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We have shared some valuable tips recently dealing with indoor gardening so have you tried your luck? Well, you should begin from now. Indoor garden not only makes your rooms look much fresher but also can help clean the air without using the advanced technology of air conditioner.
Anyway, among the main problems faced by indoor gardener is dealing with the limited space. In our opinion, limited space is not really a significant hindrance unless you want to bring the tone of Zen (You will need one huge pot and medium sized tree to do this). There is always some ways to create one nice green spot in your house. One of them is by utilizing what so called vertical planter. Made of some handy moisturized mat, this planter can be installed anywhere.
With this kind of planter, all you need is only a tiny portion of your walls. The way it works is you place some small flowers (orchids are most commonly used for vertical gardening) on the planter and you hang it on the wall exactly like when you hang some wall arts or other accessories. The types of plants you can plant on this planter are various. They could be some green herbs or even some edible veggies like basils and lettuces.
Really, that is it all about. Still, if you don’t want to be bothered with all the works, you can always consult and hire professionals to do it. They’ll make sure everything is done nicely for you. | <urn:uuid:869b8788-2ae6-4a00-9abb-078e9f3e835f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://designindoor.com/2012/06/indoor-vertical-gardening/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956461 | 302 | 1.703125 | 2 |
VIRGINIA YOUNG DEMOCRATS STAND WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA AND HIS CONSTITUTIONAL HEALTHCARE LAW
Virginia – June 28, 2012 – News Release –
Today, the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement, the Patient Protection and Affordable Cart Act.
“Healthcare represents 18 percent of the U.S.’s gross domestic product but too often was an unaffordable luxury to many young people and working families,” said Virginia Young Democrats Executive Vice President, Antonio Elias. “The president’s efforts on healthcare have made it a functional reality for millions of Americans who could never have afforded basic coverage under the rising costs within the system.”
“President Obama’s fearless leadership on this critical issue is a hallmark of his presidency,” said VAYD Political Director Hannah Wiegard. “Under his leadership one of the greatest areas of inequality, access to affordable health coverage, has been expanded to all Americans.”
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides millions of Americans access to health coverage. | <urn:uuid:f4fbf175-1ed0-4622-b58a-14de4b4b8039> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vayd.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931805 | 235 | 1.5 | 2 |
Ruppersberger Supports Return to the Moon
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Apr. 13, 2011) -- Despite 50 years of strength and our current position of technological leadership in space, Congressman C.A. "Dutch" Rupperserger (D-MD) said our space program is slipping.
Speaking Tuesday at The 27th National Space Symposium, Ruppersberger said that, between policy and budgetary uncertainty, the future is unclear. He said we must address four areas to reorient and refocus our space efforts and re-establish our strength and leadership: budget and schedule slippage, export control reform, launch costs and reliability and exploration efforts.
Among other things, Ruppersberger suggested using Nunn-McCurdy tools to keep programs on time and budget, employ proven technologies, and leverage interagency processes to share costs and increase utility. More broadly, he said, we cannot continue to retire systems before the new replacement capability is in place. He also suggested that the U.S should also put an end to ITAR restrictions, which stifles innovation and has crippled U.S. competitiveness, reducing our marketshare of satellite manufacturing from 70 percent to 27 percent. He said that legislation has passed the House, but has stalled in the Senate, but, nonetheless, ITAR reform has garnered the attention of the Administration, thus making future progress possible. In addressing launch capabilities, Ruppersberger said the U.S. needs to stop relying on Russian-made RD-180 engines for use with government payloads.
For exploration, Ruppersberger said the U.S. should recommit to a return to the Moon, but that there is no point in racing Russia or China to re-establish a human presence, since the U.S. has already been there before. Instead, he said, the U.S. return to the Moon should be robotic to create a virtual, cybernetic presence in the more immediate term, allowing re-establishment of an American human presence on the Moon to be more measured and intelligently paced. | <urn:uuid:747e2422-6138-47eb-bfae-bf81c63bd2c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spacefoundation.org/media/news-briefs/ruppersberger-supports-return-moon | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945883 | 425 | 1.726563 | 2 |
UPDATED MAY 11, 2012
Not surprisingly, KIPPs first response to our recent NEPC study was to declare it outright flawed. KIPP then proceeded to make up every possible explanation they could – every possible “excuse” – conjure every possible out of context – or different context estimate or “fact” to make their case that they in fact spend equal or less than schools in New York City and Houston.
I guess what continues to perplex me most is the stance that KIPP takes whenever anyone writes anything about them, in a report not sponsored by them or by one of their major funders (some of which are quite good). Whether a descriptive analysis of attrition rates or our analysis of spending per pupil, KIPPs standard response is to deny, deny, deny.
We have not said anywhere in our report that there’s anything wrong with spending more to do a good job – run a good school. It would be preposterous for us to make such an assertion. We have simply tried to lay out a reasonable comparison of what schools are spending, compared to otherwise similar schools. These comparisons are appropriate, and are necessary for making judgments about any marginal benefits that might be achieved by students attending different schools.
We show that part of the KIPP puzzle in Houston is explained by their attempts to provide more competitive front end teacher wages. Nothin’ wrong with that! It’s certainly a logical recruitment/retention strategy. Notably, it would become difficult to maintain these margins as school staff matures. These are issues worth monitoring over time – to see if CMOs entering their second and third decades of operation can continue to hold expenses down by holding staff experience down, while still recruiting and retaining energetic, high quality teachers. I will likely be conducting more extensive analyses of these salary structures across KIPP and other schools in NYC and Texas in the future, and hope to have a more productive discussion on the topic when that time comes.
KIPP argues that we counted all of their centralized expenses against them, and counted NONE against the NYC public schools. This is not true. We actually didn’t count KIPP regional and national expenses that exist beyond what the locals pay in management fees accounted for on their budgets.
Second, as I will show below, even if we count all of the system-wide expenses (& other obligations) of NYC BOE schools, KIPP schools continue to substantially outspend them.
Further, KIPP complains that we include expenses on their KIPP to College program. It’s a program. It’s a support service. It’s an expenditure. Further, even the KIPP schools budgets that don’t include KIPP to college exceed NYC BOE spending. And KIPP plays the usual card, in reference to Houston, not NYC, that they must incur the full costs (from their operating expenses) of facilities, implying that public districts have absolutely no costs of facilities.
Clearly, such comparisons are complicated and we acknowledge as much throughout our paper. Further, we provide substantial detail as to the types of data being compared and potential issues with the comparisons.
New York City
Let’s look first at our New York City comparisons. The data in NYC are pretty good, but because the charter financial reports are not part of the same system as the district school site budgeting data, they are not necessarily designed to be directly comparable. We had removed system-wide costs from the NYC BOE schools, in addition to removing costs for facilities (because BOE also pays for charter facilities), food and transportation, and we removed payments to charters. KIPPs assertion is that clearly if we add back in all system-wide costs NYC BOE schools would be spending at least the same if not more than KIPP schools. This is especially the case if, as KIPP asserts, that pension costs alone should add $2,200 per pupil to the BOE schools (this is a perfect example of a wrong context number extracted from a different comparison [a good one by IBO]).
Of course, this assertion doesn’t pass a basic smell test even given the information that already existed prior to our report. In the Independent Budget Office report which we cite, the IBO evaluated the comparability of the public subsidy rate of co-located (as with KIPP) charters and BOE schools, finding that the co-located charters had the equivalent subsidy of slightly higher than BOE schools on average district-wide. Note that subsidy rates aren’t expenditures. It’s a different comparison. But subsidy rates provide a starting point for what could be spent. And KIPP was ahead at the starting line, albeit only slightly.
Add to that, the fact that KIPP schools do not serve average special education populations, the major driver of differences in spending across BOE schools (as we validate). Thus, compared to these schools rather than average district-wide, KIPP moves further ahead. Then, I think we all understand by this point that KIPP raises and spends at least some private funding. Fair enough? We’ve got two reports out on this:
- Baker, B.D. & Ferris, R. (2011). Adding Up the Spending: Fiscal Disparities and Philanthropy among New York City Charter Schools. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. Retrieved [date] from http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/NYC-charter-disparities.
- Baker, B.D., Libby, K., & Wiley, K. (2012). Spending by the Major Charter Management Organizations: Comparing charter school and local public district financial resources in New York, Ohio, and Texas. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. Retrieved [date] from http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/spending-major-charter.
Add their private spending to the already growing margin, and you’ve got a bigger margin of difference in per pupil spending between KIPP schools and otherwise similar NYC BOE schools. On its face, it’s highly suspect for KIPP to argue that they do not spend more than NYC BOE schools.
But, just for fun, let’s rerun the regressions from our report with all system-wide costs added back to BOE schools and see if that puts them ahead of KIPP spending.
Here’s the overall comparison:
Even after adding system-wide costs back into BOE schools, KIPP schools spend more than $3,000 per pupil more than BOE schools.
Now here are the breakout scatterplots, starting with our original:
And then with all system-wide costs added back in to BOE school:
Hmmm… seems that KIPP schools are still significantly outspending otherwise similar BOE schools – about 25% more.
Another really important point here is that none of these adjustments alter KIPP charter spending relative to the other charters. KIPP continues to outspend the other charters by as much as they did in our original analyses.
What we don’t include for KIPP
We don’t include regional (KIPP NY) or national expenditures above and beyond what is covered by the school management fees. We write extensively in Appendix C of our report about these additional expenditures and difficulty in parsing precisely how much was spent by KIPP regional and national organizations and what services were provided as in-kind services to schools. This is a potentially significant break that we give to KIPP, setting aside entirely their centralized costs of the organization (those above and beyond what is covered by management fees).
It was problematic enough for KIPP to assert that they spend similarly to NYC BOE schools, but it was surely a stretch to assert that they spend similarly to Houston ISD schools which have been significantly constrained under state school finance policies in recent years. KIPP first pulls the facilities cost card to make their case, as usual, implicitly assuming public district facilities to be free. We discuss this issue on Page 49 of our report (and in numerous other locations):
Charter advocates often argue that charters are most disadvantaged in financial comparisons because charters must often incur from their annual operating expenses, the expenses associated with leasing facilities space. Indeed it is true that charters are not afforded the ability to levy taxes to carry public debt to finance construction of facilities. But it is incorrect to assume when comparing expenditures that for traditional public schools, facilities are already paid for and have no associated costs, while charter schools must bear the burden of leasing at market rates – essentially and “all versus nothing” comparison. First, public districts do have ongoing maintenance and operations costs of facilities as well as payments on debt incurred for capital investment, including new construction and renovation. Second, charter schools finance their facilities by a variety of mechanisms, with many in New York City operating in space provided by the city, many charters nationwide operating in space fully financed with private philanthropy, and many holding lease agreements for privately or publicly owned facilities.
KIPP also argues that their per pupil spending figures are inflated due to spending for growth. Hey. That’s an expenditure. By the way, typically, per pupil expenditures rise with declining enrollment (as the denominator goes down). Yes, there might be scaling up expenditures, but they tend not to have dramatic effect on per pupil expenditures. If KIPP has chosen to pay for redundant administration, etc. in order to support scaling up, then so be it. That’s an expenditure. We would hope to see these expenses level off down the line with additional analyses. We’ll wait and see on that.
But, back to our actual comparisons in Houston. We used two different approaches in Texas. First of all, in Houston, KIPP spending per pupil was much closer than in other Texas cities, where KIPP spending totally blew away district schools spending. But back to Houston. Using current operating expenditures per pupil data for KIPP and Houston schools, we show that KIPP middle schools outspend not only otherwise similar schools in HISD, but the district-wide average operating expenditure per pupil.
Further, we show that KIPP total district (IRS 990) expenditures significantly exceed Houston ISD’s TOTAL REVENUE PER PUPIL, including revenue for retiring debt and maintenance of HISD’s large capital stock.
Here are additional figures not included in the report, comparable to the figure above for other cities in Texas where KIPP operates. In each and every case, KIPP IRS 990 total expenditures per pupil EXCEED district TOTAL REVENUES PER PUPIL.
What we don’t include for KIPP
Again, we don’t attempt to figure out the additional expenses of KIPP national allocated to schools, above and beyond what is paid for from the local/regional KIPPs through management fees to the national organization.
I encourage those interested in these topics to not only browse the abstract of our report, but to also dig deep into the appendices and end notes – which are as long as the report itself. Heck, follow the hyperlinks to the data sources and take your own stab at this stuff. That’s what we need out here – not more excuses and unfounded anecdotal arguments.
I actually hesitate to write about KIPP and perhaps that’s just what they want. Apparently no one should write about them that hasn’t been paid by them to write about the. Those who do should be forewarned that you’ll have to waste inordinate time responding to their complaints – excuses – about what you wrote. As of this post, I hope to be done with this topic. | <urn:uuid:3a3caf2f-3d76-41b8-bb7e-98f83ce553a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/no-excuses-really-another-look-at-our-nepc-charter-spending-figures/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959996 | 2,435 | 1.5625 | 2 |
JUNEAU (AP) -- For high school seniors, January means more than the beginning of a new year -- it means a push for college applications.
This January, that's a larger push than normal, as many students are applying to more than the minimally recommended three schools so that they can compare the financial packages they're offered, said JDHS Career Advisor Terri Calvin.
"They're hedging their bets ... getting savvy financially," she said.
Calvin said kids in general are "applying like crazy, which is great."
JDHS seniors Nicole Solanoy and Ruthie Yadao, both UA Scholars, are applying to schools in the University of Alaska system. Both are also applying to the University of Alaska Anchorage for "city life" and the options there.
The top 10 percent of the student population at each Alaska high school is designated UA Scholars, meaning they'll get an $11,000 scholarship from the University of Alaska to attend.
In general, "Most (students) are undecided so they decide to stay in state to save money, and then they transfer when they know what they want (to study)," said Solanoy.
Senior Trisha Elizarde, however, said a lot of UA scholars aren't necessarily planning on applying at Alaska schools. Many she's talked to are applying to Western Undergraduate Exchange schools, she said.
The exchange, also known as WUE, allows kids from 15 western states to attend two or four-year public college in one of those states for up to 150 percent of the resident tuition rate.
Elizarde received early admission to a private school in Oregon, but because of cost, she said she's also applying to schools in Idaho and Arizona, both WUE states.
One twist to in-state applications is that some students may be returning to Juneau, something Calvin said she's noticed.
"A good number of kids are staying in Alaska ... and a fair number of kids that went out of state are now returning to the state. Finances are bringing them back to their roots, more or less," she said.
Director of Admissions at UAS Joe Nelson said the school's enrollment is up and applications for the spring semester are up, but the school doesn't have numbers of where students are from. Anecdotally, however, he and UAS Director of Public Relations and Marketing Katie Bausler said there seem to be more Juneau students returning.
Most cite financial reasons, Nelson said.
Bausler said some also say they come back because "they miss Eaglecrest."
Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative High School Principal Sarah Marino said about 30 to 50 percent of students at the school are at least thinking about going to college, though she doesn't yet know how many will follow through.
Marino said it was unusual even a few years ago for kids at the school to think about applying to college.
"A large majority are thinking about Alaska schools, starting at UAS,"' she said, mentioning that it's also possible for kids who want an out of state experience without the cost to do an exchange for a year. "We try to promote this because it's wonderful to keep kids in state."
She said the Western Undergraduate Exchange program isn't yet a significant draw for Yaakoosge students, but "as we keep developing that culture of 'You can go to college,' it probably will be."
"It (thinking about college) is a big shift in the way alternative high school students are thinking about their future," she said. "It's really wonderful."
Peninsula Clarion ©2013. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:c483d769-518f-4d62-aba2-e0ba05662dd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://peninsulaclarion.com/stories/011110/sch_545543837.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980207 | 758 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Mrs. Sulser was among a group of four, escorted by a Tyler police officer, to a known homeless camp in the woods where Margaret stayed.
A total of 88 volunteers surveyed the homeless population in Tyler as part of the 2013 Point in Time Homeless Survey and Count. Eighteen groups scoured places where the homeless generally congregate, in The Salvation Army, soup kitchens, Gateway to Hope, the East Texas Crisis Center and known camps.
The voluntary survey consisted of 27 questions designed to gauge how current services are being used, potential gaps that need to be covered and how to develop a long-term plan for addressing homelessness in Tyler and Smith County, said Christina Fulsom, a representative for the East Texas Human Needs Network, a coalition of representatives from many organizations to meet the needs of the homeless population.
The numbers will be used to help any entity that works with the homeless to receive grants, Ms. Fulsom said.
Questions were asked about migration habits, frequency of homelessness, what services they need or have received, their veteran status, education level and job status.
Mrs. Sulser said she has gotten fairly close with Margaret through her volunteer work and wanted to be the one to get her answers to the survey. Mrs. Sulser said she has volunteered with organizations that help the homeless for the past five years, spending the past three volunteering with Hiway 80 Rescue Mission.
“For me it’s more forming a relationship with them …” she said. “It makes sense to help those who can’t help themselves.”
Each Monday, Mrs. Sulser works with a Hiway 80 program called Art Reach. She said the program involves Bible study, pizza and a two-hour art class. Margaret has been a regular to the class.
“She loves it, and she is very talented,” she said, adding Margaret can paint and draw and is fond of flowers and bright colors. “We sell their art to raise money to buy supplies because the supplies kind of add up.”
Margaret is a very private person who rarely talks. Mrs. Sulser said she was difficult to get close to. But one day after class, she offered to take Margaret home, and dropped her off near the overpass, but said she didn’t realize how deep in the woods the camp was.
Mrs. Sulser said she didn’t learn anything new about Margaret from the anonymous survey, but said it was interesting to see her home.
“She’s always upbeat about her environment, as so it’s very interesting to see,” Mrs. Sulser said. “She is very artistic. It was fun to see her bows and ribbons and how colorful her spot was. She had all those red bows and colors.”
In the woods, several camps are joined by cleared pathways. The center camp is inhabited by 53-year-old Jody and two other men. Their camp has a garden, where Jody said they grow food in the summer as well as ornamental plants. There is a kitchen with hooks keeping pots and pans off the ground and a fire pit where meals are cooked. Jody, who has lived in the area for three years, said they even made a make-shift oven for heating water.
Inhabitants shower by heating water in the oven and putting it into large plastic bottles — the kind used to keep water in refrigerators — and placing them on a high board placed between two trees. Tarps provide privacy and the gravity of water falling allows them to get clean. Jody said three gallons of water is generally enough to take a shower with, but water has to be brought into the camp by hand 9 gallons at a time.
Jody said although Margaret doesn’t stay at his camp, they let her cook meals on their fire.
Ms. Fulsom said volunteers in 205 counties in Texas surveyed the homeless Thursday.
“We are trying not to count the same person twice,” she said. “We can take a snapshot, so we don’t take a picture of the same person twice.”
Ms. Fulsom said the Smith County volunteers collected 145 surveys, counting 247 homeless altogether, including 52 children. As of Thursday evening, she said a few more surveys would pour in.
The warm weather also affected counting numbers, Ms. Fulsom said. When the weather gets colder, more turn to shelters and are easier to count.
For the first time this year, volunteers checked eight communities in addition to Tyler: Arp, Overton, Bullard, New Chapel Hill, Noonday, Troup, Whitehouse and Winona.
Homeless were found in two of the communities, with the most in Whitehouse and one in Noonday, she said.
“It’s the first time we have been in those communities looking, and we didn’t scout it out the night before,” she said. “I think we will be better prepared next year to go to those communities.” | <urn:uuid:9a53b8b3-fe91-48df-97dd-01e496cbf0bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20130125/NEWS08/130129864/0/BUSINESS0504 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976633 | 1,057 | 1.601563 | 2 |
It is, literally, a pen that lets you draw in the air. Called 3Doodler and the invention of WobbleWorks co-founder Maxwell Bogue, the $99 pen lets users build physical objects out of hot plastic.
The magic, said Mr. Bogue, a speaker at the London Le Web conference, is in heating up the plastic (either conventional ABS plastic, or the more eco-friendly PLA), extruding it from the nib of the pen, and then immediately cooling it to form a fine structure.
Memoto, the personal camera that takes a picture of your life every 30 seconds, has just gone into production and will be on sale later this summer, the company CEO said Wednesday.
Martin Källström said the camera, worn on the lapel or shirt and which features a 5 megapixel sensor, 8GB of storage (enough for two day’s use), a GPS tracker and power for about one to two days, should go on sale in August or September of this year.
Costing $279 — which includes a year’s image storage — about 4,000 of the 1.4-inch-square device have been pre-ordered said Mr. Källström, about half of which were ordered through crowd-funding site Kickstarter, the remainder from the Swedish company’s website.
Data scientists should look to journalism for the skills they need, according to one of the people credited with popularizing the term.
D.J. Patil, data scientist in residence at venture capital firm Greylock Partners, speaking at last week’s Le Web conference, said the key to data science was the ability to use the data to tell stories.
“Data science is about creating narratives,” he said. “It is about creating analogies, about using complex data to tell stories.”
“Journalism is the model we need to look to—we are up against the same ethical decisions. The notion of editorial content—how do you make editorial decisions?”
International conference organizers Reed Midem has taken a majority share in the Le Web conference, the founder said today. The deal terms were not announced.
Loïc Le Meur, who set up the conference eight years ago, said he and his wife Géraldine, who run the event, will retain a significant minority stake in the conference, but decided to sell because the conference had become too big.
“We manage it all, but we had 5,000 people between the two events, Paris and London. It has got too big for our small team,” he said. “We remain on board and we remain shareholders.”
PARIS—The use of public sector money to support private sector enterprise is a controversial topic, but few, if any, other countries have committed to spend on the scale and with such ambition as the Russian Federation.
Its Skolkovo project is gargantuan. While Berlin spends a few hundred thousand euros on a marketing program and the U.K. a few million on promoting what had previously been an unloved corner of London, Russia has committed to spending at least $4 billion (and potentially up to $8 billion) to build an entirely new city just outside of Moscow complete with its own special police, its own immigration status, its own courts, its own intellectual property regime (a notorious problem for companies doing business in Russia). It hopes to be open in 2014.
Katia Gaika, deputy director for education and research for the project, said the aim of the program, which envisages a city of 30,000 people, was about positioning Russia as a center of innovation and investing its oil and gas revenues into future industry. Its aim was to position the Russian economy to exploit those areas in which the country excelled, and to invest in those areas in which it lagged.
PARIS—Having been at two very impressive events this year (Pioneers Festival in Vienna, the Dublin Web Summit in … well, Dublin) how would that grand old dame of the tech circuit, Le Web, face up to the challenge?
The answer is surprisingly well.
Everyone who goes to Le Web knows it is not an easy conference. Firstly it is huge, some 3,000 people spread over three halls (although most of the action takes place in just one). And while it sells itself as being in Paris, good luck telling your taxi driver (if you can find one that is) that. It is in St. Denis, on the edge of the French capital.
PARIS—Ariel Garten’s presentation at Le Web is fast becoming a regular, and for very good reasons; it is always, not quite literally, mindblowing.
Ms. Garten, a quietly passionate Canadian, is CEO of Interaxon. It makes a product — Muse — that can read and interpret your brainwaves.
Muse takes the user into one of the most fundamental divides; that of brain and mind. This tool gives the conscious mind the ability to control the brain.
“It is quite a stunning experience,” said Ms. Garten. “It is quite startling. The information we are getting is quite limited, but the ability to have access to that information is quite stunning.”
PARIS—Le Web is not a place normally associated with launching phones, but if you are Nokia then make the most of any opportunity.
Marko Ahtisaari, Executive VP of Design at the struggling Finnish telecom maker, used the 3,000-strong audience to launch the latest in its Lumia range, the Lumia 620.
The phone, which comes in seven colors, with exchangeable backs, including a rather striking lime green and an orange gloss finish, is smaller and cheaper than the others in the existing Lumia range; the flagship 920 and the mid-range 820. The 3G Lumia 620 has a 3.8″ screen and 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor.
PARIS—SoundCloud, the Berlin-based startup that allows users to share sounds, and not just music, is making a big noise here about sound.
Alex Ljung, the co-founder and CEO who was at Le Web to announce the next version of the product, said the site now gets 10 hours of sounds uploaded for every minute of the day.
“It is the place on the web for all the different sounds of the world,” he said. He claimed the platform reached over 180 million people — although stressed that was not the number of registered users.
PARIS—Dropbox was once famously dismissed by the late Steve Jobs as “a feature, not a company”. 100 million users later the company thinks it has proved its point.
Head of Operations Ruchi Sanghvi is here at the Le Web conference discussing the future of the company, and putting paid to Mr. Jobs’ put down.
“I have two cellphones, I have an iPad, a computer at home, one at work. I use three different operating systems,” she said. “My interaction with technology is through all these different devices, on all these different platforms and all these different operating systems.
Tech Europe covers Europe’s technology leaders, their companies, and the people and industries that support them — and their ideas. The blog is edited by Ben Rooney, with contributions from The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. | <urn:uuid:378301e6-f6d2-41ac-91d9-c17cfda1f105> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/tag/le-web/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960782 | 1,551 | 1.640625 | 2 |
When aviation is mentioned, most people think of the airlines, corporate flying and the small aircraft that fly in and around our local airport.
The world of general aviation is much more extensive than these few areas and careers. The exploration of the many possibilities in general aviation careers is one of the main objectives for the Pagosa Spring Venturing Crew.
In March, the Pagosa Springs Venturing Crew was fortunate to have Bob Hite speak on his aviation experiences with the media in the U.S. and in Haiti.
Hite is a former Marine Corps combat correspondent, Coast Guard licensed captain, deep sea diver, horseman and marksman.
Currently, Hite is working on his private pilot’s certificate at Pagosa Springs Stevens Field.
Bob was at the anchor desk of News Channel 8, Tampa, Florida for 28 years before retiring and moving to Pagosa Springs.
Here he works on freelance projects developing, shooting and editing documentaries and other special news projects. Hite recently returned from Haiti after completing one such project.
At the Pagosa Springs Venturing Crew meeting, Hite showed several of his documentaries and news stories he developed that involved the use of general aviation.
One documentary was completed approximately 15 years ago, when Hite was in Haiti working on a story about a Florida-based missionary flight that services families in Haiti — Agape Flight. Other stories included a most unusual “medical” rescue he was involved in and another in which he thought may had been his last flight. Hite also shared his flight experiences with the Blue Angels. His emphasis was that flying is not exclusive to the corporate or airline pilots. Aviation is used in number of professions. Here Hite shared how he was able to combine his career in media production and his love of flying.
Some of the upcoming activities the Pagosa Springs Venturing Crew will be sponsoring are a May/June Pilot Fun Day with Spot Landing and Flour Drop Competitions, a May 16 Airport Fly-in and Sept. 12 air races. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.
Venturing is a youth development program of the Boy Scouts of America for young men and women who are 13 (and have completed the eighth grade) through 20 years of age. Venturing’s purpose is to provide positive experiences to help young people mature and to prepare them to become responsible and caring adults. Anyone interested in learning more about the Pagosa Springs Venturing Crew, please contact Anne Kautzky at (970) 903-7718, or Bill McKown at 731-3060. | <urn:uuid:62880ad9-2435-4ac3-8958-4ebfc840a70b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pagosasun.com/archives/2010/04%20April/040110/venturecrew.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971821 | 526 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Visas: Make sure you have two blank, consecutive pages in your passport before traveling to South Africa. Really.
It’s not such an unusual step: customs officials will place a temporary residence sticker on one page and use the other for stamps. Cases have been reported of travelers’ being refused entry for not having the adequate room in their passports. So, see whether you need to add pages to your passport, and spare yourself any potential hassle.
Transportation: Driving is the most common form of transportation in South Africa, and it is done on the left side of the road. Travelers usually rent a car; hiring a driver is
also common practice, especially for people traveling with children, but is significantly more expensive.
When traveling in a group, consider using buses; if you plan to backpack, note that the Baz Bus is an inexpensive option. If you’re planning to travel long distances by bus, we recommend choosing private companies, like Greyhound and City Liners, over public options. Domestic airlines such as Kululu, Mango, and 1Time are also inexpensive, and faster than the bus, too. As the World Cup began in June 2010, South Africa also introduced the continent’s first high-speed train: the Gautrain links the OR Tambo International Airport with Sandton, Pretoria, Johannesburg, and other locations on both above-ground and underground tracks.
Mobile Phones: If you have a GSM mobile phone, you can use it in South Africa; consider buying a prepaid SIM card at the airport if you don’t have an international plan.
Safety and Security
The U.S. Department of State’s consular website has a great deal of information about safety and security in South Africa. It can’t be repeated often enough: be sensible when you travel. Crime rates vary between cities and townships in South Africa. Be alert and aware about your surroundings. We don’t recommend walking at night in downtown areas: you might be targeted as a tourist and mugged.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has created a security ratings system called the Ibrahim Index, wherein scores are based on each country’s quality of government. Before traveling to South Africa or anywhere on the continent, check the index and do your research. | <urn:uuid:f9274633-627e-4d1f-922e-97d3fd2c67ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.africa.com/south-africa/travel2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940211 | 474 | 1.789063 | 2 |
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Friday, September 17, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
1,500 Cambodian refugees face deportation for crimes
By Lornet Turnbull
He was 14 when he and his family arrived in the U.S. as refugees from Cambodia. Within years, he'd be in trouble with the law.
Now a 38-year-old father of three, with his time already served for assault and DUI convictions, Beua is among 1,500 Cambodian criminal offenders in the U.S. being expelled to the Southeast Asian kingdom.
Some Cambodian advocates are trying to halt the deportations, saying the punishment is overly harsh. But immigration officials and groups that favor immigration restrictions insist the government has a right to force out those who've blown their chances to stay.
They are being returned in small waves: Beua's group of about six from the Seattle area will fly to an undisclosed location in the U.S. today before meeting up with other Cambodians who also are being sent back.
And while this region, home to the nation's third-largest Cambodian population, has seen other such deportations over the past two years, this current group mostly men in their 20s, some of them parents is the largest ever expelled at one time.
Memories of violence
Beua's native Cambodia holds fading but frightening memories memories of crossing minefields and wading through rivers, past dead bodies, fleeing the murderous Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s.
"I fled that country to get away from Pol Pot. Now they're taking me back," Beua said.
His family has distant relatives in Cambodia's countryside, but no one knows how to contact them. He has no friends there, no job prospects, and no real plan for his life once he arrives.
Once he leaves the U.S., he can never come back.
Frequently in trouble with the law, in and out of jail, Beua is no saint. He and his family admit that. But being exiled to a country that so profoundly changed all their lives is also something they can't comprehend.
"What will I do?" he asked. "I'll be lost there. My parents are here, and they're getting old. They'll die without me seeing them again."
Whether for criminal offense or their illegal status, people of all nationalities are expelled from the U.S. all the time.
But the story of the Cambodians is different, somehow, because as refugees they did not voluntarily leave their homeland.
Most were babies or young children when they came to the U.S., and some believe that because they were victims of the Indochina war, the U.S. government owes them something.
"These families have suffered far too much to be traumatized all over again by the very country that was supposed to give them a safe haven," said Jay Stansell, a federal public defender with extensive ties to the Cambodian community.
"I think it's unconscionable to split any of these families, particularly in the case of Southeast Asians, where the creation of refugees had so much to do with U.S. foreign policy at that time."
Jack Martin, special-projects director with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in Washington, D.C., said refugees who commit crimes shouldn't expect special treatment.
"Like any other immigrants in this country, refugees are taken in as guests until such time as they become citizens," Martin said.
"It is a legitimate function of the government to expel those who abuse their status by committing crimes."
As a refugee, Beua was entitled to permanent residency but neglected to seek citizenship, which would have saved him the fate he now faces.
His residency has actually been in jeopardy since 1996, when the U.S. expanded deportable crimes to include offenses such as domestic violence, drunken driving and shoplifting, and drew a large number of noncitizen immigrant offenders into the net.
The law was made retroactive, too, meaning someone who had already served time for offenses committed before the law passed could still face deportation. But initially, those new rules didn't apply to Cambodians. Because their country lacked repatriation with the U.S., immigration authorities had no place to deport them to.
In the months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, however, the U.S. stepped up pressure on such countries. In 2002, it signed an agreement with the royal government of Cambodia. The agreement came more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in favor of a Seattle man, Kim Ho Ma, said immigration officials could not indefinitely hold detainees whose countries would not agree to take them back.
Since the repatriation agreement, about 100 Cambodians have been deported, including a handful from the Seattle area.
Stansell, a frequent visitor to Cambodia, said, "A lot of these folks didn't have a large bag of tools in the U.S. to do well. They are the product of the failure of the American dream for many poor people in this country. Now they are in a country where survival is all that and much more. Some of them are doing well. Others are sad and depressed."
The Southeast Asians gave the United States its first experience working with large numbers of refugees, and some believe it failed them.
"They hunkered down in these isolated enclaves ... had intensive mental-health issues and were traumatized to the extent most American citizens can't begin to imagine," said Stansell, who helped to represent Ma in the 2001 case.
"It would be like deporting survivors of Auschwitz. There's no high ground here. We don't cut off the hands of thieves in this country. As it is, some of these guys would rather have their hands cut off than live on the other side of the planet for the rest of their lives."
Beua imagines that his return to a country he has tried hard to forget will be similar to his arrival as a scared, traumatized teenager in Bellingham in September 1979.
His father found work as a custodian at Western Washington University.
Beua struggled in school: "I didn't even know a word of English," he said. "I sat in class and had no idea what they were talking about."
He was older than most of his classmates 19 and in the ninth grade when he dropped out in frustration. He tried to earn his GED while working but gave up on that, too.
Beua was living in Ferndale in 1996 when the incident occurred that would ultimately end his stay in the U.S.
He'd gone out with a cousin and gotten drunk, he said. Back at home, he got into an argument with his girlfriend. "I walked away, and she came after me and pushed me; I retaliated."
He left the house.
The next day, he was arrested on domestic-violence charges and spent four months in jail.
At the end of this sentence, immigration officials who make regular rounds of local jails to identify deportable criminals took him into custody.
His girlfriend bailed him out after a month.
It wouldn't be Beua's last brush with the law. He has several assault charges on his record and lost his license twice for driving drunk, most recently in 2002.
In 2000, an immigration judge ordered him removed from the country.
He said he was told by immigration officials in April that it would probably be five to 10 years before he would be deported.
After that, he didn't give it much thought. "I didn't think I'd get deported," he said. "I'm legally in the U.S."
Trying to mend ways
Beua said he had been trying to get his life back on track. He had a job he liked, and he and his fiancée, together four years, were in a stable relationship, she wrote in a letter to immigration authorities.
His older sister, Kelly Pomarca, said that, as a family, "We've been through so much together.
"It's hard to think he won't be here with us."
Last week, Beua's attorney called to say she had bad news: His number had come up. He was told to report to the Northwest Detention Facility in Tacoma at 9 a.m. today.
He struggles to imagine life without his three children 17, 14 and 8 and his parents and siblings, the family with whom he fled Cambodia all those years ago.
"Everybody makes mistakes when they're young," he said. "I can't undo what I've done. But I've done my time."
Him Chhim, executive director of the Cambodian Association of America in Long Beach said, "Just as Vietnam was a product of the U.S. government, these children are the product of the American social environment.
"When they committed their crime, they were sent to prison for five, six, seven years. It was the responsibility of the government to rehabilitate them whether they were Cambodian, American or anybody," he said.
"After all these years of incarceration, they are released back to the communities where they belong. And those communities should be Long Beach, Seattle, Los Angeles not Cambodia."
Seattle Times news researcher Gene Balk contributed to this report.
Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or firstname.lastname@example.org
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company
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Back to top | <urn:uuid:b809e17e-d939-423a-a328-b2b8c9ea3911> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2002038140_cambodia17m.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986376 | 2,019 | 1.828125 | 2 |
CBO on the Fiscal Cliff situation and implications on the Economy.
Substantial changes to tax and spending policies are scheduled to take effect in January 2013, significantly reducing the federal budget deficit. According to CBO’s projections, if all of that fiscal tightening occurs, real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) will drop by 0.5 percent in 2013 (as measured by the change from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the fourth quarter of 2013)—reflecting a decline in the first half of the year and renewed growth at a modest pace later in the year. That contraction of the economy will cause employment to decline and the unemployment rate to rise to 9.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. After next year, by the agency’s estimates, economic growth will pick up, and the labor market will strengthen, returning output to its potential level (reflecting a high rate of use of labor and capital) and shrinking the unemployment rate to 5.5 percent by 2018.
Guest post by Vix and more.
The S&P 500 index fell as low as 1388 today, down 86 points or 5.9% from its September 14th high of 1474.
The table below summarizes all the peak-to-trough pullbacks in the SPX since the March 2009 bottom. Note that while a 5.9% drawdown is right in the middle of the pack in terms of the magnitude of the drop, the 36 days that it has taken for stocks to fall that far makes the current pullback the fourth longest in terms of peak-to-trough duration. Of course, these statistics all assume that today’s low will mark a bottom – and while recent market action supports that thesis, there are no guarantees that SPX 1388 will hold.
Also worth noting is the fact that 2012 is the first year that has seen more than one pullback with a duration of at least a month. There are several ways to interpret this. One, of course, is that when there has been weakness as of late, that weakness has persisted for a long time. Another way to interpret the lengthy pullbacks might be that the tendency of the bulls to buy on the dips has diminished the likelihood of sharp downward moves in stocks.
Guest post by Gold Silver Worlds.
Michael MacDonald and Christopher Whitestone did a superb Q&A with GoldSilverWorlds. In their book “The Silver Bomb” (available on Amazon.com), they wrote about their views on the world and the markets. They have summarized it and enriched with recent facts and figures.
The markets are completely bought and paid for, corrupt, and manipulated … “a farce”. We are in a corruption bubble, the largest corruption bubble the world has ever seen in modern history and perhaps in all history. This is the first time that the world has been united within instant communication, instant information, instant deposit or receipt of funds into any bank account or financial institution. Michael says: “I believe that we are already a one world order. I actually think we are already there, electronically certainly. I also think that a lot of the debates, wars and conflicts are manufactured, very similar to the presidential debates which are also manufactured. I believe we live in a one-world system, which financially is already completely manipulated.”
