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HPPR hosts & contributors
Wed August 1, 2012
A Medal And Marmite For Team Kiwi
Here's a curious little bit of news from the BBC:
"New Zealand competitors who win medals at the London Olympics have been offered an unusual reward — food parcels containing jars of Marmite."
"The spread has been in short supply since March, after the manufacturer was forced to close its only factory because of earthquake damage."
So, a New Zealand super market chain decided that instead of selling the precious few jars they had left, they would give them to winning Olympians.
"To come to London and prove to the world that they are the best in their discipline is no mean feat," Steve Anderson of Foodstuffs New Zealand, told the BBC. "And we thought that a few home comforts after all their hard work wouldn't go astray."
Marmite, which is made from the yeast extract left behind from brewing beer, originated in Britain. It's a love it or hate thing. And in New Zealand, as All Things Considered reported in March, a special recipe of marmite took hold and the one factory that produced it is still closed after damage from the 2011 earthquake.
It got so rough for the country that Marmite's producer gave kiwis tips on how to make it last longer. Warm toast is good, because it makes the Marmite softer, so you can spread it thinner, for example.
If this post making you want some Marmite with your Olympic viewing, there's a Kitchen Window piece that includes a few recipes, including one for "Marmite Cheddar Crackers." | <urn:uuid:ae827865-64be-458c-9e99-b9e66fd57218> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hppr.org/post/medal-and-marmite-team-kiwi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977992 | 335 | 1.59375 | 2 |
We now bring you another edition of Media Monday. There are lots of good books to talk about, so I won't tarry.
Jeanette Winterson reviews Renegade: Henry Miller and the Making of "Tropic of Cancer" by Frederick Turner. Turner is in good company, as none other than George Orwell, Norman Mailer, Kate Millet, and Erica Jong have taken on the subject of Henry Miller and his book (a book that reviewer Winterson calls "so great that it takes the world nearly 30 years to face up to it"). Reporting on such a controversial and brilliant novel almost assures that the key messages will change over time. Winterson notes that "Turner cleverly places Miller in a line of American folklore heroes, real and invented, like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Like Huck Finn, Miller the man wants to avoid growing up. Like Mark Twain, Miller the writer wants the flavor and feel of 'brawlers, outlaws, gamblers . . . whores.'" But she feels Turner has ignored the more unsavory parts of Miller and his novel in an effort to create this mythos, particularly the frequent misogyny of Miller's prose and of the time in which he was writing.
As reviewer, Sarah Wheeler points out in her review of Alec Wilkinson's The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration, "The history of 19th-century Arctic exploration is gruesome. Ice floes throttle creaky ships, men vanish into the white silence, and the North Pole remains elusive." In other words, people died, and they died grisly deaths. "Then a Swedish aeronaut had a new idea. Approaches by sledge and ship had failed, so why not fly to the pole?" Thus, follows the story of Salomon August Andrée, told by Wilkinson (a New Yorker staffwriter), in a "prose style (that) suits the spare polar landscape, making his occasional poetic touches even more effective. (He describes, for example, the men rowing over the icy sea 'as if already in the afterlife.')"
You can read more about author Alec Wilkinson in this recent interview conducted by our own Neal Thompson.
Pamela Paul has a story/review of a classic young adult novel, one that I had no idea was a half century old. "For those who came of age anytime during the past half-century, the most startling transformation occurred upon reading Madeleine L'Engle's Newbery Medal-winning classic, A Wrinkle in Time, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year." In talking about the book's protagonist, Meg Murry, Paul puts an interesting spin on the story with this line: "Meg Murry, in short, was a departure from the typical 'girls' book' protagonist "” as wonderful as many of those varied characters are. Meg was a heroine of science fiction." You can read the rest of the article here.
Tomorrow Seira Wilson's post celebrating the 50th Anniversary will be posted on Omni. It will feature an exclusive view of an original manuscript page, so be sure to return tomorrow to read her post and check out Madeleine L'Engle's original work.
Reviewer Kathryn Lang has a review of a fictionalized biography of a Polish-Russian painter named Tamara de Lempicka (the artist is real; it's the biography that isn't entirely). The book is by the author Ellis Avery and is titled The Last Nude. Lempicka was a sensation in Paris for her art, her good looks, and her lifestyle. Lest you think she's some irrelevant artistic shooting star that's dissolved into the scrim of the past, Lang points out that the portrait by Lempicka on the cover of The Last Nude sold for $8.48 million in November. She's relevant. And she's interesting. And so is the book. Lang writes, "Avery deftly re-creates a lost period. Here, she embellishes the details of Lempicka's year-long affair with Rafaela Fano, the 17-year-old, dark-eyed beauty on the novel's cover whom Lempicka painted several times after meeting her in the Bois de Boulogne, a haunt for Parisian prostitutes."
Paula Broadwell and Vernon Loeb's All In: The Education of General David Petraeus is reviewed by Thomas J. Barfield, who points out that "popular generals in unpopular wars attract attention." There have already been two biographical accounts of his successful surge under President Bush, and in this new book the authors "employ a similar format to examine his implementation of the Obama surge in Afghanistan." Petraeus only led the Obama surge for a year before he was made head of the CIA, but he was by all accounts successful in Afghanistan, and in this book we "learn about the complexity of the Afghan situation and are introduced to a not-easily-categorized strategy that attempted to adapt to Afghan realities."
Michael Dirda takes a look at a fascinating book titled Book-Jackets: Their History, Forms, and Use by G. Thomas Tanselle. Personally, I found the review to be spellbinding (is that an unintentional pun?). The first dustjackets came into existence around 1820, and in so many ways they serve as archeological and forensic pointers to the life of a book and the mindset of publishing. One interesting detail: "Before 1820, publishers didn't need slipcovers for their wares. Although some books might be issued in temporary boards with spine labels, most were typically sold as loose sheets. Purchasers would then commission bookbinders to sew these pages together and attach plain or decorative covers to the resulting text-block." A lot has changed since then, to say the least.
The influence Gil Scott Heron has has on music has been immense. In the words of reviewer Lynell George, "While boomers found a slogan in the refrain of his hit 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,' the post-soul generation found a template in both his delivery and his reportage from the streets, dubbing him the 'Godfather of Rap,' a title he'd once famously dodged with the response 'Don't blame me for that.'" His memoir titled The Last Holiday: A Memoir is described as being "as much about his life as it is about context, the theater of late 20th century America "” from Jim Crow to the Reagan '80s and from Beale Street to 57th Street. The narrative is not, however, a rise-and-fall retelling of Scott-Heron's life and career. It doesn't connect all the dots. It moves off-the-beat, at its own speed. It lingers on certain life chapters he preferred to recall (playing piano for his grandmother's sewing circle in Tennessee, getting lost in books, taking a leave from school to work on his first novel, 'The Vulture,' meeting his long-time collaborator Brian Jackson at Lincoln University)."
Want to know how Facebook has changed the world? Read Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power: A Memoir by Wael Ghonim. Ghonim is described as "an unlikely rebel," and that's certainly true. He was "Google's top marketing representative for the Middle East, based in Dubai. His opposition to Hosni Mubarak's regime was far down on his personal list of interests. But it was there. Waiting." Ghonom started the Facebook page that helped set off the Arab Spring. Reviewer Scott Martelle writes, "It's an engaging read, and it offers a sharply detailed look from the inside of an uprising that owed almost as much to social media connections as it did to anti-Mubarak passions."
National Public Radio has a review of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking that states "Introvert Susan Cain is here to make the case for people who like to work in peace and quiet. Today's workplaces are designed for extroverts, she says, and put too much emphasis on group work. Cain's new book is called Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking."
Adam Mars-Jones writes about Jeanette Winterson, who wrote the cover review of this week's Times Book Review (see above). It states in part, "I was friendly with Jeanette Winterson in the 1980s "“ we even went away for a weekend together. I went slightly cool on the friendship, though she didn't exactly do anything wrong." If you'd like to know why, read on.
NY Magazine has a story about Ben Marcus, who stopped by the offices last week and was completely charming and disarming.
Want to know what literature teaches us about love?
Bet you can't guess the five books that inspire the most tattoos.
Here's a great piece on designers' favorite book covers that they had to scrap. | <urn:uuid:aa38baf3-d998-4504-811c-f162b0c05f79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.shelfari.com/my_weblog/2012/01/media-monday-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970139 | 1,867 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Yet another threat to worry about
A study found that a substance found in plastic can cause dysfunctions.
November 11, 2009 4:28 by kippreport
Exposure to a chemical found in plastic items like bottles could lead to erectile dysfunction in men, according to a new study published in a journal titled Human Reproduction. Researchers conducted a study on 634 male workers at four factories in China over five years, and found that those exposed to bisphenol A, or BPA, faced four times greater chances of suffering from erectile dysfunction, and were seven times as likely to have difficulty with ejaculation.
BPA is found in thousands of products including sealants, hard plastic bottles and canned food linings, and according to the Washington Post, it has been detected in the urine of 93 percent of the US population.
While researchers said that people shouldn’t be worried by the finding, it is kind of scary. And the findings will not only alarm ordinary men, but also plastic factory owners, whose businesses may be at stake.
Environmentalists will probably be happy though; this study will be a great way to make both men and their wives stay off plastic. | <urn:uuid:cb1ca588-3ac3-4e9d-98d9-ff53f919db33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kippreport.com/blog/kipps-blog/yet-another-threat-to-worry-about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968645 | 244 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Since opening in May 2011, Portola Coffee Lab has generated a cult-like following among cappuccino cravers and latte lovers. At the Costa Mesa cafe, coffee doesn’t sit idle waiting to be poured or pumped into a cup. Instead, beans are roasted daily and coffee is brewed to order using three unconventional brewing methods.
One process, dubbed the Siphon, takes eight minutes to produce a light-bodied beverage designed for coffee purists. Other methods, Trifecta and V60, are pour-over or French press inspired methods that produce bold and complex flavors.
Whatever the choice, the end result is the same: a custom made cup of joe.
“The difference between our shop and others is that the quality continues all the way to the cup,” Portola founder Jeff Duggan said.
Duggan, 39, is the chief mad-coffee-scientist behind Portola Coffee Lab, which is leading a craft coffee revolution in Southern California. Coffee zealots have been known to drive more than 100 miles to try Portola’s hand-crafted drinks, which range from $2.50 for a single shot of espresso to $7 for a slow-brewed Siphon cup.
Taking the craft coffee craze up a notch, Duggan plans to launch a “slow bar” called Theorem later this month. The six-seat slow service coffee bar, adjacent to Portola, will sell creative cocktails where coffee is the main component. | <urn:uuid:a3748cf5-45a5-4bed-867c-1b7ed9bd4f6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fastfood.ocregister.com/category/cafes-and-coffee/starbucks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950658 | 315 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Yesterday’s newspapers reported that Mary Portas has suggested our empty High Streets could be filled with market stalls to bring them back to life. Not a bad idea, but if people simply aren’t shopping in a town because they feel it’s an unpleasant place to be, then what’s the point of having 50 market traders setting up pitch?
I spent an hour this afternoon walking around Altrincham in Cheshire. It was frankly grey, dirty and depressing.
Once thriving, Altrincham is now a mix of abandoned offices, bankrupt independent house related businesses and charity shops, with the last remaining big name retailers hanging on grimly until the bitter end. Trouble is, our whole way of life has changed – that isn’t due to a recession, it’s down to technology.
Once M&S, WH Smith and a few big name banks pull out, Altrincham will be finished, at least as far as shopping goes. In terms of office space, it’s already game over – we simply do not work in 9-5.30pm`office jobs’ in large numbers any longer…at least not outside of London.
Online retail, the rise of home working, outsourced freelance consultants and `destination shopping’ via Malls, has all but killed off the traditional High Street in Britain – it’s time for some radical ideas.
MAKE OUR TOWNS SAFE, CLEAN AND UNIQUE
It sounds obvious, but so many small towns are woefully neglected. The councils basically took all the business rates in the good times and used them to gamble their pension funds in Iceland. The country I mean, not the frozen food retailer. If small towns have pleasant `quarters’ where traffic is minimal and people feel safe to wander, stop and chat, sit on the pavement and have a coffee etc that would be a start. Fix the pavement first though…
Next up, we need to offer rent protected retail space in `quarters’ where food shoppers, vinyl record collectors, shoe lovers, vintage clothing buyers, or someone who needs their computer fixed can find a cluster of vibrant, small businesses. Councils can support such businesses with `fairs’ or themed festivals four or five times a year as well – use social media to bring a buzz, some excitement to the town itself.
We need a law that protects small towns from the invasion of the charity shops – they need to make up no more than 10% of the retail space on any given street. Independent bookshops, music, clothing, shoe and other retailers cannot compete with charity shops – and we need small traders to revive small towns. Big business will never do it, charities simply soak up the budget shopper revenues – that has to change.
On the same lines, small cafes and independent restaurants should be paying 50% of the business rates of the big brand food chains. The chains have the advantage of buying food in bulk and outsourcing everything from accounts to HR, so let’s level the food business playing field. Anyone selling food which is produced locally – within 10 miles – gets a further 10% off. That encourages local farmers to sell their produce locally.
BRING THE PEOPLE BACK INTO OUR TOWNS
Much of the abandoned office space in small towns should be converted into low cost housing. You could even convert many old fashioned Victorian pubs into very nice flats. There is plenty of housing demand, so we should offer interest free loans to those who can find 10K to invest in refurbishing or converting an office into a flat.
Very few people can save up 30-50K for a deposit on a house, but 10K is achievable. In the same way that credit unions offer loans to those who save, councils could offer `housing unions’ similar support as part of their local regeneration plans.
If you give people a chance to create a decent home from what is basically sound, but neglected office/shop stock, for an affordable price, they will come. They will build it.
Finally, promote your unique small town identity. If the area has a history tell that story, promote festivals, make something happen. Use Foursquare, Facebook and Groupon to offer people real incentives to physically `check in’ to your High Street – embrace the internet, don’t fight it.
Small towns cannot compete with the Trafford Centres or Westfields. Neither can they halt the inevitable rise of online retailing. To survive they have to offer more than just `distress’ shopping experiences and the chance of a £60 parking fine.
It’s time to rebuild our towns and make them interesting, friendly places to live and work in once again. It’s going to be a long, slow process, but if politicians can stop squabbling over the last few million in business rates and think laterally, there’s a glimmer of hope.
Agree, disagree or got an idea to revive your town? Post your comments or tweet me @npointsocial | <urn:uuid:39a88ea5-5903-4d02-96f3-3a9bb32db185> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://northpointsocial.wordpress.com/tag/mary/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947769 | 1,047 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Amid hullabaloo about Angeline Jolie's leg, the high-flying exploits of Circus du Soleil, and Octavia Spencer's tearful trip to the podium was a speech that actually has some import beyond the rarified world of Tinsel Town. When Iranian director Asghar Farhadi accepted the best foreign language award for "A Separation," -- which, by the way, is a masterpiece — he inserted himself in an increasingly rancorous geo-political debate. From a hand-written note, the director read the following:
"At this time, many Iranian all over the world are watching us and I imagine them to be very happy. They are happy not just because of an important award or a film or filmmaker, but because at the time when talk of war, intimidation and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their country Iran is spoken here through her glorious culture. A rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics. I proudly offer this award to the people of my country. A people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment."
Farhadi's plea for peace is a gentle rebuke to leaders in his native Iran — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regularly calls for the state of Israel to be wiped off the map — and to politicians in this country like the GOP presidential hopefuls who pepper their stump speeches with saber-rattling rhetoric about Iran.
Tensions have grown in recent months as the Iranian government seems to have ramped up its nuclear weapons program and Israel has stated that it will resort to the military strikes to prevent that from happening. Many news stories in Iran couldn't help but to point out that "A Separation" beat out Israel's submission "A Footnote."
While Farhadi's comments might be unpopular with certain segments of the population here in the States, they are down-right dangerous in his native country. Iran has punished internationally famous filmmakers before. Director Jafar Panahi, best known in the West for his award-winning movie "The White Balloon" and his latest movie, which he made secretly, "This is Not a Film," was handed a six-year prison sentence and a twenty-year ban on filmmaking for his outspoken criticism of the Ahmadinejad regime.
Farhadi has been able to walk a very fine line between criticism and tacit governmental support. On one hand, "A Separation," a surprisingly suspenseful movie about the divorce of married couple, is one long critical look at how an overwhelmed, ineffectual bureaucracy fails to meet the needs of the people. On the other hand, it is the country, not the filmmakers, who submit movies to the academy for the foreign language category. Farhadi clearly got support from some corner of the government.
We'll see whether the filmmaker is hailed as a hero when he returns to Iran or viewed as a troublemaker or both. Hopefully, it won't prevent him from making more masterful movies in the future.
See the trailer for 'A Separation': | <urn:uuid:715342cb-0715-4801-a77a-812faede9ab5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/oscars/separation-director-asghar-farhadi-plea-peace-011328369.html?ugccmtnav=v1%2Fcomments%2Fcontext%2F1f95b3d6-e98f-3071-b5b7-f3bbbe1f483e%2Fcomments%3Fcount%3D20%26sortBy%3Doldest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971829 | 623 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Dimensions and Weight
||10.2 cm x 5.1 cm x 5.1 cm
From the Manufacturer
As the war progressed, German forces on the Eastern Front faced setback after setback. One such defeat was known as the Battle of Crimea, which took place between April 8 and May 12 1944. In this campaign the Red Army achieved total victory, cutting off the German 17.Armee and clearing enemy forces out of the Crimean Peninsular. The Soviets used amphibious landings to good effect, pushing Wermacht units back until Sevastopol eventually fell on May 9. A total of 97,000 German and Romanian soldiers were killed, wounded or captured in this battle. Requires paint and glue (not included).
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For items offered by international sellers, the Rupee price shown on this site is an estimated price. The actual price charged to you, including applicable shipping, duty and tax charges, fluctuates from time to time. In addition, your bank may apply a different exchange rate when you pay for the item. | <urn:uuid:369d1036-d7e7-4386-9958-98e17cc53804> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.junglee.com/Dragon-Soviet-Black-Commando-Crimea/dp/B001EDF1CE | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949797 | 219 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Sunday Times anti-Semitism – on Holocaust Memorial Day
Last week a Liberal Democrat MP by the name of David Ward found himself in a bit of hot water for stating, quite boldly, that ‘the Jews’ (all of them) had failed to learn the lesson of the Holocaust. He wrote upon his blog (now removed):
Having visited Auschwitz twice – once with my family and once with local schools – I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.Outrageous, you may think. But we must remember that the Liberal Democrats have form on this: they are, after all, the party of Baroness Tonge, who not only declared that she might have been a suicide bomber had she been born a Palestinian, but has a tendency to speak of the ‘Israel lobby’ as a worldwide Jewish conspiracy: “Once they have decided to go for you, they will go for you,” she once disclosed. “I bear the scars.” And then she chillingly prophesied: “Israel is not going to be there forever”, she warned, because it ‘will lose its support and then they will reap what they have sown’.
So David Ward and Jenny Tonge are Jew-hating peas from the same Illiberal-Undemocrat pod. To both, there is an undeniable correlation between the current Middle East geo-political conflicts and the systematic slaughter of the Jews by the Nazis. When questioned on his meaning and intention by choosing to juxtapose the two, Ward helpfully clarified, saying: “It appears that the suffering by the Jews has not transformed their views on how others should be treated.”
So, in summary, Israel is apartheid; the Jews are evil; Gaza is oppressed; the Palestinians are innocent victims. It’s all akin to how Hitler treated the Jews. And what better time to state this than on the approach to Holocaust Memorial Day?
As disgusting and disturbing as this may be, it is astonishing (really, utterly alarming) that Rupert Murdoch’s esteemed Sunday Times decided to commemorate such a sombre day with the same strain of anti-Semitism. The Gerald Scarfe cartoon above features Benjamin Netanyahu as a big-nosed hunchback, constructing a grotesque security wall with the blood of Palestinian women and children (and President Obama appears to be cemented in as well). It carries the caption: ‘Israeli Elections… Will Cementing Peace Continue?’
This is usually Guardian territory (see here and here).The target is not religion, but race. The Guardian rarely misses an opportunity to vent its bile for the only democracy in the region. Now it is joined by the Sunday Times, insulting, denigrating and defaming Jews worldwide. There is, as ever, no mention of the slaughter and bloodshed in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Bahrain or Egypt. There is no consideration of the thousands of missiles that rain down daily upon Israel from Gaza, and not a whiff of the terrorist incursions of Hamas or Hezbollah. There is complete ignorance of the need to protect Israeli civilians against Palestinian terrorism. The Sunday Times cartoon legitimates such terrorist attacks; it seeks to justify suicide bombs against the evil Israeli regime, just as Jenny Tonge has reasoned. Like Guardian cartoonists, Scarfe would never dream of portraying Muslim leaders in such vile caricatures, or denigrating Arabs or Islam.
Questioning Israel’s wholly necessary security policy in this crude fashion would cause offence on any day of the year. But to publish such a cartoon purposely to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day – while Prisoner A26188 is touring schools and media outlets to remind us of the very face of evil – is a blood libel; a vicious assault on the memory of millions, and an offence against all morality. | <urn:uuid:d9bfdcf9-b510-4337-90f7-e214228ecfb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.ca/2013/01/sunday-times-anti-semitism-on-holocaust.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956475 | 824 | 1.585938 | 2 |
The Hatfield & McCoy Marathon
Getting along in the long run
The sound of gunfire was no cause for celebration a century or more ago in the valley of the Tug River separating Kentucky and West Virginia. Back then, one shot was invariably followed by others . . . and maybe a day or two later by a funeral. You see, this is the land of the Hatfields and the McCoys, the original feuding families. But nowadays, when a single shotgun blast is heard the second Saturday in June, it is followed not by the thud of a body falling to the ground but by the cheers of several hundred runners setting off on a demanding journey through this mountainous region. It’s a one-of-a-kind event, and those who run the Hatfield & McCoy Marathon know a good thing when they experience it. I can vouch for that. I ran up and down Blackberry Mountain, negotiated the swinging bridge, and crossed the Tug River five times, and I’m darn glad I lived to tell about it.
Before the Civil War, the Tug Valley region was populated by subsistence farmers who eked out a hard-scrabble existence from land so rugged that Native Americans avoided it. During Reconstruction, however, skyrocketing national demand for wood as a building material meant the area’s vast timber resources suddenly took on great value. That was the earliest exploitation of Appalachia’s natural resources, and several decades later it happened again with coal. Unfortunately human exploitation has been widespread here as well. The monopolization of land and resources has prevented economic diversification, and a prolonged coal bust from the 1920s through the 1970s meant massive unemployment and poverty. Even now, at the dawn of the 21st century, Appalachia lags behind much of the nation.
Considering the hardships Appalachian people have endured throughout the region’s history, it seems somehow appropriate that a marathon has been organized here, giving outsiders an opportunity to labor and struggle through narrow mountain valleys that have seen so much misery over the past two centuries. Marathoners are suckers for punishment, right? But I suspected there was much more here than poverty and hard times, and I decided to experience the event first-hand.
The Hatfield & McCoy Marathon is staged by the Tug Valley Road Runners Club, a small outfit founded in 2000 and led since its inception by David Hatfield—a distant descendant of the feuding Hatfields. Based in Mingo County, WV, and Pike County, KY, the TVRRC was just getting off the ground when members learned that the first-ever Hatfield & McCoy Reunion Festival would be held in June of 2000. "So one thing led to another," Hatfield recalls, "and we ended up helping organize the marathon that year. We stepped into it kind of cold." | <urn:uuid:1a3f4ea7-404f-453b-8062-1cfadb27607b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.runnersworld.com/races/hatfield-mccoy-marathon | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969585 | 583 | 1.78125 | 2 |
In recent years, image-capture devices such as cameras, lenses, and digital backs have continued to improve at a very fast pace. Post-capture software tools also have shown dramatic improvements. It appears to me that as a result of these two trends, more and more photographers are becoming lazy, developing a laissez faire attitude about the capture process. There is a tendency to set the camera to autofocus, auto exposure, auto-image stabilization, auto everything, and just point and release the shutter.
I constantly hear that no matter what the problem is with the original capture, it can always be fixed later in software. Wrong exposure? Image blurred or out of focus? Bad framing? Who cares, you can always fix it later in Photoshop or another image-editing program.
The real question is: Is this a wise way to operate? My answer to this is a resounding No!
Call me weird or unlucky, but when using the automatic settings on a professional-grade DSLR such as a Canon 1Ds MKIII or a Nikon D3 (or any other camera for that matter), approximately 99% of the time the camera does the wrong thing for me, and I either entirely miss the shot or my capture is suboptimal. I’m not exaggerating. I just returned from a trip to Botswana where I took two Canon 1Ds Mark III bodies and a variety of lenses with me. I shot roughly 4,000 images. I don’t think there is a single image from this trip where I did not override the auto settings in my cameras to capture the image better. | <urn:uuid:92c6a8c2-0eb8-4461-980c-c4870eaa36cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phototechmag.com/digital-image-capture-done-right/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952543 | 332 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Ongoings, Museum Exhibits & Events
Thanks to the wonder of time-lapse photography, it takes only nine minutes to watch a 56-foot tree emerge in Kansas City. The operative word is emerge. This silver tree didn't grow in the traditional, one-ring-a-year way. The newest addition to the sculpture garden at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (4525 Oak) is an arboreal behemoth called "Ferment," the latest in New York artist Roxy Paine's series of Dendroids — great, branching, stainless-steel formations that have sprouted from various museum lawns the world over. See more of Paine's work inside the Bloch Building, plus a slideshow of "Ferment" being fabricated in the artist's New York workshop and time-lapse footage of the sculpture's installation here. Paine's sculpture-producing "Scumak"
machine also periodically spits out hamburger-like lumps of polyethylene until August 28. And that's not all. "There's so much with Roxy Paine and his process that we thought we might immerse people in that more," says the Nelson's Kathleen Leighton. The more that she refers to is the Creative Café, where museum visitors can make their own art using paintbrushes and water on special drawing surfaces called Buddha Boards. Leighton explains: "You make your creation, and the air gradually dries it, and then it disappears, and you can make something else." (That's a nice way of saying, Let someone else have a turn.) The Creative Café is open Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is free. Call
816-751-1278 or see nelson-atkins.org for hours and additional information.
If you're ambulatory and bored by such early-evening television broadcasts as Wheel of Fortune and Seinfeld reruns, join the Westport Walking Group for its weekly wandering around the neighborhood that was, in a year called "yesteryear," the starting point for Western pioneers. Also, did you know that walking around is, like, good for your kidneys or something? Four out of ten doctors recommend walking at least once per day. If you think walking might be right for you, consult your physician. The Westport Walking Group ambles out from its meeting point at the Westport branch of the Kansas City Public Library at 5 p.m. each Tuesday.
Food & Drink (General), Happy Hours, Nightlife
(900 Westport Road, 816-561-1101). Tuesdays through Fridays, enjoy food and drink specials in the cool lounge from 5 to 7 p.m. A Kobe burger plus a good red make for a fine night.
Cheap Thrills, Games
With casual-dining restaurants offering fast-food prices, it's becoming easier to avoid drive-throughs at lunchtime. Instead of heading for the nearest T.G.I. Friday's, consider Frito pie or chicken fingers ... at a bowling alley. Every Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Mission Bowl (5399 Martway in Mission, 913-432-7000) serves up its Lunch 'N Bowl Special — for $10, get two games, shoe rental, hamburger, fries and a medium soft drink. The offer is also good at Mission Bowl Olathe (1020 South Weaver, 913-782-0279. So polish off the bowling ball — and lunch. Nailing a 7-10 split is pretty sweet, but doing it in a suit might be one of the greatest feelings in the world. Just remember to put your wingtips or heels back on before returning to the office.
$10 (plus tax) per person
If your creative life so far has been limited to crafting excuses for why you're not using the right side of your brain, today's your chance to turn a constructive corner. Every Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to who knows when, the textile mavens at The Studio (1121 West 47th Street, 816-531-4466) host Sit & Stitch, a gathering for people who love needles. Cindy Craig, a Studio manager who runs the group, says it's a great opportunity to work on a new or existing project and socialize at the same time. When asked whether the group is akin to so-called stitch-and-bitch circles, Craig says, "We try to be more stitch than bitch." Sit & Stitch is not a class, and all skill levels and ages are welcome. Coffee, muffins and scones are provided. You can bring your own knitting, crochet and/or needlepoint supplies or purchase something from The Studio's stash.
Last year, Playboy named the Mutual Musicians Foundation (1823 Highland, 816-471-5212) one of the greatest bars in the country, alongside such hot spots as San Francisco's Top of the Mark and New York City's King Cole Bar. But it's not all about the late-night vodka tonics and beers at this 81-year-old music hall off 18th Street and Vine. "Jazz is our mainstay, but we are also about the perpetuation of music as an art form, expanding out into the music community and bringing in musicians from all genres," says Anita Dixon, vice president of the foundation's executive board of directors. The MMF gets bluesy every Monday when it holds an open jam session at 8 p.m. Money from drink sales goes to educational programs at the foundation. Barbecue from Smokin Aces is for sale at the free event.— Berry Anderson
no cover charge
Jazz, All-Ages, Jam Sessions
It's been said that John Coltrane and Charlie Parker met for the first time at the corner of 18th Street and Vine. If you've neglected your civic duties and have yet to see the American Jazz Museum, it's closed today, but musically inclined types can still bring their instruments for the Blue Monday Jam at the museum's attached nightclub, the Blue Room (1616 East 18th Street, 816-474-8463). This week, sit in with — or sit back with a drink and listen to — tenor saxophonist Matt Otto and vocalist Shay Estes Drink specials include a $4 Blue Room martini and $3 beer, wine and wells. There's no cover on Mondays. The Blue Room opens at 5 p.m., and the jam (open to minors accompanied by adults) starts at 7.
Food & Drink (General)
(1900 Main, 816-842-2205). Start early at Michael Smith's Mediterranean tapas bar — the bennies happen from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, with half-price small plates and a $2 discount on drinks and wines by the glass. (On Mondays the wood-fired pizzas are $8.)
Food & Drink (General), Nightlife
Mondays-Thursdays, 4-6 p.m. and Sundays, 2:20-6 p.m.
209 W. 46th Terr. (map
Kansas City Plaza
All pasta dinners are served with our freshly baked herb and bread sticks, Figlio's special "Bottomless" Caesar Salad, and Gelato. 4pm-6pm. $11.95 per person.
Anyone who is smoking age (that's 18, yo) can take a seat and puff delicious apple-mint smoke at Sinbad's Café and Hookah Lounge (3929 Broadway, 816-255-3988). The new Westport hangout — designed for smoking flavored tobacco from beautiful, freestanding glass pipes fitted with snakelike hoses for each inhaler — is not a club. Sinbad's doesn't serve food or alcohol (though the more than 25 varieties of tobacco taste like candy). Owner Sami Mac describes Sinbad's as "a coffee shop, basically," complete with free Wi-Fi access and imported teas served with fresh mint leaves. Mac, who recently moved to Kansas City from Wichita but claims Palestine as "home," often brings the mint leaves straight from his own garden. He has imported his hookahs from Egypt. A session with one of the green beauties that he rents starts at $10.99. For four bucks more, smokers get the establishment's signature offering: the Sinbad Hookah, in which the tobacco burns in an apple instead of a ceramic bowl. "It gives you more flavor because it absorbs the juice from the apple," Mac explains. Sinbad's is open 4 p.m.-midnight Sunday through Thursday and 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Go on the right night and you might even catch Mac perched at the synthesizer, adding to the Middle Eastern mood through his original music.—
Food & Drink (General)
Addicts know that sushi can be an expensive habit, especially in the landlocked Midwest. But $1 sushi specials make it possible to get your raw-fish fix for little more than the cost of fast food. Friends Sushi and Bento Place (1808 West 39th Street, 816-753-6666) shills sashimi and sushi pieces for a buck each between 5 and 9 p.m. Mondays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Rolls go for $3.99 at the same times. The menu at Friends includes staples such as tuna, plus some more adventurous cuts. The crunchy, spicy salmon roll makes our scalp tingle. Just make sure you get to Friends early and without too many friends in tow. During the sushi sale, this tiny eatery can feel like a sardine can.
select sushi pieces $1 | <urn:uuid:a4d944d6-d120-4d02-94b5-356ee55c2c3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/Profile/Favorites?oid=2722248&type=event | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941084 | 2,033 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The "Firearms Protection Act" would make any federal law banning semi-automatic rifles or limiting magazine capacity unenforceable in Wyoming
A number of Wyoming lawmakers are proposing legislation intended to protect gun owners from any future federal ban on semi-automatic rifles or high capacity magazines,
Introduced last week, the “Firearms Protection Act” would make any federal law banning semi-automatic rifles or limiting magazine capacity unenforceable in Wyoming.
In fact, under the proposed bill, anyone who tried to enforce a federal gun ban could be charged with a felony. The Wyoming Attorney General’s office would also be permitted to defend any state resident against a federal gun ban.
“An act relating to firearms; providing that any federal law which attempts to ban a semi-automatic firearm or to limit the size of a magazine of a firearm or other limitation on firearms in this state shall be unenforceable in Wyoming; proving a penalty; and providing for an effective date,” the bill states.
“Any official, agent or employee of the United States government who enforces or attempts to enforce any act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation of the United States government upon a personal firearm, a firearm accessory or ammunition that is owned or manufactured commercially or privately in Wyoming and that remains exclusively within the borders of Wyoming shall be guilty of a felony,” the proposed legislation adds.
Per the Washington Examiner’s Charlie Spiering:
One of the bill’s co-sponsors, Wyoming State Senator Larry Hicks, told The Washington Examiner that this type of legislation sends a message to the federal government in Washington D.C.
“It says that your one size fits all solution doesn’t comport to what a vast majority of the state believes,” Hicks explained in an interview.
Citing the Tenth and the Second Amendments, Hicks asserted that the legislation was Constitutional, adding that he fully expected it to pass in the Wyoming state legislature. Hicks said that his Wyoming constituents were upset about the looming threat of gun control coming from Washington, particularly since Vice President Biden signaled yesterday that President Obama was willing to issue an executive order to tackle the gun issue.
Read more: The Blaze | <urn:uuid:dcfd95de-e34c-4b98-affe-2c99bd299db0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.b95radio.com/pages/News_National.html?feed=104668&article=10692444 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935019 | 458 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The confusion and contradictions about teacher bargaining and Bill 22 persist.
In a column today, the Sun’s Pete McMartin notes the huge gap between cost calculations by the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association.
“When tax dollars are at stake, the public deserves to know the real costs of a proposed contract, if only to make an educated choice about which side to support. It’s our money, after all,” he writes. “In this case the disparity is huge.”
Read his column here.
With respect to the government bill now working its way through the legislature, even a lawyer admitted on radio this week that it’s confusing.
The first part is relatively straight forward in that it orders the six-month cooling-off period, the appointment of a mediator and the hefty fines for teachers and their union in the event of an illegal strike. (Those fines would not come into effect with proclamation of the bill — only through a cabinet order.)
The second part, called the Education Statutes Amendments, responds to the B.C. Supreme Court decision on class size and composition. That’s the ruling that found the government had violated teachers’ rights in 2002 when it passed Bills 27 and 28 stripping the union of the right to bargain class size and composition. It gave the Liberals until April 13, 2012 to fix the situation.
There are parts of Bill 22 that sound ominous, including Sec. 27 (3), which says:
“There must not be included in a teachers’ collective agreement any provision regulating the selection and appointment of teachers under this (School) Act, the courses of study, the program of studies or the professional methods and techniques employed by a teacher.”
