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The depth and breadth of research being conducted at the Perron institute was highlighted recently at the institute’s Mini-Symposium.
The sessions focused on scientific talks led by PhD students and early career researchers, and lay talks given by PhD students, early career researchers and researchers.
Students and researchers based or otherwise connected to the Perron Institute gathered from the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Innovative Therapeutics (CMMIT) at Murdoch University, The University of Western Australia and Curtin University.
Among the scientific topics:
- a biomechanical approach to spinal cord injury
- investigating white matter changes via repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) and MRI
- the application of antisense oligonucleotides for the treatment of several rare diseases, and;
- the role of the gut in Parkinson’s disease.
Lay topics included, among others:
- concussion recovery, brain stimulation for depression
- computer models of the brain under rTMS
- and neurofeedback therapy for persistent post-concussion symptoms.
Three speakers received a People’s Choice Award (provided for each session), they were: PhD student Lily Toomey (Neurotrauma Research group), early career researcher Dr Alex Tang (Brain Plasticity Research group), and Phd student Samuel Bolland (Brain Plasticity Research group).
Following the afternoon of talks, a sundowner was held in Nedlands.
The Mini-Symposium organising committee members were PhD students Megan Bakeberg and Anastazja Gorecki, both based at the Perron Institute, and recent PhD graduate, Dr Craig McIntosh, based at CMMIT at Murdoch University.
Congratulations to all involved. | <urn:uuid:d0e0f8fe-d030-437a-8b01-de927695f57f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.perroninstitute.org/perron-institute-mini-symposium-a-success/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00469.warc.gz | en | 0.913686 | 353 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Answer: The beans contain seeds and you can start new wisteria plants from them. Allow the pods to remain on the plant until they turn brown and twist to release the seeds. Collect the seeds and plant right away, or save to plant next spring. There's a hard coating on the seeds that needs special treatment before the seeds can germinate. You can carefully chip away some of the seed coat to allow water to penetrate to the inside, or you can soak the seeds for 24 hours in hot water prior to planting. Wisteria seeds take 30-60 days, at 55F to 65F degrees to germinate. Use regular seed starting mix and plant only 1/8 of an inch deep.
Q&A Library Searching Tips | <urn:uuid:dad3e481-53d7-4fe6-8489-69845fc3dbbc> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://garden.org/nga/searchqa/answer/7535/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720153.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00324-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936411 | 153 | 2.265625 | 2 |
|MadSci Network: Chemistry|
Salt lowers the temperature at which water freezes and melts. Pure water, H2O, freezes (and melts) at 0°C (32°F). But the more "salt" (any elements or compounds carried by the water in solution, such as Na (sodium), Ca (calcium), Cl (chloride), and SO4 (sulfate)) in water, the lower its freezing point. For example, seawater, which has approximately 3500 parts per million "salt" (including Na, Ca, Cl, SO4, Mg, K, and CO3), will freeze (and melt) at -2.2°C. A water with extreme salinity such as very salty lake waters at Death Valley, California (approximately 300,000 parts per million "salt") may freeze and melt at temperatures as low as -20 - -30°C! Because salt lowers the freezing point depression, it is added to icy roads in order to melt the ice. The reason why salt lowers the freezing temperature of water is a bit more difficult to explain without discussing more complex chemistry. Basically, pure water, H2O, is a different substance than salt water, such as NaCl- H2O. As different substances, they have different chemical properties. Salt "gets in the way" of the interactions between H and O, making it harder for the H and O to bond as ice. You can do very simple processes in the lab or classroom illustrating this principle. Fill two containers with water and put table salt in only one container of water. Put both containers somewhere cold (in the freezer or even outside over night). See what heppens! Kathy Benison Asst. Professor of Geology Central Michigan University Mt. Pleasant, MI
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Chemistry. | <urn:uuid:aa4365f4-5614-44a9-a535-468b59b6f0c1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/mar98/890115623.Ch.r.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00419-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933928 | 386 | 3.953125 | 4 |
After watching "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" a few nights ago - I thought it would be fun to have my daughter write a letter to "The Great Pumpkin". Because she is not writing anything beyond her name at this point in time, I just had her write "letters" (whatever letter, and however many she wanted, all over the page) to the Great Pumpkin.
In turn, the Great Pumpkin brought her a gift the following day . . .
Yep, a shiny new toothbrush (apparently the Great Pumpkin strongly believes in Dental Hygiene).
If your child is too small to write letters, another option would be to cut out letters from magazines and have them paste the letters on a page.
We liked using this pumpkin shaped lined paper, but you could easily make your own pumpkin shaped paper for this activity. | <urn:uuid:e4b6fd58-a2db-4793-b548-bfd1e38f2ff0> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2010/10/letters-to-great-pumpkin.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280587.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00564-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962707 | 172 | 1.507813 | 2 |
A new research by the University of Manchester and Manchester Biomedical Research Centre has identified a link between hearing loss and COVID-19.
According to the University of Manchester, the scientists who assessed data from 56 previous research studies discovered that 7.6 percent of people infected with COVID-19 experience hearing loss.
The researchers also found that vertigo (a feeling of dizziness and loss of balance) was prevalent in 7.2 percent of COVID-19 cases while 14.8 percent suffered tinnitus — the term for a ringing or buzzing noise in your ears.
The experts also believed that a wide variety of COVID-19 patients have been affected by the aforementioned symptoms but wondered why the pandemic is responsible for it.
Speaking with Sky News on the latest findings, Kevin Munro, director of the Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness, said there may be huge clinical implications if the symptoms continue to surge amongst COVID-19 patients.
“If it is correct that something between 7% and 15% is having these symptoms, that’s something we should take very seriously,” Munro said.
“There are big implications for clinical services if this means there could be a big increase in the number of people coming forward.
“There are some people who say the symptoms are ongoing. There are others who say it seems to have settled down a bit so there are lots of unknowns right now.”
The news outlet also reported that Paul Johnson, a 53-year-old man, who was admitted to hospital four months ago with COVID-19, complained about having tinnitus ever since.
He said he first noticed the noise two weeks before he was admitted to the hospital, adding that “it is a persistent, very high-pitched whistle that you hear.”
“Something that I could liken it to would be if you have water running through a pipe, going through a valve, but you turn it just slightly so you get a sort of ‘shh’ – a whistle sound, but it’s a much higher frequency than that,” he said.
“You do notice it very much at night, when there’s no noise surrounding you, there’s no noise in the background, the TV’s off, and you’ve got this constant whistling noise.
“I think at the moment I would regard it as manageable. I can’t say it keeps me awake but I certainly hope it doesn’t get any louder or any more noticeable.”
The researchers said they have commenced further analysis that will give a more accurate assessment of both the severity and number of coronavirus-related hearing disorders.
Ibrahim Almufarrij, a PhD student who was part of the research, said: “Though the evidence is of varying quality, more and more studies are being carried out so the evidence base is growing. What we really need are studies that compare COVID-19 cases with controls, such as patients admitted to hospital with other health conditions.
“Though caution needs to be taken, we hope this study will add to the weight of scientific evidence that there is a strong association between Covid-19 and hearing problems.”
In April 2020, the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added six new symptoms to its list of possible signs of COVID-19.
In February 2021, experts at the Imperial College in London, UK also linked four new symptoms to COVID-19 infection.
Copyright 2022 TheCable. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from TheCable.
Follow us on twitter @Thecablestyle | <urn:uuid:fb9fb579-72a8-48af-9a7c-c4afba777d7a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://lifestyle.thecable.ng/study-links-hearing-loss-to-covid-19/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573908.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20220820043108-20220820073108-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.958971 | 806 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Uh oh. This year has been one fun ride
not really, but it looks like we are still in for some major news. After Apple made Face ID mainstream with its extremely hyped iPhone X, it's now Facebook's turn to make some waves in the industry. Starting today, every time someone uploads a photo that includes your face, Facebook will know it's you even if you haven't been tagged.
While the company has been using facial recognition technology since 2010 to help you see who should be tagged in a photo, the technology appears to have improved over time as Facebook now feels confident that this process can be automated.
"Our goal in building these features is really to empower people and help them manage their identity on Facebook," Rob Sherman, Facebook's deputy chief privacy officer, said. "Over time our goal is to make these features available everywhere... but right now we’re focusing on markets where tag suggestions are available."
Our technology analyzes the pixels in photos you’re already tagged in and generates a string of numbers we call a template. When photos and videos are uploaded to our systems, we compare those images to the template.
Europeans and Canadians don't get spotted by Facebook - for now
The feature has been rolled out to the social networking giant's 2 billion users, except for those in the European Union and Canada. Thanks to strict privacy regulations in the two regions, the Orwellian company continues to face problems when rolling out invasive features, such as its facial recognition technology. Privacy activists and users have long fought against the company automating this process. It should be noted that this outcry is mostly because of how Facebook has always remained tone deaf about responses to these features much to the chagrin of its users. With today's rollout, it appears that the tech giant might have felt a little confident after a more positive response to Apple's still-controversial Face ID.
Most notably, with Facebook's algorithm, the company also intends to fight against accounts impersonating users. Facebook will notify users if someone else tries to use their photo in a profile. Users will remain in control, the company promises.
You "can make choices such as whether to tag yourself, leave yourself untagged, or reach out to the person who posted the photo if you have concerns about it."
Not a fan? You can opt out
The company is adding a new privacy control to enable you to opt out of this facial recognition powered photo tagging. If you opt out of this, Facebook promises it will delete the face template used to find you in photos. Privacy advocates suggest that a system like this should require users to opt in, not to expect users to opt out when the companies know many users don't even get to know about these new features, read about the privacy notifications, or are aware of possible privacy issues. The Menlo Park tech giant said that a user who has their tag suggestions setting set to "none," the default face recognition setting will also be set to "off" until that user changes it manually.
Privacy advocates also warn of any upcoming features that could automatically use this technology without further permissions, since Facebook is replacing granular controls with a simple on/off switch. Meaning, if you are okay with Facebook recognizing you in untagged photos, the company will also assume you are okay with it using this data for other features, such as its account recovery process.
The company says it designed this new on/off switch based on the feedback it received. Facebook added its users "prefer a simpler control than having to decide for every single feature using face recognition technology". Users are expected to see notices in their News Feed explaining this change in the coming weeks. | <urn:uuid:23d4cc60-fde9-4916-ab85-95eea29b8de8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://wccftech.com/facebooks-facial-recognition-finds-photos-arent-even-tagged/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573908.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20220820043108-20220820073108-00268.warc.gz | en | 0.958879 | 751 | 2.046875 | 2 |
This is one of those things which 99 percent of you probably already know how to do, so I am really posting this just to remind you that things like this make a good gathering activity, especially for Tigers and Wolves.
Craft Stick Picture Frame
- four large craft sticks (use the larger tongue depressor size, not the small popsicle stick size) for each frame
- tacky craft glue
- photo (will have to be cut to size)
- small decorations
- Plan on making a square frame. Lay one craft stick on the left side of the photo and one stick on the right side of the photo.
- Lay one stick along the top of the photo and one along the bottom. They will rest on the left and right craft sticks and the opening in the middle should be a square (approximately).
- After checking your layout, glue the top and bottom sticks to the left and right sticks.
- Trim the photo to fit the frame.
- Use some glue to attach the photo to the back of the frame.
- Glue some decorations to the frame. | <urn:uuid:933191d1-2b8e-4b9c-b461-0c83fe158034> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://scoutermom.com/5738/craft-stick-picture-frame/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721027.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00549-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.891365 | 225 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Kunming Hotels and Travel Guide
Kunming Travel Information
Kunming is located at an elevation of 1,890 metres on the Yungui Plateau with low latitude and high elevation. It has one of the mildest climates in China with by short, cool dry winters with mild days and crisp nights, and long, warm and humid summers.
There are some 26 minority ethnic groups here and all celebrate various festivals throughout the year, making it a fountain of cultural interest. Kunming owes its importance to the fact that it was the gateway to the celebrated Silk Road that facilitated trade with Tibet, Sichuan, Myanmar and India.Read More | <urn:uuid:8bf3d8b3-9c27-4438-84bb-55fb8fc38938> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.china-hotels.ws/kunming/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279650.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00434-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949437 | 135 | 2.140625 | 2 |
The tiger known as Broken Tail was born in Ranthambhore National Park in northern India, a vast, natural reserve for a wide variety of Indian wildlife, but especially famous for its Bengal tigers. Historically revered in Indian tradition, tigers in the area were once protected by maharajahs, and then by government sanctuaries and conservation projects. But poachers have proven to be nearly unstoppable over the years, and tigers have struggled to survive, even with the protection of the park. At one point, there were as few as 26 tigers left in the reserve, and today, the fate of each and every tiger is important to the species as a whole.
Conservation efforts have been intensified in the face of the crisis, and the struggle continues. Broken Tail: A Tiger’s Last Journey is the story of the life and death of a tiger destined for greatness, who may still lead the way to a better future for those of his kind.
From the beginning, wildlife filmmaker Colin Stafford-Johnson could tell Broken Tail was special. Curious, exuberant, and charismatic, Broken Tail wasn’t afraid of anything. Stafford-Johnson and local guide, Salim Ali, spent over 600 days following and filming Broken Tail and his family. Then, one day, Broken Tail simply disappeared. A year later, Johnson and Ali heard news that Broken Tail was killed by a train in Darra, 100 miles away from Ranthambhore. This discovery raised new questions. How did Broken Tail travel so far away from home? Why did he leave in the first place?
Stafford-Johnson and Ali set off on horseback, tracing Broken Tail’s last journey, looking for answers. Talking to poachers and interviewing eyewitnesses, the duo travel across India, learning some surprising facts from this remarkable tiger’s passage, and hoping they will help in the conservation of this endangered species.
Production Credits Print
RESEARCHER & LINE PRODUCER
PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR INDIA
PRODUCTION CREW INDIA
WPA FILM LIBRARY
CLIPS & FOOTAGE
RAVINDRA SINGH TOMAR
EMBASSY OF INDIA, IRELAND
MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, DELHI
MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, INDIA
TIGER CONSERVATION AUTHORITY, INDIA
INDIAN FORESTRY DEPARTMENT, JAIPUR
STAFF OF RANTHAMBHORE NATIONAL PARK
STAFF OF THE RANTHAMBHORE BAGH
Produced in association with
RTÉ, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
SWR, ZDF, Arte and ZDF Enterprises
with the participation of
Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board
and the support of
the MEDIA Programme of the European Union
© 2010 Crossing the Line Productions LTD
JULIE SCHAPIRO THORMAN
HD ONLINE EDITOR
EXECUTIVE IN CHARGE
A production of Crossing the Line Productions and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG
This program was produced by THIRTEEN, which is solely responsible for its content.
© 2011 WNET.ORG Properties LL
All rights reserved
DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL STRATEGY
DANIEL B. GREENBERG
"Tigers at the Tipping Point" | <urn:uuid:7508a268-84be-4faa-a951-49481711e7b2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/broken-tail-a-tigers-last-journey-introduction/6351/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280310.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00184-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.79904 | 722 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The objective of the Livestock Market Efficiency Fund is to improve incomes to livestock producers in the Northern Communal Areas (NCAs) and to ensure the continued growth of the livestock sector. It is expected that this objective will be achieved through improving livestock marketing, eliminating barriers to existing and new markets and improving the marketability of livestock for broad application to the livestock industry in the NCAs in order to ensure the competitiveness and sustainability of the livestock sector.
Given the lack of disease-free status in the NCAs and limited market access, farmers are restricted in the formal marketing of animals. Combined with the open access grazing systems, poor market incentives lead to overstocking of rangelands and degradation of the resource base, and consequently to poor livestock nutrition and productivity. The estimated average off-take rate in the NCAs is only 7%, compared to 25% in the regions south of the Veterinary Cordon Fence.
The Livestock Market Efficiency Fundshould therefore impact on the livestock-producing communities in the NCAs through demand-driven Actions that will improve the incomes of livestock producers. This will enable the livestock producers to overcome the constraints of a lack of flexibility and efficient market outlets, and a poorly-functioning communal land tenure system.
The LMEF has awarded seven (7) Grants through two (2) Grant rounds.
The funds of the LMEF have now been fully committed and no further Calls for Proposals will be made.
The following links provide summaries on the awarded Grants.
Development of strategies, road map, plan of action and preparation of supporting documents to declare the Northern Communal Areas (NCA) free of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) | <urn:uuid:f902f160-26dc-4f48-9ed1-a41e8bca1945> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.mcanamibia.org/proj_activities.php?type=SubActivity&id=53&subactivityname=Sub-Activity%203:%20Livestock%20Market%20Efficiency%20Fund | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280718.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00402-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913703 | 361 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Germ of this book
This book started with a Hack the curriculum event on Saturday 18th April 2015, where volunteers met to start creating this book. It will need lots more help and work before it's ready for general use. Please see the Editing Guide to help and to contribute. Additional information is available at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oLIcZQxrD5kp0OydoTazezWB23kM2_Io_Un4dwHBZEo/edit#slide=id.g98d651b03_0_142
Introduction to this book
The Royal Society identified three distinct strands that make up Computing, each of which is complementary to the others: computer science (CS), information technology (IT) and digital literacy (DL). Each component is essential in preparing pupils to thrive in an increasingly digital world.
[Diagram here of what computing is]
Information technology (IT) is concerned with how computers and telecommunications equipment work, and how they may be applied to the storage, retrieval, transmission and manipulation of data.
Digital literacy is the ability to effectively, responsibly, safely and critically navigate, evaluate and create digital artefacts using a range of digital technologies.
Computer science is the scientific and practical study of computation: it is the study of what can be computed, what computers are and how they work, and how to develop applications to solve problems. Computer science is different from ICT which is about how to use digital tools and sources of data to process and communicate information.
This book is aimed at students in Key Stage 3 but might also be useful to students of other ages. Key Stage 3 is normally students between the ages of 11 and 14 in British schools.
Table of Contents
- What is Computing
- How a computer works
- Operating Systems
- Data representation
- Applications - Making Computing Matter To People
- Computational Thinking
- Role Models
|6.1||Use computational abstractions||Undertake creative projects with challenging goals||Understand a range of ways to use technology respectfully|
|6.2||Model state of real world problems||Use multiple applications||Recognise inappropriate content|
|6.3||Use a programming language to solve computational problems||[Work with] applications across a range of devices||Recognise inappropriate contact|
|6.4||Understand simple Boolean logic||Collect data||Recognise inappropriate conduct|
|6.5||Understand how numbers can be represented in binary||Know how to report concerns|
|6.6||Understand the hardware components that make up computer systems||Reuse digital artefacts for a given audience|
|6.7||Understand how text can be represented digitally in the form of binary digits||Attend to usability of digital artefacts|
|6.8||Understand how pictures can be
represented digitally in the form of binary digits
|Understand a range of ways to use technology safely|
Note for Teachers
This textbook is designed to accompany the teaching of the Computing Key Stage 3 programme of study, following the 2014 curriculum changes. | <urn:uuid:a51ae7a2-a25d-4af1-9d6c-ebb7f52b59a3> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/KS3_Computing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280410.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00449-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.860155 | 652 | 3.625 | 4 |
Economics, Politics, and Psychology: The Case of Avian Flu--Posner
There is concern about the possibility of a flu pandemic that would be as or more lethal than the 1918-1919 Spanish flu pandemic, which may have killed as many as 50 million people worldwide; 500,000 died in the United States. A strain of avian flu first detected in 1997 has infected some 150 million birds, including chickens, ducks, and geese, mainly but not only in eastern Asia. More than 100 human beings have been infected, of whom about half have died. The victims were infected by contact with diseased birds rather than by contact with infected humans. As long as the only transmission is from birds to humans rather than from humans to humans, there will be no human pandemic. But the flu virus is notoriously mutable; if the current strain of avian flu mutated into a form that made it transmissible from one infected person to another, it might spread rapidly through the human population. Stocks of vaccine for immunizing people from the avian-flu strain, and of drugs (mainly Tamiflu) for treating already infected people, appear are inadequate. The Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer Roche, the only producer of Tamiflu, has been reluctant to license its production to other manufacturers.
The probability of a pandemic is unknown, but probably significant because of the vast number of infected birds and the increasing number of infected human beings, in whom the virus might mutate into a form in which it was transmissible to other human beings. Flu pandemics have been frequent. There were two in the twentieth century besides the Spanish flu pandemic. They occurred in 1957-1958 and 1968-1969, and each killed more than a million people worldwide. All three twentieth-century pandemics involved strains of avian flu. There was also the swine-flu pandemic scare in 1976; the failure of a pandemic to materialize has engendered some skepticism concerning the likelihood of an avian flu pandemic. One of the most foolish forms of commentary on issues of public safety is to note the number of false alarms and infer from that number--entirely illegitimately--that there is nothing to fear.
The world in general and the United States in particular are unprepared for a flu pandemic. Although the current strain of avian flu was discovered eight years ago, vaccine development and production are just beginning, along with stockpiling of Tamiflu. Apparently there is at present only enough vaccine for 1 percent of the U.S. population. Roche has only a limited capacity for producing Tamiflu and, as mentioned, is reluctant to license other pharmaceutical firms to produce the vaccine. The President recently announced a $7.1 billion program for improving the nation's defenses against flu pandemics, but it will take years for the program to yield substantial protection.
So we are seeing basically a repetition of the planning failures that resulted in the Hurricane Katrina debacle. The history of flu pandemics should have indicated the necessity for measures to assure an adequate response to any new pandemic, but until an unprecedented number of birds had been infected and human beings were dying from the disease, very little was done.
The causes are the familiar ones. People, including policymakers, have grave difficulty taking measures to respond to risks of small or unknown probability. This is partly because there are so many such risks that it is difficult to assess them all, and the lack of solid probability estimates makes prioritizing the risks inescapably arbitrary, and it is partly because politicians have truncated horizons that lead them to focus on immediate threats to the neglect of more remote ones that may be more serious. ("Remote" in the sense that, if the annual probability of some untoward event is low, the event, though it could occur at any time, would be unlikely to occur before most current senior officials leave office.) But by the time a threat becomes immediate, it may be too late to take effective response measures.
There is also a psychological or cognitive impediment--an "imagination cost"--to thinking seriously about risks with which there is little recent experience. Wishful thinking plays a role too. There is the inverse Chicken Little problem: the illogical reaction that because the swine-flu pandemic never materialized, no flu pandemic will ever materialize. Another example of wishful thinking is the argument that most people afflicted by the Spanish flu in the 1918-1919 pandemic died not of flu, but of bacterial diseases such as pneumonia that the flu made them more vulnerable to. But, first, is is far from clear that "most" died of such diseases, and, second, the current strain of avian flu appears to be more lethal than the Spanish flu. Only about 1 percent of Spanish flu victims died, whereas 50 percent of known human victims of the current avian flu have died. That percentage is probably an overestimate because many of the milder cases may not have been reported or may have been misdiagnosed; but it is unlikely that the true fatality rate is only one-fiftieth of the current reported rate. It is estimated that even a "medium-level" flu pandemic could cause up to 200,000 U.S. deaths and a purely economic impact (that is, ignoring the nonpecuniary cost of death and illness) of more than $150 billion.
A specific problem with respect to preventing flu pandemics is the difficult economics of flu vaccines. Because of the frequent mutations of the virus, a vaccine may be effective for only one season, in which event the manufacturer must recover his entire investment in the vaccine in just a few months. The expected cost of the vaccine to the manufacturer is increased by his legal liability (a form of products liability) for injuries due to the side effects of the vaccine. If a large population is vaccinated, a percentage of the population, amounting to a very large number of people, will in the normal course experience illness in the months following the vaccination. Many of them will be tempted to sue, and uncertainty about the causation of an illness may enable a number of persons to recover damages who would have become ill anyway. This problem can be solved in a variety of ways: by requiring proof of negligence rather than imposing strict liability for side effects of vaccination; by increasing the burden of proving causation in vaccination suits; or by the governmen's undertaking to indemnify the producers for damages attributed to the vaccine. Even if such steps were taken, there would be a strong case for the government’s financing vaccine development and procuring large quantities of vaccines for distribution as needed.
Measures along these lines are now being taken; and the government’s agreeing to indemnify manufacturers for damages resulting from vaccine side effects would be a natural evolution from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, created in 1986, which provides relatively modest "no fault" compensation for injuries caused by vaccination but does not preclude lawsuits against the manufacturers of the vaccine. However, measures not begun until the threat of a pandemic is imminent may be too little, too late.
A difficult question is compulsory licensing of patented or other proprietary flu vaccines. On the one hand, compulsory licensing would speed the production of vaccine; on the other hand, it would reduce the incentive of firms to develop new vaccines in the first place. The answer may be to combine compulsory licensing with generous research subsidies.
Hurricane Katrina and now the danger of an avian flu pandemic--one an actual, the other a potential, catastrophe for which the nation failed or is failing to prepare adequately--underscore the need for institutional reforms that will overcome policy myopia based on inability to plan seriously for responding to catastrophes of slight or unknown probability but huge potential harm. | <urn:uuid:8fb381ec-7b17-4a67-9244-eb76f67387f1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2005/11/economics-politics-and-psychology-the-case-of-avian-flu--posner.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280730.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00245-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969478 | 1,594 | 2.984375 | 3 |
RESISTANCE; STAYING UNDETECTABLE
Research on Drug Resistance?
Were there any new recommendations offered by researchers at last month's big HIV/AIDS conference on how to address drug resistance?
Should triple-NRTI regimens be avoided?
Blips, Resistance and When to Switch
After two and a half years with an undetectable viral load,
I had a blip last fall, and my doctor did a resistance test. To
our surprise, it turns out I am slightly resistant to efavirenz
(Sustiva, Stocrin). My doctor wants me to switch to another drug,
but another doctor I consulted for a second opinion says I should
stick with efavirenz. What's your opinion?
of an Undetectable Viral Load
I've been on a combination of abacavir (Ziagen), d4T (stavudine,
Zerit), ddI (didanosine, Videx) and ritonavir (Norvir) for over
two years and my viral load has never been undetectable -- it zigzags
between about 540 and 1,300. Would you recommend a change of therapy
in order to achieve the magical "undetectable"?
Consequences of Missed Doses
My wife lives in a small village in northern Thailand. Last
week she had a problem getting her meds on time. As a result, she missed
them four days in a row. Up until now, she's been 99%
adherent; how significant are these missed doses? Her last viral
load (in December) was undetectable and her last CD4 count was 70.
|• HIV DISCLOSURE
I have heard that healthcare companies are supposed to keep HIV
status confidential. If I transition from one healthcare program to
another without a break in my coverage, will I still be completely
covered? Is there anything I should be wary of as I search for new
HIV Notification and Teachers
During a recent parent/teacher phone conference, a parent notified
me that her child was HIV positive with a CD4 count of 150. She was
surprised to find out that the teachers hadn't been informed. She
particularly wanted me to be aware that her child did not have cytomegalovirus
(CMV), since I am currently pregnant. She was quite open about the
status of her children. Should my administrators have passed on her
disclosure to me? What are the laws governing this issue?
That May Avoid Lipodystrophy
Assuming there is no existing resistance to current meds, what
combination do you recommend for treatment-naive patients who want
to avoid gaining or losing body fat due to lipodystrophy?
Use of Pain Medications
How normal is it for people who have had HIV for a long time to
take a large number of pain medications? I've had HIV since 1984,
and in addition to a multitude of HIV meds I am taking many narcotics for headaches, back pain and other ailments. I don't
like taking them, but my immune system is not strong, so they have
become the only way I can get around every day.
for Severe Lipoatrophy
After almost three years on HAART, my lipoatrophy has gotten so bad I'm
almost skin and bones. Small veins I never knew existed have appeared
in both arms, and it's hard for me to sit on a hard surface for
more than 15 minutes. I've been undetectable for more than two and
a half years now, and my CD4 is at 450. My first HAART regimen was
3TC (lamivudine, Epivir), d4T (stavudine, Zerit) and boosted saquinavir
(Fortovase), but I quickly switched to 3TC, efavirenz (Sustiva) and tenofovir
(Viread) two years ago after developing lipoatrophy. I
feel like I need to either change my meds again or take a holiday
to recover some of my fat. What would you recommend if you were
Rash and Protease Inhibitors
I've tried four different protease inhibitors, but developed
a bad rash while taking each. Can someone ever be desensitized to
ABOUT HIV TREATMENT
Your CD4 Count Won't Budge
I've been on Combivir (AZT + 3TC) and efavirenz (Sustiva) for five years,
with an undetectable viral load for four and a half of them, but my
CD4 count won't rise over 300. I've had only one opportunistic infection
(back when I started treatment) and almost no side effects. I exercise,
take vitamins and almost never get colds. Why isn't my CD4 count higher?
I was diagnosed in 1992, and after several failed treatments began
a seven-drug rescue regimen in July of 2003. My viral load
is now undetectable, my CD4 count has slowly risen from 0 to 61 and I'm 100% adherent,
but I'm suffering from major "treatment fatigue" and ready to
bail. This regimen is seriously compromising my quality of life --
personally and socially -- and I'm on the brink of a mental meltdown.
I need a break, bad!
I'm not trying to be a wise guy by asking this, but what's wrong with
switching meds every six months so you don't become resistant to them
-- kind of like rotating insect poisons for roaches? Also, why would
docs want to use more potent drugs if their side effects will ruin
a person's quality of life? Is quantity of life considered
more important than quality?
Basics: When to Start
What's the current consensus on the best time to start treatment?
Speed of Undetectability
I was diagnosed last November, and was found not to be resistant to
any HIV meds. I'm now in the second month of my first HAART regimen:
3TC (lamivudine, Epivir), efavirenz (Sustiva) and tenofovir (Viread).
My results are great, according to my docs: Although my cholesterol
is rising, I started with a CD4 count of 193 and a viral load of 876,000,
and after just 26 days of treatment, my CD4 count was up to 247 and
my viral load down to 2,270. When do you think I will become undetectable?
HIV Strains and Unprotected Sex
My boyfriend and I know we have the same strain of HIV. How dangerous
do you think it is to have unsafe sex together?
Flash: Condoms Work!
I am in a serious relationship with an HIV-positive partner. We
have had wild sex nonstop for a year and, even though we use a condom
every time, I figured I would have HIV by now. But I got tested and
I am negative! Condoms really seem to do the job. She was with someone
for eight years before me and he is also negative. Before I was tested
I was nervous, but now I am totally at ease knowing that protected
This Little Monkey Tough Enough?
After going several months without sex, I recently found myself
in a movie theater pumping the monkey for a long, long time. Well,
the monkey got pretty raw and red (no bleeding, just sore), and then
along came a guy who went down on it for 15 seconds. Now my mind is
running away with me, thinking this guy might have just done somebody
else and passed HIV on to me through the irritated skin on the
monkey. What would the odds of that be?
Sex, New Worries
I had unprotected oral sex around 17 years ago, and I'm now beginning to experience HIV-like symptoms -- you know, shortness of breath, depression, anxiety, insomnia, thrush, night sweats. Do you think I might have been infected back then and it's just kicking in now?
|ASK DR. LEE ABOUT:
WOMEN & HIV;
Dr. Sharon Lee, an HIV physician
and researcher and the founder of the Kansas City HIV Women's Coalition,
is now available to answer your questions about women, pregnancy
and HIV. Dr. Lee also staffs our forum on switching HIV medications. | <urn:uuid:eaba8818-549b-4336-871a-31b0f29f8316> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.thebody.com/updates/topics_2004-03-01.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281353.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00062-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943147 | 1,798 | 1.515625 | 2 |
To assess the effectiveness of assisted problem-based learning (PBL) compared to a didactic approach in a pharmaceutics course. The comparison was performed among 215 in a 3-year pharmacy program. They were divided into 2 groups, each consisting of about 107 students. The control group was identified as the ‘traditional teaching’ group and studied pharmaceutical chemistry under a didactic model. The experimental group was identified as the ‘PBL teaching’ group and studied similar object under accomplished learning model. At the end of the experiment, there was a questionnaire answered by the students to write their opinions on PBL teaching. The scores of the students in the final examination and the results of the questionnaire were statistically evaluated through SPSS 13.0. PBL students scored significantly higher on the final examinations than the traditional class students. Moreover, the results to the questionnaire show that students are more willing to learn through PBL. Introducing PBL into pharmaceutics improves educational quality and effectiveness. Digital PBL cases stimulate interest in self-learning and motivate students to learn by themselves. | <urn:uuid:8c89db1c-0c13-4106-8d90-acc876f0e444> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.scientific.net/AMR.271-273.1670 | 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 | 0.977092 | 220 | 2.75 | 3 |
Mulligans Irish Music Bar. Amstel 100, 1017AC Amsterdam. +31(0)20 622 1330
A bit of history
Built in the eighteenth century, Mulligans has interesting neighbours. To the right you'll see a gateway with an inscription above it. The inscription, "BEATUS QUI INTELLIGIT SUPER EGENEUM & PAUPEREM; In Die Mala Liberabit Eum Dominus. Psalm xlVI" translates to "Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble" and refers to the man who caused the court yard houses behind the gateway to be built, Isaak Swigters. The artist who made the gate, Pieter Pantel (1702-1747), didn't know his bible too well; the quote is not from Psalm 46, but can be found in Psalm 42...
Swigters, a rich Catholic bookseller, paid 34.000 Guilders (in today's money that would be around € 332.000) in 1744 to build a court for poor Catholic women of good behaviour. The alley behind the gate was then known as Speelmanssteeg, "Troubadour Alley". In the Speelmanssteeg eighteen two-room appartments were built which in total could house 36 women. The day-to-day running of the court was in the hands of the Roman-Catholic Poverty Adminstration, which was named sole heir to Swigters.
In 1746 the court was renovated, and since Swigters owned the house between the Speelmanssteeg and the Balk in 't Oogsteeg "Beam in the Eye Alley" (the alley to the left of Mulligans), he requested a Chapel for the women to be built here. Permission was granted by the Mayors of Amsterdam on 26 March 1751. This Chapel is behind the back wall of Mulligans, and was on the list of official Amsterdam monuments after the 1959 renovation. It is (was) the smallest church in the Netherlands, but is now apparantly taken off of the list of protected buildings, since it is now a private apartment.
To the left of Mulligans (if you're facing the pub) you'll find the two most off-angle houses in Amsterdam; have a look at how they lean against each other when you're here!
Of days gone past
In the Gemeeente Archief (Council Archives) we've found some photo's of what the building looked like in the past. As you can see, not much has changed but the tram tracks in the street. Don't worry, the tram's gone now but you still have to watch out for kamikaze bicycles and cars driving at warp speed. | <urn:uuid:62663b61-a120-4a86-8594-827ae261da80> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.mulligans.nl/history.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00421-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958789 | 582 | 1.851563 | 2 |
In a recent diatribe urging repeal of the federal estate tax, Republican state senator Pam Gorman (R-Anthem) tells a big, black lie. In 2011, she claims, the estate tax will rise to 55 percent. If true, that claim would mean a $55,000 tax on a $100,000 estate.
Here are the facts: for an estate less than $3.5 million, the current tax rate is ZERO! In 2011, according to Bush-era tax legislation, this minimum figure is scheduled to drop to $1 million. Also in 2011, a top of rate 55 percent would start at $3 million.
It is, however, virtually certain that Congress will repeal the decade-old tax legislation establishing the noted reversions. Exempted assets for federal estate tax will probably rise to $4 million, and the 55 percent top rate will apply only to the super wealthy, representing less than one per thousand estates.
An astonishing number of credulous Americans – concentrated among Fox News viewers – believe lies like Sen. Gorman’s. According to one poll, 49 percent believe that the majority of estates pay tax. In fact, only one in 600 pays estate tax.
The Reagan administration perpetrated an even more economically destructive lie – i.e., that tax cuts for the rich always increase federal tax revenue. Recent economic history demolishes this preposterous, but nonetheless relentlessly parroted myth. Of the past 11 former presidents, the two biggest debt creators got the biggest tax cuts for the rich. Reagan increased federal debt (as percentage of GDP) by 61 percent; Bush 43, by 26 percent.
In stark contrast, Clinton cut federal debt by 16 percent, after raising the top tax rate by 26 percent. During his two terms, employment increased 10 times more than under Bush 43; total GDP growth topped Bush’s by 50 percent (33 percent vs. 22 percent). I challenge “conservatives” to deny these incontrovertible facts.
Sen. Gorman’s arguments for abolishing the federal estate tax are as phony as other arguments for coddling the rich. Abolition of the estate tax would add $1 trillion to federal debt over the next decade. Her proposal is redundant evidence of Republican plutocracy: government of the naive masses, by and for the rich.
C.W. Griffin has lived in Ahwatukee Foothills since 1988. He is a retired consulting engineer. | <urn:uuid:bb226aa3-809f-4e6d-8898-716400dc423d> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.ahwatukee.com/news/valley_and_state/article_64d53240-5e20-5d45-b4ba-6e36ff1324dd.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280835.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00052-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935867 | 509 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Introduction Although Alvin Laskin grew plants for a living, no one would ever accuse him of being an environmentalist. Yet Laskin's entrepreneurial efforts managed to create employment for many environmental scientists—and hundreds of lawyers.
In the early 1970s, when Laskin's Ohio nursery business slumped, he found a more lucrative trade: used oil. Laskin bought the oil from factories and sold it for a variety of uses, particularly dust control. Most of Laskin's old oil presumably ended up with his customers, but hundreds of thousands of gallons of the stuff were inadequately stored in corroded tanks and ponds. By the late 1970s, when Ohio officials first investigated the Laskin Poplar storage site, a chemical sludge containing lead, dioxin, and PCBs had leached into the soil and threatened the groundwater.1 An extensive cleanup was required, eventually costing about $32 million.2
The Environmental Protection Agency, which administered the cleanup, would have been happy to bill Mr. Laskin, but he was "judgment proof"—too poor to make it worth going after him. So instead the EPA sued seven of Mr. Laskin's largest customers, big corporations who had either bought or sold the waste oil.
That was just the beginning. The seven corporations decided to sue Laskin's other customers, eventually more than six hundred, to help pay for the bills. The federal government became involved in these lawsuits as a third party. Then the big companies sued each other. Later some of the companies sued their insurers. At one point the disputants literally ran out of lawyers in the Cleveland area to handle all these suits and countersuits.3
It took five years for the first group of defendants to settle, and four more years for most of the rest.4 In 2001, seventeen years after the first lawsuit, lawyers were still battling over who would pay for Alvin Laskin's environmental sins.5
Litigious People/Litigious Policies Stories like this, about litigation seemingly run amok, are common in American popular culture. Anyone who regularly reads a newspaper or watches television has heard, for example, the story of Stella Liebeck, the woman who sued McDonald's after she burned herself with its coffee.6 Through the media we encounter despondent New Yorkers who jump in front of subways and sue for their injuries, students who sue their professors for bad teaching, parents who sue because their toddlers came to blows on a playground, golfers who sue after being hit by errant tee shots, nonprofit agencies that sue to collect from wavering donors, snackers who sue when their overcooked Pop-Tarts catch fire, prisoners who sue to get chunky peanut butter instead of the smooth kind, game show contestants who sue over a disputed question, and overweight people who sue movie theaters because their chairs aren't sufficiently spacious.7 There are also "urban legends" that radiate out from the media with ever more outrageous (and almost entirely fanciful) claims, of handymen who sue after their ladders slip on cow manure, restaurant customers who collect thousands of dollars after eating "Kentucky Fried Rat," and psychics who assert that CAT scans withered their powers and receive hundreds of thousands for their troubles.8
These are not simply amusing vignettes. Although they appear in the media as unconnected anecdotes, a serious theme underlies these stories. They are parables about a fundamental breakdown in American society. The prerequisites for peaceful community life, the stories suggest, have evaporated. Greed, individualism, and contentiousness are winning out over, as one book puts it, "common sense."9 This theme is so readily accepted that such stories resonate even when demonstrably false. Meanwhile, careful academic research that debunks the notion of a "litigation explosion" in the United States fails to make much of an impression.10 Nearly everyone, a few lawyers and legal academics to the contrary, seems to believe that litigation is out of control.
Explanations for litigiousness are eagerly pronounced. Many blame greedy lawyers, always an easy target.11 Others point to changes in American culture with its growing emphasis on individual rights and neglect of the common good. Americans, it is said, have become whiny victims who sue at the first opportunity.12 These explanations share a common feature: they focus on the individual's decision to sue. From this perspective the problem is that Americans have chosen to litigate rather than tolerate their discomforts or settle their disputes amicably. The communal spirit and stoic temper that once kept Americans out of court have withered. Americans, this perspective suggests, have become a litigious people.
It seems a persuasive view. Yet though the anecdotes that punctuate this narrative of cultural decline are vivid, the evidence to support it is surprisingly scarce. Research typically shows Americans rarely take their disputes to court. Of every one hundred Americans injured in an accident, only ten make a liability claim, and only two file a lawsuit.13 Of every one hundred Americans who believe they have lost more than $1,000 because of someone else's illegal conduct, only five file a suit.14 When medical malpractice results in serious injury, only one of eight victims makes a claim.15 Far from a nation of litigators, the United States seems to be filled with "lumpers," people inclined to lump their grievances rather than press them. Further, claims of a "litigation explosion" are overblown; indeed some studies suggest that those supposedly stoic pioneers of frontier America were far more inclined to sue than their allegedly litigation-loving descendants.16 Nor do Americans today seem much more litigious than citizens of other nations, though comparisons are difficult and the data skimpy. Some researchers even believe that Americans are no more innately lawsuit prone than the Japanese, the supposed saints of nonlitigiousness.17
If all this is true, one might ask, why is there so much complaining about litigation in American life? How can the image of sue-crazy Americans creating a litigation explosion be so far removed from the reality?
Part of the answer is that there is a dedicated corps of image-makers, business interests that have conjured a litigation "crisis" for their own political ends. As several researchers have shown, these interests have mounted a self-serving attack on one form of litigation, personal injury lawsuits, that has succeeded in convincing Americans of their society's descent into the wickedness of litigiousness.18
But this, I believe, is only part of the story. Complaints about the place of litigation in American life are not, in fact, merely the artifact of the conjurers' skills, the residue of a cultural con job. For while there is little evidence that Americans are more sue happy than citizens of other nations or that there has been an "explosion" in personal injury lawsuits, litigation clearly does have a distinctively important role in American life. As sensational and unrepresentative as the litigation horror stories are, they do reveal one important truth: the range of matters that can be litigated in the United States is broader than in other nations and growing each year. Forms of litigation that are unknown elsewhere have in the United States become significant avenues for political controversy and even social change. Although the aforementioned prisoners who sued for chunky peanut butter rather than the smooth kind were undoubtedly laughed out of court, the important fact that remains is that it is imaginable in the United States for a prisoner to bring such a lawsuit. Indeed, prisoners with far more serious claims have been able, with the help of sympathetic federal judges, to reshape many aspects of the penal system in the United States.19 Prisons, schools, playgrounds, game shows, even churches: there are few "litigation-free" zones in twenty-first-century American life, domains in which no lawsuit can be brought. And on this point it's clear that the United States is different. From coal mines to high schools, administrative decision making to workplace regulation, comparative research has shown that the United States relies more than any other nation on lawyers, rights, and courts to address social issues.20 Although there are exceptions to this generalization and though courts and litigation are a growing part of public policy in many nations, the American pattern still stands out.21
In castigating Americans for being too individualistic and sue crazy, commentators have themselves committed the sin of methodological individualism: focusing on individual behavior while downplaying the significance of social structures.22 The evidence that individual Americans have a greater lust for litigation than their counterparts in Japan is murky at best. The evidence that the United States, as compared to Japan, has adopted policies that encourage litigation is overwhelming.23 I take no position in the ongoing debate over the proclivities of individuals, whether in Japan or the United States, in the eighteenth century or the twenty-first. It is the comparison of institutional arrangements that arouses my interest. My focus, then, is on the litigiousness of American laws rather than on the purported litigiousness of the American people.
This book examines the causes of America's uniquely litigious public policy style. Litigious policies are laws that promote the use of litigation in resolving disputes and implementing public policies by (1) creating rights to sue, (2) lowering barriers to litigation, or (3) increasing the rewards of litigation.24 These policies produce an environment in which lawyers and legal concepts structure everyday practices and where the threat of a lawsuit always looms—even when, as is usually the case, no lawsuit is filed.
Without litigious policies there could be no anecdotes about the purported litigiousness of the American people. The parties in the Laskin Poplar oil-dumping case, for example, would have been powerless to sue if not for the "Superfund" law, which was devised by Congress in 1980. The Superfund law commits the federal government to fund a large share of the cost of toxic dump cleanups through litigation against polluters. In addition, Superfund allows the government to hold any individual or business implicated in the waste site liable for the entire cost of cleanup, whether or not the individual followed state and federal dumping laws and no matter when the waste was dumped. The law also allows "partly responsible parties" to sue each other so as to spread costs around. Thus Superfund created the legal structure that allowed the explosion of litigation in the Laskin case.
This structure did not, of course, ensure litigation. The parties could have worked out their differences without suing, as has been done in many Superfund cleanups.25 Yet the net effect of Superfund has been to make Superfund disputes a matter for lawyers and legal doctrine as well as engineers and engineering practices.
In toxic waste as in many policy realms, the American approach is distinctively litigious. Every industrialized nation has a problem with toxic dumps, but no other nation uses such a court-oriented solution. Some European nations hold polluters liable for cleanup only if their waste disposal methods were illegal when they did the dumping.26 Others promote the principle of "polluter pays" in all cases but grant the government only a limited power to enforce the principle.27 By contrast, the American approach, which grants the federal government powerful litigation rights and encourages "partly responsible parties" to sue each other, makes litigation a central aspect of disputes over toxic waste dumps.
But Superfund, like many litigious policies, is under attack. Researchers have long criticized Superfund for its litigiousness, and in recent years a plethora of groups have mobilized to reform or repeal it.28 In 1994 the Clinton administration created a Superfund reform plan aimed at reducing litigation in the program and assembled a grand coalition of manufacturers, insurers, and environmentalists in support of the plan. The administration's bill was beaten, however, by Republicans and business groups who wanted more radical change. Since then Congress and both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations have continued to wrestle over how best to fix the Superfund liability scheme.29
The battle over the Superfund program is only one small part of what has become a widespread debate over litigious policies in the United States. In recent years business groups, journalists, academics, and politicians have attacked what they see as an excess of litigation in American life. George W. Bush in his 2000 campaign promised to be "a president who's tough enough to take on the trial bar" and, like Republican presidential candidates before him, including his father, criticized Democrats for cozying up to trial lawyers instead.30 Books like The Litigation Explosion and The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America have in recent years found a popular audience.31 Advertising by business groups suggests that excessive litigiousness is limiting access to doctors and closing down parks and playgrounds.32 The media dramatize the negative effects of litigation with an array of lawsuit horror stories and overwrought pronouncements.33 In television sitcoms such as Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and Ally McBeal overzealous lawyers and greedy litigants are portrayed pursuing outrageous claims. Meanwhile in academia, second thoughts about the use of litigation to promote social justice proliferate. Litigation is criticized as ineffective,34 costly,35 and divisive.36 Even among jurists there is "failing faith" in adjudication and greater attention to encouraging settlement and alternative means of resolving disputes.37
Antilitigation sentiment has rolled through the nation's legislatures, resulting in a profusion of bills designed to limit lawsuits. The movement for "tort reform," heavily funded by business groups and debated in every legislature in America, is the most prominent example. But tort reform is just part of the struggle. In areas as diverse as the environment, civil rights, crime, welfare, and family policy, litigiousness has become part of the political debate, and one group or another has pledged to reduce or limit it.
Antilitigation reformers, however, confront powerful forces in American culture and politics. It would seem that no crusade would be more popular, but in fact antilitigation campaigns have often met with strong resistance, and their record is decidedly mixed. Despite the exertions of a cavalcade of researchers, journalists, public relations specialists, and lobbyists—and despite the millions of dollars spent in their quest—most litigious policies remain in place. Moreover, for every successful effort to limit litigation, several new species of lawsuits seem to pop up nearly every day, some brought into the world by the very politicians who campaign against litigiousness.
If lawyers, litigants, and lawsuits are so regularly vilified in American culture and politics, why are litigious policies difficult to dislodge? Commentators often point to the machinations of politically powerful lawyers and to the seemingly inbred inclination of Americans to see social issues in terms of rights. There is some truth to both these answers, and later chapters explore them in some detail. But both fall well short of a full explanation.
The roots of America's litigious public policy style, I contend, lie much deeper. Building on the work of Robert Kagan,38 I locate these roots in fundamental features of the American constitutional tradition. This tradition, Kagan points out, combines a profound distrust of centralized governmental power with a set of structures—federalism, separation of powers, an independent judiciary—designed to tame that power. In this book I demonstrate how those structures induce litigious policy making and how they help resist antilitigation reforms. The constitutional tradition, I argue, creates powerful incentives for activists—those who favor governmental action on social problems—to implement their schemes through courts. Thus it takes powerful forces to reform litigious policies.
Litigious policies appeal to activists for two basic reasons. First, courts offer activists a way to address social problems without seeming to augment the power of the state. Litigious policies nicely match the preferences of Americans, who want action on social issues yet are ambivalent about the typical tools of the state—bureaucratic regulation and welfare programs. Courts and individual rights provide a promising alternative.
Second, litigious policies offer a means of overcoming the barriers to activist government posed by the structures of the Constitution. The Constitution's dispersion of power, to states and localities on one hand and to the branches of national government on the other, makes it difficult for activists to control the implementation of their schemes and easy for enemies to derail them. Courts offer a way around these problems. Courts can, for example, enforce national mandates against recalcitrant localities, thus mitigating the impact of federalism. Within the national government, courts can protect policies from "capture," a danger that separation of powers exacerbates. Through litigious policies, activists seek to surmount the fragmented, decentralized structure of American government, which (as its creators intended and James Madison famously boasted) makes activist government difficult. Attempts to limit litigation, then, run up against powerful motivations, rooted in the basic structure of the framers' handiwork. Thus those who despair at the prominence of litigation in American life would be well advised to stop blaming the Stella Liebecks of the world and focus instead on Mr. Madison and his compatriots. Their influence looms over the politics of litigation.
The Expansion of Litigious Policies In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French observer of American society, famously declared after traveling through the United States in the early 1830s that "there is hardly a political question in the United States that does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one."39 Tocqueville's statement contained an essential truth about American politics, particularly true in his day, when the absence of a strong national administration left courts as the primary regulators of the economy.40 Yet Tocqueville's observation was made in an age when the scope of American government—and thus of "political questions"—was relatively limited.
That is no longer the case. In the twentieth century, American government took on more and more of society's problems and conflicts. The growth of the federal government, punctuated by the New Deal, World War II, and the Great Society, is a well-known story. Less attention has been paid to a parallel growth in the responsibilities of courts, an expansion that has made Tocqueville's proclamation even more accurate today than when he wrote it. Beginning after World War II and accelerating in the 1960s and 1970s, courts and legislatures created new avenues of litigation across many realms of law and politics.
One of the first arenas in which this trend developed was tort law, the law of personal injury. In the first half of the twentieth century, tort law severely limited the ability of potential plaintiffs to be compensated for their injuries. Beginning in the 1940s a new emphasis on compensation and loss spreading developed. In 1952 the California Supreme Court for the first time allowed plaintiffs to recover for "intentional infliction of emotional distress," and over the next two decades the Court abolished the doctrines of charitable, familial, and governmental immunity.41
Those were just the first steps in a series of major changes in tort law. California Supreme Court judge Roger Traynor had urged in a famous 1944 case that manufacturers of products be strictly liable for injuries arising from the use of defective products. Plaintiffs, he argued, should not have to show that the manufacturer was negligent to collect damages. That suggestion was finally adopted in the 1960s in California, and it soon spread throughout the nation. One result of this change surfaced in 1968, when a federal court ruled that auto manufacturers were liable for injuries sustained in cars that inadequately protected passengers in a crash. Design defect cases have since become an important area of product liability law.
In the 1970s, in perhaps the biggest change of all, the California Supreme Court eliminated the contributory negligence rule, which had barred any recovery for plaintiffs partly responsible for their injuries. Instead the court substituted the "comparative negligence rule," instructing juries to reduce awards by the percentage that plaintiffs contributed to their injuries through their own negligence. Legislatures and courts in other states followed California's example. Meanwhile courts made it much easier for plaintiffs to sue in medical malpractice cases, eliminating defenses, creating new causes of action, and extending the statute of limitations. Changes in procedural rules made it easier to bring "mass torts" and class action lawsuits for injuries either proven or alleged to be caused by asbestos, Agent Orange, breast implants, diet pills, genetically modified foods, HMOs, even the Holocaust—as well as such lesser evils as defects in the Pentium computer chip.42 Enterprising plaintiff lawyers developed new theories of damages, and awards for "pain and suffering," loss of a family member, and punitive damages ballooned. As a result both the opportunities for and potential rewards of tort litigation have greatly increased.
