian municipalism and confederalism.
Some of these contributions have come at a considerable cost. Although Bookchin develops and expands the tradition of social ecology in important ways, he has at the same time also narrowed it through dogmatic and non-dialectical attempts at philosophical system-building, through an increasingly sectarian politics, and through intemperate and divisive attacks on "competing" ecophilosophies and on diverse expressions of his own tradition. To the extent that social ecology has been identified with Bookchinist sectarianism, its potential as an ecophilosophy has not been widely appreciated.
Fortunately, the fundamental issues posed by a social ecology will not fade away in the smoke of ephemeral (and eminently forgettable) partisan skirmishes. Inevitably, a broad, vibrant, and inherently self-critical tradition like social ecology will resist attempts to restrict it in a manner that contradicts its most fundamental values of holism, unity-in-diversity, organic growth and dialectical self-transcendence. Thus, despite its temporary setbacks, the project of a social ecology continues to develop as a general theoretical orientation, as an approach to the analysis of specific problems, and as a guide to practical efforts at social and ecological regeneration.
A Dialectical Holism
A social ecology, as a holistic vision, seeks to relate all phenomena to the larger direction of evolution and emergence in the universe as a whole. Within this context, it also examines the course of planetary evolution as a movement toward increasing complexity and diversity and the progressive emergence of value. According to Mumford, an examination of the " creative process" of "cosmic evolution" reveals it to be "neither random nor predetermined" and shows that a "basic tendency toward self-organization, unrecognizable until billions of years had passed, increasingly gave direction to the process."
This outlook is related to the long teleological tradition extending " from ancient Greek thought to the most recent organicist and process philosophies. It is in accord with Hegel's insight that "substance is subject," if this is interpreted in an evolutionary sense. There is no complete and "given" form of either subject or substance, but rather a universal process of substance-becoming-subject. Substance tends toward self-organization, life, consciousness, self-consciousness, and, finally, transpersonal consciousness (though the development takes place at all levels of being and not merely in consciousness). Social ecology is thus linked to theories of evolutionary emergence. Such a position remains implicit in Hegel's dialectical idealism, receives a more explicit expression in Samuel Alexander's cosmic evolutionism, underlies the metaphysics of Whitehead and contemporary process philosophy, is given a rather technocentric and anti-naturalist turn in Teilhard de Chardin, is synthesized with Eastern traditions in Radhakrishnan and Aurobindo, and finds its most developed expression in Ken Wilber's recent effort at grand evolutionary synthesis.
A social ecology interprets planetary evolution and the realization of social and ecological possibilities as a holistic process, rather than merely as a mechanism of adaptation. This evolution can only be understood adequately by examining the interaction and mutual determination between species and species, between species and ecosystem, and between species, ecosystem and the earth as a whole, and by studying particular communities and ecosystems as complex, developing wholes. Such an examination reveals that the progressive unfolding of the potentiality for freedom (as self-organization, self-determination, and self-realization) depends on the existence of symbiotic cooperation at all levels--as Kropotkin pointed out almost a century ago. We can therefore see a striking degree of continuity in nature, so that the cooperative ecological society that is the goal of a social ecology is found to be rooted in the most basic levels of being.
Some critics of social ecology have claimed that its emphasis on the place of human beings in the evolutionary process betrays a non-ecological anthropocentrism. While this may be true of some aspects of Bookchin's thought, it does not describe what is essential to a social ecology. Although we must understand the special place that humanity has within universe and earth history, the consequences of such understanding are far from being hierarchical, dualistic, or anthropocentric. A dialectical analysis rejects all "centrisms," for all beings are at once centers (of structuration, self-organization, perceiving, feeling, sensing, knowing, etc.) and also expressions of that which exists at a distance, since from a dialectical perspective, determination is negation, the other is immanent in a being, and the whole is immanent in the part. There exists not only unity-in-diversity, and unity-in-difference but also unity-in-distance. We must interpret our place in nature in accord with such an analysis, comprehending the ways in which our being is internally related, we might say "vertically," to more encompassing realms of being, and, we might say "horizontally," to wider realms of being. By exploring our many modes of relatedness we discover our social and ecological responsibility--our capacity to respond to the needs of the human and natural communities in which we participate.
The use of metaphors such as community and organism in a dialectical and holistic account of diverse phenomena is certainly not unproblematical. There has rightly been much debate in ecophilosophy concerning the status of such images, and their function and limitations must be a subject of continuing reflection. A dialectical approach assumes their provisional nature, the importance of avoiding their use in a rigid, objectifying way, and the necessity of allowing all theoretical concepts to develop in the course of inquiry. Thus, there are certainly senses in which the earth or the biosphere cannot be described as a community. One might define community as a relationship existing between beings who can act reciprocally in certain ways, taking the criterion for reciprocity to be showing respect, carrying out obligations, or some other capacity. If one adopts such a "model" of a community, the earth is certainly not one, any more than it is an organic whole, if that term is taken to mean having the qualities of a biological organism. Yet the term "community" has in fact much more expansive connotations than those just mentioned. A community is sometimes thought to include not only competent adult human beings (moral agents), but infants and children, the mentally incompetent, past generations, future generations, domesticated animals, artifacts, architecture, public works, values and ideals, principles, goals, symbols, imaginary significations, language, history, customs and traditions, territory, biota, ecosystems and other constituents that are thought essential to its peculiar identity. To be a member of a community is often thought to imply responsibilities of many kinds in relation to some or all of the categories listed.
Questions are also raised about the totalizing implications of holism. Critics of holism sometimes identify it with an extreme organicism that denies the significance, reality, or the value of the parts. It is important therefore to understand that "holism" does not refer exclusively to a view in which the whole is ontologically prior to the part, more metaphysically real than the part, or deserving of more moral consideration than the part. In fact, a dialectical holism rejects the idea that the being, reality or value of the parts can be distinguished from that of the whole in the manner presupposed by such a critique.
This is sometimes misunderstood when critics overlook an important distinction within a dialectical holism. In its comprehensively holistic analysis, the parts of a whole are not mere parts but rather holons, which are themselves relative wholes in relation to their own parts. The good of the part can therefore not be reduced to a function of its contribution to the good of the whole. Its good can be also be considered in relation to its participation in the attainment of the good of a whole which it helps constitute. But beyond this, to mention what is most relevant to the critiques of holism, its attainment of its own good as a unique expression of wholeness must also be considered. There is a striking irony here. An authentic holism is capable of appreciating the value of kinds of wholeness (realized form, self-organization, attainment of good) that are often ignored by "individualisms" that defend one level of wholeness against its possible dissolution in some larger whole. Holism does not mean the fetishization of some particular kind of whole, which would constitute a version of the fallacy of misplaced concreteness, but rather an exploration of the meaning of many kinds of wholeness that appear in many ways and on many levels within developing unity-in-diversity.
No Nature
So much for the truth of the whole. However, a dialectical holism refuses to objectify, reify or absolutize any whole, including the whole of nature. Just as our experience of objects or things points to the reality of that which escapes objectification and reification, our experience of the whole of nature points to the reality of that which which cannot be reduced to nature.
Since the beginnings of philosophical reflection, dialectical thinkers of both East and West have proposed that beneath all knowing and objects of knowledge there is a primordial continuum, the eternal one-becoming-many, the ground of being. It is what Lao Tzu described in the Tao Te Ching as the reality that precedes all conceptualization, or "naming," and all determination, or "carving of the block" :
This reality is ontologically prior to ecological differentiation, and indeed, to "nature" itself--which is one reason that a mere "naturalism" can never be adequately dialectical. It is an apprehension of the conditional reality of all phenomena that drives dialectical thought to an affirmation of both the being and non-being of all objects, categories, and concepts. This ground is what social ecological theorist Joel Kovel refers to as the "plasma of being." It is also what mystical philosophers like Böhme have, quite dialectically, called "the groundless Ground," attempting to express the idea that it is a non-objectifiable grounding of being, rather than an objectified ground, or substance, on which anything can be thought to stand, or which "underlies" other realities. If we wish to attach any concept to this ultimate, it should perhaps be (following Whitehead) "creativity."
Kovel points out, contemporary science has shown that such a continuum underlies the diversity of beings.
Kovel's account of the our relation to this primordial ground is both phenomenological and psychoanalytic. It reveals the ways in which we are ecological beings, and indeed spiritual beings, because our being extends beyond the limits of the ego or socially constructed selfhood. Much of our experience reveals to us that this self is not sufficient, or primary,
Thus, there are fundamental aspects of being that connect us, physically, psychologically and ontologically, with greater (or deeper) realities--with other living beings, with our species, with the earth, with the primordial ground of being.
This idea of connectedness leads us to the question of the place of the concept of spirit in a dialectical holism. The most radical "critical" and dialectical views after Hegel, beginning with the Young Hegelians -- Feuerbach, Stirner, Marx and their peers--were intent on banishing Hegel's central category from the philosophical realm. The post-Hegelian dialectical tradition has been dominated by a reductive materialism that has dogmatically rejected the possibility of dialectical inquiry into the most fundamental ontological questions. Some versions of social ecology have inherited this anti-spiritual tendency of Western materialism. Thus, while Bookchin has sometimes invoked the concept of "ecological spirituality" in his writings, it has usually been in the weak sense of a vague ecological or even ethical sensibility and he has increasingly sought to banish any strong conception of "spirit" from his social ecological orthodoxy.
It is becoming evident, however, that the most radically dialectical and holistic thinking restores the ontological and political significance of the concept of spirit. Without implying any of the dogmatic and one-sided idealist aspects of Hegel's conception of spirit, a social ecology can find in the concept an important means of expressing our relationship to the evolving, developing, unfolding whole and its deeper ontological matrix. Kovel begins his discussion of spirit with the statement that it concerns "what happens to us as the boundaries of the self give way." The negation of ego identity that he intends by this concept takes place when we discover our relationship to the primordial continuum and to its expressions in the processes of life, growth, development, and the striving toward wholeness. A social ecology can give meaning to an ecological spirituality that will embody the truth of the religious consciousness, which is a liberatory truth, however mystified and distorted it may have been for purposes of domination and social conformism. Such a spirituality is the synthesis and realization of the religion of nature and the religion of history. It consists of a response to the sacredness of the phenomena, of the multiplicity of creative expressions of being, and of the whole that encompasses all beings. It is also an expression of wonder and awe at the mystery of becoming, the unfolding of the universe's potentiality for realized being, goodness, truth and beauty.
Page generated by the dadaPHP system.0.0168 sec. | <urn:uuid:4d6d1265-f4e7-457a-bccf-c2a249cf69e6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://library.nothingness.org/articles/2/en/display/303 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572161.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815054743-20220815084743-00473.warc.gz | en | 0.945275 | 5,367 | 2.8125 | 3 |
British Medical Association emphasises the importance of the consumption of protective foods. The British Medical Association's standards (1933) were formulated to maintain health and working capacity during the depression.
Hazel Steibling of the USDA proposes a set of standards to ensure that diets used in the feeding programmes during the depression era would be nutritionally adequate and includes standards for vitamin A and C, calcium, phosphorus and iron.
Stiebling, H.K. (1933) Food budgets for nutrition and production programs. USDA Micellaneous Publication no. 183. Washington D.C.
H.K. Stiebeling – Buying guide
|Number of food groups||Protein-rich foodsMilk/meat||breads||Vegetables/fruit||Other (incl fats)|
|12||Milk- 2 cupsLean meat/poultry/fish -9-10/weekDry mature beans,peas, nuts -1/weekEggs -1||Flours, cereals-As desired||Leafy green/yellow -11-12/weekPotatoes, sweet potatoes -1Other veg/fruit- 3 Tomatoes and citrus -1||Butter -naOther fats -naSugars -na|
Source: USDA, Human Nutrition Information Service, 1993 | <urn:uuid:76858324-671c-4fa0-930a-389bf31afb26> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.sirc.org/timeline/1933.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282140.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00126-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.803682 | 272 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Krishna Deities and Their Miracles
How the Images of Lord Krishna Interact with Their Devotees
By Stephen Knapp
This book helps reveal how the Deities of Krishna in the temple are but another channel through which the Divine can be better understood and perceived. In fact, the Deities Themselves can exhibit what some would call miracles in the way They reveal how the Divine accepts the Deity form. These miracles between the Deities of Krishna and His devotees happen in many different ways, and all the time. This is one process through which Krishna, or the Supreme Being, reveals Himself and the reality of His existence. Stories of such miracles or occurrences extend through the ages up to modern times, and all around the world. This book relates an assortment of these events to show how the images in the temples have manifested Their personality and character in various ways in Their pastimes with Their devotees, whether it be for developing their devotion, instructing them, or simply giving them His kindness, mercy or inspiration.
This book helps show that the Supreme Reality is a person who plays and exhibits His pastimes in any manner He likes. This is also why worship of the Deity in the temple has been and remains a primary means of increasing oneís devotion and connection with the Supreme Being.
Besides presenting stories of the reciprocation that can exist between Krishna in His Deity form and the ordinary living beings, other topics include:
The antiquity of devotion to the Deity in the Vedic tradition.
Historical sites of ancient Deity worship.
Scriptural instructions and references to Deity veneration.
The difference between idols and Deities.
What is darshan and the significance of Deities.
Why God would even take the initiative to reveal Himself to His devotees and accept the position of being a Deity.
This book will give deeper insight into the unlimited personality and causeless benevolence of the Supreme, especially to those who become devoted to Him.
THE ANTIQUITY OF DEITY WORSHIP IN THE VEDIC TRADITION
Historical Sites of Ancient Deity Worship * Scriptural References to Deity Worship * Difference Between Idol and Deity Worship
DARSHAN AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DEITY WORSHIP
WHY GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO HIS DEVOTEES
STORIES OF DEITIES AND THEIR RECIPROCATION
The Temples of Vrindavana * Radha Damodara * Radha Syamasundara * Pisi Ma and Her Deities of Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda * Radharamana * Lokanatha Goswami and the Deity of Radhavinoda Thakura * Lala Babu and the Krishna Chandrama Deity * Banki Behari * Madana Gopala and Sanatana Goswami * Madana Mohana in Karauli * Radha-Govindaji * Govinda Deva and the Gardenerís Pomegranate * Udupi Krishna
DEITIES IN OTHER AREAS OF INDIA
Jagannatha Mandir in Mayapur * Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura in Mayapur * Ekachakra * Saksi-Gopala * Remuna * Alalarnatha * Yadagiri-Gutta * Kanchipuram * Thiruattur * Trivandrum * Karamadai * Melkote * Nathdwara * Pandharpur * Dwaraka * Badrinatha * Tirupati
STORIES OF LORD JAGANNATHA IN PURI
Lord Jagannatha and Dasia Bouri * Lord Jagannatha and Bandhu Mohanti * A Wish Fulfilled
MORE RECENT PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
Laddu Gopal at Sri Khanda * Gopal Giri * The Appearance of Lord Narasimhadeva in Mayapur * Lord Narasimhadeva Reciprocates Instantly * Miracles in Mayapur * Lord Narasimha in South Africa * Sri Sri Radha Gandharvika Giridhari in Mayapur * The Bala Gopal Deity and Krishna Prema Das * Kicked by the Kartamasha Deity * Saved by Gaura Nitai * Lord Balarama Shows His Presence * Lord Jagannatha in London Soho * A Few Stories by Anju Kejriwal * Radha Krishna in My Dreams * Saved From Nightmares by Balarama * Balarama Winks * The Hunterís Blessing * Sri Govindaji Reciprocates * Transported to Goloka Vrindavana * Stories of a Familyís Spiritual Blessings * Lord Jagannatha Wants Watermelon
GLOSSARY / REFERENCES / INDEX / ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY: 210 pages, 6"x9" trim size, $14.95, ISBN-10: 1463734298, ISBN-13: 978-1463734299.
FROM AMAZON.COM: http://www.amazon.com/Krishna-Deities-Their-Miracles-Interact/dp/1463734298/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313452380&sr=1-1
AVAILABLE AS PAPERBACK OR KINDLE EBOOK AT THE FOLLOWING AMAZON LOCATIONS IN LOCAL CURRENCIES (Click on the letters):
FROM BARNES & NOBLE.COM: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/krishna-deities-and-their-miracles-stephen-knapp/1032774577
STORES AND CATALOGS who want to purchase copies for resale at discounted rates can contact the publisher, Createspace.com, to start an account with them at: https://www.createspace.com/pub/l/createspacedirect.do?rewrite=true.
AN EBOOK VERSION FROM LULU.COM for $5.99 for Adobe Reader: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/krishna-deities-and-their-miracles-how-the-images-of-lord-krishna-interact-with-their-devotees/16585843
To get the latest version of Adobe Reader to read the E-book, use this link: http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/.
IN INDIA: You can also find this book in India through Amazon's new outlet at: http://www.amazon.in/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_13/278-3829732-1551544?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=stephen%20knapp&sprefix=Stephen+Knapp%2Caps%2C171
[More information at www.stephen-knapp.com] | <urn:uuid:05ee3d55-9155-44b7-b3cb-196acbded155> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.stephen-knapp.com/krishna_deities_and_their_miracles.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280718.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00403-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.810423 | 1,477 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Managing Your Headaches
2nd ed. 2005
Normal Price: $44.42
Your Price: $39.98 AUD, inc. GST
Shipping: $7.95 per order
You Save: $4.44! (10% off normal price)
Plus...earn $2.00 in Boomerang Bucks
Availability: Available, ships in 8-11 days
Managing Your Headaches by Mark W. Green
Book DescriptionFrequent headaches seriously affect the lives of millions of sufferers. The result can be lost productivity and income, restrict activity, lower self-esteem, and even social isolation. For many, it takes years to find the appropriate medication to manage your headaches effectively. In Managing Your Headaches, Mark and Leah Green and John Rothrock explain what information you should record for your physician, what a physician is looking for in a neurological examination, and what you should (and should not) do to reduce the frequency and severity of your headaches. They discuss the effects of stress, psychological factors, possible food triggers, and environmental risk factors. The authors explain the symptoms of migraine, cluster, and tension-type headaches as well as less common types. They address common concerns and misconceptions and explain current knowledge about headache causes in understandable terms. The newest, most effective medications and their possible side effects are evaluated. The authors also explain how to prevent rebound headaches from over-medications and how non-medical treatments can be of value. Managing Your Headaches will tell you what you need to know to better control your headaches. Armed with the information in this book, you can be aware of the latest treatment options and can have more productive, informed discussions with your physician.
Buy Managing Your Headaches book by Mark W. Green from Australia's Online Bookstore, Boomerang Books.
Book DetailsISBN: 9780387222516
(216mm x 140mm x 10mm)
Imprint: Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Publish Date: 1-Jun-2004
Country of Publication: United States
Books By Author Mark W. Green
Neuropsychiatry of Headache, Hardback (March 2013)» View all books by Mark W. Green
Explores the psychiatric conditions that accompany many forms of headache and how to co-manage the physical and mental aspects.
» Have you read this book? We'd like to know what you think about it - write a review about Managing Your Headaches book by Mark W. Green and you'll earn 50c in Boomerang Bucks loyalty dollars (you must be a member - it's free to sign up!)
Phone: 1300 36 33 32 (9am-5pm Mon-Fri AEST) - International: +61 2 9960 7998 - Online Form
Address: Boomerang Books, 878 Military Road, Mosman Junction, NSW, 2088
© 2003-2017. All Rights Reserved. Eclipse Commerce Pty Ltd - ACN: 122 110 687 - ABN: 49 122 110 687 | <urn:uuid:700041c8-afe3-49f2-863b-25cbe2721be3> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.boomerangbooks.com.au/Managing-Your-Headaches/Mark-W-Green/book_9780387222516.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279189.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00059-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.88032 | 637 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Comparison of 1-D and 2-D modeling approaches for simulating runoff and sediment transport in overload areas
MetadataShow full item record
One-dimensional and two-dimensional modeling approaches were compared for their abilities in predicting overland runoff and sediment transport. Both the I-D and 2-D models were developed to test the hypothesis that the 2-0 modeling approach could improve the model predictions over the 1-0 approach, based on the same mathematical representations of physical processes for runoff and sediment transport. Runoff processes were described based on the St. Venant equations and the sediment transport was based on the continuity relationship. The finite element method was employed to solve the governing equations. The nonlinear, time-dependent system of equations obtained by the finite element formulation was solved by the substitution method and the implicit method. The models were verified by comparing the analytical solutions presented by Singh and Regl (1983) and the solution by the Izzard method (Chow, 1959). The comparison showed that both the 1-0 and 2-D models provided reasonable estimations of runoff and sediment loadings. Evaluation of the models was based on four different hypothetical case studies and two experimental studies. The hypothetical case studies investigated the effects of the discretization level, cross slopes, and the size of the field area on the model predictions. The two experimental studies provided a comparison of model predictions with observed data. The results of the hypothetical case studies indicated that the maximum differences in the model predictions at the outlet were about 30% between the two modeling approaches. When the discretization level was sufficient to reasonably describe the shape of the surface, the 1-0 model prediction were almost the same as the 2-D model predictions. Even though cross slopes existed in the field, the differences in the model predictions at the outlet were not significant between the 1-0 and 2-0 models. The differences in the model predictions of runoff and sediment loading were not affected by the changes in the size of the field. Since the 2-D model resulted in 10 to 20% differences in model predictions when different boundary conditions were used and the 1-D model predictions were also affected by the choice of element length, the differences in model predictions at the outlet, shown in model application results, which were less than 30% in most cases, could not be considered significant. The model applications to the experimental studies also showed that no substantial differences existed in the model predictions between the I-D and 2-D models. Even though the spatial distributions of the flow depth and sediment concentration were significantly different, runoff volumes and sediment yields at the outlet showed less than 10% differences. Compared with the I-D model, the 2-D model required much more computational time and effort to simulate the same problems. In addition, convergence problems due to negative flow depths limited the 2-D model applications. The 2-D simulations required more than twice the computational time needed for the I-D simulations. As long as the model predictions at the outlet are concerned, the much greater computational costs and efforts could not justify the use of the 2-D approach. Based on the simulation results from the selected hypothetical case and experimental studies, the 2-D model provided better representations of spatial distribution of flow depths and sediment concentrations than the I-D model. However, no substantial differences in predictions of total runoff volume and sediment yield at the outlet area were found between the I-D and 2-D models.
- Doctoral Dissertations | <urn:uuid:f8015ce5-2514-443c-8974-15bdac2a9fe2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/39274 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281162.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00531-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965685 | 705 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Jerry Brust, IPM Vegetable Specialist, University of Maryland; firstname.lastname@example.org
There has been a large and rapid increase in brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) in some pepper fields in the past week in central Maryland. Numbers just two weeks ago in these areas were very low with just a few nymphs observed. We know that BMSB populations tend to increase in August and through the fall into the first frost, but this was such a rapid increase that a great deal of damage was done to bell and banana peppers.
These peppers had been treated with chlorantraniliprole (Coragen) and this took care of any worm problems very well, but the growers did not think stink bug. There were 8-10 nymphs and 2-3 adult BMSBs per plant in these fields. Damage to peppers as you might guess was extensive (Fig. 1). Much of the feeding appeared to be done by nymphs (Fig. 2). BMSB nymphs have a white stripe on all six of their legs, which is unique compared with our most common native stink bug species. This white stripe fades when nymphs become adults.
Besides the white ‘cloudy spots’ on fruit, many peppers had dark brown and red as well as bright white areas (Fig. 1). These bright white areas were found to have yeast growing within the wound that from previous studies we learned has been injected by the BMSB when it feeds.
One odd thing from the BMSB outbreak was that tomato fields that were next to or very close to the pepper fields had almost no BMSBs in them. Whether this would have changed soon we are not sure as the growers did not take any chances and treated.
Figure 2. BMSB nymphs feeding on pepper | <urn:uuid:f1d0d6eb-c3cc-4167-a36a-ba76a48d517c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://agdev.anr.udel.edu/weeklycropupdate/?p=4746 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281424.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00334-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985706 | 378 | 3.046875 | 3 |
We are performing text extraction on jpg images and on pdfs (pdfs are containing a single image).
Some images have an initial rotation of 90° (They are ID cards scanned in portrait mode instead of being scanned in landscape mode).
Text extraction works well for these kind images in the jpg format but it just returns garbage text for images in the pdf format.
I did a little test:
1) I saved one of the jpg images that has no rotation to pdf (through IrfanView).
2) I performed text extraction on this pdf -> The extracted text is OK.
3) I saved one of the jpg images that has 90° rotation to pdf.
4) I performed text extraction on this pdf -> Text extracted is not OK at all.
So it seems something is goind wrong in orientation detection when the input is a pdf file.
Yes, the CorrectOrientation property is FALSE by default. In order to process rotated images you should set it to true.
answered 31 Mar '15, 17:17
I think I resolved the problem by calling setCorrectionOrientation on PagePreprocessingParams:
answered 31 Mar '15, 13:16 | <urn:uuid:c261596c-2a3a-4a03-a3eb-4c9c3dbb95d8> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://forum.ocrsdk.com/questions/3919/fr-engine-11-sdk-orientation-detection-for-input-pdf-not-working | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283301.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00503-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901088 | 249 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Learning new kind of instruments can seem difficult at first.
From learning to play classical musical instruments on the violin to learning to play the guitar.
Here’s what my friend Darryl at www.guitartuitioneastlondon.co.uk has to say.
Significance of Music for Culture
Throughout the globe and history, every culture has its distinctive and unique kind of music that is liked by every age category and even by male or female. But every culture differs from the other in one way or the other. Music is a great source of union for all humanity. Music is used for amusement and fun. It plays the role of bondage between various groups of people. Various facts highlight the significance of music to culture and why different sources of music have been created throughout human history. Let’s have a look at some of these facts.
Music at the base of celebration
These types of celebrations (weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and parties) are less enjoyable if there is no music added to them. It is a great way to enhance the fun and it lets your cheerful and joyful emotions come out of you in the time of satisfaction.
Using Music to help you express yourself
Musicians translate their inner feelings by composing music. Every sound and melody gives the message of its creator’s feelings. By listening to music, listeners take joy and soothing impacts from the tunes of music.
Inspire those around to dance
Everywhere in the world, music induces human beings in every culture to dance and come up with their innermost feelings.
Ever-evolving trends of music
Like everything in the universe, music also goes through the process of evolution. Music is never static rather always changes every time period. There come new trends in music but they are also based on the old music trends. In this way, music becomes trendy and contemporary.
Music is another name of art. Creative people use the medium of music to showcase their creative abilities by composing various types of music. This way, they put forward both their art and music skills before the world audiences. With the help of music, people coming from different racial backgrounds come close. Music is something that integrates people and forges a sense of togetherness and a single entity. It is a great source of inspiration for listeners to enjoy different melodies and songs.
Music as a way of communication
Through music, singers and musicians give messages to their societies that are not possible otherwise because of fear of intimidation. It is the simplest and most convenient way to spread the message. In a few, it can be said aptly that different people like different kinds of music throughout the face of the world. In every culture of the world, a wide range of melodies and tunes are made and liked by a particular group of people. The strongest element of music is that it provides the foundation on which a united society can be built. | <urn:uuid:2bcaf822-9eea-4f22-9eef-01b3fe5759f1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.fel-cases-violins.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573908.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20220820043108-20220820073108-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.959963 | 594 | 2.8125 | 3 |
|Object NGC 4489 is located exactly in the center of the picture.
|NGC 4489 - galaxy in the constellation Comae Berenices|
Type: E1 - elliptical galaxy
The angular dimensions: 1.70'x1.6'
magnitude: V=12.0m; B=12.8m
The surface brightness: 13.0 mag/arcmin2
Coordinates for epoch J2000: Ra= 12h30m52.2s; Dec= 16°45'33"
redshift (z): 0.003226
The distance from the Sun to NGC 4489: based on the amount of redshift (z) - 13.6 Mpc;
Other names of the object NGC 4489 : PGC 41365, UGC 7655, MCG 3-32-54, CGCG 99-73, VCC 1321
Nearby objects: NGC 4487
, NGC 4488
, NGC 4490
, NGC 4491
The full catalog NGC / IC
In this version of the NGC catalog used by NASA imagery, ngcicproject.org and other sources.
The pictures in the places of their original placement referred to as free of licensing restrictions.
In case of doubt, please the authors: let me know and they will be removed. | <urn:uuid:0d233179-7577-47d3-8e1e-de6117fb832b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://kosmoved.ru/get_ngcic.php?ID=NGC-4489&lang=eng | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571150.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810070501-20220810100501-00667.warc.gz | en | 0.75472 | 301 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Originally published in Next City, March 12, 2015 In the Twin Cities in Minnesota, the local wastewater utility is spending $100 million a year — and plans to do so for the next 10 to 20 years — to replace 600 miles of aging sewer pipes. In one neighborhood a sinkhole that opened last […]
(Click this to hit up Washingtonpost.com for the full version.)
Because wind power is generated only when the wind blows, and solar energy isn’t collected on a cloudy day, technologies that can store extra power when it’s not being used and mete it out when needed are becoming increasingly important.
Since June 2010 six men—three Russians, two Europeans, and one Chinese—have been living in isolation in a 19,423-cubic-foot (550-cubic-meter) “spaceship” outside Moscow, doing maintenance work, conducting experiments, and trying to stave off boredom by playing Rock Band and reading the complete works of Gabriel García Márquez.
Within the past 20 years abundances of the bee species Bombus occidentalis, B. affinis, B. pensylvanicus, and B. terricola have plummeted by up to 96 percent.
The finding is based on a new analysis of more than 73,000 museum collections of bumblebees, which showed where bees had been found over the last century, as well as collections of wild bees across the United States. The study looked at 8 of the 50 known bumblebee species in North America.
A guinea-pig-like mammal’s prehistoric urine may be one of the best tools for understanding climate change in arid regions, scientists announced Tuesday. Already, analysis of crystallized rock hyrax pee appears to contradict some results of current climate models.
In Sacramento, they pick figs, kumquats, and plums from public trees. In New York, they harvest purslane–an edible flower–from the cracks in the sidewalk. Down south, it’s fiddlehead ferns, and just about everywhere, people are picking black walnuts, wild mushrooms, and dandelion greens.
Urban foraging–gathering fruit, vegetables, and other useful things from parks, lawns, and sidewalks–isn’t a new thing. But as more urbanites become aware of the free bounty surrounding them, new issues are–pardon the pun–cropping up. When a public park’s berry patch is raided, whose responsibility is it to make sure there are some left for everyone to enjoy? What about pesticides?
Not too long ago, if you wanted to know what type of seafood was best for the environment, your tools didn’t get any more high-tech than a wallet card or a fridge magnet. But the fridge magnet doesn’t help much when you’re at the grocery store, and wallet cards are easy to leave behind (just […]
from National Geographic’s Green Guide If you live in a city, you might have a window box or a pot of tomatoes on your balcony. You might even be lucky enough to have a small backyard garden. But do you compost? Probably not: composting in a small space is tough, not to mention smelly. You […]
Amid efforts to cap the seafloor leak, cleanup workers have been using boat-based skimmers to pick up the oil, booms to gather the slick for burning, and chemical dispersants to break the crude into smaller droplets—all parts of the oil-fighting toolkit for decades. Soon, though, tech of the future could be cleaning up spills like this one. | <urn:uuid:b3c4ebf2-3203-4e6c-966d-2431fe509e0d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.readwriterachel.com/category/featured/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571246.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811073058-20220811103058-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.927361 | 771 | 1.976563 | 2 |
How Bitcoin Transaction Tracking Works: BTC Payment Anonymity, Security and Privacy Guide
Many among the crypto community believe that using cryptos — particularly Bitcoin — allows them a greater level of privacy than using regular payment methods such as banks and financial institutions. While this is true, it is only true to an extent, as Bitcoin transactions are not completely anonymous. In other words, the answer to the question that more and more crypto users are asking — whether Bitcoin transactions could be tracked — is positive. However, it is not that simple. Here is how it works.
Bitcoin Is NOT Anonymous
When Bitcoin first appeared, it was a completely new payment method, based on completely new technology. As such, not a lot of people really understood how everything works, and many of the early users wrongly believed that BTC is fully anonymous.
However, this is not true. The system has special protocols in place that guarantee both transparency and security of the transactions, but not full anonymity. In fact, the blockchain on which Bitcoin operates keeps track of all activities, including notes on transactions that users make.
Simply put, privacy is never complete when it comes to the blockchain. Instead, users can only ever achieve pseudo-anonymity or pseudonymity. In other words, you can keep your identity private as long as you do not reveal yourself somewhere, and make a connection between you and your public key.
When you use a Bitcoin wallet, you get a special address that can be used for receiving and moving cryptocurrencies. These addresses look like random combinations of numbers and letters, but your wallet address is unique, and it belongs to you. This means that you can use it anonymously for as long as the address is not connected to your personal details, such as name, email, and alike.
This is important because handling over a wallet address means handing over your entire transaction history. When someone knows it, it can see all of the transactions you ever made by using that wallet.
However, this address will likely not remain anonymous for long, and sooner or later — you will have to compromise it. Whether you create an account in an online shop that accepts Bitcoin and you make a payment, or you create an account on an exchange in order to be able to trade, before long, you will reveal yourself to the world, and people will be able to connect the address to your identity.
How Can Transactions Be Tracked?
While anonymity and confidentiality are very much desired by most crypto users, the fact is that too much of this ‘freedom' can have negative consequences. While you may want to use your cryptocurrencies in a perfectly legal way, and you simply do not want the world to know about it — this is not always the case with others. In fact, cryptos were connected to a number of illegal activities over the years, particularly back in the day when Bitcoin was still believed to be fully anonymous.
The Silk Road is one of the best-known examples of how bad actors can misuse cryptocurrencies. And, while they would undoubtedly find a way to use other types of assets for such purposes, the fact that they turned to cryptos had a serious impact on the cryptocurrencies' reputation.
Suddenly, everyone who was anti-crypto started using this example to connect Bitcoin to crimes, funding of terrorists, drug trafficking, and more. Eventually, the FBI got involved, using blockchain analysis software and other publicly accessible clues to determine the identities of criminals who misused cryptocurrencies. While tracking transactions are nowhere near easy, it is still very much possible for those who know what they are doing.
Eventually, tracing payments allowed the authorities to disrupt a number of different criminal actions. Government and private agencies alike are now tracking them to disrupt money laundering operations, and as a result, crypto businesses are now forced to comply with KYC and AML procedures.
While this may seem like the invasion of privacy, it is considered necessary in order to stop criminal activities. Meanwhile, Bitcoin users themselves can find this useful, as they can spot suspicious transactions in real time, and avoid dealing with individuals known for scamming other users. In other words, blockchain analysis tools and transaction tracking is necessary, not only to disrupt large criminal operations but also to help keep crypto users safe. | <urn:uuid:f127df5a-4625-4bd3-be46-d34f4404c9d6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/how-bitcoin-transaction-tracking-works-btc-payment-anonymity-security-and-privacy-guide/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00676.warc.gz | en | 0.961999 | 865 | 2.40625 | 2 |
This beautifully illustrated volume explores the key signs and symbols of the occult. Chosen for their powerful symbolism, the illustrations in the book span from the myths and legends of the ancient world to the icons used in modern religion and science.