But that section has been in the B.C. School Act for many years, as you can see here.
In fact, Sec. 27.3 in Bill 22 is word for word the same as what now exists in the School Act (Subsections A-C have been there since 1988; subsections D-J came into effect with Bill 28.)
The union says the re-introduction of Sec. 27 (3) is an attempt by government to signal that its responding to the Supreme Court ruling without actually doing so.
“In any individual cases where the union asserts that these provisions have been found to be unconstitutional, the government will likely argue that these are no longer the provisions that were found to be unconstitutional as these are new provisions that have been reintroduced (even though the are exactly the same provisions),” BCTF lawyers state in a written dissection of the legislation, leaked to me recently.
But the government says it reintroduced Subsections D-J in response to the court ruling and it did not want to start negotiating class size and composition in this round of collective bargaining. Instead, Bill 22 says D-J will disappear on June 30, 2013, restoring the union’s right to bargain those issues when the next round of contract talks begins.
There are also changes to Bill 33, which former education minister Shirley Bond introduced in 2006 in an effort to improve class size and composition. The union says it did not accomplish its goal because the rules – such as the limit of three special-needs students in any class – allowed exceptions. As a result, there were hundreds of classes with more than 30 students and thousands with more than three special-needs students. | <urn:uuid:094d6cd8-f308-4de7-bcd5-db2dc3b6fde7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/03/08/bill-22-a-complicated-piece-of-legislation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968836 | 720 | 1.664063 | 2 |
HEUVELTON At a community forum held Thursday evening by Heuvelton Central School, education consultant Phillip M. Martin updated residents on his study of regional high schools.
Mr. Martin said any plan to consolidate Heuvelton, Hermon-DeKalb and Morristown Central Schools wouldnt be implemented until 2015 at the earliest.
This is an extremely challenging time in education. . Heuvelton has been fortunate in that weve been able to scale back through retirements instead of actually having to lay people off. But its a matter of time, Heuvelton Superintendent Susan E. Todd said.
Clearly its not going to happen this year, Mr. Martin said. None of these (plans) would go forward without approval from the community.
But the presentation to about 40 people, coming after roughly four months of background research, highlighted the pros and cons of different types of consolidations.
Any consolidation will boost the quality of education, Mr. Martin said, but a merger, where the three school districts are combined and given a new name, administration and board of education, comes with a hefty state aid package.
Over a 15-year period, the new district would receive an estimated $22.4 million over and above what the districts would expect currently, Mr. Martin said.
But the three school districts that hired Mr. Martin, each paying $10,000, are afraid merging outright would erase each communitys local identity.
Thats why Mr. Martin is focusing on a regional high school, even though there is no mechanism at the state level to authorize such a consolidation. Mr. Martin said he believes there is more support this year for regional high schools in the state Legislature than there has been in the past.
A district merger would not require authorization from the state Legislature.
The proposal Mr. Martin is focusing on is to create a seventh-through-12th-grade regional high school at Heuvelton Central School.
It could be accomplished using six more classrooms than are currently being used, Mr. Martin said.
In order to make room for the new students, special education programs would be shifted to one of the other schools.
Declining enrollment at Heuvelton, Hermon-DeKalb and Morristown has increased interest in the regional high school plan. In 1982, there were 1,927 students enrolled among the three districts. By 2007, that number had dropped to 1,300.
While Mr. Martin outlined three slightly different regional high school configurations, all three would see significant reductions in staffing.
If a regional high school were established at Heuvelton Central School, Mr. Martin estimated 37.7 teachers would be required.
There could be a reduction in staff by 12.9 should any one of these options be enacted, Mr. Martin said.
Furthermore, regardless of the route the schools take, an elementary school would still be left in each community along with a principal-superintendent.
Mr. Martin is also looking at the possibility of Hermon-DeKalb and Morristown central Schools paying tuition for their high school students to attend Heuvelton. That would allow some consolidation and would not require the state to pass additional legislation.
Mr. Martins study is due by June 30.
No decisions regarding consolidations have been made, Mrs. Todd reminded the public. All the possibilities presented today would need local voter approval. | <urn:uuid:37d91988-a21a-4e52-b44d-7e48b390891e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20130315/NEWS05/703159872/79109 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964764 | 706 | 1.546875 | 2 |
State Representa ives Pass Sullivan Petition
John Briston Sullivan's petition to buy land from the city of Cambridge for an office building on stilts passed the State House of Representatives yesterday afternoon and seemed assured of quick approval by Governor Volpe.
A final effort by Rep. Mary Newman of Cambridge to kill the petition by referring it to the next annual session of the Legislature failed by a decisive 75-127 vote.
In requesting postponement of the bill, Mrs. Newman stressed that the Legislature is "establishing a dangerous precedent in allowing the sale of common lands when the public necessity is not involved." She also said the proposed building on stilts will damage an area of great historical interest and "will worsen an already terrible traffic situation."
No Restriction on Building
Rep. William I. Randall urged postponement of the bill, pointing out that there is no restriction on the type of structure. He told the House that "the way the bill is phrased now, there is no limit to the kind of building that could be constructed on the site."
If Gov. Volpe signs the bill, it will go to the Cambridge City Council, which must make a final decision on the sale of the land in front of Littaner Center. Five of the nine members of the Council have expressed approval of the sale, but Mrs. Newman believes the pressure of public opinion may force the Council "to allow the situation to cool off" for a few months before taking action.
Mrs. Newman indicated she would probably ask the Governor to set a cut-off date for Council acceptance of the petition. Such a move would prevent delaying tactics on the part of the Council. "An action of this nature by the Governor would not violate the principle of home rule," she said.
Although passage of the bill by the House had been expected, the votes of two Cambridge representatives stirred considerable comment. Rep. John J. Campbell and Rep. John R. Sennott, Jr., both of whom had originally signed Sullivan's petition, made a complete about face yesterday and supported Mrs. Newman's motion to refer the petition to the next Legislative session. | <urn:uuid:451555a7-999a-47f8-8689-2c51e46f581a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1961/3/3/state-representa-ives-pass-sullivan-petition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955715 | 434 | 1.648438 | 2 |
While Dubai’s neighbors take steps to defend themselves from war or foreign cultures, Dubai believes that openness and respect for all cultures is the only way to keep peace.
When I was in Dubai for the first time, I met a calligrapher. He told me: “When sacred texts are written, they contain the soul of the man who served as the instrument to spread the word throughout the world. And it doesn’t apply only to sacred texts, but to every mark we place on paper. Because each line reflects the soul of the person making that line.”
On a recent trip to Dubai, I crossed the city’s historic commercial creek by abra, a traditional small wooden boat now used for taxi service. All along Dubai Creek, visitors can still encounter scenes from the city’s not-so-distant past. Here old shops stand in the exact places where they have traded for decades.
I took a brisk walk through the narrow lanes of the Bastakiya Quarter, an old restored village that today houses art galleries and gives a glimpse of a slower-paced time. In the Bastakiya, you cannot take a walk on your own, because its maze-like lanes were designed in such a way that only the people who lived in the village knew the way through it, making it a safer place to live. The lanes were a place for people to gather over dinner and special feasts, to exchange news, and to discuss common village issues. The houses sprout high wind towers that helped circulate cool air throughout the home. The more I roamed around the Bastakiya, the more I sensed the greatness of the people who once lived in them.
I left old Dubai for new Dubai, on the west side of the city. New Dubai flaunts its fancy contemporary buildings—Burj Al Arab, the iconic luxury hotel built on an artificial island, and Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest skyscraper. Along Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai’s central business district, locals say that you can buy anything that comes to mind. In new Dubai, young people single-mindedly pursue their dreams, trying to achieve the impossible. This is a city that has been working for the past two decades, with no rest whatsoever. Its inhabitants all share one aim: to win at all times, even if they have to race time itself. Although they may not share a common language or nationality, they know they will succeed, because they all speak the language of success.
Which brings me back to the sentence in the desert: The brush that wrote each word of this imaginary sentence had different hands holding it, and in each letter you can find several souls trying to work in harmony.
There is an Arabic proverb that says: “Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble.” People in Dubai are using marble to write in the sand.
PAULO COEHLO was born in Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theater director and actor, lyricist and journalist. He is the award-winning author of over 15 novels, including the best-selling The Alchemist and, most recently, The Witch of Portobello, which is partly set in Dubai. He and his wife divide their time between Rio de Janeiro and Europe.
Shop National Geographic | <urn:uuid:992be932-9b0a-4c7d-80af-a2b31a09e9d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/city-guides/dubai-essay/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972378 | 704 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Be wary of fraud after hurricane
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, officials are warning citizens to be wary of home repair scams and other attempts to defraud consumers that often follow in the wake of storm destruction.
Warning signs that consumers should look for following severe weather include:
--Traveling salesmen who come knocking on your door after a disaster.
--High-pressure sales tactics and demands for an immediate decision.
--Demands for up-front payments.
--Advance-fee loans that “guarantee” a loan to rebuild your home or business.
Deal with established firms.
Be cautious before giving money to anyone.
Check to see if a contractor or tree expert is properly licensed.
Deal only with contractors who have an established business.
Obtain more than one bid for major repair work and check references. Be cautious if one bid is much lower than the others.
Make certain that all important details concerning the work are written into the bid and contract, including the dates the work will begin and be completed, the total cost, the type and quality of materials to be used, how and when payments will be made, and the provisions of warranties on materials and labor.
Phony relief efforts
People should also be wary of phony relief efforts, fraudulent charities and scam artists who use the name of an organization similar to a well-known charity. People should contribute only to organizations that they know and that willingly provide written information about their charitable efforts.
Consumers should avoid making cash donations and make checks payable to the organization, not the individual soliciting.
Check that a charity is registered with the state as required by law by contacting the Secretary of State’s Office online or by calling 304-558-6000. | <urn:uuid:801d2c92-e5dc-4313-9af5-efb065b89f5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.morganmessenger.com/news/content/story-10328 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940365 | 359 | 1.757813 | 2 |
As security threats grow, and credit card fraud worsens, it’s heartening to know that someone is looking around the corner and doing some rethinking about the future of credit cards.
Having said that, I will admit to being a bit surprised at the source – American Express. This is their second really solid idea in just the last few years. This from the company many had left for dead at the end of the 20th century. I believe it was a top ten list in The Wall Street Journal that listed the biggest corporate blunder of the 20th century was the AmEx refusal to participate in frequent flyer points on credit card purchases, leaving the door wide open for Visa to, seemingly overnight, crush them like a tube of Pepsodent. And with the stigma of higher merchant fees, it really didn’t look like there was any way for them to claw their way back.
Then in 2009 or 2010 came the black card, now known as the Centurion card. It turned out to be urban legend that there was a black credit card you could get from AmEx that required an incredibly high bar of proving your personal wealth to get this card which came with all sorts of privileges. So what did the folks at AmEx do about this urban legend about an incredibly desirable product? They did what they should have done, which was to take the urban legend as the blueprint for what is now the very real Centurion card. I still haven’t seen one, but I look forward to it.
That’s great for fortifying the brand, but by definition only a tiny percentage of people qualify for this product. What would they do to get the masses?
The new prepaid card from AmEx does a couple of really smart things,
1) Drastically reduces the risk of credit card fraud because thieves can never take more than you store on the card.
2) Gives people a good way to avoid the criminally high interest rates most credit cards charge (which I have blogged about before).
Now this isn’t perfect. AmEx still charges merchants too much, but as soon as they sort that out, Visa is in real trouble (not that there’s really anything to stop Visa, but for now AmEx has a big first mover advantage on this). The other asterisk which isn’t really avoidable is that by having to load the card with money before you spend it, there’s a good chance AmEx is going to make money on that float, which no doubt covers some of the money they would otherwise be getting from the high interest rates, but for people who are really diligent about loading up their cards just ahead of need, that’s not a huge issue.
Well done AmEx.
I don’t think this would have been as relevant ten or even five years ago, but with the recent PlayStation security breach that compromised so many cards, I think the timing on this is right on the money. There’s probably a great partnership opportunity for Sony and AmEx to use your prepaid card for a monthly subscription and then just get AmEx or Sony to send you a monthly reminder to move your money. In that case it would make more sense to have AmEx do it for all of your monthly subscriptions, making them more central to your day-to-day financial activities. I’d sign up for that. . . .
I bet Michael Fertik at Reputation.com would like this idea. He might be another smart partner for AmEx, | <urn:uuid:28cb0e86-4273-429b-ac2e-d6a23c7f707d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ricmerrifield.com/2011/06/signs-of-intelligent-life-at-american-express/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977231 | 731 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Keighley-district schools have welcomed latest league tables for GCSEs and A-levels (From Keighley News)
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Keighley-district schools have welcomed latest league tables for GCSEs and A-levels
Keighley-district schools have welcomed latest league tables for GCSEs and A-levels.
But some headteachers have also voiced reservations.
Bradford district as a whole fell 17 places – to 120th out of 150 local authorities nationally – for the average number of A-level points scored by each student last year.
But it is celebrating its best GCSE results, with 52.4 per cent of pupils achieving the Government’s benchmark of at least five A* to C grades, including English and maths – up from 47.5 per cent the previous year.
David Maxwell, headteacher at Oakbank School in Keighley, said: “We are extremely pleased with our results but we still need to do better. All our key indicators have improved and we are very happy with that.”
However he said the inclusion of new measures at A-level – where the percentages gaining A*, A and B in so-called ‘enabling subjects’ are now being published as an indicator – gives a false impression.
“A lot of our students do A-level subjects that are not counted in the measure so it discriminates against them,” he said.
Holy Family School headteacher, Lawrence Bentley, said: “We’ve sustained our good results from the previous year.
“We’re now looking at six out of every ten pupils getting five good GCSEs, including English and maths. That’s opposed to three out of ten five years ago, which gives an indication of how much progress has been made.
“We had a good Ofsted report before Christmas, which shows the school is going in the right direction.
“But behind the statistics being bandied about on newspaper pages there are individual students and teachers working hard and really applying themselves. We shouldn’t get lost in the statistics.”
Dr Andrew Cummings, headteacher at South Craven School in Cross Hills, said: “We were delighted to celebrate excellent results in the summer – 99 per cent of students achieved five A* to C at GCSE at age 16.
“We’re pleased this figure has been published, as well as the figure for five A* to C at GCSE, including English and maths, which was 62 per cent.
“Frustratingly, there is no publication of the progress measures calculated by Ofsted, which show our results to be in the top 15 per cent nationally.”
Linda Wallsgrove, associate principal of University Academy Keighley, said the school was delighted with its placing in the league table.
She said there had been a “very significant” improvement in GCSE passes, particularly those for five A* to C grades, including maths and English.
And she said the school had also gained the highest level amongst Keighley’s secondary schools in the ‘value-added’ ranking, which shows how successful the school has been in raising pupils’ attainment since they started at 11.
Tony Rickwood, head of Parkside School in Cullingworth, was also pleased the school had increased its proportion of pupils gaining five GCSEs at A* to C, including English and maths.
He said: “That’s really going to be our priority during the next year, to make sure the figures are even better next year. Our results have been consistently good for quite a time.”
Dr Rickwood said the figure had increased despite Parkside’s GCSE English results being affected by last year’s controversial raising of grade boundaries. | <urn:uuid:5d7a9cbb-d799-4d78-b9f2-1873a736fc00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.keighleynews.co.uk/news/10195243.Keighley_district_schools_have_welcomed_latest_league_tables_for_GCSEs_and_A_levels/?ref=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974048 | 832 | 1.65625 | 2 |
How To Tailor A Suit
Every "dapper Dan" knows how to tailor a suit. Suits are the third most formal attire men can wear, behind white tie (penguin suits) and black tie (tuxedos). When you tailor a suit you present the world with your best side. Therefore, it is mandatory every gentleman have his "Sunday best" tailored to fit with perfection.
To tailor your suit, here's what is required:
- A suit
- A good tailor
- Cuffs should cut off at the base of the thumb. Actually, many men prefer to have their suit cuffs showing a little shirt underneath. No more than 1 inch above the thumb's base should be left uncut.
- The pants should break lightly at your dress shoes. A good rule of thumb is, when standing, the back of your trousers should hover an inch above the floor, no more than two. Obviously, both high-waters and baggy pants are undesirable.
- Take the jacket in on the waist. Obviously a "V" figure is to be desired. When you trim the suit to fit snuggly around your waist you will showcase to the world that you have broad shoulders and an ever smaller belly.
- Do excess alterations. Less important side notes for tailoring your suit include shoulders (which should have been bought at the right size, anyway), the length of the jacket (covering your rump), and position of vents. Don't worry too much about these if your tailor doesn't mention them when measuring your suit.
Every "dapper Dan" can tailor a suit effectively, but even less can add their own flare. While it is important to know the general style guidelines for suits, it's even more pressing to get a sense of individuality and confidence. Yes, tailor a suit, but tailor it with yourself in mind. | <urn:uuid:f1989a67-570b-42a8-a094-825253650bf2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mademan.com/mm/how-tailor-suit.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951261 | 384 | 1.734375 | 2 |
ARCO (Adaptive Resolution COdec): A Hybrid Approach to Perceptual Audio Coding
The proposed ARCO codec pretends to be an audio coder which deals with the problem of time-frequency behavior from a joint point of view, using a signal-adapted transform for each selected subframe. The coding of the tonal parts using a perceptually driven quantization is followed by the compression of the residue using a wavelet-packets structure. The basic scheme is described including a new perceptual model, while some ideas and results concerning the adaptive behavior of the ARCO codec are presented. Apart from informal subjective tests, objective perceptual scores are presented to discuss its potentiality.
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This paper costs $20 for non-members, $5 for AES members and is free for E-Library subscribers. | <urn:uuid:f840ffaa-e947-4d2e-a4d8-8e134bbeb492> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=7594 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93046 | 217 | 1.5625 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is at risk of becoming a second-rate power if automatic budget cuts go into effect, plunging the U.S. armed forces into the most significant readiness crisis they've faced in more than a decade, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Thursday.
Panetta, who is retiring soon from his post, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that if the reductions are allowed to stand he would have to throw the country's national defense strategy "out the window." But Panetta also assured lawmakers the Pentagon would take the steps necessary to deal with possible threats in the Persian Gulf region after he approved the Navy's request to halve its aircraft carrier presence in the area.
Anticipating the Defense Department will have less money to spend, Panetta said the Pentagon has already imposed a freeze on hiring and cut back on maintenance at bases and facilities. Those moves are reversible, he said, as long as Congress acts quickly to head off the cuts, known as sequestration, and approves a 2013 military budget.
The potential for the cuts to kick in on March 1 is the result of Congress' failure to trim the deficit by $1.2 trillion over a decade. The Pentagon faces a $42.7 billion budget trim in the seven months starting in March and ending in September. The automatic cuts would be in addition to a $487 billion reduction in defense spending over the next ten years mandated by the Budget Control Act passed in 2011.
Further complicating the military's fiscal picture is the lack of a new defense budget. Congress hasn't approved one. Lawmakers have instead been passing bills called continuing resolutions, which keep spending levels at the same rate as the year before. That means the Pentagon is operating on less money than it planned for, and that compounds the problem, Panetta said.
Panetta said that the department understood that it needed to do its part to help bring down the federal deficit and has been adjusting its plans to deal with the lower spending levels. But adding sequestration on top of that creates an untenable situation, he said.
The result of the sequestration cuts, Panetta said, is that "instead of being a first-rate power in the world, we'd turn into a second-rate power." He added that it would be irresponsible for Congress to allow the cuts to take place. A "sequester was not designed as a mechanism that was supposed to happen," Panetta said. "It was designed to be so nuts that everybody would do everything possible to make sure it didn't happen."
Panetta has been vocal about stopping sequestration because it would leave the military "hollow," meaning the armed forces would look good on paper but actually lack the training and equipment they need to handle their missions.
As part of that campaign, the Defense Department has been providing greater details on the effect of the reductions. The department on Wednesday said it is cutting its aircraft carrier presence in the Persian Gulf region from two carriers to one, a move that represents one of the most significant effects of sequestration. The U.S. has maintained two aircraft carrier groups in the Gulf for much of the last two years.
The deployments of the USS Harry S Truman and the USS Gettysburg, a guided-missile cruiser, are being delayed as part of the Navy's plan to deal with the budget uncertainty.
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates decided in 2010 to keep two carrier groups in the Gulf region as tensions with Iran escalated. Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply passes, in retaliation for increased Western-led sanctions.
"We're going to do everything we can to make sure that we are prepared to deal with the threat from Iran," Panetta said. "We will have one carrier there and we will deploy other forces there so that we can hopefully fill the gap."
A group of Republican lawmakers from the House and Senate have offered a plan to cut the size of the federal workforce and use the savings to replace the cuts to the Pentagon and to domestic programs, which also are affected by sequestration. Similar legislation offered last year did not pass.
Each of the military branches has described in detailed memos to Congress widespread civilian furloughs, layoffs and hiring freezes that will hit workers all around the country. Overall, the Pentagon will furlough 800,000 civilian workers for 22 days, spread across more than five months, and will lay off as many as 46,000 temporary and contract employees, according to the correspondence.
The Navy said it will cease deployments to South America and the Caribbean and limit deployments to Europe. The Air Force warned that it would cut operations at various missile defense radar sites from 24 hours to eight hours. The Army said it would cancel training center rotations for four brigades and cancel repairs for thousands of vehicles, radios and weapons.
There is also concern that the readiness levels of the U.S. nuclear force could be degraded. The Air Force general responsible for maintaining the nation's fleet of nuclear-capable bombers said Wednesday that the possibility of sequestration and smaller defense budgets has led his command to make a 10 percent cut in flying hours for the B-52 bomber, a long-range aircraft that has been in operation since the 1950s.
"At the wing and the squadron level, they can probably manage that for a little while, and then we'll have to see what the impact of that is," said Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, commander of the Global Strike Command at Barksdale Air Force Base, La.
The B-52, which is the bomber fleet's workhorse, is already flying 20 percent fewer training missions than it did in 2001, according to Kowalski.
Kowalski also said discussions among senior national security officials are underway to determine whether missions handled by the nation's nuclear forces should get priority budget status in the event of sequestration. Global Strike Command also is responsible for B-2 stealth bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles. | <urn:uuid:64159805-e04d-4226-8e63-75c3dcc5a740> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/feed/2070146?slideout=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972967 | 1,234 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Building permits rise — better times ahead?
The number of permits for new homes issued in February was the highest since October 2008. Housing starts declined slightly from January.
Builders started construction on fewer new homes in February, but pulled more construction permits, indicating that the housing market may be inching out of the doldrums.
The number of building permits issued in February rose 5.1%, equivalent to an annual construction pace of 717,000 homes. That's the highest number since October 2008 and 34.3% above last February's number.
According to the Commerce Department, the number of housing starts fell 1.1% from January, to a rate of 698,000 homes. That was an increase of 34.7% from last February's pace.
Post continues below
"Builders are reporting increased buyer interest and are expecting demand for new homes to improve in the coming months, but continue to exercise caution regarding new projects until that interest translates into more signed sales contracts," Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders and a homebuilder from Gainesville, Fla., said in a news release.
He cited three ongoing challenges for new-home sales: tight lending conditions, the difficulty of obtaining accurate appraisals and competition from distressed properties, which makes it harder for homeowners to sell existing homes and buy new construction.
Looking at the statistics by region:
- Midwest: Housing starts up 3% and permits up 14.7%.
- South: Housing starts up 1.5% and permits down 1.9%.
- Northeast: Housing starts down 12.3% and permits up 14.3%.
- West: Housing starts down 5.9% and permits up 12.8%.
Analysts joined the builders in expressing cautious optimism for better times ahead.
"The housing market continues to recover at a very gradual rate," said Sal Guatieri, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, to Bloomberg. "The increase in permits likely flags further strength in the months ahead."
About Teresa Mears
Teresa Mears is a veteran journalist who has been interested in houses since her father took her to tax auctions to carry the cash at age 10. A former editor of The Miami Herald's Home & Design section, she lives in South Florida where, in addition to writing about real estate, she publishes Miami on the Cheap to help her neighbors adjust to the loss of 60% of their property value. | <urn:uuid:1b5da909-73d2-44f3-8b93-6b17b87770b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://realestate.msn.com/blogs/listedblogpost.aspx?post=200bdbe5-13fa-45be-a15e-472fe636ebf8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96572 | 500 | 1.515625 | 2 |
A feeling of being ignored by legislators in Columbus might not be an overreaction.
Editors at the Akron Beacon Journal along with their counterparts at the Vindicator in Youngstown asked the News Outlet late last year to initiate a new feature for both papers called “Columbus Conversations.”
Each month, the editors and student reporters at partner universities, including the University of Akron and Kent State, would come up with a question or two that the student-run News Outlet would ask area state senators and representatives. The answers would be a weekly feature that would run in the Sunday edition of the Beacon Journal.
Easy right? Not so much.
Emails with the first two questions were sent to Ohio lawmakers on Dec. 10 and 11.
There were a few responses, mainly automatic ones noting a large volume of emails and a promise to respond in a timely manner. All of those were from state senators.
After the Sandy Hook shooting, editors wanted to know what Columbus lawmakers could do to prevent such a tragedy in Ohio.
The question was sent by email Dec. 17 with a reminder email sent the next day.
State Sen. Joe Schiavoni, D-Boardman, the senate’s assistant minority leader, responded to the Sandy Hook question.
Other than that — silence.
By Jan. 21, the staff at the News Outlet resorted to sending out old-fashioned letters and calling every single legislative aide.
And that’s when it was discovered that the previous emails that were sent out had ended up in a spam folder.
“If we get too many emails it will push them to spam,” explained Jennifer Moore, assistant director of communications for the Ohio Senate Democratic Caucus. “[During] Senate Bill 5 [a controversial bill to limit collective bargaining rights of public unions], we received so many emails, some made it through and some went to spam. It’s protecting the computer from harm.”
Moore said the legislature’s tech department has addressed the problem with the News Outlets’ emails and now they sail through the spam filters and into every politician’s inbox.
The free flow of emails, however, has not resulted in answers from Northeast Ohio lawmakers.
Joshua Eck, deputy press secretary for the Ohio Senate majority, said he’s “seen one of [the] emails” but he acknowledged that he can’t “force anyone to respond.”
Of the 132 state legislators contacted by the News Outlet, only three responded by the initial deadline. They were: Schiavoni; Rep. Nick Barborak, D-Lisbon; and Sen. Nina Turner, D-Cleveland, the Senate’s minority whip.
Two responded after the deadline. They were: State Rep. Mike Curtin, D-Columbus, and State Rep. Denise Driehaus, D-Cincinnati.
Not a single state representative or senator from the Akron area responded to the survey.
TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaborative effort among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and the Vindicator (Youngstown), the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron). | <urn:uuid:40f6e9e6-b772-421e-89ad-2952d04884f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohio.com/news/local/conversations-with-columbus-seem-to-be-one-sided-1.369962 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956001 | 687 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Not such a rosy picture for private sector jobs
Here is private sector employment by the numbers (these are private sector jobs figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Between 2003 and 2007, we added 1,750,000 jobs per year or 7 million jobs over 4 years (average of 146k per month).
Between 12/2008 and 12/2010, 7 million jobs were lost (avg. 292k per month)
In 2008, 1 million jobs were lost (avg. 83k per month)
In 2009, 5 million jobs were lost (avg. 417k per month)
In 2010, 1 million jobs were lost (avg. 83k per month)
In 2011, 2 million jobs were added (avg. 166k per month)
In January 2012, 800,000 jobs were lost
In February 2012, 400,000 jobs were added
Net LOSS for 2012 is 400,000 jobs (avg. 200k per month)
In 2012, should the last two months be a reflection of things to come, we will have lost 2.4 million private sector jobs. There is probably some statistical noise in there; looking at fresh data over a recent 2 month period can be challenging. As it stands, however, it is roughly half the rate of private sector job loss in 2009, yet we have rosy reports of an improving jobs picture blaring from every cable news and business channel. I don’t know what planet the media live on, but it sure isn’t planet Earth. Maybe it’s called “The Re-elect Obama” planet.
It doesn’t really matter what lie is told, however, it’s still a lie because we know what it felt like when we were adding private sector jobs at a rate of 146k per month. These numbers, the only ones we have, just don’t show any broad picture of a jobs recovery. If we could extrapolate any kind of thesis from them, the last 5 months of 2011 was just a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy experience, complete with flat to faltering growth in GDP. The only way to have real jobs growth is to have real GDP growth, and unless we see growth in GDP to match, it’s all just lipstick on the pig.
I’ve attached a graph I made from data I sucked down from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and have the appropriate data labeled so you can get a visual of the private sector employment situation. These are all the official numbers, and I focus on private sector jobs numbers because I don’t believe it is appropriate for government to start hiring when we encounter economic troubles and then call it a recovery because it isn’t a recovery – it’s make work to get reelected at taxpayer expense.
Data for Jan & Feb 2012 is not included on this graph and is as follows:
Jan 2012: 108436
Feb 2012: 108854 | <urn:uuid:23a5dba0-53fc-4bba-9829-79b9f85b0183> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redstate.com/dajeeps/2012/03/10/not-such-a-rosy-picture-for-private-sector-jobs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940167 | 614 | 1.539063 | 2 |
What a Wiki
Thanks to Dan Mitchell of The New York Times for pointing us in the direction of a great recruiting resource. Have we got a wiki for you!
What's a wiki? If you have to ask, well...
Actually, if you have to ask, you're not alone. A wiki, as defined by Wikipedia, a wiki itself, is a type of website that allows users to add and edit content. If it sounds Hawaiian, it's because it is; the word means "quick," "fast," or "to hasten."
With this in mind, let's wiki to the wiki: the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki. The site was created by Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine and Ross Mayfield of Socialtext, a company that makes social software for collaboration. The objective of the site is to track which of the Fortune 500 companies are blogging. Currently, only 4 percent make the list. However, it's worth noting that this has recently increased from 3 percent.
Dan Mitchell, a Times writer, questions the logic behind the wiki as a tool for measuring a company's worth in his What's Online column. He also cites how compiling company blogs becomes complicated (separating the corporate from the personal can be difficult). Both points may be well taken, but the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki is nonetheless a great stepping stone for recruiters.
The site provides direct links to a number of blogs from some of the world's largest companies.
Consider Sun Microsystems, for example, which, as of this writing, includes links to 50 blogs. Of course not all are work related or useful for recruitment purposes. Nevertheless, a little time at the site can yield amazing results.
Selecting a blog called "2006: Year of J2EE Portals" leads to "Navaneeth Krishnan's Blog," where, upon clicking on Krishnan's name, you get detailed background information about him. What's more, his blog clearly demonstrates his knowledge of J2EE portals.
Krishnan himself may not be a viable candidate; for one thing, he's in Bangalore, India. But before moving on from this or any other blog, you may want to look closer. People who create blogs are typically aficionados of Internet technology and, as a result, their blogs are often loaded with links to other sites. This is certainly the case with Krishnan's blog, which links to a Linux user group, another blog, and a conference site, among other resources.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki currently includes blogs created mostly by technology experts and focused largely on, you guessed it, technology. As a result, right now it's a great source for tech candidates. Right now, that is.
As corporate blogging takes off, it's likely this wiki will evolve to include bloggers from more varied backgrounds. Even now, though, there are non-tech sites. One example is a blog called "Randy's Journal," found under The Boeing Company heading. "Randy's Journal" is authored by Randy Baseler, vice president of marketing for The Boeing Company.
An important thing to remember about the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki, and any other wiki, is that it's subject to rapid and sometimes radical change. Because users add and edit content, a wiki is literally a moving target.
Therefore, if you find a blog of interest, it's advisable to bookmark the blog itself, or better yet save information to a file. If you rely on the wiki to connect you to the blog later, you may be out of luck. As this article was being written, Navaneeth Krishnan's Blog was pulled from the Sun Microsystems listing. At the same time, however, several new blogs were added.
Because of the way a wiki works, it's worth checking the site frequently. The Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki always contains new information, and new recruiting possibilities. | <urn:uuid:284c6db5-0fcd-4409-bec7-a805b6ad16cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.airsdirectory.com/mc/news_realtools.guid?_timestampPublish=1137560400000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95268 | 806 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The professional writing major includes strands in technical writing and writing and publishing. It is a good major for students who love to write and who enjoy organizing and presenting information in multiple media. The professional writing major is noted for cultivating expertise in writing for the digital workplace; in teaching and researching multimedia writing, visual rhetoric, usability, and emergent technologies; in print and digital publishing; and for emphasizing collaboration, community service, and open-source development and documentation. Students may focus on writing for the arts or writing for industry, and they must choose a minor that will give them additional expertise.
Points of Pride
- Professional writing students learn many skills that employers find desirable, which may lead them to jobs in publishing, marketing, management, etc. Skills include the ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing; to edit, revise, and design professional documents; to analyze, interpret, and present data; to present information clearly and creatively; and to understand how people use writing to teach, delight, and persuade.
- Professional writing offers four major scholarships annually to undergraduate students, each currently worth $5,000, and focused on these areas: Technical Writing, Writing and Publishing, Writing Lab, and Print and Digital Publishing.
- The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers a vast library of resources ranging from style guides to instructional material to assist Purdue students. OWL also is an international resource with a website that receives nearly 85 million hits a year from more than 125 different countries. Advanced undergraduates can apply to be peer tutors in the Writing Lab.
- All professional writing students gain valuable experience in internships and other projects.
- The Department of English sponsors several student organizations to involve students in a variety of activities, including the Student English Association, the Sigma Tau Delta Honors Society, and the Professional Writers Club, which provides majors with social, academic, and career opportunities.
- Undergraduates in English publish their own literary magazine, The Bell Tower, each year, and advanced undergraduates have the opportunity to volunteer for Sagamore Review, a journal edited and managed by the MFA Creative Writing program. Many undergraduates in English also volunteer for the staff of Purdue’s student newspaper, The Exponent.
- The Department of English co-sponsors the Books and Coffee series in which faculty, staff, and students meet weekly in February to enjoy coffee and tea and listen to a professor talk about a recent book.
- The Department of English holds a Literary Awards competition and celebration every Spring. Students can submit their best writing – creative work, essays, and nonfiction – to be considered for awards in a wide variety of categories, and a major author comes to campus to speak with students about writing and to give a reading of his or her own work. | <urn:uuid:096e0f4f-e9e8-468e-b811-1ce95165fa11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.admissions.purdue.edu/majors/majors_details.php?MjrCd=PROFWRT | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955868 | 563 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Szell returned to Cleveland in "an exuberant mood" to begin the 1949–50 season. With his conducting of several top European orchestras fresh in mind, "Szell held with more conviction than ever that the Cleveland Orchestra ranks among the five or six finest orchestras in the world." He boasted, "The standards of perfection in technique and reliability, in intonation, precision and balance and in general polish in ensemble playing, which are taken for granted among leading American orchestras, are not matched by European orchestras." With candor, Szell added that European orchestras "often have a warmth ... a joy in making music and a deep familiarity with repertoire, which, to a certain extent, compensates for their inferior technical finish."
The extra week of rehearsal, which Szell had given up, was clearly no longer a necessity: reviews of the orchestra's first concert of the season — Szell's fourth and the orchestra's thirty-second — were excellent. Szell intended for the program — Eroica, Firebird, Till — to make an impression, and it did. After three seasons, Szell had his orchestra close to where he wanted it. Elwell noted "ample evidence of the great strides that have been made in the balance of sonority, the refinement of tone quality, particularly in the singing strings, the just intonation, precision, blend and all that makes for expertness in the manner of presentation." He compared the orchestra to a gem of "living radiance."