We don’t live in a free market. We haven’t lived in a free market for decades, if not since 1913. We have the most powerful agency in the world, the Federal Reserve, setting the interest rates and the value of the world’s reserve currency. Everything that stems from that is built upon deceit and fraud. This doesn’t bode well for the entire financial system as a whole and right now, we are seeing the ramifications of that deceit.
We are in the lengthening of this financial market topping. A lot of things are happening that point to any one of several large enough dominos falling over which is going to have a splash and pullover effect. Within three years we are going to see this farce imploding. Michael thinks that we will have something completely different and unrecognizable to what we currently have.
Biderman on Obama.
Unless Barack Obama dramatically changes, I predict by the end of his second four year term he will have earned the legacy of being the worst fiscal president ever. Why? The US will be bankrupt after another four years of the same Obama we had for the past four.
Here’s my evidence, before Obama was elected in 2008 after tax take home for everyone who pays taxes was just under $7 trillion annualized. That $7 trillion number included capital gains, an income source the US Bureau of Economic Analysis does not include in national income. Why is capital gains not included? Is there a prejudice against income on capital? Who knows. It’s the government.
Some statistics on the before/after elections performance of markets. Via Doug Short.
Today the S&P followed the time-honored pattern of post-election selloff. Of the 16 presidential elections since the middle of the last century, the close before the election has been a gain 13 times. The day after the election has posted a gain only six times. Today’s 2.37% post-election selloff was the second worst in 60 years, the worst being the -5.27% gut-wrencher the day after Obama’s first victory.
Earlier today: As I type this, about 90 minutes after the US equity markets opened, the major indexes are selling off. The S&P 500 is down over two percent. In my S&P 500 daily update for yesterday, I pointed out that Election Day or the day before prior to 1984 (when it was a market holiday) have usually recorded gains, at least as far back as the middle of the last century.
But what about the day after elections? The pattern of “second thoughts” appears to be the norm. Here is a table showing the 16 Election days starting with Dwight Eisenhower’s 1952 win over Adlai Stevenson. It’s the same table I posted yesterday, but this version adds the S&P performance for the day following the election. | <urn:uuid:97fb02a8-5c7d-41a0-b77a-d21bf3cff89c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetrader.se/2012/11/08/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962589 | 1,289 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Issue 126 * April 30, 1996
The National Center for Public Policy Research
Amy Moritz, President
300 Eye Street N.E. Suite 3 * Washington, D.C. 20002
(202) 543-4110 * Fax (202) 543-5975
E-Mail: [email protected]
Activities at the April 23 Family Forum meeting chaired by Amy Moritz of The National Center for Public Policy Research and Mike Schwartz of the Congressional Family Caucus.
Donna Rice Hughes, Miriam Bell, Dee Jepsen, Monique Nelson and Wayne Stewart of the anti-pornography group Enough is Enough and Kathy Cleaver of the Family Research Council discussed their efforts to protect children from accessing pornography through the Internet. Said Hughes: "Our philosophy is a three-pronged approach: 1) law, 2) technology, 3) education." Education, she said, "is about removing illegal porn... and helping victims of pornography," and is especially important, she said, because parents can't protect children if they don't know there is a problem. "Law" primarily refers to the Communications Decency Act (CDA), approved by the 104th Congress and signed into law by President Clinton. The CDA is presently facing a court challenge and is being defended by the Clinton Administration, she said, noting that two of the three judges on the case "do not look sympathetic" to the Clinton Administration/Enough is Enough pro-CDA position. But Hughes said that the law is not the only answer, calling technology an "important tool," and said that their goal is a system whereby all information on the Internet is classified according to content, and browsers can be equipped to ignore materials that meet certain classifications. Wayne Stewart then demonstrated examples of currently-available software designed to block "X-rated" Internet sites, specifically mentioning "Rated PG," a program that allows parents to build custom networks for their kids and gives parents a printout showing where their kids have browsed. Kathy Cleaver discussed legal issues, saying that, in her opinion, CompuServe and other online services are presently in violation of the law. Enough is Enough distributed a comprehensive information packet, including information on Enough is Enough, what is illegal porn and what is legal, information on the CDA, and information about videos and software that can help parents protect their kids. Contact Donna Rice Hughes, Miriam Bell, Dee Jepsen, Monique Nelson and Wayne Stewart at 703/278-8343 and Kathy Cleaver at 202/393-2100.
Steve Allen of the Internet Guild discussed the purpose of his organization, which is to facilitate communications between conservatives, libertarians and free market activists on the Internet. He also discussed the debut issue of The Internet Report, a newsletter designed, he said, "to be the definitive non-partisan newsletter covering political sites and activities on the Net." The Internet Report is free to subscribers receiving it by e-mail and a sample is available. Contact Steve Allen at 703/941-5972 or by e-mail at [email protected]
Mike Schwartz of the Congressional Family Caucus and Heidi Stirrup of the Christian Coalition discussed environmental issues from a pro-family perspective. Schwartz discussed a letter being sent to the left-wing environmental group the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) asking the LCV why they ranked a vote in favor of UN funding for abortion as a "pro-environment" vote in their legislative scorecard. Heidi Stirrup distributed a Washington Times editorial by Marlo Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute entitled "The EPA Would Have Arrested Noah." Contact Mike Schwartz at 202/225-3031 and Heidi Stirrup at 202/547-3600.
Edmund Peterson of Project 21 updated participants about the investigation into the burnings of black churches across the country. Recently, he said, the Christian Coalition has announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of perpetrators, and hearings into the burnings are planned in both the House (in the Constitution Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, Chaired by Rep. Charles Canady [R-FL]) and the Senate (in the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Contact Edmund Peterson via Arturo Silva at 202/543-4110 or by e-mail at [email protected]
Amy Myers of Eagle Forum updated participants on the status of the Careers Bill, which, she said, takes some power away from local school boards and towns, and distributed articles about it. The bill, she said, has been in conference committee since September, and opponents and even some Members of Congress who voted for it are hoping it will stay there. Contact Amy Myers at 202/544-0353.
Diane Steed of the Coalition for Vehicle Choice, a 40,000-member vehicle-users group, discussed the Clinton Administration's desire to increase fuel economy standards by 40% in order to help stop "global warming." Steed said this would add about $2,700 to the cost of an average family-sized vehicle and compromise safety, and reviewed legislation on the Hill that would freeze fuel economy standards at 27 m.p.g. for cars and 20 m.p.g. for trucks. The legislation is HR 2200 in the House (primary sponsors: Reps. Fred Upton (R-MI) and Sherrod Brown (R-OH) and S. 1506 in the Senate (primary sponsors: Senators Spence Abraham (R-MI), John Ashcroft (R-MO), Carl Levin (D-MI). Contact Diane Steed at 202/628-5164.
Decision-time is looming on health care reform for the 104th Congress. With a glaring exception, bills approved by both the House and Senate largely meet the Republican goals of:
Says labor lawyer Peter Kirsanow, author of the African-American leadership group Project 21's 1994 report The Health Care Ghetto, which analyzed the effect of President Clinton's health care proposal on black Americans, about the bill passed by the House 267-151: "It's a remarkable improvement over the health care act proposed by Clinton. It's non-intrusive, devoid of state control, and rectifies the problems of portability, denying health care based on preexisting conditions, and expensive costs. What Clinton tried to do in a socialistic fashion, the House has done in a free market fashion." But the glaring exception remains: the Senate bill does not include Medical Savings Accounts, which many say are key to making health care affordable, and wrangling over MSAs is holding up the appointment of Senate conferees to the House-Senate conference committee which will work out differences between the House and Senate. The Senate stand-off pits Majority Leader Robert Dole against Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS), and until it is resolved, no conferees will be appointed. MSA advocates are urging Dole to stand firm. If and when the stand-off in the Senate over conferees is resolved the House will most likely vote on a resolution to instruct the House conferees on MSAs. Experts are urging the public to contact Senator Dole, their home state Senators, and their Congressman with their views on health care reform immediately, as major decisions are likely in the near future. Contact Peter Kirsanow via Arturo Silva at 202/543-4110 or by e-mail at [email protected]
Scoop is published by The National Center for Public Policy Research to provide information about the activities of the conservative movement. Coverage of a meeting or statement in Scoop does not imply endorsement by The National Center for Public Policy Research. (C)1996 The National Center for Public Policy Research. ###
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The Gambler: protagonist “gets staked” by a woman to whom he is attracted, but gets no thrill in gambling for someone else. Constantly resents the feeling.
“Yes; even if a gentleman should lose his whole substance, he must never give way to annoyance. Money must be so subservient to gentility as never to be worth a thought. Of course, the SUPREMELY aristocratic thing is to be entirely oblivious of the mire of rabble, with its setting; but sometimes a reverse course may be aristocratic to remark, to scan, and even to gape at, the mob for preference, through a lornett), even as though one were taking the crowd and its squalor for a sort of rare show which had been organized specially for a gentleman's diversion. Though one may be squeezed by the crowd, one must look as though one were fully assured of being the observerof having neither part nor lot with the observed. At the same time, to stare fixedly about one is (Gambler 32) unbecoming; for that, again is ungentlemanly, seeing that no spectacle is worth an open stareare no spectacles in the world which merit from a gentleman too pronounced an inspection. (Gambler 33)
However, to me personally the scene DID seem to be worth undisguised contemplationmore especially in view of the fact that I had come there not only to look at, but also to number myself sincerely and wholeheartedly with, the mob” (Gambler 33) .
I wonder if any one has EVER approached a gaming-table without falling an immediate prey to superstition? (Gambler 35)
FREUD WROTE ON
DOSTOEVSKY THE GAMBLER
FIND SOURCE 1928: The Complete Works of Freud Vol. #21not exact bib infolocate:
FROM ONTARIO WEBSITE:
"My hands were shaking, my thought confused, and even when losing, I was somehow almost glad. I kept saying, let it be, let it be."
Fyodor DOSTOEVSKY. Letter to Anna (May 21, 1867) Connect to Deleuze’s casting of the dice as the affirmation of becoming.
FROM DOSTOEVSKY AND PARRICIDE:
In “DOSTOEVSKY and Parricide”, Freud attempts to connect some of the details of Dostoevsky’s biography, particularly his propensity for gambling and epilepsy, with the Oedipal Complex. In the article, Freud clearly connects the gambling instinct with a masochistic criminality in which “the relation between the subject and his father-object, while retaining its content, has been transformed into a relation between the ego and the super-egoa new setting on a fresh stage” (Freud 186). As a result of a bisexual response to the threat of castration (the subject relinquishes his pursuit of the mother’s love by and father’s destruction (in the case of DOSTOEVSKY, the abandonment of the patricidal drive is the result of the father’s real death) so that “the super-ego becomes sadistic and the ego becomes masochisticthat is to say, at bottom passive in a feminine way. A great need for punishment develops in the ego, which in part offers itself as a victim to Fate, and in part finds satisfaction in ill-treatment by the super-ego (that is, in the sense of guilt). For every punishment is ultimately castration and, as such, a fulfillment of the old passive attitude towards the father. Even Fate is, in the last resort, only a later projection of the father” (Freud 185). The maniacal pursuit of guilt which results manifests itself in two ways: epileptic seizures and compulsive gambling, both, according to Freud, functioning as a means of releasing the hysteria inducing sexual energy of “displaced narcissism” (190).
Freud is careful to point out that Dostoevsky’s motivation for gambling was not, as one would naturally assume, driven by a desire to resolve his financial problems, though it may appear as such, but as a self-contained pleasure“le jeu pour le jeu” (Freud 190)play for the sake of play. (L'art pour L'art). The editor’s note locates the source in the following quotation from a collection of Dostoevsky’s posthumous papers: “’The main thing is the play itself,’ he writes in one of his letters. ‘I swear that greed for money has nothing to do with it, although Heaven knows I am sorely in need of money.’” (Freud 190). Gary Morson in “Writing Like Roulette”
GAMBLING, MULTIPLICITY , & PASSION:
“’I submit that the passion for gambling is the noblest of all passions, because it comprehends all others. A series of lucky rolls gives me more pleasure than a man who does not gamble can have over a period of several years. I play by intuition, par l’espritthat is to say, in the most keenly felt and delicate manner. Do you think I recognize gain only in terms of the gold that comes my way? You are mistaken. I see it in terms of the joys which gold procures, and I savor them to the full. These joys, vivid and scorching as lightning, are too rapid-fire to become distasteful, and too diverse to become boring. I live a hundred lives in one. If it is a voyage, it is like that of an electric spark.’…Edouard Gourdon, Les Faucheurs de nuit (Paris, 1860)” (AP 495)
MANHATTAN TRANSFER: “’It is useless to expect that a bourgeois could ever succeed in comprehending the phenomena of the distribution of wealth. For, with the development of mechanical production, property is depersonalized and arrayed in the impersonal collective form of the joint stock company, whose shares are finally caught up in the whirlpool of the Stock Exchange. . . .They are . . . lost by one, won by anotherindeed, in a manner so reminiscent of gambling that the buying and selling of stock is actually known as ‘playing’ the market. Modern economic development as a whole tends more and more to transform capitalist society into a giant international gambling house, where the bourgeois wins and loses capital in consequence of events which remain unknown to him . . . . The ‘inexplicable’ is enthroned in bourgeois society as in a gambling hall. . . . Successes and failures, thus arising from causes that are unanticipated, generally unintelligible, and seemingly dependent on chance, predispose the bourgeois to the gambler’s frame of mind.” (AP 497)
“’Well, what is gambling, I should like to know, but the art of producing in a second the changes that Destiny ordinarily effects only in the course of many hours or even many years, the art of collecting into a single instant the emotions dispersed throughout the slot-moving existence of ordinary men, the secret of living a whole lifetime in a few minutesin a word, the genie’s ball of thread? Gambling is a hand-to-hand encounter with Fate . . . The fascination of danger is at the bottom of all great passions. There is no fullness of pleasure unless the precipice is near. It is the mingling of terror with delight that intoxicates. And what more terrifying than gambling? It gives and takes away; its logic is not our logic. It is dumb and blind and deaf. It is almighty. It is a God. . . . It has its votaries and its saints, who love it for itself, not for what it promises, and who fall down in adoration when its blow strikes them. It strips them ruthlessly, and they lay the blame on themselves, not on their duty. ‘I played (AP 498) a bad game,’ they say. They find fault with themselves; they do not blaspheme their God.” Anatole France, Le Jardin d’Epicure (Paris), pp. 15-18. (AP 499)
“In the sixteenth section of Baudelaire’s Spleen de Paris, “L’Horaloge’ <The Clock>, we come upon a conception of time which can be compared to that of the gambler.” (AP 507)
“’The game of chance represents the only occasion won which the pleasure principle, and the omnipotence of its thoughts and desires, need not be renounced, and on which the reality principle offers no advantages over it. In this retention of the infantile fiction of omnipotence lies posthumous aggression against the . . . . authority which has ‘inculcated’ the reality principle in the child. This unconscious aggression, together with the operation of the omnipotence of ideas and the experience of the socially viable repressed exhibition, conspires to form a triad of pleasures in gambling. This triad stands opposed to a triad of punishments constituted from out of the unconscious desire of loss, the unconscious homosexual desire for domination, and the defamation of society. . . . At the deepest level, the game of chance is love’s will to be extorted by an unconscious masochistic design. This is why the gambler always loses in the long run.’” Edmund Bergler, ‘Zur Psychologie des Hasardspielers,’ Imago, 22, no. 4 (1936), p. 440.” (AP 510)
ACCELERATION: Multiplicity and Gambling: “The significance of the temporal element in the intoxication of the gambler has been noticed before this by Gourdon, as well as by Anatole France. But these two writers see only the meaning time has for the gambler’s pleasure in his winnings, which, quickly acquired and quickly surrendered, multiply themselves a hundredfold in his imagination through the numberless possibilities of expenditure remaining open and, above all, through the one real possibility of wager, of mis en jeu. What meaning the factor of time might have for the process of gambling itself is at issue in neither Gourdon nor France. And the pastime of gambling itself is, in fact, a singular matter. A game passes the time more quickly as chance comes to light more absolutely in it, as the number of combinations encountered in the course of play )of coups) is smaller and their sequence shorter. In other words, the greater the component of chance in a game, the more speedily it elapses. This state of affairs becomes decisive in the disposition of what comprises the authentic ‘intoxication’ of the gambler. Such intoxication depends on the peculiar capacity of the game to provoke presence of mind through the fact that, in rapid succession, it brings to the fore constellations which workeach one wholly (AP 512) independent of the othersto summon up in every instance a thoroughly new, original reaction from the gambler. This fact is mirrored in the tendency of gamblers to place their , whenever possible, at the very last momentthe moment, moreover, when only enough room remains for a purely reflexive move. Such reflexive [non-interpretive reaction, externally instigated action] behavior on the part of the gambler rules out an ‘interpretation’ of chance. The gambler’s reaction to chance is more like that of the knee to the hammer in the patellar reflex.” (AP 512-513) NOTE: Benjamin’s multiplicity as a chorus of voicesthe collector.
“Are fortune telling cards more ancient than playing cards? Does the card game represent a pejoration of divinatory technique? Seeing the future is certainly crucial in card games, too.” (AP 514)
Distraction as a means of social control: ‘Because each man is born a Roman, bourgeois society aims to de-Romanize him, and thus there are games of chance and games of etiquette, novels, Italian operas and stylish gazettes, casinos, tea parties and lotteries, years of apprenticeship and travel, military reviews and changing of the guard, ceremonies and visits, and the fifteen to twenty close-fitting garments which daily, with a salutary loss of time, a person has to put on and take off againall these have been introduced so that the overabundant energy evaporates unnoticed!’ Ludwig Borne, Gesammelte Schriften. (Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main, 1862), vol. 3, pp. 38-39 (‘Das Gastmahl. Der Spieler’ <Gambler’s banquet>.” (AP 514)
“‘But can you realize what delirium, what frenzy, possesses the mind of a man impatiently waiting for a gambling den to open? Between the evening gambler and the morning gambler the same difference exists as between the nonchalant husband and the ecstatic lover waiting under his mistress’s window. It is only in the morning that quivering passion and stark need manifest themselves in all their horror. At that time of day, you can stare in wonderment at the true gamblerone who has not eaten or slept, lived or thought, so cruelly has he been scourged by the lash of his vice. . . . At that baleful hour, you will meet with eyes whose steady calm is frightening, with faces that hold you spellbound; you will intercept gazes which lift the cards and greedily peer beneath them. Gaming-houses then reach sublimity (AP 514) only at opening time.’ Balzac, La Peau de chagrin, Editions Flammarion (Paris) p. 7.” (AP 514-515)
FROM ONTARIO http://www.gamblingresearch.org/contentdetail.
Van Hattenberg 1914first to deal with deviant nature of gambling in print. Associated gambling with deviant behavior brought on by the desire for self-punishment brought on by the guilt of anal gratification achieved during childhood. (gambling research.org 116)
COMPARE AP O22a,2 p. 511different translation: Ernst Simmel of Berlin (1920) was the next analyst to deal in print with this topic. He had analyzed a young man with a gambling problem. This treatment led him to the conclusion that gambling "serves the unfolding or the substitute formation of the exceedingly active pre-genital anal sadistic libido in the unconscious." If the reader finds the foregoing difficult of interpretation, her attention is directed to the following: "The insatiable inordinate desire that will not rest in the endless vicious cycle until the loss becomes gain and the gain once more loss, originates in the narcissistic desire of the anal fantasies, to fructify himself, to devour his own excrement, gold, and to give birth to himself out of himself in immeasurable increase, replacing and suppressing his father and mother (p. 353)." The remainder of the article may be summarized, it is thought, with a "brilliant glimpse into the obvious." Simmel relates gambling to sexual functioning. He, in fact, seeks to spare the reader the tedium of wading through this work by giving us the following succinct and exhaustive summary of our topic, "games of chance are a reservoir for the anal-sadistic impulses held in the state of repression."
According to Harkavy (1954): “This patient's gambling was the hysterical acting-out of daydreams, expressing through imitation of the father a positive-oedipal content and the masochistic defense against it, and carried out as a prolonged fore pleasure induced by body movements; with an epileptic and then 'psychopathic' narrowing of consciousness during the acting-out period, which demonstrated itself on the analytic couch to be a dreamlike removal from reality while masturbating (Narcissism); and maintaining itself by regressively-activated anality which had been used in the first place to gain the love of a mother who hated him." (p. 285) Of course, because all of these references rely on the Oedipal Complex, they don’t apply so well to FEMALE GAMBLERS.
Laufer, 1966: “gambling motivated by homosexuality, as interpreted by analysts, allows one to manipulate other male players” So, what of FEMALE GAMBLING then? Is it a place for the power tripping of dominant women?
Stekel (1924) from Peculiarities of behavior: gambling stems from sexual conflicts and satisfies a craving for excitement. | <urn:uuid:33b5b8e8-2f1e-4b7c-b85c-3c303a084d79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thelemming.com/lemming/dissertation-web/home/zero.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945163 | 3,606 | 1.84375 | 2 |
March 21, 2011
Dispatches on the Tohoku Earthquake Part I: Rolling Blackouts
by Ryan Sayre
It's been a hectic week. My adopted country has suffered an earthquake, a tsunami, a nuclear disater, and is now knee deep in an energy crisis. This is to say nothing of the fact that my half-finished dissertation, an ethnographic account of none other than earthquake disaster preparedness in Japan, in the space of five minutes last week, become an artifact. In order to be in the midst of things I returned to Tokyo five days after the quake; not necessarily to gain perspective like a journalist might do, but to lose it, to get swept away in the particularities of life in this time of crisis.
After five hours in a line that was slowly inching forward, it started to become clear to Mr. Oe that there had never been any bus. The line, he realized, had been moving forward not as a result of passengers boarding and deboarding, but because, one after the next, those at the front gradually began giving up, peeling off, and walking home. No one, it seems, thought to communicate back down the line what was going on. When I asked Mr. Oe if he himself talked to anybody on his long walk home, he laughed nervously and then conceded, "We all moved through the streets silently like a band of ants."
The area where I’m staying in Kanagawa is designated as Group 2 on the rolling blackout map. This means that we'll be off the grid from 9:20am − 1:20pm today. Blackouts will continue in this manner across eastern and northern Japan, we’re being told, until the end of April. After the television clicked off ten minutes ago, my friend begins to fill the silence by reading aloud the Kanagawa Prefecture news reports on her iPhone. An eighteen year old on a motor scooter, she reads, was killed at an intersection during the blackout last night. The police had apparently not put an officer on duty when the traffic lights went black. As she reads, I am busy scooping hot water out of a electric kettle with a measuring cup. I remember when I was a child and the power would go off. I was continually struck by how few things needed electricity to function: the gas, the water, the telephone. In this apartment building here in Japan, electric pump systems ensure that I can neither get a glass of water from the faucet nor flush the toilet. I can neither use the wireless telephone nor the electric stove. Here in Group 2, even a hot water kettle, equipped as it is with an electric pouring mechanism, is of limited use. Only now, as I am writing this, not even 24 hours after my arrival, does it strike me that I am not thinking about the earthquake victims, or the nuclear threat, but instead am already caught up in the thick everydayness of little things.
The crisis in this local neighborhood south of Tokyo is not a nuclear crisis, but an energy crisis. With eastern Japan operating at a 20% energy deficit owing to the loss of power from the Fukushima plant, these blackouts seem oddly enough to be experienced less an object lesson in the dangers of nuclear power and more as a ghost-of-christmas-future image of life as it would be without nuclear power in Japan.
Two days have now passed since my arrival here and it is slowly dawning on me that what I thought was a heightened awareness to sounds due to my exhaustion - a lone cough splits the silence in the train car - was more a matter of my having forgotten the workings of noiselessness in Japan. The silence is not ceremoniously kept for Japan’s suffering, yet there's something that also feels somewhat willful in this silence over these last few days.
The sea of "sold out” signs in front of gas stations and supermarkets across eastern Japan do not reflect shortages, but what is being called, 'irregular demand'. Disaster experts, convenient store employees, and friends contend that these buying practises are driven not by irrational fears of an uncertain future, but by the a-rational mechanisms of fashion. The problem is, they say, that people are buying in excess for no other reason than that they see their neighbors doing so. Buying of this nature is then understood not as panic, but as policy, a cultural response grounded in greed's opposite - the calibration of one's own actions to the actions of those around one. It's hard to take these cultural explanations at face value, but one has to admit that if this panic fueled by fashion rather than fear is indeed to be called panic, then it's one of its more polite and quiet manifestations. I had expected to see no pandemonium in Tokyo, but as regards the troubles in Fukushima, I've been witnessing what feels like Japan's own version of mayhem--a collective quiet. Not a calm per se, but a quiet; a quiet I don't know how to make sense of yet; a quiet perhaps quietly at work in the story of another on of my disaster preparedness volunteer colleagues. Hours after the ground had stopped shaking, as he walked home on the train tracks, he told me, he came across a number of cars stopped at railroad crossing gates with drivers and passangers inside, patiently waiting for the gates to open up.
Posted by ryan sayre at 12:30 AM | Permalink | <urn:uuid:2e18b7b8-17dc-4f75-a9b1-579bdc870977> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2011/03/dispatches-on-tohoku-earthquake-in-japan-part-i-rolling-blackouts-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97207 | 1,118 | 1.507813 | 2 |
In the decades since her death on Aug. 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe has been the subject of so many books that the actress practically deserves her own Dewey Decimal classification.
And although it seems unlikely that there's any aspect of her 36 years that hasn't been adequately dissected, analyzed and scrutinized half a century on, the books keep coming, like the following — two weighty tomes and two glossy coffee table books — that have been published in the last few months.
How a Hollywood Icon Was Styled by William Travilla
Andrew Hansford with Karen Homer
Applause: 192 pp., $29.99
Costume designer William Travilla dressed Monroe over the course of eight films and was the man responsible for some of her most iconic outfits; the life and back story of the Oscar-winning costume designer are sketched out in the first section of the photo-rich book.
The rest of the book is divided into chapters by iconic outfit ("The Gold Dress," "The Red Dress," etc.), a testament to Travilla's talent as "The Pink Dress" instantly calls to mind the pink confection Monroe wore in the "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" song and dance number in 1953's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," and "The White Dress" registers immediately as the white (bone-colored, the book points out) halter dress that billowed about Monroe's waist to famous effect in "The Seven Year Itch" (1955).
As manager of the costume designer's archives, Hansford had access to Travilla's original sketches, patterns and costume test shots, and their inclusion here is a rare, up-close look at exactly how one costume designer helped achieve some of Monroe's most memorable on-screen moments.
The Passion and the Paradox
Bloomsbury Press: 516 pp., $30
This is the second book on Monroe penned by the USC professor of history and gender studies, and one that she spent a decade researching. It's a dense, detail-packed book, so much so that in recounting Monroe's early years and the people in her life as she was shuttled from home to home, it's easy to lose track of all the players and places.
But Banner's throughline isn't hard to follow: The woman who started life as Norma Jeane Mortenson worked hard at creating and then meticulously honed to perfection every last aspect of the Marilyn Monroe persona, and Banner's book lays out the theory that childhood sexual abuse laid the groundwork for it all.
The Final Years
St Martin's: 340 pp., $25.99
Written by a British author whose previous works tackled the Beatles, the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones, this book is such a sordid account of Monroe's final years that it's hard to read it without feeling almost criminally voyeuristic.
A lot of that has to do with the level of Marilyn minutiae detailed in the book, including limousine company records, utility bills, phone records and a laundry list of the items purchased in her final days (among them a Roman-style white chest of drawers, a hanging begonia and a couple of pet toys). Why does it matter that the food delivery to her home from Briggs Delicatessen in the days before her death cost $49.07?
The effect of Badman's meticulous spadework is that the reader feels compelled to give him the benefit of the doubt when he makes some of the book's more salacious claims and assertions (not the least of which involveJohn F. Kennedy and UFOs).
Marilyn in Fashion
The Enduring Influence of Marilyn Monroe
Christopher Nickens and George Zeno
Running Press: 280 pp., $30
Despite the title, readers shouldn't expect this photo-driven book to explain the reason for Monroe's enduring fashion influence as much as chronicle the contents of her closet, particularly the most famous of pieces — the subway grate dress and the gown she wore to serenade Kennedy — and the fashion designers behind them.
But that's a task it accomplishes handily, both in describing — to an exhaustive level of detail — the fabrics and embellishments of the various pieces, and by including several different instances of Monroe wearing the garment, and the occasional sketch. What at first seems repetitive actually helps paint a much more nuanced portrait of the actress and the way she wielded the power of her wardrobe. | <urn:uuid:58d66b38-983d-47f0-b044-dbf1c190fd3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/vacation-starter/destinations/us/la-ca-marilyn-monroe-books-20120805,0,1022771.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955147 | 921 | 1.609375 | 2 |
In the antibody-mediated immune response, when the helper T cell gets activated by the costimulus (IL-2 and TNF-α secreted by the APC) which in turn produces IL-2, IL-2 acts in an autocrine manner. I'm just wondering why does IL-2 have to be secreted? Why doesn't it just exert an affect while it's already inside the helper T cell? What's the point of autocrine signalling?
I hope the answer isn't going to be, "Well, that's just the way it is..." because paracrine and endocrine make sense and have advantages, but autocrine just seems a bit extra. | <urn:uuid:6acd0590-7b5e-46a5-80d0-df63fd34eebd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/1038/whats-the-advantage-of-autocrine-signalling/1049 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966981 | 140 | 1.75 | 2 |
Please help pass Franks Law. We are looking to ask the New York State capital to have Franks Law be statewide. We need as many signatures as possible that support this. The law would require mandatory bail when someone is charged with a crime which resulted in the death of a person because of reckless driving dwi vehicular manslaughter . What lesson is a person going to learn if they dont even get put in jail and asked for a bail That is crazy but it happened to Frank so to stop it from happening again please sign your name below saying that you support Franks Law . No tolerance in New York State needs to be kicked up a notch to let the public know that even if you are charged
with the crime that there will be immediate consequences . Given the short memory span of our teenagers these days ,a year from now when a person is being tried and sentenced they have all forgotten about the crime. Bail Standards
may not completely overcome the problem but it will be another tool to help prevent the slaughter happening on our highways and roads. Help establish minimum bail standards to underline the severity of alcohol-related deaths.
One example of our commitment to helping prevent deaths on the roads is the establishment of the Underage DWI Taskforce which has brought together adults from throughout Rensselaer county as well as school-aged children whom they have entrusted with the responsibility to carry a self-generated message to their peers that teenage alcohol and drug usage won\'t be tolerated in our communities.
Rensselaer County is leading the fight against underage drinking by supporting Frank\'s Law.This resolution was passed on June 12th 2007 by the Rensselaer County Legislature urging NYS Legislature to establish statewide madatory bail standards for crimes that result in the death of an innocent person.
This battle is something that we all need to be engaged in. We all have the ability to influence the children in our communities to try to help them make good decisions that will keep them safe. And that includes our judges.
With the understanding that bail is set to ensure the accused appears for later court matters, and that the more severe the charge the higher the bail, what is being said when no bail is set for someone who allegedly drove drunk and caused the death of another person
If we want to make the point about driving while intoxicated and causing someone else\'s death, shouldn\'t the bail set by the judge reflect that Shouldn\'t there be bail levied
We can no longer afford to miss opportunities to send messages to our children about the disastrous consequences that can result from drinking and driving. This is a battle we cannot afford to lose because we cannot afford to lose anymore of our children to drunk driving. .
Frank\'s Law-Please help
establish minimum bail
standards for cases of
criminal vehicular manslaughter---------Help save lives
No tolerance in New York State
PLEASE NO ANONYMOUS SIGNATURE TO SEND TO THE CAPITAL
PLEASE DO NOT SIGN MORE THAN ONCE IT DOES NOT CHANGE THE NUMBERS BECAUSE IT DOES NOT COUNT ONE NAME PER PERSON
PLEASE DO NOT SIGN MORE THAN ONCE IT DOES NOT COUNT
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When you think of refugees, you may think of huddled masses, tired and poor. But those aren't the only types of people fleeing Syria.
"Members of the regime, little by little, are flaking off," U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford told CNN Thursday, giving some prominent examples.
Ford said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's mother, Anisa Makhlouf, has moved to the United Arab Emirates, while al-Assad's sister Buhra, has been living in Dubai.
In addition, Ford said Syria's former foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, has fled to the United States as a refugee. However, later Thursday, senior Obama administration officials told CNN that Ford had misspoken on that count, and Makdissi is not in the United States.
The regime's core is weakening gradually, Ford said.
"They themselves know they are losing. When [U.N. and Arab League envoy] Lakhdar Brahimi met Bashar al-Assad the last time in December in his office, he told us that you could hear artillery outside the president's office. I mean, the fighting is getting that close now to the inner circle itself. And so you can imagine what that does to their own spirits, their own morale," he said.
Syrians have fled their homeland in droves since its civil war began nearly two years ago. As of January 22, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said the total number of refugees exceeded 678,000, with three countries bearing the brunt of the exodus: Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, each of which UNHCR says now houses more than 150,000 displaced Syrians.
Anmar Hmoud, Jordan's government spokesman for Syrian refugee affairs, said 3,581 Syrians crossed into Jordan from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning, breaking the record for one night that was just set Sunday.
"We do not know when it will stop," Andrew Harper, the UNHCR chief in Jordan said Thursday. "We are seeing quadruple the numbers we were seeing two weeks ago."
While severe weather conditions two weeks ago could be a cause for the sharp increase, Harper said he believes "this is something much bigger than that: It is an exodus from southern Syria."
A U.S. delegation arrived at Islahiye Refugee Camp in Turkey on Thursday to inspect the temporary town, population 8,825.
"Our expectation from the United States, from the U.S. delegation, is to enable these people to go home as soon as possible," said Islahiye District Governor Osman Beyazyildiz.
So far, the camp established in March 2012 has cost more than $17.8 million, Beyazyildiz said.
Many Turks are being gracious hosts.
The Anadolu news agency said Turkey delivered new toys Thursday to 4,500 children living in a tent city in Nizip. And the state-run news agency TRT reported that, in addition to public and private groups sending food to displaced Syrians, some secondary school students have been donating "part of their allowances."
U.S. delegation member Anne Richard, assistant secretary of state for population, migration and refugees, thanked the Turks for providing refuge.
"We are very, very grateful to the governor and the people of Turkey for their incredible generosity to their neighbors who are fleeing Syria," Richard said, pointing out the United States "has been" and "will continue" providing assistance.
Overall, the United States has contributed $210 million of "humanitarian assistance" to the "heartbreaking" cause, delegation member Nancy Lindborg of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said.
Syrian state television said Thursday the Assad regime was trying to help the refugees as well. The TV station flashed an "urgent" banner, which translates as, "Based on the political program to resolve the crisis in Syria, the Interior Ministry is calling on the Syrian citizens who crossed the border illegally or legally to come back to the country, and all the necessary measures to resolve their situation will be available to them."
Al-Assad and other top officials, including Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi, celebrated the birth of the Prophet Mohammed on Thursday inside a Damascus mosque, as shown live on state television.
But things were not quite so peaceful across Damascus and the rest of Syria. According to the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a network of opposition activists, at least 116 people were killed across the country on Thursday, including 42 in Damascus and its suburbs. The Syria Observatory for Human Rights said that a retired general was targeted with a car bomb, and seriously wounded.
The LCC says 20 more people died in Aleppo, where the opposition reported intense fighting between rebel forces and government troops at the Air Force intelligence offices.
CNN cannot independently verify many claims from Syria, as the government has severely restricted access by international journalists.
The United Nations estimates more than 60,000 people have been killed in the civil war. | <urn:uuid:0c687d57-a437-4fc8-8e94-b08d970dfe63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ksat.com/news/U-S-ambassador-Regime-insiders-flee-Syria/-/478452/18268030/-/go1jurz/-/index.html | 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 | 0.973507 | 1,033 | 1.828125 | 2 |
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These case studies highlight and explore some of the principles covered in Confidentiality and its explanatory guidance. We hope that they will help doctors and others to understand how the principles in the guidance apply in practice. They are intended to illustrate the principles in the guidance, and are not a substitute for the guidance, or for specific advice from experienced colleagues, a Caldicott Guardian or equivalent, or a professional or regulatory body.
- Elder abuse - what should Dr Rix do when his elderly patient tells him, in the strictest confidence, that her daughter and carer has hit her?
- Serious communicable diseases - what should Dr Biggs do when his patient says he does not want his GP, and later his surgeon, to be told of his HIV diagnosis?
- Vulnerable adults - what should Dr Praed do when he learns that a young patient with learning disabilities is falling into bad company and neglecting his diabetes?
- Alcoholic colleague - Dr Okonkwo is a GP whose patient is a physician with an alcohol problem. Should Dr Okonkwo raise a concern about her patient's fitness to practise?
- Sex offender - Dr Hosta is a psychiatrist treating a sex offender who she thinks might not register with the police. Should Dr Hosta report her concerns to the police or prison service?
- Deceased patient - Dr Kaur receives a letter from solicitors acting for a deceased patient's widower, asking for copies her medical records; but they contain details of a termination from before their marriage as well as information about her mental health provided by the patient's daughter. Should she disclose?
- Reporting crime - Dr O'Hara is a doctor in a drug addiction clinic. Her mobile phone is stolen and she has good reason to believe it was one of six patients. Should she report the theft to the police, even if it involves identifying the patients, without being sure which of them stole the phone?
The case studies are fictional and for illustration purposes only.
They provide examples of how the principles in the guidance might be applied in the kind of situations doctors encounter. Decisions about disclosing confidential information without consent are among the most difficult doctors have regularly to make, relying on a careful balancing of the factors specific to the case at hand.
These learning materials do no represent GMC guidance or policy in themselves, nor are they intended to replace Confidentiality, the explanatory guidance on confidentiality or any other GMC guidance.
GMP in action
GMP in action is an interactive web section which brings the GMC's ethical guidance to life.
You get to choose what the doctor should do in a series of case studies highlighting how the principles in our guidance might work in practice.