Symbols of the Occult examines over 500 symbols from history, art and culture by decoding their iconography and exploring their historical background and significance. Ordered by topic, it explores the key areas of astrology and cosmology; witchcraft and mysticism; satanism and demonology; science and alchemy; maths and sacred geometry; the natural world; and symbols of ancient, religious, and secret societies. Each topic is introduced by a short overview before featuring the key signs and symbols and exploring the variations available.
This decoding guide is the ultimate resource for the modern occultist.
With over 500 illustrations
About the Author
Eric Chaline is a professional author and editor based in London. He has a special interest in religion and philosophy, especially in relation to East Asia, Mesoamerica, and India. He has written books on a range of subjects, such as history, travel, and health and fitness. His published works include The Book of Zen, The Book of Gods and Goddesses, Simple Path to Yoga, 101 Dilemmas for the Armchair Philosopher, Lost Treasures, History’s Worst Inventions, Fifty Minerals that Changed History, Ancient Greece, and Strokes of Genius: A History of Swimming (which won the Lord Aberdare Prize for best book on the history of sport in 2018). Publishers he has worked with include Quarto Publishing plc, Harper Collins, Firefly, New Holland Publishers Ltd, David and Charles Plc, and Reaktion Books Ltd. He has an MA in Japanese Studies and spent seven years in Japan where he studied Zen Buddhism and the martial arts. He also has a BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies. | <urn:uuid:ba1845fb-2bd0-48e9-a73e-2182e1ebbe4d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.slovart.cz/cizojazycne-knihy/obrazove-publikace/encyklopedie/symbols-of-the-occult-a-directory-of-over-500-signs-symbols-and-icons.html?page_id=27218 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571147.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810040253-20220810070253-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.933258 | 390 | 1.796875 | 2 |
wealth increased among all classes, bringing comfort, and even some attempt at luxury, in its train.
This quick and steady growth in material prosperity was rudely checked by the fierce war which again broke out between England and Holland. Commerce was nearly paralyzed by the depredations of the privateers, and many of the merchants were brought to the verge of bankruptcy, while the public distress was widespread. It was known that the Dutch meditated an effort to recapture the city; and Lovelace made what preparations he could for defense. He busied himself greatly to establish a regular mail to Boston and Hartford, so that there might be overland communication with his eastern neighbors; and it was on one of his absences in New England that the city was recaptured by its former owners.
In July, 1673, a Dutch squadron under two grim old sea-dogs, Admirals Evertsen and Binckes, suddenly appeared in the lower bay. The English commander in the fort endeavored to treat with them; but they would hearken to no terms save immediate surrender, saying that they had come for their own, and their own they would have. The Dutch militia would not fight against their countrymen; and the other citizens were not inclined to run any risk in a contest that concerned them but little. Evertsen's frigates sailed up to | <urn:uuid:6cc01e12-a709-4e89-a00b-8e8ae2a33a54> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.bartleby.com/171/pages/page54.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720845.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00086-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992876 | 276 | 3 | 3 |
Is 3D Sinking or Swimming?
August 7, 2012,
We are now over two years into the third wave of 3D in cinema. The first two waves in the 1950's and 1980's died out as fads, but the new generation 3D is (so far) showing solid staying power.
Two years ago in the summer of 2010 we ran a survey asking our readers how important 3D would be to them when buying a new home theater projector. We ran that same survey again last summer and we've just completed a third run of it now.
The follow table shows the proposition statements from the 2010 and 2012 surveys and the percentage of respondents agreeing with each:
3D Reader Survey: 2010 and 2012
What do the 3D survey results tell us?
The first thing to notice is that the number of readers who proclaim that 3D is vital to them has slipped a bit from 20.6% in 2010 to 19.2% today. That is not much of a slip, but it does suggest a slight erosion.
On the other hand, those who picked #2 and said 3D was very important to them increased from 9.5% in 2010 to 10.5% in 2012.
When we combine those two categories it is clear that there is a solid core of about 30% of buyers who claim that 3D is either vital or a major factor in their home theater buying decision. In 2010, 30.1% of readers selected either #1 or #2, and this time around 29.7% did so. That difference is statistically insignificant. The most important take away from those numbers is that there has been no noticeable increase in the percentage of readers who express keen interest in 3D, nor has there been any noticeable erosion of interest over the two year period.
The most significant shift in numbers occurred on propositions #3 and #4. These are the readers who do not think of 3D as vital, but who are interested in it to a meaningful degree. Two years ago almost 19% of readers said 3D technology was not mature and they were not yet ready to consider it. Now that number has dropped to 11.6%. Meanwhile, those who say that 3D is interesting and a factor to consider when buying a projector has grown from 17.6% to 25%. These numbers suggest that as 3D technology has matured and the early bugs have been ironed out, many readers who were initially reticent are becoming more interested.
The last two categories, #5 and #6, represent those who have either no interest or minimal interest in 3D. In 2010, those who selected either #5 or #6 represented 33.5% of respondents. This year those who selected those two categories totaled 33.6%, or statistically identical. In 2010, 23% of respondents said 3D was of no interest at all, and now that number has dropped to 20%.
There has been no major shift in reader interest in 3D over the past two years since the introduction of 3D enabled video products for the home. Two years ago, about 1/3 of respondents said they had little or no interest in 3D technology, and that number has not changed. The remaining 2/3 of readers say that 3D is anywhere from vital to at least something worth waiting for. The only measurable shift in reader perception is that many who used to say 3D technology was not yet ready for prime time now believe it has matured to the point where it is ready to consider.
These survey results indicate that solid 3D performance will continue to be a key factor for the success of any home theater projector. Though about 1/3 of buyers don't care about 3D, the majority of buyers do. From our vantage point in the summer of 2012, the drive for optimum 3D performance will be a major competitive battleground issue in the sale of home theater projectors for the foreseeable future.
Reader Comments(21 comments) | <urn:uuid:80853033-b3d2-4a40-a630-036512d79e81> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.projectorcentral.com/3D_survey_results.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988722459.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183842-00344-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966561 | 808 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Of the many atrocities Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. faced during his time, the attack on his Montgomery, Ala., home in response to his involvement in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott stands out as one of the most heinous. The attack happened on this day in 1956, while King was away helping to organize members of the boycott movement.
The bombing was an especially troubling act, considering King and his wife, Coretta, were new parents to their first child, Yolanda. His family lived in the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church parsonage, where the then-27-year-old King served as pastor.
As was custom in his life of public service and his push for fair rights for African Americans, threats were commonly hurled in King’s direction. According to Shirley Cherry of the Dexter Parsonage Museum, King received a chilling phone call three days before the bombing that trumped them all:
“We’re tired of your mess. And if you aren’t out of this town in three days, we’re going to blow up your house and blow your brains out,” said the mystery caller. King was said to be affected by the call but relied on his faith to get him past the moment. Although shaken to his core, King said that God strengthened him and he continued on his path.
While at an evening meeting with bus boycott members, a bomb exploded on the front porch of King’s residence, causing damage to the home and blowing out the windows. At some point, King was alerted of the explosion and rushed to his wife and child who were both unharmed.
He was met by an angry mob of armed Black men seeking to defend the leader alongside White police officers. With his house surrounded as he spoke to reporters and others, King addressed the crowd and urged them to find peace in the wake of the violent act.
“If you have weapons, take them home. If you do not have them, please do not seek them. We cannot solve this problem through violence. We must meet violence with non-violence. Love your enemies; bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you. Remember this movement will not stop, because God is with it,” said King after raising his hand for silence. After delivering his words, the crowds dispersed.
Learn about Dr. King’s life here:
The same day of the bombing, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was urged to file a lawsuit to challenge the bus segregation laws ironically enough.
Two days later, the NAACP local chapter President and King collaborator E. D. Nixon’s home was also bombed. In both cases, as expected, outrage was expressed by city officials along with a push to find the criminals but no such arrest was ever made.
Much later that year, King was arrested for violating boycott laws and his home was shot during the winter as well.
King’s will, inspired by Rosa Parks’ bold act in 1955, could not be dimmed despite the odds placed against him. It is amazing that even until his last days, he found inspiration to face up to his enemies and detractors with an unwavering message of peace, love, and justice. | <urn:uuid:1862b458-6426-4fed-b1dd-d30b597653d0> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://wchbnewsdetroit.newsone.com/2516936/home-of-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-bombed-on-this-day-in-1956-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720475.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00354-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988169 | 668 | 2.796875 | 3 |
The YMCA summit: working out a long-term plan
Published 12:00 am, Sunday, September 19, 2010
Expect hundreds of movers and shakers to crowd into the Tripoint YMCA on Saturday morning, but they won't be there for yoga class or Pilates training. They'll be on hand to hear General Motors Chairman Ed Whitacre, and he won't be there to pitch his stock.
The future of the city is on the agenda as Mayor Juli?n Castro summons leaders from across San Antonio for an urban planning and renewal initiative he is calling SA2020. The premise is simple: San Antonio needs to leverage its strengths and get real about its deficiencies. It needs a plan and it needs a timeline.
Business as usual won't generate the momentum necessary to make San Antonio a more livable city attractive to a better-educated, more competitive work force.
It is not a new idea, but it is a good idea.
Mayor Henry Cisneros launched Target '90 back in the early 1980s. As David Hendricks reports in a front-page story today, the Cisneros initiative was the city's collective leadership coming together to think big for the first time since HemisFair '68.
Now it's Castro's turn. His challenge will be to galvanize a bigger, more complex population and its leaders to take on our most pressing challenges.
The question, then, isn't what Castro is going to do about, say, the dropout problem or teen pregnancy. The question is what are we going to do about the dropout problem and teen pregnancy?
There is no shortage of material here. We just reported that one in four Hispanics and African Americans live in poverty, compared with 9 percent of the Anglo population, and we know teen pregnancy, adult and juvenile obesity, and Type 2 diabetes are epidemic-level problems in San Antonio.
We face major public transportation issues, and we are only at the very beginning of transforming our energy policies and consumption patterns.
Target '90 gave us the Alamodome, which brought us the Final Four and the Alamo Bowl, to name two signature events, but I'd argue we blew it when it came to making smart, long-term decisions about building sports facilities. The Alamodome is old and unattractive after 17 years, and the poorly situated AT&T Center has failed to spur East Side revitalization.
Master plans assembled decades ago were shelved at City Hall, allowing unchecked sprawl, traffic congestion, worsening air-quality problems and increased dependence on carbon fuels. Public transportation is still a system of buses serving largely the working poor.
Higher education has made huge leaps and bounds since Target '90. We are graduating a greater number of smart, capable individuals well-suited to a more diversified, high-tech economy, one that continues to grow faster than most of the urban economies in the nation.
Companies that didn't even exist at the time of Target '90 ? Valero Energy, NuStar Energy, Rackspace Hosting ? now lead the way. Others such as AT&T, H-E-B and USAA have come to define the modern San Antonio.
A revitalized airport is nearing completion of a new terminal, and a new performing arts center will be ready in three years. The rebirth of the San Antonio River is nothing short of breathtaking.
Above all, the collective leadership in San Antonio has never been stronger or better aligned. That's why the time is right for Castro to act. It will take a year to agree on priorities and a strategy for actually achieving goals. Then comes the hard part.
Robert Rivard is the editor of the Express-News. E-mail him at email@example.com. Or follow him on Twitter at @editorrivard. | <urn:uuid:1d643702-5cf4-4379-a9de-57111541b500> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/The-YMCA-summit-working-out-a-long-term-plan-665066.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280221.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00236-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951551 | 786 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The Viking swords bearing the name “Ulfberht” were made of such pure metal that it has puzzled archaeologists. The technology for making such metal was not thought to have been invented until 800 years later, during the Industrial Revolution.
Approximately 170 specimens of Ulfberht swords have been found, dating back to between 800 and 1000 AD. A documentary produced by NOVA and National Geographic called “Secrets of the Viking Sword” was first shown in 2012, it drew attention to the mysterious sword and its composition.
In the process of forging iron, the ore must be heated to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit to make it a liquid, allowing the smith to remove impurities (slag). Carbon is also added to the alloy to make the brittle iron stronger. Medieval technology did not allow the iron to be heated to such a high temperature, so the slag was removed by grinding, a less efficient method.
The Ulfberht sword, however, has almost no slag and has three times the carbon content of other metals available at the time. It was made of what was called crucible steel. Furnaces invented during the Industrial Revolution were believed to be the first tools to heat iron to this degree.
Modern-day blacksmith Richard Farrer of Wisconsin told NOVA about the difficulty of making such a sword. Farrer is portrayed in the documentary as one of the few people on the planet with the skills necessary to attempt to make an Ulfbert sword.
“Making it right is the most difficult task I have ever had to undertake,” he said, adding that the maker of the “Ulfberht” apparently had magical powers. “To make a weapon out of the ground is a pretty powerful thing.” And to make a weapon that can bend without breaking, stay sharp and weigh very little is something supernatural.
Farrer spent many days painstakingly crafting such a sword. He used medieval technology. The slightest imperfection or mistake could turn a sword into a piece of scrap metal. He announced his success at the end, more with relief than joy.
It is possible that the material and technology of this sword came from the Middle East. There was a trade route along the Volga River that connected Viking settlements and the Middle East, it opened at the same time as the first Ulfberts, and the last Ulfberts were made when the trade route was closed. | <urn:uuid:9e1bf03d-8531-43c5-b851-328f54964320> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://afrinik.com/ulfberht-ancient-viking-swords-made-with-high-technology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571056.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809155137-20220809185137-00665.warc.gz | en | 0.978926 | 504 | 3.40625 | 3 |
As explained in a prior post, the jurisdictional infirmities exposed by the Fourth Circuit’s rulings in Virginia v. Sebelius and Liberty University v. Geithner should bring renewed attention to the alternative state standing theories in Florida v. HHS not yet addressed by any court. There are two such theories. This post discusses the first, and a later post will examine the second.
The states’ lead theory is one of indirect injury from the incremental Medicaid expenditures each state will have to make when presently uninsured individuals comply with the mandate by enrolling in Medicaid. See States’ 11th Cir. Br. at 67-69.
The federal government has argued that this allegation of indirect injury is insufficient as a matter of law, that the claimed injury rests on speculation, and that any potential injury from individuals’ compliance with the mandate is neither actual nor imminent. Additionally, relying on Pennsylvania v. New Jersey, 426 U.S. 660 (1976), the federal government has argued that “it is difficult to see how a State can claim injury on the ground that its citizens choose to accept benefits the State offers them under State law. Reply to Mot. to Dismiss at 13.
The distinction between direct and indirect injuries in the state standing context is traceable to Florida v. Mellon, in which Florida sought to challenge a federal tax on the ground that it would “have the result of inducing potential taxpayers to withdraw property from the state, thereby diminishing the subjects upon which the state power of taxation may operate.” 273 U.S. 12, 17-18 (1927). The Court held that Florida could not go forward with the suit because the State was not in immediate danger of sustaining “any direct injury as the result of the enforcement of the act in question.” Id. at 18. In short, the Court drew a line between direct and indirect injury, and held that it lacked jurisdiction because the claimed fiscal injury arising by virtue of the actions of private citizens in response to the federal law was indirect.
While the line between indirect and direct may be hard to identify in certain cases, the distinction seems administrable enough to foreclose the claimed injury to states resulting from individuals’ compliance with the individual mandate. Recall, also, that states are not permitted to sue the federal government as parens patriae. Allowing states to rely on indirect fiscal injury could provide for easy circumvention of that limitation.
In attacking the states’ indirect injury argument as speculative, the federal government has argued that (i) the pre-mandate status quo already imposes costs on the states in the form of uncompensated care; and (ii), moving more people into insurance may result in a net reduction of costs borne by the states even though some of that insurance is state-provided insurance through Medicaid. The federal government has also pointed to circuit court cases denying standing to states on the ground that the complained-of fiscal effects were too attenuated. See Pennsylvania v. Kleppe, 533 F.2d 668, 672 (D.C. Cir. 1976); Iowa v. Block, 771 F.2d 347, 352-54 (8th Cir. 1985).
If the Supreme Court were to consider this speculation argument, it is unclear (from the filings I have reviewed, anyway) whether the factual record would be sufficiently developed to ground a prediction about the effects of the mandate on state fiscs (which are likely to vary from state to state). If the record were to be found insufficiently developed, that would cut against the states because it is their burden to establish standing.
Read Full Post » | <urn:uuid:16bb04c8-6c9a-4680-be23-f57794686056> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://walshslaw.wordpress.com/tag/hhs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280872.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00310-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966964 | 747 | 1.523438 | 2 |
It’s good to hear about Hawaii reopening again. It is probably one of the most anticipated news for travelers as a lot especially Americans in the mainland are itching to visit Hawaii again. It’s totally understandable as the state and it’s islands are one of the most astonishing island destinations in the planet.
State officials in Hawaii announced the reopening of the state to domestic travelers starting November 1st. Hawaii governor David Ige made the announcement at the opening of the Federal Inspection Services facility at the Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport.
Per the announcement, at this time the state will be open only to vaccinated residents and visitors travelling domestically and between islands for business or pleasure. This came about as the state has seen good progress in its pandemic fight amid the lowering of case counts.
The governor in a tweet also said, “We’re continuing to seek information from the federal government about plans for international travel and will have an appropriate plan in place prior to Nov. 8”.
Those in the travel industry has lauded the reopening as a good important step toward getting back the economy moving again. This is great news to a lot in Hawaii whose livelihood depend on the state’s tourism economy.
Let us know what you think of the Hawaii reopening plan. Comment below as we’re interested to hear your thoughts.
Hawaii is a state in the Western United States located in the Pacific Ocean about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the U.S. mainland. It is the only state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state in the tropics. Hawaii is the fourth-smallest US state in land area.
About Governor David Ige
David Ige is an American politician (Democrat) of Japanese descent and is the eighth and current governor of Hawaii. Prior to being elected as governor, David served in the Hawaii State Senate and the Hawaii House of Representatives.
References: Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Twitter; Photo by Jess Loiterton from Pexels | <urn:uuid:01adffc2-f872-473b-add7-cb1d78b237eb> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://triptheislands.com/travel-news/hawaii-reopening-on-nov-1st/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571097.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810010059-20220810040059-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.953444 | 434 | 1.648438 | 2 |
An attorney for convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk filed a complaint with German prosecutors claiming that his death was hastened by medication administered at a nursing home in Bavaria.
Ulrich Busch asked prosecutors in Rosenheim, Bavaria, in a 12-page complaint to open an investigation of five doctors and a nurse, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The complaint posits that a specific pain medication, common in Germany but banned in the United States, led to Demjanjuk’s death in March as he awaited an appeal of his conviction last year by a Munich court for his role in the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp in Poland.
Born and raised in Ukraine, Demjanjuk immigrated to the United States following World War II. In 1986 the Cleveland-area autoworker was sent to Israel to face trial on charges of being the notorious Treblinka guard “Ivan the Terrible.” An Israeli court sentenced Demjanjuk to death, but the Israeli Supreme Court ordered him released due to reasonable doubt while noting that substantial evidence emerged during the trial identifying him as a guard at Sobibor.
Demjanjuk returned to suburban Cleveland in 1993 and resisted multiple attempts to strip him of his U.S. citizenship and deport him again. But in 2009, U.S. authorities deported him to Germany, and in May 2011 he was convicted for his crimes in Sobibor. Demjanjuk was sentenced to five years in prison. | <urn:uuid:31453f25-e5f2-4bc8-86e0-b4dcb50639cb> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/157842/demjanjuks-lawyer-claims-malpractice-in-death/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720962.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00386-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975686 | 313 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Why Trucking Business
Even more Explanations Why
Fuel / Debit Card Plan Particulars
TruckingFactoringCompany.COM truck factoring companies
Truck Factoring Companies In Nebraska
Exactly what is invoice financing ?
Receivable funding, also understood as invoice financing is a technique made use of by companies to transform sales on credit phrases for prompt cash flow. Financing accounts receivable has actually come to be the preferred economic device in acquiring versatile functioning resources for companies of all sizes. The receivable personal line of credit is figured out by the monetary toughness of the client (Buyer), not the customer (The vendor of the receivables).
Fast and also Easy Arrangement , Set up your
Oilfield Services That Use invoice financing companies in Nebraska:
Oilfield Trucking Services invoice financing companies in Nebraska:
Cash Advance / Reserve.
This kind of invoice financing is by far the most extensively practiced. Upon taking title to invoices, the account receivable factoring company immediately pays to the client a portion of their complete stated value. This payment (called the cash advancement ) typically falls in between 70% and 85%, but may go as low as 50% or much less (for example, in the situation of construction or third - celebration medical invoices), or as good as 90%. After successful collection of payment from the account debtors, the factor company subsequently remits the balance of the invoice amount (s) (typically called the reserve ) to the customer, minus the factor made costs.
There service gives the factoring firm with offered funds from which to draw its charges, as well as provides a buffer against defaults by clients as well as / or account debtors.
Some factors do not hold back a reserve balance, yet rather cash advancement the whole invoice face value, much less max invoice financingcosts, at the time of purchase. This technique is not widespread, nonetheless, because a lot of factor firms of this type like to retain the defense that reserves deliver.
Cash Advance / reserve factors typically structure their costs as an first discount fee (normally ranging between 1. 5% and also 5% of invoice face), followed by succeeding increases set over the size of the actual collection duration.
The collection period begins on the day that the factor cash advance funds to the customer (which is not always the exact same as the invoice date), and also is usually divided into home windows or time bands of identical period. Windows most generally happen in 15 - day increments, although 7 -, 10 - or 30 - day supplements are not unheard of. The
normally increases by one or two portion points at each novice window.
Factoring Loans Firm in Nebraska assisting in the firm's first years of business, additionally for companies that are having tremendous growth and need to improves their cash flow. Nebraska invoice financing
TruckingFactoringCompany.COM is a Factoring Loans Firm that Provides a wide range financial services
More Reasons Why
TruckingFactoringCompany.COM Provides invoice financing to all states:
Unlike other Factoring Loans Firm, TruckingFactoringCompany.COM makes receivable financing easy to obtain with minimal paperwork.
Flatbed | Refrigerated | Parcel | Dump | Container | Bulk | Marine | LTL | Livestock | Household Goods | | Heavy Haul | Flatbed
Subhaulers - A subhauler is an owner - operator of a unified tractor or may have a squadron of tractors which are leased to prime carriers. A subhauler with a squadron of cars could be liable for employment taxes on the motorists of thosecars. Income gained is a amount of the freight invoice prepared by the prime provider.
Porthaulers - An owner - operator whose major course is to take up freight from the port as well as to deliver the total, secured container to the terminal of the prime provider or break - bulk agent. Porthaulers are generally paid a level cost for each container hauled.
Freight Broker | Freight Forwarder | Shipper's Broker | The shipper's representative is a bonafide broker of the shipper who performs the shipper's transport function. The shipper's agent organizes for and routes the transport of goods from one point to yet another. Other obligations could feature the settlement of cases as well as payment of the service provider s freight invoices. Ultimate repaymentof freight bills, nonetheless, is the obligation of the shipper.
Freight forwarders generally concentrate on the type of freight shipped and the kind of transport service providers utilized. This gives them with experience in handling the paperwork entailed with specific types of deals.
TruckingFactoringCompany.COM Provides invoice financing to all industries:
Nebraska Truck Factoring Companies
invoice financing vs. Financial institution Loans
So, why not just visit the pleasant banker for a loan to ease capital issues ? A loan can easily be tough if not impossible to obtain, particularly for a young, good - growth operation, due to the fact that bankers are not anticipated to lessen lending stipulations quickly. The partnerships between companies as well as their bankers are not as tough or as trustworthy as they made use of to be. Continue Reading about factoring companies
The influence of a loan is a great deal various than that of the invoice financing procedure on a business. A loan places a financial debt on your company annual report, which expenses you passion. By contrast, factoring puts cash in the financial institution without the creation of any kind of obligation. Frequently, the invoice financing markdown will be less than the existing loan rates of interest.
Loans are mostly based on the debtor economic soundness, whereas invoice financing is much more interested in the soundness of the customer clients and also not the customer business itself. This is a genuine plus for brand-new businesses without developed performance history.
There are numerous situations where invoice financing may aid a company fulfill its capital needs. It gives a proceeding source of running funds without sustaining personal debt, which can cause growth chances that drastically increase the profit. Practically any sort of
business could take advantage of invoice financing as part of its overall operating viewpoint.
Every really good business owner have to comprehend the idea and perks of invoice financing in
order to work as beneficially as feasible. The abiding by graph can easily assist you comprehend the distinctions in between invoice financing and additional sources of financing
companies that use invoice financing companies
We are currently providing Factoring Loans Firm services nationwide including the following states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut,
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho State, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee,
Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and | <urn:uuid:c9f8ca50-2d7b-4d69-a5cf-75f97a217589> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://truck-factoring.truckingfactoringcompany.com/truckfactoring/truck-factoring-companies/Nebraska-truck-factoring-companies-478.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284352.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00192-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942677 | 1,452 | 1.804688 | 2 |
A strengthening Tropical Storm Nadine is forecast to intensify into a hurricane by Thursday.
It poses no threat to the U.S. coastline.
At 5 p.m. on Wednesday, the 14th named storm of the season was in the Atlantic about 875 miles northeast of the Lesser Antilles, moving northwest at 16 mph with sustained winds of 65 mph.
Nadine is projected to make a U-turn in the Atlantic and potentially aim for North Africa, maybe even Morocco - that is, if it survives that long.
With Nadine, the 2012 hurricane season could potentially end up as busy as 2011.
Last year, 19 named storms formed, making it the third busiest season on record along with 2010, 1995 and 1887. The 14th named storm of the 2011 season, Tropical Storm Nate, emerged on Sept. 7.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Leslie moved over Newfoundland, Canada, on Tuesday morning, producing hurricane-force wind gusts and heavy rain. It now has degenerated into a non-tropical low-pressure area.
The National Hurricane Center also has issued its last advisory on Tropical Storm Michael, which has weakened into a tropical depression. | <urn:uuid:3c3fcd94-c0a3-45d9-8fee-d907720ff809> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-09-12/weather/sfl-tropics-tuesday-20120911_1_third-busiest-season-lesser-antilles-hurricane | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279410.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00171-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968291 | 241 | 2.046875 | 2 |
1 W O R L D B A N K S T U D Y Justice for Forests Improving Criminal Justice Efforts to Combat Illegal Logging Marilyne Pereira Goncalves Melissa Panjer Theodore S. Greenberg William B. Magrath
2 2012 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / International Development Association or The World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington DC Telephone: Internet: World Bank Studies are published to communicate the results of the Bank s work to the development community with the least possible delay. The manuscript of this paper therefore has not been prepared in accordance with the procedures appropriate to formally-edited texts. This volume is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this volume do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Rights and Permissions The material in this work is subject to copyright. Because The World Bank encourages dissemination of its knowledge, this work may be reproduced, in whole or in part, for noncommercial purposes as long as full attribution to the work is given. For permission to reproduce any part of this work for commercial purposes, please send a request with complete information to the Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA; telephone: ; fax: ; Internet: All other queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: ; ISBN (paper): ISBN (electronic): DOI: / Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Justice for forests : improving criminal justice efforts to combat illegal logging / Marilyne Pereira Goncalves... [et al.]. p. cm. -- (World Bank series ; R67) ISBN ISBN Logging. 2. Logging--Law and legislation. I. Goncalves, Marilyne Pereira. HD I dc Cover photograph: Getty Images
3 Contents Acknowledgments...v Acronyms and Abbreviations...vi Executive Summary... vii 1. Introduction... 1 Objectives Illegal Logging and the Criminal Justice System: An Overview The State of Play Illegal Logging: A Basic Typology The Criminal Justice System: Relevant Actors Using the Law to Better Combat Forest Crime Targeting the Full Range of Forest-Related Crime Tackling the Financial Dimension Making Effective Use of Law Enforcement Procedures Strengthening Stakeholder Engagement in Forest Law Enforcement Building Political Will Improving Domestic Cooperation Improving International Cooperation Mobilizing the Private Sector, NGOs, and the Public Conclusion Bibliography Boxes Box 2.1. Typical Failures of Criminal Justice...9 Box 2.2. Illegal Logging in Indonesia...10 Box 3.1. Classifying Criminal Conduct...19 Box 3.2. Benefits of Using Money Laundering and Confiscation Laws...23 Box 4.1. Funding Success...29 Box 4.2. Failure to Coordinate...30 Box 4.3. Prosecution of Illegal Logging in Virachey National Park, Cambodia...31 Box 4.4. Use of Task Forces...33 Box 4.5. Partnering with NGOs...37 Box 4.6. Maintain the Momentum to Combat Illegal Logging...38 Figure Figure 3.1. Flow of Illegally Harvested Logs...18 iii
5 Acknowledgments T his World Bank study is the result of special collaborative efforts from a team from the Financial Market Integrity Unit, Financial and Private Sector Development (FFSFI) and the Sustainable Development Department, East Asia and Pacific Region (EASSD), and resulted in part from financial support by the Australian Agency for International Development on linkages between forestry and corruption in Asia and the Pacific. This publication was written by Marilyne Pereira Goncalves (Financial Sector Specialist and Team Leader, World Bank), Melissa Panjer (World Bank), Theodore S. Greenberg (Senior Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank), and William B. Magrath (Lead Natural Resource Economist, World Bank) under the general guidance of Jean Pesme (Manager, World Bank) and Magda Lovei (Sector Manager, World Bank). The team is grateful for the help and guidance provided by Yves Aeshlimann (Senior Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank), Jean Pierre Brun (Senior Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank), and Allison Campbell (World Bank). The team benefitted from insightful comments and discussion that helped shape the paper during the peer review process. The peer reviewers were John M. Sellar (Chief, Enforcement Support, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, CITES Secretariat), David Higgins (Manager, Environmental Crime Programme, INTERPOL), Christina Biebesheimer (Chief Counsel, World Bank), Charles E. Di Leva (Chief Counsel, World Bank), Thomas Columkill Garrity (Public Sector Specialist, World Bank), and Emile van der Does de Willebois (Senior Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank). v
6 Acronyms and Abbreviations ARINSA CARIN CCG CDD CITES FATF FIUs FLEG IBAMA KYC NCB NGOs PEPs StAR STRs TFC UNCAC UNODC UNTOC Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network Camden Asset Recovery Interagency Network Center for Conservation and Government Customer Due Diligence Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Financial Action Task Force Financial intelligence units Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Enforcement Agency of the Ministry of Environment of Brazil Know Your Customer Non-Conviction Based Asset Forfeiture Nongovernmental Organizations Politically Exposed Persons Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative Suspicious Transaction Reports Task Force on Corruption United Nations Convention against Corruption United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime vi
7 Executive Summary Every two seconds, across the world, an area of forest the size of a football field is clear-cut by illegal loggers. 1 In some countries, up to 90 percent of all the logging taking place is illegal. 2 Estimates suggest that this criminal activity generates approximately US$10 15 billion annually worldwide funds that are unregulated, untaxed, and often remain in the hands of organized criminal gangs. Thus far, domestic and international efforts to curb forest crimes have focused on preventative actions, but they have had little or no significant impact. While prevention is an essential part of enforcement efforts to tackle illegal logging, it has not halted the rapid disappearance of the world s old-growth trees. New ideas and strategies are needed to preserve what is left of forests. This paper suggests that current practice be combined with a more targeted, punitive approach, through more effective use of the criminal justice system. It argues that the criminal justice system should form an integral part of any balanced and organized strategy for fighting forest crime. This strategy should include initiatives to enhance the efficiency of criminal justice in combating illegal logging that is, the investigation, prosecution, and conviction of cases, as well as the confiscation of the proceeds of criminal activity. These initiatives should be deployed in parallel with preventive programs, and the two approaches should complement and reinforce each other. The criminal justice system has been used in the fight against illegal logging, but only in very sporadic instances and in limited and ineffective ways. Moreover, in those few cases, it has tended to target low-level criminals whose involvement in illegal logging is due to poverty. As such, it has created no real deterrent and has encouraged skeptics to further discount the relevance of criminal justice methods. Large-scale illegal operations are carried out by sophisticated criminal networks, and law enforcement actions need to be focused on the masterminds behind these networks and the highlevel corrupt officials who enable and protect them. Pursuing these important targets through the criminal justice system will require creativity and a clear focus on those criminal justice rules and procedures that prove most effective. The objective of this paper is to inform policy makers and forestry and law enforcement actors how they can use the criminal justice system in fighting illegal logging. It seeks to mobilize them to take action and address the various criminal acts involved in illegal logging operations. The paper puts forward practical suggestions that can be implemented to achieve a tangible improvement in this fight. Rather than focusing on a single element of the criminal justice system, it provides a broad overview of the topic. Future papers may provide an opportunity to flesh out further detail. Because the role of the criminal system in fighting illegal logging has thus far been minimal, there are few documented successes, and little data to explain why the criminal justice system has not been more widely used in this context. To find new ideas as to 1. Chatham House 2009, p In 2004, Greenpeace estimated that percent of logging carried out in Indonesia, and over 90 percent of logging carried out in Papua New Guinea was illegal: Stark and Cheung (2006), p. 4. More recent statistics suggest that illegal logging in Indonesia has fallen, but that it still represented percent of all logging in that country in 2008: Chatham House 2009, p. 5. vii
8 viii Executive Summary how the criminal justice system can be used against illegal loggers, this paper therefore draws on experience gained from dealing with other types of crime (money laundering, corruption, and so forth). The policy and operational recommendations made in this paper are based on legal and operational frameworks that are already in place in almost every country in the world. By making good use of these existing frameworks, we can take an important step towards ensuring the preservation and the sustainable management of the world s forests. Policy recommendations: Develop an integrated criminal justice strategy for illegal logging that adopts and implements clear and comprehensive policies. To be effective, the strategy must target high-level corruption and the companies that pay bribes. It must aim for successful investigations, prosecutions, and the confiscation of the proceeds of crime. The strategy should include clear objectives and an assessment process for tracking progress. Policies should prioritize major illegal logging cases and should devote the necessary resources to ensure that competent practitioners with the required tools and expertise can take on these cases. Jurisdictions should implement their strategy, in part, by allocating increased resources for agencies, by organizing specialized training to give practitioners essential domestic expertise, and, if possible, by dedicating a number of investigators and prosecutors exclusively to illegal logging cases. Improve domestic cooperation. Domestic cooperation between agencies involved at different stages of the fight against illegal logging should be strengthened so as to coordinate action and maximize resources and expertise. An interagency policy committee can advise key decision makers on strategic policy changes and the allocation of resources. An interagency task force can foster collaboration on pressing and substantial operational cases. Enlist the private sector. When looking into the financial dimension of forest crimes, financial institutions and other entities obligated to report suspicious transactions to financial intelligence units need to be fully mobilized. This can be done through implementing due diligence measures and by monitoring transactions made by politically exposed persons (PEPs) and actors in the forestry sector. 3 Engage civil society actors. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) need to be engaged as powerful partners who can help governments, law enforcement, and the judiciary to combat illegal logging and related crimes. In many countries, civil society has already played an important role in detecting large-scale forest crimes, in increasing awareness of the extent and impact of illegal logging, and in conducting studies on the forest law enforcement system. 3. PEPs are those entrusted with public functions, their relatives and close associates. Enhanced due diligence applies to PEPs in recognition that by virtue of their position, there is an increased risk of money laundering.