The fiscal situation remained a problem. To avert another "financial flop," Sidlo reminded subscribers that the maintenance fund was still far short of its goal: less than half of the $150,000 needed for the present season had been pledged. Not only the season was at stake, but Szell's contract, indeed his continuance with the orchestra, had to be settled again before its end. The question "could Cleveland support a first-rate orchestra and conductor?" would soon be answered.
Works played for the first time included Delius's Brigg Fair, Norman Dello Joio's Serenade for Orchestra, David Diamond's The Enormous Room (after e.e. cummings), Alvin Etler's Passacaglia and Fugue, Hindemith's Concert Music for Strings and Brass, Poulenc's Sinfonietta (first U.S. performance), Arthur Shepherd's Overture to a Drama, Josef Suk's A Fairy Tale, Randall Thompson's Symphony no. 3, and the Suite from the documentary film Louisiana Story by Virgil Thomson. Szell may have preferred the great classics, but to his credit, he gave new works thorough preparation. In the case of the Thomson, Elwell wrote, "it was not played with conspicuous conviction, [but] the music itself is to blame ... This had some good descriptive spots and some charming folk-tune fragments," the critic observed, "but it was all in short segments and there was little sense of continuity or growth of ideas, except in the final fugue, which was concocted with amateurish counterpoint."
As chief music critic for the New York Herald-Tribune, Thomson held a powerful position. His reviews of Szell had not been especially appreciative. At the beginning of the 1949–50 season, Louis Lane was surprised to see the Louisiana Story Suite listed in the prospectus. He told Szell that he could not understand how Szell could play a composition, one of whose movements was titled "Boy Fights Alligator." Szell's reply was: "Let's just call this our Louisiana Purchase."
Szell's performance of Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony must have been a marvel, for his musicians burst into spontaneous applause "in sheer admiration of his superb interpretation." Soloists that season included pianists Robert Casadesus, Clifford Curzon, Gary Graffman, Eugene Istomin, Leonard Shure, Artur Schnabel, and Rudolf Serkin, and violinists Josef Gingold, Szymon Goldberg, Jacob Krachmalnick, Erica Morini, and Joseph Szigeti. Many of these soloists could justifiably be called "the old and new friends of Szell." They appeared with him season after season in Cleveland, with the New York Philharmonic and other United States orchestras, and in Europe. Concertmaster Gingold and Assistant Concertmaster Krachmalnick appeared by dint of their positions in the orchestra, and Graffman as a Leventritt winner. Shure headed the piano department of the Cleveland Music School Settlement.
Musical and personal compatibility was essential to break into the charmed circle of Szell's soloists. A musical profile of his soloists displayed a nature given to probing for the depths in musical expression, total musical honesty, and technical perfection. Personally, a performer had to be open to Szell's frequent lessons — for after all, there was much to be learned from him — and with strong enough ego or nerves to prevent being shattered by his sometimes overriding manner. Rudolf Serkin, for example, said, "I've never been able to get over that feeling that he is a big boy and I am a little one."
That season, Curzon played the Beethoven Fifth Piano Concerto at Severance Hall and the Fourth in Carnegie Hall. We cannot know if Virgil Thomson's review of that Carnegie Hall concert — "Jupiter," Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto—might have been as positive without Szell's having played his music earlier that season. Thomson found "Mr. Szell's sensitivity in drawing from his excellent orchestra sounds and curves no less noble [than Curzon], no less constantly fresh and surprising, completed, filled out one of the loveliest musical executions it has been my pleasure to hear in some time ... The Cleveland Orchestra, long an excellent one, seems to have taken on added musical quality under this conductor ... The Cleveland Orchestra ... bears comparison with the best we know."
Cleveland's guest conductors in 1949–50 were Dimitri Mitropoulos, William Steinberg, and Bruno Walter. Mitropoulos offered his usual hyperbolic appreciation of the orchestra: "I really honestly believe that the Cleveland Orchestra today is one of the greatest in our country, without any doubt, and this is certainly due to the invaluable efforts and greatness of an artist like Mr. George Szell. I am sure that the community spirit of the people of Cleveland must be proud of having such an orchestra and such a conductor, and that they will make even superhuman efforts to keep that torch alive, which is not only to the glory of the city of Cleveland itself, but to the whole country. With such orchestras existing, America can really compete with the whole world in matters of cultural achievement."
In a letter to Sidlo, Walter complimented Szell's work without actually naming him: "I feel I must write and express the great pleasure and satisfaction that last week's concerts and rehearsals with the Cleveland Orchestra have given me. Let me congratulate you upon the excellent work by which this orchestra has been raised to its present high rank among the finest in the musical world. I am sure your audiences and citizens in general will be proud of such achievement and recognize its importance for Cleveland as a musical center and thereby for the culture of our country." This kind of reassurance bolstered the orchestra's commitment to Szell's vision, and these expressions of approval provided ammunition for Sidlo in the coming battle of the budget.
Mid-December 1949 found Szell as guest conductor with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. The National was happy with Szell — that is, until he lured away two of their best players — oboist Marc Lifschey in 1950, and clarinetist Robert Marcellus in 1953. This did not make national headlines, as had the flap over concertmaster Josef Gingold, but it was no less strongly felt by the orchestra. As might be expected, the National never again invited Szell.
From George Szell: A Life in Music by Michael Charry. Copyright 2011 by the Board of Trustees of the Unviersity of Illinois. Excerpted by permission of University of Illinois Press. | <urn:uuid:1eb2bc5d-6c1c-40a3-aea6-58b3376fdc84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/books/titles/156219489/george-szell-a-life-of-music | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96645 | 1,707 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Psychology PhD Candidate Dianna Lanteigne
Queen's News Centre
August 08, 2011
Three Queen’s doctoral students have received Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships from the Government of Canada. Dianna Lanteigne, Krystle Maki and Andreas Reichelt will each receive $50,000 annually for up to three years.
Ms Lanteigne recently completed her masters in psychology at Queen’s under the supervision of professor Tom Hollenstein and will continue to work with Dr. Hollenstein when she begins her PhD this fall. Her research focuses on adolescent emotional development, in particular the strategies young people use to manage their emotions on a day-to-day basis, and the development of anxiety and depression. Ultimately, Ms Lanteigne intends to use this research to inform targeted prevention programs to implement during adolescence.
“I’m ecstatic,” says Ms Lanteigne. “The scholarship gives you so many opportunities. I can go to more conferences, I can focus more on research and clinical activities rather than making money to live, and I think the best thing is that it makes me feel that people are emphasizing the importance of adolescent emotional health.”
Ms Maki is in the second year of a PhD program under the supervision of professors Margaret Little and Catherine Krull. Her dissertation research explores the relationship between Ontario Works (social assistance) and surveillance and its effects on recipients, service providers and community advocacy groups.
“I was surprised and happy to receive the Vanier award,” says Ms Maki. “It has been a struggle over the years to balance my academic work with social justice and activist work, in addition to having multiple jobs. Receiving the Vanier gives me the opportunity to focus on my research and the various collaborative community projects that I am involved in. I am thankful for the inspiring support I have from various communities, allies, organizers, activists and academics who have supported my passion for change and have taught me a lot about accountability, reflexivity, respect, and solidarity.”
Mr. Reichelt came to Queen’s from Vienna, Austria to work with professor Randy Flanagan in the Cognition & Action Laboratory. Their research explores the intricacies of how people observe the actions of others in order to guide their own actions more effectively. . The research may lead to a better understanding of autistic children who can become deeply engaged in objects without showing a corresponding interest in social cues and interactions.
“The financial situation of international students is highly strained at best,” says Mr. Reichelt. “The Vanier Graduate Scholarship is a huge privilege that enables me to follow my passion, live my curiosity, and sleep much more relaxed at night.”
Launched in 2009, the Vanier Graduate Scholarship is designed to attract and retain world-class doctoral students from Canada and around the world. Vanier scholars are selected based on their demonstrated leadership skills and high standard of scholarly achievement in the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, engineering or health sciences. | <urn:uuid:0a05f333-be66-4865-bafa-f27382e059c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.queensu.ca/psychology/news/Feature/lanteigne.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946075 | 624 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Bulldozer Breaks Frequency Record Again: Overclocked to 8.46GHzby Kristian Vättö on October 29, 2011 11:24 AM EST
Just before the launch of Bulldozer, AMD demonstrated it at 8.43GHz, which was the world record back then. Now an overclocker named Andre Yang has achieved an overclock of 8.46GHz, beating AMD's record by ~30MHz.
Above are the CPU-Z screenshots of the new and former record. The exact frequency is 8461.51MHz, which is 32.13MHz faster than the previous record. As shown in the pictures, both CPUs had only two cores enabled and ASUS's Crosshair V Formula motherboard was used. Andre applied a core voltage of 1.992V, whereas AMD had a voltage of 2.016V in their setup. Cooling method of Andre's setup is unknown, but most likely either liquid nitrogen or helium was used.
Source: CPU-Z Validation Database | <urn:uuid:89ec1608-ef13-4bdf-8ebc-d47a6e4f312b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anandtech.com/Show/Index/5029?cPage=6&all=False&sort=0&page=1&slug=bulldozer-breaks-frequency-record-again-overclocked-to-846ghz | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949452 | 204 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Over 175 high school students were challenged to be leaders of their generation during a two-day conference held on the Columbia International University campus in March.
Student Leadership University (SLU) is designed to give students a head start in their ability to think, dream and lead – to live a life of excellence and influence. SLU features a slate of speakers and activities that challenge students to rise above self, circumstances, and obstacles with the goal of changing the crowd and changing the world. .
Many of the participants were from Ben Lippen School, a Pre-K to 12th grade ministry of CIU. | <urn:uuid:dd1c1864-1e70-412c-b83c-1b957d51b132> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mailto:%20zwemercenter@ciu.edu/newsstory/high-school-students-challenged-be-leaders | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976161 | 124 | 1.695313 | 2 |
A day of eating at the Minnesota State Fairby Curtis Gilbert, Minnesota Public Radio
St. Paul, Minn. — Sure Minnesotans go to the State Fair for the rides and the animal exhibits, but the main attraction for most people is the food. You can choose from more than 60 different items served on a stick, and most of it isn't what you'd call health food.
So, I decided to take on a mission. For one day I ate nothing but fair food, and plenty of it. We wanted to know how eating all that deep-fried fare would affect me physically.
The morning of my state fair binge began at the Mill City Clinic in downtown Minneapolis, where Medical Assistant Catherine Robbins drew a tiny vial of blood from my left arm.
I'd been fasting for 12 hours, so we could establish my baseline cholesterol level. It takes just seven minutes for a countertop machine called a Piccolo to spit out my results.
"This is considered to be a little elevated," Robbins said, as she scrutinized the small slip of paper with my numbers on it.
My LDL -- the bad cholesterol -- is above the normal range. So are my triglyceride levels and my overall cholesterol score. I started to have misgivings about spending the day pounding deep fried cheese curds.
But this was for science, and breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
That means bacon and eggs. Bacon at the fair comes in a quarter-pound serving size, with plenty of grease to leaven the fat. Eggs come hard-boiled, wrapped in sausage, rolled in bread crumbs and fried in a vat of boiling oil. Both items are served on a stick.
I washed it down with lemonade, and follow it with a crepe, whipped cream and blueberries.
I may have been the only person at the fair carrying a food scale. It helped help with calculating the calories. The crepe comes to 9.5 ounces and about 700 calories.
At the fair, there is no need to break between breakfast and lunch. They run together like horseradish and maple syrup on a Scotch egg.
I waddled up to Bayou Bob's Gator Shack and demanded one deep-fried gator on a stick. The girl behind the counter shook her head. I can get gator on a stick, but there's a catch.
"It won't be deep fried," she informed me earnestly.
I told her to forget the stick. Luckily, next door they have one of the only foods that actually grow on one -- buttered sweet corn.
It's roasted in great steel ovens and then dipped in crock pots of butter, pepper and water.
"To make it go further so we don't have to use as much," said the teenager who handed me my ear. That kept my cholesterol in check, until my next stop.
"Deep fried Twinkies," Shawn Leake hollered at the top of his lungs. "Don't be scared. Get your Twink on. You feel me dog?"
As long as I was eating things dipped in batter and dunked in oil, I helped myself to a Pronto Pup hotdog. I snagged some cheese curds, and Sweet Martha's cookies, too. For dinner I try to go healthy; a pork chop and, believe it or not, a Greek salad.
I sent a list of everything I ate, along with precise weights and descriptions to Therese Liffrig and Carrie Earthman, two dieticians at the University of Minnesota. With the help of a graduate student, they estimated I consumed about 6,400 calories during my one day at the fair.
Earthman called it a "ballpark" estimate, but even if it's close, that's about 2.5 times my recommended daily allowance, with almost four times the salt and six times the saturated fat. But what I find out when I get my post-fair blood test is even more surprising.
"Oh my God, your cholesterol is down from yesterday," said Catherine Robbins staring at the results of my second lipid panel. "You're in the good zone."
I go from an elevated to a normal cholesterol reading, even though just about everything I ate the day before was drenched in fryolator oil.
"I don't know how to explain this," said Dr. John Hallberg, MPR's medical analyst and who helped design the experiment. "This is so not what I was expecting. I'm sure there's some physiologic way to explain this, I just don't know how to do it."
Hallberg and the nutritionists I talked to said the lesson is this: There's nothing wrong with gorging yourself on greasy food for a day, as long as you're otherwise healthy and it's just one day. But they also said that if you don't want to gain weight from that State Fair binge, you'd better be prepared to eat less and exercise more for the next week.
Believe me. I will.
- Morning Edition, 09/01/2009, 8:40 a.m. | <urn:uuid:d449a4f5-3951-4294-b3c2-e5caba2a11de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/08/31/a-day-of-eating-at-the-minnesota-state-fair | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969971 | 1,067 | 1.804688 | 2 |
President Obama / Susan Walsh, AP
President Obama is pledging to negotiate with Congress on immigration legislation, but he is also working with another group: voters.
Obama flew more than 2,000 miles Tuesday to make his immigration pitch, visiting a politically pivotal state with a growing Hispanic population - Nevada - and urging backers to pressure Congress into supporting a big bill.
Speaking at a high school in Las Vegas, Obama said Democrats and Republicans are starting to come together on a new immigration bill that would include a pathway to citizenship for some of the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the United States.
"I'm here today because the time has come for common sense, comprehensive immigration reform," Obama said before echoing a mantra, "Now is the time ... now is the time."
Obama applauded the framework put forward Monday by a bipartisan group of eight senators and said he has pushed some of the same ideas for years. Noting that previous efforts to forge an immigration bill have failed, Obama said that "this time action must follow," and immigration should not "get bogged down in an endless debate," as it has in the past.
Drawing applause from a supportive crowd, Obama also warned: "If Congress is unable to move forward in a timely fashion, I will send up a bill based on my proposal and insist that they vote on it right away."
The president said his immigration principles also include tighter security at the border, crackdowns on businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants, and streamlined processes for foreign students, family members and highly skilled workers, as well as what he called "a pathway to earned citizenship."
It was the first out-of-town trip of Obama's second term and mirrors a tactic previously used by him and many predecessors: seeking to go over the heads of Congress and appeal directly to voters who can determine the fate of bills and the politicians who back them.
White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer tweeted that Tuesday's speech "is just the beginning" of the president's efforts, and "he will rally the public to push for reform ASAP."
In his first term, Obama traveled the country in favor of such items as his health care bill and jobs plans. In the coming months, he is expected to make similar public appearances for a proposal to tackle gun violence, and perhaps to rally support in looming budget disputes with congressional Republicans.
"It rarely hurts you," said Eric Herzik, who chairs the political science department at the University of Nevada-Reno. "It raises the issue, and he gets a hearing outside the bubble of Washington, D.C."
Meanwhile, a new group called Organizing for Action, culled from Obama's 2012 campaign, is also planning to build support for the president's agenda, including gun control and a new immigration law.
Michael Green, a history professor at the College of Southern Nevada, noted that Obama and his backers aren't the only ones out there seeking to mobilize voters on immigration and other issues. Also at work are conservative groups, some of which say that immigration policy should focus strictly on border security and deportation, not citizenship.
It's a battle that may be fought out over the airwaves, on the Internet and through the media, as well as on the stump.
"We are seeing more groups pressuring Congress in more ways than we ever have historically," Green said.
While Obama tries to win people to his side on immigration, some Republicans are warning against one of the potential byproducts of the "take it to the people" strategy: excessive partisanship.
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said there are "a lot of ideas" about how to fix the immigration system, and "we hope the president is careful not to drag the debate to the left and ultimately disrupt the difficult work that is ahead in the House and Senate."
Among the potential roadblocks to an immigration bill:
â?¢ House Republicans. GOP members are the majority in the House of Representatives, which must sign off on any immigration bill. Many Republicans describe any pathway to citizenship as amnesty for lawbreakers.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told CNN she and other House Republicans want to see specific legislative language on any immigration plan. In the past, she said, "what we've learned is, if you grant amnesty, what do you get? More amnesty. More illegal entry."
â?¢ The rules of the road to citizenship. Backers of the Senate plan - notably key Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a potential presidential candidate who is trying to sell an immigration bill to conservatives - want to tie the pathway to specific improvements in border security.
Obama has said he wants a clear pathway from the start, with no conditions.
â?¢ Same-sex couples. One of the goals of the Obama immigration plan is to prevent the splitting of families, some of whom are legal immigrants, and this includes same-sex couples.
The plan "treats same-sex families as families by giving U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents the ability to seek a visa on the basis of a permanent relationship with a same-sex partner," a White House summary said.
"The president has long believed that Americans with same-sex partners from other countries should not be faced with the painful choice between staying with the person they love or staying in the country they love," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of the Republican authors of the bipartisan plan, told MSNBC that the issue of same-sex couples is "not of paramount importance" to the overall bill, and could be a "red flag." McCain said immigration supporters "need to get broad consensus" on their proposal first.
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Obama takes immigration pitch to voters | <urn:uuid:aa551230-c87a-458a-a8b5-639866f7d0ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.centralohio.com/usatoday/article/1874301?odyssey=mod_sectionstories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969516 | 1,195 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Hi Moxxie fans, Dana here today sharing a school-themed mini album. I love the end of summer. The weather begins to cool down, I get back into a more organized routine and my daughters get to return to school and reunite with the friends they missed over the summer vacation.
This year is extra special because my oldest daughter will start Kindergarten! I do not know who is more excited, her or me. As I was checking off each item on my daughter's school supply list, I also picked up the Moxxie School Zone Collection. The patterned papers are full of fun designs like pencils, crayons, rulers and calculators, and the fresh, bold color palette really captures the joy and excitement of school.
I had a blast creating this School Days Mini Album. This album has two pages for every school year from Preschool to 12th Grade and an extra two pages for extracurricular activities.
Each page of the album has a pocket that can hold school photos, awards, report cards and other souvenirs collected from each school year. I added a photo mat for each grade and used the coordinating stickers and rub-ons to embellish each page of the album.
Each school grade has a designated patterned paper in the collection that features a fabulous corner flourish design and the name of the school year. I used that portion of each patterned paper for my album pages. I used the other half of each page to cut photo mats and cover shipping tags.
If you would like to make an album like this, here is what you need to do:
Step 1: Cut a piece of 12x12 cardstock in half. Take one piece of 6x12 cardstock and score every 3/4 inch. Fold the paper back and forth on the score lines to create an accordion fold. This piece of cardstock will be the mini album binding. Reserve the other half of the paper for use in Step Four.
Step 2: Cut eight pieces of 12x12 cardstock in half. Place two 6x12 pieces of cardstock together and fold in half, creating a 6x6 square. Repeat for the remaining seven groups of 6x12 pieces of cardstock. Using a sewing machine, stitch four of the grouped 6x12 pieces of cardstock along the top and bottom, creating pockets that open from the side of the page. Stitch the remaining four grouped 6x12 pieces of cardstock along the bottom and two sides, creating pockets that open from the top of the page. Note: I decided to make both top pockets and side pockets to keep my album balanced as items are placed into the pockets over the years.
Step 3: To attach the pages into the accordion folds of the binding, place the folded edge of the page against the matching fold of the accordion panel. Pierce three holes through the two fold lines simultaneously at 1-inch, 3-inches and 5-inches (measuring from the top of the page). To secure the pages in place, use a pamphlet stitch. Using embroidery floss and a needle, bring the needle from the outside of the fold and through the center hole, leaving a 3-inch tail on the outside of the binding. Carry the floss along inside the fold and out through the top hole. Carry the floss along the entire length of the accordion binding on the outside of the book, creating a long stitch, and then thread the needle through the bottom hole to the inside of the fold. Bring the needle out through the middle hole. Your starting thread and ending thread should be on opposite sides of the long stitch on the outside of the binding. Tie the ends of the floss in a square knot, making sure to tie the knot around the long stitch. Repeat the pamphlet stitch to secure the other seven pages into the accordion binding. Note: I arranged my album pages so that every other page had a top pocket opening.
Step Four: Take the piece of 6x12 cardstock leftover from Step 1 and score every 3/4 of an inch. Fold the paper back and forth on the score lines to create an accordion fold. Cut a strip 2 1/2 inches from one end. This piece of cardstock will cover the stitching that holds the album together. Glue the piece of cardstock to the front and back flaps of the binding.
Step Five: Cut two, 16-inch pieces if ribbon. Glue one end of a piece of ribbon to the center of the front page of the album. Flip the album over and glue one end of the second piece of ribbon to the center of the back page of the album. Cut a piece of patterned paper to 6x6 inches. Add the piece of patterned paper to the front of the album, under the flap of the album binding. This piece of paper covers the ribbon and makes the front cover of the album. Repeat for the back cover of the album.
Step Six: Glue the flap from the binding down on the front cover. Repeat for the back cover.
Step Seven: Add a border sticker along the edge of the binding down the front cover of the album. Repeat for the back cover.
Step Eight: Glue down the tabs from the accordion binding, found on every other page of the album, to the album page beneath it to give the album stability. Cut patterned papers to 5 3/4 inches square and add them to each page of the album.
Step Nine: Embellish the front cover and inside pages of the album with stickers and rub-ons. Add 4x3 inch photo mats every other page of the album. Optional: Using leftover pieces of patterned paper from the collection, cover several shipping tags. Randomly insert the tags into the pockets of the album pages.
Thanks for stopping by today! If you've been creating with Moxxie products, please visit the Moxxie facebook page and share your work with us! | <urn:uuid:e709d2d0-5a4f-47e5-9b77-6cb9a1eb2c46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gotmoxxie.typepad.com/got_moxxie/2012/08/back-to-school-with-moxxie.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935586 | 1,229 | 1.515625 | 2 |
If it is going to change our lives, spell the end of the PC, revolutionise technology spend and the way we share information, the more we know about who is going to profit the better, right?
Here we have a mind-bendingly wonderful and much awaited profile of the cloud industry. I know you thought it would never arrive, but here we are.
According to the latest release from Business Insider, here are the 10 most important companies in cloud computing:
- Amazon – heard of them? They have Amazon S3
- Rackspace – a massive coalition for free cloud software. Its power comes from OpenStack, an open source method for building clouds
- Microsoft – which has its own enterprise cloud, Azure. Rumour has it that Azure will soon support Linux
- Google – Google App Engine being a spot where developers can park their apps. Google Cloud Storage has been an alternative to Amazon S3
- Red Hat – it gives it away for free with Open Shift
- Citrix Systems – it builds software for clouds. It bought cloud.com for $200m about a year ago
- Salesforce.com – where you can run your own home-grown applications: Heroku, which they bought for $212m in 2010
- Linode – a fave for Linux users
- VMware – doesn’t offer cloud services but makes vCloud, which is software used to build clouds.
- Verizon – last year acquired Terremark in a $1.8b deal and became a major player among telco carriers which provide cloud services including AT&T and Qwest | <urn:uuid:67dd42be-a9d2-4265-85c3-b47967235225> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.odgersberndtson.co.uk/gb/news-knowledge/blogs/tec-blog/post/cloud-computing-4994/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953698 | 329 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Feature: Moving to Machine Control
Professional Surveyor Magazine - November 2010
The owner of a data-management company describes five skill sets surveyors need for 3D data preparation.
By Thad Glankler, PE
I started working for a machine control dealer eight years ago, managing their construction data services division. Today I run my own data-management company. Over the past eight years the two questions I’ve heard asked most frequently by engineers and surveyors about machine control are “What do I need to know to create models for machine control?” and “How do I make money with it?”
I believe these are both related to the underlying (unasked) questions: “How can I replace my lost income due to the lack of construction staking with the widespread use of machine control?” and “What experience do I need so I can provide complete data management?”
I have identified five different skill sets that a good 3D data manager or management company should possess. To illustrate them I describe below a typical data-management process for a project. These different areas of expertise overlap during the data-management process, and the importance of one area isn’t any greater than another. On different projects one area of expertise may be used more frequently, depending on the nature of the project.
The areas of expertise that I have identified, in no particular order, are CAD; applying surveying, engineering, and construction staking knowledge in new ways; and learning about machine control.
Learn to Work with CAD Files
Obviously, one possible new source of income is preparing 3D data models for a construction project that uses machine control or a GPS rover. These models are usually produced with CAD files and paper plans. Although I have created models entirely from paper plans, the CAD file is typically available after the project has been awarded, and then you can incorporate that data into the 3D model.
The design CAD file can be delivered in a variety of file formats, and a good CAD operator should be able to identify the different file types and use them accordingly. Some of the file types you may need to be familiar with are .dgn, .dwg, .dxf, .pro, .ttm, .tin, .aln, .svd, .svl, .tn3, .tp3, and .xml. I have imported design files with as few as 30 layers to over 300 layers (Figures 1 & 2
). Being able to identify the layers you need and use them efficiently is paramount to getting started. Knowing how to evaluate the design layers, xrefs, viewports, paper s
pace/model space, drawing scales, and the overall drawing validity for 3D modeling goes a long way in helping produce an accurate 3D model.
I have prepared hundreds of models from CAD files, and all of them have needed some “cleanup” of the CAD drawing before I could start to build the model. You need to use your surveying knowledge to ask yourself some important questions about the CAD file.
• Is this the correct file, and does it match the paper plans?
• Are there phases?
• Do contours have elevations, and if so, are they the correct elevations?
• Are pavements and curb lines continuous lines or are they broken?
• Are curb lines 3D sloping lines or flat?
• Are spot elevations real “points” or just text representing spots?
• Is the project in the correct coordinate location, at the correct scale, and in the correct units?
• Do building pads have elevations or are they flat?
• Is there road profile information, horizontal, vertical, or superelevation already defined so as to save some time?
Apply Your Surveying, Engineering, Construction Staking Knowledge
After the initial cleanup, the 3D modeling can start. If there are both defined roads (horizontal and vertical profiles) and typical sections, the typical sections are applied and any superelevations and widenings are added to the model. Having the engineering knowledge of how roads are defined (horizontal and vertical alignment and superelevation) allows you to recognize if there are any missing or incorrect data. Once errors are identified you can correct them, or, if they require a major design change, bring them to the attention of the design engineer to correct. All road intersections should be transitioned smoothly from radius point to radius point and from the edge of pavement to at least the right of way.
In building a model, there will be many areas where an elevation is needed and not specified, such as high/low points, spot elevations on curbs, and elevations around buildings. Your engineering and construction staking experience helps in identifying these areas and creating a workable model.
The contractor will need the site to be “calibrated,” and this calibration file must be added to the 3D surface file and associated linework files for the equipment to grade the site correctly. The best practice is to have at least five control points (northing, easting, and elevation) spread evenly around the perimeter of the project, which will be used by the contractor to translate and rotate GNSS measurements to the site coordinate system. Setting these points, calibrating the site for the contractor, and creating its associated calibration file are possible income sources for surveyors in situations where the contractor is creating the 3D model.
If the contractor needs additional information, such as 3D underground utility line data for trenching, you should collect existing ground points after the site has been cleared, compare the existing contours to the plan topography, and prepare a report or plan to show the discrepancies (Figure 3
). It is better for the contractor to know if his or her earthwork quantities are correct at the start of a project, rather than at the end.
Progress quantities can be determined by collecting topographic data at predetermined intervals and then creating maps (plan, profile, cross-sections) to show the changes and earthwork quantities (Figure 4
). Material quantities zcan also be established by the same method after the subgrade is cut. After the base is graded, collect the top of base points and generate your volume. The contractor can compare your number with his truck count and use this information for bidding future projects. This process can be repeated for all layers of materials.
Computing stockpile quantities is another potential source of income related to building 3D data models. When contractors need accurate numbers for stockpiles, you can measure the piles with topo points and then compare them against the existing or proposed surface, analyze the data for the quantities, and relay this information to the contractor so he can better manage his projects. You can also verify that detention basins meet specifications by collecting points and generating reports and plans during construction, saving costly regrading after the ponds are constructed and as-built. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
When building models, you should always have your engineering hat on to look for errors, design flaws, and omissions.
• Is the accessible parking sloped correctly?
• Are the spot elevations correct and phase transitions smooth?
• Are road intersections connected smoothly with no low spots?
Do the details match the drawn contours for roads and detention basins, and do the curb and gutter details match the CAD file?
All these problems will affect the overall constructability of the project. As you go through the entire site, you will find areas that lack in design information, and those discrepancies must be resolved and remodeled.
Some contractors like parking lot islands and medians to be left out of the model so they are able to grade through them without the machines “jumping” when they get to the curbs, but only if the pavement is at a smooth slope, without a major grade break. Landings and steps outside truck docks usually do not get modeled either, because contractors like to grade through those areas as well (Figure 5
). Unless a contractor is doing his own s
taking, accessible ramps in sidewalks will not be needed in the model. You need to check with each contractor to verify how his field crews would like those areas modeled.
One aspect that often gets overlooked in the modeling process is the linework files. A surface is not very helpful without an associated linework file so the operator can see his position (Figure 6
). If the contractor is going to do any kind of staking or alignment checks (centerlines, curb and gutter, storm, sewer, water, etc.), the linework must be adjusted so it can be used based on each equipment manufacturers’ specifications. You need to learn how to handle both the hardware and software differences among vendors.
Learn Machine Control Processes and Procedures
A proficient 3D data manager will need to understand the individual machine control equipment processes. Each manufacturer has its own software to import surface and linework data and create its own unique working files. The process is also different for each manufacturer, so obtaining the individual software packages to create these files is important. If you get a call from the field saying that the contractor thinks there is a problem with the model, you’ll need the skills to troubleshoot their equipment with them to determine if the errors is with the model, equipment, or operator.
I have found that most errors are related to field procedures, so a data-prep firm should offer to periodically check the contractor’s field procedures and help train the field personnel in proper procedures, maintenance, daily setup, blade-wear check, rover checks, machine checks, offsets (vertically and horizontally), grade checking, point collecting, and construction staking.
To gain the experience necessary to offer machine-control-related services, you can contact your local machine control dealers for training in correct model-building techniques, or better yet contact a contractor who uses machine control to set up a duel training day or two—and offer to share the cost. Familiarize yourself with all the equipment you will be providing data for and ensure that the data is created so as to maximize the efficiency of each unique piece of equipment.
You can also gain valuable insight by searching the internet for data-prep providers and viewing examples of models they have created to see how models are being built and used in your area. Learn everything you can before submitting your first proposal to build a model for a contractor. Remember the old saying, “You get only one chance to make a first impression.”
Thad Glankler, PE is the president, founder and owner of Glankler Data Services, LLP, a data-prep management company that specializes in data prep for GPS machine control throughout the United States. Mr. Glankler is a registered as a professional engineer in North Carolina.
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The global multicultural marketplace is an increasingly competitive environment for beauty brands, and a swirl of ethnic hair care products from both new and seasoned manufacturers have launched in recent years with a common theme: natural positioning. While the beauty market at large has seen a rush of products with organic claims, the ethnic hair care segment seems to have been particularly affected by this trend. Hair care brands in this segment are also now exercising a more multicultural approach, quietly moving away from ethnic-specific messaging in an attempt to appeal to a wide range of skin tones and hair textures that constitute the ethnic population.
The ethnic beauty segment is one of the fastest-growing worldwide, a trend that can be attributed to growing populations abroad (particularly those in emerging markets), and subsequently, the increase in the purchasing power of multicultural consumers. Today, men and women of color account for approximately 80% of the world’s population, and that figure is only expected to increase in the coming decades as ethnic populations continue to rise in the U.S., U.K. and France. Additionally, in emerging markets such as India, China, the Middle East and Africa, beauty sales—and hair care, in particular—are exploding, largely driven by an ever-expanding and youthful middle class.
Regardless of demographic trends and market fluctuations, ethnic consumers have also been found to spend more of their income on beauty products than their Caucasian counterparts, with hair care products often accounting for more than half of those sales.
According to Diagonal Reports, black consumers spend up to seven times more on hair care in France, and in the U.S., African-American women account for 30% of all hair care product sales. Depending on the cultural context of beauty—traditions, routines, ideals and so on—beauty cultures can appear dramatically different, but the importance of hair maintenance and its relationship to beauty is a common trait among ethnic populations. This has helped keep the global ethnic hair care market relatively insulated during the recent economic recession. Across cultural groups, ethnic consumers see their hair as a form of personal expression and a key reflection of their personal identity. From Africa to Asia, ethnic hair has different needs than Caucasian hair, and ethnic consumers seek hair care formulations that address those needs. They want products that prevent hair loss, repair dry or damaged hair, facilitate styling and moisturize the scalp. In recent years, another significant trend has been pronounced dissatisfaction and greater education regarding the effect of chemicals on hair, helping to transform this market to one characterized by healthy hair and how to get it.
As the spending power of multicultural women continues to rise (some research shows more than $1 trillion in the U.S. alone), more products are being introduced with the multicultural consumer in mind, particularly within the hair care segment. Increasingly more conscious of chemicals found in hair care products, ethnic women are a driving force for the natural trend in the mainstream, spurring product innovation related to high-quality ingredients, eco-attributes and ethical positioning. Since 2009, organic and natural hair care product advancements have swept the ethnic hair care market as safer alternatives to harsh, chemical-based products that have traditionally been a staple in hairstyling. These product launches—including curl relaxers and curl enhancers, hair-follicle restoration and scalp treatments—all have similar benefit claims: Using eco-ingredients, they are able to restore and deliver healthy, shiny, manageable, strong hair. | <urn:uuid:696898f0-76b5-4877-8b6b-cdc9702dd65c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gcimagazine.com/marketstrends/segments/hair/123352713.html?mobi=y | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959917 | 701 | 1.8125 | 2 |
A sure sign that the holidays are upon us is the surge of food drives taking place around the Valley. Here are three we’ve learned about; please feel free to share news of food drives in which you are involved in our comments section below.
Ford and the Children’s Museum of Phoenix
Beginning today, one free general admission ticket to the Children’s Museum of Phoenix will be provided to each person who donates three nonperishable food items at any of the Valley’s 11 Ford dealerships. Donations can be dropped off through Sunday, Nov. 28 and the ticket is redeemable throughout December.
As part of Ford’s Operation Goodwill Phoenix campaign, Ford Motor Company is sponsoring “Ford Technology & Innovation Month” at the Children’s Museum of Phoenix during the month of December. In addition to the museum’s regular interactive exhibits, new activities and programs will be themed around technology and innovation reflecting the enterprising spirit of Henry Ford.