The following case studies explore issues covered in Confidentiality. Please note that when you access the interactive case studies, you must first click on the receptionist.
back to menu
||Adrian goes to a sexual health clinic where Dr Peters realises that Adrian's partner has not told Adrian that she is HIV positive. Should Dr Peters disclose this information to Adrian? Decide what Dr Peters should do.
||Mr Jessop shares concerns about his wife's fitness to drive with their GP, Dr Williams. Should Dr Williams inform the DVLA? And should she tell Mrs Jessop the source of her concerns? Decide what Dr Williams should do.
||A young man is brought to A&E with what looks like a stab wound. Should Dr MacDonald tell the police? What should she say when there is criticism of the case in the local press? Decide what Dr MacDonald should do.
||Marlena Cieslak attends A&E with injuries resulting from domestic violence, but does not want the police involved. Decide what Dr Gallagher should do.
This PowerPoint presentation provides some historical, ethical and legal context to the guidance, including an explanation of why confidentiality is seen as such a fundamental professional value.
It highlights what's new in the guidance and some of the confidentiality questions most frequently asked by doctors and patients.
Please feel free to use it in your own teaching and training.
Please note - To view the additional notes in the presentation, you will need to save it to your computer and open the presentation from there.back to menu
Development of the guidance
You can read more about the development of Confidentiality
(165kb, pdf), which explains the process we undertook during the review, and the results of an audit
(119kb, pdf) undertaken of the process for analysing the responses we received during two phases of consultation.
What concerns do patients and the public have about privacy in healthcare? How far do doctors understand their legal and ethical duties to seek consent, respect objections and when to share information about patients? A literature review of Public and Professional Attitudes to Privacy of Healthcare Data
(316kb, pdf) was one part of the scoping work for the review which led to this guidance.
Listen to a podcast on reporting gunshot and knife wounds:
back to menu | <urn:uuid:be63182a-66f2-4f51-8e4f-a2d21f1fd52f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/confidentiality.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941287 | 1,177 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Pat Breen doesn’t believe in fall fertilizing – ever. He doesn’t believe in any unnecessary trips across a field, either. It’s all about being fast and efficient on his 6,000-acre Seneca, SD, operation.
“With no-till I want to make one trip across a field at planting and that’s it,” says Breen, who has no-tilled since 1988.
And he’s been able to accomplish that now for three years since moving to a 60-ft. wide Horsch Anderson air seeder equipped with an Exactrix fertilizing system.
The entire setup stretches 110 ft. from bumper to tailgate and consists of a John Deere 9630 pulling the 48-shank air-seeder followed by a 500-bu. air cart that then pulls a homemade fertilizer cart. The cart holds two, 1,000 gal. anhydrous ammonia tanks and two 750-gal. liquid fertilizer tanks. No saddle tanks are attached to the tractor.
“All the equipment,” Breen says, “tracks between rows and never directly on a row.” The fertilizer cart travels on 27-in wide tracks and when fully loaded weighs 40,000 lbs.
The air cart has three hoppers, and he uses two of the bins for two different corn hybrids. The third is used for potash. The front tank holds 175 bu., the middle 75 bu. and the back 250 bu.
“I can plant 400 acres without refilling with corn, but I do have to refill the ammonia every 100 acres,” Breen says. “I can plant about 40 acres an hour in a twin-row pattern on 30-in. centers. The rows are 7-1/2 in. apart and planted in a staggered, zigzag pattern. A standard 12-row corn head works fine by pushing the paired rows together. It’s been trouble-free.”
The big savings with this setup, Breen claims, comes from the Exactrix system where he’s able to accurately apply a mixture of 10-34-00 and 12-00-00-S26 (liquid ammonium thiosulfate). This mixture gets applied at 13 gal./acre. He also applies 100 lbs./acre of anhydrous ammonia at the same time directly behind the liquid to create tri-ammonium polyphosphate sulfate (TAPPS), which helps stabilize the anhydrous.
TAPPS is a crystalline product that forms a continuous, concentrated band of fertility with a pH of approximately 8.5, according to Guy Swanson, developer of the Exactrix system. “Roots feed out of that band, and it minimizes the effect of variations in soil pH and organic matter. Those pockets of low yields that show up on a yield monitor tend to disappear,” he says.
Exactrix injects anhydrous ammonia as a liquid. The benefit is accurate, uniform lineal application rates that allow farmers to reduce nitrogen (N) rates.
“Half of our fertilizer goes in the row and half between the row,” Breen explains. “Between the rows is like sidedressing so as corn gets taller, the roots go toward the center of the row to use the N.” In-row fertilizer is applied 4 in. below the seed.
“I’ve been able to get by with 40% less fertilizer with this precision placement,” he says.
Breen applies 100 lbs. of N/acre, shooting for 165-bu./acre corn yields. He uses GPS soil sampling divided into 20-acre zones. “The beauty of this is that I can make any prescription the soil test calls for – dry, liquid or anhydrous,” he says.
Breen says this setup allows him to do a third more acres in the same time than his previous 47-ft. Concord planter, which he used for 10 years.
“Everything we use now was new two years ago,” Breen says. “We’re also set up so that almost all the Exactrix equipment is on the trailer, not on the seeder. That way we can easily unhook it and put it in the shed.”
Not everyone is sold on the Exactrix system benefits, however. “Right now we don’t have any universities that have researched it,” says George Rehm, retired fertilizer specialist from the University of Minnesota. “The chemical combinations are correct, but when you put it in the soil does it really make a difference because of ion uptake,” he asks.
“We can reduce phosphate use by 40% if banded compared to broadcast regardless of source of phosphate and placement of the band. And to get this efficiency, it’s not necessary to use the Exactric system,” Rehm says.
He goes on to explain that farmers can reduce N application as a consequence of new genetics. “We’ve gone from 1.25 lbs. of N/bu. of corn to 0.6 lbs., but this reduction can be used regardless of the method of nitrogen application. Also, most of the metering equipment on anhydrous ammonia applicators today provides for a more uniform application.”
Phil and Mike Goff liked the whole idea of TAPPS for sidedressing N, especially since some of their west-central Minnesota soils are light and sandy and leaching is a problem. The benefit of TAPPS is that it doesn’t leach, says Phil. The Goffs runs 10 center-pivot systems besides non-irrigated acres at Benson.
In 2009 the Goffs bought a 65-ft. toolbar from B&H Manufacturing made from 7-in. x 7-in. x ¼-in. tubing. Then they added the Exactrix 22-in. single coulters and Exactrix metering system. The bar ran $40,000, coulters $50,000 and the Exactrix anhydrous and liquid system for TAPPS came in at $114,000.
“We’d been sidedressing liquid 28% N on 12-in. corn for the last few years, but it had gotten more and more expensive – usually 10-20% more than anhydrous,” Phil says. “The TAPPS system is what really sold it for us because we could save 20-30¢/lb. on N.”
But as Phil puts it: “Things in farming change all the time.” So currently with anhydrous prices climbing as high as 28% N, they’ve changed their plans.
“We’re now split applying our fertilizer. This fall we will fall-apply TAPPS and then we’ll come back and sidedress the last 50 lbs. of N when the corn is 6-12 in. tall with 28% N,” he says.
The Goffs also replaced the coulters with standard anhydrous knives because Phil says “they just work better.”
The Goffs have 1,000 gal. saddle tanks on the tractor for liquid fertilizer and pull a 1,450-gal. anhydrous trailer.
The high anhydrous pressure is what gives it accuracy, Phil says. The system has a separate anhydrous and liquid pump and also a separate tube for each that then flows to individual knives. The 10-34-0 and amonium thyosulfate when combined with the anhydrous crystallize the N for better use by plants and soil, he says.
“We’ve really cut back on our N rates with this system. Plus, we get very even application compared to regular anhydrous systems,” Phil says.
Homemade Fertilizer Cart
Pat Breen, Seneca, SD, built this 22-ft. long, 18-ft. wide homemade fertilizer cart to pull behind his planting system. It accommodates two 1,000-gal. anhydrous tanks and two 750-gal. liquid fertilizer tanks. The liquid tanks are permanently mounted on the sides of the cart.
He bought the undercarriage for $20,000, then added the pumps and hydraulics using as many used parts as he could find, including retread track belts.
“I’ve been thinking about this cart idea for 10 years,” he says. “I’ve got about $50,000-60,000 into it.”
The cart has a chain channel down the middle with a torpedo hitch mounted to it, along with a drop-down ramp so Breen can hook on to the anhydrous tanks in the field and pull them either onto or off the deck – in as little as 10 minutes. The chain setup comes from a haystack-mover design and easily pulls the two anhydrous tanks to the front of the cart.
“I like putting all the ammonia and liquid fertilizer on the same trailer, all in one place,” Breen says. “It’s easy to get to and easy to fill. And even when it’s a little muddy, the cart barely makes a track in the field.” | <urn:uuid:8b51eb5e-367f-4790-8ea4-18bb0815084a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/print/energy/once-enough-south-dakotan-plants-and-applies-all-fertilizer-one-pass?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9354 | 1,973 | 1.554688 | 2 |
While the UN devotes its human rights operations to the demonization of the democratic state of Israel above all others and condemns the United States more often than the vast majority of non-democracies around the world, the voices of real victims around the world must be heard.
More than 100 people were raped or beaten in a series of attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo over two days in June, according to Geneva-based Medecins Sans Frontieres, an emergency medical aid group.
Unknown armed men raided villages about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the town of Fizi in South Kivu province between June 10 and June 12, said Megan Hunter, MSF-Holland's head of office for the province.
"Our health centers have registered more than 100 cases of rape and physical abuse," she said by phone today from Bukavu, the provincial capital. Mineral-rich eastern Congo has suffered more than 15 years of conflict and rape has become common in the struggle between more than a dozen armed groups and the Congolese army.
On Feb. 21, a South Kivu military court convicted four army officers of ordering the rapes of more than 50 people in Fizi on Jan. 1. The soldiers are appealing. | <urn:uuid:6c3f9fcb-8bcb-48b3-8807-bbefbabb3da9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.humanrightsvoices.org/victims/voices/default.asp?p=1446 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955356 | 258 | 1.765625 | 2 |
April 29, 1999 |
The estate of the first woman to win a case before the North Carolina Supreme Court nearly 80 years ago has pledged $14 million to two North Carolina law schools. Kathrine R. Everett, one of Chapel Hill's first female law graduates, made state legal history in 1920 by becoming the first woman to win a case before its highest court, said Judith Wegner, dean of UNC's law school. Everett died in 1992 at 98 after a legal career spanning seven decades.
March 27, 2013 |
"Doctor Who" is celebrating 50 years on the air this year, new episodes begin airing Saturday and to top it all off, the good Doctor has just received a Peabody Award for 50 years of "evolving with technology and the times like nothing else in the known television universe. " The awards, announced Wednesday by the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, are selected by a board of judges to highlight the best in electronic media. The honorees were announced at a ceremony on the University of Georgia campus, but the awards won't be handed out until a luncheon event in New York City on May 20. The Institutional Peabody to "Doctor Who" was just one of 39 honorees named this year.
August 28, 2007 |
Duke University named a Harvard researcher as the first woman to lead its medical school. She will also be the only woman permanently at the helm of one of the nation's Top 10 medical schools. "The fact that in 2007 there are still firsts for what women can do in medicine says something about how difficult it can be," said Dr. Nancy C. Andrews, who will officially take over at Duke on Oct. 1. "I hope this does not seem so unusual a few years from now." Andrews, 48, succeeds Dr. R.
May 14, 1990 |
Duke University has been honored by the College Football Assn. for academic achievement, because 96% of the football players who enrolled at Duke in 1984 graduated within five years. The Boulder-based CFA said in its announcement today that this marks the fourth time in a decade that Duke has been honored for academic achievement. This year, Duke graduated 24 of 25 of its incoming class of 1984 on time, the CFA reported.
September 30, 2007 |
Duke University President Richard Brodhead apologized for not better supporting the lacrosse players falsely accused last year in a highly publicized scandal over an alleged rape. Brodhead, speaking at a forum at the university's law school, said he regretted Duke's "failure to reach out" in a "time of extraordinary peril" after a woman accused three players of raping her at a March 2006 party thrown by the team.
May 13, 2006 |
A second round of DNA testing in the Duke University rape case came back with the same result as the first -- no conclusive match to any member of the lacrosse team, defense lawyers said Friday. Joseph Cheshire, who represents a player who has not been charged, said the tests showed that genetic material from a "single male source" was found on a vaginal swab taken from the accuser. He said the material did not match any of the players.
September 30, 2005 |
It was in the 1940s that economics student Raymond Nasher first decided that Duke University needed an art museum. More than 60 years later, the student who became a Dallas real estate tycoon made it happen. Duke's Nasher Museum of Art opens to the public this weekend in Durham, N.C. Nasher donated $10 million to fund construction of the $23-million museum, designed by architect Rafael Vinoly.
April 19, 2004 |
Duke University is eliminating 8 a.m. classes and trying to come up with other ways to help its sleep-deprived students, who too often are struggling to survive on a mix of caffeine, adrenaline and ambition. The North Carolina school will have 8:30 a.m. classes, however, and is also considering new orientation programs this fall that would help freshmen understand the importance of sleep. Lack of sleep among college students appears to be getting worse, according to some national surveys.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
August 16, 1998
Re "Ryan Shannon Joins Duke Football Team" and "Kim Mortensen Overcomes Bout With Anorexia," Aug. 8. Seldom have we seen two articles in the Sports section that pleased us more than the two cited above. And they appeared on the same page in the same edition of the paper. How inspiring to see the stories of two gifted people from supportive families. Mortensen has overcome a psychological problem in order to pursue a championship physical performance; Shannon is a gifted young man who wants to compete in Division I football because, "I like the adrenaline of competing." | <urn:uuid:1da9bc89-0ef9-49b0-9d33-f8ecedc2f6b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/duke-university/featured/4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970068 | 993 | 1.546875 | 2 |
One of the main components of any kora is the kora body and we offer both ones from
Africa, using cow skin and ones made here in the UK , using deerskin. You can find
more information on how koras are made here.
Kora Body - West African the majority of our African kora bodies are made by Aliou
Gassama in Senegal. His work is of exceptional quality. The skins are taut and finely
finished due to his skill and experience. They have a metal ring around the edge
of the calabash (gourd) to enable the skin to be really tight and preventing the
calabash from being distorted.
Kora Body - UK We also make our own kora bodies here in Wales, using local deerskin
and West African calabashes. Our kora bodies have an aluminium ring which provides
stability and strength to the calabash, and yet is lightweight. The strength and
quality of deerskin is very high. It is generally creamier in colour and more even,
consistent quality than cow skin, and gives the kora a beautiful tone.
Necks We generally use Sapele for the necks, as it is very strong and yet lighter
in weight than the traditional Keno or Bubinga (often referred to as African Rosewood).
It is also a readily available and sustainable wood. Other woods, including Bubinga
are available as an option. The neck is finished with tung oil to protect the wood
and enhance and maintain it’s natural colour. A stainless steel eyebolt fits firmly
into place beneath the kora body and ensures the kora is very stable.
So, the starting point is a Standard Kora at £480 which gives you:
21 good quality chrome, sealed, 14:1 machine heads.
Plain style - tacks simply around the sound hole and at the edge of the skin.
The neck is Sapele. Finely sanded and shaped, finished with tung oil.
The bridge is Keno/Bubinga and accurately made.
The handles are plain and either as supplied from West Africa, or Sapele depending
Nylon strings - tuned to F in Silaba (we include some spare strings)
Our guarantee is that for 3 years from the date of purchase we will replace any defective
parts. The guarantee does not cover any damage caused by accidents, transport, inappropriate
storage or mis-use.
Tight Budget? Consider a Kora Kit. Assembling your own kora saves you £100 and will
reduce any shipping costs too.
We are a small UK company linked with craftsmen in Senegal and the Gambia. We make
koras with guitar machine heads, making them much easier to tune - our work is guaranteed.
We have sent koras all over the world, and have an excellent level of customer service.
A Standard Kora cost £480 with various options available. All of our koras are made
to the same high standard (see below) with options like amplification or extra strings
being added to suit the players needs. We also always ensure that a kora is suitable
for the player in terms of size.
To give you some ideas if you are looking for something particularly special, we
have also created some examples of option combinations which might make choosing
a more specialist kora easier. | <urn:uuid:aa2a0540-81d6-4e2f-a6f3-10c8c1b2ae16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thekoraworkshop.co.uk/buy_kora.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930803 | 716 | 1.59375 | 2 |
A couple of years ago, a good friend of mine wrote to the last remaining community of Shakers at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, seeking permission to stay with them for a couple of weeks and observe their day-to-day lives and worship and then create poetry based on her observation and participation. Her lofty goal was not without precedent---the Quiet in the Land project had done it in 1996---but her query was met with silence. Undeterred, my friend and her mom set out to visit Sabbathday Lake (along with a number of other Shaker historic sites) in the summer of 2007.
While visiting Watervliet, New York, site of the first Shaker village in America, my friend first heard rumors that one of the four remaining Shakers living at Sabbathday Lake had renounced his vows and left the community to pursue a romantic relationship with a journalist who had recently written a piece on the community. Upon reaching Maine, the rumor was confirmed to be true, and my friend and her mom joked that the Shakers’ silence in response to her initial inquiry was because they were afraid of losing the only other remaining male member of the community.
So it was with interest that I read “He left the Shakers for love” in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine a couple of weeks ago. The story---written by Stacey Chase, the journalist who fell in love with Shaker Wayne Smith while profiling the community---details the development of their romance, beginning with seemingly innocent flirting during her initial trips to the village and culminating in their September 2008 marriage. I was struck while reading by a couple of things. Chase curiously compares Smith’s renouncing his Shaker commitments in pursuit of love to other defectors throughout history:
Seven months after we met, he renounced his religious vocation and vow of celibacy after 26 years at the Sabbathday Lake community to pursue our relationship. It was 2006, and he was 43. “Sometimes you just know,” he says, tapping his heart, “here.”
Others have made similar sacrifices: King Edward VIII abdicated his throne; Maria Kutschera, later von Trapp, left the abbey; and, recently, Miami priest Alberto Cutie abandoned the Catholic Church. Only . . . the English monarchy and Roman Catholicism weren’t facing extinction. As the youngest Shaker (in 2006, the other members were 49, 67, and 79), Wayne would likely have become the last Shaker, and that prospect weighed heavily on him. His sudden departure not only shocked the three remaining Shakers, but it was as if it validated the protracted, public deathwatch of the Shaker faith.
I also found interesting the conditions of his leaving the community---Smith was granted a three-month grace period “to extricate himself from life at Sabbathday Lake,” while the community pooled together their limited collective resources and provided Smith with a used truck and $9,000 cash with which to start his new life. The two discreetly dated during the grace period (Chase remembers that they “dated discreetly, but it felt sickening, as if I were seeing a married man”), and then three months to the day that Smith officially became an ex-Shaker, he proposed. Despite the assistance provided to Smith upon his departure, “most of those associated with the [Shaker] order distanced themselves from Wayne---which stung him deeply.”
In Chase's telling, their story is one in which love trumps religious commitment, and everything works out in the end. Today the two are happily married, share a common faith (Smith converted to Methodism prior to their marriage), and Smith works as a maintenance worker at a biotechnology firm---a seemingly mundane ending to this anything-but-ordinary episode of amorous defection. Not particularly familiar with other instances of defection from the Shaker community in the past, I’d be interested in how this fits into that larger framework. How common is dissent and defection in Shaker history? Are there instances similar to this? How do the remaining Friends view the dissenter? Anybody know? | <urn:uuid:d0960f33-b853-4528-bcde-1b698fe3a92f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usreligion.blogspot.jp/2010/03/leaving-shakers-for-love.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977313 | 862 | 1.6875 | 2 |
As the nation prepares to cast ballots in November, individuals and communities are discussing the decisions they will make, the perspectives they have formed and the information that is shaping those perspectives. But there are few places online where people can have these conversations in civil, transparent and productive ways. Individuals need a place where they can share credible information and their firsthand experience and engage with other members of their community to discuss and better understand the issues.
It's your Civic Commons, so you get to start the conversation you think is important.Start a Conversation
What do you wish the candidates were actually...
The candidates and their surrogates are doing a great job sticking to their talking points and avoiding substance. Let's...
Where have all the leaders gone?
I want to discuss current political leadership and see what we need to do to foster better leadership in the future.
Backchannel the Debate
Join your fellow Civic Commoners for a civic backchannel discussion about the debate and the issues brought forth by the...
Backchannel the Debate - VP Style
In the second debate of the campaign season, Vice President Nominee Paul Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden will discuss...
The Civic Commons will partner with community publishers around Ohio to connect readers to a series of moderated, facilitated engagement opportunities on the issues that are bubbling up in our communities. This will be an experimental series of moderated civil conversations for undecided voters and engaged citizens. Partner media outlets will have the chance to participate in dialogues and engage their readers and others on the issues shaping the outcomes in our swing state.
Media partners include:
As part of the project, we're helping The News Outlet recruit undecided voters to profile.
TheNewsOutlet.org wants to talk to you
So, who’s it going to be?
Roseanne Barr? (The actress and candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party.)
If you’re not sure, then we’d like to talk to you.
TheNewsOutlet is looking for people who will openly share their political and personal thoughts in the weeks leading up to the presidential election in November.
We’d like to talk with people who are still making up their minds. We’d need to spend time with you soon and then check back in on a regular basis as the election draws near. We’ll want you to be candid and to share your reactions to political ads, to what’s happening in the economy, your neighborhood, your family and your home.
What you share with us will likely be published or broadcast by one of our media partners: The Vindicator, WYSU-FM, The Akron Beacon Journal, Rubber City radio and others. We’ll want to take your picture and even capture you on video.
What’s in it for you?
A chance to engage in your community and an opportunity to share your views and thoughts with others.
How do I volunteer?
If you are interested please tell us about yourself in less than 100 words. What do you do and where do you live? What issues are most important to you? What are you looking for in the next president?
TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaborative effort between 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).
Swing State News
Ex-NPR Hill reporter: Lied to daily - Patrick Gavin
August 31, 2012 http://www.politico.com
After 14 years at National Public Radio, Andrea Seabrook left in July and, to hear her talk about her experience covering Capitol Hill, it’s clear that she had one takeaway: It’s damn frustrating. “I realized that there is a part of covering Congress, if you’re doing daily coverage, that is actually sort of colluding with the...
Fear of a Black President
August 31, 2012 http://www.theatlantic.com
The irony of President Barack Obama is best captured in his comments on the death of Trayvon Martin, and the ensuing fray. Obama has pitched his presidency as a monument to moderation. He peppers his speeches with nods to ideas originally held by conservatives. He routinely cites Ronald Reagan.
Mitt Romney's Tax Mysteries: A Reading Guide
August 31, 2012 http://www.propublica.org
Romney has released his 2010 tax return, and an estimate of his 2011 return. (He filed for an extension this year and has said he'll release the full returns when they are finished. The deadline is Oct. 15).
Jack Torry: With each election cycle, lies in political ads grow bolder, sink lower
August 13, 2012 http://www.dispatch.com
Imagine the outrage if Chrysler aired a commercial declaring that if you drive a Toyota, you will die. Or Budweiser claiming that drinking Coors Light will give you hives. Yet President Barack Obama, Republican nominee Mitt Romney and their allies have been bombarding Ohio with millions of dollars of TV commercials that do not even come close to telling voters the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Paul Ryan's Influence on the G.O.P.
August 13, 2012 http://www.newyorker.com
One day in March, 2009, two months after the Inauguration of President Obama, Representative Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, sat behind a small table in a cramped meeting space in his Capitol Hill office. Hunched forward in his chair, he rattled off well-rehearsed critiques of the new President's policies and America's lurch toward a "European" style of government.
USAT/Gallup Poll: Paul Ryan gets low marks for VP
August 13, 2012 http://content.usatoday.com
Americans don't believe Mitt Romney hit a home run with his choice of Paul Ryan as a running mate, a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, with more of the public giving him lower marks than high ones. Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, is seen as only a "fair" or "poor" choice by 42% of Americans vs. | <urn:uuid:dd47cd28-476c-48a1-9134-5695a4df7959> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theciviccommons.com/issues/swing-state-engagement | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950471 | 1,289 | 1.71875 | 2 |
I'm terribly sorry, but this article will neither improve your love life nor provide dried fruit for your morning oatmeal. Instead, I want to talk about the seemingly mundane topic of how we present dates in TidBITS, since it's something we've put a good bit of discussion into over the years, and it might prove useful for those of you who must also write dates in a consistent fashion.
Back in 1990, when Tonya and I started TidBITS, we were relatively clueless Americans, probably in all sorts of ways, but certainly with regard to date formatting. We used the common U.S. date format of MM/DD/YY (that's a two-digit month, two-digit day, and two-digit year, separated by slashes) all over the place, since that's what we'd been taught in school. Gentle readers from around the world quickly informed us that such date formats were utterly confusing to many in other countries, who would expect that format to be the more logical DD/MM/YY (and we won't even get into the confusion that could result after 2001, when that two-digit year was no longer unambiguous).
And thus it was that, likely on the trenchant suggestion of Ian Feldman, the guy from Sweden who created the setext format that we were to switch to in 1992, we changed our ways and began using a more explicable date format: DD-MMM-YY, where the month was a three-letter abbreviation: Jan, Feb, Mar, and so on.
Alas, our Web archive does not provide evidence of our cluelessness, since at some point, we regularized all the dates to the new format, so even our very first issue (1990-04-16) now sports the better date format.
Our next lesson from overseas came courtesy of our friends in Australia, who kindly informed us that the seasons were different in the southern hemisphere. Talking about how some product was to be released in the spring bugged them, since they had to perform mental gymnastics to determine what month that would likely be. As much as we aren't perturbed about requiring our readers to bring a few of the little gray cells into play when reading TidBITS, we'd rather have you paying attention to the content and not doing date math. Since then, we've tried hard to recast such dates into appropriately understandable alternatives. So instead of talking about how Leopard is slated to ship in late spring of 2007, we'll instead say that it's due out in the second quarter of 2007 or the middle of 2007. Every now and then, we'll still refer to a season, but only when we're talking about our summer, for instance, where the fact that it was hot and many people were on vacation is relevant to the discussion.
And so it has gone for what is closing in on 17 years. We've found situations where our canonical date format doesn't work as well, and for those situations we've come up with alternatives that either read more smoothly or that are more logical. No one format is best in all situations, so here then are our house rules. There's no right or wrong here - these are merely what we prefer, and you're welcome to play by our rules if you like or merely pick and choose those that you most appreciate.
Relative Dates Understood by Context -- Most innocuous are those dates that are meant to be read entirely in the context of the fact that TidBITS is a weekly periodical. As such, if you're reading along in an article and you see something like "Apple last week announced that Mac OS X Leopard would provide full Windows compatibility..." you intuitively know that the announcement took place in the week preceding the current one. Of course, if you're reading such an article in our Web archive, you must glance up to the top of the page to determine the date on the issue. These dates aren't meant to be specific; they're just telling you that something happened recently, in the context of the publication date.
Specific Dates Relative to the Current Year -- Another form of relative date appears when we're talking about events that will happen on a particular day in a particular month, but with an assumed year. We use these dates mostly when the name of the day is important, and it's easy to assume the year, as in announcing what we're doing at Macworld Expo. "On Wednesday, January 10th, Adam will be dissecting iPhoto 7 in a session..." No one should have any trouble figuring out from context that the year is 2007 (since it's the Macworld Expo that will take place shortly after the article publication), but both the day of the week and the date are helpful pieces of information to convey for those recording events on a calendar. Adding the year is neither necessary nor helpful for anyone reading before the event, and the articles in which such dates are used are unlikely to be particularly interesting to anyone after the fact. (Those people can figure out the year from the article date if they so wish.)
Specific Dates -- Here's where our canonical format comes in. Many dates are specific by day, month, and year, but have no need to include the day of the week. Consider "Apple's upcoming 'Buy 1, Get 1 Free' program for loyal Mac users will start on 01-Apr-07." (We leave it to the astute reader to determine when April Fools Day is each year.)
Plus, we often need to specify date ranges, and writing out two full dates would be awkward in comparison. For instance, "The recall covers batteries sold between 15-Jan-03 and 01-Mar-05" is much shorter and more easily parsed than "The recall covers batteries sold between January 15th, 2003 and March 1st, 2005." In part, I believe that's because the short day-month-year of our format ensures that the two dates can be read together more easily than the longer month-day-year format that results from writing out the date.
Month-specific Dates -- Sometimes dates are specific only to the month and year, and although we have at times in the past used a truncated form of our canonical format (Feb-07, for example), we've more recently decided that the obvious alternative (February 2007) is more readable and only slightly less concise.
Following the recommendation in the "Chicago Manual of Style," we do not include a comma between the month and the date. "Apple usually releases new Macs in time for the holiday buying season; look for a major announcement in September 2007."
Financial Dates -- Because we discuss Apple's financial results on a regular basis, we've found ourselves needing to use financial dates, which revolve around quarters of the year. (Unfortunately, fiscal quarters don't necessarily correspond to the actual quarters of the year, so Apple just finished its fourth fiscal quarter of 2006 and is currently in its first fiscal quarter of 2007.) For running text, we prefer to write out the quarters, as in "For its fourth fiscal quarter of 2006, Apple reported record profits..." However, since it's often a good idea to put such dates in headlines too, where space is at a premium, we abbreviate the dates along the rules of the month-year format: "Apple Reports Record Profits for Q4 2006".
Article References -- None of the above date formats have changed much, though I'm sure we've occasionally been inconsistent in our usage over the years. However, we've been including references to old articles in our Web archive. The problem with such references is that our lengthy history means that one referenced article might be 1 year old and the next might be 8 years old. That's an important difference, and something we feel that readers should be aware of. For a very long time, then, we included the issue number along with the article title, as in "Remember when I wrote 'Apple Cracks Down on Google AdWords' in TidBITS-799?"
It was a good idea, but a mediocre implementation, since although we may have a sense of how the TidBITS issue number maps to rough dates, it's an unreasonable expectation for most readers. Do you know when TidBITS #799 was published? Didn't think so. So when we recently switched over to our new database system, we used the opportunity to change our article referencing style, appending our canonical date format to the reference so readers could place the referenced article in chronological context. (See "Apple Cracks Down on Google AdWords," 03-Oct-05.) It became easy to see exactly when this particular article was written.
All was well and good for a while, but then the forces of logic on our staff, as represented by Matt Neuburg, raised the point that if the goal was to make it easy for readers to quickly place the article at a point in time, wouldn't it make more sense to use a different format that leads with the most relevant part of the date - the year - and then becomes more specific. In other words, why not use this format: (see "Apple Cracks Down on Google AdWords," 2005-10-03). That way, when reading, the first four digits immediately tell you if an article is relatively current because it was published this year, a bit old because it's from a year or two ago, or really old because it's from the 1990s. And if the article is current, the month and day then provide the additional information necessary to place it more specifically. Swapping the month abbreviation for the numeric month also helps in fixing chronological locations. You probably don't really care that something happened in October of a given year, just that it was toward the end of the year, as the numeric month makes clear.
So, as of this issue, we'll be using this new date format for article references. As an aside, it isn't just a good idea, it's an international standard: ISO 8601. It isn't perhaps one of the most widely adopted of international standards, but for anyone working with date formats that need to be quickly parsed and sorted by computer, it's the best.
Now, you might be wondering why, if ISO 8601 dates are so logical and obvious, we don't use them everywhere. It comes back to what I said at the beginning about needing the date formats we use to be logical and read smoothly. ISO 8601 dates are utterly logical, working from most to least significant values, and they work well for helping readers quickly fix a point in time with regard to article references, but they read horribly.
A block of numbers in the middle of a paragraph is an obstacle to smooth reading for most people, and the fact that people seldom start with the year when speaking about a date makes parsing it into the flow of text even more difficult. I can't speak for other languages or countries, but at least in the United States, common usage is to say the month first, followed by the day, and to include the year only if it isn't obvious from context. Our canonical format doesn't follow this order, but because it abbreviates the month name, it's easier to read than an entirely numeric date.
So for the record, and for anyone who needs to write dates consistently, that's how we do dates, and next week, I'll talk in even more depth about different ways of presenting time. Just kidding! | <urn:uuid:1790daff-74bf-453c-9bd7-c2f8a9be6d62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tidbits.com/article/8749 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967293 | 2,338 | 1.664063 | 2 |
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My Wedding Bells is in flower,we are due frosts this weekend, have you any suggestions to how I can save it?
Margaret Coast Northeast
Here in Hampshire we have Knautia flowering, and our beautiful Brugmansia (in the porch) has 6 flowers!! had frost overnight, so pleased we went round with the fleece last night phew!
I have a perennial wall flower that has been flowering constantly since May of last year, nothing seems to stop it. I think by cutting old flowering stems down a couple of times, I have encouraged more flowers. Also, we had a cool summer so that may have simulated spring for a longer period than usual. Either way, I'm amazed!
I planted antirynums in a trough in my Mothers garden last year, they flowered all last summer, this summer and they re flowering again. are they annuals or byannuals?
. I m new to vegetable gardening, I had a wonderful year last year, and the aqua dulcie broad beans I planted in November are about 6 inches high, is this unusual?
Here in the South East ive still got Lobelia in bloom in a pot in the garden, its a self seeded one that was dropped from one of my baskets 19th Jan. | <urn:uuid:660b7f36-bd37-4733-bc51-0734d7a3846d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/plants/plants-still-in-flower/1430-4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972512 | 275 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Who Is Scooter Libby?
The secretive Cheney aide at the heart of the CIA leak case.
Who is I. Lewis Libby? The not-Karl-Rove character at the center of the CIA leak investigation is so mysterious he hides his first name. Rove we know: He's Bush's political id—a self-taught master of political hardball, a brash Texan who has plotted the president's advance for 25 years.
The adviser universally known as "Scooter" represents the other side of the Bush administration: the secret undisclosed side. Like the vice president he works for, Libby prefers to work on policy in the shadows and leave the politics to others. Unlike Rove, or even fellow neocons Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, Libby rarely speaks on the record; he almost never gives public speeches. Unlike the Texas gang, he doesn't boast at being an anti-intellectual and is in fact proud of his intellectual credentials. "Lewis Libby is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia University School of Law," reads the blurb under his picture on the back flap of his book, a historical novel about Japan at the turn of the 20th century.
If these two men are so different, why are Rove's and Libby's names now spending so much time in the same sentence? Both are under investigation by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald for telling reporters that Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked at the CIA after Wilson challenged the administration's claim that Saddam Hussein sought to buy unenriched uranium from Niger. Though there is still much we do not know about their actions, one thing we can say is that the two were almost certainly leaking for different reasons. Rove's principal instinct would have been to knock back a threat to Bush's political standing. Libby's natural urge would have been to push back against the CIA with whom he and his boss had been waging an ongoing war over the intelligence that led to the war itself, a war for which he was a key proponent, and in which he continues to deeply believe.
According to one report, Libby became so obsessed with knocking back Wilson's claims, White House advisers had to step in. Arguing the point would only keep the charges alive and harm the president politically.
"Everything you know about Cheney you know about Scooter," says one who worked with him closely. That means that Libby is discreet, big-thinking, detail-oriented, and addicted to action over show. Libby is not only chief of staff but the vice president's top foreign-policy adviser. In the rare photos of Bush's war counsel, Libby can be seen in the background. He particularly shares his boss' fixation on external nuclear and bioterrorism threats. When Cheney was tasked with preparing a homeland security plan before the 9/11 attacks, it was Libby who handled it. He was minutes away from a meeting on the final report when the planes hit the World Trade Center.
Libby is a neocon's neocon. He studied political science at Yale under former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and began working with his former teacher under Cheney at the Defense Department during the George H.W. Bush administration, thinking about grand national security strategy in the post-Cold War era. When a document outlining their thinking leaked to the New York Times, the foreign policy establishment, including many of the more moderate voices in the first Bush administration, howled at its call for pre-emptive action against nations developing weapons of mass destruction. After 9/11, what was once considered loony became the Bush Doctrine.
Libby is not political in the glad-handing way—he looks as lost as Cheney at Republican Lincoln Day dinners. But he plays internal politics with force and lack of emotion. If the State Department under Colin Powell hated Dick Cheney, it hated Scooter almost as much, viewing him accurately as a pre-eminent member of the cabal hellbent for war with Iraq. It was Libby who sat with Powell in the final session before Powell's U.N. speech, eyeing every detail to make sure that the Secretary of State didn't water down the case. When Libby talked privately to friends about his rivals at State during the Powell era, it often sounded like the head of one political party speaking about the other, ascribing the worst motives and rarely giving Powell's team the benefit of the doubt.
Now no one is giving Libby the benefit of the doubt, at least in interpreting his mysterious jailhouse note to Judy Miller. That letter ended with a personal passage that seemed to cry out for accompaniment by moody background music: "You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover—Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work—and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers. With admiration, Scooter Libby."
Was this a hint to Miller about staying on the same page—either with her journalistic colleagues who seem to have backed Libby's story to the grand jury, or with her fellow former believer in Saddam's WMD stockpiles? Patrick Fitzgerald certainly wanted to know if Libby was trying to coach the reluctant witness to bolster his own case. Libby helpfully pointed out earlier in the letter that "every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me, or knew about her before our call."
Or, Scooter may have been playing with coded meanings that most of us are too dull to see. This suspicion arises naturally because of Libby's connection with Straussianism. Leo Strauss, the German-Jewish political philosopher, is seen by many as one of the intellectual fathers of neoconservatism. Wolfowitz, Libby's teacher at Yale, was a graduate student at the University of Chicago during Strauss' ascendancy, and Libby won membership into that conservative club via Wolfowitz. Part of Strauss' teaching is that ancient philosophers wrote on two levels: for the mumbling masses, but also, and often in contradiction of the literal message, on an "esoteric" level that only initiates could make out. Some Straussians have adopted this code themselves. So, where Homer Simpson would interpret Libby's note as ham-handed fawning over Judy, a Straussian close reader might discern something more devious: a literary file in the cake for both of them.
John Dickerson is Slate's chief political correspondent and author of On Her Trail. He can be reached at email@example.com. Read his series on the presidency and his series on risk. Follow him on Twitter.