A second source of litigation growth was the civil rights movement and the proliferation of antidiscrimination statutes that followed. Out of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, grew the notion that law could be used to transform society and achieve social justice. One of the crowning achievements of the civil rights movement, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, gave minorities the right to sue discriminating employers. That model—of giving victims of discrimination the right to bring lawsuits—has since been expanded to cover women, the aged, gays and lesbians, religious minorities, and people with disabilities and has inspired a panoply of civil rights laws at the national, state, and local levels. Alongside these statutory antidiscrimination rights, the Supreme Court expanded the bases for claims under the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause to include discrimination on the basis of sex and other attributes. Both constitutional and statutory antidiscrimination law has grown to govern more and more domains, from education and employment to law enforcement and public accommodations. With the Supreme Court's 1964 Baker v. Carr decision, holding that unequally sized voting districts could be challenged under the Constitution, and with Congress's passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, many aspects of the U.S. electoral system have also become subject to litigation.
As the range of civil rights laws has grown, so have the damages available to plaintiffs. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 allowed successful plaintiffs to claim only back pay, reinstatement in their jobs, and attorney's fees, courts and legislatures have in many instances also granted punitive and pain-and-suffering damages, enlarging the potential rewards of litigation. The 1991 Civil Rights Act, for example, gave women, minorities, and disabled people the right to collect up to $300,000 in punitive and pain-and-suffering awards. Thus the potential rewards of civil rights litigation have continued to grow.
Civil rights law was one of many areas of constitutional litigation enlivened by the jurisprudence of the Earl Warren-led Supreme Court in the years 1953 to 1969. The Warren Court's emphasis on protecting the rights of minorities vastly increased the reach of First Amendment protections of religion, speech, press, and assembly.43 A new right of privacy was articulated by the Warren Court in 1965 and applied in 1973 by the Burger Court to abortion, one of the most controversial issues in American politics. Each of these expansions in constitutional law has created a new stream of litigation.
In terms of sheer volume, however, the Warren Court's criminal law cases have probably had the greatest impact. The Gideon v. Wainwright decision, for example, helped transform criminal law by giving every defendant, at least in theory, the ability to fully litigate his or her case. The Warren Court's expansion of habeas corpus rights similarly increased the ability of defendants to challenge the practices of police and of state courts through appeal to federal courts. Thus constitutional law became the means by which the abuses of local officials were regulated. The Court's rulings on the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments created new standards of criminal procedure—and new opportunities to challenge conduct that did not live up to these standards. Death penalty litigation, for example, has become lengthy and complex due largely to the Warren Court's rulings and later decisions on the Eighth Amendment's protection against "cruel and unusual punishment." Thus in criminal law the Supreme Court has produced a host of litigious policies.
Moving beyond the criminal justice system, courts became deeply involved in managing the conduct of a wide range of public officials. Beginning in the 1960s, schools, prisons, and mental hospitals all fell under the supervision of courts when they were found to exhibit constitutional defects. The "due process revolution" commenced with the 1970 case of Goldberg v. Kelly,44 which required hearings for those faced with the loss of welfare payments. In the wake of Goldberg, courts required hearings for loss of drivers' licenses, government employment, and tenancy in low-income housing projects and gave procedural protections to the mentally ill, students, parolees, and prisoners. Although these procedural rights did not always involve litigation, they created quasi-adjudicative forums in which lawyers and legal doctrine could influence governmental institutions. Moreover, defects in whatever process was employed could be challenged in court.
In the late 1960s, courts also increased their scrutiny of administrative agency decision making. They relaxed traditional limitations on lawsuits to allow various plaintiffs—frequently public interest groups—to challenge agency actions. Often the outcome of this litigation was an order to agencies to implement or enforce regulations or to explain why they had not done so.45 Fearing that agencies were not consulting a sufficiently broad range of voices in their deliberations, courts required agencies to allow public interest groups to participate in decision making and to have their concerns addressed. Under the doctrine of the "hard look," courts scrutinized the actions of agencies to see whether they accorded with statutory guidelines, often in a way that slid over into second-guessing the substance of agency decisions.46
Litigants were not only allowed to challenge the decisions of agencies but also given the right to bypass those agencies by enforcing regulatory statutes themselves as "private attorneys general." The flurry of regulatory statutes passed in the early 1970s, like the civil rights statutes of the 1960s, often granted potential litigants one or both rights.47 The ability of private litigants to enforce statutes by themselves was certainly nothing new: in the United States and elsewhere it has historically been a mode of criminal enforcement. But these regulatory statutes, governing clean air and water, consumer credit, and product safety, reinvigorated private law enforcement in realms that had been considered the province of the state.
How to pay for all this litigation? The Legal Services Corporation, created in 1965, became one source, though most of its resources were devoted to helping poor people in everyday disputes with landlords, businesses, and estranged spouses. In the 1960s, courts began awarding attorney's fees to be paid by defendants to prevailing plaintiffs in public interest cases. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1975 that it would not award fees without specific statutory authorization, Congress responded with a host of statutes doing just that. The most prominent of these statutes, the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Award Act of 1976, created presumption in favor of awards from defendants to prevailing plaintiff attorneys and a presumption against awards from losing plaintiffs to prevailing defendants.48 By 1983 a review by the Supreme Court found 150 such federal fee-shifting provisions.49 The availability of these fees for plaintiffs stimulated heavy growth in public interest law firms and lowered the barriers to bringing lawsuits.50
Not content to sit by while private attorneys brought lawsuits on prominent social issues, public officials in the late 1990s got into the practice, as well. Thus grew yet another form of litigious policy making—lawsuits brought by government agencies themselves against producers of troublesome products. Lawsuits against the makers of cigarettes, guns, and lead paint were brought by states and the federal government, often in the absence of regulatory or legislative action. The threat of a federal lawsuit, for example, convinced Smith and Wesson to change the way it makes and sells handguns—changes Congress was unwilling to legislate. Government-led lawsuits are often brought by a partnership between public and private attorneys, with the possibility of enormous gains for both sides, an arrangement that has been heavily criticized.51
As if to spotlight the growth of litigious policies in the twentieth century, the two most dramatic moments in American politics at the turn of the century each took the form of litigation. First was Bill Clinton's impeachment trial, made possible by the development of sexual harassment law. Clinton's lies about Monica Lewinsky rose to the level of "high crimes and misdemeanors" in some (mostly Republican) eyes because they occurred during a legal proceeding, a deposition in a harassment lawsuit brought by Paula Jones. The impeachment struggle that ensued was largely a debate over the weight of the obligation to honor even those legal processes one considers illegitimate. The next great presidential political-legal battle was the fight between Al Gore and George W. Bush over the 2000 election. Bush commenced the barrage of lawsuits by arguing in federal court that a hand recount would violate the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection rights of voters—a novel argument that demonstrated once again that Republicans, like Democrats, are skilled at creating new species of legal claims when the need arises.52 That didn't stop conservative commentators from excoriating Gore's own legal strategy as excessively litigious or berating the Florida Supreme Court, Gore's greatest ally, as an "Imperial Judiciary."53 In the end, Bush's equal protection argument won the day, and for the first time in American history, a Supreme Court decision concluded the presidential election.
The Clinton impeachment and the 2000 election struggle served only to underline a basic fact of American life that stretches far beyond presidential politics: across many areas of law and public policy, both the opportunities for and rewards of litigation have vastly increased. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Americans increasingly turned to litigation as a means of resolving troubling social issues. In other words, Tocqueville was, as usual, ahead of his time.
The Constitutional Theory Why have Americans turned to litigation to solve social problems? Why, despite all the jeremiads against litigiousness that ring through the nation, has it been so hard to get them to turn away? The argument of this book is that the ultimate answer lies not with the usual suspects—rapacious lawyers and their rights-conscious clientele—but with fundamental features of the American constitutional tradition, which create incentives for activists to favor litigious policies.
Robert Kagan has highlighted the importance of the decentralization of American government in accounting for the distinctive role of litigation in American public policy.54 He points to a fateful combination in contemporary American politics: a polity that demands governmental activism on social problems has been joined to an inherited governmental structure whose hallmark is division of authority. The framers of the Constitution, fearful of governmental tyranny, created a highly permeable, decentralized state structure. The object was to make it hard for the national government to do much of anything. In this object, the framer's design eventually failed: it did not forestall a massive expansion of the national government. Yet the design has had an effect on the forms that the expansion has taken. In particular, it has channeled many demands for action on social problems toward courts.
Kagan's research, with its linkage between the constitutional tradition and the shape of American public policy, is the basis for what I will call the Constitutional Theory of litigious policy making. The theory is constitutional in two senses. First, it focuses on the importance of three structures embedded in the U.S. Constitution—federalism, separation of powers, and judicial independence. These structures are a set of rules that shape the incentives of political actors. In particular, the rules lead those who seek action on social problems to favor litigious policies, since court-based implementation is a means of overcoming barriers to activist government created by the Constitution.
But the Constitution is not merely a set of rules that political actors strategically manipulate. It is, as its name implies, constitutive.55 The Constitution shapes the way Americans view politics and government, even the way they see their own political interests. And this suggests the second sense in which the theory is constitutional: it emphasizes the significance of the distrust of centralized governmental power that is at the core of the American constitutional tradition. American activists support court-based schemes in part because of their ambivalent attitudes toward the welfare-regulatory state, attitudes that are strongly reinforced by the structures in the Constitution.
The constitutional tradition creates three specific incentives for activists to support litigious policies. Through litigious policies, activists can (1) insulate implementation of policy from political enemies (the insulation incentive); (2) do good things for constituents without spending governmental dollars (the cost-shifting incentive), and (3) gain power over the actions of states and localities (the control incentive). These three incentives—insulation, cost-shifting, and control—explain the prominence of litigious policies in American politics and the difficulty of dislodging those policies.
The Insulation Incentive American activists support litigious policies in part because they provide a means of implementing public policy that is relatively insulated from political enemies.56 Implementation is, of course, a vital step in the policy process: for activists, a policy that is never implemented, or implemented in ways they abhor, can be worse than no law at all. But implementation is a particularly problematic enterprise in a system of separated powers, such as that of the United States. Federal bureaucracies assigned to implement policies in a separated system serve a thousand masters—the president, members of Congress, interest groups, and the public. Each of these masters can seek to derail implementation of a policy. The public policy literature is rife with tales of regulatory agencies "captured" by the regulated, resulting in lax enforcement of rules. Courts, because of their relative independence from the rest of the political system and because of their decentralized structure, can provide a seemingly safer route for implementation. Lodging enforcement of antidiscrimination rules solely in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission puts the future of civil rights law in the hands of whoever gains control over the commission. Allowing individuals to sue for discrimination in court scatters control over civil rights to litigants, judges, and juries around the nation. In a nation with a constitutional tradition based on suspicion of centralized governmental authority, it's not surprising that activists often favor court-based enforcement.
The Control Incentive Activists are also attracted to litigious policies as a way to gain control over the actions of states and localities.57 Federalism creates strong barriers to national controls over local policies. Within their own spheres, the Constitution says, the states are supreme and cannot be told what to do by the national government. Thus activists who wish to gain nationwide control over, say, school districts or police departments face severe constraints. In many nations the best way to control what's taught in schools is to become secretary of education. In the United States, by contrast, the secretary of education is relatively powerless: this official can only exhort school districts to change their curricula, or perhaps bribe the districts with federal aid. Litigious policies offer an attractive alternative to these routes. By enforcing court-protected rights against local agencies, activists can get federal courts to command the changes they wish. Civil rights laws, for example, gave civil rights activists a way to challenge the actions of local officials in the South. Fourth Amendment search and seizure lawsuits became a means to control the procedures of the police. Environmental laws have been used to control local development. These forms of litigation have the added virtue of appearing as "checks" on the abuses of local governmental officials, a frame that resonates strongly in a nation whose constitutional tradition is built around a fear of unchecked governmental power.
The Cost-Shifting Incentive The dream of all politicians is to do good things for their constituents without having to pay for them. Litigious policies make this fantasy a reality. Imagine, for example, that the public grows dissatisfied with the services rendered by health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Policy makers could address these concerns in numerous ways. For example, they could (a) create a publicly funded health care system to replace the despised HMOs, (b) establish a new regulatory bureaucracy to oversee HMO abuses, or (c) create a "patients' bill of rights" to allow individuals to sue HMOs for their sins. It isn't hard to understand the appeal of option (c), which unlike the others involves not a single penny of fiscal spending. By creating new rights—to be free of toxic waste dumps (as in the Superfund program), to sue when discriminated against, or to challenge HMO decision making—policy makers can claim credit for helping their constituents, but shift the costs on to others. Not only that, by lodging enforcement of rights in courts, politicians can transfer the cost of enforcement to private actors. In a constitutional tradition that stresses limited government and makes it particularly difficult to raise the revenue necessary to build the state,58 litigious policies have the great virtue of addressing social problems without tapping the budget. Activists, recognizing this, support and defend litigious policies.
Taken together, the insulation, control, and cost-shifting incentives explain the staying power of litigious policies in American politics. That is not to say that these incentives are ever present and all-powerful. They vary in intensity both over time and across policy domains. The insulation incentive, for example, does not operate when activists are convinced that they can trust bureaucratic agencies to implement the law as they wish.59 Similarly, the control incentive is only relevant to policy domains in which states and localities are significant actors. Control is not, for example, an incentive in a domain such as defense policy, where there is usually no need to wrest implementation from states and localities. Moreover, none of these incentives is relevant unless those who desire governmental action on a social problem gain the power to enact their desires into law—"activism" is a variable in itself. Thus to say that the insulation, control, and cost-shifting incentives have fostered litigious policies is not to claim that American public policy has been invariably litigious. It does suggest that these three incentives create a generalized tilt in American public policy toward courts as compared to the public policy of other nations. The three incentives explain why many areas of public policy that are bureaucratized in other nations are more judicialized in the United States.
More important for this study, the Constitutional Theory provides an explanation for why antilitigation efforts, despite their apparent popularity, face strong resistance. Courts provide an attractive way for American activists to meet their goals, and it takes an extraordinary effort to stop them or divert their energies to other channels.
The result of all this—greater judicialization of matters that in other nations are bureaucratized—takes on its full significance when we compare the organization of the American judicial system with that of the typical bureaucracy. Bureaucracies are centralized hierarchies: in the bureaucratic model, government policies are implemented by civil servants who are following fixed rules laid down by superiors. The American judicial system, by contrast, is based on what Kagan has called the model of "adversarial legalism." In an adversarial legal system, issues are organized as formal disputes between parties rather than as rules implemented by civil servants; the parties (individuals and organizations, mostly nongovernmental) have the burden of invoking and enforcing the rules. The decision makers in an adversarial legal model (judges and juries in the American court system) are not tightly bound to a centralized higher authority as in the bureaucratic model. The rules themselves are constantly in dispute and evolving: in the course of arguing how rules should be enforced, the parties also argue about what the rules should be. Public policy in an adversarial legal system, then, is decentralized, privatized, and fluid, often unpredictable.60
As the Constitutional Theory suggests, some of these features of adversarial legalism are what makes litigious policies so attractive to American activists. The decentralization inherent in adversarial legalism, for example, helps insulate the policy from control by enemies, while privatization means that implementation costs are not borne by the public fisc. But these features can also be sources of discontent. The fluidity and unpredictability of an adversarial legal system create troublesome uncertainties for the actors that system regulates. It is difficult, for example, to be certain about what kind of treatment a jury in a medical malpractice lawsuit might consider adequate, so doctors are tempted to practice "defensive medicine." Moreover, the privatization of public policy inherent in the adversarial legal model makes implementation dependent on the resources and choices of nongovernmental actors, thus creating further uncertainty, and great inequities as well. Finally, the process of implementing public policy through disputes among parties can be extraordinarily costly in both time and money, as the Laskin Poplar Superfund case demonstrates. Discontent with the costs, uncertainty, inequity, and inefficiency of adversarial legalism can provide a powerful stimulant to antilitigation reform, as the case studies in this book illustrate.
Paths to Reform This book describes a wide variety of antilitigation efforts, but at the outset it is helpful to contrast two basic forms, which I call discouragement and replacement. Discouragement policies aim to restrict or discourage litigation by making it harder or less rewarding to bring lawsuits. A typical discouragement policy, adopted by many states, is to cap the amount of money a plaintiff can win in a personal injury lawsuit. Discouragement policies like this do not stop litigation altogether but can reduce the volume and intensity of claims. Replacement reforms, by contrast, eliminate whole categories of litigation and replace them with some alternative mechanism. One notable example of replacement reform is the New Zealand accident insurance system, in which accident victims apply to a government agency for compensation rather than suing their victimizers in court. Another, less exotic replacement reform is the American workers' compensation system, an employer-funded insurance system designed to replace litigation over workplace injuries. The most recent replacement reform is the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, a federal program intended to replace litigation over the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers. Replacement reforms like these can eradicate whole species of lawsuits.
Discouragement campaigns, particularly the tort reform movement, have become the most prominent of all antilitigation efforts. This book, however, focuses on replacement reforms because they are the most revealing of the causes of America's litigious public policy style: replacement efforts, unlike discouragement campaigns, force policy makers to compare the costs and benefits of litigious policies to alternative mechanisms designed to achieve similar goals. The study of replacement politics, then, can spotlight what exactly makes the mechanism of litigation so enticing to American policy makers—and what makes alternatives, especially the bureaucratic approaches used in other nations, less alluring.
The study of discouragement politics is, by contrast, bound to be disappointing on this score, because discouragement campaigns aren't ultimately about the virtues and vices of litigious policies. Discouragement politics, instead, is a fight over distributional justice. Discouragement battles are waged on such matters as how much victims of accidents should receive for their injuries or how much companies should pay for manufacturing defective products, not whether litigation is a good way to decide these questions. Because the distributional consequences of such fights are usually clear-cut, the politics of discouragement is usually fairly simple: groups aligned with plaintiffs square off against groups aligned with defendants. So, for example, the debate over restrictions in personal injury law typically pits Democrats, liberal constituencies, and lawyers against Republicans and business and professional groups.
Replacement politics is much more complex. Reformers in this path focus on the negative effects of adversarial legalism, principally its high transaction costs and uncertainty, and argue that the social problems involved can best be solved by some alternative mechanism. They seek to bring together groups associated with both plaintiffs and defendants to agree on the alternative. This path can lead to the elimination of whole species of lawsuits, but it is fraught with difficulties, as the case studies in this book demonstrate.
The first and most important barrier to replacement reforms is suggested by the Constitutional Theory. Many of the alternatives to litigation involve bureaucratic regulation or welfare programs. These alternatives are common in other economically advanced nations, but in the United States the constitutional tradition creates strong incentives for groups to favor litigation over these other forms of governmental action. The incentives—insulation, control, and cost-shifting—have to be overcome if governmental antilitigation reforms are to be adopted.
Related to the Constitutional Theory is a second, more general barrier. Replacement reforms are usually controversial because they reverse one of the major features of adversarial legalism—the privatization of public policy—by socializing what seems to be a conflict between individuals. This movement from individualized dispute to socialized solution is often resisted in American politics. In litigation, problems appear as discrete disputes between individuals. When, for example, your car is hit by a careless driver, both the problem and the solution seem clear: the numbskull who hit your vehicle should be punished by a lawsuit. Replacement reforms reconceive individual conflicts as social problems. So, for example, "no-fault" auto insurance is premised on the view that accidents are a predictable social hazard produced by automobiles and that the problem is best solved not by punishing individual drivers but by pooling the risk of accidents through the most efficient insurance system possible. As later chapters illustrate, the no-fault idea is controversial in part because it seems to neglect the individual dimension of the problem: the bad drivers appear to get away with their misdeeds. The problems in this book's case studies—auto accidents, bad reactions to vaccines, unemployment among people with disabilities—can be viewed either as social issues or as the product of individual transgressions. As the cases demonstrate, the weight of American political culture appears to favor the latter interpretation, and so proponents of reform policies face an uphill battle in creating a socialized alternative to litigation.
A third barrier to replacement reforms is the difficulty in bringing groups associated with plaintiffs and defendants together, even on the basis of common interests. The two sides usually have bitter rivalries, disparate cultures, and conflicting alliances. Each deeply distrusts the other. Coming to agreement on some alternative is hard enough; working together against opponents of reform is even harder. It takes an unusually gifted politician to create an effective plaintiff-defendant alliance, as we will see.
A fourth barrier is uncertainty about the alternative to litigation. Replacements for litigation are often complex and their effects hard to measure in advance. Replacements involve complicated trade-offs and mechanisms the likes of which only the most dedicated policy wonks are likely to understand. In an atmosphere of distrust, it is easy for opponents of the replacement reform to sow doubts about the alternative and hard for proponents to assuage those doubts.
Together these are formidable obstacles. Nonetheless, replacement proponents sometimes overcome them and enact sweeping reforms. The struggles over replacement proposals, though, reveal the deep political roots of America's litigious public policy style.
The Plan of the Book Many studies have compared the social policies of the United States to those of other advanced industrialized nations and found American policy to be uniquely court oriented. This book probes the political origins of these differences, the mechanisms that have kept litigious policies in place, and the conditions under which they may be successfully attacked. Thus the bulk of this book offers selected scenes from the struggle over litigation in American politics. Chapter 1 is an overview of the politics of litigation in the United States. Chapters 2 through 4 tell the stories of three antilitigation campaigns: the (feeble) attempt to forestall the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the effort to enact no-fault auto insurance in California, and the drive to establish the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Chapter 5 summarizes the findings of the cases and suggests how they might lead Americans to rethink the way they argue about "litigiousness."
This is a book about litigation, but as the reader will soon discover, there is very little in these pages that directly examines the legal process or how courts do their work. Instead this book focuses on activists, lobbyists, policy experts, and legislators as they wrestle over litigious policies.
Why travel to legislatures to understand litigation? So far, most academics who have written about the litigation debate have analyzed it at the level of popular culture. They have highlighted the ways in which those who campaign against personal injury lawsuits use cultural myths or beliefs about litigation to strengthen their position.61 These studies are fascinating but necessarily limited in scope. First, they are limited to personal injury law and do not explore other arenas of antilitigation politics. Second, they focus on the production of litigation myths and so do not closely examine the policy-making process. In this book I closely scrutinize the role of ideas and interests in the making and unmaking of litigious policies.
There are several works that examine aspects of the politics of litigation, but no comprehensive study.62 American political scientists are quite familiar with the long-standing struggles over regulation and deregulation in the United States and the unending battle over the welfare state. Hundreds of books have been written about the politics of welfare and regulation. In this book I describe a parallel universe, the world of litigation politics, a realm that is just beginning to be explored.
Notes 1. My account of the Laskin Poplar Superfund dispute relies largely on the case study in Thomas W. Church and Robert T. Nakamura, Cleaning Up the Mess: Implementation Strategies in Superfund (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1993), 47-58.
2. This estimate, which does not include EPA costs or money spent on lawyering, was provided by Jim Campbell, a trustee of the Laskin Poplar Superfund site (telephone conversation with author, November 15, 1995).
3. Church and Nakamura, Cleaning Up the Mess, 188 n. 16.
4. The lawsuit commenced in 1984; three consent decrees were lodged in 1993 ("Three Consent Decrees Lodged," Ohio Industry Environmental Advisor [October 8, 1993]).
5. Interview with Peter Poulos; Taft, Stettinius & Hollister; Cleveland, Ohio; April 16, 2001. Poulos estimates that less than 1 percent of the responsibility for the site is yet to be settled.
6. For a careful study of the building of the Stella Liebeck legend, see Judith Aks, William Haltom, and Michael McCann, "Symbolic Stella: On Media Coverage of Personal Injury Litigation and the Production of Legal Knowledge," Law and Courts Newsletter 7:3 (1997): 5-7.
7. For accounts of these and other lawsuits, see Meredith K. Wadman and Sam Delson, "A Nation of Lawyers: Avalanche of Civil Lawsuits Prompts Legislative Reform," Oakland Tribune, April 23, 1995, A1; Edward Felsenthal, "Avogadro's Number, You Say, Professor? I Don't Think So," The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1995, A1; Zachary R. Dowdy, "Litigation Becoming a Pastime, Some Say," Boston Globe, March 8, 1996, 27; Neil MacFarquhar, "Extra and Errant Tee Shot May Hit Golfer's Wallet, Too," New York Times, January 28, 2000, A1; Richard B. Schmitt, "Uncharitable Acts: If Donors Fail to Give, More Nonprofit Groups Take Them to Court," Wall Street Journal, July 27, 1995, A1; "Try a Lighter Setting: Suit Claims Pastry Ignited," ABA Journal (May 1995), 38; Walter Berns, "Sue the Warden, Sue the Chef, Sue the Gardener . . .," Wall Street Journal, April 24, 1995, A12; Di Mari Ricker, "Who Wants to Sue a 'Millionaire'?" The Legal Intelligencer (June 5, 2000), 4; and Robert J. Samuelson, "Whitewater: The Law as Pit Bull," Washington Post, March 16, 1994, A19.
8. Academics and journalists have attempted to track down the origins of these and other fabulous litigation stories. In the case of the ladder in the manure, popularized by the television show 60 Minutes, reporters from The American Lawyer found that manure in fact had little to do with the case, which involved a ladder that broke apart due to defects in workmanship, severely injuring the plaintiff's leg (Stephen Brill and James Lyons, "The Not-So-Simple Crisis," The American Lawyer [May 1, 1986], 12). The $1 million award in the CAT scan case was based on adverse physical reactions to a dye that the patient had told the doctor she was allergic to—not the waning of her psychic powers. Further, the verdict was thrown out by the judge in the case (Robert M. Hayden, "The Cultural Logic of a Political Crisis," Studies in Law, Politics and Society 11 : 107). Some stories are pure inventions, as in the often repeated anecdote about a man who received $500,000 for injuries sustained when he attempted to use his lawnmower as a hedge trimmer (Stephen Daniels and Joanne Martin, "The Question of Jury Competence and the Politics of Civil Justice Reform: Symbols, Rhetoric and Agenda-Building," Law and Contemporary Problems 52:4 : 295 n. 105). As for the Kentucky Fried Rat story, it appears to be fictional, though widely believed. Another rodent litigation urban legend—concerning soda drinkers who find mice in their pop bottles—turns out to be based in reality. Gary Alan Fine has documented forty-five cases in which soda drinkers who found dead rodents in their bottles collected damages. See Gary Alan Fine, "The Kentucky Fried Rat: Legends and Modern Mass Society," Journal of the Folklore Institute 17 (1980) 222-43; Fine, "Cokelore and Coke Law: Urban Belief Tales and the Problem of Multiple Origins," Journal of American Folklore 92 : 477-82; and a collection of Fine's writings on contemporary folklore, Manufacturing Tales: Sex and Money in Contemporary Legends (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992).
9. Philip K. Howard, The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America (New York: Random House, 1994).
10. See Marc Galanter, "Reading the Landscape of Disputes: What We Know and Don't Know (and Think We Know) about Our Allegedly Contentious and Litigious Society," UCLA Law Review 31 (1983): 4-71; Galanter, "The Day after the Litigation Explosion," Maryland Law Review 46:1 (1986): 3-39; and Michael J. Saks, "Do We Really Know Anything about the Behavior of the Tort Litigation System—and Why Not?" University of Pennsylvania Law Review 140:4 (1992): 1147-1292.
11. Lincoln Caplan, "Who Ya Gonna Call? 1-800-Sue Me," Newsweek (March 20, 1995), 36; Stephen Budiansky, "How Lawyers Abuse the Law," U.S. News and World Report (January 30, 1995), 50.
12. See, for example, The Blame Game: Are We a Country of Victims? (ABC News Special, August 17, 1995).
13. See the comprehensive study of accident compensation by the Rand Institute for Civil Justice, Deborah Hensler et al., Compensation for Accidental Injuries in the United States (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Institute for Civil Justice, 1991), 121.
14. The Civil Litigation Research Project, which studied patterns of litigation in American households, found that for every one thousand "grievances" perceived by respondents involving at least $1,000, only fifty cases were filed in court, a rate of 5 percent. See David M. Trubek et al., Civil Litigation Research Project: Final Report—Summary of Principal Findings (Madison: University of Wisconsin Law School, 1983), summary 19, figure 2; and Richard E. Miller and Austin Sarat, "Grievances, Claims, and Disputes: Assessing the Adversary Culture," Law and Society Review 15 (1980-81): 537-65.
15. See Paul C. Weiler et al., A Measure of Malpractice: Medical Injury, Malpractice Litigation, and Patient Compensation (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993). In this study medical experts combed through patient records to determine whether negligent medical practice had resulted in patient injury. That determination served as the baseline by which to determine the rate of claiming. In another study, a survey of 220 women who had suffered the death or permanent injury of a baby during delivery, none filed a medical malpractice claim (Frank A. Sloan and Chee Ruey Hsieh, "Injury, Liability, and the Decision to File a Medical Malpractice Claim," Law and Society Review 29:3 : 413-35).
16. Wayne McIntosh's study of litigation patterns in St. Louis over the past 150 years concludes that "there were far more complaints (per capita) registered with the court in the 1820s, '30s and '40s than in the 1960s and 1970s—far more" (Wayne V. McIntosh, The Appeal of Civil Law: A Political-Economic Analysis of Litigation [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990], 191-92). A study of Accomack County, Virginia, in 1639 found a litigation rate of roughly 240 per thousand persons (George B. Curtis, "The Colonial County Court, Social Forum and Legislative Precedent, Accomack County, Virginia, 1633-39," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 85 : 287). That rate is more than four times that of any contemporary county for which data are available, according to Marc Galanter, "Reading the Landscape of Disputes," 41.
17. The Civil Litigation Research Project found that Americans took about 11 percent of their middle-range disputes to court, while a replication of the study in Australia found a 5.5 percent rate. It is difficult to say whether this counts as a large difference. Moreover, as Marc Galanter has pointed out, the gap in filings may simply reflect differences in practices, such as the absence in Australia of contingency fees (see Miller and Sarat, "Grievances, Claims, and Disputes: Assessing the Adversary Culture," 537, table 2; Galanter, "Reading the Landscape of Disputes," 60; Robert L. Nelson, "Ideology, Scholarship and Sociolegal Change: Lessons from Galanter and the 'Litigation Crisis,'" Law and Society Review 21:5 : 681; and Jeffrey M. FitzGerald, "Grievances, Disputes and Outcomes: A Comparison of Australia and the United States," Law in Context 1 : 15).
A study comparing Canadian and American accident victims found the Canadians less likely to claim compensation but more likely to seek legal assistance (Herbert M. Kritzer, W. A. Bogart, and Neil Vidmar, "The Aftermath of Injury: Cultural Factors in Compensation Seeking in Canada and the United States," Law and Society Review 25:3 : 499-544). Another study found the English less likely than Americans to blame someone else for an accident or claim compensation (Herbert M. Kritzer, "Propensity to Sue in England and the United States of America: Blaming and Claiming in Tort Cases," Journal of Law and Society 18 : 400-27).
All of these studies have difficulty disentangling the influence of cultural differences from the effects of differing structural incentives. For example, Gary Schwartz demonstrates that, despite relatively similar tort law doctrine, product liability and malpractice litigation rates are much higher in the United States than in Western Europe. Yet while Schwartz finds the notion of individual-level "litigiousness" intriguing, he suggests that the litigation gap is related to differences in procedure, especially the use of juries and contingency fees in the United States, and to the much greater provision of disability payments in Europe. P. S. Atiyah comes to similar conclusions in his comparison of tort litigation in the United States and Britain. See Schwartz, "Product Liability and Medical Malpractice in Comparative Context," in The Liability Maze, ed. Peter W. Huber and Robert E. Litan (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1991); and P. S. Atiyah, "Tort Law and the Alternatives: Some Anglo-American Comparisons," Duke Law Journal (1987): 1002-44.
The comparison with Japan is far more complicated than it at first appears. Several scholars of the Japanese legal system have argued that lower rates of litigation in Japan are not a result of a cultural aversion to conflict. Japanese sue less, these researchers say, because litigation simply doesn't pay as well in Japan as it does elsewhere. And that, the researchers argue, is no accident: Japanese elites have designed the disputing system to channel disputants away from litigation, either by making it hard to get a day in court or by making verdicts so predictable that it makes little sense to fully adjudicate claims. According to these studies, an American plucked from his or her litigation-encouraging environment in the United States and placed in the litigation-discouraging institutional structures of Japan would act just as the Japanese do. See John Haley, "The Myth of the Reluctant Litigant," Journal of Japanese Studies 4 (1978): 359; Takio Tanase, "The Management of Disputes: Automobile Accident Compensation in Japan," Law and Society Review 24 (1990): 651; Frank K. Upham, Law and Social Change in Postwar Japan (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987); and J. Mark Ramseyer and Minoru Nakazato, "The Rational Litigant: Settlement Amounts and Verdict Rates in Japan," Journal of Legal Studies 18:2 (1989): 263-90.
18. Dramatically large jury verdicts in tort lawsuits make wonderful fodder for the news media; verdicts for the defense and statistical data demonstrating the fate of the typical litigant are deemed boring and so tend to be ignored. The result is a highly skewed view of the tort system that nicely supports the tort reform movement's goals (Michael McCann and William Haltom, "Hegemonic Tales and Subversive Statistics: A 20-year Study of News Reporting about Civil Litigation" [paper presented at meeting of the Law and Society Association, Miami Beach, Fla., May 26, 2000]). See also Stephen Daniels and Joanne Martin, Civil Juries and the Politics of Reform (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1995).
19. See Malcolm M. Feeley and Edward L. Rubin, Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the Courts Reformed America's Prisons (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998). Peanut butter may not be a matter fit for the attention of federal courts, but as Feeley and Rubin note, the Supreme Court has in recent years sustained the claim of a nonsmoking prisoner who wanted to be protected from secondhand smoke as well as the claim of a preoperative transsexual prisoner who wanted to be protected from his or her fellow prisoners (p. 15).
20. For a long list of these studies see Robert A. Kagan, Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001), 8. See also Robert A. Kagan and Lee Axelrad, eds., Regulatory Encounters: Multinational Corporations and American Adversarial Legalism (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000); and Werner Pfennigstorf and Donald G. Gifford, eds., A Comparative Study of Liability Law and Compensation Schemes in Ten Countries and the United States (Oak Brook, Ill.: Insurance Research Council, 1991).
21. Some studies that take exception to the claim that American public policy is distinctively litigious are Eric Feldman, "Blood Justice: Courts, Conflict and Compensation in Japan, France and the United States," Law and Society Review 34 (2000): 561; Basil Markesinis, "Litigation-Mania in England, Germany, and the USA: Are We So Very Different?" Cambridge Law Journal 49 (1990): 233; and Jeffrey M. Sellers, "Litigation as a Local Political Resource: Courts in Controversies over Land Use in France, Germany and the United States," Law and Society Review 29 (1995): 475. The growth of judicial review, the ability of courts to strike down government actions as unconstitutional, and the development of transnational judicial institutions, especially in Europe, have been the main developments noted by scholars who see a growing role for courts across the globe. Whether this growth will filter down into nonconstitutional domains, such as injury compensation, remains an open question. See C. Neil Tate and Torban Vallinder, eds., The Global Expansion of Judicial Power (New York: New York University Press, 1995); and Alex Stone Sweet, Governing with Judges: Constitutional Politics in Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
22. I thank Susan Silbey for this insight.
23. Erhard Blankenburg comes to a similar conclusion in comparing two neighboring countries, the former West Germany and the Netherlands, with widely disparate litigation rates. The cause of the difference, Blankenburg concludes, is the supply side rather than the demand side: German institutions encourage litigation, Dutch policies discourage it. See Blankenburg, "Civil Litigation Rates as Indicators for Legal Cultures," in Comparing Legal Cultures, ed. David Nelkin (Brookfield, Vt.: Dartmouth Press, 1997), 41-68.
24. Some litigious policies promote what Lawrence Friedman calls "judicialization"—the process of converting disputes or conflicts into court cases (Lawrence M. Friedman, "Limited Monarchy: The Rise and Fall of Student Rights," in School Days, Rule Days: The Legalization and Regulation of Education, ed. David L. Kirp and Donald N. Jensen [Philadelphia: Falmer Press, 1986], 239). The category of litigious policies includes laws that judicialize, but the category is broader: where courts already govern disputes, litigious policies serve to increase the volume of legal conflict by eliminating barriers to suing, creating new types of satellite litigation, or increasing the rewards available to plaintiffs. Litigious policies thus expand the threat of litigation in both previously judicialized and nonjudicialized realms.
25. Church and Nakamura found that the Superfund program was administered differently from region to region, with some regional managers favoring a more prosecutorial, litigious approach. See generally Church and Nakamura, Cleaning Up the Mess.
26. A six-nation survey of toxic waste laws in the United States and Europe found only the Netherlands and the United States had retrospective liability; only the United States and Sweden had strict liability (Andrew Lohof, The Cleanup of Inactive Hazardous Waste Sites in Selected Industrialized Countries, discussion paper no. 069 [Washington D.C.: American Petroleum Institute, August 1991], vi, table 1).
27. This was the conclusion of a study comparing Superfund with hazardous waste efforts in Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark (Thomas W. Church and Robert T. Nakamura, "Beyond Superfund: Hazardous Waste Cleanup in Europe and the United States," Georgetown International Environmental Law Review 7 : 15-57).
28. See Marc K. Landy, "Cleaning Up Superfund," The Public Interest (fall 1986), 58-71; Marc Landy and Mary Hague, "The Coalition for Waste: Private Interests and Superfund," in Environmental Politics: Public Costs, Private Rewards, ed. Michael S. Greve and Fred L. Smith, Jr. (New York: Praeger, 1992), 67-87; and Jerry Taylor, "Salting the Earth: The Case for Repealing Superfund," Regulation 18:2 (1995): 53-65. The Rand Institute for Civil Justice has published several studies on transaction costs incurred in the Superfund program. See, for example, Lloyd S. Dixon, Deborah S. Drezner, and James K. Hammitt, Private-Sector Cleanup Expenditures and Transaction Costs at 18 Superfund Sites (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Institute for Civil Justice, 1993).
29. Margaret Kriz, "Super Fight," National Journal (January 29, 1994), 226; and "How the Twain Met," National Journal (June 6, 1994), 1291-95. Early in 2002 President Bush signed a modest Superfund reform shielding developers who buy abandoned industrial sites from being held responsible for toxic waste cleanups.
30. George Lardner, Jr., "'Tort Reform': Mixed Verdict; Bush's First Priority in Office Pleased Business, Spurred Donations and Cut Public Remedies," Washington Post, February 10, 2000, A6.
31. Walter K. Olson, The Litigation Explosion: What Happened When America Unleashed the Lawsuit (New York: Truman Talley Books-Dutton, 1991); Howard, Death of Common Sense; Max Boot, Out of Order: Arrogance, Corruption and Incompetence on the Bench (New York: Basic Books, 1998); Philip K. Howard, The Lost Art of Drawing the Line: How Fairness Went Too Far (New York: Random House, 2001); and Walter K. Olson, The Excuse Factory: How Employment Law Is Paralyzing the American Workplace (New York: Free Press, 1997).
32. American Tort Reform Association, "An expectant mother has a right to expect more than this" (poster); Aetna Insurance Company, "Sue City, U.S.A." (advertisement), both reproduced in Daniels and Martin, "The Question of Jury Competence," 290.
33. Take, for example, an ABC television news documentary The Trouble with Lawyers, in which John Stossel portrays a society gone litigation mad (January 2, 1996). A typical newspaper version of this theme is Wadman and Delson, "A Nation of Lawyers: Avalanche of Civil Lawsuits Prompts Legislative Reform," A1.
34. See for example Gerald N. Rosenberg, The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring about Social Change? (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).
35. A series of studies by the Rand Institute for Civil Justice has documented the high transaction costs of litigation in such areas as auto accidents and asbestos injuries. See Rand Institute for Civil Justice, Annual Report (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Institute for Civil Justice, 1993-2001), for a summary of these findings.
36. Communitarian critics, such as Mary Ann Glendon, see American politics as overly influenced by rights talk and other forms of legalistic discourse that prevent political compromise. See, for example, Glendon's Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse (New York: Free Press, 1991).
37. Judith Resnik, "Failing Faith: Adjudicatory Procedure in Decline," University of Chicago Law Review 53 (1986): 494.
38. Robert A. Kagan, "Adversarial Legalism and American Government," Journal of Public Policy and Management 10:3 (1991): 369; Adversarial Legalism, 34-58; and "Trying to Have It Both Ways: Local Discretion, Central Control, and Adversarial Legalism in American Environmental Regulation," Ecology Law Quarterly 25:4 (1999): 718. Kagan's discussion of the effects of decentralization in American public policy draws on Mirjan Damaska's The Faces of Justice and State Authority: A Comparative Approach to the Legal Process (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986).
39. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy In America, trans. George Lawrence, ed. J. P. Mayer (New York: Harper and Row, 1969), 270.
40. The United States in the nineteenth century was, according to Stephen Skowronek, a state of "courts and parties." See his Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877-1920 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
41. For this account of changes in tort law, I rely on Donald G. Gifford, "The American Tort Liability System," in A Comparative Study of Liability Law and Compensation Schemes, 9-46; Edmund Ursin, "Judicial Creativity and Tort Law," George Washington Law Review 49:2 (1981): 229-308; Daniel Polisar and Aaron Wildavsky, "From Individual to System Blame: A Cultural Analysis of Historical Change in the Law of Torts," Journal of Policy History 1 (1989): 129-55; G. Edward White, Tort Law in America: An Intellectual History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985); and Gary T. Schwartz, "The Beginning and the Possible End of the Rise of Modern American Tort Law," Georgia Law Review 26 (1992): 601-702.
42. See Deborah R. Hensler et al., Class Action Dilemmas: Pursuing Public Goals for Private Gain (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Institute for Civil Justice, 2000), 9-47; and Judith Resnik, "From 'Cases' to 'Litigation,'" Law and Contemporary Problems 54 (1991): 5-68. The plaintiffs in the Pentium chip litigation got a replacement chip and, in some cases, reimbursement for work ruined by the chip's defects; their lawyers asked for $6 million in fees (Barry Meier, "Fistfuls of Coupons," New York Times, May 26, 1995, C1).
43. The expansion of personal liberties and focus on the rights of minorities did not start, of course, with the Warren Court. It can be traced at least as far back as Justice Stone's famous "Footnote Four" in his 1937 Carolene Products opinion, which presaged the Court's shift away from protecting economic rights toward guarding civil liberties (U.S. v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144 ). It was under the Warren Court, however, that this new agenda reached its apex.
44. Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254 (1970).
45. Richard B. Stewart and Cass Sunstein, "Public Programs and Private Rights," Harvard Law Review 95 (1982): 1197. For a vivid description of the defects of this type of litigation, see Jeremy Rabkin, Judicial Compulsions: How Public Law Distorts Public Policy (New York: Basic Books, 1989).
46. Martin M. Shapiro, Who Guards the Guardians: Judicial Control of Administration (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1988). The phrase comes from D.C. Circuit judge Harold Leventhal's opinion in Greater Boston Television Corp. v. FCC, 444 F. 2d 841 (1970).
47. The laws with citizen suit provisions include the Clean Air Act; Federal Water Pollution Control Act; Noise Control Act; Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; 1986 Superfund Amendment Act; Endangered Species Act; Consumer Product Safety Act; and Truth in Lending Act. For discussion about the politics of citizen suit provisions, see R. Shep Melnick, Regulation and the Courts: The Case of the Clean Air Act (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1983); and Edward L. Rubin, "Legislative Methodology: Some Lessons from the Truth-in-Lending Act," Georgetown Law Journal 80 (1991): 233-309.
48. Brian K. Landsberg, Enforcing Civil Rights: Race Discrimination and the Department of Justice (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997), 43.
49. Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club, 463 U.S. 680 (1983), cited in Susan Gluck Mezey and Susan M. Olson, "Fee Shifting and Public Policy: The Equal Access to Justice Act," Judicature 77 (1993): 13-20, at n. 5.
50. Karen O'Connor and Lee Epstein, "Bridging the Gap between Congress and the Supreme Court: Interest Groups and the Erosion of the American Rule Governing Award of Attorney's Fees," Western Political Quarterly 38 (1985): 238-49.
51. Barry Meier, "Bringing Lawsuits to Do What Congress Won't," New York Times, March 26, 2000, sec. 4, p. 3; Robert Reich, "Regulation Is Out, Litigation Is In," USA Today, February 11, 1999, 15A; Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute, Regulation by Litigation: The New Wave of Government-Sponsored Litigation (conference proceedings, June 22, 1999, Washington, D.C.).
52. E. J. Dionne, Jr., "Suddenly, Bush Likes the Lawyers," in Bush v. Gore: The Court Cases and the Commentary, ed. E. J. Dionne, Jr., and William Kristol (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2001), 181-82.
53. William Kristol, "Crowning the Imperial Judiciary," and "A President by Judicial Fiat," in ibid., 209-10; and Robert N. Hochman, "Our Robed Masters," in ibid., 253-57.
54. See Kagan, "Adversarial Legalism and American Government," and "Trying to Have It Both Ways."
55. On the "constitutive turn" in sociolegal studies, see Patricia Ewick and Susan S. Silbey, The Commonplace of Law: Stories from Everyday Life (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998); Sally Engle Merry, Getting Justice and Getting Even: Legal Consciousness among Working-Class Americans (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990); Austin Sarat, " . . . 'The Law Is All Over': Power, Resistance, and the Legal Consciousness of the Welfare Poor," Yale Journal of Law and Humanities 2 (1990): 343-79; Carol J. Greenhouse, Barbara Yngvesson, and David M. Engel, Law and Community in an American Town (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1996); Austin Sarat and Thomas R. Kearns, eds., Law in Everyday Life (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993); Michael W. McCann, Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); and David M. Engel, "Law, Culture and Children with Disabilities: Educational Rights and the Construction of Difference," Duke Law Journal 1 (1991): 166-205.
56. Kagan discusses this point in Adversarial Legalism, 47-50.
57. See ibid., 44-46.
58. See generally Sven Steinmo, Taxation and Democracy (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1993).
59. See Charles R. Shipan's much more fine-grained analysis of this point in Designing Judicial Review: Interest Groups, Congress and Communications Policy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997). Shipan argues that, when interest groups are calculating whether or not to support judicial review of agency decision making, they consider such factors as previous experiences with the agency and with courts, the "legal regime" of the era, perceptions about each institution's capacities, and the costs and benefits to other groups (pp. 15-33). My analysis differs from Shipan's in two major respects. First, my level of analysis is broader since I am asking why activists might prefer court-based implementation of public policy generally, not simply in the context of judicial review of administrative agency decisions. Second, my analysis is grounded in comparative research: this book probes the mechanisms that make American public policy generally more court centered as compared to other advanced economies. Thus my emphasis is on broad comparative patterns rather than variation within the United States. I do, however, draw some tentative conclusions in the concluding chapter about the conditions under which litigious policies can be successfully attacked.
60. See Kagan, "Adversarial Legalism and American Government," and Adversarial Legalism, 9-13. The American judicial system is not, of course, the only structure that can be characterized as having an adversarial legal form of organization. Kagan shows that, for example, bureaucratic agencies can take on degrees of adversarial legalism to the extent that they structure issues as formal legal disputes between parties, decouple decision makers from higher authorities, and allow the rules to be argued over and modified. Conversely, judicial systems can vary in their degree of adversarial legalism to the extent that they vary in these attributes. For example, the Federal Claims Court, which administers the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program described in chapter 4, scores much lower on adversarial legalism than the typical American court.
61. See, for example, Marc Galanter, "News from Nowhere: The Debased Debate on Civil Justice," Denver University Law Review 71 (1993): 77-113; David M. Engel, "The Oven Bird's Song: Insiders, Outsiders and Personal Injuries in an American Community," Law and Society Review 18 (1984): 1; Hayden, "The Cultural Logic of a Political Crisis"; and Daniels and Martin, Civil Juries and the Politics of Reform.
62. Two studies of legislative antilitigation efforts are Euel Elliot and Susette M. Talarico, "An Analysis of Statutory Development: The Correlates of State Activity in Product Liability Legislation," Policy Studies Review 10 (1991): 61-78; and Thomas J. Campbell, Daniel P. Kessler, and George B. Shepherd, The Causes and Effects of Liability Reform: Some Empirical Evidence (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1994).
The Battle over Litigation Litigation is under siege from many directions, but as I argued in the introduction, some attacks turn out to be more significant than others. While tort reformers, for example, are aimed simply at reducing the volume and cost of litigation, other antilitigation efforts can eradicate whole species of lawsuits. It is these more sweeping campaigns, in which policy makers are led to ponder the merits of litigation versus other problem-solving devices, that teach the most about the roots of America's distinctively litigious public policy style. In focusing on two of the most visible components of the attack on litigation, tort reform and alternative dispute resolution, commentators have missed broader, more theoretically significant patterns. A review of the many struggles over litigious policies in American politics and the political forces involved in the litigation debate puts the individual battles in context.
The Attack It would be arbitrary to pinpoint a moment when the attack on litigation began. There have always been antilitigation impulses and even antilitigation reforms in the United States. Yet as late as the 1960s, in the midst of an enormous expansion in litigious policies, there was little mention of litigiousness as a major problem in American life. Indeed, within the legal profession the major criticism of the legal system was that it was inaccessible and so unavailable to poor and middle-class people. More litigation, not less, was needed. At some point in the 1970s, however, a shift began. Concerns about accessibility faded, and misgivings about litigation took center stage. A wide-ranging debate over the costs and benefits of litigation began.
Within the bar an indicator of the shift was the 1976 Roscoe Pound Conference on the Causes of Popular Dissatisfaction with the Administration of Justice. Number one among the causes cited by the participants—federal judges, elite lawyers, and law professors—was "overload," both in the sheer number of cases filed and in the expectations people had about the problem-solving capacities of courts. "The American public today perceives courts as jacks-of-all-trades, available to furnish the answer to whatever may trouble us," said Simon Rifkind, a corporate lawyer and former federal judge. As a result, courts were carrying a "backbreaking burden." Others complained of the expanding length and complexity of litigation. With the growth of procedural rights for defendants, criminal cases "never seem to end," said Walter Schaefer, a judge. Francis Kirkham, a corporate lawyer, claimed that in some kinds of civil litigation "discovery knows no bounds" and that class action lawsuits in the federal courts were "reaching flood stage." Echoing the aquatic metaphor, U.S. Attorney General Edward Levi said that courts were "deluged with business." The problem of overload was so serious, claimed Solicitor General Robert Bork, that "the integrity of the federal system is threatened." Kirkham worried whether the nation was "retaining the capacity to achieve justice by rational means."
The Pound Conference participants suggested a myriad of solutions to the problem of overloaded courts, proposals that would set much of the agenda for antilitigation reformers over the next two decades. Contrary to their image as lawsuit mongers, the elite lawyers at the conference took a very critical stance toward litigation.
Beginning in the 1970s, a new skepticism about the utility of litigation also arose among academics. Researchers in law and the social sciences argued that courts lacked the capacity to be good policy makers and that litigation wasn't a very effective way to make society more just. Although these themes were hardly new novel, they took on particular poignancy coming after two decades in which reformers had turned repeatedly to litigation as a tool of reform. Indeed, some of the criticisms of litigation came from those who had eagerly accepted the premises of the legal reform model. Gerald Rosenberg went to law school hoping to become a social reformer but discovered that social change through constitutional litigation was a Hollow Hope. Radical lawyers in the critical legal studies movement, some of them veterans of civil rights struggles, analyzed the limits of liberal legal reform; critical race theorists, though more sympathetic to rights laws, joined in. Meanwhile communitarian critics of liberalism articulated yet another set of complaints about the influence of litigation on American life. Mary Ann Glendon, for example, argued that American politics was overly legalistic, dominated by "rights talk" that polarized citizens and oversimplified issues. Economists condemned litigation for its high costs and impact on American competitiveness. Conservatives and a few liberals criticized the Warren Court's expansion of procedural rights in the criminal justice system. Even many tort law professors, a group that had promoted the liberalization of liability in the 1950s and 1960s, were by the 1980s deeply troubled by the shortcomings of litigation as a means of compensating injury. Echoing their criticisms was a flurry of research on civil litigation that began in the 1980s, much of it supportive of antilitigation reforms.
By the 1990s antilitigation reform even became the stuff of national politics, thanks largely to the efforts of Vice President Dan Quayle. During the Bush administration Quayle developed litigation reform into a political issue, and mainly through his rhetorical attacks it occasionally popped into the national spotlight.
The apex of Quayle's anti-litigation campaign was his 1991 speech to the American Bar Association (ABA). Applauding Walter Olson's The Litigation Explosion and estimating that tort litigation cost over $300 billion dollars each year, Quayle called the civil justice system a "self-inflicted competitive disadvantage." In one of the more widely discussed sections of his speech, Quayle asked, "Does America really need 70 percent of the world's lawyers? Is it healthy for our economy to have 18 million new lawsuits coursing through the system annually?" As a step toward remedying these conditions, Quayle proposed fifty antilitigation reforms recommended by the President's Council on Competitiveness, which he chaired.