“Technology and innovation are important to both Ford Motor Company and the Children’s Museum of Phoenix,” Stephanie Jarnagan, field coordinator with Direct Impact, which is providing public relations support on behalf of Ford Motor Company. “Henry Ford’s innovations, including the Model T and the assembly line technique of mass production, brought automobiles to the general population and have inspired children all over the world to fall in love with cars. Likewise, the Children’s Museum of Phoenix was developed to inspire children and give them opportunities to create and innovate.”
For more information about the United Food Bank, visit unitedfoodbank.org.
THE PRIMROSE SCHOOLS
The Primrose School of East Mesa encourages students, families and neighbors to be “helping hands” throughout the year, according to Bob Seifert, who owns the school with his wife, Kathy.
The school is conducting a Food Drive that will wrap up on Friday, Nov. 19, with all of the Primrose Schools and Ben and Matt from KNIX.
“Our character development events are not just collecting items to donate,” says Seifert. “We take the opportunity to teach our students other valuable life lessons. For example, during the food drive, our students perform extra chores at home for which they are paid. Each student tracks how much money they earn over several weeks. The students then prepare a food budget to determine how many food items they could purchase for the food drive. We take the students to the supermarket to spend their budget. At the end of our event, our students have an opportunity to learn about: charity, community, work, math (adding up their earnings / allocating and spending their budgets), budgeting, food prices and shopping.”
The Primrose School of East Mesa is an educational childcare facility for children ages six weeks through private kindergarten that also offers before- and after-school care for older children. 480-354-2966 or PrimroseEastMesa.com.
ICM FOOD AND CLOTHING BANK
The Interfaith Cooperative Ministries (ICM) is the largest food box provider in Maricopa County and served 67,000 individuals in 2009. This year, the need is greater than ever.
“People in every pocket of the Valley are going through the toughest financial times of their lives,” says Executive Director Renea Gentry. “It’s quite possible that we could have one household donate food to us and, unbeknownst to them, their very own next-door neighbor is coming to us for a box of food to feed their family. Nearly 20 percent of the people coming to us for help have never been here before.”
Donations to this year’s Food and Clothing Bank will help those in need through the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Items most needed are any non-perishable food items, such as canned vegetables and soups as well as protein-rich food like tuna fish and peanut butter. Diapers and toiletries (shampoo, lotion, soap, toothpaste) also are needed. 602-254-7450 or icmaz.org. | <urn:uuid:bf2348dc-70f3-4c95-a8d0-ef1774150533> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rakcommunity.wordpress.com/2010/11/13/ford-and-the-childrens-museum-of-phoenix-team-up-for-two-week-food-drive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954393 | 868 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Husband, wife team aim to end poverty
Kathleen Mayhew, president of the Rotary Club of Sebastopol, California, USA, developed the Adopt a Village model with her husband, Frank. Here, she meets with residents of Kiranga Village, Uganda, to ensure that needs are being met. Photo courtesy Rotary Club of Sebastopol
Noting that “world peace can only come when there is no poverty,” Frank and Kathleen Mayhew of the Rotary Club of Sebastopol, California, USA, urge Rotarians to take a new direction to end poverty.
To do that, the husband-and-wife team proposes their “Adopt a Village” model.
Here’s how it works: A Rotary club in a developing country selects a village, assesses its needs, and designs a project with health, food production, and education components. (Clean water and malaria prevention elements are required under the health heading if they are problems in the village.) A partner club adopts the village, addressing all three issues at once. Projects usually cost about US$30,000; some have been completed through Matching Grants from The Rotary Foundation.
Villages in Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Uganda have participated with support from partner clubs in Canada, England, and the United States. The Mayhews, who have given presentations at several North American clubs, currently act as matchmakers, but they encourage clubs with good working relationships to take the concept and run with it.
“While Rotary has had 3-H grants, which are huge grants, nobody has really looked at the multielement grant. It kind of comes as a surprise to people,” says Frank Mayhew, who chairs the grants subcommittee for District 5130. “It does make sense.”
Village inspires GSE team
When a Group Study Exchange team from District 5130 (California, USA) visited District 9110 in Nigeria, team members spent a day in Ijado, a prospective Adopt a Village project site. They learned that the village lacks a health clinic, that villagers fetch water several times a day, and that fewer than 10 percent of adults can read and write.
“What we brought back is passion,” says Susan Cole, team leader and member of the Rotary Club of Windsor, California. “I can’t tell you how moving it was to be there and talk to the women in the village. It’s personal: It’s not just a project, it’s a connection.”
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ST. LOUIS — NCAA president Mark Emmert came down hard on college basketball careers that last one season.
By BLAIR KERKHOFF
The Kansas City Star
“I happen to dislike the one-and-done rule enormously and wish it didn’t exist,” Emmert said Friday during a panel discussion hours before the Midwest Regional semifinal round tipped off. “I think it forces young men to go to college that have little or no interest in going to college.
“It makes a travesty of the whole notion of student as an athlete.”
But Emmert is quick to remind that the one-and-done isn’t a college rule. The NBA requires players to be 19 years old or have completed one year of college before becoming eligible for the NBA Draft.
The rule went on the books in 2007, as players such as Texas’ Kevin Durant and Ohio State’s Greg Oden spent a year on campus. That was the first class not allowed to follow such players as LeBron James into the NBA straight from high school.
Memphis guard Derrick Rose was in the next class of one-and-dones.
Critics on the college level have howled. Coaches must continue to recruit the game’s top talent but one-year careers play havoc with future recruiting and roster plans.
School officials say the rule has made a mockery of the term “student-athlete.” To be eligible, an athlete essentially has to be eligible for the fall semester. Academic performance can slip in the spring semester but an athlete can complete a basketball season without consequence.
“It simply creates the wrong type of environment for us,” Emmert said.
Kansas has had two one-and-done players in the last three years — Xavier Henry, who played in 2009-10, and Josh Selby in the next season. Kansas State’s Michael Beasley was a one-and-done as the Big 12 player of the year in 2008.
Duke’s Kyrie Irving left after his freshman year in 2011.
This year, Kentucky could have two players — Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist — leave after this season. The website draftexpress.com projects college freshmen to be four of the first players drafted in July, starting with Davis.
Don’t blame the player, Emmert said.
“I’m not critical of the kid who does that,” Emmert said. “Why would we object to a young man pursuing their life’s pleasure? If a young woman wants to dance with the New York City ballet at 16 we don’t see her on our college campuses. That’s fine. If someone is a great musician they may or may not come to us. We don’t think less of them.
“But if you’re coming to us to be a collegiate athlete we want you to be a collegiate athlete. We will give you the best opportunities in the classroom, in the training room, with coaches. If you want to become a professional athlete, there is no better place to go generally than to come to one of our schools to develop your skills and abilities. But if you do that, you have to be a student.”
There has been sentiment to change the rule, and NBA commissioner David Stern has expressed interest in a two-year minimum between high school and the NBA. The league’s union said it might be willing to change if colleges allow stipends above scholarship costs, an idea that has gained traction among major conferences as television contract revenue increase.
Over the past year, the NCAA has handed down punishment for violations committed by some of the college sports biggest brands: Ohio State, Miami, Fla., Southern California, perhaps sending a message that no program is above the rules manual.
Emmert was encouraged by what he saw on Thursday when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell penalized the New Orleans Saints for the team’s bounty payments, punishment that included a one-year suspension without pay for head coach Sean Payton.
“I thought it was a very direct powerful message from the commissioner as to what was and was not tolerable in their culture,” Emmert said. “While their goals and culture are different than ours, they held the adults in the room accountable in a very powerful way. I think that’s a useful lesson for us.”
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A: That he or she owns accountability for safety within the hospital. Safety is the responsibility of everyone, from the chair of the board on down. It doesn’t just belong to the safety officer or the safety team.
A: Don’t get me wrong, the role of the top safety officer is critical. I believe it’s my job to establish the vision for safety and help shape strategic goals. The safety officer works to identify problems and helps find solutions where they exist. Where they don’t, we have to look outside of healthcare for expertise that might provide the answer. I do a lot of work interpreting high reliability theory into practical application since we see safety as an outcome of being an HRO (high reliability organization). It’s also the safety officer’s job to focus the organization’s attention in the right direction and keep the work on track. We need to relentlessly drive toward improvement, and that is my responsibility. But I don’t take on fixing each problem myself, because if I did, the change would be too slow. Everyone in the organization has to have a real sense of urgency about the work and be contributing for us to be successful.
A: I don’t think there is a typical day. I try to find the right balance between being here and traveling to learn from other hospitals and industries and to share our work. When I am on campus, I attend our DSB (daily safety brief) whenever possible − it helps not just me, but leaders throughout the organization get a pulse of the hospital and potential “hot spots” to pay attention to. I think it’s important that the safety officer be accessible. I coach a number of teams through their improvement work. I participate and help lead root cause analyses. I confer with leaders and frontline teams regarding concerns. I spend time listening to and talking with the frontline staff. They are the ones who really keep our patients and each other safe.
A: Patients and families play a number of important roles within our hospital, and it was a big step for us when we started putting them on our teams. But for me, the most important thing is that they remind us of how devastating harm is to everyone involved, and that it is simply not acceptable. They don’t allow us to get comfortable with what we have achieved. Families also play a real-time role in helping us avoid harm. Parents help by telling us when they have concerns. No one knows their children better than they do. When they are worried, we need to stop and listen. Often their gut feelings are strong signals that something is not right.
A: Thanks for all you do to keep ’em all – employees and patients – safe.
Click photo to enlarge.
Dr. Stephen Muething is the vice president of safety at Cincinnati Children's. He leads the effort to reduce serious safety events, keep employees safe and develop a culture of high reliability.
3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3026 | 1-513-636-4200 | 1-800-344-2462 | TTY:1-513-636-4900
New to Cincinnati Children’s or live outside of the tri-state area? 1-877-881-8479
© 1999-2013 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center | <urn:uuid:469f135d-c0c3-4e23-bbf0-d3985c9be1b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/service/j/anderson-center/safety/organization/questions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954851 | 714 | 1.804688 | 2 |
|Born||Barbara Woolworth Hutton
November 14, 1912
New York City, New York, U.S.
|Died||May 11, 1979
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
|Spouse(s)||"Prince" Alexis Mdivani(1933-1935)
Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Reventlow (1935-1938)
Cary Grant (1942-1945)
Prince Igor Troubetzkoy (1947-1951)
Baron Gottfried von Cramm(1955-1959)
Prince Pierre Doan (1964-1966)
Barbara Woolworth Hutton (November 14, 1912 – May 11, 1979) was an American socialite, heiress and debutante, often dubbed "Poor Little Rich Girl" due to the fact that she was given a lavish and expensive debutante ball during the depression era and due to her troubled life.
Heiress to the retail tycoon Frank W. Woolworth, she endured a disturbed childhood that made it hard for her to form relationships. Seven times married, she acquired several grand foreign titles, but was cynically exploited by many of her husbands. Although much envied for her possessions and her life of leisure, she remained deeply insecure, often taking refuge in drink, drugs and playboys. She ended her days almost bankrupt, owing to her naivete and compulsive generosity, her state worsened further by the death of her only son in an air crash.
Born in New York City, Barbara Hutton was the only child of Edna Woolworth (1883–1917), a daughter of Frank W. Woolworth, the founder of the successful Woolworth five-and-dime stores. Barbara's father was Franklyn Laws Hutton (1877–1940), a wealthy co-founder of E. F. Hutton & Company (owned by Franklyn's brother Edward Francis Hutton), a respected New York investment banking and stock brokerage firm. She was a niece by marriage of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who was for a time (1920–1935) married to E.F. Hutton; thus their daughter, actress-heiress Dina Merrill (born Nedenia Hutton), was a first cousin to Barbara Hutton. Dina Merrill related on A&E's Biography of the Woolworths, that for a time Barbara lived with them following the death of her mother and abandonment by her father.
Edna Hutton died from a chronic ear disease when Barbara was five years old. Young Barbara discovered her mother's body. After her mother's death, she lived with various relatives, and was raised by a governess. Hutton attended The Hewitt School in New York's Lenox Hill neighborhood and Miss Porter's School for Girls in Farmington, Connecticut. She became an introverted child who had limited interaction with other children of her own age. Her closest friend and only confidante was her cousin Jimmy Donahue, the son of her mother's sister.
In 1924, Barbara Hutton's grandmother Jennie (Creighton) Woolworth died, leaving about $28 million, ($375,091,262 in today dollars) to Barbara in a trust fund worth $26.1 million and another $2.1 million in stock from her mother's inheritance to be administered by her father. By the time of her 21st birthday in 1933, her father had increased the amount to about $42 million ($744,879,177 in today dollars), not including the additional $8 million from her mother's estate through sound investments, making her one of the wealthiest women in the world.
In accordance with New York's high society traditions, Barbara Hutton was given a lavish débutante ball in 1930 on her 18th birthday, where guests from the Astor and Rockefeller families, amongst other elites, were entertained by stars such as Rudy Vallee and Maurice Chevalier. The ball cost $60,000 ($824,582 in today dollars), a veritable fortune in the days of the depression. Public criticism was so severe that she was sent on a tour of Europe to escape the onslaught of the press.
Though Barbara Hutton was portrayed in the press as the "lucky" young woman who had it all, the public had no idea of the psychological problems she lived with that led to a life of victimization and abuse. Barbara Hutton married seven times:
- 1933 – Alexis Mdivani, a self-styled Georgian prince, divorced 1935;
- 1935 – Count Kurt Heinrich Eberhard Erdmann Georg von Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow, divorced 1938;
- 1942 – Cary Grant, divorced 1945;
- 1947 – Prince Igor Troubetzkoy, divorced 1951;
- 1953 – Porfirio Rubirosa, divorced 1954;
- 1955 – Baron Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt von Cramm, divorced 1959;
- 1964 – Pierre Raymond Doan, divorced 1966.
Mdivani and Reventlow
Her first two husbands used her great wealth to their advantage, especially the extremely abusive Count Kurt Haugwitz-Reventlow, with whom she had her only child, a son named Lance. Lance Reventlow became a race car driver and builder of his own well respected sports car, the Scarab, in the golden age of American sports car racing. Reventlow dominated her through verbal and physical abuse, which escalated to a savage beating that left her hospitalized and put him in jail. He also persuaded her to give up her American citizenship, and to take his native Danish citizenship for tax purposes, which she did in December 1937 in a New York federal court. At this point she lapsed into drug abuse. Hutton then developed anorexia, which would plague her for the rest of her life.
Popular poet Ogden Nash then took note of Hutton's public private life in the following light verse:
Said Aimee McPherson to Barbara Hutton,
"How do you get a marriage to button?"
"You'll have to ask some other person."
Said Barbara Hutton to Aimee McPherson
As World War II threatened in 1939, Hutton moved to California. She was active during the war, giving money to assist the Free French Forces and donating her yacht to the Royal Navy. Using her high-profile image to sell War bonds, she received positive publicity after being derided by the press as a result of her marriage scandals. In Hollywood, she met and married Cary Grant, one of the biggest movie stars of the day. The married couple was dubbed "Cash and Cary". Grant did not need her money nor to benefit from her name, and appeared to genuinely care for her. Nevertheless, this marriage also failed. Grant did not seek or receive any money from Hutton in their divorce settlement. Hutton would go on to live with Frederick McEvoy, purchasing a chalet at a ski resort in Franconia, New Hampshire. The couple never married and remained friends until McEvoy's death in 1951.
Hutton left California and moved to Paris, France, before acquiring a palace in Tangier. Hutton then began dating Igor Troubetzkoy, an expatriate Russian prince of very limited means but world renown. In the spring of 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland, she married him. That year, he was the driver of the first Ferrari to ever compete in Grand Prix motor racing when he raced in the Monaco Grand Prix and later won the Targa Florio. He ultimately filed for divorce. Hutton's subsequent attempted suicide made headlines around the world. Labeled by the press as the "Poor Little Rich Girl", her life nevertheless made great copy and the media exploited her for consumption by a fascinated public.
Porfirio Rubirosa "La crema y nata"
Her next marriage, lasting all of 53 days (December 30, 1953 – February 20, 1954), was to Dominican diplomat Porfirio Rubirosa, a notorious international playboy who meanwhile continued his affair with actress Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Hutton then spent time with Americans James Douglas and Philip Van Rensselaer. Her lavish spending continued; already the owner of several mansions around the world, in 1959 she built a luxurious Japanese-style palace on a 30-acre (120,000 m2) estate in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Gottfried von Cramm
In Tangier, Hutton met her seventh husband, Prince Pierre Raymond Doan Vinh na Champassak. This marriage, too, was short-lived. Raymond Doan was an adopted member of the former royal family of the Kingdom of Champasak.
Art and jewelry
Over the years, apart from an important inheritance which included Old Master paintings and important sculptures, she also personally acquired a magnificent collection of her own which included the spectrum of arts, porcelain, valuable jewelry, including elaborate historic pieces that had once belonged to Marie Antoinette and Empress Eugénie of France, and important pieces by Fabergé and Cartier. Among her pieces of jewelry was the 40-carat (8.0 g) Pasha Diamond, which she purchased as an unusual octagonal brilliant-cut but had recut into a round brilliant, bringing it down to 36 carats (7.2 g).
The death of her only son in an air crash in 1972 sent Hutton into a state of despair. By this time, her fortune had diminished, due to her extreme generosity (she had donated Winfield House to the United States government as a residence for their UK ambassador.) but also allegedly through questionable deals by her long-time lawyer, Graham Mattison. Eventually she began liquidating assets in order to raise funds to live, yet continued to spend money on strangers willing to pay a little attention to her. She spent her final years in Los Angeles, living at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where she died from a heart attack in May 1979, aged 66. It is said that at her death, $3,500 was all that remained of her fortune. She was interred in the Woolworth family mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.
Several books have been written about Barbara Hutton, the best known of which are:
- Barbara Hutton: A Candid Biography, by Dean Jennings (F. Fell, 1968, 301pp.)
- Million Dollar Baby: An Intimate Portrait of Barbara Hutton, by Philip Van Rensselaer (Putnam, 1979, 285pp.)
- Poor Little Rich Girl: The Life and Legend of Barbara Hutton, by C. David Heymann (L. Stuart, 1984, 390pp.)
- In Search of a Prince: My Life with Barbara Hutton, by Mona Eldridge (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1988, 210pp.)
- Barbara Hutton; a candid biography - Page 17
- "Mrs. Hutton Found Dead. Daughter of F.W. Woolworth Suffocated in Her Room at the Plaza". New York Times. May 3, 1917. Retrieved 2011-12-03. "Mrs. Franklyn Laws Hutton, who was Edna Woolworth, daughter of F. W. Woolworth, was found dead in her apartment at the hotel Plaza. ..."
- Gressor, Megan & Cook, Kerry (2005). An Affair to Remember: The Greatest Love Stories of All Time, p. 260. Fair Winds Press.
- "Jane Bowles, Libby Holman Reynolds and Barbara Hutton". The Authorized Paul Bowles Web Site. www.paulbowles.org.
- Poor Little Rich Girl - The Barbara Hutton Story
- New York Social Diary, 1933
- This fabulous century - Page 156
- Cary Grant: A Class Apart, Graham McCann, Pg. 159
- Woolworth Heiress May Marry Austn.. The Courier-Mail. 13 April 1946. Accessed 26 October 2011.
- Freddie McEvoy Biography and Olympic Results. Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Accessed 26 October 2011.
- Barbara Hutton; a candid biography - Page 160
- "Barbara Hutton biography at divasthesite.com".
- The very rich: a history of wealth - Page 135
- Frommer's Portable Acapulco, Ixtapa & Zihuatanejo - Page 156
- Barbara Hutton; a candid biography - Page 214
- F.W. Woolworth and the American five and dime: a social history
- Co-starring famous women and alcohol - Page 26
- The dilemmas of family wealth: insights on succession, cohesion, and legacy - Page 150
- Million dollar baby: an intimate portrait of Barbara Hutton, Philip Van Rensselaer
- F.W. Woolworth and the American five and dime: a social history - Page 203
- Cartier, by Hans Nadelhoffer, pg 124
- Barbara Hutton; a candid biography - Page 166
- F.W. Woolworth and the American five and dime: a social history - Page 166
- Cartier By Hans Nadelhoffer Pg 325
- Ambassador's Residence: Winfield House - Embassy of The United States in London, U.K.[dead link]
- Barbara Hutton Socialite-Subject of Books
- "Barbara Hutton Biography at IMDb".
- Biography of Barbara Hutton by Kenneth Lisenbee
- Barbara Hutton at the Internet Movie Database
- Barbara Hutton at Find a Grave
- Daily Mail, Christopher Wilson - The heiress who blew the Woolworth's billions on vodka breakfasts, seven husbands and jewels galore November 28, 2008. | <urn:uuid:19423c7d-99fb-4adf-8f74-aa527050ebc2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Hutton | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944603 | 2,887 | 1.75 | 2 |
I hate to admit it, but it’s true – I have an addiction. Tea is my drink. Black, green or white. Hot or cold. Regular or decaf. With milk or not.
There have been ceremonies and rituals dedicated to drinking tea, with the Japanese and British occurrences being the most widely known.
In both ceremonies, it’s not so much the drinking of the tea as the preparation of it. The Japanese tea ceremony is over 1000 years old has very precise steps, and can take 10 years to learn them.
No matter how formal the British tea appears, it is much less so than the Japanese. It is also a relative newcomer compared to the Chinese and Japanese, not having established trade routes (and a steady supply) until the late 1670s. While we tend to use high tea and afternoon tea interchangeably, they are quite different. High tea is basically a meal, with meat, cheese, bread, and of course tea, served at a ‘high’ table such as a dining table. Afternoon tea, started in the early-mid 1800s, has the sweets and savories many of us associate with a tea. The Afternoon Tea was created to foster friendships: the hostess would invite her closest friends for tea and a visit.
This is perhaps why I identify with the British tea so much. I can drink gallons of tea myself; have no trouble doing so. But it is so much nicer to share with a friend. I particularly have two tea friends whom I meet with at different times. One, we meet at a local Starbuck’s and spend way too much time catching up on our lives. The other is an older friend and we have been at each other’s homes more times than I can count. Tea is always involved no matter what else there is or isn’t. When our kids were little, they used to measure the visits in terms of our tea. If we finished too quickly, one would invariably say, ‘have another cup.”
Tea itself is refreshing. I can’t think of a more welcome drink on a hot summer day than fresh brewed unsweetened iced tea. For the other three seasons of the year, I have to have my hot tea. I even bought a tea kettle specifically for my office at one time. My office mate and I gauged how busy we were by the time we managed to have our first cup of tea. Tea by 9 was slow morning, by 10 was average and if the morning tea didn’t come until 1:00, the whole day was pretty our of control.
I like so many teas in so many variations I couldn’t even list them. But know this: by 10 in the morning, I will lift my cup of tea to you and salute – encouraging you to join me. | <urn:uuid:5f33c2ce-19f4-406e-acea-4bbe6c8e7f2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://livingwiththemuse.blogspot.com/2012/03/got-favorite.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98053 | 591 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Map of diplomatic missions of Tonga
High Commission of Tonga in London
High Commission of Tonga in Canberra
This is a list of diplomatic missions of Tonga. Tonga is a small island kingdom in Polynesia. About half of its 200,000 citizens live abroad (chiefly in New Zealand, Australia and the United States, and also as merchant seamen), and the portion of its national income derived through expatriate remittances is one of the highest in the world. However, except for a few honorary consulates Tonga (including in Sydney, Auckland and Hamburg), Tonga's diplomatic network is very limited. It does not even have a mission on any neighbouring Pacific island states. | <urn:uuid:a9fcf452-1a25-42e2-b823-8caaf482866d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diplomatic_missions_of_Tonga | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95674 | 143 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Must-try Diet Tricks
If none of the fad diets seem to work for you, it’s time to move on and try new things. While it is true that researching about the different diets of celebrities has become one of your hobbies, you must accept that like us they are also normal people who are struggling with weight issues. To guarantee your weight loss, here are some diet tricks that you should try.
- Get rid of your food scale. – You don’t really need to carry around a calorie counter or calculator to be able to practice portion control. What you need to do is to learn how to control your eating habits. You must order two appetizers instead of an entrée. If you already have pasta on your plate, you must minimize your bread.
- Store some fruits at home. – To help you fight your unhealthy food cravings during snack time, you need to have fruits packed nearby. On your spare time, slice up those fruits on your dining table and place them in plastic containers. If you have stocked up some fruits, you can bring them at work and any time you feel hungry you can just reach out for them.
- Have some chocolate shake. – If you want to lose weight quickly, it would be a good idea to drink some high-protein chocolate shake. This type of shake is the perfect meal replacement. All you need to have in order to make them is a shaker and chocolate protein powder. This tastes really good and it can fill you up very quickly as well.
- Learn to set some limits. – When you are at the canteen of your workplace, choose the smallest Styrofoam or plate that you can find and place your food there. If you do this, you won’t be able to overeat.
- Brush your teeth to avoid sweet desserts. – Whenever you feel like deviating your diet for a sweet dessert after your meals, quickly brush your teeth. The mint flavor will help prevent you from devouring that huge slice of cake in your fridge after you’ve finished dinner. | <urn:uuid:0e5483fd-ca91-4975-bc82-1f895ebf95eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bryanking.net/must-try-diet-tricks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951279 | 427 | 1.765625 | 2 |
In 1921, the Baltimore County Water and Electric Co. deeded an 11-acre lot the southern end of Maple Avenue to the city of Baltimore, according to a release from NeighborSpace, a Baltimore County nonprofit.
Ninety years later, that property may transfer back to the county to be preserved as an undeveloped area, according to the release.
NeighborSpace, which acquires property to prevent it from being developed, announced June 21 it is on the verge of obtaining the site, which would act as an outdoor recreation area.
"It's a phenomenal thing," said NeighborSpace president, John Murphy, who hosted the fundraiser at his home on North Rolling Road, attended by nearly 40 people, where the announcement was made.
"The whole community would benefit by a lake, by trails, by all these things," Murphy said.
According to the release, a pending contract of sale will result in the city transferring the land "as is" back to the county for $1.
The county would transfer the property, at the end of the road off Frederick Road between the intersections of North and South Rolling roads, to the nonprofit organization once the property passes the county's environmental assessment.
"I'm hopeful that Baltimore County will feel very comfortable taking title to it," said Murphy, a Catonsville resident for the past 37 years.
Ellen Kobler, a county spokeswoman, said the environmental assessment would research previous uses of the site and examine it to determine its geography, soil topography, vegetation and what waste has been dumped there.
The assessment will begin, Kobler said, once the county receives permission from the Office of the Comptroller of Baltimore City.
"We don't have reason to think there's a problem," Kobler said.
If the transfer is accepted, the county will offer an easement to NeighborSpace, which currently has nine properties in Baltimore County, that will prevent development on the property.
Discovering the property
The ball started rolling on this process about 10 years ago, after Catonsville resident Joe Gochar had grown tired of watching the dwindling parcels of undeveloped land in Catonsville succumb to bulldozers.
Gochar said that as he pored over state property records, he noticed a parcel on Maple that didn't have a plat number.
The plat number is used to identify a property using tax records.
"It's really a very historically significant piece of land, for the Catonsville area anyway," Gochar said, noting that it was once the site of a saw mill.
Encouraged by some older Catonsville residents, Gochar contacted the city of Baltimore to determine if the city owned the land.
The city responded by letter it did not.
Eventually, however, Gochar learned that the city did indeed have ownership, and it was willing to transfer the property to the county.
Gochar said he contacted the state park service and learned that because the land did not touch the boundaries of Patapsco Valley State Park, the state park service didn't have interest in it.
Having worked with NeighborSpace after learning about the organization a few years ago, he contacted the nonprofit.
Gochar said the wait for the transfer of the property has been "very frustrating," but is looking forward to what could be.
"I would definitely like to see the lake put back together, which would mean clearing some of the trees that have grown where the lake was," Gochar said.
"Having a lake in Catonsville with walking trails around it I think would be a real nice addition to Catonsville," he said.
Gochar isn't the only one looking forward to the project.
Councilman Tom Quirk, who represents the 1st District, which includes Catonsville; and Councilman David Marks, who represents the 5th District, which includes Perry Hall, White Marsh and part of Towson, as well as residents of Maple Avenue are also excited about the prospects.
Quirk attended last week's meeting and spoke about his support of NeighborSpace and this project.
"There's a lot of anxiety toward development," Quirk told the group at the fundraiser. "Sure, we're all concerned about traffic and school overcrowding; but on a more visceral level, we're concerned over the loss of what we used to consider a public good."
Having the property protected from development could open it to NeighborSpace's goal of turning the property into a recreational outdoors area with walking trails and a place to swim.
Though only streams are currently in the area, representatives of NeighborSpace expressed hope an existing dam could be closed to create a lake.
"I would be in favor of any preservation of land rather than development," said Chris Brupbacher, who has lived on Maple Avenue for 27 years.
Brupbacher said she would definitely utilize the proposed walking trails if they were developed.
Brupbacher's neighbor across the street, Jim Remeikis, said he would also enjoy walking the trails and anticipated bringing his dogs along.
Though, both were concerned by the potential of increased traffic on the narrow street, Remeikis, who has lived on Maple Avenue for 43 years, said it likely won't be a problem.
"People utilize places like that tend to be a little more respectful," Remeikis said. "They appreciate having a recreational area, so they sort of protect it." | <urn:uuid:5e53c14f-f2db-44af-a486-2e60d893cec1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/baltimorecounty/publications/catonsville-times/ph-ca-neighborspace-0629-20110629,0,4500811,full.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978097 | 1,112 | 1.570313 | 2 |
SEARCH ENGINE SMACK DOWN: When it comes to search engines, size matters - at least to Google.
After years of silence about the vastness of its Web index, Google announced Friday it had found 1 trillion unique Web pages. "We're proud to have the most comprehensive index of any search engine, and our goal always has been to index all the world's data," a Google spokeswoman said in a statement.
A bit of history: In August 2005, a similar claim put forward by Yahoo that it had indexed 20 billion URLs prompted a public rebuke from Google. "Our scientists are not seeing the increase claimed in the Yahoo index," a Google representative told blogger and search expert John Battelle.
A month later, Google asserted it had indexed 26 billion URLS and was "more than 3 times larger than any other search engine."
But if Google was hoping for a fight, it didn't find one. Yahoo didn't have an immediate comment Friday, and Microsoft declined to engage, saying in a statement that its index is "one of the largest in the industry."
MORE FACEBOOK FUN: If you saw "F8" on a vanity license plate, how would you pronounced it?
Fortunately, the Facebook folks aren't so presumptuous. Even though Facebook called its developer conference in San Francisco this week "f8," they had the good sense to pronounce it "F-8." Still, some of the 1,400 Facebook faithful who attended
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's 24-year-old maximum leader, stood before an admiring throng and talked up Facebook's mission within the broader "movement" to use the Web to make the world a better place. The new "Facebook Connect" will make the Web more open, he said. And he identified "Causes," a tool to help charities raise money, as one of Facebook's first "Great Apps."
While Zuckerberg was appealing to our better angels, some developers like Alex Le were thinking: show me the micro-payments! Le, whose company Serious Business markets the game Friends For Sale (yes, a Facebook community where you can buy and sell your friends) was hoping Zuckerberg would announce a new payment platform for the Facebook ecosystem. That didn't happen.
END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT: Organizers viewed this week's Plug-in 2008, the high-profile conference in San Jose on plug-in hybrids, as a feel-good event. Consider its theme: "A Short Drive to Tomorrow."
Still, that didn't prevent a bit of gloom and doom from creeping in. Andy Grove, the ex-Intel boss who has become a plug-in hybrid advocate, filled his talk with words of war. The bloodiest battle of World War II was the siege of Stalingrad, where 1.5 million died. That battle was over access to oil, Grove reminded his audience.
Even gloomier was futurist Peter Schwartz, a Berkeley resident and chairman of the Monitor Global Business Network, who told conference attendees that "we've done essentially nothing" to combat climate change.
In his view, the world will add 2 billion to 3 billion more people by 2050, escalating a climate change that will ravage parts of the Earth. "Bangladesh is over," he said. The reality is we'll need many more coal plants to produce enough energy. Talk about inconvenient truths.
Got a tip for Tech Notebook? E-mail us at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:b305e630-cf14-4b6b-8cf9-2880a0bc061e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_10005400 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960958 | 715 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Dogged Pursuit by Robert Rodi
c.2009, Hudson Street Press
Dog lovers are a contradictory bunch. We bring home an adorable little bundle of fur called a puppy, aiming to make him a shining example of good citizenship. The applause will be deafening! Other dog owners will be envious! Little Pupsie would to learn not to jump on people, not to burrow beneath anything embarrassing and to never, ever climb on furniture.
Then, he’s taught to jump, burrow, and climb on furniture. It’s called “agility,” and in the new book, “Dogged Pursuit,” by Robert Rodi, you’ll read about one man’s leap into a growing sport and what it taught him about himself and his dog.
During a dinner party some years ago, Robert Rodi was telling fellow diners woeful tales of “raising a fiendishly intelligent, demonically driven Shetland sheepdog.” That was when Rodi learned about agility, a dog-and-human competition consisting of hurdles, tunnels, weaving poles, teeter-totters and platforms. Rodi started working with his dog, Carmen, and she was quite good at it. Unfortunately, she suffered a career-killing injury and had to be retired. But agility was in Rodi’s blood now.
He needed a new dog. After applying online for other dogs in his Chicago area, Rodi found Dusty, a scruffy, funny-looking “cryptic blue” Sheltie, available from a nearby rescue group. Although Dusty seemed to be almost indifferent to agility training, Rodi set out to make the pooch a pro.
Following agility classes, Rodi entered Dusty into competitions around Chicago, joining the All Fours agility group. The group was friendly enough, but Rodi felt uncomfortable, out of place, like he didn’t belong. Although Dusty had won a few ribbons early on, he started acting as if he didn’t know what he was doing anymore and his scores were embarrassing to Rodi. Agility was turning out to be more irritation than enjoyment.
Willing to try anything for the elusive alphabet soup that follows a champion’s name, Rodi consulted his teammates. He hired a “dog whisperer” and tried aromatherapy for the both of them. He tried to keep positive and focused, for Dusty’s sake. But anyone who’s ever loved a dog knows that you can’t teach a dog something the dog doesn’t want to learn. When Rodi took a break – literally – everything leaped into place.
“Dogged Pursuit” is funny and sweet, a true dog-lover’s tale with one caveat: while it initially appears that Rodi sees Dusty as a means to an end, it quickly becomes obvious that he adores the pup. But, while his readers are learning that, Rodi tells a story every dog owner has lived – that of trying to make a dog do something he won’t do for you, but is perfectly willing to do for someone else.
As the human Mama to a long line of like-minded canine couch potatoes, I looked forward to reading this book, and I’m happy to say it’s a tail-wagger.
If you’ve been jumping from book to book in search of something good to read, get this one. “Dogged Pursuit” is the pick of the litter.
The Supremes: A Saga of Motown Dreams, Success and Betrayal by Mark Ribowsky
c.2009, DaCapo Press
For most of your life, they’ve been in your background. When you were a child, their voices came from your parents’ record albums and you hummed along. As a teen, you turned up the car radio when they came on; Golden Oldies, but no less enjoyable. Later, they brought back fond memories of friends and the fun you had. Even now, they’re still in your background – in supermarkets, waiting rooms, and on-hold phone calls.
So, how much do you really know about Diana, Mary and Flo? In the new book, “The Supremes,” by Mark Ribowsky, you’ll get a good look at the women – and the men – that started a music revolution.