Photograph of I. Lewis Libby by Harry Hamburg/KRT; photograph of Libby on the Slate home page by Gamma Presse. | <urn:uuid:d83c6ff1-ce4f-49e0-943f-f84fca967e90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2005/10/who_is_scooter_libby.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974752 | 1,428 | 1.507813 | 2 |
October 15, 2012
CHANGE: You’ve Heard of Urban Coyotes. Urban Bears Could Be Next. Historically, like grass growing in the streets, the return of dangerous wild animals to cities has been seen as a sign of civilizational collapse. Now it’s treated as a kind of progress. | <urn:uuid:4d833547-2ce0-47cc-9464-31235129e5ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/153920/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934807 | 63 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Summary: Wonderful year round hike, flat paved asphalt trail that takes you through several Oregon State research fields. Midway through the hike is a historic Benton County covered bridge that was moved to this location and rebuilt by community volunteers. This is a popular lunch time walking spot that is available year round. Always a fun hike during the lambing season when the new baby lambs are being born and running around.
Trailhead: There are two ways to access this hike. The first is to park at the Oregon State Univerary Lambing Barn just off of 35th Street. The other is to park at the Benton County Fair Ground just off of 53rd Street. Trail is paved asphalt. (Lat:44.3399 Lon:-123.1806)
Trail Guides for OSU Covered Bridge:
Best Seasons: Year-Round
User Groups: Hikers, Dogs, Bikes, Horses,
Ranger Contact: No Contact, public access on Oregon State Universary Property
Localhikes Reporter: This hike was submitted by Craig Cole, who has posted 74 other hikes on this site
Trail Reviews Submit your own review
Reviewed by KM on 8/3/2010
It was very good and fun. :)
Notice: Traveling in the backcountry can be hazardous. You are responsible for informing yourself about these hazards and taking necessary precautions. Information on this web site comes from volunteer reporters and may contain errors or omissions. A current guidebook and proper equipment are essential for safe enjoyment of the hikes posted on this site.
Keys: Oregon Hiking, Oregon Trails, Oregon Hikes, Benton County Hiking, Benton County Trails, Benton County Hikes | <urn:uuid:834cbb5f-b7d4-45a3-99e7-94dfbc3a4a33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.localhikes.com/HikeData.ASP?DispType=0&ActiveHike=0&GetHikesStateID=&ID=5138 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946755 | 349 | 1.617188 | 2 |
We've all heard the theory that some students are visual learners, while others are auditory learners. And still other kids learn best when lessons involve movement.But should teachers target instruction based on perceptions of students' strengths?
OK, so your mom was right.It turns out that moving in with that special someone without getting married first puts you at very high risk for an unplanned pregnancy.That's one of the key findings of a new report from the Guttmacher Institute.The report found that overall, "the United States did not m
In Pat Summitt's 1999 book Reach for the Summit, what comes through about the legendary University of Tennessee women's basketball coach is her singular toughness.Summitt, 59, announced yesterday that she has been diagnosed with early onset dementia caused by Alzheimer's.
If you've got high cholesterol, you know the diet advice: Go easy on foods high in saturated fat like red meat and cheese, and eat lots of fiber and whole grains.The message still holds up, but researchers say it's time to tweak the message.A new study finds there's extra benefit in addi
New cases of malaria plummeted by 13-fold in the village of Dielmo, in the central highlands of Senegal, after residents started sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets and people with malaria were treated with a drug combo that clears their blood of the parasites. | <urn:uuid:0e74624f-d47e-4267-a4e7-28a28d6fd2a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbez.org/tags/shots-health-blog?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966821 | 282 | 1.835938 | 2 |
At the end of June, I wrote a short op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. In that article, I criticized Oliver Stone’s “documentary” South of the Border. I wrote the following:
What Mr. Stone and his writers have presented is a standard far-left narrative that is part of a long line of propaganda films, a modern American version of the old agitprop. There are no dissenting voices in this film. Nor is there any mention of the fact that Mr. Chávez has closed down television and radio stations that disagree with him and arrested dissenting political figures.
I then followed that op-ed with a longer article that appeared on my blog and was then put up on the website of the History News Network, the major website of the historical community. I wrote the following paragraph about Chavez’s big mistake of allowing himself to be interviewed by a reporter who knows his stuff, footage Stone knows about but somehow failed to use for his film:
Finally, you should not miss the incredible BBC Hardtalk interview conducted by the fearless BBC reporter Stephen Sackur, who, unlike his US counterparts, knows how to ask the tough questions to Hugo Chavez, and who confronts him head on with his lies, obfuscations, and his inability to be honest. You will see Sackur confront Chavez on his arrest of General Baduel, which I referred to in my WSJ op-ed. Fortunately, Chavez has not learned what Fidel Castro would have told him — never agree to be interviewed except by fawning American acolytes like Barbara Walters, Dan Rather, and all the others who have interviewed Castro and failed to confront him about anything meaningful.
Today, I woke up to find that none other than Oliver Stone himself has answered me in a short letter, in which he refers to my critique of him as a “diatribe,” a word that of course fits his own film and writing far better than anything I have written. He claims that he really does have dissenting voices in his film, as well as opposition leaders criticizing Hugo Chavez. What Stone does is to include brief bits of criticism, in standard propaganda set-ups in which a few words are used to knock the critics down and show Hugo Chavez’s greatness. Nowhere does he include any substantive critic who can provide a different perspective on Chavez and his policies. This is not surprising. As I pointed out by quoting Tariq Ali, his main writer, the film is meant to be one defending and praising Hugo Chavez, not a non-partisan or balanced view of the dictator’s reign. | <urn:uuid:f25bd9c8-5340-444e-8e1d-478853413749> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2010/07/12/oliver-stone-attacks-me-here-is-my-answer-oliver/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985294 | 533 | 1.539063 | 2 |
As the year comes to a close and 2013 approaches, marketers find themselves facing a radically different direct marketing scenario than in the past—along with several other concerns about the future. Powerful analytics promise to parse Big Data sets, but marketers are unsure how to tackle it. Website behavior combined with automation can serve up personalized content and offers, but the rapidly evolving technology makes choices difficult.
One element that's not debatable: Social media has become solidly mainstream in providing keener insight into what is important within market segments and to individual prospects.
“I often think of social media as the oldest form of advertising, which is word-of-mouth; social is just a new way of delivering it,” said Tom Haas, CMO at Siemens Corp.
“With social and mobile apps, you can go directly to the customer, pinpointing where they are, what they're looking for and how you can serve up something relevant and beneficial,” Haas said.
Social advertising is solidly maturing. According to media research company BIA/Kelsey, social ad revenue in the U.S. is expected to reach $9.2 billion by 2016, up from $4.6 billion this year, for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.2%. Social ads are being driven by display, such as Facebook's Marketplace Ads and YouTube's multiple display units. Locally oriented social media advertising and social ads on mobile devices are growing fastest of all, each expected to experience a 28% CAGR through 2016.
On a macro level, direct marketers remain relatively confident in the near future. According to the Direct Marketing Association's “Quarterly Business Review”—released this month and based on an online survey in October of 322 marketers—75% of respondents said they are bullish about the growth prospects of digital and direct marketing.
When asked to rate their confidence in the growth of digital and direct marketing on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 representing low confidence and 5, high confidence), respondents gave an average score of 3.91, up slightly from 3.85 in the second quarter.
Nevertheless, uncertainty lurks in the shadows. While marketers agree that good data can increase revenue driven through marketing, they've been slow to embrace new sources and types of data. According to Eric Wittlake, head of media at agency Babcock & Jenkins, Portland, Ore., marketers are uncertain about data accuracy and completeness, the cost of acquiring data and their own abilities to manage and understand it.
Another concern: The looming “fiscal cliff” and its potential impact on the U.S. economy.
According to a report by BtoB sibling publication Advertising Age, marketers may sharply curtail expenditures as they wait to see if President Obama and House Republicans can agree on changes to the current law mandating spending cuts and tax increases in the new year.
Marketing staffing decisions also appear to be in a wait-and-see mode, according to an online survey conducted in September by direct marketing executive search company Bernhart Associates. The company's latest “Quarterly Digital and Direct Marketing Employment Report” projects fourth-quarter hiring trends and reported that 46% of the 450 companies surveyed said they plan to add staff in the final three months of the year, down from 50% in the last quarterly report issued in April.
“Yes, the fiscal cliff can make people nervous,” said Jerry Bernhart, the company's principal. “But I've never had a company say they're delaying or canceling a job search because of it. If they have a need, they have a need. Bigger companies may be more concerned about this kind of thing than smaller organizations.”
Bernhart said that while hiring in direct marketing has reached an uncertain phase, certain job types have risen in prominence and demand.
“Marketing analytics jobs are at the top, but the demand is for analytics skills combined with business acumen,” Bernhart said. “Companies are avid to hire people who can mine the data and then make recommendations to marketers based on what the data are telling them. Marketing departments don't need propeller-heads.”
For the first time, social media manager positions have appeared within the top five marketing positions sought by companies, Bernhart said. Other positions companies are seeking to fill including Web designers, email marketing managers, account managers and sales. | <urn:uuid:c639b0e1-1542-48f2-b736-3b49863443b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121126/DIRECT/311269989/1507/direct04 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955406 | 911 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Search Tags: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Life changed in an instant for victims of the Boston bombings.
Staffers at Walter Reed have been parking in the parking garage for patients, and that's prompted changes.
Hundreds of workers who clean and maintain buildings at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center claim they have not received paychecks and are uncertain when the wages will return.
Authorities at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda have given the all- clear after a building was evacuated due to a bomb threat.
Some transportation experts are disputing a Defense Department finding that the addition of thousands of patients and workers has reduced traffic congestion near the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda.
Michael McKnight got a little stir crazy hanging out in a hotel room near Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda So when his buddy Benjamin Williams called to invite him to Fort Detrick on Saturday, he jumped at the opportunity to spend a few hours outdoors
At a monthly breakfast meeting, the D.C. Council discussed potential lessors for the St. Elizabeth's campus in Southeast, the partially abandoned currently home of the city's main public psychiatric facility, and the site of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which the military vacated last August.
The Base Realignment and Closure program has caused a change in travel behavior at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. | <urn:uuid:54ecb31b-6500-4f95-aac1-b7aef842f753> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtop.com/?nid=1042&tag=Walter+Reed+National+Military+Medical+Center&page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947399 | 278 | 1.617188 | 2 |
In one of those rare events that are all the more special because they are celebrated by the few rather than the many, an archly conceptual artist of the otherwise brashly figurative and paint-drenched 1980s East Village scene has recently snuck back into town for an intimate and unadvertised week-long show in a Williamsburg apartment.
Upon his return, Mike Osterhout, whose silence of more than 15 years since leaving the New York art world is typical of his penchant for self-abnegating career decisions, brought with him a diverse body of work -- that is, a range of eccentric creative gestures both difficult and distinct, the kind of things that have long characterized him as an artistís artist.
Never easy to categorize, Osterhout began his career in the 1970s among the Bay Area Conceptualists, whose odd humor and irascible iconoclasm have proven to be as respected by critics as they are suspect to the market. Osterhoutís own efforts most closely approximate the radical life-as-art convergences set forth in the 1986 New Museum exhibition, "Choices: Making an Art of Everyday Life," of which he was a part.
Opening the MO David Gallery, named after the persona he invented to work as an art critic on behalf of other artists (first in San Francisco and later in New York in 1984), Osterhout did as much to bring to wider attention artists like David Ireland, Tony Oursler and Tony Labat as he did to confuse his own identity. It certainly didnít help that the artist posing as the critic-turned-art-dealer MO David was showing his own work under the name of Kristan Kohl, a fictitious German woman painter.
One would imagine that by the time Osterhout closed his gallery, biographically assassinated Kohl and left the city for the mountains, the art world and history might happily bid farewell for good to this unorthodox imposter. But if living your art and making art of your life is inevitably akin to the endurance art practices from which the notion was spawned, it also involves an act of faith that does not perish quite so easily as most mid-career droughts.
Among the most telling of Osterhoutís early conceptual tropes was an action which involved his becoming ordained in seminary school as a Conceptual Artist, a creepy companion to his other real-life performances, including adopting a needy orphan boy via mail order, buying and branding a cow, and tattooing a dozen people with his own custom designs.
Osterhout may well be most fondly remembered by many of his former East Village colleagues for his role as preacher at the Church of the Little Green Man, which ran as a Sunday afternoon performance-based mock religion. Featuring a congregation that included artists Karen Finley, Kembra Pfahler and several other notables, a church band with which he would record under the name Purple Geezus, and a gas-fueled "eternal flame" to ignite the dollar bill that church visitors were required to sacrifice for admission, Osterhoutís church ran for many years in the clubs, bars and strip joints of a then less morally attuned downtown Manhattan.
With such a back-story it is perhaps less surprising that much of this artistís time since then has been dedicated to hunting and the refurbishment of a village church in the Catskill Mountains as a work of art. This said, few if any had much idea of what Mike Osterhout would hang on the walls of a small apartment-cum-gallery as evidence of his studio practice. And most abundant of the many pleasant improbabilities encountered at his recent exhibition was a whole new body of Kohl canvases, presumably back-dated pre-mortem, as Iím sure I long ago wrote her obituary in High Times magazine.
Kohlís new works are large, crazy-quilted collages of prurient decorative media that are in our view far superior to her earlier (or later) monochrome paintings. The best of these by far is the large canvas papered with a tessellated pattern of torn-up dollar bills, a raw material that is no doubt less expensive these days than other major currencies, if not cheaper than the magazine and catalogue pages typically employed in the other works in this series.
Also on hand in the show was a set of another dozen tattoo designs for inking, hung next to blood prints from the former endeavor for context, as well as newly distilled cases of bottled "holy water," lovingly packaged and assuredly blessed by the Little Green Man.
A handful of fans have followed this artistís literary trail via his blog, huntingwithsupermodels.com, which chronicles his upstate misadventures at further length. Much of this activity, when not involving the production of a never-seen personal television show using disposable drugstore handicams, focuses on the art of turkey calling, at which our subject is expert. (As it happens, this exhibition was mounted in the apartment of one of those aforementioned models, who apparently enjoys the company of this hunter as artist-with-a-gun.)
In Williamsburg, the sole evidence of this martial woodsmanship was a 9mm handgun and case, the wry process artifact of a recent art action, for which Osterhout carried the pistol as he flew via commercial airlines back and forth from Los Angeles. This exhibit -- the encased gun on a small table, surmounted by a color photograph of the man himself sitting in sunglasses and bathrobe in a hotel room, like a revivified Hunter S. Thompson -- was itself visually more concise and effective than the art that has otherwise been characteristic of his practice in his upstate redoubt, typically involving the remains of animals he has killed.
But as a rural artist, Osterhout has taken up the most traditional artistic practice, that of buying and remodeling a farmhouse (the practice, derivative of his work with the church -- which began a decade ago -- was brought into the contemporary art field more recently by Richard Prince, who sold his house, and the art it contained, to the Guggenheim Museum). Osterhoutís house, now with a $75,000 price tag, includes new white siding but remains sans septic, and is no doubt best appreciated without the benefit of any interior views, as the structure remains a shell. Yet to these eyes at least itís as good an investment as any Gordon Matta-Clark commission and a far better bet than most of the similarly messy and manic conceptualisms that have recently sprung up.
Living in Brooklyn for a week, occupying a hypothetical space that served simultaneously as home, studio and gallery, Osterhoutís dissimilation of the contemporary art world is happily reminiscent of those halcyon days in the East Village that the current crop of Lower East Side Galleries may gladly reference but could hardly hope to understand. For this if nothing else we should applaud the artist, whomever he may pretend to be.
CARLO MCCORMICK is senior editor of Paper magazine. | <urn:uuid:245414d1-10d2-4c43-9a1e-30d6035b8062> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/mccormick/mccormick6-18-08.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97619 | 1,470 | 1.625 | 2 |
If your kids are anything like mine, the wonder of summer is starting to wear off. The long, glorious days with hours of free time are starting to get just a bit, well, boring. I'm beginning to hear "Mom, what should I do?" all day long. When the standard answers (legos, read, color, hide & seek, scrub your bathroom!) didn't work one day, I suggest a different activity: let's make superhero masks and capes for your stuffed animals. And then I ammended my suggestion to: how about you guys make superhero masks and capes for your stuffed animals?
So I came up with a simple process that my older kids (9, 9 and 11) were able to complete by themselves to make little outfits for their Build-a-Bears (yes, my older boys all still love their Build-a-Bears. I think it's awesome.) Younger kids would need assistance, but would probably still be able to do enough on their own to feel pretty proud of themselves. (There are my nine year olds hard at work.)
If you have a lazy day just asking to be filled, here's what you'll need: | <urn:uuid:d4412500-cb83-49bb-ae4d-f20dadc2d3e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/home/?currentPage=19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977399 | 244 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Submitted by: Edward Moore
VETERAN’S GROUP DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM SEC. OF STATE CLINTON
Claims vet was manhandled for silent protestFebruary 18, 2011
(NATIONAL) -- Could it be the U.S. government thinks peaceful, civilian protest against government is fine on the streets of Cairo, Egypt but not on U.S. soil?
As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech at George Washington University yesterday condemning governments that arrest protestors and do not allow free expression - and lauding freedom of speech on the Internet - 71-year-old military veteran Ray McGovern was grabbed from the audience in plain view of her by police and an unidentified official in plain clothes and hustled out of the building and, according to McGovern and his supporters, was “brutalized and left bleeding in jail.”
What McGovern did was simply remain standing silently in the audience and turned his back on her as Secretary Clinton began her speech.
That was it.
McGovern, a veteran Army officer who also worked as a C.I.A. analyst for 27 years, was wearing Veterans for Peace t-shirt.
Blind-sided by security officers who pounced upon him, McGovern remarked, as he was hauled out the door, "So this is America?"
According to Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, attorney with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, “For this peaceful expression of dissent, he ended up bruised, bloodied, arrested, and jailed. Secretary Clinton never paused, continuing her speech lecturing other countries about the need to allow freedom of expression and dissent, while Mr. McGovern was hauled out in front of her.”
McGovern was later found to have his arm covered with bruises. The metal handcuffs were fastened so tightly that his wrists were cut and some blood flowed from the cuts.
After being held by local police, McGovern was told he was being charged with disorderly conduct.
Watch the incident in the video below.
Veterans for Peace is demanding an apology from Secretary of State Clinton. | <urn:uuid:65fbb433-b70d-46b7-8470-1350b91f7428> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://conpats.blogspot.com/2011/02/sincw-when-is-silent-protest-illegal.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981416 | 434 | 1.601563 | 2 |
According to new research, more than 50 percent of consumers expect personalized merchandising, starting with a personalized home page, while one in four look for these tailored experiences at the search results, product, and category pages. When, where and how should personalized merchandising become part of the online shopping experience?
Ben Sprecher used the term “recommendation marketing.” Another way of saying that is “telling the shopper what to buy.” Or make it softer and say “suggest what the shopper should buy.” In every case it fixes the #1 sin of self service retailers, which is failing to TELL THE SHOPPER WHAT TO BUY!
Online retail is of course self service retailing, with electronic assistance because it is “online.” But the very same electronic assistance is already creeping into bricks-and-mortar stores through the use of the shopper’s own PDA or cell phone. It’s a trickle today, but will become a flood as “recommendation marketing” becomes the norm for ALL self service retailing, online and offline.
Seeing this coming, I have spent the past few years figuring out how self service retailers, WITHOUT electronic assistance, can implement “recommendation marketing” in current bricks-and-mortar self service stores. It is the doorway to astounding increases in sales and profits. But very counter-intuitive to the passive “pile it high, and let it fly” crowd.
About the Author
Dr Herb Sorensen is global scientific director of shopper insights at TNS Sorensen.Since the late 1970s his market research has focused on shoppers at their points of purchase. TNS Sorensen, the in-store research company®, captures shopper behaviour, motivations and perceptions at the point of purchase.
Dr. Herb Sorensen, | <urn:uuid:6b897b87-3ffb-41d3-a68d-b80ec764e8ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.phenomena.com/?tag=bricks-and-mortar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931181 | 399 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Tag Archives: linux
Things are heating up in the appliance world. Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison took the lead at the keynote of Oracle OpenWorld to announce the launch of 'Exalogic Elastic Compute Cloud' (EECC), which is a slick new box that contains both a full server and storage hardware.
As if this would come as a surprise to anyone with two brain cells to rub together, the NY Times has this quote from Tim O'Reilly: "Microsoft is totally off the radar of the cool, hip, cutting-edge software developers."
Some interesting results from the 2010 Eclipse User Survey involving trends in open source usage, from InfoWorld's Savio Rodrigues: Linux usage among developers is on the rise, at the expense of Windows MySQL has pulled ahead of Oracle, by a factor of 3-to-2, as the database of choice among Eclipse developers. Enterprise JavaBeans and Spring [...] | <urn:uuid:764da4d7-1334-4e1e-a6a6-c52282bea426> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://psoug.org/blogs/mike/tag/linux/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940767 | 187 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The forecast for more soybeans on fewer acres may ring true, but getting an accurate read on Brazilian production is like grasping smoke. It's never easy.
More reliable numbers, it can be assumed, were being watched by traders Friday morning with the release of USDA's December supply and demand report.
The carryout for both corn and soybeans was increased from November estimates, with projected corn stocks climbing to 2.347 billion bushels ... and soybean stocks jumping to 392 million bushels.
The wheat carryout actually saw a slight decline, but NOT one that was significant enough to prevent a slide in futures prices.
Grain futures have been influenced in recent weeks not only by traditional commodity funds, but also by index buyers. Wall Street brokers are selling commodity indexes to large retirement plans, as well as some smaller investors. That means some of the burdensome supply of corn and beans is being held by a wide range of speculators.
Analysts say that scenario puts increased emphasis on basis for profitable farmer selling. | <urn:uuid:e607eb27-0888-4394-a0a3-43409a10a87b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iptv.org/mtom/story.cfm/lead/6175/mtom_20051209_3114_lead1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974804 | 209 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Personalized Prevention, Part III: Applying the Model to Obesity
Weight loss (or gain) = calories in minus calories out. Simple, right? Well actually, not as any person who has gained a few pounds and can’t shed them will attest. It seems as we grow older, our metabolism slows. There is also good evidence that once we put on weight, our body re-adjusts to ‘defend’ (that’s a word scientists use) that new weight. Stated another way, if you gain 10 pounds, then lose 10, your body goes into a state where various hunger hormones are secreted more often than they’d be in the case of someone who never gained the 10 lbs. Tara Parker-Pope covered this wonderfully in a recent NY Times Magazine article called The Fat Trap.
But actually that’s only true for some of us. Those of you who were around to witness the amazing performance of Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull (1980) know he gained 50 lbs to play the character of Jake LaMotta in his later life. After the film, DeNiro lost the weight promptly and easily. He can be seen as slim and trim playing a priest in True Confessions (1981) not long after. Even if you look at modern-day pictures of DeNiro (e.g. in Little Fockers 2010), he is no where near as heavy as he was when he played the senior LaMotta 30 years before.
Ok, now are you convinced that it is more complicated than simple calories in vs. calories out?
In Personalized Prevention, Part I, I reviewed the concept of connected health as phenotypic mapping and started a discussion of how one type of data might inform our use of the other. In Part II, I discussed the psychology of engagement as applied to connected health interventions. In this post, I want to use obesity as an illustration of how it might practically work. I am not going to cover the public health story on obesity (how we live in a time of calorie excess and a dearth of opportunities to be active). I know some of you will have that top of mind and may wonder why its not mentioned. Yes, we’re all growing a bit more overweight as time goes on due to this trend. In general, we’d all benefit from eating more plants, more colorful foods, less animal-based food, less processed food and finding ways to be more active. Today, I want to talk though about how the genetics of obesity may be able to help us create segments of the population that may respond differently to connected health interventions. Also, response to connected health interventions may be a trigger to prompt genetic testing.
Although I am not an expert on genetics, I have studied up on the genetics of obesity as I am giving at talk at BioIT, May 25, at the BIO meeting in Boston. We are a long way off from having exact obesity genotypes the way we now do for certain cancers and the like. But the genetics argue that we can distinguish at least 5 genotypes: | <urn:uuid:4a4930a2-2804-4dfc-88f2-9cdac38803bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/personalized-prevention-part-iii-applying-model-obesity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971632 | 640 | 1.804688 | 2 |
BeFinder is an optical fluorescence method of detecting beryllium. Beryllium from the sample is dissolved in aqueous ammonium bifluoride to which a dye solution is added and the fluorescence measured.
Included in the terms of purchase of this product is a limited license from Beryliiant Inc for its use to detect beryllium using the technology owned by Berylliant. Further, the technology rights from Berylliant Inc under this license are only conveyed when the fluorescence detection hardware is purchased from Berylliant Inc. or its appointed agent. The technology from Berylliant is covered under several patents and pending patents, a list of which can be obtained from Berylliant Inc. | <urn:uuid:9e80ce85-df65-45c7-af58-c9407deedf59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://berylliant.net/products.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952194 | 156 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Paul Rand was a well-known American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs. He was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design. From 1956 to 1969, and beginning again in 1974, Rand taught design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Rand was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972. He designed many posters and corporate identities, including the logos for IBM, UPS and ABC.
November 1996 Paul Rand visited the MIT Media Lab for an interview with John Maeda. John Maeda was a former student and friend of Paul Rand’s. He participated in Rand’s final interview in front of a packed auditorium at M.I.T.’s Media Laboratory. In his book, he talks briefly about the evening and excerpts some questions posed to Rand.
An account of the same event appeared in The Tech. | <urn:uuid:e52583ae-0e29-4595-89c1-e80e38e853ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fransaussems.com/100designers/paul-rand-speaks-at-media-lab/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972412 | 185 | 1.6875 | 2 |
|Little Sandridge is That Kind of Place|
|Little Sandridge is That Kind of Place|
Tucked Away Off the Beaten Path
Little Sandridge won’t be found on any map. Even the GPS won’t be able to locate it.
Little Sandridge is that kind of place.
It’s tucked way off the beaten path, inhabited by butterflies, bumblebees and birds, and where darkness comes, first, to the dense cypress woodlands.
It was the quiet beauty of the place that first attracted Kimbel Adamson. It was the kind of place where "God’s spirit moves freely."
Adamson said God showed him the place and then God put it on his heart to do something with it. But not for himself — for others.
Adamson purchased 13 acres of land not much more than a stone’s throw off Highway 123 South about 19 miles south of Troy. The oft-dusty pig trail to Little Sandridge winds a crooked path to a clearing that is the social center of Little Sandridge.
The focal point of Little Sandridge is a log cabin Adamson and a host of friends raised with strong backs, sweat and the know-how country boys just naturally acquire.
"The logs came off my son’s place around Tennille," Adamson said. "I had a lot of help putting the cabin up. We all put our heads together and we worked it out. We notched the logs just like the pioneers did. We’ve all been around farm work all of our lives. We know how to do things or, if we don’t, we’ll figure it out."
They "figured out" how to build a log cabin from scratch, chink it against the elements and add a front porch for sitting, singing and spinning yarns.
Adamson decorated the cabin with farm implements that are conversation starters.
"What’s this thing? And that?"
Before long all of those in earshot were entering in the conversation.
For the young and the young-at-heart, Adamson hung a mule slip pan from a high, stout limb of an old oak tree and made a swing is as educational as it is fun.
"This old slip pan came before tractors," Adamson said. "It was used behind a mule to fix terraces, move dirt, and build roads and ponds."
An old, claw-foot bathtub is permanent décor at Sandridge and doubles as a playpen for little ones and a place to sit and rest for older ones.
Little Sandridge isn’t a museum by design, but it is by "happen-so." Adamson just happens to be interested in "oldtiques" and, having them around, spurs the interest of others who come down the dusty pig trail to the place called Little Sandridge.
The hub of Little Sandridge includes a large indoor/outdoor facility just right for singings and such or indoor camping.
And there are lots of both at Little Sandridge, year round.
"I had a dream about this place," Adamson said. "The Lord showed it to me and He’s in charge of all things. I didn’t know at the time what I was to do with it but I prayed about it and the Lord showed me. He put it on my heart to open it up to churches and youth groups so they could come out here and enjoy the outdoors."
And Little Sandridge is a place where the community comes together for gatherings of different kinds and everyone is invited and everyone is welcome.
"We have five or six big events out here every year," Adamson said. "We have an Easter egg hunt for the kids every year and a couple of hog cookings and singing events. And each singing event is bigger than the last."
Adamson and his longtime friend, Dwight Berry, hosted the Little Sandridge Bluegrass Gospel Jamboree in August featuring local bands — the Benton Brothers and Company, the Monticello Bluegrass Band, Old Southern Gospel and Broken Strings – and area bands — The Seminoles from Seminole and The Bosheers from Tennessee.
For the Jamboree, Berry built a stage under the canopy of trees and set up chairs across the path and created an outdoor performance area rivaling any anywhere. Then he cooked a washtub of the best barbecue in the land and invited everyone to come, bring a covered dish and spend the day enjoying the bluegrass. It was all offered free of charge.
Berry and those who attended the Little Sandridge Bluegrass Festival would probably admit there’s little-to-no chance it will ever be featured as one of Alabama’s Top Ten events or as a destination for bus tours. But, for those who enjoy the simple things of life and find comfort and joy in friendship, and meaning and inspiration in the music that is bluegrass gospel, there’s no better place to be than on the banks of the Pea River at a place called Little Sandridge – a place where God’s spirit moves freely among the cypress knees and whispers on the breeze.
For information about events at Little Sandridge, call (334) 670-8725, (334) 735-3896 or (334) 762-2236.
Jaine Treadwell is a freelance writer from Brundidge. | <urn:uuid:d66faa34-89fa-4591-bac0-8b40630b7927> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alafarmnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2631:little-sandridge-is-that-kind-of-place&catid=162:october-2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951464 | 1,140 | 1.5 | 2 |
Yulefest in the Blue Mountans 2013!
The magical winter time (June, July and August) is Yulefest in the Blue Mountains.
While cold winds blow and the occasional snow falls, experience warm 'Mountains' hospitality, log fires, Xmas fare, sing-alongs and perhaps even Santa. The Blue Mountains is truly a 'Winter Wonderland'.
Like so many eccentricities, Yulefest was born quite by accident. This quirky seasonal anomaly came into being three decades ago at Katoomba’s Mountain Heritage hotel when proprietor, Gary Crockett, was chatting with guests from Eire on a cold July day. One of them noticed the irony, for them, of winter
weather in July. With snow falling outside, he asked if the hotel could perhaps arrange a few Christmas–style food and festivities that evening.
That night Mountain Heritage served turkey and traditional trimmings, Christmas crackers and mince pies by the fire, and Yulefest was born. The following year the hotel declared ‘Christmas in July’ to be a permanent Mountain Heritage event and word spread quickly. By next season, many Mountains guesthouses, B&Bs and resorts had realised the conceptual value for visitors and the regional economy, and organized similar festivities for their own guests.
Within a couple of years Yulefest had become an established winter holiday escape for Blue Mountains visitors. | <urn:uuid:62b7154a-f524-4ae4-ab14-a34b7d4c6255> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.leuragardensresort.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34:yulefest-in-the-blue-mountans-2013&catid=2:whats-on&Itemid=32 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96964 | 288 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Save Money and Get a Second Line by Making Calls Over Wi-Fi
If you frequently use a mobile phone for business calls and text messages, you know that the fees from your carrier can add up quickly. But with suitable apps and programs, you can add an office line that lets you use Wi-Fi to make voice calls and send texts from your mobile device or desktop at no extra charge, using the Internet service you already pay for. Having a second phone line for business also can help you separate your work from your personal life.
A VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) line can be an inexpensive way to add a second phone line for business use. VoIP enables you to make voice calls over an Internet connection. Using VoIP, you can even transform a Wi-Fi-only device such as an iPod Touch into a phone, make cheap or free phone calls from your computer, or conserve your mobile minutes by making calls over the 3G or 4G data network or Wi-Fi connection.
The technology has improved in recent years from the early days of poor quality and annoying latency--the delay between when the other person speaks and when you hear them--to an experience comparable to a regular phone call.
Dozens of VoIP apps are available in various mobile app marketplaces, but this article focuses on the most widely used ones. Scroll down to the bottom of this article to see a comparison chart of their features.
(Note that none of these apps allow 911 emergency calling. As a result, they are suitable only as secondary lines. You should still have access to a phone line for emergency calls.)
Toktumi's Line2 is a mobile app for Android and iOS devices that provides you a phone number and allows you to make and receive voice calls and text messages over a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection. Last Thursday, Toktumi released a version of Line2 for iPad, so now you can turn your iPad into an oversize phone, too. Though the app is easy to set up and use, it does require you to enter a forwarding phone number that will ring in case the app is offline. I had no trouble calling out, but I ran into some problems trying to get incoming calls to ring on my Wi-Fi-only devices. In those cases, the calls went straight to the forwarding number.
In my testing, call quality on a Line2 call made over Wi-Fi using an iPhone (with no SIM card) was comparable to that of similar calls made over AT&T's network on my Motorola Atrix Android phone. Outbound calls connected and began ringing quickly, and when incoming calls rang through, they picked up quickly, too. There was no more latency than on a typical cell phone call.
What it costs: Line2 service runs $10 per month for unlimited voice and texting to the United States and Canada, including conference calls from the mobile app; or $15 per month for mobile apps and a desktop softphone app for calling and texting from a computer. Low rates apply to international numbers. Line2 also offers a seven-day free trial.
Bottom line: Line2 pricing is inexpensive and easy to understand. Call quality is better than most other VoIP apps I tried, with a call across the country sounding much the same over Line2 as over a cell phone. Line2 also supports visual voicemail and conference calling. Though Toktumi doesn't offer any free plans, a free trial lets you test the setup.
Truphone provides two services: its Tru App for mobile devices; and Tru SIM to permit users to call through the Tru network, even when roaming internationally. For this article, I tested only the app. As Truphone tends to focus on international calling, you can get numbers from other countries (currently the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia) in order to provide a local calling option for people calling from those countries. Calls are also free between Tru and other VoIP services, such as Skype and Google Voice.
Unfortunately, Truphone's call quality didn't quite keep up in my tests. The audio was very compressed and sounded tinny, and I noticed more latency than with a regular cell phone call.
What it costs: For $13 per month you get unlimited calling to U.S. landlines and mobile phones. You'll have to add another $5 per month to get a phone number to receive incoming calls.
Bottom line: Truphone is a good option if you frequently travel internationally, or if you want to have a local number in another country. But if you need to call only within the States, you'll find that it's a more expensive option despite its subpar call quality.
Though perhaps best known for its video chat, Skype also offers voice and conference calling to mobiles and landlines, as well as texting. On the business side, Skype Manager lets a business manage multiple users and allocate features and calling credits. Skype has service plans at levels from individual to enterprise, including accessories to set up offices for conferencing, plus phone adapters to make Skype calls from landline phones. The desktop calling program runs on Windows, OSX, and Linux; and you can find Skype mobile apps for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, and Symbian.
Setting up Skype is a bit more complicated than setting up some rival services, due to the many options available. To get a full-featured phone setup--one that lets you call out to landlines and mobile phones, and includes a phone number so people can call in to your Skype account from any phone--you'll have to add several separate services. Though you have to pay only for the services you use, multiple inexpensive services can cumulatively cost more than a single-fee service.
In my tests, Skype's call quality was good, but latency on the system was high, with a delay of several seconds between when a caller spoke and when the words reached me.
What it costs: Skype-to-Skype calling, messaging, and video are all free from the computer and the mobile app. Unilmited outbound calling to landlines or to mobile phones in the United States and Canada from Skype start at $3 per month, or you can pay as you go for 2.3 cents per minute plus a connection fee. A phone number for inbound calling costs $18 for three months, or $60 for a full year. Voicemail costs another $2.10 per month.
Bottom line: Skype offers plenty of options for customizing a plan specifically to your business's needs, along with apps for pretty much every platform out there. But the many choices can feel overwhelming if you're just looking for a simple voice line.
Google Voice is a Web-based service originally designed to supplement an existing phone line. It provides one phone number that you can forward to several lines based on who is calling and what time of day it is. Google's voicemail service will also transcribe voicemail as text and email, or text-message the transcript to you.
In 2010, Google branched into VoIP calling by supporting outgoing calls to landlines and mobile phones from Gmail, via a chat add-on that works in Windows, OSX, and Linux. Once you've made a call out from Gmail, you can add Google Chat as a forwarding phone in Google Voice so that incoming calls will ring in the Chat pane of Gmail on your desktop Web browser.
Google Voice is available as a mobile app for Android, BlackBerry, and iOS; and Sprint is now integrating Google Voice into all of its smartphones. Google's mobile app does not call with VoIP, however; instead it goes through your phone connection, which costs you carrier minutes. If your mobile plan offers free calling to favorite numbers, you can add your Google Voice number to your favorites, thereby making any call out through Google Voice free.
To get VoIP calling with Google Voice on a mobile device, you can try connecting it to another VoIP app, such as Groove IP or Sipdroid on Android, or Talkatone or Line 2 on iOS. I successfully placed calls from an Android tablet with Sipdroid, and from an iPad with Google Voice using Line 2.
What it costs: When Google released calling from Gmail, it was free to call out to the United States and Canada for the first year. Later the company decided to extend the free calling period through 2012. Calling internationally starts at 2 cents per minute.
Bottom line: Google Voice offers a lot of useful services at no charge and can save you from needing a texting plan on your smartphone, but either you'll be tied to your computer for VoIP calls or you'll have to add another service to make VoIP calls from your smartphone.
Google Voice is free, making it the lowest-cost option. Making VoIP call from a mobile device over 3G or 4G will require a data plan, and VoIP calls can use up your monthly data allotment quickly. But if you spend most of your time in Wi-Fi range and don't mind the setup work, Google Voice can be an inexpensive choice. For a simple, easy-to-set-up alternative, Line2 offers great call quality, an easy-to-use app, and a coherent price plan. | <urn:uuid:5883ea33-bc2f-4453-95e4-dbf0253ea31e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcworld.com/article/240162/save_money_and_get_a_second_line_by_making_calls_over_wi_fi.html?page=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941229 | 1,907 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Let partisanship go
Now that the elections of 2012 are over it seems a good time to end partisanship. Partisanship is the blind unthinking loyalty to the party for whom you vote or serve. Ending partisanship is a difficult task for many voters and even for elected politicians. Partisanship means you do or support what you are told by the leaders of your party, oftentimes without free will or thought.