Rising to the challenge, John Curtin, president of the ABA, said his organization was willing to consider the proposals, but "Anyone who believes a better day dawns when lawyers are eliminated has the burden of explaining who will take their place. Who will protect the poor, the injured, the victims of negligence, the victims of racial discrimination, and the victims of racial violence? . . . Lawyers are the simple yet essential means by which people seek to vindicate their rights and we must not foreclose that means." Quayle had not actually proposed the extermination of lawyers, so Curtin's response was a bit of a non sequitur. But the exchange was dramatic and drew media attention. Sophisticated critics, besides noting Quayle's use of dubious statistics, pointed out that Quayle, like Curtin, was shadowboxing: his reforms were far less sweeping than his rhetoric suggested. Many were minor procedural measures that the ABA itself had supported; others sounded major but on inspection turned out to be narrow in scope. Nonetheless, a splash was made.
None of Quayle's suggestions found its way into federal legislation, though President Bush did sign an executive order implementing some of the procedural ideas. But in legal reform Quayle and Bush found an agreeable, albeit minor, political issue, one that has since become a staple of Republican politics. In the presidential election of 1992 President Bush's first television ad mentioned "legal reform," and his campaign criticized Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party for accepting massive contributions from plaintiff lawyers. Republicans even picketed Bill Clinton with signs reading "Stop the Trial Lawyers' Takeover of the White House." Newt Gingrich made "Common Sense Legal Reform" the ninth plank in his Contract With America and pushed various tort reform bills through the House. In one of the highlights of his otherwise uninspired 1996 presidential campaign, Robert Dole joked after falling from a stage during a campaign event that trial lawyers had begun calling him on his cell phone even before he hit the ground. And George W. Bush, proud to be an enemy of plaintiff lawyers, pointed to tort reform, while campaigning for the presidency in 2000, as one of his major accomplishments as governor of Texas. Dole and both Bushes have mentioned litigation reform in their televised debates, and the Republican platform since 1992 has contained antilitigation language.
Although their antilitigation rhetoric sweeps broadly, these politicians are in fact mainly focused on one species of lawsuit, the personal injury claim. They tend to ignore other, more common forms of litigation—over contracts, property disputes, and family issues. Business-to-business contract disputing, for example, is at least as important a source of lawsuits as tort, but in the litigation debate this is obscured. In 2000, tort lawsuits constituted 00 percent of the case load of a sample of state courts; contract cases amounted to 00 percent. Yet when politicians, pundits, and journalists criticize "litigiousness," they are speaking almost invariably about personal injury lawsuits.
Why does tort litigation receive such a disproportionate share of attention? The simplest explanation is that those on the receiving end of tort lawsuits—business groups, governments, and professional organizations—have the means and the incentive to publicize their discontents. These powerful interests have set the agenda both for politicians and the media. Other forms of litigation—for example, contractual disputes—have business interests on both the giving and receiving ends, creating a much more ambivalent attitude. Moreover, many common types of litigation—family disputes, for example—don't involve business interests at all. It is only those forms of litigation in which powerful interests appear solely as defendants—tort, civil rights, and environmental lawsuits—that are most visibly attacked.
Even in this grouping, however, tort litigation seems to get the lion's share of the attention. Aside from the interests behind it, there seems to be a special resonance to complaints about personal injury law. David Engel has argued that tort litigation stories serve as symbols of community disintegration in a way that anecdotes about, for example, contract disputes cannot. Engel studied attitudes toward tort law in a rural county in the Midwest. In the view of Engel's subjects, plaintiffs in tort lawsuits deserved special scorn because they had used the coercive powers of the state to get money they did not earn from defendants who never agreed to assume responsibility for their injuries. Thus for Engel's subjects, as for many Americans, stories about tort litigation symbolize the decline of personal responsibility in society. Moreover, tort stories are dramatic and easily understood, making them easily digestible fodder not just for everyday gossip but also for the news and entertainment media. The story of Stella Liebeck, who had the infamous encounter with McDonald's coffee, radiated through public discourse because it dramatically illustrated what "everyone knows"—that Americans routinely sue others for accidents they themselves are responsible for, that big corporations are excessively punished because they are "big pockets," and that tort plaintiffs are overcompensated by runaway juries. Indeed, aspects of the Stella Liebeck story that were inconvenient to this portrayal—such as the fact that Liebeck eventually settled for roughly one-fifth of the widely publicized $2.9 million jury verdict, that her burns were horrifyingly severe, or that McDonald's coffee had previously scalded hundreds—were widely ignored.
The notoriety of tort litigation, combined with the powers of persuasion of corporate and professional interests, has put personal injury lawsuit reform at the top of the antilitigation agenda. Yet the range of antilitigation politics sweeps much more broadly than tort suits. Business-to-business disputing, though not the subject of television sitcoms or Republican platform planks, has been the target of several antilitigation efforts, especially alternative dispute resolution, discussed below. Indeed, some of the more obscure antilitigation reforms, though not the stuff of advertising campaigns or presidential speeches, are among the more significant.
Four Types of Antilitigation Efforts There are a vast array of antilitigation efforts spanning varied policy areas and levels of government, but they can be usefully divided into four basic forms: (1) discouragement, attempts to discourage plaintiffs and so reduce litigation; (2) management, attempts to make the disputing process more efficient and harmonious; (3) replacement, attempts to replace litigation with some other problem-solving device; and (4) resistance, opposition to new forms of litigation (see Table 1.1). Each form creates a distinctive politics. Of the four types, discouragement and management efforts have been the most visible, garnering the most media attention—and the most hyperbolic rhetoric. Yet as I argued in the introduction, replacement efforts and the battles they create expose more fully the roots of America's distinctively court-centered public policy style because they represent more fundamental attacks on litigation as a problem-solving device.
The Partisan Politics of Discouragement Discouragement reforms take the most familiar and straightforward route to limiting litigation: they aim to discourage plaintiffs from bringing lawsuits. They do this by making lawsuits either harder to bring, harder to win, or less rewarding for the plaintiff. The politics of discouragement is similarly straightforward. Groups aligned with plaintiffs fight groups aligned with the defendants. Discouragement battles are thus highly partisan, with most Republicans on the antilitigation side and most Democrats lined up with the plaintiffs. These are struggles over distributional justice—who gets what—with dollars and the resources of the judiciary at stake. Proponents do not typically question the utility of litigation itself but argue that plaintiffs with weak claims are abusing the legal system.
The most prominent of all discouragement efforts, indeed of all antilitigation efforts, is the tort reform movement. A "tort" is an injury. Plaintiffs in tort cases seek monetary compensation for their injuries, punishment for their injurers, and some reassurance that injury-producing conduct will be deterred. The tort reform movement argues that the liability system is out of control, swollen with ridiculous claims, and that the jury system has in effect produced a lottery. Tort reformers promote an array of reforms aimed at making tort litigation less enticing for plaintiffs: barriers to filing a claim, an expansion of defenses, and limits on the amounts and types of awards. With a broad base of support among business and professional groups, the tort reform movement has been churning tort law now for more than two decades.
The tort reform movement is a huge political enterprise. Nearly every large company, trade association, and professional group is involved at some level. Since the drive for tort reform began in the 1970s, these groups have become more and more organized, creating coalition organizations to coordinate their activities. The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) helps coordinate and publicize state tort reform efforts. ATRA's membership includes Fortune 100 corporations, professional groups, insurers, small companies, nonprofit organizations, and a few units of government. ATRA serves as a clearinghouse for a network of forty state groups, providing them briefing materials, model bills, polling research, witnesses, and speakers and publishing several periodicals that cover their efforts. ATRA's publicity efforts are considerable, with press briefings, television and radio commercials (featuring Jack Kemp and George McGovern), a documentary (hosted by Walter Cronkite), an in-flight video, a website featuring "loony lawsuits," posters, pamphlets, and bumper stickers.
For a time the largest coalition in the national tort movement was the Product Liability Coordinating Committee (PLCC), which at one point had an estimated budget of $3 million and a membership of 700,000 businesses and trade associations, including the Business Roundtable, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and an estimated 60 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. Since the defeat of sweeping product liability legislation in the late 1990s, the PLCC has become inactive, but there are several other national coordinating bodies. The Civil Justice Reform Group is a separate group of general counsel from sixty of the nation's one hundred biggest companies who channel funds to various antilitigation organizations. The Health Care Liability Alliance campaigns for medical malpractice reform laws: the Coalition to Eliminate Abusive Securities Suits successfully lobbied in the 1990s to limit shareholder litigation against companies.
These groups are just the tip of the iceberg. Most tort reform activities are carried out by individual businesses, trade associations, and state tort reform organizations. The American Medical Association, for example, has crusaded for a variety of tort reforms over the past two decades. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has made tort reform, especially legislation to restrict class action lawsuits, a priority. In 1998 the chamber created the Institute for Legal Reform, which has sponsored conferences and published reports on such matters as legal fees, product liability law, and judicial elections. Among the businesses, one of the most active is Aetna, an insurance firm whose interest in civil justice litigation is considerable: it defends thousands of lawsuits each year. Aetna is a member of national tort reform organizations, but it has also conducted its own antilitigation lobbying and advertising campaigns. In addition, Aetna has funded academic symposia, conferences, and research on tort law at the Rand Institute of Civil Justice, the Brookings Institution, the Manhattan Institute, and the American Law Institute. Although Aetna is unusually active, its antilitigation activities are hardly unique. Many companies and trade and professional associations fund antilitigation lobbying, advertising, and research. On the research side, they have helped fund a plethora of antilitigation research (see note 16). Add this to the efforts of the coalition organizations, and the tort reform movement seems quite formidable.
Yet tort reformers have been largely frustrated in their efforts in Congress. Their successes have largely come through state legislatures, and even there, they have often been thwarted by judicial rulings overturning tort reform laws on state constitutional grounds. The tort reform movement may have had its greatest impact outside the legislative arena, where it has apparently persuaded judges and juries to be more skeptical about personal injury claims. Indeed, tort reformers have helped to reshape public discourse about litigation, undermining the heroic view of lawyers and lawsuits that has always competed in the American mind with more unsavory images of the legal profession. Thus tort reformers have made steady gains in the cultural war over litigation even as they have often lost particular political and legal battles.
Federal tort reform efforts began with a Nixon administration report on medical malpractice litigation in 1973. In the following years, the Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations sponsored reports proposing antilitigation legislation. Federal product liability legislation, first introduced in the mid-1970s, has over the years varied in content. The earliest bills sought to undo the strict liability standard that the California Supreme Court had first adopted; others have provided for caps on damages and expanded defenses. None of the bills has become law, despite strong support from Republicans and some Democrats. Until 1994 the Democrats' control of Congress and use of filibusters prevented any bill from advancing. After the "Republican Revolution" of 1994 the combination of Democratic opposition, the threat of filibuster, some defections by Republicans, and Clinton administration opposition kept product liability bills from being enacted. The closest any of the bills came to passage was in 1996, when Congress failed to override a Clinton veto. The George W. Bush administration's enthusiasm for tort reform has been diminished by the Democrats' control of the Senate and perhaps by the political fallout from the Enron scandal.
Federal medical malpractice tort reforms have also failed to make any headway, despite much discussion. Between 1990 and 1994 forty-six medical malpractice reform bills were introduced into Congress, most of them involving discouragement reforms. There was some talk about putting a cap on malpractice damages in the Clinton health care bill, but ultimately the bill had only minor medical malpractice provisions.
Indeed at the national level, the tort reform movement has been able to enact only relatively minor laws. These laws, passed during the Clinton administration, limited the liability of small airplane manufacturers, restricted company shareholder lawsuits, immunized volunteers (but not the organizations they volunteer for) from litigation, taxed tort awards for emotional distress and punitive damages, protected those who donate food to shelters from liability, capped tort liability for Amtrak at $200 million per accident, restricted medical malpractice claims against cruise ship operators, protected producers of raw materials for medical products from some suits, and limited liability claims arising from the "Y2K" computer scourge. While the number of laws passed might seem impressive, these measures were limited in scope and effect, relatively small-scale victories scattered amongst a series of major defeats. Observers suggest several explanations for the failures of the federal tort reform effort: conflicts among the business groups advocating the reforms, concerns about federalism, and most important of all, the powerful opposition of plaintiff lawyer groups. Whatever the reason, the major legislative successes of the tort reform movement thus far have come at the state level.
The first major wave of state tort reform was in the mid-1970s, when medical malpractice insurers rapidly raised their rates and exited some markets. The result was labeled a "medical crisis" in many states, with doctors finding it difficult to get malpractice insurance. Some California doctors even went on a brief strike to dramatize their plight. Legislatures responded with a flurry of tort reforms. Between 1975 and 1978, fourteen states passed laws encouraging arbitration, twenty-nine created screening panels for lawsuits, twenty limited attorney contingency fees, fourteen put monetary caps on damages, and nineteen restricted the collateral source rule.
The second wave of tort reform, which commenced in the mid-1980s, was much broader, going beyond medical malpractice to all areas of personal liability. Here again a major stimulus was a rapid rise in liability insurance rates together with reports that day care centers, playgrounds, and other facilities were closing because of the lack of affordable insurance. Between 1985 and 1988 sixteen states capped "pain and suffering" damages, twenty-eight limited punitive damages, twenty restricted the collateral source rule, and thirty modified their joint and several liability rules. In 1986 alone, forty-one of the forty-six legislatures who met passed some type of tort reform.
After several years of relative calm, a third wave of tort commenced, possibly spurred by state-level Republican gains in the 1994 elections. In 1995 eighteen states passed tort reforms, including extensive reform packages in Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, and Texas. Between 1995 and 1997 fourteen states limited punitive damages, thirteen modified their joint and several liability rules, and eight made significant changes in product liability law.
Research suggests that some of the measures passed in the first two waves of tort reform, particularly the caps on damages, have modestly reduced lawsuits, damage awards, and liability insurance premiums. Many of the tort reforms, though, seem to have had little or no effect. But even where the tort reform movement has fallen short in the legislatures, it may be having indirect effects on the judicial process. The data are far from conclusive, but there are indications that publicity about the "litigation explosion" may be changing the behavior and attitudes of judges and juries. Research has found that jurors firmly believe that there has been a "litigation explosion" and are deeply suspicious of plaintiffs in tort lawsuits. Another study found a "quiet revolution" in products liability, with judges rolling back some of the litigious policies enacted in the 1960s, seventies and early eighties, possibly in reaction to the publicity generated by tort reformers. As a result of the shift in doctrine, plaintiffs are faring worse, and claims have been dropping. Thus the gains of the tort reform movement may go well beyond the passage of legislation.
Thanks to the enormous material interests behind it, tort reform dominates public discussion of litigation politics. But tort is just one area in which discouragement policies have been debated or enacted. Consider some other examples:
Criminal Justice The chief antilitigation effort in criminal law recently has been the move to restrict habeas corpus lawsuits, which critics say give prisoners and death row inmates too many chances to appeal, resulting in long delays. In 1996, in the wake of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, President Clinton signed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which included a provision limiting death row inmates to "one bite of the apple," a single habeas corpus appeal. The Supreme Court upheld this statute against a constitutional challenge—a ruling in line with several previous Court decisions limiting the right to appeal. A second law, also passed in 1996, the Prison Litigation Reform Act, seeks to discourage civil suits by prisoners and to reduce judicial control over the administration of correctional institutions. It requires prisoners to pay a fee when filing a civil suit and penalizes prisoners who file lawsuits deemed frivolous with the loss of "good time" credits toward early release from prison. Thus Congress has attempted to discourage prisoner lawsuits, one the largest and fastest-growing categories of federal litigation.
Civil Rights When the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989 released a string of rulings that had the net effect of discouraging plaintiffs in civil rights cases, Congress reacted with an encouragement law. The 1991 Civil Rights Act undid the Court's decisions but went beyond this to expand the use of jury trials and increase the kinds of damages available to plaintiffs in discrimination lawsuits. These changes have in turn generated a host of horror stories about discrimination litigation, and in Congress discouragement bills have been introduced to limit damages and institute a "loser pays" system in civil rights lawsuits.
Environmental Policy Many American environmental statutes allow citizens to either sue regulators for being too lax in their enforcement efforts or to bypass the regulators entirely and sue alleged polluters directly. The citizen lawsuit provisions have been criticized for misdirecting enforcement and for creating an undeserved windfall for environmental groups who win damages lawsuits. Discouragement reforms that limit clean air and clean water lawsuits have, however, failed to attract much support. George W. Bush's proposal to limit the sweep of citizen lawsuits under the Endangered Species Act was predictably pilloried by environmental groups.
Administrative Law Across many policy areas, including the environment, courts since the 1960s have played a major role in the administrative process. Those dissatisfied with an agency ruling found that they could flee to the courts for a second opinion. Critics argue that judges should not second-guess the decisions of agencies and that the process of litigation greatly hinders administrative regulation. The struggle to discourage litigation has primarily been carried out in the courts, where the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the 1984 Chevron case was seen as a signal to lower courts to grant more discretion to agencies. Whether the courts have taken the hint or the Supreme Court itself has become more deferential to agencies is unclear.
Funding for Litigation One seemingly straightforward way to discourage litigation is to eliminate programs that fund lawsuits. Yet antilitigationists have been largely unsuccessful in this effort. For example, attempts to rid citizen lawsuits of attorney fee provisions have gotten nowhere. Funding for legal aid, however, was slashed after the "Republican Revolution" of 1994 and subjected to various restrictions.
Civil Procedure Perhaps the most obscure discouragement struggles occur over efforts to reform civil procedure. In fact, despite its musty image, federal civil procedure has in recent years been a quite contentious realm, with particularly heated debate over class action lawsuits. The animating principle of procedural reform in recent years has been to speed up processing of cases by limiting litigation. Reforms regarding class actions, frivolous cases, and discovery have all attempted to reduce litigation. Many of these reforms have, however, met with opposition, and some have been significantly modified en route to enactment, often because of opposition within the bar.
Discouragement efforts can result in significant reductions in litigation. Research suggests that caps on damages in tort litigation, for example, reduce both the number of cases filed and the size of damage awards. But even where tort reform and other discouragement efforts succeed in reducing cases and damage awards, they do not fundamentally dislodge a system of social decision making based on the model of adversarial legalism. In the adversarial legal model, remember, issues are organized as disputes between parties, the parties have the burden of invoking and enforcing the rules, the decision makers are not tightly bound to a higher authority, and the rules themselves are constantly in dispute and evolving. Discouragement policies do not attempt to transform these fundamental aspects of American court-based public policy. Thus, despite the antilitigation rhetoric that accompanies them, discouragement efforts are not an attack on litigation as a problem-solving device. Discouragement efforts seek to lower the volume of litigation, not change the channel.
The Muted Politics of Management Management reforms aspire to make the disputing process smoother and more efficient. They streamline disputing through techniques such as arbitration, mediation, conciliation, and various measures aimed at resolving issues with less conflict. By definition, management reforms are those that do not obviously favor plaintiffs or defendants; thus in this type of reform there is little conflict between plaintiff and defendant groups and low partisanship. The conflicts that do arise usually pit groups within the legal system against each other on matters either of philosophy or turf. In comparison with discouragement politics, which is often partisan and strident, management reforms typically generate little controversy outside the bar.
On the surface, management efforts seem far more radical than discouragement. Some proponents of management reforms envision a wholesale transformation of social disputing, remaking a process that has been formal and conflict ridden into one that is informal and problem solving. Others, less idealistic, simply see in management reforms a way to avoid the transaction costs associated with litigation. Whatever the vision behind them, however, management efforts are not an attack on the adversarial legal model that characterizes the American legal system. They are aimed simply at making the legal system work more smoothly.
One set of management efforts involves the assortment of procedural devices collectively known as "alternative dispute resolution." ADR is not a recent innovation. Jerold Auerbach has traced how various religious communities used mediation and arbitration in colonial America, and the history of these devices is older than adjudication itself. Commercial arbitration became an important form of dispute resolution in the business world shortly after World War I. But the shift toward alternative dispute resolution in the 1970s and 1980s was more broadly based.
ADR proponents are a varied bunch, from 1960s community activists to 1990s corporate CEOs. The only thing that truly unites the ADR "movement" is dissatisfaction with traditional litigation, and even this dissatisfaction takes different forms. For many of the lawyers and judges at the Pound Conference, which provided a major stimulus to the ADR movement, the primary problem was an overload of the courts. Diverting some cases to other venues would protect the quality of traditional adjudication by keeping the courts from being overwhelmed with litigation. Similarly, Christine Harrington, in her study of the ideology and practice of ADR, sees support for arbitration as arising from criticisms of lower courts as lacking the capacity to deal effectively with "low-level" disputes.
But there are other themes in the move toward ADR, as well. Supreme Court chief justice Warren Burger, an antilitigation crusader, spoke at the Pound Conference of the "damaging excesses of the contentious spirit" and the need for lawyers to "fulfill their historic function as the healers of society's conflicts." Burger's articulation of the value of healing and civic peace echoes in some respects the communitarian views of left-wing proponents of community mediation, who argue that indigenous forums offer a richer, less adversarial, and more particularized brand of justice. Beginning in the 1960s, they advanced community mediation as a form of community empowerment. Much of the support for ADR, however, is based on far more prosaic concerns, principally cost and efficiency. ADR, proponents say, can resolve disputes in less time and with lower cost than traditional litigation.
ADR in its many forms is the most prominent of management efforts, but the category includes any reform premised on smoothing the disputing process, from community dispute centers that use mediation to resolve "low-level" disputes, to court-annexed arbitration programs, to "rent-a-judge" and other private dispute resolution services, to the many techniques used in workplaces to resolve complaints through "internal dispute resolution." Some other forms of management include the following.
Mandatory ADR Most ADR programs are voluntary: both parties must choose them after a dispute arises. This is undoubtedly one of the main reasons they attract so little controversy. Mandatory ADR has, by contrast, proven highly controversial. Employment, consumer, and commercial contracts increasingly include provisions requiring arbitration of any disputes that might arise between the parties. Critics say that the arbitration systems built into contracts are often biased against plaintiffs and that one should never be asked to sign away the "right to sue." To the extent that mandatory arbitration tilts to the benefit of defendants, it is really a discouragement reform in disguise, and the politics it creates looks just as partisan and fierce as the battle over tort reform. Bills to ban mandatory arbitration have been introduced in Congress, and legal challenges to these contracts continue.
Settlement Incentives Some "fee shifting" proposals penalize parties who refuse an early settlement offer only to receive a verdict at trial that is similar or less favorable. Under these proposals, the refusing party is responsible for all the legal costs incurred by the offering party. Another way to encourage parties to resolve their cases more quickly and efficiently is to teach and encourage judges to "manage" their cases more aggressively.
Substantive Efficiency Reform Perhaps the most common way to streamline disputing is to change the law under which disputes arise so as to make it clearer. Changes in statutory language can eliminate ambiguities and so limit litigation. Jeb Barnes, writing about the politics of bankruptcy reform, labels this "substantive efficiency reform." As Barnes suggests, this type of reform is commonplace; it occurs whenever legislators codify the law in order to clarify and standardize it, as with the Uniform Commercial Code.
Management reforms can have a significant effect on the amount and intensity of litigation. But as with discouragement policies, management reforms do not generally dislodge a system of social decision making based on the model of adversarial legalism. Instead they diminish the scope of issues in dispute or nest an alternative set of procedures within an adversarial legal system. Some of the formalism and adversarialism of litigation can be reduced, but the bilateralism, privatism, decentralization, and fluidity characteristic of the adversarial legal model are all retained. Social issues are organized as disputes among private parties resolved by a relatively independent decision maker using an evolving set of rules. Thus although management reforms may streamline the process of settling claims, management is not the frontal attack on litigation that proponents sometimes claim.
The Complex Politics of Replacement Replacement efforts, by contrast, do involve a radical transformation of social decision making. Replacement eliminates an entire species of litigation and substitutes some other problem-solving device. The dispute between plaintiff and defendant becomes a social problem to be resolved through various nonlitigious mechanisms, generally compensation funds, bureaucratic regulation, or decision making by experts; the aim is to eliminate the original judicial dispute. All the core attributes of the adversarial legal model—bilateralism, privatism, decentralization, and fluidity—are attacked in replacement schemes.
The central feature of replacement politics is the effort to bring groups associated with both plaintiffs and defendants together to support a mechanism to replace litigation. This difficult task is taken up by what John Kingdon has called a "policy entrepreneur," someone who tries to sell others on a favored solution to a social problem. The pitch of the policy entrepreneur who retails replacement reforms typically features two selling points, lower transaction costs and greater certainty. Transaction costs can be reduced by cutting out the middleman, the lawyer, so that plaintiffs and defendants can jointly capture the fees that litigation would otherwise eat up. Certainty can be increased by eliminating some of the sources of dispute between the parties and by replacing juries and judges with more tightly bounded decision makers. This is an appealing pitch, but the odds are against the policy entrepreneur who peddles replacement reforms, simply because bringing together groups associated with plaintiffs and defendants is so difficult. The two sides usually share little except great distrust for one another, making any alliance in support of replacement reforms hard to assemble and easy to take apart. And any such alliance has a natural enemy: lawyer interest groups often vigorously oppose replacement reforms.
The classic replacement reform is a no-fault system. In no-fault systems, accident victims generally avoid the trouble of litigation because they do not have to make a tort claim against another party. Instead, they simply apply for compensation from their own insurer, the way a home owner collects after a fire. This, according to no-fault supporters, avoids both the uncertainties and the transaction costs associated with tort litigation. No-fault systems, whether funded by private insurers or by public agencies, socialize the cost of an injury, thereby eliminating one of the basic motivations for bringing a lawsuit.
In addition to no-fault systems, the replacement category also includes efforts to strip the judiciary of decision-making responsibilities and lodge them instead in some other body, usually a bureaucratic agency or a group of experts. Thus replacement is a broad category that includes the following.
Workers' Compensation Worker's compensation laws, which spread through the states during the Progressive era, remain even today the most significant of all antilitigation reforms. Workers' compensation is the original no-fault reform. It replaced tort litigation with a system of employer insurance: instead of suing their employers for negligence, injured employees in a workers' comp system need only apply for compensation from the employer's insurer. Workers' compensation laws were supported by both labor and business groups. Each found the tort system unpredictable and wearisome and hoped that a social insurance scheme would be more efficient and equitable. In practice, workers' compensation has not eradicated workplace injury litigation. Over time, workers' compensation systems have come to look more litigation-like, with lawyers playing a larger role, and the system itself has become a constant target of reform. Moreover, not all workers are covered by workers' compensation laws, and efforts to extend the system have been stymied. Even so, workers' compensation can rightly be considered the "mother" of all antilitigation reforms: it is hard to imagine how the legal system would handle the volume of tort litigation that would undoubtedly move through the courts in the absence of a workers' compensation system.
The latest replacement reform is the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, enacted into law just eleven days after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The fund provides both economic compensation and limited pain-and-suffering payments to those physically injured in the attacks and to the families of those killed. The fund is no-fault in that claimants need not prove, as they would in court, that some defendant (the airlines would be the most obvious choice) is liable for their injuries. The office of the special master, Kenneth Feinberg, decides the amount of compensation based on guidelines that the office developed. The special master's decision cannot be appealed, and those who apply to the fund give up their right to sue in court. (Fund claimants may, however, still sue Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, a right that Congress specifically granted after critics pointed out that the original September 11 law seemed to rule this out.) Those who forgo the fund can bring a personal injury lawsuit, but Congress has made this option less attractive: the airlines can be sued only up to the limit of their insurance coverage (about $6 billion total), and other potential defendants—including the maker of the planes, the airports from which the planes took off, the city of New York, and the owners and operators of the Twin Towers—have been granted limited liability.
No-Fault Auto Insurance Proponents of no-fault auto insurance drew inspiration from workers' compensation and extended its logic to disputes over auto accidents. Starting with Massachusetts in 1970, twenty-four states adopted some form of no-fault auto insurance, and Congress came close to enacting a federal policy. Since 1975 the spread of no-fault auto insurance has largely been halted. Chapter 3 details one of the fiercest struggles over no-fault in recent years, over a series of legislative and ballot proposals in California.
Other No-Fault Systems Besides automobile insurance, no-fault proponents can point to a few other relatively minor successes. Two states, Florida and Virginia, have adopted no-fault laws governing injuries to newborn babies, a reform motivated in part by what was called a medical malpractice insurance crisis in those states. The Black Lung Benefits Act compensates coal miners for mining-related respiratory illnesses. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Program provides payments to those injured by exposure to uranium or to nuclear weapons tests. The Energy Employees Occupation Illness Program pays benefits to those who have developed cancer as a result of working for the Department of Energy. With the Price-Anderson Act, Congress created a partial no-fault system for "extraordinary nuclear occurrences," though the system retains aspects of traditional tort litigation. Finally, there is a no-fault system for compensating children injured by vaccines, whose creation is the subject of chapter 4. No-fault systems have been proposed for nearly every major category of tort lawsuit, including those arising from medical malpractice, the disposal of hazardous wastes, and injuries due to products such as asbestos and cigarettes. These proposals have, however, not gotten very far.
Bureaucratization Efforts to replace litigation with bureaucratic decision making have also encountered strong opposition. An attempt to create a federal bankruptcy agency to replace most bankruptcy litigation was rejected by nearly every major interested party. A proposal to replace judicial determination of medical malpractice with an administrative system has not received much consideration, despite the American Medical Association's endorsement. Congress has, however, passed a series of laws that have bureaucratized the traditionally judicial process of determining and collecting child support payments.
Unlike discouragement and management efforts, replacement policies are a direct attack on litigious policies and the model of adversarial legalism. Replacement policies aim to uproot each of the elements of the adversarial legal model, usually substituting a scheme based on a bureaucratic model. The bilateralism and privatism of the adversarial legal model is eliminated; issues are no longer organized as disputes between parties. The decentralized decision makers who apply fluid standards in the adversarial legal model are replaced either by experts using their professional judgments or, more commonly, bureaucrats applying standardized rules. Because replacement reforms trade litigation for another problem-solving device, struggles over such reforms necessarily involve consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of the adversarial legal model. Thus battles over replacement reforms are the most theoretically significant of all antilitigation efforts.
The radicalism of replacement is limited, however, in two ways. First, American replacement reforms have typically been partial, allowing some types of litigation to continue. Even the most radical American no-fault auto laws, for example, allow lawsuits in cases of severe injury. Second, even the more sweeping replacement schemes are usually eroded over time. Phillipe Nonet's classic study of the workers' compensation program showed how what had been envisioned as a nonadversarial, bureaucratic program evolved into a much more formal, lawyer-driven process. Creative lawyers can find ways in which to get around replacement schemes and bring lawsuits. Plaintiff lawyers, for example, have won the right to sue for some workplace injuries notwithstanding the barriers created by workers' compensation laws. Today, workers' compensation programs have drifted away from their bureaucratic design toward a more adversarial legal model. In the United States, with its aggressive and creative bar and a judiciary receptive to novel claims, the law never stands still, so that replacement systems are often eroded. Even so, replacement efforts remain the most fundamental of all attacks on litigation.
The Uncommon Politics of Resistance Resistance efforts attempt to block the creation of new forms of litigation. Unlike the other three categories, this is a relatively uncommon occurrence. Laws that create new forms of litigation are often resisted, but rarely because of worries about the adversarial legal form of social decision making. To take a famous example, southern conservatives in the 1950s and 1960s resisted civil rights laws on many grounds, but doubts about the efficacy of an adversarial legal approach to the problem of racial justice were doubtless far down the list of their concerns. Because resistance efforts—those aimed directly against the adversarial legal model as embodied by the American legal system—are relatively uncommon, it is difficult to generalize about the politics they generate.
One might expect those who decry the "litigation explosion" to make strong efforts to halt the creation of new types of lawsuits. Yet new forms of litigation are constantly being born. Courts create new species of lawsuits simply by authorizing the novel claims of litigants. When, for example, a federal judge decided that bumped airline passengers could sue for damages, a new form of litigation came into being. Of course, judges also routinely deny attempts to bring new kinds of claims like these.
Moreover, many new forms of litigation arise not from the judicial system but from legislatures. American legislatures often authorize new species of lawsuits. Consider just a few examples:
ï The so-called "plant-closings" law, enacted during the George H. Bush administration, gives employees and their unions the right to sue companies who fail to give sixty days' notice of an impending layoff.
ï Landlord-tenant laws enacted by several states allow families to sue landlords who fail to remove leaded paint from apartments.
ï Drug dealer liability laws passed in several states grant individuals, including drug users, the right to sue dealers for the damage their drugs create.
ï The 1993 Violence against Women Act created a new right to sue in federal court for various acts of discrimination. (This provision was subsequently struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.)
Of course, not all efforts to create new rights to bring lawsuits are successful; some become objects of controversy. For example, a bill granting landowners the right to sue for compensation when federal environmental laws diminish the value of their property was stalled in Congress in 1995, though several states have passed similar laws. President Clinton's attempt to create a new right for parents to sue employers who discriminate against them foundered in Congress. In the most prominent of all resistance struggles, policy makers have been wrestling over a "patient bill of rights," a law that would make it easier for patients to sue HMOs in disputes over medical treatment. Not surprisingly, the HMOs have strongly opposed this proposal.
Even when efforts to create new forms of litigation do encounter opposition, the focus is typically on the goals of the law, not the mechanism of litigation itself. Environmentalists, for example, oppose the landowner rights laws not because they have a particular aversion to litigation but because they fear that such laws will cripple environmental regulations. Opposition to new forms of litigation rarely centers on concerns about litigiousness, and it is even rarer for an opponent to counterpropose a nonlitigious mechanism for realizing the same goal. Thus the resistance category is surprisingly small.
One case that clearly fits within the category is resistance to "children's rights." Some supporters of children's rights, notably Hillary Rodham, favored granting children legal representation in divorce proceedings and even envisioned lawsuits aimed at overturning laws and policies that discriminated against children. Critics argued that giving children the right to sue could create legal chaos and that the interests of children could be better served in other ways. The critics have thus far prevailed. Indeed, even the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers—a group seemingly well positioned to benefit from the expansion of children's rights—has adopted guidelines that generally disapprove of giving children legal representation during divorce.
As this example indicates, not every proposal to extend legal rights to new groups comes to fruition. Laboratory monkeys, after all, have yet to receive legal representation, despite the pleadings of animal rights activists. American policy makers occasionally conclude that not every social problem has a litigious solution. Still, there are many more instances of creation than of successful resistance, an observation that is in itself theoretically significant. At a time when so many voices have risen up against litigiousness, how can new forms of litigation be created without much opposition? That question is addressed in the next chapter, on the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In any case, resistance efforts, though theoretically significant, play only a small part in the attack on litigation.
Defenders of Litigation My brief review of some discouragement, management, replacement, and resistance efforts suggests the formidable array of forces aligned against litigious policies. Business and professional interests constitute the main political actors in the attack on litigation, but antilitigation reformers range across the ideological spectrum, from conservative politicians, such as Dan Quayle, to left-wing proponents of community mediation.
The defense of litigation, by contrast, is a task performed mostly by those on the left side of the American political spectrum, a fact that suggests the role of litigation in American politics. As in other economically advanced nations, the left in the United States has struggled in recent years to defend the welfare and regulatory state from attack. But in the United States the left has had an additional task: defending legal rights and litigious policies. Indeed, when forced to choose, American liberals sometimes pick litigation and legal rights as a mechanism for realizing their policy goals over regulation and bureaucratic welfare approaches, a choice in keeping with the antistatist tendencies of all sides in American politics. Judicially enforced rights are a means by which liberals can promote public action on social problems without seeming to augment "government."
This ideological outlook has a correlate in the political base of the left within the United States. In many Western democracies, lawyers work primarily within the state; law is conceived as "the profession of the state." Dietrich Rueschmeyer concludes that because of this, the bar in nations such as Germany has a "civil service orientation." But in the United States the bar is not so closely tied to the state; lawyers are more closely allied with their clients, and to a large extent the bar divides politically along the lines of its clientele. As a result, the Democratic party has become the party of plaintiff lawyers—attorneys who specialize in bringing lawsuits, particularly on behalf of individuals—and the plaintiff bar has become a significant source of campaign finance for the Democrats. Moreover, the Democratic party is the home of public interest lawyers, who see litigation as a tool by which to change society. Public interest lawyers have had prominent roles in most left movements within the United States. The feminist, consumer, environmental, and civil rights movements were all had lawyers in leadership positions, and each of them has used legal rights as a primary tool in their struggles. Thus prolitigation lawyers have become an important part of the Democratic party, and the defense of litigation has become a significant enterprise of the left.
Academics Prolitigation forces have a helpful, though underutilized, base in academia. Academics, for example, effectively counterpunched against the claims of Dan Quayle and the antilitigation researchers on whom he has relied. Marc Galanter, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin, has become a kind of one-man litigation "truth squad," demonstrating that many of the figures widely quoted by tort reformers—that the United States has 70 percent of the world's lawyers or that tort litigation costs $300 billion annually—are vast exaggerations that were more or less made up. These figures still find their way into the media, but Galanter and several other sociolegal researchers have managed to draw attention to some of the defects in the tort reformers' case. Within academia, and particularly among those who most closely study tort law in action, Galanter's critical view of the tort reform movement prevails. Galanter and his fellow critics are hardly unalloyed devotees of the tort system, but they find little evidence for claims of a "litigation explosion," and they dismiss the lawsuit horror stories regularly generated by tort reformers as unrepresentative anecdotes. In the broader public debate, though, Galanter and other academic tort reform critics are outfinanced and often outgunned. Their research typically appears in specialized academic publications and is only occasionally discussed in the popular media. Moreover, there is no "prolitigation" think tank to rival the likes of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy, which supports the research of Walter Olson and Peter Huber, the "intellectual gurus of the tort reform movement," as the Washington Post once put it. Even so, defenders of the tort system have plenty of academic research to draw on to support their position.
Tort is not the only field where academics are highly critical of antilitigation efforts. Alternative dispute resolution has been subjected to a torrent of criticism by sociolegal scholars, and prolitigation academics are still active in fields such as the environment, civil procedure, and administrative rule making. One law professor, Owen Fiss, goes so far as to take an unfashionable stand "Against Settlement," and another, Judith Resnik, even casts a critical eye on efforts by judges to expedite the settlement of cases, seemingly one of the most innocuous of all the antilitigation schemes.
Lawyer Interest Groups Having some academics and some facts and figures on one's side is nice, but in American politics it is of course much more important to have interest group support. The problem for defenders of litigation is that the constituency most affected by many antilitigation reforms is amorphous: people who in the future will want to litigate their disputes. Those people do not know they are members of such a group, so one cannot expect any help from them. Those who have already litigated their disputes are not likely to organize either. The problem of undermobilization is particularly acute in areas where plaintiffs are likely to be "one-shotters"—fields such as tort and civil rights, in which litigation is usually a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the plaintiff. Who would represent such an unorganized constituency?
One answer, of course, is lawyers. Like many defendants, some lawyers are "repeat players," who are regularly involved in litigation and thus have a strong incentive to get involved in litigation politics. Then too, lawyers may be inclined by their socialization into the profession to be supportive of litigation as a means of resolving disputes.
Thus lawyers groups are central figures in many anti-litigation battles. The American Bar Association and its state analogues, the main organization of lawyers in the United States, is active on many fronts. On one hand, the ABA opposes federal tort reform, no-fault auto insurance, limitations on habeas corpus, restrictions on damages in civil rights cases, limits on citizen lawsuits and many other antilitigation proposals. The ABA has also retained a long-standing concern with access to justice, supporting increased funding and expansion of the judiciary and defending legal aid to the poor. On the other hand, the ABA has been a strong promoter of alternative dispute resolution and has also supported changes in civil procedure designed to speed the processing of cases. The ABA has more than a third of the nation's one million attorneys as members, but that size can be a hindrance. Some antilitigation issues cause splits within the ABA among plaintiff and defense lawyers. Moreover, the ABA gets involved in a vast array of issues, some of them having little to with the practice of law. No more than 10 percent of its $1.5 billion lobbying budget is devoted to antilitigation legislation.
In the high-stakes tort reform debate, the ABA is a small player. On tort issues the preeminent attorney group is the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), along with its state affiliates. ATLA is an organization of plaintiff lawyers who have an intense interest in stopping tort reforms. Thus the association's fifty-six thousand members support a larger lobbying budget than the ABA's, nearly $2.4 million in 1999. ATLA also has one of the wealthiest political action committees in the nation, contributing more than $2.6 million in the 1999-2000 election cycle; the ABA has none.
ATLA's political activities have grown as the litigation debate has developed. The group began in 1946 as an organization of attorneys concerned about the lack of effective representation of injured laborers in the workers' compensation system. Shortly afterwards, the group expanded to include the whole of personal injury law among its concerns. The plaintiff bar at the time was disrespected, disorganized, and often overpowered by better financed, better researched defense lawyers. ATLA, led by Melvin Belli, set out to raise the standards of plaintiff lawyers through diffusion of knowledge of and technique in tort advocacy. The association became an increasingly sophisticated forum for information sharing among plaintiff lawyers across the nation. Until the 1970s ATLA had little to do with legislative politics; until 1972 it didn't even have an office in Washington, D.C. But when Congress seemed about to enact no-fault auto insurance legislation, ATLA mobilized, hiring expensive lobbyists, creating its own political action committee, and eventually moving its whole operation to the capital.
Beginning with the no-fault fight, ATLA developed a disciplined legislative strategy. It stuck to bread-and-butter issues, focusing almost exclusively on tort reform. One of the association's chief arguments against tort reform was that the common law, including tort law, was a matter for judges, not the legislature and certainly not the Congress. Given this position, there was no reason for ATLA to support even favorable legislation. Thus ATLA had no "positive" agenda; it worked solely to block legislation.
With a relatively small membership and a poor public image, ATLA chose an insider approach to influencing Congress. By cultivating relationships with legislators, especially Democratic leaders on relevant committees, the organization could usually stop tort reforms from reaching the floor. The chief method of cultivation was the use of campaign contributions. ATLA's political action committee doled out millions of dollars each year, but even more money was given by individual plaintiff lawyers. ATLA didn't attempt to take on the tort reform movement with a public campaign, nor did it get involved with other issues, despite pleas from the rank and file. The architects of ATLA's strategy reasoned that, given the image of lawyers, those moves would do more harm than good, since "if the lawyers get out front, everyone beats them up." Thus they employed a "no-see-um" approach.
State-level plaintiff lawyer organizations have adopted variations on this approach, with less success. Plaintiff lawyers give millions to Democratic state legislators, making them one of the top cash constituencies of the party. Outnumbered by the conglomeration of business and professional interests on the other side, the state plaintiff lawyer associations rely on their tight relationship with the Democrats, their network of well-organized lawyers (adept, after all, in persuasion), and especially the structure of American legislatures, which creates many opportunities to block bills. At times the plaintiff lawyers have been forced into the electoral arena by ballot initiatives, where these assets have dissipated. When they have lost, the plaintiff lawyers have increasingly turned to state courts, which have overturned dozens of tort reform laws based on state constitutions.
The one advantage the plaintiff lawyers have always retained is their intensity of interest in tort reform, which has allowed them to compete politically with much more numerous and well-funded business and professional interests for whom tort is just one of many issues. Plaintiff lawyers enthusiastically defend their work. They see themselves as "equalizers" who roam through American society looking for injustice, taking the side of victimized individuals against large, uncaring institutions and in the process making a lot of money. Plaintiff lawyers are mavericks who, as one of them put it, "personify the American Dream." Unlike other attorneys, plaintiff lawyers make money only if they win their cases for clients, but the rewards of success can be high: the standard contingency fee is one-third of the damages awarded. Though many plaintiff lawyers struggle to survive in the profession, the most successful among them—who have reaped the rewards of class action lawsuits against the makers of asbestos, cigarettes, and other products—take in millions of dollars each year and so are highly motivated to defend their way of life. One oft noted example is William Lerach, a specialist in shareholder torts, whose firm in 1995 had about 250 pending lawsuits alleging more than $10 billion in damages. Lerach has contributed heavily to ATLA and other groups that oppose tort reform, hosted fund-raisers for Democrats including President Clinton and Vice President Gore, and given hundreds of thousands of dollars to legislators both in Congress and in the state of California, at one point running afoul of federal limits on campaign contributions. (Nonetheless, a law aimed squarely at Lerach's business, shareholder lawsuits against companies, was enacted during the Clinton administration, albeit over Clinton's veto.)
ATLA's insider strategy meant that for years it channeled resources toward campaign contributions and high-priced lobbyists, spending comparatively little for research or advertising. ATLA funded a few studies of tort law through the Roscoe Pound Foundation, which also conducts seminars and conferences, some of them on antilitigation issues. A Pound-funded seminar series, for example, brought state supreme court and appellate judges together for a forum on state constitutional rights. ATLA also made contributions to the Brookings Institution and the Rand Institute for Civil Justice. Overall, though, ATLA's research funding amounted to only a fraction of that provided by the tort reform movement. Nor did ATLA create advertising campaigns to counter those of Aetna and the other tort reform proponents. While Ralph Nader and several consumer groups took on the tort reformers in the media, ATLA preferred to work quietly through congressional leaders.
ATLA's strategy was undeniably successful in blocking federal tort reform legislation. Until the fall of 1994 the association could credibly claim that it had never been beaten in Congress. Reader's Digest hyperbolically acclaimed ATLA as "America's Most Powerful Lobby." Even today there are only minor blemishes on ATLA's record in Congress. The downside of ATLA's strategy, however, was that the lawyers seemed to be losing the battle of public opinion, and with it the hearts and minds of juries and judges. Detractors argued that in the long run the association would also lose with legislators. ATLA's strategy was controversial with its closest allies in the tort reform debate, public interest and consumer groups. Nader urged ATLA to become more of a grassroots, public organization—in other words, to become more like the public interest groups he had founded.
In 1994 ATLA moved modestly in this direction as Linda Lipsen, former lead lobbyist for Consumers Union, replaced Alan Parker, one of the architects of the ATLA strategy, as public affairs director. Under Lipsen the association has on occasion adopted a more public stance, with television and newspaper ads to counteract those of the tort reform groups. ATLA helped organize a coalition of opponents of tort reform called Citizens Allied for Safety and Accountability, which included unions and feminist groups. State-level plaintiff lawyer organizations have even renamed themselves to reflect a closer alliance with consumer groups: the California Trial Lawyers Association is now the Consumer Attorneys of California. Further, ATLA has moved beyond its long-standing strategy of playing "defense" and has gone on the attack, lobbying heavily for a new litigious policy, the patients' bill of rights. Nonetheless, ATLA has not become the forceful public advocate for the tort system that Nader and other consumer activists had hoped would emerge. The organization still emphasizes the "inside" game over the "outside" game.
This characterization is underscored by the plaintiff lawyers' latest and perhaps most effective tactic in the tort reform battle: in a series of cases, plaintiff lawyer organizations have argued before state courts that tort reforms violate state constitutions. These lawsuits, employing a variety of legal theories, have brought major victories in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Florida, and Oregon, where state courts have overturned important tort laws on state constitutional grounds. Altogether, from 1990 to 2000 there were at least forty-eight state court decisions holding tort reform laws unconstitutional. The genius behind the plaintiff lawyers' move to state courts is that, because state supreme courts are final in matters of state law, their decisions are immune from review by (more conservative) judges in the federal judiciary.
In fact, the only way tort reformers can overcome unfavorable state judicial rulings is by replacing the judges, a possibility that has made judicial elections—a surprisingly common mechanism for picking supreme court judges—the new battleground in the tort war. From 1994 to 2000 the amount of money contributed to state supreme court candidates more than doubled, from about $21 million to over $45 million. State supreme court candidates who raised money in 2000 averaged $430,000 in contributions, at least half of which has been identified as coming from business and legal interests. These numbers, though, hide an important fact: almost all of the contributions were concentrated in just a few states—Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and West Virginia—that feature high-profile judicial struggles over the tort system. Indeed, Alabama alone recorded more than $13 million in contributions in 2000. Beyond their contributions to candidates, business and plaintiff-lawyer groups in four tort battleground states—Ohio, Alabama, Michigan, and Mississippi—also bought their own television ads to participate directly in the election. In Ohio, where the supreme court had recently struck down a comprehensive tort reform law, business interests—in particular, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Citizens for a Sound Economy—dominated the ad war, spending nearly $2 million in direct advertising against $1 million spent by plaintiff lawyers and their labor union allies. Ohio viewers saw a total of more than twelve thousand television ads costing more than $5 million; many of the ads were devoted to criticizing or defending the judges' votes on civil liability issues. Thus ATLA's move to state courts has transferred much of the energy in the litigation debate-and loads of money—from legislative and ballot struggles to judicial campaigns, in the process transforming the politics of state supreme courts.
ATLA is the giant among plaintiff lawyer groups, but there are plenty of more specialized associations that from time to time become active in antilitigation issues. State-level workers' compensation plaintiff lawyer groups focus on workers' comp reform bills but often work closely with the trial lawyer organizations. The Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys guards against changes in the railroad employee tort system, while the National Employment Law Association fights for the rights of employees in lawsuits over discrimination, wrongful termination, and benefits.
The voice of the civil defense bar in antilitigation politics is, in contrast to the plaintiff side, muted. There are many civil defense groups that lobby at the state level, but the only civil defense interest group with a Washington office is Lawyers for Civil Justice. LCJ, which generally takes antilitigation positions, has neither the political action committee nor the big lobbying budget of ATLA. In recent years it has concentrated much of its money on class action reform and conflicts over civil procedure, though it participates in the full range of tort reform issues. Either because they lack the large incentives of the plaintiff lawyers or because they have ambivalent attitudes toward antilitigation efforts, defense lawyers are far less mobilized than their courtroom adversaries.
Aside from tort, lawyer groups seem to have the most influence in the more technical antilitigation struggles, for instance, those over civil procedure, which fail to attract many nonlegal interest groups. Where many interests get involved, as in the battle over the Patients' Bill of Rights, even the ABA is just one among many groups, with no special claim to influence. Still it is rare to find an antilitigation battle in which lawyer groups do not participate in some way.
Ralph Nader and Public Interest Liberalism Aside from lawyers, the chief defenders of litigation are representatives of public interest liberalism. As Michael McCann has argued, litigation is a primary strategy of the public interest movement, the assortment of environmental, consumer, and citizen action reform groups that grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. Reversing the view of their ancestors, the New Deal liberals, for whom courts were bastions of reactionary conservatism, public interest reformers argued that courts were needed to check the abuses of both government and corporate bureaucracies. The public interest reformers used the federal courts to gain access to political power, invigorating judicial review of administrative agencies and exercising rights of citizen enforcement of environmental laws. Thus the public interest movement was behind many of the litigious policies adopted in the 1970s.
Ralph Nader, the most influential leader of the movement, exemplifies its prolitigation aspects. Though he is most widely known today for his role in the 2000 presidential election, in the comparatively obscure world of litigation politics he is a giant. Nader has long been the most outspoken defender of litigation in America, regularly flagellating the tort reform movement in the media and providing a one-man cheering squad for tort law, the jury system, and plaintiff lawyers. Nader disparages all the major antilitigation proposals, from no-fault to ADR to tort reform. He sees these efforts as part of an attempt by corporate interests to subdue courts, the one institution in American government that he believes business does not yet fully control. Traveling from state to state, Nader has for years campaigned against antilitigation proposals with florid rhetoric and a stream of statistics. He has criticized law professors who have turned against the tort system, calling them "empirically starved" and attributing their turnaround to an interest in consulting for "perpetrators." He has spoken at conventions of plaintiff lawyers, chastising them for their willingness to "cut a deal with the likes of Aetna" on tort legislation and exhorting them to "fight the good fight" against tort reform.
For years critics charged that Nader's unequivocal prolitigation stance reflected the funding he received from plaintiff lawyers. The criticism began in the mid-seventies, when Nader appeared to waffle on the issue of no-fault auto insurance just as one of his organizations received a check from ATLA. (The check was never cashed.) In fact, Nader and the consumer groups he established were generously supported by plaintiff lawyers for many years—until the election of 2000, when Nader's candidacy for president enraged ATLA's leadership. ATLA had strongly supported Al Gore, fearing the election of George W. Bush, a proud tort reformer. Plaintiff lawyers blamed Nader for helping to tip the election in favor of Bush and excoriated him as, in the words of one, "a victim of his own ego." They pulled funding from Nader-associated consumer groups such as Public Citizen, the Aviation Consumer Action Project, and the Center for the Study of Responsive Law. Nader had once been acclaimed at ATLA conventions as a hero; now he "might need some protection" were he foolish enough to show up, according to Fred Baron, ATLA's president in 2001. For his part, Nader argued that Gore was hardly a great friend of tort law, having surrounded himself with tort "deformers," including Gore's running mate, Joe Lieberman, who had often crossed party lines in the Senate to vote for liability reform laws. Nader criticized the plaintiff lawyers for timorously clinging to the Democratic party, which he charged had failed to stand up in defense of tort law and had often betrayed plaintiff lawyers. Further, Nader insisted that the funding pullback was no great loss for him or consumer organizations.