Although they grew up in the same Detroit housing project, Diane (her name as a child) Ross didn’t know Mary Wilson or Florence Ballard well until a part-time pimp and music agent re-introduced them in a seedy hotel room. Mary and Flo needed more voices for their “girl group”; the agent already had approached Diane and a girl named Betty McGlown about singing. Almost from the beginning, there was trouble amongst them.
Even though Flo had assumed leadership from the outset, Diane, according to Ribowsky, angled for the head spot in the group. Mary, it seemed, played a peacekeeping role by alternately siding with Flo, then defending her. McGlown left the group to get married.
Accounts differ as to how girls (then called The Primettes) came to meet with Barry Gordy, but Ribowsky says the meeting almost surely happened when Diane used her connection to Smokey Robinson, asking him for an introduction. Unimpressed after an audition, Gordy reportedly told the girls – then teenagers, and still in high school – to come back when they grew up.
Once signed on to Motown, the girls (later re-named The Supremes) rose in popularity, partly in thanks to the writing team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Diane began a long-time affair with Barry Gordy. Flo left the group after a not-very-well-handled meeting and died, nearly penniless, at 32. Cindy Birdsong (who replaced Flo) and Mary Wilson still perform together now and again.
Ribowsky says they no longer share a stage with Miss Ross.
Filled with stories of astounding chutzpah, betrayal, back-stabbing and deviousness, “The Supremes” is a scandal-lover’s delight. Ribowsky says in his introduction to this unauthorized biography that he had to winnow through countless other sources’ information to try to determine the truth, some of which we may never know.
Although I enjoyed reading this book, I couldn’t help but feel that it was the same old thing, but more of it. Ribowsky surely presents a well-researched account and there were a few surprises here, but if you’ve read any other book on the Supremes – whether by a Supreme or not – you most likely won’t learn much that is new.
Still, if “Baby Love” and “Love Child” have always been in your background, you shouldn’t miss this book. For diehard fans, “The Supremes” should be at the front of the reading list.
The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading since she was 3 years old and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books. | <urn:uuid:99a9f6ef-6f08-4f13-93b2-9b22e415a2cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/jul/22/dogs-divas-here-are-some-summer-reads/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97247 | 1,560 | 1.554688 | 2 |
When you think of serial killers you think of fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter or real-life killers like Ted Bundy. Both were smart and clever and got away with their deeds for many years. But are these killers really smarter than the rest of us or are they simply lucky? In truth, it’s often a little of both.
Take the case of LaMarques Devon McWilliams. For years the police in Houston Texas had been trying to trap a serial killer that was known as the Acres Homes Killer, a moniker hung on the killer because he had killed six prostitutes in the Acres Homes area of Houston. The police were baffled and had few leads.
Their break came when McWilliams got stupid. He apparently abducted another woman, placed her in the trunk of his car, and headed off to an area where he could rape and kill her. Unfortunately for him, his car became mired on a muddy road and he was unable to free it. So in his infinite wisdom, he forced his would-be victim to help him. He released her from the trunk, put her behind the wheel of a car, and he pushed from behind. This worked. The car worked free of the mud. Unfortunately for McWilliams, the woman simply drove away, leaving this brilliant serial killer standing in the mud.
McWilliams was arrested and his DNA was obtained and sent to the FBI lab. It took only 48 hours to match his DNA profile to that of the Acres Homes Killer.
As the great philosopher Forrest Gump said: “Stupid is as stupid does.” | <urn:uuid:82c097e3-5fc9-40b8-bd23-7f1f25d716f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.993838 | 324 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Consumers are demanding more products be made wheat flour, such as their morning bagels.
The baking industry is experiencing double-digit growth in both organic and whole grain products. Organic wheat flours are used in a variety of products, and improved whole wheat flour varieties also are finding their way into the market. These new flours often offer added health benefits, such as more fiber, and allow manufacturers to make new health claims.
Organic products have shown steady growth in the past decade, but the commercial baking industry seriously entered the organic market only recently. "Our company has been a participant in the organic market for several years, but in 2006, demand for organic flour outstripped the supply chain," says Dan Portley, senior vice president, sales and marketing for Bay State Milling, Quincy, Mass.
It is difficult for the supply chain to quickly react to the demand for organic flour. It takes three years for farmers to convert their fields to organic, challenging mills to keep up with demand. When it comes to organic flour, Pete Levangie, executive vice president, revenue and strategic planning at Bay State Milling, recommends that bakers approach it as a long-term partnership. "Developing an organic line requires collaboration, sharing the risk and compensating all levels of the supply chain."
The main issue limiting further expansion of organic bakery products in 2006 was not price but availability. According to Portley, drought conditions limited wheat production, but the recent snows in the western U.S., where much of the U.S. wheat crop is grown, provides a better outlook for supply in 2007.
ConAgra Mills, Omaha, Neb., has been an active player in the organic market since 2000. It offers a variety of organic soft wheat, hard wheat and whole grain flour. "Supply has not been an issue for us–growth in organics has been steady, and with our forecasting team, we have been able to meet demand," says Mike Veal, director of marketing for ConAgra Mills. "However, as with any sharp increase in demand, there can be a lag in supply, so planning is essential. We work with our customers from concept through test market so that our organic supply is in place to support a national launch."
Many bakers start with the objective of developing a "100% organic" product, but it can be difficult to source other organic ingredients, such as yeast. An alternative is to meet the "organic" requirements, which allows up to 5% of the total ingredients to be non-organic. To be "100% organic," the flour can not be treated, Levangie says.
When deciding which label to aim for, bakers must know their customers. An "organic" product may satisfy many consumers, but certain companies, such as Whole Foods, require "100% organic" products.
Another recent flour trend is whole grain, which is gaining serious momentum, and consumers are adopting more whole grain bakery products as part of their diets. The rise of whole grain consumption is not only a U.S. phenomenon, it is on the rise in Canada, as well. In Canada, whole wheat flour only needs to contain the endosperm and the bran, but to be considered whole grain flour, the flour must contain the entire kernel–the endosperm, bran and germ. "Therefore the emergence of whole grain has really opened up a new category for Canada," says Elaine O’Doherty, marketing manager for Horizon Mills GP, Rexdale, Ontario.
The initial growth of whole grains is attributed to major manufacturers, such as Sara Lee and George Weston, says Levangie. "Now the middle tier of cereal, snack food and specialty wholesale manufacturers are continuing to develop more products with whole grain," he adds.
When using whole grain flour, bakers may need to increase the amount of water in the formulas to compensate for the higher fiber, Veal says. He also adds that bakers may need to reduce mixing times because the bran in whole grain flour can cut the gluten strand. Adding gluten or dough conditioners also might be necessary to carry the additional fiber and maximize volume, he adds.
Bay State Milling has seen 30% growth in whole grain ingredients, and Levangie feels the next few years could see 20% to 25% additional growth per year. Growth in the whole grain flour market also has been spurred by new white wheat varieties.
Initially, white whole wheat was used primarily for breads and buns, but is now used in healthful snacks, sweet goods, cookies, bagels and tortillas. "The past year has shown a big push in schools and foodservice where whole grains and fiber requirements have become a point of emphasis. Using extra-fine white whole wheat presents very few processing challenges, especially for flat products, such as tortillas and pizza crust. In breads, where volume is more critical, other adjustments may be needed, including the use of dough strengtheners," notes Nick Weigel, director of bakery platform and technical services, ADM Milling, Overland Park, Kan.
White whole wheat also allows bakers to overcome consumer resistance to the perceived faults of whole grains. "Bakers have found that these varieties allow them to incorporate whole grains into baked goods while reducing some of the perceived detrimental sensory effects of traditional whole wheat flours," notes Kyle Marinkovich, marketing manager for Horizon Milling, Minneapolis.
Those detrimental sensory effects include the bitter flavor often associated with red wheat, the traditional source of whole wheat flour. "When working with red wheat flours, many bakers will use a combination of sweeteners to develop a pleasant flavor profile," says Weigel. Other adjustments include adding specialty proteins and fibers. Often bakers will use 1% to 3% (flour weight) wheat protein isolate, or add digestion resistant maltodextrin to complement the fiber of whole wheat flour, he adds.
The industry continues to find ways to improve flavor of whole grain products. Sunflower, spelt, triticale and other whole grains, as well as natural sweeteners like honey are being used to improve flavor and aroma, notes Levangie.
Much like organic labeling, bakers have to decide which whole grain label suits their customers’ needs, "100% whole grain" or "made with whole grain." The decision is often product specific, as some applications are more challenging to convert to whole grain, Weigel says.
Other healthful trends
Some traditional flours are taking on new roles, for example, identity-preserved varieties. Originally designed to improve food safety, identity preservation has evolved to include flours with specific flavor and bake characteristics, such as crunch and crust color. Planning and coordination with the flour mill can ensure that bakers achieve the ideal flour or blend of flours for their next healthful or niche product launch.
New products also are being introduced to add to the healthful aspects of bakery products. Horizon Milling’s GrainWise Wheat Aleurone is an allnatural ingredient derived from the aleurone layer of wheat bran, which contains a concentration of desirable nutrients. GrainWise contains 45% dietary fiber, B6, niacin, vitamin E, potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc and most major antioxidants and phytochemicals, says Horizon’s Marinkovich.
ConAgra, the maker of organic Ultragrain® whole wheat flour, also offers Sustagrain®, a whole grain barley product. Sustagrain features three times more fiber than oats and nine times more fiber than brown rices, Veal says.
With consumer demand for more healthful bakery products growing, and consumer awareness of health claims increasing, bakeries will have to meet the demand. Suppliers and bakers will have to work closely to meet consumers’ needs. | <urn:uuid:c8b89cd8-ec2b-456b-9216-59ec763ecdcd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://modern-baking.com/mag/mb_imp_16462 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949987 | 1,614 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Arts, sciences and humanities build healthier, more livable, vital communities. They are essential to a strong education system. They contribute enormously to our economy.
Duke Ellington’s acclaimed “Sacred Concerts” will be performed at 4 PM Sunday, March 17 by the Master Singers of Worcester, in cooperation with the WPI Stage Band and Jazz Ensemble and WPI Singers, with featured vocalists Monica Hatch, Theresa Thomason, and Jeff Ramsey along with Tap Dancer Josh Hilberman. The concert will be held at Alden Hall on the WPI Campus. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for Seniors and Students. For further info and tickets go to www.MSWMA.org or call 508-842-1349
Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an accomplished jazz pianist and composer originally from the Washington, D.C. area. In the last years of Duke Ellington's life, the jazz visionary explored the spiritual side of his amazing talents. Between 1965 and 1973, he wrote three large works that combined elements of jazz, classical music, choral music, spirituals, gospel, blues and dance. He called them his "sacred concerts," and they were initially performed in churches and cathedrals around the world. Ellington once said this was the most important music he'd ever written. Because of the demanding music and the large number of artists needed to execute each work, Ellington's sacred concerts have rarely been performed in the 38 years since his death in 1974. | <urn:uuid:9438be93-d5b5-48bc-8d3d-ac4f533d41d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wicn.org/node/21099 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970827 | 332 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Flu back in full blast in Lake County
Dr. Mark Drexler holds a vial of this year's flu vaccine at the Lake County Health Department's North Shore Health Center in Highland Park Friday. | Brian O'Mahoney~for Sun-Times Media
Updated: January 18, 2013 8:16AM
Winter-like weather may be lagging but the seasonal flu is back in full blast, arriving sooner and with more severity than usual.
Health officials report influenza-like illnesses have been circulating with a vengeance around Lake County and most of Illinois in recent weeks.
“We are seeing widespread activity much earlier than usual and an elevated number of cases of influenza,” compared with previous years, said Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The state doesn’t keep track of the incidence of influenza, because it is not a reportable disease. However, the agency monitors the data reported by doctors’ offices, emergency departments and nursing homes that report acute illness, as well as schools that report absenteeism rates, to determine prevalence levels.
By the first week of January, influenza had affected at least half the regions of 47 U.S. states. Illinois, one of the hardest-hit states, has endured widespread influenza activity since Dec. 9.
Last Friday the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the nationwide flu outbreak had reached epidemic proportions.
The virus shows no signs of up letting up locally. In Lake County, this flu season, six people have been admitted to intensive care units, and more than 230 tested positive for the virus, the county health department reported Friday.
Seven long-term care facilities have had influenza outbreaks, two of which occurred in the past two weeks.
At this time last year, the county health department recorded one positive flu test and one ICU hospitalization.
“We are seeing about 10 cases a day of flu in the ER,” said Dr. Jack Franaszek, medical director of the Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital emergency department.
“It’s certainly a bad season so far,” said Katherine Kirley, a family medicine specialist with NorthShore University HealthSystem in Highland Park.
One explanation for the uptick in cases relates to this year’s predominant flu strand, H3N2, which has been associated with more severe symptoms, explained Lake County Health Department Epidemiologist Victor Plotkin.
Early vaccination is another factor. Seasonal flu activity can begin as early as October and continue into May, but typically reaches its peak in January and February. Some people may have been waiting until January to get the flu shot, speculated Lynn Skelton, infection prevention manager for Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington.
Now, she said, “it’s definitely taking people off guard.”
A spike in absenteeism at schools in December hinted that the flu bug was back. By January, respiratory illnesses forced over a dozen Chicago-area hospitals to temporarily divert ambulances to other facilities due to overcrowded emergency rooms.
At the end of December, NorthShore’s medical group in Highland Park had an outpatient rate for influenza-like illness that reached more than 9 percent, Kirley reported. In past years the rate hovered around 4 percent.
Kirley said that most patients seeking ambulatory and outpatient services for influenza are not elderly but older children and young adults.
Unless flu symptoms worsen, however, most healthy adults don’t need to be seen by an emergency room physician. Kirley said encourages staying home from work and recovering with ibuprofen.
At NLFH, about 6 percent of the patients who come to the ER have the flu, Franaszek said.
Though flu is a main culprit for the rise in doctor visits, medical professionals say other viruses causing respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms are also causing people to fall ill.
“During the winter season a number of viruses are circulating around,” Plotkin explained.
But the “stomach flu” – a misnomer used to described illnesses that cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea – is not to be confused with influenza. Rather the flu is a viral respiratory infection that mimics symptoms of the common cold with increased severity. A high fever, headache, muscle aches and extreme fatigue are also signs.
Annual vaccination is widely recognized as the best protection against the flu. Healthy hygiene, such as frequent hand washing and covering a cough, are also important.
The CDC recommends the flu vaccine for everyone 6 months and older, especially people with underlying medical conditions, pregnant women and seniors over 65.
Medical professionals agree it’s not too late to get the flu shot to curb the virus’ spread since the end date of flu season is anybody’s guess.
“Unfortunately we only think of the flu once the season starts,” Plotkin said. “We need to remember we have good mechanisms in place to recognize the flu.”
With immunization, he added, “we protect not just ourselves but people around us.”
Linda Blaser, Susan Frick Carlman and Kimberly Fornek contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:9c6b867a-140f-4b83-9bc8-3f121db74edb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://highlandpark.suntimes.com/news/17564416-418/flu-back-in-full-blast-in-lake-county.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958181 | 1,077 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Abstract deadline Oct. 8; Symposium Feb. 15 – 17; Strasbourg, France
ISU has organized a three-day symposium as an interdisciplinary, international forum to help both the users and providers of space-related systems to move forward from the discussion of problems to the formation of solutions. This symposium will address the opportunities and possibilities offered by extending the operation of the International Space Station (ISS) to 2020. The proposed scope of the symposium includes not just the centralized theme of how to make best use of the extended ISS life, but also related issues of commercialization both in its resupply and operation, and perhaps in the establishment and operation of related Earth-orbit infrastructure. Contributions from the ‘Newspace’ sector, as well as from agencies, industries and academic institutions already involved in ISS construction and operation are anticipated. The program will include invited contributions from leading experts in the field, as well as presentations and poster selected on the basis of abstracts submitted in response to the Call for Papers.
Abstracts are now invited and must be submitted by Oct. 8th, 2010. For more information, please visit: http://www.isunet.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&Itemid=146 | <urn:uuid:a9f4fd0a-8a10-4d37-9713-8f0ec273733e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smdeponews.org/programs-events/call-for-papers-for-international-space-universitys-15th-annual-international-symposium/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94962 | 262 | 1.71875 | 2 |
My internet’s down, so I’m back hopping between free wifi cafe’s like I was in September. Hopefully when I’m back in the UK on Sunday I’ll have more regular access, and in the meantime I’m going to make the most of not having facebook as a distraction by getting some work done. But there’s some very important stuff going on. Check out the Quackometer for a great summary of what James Randi has foolishly done and a discussion of the same. Basically he’s admitted that he’s not qualified to know whether climate change is happening or not, but at the same time he’s thrown his lot in with a fringe group of denialists rather than with the scientists who’ve been working on this for decades.
Now this is both good and bad. It’s bad because he’s just given a big tasty bone to the denialists and he’s sullied the name of good skepticism by aligning us with climate change skeptics, who generally operate by quite different standards to the rest of us. We’ve been getting enough of that in the media simply because we’re skeptics commenting on climate change, they seem to assume that we’re skeptical of climate change.
But it’s also a good thing. The majority of skeptics do actually use an argument from authority on climate change. We quite happily defer to the scientists who know what they’re talking about on this issue, unlike most other issues, simply because most of us aren’t scientifically literate enough to form an opinion of our own. This is a good opportunity for skeptics to go off and do the research. It’s a good motive to do something which ordinarily might take a lot of time and effort for something which might not bear any fruit anyway. When I’m back online properly I’ll definitely be reading up a bit more and I’ll be sure to get a post up here about it. | <urn:uuid:b483cfc5-1c76-439e-bd4b-928bfc7e4f32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://notsofriendlyhumanist.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/randi-and-arguments-from-authority/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947137 | 425 | 1.53125 | 2 |
When the University of Hartford was incorporated just over 50 years ago by business and community leaders, they envisioned a center of education and culture for Greater Hartford. At its core, it would be a university for the community created by the community.
The University has come a long way since its humble beginnings on Hartford’s last remaining farm, evolving from a local school for commuters into a comprehensive university that attracts students from throughout the world. Yet it remains true to its original mission of serving as a valued resource for individuals, families, businesses, and communities throughout the Hartford region, offering hundreds of programs that serve the University and its neighbors every day. For close to 45 years listener supported WWUH has served an important role in the University's community service mission.
WWUH 35th Anniversary
On Saturday evening, November 15, 2003, over one hundred people got together to celebrate WWUH's 35th Anniversary. The party was held in the University of Hartford's 1877 Club, directly above the WWUH studios in the Harry Jack Gray Center on the university's West Hartford campus.
The evening festivities kicked off when WWUH founder Clark Schmidt took the podium. Clark, who is now a radio programming consultant, was a student in 1968 when WWUH first went on the air and was the person responsible for spearheading the radio station project at U of H. He was able to pull together a large group of students who would become the people who actually put WWUH on the air. Clark, who was the station's first General Manager, spoke for twenty minutes about what it was like to be involved with the "birth" of a radio station, and mentioned how proud he was with the way the station had turned out.
The night's next speaker was WWUH's current station manager and Chief Engineer, John Ramsey. John spoke about WWUH's history of excellence and the wonderful legacy that Clark and the thousands of volunteers who have kept the station on the air over the years have left. "Who would have thought in 1968, when the station first went on the air, that localism would be all but gone from the radio dial 35 years later, and the public's trust of the electronic media would be at an all time low."
Steve Berian (class of 1979) followed John at the lectern and, along with Clark Schmidt, announced the creation of a WWUH Scholarship Fund that will help ensure the future of the station.
Susan Mullis, the station's current Development Director, presented John Ramsey with a plaque honoring him for twenty five years of service as WWUH's Chief Engineer.
Over sixty present and former staff members were present for the event, including four former WWUH General Managers: Clark Schmidt ('69), Judy Corcoran ('73), Patty Kurlychek ('80) and Dale Maine ('81). | <urn:uuid:a7c92a1f-b4c4-4f32-8fdd-b73d931c78c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wwuh.org/index.php?q=history/0065-wwuh-35th-anniversary | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973732 | 584 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Professional Development | Infinity Style
What is Infinity-style Professional Development?
Infinity means going to a concert, play, performance or exhibit by professional
artists. It means discussions and artistic explorations with artists, fellow educators, and master teachers. It means you might be infected with renewed facility for growth, the thrill of expanded vision, and the passion to go to Infinity and beyond!
Where did Infinity come from?
Infiity came from the desire of many leaders in the arts community in our state to create a way to work together as artists, professional companies, and educators to preserve and strengthen our cultural legacy, traditions, and the creative impulse.
How does Infinity model work?
- Pick an event and just go! E-mail or call the person listed as the contact person about getting a ticket.
- Teaching ideas?
Workshop is free for those who attend the event, including the pre-event and reflection chat.
Credit is earned by completing the entire Infinity track as shown in the above, including collaborating with another educator who attended.
- Do you have to do the whole Infinity track to participate?
No. All educators are welcome and encouraged to participate in Infinity at whatever level they desire. Those who are just interested in the left loop can request licensure points for the portions they complete. Infinity events also fulfill endorsement requirements for candidates who have secured prior approval.
How do I Produce an Infinity Event?
An Infinity initiative is a collaboration between two state agencies (UAC and USOE) and you, the presenting community. Final approval must come from one or both of these agencies. It is our desire that every community have Infiity events to foster lifelong learning and participation in the Arts. More information. | <urn:uuid:5f67c6a8-fffb-4781-a778-3bbebd87cf84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://schools.utah.gov/CURR/fineart/Professional-Development/Infinity.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947061 | 356 | 1.625 | 2 |
The winners of Connecticut Community Care, Inc's 2007 Senior Poetry Contest were honored recently at an event in Plantsville. The contest judges chose twelve entries from among 495 poems submitted by 190 seniors, aged 65 to 99 from across the state. WNPR's Catie Talarski sat down with several of the winners to talk about their poetry.
Bob Jacob received honorable mention for his poem Wall of Laughter. For the past six years, he has read poetry (loving words) to patients and family members at the Connecticut Hospice Hospital in Branford. He recently published a new book of poetry, Perspectives, which contains 62 poems from his experience as a Hospice volunteer. All proceeds from his book benefit the The Connecticut Hospice.
Listen to Bob Jacob talk about volunteering in the hospice, and read his poems Wishes and Thanks, At Bedside, and A Connecticut Hospice.
More poetry read by Bob Jacobs:
Connie Magnon-Albrizio received an honorable mention for her poem If Only. She wrote the poem because each of us neglects at some time a simple act of kindness that might comfort a suffering soul. A resident of Windsor, Connecticut, she has been married to the same man fifty-five years - mother-grandmother-great grandmother. She sees poetry as a wonderful discipline; confining a thought, or message, or observation to clear brief words enriches every writing form. She is in the process of publishing a book of poetry.
Listen to Connie Magnon-Albrizio talk about why she writes poetry, and read her poem Ah Yes.
More poetry read by Connie Magnon-Albrizio:
Alvin M. Laster received second place for his poem Blind Child at the Piano. Laster is a World War II and Korean War veteran. He has been a pharmacist, an army counter-intelligence agent, a dentist for 26 years, and a writer for 29 years. He is a freelance writer and a published and anthologized poet. He has done op-ed pieces for the New York Times Connecticut Sunday section. He was awarded a CT Journalism award from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1989. He was included in a Random House Collection of Young Poets at age 18.
Alvin talks about his inspiration for Blind Child at the Piano, and reads the poem
Listen to Alvin talk about why he loves poetry.
More poetry read by Alvin M. Laster:
Epistle - Laster's 21st Century poem | <urn:uuid:a7937abf-3d61-4f55-9483-8986dfec11d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cpbn.org/senior-poets-discuss-their-art?mini=calendar/2012/11/all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975358 | 514 | 1.5 | 2 |
Selling textbooks is a common practice of college students who want to earn money and get rid of their used textbooks. If you want to sell online, make sure to avoid the common mistakes that will mean less sales for you.
Nowadays, lots of websites are offering to buy books at higher rates sometimes than what your neighborhood bookstore pays. If you want to sell textbooks online, make sure to avoid these common mistakes that might mean lower prices for your books or worse, no payment for them:
- Leaving behind the supplemental materials – publishers are wise enough to include a lot of extras with books to justify their high prices. If you want to sell back your books for higher rate at the end of the semester, make sure you include everything that came along with your book. This way, the online bookstore can resell or rent out your book as a whole set, making everyone involved happy. Besides, what are you going to do with that CD or pamphlet anyway?
- Selling at dubious sites – just like if you are to buy online, you would want to look for reputable sellers in order to avoid being scammed. If an online bookstore offers you a ridiculously high price for your book and this is a site no one has ever heard of, then beware. Instead of making money from your books, you might just see your valuable investment gone in an instant.
- Selling books in bad condition – obviously, if your book is in horrible condition – meaning with stains, ripped pages and such – no one will ever want to buy it. There are some acceptable damages or writings on books – make sure you read the conditions set by the bookstore before you sell textbooks online. Otherwise, you are just wasting your and the bookstore’s time trying to sell a book they will never buy. Instead, you could’ve supported a charity and donated it instead.
- Not packing books properly- if your book is in great condition now and you pack it loosely to be shipped halfway across the country, then say goodbye to your book and your money. Remember that your book will be subject to mishandling along the way, and make sure that it survives the trip still in great condition so you can still receive the full price for it.
- Payment method – if you want to be paid online and instantly, don’t be stupid and get upset if there are deductions. There are transaction fees that accompany any online payment. Instead, opt to have the check mailed to you.
These are very simple things you need to avoid when you sell textbooks online, and in turn, you can then fully enjoy the money earned from your old textbooks.
Image by Enokson | <urn:uuid:6de0eb2a-003d-444f-a30a-7b4757cc8681> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.bookgator.com/2012/07/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966282 | 539 | 1.515625 | 2 |
MASERU, Lesotho -- Advocates of corporate accountability are pointing to the sweeping implications of a landmark verdict delivered Tuesday by the High Court in the tiny kingdom of Lesotho that a Canadian multinational company was guilty of paying bribes to win contracts on a dam project.
Probe International said that Tuesday's conviction on corruption charges of engineering firm Acres International, based in Ontario, Canada, could change the way in which multinational companies undertake projects, such as building dams, in developing countries.
"The Lesotho verdict is significant and has sweeping implications, including the potential to eradicate the widespread corruption we see happening in large-scale development projects involving multinational firms in developing countries," Probe's executive director Patricia Adams said Tuesday from the organization's Toronto office.
Following a seven month trial and a judgment that took three days to read out, Acres was convicted by Lesotho's Chief Justice Lehohla on two counts of bribing an official to secure contracts on a multibillion dollar dam scheme in the impoverished Southern African country.
Acres was found guilty of paying over US$260,000, through an agent, to Masupha Sole, the former chief executive of Lesotho's Highland Water Project. Acres will be sentenced on October 7.
Sole was convicted earlier this year of receiving the bribes during his tenure at the World Bank funded $8 billion project, one of Africa's biggest engineering works involving dams and tunnels to divert water to neighboring South Africa and generate electricity.
In a press statement issued Tuesday Acres said it was "shocked" by the decision and continues to "strongly declare its innocence of the charges." The company said it will take "vigorous action to protect its good name" and would immediately begin an appeal.
Acres's defense is that it had no knowledge that its agent was passing on money to Sole, a claim rejected by Judge Lehohla as a strategy to cover up bribery.
The firm's lawyer Milos Barutciski criticized the verdict for running counter to a two and a half year World Bank investigation which concluded in February by dismissing corruption claims due to lack of evidence.
"The Lesotho court went to extraordinary lengths to act in complete disregard of a massive volume of evidence collected during the World Bank's extensive and thorough investigation that found that Acres was not guilty of corruption," said Barutciski.
Campaigners are now demanding that the World Bank, which funded the Lesotho water project, follow through on its own promises to get tough on companies found guilty of corruption by striking Acres off its list of approved contractors. Bank policy prevents it from doing business with any firm found guilty of corruption on one of its contracts.
"We expect the Bank to disbar Acres now that they have been found guilty of corruption on a World Bank contract," said Ryan Hoover of the Berkeley based International Rivers Network. "Anything less than disbarment would undermine not only the World Bank's own corruption policy, but also its poverty alleviation objectives."
Acres was the first of several Western contractors to enter the dock in the high profile corruption trial first brought by Lesotho authorities in 1999. Two other firms, Germany's Lahmeyer International GmbH and French firm Spie Batignolles, have been charged with bribery and are awaiting trial.
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project, one of the world's largest infrastructure projects, is a multi-purpose undertaking between the mountainous Kingdom of Lesotho and South Africa which completely surrounds the smaller country.
More water is needed by South Africa's arid Gauteng province, which is expanding rapidlybut has only the single source, the Vaal River. Johannesburg is located in Gauteng, over 40 percent of the country's population lives in the province, and some 60 percent of all industrial and 80 percent of all mining output is generated there.
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is reversing the flow of the Sengu/Orange river in the rainy highlands of Lesotho directing the water into the Vaal River. This is being accomplished by means of five dams, 200 kilometers (124 miles) of tunnels blasted through the Maluti Mountains, and a 72 megawatt hydropower plant.
Construction began in 1984, and the first dam, Katse, began delivering water in 1998. Mohale, the second dam, is now in the final phases of construction. The entire project is expected to cost US$8 billion by the time of its completion in 2020.
Current donors and lenders include the World Bank, Development Bank of South Africa, African Development Bank, the European Development Fund, various export credit agencies, and European commercial banks.
The Lesotho verdict comes in a week when the newly formed African Union is meeting in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to draw up a pan-African blueprint to fight corruption, which it says costs the continent an estimated $150 billion each year.
Original story written by Penny Dale. Published in cooperation with the OneWorld Network.
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Jun 1 2012
An excerpt from Countdown to the Second Coming
In spite of terrorismand looming war clouds in the Middle East, the prospect of a peace such as the world has never known seems to be a realistic hope. That the nations of the world will indeed establish an unprecedented international peace, and perhaps fairly soon, is certain, because the Bible has for thousands of years foretold a false peace in the last days.
That time of peace is prophesied, however, not with joy but with sorrow, for the prophets declared that it would precede a holocaust that would threaten the survival of all life on this planet. Why? The answer to this question comprises the entire subject matter of the Bible, which in fact prophesies the coming of two periods of global peace. The first will be realized for a time under the Antichrist, and the second will be established by the return of Jesus Christ in power and glory to rule this planet where He was so cruelly rejected and crucified.
Earth’s war-weary inhabitants will greet the first period of peace ecstatically, convinced that the Millennium has dawned. And, for a time, it will appear that the world’s economic, social, and ecological problems have been solved. That will, however, be a great delusion. Biblical prophets have warned that this false peace will usher in the Great Tribulation (after Christ takes His church to heaven in the “Rapture”) and will culminate seven years later in the most destructive war in earth’s history—Armageddon! In somber revelation, the apostle Paul declared:
When they [the world, not true Christians] shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians:5:3)
On the one hand, it seems incomprehensible that international peace at last attained should be the prelude to disaster. Yet what else could result from a “peace” established by Antichrist? As always, so today, the world’s leaders pursue their negotiations among themselves in utter disregard for the essential role that must be played by the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. If mankind could by its own efforts establish a just and lasting peace, it would disprove the Bible—which declares that true peace can come only through Jesus Christ reigning upon earth. In fact, all such humanistic attempts are doomed by man’s inherent sinfulness.
Where Are the Voices of True Peace?
Are we suggesting that the world’s leaders shouldn’t even attempt to achieve global peace? Of course, they must try. But those who are not Christians, driven by necessity to pursue every possible means to establish peace, don’t realize the futility of their efforts. Christian political leaders, of course, are also compelled to join their secular colleagues in pursuing world peace. At the same time, they must declare solemnly and clearly to the rest of the world that the only true hope for global peace is to repent for having violated God’s laws, to receive Jesus Christ as the Savior who has died for the sins of the world, and then to ask Him to come back to this earth to reign.
Where are the Christian political leaders with the courage to do so? And if they did, who would listen? To stand fully for Christ without any compromise would end any political leader’s career.
Peter explained to the first Gentile converts after Christ’s resurrection that peace was to be preached through Jesus Christ (Acts:10:36). To most of today’s Christians, that is a radical thought. What pastor or evangelist on radio or television today is preaching global peace through Jesus Christ? Paul declared that this peace was both “to you which were afar off [Gentiles] and to them that were near [Jews]” (Ephesians:2:17)—and that this peace was only possible through Christ having died for the sins of the world (2 Corinthians:5:18,19).
Those who set out to establish international peace through a world government over which the Lord Jesus Christ is not invited to reign are necessarily on the side of Antichrist. They are preparing the world for his rule, whether or not they recognize or acknowledge that fact. Such is the danger that attends all earthly efforts to establish international peace and unity.
The Delusion of Ecumenism
There are only two persons who will hold absolute rule over this world. The first is the Antichrist and the second is the Lord Jesus Christ. Every person must choose between these two antagonists and their opposing kingdoms. There is no neutral ground.
Those who suggest that we can retain the idea of Christ’s return to reign over Planet Earth as the symbol of some “spiritual truth” suitable for all religions deny the very foundation of the Christian faith. Christianity is based upon the claims that Christ made about Himself and the eyewitness accounts of His life, death, and resurrection as recorded in the New Testament in undeniable fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. The distinctions that make Christianity unique are irreconcilable with any other religious belief, and any attempt at ecumenical unity is a denial of biblical Christianity. Consistent with the distinctiveness of Christianity, the Bible also teaches that peace will not come to this world through the triumph of Christ’s teachings , but only through His personal return to reign from Jerusalem . In fact, His teachings cannot be separated from Himself. That was the very challenge with which Jesus confronted the Jewish religious leaders in His day:
Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. (John 5:39,40)
How dare anyone think that a world ripening for judgment can be rescued by Christians working together in political/social activism with the followers of all religions, and with humanists and atheists! Scripture says repeatedly that nothing but the personal and physical return of Christ to this earth can put an end to its wickedness and suffering. Paul declared that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together” as it longs for a release that can come only through “the manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans:8:19-22). Paul makes very clear what this means: That only when Christians have received their immortal bodies and are glorified with Christ (verses 23-25), ruling and reigning upon this earth with Him, will earth be delivered from its turmoil and pain.
The last days before Christ’s return are indeed prophesied as a period of growing evil, error, and spiritual delusion, manifested in both the world and the professing church. There are also, however,
indications in Scripture that in the last days, millions of people around the world will receive Christ as Savior and Lord, thus hastening His return. Many of them will be the most unlikely candidates for salvation—New Agers, drug addicts, prison inmates, communists, Muslims, Catholics, the poor and outcasts of society—as Christ seemed to indicate in the parable of the great supper:
Then the master of the house being angry [at those who accepted his invitation, but failed to come to the feast and tried to cover up their unwillingness with pitiful excuses] said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. (Luke:14:21-23)
Evangelicals tend to present the gospel exclusively as a remedy for personal sin and the procurement of an eternal home in heaven. They generally neglect to proclaim it as God’s means of bringing peace to this troubled planet, as did the angels at the birth of Christ and as did the early church. It is the duty of every Christian political leader, whether president, ambassador, or other official, to make very clear to the entire world that all human efforts to achieve peace are in vain unless Jesus Christ is invited back to this earth to reign in individual hearts and over all nations.
Viewing Current Events Through Scripture
From the perspective of biblical prophecy, extreme caution is in order, rather than the popular euphoria, in appraising the recent introduction of new freedoms in communist nations and improved relations with the West. We dare not neglect the guidance of Scripture in evaluating current events. And if we will heed God’s Word, we will see that what we have been witnessing increasingly around the world could well be leading not to the solution of mankind’s problems but to history’s greatest disaster.