I suggest that we as Americans and, more so, we as Vermonters, stop the left vs. right, Democrat vs. Republican, conservative vs. liberal paradigm and start fulfilling our duty as citizens and elected officials. I suggest that we should actually investigate, educate ourselves and weigh the consequences of policies, decisions, bills and laws through a filter of right vs. wrong, just vs. unethical, sustainable vs. illogical, constitutional vs. illegal. I suggest that our elected officials should stop giving special rights to special interest groups or political supporters and do what is best for all the people and for the future of our state. It seems that politicians give away taxpayers’ money to buy voter popularity, to pay back campaign contributors and to support radical or extremely controversial causes that many voters are adamantly opposed to.
On every issue I strongly encourage our state’s representatives to weigh the long-term effects of their policy and decisions through the prism of individual rights. I believe every decision made by our state government should pass one very important test. Does the decision benefit authoritarianism (which I define as the will of government imposed on the people) or does the policy or decision support the rights of individuals to make their own decisions on their health, their food, their charity, their money, their Internet use, their vaccinations, their drinking water, their ridgelines, their property, their education and their family life? I support representatives who stand for individual freedom and serve their friends and neighbors. I oppose representatives that impose authoritarian dictates and force their causes, policy and philosophy on all people. These representatives have the incorrect understanding that they are our leaders.
I desire to see the end of partisanship by bringing our elected officials together on the common philosophical ground that they are servants of the people, not leaders over the people.
BerlinMORE IN Letters
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Reflections on Shanghai – A Year LaterShanghai, Fall 2009
I always believe that everything happens for a reason, whether the results are good or bad. Although the two experiences are different, the same conclusion can reached by both outcomes. For example, some students go abroad and have the most amazing time in their lives; they get to travel, meet new people, and immerse themselves in their host culture. There are other students who are constantly homesick and react negatively toward their host country. Does that mean that some students should study abroad and others should not? After having studying abroad myself, I would argue that although it may not seem as if the two groups could reach the same educational experiences, if both groups (especially the second) spent time to reflect, they would appreciate the invaluable opportunity and learning experiences they had abroad.
I often found myself teetering between enjoying my time abroad and homesickness. Although I much rather not have experienced the latter emotion, it was during those unpleasant times that I learned more about myself. Being put outside one’s comfort zone is not an easy thing for anyone. We enjoy familiarity and resist change to the status quo; like a safety blanket, our comfort zone shelters us. But study abroad breaks us from this shelter and forces a student abroad to experience new perspectives, whether he or she wants to or not. And it is better to break outside the box because this awareness often brings much needed change, like a greater understanding and appreciation for cultural differences.
Through study abroad, I was also able to participate in the educational melting pot, in which there is an exchange of ideas between cultures. The Chinese were as interested in the American culture as I was in the Chinese culture. Thus, we were able to discuss and share our worlds with each other. For example, I learned about the Chinese work ethic and mentality. Because there is such a strong emphasis on family and honor, the Chinese people work hard in school to get a job to support their family. In comparison, Americans primarily tend to seek a job for their individual welfare. I value the Chinese strong focus on family and began to incorporate family-style meals when I returned from study abroad. Usually, my family and I would eat our dinner with the television playing in the background. However, after my study abroad, I wanted to develop our relationships more than focus on other distractions.
Furthermore, study abroad is valuable for its job opportunities. With my internship abroad, I received a sense of what the Chinese work environment would be like if I decided to work internationally. This trend continues to grow as countries become more and more interdependent. Having this job opportunity allowed me to network with others, explore career options, and become more marketable to potential employers.
Despite being pushed outside my comfort zone and forced to examine other perspectives, I have come back from my study abroad experience a changed person. Although I went through highs and lows during my semester abroad, I was able to learn from both the good and the bad. Thus, even if a person did not have the “time of their life” abroad, there are still plenty of things to reflect on that would make his or her time abroad an educational experience to remember.
You May also like: | <urn:uuid:ed202950-9869-4560-94fe-5c4213a49fd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.iesabroad.org/amanda-ong/reflections-on-shanghai-a-year-later/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985155 | 659 | 1.609375 | 2 |
After creating gtkmod and releasing a few versions I started to realise limitations in the sound system. I developed the system using a soundblaster 2.0 under linux using the Open Sound System, when I had some time on my hands.
After mixing the samples together in software I simply wrote them to /dev/dsp. When I bought a soundblaster awe 64 I started thinking about supporting the /dev/sequencer so that I could use the hardware to do the mixing for me and hopefully get a corresponding performance increase. However the architecture I had developed for gtkmod was not flexible enough and I needed to refactor it. At the same time I started working at a new job and didn't have much free time for programming.
After stumbling across the PenguinPlay website I noticed that weren't making much progress and had almost no sound code. I fixed up my sound system and it became PenguinSound.
I have still not fixed up all the code for gtkmod. The playback of mods works fined but the changes I made to the sound system broke the support for instruments. I also discovered that the /dev/sequencer was designed to work with notes and not frequencies, so my code needs to be fixed up a bit. I also ported the code to windows but directsound does not support looped samples very well and I need to do a bit of a work around.
I have recently discovered a better user interface toolkit called fltk. Its fast, light and has been ported to both linux and windows. I've decided to do all my future user interaces in fltk. I did a bit of experimenting with qt but its non-free in windows. The is a port of gtk to windows but it seems to be still in heavy development.
GTKMOD is a mod, s3m and xm player with a GTK interface. The module player code is separated from the interface and exists as a static libary. This has made it easy to create other interfaces for the player. I have created an ncurses version, a gtk version and a qt version.
The source, which was written in c++, is available under the GNU GPL. Simple documentation for the code can be generated from the source using doxygen.
To get all the functionality from the source, you'll need gtk, ncurses and esound. You'll also need PenguinPlay.
I like getting mail, as long as its not spam, so don't hesitate to mail me.
pcburns at zip.com.au
Last modified: Mon Jan 22 22:47:49 EST 2001 | <urn:uuid:500ad53e-7396-4b05-a767-50b1ea2ef993> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://penguinsound.sourceforge.net/gtkmod.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973318 | 543 | 1.515625 | 2 |
I’m working with Project Inform to help with HIV Advocacy in the State of Montana. One of our projects is to work with Congress to increase ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) funding. Currently, there are over 9,200 people waiting for permanent funding to access these life-saving medications.
We can do better. And your signatures can help make a difference.
Won’t you take a minute and sign the petition here? The letter to accompany the signatures is below.
Thank you- ten seconds can make a real difference.
Dear Chairman Rehberg:
The undersigned individuals and organizations in Montana are writing to urge your support for increased funding for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs) in the Fiscal Year 2012 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill. ADAPs need at least a $106 million increase to continue to serve the thousands of new clients entering the programs every year. As you are aware, ADAPs provide HIV-related medications to under insured and uninsured individuals living with HIV/AIDS in the United States. They are a lifeline for people who would otherwise be unable to get treatment they need to stay healthy and productive. We thank you for your past support for ADAP and are especially appreciative of the $50 million increase to ADAPs in Fiscal Year 2011. However, ADAP waiting lists continue to grow at an astronomical rate.
In January of this year, there were 4,200 people on waiting lists. As of August 26, 2011 the number more than doubled to 9,141people in 12 states – including 28 people in Montana - waiting for lifesaving medication. Nineteen ADAPs, including 11 with current waiting lists, have instituted additional cost containment measures since April 1, 2011 such as reduced formularies and enrollment caps. Additionally, ten ADAPs are considering implementing new or additional cost-containment measures by the end of ADAPs current fiscal year (March 31, 2012).
Because of your leadership role on the House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcomittee, you are in a unique position to help secure this badly needed increase in ADAP funding to help people with HIV in Montana and around the country. While we understand the gravity of the U.S. fiscal situation, we need to ensure that people with HIV and AIDS receive the vital medications that keep them alive. Again we ask that you do everything possible to ensure an increase of at least $106 million to help solve this ADAP crisis. | <urn:uuid:1bc3089a-55b0-4885-878f-f00a28ece36d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dgsmith.org/2011/09/02/montana-petition-to-end-adap-waiting-lists/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953486 | 507 | 1.5 | 2 |
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics and mental health experts from Florida are heading to New York to work in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy.
Doctors and nurses from our area will spend up to 2 weeks in areas ravaged by Hurrican Sandy.
More than 40 medical professionals from Broward and Palm Beach counties were dispatched Monday as part of a federally coordinated disaster medical assistance team. They'll spend up to two weeks working in New York City shelters and hospitals.
The South Florida team is part of the National Disaster Medical System. Members of that system respond as needed to provide first aid, triage, medical care and surgery in areas hit by disasters or caring for casualties evacuated to the U.S. from armed conflicts overseas.
The South Florida team formed in 1994 and includes members from hospitals and fire-rescue departments in Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.
|Get the ingredients you need to cook with Rach all week long.|
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Classic Pacman, Frogger, Asteroids and more.
Sell almost anything locally. | <urn:uuid:8a2bae93-e4bb-4c5d-94dc-8267ab738621> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtvy.com/news/florida/headlines/Fla-Medical-Professionals-Deploy-to-Assist-in-Sandy-Recovery-178958291.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949427 | 250 | 1.554688 | 2 |
With the rise of modern multi-culturalism, we no longer feel apprehensive about anything being in a "foreign language". I come from a very multicultural diocese where to most parishioners, Latin is just another language to them. They might speak Arabic, Vietnamese or Italian at home, English at school and use Latin at Church.Personally, I found that Latin had the greatest impact on me when I went to World Youth Day in Madrid, 2011. I have almost zero grasp of Spanish, but was able to pray with other pilgrims by singing Latin chants and using Latin prayers. With only 1 semester of formal Latin education under my belt I even managed to have a conversation with a French Medical student on a flight from Lyon to Madrid who had a similar level of Latin.I felt very excluded at a mass in Avila where the entire Ordinary was prayed in Spanish. Had it been in Latin, at least I would have known the responses and some of the common prayers.I do support the use of vernacular liturgy and in fact teach English and Latin Plainchant to whomever wishes to learn. But if we abandon Latin, our universal language which breaks down barriers, we're not going to have a truly universal Church.
Post a Comment | <urn:uuid:38202365-8750-4ba1-a8ad-1cc856dc2e2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.newadvent.org/2012/09/latin-was-almost-abandoned-in-church.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975204 | 253 | 1.84375 | 2 |
MANAGED CARE August 2004. ©MediMedia USA
The senate majority leader, a surgeon who owns a large stake in a chain of hospitals, puts forth far-reaching proposals for reforming the health care system.
'Tis the season of ambitious health care plans and a big, bright vision of the future. And with most health plans driving yet another round of stinging premium hikes, politicians of every stripe are coming up with their own brand of balm to ease the pain.Speaking to the National Press Club last month, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist floated the idea that the country should create a publicly-chartered private insurer that would help create a big secondary market for health insurance. If it ever came into being, Healthy Mae, patterned after the mortgage market-maker Fannie Mae, would be designed to give individual buyers access to a more stable insurance market — which presumably would feature lower rates that could keep more people covered.
In a town that is often long on wind and short on detail, Frist, a surgeon and part owner of HCA, the massive hospital chain, went on to flesh out a remarkably comprehensive 10-year national health plan. By 2014, he said, the health care system needs to be fully wired with universal electronic medical records (EMRs). Insurance should be affordable, quality far better, and the number of uninsured down, rather than headed up, as it is today. There was even the suggestion of penalizing families that can afford insurance but won't buy it.
Putting issues into play
Outlining this vision at the start of what promises to be another close and fiercely contested campaign for the presidency, Frist is putting policy initiatives into play in a way that promises fairly good odds that at least some of the pieces of the plan will see the light of regulatory day. And with President Bush widely expected to start touting a much broader version of his own health care plan in coming weeks, parts of the "vision thing" may well wind up embedded in the Republican Party platform.
In what is becoming a mantra in Washington circles now that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been loudly beating the drum of health care reform, the Senate leader made it clear that the health care system we have is dangerous, access is often blocked to the people who need it most, and that insurance is too often priced out of reach. Said Frist: "Health insurance premiums right now are rising four times faster than wages."
Better information technology is being hauled out as a big gun in the Republicans' reform arsenal, and Frist has clearly joined the pack in advocating significant government pressure to shove the technologically deficient health care industry into the 21st century.
So far, said the influential legislator, there's been only a feeble attempt by the industry to reinvent itself. "The health care system today invests about 50 percent less in information technology than other knowledge-based services when you compare it to the financial service system or retail sales or travel."
The senator added his considerable political weight to the push for a universal EMR system to be in place within 10 years. Starting with all federally administered health accounts in the next five years, Frist spelled out a system that should be seamlessly available online to providers, payers, and patients, a move that supporters say should lower cost by improving efficiency and reducing errors.
To get started, Frist proposed a federal mandate in place by 2009 with payment incentives to be used to prod academic centers and major hospitals to use EMRs first.
There were, of course, several Republican favorites in Frist's mix: association health plans, tort reform to reduce litigation, and new tax incentives. But there were some spending initiatives outlined as well, including pushing to get all 5.6 million children of low-income families in the Children's Health Insurance Program — even though many states like Texas have been engineering higher fees to drive them out. And Frist also advocated doubling the number of public health clinics.
But he remained true to traditional Republican talking points — with the emphasis on pushing new programs and government incentives to moderate costs while leaving individuals ultimately responsible for their own care. Frist's big endorsement of a consumer-driven system as a method to introduce more effective cost controls fits comfortably into the Republican philosophy of personal responsibility. "It gives them a greater stake, and greater responsibility, in their own health care," he said in reference to the high-deductible plans.
Frist also made it clear that people with incomes — particularly for the 20 percent of the uninsured in families with "higher incomes" of $50,000 plus — have a personal responsibility to provide catastrophic care insurance.
"I believe higher-income Americans today do have a societal and personal responsibility to cover in some way themselves and their children," he said.
To underline the point, Frist's aides told a Washington Post reporter that Republicans would consider adding a stick among the carrots, perhaps reducing income tax deduction availability for those who couldn't show proof of catastrophic care policies.
Too little, too late?
Of course, health care is considered a franchise issue by the Democrats, and John Kerry hasn't conceded an inch on this subject. "Too little, too late," is Kerry's signature response to anything coming from the Republicans. Kerry is betting that some big tax credits for small businesses, support for drug reimportation, a federal guarantee on catastrophic coverage and opening up the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan to people who need low-cost insurance will sustain him as the lead candidate on the topic of care.
The country won't see any of these notions become law before next year, if then. Congress was winding down just days after Frist outlined his 10-year plan. With more attention on campaigning than voting, legislators probably will not address health care until 2005, when they'll be either responding to the policy cues of a new president or working under four more years of President Bush and Bill Frist, his physician-leader in the Senate. | <urn:uuid:6ef93e21-61b5-40d3-b1cf-f30f6c8c6d35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.managedcaremag.com/print/archives/0408/0408.regulation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968591 | 1,210 | 1.617188 | 2 |
UR School of Nursing Graduate Named to Institute of Medicine
November 07, 2000
A graduate of the doctoral program at the University of Rochester School of Nursing has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences' prestigious Institute of Medicine.
Jacquelyn C. Campbell, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., earned her doctorate degree from the University of Rochester in 1986. She also was the recipient of the University's Distinguished Alumni Medal in 1997.
Campbell is currently the Anna D. Wolf Endowed Professor and associate dean for doctoral education and research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore. Her clinical practice interests focus on domestic violence. Her research concentrates on women's physical, emotional and behavioral responses to battering in intimate relationships, including marital rape, resultant homicide, abuse during pregnancy, and violence in adolescent relationships.
Only 60 people were elected this year, based on their major contributions to health and medicine, or to fields such as social and behavioral sciences, law, administration and economics. Elizabeth McAnarney, M.D., pediatrician-in-chief of Children's Hospital at Strong and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, also was elected.
Current Institute of Medicine projects include studies on the creation of a medical system to support long-duration space travel beyond Earth's orbit, the development of new technologies for the early detection of breast cancer, and the safety and efficacy of the anthrax vaccine used by the United Stated military. | <urn:uuid:8e3e4eff-afa2-4955-9e99-a607d3d838be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/index.cfm?id=-240 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957956 | 311 | 1.726563 | 2 |
One of the great benefits of running is the lack of expensive hardware. Or so you would think. Shoes, iPods and hydration reservoirs, to name a few items, can really put a hole in your pocket. With that in mind, it’s worth looking after them.
We’ve enlisted the advice of some top kit experts to give you the definitive answer to your queries in our Q+A guide to keeping your gear running.
Q: How can I tell when it’s time to replace my shoes?
A: It’s tough – your favourite pair of shoes might feel like an old friend; reliable and with you every step of the way. But however well you treat them, at some point they’ll let you down. Make sure you keep an eye out for telltale signs that they’re past their prime.
"As a rule of thumb a pair of shoes should last you 500 miles. However, this also depends on, among other things, your weight, running style and the terrain you use them for," says Martin Exley from Brooks Running. If you are unable to calculate your mileage there are two other ways to gauge whether there’s life in the old shoe yet.
- Visible evidence – excessive wear on the outsole or, for severe pronators, a break down in the heel area often indicated by the uppers tending to tilt inwards.
- The 'feel' of the shoe. It won’t feel as bouncy as it once did. Over time the ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) in the midsole of your shoe is compressed as you run, squeezing the air out and deadening the spring in your step.
Q: How can I make my shoes last longer?
A: "Don’t put them on the radiator to dry – the heat will destroy the adhesives. If they are wet, stuff them with newspaper and leave them to dry naturally," says Exley.
Bargain bins might offer great shoes at a fraction of the normal price, but beware – if they are old models, it means they've been decaying as they've sat on the shelf. An old shoe won't offer the same protection as a newly made one, even if it hasn't been worn. "Over time things like ozone and UV from sunlight will affect EVA negatively and break it down," says Derek Campbell, an advanced concepts materials engineer at Brooks. "Do some research, and if the shoes are over four years old, steer clear."
Q: Is it alright to use my running shoes for other sports?
A: You wouldn't use your ballet pumps for rock climbing. In the same way, "only use your running shoes for running – this is what they were designed for," says Exley. Other sports can ruin your running shoes – for example, cycle clips can damage the soft uppers of running shoes.
But Route 1 to wrecking and stretching your running shoes is to hit the tennis court or five-a-side pitch in them. "They are not designed for the kind of lateral movement that these sports require."
Q: Can I use one pair of shoes for all my running?
A: No. Take a nice pair of ultra-lightweight road-racing shoes on a few trail-running events and watch them disintegrate before your eyes. Gritty and stony surfaces will damage a road-racing shoe, which is built for flat, even, asphalt surfaces. Get yourself a trail shoe designed for the rough terrain. You’ll use each different pair less and they’ll end up lasting longer as a result.
Q: Should I keep racing shoes for races and only train in training shoes then?
A: Have at least two pairs of running shoes to help prolong their life and not wear out too quickly. Do some training in your race shoes though, to get a feel for them and to ensure they are worn in before race day. Don’t try anything new on a race day – that especially includes wearing a brand new pair of shoes.
Q: How can I stop my shoes from smelling?
A: Regular hand washing and drying, and using clean socks should all help prevent odour problems. You could also use an antibacterial spray between washes. This will help to kill the bacteria and fungus that cause the shoes to smell in the first place.
Q: What’s wrong with putting my running shoes in the washing machine or tumble dryer?
A: The cardinal rule of running-shoe care is never put your shoes through the washing machine. "The heat and detergents from a washing machine cycle and tumble dryer break down the adhesives holding your shoes together," says Exley. The best thing to do if you need to wash your shoes is to do it by hand in lukewarm water. Laborious, but worth it if you respect your shoes - and your wallet.
Q: How long will my sports bra last?
A: Most sports bras will survive 30 to 40 washes before losing their support. "As a rule, we’ve found that for every one pair of running shoes you will need three sports bras," says Selaine Messem from LessBounce. Assuming a pair of shoes lasts 500 miles, that’s a nifty 167 miles per bra. "There’s some evidence that hand washing may make them last longer too," says Messem.
Q: Can I put sports bras in the tumble dryer?
A: No. It's tempting with a load of wet running gear you want to wear later that day, but it’s worth remembering that sports bras are technical garments. "The heat can damage the structure of the bra and it will lose its support. When it doesn’t fit properly it’s no longer doing its job," says Messem.
Q: How do I know when my bra is on its way out?
A: It might sound obvious, but if your bra is falling apart, or even has a small hole in it, there’s a strong chance that it’s not doing the job it was designed for. Here are a few other markers to look out for.
- "A really common sign that the elastic has gone is when a once comfortable bra starts to rub," says Messem. This is a sign that it’s no longer fitting or supporting you and it’s definitely time for a new model.
- Look out for bobbling. Once a bra starts to bobble it’s a good indicator that it may be nearing the end of its useful life.
Q: What should I look for when I’m buying a new bra?
A: Do some research and talk to a retailer to find the most suitable model for your needs. If you’re training for a marathon for instance, explain this and they’ll be able to help you find the right bra.
"Most important of all is the support it gives you. This depends on your body shape, as well as the make of bra that fits you best," says Messem. Remember, it has to fit well and if it doesn’t when you buy it, it’s certainly not going to as it ages.
Losing weight will also change your body shape so it’s worth remembering that dropping a few stone might require a new bra.
Q: Will tumble drying damage the Gore-Tex waterproofing on my shoes/jacket?
A: While much of your kit should be banned from the tumble dryer, waterproof products, such as Gore-Tex, are the exception. "The heat from tumble trying actively improves and rejuvenates the double water repellent treatment (DWR) on your garment," says Jonathan Bell from Gore-Tex.
Q: Why is my waterproof jacket starting to leak?
A: "Make sure you choose the right garment for the right use," says Bell. You’ll damage a lightweight jacket if you use it to run down bramble-strewn trails.
Look for holes or tears: cross-country and trail running lend themselves to thorns and foliage that can rip the fabric. If everything is intact, the waterproofing treatment may have come to the end of its life. If this is the case you need to buy a recommended waterproof spray product and re-spray it.
"The more you use your garment, the more quickly it is going to deteriorate,” says Bell. If you’ve worn your jacket every day for a few winters it might be time to get it re-treated.
Dirt will stop water from beading and rolling off your garment. The DWR treatment lowers the surface tension of the water droplets and that’s what stops the water from soaking into the fabric. "People underestimate the importance of washing their garment," says Bell. "It’s the washing and drying that helps the waterproofing layer to perform most efficiently."
Q: How can I keep my T-shirts from smelling?
A: Choose made-made-fibre T-shirts that wick away sweat from the body. Cotton T-shirts absorb sweat very easily and provide the perfect breeding ground for the odour-causing bacteria that feed on your sweat.
There are a number of detergents on the market specifically designed for athletes. And some people swear by using baking soda in a wash cycle. Baking soda neutralises the acids that cause the smell created by the bacteria breaking down your sweat.
Make sure you wash your T-shirts on a hot wash, too. Sixty degrees will help to kill the problem-causing bacteria and odour-causing molecules.
If all else fails, throw your T-shirts away. It might well be an expensive solution, but worthwhile if you find a sudden increased popularity among your fellow club runners on training runs!
Q: What’s the best way of cleaning out my reservoir if I’ve been using energy drinks in it or if I’m putting it away in storage?
A: Use a sterilising tablet as you would for a baby's bottle. "Fill up the bottle or bladder, drop the tablet in and leave it overnight before washing it out and hanging it up to dry," says Richard Samuels from Zyro, distributors of Camelbak products.
Another quick and easy method is to keep the empty bladder in the freezer to prevent any microbial growth in it.
Q: How often should I need to replace my reservoir?
A: If you follow the instructions and look after it you shouldn’t need to replace it. Companies such as Camelbak offer lifetime guarantees on their reservoirs.
Q: What features should I look out for if I’m going to buy an MP3 player?
A: Choose a model that uses solid state flash memory rather than a hard drive memory. "Hard drives have moving parts that can be damaged if it is used for running," says Josh Welensky from Advanced MP3 Players.
Many more manufacturers are using solid state flash memory now as the price comes down, but ask your retailer before you buy.
Q: How can I keep it safe when I'm running?
A: Holding it in your hand is not only annoying but likely to result in it landing on the ground at some point. The solution? Buy a silicon skin or arm strap for your product to protect it from water, sweat and impact damage. Most of the main manufacturers now offer a wide range of accessories to suit all shapes, tastes and terrains.
Q: What should I do if I get my MP3 player wet?
A: "It’s not necessarily fatal," says Welensky. "Don’t try and open it or turn it on. Leave it in a cool dry place until it has completely dried out (up to a week). If there hasn’t been any damage to the circuitry it will often start to work again."
HEART RATE MONITORS
Q: Will I damage my HR monitor if I wash the strap?
A: Washing the elastic strap regularly in the washing machine at 40ºC ensures it gives you reliable measurements and maximises the life of the transmitter. However, the curse of the tumble dryer strikes again, as the heat will damage the elastic.
Q: How am I most likely to damage my HR monitor?
A: "By either forgetting to detach the transmitter from the strap and washing them both under running water, or alternatively, not washing the strap at all. Any dirt will impair the functioning of the transmitter," says Toyin Fatile, technical support supervisor at Polar Electro UK.
Storage is key to maintaining your monitor, too. "Don’t keep it stored in a damp environment. Sweat and moisture may keep the electrodes wet and the transmitter activated. This will shorten the battery life," says Fatile. | <urn:uuid:e23df470-adc8-41d3-a6b4-f614cd0cab00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/kit/how-to-look-after-your-kit/3521.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951209 | 2,693 | 1.632813 | 2 |
What are the secrets of really strong communities? Here’s what I discovered about one that I know.
Archive | Team Leadership
A fun and easy icebreaker to help people learn some interesting facts about their teammates.
When a team is struggling between two or three reasonable options, there is no better decision tool than a structured discussion.
Culture is formed at the top and trickles down. If employees aren’t demonstrating teamwork, look up the chain of command to see what kind of behaviors are being modeled.
If you don’t like complainers, start by looking at whether you are one of them. And if you are, stop it. Easier said than done.
Saying your are sorry and working to forgive people who have hurt you are two strategies that can have a big payoff. | <urn:uuid:4ab42f10-35bb-4755-af5a-d01bd35c5368> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tomlaforce.com/category/team-leadership/page/3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962901 | 169 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Lemon Meringue Pie
Inez Ainsworth Huffman
May 5, 1918 - January 3, 2009
Inez Huffman was born near Magee, Mississippi to a close-knit farm family whose roots in Simpson and Smith counties dated to the period of the Mississippi Territory in the 1780s. Among her favorite pastimes as a child were visiting her grandmother's house and attending family reunions, both of which were characterized by great dinnertime repasts (dinner being, in the southern vernacular, the noonday meal) of fresh vegetables, tomatoes, cornbread, fried chicken and multiple desserts, including her personal favorite, lemon meringue pie. She began helping with the preparation of the feasts early on, and cooked similar meals on special occasions throughout her life.
As a child, Mrs. Huffman enjoyed befriending farm animals, including a pig she named Gene, whose predictable demise prompted her to refuse to eat pork for a while. She also once attempted, unsuccessfully, to raise a baby buzzard that had fallen from its nest, secreting it in her dresser drawer. Her own family was the unwavering focus of her life, and she loved to cook, to eat and to prepare special dishes for her loved ones. Her personal favorite foods were raw figs, picked directly from the tree (during fig harvests she was often chastised because her bucket never filled) and lemon meringue pie, for which she, her mother and grandmother were locally famous, by turns.
Her family moved to Morehead, in the Mississippi Delta, in 1927, the year the great flood struck, and after the water receded moved to Glendale Street in Jackson, where they lived in a house built by her father, who farmed on Livingston Road. She graduated from Jackson's Central High School, Belhaven College and Draughon's Business College, and took her first job as a teacher of English and home economics at a small school in Harrisville, where one of her fondest memories was of taking her students to a hillside to pick violets in spring. She saw the outings as a way to interrupt the tedium of grammar lessons, though in truth the trips were also a personal indulgence; she never tired, throughout her life, of picking the tiny, delicate flowers. She also had a particular love for yellow roses and wildflowers, and once remarked during a car ride, when the roadsides and fields were blanketed with blooms, "God's favorite color for flowers must be yellow." She liked nothing more than car rides in the country, and in particular, getting lost — a penchant she shared with her husband. The couple never returned by the same route they took going out, and often got stuck in mud holes, including while driving around barricades to drive on unfinished portions of I-20, I-55, Mississippi Highway 465 and the Natchez Trace Parkway.
During World War II she worked for a time as a bookkeeper in the Navy shipyards in Mobile, where she overcame her fear of heights while climbing to lofty ship decks by sitting down on the steps and moving higher and higher, backward, one step at a time. After the war she moved back to Jackson, where she studiously prolonged the courtship of her future husband, A.D. Huffman, who later said that he asked her to marry him 39 times before she finally said, "I guess so." The couple wed at Davis Memorial Baptist Church on April 18, 1946, and honeymooned in New York City and Boston.
She occasionally worked as a bookkeeper in Jackson, but her true vocation was as a mother and wife — roles she fully embraced through good times and bad. She was a nurturer but had a mischievous streak and a dry sense of humor. She was extremely observant, sometimes to the chagrin of her children, and especially indulgent of her grandchildren, who enjoyed spending time at her house as much as she had at her own grandmother's (among other things, she was a night owl and allowed the grandchildren to stay up as late as they wanted). She was a devout Christian and among the founding members of Broadmoor Baptist Church.
Though she was known as an accomplished cook, she insisted that the culinary skills handed down through her family had reached a point of diminishing returns. Her grandmother's skillet-fried chicken was the best, she insisted, followed closely by her mother's. Her own was merely adequate. Others pronounced her chicken delectable, and her daughters lamented that theirs could never hope to compare. She did concede that her lemon meringue pie was notably delicious. It was her favored gift to others to whom she owed a favor, or who had lost someone they loved.
In the early 1980s she moved her mother, whose health was failing, into her own home. There she cared for her for two years, even after her mother became bedridden. Once a nursing home became unavoidable, she visited her mother three times a day for more than a year, to ensure that she was comfortable and that she ate the meals presented to her on trays. In the late 1990s she and her husband moved to Clinton, and after his health began to deteriorate she cared for him in their home despite her own growing physical debilities. Her mind remained sharp and she kept up with current events and was attentive to the most minute details of the lives of those she loved (and, occasionally, of people she did not even know, for she was a worrier). She and her husband benefitted from the care of their children; their physicians; friend and caregiver Virgie Murrell; and nurses and aides Tonya Mangum, Brandi Pitts and Toni Dickerson. After he died on Aug. 19, 2008, Mrs. Huffman was determined to stay in her home, and did so until the night before her own death, when she went to her daughter Pam Shoemaker's home in Madison.
She held her own against congestive heart failure until pneumonia set in and required that she be hospitalized for part of what turned out to be her final day, during which she was fitted with an oxygen mask, not as a means of life support (which she opposed) but as a way to propel her own breathing deeper into her lungs. This unfortunately made it impossible for her to speak or to eat. One of her last communications was written on a dry erase board, indicating that she needed food to accompany the next dose of her daily medications. After her son alerted the nurse to this fact he was informed that it would not be possible for her to eat until her breathing improved enough for the oxygen mask to be safely removed. The resumption of normal breathing seemed a remote possibility. By that point she was dying. The doctor, when consulted, concurred, but instructed that the mask be left on, which effectively meant that Mrs. Huffman would never eat again.
By an unexpected and fortuitous turn of events, as a result of a mistake by the hospital food preparation staff, an evening meal was delivered to Mrs. Huffman's room, in covered dishes, with one item standing out, uncovered: A slice of fluffy lemon meringue pie. Mrs. Huffman and her son noticed it at the same time. Though it was not likely the pie could compare with her own, was there such a thing as a bad slice of lemon meringue pie? Her son summoned the nurse and informed her that he had no intention of denying his mother lemon meringue pie on her deathbed, and that if she (the nurse) would assist him he would remove the cumbersome mask so that she might have some, and that if she chose not to assist him he would do it on his own. After initially hesitating, the nurse helped remove the mask and left the room. Mrs. Huffman had two spoonfuls of pie, after which she appeared to be briefly startled, then closed her eyes and stopped breathing. The nurse and doctor were summoned to her side and she took a few shallow breaths, but in a matter of minutes she had died, at the same hospital where she had borne her three children into the world, with a good taste in her mouth.
Inez Huffman's lemon meringue pie
Pie ingredients: Vanilla wafers, 1 can condensed milk, 2 egg yolks (room temp), ½ cup lemon juice (real lemons), room temp. Line pie plate with vanilla wafers, pour in mixture.
Meringue: 2 egg whites, ¼ t cream of tartar, ¼ cup sugar. Mix and whip (mixer) egg whites with cream of tartar until they hold a soft peak. Gradually add sugar (a little at a time), continue to whip until whites hold a firm peak. Pile onto pie filing (when topping pie, "plop" it on filling with spatula, seal to sides with edge of spatula. Put on from the edge toward the center and it will not pull away form sides as bad). Brown under broiler. Refrigerate.
BACK TO TOP | <urn:uuid:6d1f24ce-8e40-4829-ae60-4b29adfb724b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lostmag.com/issue39/meringue.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988594 | 1,875 | 1.742188 | 2 |
New Mexico Museum of Art
The definitive compendium of New Mexican art through the ages, the MFA’s collection occupies a rambling 1917 building that also ranks among the state's most elegant examples of Pueblo Revival architecture (Santa Fe's ubiquitous and distinctive building style, characterized by thick adobe walls, flat roofs, and protruding wooden roof beams). Highlights from the 23,000-piece collection include works by every iconic artist who has spent time in the state—and there have been many, including Ansel Adams, Richard Diebenkorn, Robert Henri, Agnes Martin, and Alfred Stieglitz.
Tip: Watch for upcoming exhibits, which are often outstanding. Notable recent shows have included "Mexican Modern: Masters of the 20th Century" and "Roy Lichtenstein: American Indian Encounters.”
Admission: $8 (included with $18 museum pass); free Fridays 5-8 p.m. and Sundays 10-5 p.m. Closed Mondays.
AmenitiesOpen / Closes
- Accessible by Public Transportation
- Handicapped Accessible
- Kids' Programs
- Monday - Closed
- Parking Available
- Self-Guided Tours | <urn:uuid:d0a6f197-4961-47d9-a5f5-040916ec0f3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-guide/downtown-plaza/activities/new-mexico-museum-of-art | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933612 | 252 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Cellular service has been spotty at best in the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy, but Verizon wants you to know that it's working quickly to bring things back to full speed. The carrier says over 96 percent of its cell sites in impacted areas are operational and routing calls and text messages through as usual. Verizon has also taken the step of deploying what it calls Wireless Emergency Communication Centers (WECCs) that offer charging stations, computer workspaces, and mobile phones with which you can reach out to family and friends. Those have been distributed in Staten Island, New York, Monmouth University, and at two separate locations in Toms River, New Jersey.
If you're in need of a charger or perhaps a prepaid phone, Verizon has also established mobile stores-on-wheels that act as full-fledged retail locations. These can be found on Staten Island and in both Sea Girt and Howell, New Jersey. But you don't need to venture out to one of these spots to get help: Verizon is offering free domestic calls at all open stores; you'll also be able to plug in a device for charging while there. Verizon will continue to reopen stores that were forced closed by the storm and deliver additional device and accessory supplies in the days ahead. | <urn:uuid:4e0a9693-8deb-435f-9a74-ead79aec20cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/1/3586280/verizon-free-domestic-calls-device-charging-hurricane/in/3335223 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981838 | 255 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The noisy demonstration that greeted Iraqi Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki on his visit to Sadr City last week was more than just a protest. It meant that the leader of a Shia-dominated government was being rejected by an angry and influential group of Shias.
Maliki's heavily guarded convoy was pelted with stones and with shoes -- a grave insult in Iraq. And this happened in a Shia area.
About 60 percent of the 25 million population of Iraq is Shia, and Shia leaders now dominate government. The government faces increasingly more aggressive opposition from Sunni groups who feel persecuted.
Sunnis, an estimated five million, were the dominant group earlier under the regime of Saddam Hussein. The rest of the Iraqi population is Kurdish in the north. Kurds include both Shias and Sunnis, but stand apart ethnically as Kurds.
Iraq is now a deeply divided Muslim world. Sectarian clashes between Shia and Sunni groups have been growing by the day. Shias are a Muslim group who believe - unlike the Sunnis -- that Prophet Muhammad designated his nephew Imam Ali to lead the Islamic community after his death. That old schism is now deepening.
The above is from Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily's "Shias Too Lose Faith in Iraqi Govt" (IPS). Ben noted that and last night Ruth noted Marjorie Cohn would be a guest on WBAI's Law and Disorder today. And Marcia notes this from CODEPINK:
Take Action Today!
Join thousands across the country in a National Call in Day to hold Congress accountable to the Mandate for Peace: Tel. 202-224-3121 Congressional Switchboard
Call your Representative and Senators and tell them: "The voters issued a Mandate for Peace! That means, bring the troops home now!" Members of Congress return to Washington on Monday, December 4. Let's greet them with a flood of phone calls, because, as incredible as it may seem, many still don't get that the troops need to come home from Iraq. Since the elections, the carnage in Iraq has only gotten worse. Our 140,000 troops in Iraq are unable to stop the ever deepening spiral of violence. In the last week we have witnessed the bloodiest attacks since the U.S. invasion almost 4 years ago. Yet congress and the administration sit and wait... for the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report, for the Pentagon study group report, the White House study group -- for anything they can hide behind. On November 7, the people gave Congress a mandate for peace. Congress has the power to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq -- they control the purse strings and can stop this war -- and if it fails to do so, we will hold them responsible for the continued violence in Iraq.