The long-term consequences of the rupture between Nader and the plaintiff lawyers for the litigation debate are, at this point, hard to assess. There is, however, no chance that Nader will change his tune about the virtues of tort law or about litigation more broadly, for these themes go to the heart of his political philosophy. The hallmark of that philosophy is a deep distrust of both corporate and government bureaucracies. Indeed, though he does not use this language, Nader has developed a strong defense of the adversarial legal model of decision making as against the bureaucratic model. In the adversarial legal model, remember, social issues are organized as disputes between parties, and the decision makers (judges and juries in the American system) are not tightly bound to a centralized higher authority; the rules the decision makers use are themselves constantly in dispute and evolving. This contrasts with the bureaucratic model, in which low-level workers in a hierarchical system apply fixed rules laid down by their superiors. Throughout his career, Nader has demonstrated a pervasive skepticism of the bureaucratic model as embodied in both government and corporate organizations, and a corresponding love for the fluidity and unpredictability of adversarial legalism as embodied in the American legal system. Nader's first crusade, to improve the safety of American automobiles, resulted in an array of new regulations governing automakers to be administered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). But almost from the moment NHTSA began dealing with the new regulations, Nader soured on the agency. It is a pattern he has repeated throughout his career; Nader vilifies even those federal agencies his movement helped to create. Indeed Nader's antipathy toward bureaucracies can be seen in the unstructured way he manages his own organizations. One of his chief goals is to make sure that "the evils of bureaucracy do not afflict us."
Nader indicts bureaucracies on several counts. First, government bureaucracies are always vulnerable to capture by corporate interests, a phenomenon that Nader says he first witnessed with NHTSA. Second, bureaucracies corrode the moral sensibilities of those who work within them, because bureaucrats can always blame the organization or its rules for their conduct. This makes it hard to hold bureaucrats accountable for what they have done. Third, bureaucrats become distracted from their mission and worry more about their own security and comfort than doing their job well. "The greatest prejudice of a bureaucrat," Nader says, "is a vested interest in the job." For Nader, organizations are always perilous to the human spirit, always tending toward rigidity and decay, a view that makes social change through bureaucratic regulation profoundly problematic. But for everything wrong with bureaucracies, Nader sees something right with courts—and adversarial legalism.
Bureaucracies are staffed by bureaucrats, with all their vested interests; courts are staffed by juries, ordinary citizens whose connection to the organization ends when they finish their deliberations. Bureaucracies are slow to consider new issues, Nader argues, but the common law is constantly in a state of adjustment. Nader sees the "grandeur of the civil justice system" in "its incredible adaptability," which puts it at "the cutting edge of social and technical change." Bureaucracies quickly fall under the sway of powerful interests; courts give the individual a chance to take them on. "Where else," Nader asks, "can a person without any money take on General Motors?" Finally, bureaucracies reward plodding bureaucrats, while courts reward plaintiff lawyers, who heroically risk everything to confront corporate evil. "It's amazing that lawyers who labor for the victims and only get paid when they win and not when they lose, are always on the defensive," he says.
Nader believes that corporations fight so ferociously against litigation precisely because it disrupts their bureaucratic routines. Corporations, he claims, can easily adjust to the relatively small flow of money they pay out in tort lawsuits. What bothers them, Nader argues, is the unpredictability of the legal system, its threat to dig deep into their decision-making processes and expose their wrongdoing. Corporations crave predictability because it gives them control. "They want to know exactly what their exposure is, what their risk is," Nader says, "so they can translate it into the cost of doing business and reduce forever any kind of deterrent, any kind of unpredictable sting in their pocketbooks."
Given this analysis, it is not surprising that Nader disapproves even of antilitigation reforms favored by some liberals, for example, no-fault systems. No-fault, Nader argues, bureaucratizes the tort system. The dangers of no-fault, Nader claims, are illustrated by the workers' compensation system, which is staffed by risk-averse lawyers and so stands still, taking many years to recognize new and important dangers such as workplace chemical exposure. The common law, Nader claims, will always move much more quickly than a bureaucratized system.
Nader's antibureaucratic impulses are, of course, in line with the deepest traditions of American political thought. Indeed Nader's view of government bureaucracies is largely shared by his conservative critics. Nader's turn to the courts, like that of many liberal activists, is rooted in the combination of an intense desire to change society and a particularly American distrust of government. Litigation seems to offer a way out of this dilemma. Thus for Nader, as for the public interest movement generally, antilitigation proposals are anathema.
Consumer Groups Besides ATLA and Nader, the chief lobbyists against federal tort reform have been consumer groups, particularly Public Citizen, Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, the National Insurance Consumer Organization, Citizen Action, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Consumer groups are also active in state-level tort reform battles. Vastly outfinanced by their business opponents, they nonetheless can be found wherever civil liability is an issue.
Although plaintiff lawyers and consumer groups are for the most part united on antilitigation issues, there were divisions even before Nader's recent fall form plaintiff lawyer grace. Nader and Public Citizen have attacked bans on lawyer advertising and laws barring nonlawyers from performing routine legal tasks. Consumer groups, along with Nader, have criticized the trial lawyer associations for occasionally compromising on state-level tort reforms. The California "Napkin Deal," in which trial lawyers conceded several reforms, was a particularly galling example. In addition, some consumer groups have supported no-fault auto insurance, while those in the Naderite wing of the consumer movement opposed it. (Chapter 3 tells the story of the Napkin Deal and the no-fault struggle that followed it.) There is also a consumer group organized specifically to protest the high costs of legal services—HALT, an acronym for Help Abolish Legal Tyranny. The activities of HALT, however, are an exception to what has been a generally warm relationship between consumer and plaintiff lawyer groups.
Other Liberal Groups ATLA and the consumer organizations occupy the front lines in the tort battle, but other liberal groups are also involved from time to time in antilitigation struggles. Environmental public interest groups defend citizen suit provisions. Civil rights groups defend antidiscrimination laws and sometimes speak up in debates over civil procedure. Public interest groups generally oppose attempts to eliminate attorney fee provisions.
There has been less participation—and sometimes even opposition—from other members of the liberal coalition. Unions, for example, have been relatively uninvolved in tort battles in Congress. Opponents of tort reform have attempted to bring previously uninvolved groups, particularly unions and feminist organizations, into the debate. Nonetheless, the defense of tort litigation has remained a task performed almost solely by consumer and lawyer groups.
The Democratic Party The groups that defend litigation from attack are mainly aligned with the Democratic party. Thus it is not surprising that when antilitigation legislation is opposed, the opposition usually comes from Democratic legislators. In Congress and in state legislatures, battles over tort reform, civil rights, and criminal procedure occur generally along party lines, with some defection on both sides.
The final chapter of this book includes a study of congressional votes on litigious policies during the 104th Congress (1995-96), the first House controlled by Republicans in forty years. This session featured debate over a broad range of antilitigation and prolitigation measures, including bills to limit criminal appeals, attorney's fees, Clean Water Act and racial discrimination lawsuits, and tort litigation involving faulty products, stock market fraud, and medical malpractice. Each vote was largely along party lines, and on all but two of the votes—involving Republican proposals to create new rights to sue over environmental regulations—the Democrats took the prolitigation side. This pattern recurs throughout the litigation debate: where litigious policies are defended in politics, it is usually Democrats who are doing the defending.
Judges Prolitigationists sometimes find support among judges, particularly at the state level. Although many judges have embraced aspects of the antilitigation message and have become involved in ADR and other management reforms, others resist these measures, particularly those that encroach on the independence of the judiciary. Further, whereas some judges have cut back on tort doctrines, giving defendants more chance to prevail, many others have struck down legislative tort reform as unconstitutional. Indeed, as noted above, state judicial decisions have become a primary weapon of plaintiff lawyer groups in their struggle against tort reform. Thus state courts have become key allies for those favoring litigious policies.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in contrast, has repeatedly sided with antilitigation forces during William Rehnquist's tenure as chief justice. In rulings on standing, judicial review of administrative agencies, class actions, expert testimony, limitations on habeas corpus, and the constitutionality of citizen lawsuits against states, the Rehnquist Court has upheld laws or promulgated decisions that discourage litigation. The Court has struck down lawsuits under the Violence against Women Act and has restricted the range of lawsuits under a series of civil rights laws including the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. In tort the Court in BMW v. Gore for the first time struck down a personal injury liability verdict as unconstitutionally excessive. In another case, Honda v. Oberg, the Court overturned an Oregon law limiting the ability of judges to review jury awards of punitive damages. These decisions, according to former solicitor general Walter E. Dellinger, reflect "the Court's strong distrust of the private litigation process." As Lori Johnson has argued, one subset of these antilitigation decisions—the rulings on federalism—may also reflect some justices' concerns about protecting the federal judiciary from overload. The justices have voiced these concerns in testimony before Congress, in public speeches, and within the federal judiciary's own policy-making body, the Judicial Conference. In any case, the Court has emerged as a major source of support for antilitigation forces.
The Focus of This Study As this review indicates, a formidable array of interest groups, scholars, and public officials are fighting over lawsuits and litigiousness across many policy realms. The balance of this book, however, focuses on just three cases drawn from the panoply of antilitigation efforts I have described.
How can three cases represent such a diverse assortment of struggles? The answer is obvious: they can't. Representation, however, is not the purpose of what social scientists sometimes call the "small-n case study method." Instead, small-n analysis (in this study n = 3) allows the researcher and reader to evaluate theories by probing a few carefully selected cases in great depth. The small-n method is particularly appropriate when, as in this study, the central issues have not been studied before. In such a situation, lacking a base of well-developed theory and empirical research, it makes little sense to proceed to large-n statistical tests of data abstracted from the cases. With in-depth case studies, both researcher and reader can investigate more fully the events, beliefs, and institutions that shape outcomes and through this process carefully develop theories to explain these outcomes.
Successful small-n research requires careful selection of cases. My case selection is guided by several criteria. First, this study is confined to cases of serious legislative antilitigation efforts. A book that attempted to cover all judicial or contractual efforts to limit litigation would be endless. After all, many (maybe even most) lawsuits ask for an interpretation of a rule that creates new opportunities for litigation or ends old ones. The universe of judicial struggles over litigation is therefore astronomical. Similarly, private sector initiatives to limit litigation—for instance, through mandatory arbitration contracts—are ubiquitous. But beyond the need to pick from a limited universe of cases, my focus on legislative cases rests on their theoretical value. Legislative cases particularly reveal the institutional, cultural, and political sources of support and opposition to litigation in the United States. This is because legislative politics involves (1) broad participation of interest groups at varying levels of mobilization, (2) publicly available records of deliberation, and (3) extended articulation and debate about public values. Exploring the roots of the distinctively American preference for litigation demands an examination of both the ideas and the interests that support or oppose litigious policies, and legislative struggles are far more helpful in this regard than court decisions or contractual agreements.
Second, the cases are drawn from the replacement and resistance categories of antilitigation efforts. As I've suggested, these categories offer the most theoretically interesting of all antilitigation struggles because they pose the starkest choice between litigation and other modes of problem resolution. Only resistance and replacement efforts attack the core attributes of the adversarial legal model, its bilateralism, privatism, decentralization, and fluidity. Thus only by studying resistance and replacement efforts are we likely to answer most directly the question of why American policy makers choose—or choose to limit—litigious policies.
Third, in each case the policy outcomes are compared to those in other economically advanced nations. My primary explanation for the prominence of litigious policies in the United States rests on aspects of American political culture and governmental structure that distinguish it from many other nations. Cross-national comparisons help us think through this explanation. Although this study does not provide detailed comparisons, it does suggest general patterns and in so doing gives a sense of the range of policy approaches among advanced economies.
Finally, the cases vary in outcome. In a small-n study it is particularly important to study cases in which the outcomes differ in order to gain insight as to what exactly is causing what. The three cases include (1) an unsuccessful attempt to stop a new form of litigation, the Americans with Disabilities Act; (2) an unsuccessful attempt to reform an old source of litigation, auto accident personal injury law; and (3) a successful attempt to reform litigation over vaccine injuries, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Act. The case studies begin with the birth of a litigious policy, the Americans with Disabilities Act. | <urn:uuid:c27b974c-5f21-4c2b-b11b-46d52ee6345a> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520243231#read-the-introduction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721558.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00044-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955853 | 34,697 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Personal Protective Technology Conformity Assessment in the United States: Federal Activities and Perspective
D'Alessandro, Maryann Marie
MetadataShow full item record
A recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report presented various perspectives regarding the appropriate levels of assurance needed to demonstrate that each product within the wide variety of personal protective equipment (PPE) used by the nation s diverse workforce meets the standards to which it is marked. NIOSH s due diligence and strategy to develop these appropriate levels of assurance into a framework for a comprehensive conformity assessment program is being driven by addressing the following questions: How is the interest in protecting the health and safety of the American worker shared by the private and public sectors maximized? What mechanisms must be developed or enhanced to ensure proper coordination among those federal agencies having authorities in this area? What will the marketplace, particularly PPT purchasers and end users, be willing and able to realistically support? Under what circumstances is a level of independence needed in a PPT conformity assessment system? This presentation will detail the steps being taken by NIOSH and its partners to address these questions leading to the development of a comprehensive conformity assessment program for PPT capable of being fully implemented in the US. | <urn:uuid:ad3f577a-bbf5-4d5a-b192-e71c061a0092> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/42560 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280900.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00002-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925271 | 243 | 2.03125 | 2 |
The Program Development Manager works closely with Program and Services Specialists and the Judicial Branch of Education in researching, writing and developing curriculum, and policy and procedure for the Nebraska Probation System. Probation Administration highly values our Probation Staff and emphasis is placed on the innovation of training, developing and supporting highly skilled, highly trained Probation Staff.
Policy, Procedure and Curriculum Development incorporates the creation of recommendations for new policy or recommendations for modifying existing policy as it applies to programs and services. These policies and procedures guide how Nebraska Probation implements Evidenced Based Principles and Practices to our programs and services, as well as, guiding our training and development of our Staff. Probation Administration values our staff as great resources, innovators, and leaders in the criminal justice field, as they are the key to encouraging positive behavior change in others.
In adherence to Evidenced Based Practices, Nebraska Probation has implemented Motivational Interviewing as a communication style that is a client-centered, directive method for enhancing intrinsic motivation for change. Motivational Interviewing is a communication style that involves strategic use of questions and statements to help clients find their own reasons for change (Miller & Rollnick, 2002). Ongoing assessment, training and assistance are utilized to enhance probation officers successful implementation of Motivational Interviewing skills and strategies while guiding and supporting the change process.
Probation Administration offer evidenced based cognitive behavioral programming as a proven method for intervention in helping support positive change. This form of programming targets anti-social thinking, attitudes and beliefs that lead to poor decision making and criminal behavior. Cognitive Programming emphasizes replacing anti-social thinking with pro-social thinking and behavior, leading to increased possibility of achieving positive behavior change.
Approved Cognitive Programming includes:
- Preparing for Change
- Cognitive Restructuring
- Adult Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT)
- Juvenile MRT
- Sex Offender MRT
- Drive the Right Way
- Why Try (Juveniles)
- Cognitive Skill Building
- Responsible Thinking
Questions or comments about any of these areas, feel free to contact the Program Development Manager, Julie Kindler at 402.471.1751 or at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:d4df98bd-fcfb-4831-9aa0-52dae2044ae7> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://supremecourt.nebraska.gov/5504/program-development | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281574.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00021-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894194 | 459 | 1.75 | 2 |
Towards an American Baptist - Roman Catholic Dialogue
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
John A. Hardon, S.J., professor of systematic
theology at Bellarmine School of Theology, North Aurora, Ill., presented this
article as one of the introductory papers at the first conversation between
Roman Catholics and American Baptists in DeWitt, Mich.
Any approach to a dialogue between the American
Baptist Convention and the Roman Catholic Church should begin with some understanding
between the two traditions. Without such mutual understanding, there is a
risk that the intended dialogue might become a disputation, or, at the other
extreme, might never come to grips with those essentials to which we are deeply
committed as Christian communities.
Immediately a problem poses itself. How, in
so brief a space, can we do justice to the centuries of Catholic and Baptist
history or even summarize the highlights of their different theology? I have
decided to do the brave thing and presume to state briefly what I consider
the fundamentals of Baptist faith and polity, which I will then examine in
the light of Catholic thought. My hope is that in this way we shall have some
common ground for further discussion, building on principles that are of common
concern to all Christians interested in religious unity.
Distinctive Features of Baptist Belief
Historically the most striking feature of
the Baptist churches is their doctrine and practice regarding baptism. They
have consistently held that believers or adult baptism was the only form
sanctioned by the Scriptures, and for more than four hundred years this has
been the single most characteristic aspect of their tradition. Unfortunately
this preoccupation has been misunderstood. It has been easy for religious
historians, and even theologians, to take believers baptism out of context
and not see it as part of a larger issue that goes deep into the roots of
the Christian religion.
The cardinal principle of the Baptist ethos,
I believe, is spiritual liberty:
Where the freedom professed and safeguarded
covers the whole spectrum of mans personal and social existence as a religious
In Baptist parlance, a man is free when he
is not under the control of some person or abritrary power; when he is able
to think and act as a Christian without compulsion or restriction, according
to the inner light and motivation that comes of the Spirit residing in the
soul of every believer.
his acceptance of Christ as Lord and Savior should not be predetermined, as
happens where children are baptized in infancy; nor assumed to be present
when they reach maturity. But each one must himself make a personal commitment
to the Christian faith, and receive baptism only when he comes to the age
of discretion and has been duly instructed in the Gospel.
he enters adulthood, the Christian should not be required to join a particular
religious body, although conditioned by his environment or sanctioned by society.
He ought to be free to enter into voluntary association with persons of kindred
spirit, even though their number is small and their degree of agreement on
religious matters may be limited. Implicit here is the idea that religion
is part of the continuum of human existence. If a man is free to marry whom
he wishes, live where he wants, associate with whom he pleases and form whatever
organizations he desires, he should be not less but more free to do the same
in things of the spirit. Baptists have followed the principle of voluntary
association with great fidelity and often at great sacrifice, as in their
Separatist and Non-Conformist days in England.
with the freedom of religious association is the notion of liberty of ecclesiastical
affiliation, where the stress is on the absence of church authoritarianism.
Each local congregation has the right to its own autonomy. There must be no
agency above the group of covenanted believers with a right to dictate policy
or determine organizational structure.
The local church, therefore, is regarded as
a gathered company of believers, which is itself a manifestation of the one
church of God on earth and in heaven. But above this localized segment of
Christianity, no earthly power may claim divine authorization to govern the
members of the congregation. If larger groups are formed for reasons of efficiency
or good order, they are at most federations of individually sovereign communities
whose privilege of self-rule is a divine mandate.
the same category is the absence of binding creeds. All the great statements
of Baptist belief are carefully identified as confessions of faith, no more
and no less. When a group of believers join beliefs in fellowship to form
a congregation, it is assumed they share certain beliefs and may verbalize
their agreement. They may even concretize the agreement on a broad scale to
include many congregational bodies. But the resulting statement is descriptive
rather than prescriptive, and more a reflection of shared religious attitudes
than a credal profession of required articles of faith.
This kind of ecclesiastical non-credalism should
be carefully distinguished from personal libertarianism or disbelief. Baptists
have been a remarkably believing people, and among Protestants some have been
outstanding for orthodoxy. Yet they are poles apart from such bodies as the
Lutherans, for whom the Confession of Augsburg and the Catechisms of Luther
are normative of the faith, or the Presbyterians, whose recent approval of
a restatement of doctrine after years of study and top-level discussion would
be quite foreign to the Baptist mentality.
with congregationalism and non-credalism is a preference for simple worship,
or, put in another way, the avoidance of ritualism as practiced in other Protestant
bodies, notably among the Anglicans and Lutherans. The Baptist interpretation
of Christianity does not favor sacramental mediation in the strict sense.
The primary accent is on the communion of the soul with God, which is of an
inward and spiritual nature and is not brought about, even when greatly helped,
by any sacraments or divine ordinances that effectuate the communication of
grace. Thus, the ministry, though set apart with prayer and commonly with
the laying on of hands, is regarded as functional rather than priestly. And
the rites of Christian worship, including baptism and the Lords Supper, are
not productive of grace ex opere operato by reason of any causality
that is intrinsic to the rites themselves.
the Baptists have always insisted on complete separation of church and state
in order to free the church from coercion by the civil government in religious
matters of conscience. This concern is more than the familiar church and state
issue so much publicized today. It means the practical exclusion of civil
authority from entrance into questions of morality and above all, of anything
connected with an established church or preferential position of a single
religious body as in England, Sweden and Spain.
If I were to single out one feature of Baptists
policy that best typifies them in the United States, I would say it was this
concept of separation of church from the state, where the phrase from the
state is crucial. Their desire for preserving the churchs integrity is so
strong and their faith in its self-sufficiency so clear that they are willing
to leave its future in the hands of God and not entrust it, even minimally,
to the tender mercies of the state.
A Theological Analysis
I do not claim that the foregoing does full
justice to the Baptist tradition, yet I feel it is substantially accurate
as based on standard writers in Protestant religious thought. Surprisingly
a Catholic is not uncomfortable with any of the six chosen features, including
the one about confessions of faith. He can see in each one some aspect of
his own beliefs and church polity, even though he cannot subscribe to the
full implications of what Emil Brunner, referring to Baptist ecclesiology,
has called the unsolved problem of the Reformation.
In the interests of our dialogue, it will
be useful to look more closely at these Baptist characteristics, and view
them in comparison with Catholic beliefs. A ready and up-to-date witness of
Catholicism is the Second Vatican Council, on which I shall draw to make the
its Declaration on Religious Freedom, the Vatican Council made it plain that,
although the church practices infant baptism, it recognizes as a basic principle
of religion the right and privilege of every person to accept Christ as Lord
and Savior with untrammeled freedom. It is one of the major tenets of Catholic
doctrine that mans response to God in faith must be free. Therefore, no one
is to be forced to embrace the Christian faith against his own will. This
doctrine is contained in the Word of God and it was constantly proclaimed
by the Fathers of the church. The act of faith is of its very nature a free
Man, redeemed by Christ the Savior and through
Christ Jesus called to be Gods adopted son, cannot give his adherence to
Gods revealing himself, unless the Father draw him to offer to God the reasonable
and free submission of faith.
In the spirit of this freedom, the Catholic
Church commonly reserves the sacrament of confirmation for more mature years,
not unlike the years of discretion expected in the Baptist communion for believers
On the more difficult question of whether the
New Testament explicitly teaches infant baptism, Catholic theology would agree
that the biblical evidence is not clear. At this point we enter the whole
problem of scripture and tradition, which deserves careful exploration on
both sides as we move into more intimate dialogue.
unlike the preceding, Catholics are not at all committed to the kind of state-church
against which the Baptists reacted when they first formulated their concept
of voluntary, covenanted church association. In fact, the history of those
years would show that Roman Catholics in many places were placed on the same
footing as Baptist Non-Conformists and equally proscribed by the established
Again we have the Vatican Council speaking a
language that must sound familiar to Baptist ears. The freedom or immunity
from coercion in matters religious which is the endowment of persons as individuals
is also to be recognized as their right when they act in community. Religious
bodies are a requirement of the social nature both of man and of religion
Provided the just requirements of public
order are observed, religious bodies rightfully claim freedom in order that
they may govern themselves according to their own norms, honor the Supreme
Being in public worship, assist their members in the practice of the religious
life, strengthen them by instruction, and promote institutions in which they
may join together for the purpose of ordering their own lives in accordance
with their religious principles.
It is not always easy to distinguish the Baptist
insistence on voluntary association from the corresponding stress on local
church autonomy. Yet the two are quite different, and both have sympathetic
recognition in Roman Catholicism. Catholics, no less than Baptists, plead
for themselves and recognize for others the right to organize voluntarily
into religious communities without constraint from a monolithic church established
by political decree. They also vindicate among themselves, more than is commonly
known, what may be called parochial autonomy and certainly agree that other
church bodies enjoy this privilege in living out their particular polity.
Anyone who knows the history of countries like
Norway, Sweden, England and Denmark will vouch for the heavy price that the
Catholic Church has paid for insisting on the right of voluntary association
when the dominant religious culture was organized into a single ecclesiastical
entity of which Catholics preferred not to become members.
concept of local church autonomy is derived by Baptist writers from the character
of the church in apostolic times. In the words of Andrew Fuller, we learn
from the Acts and Epistles that the first churches were congregations of faithful
men; that they were governed by bishops and deacons of their own choosing;
that the government and discipline of each church was within itself.
Catholic ecclesiology carries overtones on church
polity that, while authentically Catholic, readily admit much of the Baptist
view on local autonomy. In its Constitution on the Church, the Vatican Council
spelled out this principle in clear terms.
This Church of Christ is truly present in all
legitimate local congregations of the faithful which, united with their pastors,
are themselves called churches in the New Testament. For in their locality
these are the new People of God called by God, in the Holy Spirit and in much
The privileged status of the local congregation,
which can be traced to the New Testament, is balanced in Catholic tradition
with cooperation among the parishes within a diocese and among dioceses under
the Roman Pontiff. It would be mistaken however; to conjure up a Catholic
church whose ultimate allegiance to the Pope reduces the autonomy of local
churches to a mere shadow or denies their individuality.
It is heartening, therefore, to read in present-day
Baptist writers a growing desire for a corresponding equilibrium between congregationalism
and some kind of associationism. They point out that originally the two concepts
were looked upon as a sort of mutual counterpoise. According to Samuel S.
Hill, Jr. and Robert G. Torbet, this assertion of the complete independence
of a local congregation was foreign to early Baptists. They balanced the congregational
principle of church life with a strong sense of interdependence among the
churches. In the associations which they formed, they gave expression to their
belief in the reality of the church universal to which all true Christians
belong, and they confessed their need of the wider fellowship for purposes
of mutual assistance, counsel, and fulfillment of the Great Commission.
we approach the delicate question of binding creeds, any rapport between Baptists
and Roman Catholics in the area where one tradition has no mandatory professions
of faith and the other has the reputation of anathematizing anyone who refuses
to subscribe to a defined article of belief would seem to be impossible a
priori. Yet the dichotomy is less sharp than appears at first sight. There
is a form of credalism among Baptists, and there is a deeper identification
among Christians recognized by Catholicism than the familiar stereotype.
Among Baptists the Bible is normative of the
faith. If individuals differ widely in their interpretation, yet they share
a vast body of revealed truth that is not always expressed in theological
language but on closer-analysis is a genuine credo commonly (though not uniformly)
held by covenanted believers. In fact, the typical Baptist attitude towards
adult baptism illustrates the principle that some basic credal premises underlie
the Baptist way of life, even though formalized creeds are avoided and confessions
of faith are said to be only descriptive.
On the Catholic side, credalism is balanced
by a broad understanding of Christian that deserves to be better known.
It would be hard to improve on the inclusiveness of the following statement
of the Vatican Council in its Decree on Ecumenism:
All those justified by faith through baptism
are incorporated into Christ. They therefore have a right to be honored by
the title of Christian, and are properly regarded as brothers in the Lord
by the sons of the Catholic Church.
simplicity has characterized Baptist churches from the beginning. No doubt
this was partly explained by the spiritualizing accent in their tradition,
which de-emphasized sacraments and what some have called cultic mediation.
At the other extreme, Catholicism has always
been liturgical in the deepest theological sense of the term. Its seven sacraments
and sacrifice of the Mass are central to the Catholic religion, and the current
liturgical renewal only brings out in stronger relief the importance attached
to lay participation in the ritual worship of God.
There is no easy way of telling what liturgical
developments are occurring among Protestants in the Free Church tradition,
but all evidence seems to point in that direction. I have in mind several
recent publications under Baptist auspices that recommend a reassessment of
the centuries-old attitude to the contrary.
Two dimensions of Christianity are here involved:
the prophetic and the priestly. One stresses the sermons of Christ and the
preaching of St. Paul, with insistence on change of heart, on faith, hope
and the service of God. The other concentrates on the Saviors dialogue with
Nicodemus, who was told that the Kingdom cannot be entered except by baptism
of water and the Holy Spirit, and recalls the practice described in the Acts
of the Apostles, that on the first day of the week the early Christians would
meet for the breaking of the bread and the Eucharistic liturgy.
Where the Free Churches have been solicitous
about the prophetic, I believe they are coming more and more to admit also
something of the priestly. And the Catholic Church, while sacerdotal in the
whole orientation of its thinking, neither forgets nor ignores the prior need
of fidelity to the interior movements of the Spirit. John Smyth or Roger Williams
might have written the caution: The sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire
activity of the Church. Before men can come to the liturgy they must be called
to faith and to conversion. Yet the warning was made by the Vatican Council
in its Constitution on the Liturgy.
of church and state is considered one of the pillars of the Baptist way of
life. It came into existence from the sad experience of thousands of people
in the Free Church movement who learned at first hand what it means when civil
power insists on giving to Caesar the things that are Gods. This experience
was not limited to England or the Continent; it was also part of Baptist history
in the American colonies. Roger Williams, we recall, joined with others to
form a church in Rhode Island on the basis of believers baptism and freedom
of conscience. When he first came from England to Massachusetts, he had been
a moderate Puritan, but not long after he became a convinced Separatist. Once
he denied that civil authorities have a right to intervene in church affairs,
he was expelled. Promptly he established a new colony dedicated to the principle
of religious freedom.
No doubt Roman Catholicism has been involved
in church-state alignments that go back to the early Middle Ages. Names like
Philip II and Charles V immediately come to mind. But this is not the whole
picture, either of authentic Catholic history or of the churchs ecclesiology.
Historically it is certain that civil and ecclesiastical powers were joined
in a juridical solidarity favored by Rome. The Holy Roman Empire and pre-Reformation
England in former times, and the modern states of Spain and Portugal illustrate
the fact. But too often such combinations were caesaro-papalistic, where an
apparent union of church and state was really a subordination of church to
the state. Thomas à Becket and Cardinal Mindszenty are two examples spanning
eight hundred years of courageous resistance to the states encroachment on
the churchs divine prerogatives.
In the light of their respective histories,
therefore, the Catholic and Baptist attitudes towards separation of church
and state are not so radically different as a more superficial comparison
might suggest. Both have been deeply concerned over the Gospel teaching that
the rights of God take precedence over the dictates of man; that Christians
must obey God rather than men. And both have suffered much because of this
concern. It will be a real tribute to the ecumenical movement if, out of their
mutual dialogue; Baptists and Roman Catholics will discover in each other
the workings of the same spirit of freedom, which is the Spirit of God.
Declaration on Religious Freedom, 2:10.
Andrew G. Fuller, ed., The Complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, with
a Memoir of His Life (London, 1862), p. 286.
Constitution on the Church, 3:26.
Samuel S. Hill, Jr. and Robert G. Torbet, Baptists North and South
(Valley forge, Pa.: The Judson Press, 1964), pp. 118f.
Decree on Ecumenism, 1:3.
Constitution on the Liturgy, 1:9.
Foundations: A Baptist Journal of History and Theology
Vol. 10 - #2, April - June 1967, pp. 150-158
Copyright © 1996 by Inter Mirifica | <urn:uuid:d17e105a-c41f-4837-b8e0-2c3dfeffd18a> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://therealpresence.org/archives/Christian_Unity/Christian_Unity_007.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280891.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00164-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949972 | 4,319 | 1.859375 | 2 |
The latest news about space exploration and technologies,
astrophysics, cosmology, the universe...
Posted: Jun 23, 2016
Successful first observations of galactic center
(Nanowerk News) The GRAVITY instrument is now operating with the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT - http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal/) , and even from early test results it is already clear that it will soon be producing world-class science.
GRAVITY is part of the VLT Interferometer. By combining light from the four telescopes it can achieve the same spatial resolution and precision in measuring positions as a telescope of up to 130 metres in diameter. The corresponding gains in resolving power and positional accuracy -- a factor of 15 over the individual 8.2-metre VLT Unit Telescopes -- will enable GRAVITY to make amazingly accurate measurements of astronomical objects.
This artist's impression shows stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. In 2018 one of these stars, S2, will pass very close to the black hole and this event will be the best opportunity to study the effects of very strong gravity and test the predictions of Einstein's general relativity in the near future. The GRAVITY instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer is the most powerful tool for measuring the positions of these stars in existence and it was successfully tested on the S2 star in the summer of 2016. The orbit of S2 is shown in red and the position of the central black hole is marked with a red cross. (Image: ESO/L. Calçada)
One of GRAVITY's primary goals is to make detailed observations of the surroundings of the 4 million solar mass black hole at the very centre of the Milky Way . Although the position and mass of the black hole have been known since 2002, by making precision measurements of the motions of stars orbiting it, GRAVITY will allow astronomers to probe the gravitational field around the black hole in unprecedented detail, providing a unique test of Einstein's general theory of relativity.
In this regard, the first observations with GRAVITY are already very exciting. The GRAVITY team has used the instrument to observe a star known as S2 as it orbits the black hole at the centre of our galaxy with a period of only 16 years. These tests have impressively demonstrated GRAVITY's sensitivity as it was able to see this faint star in just a few minutes of observation.
The team will soon be able to obtain ultra-precise positions of the orbiting star, equivalent to measuring the position of an object on the Moon with centimetre precision. That will enable them to determine whether the motion around the black hole follows the predictions of Einstein's general relativity -- or not. The new observations show that the Galactic Centre is as ideal a laboratory as one can hope for.
"It was a fantastic moment for the whole team when the light from the star interfered for the first time -- after eight years of hard work," says GRAVITY's lead scientist Frank Eisenhauer from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany. "First we actively stabilised the interference on a bright nearby star, and then only a few minutes later we could really see the interference from the faint star -- to a lot of high-fives." At first glance neither the reference star nor the orbiting star have massive companions that would complicate the observations and analysis. "They are ideal probes," explains Eisenhauer.
This early indication of success does not come a moment too soon. In 2018 the S2 star will be at its closest to the black hole, just 17 light-hours away from it and travelling at almost 30 million kilometres per hour, or 2.5% of the speed of light. At this distance the effects due to general relativity will be most pronounced and GRAVITY observations will yield their most important results . This opportunity will not be repeated for another 16 years.
The centre of the Milky Way, our home galaxy, lies on the sky in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) and is some 25 000 light-years distant from Earth.
The GRAVITY consortium consists of: the Max Planck Institutes for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) and Astronomy (MPIA), LESIA of Paris Observatory and IPAG of Université Grenoble Alpes/CNRS, the University of Cologne, the Centro Multidisciplinar de Astrofísica Lisbon and Porto (SIM), and ESO.
The team will, for the first time, be able to measure two relativistic effects for a star orbiting a massive black hole -- the gravitational redshift and the precession of the pericentre. The redshift arises because light from the star has to move against the strong gravitational field of the massive black hole in order to escape into the Universe. As it does so it loses energy, which manifests as a redshift of the light. The second effect applies to the star's orbit and leads to a deviation from a perfect ellipse. The orientation of the ellipse rotates by around half a degree in the orbital plane when the star passes close to the black hole. The same effect has been observed for Mercury's orbit around the Sun, where it is about 6500 times weaker per orbit than in the extreme vicinity of the black hole. But the larger distance makes it much harder to observe in the Galactic Centre than in the Solar System. | <urn:uuid:47024199-0c7c-4fa5-a3be-3869129f0415> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.nanowerk.com/news2/space/newsid=43766.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280791.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00357-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908492 | 1,161 | 3.34375 | 3 |
sandeer boy Baby Name Meaning and Definition
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- Name: Sandeer
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- Religion: Muslim | <urn:uuid:489eb685-f9f2-4d56-959e-b27a8c69956a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://weddings234.com/sandeer-boy-baby-name-meaning-and-definition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571536.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811224716-20220812014716-00275.warc.gz | en | 0.913066 | 194 | 1.8125 | 2 |
PPG Industries has introduced Solarban® R100 glass, a transparent-reflective, solar control, low-emissivity glass with better performance than competing products in the same architectural glass category.
Because it is based on the same coating technology as Solarban 70XL glass, Solarban R100 glass delivers outstanding solar performance with color-neutral, low exterior reflectance of 32 percent. Interior reflectance for Solarban R100 glass is 14 percent.
Solarban R100 glass has visible light transmittance (VLT) of 42 percent and a solar heat-gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.23 that helps architects and building owners meet stringent building codes. The glass’s 1.79 light-to-solar gain (LSG) ratio is up to 29 percent greater than that of competing transparent-reflective, solar control, low-e glasses. Because Solarban R100 glass has a lower SHGC than does Solarban 70XL glass, it has the potential to generate even greater energy savings for building owners.
Glenn T. Miner, architectural market manager, PPG performance glazings, said Solarban R100 glass was developed with input from architects seeking a better-performing transparent-reflective glass. “Solarban R100 glass has the versatility to be used in privacy glass applications and harmonizes well with spandrels and other building materials because of its neutral appearance,” he said. “More importantly, compared to similar products, it helps building owners reduce the amount of energy they use for heating, cooling and artificial lighting.”
To learn about PPG’s entire collection of architectural glasses, visitppgideascapes.com or call 1-888-PPG-IDEA (774-4332).
PPG Industries’ vision is to continue to be the world’s leading coatings and specialty products company. Founded in 1883, the company serves customers in industrial, transportation, consumer products, and construction markets and aftermarkets. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, PPG (ppg.com) operates in more than 60 countries around the globe. Sales in 2009 were $12.2 billion. PPG shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: PPG).
Solarban is a trademark of PPG Industries. | <urn:uuid:9f1fa1ac-ebb4-4add-8fd6-1599d3a7ea55> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.przoom.com/news/67479/PPG-Introduces-Transparent-reflective-SOLARBAN-R100-Glass/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279933.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00119-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907325 | 478 | 1.820313 | 2 |
A large number of people in the United Kingdom have been making investments in crypto for quite a while. People of different ages and backgrounds are making these investments. Recently, however, there has been an increase in the number of students making crypto investments. In most cases, these students happen to be from the United Kingdom. According to a large number of resources, one of the main reasons why UK-based students are making these investments is because of the financial issues they face.
You would be surprised to learn that majority of the students in the UK are knee-deep in debt and cannot seem to find a way out of their financial woes. However, there seems to be a silver lining for these students and that comes in the form of crypto. Believe it or not, crypto has proven to be a lifesaver in a large number of cases. More often than not, people end up resorting to making crypto investments in order to steer clear of their financial troubles.
Over the past two or three years, the amount of students who have been resorting to crypto for making money has increased by five or six percent. If this continues, this percentage can double. This is because the profits people have been gaining from their crypto investments have been tremendous. In some cases, students ended up taking crypto dealings as a full-time job, leaving their academics behind. Experts say that actions like these are not advisable because crypto tends to be incredibly volatile.
Sure, the cryptocurrency you may have invested in seems stable for now, but it only takes a matter of hours for the volatility to increase. This is where enthusiasts should be very careful and make sure that they make their investments at just the right time. According to some reputable resources, not all of the students making investments in crypto are facing financial issues. Some of them are just doing it as a side activity in order to make ends meet.
As knowledge regarding crypto becomes more widely available, more and more people will enter this landscape and eventually turn up massive profits. However, this may not happen immediately, but it definitely is something to look out for. The amount of students in the UK has increased significantly over the past few years, which is why you can expect the percentage of crypto investments to increase as well.
Students who have been active participants in the crypto world claim that making crypto investments pays off better than part-time jobs. While this may be true, it would be better if investors practiced patience with their crypto-related endeavors. | <urn:uuid:dfd7fc39-6ca6-4c27-b852-071f1fa83544> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.thenextbitcoin.net/students-in-u-k-are-utilizing-crypto-to-battle-financial-issues/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00677.warc.gz | en | 0.979748 | 499 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Struggle & Contradiction in 4 different dimensions – that is how I can summarize the trend in social media.
- Open Web vs. Walled Social Media
- Social Media Usage vs. Social Media ROI
- Adding Social Dimension to Search vs. Biasing the Search Result
- Media Convergence vs. Social Media Proliferation
Having said that I need to admit that in another dimension there is no struggle, no contradiction – it is going up … up … up.
Usage of Social Media through Mobile
Whichever statistics you look at – whatever prediction you see; more people are accessing social media sites through their smartphones and tablets. More social media applications are getting downloaded. This trend is not going to decelerate in the near future.
The State of Media: The Social Media Report – Q3 2011 from Nielsen brings out these interesting facts:
- Close to 40% user access social media content from their mobile phone
- Next to GPS, social networking is the most valued feature in a smart phone
- In last one year, Social Networking App usage has gone up by 30%
- Social Networking Apps are third most popular app category after Games and Weather
- Over twice as many people aged 55+ visited social networking site from their mobile phone compared to last year
Another interesting piece of stats appear in eWeek:
Of Facebook’s 845 million users, 425 million of them used Facebook’s mobile apps or its mobile Website in December 2011, up from the 350 million that Facebook reported last.
This clearly shows that mobile usage is growing faster than Facebook’s desktop usage.
1) Open Web vs. Walled Social Media
Till Facebook came in, web was mostly open. Two of the key drivers behind the success of the Web are (1) the ease with which pages can be hyperlinked irrespective of where it is hosted and which site it belongs to and (2) the ease with which you can search a specific page which has been indexed by search engine mainly Google.
However, most social media especially Facebook do not allow Google to search and index their pages. Even if you have access to specific pages in Facebook, you will not be able to search and find those pages using Google. You will necessarily have to login to Facebook and do the search. This is not true for sites like Wikipedia.
But, is that not a fight between Facebook and Google? Anyway, this is true for most sites which require a login. So, what is the big problem?
You may not want to classify this as a problem but you need to acknowledge that this is a big change because people are spending more and more time inside their favorite Social Media which is likely to be Facebook. What you do inside Facebook and what you do outside becomes almost two different worlds with very little linkage.
The question is:
Will this division increase in the coming future and make the web into multiple walled gardens?
Will social media become more open preserving the open nature of the web?
This issue was first raised by Tim-Berners Lee more than a year back but has again become a point of debate because of the coming IPO of Facebook. The views differ from “this is a serious problem” to “users don’t care” to “it is not a big problem” to “we need to do something about it”.
2) Social Media Usage vs. Social Media ROI
Look at these stats:
- Facebook has more than 0.8 billion users (see Wikipedia)
- Use of Social Business Software will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 38% through 2014 (see this)
- Social Network and Blog continue to dominate time online accounting for 22.5% (see this)
- 57% of the SMB surveyed plan to use social media marketing, an increase of 7% from the prior year (see this)
On every count social media use is not only increasing but increasing very fast. There is also no shortage of expert opinion on the necessity of increasing social media presence like “how social media is indispensable to news reporting” to “why social commerce will take off in 2012” to “why business won’t be able to afford NOT to use social media for marketing”.
This should translate into clear measurable benefit of social media influence … right?
There are several studies which put a dampener on this enthusiasm. Here are 2 of them which paints not so rosy picture of impact of social media.
- Facebook is unlikely to correlate directly to near-term sales – Forrester
- Only 12% of the consumer turn to social media for purchase decision – Cone Trend Tracker
So, on one hand –
You feel that social media cannot be ignored and you need to be present and invest in it.
On the other hand –
You are worried about how to justify the investment.
BTW: Do you have to justify ROI on email?
3) Adding Social Dimension to Search vs. Biasing the Search Result
If you have to point out one company that is the prime source of the two contradictions mentioned above, it is obviously Facebook.
However, for this point it is Google is the prime mover.
To counter the influence of Facebook, Google has decided to go social, that is, to add a social dimension to everything that it does. Therefore, the search results have started showing so-and-so has either shared or liked this result. It has even started saying that you yourself have shared or +1ed this link.
Is this good?
Because you immediately get the opinion of people you know and probably trust.
Or, is this bad?
Because you are stuck in a close loop where “A” influences “B” and “B” influences “A” creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Only time will tell.
4) Media Convergence vs. Social Media Proliferation
Traditional TV and the internet will probably converge and reshape the way we choose how, when and why we watch television. All of our media devices including our television sets, computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones could come together to offer us more social and sharable television experiences that we can enjoy whenever we want. Many of us are no longer consuming digital content on a single device. We now have two screens when consuming media (TV + laptop, tablet + Phone etc) and the lines between those devices will become even more blurred. Instead, we tweet on our laptops while viewing a TV program, watch another show on their tablet during a commercial or look up lyrics on our smartphones while listening to a song on the radio.
As consumers begin to access digital content from a wider variety of devices — including, most recently, smartphones and tablets — publishers are beginning to offer subscription packages that allow them to access content on all of those devices for one flat fee. Because of the acceleration of print to Tablet swap, the smart traditional publications are already making the transition, but many will get left behind as printed media will quickly become obsolete as time passes.
This is one side of the picture.
Because of the dominance of Facebook, the other side of the picture is slightly obscure and not clearly visible. There is no doubt the Facebook is huge compared to all the other rivals. But, look at some of these statistics:
- LinkedIn 277% More Effective for Lead Generation than Facebook & Twitter (see this)
- YouTube hits 4 billion daily video views (see this)
- Twitter is the most popular social media channel with content marketers (see this)
- Google+ Hits 100 Million Users and may reach 400 million by year end (see this)
- Pinterest Becomes Top Traffic Driver for Retailers (see this)
- Tumblr is the emerging social media player nearly tripling its audience in one year (see this)
Granted, these platforms put together may be smaller than Facebook but you have to admit that there is proliferation happening in social media with niche players emerging. The problem is they do not talk to each other. Therefore…
Different media are converging.
The problem is that –
Social media are diverging and they are not interoperable…the walled garden effect that we had talked earlier.
Will we see a Social Media Black Swan in 2012?
No, I am not talking about Black Swan the movie; I am talking about the “Black Swan Theory” proposed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Till the black swan, a member of the species Cygnus Atratus, was described scientifically by English naturalist John Latham in 1790, people thought swan could only be white.
Similarly, there are unexpected and unpredicted events happen in technology evolution which takes us by surprise. The event has a major impact and we try to rationalize as if it could have been expected.
Are we going to witness any such event around Social Media in 2012? | <urn:uuid:9ee7b9bb-bfe2-418f-8dab-7eac9e325144> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://setandbma.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/social-media-trend/ | 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 | 0.942788 | 1,850 | 1.820313 | 2 |
From Mahwah to Moscow – North Jersey’s Trolley Era via Model and Memorabilia
Presented at the Old Station Museum, 1871 Old Station Lane
Sundays 2:00-4:00pm, starting June 26th
In an era before most people could afford automobiles, the trolley provided economical mass transit. Dreamt to run from Suffern through Paterson, the North Jersey Rapid Transit Trolley ran from 1908 and 1928. Its unfortunate demise came when two trolley’s collided tragically head-on in Glen Rock. Yet, the tracks lived on to service the Trans-Siberian Railway that ran from Moscow to Vladivostok. See the fascinating trolley artifacts of the North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society on special loan from the Liberty Historic Railway. View the incredible one-of-a kind, exact-to-scale Hollis Bachman Model Trolley Collection, and delight in the moving miniature NJRT trolley railway. Mahwah’s 1929 Erie Caboose will also be open for special viewing during this exhibit. See it all at the Old Station Museum located at Old Station Lane, adjacent to the Mahwah train station, Ramapo Avenue. Open Sundays 2pm – 4pm, June 26 – Sept 26. Suggested donation $3.00 adults, children free.
Dream of the trolley in Northern Bergen
In 1908, Cragmere was designed to be a planned suburban development, one of the first such communities in New Jersey and, partly in response, a trolley line was envisioned to run from Suffern down to Paterson, an industrial center. It would then continue onward through Rutherford and Hoboken and finally into New York City, providing a needed commuter line. The project was started in East Paterson and by the summer of 1910 the line was completed to Ridgewood. The full line from Suffern to Paterson opened in June 1911. The system was 15 miles long and cost less than $2 million to construct. The line never expanded beyond Paterson and after only a few years of operation, a tragic head-on collision precipitated the end of the NJ Rapid Transit line. The tragedy, coupled with the emergence of competitive bus lines and the increasing popularity of the private automobile, spelled the demise of the Trolley. Rail Operation for the North ceased on New Year’s Eve, 1926. Ultimately, the NJRT rails that were ripped up were shipped to Russia to become part of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, which would become the world’s longest electric railway at 6,000 miles long. So, despite the short operation period, the NJRT lines themselves survive. The Trans-Siberian Railway was completed in 1916 connecting Moscow, on the western edge of Europe, to Vladivostok, on the eastern edge near the Sea of Japan.
Hollis Bachman Trolley Collection
The Mahwah Museum features a display of one-inch-scale models of North Jersey Rapid Transit (NJRT) trollies created by Hollis Bachman, a mechanic by trade and a trolley enthusiast. Following a blueprint of the original, he created models using tin cans, pieces of antique glass with detailed parts, including doors that fold back, seats that reverse, and windows that raise and lower. The Museum acquired an extensive set of Bachman trolley models, which are currently on display at the Old Station Museum at 171 Old Station Lane, adjacent to the Mahwah Train, as part of the North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society and the Liberty Historic Railway exhibit.
The display includes scale models of various types of trolley cars which operated in New Jersey. The display also offers a rich collection of streetcar memorabilia and artifacts including an operator’s uniform, badges, books, publications, postcards, phones, tickets, lanterns, and hardware.
The Mahwah Museum, in conjunction with the North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society and Liberty Historic Railway, invite you to visit the new exhibit at the Old Station Museum, 1871 Old Station Lane, Mahwah, From Mahwah to Moscow, Mahwah’s Trolley past. The display includes scale model trolleys by Hollis Bachman, and other NJ trolley model cars, streetcar memorabilia, operator uniforms, photos, tickets, lanterns, hardware, fare boxes, signage and more. | <urn:uuid:9da5e56c-cfaf-4046-9f33-e5a42e966c6a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://mahwahmuseum.org/event/north-jerseys-trolley-era-via-model-and-memorabilia-at-the-old-station-museum-4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571097.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810010059-20220810040059-00264.warc.gz | en | 0.942395 | 894 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Will the state’s failed fishing license program be reformed to protect jobs?
This is the question on the minds of California’s 2.7 million anglers and an outdoor industry that is dependent on them for jobs and more than $4.6 billion in annual economic activity.
Since 1980, California’s annual fishing license sales have declined by more than 55 percent, while California’s population increased by more than 60 percent. Given that California has one of the nation’s longest coastlines and thousands of rivers and lakes, its fishing participation rate should not be ranked (per capita) dead last among all 50 states — but it is.
There are many reasons for declining participation rates. Among them is a costly and antiquated fishing license program. In 1980, annual licenses cost a mere $5. Today, it costs $47.01, not including the additional cost of permits and stamps that can double its price.
California’s calendar-based license is even less appealing to anglers given that it expires on Dec. 31 every year, regardless of when it was purchased. Just imagine if you purchased a car in October, only to renew your registration for a second time two months later. No other product or service is marketed this way.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (DFW) “get less for more” marketing plan does not recognize anglers as consumers, and this is evident in its sales reports. No business would ignore a 55 percent decline in sales. An emergency board meeting would be held; the CEO would be fired. But no, not in California.
As if doubling down on a failed practice, DFW continues to bite the hand that feeds it, for the consequences of this failed marketing plan extends well beyond the future of recreational fishing.
Fishery and conservation programs are also at risk as fishing license sales fuel the Fish and Game Preservation Fund, which is facing an unprecedented $20 million deficit. This deficit will only grow as federal funding, assessed by the number of licenses sold, is reduced as annual license sales continue to decline.
While DFW ignores this reality, an unprecedented coalition of statewide associations representing business, labor, travel, hospitality, marinas and boat manufacturers are calling for reforms. Like throwing chum in the water to attract fish, California’s outdoor industry recognizes that anglers need incentives to continue fishing and the state Legislature appears poised to make change.
To increase fishing participation rates and sales, Sen. Tom Berryhill, R-Fresno, has introduced Senate Bill 187. It will establish a fishing license valid a full 12 months from the date of purchase, very much the same as in 11 states and Mexico.
Such reform could be the solution to California’s failing fishing license system. Texas implemented a 12-month fishing license in 2005, and from 2012 to 2016, it experienced a 11.8 percent increase in sales and a 12.5 percent increase in revenue (or $1.9 million). Other states have had similar success.
Fishing’s future is dependent on whether Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Long Beach, who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, allows SB187 to advance to the Senate floor this week.
If Lara and other Southern California representatives in Sacramento consider the interests of their constituents, it will, for these reforms take on added importance for Los Angeles County, which has more licensed anglers than any other California county and 17 states.
It is time for California to adopt a sensible approach to increasing fishing participation rates and economic activity by making fishing licenses valid a full 12 months from the date of purchase. Those who enjoy fishing, and appreciate the jobs it supports, should be compelled to contact Sen. Lara and urge him to help.