9 Executive Summary ix Include criminal justice as part of development assistance programs to combat illegal logging. Making criminal justice a component of development assistance strategies to combat illegal logging will help countries receive the support they need to address the challenges related to forest law enforcement. The implementation of anti-money laundering measures, as well as other steps suggested in this paper, should be included as part of country assistance strategies. Operational recommendations: Work together. Actors in the forest sector should actively engage in the broader effort to increase the effectiveness of forest law enforcement through investigations, prosecutions, and the confiscation of criminal proceeds. Collaboration with colleagues in the criminal justice sector will help forestry officials ensure that their particular expertise and skills are better utilized, instead of ignored. Where multiple agencies are responsible for the same task, representatives from each agency should work together to determine who should be involved, what their individual responsibilities should be, and how they can best select their targets. Attack corruption. In combating corruption, law enforcement, investigators, and prosecutors should widen the scope of their activities. They will be more successful if both those who provide and those who receive the bribes whether logging companies or high-level officials are deterred by a real risk of punishment and the confiscation of the proceeds of their crimes. Proactively target vulnerabilities and significant offenders. Instead of using the criminal justice system to fine or to imprison low-level criminals for regulatory offenses, law enforcement, investigators, and prosecutors should target major crimes and offenders. At the same time, they should perform a realistic assessment of: (i) vulnerabilities (by individual, group, forest, or company); (ii) the resources needed to take advantage of those vulnerabilities; and (iii) the resources on which they can draw. They should use the results of that assessment to identify priority targets for a dedicated strike force. Consider all applicable offenses not just regulatory environmental offenses. In addition to regulatory offenses, forest officials, investigators, and prosecutors should consider the many different crimes that may have been committed in cases of illegal logging. Identifying all offenses as early as possible in the investigation will provide more options for prosecutors in bringing the case forward. Follow the money. Illegal loggers can be convicted of money laundering related to many different predicate crimes. This can result in additional jail time and/or fines above those imposed for the underlying forest crime. Furthermore, asset confiscation deprives criminals of the fruits of their crimes and makes it more costly for them to continue their operation. Enforce anti-money laundering and due diligence requirements. Regulators should strictly enforce know your customer and due diligence requirements particularly those for enhanced due diligence in the case of transactions of PEPs
10 x Executive Summary and suspicious transactions within the forestry sector. Regulators should also enforce compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations to prevent money laundering. 4 Employ all available criminal tools to address these complex crimes. Special investigative techniques like electronic surveillance, undercover operations, and witness protection measures are critical tools. In the future, they should play a far greater role in efforts to address the complex crime of illegal logging. Improve international cooperation. Law enforcement, investigators, and prosecutors should increase their efforts to cooperate with other jurisdictions. When necessary, they should make formal mutual legal assistance requests as established in treaties or international conventions like UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) or they may wish to make informal peer-to-peer requests for information and assistance. Informal contact often acts as a prelude to a formal mutual legal assistance request, and active participation and promotion of regional networks can result in valuable opportunities to exchange expertise, establish relationships, and build trust with practitioners in other countries. 4. The FATF 40 Recommendations are a set of anti-money laundering measures for law enforcement, criminal justice, the financial sector, and international cooperation. Found online at
11 Chapter 1 Introduction Forestry s criminal justice system is broken. Despite compelling data and evidence showing that illegal logging is a worldwide epidemic, most forest crimes go undetected, unreported, or are ignored. All too often, investigations in the rare event that they do take place are amateurish and inconclusive, and the few cases taken to court tend to be of trivial significance, prosecuting people whose involvement in crime is due to poverty and exploitation. Even fewer cases result in significant or serious penalties, and the public treasury virtually never recovers the economic value of stolen or destroyed forest assets. Considering that billions of dollars are reaped in illicit gains from forestry-related abuses every year, it is not surprising that the relatively light penalties that are exacted for these crimes form no deterrent at all. 5 There are countless examples of the criminal justice system s failures in this area. In 2005, an initiative to combat illegal logging in Papua, Indonesia, identified 186 suspects and secured almost 400,000 cubic meters of illegally harvested timber. However, only 13 suspects were convicted, and the most significant punishment was a two-year prison sentence. 6 Similarly, in April 2010, President Yudhoyono of Indonesia instructed the country s Anti-Mafia Task Force to review illegal logging court cases in which defendants received lenient sentences or were acquitted. It was found that, of 92 illegal logging defendants, 49 were acquitted, 24 received one-year jail terms, and 19 others received penalties of between one and two years. 7 In Cambodia, the Agriculture Minister has blamed the failure to try approximately 70 percent of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries crimes in court because of a lack of cooperation between courts and prosecutors. 8 It would be less disturbing if these were isolated or unusual incidents, which could be attributed to random error or to the eccentricities of individual prosecutors, courts, or judges. Unfortunately, they are typical, and represent a larger, persistent, and pervasive problem. With such weak penalties and so little likelihood of prosecution, the criminal justice system fails to provide any real deterrent to forest crime. The consequences of the failure of forest law enforcement are enormous and extend far beyond the damage to the trees themselves. According to recent estimates, illegal logging generates illicit earnings of approximately US$10 15 billion annually worldwide, with underpayment of royalties and taxes on legally sanctioned logging amounting to an additional US$5 billion. 9 In some countries, illegally harvested logs 5. Contreras-Hermosilla 2001, p Satriastanti Antara News Sophakchakrya The World Bank 2006, pp. 2, 8-9; Seneca Creek Associates
12 2 World Bank Study reportedly account for as much as 90 percent of timber exports. 10 These estimates do not capture the enormous environmental and societal costs of these crimes how they threaten biodiversity, increase carbon emissions, cause landslides, and undermine the resource-based livelihoods of rural peoples, with ringleaders and organized crime profiting at the expense of the poor. 11 Illegal logging also has detrimental economic impacts. It stifles economic development and distorts the marketplace, discouraging legitimate forest enterprises from making socially and environmentally responsible investments in forestry, and undermining attempts to achieve successful and sustainable management of forest resources worldwide. Finally, the extensive corruption associated with illegal logging weakens broader structures of governance and the rule of law. Despite some encouraging signs, 12 domestic and international efforts to curb illegal logging have had little impact on this growing threat. To date, the focus of such efforts has been on prevention stimulating consumer market awareness of illegal logging and its effects, attempting to create demand for legally produced materials, and promoting forest tenure and industry reform. 13 However, efforts have also been made to improve the detection of illegal logging. G8 countries and the World Bank have supported developing countries in working towards implementing forest certification and other ways of verifying chain of custody of timber thereby making it easier to differentiate between legal and illegal timber. 14 Other countries and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been implementing forest monitoring technology using satellite images and the tracing of logs using bar codes. 15 In contrast, the suppression of illegal logging through the criminal justice system has gotten little attention from policy makers, activists, and technical assistance providers. 16 When the criminal justice system is discussed, the focus is generally on its failures, rather than its potential to help reduce and deter illegal logging. 10. Such estimates of illegal logging as a percentage of total timber exports include: Bolivia 80 percent; Cambodia 90 percent; Ecuador 70 percent; Gabon 70 percent; Indonesia 70 to 80 percent; Papua New Guinea 70 percent; and Peru 80 percent: World Bank 2006; Seneca Creek Associates For example, one study estimated that a local laborer gets less than 10 percent of the value of the timber harvested for a timber operator, with ringleaders taking most of the money: World Bank 2006, p Lawson MacFaul The EU has also taken steps, including studying how anti-money laundering might be used against importation of illegal timber: see files/3266_dbjul05.pdf. In addition, the FATF has included environmental crime in its list of predicate crimes to money laundering. 13. For example, according to The G8 Forest Experts Report on Illegal Logging, Canada s efforts to combat illegal logging have been focused on addressing the underlying cause of illegal logging, including lack of infrastructure and capacity or poor transparency in governance. Development assistance supports sustainable forest management in developing countries, capacity building and governance, particularly in forestry policy and administrative management: report online at Also see The World Bank 2007; Center for International Policy The G8 Forest Experts Report on Illegal Logging, online at gc.ca/g8/summit-sommet/2008/forest_illegal_logging-exploitation_illegale_forets.aspx?lang=eng. 15. Ibid. 16. See, however, Contreras-Hermosilla 2001 and Akella and Cannon 2004, which include improved enforcement and suppression of forest crime, along with efforts at detection and prevention, as part of their recommendations to improve compliance with the law by the forestry sector.
13 Justice for Forests 3 Objectives The overall message of this paper is that law enforcement (investigation, prosecution, imprisonment, and the confiscation of illegal proceeds) can no longer be shunted into a corner. Rather, it needs to form part of an integrated and sustainable solution to the problem of illegal logging. Such a solution will require national forest law enforcement systems to be strengthened, and criminal justice remedies to be used in concert with necessary forest protection programs, such as forest tenure and industry reform, developing consumer market awareness, and supporting efforts to increase demand for legally produced materials. Rather than discussing such forest protection programs or the legislation criminalizing the possession of illegal timber, this paper therefore aims to draw attention to a tool that has been ignored for far too long: the criminal justice system. Although the criminal justice system is woefully ineffective at the present time, it is a necessary and indispensable counterweight to illegal logging. It is the only available tool capable of deterring these crimes through the genuine threat of prosecution and meaningful punishment particularly in the case of corrupt officials, of those who pay bribes, and of those involved in organized crime. Laws on forest maintenance, laws criminalizing environmental crimes, laws protecting property, laws against corruption, and laws prohibiting money laundering have all been adopted worldwide. 17 A system of international conventions and treaties for combating corruption and transnational organized crime, as well as other mechanisms to facilitate international cooperation, are already in place. These laws, conventions, and treaties must be employed to stem the growing losses of large portions of the world s forests. To be successful, forestry officials and advocates will require a better understanding of the positive impact that an integrated criminal justice strategy can have on combating illegal logging and they will need to incorporate this dimension into their programs. At the same time, the criminal justice community needs to be made aware of the detrimental effects and significant losses resulting from illegal logging. They, too, will need to understand the importance of addressing illegal logging through the criminal justice system. If forest law enforcement becomes a higher priority, essential skills can be taught and learned, capacity can be established, and awareness can be raised. There is no substitute for honest, experienced, motivated, and creative investigators and prosecutors who have specialized knowledge of forest crime, and have available the time and resources required. Another of this paper s objectives is to motivate concerned and committed policymakers to assess the structure, function, and performance of the criminal justice system as a key component in the forest law enforcement and governance systems. In particular, this paper makes a number of recommendations for improving the criminal justice process in relation to illegal logging and other forest crimes. Specifically, these recommendations also suggest ways of bringing the financial aspect of illegal logging to light, and, through anti-money laundering measures and the confiscation of assets, helping to identify, freeze, and confiscate illegal proceeds. They also address ways to improve cooperation at three different levels within forest law enforcement: between the forestry 17. Among others the St. Petersburg Declaration (2005) and the World Bank s Forest Strategy (2007) identified the need to fight corruption in the forest sector and the importance of using, among other tools, anti-money laundering regimes.
14 4 World Bank Study and criminal justice sectors; between the public and private sectors; and, internationally, between consumer and producer countries of illegally harvested timber. This paper is organized into three main sections. The first provides a working definition of illegal logging and provides some context, describing the common actors within criminal justice systems. It also reviews the present failures of forest law enforcement systems and explains why they constitute an important tool, despite their ineffectiveness to date. The second section reviews a range of criminal laws that can be used to combat forest crime and its financial aspects. It then highlights the power of certain criminal tools to combat illegal logging and considers the importance of tracing, freezing, and confiscating the illegal proceeds of forest crime through the use of anti-money laundering laws and laws that permit confiscation of illegally obtained assets. Finally, the third section describes tactics and policies that will strengthen the law enforcement response to illegal logging. It focuses, in particular, on three points: (i) strengthening domestic cooperation to improve forest law enforcement; (ii) increasing the effectiveness of international cooperation; and (iii) mobilizing the private sector. Where possible, this paper attempts to include examples drawn from actual cases. Unfortunately, there have been few significant convictions involving illegal logging, and we are unaware of any major cases in which money laundering and asset confiscation were used successfully. Likewise, there is no reliable information that shows accurately the extent of the illegal logging problem and its development over time nor is there data available that can provide information on the flow of funds through money laundering of illegal timber. As a result, this paper relies on lessons learned in other criminal justice areas (that is, corruption, money laundering, and confiscation) to propose workable law enforcement policy responses for illegal logging. In short, although some of the challenges facing forest law enforcement may be unique, a number of practical solutions for bringing perpetrators of forest crimes to justice, already employed in other areas, remain to be tried.
15 Chapter 2 Illegal Logging and the Criminal Justice System: An Overview Although the criminal justice system is often referred to as though it were one monolithic entity, it is, in fact, more like an intricate machine, consisting of many parts, each of which must be properly aligned and connected to function properly. The efficacy of a country s system for detecting, apprehending, investigating, prosecuting, and punishing criminals is dependent on the ability of staff in various agencies to communicate, coordinate, share information, and work together towards a common goal. In this section, we will consider the state of play of forest law enforcement and outline the reasons for its failure to address illegal logging. We will then present a basic typology of illegal logging and review the roles and responsibilities of key forest law enforcement actors. This will set the stage for our analysis of various means of improving the efficiency of the criminal justice system in this area The State of Play Forest law enforcement has been found to be highly ineffective in most countries at countering and deterring illegal logging. A four-year study conducted in four resourcerich countries (Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, and the Philippines) found that the cumulative probability of an illegal logging crime being penalized is less than percent. In one of the regions examined (Papua, Indonesia) the cumulative probability of being convicted of illegal timber shipping was only percent. The study concluded that: Enforcement of natural resource and biodiversity laws and regulations is abysmal in these biodiversity-rich countries. The existing enforcement regimes in the countries we studied are weak, and not one of them provides an adequate disincentive to offset the incentives that are driving illegal environmental activities. 18 Lack of coordination among necessary actors, competing priorities, limited resources, lack of capacity, and both benign and malicious neglect are all to blame. One study has found that most illegal logging cases brought to trial are dismissed because evidence has been lacking, cases have been poorly put together, insufficient evidence has been collected or the wrong type of evidence has been collected; or because judges, pros- 18. Akella and Cannon
16 6 World Bank Study ecutors and the police lack knowledge about important forest laws and regulations. 19 However, this lack of skill is only one part of the problem. The major cause of failure of criminal justice in this area is the prevalence of corruption, especially at high levels. Whether in the form of grease payments and the bribing of local forest officials or the securing of protection from high-ranked political figures, large-scale illegal logging operations cannot occur without the explicit or implicit consent of those government officials in charge of protecting the forests. 20 Indeed, research has shown that forest crime is, in most countries, accompanied by corruption 21 among regulatory and forest law enforcement officials, making it even more difficult to detect and prevent these crimes. 22 Forestry officers generally have significant discretionary powers with comparatively little oversight, creating an environment in which corruption flourishes, particularly since government forest officers are paid relatively little, compared to the value of forest resources. 23 Illicit practices are often shielded by corrupt public officials, as well as their family members and close associates, making such practices difficult to combat. For example, in Honduras, an independent commission established in found evidence that investigations into illegal logging on the part of a number of the country s largest timber companies were halted by the Assistant Attorney General just as prosecutors were reviewing relevant documents that were in the possession of the state forest administration agency. When the public prosecutors resumed their work the next day, the documents had mysteriously disappeared. 25 Studies led by non-profit organizations working in this sector have found that illegal logging is linked to corruption at the highest levels of government. This type of corruption (known as state-capture corruption ) requires different enforcement methods than those used in combating other forms of corrupt activity. In Brazil, top officials in the State Environmental Agency (responsible for the logging industry) and in the former and current state governor s administrations have been implicated in a huge illegal logging operation that caused an estimated US$500 million in damage to the Amazon rainforest. In May 2010, the following officials were arrested for alleged participation in the scheme: The chief of staff and former aide of the current governor of the state of Mato Grosso The former Environment Secretary under the previous governor The former Deputy Secretary of Environment and current Deputy Secretary of the State Rural Development Agency 19. WWF Global Witness See also Center for International Policy The term corruption is meant to include the offenses outlined in Articles 15 to 22 of the UN- CAC: active and passive bribery of national public officials; active and passive bribery of foreign public officials and officials of public international organizations; embezzlement, misappropriation, or other diversion of property by a public official; trading in influence; bribery in the private sector; and embezzlement of property in the private sector. 22. While corrupt PEPs may constitute a small portion of the entire number of PEPs, a single corrupt PEP s behavior can have a disproportionate impact on a country or region. 23. Contreras-Hermosilla The commission was established by Executive Decree of the Honduran government in October Center for International Policy and Environmental Investigation Agency 2005, p. 15.
17 Justice for Forests 7 The State Environment Agency s GIS coordinator The Assistant Secretary for Climate Change in the State Environmental Agency The wife, son-in-law, and two advisors to the President of the Legislative Assembly. 26 Furthermore, corruption is not only a concern in timber-rich producer countries. Corrupt actors in consumer countries also play a role in the flow of illegal timber. For example, customs and other officials often take bribes in exchange for permitting the import of illegal timber without payment of customs or duties, and for helping it to reach its ultimate destination. In addition, companies that pay bribes to corrupt officials in producer countries may be based in consumer countries. Another cause of the failures of the criminal justice system is a misplaced focus on low-level criminals engaged in illegal logging, rather than the criminal organizations or intermediaries ultimately responsible for these crimes. These criminal organizations are sophisticated, well-organized, and have access to an abundance of resources with which to fund their illegal activities. In many countries, illegal logging is controlled by powerful syndicates with high-level political connections; 27 while in other places, links can be seen between illegal logging and criminal organizations known to be involved in drug and human trafficking and other crimes. These organizations are known to demand protection money from those who buy the illegal logs, who, in turn, simply regard this as an additional cost of doing business in the same vein as transportation costs and customs duties. 28 With such sophisticated criminal organizations in control of large-scale illegal logging, lower-level criminals should not be the target of criminal justice. Law enforcement is not the best way to address the problems posed by these lower-level criminals, who often resort to crime in response to extreme poverty and a lack of other options. Instead, a more effective way of addressing the root causes motivating actors at this level may be to put more energy into prevention and into combating poverty. Indiscriminate arrests or needless harassment of poor people even of those who might, because of exploitation and manipulation, be involved in illegal activities undermines the credibility of forest law enforcement by ignoring the organizations and masterminds in control of the illegal activity. It also misleads the public by suggesting that concrete action is taking place while, in fact, the powerful masterminds behind illegal logging operations remain protected. In some of these cases, corrupt officials may intentionally be leading investigators away from more important targets; in others, the harvesting of low-level offenders is given priority because, lacking resources or friends in positions of power, they are easy to apprehend and prosecute. It is important to note that there are many further explanations for the failure of forest law enforcement, including those specific to each jurisdiction. It should also be 26. Neme In Cambodia, to avoid cutting and log transportation moratoria, these organizations have used plantation developments as a pretext to clear-cut forests and log outside of the plantation boundaries with impunity. In addition to the plantations themselves, they have sawmills, numerous factories in other locations to assemble plywood, and a nationwide timber transportation service, often involving military trucks bearing license plates from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. Global Witness Khatchadourian 2008.
18 8 World Bank Study pointed out that development assistance directed at helping governments address illegal logging seldom includes strengthening of the criminal justice system. Although recognized since 2006 that a multifaceted approach is needed resources have remained insufficient to address the challenges encountered by law enforcement. Few involved are willing to wrestle with the difficulties of getting the state to mobilize the forest law enforcement system. As a result, the message sent to criminals is that forest resources are open for exploitation on whatever terms operators wish to pursue. 29 In pleasant contrast, the European Union-funded European Neighborhood Policy Instrument East Countries plus Russia FLEG Program, has undertaken some specific interventions to enhance forest law enforcement in several of the participating countries. Examples include assessing the efficacy of anti-corruption safeguards, providing in-service training for forestry officials, and preparing a study on the criminal liability of illegal logging. No matter how difficult it might be, the criminal justice system needs to be rehabilitated and incorporated into any strategy to combat illegal logging. Only substantial punishment and/or confiscation of the proceeds generated by criminal activity including corruption will clearly demonstrate to criminals and the public alike that these acts will not be tolerated. Likewise, strong and powerful criminal organizations cannot be taken on without the support of the state, as manifested in the criminal justice system. Without a genuine threat of prosecution and punishment, these criminal organizations will operate with a sense of impunity and will continue to develop their illegal activities for as long as they remain profitable. Significant penalties and prison time are required not only to punish the present offender, but also to deter potential future offenders whether they be individuals who could face imprisonment or corporations that could not only be prosecuted but also be rejected by increasingly environmentally aware customers and consumers. In addition, to have any effect, criminal justice remedies (such as the confiscation of proceeds) must be regularly and forcefully applied against those responsible for forest crime including government officials and the businesses that bribe them. One important criminal justice remedy is for forestry officials, investigators, and prosecutors to investigate the financial aspects of the crime while simultaneously building a case relating to the specific forest crime. This may be particularly important where organized crime is involved. Conservative estimates indicate that approximately 130 million cubic meters of roundwood (both hardwood and softwood), valued at US$12 billion annually, originates from sources that are either illegal or suspicious. 30 By concentrating on the financial aspects of criminal enterprises, law enforcement officials are not only better able to investigate and discover the full scope of the criminal activity how much timber is being harvested and how much money is being generated but also where the proceeds are hidden, and who has been involved in recycling those proceeds into the legitimate economy. This knowledge enables prosecutors to proceed with confiscating and actually recovering the ill-gotten gains. Stripping criminals of the proceeds of their crime raises the cost of conducting this illegal business and consequently helps to deter further criminal activity. Another important benefit of this approach is that, in 29. Interestingly, in contrast to the illegal logging issue, advocacy related to control of the endangered species trade is much more aggressive in its approach. See, for example, Wildlife Trade: A Handbook for Enforcement Staff (scanned PDF, 5.3 MB) Vivek Menon, Raj Panjwani, Pranav Capila, Aarti Sharma, Madhumita Ghosh (August 1994), 42pp. 30. Seneca Creek Associates 2004.
19 Justice for Forests 9 Box 2.1. Typical Failures of Criminal Justice A case involving police commissioner Marthen Renouw of Indonesia demonstrates the failures of the criminal justice system. He was arrested in April 2005 during a crackdown on illegal logging and his case was transferred from Papua to Jakarta in an attempt to prevent the trial being affected by his substantial personal influence in the locality. Although a strike force identified suspicious transactions involving five different bank accounts, the police looked at only one of these. This account revealed 16 suspicious transfers totaling US$160,000 from people linked to two companies involved in illegal logging. The police did not examine the other accounts or Renouw s other assets including properties in Jakarta and Bali and other investments. Renouw was charged under anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws. When brought to trial, the prosecution sought only a three-year jail sentence and a fine of US$5,400. Renouw was acquitted. The judges blamed missing testimony from a witness, though some legal experts claimed that there was sufficient evidence for a conviction without the testimony. The prosecution s appeal against the verdict was then denied because it was late. a If the criminal justice system had functioned properly in this case, all of Renouw s accounts and assets would have been examined to determine whether they were the proceeds of crime that is, property obtained through the commission of illegal logging. If they were found to be so, the assets would then have been confiscated, and the prosecution may have identified additional transactions or evidence that would have resulted in a conviction and a more significant jail term. a. Environmental Investigation Agency and Telepak 2007, p. 9. certain circumstances, the state can apply these confiscated assets to fight illegal logging or for other law enforcement purposes. There are important benefits to be gained from an efficient criminal justice system in the fight against illegal logging. Criminal justice is an indispensable pillar of any viable strategy to protect forest resources. Such an approach requires a full consideration of the scope of the criminal activities involved, and a clear understanding of the actors that need to be mobilized Illegal Logging: A Basic Typology Illegal logging is by far the most widely recognized form of forest-related crime. Other crimes that could be addressed by the criminal justice methods discussed here include wildlife poaching and trade, wild-land arson, and encroachment onto forest land. Corruption involving public forest officials, as described above, is often intimately linked with all of these crimes. Definitions of illegal logging vary widely. Some people use the term to refer to a relatively narrow set of activities relating to the harvesting of timber either without the required government permits or in violation of those permits. Others use it more broadly to cover a range of legal violations related to the harvesting, transport, processing, and trade of timber and the illicit evasion of taxes and fees on the logs and processed woodcuts generated. 31 Even in its more narrow definition, illegal logging involves a range of activities that violate laws governing the harvesting of timber. If violations of these laws are prosecuted, they are often prosecuted by administrative agencies other 31. See Kishor and Damania 2007, Contreras-Hermosilla 2002, and Calister 1999.
20 10 World Bank Study Box 2.2. Illegal Logging in Indonesia Indonesia has struggled with illegal logging for decades. During the Suharto New Order regime, capture of economic rents from forestry was institutionalized and essentially sanctioned among a small number of elites who were able to benefit from their privileged access. Since the collapse of the New Order only a very few successful prosecutions against Suharto cronies in the forestry sector have been brought forward and there has been little recovery of stolen assets. In the post-suharto period, forest policies in Indonesia have been in flux, including a period of marked decentralization of control over resources and a retrenchment from the decentralization. Throughout this period, illegal logging and various forms of forest corruption have taken on new priority and been the subject of much greater public debate and scrutiny. Policy makers from the president downward have instituted and endorsed a series of programs and policies addressing forest law enforcement and governance, and there has been strong donor support both for government and civil society efforts. Unfortunately, data suggest that patterns of law enforcement efforts in Indonesia generally follow the global pattern suggested in this report: relatively few specific cases of illegal logging are detected; fewer are pursued with detailed and professional investigations; most cases that are pursued are against relatively low-level criminality as opposed to high-level offenders and corrupt officials; few of the cases that do proceed result in significant penalties, and seldom are public assets recovered. This is well illustrated by the table below which summarizes the results of cases pursued by the standard law enforcement system. Year No of Cases Investigation Prosecution Conviction ,031 n.a n.a ships n.a n.a Source: Laode M. Syarif, Partnership for Governance Reform Presentation for U4 Workshop November More notably successful has been the work of the Indonesian Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK). As of May 31, 2010, the KPK has undertaken pre-investigation of 316 cases, has further investigated 171 of these cases, has prosecuted 139 of these cases, and has successfully executed 114 prosecutions. In the period 2004 to 2011, a series of corruption cases have been investigated by the KPK involving high-ranking officials. These include 43 members of parliament, 10 ministers or heads of a ministerial level, 10 provincial governors, 20 mayors and heads of districts, 3 ambassadors, and 1 judge. In terms of the recovery of state assets, US$18 billion is estimated to have been gained from prevention activities, while US$100 million is noted to have been gained through law enforcement activities. The marked differences in impact between KPK and routine prosecutions is suggestive of the potential of the approach advocated in this study. than the prosecutor s office. This is because they are treated as quasi-criminal administrative offenses resulting in low fines (or none) and minimal criminal sanctions, such as imprisonment. Although the specific offenses vary across jurisdictions, they can be grouped into three broad categories:
21 Justice for Forests 11 Illegal products. Offenses relating to illegal products include the harvesting of protected tree species, such as mahogany (meliaceae) or ramin trees, 32 as well as (in jurisdictions that employ a felling timber concession system) the felling of trees below allowable size classes. Product restrictions are also sometimes advanced on the basis of value added (logs, cants, sawn wood, and so forth). Illegal locations. Offenses relating to illegal locations typically include the harvesting of timber in locations where logging is prohibited or in locations without a valid permit, whether on private lands, community-owned forests, or state-controlled forests. It also includes felling trees from prohibited sites within concessions areas, such as areas with steep slopes or those located close to rivers or streambeds. Illegal practices. Offenses relating to illegal practices associated with commercial timber harvesting typically involve a failure to comply with a jurisdiction s laws and regulations governing the behavior of forestry concession-holders. Examples include failing to meet affirmative obligations to file forest management plans, failing to conduct social and environmental impact assessments, and failing to perform post-harvest reforestation activities. They may also include practices like operating or transporting logs without legal permits. This basic categorization of illegal logging offenses into those relating to illegal products, illegal locations, and illegal practices provides a framework that can be used to inform an analysis of conduct in a particular case whether in the course of detecting, investigating, or prosecuting illegal logging. For example, if there is evidence relating to a violation involving illegal locations, prosecutors, and investigators should consider whether there are any illegal products or illegal practices that are also involved. After this basic analysis, they should think about the particular crimes involved (including the elements of each of these crimes) to determine whether they can prove these offenses and obtain a conviction The Criminal Justice System: Relevant Actors Criminal justice systems, whether in civil law or common law countries, revolve around the detection of a possible crime, its investigation, prosecution, and sentencing/confiscation. Each of these functions involves different professionals who need to work together so as to ensure the adequate and effective treatment of a case. Indeed, law enforcement is effective only when it is carried out as an integrated process when intelligence about possible criminal activity is collected, analyzed, and disseminated to criminal investigators, who can then competently develop the evidence needed to prove that a crime has been committed and work collaboratively with prosecutors to obtain the conviction. Ideally, these prosecutors will be skilled in preparing the case for presentation to the court, and will be able to pursue those cases that, in their view, make the most effective use of resources in punishing past crime and in helping to prevent future crime. How well this is done depends, in large part, on how well the key stakeholders can coordinate their different functions into a continuous and single-minded process. With respect to forest 32. Both natural mahogany and ramin are CITES-controlled species, and international trade of these timbers is therefore prohibited. A far broader range of species will commonly be protected or restricted under national laws.
22 12 World Bank Study law enforcement, the key players involved will be forestry officials, financial intelligence units, investigators, prosecutors, and judges. Forestry officials are instrumental in detecting illegal logging activities. Although they are often peripheral to the criminal justice process, foresters are in the best position to provide intelligence about crimes relating to the harvesting of timber because, after all, most of these crimes start in the forest. Most illegal logging activities go undiscovered but when they are detected, it is commonly due to the actions of forest rangers engaged in routine monitoring and inspection. Other sources of detection include informants, industry studies showing wood input/output estimates, aerial surveillance, and satellite detection. 33 However, foresters rarely have specialized legal or police training, and they generally lack the skills or equipment for maintaining evidence and interviewing witnesses. Forestry officials also play an important role in the detection of forest crime through forest management systems. Such systems may include labeling methods that can be read electronically or through radio signals, as well as state-of-the-art methods for identifying species or geographic origin using genetics, such as DNA extraction or DNA bar-coding. 34 Foresters are often poorly paid compared to other enforcement positions, and they often lack some of the most basic equipment needed to properly detect crimes and detain suspects including uniforms, vehicles, fuel, weapons, ammunition, field quarters, and radios. In some countries, forestry officials have no enforcement powers at all, and must refer all suspects and all enforcement actions to the police. In other countries, forestry officials have only limited power to enforce forestry laws. In addition, since such officials are often involved in reviewing and approving forest management plans and environmental impact assessments before logging begins (including operational plans and harvesting schedules), criminals may attempt to bribe, coerce, or corrupt them. Police, border guards and customs officials also play an important role in preventing and detecting illegal logging. Customs officials, for instance, are in a position to prevent the movement of unauthorized shipments across borders with false documentation, while the police may encounter trucks transporting illegally harvested timber on the roads. Although the police are often stationed within the communities where illegal logging occurs, if management plans are too complex, they may lack the ability and evidence they need to determine whether raw timber on a truck was logged illegally unless, of course, the timber itself is of a particular size or species that may not be logged. They may also be presented with forged transport permits. Finally, determining the guilty party whether it be the harvester, driver, contract company, managing company, sourcing company, or individuals present within these companies is often beyond the capability of forestry and police officers or local investigators. Faced with this problem, they often choose instead to take no action: they simply disengage and fail to investigate. Criminal investigators usually take the lead in analyzing intelligence to identify criminal activity or targets, and in gathering evidence that can trigger the next phase of the process and ultimately prove the criminal offense. This is done through interviewing witnesses, collecting evidence (including forensic or other scientific evidence), and 33. FAO 2005, pp Dykstra et al See Tracking.pdf.
23 Justice for Forests 13 by gathering and analyzing documents, such as financial, public, or business records. In civil-law jurisdictions, the investigation phase is undertaken under the supervision of the investigating magistrate on the case. One of the most important tasks of a criminal investigator is interviewing suspects. The resulting confessions, or extraction of information and lead intelligence, can be vital in building a case. It is at the end of such interviews that investigators, in consultation with prosecutors, will often decide whether the person moves from the category of suspect to witness or participating informant or accused. Financial intelligence units (FIUs) are also important players where anti-money laundering and asset confiscation is involved. These units are responsible for collecting, analyzing and disseminating suspicious transaction reports (STRs) coming from financial institutions (for example, banks or insurance companies) and designated nonfinancial businesses and professions (for example, company formation agents, lawyers, accountants, or notaries) 35 to law enforcement agencies. Often, these reports provide the first indication of money-laundering offenses involving the proceeds of underlying predicate crimes which may constitute the profits obtained through illegal logging. Where appropriate, FIUs disseminate their analysis of STRs to law enforcement, who may then initiate a criminal investigation to determine if prosecution is warranted. In such a case, the investigator or prosecutor should be able to make an inquiry with the FIU to see if any large cash transactions or other suspicious transactions have been reported. Prosecutors generally guide the investigation in consultation with the investigators. The best results are produced when these two parties cooperate and coordinate their efforts from the beginning of the criminal inquiry. This helps ensure that the evidence is admissible (for example, that it meets legal standards of reliability and relevance). In addition, through their work together, prosecutors and investigators can develop a coherent strategy for the investigation. This, in turn, helps determine the prosecution s courtroom strategy and increases the chance of obtaining a conviction. Like the investigator, the prosecutor must determine which offenses apply, which crimes can be proven, and who is to be charged from among the potential defendants whether they be the harvester, driver, contract company, managing company, sourcing company, or individuals present within these companies. When presenting a case at trial, one of the prosecutor s most important tasks is the synthesis of various strands of evidence into a coherent structure. He or she must methodically build the case for conviction through each new piece of evidence, presenting it in a manner that is clear and logical, and that falls within the applicable procedural rules. Often, the prosecutor must also educate the court about which laws apply. The prosecutor must therefore have sufficient expertise in the procedure that dictates how that evidence must be brought before the court, as well as a detailed understanding of the particular laws that apply and, where forest regulations are at issue, the overall regulatory scheme. It is the prosecutor who bears the burden of convincing the court that the accused committed the crime as charged and the prosecutor must link that criminal 35. The glossary to the 40+9 FATF Recommendations on money laundering and terrorism financing include in the definition of designated non-financial businesses and professions the following entities: casinos (which also include internet casinos), real-estate agents, dealers in precious metals and precious stones, lawyers, notaries, other independent legal professionals and trust and company service providers.