Call your Representative and both Senators tell them: "I insist that Congress act immediately to bring all U.S. troops home from Iraq NOW! The Congress has the power end this occupation. Use your power or you will be held responsible for the continuation of this war."
Call the Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121, or call your Representative and Senators in their district offices. You can find out who your Representative and Senators are and also look up their district office phone numbers here.
Please make 3 phone calls: to your Representative and to each of your Senators.Background: The United States has now been engaged in Iraq for longer than our engagement in WWII. Violence in Iraq has again spiked to ever-higher levels. It is impossible to say how many Iraqis have died during the war and occupation, but Johns Hopkins University estimates 650,000. We know that over 2,890 U.S. troops have died, over 21,000 have been maimed or wounded and over 9,500 have deserted. The Constitution gives the Congress the power to end this war through the power of the purse. Sen. Robert Byrd has described this as "the fulcrum of the people's leverage...to shackle the hands of an overreaching chief executive." Congress must use this leverage to bring occupation of Iraq to an end. For more information about the Mandate for Peace campaign, a joint effort of dozens of peace and community groups, click here.
Working together we will end to the US occupation in Iraq and bring our troops home.Please call TODAY!Andrea, Anedra, Dana, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Jodie, Laura, Liz, Medea, Nancy, Patricia, Rae, Samantha, and Sonia
P.S. Keep up the pressure. On January 27, 2007, we will converge from all around the country for a massive march on Washington, D.C. Make your travel plans now to join CODEPINK and thousands of others to demand that the new Congress take immediate action to end the occupation. If you're flying to Washington, be sure to support our movement by booking your flight through CODEPINK.
The e-mail address for this site is firstname.lastname@example.org.
law and disorder | <urn:uuid:46666a0e-2380-490a-b98d-53be8f404787> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2006/12/other-items_04.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955008 | 1,034 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Public Art at Williams
The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) is pleased to announce the launch of its Public Art Module. Visitors to WCMA’s website can virtually tour the public art on campus and then download a map and see the works in person. Formally established in 2011 as a fiftieth reunion gift from the Class of ’61, the Williams Public Art Program seeks to incorporate unexpected and informal encounters with art into the daily lives of students. It also hopes to inspire faculty to integrate works of art into their teaching. We believe that placing art in public places, in addition to fostering innovative arts programs within the walls of the Williams College Museum of Art, further underscores Williams’ commitment to human creativity and to the significance of the arts within a liberal arts education. The Public Art Program also contributes to creating a welcoming environment for members of our community and for visitors to Williamstown where beauty and intellectual engagement are accessible to all.
One of the twenty five works on the Public Art Module is the inaugural gift of the Class of 1961 Public Art Fund, the sculpture, Double L Excentric Gyratory II, 1981 by George Warren Rickey (American, 1907-2002). Maxwell Davidson, Class of 1961, President and founder of The Maxwell Davidson Gallery in New York wrote, “This impressive 29-foot-high sculpture was created by George Rickey when he was 74 years of age and is among his largest works. The innovative excentric motion, which he pioneered, is based on his experimentation with conical sections that he developed when he was well into his 60s. Rickey figured out that if the conical sections are placed in such a way that they do not intersect, and the sculpture’s motion is transcribed within those sections, the large “L’s”will never hit each other.” Davidson goes on to say, “This sculpture, standing prominently next to the Class of ’62 Center of Theatre and Dance, is a testament to how much alumni can accomplish working in concert with the college.”
The Public Art Module accessed through the WCMA website enables visitors to engage with the art on the William’s campus and permits all audiences to come into contact with these public works of art.
Above photo: Double L Excentric Gyratory II, 1981; George Warren Rickey (American, 1907-2002); stainless steel; Museum purchase, Inaugural gift of the Class of 1961 Public Art Fund on the occasion of their 50th Reunion, dedicated in the belief that public art enhances the beauty of the Williams campus, accentuates learning, and stimulates creativity; M.2011.8; Photo by Megan Cross
4 Responses to Public Art at Williams
Pingback: Philip Rickey lecture « Glinting Phantom | <urn:uuid:8819681c-01f1-4906-8cd5-5d22a0fc1f4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wcma.williams.edu/blog/public-art-at-williams/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947422 | 571 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Newton, Mass. (PRWEB) October 30, 2012
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center has chosen lifeIMAGE as its medical image sharing service provider. A system-wide rollout of lifeIMAGE is underway and early adopters include practices in its nationally recognized cardiology, oncology, neuroscience and critical care programs. lifeIMAGE will ensure all physicians can instantly receive and view valuable clinical data that is stored on a CD or at a non-networked clinic, share it with others, and also import it to the local electronic medical record (EMR).
The Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center Department of Radiology identified several aspects of the lifeIMAGE technology that will create efficiencies for doctors and clinical staff in the system’s image-intensive specialties, and also for those who will send image data to them:
-Exams can be shared without having to be imported to the PACS
-Users can create groups to share with multiple physicians at the same time
-It includes a zero-download viewer that supports all DICOM images, including complex multiframe echocardiography and angiography exams
-Physicians can view transferred exams without having to first download images
-Outside users do not need to be registered with lifeIMAGE to transfer images
“lifeIMAGE enhances our ability to offer a seamless exchange of information that speeds clinical care and enhances our service both to patients and physicians,” said Richard D. White, MD, Chair of Radiology at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center.
lifeIMAGE also equips Ohio State’s imaging informatics team with tools and streamlined workflow for standardizing outside exam and patient information and importing it to PACS, so that exams are available to physicians and their staff via the EMR. With this optimized functionality, it estimated that importation of outside studies to PACS is already fifty percent faster than prior to the implementation of lifeIMAGE.
Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center will accelerate the adoption of lifeIMAGE to improve communication with the physician groups and clinics that are affiliated with the system, but who are not on its network. It will allow users to electronically share patients’ imaging with specialists on campus instead of using couriers to transport CDs across town.
“lifeIMAGE has been adopted so quickly by our clinical offices that demand is outpacing our roll-out plan. During the initial three-month pilot period alone, seven groups using the system uploaded nearly four-thousand exams,” said Kathryn M. Tunstall, MPH, Director of Imaging Informatics at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center. “One of our oncologists stated, ‘Where has this been all of my life?’ The ease-of-use of the lifeIMAGE system is all the marketing needed to encourage clinical offices to utilize the system.”
The radiology, surgery and cardiology departments at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center are now live with lifeIMAGE. At The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, lifeIMAGE is being used by mammography specialists and to facilitate tumor board. These live departments will be closely followed by more oncological specialties (thoracic-oncology surgery, the breast center, neuro-oncology, hematology, radiation therapy), urology, orthopedic surgery and the spine center.
Ohio’s State will also use lifeIMAGE to improve patient care and transfer efficiency for its critical patients. Its emergency department is doing extensive outreach and training to ten community hospitals on using electronic image transfer for these shared patients.
Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center is a Top 30 medical college with six hospitals, a unified physician practice and network of primary and specialty care practices. It has approximately 976 beds and 899,000 annual outpatient visits.
lifeIMAGE provides a broad set of solutions for universal e-sharing of diagnostic imaging information. These products securely connect hospitals, radiology groups and physicians to their patients everywhere and are currently deployed at many of the nation’s leading healthcare institutions and academic medical centers. The goal of the lifeIMAGE platform is to help avoid duplicate exams and eliminate unnecessary patient exposure to excessive radiation. lifeIMAGE was named one of the most innovative technologies by The Wall Street Journal as part of its international 2010 Technology Innovation Awards. | <urn:uuid:702cab47-d860-44b2-b39a-a702573c8efa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/10/prweb10068555.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941247 | 931 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Spam levels plummet as Rustock botnet taken down... for now
815,000 zombies with no master...
Spam volumes shrank on Wednesday after the prolific Rustock botnet fell silent, reportedly as a result of a takedown action.
Rustock, which is made up of a network of compromised (malware-infected) Windows PCs, turns an illicit income for its unknown controllers by being the biggest single source of global spam. The botnet is particularly active in advertising unlicensed net pharmacies, or at least it was until Wednesday afternoon, when its junk mail deluge ran dry.
Security blogger Bryan Krebs, who broke the story of the sudden drop-off, suggests the respite of spam from Rustock is the possible result of a takedown action against the zombie network's command and control system. "Dozens of internet servers used to coordinate these spam campaigns ceased operating, apparently almost simultaneously," he writes. "Such an action suggests that anti-spam activists have succeeded in executing possibly the largest botnet takedown in the history of the internet."
Details of who took this action are unclear at present, though security firms were able to confirm that Krebs is spot on in attributing a sharp drop in spam levels to the shut-down (at least temporarily) of Rustock.
M86 Security Labs, for example, said that Rustock control servers it monitors are unreachable. "It is unclear yet who or what caused the shutdown," the security firm said in a blog post on the Rustock shutdown that includes a graph of the botnet's junk mail output. "It's also possible it has been abandoned."
The Rustock botnet is made up of an estimated 815,000 compromised Windows PCs, controlled via a network of around 26 servers.
Infected machines are still pox-ridden but without instructions to act on and spam templates to drawn upon they have been rendered inert, at least for now. Rustock has been around for around three years and, at its peak, was to blame for half the spam in circulation.
Spam from Rustock previously fell away to almost nothing over the Christmas and New Year holiday before returning in mid-January, possibly as the result of a temporary break by the botherders controlling the network, so it would be unwise to write up Rustock's obituary just yet. Even if Rustock is properly dead, the business of using junk mail messages to spamvertise sites offered unlicensed pharmaceuticals is simply too lucrative to disappear anytime soon. Economic logic dictates that someone will move in and pick up the slack. ® | <urn:uuid:62c924a3-ec7f-45ff-a28f-c1631a338fd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/17/rustock_botnet_takedown/ | 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 | 0.964475 | 532 | 1.6875 | 2 |
After my suggestion of a "comparison between different manageability products" in my previous post, I was actually asked to do so - it seems to answer a widespread question.
First, my very own ASF background: Before validating Intel AMT technologies, I worked for about two years validating ASF technologies, both in workstation and in server platform. That's why I hope to be able to address the technical differences of both manageability solutions.
Part one: The history (covers widespread OOB technologies only).
- In the beginning, there was confusion... :)
The IT managers of the world had no way to manage computers remotely...
- That's until Wake on LAN (WoL) appeared. WoL came in the middle of the 90's (1997), developed by Intel and IBM engineers, and it let administrators to remotely turn computers on. The technology was bundled (under the Wired for Management name) with a protocol called PXE, which gave the option of booting from a remote disk.
But that was it -- all you could do was turn on a machine and hope everything was working fine until the OS could load some software-based solution.
- An attempt of improving these technologies was made at 1999, when Intel and IBM defined "Alert-on-LAN-2." This set of technologies presented very important features (alerting in addition to remote control and remote boot), but the technology didn't became so popular or widespread...
- Thus, in 2001 ASF was a welcomed evolution, as it added necessary features like event alerts and remote control commands (the ability to turn off or reset a computer, not only turning it on). ASF is an open standard by the DMTF, and the last revision of it (where security protocols were added) was in 2003.
- The next major progress in OOB manageability was Intel AMT. This was a much needed revision of the ASF standard, adding many features requested by the market. In fact, it is so literally an evolution that many of the persons involved in designing/programming the Intel AMT features were before designers/programmers of ASF :) (pay attention to the active role of Intel in designing and spreading these remote management solutions).
In the next parts we'll discuss/compare the different features and the technology used in the features that are common between Intel AMT and ASF.
Posts in the series:
- ASF and Intel AMT - Spot the differences (part 1)
- ASF vs. Intel AMT part 2 - Technology differences
- More technology distinctions - Intel AMT vs. ASF, part 3
- Between Intel AMT and ASF, part 4
- Feature Advantages - Intel AMT and ASF part 5
PS> It would be great to know whether some of you already had/have any experience with ASF manageability, and how do you compare it with Intel AMT. In this way, we'll be able to better focus our conversation. | <urn:uuid:22ae569e-0ad5-44f9-9136-3e1824446f93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2007/09/04/asf-and-intel-amt-spot-the-differences-part-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969033 | 621 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Zachary Fillingham - Apr 02, 12
Brazil is a rare gem, a rising power that has put itself on the path of energy independence thanks to a combination of forward-looking energy policies and newly discovered oil reserves. But what does this actually mean for Brazilian foreign policy?
Jono Hunt - Apr 02, 12
As the 'B' in BRICS, Brazil has come to be known as one of the world's most dynamic developing economics. Less known, however, is the fact that Brazil has pieced together one of the largest renewable energy industries in the world. This infographic will shed some light on how this rising Latin American power discovered the El Dorado of geopolitics: energy independence.
Victor Mac Diarmid - Apr 02, 12
In the past six months, Brazilian President Dilma Roussef has mounted an intriguing doctrinal challenge to the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) Doctrine with a concept the Brazilian government calls ‘Responsibility while Protecting” (RwP) - demonstrating Brazil’s newfound determination to stake its claim as an ideological heavyweight in international affairs discourse.
Daniel J. Graeber - Mar 09, 12
A delegation from the International Energy Agency spent two days in Baghdad speaking with high-ranking officials in preparation for an end-of-year report on the country's oil sector. By some estimates, Iraq could hold some of the largest oil reserves in the world and an international auction for oil and natural gas blocks is planned for May.
Daniel J. Graeber - Feb 23, 12
The International Energy Agency announced it was set to review Iraq's energy sector as part of its World Energy Outlook for 2012. Last year, the IEA said Iraq was on pace to provide the largest single increase to global oil production in the coming years. In December, however, the agency warned that domestic politics could get in the way of energy developments. Given Iraq's post-war political track record, it might be awhile before Iraq realizes its full oil potential.
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya - Jan 31, 12
Against whom is the European Union’s so-called “oil embargo on Iran” really aimed?
Gayle Greene - Jan 26, 12
It is one of the marvels of our time that the nuclear industry managed to resurrect itself from its ruins at the end of the last century.
Keith Schaefer - Jan 25, 12
It's estimated that China holds more natural gas – locked in its huge shale reserve – than the U.S.
Aleksandr Shustov - Nov 30, 11
The developments around the Trans-Caspian Pipeline project supposed to provide an undersea energy supply link between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are about to reach a critical point.
F. William Engdahl - Nov 14, 11
On November 7 the first of two pipelines for Nord Stream, the huge Russian-German gas pipeline project, began delivery of gas. The event was no minor affair. | <urn:uuid:5d61865e-93de-4b5c-9616-f588d5213ee0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/topic/energy-security/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945891 | 622 | 1.765625 | 2 |
OUR VIEW: Postal news not quite as good as it seemedIn the Mitchell trade area alone, we count 47 post offices on the list, from tiny enclaves such as Hamill to sizable towns such as Armour.
By: Editorial board, The Daily Republic
Many readers of The Daily Republic were probably pleased to learn Thursday that the U.S. Postal Service, under intense political pressure, had decided to scrap its plan to close thousands of rural post offices and instead will propose reducing hours at about 13,000 rural locations.
The announcement will apparently save post offices in Canova, Carthage, Dimock, Fulton, Gann Valley, Hamill, Herrick, Letcher, Olivet and Spencer, which were the 10 post offices in the Mitchell trade area that were listed for possible closure.
Good news, right?
Maybe not. Yes, the Postal Service plans to keep those post offices open with reduced hours, but a whole host of other post offices have been added to the list for potentially reduced hours.
In the Mitchell trade area alone, we count 47 post offices on the list, from tiny enclaves such as Hamill to sizable towns such as Armour. Statewide, there are a whopping 222 post offices that could suffer reduced hours.
Forgive us if we’re not celebrating this latest news. In fact, we’re still trying to figure out if reducing hours at a slew of post offices is better than closing a small number of tiny ones.
Whatever happens, it’s clear that rural America will be the loser, as it seems to be all too frequently.
In rural areas throughout the great center of South Dakota, schools are closing or have already closed. Businesses and people are fleeing. A reduction of hours at the local post office certainly won’t help.
Yet we know the federal government has a responsibility to put the Postal Service back on sound financial footing, and we respect that.
We only hope that as rural post offices suffer, other federal government programs to aid rural areas — such as rural development loans and grants — will be bolstered.
Just because we live in a rural area out here, that doesn’t mean we’re lesser citizens who deserve fewer services than our urban counterparts. | <urn:uuid:846036ad-f7d6-4b45-a85a-8b9615737b7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/65447/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966628 | 462 | 1.695313 | 2 |
James M. Bird, Sr.
2008 Outstanding Entrepreneur
James McKenna Bird, Sr. - known as Jim to his loved ones and the community - passed away at the age of 90 on July 14, 2007, just a few short months before he was originally scheduled to be honored with this distinctive TU award.
Bird was a dedicated Tulsa citizen who made his mark in the business community as an innovator in oil exploration and seismic vibration equipment.
Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, an oil boom town, it was no surprise that Bird became a recognized leader in the petroleum business. He revealed his innovative spirit as a student at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. There he invented an alarm that warned him of unwanted visitors, such as dorm supervisors and other uninvited, watchful eyes. This invention foreshadowed a future effort that, ultimately, helped the military in the Pacific Theatre during World War II.
After graduation, Bird's pioneering nature took him to Yale University where he earned a degree in economics in 1939. He then worked as an assistant manager at Hanley Co., a brick plant, before joining the Navy during Wold War II.
As night fighter director for the USS Bataan, Bird reconstituted his prep school invention and expanded it to help develop a radar technique that detected kamikaze planes before they could attack allied forces.
After the war, Bird founded Birdwell, an oil-well logging company that would soon have 26 offices extending from West Texas to Michigan. He later sold the company and briefly retired to travel around the world, play Bach and Beethoven on the piano, and read. However, his hard work ethic and love for the industry led him to found Industrial Vehicles International, a worldwide distributor of geophysical vibrators.
Bird also managed Hanley and Bird, a natural gas production company owned by his grandfather. In spring 2007, he retired as chairman of the board and assumed the title of Chairman Emeritus of the company.
During his lifetime, Bird was active in the Tulsa community as an entrepreneur, a dedicated businessman, and a quietly generous philanthropist. His largesse extended to nonprofit organizations such as the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, the Philbrook Museum Board of Trustees and The University of Tulsa. Bird was particularly fond of the TU Women's Rowing Team. His support helped build a boathouse on the Arkansas River for the team and earned him the title of "Admiral of the TU Fleet."
Bird is survived by his wife Margery; son"Jay" Bird, Jr.; daughters Susan Singh, Ann Seaberg and Karen Hill; nine loving grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. | <urn:uuid:a9765710-7b3f-4a96-9035-f1774b98713b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utulsa.edu/academics/colleges/collins-college-of-business/About-the-College/Business-Hall-of-Fame/James-M-Bird-Sr.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977827 | 545 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Among the more interesting revelations from the documents recovered during the raid on Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound was bin Laden's angry reaction to Faysal Shahzad's effort to detonate a bomb in Times Square on May 1, 2010, based on the notion that Shahzad had violated the oath of allegiance he swore to the United States in a naturalization ceremony. The critique was included in an October 2010 letter from bin Laden to ‘Atiyatullah ‘abd al-Rahman, a veteran Libyan fighter who would go on to become al-Qaeda's second-in-command after bin Laden's death. The dispatch is part of a larger selection of documents that the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point released on May 3, 2012.
In the letter, Bin Laden criticizes both Shahzad and Hakimullah Mahsud, the Pakistani Taliban leader who offered him training and advice:
Perhaps you monitored the trial of brother Faysal Shahzad. In it he was asked about the oath that he took when he got American citizenship. And he responded by saying that he lied. You should know that it is not permissible in Islam to betray trust and break a covenant. Perhaps the brother was not aware of this. Please ask the brothers in Taliban Pakistan to explain this point to their members. In one of the pictures, brother Faysal Shahzad was with commander Mahsud; please find out if Mahsud knows that getting the American citizenship requires talking an oath to not harm America. This is a very important matter because we do not want al-Mujahidn[sic] to be accused of breaking a covenant.
The concern reappeared in another letter, likely from bin Laden or ‘Atiyatullah to Nassir al-Wuhayshi, emir of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The author counseled the emir:
If the government does not agree on a truce, concentrate on the Yemeni emigrants who come back to visit Yemen and have American visas or citizenship and would be able to conduct operations inside America as long as they have not given their promises not to harm America.
Bin Laden's (and ‘Atiyatullah's) sensitivity towards this issue reflects a sustained debate in the jihadist universe. Although the idea of covenants have a long pedigree in Islamic theology, stretching back to the Prophet Muhammad's arrangements with the various non-Muslim tribes throughout the region, the issue gained relevance for jihadists only recently. In 1998 Bin Laden formally articulated his strategy to abandon the jihad against "near enemy" Arab regimes and redirect the war towards the west. But making the West (as opposed to the Islamic world) the battleground posed a series of theological challenges, including identifying the rules that governed the conduct of jihadists already living in or travelling to the West.
Probably not coincidentally, around this time a community of predominantly London-based sheikhs and commentators began discussing the obligations of jihadis residing in the West. Abu Baseer al-Tartusi, an exiled Syrian scholar known for his radical, if often dissenting views on the conduct of jihad, lectured publicly about the importance of maintaining what he saw as a "covenant of security": Muslims in the West were not allowed to attack the countries in which they lived or had taken refuge in. Al-Tartusi also spent a portion of his 1999 treatise al-Istihlal on the issue, and his followers later translated this section and issued it as a pamphlet (these works are available on Tartusi's website). Tartusi explained that he was motivated to comment on the covenant because:
[A] great number of Muslims -both those living in the West as ‘citizens' and others- who enter the lands of non-Muslims in a covenant, do not really know what rights Sharia Law gives them and what responsibilities it assigns to them... And what makes this matter worse is that those wrongdoers' ignorance about the teachings, rulings and "purposes and intentions" of Islam makes them commit such acts in the name of Islam and under the impression of holding fast to Islam, while Islam has nothing to do with such irresponsible acts!
While some prominent jihadis criticized Abu Baseer's view, other London-based jihadist figures expressed their adherence to the idea of the covenant. In fact, after the 7/7 bombings in Britain (carried out by British Muslims) Tartusi issued a strongly-worded refutation of the attacks, arguing that tactics and strategy must always be grounded in theology, not vice versa. Tartusi's ruling and subsequent controversy that erupted in militant circles was one example of the sensitivity around the issue. The recent decision of the British government to re-launch their anti-radicalization "Prevent" strategy has revitalized the discussion among British extremists.
The implications of bin Laden's far enemy strategy also ignited criticism from Middle Eastern-based jihadist figures. Most prominently, in 2007 Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, aka Dr. Fadl, a former leader of the Egyptian group al-Jihad, leveled a series of theological, strategic, and personal attacks on Ayman al-Zawahiri and al-Qaeda. Al-Sharif opened with an interview for the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat in which he castigated al-Qaeda for violating this covenant. In the most colorful portion, Sayyid Imam warned that "the followers of Bin Ladin entered the United States with his knowledge, on his orders, double-crossed its population, and killed and destroyed. The Prophet, God's prayer and peace be upon him, said: "On the Day of Judgment, every double-crosser will have a banner at his anus proportionate to his treachery." Shortly thereafter, Imam released a book which expanded on many of these criticisms. As he wrote in Guiding Jihad Work in Egypt and the World: "Whoever receives permission to enter the unbelievers' countries, even if they do so with a forged visa, they must respect this as a religiously-approved security contract, and any Muslim must honor it...(pg. 20)"
For their part, al-Qaeda and Ayman al-Zawahiri tried to brush off the criticism. Zawahiri countered with a book of his own a short while later, The Exoneration, in which he defended the decision to reject the covenant. As he argued:
If we assume for argument's sake that a visa from America or from any other crusader country allied with America in its more than 50-year-long aggression against Muslims is an aman (grant of safe passage), this aman is void for two reasons. First, no aman protects the life of someone who wages war against God and His prophet, harms Muslims, and insults their prophet and religion. Second, America and its allies violate the aman every day. (pg. 154)
At the time there was little evidence that the exchange caused a reassessment. In the following years, public statements from al-Qaeda-affiliated figures showed little interest in revisiting the issue. For instance, in late 2010 Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric, wrote in the fourth issue of Inspire, AQAP's magazine, that "Muslims are not bound by the covenants of citizenship and visa that exist between them and nations of dar al-harb." (pg. 56). It is worth noting that in another Abbottabad document, bin Laden was skeptical of al-Awlaki, politely but firmly rejecting al-Wuhayshi's suggestion that al-Awlaki be designated the leader of AQAP.
A complete judgment will have to await additional information, including the release of more than 17 carefully selected documents. But these two passages point to a tension between those who, like bin Laden and ‘Attiyatullah ‘abd al-Rahman, remained concerned over the theological foundations of al-Qaeda's war against the west, and those who apparently subsumed the theological questions to the urgency of carrying out high-profile attacks. These same types of tensions and conflicts have historically riven the jihadist movement, and al-Qaeda itself. Now, with bin Laden, ‘Attiyatullah, and al-Awlaki dead, it remains to be seen if Ayman al-Zawahiri will overcome or exacerbate these divisions.
Steven Brooke is a PhD candidate in the Department of Government at The University of Texas at Austin.
JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:b090bc96-110c-42a4-87ee-611f87f22a9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/06/01/bin_ladens_commitment_to_the_covenant | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963114 | 1,762 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Businessman and public servant Walter J. Humann ’67 is chiefly recognized for creating the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system and helping desegregate Dallas schools. For these and other accomplishments he will receive the 2012 J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award from SMU at a noon luncheon at the Belo Mansion April 2.
Presented each year by SMU’s Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility, the J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award is given to individuals who exemplify the spirit of moral leadership and public virtue. In Humann’s case, that involves his work in improving education, transportation, race relations, government organization, urban planning and infrastructure in North Texas. It also recognizes his time as a successful businessman: Humann leads his own firm, WJH Corporation, and has held top management positions in other major corporations, including Hunt Consolidated, Memorex-Telex and the LTV Corporation.
Longtime SMU board member Ray Hunt, this year’s J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award event chair, worked with Humann during the awardee’s time (1975-1992) as president of Hunt Investments and chair of the executive committee of Hunt Consolidated, Inc., one of the largest privately held energy, real estate, agribusiness and investment companies in America. Later, Hunt was also a partner in Humann’s WJH Corporation operations.
“Having worked closely with both Walt and Erik Jonsson on many projects, I can say that Walt’s spirit of public service and responsibility to his community is cut from the same cloth as Mayor Jonsson,” Hunt says. “Everything Walt has done for Dallas and its citizens, not to mention in his private business, has been conceived and executed with the highest level of ethical conduct and moral responsibility. I believe that there is no one in Dallas more deserving of this honor than Walt.”
Humann was selected for the honor because of his lifelong commitment to improving the quality of life for the Dallas community, says Maguire Center Director Rita Kirk.
“With quiet tenacity and perceptive vision, he played a pivotal role in the desegregation of the Dallas Independent School District by founding the Dallas Alliance. The Alliance’s Education Task Force created the Magnet Schools of DISD, thereby enriching the education and lives of thousands of children.” As Humann told D Magazine in 1985, “I felt strongly that the way to go was by voluntary intermixing of the races, where you have quality education at the end of the bus rides.”
“With everything he’s done,” Kirk says, “Walt upholds the tradition of excellence that the J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award was created to recognize.”
Nationally, Humann was selected in the late 1960s by President Lyndon B. Johnson as the first White House Fellow from Texas. Later, in 1970, he was chosen as one of the “Ten Outstanding Young Men of America,” primarily for chairing the national committee that helped create the U.S. Postal Service. The former deficit-ridden, politically driven Post Office Department was replaced with a service run more like a public corporation. At the time USPS was created, it constituted the largest federal government reorganization in U.S. history.
During his time in Washington, Humann also co-authored with Doris Kearns (now Goodwin) and others a report, requested by the President, on ways to heal the breach between the college student community and the federal government. This report was presented to President Johnson in 1968 — one of the most turbulent years in U.S. history, marked by massive student anti-war protests. The report was titled, “Confrontation or Participation: The Federal Government and the Student Community.” He also wrote a children’s book, an illustrated poem entitled The Little Crescent Moon and the Bright Evening Star, and co-authored, with Mayor Jonsson, D: The Book of Dallas.
Regionally, the “father of DART” also led the successful redevelopment of the North Central Corridor, with Central Expressway and the DART rail line helping solve the nation’s “oldest living highway controversy.” In addition, Humann helped mediate the Love Field dispute among three airline CEOs and the mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth in the 1980s. He founded the Jubilee Project in the late 1990s and served for more than 10 years as its chairman, helping revitalize a 62-block inner-city Dallas neighborhood. Jubilee is trying a unique approach by dealing comprehensively with all elements affecting a blighted community — public education, anti-crime, health, employment, housing, economic development and physical improvements.
Humann holds a physics degree from MIT, an M.B.A. from Harvard, and a Juris Doctor degree from the Evening Division of SMU’s Dedman School of Law (’67). He has received numerous business and public service awards, including SMU’s Distinguished Alumni Award, Dedman School of Law Distinguished Alumni Award and The Legacy of Leadership Award from the White House Fellows Foundation in Washington, D.C.
He is married to his high school sweetheart; they have three children and eleven grandchildren.
Past winners of the J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award, now in its 15th year, include Ruth S. Altshuler, Bob Buford, Ronald G. Steinhart, Michael M. Boone, Zan W. Holmes Jr., Roger Staubach, Caren Prothro, Tom Luce, Ron Anderson, Jack Lowe Jr., William T. Solomon, Stanley H. Marcus, Charles C. Sprague and Curtis W. Meadows Jr.
Tickets for the event are $50 for individuals; sponsorship tables for 10 also are available for $1,500. For ticket information, contact Erin Sutton at 214-768-4575.
Written by Denise Gee | <urn:uuid:a4f685e8-9407-4842-b330-a59c92e879f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.smu.edu/forum/2012/03/28/walt-humann-to-receive-smus-2012-j-erik-jonsson-ethics-award/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965058 | 1,264 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Motorola's new phones show image of child who made phoneMotorola announced their new marketing campaign that also will double as aid for children in need.
"All our new phone screens will show the picture of the Chinese child that made the phone," says Chris Galvin, CEO of Motorola. "The packaging will say if you buy this phone, you feed this child for a month. It really will help to feed thousands of poor children who work in sweatshops throughout China. These children are really in need, and besides giving them jobs, we thought it would be nice to do a little extra for them."
Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, had this to say: "We have been working with Motorola for a year now to hammer out this new program. Motorola has always taken an interest in the children of underdeveloped nations, giving them needed jobs so their families can eat, even giving them extra hours per day so they can earn more money, sometimes even 14 hours a day. Now, each phone that customers buy will bring extra rice rations to their family."
Chris Galvin, in an effort to placate investors, added "Plus, it doubles as an incentive program, if the child does a bad job and the phone is defective and gets returned, then sorry, you don't eat this month."
Nokia and Ericsson have no current plans for their phones, but are looking into it. "Our phones are made by Eastern European women kidnapped for the Russian Mob's sex slave trade," said Leif Henrickson, a representative of Ericsson, "No one will look at some 23 year old coked out hooker and feel sorry for her and want to give her money. Now children - they are the future. We are looking into using child labor in Africa. After all, you don't need legs to build a cell phone." | <urn:uuid:8f8bee12-176f-4905-93f7-8618b5639dad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eyesontheball.blogspot.com/2004/11/motorolas-new-phones-show-image-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980871 | 382 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Well first you should implement a telnet server. Ideally this would be at least not completely half-assed. I have some code that does this if you know C# and need example code. Unfortunately the forum seems to be stripping the link so:
Now, beyond this you should implement the TTYPE telnet option to specify what kind of terminal is being used. This is documented in RFC 1091
. A client should be able to return as many TTYPEs as are relevant for the terminal.
Some people like to implement their own custom, unregistered and undocumented telnet options, as well. If you're going to do this, make sure you're extra careful about picking an option number that nobody else has used for their own undocumented, unregistered telnet option.(Comment added by eiz on Wed May 4 19:57:30 2005)
BTW, the above code needs to be refactored -- ignore the charmode stuff and the buffering. It's nasty. | <urn:uuid:b3b366a2-8e16-45fb-af12-065c8fe80d01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mudconnect.com/discuss/discuss.cgi?mode=MSG&area=coders&message=22541 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938476 | 202 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The Regulatory Presidency
by Stuart Shapiro
Much of what President Obama talked about in his inaugural address yesterday will be difficult to achieve with a House of Representatives controlled by Republicans. However as predecessors such as Presidents Reagan and Clinton learned, President Obama has tools available to him that will play a big role in his second term. Cary Coglianese explains:
Administrative agencies always possess considerable discretionary power under the statutes that give them governmental authority. That general discretion allows them to pursue other policies largely on their own initiative – or with prodding from the White House.
Already federal agencies have in the pipeline a number of major new rules we can expect to see issued over the next few years. In Obama’s second term, look for revisions to federal smog standards, the adoption of the so-called Volcker Rule on how banks can invest their funds, and a Department of Transportation standard requiring automakers to install costly rearview cameras on new cars.
In addition, federal agencies are also likely to take a close look during Obama’s second term at a range of new energy regulations, including those affecting offshore oil drilling, coal extraction, pipeline safety, and natural gas production. We can also expect renewed efforts to adopt a myriad of regulations affecting financial markets, including those dealing with money-market mutual funds and consumer credit.
I expect immigration reform and maybe gun background check legislation to get through Congress. Other than that legislative policy, the focus of Obama’s first term will be largely spent on the budget. But that doesn’t mean that Obama’s second term will be limited to what House Republicans agree to. | <urn:uuid:d1376544-4b92-48ca-b8b1-44831ac643b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alan.com/2013/01/22/the-regulatory-presidency/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963919 | 330 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Corn and other grain prices are closing lower as traders worry about weak exports and shipping troubles along the Mississippi River.
March corn fell 14.25 cents, or 2 percent, to settle at $7.3725 a bushel Friday.
Soybeans also fell. The January contract lost 19 cents, or 1 percent, to $14.7225 a bushel.
Sterling Smith, futures specialist at Citi in Chicago, said there was continuing fallout on corn prices from the very weak export report issued by the Department of Agriculture Thursday.
Very dry conditions have also led to restrictions on the amount of cargo that can be carried on barges on the Mississippi. Traders worry that U.S. corn is already facing tough competition from lower-priced grain from South America.
Gold and other metals prices rose. Energy prices were mixed. | <urn:uuid:68a5b7b0-4df1-4964-b345-8f005674790a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kmov.com/news/business/182601821.html?ref=next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968154 | 173 | 1.5 | 2 |
Yushchenko, Viktor Andriyovych
1954 - Born on February 23rd in Sumska oblast, Khoruzhivka, Ukraine. Ukrainian politician, who became president of Ukraine. 1975 - He was educated at the Ternopil Finance and Economics Institute, where he graduated with a degree in economic sciences. 1999-2001 - Prime Minister of Ukraine. 2004 - Survived a poisoning attempt in September, which left his face pockmarked and ashen and gave him a case of acute pancreatitis. Later analysis found that the poisoning agent was dioxin. 2005 - Elected as the President of Ukraine.
Page last updated: 12:47pm, 25th Dec '09 | <urn:uuid:4442233f-2e38-4bd8-b757-a850976d754a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.s9.com/Biography/Print/Yushchenko-Viktor | 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 | 0.974888 | 145 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Almost half of Israeli teens aged 14-18 would have preferred to leave abroad, if only they had the chance, a new survey conducted by the Tel Hai academic college revealed Friday.
The survey, carried out among 273 teens that are a representative sample of Israeli youth, also found that 68 percent of the teens believe
Israel's general situation is "not good." Only 32 percent of respondents said that the country was in "a very good" situation.
"These are serious findings that attest to the youths' lack of trust in the administration and in the leaders' ability to handle the different problems facing the country," said Dr Yifat Sassa-Biton from the college's Department of Education.
The teens were asked whether they believe Israel is successful in promoting social justice, narrowing socioeconomic gaps, providing all its citizens with proper standards of living and helping the weaker populations obtain employment.
Some 85 percent of the teens answered that the state was completely or partially unsuccessful in achieving theses objectives, and 71.5 percent stated they were concerned with the social situation in the country.
Additionally, 84 percent of the respondents claimed that the government failed in addressing economic problems, and 54.9 percent said that the relations between the immigrant and veteran populations in Israel were not good.
Education Minister Yuli Tamir responded to the poll by saying that "we certainly live in a time when all government institutions are subjected to harsh criticism... and therefore it is not surprising that the teens feel frustrated and that it's hard for them to develop a sense of pride and identify with the state." | <urn:uuid:41b1bace-ec9c-4b29-a9b6-e841a60a42d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3427762,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97782 | 318 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Steve Marcus / FILE PHOTOS
Sunday, July 20, 2008 | 2 a.m.
In Today's Sun: Brookings Report
For more than a decade, Las Vegas has been the envy of the nation in at least one regard: its explosive growth.
Year after year, the region’s economy marched in step with fast-rising gaming revenue. And the population advanced at the same pace. As last year drew to a close, officials announced that Clark County had topped the 2 million mark — 620,000 people had arrived since 2000.
It’s a story Nevadans have grown accustomed to hearing. And its repeated tellings have fed the belief that such growth would never end, that Las Vegas was immune from the economic pressures that affect the rest of the country.
We may need to think again.
In the past week, several signs, read together, show that long-held assumptions about growth in Southern Nevada could be fundamentally changing.
On Wednesday, the region was hit with two negative forecasts.
The airlines serving McCarran International Airport urged the county to hold off on construction of a third terminal because of concerns there would not be enough flights to fill it. County officials rejected the request.
And Clark County School Board officials announced that during the 2007-08 academic year, the district finished with 4,281 fewer students than were enrolled in September. The district is now predicting abnormally low enrollment growth of about 1.5 percent for the 2008-09 academic year.
Also last week, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its outlook for Nevada’s economy and two of the state’s top gaming companies, Harrah’s Entertainment and Station Casinos. In revising its bond rating for the state, from “stable” to “negative,” Moody’s cited “uncertainty” regarding gaming industry revenue, the national economic downturn, record-high fuel costs and weakness in the housing sector.