How can we make such a definite declaration? Isn’t it dangerous to attempt to correlate current events with biblical prophecy? Indeed it is. Nevertheless, if Bible prophecy concerning the “last days” is truly inspired of God, the time must come when what the prophets have written describes current developments.
The euphoria of millions freed from communist rule in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union was quickly followed by the misery of even worse poverty. Government oppression was replaced by increasing lawlessness, the influx of cults, the explosion of incipient immorality, corruption, and occultism. The Eastern republics witnessed an Islamic takeover with accompanying terrorism. Is history repeating its endless cycle? Humanistic hopes for a new and bet-ter world seemingly find justification in technology’s amazing promises. Yet biblical prophecy offers sober insights to those who will give heed.
William Manchester’s gripping biography of Sir Winston Churchill confronts us with unpleasant and haunting reminders of Hitler—a man who came extremely close to being the Antichrist, and who deceived the entire world for a time with his promises of peace:
Thomas Jones, who had been in and out of Whitehall for a quarter century, wrote in his diary: “...all sorts of people who have met Hitler are convinced that he is a factor for peace....”
Meeting the press after he had been closeted with Hitler for an hour, Lloyd George said he regarded him as “the greatest living German....”
Arnold Toynbee...equally spellbound by the Reich chancellor, declared that he was “convinced of his sincerity in desiring peace in Europe and close friendship with England.”
Winston Churchill was not deceived by Hitler, but he stood almost alone in warning the world that the Fuhrer’s real intentions would envelop Europe in war. Looking back with the clear view we now have, it seems incredible that the leading figures of the day were almost unanimous in their praise of the irrational demigod who had become Germany’s leader, and in their confidence that peace was assured. The deception was well-nigh universal. Yet the rising political star whom everyone praised was a dangerous megalomaniac who would one day take his place with the most inhumane monsters in history. Moreover, he had frankly revealed his evil designs from the very beginning, in Mein Kampf and other writings, and in his speeches. Yet so hopeful was the world for peace at any price that almost no one was willing to face the painful truth.
So it is today. Like Churchill in England, Netanyahu is one of the few Israeli leaders who was not deceived by Arafat’s promises at Oslo. He wrote: “…my party and I were virtually isolated in our warning that Arafat would not keep his word…. We were widely castigated as enemies of peace…. Our argument was that handing Gaza over to Arafat would immediately create a lush terrorist haven….” Of course, he was right.
History has proven again and again that international leaders can be both mistaken and misunderstood. Key events can be badly misconstrued. Assurances of peace and security can seem never more certain than when the world, in fact, is teetering on the very brink of disaster. On the other hand, the worldwide terrorism still unchecked despite another Gulf War...and continuing hopelessness in Israel, could very well be the necessary catalyst to bring about the prophesied false peace. The unforgettable statement by Tajikistan’s ambassador to the UN at the UN’s emergency session in the wake of the devastation on September 11, 2001, may well be prophetic: “Nothing else in history or even conceivable could possibly unite the world as this event.” [Except, perhaps, another national or international cataclysm which will galvanize political support for the globalist agenda to establish a New World Order.]
Unfortunately, truth in politics is almost impossible to uncover—which makes it all the more important that we discern what the Bible says. If ever there were a time when we needed to ask God for wisdom and seek to understand what His Word has prophesied for our own day, it is now. | <urn:uuid:dc1d8743-2456-449e-8345-4614237a4712> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebereancall.org/content/june-2012-classic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96549 | 2,724 | 1.804688 | 2 |
How to Salvage Your Family Holiday Gathering.
At the holidays, many people look for tips on how to overcome various miseries, often having to do with family.
Much as I would love to, I don’t have “Eight Simple Ways to Have the Best Holidays Ever,” or some such.
The truth is, our families trigger our biggest stuff in ways almost no one else can, and while my work does address those triggers in profound ways, I can’t help you unlearn them before Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Festivus.
But I still have a way to help you! What is possible is for you to gain more understanding and compassion for yourself and for those around you through the next few weeks. You just need to remember to ask yourself this question when you are in a frustrating or painful situation:
“What am I afraid of and/or what are they afraid of?”
It might seem like the answers could get pretty complicated, but actually, our negative stuff falls into a few general categories that simplify things. Here are the main fears we have about our ability to express ourselves in the world:
I don’t matter to others.
I can’t fit with others exactly as I am.
No matter what I do, I can’t win others’ approval.
As hard as I try, I will never be perfect or good enough.
As hard as I try, I can never achieve what matters to me.
These fears create the necessity for ways to cope with or control them. Early in life, our brains come up with a survival mechanism that becomes our knee-jerk reaction when our fears are triggered intensely. These coping mechanisms also fall into some basic categories:
To survive, I need things around me to be what I define as the “right” way. People with this pattern tend to see things in black and white, and they often vehemently reject anything or anyone that isn’t the “right” way for them.
There is an ideal way things should be and I have to work hard to make sure that my “pretty picture” is maintained. People with this pattern often say “everything is great” and we often look at them and think their lives are perfect. But, it takes hard work to maintain their ideal and if flaws are pointed out, they tend to feel threatened and react negatively.
Everyone need to do things “my way” and I survive by telling everyone how to do things. This person is the know-it-all and when triggered, tends to just take over. They usually feel incapable of succeeding in personal relationships, so focusing on tasks and telling others how to do things is their only comfort zone.
I need everyone around me to be happy and taken care of. This is the people-pleaser. They often guess at what they think will make those around them happy and try their best to provide it, often while neglecting themselves. It’s not unusual for this person to feel invisible, unloved, or used at the end of a family gathering.
Nothing ever works for me, and I’ll say anything to prove it. This is the person who first tells you everything that’s going wrong for them and then, if you try to point out something that is good in their lives, they’ll give you 20 reasons why it’s not. Or, they’ll respond to your news with how their life is worse or they could never have such a good life as you do.
To prove that the future will be better, I need a crisis happening now. This person might seem just like the one above, but they’re always trying to overcome what’s going wrong for them. Because they rely on crisis to survive, you might even see them blowing something out of proportion.
You might spend some time thinking about the people you’ll be getting together with at the holidays now.
Which of the fears above tend to get triggered for you when you’re around them? And, can you recognize your survival mechanism from the second list? Did you realize that all of this is just based on the fear that something is wrong with you being just the way you are?
Now, spend some time thinking about each of those people, again. See if you can recognize the fears that they tend to have triggered and what their survival mechanisms are. Can you see how they—all of them, even your know-it-all uncle or “perfect” sister—are just afraid that something is wrong with them being just the way they are? Seeing behind my own mask or others’ masks in this way always helps me in situations that feel uncomfortable, intimidating, or just plain annoying.
If I could wave my magic wand over you and your family members, I would reveal to you the beautiful uniqueness each of you has to share. You might spend a few more minutes thinking about what uniqueness you could share in the next few weeks. You might then imagine that the holidays have passed, and you really did get to share that uniqueness with others. And, that it felt great to do that. And, that everyone around you said how happy they were that you were in their lives. And, that you came to appreciate your family members in new ways, also. And then, you might imagine (and I know you’re going to laugh at me, but just try it) that you had a great time and can’t wait for the next family gathering.
I hope that if you’re dreading the holidays, that you’ll keep this all in mind and give it a try. Be sure to comment below after the holidays have passed and let me know how it went!
Ed: Lynn Hasselberger
Like elephant family and elephant love on facebook. | <urn:uuid:d43224ac-4a13-4ab2-a6e3-bc1f4cc96677> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/12/how-to-salvage-your-family-holiday-gathering/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974496 | 1,227 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Public relations are all about the successful communications. People are sociable beings. That is the reason why communications can do so much for any business, large or small. The saying goes ?it cannot hurt you what you do not know about.? However, such approach can be rather harmful in any business. If you want to stay in business, you have to know all about communications, your target audiences and the best ways to inform them about you, for if they do not know you, it may not harm them, but it will definitely harm your business.
You may ask ?What can public relations do for my company?? The answer will be simple: they can tell your story to your target customer audiences and can help you not rely on the others to build up your corporate reputation and company image, since the perceptions people form about your company will determine their actions towards it. It means that if you want to change the actions, first you have to change the perceptions that motivate people, and the relations communicational tool is exactly what you need to accomplish this task.
The ex-journalist Robbie Vorhaus was the first person in the communications business to give public relations a one word definition. It is a ?storytelling?. The Vorhaus & Company PR agency was founded and based on the principle that the storytelling is the heart of public relations. This public relations shop was created back in 1989 by its president Robbie Vorhaus. Three fundamentals of the Vorhaus & Company's PR strategy are a business storytelling, a brand building and reputations management. The Vorhaus & Company PR agency's corporate culture is based on victory, fun and achievements of measurable results for its clients through carrying out high quality public relations campaigns.
The Holmes Report has acknowledged the Vorhaus & Company PR agency as ?Best 50 PR Agencies to Work For" and "Best Physical Work Environment." Both people and companies choose to work with Vorhaus & Company, as they can relate to this public relations agency's corporate culture and work philosophy. The client list of this agency includes such companies, as Colavita USA, Domino's Pizza, DuPont, Independent News & Media, Russell Stover Candies, Sculley Brothers and Zipcar.
As it has already been mentioned, the main approach of Vorhaus & Company to public relations is a business storytelling. Robbie Vorhaus applies a classic storytelling technique to the business communications. A successful business storytelling can make happy everyone: the media, your key audiences, your business partners and consequently your company. Since, it allows all the above mentioned parties to attain what they want. Media people get a nice story for their news, your key audiences get some fresh insights and valuable information, your company's stakeholders get extra evidences of your credibility and your company gets some good free publicity. That is the power of a successful business storytelling, applied in public relations and that is the philosophy the Vorhaus & Company PR agency is guided by in running their business. | <urn:uuid:8cbc5b27-62d0-4d63-bace-5ebd387fff0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syl.com/bc/auniqueapproachofvorhauscompanyagencytopublicrelations.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954055 | 599 | 1.617188 | 2 |
According to a new report from GfK, consumers that own iOS devices like iPads and iPhones are much more likely to stick with their current platform for any new devices. The well known research firm says that 84% of iPhone owners plan to get another iPhone when they upgrade, well over four fifths.
This compares to Android which weighs in at 60%, and Blackberry at 48%, under half of the current owners. Despite NPD’s flawed report suggesting otherwise, it appears that there is not such a large consumer base looking for alternatives.
One of the concerns that customers voiced about device usage is the importance of having access to all their content on every Internet enabled device they own. Such functionality was recently introduced with Apple’s iCloud, which lets consumers music and apps sync across all devices enabled on a single account. At least in some cases, it seems as though Apple’s infamous control over both hardware and software has its advantages. | <urn:uuid:3aa47097-ef7c-45f3-b317-d73e1c6bc008> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jailbreaknation.com/new-study-shows-ios-customers-more-loyal-than-android-blackberry | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975666 | 193 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Merchants tend to put the majority of their social resources into sites like Facebook or Twitter, but it might be time to shift some of that social focus to Google+.
This is because having a profile on Google’s emerging social network makes a brand more visible in the search results. In fact, a study from digital marketing and analytics provider Fathom reveals that only 24 percent of the brands on Millward Brown's 2012 BrandZ list actually triggered a Knowledge Graph entry when searched for on Google, and the information for 92 percent of those entries came directly from Google+.
Furthermore, Google+ has been gaining momentum with the public and now has 135 million active users according to a recent blog post from the company. This influx of users could be the result of Google+'s interactive features and tools that make it easier for brands to connect with people across the Web, such as the new Google+ Communities.
What is Google+ Communities?
Google+ Communities allow Google+ users to create social groups based on specific topics or interests, such as sports, photography or fashion. The Communities can be customized to be public or private, which means that users can create Communities that span across broad categories like cooking to narrow topics like local neighborhoods.
Although some might compare Google+ Communities to Facebook Groups, Google’s platform actually appears to have the advantage. This is because Community members can connect with each other by launching or participating in Hangout video chats or by scheduling Community events. Moreover, members have the ability to share content directly with Communities via the +1 button.
Who should leverage Communities?
While any type of Web worker can create a Community, merchants might be the biggest beneficiaries of this new feature. Chances are that the content from Google+ Communities may eventually make its way to the search results, especially since Google has been working hard to interconnect all of its services and Google+ already has a big impact on the SERPs. Additionally, fostering a community around a brand can help merchants establish authority in their niche, build better relationships with customers and acquire more brand advocates.
For example, a pet store retailer can create a Community for local pet owners. Within this Community, members will be able to upload images of their kittens, schedule puppy play dates or participate in a Hangout video-chat for puppy training tips. Conversely, a clothing retailer’s Community might include consumer-generated photos and videos that feature customers' favorite outfits, event information for the brand’s next fashion show or a fashionista Hangout for members to discuss hot up-and-coming trends.
It is also important to note that even though Google+ Communities officially launched last week, only a handful of brands have taken advantage of this feature. This means that merchants can stay a step ahead of their competition by leveraging this Google+ feature. But before you create your first Community, take some time to get inspired by the examples below:
This automobile Community already has more than 3,000 members and features six different types of discussions. So far members have leveraged this group to post pictures of their cars and ask questions to other Audi owners.
The Call of Duty Community has more than 1,200 members and features three different types of discussions. It is a good place for gamers to connect with each other away from the television screen, as well as ask questions about the game or give out tips for success.
The Knitting Lodge Community was launched by Yarn Mountain as a place where crafters can connect with people who have similar interests. The Community features 13 different discussion topics, and an event was already launched for Community members. | <urn:uuid:295fb325-f127-4074-ad08-bb9b6227e127> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/ecommerce/archive/2012/12/10/google-communities-for-merchants.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951903 | 732 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The Georgia Regents Medical CenterTeen Board is an important part of our volunteer program. The purpose of the board is to utilize our community teenagers in a meaningful way by assisting in activities that benefit patients, families and community served by the Georgia Regents Health System.
The Teen Board is comprised of seven teenagers, ranging from 15-17 years of age. Membership selection is made from a pool of teens who have participated in our annual Volunteen Program at least once. In order to become a member, volunteens must be invited to join the board, selections can occur throughout the year.
The Teen Board meets once a month and all members are expected to attend and participate in at least 80% of the meetings, planned activities and events. Each year we select new projects to participate in and develop new goals for the Teen Board. Some of the Teen Board's past activities include:
- Walk for a Cure
- Georgia Regents Medical Center holiday decorating
- hosting parties for Children’s Hospital of Georgia
- assisting with preparations for Camp Rainbow
- obtaining contributions for the Bread Basket Buddies project and other special needs units
- interest shares
- assisted hospital greeters
- wrappred holiday gifts for the Salvation Army. | <urn:uuid:d3cc6c2b-23ef-43f0-b986-4ecb1f4fe541> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grhealth.org/GhsuContentPage.aspx?nd=1327 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946322 | 251 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The Monte dei Paschi di Siena saga is not just an Italian affair. Revelations that complex financial transactions used by the country’s third largest bank had the effect of hiding losses are causing a political storm in Italy.
With a general election only weeks away, Silvio Berlusconi looks like being the main winner from the political spat. The former prime minister’s camp has attacked Pierluigi Bersani’s Democratic Party, which is leading in the opinion polls, for being close to Monte dei Paschi (MPS). It has also criticised Mario Monti, the current prime minister, who agreed to increase MPS’s bailout to 3.9 billion euros.
The scandal won’t be enough to get Berlusconi back as prime minister. But it could prevent a Bersani-Monti coalition from running the country with a solid majority in both houses of parliament. If so, fears about Italian political risk could return to haunt the markets.
The still-murky saga has also put Mario Draghi under the spotlight because the ECB president ran the Bank of Italy when MPS was getting into such a mess. Giulio Tremonti, who was finance minister in Berlusconi’s last government, tweeted that it was “stupefying” that Draghi had failed to discover or prevent the complex transactions.
The Italian central bank’s defence is that, while some of its supervisors knew about the transactions, it did not know that they were linked to other loss-making operations because key documents were hidden from it. What’s more, even though it was worried about MPS’s weak risk management, it didn’t have the power to fire bank directors, despite Draghi requesting the last Berlusconi government for such authority. Its moral suasion did, though, eventually help remove the old MPS management last year. | <urn:uuid:cd295393-ca2c-4ab5-a130-c1d68012ab6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/hugo-dixon/2013/01/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970818 | 395 | 1.625 | 2 |
CRYSTAL LAKE — A program exploring women's issues will be offered March 4 at McHenry County College in celebration of Women's History Month.
Women in Management, the Crystal Lake branch of the American Association of University Women, and MCC have teamed to offer a look at the past and plan for the future, starting with profiles of history, then a selection of breakout sessions and ending with lunch. The program is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"The program is planned for women to celebrate, get together to look at women's issues and to network," said Molly Walsh, conference center coordinator at MCC. "We will celebrate women's accomplishments and look at our futures."
Breakout sessions include topics such as growing up female in America, health issues, keeping a journal and women in law. The featured keynote speaker, Renee Ferguson, will speak about choices for the future.
The $25 fee covers the program and lunch. For information call Walsh at 815-455-8697. | <urn:uuid:d0e42fbe-2c11-4cb8-9190-372a09d13352> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2000-02-23/news/0002230351_1_mcc-university-women-celebrate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95636 | 211 | 1.632813 | 2 |
How Things Work
Joe Yates lives at the intersection of science and art. He is a writer, a visual artist and a musician who is also on the premedical track. A biology major from Tampa, Florida, Joe is considering a career in neurology.
“I like knowing how things work,” Joe says, explaining his interest in brain function.
“And being a creative person, I like to present obscure knowledge in interesting and creative ways.”
That explains his fascination with xkcd—a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language written by a former robotics scientist at NASA—and his own forays into the iconography of intelligent life. Joe writes, draws and paints comics that reflect in a whimsical and hyperbolic way his college experiences and the people he encounters. Look for his upcoming site, “Side Effects May Include,” on a computer screen near you.
To his delight, the Rose O’Neill Literary House recently brought two webcomics authors to campus. “Students here have the opportunity to connect and interact with internationally renowned artists and writers,” Joe notes, “so we have a better appreciation of what it takes to go down the creative path.”
A rower in high school, Joe chose Washington College on the advice of a family friend. “I was hoping to find a college where I could be as smart or as obscenely obscure in exploring academic matters as I wanted and no one would think the lesser of me for it.” The College has supported his efforts to combine high arts and the high sciences in a creative track, and fellow students embracing the notion of “geek chic” have spawned new student club, the Guerilla Musical Theatre Troupe, of which Joe is vice-president. The troupe, whose mission is to “startle and entertain the unwary masses via the method of song and dance,” recently offered a street performance of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
There’s a lot of artistic talent at Washington College—much of it unnoticed. As president of the Artists Union, Joe is spearheading an effort to archive and digitize student work, and then display it in academic buildings across campus. “My goal is to help the institution support the artists here,” he says. | <urn:uuid:b6b71285-a0bf-430b-afa0-f9741ff89d31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washcoll.edu/live/profiles/2828-joe-yates/details/profile_alumni.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973995 | 489 | 1.679688 | 2 |
|Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York|
United Nations continues to Meet Today’s Challenges, Secretary-General Reaffirms
in Remarks to Round Table of Swedish Non-governmental Organizations
Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the round table of Swedish non-governmental organizations, “How can the UN meet the challenges of today?”, in Stockholm, 2 October:
It is a pleasure to join you. Non-governmental organizations are crucial partners of the United Nations. They act as society’s conscience and are often in the lead when it comes to getting things done.
The diversity of representation from the Swedish non-governmental organization community today reflects the broad range of United Nations interests. It is testament to your country’s commitment to multilateral engagement at every level. Thank you for your engagement.
Last week saw the opening of the sixty-fourth United Nations General Assembly. Heads of State and Government came from around the world. They listened to speeches -- some longer than others -- attended side-events and engaged in bilateral discussions. I liken it to the World Cup of diplomacy. All the big issues of the day were on the table -- disarmament, the financial crisis, the Millennium Development Goals, peace and security, and climate change
The summit I convened on the day before the General Assembly debate attracted more than 100 Heads of State and Government. It mobilized political will and reinvigorated the negotiating process in the run-up to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December.
The Security Council also held a summit, only the fifth ever and the first devoted to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Later in the week, United States Secretary of State [Hillary Rodham] Clinton and I co-chaired a high-level forum on the important subject of food security. In the same week, I attended the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh to ensure that the United Nations perspective -- the United Nations of 192 Member States -- was represented. I also met with many Heads of State and Government from all regions at United Nations Headquarters. With some I discussed how they can increase their support to the United Nations and further the objectives of the Charter. With others I had the less pleasant task of engaging them on issues where they are out of step with the shared goals of the international community.
I offer this snapshot of a busy week in the life of the United Nations to answer the question posed for this round table. How can the United Nations meet the challenges of today?
What we saw last week was the spectacle of the United Nations as a stage, with Member States making their voices heard on the great issues of our age. The United Nations remains the primary arena for addressing them. As well as being a stage, the United Nations is an actor. We provide food to 108 million people in 74 countries. We vaccinate children and work with Governments to prevent and prepare for pandemics, such as the H1N1 flu that is sweeping the world. We help refugees and others fleeing war, persecution, famine or persecution, and we help to keep the peace. And we help to establish international norms and laws so we can safely and effectively work, communicate and trade together.
So, in one sense, the answer to the question of how the United Nations can meet the challenges of today is simple -- the United Nations is meeting them. Whenever doubting voices suggest otherwise, a new challenge arises for which only the United Nations provides a credible forum for decision-making and an effective mechanism for response.
When the tsunami struck, all eyes looked to the United Nations for help. When Iraq needed democratic institutions to help it consolidate a peaceful future, the United Nations was called in. Whenever conflicts need resolution and peace needs to be forged, the United Nations is called in. We currently have 116,000 peacekeepers in 17 operations around the world.
When the ozone layer was threatened, a United Nations convention provided ground-breaking answers. Principles elaborated under the ozone treaty -- such as common but differentiated responsibility, funding for technology support, and close collaboration between Governments and the private sector -- will provide a basis for a lasting solution to climate change.
Of course, no organization is perfect. That is why, from my first day, I have worked to build a stronger United Nations for a better world. We aim to create a more modern organization -- faster, more flexible and more effective in delivering on the growing demands placed on it. That means smarter management of resources. Greater transparency and accountability. Common-sense reform.
But ultimately, it is the Member States of the United Nations who will decide how, and how well, we can meet today’s challenges. Lasting answers will require leadership, such as Sweden is showing on a range of issues, and it will require multilateral cooperation.
The past year has seen multiple global crises – food, fuel, flu, financial. Each has highlighted our interdependence. Each has emphasized the importance of multilateralism -- a renewed multilateralism that delivers real results for people and nations in need. Climate change, perhaps our greatest challenge, will require flexibility, ambition and trust among nations. Like so many of our challenges, it emphasizes one major point: we sink or swim together.
I am therefore pleased to be here in Sweden, a country that embodies so much that the United Nations holds dear. I am especially pleased to be able to meet with you, representatives of non-governmental organizations. In everything we do, civil society is an invaluable partner. You help to set the political agenda, and you help us to implement solutions in so many countries and in so many ways.
On that note, I would like to invite your questions and your comments.
* *** *For information media • not an official record | <urn:uuid:7d1ba5c3-0abb-4e43-bec2-2edf26720379> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2009/sgsm12512.doc.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945642 | 1,189 | 1.71875 | 2 |
On his election to the papacy, Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose to name himself after Francis of Assisi because the 12th-century saint "is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation," Pope Francis said Saturday.
"How I would like a church that is poor and for the poor," he told about 5,000 journalists gathered for an audience with the pope.
Recalling the moment when the cardinals were counting the votes of the secret election to elect the pope, Francis said he was sitting next to Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Archbishop Emeritus of Sao Paolo, Brazil, "when things were looking dangerous."
When the votes in Bergoglio's favor reached 77 votes -- the two-thirds majority of the 115 cardinals required to attain the papacy -- Hummes, Francis said, "embraced me and kissed me and said: 'Don't forget the poor.' "
"And those words came to me: the poor, the poor," Francis said, pointing at his head. "Then, right away, thinking of the poor, I thought of Francis of Assisi. Then I thought of all the wars, as the votes were still being counted."
"Francis is also the man of peace. That is how the name came into my heart: Francis of Assisi. For me, he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation; these days we do not have a very good relationship with creation, don't we?" the pope asked.
Francis of Assisi "gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man who wanted a poor church," the pope said. "How I would love a church that is poor and for the poor."
Francis' remarks on his choice of papal name came as he departed for almost five minutes from the text he had prepared for the occasion, saying he understood there had been some confusion over whether he meant to honor St. Francis Xavier, St. Francis De Sales, or St. Francis of Assisi with the name.
Laughing several times as he spoke, Francis at one point folded the prepared texts and placed them on his lap so he could gesture widely.
Francis also joked that some had suggested he take the name Pope Adrian after 15th-century Pope Adrian VI, who was known as a Vatican reformer.
Others, Pope Francis joked, had suggested he call himself Clement XV in order to rebuke Pope Clement XIV, an 18th-century pope who suppressed the Society of Jesus, Bergoglio's religious order, in 1773.
Francis is the first pope elected from the Jesuits. Pope Pius VII reversed the suppression, which was largely seen as political and not theological, in 1814.
Francis had begun the address by addressing the journalists as "dear friends" and by thanking them for their work covering the conclave that led to his election.
He said he understood it could be difficult sometimes to communicate what the church was doing -- for example, in the way it elects a pope -- because the church "does not respond to an earthly logic" and "the nature of the church is spiritual, not political."
"Christ", Francis continued, "is the center, not the successor of Peter."
"Christ is the reference point at the heart of the church; without him, Peter and the church would not exist."
The Holy Spirit, Francis said, inspired the events of the past days.
"It was he who inspired the decision of Benedict XVI for the good of the church," Francis said. "It was he who inspired the choice of the cardinals."
The pope also said journalists' work "calls for careful preparation, sensitivity and experience, like so many other professions."
"But it also demands a particular concern for what is true, good and beautiful," Francis continued.
"This is something which we have in common, since the church exists to communicate precisely this: truth, goodness and beauty," he said. "It should be apparent that all of us are called not to communicate ourselves, but this existential triad made up of truth, beauty and goodness."
The new pope concluded the audience with the journalists by offering his apostolic blessing in silence.
"Not everyone present belongs to the Catholic faith and others do not believe," the pope said.
"I respect the conscience of each one of you," he continued, "knowing that each one of you is a child of God. May God bless you."
Pope Francis' next scheduled public appearance is for the traditional Angelus prayer Sunday, which he will give from the papal apartment though he does not yet live there.
The new pope will be installed formally during a Mass on Tuesday in St. Peter's Square. Dignitaries from around the world are expected to attend, including U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
[Joshua J. McElwee is an NCR staff writer. Follow him from the Vatican on Twitter at twitter.com/joshjmac .]
See below for video from Catholic News Service of the pope's remarks Saturday. | <urn:uuid:7b8b3d06-6933-4432-b127-a9a32db68775> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/print/blogs/pope-francis-i-would-love-church-poor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980973 | 1,063 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.1230 Thursday, 3 December 1998.
From: Laurence R. Baker <
Date: Wednesday, 02 Dec 1998 22:11:13 -0500
Subject: Re: Don John
We are told in Much Ado that Don John "has of late stood out against"
Don Pedro. In a summary of the scene, the New Folger Library Edition
suggests that Don John was "defeated" by Don Pedro in the "just-ended
war." I can't see any reason for supposing this. Does anyone have a
suggestion as to the nature of their past quarrel?
Laurence R. Baker | <urn:uuid:8c5f484d-a225-430d-b33d-1f9db8293023> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shaksper.net/archive/1998/144-december/7303-don-john | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944962 | 142 | 1.75 | 2 |
David Paxson is a national leader on the issue of population growth and stabilization and founder and president of World Population Balance. From their vision statement: "We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth's finite resources."World Population Balance is further defined by their Mission Statement. "We alert, inform and educate that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, and rising poverty. To avoid more misery, catastrophe, and death, we advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable population."
David Paxson has spoken to audiences across the country and the world including the 1994 UN Population Conference in Egypt. Paxson has dedicated his life to educating the public on population issues. His philosophy is:"He believes that as people learn the realities about the current impact of rapid population growth upon declining global resources, they will take fair and humane action to help stop world and national population growth in order to maintain a viable planet for our children of the future." Paxson believes all people regardless of religious, political and social views can work together to solve overpopulation, and today he talks with the atheists, humanist and freethinkers.
This is David's second appearance on Atheists Talk.
Scott Lohman will interview David, and Steve Petersen is the host for today's show. Production and direction by committee.
Atheists Talk is produced with funding from the Minnesota Atheists, the Humanists of Minnesota and the generous support of our members and donors. We also wish to thank Q. Cumbers restaurant for purchasing on-air advertising and for providing a great place to eat and gather.
Listen to AM 950 KTNF on Sunday at 9 a.m. Central to hear Atheists Talk, produced by Minnesota Atheists. Stream live online. Call in to the studio 952-946-6205, or send an e-mail to email@example.com during the live show. | <urn:uuid:09664b76-69aa-4a8e-8418-9c3e0051fc6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mnatheists.org/news-and-media/podcast/636-world-population-balance-david-paxson-on-atheists-talk-128-august-14-2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938851 | 424 | 1.59375 | 2 |
BAGHDAD — "The Dalfiyah family mourns the deceased, Mohammed Nafil Akseer al Dalfi, father of Jassim, Qassim, Hashim and Bassim. The funeral will be held at his house in Habibiya in front of the power supply station."
It reads like an obituary, but in Iraq, only the deaths of the rich or well known appear in the newspaper.
Instead, this announcement, scrawled in white and yellow Arabic on a black cloth banner, hangs at a busy intersection in a popular shopping district in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood. It was strung up by a relative of the dead man it honors the day after a double bombing killed nearly two dozen people there.
This is the way almost all Iraqi families announce the deaths of relatives. When a loved one dies, hanging the banners is the first order of business.
If it was a violent death, as many here are, a banner is hung at the scene of the attack. Another is nailed up at the victim's house, another along the main road into his neighborhood and perhaps another at his mosque.
They are always made from black cloth, and the names of the dead are always painted in yellow. The other details — a list of relatives left behind and the place and dates of the funeral — are usually painted in white. Most banners are around four feet long and three feet wide.
It is a custom that existed here long before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, but over the last five and a half years, the banners have taken on new meaning. They are an informal measure of security, a way for residents to gauge whether their neighborhood is becoming more or less dangerous.
Between 2005 and 2007, at the height of violence, the banners blanketed Baghdad. They still hang on buildings and blast walls across the capital, but in far fewer numbers.
"There was a time when you could see one almost everywhere you looked," said Mohammed Hussein Abbas, a high school teacher from Baghdad. "The banners were everywhere."
About 350 Iraqi civilians were killed in violence across Iraq last month, half as many as a year ago.
"The walls of the hotel on the corner there used to be covered," said Abbas, pointing. "Of course people are still being killed, but not as many."
As soon as a family receives news of a death, one or two relatives are usually asked to handle the funeral banners, often cousins, nephews or uncles of the deceased.
Most banners are hand-painted by professional sign makers. Each one typically costs about $4; families who bring their own cloth are charged a dollar less.
Banners can be painted and dried while mourners wait, usually in less than half an hour.
"Even though my business has gone down, I am happy," said Ali Kasim Hashim, who earns his living painting funeral banners in a small Baghdad shop he shares with his father, a portrait artist. "Security is the most important thing for Iraq, so I don't mind having fewer customers."
Last year, when there were four bombings on the street where Hashim works, his business boomed. Now he supplements his work by making signs and advertisements for nearby shops.
"Once in a while, if there is an attack close by, lots of people will come for funeral banners," Hashim said. "But usually I only see a few each week."
Most banners are hung within a day of the death. Sometimes families arrive to post them at the scene of an attack before the last bodies are even carried away.
Sometimes they are hung with rope, sometimes with a hammer and nails.
If the deceased was a Muslim, as most here are, his banner will almost certainly include a verse from the Koran. Banners for Christians bear crucifixes.
Sometimes a funeral banner will tell how its honoree died. For a long time in Baghdad, banners rarely displayed causes of death unrelated to violence.
Zadan Khadiyer, who recently came home to the capital after fleeing in fear to Kirkuk, said he is glad to see fewer banners for people killed in fighting.
"For so long all you saw written was, 'This person has been killed in an attack. He is a martyr,'" Khadiyer said. "It's good to see other kinds of death again."
(Corinne Reilly reports for the Merced (Calif.) Sun-Star. McClatchy special correspondents Hussein Kadhim and Sahar Issa contributed to this story.)
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY | <urn:uuid:b056a7ab-0031-40b1-9cda-aae5c53e63ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/10/05/53491/fewer-black-funeral-banners-blanket.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979337 | 946 | 1.625 | 2 |
The Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship was founded in 1976 to be a place where committed Christian thinkers from across the academic disciplines could reflect and write about pressing issues of public concern. Over the years its support has enabled scholars to produce some eighty-five books, several of which have gone into second editions, as well as numerous articles, lectures, conferences, and public presentations. The vision of its founders and the efforts of its participants have made the CCCS a recognized leader in the growing international project of intentional, self-critical Christian scholarship.
The Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship exists to coordinate and provide leadership for the project of advancing and improving intentional Christian scholarship at Calvin College. "Intentional Christian scholarship" means research and reflection that deliberately bring the resources of the Christian faith to bear upon a subject, whether by scrutinizing the fundamental premises of a theory or a field; by elaborating the ethical consequences of social structures, research methods, or ways of thought; by creating imaginative or artistic works; or by helping Christians understand their world better through the critical appropriation of new work being done in the academy.
Some Calvin Center projects contribute to the common good by increasing society's store of knowledge. Many Calvin Center projects have aimed to bridge the gap between first-order thinking and ordinary-world perceptions and behavior. They have especially tried to bring academic expertise to a generally educated audience by addressing issues of lively concern in the church and society as well as in the academy. This commitment in itself is a Christian responsibility, reflecting the church’s ancient dictum that theologians—and by extension all Christian thinkers—work in service of the laity.
A similar commitment lies behind the CCCS’s encouragement of collaborative projects. By virtue of their common convictions, Christian scholars have a rare chance to overcome the fragmentation of the modern academy and to demonstrate the church’s familiar self-image of many parts working together as one body. Past Calvin Center teams have produced books beyond the capacity of their several members, and this pattern continues to provide a model for present and future projects.
The Calvin Center’s most important resource remains individual Christian scholars who are committed to making their research and reflection advance the cause of biblical wisdom, reformation, and human flourishing. At the same time, the CCCS encourages individual scholars to seek out colleagues from diverse traditions with whom they can work together to pursue first-rate thinking for the benefit of experts and laity alike. To this end, the Center supports the work of Calvin College faculty as well as cooperative projects that engage the resources of scholars and agencies from many traditions within global Christianity.
In its first decade, the Calvin Center funded teams of five to six scholars to produce individual books, each on a single theme designated by the college faculty. Some of these were pathbreaking volumes that went into multiple printings and helped define Christian thinking or practice in a field: Earthkeeping: Christian Stewardship of Natural Resources; Dancing in the Dark: Youth, Popular Culture and the Electronic Media; After Eden: Facing the Challenge of Gender Reconciliation. In its second decade, the diverse interests of the Calvin faculty led the Center to fund several smaller-scale projects per year, with stronger participation from the social sciences. These were still interdisciplinary team projects. Now that requirement has been lifted, and the Center is free to support single scholars and work within a single discipline as well as the traditional interdisciplinary teams.