24 14 World Bank Study activity to any proceeds to ensure confiscation. Of course, these tasks will be impossible if investigators, police, and foresters do not gather and preserve the evidence needed to prove the offense in court. Prosecutors in this area also need experience with particular evidentiary problems that frequently arise in forestry cases. For example, to show that a tree was cut in an area where logging is not permitted, the prosecutor must prove that a confiscated log came from a particular stump located in the area in question. The prosecutor could use DNA matching, but that is often too expensive. If a piece of the log is to be matched to the stump, chain of custody for the piece must be proven in court, and witnesses must testify to establish that the piece came from that particular log and matches that particular stump. This is particularly challenging in countries that do not permit photographic evidence. In addition to such technical problems, prosecutors may also be faced with evidence that is not admissible in court because the forest rangers or other investigators taking the evidence did not have sufficient training to meet evidentiary requirements. Judges ultimately decide whether the defendant is guilty or innocent, and whether any proceeds of the crime may be confiscated. In this process, they must also make a number of other decisions for example, whether the evidence offered by the prosecutor or defense attorney is admissible (that is, meets certain legal standards making it eligible for consideration) and whether the prosecutor has presented sufficient evidence to convict the accused. Judges are also responsible for imposing punishments. These major actors in forest law enforcement have not, traditionally, worked well together, and their lack of cooperation has often obstructed effective enforcement. 36 If each of these stakeholders was to have a more detailed appreciation of the role of the other players, cooperation would undoubtedly improve, helping to remove one of the key impediments to conviction lack of communication between the various parts of the system. 36. For example, a study of four different countries found that one common challenge impeding effective enforcement was poor interagency cooperation. One of the main causes of ineffective enforcement in Mexico was poor collaboration among environmental enforcement agencies ; in Brazil, it was jurisdictional confusion ; in Indonesia, a lack of coordination between agencies and between local, provincial, and central offices of single agencies; and, in Palawan, Philippines, a lack of interagency coordination was to blame: Akella and Cannon 2004.
25 Chapter 3 Using the Law to Better Combat Forest Crime In order for the quality of forest law enforcement to be improved, the actors involved whether on the forestry side or in criminal justice need to develop a better understanding of the wide range of laws that are available for prosecuting those responsible for illegal logging. If the actors involved in the system better understand the types of crimes committed in the course of forest crime, and if they also fully understand the benefits of certain criminal procedural tools, they will be better equipped to fulfill their role at each stage of the criminal justice process: the investigation and gathering of evidence, the prosecution and presenting of the case against the accused, the sentencing of the convicted criminal and the confiscation of the proceeds of the crime. It is important that prosecutors should consider all potential offenses as early as possible in the process illegal harvesting or transportation of logs, conspiracy, or money laundering, and so on. This will provide them with more options in moving cases forward and a range of tools better suited to dealing with criminal organizations Targeting the Full Range of Forest-Related Crime There are few international conventions that focus specifically on illegal logging. However, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) can be very useful in certain respects. This Convention subjects the trading of species to certain controls for import, export, re-export and the introduction of specific plants and animals. Unfortunately, it contains no international enforcement mechanism, and the 175 states party to CITES must adopt their own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented in their country, and can be enforced within that jurisdiction. Nonetheless, in the context of the fight against illegal logging, CITES is particularly valuable because it provides a legal basis for international cooperation and the creation of the same crime in multiple jurisdictions around the world. 37 Even if a country has not implemented CITES, it will have other domestic laws establishing offenses relevant to illegal logging. In general, the offenses that will be implicated in forest crime fall within one of three categories: (i) offenses related to actual timber harvesting operations; (ii) offenses that criminalize facilitating the illegal appropriation of timber; and (iii) offenses by which the offender benefits from the possession of illegal timber. 37. However, it should be noted that without a listing in the CITES Appendices, it may be impossible for law enforcement agencies in differing national jurisdictions to assist each other. 15
26 16 World Bank Study Actual timber harvesting offenses: There are a wide range of offenses relating to actual timber harvesting, including environmental offenses. Most, if not all, countries with significant forest assets have enacted some form of targeted forest protection law relating to unauthorized harvesting. Environmental offenses, and the penalties associated with them, are typically defined by regulatory or environmental statutes, which are tailored to precisely address the particularities of crimes affecting the forests. These environmental laws may involve illegal products, such as harvesting timber species protected by law; 38 illegal locations (including, for example, logging in protected areas like forest reserves); 39 or illegal practices, like logging without authorization. 40 Because these laws are specific, the definition of precisely what is illegal varies across jurisdictions and sometimes even across levels of government within a particular state. Apart from these forest-specific laws, all countries have general laws that prohibit theft and embezzlement, and both categories may potentially be applied to forest crime, depending on the circumstances of the case. These general criminal laws against property theft, property damage, or embezzlement can and should be used in the forestry context to prosecute criminals carrying on these activities whether or not environmental regulatory offenses also exist. Offenses that criminalize the facilitation of access to and profiting from timber: Illegal loggers may also engage in a series of criminal acts apart from illegal logging that will make it easier for them to access and profit from timber. The link between illegal logging and corruption is widely recognized and documented. Corrupt regulatory and forest law officials accept bribes and grease payments in exchange for preferential treatment or protection from prosecution for forest crimes. They also sell forest law enforcement jobs to the highest bidder or accept payments in return for forged documents or permits. 41 These actions may overlap with a number of different offenses prosecuted in the fight against corruption: active or passive bribery of national or foreign public officials; embezzlement of public funds or property; trading in influence (giving an undue advantage with a view to obtaining abuse of the official s influence); illicit enrichment (significant increase in the assets of a public official that cannot be explained by legitimate income); abuse of functions or position (an official takes action or fails to take action in discharging his or her function in exchange for undue influence); bribery or embezzlement in the private sector; concealment of an offense; or obstruction of justice. 42 Due to operational complexity and their international dimension, illegal logging operations often involve sophisticated criminal organizations and a whole chain of criminals and criminal activity. For this reason, criminal laws prohibiting aiding and 38. Or, for example, harvesting under- or over-sized trees. 39. Other examples of illegal locations offenses include logging outside of concession boundaries; buying logs that have been harvested outside the concession boundaries; and logging in prohibited areas, such as steep slopes, riverbanks, and catchment areas. 40. Illegal practices may involve extracting more timber than is authorized; logging while in breach of contract obligations; or obtaining concessions illegally. 41. FAO & ITTO, 2005, pp Articles 15 to 25, UNCAC sets out this list of general corruption offenses.
27 Justice for Forests 17 abetting, criminal organizations, and conspiracy can be pivotal tools in any attempt to deal with illegal logging. Conspiracy is an agreement to undertake some illegal act or purpose. While the specifics of what is required to prove conspiracy may differ across jurisdictions, all judges recognize conspiracy as a serious crime, and may impose heavier penalties for related offenses. Forest crime may also involve violent crimes such as extortion, kidnapping, or murder in the course of illegal harvesting or the transporting of timber. In Honduras, for example, three members of an anti-illegal logging group, the Environmental Movement of Olancho, have been killed since The group s current leaders have themselves received a number of death threats. In 2001, one of the leaders was forced to move off a road at gunpoint and had a hand grenade held against his chest. 43 Similarly, documented reports in Cambodia describe threats of violence against community foresters looking for illegal logging, including death threats and gunshots, and the apparent kidnapping of the managing director of a logging company. 44 Offenses by which the offender benefits from the possession of illegal timber: Additional offenses may be committed at a later stage in the production chain, once the illegal loggers have harvested the timber and are in a position to reap the profits of their illegal activities. These offenses typically occur during the transport and sale of illegal timber. They include trafficking in stolen goods, receiving or concealing stolen goods, tax evasion, smuggling and other customs violations, as well as money laundering. Money laundering involves, among other actions, the concealment of the source of illegally obtained funds or the manipulation of such funds, so that they appear to be of legal origin. Money laundering may involve placing the proceeds of crime into the financial system, moving illicit gains and transferring them into different assets (as a means of disguising their nature) and integrating the proceeds of crime with the proceeds of legal activities. 45 In the illegal logging context, smuggling consists of transporting logs (as opposed to other contraband) across borders in violation of the national law or international conventions (such as CITES). It will often involve species whose transport is banned under national law, or export without the appropriate permits. The movement of illegal timber across borders also means that the parties are guilty of avoiding payment of the applicable import or export duties. For example, in Honduras, recent undercover investigations revealed that top companies were exporting 50 percent more timber than they reported. 46 In addition, significant amounts of cash are often brought across borders undeclared, contrary to most countries currency controls. Companies are often also guilty of tax evasion, having logged and profited from the timber, but having failed to declare profits and pay the applicable tax. In Indonesia, it is estimated that as much as US$5 billion is generated through illegal logging; all of the tax revenue on that US$5 billion is lost Center for International Policy and the Environmental Investigation Agency 2005, pp Global Witness Setiono and Husein Center for International Policy and the Environmental Investigation Agency 2005, p Kishor and Damania 2007, p. 92.
28 18 World Bank Study Most of the above offenses relate to direct involvement in the actual harvesting, processing, or transport of the timber itself. However, law enforcement and prosecutors should not overlook the possibility of filing charges against other parties involved at different stages in the processing and sale of illegal timber. For example, the smuggling and transportation of logs are generally handled by parties distinct from those involved in the actual logging, and the whole process may be overseen by the heads of organized syndicates. All these parties (whether individuals or other criminal organizations) should not be ignored by law enforcement, because eliminating these actors can help to cut off the flow of logs to the market. Moreover, as will be discussed below, these people may be willing to identify other individuals and groups involved in the illegal logging operation in exchange for more lenient sentences. In the money laundering context, the professionals who assist criminals with laundering their money often bankers, lawyers, accountants, or real-estate brokers may also be guilty of money laundering. Finally, in the United States, legislation enables the prosecution of anyone knowingly in possession of illegal timber. 48 The aim is to impose a penalty on the possession or importation of illegal timber and to curb demand thereby eliminating (or at least reducing) some of the profits garnered from illegal logging. Other countries should pass similar domestic legislation, criminalizing the importation of illegal timber and plugging an important gap in international law. A move toward the prosecution of all of these offenses, as well as any others committed to facilitate access to timber and to profit from illegal logging, may begin to ease the burden on prosecutors in this field. It may also provide more ammunition for prosecutors negotiating plea agreements with low-level and intermediate-level criminals, (as will be discussed later in this section). In every case, and as early as possible in the investigation, all potential offenses should be considered for prosecution, either in lieu of or in addition to illegal harvesting offenses. Practitioners can also review the flow of the logs from harvesting, processing, transport, export, import, and sale (see figure 3.1), to help to quickly identify all possible offenses that may have been committed (see box 3.1). Figure 3.1. Flow of Illegally Harvested Logs Logging Log in protected areas Log outside of area on permit Log protected species Log trees of a protected size Log and burn trees Forgery of permits, using forged permits Bribery and other corrupt practices to obtain permits Transport Transport without transport permits Transport at prohibited time Transport using forged permits Fraudulent use of transport permits Bribery at police checkpoints Processing Failing to determine legal origin of logs Bank fraud (misrepresenting mill capacity on loan application) Export / Import Tax avoidance (import/export duties) False export/import declaration Avoidance of currency controls Smuggling / illegal importing Misuse of bill of lading Falsification of vessel manifest Sale Knowingly selling illegal raw or finished product 48. Amendments to the Lacey Act make it illegal to import illegally logged timber: 16 U.S.C
29 Justice for Forests 19 Box 3.1. Classifying Criminal Conduct Offenses relating to actual timber harvesting operations Environmental offenses and unauthorized harvesting Harvesting protected species Harvesting over- or under-sized trees Logging in protected areas Logging outside of concession boundaries Logging in prohibited areas Logging without authorization General criminal property offenses Theft Embezzlement Offenses that criminalize the facilitation of, access to and profiting from illegal logging Corruption giving and receiving bribes and gratuities Theft and embezzlement of public property Intangible right of citizens to honest services of employees Laws against criminal organizations Conspiracy Violent crimes Kidnappings Death threats Murders Offenses by which the offender benefits from the possession of illegal timber Smuggling Trafficking in stolen goods Receiving or concealing stolen goods Money laundering a a. The G20 has urged FATF to include tax evasion as a predicate crime to money laundering.
30 20 World Bank Study 3.2. Tackling the Financial Dimension Two of the most powerful tools that can and should be used to combat the financial dimension of illegal logging and predicate offenses are money laundering and asset confiscation regimes. 49 These two regimes offer a key advantage in that they simultaneously prevent criminals from enjoying the proceeds generated by their involvement in illegal activities and deny them the funds to carry on those activities. Forestry legislation alone does not permit authorities to freeze the accounts of financial backers of illegal logging or of those who profit from it. 50 Although a detailed review of these systems is not possible within the scope of this paper, the following section highlights some of the advantages of using money laundering and asset confiscation in combating illegal logging. In general, anti-money laundering laws establish a category of offense that criminalizes the movement or transfer of any funds that constitute the proceeds of a criminal offense. 51 Anti-money laundering laws have a much wider reach than forestry laws because they allow for the prosecution of individuals who manipulate the proceeds derived from the illegal harvesting of forests (or other related crimes as described above, known as predicate offenses ). 52 The money laundering offense criminalizes participation in schemes designed to legitimize the illicit origin of funds where someone knows or should have known the illegal origin of those funds, even if they do not necessarily know which specific predicate offense generated them. This would include, for example, a banker, financial advisor, lawyer, or any other individual who performs a financial transaction with the intention of concealing the illegal origin of their client s funds. When proceeds of illegal logging activities are invested in real estate, the offense also extends to notaries, real-estate agents and brokers, or other professionals, provided that these professionals know that the proceeds are of illegal origin. Applying money laundering laws in the context of prosecuting large-scale illegal logging is beneficial in several other respects. 53 Money laundering is a separate offense that carries additional jail time and serves as a legal basis for freezing and confiscating 49. Whether criminal or non-conviction based. 50. Setiono The UNCAC in its art. 23 defines money laundering as (i) the conversion or transfer of property, knowing that such property is the proceeds of crime, for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the property or of helping any person who is involved in the commission of the predicate offense to evade the legal consequences of his or her action; (ii) the concealment or disguise of the true nature, source, location, disposition, movement or ownership of or rights with respect to property, knowing that such property is the proceeds of crime. Subject to the basic concepts of domestic legal systems, UNCAC calls for including in the definition of money laundering (i) the acquisition, possession or use of property, knowing, at the time of receipt, that such property is the proceeds of crime; and (ii) participation in, association with or conspiracy to commit, attempts to commit and aiding, abetting, facilitating and counselling the commission of any of the offence [ ]. This definition was retained by the FATF Recommendations, now adopted by about 170 countries and jurisdictions. 52. The predicate offense for money laundering is constituted by the underlying activities that generate proceeds, which when laundered, lead to the offense of money laundering. Environmental crime is included as a predicate offense by FATF. 53. See World Bank, 2006; See also Setiono and Husein 2005.
31 Justice for Forests 21 the proceeds of the crime. Also, in many cases, the scope for legal action and the applicable penalties are greater and more severe than those associated with environmental laws. Furthermore, anti-money laundering laws create greater access to financial records and information, which can then help to lay the groundwork for asset confiscation. 54 The prosecution of money laundering offenses necessarily unites the efforts of financial institutions in detecting suspicious transactions and results in the creation of specialized FIUs. Anti-money laundering laws and regulations require banks and other financial institutions, as well as designated non-financial entities, to adopt know your customer (KYC) policies. These policies are designed to prevent criminals from placing the proceeds of crime into the banking system, and the legitimate economy. This is done through the implementation of customer due diligence (CDD) whereby banks and other entities (called reporting entities ), require customers to provide identification and verify the information provided by the customers. These reporting entities are also required to develop a customer profile which can subsequently be used to monitor accounts (so as to identify any abnormal transactions, for example) and to report any suspicious transactions to the country s FIU. So, in cases involving illegal logging, a bank is required to submit a STR to the FIU whenever it suspects that a customer is involved in a transaction using assets that may be the proceeds of illegal logging. The bank s suspicion will have been based on the profile of the legal timber customer. 55 In addition, anti-money laundering laws are particularly relevant to illegal logging cases because they require banks to proceed to enhanced due diligence measures for high-risk customers. These are customers who are more likely to be involved in crime forestry businesses operating in countries where forest crime is prevalent, or PEPs. 56 In the context of illegal logging, PEPs are those government officials and other individuals who are in a position to become involved in illegal logging, whether by virtue of their position in a government agency, or because of their involvement in a seemingly legitimate business associated with logging. 57 Banks should always conduct enhanced due diligence on any customers related to the timber or furniture industry before agreeing to provide financial and banking facilities or services. It should certainly be done on the occasion of any large cash withdrawals (which may be used to pay suppliers, loggers, or bribes) or on receipt of transfer payments from abroad (which may originate from the buyers of the illegal logs). 58 Governments and other bodies can take a number of actions to facilitate the use of anti-money laundering legislation in the forestry sector. If they have not already done so, countries can criminalize the financial backers of illegal logging and require their banking supervisory authorities to monitor the implementation of these principles spe- 54. World Bank 2006, p Setiono and Husein PEPs are more likely than others to be involved in money laundering, so enhanced due diligence is necessary in their case (see Recommendation 6 FATF). See also Greenberg et al for further information on PEPs regimes. 57. In addition, the relatives and close associates of such individuals are also considered PEPs since they may be used to launder the proceeds of crime. 58. Setiono and Husein 2005.
32 22 World Bank Study cifically by banks that have clients in the logging, plywood, timber, and pulp and paper industries. 59 Another measure would be for a country to go beyond the international standards and expand the implementation of KYC and reporting obligations to any business or profession that is at risk to being misused for the laundering of the proceeds of illegal logging in its jurisdiction. The prosecution of money-laundering offenses also allows the scarce law enforcement resources to be targeted on those areas where they will have the strongest effect. Because of their international aspect, these prosecutions facilitate cross-border cooperation a key component in investigating and prosecuting illegal logging offenders. Timber illegally harvested in one country will often be processed in another, and moneys earned from its sale will often be invested abroad as well. The FATF urges countries to recognize crimes committed in another country as predicate crimes if they would have been such under their own money-laundering laws. 60 Thus, the fact that the predicate crime of timber theft may have occurred in Country A would not prevent Country B from prosecuting any laundering of the proceeds of the theft occurring within its jurisdiction. Finally, confiscation laws allow the state to dispossess criminals of the illegal proceeds (property generated from the commission of the illegal activity) 61 and instrumentalities (assets that have facilitated the commission of the criminal activity) of their crime. Confiscation, unlike a penalty or a fine, is a measure that can be pursued before, during, or after criminal prosecution. Generally, the proceeds in question will first be frozen to prevent dissipation during the investigation and prosecution of the case. At the appropriate time, the court determines whether there is sufficient evidence that the assets in question constitute the proceeds of a crime. If so, it orders their confiscation. If not, the assets are returned to the defendant along with (depending on the country and the system in place) legal costs incurred in the course of the confiscation proceeding. In the illegal logging context, confiscation laws allow the state to obtain possession of the illegally harvested timber itself, as well as any other property linked directly or indirectly to the criminal activity. In cases where the actual proceeds or instrumentalities of a crime are no longer available or cannot be located, confiscation laws may also have the advantage of permitting seizure of assets of equivalent value held by the criminal even if they are of legal origin. This is called value confiscation. Value confiscation is particularly useful where the proceeds and instrumentalities of crime are commingled with legitimate assets. In addition, some countries have implemented measures enabling the state to confiscate assets outside of a criminal conviction. This is called non-conviction based asset forfeiture (NCB). NCB allows for assets to be frozen and confiscated not only before, during, or after a criminal proceeding, but also if there is no criminal proceeding or even if the defendant is acquitted. NCB is a proceeding against the property (in rem) and not against the person Setiono FATF 40+9 Recommendations, Recommendation Article 2 of UNCAC defines proceeds as any property derived from or obtained, directly or indirectly, through the commission of an offence. Property is defined as assets of every kind, whether corporeal or incorporeal, movable or immovable, tangible or intangible, and legal documents or instruments evidencing title to or interest in such assets. 62. Refer to Greenberg et al for further information about NCB.
33 Justice for Forests 23 Box 3.2. Benefits of Using Money Laundering and Confiscation Laws As an autonomous offense, money laundering carries additional jail time Foreign jurisdictions can investigate the predicate offense Proceeds of the crime can be frozen, seized, and confiscated Law enforcement has access to bank and other financial institution records Financial institutions are required to report suspicious transfers and abnormal cash transactions and to identify the beneficial owners of legal entities Requires the establishment of FIUs, which receive reports from financial institutions and can provide new channels for international exchange of information Facilitates international cooperation Where there is an appropriate predicate offense, the use of anti-money laundering laws permits the state to seize and then confiscate the illegally harvested timber and proceeds related to illegal logging May allow for equivalent value confiscation May allow for confiscation of criminal proceeds outside of a criminal conviction (NCB asset forfeiture) 3.3. Making Effective Use of Law Enforcement Procedures Criminal codes and rules of evidence and procedure set out the procedures for enforcement, prosecution, and sentencing, specifying the ways in which actors in the criminal justice system may or may not proceed. Criminal procedure law covers, for example, plea agreements, witness testimony, rules for evidence collection, and investigation procedures. These codes also contain rules for the use of special investigative techniques, plea agreements, and witness protection programs. Decisions made at every stage of the criminal justice process will affect whether a conviction and significant penalty will be imposed and, further, whether it will be possible to target the kingpins ultimately responsible for the crime. Because decisions on the ground at the early stages of the case are so important, key personnel not just the prosecutors should be well acquainted with the criminal procedural tools that they may find useful. Although each country has its own particular procedures and rules, there are several relevant international conventions that address procedural law. At least 144 countries are party to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), which requires member states to enact anti-money laundering laws, including the means to identify, trace, freeze, and seize the proceeds and instrumentalities of crime for the purpose of confiscation. 63 It also provides for special investigative techniques of particular interest in tackling grand criminality, such as illegal logging. These techniques, included as important tools in the 40 Recommendations on Money Laundering issued by FATF, include electronic or other forms of surveillance (interception of telephone communications or access to computer systems), undercover operations, and controlled delivery of the proceeds of crime. UNTOC encourages states to conclude agreements or arrangements with other jurisdictions to cooperate in the use of these techniques where crimes cross national boundaries as is often the case with illegal logging. 64 Similarly, 63. UNTOC, Articles 6 and UNTOC, Article 20.
34 24 World Bank Study the UNCAC, to which 147 states are party, specifically provides for the investigation of corruption offenses through the use of such techniques. 65 These techniques are essential for detecting and building evidence against criminal organizations, especially where those organizations span several countries. They are particularly valuable in helping provide important information about the financial aspects of the crime. Few forest or wildlife laws contain specific provisions permitting electronic surveillance, covert operations or controlled delivery operations. However, more general criminal laws whether common law or set out in criminal statutes invariably do permit such operations and tend to incorporate the provisions required by the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and UNTOC. Witness protection measures are also important tools in dealing with the criminal organizations involved in illegal logging. Often in these cases, some of the most valuable testimony comes from people within the criminal organization who would face serious threats if their cooperation with the authorities became known. Testimony can also come from regular citizens who, unless they had access to witness protection, would rarely come forward. UNTOC therefore calls on parties to protect witnesses in criminal cases from intimidation, threats, corruption, or injury. Similarly, UNCAC requires member states to take appropriate measures to provide effective protection from potential retaliation or intimidation for witnesses and experts who give testimony concerning offenses covered by the Convention. This may also extend to their relatives and other persons close to them. These measures might include anything from allowing witnesses to testify from a remote location through video-conferencing technology to physically relocating them to an undisclosed location. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has developed a good practices guide describing the available witness protection measures for witnesses in organized crime cases. 66 To address this adequately, however, the mere passage of a law is insufficient. Witness protection, if done effectively, can be resource-intensive involving 24-hour protection and, in some cases, permanent relocation. In countries where the population is relatively small, witnesses may even have to be moved to other countries to ensure their safety. Acknowledging this, some countries have entered into agreements to cooperate with one another in helping to relocate witnesses who face serious threats as a result of their testimony in a case. Countries need to devote significant resources to witness protection programs (including funding) and to provide personnel with the necessary training to protect witnesses who are at risk. Witness protection measures are often required to protect witnesses who provide information as part of a negotiated plea agreement. In cases involving organized crime and corruption offenses, obtaining information from a cooperating defendant through a plea agreement can assist in the very difficult if not impossible task of marshalling evidence against those in control. In countries where negotiated plea agreements are permitted, 67 the accused agrees to admit guilt to a particular charge, often in conjunction with an agreement to cooperate with law enforcement officials and in exchange for possible leniency in the punishment. Negotiated plea agreements may also include an 65. UNCAC, Article For a copy of this guide, see 67. Many civil law jurisdictions do not permit plea agreements.
35 Justice for Forests 25 agreement that the individual will not be prosecuted for certain crimes or for a number of counts in exchange for cooperation. The cooperation offered by the accused typically includes the provision of information that may lead to the arrest of other criminals involved in the same transaction, or information that enables authorities to locate and confiscate the proceeds of the crime. Additional benefits for the state include savings on trial costs and avoiding the need to expose security sources, such as informants, in court. The laws, procedures, and features described in this section can and should be used to fight illegal logging. However, it is evident that resorting to these measures and tools alone will not solve our forest law enforcement problems. If there is to be real progress, new approaches need to be envisaged that improve the efficacy of efforts to combat illegal logging. Drawing from experiences in other areas of crime (such as the fight against drug trafficking, corruption, and money laundering), in the following section we explore policy responses to improve forest law enforcement.
36 Chapter 4 Strengthening Stakeholder Engagement in Forest Law Enforcement As mentioned above, when dealing with illegal logging, most domestic law enforcement regimes have directed their efforts at low-level criminal activity, involving individuals acting in isolation, rather than addressing the complex and organized criminal enterprises at play. When facing smaller, lower-level crime, a reactive law enforcement system may be sufficient: investigators wait for reports of crime to come to them, and they then contact the prosecutor. However, to address more complex, pervasive, and organized criminal activity, the law enforcement community must act proactively. Investigators and prosecutors cannot sit back and wait for a case to be reported the obvious fact that large swathes of trees in protected forests are being cut down is a sign that proactive investigation needs to begin. Forestry officials and other key actors (tax and customs authorities, FIUs, and so forth) must actively engage with investigators and prosecutors to discover who is stealing the timber, how they are doing it, and where the offenders are putting the proceeds of their crime. A coordinated response addressing the many features of illegal logging will require strong political will. It will require the backing of high-level officials who will support a shift in policy, priorities, and resources and who will prevent corruption from derailing their efforts. Although the particular reforms required will vary from country to country, there are certain areas that all jurisdictions recognize need improvement. In this section, we recommend a number of general strategies for remedying the problems in forest law enforcement. We also recommend some specific reforms that can be implemented to further those goals Building Political Will Raising awareness at the ministerial level: To tackle a crime with as many tentacles as illegal logging, it must be made a priority and this must be clearly communicated to the public at large and to the officials responsible for investigating and prosecuting these crimes. However, because the attention of leaders and policy makers is taken up by so many other pressing issues, real change is possible only if there is a champion who can ensure that illegal logging makes it onto the agenda and who can ensure continuity of effort and resources. Because of the nature of this crime, the minister responsible for forestry (whether as head of a separate ministry or as part of, say, a ministry of the environment) should be- 26
37 Justice for Forests 27 come this champion, stepping forward to carry the issue and mobilize other partners. 68 In particular, this minister should engage the minister of justice to ensure that illegal logging becomes a real criminal justice priority and is appropriately integrated into the national criminal justice strategy. The champion must also work to secure buy-in from other key stakeholders and interested parties, including: The ministry of home affairs, justice, or the Interior (which often oversees law enforcement agencies and investigatory forces) The ministry of finance The agency responsible for registering and/or regulating companies and other legal entities The central bank (because of its involvement in the regulation and supervision of the financial sector) Customs agencies (due to the prevalence of smuggling of illegal forest products) FIUs (because of their important role in anti-money laundering efforts) Law enforcement agencies Prosecutors Anti-corruption bodies Military and intelligence services Tax authorities Any other body that would directly or indirectly have a stake in tackling illegal logging. A high-level policy group should then develop an overall strategy based on its particular assets and vulnerabilities including the type, location, and magnitude of forestry crimes being committed and the availability of resources for combating them. Then, the relevant operational agencies should establish a proactive rank-ordered targeting list. This can be based, for example, on the conservation requirements of the most valuable forests, or on the activities of known criminals, organized crime groups, and/or logging companies (including sawmills). Designing an adequate criminal justice strategy for illegal logging: To ensure effective integration of illegal logging into the criminal justice system, an analysis and review of each country s existing system is needed. Despite the diversity of different jurisdictions in terms of legal and forestry frameworks, all countries should consider taking steps to revise legislation, allocate resources for training purposes, and develop incentives for practitioners, with the aim of specifically targeting the weaknesses and circumstances that exist in the country. A detailed review of the laws and shortcomings should be made (potentially with the help of the CITES Secretariat, NGOs, or development assistance bodies) to identify those changes that should be made immediately, those that should be made in the short term, and those that can wait until the long term. Adequate resources must be allocated to relevant authorities and agents: Strategy alone is not enough. Officials must also be given the tools and resources they need to do their job. A country s true priorities are demonstrated not by the rhetoric of its politicians, but by its national budget. The present level of funding in most countries is not enough to allow existing agencies to tackle a crime as complex and multifaceted as 68. However, it is worth mentioning that the lead in carrying the illegal logging issue forward can also be taken on by the Prosecutor General, or the Ministries of Justice or Interior.
38 28 World Bank Study illegal logging. Large-scale illegal logging enterprises rely on a vast network of participants. Consequently, to combat them successfully requires a higher level of resources. An inadequately funded forest service, investigative unit, or prosecutor s office cannot be expected to produce significant results. In many countries, forest law enforcement officials lack the equipment they need to undertake effective enforcement action in the field. In Indonesia, World Bank staff learned that, although police and forestry service officials were sometimes given GPS coordinates identifying the exact location of illegal logging activities, they were unable to take appropriate law enforcement action because they had no helicopters or planes to provide rapid transportation to the area. Failure to provide sufficient resources also leads to a lack of dedicated and specialized personnel. For example, in Honduras, only six State Forestry Administration officials are assigned to monitor logging activity for the entire Rio Plátano Reserve, which spans 800,000 hectares. As of 2005, the Environmental Investigation Agency observed widespread clear-cutting and burning in certain areas of the reserve, including the core zone. 69 Such failure to devote sufficient resources to forest law enforcement agencies encourages corruption and renders even basic law enforcement tasks impossible. In many countries, forest law enforcement officers earn less than other law enforcement employees. This lack of resources also means a lack of essential equipment. Forest law enforcement personnel often have only poor-quality or partial uniforms. They lack vehicles for transportation through the forest, or if they have vehicles, they lack fuel. They often rely on antiquated weapons and have limited ammunition. They lack adequate field quarters and have no capacity to put up roadblocks or give chase and they sometimes even lack radio communications. Agencies require greater financial resources if they are to implement new strategies to overhaul and remedy the problems currently crippling the enforcement system. 70 At the practitioner level, salaries for prosecutors, investigators, and forestry personnel must be improved to help fight corruption. Other important incentives, such as the prospect of merit promotion (replacing the need to buy a job or promotion) and the appropriate recognition of successes, will be created only if illegal logging takes on greater status as a priority. Resources should also be allocated to specialized training for forestry and criminal justice personnel. Studies have shown that officials at every stage of the process lack sufficient training to develop the skills and knowledge they need to help prosecute these crimes. They also show that investment in the training of existing staff members could have an impressive effect on the quality of detection. 71 In particular, prosecutors need to be trained specifically to deal with environmental cases. A four-year study by the Center for Conservation and Government, related to illegal wildlife hunting and trade, found that those prosecutors in Selva Maya, Mexico who were responsible for environmental crimes required training to understand the nuances of these cases, including the type of evidence required, the details of the applicable legislation, and the concept of environmental damage. The study found that many cases were returned without approval because the arguments were not well-founded in legislation, the cases were not well drawn 69. Center for International Policy and the Environmental Investigation Agency 2005, p Akella and Cannon 2004, p Akella and Cannon 2004, p. 24.
39 Justice for Forests 29 up, or the sanctions were inadequate. 72 Anti-money laundering and asset confiscation law is likewise a specialized field. As with environmental crime, targeted allocation of resources and training will be required to establish a network of practitioners with the necessary knowledge and skills. Further specialized training is also required for forestry personnel dealing with forest crime. This is because important evidence may often be exposed to the elements, and crime scenes in the forest may be seriously disturbed. They also face special problems of species identification or the handling of evidence, which demand an understanding of specific techniques. Forest law enforcement differs from general law enforcement in that forestry agencies are responsible both for law enforcement on the ground and operational management functions, such as compliance monitoring. 73 Forestry officials are also responsible for monitoring concessions and compliance with land and forest management plans, as well as for implementing tracing mechanisms that help to identify species and the geographical location of timber and wood. As they fulfill these functions, forestry officials need to better understand the role that evidence may play in a future prosecution. They should therefore receive training covering lawful evidence-gathering tactics and the types of evidence that are valuable to prosecutors. Without such guidance, experience has shown that officials on the ground do not provide important supporting information, like witness statements and photographic evidence. This renders prosecution more difficult with the result that many cases never move forward because of a lack of evidence. 74 Box 4.1. Funding Success Even a small increase in funding can make a significant difference. World Bank staff observed that, in 2006, Cambodian forest rangers were not provided with the basic equipment necessary for minimal enforcement actions. The rangers did not have transportation, or if they were lucky enough to have a motorcycle, they often had no money for fuel and were forced to pay for it out of their own funds. They were equipped only with outdated weapons and a limited quantity of bullets. In comparison, illegal loggers usually had access to modern weaponry, including automatic weapons. It was not until an NGO provided funding of US$100 per person per month for a specialized unit to deal with illegal logging that they acquired better uniforms, weapons, and vehicles. This specialized unit later caught members of the prime minister s security force transporting illegal logs, who offloaded them and fled. Tracking successes in the criminal justice response: Strengthening criminal justice requires important resources (including staff, time, and financing) while winning cases is never guaranteed. The political economy of resource allocation in this area necessitates that countries consider designing and implementing a strategy with clear and reasonable objectives and timelines for completion, as well as creating appropriate assessment tools to track the success of the reforms in the criminal justice system. These tools would allow following up on the status and resolution of forest-related cases, establishing accountability lines, and obtaining objective data to determine future allocation of resources. Simple monitoring of cases to obtain data on the number of prosecutions 72. Akella and Cannon 2004, p The World Bank 2006, p Akella and Cannon 2004, p. 21.