The firm also notified MGM Mirage and Las Vegas Sands Corp. that their ratings might be lowered.
According to the Nevada state demographer, this decline might be different from downturns of the past.
In his previous job, when he compiled Clark County’s population estimates during the 1990s, Jeff Hardcastle said people often approached him with the same question regarding the region’s growth: “How long can this go on?”
As long as four factors remained in place, Hardcastle would reply: the relative monopoly held by Nevada’s gaming industry; the lower cost of housing, especially compared with neighboring California; the stable local and national economies; and the availability of natural resources such as water and land on which to build houses.
“Since 2001, pretty much all that’s been changing,” Hardcastle said. “And now we’re seeing the culmination of some of these changes.”
Las Vegas is being challenged by a variety of competitors, from Indian casinos across the California border to Macau, the new king of world gaming revenue, Hardcastle noted.
The economy and housing markets are in terrible slumps. And natural resources in the area are almost exhausted. Water is running out, as is developable land.
Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV, concurred, raising the specter of the “R” word.
Rising oil and gas prices have made air travel more expensive and limited the number of tourists who drive here from California, Schwer noted. As a result, visitor volume and gaming revenue dropped during the first four months of the year — marking the first recession to hit all sectors of the economy since the early 1980s, Schwer said.
“When it costs more money to fill up your tank and a lot more to fly to Vegas, your billfold is not going to be as full as it previously was and you are going to spend less,” Schwer said.
As a result, commercial development here — which is driven by travel and tourism — has slowed dramatically. Associated General Contractors reported the value of commercial projects permitted during the second quarter of 2008 dropped 66 percent, to $131 million, from the second quarter of 2007.
At the end of the second quarter of 2008, the office market had a vacancy rate of 16.1 percent, up from 11 percent at the end of June 2007, according to Colliers International and Restrepo Consulting. That’s nearly double the vacancy rate of two years ago.
William H. Frey, a Brookings Institution senior fellow and a demographer, cautioned not to read too much into the depressing numbers. Once the economy and housing market improve — and if the price of gasoline and other fuels can stabilize — growth might pick up close to where it left off in Las Vegas.
“It’s too soon to put out the ‘Last person, turn out the lights‚’ sign,” Frey said.
Some help may be around the corner. Boosters point to the opening of new resorts on the Strip, which will create more than 50,000 jobs through 2010. About 27,000 rooms will be added to an existing inventory of 136,000.
By the end of 2008 Steve Wynn is scheduled to open Encore, his companion project to Wynn Las Vegas. MGM Mirage is on track to open its CityCenter, a more than $9.2 billion development, by the end of 2009.
Both MGM Mirage and Harrah’s Entertainment executives say they’re confident the economy will eventually rebound and the airline industry will find a way to ferry visitors to the attractions opening in the next few years.
“It’s pretty clear that Las Vegas is going to grow steadily over the next decade,” said MGM Mirage President and Chief Operating Officer Jim Murren. “There’s no doubt we’ve been affected by the economy. (But) 2009 will be a better year than 2008, and 2010 will be better than 2009.”
Las Vegas has historically defied the economic rules of supply and demand. As the home of some of the world’s largest and most elaborate resorts, the Strip has created its own demand, building upon previous successes and defying skeptics.
But with fuel prices sky high, the airlines appear to have grown skeptical of Las Vegas’ build-it-and-they-will-come business model.
“Those decisions to build 30,000 hotel rooms were made several years back,” when times were good, said Linda Macey, properties manager for Southwest Airlines. “We’re not sure if anyone knows whether all those rooms will be filled.”
Few are certain regional population trends will resume their steep trajectory.
Declining population growth has extended to Las Vegas as well as Clark County. For the city, 2006 and 2007 brought the slowest rates of growth in some time — 2.7 percent and 2 percent respectively.
Clark County’s population growth has exceeded the city’s. From July 1, 2007, to June 30 of this year, the county grew by 4.4 percent. But that growth rate, as well as those of the two previous years, was less than the county’s average annual growth rate over the past decade, 5.5 percent.
Indeed, from 2004 to 2008 enrollment growth in the Clark County School District has dropped year by year. The projected 2008-09 growth of 1.5 percent would be the smallest increase in 25 years.
Dusty Dickens retired in 2005 after 10 years as director of zoning, demographics and real estate for the School District. Even before her retirement, Dickens said, there were indications growth was slowing. During the peak of the housing boom, teachers and families were selling their homes and relocating to cash in on the bonanza.
“Now you flip it the other way, and families are leaving because they’ve lost their homes,” Dickens said. “Did we see this coming two or five or seven years ago? I don’t think anyone would have seen this sharp a downturn was coming.”
Sun reporters Liz Benston, Emily Richmond and Phoebe Sweet and In Business Las Vegas reporter Brian Wargo contributed to this story. | <urn:uuid:e43c8e47-a46f-4dc1-985f-f1af113b4c55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/20/local-downturn-hiccup-or-augur-bleak-future/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961212 | 1,723 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Last week, I posted a list of 12 Things Good Bosses Believe. I didn't explain any of them, but promised that I would in a series of posts over the coming weeks. So this post is about the first belief: "I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to work for me."
One thing that makes organizations dysfunctional is that bosses so often lack self-awareness. They're out of touch with their effect on their people and not in tune with what it feels like to work for them. But is it really their fault? Doing the research for Good Boss, Bad Boss over the past few years (and drawing on ideas Jeff Pfeffer and I explored in Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense), I've come to appreciate why it's so hard to lead a team. This is a blog post and not a dissertation, so I can't tell the whole story. But here are three of the biggest, and most deeply human, forces conspiring to make people in charge so clueless.
- Bosses are, like everyone, self-deluding. All human beings tend to be poor judges of their own actions and accomplishments. We suffer from "self-enhancement bias," whereby we believe we are "better than the rest" and have a hard time accepting or remembering any evidence to the contrary. In one study, for example, 90% of drivers reported that they had "above average" driving skills. In a US College Board survey of nearly a million high school seniors, 70% claimed "above average" leadership skills; only 2 % believed they were "below average." Worse yet, research by Cornell's David Dunning and his colleagues shows that it's the most deeply incompetent people who make the most inflated self-assessments. Bosses aren't immune to this. It turns out that followers, peers, superiors, and customers consistently provide better information about a boss's strengths, weaknesses, and quirks than the boss him or herself. This showed up in a study of naval officers, where peer ratings were found to be good predictors of which officers would receive early promotions — but self-evaluations did not. Fancy yourself as the rare boss who sees yourself as others do? Beware: most people are confident that they make more accurate self-assessments than their peers. Unfortunately, that's just another form of self-aggrandizement.
- Bosses are naturally heedless of subordinates. When someone is put in a position of power, subordinate members of the group watch that individual very closely for any sign of a shift in behavior or mood. (Research shows this begins with baboons, as this post explains). But the attention is not reciprocated. To the contrary, the leader turns remarkably oblivious to what the underlings do, and instead, attends to personal needs and desires — and to the next rung of the hierarchy, focusing on what the next higher boss is saying and doing. Elsewhere, I've called this combination of overattentive subordinates and inattentive bosses "the toxic tandem." As Princeton psychologist Susan Fiske discovered in her workplace research (reported in American Psychologist), "Secretaries know more about their bosses than vice versa; graduate students know more about their advisors than vice versa." Fiske suggests this happens because (like our fellow primates), "People pay attention to those who control their outcomes. In an effort to predict and possibly influence what is going to happen to them, people gather information about those with power."
- Bosses are insulated from reality. As Jeff Pfeffer and I reported in Hard Facts, extensive research proves that people routinely "shoot the messenger." Bearers of bad news, even when they aren't responsible for it in any sense, tend to be blamed and to have negative feelings directed toward them. The result is the "Mum Effect": subordinates with good survival instincts soften bad news to make it sound better, or avoid passing it along to their bosses at all. Therefore, in a steep hierarchy it is a happier and happier story that reaches the top ranks. Our most disturbing example came courtesy of physics Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman after his investigation of the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. He said he'd asked a group of engineers to estimate the probability that the shuttle's main engine would fail, and their estimates ranged from 1-in-200 to 1-in-300. But when he asked the head of NASA to make the failure-rate estimate, the answer he got was 1-in-100,000. Feynman pointed to this as an illustration of managerial isolation from reality, a problem he believed to be rampant throughout NASA.
When you consider just these three tendencies, you begin to appreciate how easy it is to be a terrible boss. At the same time, you glimpse one of the keys to leading well. A hallmark of good bosses — and I define those as bosses who get stellar performance from their teams while displaying great humanity — is that they are highly cognizant of these dangers. They realize their followers watch, analyze, and react to just about everything they say and do. And they devote real energy to reading expressions, noting behaviors, and making constant adjustments to help their people think independently and express themselves without reservation.
IDEO Chairman and founder David Kelley, a boss I have studied, worked with, and watched for years, strikes me as someone who is very aware of the effect of his presence. Although no one would accuse him of being pushy or arrogant, he realizes that because he is the boss — and even beyond that, a renowned design thinker and industry leader — too much of the attention in a room threatens to come his way. His mere presence can stifle his people's contributions.
I have seen David do a very clever thing to counter this. In meetings he takes part in, whether they are brainstorming sessions, client meetings, or a work-related gatherings of any kind, he'll start at the front of the room, as expected. But once he's covered the preliminaries — introducing people, setting the tone and goals — he pulls in others to talk and lead, and moves to the side of the room. He jumps back in if the ideas stop flowing, or if some uncomfortable moment needs to be covered, perhaps by telling a little story or joke, but if he's confident the meeting is going well, he drifts to the back of the room and remains silent. Usually, well before the meeting is over, he is able to slip out without saying good-bye.
Of course, David Kelley doesn't leave because he has some higher priority — he does so because he wants the meeting to be as productive as possible. His brilliance is that he is so intensely in tune with the context he has set, and how his words, actions, and little facial expressions affect the room. He keeps making adjustments with the goal of getting the group interacting so well that his presence becomes an unnecessary distraction.
It's a simple example, but a telling one. I would argue that, in general, the best bosses are people who realize that they are prone to suffering blind spots about themselves, their colleagues, and problems in the organization — and who work doggedly to overcome them.
I wonder, what are your thoughts? What have you seen bosses do to counter these potent forces and focus on how their moods and moves might affect their people's performance and well-being? What are the signs of a boss in tune with reality — or alternatively, a boss still living in a fool's paradise?
Robert Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He studies and writes about management, innovation, and the nitty-gritty of organizational life. His new book is Good Boss, Bad Boss, forthcoming from Business Plus. | <urn:uuid:8d6f8427-f889-46ac-a05b-0e487a44d9b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.hbr.org/sutton/2010/06/some_bosses_live_in_a_fools_pa.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975461 | 1,594 | 1.632813 | 2 |
According to In-Stat, there is a large gap between HDTV ownership and HD programming use in American Homes. That means that many Americans are buying HDTVs and then not utilizing HD programming. That's sort of like dating a hot cheerleader and not even trying to get to second base.
According to the statistics, the percentage of homes in America that have both an HDTV and HD programming in 2008 was 40 percent. That means that there are over 39 million households in America with an HDTV, yet only 22 million of those homes are watching HD programming. We probably all have friends or acquaintances that have flat screen TVs in their homes, but don’t get HD programming. Ask them why and you commonly get two answers. Either they claim they don’t watch enough TV or they say there really isn’t a difference in SD and HD programs. I usually answer that last one with that's because you haven’t watched HD programming.
Previous research into this question, however, indicates that US
opinion hasn't changed much. The HDTV adoption curve has an even slope
to date—Americans are slowly opting for the new televisions but simply aren't all that interested
in high-definition television.
The analysis company also says that while the number of homes in Europe
with HDTV is rising, it will be 2011 before the number hits the 10
million mark in the region. Another interesting factoid from the report
is that almost 80 percent of HDTV households get programming from cable
or satellite providers, with the balance using IPTV or over-the-air HD
Listing image by Samsung | <urn:uuid:ab2a4eab-edd6-45c8-a030-15dec4971edb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2009/02/gap-exists-between-hdtv-ownership-and-hd-programming-use/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961441 | 336 | 1.570313 | 2 |
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February 25, 2013
The Rule of Evidence That's Never Applied, Take 3: Former Jury Venireman as Witness?
As I noted last week, I have yet to find a single case in which a court has applied Federal Rule of Evidence 606(a), which provides that
A juror may not testify as a witness before the other jurors at the trial.If a juror is called to testify, the court must give a party an opportunity to object outside the jury’s presence.
I did, however, post about two cases (here and here) in which courts applied the principles of Rule 606(a) to the proffered testimony of two former jurors. Now, courtesy of Ann Murphy, let's take a look at United States v. Kills Enemy, 3 F.3d 1201 (8th Cir. 1993), in which the prosecution called a former jury venireman at trial.In Kills Enemy, Gerald Kills Enemy was convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. After he was convicted, Kills Enemy appealed, claiming, inter alia,
that the district court erred in permitting Amos American Horse to testify. American Horse had been a venireman, but was excused for cause when he stated that Kills Enemy was his friend and former neighbor. The government then contacted American Horse and called him as a witness.
Kills Enemy cited to Rule 606(a) and argued
that it was error to permit American Horse to testify because he had served on the venire with persons who became the jurors in this case, and he may have become acquainted with them or otherwise made an impression, either favorable or unfavorable, on the jurors.
The Eighth Circuit disagreed, finding that
Rule 606 is not applicable to veniremen, as opposed to jurors, and does not require us to reverse. Nevertheless, we must express our concern about the government's actions in calling American Horse to the stand. Though we have nothing but speculation in this case about the possible effect on jurors in calling a former venireman to testify, we consider this a close case. In a case with a developed record with evidence of real harm, the result might well be different.
February 25, 2013 | Permalink
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QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Police say a bomb that appeared to be targeting paramilitary soldiers has exploded in a commercial area in southwest Pakistan, killing 11 people.
Senior police officer Zubair Mehmood says the blast Thursday also wounded 27 people, including three security officials. The attack took place in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.
Another police officer, Mohammed Rafique, says the bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying paramilitary soldiers.
Baluchistan has experienced a decades-long insurgency by nationalists who demand greater autonomy and a larger share of the province’s natural resources. It is also home to many Islamist militants, including the Taliban. | <urn:uuid:ffdcd2ba-9d37-4fcc-9b94-9bde8452af08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130110/NEWS05/130119982 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950217 | 144 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Faculty & Staff Giving Campaign
The GSU Promise
The GSU Promise is a commitment to provide qualified low-income graduates from Illinois community colleges the opportunity to earn a baccalaureate degree debt-free.
The plan addresses a critical social need. Only 10 to 15 percent of students who enter community college with an intention of earning a bachelor’s degree actually do so. The numbers are depressingly low in part because students fear to burden themselves with large amounts of debt, and in part because they simply do not know of aid that is available. That represents more than a personal tragedy. It is also a loss for our fast growing region which needs a well-educated workforce.
Low-income students are eligible for Federal Pell grants and aid through Illinois’ monetary Assistance Program. But federal and state aid may not cover the full cost of an education. The GSU Promise will cover the difference. Promise awards are both merit and need based.
For the region, the GSU Promise is an investment that will inspire, educate, and motivate the future teachers, entrepreneurs, nurses and healthcare professionals, administrators, law enforcement officials, mayor and city managers, and others - the professional workforce we need to lead the development of one of the fastest growing regions in the nation.
GSU encourages faculty and staff donations to the GSU Promise program. Faculty and staff can donate in one of two ways:
- Donate by check, credit card or via payroll deduction. Print and complete the Employee Giving Form and return it, in person, to the Advancement Office (D34200); or
- Make a credit card donation online by using the Online Donation webpage. | <urn:uuid:61faecd2-9209-40b1-b8cb-cdf1944225b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sjenkins@govst.edu/foundation/t_foundation.aspx?id=10972 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937474 | 340 | 1.53125 | 2 |
There is a new piece of legislation that is being presented for consideration in Sacramento, California. Right now, the monetary aspects of the bill are being considered by the Appropriations Committee. Assembly Bill 714 is not proposing something entirely new, but it is a bill that would provide restoration to the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act.
The Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act put into place a program that began in 2000. The program was a kind of trust dedicated to the goal of finding a cure for paralysis. The program provided scientists with "seed grants" to help fund their research and has already provided them with $15.1 million. AB 714 would set aside $2 million per year for this program. Thursday, May 23 is a big day for AB714 as the Appropriations Committee is set to decide on whether the financial aspects make sense for the bill to continue. | <urn:uuid:c8c2bf85-8282-4265-bd55-6acf06474ac5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rizioandnelson.com/blog/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963866 | 177 | 1.796875 | 2 |
As an iPhone user, the news that AT&T is expanding and upgrading its wireless network in Mississippi is more than great, it is ….
Oh, sorry, I had a dropped call.
You get the point.
Even AT&T Mississippi CEO Mayo Flynt admitted to the Mississippi Business Journal a few months back that even he has a hard time with reception from time to time. He says his home is at the bottom of a hill, which leads to reception issues.
The company said in a statement last week that it plans to add 50 cell sites in the state in 2011. More than 100 existing cell sites will be upgraded and capacity will be enhanced at sites across the state.
In 2010, AT&T says it added 50 new cell sites in Mississippi and upgraded some 90 existing sites to mobile broadband.
AT&T says the improvements are part of a $19-billion companywide capital investment this year.
Who needs a home phone?
With the news that AT&T is adding towers, which would presumably lead to better reception across the state, why in the world would you want to have a home phone? Well, apparently that is a good question.
In a story from last week, it was reported that a growing number of Americans are getting rid of their old land line telephones and using only cell phones, a trend led not by the high-tech elite but by people in poorer states trying to save money.
And guess who is leading the way?
You’ve got it.
Government estimates show at least 30 percent of adults in 10 states rely entirely on cell phones, with the highest percentage in Arkansas and Mississippi, where many cannot afford to pay for two separate lines.
Wealthier households have been slower to use wireless technology as their sole means of making calls.
“The answer’s obvious: No one has money here,” John N. Daigle, a professor of electrical engineering at Ole Miss with broad experience in the telecommunications industry, told the Associated Press. “If they can do without a land line, they will do it to save money.”
Sure, I would do it to save money, too. In fact, we have had that conversation at our house. My wife and I both have cell phones. Everyone who needs to contact us, knows how to.
However, we keep our land line for security system and emergency needs, as well as the convenient daily telemarketer calls at just about the time we are putting a kids to bed.
Clay Chandler, here in our newsroom, recently thought about the same thing in his new home. We talked at length about it. Not because we are poverty stricken — although we do live on journalists salaries — but because it doesn’t make a lot of sense to pay for more phones that you really need.
According to the AP story about 35 percent of adults in Mississippi have only cell phones, according to figures from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In New Jersey and Rhode Island, the states where the smallest proportion of people depend solely on wireless phones, that figure is only 13 percent.
Mississippi has the highest poverty rate in the nation — 21.9 percent in 2009, according to the Census Bureau. The Arkansas figure was 18.8 percent. The nationwide rate is 14.3 percent.
In 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau defined poverty as a single person making less than $11,000 a year or a family of four making less than $22,000 a year.
“I think people decide, ‘I can afford one but not the other,’” said Ellen Reddy, who works for a nonprofit community center that helps low-income residents in Holmes County. She said poor people in her area often have cell phones with a limited number of minutes.
Again, however, it comes down to a business decision. You don’t have to be poverty stricken to make a decision to have one phone instead of two.
Sounds like folks in Mississippi, poor or not, have made the right decision.
Now, if we can get those new AT&T towers up quickly, so my wife doesn’t think I have hung up on her while I am driving past Highland Village in Jackson.
Contact Mississippi Business Journal editor Ross Reily at email@example.com or (601) 364-1018. | <urn:uuid:98dd0323-2d16-4cce-80ac-03fa96d5282a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://msbusiness.com/editorsnotebook/tag/us-census-bureau/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967366 | 916 | 1.601563 | 2 |
A worker has been rescued after falling 20 feet inside he new Hanover wind turbine Friday morning, the Patriot Ledger reported.
The man was taken to South Shore Hospital. Hanover Fire Chief Jeffrey Blanchard said he's conscious and in stable condition, but didn't identify the worker or give details of his injuries.
The victim is a 53-year-old man. Blanchard said he's not a town employee.
The accident occurred at about 9 a.m. Friday. Initial reports said he fell 40 feet, but Blanchard said he actually fell from 60 feet inside the turbine tower onto a platform 40 feet off the turbine floor.
The 210-foot-high, cylindrical turbine tower is located next to the town’s water treatment plant on Pond Street. Its startup has been delayed for months by problems, so no machinery was operating at the time of the accident.
Blanchard declined to describe the work the man was doing, or whether he was wearing a harness at the time. An investigator from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration was on the scene Friday morning.
Hanover firefighters and police were assisted by a 28-person crew from the Plymouth County Technical Rescue team. Duxbury Fire Chief Kevin Nord, the county rescue team's supervisor, said this is the first wind turbine accident in which the team has been involved.
Hanover firefighters have done rescue training at the new turbine site.
"The space itself is very unique," Nord said. "It's cramped and confined." | <urn:uuid:643be674-13fd-494d-8e6e-7d544f96b914> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wcvb.com/news/local/boston-south/Man-falls-40-feet-down-wind-turbine/-/9848842/17776654/-/n5pl7wz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978466 | 314 | 1.5 | 2 |
If you thought techies do not have time/do not care to do anything beyond their software jobs, here is an exception. Two young techies from a leading IT company have put their passion for writing into action, venturing out to publish their stories as a book. This post is a quick review of the book.
Imprints is a self published book, containing a collection of 24 short stories, authored by two writers, Ravi Sidula and GS Vasu Kumar. The 113 pages book is available for purchase on pothi.com for Rs 99 (+shipping)
When I first received the copy of Imprints, I was surprised to see the cover price being under Rs 100. Because when I’d checked last time, it was impossible to get the book price below 100 at Pothi.com (Pothi.com is a self publishing platform, wherein they print a book and deliver, as and when they get an order. This means there’s no huge investment needed in bulk publishing the book, but on the other hand, disadvantage is that per copy price will be a bit high). When I checked with the author on this, I was told that authors have pumped in extra money from their own pocket to ensure that book is priced below Rs 100.
Well, getting back to the book, each story is independent and well knitted. The one I liked the most is titled “You’re not alone”… The story line goes as below: A man is helped to his seat by the Bus Conductor (Mysore-Bengaluru one), a girl sitting next seat starts the conversation saying “how beautiful the world outside…” The man feels excited by the conversation but realizes that the girl is blind. They continue to talk and become good friends, with him explaining how beautiful she is and so on… At Ramanagara the girl gets down and subsequently, someone comes to escort this man as well, as he too was blind…
There’re many other touchy stories, such as one in which an entire family member, suffering from draught, finally decides to commit suicide, unable to bear the burden any more, unaware of the fact that it would be raining heavily next day. There’s another story wherein a person saving money to publish his book had to abandon the plan as he’d to spend his savings on his wife’s hospital bill. Eventually his notebook containing stories reaches a groundnut seller and then to a reader, who likes his writing, goes back to groundnut seller and buys entire notebook from him… (These lines are just to give you an idea what to expect. I’m not able to explain the stories as effectively as it is portrayed in the book)
Like this, several day to day life experiences and observations are converted into short and sweet stories. Language is simple and you’ll be able to connect with the characters very easily as you read the stories.
Each of the stories are dedicated to various persons, which is a good initiative. Most of the stories are also enriched with an image (pencil sketch version of photograph)
The Book is highly recommended by V Balakrishnan, (Infosys CFO) as well
There’s an irony with the pricing of the book. Flipkart says one has to pay Rs 30 for delivery of this book, since the price of the book, at Rs 99 doesn’t exceed Rs 100. This is a bit unfortunate-may be they should just accept Rs 100 and ship it free. A work around for customers would be to look out for another friend who’s interested in buying and buy 2 copies…
Nevertheless, Imprints is a nice book.More about the book and authors at its website
Read other book reviews:It happened in India * Raga Chintamani * 2 States * Not a penny more, not a penny less * Zero percentile * Bala Takes the Plunge-Melvin Durai | <urn:uuid:4acca538-23f9-45b1-b34d-5e45104bade5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enidhi.net/2010/05/book-review-imprints-colours-of-life.html?showComment=1273921256532 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975089 | 826 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Friday, December 23, 2011
Václav Havel: 1936-2011
Video: "Citizen Havel", a 2-hour "intimate" documentary mostly about his presidential years. Press the "CC" button (make it red) for English subtitles.
Originally posted on December 18th
We learned about the sad news in the morning. It had to happen at some point and it did happen today. Václav Havel died at sleep: a blessed way to leave the world (a cardiovascular failure). BBC I, BBC II, BBC III, BBC IV, BBC obituary, BBC pix, BBC tributes, others (2,000+ stories). A week ago, Dalai Lama met Havel (again) and he may have been preparing Havel for the leaving.
Right now it's the featured story of the BBC, CNN, WSJ (and others) and the 3rd+4th most viewed one after Brian Cox's "Atoms are empty" and "Prince Harry assisted mugged friend".
"The truth and the love have to beat the lie and the hatred, Václav Havel." Erase excessive articles if any, please: I have really no clue where they belong. A typical poster we would see (and post) everywhere during the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The term "truthlovists" for the people around Havel later became a derogatory term used by some Havel's opponents; as a friend of the truth and love, I have never used the term before.
Your humble correspondent and Václav Havel
I was a red [pro-communist] guy until my 7th or 8th birthday. That changed approximatetly when my paternal grandmother returned from West Germany where she was allowed to meet her son i.e. my uncle (father's brother who emigrated to West Germany in the early 1980s). I was invited to West Germany many times, including the time when my other uncle (mother's brother) who emigrated to Australia in the late 1960s visited Munich, Bavaria as well. Of course, the communists never allowed me to go there.
My grandmother could share lots of experiences – and great products (when I think about the religious treatment that was given to a bitter low-quality kiwifruit, something I bought for $0.05 a piece yesterday, it makes us sure that we're living in a totally different era) – and that was the time when I began to be interested in the differences between socialism and capitalism in a little bit more informed way. ;-)
About a year later, when I was 10 years or so, I managed to catch Radio Free Europe on my radio. I was totally excited. It just happened that I was recording everything on that day. So the first 5 minutes in my life when I heard RFE were recorded on my tape and I pretty much memorized them because of that. ;-)
During the following (almost) decade, I was listening to the Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America so you won't be surprised that I could hear the name "Václav Havel" pretty often. And yes, he did become a kind of hero. Although you could count me as a child and teenage dissident of a sort, you can't expect me to uncritically okay everything that the dissidents were doing or thinking – and I think that e.g. much of Václav Klaus' critical comments was justified. Their parties were often wild and be sure that Havel himself has never avoided women or alcohol. Many such things were paid from the human rights money coming from the West.
Let me return to Václav Havel's life. He was born in October 1936 into a very rich and famous capitalist family in Prague (Havel's uncle possessed the film ateliers and famous concert halls, among many other things, while Havel's father had a construction company that built the surrounding millionaires' villa neighborhood at Barrandov). He described himself as a pampered child. (Havel's brother, Ivan Havel, is an interdisciplinary scientist and I kind of know him in person because of that.) However, things became different a decade later when the family lost everything. Havel couldn't really make the career he was qualified to do. He became a playwright, anyway. Without any college, he could become one of the world's most respected intellectuals, something that may reinforce claims about the education bubble. (Well, Havel received dozens if not a hundred of honorary doctorates but let's not count them as education.) During the 1968 Prague Spring, he wrote many well-known pieces of the "absurd theater". It's always hard to judge someone if you have many other biases. But I do think he's been a pretty good playwright.
Havel became a natural leader of the dissident movement in the late 1970s and in the 1980s, due to his important role in the birth of Charter 77, a dissident petition and organization created in 1977, and for other reasons. He was writing a kind of blog that wasn't propagated electronically those days; it was propagated on paper using "samizdat" algorithms. :-)
Now we jump to October 1989, one month before the fall of communism. Everything indicated that the Czechoslovak socialism would continue under the business-as-usual, despite the collapsing and softening regimes in many other socialist countries, and even the Czechoslovak version of "perestroika" was something that our communists weren't terribly serious about. Paradoxically, it seemed to be something good that was imposed upon us from Moscow. But one could still see some cracks during the year 1989.
For example, people including me would circulate a great and funny recording of the General Secretary of the Communist Party's speech known as "Lonely as a Fencepost" he gave to his communist comrades in Červený Hrádek near Pilsen, 2 miles from my home, in the Summer: someone leaked it. It was only an audio tape but you may watch the full 70-minute video on YouTube these days. The tape showed that Mr Miloš Jakeš has always been a cutely candid, uneducated moron who would discuss how they have to prevent Havel from traveling but they have to refocus the attack on someone else. He mispronounced many simple words etc. and talked about some top singers in a very casual way... And a funny thing happened on Havel's birthday in 1989, too.
We were just going to the mandatory brigade to collect the potatoes, a typical activity that high school students would be forced to do during communism (college students would pick hops). And even though virtually all my classmates were members of the Socialist Union of Youth etc. (there were 4 of us at the high school who refused to join), I could make many people kind of interested in a funny "family ad" published in Rudé Právo (Red Right/Law, the main official Czech communist daily). Of course, I learned about it from RFE; don't expect me to have read Rudé Právo.
There was a picture of Václav Havel, with friends wishing "Mr Ferdinand Vaněk" (an autobiographic hero of Havel's plays such as Audience we memorized and starred with a high school friend of mine) who lives in "Little Hrádek" (="Hrádeček", the name of village with Havel's cottage where he died today as well) the best for his birthday. Havel was thanked for the difficult work he has been doing in his life – and wished to experience lots of business successes in the future. This was really juicy if you realize that this daily would otherwise be regularly producing articles about Havel's being an alcohol addict from a pro-Nazi dynasty who wants to undermine the whole society. During that time, communism was collapsing in East Germany as kilotons of East Germans suddenly realized that they could use embassies in Budapest, Prague, and elsewhere to move to West Germany. ;-)
"Use both your hands, both your hands!", we would hear from our class' teacher. :-)
I don't have to tell you what happened six weeks later, on November 17th. The students of the Charles University were beaten by the communist police during their totally peaceful event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Nazis' closure of all the Czech universities on November 17th, 1939, which followed similar protests against Nazism. The communists behaved somewhat comparably to their Nazi predecessors exactly 50 years ago (well, I still think the Nazis were much more brutal in similar situations). Despite the superficial impression that everyone in Czechoslovakia was actually satisfied with the communist regime, a huge wave of public resistance was born.
Velvet Revolution rallies especially in Prague attracted hundreds of thousands of people (the rally at the Wenceslaus Square above had about 200,000); the largest one saw 1 million people who came to Prague.
Despite being a naturally apolitical person, Václav Havel became the acknowledged leader of the Velvet Revolution. Once the near-consensus was established that we didn't really want to continue with the "1968 socialism with a human face" but we wanted a proper and full-fledged democratic capitalism (something that Václav Klaus in particular wanted to make very clear from the beginning), Havel was also chosen as the natural president elect. He actually turned out to be a surprisingly good manager in the Civic Forum, an anti-communist movement born after November 17th that included pretty much everyone, from reform communists to Thatcherites. He was elected the Czechoslovak president on December 29th, 1989. The birthday wishes from Rudé Právo turned into reality. I remember those days pretty clearly; this was a great period when people believed in true ideals and for a while, they were even determined to act as angels and to build the heaven on Earth. Of course, folks had to return to the reality at some point, too.
This was of course totally remarkable because just two months earlier or so, the communists were keeping him in prison: the yesterday's dissident became the tomorrow's president. The same communists – who still had a majority in the Czechoslovak Parliament – unanimously elected him the president. ;-) Some legal but vigorous bullying of the communist deputies by their Civic Forum constituents was clearly necessary for the clean communist-style 100% outcome of the presidential election in the Parliament. :-) Just to return a few decades into the past, Václav Havel spent some of his prison years (1981-1983) here in Pilsen, in the famous Bory prison (Bory means "Pine Trees/Pine Forests" and is a neighborhood in South Pilsen). So Havel has become a fellow honorable citizen of Pilsen, too. Current Prague archbishop Dominik Duka was inprisoned here, too.
The Bory prison (Pilsen) from the bird eye perspective. It was built in 1873-1878 for heavy criminals and men serving a long term. At the end of the 19th century, political prisoners of Austria-Hungary were placed there. This got repeated in the late 1950s for political prisoners of communist Czechoslovakia. Earlier, in 1949-1952, some prisoners were tortured and murdered there.
He remained a moral authority which I say despite the fact that I didn't share his views on "apolitical politics" and his desire for the NGOs to be powerful, and many other things, including his support for homeopathy and other occult pseudosciences. Since the end of 1989, it became very clear to me that I would be closer to Václav Klaus.
I've met Havel several times in my life but as far as I remember, we have never really talked to one another. One experience when I met him was paradoxically the inauguration of his successor Václav Klaus as the Czech president in 2003 – when Havel's second and final term as the Czech president (1993-2003) ended. [Oh, sorry, I am an idiot: it was actually the re-inauguration for the Klaus' second term in 2008: Klaus didn't know me before 2007.] Previously, Havel would serve as the Czechoslovak president for 3 years. He was one of the people who were (at least superficially) totally scared of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. I was often influenced by him (and others) but I soon understood that Havel was just wrong. The Velvet Divorce was a good decision for both nations and especially for their relationship. Due to his Czechoslovakism, Havel became a top target of hatred from the Slovak nationalists. It's kind of amazing to see that current Slovak PM Ms Iveta Radičová seems to be among the politicians who are most internally shaken by the death today. She was clearly very close to him. Havel was on the black list in Moscow (even the modern one), too. I don't have to tell him what the folks in Beijing thought about this friend of Dalai Lama and what were the official opinions in Cuba when it came to this staunch supporter of the Cuban dissent. That's the other side of the coin of his remarkable status in the U.S. etc. – a figure that really unified Democrats and Republicans, I could say. Of course, I've been immensely proud to be a Czech when he got a very special treatment in the U.S. Congress and other places.
Václav Klaus would agree that at the end of 1989, Havel was the most legitimate candidate for the president of Czechoslovakia. (When Alexander Dubček, the reform communist who supervised the 1968 Prague Spring, learned in December 1989 that he was no longer the top candidate for the Prague Castle, he cried as a small baby if not like Peter Woit.) There's been some degree of respect in between the two Gentlemen (and Klaus only says nice things today, of course). On the other hand, there has always been a kind of tension that may have been the "truly fundamental conflict" that would be determining the evolution of the Czechoslovak (and later Czech) society and the discourse that is dominant in this society. (Relatively to the Klaus-Havel dichotomy, the official left-right conflicts during the elections could have been just theaters for the eyes.) Even though Havel would spend his life by struggles for freedom and individuality etc., one could say that in some sense, he became an advocate of the political correctness in the Czech Republic and sorry to say, I am happy that he was the loser in this particular battle.
(See also Havel's alarmist views on climate change.)
It is appropriate to say that there have been views in which I found myself closer to Havel than Klaus. Like Ron Paul etc., Klaus is ultimately a very anti-war person. Havel has always been a defender of America's fist. My views were very mixed when NATO attacked Serbia, a step that Havel endorsed and Klaus opposed, and so on...
I could recall lots of stories featuring Václav Havel and deduce various messages. (And I could add various friends and people I know who have known Havel well.) But you wouldn't necessarily be interested and this may not necessarily be the best context for such memories. Havel has been an unusually strong moral autority that has influenced even people such as me who ultimately found out that they disagree with him about many pretty fundamental things. He's been proposed for a peace Nobel prize many times; he has never won it even though he deserved it much more than many other folks who did win it. He actually helped to achieve something good and did so very peacefully, too.
I believe he's been a good playwright. And he managed to live for a pretty long time if one appreciates that after the years in prison and hundreds of thousands of cigarettes he has smoked, he suffered from lung cancer, perforation of intestine and perhaps various other inner organs, and other multidimensional illnesses. He was apparently lucky to get extremely good doctors, too.
Even though many people have expected this sad news many times in the past and a big portion of my nation could have been ready for this information, he will be missed.
RIP Václav Havel.
(See 56 TRF articles that mention Havel.)
President Klaus, in some sense the top nemesis of Havel, became the organizer of all the events, a fact that foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg identified as another piece of the "theater of the absurd" that Havel used to write. However, Klaus fulfilled his role flawlessly and with complete dignity. The speech above was appropriately free of any negative provocations and it almost made me cry. In some sense, Klaus has absorbed some part of the aura that was flying around Havel. It's great – I just hope that Klaus won't cease to be Klaus when it comes to certain important topics... | <urn:uuid:f2681968-9727-46e8-888e-3bf2b61fbff2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://motls.blogspot.com/2011/12/vaclav-havel-1936-2011.html?m=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985676 | 3,530 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Terrorist training videos burned into a DVD and on a pen-sized memory stick were uncovered by police a year before the London bombing that killed 52 people and four suicide bombers, London's chief anti-terrorist officer said Tuesday.
Peter Clarke, head of London's Metropolitan police anti-terrorist unit, told lawmakers on a homeland security committee, that an instructional video on locating targets for attacks had been burned onto the disc of commercial film. He did not give a film title.
He told the session that investigators - who previously said they foiled a major terrorist attack on Britain in 2004 and two attacks after the July 2005 bombings - also discovered a 25-minute filmed guide to building a suicide bomb vest on a removable memory stick.
Clarke said a court case to be heard later this year would reveal an alleged terrorist network of people "who have never met, apart from electronically."
No other details of the finds - including the dates or circumstances - were released.
"That gives a flavor of the shift in investigations," Clarke said. | <urn:uuid:0b70e6ec-411a-4c88-946b-9300458087d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.securityinfowatch.com/news/10558726/police-discover-alleged-terrorist-training-video-hidden-inside-film-dvd | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973163 | 209 | 1.65625 | 2 |
WordPress is merely an amazing program. Its free, open source, continually growing, extremely flexible and expandable, hugely effective, constantly improving and enables even novice to create amazing blogs and sites. The condition is installing the much factor. Whenever I initially began messing around with sites and blogs I lost thus much time trying to understand about installing products I virtually went nuts. Then I found the key. Dont do it the difficult technique.