With this greater flexibility the CCCS is now seeking partners in funding and research expertise to help harvest the great potential that Calvin scholars offer via their networks around the country and around the world, as well as in their own right. While CCCS projects must have a Calvin faculty member as principal investigator, the Center has the liberty, the experience, and the commitment to bring together believers from many institutions to work on issues of common concern from a shared body of Christian insight.
The Calvin Center is the sole beneficiary of an endowment which is used to fund research by Calvin College faculty and their collaborators. With a capable support staff that is experienced at running conferences and consultations, the CCCS has a very high rate of successfully completed projects. The list of Publications demonstrates the range of publishers as well as subjects.
The Governing Board of the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship is appointed by the Committee on Governance at Calvin College and makes all descisions relating to Major Grants, Small Grants, and Working Groups. | <urn:uuid:42ae83cd-d78d-44dd-b61f-a6910dca4493> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.calvin.edu/admin/cccs/about.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957383 | 899 | 1.757813 | 2 |
a- Should I continue to learn Silverlight, or change my mind to HTML5?
b- HTML5 has an equivalent to Silverlight RIA Services? Whatís its name?
c- Can you recommend a book to learn to develop HTML for business projects?
Why Iím asking these questions:
Iím currently maintaining an Intranet website made in ASP.NET (C#), but for new projects I
want to change to a new technology, because:
- I want to have my curriculum updated so I can have more work opportunities.
- I want to use a technology that will not be deprecated in near future.
I am currently reading a very good book that teaches you how to create Silverlight
Business oriented Web sites. For the moment, Iíve learned to create very basic user
interfaces that are able to call RIA services via Domain Context classes, and thus, read
and update data on the server. I could say that I have read ľ of the book.
But all this time I had voices on my head telling me that Iím maybe on the wrong path, as
on a lots of forums, people says that Silverlight will be dead in the next future, as
Microsoft has declared that they made a shift to html5, and the support for Silverlight
will be for a limited amount of years, and no newer versions will be developed.
So I cannot permit myself to waste my limited time in learning anything that will not be
What do you recommend, please Ö? Here and there, people ask similar questions, but the
answers they get depend always on the profile the person that answer has. If she/he is
ĎMicrosoft.net used-toí, will recommend Microsoft. If not, HTML5.
But for the time being, I donít have a concrete and impartial answer. My mind is fully
confused about what to learn in Developing stuff, as never was, as far as I can remember.
There is a lot of demand of Silverlight in the Local Market especially in the USA. Lots of clients are looking for a Silverlight Development to the Website Application. It something really amazing that if you learn it. One of my friend is an Silverlight Developer with C# language.
Thanks for your answer, but here in Spain if you look at a very important job website for the word 'Silverlight' you find 60 offers, but if you look for 'html5' there are 600+. So... Is it another 'unforeseen consequence' of living in Spain, or something similar happens there in the USA ?
Roger, I am talking about the future. There demand would be grown as per the mobile app has been grown. I have better experience in the Mobile App Development. But However some of my colleagues which are Business Developer are preferring to do focus over the Microsoft Technologies because they got a lot of requirement related to the Silverlight.
I would say that you need to certified in the Silverlight if you need to grow your salary and designation.
It won't hurt you to learn Silverlight today; however, for the long term, HTML5 could be the better long term choice. HTML5 is getting more attention by Microsoft and others. With Windows 8, Microsoft has even indicated that HTML5 is a good way to go.
One key is to look at an MVC approach to building applications. Separate your views from the business and other logic. If you do that, it will be easier to swap between different display approaches (Silverlight vs HTML).
We (the people running this site) think HTML5 is important enough that we built a development center at http://www.htmlgoodies.com/html5. The growth on that site is great.
I've a few good HTML books, but none that jump out as being 'the html5' book yet. Let me ask a few people what they think are good books. | <urn:uuid:3fb8b066-6443-44f7-8267-441af0ed9727> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?272547-html5-or-Silverlight&s=9a0dbdc4b1334693b7030084ce8e9684&p=1250333 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953199 | 819 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Evangelos Venizelos thinks twice before saying more or less anything. The man who helped pull off the biggest debt restructuring in world history in the continuing attempt to keep a Greek bankruptcy at bay speaks with all the caution of the constitutional law professor he was before he went into politics.
But only days before Greeks go to the polls, the bullish former finance minister is in no doubt that Sunday's election is the "most critical" the ailing country has faced since it returned to democracy in 1974.
"The battle will be decided in the last few days," he said in his first major interview with a foreign newspaper since assuming the helm of the socialist Pasok party in March. "The Greek people will have to give a clear answer as to whether it wants [to follow] a pro-European course, which is safe and responsible, or something else."
If it elects "something else", the country that sparked Europe's escalating debt crisis will not only be turning its back on the "progressive reforms" to modernise its moribund economy, it will be choosing to throw the eurozone into deeper turmoil.
Venizelos admits he is worried. Although surveys show that more than 75% of Greeks remain ardent supporters of the euro – despite the steep pay and pension cuts many have endured in more than two years of grinding austerity – a great number, he says, also appear to be labouring under "certain misconceptions".
"There are certain misconceptions that worry me: for instance, the misconception that whatever happens we are not going to leave the euro," he said, adding that with so much at stake it was crucial Greece's "political stability" was ensured at the ballot box.
"Europe and the eurozone have no reason, rationally, to push Greece out of the euro. But this is a system in which many parties, many countries, many governments, many electorates participate and we could have events which, rationally, are not controllable," he said.
With Athens' near-empty coffers blamed squarely on a corrupt and discredited political elite, polls have revealed a dramatic drop in support for mainstream parties that back the stringent terms of EU-IMF rescue loans keeping the economy afloat and in the eurozone.
Trapped in a fifth year of recession, the worst since the second world war, and with little light at the end of the tunnel, Greeks appear ready to throw their weight behind "anti-bailout" extremists, including the far-right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) which is poised to clinch 5% of the popular vote.
"We mustn't allow Greek society to become fascist and nor can parliament host followers of neo-nazism," said Venizelos. "It's absurd and a pity that people who are despairing and bitter, who are unemployed and have lost their businesses, should be persuaded by such policies."
It is not lost on Venizelos that bitterness and despair are the byproducts of austerity measures that he was forced to adopt when he was appointed finance minister following widespread criticism of Athens reform efforts last year.
Draconian cuts, new taxes and record levels of unemployment have taken a toll on support for the country's entire political establishment, but none have been hit harder than Pasok.
The party, which vaulted into office with a landslide victory in 2009, has seen big defections of supporters amid successive rounds of belt-tightening forced on public sector employees, its traditional power base.
Surveys show four out of 10 Pasok supporters are among an unprecedented number of undecided voters. "There are over a million without work … no family does not have someone who is unemployed," said Venizelos, conceding that he, too, had relatives "with many qualifications" who could not find work.
The prospect of yet more spending cuts in June, when the new government will be called to announce an extra €11.5bn (£9.3bn) in savings in line with its latest €130bn loan agreement, has stoked further anger and added to the sense of suspense the election has engendered.
"To a great degree the battle will be decided within Pasok," said Venizelos, whose elevation to the post of party president was another episode in the unfolding crisis that cost the job of his predecessor – the former prime minister George Papandreou.
"We want to convince these people that despite their bitterness and dashed hopes … they should again support Pasok," said the 55-year-old, whose leadership has helped revive the party's fortunes, even if it is still trailing the conservative New Democrats in the polls.
Up until 20 April when polling data was banned in line with Greek election law, surveys indicated the country's two mainstream forces combined could win less than 50% of the vote – compared to the near 80% they captured in the last election in 2009. Instead, Greeks appear more likely to cast ballots in favour of a range of extremist fringe parties on the left and right with hardline communists and other radical leftists set to gather as much as 30% of the vote.
Greeks had shown "great courage" in the sacrifices they had made and they were beginning to pay off. "I would say we are more than two-thirds through the crisis," Venizelos said. "We started with a primary deficit of €24.5bn and are now at €2bn … but we have to be helped to break the vicious circle and support for Greece in terms of development [from the EU] is, in this respect, is very important."
Neither New Democracy nor Pasok, locked in a fractious power-sharing arrangement since last November, have much room for the pre-election promises of old. To date, the socialist leader's biggest pledge is that he will ask the EU and IMF to allow Athens to prolong adoption of the latest cuts through to the end of 2015, rather than 2014. For Venizelos the country is still "at war". For the man most associated with the tortuous negotiations that have seen €108bn of Greek debt written off in a massive bond exchange, it is a war that could have been avoided if Europe had sounded the alarm earlier.
Instead, he says, little Greece was left to act as a "laboratory of history", just as it was in the 1940s when the Greek civil war between communist and anti-communist forces put it on the frontline of the cold war. "The alarm bell should have rung earlier. We should have done things that we didn't understand [we had to do] because we weren't forewarned and, in this, institutions in the European Union and the eurozone bear some responsibility."
Because the financial failings were discussed only at a prime ministerial level, or among finance ministers and central bankers, the magnitude of the crisis was misunderstood when it eventually erupted beneath the Acropolis in late 2009. "We had the feeling it was a conventional crisis, like a flood or an earthquake," he said. "We didn't understand it was like a nuclear disaster for the economy and that basic elements of financial policy had radically derailed." An economy in freefall, political instability and the prospect of fascism rearing its ugly head were not what the constitutional law professor had in mind when he went into politics.
Nearly four decades after the collapse of military rule, 31 years after Athens' accession to the-then EEC and 11 years since its adoption of the euro, Greece's chaotic state was "a reversal of the rules of history", he said.
For those, like him, raised with dreams and visions of the politics of anti-junta opposition, the crisis came as a huge shock. More than once he had felt "as a refugee" in his own land, with the spectre of living standards dropping to those not seen since the 1950s and 60s a chilling reminder of what economic mismanagement could bring.
Navigating the country through the turmoil had involved sleepless nights and, says the self-declared Churchill fan, learning the art of self-control.
"I never thought I would see this happen. My generation grew up thinking that every year things would be better," he said. "And now there have been several years where things have got worse and the distance between [us] and other European countries is growing … It's been a very difficult experience. The responsibility and the anguish have been huge." | <urn:uuid:4d159400-9c5a-4519-8495-06c7a4cc426e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/30/greece-elections-evangelos-venizelos?INTCMP=SRCH | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980687 | 1,725 | 1.507813 | 2 |
What Could Be Sadder?
What could be sadder than a young family of four, including two children, a mother and a father, that loses their main earner? It can only be made sadder when that person didn’t have life insurance. This means that the surviving spouse and children cease to receive that income.
Texas Life Insurance is Necessary
In general, life insurance is not costly. Its main purpose is not as an investment vehicle. In fact, in both Texas and Louisiana, the law prohibits marketing life insurance as an investment or a source of retirement income.
The purpose of life insurance is to assist your beneficiaries or dependents in maintaining their standard living after you pass away.
As you might suspect, families with young children are the ones who need life insurance the most. That’s because children depend on the incomes of their parents or guardians to survive. It’s a good idea to have life insurance on all of the earners in the household.
In general, there’s less of a need for life insurance when the children are earning on their own. Single adults may not need it unless they are single parents or supporting someone like an elderly parent.
Texas and Louisiana Life Insurance Experts
There are two main types of life insurance—term and cash value.
- Term Life- These policies are defined by a term and a cash payout if the policy holder passes away during the term. For example, the amount may be $200,000 on a 20 year term.
- Cash Value- These policies cost more than term life. That’s because, in addition to a death benefit, they accumulate savings that can be cashed in or borrowed against.
Obtain a no obligation quote for the insurance that best fits your situation. A life insurance pro will contact you to determine the best life plan for you.
Texan Insurance is Texas based. We know and understand life insurance. We’ll help you make the most favorable life insurance decision. | <urn:uuid:1d1e6e27-b15b-4a4e-a7d8-03251508bc90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.texaninsurance.com/insurance-quotes/life-insurance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949856 | 411 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Leslie Moen met Forest Walton a couple of years ago when he moved to Harrisburg from Oregon.
The first thing she noticed was how incredibly sweet the young redhead was. The second was the wheelchair.
Hes honestly the sweetest boy I ever met, Leslie said. He used to could walk, but now he cant, and he doesnt let that get him down.
Forest has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a degenerative disease that attacks voluntary muscles and has no cure.
His mother, Sherri Gotcher, said the type of muscular dystrophy that Forest has means his muscles dont grow. They just deteriorate, she said. Boys with the disease can generally walk at first but are soon mobile only by wheelchair.
When Forest began using a wheelchair, a family in the area donated its wheelchair-accessible 1992 Dodge Caravan. The van now has close to 200,000 miles on it, has had transmission rebuilds twice and engine work multiple times and recently, a window fell out. Gotcher doesnt work outside the home; she cares for Forest and has significant health issues of her own. So Leslie, a 16-year-old junior at Hickory Ridge High, where Forest is a freshman, decided to organize a 5K race Sept. 24 in Forests honor, hoping to eventually raise $30,000 to $40,000 to get a new wheelchair-accessible van. After the race, in Facebook event posts, Leslie estimated the total raised at about $10,000, and promised we are going to work hard on other fundraisers ASAP.
For Gotcher, what Leslie is doing is amazing. I was not expecting this at all, she said. For a 16-year-old to do this on her own ... shes just a shining star in my life right now.
- Maggie Reeder | <urn:uuid:00bd4165-aad4-4766-8020-709c9affdb7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/10/04/2663106/a-little-help-from-his-friends.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964983 | 377 | 1.59375 | 2 |
By Mitch Tuchman
The retirement advice industry, like any growth business, is chock full of competitors. People write books offering seven rules, three steps, 10 commandments and so on. What tends to get short shrift, in our view, are the benefits of asset allocation.
The rules you read about are right, in a sense, but they're also all wrong, too. After all, if someone could tell you with certainty how much money you needed to retire, they also would be implicitly telling you that nothing in the future will change.
You won't get sick and need care. Your kids won't seek financial support as adults. There will be no market crashes nor natural disasters. Inflation won't spiral out of control. The economy you think you understand today will look and feel exactly the same to you 30 years down the line.
The benefits of asset allocation are that correctly balanced assets tend to fend off these upheavals. Asset allocation keeps you invested regardless of what you might think is the right investing idea now. Which it almost certainly isn't.
I don't mean to scare you. Look, it's scary enough to even ask yourself these kinds of questions. But it's important to ask, and important to try to come up with some reasonable answers, at least to start. That's where the benefits of asset allocation kick in big. It allows you to worry less about how you get there and more about taking decisions today to get started.
Fidelity Investments, for instance, recently put a number on retirement: eight. You will need eight times your final annual pay to be able to survive retirement in the most basic way. No frills, just getting by.
That's a pretty frightening number for most people. Consider a mid-level corporate employee making, say, $48,000 and who essentially ends his or her career at about that mark.
What Fidelity is saying is, come up with $384,000 by retirement age — or suffer. Trouble is, that person probably has about $25,000 in his or her 401(k). Dispiriting, to say the least.
If our mid-level worker got some raises along the way and made it up to $74,000 a year in pay, as Fidelity assumes, now we're talking about nearly $600,000. Just to get by.
We've talked about the magic retirement number recently, and for a person making six figures at retirement age, it's really more like $3 million. If you have saved from a young age and have a couple of factors going your way already, it's achievable, thanks to the compounding benefits of asset allocation. And it's far better than getting by, of course.
Interestingly, it's also far above the numbers we get from two other sources cited by The Wall Street Journal:
Christopher Jones, chief investment officer of Financial Engines, which provides services to 401(k) participants, says someone making $150,000 a year at retirement might need 12 times his salary to maintain his standard of living.
The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College took a crack at the problem in 2010. It estimated that people making $150,000 to $200,000 needed to save three times their salary at age 45 and 10.3 times their final pay at age 65.
Using the number from Jones, you get $1.8 million. Using the Boston College data, it comes to over $2 million.
As you might have guessed, the bottom line here are the assumptions you make and how you define "comfortable." One of the key benefits of asset allocation is that safe compounding can help you make your number.
Of course, a great many people will be perfectly okay with a lower standard of living in their later years. They'll have no mortgage to pay, no college tuition to save for. Since they won't be driving to work, gas bills are lower and cars will last them decades.
But they also face unknowns, specifically, inflation and medical care expenses. You might be wise to consider the whole "declining cost of living" argument a wash at best, and join a gym, soon.
That's where we return, of course, to the amazing benefits of asset allocation. A correctly allocated portfolio can provide solid, steady returns over time, irrespective of the market's twists and turns, building up the wealth you will need to stop working on time. Compounding is the key, and you can't compound your money if you panic at a market low and sell.
Over time, one of the great benefits of asset allocation is not just in knowing that your savings are growing and compounding as efficiently and inexpensively as possible but that they are growing safely as well. | <urn:uuid:d71ea5a9-9f37-42e9-a00d-8998f4a36338> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-retire-with-more-2012-10-11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973795 | 975 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Here is another thoughtful article on what should be the top management theme of this decade. It is also a good follow on to my post on Labor Day. Hopefully it gets resolved in this decade. Louise Altman, Partner, Intentional Communication offers us - Humanizing Workplace Relationships – People Aren’t Tasks. The tag line is the most significant concept. I recently re-watched an excellent video produced by the BBC in 1997, Intellectual capital: The New Wealth of Nations. It made the same point. The film portrayed the industrial revolution as a plague on people where workers were treated as mere extensions of machines.
Now the percentage of tangible assets in the corporations in the S&P 500 has shifted from 66% in 1982 to 16% in 1999 and likely continues to fall (see Juergen Daum, Intangible Assets and Value Creation). In its place is the rise of intangible assets as the creators of wealth. These are mostly the ideas in people’s minds. Yet, as Louise points out many organizations are still managing people as though the wealth was created by tangible assets, machines, and people are just servants of these machines. The wealth now comes from treating people as human assets and releasing their creativity to enable innovation and new wealth in organizations. McKinsey found in 2010 that the lower the decision level was in the organization, the higher operating margin. Top down authority is the enemy of profits.
Top down authority is also the enemy of employee engagement and so many studies show high levels of workplace disengagement. What would you want to disengage your most powerful creator of profits? In the old days, no manger who think about turning off the production line machines and yet they often do this to today’s creators of wealth.
Many organizations still persist in old ways. Louise quotes, Tim Leberecht, “There appears to be a fundamental chasm between individual human behavior – which is expansive and multidimensional, ranging from the rational to the wildly irrational, sentimental and unpredictable – and the design of organizations, rational, practical, results oriented and engineered to perform consistently.”
I hope this issue does get resolved in this decade for the sake of the emotional, physical, and financial health of the world. | <urn:uuid:4de91e00-bc3c-464a-a9e6-719f15427e8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://billives.typepad.com/portals_and_km/2012/09/treating-popel-as-people-not-as-tasks.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960769 | 459 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Ever feel overwhelmed by the number of ideas, recipes and potential projects out there? All the great blogs, books and magazines (not to mention Pinterest!) filled with amazing projects…
Relying on my memory when I got to the craft store or thrift store never worked very well. I tried using the tiny screen and inadequate internet service on my phone to look up the ideas I’d saved. Still not good enough. I decided I needed to create a binder for the projects I was planning on using in the near future. Which is where the idea for this handy book was born.
My binder contains an organized collection of recipes, diy projects, craft projects, decorating ideas, gardening ideas and gift ideas I plan to do in the near future. At the beginning of each month, I pull out the project I want to accomplish and make a plan for getting it done.
Here’s how you can create your own idea book. You will need:
- 3 ring binder
- tab dividers
- page protectors
Step 1: Decide on Your Categories
Think about the things that are highest on your priority list. Things that you’d most like to get done. Be sure to choose projects that are realistic given your time and budgetary constraints. If you’ve been wanting to sew more, add a sewing category. If you’d like to put together a home decorating plan, you can make a decor category for keeping track of DIY projects, paint colors and dream rooms for inspiration. Wanna learn how to make homemade breads and rolls? Consider a baking or recipes category.
My categories are:
- Dinner Ideas – This is where I keep the recipes I haven’t tried yet but want to. I try to pull out one per week when I’m making my grocery list.
- Crafts – Various projects I’d like to try.
- Gifts – I keep all my teacher, neighbor, birthday and holiday gift ideas in one place. This has been a particularly handy category, because I have been able to find things on clearance or free with coupon for these projects. If I didn’t have them all saved in one place, I’m sure I wouldn’t have remembered to be on the lookout for them.
- Sewing – I especially like having printed copies of these projects so I can remember every detail when I’m at the store.
- Home & Garden – Here I have paint samples, diy projects and pages from magazines of the room styles I like. I can’t tell you how helpful it has been to have my “style” and color preferences defined. I have been able to focus my thrift store and clearance shopping purchases only on items that fit my overall vision.
Step 2: Slowly Add Your Projects
Now that you’ve decided on a few categories, it’s just a matter of keeping your eyes peeled for projects and ideas you can add. This is where it can be easy to get carried away. I love Pinterest, but I have pinned more ideas than I will ever have time to get to. This book should not be another version of that. Rather it should be small enough to be do-able. This is your Ideas-I’m-Actually-Gonna-Do book. I have even placed a self-imposed limit on how many ideas I allow myself to put in it!
Step 3: Make a Plan
Once my project for the month is chosen, I move it to the front of the binder and create a plan using this printable. Writing it out gives me a sense of ownership to the project and prevents me from putting it off.
And there you have it! A super easy way to get your ideas and projects organized in one tidy place! I have used my book so much this year, that I don’t know how I did without it!
Thinking of making one yourself? Get my Projects & Ideas Planner (shown above) as a free printable HERE!
Posted in: organize | <urn:uuid:b85985a0-6293-4925-ba29-6c36c3677def> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://momsbyheart.net/easy-organization-create-an-idea-book/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93759 | 847 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Owing to the lack of KPIs for social media channels, businesses have struggled to define the metrics to measure return on investment. Although, measuring ROI of any communications effort is relative to the aims and objectives of your social media strategy, there are plenty of universal metrics applicable to the social channels.
This post highlights a few important metrics which help in formalising a marketing strategy for social media.
I have attended a number of digital and online marketing conferences and have witnessed a good deal of presentations by experts on social media marketing. A number of these presentations have devoted significant amounts of time to explain the quantification and measurement of social media channels from a business perspective.
Clearly, social media channels do not immediately present themselves with a clear return on investment which makes it tricky for businesses to adapt a fully integrated social media strategy.
While the interest in participation grows exponentially, marketing managers are forced to quantify the investment into social media channels. I was present at Bigmouthmedia and Econsultancy’s Social Media Summit recently, which witnessed the launch of the Social Media and Online PR Report.
During the event, there were a number of references to businesses which are in the vanguard of creating social media models and have excelled in reaping the benefits. For businesses which have been skeptical, there are a few reasons why incorporating a social media channels can help their long term goals.
Social media can help strengthen the company’s brand perceptions among its stakeholders. Discovering measurement metrics for social media is a bit tricky as effective quantification challenges the traditional approaches of measuring return on investment.
Ever since Dell announced that its revenue from social media alone accounted for $6.5 million, it has remained the poster child for Social Media success. However, if you were to look at Dell’s overall revenue, which was recently announced as $60 billion, $6.5 represents an extremely diminutive share, but, important nonetheless.
So the key question here is how do you measure ROI for social media? Can this be associated with a monetary value?
The social media realm itself is extremely vast. From the earliest days of Delicious to the very recent Apple Ping, everything has been invented and re-invented to entice classes and masses. While some platforms have been pursued for creative interests, almost all platforms have gained commercial emphasis due to participation of businesses.
So rather than focus on every individual social platform, let’s look at some important metrics for a few prominent platforms in use today, which could eventually lead to a propitious ROI. Alternatively, you could mark these metrics as the ROI for each individual channel.
Each of the highlighted metrics from the table above, are easy to quantify and establish and objective for. Based on these objectives, businesses can craft a strategy specifically to develop social media channels, which reinforces the company’s image gradually.
In summary, we might not see an increase in market share for a business due to an overwhelming social media presence, but on a long term, social media provides an opportunity or a platform where you can stand and deliver clear but concise messages about the brand.
How creative a business is while delivering these messages defines how lasting an impression it leaves among its customers. Eventually, it is on this impression, businesses gain an advantage to build those brand perceptions and awareness which can help to galvanize and sustain growth. ROI does matter for social media. | <urn:uuid:83f0300e-fb33-447f-8169-c661d5f9ea3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econsultancy.com/se/blog/6702-social-media-measurement-defining-the-metrics-to-quantfy-roi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956394 | 696 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Question from Shannon:
I just bought your book tonight and then I stumbled upon your website. As for my sad Tibouchinas, I guess I have to accept that they are not made for our climate or our water concerns. I saw them everywhere around LA, so I just assumed they were native or at least friendly. (I am very new to gardening and am learning some things the hard way.) Too bad, because it’s such a gorgeous plant.
Anyway, I am so looking forward to reading your book and exploring the site as I look for ways to add more practical, sustainable beauty to my Southern California yard. (That’s a fancy way of saying “stuff I can’t easily kill.”)
Thank you again for taking the time to help me with my poor misplaced Brazilian plants.
Answer from Pat:
Good luck with your garden and glad you got my book! Last night after writing you I had another thought. Sometimes when folks say, “I can’t grow such and such but there’s a lovely one across the street,” it’s all because of exposure. Usually the house where whatever plant it is grows fine faces east and the person who can’t grow the specific plant lives in the house across the street that faces west. West-facing is a difficult exposure for some plants because they are cool and comfortable all morning and then fry in the afternoon.
No related articles. | <urn:uuid:e532f2bd-624a-402e-ba24-faa61e94c782> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://patwelsh.com/wpmu/blog/landscape-color/exposure-as-a-factor-when-growing-tibouchina/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954432 | 302 | 1.554688 | 2 |
San Blas y los niños: actividades y animación en Semana Santa
Sandos San Blas Nature Resort & Golf offers the coming weeks a full entertainment program. For the time of Easter special workshops and games have been prepared for entertain children.
Activities dedicated to children allow their parents to enjoy this great hotel in Tenerife while the kids enjoy and learn. Fantastic hotel entertainers are responsible for children’s enjoyment from 10 am to 5 pm. Children under four years must be accompanied by their parents.
Usual days, kids can enjoy activities such as educational workshops bracelets, clay, salt, gardening and more. In these activities, children learn to construct their own toys and souvenirs from their stay in the Canary Islands.
For Easter, the hotel has special activities sure to delight children. On Wednesday installed a bouncy castle and prepared a tricycles circuit. To the delight of anglosaxon guests, decorating Easter eggs workshops have been organized and, of course, a treasure hunt as is tradition in those countries.
Of course, there is also room for fun and sports, water games, gymkhanas, paintings and more. To give small adventurous experience, have been prepared as thematic sessions held on Sunday, April 8, Indian Day, or the first Monday after Easter Day Cookies. The following Wednesday will be the Water Day, while Friday is Pirate Day. Children will live adventures around the hotel, always under the eye of professional entertainers of Hotel San Blas. | <urn:uuid:ded92bce-1dc8-4920-9075-d8a85f890894> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.sandos.com/en/category/sandos-hotels-news/page/3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93045 | 312 | 1.53125 | 2 |
By Rosa Tania Valdes
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega paid tribute to the "clear political vocation" and religious faith of leading dissident Oswaldo Paya at his crowded funeral on Tuesday, days after the prominent anti-communist activist died in a car crash.
Family members have questioned the circumstances of Sunday's crash on a badly potholed road in eastern Cuba, alleging possible foul play by government agents. But diplomats say they believe it was a genuine accident and it appeared the car was speeding.
Paya, the 60-year-old leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, and fellow dissident Harold Cepero, died after the rental car they were traveling in, accompanied by two European politicians, hit a tree in eastern Granma province, according to the government. The cause of the crash is officially under investigation.
"Oswaldo had a clear political vocation, and this, like a good Christian, did not take him from his faith and religious duties," Ortega told the packed memorial Mass at a church in the Havana suburb of Cerro, where the civil rights activist lived.
"Quite the contrary, he always looked to his faith for inspiration in his political activity," Ortega said.
Ortega announced that Pope Benedict XVI had sent a message of condolence to the family.
A devout Catholic who was sent to a labor camp in the 1960s for his religious beliefs, Paya overcame intimidation and harassment to build Cuba's first nationwide opposition initiative, the Varela Project, which gathered 25,000 signatures for a referendum on one-party rule.
The petition drive was rejected by the government in 2002, but Paya emerged as the leading advocate of peaceful democratic change in Cuba.
As hundreds of activists, diplomats and friends quietly left the church to accompany Paya's family to Havana's Colon cemetery, dozens of dissidents chanting "freedom, freedom," were herded onto a bus by police and driven away, the only incident reported.
It was not immediately clear what happened to the detainees, though usually they are quickly released without charges.
SPANIARD HELD IN CRASH
Swedish politician Aron Modig, chairman of the Christian Democrats' youth wing, and Spaniard Angel Carromero Barrios, vice president of the ruling Popular Party's "New Generations" movement, who were traveling with Paya, suffered minor injuries and were released from hospital on Monday.
The two men were not immediately available for comment.
Members of Paya's immediate family have charged the car was repeatedly rammed and then forced off the road by another vehicle.
"We have serious doubts that it was an accident," Rosa Maria Paya, one of the activist's three daughters, told Reuters. "But we do not know for sure what happened," she added.
European diplomats said that while Modig had returned to Havana and was free to fly home, Carromero, who was driving the vehicle, remained in Granma as of Monday night, and faced possible charges for reckless driving and involuntary manslaughter.
The diplomats, who asked not to be identified, said it appeared the vehicle, traveling at well above the speed limit, hit a large pot hole, veered off the road and hit a tree.
The diplomats said that so far there was no evidence to back up the allegations by Paya's daughter.
The diplomats said the Cuban government had met with both country's ambassadors and expressed a desire to work out the incident.
ADVOCATE OF RECONCILIATION AND DIALOGUE
Paya was a unique voice in Cuba's dissident movement and his death leaves "a very large gap," said Philip Peters, a Cuba expert with the Lexington Institute, a conservative policy research group in Virginia.
"Unlike others in the dissident movement he engaged in retail politics. His Varela Project enlisted citizen participation and connected with many thousands of Cubans. That's what set him apart."
Paya was also controversial in the dissident movement because he supported dialogue and reconciliation with the Cuban government, while opposing the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba.
A soft-spoken, unassuming medical equipment engineer, Paya was awarded the European Union's top human rights award in 2002, the Sakharov Prize, named after the late Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov. He was also nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize by former Czech President Vaclav Havel.
Cuba's numerous dissident groups are often at odds with each other and in many cases have been critical of Cardinal Ortega's ongoing dialogue with President Raul Castro after he replaced his ailing brother Fidel in 2008 and initiated a series of economic and social reforms.
But those differences were put aside on Tuesday to pay homage to a man all praised for his ethics and courage.
Castro, Ortega and the Council of Bishops began the dialogue two years ago that led to the release of 130 political prisoners, more space for the church to carry out its mission and Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the island in March.
Paya applauded those successes, but he was highly critical of the church's support of Castro's efforts to reform the communist system. He repeatedly charged his movement, and other grass-roots activists with similar views, were being marginalized by Cuba's bishops.
He was especially critical of the pope's decision not to meet with dissidents during his March visit.
He also had a strong following among Cuban exiles in the United States and elsewhere. In 2003, he visited the United States, where he was received by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, before spending several days in Miami meeting with Cuban exiles.
Various governments and personalities sent their condolences to Paya's family and the internal opposition in Cuba for the loss, including the White House.
"The president's thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Oswaldo Paya, a tireless champion for greater civic and human rights in Cuba," the White House said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Marc Frank in Havana and David Adams in Miami. Editing by David Adams, Tom Brown and Cynthia Osterman)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp | <urn:uuid:2596467f-d2ae-450f-bba5-2fad70effc44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whmp.com/Cardinal-praises-prominent-Cuban-dissident-at-fune/11472561?newsId=155306 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980398 | 1,293 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The news outlet says Coki Point Beach has undergone a massive cleanup over the past three months that has made it safer for locals and tourists alike.
Carnival passenger Lizmarie Perez Chapparro died in July after being caught in the middle of a shootout between warring gangs near the beach. The Associated Press reported at the time the girl was struck by a bullet as she rode with her family on a "safari bus" that ferries tourists across the island.
The girl and her family had arrived in St. Thomas earlier in the day aboard the 2,758-passenger Carnival Victory.
St. Thomas in recent years has been the scene of a growing "plague of violence," as one prominent official has called it, but Chapparro's killing marked the first time the violence has spilled over into the the territory's all-important tourism sector, and it brought swift calls from politicians and tourism leaders for a crackdown on crime.
The Daily News notes that before the killing, drug dealers plied their trade openly at Coki Point Beach, police presence was minimal and the entrance to the beach had become a graveyard for abandoned boats and vehicles — all while thousands of cruisers and other tourists visited daily. Complaints from locals and the travel industry fell on deaf ears, the news outlet says.
In the wake of the killing, the island's government has hauled away abandoned vehicles, cleared overgrown bush, built a new paved parking area for visitors and increased police patrols at the beach, the Daily News says.
The cleanup has prompted cruise lines to resume tours to the area that had been canceled after the July incident.
The Daily News says vendors at the beach welcome the changes, though some say more needs to be done, and they lament the fact it took the killing of a cruiser to bring about change.
"It took a big disaster for something to happen to this beach," one vendor told the news outlet. "They should build a monument to this little girl. If not for her, nothing would have happened."
Cruise Loggers, share your thoughts below. | <urn:uuid:e6153905-155c-41f3-be29-5301e99a50db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2010/10/cruise-ship-murder-st-thomas-coki-point-beach-carnival/127386/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977561 | 425 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Counseling and Psychological Services
CAPS Training Program for Mental Health Professionals
CAPS provides training opportunities for a variety of mental health pre-professionals, consisting of the following:
- American Psychological Association-accredited predoctoral psychology internship program (3 doctoral interns annually)
- Practicum for 3rd or 4th year psychology graduate students (3 students annually)
- Psychiatry rotation for 4th year psychiatry residents (intermittent)
Our training is conceptualized as a developmental-practitioner model, which builds on the knowledge and skills that trainees acquire during academic programs and prepares them for entry level positions as generalist mental health professionals. Training activities integrate didactic and experiential components to facilitate learning in the provision of clinical services to students, consultation to University personnel, and skills in offering psychoeducational programs across the University community. | <urn:uuid:a7c43e43-93e9-4a02-bce0-8ccf5050ef16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.virginia.edu/studenthealth/training.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932362 | 177 | 1.53125 | 2 |
SAN FRANCISCO — The results of a poll commissioned by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce last month and published Friday showed that a majority of the city’s residents oppose renaming San Francisco International Airport after slain gay civil rights leader Harvey Milk.
The poll found that only 31 percent of likely voters supported the change, while 61 percent were opposed.
The poll found that opposition came from all demographics of the city, including those who reside in Milk’s former district in the Castro, where support barely cracked 50 percent. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, only 45 percent of respondents who identified as LGBT supported the idea.
The Chronicle reported that some have suggested that Supervisor David Campos’ airport renaming effort is in part a move to increase his profile and fundraising in advance of a run for state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s seat. But poll respondents in that Assembly district also broadly oppose the plan, with 58 percent against compared with 36 percent in favor.
Campos estimated that renaming the airport would cost between $50,000 and $250,000.