Marko Mlikotin is executive director of the California Sportfishing League. | <urn:uuid:aa301918-3242-41bc-a5f1-d9a2d9f88ef0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.presstelegram.com/2017/05/24/change-in-state-law-could-help-fishing-industry-reel-in-jobs-guest-commentary/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573744.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819161440-20220819191440-00476.warc.gz | en | 0.941485 | 789 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Pulmonary vein ablation has not gained recognition as a "cure" for atrial fibrillation so a new approach would be welcomed.
With the aging of the general population, the prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) is steadily increasing. Pulmonary vein ablation as treatment for AF is currently favored and in widespread use. The success rate of this procedure in “curing” AF, however, remains marginal and additional diagnostic tools are needed to predict which patients may benefit most from this invasive therapy.
Presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the Delayed Enhancement-MRI Determinant of Successful Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation, or DECAAF, study attempted to address this question.
Pre-procedure MRI was obtained in 260 patients with AF, including 65% with paroxysmal AF, to identify the degree of atrial remodeling and fibrosis, which can create a nidus for the arrhythmia. The amount of fibrosis was used to classify the patients into 4 groups (stage 1 through 4); adjustment was made for demographic variables, comorbidities, type of AF, volume of the left atrium, and left ventricular ejection fraction.
In the multivariate model, the extent of atrial fibrosis emerged as the only significant predictor of recurrence of AF post-procedure (each 1% increase in atrial fibrosis increased the post-ablation risk of recurrence by 5.8%). For patients with <10% fibrosis, approximately 85% were free from AF at 1 year follow-up compared with only 31% who were AF-free if atrial fibrosis was ≥30%.
Not only does this study have implications for predicting the success of this procedure, it also suggests that the location of the ablation therapy, which has traditionally targeted the pulmonary veins, can instead now be guided by MRI-identified fibrosis.
For patients with AF who cannot be successfully managed with medical therapy, ablation is often indicated. A discussion with patients who are potential candidates may soon include information about pre-procedure cardiac MRI and its role in predicting the success of the ablation and in localizing fibrosis in order to better direct therapy.
DECAAF: Targeting MRI-identified fibrosis during ablation improves outcomes | <urn:uuid:4045e563-a51e-44a2-a02a-46073f09d237> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.patientcareonline.com/view/ablation-therapy-atrial-fibrillation-role-mri-predicting-success | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.959958 | 492 | 1.734375 | 2 |
|1. Project Data:
ICR Review Date Posted:
Project Costs(US $M)
Loan/Credit (US $M)
Sector, Major Sect.:
|Water supply, Sewerage,
Water sanitation and flood protection; Water sanitation and flood protection
Cofinancing (US $M)
Board Approval (FY)
||George T. K. Pitman
||Alain A. Barbu
|2. Project Objectives and Components:|
a. ObjectivesThe overall objective of the project was to: strengthen the management and operation of AQUA (Municipal Company AQUA S.A. Bielsko-Biala), upgrade water supply and wastewater collection services, improve the living standard and protect the health of the people of Bielsko-Biala, and expand wastewater treatment to contribute to the clean up of the region’s water resources.
The specific objectives of the project were to:
a) Improve the safety, reliability and quality of water supply services of Bielsko-Biala by upgrading the functioning of water treatment plants and the water transmission and distribution networks;
b) Improve the efficiency of water production, transmission and distribution systems and lower operating costs through operational improvements, reduction of unaccounted for water, and demand management;
c) Improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of the wastewater collection system including pumping stations through works rehabilitation/replacement and inflow/infiltration reduction;
d) Reduce pollution of local surface water by reductions in combined wastewater overflows, and the Biala river by providing full biological treatment to all wastewater generated in the AQUA service area; and
e) Enhance the Borrower’s institutional capabilities.
b. Components (or Key Conditions in the case of Adjustment Loans):A. Water Supply (appraisal cost US$9.5 million, actual cost US$12.3 million).
B. Wastewater (appraisal cost US$19.8 million, actual cost US$26.0 million).
- Expand/improve service to Zlote Lany area;
- Upgrade existing Wapienica, Szczyrk and Sola (also referred to as Kobiernice) water treatment plants; and
- Undertake a program of rehabilitating and improving efficiency of transmission-storage-distribution systems including leak detection.
C. Technical Assistance and Training (appraisal cost US$1.0 million, actual cost US$1.5 million).
- Expand Wapienica and Industrial wastewater collectors;
- Expand Komorowice treatment plant capacity by 60,000 m3/day and complete Wapienica (capacity 8,000 m3/day) treatment plant including primary as well as secondary treatment; and
- Undertake a program for improving the efficiency of the wastewater collection system including: rehabilitation and replacement, inflow/infiltration reduction, pumping station refurbishment and reduction of combined wastewater overflows.
Institutional strengthening through introduction/improvement of organizational structures, cost accounting systems, management information and control systems, tariff setting and management, demand management, commercial operations, personnel management, business planning and asset management.
D. Engineering Design and Construction Supervision (appraisal cost US$5.0 million, actual cost US$3.8 million).
- Identification, design and implementation of cost effective programs for water and wastewater system rehabilitation and operations improvement; and
- Preparation of studies, final designs, tender documents and supervision of construction for all investment components.
c. Comments on Project Cost, Financing, Borrower Contribution, and DatesThe actual total project costs are 23% higher than the appraisal estimate. This is because AQUA has financed more investments than were anticipated at project appraisal. Disbursements under the Bank Loan were lower because of AQUA's strong financial position (AQUA decided not to utilize all of Bank funds). The project closed after a two year delay. However, the ICR does not discuss the reasons for the delay.
|3. Relevance of Objectives & Design:|
The project objectives were consistent with the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) dated October 20, 1994. The CAS listed environmental improvement as a major challenge for Poland. According to the CAS, the water supply and waste water management project would be instrumental in achieving improved quality of water supply and would help reduce the amounts of pollutants introduced into the rivers downstream. The project objectives remained relevant throughout the life of the project. The November 13, 2002 CAS notes that while much progress has been made in terms of upgrading waste water treatment and management systems, solid waste treatment and management is still not planned or managed in a comprehensive way in many smaller gniinas. Moreover, water supply and waste water systems are important infrastructure needs for quality of life of the population at large and for business development.
The overall project objective "improve the living standard and protect the health of the people of Bielsko-Bialawas" was too general and the project design included no data to support these broad claims. The specific objectives were too detailed, each with several sub-objectives, which are more appropriate as project performance indicators. The projects cost benefit analysis, institutional risk analysis, and poverty analysis was inadequate.
|4. Achievement of Objectives (Efficacy) :|
The project achieved its overall objective of strengthening the management and operation of AQUA, upgrading the water supply and wastewater collection services, protecting the health of the people of Bielsko-Biala, and expanding the wastewater treatment to contribute to the clean up of the region’s water resources (see details below). Regarding the sub-objective of improving the living standards of the people of Bielsko-Biala, the ICR provides no evidence.
Improve the safety, reliability and quality of water supply services of Bielsko-Biala by upgrading the functioning of water treatment plants and the water transmission and distribution networks.
Achievement was High. During the period 1995-2005, the quality of water supplied has improved significantly. Turbidity has decreased from 5 to 1 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU); color from 20 to 15 true color units; iron from 0.5 to 0.2 mg/l; and manganese from 0.1 to 0.05 mg/l. At project closing, AQUA's drinking water quality met all WHO guidelines.
The reliability of water supply has also been improved through organizational changes, training of staff and provision of additional equipment for repairing breakages. In 1995 the incidence of interruptions was 2970 in 1298 km pipeline (or 2.29 interruptions per km) compared to 2004 when 2287 interruptions occurred in 1784 km pipeline (or 1.28 interruptions per km).
Improve the efficiency of water production, transmission and distribution systems and lower operating costs through operational improvements, reduction of unaccounted for water, and demand management.
Achievement was Modest. Operational improvements were achieved through increased automation and introduction of better control systems. The number of employees were reduced from 2.9 per 1000 people served in 1996 to 1.4 in 2002, compared to 2.5 as projected at appraisal.
The projected reduction in unaccounted for water has not been achieved despite significant investments in distribution system rehabilitation which, particularly, has focused on replacement of old unprotected steel pipes. At project closing, unaccounted for water remained high at 47% compared to 35% estimated at the beginning of the project in 1996. The major reasons for AQUA's high unaccounted for water are the very low quality of distribution mains (unprotected steel and cast iron pipes) laid in the past and improved pressure conditions in the distribution networks and the addition of 145 km of poor quality water mains in the system.
The per capita water demand has decreased by about 60 percent or from about 180 to about 105 liters per day during the period 1996-2002 because of the decline in industrial consumption and also because increased domestic water and wastewater tariffs reduced consumption (water tariffs increased by 50% and wastewater tariffs increased by 65% above appraisal targets). Thus even though proportion of unaccounted for water has increased, there has been an overall saving of 25%.
Improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of the wastewater collection system including pumping stations through works rehabilitation/replacement and inflow/infiltration reduction.
Achievement was High. Wastewater collection coverage, in percentage of population served, has increased from 83% to 89% in 2002 in the original service area. AQUA's service area has expanded as the company has secured new customers in outlying low density areas, where on-site sanitation facilities currently predominate including the larger area. The overall wastewater service coverage is 82%. Inflow/infiltration, as percentage of total flow, has been reduced from about 74% in 1998 to about 47% in 2003 as concluded through measurement of incoming flows to the wastewater treatment works.
Reduce pollution of local surface water by reductions in combined wastewater overflows, and the Biala river by providing full biological treatment to all wastewater generated in the AQUA service area.
Achievement was High. The annual occurrence of combined wastewater overflows has been reduced from over 20 to less than 10 (according to the current regulations). This has been made possible through reductions in inflow/infiltration but also through improved operation and design/structural changes of overflow chambers.
Full biological treatment has been extended from 38% to 100% of wastewater collected in the service area. The performance of the treatment works complies with relevant specifications and requirements for treated wastewater as prescribed under EU regulations and stipulated in a water permit.
The quality of the Biala river water has improved, BOD5 has decreased from about 50 mg/l in 1994 to about 4.2 mg/l in 2004 (after completion of wastewater treatment works extensions).
Enhance the Borrower’s institutional capabilities.
Achievement was Substantial. New accounting and management systems and procedures have been introduced. Moreover, customer services regarding applications, service agreements and complaints has been computerized. Annual business planning was introduced in 2000 and has become AQUA's overall planning tool for identification and scheduling of activities to be implemented.
No ERRs were estimated at appraisal or completion for this project. The Financial Rate of Return (FRR) at appraisal was estimated at 23%. The ex-post FRR shows a much higher FRR of 36%.
|6. M&E Design, Implementation, & Utilization:|
The project design included adequate output and performance monitoring indicators such the reduction of unaccounted for water, increase of wastewater treatment capacity, and reduction of the employees per thousand population served and targets were set to monitor the achievement of these indicators. Targets were also set for residential and industrial water and wastewater tariffs and working ratio. These indicators were monitored during project implementation and presented in the ICR. The monitoring of water quality has been improved through extended laboratory capacity (EU certification is expected) and introduction of a SCADA (Supervisory Conrol and Data Acquisition) system as well as of a system indicating raw water parameters.
|7. Other (Safeguards, Fiduciary, Unintended Impacts--Positive & Negative):|
No safeguard impacts were noted in the ICR.
Unintended impacts - although private sector involvement had not been envisaged when the project was
appraised, in 1999 United Utilities (then with International Water) became a strategic investor in
AQUA. Since January 1998, AQUA has been a public company quoted in Poland's secondary trading market.
Reason for Disagreement/Comments
|Highly Satisfactory||Satisfactory||"Sat." rather than "Highly Sat." because the projected reduction in unaccounted for water has not been achieved despite significant investments in distribution system rehabilitation which, particularly, has focused on replacement of old unprotected steel pipes. At project closing, unaccounted for water remained high at 47% compared to 35% estimated at the beginning of the project in 1996. |
|Highly Likely||Highly Likely|
|Highly Satisfactory||Highly Satisfactory|
Quality of ICR:
- When insufficient information is provided by the Bank for IEG to arrive at a clear rating, IEG will downgrade the relevant ratings as warranted beginning July 1, 2006.
- ICR rating values flagged with ' * ' don't comply with OP/BP 13.55, but are listed for completeness.
Twinning with established private sector water utilities was effective in raising managerial and service standards.Public-private partnerships can be a good model for building successful water utilities. AQUA created a sound financial basis and took advantage of the knowledge and experience of international firms to strengthen the utility and prioritize and design its investment program.
- Quality engineering is cost effective.A "Soviet bloc" legacy of unprotected steel water pipes requires expensive, long-term replacement. The past practice of using unprotected steel pipes (even small sizes were not galvanized) has resulted in badly corroded water distribution networks with high levels of physical water losses, higher than necessary pumping costs and loss of revenue. Correcting this problem is costly and requires replacement of major portions of the water networks.
|10. Assessment Recommended? Yes|
Why? For two reasons: (i) to verify project ratings, and (ii) high unaccounted for water is clearly an area of concern and the field assessment would look at whether the initial level was underestimated or perhaps different/higher standards were applied under the new management.
|11. Comments on Quality of ICR:|
This is a satisfactory ICR overall, but it has a few shortcomings. The discussion on quality at entry could have been strengthened. The ICR does not discuss the reasons for the two year delay in project closing. And it provides no evidence regarding the achievement of the sub-objective of improving the living standards of the people of Bielsko-Biala. | <urn:uuid:2bb97623-2614-4e01-8ec1-c4d996955345> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://lnweb90.worldbank.org/oed/oeddoclib.nsf/DocUNIDViewForJavaSearch/8525682E006860378525709D0044051E?OpenDocument | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280761.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00098-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938767 | 2,898 | 1.6875 | 2 |
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It's important to get regular cardiovascular exercise for your overall health, but it doesn't matter how you get your cardio. You can choose from a variety of activities like jogging, cycling or swimming. But if you have limited space, running in place is an equally good option.
According to Len Kravitz, Ph.D., of the IDEA Health and Fitness Association, cardiovascular exercise can improve cholesterol and triglyceride levels, reduce the risk of osteoporosis, increase heart function and improve muscle mass. Both the American College of Sports Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that people get 20 to 60 minutes of cardiovascular exercise three to five days a week to improve cardiovascular endurance.
Running in Place
Tommy Boone, Ph.D, of the American Society of Exercise Physiologists defines cardiovascular exercise as "any type of exercise that increases the work of the heart and lungs." Running in place can be just as good a form of cardio as other forms of running. Whether you run on the road, on a treadmill or simply in place, you can get a good cardiovascular workout so long as you keep your heart rate up.
When you run on the road, a track or a treadmill, you can use your pace or speed to gauge how hard you are working out. When you run in place, you obviously cannot use this measure, but you can rely on your heart rate. Use a heart rate monitor to try to stay in your target zone. Calculate your target zone by subtracting your age from 220 and multiplying by 70 percent. For example, if you are 30, you would subtract 30 from 220 to get 190. You would then multiply 190 by 70 percent to get a target heart rate of 133 beats per minute.
Although running in place is a convenient activity you can do inside or outside, it may become boring if it is the only cardio workout you do. Consider alternating it with other activities like road running or jumping rope to keep yourself interested. | <urn:uuid:318de738-6c04-40eb-aeb5-65aede7627e5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://au.rottweiler-delbracciale.com/4115-is-running-in-place-a-good-cardio-exercise.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00674.warc.gz | en | 0.93749 | 435 | 2.953125 | 3 |
'The disproportion in youth mental health issues is particularly alarming'
What are the core concepts of mental health? That’s exactly what a study (Manwell LA, 2015) was commissioned to answer but concluded with no consensus and more research required. What there is a consensus on, is that the copious studies and poll results are all “depressing,” especially when it comes to youth mental health.
One widely accepted mental health definition is “the psychological state we are functioning at emotionally, behaviorally, and physically to adequately cope with the normal stresses of day-to-day life and realize our full potential.”
Whatever definition you choose, there is no question that our mental health impacts the decisions we make which, in turn, impacts every aspect of our lives.
The disproportion in youth mental health issues is particularly alarming. One recent survey (Poll, 2022) found that 33.3 per cent of respondents between 18 to 34 sought help for their mental health during the pandemic, compared to 19.5 per cent between 35 to 54 and 5.9 per cent 55 and older. Those are the respondents who admitted they sought help for their mental health. How many did not?
This disproportion, which could be attributed to more young people coming forward, is a troubling trend that began long before COVID. The advent of the internet introduced a myriad of mental health related issues, including self esteem, sleeping disorders, cyber bullying, gaming addiction, and social interaction. It cultivated isolation and a decrease in physical activity further exacerbated when governments mandated isolating and shutting down schools, gyms, and sports.
Adding to the dilemma of tackling mental wellness in the workplace is the stigma surrounding it. Another study (Dewa, 2014) found that 38.6 per cent of employees would not tell their employer if they were experiencing a mental health problem. Even more disturbing is that a staggering 82 per cent (Miller, 2006) of employees with mental health issues admit it impacts their work while only 53 per cent (Miller, 2006) of those with physical health issues say it impacts their work.
So, it should come as no surprise that mental health in the workplace has become a leading issue facing employers. One of the hardest hit industries since the pandemic began has been the service hospitality industry which also happens to be the industry where most young people get their first jobs.
Until now, mental health has not been part of the workplace hazard risk equation. Managing risk has been concentrated on identifying physical hazards and mitigating them with engineering, administrative and personal protective equipment controls.
When mental health is assessed, it most often involves a third-party supervisor or evaluator. This is problematic for two reasons: the potential for evaluator bias, and the employee may not want to disclose their personal mental health issues. Eliminating evaluator bias and offering anonymity are both key to accurate and honest responses.
SWIFT recently conducted a focus group with eight organizations in the service hospitality industry and concluded that the process for assessing hazards was completely disjointed, confusing, and frustrating for managers and supervisors, not to mention the employee. A formal process for assessing mental health was non-existent.
Combining workplace hazards and mental health to calculate risk level is the genesis for SAHARA, a new patent pending program developed by SWIFT Learning, a social enterprise and cofounder of the SiS (Safety in Schools) Foundation of Canada.
SAHARA calculates risk levels by combining human factors and hazards in the workplace. Workplace hazards are presented for different work environments raising awareness and educating employees about potential hazards. Personalized Recommendations are based on the industry, selected hazards, the Personal Wellness Assessment and link to eLearning courses accessible anytime from any device.
The confidential Personal Wellness Assessment displays the Risk Level without disclosing details and is based on the employee’s current mental health. Questions associated with personal safety, psychological issues, well-being, and right to refuse unsafe work are included and can also be customized. Employees that indicate feelings of despair trigger a High-Risk level and a direct link to an anonymous crisis response support organization.
The first of many planned versions of SAHARA was developed for the Service Hospitality and Tourism industry and is free to high schools through the SiS Foundation. Other verticals and custom application are available through SWIFT Learning.
About SiS Foundation
The SiS Foundation is a non-profit organization that has been delivering health, safety, environment, mental health, and well-being programs free to high school students since 2011. SiS is currently in over 370 partner schools and expanding across Canada.
SWIFT Learning and the SiS Foundation of Canada are dedicated to delivering solutions that educate and empower youth to stay safe at work, school, home and at play 4 Life.
Kim Adolphe is the CEO and founder of safety organization SWIFT Learning and co-founder and chairman of the SiS Foundation of Canada. | <urn:uuid:87054218-8e97-4c09-964f-75a1f3e4e6f6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/technology/how-one-app-is-tackling-youth-mental-health-and-workplace-hazards-to-reduce-accidents/411523 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572304.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816120802-20220816150802-00469.warc.gz | en | 0.957399 | 1,016 | 3.140625 | 3 |
eso9531 — Organisation Release
Enclosure for VLT Unit Telescope No. 1 in October 1995
13 November 1995
This photo shows the state of construction of the enclosure (`dome') for VLT Unit Telescope No. 1 on Paranal in late October 1995. It will be ready in 1996, and will later serve to protect the first 8.2-metre VLT telescope, for which the 'first light' is foreseen in late 1997/early 1998.
The concrete foundations are ready and the lower, stationary part of the metal construction has been fixed to it. At this moment, the first pieces of the rotating part are also in place - the beginnings of the wide slit and the heavy, horizontal structure that will support the sliding doors are seen in the foreground. | <urn:uuid:4227e193-014a-4b03-87f5-b9cdb51ef2f0> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://ohainaut@eso.org/public/news/eso9531/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719273.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00066-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938071 | 161 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Groups of refugees tried to break through a barrier on the Greece-Macedonia border on April 4, 5 and 6, ending in violent clashes with police.
Police fired tear gas at the refugees, who were trying to flee Greece to take refuge in other countries. Hundreds of refugees joined the campaign to move out of Greek camps, dubbed the “Caravan of Hope,” and the numbers of people trying to leave the camps grew amid rumors that border controls had been loosened.
After three days of clashes and chaos, police returned the refugees to the camps they had been staying in. Those refugees who had not been in camps before were placed in the Diavata refugee camp in northeastern Greece, the closest point to Macedonia, and will later be transferred to Athens.
The “Caravan of Hope” campaign started in February, when Iraqi and Syrian refugees in Turkey announced plans to gather at the northwestern Turkish city of Edirne and travel to Greece by land. Then the rumors on social networks began, including claims that the campaign had the support of human rights organizations and the media and that some of them were even planning to accompany the refugees until they reached their destination. Another rumor claimed that border personnel would not be taking action against any refugee trying to cross.
But ahead of the planned exodus on April 5, human rights organizations warned refugees not to carry it out. “Please be aware that these informal movements, whether by land or by sea, are risky and dangerous,” warned the UN Refugee Agency office in Greece. "Attempts to cross borders irregularly are often unsuccessful, and can bear serious consequences including arrest, detention, family separation and even death.” But groups of refugees ignored the warnings, and continued coordinating via Telegram channels and social media.
Thursday, April 4
On the afternoon of April 4, refugees who had traveled from various Greek cities and camps gathered in front of Diavata camp on the outskirts of the city of Thessaloniki. Each carried a backpack and a small tent or a sleeping bag. They tried to find a way through the fence so they could at least use the bathrooms inside the camp. Police stopped them, resulting in a clash, although at this point the violence was not yet serious. Eventually, with the help of refugees already inside the camp, they succeeded in making an opening in the fence.
Then the number of policemen lining up in front of the camp entrances was stepped up and some of the refugees saw that the police planned to prevent other groups from joining them. There were also rumors that a group of around 1,000 refugees had gathered in the city of Thessaloniki itself to join them but the police were stopping them from gathering.
The atmosphere became extremely tense and chaotic. Smoke rose from the ground, children were crying, and many refugees shouted and screamed, some of them with burning eyes and faces due to the teargas. In some cases, police attacked refugees with batons, and several refugees were injured. Two policemen were injured during clashes after people threw stones at them. The refugees became increasingly enraged by the police’s use of stun and teargas grenades, especially when some of them landed at the feet of children.
When night arrived, police blocked roads to the camp. The situation became quieter as groups set up their tents and lit small fires, sharing news and updates — though, as with the run-up to the clashes, some of the stories circulating did not come from reliable sources. Communication was difficult, as the internet connection to Diavata camp had been cut off.
It was just getting dark when the refugees began walking toward the police line in front of the camp’s entrance. Every step they took was matched by the police, until the refugees were standing face to face with police officers. The refugees had perhaps underestimated the police and did not anticipate that the more they went toward the border, the more the police would use violence, making it clear that the borders would remain closed and that they would have to remain in Greece. However, some of the refugees still believed that the next night, April 5, they would be able to cross the police barrier, though many doubted it.
The Rules for Refugees
In the summer of 2018, the European Union reached an agreement with Greece, Turkey and Italy that meant an increase to the budget for handling refugees in return for these countries’ cooperation to help slow the tide of refugees moving toward northern and western Europe. They also agreed to reinstate the 2013 Dublin Regulation, which refuses refugees the right to choose the country in which they seek asylum. Instead, it states that the person must apply for asylum in the first country he or she arrives in, and in which authorities officially register them. According to the Open Migration project, which supports migrants’ human rights through providing data and information regarding issues pertinent to them, “the asylum request by a third country national is to be presented in the first European country the person arrives in — usually either Italy or Greece — and where he or she was identified by local authorities. This evidently means that individual preferences — that is, where people arriving into Europe actually want to go to and where do they wish to live — are bound to not be properly taken into account.”
Prior to the decision to reinstate the Dublin Regulation, the Greek government had suspended it for at least two years. With its reinstatement, refugees entering Europe initially via Greece will be returned there if they travel elsewhere in Europe. Currently, the majority of European countries will return people to Greece if that is where they first entered Europe. The exception to this is the United Kingdom, which has stated that the refugee situation in that country is “in gross violation of human rights.”
The conditions for refugees in Greece is indeed so unfavorable that refugees want to leave the country however they can. “We have nothing to lose,” said one refugee, echoing the sentiment of many others. “It makes no difference whether we are in a camp, on the streets or in this compound. We have nothing else. Either we die or we open the border.”
Friday, April 5
On the morning of April 5, people took down their tents and prepared to move. By this time, police had completely surrounded the area in front of the camp.
The refugees, more a thousand of them, put their backpacks on their shoulders and set out to confront the police. At noon the caravan decided to first send the women forward and then the children. They did the same thing the next day when the fence that had separated the camp from the area outside it was broken and police entered the camp. This led many in the Greek media to accuse the refugees of using the children as “human shields.”
Refugees at Diavata camp had planned to join the caravan but soon changed their minds when they were met with violence from police, including attacks with stun and teargas grenades. Although a large number of refugees stayed outside the camp, as the police violence increased the number of refugees in the “caravan of hope” dwindled.
When the action taken by the refugees on April 5 proved to be ineffective, they decided to again confront the police. Hundreds of them banded together to break through the police line but not only they did not succeed, but the situation also got much worse, and refugees faced assaults from police armed with batons, stun grenades and teargas. The refugees then changed direction and headed toward the camp’s lower entrance. They were confronted by police every step of the way.
Again it was chaotic. The green expanse of the camp area was surrounded by smoke, teargas, sorrow and rage. Refugees ran from one side to of the camp to the other, families pushing baby carriages and not knowing where to go. They felt they couldn’t enter the camp, but also that they couldn’t leave the area. Everywhere, children were crying. Nevertheless, as 5pm approached, many still hoped they would be able to cross the border — and they had also heard news that a million additional refugees were planning to join them.
But as night approached the situation deteriorated further. Every time the refugees tried and failed to break through the police line, the police reinforced the cordon around them, making it smaller by closing more streets. Videos were circulated that showed refugees from other Greek cities planning to come to Thessaloniki. Authorities suspended trains traveling between Athens and Thessaloniki. Many of refugees had spent the night at train stations, hoping that, come morning, they would manage to get to Thessaloniki. Refugees in other camps in Greece constantly contacted people in the caravan, asking them if the borders had been opened because they wanted to come to Thessaloniki as well. They had no idea what was happening near the border with Macedonia.
The large green expanse was now filled with ash and the lingering smell of teargas. There was no food and no water. On April 5, the water supply to Conex shipping containers used as shelters was shut off, and internet connections remained down. As darkness approached, several groups of refugees, shocked at the levels of violence, which they had not anticipated, appealed to the police. After presenting identification and registering their names with the police, they were promised that they would be returned to their camps without any legal punishments.
Many Iranian refugees living in the camp who had planned to join the caravan changed their minds and returned to the Conex shelters. They were baffled as to why the Greek police had used teargas when there were children were in the crowd. One refugee told IranWire that he had heard that the border had been opened and so he moved toward the police barricade with his spouse and their three-year-old child — but then the teargas had stopped them.
Shocked and exhausted refugees gathered in groups to talk. Again citing rumors they had heard, some were still hopeful. They decided to move again the next day. Some young refugees who appeared to be more furious and angry than others were determined to go ahead regardless of the consequences and they encouraged other young refugees to join them — to get the attention of the media if nothing else. In the meantime the police cordon was getting tighter and tighter.
The night of April 5 passed in peace, though it was cold and many of the refugees did not have any food or water. Some of the refugees living in Diavata camp brought them blankets and food and even took a few of them to stay with them in their Conex shelters.
Saturday, April 6
There was a growing police presence. Some refugees argued that violence would get them nowhere, while others felt it was important to attract the attention of the media. But the police seemed to be better prepared than they had been the day before. They were not throwing teargas grenades into the crowd anymore, but instead shooting them into the air. Teargas and smoke were everywhere and breathing became difficult. Again one could hear children crying and screams. After a number of arrests on April 5, further refugees were arrested on April 6.
Surprised to have been attacked from every angle, many of the refugees now accepted that the borders would not be opened. Greek officials arrived and said as much, and Greek government ministers called on the refugees to leave the border towns. No volunteers were allowed to enter the camp or its surrounding area and dozens of volunteers were even detained for a few hours.
April 6 was worse than the previous two days. Tear gas made the refugees confused and despondent, and it became so bad, many had to leave the area, trying to make their way toward the camp. Then the fence broke and the refugees entered the Diavata camp at the same time as the police did. In one case, police arrested a man who was said to be representing a group of Kurdish refugees and the residents of the camp, which then clashed with the police in an effort to push them out. Now teargas and stun grenades exploded within the perimeters of the camp, while outside the camp another group of refugees clashed with the police.
By this time there were more representatives of the Greek media on the scene, talking to the refugees about their demands. “Let us leave Greece,” was basically the only answer that they gave. “We don’t want to live here.”
After a few hours of further clashes and disturbances, the situation both inside and outside the camp settled down. Apparently the refugees had come to accept that continuing their actions might lead to more violence. Little by little, they sat down in groups of a few. Some of the refugees who had traveled there were still in the camp when the camp residents returned to their shelters. It was not yet dark when the police brought several buses outside the camp entrances, tightened the cordon again and, after registering the refugees, loaded them onto the buses. About 200 refugees remained outside the camp — people who did not even have a camp to go back to. It was decided that they too would be bussed to Athens later.
Greece and the Refugee Crisis
Greek authorities have again pointed out that it has been given no other option than to deal with hundreds of thousands of refugees with little support. Northern and western European countries have made it clear that they are not prepared to have large amounts of refugees within their borders again, arguing that they are still dealing with the problems created after they opened their borders to refugees in 2015. And yet the situation in Greece is dire. The Greek economy is practically bankrupt and the number of homeless people in Greek cities is alarming. As a result, the situation for refugees in the country gets worse every day. Human rights organizations say that what has been going on in Greece is a violation of refugees’ human rights, warning that it could lead to a humanitarian tragedy.
In the meantime, Turkish police arrested hundreds of refugees hoping to go to the city of Edirne on the border with Greece. The police also tried to stop refugees from going to the border by refusing to give them permits to travel from city to city.
For many, the night of April 6 put an end to the Caravan of Hope, although many expressed optimism that, at least, they had been noticed by mainstream and alternative media. After such a long period of exhaustion over and frustration with being ignored, it gave them a sense of progress, however slight.
“We have nothing to lose,” one Iranian refugee said on April 6, as the Caravan of Hope came to a close. “At least we succeeded to say through the media that we live on the same earth — which has become our nationality. If you ask us ‘where are you from?’ we will answer: ‘Earth!’”
Read more from Aida Ghajar's series on human trafficking, refugees and asylum seekers, including:
The “Hellhole of Athens”, April 3, 2019
Frustrated Iranian Refugees in Turkey Launch Twitterstorm, February 15, 2019
Asylum Seekers in Greece: A Life of Fear and Suffering, January 29, 2019
Iranian Refugee Rights Activist Faces Long Prison Sentence in Greece, January 28, 2019
From Asylum Seeking to Asylum Dealing, January 23, 2019
Meeting with a Human Trafficker in Istanbul, December 18, 2018
Iranian Ambassador Shrugs Off Responsibility for Refugees, December 11, 2018
From France to Turkey: Human Trafficking and Asylum Seekers, November 13, 2018 | <urn:uuid:a2751292-2c07-41ae-a80b-0b439707b09f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://iranwire.com/en/features/65959 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570741.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808001418-20220808031418-00065.warc.gz | en | 0.985574 | 3,180 | 2.46875 | 2 |
Hilton Head Island
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The Loggerhead sea turtle is the state reptile of South Carolina and the most common sea turtle nester along our shores. They are easily recognizable by the large size of their head in relation to their body and their brownish or yellow skin.
Loggerheads are listed as a threatened species by both the federal government and the state of South Carolina.
Many people who read about the plight of endangered or threatened species feel the problems these species face are too great for them to be able to help. But there are many very simple things we can do to promote the survival of Loggerheads on Hilton Head Island:
Report Light Violations | <urn:uuid:30ddbee9-b533-4a32-9e4d-bd7414850cfe> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.hiltonheadislandsc.gov/wildlife/seaturtles/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572215.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815235954-20220816025954-00665.warc.gz | en | 0.939976 | 181 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The Micro-Poise® AIT Dynamic Tire Balance System is designed to help assure tire quality. This is done by measuring, grading, marking, and sorting tires according to static, couple, and upper and lower plane imbalance. All Micro-Poise® dynamic balancers utilize a "force measuring" imbalance-sensing system in conjunction with microprocessor based electronics. There are several advantages to this system. The force measuring system accurately measures the imbalance in a wide variety of tires, regardless of their weight. The primarily digital electronics are very stable and allow the machine to be calibrated for all production tires. The AIT Dynamic Tire Balance System is a fully automatic machine used for 100% tire checking in production. It can automatically adjust to different tire widths and test conditions while processing a variety of tires with various bead diameters (adapter dependent), outside diameters, section widths, and weights. These features make the Model AIT Dynamic Tire Balance System a high up-time, high-throughput and ergonomically friendly machine. | <urn:uuid:06a4f13e-f518-4bc1-8433-90393359fa81> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.micropoise.com/tire-industry/dynamic-balance/ait | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988717963.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183837-00374-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91792 | 209 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Research and Development category 03 under Major Force Program 6 of the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP). Includes all efforts that have moved into development and integration of hardware for field experiments and tests. Projects in this category have a direct relevance to identified military needs. Advanced Development is system specific and includes Advanced Technology Development (ATD) used to demonstrate general military utility or cost-reduction potential of technology when applied to different types of military equipment or techniques. Efforts include evaluation of synthetic environment and proof-of-principle demonstrations in field exercises to evaluate system upgrades or provide new operational capabilities. Projects do not have to lead to subsequent development or procurement phases. Program/budget justification must identify rough order of magnitude estimates of potential additional development and production costs consistent with DoD's full funding policy.
Open in Glossary Explorer | <urn:uuid:a95d0cd0-034d-4c47-ae0a-289e02cd133a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.dau.edu/glossary/Pages/GlossaryContent.aspx?itemid=26809 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572161.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815054743-20220815084743-00474.warc.gz | en | 0.919514 | 169 | 2.234375 | 2 |
EXCLUSIVE | Enapter targets 83% cost reduction for its unique AEM hydrogen electrolyzers by 2025
Italian electrolyser manufacturer Enapter will be able to reduce the cost of its anion exchange membrane (AEM) machines by 83.5% over the next three years thanks to economies of scale and automation of its new plant in Germany, the company announced. Reload.
Currently, Enapter only produces its highly modular electrolysers in small quantities – 20 to 30 MW per year at a plant in Pisa, Italy. But its new campus, currently under construction in Saerbeck, western Germany, will have an annual generation capacity of at least 300 MW.
“At the moment, we don’t produce our stacks in an automated way,” Chief Strategy Officer Thomas Chrometzka said. Reload. “At the Enapter campus, at first we probably won’t go into full automation, but soon the goal is for the electrolyser stacks to be fully automated in their production. It will be essential for us to reduce stack costs. And finally it’s obviously a huge lever [for cost reduction].”
Enapter explains that the price of its electrolysers will increase from €3,333/kW currently to €550/kW in 2025.
“We are confident that we can reach these figures by reaching a production capacity of 300 MW per year, perhaps a little more. We don’t need to go to 5GW to get there,” he said, referring to the factory sizes some manufacturers are planning.
Enapter has long claimed that its unique AEM technology will be able to produce green hydrogen cheaper than the alkaline and PEM electrolyzers that currently dominate the market, due to its relative efficiency and lower cost materials.
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Enapter electrolysers can produce a kilo of hydrogen from 53.4 kWh – and are therefore more energy efficient than average alkaline or PEM electrolysers (see below) – while the technology is also able to respond quickly to ups and downs of variable renewable generation in a manner similar to more expensive PEM machines.
This means that by 2025, a 1 MW AEM multi-core unit could produce green hydrogen at $2.26 per kilogram, using renewable electricity at an average price of €30 ($30) per MWh. , with a load factor of 98%. This figure rises to €3.33/kg with an average electricity price of €50/MWh.
“If your electricity cost is in that range, then the bottom line is that the competitiveness is close to or even already there compared to pre-gas crisis gray hydrogen prices.
“For our modular units [the 2.4kW EL 4.0], we are not necessarily in competition with large industrial hydrogen production. If you can place an electrolyser next to a refueling station, you are in competition with hydrogen which is sold at the pump for 10-12 €/kg.
He continues: “A lot of people are saying that we need to get funding for all these green hydrogen projects, that we need governments to approve the budgets. But we say we don’t have to wait two or three years. Green hydrogen can already be competitive – we have customers around the world using our devices today. They are used in gas stations today. And we’re bringing prices down fast. So let’s go, there’s no need to wait.
“The bottom line is that in 2025 we expect to achieve many of these cost projections in industry reports for 2030.”
Enapter has long said it believes its AEM technology and highly modular approach – all of its units are built from standardized 2.4kW fuel cells – will produce green hydrogen at a lower levelized cost than electrolyzers. alkalines and PEM which currently dominate the market.
“The materials we use in an AEM electrolyser are not very different from an alkaline electrolyser. But it has all the capabilities of a PEM electrolyser — it works much better with renewable energy; going up and down is not something that large-scale, cheaper alkaline chlorinators are very good at,” says Chrometzka.
“We think in the long term, when we go to very high volumes, we might be able to compete with the alkalines. This is because we are building more compact and less complex machines. We produce hydrogen with a dry cathode unlike alkaline electrolyzers, so our hydrogen requires no cleaning, KOH [ie. electrolyte] washing, purification, drying as far as an alkaline electrolyser needs it.
He explains that production of electrolyzers will begin at his Enapter campus next year, with the first 1 MW multi-core units expected to start shipping in the second half of 2023.
The German plant was designed to produce 10,000 cells per year, with an annual capacity of around 300 MW.
“But we believe that with a few more adjustments – and we have enough space available – the plant is probably already capable of producing around 1 GW per year,” says Chrometzka.
He explains that this is because the company has not yet decided whether it will assemble its 1 MW multi-core units on site.
“We make everything ourselves, we make our own electrodes, we build the cells and the batteries, we will certainly produce our own EL 4.0 single-core electrolysers. We do not plan to outsource anything. But when it comes to building megawatt units, it’s not clear if we would outfit all of those containers ourselves, or maybe outsource that to a build partner.
“And that would obviously have significant implications. If we were using the factory floor space just for battery production and the single cores, then we would have a much higher capacity than if we were outfitting 40ft containers for our multicore units there.
What is AEM and how is Enapter different from other chlorinator manufacturers?
“We basically take the efficient cell configuration of a PEM to produce hydrogen in a compressed but very pure way, but we can do it with very cheap material costs, which we usually only know from technology. alkaline. So it’s a bit of a mix,” Chrometzka said. Reload in July last year.
“In our case, our membrane is conductive of anions [ie, negatively charged ions] and the EMP would conduct protons [ie, positively charged ions].”
Because PEM electrolyzers use a very acidic electrolyte, the bipolar plates that house the electrolyte and separate the cells in a cell require expensive titanium to protect the cell and prevent corrosion. However, Enapter’s AEM machine uses a 1% alkaline solution of potassium hydroxide (i.e. 99% water), which allows the use of much cheaper steel.
Enapter said last year that its bipolar plates would cost $20/kW in a 1 MW electrolyzer in 2025, compared to $190/kW for a PEM machine.
Cost savings are also due to Enapter’s new modular approach to electrolyser production.
Rather than producing a 1 MW or 5 MW electrolysis unit, as most manufacturers do, the Italian company will mass-produce a small 2.4 kW electrolyser. Thus, each 1 MW “multi-core” electrolyser would require 420 batteries.
“We looked at economic history and asked ourselves ‘what has produced the fastest results in terms of cost reduction?’ We saw that these were standardized products that could be mass-produced,” Chrometzka said last year, citing the example of data centers using hundreds or thousands of computer hard drives and farms. panels made up of thousands of polysilicon panels.
“So our approach is to use a standardized product and then stack it very smartly, instead of building ever larger electrolysers. With this approach, we believe that economies of scale are more important.
He explained that by using several small batteries, Enapter can “borrow” electrical equipment already used in the PV and battery sectors.
“It’s inherently cheaper than developing custom MW-scale power units, as is often the case with larger PEM stacks,” Chrometzka said. “On top of that, we’re also using a lot more standardized units of this type, and the prices scale significantly with the number of units. Where our competitors could source hundreds or thousands [of power-supply units]we’re looking at hundreds of thousands and millions.
He also points out that AEM technology does not require the very expensive iridium or platinum used as a catalyst in alkaline and PEM electrolyzers, although he concedes that the amounts used in these are so small that it is only a minor advantage over cost savings. power packs and remove the titanium.
“We don’t see how a PEM electrolyser can be cheaper than an AEM electrolyser,” he said. Reload last July.
Chrometzka added that while AEM and alkaline electrolyzers are both constructed using similar low-cost materials, AEM is a simpler system that requires less material and does not require post-production purification of hydrogen.
Enapter’s technology also has an advantage in terms of energy efficiency, the company says, saying it requires 53.4 kWh of electricity to produce 1 kg of hydrogen, compared to an average of 56.7 kWh for PEMs and 55.3 kWh for alkaline electrolysers. | <urn:uuid:0552eba4-1e89-4f9e-8a93-e60c31364b44> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://coachfactoryoutlets2014.com/exclusive-enapter-targets-83-cost-reduction-for-its-unique-aem-hydrogen-electrolyzers-by-2025/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00273.warc.gz | en | 0.947114 | 2,008 | 1.71875 | 2 |
If this is the first time you are depositing money in cryptocurrencies, it is recommended that you gain at least a basic understanding of the industry. Learning tips and tricks will help you become a better investor. After learning, follow the tips on cryptocurrency will make it easier for you to be successful as a beginner. You will find various opinions on the world of cryptocurrencies. Few people consider that cryptocurrencies are nothing more than a fad, while others think of them as a great investment. If you are looking to invest your money for the long term, research about the cryptocurrency and seek help from the experts for a bigger profit. If you are confident that you can benefit from Crypto, you can invest and ignore listening to disbelievers as they will lower your belief.
Prepare for volatility
Unlike normal currencies, cryptocurrency is not that stable. A few months ago, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies called Bitcoin was worth around $ 40,000. But now it’s back down to $ 30,000. So, what you need to do is decide wisely. If you become greedy, you can suffer great losses. You can seek help from experts as they will guide the best time to invest. Therefore, you need to be careful when investing in cryptocurrencies. Make sure to place your coin in the exchanges token listing if the coin has a good market.
Consider other Altcoins
When it comes to cryptocurrencies, you are not limited to just bitcoins. Therefore, it is not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket. In other words, you should also invest your money in other types of cryptocurrencies. So, what you must do is do your homework and find out which ones are doing well. In other words, you must choose the top five cryptocurrencies and invest your money in them. Learn more about hot wallets and cold wallets.
Although cryptocurrencies are a digital currency, you can still store them in your hot wallets on the internet. But if you are a beginner, you might want to give offline wallets a try as they are very useful and versatile. On the other hand, it is known that cold wallets protect against attackers. So, if you want to diversify your wealth, experts recommend that you familiarize yourself with hot wallets and cold wallets.
Although cryptocurrencies have higher security standards than traditional currencies, experts recommend that you follow precautionary measures. Therefore, you need to be careful when investing a large amount of money in the digital currency of this type. You must read up on various methods to process your transactions and see how to manage your cryptocurrency effectively and responsibly. Follow these tips and tricks if you want to be successful as a cryptocurrency trader or investor. Exchanges token listing is the most important to become successful in cryptocurrency. When the currency reaches a good market, then wisely put the coin in Exchange token listing. | <urn:uuid:1de879c2-4ff9-4089-9c89-484a4ddbb12b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://myturbotaxlogin.com/tips-to-become-a-successful-crypto-trader/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571536.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811224716-20220812014716-00271.warc.gz | en | 0.955856 | 573 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Story Behind Lyrics
Website for The Song Reader, a novel about a woman who determines how people feel from the meaning of the song lyrics they find themselves remembering.
Top: Arts: Music: Lyrics: Story Behind Lyrics
- God Bless America - Displays the lyrics to God Bless America, as lyrics well as lyrics MIDI, MPEG, MIDI and WAV versions lyrics of the song. lyrics Also has links to lyrics the chord chart and sheet music.
- The Song Reader - Website for The Song Reader, a novel about story behind lyrics story behind lyrics a woman who determines how people feel from story behind lyrics story behind lyrics the meaning of the song lyrics they find story behind lyrics story behind lyrics themselves remembering.
- lyricism - A weblog site dedicated to posting lyrics to lyrics songs of story behind lyrics numerous genres.
- All About Summertime of George Gershwin - Lyrics, sheet music, and cover list.
- Lyric Interpretations - Song meanings and lyric interpretations.
- September 11th Song - This is a song written by Scott Loeb story behind lyrics about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on story behind lyrics America\\'s World Trade Centers and the story behind lyrics Pentagon.
- Bad Medicine - Drug Company Protest - Musical protest of the harmful policies of pharmaceutical lyrics and healthcare companies.
MySQL - Cache Direct | <urn:uuid:1fedbbce-7ebf-4f5f-8da4-83ba84752e5c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.iaswww.com/apr/Arts/Music/Lyrics/Story_Behind_Lyrics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285289.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00149-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910662 | 278 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Augmented reality running in your browser - no app required! By combining some simple image processing algorithms and machine learning we can create something pretty cool.
If you found this video interesting please hit the subscribe button on the channel - there will be follow up videos on more machine learning topics.
A long time ago I wrote an app for the iPhone that let you take a grab a sudoku puzzle using your iPhone’s camera.
Recently when I was investigating my self-organising Christmas lights project I realised that the browser APIs and ecosystem had advanced to the point that it was probably possible to recreate the system running purely in the browser.
Self-organising lights: https://youtu.be/Ueim2Ko8VWo
Things like TensorFlow and TensorFlow.js make building the digit recognized straightforward.
As you can see it works pretty well - you can try it out for yourself here: https://sudoku.cmgresearch.com/
And of course, all the code is in GitHub: https://github.com/atomic14/ar-browser-sudoku
Hopefully, this video will give you a good idea of how the system works and the thinking behind what I’ve done.
We’re taking a feed from the camera on the device. This comes into us as an RGB image. We’re not really interested in colour as we’re working with printed puzzles which will typically be printed in black and white.
So our first step is to convert from RGB to greyscale.
Convert to greyscale: 01:58
We’re using morphological operations for locating the puzzle - typically these work on black and white binary images, so our next step is to binarise our image.
Next, we need to identify the blob that is the puzzle and work out the coordinates of each corner of the puzzle grid.
Locating the puzzle: 03:42
Using these four corners we can compute a tomography between our camera image and an “ideal” image of the puzzle.
Puzzle Extraction: 05:17
You can see more details on the algorithm used for this here: http://www.cse.psu.edu/~rtc12/CSE486/lecture16.pdf
Once we’ve got the square puzzle image we need to extract the contents of each individual cell. We examine the connected region inside the box and use the bounds of this to extract an image of the digit.
Digit Extraction: 06:34
We now run a neural network that has been trained by TensorFlow using TensorFlow.js. The network is trained in an interactive Jupiter notebook available at the GitHub link.
Training the neural network: 7:12
To solve the puzzle we use Donald Knuth’s Dancing Links and Algorithm X - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuth%27s_Algorithm_X
To do this we encode the puzzle as an exact cover problem.
Solving the puzzle: 11:44
Finally, we can display the results back on top of the camera feed to give us our Augmented Reality display.
Displaying the results: 15:36
I hope you’ve enjoyed this video - please hit the subscribe button and leave any thoughts you might have in the comments.
Want to help support the channel? I’m accepting coffee on https://ko-fi.com/atomic14 | <urn:uuid:abe9f29e-5b90-46ea-841d-780a144b63e5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.atomic14.com/videos/posts/cOC-ad0BsY0.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.878397 | 737 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Senators prepare bill to permit
By Victoria Griffith in Boston
Published: January 14 2003 1:27 | Last Updated: January 14 2003 1:27
Senators will introduce a bill as early as Wednesday that would ban human reproductive cloning but allow such research to continue for medical purposes, a move that may break the Congressional stalemate on the controversial topic.
The bills introduction, to be announced at a bi-partisan press conference, comes as a surprise to many who believed that backers of a total ban would be the first to file cloning legislation this year. President George W.Bush has said outlawing cloning is one of his priorities and senators in favour of a complete ban indicated this month that they were preparing a new bill.
Its odd that supporters of a total ban would allow the other side to steal the thunder, says Michael Werner, vice-president of bioethics for the Biotechnology Industry Organisation.
The recent announcement that the Raelian cult had cloned the first human children, while widely believed to be a hoax, has raised public fears that such a breakthrough is imminent. All US legislators want a ban on reproductive cloning. Yet the Senate has been split over the issue of therapeutic cloning, which would allow the cloning of human embryos just a few days old in order to harvest prized stem cells.
Only the stem cells of very young embryos have the ability to produce tissue in the body. Scientists hope to use the technology to cure a wide range of diseases, from Alzheimers to diabetes.
A total ban passed the House of Representatives last year but similar legislation stalled in the Senate, where neither side of the issue was able to garner sufficient support to win a vote. Views on cloning do not split neatly along party lines. Republican Orrin Hatch, along with Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, are sponsors of the bill to allow cloning for medical research.
Even so, the loss of Senate seats held by Democrats Jean Carnhan, Max Cleland, and Paul Wellstone may have thrown additional support behind a total ban. The House reintroduced a total ban last week. Those in favour of a complete ban include opponents of abortion as well as some who argue that allowing therapeutic cloning research to proceed could boost the chances that someone will clone a human baby.
American researchers have more liberty to pursue cloning research than in Britain.
The US was among the opponents of last years United Nations proposal to
implement an international ban on reproductive cloning. | <urn:uuid:94ae4400-f8e2-4a2d-91bd-6d612cf5726d> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.cuttingedge.org/news_updates/na433.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283008.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00084-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955393 | 494 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Berkeley - Professor Matthew Rabin, one of last year's winners of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" fellowship, is the latest University of California, Berkeley, economist to receive the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economics Association.
The John Bates Clark bronze medal is awarded biennially to an American economist under the age of 40 credited with making a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.
Another UC Berkeley economics professor in the College
of Letters & Science who won the Clark Medal is Daniel McFadden,
who received the medal in 1975 and shared the 2000 Nobel
Prize in Economics with James Heckman of the University
of Chicago. Heckman won the Clark Medal in 1983.
David Card, an empirical labor economist, won the Clark Medal in 1995 and joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1997-98. Economist Dale W. Jorgenson of Harvard taught at UC Berkeley in the 1960s and won the Clark Medal in 1971.
Maurice Obstfeld, chair of UC Berkeley's economics department, said it is "very gratifying" to oversee a faculty that in the current school year has won a Nobel Prize and the Clark Medal.
Professor Avinash Dixit of Princeton, chair of the seven-member American Economics Association committee that recommended this year's Clark winner, said Rabin will formally receive his award in January. A committee statement called Rabin "an outstanding and strikingly original theorist" who has gone further than anyone in demonstrating the explanatory power of a new genre of rigorous economic analysis based on psychological evidence.
"For the past decade, Matthew Rabin has been at the forefront of research that has advanced economic theory by incorporating the findings of psychologists and other social scientists," Dixit said. "Rabin's theoretical modeling, grounded in deep study of the psychology literature, has enabled him to build many bridges between the disciplines, and his work has inspired others."
Contacted in London, where he is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, the soft-spoken Rabin called the award "a very pleasant surprise. It's cliched to say, but actually true, that it's sort of humbling, given the company (of other Clark Medal winners) I'm in."
Rabin, 37, is a pioneer in psychology and economics, and the search for what's wrong or missing in existing economic models. He explores such territory as how to explain risky behavior, how people trade off well-being from one day to the next, and the different ways people evaluate their gains and losses. His research has applications to credit card debt and stock market behavior, savings, asset prices, employee/employer relations, addiction and dieting, impulse shopping and choices in health care coverage.
"Rabin's papers on the implications of people's concern for fairness, on procrastination and immediate gratification, and on drawing inferences from a small number of observations, are likely to prove important milestones on the way to a richer and more useful economic theory," Dixit said.
Rabin currently is working on a book to serve as an economist's guide to psychology and is "plugging away" on his research.