My 1st attempt at manually installing WordPress was like getting beaten with a stick. I was scared, had no idea what was happening but wanted it to stop. Looking back it appears silly it was these a complicated task to accomplish however, at that time I was totally new to the world and found it quite difficult. It was after fighting through it few instances which I discovered a fantastic factor called “One Click Install” plus the rest, because they say, is history.
To be fair doing the manual install absolutely is pretty simple, is done in lower than 10 minutes and is a desirable learning undertaking. But that you can do it in 30 moments with all the One Click Install. Its true you wont understand anything regarding the intricacies of the process. And yes, the diehards out there will mention you need to do it manually thus you recognize the program youre using…plus they are right. But, seriously, its really absolutely an easy task to do it the simple technique.
What you need to Install WordPress
Crash program time: Whenever you need to create a self hosted WordPress website you will want a domain name, a hosting account plus the WordPress software. A domain name you get from a Domain Registrar. A hosting account is nothing more than area you rent about a server. A server is nothing more than a computer which is used from the internet.
When youre hunting at different hosting accounts you should make sure any host you decide to go with has “One Click WordPress Install.” Look for it, call it by name, and do not accept anything less. Now, when youve got your domain name as well as a hosting account youre going to do, basically, two aspects. First youre going to “add” your domain to the hosting account see the instructions in your control panel. Secondly youre going to set up WordPress. The “One Click Install” procedure will automatically install the WordPress software about your brand new hosting account. It takes regarding 26 moments. You fill in a some fields like creating a password, etc and click “Install.” Bam. WordPress is installed. You can today blog till your eyes fall out. Its which simple.
Ive performed it each techniques and, when youre because modern to the things because I was when I began, I suggest the One Click Install. Its swiftly. Its simple. Itll receive your website or website installed and running in no time. Get into it. | <urn:uuid:96162f43-194f-40a0-928d-841c7953cf76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://madshopping.net/index.php/tag/install-wordpress-plugin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959366 | 593 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Sacred Places, the new WMHT (Channel 17) documentary,
azure skies and flowers in full bloom provide a serene backdrop
for an exploration of spiritual sites in the Capital Region
and Hudson Valley. But it’s likely that many viewers will
assume the program was created after the attacks on the
World Trade Center, which increased the nation’s awareness
of all things spiritual. “It’s certainly very timely,” says
WMHT producer Steve Dunn, the videographer and writer for
Sacred Places, which premieres on Monday. “We had
a preview last night for some people, and they thought that
we did it because of Sept. 11, but actually, it’s an idea
we’d been kicking around for awhile, and I shot it over
One segment, however, was discarded after the bombings:
the footage of a Muslim community in Troy gathered for prayer.
“After Sept. 11, the segment didn’t make sense anymore,”
says Dunn. “There was no context. People would’ve thought
it was denial.” On Sept. 14, Dunn filmed a sermon held in
response to the tragedy at the Islamic Center in Colonie.
While there, he happened to meet a young Muslim who had
lost a cousin in the attack, and who talks on camera with
bewildered resignation. It’s the program’s only topical
segment. “I’m not sure if it helps or not,” says Dunn, who
also produces the channel’s popular Historic Views
series. “People will have to judge for themselves.”
Mostly, the documentary is a quietly beautiful piece that
contemplates what a sacred place is—a much broader definition
than just churchyards—as well as what, exactly, makes it
spiritual. For some places, it’s an aesthetic, such as the
antiquity of the architecture of All Saints Cathedral, with
its “mystical” ambience, or the purity of the design for
the chapel at Kenwood Convent, which has been described
as “chaste.” For the Shakers of Wisdom Valley in Watervliet,
farmland was sacred ground. “All of their labor was consecrated
to God,” explains a Shaker curator.
In contrast to the simplicity of Shaker worship are the
colorful statues and ceremonial objects that overflow the
Hindu Society and Mahayana Buddhist temples, and the ritualized
iconography of a Russian Orthodox monastery in Jordanville.
“You look for contrasts, you look for rhythm,” says Dunn,
who tried to include as many places of worship as possible.
“I went to St. Sophia’s, the Greek Orthodox church, because
I knew they had superb mosaics—the most beautiful mosaics
I’ve seen outside of Ravenna, Italy.” Many places are made
holy by their memories. Israel African Methodist Episcopal
Church in Albany was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
At Temple Israel, where the sanctuary was severely burned
by arson 10 years ago, the rabbi movingly recalls how non-Jewish
firemen risked smoke asphyxiation to help him rescue the
congregation’s sacred Torah scrolls.
As the program states, sacredness is embodied by “art, architecture,
song and prayer,” and along with organ and flute music,
and chanting and gospel singing, there are atmospheric pauses
during which the camera pans the setting without narration.
“I tried to make it aural,” says Dunn. “That was intentional
from the first. We wanted the images and sounds to evoke
the feeling of the place.” He adds: “Temple Israel was a
challenge because it’s such a verbal story. But that’s OK,
because Rabbi Silton is compelling.”
The documentary—the station’s first to be shot in digital
beta, a state-of-the-art, “letterboxed” video format—travels
from the Grafton Peace Pagoda to a hilltop retreat in Rhinebeck.
But Dunn makes it clear that the program is ecumenical.
“Whether you’re spiritual or not, you can get something
out of this program,” he says. “I think an atheist or an
agnostic could appreciate it because it’s about people’s
For the producer, however, Sacred Places was indeed
a spiritual journey. “It made me think about my challenges
with faith,” Dunn says. And did he experience the “specialness”
referred to by the interviewees? “Doing the camerawork,
there were moments,” he admits. “Like when I was in the
cemetery by the Kenwood convent, with the black crosses.
I was completely alone. There were these little bushes behind
the crosses, and they were rustling in the wind. And I felt
that I was ‘in the moment.’ ”
Places airs Monday (March 4) at 7:30 PM on WMHT (Channel
Featuring Leif Garrett
let’s get two things out of the way right up front. First,
yes, that Leif Garrett—fair-haired teen pinup superstar
of the ’70s, made for dancing all, all, all, all night long.
Yes, the one you saw on that four-star episode of VH1’s
tragedy-grubbing Behind the Music, telling
tales of evil managers, screaming fans, inflated egos, reckless
living, ruined relationships, a Herculean heroin habit and
a late-life redemption. Second, no, you’re not gonna hear
that song when Garrett and his new band, F8, play
Northern Lights on Saturday. So don’t even ask.
Not that Garrett (pictured, second from left) is at all
chagrined about his former existence as heartthrob, it’s
just that he’s got other, more important, things on his
mind. “At first, I didn’t want my name to be associated
with it at all,” he says by phone from his Hollywood home.
“But to get people to book us in clubs and stuff like that,
to get the guarantees, they want to put ‘featuring Leif
Garrett.’ And I understand. You know, whatever it takes
to get people through the door right now, to hear the music
and check it out, is all I care about. I think we can—and
already have—changed people’s minds.”
So, despite the fact that there are still those occasional
throwbacks in F8’s audiences who seem stuck in Garrett’s
past (“ ‘Where’s the long blond hair?’ ” Garrett jokes,
“ ‘How come you’re not wearing tight trousers? Where’s the
spandex?’ ”), the reactions have been generally far more
accommodating. “The boyfriends who used to be like, ‘Oh,
that fag, man, I’m going to kick his ass because my girlfriend’s
got his picture on her wall,’ are now coming out and they’re
like, ‘You fucking rock, man!’ ”
And to hear Garrett describe it, that kind of affirmation
is worth more to him than the hordes of adoring teenyboppers,
the scads of cash and the jet-set lifestyle of his younger
years. His rapid progression from being a “teen idol pinup
to playing the Houston Astrodome” without ever paying his
dues, came at the expense of a feeling of control and artistic
integrity. “I’m kind of a control freak now,” he laughs,
“after having been through what I went through and being
ripped off, and being basically a marionette for a bunch
of puppeteers.” It’s a control that Garrett claims he wouldn’t
relinquish again for any price. To play his music, his way—“a
cross between Led Zeppelin, Stone Temple Pilots and maybe
a little Alice in Chains thrown in” is how Garrett describes
it—has provided him a feeling of “not so much revenge, but
vindication.” He’s proud and content, he says, with his
current level of celebrity: “I’ve earned people’s respect
because I haven’t sat back on my laurels. I’m not David
Cassidy. . . . I mean, I know he’s not happy playing Vegas.
This is not what he wanted to do.”
And, Garrett makes clear, once you’ve experienced artistic
self-determination, there’s no going back: “I would rather
pump gas at 76 than ever have to do something that I don’t
want to do again.”
F8 featuring Leif Garrett will play Northern Lights (North
Country Commons, Route 146, Clifton Park) on Saturday (March
2). Tickets for the 16-and-over show are $12, $10 in advance;
doors open at 7:30 PM. For more information, call 371-0012. | <urn:uuid:41aabef4-0e37-4d3e-9b59-296679feaaf3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://metroland.net/back_issues/vol25_no9/night_and_day.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947487 | 2,095 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Who will be in your control room in 2016?
Demographic inevitabilities are going to cause huge changes in our workforces over the next few years. Are you ready?
Take a look at the people in your control room: you probably see a lot of gray hair. How many of those individuals are still going to be there in another three or five years? To answer this question, we need to look at the retirement rate of the baby boomers that are now between the ages of 55 to 65. On January 1, 2011, the first baby boomers turned 65. According to a report from the Congressional Research Service, dated January 30, 2008, the retirement of baby boomers will affect the overall economy and our industries until the year 2020. The industries affected most will be those that have been part of the structure of the U.S. industry buildup: steel and primary metals, power generation, paper makers, forestry, and so on.
Every day, 7,000 baby boomers reach the age of 65. If you look at the makeup of the control room, you will see that the average age in the control room is probably in the 50 to 65 year range. That is a lot of life and process experience that we don’t want to see walking out the door. But, if we just look at this fraction of the population in the larger picture, we will see a marked decrease in the number of old timers in the control room. So, the inevitable question arises, how do managers and human resource departments keep the knowledge level in the control room at a level high enough to ensure optimal operation?
With the number of control systems in our industries that are projected to become obsolete (and requiring upgrades), the best solution would be to use the in-house knowledge available now and develop documentation on how the current plant operates. And, you should do this as soon as possible. This documentation, developed by your in-house experts, will ensure that their knowledge will be preserved and relayed to operators coming up through the ranks.
The only problem with this idea, as I have heard from people at several power stations, is that at current manpower levels, experienced people simply cannot get free from the panels in the control room long enough to do this. One solution is to use an engineering firm to come in and develop the documentation. Hopefully, those people will talk to the operators and get the low-down on operational requirements that have been passed down from operator to operator. The engineering firm can then develop the logic from the current configuration for the migration.
So, let’s rephrase the question and ask, who do you want sitting in your control room in 2016? Hopefully, with due diligence and research, you will find an engineering firm that specializes in control system migration and has an excellent record for ensuring that experiences from the operators are placed in the documentation and built into the upgraded control system. Migrating to a new control system should not be a kind-in-kind replacement. Some systems have been operating for 20 or more years and things have changed considerably since their inception. To help your company and yourself, it is best to start with a clean slate and incorporate all the tribal knowledge from the operators into the new control system. With this, you will end up with a well-documented control system, including the ability to train the up-and-coming control operators.
This post was written by Bill Tolrud. Bill is a senior engineer at MAVERICK Technologies, a leading system integrator providing industrial automation, operational support, and control systems engineering services in the manufacturing and process industries. MAVERICK delivers expertise and consulting in a wide variety of areas including industrial automation controls, distributed control systems, manufacturing execution systems, operational strategy, and business process optimization. The company provides a full range of automation and controls services – ranging from PID controller tuning and HMI programming to serving as a main automation contractor. Additionally MAVERICK offers industrial and technical staffing services, placing on-site automation, instrumentation and controls engineers.
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Case Study Database
Get more exposure for your case study by uploading it to the Control Engineering case study database, where end-users can identify relevant solutions and explore what the experts are doing to effectively implement a variety of technology and productivity related projects.
These case studies provide examples of how knowledgeable solution providers have used technology, processes and people to create effective and successful implementations in real-world situations. Case studies can be completed by filling out a simple online form where you can outline the project title, abstract, and full story in 1500 words or less; upload photos, videos and a logo.
Click here to visit the Case Study Database and upload your case study. | <urn:uuid:4e212d6c-ae4c-4f4a-a9e8-def3c2ffa56d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.controleng.com/single-article/who-will-be-in-your-control-room-in-2016/b0a51721efbf52403f50a3fa0a8792fa.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94739 | 966 | 1.625 | 2 |
The career of producer and director Joseph Cates spans from the 1940s to the 1990s. The collection primarily documents Cates'
professional accomplishments in the television industry from 1960s to the 1980s and includes production information and scripts
for a variety of productions in which Cates was directly involved.
Joseph Katz was born August 10, 1924 in New York City. After serving as a pilot in the Pacific during World War II, he attended
New York University. His career in the entertainment industry started in the 1940s when while working in the advertising field,
he conceived a notion to use television as a way to sell candy products. This landed him a contract with Dumont and in 1947,
he produced and directed the television talent show Look Upon a Star. During the 1950s he produced and directed a number of
game shows, including The $64,000 Question (1955-58) and also worked with Jackie Gleason and Art Carney on Cavalcade of Stars. Cates has also been credited with designing the original set of The Honeymooners and casting Art Carney in the role of Ed Norton.
42 boxes (21 linear feet)1 carton (1.5 linear feet)1 microfilm box
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Performing Arts Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Performing
Arts Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information. | <urn:uuid:72bf0ccd-d83e-4a3a-b2b9-5f7bed783386> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6199r9nr/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961716 | 370 | 1.726563 | 2 |
GOSHEN — There’s a lot of growing and changing in store for Goshen in 2013.
Mayor Allan Kauffman spoke before a packed house Thursday on what’s going to be keeping city government busy this year along with statements on its general health and future outlook during the Goshen Chamber of Commerce’s Founder’s Day event, celebrating the city’s 182nd birthday.
A central theme of Kauffman’s State of the City speech was growth, and everything that word implies. In speaking of growth, Kauffman first harkened back to his 2006 Founder’s Day speech were he used a quote by Eric Kanagy, a young Goshen entrepreneur, to illustrate why Goshen’s population continued to grow while many other cities in Indiana had declined from 2000 to 2006.
“I talk to people daily who come to New World Arts and ask, ‘What is going on? How does Goshen have a winery, how does it have nice restaurants, how does it have a theater that’s doing Chicago-style theater?’” Kanagy is quoted as saying. “There’s a thirst for the kind of place Goshen is and the kind of place Goshen is becoming.”
In reflecting on that quote, Kauffman noted that this idea of “quality of place” is still alive and well in Goshen today, adding that even despite big hits to the area over the past couple of years due to things like high gas prices and the down economy, Goshen continues to be a place where people want to live and work.
“The good new is that we’ve continued to grow since 2006,” Kauffman said.
Even so, Kauffman warned that despite its growth, the city cannot become complacent, as continued growth relies on keeping that idea of “quality of place” always at the forefront. As an example, Kauffman noted that as many as 50 percent of today’s young people are making decisions on where to live before they find a job, rather than after.
“That is why quality of place is so important,” Kauffman said.
In keeping with that goal, Kauffman highlighted what he feels is the importance of the recent community branding initiative, “Goshen: Common Good. Uncommonly Great,” announced by the Goshen Chamber of Commerce last year.
“You may recall that community branding is not figuring out how we’d like to be known and promoting it,” Kauffman said. “It’s assessing how we’re already being perceived and figuring out how to brand that perception in ways that positively represent the community.”
Along those lines, Kauffman noted how Northstar, the Nashville, Tenn.-based company hired to do the city’s rebranding, highlighted the uniqueness of finding so many people and organizations within the city working together for the common good.
“Many folks in our community, including many Chamber members, are active in service clubs, on boards and commissions, in churches, volunteering in schools, helping LaCasa repair homes... the list is long,” Kauffman said. “And they are doing it not for self-recognition, but because it is the right thing to do. Working for common good makes us uncommonly great.”
It is that selfless desire for self and overall community improvement that Kauffman said will help to attract — and retain — the best and the brightest here in Goshen.
Last but not least, Kauffman gave a big shout out to the city’s government employees for their part in helping to ensure Goshen’s continued growth moving forward.
“They are tremendously committed, have wonderful ideas, and are doing great things,” Kauffman said of the employees. “They’re dedicated to the charge that they are to work every day to make Goshen a better place to pass along to its next set of elected and appointed leaders. And in those efforts, they are making this a better place for all of us.”
Vision for the Future
In referencing growth, Kauffman also spoke briefly on where he sees Goshen headed in the future.
“I’m often asked what my vision for Goshen is,” Kauffman said. “I know it sounds trite to say I want Goshen always to be a place we’re proud to call home. But that’s what it is. If we like what we have, others will see it and like it, too. And we’ll grow as a result.”
Kauffman did note, however, that such a statement is much easier said than done.
“There are multiple aspects to community building,” Kauffman said. “‘Bricks and mortar’ infrastructure and services are basic. Whether we’re able to continue improving on these, quite frankly, depends on the City Council. If a majority of its members identify with what I believe is the majority of our community that wants to see us continue getting better, we’ll be OK. But if a majority of council members identify with folks who are satisfied with the status quo, or who want to go backward, then we’re in trouble.”
As one example, Kauffman mentioned the controversial — and ultimately discarded — trash service fee suggestion he made to the City Council during budgetary talks last year when faced with declining revenues.
“I will not willingly eliminate amenities that have made Goshen a quality place, or services that our residents expect and appreciate, just to fit expenses within declining revenues,” Kauffman said. “If we base decisions on the premise that some people can’t afford to pay a new cost, for instance a trash collection fee, we govern to the least common denominator. We won’t provide the resources that allow us to improve our quality of place. We need to stretch past a comfort zone that says the status quo is sufficient for the future.”
Moving beyond the building and maintaining of Goshen’s physical infrastructure, Kauffman also called on local government to become more involved in developing what he called the “human infrastructure” of the city through effective citizenship.
“We have come to see local government only as service providers,” Kauffman said. “However, there is a deeper purpose. That is to help establish and maintain agreements on how we live together. There are times when the goals of efficiency and the need for people to be connected both to the place they live and to each other work counter to one another.
“Some financial challenges faced by all levels of government call for large-scale solutions,” he continued. “But we can’t lose sight of the fact that people long for a distinctive sense of place that differentiates where they live from every other place. Meeting this need takes energy and resources. Advantaged communities are those that are effective at reaching dynamic agreement.”
GOSHEN — There’s a lot of growing and changing in store for Goshen in 2013.
- Breaking News
THE DIRT ON GARDENING: Choose your pool plants wisely
Do you have a pool or a pond or do you plan on having one in the near future? Then you’ll want to choose your plants wisely that you’ll expect to have near or around the perimeter.
Handle poison hemlock carefully
Poison hemlock is a weed that seemed to burst onto the scene last year during the drought.
In the past, it could be found in waste areas like along railroad tracks and ditches, but in 2012, poison hemlock seemed to be everywhere, including backyards, gardens, fields, even along the river at Bonneyville Mill Park.
Police: Teen arrested after firing gun in Goshen
A 16-year-old Goshen boy was arrested on multiple charges after allegedly firing a gun along Crescent Street Thursday night.
Jefferson students spend the day at Camp Amigo
On Tuesday, 450 Jefferson Elementary School students experienced “outdoor” school.
Bus driver’s condition upgraded after Wednesday wreck
A school bus driver injured in a four-bus crash Wednesday north of North Webster was hospitalized in fair condition Thursday.
ASK THE SHERIFF: Sheriff explains his job and the tasks of his deputies
Two weeks ago I indicated that I would write further on the controversy of the Second Amendment.
Goshen has growth spurt
Goshen Mayor Allan Kauffman doesn’t have the magic bullet as to why Goshen is over the 32,000 mark in population for the first time.
Sentence dealt for reckless homicide
GOSHEN — From the witness stand in Elkhart Circuit Court, Kristina Wolfinger could see the man who killed her brother. She described what she didn’t see.
Milford Fest activities to fill Saturday
Milford Fest will take place in downtown Milford Saturday.
Events begin at 7 a.m. and continue through 9 p.m.
Local Memorial Day events set
The following are scheduled Memorial Day services in the area:
- More Breaking News Headlines
- THE DIRT ON GARDENING: Choose your pool plants wisely | <urn:uuid:21df3b38-9518-4bba-b63d-dfd2a327b204> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://goshennews.com/breakingnews/x2000918357/STATE-OF-THE-CITY-Mayor-talks-about-growth-at-annual-Founder-s-Day | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964246 | 1,980 | 1.539063 | 2 |
After the Screaming Eagle's crash at Glacier Bay in To the Rescue (Part 3) where it was destroyed beyond repair, the Rescue Rangers-to-be were in need of a new aircraft to get back to their hometown. So Gadget scavenged some raw materials from Aldrin Klordane's supplies, and built the Ranger Plane out of them. It may also contain a few parts formerly used on the Screaming Eagle. The building process itself is not shown; the first time that the Ranger Plane appeared was after Chip, Dale, Monterey Jack and Zipper had been thrown off the meanwhile flying iceberg by Fat Cat. Gadget saved her old friend and her new friends at the very beginning of To the Rescue (Part 4) by catching them with the plungers which can be shot off the landing gears.
Despite being a makeshift device, the Ranger Plane has proven very successful. Since it is no piece of mechanical jewelry like the Screaming Eagle, it is easy to maintain and to repair even after heavy crashes which occurred several times throughout the series.
Even after the introduction of its technically superior successor, the Ranger Wing, the Ranger Plane stayed in duty for the Rescue Rangers. The best proof is A Fly in the Ointment, the only episode which features both the Ranger Plane and the Ranger Wing.
Many remarkable things have happened to the Ranger Plane during its lifetime. In Adventures in Squirrelsitting, Bink became the youngest pilot ever to fly it. In Dale Beside Himself, it was (temporarily?) upgraded with extraterrestrial technology, multiplying its top speed. In Kiwi's Big Adventure, it was captured by a tribe of Kiwis who worshipped it as a deity, and who requested it to give them back their ability to fly. Besides New Zealand, it can also be seen in England (Ghost of a Chance) and Ireland (The Last Leprechaun).
The fuselage of the Ranger Plane is made of a bleach bottle, turned horizontally with the handle to the bottom. On the opposite side, a large piece is cut out for the cockpit and the four seats. The bottle cap serves as a maintenance hatch now, allowing access to the space between the nose and the dashboard. Right behind the back seats, two Rescue Rangers logos can be seen. A particularly strange fact is that these logos were there from the very beginning, i.e. since To the Rescue (Part 4) when the Rescue Rangers didn't exist yet, not even the name. (It is suggested by some fans that this R/R logo was actually some sort of brand icon for the bleach-bottle, and the name "Rescue Rangers" having the same alliteration is merely coincidental)
The two wings are made of an unknown fabric, shaped and supported by a framework. These wings do not only help lift the Rangerplane, supply it with thrust by flapping up and down, and push it into the desired direction since they lack ailerons, they can as well be tilted backwards to an upright position. The necessity of this ability is proven in the episode Three Men and a Booby during a dogfight with the falcons Bruiser and Cruiser. Two fins made of the same materials are attached to the stern, serving as elevator and yaw rudder, and improving the manoeuvrability.
But the most characteristic part of the Ranger Plane is the big red balloon strapped to the fuselage. The role of the balloon has often been discussed. It is supposed to apply most of the lift to the Ranger Plane and help it hover in the air, so the gas in it has to be lighter than air. However, in Ghost of a Chance, the Rescue Rangers rode the detached balloon as they descended to the ground without the Ranger Plane, and afterwards, the balloon stayed on the ground. Another explanation may be that the balloon is more of a safety device in case the wings fail. Three Men and a Booby is a good example for the Ranger Plane being able to fly without it after it had been released to distract the falcons.
Behind the wings, the two landing gear legs are attached to the sides of the fuselage. They are not considerably retractable, but this helps them being the most versatile components on the Ranger Plane. They can move in a way that makes the plane walk. This works on most surfaces as they have suction cups on their ends which, according to Gadget, are tested up to 300 pounds. They render the Ranger Plane able to land on vertical surfaces or even upside-down. The suction cups also turn the forelegs into plungers which can be shot and pulled back up in a harpoon-like way to catch falling objects or beings or to hoist them up from the ground.
Like the Screaming Eagle, the Ranger Plane has only one pilot's seat on the left-hand side and no second set of controls for a co-pilot. A bottle cap serves as a yoke. Among a number of switches and levers, the two largest instruments on the dashboard are a wristwatch without straps which is mounted in the center, and a compass which is placed right before the pilot.
Though there are a few electric controls and switches on the dashboard, the Ranger Plane works entirely mechanically. There is a crank tied to the handle which is for winding up a clockwork-like power source driving the wings and the legs. This makes the Ranger Plane less powerful and slower than the Screaming Eagle or the Ranger Wing, but on the other hand, it is independent from electricity, and it requires neither recharging nor replacing batteries. The episode Battle of the Bulge, by the way, features the replacement of the power source: To force the Rangers into some physical exercises, Gadget installed four pairs of pedals and makes her friends power it like a bicycle or a home trainer. | <urn:uuid:8db446f1-306f-42db-a959-a2de3c495859> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Ranger_Plane | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967157 | 1,186 | 1.601563 | 2 |
White River Visitor Center
The White River Visitor Center (Hwy. 27, Pine Ridge, 605/455-2878, June 1–Sept. 15 daily 10 a.m.–4 p.m., closed in off-season) is located 20 miles south of the town of Scenic off of Bombing Range Road (Hwy. 27) on the Pine Ridge Reservation. It is a remote location that services people interested in Pine Ridge and in serious backcountry camping and hiking.
Exhibits at the center include fossils and Lakota artifacts, as well as some information about historical events in Lakota history. The South Unit, or Stronghold District, of the Badlands is not easily accessible, with just one road and no hiking trails.
The Palmer Creek Unit of the South Unit is surrounded by private property and hikers must get permission to cross private lands to get there. The center has a list of property owners and maps to help hikers plot their routes and gain permissions.
The Stronghold District was used as a bombing range during World War II, and there is unexploded ordnance in the area. Hikers are asked to report any finds to the Park Service. Do not touch.
© Laural A. Bidwell from Moon Mount Rushmore & the Black Hills, 1st Edition | <urn:uuid:583aa563-0378-45bf-bf2f-ac79b642197b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moon.com/destinations/mt-rushmore-the-black-hills/the-badlands/badlands-national-park/sights/white-river-visitor-center | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964707 | 267 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Updated: 11:26 a.m. Saturday, May 21, 2011
Posted: 11:11 a.m. Saturday, May 21, 2011
Palm Beach Post
For some girls in custody at a state camp in Okeechobee, medications made the bookends of the day: Risperdal and trazadone and pills whose names were so long and complicated that they tripped up a 14-year-old's tongue. More than any other drug, there was Seroquel.
Pills went out at such a rate, said one inmate, now three years out of state custody, that even a confused teenager could tell that this wasn't how things were supposed to be.
A Palm Beach Post investigation has found a startling story playing out in jails and programs operated by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. For kids in DJJ custody, the state has bought hundreds of thousands of tablets of Seroquel, Risperdal, Abilify and other powerful anti-psychotic drugs. The drugs, doctors say, can turn misbehaving kids into "zombies."
In some cases, the psychiatrists charged with evaluating children in DJJ custody have ties to drug companies, a situation that medical ethicists say could pose problems.
Read The Post on Sunday and Monday to learn what the newspaper uncovered - and what the state is doing about it.
Gee. Sounds like Oregon to me. And I will bet every reader just said the same identical thing and named THEIR OWN state. | <urn:uuid:e05c9833-06af-499d-8a03-3689d83f992c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://afrafrontpagenews.blogspot.com/2011/05/post-investigation-anti-psychotics-in.html | 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 | 0.965803 | 312 | 1.601563 | 2 |
"Through the particular efforts of Niall Carlton in Scotland we have delved into the British golf magazines of 'Golf Illustrated' and 'Golfing' unearthing much about MacKenzie along the way, including many of his writings and also his golf records at the Leeds Golf Club in the period of 1901 to 1903.
Sean Tully in San Francisco and Bob Beck in Santa Cruz have been most diligent in researching MacKenzie's time in the USA, and Bob has unearthed records from Cypress Point that show when Mackenzie stayed overnight in the clubhouse and even what he ate for his meals! It is staggering that 80 or more years on we can get down to this level of detail about the life of Alister MacKenzie.
Another delightful gem was the discovery that the renowned golf writer Bernard Darwin went up to Leeds in late February 1922 and stayed for three days with MacKenzie at his home Moor Allerton Lodge. MacKenzie drove Darwin around to show off a selection of his courses and they visited Alwoodley, Moortown, Ilkley, Pannal, Starbeck and Oakdale, playing at some of the courses along the way and looking at others. Darwin wrote about his experiences in Leeds with MacKenzie in two of his columns in 'Country Life' the following month.
Accordingly, we believe the wait since the 15th Revision was released back in August 2010 has been well worth it, and trust that you will agree when you peruse this substantial document.
Thanks must go to Nick Leefe, the Secretary of the Alister MacKenzie Society of Great Britain for his encouragement and contribution, and to Sean Tully, the golf course superintendent of the Meadow Club and early Californian golf researcher extraordinaire, who contributed significantly to the 16th Edition before handing over the reins to me late last year.
Also thanks to Mark Rowlinson, Mark Bourgeois and Nick Norton of our research group, and to all the other historians and researchers around the world who contributed. The names of our many contributors are listed in the final page of the document."
Researcher/Historian AM Research Team
You can download the report here:
16th Revision Mackenzie Timeline February 2012 | <urn:uuid:5a2b1292-b58d-4076-8363-72efa54ab621> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eigca.org/news/EIGCA84379.ink | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963591 | 454 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Between the Lines By David Lias "This has been all blown out of proportion."
"The charges are all a bunch of politics coming from our state's attorney's office."
"We were just down by the river on the Fourth of July to watch the fireworks, relax and have a good time."
This is just a sample of the reaction we've received following the publication on the front page of last week's Plain Talk stating that four Vermillion adults had been indicted by a Clay County grand jury on numerous counts, including contributing to the delinquency of a minor child, furnishing alcohol to a child, and furnishing alcohol to individuals between the ages of 18 and 21.
The happenings of July 4 that led to these indictments apparently can best be described as a beer party � with one problem. A number of the guests, at least 28 who testified before the grand jury, were under the age of 21.
Judging from some of the comments we've heard since news of the indictments spread, local law enforcement was, and still is, overzealous. After all, it was just an innocent party. It was designed so that a fun time was had by all. It was harmless.
Was this just all pure innocent fun? Did law enforcement step out of bounds? Consider this.
Last year, the South Dakota Department of Health released a youth risk behavior survey report. It isn't particularly pleasant to read. Especially if you're a parent, worried that at some point your teenage son or daughter could put himself or herself at risk by "trying to be cool."
How do young people try to be cool? They emulate the adults around them. When given the opportunity, some of them drink alcohol, and try other drugs.
The survey notes that alcohol is a major contributing factor in approximately half of all homicides, suicides, and motor vehicle crashes, which are the leading causes of death and disability among young people. Heavy drinking among youth has been linked to multiple sexual partners, use of marijuana, and poor academic performance.
All public, private, and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools in South Dakota containing any students in grades 9, 10, 11, or 12 were eligible to be selected for inclusion in the survey.
Special procedures designed to allow the survey to provide accurate information about the behavior of South Dakota youth were used. Twenty-five schools were selected to participate in the survey.
Here's what the survey found in South Dakota:
* Lifetime alcohol use was reported by 86 percent of the respondents. Thirty percent of the respondents had drank alcohol prior to age 13. Over half of the respondents (59 percent) reported having at least one alcoholic drink during the past 30 days. Forty-six percent of the respondents had five or more alcoholic drinks in a row during the past 30 days.
* Marijuana was used at least once by 38 percent of the respondents. Twenty-one percent of the respondents used marijuana during the past 30 days.
* Cocaine use was reported by 9 percent of the respondents. Ten percent of the respondents reported using methamphetamines. Illegal drugs were injected by 2 percent of the respondents. Three percent of the respondents reported using steroid pills or shots without a doctor's prescription.
* Fourteen percent of the respondents sniffed glue or inhaled sprays from cans during their lifetime.
A limited number of behaviors usually established during youth, the study has found, contribute substantially to the causes of mortality and morbidity. These behaviors include drinking or using drugs while operating a motor vehicle.
It must be noted that the guilt of the Clay County adults indicted has yet to be determined. They still haven't had their day in court.
It appears that local law enforcement, however, didn't step out of bounds in its investigation of the happenings of July 4.
One must consider that something beyond the scope of simple law-breaking may have occurred.
Whenever one provides alcohol to a young person, that youth is at risk. It's good to see law enforcement make an attempt to reduce that risk. | <urn:uuid:b5326c37-bced-4f8b-ace1-cdbaa71b28e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plaintalk.net/2000/09/between-the-lines-185/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978964 | 828 | 1.5625 | 2 |
He had received the rank of colonel on the general staff of the school. He was plumply pleased by salutes on the street from unknown small boys; his ears were tickled to ruddy ecstasy by hearing himself called “Colonel;” and if he did not attend Sunday School merely to be thus exalted, certainly he thought about it all the way there.
He was particularly pleasant to the press-agent, Kenneth Escott; he took him to lunch at the Athletic Club and had him at the house for dinner.
Like many of the cocksure young men who forage about cities in apparent contentment and who express their cynicism in supercilious slang, Escott was shy and lonely. His shrewd starveling face broadened with joy at dinner, and he blurted, “Gee whillikins, Mrs. Babbitt, if you knew how good it is to have home eats again!”
Escott and Verona liked each other. All evening they “talked about ideas.” They discovered that they were Radicals. True, they were sensible about it. They agreed that all communists were criminals; that this vers libre was tommy-rot; and that while there ought to be universal disarmament, of course Great Britain and the United States must, on behalf of oppressed small nations, keep a navy equal to the tonnage of all the rest of the world. But they were so revolutionary that they predicted (to Babbitt’s irritation) that there would some day be a Third Party which would give trouble to the Republicans and Democrats.
Escott shook hands with Babbitt three times, at parting.
Babbitt mentioned his extreme fondness for Eathorne.
Within a week three newspapers presented accounts of Babbitt’s sterling labors for religion, and all of them tactfully mentioned William Washington Eathorne as his collaborator.
Nothing had brought Babbitt quite so much credit at the Elks, the Athletic Club, and the Boosters’. His friends had always congratulated him on his oratory, but in their praise was doubt, for even in speeches advertising the city there was something highbrow and degenerate, like writing poetry. But now Orville Jones shouted across the Athletic dining-room, “Here’s the new director of the First State Bank!” Grover Butterbaugh, the eminent wholesaler of plumbers’ supplies, chuckled, “Wonder you mix with common folks, after holding Eathorne’s hand!” And Emil Wengert, the jeweler, was at last willing to discuss buying a house in Dorchester.
When the Sunday School campaign was finished, Babbitt suggested to Kenneth Escott, “Say, how about doing a little boosting for Doc Drew personally?”
Escott grinned. “You trust the doc to do a little boosting for himself, Mr. Babbitt! There’s hardly a week goes by without his ringing up the paper to say if we’ll chase a reporter up to his Study, he’ll let us in on the story about the swell sermon he’s going to preach on the wickedness of short skirts, or the authorship of the Pentateuch. Don’t you worry about him. There’s just one better publicity-grabber in town, and that’s this Dora Gibson Tucker that runs the Child Welfare and the Americanization League, and the only reason she’s got Drew beaten is because she has got some brains!” | <urn:uuid:1af07310-ee5b-463e-a3ce-10378f2e6c98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/1156/127.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979912 | 751 | 1.828125 | 2 |
I’m delighted to be part of NCR’s on-line conversational community.
This week, I’m struck (as I often am) by President Obama’s religious and linguistic skills, this time in Cairo as he addressed the Muslim world.
When he spoke at Notre Dame, I said to a friend, “he speaks Catholic.” After the Cairo address, it’s clear that he’s fluent in “Muslim.” In fact, in the theo-political world, he’s truly multi-lingual, interfaith. Today, I expect he will be fluent in Judaism as he walks through the tragic memories of Buchenwald.
More than that, he can deliver subtle messages without naming the intended recipient. At Notre Dame, he offered a wonderful personal memory of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, but – if anyone was listening – he was also sending a powerful message to the present-day hierarchy that Bernardin’s moderate stance is a good model for bishops.
So also in his messages to the Muslim world. He never mentioned President Ahmadinejad of Iran by name, but his words decrying holocaust denial were a thinly-disguised message to Tehran. (They were also a message to Iranian voters, who will select a new president within days).
But most important, President Obama conveyed deep respect for the Islamic faith with his use of the Muslim greeting: Salaam aleikum (“Peace be with you”), when he mentioned the names of Mohammed, Moses and Jesus – followed immediately by the words, “may peace be upon them,” and with his multiple quotations from the Qu’ran. These are phrases I’ve heard from my Muslim guests on Interfaith Voices many times.
It’s a welcome change in knowledge, tone and respect.
I also loved the fact that Obama spoke strongly for women’s rights in the Islamic world. Well-placed sources tell me that he is visiting the Vatican some time this summer. Do you suppose he can deliver a similar message there? | <urn:uuid:06b43cbe-99e5-4874-902e-baf1ffc7a98b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/obamas-interfaith-fluency | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959423 | 438 | 1.8125 | 2 |
How is adhesive capsulitis diagnosed?
Your doctor may be able to tell you have adhesive capsulitis just by talking to you about your symptoms and watching you move. Your doctor may press on parts of your shoulder to see what might be causing the pain. Your doctor may also want to take an X-ray or do a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of your shoulder to look for other problems.
Written by familydoctor.org editorial staff | <urn:uuid:b6162393-e4ae-46b5-a01b-2a047b119bd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/diseases-conditions/adhesive-capsulitis/diagnosis-tests.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934497 | 92 | 1.710938 | 2 |
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