“[Milk] is the most important figure in the history of the LGBT community, and he played such a critical role in modern San Francisco politics,” said Supervisor Scott Weiner, who represents Milk’s former district, and co-sponsors Campos’s bill.“San Francisco has always been at the forefront of the fight for LGBT equality, and so people come here from around the country and around the world because of that, and for 40 million people a year to land at Harvey Milk International Airport sends an incredible message to the world,” Weiner told the Chronicle.
Jim Lazarus, the chamber’s senior vice president for public policy, said opposition is “fairly broad-based” and that “there should be a better way to honor the memory of Harvey Milk.”
Anne Kronenberg, Milk’s former political aide noted that media attention about the idea has mostly been negative and public opinion won’t truly be formed until the issue is vetted at the board.
Besides, she said, the legislation would only put the issue before voters.
The poll was conducted among 500 San Francisco voter in February by David Binder Research for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. Margin of error is +/- 4.4%.
Milk was one of the first openly gay politicians to be elected to public office when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He and Mayor George Moscone were shot and killed by former Supervisor Dan White at City Hall on Nov. 27, 1978.
Filed under: California | <urn:uuid:7f10444f-445a-427c-ab61-4ea77eac31bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2013/03/majority-of-san-francisco-residents-oppose-renaming-airport-after-harvey-milk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964836 | 551 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Should a physician be held responsible if an elderly patient causes a car accident while driving?
A Los Angeles jury recently decided that Dr. Arthur Daigneault was not responsible for the wrongful death of 90-year-old William Powers, whose longtime partner, a dementia patient, drove into the path of an oncoming car, according to a report by The Los Angeles Times. The driver Lorraine Sullivan, 85, survived, but Powers died of his injuries weeks after the crash.
The Orange County, Calif. jury cleared Daigneault, but the case raises the question of whether the physician should have reported his patient -- who had suffered memory loss since 2007 and was prescribed an Alzheimer’s drug in 2009 -- to local health authorities or urged the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoke her license.
The victim’s family thought Daigneault should have done something. They sued him for wrongful death, arguing that he should have deemed the driver, a danger on the road and gotten her driver’s license yanked.
Daigneault, who had been involved in taking away driver's licenses from other patients he had seen, said that he did not think Sullivan’s condition was severe enough to warrant doing so in her case. The jury, after 30 minutes of deliberation, agreed.
Daigneault could well have been right in not reporting Sullivan. Every day there are horrible accidents that involve wrong turns, driving the wrong way and other fatal errors by drivers of all ages. But, statistics show that older drivers are more likely than younger ones to be involved in multi-vehicle crashes, particularly when turning at intersections, as Sullivan did. Drivers ages 80 and older have the 2nd highest fatal accident rate of any age group. Only teenage drivers are more dangerous, according to Federal Highway Administration data.
In the next 20 years, the number of elderly drivers in the United States will triple.
Should every state require doctors to report their concerns about the ability of older drivers to safely be on the road? Only a few states, including California, require or encourage doctor reporting. Relatively few require a road test for drivers over 75. Most states do not even require a vision test for older drivers. Tennessee does not require drivers over 65 to even renew their licenses.
Defenders of the elderly’s right to drive note that there are plenty of other people out on the roads who pose huge dangers. Reckless teenagers, novice drivers, drunks and the distracted driver contribute a great deal to the more than 90 people killed on American highways every day. The very old are, however, the biggest and fastest growing risk. And they are the ones that should be the easiest to get off the road.
States need to take this problem far more seriously and toughen their reporting laws. Doctors should put privacy on the back burner and err on the side of reporting to state motor vehicle departments when they have concerns about a demented or impaired older patient who is still driving. So should you if you are worried about grandma or grandpa. Even if your older family member does not go to a doctor, if you think their vision is failing or their memory is badly slipping, then the right thing to do is to let officials know.
Driving is a treasured right in America. But when age takes a toll on driving skills, putting the elderly, their passengers and others on the road at grave risk, then medical providers,family and loved ones should speak up loudly -- before that next wrong turn is someone's last.
More from Art Caplan: | <urn:uuid:5a4c57db-8329-4a09-a31b-61413492d379> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/10/13781986-elderly-drivers-and-fatal-accidents-is-the-doctor-responsible?lite?ocid=twitter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969699 | 728 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Wednesday 22 May 2013
This 45 minute film will blow you away! At 7:45 a.m. on June 5, 1967, Israel launched the most successful preemptive
Thanks to Google, the Dead Sea Scrolls are online for all to see
This 2,000 old city has been entirely dug up. Simply Amazing!
British Major General Orde Wingate's Night Operation Squads that he organized in Israel in the late 1930's are recognized as one of
Many thought that Richard Nixon would not be a friend of the State of Israel, but he came through during the Yom
Harry Truman withstood enormous pressure by his Secretary of State, George Marshall, and supported the establishment of the State of Israel.
© 2012 Israel Video Network
Powered by WordPress | Deadline Theme : An AWESEM design | <urn:uuid:eab43ead-d6f3-47c6-b903-0bc4180adc2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/category/jewish-history | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954852 | 165 | 1.820313 | 2 |
5 Apr 2012
With summer fast approaching there are a bunch of things to think about and plan ahead for. Where do you want to go? What trips do you want to take? What activities do you have in mind? What kinds of things do you want to do? What kind of job do you want? What are some things you need to prepare for summer? The O.C.D Experience has come up with several important themes to get your mind running on summer planning and organization.
Summertime is great chance to travel and visit family, friends, and new and exciting places. There are several inexpensive, alternative ways you can reach your destination with out paying the hefty prices traveling by plane can bring. The O.C.D. Experience loves traveling by train because it saves money, has a flexible schedule, it’s comfortable and relaxing, has room for more baggage, and it’s a trip within itself! Amtrak has really great routes that travel all over and across the country, like the Empire Builder. What is so great about these Amtrak routes is that they run daily and you can hop on and off whenever and wherever you’d like. Click here for more information on the routes Amtrak has to offer. Once you book your trip, we recommend you use Tripit to help you organize your travel plans. You can get more facts about Tripit and what the O.C.D. Experience has to say about this great organizer here. Have fun planning your trip!
Here is a summer DIY activity that the O.C.D. Experience and O.C.D. Events thinks would be fun for everyone! Get a pair of white canvas sneakers, acrylic paint, and a few different sized paint brushes. Paint your favorite designs and symbols and create your own, unique pair of sneakers made especially by you and for you! This DIY activity is great for people of all ages: a crafty play date for kids and an original way to show off artistic talent for teenagers and young adults.
With the school year fast approaching, it’s time to think about what kind of internship you want for the summer. If your’re a teenager or young adult, here are some tips the O.C.D. Experience has for you: First, think about what you’re interested in and what you want to learn more about. Second, pursue your interests and research places, people, and companies that align with the things you are passionate about. Third, network. Get in touch with the contacts you want to work with and take advantage of your resources. Use your High School and College Career Services to help you find contacts and get in touch with Alumni. Internships are a great opportunity to gain experience in the field of your interests and sometimes even secure a job right out of college.
With the beautiful weather summertime brings it’s hard to resist taking advantage of it. There are a bunch of things you can do to exercise while your outdoors: run, walk, hike, bike swim, kayak, the list goes on and on! In order to motivate yourself to go outside, the O.C.D. Experience recommends that before you begin your workout you should: update your playlist so you have fresh new beats to listen to while you’re on the go, eat a small snack like a handful of almonds to give yourself a boost of energy, and use MapmyRUN to help you keep track of your exercise routine.
These planning tips will help you organize your thoughts so when summertime finally approaches you will already have these things organized and planned out! | <urn:uuid:8ec12be5-5a88-4c8e-a3cf-69c695c12f38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ocdexperience.com/blog/tag/planning/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954768 | 736 | 1.726563 | 2 |
In the fall of 1990, my wife and I sat in Terry Sullivan’s office. Terry was the CEO of the Colorado Springs Visitors and Convention Bureau, and we were looking for support for our planned 1991 road bicycle stage race.
Terry showed us a draft of the bureau’s mockup of the cover for their 1991 tourism guide. The photo was of a mountain bike rider on a Colorado Springs area trail with our mountains in the background.
The idea was clear: to sell to nonresidents the outdoor benefits of the Pikes Peak region as well as hotel rooms.
That cover was rejected, Sullivan said. The problem was that Colorado Springs really didn’t have the infrastructure to support cycling in the area as a destination. Terry was correct, and those problems still hold true today, 22 years later.
With a number of other Colorado cities like Durango, Winter Park, Salida and Fruita all seriously supporting their communities as a destination for cycling, we need to get our wheels turning forward.
In this city, The Gazette regularly covers the Sand Creek Sports mountain-bike races with front-page sports stories and often a main front-page photo as well. The daily paper published an article titled, “Is Colorado Springs the Next Mountain Biking Mecca?” in its Nov. 10, 2011 OutThere section. Even the Colorado Springs Business Journal used a mountain bike race photo on the cover of their July 29, 2011 print issue in an article, “Small sporting events struggle for sponsorships.”
We’ve got the parks with trails and great roads to ride on. Effective Jan. 1, Pikes Peak Highway will be open for cyclists. We have a city-supported network of commuter trails, the world-class 7-Eleven Velodrome, several great cycling events and races, several world and national class race organizers, International Race Commissaires, as well as some of the finest cycling clubs anywhere. Colorado Springs has hosted the World Cycling Championships, several international mountain bike races and many national and state championships.
An inventory of all things related to cycling in the Pikes Peak region with an economic impact study needs to be done in order for us to move forward.
The state of Colorado did a statewide “Economic Impact of Bicycling in Colorado” study back in 1998. Western Canada Mountain Bike Tourism Association (MBTA) in British Columbia has excellent information on this topic. The organization’s stated goal was to “… have B.C. recognized for its world-class sustainable trails and abundant mountain bike experiences that are supported by enthusiastic communities and resort operators offering high quality services.”
The economic impact portion of the MBTA study focused on rider origin studies, event studies, bike shop surveys, and resident and non-resident spending. Part of the conclusion stated, “In total, the Sea to Sky trails are estimated to have brought nearly $10.3 million in non-resident spending to the host communities over the study period, resulting in $9.3 million of new economic activity throughout the province, supporting 194 jobs and just over $6.3 million in wages and salaries.”
That’s serious money.
The good news is that the Colorado Springs Trails and Open Space Coalition is following the lead of cities like Boulder and Fort Collins, pursuing a cycling economic impact study for our city.
With a grant from SRAM, Executive Director Susan Davies of TOSC is in the early stages of looking for additional funding sources to begin work on this much-needed study. It will be a far-reaching attempt to include cycling-related events as well as trails and cycling jobs in the region.
When completed, we’ll have an idea of what local cycling economics already brings to the community. From the final data, a case surely can be made to city and regional authorities that cycling tourism works. They need to get behind the cycling opportunities, including events in our city.
With coordination and some good marketing from our Colorado Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau, another “inventory” item can be added to bring people to the Springs.
Maybe we’ll get that photo of a cyclist on the cover of the CVB’s visitors guide after all.
Andy Bohlmann, a longtime official working area cycling events and former USA Cycling administrator, currently is director of six mountain bicycle races. | <urn:uuid:7f452eab-2a65-4e88-b04a-b8e56aaf53c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://csbj.com/2012/12/27/setting-the-stage-for-more-cycling-focus-in-springs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954838 | 901 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Greenpeace’s Kumi Naidoo: Thoughts Post Rio
KUMI Naidoo of South Africa has emerged as the Intl. Executive Director of Greenpeace after a lifetime of activism. He was recently seen at the much publicized Rio+20 conference. We ask him about the effectiveness of these conferences and if the private sector is really taking any tangible steps towards environmental protection and sustainability.
You said that Rio was a failure much like Copenhagen was a disappointment. Have you lost hope in global governance for environmental issues? Have you found any of these meetings to be useful/fruitful?
Our governments have been taken hostage by short term corporate interests and that is indeed a depressing reality.
But meetings such as Rio and Copenhagen also always spark change and ripples that go beyond any official political outcomes. Copenhagen helped to make the Danish-owned energy company, DONG, abandon coal, for example, and Rio put a global spotlight on the urgent need to protect the Amazon. Standing together with the Catholic Church and the landless movement in support of our Zero Deforestation citizen law initiative in Rio was an inspiring moment for me and I am convinced we will, in the wake of Rio, collect the 1,4 million signatures we need to force the Brazilian parliament to vote on a law that could end deforestation in Brazil by 2015.
Corporations are constantly talking abut sustainability and have appointed Chief Sustainability Officers – but is any of this resulting in real change? Is there a company that you can point to and say – this is working, they’re actually trying to create change?
There are companies who are showing signs of walking the talk. For example, Google is investing prolifically in renewable energy, Nike and H&M are eliminating toxic chemicals from their supply chains, supermarket giant Sainsbury’s is sourcing sustainable seafood and backing marine reserves, and a growing number of corporations including Unilever and Nestle are refusing to buy from APP as long as it continues to clear rainforests and destroy peatlands in Indonesia. There is a lot of positive change happening out there, the tragedy is that it is not fundemantal and fast enough. Unless we get the regulations that change the status quo and make unsustainable practices expensive or illegal, we will always be playing catch up and be witness to changes that are far too incremental rather than radical.
You’ve come into this executive post having been a strong activist. How do you balance your executive post now which requires you to engage with heads of state/ business leaders with your grassroots activists.
We are all humans and I actually find that on a one to one level there is not that much difference between talking to a grassroots activist and a CEO. My friend and fellow activist Van Jones has said that I can give a speech to poor kids and get them excited, and then give the same speech at the World Economic Forum to the richest people in the world, and get a standing ovation. I think he is exaggerating, but I do find that speaking from the heart and the soul, it is possible to engage all types in the battle for our survival.
What direction do you want to take Greenpeace towards – do you want to focus on specific issues? There has been criticism, as you know, that Greenpeace lost its core and deviated from its intent.
Greenpeace above all is about giving a voice to the earth and future generations and that passion is something I see grow every day, and every time I meet our volunteers. There is no question that climate change is the battle of our time and that we need to change our energy system and end deforestation if we want to beat it.
Greenpeace can´t do this alone and so I do want Greenpeace to work more and more with allies in civil society.
The fight against climate change and the fight against poverty are two sides of the same coin, for example.
Climate change destroys the livelihoods of millions of people. It makes the poor even poorer. The solutions to climate change like decentralized renewable energy systems also go part of the way to lifting people out of poverty.
There’s a strong connect between poverty and environmental issues – how do you try to get the global governance community to understand that there are economic implications for environmental issues and that some of the world’s poor (who pollute the least) are being hit hard by this?
The tragedy is that most people in the global governance community – or indeed in the global elite – understand this full well. If you talk to people at Davos, they *know* that they poorest are hit first and hardest by climate change, for example. But they feel stuck in structures and incentives and also at times do not have the courage to break out of established patterns.
Greenpeace does not need to preach, but use the widespread sense of something going wrong to speed up the transition to the fair and green economy we need. We need to create inspiring visions of the world we’d like to live in, and this is happening. We are campaigning for an Energy Revolution with business partners, for example. It´s our blueprint, backed up by the right science, of a renewable energy future.
You said that you’d like to focus on the financial industry. “Our aim is to get all banks to say we won’t make loans to oil, coal, gas and deforestation-related activity. We want to shut off the flow of capital. The time is right because the banks are at their most vulnerable in terms of public legitimacy.” Do you see this as even feasible? Why would they agree?
Because risk is a language that capital understands.
We’ve exposed the financial risks for the tar sands (see here and here) and Lloyds of London – who set the gold standard for risk assessment – have also rung the alarm bell for Arctic oil. Lloyds and the respected think tank Chatham House believe that an oil spill in the Arctic would constitute “a unique and hard to manage risk”. Our own report Out in the cold shows that Shell investors should be worried about Shell´s Arctic plans. Our report shows that even if investors don’t care about the environment, they should be very concerned about the risks Shell is running with their money, and their future prosperity. It´s this expertise that will get us heard.
A big part of the problem with sustainability/ environmental preservation is growth – growth is seen favourably (the story of Asia’s growth has been celebrated widely) but it’s not good for the environment. So, how do we redefine growth – should scalability not be so highly touted? Should more local solutions be the answer?
First, growth as a goal in an of itself must be abandoned. The economy needs to be a tool to deliver societal needs and aspirations, not stand as the be all and end all of our existence.
Some sectors – such as the renewables industry – will need to grow, some people and communities will certainly need more access to resources, land and money, but overall GDP growth in the developed world in particular must not be a goal. Solutions exists and will vary from small to large, from local to global. Our energy revolution, for example, requires both massive local and decentralized solutions as well as some large-scale global ones. What matters is that we act, and that we do so fast.
This piece originally appeared on www.dowser.org on 12 July 2012. | <urn:uuid:6290e952-a961-4b52-9ae7-aea47635ea94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkbrigade.com/rio20/greenpeaces-kumi-naidoo-post-rio/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9629 | 1,535 | 1.625 | 2 |
Society and the rules within it are based on discrimination. There are good reasons for this, whether they be moral, ethical or health based. I do not see gay marriage as a religeous issue at all. I see it as a societal issue. By allowing gay marriage you effectiveley remove the right of society to discriminate. This then means that other lifestyle choices that you may find abhorrent must be allowed. If someone wishes to engage in incest or polygamy then society would have no right to deny these people that right because they have removed discrimination from law.
It is a decreasing circle of moral ethics.
If you honestly ask yourself the question, "do I discriminate against others?, the answer would be most likely be yes. I do not know any people that would want to see incest, paedophilia and the likes legalised in their society. Therefore, in my mind, you cannot engage in selective discrimination such as allowing gay marriage. To open this pandoras box is an ill that society doesn't need now or in the future.
Are we prepared for the consequences of this action? Have we actually thought it through or are we blinded by our desire to be seen in a politically correct manner?
Gay marriage will install no further benefits onto gay couples. They already have the right to live in a gay lifestyle, they cannot be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation, partnership law protects their property and asset rights whilst a legal will allows them to gift their property on death to their partner.
Therefore, one has to ask, why do they require this change in law?" | <urn:uuid:93cb6404-c347-479c-b516-fd33996d5d9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.volconvo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2777&page=3&p=67653&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96632 | 319 | 1.796875 | 2 |
MARSEILLE, France, July 25 (Reuters) – Fireman brought a wildfire spread over nine square kilometres (3.5 sq mile) of land in southern France under control on Sunday, fire services said.
The blaze, which threatened homes and forced some areas to be evacuated, started on Saturday close to oil refineries near l’Etang de Berre, about 30 km (18 miles) west of the port city of Marseille, before spreading eastwards into arid woodlands.
Fanned by strong winds, television pictures showed large swathes of trees and vegetation ablaze and planes dropping water over the area.
“The fire is under control and is no longer spreading,” said a spokesman for the local fire department.
Hundreds of firemen were battling to put out the flames, which were still raging on Sunday morning, but winds had calmed down, emergency services said.
About 2,000 tourists were moved from a campsite. No one was injured, officials said, adding the fire was likely to have been sparked on purpose.
Wildfires, often started by arsonists, are frequent during the summer in southern France.
(Reporting by Francois Revilla and John Irish in Paris; editing by Myra MacDonald) | <urn:uuid:ce07863f-212d-4a3a-a530-17adfc95d66f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://silverscorpio.com/tag/vegetation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977306 | 257 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Greenside Functional Foods
Learn more about Greenside Functional Foods - Alcachofa Herbal Tea Infusions.
Greenside Functional Foods - Alcachofa Herbal Tea Infusions
Green Functional Foods manufactures and distributes a wide variety of supplements as well as healthy beverages and foods that gives their consumers a healthy alternative that will improve their quality of life and well being. Some of their most popular products include: Alcachofa (Artichoke), Mangosteen, Grape Seed, Chinese Tea, Moringa, Graviola, African Mango and more. Alcachofa Rosa.
Alcachofa (Artichoke) is their most popular product, ranging from capsules to herbal teas and supplements. The benefits of Artichoke are amazing; this vegetable is ideal for any age or diet since it is rich in minerals, vitamins and fiber. What makes the artichoke even more incredible is that it limits the intestine’s absorption of fat and improves digestion, which why it is so popularly known for its weight loss properties. It is also known to act as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, as well as being a natural diuretic.
Artichokes are so rich in fiber and necessary nutrients that it helps treat and protect against liver and heart related diseases. As well as soothing the stomach in order to treat bad digestion and promote the recovery of appetite. This vegetable also helps relieve constipation, nausea, abdominal pains, bloating, diarrhea, heartburn and reduces cholesterol levels in the blood stream. And lastly it provides clear, radiant and healthy skin. | <urn:uuid:4983b864-18c4-4c0b-877b-93c267c874f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mexgrocer.com/brand-greenside.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944392 | 328 | 1.546875 | 2 |
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CALGARY — There have been lots of firsts in Blaine Favel’s remarkable career.
His latest is a joint venture with a Metis community in Alberta that paves the way for what is believed to be the first oil sands project owned by aboriginals. It also fuels optimism that the seemingly incompatible values between aboriginals and the oil sands industry can be bridged when there is mutual benefit.
Mr. Favel, the CEO of One Earth Oil & Gas Inc., a private oil junior based in Calgary, has locked up a joint venture with the Gift Lake Metis Settlement in the Peace River area of northwest Alberta to develop the Gift Bluesky heavy oil project.
The Idle No More movement presents one face of Canada’s First Nations: combative, frustrated with government, impoverished, opposed to resource projects while claiming entitlement to revenue sharing.
Aboriginal entrepreneurs such as Wilf Lalonde present the other face. He’s a Cree from northern Alberta who sees big opportunities to work in and profit from oil and gas and other resource projects, and strives to make First Nations self-sufficient.
Read full story here.
The Canadian oil industry’s only aboriginal CEO, Mr. Favel and his technical team believe the settlement sits on the same trend as other prolific deposits being produced by companies such as Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Penn West Exploration Ltd. in the Peace River oil sands.
In addition to being half owners, The Gift Lake, a 1,000-member community of hunters, fishermen and oil workers, will undertake much of the preparation work for a 3D seismic program and the drilling of four wells to size-up the resource. The partners will start with a pilot project, which Mr. Favel believes will lead to significant production.
The community agreed to become oil sands producers because their incentives are aligned with those of One Earth, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Sprott Resources Corp. that focuses on economic development in partnership with aboriginals.
“They … will get cash flows from the provision of services and employment, from a return of the wells, and from the royalties,” Mr. Favel, a former Saskatchewan Indian chief, lawyer, former senior Canadian diplomat and Harvard University graduate, said in an interview.
“We are developing it in a very environmentally sensitive manner. We met with the elders and with the community, so we are very sensitive to the local needs of the community and it’s worked well for us.”
“It’s a small portion of their territory, and we like to think that if we continue to be a good partner and we continue to maintain the trust with the settlement, we will do more things together with them.”
Under the deal, One Earth leased 12 sections of lands from the Alberta government located in the heart of the Metis settlement and has the option to lease another 12.
While surrounded by oil activity, there has been no recent development inside the settlement because of a 17-year standoff between Alberta’s Metis and the provincial government.
After lengthy negotiations with the Gift Lake and the province, One Earth and Gift Energy Ltd., the settlement’s oil company, announced their joint venture last week.
Mr. Favel, 48, represents a growing number of aboriginals who are charging into oil production as full partners, building on work done by First Nations entrepreneurs in the oil services side of the industry.
In his view, they are just getting started. In Alberta, the Frog Lake First Nation is already a significant conventional heavy oil producer and the most successful to date; the Cold Lake First Nations is gearing up to produce their oil resources; the Fort McKay First Nation, which has made a fortune providing services to oil sands companies, is expected to eventually put into production the vast oil sands resources under its lands in the Athabasca basin. In Saskatchewan, the Onion Lake Cree Nation has partnered with two oil companies.
A Cree from Saskatchewan, Mr. Favel moved into oil and gas four years ago. It was a logical next step after a long career in public service and private enterprise focused on building opportunities for aboriginals.
He grew up in the Poundmaker First Nation reserve, about 40 miles from Lloydminster on the Saskatchewan side of the border. His mother, Lucy, 86, who became a community health nurse, was an orphan raised by the son of rebel chief Big Bear. His late dad, Henry, was a chief and rancher. Both were big believers in education.
“My mom led us to believe that our current circumstance weren’t the end result and with education we could have success, and I think everyone in my family experienced that,” he said.
“Growing up there were lots of negative role models to follow if you chose to follow them,” he said.
“In grade 10, I got it into my head that I was going to quit high school, because that was the thing that people were doing in my peer group. My dad left me at the field to pick rocks. He dropped me off at 7 a.m. and he picked me up at supper time. After two weeks of this I thought this was really terrible and I was happy to go back to school, and that was a good lesson — that unless you got an education, you got difficult work.”
The lesson led to an education degree at the University of Saskatchewan, a law degree from Queen’s University, and an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business, where he was the first Canadian aboriginal to attend.
When he was grand chief of the federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, he created with then Premier Roy Romanow the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Association, the first Indian-controlled gaming company. He established the First Nations Bank of Canada in partnership with the Toronto-Dominion Bank. At Sprott Resources Corp., he helped found One Earth Farms, which has grown into one of Canada’s largest farming operations in partnership with First Nations farmers.
He worked as a lawyer for Bennett Jones LLP and as an investment banker for RBC Capital Markets.
He served as a senior diplomat and advisor to the federal government on indigenous issues and was a senior advisor to two Assembly of First Nations National Chiefs — Ovide Mercredi and Phil Fontaine.
Mr. Favel said the differences between First Nations and the energy sector stem from two world views:
There is the long view of aboriginals, many of whom live in remote communities, are surrounded by nature and live by its offerings and who believe in preserving the environment for future generations. And there is the view of corporate leaders, whose incentives are based on delivering business plans that are judged on a quarter-to-quarter basis.
Aligning the two means a lot of creative work to get to a reasonable position, which is often a slower process, involves more disclosure, more environmental protection, and transfer of some of the opportunities to the aboriginal groups for employment, training and business development, he said.
But progress is happening. While First Nations may seem uncompromising when it comes to the environment, it is not a unanimous position and many are doing well in the oil industry, he said.
Meanwhile, the oil industry, despite perceptions of being run by “cowboys” and of “intolerance,” has created more opportunities for aboriginals than all other sectors combined, he said.
“All you can do is do sustainable development the best that industry can provide. For some people zero development is the answer, which I don’t think is a reasonable position, nor is unfettered development, without environmental sensitivity.”
If there is blame to be assigned for the divide between the two, he said it’s with governments that are passing the buck – the federal government saying resources are a provincial responsibility, the provinces saying aboriginals are a federal responsibility, leaving corporations to scramble to find common ground.
Working with universities, government and research institutes, other companies and partners, the Tailings EPA is bringing together the shared experience, expertise and financial commitment of oil sands mining companies to find new technologies and solutions to tailings.
Syncrude Canada is using composite tailings technology to more quickly remediate the challenging fluid fine tailings (FFT) material and enable the reclamation of oil sands mining pits while accelerating recycle water release.
Tailings Reduction Operations (TRO™) has significantly reduced the reclamation process from 30 years to just 10 years while eliminating the need for future additional tailings ponds.
The industry continues to develop better technologies and approaches to tailings management in order to reduce the environmental impact.
COSIA is partnering with Carleton University on a multi-year research project to improve the oil sands mining industry’s understanding of FFT that remain at the end of the bitumen extraction process.
Content from Twitter
Keystone XL, planned in part to carry Canadian oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast, offers a conduit between responsible, secure suppliers and willing customers, all within North America.
Canadian oil sands exports are supplied to U.S. refineries to fill the void left by declines from other heavy oil supplies.
Canada and the U.S. share the world’s largest trading relationship. As a result, Americans benefit economically from increased economic activity in Canada.
The primary purpose of this submission is to provide clarity in regards to Canada’s oil sands greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Suncor Energy won the 2013 RCE Social Performance Award. Learn more about the David Thompson Corridor Visitor Services Program. | <urn:uuid:c6a3a382-8e35-4082-975d-0321cd719b1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://business.financialpost.com/2013/01/25/first-ever-aboriginal-oil-sands-deal-built-on-common-interests/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959234 | 2,087 | 1.601563 | 2 |
If you love spending time with the free Words with Friends app, you'll also enjoy a quick break with the brain-teasing puzzles in the SeeWordz Brain Game Free app. The puzzle app breaks up words into different positions and other cryptic positions that signify another word or phrase. For instance, the letter "P" with a line down the center signifies "split pea." Or for a harder one, the numbers 110 signify "one in ten."
I found even the easy puzzles to be extremely hard. I love the "Hint" button, which gives you the first couple letters of the answer, but does knock down the overall score if you're keeping track. You can post your scores to Facebook straight from the app to compete with friends. The app also turns the letters in your guesses green, if you're on the right track, or red, if you're off base. If you're stumped, like me, simply touch the "Answer" button to reveal the solution. You won't earn points, however, if you do this.
The design of the app is completely intuitive, and you can scroll through puzzles from each category easily. The free version of the app comes with 36 brain stumpers that range from easy to medium and hard. If you can't get enough, upgrade to the full version of SeeWordz Brain Game for $1.99 to gain access to 120 more puzzles. | <urn:uuid:3f5f2f9a-b78d-408b-b406-5705e79eeae1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.androidapps.com/games/articles/6928-take-a-brain-break-with-the-free-seewordz-android-app | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9363 | 288 | 1.570313 | 2 |
AUGUSTA, GA.- Its a Dogs Life: Photographs by William Wegman from the Polaroid Collection opens to the public on October 11, 2008, and remains on view through January 4, 2009, at the Morris Museum of Art. The Morris Museum is the only venue in the state to host Wegmans Polaroid Collection exhibition, which includes twenty-nine photographs by one of the art worlds best-known photographers.
The prints on view feature a series of compositions involving Wegmans now-famous pet Weimaraner, Fay Ray, successor to his original dog of the same breed, Man Ray, in a variety of poses and costumes. After Fays death in 1995, her offspring became his subjects and muses.
Wegman composes his photographs very carefully, giving extraordinary attention to the pose and lighting of his subject, commented Jay Williams, curator of the Morris Museum of Art.
Some of his Polaroid images continue Wegmans penchant for dressing his subject in zany costumes and disguises, while others appear to be serious portraitsstudies of his dogs physical form that become studies in abstraction.
Wegman is one of several artists who have completed special projects using Polaroids amazing large-format instant camera, which weighs 235 pounds. Polaroid created it to make large-format instant photography available for a wide spectrum of uses, from getting close-up magnified views of Raphael's Transfiguration for the Vatican Museum to taking color portraits of President Clinton at the White House. The photographs in the exhibition are typical of those produced using this special camera and measure 20 x 24 inches.
Born in 1943, William Wegman received a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston in 1965, and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1967.
Numerous retrospective exhibitions of Wegmans work have been organized, among them Wegmans World, which opened at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1981 and toured the United States, and William Wegman: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs, Videotapes, which opened at the Kunstmuseum in Lucerne in 1990 and traveled to venues across Europe and the United States including the Pompidou Center in Paris and The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. More recent exhibitions have been mounted in Sweden, Japan, Korea, and Spain. Funney/Strange opened at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2006, accompanied by a catalogue that was published by Yale University Press.
Wegman's work is represented in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles; the Los Angeles County Museum; the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., to cite just a few. William Wegman currently resides in New York and Maine where he continues to take photographs and make drawings, paintings, and videos. | <urn:uuid:8a80c454-1ead-42bb-b0e4-2dae1b10364e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=26624&int_modo=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94883 | 603 | 1.539063 | 2 |
After our Open Network Environment (Cisco ONE) announcement at Cisco live!, where we unveiled our strategy for network programmability, Jim Duffy at NetworkWorld had a very interesting article that asks a key question, “What are the killer apps for software defined networks?” While SDN technology is very exciting and holds a great deal of promise, the answer to that question will ultimately determine how quickly it is adopted and by who. The consensus is that network virtualization or virtual network overlays are one of the early killer apps that software defined networks can certainly enable (when coupled with other technologies), which is exactly why Cisco made virtual overlays one of the three solution pillars of its ONE announcement. As I mentioned in my TechwiseTV video on virtual overlays, the primary use case for SDN/OpenFlow research in universities is also campus network slicing or creating virtual network partitions for test and production environments, e.g., to share a physical network. As noted in Duffy’s article, virtual overlays can be done with or without OpenFlow.
In the aftermath of a major launch, after reading the press and analyst coverage of the news, I always ask what we could have made clearer, what could have been highlighted better, or how could we have made the complexity of some of the details easier to understand. One such point that probably could have been clarified is just how “open” the Open Network Environment (what’s in a name anyway?). Specifically, regarding our Nexus 1000V virtual overlay framework, there were some comments and questions about how open and interoperable this overlay framework was, especially compared to other vendors touting programmable overlays. One financial analyst firm even stated that our overlay networks had some great advantages, but only worked with Cisco switches.
To correct that misperception, it’s important to note that virtual network overlays are designed to be independent of the underlying physical infrastructure, i.e. open and vendor agnostic. And the Nexus 1000V virtual infrastructure is no exception. The Nexus 1000V is a virtual switch that runs on any virtual server (with the right hypervisor), and runs transparent to the underlying physical network, whether there are any physical Cisco switches or not. Again, this is the same as other virtual infrastructure vendors with their own virtual switch, virtual service or virtual tunnel technology. Cisco’s virtual overlays based on the Nexus 1000V are completely agnostic to the physical infrastructure. For example, we co-developed and are actively promoting the multi-vendor VXLAN tunneling technology.
The other point that I think was frequently overlooked in all the hoopla was the importance of Layer 4-7 virtual services to the virtual overlay story, and specifically the role of vPath. vPath is a component of the Nexus 1000V virtual switch that enables the integration of virtual service nodes into virtual overlays. vPath is critical to inserting services such as security, WAN optimization or load balancing into the data paths of our virtual networks. These virtual services are again agnostic of the underlying physical infrastructure, so we don’t have to rely on partitioning firewall or application delivery controller contexts in physical appliances and stitching them into our networks with VLANs.
These virtual network services run as virtual machines on any virtual server, or the Cisco Nexus 1010 virtual services appliance, a dedicated platform that offloads application servers and gives the network team more control over network policies. VLAN stitching is no longer required to insert services into data center networks. And, in fact, vPath works seamlessly with new VXLAN tunnels to insert services into the newer, much more scalable L2/L3 overlay partitioning technology.
vPath was recently enhanced to support “service chaining”, i.e., to create custom paths through multiple services, like a firewall then an application controller, particular to the needs of each virtual application. vPath is so critical to the delivery of complete, open/interoperable virtual overlays with full L4-7 capability that one of the attendees at a panel I hosted at Cisco live asked if Cisco would eventually license its vPath technology outside the Nexus 1000V.
While on the subject of how “open” ONE is, in the interest of full disclosure, I will point out that the onePK component, consisting of API’s to Cisco network devices, really is designed only for Cisco platforms, in order to extract value from Cisco-specific capabilities. Meanwhile, ONE supports the OpenFlow standard, OpenStack API’s, and will track and include other important SDN multi-vendor technologies going forward. We understand the need of programmers to write applications that will run across many platforms without (much) modification.
In future posts, I hope to touch on other “killer app” use cases for network programmability and Cisco ONE besides virtual overlays in order to illustrate the power of this important new technology and why there’s so much enthusiasm about it so far. Drop a note in the comments section as to what you think the early SDN/network programmability killer apps are. | <urn:uuid:f4eed8d9-84ce-4927-be82-de1ea9797f58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/some-afterthoughts-on-open-network-environment-sdn-and-overlay-networks/?wpmp_switcher=desktop | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930233 | 1,047 | 1.796875 | 2 |
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