Other non-Berkeley winners of the Clark Medal include the following Nobel Prize winners in economics: Milton Friedman, Robert Solow, Paul Samuelson, James Tobin, Kenneth Arrow and Gary Becker.
Rabin earned his BA in economics and mathematics from the University of Wisconsin in 1984, and received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989.
In addition to the MacArthur award, Rabin won a National Science Foundation research grant in 1997 and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1997-98. He also was an Alfred P. Sloan research fellow from 1995 to 1997 and earned the 1999-2000 outstanding teaching award from the Graduate Economics Association. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
At UC Berkeley, Rabin has taught intermediate and advanced microeconomic theory to undergraduate students and game theory and core microeconomics to graduate students. He said he will resume teaching at Berkeley after he returns later this year. | <urn:uuid:8ef15f0c-c6cd-4280-9fb8-3de7c216409e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2001/04/30_rabin.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280835.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00470-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958384 | 847 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Z94.2 - Anthropometry & Biomechanics: Biomechanics Section
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
ULNA. One of the two bones of the forearm. It forms the hinge joint at the elbow and does not rotate about its longitudinal axis. It terminates at the wrist on the same side as the little finger. Task design should not impose thrust loads through the ulna.
ULNAR DEVIATION. A position of the hand in which the wrist is bent toward the little finger. Ulnar deviation is a poor working position for the hand and causes nerve and tendon damage. It reduces the useful range of pronation and supination (q.v.) by approximately 50 percent, and work performed in ulnar deviation proceeds at low efficiency. Hand tool design should avoid ulnar deviation.
ULNAR NERVE. One of three large nerves of the hand. It supplies muscles of fine manipulation (q.v.) located in the hand and provides sensory feedback (q.v.) via the skin of the little finger and part of the ring finger. Because the ulnar nerve enters the hand immediately below the skin, it is susceptible to damage from poorly designed tool handles which apply pressure to the palm on the side of the little finger.
ULTRASONICS. The use of high frequency vibrations for cleaning, heating tissues, dispersing solid mass, and imaging objects by reflection (1) Ultrasonic Cleaning The use of high frequency vibrations in a solvent bath to loosen and disperse surface contaminants. Typical frequencies for this application are 20-50 kHz. Also used in dentistry to remove deposits from tooth structure. (2) Ultrasonic Therapy The use of high frequency mechanical vibrations to transmit energy into and through body tissue to heat or disperse material. Typical frequency for this application is about one MHz. Ultrasonic phacoemulsification for removal of eye cataracts. Ultrasonic disintegration for pulverization of bladder calculi. (3) Ultrasonic Imaging The use of high frequency vibrations to obtain a visual image of internal organs and soft tissue, most often using pulse echo techniques. Typical frequencies for this application are 1-15 MHz. Examples are echocardiology and echoencephalography.
ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCER. A device to convert electrical energy to mechanical energy, using piezo-electric materials such as quartz, barium titanate or lead metaniobate.
UNIVOCAL. Having a unique association. A relationship wherein one single specific effect can only be produced by one single specific cause, e.g., an ulnar claw can be produced only by damage to the ulnar nerve (q.v.).
< Previous | Next > | <urn:uuid:7e69eb9f-bf7a-4539-bc80-ce87fe291886> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.iienet.org/Details.aspx?id=1674 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721174.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00282-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.886602 | 598 | 2.875 | 3 |
Apathetic. Inert. Half-hearted. Lackadaisical. Considering all of our pal Yahoo, lazy offers these unenthusiastic synonyms and you can practically means “reluctant to work or use time.”
If you find yourself from the dating scene in North park, these types of definitions are tragically, the too-familiar. In fact, they may keeps escaped their throat outlining the past potential boyfriend/girlfriend, once they don’t do just about anything active or romantic to really help you stay.
America’s Greatest Town was also considering the improvement out-of “America’s Laziest Relationship Area” to possess 2019. Checking out data and you may views more than ninety five,100000 american singles and you will millions of listeners, the nice Like Debate, a greatest podcast and you may around the world taking a trip let you know, features announced Hillcrest is the bad of your poor when you look at the relationship that have “decreased interaction, persistent inaction, and you can stubbornness in their seek like.”
Centered on matchmaking influencer Brian Howie of your own Great Love Argument podcast, “The group from inside the Hillcrest tend to drive a dozen miles to have a deal on the a dining table at the IKEA, yet won’t go from Objective Area so you’re able to Carlsbad to meet up with anyone the brand new. The fresh new wealth off sunlight has established a lack of importance, a sense of malaise, and you may a scarcity away from times throughout North park Condition.” | <urn:uuid:120e0136-44b0-4ad6-8fe5-1092fe9d661b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://accounts.transparenthands.org/category/adam4adam-co-je-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573029.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817153027-20220817183027-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.931912 | 344 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Governments have occasionally tried to control the media and, in some cases, have gone as far as to set up their own information outlets. Unsurprisingly, most attempts of this kind turned into a complete fiasco or a major political scandal.
However, the temptation for the political elites to control information remains strong.
That said, a country’s politicians and the state ought to make sure that news organizations are complying with the law and that they fulfil their bank, tax and social security obligations.
In the same context, determining the number of television licenses should be left to the free market. It is not something that can be decided by a government – a fact that appears to escape the government.
Sure, authorities must take steps to streamline the country’s media landscape but bringing some order is one thing and the desperate effort to manipulate the news is quite another. | <urn:uuid:18fab79b-d794-4cb5-b092-07163f76979e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.ekathimerini.com/210874/opinion/ekathimerini/comment/controlling-the-news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280730.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00252-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9631 | 177 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have been defined many times, but these definitions can be summarised as “solutions to societal challenges that are inspired and supported by nature”. Examples would be the restoration of peat bogs to return them to net sinks of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or re-meandering rivers to reduce flood risk. However, not all NbS are equal: the term can be applied to different interventions in quite varied settings, tackling varied problems. There is a need to evaluate and understand NbS, to help understand the potential of alternative approaches, and how best to allocate resources amongst a choice of different NbS. To do this an assessment framework is needed to facilitate development, allow later evaluation and to compare efforts.
This SEFARI Fellowship project was co-developed with NatureScot to identify a suitable framework for Scotland’s terrestrial landscapes from those already developed. Each framework had its own strengths and weaknesses. Our recommendation is to focus on using the IUCN Global Standard. This is a comprehensive method supported by a significant international institution and it is likely to be widely employed. However, other frameworks performed better in some areas, so we propose that guidance is developed for the use of the IUCN standard which enables users to reinforce its approach with the strengths of other frameworks.
A wide range of frameworks are available to either assess the benefits of NbS in the development phase or to assess their effectiveness (Cohen-Shacham et al. 2019). These have been developed by international teams led by academics and professionals, e.g., from conservation, or planning, rather than being specific to Scotland. We were therefore asked by NatureScot to identify the most appropriate framework for use by a wide range of organisations in Scotland. The aims of using such a framework are to guide planning, assist evaluation and encourage standardisation, so allowing a body of expertise to build up in the use of this framework.
We used a two-stage evaluation process. Firstly, we identified a long list of potential frameworks to evaluate. An initial set of questions was applied separately by the three team members from different disciplinary backgrounds to this long list: those that appeared to be adaptable to different settings and covered a wide range of benefits/disbenefits went forward to full evaluation.
In the second stage of evaluation, the short-listed frameworks were subject to a detailed appraisal, using 15 questions or criteria (many of which had sub-questions). Questions included: comprehensiveness of coverage of biophysical and socio-economic benefits, the involvement of stakeholders, and practicality of use. Using these evaluations, we identified the framework most suitable for use by NatureScot and other organisations, as well as recommendations for future work to develop guidance and key knowledge gaps.
The results of the second stage of evaluation and our other findings were presented at a workshop with key stakeholders. A range of issues were identified and included in the final report.
Of the 23 frameworks, six were unanimously supported through to the second stage:
- Ecosystem Approach
- ENCA - Enabling a Natural Capital Approach
- Interreg Building with Nature
- IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Global Standard for NbS
- ThinkNature Handbook.
A seventh framework was added, Revaluation, as it was radically different in approach – this methodology is designed for any complex system or process rather than specifically for NbS.
The final decision was to recommend the IUCN Global Standard for NbS for adoption alongside its self-assessment tool. As well as addressing many of the requirements of an effective framework for assessing NbS, it emphasises the need for multi-functional NbS that support and ideally enhance biodiversity. It also has the added benefits of the support of an international institution and likely wide take-up, resulting in building a wide body of expertise and the potential for easy synthesis across many case studies.
However, we acknowledged that some other frameworks have strengths in certain areas. The ThinkNature handbook provides a better introduction to NbS and would be worth reading before attempting the detail of planning or assessing a NbS. We also suggest that the simple scoring approach of the Interreg Building with Nature framework be made available in situations where detailed valuation of benefits and disbenefits is outside the skills of those managing the NbS (Huthoff et al. 2018). Also, consideration of how social benefits are assessed, as per EKLIPSE and its challenges 7 “Participatory planning and governance”, 8 “Social justice and social cohesion” and 9 “Public health and wellbeing”, would strengthen any NbS. Finally, ENCA provides useful valuation data and approaches to quantify natural assets and services.
Navigating Your Route to Nature-based Solutions: the eight criteria which need to be met during both planning and evaluation of NbS. A summary note introduces these criteria to encourage application in Scotland and provides links to further explanation and guidance.
The adoption of a single framework by many organisations across Scotland will help build up expertise, enable comparison of different solutions and facilitate wider analysis of the benefits of NbS. We propose that further work be carried out to assess if the IUCN standard is appropriate for marine systems, and to develop guidance on embedding the IUCN Global Standard for NbS planning and assessment in Scotland: incorporating the strengths of other frameworks, information sources on valuation and, potentially, develop versions of the guidance for different stakeholders. Later developments could include the publication of example assessments, to provide a template for others to follow in embedding NbS in future thinking in different scales and settings and developing the guidance to enable funding/investment decisions to be made by actors beyond the ‘usual’ eNGO and public agencies. | <urn:uuid:58266f23-49e9-4eb4-b51a-fffabea408ee> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://sefari.scot/research/nature-based-solutions-%E2%80%93-how-should-we-plan-and-evaluate-them | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573533.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818215509-20220819005509-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.944714 | 1,218 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Built in 1776, this building was originally part of the well known Theulier familiy’s estate. It first became a hotel in 1896 – The Hôtel De France- having been a coaching inn, tax collecting office, bank and private residence. It was reopened as a hotel in 1977.The hotel takes its name from both the Franco-Russian Alliance, celebrated at the end of the 19th century and the fact that the Château in Thiviers was the « Grand Hôtel de Russie » for several years at the end of the 19th century.Click any image to enlarge.
The Franco Russian Alliance was signed in 1897 in Paris by Tsar Alexander III but had, in fact, been secretly negotiated and drawn up in 1893 by his loyal Aide de Camp and Chief of Staff, Général Nikolai Obroutcheff who was resident in the Dordogne.In the latter half of the 19th century, Thiviers was most popular with the Russians, particularly the military, as it was renowned for its huge fairs marketing cattle, truffles and walnuts. They were also attracted by the Périgord cuisine blending noble delicacies, like truffles and foie gras with simpler easily available treats such as the highly prized cèpe mushroom, duck, goose, lamb, Limousin beef and goat’s cheeses.Indeed the monopoly for the official provision of foie gras et pâtés truffés to the Court in St Petersburgh was held by a producer from Thiviers- a Thibérien! | <urn:uuid:bd45fdf6-0004-4bf2-a21d-af3a01280cf8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://thiviers-hotel.com/histoire/history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00468.warc.gz | en | 0.975014 | 334 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Santa Cruz Tayata (Municipality)
Get to know deeply all the information of the municipality of Santa Cruz Tayata through its towns. We have registered the smallest, with hardly any inhabitants, and even those with the largest population, such as La Estancia, San Pedro, or Santa Cruz Tayata.
Get access to all the statistics, maps, and photos of the beautiful towns of the State of Oaxaca by browsing the list at the bottom.
Santa Cruz Tayata is a Municipality of 608 inhabitants, placed in the State of Oaxaca, with a fertility rate of 2.96 children per woman. 3.95% of the population migrated from outside the State of Oaxaca. 3.45% of the population is indigenous, 1.46% of the inhabitants speak one indigenous language, and 0.00% speak that indigenous language, but not Spanish.94.24% of the inhabitants of Santa Cruz Tayata are Catholic, 40.72% are economically active and, within this active population, 96.89% are employed. Additionally, 92.21% of the dwellings have piped water and 0.00% have Internet access.
In which towns in the municipality of Santa Cruz Tayata do most people live?According to our statistics of Santa Cruz Tayata, these are the four most important towns in terms of population:
- La Estancia (274 inhabitants)
- San Pedro (160 inhabitants)
- Santa Cruz Tayata (23 inhabitants)
- Barrio San José (52 inhabitants) | <urn:uuid:18b0c890-6683-4405-95ee-930664b64617> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://en.mexico.pueblosamerica.com/oaxaca/santa-cruz-tayata/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571198.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810161541-20220810191541-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.944896 | 317 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Romania: Supporting Young People Leaving State Care
Problems with integration and independence
Under Ceausescu’s Communist Government, Romanian women were encouraged to give birth to at least five children, so that Romania could build the strongest workforce in Europe. Due to extreme poverty, many families were unable to support this many children. They were persuaded to hand them over to severely under funded state institutions to be cared for by untrained and often abusive staff.
Since its arrival in Romania over 20 years ago, Children on the Edge has pursued a strategy of seeking to reverse the damage caused by the Ceausescu-era orphanages, rehabilitating some 4,000 children back into the society that rejected them.
The situation has now vastly improved within the care system. However, the current challenge is teenagers leaving this system.
Young people leaving state care face problems due to being institutionalised. They lack the skills and access to services necessary to live independent lives. Without anyone to care for them, they are at risk of abuse and exploitation and those with special needs are even more vulnerable.
Some face these difficulties when they leave care having finished their education and the state no longer has responsibility for them. Others are placed with their natural or foster family and the relationship between them breaks down and they find themselves alone. For many, life on the streets is the only option and this increases risk of other abuses such as trafficking.
What we did to help:
Together with its partner organisation, Children on the Edge worked closely with the authorities of the Iasi region of Romania helping to change the pattern of institutionalisation.
We worked to ensure that young people who developed in state care learnt the necessary social and practical living skills to allow them to live independently in society. We also coached them in being able to access the services that will help them as they moved into adulthood.
Many of the young people have gone on to do university degrees and with support have managed to overcome their reticence about revealing the nature of their childhood to their university friends. Despite their diabolical start in life, many of these young people have developed into confident, happy and eloquent individuals with bright hopes for the future.
Fundatia COTE is now fully independent and has a whole array of services for vulnerable teenagers. | <urn:uuid:b2bf50c8-06c3-4c0b-8f3c-c8a007bd4bc4> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.childrenontheedge.org/romania-support-for-teenagers-leaving-care.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720468.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00488-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977406 | 465 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Pioneering research at the University of Sunderland has shown that regular exposure to safe low level infra-red light can improve learning performance and kick-start the cognitive function of the brain.
The results are a scientific breakthrough as to date medical treatments for dementia can only slow down brain deterioration and now human trials are to start to see if the treatment could provide a cure to illnesses like Alzheimers.
Independent research carried out at Sunderland has demonstrated that low power infra-red (1072nm) can improve the learning performance.
The low levels of infra-red light used are completely safe and occur naturally in sunlight. They are currently being used in innovative new machines for the treatment of cold sores, which have been approved for NHS prescription.
Experts claim that early stage dementia patients should see an improvement in their cognitive function within four weeks, by wearing a lightweight helmet in their home for just ten minutes a day.
Human testing of the ground-breaking infra-red treatment on the brain is due to start this summer and medical experts hope this will halt and even reverse the effects of dementia.
The new infra-red device was created by Dr Gordon Dougal, a director of Virulite – a medical research company based in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham – which is also behind the innovative cold sore machine.
He came up with the idea of using a safe level of infra red light on the human brain after it had proved effective in the treatment of cold sores – a process that relies on boosting the cells within the body responsible for killing the virus, rather than attacking it.
Dr Dougal said: “The implications of this research at the University of Sunderland are enormous – so much so that in the future, we could be able to affect and change the rate at which our bodies age.
“As we get older, cells stop repairing themselves and we age because our cells lose the desire to regenerate and repair themselves. This ultimately results in cell death and decline of the organ functions, for the brain resulting in memory decay and deterioration in general intellectual performance.
“But what if there was a technology that told the cells to repair themselves and that technology was something as simple as a specific wavelength of light? Near infrared light penetrates human tissues relatively well, even penetrating the human skull, just as sunlight passes through frosted glass.”
Dr Dougal, who claims that ten minutes of exposure to the infrared light daily would have the desired effect on the brain, added: “Currently all you can do with dementia is to slow down the rate of decay – this new process will not only stop that rate of decay but partially reverse it.”
The research by University of Sunderland neuroscientist, Dr Abdel Ennaceur has led Dr Dougal to arrange clinical trials with patients with age related memory problems.”
Fellow neuroscientist Paul Chazot, who helped carry out the research, added: “The treatment can indeed improve learning ability. The results are completely new – this has never been looked at before.
“Dr Dougal’s treatment might have some potential in improving learning in a human situation by delivering infra red through the thinnest parts of the skull to get maximum access to the brain.”
Further research work will continue in this area, funded by CELS, who support Healthcare research and development in universities, hospitals and companies within the North East of England.
Tony Kerr | alfa
Penn vet research identifies new target for taming Ebola
12.01.2017 | University of Pennsylvania
The strange double life of Dab2
10.01.2017 | University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Among the general public, solar thermal energy is currently associated with dark blue, rectangular collectors on building roofs. Technologies are needed for aesthetically high quality architecture which offer the architect more room for manoeuvre when it comes to low- and plus-energy buildings. With the “ArKol” project, researchers at Fraunhofer ISE together with partners are currently developing two façade collectors for solar thermal energy generation, which permit a high degree of design flexibility: a strip collector for opaque façade sections and a solar thermal blind for transparent sections. The current state of the two developments will be presented at the BAU 2017 trade fair.
As part of the “ArKol – development of architecturally highly integrated façade collectors with heat pipes” project, Fraunhofer ISE together with its partners...
At TU Wien, an alternative for resource intensive formwork for the construction of concrete domes was developed. It is now used in a test dome for the Austrian Federal Railways Infrastructure (ÖBB Infrastruktur).
Concrete shells are efficient structures, but not very resource efficient. The formwork for the construction of concrete domes alone requires a high amount of...
Many pathogens use certain sugar compounds from their host to help conceal themselves against the immune system. Scientists at the University of Bonn have now, in cooperation with researchers at the University of York in the United Kingdom, analyzed the dynamics of a bacterial molecule that is involved in this process. They demonstrate that the protein grabs onto the sugar molecule with a Pac Man-like chewing motion and holds it until it can be used. Their results could help design therapeutics that could make the protein poorer at grabbing and holding and hence compromise the pathogen in the host. The study has now been published in “Biophysical Journal”.
The cells of the mouth, nose and intestinal mucosa produce large quantities of a chemical called sialic acid. Many bacteria possess a special transport system...
UMD, NOAA collaboration demonstrates suitability of in-orbit datasets for weather satellite calibration
"Traffic and weather, together on the hour!" blasts your local radio station, while your smartphone knows the weather halfway across the world. A network of...
Fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) are frequently used in the aeronautic and automobile industry. However, the repair of workpieces made of these composite materials is often less profitable than exchanging the part. In order to increase the lifetime of FRP parts and to make them more eco-efficient, the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) and the Apodius GmbH want to combine a new measuring device for fiber layer orientation with an innovative laser-based repair process.
Defects in FRP pieces may be production or operation-related. Whether or not repair is cost-effective depends on the geometry of the defective area, the tools...
10.01.2017 | Event News
09.01.2017 | Event News
05.01.2017 | Event News
16.01.2017 | Power and Electrical Engineering
16.01.2017 | Information Technology
16.01.2017 | Power and Electrical Engineering | <urn:uuid:3b199622-3051-414f-b140-08b87d590cc6> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/medicine-health/report-102042.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279189.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00060-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9261 | 1,421 | 2.953125 | 3 |
OpenStreetMap is Having a Moment
The Billion Dollar Dataset Next Door
Special thanks to Jennings Anderson who looked over an early draft of this post and helped me refine it. Also, as usual, the views expressed herein do not represent those of my parents, my wife, my dentist, or my employer.
The first time I spoke with Jennings Anderson, I couldn’t believe what he was telling me. I mean that genuinely — I did not believe him. He was a little incredulous about it himself. I felt like he was sharing an important secret with me that the world didn’t yet know.
The open secret Jennings filled me in on is that OpenStreetMap (OSM) is now at the center of an unholy alliance of the world’s largest and wealthiest technology companies. The most valuable companies in the world are treating OSM as critical infrastructure for some of the most-used software ever written.
The four companies in the inner circle— Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft— have a combined market capitalization of over six trillion dollars.¹ In almost every other setting, they are mortal enemies fighting expensive digital wars of attrition. Yet they now find themselves eagerly investing in and collaborating on OSM at an unprecedented scale (more on the scale later).
What likely started as a conversation in a British pub between grad students in 2004 has spiraled out of control into an invaluable, strategic, voluntarily-maintained data asset the wealthiest companies in the world can’t afford to replicate.
For the Uninitiated: What is OpenStreetMap?
I will admit that I used to think of OSM as little more than a virtuous hobby for over-educated Europeans living abroad — a cutesy internet collectivist experiment somewhere on the spectrum between eBird and Linux. It’s most commonly summarized with a variant of this analogy:
OSM is to an atlas as Wikipedia is to an encyclopedia.
OSM acolytes hate this comparison in the much same way baseball players resent when people describe the sport as “cricket for fat people.” While vaguely truthful, it doesn’t quite get to the spirit of the thing.
OSM is incomparable. Over 1.5M individuals have contributed data to it. It averages 4.5M changes per day. The stats page on the OSM Wiki is a collection of hockey sticks that look like this:
You can think of OSM in several ways:
- A distributed community of mappers contributing information about the geography of the world to a common repository
- A free web map hosted at https://www.openstreetmap.org/
- A loosely affiliated collection of free and open source tools for mapping the world
- A real-time stream of instructions representing how to add, change, or remove cartographically projected geometries and associated metadata based on a prior state
- …Google Maps, but openly licensed
It’s hard to get people to agree on what exactly OSM is, but almost everyone agrees on one thing: it’s extraordinarily valuable and important.
What Jennings Told Me about OSM
For those paying attention, none of what I outline below will be news. However — outside of a relatively small cluster of weirdos who pay attention to trends in geospatial technology— almost no one seems to be paying attention.
That’s mostly because so few people have even heard of OpenStreetMap, despite the fact that hundreds of millions of people rely on it during any given month. If you’ve ever opened Snap Maps or Apple Maps or Bing Maps or even just peeked at the dash of your obnoxious neighbor’s new Tesla…you’ve used OSM.³
In May of 2019, Jennings co-authored a paper with Dipto Sarkar and Leysia Palen titled, Corporate Editors in the Evolving Landscape of OpenStreetMap. If you prefer the research in presentation form, this talk is a fabulous summary of their findings:
In that talk, Jennings outlines the findings presented in his research. Not only was there already significant corporate investment happening in OSM in 2018, but in many cases corporate editors were responsible for the majority of edits in the specific geographies they were focused on. For instance:
For areas where corporate teams are active, on average, the non-corporate editors are now responsible for less than 25% of total road editing activity, which is down from closer to 70% in 2017.²
Jennings noted, importantly, that as of 2018 non-corporate editors were still responsible for the majority of activity on OSM (about 70% of all edits) and were significantly more active on edits to buildings, places of interest, and amenities.⁴
In a more recent talk from State of the Map in July 2020, Jennings presented updated figures showing that the torrent of corporate contributions only increased from 2018 to 2019 and beyond with Amazon and Apple trending along the steepest slopes:
Also interesting to note is Mapbox’s apparent decision to stop investing significantly into direct OSM edits and contributions. Apple was responsible for more edits in 2019 than Mapbox accounted for in its entire corporate history…I don’t have a good explanation for that. I wonder if they decided their effort could be more highly leveraged on core web mapping technology rather than manual digitization.
The Clash of Cultures Happening in OSM
I’m in no position to comment on most of the things I write about. But in this instance, I’m particularly unqualified — OSM has amassed a long-lived, fantastically diverse, and inherently fragmented community. I’ve never even commented in one of the forums.
But one thing that is clear even to a casual observer like me: one of the consequences of increased corporate involvement in OSM is a significant backlash from members within the OSM community that feel the community (and data) is being irreversibly adulterated by these profiteering intruders.
At the last OSM annual conference Frederik Ramm, a prominent and quite thoughtful OSM community member, summarized the attitude toward corporate contributors this way:
“[…] none of these companies is essential to OpenStreetMap. They are contributors, but OpenStreetMap could work perfectly well without them […] the mainstay of OpenStreetMap is the millions of hobbyists, individuals that contribute to OpenStreetMap.
A vocal minority of voluntary contributors to OSM seem to have a bit of a chip on their shoulder when it comes to the suits. A consistent undercurrent that I’ve noticed is skepticism about the motivations and incentives of for-profit firms. Here’s a typical sentiment excerpted from Serge Wroclawski’s magnificently controversial blog post, Why OpenStreetMap is in Serious Trouble (published in February of 2018).
Many of the founders of the project, as well as others, have launched commercial services around OSM. Unfortunately, this creates an incentive to keep the project small and limited in scope to map up the gap with commercial services which they can sell.
I think the playing field has changed significantly since Serge wrote those words — he was likely referring to projects like CloudMade (now defunct) and Mapbox ,which sought to offer generic map services on top of OSM’s dynamic map database (rather than enhance in-house products where mapping is ancillary to their core value proposition like it is for FAAM). He makes an interesting argument that OSM itself should be offering these services rather than letting companies piggyback on the efforts of countless volunteers while capturing all of the economic value.
What’s Motivating These Companies?
The concept is simple: undermine your competitors’ intellectual property advantage by collaborating with aligned entities to cheapen it with a free and openly licensed alternative.
I would wager that corporate participation in OSM is less about directly monetizing souped-up versions of OSM data provided as modern web services and more about desperately avoiding the existential conflict of having to pay Google for the privilege of accessing their proprietary map data.⁵
Whatever the motivations of these mega-corporations, they’ve succeeded in carving out a niche for themselves within the OSM community whether the hobbyists like it or not. I’d like to highlight a nuance often lost in this discussion — just exactly who are these companies hiring to add data to the map? They are often already-active, enthusiastic contributors to OSM. These are people living the open data fanatic’s dream: getting paid to do a job they find so fulfilling they would otherwise do it for free in their spare time.
There’s obviously a lot more to it than just sticking it to Google. Facebook, for instance, has ambitions of building new types of digital experiences that interplay with the real world (as evidenced by their focus on augmented reality and acquisition of novel user interface technology like CTRL-labs). Apple has added LiDAR to its new line of iPhones and iPods allowing customers to scan the 3D world in high fidelity among other exciting uses:
These firms have outgrown your office and your living room. They want to be with you literally every where you go, and constantly seduce you with entertaining and immersive experiences. The more of your attention they can monopolize, the more money they can make from selling chunks of it to advertisers and people developing software on their platforms.
Whether you like their motivations or not, the result is a desire to map the world in higher fidelity and at larger scale than even they can afford to accomplish independently. And that has, for better or worse, brought their interests into alignment with the grassroots OSM community.
Why Does it Matter?
Well, anytime the wealthiest institutions in history are quietly collaborating on something, I think it’s worth noting. I’m not sure there is a precedent for such a collaboration — if you know of a case where otherwise embittered mega-corporations worked with a global community of volunteers on a public dataset…let me know. I’d love to learn about it.
The question on my mind is how idiosyncratic this situation really is. Does OSM represent a model for strategic corporate sponsorship of public goods moving forward? Or is it tragically inimitable?
For instance: I work for a company called Azavea that, among many noble efforts, maintains Cicero. It’s a database of elected officials and legislative districts in several countries around the world that gets updated daily. You can imagine that this should be a public good — like, doesn’t the government already have this information? Turns out…nah. Cicero requires ceaseless, grueling work to keep updated, and that means serious investment of time and money.
One of the key differences between Cicero and OSM is a community of contributors. Community is what makes OSM special. Without it, the project is “default dead,” as they say in Silicon Valley. Much like elected official information, map data goes stale fairly quickly and therefore requires constant life support.
OSM’s community seems conflicted about whether or not corporate participation is ok (let alone good) for the future of the project. And yet the community is precisely what attracts corporate contributors. OSM provides two advantages over just buying privately collected data:
- Existing data is free and growing apace
- Proprietary data contributed to OSM may be expanded upon and/or maintained at no additional expense by the community
Some may squirm at the idea that their contributions to OSM help FAAM…after all, do they really need the help? But what’s beautiful is that FAAM is contributing (rather than passively mooching) because of the compounding value of having any/all data make it into the community’s growing number of hands.
I’m kind of shocked to be saying it, but somehow — almost inexplicably — the goals of the OSM community and corporate contributors seem to be largely aligned. They all want an accurate, ubiquitous map of the world that can be maintained in perpetuity as sustainably as possible.
It’s the opposite of the Tragedy of the Commons — all of the private property holders, acting in their own self interest, are enriching the common resource rather than depleting it.
¹ True as of November, 2020.
³ As an astute commenter on Hacker News pointed out, Tesla uses Google Maps for its dashboard. They only use OpenStreetMap for the auto-summon feature, which incidentally has resulted in lots of parking lots being added to OSM by the Teslarati as covered in Jennings’ most recent SOTMUS talk!
⁴ The 2019 paper is full of amazing tidbits like this: ~1.4% of contributors account for ~90% of the edits to OSM. This roughly adheres to something called the 1% rule of online communities which states that, “1% of Internet users are responsible for creating content, while 99% are merely consumers of that content.”
⁵ …but it’s definitely also about enriching their own applications and cloud services. | <urn:uuid:eb7cb96d-98bf-45bf-923f-506bca9ace63> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://joemorrison.medium.com/openstreetmap-is-having-a-moment-dcc7eef1bb01?source=user_profile---------6------------------------------- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00675.warc.gz | en | 0.95271 | 2,744 | 1.859375 | 2 |
The Swan Rescue Sanctuary in Wimborne, Dorset is a registered charity that was founded by Ken and Judy Merriman in 1994 following several years converting their 18 acres of farm land into the haven for swans that it is today. The main aim of the sanctuary is to treat and release swans back into the wild as soon as possible, but sometimes swans need long term care. Ken and Judy have dedicated their lives to caring for all the residents at the Swan Rescue Sanctuary. This effort involves day to day care for the swans and other residents, such as rescue missions, treatment, feeding, and the overall upkeep and maintenance of the Swan Rescue Sanctuary.
Please see our pages for information and news from the Swan Rescue Sanctuary and learn how you can help us continue our work treating and caring for these beautiful swans. | <urn:uuid:cfde7566-b150-4ecf-8f96-b3a1d80c6f49> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.swan-rescue.co.uk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280763.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00512-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970224 | 166 | 1.539063 | 2 |
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5
Sometimes when we’re wrestling with difficult and unexplainable circumstances such as the loss of family member, a diagnosis of cancer, or the loss of a job, it’s hard to be able to rest in God and trust Him.
It’s easier to trust Him when things are going well, as opposed when they don’t turn out the way we want. We can’t always see the “why” of a situation, so we tend to doubt and wonder if the light will ever even shine through the dark tunnel. But God created the earth so that light would always overcome darkness and that the sun will always rise when you wake up; His creation is the promise of something better, and gives us just a hint of what is to come.
God wants us to rest in Him knowing that at the end of our situation, it will ultimately be better, whether we see our problems resolved here on earth or in Heaven. We have the promise of future hope, joy, and peace. God doesn’t want us to worry about our current problems but to have our focus geared towards the future. When we keep the future in mind, we are able to handle our present circumstances better.
Are you anxious about something? Trying to find peace? Whatever the situation, remember the future hope and keep the bigger picture in mind, even if you can’t see the end result.
Dear Lord, thank you so much that you have promised to be with us in all circumstances, and that you give us a future full of hope. Amen.
Sometimes it’s very difficult to see the big picture God has in mind for us. Make a list of all the good things that have come out of your situation that would have never occurred had you not been placed there.
By Ashlea Massie
Used by Permission | <urn:uuid:ea1acef1-9efb-46d0-a2b4-ae48462d7361> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/ashlea-massie_contentment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572161.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815054743-20220815084743-00470.warc.gz | en | 0.959401 | 503 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Using medical terminology involves a large risk of miscommunication in English-medium consultations as patients often do not know or misunderstand the terms commonly used by physicians, or even misuse terms in their interactions with medical professionals (Hadlow/Pitts 1991; Street 2003). Patients and physicians also frequently associate different meanings with the same medical terms, which further threatens patient-physician communication (Hadlow/Pitts 1991). To date most investigations on the impact of medical terminology have focused on native English speaking (NES) individuals in monolingual encounters, while insights from non-native English speaking (NNES) physicians and patients have been largely neglected. Through semi-structured interviews, this qualitative explorative study investigates the experiences of patients and physicians from diverse linguistic backgrounds in medical encounters within Australia. A particular focus is given to the way NES and NNES participants perceive and judge the impact of the meaning of medical terms on patient-physician communication. Findings suggest that both the use and meaning of medical terminology are perceived and judged very differently by individuals who come from different language backgrounds and who hold varying degrees of medical knowledge. Findings indicate that common blanket recommendations urging medical professionals to avoid or explain jargon may be futile since physicians and patient also diverge in their understanding of what constitutes j argon or medical terminology.
|Number of pages||20|
|Publication status||Published - 2012| | <urn:uuid:e4a06cc0-6792-4df0-b6a8-f1f2d31d63e1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/coming-to-terms-with-medical-terms-exploring-insights-from-native | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571536.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811224716-20220812014716-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.923504 | 313 | 1.984375 | 2 |
The weather has been terrible lately; everything was covered in about 1-2 inches of ice, and now it’s just been cold and snowy. I was bored all weekend, and there haven’t been any significant developments with my little seedlings. I have just been worrying that they aren’t getting enough sunlight each day; I have been looking for grow lights, but that’s an entirely different subject.
Anyways, this boredom resulted in me just randomly surfing the internet for hours at a time; which is how I found some info on Feng Shui with your houseplants. Normally I think that the idea of Feng Shui is kind of silly, but I’m willing to try it out! My roommate doesn’t like that I have so many houseplants, so I figured that we could definitely use some more positive and happy energy in the apartment.
Here are some of the basic Feng Shui ideas:
1. Plants that are spiky or have pointy leaves are classified as “yang-looking plants.” Yang plants create dynamic, cutting lines across the chi (energy flow) of your room and are great for mental stimulation. On the other hand,’yin-like plants,’ such as a Jade plant have more of a round shape to them and will not create these lines, making the area better for mental rest.
2. Not only do plants keep the air cleaner in your room, but scented plants or herbs can definitely have a huge impact on the mood of a room. So if you feel like you need a bit of a pick me up, consider investing in some nice scented plants for your house such as Lemon Geraniums, Basil, Rosemary, or Lavender.
3. Some plants are even said to absorb possibly harmful EMF emissions from electronics such as computers. Some particular plants named were Peace Lilies, Peperomia, and Cacti.
4. If you have any hanging plants or ivy-like plants, they are best placed covering and sharp edges or corners in a room. This is done because these corners are said to create “shars” (cutting lines) across the chi of your room. Again, important places to soften these shars would be in your bedroom (particularly any shars that cut across your bed), or any corners that face your couch or chairs.
5. Paired plants or decorations are said to encourage “coupleness,” to either attract a relationship or strengthen an existing one.
6. Jade plants are well known Chinese “cures” for attracting wealth into the career areas of your life- I guess that’s why they call it the “money plant.” Set one of these where you do your work or pay your bills.
7. Last but not least, it is obvious that wilty or unhealthy plants will not bring good chi into your room. It is important to take good care of your plants, so they will keep bringing more positive energy to your space!
Now, with these tips in mind I set about rearranging my houseplants to better suit these Feng Shui principles. First I moved a pair of Jade plants to my nightstand (maybe my boyfriend will start being more romantic!) Also in my bedroom I put a nice hanging Peperomia and a few other Jade plants. In my office, I put my cacti for mental stimulation, and my Peace Lily for absorbing those crazy EMFs my computer is giving off all day long! I also put a Jade in my office for a much needed “money cure!” (Thank goodness I have a lot of Jade plants!)
Well, there you have it. Some great Feng Shui tips for all of you plant lovers to try out! I will let you know if I notice any positive differences- better sleep, more money, a roommate who likes my plants, who knows! I’m hoping it’ll work! | <urn:uuid:5a5bb964-93f3-48f0-a5d3-0c3079adad68> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://gardencorner.net/2007/04/feng-shui-with-your-houseplants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281649.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00443-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962319 | 830 | 1.5 | 2 |
Your application is fast and scalable, right? How do you know? How often do you run performance or load tests? In this post I will give an overview of the tools of the trade for performance and load testing web applications.
Open-Source performance testing tools
These tools allow you to load test your application for free. My preferred tool is Bees with Machine Guns — not just because of the epic name, but primarily because it uses Amazon’s EC2 to generate high levels of concurrency with ease.
- Bees with Machine Guns – A utility for arming (creating) many bees (micro EC2 instances) to attack (load test) targets (web applications).
- MultiMechanize – Multi-Mechanize is an open source framework for performance and load testing. It runs concurrent Python scripts to generate load (synthetic transactions) against a remote site or service. Multi-Mechanize is most commonly used for web performance and scalability testing, but can be used to generate workload against any remote API accessible from Python.
- Siege – Siege is an http load testing and benchmarking utility. It was designed to let web developers measure their code under duress, to see how it will stand up to load on the internet. Siege supports basic authentication, cookies, HTTP and HTTPS protocols. It lets its user hit a web server with a configurable number of simulated web browsers. Those browsers place the server “under siege.”
- HttpPerf – Httperf is a tool for measuring web server performance. It provides a flexible facility for generating various HTTP workloads and for measuring server performance. The focus of httperf is not on implementing one particular benchmark but on providing a robust, high-performance tool that facilitates the construction of both micro- and macro-level benchmarks. The three distinguishing characteristics of httpperf are its robustness, which includes the ability to generate and sustain server overload, support for the HTTP/1.1 and SSL protocols, and its extensibility to new workload generators and performance measurements.
- Apache Bench – AB is a tool for benchmarking your Apache HTTP server. It is designed to give you an impression of how Apache performs.
- JMeter – Apache JMeter may be used to test performance both on static and dynamic resources (files, Servlets, Perl scripts, Java Objects, databases and queries, FTP servers and more). It can be used to simulate a heavy load on a server, network or object to test its strength or to analyze overall performance under different load types. You can use it to make a graphical analysis of performance or to test your server/script/object behavior under heavy concurrent load.
Performance testing tools as a service
Through these services you can build, execute, and analyze performance tests.
- Apica Load Test – Cloud-based load testing for web and mobile applications
- Blitz.io – Blitz allows you to continuously monitor your app 24×7 from around the world. You can emulate a single user or hundreds of users all day, everyday and be notified immediately if anything goes wrong.
- Soasta – Build, execute, and analyze performance tests on a single, powerful, intuitive platform.
- Blazemeter – BlazeMeter is a self- service performance & load testing cloud, 100% JMeter-compatible. Easily run tests of 30k, 50k, 80k or more concurrent users, on demand.
Performance testing on the client side
The best place to get started is at Google with the Web Performance best practices.
- Google PageSpeed Insights – PageSpeed Insights analyzes the content of a web page, then generates suggestions to make that page faster. Reducing page load times can reduce bounce rates and increase conversion rates.
Web acceleration services
Through a simple DNS change, your website’s traffic is routed through these services and your content is optimized and cached globally for better performance. This is an easy way to improve performance with minimum efforts.
- Yottaa – All-in-one web optimization solution delivers speed, scale, security and actionable insight for any website.
- Cloudflare – Offers free and commercial, cloud-based services to help secure and accelerate websites.
- Torbit – Torbit helps you accurately measure your website’s performance and quantify how speed impacts your revenue.
- Incapsula – Incapsula offers state-of-the-art security and performance to websites of all sizes.
As always, please feel free to comment if you think I have missed something or if you have a request for content in an upcoming post. | <urn:uuid:3b520bdc-8d9d-4092-ab84-3241cf38c641> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.appdynamics.com/blog/engineering/tools-of-the-trade-for-performance-and-load-testing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571090.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809215803-20220810005803-00065.warc.gz | en | 0.857201 | 1,072 | 1.71875 | 2 |
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This collection of articles giving broad consideration to diverse aspects of legal positivism covers topics such as: positivism versus naturalism; the varieties of legal positivism; legal systems, validity and legal revolutions; science and what judges do; and concepts, interpretations and rights. | <urn:uuid:848a112e-2c0b-4e60-9b2e-f3f900b1896f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.wildy.com/isbn/9781855211582/legal-positivism-hardback-ashgate-publishing-ltd--2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280128.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00386-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.864562 | 101 | 1.929688 | 2 |
I’m surprised, as a matter of fact stunned, that modern behaviorism isn’t taking notice of the Constructal law as articulated by Adrian Bejan in his book “Design In Nature.” To me the implications of the Constructal law are overwhelming and yet no behaviorist or biologist is taking note. So about a month ago I had a discussion with Eric Brad about NDT relative to learning theory and I interjected the Constructal law into the discussion to see what kind of reaction it might engender. Eric did a quick survey of the Internet and noted the criticism of the theory that can be found on Wikipedia. I’m surprised he was satisfied by the vagueness of the critique but I didn’t pursue the matter at that point because I wanted to stay on topic, to wit: Natural Dog Training as behavioral snake oil. But now I return to the matter since at least I have Eric’s response to work with. Being well read and articulate I presume that Eric’s take would be what most behaviorists and biologists would come up with.
Eric Brad: “I do have some difficulty with your linking “emotion” to the “current” that Bejan describes in his work on constructal theory. I’ve done some reading today and even found a great TED talk that Bejan delivered on constructal theory. Very informative stuff but it differs in some significant ways from what you are characterizing here. For example, the Wikipedia page describes the major scientific criticisms of constructal theory as follows: “there is neither a mention of what these “currents” are nor an explicit definition of what “providing easier access” means. As a result, constructal theory is very versatile, but often unconvincing: depending on the choices made for the currents and the “access” to them, it can lead to extremely different results.” (Really? What different results are possible from Bejan’s explication of organ size and locomotion in terms of moving a physical body over long distances?)
“In defense of his theory (again from the Wikipedia page on Constructal Theory), Bejan has countered his critics by stating “the constructal law is not about what flows, but about the physics phenomenon of how any flow system acquires its evolving configuration (design) in time. The constructal law is not about optimality (max, min, opt)—it is the definition of “life” in physics terms, and of the time direction of the changes in flow configuration.” Taken in that context, it seems clear to me that what Bejan describes would be the tendency of any system with flowing matter to evolve toward a more efficient form over time. If one applies such a theory to nature (plants and animals), it seems to agree with Darwin’s theories as the more efficient species would be more likely to survive in order to breed.”
“In my reading thus far, I can find no reference by Adrian Bejan to this “other” current that you link to “emotion.” If one can accept your premise that such an “energy” does exist, then your writings make sense to me. I think it falls down for me because I do not accept as fact the existence of this unmeasurable “other” energy you choose to define as emotion.”
KB: Yes, Bejan doesn’t talk about emotion as a current. This is my interpretation of behavior, one I’ve been pursuing since the seventies. The point with the Constructal law however is its finding that whenever we find something persisting over time, then it is due to an order that has configured itself around a current. In other words, order and currents are inseparable. The question therefore is what is the current? Biology and behaviorism should be consumed with this question. Meanwhile biology and behaviorism says that order is the result of intention in service to an underlying genetic compulsion. Therefore if behaviorism and biology want to reconcile their theories with the Constructal law, the exchange and the perpetuation of genes must be the current.
A current is the movement of something, anything, it could be an object of mass, a liquid, a stream of electricity, an idea, and of course a gene. And this movement always follows a spreading branching architecture that vascularizes whatever area it is flowing through. It ultimately saturates that area so that flow is eased and access is enhanced, otherwise it cannot persist over time. All order evolves according to this architecture. This is inarguable. Genes can mutate all they want, but they must always configure their expression so that it renders a spreading tree-like architecture. Furthermore, they must always mutate so that the order they configure always meshes with every other order that is likewise configured around a current. But note that behaviorism and biology have been arguing for decades that the order which persists over time in the animal kingdom (such as canine social structure), is due to the mathematics of gene replication, that the proliferation of one gene as opposed to another results from a competition between genes that vary at random. Those traits that are most suited to a given climate or competitive pressure have an advantage and eventually occupy a greater share of the genome. This contravenes Constructal law because it explicitly states that enhancement of flow does not result from a competition. It results from objects of resistance becoming incorporated into the configuration.
These days behaviorism has modified the dominance theory to mean that a dog has an intention to maintain access to a resource, and again in service to the perpetuation of its genes. Learning theorists also argue that behavioral structure, i.e. the capacity to learn, the capacity of an individual to perpetuate itself over time, are due to high cognition, a problem solving capacity to conduct a cost/benefit analysis of various options. But the Constructal law demonstrates that this is faulty reasoning. What we perceive of as dominance is a vascular structure, it cannot possibly be about controlling access to a resource because by definition it has to be about enhancing the flow–FOR THE ENTIRE STRUCTURE. If a dog becomes fixated on a particular resource the only accurate statement that can be made is that the dog’s behavior is the structure sprouting a new “branch” in order to enhance flow, that’s it. Anything else is story telling. The only coherent explanation must be predicated on this flow logic rather than a logic of gene replication or reinforcements according to consequences.
The purpose of the structure is to saturate an “area;” be it a physical space or an expanse of time. It is a branching architecture that intimately entwines the individual with all other currents moving through other branching architectures. It is not due to a random process of genetic mutations and is not due to cognition because this spreading architecture predates by billions of years the existence of genes or cognition. This makes genes a suspect candidate as the current. Also modern behaviorism which derives its intellectual sustenance from Neo-Darwinism says that evolution has no direction. But this is also contradicted by Constructal law. As Bejan points out, were we to replay the evolutionary tape, we would get the same basic outcomes, from anatomy, locomotion, behavior and social structure and with the same basic mix of species variability that we have today because the evolution of all things is predicated on a current that is constantly improving its flow through a design predicated on a branching architecture. The evolutionary process is not random, it works according to principles of physics as opposed to an abstract mathematical rationale of gene replication. Gene replication is likewise a part of this Constructal process, but it is not driving it, it is subsumed by it. Furthermore, all flows confluence into the one overarching flow. Genes can’t possibly do this because unless genes are being culled, or transmitted through sexual recombination, then no genes are in transaction in the vast majority of interactions between individuals. And we must also remember that gene replication is not scalable since the genes of one species are not necessarily transferable to another species.
For this and other reasons reinforcement theory does not have a coherent definition of information. Saying that a reinforcement is that which increases the frequency of a given action, is not a flow statement. It is not scalable because it can’t answer why what is a reinforcement for a lion, isn’t a reinforcement for a gazelle. In a flow system, the fundamental unit of information is a principle of conductivity, a principle that also encodes for its improvement over time. It is not the standard 0 or 1 binary value, or the capacity to evaluate two equal alternatives, or a gene that is slightly more adaptive than another gene. The principle of conductivity as information is scalable. (For example the Constructal law shows the same principle is responsible for the locomotion of birds, animals, insects and fishes, as well as trucks, trains, and airplanes.) The prime unit is consonant with the most advanced complicated construct, like an intricate Lego structure built with a set of standardized blocks. Whereas behavioral/gene replication theory gets more and more complex as it must constantly paper over this internal inconsistency. (See “The Red Queen” or “Why Sex Is Fun” for convoluted theories as to the evolution of sexuality.)
Eric mentions efficiency as a means of reconciling Neo-Darwinian theory (on which learning theory draws its intellectual sustenance) with the Constructal law. But efficiency is not synonymous with flow and its enhancement. The story of evolution isn’t efficiency, the story of evolution is turning CHANGE into information, i.e. enhanced flow. For example American car companies in the seventies and eighties became ultra efficient by making interchangeable parts across model lines. This significantly lowered production costs but eventually what made an Oldsmobile different from a Buick, Pontiac or Chevy, became the badge on the hood and some glossy fender work. I can remember the uproar when it was discovered that Cadillacs were being powered by Chevy engines. When the consumer realized this, each brand lost emotional value and they turned to foreign cars because they had distinctive handling and styling characteristics which made them substantially different from other makes of cars. In the interest of efficiency, American car companies violated the principle of a branching architecture which itself is derived from a principle of motion, to wit: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. By being less efficient, but more polarized, they could have persisted longer over time. (Anyone seen a new Oldsmobile, Pontiac or Saturn lately?) This distinction between flow and efficiency further disqualifies genes as candidate for the current. Genes are “self” motivated, they can’t embrace the full architecture by which all of nature is interconnected.
Of course genes are part of evolution but their most likely role would be to lock in a particular flow configuration so that it can be passed through time. Genes are not the agency by which the configuration evolves. The configuration evolves IN THE MOMENT because the current flows IN THE MOMENT. And the only plausible candidate for the current around which the animal mind configures is emotion. The configuration emerges and improves by way of emotion becoming unresolved emotion (stress) and then resolved emotion: E->UE->RE, this is the full statement of the principle of emotional conductivity and paradoxically as it might first appear, E->UE->RE is the most basic unit of information. (Thus the car we buy resolves some layer of stress we carry.)
The emerging science of Epigenetics is beginning to illuminate the role that emotion plays over genetics. Epigenetics shows that the timing of a gene’s expression is more vital than the gene itself and that the biochemicals affiliated with stress inhibit the expression of genes. Emotion becoming unresolved by meeting with objects of resistance, and then resolved by importing these objects into the configuration, is how the energetic principles of nature shape and fine tune genetic expression so as to adapt to the environment. Social structures are statements of resolved emotion. Eventually genes reflect these shifts.
Finally Eric repeats the common behavioral refrain that emotion-as-energy is not measurable. But the truth is that science measures emotion-as-energy every day. Every brain scan, blood chemistry assay, hormonal surge obtained in lab experiments is measured and recorded but then it is misinterpreted as being in service to the mathematics of gene replication. Science misinterprets this data because it is reductionist and is not trying to construct a model. Whereas if we were to secure a dog to a post and stimulate him with a prey object and then measure every variable in its mind and body, the resulting data would constitute full energization. We would have an emotional baseline, we would have identified the main channel draining the emotional watershed that constitutes animal consciousness. And then if we were to do the same tests with all other aspects of its existence so that we could compare the values of these various emotional states, we will find a spreading architecture, with hard mathematical and biochemical correlates, configured around the main emotional current, the predator–>prey module as the chief conduit of emotion.
Also in regards to an “unmeasurable other current:” consider, that if someone talks to a psychiatrist about what they are feeling, describing their internal emotional states and how these impact their minds, the good doctor gives this direct testimony a lot of weight in the formulation of a remedial program. Direct testimony is part of the current scientific approach to understanding emotion. It is a clinical research tool (Kagan; “What Is Emotion?”). Likewise, if cultures around the world describe in great detail the energy-like impacts of emotional experience, we should also give this direct testimony great weight in the formulation of a theory of emotion. Every culture speaks of emotion as a current, as in for example the common expression: “emotional juices flowing.” This vast aggregate of experience edits out subjective impressionability. And then if the signature of an electric, magnetic and gravitational charge can also be detected in the behavior of animals, and if interpreting animals in light of the immediate-moment, which means emotion-as-energy, is the only means of analysis which has to date rendered a model, this is further corroboration of such evidence.
Dogs do not learn by reinforcement. A behavior is reinforced in terms of how it contributes or detracts from a spreading architecture. In other words, everything dogs learn is in terms of a social matrix, a construct that always has increased sociability as its norm, no matter the particular consequences of the dog’s experience.
Behaviorism, your turn. What is the current? | <urn:uuid:868e67d1-c876-4c88-8fd8-0e234a331218> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://naturaldogtraining.com/constructal-law/the-constructal-law-and-behaviorism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00117-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957234 | 3,040 | 1.929688 | 2 |
A unified communications system provides a single interface for voice communication, e-mail, instant messaging/chat services, video conferencing and other communications mechanisms. Although UC systems provide a number of benefits, they also introduce new security risks that organizations must mitigate to avoid unnecessary compromises and damage. These risks largely involve making resources available through data networks that used to be on separate voice and video networks.
Fortunately, some standard security practices can adequately protect UC systems against threats from the Internet and other networks.
A UC system contains many client and server software components. Each of these components may be attacked and potentially exploited to gain access to sensitive information, such as voicemail and e-mail, or to serve as a stepping stone for attacking other systems. It’s critically important that organizations keep their UC system components fully up to date with all operating system and application patches — particularly for the UC applications themselves — as part of vulnerability management. This will eliminate known software flaw vulnerabilities and reduce attackers’ opportunities to compromise UC system components.