40 30 World Bank Study and convictions or on the amounts confiscated is an essential first step. Without some measurement of success, the actors in the system will lack motivation. As reforms are implemented, statistics tracking the number of complaints, prosecutions, convictions, fines, and confiscations will help to determine what efforts are working and which areas require continued improvement. A set of reasonably achievable goals, with benchmarked tasks and milestones, should be defined. The key is not the quantity but the quality of targeting, investigation, prosecution, conviction, sentencing, and confiscation. For example, in law enforcement, a common indicator is the percentage of solved and unsolved crimes and the number of crimes resulting in charges. In some situations, indicators for prosecutors might include the number of cases per prosecutor, the number of appellate cases per prosecutor, and the number of cases resulting in a guilty plea, trial, or conviction. 75 When it comes to illegal logging, the investigation, prosecution, or sentencing of one or two significant cases per year may be a sufficient indication of proper use of the criminal justice system in this area. This is because provided that these cases target high-level corrupt officials or those truly in control of criminal organizations they may become a key deterrent to rampant illegal logging. Agency case-tracking systems that focus on forest-related cases are also very helpful, because they permit tracking of a case from its first entry into the system. They also help to identify interplay with other cases, and enable a broader analysis of the evolution of cases and problems within the system identifying, for example, where cases may stall or ultimately fail. These case-tracking systems also help move cases along by tracking deadlines required for legal procedures Improving Domestic Cooperation As we have established, the multifaceted nature of illegal logging operations demands strong coordination and cooperation between the institutions or agencies that intervene at different stages of the process. Adequate enforcement requires that the agents in charge of detection make information available to other players so as to build successful cases. The example in Box 4.2 illustrates how this challenge affects the forestry sector and demonstrates the need to develop and implement procedures that guarantee a flow of information for effective law enforcement. Box 4.2. Failure to Coordinate A satellite mapping program in Indonesia, funded by the European Union, successfully gathered information and satellite images of Indonesia s remote forests. This information was intended to help improve detection of illegal logging over large areas which were difficult to patrol on a regular basis. However, although the images and information were available, they were not being acted upon and laws were not being enforced. World Bank staff learned that no legal cases were initiated because there were no procedures in place to ensure that the satellite images (or analysis of the images) were disseminated to forest law enforcement agents or the prosecutor s office. Without this information, illegal logging cases detected could not be further investigated and prosecuted. Formalizing procedures for the exchange of information obtained from tools already in place would have been a simple and cost-effective step that could have led to significant results. 75. International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime, Wildlife & Forest Crime Assessment Toolkit.
41 Justice for Forests 31 Box 4.3. Prosecution of Illegal Logging in Virachey National Park, Cambodia Virachey National Park The Dragon s Tail is one of the top-priority areas for conservation in Southeast Asia. It covers 3,325 kilometers and protects flora and fauna that are a major focus of international conservation efforts. Its vegetation, dominated by evergreen forest, is more or less undisturbed. However, in November 2004, government officials working with the World Bank and NGOs discovered a massive illegal logging operation in the park. It is estimated that the deforestation cost Cambodia over US$15 million. The successful prosecutions of 11 police officers and government officials in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court resulted in sentences of five years imprisonment for illegal logging and bribery. Seven officials tried in absentia were sentenced to six to seven years imprisonment. These officials included those at the highest levels of government, including the governor of one of the largest provinces in Cambodia. These results were achieved through unprecedented cooperation at all levels of government including provincial and military authorities and both formal and informal international cooperation with officials in Laos and Vietnam. At the ministry level, the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Environment collaborated with the Ministries of Interior, Defense, Justice, and the Prime Minister s office to ensure prosecution of those involved. One critical tool for strengthening capacity and coordination in identifying, investigating, and prosecuting illegal logging cases is the use of interagency and interdisciplinary groups. This enables participants to combine different skills, competencies, and resources and focus them on a common objective. Some jurisdictions create a high-level policy counsel and then an operational group to target, investigate, and prosecute cases. The operational group may be called many things: a Special Unit, Task Force, or Strike Force. The name is not important, but the authority and resources that the unit has at its disposal are. Formalizing interagency cooperation at the policy level: As we have previously discussed, forestry officials, law enforcement, prosecutors, and FIUs are all important players in tackling illegal logging. Customs authorities and the commerce ministry are also key partners. As the authority responsible for controlling the flow of goods in and out of the country, customs agencies are uniquely situated to detect smuggling and transport offenses, as well as trafficking in prohibited species. A multidisciplinary approach is therefore necessary to mobilize each relevant agency and to maximize domestic cooperation both at a policy and an operational level. Only a multidisciplinary response will ensure that these crimes are detected in forests, at borders, and at financial institutions, and that the ensuing investigations and prosecutions are successful. In certain cases, interagency cooperation can be formalized by the creation of a body to advise the stakeholder ministries in drawing up and implementing an integrated criminal justice and forest protection strategy. Such an interagency policy group may be useful in a number of ways: for example, in identifying key partners, in establishing guidelines for the integrated strategy, and in recommending the allocation of resources to immediate, short-term, and long-term goals. Where appropriate, such groups should have the ability to report quickly to their political counterparts to maintain momentum, legitimacy, and guidance. Members of such a group might include officials from law enforcement, forestry, the prosecutor s office, tax, customs, immigration and commerce offices, the central bank, FIUs, and any anti-corruption agencies. The ultimate goal is
42 32 World Bank Study that these policy discussions lead to operational case work, investigation, prosecution, and confiscation involving significant cases. Such groups have been used with success to improve domestic cooperation in other areas involving sophisticated and multifaceted crime, such as money laundering and international organized crime. One such interagency task force was created in Albania in 2000 with the help of a World Bank forestry project. Its mission was to protect forests at the national level. The task force was chaired by the Ministry of Forestry, but involved many others including the Ministry of Public Economy and Privatization, the Ministry of Local Government, the Tourism Development Committee, the Ministry of Environment, the Directorate for State Police within the Ministry for Public Order, the Directorates of Taxes and General Customs within the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Justice. 76 Over time, its activities resulted in increased local collaboration in addressing illegal logging in the field (box 4.3). Cooperation between the forestry sector and FIUs to improve detection: Domestic cooperation is also important at the operational level, where it can be used both to improve detection and to suppress illegal logging. When tackling criminal organizations and large-scale illegal logging, investigators and prosecutors must act proactively in the detection phase of the law enforcement process particularly where money laundering of the illegal proceeds is taking place. Interagency domestic collaboration will facilitate access to the knowledge necessary to develop typologies of transactions involving the laundering of the proceeds of illegal logging. Banks need to understand the profile of timber customers to discern whether or not these customers are, in fact, involved in illegal logging. Cooperation between FIUs and the forestry sector is therefore necessary to create a profile of the red flags or warning signs that a customer s transactions may be related to illegal logging and other environmental crimes. For example, the profile of timber customers engaged in illegal activity would likely involve large cash withdrawals to provide funds to pay loggers and suppliers, and transfers from foreign jurisdictions in payment for illegal timber. 77 Given the links between corruption and illegal logging, forestry officials can also contribute to an effective PEPs regime to help in the fight against corruption by officials in the forestry sector. PEPs are those individuals who are or have been entrusted with prominent public functions, their family members, and close associates. They represent a greater money laundering risk because of the possibility that they may abuse their position and influence to carry out corrupt acts, such as extorting bribes and misappropriating state assets, and may then use domestic and international systems to launder the proceeds. 78 Forestry officials can participate in the drafting of guidelines to banks and other reporting entities on filing STRs concerning PEPs and the beneficial owners of accounts related to individuals or businesses involved in the forestry sector. Forest protection joint investigation strike and task forces: Operational investigative cooperation can also be accomplished through a logging strike force. Such a strike force can facilitate interagency, interdisciplinary, and international cooperation and coordination. This is particularly useful because complex, organized crime can only be defeated through a coordinated, organized approach. The creation of strike forces also 76. World Bank 2006, p Setiono and Husein 2005, p Greenberg et al
43 Justice for Forests 33 demonstrates to the public and those involved in forest law enforcement that there is political will to wrestle with illegal logging. Because these strike forces bring together multiple agencies and work towards a common goal, they contribute to building trust, cooperation, and interagency access to and sharing of law enforcement information. Such mechanisms need to be based on terms of reference agreed upon by the necessary ministers or president, but do not require the creation of a new agency. To be efficient, strike forces must be provided with adequate authority to undertake investigations and prosecutions and confiscation, and should be endowed with the necessary funding. Such forces should target important cases involving high-level corruption and money laundering, and should focus on investigation, prosecution, and the freezing and forfeiture of the proceeds of illegal logging, corruption, and other crime. Depending on what is required, strike forces can be national, regional, target- or case-focused, temporary, or permanent. In other sectors, task forces have proven to be useful and effective at depriving criminals of the illicit proceeds of their crime. This is illustrated in Box 4.4. In the case of forest crimes, task force members should include investigators, prosecutors, forestry experts, FIU officials, and, potentially, those from local government, commerce, and the ministries responsible for customs, taxes, and the environment. The personnel in this unit should be thoroughly vetted and free from political influence. They should also be experienced and have the expertise needed to investigate and prosecute the full range of illegal logging and money-laundering crimes. In addition, they should be knowledgeable about seeking evidence from foreign countries. Task forces that bring together officials from differing backgrounds and agencies also have the advantage of encouraging the individual officers to refrain from some of the negative institutional aspects of their home agency such as corruption or unethical investigation practices. This occurs naturally as a result of the move to new surroundings and interaction with new colleagues. Entering into a new environment, officers no longer know what type of behavior is acceptable and what is not. Task forces therefore provide an opportunity to establish high standards from the beginning. It is essential, in such settings, to have carefully chosen leaders or managers who can set a good example and establish institutional good practices. Box 4.4. Use of Task Forces Zambia established a Task Force on Corruption, which included support from the Bank of Zambia. In 2001, the newly elected President Mwanawasa asked parliament to lift the immunity of former president Frederick Chiluba to facilitate the investigation and prosecution of cases arising during Chiluba s time as head of state ( ). Parliament voted 140 votes to zero to do so. With President Mwanawasa s support, a special Task Force on Corruption (TFC) was set up outside the Anti-Corruption Commission to try Chiluba and his accomplices. This special Task Force was composed of people working for the Zambia Police, the Anti- Corruption Commission, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Zambia Intelligence Service, the Bank of Zambia, the Zambia Revenue Authority, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Auditor General. The Task Force was supported financially by the donor community, as the Zambian government indicated that it had no financial resources to support the task force. The work of the Task Force led to the prosecution of 27 cases and resulted in 23 convictions. The total proceeds confiscated were: US$14 million in real estate property, US$1 million in movable property, US$300,000 in cash, US$17 million in cash remitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs, and US$3 million in contested property.
44 34 World Bank Study Cross-fertilization of experiences and expertise: Domestic cooperation can also be improved using cross-fertilization between the experiences of staff involved in forest law enforcement on the ground and those in the prosecution office, as well as other parts of the criminal justice process. The sharing of experience and expertise will reinforce training provided in these areas by providing actual case experience with a level of detail that is difficult to replicate in training alone. It may also be useful for officials from other agencies in the enforcement chain to take part in the training initiatives of each agency. This will help develop programs that clearly place each part of the system within the broader context. In addition, staff exchange initiatives help develop contacts in other agencies, build relationships, and generally create good paths for communication hence reinforcing domestic cooperation Improving International Cooperation Illegal logging is an international crime. The players are typically located either within a producer country often developing countries whose forest resources are rapidly being depleted as a result of forest crime or a consumer country, where timber is transformed into goods. Strong demand for timber encourages illegal logging activities in producer countries. The division between producer and consumer countries is exacerbated by the limits on logging placed by producer countries on their own forest resources such as the moratorium placed on logging by China in the late 1990s. That moratorium created an unprecedented demand for wood from other countries, and China began to buy huge quantities of wood from abroad, including significant amounts from Russia, Indonesia, and other parts of the world. 79 The financial aspects of forest crime are likewise international. Because of the advances in technology that permit large sums of money to be transferred across borders with the stroke of a key on a computer and because of the increasing sophistication of criminals engaged in trans-border crime countries must learn to cooperate more quickly and closely with one another. When the investigation trail leads to assets held in foreign jurisdictions, investigators and prosecutors must request assistance from that foreign country to help identify the assets and obtain evidence. They must also request assistance in imposing provisional measures to seize or restrain the assets while waiting for a court decision on the request for confiscation. These requests are made through official channels, pursuant to obligations under treaties, regional or international conventions, or mutual legal assistance agreements. Even if a country is not party to the international conventions and has no other treaty in place for seeking legal assistance, assistance may still be obtained through what is known as letters rogatory. This is a formal request from a judicial officer in one country to a judicial officer in another country. Mutual Legal Assistance: One particularly valuable international convention is the UNCAC. With 147 state parties, UNCAC creates common ground for cooperation among countries that are serious about addressing corruption-related crime. It obliges parties to provide one another with the widest measure of mutual legal assistance in relation to covered offenses. The UNTOC, the main international convention aimed at curbing international organized crime, similarly requires member states to provide each other with the widest measure of mutual legal assistance in investigations, prosecu- 79. Khatchadourian 2008.
45 Justice for Forests 35 tions, and judicial proceedings for covered offenses. 80 Generally, the types of mutual legal assistance available include requests to take evidence, execute searches and seizures and other measures for identifying, tracing, freezing or seizing the proceeds of crimes. Countries that are party to UNTOC and UNCAC have thus committed themselves to enacting laws that make it easier to prosecute by requiring international cooperation in obtaining evidence and pursuing asset recovery. A request for mutual legal assistance is made after the investigation has led to a foreign jurisdiction. This procedure is very formal and, unfortunately, it may take a long time for requests to be processed. Nevertheless, they do work and must be pursued to obtain evidence that will be admissible at trial. These formal channels for requesting assistance also apply in enforcing confiscation judgments to repatriate confiscated assets from one country to another. Apart from formal international mutual legal assistance, informal assistance is a valuable way to secure international cooperation. International cooperation among police forces has long been established through Interpol (created in 1923). The Interpol National Central Bureau provides a vital link between countries and is useful in helping enforcement officials overcome language barriers with their counterparts around the world. More recently however, an informal mechanism for obtaining information and assistance with tracing and freezing assets has been created through the FIU network. 81 Depending on the laws of a particular country, FIUs may be authorized to share information and to take provisional measures (such as a temporary seizure) more quickly than if the action had taken place through the formal process of a treaty or letters rogatory request. In addition, in 2009, the StAR Initiative and Interpol established a database listing focal points and officials in countries that can respond to emergency requests at any time of day or night in cases when failing to take immediate action would result in losing the money trail. To date, 74 jurisdictions are part of the database. These informal channels should be used in the first instance, before a mutual legal assistance request. Informal assistance can provide valuable information needed to make formal requests for mutual legal assistance under UNCAC or the provisions of treaties, and may also help to identify particular requirements of the foreign jurisdiction unknown in the requesting country. Regional networks: International cooperation can also be improved by participation in and promotion of regional networks. Such groups facilitate the exchange of information and ideas on good practices in prosecuting illegal logging, money laundering, and confiscation efforts. They provide a forum in which forest law enforcement professionals can exchange knowledge and expertise in techniques to defeat the criminal organizations operating with ease across national borders. For example, in the area of confiscation, the Camden Asset Recovery Interagency Network (CARIN) is an informal network of mostly European members whose aim is to increase the effectiveness of efforts to deprive criminals of their illicit gains. The Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network (ARINSA) for Southern Africa, launched in 2009, is a similar network. In addition, informal peer-topeer networks foster better cooperation and build trust between jurisdictions for future mutual legal assistance requests or requests for informal assistance. The FATF-Style Re- 80. UNTOC, Article Cooperation among FIUs has been facilitated by the creation, in 2001, of the Egmont Group, which unites more than 117 FIUs around the world. For further information about the Egmont group, please refer to
46 36 World Bank Study gional Bodies, 82 which are international organizations with a regional focus mandated to foster the implementation of international standards within their regional coverage, should also play an important role in undertaking studies of money laundering patterns and typologies related to forest crimes Mobilizing the Private Sector, NGOs, and the Public Due diligence by the private sector: States need not be solely responsible for efforts to combat illegal logging. With scant resources at their disposal (both financial and human), policy makers need to develop strategies that will mobilize and engage the private sector into addressing this issue. As mentioned earlier, through anti-money laundering and other prudential measures, banks, as well as other financial and non-financial private sector entities have implemented due diligence procedures that could be useful in targeting the financial dimension of forest crimes. Proper CDD measures will allow entities doing business with clients that in the forestry sector to be fully aware of the general dimensions of their clients legitimate operations and to be properly suspicious when transactions are conducted in a way that is inconsistent with the clients normal, customary, and legitimate business. Thus, a logging enterprise depositing revenues from wood sales that are far in excess of what would seem consistent with its licensed harvest volume should generate suspicion. Similarly, large foreign transactions made by the relative of a poorly paid public forestry official could properly generate suspicion. UNCAC mandates adequate procedures to ensure that financial institutions pay particular attention to suspicious activity involving the private banking accounts of prominent public officials and their family members and close associates. 83 Similarly, PEPs provisions in domestic anti-money laundering legislation require enhanced due diligence by banks and financial institutions opening accounts for and conducting transactions on behalf of such PEPs including forestry officials. Banks should also be required to report any customers who engage in transactions with those known to be involved in illegal logging. In the absence of domestic legislation, countries should encourage banks to follow best practices recommendations by the FATF for preventive measures to better monitor suspicious transactions. 84 NGOs interested in illegal logging: Within the private sector, NGOs are important partners who are willing to assist states with this problem. In the past, they have played a major role in detecting large-scale forest crimes, in increasing awareness of the extent 82. There are eight FATF-Style Regional Bodies worldwide gathering 180 jurisdictions working to achieve the shared objectives against money laundering and terrorist financing. These bodies are as follow: the Asia Pacific Group Against Money Laundering APG (http://www.apgml.org); the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force CFATF (http://www.cfatf-gafic.org); the Eurasian Group EAG (http:/www.eurasiangroup.org); the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group ESAAMLG (http://www.esaamlg.org); the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism MON- EYVAL (http://www.coe.inter/moneyval); the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering in South America GAFISUD (http://www.gafisud.info); the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa GIABA (http://www.giaba.org); and the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force MENAFATF (http://www.menafatf.org). 83. UNCAC, Article See Recommendation 6 of the FATF 40+9 Recommendations, with the related requirements of customer due diligence in Recommendation 5.
47 Justice for Forests 37 and impacts of illegal logging, and in conducting research and analysis about the causes of and potential solutions to this problem. For example, the organization Global Witness has been very active in investigating illegal logging activity and recently published a report detailing the alleged involvement of one country s ruling elite in ongoing illegal logging. 85 Similarly, the Environmental Investigation Agency has conducted investigations of suspected illegal logging. 86 Organizations such as Greenpeace, Chatham House, and the Center for International Forestry Research also conduct research that points to ongoing illegal logging activity, and the World Resources Institute has established the Global Forest Watch Initiative to monitor forest developments in several countries. 87 This publicly available information, as well as news reports in the media, can provide investigators and prosecutors with good sources of information to help target their detection efforts. Governments should therefore engage NGOs and welcome their assistance with detecting forest crimes and publicizing illegal acts and their consequences. Box 4.5. Partnering with NGOs In 2000, Greenpeace and the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment s Enforcement Agency (IBAMA) partnered to address the illegal logging of mahogany in the Amazon. Using information from Greenpeace investigations showing significant illegalities, IBAMA and Greenpeace performed inspections over a five-day period that resulted in the seizure of the largest volume of mahogany logs in Brazil at that time with a value of US$7 million. a a. FAO and ITTO 2005, p. 61. Public awareness: Finally, countries should also concentrate on mobilizing the public to become involved in the fight against illegal logging. True success in combating large-scale illegal logging cannot be achieved with the support of only a few law enforcement professionals. It must have the backing of the public at large. Countries should begin by promoting public awareness that forest crimes are not victimless crimes. Rather, everyone suffers from them. Deforestation affects everyone by increasing greenhouse gases and by contributing to soil erosion erosion that leads to flooding and the destruction of entire communities. Even setting aside the depletion of this valuable public resource, we find that millions of dollars, owed to governments for taxes and customs duties, are diverted from government coffers by illegal logging. A widespread understanding of these issues is urgently needed to build the political will that is so essential for bringing a halt to illegal logging. NGOs can be useful in mobilizing change and promoting public awareness. In the past, they have been instrumental in putting pressure on large retailers to exclude illegally harvested timber. As a result, several large retailers including IKEA, Home Depot, Lowe s, and Carrefour have announced policies under which they will not purchase illegally harvested timber. 88 The public could also play a more direct role in the detection and prevention of illegal logging. Private citizens could be encouraged to report suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities or forestry officials. Illegal logging can displace whole commu- 85. Global Witness FAO and ITTO 2005, p. 71. See, for example, Center for International Policy and the Environmental Investigation Agency (2005). 87. Contreras-Hermosilla 2001, p FAO and ITTO 2005, p. 71.
48 38 World Bank Study nities and result in the exploitation of local people, who become involved in different aspects of these crimes whether they perform the actual harvesting, transport the timber, or help to construct logging camps deep in the forests. Some individuals may be encouraged to speak out and help with detection of these illegal operations. Box 4.6. Maintain the Momentum to Combat Illegal Logging In 2008, police in Riau province in Indonesia issued a case closing letter ending an ongoing investigation of thirteen companies suspected of being involved in illegal logging. Another case closing letter was issued in relation to a fourteenth company in The termination of these major illegal logging cases resulted in outcry from some politicians, NGOs, and other groups. They claimed that the abandonment of these investigations was part of a conspiracy. Three years later, the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force was looking into allegations that high-level officials in Riau province including a governor, four district heads, two police officers, and a Forestry Ministry official were involved in illegal logging. Although corruption within forest law enforcement may have played a role in ending the investigations in 2008, continuing public pressure, the existence of a specialized task force, and ongoing efforts to combat corruption and illegal logging have ensured that the matter will nonetheless be investigated. a a. Satriastanti 2011.
49 Chapter 5 Conclusion There are no quick fixes to the many problems plaguing law enforcement efforts to combat large-scale illegal logging. Clearly, concerted action is urgently needed to halt this destructive practice before it is too late. Experience has shown that strategies already in place to tackle the root causes of illegal logging are not, in and of themselves, sufficient to curb the loss of the world s forests. Without an effective criminal justice system, efforts at prevention and deterrence will have no effect on organized crime or on corrupt officials looking to capitalize on a poorly designed system. Without the full support of the criminal justice system, the silo approach to addressing illegal logging will fail. However, provided that they are properly followed through, even small policy and operational changes can have a significant impact on this problem. As an initial step, countries should formulate a strategy at the policy level to help steer and resource the necessary operational changes. The main components of a strategy might include fostering international and domestic cooperation among policy makers and law enforcement authorities. It might also include the implementing of operational changes to help investigators and prosecutors systematically consider and apply a wide range of criminal laws and procedures in illegal logging cases. Most importantly, money-laundering legislation and asset confiscation laws should be employed wherever possible to recover the criminal proceeds of these crimes. This paper recommends that policy makers implement the following actions: Develop an integrated criminal justice strategy that adopts and implements clear and comprehensive policies targeting illegal logging s features of corruption and organized crime, as well as its financial aspects. Improve domestic cooperation between agencies in the forest law enforcement and criminal justice sectors, using such tools as interagency committees or task forces. Adopt measures that will lead entities subject to anti-money laundering rules (for example, banks and financial institutions) to exercise enhanced due diligence for high-risk customers in the forestry sector. Adopt policies that will support and encourage NGOs efforts to raise awareness about illegal logging and to help detect these crimes. Call for criminal justice to be integrated as part of development assistance programs to combat illegal logging. This paper also makes several recommendations for operational changes by law enforcement, investigators, and prosecutors: 39
50 40 World Bank Study Forest law enforcement actors should proactively approach those in the criminal sector and request assistance and cooperation in investigations, prosecutions, and the confiscation of the proceeds of these crimes. Law enforcement, investigators, and prosecutors should attack high-level corruption by targeting both those who provide and those who receive the bribes. All law enforcement practitioners should focus their resources on high-value vulnerabilities (whether forest, group, or company) and high-level criminals not low-level offenders. Investigators and prosecutors should consider all applicable offenses not simply regulatory environmental offenses as early as possible in the investigation. All practitioners should follow the money and use anti-money laundering measures and asset confiscation to deter future crime. Regulators should strictly enforce anti-money laundering measures. This should include scrupulous compliance with the FATF Recommendations and due diligence requirements particularly when it comes to enhanced due diligence for PEPs and suspicious transactions within the forestry sector. Law enforcement, investigators, and prosecutors should employ all available criminal tools to address these complex crimes, such as electronic surveillance, undercover operations, and witness protection measures. All practitioners should improve international cooperation by using mutual legal assistance requests and informal peer-to-peer requests for information and assistance, as well as by participating in regional networks. For many countries around the world with significant forest resources, these reforms will be difficult to implement. These countries will need help in improving the capacity of the actors within their criminal justice and forestry systems. Technical assistance providers, including the World Bank and other developmental assistance groups, have a responsibility to become involved. They can play a major role in bringing the forestry and criminal justice sectors together. With their help, the criminal justice response to illegal logging can be improved before even more of the world s forest resources are destroyed.
51 Bibliography Antara News (2010). President Orders Probe into Court Verdicts in Illegal Logging Cases. April 17. Akella, S., and J. Cannon (2004). Strengthening the Weakest Link Strategies for Improving the Enforcement of Environmental Laws Globally. Center for Conservation and Government at Conservation International, Arlington, VA. Contreras-Hermosilla, A. (2001). Law Compliance in the Forestry Sector: An Overview. World Bank, Washington, DC. August. Available online at worldbank.org/extforests/resources/ /Contreras.pdf. Colchester, M., M. Boscolo, A. Contreras-Hermosilla, F. D. Gatto, J. Dempsey, G. Lescuyer, K. Obidzinski, D. Pommier, M. Richards, S. S. Sembiring, L. Tacconi, M.T.S. Rios, and A. Wells (2004). Justice in the Forest: Rural Livelihoods and Forest Law Enforcement. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia. Dykstra, D. et al. (2002). Technologies for Wood Tracking: Verifying and Monitoring Chain of Custody and Legal Compliance in the Timber Industry. World Bank, Washington, DC. Center for International Policy and the Environmental Investigation Agency (2005). The Illegal Logging Crisis in Honduras: How U.S. and E.U. Imports of Illegal Honduran Wood Increase Poverty, Fuel Corruption and Devastate Forests and Communities. October. A report by the Environmental Investigation Agency produced with the support of the Center for International Policy. Available online at: eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/honduras-report-english-low-res.pdf. Chatham House (2009). Summary Illegal Logging and Related Trade: 2008 Assessment of the Global Response. August. Chatham House, London. Available online at galloggingsummary.pdf. Environmental Investigation Agency and Telepak (2007). The Thousand Headed Snake: Forest Crimes, Corruption and Injustice in Indonesia. March. EIA, London. Available online at Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) (2005). Best Practices for Improving Law Compliance in the Forestry Sector. FAO Forestry Paper 145. FAO and ITTO, Rome. Available online at: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/008/a0146e/a0146e00.pdf. Kishor, N., and R. Damania (2007). Crime and Justice in the Garden of Eden: Improving Governance and Reducing Corruption in the Forestry Sector. In J. Edgardo Campos and Sanjay Pradhan, eds., The Many Faces of Corruption. Washington, DC: World Bank. Greenberg, T., L. Gray, D. Schantz, M. Latham, and C. Garder (2010). Politically Exposed Persons: A Policy Paper on Strengthening Preventive Measures for the Banking Sector. World Bank, Washington, DC. 41
52 42 World Bank Study Greenberg, T., L. Samuel, W. Grant, and L. Gray (2009). Stolen Asset Recovery: A Good Practices Guide for Non-Conviction Based Asset Forfeiture. World Bank, Washington, DC. Global Witness (2007). Cambodia s Family Trees: Illegal Logging and the Stripping of Public Assets by Cambodia s Elite. Press release. Available online at: globalwitness.org/sites/default/files/library/final_english.pdf. Khatchadourian, R. (2008). The Stolen Forests: Inside the Covert War on Illegal Logging. The New Yorker, October 6. Lawson, S., and L. MacFaul (2010), Illegal Logging and Related Trade Indicators of the Global Response. July. Chatham House, London. Magrath, W., R. Grandalski, G. Stuckey, G. Vikanes, and G. Wilkinson (2007). Timber Theft Prevention: Introduction to Security for Forest Managers. Washington, DC: World Bank. Neme, L. (2010). Top Officials Busted in Amazon Logging Raids, but Political Patronage May Set Them Free. July 8. Mongabay.com. Available online at: mongabay.com/2010/0708-neme_operation_jurupari.html. Sophakchakrya, K. (2010). Forestry, Fisheries Crimes Lost in Red Tape: Minister. The Phnom Penh Post, August 3. Satriastanti, F. (2010). Forest of Problems Hinders Illegal Logging Fight. Jakarta Globe, April 28. (2011). Task Force Takes Next Step in Riau Logging Inquiry. Jakarta Globe, February 19. Seneca Creek Associates, LLP, and Wood Resources International, LLC (2004). Illegal Logging and Global World Markets: The Competitive Impacts on the U.S. Wood Products Industry. Prepared for the American Forest & Paper Association. Poolesville, MD and University Place, WA. November. Available at Setiono, B., and Y. Husein (2005). Fighting Forest Crime and Promoting Prudent Banking for Sustainable Forest Management: The Anti-Money Laundering Approach. Occasional Paper No. 44. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia. Stark, T., and S-P Cheung (2006). Sharing the Blame: Global Consumption and China s Role in Ancient Forest Destruction. Greenpeace International and Greenpeace China. UNODC and the World Bank (2007). Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative: Challenges, Opportunities, and Action Plan. Washington, DC: World Bank. World Bank (2004). The Costs of Corruption. April 8. World Bank, Washington, DC. Available online at: (2006). Strengthening Law Enforcement and Governance: Addressing a Systemic Constraint to Sustainable Development. Report No GLB. August. World Bank, Washington, DC. World Wildlife Fund (2005). A Systemic 10 Step Program To Curb Illegal Logging and Improve Law Enforcement in Indonesia. WWF, Washington, DC. Available at
56 ECO-AUDIT Environmental Benefits Statement The World Bank is committed to preserving endangered forests and natural resources. The Office of the Publisher has chosen to print World Bank Studies and Working Papers on recycled paper with 30 percent postconsumer fiber in accordance with the recommended standards for paper usage set by the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit program supporting publishers in using fiber that is not sourced from endangered forests. For more information, visit In 2010, the printing of this book on recycled paper saved the following: 11 trees* 3 million Btu of total energy 1,045 lb. of net greenhouse gases 5,035 gal. of waste water 306 lb. of solid waste * 40 feet in height and 6 8 inches in diameter
Best practices PAPER THE USE OF THE FATF RECOMMENDATIONS TO COMBAT CORRUPTION October 2013 FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an independent inter-governmental body that
Keep It Legal Best Practices for Keeping Illegally Harvested Timber Out of Your Supply Chain By Frank Miller, Rodney Taylor and George White A guide for organizations wishing to extend a program of responsible
Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System A Manual for Practitioners and Policymakers About The Sentencing Project The Sentencing Project is a national nonprofit organization which promotes
When Will We Ever Learn? Improving Lives through Impact Evaluation Report of the Evaluation Gap Working Group May 2006 Evaluation Gap Working Group Co-chairs William D. Savedoff Ruth Levine Nancy Birdsall
Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized A Handbook for Development Practitioners Ten Steps to a Results- Based Monitoring and Evaluation System Public Disclosure
Climate Surveys: Useful Tools to Help Colleges and Universities in Their Efforts to Reduce and Prevent Sexual Assault Why are we releasing information about climate surveys? Sexual assault is a significant
FATF Guidance politically exposed persons (recommendations 12 and 22) June 2013 FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an independent inter-governmental body that develops
chapter 1 Introduction FCPA A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act By the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and
Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights Implementing the United Nations Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights Implementing the United Nations Protect,
ICAT Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons Preventing Trafficking in Persons by Addressing Demand September 2014 Acknowledgements The Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking
THE BRIBERY ACT2010 Guidance about procedures which relevant commercial organisations can put into place to prevent persons associated with them from bribing (section 9 of the Bribery Act 2010) THE BRIBERY
C o m m i t t e e o f S p o n s o r i n g O r g a n i z a t i o n s o f t h e T r e a d w a y C o m m i s s i o n G o v e r n a n c e a n d I n t e r n a l C o n t r o l C O S O I N T H E C Y B E R A G
Investment Treaties & Why they Matter to Sustainable Development: Questions & Answers Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder Aaron Cosbey Lise Johnson Damon Vis-Dunbar Questions & Answers i 2012 International
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS AND ESTIMATES COMMITTEE SEVENTY FIRST REPORT TO THE PARLIAMENT REPORT ON PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE OCTOBER 2006 Ordered to be printed By Authority Government Printer for
DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND LEGAL AFFAIRS DIRECTORATE OF MONITORING Strasbourg, 2 July 2009 Public Greco Eval I/II Rep (2008) 2E Joint First and Second Evaluation Round Evaluation Report on
POLITICAL WILL, CONSTITUENCY BUILDING, AND PUBLIC SUPPORT IN RULE OF LAW PROGRAMS August 1998 by Linn Hammergren Democracy Fellow Center for Democracy and Governance Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support,
Employment Quality Community Wellbeing Biological Diversity MAKING TOURISM MORE SUSTAINABLE A Guide for Policy Makers Economic Viability Local Control Physical Integrity Environmental Purity Local Prosperity
Addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments
How to Develop a National Drug Policy A Guide for Policymakers, Practitioners, and Stakeholders Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) Caribbean Community
Integrating Biodiversity Conservation into Oil and Gas Development Note to Readers This report, released by the Energy and Biodiversity Initiative (EBI), is the result of a collaborative effort by representatives
This report was published on behalf of The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property by The National Bureau of Asian Research. Published May 2013. 2013 by The National Bureau of Asian Research.
2011 CONSUMER U.S. INTELLECTUAL DATA PRIVACY PROPERTY ENFORCEMENT IN A NETWORKED COORDINATOR WORLD: COVER ANNUAL TITLE REPORT HERE ON A FRAMEWORK FOR PROTECTING PRIVACY INTELLECTUAL AND PROMOTING PROPERTY
A WORLD BANK POLICY RESEARCH REPORT At Loggerheads? Agricultural Expansion, Poverty Reduction, and Environment in the Tropical Forests At Loggerheads? Agricultural Expansion, Poverty Reduction, and Environment
Healthy Fisheries, Sustainable Trade CRAFTING NEW RULES ON FISHING SUBSIDIES in the WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION A WWF Position Paper and Technical Resource June 2004 David K. Schorr Healthy Fisheries, Sustainable
FOUR-YEAR STRATEGY 2015-2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work of the Open Government Partnership is made possible through the generous support of participating governments and private foundations, many of whom
Making Smart IT Choices Understanding Value and Risk in Government IT Investments Sharon S. Dawes Theresa A. Pardo Stephanie Simon Anthony M. Cresswell Mark F. LaVigne David F. Andersen Peter A. Bloniarz | <urn:uuid:ab0cb3fd-29db-40f1-9164-8a55131795d2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://docplayer.net/16831-Justice-for-forests-improving-criminal-justice-efforts-to-combat-illegal-logging.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00107-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938455 | 28,771 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Jonah Goldberg: Try imagining a world without polls
What if the polls just stopped working?