A strong complement to vulnerability management is threat management. One of the most common security controls for threat management is antivirus software. Organizations should ensure that their UC system components that are vulnerable to malware attacks are protected through installed, activated and fully up to date antivirus software. This software should be updated as frequently as possible, perhaps multiple times a day, to help the system thwart the latest threats against it.
One of the distinguishing features of a UC system is that it unifies several communication mechanisms over a single network. Accordingly, organizations must protect these network communications from eavesdroppers, denial of service attacks and other threats that could disrupt or expose an organization’s sensitive communications.
Accomplishing this protection involves a variety of security controls. On the organization’s internal networks, traffic encryption should be used to prevent users from eavesdropping on each other’s communications. Organizations should also configure their internal networks to respect Quality of Service constraints, so that latency-intolerant communications such as voice and video have adequate bandwidth reserved to support their availability. Organizations should also employ firewalls and other packet-filtering technologies to shield their UC systems from denial of service and other attacks.
Remote users may expect to employ rather weak authentication methods, such as personal identification numbers (PINs), to gain access to their UC resources because they’ve been permitted to do this in the past to access voicemail services. However, this authentication mechanism is often too dangerous for organizations to condone for UC because the UC system provides access to so many resources through one entry point, and a four-digit PIN simply does not provide adequate protection for all of those resources.
Organizations should consider implementing strong authentication mechanisms for remote users to access their UC resources. At a minimum, organizations should employ a strong password, preferably more of a passphrase, and require it to be changed frequently. However, many organizations have decided that all remote access necessitates multifactor authentication because of the relative weakness of single-factor authentication and its susceptibility to compromise. These organizations should consider using passwords alongside cryptographic tokens, biometrics or other “something you have” and “something you are” authentication factors to achieve strong authentication for remote users. | <urn:uuid:0337bccd-ec0a-4d68-9da1-98710a0cd665> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.biztechmagazine.com/article/2013/01/how-secure-uc-system | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280310.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00184-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942849 | 658 | 2.6875 | 3 |
|It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Route planning software. (Discuss)|
Route planner is a tool for finding optimal routes (usually for traveling by car) from one place to another. They can typically provide a list of places one will pass by, with crossroads and directions that must be followed, road numbers, distances, etc. They also usually provide an interactive map with a suggested route marked on it.
There are several internet services that perform this task, such as RAC Route planner, ViaMichelin, MSN Maps & Directions, Mapquest. Intermodal Journey Planner systems may include a Road Route planner as part of their function.
Route Planning Software: Fleets and Distribution Companies
In commercial application, distribution companies with large and small fleets may incorporate route planning software into their fleet management systems to optimize route efficiency and boost profits.
An ideal route planning solution for distribution companies will often include GPS tracking capability and reporting features, which enable dispatchers to prevent unplanned stops, reduce mileage, and plan more fuel efficient routes.
- Web mapping
- Journey Planner
- Intermodal Journey Planner
- UPS Logistics Technologies Route Optimization Software- Route Planning and Management software for fleets and distribution companies.
- RoutePlanner - a free and open source route planner software
- Online UK Route Planner - interactive map showing the driving route, road distance and expected journey duration | <urn:uuid:2a4e4c64-1a55-45b3-a62f-3d69e98e1464> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://wiki.gis.com/wiki/index.php/Route_planner | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571993.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814022847-20220814052847-00675.warc.gz | en | 0.925844 | 299 | 2.5 | 2 |
Patient of ESLD is given adequate information about disease, life expectancy and quality of life with disease with and or without transplant. Patient has to understand the disease process, the best available treatment for him/her, affordability, magnitude of transplant surgery, complications of surgery and need of drugs after transplant. Patient is made to understand seriousness of disease, gravity of the problem, complicated nature of surgery, need of support of family members and impact of transplant in their personal life.
Overall health status of patient, associated illnesses, blood group and body weight are evaluated. Patient has to undergo multiple blood test to know liver function, kidney function, coagulation function, viral disease markers and so on. Doppler Ultra-sonography is performed to evaluation liver vessel patency and flow. Contrast enhanced CT scan is performed to evaluate volume of liver, anatomy of vessels and biliary system and in case of tumour; size, number and extra hepatic disease. Consultations from various specialist doctors are sought to rectify associated illness and optimize patient for surgery. | <urn:uuid:5874f283-384d-4e93-8f0e-6411969634c1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.indialivertransplant.com/liver-transplant-evaluation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572304.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816120802-20220816150802-00467.warc.gz | en | 0.943756 | 211 | 2.359375 | 2 |
If you have ever watched crime shows on television such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” or “Cold Case,” you have more than likely heard the characters discussing DNA evidence. While these shows make collecting, processing, and using DNA evidence to track down suspects look easier than it is in reality, DNA does play a significant role in many criminal cases. The following is a brief explanation of how DNA evidence can help in criminal defense.
What is DNA Evidence?
DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic Acid and is unique to every person (with the exception of identical twins), like a fingerprint. DNA can be found in skin cells, hair, saliva, tears, sweat, blood, and semen. If a criminal leaves any of this biological material behind at a crime scene, forensic labs may collect this evidence and analyze the DNA. If the DNA matches that of a suspect or any in the DNA database, it can help a prosecutor secure a conviction.
However, DNA evidence can help an experienced criminal defense attorney avoid a wrongful conviction, as well. First of all, an attorney will look to see if collection of your DNA violated your rights. Police officers do not have the power to collect DNA samples from anyone they like. Illinois law sets out the specific instances in which DNA may be collected, if:
- A person consents to submission of a DNA sample;
- A person is convicted or found guilty of a felony;
- A person is convicted or found guilty of any offense requiring state sex offender registration;
- A person is institutionalized due to the Sexually Dangerous Persons Act;
- The court has issued an order for a person to provide a DNA sample; or
- A person has been arrested and indicted for first degree murder, criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual assault, predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, or home invasion.
If police took your DNA without your consent and none of the above instances apply, they likely violated your rights and your attorney will fight to keep that evidence out of court.
You attorney will also investigate the processing of the DNA sample to try to identify any mistakes the forensic lab may have made. Your attorney can also conduct DNA analysis via a third-party lab to make sure all results are accurate.
Finally, if DNA evidence does not match, that is strong evidence that your attorney can present to show that someone else is guilty of the crime besides you. These are only some examples of ways in which a defense attorney can use DNA evidence to help you.
Contact an Experienced Chicago Defense Lawyer for a Free Consultation
If you are facing criminal charges, you should consult with defense attorney Steven Goldman as soon as possible. Identifying violations of your rights or appropriate defenses for your case requires thorough understanding of Illinois law and criminal procedure. For this reason, it is unlikely you will receive the best outcome possible if you try to handle a case on your own. Do not hesitate to call Goldman & Associates for help today. | <urn:uuid:ec690333-57e2-4539-96ab-a4c9fa30fc21> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.criminallawyer-chicago.com/blog/the-importance-of-dna-in-criminal-defense/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572304.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816120802-20220816150802-00476.warc.gz | en | 0.952066 | 609 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Sadie Orchard (1860-1943)
Arriving in the silver mining boomtown of Kingston in 1886, Sadie Jane Creech Orchard is arguably the most colorful woman in New Mexico history. Sadie opened brothels, worked as a prostitute, built and operated hotels and restaurants, and co-owned and drove for a regional stagecoach line. During World War I she tended to the less fortunate, and in the 1918 flu pandemic nursed children and cared for the sick and dying. New Mexico writer Erna Fergusson wrote of her, “For a bad woman, Sadie was one of the best.”
Roadside Marker Location: Hillsboro, SierraCounty, NM Hwy 152
You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.
You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org
March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division | <urn:uuid:b623615b-6b6a-4550-a9ae-889ff7726693> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/blog/tag/1918-flu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00277.warc.gz | en | 0.938001 | 243 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Since the first wiki was developed by Ward Cunningham in 1994, wikis have become increasingly popular across the Internet, as users from all over the world combine their individual expertise to create a large database of communal knowledge. While anyone can contribute content to a wiki, it's important to adhere to the specific rules and guidelines set out by each website. With this in mind, here's a quick guide to help get you started.
What is a wiki?
According to the inventor of the wiki, Ward Cunningham, a "wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser." Wiki users can add, edit and remove information and content. Often, they can be edited by anyone willing to make a contribution, but most wiki sites enlist moderators to monitor and approve any changes made to the site's content.
Users and moderators collaborate to create substantial, quality content on one or a range of subjects. Of course, the most famous wiki site is undoubtedly Wikipedia, but there is also a wide variety of more focused or specialized wiki sites available on the web.
How to edit
Editing a wiki page is usually extremely simple. Most sites will include a "edit" tab next to certain pages or sections. Clicking an edit tab should lead you to a text editing page where content can be added and removed. Many sites have specific criteria for editing, as well as guidelines on writing styles and appropriate content, which should be consulted before editing.
Open an account
While many sites allow editing by anonymous users, it's usually best to create an account before continuing with the process. Over time, this will allow you to foster a reputation as a reliable and knowledgeable contributor. An anonymous edit is usually considered a red flag by a wiki site's moderators, and will increase the likelihood of your edits being deleted. In addition, creating a user account will enable you to participate in the site's community of wiki editors and engage in discussions about other edits, content and contributions.
Any former college student will know just how important it is to cite references, which provide legitimacy to your information and allow readers to investigate the context or background of the information you've included in your writing.
The same rings true for wiki sites; since anyone can edit the site's content, it's important to demonstrate that your contributions have been based on facts. While they may not be necessary for every page, failing to include citations for certain topics may cause the site's moderators to reject your edits, according to the Wikipedia editing guide.
Often, wiki sites will ask you to submit an edit summary once the changes have been made. This helps the moderators to identify which changes have been made, and why they were valuable. If the edit is deemed unnecessary or unsubstantial, it will likely be rejected. Larger sites like Wikipedia include content discussion pages, where edits can be deliberated and critiqued to further refine the site's content. | <urn:uuid:aae1a43d-c3f8-4f5c-885d-6d2f68687999> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.foxnews.com/tech/how-to-edit-a-wiki | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572021.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814083156-20220814113156-00066.warc.gz | en | 0.929945 | 602 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Pre-Hispanic agriculture practices on soils in the Western Cordillera of the Peruvian Southern Andes
Santa Maria terraces group (region Laramate, 14.5°S). Half-height, non-irrigated terraces, large rocks at the base, about medium sized. Abandoned terraces and repaired on different cultural periods: Early Horizon (550-200 BC), Middle Horizon (650-1000 AD), Late Intermediate Period (1000-1438 AD).
Taken on 16
Submitted on 26 February 2016
Credit: Fernando Leceta Gobitz (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)
Click to appreciate | <urn:uuid:68aba310-d9e4-46c2-9de8-cdf1d13e5164> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://cdn.imaggeo.egu.eu/view/4051/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571758.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812200804-20220812230804-00665.warc.gz | en | 0.764366 | 154 | 2.953125 | 3 |
More teenage boys than ever are using condoms when first having sex...
More teenage boys than ever are using condoms when first having sex; Indiana University research scientist and author Debby Herbenick says results are encouraging, and ‘today’s condom is not your grandfather’s condom’
A higher proportion than ever of teenage guys are using a condom the first time they have sex, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report.
The CDC says eight in 10 teenage males studied during 2006-2010 used a condom during their first sexual encounter – a 9 percentage point increase from 2002 numbers; that’s 80 percent of teenage boys using protecting. Plus, 16 percent of teen males used a condom in addition to their female partner’s hormonal contraception – a 6 percentage point increase from 2002. In fact, boys may be being more responsible than girls on this front: Teenage boys were found to be more likely than teenage girls to have used some type of contraception the first time they had sex. The CDC says 78 percent of girls ages 15 to 19 said they used some sort of contraception the first time, compared with 85 percent of boys in that age group.
Debby Herbenick, PhD, research scientist at Indiana University and author of Because It Feels Good: A Woman’s Guide to Sexual Pleasure and Satisfaction, says the new data is encouraging, and is consistent with data from Indiana University’s National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB), published last fall in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Herbenick notes that in the NSSHB, condom use was highest among adolescent men and women.
“It is encouraging to see more young men and women using a condom when they choose to have sex – especially during the first time they have sex,” she said. “Condom education efforts are important for adolescents and also for adults, who – in our study (the NSSHB) – reported lower rates of condom use, even when they were having sex with casual partners or partners whose STI status was unknown to them. Condoms remain the only effective device we have for greatly reducing STI (sexually transmitted infection) and HIV risk among sexually active individuals.”
The CDC survey also found that female teenagers are using a wider array of hormonal methods than ever before; many used hormonal contraception other than the pill during their first sexual encounters, and a higher percentage said they had used emergency contraception (14 percent), the contraceptive patch (10 percent), and the contraceptive ring (5 percent). Birth control pill use did not change significantly since 2002, nor has overall sexual activity trends.
Herbenick says the evolution of the condom may play a role in its increased use among teens.
“Condoms have played an important role in birth control and STI risk reduction for centuries, and modern condoms remain an important part of people’s sexual lives today, too,” Herbenick continued. “Condoms are affordable, they’re available without a prescription, and – with just a little bit of education or information – they are easy for men and women to use correctly. In addition, today’s condom is not your grandfather’s condom. Today’s condoms are designed and shaped in ways to help sex feel more natural and many are coated with lubricants that help sex to feel more pleasurable and comfortable. This means that, increasingly, people are finding that they can have sex that’s safer, and that feels good too. That’s an important message.”
For related stories on genConnect:
Tom Sturges on Parenting: Grow the Tree You’ve Got (VIDEO)
Contraception Highlights From Our Live Chat With Susan Wysocki
How to Talk to Your Kids About Sex, by Margery Fridstein
Philadelphia STD Campaign Includes Mailing Condoms to Kids (POLL)
Want more genConnect? | <urn:uuid:5d1b61f8-1c3e-49f0-9fa8-f05208129a4a> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.yourtango.com/2011107528/condom-use-rising-teen-sex | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282926.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00391-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946839 | 818 | 2.21875 | 2 |
If you are a tenant or a landlord in Ontario, you are likely aware of the Residential Tenancies Act which regulates rent increase amounts every year. These rental increase guideline do not apply to every unit. You may be surprised to discover your unit does not fall under this Act.
The Residential Tenancies Act prescribes that the provincial rental increase guidelines do not apply to rental units that were:
–not occupied for any purpose before June 17, 1999
–any rental unit no part of which has been previously rented since July 29, 1975
–or any rental unit in a building no part of which was occupied for residential purposes before November 1, 1991. This would include commercial office space which was converted to residential occupancy after this date.
It will pay you to know when your building was built and a little of its recent history. | <urn:uuid:23e5c23d-1281-4e7e-af69-8b5a16606c41> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.chipbarkel.com/blog/toronto-rental-increase-guidelines-may-apply/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573029.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817153027-20220817183027-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.972727 | 168 | 1.585938 | 2 |
When did the alliance start?
The relationship goes back to the late 1930s, just after Abdul Aziz ibn Saud consolidated squabbling Arab tribes into a kingdom. U.S. energy companies had discovered oil in the Arabian Peninsula, and they asked their government to promote their interests with the new monarch. In 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt met King Abdul Aziz aboard a U.S. ship in the Suez Canal, and the two got along famously. FDR gave the ailing king one of his own wheelchairs, which the king later called his "most precious possession." FDR succeeded in ensuring that the U.S., and not the British, would control Saudi oil. In return, the U.S. would provide security for the kingdom: Within a few years, a U.S. military base was set up near the oil fields. Over the decades, the oil-for-security arrangement has become vital to both countries. Saudi Arabia is now the U.S. defense industry's largest foreign customer, buying some $112 billion worth of weapons during the Obama administration alone.
Has the alliance ever wavered?
The 1973 oil embargo was a major rough patch. For a year, the Saudis quit selling to the U.S. in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. But the two countries made up, united in opposition to the Soviet Union. Even the 9/11 attacks couldn't loosen the bond. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were Saudi nationals, and U.S. public opinion turned strongly against the kingdom after Saudi citizens were allowed to leave the U.S. right after the attack — before the FBI could interview them. But President George W. Bush, whose family had long-standing Saudi business relationships, stood by the alliance, and in 2005, he was photographed holding hands with then–Crown Prince Abdullah. In the decade after 9/11, the Saudis spent more than $100 million on public relations in the U.S., trying to overcome the country's image as an exporter of terrorism.
Is that image true?
Yes. Decades ago, the Saudi monarchy made a tacit bargain with radical Islamists in the country: It would fund the spread of Wahhabism, the Saudi form of ultraconservative Islam, and jihadism around the world, as long as the radicals didn't blow up targets inside Saudi Arabia. Saudi money funded Islamist militants in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bosnia, and the Russian province of Chechnya. After 9/11, Saudi officials claimed to have turned off the money spigot. But secret U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks in 2009 said Saudi Arabia "remains a critical financial support base" for al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, giving them "millions of dollars annually."
What about human rights?
With its draconian form of sharia law, Saudi Arabia's autocratic government is consistently rated among "the worst of the worst" human rights offenders. Its gender apartheid system treats women as second-class citizens — shrouded in abayas, dependent on male guardians, and mostly barred from going out alone and from any form of public life. There's no freedom of religion, and the press is censored. Brutal, public floggings and stonings are the penalty for such crimes as adultery and apostasy. Those arrested are routinely tortured to extract confessions. Last year, Saudi Arabia put to death 146 people for crimes including murder and drug dealing; most of the executions were beheadings.
What's in it for the U.S.?
Saudi oil, of course, although last year it made up only 9 percent of what the U.S. used, because of our fracking revolution. More strategically important today is the Saudis' regional role in counterbalancing Iran. Ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Iranian mullahs took U.S. diplomats hostage, the U.S. has seen Iran as the most dangerous actor in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, which practices Sunni Islam, opposes the Iranian Shiite theocracy's proxy interventions in other Middle Eastern countries, including Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. More recently, the Saudis have begun working with America's other major regional ally, Israel, because both countries see Iran as an existential threat.
How has Trump affected the relationship?
The president has long-standing business ties with the Saudis; by his own account, he's sold them millions of dollars' worth of real estate. "Am I supposed to dislike them?" he asked while campaigning for president. "I like them very much." Since taking office, he has made the Saudi alliance a priority; his first foreign trip was to Riyadh. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner quickly grew close to one of the king's sons, Mohammed bin Salman, and the administration strongly supported Mohammed's elevation to crown prince last year, viewing him as a reformer intent on modernizing his country. Congress, though, is not so enamored. The killing of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month prompted the Senate to invoke the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which requires the president to identify within four months which individual Saudis should be sanctioned. "In moments like this, you have to embrace your values," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). "No more transactional interactions."
U.S. support for the war in Yemen
Barack Obama initially backed Saudi Arabia's war against Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen in 2015 in order to prevent the overthrow of the Yemeni government. But after thousands of civilians were killed in Saudi airstrikes, Obama suspended a sale to the Saudi military of some $390 million in weaponry. Trump pushed that sale through right after he took office, and U.S.-made laser-guided bombs are now being used against Houthi militants and Yemeni civilians. The Pentagon is also giving the Saudis intelligence help in identifying targets, and U.S. planes provide midair refueling for Saudi aircraft. Since last year, U.S. special forces have been stationed on the Saudi-Yemen border to help the Saudis destroy Houthi missile sites. This support, though, may soon end, as hunger and chaos threaten millions of Yemeni civilians. "Now is the time to move forward on stopping this war," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week. | <urn:uuid:224d78b5-1aed-45b1-91ce-6da20b34683d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://theweek.com/articles/806654/how-saudi-arabia-became-americas-ally?fbclid=IwAR2cQDplwblDOFTxZk8RFNpZ3UnxaRMZzSPDVAzHuPOIx8mWK2DeieLGxms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570651.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20220807150925-20220807180925-00468.warc.gz | en | 0.961745 | 1,330 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Obviously, you bought your xA because you wanted to buy Japanese engineering and youthfulness both impeccably combined into one automobile. Scion automobile enthusiasts have become used to a certain level of best-in-class value when driving their xA around town. Your Scion dealership isn't the only place to locate genuine or original equipment quality replacement parts for your xA. The vehicle in your driveway is head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to all the vehicles these days.
The ability to control your car or truck's speed is crucial to keeping you and your passengers safe. But it wasn't until a few decades after the first cars were produced that drum brake shoes were invented. Drum brake shoes were used ubiquitously before brake pads, and your Scion xA uses them inside the drums. Much like all brake systems, hydraulic pressure is the agent responsible for making the Scion xA drum brake shoes create friction. You come to a stop when energy is absorbed by the brake shoes as they are pressed up against the drums.
Given all the hassles associated with repairing damage to your car or truck, let www.carpartsdiscount.com be the number one store you go to make purchasing it easy. Make all your future car parts purchases at carpartsdiscount.com and save time and money on all your upcoming repairs. At Car Parts Discount, we have real customer support agents here with enough expertise to help you select the appropriate Scion xA part for your project or repair. All the Scion xA Drum Brake Shoes parts on this page will fit vehicles made in 2006, 2005, 2004. Choose your year below to refine your search. | <urn:uuid:a2742787-3b9a-47e9-a341-eebc73746c71> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.carpartsdiscount.com/drum-brake-shoes/scion~xa.html?3594=2224 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279933.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00119-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965356 | 333 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Kwanzaa Memory Album
Show off your holiday snapshots and family snapshots in this photo album. Make the album as a family Kwanzaa activity.
This is a great technique for covering albums or journals to give as year-round gifts.
What You Need:Choose your favorite fabric.
- Photo album, 11-3/8 inch x 10 inch
- 1/3 yard batting
- 1/2 yard Afrocentric fabric, (more fabric may be needed for a directional fabric where the selvages are the top and bottom)
- 1/3 yard lightweight cotton (for inside cover)
- 2 yards decorative fabric trim
- Glue gun and hot glue sticks
Instructions:Be creative with how you place the pattern of the fabric.
1. Cut batting 11-3/8 x 10 inches to fit outer cover of photo album.
2. Glue batting onto the front and back of the photo album.
3. Cut cover fabric to fit album with a 1/4-inch allowance all the way around fabric, approximately 23 inches x 12 inches. Before gluing fabric, test closing the book to make sure book closes completely.
4. Attach cover fabric. Pull and glue the cover fabric over batting and inside. Cut fabric to fit into space at top and bottom of binder rings.
5. Cut lining in two pieces to fit neatly over cover fabric on the inside front and back of the album. | <urn:uuid:e8c9bd59-d342-4e1c-8ea2-1282ce2a26bf> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.bhg.com/holidays/kwanzaa/crafts/kwanzaa-memory-album/ | 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 | 0.890176 | 300 | 1.554688 | 2 |
This comprehensive, illustrated handbook is intended for collectors of apothecary bottles and other pharmaceutical and medical paraphernalia, covering artifacts likely to appear in North America and the United Kingdom from early Colonial times through approximately 1920. The book contains by far the largest compendium of terms used on apothecary bottles and other wares, comprising over 10,000 entries. Introductory materials provide instructions for use of the compendium, a concise history of apothecary containers and labels, and definitions and discussions of archaic terms for apothecary processes, weights and measures, therapeutic actions, and disease states. Appendices cover apothecary Latin, alchemy and alchemical symbols, astrological symbols, bottle manufacturers, and botanical terms. Illustrations are provided for various types of bottles and containers, apothecary devices, and for nearly 300 botanical species.
The Historical Apothecary Compendium
Schiffer Publishing, Limited
A Guide to Terms and Symbols
Mind, Body & Spirit | <urn:uuid:e8efe15b-e0c5-4fed-9277-bced7cd87590> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://www.dymocks.com.au/book/the-historical-apothecary-compendium-by-daniel-a-goldstein-9780764349263/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721595.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00479-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.809604 | 210 | 2.546875 | 3 |
If you Google “Donald Trump malaria,” you’re likely to find comedian Jimmy Kimmel calling his wife Malaria instead of Melania at the 2016 Emmy Awards. What you won’t find is a clear sense of the U.S. president-elect’s stance on the disease.
Malaria No More CEO Martin Edlund mentioned this as an example of the uncertainty global health and development professionals are facing in light of the United States presidential election results at the Global Washington conference in Seattle.
A central question across most of the sessions at the conference Thursday was how to move forward given so any questions about the future of support from the U.S. government for issues like malaria, access to clean water, or climate change.
Here are some of the top takeaways.
1. Consider these three steps, in this order.
When trying to figure out the future of U.S. government support for the issues you care about, it’s important to determine first, what you are trying to accomplish, next, who you are dealing with, and finally, how to position yourself for success, Edlund said Thursday.
“I would make the case that ending one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases is a demonstration of America’s greatness, and you can play on Trumpian themes with that message,” he said.
For Edlund, the goal is clear: ending malaria deaths. While he had an ally in the past Republican administration, with former President George W. Bush proving to be a real champion of global health issues, he said it’s too early to tell whether malaria will be a priority for the Trump administration.
As questions remain about who will lead the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the President’s Malaria Initiative, among other key global health and development roles, organizations have to go with the little information they have. For example, Edlund mentioned how Vice President-elect Mike Pence served on the Caucus on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases in the House of Representatives.
“We have a long history of working on both sides of the aisle in the U.S.,” said Carol Welch, deputy director for Africa at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in a separate panel discussion on cross sector partnerships. “I’m hopeful we will continue to be able to really cultivate bipartisan support for these efforts.”
But while she introduced optimism to the conversation, she also expressed her concern at the rise of nationalism not only in the U.S. but also across Europe.
“We’re in a period of internal retrenchment,” she said.
Many speakers expressed how the voting public is becoming much more concerned about their own well being than the well being of others, which makes it more difficult to push for programs that help others beyond our borders.
The global health and development community has to help the general public understand how these causes matter even in a context of focusing at home first, said Jolyne Sanjak, chief program officer at Landesa, a Seattle-based organization focused on land rights.
One mistake the environmental conservation movement has made is focusing their advocacy on the Amazon or the Arctic rather than focusing first on the benefits nature offers people, said Michael Stevens, Washington state director at The Nature Conservancy.
What connected these panels was that, moving forward, the work may not change, but the messaging will have to.
3. Make the connection between defense and development.
Gen. James Mattis, the retired four-star general whose name is being floated for defense secretary, recently led Trump to reconsider his position on torture when Mattis said he preferred building trust with terrorism suspects with “a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers.”
This interaction, and the fact that Trump continues to fill his cabinet with former generals, demonstrates how the global health and development community might be able to influence military brass in a position to influence the president, said Linh Thai, district representative for the office of Rep. Adam Smith, a Democratic representative from Washington.
“Since 9/11 there has been an increasing dance between development and defense,” Sanjak said.
While the connection between defense and development was nothing new to this audience, panelists suggested some ways to further convey the connections between the two, like the connection between impoverishment and radicalization in advocacy for refugee resettlement.
4. Identify new sources of leadership and funding.
By selecting climate change denier Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Trump confirmed fears of the impact of his presidency on global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
After reaching a major climate deal at COP21 in Paris, then pledging to press ahead at the COP22 in Marrakech, Morocco, that followed, governments need to redouble their efforts leading to COP23 in Bonn, Germany, Stevens said.
While he expressed concerns about what a Trump presidency, with Pruitt at the helm of the EPA, would mean for the role of the U.S. in efforts to address climate change, Stevens also pointed to other sources of leadership on the issue. Examples include the mayors of 86 cities who gathered at C40 in Mexico City as well as the 365 companies and investors who wrote a letter urging Trump not to abandon the Paris deal.
Still, federal government support remains a critical funding stream for challenges such as the Sustainable Development Goals. The U.S. accounts for 24 percent of total official development assistance, making it the largest foreign aid donor in the world.
“If that pie gets smaller, we have to look at other pies,” said Greg Allgood, vice president of water at World Vision.
He referenced an investment of $75 million dollars to supply clean water and sanitation in rural Africa that has enabled World Vision to increase its impact tenfold in the last five years with little government funding.
As lesser known philanthropists join high profile figures such as Bill and Melinda Gates in making big bets with their billions, there are new opportunities for funding to support these causes, he said.
The theme of the 2016 Global Washington conference was Allies for Action, and at one point Thursday, the audience was reminded of the 2015 theme: Disruptive development.
“We are now in the disruption,” Thai said to the audience. “Be careful what you wish for.”
Catherine Cheney covers the West Coast global development community for Devex. Since graduating from Yale University, where she earned bachelor's and master's degrees in political science, Catherine has worked as a reporter and editor for a range of publications including World Politics Review, POLITICO, and NationSwell, a media company and membership network she helped to build. She is also an ambassador for the Solutions Journalism Network and the Franklin Project at the Aspen Institute.
Subscribe to Devex Newswire
Top international development headlines emailed to you every day | <urn:uuid:3e511b24-19b4-44db-96eb-c342df9208de> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.devex.com/news/washington-state-on-navigating-uncertainty-in-washington-dc-89294 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280065.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00543-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954922 | 1,436 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Hardibacker board is cut by scoring a line in the board and then snapping the board along the line for straight edges. To cut curves, a tungsten-carbide jigsaw blade is used. All jigsaw cuts and drilling is done outdoors, and an N95 dust mask is worn to avoid inhaling silica.Continue Reading
Use a construction pencil to make a mark on the board along the cutting line of the board. For straight cuts, a mark can be placed on both sides of the board to aid in cutting with the scoring tool.
Place a straightedge along the cutting line. Run a scoring tool designed for use with fiber-cement backerboard along the edge of the straightedge's edge for five or six passes to cut halfway through the board.
Hold the side of the board to be used against a stable surface, and then pull the waste side upward towards the scored line to snap the board along the line.
Mark the board with a construction pencil in the curve desired. Drill several small holes along the line with a 3/8-inch carbide-tipped masonry drill bit to aid in turning the jigsaw along the curved line. Place the jigsaw blade through the first hole at the beginning of the curved line, and then cut through the board along the line. | <urn:uuid:990e4296-301a-4947-b8df-11ecc4ca2441> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.reference.com/home-garden/cut-hardibacker-756d29beb058214b | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280221.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00232-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940123 | 267 | 2.84375 | 3 |
This project was built by a team of students as a part of Duke University’s first hackathon.
The build consists of large pads set on the ground that detect pressure and relay signals to the computer. Attached to the computer is an Arduino Uno with an XBee. XBee relays the signal from the piano to the computer and firmware on the Arduino converts the raw data into a standard MIDI file. A software instrument within Logic Pro then reads this MIDI file and generates the sound.
There is also a remote control that can be used to adjust various parameters. The user can enter a ‘tutorial’ mode, which will show you how to play songs by illuminating LED lights on the correct keys. You can also adjust an attached potentiometer to select between 16 different instruments.
In the video below (at 6:45), you can watch a full demonstration of this giant piano. | <urn:uuid:b5e27570-f2c9-4c7c-9b5d-e34125224e6f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.digi.com/blog/tag/duke-university/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280310.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00188-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939106 | 185 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Clark International Airport Corp. said Wednesday it is set to sign an agreement with Aeroports de Paris of France to finance a feasibility study for the proposed budget terminal in the former US airbase.
“Aeroports de Paris will look into it [budget terminal]. We’re signing a memorandum of agreement with the ADP. It will act as the design and consulting company. It is a grant by the ADP,” CIAC president Victor Jose Luciano told reporters Wednesday.
ADP is the airport authority that owns and manages the 14 civil airports and airfields in France.
“If we sign in about a week, they will finish it in three months which include the new design for the budget terminal. So the existing building will become a legacy terminal. If we can construct at the end of 2014, then we can finish by the second quarter of 2016,” Luciano said.
The Transportation Department is also studying plans for the proposed P7.2-billion low cost carrier terminal at the Clark International Airport.
“The government is currently studying the concept of a low-cost carrier terminal at Clark airport, because of its potential as gateway of the country,” Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya said.
The budget terminal is designed to accommodate 10 million to 15 million passengers annually, once it becomes operational.
Luciano said the LCC terminal would accommodate low-cost carriers which are currently flying out of Clark.
Among these airlines are Cebu Pacific Air, Air Asia Berhad, Jin Air and Tiger Air Philippines. Other long-haul airlines include Asiana Airlines of South Korea and Dragonair of Cathay Pacific.
He also said the P360-million passenger terminal building currently being constructed was expected to be fully completed by December this year, instead of the June 2014 deadline.
The new passenger terminal is designed to accommodate five million passengers annually.
“The way things are going, the construction phase would be completed by December of this year, instead of the June 2014 deadline,” Luciano said.
The CIAC recorded 1.3 million passengers in 2012, up 76.7 percent from year ago. | <urn:uuid:86524164-0891-4778-b42d-e86fe78cbbb0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.journey.ca/2013/10/06/clark-in-talks-with-french-firm-to-design-budget-airport/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570871.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808183040-20220808213040-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.958567 | 449 | 1.5625 | 2 |
This X-ray shows how the ring was hidden. (Image via Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum)
The owner of a gold ring and necklace found at Auschwitz was almost certainly murdered by the Nazis, but she hid her valuables so well that they weren’t found by her killers—or by anybody else for another 70 years. The Auschwitz Museum says curators discovered the items in an enamel mug with a double bottom.
The mug, one of 12,000 pieces of kitchenware in the museum’s collection at the former extermination camp, had begun to fall apart with age and employees discovered its secret during maintenance work, the BBC reports. Tests revealed that the pieces, which had hallmarks featuring the head of a knight with the number three on the right side, were made in Poland between 1921 and 1931.
Museum director Dr. Piotr Cywinski says the Nazis, who murdered more than 1 million Jews at the camp, told people being rounded up and sent to Auschwitz that they were being deported for resettlement—a lie that ensured they brought their valuables with them in the small amount of luggage they were allowed. The fact that victims went to great lengths to hide their valuables shows they knew they would be robbed, he says, but “on the other hand, it shows that the Jewish families constantly had a ray of hope."
The museum says the jewelry will remain in its collection—there’s little chance of identifying the owner—displayed in a way that shows how it had been hidden. (An Auschwitz survivor wasn’t allowed to testify at a guard’s trial.)
By Rob Quinn
More From Newser:
This article originally appeared on Newser: Ring Was Hidden at Auschwitz for More Than 70 Years | <urn:uuid:eb9e889a-d2cb-4c0a-8db9-152f23141f0f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/ring-was-hidden-at-auschwitz-for-more-than-70-175255631.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.980782 | 366 | 2.859375 | 3 |
PRELIMINARY and Secret Treaty between the French Republick and his C. M. the King of Spain, relating to the aggrandizement of H. R. H. the Infant Duke of Parma in Italy, and to the recession of Louisiana.
His Catholick Majesty having always manifested the most anxious desire to procure for his R. H. the Duke of Parma an aggrandizement, which might place him on a footing corresponding with his dignity; and the French Republick having long since given to H. C. M. the King of Spain to understand the desire which they felt to recover possession of the colony of Louisiana; both governments having interchanged their views upon these two subjects of common interest, and circumstances permitting them to enter into engagements in this particular, which as far as it depends on them, may assure reciprocal satisfaction, have authorized for this purpose, that is to say: the French Republic, the citizen Alexander Berthier, general in chief; and his C. M. don Mariano Luis de Urquijo, Chevalier of the Order of Charles III, and of St. John of Jerusalem, Counsellor of State, his Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary near the Batavian Republick, and his provisional first Secretary of State; who, after having exchanged their powers, have agreed, saving the ratification, upon the following articles:
The French Republick engages to procure for H. R. H. the Infant Duke of Parma an augmentation of territory which shall raise the population of his estates to one million of inhabitants with the title of King, and all the rights annexed to the royal dignity; and to this effect the French Republick engages to obtain the consent of H. M. the Emperor and King, and of the other states interested, so that H. R. H. the Infant Duke of Parma may without opposition enter into possession of the said territories, at the time of the confirmation of peace between the French Republick and his Imperial Majesty.
The augmentation to be given to H R. H. the Duke of Parma may consist of Tuscany, in case the present negotiations of the French government with H. I. Majesty shall permit them to dispose of that country, or of the three Roman ecclesiastical provinces, or any other continental provinces of Italy, that may form a rounded estate.
H. C. M. promises and engages on his part to recede to the French Republick, six months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations herein expressed, relative to H R. H. the Duke of Parma, the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and had while in the possession of France, and such as it | <urn:uuid:6a62ea81-02ed-4ffb-9612-6fa7a449deed> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Memoir_upon_the_negotiations_between_Spain_and_the_United_States_of_America_which_led_to_the_treaty_of_1819.djvu/161 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720972.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00250-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957443 | 592 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Scientology & the Cross
Anyone see this? What's up w/ the cross as a symbol? Weird...and then upon further research, see below. I mean, just WTF?!?!?!?!?!
And then, from wiki (I know, but there are similar references elsewhere...)
Xenu (also Xemu), pronounced /ˈziːnuː/, according to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, was the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Scientology holds that their essences remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm.
These events are known to Scientologists as "Incident II", and the traumatic memories associated with them as The Wall of Fire. The story of Xenu is part of Scientologist teachings on extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in Earthly events, collectively described as space opera by Hubbard. Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetan level III (OT III) in 1967, warning that this material was "calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it."[sic]
EDUCATION! EDUCATION! EDUCATION! | <urn:uuid:5cf1c2e3-4560-48cc-8e66-4684e327eb0f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/sapient/atheist_vs_theist/11576 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280292.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00341-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960393 | 268 | 1.773438 | 2 |
After eight years of teamwork between Boeing, the Navy, and contractors, the most updated naval flight officer (NFO) training system is fully operational in Pensacola, Florida. Navigation students at Naval Air Station Pensacola began the first T-45 Virtual Mission Training System syllabus in January 2014. Former pilot and Boeing marketing field rep, Dick “Bush Hog” Nelson has been a member of the T-45 VMTS team since the beginning, working to create a more cost-efficient and accurate radar training system for the future navigators for the F/A 18 aircraft.
“It was such a close working relationship with the subject matter experts, working right along with Boeing the whole way, that the product that they got was what they wanted - and what they needed,” said Nelson.
The new training system provides “backseat” NFOs the opportunity to train inside the T-45 Goshawk, which more accurately represents the cockpits and radar systems in the F/A 18 Super Hornet and Growler fleets. New data link technology also allows instructors on the ground to monitor virtual radar screens that mirror exactly what the student sees during flight training. From the instructor ground station (IGS), the instructor can also simulate virtual air-to-air and ground-to-air scenarios to the student while in flight. The T-45 VMTS also records the NFO’s radar for the entire flight training session, allowing the student navigator to play back and critique his session.
An additional improvement the T-45 training program offers is a Ground Based Training System. A T-45 “backseat” cockpit flight simulator offers more accurate radar training and flight experience. Boeing.com will profile this new flight navigator simulator later this month. | <urn:uuid:773c153a-7b1f-445a-8077-8b2bf709377e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.boeing.com/features/2014/01/bds-t45-01-20-14.page | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283689.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00353-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950098 | 368 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Scientists Studied Clownfish Personalities
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. In the drive to understand our world, scientists gave fish a personality test. They tested clownfish - the black and white and orange fish featured in "Finding Nemo" - and some really do have personalities. Maybe not exactly like in the animated feature. But some are bold and aggressive, adventurous. They wander away from the school. Other clownfish lack personalities. They stay in clusters of other fish, follow the crowd and generally do not talk at parties. You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. | <urn:uuid:b4497d05-03e7-4c2c-8ddf-e2704466c29d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.npr.org/2017/12/22/572791752/scientists-studied-clownfish-personalities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571472.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811133823-20220811163823-00675.warc.gz | en | 0.948015 | 180 | 2 | 2 |
Many teachers are familiar with much of the conventional wisdom about classroom management. While there’s a great deal of merit in what generations of teachers have passed along to each other, many maxims about classroom management should not be taken too literally, says Joshua Englehart in a recent issue of The Clearing House.
There are many important exceptions and considerations that must be taken into account in applying CW to classroom management, writes Joshua Englehart, a veteran teacher and principal who draws on his experience working in an urban middle school and elementary school to round out the picture of 5 of these widely accepted classroom management rules.
Below are 5 of the most popular of these working principles and Englehart’s thoughts about why they do not always fit the bill in managing a classroom.
You have to be a good manager to be a good teacher
A structured and orderly environment is important for learning to occur. Students need a certain level of comfort and predictability to stay focused on a lesson.
But it’s not only the teacher’s ability to manage distractions in the classroom that keeps students focused on learning. It is also the quality of content and instruction. There’s a bit of a “chicken or the egg” question in the interplay of good instruction and sound classroom management, Englehart says.
Which comes first, quality instruction or quality classroom management? The truth is that they are mutually reinforcing elements, Engelhart says.
“Instruction and management should not be conceived of as two discrete aspects of teacher responsibility where one follows the other. Rather, they should be seen as two intimately interrelated sides of the same coin.”
Different strokes for different folks
Teachers vary widely in their individual strengths, weaknesses, personalities and temperaments. While it’s true that teachers favor those classroom management strategies that mesh well with their styles and personalities, effective classroom managers do share two attributes: “Withitness” and emotional objectivity.
“Withitness” is a sense of awareness of what students are doing at all times and the ability to head off problems. Emotional objectivity is the ability to carry out student discipline in a neutral manner without taking things personally or holding grudges.
Teachers do not need to be born with these qualities, the researcher writes. These are skills that can be acquired through such practices as observing master teachers, reframing of perceptions of behaviors to identify the source and monitoring thoughts and expectations.
Teachers should focus more on developing this mindset than on selecting from particular intervention techniques, the author writes.
It all boils down to clear communication and consistent enforcement
Clearly explaining rules, expectations and consequences when rules are broken and consistently enforcing those game rules is an approach that does work well for most students. But this is not enough for the 20-30% of students who account for most of the disruption in the classroom. These students need something more, the author writes.
“For these kids, school personnel must make efforts to understand the problem behavior, including its possible origins and potential conditions and solutions that can improve it,” the writes the author.
Because of the time and energy needed to address these students’ needs, many teachers feel their duty ends with setting expectations and enforcing the rules. But not reaching out to students who need more help will fail to address many of the problem behavior that occurs in the classroom.
Relationships with students are everything
It’s true that students are motivated to please teachers who they like and will work to maintain those positive relationships by avoiding negative behaviors, the researcher writes. These positive relationships create the fertile ground for effective classroom management.
“They provide a sense of emotional security that would otherwise be missing for some kids, and they provide important models for social interaction,” says Englehart.
But this is not enough for the 20-30% of higher-needs students who are responsible for much of the disruptive behavior in the classroom, he says. Teachers must demonstrate empathy with these students, help them define the problem and collaborate with them to find solutions. This is not likely to take place without a successful relationship, but more specific interventions are needed for some students.
There’s just so much you can do with kids who aren’t taught how to behave at home
Teachers should be wary of the notion that he child “has not been taught right at home,” the Englehart writes.
“In some cases it is not that the child ‘has not been taught right’; it is that the interaction patterns that he or she has been taught at home are different from those expected at school (and cultural difference is not always divided along racial lines).”
With this in mind, teachers can reframe the motives and intent of students and also help students understand that certain settings call for different sets of behavior. This provides students with social understanding and skills that will be critical in their adult lives.
“Five half-truths about classroom management,” by Joshua Englehart, The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, Volume 85, 2012, pp. 70-73, available online Dec. 19, 2011. | <urn:uuid:de92d4f2-5605-405d-be90-f123c84e77c3> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/conventional-wisdom-classroom-management/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285315.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00572-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956221 | 1,078 | 2.5625 | 3 |
A reminder to be kind to all people. And if you are aware or suspect that someone has an eating disorder, please make an extra effort. Most people aren’t aware of the amount of self hatred that goes hand in hand with an eating disorder. Those who suffer from these disorders are always in need of compassion.
U.S. adults with a lifetime history of an eating disorder—anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder—are at increased risk of having a suicide attempt history.
Using data from a nationally representative sample of more than 36,000 respondents, researchers looked at the lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts in adults with an eating disorder history. They found that the prevalence of suicide attempts was 24.9% among those with a history of anorexia. Levels of suicide risk were different for each of the two anorexia subtypes. The prevalence of suicide attempts associated with the binge/purge subtype was much higher than the restricting subtype (44.1% and 15.7% respectively).
The researchers also found that 31.4% of those with a history of bulimia and 22.9% of those with a history of binge eating disorder had attempted suicide in their lifetime. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, individuals with any type of eating disorder history were more likely to have a greater number of suicide attempts compared to those without an eating disorder history. | <urn:uuid:07276a23-27fe-4b91-b6bf-ec32db059132> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://blog.munafsheikh.com/depression/day-19-eating-disorders-and-suicide/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570871.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808183040-20220808213040-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.967122 | 317 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
|Scopus||Web of Science®||Altmetric|
|Title:||Ecological implications of reptile mesopredator release in arid South Australia|
|Citation:||Journal of Herpetology, 2015; 49(1):64-69|
|Publisher:||The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles|
|John L. Read and Vince Scoleri|
|Abstract:||Few examples of mesopredator release, whereby subordinate predators increase in abundance in response to a reduction in dominant predators, have been demonstrated from reptile communities despite the important ecological role of large varanids and snakes. We tested the hypothesis that trophic cascades attributable to mesopredator release of varanids could explain the apparently perverse decline of some small reptiles following removal of exotic mammalian predators in a landscape-scale reserve in arid South Australia. We used counts of Sand Goanna (Varanus gouldii) tracks and diggings as a surrogate activity index in paddock-scale treatments with different assemblages of feral predators and reintroduced mammals. Varanus gouldii activity was five times higher in regions where cats and foxes were removed than where they were present. We hypothesize that the suppression of mammalian predators can have complex effects that extend to reptile communities and should inform conservation management decisions in environments with large reptile predators.|
|Rights:||Copyright 2015 Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles|
|Appears in Collections:||Aurora harvest 7|
Earth and Environmental Sciences publications
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Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. | <urn:uuid:f34ef6c4-867a-4cb6-a3e8-d62a9b0c4799> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/103072 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573667.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819100644-20220819130644-00077.warc.gz | en | 0.837474 | 485 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Today, there is a developing pattern of an ever increasing number of individuals trying out online instruction. Most have encouraged their instruction and their vocations by method for online investigation.
This pattern is making this training one of the quickest developing enterprises in the instruction area of business. Gaining an online degree is currently in vogue and it previously had earned its decency years back.
For individuals who are peering toward of getting one through online training, here are a portion of the approaches to make the most out of this new style in instruction.
One of the greatest – if not the greatest – reasons of the solid fascination in training through the web is adaptability. The understudy can stand to fuse his classes into his every day plan without relinquishing work time and family duties.
These classes are for the most part on the web and are given to a gathering or a class director site. These gatherings (or locales) are the place the assignments, messages, and study materials are made accessible. Understudy home works are additionally turned in here.
Working understudies can work their activity plans around their examination times. Understudies with youngsters to mind can pick the ideal opportunity for their group work. The individuals who travel need not stress in light of the fact that their school work can be gotten to anyplace on the planet where there is Internet.
Understudy focused exercises
In online training, understudy focused methodology in educating is more apparent than in the conventional style of directions. On the web, the educator can tailor-fit the exercises as indicated by the understudy.
For example, a few understudies are visual students and some learn by doing. On the web, the understudy gets the opportunity to choose when and how best to study and process his exercises. They are left to discover what works best for them.
In online training, teachers are more open than their vis-à-vis partners in on-grounds schools. Chatting with the educators is essentially done in newsgroup talks, online visits, or through messages.
Interfacing with a teacher needn’t bother with a genuine arrangement during available time like in ordinary conditions.
This helpful arrangement spares time and energizes warm understudy educator correspondences and affinity. It can likewise deliver a constructive outcome in the understudy’s scholarly work when all is said in done.
Online training additionally mirrors the status of the teachers. They may likewise be situated in different pieces of the world since the educating is done on the Internet.
This is one kind of assorted variety that is worthwhile to the understudy. The primary explanation is this enables the understudy more presentation to the various ideas and points of view that can happen just if the teachers are from everywhere throughout the globe.
At the point when the understudy is focused on online training program, instruction advisors are likewise accessible to them. These are the individuals answerable for making your online instruction experience positive, injury free and fruitful.
They help plan the general course of concentrate just as assistance in picking the correct classes. They are accessible all an opportunity to address any question. The understudy’s critical inquiries are addressed rapidly by means of messages or texting.
Thusly, they can get in touch with you during nights or ends of the week, if those are your solitary accessible occasions. They are delicate to your needs and they are particularly simple with amateurs. | <urn:uuid:ebaa9d83-dce1-4dc3-b601-d3612a6a46bf> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://pastorofschool.com/getting-the-most-of-online-education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571982.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813172349-20220813202349-00068.warc.gz | en | 0.959176 | 700 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Singaporean banks and other financial institutions authorized to process transactions in the Asian Dollar market are required to segment the Asian Currency Unit (ACU) as a separate accounting unit. The MAS Table I.13 Asian Dollar Market – Assets of ACUs, Yearly API supports the retrieval of end-of-year records of the ACU assets transacted in the Asian Dollar Market. Users can search the total assets, loans to non-bank customers - both resident and non-resident, interbank funds, and debt equities and securities as well as other assets. This API sends and returns JSON-formatted requests and responses.
The following is a list of sample source code snippets that matched your search term. Source code snippets are chunks of source code that were found out on the Web that you can cut and paste into your own source code. Whereas most of the sample source code we've curated for our directory is for consuming APIs, we occasionally find something interesting on the API provider side of things. If you know of some sample source code that would be of interest to the ProgrammableWeb community, we'd like to know about it. Be sure to check our guidelines for making contributions to ProgrammableWeb. | <urn:uuid:b20f0f76-5aad-4ed7-ae05-53def7c64079> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.programmableweb.com/api/mas-table-i13-asian-dollar-market-%E2%80%93-assets-acus-yearly/sample-source-code | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285001.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00300-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936296 | 243 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Newspaper Page Text
THE MAUI NEWS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1918.
Hear Annual Reports
Results Of Year Quite Satisfactory
Despite Long Drought
Pioneer-stockholders Diet In Hono
lulu last Thursday and listened to
the annual reports of J. F. C. Hagens,
president, and L. Weinzheimer, mana
ger. The following Is, In condesned
form, what the President had to say:
Early in the year, reads the report,
approximately $200,000 was set aside
for permanent improvements on
Pioneer property. The principal item
was the construction of the Honoka
wal tunnel, which is at present more
than half completed. Aside from the
extensive improvements mads to the
mill a 12,000,000 gallon pump is being
installed at the Lahaina pumping sta
Mr. Hagens noted that when the
government decided last spring on
food conservation, the manager at
Pioneer had increased the herds and
had started a dairy at Kaanapall. The
directors also voted last year to con
tribute $1500 in monthly instalments
.fit $250 to the Honolulu chapter of
the American Red Cross, and later a
"sum of $150 to the Maui chapter. Two
employes of the company. William
Young and Paul Knudsen, were com
missioned as officers, having trained
at the Schofleld officers camp.
The directors joined the movement
launched during the year by members
of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters', as
sociation to look into the advisability
of constructing and operating a sugar
central or centrals in . the Philip
The report of the treasurer, A. J.
Campbell, was then submitted to the
uahreholders. Mr. Campbell reported
that the income tax, both territorial
and federal, amounted to $100,805.08,
while the net profits of the company
were $1,613,011.76. The dividends
paid out, at 24 per cent, amounted to
$1,200,000. The gross profit on sale
of sugar, molasses and merchandise
amounted to $1,673,979.32.
The water supply, by tunnels, list
ed in the assets of the company, was
valued at $3,539,645.69. The total as
sets amounted to $6,699,971.99.
The annual report of the manager,
L. Weinzheimer, points out that
weather conditions as a whole were
unfavorable and owing to the long
drought the growing crops suffered
considerably. The first four months
of 1917 were favorable not only for
cane under growth, but also for the
ripe crop, but the dryness which be
gan in May and lasted . almost until
the end of the year damaged the 1918
crop and delayed the start of the 1919
crop. The rainfall during May
and until October was negligible, and
in the Honokohau ditch, where the
average flow was 30,000,000 gallons
in 1916, only 12,000,000 was carried
during the latter part of the year.
This added to the expenses, as 35,000
barrels of fuel oil more than 1916
were used for pumping.
The 1917 crop was harvested from
4,504 acres, and the total amount of
sugar yielded was 33,278 tons, or an
average yield per- acre' of 52.13 'tons
of cane and 7.39 tons of sugar. It
took 7.06 tons of cane to manufacture
one ton of sugar. Harvesting on the
1917 crop was commenced in Decem
ber, 1916, and ended July 18, 1917.