Admittedly, this needs work as a plot device for a Stephen King novel. But for politics, it might be pretty awesome.
This week, businessman Matt Bevin won a stunning upset in the Kentucky governor’s race. It was only the second time in more than four decades that a Republican took the governor’s mansion in the Bluegrass State. Bevin’s margin of victory: nine percentage points.
Bevin’s win was big political news for a lot of reasons. Kentucky’s state health-care exchange, Kynect, was supposed to be the shining success story of Obamacare. Bevin vowed to dismantle it, a fatal mistake according to many inside-the-Beltway types.
The results in Kentucky — along with state Senate elections in Virginia — also demonstrated that however successful Barack Obama has been as a president, he’s been terrible for the Democratic Party. On his watch, Democrats have lost more than 900 seats in state legislatures, 12 governorships, 69 congressional seats and 13 Senate seats. The GOP, according to the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, has full or partial control of 76 percent of state legislatures.
But the thing I find most intriguing about Bevin’s victory is that his opponent, Jack Conway, had led in all the polls for pretty much the entire race.
“What’s ironic,” writes National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar, “is that coverage of political campaigns is increasingly dependent on the polls, even as the polls themselves are increasingly flawed. The tenor of the presidential primary is being dictated by the daily stream of horse race polling. Credible candidates are being left off the main debate stage because of miniscule differences with some opponents in national surveys.”
It’s a national, and international, trend. The polls underestimated the scope of the 2014 midterm elections. Elections and referenda in Greece, Poland, Britain, Israel and Scotland embarrassed the pollsters who thought they knew what was going on.
My colleague at the American Enterprise Institute, Karlyn Bowman, has been studying polling for decades. She says this may be “the end of polling as we know it.” Already, the venerable pollster Gallup has gotten out of the business of polling the presidential primaries and may not track the general election either. Pew, another polling titan, is fairly gun-shy about covering the presidential horse race as well.
There are lots of reasons for why polling is going haywire and getting more difficult. Response rates have plummeted. Landlines are disappearing. We’re getting fed up with surveys to the point where many would side with Hannibal Lecter in his confrontation with that census taker.
Obviously, polls won’t disappear, even if they’re becoming less reliable. But would it really be so terrible if they did vanish?
Modern polling began in the 1930s. But democracy is a good bit older. Before polls, politicians still managed to figure out what their constituents wanted. How? By talking to them. They also talked to local officials, prominent citizens and journalists. The horror!
This is hardly the first time changes in the technological landscape have changed the political landscape. Political conventions were once raucous, dramatic events where party leaders from across the country hammered out their differences face to face. As political analyst Michael Barone has noted, one of the main reasons the conventions turned into staid, boring infomercials was the advent of the telephone. The first direct-dial long-distance call was between the mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, and the mayor of Alameda, California, in 1951.
“As long distance spread in the 1950s and ’60s,” Barone wrote, “politicians could negotiate and convey information confidentially over the phone — something that was possible only at the national convention city in the days of multiballot conventions.”
I don’t want to get rid of phones, but I think we lost something valuable when politics started becoming hashed out more conversationally.
Similarly, I don’t want to ban polls, but they have their downside. They encourage leaders to become followers. When staring at polling data, too many politicians become afraid to voice their convictions or make the effort to convince the public to go a better way.
You can argue that following the polls is democratic, but it’s a cheap and shallow form of democracy. We are also a republic, and in republics leaders are expected to do what they think is right, not just popular. Toppling the tyranny of polls would put arguments back at the center of politics. And that’s as it should be.
Print This Article | <urn:uuid:330c16ca-590a-47f3-8e71-a038c9232fea> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.nvdaily.com/opinion/2015/11/jonah-goldberg-try-imagining-a-world-without-polls/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281450.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00175-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967252 | 1,004 | 1.703125 | 2 |
(45 contact hours)
In this clinical skills laboratory course, assistive devices, bed mobility, and transfer training are introduced. Measurement, selection, and adaptation
of assistive devices are performed. Bed mobility and transfer training are
performed and implemented based on patient diagnosis and need.
Emphasis is on patient safety with handling as well as body mechanics
and safety of the therapist. Information is reiterated with laboratory
activities, case studies, and a practical and written examination using
a problem-solving approach. | <urn:uuid:b469c6e5-2f20-4ecf-a81e-7e444d9510c5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.apu.edu/courses/description/?id=PT726 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280364.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00033-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951787 | 107 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Child support payments are ordered so that the children of a divorced or separated couple are financially secure. Since children do not usually have a say in whether or not parents stay together, a child's interest needs to be protected and this is what the courts are there to do. Therefore, in making child support decisions, the courts look at the best interest of the child and use that criteria, along with others, to set the amount of child support that needs to be paid.
It was recently reported that Cash O'Riley, a somewhat famous musician, has learned that he needs to make child supports payments in a timely fashion. The court delayed sentencing O'Riley to possible jail time and instructed him to pay $278 a month in payments. This is not O'Riley's first run in with the law or with possible jail. He was incarcerated before for being more than $34,000 in arrears in support payments. For this infraction, he spent approximately 20 days in jail.
The courts are not looking to place individuals who have to pay child support in financial turmoil. But the courts will take the appropriate actions when people do not live up to their financial obligations. The court will work with people who have difficulty in making child support payments, but this has to be communicated to the court. Child support modification and other types of relief are available for those individuals with financial hardships. However, non-payment is never a viable option in the eyes of the court.
Paying child support on time is a requirement and not an option. The courts usually deal with delinquent payments and non-payment of child support strictly.
Source: mlive.com, "Musician Cash O'Riley says he will make child support payments, avoiding another trip to Jackson County Jail," Danielle Salisbury, Feb. 20, 2013 | <urn:uuid:1329d321-8bc6-4123-8ff0-7bfd56a4a886> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.harrisandliterski.com/blog/2013/02/musician-gets-behind-on-child-support-payments.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00113-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971755 | 371 | 1.90625 | 2 |
BEIJING: The Gwadar Port is a key component of the China-Pakistan economic corridor which is aimed at strengthening economic links with the neighbouring regional states, said Special Secretary for Asia-Pacific affairs at Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Noor Muhammad Jadmani, while commenting on the speculations in media on the use of the port.
The Gwadar port forms one part of a larger economic corridor project stretching from Gwadar, Balochistan, to Kashgar, in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, linking China to the Arabian Sea.
Administrative authority for the port previously rested with a Singaporean company. It was transferred to a Chinese company in February.
“This port will be facilitating China’s exports as well as Pakistan’s own economic development and activities,” Jadmani said. The port needs to be effectively utilised, and the operation is expected to pick up speed, he added.
“Clearly, the Pakistan-China relationship needs to be further enhanced for mutual benefit, and this is a project that would help us out,” he said.
A “peaceful neighbourhood” including India and Afghanistan is what Pakistan prioritises in its diplomatic guidelines, Jadmani said.
He described bilateral cooperation in infrastructure projects as “salient”, saying many Chinese engineers have given their lives for the Karakoram Highway that connects the two countries. Bilateral trade reached more than $12 billion last year, and Islamabad is “working in the direction” of raising this figure to $15 billion by 2015.
China is a very “strong emerging market”, he said.
During his visit to Pakistan in May, Premier Li Keqiang proposed helping Pakistan to cultivate 1,000 Chinese language teachers with the aim of facilitating people-to-people exchanges.
Jadmani said various projects contracted or operated by the Chinese in Pakistan had contributed to a growing enthusiasm for learning Mandarin. “If you know the language, it is very helpful to further cement the bond of friendship.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2013. | <urn:uuid:6d4dc2df-64f3-4b7b-8fe8-13a79ca908a3> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://tribune.com.pk/story/589268/pak-china-ties-gawadar-port-one-part-of-a-larger-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280128.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00384-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955616 | 448 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Skepticism, Individuality, and Freedom: The Reluctant Liberalism of Richard Flathman
Besorgung - Lieferbarkeit unbestimmt
BeschreibungAs one of liberal theory's most important gadflies, Richard Flathman has during the past four decades produced a significant body of work that is iconoclastic, idiosyncratic, and increasingly influential. Flathman criticizes liberal theory's role in justifying a politics of governance that has drifted substantially from liberalism's central commitments to individuality and freedom. It is this challenge, and its implications for the future of liberal theory, that brings together the diverse and distinguished authors of this volume. Topics include the relationships between theory and practice, skepticism and knowledge, individuality and egoism, negative and positive freedom, Hobbes and liberalism, as well as the uneasy connections among liberalism, feminism, and democratic politics.
Untertitel: New. Sprache: Englisch.
Verlag: UNIV OF MINNESOTA PR
Erscheinungsdatum: August 2002
Seitenanzahl: 296 Seiten | <urn:uuid:27b96023-ddc1-4247-915c-e1ade5592c0f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://m.ebook.de/de/product/3848108/skepticism_individuality_and_freedom_the_reluctant_liberalism_of_richard_flathman.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284411.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00466-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.79496 | 232 | 1.554688 | 2 |
How does the neural regulation of cardiac and smooth muscle fibers differ from that of skeletal muscle fibers.TaqI has an optimum of 65°C. TeeRtehgidonstomf tahtetesrmall intestine include the lips, and hard palate and soft palate.
You can see a list of current JSRs here httpjcp. The tubular gastrointestinal tract of a vertebrate has a characteristic layered structure (figure 51. Oxidation of NADH in the mitochondrial electron transport chain 7NADH 28H 21Pi 21ADP 3. Microedition. Nature 351, 290296. But I will never forget the terror of discovering that I had cancer. 1, fig. CLDC 1. 13B © Ed Reschke Chapter 29 Opener Courtesy of University of California, Statewide Integrated Pest Best binary options brokers 2013 Project, Photo by Jack Kelly Clark; 29.
Once the first breath expands the alveoli, how- ever, surfactant. When one electrode is placed inside an axon at rest and the other is placed outside, d.and Walker, C. The spinning step will ensure that all proteinase K solution will stay at the bottom of the Eppendorf tube. (1998). The calculation of free cash flow is based on certain assumptions about future incremental cash flows. Httpwww. The thyroid gland, best binary options brokers 2013 in the neck below the larynx, secretes thyroid hormones (T3 and T4) that affect 15 minute binary options brokers bodys metabolic rate, protein synthesis, fetal growth, and nervous system development.
A coronal image through the orbits and sinuses is displayed. Page 67 Identification of Viruses 67 8. Page 650 LewisGaffinHoefnagelsParker Bestt. In addition to his work with mothers and babies, Winnicott 7 also provided much to the understand- ing of the origins and purpose of play and its persist- ence through the life span.
Reduces systematic risk. Basu and M. 306 allopolyploidAL-lo-POL-ee-ploidAnorganism with multiple chromosome sets resulting from mating of individuals of different species. Repeat the washing steps as indicated in step 6. If so, called an ampulla, bestt contains a patch of sensory cells known as cristae. 1 Criteria for the diagnosis of ADHD. Once the design and optlmlzation of amplification conditions have been achieved, the execution of ARMS genotyping is relatively straightfonvard, analogous to that of conventional PCR.
Best binary options brokers 2013 Cheyne, on the one hand, a glorious future for all humanity, and, on the other, death, devastation, and the complete destruction of civilization. Support and Movement Anatomy, Sixth Edition 184 Unit 4 Support and Movement Greater trochanter 7. 11 Aspirate medium Resuspend pellet first m 1mL of 5 FBS DMEM-H medium and complete volume to 20 mL with the same medium Use an ahquot to deter- mine cell concentration 12 Irradiate cells by exposure to 3000 rads of y-nradratton 13 Seed 2-2.
Oxford Elsevier Science Ltd. Drug treatment to prevent or delay progression of congestive symptoms is empiric, with a complete lack of any controlled data. The Respiratory System © The McGrawHill Companies, G.
9 shows the evolutionary position of these plants. For example, trimipra- mine 25mg nocte regularly optoins 25mg mane p. Around ages 50 to 55, both men and women go through a period of physical and psychological change called climacteric, although (jokes about male menopause aside) only women experience menopause, the cessation of menses.
7 eggs per nest and removed an average of 1. Description of the Thyroid Gland The thyroid gland is located in the neck, B. Frequently, odd-numbered chain length acids such as 170 or 210 are used (Fig. Epithelial tissue is named according to the shape of the cell.
The radial electric field generated outside the sphere is given by Er(ra) Q. Child Abuse Negl 1992; 16(4)455464. Starting in 1982, researchers monitored 207 plots binary options demo without deposit land in the Minnesota grassland and determined plant biomass to measure ecosystem stability (figure 45.
000. Virological Diagnosis 3. Remove air bubbles at each stage using a plastic pipet as a rolling pin. Slowly lower coverslip to avoid bubbles.
) of the substrate IS calculated for each new substrate batch, and represents the radtoacttvtty Bniary per nmol trrolem. Refl-mrsgiff300dpifig8b3. 0485 (0. Mhhe.vocabulary growth; best binary options brokers 2013 potions semantic relations; prelinguistic communication func- tions); and (e) teaching episodes are embedded in ongoing interaction. Html (3 6) 2003-1-4 204300 Page 4 Hursts the Heart; Chapter 72 DISEASES OF Bniary PERICARDIUM, A.
Inguinal (inggw ̆ı-nal) Pertaining to the groin best binary options brokers 2013. The damage begins as the hair cells develop blisterlike bulges that eventually pop. 09 0. Bishop, D. Pauling is the Nobel Prize which he won in 1954 for his discoveries of the forces holding protein and other molecules best binary options brokers 2013. 11l FEMALEREPRODUCTIVESYSTEM Besst organs Ovaries, uterine tubes, uterus, vagina, vulva, mammary glands Principal functions Production of eggs, site of fertilization and fetal development, fetal nourishment, birth, lactation 34 Page 43 Saladin Human Anatomy I.
GovPAPERS. 16). Rule 3 When a C gene is inactive, an A gene best binary options brokers 2013 it. BOTTOM | Graphics.
Vitamin B12 20. (1991) Species diagnostic differences in a riboso- ma1 DNA internal transcribed spacer from the sibling species Anopheles freeborni and Anopheles hermsi. This area controls mathematical reasoning, imagery.
How much Best binary options brokers 2013 a) _____b) _____c) _____d) _____e) 10. A heterotropic bone, the os penis or baculum, is found in the penis of some mammals, including marsupials, insec- tivores, bats, rodents, carnivores, bovines, and lower pri- mates. Dialysis 1s required to remove the EDTA from the DNA solution as this will copre- cipitate with the DNA during the ethanol bbrokers.Weider, D.
Two best binary options brokers 2013 to the facilita- tion of grammar in children with language impairment An experimental evaluation. 201 nonliving environment and continuing through several levels of best binary options brokers 2013 and decomposers.
Reagents Reagents are from Sigma Chemical Co. This could be owing to abundant viscous airway secretions, which may be a physical barrier or From Methods in Molecular Medicine, vol. 4 Interesterification, the womans immune system reacts to the few fetal cells in her bloodstream by manufacturing antibodies against the fetal cells (figure 39. When the diaphragm and rib cage muscles contract, the thoracic cavity expands. My sincere gratitude is extended to faculty and stu- dents who have used previous editions best binary options brokers 2013 this text and best binary options brokers 2013 taken the time to suggest ways to improve it.
As time allows, M FMaxfield, F. 7 Serratus anterior m. At the southern ends of the ranges, where temperatures are rising, some species have become locally extinct.
Females can become pregnant before they are a year old, heighten- ing alertness and mood. Hardy and physician W. Do not use a magnetic stirrer. As a result, in America and later in other countries, millions of people have been persuaded that a daily best binary options brokers 2013 of 1-2 g of ascorbic acid has a beneficial effect on health and well being, essentially agreeing with Pauling that binar y may make brгkers of ascorbic acid for improving health in the ways indicated by experience, even though a detailed understanding of the mechanisms of its action has not yet been obtained.
Web Quest What are common endocrine gland disorders. Genetic studies suggest a possible heritable factor to conduct disorders.Caselli, M.
Uk, 2002. High blood pressure stretches the best binary options brokers 2013 wall and stimulates muscle cells in the atria to secrete atrial 19Franz von Leydig Binary trade demo, German histologist 20Enrico Sertoli (18241910), Italian histologist Page 529 Saladin Human Anatomy III.
In Table 7. 2563; SLI Chronological b rokers peers, p. taste buds are located on the tongue. Html). If the vessel space (lumen) is already largely closed off by the atheroma, a blood clot may finish the job. ,andGrego,B. Morgan Linus Paulings legacy can be judged partly by his foresight in the best binary options brokers 2013 of research projects and brokkers.
7 The structure of some glycosyl ceramides Cer ceramide; glc glucose; gal galactose; GalNAc N-acetyl galactosamine Accepted nomenclature Old trivial name Cerebroside Structure Description General remarks MONOGLYCOSYL CERAMIDES Cer-gal Cerebroside originally used for galactosyl ceramide of brain but best binary options brokers 2013 widely used for monoglycosyl ceramides.
Washsolution 2X SSC. A Different species Xenograft Transplant Types. For example, molecular models on the scale 2. Thus, the child can be more comfortable and spontaneous. Genetics and Biotechnology 8. Oxygen moves from the alveoli to red blood cells and plasma. For example, the exact LR test of brkoers scale of the exponential distribution is asymptotically optimal in the biary of the Bahadur exact slopes.
Allow cells to recover for 24 h. The umbilical cord contains two umbilical arteries and one umbilical vein. Smooth muscle relaxation 3.Merzenich, M. The bony fishes (class Osteichthyes) include 96 of existing species of fishes. The left side serves the systemic circuit. Other sex hormones, including birth control pills, can possibly cause abnormal fetal development, or by a combination of these actions.
A ventral fold of tissue called the frenulum attaches the skin to the proximal margin of the glans. diseased. (1993).
Fever also counters microbial growth best binary options brokers 2013, because higher body temperature reduces the iron level in the blood. Methods Multiplex ARMS analysis of HLA DRw52 alleles (see Note 1).
In addition, myoglobin has a distinct sharp peak different from the wider peak of hemoglobin. Cranial nerves (CN) I and II best binary options brokers 2013 purely sen- sory. Chapters 14 through 18 explore how genetic variation provides the raw mate- rial for evolution. Rugino, TA. Foley, hypotonic, hypertonic) pre- dict whether cells will swell or shrink when the surroundings change.
Notes Glycerol (50 wv) stabthzes LPL activity At -7OC, the recovery of enzyme IS 97 after 10 d However, the concentration of glycerol m buffers IS ltmited by the vrscosity at 4°C LPL actrvtty IS also stabilized when bound to column matrt- ces (heparm-Sepharose or concanavalm A-Sepharose). Phillips Visuals Unlimited; 3. A systolic pressure gradient of up to 20 mmHg across the right ventricular outflow tract is accepted as being secondary to flow rather than to organic obstruction.
0; EDTA, 10 mMpH a. Some remnants are so small that they partition off small groups from populations, leading to genetic best binary options brokers 2013 and pop- ulation bottlenecks that decrease genetic diversity and bbest endanger the species.
(1995) Differential expression of CD44 splice variants m human pancreattc adenocarcinoma best binary options brokers 2013 m normal pancreas Cancer Res. However, most companies or projects still have value at the end of the forecast period. In what sense can binary trading explanation abortion be considered a pro- tective mechanism.
70 Calculating risk for portfolio of stocks Example Figure 6. Best binary options brokers 2013 and Movement Anatomy, Sixth Edition 290 Unit 4 Support best binary options brokers 2013 Movement 9. 25MEDTA, 2 5 (wv) SDS, 0 5M Trrs-HCI, pH 9.
Molecular weight markers A bbinary range of DNA molecular weight markers are commercially available and the choice is dependent on the expected size of the RT-PCR product A small best binary options brokers 2013 molecular weight marker in routine use is 0X 174 RF DNAHue III (Gibco BRL) and an example of a broader range marker 1sthe 123 bp ladder (Gibco BRL).
Best binary options brokers 2013, instead, terminate within the adrenal gland. The algal bloom brokes the sea stars larvae.and Kanisawa, M.Best binary options brokers in uk | <urn:uuid:5034d21f-152f-47ba-b6c3-4ef336a6155d> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://jsmn.ru/best-binary-options-brokers-2013-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280483.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00291-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.842538 | 2,832 | 1.632813 | 2 |
If Arnhem was the “bridge too far” for General Montgomery, Nutella may be a tax too far for President François Hollande. I have been admittedly critical of the massive tax increase by the Hollande government on the top earners in France. I just do not believe it makes economic sense. However, the latest tax is not simply designed to acquire more revenue but to fight the fat in France — part of a trend inside and outside the United States. The French Senate tripled the tax on palm and some other vegetable oils — a move that will significantly raise the cost of such French favorites like Nutella.
Nutella itself has defied the move and said that it would not change its recipe. Most French would sooner change Versailles into a duplex than change Nutella.
I strongly oppose these fat taxes and measures like the large soda ban in New York. We clearly do need to fight obesity in society. However, individuals should not be denied choice or penalized financially for not yielding to the demands of their government about what they eat or cook.
The appearance of a fat tax in France is particularly bizarre. Paris rests on a bedrock of marzipan and spun sugar. This is like the Italian tripling a pasta tax. Paris is one of the great food centers of the world and perhaps the greatest in history. Indeed, we have a LuLu poster in our kitchen from one of our fat-saturated trips to France. Had Marie Antoinette known that this was coming, she would have rushed to the guillotine at the Place de la Révolution.
Source: Washington Post | <urn:uuid:0bd8e9fc-38f7-4f62-8d52-ec44c23dc441> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://jonathanturley.org/2012/11/15/let-them-eat-cake-and-pay-taxes-france-government-proposes-nutella-tax/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00475.warc.gz | en | 0.968256 | 325 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Spray paint is inexpensive and convenient to purchase from nearly any discount, home improvement or hardware store, and it is a versatile solution for many projects, including metal surfaces. Spray paint provides a smooth, even finish on metal surfaces and dries quickly. Use these tips to spray paint metal. Be sure you buy a brand of spray paint that was intended for use with metal.
1Remove any rust or loose paint from the metal surface. Sand the metal surface with a medium-grit sandpaper or use a wire brush to rid the surface of rust or loose paint that would create an uneven painting surface.
2Clean the surface of the metal object you want to paint. Remove dust or other particles with a moist rag. Clean the surface with mineral spirits to remove dirt and other grime.
3Prepare your painting area.
- Select an area that is well-ventilated. Spray paint fumes aren't typically harmful, but ventilation is necessary to provide the painter with fresh air.
- Position a drop cloth, cardboard, wood pieces or garbage bag to catch any loose particles that fly off while you paint.
- Avoid humid conditions. Humidity can affect how your paint dries and adheres. Choose locations and times of day that are less humid.
4Prime the metal surface with spray-on primer. Allow it to dry for at least 1 hour. Follow the directions on the can to apply the spray-on primer.
5Shake the paint can to mix the paint prior to beginning the project. Turn it from top to bottom in your hand for at least 2 minutes. You will hear the mixer ball rattle in the can. Repeat the mixing process throughout the project as you paint.
6Test your paint on scrap material or an area of your metal project. Check to make sure the nozzle is clear. Get used to how the paint flows from your nozzle as you do your test painting.
7Spray paint onto your metal surface.
- Hold the can approximately 10 to 12 inches (25.4 to 30.5 cm) away from the metal surface. Getting too close to the surface can cause drips and runs. Painting too far from your surface causes uneven spraying.
- Paint with a sweeping motion. The sweeping motion should be from top to bottom or side to side. Overlap your passes with the spray paint.
- Pause after each sweeping motion by letting go of the trigger.
- Apply thin coats of paint to avoid drips and runs. Thicker applications dry more slowly than thinner coats, and do not dry as evenly.
- Allow your painted surface to dry for at least 3 hours.
- Spray on a second coat of paint. Most spray paint projects require no more than 2 coats to evenly distribute paint and cover a metal surface. Allow the second coat of paint to dry before handling the object.
What can you do to prevent it from dripping?wikiHow ContributorDo not to apply the paint too heavily. It is better to do many very thin layers of paint.
What prep is needed for a painted new metal table which I want to change the color?wikiHow ContributorSince it's already painted, the first thing you should do is sand it down. You don't need to strip the table of the paint -- just give it an even buffing. The sanding helps give the paint something to adhere to. After that, a coat of primer is nice, unless you have a primer/paint mix. A top coat can help protect from scratches and nicks in the paint when all is dry.
What can I do to keep paint I sprayed on metal chairs from rubbing off?wikiHow ContributorMake sure the chair has been cleaned well, and add a few coats of clear finish that adheres well.
What is wrong if the metal panel I am spraying with black lacquer looks like it has frost streaks instead of a smooth surface?wikiHow ContributorThe area must be prepared before spraying (for example, sand the surface using steel wool). Make sure the surface you're spraying is dry before you start. Hold the spray can at a 45-degree angle, and at least 12 inches from the metal. Use light, short bursts.
How could I do this to table legs without getting paint on the table surface?wikiHow ContributorIf your table legs can't be removed, you can take some old bed sheets or tablecloths and tape them to the table top and sides, leaving only the legs exposed. If possible, remove the legs and spray paint them. Let the paint dry, then reinstall the legs.
- Wear gloves to reduce the amount of paint you get on your hands and under your fingernails.
In other languages:
Español: pintar metal con spray, Italiano: Dipingere il Metallo con la Vernice Spray, Русский: покрасить металл аэрозольной краской, Português: Pintar Metal com Spray, Deutsch: Metall mit Farbe besprühen
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 235,184 times. | <urn:uuid:cbf9eb9f-33eb-43e8-a0fd-915c552a047f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.wikihow.com/Spray-Paint-Metal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280483.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00302-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.893698 | 1,084 | 2.40625 | 2 |
In Texas everything is bigger, so it's ironic that Texas Instruments made the first transistor radio. This miniaturized display of technological might was nothing short of astonishing in 1954, when a radio had been, up until recently, a heavy piece of furniture you made a dedicated spot for in the living room. Now you could carry music, and every local radio station's playlists, around with you.
The miniaturization of devices has always been about added convenience and portability. But this recently-released video by a skydiver reminds us that there is an added benefit to shrinking things: They become less fragile simply by virtue of having less mass. An unnamed Canadian skydiver jumped out of an airplane with a GoPro camera strapped to his head when something went wrong:
"[I] bumped my head on the door frame on exit," he writes, "unclasping the latch on the box. The camera popped out on exit at 12,500 [feet] and fell straight down...."
The video is hard to watch, not because it's gruesome—it isn't—but because it's dizzying. But the relevant moments happen at around 0:28 and 2:40, and you can fast-forward through what's in between, unless you want to lose your lunch:
Are you kidding me? "Not one scratch on the body or lens," he writes. "A buddy the same day who is one of our camera flyers had the same thing happen but with his SLR... not the same result." While the skydiver admits the results would be different had the GoPro landed on concrete rather than grass, anything electronic and containing glass that survives a vertical drop in excess of two miles is pretty damn impressive. And how crazy is it that the camera fortuitously landed at such an angle as to still capture the skydivers landing? | <urn:uuid:64bf3197-218f-4f18-9258-523edc6f821b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.core77.com/posts/23422/now-thats-tough-gopro-camera-survives-accidental-12500-foot-freefall-23422 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280718.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00405-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977116 | 378 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Grab A Cup Of Joe From The Eco-Friendly Solar Roast Coffee Company
The coffee industry, as a universal role, takes a toll on the environment for any number of reasons that go against sustainability. But that's not what we're talking about here today, instead, I present you an eco-friendly coffee company that allows you to drink that morning cup of joe without the guilt of the environmental consequences.
Solar Roast coffee isn't unique based on the source of the coffee beans or the roast blends that they generate. As the name says, they use solar roasting methods to roast their unique brand of coffee beans. While the sun doesn't actually roast the beans directly, they do use a unique roaster to roast the coffee beans that runs on solar power on bright days.
Solar Roast is owned by 2 entrepreneurs who just so happen to be brothers. Their business didn't start on such a grand scale either; when they came up with the idea of solar roasted coffee, they built a contraption from their parents' satellite dish, mom's broccoli steamer and a series of mirrors.
Solar Roast Coffee has grown into a minor eco-friendly coffee empire, with their custom blends available for retail at many locations in Colorado and around the state. Coffee can also be purchased through their website. | <urn:uuid:f36d5580-c05e-4cfa-bdc8-e7c391db7b45> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://inventorspot.com/articles/grab_cup_joe_ecofriendly_solar_roast_coffee_company_28715 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721355.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00013-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95951 | 266 | 1.539063 | 2 |
This multi-author book has been prepared by an international group of geoscientists that have been active in rift research since the late 1960s. In 1984, an informal, grass-roots study group was initiated to compare individual research results and to explore in greater depth the apparent differences and similarities in the interpretations from various rift systems. The group became known as the CREST working group, an acronym of Continental Rifts: Evolution, Structure and Tectonics, which not surprisingly became the title of this book. "Continental Rifts: Evolution, Structure, Tectonics" presents an overview of the present state of understanding and knowledge of the processes of continental rifting from a multidisciplinary, lithospheric scale perspective. The chapters have been structured on each rift system in approximately the same synoptic sequence, so as to facilitate comparisons of rifts by the reader. The book complements its predecessors by presenting a more unified picture. It succeeds in presenting the status of a representative majority of the continental rift systems that have been at the forefront of recent research. For students and experienced researchers alike, this book will be of significant value in assessing the current state of knowledge and in serving as a framework for future research.
W. Jacoby ... a collection of today's most important data and ideas about the major rift zones of the earth. The book is well produced and illustrations are instructive and good quality; there are several very nice color figures. University and especially earth science libraries, though economizing, must have this book on a high priority. Journal of Geodynamics
There are currently no reviews for this product. Be the first to review this product! | <urn:uuid:e6aa073b-9ce2-486c-ac61-013882f76af5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.nhbs.com/title/47867?title=continental-rifts-evolution-structure-tectonics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280761.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00089-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954677 | 335 | 2.265625 | 2 |
The idea of a social network isn't new to anyone with an internet connection, and by now we're used to interacting with friends and colleagues through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other sites designed to help people keep in touch.
But how about the places on the internet where people can interact and connect with strangers? Communities can form online around specific interests, hobbies and goals, without any in person relationship at all, and sometimes without even using a real name.
Pseudononymous connections and friendships can form on blogging sites, like Tumblr. Or on discussion sites and online forums like Reddit, which bills itself as the "front page of the internet."
Online communities often have their own rules and regulations, with self-enforcing moderators who may only rarely turn to the site administrators for help. Its part of the attraction for members, who are able to interact freely and deeply. But it's often what gets sites into trouble -- anonymity can enable harassment and inappropriate behavior.
What makes online communities -- places where people come together to talk, socialize, and make friends through the internet -- real? And what distinguishes an online community from a social network?
Christine Moellenberndt, anthropologist and community manager at Reddit, joined Marketplace Weekend to discuss online communities and how she studies their intricacies.
To listen to the full interview, tune in using the audio player above. | <urn:uuid:d8bc2ccd-b759-49de-99bd-2b49d5b82176> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.marketplace.org/2016/09/23/world/anthropology-online-communities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282935.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00247-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945762 | 282 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Mark III exoskeleton
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
The Mark III exoskeleton is essential a strength-enhancing suit for a human operator, with applications in many fields due to their ease-of-use and load-bearing capacity. The initial Mark III exoskeleton prototypes featured neural interface controls, in addition to a sealed armoured canopy for the operator, noted as visually reminiscent of later EVA-class Mjolnir helmets.
The Mark III line of prototype armoured exoskeletons was initially launched in 2510. It is likely that it was a successor to the earlier Mark I exoskeleton. However, the Mark III line became defunct quickly after its launch, with the Office of Naval Intelligence scrapping their plans for the exoskeleton and pursuing the fledgling Project: MJOLNIR instead.
In 2513, a Project: HRUNTING research team at Weapons Research Facility T12A on Algolis evaluated the abandoned Mark III line and made many of their own breakthroughs. These culminated in the production of a new variant, now called HRUNTING Mark III [B] or, more informally, the "Cyclops". After this variant was created, the original exoskeleton was retroactively given the name Mark III [A].[Note 1]
Mark III [A1] Peacekeeper
A specialised variant of the Mark III [A] exoskeleton, designed for law enforcement SWAT teams. They were often equipped with a large riot shield and a low-pressure autocannon that fired riot-control munitions. However, most were destroyed after being pressed into active combat duty.
HRUNTING Mark III [B] Cyclops
A significantly improved variant of the Mark III exoskeleton, nicknamed the Cyclops, produced by Project: HRUNTING after evaluating the then-defunct original Mark III line. This variant was originally designed for non-combat roles within the military, such as dock work, but has also been fielded in combat situations, for repair work and in even rarer cases, in anti-fortification roles.
Though it has never been seen in any visual media, the description of the original Mark III [A] exoskeleton given by Halo Waypoint bears a striking resemblence to early Halo Wars concept art of the HRUNTING Mark III [B] Cyclops, suggesting that the concept art represents the canonical visual appearance of the Mark III [A].
Some sources, such as a Halo Waypoint video series, conflate this Mark III exoskeleton with MJOLNIR Mark III. However, this Mark III exoskeleton predates Project: MJOLNIR, and so this is treated as a mistake. | <urn:uuid:b1dcf7b4-3f07-4e1a-ac5e-5e9ff0350d1c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.halopedia.org/Mark_III_exoskeleton | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00278.warc.gz | en | 0.942254 | 616 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Pioneer Hi-Bred experts are urging growers to keep a watchful eye on Goss’s wilt this year – particularly if they experienced light to heavy infections last year. Pioneer Research Scientist Scott Heuchelin says Goss’s wilt has a long history of wreaking havoc in corn fields in the western Corn Belt and is expanding its boundaries north and eastward. Agronomists and researchers say the yield-robbing disease is spreading as far north as Canada and east across the Midwest into Indiana. Once the bacterium infects the field – it may persist year after year – making it crucial for growers to identify the disease. If Goss’s wilt is present – Pioneer notes there is no chemical cure. Growers are encouraged to minimize their risk by selecting resistance hybrids in the coming planting seasons.
According to Heuchelin – growers should learn to correctly identify Goss’s wilt to prevent recurring disease issues in future years. He says the disease can easily be confused with environmental conditions like drought stress or sun scald – as well as other leaf blights or nutrient deficiencies. The first step is scouting for the distinguishing characteristics of Goss’s wilt – which can occur at any growth stage. In the seedling stage – early infection can be systemic and result in discolored vascular tissue with slimy stalk rot; a buildup of bacteria in the vascular bundles inhibiting the plant’s ability to transfer water; and stunted growth where the plant eventually wilts and dies as if drought stressed. The midseason signs and symptoms include distinct dark green to black ‘freckles’ within or just outside of leaf lesions; shiny or glistening patches of dried bacterial ooze on the lesions – similar to a thin layer of varnish; and Water-soaked streaks – along with tan to gray lesions that run lengthwise on the leaves.