The 1918 crop had a late start, and
Its planting was not finished until the
end of November, 1916. During the
first four months the crop did well,
but .its growth was later retarded by
the drought. Grinding was com
menced in November, 1017, and up to
January 24, 1918, 48,043,782 tons of
cane from 1060 acres has been se
cured. Over 6103 tons of sugar were
manufactured. Mr. Weinzheimer esti
mates the total yield of the 1918 crop
to be from 28,500 to 29,000 tons of
sugar. . . -
The 1919 crop consists of 873.50
acres of plant cane and 3475 of ratoon
cane. Owing to dry weather this
crop also has had a poor start..
Owing to the late arrival of ma
terial, improvements to the factory
have been delayed. New boilers, will
be ready in March and th6 new
crystalizers will be in operation next
Work on the Honokawal tunnels
started early last year. It is expect
ed that the project will be completed
in May of this year.
RED CROSS ITEMS
The treasurer of the Maui Auxiliary
of the American Red Cross paid out
the following amounts in January:
For wool (for knitted garments) ....
For all other supplies $ 3566.77
Total Jan. bills $ 4540.17
These amounts show very effective
ly, the growth of Maul's Red Cross
work, and the need of steady dona
tions to the treasurer funds.
Maul High School
The High and Grammar school
pupils made the following articles in
90 triangular bandages,
55 abdominal bandages,
5 wash cloths,
17 handkerchiefs. .
The knitted work was begun in the
Christmas vacation, but the other
articles represent three week's work
Reasons For Having
Aid To Govermcnt's Idea Of Pro
moting Use Of Home Grown
Honolulu February 16 Why should
Hawaii have a territorial fair this
year, at a time when everyone i s
urged to save, and get his business
and his community on a war basis?
This query has been encountered
on every side by the Fair Commis
sioners. It is asked by business men
and by many of the leading farmers
and stock growers.
George II. Angus, chairman of the
Fair Commission, answers the ques
tion by declaring that the Fair is real
ly a part of the territoy's legitimate
war-time work. Aside from its edu
cational features, which few will dis
pute, he says it is intended to in
crease the consumption of island
grown foods and use of a very large
amount of materials manufactured in
"I often hear housewives and
husbands exclaim, 'I want to help by
using more home-made and home
grown stuff, but I don't know what
to order; I don't know what is made
here, except for a few of the standard
foods,'" says Angus.
"This fair is to show the public
what it can buy in island-grown and
' "And I can guarantee now, though
many of our plans arc in embryo
and though we are not even certain
of our fair ground site, that we will
surprise almost everyone who visits
the fair by the number of things pro
duced here that we will show. The
list is a long one, including such
things as shoes, macaroni, crackers,
jewelry, soy, paper, rope, molasses,
potash and the like. We want to im
press upon the public that this is to
be a show primarily of island materi
"We also will surprise the public
by the quality of the things shown.
Most of the goods, livestock and agri
cultural produce created In Hawaii
are just as good as those from the
"By proving these things, letting
the consuming public see for itself
that this is true, we are going to in
crease the island market for the pro
ducers. "Isn't that precisely what Hoover
wants Hawaii to do as a war-time
measure to help America"?
Every store window, every snop,
Dublic building, plantation and tel
ephone post throughout the territory
will flaunt a poster witnm tne nexi
week or ten days announcing the ap
proach of Hawaii's first territorial
fair, to be held at Honolulu June iu
Decision on this rapid-fire action
was taken at a meeting of the central
advertising committee of the fair this
week. Those posters, merely a preli
minary step in the big, organized ef
fort to call public interest to the real
importance of the fair, are being sent
out now to every plantation manager,
postmaster, storekeeper and the three
Fair Commissioners on the other is
lands. At the same time good-sized adver
tisements will apppear in many of the
newspapers on each island, notifying
the public that the big fair is com
ing and urging prospective exhibitors
to make their entries as quickly as
possible, before the vallable space at
the fair has been apportioned.
The advertising committee has also
Annual Meeting Of
The annual meeting of Olowalu
stockholders was held in Honolulu
last Thursday. There were no print
ed reports given out, but the follow
ing are extracts from the statements
read at the meeting:
The 1917 crop was harvested com
mencing January 26, and ending Aug
ust 10, 1917. The total yield was
1974 tons of sugar from 356 acres.
The 1918 crop consists of 354 acres.
Grinding on it was commenced on
January 11, and so far all operations
have proceeded smoothly. This crop
suffered severely from the prolong
ed drought during 1917. Mr. Val
entine reports that for several months
it was next to impossible to give the
cane enough water. Since the Decem
ber rains, however, growth is increas
ing. The estimate for the 1918 crop is
1700 tons of sugar.
The 1919 crop consists of 225.5
acres. On account of the drought
some of the fields were planted late.
Fourteen acres of new land have been
acquired, 13 acres having been pur
chased during the year.
Extensive improvements were made
in the boiling house during the latter
part of 1916. These proved very sat
isfactory in operation during the past
grinding season. During the past few
months an additional boiler was in
stalled, two furnaces were rebuilt, and
a new condenser was installed. The
additions have improved both the
work of the mill and boiling house.
The main Irrigation ditches in Olo
walu gulch have been relocated, the
power station raised, and new con
crete main water heads built. The
east side ditch, 3000 feet long, and
lined with 2 incheB of concrete,
was opened in December. The ditch
improvements will effect a great sav
ing of water.
Labor conditions on the plantation
have not been Ideal, as there has been
considerable shortage during the har
vesting season. A prolonged drough
lasted from April until December,
1917, hindering the growth.
H. M. Whitney, treasurer, sub
mitted his report showing operating
expenses for the ,1917 crop to be
$131,581.88, while the net profit on
the crop amounted to $82,816.32. .The
gross receipts from the sale of sugar
as per. the San Francisco account
amounted to $232,022.54. The assets
of the company, are given as $432,
254.48, and liabilities as $7,972.40.
The regular annual meeting of the
stockholders of the Maui Land &
Railroad Company, will be held at
the office and principal place of busi
ness of the Company at Kahului,
Maui, T. H., on Thursday, 14th. day
of March, 1918, at 2 30 o'clock P. M.
F. F. BALDWIN,
determined to increase its member
ship to include the editors of all
newspapers and news publications in
the islands. Editors of the Japanese,
Chinese, Hawaiian, Korean and Fili
pino papers will be asked to join this
great, broad-gauge organization of
boosters for the territory's first at
tempt at exploiting the islands' agri
cultural, livestock and manufacturing
The Government of the United States of America, hav
ing found its war finances and citizen interest require the
loyal assistance of the people of moderate means, or no means
except their daily income, has devised a unique financial
scheme, whereby both subscribers and the Government may
benefit and the day of settlement and payment be deferred for
five years, or in the year 1923, a date undoubtedly beyond the
end of the war.
By means of thrift stamps of the denomination of twenty
five cents, an accumulation -can be made so that within the
year 1918, a minimum War Saving Certificate of. a $5.00 de
nomination, may be secured. The Certificate may be increas
ed, if desired, to one Thousand Dollars.
No more effective way of saving and acquiring the habit
of saving has ever been placed before a people.
Every Certificate is also a certificate of partnership with
the United States of America in carrying on this War for
I recommend and urge the Citizens to promptly begin
this campaign of Savings and partnership.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have here
unto set my hand and caused the Great Seal
of the Territory of Hawaii to be affixed;
DONE at the capital in Honolulu this 4th
day of February, A. D. 1918.
(Sgd.) Lucius E. Pinkham,
Governor of Hawaii.
By the Governor
(Sgd.) Curtis P. Iaukea,
Secretary of Hawaii.
CONTRACTOR AND BUILDER
Jutt received a new itock of
Mattretset, poultry netting,
palnti and oils, furniture, etc.
Coffins and General Hardware.
Market Street Walluku
if THE HOME OF THE
ft 8tcInwoy nd Starr f
We Can Dpc
2 your clothes as satisfactorily as any Coast establishment. Save
postage or express by sending them to us.
J. ABADIE, Proprietor.
Jno. D. Souza, Paia Agent M. Uyeno, Kahului Agent
Jack Linton, Wailuku Agent.
We have a large stock of
Inside Player Pianos I
l at fair orlces and eaav trm '&
ft We take old pianos in exchange. ft
Ihayer Piano Co., Ltd
I HONOLLU, HAWAII.
A lace shoe for children that will stand the hard knocks given'
it by that restless youngster. In Foot-Form shape, to let the
last grow as it should.
Black, Tan and Elk.
8 to 1 1 , $3.50; 1 1 to No. 2, $4.00
MAIL ORDERS FILLED SAME DAY RECEIVED.
PAY THE POSTAGE.
Manufacturers' Shoe Co., Ltd.
1051 Fort Street : : HONOLULU.
Kahului Railroad Co.'s
Pleas, j note that this stock is available for immediate delivery
Maui Agricultural Company
Conserve Steamer Space by
Purchasing a Local Product
Telephones 1652 and 2012 KQ1,1: Moiii T II
Connecting all Departments " ildllUlUl, lHdUl, 1. It | <urn:uuid:0d0cf447-fa82-4630-b954-cb8c44170855> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014689/1918-02-22/ed-1/seq-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279915.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00281-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942817 | 3,440 | 1.609375 | 2 |
How do I know which program (or process) has a file open / locked or is using a file?
Download a free program called Process Explorer here:
Run the program and press Ctrl-F (or select Find -> Find Handle from the menu), type in the name of the file (e.g. outlook.pst), then click the Search button.
Bear in mind that the process or program that had a 'handle' on the file may have released it by the time you check... | <urn:uuid:f9a48a8a-07ac-47e6-a734-594ba8c8cbbd> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://support.2brightsparks.com/knowledgebase/articles/211819-programs-or-processes-that-are-being-used | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280763.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00513-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928432 | 103 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Sometimes you just have to feel sorry for the Internal Revenue Service.
The federal tax agency finally brings its Get Transcript online service back fully online after more than a year and BAM! It gets smacked.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today issued a report charging that that the IRS missed some taxpayers whose information fell into criminal hands in last year's Get Transcript hack.
What the crooks were after: The online Get Transcript tool, which now requires a tougher, two-step authentication process in order to use it, lets folks once again download their prior tax filing information.
Tax transcripts are full of filers' data and are used frequently by folks applying for loans, but who don't have copies of their actual IRS filings to verify their income. That's why the online download option was such an appealing target for identity thieves.
When the IRS disabled Get Transcript's online component on May 21, 2015, the agency also confirmed that the hackers had indeed obtained some data from the application. The IRS believes that some of this taxpayer info may have been gathered to file fraudulent tax returns.
Following the hack, the IRS offered taxpayers whose accounts were accessed free credit monitoring. It also flagged affected taxpayer accounts, which the hack investigation found ultimately reached 334,000, to protect them from tax identity theft attempts.
Hacked accounts overlooked: But, says TIGTA in its report, the IRS missed some taxpayers whose personal and tax data fell into identity thieves' hands.
So much for feeling good that you didn't get a letter from the IRS last year, right?
"Our analysis of system audit logs created between January 1, 2014, and May 21, 2015, identified 620,931 taxpayers whose tax account information involved a potentially unauthorized access not identified by the IRS," says TIGTA in long, but thoroughly titled report The Internal Revenue Service Did Not Identify and Assist All Individuals Potentially Affected by the Get Transcript Application Data Breach.
"Further analysis of these access attempts found that potentially unauthorized users were successful in obtaining access to 355,262 of the taxpayers' accounts," adds TIGTA.
OK, that's not too far off the 344,000 final number that the IRS reported.
Originally unidentified found: But, TIGTA says it also identified 2,470 additional taxpayers whose accounts were targeted through the Get Transcript application breach that the IRS did not identify.
These accounts fell through the cracks because, according to the report, the IRS erroneously excluded three system error codes when it identified accounts of potential victims.
"In addition, the IRS did not place identity theft incident markers on the tax accounts of 3,206 taxpayers who the IRS identified as affected by the Get Transcript application breach," says TIGTA.
So that's a potential 5,676 more taxpayer accounts that crooks could have to use in their identity theft and tax fraud efforts.
And, notes TIGTA, the IRS did not offer an Identity Protection Personal Identification Number (IP PIN) or free credit monitoring to 79,122 individuals whose tax accounts the IRS identified as being involved in the hack.
The exponential effect: Also note the use of the word "accounts" in describing what the hackers got their hands on. The distinction is important.
A taxpayer account could be for a jointly filing couple and/or couples and individuals claiming dependents, so hackers could have data on more than just one person filing a single tax return.
Yeah, even more folks are now feeling not so good even though they didn't get a letter from the IRS last year about the Get Transcript hack.
Finally following up: TIGTA questioned the IRS as to why it didn't place the potential ID theft marker on all tax accounts.
The agency's management agreed that all affected taxpayer accounts need the identifier so all returns can be inspected for possible fraud. The agency now is making sure that all affected taxpayer accounts receive the marker.
That was one of eight recommendations that TIGTA made to the IRS in the wake of the Get Transcript hack. They are:
- Implement additional evaluative methods to identify all individuals affected by the breach.
- Issue notification letters to 620,931 taxpayers whose accounts were potentially targeted and place identity theft incident markers on their accounts.
- Ensure that authentication system error codes are analyzed when responding to future data breaches.
- Notify the additional 2,470 taxpayers identified and place identity theft incident markers on their accounts.
- Place identity theft incident markers on the 3,206 taxpayer accounts, as required.
- Revise notification letters to enable taxpayers to more easily identify the individuals whose personal identification information was accessed in any future security breaches.
- Ensure that established procedures are followed to identify errors in letters and to verify the sequential order of letters against the letter production plan before the letters are mailed.
- Issue an IP PIN to all whose Social Security numbers were used by unauthorized individuals in failed attempts to access the Get Transcript application.
The IRS agreed to the first seven recommendations. But, says TIGTA, the agency disagreed with the final recommendation that it issue IP PINs to the 79,122 individuals whose tax information the hackers unsuccessfully tried to access.
IRS officials did acknowledge the potential inconsistency in its IP PIN issuance policy, according to TIGTA, which reported that agency officials did say they would consider the inconsistency in future IP PIN policy decisions.
Taxpayers be vigilant: Getting IRS to go along with seven of eight suggestions is good. But the tax oversight unit of the Treasury Department says it still is concerned that "the lack of prompt action on this issue leaves these taxpayers' accounts at an increased risk of fraud."
While the IRS follows up on most, but not all, of TIGTA's recommendations, it's a good idea for all of us, whether we were part of the Get Transcript hack or not (or unsure …) to always be vigilant when it comes to our tax and personal financial data.
Remember, while Get Transcript was hacked, the crooks were able to get into some taxpayer accounts by using personal data they obtained elsewhere. So keep an eye on everything!
You also might find these items of interest: | <urn:uuid:4c6b4961-b023-40d8-9081-6f6114021481> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.dontmesswithtaxes.com/2016/06/tax-watchdog-says-irs-missed-some-hacked-get-transcript-accounts.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571472.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811133823-20220811163823-00665.warc.gz | en | 0.952878 | 1,257 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Invasion, 1940: Did the Battle of Britain Alone Stop Hitler?
By: Derek Robinson (author)Paperback
4 - 6 days availability
The truth about the Battle of Britain and what stopped Hitler What stopped Hitler in 1940 - why did he not attempt to invade Britain? In this fresh look, Derek Robinson argues that the Battle of Britain alone could not have been why Operation Sealion, the planned German invasion, was scrapped. The real reason was a force that both Churchill and Hitler failed to acknowledge: the Royal Navy. Whilst never downplaying the skill and courage of the pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain, Robinson challenges a verdit that has been in place for 50 years, and make us question our acceptance of the old story.
Derek Robinson is a policeman's son from a council estate who crossed the class barrier by going to Cambridge, where he got a degree in history and learned to write badly. A stint in advertising in London and New York changed that, and in 1971 he finally got it right when Goshawk Squadron was shorlisted for the Booker Prize. This novel of the Royal Flying Corps led to a sequel, Hornet's Sting, and War Story. His equally acclaimed trilogy of World War Two novels are Piece of Cake, A Good Clean Fight and Damned Good Show. His other novels include The Eldorado Network and Artillery of Lies. Derek Robinson has also published non-fiction on a variety of themes, from the laws of rugby to the nuclear tests on Christmas Island in the 1950s. His most recent book is Invasion, 1940 a revisionist history of the Battle of Britain. He lives in Bristol.
Number Of Pages:
- ID: 9781845294410
- Saver Delivery: Yes
- 1st Class Delivery: Yes
- Courier Delivery: Yes
- Store Delivery: Yes
Prices are for internet purchases only. Prices and availability in WHSmith Stores may vary significantly
© Copyright 2013 - 2016 WHSmith and its suppliers.
WHSmith High Street Limited Greenbridge Road, Swindon, Wiltshire, United Kingdom, SN3 3LD, VAT GB238 5548 36 | <urn:uuid:fb71231c-cd11-4018-8771-2622c0f775aa> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/invasion-1940-did-the-battle-of-britain-alone-stop-hitler/9781845294410 | 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 | 0.92438 | 440 | 2.03125 | 2 |
When do I need an organization?
McCarthy, John D. and Mayer N. Zald. 1977. “Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory.” The American Journal of Sociology 82(6):1212-41.
Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. 1979. Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed and How They Fail. New York: Vintage Books.
Clemens, Elisabeth S. and Debra C. Minkoff. 2004. “Beyond the Iron Law: Rethinking the Place of Organizations in Social Movement Research.” Pp. 155-70 in The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, edited by D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Earl, Jennifer. 2014. “The Future of Social Movement Organizations: The Waning Dominance of SMOs Online.” American Behavioral Scientist 59(1):35-52.
We would like to thank the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for their support of the Youth Activism Project through the Youth and Participatory Politics Research Network. | <urn:uuid:40343bc7-0065-4655-bee9-39b7fce4a75b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/2015/11/13/informing-activists-when-do-i-need-an-organization/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285289.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00151-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.78845 | 251 | 1.898438 | 2 |
What is Acid Rain?
Acid rain is any form of precipitation with high levels of nitric and sulphuric acids. Acid rain can occur as deposition of a mixture from wet (rain, snow, sleet, fog, cloud water, and dew) and dry (acidifying particles and gases) acidic components.
Burning fossil fuels causes acid rain. Burning oil, gas and coal in power stations releases Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) into the atmosphere. Burning oil and petrol in motor vehicles puts nitrogen oxides (NOX) into the atmosphere.
These gases mix with water droplets in the atmosphere creating weak solutions of nitric and sulphuric acids. When precipitation occurs, these solutions fall as acid rain. Acid rain causes many problems.
Use the images below to explore related GeoTopics. | <urn:uuid:a37f4be4-c73b-4e31-86e7-a547378cc694> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.internetgeography.net/topics/what-is-acid-rain/?s= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572908.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817122626-20220817152626-00069.warc.gz | en | 0.879916 | 168 | 3.765625 | 4 |
A Masters degree gives you the opportunity to either further your understanding of a particular question or take off in a completely different way using skills you have gained from your previous undergraduate degree.
Business studies is an academic program that is designed for students wanting to learn more about how businesses are run. Courses may include more general topics or more specific ones to help prepare students for a particular career.
Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain, is a sovereign state and a member state of the European Union. It is located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. Spanish universities regulate access to their own degrees and they fix the academic fees. They can also offer unofficial postgraduate degrees. The capital city Madrid has possibly the largest number of bars per capita of any European city and a very active nightlife.
Masters in Business Studies in Spain
The Master of Supply Chain Management teaches logistics managers to use this tool and make it a competitive advantage over our competitors, whether local, national or global. [+]
Master in Supply Chain Management
Today, thanks to globalization, any company can operate in a global market. Thus, improving competitiveness will be given both by the quest for resources and components at the best price as segmented markets in which to sell more.
The management of the supply chain is undoubtedly an essential tool for maintaining and increasing competitiveness. The Master of Supply Chain Management teaches logistics managers to use this tool and make it a competitive advantage over our competitors, whether local, national or global.
Our program seeks to balance five key aspects of logistics, operational management, technical knowledge, the use of information technologies, people management and strategic positioning. Also study some aspects of logistics that are currently in trend and business management, and environmental management, Corporate Social Responsibility and Integrated logistics processes. ... [-]
Ostelea has decided to implement a Master's program in Sustainable Tourism Destinations and Territorial Tourism Planning, which aims to train professionals and managers who lead the change towards a more sustainable planning and management of tourism activity, whether in public administration or the private sector. [+]
The graduate in Business Information Security professionals and managers to facilitate the definition of strategies and knowledge of tools to work around the security of the data. Information has become the most valuable to many organizations active at present data are an essential element to generate competitiveness ... [+]
With the EAE’s Master in Marketing & Sales in Spain, we offer the key to corporate excellence to professionals in direct contact with customers, equipping them with the skills required by the market. [+]
In the Master of Entrepreneurship, created in collaboration with Seedrocket, we help you gain experience and knowledge to promote and accelerate your Startup, working within an entrepreneurial ecosystem and learning from the experience of mentors recognized that will help you develop and accelerate the growth of your company. [+]
The Master in Management and Business of Fashion is supported by the vast teaching experience in the area of fashion that has the School of Design Felicidad Duce - LCI Barcelona, and the Company internationally, Faculty of Economics and University of Barcelona, with whom he has worked closely on the design of the program, thus ensuring a teaching structured plan and a globally recognized qualification. [+]
The Master in Global Entrepreneurial Management (MGEM) at the University of San Francisco will take you to Barcelona, Taipei, and San Francisco, revealing successful, creative, and innovative business practices through the cultural lens of three vibrant cities. [+]
Aeres University of Applied Sciences offers a Master in Agribusiness Development for Bachelor graduates or young professionals. [+]
Master in Agribusiness Development
Aeres University of Applied Sciences offers a Master in Agribusiness Development for Bachelor graduates or young professionals.
International corporations in the agrifood sector increasingly need professionals qualified in change management, who can act locally and think globally. All graduates from this Master programme will have first-hand knowledge of change processes in a business context outside their own branch and will have acquired valuable insights into the differences in international business cultures and work ethics and the role they can play to deal with these issues in change processes. These people bring the science of life to the business of food.... [-]
This Master’s offers future managers the appropriate expertise to recognise international business opportunities and to design and implement international business strategy, taking into account the key elements of international management (marketing, finance, human resources, etc) of each country. [+]
A program for professionals at international level. Aimed at people who hold or are called to occupy the positions and functions of Commercial Marketing Managers or Sales ... [+]
AN EXCLUSIVE MASTER The MIB incorporates features that differentiate it from traditional Masters of International Business, such as its openness to service companies (tourism, construction, engineering, health, etc.), the incorporation of technological tools, the use of social networks, application of Competitive Intelligence techniques for internationalization and management training of subsidiaries and offices abroad. [+]
Under an agreement with INSEEC, France, the degree offers an exclusive curriculum that combines the standard GBS and INSEEC MBA modules in a dual program. [+]
This special agreement allows students to exchange their GBS credits to study at INSEEC during their MBA studies and vice-versa. GBS and INSEEC students will then have the advantage to study both in Switzerland (for 6 months) and France (for 6 months). Finally, students must write a master’s thesis within a 6-month period, with the objective of gaining two degrees. Facts Duration: 18 months. Language: English. Intakes: February and September. Degree Awarded: This will result in receiving 2 separate diplomas (MBA) from universities in Switzerland and France. Exchange Program: Rotate between campuses. We offer the opportunity of studying in all of our campuses during the 18 months of the master program. Internships: GBS work with the bests and for the bests. All of our students have guaranteed internships with the most important enterprises with world-wide recognition. Location: Geneva Campus. Applications and Admissions Selection Criteria GBS’s selection process emphasises leadership potential, academic ability, personal qualities and competencies. We are looking for candidates with managerial experience, people skills and a proven academic record. Admission Requirements Bachelor degree or equivalent in a related field (plus 2 years experience). For Executive Master, 5 years experience Completed application form with passport photo included Photocopy of all academic diplomas or certificates Official English exam results: IELTS 6.0, TOEFL IBT 70, proof of studying previously in an English speaking environment for a minimum of 3 years, or successful completion of the university’s admission examination. Photocopy of your passport Receipt for the payment of the application fee Curriculum Vitae (C.V.) Recommendation letter [-]
The CEMS MIM is a postgraduate, pre-experience degree open to a select group of students enrolled on a Master’s programme in one of 28 leading institutions [+]
CEMS is a strategic alliance of business schools, multinational companies and NGOs that together offer the CEMS Master's in International Management (MIM). The CEMS administrative officeis located on the HEC campus close to Paris, with the programme and corporate relations being managed by a dedicated team within each member school. You will find all CEMS member universities by using the keywords "CEMS" in the Master in Management Compasssearch engine or by clicking on the CEMS partners list below.
The CEMS MIM is a pre-experience postgraduate degree open to multilingual students enrolled in a Master's in Management program at one of the CEMS member schools. Students study at their home university for one semester and then spend a second semester at a different CEMS member school. Some students may even opt to take both semesters abroad, in two different schools (the “tri-national track”). Other key components of the course include: core courses in Strategy and Cross-Cultural Management, elective courses, skill seminars, business project and an obligatory international internship.... [-]
The Master program Spécialisé®en Finance, Risk and Control harmonizes throughout the curriculum to balance theory and applied transversal projects. [+]
This Master has been developed for recent graduates in Law, lawyers who want to improve their law knowledge and practice in an increasing global economy scenario and other persons with interest in developing their career in the International Law framework. [+] | <urn:uuid:f09c7f74-6758-4691-9ddd-e4d9833c64e4> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.masterstudies.co.uk/Masters-Degree/Business-Studies/Spain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279189.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00060-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938921 | 1,725 | 1.625 | 2 |
What is Eye know how?
Eye Know How is a series presented by the UW-Madison Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. In this series we dive into things like tips and tricks, as well as instructional videos. The goal of this series is to help you learn how to properly take care of your eyes from the comfort of your own home as well as other settings that you would commonly find yourself in. Eye Know How is not meant to be a replacement for regular scheduled eye exams but instead a place of eye care reminders. Remember, proper eye care is always important to one’s health.
Eye wellness at work
If you have a suggestion on what video we should make next for the Eye Know How series or just general comments, simply fill the form out below. | <urn:uuid:2c8279ec-596e-4727-83e7-c9ced959885b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.ophth.wisc.edu/patient-care-old-page/eye-know-how/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.963056 | 162 | 2.171875 | 2 |
How to Open ports on a Linksys router for your DVR
In this tutorial, we learn how to open ports on a Linksys router for your DVR. First, make sure your internet is connected and your DVR is connected to Linksys. Next, log into your Linksys router online and set up your DVR to the "DHCP" section. When you have the information from this, enter this information on your DVR so it has the correct server name. Make sure the IP and other information displayed on your Linksys page is the same as the setup on the DVR page. When finished, change your ports if needed, then change the gaming router if you plan on playing games. After this, save your changed and your set up will be complete! | <urn:uuid:5f77bff4-3989-4bc3-9ae7-dacbb91e5796> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://computer-networking.wonderhowto.com/how-to/open-ports-linksys-router-for-your-dvr-346705/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280891.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00163-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908636 | 158 | 1.835938 | 2 |
The Insider’s Guide to the Flatirons
The Flatirons are the striking, slanted, reddish-brown sandstone formations that make up a portion of Boulder’s foothills on the west side of town. They are Boulder’s most iconic landmark, and you’ll see their likeness in business logos and artwork throughout town.
Whether frosted with snow, cloaked in fog, or glowing warm and red under sunny skies, the Flatirons offer the quintessential Boulder view. Once you snap a few shots of them from afar, head toward the foothills to explore them up close. You can help protect their natural beauty by remembering these Mountain Manners.
Yield to people going uphill. That’s the etiquette for hikers in Boulder, the thought being it takes more energy to go uphill than down.
3 Ways to Explore the Flatirons
The Flatirons belong to the more than 45,000 acres of Boulder’s protected Open Space & Mountain Parks, giving both locals and visitors extensive recreational access to these rocky towers (as well as providing habitat for wildlife ranging from squirrels and rabbits to bats and falcons to bears and even mountain lions). Here are our three favorite ways to explore them:
Plenty of trails will take you around and up to the Flatirons, and many of them start from the Chautauqua Trailhead, off Baseline Road. Please allow adequate time for parking, as this can be very a busy area. For an easy-to-moderate hike, take the two-mile Flatiron Loop Trail, winding through the forest beneath the Flatirons. Another option is the hike to Woods Quarry, where you’ll get a view into the site of a historic sandstone quarry, plus enjoy a spectacular view from the stone benches that were assembled by some industrious visitors. These trails travel through ponderosa pine forest, over rocky scree fields, and across open fields, offering various views of the Flatirons and Boulder along the way.
The best way to get up close and personal with the Flatirons? Climb them! The First and Third Flatirons offer some of the most popular multi-pitch rock climbing routes in the area (and country!). The trail to the First Flatiron climbing access can be challenging, but you’ll be rewarded with long, varied climbs that range from about 4-10 pitches. The popular Third Flatiron, which offers even more routes, is usually closed to climbers and hikers from early February to late July to protect nesting raptors. Over the years, climbers have scaled the Third Flatiron while wearing roller skates, under the full moon without headlamps, and even while completely naked! But maybe save that for your next trip. Here's more information about climbing the Flatirons.
On most OSMP trails in this area, dogs must be on a hand-held leash at all times unless they meet the voice and sight control standard and display a City of Boulder Voice and Sight tag.
Not feeling up to a hike or climb? You can still get your fill of the Flatirons — while filling your belly. Pack a picnic (spring through fall we recommend buying your provisions at the Boulder Farmers Market on Wednesday evening or Saturday morning) and spread out a blanket on the grassy lawn at Chautauqua Park. This is the perfect spot to enjoy a meal under the Flatirons while watching the parade of people (and their pooches) heading up the hill for a hike. Afterward, you can hit the tennis courts, take the kids for a spin around the playground or catch a show at Chautauqua Auditorium.
Headed to the Chautauqua area on a summer weekend to hike among the Flatirons? Ride the free weekend shuttle, a short, 10-minute-or-so-ride, to get there stress-free and avoid parking fees. Here's all the information on the free Park-to-Park hiker shuttle, which operates on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Sharp eyes will see the huge letters “CU” (for the University of Colorado) near the top of the Third Flatirons. These were painted on the rock by two CU freshmen in 1949.
A Bit of History
These geologic formations are nearly 300 million years old. Although we know them today as “the Flatirons,” in the early 1900s they were called the “Chautauqua Slabs” or “The Crags.” When pioneer women said they thought the rocks looked like flat, metal irons used to iron their clothes, the name “Flatirons” stuck.
There are five numbered Flatirons, which run north to south along the eastern slope of Green Mountain in Southwest Boulder. These are what people usually mean when they refer collectively to “The Flatirons,” though you can also include numerous other named formations, such as the Seal, Devil’s Thumb, the Flying Flatiron and the Matron.
Winter is the perfect time to hike the Flatirons. you won't need snowshoes, just hiking boots and possibly snow cleats (such as Yak Trax) for traction. | <urn:uuid:80c9acfa-ed44-45c0-ab41-2b5439c289c0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.bouldercoloradousa.com/things-to-do/insider-guides/flatirons/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571536.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811224716-20220812014716-00268.warc.gz | en | 0.945591 | 1,099 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Artificial Intelligence Gaining Ground in Drug Development
It’s not exactly breaking news that biopharma companies are increasingly turning toward machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve drug development. What is big news is how resoundingly it might improve on traditional methods. This was recently demonstrated by the results of the Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP) contest hosted by the Protein Structure Prediction Center, sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of General Medical Sciences I(NIH/NIGMS).
CASP is a worldwide contest, or perhaps experiment is a better word, that has taken place every two years since 1994. Proteins have three-dimensional structures and those structures are an important element in how they function—it’s not uncommon, for example, for a mutation in the gene for a protein to result in the protein having a different shape, causing it to behave abnormally or not at all. And another fact to keep in mind is that protein shapes are dynamic, not necessarily static, transitioning between different states.
Every two years, the participants attempt to predict the 3-D shape of a specific human protein. Researchers focused on this type of research work to solve the problem using a variety of methods. Most recently, CASP wasn’t won by a biologist or biochemist, but by DeepMind, the AI laboratory owned by Google/Alphabet.
Mohammed AlQuraishi, a biologist at Harvard Medical School who participated in the contest, told The New York Times, “I was surprised and deflated. They were way out in front of everyone else.”
DeepMind didn’t just beat out the other scientists but gave a prediction that was almost twice as accurate as experts expected.
Derek Lowe, who writes the In The Pipeline blog for Science Translational Medicine, told The Times, “It is not that machines are going to replace chemists. It’s that the chemists who use machines will replace those that don’t.”
In his own blog, AlQuraishi criticized big pharma companies and the academic community for not keeping up. “The smartest and most ambitious researchers wanting to work on protein structure will look to DeepMind for opportunities instead of Merck or Novartis,” he wrote. “This fact should send chills down the spines of pharma executives, but it won’t because they’re clueless, rudderless, and asleep at the helm.”
Merck, though, is exploring protein folding, but the company’s scientists think its impact is far down the road. It’s using deep learning algorithms on other aspects of drug discovery and development. Juan Alvarez, associate vice president of computational and structural chemistry at Merck told The Times, “We have to connect so many other dots.”
Also, very few if any academic institutions can afford the resources like DeepMind, and large biopharma companies aren’t likely to devote that much of their finite resources to one approach. Google acquired DeepMind in 2014 for a reported $650 million.
And other companies are focusing on AI and machine learning. Recursion Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a clinical-stage biotech company that combines AI, experimental biology and automation to discover and develop drugs at scale.
On Jan. 7, 2019, Recursion announced progress in its collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical on identifying novel preclinical candidates for rare diseases. In 18 months, the partnership had led to the evaluation of Takeda preclinical and clinical compounds in more than 60 unique indications, with new therapeutic candidates identified in more than half-a-dozen diseases. As a result, Takeda exercised its option for drug candidates in two rare diseases and the two companies have extended the partnership.
Also in January, Recursion signed a licensing deal with the Ohio State Innovation Foundation (OSIF), acquiring rights to OSU-HDAC42, a clinical stage compound that will be developed by Recursion for neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2), a rare tumor syndrome.
San Francisco-based Atomwise is using AI technology based on convolutional neural networks, the same tech used in facial recognition tech and self-driving cars, to search for drugs. On Jan. 11, 2019, Atomwise inked a strategic alliance with contract research organization (CRO) Charles River Laboratories International. Atomwise will support CRL’s hit discovery, hit-to-lead, and lead optimization efforts.
Atomwise has a number of partnerships, including with AbbVie, the University of Toronto, Merck, Duke University School of Medicine and others.
At the World Medical Innovation Forum held in Boston in April 2018, panelists focused on the use of AI in healthcare. In particular, AI can be used in clinical trials to search old clinical trial data for new applications and potentially replace part of clinical trials with “virtual” models.
At that meeting, Joseph Scheeren, a senior advisor for R&D at Bayer, noted that cleaning data after a clinical trial can take one or two months. But AI, on the other hand, could potentially do it in a single day. He estimated that AI could reduce the time required for a clinical trial by 30 to 40 percent. “In R&D,” he said, “speed is everything.”
And the same month, London-based BenevolentAI, which uses AI to develop new medicines, brought in $115 million in new investments. Since its founding in November 2013, the company has raised $207 million, according to Crunchbase.
In September 2017, Vivek Ramaswamy launched another “vant” company, Datavant, which will use AI to improve clinical trials. It’s led by Travis May, co-founder and chief executive officer of LiveRamp, which offers data analysis across their ecosystem.
And in July 2017, GlaxoSmithKline signed a $43 million deal with AI company Excientia to stimulate drug development. GSK indicated it would use AI to discover novel and select molecules for up to 10 disease-related targets across multiple therapeutic areas.
So, it’s clear that biopharma is taking AI seriously. Jeremy Jenkins, head of data science for chemical biology and therapeutics at Novartis, told The Times, “Everyone is trending up in this area. It is like turning a big ship, and I think these methods will eventually scale to the size of our entire company.” | <urn:uuid:87179b9b-efdb-4794-9b80-982182a844b3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.biospace.com/article/artificial-intelligence-gaining-ground-in-drug-development/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573029.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817153027-20220817183027-00266.warc.gz | en | 0.95233 | 1,368 | 2.390625 | 2 |
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Even for the historically one-party Democratic South, the Democratic Party’s control of Arkansas politics was solid—until the end of the twentieth century. Indeed, from the end of Reconstruction, Republican presidential candidates were denied Electoral College votes every four years until Richard Nixon’s 1972 victory. The Democratic Party’s dominance of state and local elections (outside northwestern Arkansas, which had housed Republicans since the Civil War era) was just as impressive. Still, while Democrats long fended off any sustained Republican development, recent trends--especially the historic results in the 2010, 2012, and 2014 election cycles--indicate that the change that has come to other Southern states with the rise of a competitive Republican Party has taken root in Arkansas.
Before statehood, Arkansas politics was dominated by a small group known by a variety of names, most commonly “The Family.” This Johnson-Conway-Sevier-Rector cousinhood accumulated 190 years of public office-holding, including two U.S. senators and three governors in antebellum Arkansas; other offices went only to their partisans. Because the Family was allied with President Andrew Jackson, Arkansas began its political life dominated by the Democratic Party. The opposing faction, which almost by default became associated with the Whigs, at times generated rather spirited opposition. Still, no one but a Democrat won the presidential or gubernatorial election in Arkansas in this era, and the only Whig elected to Congress, Thomas W. Newtown, filled several weeks of an unexpired term opened by Archibald Yell’s resignation from the office in 1846.
During the Reconstruction era, a series of Republicans held the state’s preeminent political offices, but the norm of Democratic rule returned immediately after Reconstruction’s end in 1874. These “redeemers” shared a generally noninterventionist view of state government, with taxes, appropriations, and regulations kept to a minimum. Frustration about the nonresponsiveness of government grew among farmers in the mid-1880s, as revealed by the growth of populist organizations such as the Farmers’ Alliance and the Agricultural Wheel. Republicans eventually recognized in their growing numbers an opportunity to recapture power. In 1888, they nominated no candidate of their own but instead backed Charles M. Norwood, gubernatorial candidate of the dissident Union-Labor Party. While Democrat James P. Eagle defeated Norwood by about 15,000 votes, this genuine competition alarmed Democrats. In response, the political establishment saw to the enactment of a series of electoral “reforms,” i.e. disfranchising measures, that emasculated the opposition and forced the emerging populistic temper to participate within a one-party and generally issueless mold for the next six decades.
The Democrats elected as the state’s delegates in the U.S. House and Senate were typically not challenged vigorously after being elected. As a result, these incumbents built up tremendous power in legislative bodies where seniority was highly valued. Senator Joe T. Robinson (who became Democratic majority leader), Congressman Wilbur D. Mills (who became chair of the Ways and Means Committee), Senator J. William Fulbright (longtime chair of the Foreign Relations Committee), and Senator John L. McClellan (father of the McClellan-Kerr dam system) exemplify the power that the state had in Washington DC during this era.
While the first half of the twentieth century witnessed factionalized and chaotic battles in Democratic primaries for state offices, especially for the governorship, Governor Orval Faubus developed a dominant machine after his initial election in 1954. Faubus, who gained national notoriety for his attempts to block the desegregation of Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957, used this powerful organization to gain an unprecedented six terms in office. But he could not transfer his personal organization to other Democrats when he decided to retire in 1966, having appointed every member of every state board and commission. (Faubus later made three failed comeback attempts.)
In 1966, the Democratic Party lost the governorship for the first time in the modern era. But the Republican candidate, Winthrop Rockefeller, differed dramatically from those in his party who began to be elected in other Southern states. Rockefeller was a racial liberal who developed a coalition of progressive Democrats disenchanted with the conservative Faubus machine, newly enfranchised African Americans, and traditional Republicans to gain the office and reelection in 1968 over Faubus protégés. Despite his electoral successes, Rockefeller failed to work successfully with the almost totally Democratic legislature and could not advance his agenda.
In 1970, the Democrats nominated for governor the unknown but telegenic progressive Dale Bumpers rather than Faubus. Thus began a new era of dominance for the Democratic Party as its progressives returned home in Bumpers’s easy victory over Rockefeller in the general election. Black voters followed in subsequent elections, leaving the Republican Party in its traditional and feeble role, except in the state’s northwest corner. In many elections, Democrats—who spanned the ideological spectrum—won office without Republican opposition.
Bumpers was followed to the governorship, and later the U.S. Senate, by another progressive, David Pryor, a personable politician considered by many to be the most popular Arkansas politician of the contemporary era. Pryor served two terms as governor, from 1974 to 1978, before being replaced by a third politician in a similar mold, thirty-two-year-old Attorney General Bill Clinton. Except for the two years after his 1980 upset loss to Republican Frank White, Clinton served as governor until 1992, winning five general elections in a gubernatorial career equaled in tenure only by Faubus.
Bumpers, Pryor, and Clinton—termed by one observer the “Big Three” of modern Arkansas politics—developed separate, yet overlapping, organizations that hampered Republican Party development. No coherent state Democratic organization developed in this period despite the party’s continued electoral success in state and local politics. The culmination of the state’s progressive Democratic era was the elevation of Clinton in 1992 as the first president from the state.
Ironically, this ultimate triumph for the Arkansas Democrats led to the party’s first lasting electoral difficulties in the modern era. Clinton’s victory elevated Lieutenant Governor Jim Guy Tucker, a Democrat, to the top of state government in late 1992; Tucker was elected governor on his own in 1994. However, in a successful prosecution connected to the investigation of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s business dealings in Arkansas (the Whitewater Scandal), Tucker was convicted by a federal jury on a series of charges unrelated to his time as governor in 1996. Waiting in the wings to rise to the governorship after Tucker’s resignation was a Republican—the former president of the state Southern Baptist Convention, Mike Huckabee. Huckabee, coming off a loss for the U.S. Senate to Bumpers in 1992, had won a closely contested special election in 1993 to gain the lieutenant governorship.
Huckabee, who would win his own election as governor in 1998, was the first Republican governor to share some of the personal dynamism of the “Big Three,” suggesting that Huckabee could become an effective proponent of Republican development in the state. The Democrats’s electoral difficulties continued as they lost Pryor’s Senate seat and the lieutenant governorship in 1996. Both losses were historic: the first meant Democrats failed to control both Senate seats from the state since the direct election of U.S. senators commenced, and the second meant that, for the only time outside the Rockefeller era, Democrats held neither the governorship nor the lieutenant governorship.
Democrats enjoyed distinct advantages in Arkansas politics at the legislative and local level as the Republican Party lagged in development and candidate recruitment. Indeed, despite the introduction at the turn of the century of state legislative term limits that shortened the terms of the mostly Democratic incumbents, the Arkansas General Assembly remained one of the most one-party dominated in the country in the first decade of the twenty-first century. A plurality of Arkansans (44.1 % in a 2001 poll) also continued to identify themselves as Democrats.
However, in the 2010 election cycle, despite a landslide win by Democratic incumbent governor Mike Beebe, Arkansas Democrats were shaken by a series of losses that, all together, marked the most successful outing by Republicans since the Reconstruction era. After the election, Republicans controlled one of two U.S. Senate seats, three of four U.S. House seats, three state constitutional offices, and over forty percent of legislative seats. Two years later, Republicans captured a majority in the Arkansas General Assembly for the first time since Reconstruction, as well as sweeping the state’s four spots in the U.S. House of Representatives. Many pointed to Arkansans’ emphatically negative response to President Barack Obama’s presidency, in combination with demographic changes in the state, as key to these shifts. In 2014, the Democratic Party experienced a rout that witnessed U.S. senator Mark Pryor and all four congressional candidates losing to Republican challengers; in addition, the Republican Party solidified its gains in both houses of the Arkansas General Assembly and claimed all of the state’s constitutional offices, becoming the state’s majority party in a direct contrast with most of the state’s political history. Two years later, state Republicans managed to gain a supermajority in the Arkansas House of Representatives following the defection of two Democratic Party members to Republican ranks in the wake of an election that solidified Republican power both nationally and locally.
For additional information:Barth, Jay. “Arkansas: Last Hurrah for a Native Son.” In The 1996 Presidential Election in the South: Southern Party Systems in the 1990s, edited by Laurence Moreland and Robert Steed. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1997.
Barth, Jay, Diane D. Blair, and Ernie Dumas. “Arkansas: Characters, Crises, and Change.” In Southern Politics in the 1990s, edited by Alexander P. Lamis. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999.
Blair, Diane D., and Jay Barth. Arkansas Politics and Government: Do the People Rule? 2d ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.
Jay BarthHendrix College
Last Updated 12/1/2016
About this Entry: Contact the Encyclopedia / Submit a Comment / Submit a Narrative | <urn:uuid:31aa8d4a-0969-43d4-9daf-ffaaa3e21cfa> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=593 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281450.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00182-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961646 | 2,172 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Transcript for Anger's Effect on Heart Health
Now, there's news, tonight, about anger and what anger really does to your heart and your health, long after the moment has subsided. There's a big, new study tonight. And it is a wake-up call. So, here's ABC's Maura schiavocam schiavocampo. Reporter: Anger. It can have a powerful effect on our behavior. Cut me off? Reporter: And as it turns out, our bodies. That new study finding losing your temper could lead to a heart attack or stroke. Harvard researchers looked at studies from around the world. And found having an angry outburst makes you almost five-times more likely to have a heart attack. And more than three-times more likely to have a stroke. And it's not just in the moment you blow your top. The risk lingers up to two hours after you become enraged. And even if you hold the hanger inside. Does this confirm what I think people think intuitively that your emotions can have an effect on your physical state and your well-being? I think absolutely. I think your intuition is right, that the mind and the body are connected on various organ systems. Certainly for cardiac. Reporter: Here's what happens. When you scream in anger, brain triggers release of adrenaline into the bloodstream. Raising blood pressure and making it harder for the heart to pump. The more angry outbursts you have, the more you're putting yourself at risk. And the effects are even worse for people with existing heart problems, like cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Adding, it's crucial to cool off in the heat of the moment, by taking deep breaths, walking away from the situation and counting to ten. A cooler head, and a healthier heart.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. | <urn:uuid:0ce4258e-c9dd-499c-812e-f249658f166f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/anger-linked-heart-attacks-emmotions-effect-heart-health-22776436?tab=9482930§ion=1206853&playlist=22776885 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280065.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00541-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954729 | 382 | 2.671875 | 3 |
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
Like most sexually transmitted diseases, genital warts were unknown to exist prior to the 1960s "sexual revolution", a period of time when the oppressive religious monks (who were led by Oprah Winfrey) were overthrown by the introduction of cannabis, more commonly known as "the pill". The first doctor to discover genital warts was none other than Australia's "Dr. Death", so called due to his innate ability to perform autopsies during the night, when most other doctors are scared by werewolves. Despite what is believed (and hoped for) by the geek community, the first genital warts were found on a woman, which is approxmiately the same time women first admitted to using the bathroom. Genital warts are best described as "soft, moist, warm and flesh coloured clusters" which appear on the genitals; this description soon lead to every woman with a clitoris to be misdiagnosed with genital warts, beginning the fad of clit-piercing. The main problem associated with genital warts is a lack of consentual sex with anyone who is not infected, leaving you with nothing but cheap hookers to attend to. Other minor complications include (in most important to least important):
- Uncomfortable toilet trips due to anal warts
- Doctors are required by law to tell your mother and your father
- Treatment involves placing lotion that burns on your genitals
- High risk of cancer from the HPV infection that causes the warts
Recent proposals have been to offer a bounty on anyone with genital warts to stop their spread. However, many hippies (the main carriers of genital warts) have been protesting against the inhumanity of eradicating genital warts, as "virus' and warts have feelings too".
edit Spotting genital warts
Apart from using a condom and avoiding cheap skanks, there are other ways to prevent yourself from obtaning genital warts. Most notably is identifying anyone who has genital warts, and then running in the oppisite direction; rumour has it every disease except the flu can be transferred by breathing on people. As hinted at, anyone offering sex for money is likely to have genital warts (along with every pathogen known to humans, and many more not). Other signs include:
- Being a member of a religious group (repent and thy warts shall go)
- Moving to Canada, New Zealand or Paris
- Anyone scratching their genitals and not looking at you sensually
- Anyone who loves fungus just a bit too much
- Anyone who comments you on your wonderfully unblemished skin
- Also if you have been rubbing toads down there for some odd reason since when they pee they can create warts
- Anyone who is stage manager in Proscenium.
It has been rumoured that North Korea has been manufacturing HPV to use as an attack against England, however the latest census shows 98% of Americans have gential warts anyway. This leaves many countries open to a genital wart terrorist attack.
While there is indeed a vaccination against genital warts, it is evil because reducing the dangers of having sex encourages more sex. It doesn't matter that it would be safer sex, it would still be more sex, and therefore this vaccination must be stopped! | <urn:uuid:612f7bc4-efe6-44ba-91b0-e0b7510616d8> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Wart | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281574.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00017-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971894 | 680 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Mayo Clinic's approach
Experience in complex cases
Mayo is in the forefront of quality care and research for patients with complex large renal masses. Mayo's highly specialized and experienced surgical teams are able to perform complex nephrectomies in circumstances where others have considered the tumor to be unremovable.
Urologists maximize outcomes in these complex cases using a team approach with the most expert medical, surgical, technical and other types of support that modern medicine can offer. This ensures that each patient receives the highest quality care and the best outcome.
At Mayo Clinic, urologic surgeons are leaders in kidney-sparing surgery (partial nephrectomy) approaches. Highly trained and experienced experts can accomplish kidney preservation in circumstances that otherwise might cause a patient to have severely limited kidney function or the need for dialysis.
Urologists use advanced surgical techniques to offer robot-assisted options and open surgery for partial nephrectomy. Mayo Clinic experience and surgical specialization results in excellent outcomes and minimizes potential complications.
Nephrectomies at Mayo Clinic are always performed by urologic surgeons with specialized training and expertise who do large numbers of these procedures. In pediatric patients, pediatric urologists with specialized training and experience working with children perform nephrectomies.
Innovation and extensive experience
For over 150 years, Mayo Clinic has been a leader in surgical techniques and clinical care of patients who need kidney surgery. In addition, Mayo Clinic urologists recognize when surgery may not be needed, taking into account patient preferences. In some instances, for example, the recommendation may be active surveillance: observe for a specified time and follow up with scans.
Mayo Clinic urologists are international leaders in innovation and research on surgical and nonsurgical management of kidney tumors. Mayo Clinic researchers have improved the chances of cure, extended survival for patients who can't be cured, improved quality of life and minimized the impact of treatment for patients worldwide.
Ongoing clinical trials at Mayo Clinic continue to lead to improved patient outcomes and a higher standard of care.
Expertise and rankings
- Experts in nephrectomy surgery. Mayo Clinic urologic surgeons have extensive expertise in treating all types of kidney tumors, from simple to large complex tumors, as well as advanced cancer that has spread. All Mayo surgeons who perform renal tumor surgery nephrectomy have training in urologic oncology or minimally invasive surgery or both. Urologic surgeons help determine when surgery is required and use a team approach in performing surgery on complex tumors that may be deemed impossible to surgically remove at other facilities.
- Latest technology. Mayo Clinic urologic surgeons are highly skilled in the latest techniques and technology, such as minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery and robotic surgery and the most advanced open techniques. Mayo's surgeons utilize advanced imaging techniques and are experimenting with 3-D modeling and other innovations to improve surgical precision and surgery outcomes.
- Excellent outcomes. Mayo Clinic offers low nephrectomy complication rates with short hospital stays and the best outcomes for our patients. Mayo's urologic surgeons showed early on that, in appropriately selected cancer cases, partial nephrectomy outcome can be just as good as radical nephrectomy. Partial nephrectomy preserves kidney function and aids in prevention of complications.
Nationally recognized expertise
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is ranked No. 1 for urology in the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings. Mayo Clinic in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, is ranked among the Best Hospitals in the nation and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, is ranked highly performing for urology by U.S. News & World Report. Mayo Clinic Children's Center in Rochester is ranked the No. 1 hospital in Minnesota, and the five-state region of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2022–2023 "Best Children's Hospitals" rankings.
Locations, travel and lodging
Mayo Clinic has major campuses in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona; Jacksonville, Florida; and Rochester, Minnesota. The Mayo Clinic Health System has dozens of locations in several states.
For more information on visiting Mayo Clinic, choose your location below:
Costs and insurance
Mayo Clinic works with hundreds of insurance companies and is an in-network provider for millions of people.
In most cases, Mayo Clinic doesn't require a physician referral. Some insurers require referrals, or may have additional requirements for certain medical care. All appointments are prioritized on the basis of medical need.
Learn more about appointments at Mayo Clinic.
Please contact your insurance company to verify medical coverage and to obtain any needed authorization prior to your visit. Often, your insurer's customer service number is printed on the back of your insurance card. | <urn:uuid:56979ef8-4126-44e6-9b80-e4d812944526> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/nephrectomy/care-at-mayo-clinic/pcc-20385167?p=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570921.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809094531-20220809124531-00270.warc.gz | en | 0.930169 | 1,009 | 1.789063 | 2 |
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