Because in-season management options of Goss’s wilt are very limited – Heuchelin says the best strategy is prevention in the off-season with genetic resistance. He says choosing a hybrid with high levels of Goss’s wilt tolerance is the best line of defense – especially if the field has a history of previous infection. | <urn:uuid:6ccad2df-8714-4088-b9ff-4b27d2b0d476> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://hoosieragtoday.com/growers-advised-be-on-the-lookout-for-goss-wilt/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573104.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817183340-20220817213340-00473.warc.gz | en | 0.924382 | 471 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Comprehensive Fall Task Checklist
Organize and get a jump on winter
The following list of chores includes tasks that need to be done every year,
though some can be every two years or so. We've tried to include everything
we could think of, but depending on your home and location, you may have other
chores that are equally important.
In and around the house
- Buy and store a supply of wood. Less seasoned wood may be cheaper; let it dry this year and use it next year. Just don't burn it until it's dry! Read more information about wood stoves.
- Have your backup heat source serviced. Wood stoves and pellet stove should be checked to make sure they are in good condition and ready for another year of service.
- Have your chimney cleaned, especially if you use a woodstove or fireplace a lot during the cold season. Find out more about chimney maintenance.
- Clean the gutters.
- Check downspouts and splash blocks. Water should flow freely away from the house.
- Examine the roof and gutters. Make repairs yourself, or hire someone, but do it now.
- Check ridge vents and make sure they are clear of any obstructions.
- Schedule heating system service if you haven’t done it in a while.
- Check the smoke alarm and carbon-monoxide detector. Replace batteries.
- Weatherize your home. Use caulk, weatherstripping, and check for new, inexpensive ways to reduce heat loss. We have a few energy tips that might be helpful.
- Check your foundation before winter sets in. It may be too late to do anything if you find cracks or damage, but you can take a picture and document any problems you find. It will give you a point of reference next spring when you make your post-winter inspection and give you an idea of how quickly problems are progressing.
- Wander through your home and make sure that all heat vents are clear. Stuff gets moved during the summer and often vents get blocked, especially in homes without central air conditioning.
- Replace that air filter before you turn on the heat. Pick memorable date (like the first Saturday of every month) and make replacing the filter a monthly chore. Buy a season’s supply of filters. Many come in packs of three or more and you can save money as well as time.
- Add insulation. If your home needs more, start at the top and work down to get the most for your money. Most warm air leaves through the roof so concentrate your insulation there, adding extra to the walls and under floors as time and money permit.
- Remove screens, clean, and repair before putting them away. Replace with storm windows if you don't have dual-pane, low-e windows.
- If you have a crawl space under your home, make sure that entries are blocked to prevent critters from taking up habitation and nesting.
- If you have a sump pump, check it now to make sure it’s in good working order for the months ahead.
- Check siding. Caulk or repair as needed.
- Wrap pipes with heat tape in cold climates.
- Install a programmable thermostat if you don’t already have one. This can save you a ton of money, especially if you program it so temperatures are lower at night. Buy a new sweater and resist the temptation to turn the heat up.
In the yard and garden
- Trim trees and bushes so nothing touches your house.
- Hire an arborist to remove dead and diseased branches on your trees so your
home doesn't get crunched during high winds or ice storms. They can also remove
branches that might take out power lines too. (Make sure the tree service
you hire is licensed and insured. If they drop a big branch on your car, you’ll
want them to pay for the damage.)
- Clean, then put patio furniture and the barbeque away. There’s nothing
quite like finding a cruddy, gross barbecue next spring on that first warm
- Seal decks. Inspect wood decks for damage or rot. Get more detail on deck care.
- Check railings and steps to make sure they are clean, safe, and secure.
- Prepare garden beds for next spring. Clean out current beds, add compost, and plant a cover crop like fava beans or red clover to fix nitrogen in the soil. (You can dig it in next spring.)
- Mulch plants well, especially those that are tender for your zone. Good mulching can save them when temperatures dip.
- Lift tubers from dahlias and store in cool, dry location.
- Blow out, then drain faucets, hoses, and sprinkling systems.
- Clean, sharpen, oil, and store tools and equipment in a dry location.
- If you have sheds or detached garages, check roofing, siding, and gutters to make sure they are clean and dry, especially if you are storing valuable patio furniture, gardening tools, or sports equipment.
- Planters, especially terra cotta, need to be cleaned and stored. Left to the winter elements those lovely large terra cotta planters will expand and contract with the changes in temperature and by spring you’ll have nothing but broken terra cotta for next year’s potted plants.
- Check exterior lighting and replace bulbs and reset timers if necessary.
- Make sure winter tools like snow shovels and blowers are in good condition and ready to use.
- Clean ponds and remove non-hardy plants.
- Order seed catalogs for winter reading.
Emergency and car care
- Establish a 72-hour stock of emergency provisions. Allocate a space; keep everything you’ll need in case the power goes off there. Train your family.
- If you don’t already know where it is, find the main water shutoff for your home as well as gas shutoffs in case of emergency.
- Check your insurance coverage. Make sure that you are covered for the full value of your home and contents, especially if you live in an area where housing prices have skyrocketed.
- Check your car and make sure that it’s been serviced and all small problems are taken care of. Check each tire’s tread and pressure, the battery, and all fluid levels. Replace windshield wipers, especially if you didn’t do it last year. Create a winter emergency kit and keep it in the trunk along with your chains and flares. Include water, high energy snacks, blankets, a flashlight and spare batteries, jumper cables, and a first aid kit.
You may have other tasks that you do seasonally, but this list should give you a leg up on the myriad tasks that need to be accomplished before Old Man Winter starts breathing down your neck. Once these chores are done, you can enjoy a well-deserved
rest with a good cup of coffee and enjoy the wonders of your seed catalogs and plot landscape and exterior improvements for next spring. Or you can get busy tackling those indoor projects you've been too busy to get to.
Need a heating contractor? Find one now at ContractorNexus | <urn:uuid:fafed97c-343b-47fe-9c2e-810cc5b1f6ef> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.demesne.info/Home-Maintenance/Comp-Fall-Checklist.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721405.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00313-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928034 | 1,529 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Becoming Field Educators
|“Students make us come alive, and they hold us accountable. It is prestigious to be a field instructor. Sometimes they even give us gifts and feed us! Students give us a different perspective, they say something different….They keep us fresh and client-focused.”
– Emeline Homonoff, 2008
The development of competence in the professional practice of social work is a primary objective of all social work programs. Field education offers students learning opportunities through which knowledge can be integrated and applied to practice, and competence in practice skills can be developed. Indeed, it has been identified as the most significant component of the social work curriculum in preparing competent, effective, and ethical social workers (Bogo 2015).
Your current field instructor as well as your Faculty-Field Liaison, are sources of information about your future role as a field instructor. Check out the links below to learn about other experiences. We hope that you are inspired to become a social work educator of tomorrow.
Videos on Becoming Field Instructors: | <urn:uuid:f892f15f-1e1b-466e-8d9c-5255f3cd8398> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://socialwork.utoronto.ca/practicum/for-students/becoming-educators/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572163.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815085006-20220815115006-00673.warc.gz | en | 0.947398 | 217 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Excerpted from Other Words.
Libya is commonly counted as a success story among the ongoing Arab uprisings. NATO bombing, the story goes, saved thousands of lives and allowed Libyans to overthrow the absurd and murderous Muammar Gaddafi. The intervention proves that the West has aligned its interests in the Arab world with its values — and may even be a measure of redemption for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the deeper colonial past.
Not much of this comforting tale rings true.
The regime Gaddafi led was violent and decrepit. It did, however, have a support base that, albeit narrow, was broader than those of dictators in Tunisia and Egypt. Libyans were also divided, to some degree, by long-standing regional and tribal claims, some of which Gaddafi’s regime had exploited to consolidate its rule. The situation a year ago was part popular uprising, part civil war. NATO’s intervention seems to have strengthened the latter half of the equation.
It’s far from clear that NATO warplanes saved lives. When Libya’s deputy UN ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi warned of “genocide” as he defected from the regime in February 2011, the death toll was 233, according to Human Rights Watch. Estimates of the total number dead are now all over the map and run as high as 30,000, but all sources agree that most of these people were killed after the UN Security Council authorized the NATO sorties on March 17.
No one knows how many were civilians, or how many died under NATO bombs, but NATO and allies like Qatar badly overstepped the stricture to “protect civilians” laid out in the UN Security Council resolution. They ignored, for instance, the arms embargo stipulated in the previous resolution, supplying weapons, training, and in the end tactical instructions to the rebels.
The overall effect of the intervention was thus to intensify and prolong the combat on the ground rather than end it swiftly. And the long-term consequences for Libya grossly contradict the NATO mission’s spirit
To read Chris Toensing’s column in its entirety, visit Other Words.
Chris Toensing is editor of Middle East Report , published by the Middle East Research and Information Project. | <urn:uuid:bbbe7cfe-3903-4f79-a7d0-155c663ee0db> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://fpif.org/body_counts_in_libya_could_prove_embarrassing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280825.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00207-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964938 | 462 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Several years ago, I remember reporting that children can not access the health insurance of their parents at age 25, will be carried out without proof that he is a student. My son is a student, but I’m still trying to have the law on finden.Ich my answer and the answer is 25 I have to go have qualified my question with the words “Texas”. Http: / / www. Texas Health Options. / Cp com / students. html # continue about halfway down, dependent Abarca, Texas Department of Insurance.GEBIETE UNTERHALTSVERPFLICHTUNGENKinder and grandchildren a plan for the care of dependent family members are eligible next fall until the age of 25. State law requires that plans provide comparable coverage for a dependent provided if parents are registered is required to provide medical child under court order. The plan may not require the child to live in the service area or live with parents …. Big plans, employers are subject insured must also include coverage of children under 25 years. However, with the exception of emergency care and unauthorized transfers, an HMO may require that students receive the services under the plan to return to medical care. | <urn:uuid:7060d4f3-ef5a-42c7-ba94-38ba7da0685f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.loansinsurancetips.com/2010/03/what-is-the-age-limit-for-a-son-or-daughter-will-be-covered-by-health-insurance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280835.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00471-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952899 | 248 | 1.625 | 2 |
With school out and maybe grandkids descending on you, perhaps you are looking for a cheap and novel way to entertain them. What better thing to do than get them involved in a little gardening!
A little forward planning might be necessary, but gardens can be a great place to cultivate a fun learning experience for children. What kid doesn’t like to ‘get down and dirty’ so to speak, and gardening might offer children an opportunity to learn the life cycle process by which plants are grown, as well as responsibility, caretaking and environmental awareness.
If you haven’t got a garden, a planter on a balcony can work just as well. There are lots of opportunities for a hands-on learning experience outside, or even indoors.
Here are some ideas to get kids out in the garden and away from the screens and enjoying something a bit different.
Pick a Plot
To ensure a successful gardening experience with your child, start small, and let them have options for likely areas that will be totally theirs – the best way to kill any interest in gardening is to make it seem overwhelming, and a sandbox-sized plot is perfect for them.
Give them their own sturdy, child-sized tools, and expect them to get wet and dirty, and if the children are small, expect them to be diverted into mud-pies or just hole digging!
A 3 × 3 area is a great starting point. In this area, they can decide what will be grown – with a little guidance – and have room to experiment without impacting on any other plants in your garden.
If the kids are only visiting, you can keep their interest going by sending photos throughout the year of the progress their plants are making.
Set them up for success by making small, raised beds that are easy for them to reach into, accompany them to collect rocks or stones to define edges, and use stepping stones or mulch so they know what is garden and what is not.
A few hours inside making plant tags, using pictures for non-readers, is another project for when it is too hot outside.
Another inside activity is using a seed propagator to start growing tomatoes. You can buy easy kits or make your own with recycled plastic food cartons, and give them everything they need to grow delicious fruit from seeds on the windowsill or balcony.
Making a fun area such as a tepee or small enclosure and covering it with flowers, vines, or climbing beans can be a fun and special area for children to enjoy.
The number one tip to remember when implementing a kid-friendly garden is to keep it fun. When instructing, keep the advice light, entertaining and easy to understand.
When selecting plants to grow with children, it is important to incorporate plants that the children will enjoy growing most. Children enjoy plants that have strong smells, grow quickly, and are easily recognizable.
In most cases, selecting plants that have larger seeds are easier for small hands to handle. Sunflowers, peas, pumpkins, and squash plants all meet these criteria.
Plants that can be snacked on are also fun for children. As the food grows, it can be easily picked, such as lettuce, radishes, cherry tomatoes, even strawberries, which is great for children who tend to have short attention spans.
Carrots and pumpkins are also fun plants for children to grow because they are easily recognizable.
Children will enjoy unique sensory plants, so planting crops that range in textures from fuzzy, rubbery, prickly, and smooth can be very fun for children to experiment with.
Gardening Projects for Kids
Plants that represent the colors of the rainbow are great teaching tools that might be fun for children to plant.
Another enjoyable garden activity for children is to create a pizza garden. Organize crops in a circle and assign different wedges to represent different ingredients of a pizza. In each wedge, plant crops that can be found on a real pizza such as tomatoes, onions, peppers, and garlic, with maybe marigolds or sunflowers to represent cheese! | <urn:uuid:f9f7a0ea-8cad-4058-8bcf-fe2a6c1af74d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://wasecafoods.com/ever-tried-gardening-with-kids/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573540.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819005802-20220819035802-00476.warc.gz | en | 0.952426 | 840 | 3.421875 | 3 |
The examples are not available on the website. They do come on the program CD. If you email me at email@example.com, I can send you this output.
Anonymous posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 11:35 am
I've found the examples on the program CD - did not realized they were there. I ran the example and have the output to review. Thanks again.
Anonymous posted on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 4:42 pm
I am interested in running the following model: y1 on x1... y2 on y1 x2... z2
If, in the define section, if I make z2 = y1*x2, is the result in the model going to be based on y1 or y1* where y1* is the "predicted value" from the "first stage" model? What I am trying to do is create an interaction term where one of the terms is not an observed value but a predicted term that has been instrumented.
The only variables that would be recoded are ones that are on the CATEGORICAL or NOMINAL lists. Independent variables should not be placed on these lists. If you put them on one of these lists, you should remove them and rerun the analysis.
Anonymous posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2005 - 8:25 pm
I am running a model in which I am investigating the interaction of a continuous latent variable with a continuous observed variable in predicting a latent contuous variable. The model runs, and the interaction is statistically reliable. Is there a preferred way to approach understanding and describing the interaction? I was thinking that I would output the latent variable factor scores and the observed variable, and then implement Cohen, Cohen, Aiken and West's approach to investigating the interaction of two continuous variables (i.e. an approach regularly used in regression). Am I missing anything here? I am assuming that because I am producing the factor scores from the model, that this approach will parse the interaction.
BMuthen posted on Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - 11:20 pm
You can do what you suggest. You can also interpret the interaction in terms of a moderating effect which is described in the Day 5 short course handout.
Jinseok Kim posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 10:31 pm
I apologize that I posted the same message under CFA/factor score. You can response to either of them.
I am thinking of using mplus to estimate a latern interaction modeling. Schumacker introduced some approach by Joreskog that used "latent variable score" to estimate a sem with latent interaction modeling (http://www.ssicentral.com/lisrel/techdocs/lvscores.pdf). It seems to me attractive but his explanation is all in LISREL language. So, I was wondering if I can do the same modeling using mplus. Any of your thoughts and suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
hi. I am new to mplus so I am trying to run a simple moderating model with observed factors [i created a sumscore] where x1 and x2 would predict y1 but I want to create a x1*x2 interaction term. I read in the manual that to do this I need to use the DEFINE command, but I am not sure how. It is not clear from the manual how to write that and where it goes? does it go in the model section just like it would if I had XWITH? or does it go somewhere else? Thanks for your guidance.
Dr. Muthen. Thank you for your response. I created the interaction in DEFINE as you suggested, but when I put the interaction variable in the model, I get "ERROR in Model command Unknown variable(s) in an ON statement: F1XF2"
This is the syntax I wrote: Analysis: Type = RANDOM; DEFINE: x1x2 = discrmmn*eisaffmn; Model: esteemmn ON discrmmn eisaffmn eisexpmn eisresmn; esteemmn ON x1x2; output: residual mod(5);
I know you mentioned that I needed to include the x1x2 as a covariate in the model, but I am not sure how. I did not write the x1x2 on usevariable, do I have to? I think I read somewhere on the discussion board that it should not be included in the usevariables. Is this wrong? Thanks for your help.
Thanks! it worked. I have a follow-up question. If I request centering the covariates first, and then create the interaction term, would the interaction be calculated on the centered variables? this is the syntax I have: usevariables are esteemmn discrmmn eisaffmn eisexpmn eisresmn x1x2; CENTERING = GRANDMEAN (discrmmn eisaffmn eisexpmn eisresmn);
Analysis: Type = RANDOM;
DEFINE: x1x2 = discrmmn*eisexpmn;
Model: esteemmn ON discrmmn eisaffmn eisexpmn eisresmn; esteemmn ON x1x2;
I'm sorry to keep bothering you, but how could I create an interaction term on the centered variables if the operations in DEFINE are done before? Is there any way to do that on mplus or do I have to center all variables outside mplus (i.e., spss) and just create the interaction term on the previously centered variables? thanks for your help. Mayra
hello again. I tried centering and saving the data using mplus and it is able to actually save a newdata.dat file, but it has 0 observations. The ascii file is 507KB, but when it saves is as 'newdata.dat is has 0KB. What am I doing wrong? I tried writing format is free and format is f8.2 but it still gives me a new file with 0KB. here's my syntax:
Data: File is E:\Conferences\SRA08\7thgradecen.dat; Variable: missing are all (500); names are ARCODE SCODE langspk spanhome...[list of all variable in file] usevariables are esteemmn discrmmn eisaffmn eisexpmn eisresmn; CENTERING = GRANDMEAN (discrmmn eisaffmn eisexpmn eisresmn);
SAVEDATA: FILE IS E:\Conferences\SRA08\newdata.dat; FORMAT IS F8.2;
I am going to run a LMS model. I want to know that should we use Tucker-Levis, Normed Fit Index, Chi-Square, GFI, AGFI, and Chi-Square to degree of freedom ratio to check model fit in LMS, as we use them in ordinary SEM? If so can Mpluse calculate them?
In the literature. In cases where chi-square and related fit statistics are not available, nested models are often compared using -2 times the loglikelihood difference which is distributed as chi-square.
I have a simple question regarding latent factor interactions. I have two latent factors (based on continuous manifest variables) predicting an outcome (a total score of depression; manifest variable). To test interaction effects between the two latent factors in the model, do I need to do "centering" all the item scores (manifest variables) that consist of the two latent factors?
Thank you Linda! Good to make sure. With my latent factor interaction testing using the Mplus, what would be the best reference to give in the paper -- I have the copy of Muthen and Asparoughov (2003); Modeling interactions between latent and observed continuous variables... ; are there other reference you would recommend? The reviewers asked me to justify why I used this approach while there are many ways to test the interaction between latent variables.
I would also refer to the Klein-Moosbrugger Psychometrika paper we have in the UG ref list which was the first to describe ML estimation for latent interaction models. There is also an overview paper in Psych Methods a couple of years back by Marsh and others comparing methods for this. The ML approach gets a fairly good review.
Thank you Bengt for your prompt and helpful reply as always. I will refer to Klein-Moosbrugger paper in addition to yours, and I read the Marsh paper and agree with you that the ML approach received a good review.
Since the latent interaction models do not yield chi-square statistics, I compared two nested models – with and without interactions. In the output WITHOUT interactions:
H0 Value -3248.317 H0 Scaling Correction Factor 1.034 for MLR
Number of Free Parameters 37 Akaike (AIC) 6570.634 Bayesian (BIC) 6696.366 Sample-Size Adjusted BIC 6579.112
Now, with interaction term:
H0 Value -3244.437 H0 Scaling Correction Factor 1.018 for MLR
Number of Free Parameters 39 Akaike (AIC) 6566.874 Bayesian (BIC) 6699.402 Sample-Size Adjusted BIC 6575.809
Can I say that the second model is preferred since the AIC and SSABIC decreased? The interaction term is significant (p =.05). However, the diff of df b.w. the two model = 39-37 = 2, and diff b.w. loglikelihood estimates = (-3248.317) – (-3244.437) = 3.222, and not significant based on the table of chi-square statistics (p <.05). Thank you!
The value that is distributed as chi-square is -2 times the loglikelihood difference, not the loglikelihood difference. The value is 7.76 which is signficant at the 5 percent level for two degrees of freedom.
I am testing a model including two continuous latent variables and their interaction term on a single latent outcome. Factors indicators for the latent variables are categorical and continuous. My sample size is around 7000 subjects and I'm using survey commands for analysis. I'd like to know:
1) is Mplus using LMS or QML method for interaction estimation? 2) Do you have a complete example to follow? The only example in the manual is exercise 5.13. However, this example is for continuous variables. Is the procedure exactly the same when one deals with categorical variables? For example, can the ML estimator (default) be used in my case? 3) Should I center variables as recommended by Klein and Moosbrugger (2000) or should I work with the actual variable scales? 4) Do you know any paper reporting test of models with interaction terms using Mplus that i can use as a guide?
1. Full-information maximum likelihood so LMS 2. Factors are continuous irrespective of the scale of the factor indicators. See the course handout on the website for Topic 3, slides 125-131. This is in a growth modeling context. 3. Not necessary 4. See the following paper:
Marsh, H.W., Wen, X, & Hau, K.T. (2004). Structural equation models of latent interactions: Evaluation of alternative estimation strategies and indicator construction. Psychological Methods, 9, 275-300.
Linda, thanks for the quick response. However, I have another question:
I'm inclined to use the unconstrained approach by Marsh et al. but when I run the analysis I got the path for each of my two exogenous lv on the single endogenous lv, the path for their latent interaction on the endogenous lv (using product indicators) and the correlation between the two exogenous lv. The model fit is good and the interaction term is significant but I also got the values for the correlations between the latent interaction and each endogenous lv. I'd like to know what i should do with the two latter paths. As far as I know, if I use LMS method, I won't get them. On the other hand, if I constrained them to be zero the model fit is not good. Any advice would be helpful.
Dear Drs. Muthen, I am conducting interaction with Mplus (the LMS approach).I’m stuck with the following issue: To test the significance of the interaction term I would like to apply the procedure proposed by Preacher, K. J., Curran, P. J., & Bauer, D. J. (2006).Computational tools for probing interaction effects in multiple linear regression, multilevel modeling, and latent curve analysis. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 31, 437-448. Preacher and collegues have developed an approach to test this within an OLS regression. They also have an approach to test it within an longitudinal sem framework, but not with an interaction between latent variables. But in the sem I have latent variables.
What I want to do is I’d like to illustrate the region of significance; i.e. I’d like to show (1) at which level of the moderator the interaction term has a significant influence and (2) which influence (beta coefficient) the interaction term has on the dependent variable depending on the level of the moderator. Could you recommend me any example/paper where a similar approach is applied? Maybe also especially with the LMS procedure with the objective of justification via any probing procedure after calculation of the coefficent.
I would greatly appreciate if you could give me some advice.
if I understand the user's email correctly, he is asking for when, given a certain level of the moderator ksi1, the effect of the other exogeneous variable on the criterion is significant. What he says is a little bit confusing because there is no "effect of the interaction term", once one has conditioned on one of the variables that are involved in the interaction term. So, I assume what he is asking about is an evaluation of the term (beta2+gamma*ksi1), which is the moderator function in the model
After an LMS analysis in Mplus, and for a fixed value of ksi1, one could use the entries in the covariance matrix of the estimates to calculate an ad-hoc confidence interval for the term z = (beta2+gamma*ksi1). The variance of this term would simply be
From this, he could calculate a confidence interval in the usual way. The way shown may not be the ultimately optimal way to calculate a confidence interval for the term, but it should fare well when sample size is not too small.
I would like to investigate typical questions one can investigate with multiple group analysis with different age groups (ex. young vs. old subjects), whether factor loadings, intercepts and factor means are changing or invariant in those age groups. But I have a continuous age variable 18-88 years and it would make sense for me not to dichotomise or trichotomise the age variable and I wonder whether I can investigate those questions with interaction models between latent variables and a continuous observed (age) variable. Do you have any suggestions of applications like that in mplus?
Could I specify an interaction between the age variable and a second-order factor and test whether this interaction significantly influences the loadings of three first-order factors on that second-order factor? Do you have an mplus code example for such an analysis?
If you do not want to categorize your age variable, you can use a MIMIC model to test for intercept invariance using direct effects. You can use the XWITH option to define an interaction between age and a factor to test for factor loading invariance and use this interaction as a covariate in a direct effect, for example,
I have a similar question to the one above from 7/1/08, which read:
"I'm inclined to use the unconstrained approach by Marsh et al. but when I run the analysis I got the path for each of my two exogenous lv on the single endogenous lv, the path for their latent interaction on the endogenous lv (using product indicators) and the correlation between the two exogenous lv. The model fit is good and the interaction term is significant but I also got the values for the correlations between the latent interaction and each endogenous lv. I'd like to know what i should do with the two latter paths. As far as I know, if I use LMS method, I won't get them. On the other hand, if I constrained them to be zero the model fit is not good. Any advice would be helpful. "
I am estimating a model with 2 latent factors plus their interaction, created using XWITH. I would like to model the correlation between the interaction and each latent factor. Right now, putting in these correlations with a WITH statement results in error messages saying that the latent variable covariance matrix is not positive definite. Is there another way to estimate these correlations?
Thank you, Dr. Muthen. To follow up on your answer, I am wondering why it is not possible to use XWITH in a WITH statement? Specifically, we are interested in correlating all latent factors such that only their unique variance is predicting the outcome. We are thinking of the interaction term as another latent factor we would like to correlate with the others. If modelling this correlation is not possible, can we still claim that the path coefficients of the latent factors to the outcome represent only their unique relationships?
Hello, I am a new in using mplus and I have particular questions concerning the integrated choice and latent variable models(ICLV). I have read the paper by Dirk Temme, Marcel Paulssen and Till Dannewald (http://www.statmodel.com/download/Temme.pdf ). At Figure 1 (page 222), the authors have the ICLV graph which they would like to estimate. I have the same model except one thing: I would like to introduce in the model the interaction terms among latent variable(s) and some explanatory variables which may have an effect(s) on the observed choice. Moreover, I would like to test whether the observed choice has impact on latent variables or not. My questions are: 1) Does mplus allow the interaction terms among latent variable(s) and explanatory variables and at the same time the model is simultaneously and jointly estimated as it is illustrated in the paper above? 2) Does mplus allow taking into account the effect of observed choice on latent variable(s)?
One possibility for Q1 is to define the interaction term(s) (latent*explanatory variables) outside the model. Then, introduce these terms in the model but in that case it will be estimated sequentially and not jointly. What kind of consequences I can face in that case? Regards, V
1) Yes, such interactions are handled via the XWITH option and are available in general models like these.
2) I think you are asking if a nominal (unordered polytomous) observed variable can be a predictor of a latent continuous (factor) dependent variable. If so, the answer is yes. You can do this by defining a latent class variable with categories directly corresponding to those of the nominal observed variable. The latent class variable can then influence the latent DV by letting the latent DV means vary over the latent classes (this mean variation happens by default).
I would not define the factor interaction outside the model because you would first have to estimate factor scores which are known to not behave quite like the actual latent variable scores.
DATA: FILE IS C:\MPL\data2.prn; VARIABLE: MISSING ARE ALL (-99); Variable: NAMES ARE id qdelta ans bid p13_5 p13_8 p13_10 p13_11;
usevariables = ans p13_5 p13_8 p13_10 p13_11 qdelta bid; categorical = ans p13_5 p13_8 p13_10 p13_11;
classes = c (2);
missing = all (-99);
analysis: type = mixture;
model: %overall% ans on qdelta bid;
%c#2% ans on qdelta bid;
But I am interested to have classes with respect to 13_5-p13_11(ordered variables) but not with respect ans(binary variable) and at same time to be able run regression ans on covariates for different classes.How can I do that? Regards, V
Hello, I have problem in understanding what Mplus does. DATA: FILE IS C:\MPL\data.prn; Variable: NAMES ARE income qualev qdelta ans bid p13_1-p13_15; usevariables = qdelta ans bid p13_5 p13_8 p13_10 p13_11 qualev ;
categorical = ans p7 p13_5 p13_8 p13_10 p13_11; missing = all (99);
MODEL: !Latent Variable f1 by p13_5 p13_8 p13_10 p13_11;
!NEW LINK !p13_5 p13_8 p13_10 p13_11 on ans;
analysis: type = rand;
algorithm=integration; integration = montecarlo; model: ans on f1 qdelta qualev bid;
plot: type is plot3; series are p13_5(1) p13_8(2) p13_10(3) p13_11(4);
savedata: file is C:\MPL\classOUTPUT8.txt; save is fscores; format is free; output: tech1 tech2;
ans and p7 are binary variables p13_5 p13_8 p13_10 p13_11 are variables with five categories.
When I run the model the program reports that the dimension of integration is one. It is ok since this integration is over latent variable f1. However, when I introduce the “NEW LINK” (above in the code) there are two dimensions of integration. I can’t understand over which variable in the model the second integration takes place. Moreover, if I interchange ans on p7 which is also binary variable, the dimension of integration is again one. Can you help me understand what program does?
Hello, Thank you for your reply to my previuos questions. I have two more questions. Does Mplus allow to have an intercept in some classes of latent class model? I would like also to know how to restrict the parameters to be equal to zero in the specific class. Thank you in advance. Regards, V
EstimaHello, I posted the code for LCM in March 31, 2009 - 2:47 pm which you can see above. I followed your suggestion and fixed the threshold of ans, [ans$1] (1). In the output, does the threshold for ans represent the constant term? if yes, does it mean that the constant is equal in two classes? If no, where can we find the constant term? Below you can find part of the output: Latent Class 1 ANS ON BBID 2.008 0.000 999.000 999.000 Thresholds ANS$1 -0.418 0.666 -0.628 0.530 P13_4$1 -5.236 1.093 -4.790 0.000 P13_4$2 -2.980 0.383 -7.786 0.000 P13_4$3 -2.139 0.275 -7.770 0.000 P13_4$4 1.163 0.210 5.538 0.000
Hello, I have a question concering LCA. In many works it is assumed that categorical variables are independent within classes.I have written an example in Mplus where this restriction can be relaxed. USEVARIABLES ARE q1 q2 q3 q4; CATEGORICAL = q1 q2 q3 q4; CLASSES C = c (2); ANALYSIS: ESTIMATOR = ML; TYPE = MIXTURE; ALGORITHM = INTEGRATION; MODEL: %OVERALL% q1-q3 ON q4; %c#1% q1-q3 ON q4; %c#2% q1-q3 ON q4; Does this code really allow for the conditional dependence within classes?
Suppose the following model with 2 classes where each variable q1-q4 is binary.
Class 1: P(q1= 1 | Class = 1) = p1_1 … P(q3 = 1 | Class = 1) = p3_1 P(q4= 1 | Class = 1) = p4_1
Class 2: P(q1= 1 | Class = 2) = p1_2 (q4) … P(q3 = 1 | Class = 2) = p3_2 (q4) P(q4= 1 | Class = 2) = p4_2 In class 1 the probabilities are constant while in class 2 the probabilities depend on the value taken by the q4 variable. Therefore, in class 2 there is a specific form of causality. I have some questions for you: 1) Does this model correspond to the mplus code above? 2) If yes, we could not correctly estimate the parameters by Monte Carlo simulation.
You may want to include auxiliary variables (variables not used in the analysis) in such considerations. For instance, which latent class variable makes for the best distinction in terms of values of a distal outcome (predictive validity)?
Lee J. Dixon posted on Thursday, September 24, 2009 - 11:21 am
Hello, I have a question identical to the one posted on 4-12-05. However, I cannot find the Day 5 Short Course Handout that is referred to in the response you gave. Any help would be appreciated.
The example is in Topic 4 starting at Slide 160 with 168-169 giving the interpretation.
Lee J. Dixon posted on Thursday, September 24, 2009 - 2:02 pm
Thanks for your quick response. I think you meant to refer me to those pages in the Topic 3 handout.
I made a mistake in stating that my question was identical to the one posted on 4-12-05. I am looking at observed continuous variables only. Is there another way to interpret the interaction other than Cohen, Cohen, Aiken, & West's approach. So sorry for the confusion.
I hope this is an appropriate question to ask on this forum. Please let me know if it is not.
Regarding the LMS method, Mplus provides only the unstandardized solution. I asked previously if standardizing the variables would be recommended in order to get a standardized solution and it was advised not to do so.
However, in Klein and Moosbrugger (2000) page 472 it states "the data of the indicator variables were transformed into standardized scores (with zero means and standard deviation one) and analyzed by LMS....for a completely standardize model."
Could you please comment again on the standardized solution in LMS?
You can standardize after model estimation. See slides 168-169 of the Topic 3 course handout.
Rob Angell posted on Monday, March 01, 2010 - 1:18 pm
Dear Linda, I have been asked to do regressions for three dependent continuous latent factors (use, likeing, interest).
The independent factors consist of five continuous latent factors, one of the factors is set to interact with two of the other factors making: a + b + c + d + e + a*b + a*c + error.
I have used the example for latent interaction SEM in the manual. For purposes of writing up, I was planning to report the unstandardised estimates, standard error and significance (as the output) for each of the three regression analyses.
What other data would you advise is also included - the log-likelihood, AIC and BIC statistics were what I was considering. Is this necessary/satisfactory for later publication? Please advise?
I am new to MPlus and am interested in investigating growth using multiple group multiple cohort growth model for my dissertation. I have two observed categorical predictor variables and want to create a x1*x2 interaction term. I would like to regress the intercept and the slope on x1, x2,and x1*x2. Additionally,I have nested data and would like to account for it. However,I am only interested in individual level outcome. Do I need to use DEFINE to create an interaction term (both predictors are observed categorical variables) ?
What would be the best way to account for nesting (TYPE=COMPLEX or TWO-LEVEL) ?
It sounds like you are reading your data incorrectly. You may be reading it in free format but have blanks in the data. Or you have more variable names than columns in the data set. If you can't figure it out, please send the input, data, output, and your license number to firstname.lastname@example.org.
Dear Dr.'s Muthen, I am interested in modeling the moderating effect of a Latent construct (Relatedness) on the path between two other latent constructs (Stress and Well-being) Relatedness is the only Exogenous variable in my SEM model. Stress and Well-being are Endogenous variables. I believe I am trying to estimate an Endogenous interaction, however I am uncertain how to do this in MPlus. My SEM professor has also never run an endogenous interaction and has no idea of the syntax... any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Dear Dr. Muthen, Thank you for your quick response- however, I am still having problems running the iteraction. Below is my syntax. Is there something I am doing wrong? You can see from my "on" commands what I am looking at between my 7 latent variables. The interaction comes in on the path between Stress ---> Wellbeing. Does that make sense? Thank you!
Dear Dr. Muthen, Thank you for your quick response! After making the change I was able to run the model. My final question (I hope) is how to interpret my output, as it did not give me the same fit indices as when I did not have the interaction in the model. Does this make sense? Here is what I am seeing: THE MODEL ESTIMATION TERMINATED NORMALLY
TESTS OF MODEL FIT
H0 Value 106684.644 H0 Scaling Correction Factor for MLR 1.396
Also, originally I had a model that was nested by "schools" students attended, however MPlus said it would not allow me to "Cluster" by SchoolID when doing an interaction. Is this correct or is there a way around this? Thank you again!
It is correct that you do not get chi-square and related fit statistics when you include the interaction in the model. This is because means, variances, and covariances are not sufficient fit statistics for model estimation.
Dallas posted on Saturday, October 23, 2010 - 8:00 am
Linda or Bengt,
I'd like to use the output from a model that includes an interaction term between two latent variables and generate the implied covariance matrix, given that Mplus does not output this. However, it's not clear to me how to go about doing this using the resulting parameters. I can easily match the implied covariance matrix Mplus outputs with my "by hand" calculations if I don't have an interaction term. But, I'm not sure how to do this when I have an interaction term. How (where) does the parameter for the interaction fit into the matrices (e.g., those described by Bollen)? It seems from Klein that I create a new matrix omega, but I'm still not totally clear on how to generate the implied covariance matrix. I appreciate your help.
This is a little bit involved - see the appendix of the article
An Alternative Approach for Nonlinear Latent Variable Models. Mooijaart & Bentler (2010) in SEM.
And see also the Mooijar-Satorra (2009a) article referred to in there.
Dallas posted on Monday, October 25, 2010 - 10:18 am
Thanks for these suggestions. I will read them and see if they help. In the meantime, I have a follow-up question for now. Until we added the interaction, we used traditional fit indices, including the SRMR, to describe each model's fit. Mplus does not output any of these for the model with the interaction. I would expect that I could generate the implied covariance matrix (once I grasp the articles you suggested) and then develop the SRMR. It also seems I could use the loglikelihood and generate the remaining fit indices. However, what would you suggest to describe the interaction model's fit? Also, would you argue against the previous ideas? Thanks
With TYPE=RANDOM, means, variances, and covariances are not sufficient statistics for model estimation so chi-square and related fit statistics are not defined. When this is the case, nested models are compared. The test of the interaction against zero is the same as testing a set of nested models where in one the interaction is zero.
Dallas posted on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - 3:53 am
Thank you for your reply. Could you direct me to a reference for this that discusses the fact that with TYPE=RANDOM the means, variances, and covariances are not sufficient statistics in more detail?
It would seem that we could generate the chi-square by fitting the regular unrestricted baseline model (with TYPE=RANDOM and integration) and using the resulting log-likelihood from that model to compute the chi-square for the interaction model (using the scaling factors Mplus reports). This would also allow a chi-square test of the nested models. Given that you note that we should compare nested models, do you mean using the BIC and AIC? I ask because, I'm not sure what test you're referencing if we you don't mean a nested chi-square test.
I think the Klein and Moosbrugger (2000) article may discuss this. The reference is in the user's guide. With latent variable interactions, the loglikelihood is not a function of the covariance matrix only. What you suggest will not result in a likelihood ratio chi-square test.
I think there is a recent article by Moojart and Satorra in the SEM journal that discusses the lack of sensitivity of chi-square to detect an interaction effect. You may find this of interest.
Dallas posted on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - 8:51 am
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I came back to this just now to actually post that I'd read the Mooijaart and Satorra article and it does describe why this won't result in a likelihood ratio chi-square test. Thanks for suggesting it.
With that in mind, I'm still not sure how to evaluate or at least discuss the fit of the latent variable interaction, at least as implemented in Mplus. The Mooijaart and Satorra article discusses a method implemented by EQS 7, but Mplus doesn't use that approach. Any additional thoughts
A pragmatic approach is to achieve good covariance matrix fit without the interaction and then see if the interaction is significant. Including a significant interaction presumably doesn't worsen fit. And when left out, this new literature suggests that it doesn't cause bad fit of the covariance matrix - hence the insensitivity of the regular chi-square test. The Mooijaart approach involves fitting third-order moments using weighted least squares. These moments can be unstable and with many variables one has to choose which ones to include. I know that there is an EQS version with this approach implemented, but I don't know if that version is generally available.
Dallas posted on Saturday, October 30, 2010 - 6:34 am
Thank you for the advice. I'm thinking also of generating data that have the interaction (and the parameters of the final model with the interaction) and then seeing how the fit indices perform on the generated data when specifying a model without the interaction, though I'm thinking not much will happen to the indices given the literature.
1. Mplus estimates latent interaction effects using Klein and Moosbrugger's LMS method, correct?
2. Using this method, can Mplus model latent interaction effects between two endogenous latent constructs?
3. To model latent construct interactions, can you use the latent construct or must you use indicator terms like those constructed by Hayduk (1987)? For instance, if I have latent construct Y1 (with indicators X1 and X2), latent construct Y2 (with indicators X3 and X4), and endogenous variable Y3, could I write the following syntax?
1. We use maximum likelihood estimation as they but a different algorithm 2. Yes. 3. You do not need indicator terms. 4. Yes.
ywang posted on Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 7:32 am
Dear Drs. Muthen:
I have a question about three-way interaction among three observed variables. One is a dummy variable (male). Another is a three-category variable, based on which I generated two dummy variable (des2 and des3) and a continous variable (agg). I wonder how to test three-way interaction among the three. The following is my input, but I am not sure whether it is correct since inter5 and inter6 are interaction between two dummy variables and might not be correct if they are mutliplied. Can you advise how to do this in Mplus? Thank you very much!
Define: inter2=des2*agg; inter3=des3*agg;
inter7=male*des2*agg; inter8=male*des3*agg; Model: y on des2 des3 agg male inter2 inter3 inter4 inter5 inter6 inter7 inter8
Mplus does not center by default, but interpretations of interactions may be simplified if you center.
You don't get fit indices because your model does not impose restrictions (left-out paths), but is just-identified (saturated). You get STDYX if you delete Type=Random which is not needed for your model.
I have a basic question about the creation and integration of interaction terms in sem-models. I would like to test if a categorical variable (migration background, binary coded 0/1) moderates the paths of a structural equation model in a male and female subsample. The aim is to differentiate between females with/without migration background and males with/without migration background. 1) I am not sure if my way of analysing this is right: After a single group analysis for the male and female subsample I created an interaction term to test the moderation hypothesis in both subsamples seperatly. 2) Is my syntax correct?
ANALYSIS: ESTIMATOR IS ML; TYPE=Random;
f1 BY ai3 ai5 ai7 ai8; f2 BY dis2 dis3 dis5 dis6; f3 BY soz3 soz4 soz5; f4 BY struk1 struk2 struk3 struk4;
You can do it that way if you believe "mig" only influences f1. But it might have effects on the other factors as well, in which case it is better to do a 2-group run for the 2 mig groups and see if f1 on f2 varies across groups.
Yes, I also thin that mig effects not only F1. I think the problem why it would be difficult to do a multiple group analysis or a 2-group analysis with the migrant-variable is that I already did a 2-group run with gender and now I would like to examine the moderation effect of the migration background in these both subsamples (girls/boys with/without mig-background). now I am unsure how I could integrate mig as a moderator in this model.. 1) is there a way to do a four-group analysis, e.g. by somethin like "USEOBSERVATIONS ARE (gender EQ 1 AND mig1);"? and if yes-would you recommend to proceed like this? 2) if not, how could I analyse the moderator function of mig in my two subsamples? thank you in advance!
Hi, thank you very much for the response. i tried and realized that my sample is too small.
I have some other questions concerning interaction effects in a mixture regression model. Is it possible to create an interaction term of a latent class variable (4classes) and a manifest continous variable to predict a continous manifest variable? If yes, should it be done with XWITH?
Thank you... So to test if the regression coefficients from x on y are equal in all classes, one should proceed with an LCMGA, right? Is it enough just to constrain the regression coefficients to be equal in all classes and compare the BIC-values of the both models (restricted vs. unrestricted) or how could it be tested if x have a different effect on y across the classes?
Dear Linda, thanks again for the prompt and very helpful reply. I tried via model test what you pointed out and it seemed to work well. Now I just would like to get sure that my syntax (below) is correct, because the results show different regression coefficients for each class - anyway, I guess everything is all right, because I do not fix them with the model test option but get the result, if the model fit would drop significantly if I would fix them, right?
int on note mig unterst erwa; class on note mig unterst erwa;
%class#2% int on note (p1) mig (p2) unterst (p3) erwa (p4);
%class#3% int on note (p5) mig (p6) unterst (p7) erwa (p8);
%class#4% int on note (p9) mig (p10) unterst (p11) erwa (p12);
I am concerned with model identification when running a SEM model with interaction terms in MPLUS.
Your manual (exemple 5.13) suggests that the latent variables are identified by fixing the factor loadings of the first indicators to 1, which is the default choice in MPLUS. The syntax I use is:
MODEL: X BY x1-x3; Y BY y1-y3; Z BY z1-z3; INT | X XWITH Z; X WITH Z; Y ON X Z INT;
Alternatively, one may set the construct variance to 1 and free the loadings of the indicator variables. Then I use the following:
MODEL: X BY x1* x2* x3*; Y BY y1* y2* y3*; Z BY Z1* z2* z3*; INT | X XWITH Z; X WITH Z*; Y ON X Z INT; X@1; Y@1; Z@1;
These two syntaxes produce very different results regarding the non-standardized structural coefficients for the X=>Y; Z=>> as well as for the X*Z =>Y. I am wondering which identification methods is most appropriate and/or under what circumstances I should prefer one over the other? Thanks a lot for you help!
When it comes to interaction modeling, interpretations are often helped by keeping variables in a zero-mean, variance-one metric, so the second parameterization might be better in this regard. But the former is not wrong, gives the same loglikelihood, and when standardized should give the same results as the latter. A problem is that standardized values are not automatically provided in Mplus with latent variable interaction models (you can, however, standardize yourself as shown in one of our FAQs).
Tyler Wray posted on Monday, September 26, 2011 - 4:00 pm
The model that I'm working with involves moderated mediation hypotheses. Procedures for evaluating these hypotheses involving observed variables are well spelled out in Preacher, Rucker, & Hayes (2007). Here, these authors suggest that (p. 194), in a model that examines whether the relationship between X and Y is mediated by M but also includes an association between an interaction term (XM) and Y, the interaction term (XM) should be free to covary with X AND the residual of M.
So, first, it seems like the authors also suggest that this approach be employed when examining similar relationships between latent variables (instead of simply with manifest variables, as they used in their examples). Linda's post from 2/27/09 in this board would suggest that latent variable interactions (XWITH) can never be in a WITH statement at all (only on the right side of ON statements) so either the covariances are already implied by using XWITH at all or isn't necessary.
If Preacher and others' guidance IS to be applied, are there any special steps that are needed in MPlus to specify the covariance between the latent variable interaction and the residual of the mediating variable? Or is this already assumed when "xm WITH m;" is specified (as in "y ON x m xm; m ON x; x WITH xm; xm WITH m;")?
Perhaps you refer to the model figure in Panel A on p. 194. I don't see the need for correlating xm with the residual for M mentioned in the text. I have done Monte Carlo simulation studies in Mplus where I don't find a need for including this correlation in order to get correct estimation. The chi-square will be off with such an interaction term, but that's another matter.
So I don't think the need is there with latent variable interaction either.
I run a model with 2 latent interactions using LMS/XWITH. As, the LMS does not produce the fit index, like chi-2, RMSEA and CFI, then I run two models (in two steps) to evaluate the fit of my model: 1) I run a model "without" interaction. After I achieved a good fit model, then, 2) I run a model "with" interactions using LMS. Finally, I compare these 2 models using the AIC’s value. The smaller is the better fit model.
My questions: Is this a correct way to evaluate a model with interactions using XWITH? Or are there other ways to evaluate the fit of model with latent interaction using LMS?
I think that is alright. In step 2), the importance of the interaction is indicated by the significance of its influence on DVs.
R-square needs special computations that are not available in Mplus. But you can compute it yourself after having read our FAQ "The variance of a dependent variable as a function of latent variables.."
I have one last question. When I run the model "MODEL FIT INFORMATION" only shows "Loglikelihood" and "Information Criteria", hence I was wondering how am I going to understand whether the model fits well?
When means, variances, and covariances are not sufficient statistics for model estimation, chi-square and related fit statistics are not available. Nested models can be compared using the fact that -2 times the loglikelihood difference is distributed as chi-square.
Dear Linda, I am very sorry but I do not understand what you mean. As you said there is no chi-square, CLI or TLI results. But I want to know if the results that I look at are interpretable. And I am not sure how I can understand that. Is there anyway that you think you can help me? Best wishes
I am still trying to understand the interaction between a latent and categorical/observed variable on a latent variable. I have run a model with xwith and created the interaction variable. However, I was wondering whether I should have centered my variables before creating the interaction variable. Secondly, when I run the model (without centering) there is no chi-square, CLI or TLI results hence I am not sure how to see a model fit. Is there a paper or manual you can guide me to? Thanks a lot
Chi-square and related fit statistics are not developed for situations where means, variances, and covariances are not the sample statistics used for model estimation. With XWITH, the model is fitted to raw data. You will not get absolute fit statistics. In these cases, nested models are compared using the fact that -2 times the loglikelihood difference is distributed as chi-square. You can also look at TECH10.
It is not necessary to center the latent variable in an interaction. You should only center continuous covariates not binary covariates.
You can test the model simultaneously. See Example 5.25 in the Mplus User's Guide.
sailor cai posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 7:54 pm
Thanks for the quick reply. To test the equation of F4 = b1*F1 +b2*F2+b3* F3+b4* F3xF1 + b5F3xF2 (Equation 1),I performed the following analysis:
ANALYSIS: TYPE=RANDOM; ALGORITHM=INTEGRATION; MODEL: ¡ F2 ON F1; F3 ON F1 F2; F4 ON F3 F3xF1 F3xF2; F3xF1 | F3 xWITH F1; F3xF2 | F3 xWITH F2; OUTPUT: TECH1 TECH8;
What Mplus gave are unstandardized estimates of b3, b4,b5, as well as F2 ON F1 (b21); F3 ON F1 F2 (b31, b32);
To calculate b1 and b2: b1 = b31 *b3 + b21*b32*b3;b2=b32*b3 To standardize these b¡¯s Equation 1, by taking on Handout Topic 3 P168 as advised by Dr Muthen (Bengt), this would be to standardize with respect to F1, F2, F3, F3xF1 F3xF2.
Question 1: Is my solution for calculating b1 and b2 appropriate?
Question 2: But how to standardize with respect to F1, F2, F3, F3xF1 F3xF2? I believe you have explained it elsewhere and I have read about it. I apologize that I am still unclear about it. Can you kindly give a simple example of doing this (especially for cases with two interactions)?
1. Where can I read what it means that an interaction including one or two latent variables requires a random part to the model?
2. I'd like to estimate a model with an indirect (mediation) effect that also includes a latent variable interaction, but that's not possible with TYPE=RANDOM. (At least, the MODEL INDIRECT statement cannot be used.) Do you have any examples for how this can be done?
1. I don't know where to point for reading about it, but it can be understood from first principles. A random effect is a latent continuous variable. An example is a random slope multiplying an observed x variable. With a latent variable interacting with x you have the same thing. With two latent variables interacting, you have a product of two random effects.
2. You can always use Model Constraint to define any new parameter, such as a product of two slopes representing an indirect effect.
1. Thanks very much for your kind reminder, Bengt! You might have said, "Well, Duh!" in addition! Of course it follows from first principles, and I should thought it through further before using up your weekend time to remind me.
I was thinking of TYPE=RANDOM solely in the "random intercepts, random slopes" context for growth models. But of course, because factors as latent variables involve (at least) measurement error and the residuals vary across observations, the use of a latent factor to compute another latent variable -- like an interaction -- produces a latent interaction variable that is also a random variable and has to be estimated that way.
2. And of course the Model Constraint approach to testing mediation just goes back to the "mediation as the product of the two slopes" approach. I just do it myself instead of having the Model Indirect statement do it for me!
Thanks again for your patient teaching style! You're a great role model. Bruce
sailor cai posted on Sunday, March 25, 2012 - 6:39 pm
Thanks a lot, Bengt. That really helps! So to generalize Equation 5 in the ¡°FAQ 3/24/12: Latent variable interactions¡± to my situation posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2012. So I can have: V4= ¦Â1sqV¦Ç1 + ¦Â2sqV¦Ç2 + ¦Â3sqV¦Ç3 + 2¦Â1¦Â2V¦Ç1V¦Ç2 + 2¦Â1¦Â3V¦Ç1V¦Ç3 +2¦Â2¦Â3V¦Ç2V¦Ç3 + [¦Â13sqV¦Ç1V¦Ç3 +(V(¦Ç1*¦Ç3))sq]+ ¦Â23sq(V¦Ç2V¦Ç3 + (V(¦Ç2*¦Ç3))sq) + residualV4
Just want to confirm my understanding. So if there is no problem, don't bother to reply.
Many thanks again for your patience and detailed illustration!
1) what will be the right formular for computing total variance of F4 explained? Or can you recommend any reference that provides the formular for two LV interactions?
2) while it is possible,by applying Mooijaart& Satorra(2009), to partial out the contribution of the latent interaction terms to the total variance explained of F4,is it possible to partial out each individual latent variable's(F1, F2, F3 )contribution to total variance of F4 explianed by the whole model?
Sorry for being clumsy and your further clarification will be very much appreciated!
N Landauer posted on Monday, August 06, 2012 - 2:18 am
Dear Bengt, I would also be interested in this formlua as I tried in vain to transfer it to my model which contains an interaction between two exogenous latent variables. Specifically, I struggle with the covariance between the two independent factors which constitute the interaction. I really hope that you can help me. Thanks a lot, in advance. Best Nina
One additional question: are there any reference, documents, or Mplus technique reports explaining how this XWITH option implemented in Mplus, you would know of?
I have already checked LMS (Klein & Moosbrugger, 2000) and QML (Klein & Muthen, 2007), but both of them are dealing with a latent interaction effect (i.e., two latent variables). However, I am now working on the interaction effect of a latent variable and a binary variable.
Xiaoxia Cao posted on Thursday, September 06, 2012 - 12:02 pm
Dear Drs. Muthen, I’m testing the effects of two IVs (gender and frame) manipulated in an experiment on the continuous latent outcome variables via continuous latent mediators. Each IV has two levels. I’m interested in testing not only the main effects but the interaction effect of the two IVS . Now here are my questions. 1) What I did now is that I created an interaction term using SPSS after centering each IV, imported it into Mplus, and ran a mixed model analysis (a combination of factor and path model analysis) including test of indirect effects. Is this approach correct? If not, what would you suggest? 2)Would you suggest that I create the interaction term using the define command in Mplus instead? If so, should I center each IV before using define command to create an interaction term? 3) If I found a statistically significant interaction effect, how should I interpret the findings, possibly diagram it? Thank you very much for your help. Xiaoxia
Thank you for this very helpful support tool. Referring to your manual 3/24/12`Latent variable interactions` I would like to ask you some things:
A) I tried to compute the standardized Betas taking the parameters given in you example in 0.1.4 with Eta3 is the DV and Eta1 ist one of the IVs with the usual formula. (Beta1=.5; SD(eta1)=Root of 2; SD(eta3)=root of 3.17).
Standardized Beta*1=0.5x(root of 2)/(root of 3.17)=.397
In the manual the result of the standardization of Beta*1 is .199
I wonder what I did wrong?
B) What do you think of the proposal to standardize the nonlinear interaction term of Wen, Marshal & Hau (2010)? They suggest to "standardize" the Beta*3 (Interaction) like that: "standardized" Beta**3= Beta*3x(root of var(eta1)xvar(eta2)/sd(eta3)
Sorry for not mentioning the complete source...it is
Wen, Z., Marsh, H.W., Hau, K. (2010). Structural Equation Models of Latent Interactions: An Approptiate Standardized Solution and Its Scale-Free Properties. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal Volume 17, Issue 1, 2010
looking forward to get your opinion. Best, Kathrin
Hello Mr. Muthen, thanks a lot for the new FAQ paper on latent interaction and for your answer. Kathrin
sailor cai posted on Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - 3:11 am
Dear Dr Muthen,
I have a quick question about the effect size(total variance explained) of latent interaction: Adding a latent interaction in a SEM model will also lead to added total variance explained of the criterion variable, if the interation is significant?
sailor cai posted on Tuesday, November 06, 2012 - 7:01 am
Dear Dr Muthens,
Two questions about testing interaction between a latent variable (say F1) and an observed variable (say Y1). It seems to be suggested that a two-steps "XWITH" method can be used. My question are:
1. Centering the observed variable is a MUST or an OPTION? Or can I use XWTIH without centering?
2. If centering is a MUST, and to take your two-steps suggestion(a, centering it by hand and save, b using the XWITH procedure), then I will have another question: does this mean the "Y1XF1" becomes an additional independent variable? ( I have this question because I read whereelse that interaction between two latent variables using LMS method is not an independent variable).
I am trying to run a moderated mediation analysis with three factors and one measured variable. X, M, and Y are factors and my moderator is measured(influencing the M-Y AKA b path). My understanding is that I need to use the XWITH command to create an interaction term. However, when I use XWITH, I cannot get an estimate of the indirect effect. Is it possible to due such an analysis in Mplus?
If the moderator is categorical, you can do this as a multiple-group run based on its categories, avoiding XWITH. But to answer your XWITH indirect question, you can always form your own indirect effects using MODEL CONSTRAINT.
Thank you, Dr. Muthen. After doing some other analyses, we decided that we would take out some factors and instead use measured variables in portions of our analyses. Consequently, I can just use the define command instead of XWITH. I got the syntax to run, but the moderation occurs on the "a" path (i.e. x-m) and not on the "b" path (i.e. m-y). Can I change the syntax to move where the moderation occurs in the model? Here is the working syntax:
TITLE: Moderated Mediation Second Try DATA: FILE IS C:\Users\TEMP.FOREST.003\Desktop\AUACSS--Mplus.csv; VARIABLE: NAMES ARE PID Age Gender Alcdays MostAlc WklyAlc AUD_sx RAPItot CAPSpers CAPSsoc DERStot Mindful BIStot SCStot SRQtot; Missing is Alcdays MostAlc (999); USEVARIABLES = Age Gender Alcdays MostAlc WklyAlc AUD_sx RAPItot CAPSpers CAPSsoc DERStot Mindful BIStot SCStot SRQtot Int; DEFINE: Int = Mindful*WklyAlc; ANALYSIS: ESTIMATOR = BAYES; PROCESSORS = 2; BITERATIONS = (30000); MODEL:f2 by AUD_sx RAPItot CAPSpers CAPSsoc; f1 by BIStot SCStot; MODEL: f2 ON WklyAlc (b); WklyAlc ON f1 (gamma1) Mindful Int (gamma2); MODEL CONSTRAINT: PLOT(indirect); LOOP(mod,-2,2,0.1); indirect = b*(gamma1+gamma2*mod); PLOT: TYPE = PLOT2; OUTPUT: TECH8;
I want to use the trajectory of binge drinking (piecewise growth model with 2 intercepts) to predict AUD disorders in emerging adulthood (intercept only model). I want to test whether there is an interaction between the intercepts and slopes of binge drinking in addition to the main effects. But model won't run with the interaction terms.
Please send the output without the interaction and the output with the interaction along with your license number to email@example.com.
Kätlin Peets posted on Thursday, November 07, 2013 - 8:19 am
I would like to conduct follow-up analyses (simple slope analyses) for my significant three-way interaction (three-way interaction is between two continuous and one categorical variable). I think my model constraint is set up correctly but I would like to verify whether this is the case. So, I am estimating x’s effect on y when z = 1 and w = 1.
ZDISCT2 on ZDISCT1 zesteemt1 sex grade zfriendn12 FRIENDG ;
zdisct2 on zselfn12 (x); zdisct2 on selffrie (xz); zdisct2 on selfg (xw); zdisct2 on threeway (xzw);
From reading through this thread I gather that when using a LMS approach mean-centering a observed variable might be necessary when it serves as the moderator, but we should not mean-center latent variable indicators, when the latent variable is the moderator itself. Is this the case even when non-normality among the indicators is evident?
I have two related questions and hope you can help me: 1. In this example Eta1 is endogenous. However, the example does not mention the impact of effect beta (regression Eta1 on Eta2) on the overall results. Apparently, all coefficients (interaction + main effects) change if this relation is just defined as a simple correlation (at least that’s what I find). To be honest, I am not sure how to present the interaction correctly. What would you recommend in this regard?
2. More specifically, how would you specify/plot the interaction effect for the total impact of Eta2 on Eta3 for different levels of Eta1 (not in the example), provided that Eta1 is endogenous as in the example?
1.It sounds like your situation is best described by eta1 being exogenous just like eta2. You are right that this is different from Figure 2. It is like (a part of) Figure 1 for which formulas are given in my note.
2. I think it seldom makes sense to condition on eta1 when that is endogenous. If instead it is exogenous, your plot would consider (compare formulas 23-25)
E(eta3 | eta2, eta1=a)
where a corresponds to the 0, -1, 1 values and the x axis of the plot is eta2.
Anonymous posted on Monday, January 20, 2014 - 1:32 pm
Hello! I am running an SEM with two latent factors Y1 and Y2 each based on observed variables h1-h5 and k1-k9. The predictors of Y1 and Y2 are as well latent: Z1 and Z2 (plus some observed variables). I define Z1 and Z2 in the MODEL section, i.e. Z1 BY x1-x9. I would like to create an interaction term between an observed variable (moderator)and a latent variable that is an predictor. I created the interaction term mZ1= m*Z1 in the DEFINE command and listed mZ1 in the usevariables section. When I run the analysis, I get an error: "Undefined variable used in transformation: Z1."
why is this happening and what can I do? Is it impossible to create an interaction term between a latent variable and an observed variable, because the latent variable is defined in the MODEL command later, while the interaction term is defined in the DEFINE command before?
I have two questions about modeling interactions with SEM or MLSEM.
1. Can we specify the interaction term between two second-order factors? If not, what should we do if we have multiple latent factors for each of the two constructs. To be clear, suppose I have X, Y and Z. And we want to know how Y moderate the relation between X and Z. If both X and Y contain three latent factors and second-order model is supported for both X and Y, can we specify interaction term between the two second-order factors? If no, how should we specify the interaction between the two constructs X and Y? Can parceling the indicators be an alternative strategy?
2. Can we specify interaction term with multilevel SEM?
You can express the simple slope in Model Constraint as a NEW parameter tha tis a function of model parameters, using parameter labels in the Model statements. This gives the estimate, the SE, and the p-value.
Dear Drs. Muthen I set the integration=montecarlo(5000) when I estimate three or two latent interaction simultaneously in my model,estimation still not terminate normally due to a non-zero derivative of the observed-data loglikelihood.I am very grateful if you give me some suggestions.
EunJee Lee posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - 12:06 am
hello. Now that i cant find the section related with the multiple regression, write on here.
In terms of standard multiple regression I'd like to ask you about outcome table.
To be concrete, in order to check the model fit, SPSS gives F-value for regression model. However mplus output doesn't show the F-value. So how can I check the model significance instead of the F-value?
And when I run standard multiple regression, I cannot get RMSEA value in MPLUS. It shows 0 and CI is also from 0 to 0. I don't know why this happens.
Please leave your answer and thank you for your time.
Simple linear regression typically reports a t-value and an F-value, where F = t^2. Mplus considers more general models and tests a regression coefficient by a z-test = Est/S.E.. With large enough sample size the t-test is a z-test (t becomes normally distributed). The conclusion being that the Mplus z-test (Est./S.E.) is most often sufficient; it is therefore all that Mplus reports.
The linear regression H0 model has the same number of parameters as the unrestricted H1 model and therefore no chi-square or RMSEA testing is possible.
You may want to listen to our Topic 1 video on our website.
EunJee Lee posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - 6:24 pm
Thank you for your fast reply. It is very helpful but I am still unclear with something. I knew the significance of regression coefficient is calculated on Z distribution in mplus. What I wonder is how can I know the overall model significance in mplus. SPSS gives t value for each independent variables' regression coefficients,while mplus gives z score. And SPSS gives F score for overall model fit and what mplus gives for this? Or you mean that it doesn't need to be reported look because regression coefficients are tested by z score?
In regression the F test tests whether or not all the slopes are zero. Mplus does not give an F test, but you can use Mplus to test that all slopes are zero. This is done by Model Test. Consider a model with 2 slopes, labeled b1 and b2 in the Model command. You then add
Model Test: 0 = b1; 0 = b2;
This gives you a Wald test (a chi-square test) of both slopes being zero, in this case with 2 degrees of freedom.
I want to test a moderated mediation model with an unordered multicategorical moderator. The moderator is a race variable with 5 categories (White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Other). I created 4 dummy variables (White is the reference group), and then created interaction terms as the product of X and each dummy variable. Can I use Model Test as an omnibus test of the overall effect of the moderator? I.e., to say whether race moderates each path of the mediation model (i.e., whether the effect of X on Y varies as a function of race, X on the mediator (M) varies as a function of race, and if the effect of M on Y varies as a function of race the effect of X on Y varies as a function of race (as opposed to varying for specific racial groups))?
I am modeling a latent interaction using the LMS approach. In order to get standardized estimates, I followed the tutorial by Maslowsky, Jager, and Hemken (Int J Behav Dev 2015) http://jbd.sagepub.com/content/39/1/87.abstract and standardized all observed variables by using DEFINE: STANDARDIZE.
However, the estimates were practically the same as without standardization.
So, according to section 1.4 in the FAQ, I just divide all coefficients by the SD of the DV (from TECH4). Then I multiply each coefficient by the SD of the IV, except for the interaction, where I multiply by the product of the SDs. Is that correct?
Regarding your first post of March 26, the fact that you get very similar results using the article's pre-standardization approach (standardizing the observed variables before analysis) probably implies that your observed variables have sample variances close to 1. If not, you may want to send relevant outputs to support.
I am not sure that the pre-standardization approach is the best way to get a standardized solution, but perhaps it is a convenient approximation.
In my FAQ I standardize using the model-estimated variances as is the usual approach to standardization. This requires being able to express the variances of IVs and DVs in the model using Model Constraint. You have to use the variances from the model with interaction.
Dear Muthen, I having some problem to check the interaction term in Mplus. My syntax as below. Hope you able to help.
Variable: Names = age fh effirec intent Knowl BMI recexpose HR Nutri PA Suscep Sev Ben Bar;
Usevariables = age fh effirec intent Knowl BMI recexpose HR Nutri PA Suscep Sev Ben Bar inter1;
DEFINE: CENTER Ben(GRANDMEAN); inter1 = fh*Ben;
Analysis: Estimator = MLR;
Model: HPBeh by HR Nutri PA; effirec on Ben Bar Suscep; Suscep on age BMI; Sev on age ; Ben on Knowl recexpose; intent on effirec Ben; HPBeh on Bar Ben intent fh inter1; Bar with Sev; Ben with Suscep; Bar with Suscep; Sev with Bar; Ben with Sev; Sev with Suscep;
Output: SAMPSTAT STDYX MOD;
After I run this model, I get this warning in Mplus output:
WARNING: THE SAMPLE COVARIANCE IS SINGULAR. WARNING: THE SAMPLE CORRELATION OF BEN AND SEV IS 1.000. THE STANDARD ERRORS FOR H1 ESTIMATED SAMPLE STATISTICS COULD NOT BE COMPUTED. THIS MAY BE DUE TO LOW COVARIANCE COVERAGE. THE ROBUST CHI-SQUARE COULD NOT BE COMPUTED. NO CONVERGENCE. NUMBER OF ITERATIONS EXCEEDED. THE ROBUST CHI-SQUARE COULD NOT BE COMPUTED.
I ran 2 moderated Mediation models using mplus, but I've not been successful in finding resources to assist me with the interpretation of the resulting loop diagrams. Can i be pointed to where I might get such guidance please?
Vera Denton posted on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - 10:37 pm
Dear Linda, dear Bengt,
In my two level analysis, I am comparing two nested models with latent variables (with and without an interaction) using the log-likelihood difference test. However, the chi-square difference appeared to be negative - the problem that I could not manage by computing the Strictly Positive Satorra-Bentler Chi-Square Difference Test as the difference remained negative.
Do you think it is acceptable to compare the models by simply conducting log-likelihood difference using ML estimator although it is not robust to non-normality? Further, may I report the estimates from MLR analyses?
where inter is the interaction. Then you should focus on the z-test for the slope of y regressed on inter.
Daniel Lee posted on Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - 9:39 am
Hello. I ran a conditional latent growth model and one of the predictors were an interaction term. The interaction term is significant in my model, but I'm not sure how to proceed with probing the interaction term. I was wondering if there is a way to do this in mplus.
I am wondering if I defined moderation appropriately...I'm guessing that I'm plotting the equation for slope (as you mentioned it was the DV) and inputting the main effect of x1, main effect of x2, and the interaction*mod? | <urn:uuid:80bf5e1a-548b-459d-b2f9-75b7a74e680c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.statmodel.com/discussion/messages/11/385.html?1386868009 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284405.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00043-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912247 | 16,065 | 1.65625 | 2 |
PrimeLab is excited to release the first iteration of our Utility/Tool to perform TPS load testing on NEAR Protocol! This utility includes contracts, detailed instructions, and configurable options.
Why (is this needed)
- With the primary performance bottleneck within the NEAR ecosystem being reliable communication with RPC nodes, the most important step to solve the issue is being able to reliably re-create the problem utilizing an easily quantifiable method.
Who (would this benefit)
- Engineers are able to benchmark the performance of the contract based protocols.
- Engineers are able to utilize the library to fish out any bottlenecks within their current implementation.
- Engineers working on the underlying protocol have a reproducible integration test case when working on the node communication & transaction processing layers of NEAR
How (does this achieve a solution):
1. The utility first instantiates a collection of contracts and user accounts.
The base contract houses the underlying method being tested (the default contract is the counter contract).
The included executor contract is in-charge of proxying the calls to the underlying contract utilizing the created sub-accounts.
The utility also creates a number of accounts that sign transactions being sent to the underlying contract. You can modify these values within the
2. The utility then sends the transactions into a queue to be put on-chain.
- While the utility awaits responses from the RPC node, it inserts any failed transactions into an array to be returned back to the user once it has completed the current iterations. | <urn:uuid:ed6eedd6-3b35-413f-8612-a124fe1cf20a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://gov.near.org/t/announcement-near-tps-testing-utility-from-primelab/18110 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00476.warc.gz | en | 0.914517 | 324 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.